#like her just because they all want to take away our human rights

[ot7stan4life]

It’s Not Wrong - Part 2

Dreamcatcher (OT7) x Female Reader

(2 parts - ongoing ⚠️)

Word Count: 5450

Summary: As the 8th member of Dreamcatcher, you struggle with your growing attraction towards your members, because, in your mind, loving seven different people isn’t natural and couldn’t possibly be considered acceptable by any normal human being… so why would they be okay with it?

Click here to read part 1

Warnings: sexual content

A/N: FINALLY I updated this. Only took me a couple years 😭 (I also had a decent chunk of it written already and it still took me literally 10 hours to finish this today- thank god I didn’t have work). I honestly don’t know how I feel about it, so I’d love for you guys to give me some feedback if you have any! I’m just really attached to and proud of the first part so I always felt like nothing I could write will ever live up to that. But maybe you’ll love it. Who knows?

SOMETHING I WANTED TO SAY: I’m sorry I’ve been so inactive. I’ve been working on stuff here and there but ever since I graduated college, I’ve really been struggling to write. But I do see your messages and even if I don’t post a reply to them, just know that I really REALLY appreciate your support and your kind words and even your requests. I promise I am not ignoring them! Like I said, I just haven’t been writing much lately but I’m hoping I’ll be able to put out more stuff soon. Thanks again. Your comments and messages mean the world to me.

Also, HAPPY UAU DEBUT!! 🥳

I definitely think the Minji I’ve written here feels like current Minji and it was supposed to be like 2018 Minji but let’s just ignore that little inconsistency 🤡

-

"We have a schedule in the morning. You shouldn't be up right now," Minji said sternly as she watched Siyeon and I frantically untangle from each other.

I was too embarrassed to reply and Siyeon mumbled something I didn't quite catch as she stood from the couch. Whatever it was made Minji glare at her as she turned around to lend me a hand up. I accepted, allowing her to pull me to my feet, and stood there frozen, doing everything in my power to avoid Minji's intimidating stare. Siyeon didn't seem too phased by the older member's behavior when they made eye contact and proceeded to casually walk past her on her way back to their shared room.

While Minji's attention was off of me, I seized the opportunity to sneak past her in the hopes that I could avoid what awkward confrontation I'm sure was awaiting me. Only, I didn't make it very far.

"Not you," she grabbed my forearm and my heart stopped. I couldn't even will myself to look at her.

Siyeon took a few steps back towards us, drawing my eyes over to her. As if Minji wasn't even there, she took my arm from her grasp and pulled me into her for a hug. Though maybe a little awkward in the timing, the sentiment seemed genuine, yet I couldn't make myself relax into her embrace knowing another pair of eyes was on us.

Sensing my tenseness, Siyeon whispered, "It's just Minji, she won't bite... probably."

Probably?! I wanted to yell, glancing over to see the woman in question eyeing our movements like a hawk. But I stayed silent, swallowing thickly and feeling every inch of my body tingle with nervousness.

When Siyeon pulled back, she gently grabbed my chin so that I was staring at her instead. Without ever once glancing at Minji, she closed the distance between us to kiss me lightly. I could practically feel the leader's gaze searing holes into the sides of our heads while Siyeon drug it out, taking her sweet time before pulling away.

She smirked, satisfied with herself and then said, loud enough for Minji to hear, "Sweet dreams, babygirl."

The vocalist didn't stay a second longer to witness the aftermath, slipping into her room and throwing me like bait into the lion's cage to fend for myself. It was a petty move, but I knew she was doing it to rile Minji up so that maybe she'd do something about it and make a move on me. Now all I could manage to do was stand there, too afraid to make eye contact with her in fear that she might pounce on me at any moment.

Though, as the silence drug on for a moment, the guilt was fast to creep in when I remembered Siyeon's words about Minji's reaction to my kiss with Sua. She had already been forced to witness me kissing another member and now this? I wasn't totally sure how I'd react in her case, but I probably wouldn't feel too great seeing someone else kissing any of the women I loved.

"Unnie-" I attempted to form an apology, but she was quick to cut me off.

"No," she said coldly.

I finally looked up at her, shocked to find her eyes had turned so dark that they'd become unrecognizable: that little hint of light always shining in them now extinguished.

"I just want to sa-"

"You're supposed to be asleep," she demanded.

I took a step towards her, trying desperately to explain myself. "I know, but if you'd just let me-"

"Why do you think this is acceptable when we have practice in three hours?" Her deep tone of voice resonated through the halls and made me shiver. She had never spoken to me like that.

I grew infinitely more uneasy now realizing how mad she truly was. "I'm sorry, okay? I just... I couldn't sleep." I looked down.

Though it seemed obvious she wanted to make another remark, my change in demeanor seemed to render her mute for the moment.

"My mind races constantly the second I shut my eyes," I admitted, unable to keep these feelings to myself any longer. "I've just been so stressed lately and I can't stop overthinking. I thought getting up would help clear my mind and then Siyeon-" I stopped when I caught her jaw clench in my peripheral at the mention of her best friend's name. I sighed sadly, feeling ashamed that I had upset her so deeply. "I'm sorry. I'll just go," I finally gave up and started to walk away.

"Wait," her voice stopped me in my tracks.

I just stared ahead into the dark hallway, bracing myself for more scolding.

Except... it never came.

After a beat of silence, she let out a reluctant breath. I turned around to face her. It took a second for her to look up at me, but once she did, I could tell from the way her eyes softened that she had finally pushed her jealousy to the side—at least for the time being—and was now only concerned with my wellbeing.

To my surprise, she simply observed me for a moment, as if debating her next move, and then said, "We'll discuss this later. Try and get some rest, okay?"

I didn't have time to reply or even react to her sudden mood switch before she grabbed my cheek and boldly leaned in to place a lingering kiss dangerously close to my lips. I stood there in shock, feeling both my chest and the spot on my cheek burn as I watched her back away and bite her lip while staring at my own. She seemed to have to force herself to walk away, her body stuttering with almost every move back to her room, as if she was fighting the urge to run back and push me against the wall just to smash her lips into mine.

But she never did. And I was left alone in the hallway, feeling more confused and conflicted than ever.

This really was gonna be harder than I thought.

-

Almost a week had passed since my confession to Siyeon—if you could even call it that—which also meant almost a week had passed since the incident with Minji. And, as expected, I had spent those several days on edge, constantly wondering when and how the eventual confrontation would go. She said we would 'talk about this later,' but a busy idol life combined with a tiny dorm didn't exactly grant us much time or privacy to make that 'later' happen anytime soon.

It also didn't help that, on top of Minji's nearly-impossible-to-read stares that she would constantly shoot me in practice, Sua and Siyeon were also shooting me stares, but for very different reasons. If a person could be capable of feeling every emotion possible all at the same exact time, that person was me this past week. Which, of course, led all the other members to start staring now that it had become obvious something was bothering me.

I was off my game, even in practice when I normally found it so easy to escape from my emotions through the music and performance. Now I was dancing out of time, missing my vocal cues, and mixing up my lyrics. I could only get away with using exhaustion as an excuse the first few times, then it started to become concerning.

"You sure you don't need to sit out for today and rest?" Our choreographer, Sooyeon, asked, placing her hand on my back as I leaned over to grab my water bottle and rag. She had just called a five minute break from learning our new comeback choreography after I managed to throw the entire group off yet again by starting my rap break out of time.

"No, it's okay," I replied breathless, turning to her. "I'm sorry, I'm just..." through the reflection in the mirror behind her, I caught at least three pairs of eyes staring at me. "...a little distracted."

"It's okay, just try to rid those things from your mind. You know, I always find it helpful to..." she continued talking, but her voice faded to the background as my mind became entirely preoccupied with a scene playing out in a shaded corner of the room away from everyone else.

In the mirror, I watched as the woman—who was supposedly angry with me—reached down to the hem of her shirt and slowly began tugging it upwards, maintaining eye contact with me the entire time. Gradually she revealed her toned stomach that flexed tauntingly with each heavy inhale of her breath before pulling the thin shirt over her head, giving me a sickening view of her skimpy sports bra hugging her chest so tightly that even across the room I could see the not-so-subtle curve of her breasts peeking from the top. She tilted her head back, allowing the dim light to catch the golden layer of sweat shimmering across her body and highlighting the muscles of her neck and arms. Her eyes fluttered closed and her mouth opened slightly as she drug her shirt across her neck and down her chest to dry herself. It was obvious she knew I was watching as she pretended to 'accidentally' tug on the top of her bra to reveal more of her chest to me and bit her lip at the sensation of her shirt brushing across it.

"Sound good?" A hand landed on my shoulder, jolting my attention back to the woman standing in front of me.

"Huh?" I said, stupidly, now registering where I was. I swallowed quickly, noticing an unusual amount of saliva built up in my mouth, before restating, "I mean, yeah. Of course, sounds good. I will... work on that." I pressed my lips together into a forced smile, hoping she didn't just catch on to the fact that I had not heard a single word she just said.

To my relief, she smiled brightly. "Great! Well, in that case, back to practice," she punctuated her words with a clap and started walking back over to the speaker.

Now that she had left, I glanced back into the mirror only to be met with an empty corner of the room. Mildly disappointed, I sighed and raised my water bottle to take a much needed drink of water. Halfway through the sip, a soft hand stopped me and pulled it from my lips. Minji's dark hair came into view, along with the confident smirk now plastered on her face. Her eyes were somehow both dark and playful as she seemed to take pleasure in watching my cheeks turn red as I nervously swallowed the bit of water still in my mouth.

She didn't waste a second in placing my water bottle against her own lips and tilting it back to take a drink of her own. Somehow she managed to make such an innocent gesture feel so explicit as she drank, allowing a little to spill down her chin. I failed miserably at fighting the urge to watch the water drip all the way down her neck and to her chest and regretted it the second I did. Suddenly I found myself wishing it was just me and her in this practice room so nobody else could judge the things I wanted to do to her.

Like she knew exactly what I was thinking, she finished with one final swallow and pulled the bottle away from her mouth just to stare at me expectantly as the water continued to drip from her chin. "Well, aren't you gonna clean up the mess you've made?" she said in a low, sensual tone.

I nearly choked on air at the very obvious double meaning in her words while, of course, she simply grinned at the shocked look on my face. Was she seriously implying that messing with me was making her turned on?

"Clearly I meant this," she teased, taking the rag that I had forgotten was even in my hand and placing it on her chin. "What else could I have meant?" She feigned innocence, tilting her head with a playful smile while rubbing the rag over her neck.

My eyes squinted at her, equally annoyed, frustrated, aroused, and confused. How can she be screaming at me one day and trying to seduce me the next?

She pressed the now wet rag against my chest for me to take and sent me a wink before spinning around and skipping off when Sooyeon called us back to practice. I shook my head at her bizarre antics and turned to follow, noticing a certain main vocalist laughing nearby, clearly having seen at least the ending of what just went down. Nice to know she finds it funny. This was partially her fault.

Ridding the whole thing from my mind as best as I could, I took my place to start the song. Surprisingly, it went well for a few more runs and I was definitely improving. Well, that is, until Minji decided to continue her attempt to seduce me by somehow making the moves to an emotional song about being trapped in a dream sexy. I tried to ignore it by looking dead ahead at myself in the mirror, but then she'd start adding unnecessary contact between us, brushing her hand across my shoulder or thigh when we were next to each other in the formation.

Luckily I managed to make it to (what Sooyeon claimed would be) the final run of the day before we had to head to our individual schedules. Even with my little hiccups, we had finally gotten the choreo down pretty well, so Sooyeon wanted to film it for us to analyze before next practice. Given this information, we all seemed to subconsciously agree that we'd actually try to take it more seriously. Even Minji didn't seem to be pulling any tricks this time and we started off well.

As we were reaching the second chorus of the song following my verse, we had to quickly transition to the next formation. It was one of the fastest transitions in the choreo and required me to take several swift steps backwards in between two other members on the exact right beat before they closed the gap. We had done it many times slowed down because one of us would usually run into the other, but as we gradually sped the song up to its normal tempo, we managed to pull it off so far.

This time, however, I hit the steps just before the transition with my feet a little too close together, causing one of my shoelaces to loosen. By the time I realized, I had already made one step backwards with my planted foot holding the shoelace down with all my weight. The foot I tried to move only made it half as far until it stopped mid air and I lost my balance. I fell faster than anyone could react and instinctively tried to catch myself with my hands extending out behind me. Only, one hand didn't land right on the ground and the force of my weight on it sent a searing pain through my wrist.

I cried out and rolled over to clutch my hand to my chest. The members all exclaimed in shock and immediately ran over to me while someone else in the room went to turn the music off. Even after all this, Minji was the very first one at my side, placing her hand on my face and asking if I was okay.

I groaned as the pain throbbed and took deep breaths for a moment to try to compose myself enough to respond. I knew if I started crying the members would only panic more and assume the worst, so I sucked the tears back in.

"I'm okay," I said, but my voice came out strained, unconvincing. I rolled over a bit and Minji brushed the hair from my eyes so that I could see her face.

Strangely, in that moment, the pain seemed to numb a bit as I stared into her caring eyes filled with concern. I wasn't focused on anything but the cute pout on her lips and the way her eyebrows furrowed over her sparkly eyes. This was the Minji I knew. Or perhaps I was just beginning to discover more sides of her that I didn't know existed. Even in her anger and jealousy. Even in her calculated seduction. It was all truly her. And I was about to learn a lot more about her than I realized.

-

After my fall, some of the members insisted on calling the doctor, but I convinced them it wasn't that serious and that if it still hurt in the morning, then I would go. Still, they didn't take no for an answer when suggesting I take the rest of the day off to relax at the dorm. As expected, Minji volunteered to stay with me after getting permission to skip her individual schedule for the day. At first I believed when she said it was only because she wanted to help doctor my wound and didn't want to leave me alone while I was injured—and though I still believed that was part of it—I started to realize she was also taking her opportunity to get me alone.

The tension was evident the second we entered the silence of the dorm. She dragged me into the kitchen and directed me to the short part of the counter. "Sit," she commanded in a serious tone and turned around to start grabbing the first-aid supplies she thought she'd need. Recognizing the change in her expression, I didn't dare disobey or even respond.

I took a seat and held my wrist in my lap with my other hand. She came over a second later with a bandage, an ice pack, and some medicine in her hands. Without hesitation, she stood between my legs, clearly perfectly comfortable with being in my personal space. I thought I had become used to it, but my heartbeat started racing as she leaned in close to place the items on the counter next to me. It didn't help that the height of this counter made it so that we were perfectly face to face.

She leaned back so she was standing up straight and reached out to touch my forearm. It reminded me of the moment she had grabbed that same arm a week ago to stop me from retreating to my room after she caught me with Siyeon. I couldn't even begin to know what was going on in her mind. It had become increasingly obvious over the last few days that she wanted to be with me, but I wondered if she also felt betrayed by me. Or Siyeon. Or even Sua.

As she started gently wrapping the bandage around my wrist to give it support, I watched her face so concentrated on the action and began to realize something. She didn't know what Siyeon did. She didn't know that I loved her too. That I loved all seven of them. So, of course from her perspective, she's probably devastated that I chose either of them over her. That's why she had been so desperate to get my attention, maybe she thought I didn't look at her the same way I looked at them. Which was ridiculous to even consider. How could I not look at her like that?

She must've felt me staring, because, when she finished with the bandage, she took a step back and looked up to catch my gaze. Her expression was soft in that moment. Delicate like how she was handling my wrist. But I watched her eyes change as she glanced at my lips. First to longing, then a mix of something between sadness, anger, and possibly even lust. I stood up from the counter and took one timid step backwards towards the kitchen exit, feeling the urge to run away before she did her damage. Those mood swings were confusing me to no end and I was never sure how she'd react. But her next words kept me in place.

"You know, the walls here are thin," she said lowly, looking back down at my wrist as I cradled it in my hand.

I fidgeted with my bandage, feeling mildly embarrassed and afraid for where this was probably leading. "Unnie-" I tried to apologize once again, but it's clear that wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"No, it's okay." She looked up at me, forcing a smile on her face that I saw right through. "What you do in your downtime is none of my business," she said. "But, if you really want privacy..." She took a step towards me and I took a couple back. "...you should at least learn to be quiet."

I gasped when my back came into contact with the wall. She took the chance to abruptly close the gap with her hands on my waist, pushing her body flush against mine so I was pinned against the wall. "Cause I could tell how turned on you were all the way from my room," she whispered into my ear, her right hand pressing flat against the bare skin just above my waistband. I held my breath, feeling her nose brush against my neck. I had no time to even be embarrassed by her words. Her other hand traveled up my body, teasingly brushing over my chest and planting itself at the base of my neck where her fingers traced slowly across my collarbones.

"Do you like how she touches you, hm?" The jealousy dripped from her tone as her hands continued to explore my body. No words escaped my mouth. I just held onto her waist helplessly while one hand moved up my neck in a tantalizingly slow motion, her fingertips tingling every nerve on my skin. She pressed further into me with her other hand against my chest, her head tilted so that her lips now ghosted over mine. "Do you like how she kisses you?" she breathed out, her voice quieter, yet somehow more intimidating. Her thumb moved to slowly brush across my bottom lip, her eyes following every movement.

"Is she better than me?" she whispered so quietly that I almost couldn't make out her words. Her eyes flicked up to mine and now I could see this wasn't all teasing. It was obvious she was genuinely debating these these questions all along.

I didn't know how to answer her with words, so I tried to convey my feelings to her the only other way I could think of. My lips meeting hers was all it took for her to release her pent up emotions on me. The first kiss was timid from her, almost as if she couldn't believe I had done it, but after that, she didn't hold back. She gripped the back of my neck tightly and kissed me so forcefully and desperately that I thought she might rip my lips right off my face. She barely even pulled back after each kiss, never wanting to disconnect our lips. And even when she gave us a break, it was never long enough to actually catch a proper breath.

By the time she slipped her tongue past my lips, it was clear she wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon. Though I still barely knew what I was doing, I tried my best to keep up, which was proving difficult given how lightheaded she was making me. My hands moved downward to feel the skin underneath her shirt and she seemed to follow suit, moving hers to brush across my collarbones and pull at my shirt.

It wasn't until I felt the cool dorm air against my skin that I realized she was unbuttoning my shirt. Momentarily shocked, I released her lips and reached up to grab one of her hands. She instinctively linked her fingers with mine, and before either of us could realize it was my injured hand, she went to pin it against the wall and connect our lips once more.

I almost instantly winced in pain and she pulled back just as fast, letting go of my wrist. "I'm sorry," she rushed out, retracting herself from me, "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, I-"

"Hey, hey," I grabbed one of her hands with my good hand and pulled her closer, "it's okay. I forgot, too." She looked so concerned that I was afraid she might start crying. She tried to take a step away from me again and kept apologizing. "Look at me," I pulled her closer again and put my hand on her cheek, "It's okay, unnie. I promise I'm okay."

She just stared at me with sad eyes like a pitiful puppy, so I leaned in slowly to kiss her pout off her face. She hesitated for a moment, but couldn't resist in the end and melted into me.

We both pulled back and I said, "see, now this is definitely helping make the pain go away."

She laughed cutely and leaned in to kiss me again. We shared a few more kisses, this time showing me that she was capable of being gentle. Once I was satisfied, I pulled her into my embrace, resting my head on her shoulder.

"You know..." I started, holding her around her torso as she squeezed me tightly around the shoulders.

"Hm?" she hummed.

"You're really scary when you're jealous," I whispered.

She laughed, still hugging me close. "Really?"

I had to resist scoffing at her. "What do you mean really?" I exclaimed and leaned back, causing her to do the same. "I was sure you were gonna murder me that night. And earlier." Even though I was mostly joking, she still seemed guilty.

She sighed. "I know, and I'm really sorry. For that and for yelling at you," she frowned and placed her hand on my face. "There's nothing I regret more. Especially when you told me how stressed you had been. I wished I had known what you were going through before." Her eyes sparkled with sadness as she looked over my features and rubbed her thumb across my cheek. "Normally you come to me when you're struggling with something. I guess I just thought it would be the same with this."

She was right, I did always come to her first when something was troubling me. As our leader, I always felt like I could confide in her and I wanted her to feel the same with me. We told each other everything. So I understood why seeing me with Siyeon must've hurt her. Though, it seems more obvious now that Minji knew all along that I liked more than just Siyeon or Sua. But I can't blame her for questioning whether I liked her too, that's all I can seem to do lately when it comes to them.

"You wanted me to come to you first," I teased in an attempt to lighten the mood, though this revelation admittedly made my heart hurt. Maybe I should've gone to her first. I was sure a lot of sleepless nights could've been avoided.

A small laugh left her mouth at the accusation. "Maybe." She smiled sadly and I didn't waste a moment before kissing it off her face.

"No, you're right though. I probably would've," I said softly after I pulled back, my nose touching hers. "I just didn't really plan on telling any of you." She frowned and tucked my hair behind my ear as she looked at me sympathetically. "It just kinda happened." I shrugged.

"Well, I'm glad it did," she said honestly, making us both smile. "Even though I wasn't first." Her smile faded.

"Sorry," I said seriously.

She laughed and kissed me. "Mm, I think I'm okay with it now," she mumbled against my lips before stealing another and moving her hands down to grab my waistband.

I allowed her kiss me for the next few minutes, just holding onto her neck and enjoying the feeling of her being in control. She didn't slow down, now pushing me blindly across the dorm until my back hit my bed and she was on top of me, making out with me.

"Oh my god," I whispered after bearing a few more minutes of her relentless attacks. My head laid back into my pillow, already overwhelmed by how good she was at kissing.

"What?" Minji giggled, turning her head to try and get a look at my face.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to this," I said, breathless.

She propped her head up with her hand and looked down at me. "Well, you know what they say," she smiled. I just stared at her, waiting for the punchline. "Practice makes perfect." Her smile shifted to a smirk when a blush set into my cheeks.

"I thought you said I needed to rest," I teased.

"Well..." she paused a moment, leaning in and watching her fingers brush across my jaw. "We've both gone without sleep before, I think we'll survive." She concluded like it was a good enough reason and captured my lips once again.

I didn't make an effort to stop her. She was quick to deepen the kiss and my heart burned at the feeling of her tongue in my mouth. I slipped my hands underneath her shirt and resisted the urge to groan at the way her smooth stomach felt against my fingers. She eventually pulled back and helped me take her shirt off with my one working hand. I only got a split second to admire her before she leaned back down and moved her lips to my neck with purpose.

"You're so pretty," she whispered in my ear, stealing my line and yet still making my heart flutter. She gripped my hair and a small whine instinctively slipped past my lips at the action, making her loosen her fingers. "Is this okay?" she asked softly, placing delicate, wet kisses along my neck that slowly became rougher the further down they got.

"Yes," I replied, voice weak, now clutching her waist in the hopes that it might ground me.

Once she reached the base of my neck, her warm, slick lips started sucking down harshly on my pulse point. I gasped, reaching a hand up to rest on her jawline. The sensation that came from the suction of her lips against my throat was so intense that I could practically feel it throughout my entire body. My heartbeat throbbed painfully in my veins and my brain was lost in the clouds.

The unreleased tension her kisses had slowly been building up in me now became unbearable and I was unable to think straight, shifting my position to find some friction on Minji's thigh. The almost painful feeling of the older woman marking me up in tandem with the sudden pressure of her leg against my center once she realized what I wanted sent a feeling of pleasure like I had never experienced before rushing through my body. The overwhelming sensation forced a moan from my throat and I could feel Minji inhale sharply against my neck as her nails clung harder to my scalp. There was no doubt in my mind she reacted that way because she could feel just how wet she had made me through my shorts on her bare thigh.

Right as she leaned up to kiss my lips and drag her hand down to my waistband, we heard the sound of voices in the hall and the front door slamming. We both abruptly backed away from the kiss, but Minji couldn't make a move to get off of me before Dami entered the room.

"Are you oka-" the short haired woman froze the second she saw both of us shirtless in bed and I wanted to disintegrate off the face of the planet at the embarrassed look on her face. "Oh, sorry," she looked away immediately and started walking back into the hall.

Minji stood up to quickly put her shirt on and run after her while I just laid there, mumbling a curse word while placing my hands over my face.

Why did this have to keep happening?

To Be Continued…

[mijlen]

In the wake of Chapter 4, allow me to theorize about The Deltarune Prophecy beneath a spoiler cut.

I'm seeing a metric ton of takes about the final prophecy (the one Susie destroys) which make no sense to me THEMATICALLY. "Susie dies," "Ralsei dies," "all three of them die." it doesn't add up to me why Susie would be (again - THEMATICALLY) portrayed reacting so violently to that news.

Again, the game implies that she reacted VIOLENTLY. I fully believe she is prone to outbursts when faced with difficult emotions, but I think that, were she reacting to a prophecy that involved herself or one of her friends meeting a tragic fate, she would react differently. She would demand answers.

So why the violent reaction? What was our Susie, who showed such fundamental and astonishingly NATURAL growth over the last three chapters, really trying to destroy here? How would it fit the theme of her arc?

I think I know, but let me tell you how I got there. See, what I couldn't stop turning over in my head after Chapter 4 was The Girl. I don't think Susie is The Girl. The stance, the silhouette, the weapon of choice... something doesn't feel right. I think that's Noelle. I think that's a hooded Noelle.

I think Noelle might actually be the true third hero.

We know "banish the Angel's heaven" is the end of the TL:DR prophecy, and Noelle is strongly implied to be the angel at this point. If Noelle's fate is to make a grand sacrifice in true JRPG fashion, that would make sense. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if we're in full "playing with JRPG tropes" territory here, and if "initial party member who is swayed to the other side" doesn't also become an actual thing either, with Susie. Susie, who is feeling unneeded, lesser-than, and who is fast approaching self-actualization. I specifically say "other side" rather than "bad guys," too, because I think the two sides of this story are more nuanced than we ever thought. If Kris is found to be working with the Knight, well... that might make anyone switch sides, especially if they are trying their best to be a TRUE hero.

So... I'm pretty sure the final prophecy portrayed Noelle's death. Noelle's sacrifice. Banishing the Angel's heaven may = killing the Angel. And I'm pretty sure Susie is the one to deliver the killing blow, and that the final tableau makes it clear who is who.

Susie is reacting violently to this version of herself that she wants to keep from ever existing. And I think that would also explain why she doesn't want to open up to Kris about what she saw. She is ashamed, she is probably going to bounce back from the initial shock feeling emboldened. She just wants to change things.

This isn't a perfect theory, of course. It's a knee-jerk one based on what I understand to be Susie's arc toward true Hero. There are lots of things this DOESN'T answer, like why does the original prophecy cutscene look the way it does, with Kris Susie and Ralsei (not "The Girl"?) I actually think this is all part of the plan, that Susie had to find her agency via the Fun Gang first. Besides, how killer would it be, dramatically, to have an updated prophecy cutscene if we finally learn "the truth"? Suddenly it's the Human (Kris), The Prince from the Dark (Ralsei), and the Girl (Noelle). They're both monsters, yes, but Susie is The Monster in this prophecy, literally and figuratively (I'm emotional even thinking about this, btw).

Even if Noelle isn't The Girl, I still think the final prophecy shows Susie killing someone that she cares about in order to "save the world."

This would also explain so much more about both Carol AND Catty's insistence that Noelle be kept away from Susie. Carol knows the Prophecy via primary source. Catty consults with the occult in order to know it. It's not homophobia and it's not necessarily horrible parenting, it's... a really shitty burden of knowledge for any mother to have.

Anyway... uh... heavy stuff... um...

The Jackensteun fight was great (nervous laughter)

(weeping)

In all honesty, personally, I would LOVE for the themes of redemption, learning to love oneself, to rise above, despite what everyone thinks about you and expects from you, to go THIS HARD, to be THIS CHALLENGING.

Survey program: "No one can choose who they are in this world"

Susie Deltarune:

ETA: Watching someone else play Chapter 4, I'm even more convinced, because Gerson (following the Hammer of Justice battle) does say "they called you a hero... whatever you end up being, I sure it'll be tremendous." And like... BRO??? BRO???? Then he even says that, of the Dragon Blazers characters, she would be the Dragon. That may be badass but... uhhhhhh.... sounds bad!

[cherrylng]

The Black Parade interview - Gerard Way - My Chemical Romance [INROCK (January 2007)]

My Chemical Romance

Interview with Gerard explaining all the songs on ‘The Black Parade’.

Gerard Way / My Chemical Romance INTERVIEW & PHOTOS: P.G. BRUNELLI/INROCK

■ 「The End」 —This is a song that's the complete opposite of its title. It's the introduction to the album and the second track, ‘Dead!’ Gerard Way (vo.): Yes, it is. It's like a bullet was fired and the result was the next song. The reason why it's called ‘The End’ is because the protagonist of the album is in hospital and he's dying. That's why. When you're dying, whether it's from a death wish or a strong memory, you feel that death is coming for you, don't you? So for this character, who we call ‘the patient’… It could be me, it could be you, it could be anyone, not that it's anyone I know, but… the strong memory is when he was a child and his dad took him to a parade in a big city. So when death comes, it takes the form of a parade. And he goes on a journey, whether on his deathbed, or in a parade, or in his dreams, and he investigates his own life and meets strange characters. So ‘The End’ is when he's dying, and ‘Dead!’ is when he dies. Actually, we wrote the intro after ‘Dead!’ was finished. We wanted to start the album with something epic and dramatic. We wanted the listener to understand that a different journey was about to begin. And I wanted the listener to understand that they are part of the story. We didn't want to make any mistakes there… like there were little piano sounds or ambient sounds, and then the first real song would come in. We wanted to tell a clear story from the beginning. So when you hear this song, ‘Dead!’ starts right away.

■「Dead!」 Gerard: It's like a bouncy, hammering, social commentary on this person's life and the human condition. Some people realise that they're dead, but originally the lyrics were written from the point of view of a living person, saying, “You're dead, you're just living like you're dead”. It was actually about myself at first, with a certain sense of self-loathing. It's something that's always been present in our music…

■「This Is How I Disappear」 Gerard: This originally started out as a song about Harry Houdini (a Hungarian-born magician and escape artist from the early 20th century). The sound reminds me of the Rolling Stones' “Paint It Black”, and there's some Black Sabbath riffs in it. It's basically taking our old sound and pushing it to some limits. It's a song that says someone's leaving you, and it's again memories from past lives that lead to… (and he goes silent).

■「The Sharpest Lives」 Gerard: This song was also called ‘A Kiss Before She Goes’ for a little while, but we changed it back because it comes from a more important part of the song. It's a collection of very dark parts of his life. Like drugs, sleeping on the sofa, questioning things…

ーThere's nothing negative about sleeping on the sofa, is there? Gerard: You can question what you do before you sleep on the sofa and that's what I'm talking about. It's a song about someone reflecting on a rough, shaky part of their life. It's a very cliffhanger song.

ーDoes this song in a way relate to your break-up with your girlfriend earlier this year? Gerard: Yeah, I ended a relationship this year with someone I'd been seeing for a long time, and it really fucked me up. Because of the life I'm leading now, it's not working out with her… Because of the touring and all that. I can't have a normal life anymore, so we decided to break up. But it made me very withdrawn and isolated. All the self-loathing aspects of this record are based on this side of me and my experiences. It's another song that's very mean and on edge in sound. Originally we were trying to make this song with as few instruments as possible, so it was almost like electronic music. It was interesting in the sense that it was a departure from our own sound, but it didn't feel like enough of our own work. What's special about this band is that there are actually five of us and what each of us brings to a song, but it wasn't rock, and it didn't feel like it was us enough. We weren't afraid to depart from our own sound, but the problem was that it became too electronic.

■「Welcome To The Black Parade」 Gerard: I think this song's place on the album is far enough forward. Because this is where that character encounters the parade his father took him to. Sound-wise, it should have been earlier, but this song shows the risks we were starting to take musically and the new sounds we were discovering. There's a lot of Queen in this song. It contains everything we've ever wanted to explore, it's like a little epic.

ーSo this is the first single? Gerard: Yeah. There's only a handful of songs on the record that could have been the first single and not become statements. There were times early on when I thought ‘The Sharpest Lives’ would be good, but I felt that song wasn't strong enough to push the boundaries as a first single.

■ 「Teenagers」 Gerard: This song was almost taken off the album. The sound was very simple and it wasn't what we were used to. But then we thought, with lyrics as impactful as these, it had to sound as simple as this. It ended up being one of the most important songs on the album. It's about how teenagers today have kids and are made to believe that the only way to solve their problems is through violence. They are almost forced to be in their own groups and when they meet each other, they fight. They're on drugs to calm themselves down, they don't eat well, and they're promised a lot of things that never come true. By the time they've realised it, they've dropped out of high school and they're working at a gas station. It's a common problem, I grew up working class and I was one of those kids myself. I worked in a supermarket and Frank (Iero, g.) worked at a gas station.

ーIs that before you became an animator? Gerard: Yeah, I finally finished that gig (at the supermarket) to do what I really wanted to do. But I still felt unfulfilled. Because it felt like the world hadn't changed at all for me. But then 9/11, when the terrorist attacks happened, I decided to quit and do something completely different. This song is important because of what's being said in it.

ーWhat's your relationship with the dying man? Gerard: He's looking back on his life, including when he was a teenager. This isn't a song about anyone's life in particular. If he was looking back on his life, some might say ‘Teenagers’ should have come earlier on the album. In my mind, I have this vision of him meeting a lot of characters in a parade, and some of them are teenagers who committed suicide. He also meets soldiers from the First World War and their mothers, and he meets the devil in the form of two wolves. He meets so many different people that he can justify the inclusion of this song on the album. I can always picture him meeting those teenagers. No matter how hard a story or strong a message is put on the album, I think this song can be on it. If someone says this song doesn't belong, it doesn't matter. Because this song is so important for teenagers, that's why it's on the record. It's like the Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper's” (the fictional band of The Beatles) had a song on their album.

■「I Don't Love You」 Gerard: This was one of the earliest songs we wrote for the album. We wanted to have a Creedence Clearwater Revival vibe. Kind of like "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?". I wanted to make a classic song that would become a classic, so there are a lot of conventions in the chorus of that song. I can't remember the names, but there were a couple of bands from the ‘70s that did that, and we wanted to do it like them. In this one, he (the character) is looking back on a broken heart. One that he was allowed to escape.

■「House Of Wolves」 Gerard: This song was called ‘Sin Sin’ at one point. I wrote it to envision that character going to a rough club after he died. It was like a jazz club from hell. It's a song about damnation, about the price of sin. I envisioned that character obviously going to hell. There's a religious connotation to this song… and the whole album. ‘Mama’ is more about being brought up Catholic than it is about war. There's the farming and the choir boys in here, and I imagine that kind of stuff is kind of like the devil talking. The devil is manipulating religion for his own purposes. He's using symbolism to twist things. This song was definitely written from the devil's point of view.

■「Cancer」 —This is obviously a song about death, isn't it? Gerard: Yeah, exactly. It's one of the most important songs on the album. It's got a lot of different instruments in it. It's a very powerful song and it's called ‘Cancer’ for a reason. You could call it ‘The Hardest Part’, which is very close to the truth… Cancer is so ugly, it affects everyone, it's cruel, it's monstrous. It's like it eats people from the inside out… The lyrics of this song had to be easy to understand. Because this song is something that has to get everyone's attention.

■「Mama」 —The full title of this song is ‘Mama: We Are Going To Hell’, right? Gerard: It's just ‘Mama’ now.

—You said that this song is different from your previous sound, musically it's like a waltz or a mazurka (Polish folk dance). Gerard: Yeah. There's Russian folk music in it. It's a different approach, but we've also included some very traditional elements (folk parts) that we haven't tried before. There are some big choruses in it. We took this old folk music with a gypsy feel and somehow transformed it into rock music. We thought we had to try to make it work somehow, and if we could achieve that, it would be our new sound. The song is so intelligent, creative, and clever that if the song didn't fit the lyrics, it wouldn't sound like that. But the song had to be as smart as the lyrics, otherwise it wouldn't have been on the album.

■「Sleep」 Gerard: It's a song about a nightmare I had when I was in that house (the house where we first stayed). At the same time, it's also about that character. I could imagine him thinking about himself. It's a song about someone who has realised the monster inside him. It was inspired by my nightmares, so it's very close to my inner self. It's a really good song. I think it's almost epic, it's a rock song, like a movie soundtrack.

■「Disenchanted」 Gerard: This is one of our oldest songs. We've been playing it on the ‘Sweet Revenge’ tour for a while now. It's one of the ones we wrote really well and one of the melodies sounded like Wham!, but when I heard it, I had this image in my head of someone lying in a hospital bed watching shitty TV knowing they were going to die. This song is all about the irony and weirdness of that moment. It's like a cliffhanger ballad.

■「Famous Last Words」 Gerard: This is one of the key songs on the album.

—♪I am not afraid to walk this world alone♪ is a pretty amazing line. Gerard: Yes, it is. It's all about redemption and it's our final statement that we have to finish the album. We were going through a dark period, and this song was born from that. Originally we were going to end it with ‘Sleep’, but that would have been too dark. We put it here because we wanted the listener to finish the album with a sense of hope and redemption.

■「Blood」 (Hidden track). —It's a weird song, it's very fun, very cabaret-like… Gerard: Yeah, this is another song that's commenting on a lot of things. Itt's got a bit of a Queen selfish sound to it. There's a song on their album ‘A Night At The Opera’ called ‘Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon’, which is also a simple song musically, but lyrically very strong. The song mentions a lot about the blood we've dedicated to the album. It's like we're saying, “This is the whole human wreckage, we've given you this misery and we're going to leave you with this feeling”. It's like saying, “This was such a pain making this album, goodbye”.

—How much does ‘Teenagers’ reflect your own experience of being a drug addict until three years ago? Gerard: A whole lot. I remember going to high school on drugs all the time. I was a very cranky guy because I had a strong sense of resignation. I wasn't a troublemaker, I was just high on drugs at the back of the class. I wasn't interested in what I was learning or what was being taught. Because I was convinced that it wasn't really going to help me. I met some very ugly people in high school. They were pretty nasty to each other, and that's how I learnt that there is a hierarchy in the adult world. I think it's very important to learn that, so I'm going to send my kids to high school. Because they have to learn that. What they really learn is, “Okay, now I know what it's like to go out there and how rough the adult world can be.”

—How was it with your parents? I think you must have a better relationship with them now that you're off drugs. Gerard: I think most kids get along better with their parents when they are older. I got along well with my parents even then. I did my homework and I got B grades on average. They knew I was going to be an artist. I wasn't going to be an artist or a lawyer.

—Was rehabilitation (for drugs) hard? Gerard: No, it was the year of touring afterwards that was hard. But I had my bandmates to help me and I had a great therapist with me, so I was fine. I also had a manager who looked after me. It was easy to get clean (from drugs), but the pressure afterwards and the year of work was really hard.

Translator's Note: Well, haven't done a MCR interview translation for some time. For some reason, I'm on a roll in terms of scanning and translating stuff.

Please do support me via my ko-fi! ☕

[theladsaregoingmental]

I just saw a TERF claim that jkr had done nothing wrong and I just …. Girl, what?

Even if you believe what she says about trans people all being disgusting perverts grooming children…. What?!

She’s a billionaire who hangs out with people who’ve been on neo-nazi rallies, has close ties to the Heritage Foundation, and made all of her money (and obtained all of her influence) because she wrote a shitty, generic fantasy series full of racism and antisemitism!

Aside from the wanting trans people dead angle, the woman has done SO MUCH wrong stuff that regardless of your particular flavour of leftism you would be hard pressed not to find a reason to hate her.

[bunnis-monsters]

Betrayal of the Queen

Part 1

Endings:

Forgive

No forgiveness(Kofi/Patreon Only)

Yandere Sons take out the old hive(Kofi/Patreon Only)

A/N: Hii, this was available to kofi/patreon early, and some of the endings will be exclusively there! Also, the relationship between you and your bee hybrid sons is completely platonic! It’s pretty obvious in this fic but I get weird questions and just want to clarify. Thanks!

They regret not appreciating your kindness and soft nature when they appoint their new queen.

She was taller, more lithe and graceful. They threw you out the second they saw her on the street. Your sons of course followed, shocked and devastated that their own fathers and fellow hive would do this to you!

You had served as the queen for nearly five years now, creating the new generation and caring for them with all your heart.

But you were a bit fragile, not able to bear as many young as the previous queen. The hive had loved you at first, adoring you endlessly, but when they noticed how little eggs made it to the birthing stage, they realized that you may not ever rebuild their hive in the way that they hoped.

They slowly began to stop caring for you as much, leaving your care to your sons. Some of the hive even went out and flirted with other females, leaving you to incubate those eggs with only your children by your side.

Most grew resentful, seeing you as nothing more than a burden to the hive.

By the fifth year, the only bees in the hive that had remained loyal to you were the very ones you birthed.

Your children disliked how you were treated, but stayed because taking you away may cause issues. Your safety was their top priority, but they were also deeply in tune with your emotions.

The hive stopped even pretending to care near the end, shunning you for not being a good enough queen. They buzzed around haughtily, being so bold as to bring other females into the hive right in front of you!

Your heart ached. At first you had truly loved that hive, sacrificing most of your human life and your body to bare eggs in a womb that could barely maintain them.

You had done so much, yet they didn't seem to care.

In their hearts they knew they were being cruel. But they were selfish and greedy, wanting the hive to flourish... but that couldn't happen with you around.

"She'll be banished."

Your sons stared at the council member in shock as they announced the decision. "Are you joking? She's the queen, you can't-"

"It states that if a queen is no longer fit to rule, then she will be banished and a new queen will be chosen. When a queen can't lay the right amount of eggs, she cannot function correctly."

One of your sons, the prince stepped forward, his wings buzzing threateningly. "You've treated her like garbage for years, and now you're going to abandon her? Is that really how we treat a queen?"

"Hardly a queen, if you ask me."

A female said, crossing her legs. The prince turned on his heels, hissing. "You shouldn't even be in this hive, the queen is the only female allowed-"

"She's not the queen anymore. Get her out and leave."

The bee hybrids watched in awe as every single son of hers stood. "If she leaves, we leave with her. You've all become so greedy, taking advantage of our mother and pushing her to her limits and expecting her to just roll over and take it. You're a disgrace to the bee hybrid name."

You were in tears when your crown was taken, crying into one of your son's chests. Your sons took up about 1/3 of the hive, and left with you.

The new queen had been already lined up to take your place. She was thin, tall, and beautiful, all that they could have asked for.

But she was also manipulative and cruel.

"The drones? Do we really need to help them? They're replaceable, aren't they?"

She crossed her legs, staring on in boredom as a worker bee reported to her. "But my queen, the drones are stuck in a storm, shouldn't we at least try to help them?"

"Of course not, I don't really care if they live or die.

I'm the queen, the most important. Shouldn't you just be happy I'm here and producing eggs?"

It quickly became obvious that the new queen cared not about her subjects, only about expanding her power and rule. The people starved, the babies hated their mother. She refused to even look at them once they were born, moving on to start another clutch.

The new queen picked only the most handsome and fit bee hybrids to mate with, creating only a small gene pool. This meant that the ones she mated with were constantly tired, and the others were increasingly sexually frustrated.

A few bee hybrids sat in a common room, depressed.

"Remember when the old queen would come down here and listen to our woes? She would mate with all of the hive, not just a select few..."

"The old queen made sure that the elders were taken care of. Not a single senior was left behind."

"She was so warm and soft, the new queen has no warmth in her body or soul."

They missed you.

But could they ever say they deserved you back?

Thinking of the years of neglect and mistreatment, of how they had taken your love and kindness for granted…

It all came to an end when the queen came before the council. She was as cold as ever, her eyes empty as she spoke.

"Thank you all for making me your queen and being so... stupid."

Her vacant eyes glanced over the room, and suddenly the smell of decay became almost overwhelming as her body began to wriggle and shift.

"That previous queen of yours had been keeping us at bay for nearly five years, and you let us in easily."

The new queen was ripped apart, parasite wasp larvae falling onto the ground and wriggling towards the nearest bee hybrid, attaching themselves and burrowing into their abdomen.

The room erupted into a frenzy of bees being eaten alive while others tried to escape. Even after leaving the room, several council members were seized by infected bees, taking them down with the rest of the hive.

Only around 100 members of the original hive survived, and while they flew away from the remnants of their home, all they could think about was you.

In all your years of being queen, you had been fighting to keep them safe. You tried so hard, barely able to lay eggs due to the intense stress of taking on the imminent threat of the parasite wasp hybrids alone.

You hid all of the pain, all of the work you did just to give them some peace of mind… and they repaid you by abandoning you when you needed them most.

You hadn’t failed them as a queen, no. They failed you as a hive. The hive wouldn’t exist without you, and had quickly fallen to ruin with your absence.

All they could hope for was that you would forgive them.

~

You smiled to yourself, one of you infant sons sleeping on your lap as your new hive buzzed around you. Without all the stress that had been piled on you, incubating eggs was easy.

“Mother, I’ve prepared your dinner.”

One of your sons nuzzled his antennae against your forehead in a sign of innocent affection before setting your plate on your nightstand. Even when they got older, they were still your babies.

Your sons had quickly formed a hive with you after you were banished, and now you lived a happy life with them and the new bee hybrids that joined.

Any bees that had been ostracized were welcome to join, and your sons personally interviewed each new possible mate of the queen to make sure they wouldn’t betray you.

After all, they loved their mom, and wanted you to be happy over anything else. They didn’t care if you laid eggs or not, they could spend the rest of their days snuggling with and taking care of you and be perfectly content.

But you wanted to have more children, to make a new hive where you’d be loved and happy.

Of course, any wish you had would be fulfilled. They set off and gathered any bee hybrids they could, wanting their mama to find her confidence in being a queen again.

It felt nice to be able to mate again, to be loved intimately. The new bee hybrids were loving and gentle, appreciating every soft curve of your body answ kissing away any tears you shed from your lingering insecurities.

Your sons worked on building a hive and producing honey while the new bee hybrids helped you with creating new children to add on to the hive. You felt like one, big, happy family.

It all came to a halt when the bees guarding the entrance to your hive brought forth an intruder.

You instantly recognized him as a council member from your old hive.

Memories of all the awful things they said and the circumstances of your banishment came to your mind, making your breathing quicken.

“My queen-“

“Don’t you dare call her that, you scum!”

The prince said, standing in front of you protectively “She isn’t your queen anymore, you made that decision yourself.”

The council member hung his head in shame. “… I know. Trust me, we all regret that deeply.”

You gently pulled the prince to you, giving his antennae a gentle caress to calm him down. Even if he was a prince, he was still one of your sons, and they were all angry on your behalf.

When you stayed silent, the former council member continued. “The hive… it’s gone. The new queen was a pawn for the parasitic wasps.”

This caused your hive to buzz anxiously. Many of the new members were from broken or destroyed hives by those hybrids.

Some were just little ones, torn away from their mothers, watching as the queens that birthed them were killed. Their tiny bodies trembled as they clung to your side, of course you had adopted them.

“Why do you darken my doorway, saying such things in front of the children?” you said, gathering the terrified babies into your arms. “You have no business here, I’ve been banished.”

“My queen-“

The prince was across the room in a split second, holding a knife to the former council member’s throat. “Don’t make me tell you again, scum. That is my mother, not your queen.”

You lifted a hand, and the prince backed away slightly, but stayed within arms reach. “… what about the new queen’s children?”

“… most of them were infected with the queen’s parasites. Those that we could save were in a dire state, while the rest perished.”

You let out a distressed whine, clutching one of the orphans' hands to comfort them. It wasn’t easy being a mother and hearing about the death of children.

“And what do you want from me?”

He took a moment to think before speaking. “Shelter for the children… they’re scared and hungry, most of them have severe injuries and illnesses as well.”

“… alright. Basil, please contact the worker bees and have them set up a temporary quarantine room, with enough room to accommodate 30 children.”

You sat back down on your throne, peering down at the former council member. He had been someone you had loved, even mated with years ago. A few of your sons were a result of that… yet in this moment you resented him and all the previous hive had done.

“I will only be taking in the children.”

Before he could protest, he stopped himself and stood. “I understand… please, do not hate them because of what we did. They are innocent in this.”

As you watched over the construction of the quarantine room, you occasionally glanced outside.

Your former hive members, at least, what was left of them was gathered around. They gave up their children, only wanting their survival.

When they spotted you looking, they stared up at you with remorse and longing.

They’d be staying nearby while waiting for the children to recover, and the threat of the parasitic wasps still lingered.

Would you ever be able to forgive them, especially if it meant joining forces and gaining knowledge to protect yourselves in a world that was changing rapidly?

Or would you turn your back on them, just like they had done to you? It was only fair, and how could you trust them when they already betrayed you once?

The choice was yours.

Which ending do y’all want to see first?

—————

SFW TAGLIST: @strawberrypoundtown @avalordream @im-eating-rn @anglingforlevels @kinshenewa @pasteldaze @peachesdabunny @misswonderfrojustice @i8kaeya @lollboogurl @mssmil3y @namjoons-t1ddies @izarosf1833 @zyettemoon1800 @kassandra-hawthorne @vexillum-moeru @imperfectlyperfectprincess1 @readeryn68 @danielle143 @omglovelylaila @midromiell @toocollectionchaos-universe-blog @hammerhead96 @bubblez-blop @snugglyshoji @wanderlustingcastaway @amberexe2 @an-ever-angry-bi @rainejiang @lostsomewhereinthegarden @idkccdfnfz @xrenka @arcticat @v3lv3tf0x @ghostiegirl56 @aerangi @kxnnxy @joviaschaoticmind @danielle143 @roxy776699 @katsukis1wife @chaoticevilbakugo @rainejiang @lostsomewhereinthegarden @idkccdfnfz @articat @ghostiegirl56 @aerangi @kxnnxy @roxy776699

[errriiie]

The last practice before nationals

poly!yellowjackets x fem!reader minors DNI, all characters are 18 y.o

TW: smut, gangbang extra tags: porn with plot, praising, bodyworship, sharing is caring, fingering (r! receiving), oral (r! receiving), oral (r! giving), little bit of spanking word count: 5.1k not proofread english is not writer's first language! you've always been so nice and sweet to Yellowjackets, the one and only soccer team in your school, Wiskayok High. But you also were naive and innocent enough to constantly overlook the fact that every single girl on the team wanted your attention. And when, the last day before their nationals, they finally decided to make things clear between you and them.

When Coach Martinez first introduced you to the girls, they weren't too impressed. Average hair, average eyes, average height. Nothing special or anything to look at more than usual. You weren't even, roughly speaking, a full-fledged part of the team. At least that's what Taissa said. She was always like that - confident and sure of her opinions, even if they were somewhat offensive.

But you didn't mind, and even agreed. You were just an equipment manager, and you only became one because your mother and father were very close with Coach Martinez and asked him to find you a place out of old friendship. Of course, the coach made up a different story for everyone about how you came to be on the team - but every time you remembered the truth of your presence here, you wondered if you had the right to wear your signature yellow and blue bomber jacket. You felt ashamed, even though you didn't act like someone who got in because they got a pass. You were responsible, punctual, but you didn’t forget about empathy and responsiveness when communicating with girls. Over time, you began to be noticed by more than just Misty Quigley, who shared the same position with you.

Misty Quigley herself wasn’t too bad. Well, she was… weird. But you decided that everyone had their own cockroaches in their heads and she was just trying to make friends this way.

"You know, if we ever run out of food, I’ve always wondered what human flesh tastes like. I mean, they say it’s like pork, right? Maybe we should start taking notes just in case." Misty once said while you were cleaning up the cones after practice. You looked at her with wide eyes, full of confusion.

"Excuse me? Misty, this is a little weird…" You awkwardly continued to do your job, while Misty burned a hole in you with her gaze. Misty tilts her head slightly, her expression shifting from playful to earnest.

"Oh, come on! I was just joking… mostly. But think about it—survival is all about adapting, right? It’s just a thought experiment! Besides, we’ve got to keep our spirits up somehow. Want to talk about your favorite horror movie instead? I promise I won’t suggest cannibalism this time!”

But Misty didn’t always say such creepy things. She could talk about history, especially about Roman emperors, about her experience in first aid and medicine in general, about her interests, of which there were quite a few, but no one except you, apparently, wanted to listen to her. You didn’t understand the reasons and were patient with her. Misty immediately began to appreciate this - she did not throw away potential loved ones. Then Natalie Scatorccio appeared. Natalie did not have much experience with love, including the manifestation of care towards her. You didn't know anything about her, except that she lived in a van and was an extremely good and promising soccer player. But the more Misty shared the good news about your "endless love and care", trying to brag that she had such a tasty morsel and not the rest of the team, Nat couldn't help but become interested in you. People who lack love often don't quite realize how much they subconsciously want to find it.

She caught you after practice once and started talking to you. Nat herself didn't understand why she wanted to come back to you more and more every day - was it your manner of speech or how brightly you smiled at her after silly stories? She wanted to blush under your gentle gaze, and her heart beat strangely when you waved at her after she made a good pass to the other team members. But of course it wasn't always like that. The more attached she became to you, the more she focused on looking into your unexpectedly deep eyes, rather than at the ball.

"Natalie, don't you want to start playing properly? What are you constantly distracted by?" Lottie narrows her eyes when Natalie refuses to pass the ball to her and tries to dribble the ball to the goal herself, but hits the wall.

"Forget it, Lots. I'm just having a bad day." Natalie waved it off. It was odd that for someone having a bad day, she was smiling so stubbornly and persistently in the wrong direction. Lottie couldn't help but realize that she was looking at you. Perhaps you needed to have a heart-to-heart talk.

So, Charlotte Matthews quickly became next.

After practice, she caught you doing your job as you were supposed to, and called you out on it. She was annoyed, but more curious about your relationship with Natalie. You were blushing and apologetic, and it was hard to deny that you weren't to blame for Nat's deteriorating performance.

And then Lottie discovered that your shy face was extremely hard to get out of her head. Inadvertently, you began to talk after and before practice, Lottie sharing some details about upcoming parties at her house and inviting you. You, of course, refused. Your parents expected you to be decent, and Lottie didn't like rejection and didn't know what rejection was, being a rich girl. So she made it her goal to get you at least once. Or twice. So trying to get under your skin, subtly courting you, and trying to get through to your difficult parents was already routine. Including giving expensive gifts.

"Tai, have you seen the new hair clip in Y/N's hair? Those things cost a lot of money, I tell you, I saw it in the window of that expensive jewelry store." Vanessa was amazed at the new accessory you now had.

"I didn't really pay attention to it, to be honest. What do you… mean? Do you want one like that? I didn't think it was your style." Taissa chuckled, and Van rolled her eyes.

"Haha, very funny, but that's not what I mean… Hey, Lottie! Does Y/N have a rich mommy and daddy like yours?"

Lottie, passing by, chuckled, clearly filled with pride. "Not really. That was my gift. Y/N is very nice, you know. You shouldn't have doubted her, Taissa."

Then Taissa Turner and Vanessa Palmer appeared. They were already in a relationship and were amazed to see how quickly you changed the team's attitude for the better. And yet, from the very beginning, you were a black sheep for Taissa. Van, however, did not treat you with great disdain. She preferred to give people a chance to prove themselves first, and only then draw her own conclusions. However, they quickly liked you. Taissa was surprised that you had previously attended law and jurisprudence classes, and these topics interested her greatly. Van was pleasantly pleased with your taste in films and comics. You complemented their couple with something that they could not complement each other with on their own, after all, no relationship can simply be perfect. It was a matter of time before they both wanted your attention more than was possible. Van often invited you to her home to read or watch something, and Taissa loved to discuss social issues with you. You turned out to be more than either of them could have thought.

"Tai, I'm sorry, but I've already taken up Y/N's time for the evening with myself." Van smiled tenderly at Taissa.

Taissa raised an eyebrow in surprise, seemingly hoping for something. "Damn. How did you manage to come to an agreement with her faster than me? Maybe you'll take me with you?" she said with awkward hope. "Of course, I don't understand a damn thing about your conversations, but still…"

"No way, babe. You'll steal her attention again." Van shook her head.

"Why do I keep hearing everyone talking about Y/N from every corner of the room?" Jackie folded her arms in displeasure as she found herself next to the couple. "I understand that she's new and all that… but what's so unique about her? I swear, we won't get to nationals like this."

Jackie Taylor was annoyed by your popularity within the Yellowjackets. She could see the effect you had on the girls - they were going crazy trying to get a piece of you. She wasn't interested in you at all, but she had a feeling that if she didn't get a little bit closer, they would dethrone her and make you the team captain and even make you their mascot. She had to do something, and fast.

One day, Jackie stayed with you after practice, kindly offering to help you clean up the equipment. When you both walked into the warehouse, she almost pinned you against the wall, demanding answers to her questions.

"Y/N, I can see something's going on. I understand that you want to be friends with everyone, sure, but… we're trying really hard to get to nationals. And you're being way too… outgoing, you know? You need to stop. For the good of our team, as captain, I'm asking you to…"

"Your hair looks great today. Even after playing so hard." You blurted out, unable to contain your genuine respect. "Oh. Sorry. Keep going."

Jackie froze, her combative attitude seeming to completely falter. "You… you think so? Finally, someone sees how much I work on this hair, trying to get it just right every morning! I use powder and hairspray literally all the time, and no one has even bothered to compliment me… until you, of course."

Jackie took pity on you after that. Not when you were willing to spend hours shopping for clothes with her, stealing your clothes and trying on what she told you to try on, making you her model. No one had ever shown such steely restraint with Jackie Taylor, and every time she put on your makeup, it was so hard for her to resist the pounding of her heart and the strange desire to cover your lips with hers. But there was a catch to being with Jackie. The amount of time you spent together didn't sit well with Shauna Shipman. She was the only one who showed no interest in you at all. She didn't care about you, and that was surprising. She never, not once, approached you. You doubted she even knew your name, although considering Jackie told her everything, your name was the only thing she knew about you.

And the fact that you were a real suck-up. That's what she called you when she decided to have it out with you.

"What do you have with Jackie? Do you think I can't see how you're trying to pull the wool over her and everyone else's eyes?" Shauna narrows her eyes, looming over you. "What is it about you? Are you such a good suck-up?"

You felt hurt, but even more so, you felt a seething injustice. "I don't know what you're talking about, Shauna, I was just trying to be friends with everyone. It's not my fault they saw something in me."

Shauna snorted, unsure of what to do with you. "Well. Fine. Just stay away from Jackie, okay? And you'll be fine." Shauna had already turned away from you, about to leave. She adjusted her backpack, but a book fell out. You quickly picked it up.

"You dropped…" You looked at the cover, sighing in surprise. "Pride and Prejudice? That's my favorite book!" You exclaimed, surprising Shauna. She rolled her eyes, simply taking it from you, pretending not to care, but in reality, she was even a little impressed. You were left standing in the hallway, not quite sure what you did wrong.

And then you were surprised when Shauna came to you wanting to discuss the book, as if nothing had happened. Perhaps she was so eager to discuss her interests with someone that she decided to choose the worst option of all - you (Jackie, as expected, did not like reading books at all). You liked to read in your spare time, and Shauna was pleased that you had read a lot of female writers from the 18th and 19th centuries. She sometimes shared her thoughts on them with you, but the main thing was that at one point she made you a playlist of songs named after you. You were flattered and too busy enjoying the gift to notice how much Shauna blushed as she tried to hold your hand.

You didn't even know it would be like this. It seemed like almost all the girls on the team were literally tearing you apart. You'd never received so many gifts, compliments, and, it seemed, hints? Of course, you were pleased. You were a girl, after all. And you suddenly had little free time. Sometimes you spent time with two or even three girls at once a day. Of course, sometimes this led to conflicts between them, but they never dragged you into it. You were untouchable.

But you didn't expect that they would all decide to fix it in one day.

Despite everything, training for Nationals continued. Luckily, the Yellow Jackets team still managed to get their game together and win the filtration game that determined their participation in the competition. Everyone, of course, was incredibly happy. As were you for your favorite team.

There was just one thing. Your parents forbade you to fly with them. You begged as much as you could, but they were adamant. They wanted you to stay home and use your free time from your team to good use, studying and preparing for college. You shed so many tears in front of them, almost begging, but nothing worked. Sometimes you wanted to curse your parents.

Tomorrow, everyone was supposed to fly to Nationals. You entered the locker room, terribly dejected. You were immediately noticed, and the girls were insanely worried. Lately, all of them had been very attentive to you.

"You don't look well, Y/N," Natalie said, her smile from earlier quickly fading.

"Are you okay? Do you have a headache? Maybe a stomach ache?" Misty jumped up to you as if your life depended on it.

"Get away from her, Misty. Y/N might need some space." Vanessa shook her head, and was just as concerned about you.

"I-it's okay…" you sniffed. "It's just… I couldn't convince them. I did everything I could, I begged as hard as I could, and they still refused me. You… you'll have to celebrate your victory at the nationals without me." your eyes sadly looked around at everyone. The shared sadness touched every girl present.

"Y/N… I'm so sorry." Lottie took your hands in hers, looking at you sadly, but Jackie quickly jumped up to her.

"How so? Do they not care at all that you want to fly with us?" she snorts, angry at your family. Being spoiled by her own parents, she did not understand this attitude, especially towards you.

"At least you will be here when we return." Taissa tried to find the positives, although she was disappointed too.

"It does not make much sense, she will not be able to share the joy of us taking the first place in the moment." Shauna said, shaking her head. There was silence between all of you. You were so upset that you didn't even notice how all the girls were looking at each other meaningfully and nodding silently. Suddenly Lottie ran a gentle hand down your cheek, took your chin.

"Don't be so upset, Y/N," Lottie said softly, looking soothingly into your eyes. "You know… in all this time that you've been part of our team, we've grown attached to you. You've always been so kind to us. I think we can come to an agreement and find a way to thank you properly."

You were very embarrassed, and suddenly you felt a little awkward. "I was just being myself, you don't have to do anything for me." You, of course, felt pleased. But you were surprised when you felt hands behind you, and out of the corner of your eye you could see blonde strands of hair, and then you heard the familiar voice of Nat, who decided to come up to you from behind.

"Don't be such a shy princess. Why don't you let us comfort you?" she almost purrs in your ear, sending shivers down your spine. It felt… oddly pleasant, like a wave of excitement had washed over you.

"I, um… I don't know… how are you going to do that?" you ask. You can already see and feel Misty wrap her arms around your right hand, stroking it, looking at you in awe.

"You see, Y/N, you have some kind of influence over all of us." Lottie continues. Jackie glares at Matthews, apparently annoyed that Lottie is in charge. While she's busy burning a jealous hole in someone else's body, Shauna approaches you, her hands stroking your neck, and you shiver, vaguely aware of where this is all heading.

"We feel an irresistible… attraction to you. It's hard for us to share you between us. Haven't you noticed how hard we try to please you?" Lottie asks, genuinely concerned. "And you still wouldn't give in to any of us. We tried to figure out what you wanted, but we failed every time. So we thought you'd have to try each one before you figured out which one of us you wanted to be with."

Your brain was already running out, and now that Van's hand was stubbornly touching your thigh, and Taissa was holding your waist, whispering something in your ear, you completely stopped thinking. You were surrounded by a crowd of girls with whom you spent all your free time so happily, and they were trying to get you all the time. Was it all of them? Each of them wanted you to be their girlfriend? These thoughts left you shocked and you didn't even know how close or far from the truth it was. You, of course, dreamed about them. About each of them at least once, though about some more than others. But for you it was not serious, you did nothing! Did they really want it that much?

You yourself do not notice how you let out a quiet sigh when Shauna kisses your neck. She does it roughly, as if she is having difficulty containing the desire that is accumulating in her. Shauna is silent, examining, analyzing and suppressing in herself, and then explodes like a time bomb. And now she wants to explode at any moment.

Misty's hand undoes the button of your pants in irritation, and Van and Taissa pull them down. You are brought back to reality, and you feel panicked. You were definitely not prepared for being undressed.

"W-wait, there's no need to go anywhere-" you break off with a groan. Nat, still standing and supporting you from behind, bites your ear, licks it, makes your sensitive earlobe wet. You sigh at the newness of this strange, disorienting sensation.

"Don't worry, sweet thing. Everything is going to be just fine." Natalie purrs, and you can't tell if she's stoned or not. Your pants are thrown to the floor. And then your panties. You are naked for all the girls, and they are looking at you so mesmerized, like this is the best thing they've ever seen in their lives. Even Jackie and Lottie, standing behind you, are watching you in awe.

This time, Van is first. Her tongue touches your already wet cunt, and she circles it, tasting you. You moan, and Natalie tugs your hair a little, exposing more of your neck. Taissa gives you a couple of loud slaps on your ass, interested in seeing your reaction. You shudder and your hips jerk, because you like it. Misty's hand goes under your shirt and gropes your breasts, pulling your nipples almost painfully, while Shauna leaves wet marks on your collarbone from her mouth, wanting to leave marks on you that will definitely last until their collective return from Nationals.

You are so turned on, and you feel stimulation from all sides. Your hand wants to reach for Van's red head, to press it harder, but Nat, watching you like a hawk, pulls you back.

"Let her do it herself." She whispers in your ear. You nod frantically, it's best not to argue with them. A few more movements of Van on your clit, her skillful tongue, which had probably done the same with Taisa before, could easily bring you to orgasm. You moaned more actively, your chest moved a hundred times more intensely, and then she pulled away.

"She's ready, Lottie." Van said, wiping her mouth. It was hard for you to understand what was happening, and you just whined, saddened that you were not allowed to come. For a moment, everyone broke away from you. Everyone was listening to Lottie.

"We'll help you after you help us, Y/N," Lottie says with a smile that sounds like she's some kind of prophet. "We've been waiting so long to get your attention. We think we deserve to come first. But I promise you won't regret it."

You nodded at her, mesmerized, but you felt like this wasn't quite the Lottie you knew. She was so mysterious, and you couldn't tell what was on her mind.

"Get away from her, all of you." Lottie commanded. "And you, Y/N, sit on your knees, please. Put something down so it won't hurt her to sit on the floor."

Van and Nat dutifully laid out their own jackets so your knees wouldn't hurt from what you were about to do. It was a pleasant moment of care. You obediently settled down on your knees in front of Lottie. You were literally being eaten with their eyes, and you were ready for what was to happen.

Lottie was already reaching for her shorts, but Jackie spoke up. "Sorry, Lottie… but I'll be the first." She said, raising her chin high. Jackie's voice was filled with nervous confidence, and she tried to withstand Lottie's and the other girls' piercing gaze. "I'm the captain of our team, and I want to be the first one to do this. What made you think you could lead?"

Lottie was silent, and you couldn't even understand what she was thinking right now. Then she nodded, and her voice was cold. "Okay. Be the first. But don't ruin it too soon."

You didn't understand the meaning of the words, but Jackie frantically replaced Lottie, pulled down her shorts, and the taste of her cunt quickly imprinted on your tongue. You didn't know what Jackie really wanted to achieve by this - to let you fuck her first or she just felt depressed because of how Lottie quickly took control and everyone, even Shauna, was ready to obey her. In any case, you didn't mind. You devotedly licked her pussy and tried to watch Jackie's reaction, just to please her. In your fantasies, you tried many times to make Jackie as good as you could. In your mind, Jackie was not the type to give - she liked to receive more, and if she had to be on top in your fantasies, she was so gentle and timid, afraid to make an extra move, that it only excited you more. But here she was — trying to have your whole mouth, like she had been fantasizing about it for so long that you were almost dizzy with the realization. Your drool and her juices were running down her thighs while she moaned, and the others were watching, some daring to stick their hands down their own shorts. A couple of minutes passed and Jackie came convulsively, sitting down on the bench. Now she wouldn’t object. She had no strength.

Shauna was next. She was never patient, not with what she liked - her hand grabbed your hair (no one protested, everyone decided she deserved it for scoring the final goal during the nationals qualifiers) and she pulled herself roughly-gently towards her vagina. Your eyes rolled back and you almost got lost in her thick dark pubic hair, but fuck, she was delicious and you were ready to continue as long as it took. You even forgot how to breathe sometimes - Shauna was a little rough, muttering something harshly under her breath and moaning, repeating your sweet name. She came quickly and took a step to the side, pulling up her shorts and retreating to the bathroom, apparently to rethink something.

Then there was Taissa… and Van. They were both allowed near you at the same time. You were dumbfounded, not knowing how to cope with taming two pussies at the same time, but you didn't even have time to wipe the saliva and cum from your mouth, as the red vagina was in your mouth. You had to change one pussy to the other every 15-20 seconds, trying to lick both like never before. You were forbidden to use your hands, but they both frantically encouraged you as best they could, while your tongue circled their clits, and the dirty noise filled the locker room, already filled with heat and languid sighs.

"You're holding up great, Y/N… Come on, help Van a little…" Taissa whispered, tearing you away from her pussy, because you stubbornly did not want to stop. However, upon hearing her order, you quickly set to work on Van, drawing a sigh of excitement from her, and ten seconds later, an orgasm. Taissa followed.

Then there was Nat. You licked your lips, ready to receive her. You were surprised that her pussy was shaved, maybe she was getting ready and wanted to please you? This thought caused a sweet warmth in you. And Nat's pussy tasted sweet too. You sucked on her clit, wanting to please her in a way that no guy had ever done. Natalie moaned surprisingly softly, and it excited you so much that there was almost no dry spot left in your panties. She let you use your hands, and you held her by the hips, because she was shaking while your wet tongue caressed her tender folds, and the hot air from her nose came straight to her pubis. Needless to say, Nat came quickly, but for some time she did not want to leave your mouth? Misty didn't even ask your permission. Her head was wrapped around yours, her fingers tangled in your soft hair, and she was holding you to her bushy pussy like she was dying without it. You were taken aback, but that didn't stop you from wanting to please her, even if her actions were met with disapproval from the other girls. No one wanted to be played with more roughly than the rest. You licked her, trying to please her as much as possible - Misty looked like she was not easy to please, but she was whispering so sweetly in your ear, praise and advice, that your arousal literally flowed out of your panties.

"Yes, t-that's it, Y/N… That's just perfect, oh, you're so beautiful. You're just an angel, a little perfection." She muttered selflessly, her glasses falling to the tip of her nose as she came loudly in your mouth.

You were exhausted, but Lottie was still there. She was the last one. You looked up at her, tired, sluggish, and excited. She gave you a quick smile, but there was undisguised triumph in her eyes. She had you after all. Did we mention that Lottie hated rejection and not getting what she wanted?

Lottie lifted your chin, gently stroked your hair and tidied it up, wiped the tears of pleasure from your eyelashes. She let you dive into her pussy yourself, start licking it yourself, as if you were in some kind of licking contest and were going to take first place there. She let you keep glancing at her, watching every movement of her moaning mouth and trembling hands, just to please her. Your heart was beating so fast and it was so hot and you wanted to please her so much, plunging your sweet tongue into her pussy over and over again, that you had a hard time holding on. Lottie took the longest, savoring every second and apparently holding herself back. Eventually she pulled your head away from her, pressed her pussy to your forehead and came, covering you even more with her wetness. You were all for it.

"You did well, Y/N. You love us so much, you were ready for everyone." Lottie said tiredly. She nodded to the girls, and they sat around you. "Now you've earned a reward, huh?" You nodded vigorously, needing release. You were so wet, and almost whining with excitement. Your head ended up in Shauna's lap, and Nat, Misty and Jackie quickly found themselves at your feet. Misty nibbled on your calves and thighs, often not hesitating to do it quickly and hard, while Jackie, on the contrary, licked them like a kitten, gently nipping at the sensitive skin. This crazy contrast made you breathe quickly and roll your eyes, and all for the sake of Shauna watching this cute picture. Nat touched your pussy with her tongue, her two fingers slid inside your wet cunt - after such a long abstinence, taking two fingers at once was not at all difficult. You moaned, letting them all work on you while the others watched. Natalie's tongue was trying so hard to please you, playfully sucking and pulling on your clit, playing with your labia and purposely quickly driving her fingers into you, wanting to bring you to the peak and play on you like guitar strings.

"We love you, Y/N, such a gift for us." Jackie purrs, watching Natalie fuck your helpless pussy.

"You're the best!" Misty agrees with a smile, biting you and licking it slobberily.

"All that's left is to cum." Shauna says calmly, not hiding her smirk, constantly keeping her eyes on herself. "Come on. Nat's mouth is waiting for it."

As if on cue, you spill into Natalie's mouth with a loud moan. Everyone exhales relaxedly, and Natalie cleans your pussy with her tongue. "You're just sweet, princess." She smirks at her own abilities.

You let yourself sink into the girls' arms, catching your breath. You don't know yet that later they'll help you get dressed, each of them will kiss you on the lips, and you'll tell them to talk about it after Nationals. In the end, you still can't seem to choose one. You love them all, and you're waiting for them to return to Wiskayok, safe and sound, with victory in hand.

[crimsonspring]

"What do you think our wedding will be like?" She asks, and Rafayel feels his heart still immediately. He gives it a second, letting the two opposing sides of his heart battle it out.

A part of him feels giddy - she wants to be his bride again. It will happen again, because they are fated mates! All of the worrying was for nothing because look - she wants to get married, bonded to him again! Sure, the "sanctity" of marriage amongst humans on this earth is laughable and ludicrous compared to the solemn oath he literally has embedded on his chest... but he'll take it nonetheless. He'll take anything she has to offer, honestly.

Albeit, the other part of him wants to sulk and throw a tantrum. Because this question is simply yet another reminder of what was left forgotten. The fact that she had already been his bride, but that fact to be so horridly and devastatingly taken away from him. Ripped away from his clutching fingers. Sea of God he may be, but the strength of fate has no competition. What a painful reminder that question is, to be reminded that... Oh yeah you were my bride... until?..

Rafayel doesn't realise that dancing between the two emotions has taken some time. Purple eyes swirling with mixed emotions as his lips pursed to the side in silence. This reaction causes her to shift nervously, afraid that she's made him uncomfortable with the question.

She clears her throat soon after, sitting up after spending hours on the couch with him, slouching against the backrest as his purple hair splays out against her chest. The movement shakes him out of his trance, a brief moment of confusion (and a dramatic look of "how could you!”) plastered on his face as he turns around, sitting up for the first time in 2 hours as well. He faces his blushing partner who is clearly flustered at his lack of response.

"Um.. I mean - I'm not saying we will definitely get married or like whatever, it was just a question! I don't even know if you wanna marry me. again, it was just a question, you don't have to answer it if you-"

He gasps dramatically, brows furrowed deeply as he scoots away from her in bewilderment. "Did you say you don't even know if I want to marry you?" He scoffs, standing up and begins to pace around the room. "Is my devotion - and quite frankly - obvious and constant yearning for you not enough? For you to even question that?"

"Rafayel, I-" "Maybe the hunter's association should put you on bed rest if your brain's not functioning properly. Oh perhaps, it's not the brain, it's your heart and its inability to feel the love I have for you. Is that right, hm?"

"Rafayel," she repeats louder this time, sighing. "That was not what i meant - I just.. You went completely silent on me when I asked the question, so I thought you felt uncomfortable with the topic of marriage." shrugging, the red on her cheeks deepens as a replay of the scene comes to mind. she shrivels into herself, crossing her legs as she begins to play with the loose threads of her sweater. "And I know we’ve never talked about it either, so I shouldn't have just sprung it on you like that."

His face softens immediately, guilt pricking his chest as he watches the vulnerability she was expressing. While she isn't exactly wrong - the topic of marriage does make him uncomfortable. As much as he wants her to be his bride, it’ll undoubtedly open new doors for pain all over again. But as uncomfortable it is, Rafayel knows that she is someone he'd carve his own heart out for (well....).

"You have nothing to apologise for.," He reassures her gently, the tone contrasting the loud rant he performed earlier, and he's back on the couch, crawling onto the space next to her. His fingers are careful, he reminds himself he's holding onto his reason of being, his kryptonite, the atoms of sunlight itself. He feels his stomach flip, and the soft warmth that begins to exude from the side of his chest tells him that if she peeked underneath his shirt, she'd bear witness to the physical embodiment of his sacred vow. "It threw me off guard, yes. But only because i've been keeping it myself for far too long, cutie," he smiles, still ever so gentle as his thumb caresses the smooth of her cheek.

"I’ve known that i have wanted to marry you for years now," and while she'll take that as a mere dramatisation (Rafayel being Rafayel), he means that as literally as it gets. Only he is well versed with the pain, humiliation and fear that comes with the wait and longing, and for a moment, he's almost grateful that she doesn't know. He doesn't want her to be burdened with such hardship-filled emotions, so he'll carry it for the both of them.

"You won't be in white - maybe a light shade of blue. I'll obviously wear the best suit ever to be worn. We'll have a ceremony by the beach," he's speaking straight from the vision he's replayed in his mind countless of times, the smile on his face unconsciously growing as he mindlessly twirls a piece of her hair. "You'll have your hair down, and it'll probably get caught in the sea breeze - but it just makes sense to me."

"and," he pauses for a moment, hesitating before he continues. "We'll say our vows twice. One for everyone to bear witness to, and one just for you and me." A vow so sacred and intimate, Rafayel refuses to share with the world. He refuses to taint it even a little bit, it should simply be meant only for his lover and him, and his pure everlasting love for her.

"Oh," he has rendered her speechless, and now it's Rafayel's turn to be nervous, fearing he has made her uncomfortable. Hiding the embarrassment behind a scoff, he pulls away with a pout. "Y-You were the one who brought it up first!" Immediately, she shakes her head and pulls him back into her chest and Rafayel doesn't fight his body when it relaxes immediately. "I was just a little surprised, Raf - in a good way. Didn't think you would've had all these little details in mind already." Her voice mirrors his previously gentle one, and Rafayel feels his eyes flutter shut, coaxed by her fingers running through his hair.

She hesitates, but braves herself to say it. time and again, once peeling off his layers, she's beared witness to his endless courage so why not walk in his footsteps? "I do hope we get married." Her voice is quieter, but it speaks volumes to him. He feels a lump form in his throat at the emotions that begin to overflow within him. He reaches out to catch onto her hand that's combing through his hair and brings it to his chest in attempts to quell the tears that threaten to form behind his closed lids.

Shakily, his lips whisper against her knuckles, "In my mind, we already are."

In his world, they already were. How lucky is he to get married to her, again and again, and again.

God, he'd do it a million times over.

[blacktabbygames]

Slay the Princess Concept Art

We shared a bunch of concept art on Twitter today. Sharing it here, too, where you can find it all in one post. Post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution (or just play the game already if you haven't 😉)

Going to start with the first piece of concept art Abby drew for the game.

In the earliest stages of development, we toyed around with the concept of there being multiple "end game" forms of the Princess.

The initial outline, rather than being tied together by an overarching metanarrative, structured a full playthrough as a 5-6 chapter long, self-contained journey down a single route, determined by your decisions in chapter 1. Here's an alternative late-game form:

The idea of deviating end-game forms didn't lost for very long, though. As we explored the game's themes more deeply, it made the most sense for there to be a singular "true" form.

If your reality is shaped by subjectivity and perception, then the "truth" has to be what's left when that subjectivity is swept away. the Shifting Mound's final design feels like that initial truth for the Princess, though there's also another truth if you push back against her and press on into the final cabin.

We really liked this "void" design, and I played around with the idea of it being an intermediary to the final form. The "void" Princess would be what you saw upon encountering the final Princess without understanding your own truth, but once you had that understanding, you would see her as the Shifting Mound, as depicted in the game.

That gave way to the intermediary design of the SM being a sea of disembodied limbs, and we also took parts of both designs and incorporated them into the protagonist (particularly the wings.) You can see the eyes and feathers for this void form in the ending card of the original trailer below:

You can see extremely early concept art for the spectre (top), nightmare (top-right), stranger (left), beast (bottom) and ??? (right) as well!

The eyes became a motif in the Nightmare route (Paranoid's manifestation of the fear of being watched), but I also like to think of them as a part of The Long Quiet's truth. You are space and emptiness, but you're also that which observes those things, and it's your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

Anyways, on the note of the original original concepts for the game, the Princess was initially going to remain human for several loops before taking on more monstrous forms. Some concepts of that are below. Had to get Abby to tone down some of the more horrifically cartoonish designs because they creeped me out and I didn't want to romance them in a video game.

We had to hold our cards close to our chest in the non-metanarrative early drafts, which is part of why, even in the first demo, the cabin doesn't really change much in chapter 2. More room to subtly play with the concept of transformation over time.

There were a lot of reasons we moved in a different direction for the full release. The branching was unmanageably large to write, and the game felt like a slog to write.

Using an overarching narrative as a framing mechanism in the final version gave us a lot more freedom to explore wildly divergent ideas within routes while still driving the player towards the originally planned finale.

Anyways, now we've got some concept art for individual princesses. There's a lot more than this lying around somewhere, but it's all in sketchbooks, and we'll probably wait until we make an art book to show it off.

First is the tower, who really didn't change much at all. (She got a little thicker, I guess. All of the Princesses did)

Not a lot to say about her, other than the fact that we knew we wanted a set piece where she gets so big that the trees and cabin orbit around her.

The stranger went through many many redesigns over the course of development. Here, she was a "princess skin" filled with a hive of sentient bugs. The script wasn't working for me, though, so instead she became a peak behind the curtains without the necessary context to know her.

A lot of people ask how these earlier drafts of the Stranger route would have played out, and the answer is I can't tell you, because I couldn't figure out something worth writing.

The writing process for individual routes didn't really start with outlines or plot beats. Rather, the routes started from a theme and a relationship dynamic, and I organically found their outcomes by exploring actions within those themes, and then seeing if those passed Abby's editor brain.

Neither of us found actions we wanted to explore with those versions of the Stranger, at least actions that weren't a beat-by-beat retelling of chapter 1, which contained way too much variation to put on a single chapter 2 route.

If each princess examines a relationship formed by perception and first impressions, the Stranger examines one that's fundamentally unknowable. One where you've seen too much, too quickly.

An insect hive-mind pretending to be a person seemed like a good starting point, but it was too difficult to write any interactions that didn't immediately feel knowable, if still strange. So the final version of the Stranger was designed in such a way where her unknowability makes interacting with her on a human level fundamentally impossible, and you don't get to have a real conversation with her unless you satisfy extremely specific criteria.

Anyways next up is the razor's final form. We decided she needed more swords.

Hearts became an accidental motif very quickly in the development process, too. (The fact that it is only strikes to the heart that fell her in the demo was accidental, but it felt poetic so we extended it to the rest of the game.)

So on top of adding more swords, we made her heart visible. This is something we did with the fury as well, as a way of showing their emotional (and physical) vulnerability.

Here's an early version of the Adversary and what would eventually become the Eye of the Needle, back when she was still called the Fury. Originally her hair was going to be fire (as seen on the right), but it didn't feel right in its execution.

She's hit the gym since this concept art. Good for her :)

And we're going to end with the Beast, who at this point was called the Adversary. I think this was before the Witch was added? The Beast was originally designed to be a Questing Beast who lurked in the shadows, where you'd only see glimpses of her, and where each glimpse would make her appear to be a different animal. This was too difficult to execute, though we gave her a more chimera-like appearance in the final game.

This design was from when we still has the Voice of the Obsessed, and the route was going to be a more feral mirror of what eventually became the Adversary, but it felt too thematically similar while being less interesting, so we moved in the direction of making the Beast about consumption as a form of love.

Anyways, that's all we've got for you right now. Hope this was fun!

[auroralwriting]

poker face

spencer reid x fem!bau!reader

spencer and you go to the casino to find the unsub. you think he looks pretty hot playing poker.

word count: 2.0k

warnings: making out, gambling, poker face spencer aghhh

"Forensics got a fingerprint match on the last victim. Eddie Langdon. We're looking into him." You said as you walked back into the office that held some of your team members.

Hotch came in behind you, "Hey, any luck?" Emily asked.

"No, they don't want to allocate agency funds for the buy-in. I'm still working on it." Hotch replied, looking down to his phone as he got back on another call.

Rossi chuckled, "Well, I can't imagine why not. We're only asking for fifty thousand bucks of taxpayer money so that FBI agents can play Texas hold 'em."

Emily eyed Rossi, "Hey, what about you?"

"What about me? What?"

"You could stake us the buy-in." Emily smirked.

Spencer sat down next to you, "Yeah, you're a best-selling author."

You nodded enthusiastically, "Don't forget a best-selling author and longtime FBI agent. You could loan us the money, or something."

"No," Rossi shook his head.

"Why not?" Emily frowned.

"One, it's against regulations, and I'd like to hold on to this job for a little while longer." Rossi began.

Under your breath, you muttered, "It's just a little violation, 's all."

Rossi just rolled his eyes at your comment. "And two, I prefer to spend my money on actual things, like single-malt scotch, a fine cigar, beautiful artwork."

"Poker chips are things!" JJ replied quickly with a smile.

Rossi just scoffed as Spencer spoke up again. "Maybe just think of it as like a new experience. I mean, at your age, how often does that happen?" Oh, no he didn't.

"At my what?" Rossi slowly turned his head to Spencer who just gulped and awkwardly looked away.

"Rossi, this may be our only chance to get this guy." You said slowly. "They government isn't going to give us the money. You're our only way to catch this killer. Please?" You paused for a moment. "And if it helps, you can just write a new book to get some more cha-ching."

Rossi sighed, "All right, fine. But I'm ignoring that last comment. I'm a decent poker player, but I can't promise that I can stay in the game long enough to--"

"You know what?" Emily interrupted. "I bet you're a great poker player, but what if we sent in Reid?"

"I am banned from casinos in Las Vegas, Laughlin, and Parump because of my card-counting ability." Spencer commented as if it was the most casual thing in the whole world.

You raised your hand slightly, "Why did I not know this sooner?"

"Look, I know I'm not a genius like the boy wonder here, but poker is not Blackjack." Rossi argued. "It's about bluffing, reading human nature, head games. It's not math."

That's when Spencer stood up, "That's not entirely accurate. There actually is a mathematical equation for knowing when to raise and when to fold. If P represents the size of the pot at the time of play, then P times N minus one, with N representing the estimated number of players in the final round of betting--"

"Okay! Fine, I surrender!" Rossi cut Spencer off quickly. "Just try not to lose all my money. Actually, you know what?" Rossi quickly spoke your name. "Take her with you, I don't want you losing all my money and if she needs to interrupt the game, then so be it."

Your eyes widened, "Rossi, I've never stepped foot into a casino in my life."

"You'll be fine!" Rossi waved it off as Spencer gave you a comforting look.

Oh, this was not what you expected at all.

Spencer and you had to get checked by security with the handheld metal detectors. Yours didn't go off, but Spencer's did. He played it off as just a pen. Thank god they accepted that.

The two of you walked in. For someone who stared at dead bodies and killers all day, this was the most nerve wracking thing you'd experienced in a while. It also didn't help that Hotch decided you and Spencer were to play a couple when you had such a big crush on him.

"Hey," Spencer muttered, "It's okay."

"Just nervous," You replied under your breath. The two of you made your way to the bar. Spencer got himself a drink, and you got some champagne. "Is it really just math?"

Spencer nodded, "Math, and a little bit of luck."

The moment you felt Spencer take your hand, you tried to pull away. "Spencer, what about germs--"

"I don't mind your germs, you're my friend. Plus, we have a part to play, remember?" Spencer muttered, locking his fingers between yours. Your heart pounded as you did the same.

"I'll observe as you play," You muttered, remembering the list of things you needed to look for to find the unsub. "I know you don't need it, but good luck."

Spencer smiled at you, the comment being just so sweet and innocent. "Thank you." You looked so nervous, so out of place. It made Spencer notice you more.

Spencer had taken a seat at a table, which you stood behind him, leaning over his shoulder. Your hands rested on the back of the chair. So far, no one caught your eye, until one man at another table did. Casually, you poked Spencer and he caught onto your stare.

"You know, would it be all right if I sat at table two instead of four? I have a pre-glaucoma condition and the light's kind of bothering my eyes." Spencer called over the employee, who took him to the desired table.

The men didn't just eye Spencer as he sat down, you noticed they eyed you too. Defensively, you wrapped your arms around Spencer's neck from behind. "Ah, I'm calling." One of the men said."

"I'll raise." One guy said. You stared at him, noticing his red eyes. Weird. "Eight thousand."

"Eight thousand.. That's, uh, fifty-six months wages for the average person in Bangladesh." Spencer commented casually. In reply, you giggled and played with some of hair, pushing it out of his face. Spencer hoped you didn't feel his face turn hot under your fingers. "Uh, kind of makes you think, doesn't it?"

"Hey, it's eight thou to you." One guy remarked. "Now, are you in or are you out?"

Spencer sighed, "I.. am in. And I raise."

"Three raise? That's too rich for my blood." The guy sighed. One man, the one who raised before Spencer, bored holes into him.

"Are you in, sir?" Spencer asked.

"I'll call."

"Call?"

Spencer flipped his cards, "Straight."

Based on everyone's reactions and Spencer's coy face, straight was a very good thing. Playing the act, you kissed Spencer's forehead and squealed lightly, deciding to stroke his cheek for a moment. "A gut shot straight draw? Are you kidding me?"

"That is just-- that is nuts."

It was no wonder Spencer was banned from casinos. Spencer's poker face was good. He simply just covered his mouth after a moment and stared, watching everyone's reactions. His hand slowly ran down to his chin, and in that moment, it did it for you. Sure, Spencer was your cute little nerd, but he'd never been so hot to you.

You noticed next to the man who was staring, he had an eight ball keychain. "Hey, mind if I look at this?" You asked, reaching for it.

The man was quick to grab your hand hard. Spencer jumped into action, pulling you from him.

"Hey. What's the problem, sir?" An employee asked.

"She's reaching for my chips!"

"I'm not even in the game," You remarked.

The employee grabbed your arms, "You need to come with me."

If Spencer's eyes could've gotten any wider, they would've popped out of his head. "Hey! Don't manhandle her! She can walk, let go!" Spencer ripped the mans arms off of you and pulled you into his chest. "Come on, love. Let's just go."

Spencer's words caused your chest to tingle as he guided you away. You watched as he clicked the call-device, it lit up red. The look on the mans face, your unsub, was clear. He knew.

You met up with the team as you were lead out the doors, "They're FBI agents," Hotch informed the guard.

"There he goes, plaid shirt, baseball hat." Spencer pointed.

After searching the whole casino, the unsub made a break for it. His name was Curtis Banks. You and Spencer were sent to his house to see if he was there. After a quick search, it was clear he wasn't there.

"Hey Hotch, he isn't here. There's a foreclosure sign in the lawn." You informed your chief.

"All right, you and Reid stay there in case he comes back." Hotch hung up the phone.

You shrugged to Spencer, "And we wait."

After a beat of silence, Spencer turned to you. "At the casino, you couldn't keep your hands off of me after I won." Spencer said out of nowhere. "Your physical proximity was close, you frequently stared at me--"

"I was playing my part," You argued.

"Yeah, too well." Spencer pointed out. "Were you checking me out?"

Heat rose to your cheeks, "No. Why would I do that?"

"Look at me and say it," Spencer demanded, but his tone wasn't harsh. It was simply just firm. "You won't look at me."

Slowly, you turned to look at Spencer, "I wasn't checking you out."

"You can't look me in the eyes. You've never not looked me in the eyes." Spencer continued.

"Stop profiling me," You tried to end the discussion. It was clear Spencer had caught you. You weren't interested in being turned down, especially when you were in some sort of steak-out with the genius.

Spencer frowned, "I'm not profiling you. I'm just telling you as it is."

"That's what profiling is," You countered. "We don't need to have this conversation. Was I checking you out? Yes, I was. Is that what you wanted me to say? That you looked so damn hot winning thousands of dollars with your best poker face while you let me all over you?"

Spencer said your name, but you kept rambling. It took him grabbing your chin and forcing your face closer to his to make you stop. "You think I'm hot?"

"Yeah," You stuttered. "Yeah, I do."

Slowly, Spencer trailed his finger over your bottom lip. "I always thought you were the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen."

"Where's this confidence coming from?" You asked.

Spencer shrugged, "Gamblers frequently experience a phenomenon called the 'winning high,' it releases dopamine and adrenaline, making gamblers do riskier things than they'd normally do."

"You gonna use that high to kiss me?" Your voice was a mere mutter. Your lips were just grazing Spencers.

"Is that what you want?" Spencer lowly asked.

"What do you think?" You retorted.

Spencer's lips slammed onto your own, harder than you expected. His large hand had the back of your neck, and he pulled you impossibly closer. It was hot, just how you wanted it. Flimsily, Spencer reached to the bottom of his seat to scoot it back. His hands went to your hips, guiding you to move across the seats to his lap.

"You know, we're still on the lookout." You mumbled, pressing another kiss to the genius's lips.

"They haven't called us yet." Spencer challenged, hand running down your back to your waist.

Slowly, Spencer's hand began to creep up your shirt, just to your navel-level. His kisses descended to your neck, pressing opened mouth, warm kisses to your skin.

"Spence," You whined, grabbing his hair to push him closer. He sighed in reply.

You both jolted when your phone began to ring. You grabbed it quickly, "What?"

"Ooh, someone's frisky." Derek teased over the phone. "We got the guy. You two are all good to head back."

"Thanks, Morgan. See you back there." You hung up the phone, tossing it back to to your seat. "Looks like we have to wrap this up."

Spencer smirked, "We fly back in the morning. We'll find some time soon."

Spencer's words weren't a tease, they were a promise.

[hcneymooners]

౨ৎ kiss me, and you will see how important i am.

ex-wives!pazzi au. men and minors dni.

synopsis: nothing brings together two people like their child's birthday party and the subsequent emotional breakdown.

cw: angst, emotional hurt/comfort, happy ending though open, mentions of infidelity (assumed, but nothing occurred), i would say p is slightly toxic but i really think it's just two adults being complex human beings and making mistakes.

notes: you all were so lovely and kind to me following my pazzi debut. i wanted to post this because i've been sitting on it for a while. i love people who still love each other despite the distance. i hope you enjoy. as always feel free to come into my inbox. i love speaking to you. love you.

“have you not told your mother that we’re separated?”

paige looks up to find her ex-wife standing above her, staring her down in all of her quiet, effortless radiance. azzi looks like the american dream: sun-bronzed and golden, long-legged, with perfect, plump, dark pink lips. she’s wrapped in a mid-thigh dress the color of a late spring bloom—pale lilac, delicate but striking. the fabric spirals down the curves of her waist and hips, cinched in places by thin rings of fringe that sway as she shifts her weight. her curls are slicked back into a bun that blooms at the crown of her head, petals of hair shaped to align with the spring showers theme of the party.

paige hums low in her throat, fingers brushing the hem of azzi’s dress. “you look good, ma.”

azzi swats her hand away without hesitation, leveling her with a look—sharp, unimpressed. paige bites back a grin.

“thought of me when you got dressed?”

azzi’s brow furrows until realization flickers across her face. the purple. paige’s color. her lips part on a scoff, irritation slipping through in a low noise before she schools her features into a tight smile.

“no, i was not. i wasn’t thinking of you at all, actually," she says, her voice light, deceptively sweet. "not until your charming mother came up to me and said she was so glad to see me. oh, but that’s not all.”

paige arches a brow, intrigued, and reaches out to pull azzi closer by the waist, nudging her forward. “no?”

“no.” azzi lets out a breath, clutching the large present perched along her hip. the wrapping paper is a particular shade of green, the birthday girl’s favorite. “then she tells me she understands my brand partnerships have been monopolizing my time, which is why she hasn’t seen me with you in quite some time.”

paige leans back against her seat, stretching her legs out lazily. “i’m not seeing the problem, az.”

azzi stiffens. “you’re not—!” she cuts herself off, inhaling sharply through her nose, shoulders rising and falling as she tries to steady herself. “do you not understand how that makes me look?”

“like a busy wife?” paige quips, knowing full well she’s fanning the flames.

azzi’s eyes flash, but her voice is measured when she speaks again. “like a neglectful mother.”

that sobers paige instantly. she sits up, studying azzi’s face, the tension lining her features. “did she say that?”

“it’s implied, paige.” azzi shifts the present under her arm, pressing her fingers into the wrapped edges. “you’re always bringing our daughter around, always having fun with her. and then i take her for holidays, and it’s like—wow, azzi makes no effort to be there in any other way.” her throat tightens, and she shakes her head. “i mean, come on. i know you’re punishing me for leaving you, but can you at least give me this?”

paige’s tongue flicks out, pale pink swiping over her lower lip, brow knitting together. punishing azzi was never something she wanted to do. but before she can find the right words, a small blur of brown crashes into azzi’s legs, nearly sending her toppling over.

“mommy!”

azzi folds like a house of cards, collapsing to her knees in the grass without a care for her dress. she gathers their daughter into her arms, pulling her in so tightly it’s as if she’s afraid to let go.

“my mia,” azzi murmurs, voice low and thick with emotion. “happy birthday, baby.”

mia beams, the gap in her teeth dark and small, laughter bubbling up as she buries her face in her mother’s neck. it’s almost uncanny how much she looks like azzi. the same wide, joyful smile. the same burst of blush that rises along their cheeks when they’re excited. even the same curls, though looser—tumbling around the glittering spires of her birthday tiara.

azzi cradles mia’s face, thumbs stroking the plush of her cheeks. she fusses over her, straightening the sequined sage-green tutu and retying the laces of her chunky mini sneakers, her fingers gentle and practiced. paige knows it's a chance for her to collect herself. azzi hates crying in front of other people.

“mommy, i’ve been waiting for you! you weren't at home!”

“i’m sorry, baby. there was traffic,” azzi croaks, her voice betraying her. her hand flies to her throat—her tell, the reflex she always has when she’s trying not to cry. “but mommy sped a little bit. she just couldn’t wait to see her favorite girl.”

mia frowns. “you should be careful. mama says we shouldn’t go too fast, or we can get hurt.”

azzi exhales a quiet laugh, smoothing a hand down mia’s back. “yeah,” she whispers. “mama’s right.

paige clenches her jaw, something bitter and painful lodging itself deep in her ribs. she feels so sick at the idea that anyone could believe azzi doesn’t love their girl, this spitting image of her—maybe the only thing of azzi that she has left. she watches them—azzi, kneeling in the grass—and stands, her drink dangling dangerously from her hand, going to join the two. but then azzi stands and is gone—dragged away by mia’s small hand and even smaller strength.

she watches as azzi jogs along behind her, her heels puncturing the earth like glass through a lung. her hair bounces, streaked from the sun, and her body looks as though it’s trying to vibrate out of itself, her love so evident that it struggles to leave her and get to the child in front of her.

the light catches on the strands of her hair, identical to mia's who is bouncing with each hurried step.

and it’s so obvious—the way she moves, the way her whole body seems to vibrate with affection, her love so intense it barely fits inside her. it pours out of her like light, desperate to reach the child in front of her.

paige swallows hard.

𓃹

paige finds azzi in the kitchen, her hands braced on the countertop before they come up to wipe her face.

“why are you crying, mama? c’mere.”

azzi exhales sharply, shaking her head. “please don’t.”

paige doesn’t listen. she steps forward, hands curling around azzi’s waist, gentle but firm. azzi lets herself be held for a second. just a second. then she presses her hands against paige’s chest and cuts her off. she wraps her arms around herself as if she’s attempting to recreate the warmth.

paige sighs. “you mad at me?”

azzi laughs, quiet and humorless. “yeah, p, a little. there’s a point at which i can no longer take being ignored by my wife.”

the nickname just slips out. it’s muscle memory.

paige stills. “azzi.”

azzi tilts her head, searching her face. “i feel like—it’s just. you’ve only ever wanted me when you didn’t have me,” she murmurs. “and my whole life, i’ve been right there.”

paige opens her mouth, then closes it. she looks away, rubbing a hand over her jaw. “you know that ain’t true.”

“and then we got married, and i thought this would be it. we’d be happy and okay. but then—i don’t know. you were less my wife and more the most famous woman i knew saying hello from my ipad.”

paige’s eyes lower, growing dead and dark. azzi watches her for a long moment, recognizes the signs of her checking out, then sighs. “paige. why haven’t you told anyone we’re separated?”

paige blinks at her, called back into the present, and then lets out a short, incredulous breath. “azzi, you can’t be serious. i don’t want this.”

azzi’s jaw clenches. her hands shake as she turns away, pressing her palms to the counter again. the position emphasizes the toned silhouette of her arms.

paige steps closer, voice softer now. “i don’t want this.”

azzi swallows hard, staring at the marble beneath her hands. “i’m tired, p,” she says quietly. “i just want to wake up and love you and know you love me back. i just want to go on my walk and come back to find you there. i want to be with mia all the time. i want you to start talking to me.” her throat tightens. “but i’m never going to get that, am i? maybe it’s just too much to ask.”

paige exhales sharply, jaw tightening. “azzi—baby, you have to know that i didn’t step out on you. i wasn’t with anyone else. i wasn't. i just got caught up in the pressure and—”

“i know,” azzi says, finally looking at her. “i know, p, everything i do, i always understand. i always understood. but honestly, infidelity would have been better than the things i was feeling.

paige runs a hand over her face, lets out a rough laugh. “like what?”

“endless loneliness that was never going to stop.” paige remains quiet, her teeth digging into her bottom lip until it splits. “then we did ivf and had mia, and for a moment i was okay. i was better. i was good.”

“i couldn’t complain,” azzi says. “i didn’t.”

paige shakes her head, muttering something under her breath. “man, you act like i’m tryna hurt you.”

azzi closes her eyes. “it’s not like that.”

paige doesn’t know what to do with her hands. she shifts her weight like she wants to argue, but azzi doesn’t give her the chance.

“the fact that it’s not intentional is what makes it hurt so much,” azzi says after a moment. “that’s why i kept letting it go. it’s so easy to forgive you.” her mouth twists into a pained smile. “despite your mistakes, you’re not a malicious person.”

paige presses her lips together, her fingers twitching at her sides. “azzi, please—”

azzi shakes her head again, this time slower, more deliberate. “you don’t mean to hurt me, and so i’m still here. it’s my fault, really. no one is asking me to stand in the wreckage of the life i can’t seem to walk away from. that i still want.”

paige swallows hard, her throat bobbing. she wants to reach out, to pull azzi close, but she doesn’t. for the first time in her life, she doesn’t know how to reach her. azzi breaks the silence, wiping underneath her eyes with a bit of paper towel.

“come one. it’ll be time for presents soon.”

paige watches her walk away for the millionth time, watches how her back ripples with the flex of her muscles. in the following silence, she only thinks of azzi’s eyes and how dark they are. just like mia’s.

𓃹

the night is a welcome change. the house is quieter, the soft hum of the city bleeding in through the balcony doors. the partygoers have gone, goody bags in hand and heads lolling sleepily along their parents’s shoulders. mia herself had been babbling nonsensically, her hand tight around her brand-new barbie doll. paige had it specifically made to look like her mommy.

it was mia’s favorite present of the day. it made azzi cry for the second time that afternoon.

inside, the house is still cluttered with evidence of a child’s birthday well celebrated, a day well lived. paper plates are stacked on the counter, ribbons forgotten on the floor, the faint scent of frosting lingering in the air. paige tosses a few cups into the trash and wipes down the counter before realizing azzi isn’t beside her anymore.

she roams the halls, peeking into rooms until she finds her on the balcony just outside of paige’s childhood bedroom, leaning against the railing, a thin, silver vape pinched between her fingers. the glow of it flares as she takes a slow inhale, her body unmoving except for the way her shoulders rise and fall.

paige frowns. “since when do you smoke?”

azzi exhales, a thin stream of vapor curling into the night. it smells a bit too sweet, a few inches too far from the cherry it aims to evoke. it’s clearly not hers.

“since i shattered my knee and my dreams and became my top athlete wife’s accessory?” her voice is light, but there’s a sharp edge beneath it. “i’m kidding. only recently. i don’t do it all the time, though, and never around mia.”

she shifts and paige steps closer, leaning against the railing beside her and sliding her hands into the pockets of her black sweatpants.

“truth be told, i hate how it makes me feel.”

“so why are you doing it?”

azzi huffs out a laugh, breathless, humorless. she tilts her head back and blinks up at the sky like she’s searching for something. “feels better than this.”

that’s when paige sees it. the sheen in azzi’s eyes, the way her lashes are clumped together, the tiny tremor in her fingers. she’s been crying again.

paige exhales, something tight wrapping around her ribs. without thinking, she reaches out and takes the vape from azzi’s hand, flicking it off and setting it on the balcony ledge. azzi doesn’t stop her.

“you’re such a crybaby,” paige mutters, but it comes out soft, almost affectionate. she turns, crowding azzi’s space just enough. “i don’t know why you don’t talk to me—”

“i don’t want to bother you,” azzi says, and her voice is incredibly small.

azzi looks at her then, really looks at her. for a second, it feels like the air between them shifts, something raw and fragile opening up. paige can feel her pulse in her throat, a nervous tremor she isn’t used to.

azzi reaches up, slow and deliberate, and cradles paige’s face in her hands. her thumbs skim the sharp edges of her jaw, her touch featherlight but grounding. paige exhales, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. when she opens them again, azzi is watching her with something so deep it makes her ache.

“you know i’m so proud of you, right?” azzi whispers. “regardless.”

paige lets out a breath, something falling away miles down inside of her. she nods, just barely, and then—because she can’t help herself—she presses their foreheads together.

“you know that i love you, right?” paige says, voice rough. “for fucking real, az. you’re it for me.”

azzi closes her eyes, and when she breathes in, paige breathes with her. she doesn’t say anything, but her hands stay where they are, holding paige steady like she’s afraid to let go. her grip tightens, and then she goes to pull away but paige stills her with a hand around her wrist. azzi is cooperative with her touch this time, allowing paige to guide her back into the bedroom.

she doesn’t ask any questions when paige pulls her to the bed, pushing her down until she’s on her side. her head is heavy, afflicted with the buzz of nicotine, and she stays silent as her wife climbs in beside her. the two of them are two crescent moons made of flesh, mirroring one another in their grief and desires. paige presses their foreheads together once again and azzi focuses on the feeling of her warm skin, the hard bone.

she breathes out and paige breathes in as if to inhale her. azzi’s breath smells like cherry—real cherry.

“i hate it when things change,” azzi says, and her voice is strained with emotion.

“you could never make a decision,” paige teases, and azzi laughs wetly.

silence, then,

“p?”

“hmm?”

“i don’t want this either.”

paige pulls her closer, lifts one of her legs so that her dress slides up, and reveals the soft meat of her thigh. she settles azzi’s legs on top of hers, ensuring that they’re closer together.

“i know, ma. that’s what i’ve been trying to tell you.”

azzi’s buzz continues, drifting gently over her limbs until they’re heavy; her thoughts hazy around the edges. the world feels softer somehow; the pain is less jagged. she can feel every point where her body meets paige's—hip to hip, chest to chest, the tangle of their legs a familiar comfort she's been starving for.

the familiar scent of azzi’s perfume—something floral, threaded with dry vanilla, and subtle—fills paige's lungs. it's the same perfume paige had bought her for their fifth anniversary, the one azzi had worn every day since, even after she'd left.

"where you staying at?" paige asks, her voice low and rough against azzi's ear.

"the marriott downtown," azzi murmurs, her fingertips tracing idle patterns on the cotton of paige's shirt. "just until i figure things out."

paige makes a noise in the back of her throat, disapproving. "nah, i don’t like that. don't want you living out of suitcases in some hotel. and marriotts are very unsafe, you know. read an article that said they have the highest break-in rates of any hotel franchise.”

“and where was this article from?” azzi asked, her voice thick with amusement.

“girl, don’t even worry about it.” her hand travels up azzi's spine, warm and steady. azzi presses back into them, her body contorting in its search for comfort. "just come back home to me, mama. i'll sleep on the couch if you want, but at least i'll know you're safe."

"safe," azzi repeats, a small, broken laugh escaping her. "as if that's ever been the issue with us."

"it's always been the issue," paige counters, her fingers now threading through the loose curls at the nape of azzi's neck, careful not to disturb her bun. "you not feeling safe enough to tell me when i'm fucking up."

the honesty surprises them both. azzi shifts, propping herself up on an elbow to look at paige's face. in the dim light filtering in from the balcony, her features are soft, open in a way azzi hasn't seen in months.

"maybe we could try therapy," paige suggests, the words so deeply obvious of their difficulty.

azzi's eyes widen slightly. "you'd do that?"

"for you? for us?" paige's throat works as she swallows. "yeah. i would."

azzi leans in, drawn by something familiar and inevitable between them. their lips meet, soft and hesitant at first, then with growing urgency. it's not frantic, not desperate, but deep and prying. when they touch like this—in any capacity really—their lives feel as though they are their most sustainable.

paige's hands drift to azzi's waist, holding her close as if afraid she might evaporate. they're trying to get closer, always closer, as if the mere millimeters of space between them are too much to bear. azzi shifts until she's practically melted into paige, their bodies remembering each other in the dark.

they are teenagers again, rediscovering that the other feels the same, trying to live inside of each other.

when they break apart, azzi's lips are kiss-swollen and so dark, all the blood sucked to the surface. her eyes are heavy-lidded from more than just her high.

"i never signed the papers," she confesses, voice barely above a whisper.

paige stares at her for a moment before a genuine laugh bubbles up from her chest. "you really can't make a decision to save your life, can you?"

"shut up," azzi mumbles, burying her face in paige's neck, but there's no heat behind it. she loops a hand through paige’s hair, taking in the spill of gold across her palm. "i kept finding reasons to put it off."

"what kinda reasons?" paige asks, her hand sliding beneath the hem of azzi's dress to rest on the warm skin of her thigh, the touch reverent and possessive all at once.

"i don’t know. um, mia's birthday was coming up. then it was our anniversary. then it was…" she trails off, her voice dropping even lower. "then it was because every time i went to sign, i couldn't—i couldn’t remember why i was leaving in the first place."

the admission hangs in the air between them, heavy with implication. paige's hand stills on azzi's skin.

"you still love me," paige says, not a question but a revelation.

"that was never the problem," azzi replies, the words muffled against paige's collarbone. "loving you is like breathing. i don't know how to stop, and i’d die if i did."

paige's arms tighten around her. they still aren’t looking at each other. "then don't. come home, az. we'll figure the rest out."

"it's not that simple—"

"it is. it could be," paige insists, but her voice is gentler now. "i know i fucked up. i know i let my career become everything. but i swear to god, az, i'm done with that shit. nothing's worth losing you. nothing."

azzi lifts her head, her gaze meeting paige's in the semi-darkness. the proximity has left her thoughts fluid, boundaries blurred, making it easier to say what she's been holding back. "hope is a dangerous thing, p, and you’re giving it to me.”

“i know," paige agrees, her thumb brushing over azzi's bottom lip. "but what's the alternative? living half a life? watching mia grow up in two different homes when we both know that ain't what we want?"

azzi closes her eyes, letting the weight of paige's words wash over her. when she opens them again, there's a quiet determination there, fragile but present.

"i'll consider coming home," she says finally, her practicality still firm despite her emotional exhaustion. "but we have to go to therapy, and you have to try. no excuses."

relief floods paige's face, so naked and earnest that it makes azzi's heart clench. "yes, yes, okay," she whispers, pressing her forehead to azzi's. "thank you, baby.”

"you don’t have to thank me," azzi replies, playing nonchalantly but there's a softness to her words that takes away the sting. her hand comes up to rest against paige's jaw, her thumb brushing over the bone. “i want—i miss you so much. it hurts sometimes, aches right inside of my ribs. i haven't been able to sleep without you.”

"i'm right here," paige murmurs against her temple. "i'm always gonna be right here, waiting for you."

they lie there in the quiet, bodies intertwined, the world spinning just beyond the balcony doors. neither speaks for a long time, content to exist in this fragile moment. azzi closes her eyes, her head heavy on paige's chest, rising and falling with each breath. the buzz is fading, reality seeping back in, but she holds onto this feeling—hopes that she will get to feel it again.

she thinks of mia, pictures their baby girl sleeping with her mouth slack and none the wiser to the complexities of loving someone else. she hopes she never finds out.

"you're it for me, az," paige murmurs into her hair, the words a quiet repetition from earlier. "always have been."

azzi doesn't respond for a moment, but her fingers tighten in paige's shirt, holding on as if to say: i know. me too.

"i know," azzi says, out loud this time. "you’re it for me too. i mean, you're paige. we go together. you're everything. i don’t think there was ever anyone else for me."

paige's heart clenches, a painful pulse in her chest. she smooths a hand down azzi’s side.

her heart pumps, thumps out a message.

azzi’s heart thumps back.

© hcneymooners.

[endofthelinegang]

the patriot

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠ˏˋ°•*⁀➷  john walker x fem!reader

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲ˏˋ°•*⁀➷  #90 from the prompt list "If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?" 

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬ˏˋ°•*⁀➷  bad words 

use this magical link here to find a number and give me a request for ANY marvel character :)

The op was supposed to be clean.

Get in, get the files, don’t get blown up. Real simple. Barely an inconvenience. Except for the part where every camera system in the building was running on spaghetti code and Cold War duct tape. Except for the part where John Walker—your Thunderbolt teammate, reluctant handler, and possibly a human caffeine tablet in a tactical vest—was stuck in the same room with you, trying to keep you from pushing every glowing button just to see what they did. And especially the part where Valentina Allegra de Fontaine called you two specifically instead of anyone else on the team to do the most absurd thing imaginable mid-mission.

“Don’t touch that,” John barked, not looking up from his datapad. He’d said it four times now. He was practically hitting you in the head with his elbow from how close he was standing to make sure you hadn’t gotten bored and decided to just mess around with something. 

You hovered your finger over the blinking red control switch labeled COOLANT OVERRIDE.  “You don’t even know what this does.” 

“I don’t need to,” he muttered, thumbing through corrupted files. “I know you, and if you touch it, it’s gonna end with us knee-deep in radioactive soup or setting off an old Soviet alarm that wakes up a bear.”

You dropped your hand. “One time, Walker. I trigger one bear one time and suddenly I can’t have a little fun anymore?” In all fairness to which you did not bring up was that it had not just been you who had done it. It was actually you and Yelena discussing what the little symbols meant, she thought bear and you thought maybe a small house dog. You were wrong, and no one died. 

He gave you a look. “You shouldn’t name the bear, either.” You smiled at him and just remembered the look on his face when he walked in to see a bear three times the usual size staring him down. He was trying to kill it, and you were considering maybe keeping it as a pet, 

“Dmitri had a soul.”

He sighed like he’d been aged by this job, by you, by everything. You tapped the tops of your boots on the floor taking your hands away from the buttons you looked up at John. He was reading really intently, his thumb tapping off the back of the device creating the tiniest little noise when the hard piece of his tactical glove hit. Before he could notice you were studying him the comms crackled.

“Hey, so, uh…” It was Val. The two of you immediately made eye contact and listened in. The two of you could tell from her little “uh” that she had been on the phone all day thus far. Which was never good. “We’ve got a situation.”

You and John exchanged a look. Neither of you wanted to talk first so you pointed a finger at him before he shook his head and nudged you with his boot. “What kind of situation?” you asked slowly.

“The kind where CNN’s en route, the press already knows you’re in-country, and Walker’s last mission made him trend for destroying national land with a motorcycle  instead of the enemy. We need positive coverage. Like, immediately.” 

You blinked. He was throwing his hands around ready to respond to her and have a repeat conversation about how he did not know it was national land and that he was just doing what had to be done. But not wanting to hear that conversation you broke the brief silence, “How is that our problem?”

There was a pause on the line but you could still very faintly hear her making little sighs and the fact that she had stopped walking wherever she was headed because the little clacking of her heels stopped. You knew right then she was going to tell you something you did not wanna hear. 

“You’re both hot, you’re both in one piece, and the system’s still down so I can’t even see where the rest of your idiot team is. We’re going with plan D.” Val finally breathed it all out so fast that you barely understood her but you did catch the “you’re both hot” part which you could not fathom was going to go anywhere good. 

John narrowed his eyes looking at you before setting down what actually needed to be worked on because he too could sense this was going to be some shit,  “What’s plan D?”

“You kiss.”

Silence.

Dead silence.

Eye contact seized. 

Even the building, full of ancient rust and creaking pipes, seemed to go quiet. The machines that had been making fuzzy noises were silent. John said nothing for a second. Then: “The hell we do.”

“I’m serious,” Val snapped, now she knew the two of you had heard her and were considering her little plan. That is all a woman like herself needed. “Sell a romance arc. I don’t care if it’s real, fake, or hate-fueled. Make the press eat it up. We need a distraction.” You grabbed onto John's arm and pulled yourself up off the ground because this was way more serious than whatever she originally had you working on. 

You rubbed your forehead and started pacing back and forth, with a slightly raised voice you spat at her, “Val, I swear to God—”

She cut out. 

“Val?” you said again. “Val—”

Nothing. Comms dead.

Meanwhile, back in the basement, the team was losing it.

“We’ve almost got it,” Bucky said through clenched teeth, typing furiously at an old Soviet terminal hooked up to an external power supply Ghost had hotwired together from literal scrap metal. The keys were sticking on and off thanks to the metal of his fingers slamming them so deeply into the board. 

“Are you sure that’s the right port?” Ghost asked, upside down, practically inside the wall. She was hoping anything would work so that there was a possibility of leaving this dingy and smelly place as soon as possible. 

“It’s glowing red,” Alexei said, pointing helpfully. “That seems promising.” He was nodding and absolutely no one in the room was even looking at him.

Yelena threw her hands in the air. “Everything in this place is glowing red! The coffee machine glows red!”

“I told you not to drink from that!” Bucky barked, usually John was the one giving helpful advice or rules such as that but he was too busy running around with you. Which was honestly beneficial, Walker would have already shattered that keyboard into the wall and everyone would have been standing around bored as a team. 

Yelena shrugged. “Too late. I have regrets.” She gagged and fanned at her mouth taking in deep breaths.

“Focus!” Ghost said. “We need visual back before Val loses her entire mind.” Ava nudged into Bucky watching what he was doing to make sure nothing else went wrong.

Alexei leaned over, his piece was the only one that had been working this entire time, which he did not mention, but now he had something fun to say so it would be worth telling on himself, “Pretty sure she already did. She told them to kiss.” 

The others paused in synchronized horror, Buckys hands stopped typing, Ava did not even look backwards at the man who was now belly laughing, and Yelena slowly put her tongue back into her mouth and her hands fell to her sides, 

“…Oh no,” Yelena whispered. “They wouldn’t.”

Bucky’s fingers flew faster, he snapped out of his trance just long enough to get into a rhythm of typing and then slamming the keyboard onto the desk to prevent his earlier issue from happening. “What happened now? What could warrant that?”

“Visual coming online,” Ghost announced, shaking the hell out of the box connected to the computer that was so hot from being overworked that no one else was even willing to touch it.

Bucky smacked the monitor and jiggled it a bit watching as the static would stop and start. Then the static cleared—

And then—

“OH MY GOD,” Alexei shouted, running over to the computer and putting both hands on Bucky’s back. “I—THEY’RE—”

“ARE THEY KISSING?!” Yelena shrieked practically jumping on top of Ava who was frozen in total shock not even caring that Yelena now reeked of what smelled almost like coffee but worse.

Ghost slammed a button. “Recording started.”

“We do not need a recording of this.” Bucky groaned and sat back in the chair that was now sitting straight up and down thanks to Alexei’s weight pushing on the back of it. 

Back in the camera's line of sight, you and John were still standing close together, you had stopped pacing once you realized there was really no getting her back online and that just not doing it was not going to be an option. 

He muttered, for once he was trying to not be rude and just handle the situation for what it was, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

But you? You broke into a grin, an evil and sinister little grin as you now stood toe to toe with him, arms around his neck and hands resting right on the back. He didn’t move a muscle he just stared you down.

“Well, Walker,” you said leaning into him just enough to feel his chest rise and fall against yours. “Ready to be a patriot?”

He touched the side of his head to yours placing two hands on your hips. “You enjoy this way too much.”

“If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?” Before John could again be the one to make the final blow, you pulled your face back from his ear and pulled your arms back so that your hands could grab onto his face. The kiss hit like a switch flipping. His hands moved against your waist instinctively, firm and grounding. You felt the tension in his shoulders melt and re-coil in new, unfamiliar places. His lips were warmer than expected, mouth soft but insistent, the kind of kiss that said we’re doing this, and we’re doing it right. Then of course John took things into his own hands like you knew he eventually would, guiding you back against the cool panel wall. Your hands were going everywhere now. First you curled then into his vest, then up into his hair without thinking, because of course it was soft, and of course he groaned low in his throat when you did it. The angle shifted, deepened—

“OH MY GOD THEY’RE STILL GOING,” Yelena howled, Ava had sensed moved on once she realized that this may only be the beginning of whatever was going on so Lena had a front row seat to the action now. 

“That’s the most American thing I’ve ever seen,” said Alexei, sounding weirdly proud smacking both of Bucky’s shoulders, still choosing to be right behind him instead of his right side which was completely empty. 

“I’m turning this feed off,” Bucky muttered. “I’d call HR if they weren’t the ones insisting they do this.” He scowled, watching in clear view of Walker moving one hand from your waist up your body and into your hair. 

“I’M RECORDING,” Yelena declared, moving the keyboard away from him. 

Val shrieked something about “fireable offenses” and “weddings get 30% off in DC if you use my name.” To the entire group seeing as to how everything for the actual mission was now at a complete standstill. 

And you? You pulled back just an inch, breath warm against John’s jaw, grinning like an idiot.

“That’ll sell it,” you whispered, not moving to push him back or anything to get away from him just staying put. 

He looked at you, expression unreadable.

“…Yeah,” he said after a second. “It will.”

Back at the safehouse, nobody let you live it down. Yelena and Ava brought popcorn to the debrief. Red Guardian reenacted the whole thing with sock puppets for your good friend Bob who could not go on the mission. Bucky tried to avoid any and all conversation or reenactments of the whole thing. Val sent a legal contract titled Thunderbolt Relationship Clause 4B: I Told You So.

And John?

He sat next to you on the old couch, legs spread wide, one arm behind your shoulders—casual, like nothing had changed. Except everything had. You can feel his warmth all of a sudden, you can’t stop thinking about how you could just curl up next to him and cuddle.. Or how you could get in his lap and start kissing him all over again the way he was sitting.  Instead you decided to move closer to him now you were touching side by side. Not saying a word he dropped one arm from behind the couch and sat it around your shoulders. 

“You know,” you murmured, voice low, almost shy, “we might need a... sequel. For the press.”

He turned, slow and deliberate, one brow ticking up. “You talking damage control?”

You shrugged, playing with your own hands, spinning the rings around your fingers as you spoke. “Public morale. National interest. You know. All that patriotic stuff.”

His mouth twitched, but not into a smirk—something softer, more thoughtful, like he was weighing the truth in your joke. Or the lie in it. He was staring at you, watching how just started curling into his side. The way your hands were so unsure of what to do or where to go. 

“We make a good headline,” he said finally, voice rough around the edges as he let out a little cough using the arm that was around your shoulders to dip down and wrap around your waist to pull you up closer to his face. 

You met his gaze, “Then maybe we should give ’em something to write about.”

And this time, when he kissed you, it wasn’t for show. No click of cameras. No orders in your ear. Just the press of his hand against your cheek, warm and certain. Your breath catching as he leaned in—slow, like he wanted you to stop him but knew you wouldn’t. Just the quiet hush of lips meeting, the kind of kiss that didn’t care who watched because no one was.

It was steadier than before. Realer. And when he pulled away, barely an inch, his forehead resting against yours, the world felt... quieter somehow.

Like the mission was done.

Like something else was just beginning.

(Kind of.)

[zo2mess]

Bliss In Vegas

Summary: The team landed a mission in Las Vegas, because what could possibly go wrong in the world’s most innocent city, right? Fast forward through a whirlwind of chaos, and somehow no one got hurt… but you woke up in bed with Adrian, nearly naked, and two ring pops on your fingers.

Warnings: 18+ Brief smut, hand stuff, spit stuff, alcohol consumption, crude language, I guess that’s it? (Morning breath! I’m so fucking sorry, it was all I could think about when I was writing this. Just ignore it exists for a while O_o)

Word count: 4.4k

Masterlist of my works

Note: Adrian in tighty whities with beer all over him made me incredibly feral and ready to finish this little thing I started a few months ago. Eh, it is something I guess? I just wanted to get over it.

And listen, I have never written about any of the other 11th Street Kids before, except for Adrian; apologies if any of them feel weird.

You know the saying? What happens in Vegas…

“Don’t stay in Vegas,” Harcourt sternly noted at the end of her little briefing of the next so-called mission. The fact that they still needed to take care of some stray swarms of butterflies even after terminating the cow was inconvenient, said mildly. “We do our job and go back, no random stops in any of the facilities.”

Those butterfly survivors would eventually die of starvation, but ARGUS was suspicious of large groupings of them in certain areas. They could be spending their last days together as a species, or maybe, just maybe, they’re trying to find a way to stay alive and find a new source of food, which was a dangerous idea.

One of those groups was flying free between casinos and strip clubs in Vegas, Nevada. Really troublesome area to be sending this team. It was practically screaming disaster.

“Why are they sending us? I thought we were done!” Leota protested, exchanging a questioning look with John who was in the same shock as her. Vegas was way out of hand and the last thing she wanted was to spend time away from her wife and furbabies.

“The official reason is that we are now experts on butterflies when it comes to terminating them-“

“The real reason is that we are seriously underpaid and we’re a cheap workforce” Economos interrupted Harcourt in a matter of seconds, saying the real reason for the little trip awaiting you.

Chris with Adrian, on the other hand, were doing their best not to let anyone know how excited they were. You could feel Adrian vibrating out of his skin next to you. No doubt he was already thinking how he and Peacemaker will stop crime, get wasted, and cruise some bitches. The real question was how they would break free from Harcourt's gaze and go astray. “Wait, you guys are getting paid?”

One way or another, this outing in Vegas was bound to be legendary.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The whole mission felt like a dream, after shooting up butterflies it was already too late to be driving back home, so Harcourt allowed crashing at a hotel until morning. You would think everyone felt like you, exhausted after the long trip and crashing little alien bugs, but no.

Chris and Adrian were pretty much excited to be hitting the town, and a person would think Adrian would at least clean his boots that still had alien goo all over them after he cheerily stomped on butterflies all day.

It wasn’t just the casinos, bars, and strip clubs waiting to strip lost souls of all their money. On the lit-up alleys, lined up were hustlers with classic shell games, women imitating peacocks adorned with faux gold and feathers, shady watch sellers, and more or less inconspicuous pickpockets. And just like tigers in a zoo, it was best to simply watch them pacing impatiently in circles—but anyone who sticks their hand into the enclosure quickly loses it.

All these predators, performing various tricks to catch their prey, prove once and for all that human creativity and the desire for money know no bounds.

In the end, you could not just lie in your hotel bed when Las Vegas was right on the other side of your window, teasing and luring with colorful blinding lights and loud music playing from every corner, the better side of Vegas. Plus the second Adrian put on his puppy eyes and whiny begging tone you were a goner.

How could you say no?

And that was the beginning of the most memorable night you did not remember.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

When you stirred awake you felt too hot and cold at the same time, head pounding and the ringing in your ears didn’t make it easier to open your eyes. The strongest hangover you ever had was making itself known, though hangovers usually don’t make you feel you are being pushed into the mattress and making your hand sweaty?

No, no, that wasn’t sweat, was it?

The morning sun shining into the hotel room immediately blinded you when you tried to open your eyes, but you managed to at least get a look at what was causing at least half of your discomfort.

Adrian.

Nearly naked Adrian lying on top of you.

Adrian that was drooling all over your fingers as he sucked on the ring pop on your finger from his sleep.

What?

His frame completely enveloped your body, transferring his body heat to you and making you feel breathless. Adrian lounged in just his boxers and once you looked around your room you found piles of clothes all over the small cheap hotel room.

His jeans on the ground, glasses on the bedside table, His holey socks hanging from the edge of the bed with… your top and jeans? Then whose shirt were you wearing?

Adrian’s room was right next to you, why was he sleeping in your bed?

Too many questions, too little answers.

You tried to gently ease Adrian from your body and roll him to the side, but goddamn, was he heavy. You could try again and again and he just wouldn’t budge.

He groaned from his sleep because of your constant nagging but he didn’t move an inch, at least he stopped sucking on the lollipop, “Stop wiggling, I’m gonna get a boner”. Gods, how could his voice sound so raspy and whiny at the same time?

“Adrian! What are you doing here?” you slapped his shoulder in an attempt to wake him up, which finally worked, he lifted his head while he just barely opened his eyes, blinking away the blurriness of his vision. Those half-lidded green eyes and tousled hair did something for you, it was hard to admit it though.

“I would be sleeping if you weren’t slapping me and making my cock hard” He mumbled nonchalantly and settled back on your chest, nuzzling to your boobs like it was the most normal thing to do. “Your tits are amazing pillow, you know that?”

Another slap. Another yelp from Adrian.

Under different circumstances, you would have enjoyed cuddling with Adrian, it’s not like you were completely resistant to his charm, or whatever that illuminates him, which makes him so enamoring.

But not right now, not when you had no idea how you got to bed, how he got in your bed, why you were almost naked, when your head was pounding, and also…

Why did you both have ring pops on your fingers?

You didn’t notice it at first, but once you did, it made gears in your head turn really hard to put one and one together. You took his hand in yours, studying his blue raspberry ring pop and comparing it to your strawberry one, but other than the fact yours was way smaller and wet from Adrian’s constant sucking, nothing stood out.

And Adrian didn’t even notice something was on his finger until you lifted his hand. Unbothered king. He was getting on the rest of your nerves that remained after the wild night.

“Oh my god! Twinsies!” How was he so cheery in the morning? He must have drunk a similar amount of alcohol as you did, but it seems his body doesn’t believe in hangovers.

When you started pushing him from your body again, he finally rolled off onto his back with a loud huff. What a way to wake up, hangover in a Vegas hotel. The only thing missing was an Elvis impersonator singing under the balcony. ‘Thank you, thank you’ he would mumble with that deep voice as you would throw a few cents at him.

Adrian laid still extremely close to you, shoulders touching and all, and stared at the ceiling with a dumb smile on his face while you were panicking next to him. How did this happen?

“Do you remember anything?”

“Nope.”

“Aren’t you concerned?”

“Nope.”

“Do you think we fucked?”

“Nah, you would have felt it.”

“You mean with that thimble of yours?”

He just snorted, tilting his head to the side to laugh right in your face. You didn't even have the energy to question what was so amusing about his thimble dick. But for that moment of Adrian laughing at you for no apparent reason, it felt like a normal day. Like you were back at HQ, relaxing on one of the worn-out couches with Adrian in his armor beside you, chatting about something ridiculous while polishing his knives and rolling his head to look at you, trying not to smile.

However, it all vanished away when Adrian lifted and knelt on the bed and a bunch of casino chips started falling from his boxers. Chip after chip pooling around his thick thighs. And it looked like he was surprised in the same way you were.

The right question would probably be why he stored his wins in underwear, second, why he went to sleep with them, and the third one…

“How did you win so much?”

“My brother taught me how to count cards, it’s really easy once you get the hang of it. But that doesn’t matter right now, what matters is that I need to exchange these crotch doubloons for real money,” He collected his chips and started admiring them in the morning light shining directly at him. “I am gonna be so rich, dude.”

Those little coins with fluorescent details flooded the room with colorful reflections. Spots of blue, green, red and pink decorated the furniture as well as your skin. If your skin wasn’t already buzzing from Adrian’s touch, you would be able to imagine the light tickling you.

“Come on, we’re going to get even more drunk to celebrate me being a fucking millionaire,” Adrian’s face lit up, what a fucking sunshine, you wanted to punch him in the face when he grabbed the blanket shielding your lower body from his greedy eyes. The cold air in the room was relentless, enveloping your body and leaving goosebumps in its wake. You could not get a break with the dumbass.

“Goddamn, do you wear this pathetic excuse for panties under your suit?” Adrian let out a wolf whistle and stared right between your legs without any shame. “You should have told me that sooner!”

Your panties? What was wrong with them?

One blurry look down and you know exactly what was wrong. “Those are not my panties.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t have white lace panties.”

“Wait, wait,” Adrian leaned extremely close to your crotch, examining the red embroidery that decorated the hem of mystery underwear. “Here it says… Congratulations to the happy couple from Bliss wedding chapel.”

“Say what?” Your eyes nearly bulged out of their eye sockets. The embroidery was a sign of something horribly dooming. White panties from the wedding chapel really weren’t a good thing for someone who did not intend to get married. And oh, the horror of wearing something gifted from a drive-through wedding chapel.

“What,” Adrian replied to your shocked words with a confused look. It seemed like he did not realize what it meant. Either that or he didn’t care at all about being married to his colleague.

“Ade, are you even registering what that means?” It was like your heart dropped down to your stomach. Did it mean what you thought it did? Were you fucking married? In Vegas? And without remembering anything?

“Oh my god, are you my wife?” He lifted from between your legs, which was fucking painful thing to do when the thing he wanted the most was to be buried between them. His face weirdly lit up, unclear if with shock or happiness, “Am I your husband?”

“No, that must be some misunderstanding, right?” You jolted up, scrambling out of bed with a bunch of uncoordinated jerks of limbs. It was a miracle you hadn’t fallen right on your face. Damn those sweet juicy drinks that weaken your brain!

“We need to talk with others, they must know something, right?” You were more or less talking to yourself, babbling how it is impossible you got married with freaking Adrian Chase without remembering anything.

Adrian was still too absorbed in those chips on the bed and the ring pop on your fingers. One of his focuses meant he won money, the other that he was married, and the third, pretty, pretty thing in front of him was his wife. He completely ignored your panic, it was whatever.

He never was the kind to believe in fate, but goddamn, he must have done something really good to get all of this in one night.

“Ade, are you listening to me?” You almost touched those chips, fingers mere inches away, before you realized that Adrian had these shiny knick-knacks stashed away in his boxers the whole night. Your hand hovered above them, eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Adrian watched you with a dumb smile, “Are you afraid of my crotch doubloons?”

“I don’t want to touch something that was near your dick” As simple as that, did he think it was normal?

“So you’re afraid of my dick” His smile widened with every word, he had that stupid expression on his face you still couldn’t look through. You had wondered several times what was going through his mind at those moments when his face twisted maliciously.

“I’m not afraid of your dick, Adrian.”

“Then touch it.”

“Why would I be touching your dick?”

“To prove you’re not a coward.” That stupid face was literally asking to be punched, but would that help your case? He looked abnormally good when he was hurt. “Plus, if we are married, we should consummate the marriage, right?”

“We’re not in the Middle Ages, Ade, we’re not married and I’m too hungover anyways”

Adrian noted in his mind that you didn’t say no because you didn’t like him outright, you said you had a hangover. This could mean two things; That you didn’t like him and hid it behind a lame excuse of drinking too much yesterday, or that you were actually hangover but did like him.

That must be the case. At least he hoped.

All this time, he was hoping you might get the hint that he liked you. He tried to be discreet, sending small signs like he saw in movies and read on Wikihow.

Make eye contact, look down, hold, slowly look back, look away, soft smile, scratch your neck, lick your lips, make eye contact again, wink…

And all this time you thought he was cursing you across the room when he tried this in team debriefings.

Being discreet was so unlike him, but he hoped it might seem normal, not like his usual attempts at flirting. And that was the problem. Adrian Chase, a guy desperate to share his every thought, sending subtle signs? Who could have caught that? Not you, that’s for certain.

“I mean… What is a hangover anyway? It’s when alcohol levels in your body drop to zero after heavy drinking. And one way to remedy that is drinking more,” He knew way too much for his own good, though after multiple horrible hangovers, he needed to know what was happening to him.

“Maybe if you finally got laid you wouldn’t be so cranky all the time, it's like a hangover” He finished his speech with a look that screamed anything but innocent.

Your blood suddenly grew hot, how dare he say you don’t have any game? Your hand shot up between his legs, touching him just like he dared you.

You fell right into a trap.

Say what you want about Adrian, he was stupid but not dumb. He hunts down criminals, he must know a thing or two how to trap his victim, how to get what he wants. Right now, he got you right he wanted. On a hotel bed, dressed just in his shirt and wedding panties and your hand on his dick.

Lucky bastard.

And you… You were a lucky bastard in a way too.

You could fondle his cock any way you wanted. This image haunted your dreams more than once. And what fool would you be if you didn’t take that chance.

Though the surprised look on your face was not something you imagined, when you got a good feel of Adrian ‘Thimble’ Chase. He was already semi-hard, and it made you wonder what caused it. Was it when you were nudging him in his sleep? Or when his nose caught a whiff of you while reading your underwear testament?

Maybe you would have to spread the word that your now husband was Mr. Definitely not Thimble.

You began running your hand up and down over him, slowly but surely making him even harder than he was. Adrian managed to keep his wide and confident smile just for few seconds. One gentle squeeze on his base, one swipe of your thumb over his covered tip, and he was a goner. His sparkling eyes fluttered closed, and this time, when he licked his lips, it didn’t look like he was licking away sauce from pasta at Fennel Fields.

While his hips gently rutted further into your touch, his hands shot to your hips. Strangely, he was slick with his touches, before you even knew it, his fingers were running under the sides of your white lace panties, just oh so desperate to feel your soft skin without anything else in the way.

“Is my tongue still red?” Adrian asked before sticking his tongue out, baring the surface of his tongue colored in deep red. What a weird question to be asking when you’re getting your dick fondled, though at this point you shouldn’t be surprised.

“Still very much red, why are you asking now?”

Adrian just grinned and eyed you up like a predator. Something was stirring in his mind.

Before you could ask him for the meaning of his question again, he lifted his hand with the big ring pop on his finger and pushed it into your mouth.

The second flavor of blue raspberry burst on your tongue you couldn’t blame him for sucking on your ring pop all night and drooling on your fingers.

While you enjoyed the artificial taste coating your taste buds, Adrian stared at you with a slack jaw and soft whimpers falling from his mouth. “Fuck, I wish you were sucking me like that”

Suddenly, he pulled away his hand, making you whine at the loss of your lolly. It didn’t take long before you had something else to focus on with your mouth though.

He practically lunged at you with his lips, pressing them against yours and setting a pace too fast for your sluggish mind. Adrian’s tongue demanded entrance in your mouth and before you could even register what he wanted, he was pulling at your chin, opening up your mouth for his wandering tongue.

You desperately wanted to match his frenzied pace, it was all too much and yet so good.

Adrian didn’t lick around your mouth like you would have expected, no, quite the opposite. He flattened his tongue over yours, making sure surfaces painted in red and blue brushed against each other.

Oh, so that’s what he was doing…

He wanted to combine them. Red and blue create purple. It would be a beautiful symbol for your new, and very very strange, marriage. Purple can, among other things, symbolize mystery, exactly that clouded over last night. It was still a mystery how you two ended up together. Did it matter anyway?

In the end, he was licking into your mouth like a dog. Panting like one, too.

When he pulled away from the kiss, a string of spit connected your swollen lips. Stretching, stretching, and stretching until it broke and landed on both of your chins. As you were reaching to wipe it off Adrian latched his lips onto your chin with unseen eagerness. The main idea was to help you with the excessive saliva, though he only made it worse.

He trailed open-mouthed kisses from your chin, across jaw, over cheeks, and ended by your ear, “Should I prove I’m not afraid of your pussy?” He whispered before licking the shell of your ear. One of his hands trailed the ring pop over your arm, leaving a sticky trail, while the other began prying between your legs.

“Wow, look at that,” He dared to chuckle after he slipped his fingers under the crotch of your panties, feeling your heat for the first time. You believed Adrian would comment on how wet you were for him, for Vigilante. But no, of course not.

“Your pussy doesn’t have teeth like I thought it would!”

And at that moment you promised yourself you will kill him right after he makes you cum. Not sooner nor later. As a simple warning, you tightened your grip you had on him over the boxers that were, much to your surprise, already stained with precum.

Let’s see how happy Adrian will be when he realizes his wife is a praying mantis in disguise.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

You didn’t bite Adrian’s head off after all, he looked too cute after you made him finish in his underwear. That boyish grin, puffy lips wet with your cum after he licked his fingers off with proud bravado, lively eyes that shined almost the same way as his casino chips…

No, you might just keep him a bit longer.

At least he stopped with his nagging while you took a shower together and dressed in clean clothes. All this time, Adrian watched you like a lost puppy, begging for affection. Each time you gave him a chaste kiss, he stopped whining for a mere second.

While Adrian was hungry for more kisses, and undoubtedly something more, you were actually hungry for some food and coffee or green tea to get you going for the day. So you made your way to the hotel’s small dining room.

Adrian threw all his casino chips on the table between breakfast plates and mugs, they clinked against the ceramics almost too loudly for your poor pounding head.

Everyone’s eyes fell on shiny colorful chips, Leota put down her butter bread so she could reach for them, thankfully you grabbed her wrist right before she could get her fingers on the chip lying next to her plate “Don’t touch that.”

She shot you a questioning look but trusted your judgment. No need to tell her where these chips were, especially if they were in the middle of the table and too close to food.

“Did I get married to Adrian yesterday?” You asked without any humor in your voice, eyes flickering between every single one of those guilty faces of your colleagues. Adrian, though, did not care at all about this little investigation. He was too blissful with married life to even question it.

“It was one of the weirdest ceremonies I have ever seen,” Leota cracked first, “You didn’t even want me as your bridesmaid! You chose John!”

Your eyes landed on Economos, sipping his coffee to hide from you, “I did my duty well” was all he added.

Then you took a good look at others, Harcourt kept staring forward, digging her fork in some scrambled eggs. Chris, on the other hand, was already showing Adrian photos on his phone and Adrian was smiling widely, pointing out small details from your wedding and muttering how beautiful you looked, wearing cheap-looking veil you rented and holding a bottle of vodka instead of a wedding bouquet.

You joined him, and all that anger and confusion blurred for a brief moment. You looked happy in those photos. Laughing, chatting, eyes sparkling like they haven’t for a while. Every single photo was suddenly so precious.

Those were your lost memories.

And the way you were holding onto Adrian, so tightly and lovingly… All those small details didn’t escape either of you. Adrian nudged you with his elbow “We look good together”.

And you did. You really did.

Flushed, drunk, happy.

With the promise of the team explaining on the way home, you dropped your investigation of last night and settled to finally have some breakfast. Both you and Adrian get the leftovers in the form of yogurt. “Snoozers losers,” Chris added.

It was like you and Adrian had already synchronized, peeling the lid off, and licking some leftover yogurt at the same time. And in the meantime, everyone around the table could get a pretty good look at your purple tongues.

“See?! See that?” Chris called out way too loudly while pointing at you, “Did you stick your dick in her?”

You nearly choked on your own saliva at that question. Who even asks that? Especially during hotel breakfast? Some people from other tables turned around when they heard it, eager to know what the hell was going on.

But Adrian smiled, lifted his hand and wiggled his digits “Just my fingers.”

A symphony of disgusted noises came from your team, suddenly your yoghurt didn’t look as appealing as it should. But hey, maybe there will be a time when you won’t be able to eat yoghurt without thinking of Adrian and his-

“I made sure the guy marrying you didn’t have a license for it to be legitimate,” Harcourt finally spoke up, much to the dismay of the rest of the team.

“Which was a fucking mistake! You know how hilarious it would be if these two goons were married for real?” Chris chimed in with a booming laugh just from the idea of the night of the outing ending in one happy couple, drunk out of their minds.

Weight dropped from your shoulders upon hearing you weren’t married for real to Vigilante over there. It was like the air finally cleared, and you could take a deep breath of that crisp morning air. You caught Adrian doing the same, sighing in relief.

But if you were for real, it also stung a little. Somehow, while you made your way to breakfast earlier, you already started planning what to do next. Who will move to whom, when you should go and change your name on your ID to Chase, if you should get rid of your coffee machine so Adrian wouldn’t have too much disposal of caffeine…

While you were lost in your head, thinking whenever you were actually happy or sad the dumbass next to you wasn't your partner for real, Adrian simply leaned closer to you and whispered with that dopey smile, “It’s fine. Next time I’ll be marrying you, I want to remember it.”

[7s3ven]

Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley x Fem! Hybrid! Reader where…

Notes: Y/N is a Dobermann hybrid, abuse mentioned, hybrid au where reader is a human with animal-like features, cussing, just a short little thing I wanted to write (might extend it later), reader is described as tall

Ghost wanted to forget most things from his childhood. They were traumatic and induced a sense of fear in him that he absolutely loathed.

The one thing he never wanted to forget, however, was you.

You were a hybrid, basically a pet to the Riley family. Ghost’s parents never saw you as fully human but they bought you simply to shut him up. Ghost remembered blabbering on and on about wanting a pet and then you showed up one day, tail wagging at the thought of being adopted into a happy family. That dream was soon crushed.

You were just as abused as Ghost. You were hardly fed and when you were, it was off Ghost’s plate. You were his duty and despite being yelled at day and night about how you were always in the way, he continued to love you.

You and his brother were the only good things in Ghost’s life at the time.

Ghost recalled allowing you to sleep in his bed when it got too cold, how he would snuggle up to you to regain some warmth through his thin blanket.

You were particularly protective over Ghost, always sending his father pointed glares when the older man snapped at him.

You hated his father just as much as Ghost.

Life with you around was bearable. You never complained when Ghost returned home and immediately tackled you into a much needed hug, tears threatening to pour out of his eyes.

“The kids at school teased me about my bruises.” He whispered and in response, you kissed the dark marks marring his skin.

You made life better.

Ghost was in his older teenage years, ready to finally pack up and leave with you when you suddenly disappeared. His lifeline had been torn out of his grasp by his father, who remarked how he sold you to earn some more cash.

All Ghost remembered was seeing red that day and storming out of the house with his things, never to return to that dreaded house.

He joined the military and his one most important mission in life was to find you. It didn’t matter how many years passed and how many ranks he had climbed, you were still all he thought about.

The world was different now. Hybrids were seen as actual people instead of glorified pets. There was still no trace of you; his last lead was a dead end.

Ghost was ready to give up before Soap and Gaz dragged a tall figure into the room. “Found ‘er at the enemy base.” Soap uttered, “Was snipin’ our men left an’ right.”

The figure had a bag over her head but Ghost’s gaze immediately landed on the prominent outline of two long ears.

“Hybrid.” Gaz notices his staring, “Some kind of dog hybrid.”

The hybrid is anything but calm. It takes both Soap and Gaz to hold her back.

Ghost is quick to rip the sandbag off her head, coming face to face with a pair of familiar E/C eyes. You look the same, only a little older. Your left ear was damaged, there was some sort of tagged embedded in your right ear, and the sight of a shock collar around your neck made Ghost sick to the stomach.

Seeing your face was a reminder of the pain Ghost had faced during his early years. He almost had the urge to back away into the corner as memories flashed through is head. But he remained strong.

“Take that damn fuckin’ collar off ‘er.” Ghost spat, staring at the shock collar in disgust. You didn’t recognise his face because of his iconic skull mask but his voice had your ears flicking.

You stared at him with your head tilted at a low angle, almost seeming like you were glaring but Ghost knew better. You were simply observing him.

The moment Soap’s fingers brushed against the nape of your neck, you wildly flinched. Despite being retrained to a chair, you thrashed around, slamming the back of your head into Soap’s face.

“Ow, lassie! Calm down!” The Scot yelled.

Ghost was quick to weigh you down, placing his heavy hands on your shoulders. “Ay, bloody hell, lovie, ‘tis alright. He’s only tryna help.” Without a second thought, Ghost lifted his mask to give you a peek of his face before he lowered it again.

You finally stilled, ears twitching as you stared at Ghost.

“You know her?” Gaz questioned as he picked at the locked collar with a screwdriver.

“Yeah.” Ghost’s reply was short. The moment the collar’s lock came undone, he grabbed it and threw it against the wall.

“Based on her injuries and the collar, I’d say she wasn’t working with the terrorist group willingly.” Price uttered, “Someone’s gonna have to patch her up.”

“The lass has already screwed me over, I ain’ doing it.” Soap grunted, holding his swelling nose.

“I’ll do it.” Ghost butted in.

Without Ghost’s teammates, you felt more at ease. You sat on the bed in Ghost’s room, allowing him to clean your wounds.

No words needed to be exchanged for Ghost to understand your pain. You leaned into his embrace as he carefully wrapped his strong arms around you, not wanting to alert you.

“Ain’ never letting ya go again, lovie. That’s a promise. Ya never gotta see my father or those terrorists again. I’ve got ya. You’re safe.”

[bajablastwrites]

Feeding My Human Companion!!

ENA x Reader

Summary: ENA makes sure you’re fed in her weird world.

Author’s Note: This is more on the short side, but I was watching someone feed their cats with an enrichment mat while I was eating and it inspired me to make this💀 (Not proof read btw)

ENA is well aware that you’re definitely not from around here, so she’s taken it upon herself to look after her new coworker as one of her indefinite contractual obligations with you! In return you’ll be her new companion, fun!

Let’s pretend ENA somehow learned on how basic human needs such as food, and what a balanced diet for humans looks like, great. The hard part is having to locate where each food could be, so she typically leaves you in the casino or with froggy until she comes back with food for you. She wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you, your body isn’t made to handle whatever strange hostile environments ENA would find herself in looking for the ingredients of today’s menu for you. She uses the information she learned about human diets and their need for variety and enrichment as her guide, so you’re not eating the same thing everyday.

I feel like she purposely doesn’t want you to be completely independent from her— not out of malice, but she thinks that if you learn how to make your own food in her world you wouldn’t need her anymore and will eventually leave because she’s no longer useful to you. So she uses the excuse of valuing your safely as her cover in order to keep you from wandering off. When she eventually comes back from her food run it’s even more gratifying to her watching you eat what she brought you.

ENA’s definitely going insist she hand feeds your dessert to you as her form of compensation for her efforts in keeping you alive. You’re definitely eating better with her than you ever did in your own world, that’s for sure.

If you ever feel bad that she goes through so much trouble in order to feed you she’ll insist that she’s more than happy to help her favorite coworker out!

“I just feel bad that you’re going out of your way to get me food.” You said while idly moving the warm lasagna around with your fork, it honestly felt like you shouldn’t be eating it since you didn’t contribute anything in order to obtain it.

“Nonsense! I’m simply taking the opportunity to make an investment into continuing our collective business together for— WHO SAID YOU COULD STOP CHEWING!! FINISH EATING THAT STUPID CASSEROLE DISH YOU SQUISHY MEAT SACK!!!”

Did I mention she loves to watch you eat.

Sometimes it does feel like you’re being treated more like an exotic animal than an equal, though. ENA isn’t human after all, so her fascination with you can come off as dehumanizing sometimes. She’s not doing it to make you feel less than, there’s no one like you with the same needs and functions as you. She’ll try to change her approach with you to be more tailored to getting to know you as a person rather than as a species, she won’t get it right away but she’ll definitely appreciate your guidance and help in getting to know you.

[sugarcoatedstarkey]

hate sex. rafe or drew idc, u have total creative freedom w my suggestion!

Hate Sex

Pairing - Drew Starkey x costar!reader

Summary - good old hate sex.

Warnings - sexual intercourse, fingering, language, choking, name calling. 18+

The anger bubbled in your chest, rising up your neck leaving behind a dark pink tinge to your skin. You had never let Drew get to you this bad before, you were pulling at the roots of your hair just thinking about his punchable but good looking face.

“Breath Y/n” your friend stated, she had hidden herself behind the very small table in your trailer. She was quite frightened when you let your anger out.

She jumped halfway into the air when you threw your phone at the floor, shattering the screen in the process.

“Now look what that fucker has made me do!” You all but screeched, you couldn’t take it anymore. You had to go and speak to him, how DARE he talk about you like that in an interview.

“Oh no no no, you can’t go speaking to him when you're this angry! He didn’t do anything wrong!” Your friend shouted, slamming her palm over her mouth when she realized what she let slip.

“How could you side with him?!”

“Oh come off it y/n, he said lovely things about you!”

“All very untrue things! He made me look like some weak girl who was falling at his knees.. no you know what I’m leaving!”

Before your friend could stop you, you darted out the trailer door and sprinted for him. Exactly 23 steps later your fist pounded at his trailer, you didn’t wait for him to answer and stormed in.

Drew stood in the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his lower half, steam filling the very small shower. Both Chase and Austin sat on the couch staring at you with wide eyes, the sound of the PlayStation in the background echoed through the deafening silence from the four of you.

“What’s up y/n?” Drew sang, giving you his famous boy next door grin. You just wanted to rip his face off but also kiss his face off.

“How dare you?!” You yelled, Drew’s eyes creased together in the middle as he looked at you in confusion. “Want to enlighten me on what I’ve done now sweetcheeks?” He chuckled, stepping out of the bathroom and closing the door. Your eyes dropped for only a moment when a bead of water ran down his chest and dissolved into the towel.

He gave you a knowing look that you shook off. “What’s all that shit you said in the interview?” You questioned, he let out a throaty laugh. Almost a cackle. This had you wild, you stormed towards him with curled fists at your side. “Don’t laugh! You made me out to be some weak girl, talking about how I’m the main person who laughs at your jokes on set, that I always get emotional at old couples!” You shouted, the old couple remark was true.

You did get emotional BUT that didn’t give him the right to tell people, it’s your personal life, personality. They get what they get, they don’t need to know the deeper version of you.

“Y/n, Come on. I wasn’t doing it out of spite” he stated, he was frustrated now. You always jump on him the second you can, yelling down his throat and making him feel like everything he does is wrong. “I honestly don’t give a shit! Don’t talk about me in interviews again!”

He rolled his eyes and looked over your shoulder at your friends, they had both gotten up ready to bounce. They hated being around when the two of you fought.

“Don’t roll your eyes! God! Drew you're so frustrating!”

“Me?! Me, frustrating? You talk some shit y/n, your always down my throat”

“Because you're always being so difficult!”

“Maybe you should lighten up a little and realize I’m a decent human being and your just angry at the world”

“Fuck you Drew”

“No, fuck you”

It happens in a split second, you're both reaching for each other. Your lips hastily press together, your arms wrapping around his shoulders. His hands cup your jaw, your tongues fight with one another. Even kissing, you have to be fighting.

“That’s our que” you heard from behind you, but you didn’t want to pull away. One of his hands drops from your face, grasping onto your waist he pulls you closer to his body.

“You're still annoying” you breathe, his lips trail down your neck. Sucking at the flesh between your collarbone and throat. Your nails scratched down the length of his back leaving deep red lines.

“You're still a bitch” he bit, pushing you towards the couch. Your back met the cushion with a thump, his body trailed behind closely. Parting your legs so he could slot between them.

You had forgotten he was only in a towel, which now parted giving you the most glorious view of his thick hard cock. “Shit” you whined, practically forcing his body down on yours. His hands bunched up your dress to expose your cotton thong, his cock nudged at your pussy.

“How can someone so annoying be blessed with such a perfect cock” you spoke, his chuckle was muffled by the skin of your chest.

“How can someone so frustrating be so fucking hot” he commented, his mouth left kisses along the apex of your chest. You pushed yourself to sit up, pulling the material of your dress over your head.

You now sat in just your panties, his hands palming at your breasts. “Fuck you” you moaned, his teeth pulling your hardened nub. Suckling at your nipple, while the other hand grabbed your ass cheek. “I’m getting their baby” he whispered, the pet name sending shivers down your spine.

“Touch me”.

His fingers dipped under the material of your panties, sliding his pointer and forefinger between your fold and back up to your clit. “Oh shit, yeah like that” you cried, grinding your pussy into his hand. Slipping his two fingers into your cunt, you bite down on his shoulder as he finger fucked you. Pressing the palm of his hand into your clit at the same time, sending your body into overdrive. “You like that? Of course the little bitch likes to be fingerbanged hm? Been thinking about these fingers inside of you huh?” He grunted, brows creased in the middle. He watched your face intently, the way your mouth dropped opened and you gasped for more breath.

“Answer me!”

“YES yes oh fuck yes! Wanted these fingers in me since I met you” you screamed, his dick twitching at your statement. Your moans bounced off the wall and you were sure everyone could hear.

He abruptly pulled his fingers out of you, a slur of protest fell from your lips. “What the fuck Drew?!”.

“Get up and sit on my cock, quit whining and do what I say for once you little slut”.

The vulgarity to his words had your insides fluttering like a damn school girl, pulling your panties down and straddling his hips.

Reaching between the two of you to grasp his cock, giving him a rough few tugs. “Fuck… what I’d do to have your pretty little mouth around my cock right now.” He groaned, his head arched against the backrest of the couch. You began to slide off him, his hands catching your hips before you could get on your knees.

“Right now I want your tight little cunt to sit on my cock, next time I’ll stuff your throat with my cock and make you eat the angry words that you constantly spit out”.

Your ears pricked up at the next part, unbothered by the way he spoke to you. “Fuck you Drew” you spat, his large hand held the base of his cock for you. The tip of his bright pink head nudged at your opening, you took him in painfully slow. Your eyes rolling back as his cock stretched you wide, your hands pressed against his chest for leverage. “Oh-h… oh” you cried, his cock buried deep within your walls.

He gives you a moment to adjust, eyes staring hard at your expressions. The moment your eyes reopened he was bringing your body up and down on him harshly, causing a string of curse words to slip from your mouth.

Your tits bounced in his face, you finally brought yourself out of the sex daze you had fallen into and moved your hips, grinding against him roughly.

Your fingers wrapped around the base of his throat, his eyes were wild. Dark and full of lust, watching you gnaw at your lip. “That’s it pretty girl, fuck my cock like its best goddamn cock you’ve ever had”.

Your nodding your head in agreement, “the best fucking cock, so big” you cried, unaware you had just agreed to him. You were so drunk on dick, you had forgotten how much he irritated you.

“That’s right, best goddamn cock you’ve had. Show me how much you love it” he ordered, and you obliged. Riding him like your life depended on it, throwing your head back. Your nails dug into the flesh of his shoulders, his fingers grabbing your waist tightly.

“Fuck! Just like that!” He groaned, his hands caressed your back. Ducking his head to envelope your nipple into his mouth. “Yes yes yes yes yes” you mumbled, your bodies had a light sheen of sweat to it. “Move” he order, pulling you up from his cock only to spin you around. Pushing your knees into the cushion of the couch and thrusting his cock back into you.

“SHIT!” You cried, clawing at the back of the couch. His large hand pushed you down against the couch, putting one of his legs into the couch to give himself a better angle to fuck into you. “Yeah you like it rough huh”.

The angle of his cock had you in tears, overwhelming pleasure coursed through you. “Of course you like it rough, you’re a dirty angry slut” He could feel you where close, the way your pussy walls fluttered around him, reaching around to grasp your neck and pulling out of you. “DREW! You asshole” you cried, the pleasure that had building in your lower stomach fizzled out only to reignite when his fingers closed around your neck.

“Jump”

You did as order and wrapped your legs around him, he slipped his cock back into you. Moving you both just enough so your bum sat against the bench, ruthlessly he fucked into you. Squeezing his finger around your throat, your own hand coming around to grip his wrist, you screamed and cried in pleasure.

“You dirty little slut! Who knew you were more than just a whining bitch” he spat, pressing his lips to yours before you could fight back. Your fingers scratched up and down his back, the only way you could tell him he was an asshole.

“Drew” you warned, your pussy walls pulsating around his cock and you chased your high. “You're gonna come? Go on then pretty girl, come around my cock” he urges.

His hips move faster and deeper, dropping his finger between you to fondle your clit.

“Holy shit! Oh o-oh!” You cried, letting the overwhelming pleasure knock you over. Curling your toes and tightening your legs around him, your pussy pulsated around his cock. Your nails dug deep into his shoulders trying to ground yourself.

He wrapped her arm around your waist tightly and followed suit, coming deep inside of you. “Fuck fuck fucking hell”.

His sweaty forehead met your chest, both your breathing labored. A few moments of silent breaths go by and he pulls away from you, helping you down from the bench.

“This doesn’t mean I suddenly like you” you comment, stepping around him to collect your dress. Rushing into the bathroom to clean yourself up.

A few moments and words to yourself go by and you open the bathroom door; eyes searching the floor for your panties.

“Looking for these?” He questioned as you stepped out, holding onto your thong with his finger like a prize.

“Fuck you”

“Just did”

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[cherie-doll]

I love the father headcanons, can we see one where our munchkins are Lil older and they start wanting a brother/sister 🥺?

spinning at the thought of this <3

ଘ Price, Ghost, Soap, Gaz, Roach, Alejandro, Rudy, Phillip Graves, Makarov, Keegan, König, Horangi, Nikto

ʚɞ Price...

he's content with the one kid you two have right now, he knew this was your first and going into parenthood hadn't been a completely smooth journey but you had learned to enjoy the ups and deal with the downs of it

however a thought did start reeling when your son asked why he didn't have a baby sister, he saw how his grade school friend had a baby sister and seeing her cute chubby cheeks that looked so squeezable and hearing her gurgles and toothless smile made him want a sibling

i can just see price turning to him and saying "you're asking for one as if it was a pet", implying that a sibling was another human not some dog or cat you could just have around, but you actually liked the idea of another kid, you had observed how lonely your son would be on weekends when he wasn't at school

price had assumed you wouldn't want another one until later that night he comes back from tucking the kid in bed and he settles in bed with a groan and finds you immediately turning to him, laying your head on his chest and saying you want a girl

ʚɞ Ghost...

you two had been living apart for some time now, he came by when he could to take your daughter to his house and care for her and then bring her back and so on, he was a responsible father and cooperated in taking care of all her needs with you

on weekends he usually took you both out to eat and this was one of those times, your daughter had been unusually quiet during the meal when she stared around to settle her eyes on Simon then you

"i want a baby sister...or brother" she said firmly in her little voice, the clattering of the eating utensils stopped as both you and Simon turned to her in surprise

"where'd this come from..." you mumbled, not meeting Simon's eyes as he seemed to actually be considering this, he had been wanting to mention maybe moving back into the house with you and living together but he hadn't known how to speak about the subject, but to him, this was the perfect opportunity

"that's not a bad idea" his response made your head snap back up and your eyes met his, his gaze wasn't playful but rather serious, so he wasn't joking...

he definitely felt like you drifting away and although he was aware a new kid wasn't going to repair it, it certainly didn't mean your relationship was in shambles either, he seriously did discuss it as a possibility after dinner when he was alone with you

and could you turn him down, honestly?

ʚɞ Soap...

you, personally, haven't brought the topic up to him because you want to see if he'll ask you yourself, at some point he will but... when? well, the seedling you thought was slowly growing in his mind full on sprouted when your son stopped playing one afternoon and turned to you both saying he wanted a brother

johnny turned to you too, his eyes hopeful about your reaction, he didn't mind if it was another boy or if you'd be lucky and have a girl, he just wanted another kid, memories of how he used to dress his son in the cutest baby onesies when he was a few months old came back

he still had them just in case and was ready to buy more, neither of you knew this but your son expected a kid his age to come out of you, he forgot he'd have to wait some time before he's able to play with his sibling, the kid really just wanted someone to play with and cause mischief

ʚɞ Gaz...

urhgurhu he's so new father coded idk how to explain it

it's endearing seeing how gentle he is with your daughter; the first time he held her at the hospital he was too scared to take her from the nurse's extended arms, he had to take a seat and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans

he sorta panicked when she was handed to him and he quickly looked up to ask the nurse how to hold her correctly, he didn't want to hurt her little neck, especially when she seemed so fragile, silently, he admired his little girl and almost cried right then and there

you saw how his eyes softened so much and they glossed over with tears just wanting to spill, it was such an emotional moment for him; he finally had a family to take care of

and now she was five whole years, he could hardly believe it, when her birthday rolled around and he asked her what she wanted, she looked up at him with her big, bright cherub eyes and said she wanted a sister

and how could he deny her that? he begged you to give him another child, he didn't want to disappoint his little girl, it was her birthday wish and he wanted to see them grow up together

ʚɞ Roach...

he would 'subtly' imply that he wanted another one, things like leaving around some of your daughter's clothes from when she was a newborn, "that won't fit her..." you point out, the size difference being very obvious yet he acts clueless, he's trying to say that there should be another baby to dress in these clothes!

your kid has just learned how to talk yet he's attempting to teach her to ask for a sibling when she's perfectly fine being the only child for now, maybe she's going to want one in the future or she'll regret not having someone to play with when she was younger

you'll be preparing dinner and he'll walk in holding your four-year-old and saying something like "she learned a new phrase!" and she mumbles it because she doesn't even know what she's saying but don't worry! he's already translating for you

ʚɞ Alejandro...

he loved his daughter, the way she had inherited most of your features with his complementing her and how she was his little angel, she was such a sweet child how could he NOT want another one?

"another one, just like her... just think about it" and he even got your daughter to ask you with her own little spin on the question, she knew how to get things, she would twirl and fidget with her princess dress, shyly asking with the little spark in her eye and the small smile she knew got her almost every toy and candy she asked for

it was impossible to go an entire day without hearing it from one of them, the problem was that they both were asking for another girl, what is instead of that you got a boy? and you knew just how that could turn out, he was likely to inherit alejandro's personality and you had heard it firsthand from alejandro's mother how he was like as a boy

you could already see how hyper the kid would turn out to be, you really did want a son but seeing how alejandro spoiled your daughter... you were reasonably worried how your son would turn out

ʚɞ Rudy...

he's so in love with raising his kid rn he hasn't ever thought about having another one, says he wants to focus on the one you have right now because he's devoted like that, but what about when his kid starts going off about wanting a sibling? a little baby would surely be exciting

he's worried that your child doesn't fully understand the responsibility that comes with a newborn, he dedicates so much time to your child that he's worried they would get jealous when their sibling is born, it's not that he's completely closed off to the idea of another child, but maybe when this one is a little older?

he's had to hold himself back from saying something about another kid when he stares at the baby shoes in the glass display when you go to the mall, he should be content with the child you have in your care

he also thinks about whether you're ready for another one yet, after all it is very hard and he's so considerate he wouldn't want to make you feel pressured about it

ʚɞ Phillip Graves...

he's been wanting another kid for a LONG time now, ever since he was there to hold your firstborn and see their tiny eyes open and meet his for the first time

he just loves the idea of having kids with you, he believes you are his biggest blessing he's ever received on this cake of earth and now he understands the blissful joy and simplicity his forebears relished in

his job is now second when it used to be the first priority in his life, money and riches don't matter as long as you're by his side and happy, of course he does love providing lavish things for you but he wouldn't enjoy it if he didn't have you to spoil

i could see him having a little bit of a breeding kink but he's also just a great father, your hormones be acting up when you see him shirtless and with a dad bod ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

but srs, he once asked his kid if he ever wanted a sibling because he'd been thinking about asking you for another child and when the little booger said yes he sent him to tell you

like your kid just going up to you saying he wanted a baby brother or sister and phillip just so happens to walk by and gives you a wink along w/ a sly smile

ʚɞ Makarov...

"sure, why not" his quick response without even so much as batting an eye at the question his son asked, it was as if it were only a simple request, as easy as if the kid had asked for candy, your son smiled, delighted he was going to have a sibling and ran off

you scoffed, "and you didn't even ask me?" and Makarov only gave you a glance before going back to eating the meal before him, he chewed for a good minute, leaving you with no other choice but to sit impatiently waiting for his answer

he chewed slowly, swallowing only when the bits of food had been ground down into almost nothing and then swallowing that, "what should we name this one?" he asked a little too nonchalantly for your liking, he went on to what features this child would inherent, the possibility of it being a boy or a girl and you're just sitting there confused and "wait just a minute now"

ofc later he does ask if you want to try for the second child, in his mind it's likely he already has a name for them and all but he wouldn't force you to have another kid if you were hesitant about it

he's great at sugarcoating things and sweetening you up with honeyed words in your ear so it's easy for you to say yes in the moment

ʚɞ Keegan...

he was probably just trying to unwind after a long day when your kid brought that up, the both of you exchanged worried glances as you had agreed on not having anymore kids, he actually wasn't sure whether he ever even wanted kids but after becoming a father he quite enjoyed it, it wasn't as hard as it was expected because your kid was surprisingly calm

so he did let the thought linger in his mind, thinking maybe a second one wouldn't be THAT bad of an idea but then what if this second kid wasn't what neither of you expected? he didn't like difficult kids, he's seen how some parents struggle with their kids and they look so damn tired

he thinks about getting the kid a pet, that would distract him from wanting a sibling, right? well, turns out that only works temporarily, he's then hearing from his kid how the dog doesn't know how to play with their toys, that the dog won't sit still and watch tv with them

now keegan really is second guessing his previous decision...

ʚɞ König...

könig always gets so flustered when people ask if he ever thought of having another kid, he doesn't know how to answer that question because neither of you had ever discussed it before, before you two had even had your first kid he had been too nervous to talk about the possibility of having children

he didn't want to say whether or not he wanted children because what if you didn't and that was a huge determining factor for you? but you remember the first time you asked him and he had softly said yes, more than anything he wanted at least one, especially after you two were living together it was all he could think of

so he thought about how to tell you he wanted another one because he had said previously that he was fine with only one, but he's sort of thankful it was his daughter that brought it up first, she was already seven and now that she felt a little older and definitely wanted a sibling

she didn't care whether it was a baby brother or sister and frankly, neither did könig, he just wanted another kid and heck he'd even be willing to become a stay at home father

ʚɞ Horangi...

you didn't expect your daughter to ask for a sibling since horangi always made time to play games and spend time with her, you'd think she wouldn't want one because she might get jealous of not having her dad focus on only her

but surprisingly she did, you sort of expected horangi to ask for another kid because eventually your daughter would grow up and well, naturally spend more time alone or with friends instead so he'd miss that, right?

well, you compromised and soon enough there was a baby boy born, except he was not at all what your daughter or horangi had been expecting, in reality, your daughter wanted a playmate to incorporate in their games and with time it was obvious your son was more of the quiet type

he wasn't much for playing games and often was content with being in your arms while you read and listened to music

ʚɞ Nikto...

nikto didn't know he had it in him to even raise kids until you had your first baby, it's like he unlocked a part of himself he didn't know he had, overnight he had become so nurturing and he didn't know how to feel about another kid

exploring the thought of how many kids you two could handle made him feel unsure when his son came up to him with a picture he had drawn in school, at first nikto hadn't paid much attention to what the scrawly figures on the papers were until his son asked what he thought of it

nikto only said it was a very nice picture and his son beamed, a huge smile on his face, "so you agree?", "with what?" nikto was confused, "having another baby!", and nikto almost fell out of his chair

nikto didn't really give a reply and dismissed the kid who was too happy to care about what his father's answer had been, maybe nikto should talk to you about this...