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toomanystoriessolittletime · 4 years ago

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Going Back Home

Summary: Claire never thought she would be back in the town she grew up in. But after her fiancé broke off their engagement, leaving her 5 months pregnant and alone she found herself calling Frankie Morales in the middle of the night, one of her childhood friends who insisted that she booked the next flight out. Trying to fix her life with a little help from her friends she would find out soon that going back would be the best decision she ever made.

Pairing: Frankie Morales x Claire Beck

wordcount: 3.1k

Warnings: more or less unplanned pregnancy, break up, mentions of sexual encounters

A/N: I am a weak weak person so here it is, a chaptered fic. I will try to update this weekly, but no promises. Rating will go up later. I'm attempting slow burn. Let's see how slow lol Let me know what you think. Reblogs are, as always, appreciated 💙

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Even Though most of her happiest memories were connected with this town, the town she spent most of her life in, Claire never thought she actually would be back here. And certainly not pregnant and all by herself.

It wasn’t that she had been unhappy here. Claire just always wanted something… bigger. Something more. Something exciting. After her parents died and most of her friends moved away, there was nothing holding her back. Well, that wasn’t true. Frankie and Santiago were there. But only when they weren’t overseas or god knows where, which left her with her dream of being a journalist in a small town where she had no chance to ever make it.

She still remembered Santi’s face when she announced that it was her turn to leave just before they were about to be gone for months again. She had gotten a job in New York and thought for days about what to do until she took the job. That was eight years ago and they hadn’t seen each other in person since then.

Yet when she called Frankie three days ago in tears, it was like no time had passed. She wanted to call Santiago first, but she knew him. If she had told him what happened to her he would have gotten into his car and gotten to her, no matter if it took 3 straight days. No, she had called Frankie. He had listened to her for hours until he made her promise to book the next flight out.

When the fuck did her life become such a shit show?

Only a week ago, she had the dream job, was engaged and 5 months pregnant.

Claire was happy. Until her fiance came back from a work trip and suddenly announced that he wanted nothing to do with the child and moved out within days, leaving her on her own. Not even his phone number was working and she wasn’t gonna show up at his work. She wasn’t that desperate. She should have seen it coming. John never planned to have kids. But when Clarie found out that she was pregnant he had already asked her to marry him and maybe he was too proud to end the engagement back then. Thinking back maybe this was the reason he stayed. Because a part of him wanted to spend his life with her. They didn’t fight. He just moved out, told her that he would take care financially of her and the child, but that he didn’t want to be a father.

The first days she was just numb. Trying to wrap her mind around the fact that the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, left her while she was pregnant with a child they didn’t plan but that she loved without a doubt. That was what kept her going. Her little bean. Claire would do anything to protect her little girl.

The guys to this day called her bean. She found herself thinking more of them since John left. Even without seeing them in the last years, they still stayed in contact. Not a week went by where she didn’t receive a letter. They had a group chat that was only used when they were at home and the bachelor was on. Cause fuck did they all hate that show but they watched it anyways.

Claire was okay with the whole suddenly being on her own thing, until she felt her baby move for the first time and turned in her bed to wake her fiance, finding the side empty and cold. For one tiny moment, she had forgotten that she was alone in a city where she had only a couple of friends who were his friends rather than hers. She had always had a hard time finding friends. That probably wouldn’t change.

Sucking her bottom lip in, she rested one hand on her belly as she waited for her luggage to arrive. She slept almost through the entire flight. Claire had gotten rid of the last eight years of her life in the last 48 hours. She wanted to start fresh. She needed a fresh start. Even if she had no idea how to deal with all of this on her own.

A woman next to her helped her get her suitcases on the cart, noticing that Claire was on her own. Pushing the cart through security she saw Frankie as soon as the door opened and next to him Ben, Will and Santiago who all smiled at her, while she felt the first tears escaping her eyes.

She had met Ben and Will only a couple times, they were living an hour away, but they became part of the group immediately. Once upon a time her childhood best friend, Leah, was in that group too. Claire hadn’t thought of Leah in a long time. She had died in a car accident almost 12 years ago.

Arms pulled her in a warm embrace and even after years of not seeing each other for such a long time, she still noticed Frankie’s scent.

“We got you,” he whispered, kissing her hair. She sobbed once before she was pulled into Santi’s arms.

“Look at you,” he smiled before he looked down at her belly.

“And look at you?” he smiled and leaned down.

“Hello, this is your favorite Uncle speaking,” he winked, bending down to speak directly to her belly, making her chuckle.

“Oh please, we all know I’m gonna be the favorite, hey bean,” Will hugged her.

“Don’t listen to them baby girl, we know they're all gonna spoil you rotten,” she grinned, letting Ben kiss her cheek.

“So you’re staying?” Frankie asked and you nodded.

“I already called some realtors. I wanna get this over as quickly as possible. Already sold everything back in New York,” Claire said, looking at the two men who formed most of her teenage years.

“Okay. Let’s get you out of this airport first. You okay to stay with Frankie? He has the biggest house,” Santiago asked, pushing the cart as you slowly walked towards the exit with Ben’s arm around her shoulder.

“Uh… I don’t wanna impose. I could just take a room…”

“Fuck no. Stay at my place. It’s my Pa’s old ranch. I’m renovating it.”

“What? No way!” she said surprised but Frankie only nodded.

“Yeah after Liz and South America I needed something to keep me busy. Also needed more space for Elena,” he explained. A small smile sneaked to Claire’s face.

“I still can’t believe you’re a dad Frankie.”

“Can’t believe you gonna be a mom. Fuck we’re really adults now, huh?” he winked and Claire sighed.

“Certainly didn’t plan it that way. Or planned it at all,” she said sadly before she shook her head as if to get rid of the sad thoughts clouding her mind.

“I meant it, Claire. We got you. We are bored most times anyways.”

“Hey speak for yourself, Fish. I got a business,” Santi said.

“Yeah. Yeah. Me too. But after work you’re either drunk or after some pussy so?” Ben grinned, making her chuckle.

“So still no ladies in your life, boys?” Claire asked as they reached what definitely was Frankie’s truck. It had his company name on it. “Morales gardening”

“Nope. But now that you’re here we could finally….” Will started only for Claire to look away in disgust, making them all laugh.

“You ready to become a Daddy, Will?” she asked, her hands both on her belly.

“Uhm… of course?” he answered and she chuckled.

“That’s what I thought,” she patted his cheek.

“Come on. Let’s get you to bed. You must be exhausted,” Frankie said and opened the door for her.

“We’ll see you tomorrow for the BBQ,” they all waved. She waved back, letting Frankie help her inside before he closed the door behind her and hopped into the driver’s seat.

“BBQ?” she asked.

“Can’t blame the folks from wanting to welcome you, bean,” he winked.

“What folks?”

“Ya know. Folks. You gonna see,” he looked at Claire. He felt better now that she was here. Frankie had missed her these last years, the couple of calls throughout hadn’t nearly been enough. And when she called two days ago in tears… He would have gotten the chopper and flown over but he couldn’t risk it. He had to be on good behaviour to be able to keep seeing his daughter.

“I missed you, Francisco,” she whispered.

“Missed you too, Bean.”

The sun was already setting when Frankie drove down a familiar path. Claire had spent countless days on this ranch when she was younger.

“How is your Dad doing?” she asked softly and Frankie sighed as he killed the engine in front of the house.

“I fucking hate that I can’t take care of him on my own, but he’s hanging in there.”

“I’d like to visit him if you’re okay with that,” she reached over squeezing his hand and he looked at her with a small smile.

“I bet he would love that.”

“And I’m sure he would have wanted it this way, Francisco. You know your dad. He wouldn’t have wanted you to drop everything for him. Don’t be too hard on yourself,” she said quietly.

“Damn I really missed you Bean,” he shook his head.

“Missed you too,” she let her head fall against his shoulder.

Claire didn’t really have eyes for the house, all she wanted was to go to sleep.

“I finished the guest room this morning for you,” Frankie said, setting one of her suitcases down as he opened the door.

“Please tell me you didn’t work overnight to finish this,” she sighed looking at him. He was rubbing the back of his head, pulling the cap he was always wearing down and avoiding her eyes.

Knowingly she shook her head, but couldn’t help the smile sneaking to her face.

“I won’t say it. But please don’t touch the walls, they might still be wet,” he said and she chuckled.

“Okay. Bathroom is over there. The shower isn’t working yet but you’re welcome to use mine. Will is coming over to take a look and make this one work. Other than that if you need anything just ask. Until you found a place this is your home.”

“You really didn’t have to do this, Frankie,” she said quietly, feeling overwhelmed by all of this. So many things had changed in such a short amount of time for her and she only now seemed to realize that she was indeed about to be a single mom.

“I wanted to. You’re… You don’t deserve to be treated like this. So let us help you, okay?” he said softly and she nodded but avoided his eyes.

“Okay. Go to sleep. My room is down the hallway if you need anything,” he stepped closer, kissing her forehead and for one tiny moment, she felt like the 15 year old teenager again who was crushing on Frankie Morales.

“Good night, Francisco,” she smiled.

“Good night, bean,” he whispered before he turned around and closed the door behind him.

Claire looked around, in awe of the room, the bed looking so inviting to her. Sighing she walked over to the window, knowing she would be able to see the whole property during the day. Crossing her arms in front of her she closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of nature that she had no idea she had missed living in the city for all these years. She felt a fluttering in her belly, her hand wandering down to feel a kick.

“We’ll be happy here, I promise,” she vowed, rubbing over her belly.

She didn’t want to disturb Frankie, even though she could hear the TV running so she just washed herself at the sink before she put her Pajamas on and sat down on the bed. She would unpack tomorrow. For now she had to sleep.

The sun wasn’t even up when Claire woke up. She turned in bed, propping herself up so she could look out the window and watch the sunrise. She had to make a plan. A plan that included finding a house, a doctor and help. Though help would be her smallest problem. She already looked at houses in the area and it didn’t look good. If she had more time she would buy the house just down this road, but there was no way the house would be ready before her due date. She would ask Santi for help. He had a lot of connections through his business. Though Frankie too. Claire knew that he had a little gardening company since he lost his pilot’s license. He never really talked about it, but then again, they didn’t talk that much. She knew that he had some problems with drugs in the past, but that he has been clean for almost two years and was doing better. She also knew that there was a lot more to this story then he had told her. Maybe they would have time to talk. To really talk. Groaning to herself, her quiet and peaceful morning was interrupted by her bladder. Time to start the day.

For a minute she wondered if she could risk sneaking into Frankie’s room to take a shower when she heard music playing. Grabbing her bathrobe and toiletries she opened the door and walked down. Now being really awake she had time to take in the house. It seemed like there still was a lot to do. The walls were still unpainted, the floors still old, though she could see he already started with the floor the closer she got to the kitchen.

Frankie was sitting at the kitchen island, a cup of coffee in front of him as the radio quietly played in the background. He had a serious case of bed hair and she smiled to herself. He hadn’t noticed her yet and she found herself thinking back to all the times she had thought that maybe there was something more in between them than friendship. And maybe there was at one point a long time ago. But that was before he joined the military. She might be selfish for it, but she couldn’t be in a relationship where her partner was gone all the time. She needed someone to be there. Even Though there had been times in the past she had found herself asking if maybe she should have risked it.

Instead she had slept with Santiago.

Yeah, that was a big fuck up. Well it was also a pretty good fuck but it was just once and they definitely were better off as friends. She still didn’t know if Frankie knew. Not that she had to explain herself. Frankie always knew what effect he had on the women around him, and he sure as hell took advantage of it. And now she felt nothing more than love for him. As a friend, nothing more.

“Good Morning,” she said quietly and Frankie turned his head, yawning at her.

Chuckling she walked over taking in the kitchen, setting her toiletries down.

“You weren’t kidding when you say you were still renovating,” she sat down next to him. He got up from his seat walking over to fix her a mug of tea.

“Still hooked on Strawberry tea, I hope?” he asked and she nodded, surprised that he remembered.

“Yeah. Though the kitchen and living room are supposed to be finished by the end of next week. So sorry for the noise in the next couple days,” he walked over and set down the mug of tea in front of her.

“Hey it’s your house. I’m just thankful you let me stay.”

“Of course. Couldn’t let you stay in the dumpster motel in this town,” he winked. She took a sip of the tea and it was perfect.

“So what are you planning for today?” he asked.

“I probably should start looking into houses. I’m kind of on a timetable here,” she rested one hand on her belly and Frankie followed her movement.

“Yeah. I think Pope already called someone for some houses. It’s not looking good.”

“Yeah I thought so. Everything I found on the internet was in really bad shape,” she sighed.

“It’s gonna work out. And if you don’t find something, you’re welcome to stay. The place is big enough,” he shrugged and Claire laughed quietly.

“Yeah I bet you can’t wait to live with a hormonal pregnant woman and then with a newborn,” she joked.

“I lived with Pope. Nothing can be worse and…”

“And?” she asked.

“I already lived with a hormonal pregnant woman. It’s not that bad,” he shrugged with a small smile. She looked at him with a small smile on her face.

“You say that now. Wait till I’m craving your mug cake at 3am now that I’m living with you,” she joked. Frankie laughed.

“Wow I haven’t had one of those in at least 10 years.”

“Well then it’s about time.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, looking at Claire. She looked more relaxed today, like she had a good night’s sleep and he was thankful he put in an overnight to finish the guest room for her. She deserved to relax. When she told him that she not only was pregnant but dumped by her fiance Frankie was furious, yet at the same time he already decided that he would take care of her and help her with everything she needed. It was the least he could do.

Even though they grew apart in the last years, she still was one of his best friends.

“Okay. I’m gonna go take a shower. I got to drive out to check on a project. You gonna be okay here for a while?” Frankie asked. Claire nodded, grabbing her mug of tea.

“Just tell me when you’re going out so I can take a shower,” she said.

“Thank you, Frankie,” she whispered when she stopped next to him and softly kissed his cheek, before she walked down the hallway. Frankie looked after her with a soft smile before he got up to get ready to head out.

Next chapter

#my writing #going back home #frankie morales #francisco morales #frankie morales x ofc #pedro pascal #fanfiction #fanfic #fan fiction #fan fic #frankie morales fanfiction

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adonis-koo · 4 years ago

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to the moon and back

Summary: Sometimes the distance in relationships really does make a strain and sometimes...it can really make quite the experience, at least in your experience with your boyfriend who only lives half way across the world...

Pairing: Jungkook/Reader, theres like,,,implied Taehyung/Reader if you really squint

Genre: angst, smut,

Word Count: 6.4k

Tags: long distance relationship that I accidentally projected way too much of my own personal experience into 😃, Jungkook just really loves MC, skype sex, I am sorry, mutual masturbation, a little praise kink, Jungkook says baby in korean a lot and once again I am sorry, sex toys, a lil overstim, nothing too crazy tbh, dirty talk, dom!jungkook and sub!MC 🤑

Note: I missed ldr!Jungkook and MC which is based off this sorta imagine I did for them! So I cured it by writing a lil bit about them!! :)

“Hey Jungkook…”

The said man in question suddenly perked up from where he had been looking down, half his hair tied up and he was rubbing his eyes, he looked tired these days and sometimes you couldn’t help but feel bad. Long distance relationships weren’t always what they were cracked up to be and it wasn’t like you were intentionally looking for a ball and chain at the time...

But well, it was a long night, you were slightly drunk and in a long dry spell so you thought, what the hell? When you signed up for a sub/dom dating website. Again, your intentions weren’t to actually date someone, you were just slightly drunk and horny, and waking up the morning after your phone had been blown up by your now boyfriend. It was innocent at first, you both had a good laugh (to somewhat of your embarrassment) about the whole drunk thing and you were just curious to get to know him.

It was from there you had learned he lived halfway across the planet in South Korea and not only this but when you began exchanging photos he was by far the most beautiful man you had ever seen. One thing led to another and eventually you both decided to make it official.

You were used to this of course, you had never actually met him in person and sometimes you felt a little apprehensive to do so, you knew it would hurt Jungkook severely if he ever found out but still...sometimes it felt like you just didn’t know him as much as you wanted too.

Time zones were a literal hell, by the time you woke up he was getting ready to sleep and most the time texts weren’t sent until the next day, video calls were rare and usually had to wait until the weekend. It sucked.

Jungkook, if anything, had been trying to convince you to at least fly out to see him, he even offered to pay for your ticket as he was- ahem- apparently in the chain of business for a really well known exports corporation and was a supervisor so he lived very well off in comparison to yourself, who was still in college and buried in debt with little to no money left outside of the expenses of living.

But again, you were just...nervous...flying by yourself, to a country you had never been too, to meet a man you had never met...You knew realistically everything would be fine, Jungkook was exactly who he said he was, he wasn’t some criminal that was going to murder you and sell your body parts on the black market but…! You just wanted to be safe! To be careful even if that would never happen.

“Hm?” Jungkook hummed, it was a late saturday night for him but he always stayed up just for you, just to be able to talk to you, to see your face, even if you went hours not talking to one another while he worked and you studied. He told you he just enjoyed looking over at his monitor and seeing you.

Currently you had been curled up on your pillow scrolling on your phone and occasionally admiring your boyfriend’s side profile and strands of hair long hair that fell from his face, “Why did you learn English?”

Jungkook raised his brow a little before suddenly laughing causing you to shift a little in embarrassment feeling as though you had said something dumb, “Well,” He rasped a little, he had been brushing up on his english ever since you started dating but he was also a little self conscious of his accent despite you saying several times over how much you adored it, “English is mandatory to learn in school but I learned extensively due to my family traveling a lot for business and work. I once spent a whole year in New York when my father was employed overseas, that was actually how I became so fluent, classes are fine but experience always teaches best in my opinion....” Jungkook’s lips curled into a smile as he hummed once more, “Which means your studies in Korean would be easier if you visited…”

Flustered you rolled onto your back as you pressed your pillow against your face, “Jungkook…!” You whined wiggling in your best as you heard his laugh filter through the speaker, “I need you know I really need to stay and study for my finals, it makes up for over forty percent of my grade!”

“Not even for winter break?” Jungkook let his lips jut into a pout as he laid his chin against his hand, “Jagi I have a bed that’s way too big to sleep in all by myself, are you gonna make me downgrade?” He sighed dramatically as he fell back in his computer chair pulling his hair tie out as his hair fell at his cheeks as he began to fix it.

You ignored the heat immediately flushing between your legs at the deep rasp of his voice, “My mom’s expecting me to come home to visit for the holidays Koo…” You frowned as you peeped out from behind your pillow to find the massive pout on your boyfriend's face as he sunk in his seat.

“Sometimes I think you’re just embarrassed to tell people we’re in a relationship,” Jungkook mumbled as he sat up in his seat, running his fingers through his hair as he sulked, obviously trying not to let your rejection make him upset but even through a screen you could always read his moods, sometimes too easily.

“That is not true!” Your voice was immediately serious as you sat up, fixing your laptop as you set it in front of you, Jungkook was once more slouched in his seat, his hand resting on his cheek as he looked away from the screen, “That is not true Jungkook, I-...” You sighed, “I can’t just drop all my responsibilities here to visit you, you know this, you know hard I’ve been studying for finals and how much my family has been wanting to see me…”

Jungkook didn’t reply for a moment but you could’ve sworn you heard something akin to a scoff escape his lips, “But you still haven’t told your family...have you?”

“I haven’t had the chance…” You were immediately trying to defend your reasoning when deep down you felt bad that well...he was right...to a degree, but what were you supposed to tell you family? You met your boyfriend on an offshoot website based around sexual play and not only this but he lived half way around the world.

“You talk to your mom on the phone weekly Y/n,” The longer Jungkook looked away from the screen the more upset he was getting and you could tell and yet you felt so helpless, it wasn’t like you could just reach over and grab his face, or simply hug him and apologize. Once again, you found yourself at a loss of what to do or say.

It wasn’t that you wished you hadn’t met Jungkook, you’d never in your life change that night, but sometimes you wished things weren’t so complicated and that your fears wouldn’t get the best of you. And you did speak some truth, even if you weren’t nervous to meet Jungkook in person, it didn’t change the fact that you wouldn’t be able to go now with finals approaching and your family expecting you for the holidays.

“I’m just,” Jungkook inhaled sharply before letting out a sigh, “I just feel so frustrated sometimes, I want to be with you, not part time, half time, or only at night. I want to wake up with you in my arms every single day. And I can’t do that, hell I can’t even get a phone call during the week let alone a text at the same time of day if I’m lucky. We just had a work party where everyone brought their partners and I couldn’t bring mine because she lives in America.”

His upset was beginning to make you upset, it felt like your gut was being grinded and it wrenched in an unpleasant feeling as you spoke, “Look I’m sorry okay? I can’t help it that this is where I live, I understand you want to be with me, you don’t think I want the same thing?” You put your hand on your chest, trying to keep your voice level as you swallowed harshly, “But right now, I can’t help it Jungkook. The holidays just aren’t a good time right now…”

“Then what was the excuse during the end of the summer when you weren’t even in school and your parents didn’t want to see you?” Jungkook replied, his jaw clenched and hurt in his eyes as he questioned you, “Or was it still because you were sick in the middle of july?”

“I just met you!” You cried out now beginning to feel genuinely hurt at your boyfriend questioning the sincerity of your feelings, “I wasn’t going to fly out to Korea to meet someone I had only been talking to for three weeks! Jungkook this is-”

“I’m not embarrassed to be with you! God, that is literally the last thing on my mind right now! I’m embarrassed at the way we met, I’m embarrassed that I- I somehow have to explain to my family that my boyfriend lives in South Korea and that I’ve never met him and somehow explain to them that you aren’t some serial rapist or human trafficker out to sell my kidney! Because that’s exactly what I’m going to hear! And I’m sorry I just haven’t been ready to deal with that!” You couldn’t even stop the tears from flowing down your face as you pressed your hands to your eyes, “It’s easy for you to talk about us because you’re an adult who lives debt free by himself in his own apartment with your own secure job and you don’t have to answer or deal with anyone, even your own parents! That’s not how it is for me Jungkook.”

Your head was lowered as you tried to muffle your sobs that was the only thing that filled the loud silence that filtered the air, running your hands through your hair as you took a breath. You could hear a sigh on the other side before Jungkook spoke, “Y/n…”

“You know what,” You sniffled as you straightened up, “I’m not in the mood to talk anymore,”

“Y/n! No! Jagi listen-”

“No I’m done!” You argued back as you wiped your face with the sleeve of your hoody, “I don’t want to talk to you right now. Goodnight.” You clicked the end call button before closing down your laptop. Sitting now, staring at your distinct reflection on the black screen before bursting into a new set of tears.

Your phone’s ringtone was immediately set off as you sobbed, picking it up as you harshly punched the decline call button before it quickly popped back up on the screen only for you to press it even more vehemently. Your phone lit up several times being flooded with messages from Jungkook trying to convince you to talk to him but you immediately turned off your phone as you collapsed back against your bed, weeping against your pillow as you tried to ignore the pure hurt that filtered your veins despite it being justified.

God you shouldn’t have even said any of that to Jungkook! Really it was your fault you hadn’t seen him, you had made excuses all because you were just scared. He was probably going to break up with you now...Squeezing your pillow tight you closed your eyes as you muffled your sobs.

“Girl why are you staring at your phone?” Lisa sighed in exasperation, “Don’t tell me…Oh shit…” She sighed as she watched your eyes begin to pitfully water, “What was it this time?”

“I’m a horrible person be-because I can’t just fucking suck it up and tell my family about my boyfriend and- and I can’t just go visit him!” You were already wiping your eyes despite not even crying yet and you refused to ruin your mascara in a public store. The bookstore was quiet as ever and the barista who worked the cafe was still sorting magazines out on the rack not even paying attention to you both but still you had to keep up your ideals or else you’d be crying all the time.

“You are not a horrible person oh my god!” Lisa raised her brows before scoffing, she pointed a long acrylic nail at you as she spoke, “That boy needs to calm his hormones, you are strapped for the rest of the holidays. Y/n! Come on, seriously you need to draw some boundaries with him! Just be honest and it’s going to save you both a lot of trouble.”

You sunk in your seat as your lips began to tremble making Lisa sigh, “How many messages did he send this time?”

“Twenty four.” You mumbled.

“Jesus Christ.” Lisa groaned as she pressed her hand against her forehead, her bangs which had been melded together with hairspray not even moving an inch, “What even started this fight!?”

Lisa was not only your closest friend but most times she was also your voice of reason which you knew was most times right but still you couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as you twirled your straw that poked through the lid of your iced coffee, “Well it was innocent at first, I just asked him why he learned English when he was younger and it translated into him saying experience taught him best which meant going to Korea would help me with my own language studies.”

“Why can’t you just be honest with him!? Seriously! Y/n!” She gave you her premium disappointed look as you whined, kicking your feet as you covered your hands over your face knowing she was right, but!

“That would literally crush him!” You replied feeling defeated as you slumped in your seat once more, sighing as sadness filled you, “It feels like…” You poked your tongue into your cheek as you exhaled in frustration, “No matter how hard I try, I just always end up hurting him. Jungkook would be so hurt if he knew my main reason for not wanting to see him.”

Lisa raised her brows as she scoffed, “No he would not! If he’s so desperate to jump on your pussy he’ll come to America and not only meet you but he’ll be meeting me as well the first time. This relationship is a two way street Y/n-”

“He has a whole team he’s managing Lisa, he’s told me he’d visit if he could schedule the time off but-”

“All I hear is an excuse,” Lisa clacked her tongue, “Fair is fair, you’re just being cautious as anyone should be when they’re talking to someone over the internet,” She curved a brow before snorting as she sipped her drink, “Now listen, do I think he’s a kidnapper that’s gonna kill you? No. Do I think he’s a fuckboy that just really wants to smash you? Maybe, it’s your relationship. Do what you want but regardless of whether your reasoning is legit he should respect it regardless.”

You deflated as you sighed, scrolling through his messages where he had profusely apologized several times and went on to explain that he just really wanted to be with you and never meant to dismiss your feelings on the matter. You hadn’t replied yet which made you feel even worse but truthfully, you just really wanted to talk to see him tonight on a video call and talk things over.

“Anyways, it’s time to boss up bitch,” Lisa pulled out the three textbooks from her bag before dropping them on the table as she offered a smile, “We got finals to prep for, we’re in the two week countdown so we need to cram as much as possible.”

Sighing you glanced down at your phone one last time before turning it off knowing the temptation to look over Jungkook’s messages would be too tempting. Putting your phone away you pulled out your notebook along with your own textbooks as you nodded, “You’re right, it’ll at least take my mind off of it…”

You could only hope.

You had spent the last ten minutes trying to gas yourself up, Jungkook had stopped texting around lunch time having obviously given up and giving you space as this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened and he knew if he just gave you time you’d eventually reach out to him.

Like right now, except you felt severely embarrassed for your actions this morning and you knew you could have handled things in a better and more mature way then you had, regardless you were struggling to even send a text at the moment let alone video call him...Checking the clock on your phone you sighed, it was already 1pm in Seoul....

Jungkook if anything was probably on his computer sulking while playing video games as he usually did on his weekends off when he wasn’t talking to you. Sucking in a breath you knew you needed to talk to him now because if you didn’t you’d have to go the whole week with stale texts that never went over well and you weren’t working with much to begin with, you didn’t want to make it worse. Sighing, you sat down on your bed as you began to type.

[10:25]

‘I’m sorry I haven’t replied to any of your messages :( can you video right now?’

You chewed on your lip anxiety immediately spiking in your head as you wondered if you came across too much like a victim...Or maybe you should’ve just not mentioned the not replying to his messages and just asked if-

You nearly jumped out of your skin at the sound of the skype call sounding with Jungkook’s name under it, grabbing your chest you collapsed onto the bed as you made yourself comfortable, shying away from the camera as you grabbed your pillow in insecurity before accepting the call.

“I really am sorry Jagi,” You couldn’t even open your mouth before Jungkook’s worried expression showed up on your laptop, the hoodie covering his head and just as you expected his puppy like eyes were glossed and filled with sadness, “I- I didn’t realize how much stress you were under and I shouldn’t have been so careless. This is the only time during the week that I get to see you and I really don’t want to argue…”

You curled up against your pillow as you mumbled, “I should be the one apologizing, I know how much it means to you for us to be able to see each other in person and I need to make the time for us to be able to do that it’s just…” You had meant to tell him the truth but- “I just have a lot going on right now but I didn’t mean to take that out on you, I know you just want us to be together...”

“Oh jagiya,” Jungkook sighed, longing filled his face and his fingers twitched a little as they ran through his hair as if wishing he could just hold you close to him, “It’s okay, I’m just glad you wanted to talk. I didn’t want the whole week to drag by without being able to talk to you, you know you always make my day better…”

And just like that your chest blossomed with warmth as you curled up, hiding the smile that began to creep on your lips as you squeezed your pillow, “Not as much as you make my day. Especially when you send those tease pictures for me right before I need to go to bed.” You would never get enough of that addictive feeling of talking to Jungkook, his smile was always infectious.

And just like that you watch, just like every other time, in amazement at the way Jungkook’s personality switches like a light, the innocent sweet smile that was once on his lips is suddenly twisted into a cocky smirk and he leans back his chair, his long hair is slightly messy but just enough to make him look truly wicked, “Oh? Is that right gongjunim? I thought you’d appreciate it?”

Said photo in question was sent thursday night when you were prepping for bed and Jungkook had very obviously just gotten out of the shower in the mirror selfie he had sent that displayed the chiseled abdomen and broad chest and not to mention the….ahem package he was sporting beneath the thin towel that he had purposely clutched with his free hand.

Yeah...that nearly destroyed your right hand.

“Well I did…” You immediately coiled up, no matter how many times this happens with your boyfriend- which is nearly every weekend, you always end up getting shy despite your thighs furiously pressing together and wetness building up in your panties, “Maybe a little too much…”

Jungkook pressed his tongue into his cheek as his smirk widened, just his stare made you press your face into the pillow as you heard his chuckle, “What? What did you do?”

The fact that he skipped to the golden question made you whine as you kicked your feet, you could hear another laugh from him as you curled up once more, “You know…” You mumbled, feeling your face burn as you pressed it against the pillow.

“No baby I don’t.” Jungkook pouted but his voice rasped and something about saying baby in english with that accent of his had your fingers twitching as he puffed a breath of air in cockiness as he hummed, “Why don’t you tell me hm?”

Shifting against the bed you shook your head, “You know what I’m talking about…”

“Do I?” Jungkook challenged as he raised a brow, his beginning to clench as he slipped into his dominant headspace, tucking his tongue into his cheek as he asked, “If you can’t use your words would you rather show me? Be a good girl and show me, yeah?”

Your words were muffled as you replied, “I had help…” Your face felt like it was practically on fire as you rubbed your legs together as you heard him laugh, “Then be a good girl and go get it jagiya, I’ll still be here.” You gave Jungkook a good laugh as you nearly scrambled out of bed to get your bullet vibrator off it’s charger before diving back on the bed making your laptop bounce as you sat up right.

Jungkook meanwhile had pulled off his sweatshirt and repositioned his camera to expose his lower body, the familiar sight of his plump cherry lips exposed in that forever tainted smirk as he made himself comfortable in his chair, his thighs spreading apart and the indent in his sweats showing off proudly, “Good girl kitty, now I want you to take off your clothes, all of it.”

You wiggled in your comfy sweatshirt feeling a little shy as you began to shed your clothes, “The bra too baby,” Jungkook coaxed as he licked his lips, his cock tightening and becoming harder at the sight of your flustered, shy expression as you unhooked your bra, there was nothing more this man wanted then to suckle on your nipples that immediately hardened against the chilled air of the room.

Jungkook’s hand found its way to his bulge as he palmed himself through his grey sweats, “Panties too baby, I know you’re shy but you need to be a good girl and take them off. And remember your words.” He added with a low growl.

“...Yes sir.” You mumbled, feeling chilly and exposed to nothing more then the camera on your laptop and Jungkook of course before you pulled off the panties you wore, arousal sticking to the fabric that stringed before you tossed them aside, your eyes unable to stay off his hand that kept stroking his bulge.

“Good girl,” His lips twitched into a sadistic smile, “Now spread your legs jagiya and show me what you did to that photo I sent you, every little detail baby.” You whined as you looked away from the camera, “Jagiya…” Jungkook’s voice deepened a little in warning, “Are you gonna make me get out the controller?”

Outwardly you’d completely deny that but inwardly....The idea nearly had you frothing out the mouth, but reluctantly you did as he asked, the chilled air nipping at your exposed warm wet folds had your levels of arousal that much higher and you could hear a soft verbal moan from Jungkook as he squeezed his hand over his cock, “Shibal,” He muttered a few other words in korean that you could only half make out before he spoke once more, “You’re so fucking wet baby. Play with yourself, don’t make me wait.”

Tenderly you slipped your hand between your thighs, flinching a little at the cold that seeped from your fingers that met in opposition to the heat radiating off your cunt, arousal met your fingertips as you dragged them up you slit before rubbing slow circles around your clit, your lips parting a little at the idea of it being his fingers doing this to you.

Jungkook let out a little scoffed laugh, licking his lips as he pulled down his sweats just enough to free his throbbing cock, a sight you’d never fully get used too and had your mouth watering at just the sight. He was much thicker then he was long but he certainly wasn’t short, the vein on the underside of his cock displayed and you could even see his tip beginning to weep as it became red, “How bad do you wish those were my fingers playing with that little clit baby? Put those fingers inside your cunt baby,lay back and use your toy to make yourself feel good for me.

Situating your laptop before you laidback, opening your legs once more as you began to transition to your subspace as you closed your eyes, imagining his fingers dragging up your inner thighs.

Letting your eyes open you whined at the sight of lube slipping from his cock as his hand slowly pumped his shaft, his lips parted at the sight of one finger slipping inside your cunt before pulling out and adding a second finger. You could just imagine those long thick fingers filling you up while fitting up against your g-spot.

Fumbling with your vibrator you turned it on, switching the setting to a low pattern before carefully placing it on your aching bud. You had anticipated your reaction just as you did everytime and yet every time you still jolted, your walls tightly squeezing around your fingers as a whined squeak escaped your lips.

“Fuck princess that’s it,” Jungkook edged you on, his tongue in his cheek as his hand squeezed around his cock before he used his free hand to grab his own toy, the fleshlight that nearly always turned you into a mess, “Bet that little hole can hardly fit your own fingers let alone my big fat cock, right baby? Yeah?”

Your thighs were twitching as pleasure was rapidly buzzing against your clit and your walls kept squeezing around your fingers as you desperately tried to reach to your g-spot in need for an orgarsm to make up for all the anxiety and stress you had been under the whole day, “Yes! Yes sir! Ah- Mmph need you! Fuck, please! Sir.” You whimpered as your hips jolted to fuck back against your fingers.

Jungkook pushes the opening of the flashlight over his tip as he let out a soft moan, his hips fluidly began thrusting to the point your walls were so tight you could hardly move your fingers just at the idea of his cock forcing its way inside you, you just knew this mans stroke game was good and proved it every fucking time he took out that toy.

Watching his cock disappear with every thrust inside his toy as his lips parted a little wider this time, “You want this baby? You wish this was your pussy I’m fucking nice and deep?”

Your body was too excited for all of his dirty talk as you squirmed shifting the buzzing vibrator to the sweet spot of your clit as you squeaked, trying to keep yourself from being too loud as your roommate was home, “Want it! Want it so fucking bad! Please sir! Sir!”

You were embarrassingly horny and this made worked you up every single time, your hips we’re stumbled and your walls were rapidly clenching in excitement as his thick cock rocking it’s way in and out of the toy that you could just imagine was your pussy he was fucking nice and slow, making you feel his nice fat cock with every killer slow thrust.

“Oh Jagiya,” Jungkook moaned out, “Don’t tell me my kitten is already close?” He chuckled as he watched the way your body withered the way it always did when you were close, his eyes feasting on the way your pussy was stretched so delicately against your small fingers and the way your thighs clenched and your feet kicked, “Do you need to cum so soon?”

“Please! Please! Sir! I- I don’t think I can-“ Your thighs clamped together as your lips fell open, unable to even wait for his blessing as your orgasm ripped through your body, your toes curling as little whimpers escaped you, you could hear a long moan from Jungkook as you liddedly watched his hips stumble against his flesh light, hand running through his hair while he fumbled something in Korean.

“Baby fuuck,” Jungkook’s voice lowered as he moaned, “Cum again princess, cum for me baby I wanna hear you make those noises again for me. Keep those little fingers stuffed inside yourself.” Jungkook’s hips kept stuttering against his toy, his cock throbbing desperate as his moans became breathy at the sight of you obeying him. You were always such a good girl.

Your fingers were aching but your desire to watch him come undone was even greater as you began pushing your fingers back against your g-spot once more, feathery whines escaping you at the feeling of pain beginning to mix with pleasure at the consistent thrum of the vibrator against your clit.

“Ah! S-sir…!” You whimpered quietly as your walls suddenly clamped around your fingers once more, “I- ah! I don’t think I can…!”

“Yes you can,” Jungkook growled his hips bucking up into his toys faster his cock throbbing and squeezing in pleasure at the sight of your arousal slipping from your soaked cunt and the sight of your tits bouncing at the way your body kept squirming, he could only imagine what it would be like fucking you tied up and left to his mercy, “And you will,” He snapped with command, “You’re gonna be a good girl and cum for me again princess. I wasn’t fucking asking.”

Your legs immediately twitched and your breath hitched as you cried out, your back arching at the way your body listened to him so easily on command, your walls tightening around your fingers rapidly and pleasure seered into your clit as the orgasm roughly filled your body, “Ah Jungkook! Fuck, fuck, fuck…! Fuck! Ooh!” Moans escaped you louder then you intended as your hips desperately fucked into your fingers to ride the powerful orgasm you experienced.

Jungkook moaned softly as his hips bucked one last time into his toy before cum was filling it up at the idea of milking all of himself in your little warm cunt, letting his hips swivel as he milked every last drop of cum from his cock as he moaned before relaxing back in his chair.

Chuckling a little at watching your lower body scramble at your vibrator continuing to drill against your over stimulated clit as you struggled to turn it off, “Take your fingers out baby, I wanna see them.” Jungkook licked his lips as you obeyed him, pulling your fingers from your cunt to reveal the thick layer of arousal and cum on them nearly making Jungkook’s mouth water with the desire to lick every drop off your fingers, this man couldn’t even describe what he’d do to go down on you.

“Ah fuck, jagiya,” Jungkook laughed, a little flustered at the way you sat up, looking directly into the camera before putting your fingers in your mouth, licking off the salty and somewhat musky taste of your arousal which in your opinion wasn’t that great and Jungkook would never accept your opinion on the matter, “You’re gonna make me hard all over again.” He whined as he carefully pulled the toy off his cock, feeling the white substance already rolling down his softening shaft to reveal the mess he had made.

You giggled a little, feeling shy once more as you stood up with wobbling legs, “I don’t have to help with that.” You called out, grabbing your favorite sweatshirt to pull over your body. It was your favorite because...Well because Jungkook had sent it to you and because it was big on him it was massive on you.

You absolutely adored it, coming back in view you collapsed onto your bed as you curled up, Jungkook had just finished cleaning himself up, fixing his camera for you to see the beautiful radiant smile and eyes light up that was your boyfriend. He always had that dreamy look in his eyes while looking at you everytime you finished having Skype sex and everytime it always made you shy as you grabbed your pillow and curled up.

“You’re always so fucking good baby,” He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair, his smile permanently on his face as he stared in adoration at your curled up figure that was practically buried in his sweatshirt, “Mmm you were such a good girl too, your eyes were rolling to the back of your head when I told you to cum again.”

He had a boyish laugh at the way you curled up, “Stoop! You know I was already overstimulated, you better hope my roommate didn’t hear anything…!” You covered your face in embarrassment at the realization you were a little loud.

Jungkook’s face stiffened a little at the mention of your roommate before he tried to play it off with a small laugh, “Yeah well, what’s he gonna do about it anyways? You were just being my good little girl jagiya.” You covered your face in semi embarrassment. You knew Jungkook was redirecting the conversation back to verbal aftercare because you knew he didn’t like the fact that your roommate was a guy who was not only your age but also very attractive.

It wasn’t like Taehyung was ever interested in you, but you had mentioned to Jungkook when you first started talking that you used to have a crush on him. You felt as though some days that still lingered in Jungkook’s mind despite the fact that you didn’t even look at Taehyung twice anymore.

Especially since you and Jungkook became an item, however you also hadn’t told Jungkook that Taehyung had been...Well you weren’t sure what he was doing to be honest outside a few innuendos and winks. It mainly weirded you out as he had never paid any attention to you but regardless. This wasn’t about your roommate, this was about your amazing, handsome boyfriend who somehow managed to make you cum twice just by the sound of his voice, not everything could do that.

“You make it difficult to try and disobey.” You mumbled as a smile tugged in your lips, closing your eyes at the idea of his arms wrapped tight around you and his forehead pressed against your own, you could almost feel his warm breath against your face and his lips pressing against your forehead.

“Mmm id like to see you try,” Jungkook laughed as he leaned back his seat, letting out a content sigh as he spoke, “I’d make you wear those vibrating panties the whole day after making you overestimate yourself and I’d make sure to wake up every hour just to hold that button for three minutes straight.”

“You’re so mean!” You whines as you fluttered your feet before crawling under your covers as you yawned, “You’re already planning a punishment when I haven’t even done anything wrong.”

“I’m not!” Jungkook laughed as he objected, moving his hair from his face, “I’m just telling you what would’ve happened if you weren’t obedient. I mean, that’s not always a bad thing baby.” He sent a wink your way that immediately made your cheeks warm as you pressed your face against the blanket with a giggle.

“I can’t do that over a video call…! Maybe if you were here in my bed I’d be a little more defiant.” You always had a hard time trying to flirt confidently but Jungkook always ate it up every single time you threw him a crumb.

“Jagiya if you can’t be defiant over a call what makes you think you’d manage it when I’m between your legs sucking the soul out of your pussy?” Jungkook was immediately cackling at the way you shoved your face into your pillow with a whine, “Exactly baby, you can’t even look at me right now.” He cooed out.

“Well maybe I’m just a little more bold in person.” You challenged, peeping out from behind your pillow making Jungkook chuckle as he shook his head, his eyes filled with adoration as he leaned back in his seat.

“Well sweetheart I’ll just have to see for myself one day huh?” Jungkook’s smile was so beautiful, it was arguably one of your favorite features as he spoke, “You know I love you to the moon and back jagiya.”

“Well I love you love you to the stars and beyond,” You whispered back as you hugged your pillow close, closing your eyes sleepily as you smiled….One day...Hopefully you’d overcome your anxiety soon to make the one day become soon, you weren’t sure how much longer you could stand being apart from the one person who would never stop making your day.

#bts #jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook x y/n #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader smut #ldr!jungkook

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ourloveisforthelovely · 4 years ago

Text

Revelation

Harry Potter Marauders Era-post Hogwarts

Summary: After James and Lily's deaths, you have to face secrets from your past. Secrets that caused a lot of pain are going to be brought back from the furthest corners of your heart. You have to learn to care for your nephew in the midst of a war that no one wants to deal with.

Pairings: Regulus Black x Reader

Rating: M- sensitive themes

Shout out to @regulusheadcanons for some kick ass ideas

________

Home again...it should be a happy occasion but it wasn’t. You had received word from Sirius that James and Lily had been killed. Your older brother and sunny sister-in-law and best friend were gone and your sweet nephew was an orphan.

Y/n, I have Harry but I need your help. Remus and I need you and you’ll need your family in the coming days. Please come home.”

You had read the letter multiple times on the flight from the US back to the UK and felt even more guilty with each second. If you had just stayed home and didn’t run off to the state after your break up with Regulus; maybe James and Lily would still be alive.

Whether you were home or away if James and Lily were destined to die it would happen.

Remus’ words came back to you from the night before. You had spent an hour before bed last night crying to Remus over the phone. As usual, Remus was the one person that could calm you down. It could have been Regulus but he totally shot that to hell.

Regulus was still a sore subject for you...a secretive sore subject. The two of you had dated “in private” since the fifth year. You thought that the two of you were in love but Regulus wasn’t ready to “let his parents down.” Those were his words, not yours. You were under the impression that after graduation the two of you would begin a life together as Jams and Lily did. When Regulus ended the relationship because he knew that his parents wouldn’t support it. There was no way that Walburga and Orion Black would be happy with their heir dating a Potter that was in Gryffindor.

To deal with the pain of the breakup, you packed a bag and took off to America. You had left your brother and close friends in a state of confusion. They couldn’t wrap their minds around why you would just vanish in the middle of the night with literally no explanation. You played it off as some kind of “getting to know yourself” adventure and everyone seemed to believe it.

Now here you were going back home to rejoin the order that Regulus was apparently now a part of. You were trying to think of ways that you would be able to be in the same room with him and not act as if the two of you once had a passion-fueled relationship. Did you still have feelings for Regulus? Yes, you knew that there was no sense in denying it. You also knew the first time that you laid eyes on him all of those feelings would multiply...I’m screwed.

(1 hour later)

Regulus stood beside Sirius and Remus waiting for your plane to land. He had no idea what he was doing by tagging along with his brother but here he was.

You’re here because you love Y/n and are desperate to see her. You want to tell her that you were a fool for not manning up and telling mum and dad to bugger off.

Regulus thought as he tried to calm himself. The thoughts were truthful. He never should have let his family’s reputation affect his decision on how he handled the relationship that he valued the most...but he did. Now here Regulus stood a miserable lonely bastard with a brand on his left arm that he couldn’t get off.

Life sucks.

He had no family, no prospects of a successful future, and no lover. The life that Regulus knew so well had gone down the all-mighty porcelain shit hole in the course of one year. After finding out that her “heir” switched sides, Walburga banished Regulus from the family. Lucky for him, Regulus drained his Gringotts vault before his mother could leave him poor and penniless. Regulus could deal with the whole not having a successful future part. Working for the order should provide him some kind of satisfaction (eventually...maybe) The not having a lover part was the worst of all the three.

Regulus hated the way that he felt over the past year that you had been gone. He had attempted to date other girls but it always went south. There was something wrong with every girl that Regulus went out with.

This one talks too much.

This one has no personality.

This one bit me when giving me a blowjob.

None of them was the one girl that he wanted the most. Not one of the girls was the one that Regulus knew...the one that he loved.

“Hey grumpy, are you okay over there?”

Regulus looked up when Sirius spoke. Rolling his eyes, Regulus turned to face his brother with a sneer.

“He’s so charming.”

Sirius said with a smirk as he elbowed Remus in the side. Remus was used to the banter between Sirius and Regulus. It was mostly Sirius nagging Regulus and Regulus either rolling his eyes or calling Sirius a twat.

“There’s Y/n.”

Sirius quickly said before walking out into the aisle. He smiled as you finally met his gaze. You quickly threw your bag down before running to Sirius and jumping in his arms. What you didn’t see was Regulus watching the whole thing with a furiously jealous expression on his face.

Is there something that I’m missing? Of course, she likes Sirius. Why wouldn’t she? He is sooo good looking! He has such a charming attitude.

Regulus thought bitterly as Sirius held you a little longer than necessary. Were the two of you in some kind of relationship that Regulus didn’t know about and if so why hadn’t Sirius mentioned it? Regulus would go ape shit if the two of you were dating...you were his...used to be his.

What Regulus didn’t know was the hug was purely therapeutic and comforting for the both of you. Sirius needed you as much as you needed him (in a strictly platonic way). You were as good as a little sister to Sirius and seeing you after James and Lily’s death soothing. Sirius knew that you needed the support as much as he did.

Sirius didn’t want to think about the fact that Harry and yourself were the only Potter left now. His “new” family has quickly diminished before his eyes. Sirius had been so thrilled to finally have a family that loved him and now it was mostly gone. In Sirius’ mind, he had already made a personal pledge to make sure that nothing happened to you. He would make sure that both Harry and yourself were safe until the day that he died.

You let yourself slide out of Sirius’ arms as he smiled down at you. This was the first that either of you had smiled in a few days.

“Look at you. One year across the pond and you are still as adorable as when you left.”

Sirius said with a smile You rolled your eyes. This was typically Sirius Black. He always knew how to say something to make even the worst situations a bit better.

“And you always know what to say. It's good to see you...especially now.”

Sirius nodded, his face darkening. It was no secret to the two of you that the days ahead would be some of the darkest of your lives. Sirius pulled you into another hug. Pressing a kiss to the top of your head Sirius had to fight his own tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes.

“We are going to make it. We have to for Harry.”

You nodded in agreement. James and Lily made it clear that if anything should happen to them, they wanted Sirius and yourself to take care of Harry. The two of you, a couple or not, were the ones that would be the best fit to care for and love their son the most.

“We’ve got this.”

You said in agreement. Both Sirius and yourself sucked at making your true feelings known. It would be easier to say that the two of you were devastated and didn’t know how life would ever go back to normal...but you wouldn't...you couldn’t.

Sirius finally let you go before wrapping an arm around your waist.

“I have a surprise for you. I dragged Remus along with my grumpy brother. Don’t mind him, he just hates everyone equally.”

The moment that you looked up and locked eyes with Regulus, your mouth dropped. There he stood...he was so close that you could run to him.

He hurt you. He doesn’t deserve a moment of your time. Kick him in the shins if he tries anything.

The sassy voice in your head picked up as your brain went into over-protection mode. As much as you wanted to hug Regulus, you weren't. You would admire him from afar.

“Hello, Regulus.”

He nodded, not saying anything. Regulus had a feeling that if he spoke, feelings that he didn’t want Sirius or Remus to know would spill out. He would look like a fool in the middle of the airport.

Regulus wanted nothing more than to tell you that he had changed. He wasn’t the man that he used to be. If you would just give him a chance, he could prove it...or was he too late. Had Sirius stolen you from him for good? Would Regulus be able to watch the two of you as a couple? Hell no! Regulus would rather be killed or just die in some tragic way than watch you be his brother’s lover.

Sometimes dead is better.

Before Regulus was able to make a comment, Remus stepped in and pulled you into a hug. Regulus put his head down with an insolent frown. What he didn’t see was Sirius watching him with a suspicious frown. Why did Regulus suddenly look like a jealous lover?

Arriving back to Sirius’ house, you were thrilled to automatically be greeted by Marlene and Dorcas. Both of your friends took turns hugging you and cradling you like a baby.

“You look so pretty! Dorcas, doesn’t she look pretty?”

Marlene squealed. Dorcas nodded.

“Of course, she looks pretty. We’ve missed your face.”

“Um, you two are kind of hurting my face.”

You squeaked. Both Dorcas and Marlene backed away as Sirius stepped into the room with Harry in his arms. Your happy smile faded as you laid your eyes on your nephew that looked so much like his father.

Sirius smiled as he placed the baby boy in your arms.

“Harry, say hello to your aunty Y/n. She’s a doll, huh?”

Sirius smirked as he noticed Regulus step into the room. The younger brother immediately locked his eyes on you.

Crap….

He was dreading the moment that you met your nephew for the first time. Regulus dreaded seeing your tears and here you were cuddling the baby with tears in your eyes. He hated it even more that he couldn’t comfort you like he used to. When something was bothering you before, Regulus took care of it. He knew how to make everything better. Whether it be simply cuddling you, kicking someone’s ass in “secret”, or physical comfort...Regulus did it.

“Uh oh, I think someone needs a change.”

You stated, pulling Regulus from his thoughts. Sirius pointed to the little bedroom off of the kitchen.

“That’s his room. Feel free to do whatever you need to. I normally put him down for a nap about this time.”

You walked from the room with a smile leaving Sirius and Regulus alone in the kitchen.

The moment that you were gone, Regulus sat down at the table and reached for the newspaper in front of him. Sirius, meanwhile, decided to ask questions about his suspicions.

“So, Reg, I have a curious question.”

Regulus didn’t look up from the newspaper. His dark eyes were focused on reading. The less that he had to deal with his brother the better off he was. He was too busy trying to control his emotions over you and didn’t have the strength or patience to deal with Sirius and his nonsense.

“The answer is yellow and you are not a woman.”

Regulus replied with a small smirk. Sirius gave his brother an annoyed sneer.

“I’m aware of that fact and I have no idea what yellow has to do with anything. My question is what happened between Y/n and yourself?”

Regulus looked up, obviously surprised.

“Excuse me?”

Sirius glanced over his shoulder to make sure that you weren’t listening.

“I saw how the two of you look at each other.”

Regulus resumed his “cool as a cucumber” attitude. Turning the page of the newspaper, he went back to reading.

“I should ask you the same question.”

It was Sirius’ turn to look confused.

“Huh?”

Regulus snorted.

“The way that you two go gaga over each other. It's disgusting. I wish James would come back from the dead to kick your ass.”

Sirius blinked. The way that the two of you acted at the airport was typical “Sirius and Y/n” behavior. Anyone that knew the two of you would agree to that. It was playful fun between friends. Sirius didn’t look at you like…

Oh my god, Regulus is hot for Y/n!

Sirius’ mouth dropped at the thought. He quickly pointed at his little brother.

“You like her! Have you two...done dirty things?”

Regulus looked up. He placed his elbows on the table to place his chin on his hands.

“To answer your question, yes we have done dirty things. If you think that you are going to be half the lover to her that I was, you are sadly mistaken. I bet she hasn’t called you daddy before.”

The words left Regulus’ mouth before he could really think about what he said. Normally, Regulus typically was very calculating with what he said. This comment, however, just came out leaving Regulus feeling like a jealous 13-year-old girl who was deciding who could sit with him at lunch and who couldn’t.

“Huh?”

Sirius questioned. Regulus didn’t blink or move.

“What?”

Regulus replied, with a sneaky smirk. Sirius, meanwhile, stood with his mouth wide open as he realized exactly what his brother said. Regulus didn’t make any facial expression as Sirius scratched his head. How long had you been sleeping with Regulus? When did this happen and where was Sirius? How did he not pick up on this and you called Regulus “daddy.”

Sirius would never think about his little brother in that particular context. He still saw Regulus as his innocent quiet brother who he assumed was still a virgin but obviously wasn’t (and he was apparently good at doing the “deed.”)

Regulus-fucking-Black is a kinky dude... it's always the quiet ones.

Sirius thought before speaking gibberish when he tried to question his brother on when and where this all started and how did he miss the memo?

“Y-wh-she-where…”

Regulus smirked before going back to his newspaper leaving his brother to question everything about a world that he thought he knew so well. He only looked up again when you stepped into the room with Remus behind you. The two of you were talking quietly and stopped at Sirius’ strange actions.

“Sirius, what’s wrong?”

Remus questioned as you looked between both brothers. Sirius motioned to Regulus then to you and uttered a strange slew of words that were mixed together so much that no one could understand. Had you not been so confused, you would have found Sirius’ over the top dramatic motions to Remus amusing. He clearly expected Remus to understand what he was talking about but Remus just blinked and scratched his head.

“Uh-huh.”

Remus politely replied and decided that he was not going to try to decipher what Sirius was freaking out for the moment. Once Sirius got himself together, Remus was sure that he would hear about whatever it was.

Regulus stood up with a pleased smile on his face.

“My work here is done.”

You had a feeling on what happened. Sirius was just let in on the “big secret” and was having the reaction that you expected. If James was still alive he would either be doing the same thing or he would have Regulus in a headlock...it would be a real toss-up. Hopefully, somewhere in heaven, your brother wasn’t giving Lily too hard of a time.

Waiting a moment longer, you turned and followed Regulus outside onto the front step. He was in the middle of lighting a cigarette when you stepped out with no coat on. Rolling his eyes, he didn’t want to let his attention linger too long but couldn’t help it.

“Go back inside. It's cold out here.”

Regulus commented. He felt bad that the first thing that he said to you was an order. The last thing that he wanted was for you to get ill. You crossed your arms over your chest as the cold autumn air surrounded you.

“So the first words that you say to me is an order. Is that how it's going to be?”

You questioned as Regulus took a drag on the cigarette before turning back to you. He groaned before tossing the half-smoked cigarette into the waiting ashtray. Pulling his coat off he gently wrapped it around your shoulders.

You were clearly surprised by his action. Surprised and heartbroken was the exact feelings that you had going through you. The coat smelled just like Regulus always had from the time that you had gotten to know him. That comforting scent that always made your overly anxious nerves relax anytime that he was near you.

“Um...sorry. Hello, sorry that I’m an ass.”

Regulus offered, clearly confused as to what you wanted from him. You sighed.

“You told Sirius about our relationship didn’t you?”

Regulus shook his head.

“Not exactly. He asked if we did dirty things and I simply said that I bet you haven’t called him daddy before.”

All of the thoughts came to a screeching halt in your mind. Regulus had actually said that to Sirius and now Sirius knew! You blushed at the realization that you would have to explain this to Sirius soon. There was also the annoyance that Regulus didn’t seem to mind letting his brother in on the secret but he couldn't open his mouth to his parents. Maybe you were right all along? Perhaps the relationship was just about the sex to Regulus and when he said “I love you” he didn’t really mean it.

“You’re comfortable telling Sirius what we do in the bedroom but you don’t have the balls to tell your parents anything...lovely.”

Regulus’ face was unreadable for a moment.

“I don’t talk to my parents anymore. You would have known that if you hadn’t run off to America.”

“You broke up with me. I had nothing to stay for. As far as I knew, you were stuck on being a death eater and wanted nothing more to do with me. Did you honestly think that I was going to wait around for you to walk all over me again? I’m not dirt under your shoe just because I am not some member of some super elite club of pureblood morons.”

Regulus didn’t expect the venom to ooze out of your mouth the way that it did. Now here he stood looking at you with an annoyed expression.

“It looks like you’ve moved on just fine with my brother.”

You laughed at that comment...hard.

“Sirius and I? Wow, you must really be fucked in the head if you think that I would date someone who is like another brother to me.”

“I'm fucked in the head? Did you really say that?”

Regulus snapped. You nodded.

“Yep. Sure did. You know what, maybe I should date Sirius. At least, he was there for me. He wanted to make sure that I was okay and even offered to come to America to get me. You didn’t. In this whole year that we have been broken up, how many times have you tried to contact me? I’ll answer that...none. All that I have to say to you is, Regulus Black you aren’t getting your coat back.”

You turned on your head storming in the house and slamming the door behind you. Regulus stood looking at the place that you once stood with an annoyed frown.

“Fuck!

________

@amelie-black @regulusheadcanons @truly-insatiable @fandomsxxregulus @realgaytrash @quuenofblacks @lucasfilms77 @fific7 @hazncalsgal @teletubiswszpilkach @exhsle @acciosiriusblack @whymyparentscheckmyphone @criminalyetminimal @bennyberry @mimisparkle12 @jessyballet @knreidy1 @rubyroscoe1 @spiderxalmighty @brokencasbutt67-writer @authoressskr @fandom-trash-worth-it @summer-novak @hankypranky @emiwrites3reads @shaylybaby2032 @li0nh34rt @tas898 @stuckinsaudi1 @untoldshortsofthefandoms @sprnaturallover @deanwherescas @wontlookaway @shitfaceddaniel @mycuddlycorner @marichromatic

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honeypwark · 4 years ago

Text

[ Strawberries ]

↳ Fake Love era

↳ Yeosu and Johnny spend the morning together. Hoseok and Jungkook come to visit unexpectedly. Yeosu fails to get them to leave.

Note: Uuuuh content warning? Ages 14+?? Idk, there’s some “if it was on TV it’d be censored with a blanket and convenient camera angles” smutty stuff, so nothing in detail. But still: read with care, children.

m.list

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Yeosu runs her fingers delicately over Johnny’s back, up to his shoulders and down his arm before retracing her path. She admires how her fingertips leave goosebumps on his skin, minuscule shadows cast over the expanse of his back by the morning sun that shines through the windows. She smooths her palm over his shoulder blades then rests her hand on his shoulder and runs her thumb over his skin. Johnny lifts his head and rests his chin on her chest, looking up at her.

“You know, I love you, right?” he asks, breaking the silence.

“Of course I do,” Yeosu assures him softly. “I love you, too.”

Johnny clutches his heart dramatically as she speaks.

“First thing in the morning and you’re already giving me heart palpitations,” he says.

Yeosu giggles.

He finds her hand under the blanket and brings it to his lips, kissing her knuckles then her fingers and her fingertips. She intertwines their fingers and tugs at his hand, pressing the back of his hand to her own mouth.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but that’s illegal,” he tells her.

“Is it?”

“You can’t just steal my heart like that.”

“But I assume I already took it from you a while ago.”

Johnny pushes himself up, “You’d assume correctly, then.”

He leans down and connects their lips. She cups his face, too absorbed in the kiss to notice one of his hands traveling south. She jumps when she feels it.

“Excuse you.”

“My apologies, ma’am,” he says, “May I?”

“Hm, let me think about it,” she muses.

She plays with the hair at the name of his neck, humming as she looks off to the side for a moment. She looks back up at him.

“Has the lady made a decision?” Johnny asks.

“The lady has decided to accept your request.”

“I’d hoped she might.”

Yeosu laughs again, cut off as Johnny kisses her again. He swallows her moan and adjusts himself to be better positioned over her.

Five minutes and a position change later, Yeosu holds onto Johnny’s shoulders as he moves above her.

“Good?” he asks breathlessly.

“No,” she moans, “Absolutely terrible.”

“Yeah, I hate it, too.”

They laugh, nothing serious about their intimacy at the moment. Johnny kisses her then trails his lips to her neck.

“When’s your next schedule?” he asks.

“Why?”

“Want to know if I can give you a hickey or not.”

“We’ve got- oh my god.”

Johnny laughs into her neck as she’s cut off when he changes the angle of his hips.

She smacks his shoulder, “Shut up.”

“Sorry.”

“But we’ve got- ah- Run BTS filming in two days so- Jesus- I’d say no.”

“Fine,” Johnny sighs.

He keeps his head nestled in the crook of her neck, one of his hands gripping her waist. She holds tightly onto him, gripping his arm and tugging at his hair.

“You want to know something?” she asks breathlessly.

“What?”

“I know you lied to me.”

Johnny halts and he pushes himself up to look at Yeosu, “What?”

“About your girlfriends.”

“I didn’t- huh?”

“You told me you only ever dated girls in America.”

“What are you-... Katie.”

“Katie,” Yeosu repeats his member’s name.

“Okay, in my defense, we literally never talk about it because it was so awkward. I forgot; that’s the only reason I didn’t tell you. And we only dated for two weeks, like, five years ago.”

“I suppose I’ll let it slide.”

“I can make it up to you,” Johnny says.

“How are you going to do that?”

Yeosu’s hand flies to Johnny’s arm as he starts moving again.

“Okay, yeah, I’ll let it slide.”

Johnny laughs a low chuckle and continues his movements. Then he stops.

“How did you find out about me and Katie?”

Yeosu blinks up at him, “Ten and I meet for lunch on Sundays when we’re both free.”

“Why was I not aware of this?”

Yeosu shrugs, “It never came up. He tells me all of your dirty little secrets.”

“And yet you still love me?”

“It’s the hair.”

Johnny laughs, “I’m going to have to have a talk with Ten about that.”

“About your hair?”

“You know what I meant.”

Johnny begins moving again and the two get lost in each other. Johnny kisses Yeosu’s neck, sucking lightly but not leaving marks despite how badly he wants to. For several minutes, they go on like that. Until their intimate moment it abruptly interrupted.

“Noona!”

Johnny and Yeosu go completely still.

“Hobi hyung and I came to visit and brought strawberries from the farmer’s market!” Jungkook calls to her.

Yeosu shoves Johnny off of her and scrambles to stand, “Hang on, I just finished blow drying my hair; give me a second to get dressed!”

“I thought you were going to talk to them about showing up randomly!” Johnny whisper-shouts at her.

“Well, I haven’t yet!”

“You might want to consider it!”

“Wow, really?!”

Yeosu runs to her closet and throws on underwear and jeans. She positive her bra is twisted but doesn’t bother fixing it before grabbing a random shirt to throw on over it all. She nearly makes her scalp bleed with how fast she brushes her hair. She exits her closet to find Johnny standing in the middle of her room in nothing but his boxers.

She gestures at him with emphasis.

He gestures back with his hands helplessly.

She pinches the bridge of her nose then pointedly whispers, “Do not leave this room until I get rid of them. If they come in, hide in the closet.”

“You’re a grown woman living on your own and you’re resorting to hiding your boyfriend in the closet?”

“Yes.”

“We’re talking about this later.”

“Looking forward for it.”

Yeosu fixes her shirt then leaves the room, shutting the door behind her.

“Hi, noona!” Jungkook greets her happily, bounding over to hug her hello.

She catches his hug with ease, “Hey, Kookie.”

She’s suddenly acutely aware of how shaky her legs still are as she walks with Jungkook to the kitchen where Hoseok stands. There’s a carton of ripe strawberries on the kitchen table.

“Thanks so much for the strawberries, but you should have texted me. I’m heading out to grab brunch with a friend soon; could have saved you the trip.”

“We don’t mind,” Hoseok says.

I do, Yeosu thinks.

“I’m going to have to sit you all down to talk about showing up randomly,” Yeosu scolds them, forcing a joking tone when she wants to be serious.

“Can we still hang out here even if you’re heading out? I wanted to watch Iron Man and you’ve got it on DVD,” Jungkook says.

“You’re still on your Iron Man shtick?” Yeosu teases him.

“Only because it’s a great movie series and he’s an awesome character.”

“Wouldn’t you two prefer to watch the movie back at the dorm? I’ll let you borrow the movie.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“This way we don’t have to worry about giving it back to you,” Hoseok adds.

“Yeah, I guess, haha.”

Yeosu watches helplessly as her members walk over to her living room and begin searching through the bottom of her entertainment center for Iron Man. Normally, this would be totally fine. She honestly doesn’t care if her members come and make themselves at home in her apartment. Wherein the problem lies, because she can’t kick them out without seeming completely out of character and raising suspicion.

Yeosu goes to wash the strawberries at the kitchen sink, her back to the two boys as she tries to think of a way to get them to leave. With the lie she’s weaved, she’ll have to leave her apartment soon and leave Johnny, who is still hidden in her room, alone.

“Hang on, hyung,” Jungkook speaks up, “I just got a text from Jaehyun asking to hang out.”

“Are you flaking on me?”

“Aaaaand... send. Yes, I am.”

Yeosu turns around to see Jungkook pocketing his phone while Hoseok stares at him in betrayal.

“You can’t leave me; you drove us here,” Hoseok says.

“Jungkook can drop you back off at the dorm,” Yeosu seizes the opportunity presented. “You can still borrow the movie and watch it there.”

“And you’re going out...” Hoseok sighs, “Guess I have no choice unless I want to be stranded and abandoned. No one in this group loves me.”

Yeosu can feel the weight lifting off her shoulders as Jungkook and Hoseok walk over to the entryway to put their shoes back on.

“Of course, we love you, Hobi,” Yeosu assures him.

“I’m beginning to doubt it.”

“Well, this is why you shouldn’t show up unannounced,” Yeosu chides lightly.

“Are you serious about that?” Hoseok asks.

“I love you all and you can come over whenever, just text beforehand.”

“Alright, we will.”

“Thank you.”

Hoseok hugs Yeosu goodbye, “Bye, noona.”

Jungkook hugs her as well, “Bye.”

“Bye, boys.”

She sees them out, waving at them as they walk down the hall. She shuts the door softly and leans forward against it, resting her forehead on the wood with a loud sigh of relief.

“You’re welcome.”

Yeosu turns to look over her shoulder. Johnny, still clad in only his boxers, stands beside the kitchen table.

“Did you text Jaehyun?”

“Yep. I knew the second I heard Jungkook’s voice that you wouldn’t be able to kick out your baby when it came down to it. I have to do the dishes for him for a month now.”

“What, does he secretly hate Jungkook and you had to bribe him to hang out with him?”

“No, Jae’s just a brat.”

Yeosu snickers at that, “Well, now we can have strawberries with breakfast. What are you in the mood for? I was thinking pancakes.”

“Hey, hey, hey.”

Johnny catches her wrist as she walks toward the kitchen. He tugs her toward him and spins her around so her back is pressed to his chest. He wraps his arms around her.

“What?” she asks, voice light.

“I believe we were in the middle of something,” Johnny says in her ear, “Before your members so rudely interrupted.”

“Were we? I don’t quite remember...”

Johnny hums humorlessly. He reaches in front of her and unbuttons her jeans. He turns her around in his arms and kneels down, tugging her jeans the rest of the way down her legs until she can step out of them. He stands back up, cupping her face delicately as he looks down at her.

“Allow me to enlighten you.”

He leans the rest of the way down and connects their lips. He bends down further, finding the backs of her thighs to lift her up. She wraps her legs around his waist and he holds her up easily. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, smiling into the kiss as he carries her back to their bedroom.

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bamfbuddie · 5 years ago

Note

"Can I sleep here tonight? With you?" And maybe where buck's nightmares haven't really gone away and the only time he really gets any rest is when he's taking a nap next to Eddie because his presence soothes Buck's mind.

2. “Can I sleep here tonight? With you?”

Buck wakes up crying. It’s not a new occurrence for him. It’s been happening ever since his accident and it just got intensified after the tsunami. Now, instead of being pinned under the truck, he’s pinned under the truck and drowning at the same time. To top it all off, he watches Christopher slip from his grasp and float out into nothingness.

He forces himself to sit up and wipes at his eyes. He reaches over and grabs the glass of water off the bedside table. He chugs it down and then turns to look at the time.

03:15

He sighs, there is no way he’s going to be able to go back to sleep. He pulls himself out of bed and decides to go for a run. Once he gets back he’s feeling better but not that much. He hops in the shower and the hot water almost has him falling asleep standing up.

He gets himself to work around six in the morning and apparently he’s not the only one who didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Everyone looks dead on their feet.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” He asks.

Hen groans from where she has her head down on the table, “Denny’s sick, kept us up the whole night.”

“Same. Christopher caught a bug from school and he was throwing up all night.” Eddie says as he walks towards them balancing three mugs of coffee in his hand. He puts one down in front of Hen and gives the other one to Buck.

“Thanks. You could’ve called me. I would’ve came over.” Buck says accepting the coffee mug.

“Didn’t want to bother you.”

Buck shrugs, “Didn’t get much sleep either.”

Eddie looks at him in concern, “Nightmares?”

Buck nods, looking down at the mug in his hand.

Bobby comes up the stairs followed by Chim.

“Wow, what’s up with you guys? You’re looking like zombies.” Chimney says.

Hen doesn’t even bother looking at him.

After the first call, luckily only a minor accident, they come back and collapse on the couch. Eddie rests his head on Hen’s shoulder who in turn rests her head on top of Eddie’s. Buck comes and collapses over their laps.

“Okay, you need to go sleep.” Bobby says. “You can’t work like this. You are dead on your feet. I don’t want you getting hurt on the job.”

“We’ll be fine, Bobby.” Buck says.

“No. Go to the cots and sleep. That’s an order. You need to be rested before the next call.”

Hen doesn’t argue and shoves Buck’s legs off her as she gets up. Buck nearly flails himself on the floor but Eddie pulls him back up onto the couch.

“C’mon you too, boys.” Bobby says.

Buck sighs and gets up dreading to sleep because he knows if he does he’s going to have another nightmare.

“Oh, also two of the rooms are occupied and the third one has a leak in the roof so it’s getting fixed, so you’ll have to share a cot if Hen is already on one.” Bobby says hiding his smirk.

Eddie and Buck share a look.

“Oh, c’mon, you’re both adults.” Bobby says, “Now, go rest up.”

Buck follows Eddie into the room where Hen is already passed out on one of the beds. They turn to look at the other small one against the other wall.

“So, how are we supposed to fit on that?” Buck asks.

“Uh… we’ll figure it out I guess.” Eddie says as they shuffle over to the bed and look at it.

Eddie lays down and scoots back until his back is touching the wall, leaving enough room for Buck to squish in.

Buck lays down and Eddie pulls the blanket over them. They shuffle around uncomfortably till Eddie huffs and slips his arm under Buck’s head and pulls him closer so Buck’s head is resting on Eddie’s chest and he’s half on Eddie and half on the bed. It gave them a lot more room.

“Is this okay?” Eddie whispers.

“Yeah…”

“Okay.” Eddie closes his eyes and falls asleep.

The three of them only stir when they hear the alarms going off.

Hen’s shoots up in an instant and notices Buck and Eddie cuddling. She smiles devilishly before pulling out her phone and quickly taking a few pictures. She slips her phone back in her pocket and smacks them awake.

“Let’s go, we gotta an emergency!” She yells.

Eddie startles and quickly tries to get up only to realize Buck still on him.

“Buck, Evan… wake up.” Eddie shakes him awake as much as he hated to do it. He noticed Buck hasn’t been looking rested since his accident, till today. He looks so peaceful and Eddie’s heart clenches as he forces Buck awake.

“Huh?” Buck blinks himself awake and quickly sits up. They rush out to the bay jumping into their pants and shoes, grabbing their jackets and helmets and jumping into the truck. Bobby and Chimney are already in and ready to go.

Buck sits back in the seat.

“You guys feeling better?” Bobby asks.

“Yeah, how long were we out?” Eddie asks.

“About five hours.”

“Oh, I didn’t even realize.” Hen says.

“Yeah, me neither.” Eddie says.

“Yeah, you were too busy cuddling Buck.” She teases.

Eddie flushes looking towards Buck who seems lost in thought.

“Buck? You okay?” He asks putting a hand on his shoulder.

Buck startles and looks at him, “Oh, uh, yeah I’m good.” He’s thinking of how rested and refreshed he feels. He realizes it’s because he didn’t have a nightmare. Was it because he had Eddie beside him? He hasn’t slept an hour at a time since the accident and now suddenly he slept five hours straight? It would have been longer if they weren’t disturbed by the alarm. Was it because of Eddie?

Once again the call was a minor accident. They get it cleared up quickly and head back to the station.

At the end of their shift they all head home and Eddie invites Buck over for dinner with him and Christopher.

Buck agrees quickly going home to shower and change into sweats before grabbing a pizza and then going over to Eddie’s.

He knocks on the door and hears Christopher’s excited squeal come from the other side.

“Hang on, mijo, let me unlock it for you.” He hears Eddie says.

Buck smiles softly as Eddie unlocks the door and swings it open.

“Hey.” Eddie grabs the pizza from him.

“Buck!” Christopher yells.

“Hey buddy.” Buck crouches down to properly greet Christopher.

They walk into the house and Eddie places the pizza on the counter.

“Thanks for bringing this.” Eddie says.

“Yeah, no problem, man. We all know your cooking sucks.” Buck teases.

“Hey!” Eddie feigns hurt.

Christopher laughs, “I like your food, daddy.”

“Thank you, at least someone loves me.” Eddie says glaring at Buck.

“...but I like Buck’s better.”

“HEY!”

Buck laughs so hard he gets a stitch in his side.

Eddie smiles softly at the two of them glad to see Buck looking so carefree and rested in a long time. He shakes his head and pulls out plates.

“Alright enough goofing off, time for dinner.”

After dinner they watch a movie till it’s time for Christopher to get ready for bed.

“C’mon, mijo. Time for bed.” Eddie says.

Christopher groans but gets up and goes off towards his room to change. He brushes his teeth and then demands Buck read him a story.

While Buck tucks him and reads him a bedtime story Eddie changes out of his jeans into something more comfortable. He brushes his teeth and then comes back to Christopher’s bedroom to see Christopher sleeping and Buck tucking the blankets around him as he gets up. He comes over to Eddie and closes the door slowly behind him leaving a small gap.

Eddie looks at him and Buck fidgets with his hands.

“Evan? You okay?” He asks.

“Uh, so I have something awkward to ask. I mean you can say no and it doesn’t have to mean anything but uh, can I, uh can I sleep here tonight? With you? I just…” Buck starts.

“Did it help?” Eddie asks.

“I… uh… yeah… it was the first time I didn’t have a nightmare in a long time.” He scratches the back of his head.

“Dios, Buck. I didn’t know it was so bad.”

Buck swallows hard.

“Were you even getting any sleep?” He asks.

“About an hour here and there.”

“Dios mio, Buck. How the hell are you even functioning?”

Buck shrugs, “A whole lotta coffee.” He jokes weakly.

“Christ Buck, alright your toothbrush is still in the bathroom. I’ll be in the room.”

Buck nods and goes to the bathroom. Once he finishes he takes a deep breath before going to Eddie’s room. He knocks briefly before stepping in. Eddie is already in bed.

“You sure this is okay?” Buck asks.

“C’mere, you aren’t getting out of bed until you get a full eight hours of sleep. Besides, it’ll be a lot more comfortable than that tiny cot.” Eddie says tugging Buck down beside him, “Sleep, querido. I’m here.”

“Thank you.” Buck whispers as he rests his head on Eddie’s chest.

Eddie just cards his hand through Buck’s hair whispering soothing nonsense in Spanish to him.

Next morning they wake to images of Eddie and Buck cuddling at the station from Hen texted to their group chat.

Eddie groans, “She’s never going to let us live this down.”

“Not so bad.” Buck whispers still half asleep, head still cushioned by Eddie’s chest.

“Speak for yourself, I’ve become a human cushion.” He groans dramatically.

Buck lifts his head to look at Eddie with a frown only to notice the smile on his face.

“You’re an asshole.” Buck nudges his leg with his foot.

“Oh, I see you’re rested today.” Eddie says.

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

“I’m glad you got to sleep, cariño.” Eddie says.

“So when are you going to stop calling me petnames in Spanish?” Buck asks voice taking a teasing tone.

Eddie flushes a bright red, “What?”

“Honey? Darling?” Buck raises an eyebrow.

“You knew what I was saying?” Eddie chokes.

“Yeah Eds, I knew what you were saying. I was a bartender in South America. Surprising how much you can pick up in a summer from drunk customers.”

“Wait so, that means you know what I said last...” Eddie trails off.

“Oh you mean the fact that you said you’re in love with me? Yes. Yeah I got that…” Buck whispers.

Eddie is horrified, “I… I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have said it if I knew you knew… I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He shifts trying to get out from under Buck.

Buck holds onto him tightly, “Relax Eddie, I love you too.” He says.

Eddie looks down at him in shock, “What?”

“Te amo, mi amor.” Buck whispers and Eddie’s heart skips a beat.

“Fuck…” He whispers before grinning like an idiot. “I love you too.” He leans down and kisses him, morning breath be damned.

#it got longgg #buddie #buck x eddie #getting together #evan buckley #eddie diaz #nightmares #9-1-1 #buddie ficlet #prompt #gem writes #my writing #gem babbles

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katehillromancewritingandmore · 4 years ago

Text

Physical Therapy (From Country Whispers)

Isabel is willing to relieve more than Jim's back pain, but her price isn't what he expects.

*Physical Therapy is from the Country Whispers short story and poetry collection.

Physical Therapy

If you've been a city dweller all your life, living in the country will probably surprise you. Even if you’ve vacationed there, it's not the same as day-to-day living.

For Jim the real difference between the two set in when he hurt his back in a car accident.

The injury wasn’t life threatening, but painful enough to make his job difficult. Sure, he sat behind a desk—selling insurance wasn’t exactly hard labor—but being positioned at a computer keyboard for hours aggravated the injury enough to warrant physical therapy.

He’d been to therapy before, but in the city it had been in a hospital or a modern medical building. Here in rural New England, the nearest PT facility was a thirty-minute drive to a refinished colonial home. The first floor contained the office and therapy rooms. A wooden staircase led to a second floor blocked by a door that always remained closed during Jim’s appointments. No sound came from the second floor, so Jim guessed it was used for storage.

His therapist, Isabel, was an attractive woman in her mid-forties. She had a pleasant Brazilian accent, and during sessions she kept him entertained with stories about her family. Her sister—a botanist—still lived in South America. She had developed the massage oil Isabel used on her patients from a rare species of plant she’d studied for most of her life. Not only did the oil smell fantastic, but it actually lessened Jim’s back pain, acting like an anesthetic for several hours after his therapeutic massage.

“Too bad you can’t sell this stuff,” Jim said one evening during his session. Isabel’s strong hands kneaded his lower back

while the scent of massage oil lingered on the air. “It feels great.”

“It’s very difficult to make,” she said. “And one has to be careful not to use too much. A slight numbing effect is one thing, but you’ve heard the phrase ‘too much of a good thing,’ have you not?”

Jim gave a low grunt of pleasure, closed his eyes and enjoyed the massage.

Finally, Isabel’s hands left him and she said, “Time is up.”

“Too bad.” He smiled and stretched, the pain almost gone.

Isabel chuckled. “You’d better get home to your family.”

“I don’t have a family, so believe me I’m in no rush. It’s just another night of reality TV, beer, and takeout.”

“You should go out for that beer, Jim. It’s not good to always be alone.”

“I’m that kind of guy. A lone wolf.” He grinned. “Unless you feel like going for a drink? No. Forget I said that. You wouldn’t want—”

“I would very much like to have a drink with you.”

This surprised him, and he raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Just let me close up. You’re my last patient today. Stay here and relax. I’ll be down soon.”

Jim sat on the table, his heart thumping and his groin aching in a way he hadn’t felt in too long.

He watched Isabel saunter off, her sexy ass swaying. She walked out of the therapy room and disappeared up a stairway that was visible through the open door.

After a moment, he lay back on the table and closed his eyes.

He must have dozed for a short time because the next thing he knew Isabel was gently shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and smiled.

“Wow. You look amazing.”

Her long hair, usually worn in a bun, hung loose and wavy down her back. The tight red dress and spike-heeled sandals were a huge improvement over the scrubs and sneakers she wore during therapy sessions. Isabel wasn’t young, but she was as sexy as hell. Of course Jim wasn’t young either, and most women probably wouldn’t apply the word “sexy” to a balding insurance salesman with a few extra pounds around the middle.

Maybe he should have questioned Isabel agreeing to go out with him, but all he could think about was his good luck.

“Let’s go, Jim,” she said in her husky voice with its flavorful accent.

“My car or yours?”

“Yours. A friend gave me a ride to work today.”

They drove twenty minutes or so to the nearest pub where they shared an intimate table. Isabel had a healthy appetite, and Jim liked that. Nothing sucked more than taking a woman out to eat and having her order a dry salad.

After the meal, they nursed a couple of drinks, and then they left. He held open his car door for her and said, “I don’t even know where to drop you off. Where do you live?”

“Take me back to the therapy building.”

“You live there?”

“It’s a surprise. Do you like surprises, Jim?”

“Sure. Who doesn’t?”

Isabel smiled, her teeth glistening against her full lips. “Exactly so.”

Back at the therapy house, they walked to the room near the stairs. She switched on the light, grasped Jim’s hands, and tugged him toward the massage table.

“I know this is unprofessional of me, but I’ve been wanting to do this ever since you first came here,” Isabel said breathlessly, her lips inches from his. “Lie on the table.”

Damn, Jim thought, this is better than winning the fuckin’ lottery.

Groaning a bit, he lay down. The effects of the therapy had worn off and his back hurt again, but it would take some truly fierce pain to keep him from being with Isabel tonight.

Her brow furrowed in sympathy. “Does it hurt?”

“It’s not bad.”

“I have just the thing. Be right back.” She removed her sandals and hurried upstairs.

Jim waited, his cock already semi erect and his entire body on fire. He loosened the top buttons of his shirt and stared at the ceiling.

A moment later Isabel returned with the massage oil.

“Take off your clothes and turn over,” she said.

He did as she ordered, fumbling with his belt.

“Want help?” she purred and stepped between his legs. She opened the belt and button, and then she unzipped his fly.

He kicked off his trousers and reached for her. He tried to kiss her mouth, but she turned her head and he nuzzled her neck instead.

“Lie down, Jim. The oil will help.”

“I bet it will.” He stretched out on his stomach.

She poured a lot of oil onto his back, and he shivered.

“Cold?” she whispered. “It’ll warm up soon.”

She was right. Her smooth hands caressed him from neck to calves. The oil alleviated any lingering back pain. She used it more freely than ever before, and soon his entire body numbed.

“Hey, Isabel, aren’t you using an awful lot? I can’t feel—” She rubbed her fingertips over his lips and they numbed as well.

“It’s all right. Relax. You won’t feel any pain.” She smiled.

Jim panicked, his heart pounding. He tried to move, but couldn’t. Even his throat and tongue felt numb. His cry of horror sounded like nothing more than a faint, stifled groan.

Then green leaves fluttered over his eyes. More leaves covered the table—leaves of green and red. Blood dripped onto the smooth massage table.

Jim’s strength faded along with his life.

* * *

Isabel placed Jim’s clothes in his car and left it parked in the driveway outside the therapy house.

Her plant—a gift from her sister—had destroyed the rest of the evidence. It ate through bones as well as flesh.

It didn't take long for her to clean the therapy room. By morning it was ready for Isabel’s early clients.

No doubt the authorities would search the house after she called them to let them know about Jim’s abandoned car. They would never suspect the beautiful and innocent-looking plant had eaten a man.

The plant was her sister’s creation—the result of a lifetime of work and study.

Isabel was proud of her sister and always ready to help her experiments in any way she could.

End

Country Whispers on Amazon

#shorthorrorstory

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derl30 · 4 years ago

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ALTERED STATES REVIEW TIME!

OK, this tumblr is, today, a vehicle for me to review ALTERED STATES. And you (the one person who stumbled on this review two-hundred years from n- oh who am I kidding, when the aliens from A.I. who show up to thaw out Haley Joel Osment and the teddy bear who was the real hero of that movie find this) should be very excited about this. Because this movie is insane. And highly entertaining.

Yes, the movie poster looks like ass. If I told you this was a movie where William Hurt (not the William Hurt from that awful 90's Lost in Space remake, or the one who slept through an entire performance as Duke Leto in the Syfy miniseries of Dune. This is before the body snatchers got him) took ayahuasca and got in a isolation tank and it blew his mind so hard he started devolving into a neanderthal and creating dimensional portals and he couldn't stop because he was addicted to finding the truth of existence... Well you wouldn't get that from this poster, would you? So let's move on. Shall we?

The film opens in 1967 with William Hurt's character, psychopathologist Edward Jessup, already immersed in a sensory deprivation tank, whilst his colleague and “buddy” Bob Balaban (he's just Bob Balaban in everything I'm not giving you his character's name look it up yourself if it's bugging you so much) oversees.

Now, you may notice I put buddy in quotes. The reason for that is that Jessup is a self-obsessed ass who seemingly has no reason to be around other people unless he can expound to them one of his various monologues. Bob Balaban barely gets a word in edgewise throughout the entire film. Bob Balaban.

See, Jessup loves the sensory deprivation tank experience. Unsurprisingly, as it allows him to be completely alone with himself for hours.

Later, at perhaps the lamest party ever, a bunch of faculty are chilling out and listening to the Doors. Everyone we see is talking about Jessup. Why? Well, much as Jessup is obsessed with himself, everyone else seems to follow suit by being obsessed with him. One young woman, Emily, (Blair Brown) is introduced to him in this very shot below as he arrives at the party:

Notice how is framed in holy light? There is a closeup after, of him framed in blinding glowing light followed up with a zoom in on Emily's face, enraptured with this incredible dynamic man. So much so that the moment he tries to make a goddamn sandwich she starts grabbing his celery (get your mind out of the gutter) and flirting with him. Which for these two that means talking science, immediately. Talking more at each other than with each other. This is often the way with Paddy Chayefsky's scripts.

PAUSE

Paddy Chayefsky is doubtless one of the great American writers for the screen. He wrote Marty, The Hospital and Network (which is a fucking incredible piece of work). He got an Oscar for all three. He also wrote this movie (Altered States, remember? Good lord) and disowned it completely three weeks in to production. His scripts tend to have very intelligent, driven characters at the center, who monologue extensively at each other. These scripts are not attempting to sound naturalistic.

Ken Russell, however, directed the film. He, like Chayefsky, is top notch at what he does (Direct. I said he directed the film like a second ago, come on keep up). His films, like Women in Love, The Devils, (which was banned in several major countries upon release and has never been shown publicly in its full, uncut form (by the way it's a masterpiece)) the Who's Tommy, Gothic, and Lair of the White Worm are all fucking gonzo nuts. I mean like, when you gave this guy the reins, you were going to Overthetopsville and there will be no stops on this trip. And god bless! I love directors who GO for it!

You're getting the chance to make a movie. Stop hemming and hawing and hit me over the head with what you want to say! Film is a visual medium, USE IT!

I feel I might have made my feelings clear here. So, moving on...

Ken Russell and Paddy Chayefsky immediately started butting heads, right from the start. Chayefsky was a BIG deal, and he wanted control over the picture in a BIG way. Ken would listen to his suggestions on everything to lighting and set dressing, and politely tell him, “No.”, and continue being the director of the film. Chayefsky hated him pretty quickly.

He had much more control over films like The Hospital. Which, if you watch The Hospital, well, it shows. You've got great actors (George C. Scott, Dame Diana Rigg (Dame may be the greatest official title of all time)) saying great dialogue. But its just two very witty bitter people sort of expounding on topics and speaking at each other and suddenly admitting they are in love and discussing what drapes they will have to buy for their new home. It's utterly preposterous, and it doesn't work in the way Sidney Lumet got it to work in Network, by literally making one of the lead characters realize his life is turning into a ludicrous soap opera.

So of course Ken tried to humanize, naturalize, the dialogue sequences. And it works! The film feels more human than the Hospital or Network. Despite the fact that Jessup is literally becoming more and more inhuman throughout the film. One of the ways he does this is by having the character's eat, drink, and work on other things during the dialogue sequences. This is perfectly normal in film, it's called giving the actor “business” to do, during the scene. Chayefsky HATED this. “They are mumbling my precious dialogue! Chewing through it! Sucking it through a straw!” Sorry, Chayefsky buddy. It works for the picture. Chayefsky also felt the actors were too emotional with his dialogue. Right. See, they call that acting.

UNPAUSE

Which brings us back to the first meeting of Emily and Jessup at the party. They are eating during this important scene! I can just picture Chayefsky seeing this, and running to the studio brass to tattle and get Ken Russell fired (as he got Arthur Penn of Bonnie and Clyde fame fired before Ken Russell came on board).

Emily and Jessup are, true to Chayefsky form, extremely intelligent, driven people and hearing them discuss topics such as anthropology and schizophrenia is quite interesting. It's just that what is to come, film being a visual medium, will eclipse just about any dialogue, no matter how good, from our mind thingys.

The two give up on the science talk and go straight to banging on her couch. After, she asks what he was thinking about. His answer is priceless. “God. Jesus. Crucifixions.”

She smiles.

Bwahahaha! Oh Paddy Chayefsky, you sure know women.

He admits he used to have religious visions. She listens to him from the sweaty couch whilst he sits naked on the floor, and starts going on about his father's horrible death of cancer and his loss of faith. And he admits to her that he's a nut. Her response is to call him a fascinating bastard. I think Lucas may have taken notes for Padme and Anakin.

So naturally, they get married immediately.

But none of that matters because Jessup gets back in the sensory deprivation tank and has his first vision. A nightmare of his dying father and lost faith in christianity. It's pretty great, filled with foreboding hospital rooms, his father's face being covered in a burning Shroud of Turin, everything covered by horrible blood red clouds and then THIS FUCKING THING SHOWS UP AND ITS ALIVE AND WRIGGLING

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

excuse me...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The many-eyed goat is slaughtered over a gold bible and suddenly Jessups screwing Emily again and we enter a blood vessel looking thing and the vision ends and he never mentions this again. Oh. Okay,

Emily continues on about what a nut Jessup is as they make marriage plans. Her monologue:

“You're an unmitigated madman. You don't have to tell me how weird you are. I know how weird you are. I'm the girl in your bed the past two months. Even sex is a mystical experience for you. You carry on like a flagellant... Which can be very nice, but I sometimes wonder if it's me that's being made love to. I feel like I'm being harpooned by some raging monk in the act of receiving God. (Emphasis mine)

"And you are a Faust-freak Eddie! You'd sell your soul to find the great truth. Well, human life doesn't have great truths. We're born in doubt. We spend our lives persuading ourselves we're alive. And one way we do that is we love each other, like I love you. I can't imagine living without you. So let's get married, and if it turns out to be a disaster, it'll be a disaster.”

It's a disaster.

As in, by the next scene. It starts off happy enough looking, they have kids and people are smiling. And hey, wow it's seven years later! But, well, see, whoops, they are getting a divorce. Well, not they. See, he is divorcing her because he considers the seven years with her a complete waste.

She still loves him, desperately. He doesn't give a shit about her or the kids. He tells Bob Balaban this, straight up. And then starts bugging him about deprivation tanks and Hinchi Indians in South America who have sacred mushrooms that can really fuck you up.

It's at this point you would like for Jessup to be hit by a Mack truck. But the movie continues on. By the way, this is one of the kids he doesn't give a crap about:

That's right. Drew Barrymore's first role is a kid that William Hurt doesn't give a shit about. Something that William Hurt would make a career out of with narcoleptic performances in Lost in Space and Syfy's Dune. So, Emily takes the kids to Africa for her anthropology work while Jessup goes to South America to go deeper into his own creepy mind.

The Hinchi Indians agree to allow him to participate in the drug ritual. They enter their holy cave.

This shot is beautiful. At this point the film becomes increasingly gorgeous. Ken Russell has started to go into overdrive, ladies and gentlemen. Buckle. Your. Seatbelts.

The Indians grab Jessup's hand and cut him, freaking him out. They pour his blood into the drug mixture. They begin to drink. Then he takes a sip. The intensity of the film here has quadrupled. The vision begins, fireworks going off all around him. He sees cave paintings of humans and komodo dragons and this:

The proper life he left behind with Emily. He's convulsing, sweating. The Indians are all around, masked. Snakes. He's laughing in pain. Energy spills from the void. A snake under the parasol strikes and begins to strangle him. He and Emily march toward a nuclear explosion as energy pours from the cut on his hand, becoming a lizard. From within a sandstorm, Emily watches him, naked. Jessup looks at her, entranced, as the soothing sands cover them both, slowly.

It's a beautiful sequence. A perfect film sequence. I can't overstate how strong the vision sequences are from this point forward. Great visual effects work and the madman mind of Ken Russell create something unforgettable, with it's own pace, independent from the rest of the film.

Jessup awakens with a komodo dragon laying before him, ripped to pieces. The Indians and the others all claim he killed it in rage. Jessup remembers nothing, takes samples of the drug to reproduce it, and goes back home.

Back home, Jessup keeps doing as much of the drug as he can and having Bob Balaban record results. They can't up the dosage any more so Jessup hops back in to the self deprivation tank to create a more extreme experience.

In his next session, Jessup states he is having a vision of early man, hunting a deer and killing it. Suddenly he states he is one of them, killing the deer. He begins to grunt like an animal. The two pull him out. He's incredibly pale, blood seeping out of his mouth. He can't speak, and has difficulty breathing. He insists they do an X-ray. It shows that there is a vocalizing lump in the front part of his throat. Jessup claims that his body had begun to revert to a simian state. The medical doctor agrees, stating the throat X-rays looks like that of a gorilla.

Luckily his throat returns to normal. So Jessup finishes up his day by having over a student of his and sleeping with her.

Our hero, people!

At this point we hardly feel sorry for him as his body suddenly begins to twist and bulge in the middle of the night, shifting in and out of neanderthal shapes. It's a horrific sequence, disturbing as hell. You certainly didn't expect the film to shift into body horror.

Jessup feels normal after a while. but sees visions of lava explosions, the birthing of the Earth all around him. Not a good sign.

He goes to pick up Emily from the airport the next day. She asks how he is doing.

“Oh, fine.”

Yeah right.

Emily has been told what Jessup has been doing and is worried, which of course pisses off Jessup even more. The guy is obviously obsessed with reaching the truth and root of existence, much as Emily surmised earlier, and we see he has no fear of even losing his own soul, again true to her word. The only thing that allows us to give a shit about him at this point is that Emily cares for him and she's decent people, okay?

So back Jessup goes into the tank with his ayahuasca or whatever it is. Alone. The tank door opens from the inside.

The hand that pushes it open is covered in thick hair. He's devolved.

Ape-Jessup escapes the tank room and chases a janitor around the building. Again, this scene is fucking freaky as hell. We can't get a good look at this screaming animal that was Jessup.

The janitor gets a guard to help and chases after him into the boiler room, where we finally get a good look at him when he assaults the security guard and escapes.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ape-Jessup runs through the city at night, making his way to the zoo where he kills a antelope and eats it. The Ape-Jessup sequence goes on way too long, but is nonetheless unforgettable. The makeup is much more convincing than the above picture suggests, and whoever performed Ape-Jessup did an admirable job.

The cops find an unconscious Jessup in the zoo and bring him in. Emily picks him up and questions him. Jessup admits everything that he can remember. He also admits that he probably killed that security guard. And once again doesn't seem to give a shit. Prick. He calls it the most supremely satisfying time of his life.

Even Emily seems disgusted with him. But, she's also fascinated with what he's accomplished. As an anthropologist, his transformation fascinates her. And so, she agrees to help oversee his next session. Big mistake.

Before the big session Emily and Jessup romantically reconnect, and then into the climactic session we go!

Get your popcorn ready!

After a few hours in to the session, the video monitor shows Jessup begin to literally melt apart like goo, reverting to primordial ooze, the very beginning of existence. An attempt to open the isolation tank doors blasts everyone unconscious, as light and energy pour forth. Emily is the only one left. She sees Jessup's life energy pulse from within the tank.

Rain pours down around them. The pipes on the walls twist and turn like jelly. The ground is covered with a pool of swirling fog and energy. Emily advances toward the vortex of the tank.

In the emptiness of the beginning of everything, Emily seizes the energy before her and reconstitutes Jessup.

They take him home. While he sleeps, Emily rages over the fact that she loves such a insane bastard, and can't get over him. And, then, after Bob Balaban leaves, leaving Emily alone, Jessup wakes up.

He sweetly admits that the truth he learned was that there was no learnable truth, just unknowable horror, and all that's real is human experience. And he'll be a good boy from now on. Well too bad!

Because that horrible truth isn't done with him, and it's back to goo-Jessup! Emily tries to help him, grabbing him, but this in turn effects her, turning her into a shimmering lava form of herself. Both of them begin to self-destruct as Jessup, enraged, watching her in pain, struggles to retake his humanity, slamming himself into the wall, reforming himself through sheer will and physicality. He grabs her and brings her back, mirroring what she did for him during the final session. They embrace naked in the hallway. He finally admits, “I love you, Emily.”

Fade to credits.

Awww true love!

What can I say to sum up? Awesome 80's practical effects. Genius wacko go-for-it Ken Russell directing. Out of this world vision sequences. A awake and actually remarkable performance from William Hurt. An occasionally turgid but often fascinating script by the ever ornery Paddy Chayefsky. Whats not to like?

Well, the ending is a little rushed. The ape sequence goes on for a little too long and takes up perhaps too much of the films overall running time. The central love story is, well... a little hard to swallow, but hey, I guess there really is somebody out there for everyone. Even self-absorbed, deadbeat, cheating, sensory deprivation loving, ayahuasca dropping, Harvard teachers with a messiah complex!

And on that note, aliens from A.I. Artifical Intelligence, have a good day, and don't leave poor Teddy alone with no one to keep him company!

Sayonara!

#altered states #ken russell #movies #review #funny?

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cowandcalf · 4 years ago

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Writer’s Month 2020 - To Find A Way

Prompt No.6 - Ocean

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Danny kicks the entrance door gently open. "Coming in!" He shouts into the room before he hesitantly steps in, guarded, and with perked ears. He still doesn't know what's up with Steve. He's definitely ex-military or special ops, definitely ex-elite. "Hey, Steve, give a sign so I know that you know I'm coming in. You gave me quite the show out there." He calls and listens but all he hears is irritated, half-loud breathing out from the left.

It's a funny building. The façade is a solid brick wall with windows but behind the door, space opens up into one big room. It's spacious, simple white walls which have seen better days. The wooden planks on the floor are worn and dusty but add a comfy touch to the atmosphere. The set-up in the single room is sparse: there's a large navy-blue couch with a few strewn pillows pushed against the wall, right under a big America flag that is pinned to the wall.

Steve watches him with certain alertness. "Weapon's on the table. I'm not going to shoot you. If I have wanted you off my ground you would be already on your way back where you came from. I wanted to scare you off. Didn't work. You're still here." Steve states calmly. "You know Kame and you've brought food. You've gained some credit to negotiate."

There's something in Steve's voice. Danny's heart answers to the silent undercurrent. Heat spreads over his torso. "Negotiate? About what? I'm the one with the food, smartass." Danny chuckles. "You know, that's not the best way to start a conversation with a guy you don't know." Steve doesn't answer.

Danny makes out about three dirty raincoats on a racket on the wall and several bags of potting soil piled up in the corner. "Play nice, Tarzan. I come in peace." Danny strolls into the big room and sees the makeshift kitchen built from a table at the other side. He spots an electric water jug, a tray with different sized mugs, a fridge and the stuff people need to eat and cook. "Do you live out here?" He asks.

"You ask too many questions for a guy who plays a delivery boy." Steve leans against a super long and old wooden table. He darts him a hot, dark look. Danny's sure Steve aims to be intimidating but all Danny could feel is more heat spreading further south.

"Touché." Danny grins and juts his chin out. "What are you doing with all the baby flowers? Planting? Dotting the jungle with colors? Creating a magic garden?" He points behind Steve where a heap of fresh soil sits in the middle of the table. Steve must have potted flowers. The chaos has an order and next to the small, empty flowerpots are a few plastic crates with a large variety of baby flowers. Danny sweats and the flutter of nervousness makes him run his mouth.

Steve has his feet crossed at the ankles and his hands rest on the rim of the wood table. "Why is it so difficult for an HPD Detective to imagine a man doing gardening, invested in the flora and fauna of Hawai'i?" Steve slips into a defensive mechanism and wears a harder streak around his mouth.

Danny knows he has to control his brain to mouth filter. "Hey, look, I'm sorry. I know, it's super impolite to ask prying questions but you held me at gunpoint. That was rude and I guess I've earned the right to go a bit off the rails with the rules of how a stranger behaves in a guy's private room." The lunch bags noisily land on the wooden surface of the smaller kitchen table.

Steve eyes him with high concentration and an unreadable face. "Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?"

"Safes lives," Danny answers without batting an eye. He keeps his cool but feels Steve's tension like barely-there electricity. His hair on both arms feels sensitive to the unfamiliar vibes he tries to analyze. Danny gestures a bit bashfully into the direction of Steve's baby flower collection. "I was disrespectful. I'm sorry if I've offended you. I just wanted to break the ice, get the talk going, you know."

"I'm not offended, annoyed would come pretty close though. You talk a guy's head off and I'm hungry. I don't like to waste time. I have to finish my daily workload."

"Duly noted," Danny turns his head. "Got any plates?" He feels like the fifth wheel. Steve and his plants are a solid union and he's the intruder. He can't shake the feeling Steve would want him to leave. This dark, dangerous, super handsome man gets antsier the longer Danny stays in a close range.

"And they're called seedlings or offset, not baby flowers." Steve pushes off the rim of the table he has leaned against. His voice is defensive. "Wash your hands first. Hand sanitizer is over there." He orders and points to the corner with the sink.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to contaminate your private rooms. I can assure you I'm very cautious and I take the rules of the Lockdown very seriously. Do you want me to put my mask back on?" Danny walks over to the washbasin and turns the faucet on. The liquid soap squirts on his hand. He cocks his head and glances over his shoulder. "Do you need me to put my mask back on?" He asks again.

Steve's bleak expression quickly turns, he scowls. "No."

Danny nods and watches, lost in thoughts, how the water swirls before it vanishes down the drain. The sudden mood-drop takes him off-guard. The light banter hasn't breached the steel walls Steve seemed to draw up when Danny turns his eyes in his direction. He feels sad. The dull emptiness swashes in his stomach and steals his appetite. "Do you want me to leave?" He has no idea why he asks this. It's important to hear Steve's answer.

Steve takes his time to reply. Danny dries his hands with paper towels. He tries to find the waste bin. The longer Steve makes him wait for the answer the more determined Danny gets to stay. "Okay, big guy, I get it. You don't like visitors. You don't even like visitors who bring food. And I'll leave but you just have to say it. I'm not offended. I can eat my delicious shrimps somewhere on a rock, gazing over the ocean. I just thought you might enjoy the company."

Steve has his arms crossed over his chest. A sheen of sweat covers his upper body. Danny notices the way he balls his fists and how his biceps bulge. Steve is nervous. The realization hits Danny. He keeps Steve in his sight and steps toward the big, old wooden table. Steve's stance is wide. He seems to feel uncomfortable. "You can stay." He says flatly. The vibes he gives off make Danny's neck muscles tense.

"Okay, let's eat then and I'm out of your hair." Danny grabs the bags. He still hasn't found plates. It's not very stimulating to notice Steve's not supportive. Maybe the unexpected disappointment Danny senses on his tongue makes him act unwary. He spots the waste bin at the other end of the seedling station. Steve's wary gaze gets him clumsy. Danny steps forward to throw the paper ball into the waste bin but he bumps into the corner of the huge, old table.

Everything happens in slow motion. Danny watches how the impact makes the freshly repotted seedlings wobble before three pots tumble over the edge and start to fall. Danny hears the surprised and fearful gasp from Steve and he expects this athlete of a man to leap forward to catch his babies. Instead, Steve freezes and Danny has his hands full with the bags of shrimps and the paper towel. He's too slow. There's this split second where he watches how the pots get pulled down to the floor by gravity. He decides to hold on to the food and drops the paper towels. He tries to catch one of the pots, without success.

The loud noise of cracking clay pots seems to detonate in the utter silence. Danny feels the hard push of hands and he stumbles. Steve rudely shoves him aside. Danny hears Steve's harsh panting he sucks in air like a drowning man.

"I'm sorry, Steve. Shit, sorry man. I didn't mean to – "

"What have you done?" Steve crouches on the floor, hunched over the broken pots. His hands fly over the spilled baby-plants without coordination. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" He yells.

Danny doesn't understand what's happening. He watches helplessly how Steve falls apart right before his eyes. "Steve, I'm sorry. Come on, let me help you." He drops the bag with lunch on the floor and squats down. His hand comes down to rest gently on Steve's shoulder.

Steve's wild. The angry jerk has Danny almost drop on his rear. His hand got swatted off aggressively. "Go away. Leave! You have to leave, I need – I can't," Steve's voice is a hoarse croak, laced with a fear Danny can't grasp but he’s more than willing to try to understand.

"Hey, buddy, let me help you."

"They're hurt, god, I have to – I have to," Steve murmurs to himself. Sweat runs down his temple and leaves a wet track in the smudge of dirt on his skin.

Nausea sets in the pit of Danny's stomach when he sees how Steve shakes. Within seconds he's covered in sweat and collapses slowly with his entire focus on the plants on the floor. His hands scoop up the flower dirt around the naked plants. The gentle, white baby-roots show and one of the young leaves is broken. Steve seems heartbroken. He cups them with both hands, his breathing ragged.

Danny can't move, too frightened by the shocking realization about what he's witnessing. Steve is caught in a world Danny can't see but he senses in what kind of horrible loop Steve has been sucked in. Battlefields. War zones. Destruction and death, agonizing memories Danny can't even start to fathom how unsettling those inner images must be. They seem to rule Steve's presence. The broken clay pots have flipped a switch.

"They'll make it. Yeah, you'll be fine, fine. I'm not giving up on you," Steve's eyes dart over to Danny.

The wild, helpless look on his face kicks Danny into motion. Steve must have lost friends in horrible fights, bled to death, nasty bullet wounds in impassable areas with no help to get them out alive. Danny has no idea if he's interpreting the situation correctly. Sever PTSD has many faces. And he's sure he stares in one of them now. Danny only knows he has to help Steve save the plants no matter how ridiculous this might seem. They're more to Steve than just plants. They're his friends who got killed in action. The ones Steve couldn't save.

Danny jumps to his feet. "I've got you, Steve. I'm here. We'll save your plants. Let's – " he walks over to this proud, brave man who's hunched over, unable to snap out of it. Danny empties one of the crates and is back at Steve's side in a second. "Put them in here. We'll pot them in new and bigger flower pots, okay? Here, lay them down, yes, just like that. They're strong. They're gonna make it."

Steve's hands shake uncontrollably. Danny tries not to stare at the strong arms and the helpless way Steve's experiences as a soldier let him crash completely. He's drowning in an ocean of bad memories that have messed so terribly with the emotional state he almost keens over baby-plants on the floor. "They're gonna be fine, yes," Steve mumbles and does as Danny says.

Danny wants to cry. The cruelty and the unfairness of the world cut through him like a glowing blade. He hands Steve the crate with the saved flower seedlings. "Let's get up. Come on. They need your care, new soil, and some water." Danny grunts when he pushes himself up. His knee screams with pain from kneeling for so long. He pushes the pain aside. "Steve?" He whispers.

Steve's hunched over and cleans the floor with his bare hands. Damp soil seems to be everywhere. He scoops the spilled soil to a smaller heap, totally caught up in this mundane action. Danny's eyes catch the tremor in his left hand. He bites his lips and waits a moment to collect his emotions that are all over the place. "Steve? Come on, buddy, get up." Danny touches Steve's shoulder once again, cautious and butterfly soft fingertips graze over Steve's bare shoulder. He waits and almost sobs when Steve twitches and shuffles to get up from kneeling on the floor but waits instead.

Danny doesn't know what to do. "I uh, look, I put the crate on the table. Your babies have enough earth. You take your time, okay? I'll, uhm, I'll go and make some coffee." Danny puts the box on the wooden table and turns his back to Steve. He washes his hands under the faucet. He bites his tongue and swallows the shock.

He listens with a wild beating heart when Steve gets up. Nothing. He hears nothing after that. He slowly turns around and holds his breath. Steve hugs his upper body, rocking back and forth. His breathing is labored and he still seems to be a prisoner of the relapse he experiences. His shirt is soaked in sweat. His skin glistens in the evening light. Steve looks lost.

Danny tosses the rag with which he has dried his hands in a corner of the makeshift kitchen. He knows from police training that people with an anxiety disorder need different tools to flip the switch, to get out of the loop. He has no idea if Steve has such a toolbox or if he needs something else. He has to try to get him out of the destructive undercurrent of the dark, dangerous ocean he has been sucked in. It's Danny's fault, Steve's such a mess. It's his fucking fault. He has to try!

"Steve," Danny whispers, scared to spook him with a too-loud voice, "what do you need?"

TBC

Also on AO3 - To Find A Way

#writersmonth2020 #h50 #prompt fill #ocean #mcdanno fic #part 3 #cowandcalf writes #different prompts one story

17 notes · View notes

poppunkdee · 4 years ago

Text

Running

Frankie “Catfish” Morales x Latina!reader. AO3

Warnings: Explicit (no smut but there's violence and mentions of death) some angst and unrequited love? let me know if I should add any other warnings.

Word Count:14.7k

A/N: Guys this is my first try at writing Frankie and honestly it was supposed to be just a tiny angsty thing and it became this monster retelling of the entire movie! So honestly read at your own risk!

The beat of the music felt like it was still beating within your chest even now that you’ve stepped out of the reception hall and onto the balcony overlooking the ocean. The full moon bathed you, and the waves crashing below you, in a soft white glow. The night was perfect. You suppose that's why they chose this place, you would have too if it had been you. The hem of your dress rippled in the wind against your ankles, the slit along your left leg billowed open for a second before someone joined you. Your dress trapped between you and the man standing on your left. His warmth radiated through your leg giving your chilled body a respite from the goosebumps that had made themselves comfortable on your skin.

“South America, huh?” You finally ask after a few minutes of silence. “Think that's the answer?” You take another sip from your drink. The alcohol does nothing to warm you up, just keeping you in that numb state that you’ve held yourself in since the beginning of the day. The heavy weight of your heart was a bit less of a burden with the coursing hot liquor thrumming through your veins.

The silence passes long enough that you thought he wasn’t going to respond. He finally set his glass down on the railing, his drink sloshing a bit. “There’s nothing left for me here.” He finally whispers quietly enough that you thought it was more to himself than to you, his head bowed down a bit, a sigh leaving his body as if against his will. A few more seconds pass, the part of your dress that wasn’t trapped, moving with the breeze. The music slowed down inside and you knew there was no way you could go back in there, years of working in the most dangerous situations, but a wedding had you wondering how to pull off a hard out. “I could use a friend out there, Tweets.” He finally says as he shifts his body to look at you, your dress rippling in the wind once more now that it wasn’t trapped, those goosebumps reappearing on your skin. You can tell he’s trying to persuade you with the use of your callsign. A name Frankie had given you after the team discovered your twitter account where you would live tweet movies while drunk.

You mirror his movements to meet his gaze, “You’ve got friends here” you look back down at your drink. Your fingers lightly tracing the rim of the cup as you let out a whisper, “Friends that need you.”

He releases a long breath and looks back towards the door separating the both of you from the celebration that should have been filling you with happiness. A happiness you can't seem to muster when your hearts are breaking with every kiss within those walls, “You and I both know we don’t have shit here. Not anymore.” He sucks his tongue against his teeth, the noise lost with the wind and the crash of the waves below you. “Not now.”

With a slight huff you finally give him a good look. His combed hair had lost its integrity after he ran his hands through it all day. His blue dress shirt was loose around his waist, almost pulling free from where he had tucked it onto his pants, a dark spot along his back where sweat had pooled after dancing throughout the night. To everyone else he was the perfect best man, dancing and smiling, his toast was beautiful. But you knew him, you knew that his smiles never managed to reach his eyes, you knew that the tears he shed at the end of his toast weren’t just due to the happiness he felt for his friend, but also due to the heartbreak that the woman he loves was now married to his best friend. You were sure that he could see the exact same in your own eyes.

The team was well aware of your feelings for the groom, how you had finally found the courage to tell him how you felt. The cheers they gave you at the booth you all shared when you announced that you were finally going to tell him, only for him to show up with a date, a girl who looked vaguely familiar. The team gave you sad pats on the back at the end of that night. Telling you it probably won’t last, don’t give up hope. Then, six months later when Frankie announced the engagement you and Pope had gotten equally trashed, that night he let you know that he and Vanessa had been sleeping together before your last tour, and how she refused to see him when the team returned stateside despite him confessing his feelings to her. She had moved on, the tour had gone on longer than she expected and she had moved on. What surprised them both was that she had moved on with someone from his team. Santiago had only thought about getting back home to her, but she had slipped through his fingers during the team’s deployment. Frankie met her through a dating app, letting her know that he was retiring soon. Santi couldn’t blame her, just as much as he couldn’t blame his friend for falling in love with her. Now, you both found each other taking refuge on a balcony at the wedding of the two people you both loved.

“Flight leaves in two days” he breaks the silence again. This time picking up his glass, his drink sloshing a bit more forcefully letting you know he was drunk enough to face the party again, turning back towards the building he added, “You know where to find me.”

“Santi” you say just before he opens the door leading back into the reception, his fingers still on the door handle, “I’ll miss you.”

You lasted two weeks. Two weeks after Frankie and Vanessa returned from their honeymoon. The night you bought your one way ticket to South America felt worse than the wedding. It was another fight night. Fight night was exclusively team nights, the guys gave you so much shit when you brought a date once. The poor guy was unable to keep up with the jokes at his expense, but was sharp enough to know that he wasn’t welcome. He left halfway into the night and you never heard from him again. So when Frankie showed up with Vanessa your heart felt like someone was giving it a tight little squeeze. Even Will didn’t bring Monica, his finance, along to fight nights. The feeling returned with a vengeance when Benny gave her a bear hug and that goofy grin of his when she cheered him on. You decided that maybe two beers wasn’t going to be enough to get you through the night. The rest of the night passed by in a blur of loud cheers, the sounds of men beating the shit out of each other, Frankie’s voice when he yelled out his support to Benny, and the laughs he let out when Vanessa would whisper something into his ear. Benny took three hits that drew blood, but your bleeding heart ached with a hurt you had never been trained to ignore. It was when Vanessa leaned into Frankie’s body and he placed a soft kiss on her forehead when you decided that enough was enough. Pope was right, there was nothing left for you here. Will made sure to drive you home, he helped you climb up the stairs to your apartment. Once inside and making sure you sat you down on your couch without toppling over, he shuffled over to grab a glass of water from your kitchen.

“You can’t do this forever you know.” His soft words reached you as he handed you the glass of water and sat down on your coffee table facing you.

He didn’t have to elaborate for you to know where he was going with this conversation. “I know” was all you managed to choke out, a tear rolling down your cheek. You take a gulp of water to try to calm your emotions. Jesus you’ve been trained to keep them in check yet here you are, drunk and breaking down, because your fucking broken heart couldn’t take it anymore. “I know, but I-” you cut yourself off when a sob claws its way out of you. “Will I-” you try to speak again but after the first one made its way out you had no way to control the rest of the tears that began to pour out of you.

“Hey, hey come here.” Will moved to sit next to you, a bit awkwardly. Although the team saw you as a younger sister, Pope was always the one you seeked when it came to stuff like this. Yet, he still wrapped his arms around you as you buried your face into his chest and finally let go. You have no idea how long he held you like that, but he kept you close until your sobs subsided into hiccups and and your tears had stopped soaking his hoodie. Your heart had taken a beating that night that you weren’t sure you would ever recover from.

“I think Pope could use a friend” You break the silence that fell between the two of you. His chest moved as he released a deep sigh. You sort of expected him to scold you about running away. Instead he released you and handed you the glass of water that had been forgotten on the coffee table.

Waiting until you finished the glass of water Will finally asked, “You sure about that, Tweets?” His tone was gentle, as if he was afraid that you would start crying again. You briefly wondered if he was always this uncomfortable with crying women. Shaking the thought from you head you will yourself back to the conversation.

“Yeah.” You took a deep breath and released it along with a stray sob, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Will, Monica, and Benny helped you store a few belongings into a storage shed later that weekend. Handing Benny a copy of the key to the shed and the keys to your now empty apartment, you gave him a tight hug and a; “Don’t let them hit you too hard, Benny” before climbing out of his car and walking into the airport.

The next week you and Pope were planning a tactical raid of a house connected to a major cartel.

-----

“No.” Your voice was hard when Pope had outlined his plan to ask the team for help once Yovanna had finally given him the location of Lorea. “I don’t want them to be involved.”

“It's been three years.” Pope sighed. With one look at your face he started again, “Fine, I can ask them to just come down for the recce, just three days, then we hand it over to the agency and everyone can go home again.”

“You and I both know you want them for the full op.” You nibble on your bottom lip as you look over the plan again. He was right, you hate it but he was right, you need the team for this. You’ve both been here too long, chasing down clues and people that got you nowhere, and dealing with corrupt police officers. Sure you’ve both bent some of your own rules, telling yourselves the good outweighed the bad. Taking money from people you knew you shouldn’t, but you’ve survived. Three years and you haven’t been murdered in the streets, yet. Finally you had a chance to bring down Lorea and you were afraid that seeing one particular teammate might bring back feelings you were sure you had dealt with in the past three years? No you told yourself this is bigger than you. “Fine, but I’m not going back to ask them.” You agree swiftly and begin to walk towards the door of his apartment. His voice makes you pause when you’re halfway to the door.

Pope calls out your name, you know he's about to say something you’re not sure you’re going to like, Pope hardly uses your name unless he wants you to listen. Like a scolded child, you choose not to look back at him letting him continue talking to your back, “I only need one pilot, I don't have to ask the whole team.”

Pope was looking out for you, you know that, but something dark inside you made you want to punch him for implying that the reason you didn’t want to involve the team was because you were scared of seeing Frankie again. Yes, you were apprehensive about it, but you weren’t about to risk an op going wrong just to save yourself from seeing someone you had worked so hard to get over. Lorea was one lucky son of a bitch for evading your efforts for so long but he was not going to continue getting away with this shit anymore, not when you finally had his location. “Call the fucking team, Garcia” was all that you said to him before walking out.

-----

“How are we doing up here?” Pope asks when he feels the chopper struggling as it keeps gaining altitude.

You give Santiago a look that he reads in a second. Tom had been pissing you off since before he implied that Yovanna was a loose end that needed to be clipped, and despite being well aware of your anger he kept prodding at you as you helped Fish pilot the chopper. If the boys saw you as a little sister, Tom saw you as the annoying one that had to be dragged everywhere in order to keep mom happy. These past three years had let you forget how much the man managed to get under your skin.

“How ‘bout you give them space to do what they need to, yeah?” Pope taps his shoulder and gestures towards the seat he had just vacated as he speaks to Tom.

“I’m good here.” Tom replied in the same hard tone he uses to give orders. You roll your eyes at the tone, Redfly was quick to take the lead when it came to the team. Even if this plan was outlined to go smoothly by yourself and Pope before he got greedy.

Santiago looks like he wants to push Tom over to the seat, but thinks better of it and directs his next words at you, “Do you think we can make it over?’ just as the lowest ridge gets closer and closer.

“I don’t know” You reply, keeping your grip on the joystick in front of you steady. You’ve flown over this section of the sky several times in the past three years. Flying out here to catch the sunset brought you peace that you’ve only shared with one other person. However today your heart felt heavy as you soared over the jungle. The man you had shared this with was no longer by your side, and the one that was, well running from daydreams with him was the reason you found yourself here in the first place.

“Fish?” Tom asks, as if your assessment was not good enough. You roll your eyes at his words. Just because you had only flown for the last tour the team was active didn’t mean you were any less skilled of a pilot.

Frankie doesn’t blink an eye when he replies, “Tweets is right, I’m not sure” Just as he says that the engine makes a noise that you and Fish both know is never a good sign.

“Alright, baby alright” Fish tells the chopper as it begins to shake harder and the engine whines. You know you should be paying more attention to the struggling bird, but when he talks to the helicopter in that raspy whisper you can’t help but think about how it would feel to have him say those words to you. You never cared for your name, but if he whispered it to you like that...well, that thought left you slightly breathless. “Come on now.” You shake your head internally, now is not the time! You can tell from his voice that his focus is fully on the task at hand. His tunnel vision has sucked him in and he sounds like he's determined to make it over the ridge out of sheer force of will.

“Fish” You warn as a loud beeping begins giving you warning signs of redlining, the joystick in your hands vibrating with the efforts of the engine. “Fish, we’re redlining!” you press more urgently as the beeping becomes more insistent. Behind you you hear Pope telling the others to strap in.

“It's close though.” Frankie says as he ignores the beeps and your warnings just as the ridge expands below you. His voice had an almost calm demeanor, one that you just could not fathom with the panic that was beginning to bubble within your chest.

“FISH!” You yell when the chopper gives another unforgiving bump.

“It’s too much weight, its too much fucking weight” Frankie finally concedes lifting his voice above the whine of the engine, his focus no longer on the ridge but on you as you look up at him in alarm, the crease between his brows finally allows the panic into your chest to spread. “We’re never gonna make it!” His grip on the joystick makes his knuckles white, and the vein in his neck jutting out a bit as he growls out that last bit. You briefly wonder what it would feel like to run your tongue along that vein.

Jesus, snap out of it!

Tom appears behind you again, this time you're glad for his interruption, “What does that mean?”

“It means we’re losing fucking money” Fish replies as the joystick he holds begins to vibrate with the same force as the one you’re holding on to.

“You wanna leave $50 million in the middle of the fucking jungle?” Tom asks incredulously.

“You wanna get to the ocean?” Frankie replies without missing a beat, looking over at Tom with an eyebrow raised as if asking him to challenge him. Frankie was always the calm, level headed one on the team so when he gave anyone that look he meant business.

Pope intervenes before you could add to the fire, “Alright, go do it!” he calls into the back letting Benny and Will know that you have to lose weight in order to get things back to normal.

You can hear shuffling in the back and the sound of the wind whipping through the cabin as the others throw duffles out of the main cabin. You look over at Frankie as you chew your bottom lip from the stress, his eyes reflecting the same worry as he meets your gaze. You're not sure if its the adrenaline or the look he gives you, but you feel a shiver run through your body with the weight of his eyes. As soon as a few duffles are thrown out you can feel the vibrations on your joystick lower in intensity, and the bird rises just a bit from the loss of weight. Feeling like you physically have to pull yourself away from Frankie’s gaze your eyes survey the gages across the console.

“How is she feeling now?” Pope’s voice carries towards you and Frankie.

“Better!” You shout over the noise of the ramp closing.

“Come on!” Frankie begins to mutter under his breath in that whisper once again, “Come on.”

“Fish we-” you’re about to warn him that your joy stick began to vibrate again when you get a glimpse of the ocean. The sun reflects off the water, giving off a mesmerizing effect as the waves ripple across the surface. For a moment you let the view warm your insides, sending a wave of calm through your body. You’re about 100 meters away from the ridge when the gearbox gives out.

“THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO DOING?!” Will’s voice rings in your ears along with the rapid beeping within the cockpit and Frankie’s groan as he pulls on the joystick so that you don’t lose control and fall into a spin. You blink rapidly as you’re pulled back to the cockpit. The bird was losing altitude, alarms were blaring and the joystick in your hands was getting harder and harder to keep steady.

“We should land, we should land now!” Frankie tells you as the jungle gets closer with every second. At this point your heart feels like it might fall out of your butt. Despite all the crazy situations you’ve been in while miles up in the air, a failing bird was always one of your biggest fears.

“Copy that!” You reply as you start preparing for a crash land and quickly think back to the area you had just flown over, looking for a valley in the thick jungle. The panic you had felt before when Fish had seemed so determined was gone, your adrenaline rushing through your body like it would when you had to pick up the men from a hard out. Your nimble fingers began to attend all the proper switches while your right hand kept the joystick you held steady. All while your eyes darted across the jungle below you looking for a flat surface.

“Crash land here and we all die!” Tom yells at you when he sees you preparing for a landing.

Ignoring him you call out, “There should be a farmer's field on the other side of that ridge, we passed it on the way up!”

“I remember it!” Frankie says as he tries to maneuver the rapidly failing bird.

Just as the bird made it over the ridge the gearbox gave another awful groan and two more alarms began to wail within the cockpit.

“We need to lose the money” You tell Frankie over the headset.

Tom looks at you both as if you’ve lost your minds. But before you can yell at him Frankie beats you to it, “LOSE THE MONEY OR WE ALL DIE!” He shouts past Tom and into the cabin his adam's apple bobbing with the effort of shouting over the noise within the cockpit. “Hit the external release” he continues to shout as Tom begins to strap himself into the seat Pope had offered him earlier.

“It didn’t work!” you hear Pope shout from within the cabin. Your adrenaline rush had you calculating the outcome of keeping the bag below you and you did not like the odds.

“There should be a manual override!” Frankie instructs as you both begin to sweat from the exertion of trying to keep the bird in the air long enough to drop the load so that everyone will have a chance of surviving the hard landing. Behind you there is more shouting and then the groan of the bird when the bag is finally released. The second the bag is dropped the joystick in your grip jumps up from the lack of weight holding it down, and you vaguely hear Fish curse.

“FUCK, I GOTTA JUMP” Benny’s voice is almost lost in the chaos that ensues after the chopper jerks to the left as Frankie tries to circle around the field where he was attempting to land. The joystick in your hand gave an awful jerk that ripped it from your hands. Your heart felt like it had jumped out of your chest for a second as your fingers tried reaching for it once more, although gravity pulled you away from it with the way the bird tipped.

“Bad landing” Fish grunted out. You were on the verge of responding with a sarcastic reply, when another sudden pull jerked you forward and back, causing you to hit your head. You vaguely hear Frankie call your name before you pass out.

---

You’ve had quite enough of the bickering the team has kept up since the crash. The tension in the air was so thick it felt suffocating. That’s why you had chosen to sit a bit further away from the rest of the team when stopping for the night. Pope’s question about who shot first had begun to fester between him and Tom and you knew it was a matter of time before the two of them would be at eachothers throats. On top of that the pouring rain was not helping with anyone’s mood. Although you desperately wanted to build one, you knew that a fire would attract unwanted attention, so you kept quiet. Deciding instead to keep your thoughts on the noise of the rain pattering against the vegetation, rather than on the cold seeping into your bones.

“You okay?” Frankie’s voice drifted over to you as he sat down next to you.

“Yeah” you paused, “Well, no, but I will be.” You tell him knowing that there was no way you could hide the emotions that were bubbling up in your chest from your expressive eyes. The guys had trained for this, they knew how to push past their emotions during a crisis. They had lived to see their way out of many failed missions. You however had managed to stay a safe distance away. Your skills as a sharpshooter allowed you to stay at a distance, and later when you gained your pilots license, you were only ever in the line of fire when dropping them off on a mission or picking them up once they had reached a rendezvous point. Sure your time out here had kept you in a state of perpetual danger, but your ops lasted at most three hours, then you could deal with the aftermath in your apartment with your late boyfriend or later with Santi when he wasn’t curled up with Yovanna. This was different, you had trained for this years ago, but you’ve been out of practice and it was starting to get to you.

Frankie nodded at you, understanding clearly in his eyes, “You and Pope make a pretty great team.” he changes the subject as he hands you an MRE. “He told me you two have been doing a good job of looking out for each other these past few years.”

You stir the contents of the MRE together, thinking about how you’d thought you’d left this gunk behind when your team was retired. “Before Yovanna, he and I were all we had out here.” You tell him as you scoop out a bit of the gunk and shovel it into your mouth. Despite your hatred of the stuff it tasted like heaven after hiking through the jungle all day.

“Can I ask you something?” Frankie asks after a few minutes of watching you eat.

You swallow the bite you just took and meet his eyes. His soft brown eyes, peering at you from under his cap, have a question you were afraid of facing since Pope told you he intended to bring the team down. A question you had been running from for three years. You wanted to say no, to shut it down and tell him you didn’t want to talk about anything at the moment. You knew he would sit there in silence with you, that he won’t pry if you choose to not to let him. But you also knew that it wasn’t fair to him, two of his closest friends moved just after one of the most important chapters of his life, he deserved an explanation. “What is it, Cat?”

“Why’d you leave?” He asks softly, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer but he had to ask. “I know why Pope left, but why did you follow? If he and-” he paused as if trying to reach for the right words, “I thought you two would have…” his voice trails off, but his implication lingered in the air.

“Pope offered me a job.” You start, then decide he deserves the full truth instead of half truths, and if Santiago had come clean about why he left, you could too. “I couldn’t stay for the same reason Pope couldn’t,” you finally say when the MRE envelope was empty. “I thought I could, I thought it would pass, that I could truly go on with life like I had before, but it hurt too much to see the person I loved find happiness with someone else.” You kept your eyes fixed on the envelope, your fidgety hands had started folding it down. “So I ran, Pope offered me an out and I took it. Eventually, he and Yovanna found each other, and I...I found purpose within the job.” You decide he doesn’t need to know about the man you fell in love with and lost within the first year you had lived here. “I’m sorry for not saying goodbye, I took the cowards way out. I know that, but after...I just knew I couldn’t stay.” You fell silent after your mumbled explanation. Half expecting him to shuffle away now that you all but told him that the reason you left was because you were in love with him.

After what felt like an eternity, his hands reached out to stop yours from fidgeting with the envelope. He plucked the small folded packaging from your fingertips and wrapped his warm hands over your smaller ones. “I’m sorry-” he began, using that soft, but firm tone of voice he used when he wanted to make sure you were listening, but he didn’t get much out before the conversation the rest of the team was having drifted over and made you both turn towards the rest of the group, his hands leaving yours. However, it was then that you noticed his left hand was bare. A tan that should have been on his forefinger was missing, and for a brief second your brain was struggling to remember if his wedding band had been missing since he and the rest of the team arrived, or if he removed it for the op.

“We’re dancing with the Devil now” Benny’s voice breaks you out of your thoughts. Shaking your head at the dangerous path your mind was taking, you look up to hear Frankie’s reply.

“Dancing?” He had scoffed out, “We were dancing when we got on a plane to come down here. I would call this full intercourse.”

Benny chuckled at the way Fish reacted to his statement. Looking over with concern when his brother grunted out a noise of agreement as he made himself comfortable...well, as comfortable as he can get on a rock with a bullet wound on his abdomen. “How you doing, bud?” He asked his older brother.

“Golden.” Will let out as he closed his eyes.

“Here.” Benny offered his brother a mango that he had grabbed from the village where the team had crashed.

“You’re a good man Benny.” Will tells his brother as he accepts the mango, “We’re a dying breed boys.” He chuckles giving you a wink.

“No, we’re not” Benny argues, “The world is always going to need someone to go door to door to hold the line.”

“Cops go door to door to hold the line” Will returns, “We were warriors.”

“Well, it's hard to remember that sometimes.” Benny shoots back, you don't miss the way Frankie’s hand clenched into a fist. The same one that was holding yours not too long ago. The same one that was missing a ring.

“Yeah it is” He chimes in after he manages to unclench his fist and slides his open palms against his legs as he leans forward and rests his forearms on his thighs, pulling his body into a hunched position.

“What are you talking about?” Will asks him when he sees Frankie poke out from the ridge in his new position.

“I was too quick on the trigger. You know it, and I know it.” Frankie tells him, his fingers fidgeting with one another as he berates himself for the shots fired at the crash site. You want to pull his hands back towards you once more, but he’s pulled himself away from you and you don’t want to overstep. “I killed those people.” He lets out, anguish coating his words.

“No, you didn't,” Benny says, “We all did.” You nodded in agreement along with Will. Your fidget with the strap of your gun. It’s been a while since you’ve had to sleep with it strapped to your chest. Sure your handgun was always by your bedside, but this was different. Here with adrenaline running through your blood and the fear of being discovered made that section of your brain click back into focus where you shot first and asked questions later. The army gave you many skills, but sometimes you wonder what life might have been like if you had chosen a different path, one that didn’t require you to know how to make a clean shot from a mile away. Maybe you might be able to sleep through the night.

You spend the rest of the night taking shifts watching the camp as everyone sleeps. Your shift is shared with Will and he’s quick to catch you up on what you’ve missed back home. From Benny finally moving out of your apartment last year, Monica finishing her degree, to the new gym he and Benny have been training in.

“Finally tied the knot then?” You ask when your conversation lulls into a bit of silence and you’re dangerously close to nodding off.

Will smiles as he plays with the band around his finger, “Yeah, Monica told me her engagement ring was turning green on her finger and threatened to ask for a new one if I didn’t hurry up and take her to a chapel.” He chuckles at the face you gave him.

“Don’t tell me you two eloped?” your eyes wide as you realize what he was saying.

“Hey, it was her idea!” He chuckles as he raises his hands up as if surrendering, “Said she was tired of saving up for a dream wedding. So we took a weekend off and got hitched at the white chapel in Vegas. Figured if it was good enough for celebrities it was good enough for us.” He shrugged his shoulders, his smile faltering a bit when the movement caused discomfort on his wound.

“You two are amazing.” You laugh, thinking about how Monica would absolutely match Will’s spontaneity and jump on a plane to get married. “I miss her.” You let out in a voice dripping with sleep. You missed all of them, even if Tom always managed to get under your skin, you missed your boys.

“What about you, hot shot?” Will’s voice makes you peel your eyes open, “Is there another hot informant we might meet once we make it to the ocean?”

You want to laugh at Will’s wording, the team was not going to get information about Yovanna from you. “Nah, mine-” You let out a soft sigh, “No, mine wasn’t as lucky.”

“Oh shit, sorry, I didn’t know.” He said quickly when he noticed the far off look in your eyes.

“It’s alright, Will.” You pull your jacket closer to your body as you settle into the rock you were leaning into. “I was shit at keeping in touch, wasn’t I?” you ask.

Will looked up at you, “No one blames you.” He jutted out his chin in your direction as if asking you to continue.

With a smile you tell him, “He wasn’t an informant, he was actually part of the tactical team we worked with.” You explain, remembering the man who helped stitch your heart back together. His warm smiles and the way he would hold you tight after an op went sideways. A soft smile spread across your face. You weren’t a stranger to death, hell your career choice was proof of that. So remembering your past partner with fond memories and burying yourself in finding Lorea was one way to cope with the loss.

“So you’ve got a type huh?” He teases while wagging his eyebrows towards Frankie’s sleeping form. “Teammates” he mouths the word, as if the sleeping team might overhear your conversation. “I know you're a couple months older than Benny, but then age never seemed to bother you, so don’t go breaking my little brother’s heart.” He adds with a shit eating grin.

Laughing you shoot him a half hearted glare. “You cannot tease me, William.” You say, “Don’t forget that you had a bad habit of dating blondes before you found Monica.”

“Hey, hey didn’t you have blonde hair for a while?” He shoots back giving you one of his goofy grins, you flip him a bird in response. Oh yes, you missed your boys dearly.

“Shut up!” You try to glare at him but your laughter overtakes you.

“Alright, fine I’ll take over your shift if y’all won’t shut up and let us sleep.” Benny’s voice cuts through your laughter.

“Shit sorry, Benny.” You let out when you were finally able to get your giggles under control.

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t go falling in love with me.” He says with a grin.

You roll your eyes at them both when they start laughing anew. Huffing out that you were getting some much needed sleep, you lean further into the rock behind you and close your eyes. Missing the dark brown eyes tracking your movements.

---

The next two days were brutal on your feet. The jungle was unforgiving and even more so when you had to cross a river and continue hiking in wet clothing, you felt horrible that the animals you bought at the village were forced to continue walking while carrying wet packs. Although, it was too dangerous to stop and dry off by a fire, so you kept your complaints to yourself. By the evening of the second day tempers were running short and the trail was getting even more dangerous when you reached a ridge that changed the landscape into a rocky terrain.

The side of the ridge was dangerous. The trail was narrow and the drop was steep should you lose your footing. You had your eyes on the ground focusing where your next step would be and making sure your mule was staying on the side closest to the rocky wall.

“Stop pushing man, it's steep up here.” You hear Benny’s voice up ahead, Pope was leading the group with Tom, Benny, Will, you and Frankie taking the rear.

“Obviously, Man. We are on the side of a fucking mountain.” You hear William’s heated reply to his brother.

“Just shut up and concentrate! Jesus Christ!” You hear Frankie yell out behind you. Much closer than you thought he was, giving you a start. Your mule felt your moment of panic and made a soft whining noise.

“Come, on. Just go.” Will says as he stops in front of you causing you to place a soft hand on the nose of your mule, signaling to stop.

“Fuck you!” You hear Benny reply. You can feel the tension between the two brothers, wishing you had taken the spot between them so that you could have defused the situation.

“Oh really?” Will’s shout causes your mule to startle once more, giving a loud huff and pulling away from you. You quickly try to calm the animal down by gently tugging on the rope you held in your hand, and trying to reach out to pet his nose again. The animal, however, refused to calm down. It’s shrieks of fear got louder as the shouting between Benny and Will got louder. Eventually Tom’s voice joined, but you were too busy trying to calm down your mule to focus on what was being said.

Frankie noticed that your mule was retreating and you heard his low. “Whoa, Whoa” when it bumped into him behind you. Then, “Oh shit.”

The animal had tried to step back further but after sensing Frankie behind it, it tried stepping to the side, missing the ridge and slipping down. You felt the burn of the rope as it quickly slipped through your fist. You had been gripping the rope so tightly that for a second the weight brought you to your knees before you let go completely. The mule let out an awful screaming noise as it fell to its death. Leaving everyone in a tense silence as you look over the ridge where an explosion of cash puffed up as the mule and the cash made impact with the rocks below you. You hear an exasperated laugh as you kneel there looking down with wide eyes. “What the fuck are you laughing at?” You hear the words before you realize they left your lips.

“That was a living animal man.” Pope’s voice drifts into the air as you stumble back on to your feet. Frankie shuffled close to you, giving you a hand up.

“It could have been any one of us that went over,” Tom starts in a sarcastic tone, “and y’all worried about the fucking donkey?”

“You need to get your shit straight here, man.” You hear Pope’s response.

“What?” Tom replies. While the two are shouting at each other Frankie shuffles closer to you, helping you get on your feet once more and carefully dusting your hands of the pebbles that were embedded in your palms. “Me?”

“Yeah, you” You surprise Frankie when it was you who answered Tom instead of Pope. His fingers pausing what they were doing as he looks at you shouting in the direction of Tom.

“Don’t point your fingers at me!” Tom yells back at you. Frankie's fingers give your hand a squeeze. You know he's telling you to stand down, but you're too heated up to stop. Will and Benny share a silent look as the shouting is directed towards you. Tom and you might have passive aggressive arguments but he has never yelled at you like that. You hardly realize that Frankie has handed you the rope for his own mule. He begins to make his way towards Tom, knowing you're not going to heed his warning and stop yelling.

“You’re the only reason we are in this mess!” You continue. You sweep your arm out, the one that isn’t holding the rope, and gesture towards the situation that you all find yourselves in. Pope gives you a nod in agreement.

“Oh? How the fuck is that?” Tom asks you sarcastically, the ire in his voice evident as he yells at you from his position at the top of the trail.

After three years of taking care of eachother Pope’s anger rose when Tom turned on you. His reply was in a bitingly cold tone, “Don’t talk to her like that! You’re the one that had to grab every dollar you could get your hands on, didn’t you?”

“Both of you could have gotten Lorea two months ago! We didn’t have to be here, if you knew how to do your jobs right!” Tom spits back at both of you.

“Alright!” you hear Pope reply and push forward, seemingly done fighting with Tom.

“Fucking bullshit!” Tom yells after him.

“We are all on the hook, are we not?” Frankie asks Tom his voice strong and low, he has reached Tom at this point, his palm raised towards him. “Stop it!” He says in a raised voice, driving his point further.

“Fucking horse!” Tom grits out as his horse whines at the shouting.

“Stop it!” Frankie tells him again, this time his voice carries.

“Fine. Fine!’ Tom agrees when he sees the look Frankie gives him.

“We’re not picking at the fucking scab right now okay?” Frankie tells Tom now that he has his attention. “One foot in front of the other alright? Lets go.” He commands lifting an eyebrow when Tom looks like he might say something else to you. You stand your ground head held high in an almost challenging manner. “Jesus Christ.” Frankie mutters as Tom finally turns back around and continues following Santiago, who was further up the trail.

You, Benny, and Will exchange glances, the brothers deciding to give up whatever argument they had between themselves and began walking when Frankie gave them another wave of his hand to keep them going. Determined now to get off the side of a deadly mountain.

---

About two hours later as Frankie is scaring off the animals and you’re sitting on top of the ridge with Tom you decide you have to talk out your differences. It’s been a hard mission for everyone and it wasn’t fair to throw those words in Tom’s face. Not when he had a point, it could have been anyone of you that fell with that mule. With the way the rope pulled you and stung your hands, you remember it could have been you.

“Look, I talked a lot of shit back there. I didn’t mean that.” You say in between hard puffs of breath. You had after all just finished lugging over 100 bags of cash over a rocky ridge.

“Don’t worry about it.” Tom says shaking his head as if begging you not to bring it up any longer. Normally you would have just dropped it there, but call it your guilt for disappearing or your closest brush with death you wanted to make sure this time you cleared the air. “No, no its...this is on me. I could have talked Pope out of calling the team down here. But I didn’t, I knew it wasn’t just a recce and yet I let him bring you down here with only that information.” You take another breath, and Tom takes advantage of the pause to cut you off.

“No. I’m on the hook for this. You know? It is what it is.” Tom tells you as you hear Pope climb up next to you both.

Having caught the end of your conversation he interjects. “I am a bit of a dick, you know?” Giving you a tap on your leg so you can move out of the way he looks at Tom and says, “it is what it is, but also, Tweets is right. Sorry about earlier.”

Tom gives a small laugh agreeing with him as he gives you a hand while you climb over a boulder to move out of the way. Giving your hand a gentle squeeze before he lets go entirely. You know in his own way Tom has forgiven you both, you only hope that later, he can forgive himself.

After everyone has made it over the ridge and you’ve managed to pile the bags in a semicircle you pull out the last MRE envelopes in your pack. Handing one to each of the men, “It's mangoes only after this, boys.” You tell them as they each take an envelope.

“You could freeze an eskimos asshole out here.” Will says as he settles down to lean against the bags.

“I demand a fire.” Benny grunts out as he sits between Pope and Tom.

You laugh at the absurdity of Will’s statement. Shaking your head you decide that one argument was enough for today, no need to tell him that the Inuit people of the north wouldn’t agree with his word choice.

“We cold camp.” Will tells his brother as the group begins to settle in for the night.

Benny, ever the trouble maker reaches for one of the bags. Curious you watch his movements, as he pulls out a wad of bills and lights it on fire. “Fuck you.” he says holding the wad of cash looking directly at Will. “This is my ‘fuck you’ money.” Pope lets out a laugh next to you, his shoulders bumping into you gently.

“Dude what the fuck are you doing?” Will asks his brother as Benny waves the money torch in front of him, the warmth reaching you even with Santiago sitting between the two of you.

With a chuckle Tom answers for him, “Not enough men to carry all this money so we might as well be warm.” That was all Benny needed to keep going. He placed the bill in the center of the semi circle and reached for more, lighting it up as well.

“Jesus Christ” Frankie says on the other side of you, laughing at the absurdity of watching money go up in flames.

“Este loco” Santiago says, elbowing you as a smile finally appears on your face once you feel the warmth reach you.

Will looks apprehensive, at the growing flame. When suddenly Tom stands, opens a suitcase and throws the entire contents into the flame. Watching the bundles light up the boys begin laughing a bit harder.

“That’s a fire!’ Benny exclaims as the warmth begins to creep up your bodies. Will still looking apprehensive refuses to join in the laughter but does scoot a bit closer to feel the warmth radiating from the center.

Once you see that the boys look adequately warm you lean back against the bags and fight the edges of sleep. You still haven’t agreed to who will keep watch for the first half of the night and you don’t want to fall asleep without knowing what time you should be up.

“Rest your eyes, I’ve got your six.” Frankie tells you leaning back to lay against the bags next to you, his hand coming down to rest on your knee. “I’ve got the first shift.” He answers the question left unsaid. With a smile in his direction you rest your head on his shoulder and drift off. You’re asleep before you can feel his arm wrap around you and pull you closer.

----

About halfway through the next day you’ve made what seems like less progress than the days before. The rocky terrain has made it harder to move the bags. Despite your best efforts to make the process go faster you hate that the team is so exposed in certain areas. Just as you were about to ask how many bags you still had to get through in order to change your positions, you hear the unmistakable sound of a gunshot ricocheting against one of the boulders.

The team drops below various rocks within seconds. The sound of two more shots echo through the air and you climb around the boulder, you were crouched under, pulling your weapon into position and using the scope to focus on the ridge above you.

“Fuck!” You can’t tell who yelled out but you hear more, “Shit, shit shit!” below you where the boys had been lined up throwing the bags down.

“I’m hit!’ You hear Benny shout somewhere below you. Quickly you follow his voice and push the scope above his position trying to follow the trajectory of a bullet from his position.

“Benny you alright?” Will shouts.

“Yeah I’m fine, just grazed my shoulder!”

You catch Pope’s eye from your position, and send him a hand signal. You’ve got eyes on one of them. Nodding his head Pope lets you know he’ll draw fire so that you can get a clear shot.

“Shooter’s up on the ridgeline!” Pope shouts. The men don’t have to be told twice, they aim towards the ridge as you continue to creep up. Pope starts climbing the ridge on the other side, while Frankie begins to climb up towards you.

Shots keep raining down on your team as you climb up your side of the trail, just as you’re about to yell out and give away your position Tom shouts up, “Since they like me so much let me draw out their fire, Pope, Will, try to flank either sides, make sure there’s not another!”

Deciding you can count on the others to make sure there's not another, you find a good spot to take a shot at the person above you. Looking through your scope and waiting for the shooter to pop out again. Sure enough after the men below you pause their shots to take on their new position a head pops out and you take your shot. Clean hit.

“Got one!” You shout as you look down to where Frankie was following you, to let him know you've got him. Although when you see him, you notice he's lifting his gun in your direction, but you're too late. As you spin back around in the direction Frankie is aiming, time seems to slow down. Above you you see the kid from the village, the one that refused to let Tom through, how did you miss him? He’s wearing a goddamn yellow shirt for Christsake! His gun was aimed in your direction, but you knew it wouldn't be a deadly blow from that position. That should have motivated you to get in position faster, to swing your rifle forward just a bit faster instead of what happened. You later think that you should have tipped just a little bit forward, then the bullet would have hit your vest, a bruise or even a broken rib would have been better than what happened. But you didn’t lean forward and it didn’t hit your vest. Instead you watched as the bullet grazed the outside of your right arm and then you heard the thump behind you. A single shot was heard after and then silence.

“RED! Tom!” The shouts were raw emotion as they clawed their way out of you. You attempt to scramble off the boulder towards the one where Tom was laying out on. Benny got to him first, you had struggled to climb down when your arm was refusing to hold your weight as you made your way towards Tom. Frankie was right behind you.

“Tom! Come on, Tom!’ Benny cried as he pulled Tom into an upright position. But you could tell from the bullet hole, that Tom was gone. You stood there shocked with your left hand grabbing your arm. You hardly felt the blood that was quickly staining your fingers until Will pushed past you to get to Tom and his brother.

Pope reached you next seeing Tom’s body he pulled off his cap and let out a whispered “Fuck’ next to you. You were still in shock. Death was no stranger, your last romantic partner died during one of your raids gone wrong. Yet here you were, still as a statue unable to feel the pain of your own injury as you stared at Tom’s body and the Miller brothers crying over your fallen teammate.

“Lets get him wrapped up we need to keep moving.” Will finally says as he pulls himself back up and directs his words up at you and Pope. You vaguely remember your motor skills and nod your head agreeing with him. It's not safe here, you’re too exposed.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Benny cries from the floor. “You’re a heartless son of a bitch!” He yells at his brother, refusing to let go of Tom’s body.

“It was your little fire that got him fucking killed!” William spits back at his brother, his voice lifting into a shout. After a beat Benny launched himself at his brother, throwing failing punches and pinning him against another boulder.

“Stop this shit, STOP THIS SHIT!” Pope yells as he pulls Benny off his brother with a grunt. His shout as he pushes past you breaks you out of your daze. Pulling yourself together you reach them and insert yourself between the two, using your weight to keep Will from retaliating with any punches now that his brother was successfully pulled away from him.

“Fuck you Benny, FUCK YOU!” Will shouted over your head as you struggled to press your weight against him. Your arm was searing with pain, but you held your ground. You knew you wouldn’t be able to hold him too long and the way you can feel his chest rising you knew he had enough fight left inside him to push you off. Thankfully Frankie reached you in time to pull Will further back. Between the both of you, you managed to get Will to sit down on the rock behind him.

“It wasn’t the fire that gave us away!’ Santiago’s voice carried. “That kid was from the village. He’s been tracking us for days. He obviously wanted a clear shot at Tom. He wanted him.” Pope says emphasizing his point when he pulls you over and points out your wounded arm. “He had a clearer shot of Tweets, but he chose him.” You hiss lightly when your hand comes back up to check on the torn skin. “We do have to get the fuck out of here, and we are taking all that money with us!” Pope points at the duffles, now sitting below you. “Tom’s family deserves it!’ his voice cracks as he says that last bit. “And so do we.” Taking a deep gulp his voice evens out once more, “Alright let's wrap him up. We carry him down.”

Frankie is the first to move and begins pulling Tom’s gun off his body and switching the safety on. You decide that your arm injury can wait while you help. Tom needs to be wrapped up. Once Tom's body has been wrapped and has joined the bags at the bottom of the rocky landscape you sit down on a pile of bags.

"Let me." Frankie holds up a med kit as he kneels next to you.

"Thanks, Cat." you mumble out as he begins to pull out a syringe and gauze, "Wait, use mine." You begin to tap down your pockets noticing that your own med kit was missing. You don't recall using it.

"Umm...I already used it to patch up the cuts you had from the crash." Frankie tells you as he struggles to roll up your sleeve.

"Oh." You didn't even realize your cuts from the landing had been that bad. But then again you weren't exactly conscious for a bit after the rough landing. "Here, wait." You stop Frankie's movements and decide to help him reach your wound by removing your jacket and the shirt. You weren't expecting the look from Pope as you pulled the long sleeve shirt off your right arm, you ignored him, its not like you were stripping off everything, you still had another tank top under.

"Yeah." Frankie cleared his throat, "That's...easier." His voice came out in that raspy tone of his that made your skin tingle. You couldn't keep your eyes off his hands as they carefully inserted the syringe into your arm. "Sorry." Frankie let out when he saw your skin lift up with gooseflesh.

"It's fine." You almost didn't hear your own words as they slipped past your lips. Your eyes tracing his face now that he was focused on cleaning up your arm and wrapping your arm with the gauze and medical tape. You smile to yourself when you realize his hat has survived the trip. His curls poked out from under his cap, his face had a coat of dirt. The cut on his own face was starting to scab and another angry red scratch was poking out near the collar of jacket. Without thinking you lift your left hand and trace the scratch, "You didn't patch up your..." Your voice trailed off when you realized his eyes were staring back up at you. His soft ministrations on your arm had stopped and you suddenly felt a flush of heat rush up to your face. What were you thinking? You can't just reach out an touch him! "S-Sorry!" you quickly stammer out and pull away from him.

"I-" Frankie's eyes won't leave your face, the heat of embarrassment must be obvious. "It's...It's alright." He finally lets out, in that raspy voice of his. At that point you don't even know if the heat you're sure is radiating through your skin is from embarrassment or from desire.

You don't know if your glad or annoyed at the throat clearing from one of the guys behind you. It manages to break the trance you had fallen into as you stared into Frankie's eyes. Had they always been that soft? Mentally shaking yourself you quickly begin pulling your arm into the sleeve of your shirt, now that Frankie has let go. You're so caught up in buttoning up your shirt you miss the way Pope wags his eyebrows at Frankie as he walks back towards them.

---- As night falls once more you start assessing the amount of days you’ve been on the mountain. The boat waiting for you had been waiting five days, if it was still waiting. Looking down from where you stood you can see a few lights twinkling within the reflection of the ocean.

“How late are we to catch the boat?” Santiago asks you as he meets you after dropping the last of the bags by the pile next to you.

“About five days.”

“Jesus, you think he’s still there?”

“I can’t see shit.” This time it was Will who replied instead of you, his binoculars dropping from his face. Standing up he continues, “We need to get one of us down there. Think one of you can make it? There and back?” he asks the team as you all look over towards the ocean.

“I’ll go” Benny pipes up before anyone else can say anything.

“Your spanish sucks, Benny.”

“I got it.” Benny says as he picks up his gun and checks his ammunition.

“You sure?” Pope asks. “Three?”

“Yeah.” Benny’s determination is evident on his face.

“You’re looking for the Hijo Prodigo” Santiago says as he hands Benny the map the team has been using.

With a nod Benny takes the map and begins walking.

“Benny, watch your six.” You call out after him.

He turns at the sound of your voice. You’ve been relatively quiet since the moment you and Frankie shared. “You watch yours.” He calls back, before continuing his trek down towards the ocean.

With a thud you finally let yourself sit on top of the bags at your feet. Wincing at the sting of the movement you pull the strap of your gun over your shoulder and make yourself comfortable. Benny will be a while might as well catch a bit of sleep, you’re most likely going to be reaching the ocean overnight.

With a huff you hear Santiago behind you, “Alright guess I’ll take first watch.”

You swear you haven’t been asleep more than an hour or two when you’re awoken to Frankie’s voice cutting through the silence.

“I’m going to say something. Are you listening?” His voice held that commanding tone that you knew never to interrupt.

“Yeah.” You hear Santiago reply. Wondering if you woke up halfway through a conversation or if it just started, you didn’t know if you should be listening too.

“We gotta get back on our game. Enough of this. It stops now. You understand?”

“Copy that.” Santiago replies dryly.

So it was a conversation between the two of them. Even so, you felt a bit scolded. It was your fault too that the team was down here. Deciding that Pope shouldn’t have to hold all the blame you pipe up with a, “Yes, Sir.”

Will lets out a soft laugh, and Frankie sighs out a “Good.” before falling silent.

The silence after is cut short by Will’s question, “How many people do you think you’ve killed?”

You furrow your brow, that’s not at all what you expected to hear from Will. It seems that neither did Frankie, because he asked, “What?” in a somewhat surprised tone.

“You heard me.”

“As many as I had to.” Frankie’s voice sounds rough.

“Why would you ever want to know that?” This time it was Pope who asked.

“Forty-three.” Was the unexpected response from Will.

“Jesus Christ!” both you and Frankie exclaim at the same time.

“Confirmed.”

“You keep count of everything, huh?” Pope responds.

“Yup.”

“How’s your sleep?” Frankie asks.

“I guess better than it should be.”

With that hollow answer you get up from where you had been sitting and make your way to Will. Despite everything you’ve seen and been through you can’t help your bleeding heart from making an appearance. Settling back down next to him you whisper. “I’ve got your six. Get some sleep.”

Will looks over at you trying to figure out if you were saying it to hurt him. Whatever he found in your expressive eyes made him lift his hand from his gun and tap your knee twice before returning it to his gun and closing his eyes.

"Seventy-nine." You whisper into the night, you were a good shot and an even better sniper. Remembering that number was going to keep you up tonight.

----

You heard him before you saw him. Gun pulled up and trained in his direction when he finally popped up behind a rock.

“Whoa, it's just me.” Benny made a show to put his hands up in surrender. With a grunt you push down your gun. You’d been on edge throughout your entire shift on watch.“You alright?”

After a brief nod to answer your question Benny debriefs, “The boat’s there. I gave him half the money. I hope he waits.” As he reaches you the others get up. “I didn’t go into town, but it looks like whoever is in charge there has a...kindergarten army that’s looking for us.” He rips off his pack and gun and lets them drop to the floor once he’s in the middle of the circle you had formed with the bags.

“How many of them?” Will asks.

“Two or three pros, 20 heavily armed teenagers.”

“What about the next town over?” Frankie’s voice cracks from disuse.

“It’s over a 100 miles to the south.” Pope replies.

“I’m sure they have every town covered anyway.” Will shakes his head.

“Must be what's left of Lorea’s guys.” You find your voice again, thinking out loud. “Or...It wasn’t just his money we stole.”

“So we go through them.” Pope says his hands on his hips as if saying that's that.

“Through them?”

“What, do you mean we just mow them all down?” Frankie’s tone hints that that is not at all what he would be doing.

“What's the alternative here?” Pope shrugs his hands still firmly set on his hips.

“I’m not prepared to wipe out every teenager in that town.” Will speaks up, “Just to get through with this cargo.” he gestures at the bags stacked around you.

“This cargo?” Santiago points at the bags. “What about that cargo?” he yells as he points towards Tom’s wrapped body. “Would you do it for him?” You knew that tone of voice. You knew where this was going, you tried shaking your head at him but he continued anyways, “Tom died for this money, and we’re not leaving this country without it!”

Benny snapped, “He didn’t die for that money, he died because of it!” Pope turned his back on the group, running his hand over his face and walking a few paces away. Benny turned to the rest of the group, “They are just kids, man. Can’t we just carry it out through the dark?”

“It’s over 100 bags, man. There's no way.” Will tells his brother.

“Let me talk to him.” You finally found your voice again.

Without waiting for them to answer you, you trudge up towards Pope. Stopping when you can reach out and place your hand on his elbow. “Benny says these are kids, Santi.”

With a few quick shakes of his head Pope looks at you, “I can’t believe...I can’t believe I let this happen.” he struggles to find his words.

“We did.” you remind him squeezing his elbow, “The team came down to support us because we asked them to.” You fight down the little voice inside your head that sets the blame of Tom’s death on you, this was about Santi not you, you can deal with your own guilt later. Right now you had to get the surviving members of the team out of here. You know you won’t be able to handle it if another one of them...

“Yeah… Yeah but I thought- I thought we could do this!”

“Yeah. We both did.” You look down at your shoes to blink away your emotions, “And we got what we deserved.” With a deep breath you force yourself to look up at him. “Santi, we did some awful shit down here when it was just you and I. But we kept telling ourselves it was okay because the end justified the means. Yet, here we are hauling our brother’s body out of the fucking mountains.” Your voice cracks at the mention of Tom. “Santi, we have to get everyone else out, we won’t be able to live with ourselves if we risk another life for this dirty money.” You give his elbow another squeeze when he doesn’t answer right away.

“Yeah...Yeah your right.” Pope looks at you for a second, and just as you start turning on your heel to rejoin the group he stops you. “Just in case…”

“No.”

“No, really.” This time he's the one squeezing your arm, letting you know he won’t let go until he says his piece, “He’s been in love with you for much longer than you have been with him.” You look at Pope with wide eyes, knowing exactly who he was talking about but needing more information. Thankfully he keeps going, “Vanessa left before their one year anniversary, he wasn’t very forthcoming with why, just that she was gone. I know you hate my meddling when it comes to these things, but he’s still in love with you. Don’t let him get away this time.”

With that Pope turns and walks towards the others and you can hear him talking to the group again. But you're frozen in that position. Your hand was still in the air from when it was sitting on Pope’s elbow. A million questions were flying through your head, but most of all you were struck with the one thought that you had to get the fuck out of here before you could begin to ask any of those questions. Dropping your hand you turn to rejoin the group.

“We just have to get Tom home.” Will was saying when you joined them. Benny gave you an odd look, but you just shook your head at him as if your heart wasn’t just singing with hope, as Will finished with, “that’s all that matters.”

“How are we gonna do that?”

“We keep carrying him down.” You find your voice in time to contribute with the conversation at hand, even if your thoughts are chaos within your skull.

“I agree with Tweets.” Pope piped up, “We fill our day packs with...With whatever we can carry and that's it.”

“What do we do with the rest of it?” Benny asks once more.

------

“Put him down for a second.” You hear one of the boys say behind you when you put your fist up in the air. Your gun is pulled up in position. Due to the wound on your arm you’ve been point guard, your gun held steady in front of you, making sure to clear a path towards the ocean as the others carried Tom’s body behind you. Benny left the group about thirty minutes prior, to make sure the boat didn’t take off without the team, once the horizon began to turn pink with the rising sun.

You hear Frankie whisper your name in that raspy tone that made your tummy flip then, “What is it?” as he joins you with his gun also pulled up into position. You motion in the direction of the truck you noticed peeking out of the tall grass.

With a nod, he begins to creep forward. Your height helps hide you within the grass, one of your advantages as point guard, but Frankie was almost a head taller and when he stepped closer to the truck the lights turned on, momentarily blinding you, “Fuck!” you let out a curse as you crouch lower and grip your gun a bit tighter.

“Stop!”

“Manos Arriba!” [Hands up!]

“Wait, espera espera espera!” [Wait, wait, wait!] you hear Santiago’s voice towards the side of the truck, While you and Frankie had gone towards the front of the truck Pope had flanked behind it. Catching the teenager, with a rifle that looked too at home in his skinny arms, off guard. “Oye, Hermanito, ¡ten cuidado con esa arma! No me apunte.” [Hey, man. Careful with that gun, don’t point it at me!] Pope lowered his pistol as he began to talk to the kid.

Your finger on the trigger is twitching at the way the kid is gripping the rifle. Any other day you wouldn’t hesitate to do the same as Pope, but you’ve lost too much already, your heart feels like it might fall out of your butt any minute, and you keep your scope on the kid in front of you. Out of the corner of your eye you see Frankie making his way towards the drivers side of the truck.

“I speak english!” The kid yells, “What’s in the bag? What is that?” he gestures towards Tom’s body with his gun.

“That’s our friend” Will’s voice is just a bit to your left. Your focus is still on the gun the kid keeps failing about in the air. “He’s dead.”

“I call Boss” The kid says, you can see the fear in his eyes as the team continues to take small steps closer to him.

“No, No, ¡No hagas eso!” [Don’t do that!] You yell out at the kid, aiming the scope on your gun towards the kid’s leg. The kid looks in your direction, it seems your voice took him by surprise, not expecting a woman behind the automatic weapon that was trained on him. “Contigo no tenemos ningún problema. Right guys?” [I have no problem with you.]

“No problem.” Will answers, as Pope gets closer his open palms facing the kid, too close for your comfort. Your finger leaving the trigger guard and getting dangerously close to the trigger once more.

“I’m taking the shot.” You hear the words leave you, but you’ve closed off the part of you that would have done what Pope is doing. The instinct to survive taking over. Frankie looks at you from his position to your right and gives you a miniscule nod.

“NO!” Pope shouts one of his palms facing you this time. “No, don’t do that!”

You let out a frustrated groan, your finger lightly squeezing your trigger, not enough to release a bullet, but you know if the kid makes one abrupt movement he’ll drop. Thankfully you don’t have to. With a swift push, Pope knocks the gun out of the kid’s hand. However you were so focused on the gun that you didn’t notice the finger the kid was pushing down on the walkie until he shouted, “Habla 16! 16 necesito ayuda!” [This is 16, I need backup!] as the force of Pope’s push made him hit the ground.

“Pendejo!” [Asshole!] You growl out at the kid, as Pope pulls him up to his feet and pins him down against the hood of the truck.

“¿Dónde están las llaves?” [Where are the keys?] Frankie grunts out as he lowers his gun and begins to rifle through the cab of the truck.

“No se, me dejaron solamente con el coche y el radio.” [I don’t know, they just left me with the truck and the radio!] The kid struggles to breathe as Pope keeps his arm around the kid’s throat.

“FUCK!” You hear Frankie’s frustrated yell inside the cab.

“Seguro?” [You sure?] Pope asks the kid as he and William begin to zip tie the kid’s hands and feet together.

“16, 16 estás ahí?” [16, 16 are you there?] The walkie on the floor lets out.

With a huff you kick the radio into the grass and walk over to Tom’s body hauling his torso up you begin dragging him closer to the truck. Feeling the weight lift considerably once Will reaches you and helps you haul him into the bed of the truck. Just as Frankie managed to get the engine running.

“Yes! Fuck Yes!’ Pope slaps his hands against the hood of the car, as you jump into the flatbed and take a position behind Frankie. “Lets move lets get outta here!” Pope shouts at no one in particular seeing as he was the only one, other than the kid, not in the truck.

“Shit his radio!” You tell the guys realizing your mistake you jump out of the flatbed and retrieve the radio, from where it was in the grass.

“Un consejo,” [A piece of advice.] Santiago's voice drifts up from where you grab the radio, “Alejate de esos hombres.” [Get away from those men.]

“Did you just give the kid money?” You ask him, almost angry that Pope was being so reckless when you’re in hot water.

“Let’s move!” Frankie’s voice cuts through the tension between you and Pope, “Vamos! Los dos!” [Go, both of you.]

Rushing back to the truck you hop back into position behind Frankie and Pope takes the seat next to him as the truck jerks into gear. You grab onto the bar above you as the unforgiving dunes force you and Will to bounce within the back.

“Did you just give that fucking kid money?” Frankie berates Pope as soon as the truck you're in begins moving towards the ocean with more speed. “We should have killed the kid the minute he saw our faces.”

“We are not killing anymore people!”

“I’m telling you right now if we get to that beach and Ben isn’t there. I’m fucking killing people!”

“He’ll be there, alright!” Will cuts off the arguing that is going on within the cab of the truck.

“Fuck!” You yell out as a truck collides with the one your in.

“Tweets! The fuck you waiting for!” You hear Frankie yell at you when he pulls the truck back into a straight line.

You answer him with a squeeze of your trigger, your shots hitting their mark into the cab of the truck that was trying to collide with you again. “Drive, Fish!” you spit out as the truck following you stops moving, and another comes towards you.

“¡Miren, nos pegaron! Cuidado se van para la playa!” [Look they hit us! They are headed towards the beach!] The voices coming from the radio you have clipped on your belt.

“Oh, shit!”

“GO, GO, GO!” Will’s shout competes with the sound of the gear shifting. “What are they saying?”

“More are coming.” You notice that he’s out of rounds, handing him the pistol you have strapped to your thigh Will takes it and aims at the new jeep that spun around and began to chase you. “There’s two vehicles!” You shout behind you into the cabin as you train your gun at the one gaining on your right. Will was shooting at the one to your left.

“Alright, it should open up onto the beach any minute.” Pope says as he flashes a light on the map.

“Tweets, Shoot!” Frankie yells as you see the truck full of kids gaining on you. “Shoot the driver! I know you can! Take the fucking shot!”

With a deep breath you squeeze your trigger once more, but this time you're aiming at the front tire, deciding Pope is right. After looking at those kids, you know you won’t be able to sleep for a while if you mow them all down.

“Despacio que nos están disparando!” [Slow down they are shooting at us!] The voices on the radio keep shouting orders to the trucks behind you, urging them to slow down, but keep you within sight. “Quedense atras!” [Fall back!] Fruitless really, you hit your mark and watch as one of them spins out into the grass the second vehicle stopping.

“Nice!” Will gives you a grin when he realizes that it was your shot that spun out the truck.

“Eyes up!” Two more trucks meet you. However, these two begin shooting at you and before you can reciprocate fire, Frankie starts swerving through the grass to avoid being hit.

“Where are they?”

“Left! Left!”

Just as Will’s shout makes you turn your body, you feel the impact of the truck as Frankie slams into its side. Without taking proper aim you let out a few shots and watch as the truck flips over and a burst of fire lifts from the cab.

“Watch out!” Pope shouts as the other truck begins raining fire in your direction.

“All right here’s the beach!” Will’s deep voice reaches your ears, a small bud of hope blossoms in your chest. We just need to get to the beach.

“Where is he? Do you see him?” You shout your heart thumping hard against your chest as you keep your gun trained on the truck that has fallen a bit behind you.

“No, but the cove where we have to meet him is about a mile up this beach!” Pope yells.

You’re panicking once more, a mile? The truck that was behind you disappeared when it swerved behind a dune. Leaving you and Will searching the beach. The sound of an engine revving makes you point your gun at a dune to your left and you see the truck pop up closer to you than you expected. A woman in the back gave you an awful smile before shooting at you with a small handgun.

“Fuck!” You squeeze your trigger but your shots miss as Frankie swerves once more, her shots dangerously close to your head.

“Tweets! Kill them! Just kill them!” Frankie’s voice pulls you out of your thoughts of a close call, determined not to add to your numbers, you to take careful aim of the tires once more. They are just kids, you remind yourself even though those last few shots could have been fatal had Fish not swerved.

Will shouts “There he is!” somewhere to your left, but you’re focused on your targets. First you hit the tire on the driver’s side of the truck and then you hit the exposed radiator. Making the truck come to a complete stop. With a sigh you twist around and look over towards the beach where you see Benny waving from a small boat.

“Over the dune!” Pope shouts, as the truck catches air and Frankie drives it into the water. The water quickly fills up the cabin as Fish and Pope jump out. You shove your gun down as you begin to wade through the water and help Will with Tom’s body.

“Here.” Frankie’s rough voice reaches your ears as you swim towards him. He helps you haul Tom’s body onto the boat, and then gives you a push as you throw one leg over the side and pull yourself up as well.

You still hear the gunshots the teenagers are shooting, but Frankie had pulled you under him as the boat sped away, shielding you from harm with his own body.

"Cat" You mumble against his arm, "Fish its okay." You try again when his arms won't release you.

"Right. Sorry." He straightens out, he was about to scoot a bit away from you on the small bench when you grab on to his hand and give it a tug. Without thinking too much about it because you know that if you did you'll chicken out, you reach up with your other hand and pull him back.

"Tweets-" You don't really know what he was about to say because with help from the bumpy waves you're propelled forward and your lips bang against his.

Before you could pull away and apologize for the horribly aimed kiss, Frankie has wrapped both arms around you once more, this time though he pulled you on to his lap. One of his arms, wound tight around your waist held you firmly on his lap, while the other snaked up your back allowing his hand to hold the back of your head to tangle his fingers in your hair. His lips were surprisingly soft, with a slow drag of his tongue against your lower lip you opened your own and let him explore you in a way you had fantasied about for years. Distantly you could hear a muttered "Finally" and a whoop that let you know the guys had looked back and seen the two of you. But you were totally lost in the feel of Frankie's lips, the taste of salt as your tongues tasted each other.

When you finally broke the kiss to breathe, Frankie spoke, "I've waited years for this." His panting breaths tickling your lips, the hand on your neck keeping you close enough that your lips are still brushing against each other, "If you'd have me, I'm yours."

Taking in a gulp of air you brush your lips against his, "And I'm yours."

----

You stared up at the colorful buildings surrounding you as you waited outside of the bank with Will, Benny and Frankie. Your hand is wrapped around Frankie's hands his arms wrapped around you as his chin rests on the top of your head.

“Where to then?” Pope’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts.

“We need to get home.” Will speaks for both himself and his brother.

“You’ll need these.” Pope hands them their passports. You don’t miss the way he holds on to yours and Frankie's as they pat him on the back and leave.

You look expectantly at him when he finally turns around and looks at you and Frankie. A smile breaks out on his face as he takes you both in, standing there like a pair of love sick fools.

“So, are you finally heading home?” Frankie’s question is directed at Pope.

“I...I have a friend in Sydney.” That makes you break out into a smile. You didn't think Pope was really going to find her, not after everything.

“Heard she just came into some money.” You wink at him.

“Yeah, I heard the same rumor.” He reaches out and gives Frankie both your passports but doesn't let them go once Frankie has a grip on them, “Ahora te toca cuidarla.”[It's your turn to take care of her.]

Frankie gives Pope a smile, his eyes crinkling, “Creo que ella me cuidara a mi.” [I think she'll be the one taking care of me]

You feel the way Frankie's arms squeeze you just a bit tighter. As Pope meets your eyes, "Acuerdate lo que te dije." [remember what I told you.]

"Oh, I'm not about to let him get away this time." You say as you give Frankie's arms a slight squeeze, letting him know to let you go so you can give Pope a parting hug.

“Have fun getting home you two.” Pope says over your head as you pull away from his hug and Frankie reaches over to give him one as well.

“Wait ¡No te vayas tan rápido!” [Not so fast!] You place a hand on his arm to stop hims from leaving as you dig through the bag that's slung over your shoulder, with the other. “Tell Yovanna que le mando saludos.” [I say hi] You slip a piece of paper with coordinates into his palm as you quickly push yourself up on your toes to place a kiss on his cheek. “And thank you, Santi, for everything.” With one last smile, you pull away from him and pull Frankie along with you as you both disappear into the crowded street away from Pope.

“So dinner?” You ask the man you adore.

“Yeah. Yeah dinner sounds good.” Frankie gives you a lopsided grin as you take both your passports from his hand and shove them into your bag.

"Although, I don't mind a few more hours in that hotel room." Frankie's low and raspy voice reaches your ear, his lips brushing it slightly. Your entire body responds to his voice. The sensation of his lips against your skin have you heating up.

"Francisco!" You gasp in mock shock, "How fast do you think we can get there?"

#frankie morales x reader #latina!reader #triple frontier #Idk what this is guys #I've never shared my writing here so pls be nice to me #my writing #dee writes #Running

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