#mostly this is 'cause I found a decent place to stop and go to sleep

[curiousquirks]

Late Nights on Concrete (+18)

Pairing: Dabi x Fem!Reader

Content Warnings: Non-Penetrative Sex, Grinding, AFAB Reader, AFAB Dialogue Used, Fingering, (Slight Non-Con Exhibistism) but normal Exhibistism too, Pet Names Used (Princess), Dabi’s an ASS, Unsafe Sex, Humiliation, Non-Consenting Unknowing Sleeping People in the Room 

Word Count: 2,831

Summary:

“Better be quiet.” He whispered, taunting you. “Since you didn’t want it, I’ll just help myself.” | Dabi decides your ass pressing against him while trying to sleep in this rundown building the League decided to camp out in was driving him crazy. Might as well use you to get himself off, but don’t worry he’ll handle it himself since he’s such a gentleman.

Your feet stumbled into a dusty run down building, almost tripping on debris as you moved to bring your shirt up to cover your face. Echoed complainants can be heard as the rest of the League members follow behind you. You quickly move over to the window on the opposite side of the room, using your other hand to open it. You begin uselessly waving the dusty and gross air towards the window, cringing as you scrunch up your face in disgust.

“This place is awful!” Toga whined, pulling her sleeve to cover her hand before trying to wipe off the chair she found in the corner. “Why can’t we ever find decent places to stay in.”

“Shame we can’t stay in hotels, on account of how suspicious we all look.” Sako mused, moving around the shack as he inspected everything. “And the lack of funds too, of course.”

“I don’t see contributing anything to help.” Shigaraki countered Sako's rambling, dragging himself over to the couch no one wanted to go near before throwing himself onto it. “Stop bitching.” He mumbled into the couch cushion beneath him.

“At least this place has a roof.” You joked, nearly coughing as you moved to open more windows. “Last one didn’t.”

Toga pouted as she tried settling into the chair, crossing her arms not intending to get up to help at all. “I’m still upset that I didn't get to go into town this time. How come Spinner got to go?” She whined, using her foot to push a board nearby away from her. 

“It was our dear leader’s idea.” Sako answered, perching himself onto the counters nearby. 

“You’re just upset because you finally got told to stay behind for once.” You taunted before you started kicking the debris near the walls to give everyone more space. 

“I am not.” He defended immediately, implying that he was upset. “I just think that my quirk is quite beneficial in getting supplies for the whole League.” He lifted his hand up, rolling marbles between his fingers to show his point. 

“And I see staying behind doesn’t prevent you from still finding ways to get out of helping.” You grumbled, rolling your eyes. 

“Toga isn’t helping you.” Sako shot back, removing his mask. “Neither is Shigaraki.”

“Oh, I’m aware.” You said shooting a glare towards the couch. “Dabi wouldn’t help if he was here either!” 

“Wouldn’t help with what?” Dabi’s voice was heard from the open front door. “Nevermind, I see why you need it. This place looks like shit.”

“That’s what I said!” Toga added, still pouting in the corner.

“Great more useless bodies in my way.” You complained, continuing your thankless work of moving shit out of the way.

Dabi moved closer to you when your back was turned. “Maybe if you asked instead of bitching and assuming you’d get it, people would actually help.” Dabi's voice was loud as he spoke next to your ear, nearly causing you to jump. “Not that it’d do too much for this dump.”

Shigaraki flipped himself over on the couch, now laying on his back. He threw his arm over his face. “Surprised you decided to show up for once.” He mumbled, mostly to himself. 

“Only listened to your updates because you guys ended up in an area near me.” Dabi responded, leaning himself against the wall. “Didn’t want to deal with any of the shit in town nearby.”

“I thought it was because you missed us!” Toga shouted from across the room, grinning. “Come oooon, admit it!”

“Definitely not the case.” Dabi responded, keeping his eyes glued to you the whole time. “Your crazy asses are too much to handle.”

“Yeah right.” You laughed, tossing a piece of concrete near him. “You get lonely, just admit it.”

“Really making me want to stay.” Dabi said, pushing himself off the wall. “I’ll hang outside until you get done cleaning up.”

“You could help, fucker!” You shouted, throwing another piece of concrete towards him. You watched as it collided against the door frame, breaking apart. You sighed, glaring towards Sako before pulling out your best customer service voice and innocent face. “Can you please help me, Mister?”

He immediately fell into character, placing his hand against his chest. “Well, of course my dear. Why didn’t you ask sooner?” He responded before hopping off the counter.  

You eventually convinced Toga to help you as well, which allowed all three of you to get the building more suitable before the Spinner and Twice came back. They didn’t get much, just enough to allow you guys to get some food for at least a day or two, and some random supplies to make it more comfortable. That night you all made do with what few supplies you could scrounge up. A few blankets, coats or layers of clothing was the best anyone could get aside from the couch that Shigaraki seemed determined to keep to himself. No one wanted to fight him for it anyways.

You stuck close to Dabi for the night, especially since he greedily took one of the better and biggest blankets. He wasn’t going to complain about having you pressed against him either; the floor wasn’t that comfortable and that meant that your tits squeezed against his side as you cuddled closer. Using him as a temporary body pillow was definitely better than that hard concrete floor. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but you had it better than Spinner who was forced to be a pillow for Twice not 5 feet from you. 

Dabi couldn’t stay asleep though, not with the various mixture of snoring and outside ambience making him regret not just passing out in some shady back corner in town. He immediately felt your body move from him, your half-asleep self turning around so your back faced him. He glanced over towards you, the moon light shining through the windows giving plenty of annoying illumination to the room. You placed your head against your curled arm, making a make-shift pillow. You murmured something to yourself, pressing yourself against Dabi’s side. His interest peaked, probably only because nothing else was happening right now since he couldn’t sleep. 

He flipped onto his side, wrapping an arm around your waist before pulling you closer so you were fully against him. You gave a noise of content as you wiggled your ass against his crotch. He pressed a kiss against your neck as he pressed his quickly hardening cock against your ass. You grinded back against him, letting out a soft moan as he pressed more kisses against your neck. His hand reached down, slipping under the waistband of your pants as he pressed two fingers against your clothed cunt. The friction of his fingers barely brushing against your clit, nearly getting you to moan. A wet kiss placed near your ear had you biting your tongue as a shiver went up your spine. 

You cracked your eyes open, trying to turn your head back to look at him. His hot breath was against your ear, making you feel even hotter. 

“What are you do–” You began asking before he cut you off.

“Shhhh…” He whispered harshly, moving his fingers to pay more attention to your clothed clit. He made rough circles against your sensitive bud, moving his hips against your ass making his cock even more apparent. 

“Not now…” You harshly whispered, not really putting a lot of effort into removing his hand from your pants. 

“You like it though, don’t you?” He whispered against your ear. You could practically feel the grin he was giving you. He could read you like a book.

He removed his hand, and you had to bite back the whine that nearly left your throat. He moved back away from you and you almost thought he was actually going to leave you alone. Before you could even decide if that’s what you actually wanted, you heard a zipper being undone. Your eyes widened and you moved to turn your head around, because you knew exactly where that sound came from. Dabi’s hand was quick to push your head back down to the floor though, his hot breath on your ear again.

“Better be quiet.” He whispered, taunting you. “Since you didn’t want it, I’ll just help myself.”

“Wha–” You started questioning before you felt your pants being yanked down roughly. You clasped a hand over your mouth to catch yourself before you made any loud noise, your eyes darting to the various figures sleeping in the room. Everyone seemed clocked out from what you can tell.

You felt his slender fingers rubbing gently against your slit before your underwear was slid to the side, giving him access to your dripping cunt. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t want him to fuck you senseless, just not in the room with everyone sleeping. You squeezed your eyes close as you felt his cock slide against your wet folds, his tip rubbing against your aching clit. You pressed against him, trying to meet his rocking hips. His warm hand slid its way under your shirt, instantly digging his fingers into your breast. 

His hot breath hit against your neck, as you heard his breathing pick up behind you. The friction against you was intoxicated, feeling a spark of excitement like you two were in your own little bubble. His hips moved quicker into yours, the muffled noises of his cock sliding effortlessly against your lips from how wet you were made your face burn. His hand massaged the skin of your breast as he angled his hips slightly, making you bite your bottom lip to contain any noise. 

Your eyes were wide open now, darting towards the various people in the room making sure they were all still asleep. Your face was burning, all the way to the tips of your ears. You begged no one to wake up, and thankfully Twice’s loud snoring was covering up any sinful noises coming from under your blanket. 

“You feel fucking good.” He whispered against your neck. “Doesn’t beat your pussy though.”

You reached your hand up to grip the arm under your shirt, digging your nails in. “Shh…” You harshly whispered back. “Please…”

“Don’t act shy.” He whispered, his hot breath right against your ear. His fingers started pinching your perk nipple, twisting it as his tongue ran along the shell of your ear. “Not when you’re this wet.” 

He grunted when you pressed down against his greedy cock, pushing your hips back to meet his thrusts. It was louder than you thought he’d make and your eyes darted around the room again, but once again thankfully no one seemed awake. Your eyes fluttered close as that coil tightened, curling your toes as your nails dug into his arm more.  If you were in a more sane mind you might’ve thought about how dangerously close you were to biting your tongue.

Dabi’s composure was more ragged; his panting and uneasy breath fanning hotly against your ear. His fingers were digging roughly into your breast, warmth uncomfortably spreading against your skin. The friction was sharp but perfect. You were close. Nothing else existed, not right now. You wished he just got over himself and shoved his cock into you instead of driving you crazy with this intoxicating game of his. You didn’t even remember there were people in the room.

You noticed his sputtering hip movement before you felt the hot spurts of cum coat your aching cunt. His sigh and body collapsing behind you felt like a slap to your face, his hand lazily leaving your body. Your clit twitched painfully, the coil sinking in your gut as you laid there feeling violated and unfulfilled. The snoring sounded louder suddenly, your ears burning as you felt movement behind you as Dabi adjusted himself back into his pants. The aching feeling left you with immense irritation, which allowed you to awkwardly flip around to face Dabi.

He pretended not to notice, laying his head against his arm. You shoved him roughly before hitting his abdomen. “What the fuck was that?” You harshly whispered. 

“I said–” He replied slowly, acting like this was a casual conversation before you interrupted him.

“Shhh…” You harshly responded, but quietly. 

You didn’t see him roll his eyes. “I said I’d help myself.” He responded, quietly. 

“That’s it?” You responded before you could stop yourself. You rubbed your legs together. You really wanted his smug ass face underneath your pulsing and twitching cunt right now. He could clean you off too.

He turned on his side, his face suddenly really close to yours. “Thought you didn’t want it.” He said, making sure to move his lips inches from yours. “Change your mind, princess?”

“Beg.”

You stared intently into his eyes; his striking and annoyingly beautiful eyes. Fucking asshole. Without breaking eye contact, and slightly awkwardly, you shimmied out of your pants and underwear. He stayed completely still, even when you bumped into him a few times, a smirk growing on his face the entire time. A small rambling comment from Spinner had you pausing only briefly before you realized he started snoring too. 

You propped your bent knee on top of his hip before guiding his hand in between your legs. Your eyes glanced down towards his lips as your fingers dug into his arm. His fingers were hovering barely above your slit and your hips instinctively moved themselves towards him. They barely brushed against your clit as you let out a small gasp. 

He pulled his hand back slightly. “I said, beg.” 

“Please…” You whispered, barely brushing your lips against his. “Touch me…”

“Why? Use your words.” He taunted.

“Wanna come…” You whispered, your face burning again. It felt humiliating. “Come on, Dabi, please.” 

His fingers finally touched you and you felt like you could collapse into a puddle on the floor. He smeared his cum over your slit and swollen clit. “Can’t even tell what’s mine.” He commented softly, grinning at you. “You’re practically dripping onto the floor.”

 

“Stop it.” You hushed him before he continued making more lewd comments. “Shh!” 

His fingers dipped inside your entrance causing you to press your lips against his to mask the moan. He wasted no time pumping his curled fingers inside of your cunt, your body practically pulling him. You pulled back from his lips, your soft pants just inches from his face. 

He moved his head so he could whisper into your ear. “Listen to how fucking loud your pussy is, huh?” He teased, purposefully making his fingers force those dirty squelching sounds from you. “Be quiet, princess, someone might hear.”

Your hand moved up to grip his head, forcing his head back down away from your ear. You smashed your lips together, gripping onto a fistful of his hair tightly. He was infuriating but you’ll be damned if he’ll get you caught by not shutting the fuck up. A muffled squeak was swallowed when he shoved his tongue into your mouth. You bit back a moan as he pressed against that sensitive spot, his hand creating friction against your clit.

You rocked your hips against his hand, that coil tightening again. You pulled back from him slightly, his teeth catching your lip as you pulled back. He bit down but you roughly tugged his hair. He let go right as he pushed you so close to the edge. He saw it on your face too, your mouth was slightly open, a trail of saliva connecting you two, as your fingers started letting go of his hair. You pressed your face into his shoulder suddenly as your orgasm slammed into you. 

  

“Fuck.” You harshly muffled into his shoulder, staying there for a moment before you collapsed against the floor. 

Your heavy panting was your main focus as Dabi shoved your leg off. He flipped back onto his back, letting his head fall to the side so he could look at you. You weren’t paying attention, but you didn’t have to. You just knew he looked completely fucking pleased with himself. Smug bastard. You took the chance to take a glance over at him. You were right. You rolled your eyes as you started the awkward process of putting your underwear back on, the cool feeling of the damp fabric pressed against your still warm cunt caused a shiver down your spine. You half-assed putting your pants back on, having them barely over your hips before you heard Dabi make a comment next to you.

“You’re welcome.” He whispered before moving his head back, placing an arm under his head.

You rolled your eyes again and turned roughly onto your side so your back was to him. You moved your arm underneath your head and adjusted the large blanket before shutting your eyes. This was good enough, you wanted nothing more than to attempt to sleep now and ignore his arrogant ass behind you.

[our-t4t-experience]

hi Evan! Big fan of what you do on your page. I very recently got a boyfriend who is also a trans man. Do you maybe have any tips on how I can make this relationship last more than a month? (Knowing my luck…)

-🦦(if I ask anything else)

there are some things that are in your control and some things that are out of them. its worth mentioning that if you have been abused before, its more likely that you will either perpetrate those behaviors, or on the flip side, allow people to perpetrate those behaviors against you

in my experience i have had a lot of unstable relationships where the instability wasnt necessarily caused by me (or me alone) as much as it was the other person being abusive to me and me letting it happen

so this advice IS coming from a place of "ive been abused," if this isnt applicable, my apologies

-communication is very important and remembering that people communicate in different (and sometimes incompatible) ways is also very important. you may be extremely direct and dating someone whos a little sensitive. you may want to de escalate an argument by being by yourself and they may want to talk about it. its important to be able to compromise sometimes and for them to compromise sometimes if your communication styles arent aligned. my girlfriend has to be very direct with me because shes learned that while we're both southern and she has learned to approach boundaries and conflict in a passive, sugar coating way, because im autistic, that approach doesnt work, for example

-how do you express love? how does your partner express love? its important to show your love in a way that is fulfilling to you, but its also important to show your love in a way that your partner receives it. ive heard mixed things about the "5 love languages" test but honestly i did the test and it was decently accurate and may be a good start, its also worth noting that neurodivergent people may also express love in different ways than the "norm"

-never stop dating your partner. yall like flowers? get each other flowers! go on cute dates! send each other memes that make you think of the other person! never stopping trying to impress your partner can make for a more fulfilling and exciting long term relationship

-time together, especially later in your relationship, is super important. distance can make the heart grow fonder (trust me, we're long distance lol) but you dont want to be away from them all the time. work and family obligations can make that hard, but having time to yourselves is important, me and caspian sleep together on the phone every night, and thats one of my favorite parts of the day

-specifically trans advice, but your trans partners transition should be a celebration. ive heard from one trans man that you should be responding to your loved ones transition like you would if someone was having a planned and wanted baby, and thats good advice. get excited! get funny with it! get romantic with it! my girlfriends excited for me to get top surgery and that makes me feel very good about my transition

(past this is longer term advice)

-i dont usually like those "3 weeks 3 months 1 year" rule stuff, but in my experience, you can usually tell if youre compatible with someone by 3 months. this is enough time for the "honeymoon phase" to chill out a bit and youre more receptive to their flaws. by some point you should be able to know if these flaws are a dealbreaker (unless youre like me and have a fawn instinct lol), and ive also found that i can tell when a relationship is unhealthy USUALLY by around 3 months, at least in my subconscious

-i knew i wanted to marry caspian by 6 months of us being together, and we're not getting married right now for a couple different reasons mostly boiling down to we're just not ready yet, but id recommend waiting 6 months before you start thinking seriously about a future with this person

-a rule ive had for a long time regarding marriage with anyone is that i want to have lived with them for a full year before we get engaged. i dont live with my girlfriend and wont until probably the end of this year (our 7 months os tomorrow!) but i have lived with a partner and have found that you can find out a lot about a person by living with them for an extended period of time

if i missed anything lmk, anyone else is also free to give advice in the comments (:

[rainesol]

Apollyon’s childhood

Made using this prompt sheet

(CWs for child neglect/abuse. The rough parts will be in red)

Simple as, Apollyon wasn’t born. He has zero relatives. He was made using EXTREMELY taboo and illegal magic. It’s very difficult to accomplish, and takes multiple people to do.

Polly doesn’t remember much from his childhood. He can hardly recall his host parents faces, despite last seeing them at 16. His earliest memory would probably be from age six, in his early school years.

Surprisingly little. Disturbingly little. Apollyon sat and stared a lot. Also, changeling infants bite. Imagine the worst place for an infant to randomly grow barbed teeth and bite at. He was bottle-fed.

Apollyon didn’t start speaking until he was four or five. I imagine he went straight to full sentences.

He started walking EARLY. 7ish months?

I imagine later than most kids. Maybe 3/4 years? He didn’t stop wetting the bed until he was ~12.

Yeah. It’d be a little bitten, but it’s his canines you’d worry about. I don’t know when he’d stop using it :0 Either older or younger than average. Apollyon retained similar(?) behaviour into adulthood though. He will suck/chew on his sleeves or hoodie strings when anxious.

Pretty often. And it’d be about anything. Changeling children are designed to react like this more often than a typical human child.

Could probably use a post of its own. He was a lot quieter as a little kid, and then as an older child-young teen he was more volatile.

Very hard. Changelings exist to cause distress in this universe.

Walking. Gets him out of the flat.

No. Going with some myths, he’d have had a decent appetite. He lost it though, and now eats little, as he’s accustomed to.

He taught himself to cook young. He’d normally eat raw ingredients before he could. Like dry pasta.

As a baby/toddler, he’d have trouble going to bed. Currently he’s a bit of an insomniac. He can fall asleep if someone is soothing him to sleep though.

Yeah. He was scared of his host parents and would dream about them. This also meant he couldn’t go to them for comfort. Sometimes he’d stand in their doorway but being a creepy changeling kid, he’d just get yelled at to leave. Sometimes he’d dream about strange cloaked figures in the woods, too. Wonder what that’s about.

Only really the stuff the original child got from the baby shower/pre birth.

Interesting to look at. Like those sparkly water timers.

He found a lost ‘ds’ as a kid. He totally would’ve given it back, but the kids parents just got them a new one the next day, so he took it home and pirated some games for it. He still has it.

Apollyon was physically abused. As a child, he would have had very severe punishments, many of which he wouldn’t have realised weren’t normal (hitting, kneeling on rice/etc, having glassware etc thrown near or at him).

Typical day would depend on if he went to school or not. He’d spend most of the day on in school suspension.

He liked feeding pigeons and ducks. He tries to ignore bad memories. Sometimes to an unhealthy degree. One memory was of him being left in the underground. He waited for hours but his dad never came back. Eventually the police took him home. He was 7.

N/A. I doubt much celebrating happened in his household.

Apollyon had an extremely poor relationship with his host parents. He says that his father was scarier than his mother. He’d be on the receiving end of serious physical and verbal abuse from then until he was ‘big enough to fight back. Then they’d mostly ignore him. However, his adoptive mother (her name’s Maya), has an excellent relationship with him. She’s incredibly kind and understanding with him, and helps heal his poor inner child.

No friends. An acquaintance gave him his industrial piercing, though. He can’t remember her name.

His parents had a bearded dragon. It wasn’t kept very well and they gave it away when he was young.

Casual, comfy stuff. Most of his clothes came from lost and found or charity shops. One time on a non-uniform day someone pointed out he was wearing something they’d donated and he ‘just went home’. Totally not one of my experiences I’ve forced on him lol

Other than teachers, no. They weren’t any help to him. Until the age of 16, ‘every adult in Polly’s life had failed him.’

Public primary/secondary schools. He liked art class. He didn’t like much else.

N/A

I don’t know. Probably not.

Nothing friendly. That. It. Him.

Yeah. He was abused and isolated the whole time. I won’t delve too deep into specific scenarios. He tends to assume everyone just doesn’t like him.

This will probably be updated. I was sleep deprived writing it :(

[esseastri]

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 5)

whhooooooo there’s still so much left, but I’ve come so far?? I’M !! THERE IS SO! MUCH! HAPPENING! IN ! THIS! BOOK!

Part 5 encompasses pages 326-394 (previous parts)

INTERLUDES 1

fucking. Venli? really? I don’t want to be in her head. I don’t want to know.

anyway! NEW PEOPLE FIRST:

“Puuli the lighthouse keeper” I LOVE THEM ALREADY

“Kelek himself had broken apart the land in the middle of a storm” I...Kelek? really? are you sure? Aren’t most of the Heralds busy being...not here?

Listen, Alyx told me that we’d seen all ten Heralds somewhere over the course of the series so far, and armed with this knowledge I have squinted at every single new character like “are YOU a crazy person who is sort of a god? are YOU a crazy person who is sort of a god?”

I’m pretty sure none of them have been crazy people who are sort of gods.

But I’m keeping my eyes peeled anyway.

I RELATE TO THIS ARDENT LADY BECAUSE I, TOO, WOULD LIKE TO BE LEFT ALONE IN PEACE AND QUIET AND VERY VERY LONELY SOLITUDE TO READ MY SMUT FIC.

“What was that you’re studying?” “Important works.” Obviously. Trashy romance novels are the HEIGHT of important works.

ROSHARN LINGUISTICS IS REALLY COOL.

it’s a trashy romance novel; of COURSE there’s a sequel.

tbqh, Venli, I’m not sure what you expected. “You should be taking orders from me.” Uh huh. Sure. You summoned a hatesprean that your people literally went dullform to escape, and you didn’t think you were going to be ordered around by it?

YOU KNEW YOUR GODS WERE EVIL WHY DID YOU THINK THAT SUMMONING THEM WOULD SAVE YOUR PEOPLE

nooooo

Eshonai please. don’t be dead. you’re the best of them, just...don’t

aaahhh

wow, that’s. a lot of information okay. um. Spren of redemption? yeah, I’ll believe that when never. The parshendi ANCESTORS? are in charge?? in charge of what? the spren? the voidbringers? the changes? the storm?

also Venli is KIND OF AN ASSHOLE and I mean, we knew this already but this kind of power-hungry selfishness is. really unfortunate in a person.

ooh. different spren? save Esh please? maybe? I LIVE IN HOPE.

PART TWO

what

BRIDGE FOUR gets a pov?!!!!!!??! MY BOYS!!!??!?!?!? AAHH

BHAHAHAHA I ALWAYS FORGET HOID’S REAL NAME IS A STUPIDLY RIDICULOUS STAR WARS NAME I Love it

how come we don’t get Navani’s reaction to her daughter just magically appearing back from the dead

I want the Navani-Jasnah reuinion scene. I’ve been robbed of good mother-daughter content.

“Storms. She was perfect.” Every. time. I love it. I love how super bi Shallan is and how desperately in love she is with two very different Kholins. What a good.

god bless Jasnah “Every Moment is a Teaching Moment if You Try Hard Enough” Kholin

you know, I’m also been robbed of Jasnah and Hoid’s Road Trip Adventure. I’m sad.

omg it’s so weird for Jasnah to be the one who’s a step behind.

AAHH JOINT VISION TIME YO this’ll be fun

oooohh the Stormfather does care. he has an imagination and everything.

bahahaaha Dalinar. How many times has he witnessed all these visions and he’s still a doofus when it comes to fitting into them.

OOOHH SUMMONING ARMOR THAT’S COOL!! Can they do that nowadays?? 

“they moved on all sixes” like yeeeeppp right, most stuff on roshar has six legs but that’s a wild variation on all-fours and suuuper jarring for a sec

hi, yeah, I love Fen a lot. petition to keep her.

also her assuming that Dalinar was working with the Voidbringers: not unreasonable considering the last few months of him possibly going crazy or not. like...she’s got reasons to be suspicious.

OMG THE ART FOR THE HEADER FOR BRIDGE FOUR AAAAAHHHHHH

SIGZIIIIILLLLL omg. Having panic dreams about messing up tests. I love him???

he’s SO OFFENDED THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO QUEUE I LOVE IT

hold on I’m changing my queue tag to “I’m Azish, I know how to queue”

BLESS. AFRO!SIGZIL

LOPEN EATING BREAKFAST ON THE CEILING WHAT A NERD

I HAVE MISSED THESE ROWDY BOYS

“Where was Teft? They actually listened when he gave orders.” MY BOYS ARE DUMB NERDS AND I LOVE THEM

what’s the “other thing”? Where does Teft disappear to? what is happen. why does Kaladin not know about it, but Sig does?

dear. god. I’m.

of course he does morning push ups. without his jacket on.

I’m

hhhnnnnngggggggggg

#priorities

I LOVE MY DUMB BOYS

LOOK AT THEM ALL GETTING MARRIED AND COURTING AND GETTING LUNCHES DROPPED OFF BY THEIR WIVES AND LOOK AT THEM BEING REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL LIVES AND I’M SO PROUD OF THEM THEY’VE COME SO FAR I LOVE THEM

also I adore that the only "problem” about Drehey being gay is that Sig thinks he’s gotta fill out forms, and that the indication is that in Azir, the forms go both ways. That’s. so refreshing and lovely and. Good job, Brandon! I’m so. this is A Good.

“Master Hoid” is a fucking hilarious juxtaposition of terms.

Kaladin’s desperate insistence that they won’t lose any more people is endearing and also terrifying because you just know someone is going to die and he’s going to be so upset and I’m going to have to drive back to Utah to yell at Brandon personally for making my boy suffer.

Can Lyn join Bridge Four? If we’re recruiting, can we recruit her?

BLESS. TWO SENTENCES LATER “How would you like to join the Windrunners.” GOOD YES EXCELLENT

me, anytime they even mention Moash: *long keening noises of despair and pain* 

Kaladin didn’t teeeeellll theeeemmmmmm he didn’t tell them what Moash did he didn’t tell them Moash hecked up and betrayed them he didn’t want then to be mad or to hate Moash I’M UPSET NOISES FOREVER

ohhhh my god.

Kaladin. Please.

Using the royal treasury’s emerald grain reserve to practice Radianting is DELIGHTFUL and HILARIOUS and also TERRIFYING OMG I LOVE IT THAT’S PERFECT

God, I love these boys.

Evi calls Dalinar “beloved” and I’m emotional

He doesn’t deserve her.

oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

He didn’t kill the kid.

He didn’t--I... I doubted him. I thought--so caught up in the Thrill, I just ASSUMED, BUT here were the seeds. The idea that the Blackthorn wasn’t quite as horrible as he could have been. Which makes the changes later so much more plausible.

god, she’s so proud of him. I love her?

Gavilar can fuck right off, tbh, oh my god.

YAASSS, ROCK POV OMG

LUNAMOR

THAT’S SO PRETTY

“I want everyone on this plateau glowing like they swallowed a lantern.” that there’s a decent David Charleston metaphor.

WHERE! IS! TEFT! I’m so worried about him.

I love that they salute Dabbid.

I love them.

I love Bridge Four. I’m not sure if you guys know this about me.

LOPEN PLEASE. “Did you stick yourself to the ground?” “All part of the plan, gon.” IS IT THO, DARLING?

KALADIN TRYING TO TEACH HOBBER TO BREATHE IN STORMLIGHT SO HE CAN HEAL HIS LEGS IS SO GOOD KALADIN IS SO GOOD I’M

crying

“I now have to either promote him or push him off the side of the plateau.” “Promote him? to what?” “Airsick lowlander. Second class.”

HELLO, FRONDS, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU ARE AWARE, BUT I! LOVE! BRIDGE! FOUR! SO! MUCH!

I...they saved the bridge.

I love that Rock bows to and respects even the spren he can’t see. Also I get the feeling that no one really ever sees Glys, except Renarin. Which makes...sense, in a weird way? I guess...’cause they are both so quiet and reserved. Or we assume Glys shares that with Renarin. It seems right though, if that’s true.

Also, Rock making work for Renarin, just so he can be included, which is all he wants is A Good. Rock is an extremely observant fellow, once he puts his mind to it, isn’t he?

Rock is really, really good at making people feel better. And he knows exactly what people need. Skar is a teacher, so he gives him the opportunity to teach. Renarin needs a confidence boost, so he tells him not to see himself as a flaw, but as a person. Rlain needs company, so he sends Renarin to him. He’s very good at manipulating people into making themselves feel better. It’s really delightful.

HOBBER!!!! HOBBER GOT IT!!! THEY’RE ALL JUST GIVING HIM THEIR GEMS THEY DON’T EVEN HESITATE THEY’rE JUST

I’M CRYING I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY ARE ALL SO DAMN GOOD

you know what, fuck Sadeas.

OH MY GOSH

OOOOOHHH

ROCK’S FAMILY!!!!! IS HERE!!! THERE’S KIDDOS!!!!!! I’M!!!!! OH MY GOSH

HER NAME IS SONG AND THEY ARE CHILDHOOD SWEETHEARTS AND I’M CRYING AGAIN

they are SO GOOD. honoring their bridge for its last run. the last one. That’s...almost incomprehensible, but YEAH! They fly now! what do they need a bridge for! (a bridge four. hah) But the still...they honor it. It saved their lives. It was all they had. Of course it gets one last run.

aahh, I love Bridge Four so, so much.

[sylusjinwoon]

{ 66 }

moonsetter.

vincent fabron (CHAMBER) x reader

it was rare for you to find chamber fast asleep first.

you had just come out of the shower, working on drying yourself off while dressed in a silk robe. your bare feet pads against the cold and almost icy texture of the marble flooring, causing you to shiver almost instinctively. you re-enter your bedroom, ready to find some decent pajamas to wear to sleep only to freeze once you saw a large mass settled on top of your bed.

your mind was spinning, unsure of what to do. your boyfriend never told you he was coming back home, and the last time you had spoken to him, he had mentioned that he'd be away on a mission. you debated on finding a weapon, or just running the hell out of your home to find help. you didn't know what had came over you; perhaps some strange curiosity had pushed away at your fears as you found yourself stepping closer to the figure, only to visibly relax upon seeing his features clearly from beneath the moonlight.

settled in bed was none other than chamber himself. his glasses were placed aside on the nightstand as his hair slowly began to lose its neatly slicked back appearance. a few strands of dark brown hair was seen falling across his forehead, making you wonder if chamber had been running his hands through his hair the entire time.

had he been wanting to surprise you? and if so, just how long had he been back?

you rarely got the chance to admire your lover in such a vulnerable state. ever since you first got together with him, he had always been such a prime example of raw power and confidence. to you, there wasn't a single flaw in chamber solely because you embraced all of his imperfections and accepted him for who he was.

so to see him sleeping soundly with such a tranquil expression on his face makes you melt for him. you wanted to be a good lover and try not to bother him whilst he slept and simply join him, but sadly your desire to simply admire him won out.

making sure that you were mostly dried off so that not a single droplet of water would disrupt chamber's sleep, you climb on top of the bed. seeing chamber awake and basking in the golden glow of the sunlight always made your heart stutter, but seeing him now, asleep while bathed in the gentle light of the moon was something ethereal altogether.

he was too beautiful, it was devastating to you. chamber almost looked unreal, like a sculpture or a painting on smooth canvas. seeing his sculpted face in a state of such a peaceful slumber makes your heart ache and your mouth turn dry. just how did you get so lucky to capture his heart and call him your own? sometimes, the act of standing next to him makes you feel all types of inferior to him-

yet he's told you on so many occasions that he loves you. that you are his light that guides his heart and gives him peace.

"never before have i experienced a love like yours, mon amour, for it is something truly unconditional."

remembering his words makes your heart swell. you continue admiring his beauty, gently framing his face while whispering his name, "you are my greatest love, vincent."

you allow your lips the pleasure of meeting his cheek, relishing on how you felt his warmth against your skin as proof that he was truly here with you, safe and sound. ready to turn in and go to bed, you were about to step out of bed when you suddenly felt a pair of powerful arms wrap around your back, stopping you from leaving him. you were suddenly trapped against his chest, making you giggle, "i'm sorry, did i wake you up?"

chamber groans and grumbles a bit, looking down at you with unfocused eyes. "damn, did i really fall asleep? i had every intention of seducing you when i came home and heard you in the shower. just picturing your naked body beneath the spray of water was enough to get me going- or so i thought."

he yawns, folding your form against his chest. "forgive me, mon amour, for i am too tired to move. perhaps you can stay with me like this in my arms until the morning?"

you could feel yourself smiling into his chest, snuggling yourself even closer to him while placing gentle kisses against the gentle thrumming of his heart. "i would want to do nothing more, my love."

he hums in approval, unable to help himself even in his tired state when he lifts up your chin to press a chaste kiss against your lips.

"i'm home." chamber says to you with a lazy smile

"welcome home." you answer back in a whisper, feeling more than happy at having your lover back in your arms once more.

a.n. - whispers listen to { moonsetter } while reading pls okay b y e.

all stories are written by rei; reposts, translations, and plagiarism are not allowed

[loousir]

[Naga] Snake Bites

Naga Male x Bold (& kinda dense) Artist Male Reader

Syerca

Setting: Mostly a Naga's cave deep into a forest.

Warnings: Soft lime at the end (marking/mate), bad (was the first oneshot in the original book), slight mention of naga attacking reader

Masterlist

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

The fall breeze blew gently, tossing some fallen leaves around some worn shoes. The man who wore said shoes brushed away the strands of hair that had fallen into his face. He stared out into the woods, eyes following a gorgeous path until it disappeared.

"Hope you don't plan on goin' out there, " An older resident said. They were at the edge of a small cabin town. Some houses we're newer than others but that didn't seem to bother anyone. The houses were decently spaced and it was pretty active for being where most elders come to retire.

The man shrugged at the other's comment and adjusted the large hiking bag on his shoulders. "You shouldn't. Most don't make it back." The other male rolled his eyes and looked back to the elder. "I'm well aware of what lurks out there." He turned away from the other and set out on the path.

The path almost instantly secluded anyone who walked it from the chaotic world around it. He examined the terrain and all it had to offer, collecting some things along the way. His side bag was full of odd rocks and a book that had some pressed foliage, now had ones he hadn't collected before.

The walk was peaceful. Birds chirping as the wind rustled the leaves. The path was mostly covered but the leaves caused rays of light to shine through, giving him inspiration. He eventually found a spot to rest and decided to paint the path he was walking. Once his bag was set down, he pulled out a roll of canvas and laid it as flat as he could.

There were some paints and brushes in a holder in the middle of the roll and he smiled softly as he picked them up. He opened the bag and pulled out what he thought he needed as well as a small jar that held water to clean the brushes.

Close to 30 minutes had passed when he got a slight chill down his spine. He paused his painting and looked around. His eyes only saw the woods so he somewhat hesitantly went back to painting. After another 40-ish minutes passed, he finished his first of few paintings.

Luckily, the breeze dried his paints quicker than he had anticipated. He very carefully added a few layers of a sealant he had and let it dry. The same chill from earlier came around again but it was a bit more intense. He looked around as he finished cleaning and putting things away, noticing something in the distance.

Whatever he was looking at disappeared and he sighed as the now dry canvas was gently rolled and placed back onto the bag. He stood up, stretched, and continued his mostly peaceful walk, forgetting what he had seen earlier.

Some hours had passed, his periodic breaks allowing him to gain inspiration for future paintings. It was just after noon when he decided to make his own path. He pulled out a book and wrote directions so he could find his way back. In the process of creating his own path, he stumbled upon one of the most stunning places he'd ever seen.

It was a small, oasis-like area that had a magical feel to it. He stopped what he was doing and found the perfect spot to paint the scene in front of him.

While he painted, some birds had visited him and even a small snake had managed to befriend him and his paints. The snake had coiled gently around his wrist while he worked which made him smile.

The man had sat and painted the space for another 2 hours, finishing at around 2 o'clock. His (e/c) eyes looked up to the sky and he sighed, sealing his now finished work before packing everything away.

The snake was still on his wrist, not even bothering to leave so he just dealt with it. He continued on his own path for another hour. It was still fairly bright when he found himself at the entrance of a cave.

The small snake uncoiled itself and slid into a pocket on his cloak. The cave went deeper but he was cool with not going into it since he was going to leave soon anyway.

He stayed at the entrance and found a nice area to sit and relax, maybe get another painting done of what the cave looked like. It was gorgeous after all, nature framed the entrance perfectly, leaving some vines to hang down, moss covers rocks and small fungi scattered every so often.

He decided on just relaxing as he set his stuff down and leaned against a wall.

Soon enough, he had dozed off into his dreamland.

------

I ssswear I'll kill that woman...

Ssshe won't leave me alone...

The large, gorgeous albino Naga slithered through the leaves, carefully making his way to his home. He had noticed some newer prints, clearly from something with two legs, but he didn't pay too much mind to them.

He reached the cave and sighed as he entered. Bright blue eyes scanned the area and his heart sank to his stomach when he saw a (tall/short/avg) man with (h/l) (h/c) hair leaning against the wall.

Pleassse dear godsss tell me he iss alive...

He quickly made his way to the motionless body, not noticing said body's items not too far away.

If ssshe killed another human to try to pleasse me... I ssswear...

As he was lost in thought, the other stirred thanks to his intense staring and slightly heavy breathing. The human yawned and stretched his back slightly as he looked up to the Naga with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Is there something you need?"

The Naga jumped slightly and stared down at him with shock but also joy, happy he wasn't dead.

"I apologize... I wasss afraid you had passsed..."

The Naga paused for a moment while the other rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Wait... You aren't... Afraid of me?"

The (h/c) shook his head and looked up to him again. "If you don't mind, I would like to take my leave." He said placing his hands on the ground in preparation to stand. The Naga stood speechless, staring at the smaller human sitting in front of him.

"Can you move please?"

With a nod and small apology, the Naga moved away from the male who carefully stood and stretched his limbs.

The white and yellow snake watched as the other took out a small pocket watch, that the small snake from earlier was now holding on to, and checked the time. "When the hell did I get so late..." The man mumbled to himself. The time read 8:11 and judging by the lack of light it was night time. He slipped the watch and snake back onto his pocket.

"Well, I better get going." He said grabbing his bag and putting over his shoulder. The Naga still stood, watching as the male walked to the mouth of the cave.

"W-wait!"

He looked back to see that the other had slithered closer and held a worried look on his face. "P-please don't leave! Y-you can't!"

"Oh yeah, and whys that?"

"I would rather not find sssuch a beautiful man ssslaughtered on my cave-step in the morning..."

Said beautiful man turned to look at him, slightly shocked at the statement.

"Pleassse just ssstay with me till the morning and I'll essscort you back to the village..." He looked frantic and genuinely seemed like he cared.

With a sigh, the other looked to the pleading blue eyes and said, "I don't bunk with strangers. I'll be fine." He turned and walked out of the cave, leaving the Naga shocked and frozen.

"Wait! I'm ssserious! Pleassse!" He followed after the human and froze once again when he saw him pinned by the she-devil herself. His bag had been tossed to the side, most of the contents falling out. She had him wrapped in her tail and smiled as he struggled to get free.

His shy demeanor had dissipated rather quickly. The small snake had gotten out of the other's pocket and hid in the nearly empty bag.

He suddenly lunged towards the woman he hated so much. She clearly hadn't noticed him before then and threw the human off to the side, his body slamming into a tree. The two of them fought as the one tossed aside slowly passed out, struggling to stay awake.

------

Soft hands gently rubbed his back as he awoke again. His (e/c) eyes looked around the best the could but they didn't see much other than a wall. His whole body was sore but those hands were working wonders. The room was warm and whatever he was laying on was extremely comfortable. He closed his eyes and let out a pleased groan.

The hands froze and pulled away quickly, making him turn his head the other way. A set of bright blue eyes were staring with surprise that the male was awake. "H-hello there..." The human smirked and slowly blinked, "Hey sexy, why'd ya stop?"

The blonde blushed and looked away. "I dessspissse that remedy ssso much..." He mumbled as his hands carefully went back to massaging. "Mmm... I'm soooo tired... Will you cuddle with me?"

"No... Just go back to sssleep human..."

"Mm... Oh-kay."

------

A soft warm light lit the room, if you could really call it a room. A rather noisy yawn resonated from a still fairly sore male. He carefully stretched and sat up, almost instantly laying back down.

"Fuuck me..."

His hand fell from what he now knows as a large hammock. Soft locks brushed against his fingers and without thinking he gently combed them, enjoying the soft and cool feeling on his slightly rough hands. The owner of said locks leaned into the hand, clearly not realizing whose hand it was.

The two enjoyed each other for a moment before the blonde realized the situation. He pulled away and sat up, looking at the still sleepy human in his bed. "Are you feeling better? Do you need anything?" He asked leaning in slightly.

"Something to drink, and maybe a name?" The Naga nodded and got a cup of water first. He sat up in the hammock carefully and crossed his legs slightly. Looking around, the room was neat yet cluttered with various items. He spot his stuff and cautiously, yet somewhat reluctantly, left the hammock to inspect them.

He sat on the large plush rug and rummaged through his own things, glad to see that everything he had was still there. Other than his canvas. He panicked slightly and looked around, immediately regretting the sudden movement.

Laying back, he closed his eyes and sighed. Mr. Naga came back and looked at the other on the ground. He hovered over him slightly till he opened his eyes. "Here, it'sss fresh ssspring water."

"Thank you." He said carefully sitting up and drinking what he was given.

"My name is Sssyerca." The other nodded. "(Y/n). Do you happen to know where my canvas is at Sssyerca?" He asked mimicking the way the other said it. Syerca blushed and nodded, moving over to a small table to grab it. (Y/n) stood up carefully from the floor and followed him to said table.

There was a large couch, clearly made for the naga, that (Y/n) sat on. Syerca sat next to him, and (Y/n) leaned on him, closing his eyes as he took in the snakes, surprising, warmth. Said snake blushed and looked down to the (h/c). He gently took the cup from (Y/n)'s hand and set it on the table.

"I hope you don't mind that I may have looked at your paintingsss..." (Y/n) shrugged and looked up to Syerca, one eye pressed against his side. "Are they ok? Physically?"

"Ah, yesss! They're fine. And quite beautiful if I might sssay..." Syerca said with a soft tone. (Y/n) smiled and looked down to the rolled canvas. He stood up and Syerca watched as he stood on the opposite side of the table. "Lie on the couch and get comfortable. Let me grab something real quick." He said walking over to his bag and rummaging around for a moment.

Syerca hesitantly did as the painter asked and made himself comfortable on the couch. (Y/n) found all of the supplies he needed and set them on the floor next to the table before sitting on his knees. "May I make a request?" He asked looking up to Syerca. The Naga nodded as he watched (Y/n) unroll the canvas. "Look cute and don't move till I say you can." Syerca blushed and adjusted slightly so that he was looking at the other.

(Y/n) started to put blobs of color onto the canvas. Syerca watched as the soft yellows and whites turned into his tail, then tans to his chest, and so on till it had gotten to his head, his face still not painted.

It had been close to 2 hours by that point but neither had seemed to notice the time go by due to being entranced by the painting. "Syerca. Could you look at me? Don't look at the painting." (Y/n) said, starting at the other's eyes. He blushed softly and looked into (Y/n)'s (e/c) eyes.

Syerca took this opportunity to examine the human closely. His (e/c) eyes we're soft yet focused, while his (h/style) (h/c) hair moved slightly with his gentle head movements. He blushed and bit his lip slightly as he looked at his lips. They were a soft pink color and we're parted slightly as he worked, the occasional blep happening due to his focus.

Many minutes had passed before (Y/n) looked up and said. "Alright. You can move again." Syerca snapped out of his trance and looked down to the canvas. (Y/n) cleaned up as Syerca turned the canvas to look at properly. His eyes shined as he looked at it closer. "The amount of detail iss amazing..." (Y/n) looked up and smiled. "You can have it if you want it. I'll put it on a frame and sign it if you do." He said with a small laugh.

Syerca looked up as his eyes widened slightly. "Really? That would be lovely..." (Y/n) nodded and said, "I'll have to head back to my home though. If you'd be willing to come with me I could do it today." He went to get his pocket watch to check the time when he heard Syerca get off the couch. (Y/n) though nothing of it but tensed when he was hugged from behind.

He turned his head slightly to look at Syerca who buried his face into the crook of (Y/n)'s neck. "Uh... What are you doing that for?" The other stayed silent for a moment before responding. "I know thisss is extremely sssudden... But... Would you be willing to become my mate?"

"... What would be in it for me?" (Y/n) asked looking to Syerca who pulled away. "Protection from any other Naga, free-range of my territory... It will finally let me rid thisss world of that vile woman that attacked you..." He said mumbling the last part. His eyes looked to (Y/n)'s (e/c) eyes and the other said,

"So you wanna be my boyfriend?"

Syerca was quiet before he broke out in laughter, his eyes closing as he did. "Yesss... I-if that'sss what humansss call... Call matesss." (Y/n) looked up and shrugged. "Ok. I'm single anyway." Syerca smiled and hugged him, gently pressing their foreheads together. "Would it be ok for me to mark you?" He asked quietly, looking into (Y/n)'s eyes.

"I-I don't know what that entails but um... Sure..." (Y/n) gently wrapped his arms around Syerca's bare torso. He gently rubbed the others back. It was smooth but the occasional line like bump came up, telling there was a scar there. Syerca leaned down to (Y/n)'s neck and placed soft kisses under his jaw. (Y/n) gasped and shivered, slightly tightening his grip on the male, not expecting what he did.

Syerca continued to kiss before mumbling, "Sssorry... But thisss might hurt..." (Y/n) was about to speak up but Syerca bit down on his neck, his canines sinking in. (Y/n) gasped and let out a small moan of pain as he hugged him. Syerca pulled away slightly and licked the spot where he bit. It left a tingling sensation behind and (Y/n) felt a bit weak after.

"Are you ok..? The mark will tell that your claimed... My ssscent will remain and only be picked up by other naga..." He gently brushed (Y/n)'s hair back. "I wish you told me that's what you were going to do..." Syerca looked away and sighed, "I didn't think you would allow me if I told you."

(Y/n) looked up to him and moved his hands from the others back to his cheeks. He gently rubbed them with his thumbs. Syerca smiled and (Y/n) smiled too. His thumbs gently rubbed over Syerca's lips, they were thin but still nice. Syerca smiled more and stuck his tongue out, showing it's slit. "I don't know what's in that... Saliva of yours but it made me feel pretty good."

Syerca moved (Y/n)'s hands from his face and interlocked their fingers. "Also what's with you and making me feel good?" He asked, resting his face on Syercas chest. "I apologize... But... Thank you for letting me... M-mark you." (Y/n) pulled away and looked up to the others eyes. "Let's get to know each other before we call it official though." Syerca nodded and rested his forehead against (Y/n)'s.

"I'll take you back to your village a little later. For now, let'sss get to know each other... Like you sssuggested..."

----

3066

Definitely not my fav but hey

[readerxlovestay]

i loved your writing, is it ok to request fenrys x reader where they're newly mated and fenrys has a nightmare while he's with her for the first time? and she holds him all night and comforts him

🖤Fenrys × Reader🖤

Summary: You and Fenrys are supposed to deliver a message but a storm halts your journey and makes you stop by an inn, where the mating bond falls in place for you. You then comfort Fenrys who suffers from a nightmare and that leads to spilling the secrets between you two.

Tw: Self doubt

A/n: Of course hun❣️ It's always okay for you to request me anything off of my masterlist and a big thank you for this ask, cause this is my favourite trope ever!! I also threw in a one bed trope since it seemed like a lot of fun in this situation. Lots of fluff and angst involved. I tried my best here. Hope you love it! Take care🌹

You pick at your nails feeling anxious at the moment. You were supposed to feel happy. Ecstatic even. After all, you have found out about your mating bond just a few minutes ago. But all you had been thinking about since then was, how to break it to Fenrys.

You didn't know whether the mating bond had shown itself to him or not. If it had, he showed no signs of acknowledging it. Or even you, for that matter.

He had been ignoring you for some time now.

You look towards at him who was talking to the innkeeper quietly. You had only seen him in passing and had never really met him. But when you first did, you both fit quite well with each other. He was really funny and charming during the journey and you countered with him with your own sense of humor and sarcasm. However, he had went silent once you'd arrived here.

Is he unhappy about the mating bond? You had no idea. You had been assigned by Queen Aelin to go with Fenrys, to deliver a message to Ravi and Sol in Suria. But a storm had halted your journey, forcing both of you to take shelter in a crowded roadside inn.

And that's when the mating bond had fell in place for you. You had been so shook to the bone, that you forgot to breath for a good few seconds. He had asked you whether you were alright, and you'd just nodded yes. And that was that.

As for now, he'd left you to go ask if they had any more rooms left to stay for the night.

You look towards the window where the rain was pouring, lightening illuminating the whole place before sinking it in darkness again. The whole thing felt surreal. How did I even end up here? And mated at that?

You were hyper aware of your mate's presence and could sense when he was nearby. And you were also painfully aware of how attractive he looked with damp hair, and that see through shirt at which the women in the inn were giving THE look. The mating bond tugged.

You weren't really lacking when it came to the looks part, but you couldn't help but compare yourself to other women sometimes, just to see if you were as pretty as them. Sometimes, at your lowest, you felt not up to par but mostly you felt decent. Right now, you felt like you could punch one of them in their pretty faces.

When you saw him approach, you straighten, though you keep your hood up.

"There's only one room left"

You keep your face expressionless but your lips twitch in a frown.

"We'll make do"

He nodded once and that was settled. You made sure you had your things before following him to the room. You didn't fail to notice the envious looks you got from the ladies and hid your smirk. It was going to be one long night.

You stare in shock at the single bed stacked in a corner of the room that you were staying. How the hell are we supposed to sleep in here? Fenrys on the other hand, didn't seem so surprised. You look at him.

"Uh where is the other bed?"

He tilted his head, a hint of smile returning to his lips. "I told you. One last room that they had, with just one bed"

You raise your eyebrows. "Oh really? I assumed they had given us TWO beds since there are two fae"

He enters the room and stashes his stuff in a small shelf.

"I thought it was implied", he says unpacking his bag, mischief audible in his voice "Nevertheless, people have been seeking shelter in this storm so everything else is occupied"

"Right" You step over the threshold, closing the door behind. "Someone should sleep on the floor I guess"

He turns towards you, smirking. "But who is it gonna be?"

You put your hands on you hips, trying not to look at his very distracting shirt. "I don't know. Wanna find out?"

He tilts his head to the side mockingly. "And how do you plan on that?"

You step up to him. "A lot of things actually" You slowly move towards the bed. "Like, who gets the bed first"

Realizing your intentions, Fenrys sweeps a hand towards you and catches you sideways by the waist as you try to run towards the bed. You shriek. "Let go!". He leans in with a wicked smile. "You were saying?"

You groan. "Fine, you take the bed!"

His smile gets wider. "No need to be so generous darling, I'm willing to share, IF you can keep your hands to yourself till morning"

You smirk back at him. "Says the one who's holding me right now"

His eyes twinkle. "I don't see you complaining about it"

You disentangle from the warmth of his arms and try not to think of the loss of his touch. "We're both tired Fen, and we both need a good night's sleep. We don't have time for this"

His expression shutters but it was gone in an instant. "Alright"

You brush past him to leave your things on the other side of the small room and try not to think of his disappointed face when you refused to play with him. Sleep was going to be a long way coming.

"Fenrys! For god's sake could you please move?! I'm being crushed to death here!", You pull up the blankets up to your chin and try to scoot over.

"Still thinking about sleeping on the floor?"

"Hell no. Why, I might even push you off the bed so beware", you glare at him. You both were back to your bickering, as both of you tried to find comfortable positions to sleep in.

He shifts closer, his blond hair tickling your face.

"Try me", He whispers with a smirk.

You close your eyes as his warm breath fans over your face, and blows away a lock of hair.

You feel his hands pressing down onto the bed for whatever reason.

Opening the eyes, you turn towards him and his very naked upper body. He looked like a god, lying there, with those beautiful ebony eyes staring into yours, a straight nose, a full mouth that was sculpted for kissing, and champagne hair spilling over his muscled shoulders.

"I'm good"

He grins. "That's all you got?" You fold your hands in that limited space. "C'mon, Y/n turns down an invitation? How unlikely"

Your mouth pops open in shock as he begins to laugh. "I have my ethics and I'm not going to fight an unruly Fae on my bed" You punctuate the last word. "There are also other things to do, while we're struggling for more space"

He raises his eyebrows. "And that is?" You poke at his chest. "Sleep, Fen" He catches your hand in his warm ones, trapping it there, eyes burning into yours.

Your eyes don't shift, transfixed by his heated gaze.

Do you know I am your mate? Will you accept me? What if you don't? A hundred questions cloud your mind in an instant, but you keep silent. This wasn't the time or place. You try to keep your eyes locked with Fenrys', as he peers deep into your E/c eyes.

Maybe I'll never be good enough for him. Maybe he doesn't want me as his mate. Maybe he didn't even know about the bond. Maybe- Maybe- Maybe-

You pull away, immediately regretting it when his face falls which was gone after a split second. "Goodnight then Y/n"

"Good night Fenrys", you turn towards the wall, his warmth lingering behind you like a phantom touch. You should've probably told him the truth but of course. Too late to turn back now.

The damned storm didn't let out for the length of the entire night. Rain poured outside while Fenrys twitched and turned occasionally. You didn't sleep well either, the sound of thunder a constant rumble in the distance. Lightening struck at times, lighting up the room and dimming it again.

You finally slept when Fenrys' breathing levelled and he went to sleep. Even then, the storm continued.

"Grrr"

You wake up to the sound of low growling. You immediately reach for your knife in the darkness. Grasping it with one hand, you squint as your eyes struggle to adjust in the darkness. Lightening strikes and the whole room fills with light.

A huge white wolf, bigger than you, stares right at you from across the floor. It growls again. You clutch your knife tighter and don't move a muscle until the room sinks in darkness again. Fenrys?

Indeed it was him.

He was twitching and clawing at himself. You carefully approach him. He was seeing and not seeing you at the same time.

"Fenrys?" A long whine. His claws scratch the floorboards and retract, and he was visibly shaking. Was he having a nightmare?

Immediately dropping to your knees, you try to engulf his large head in your arms. "Shhh....its okay. I'm here" He whines again, claws dragging down the wooden floor. "Its alright, you're dreaming. It isn't real" You stroke his soft head as he huffs and growls. "Shh...I'm here, you aren't alone" You try to give him as much comfort as possible, so you let him straddle you, head on your chest. You mating bond tugged, letting you know that he was under a lot of pain. "Fenrys, it's not real, you're okay"

And for the next hour, you spend the time stroking his head and body, murmuring words of comfort until he calms down completely, before shifting back to his Fae form.

He clutches you as if his life depends on it, hiding his face in your shoulder, still shaking a little. Your heart breaks at his agony. My beautiful mate. Why does he have to go through these things? You gently rake your hand down his damp hair, parting the tangles, while stroking his sweat soaked back.

"I'm here for you", you whisper.

His hands tighten around your waist as he lifts his head from your shoulder to look at you with his tortured eyes and tear stained cheeks. You wipe his silent tears with your fingers. He trembles once, and goes back to rest his head on the crook of your neck.

You continue stroking his hair and down his back. He never moves, breathing still uneven and jagged. Eventually, the rain slows down before stopping completely. Only after the first rays of the sun reaches the room and you hear the chatter of birds outside your window, do you move, stirring your mate.

"Fenrys", you murmur. He squeezes you tight against him before pulling back. Onyx eyes stare you down.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He shakes his head.

"No", he replies with his deep voice. "I-" You look at him anxiously. He seemed to give in to some internal argument, and began to speak. "I was trapped in my animal form, watching Queen Aelin be tortured again and again. I watched my brother in bed with Maeve and then be tortured and killed, while I stood and watched. Over and over"

"Oh Fenrys" Your heart breaks into a thousand pieces at his pain. You brush back his hair from his face. "I'm so sorry" He closes his eyes for a brief second. "Don't be"

You try to smile but it comes out as a sad frown. "Are you alright?" Your mate exhales slowly. "Yes"

Yet you sit with him like that, until you were sure he was truly okay.

Soon both of you rise from the floor, still holding on, neither willing to let go first. You find yourself lost in his gaze just as he looks lost in yours. Before you could do anything, he leans down to softly kiss your lips. You make no move to stop him.

"Thank you"

You chuckle dryly. "This is the least I could do if I'm going to be your mate"

Right after, you say those words, a thousand emotions play through his face. "So you knew about it?", He asks. "I did and I've been contemplating all night whether to tell you or not", you answer, placing your hands on his chest.

"What made you change your mind?", He questions. You shrug. "I felt like that was what you deserved. To know that there is someone for you to share these burdens with"

He looks at you like he had found the greatest treasure and pulls you in for another kiss and this time, you kiss him back.

"I've known about the bond all this time too but I couldn't tell you", he exclaims. "In fear of being rejected"

You smile. "I would never reject you"

He leans down his forehead on yours. "And I you"

You sigh softly. "That's exactly the reason why I didn't tell you either"

He sweetly kisses your forehead. "Well now you know the answer to that. If I were to not accept someone like you, I'd be the greatest fool in the world" You snicker lightly and go in for an embrace.

"Don't flatter me", you say into his warm chest. He smirks. "It's true"

You pull away laughing. "Okay, okay. Remember, we still have that message to deliver" He purses his lips. "Right" "By the way, you also need some pants" He immediately dives to the nearby shelf to get his clothes while you laugh and turn away as he gets dressed.

His clothes had ripped during his shifting but you hadn't noticed it really all this time...until a certain part of his body seemed really excited to do what newly mated people do. You grin.

"Stop laughing at me", Fenrys commands from behind you. You chuckle and turn back towards him. He had his pants on thankfully or else you wouldn't have been able to control yourself.

"Let's get the job done first and then we can look more into it", you say packing up your things. "More into what?" You elbow him. "Our mating bond, the relationship, the whole thing"

"Of course", he says pulling you towards him. "The whole thing"

Forever, you realize, as he kisses you again. You had found your forever with Fenrys.

[spectaclespencer]

P.H. // Part 1; Alone

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

A/N; Here’s the first chapter! Let me know what you think <3 this is based off of this request I got. Any and all feedback is appreciated. Please know I know this theme/part has little to nothing to do with the actual meaning of the song, but some lines work if you ignore the rest 😅

Summary; After Gideon leaves, Reader takes up chess to comfort Spencer through the difficult time.

Category; Fluff, Angst(?), Hurt/Comfort

Content Warnings; Sad Spencer otherwise none!

Word Count; 3.5k

Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Next

It started when I found Spencer one morning. He had fallen asleep on a chair at the bau, and he explained to me that he’d been waiting for Gideon because he promised to play chess with Spencer that night.

“Is Hotch in yet?”

“No, he will be soon. We have a case, JJ is gonna brief us and we leave in 30.”

He thanked me and left the room, with his head down. He kept the same mood during the briefing, he kept drifting off as JJ was talking. Spencer was known to be stuck in his head often, but this was far more unusual behaviour. I figured maybe he slept wrong, or maybe just was simply looking forward to playing chess with Gideon. That was their usual routine, to have a game or two after cases to relax. It was understandable to see him on edge after not hearing from him all night.

As we got on the jet he didn’t sit with me on the couch right away as he usually did, instead he walked over to Hotch in the back corner. I craned my neck to try and see what he was doing and hear what he was saying. He spoke in soft whispers, seemingly asking questions I assumed were about Gideon’s presence. I saw Hotch shake his head, to which Spencer’s expression dropped. He thanked him, then made his way over to the couch beside me.

“You okay?” I asked.

He gave me a quick nod -- yet didn’t meet my eyes -- then curled up at the end of the couch to presumably take a nap before we landed.

We were all worried about Gideon, none of us had heard from him since the last case. We figured he just needed a break from the chaos; having a loved one die would take a toll on any of us. It was logical really, any one of the team would need time to recover when presented with that situation.

Spencer remained more quiet throughout the case, not engaging in conversation when it wasn’t crucial to the work. We ended up sharing rooms but even then he didn’t budge. He mostly sat in the corner and played chess against himself, often zoning out and staring at the wall. It was hard to see, and even harder to sit back and let him try to get through it. I could tell he was fighting himself in his head, probably going over scenarios on Gideon’s whereabouts. I imagine the stress was affecting him heavily -- or at least it was clear with the way his forehead had been creased all night.

Chess. Nobody on the team had a fair shot at him besides Gideon. Sitting there staring at the pieces probably wasn’t doing him too good, only making him worry more.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care because I did, but when it comes to certain things Spencer can be defensive and refuse help, so I wanted to give him a chance to get better. It wasn’t unlike him to refuse help, and I didn’t want to make the situation worse by opening my mouth. Instead, I opted to ask, “Mind if I join in for a game?”

“What? Uh- no it’s fine. I mean, okay yes. Sure,” Spencer stuttered, spooked by my sudden appearance beside him.

“Stop slouching, you’re gonna make your posture even worse,” I chuckled lightly, patting his shoulder to remind him. He shot me a small smile, watching as I rounded the table to sit across from him. I wasn’t too good of a player, but I wanted to make Spencer feel just a little less alone.

“Do you even know how to play?”

“Ouch,” I mocked offense, slapping a hand over my heart. “So cruel, Spencer.”

He raised his eyebrows in a form of asking again, to which I replied with, “Kind of. I haven’t played for years but I’ve observed you.”

“Y-you’ve observed me?” Spencer questioned, resetting the chess pieces on the board.

“Well, yeah. Kind of hard not to. You’re a pretty interesting guy.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

I smiled when he finally made eye contact with me. He looked tired -- more so than usual -- with his eyebags a deeper shade than they were normally.

The game didn’t last long. In only seven minutes, he managed to beat me. I groaned at my loss, lips pulled into a tight line. Spencer didn’t react, however.

“Okay that’s enough for me,” I said, heading over to the bathroom to brush my teeth before bed. “Goodnight Spence. Get some sleep. No offense but you look like you need it.”

He hummed at me, cleaning up the table before he climbed into his own bed.

I could tell he didn’t sleep much that night, as he kept a lamp on and littered his bed with various books. He looked cute, all swaddled up in the blanket he brings with him on every case for a sense of stability. His glasses were perched on his nose, and he was chewing his fingernails -- a habit I’ve tried to get him to kick over the past two years.

We didn’t talk during the night, but we both knew that each other were awake. I was kept up by my thoughts, trying to figure out how to get Spencer out of his slump. Re-learning how to play chess seemed like a decent enough idea -- yet one that would take some time. I was proved tonight that my skill needed to be greatly improved. It was nice in the moment, but realistically it would take a few weeks, if not more, to get the hang of.

The next day at the precinct I was stationed at the map, trying to figure out our geographical profile. I heard faint chattering coming from outside, and looked over my shoulder to see Spencer and Derek talking. I couldn’t hear much, but I did get that Spencer mumbled about calling Gideon, to which Derek answered that he might’ve just missed the call. It was possible, but likely deeper than that.

“Six times? Six calls? Something’s wrong,” Spencer sighed, rubbing his eyes.

I didn’t intervene with the conversation, instead deciding to finally speak to him about it after the case had ended.

On the last day, we all headed to our rooms after grabbing some dinner, to get a good rest before we took off early the next morning.

“Hey Spence, you awake?”

He hummed in response, and I could hear the rustle of the sheets as he rolled over in his bed to face me.

“I know you’re worried about Gideon. How about when we get back tomorrow I’ll drive you down to his cabin? We can go check on him.

“Would you really?” he asked softly. I couldn’t see him fully in the darkness, but I could sense he was looking at me with pleading eyes.

“Of course. I don’t like seeing you this stressed and down. I want to help.”

“Thanks ____, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Spencer.”

After our conversation it was like a blanket of grey was lifted over his head. He settled in more, drifting off to sleep within minutes. I hated seeing him sad, and I did my best to try and fix his mood whenever I could. Spencer didn’t like change, I knew that, and the team knows that. A part of me had a sneaking suspicion that Gideon wasn’t coming back, and I had fear for what that would mean for Spencer.

-----

“Do you want me to come in with you?” I asked, pulling up in front of the cabin and turning off the engine. The only sounds were the faint hum of rain outside, splattering against the windows.

Spencer shook his head and took a deep breath, before unbuckling himself and opening his door. He mumbled something about being right back, as he headed off towards the building. It wasn’t dark yet -- only being four pm -- but it wasn’t too light either.

It looked as if the lights inside the cabin were off, and I could just hardly see Spencer as he knocked on the door. He waited on the porch for a moment, waiting to see if anyone would come to the door.

Nobody did.

It was hard to just sit there and watch, as his desperation grew stronger by the millisecond.

-----

I took deep breaths, trying to even out my intake of air and remain calm. When nobody answered the fifth time that I knocked, I reluctantly grabbed a hold of the knob and turned it. Much to my surprise the door opened, creaking inch by inch as I stood there unmoving.

“Gideon?” I called into the home, taking one step inside. “Jason?”

I wasn’t greeted with an answer, he didn’t come to the door and thank me for coming to visit. It was eerily quiet -- so quiet I took a few more steps inside to create some sort of volume.

“Hello?” I spoke again, louder this time. Shutting the door behind me I took off my jacket and hung it on the coat rack next to the entrance.

The place had been mainly cleared out, there weren’t many personal items behind. I stalked over to the kitchen, to see if there was any trace of someone within the last few days. It’s been officially a week and a half since anyone had last heard from him that I was aware of. I thought someone must have eaten, or at least left a bit of a mess behind them that would signal a presence.

As I turned the corner to enter the new room I noticed something on the table. I stopped in my tracks, leaning down to take a closer look.

Gideon’s badge, gun, and an envelope.

I swallowed thickly, walking around the table and took a seat in front of the items. When I saw the envelope had my name on it, my heart dropped. With shaky hands I picked up the paper and opened it, seeing there was a letter inside.

Spencer,

I knew it would be you who came to the cabin to check on me.

You must be frightened, I apologize for that. I never meant to cause you any pain. But then I also never envisioned writing this letter. I’ve searched for a satisfactory explanation for what I’m doing, all I’ve come up with is: a profiler needs to have solid footing. I- I don’t think I do anymore. The world confuses me. The cruelty, indifference, tragedy.

I stopped there, my eyesight becoming blurry from tears. I shoved the letter in my pocket, not caring at the moment if it got crumpled or not.

I was out of the cabin in no time -- choosing not to stay there and sulk in a deeper sadness.

-----

Waiting in the car for Spencer felt like torture. It was difficult, letting him go in there alone to be met with possibly no answers. I was thrown out of my thoughts by the sound of the cabin door slamming shut, Spencer jogging over to the car.

“Hey. Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, red flags hanging immediately as he climbed in the car, tear soaked face pointed down towards his lap. It took me a moment to realize he was crying -- the rain had completely soaked through his top layer of clothes. He didn’t reply with words, instead reaching into his pants pocket to retrieve a piece of paper. He handed it over to me, still not meeting my eyes.

I unfolded it and began to read -- it was hard, through the tear stains smudging the ink across the page.

“Oh, Spence…” I whispered and stopped after the first few sentences, leaving the rest for him. I didn’t know what to say, how to comfort him.

“He’s gone,” Spencer sniffled, wiping his eyes on the sleeves of his nearly drenched jacket. “He just left. He didn’t say goodbye. He left me a note,” he froze, taking a few deep breaths. “Just like my dad did when I was a kid.”

“It’ll be okay. Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s okay,” I assured him. “You know he cares about you, right?”

“I know he is. It’s just-” he started, trying to find the right words between his gasping for more air. “Can you just take me home, please.”

I nodded, while turning the car back on to drive away. Spencer kept his gaze towards the window, refusing to let me see his face. I’m selfishly almost glad for it, because I don’t know if seeing his heartbreak is something I could handle.

It was a long, quiet drive, taking around an hour and a half to finally reach his apartment. He scrambled out of the car fast, but I still walked him up as I usually did. He got to the door before me, thanking me for driving him home. He shut the door just as I got fully up the stairs, leaving me standing with my mouth open.

‘Baby, when you fought me at the door

Kinda hard to force what's natural

Maybe you don't want what you need most’

-----

The next day when he came over after work he was almost back to normal. It was weird to see, to see such a shift in his behaviour after less than twenty-four hours. As much as he tried to hide it, I could tell just how hard it was for him. The sudden change didn’t go well with anyone, we’d all been informed that Gideon wouldn’t be returning and that he’d moved on from the BAU. It was especially hard on Spencer too, since Elle had just left not too long ago, and then Emily joined the team. First he loses a friend, someone who truly understood him as I did, and then someone he considered a father figure.

And neither of them had said goodbye to his face. It was scary, knowing a member of your team could walk out and never return before you know it.

We were seated on the couch, a game of chess displayed on the middle cushion between us.

It wasn’t anywhere near a fair game -- Spencer’s skills were still far ahead of mine. However I noticed it made him smile, and that’s all I wanted. For him to feel loved, and secured. It was a sense of grounding, a routine that was regular in his life. I still wasn’t very good -- not having played since high school and that night on the last case. But I downloaded an audiobook and several player’s guides for the plane ride home to study, because I wanted to learn for Spencer’s sake. However I soon realized it was easier to watch Spencer and how he plays, and to ask him questions. He seemed to enjoy it, having someone else in his life to play with.. And he loved to teach, to help people learn. He was so good at it too, his big brain being used to help people no matter the context.

Eventually he won the game as usual, causing me to groan in frustration..

“You bastard.”

“Not my fault you kinda suck,” he laughed bashfully, lips curling up into a small smile. It was nice to see a bit of happiness on his face, no matter how temporary.

“You’re so rude to me,” I joked, moving the board to the coffee table. “I thought we were friends.”

It was silent for a few moments, with me figuring out what I was going to say next.

“Spencer I know you haven’t wanted my help, but please tell me what I can do for you. Tell me how you feel, at least?”

‘Maybe you don't want what you need most’

“It’s nothing, ____,” he breathed, looking away from me and instead at the wall the couch was facing. He could see our reflection on the blank tv, and instead opted to just look down at his lap. “I’m better now.”

‘You ain't even there for me

Now you're scared to be alone’

“Respectfully, that’s bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh come on. I know you don’t want to talk about this but at least give me something. Don’t keep it all in. It’s not healthy.”

His face screwed up at my words, eyebrows furrowed and lips twitching. I could tell he knew I was right, as much as he hated it.

“I’m just- I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Spencer whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear.

‘Got me thinkin' that you scared of yourself, not me’

It all made sense -- the way he’d been distancing himself lately. It took me promising candy and Star Trek for him to come over tonight, and even then he almost declined. Too many blows to the heart made him afraid to get attached. He didn’t want anyone else from his life to disappear in a flash.

“Look at me,” I said, and he snapped his head to face me. “I’m not going anywhere. I can’t claim to be far in the future, but right now? I’m here. You’re stuck with me for a while, Spencer.”

He smiled, closing his eyes as a stray tear graced across his cheek. I used my thumb to wipe it away, and pulled him into a tight hug. He relaxed against me, I felt the tensions in his shoulders deflate as I held him.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. His breath shuddered, and he wrapped his arms around my middle tighter, pushing his face into my shoulder to muffle his crying.

We sat for a while, my hands tracing patterns along his back. It took a few minutes for his cries to calm down, but eventually his breathing evened out with only a few hiccups here and there. He was practically sitting in my lap with his legs flung over mine, suddenly not caring about his personal space. I couldn’t blame him -- the boy was so touch starved he so clearly craved all contact he consented to.

“Do you want to spend the night?” I asked, quietly so I didn’t scare him with the sudden sound.

“Could I please?”

“Of course,” I smiled, pulling away. He still held on tight, not wanting to let go.

We made our way to my bedroom, repeating our usual routine. This wasn’t the first time we’d had a sleepover, and it won’t be the last I’m sure. Sometimes after particularly harder cases he would spend the night, just to be close to someone.

I went into the bathroom to change, giving him the opportunity to do the same. When I returned, he was dressed in a t-shirt and flannel pants he left at my place for sleepovers like this. He was already in bed, and when he saw that I was done in the bathroom he lifted the side of the blanket to welcome me in.

I joined him, grinning as he scooted over and pressed his back to my chest. I felt him breathing softly, my right arm slung over his torso to bring him in closer. He held onto my hand, and didn’t let me drift away. I was happy to comply, happy to feel his body warmth radiate through me.

“Thank you, ____. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Spence.”

From that day on for the foreseeable future, I swore to myself to have check-ins with Spencer whenever it seemed necessary. Whether it was in the form of words, sleepovers, movie nights, or chess.

His smile got brighter everyday, and eventually he no longer felt as much weight on himself a few weeks down the road. He still cried to me about how he missed Gideon, but it had gotten less frequent. And I was always there for him, offering my shoulder and the promise of my embrace. I knew he appreciated it too.

After a few months since our first game, I beat him in a game of chess. We were on the jet on the way to Montana for a case, and Derek was sitting beside Spencer. He kept annoying him, doing little things like twisting his hair and fanning him with files. Spencer kept shrieking quietly -- trying not to alert Hotch of the bickering.

“Checkmate,” I said, biting back a smile.

“What?!” Spencer froze, arm raised in what looked like to be a poor attempt of whacking Derek’s head.

“Awe, pretty boy. You’ll get her next time,” Derek threw his head back in laughter.

“What?” Spencer repeated quieter, eyes darting across the board, likely running calculations in his head.

“Better luck next time,” I smirked, tilting my head to the side. I wiggled my eyebrows, my small victory boosting my ego.

Spencer tried to keep a neutral face, but I could see by the tension in his cheekbones that he was happy. He was enjoying it.

-----

Please tell me your thoughts on this chapter here!

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permanent taglist; @spencerscumrag @spenxerslut

[mango-bango-bby]

Could we get a NSFW alphabet with Aizawa please?

♡ Yandere Aizawa NSFW Alphabet ♡

Of course, darling 💖💕💝

(Fem!darling)

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex) ♡

Shota’s very good at aftercare. Although, it is lazy aftercare. Mostly just Shota laying and cuddling with you while he gives you praises. He also likes playing with your hair, so be prepared for that. He’ll also pepper lazy kisses all over your face.

“Mhm, good job, my kitty”

“You did really well, baby”

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s) ♡

Your thighs. Even in a non-sexual context he likes your thighs. They’re soft and comfortable! You’ll probably have bruises on them by the end of the day, he grips your thighs really tight. If he grips to hard and it hurts, let him know, he’ll loosen his grip a little bit.

Shota used to be more confident before the USJ attack, now he gets kinda insecure about his scar. Tell him that he’s handsome and he’ll be putty in your hands.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically) ♡

Shota loves cumming inside of you (it has to do with his breeding kink). He doesn’t want to have (biological) kids, right now at least. 1-A along with Shinsou and Eri are enough for him right now. But he does want to have kids with you eventually, so when that day comes, he’ll take you off birth control.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs) ♡

Before (and even after) Shota kidnapped you he’s thought about tying you up in his capture weapon. He just wants to see you soft skin be bound by his hero weapon. Shota wants to tease you while you can’t do anything about it.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?) ♡

Not much. Shota has had maybe two previous partners? But those were when he was younger. He kind of gave up on love, but then he found you. Surprisingly though, despite his lack of experience, he’s very good at making love.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying) ♡

(Once again with the breeding kink) Shota does love the mating press. But he also just loves seeing your face, he likes watching your eyes. Shota also likes holding you really close and will ask you to put your arms and/or legs around him.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.) ♡

Shota is serious all the time. Therefore, he’s serious during sex as well.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.) ♡

Shota doesn’t even take care of the hair on his head and face. So what makes you think he’s going to take care of his hair in the nether regions?

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect) ♡

Shota is fairly intimate during sex. Hence why he want to hold you so close to him. Sometimes on the off day he’ll be rough with you and less soft but he won’t go to overboard with you. You’re to precious to him.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon) ♡

Shota doesn’t masturbate very much. Why should he have to? He has you, and you’re way better than his hand. Although if he needs to blow off steam, he’ll masturbate. He doesn’t want to really hurt you or just use you for sex. That’s not what you are to him.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks) ♡

As stated before Shota has a breeding kink. He also has a kink for seeing you in cat ears and a collar. He’s not sure why, perhaps it’s a petplay thing. Shota does have a BDSM and shibari fetish. Please let him spank you and tie you up.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do) ♡

The bedroom. He knows you’re trapped in his apartment with him but he prefers the bedroom. It feels more private.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going) ♡

Shota loves seeing you in lingerie. He will make you model lingerie for him. No need to feel embarrassed, he loves seeing you in every single one. The bulge in his pants proves so.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs) ♡

Shota (like every other yandere) will not share you. You’re his, therefore he should be the only one to see you in such a state. He also won’t let you be sassy or rude to him, if you do that you’re asking for a punishment.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.) ♡

Shota is decent at giving head but he’s more of a receiver than a giver (mostly because he’s lazy) but if you want him to eat you out, he will. He really enjoys it, he’s just super lazy. Although, he’s very messy when he does. He also’s very good at teasing you when he eats you out.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.) ♡

He’s fairly slow but he thrusts really hard. He might speed up every once and awhile, just to see your cute reaction. But other than that he’s usually just slow but hard pounding.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.) ♡

Shots loves them. He does get tired very easily but he would love to have longer sessions with you. If you have a super high sex drive and can’t deal with just two rounds, he’ll let you ride him so you can feel good.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.) ♡

Shota likes to stick to the stuff he knows he likes. He’ll experiment once in a blue moon.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?) ♡

Shota is obviously very lazy. The man carries around a sleeping bag, for gods sake. He can last up to two rounds before he gets tired. If you want more, he’ll gladly let you ride him! The most he’ll do is move your hips and do the occasional random thrust (just to see your reaction, cause he thinks your reactions are cute)

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?) ♡

Shota’s not the biggest fan of toys. Why do you need them? You have him! Is he not giving you enough? The only toys he’ll use on you is a paddle (for punishments, considering he’s a bit stricter than other yanderes) or the occasional vibrator.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease) ♡

He loves to tease you. Not mean teasing, just messing with you a bit. Enough were you let out a frustrated/flustered whine. If you’re very sensitive and tell him he’s being to mean, he’ll stop. Just for a bit.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.) ♡

Shota’s surprisingly vocal. Not super, super vocal. But vocal for Aizawa Shota. Mostly grunts and groans, as well as praises. Sometimes he drools as well.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character) ♡

Shota gets really flustered if you offer to give him a blowjob or if you outwardly say you want to make him proud or feel good. He’ll be putty in your hands.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes) ♡

Slightly skinnier than average, but makes up for it in length. Aside from the obvious. Shota wears very baggy clothes, covering his body most of the time. But he is hiding hella muscles under those clothes. Please run your hands over his abs or biceps.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?) ♡

Not super high. Sometimes after a bad day of work, he’ll get riled up.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards) ♡

Immediately after. Shota will be holding your nude body against his chest all night long. His grip is impossible to get out of.

[devilrainbunnie]

Midnight Train

Dabi x Fem!Reader

cw: smut 18+ minors DNI, chikan, dubcon/noncon, pet names, pervy dabi

You stood in the train station, feeling a bit out of place. Looking around at your surroundings, and wondering when your train was going to arrive. It was running a little too late for your liking. Not to mention the fact that it was late, and cold, you didn’t even have a coat. You were wearing a long sleeved shirt, a short black skirt, and matching thigh highs with some simple school girl like shoes. Which was kind of ironic for you to wear. At the moment, you were currently in your second year of university. Just coming back from an outing with your friends, and cutting it off early because you had work the next morning. You were always overly cautious anywhere near trains, just due to the nature of pervy men, and the amount of times you’ve had experiences with them. Not even to mention how intense it is around this area. You berated yourself internally for deciding to wear something like this out, but now you had no choice but to just try and deal with it for now.

Absent-mindedly you scrolled on your phone, to give you some sort of distraction from the anxiety you felt beginning to stir in your stomach, tightening your thighs together, and keeping your purse close to your body. Then soon, the sounds of a fast moving vehicle, and wheels breaking to a halt brought you out from beneath your phones gaze. Looking up to greet the train. You patiently waited until it’s gears locked into place, and the doors opened. Waiting until the small crowd of people walked out of the cart, and then following into it. The cart was decently full of people. But to your absolute demise, there was some substance on some of the seats that looked like a spilled milk tea boba. Which was why you had to stand. Opting for the back of the cart that had some people also standing around. One of them meeting your gaze. Hooded, cerulean eyes following behind you, as you reached your spot to stand. He must’ve got on with me, you thought to yourself. The person was a bit of distant from you, staring at you without remorse. It was hard to make out their features with the large hood they wore over their head, and it made you anxious. Holding your body closer to itself.

He was looking at you like a predator stalking prey, hungry, and ready to devour. A look that quite honestly was making your heart absolutely flutter against your rib cage. Then you did something kind of stupid, pulling out your phone again, and trying to focus all of your attention on it. Trying to pay the hooded man no attention, out of your peripherals, you saw him lift his hood back. But again, you were too scared to see what he looked like. No matter how intense your curiosity was. After a short while into the trip following that, you checked again to see if he was there, and surprisingly he wasn’t. 

That’s when you froze, instantly recognizing the feeling of someone standing just behind you. Too scared to gaze behind you, and the train suddenly causing the cart to jolt, your body mushed right against his, as your wobbly knees made you unstable on your feet. Perfect timing.

“S-Sorry!” you cried out, lurching yourself forward. His body following yours.

“It’s quite alright, doll face.” a husky voice whispered behind you. “I like your skirt, it’s cute on you.”

You didn’t respond to this, your blood was running cold, and your breath hitched inside of your throat. He made it a point to step closer to you, the heat radiating off of him was almost too much. The stranger was only an inch or so from touching your body, a hand reached to you hair, tucking it to the side as he leaned in. Body flush with yours, as he whispered to you. “It’s not nice to ignore people when they compliment you.”

“I’m s-sorry.”

“Is that all you know how to say?”

“I-I’m sorry I’m not trying to offend you--”

“Oh baby, you already did though. You hurt me real bad. Don’t you think I deserve something for my bleeding heart?” he taunted. Hands traveling in different directions, his large hand groping the flesh of your ass. This stranger just reached under your skirt to grab you, and  you to let out a little yelp, and his hand colliding with your mouth forcefully. “I don’t think you want to find out what happens to little girls who are loud, and bratty. I’m not gonna hurt you baby, just be a good girl, an’ let me take care of ya.” he raised the hand from your mouth to show you the tiny blue flame in his palm. Instinctively you shuddered, gulping down the lump in your throat. “Am I understood?”

You nodded, he grabbed your jaw, which forced you took look at him as his head appeared by you shoulder. “Use your words, like a good girl. Remember what we talked about?” he was quite attractive, despite all of the deep scars on his face. His black locks framing his face evenly, and looked quite fluffy. His scars looked painful, and so did all his staples. The piercings on his nostrils were cool though-- despite that, he looked like he had been through hell and back. It made you all the more confused, he was good looking enough to score any girl he wanted. Even with all of the scars and staples, girls probably drooled over it. So why did he bothering harassing you on a train? The man was probably just a full blown predator, and it made you start to panic worse.

“Y-yes, I-I’ll be quiet. I’ll be good.” you said with a wavering voice, tears forming in your eyes at the situation. 

“Mmm, such a good girl. Nice an’ sweet, just like I like ‘em.” he murmured against your neck, leaving a wake of wet kisses across it. Taking some experimental bites to try to find your sweet spot, and when he did, you writhed against him. Letting out the cutest little whimper. “Look at you, you’re so fuckin’ sexy.” he was thankful he spotted you initially, he really found a prize that night.

He was walking back from a bar, and he saw you approaching the train station. You looked so sweet, so soft, and so easy to taint. The way your squishy thighs looked in your socks, and how your ass’ curve was more prominent due to the skirts little ruffling drove him to you. Eyes lingering over ever inch of your body, he needed you the second he saw your cute face too. He just knew you were a sweet little girl, and he wanted to taste you before he lost you for good. Honestly, you were such a good girl for him right now he debated on taking you home. Sure, you’d be a lovely little pet to have around the house. He could sure use the company, and you were just so goddamn cute. The man would love to wake up every morning to face fuck you, or violate you a little bit before he started his day. I mean how could he not— just look at the way your pretty e/c eyes leaked tears out, and your plump lips pouted as his fingers dove for your pussy. So pretty.

This sick man decided to lick your face to wipe away the tears from your stained, heated cheeks. His long, calloused fingers rubbing against your clothed slit, making your hips buck at the pleasure of it. Little strangled moans being held down in your throat. Waiting for your slick to seep through the pretty light blue cotton, and keep it for later. “Has anyone ever touched you like this before? Hmm? Does it feel good?”

“N-No, plea-ah, please j-just stop.” you cried out, sniffling after you choked out the words. His fingers began to push your pretty little panties to the side, moving his fingers up and down your cunt. Finally able to feel that you were actually becoming a bit wet, he chuckled behind you. You let out a soft moan, the first one he was able to actually get out of you.

“Mm, you’re getting more wet by the second. You sure?” he teased. His opposing hand sleeping inside of your sweater, pushing a breast out of its cup, and squishing the flesh in his palm. Tweaking the nipple between his fingers, arching your back and wincing at the pleasurable pain. “You’re so sensitive, and I haven’t even put my dick in you.”

“Pl-please. I- just want to g-go home.” you whimpered as he continued to violate you, finding your clit and pinching the bud between his fingers. Watching as your breaths became ragged, and the way your knuckles turned white as you held on to the metal pole. The way his fingers were working against your untouched pussy right now, was making it drool. You hated how much that was turning you on.

“Turn your head.” he commanded, and you did. Meeting once again, his face at your shoulder, this time his hand slipped from your breast. Grabbing the opposing side of your face and slamming your lips against his. Surprisingly, his kiss wasn’t at all overbearing, or forceful as you thought it was going to be. It was slow, and somehow passionate, despite the situation. You kissed him back, just trying to be compliant. His lips were soft, despite his lower lip being badly damaged, and he knew how to use it well. The hand quickly knotted itself in your hair, causing you to gasp, and open your mouth for him. His wet muscle tangling in with yours, and with that, a deep guttural groan left the back of his throat. Combined with your little whimpers, created an odd symphony of pleasure.

With your mouth occupied, two of his fingers began running across your slit. Gathering the arousal between his fingers to act as lubricant. Then plunging the digits straight into your throbbing, and tight hole. Which made your body act on instinct, and you gasped loudly in his mouth. He pulled back, chuckling at how much you were reacting now. Panting like a bitch in heat, biting back a plethora of moans inside of your throat. He really wanted to hear you crying out to him, and moaning, but he didn’t want to cause too much of a scene. Who knows, if he’s really feeling up for risking everyone’s safety, mostly his own for some snatch— he’ll fucking do it.

“Do you feel good?” he asked you, kissing up your jaw again.

“Y-yes.” you whispered, your small hands struggle to stay up against the pole. The pace of his fingers began to speed up, causing a horrid squish-y sound to be heard in the atmosphere around the two of you. He was practically cumming at the sound of your wet sex being violated and how well you were taking him.

“Mm, I wish I could hear all those pretty sounds you’re tryin’ to hold back. God, you are just killin’ me tonight.” he moaned into your ear, taking it upon himself to start feverishly pepping your skin with his kisses as he pumped you closer, and closer to your end. 

He began noticing the way you were starting to clench against him, he assumed you were beginning to enjoy yourself fully now. His other hand snaked its way down your body to toy with your clit again as well, without intent, you mewled at the sensation. One of your hands coming you to cover your mouth, you anxiously looked around the cart. For some reason, no one was looking. Either they really didn’t want to look, or they were utterly disturbed by the sight in the far corner of the cart. Since no one was paying attention, you decided to act purely on desire since you were now worked up. Letting go of the pole you were holding on to, which the man behind you was quick to notice, thinking you were about to try to fight him off, the hand toying with your clit put a bruising hold on you midsection. You winced, both at the sudden loss of your breath, but also the fingers now violently crashing into your cunt, his breath ragged in your ear, causing a chill to run down your spine. “C-can I turn around?” you asked him. His movements stopped, you couldn’t see but he was looking at you completely dumbfounded.

“Why?” he said, sounding a little offended.

“Well t-there’s not a-lot of people in here. No one i-is going to care, I... liked uhm, kissing.” you murmured shyly, feeling pathetic and disgusted with yourself for wanting more. But the throbbing inside of your womb was now becoming almost unbearable, you could use something to take the edge off.

“What’s your name, baby?” he asked, his chin now resting against your shoulder.

“F/n, why?”

“F/n... you’re very naughty, you know that? I mean what kind of dirty slut wants to start kissing someone who just grabbed ‘em on the train? Maybe I was right, you are a special girl, huh?” he was quick to turn you around, pulling his hood back over his head, but not all the way. Your bodies were touching, and resting against the pole. So that way you could actually look at him. The fingers that were inside you, stuck straight into his mouth. Cleaning off your natural essence off his fingers like he had eaten the best meal he’d ever had. “At least you taste good. Sweet. Like fuckin’ honey or somethin’. C’mere pretty, I’ll let you try.” he leered down at you, his jagged scars twisting up in a cocky smile. Grabbing you by the back of your head, and crashing his lips against yours, sucking your bottom lip into his mouth immediately, snaking a hand of his into your hair. The other one traveling down south once again, pushing right into your slippery walls. Mewling against his tongue.

The sight must’ve been so erotic, they way you were pulling his face closer to yours by holding the back of his neck. Moaning, and panting into the heated kiss. His fingers inside of your pussy scissoring, and harshly pressing right against your cervix. God his fingers are so long.

He yanked your head back, looking at your features. Drinking in the sight of your half lidded eyes, kiss swollen lips and flushed expression. Your eyes silently begging him to keep at it, removing your arms from his. The man bit his lip, leaning back a tad to put his hand around your neck, reveling at how pretty and soft you looked like this. His hand never stopping it’s assault inside of you. “Sweet, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“How close are you?” he asked, picking up his pace.

“Mmm, c-close. So close. Nngh.” The hand around your neck squeezed harder at the sides, making your eyes roll back as the thrusts of his hand picked up. The man stood over you once more, watching how your eyes kept rolling back into your skull, and how you biting so hard on your lip he was worried it might split. 

“Dabi.” he said, waiting for you to reply, and giving your neck a break from the squeezing. 

“H-Huh?” 

“My name, I want you to say it. Say it when you’re cummin’, I want you to remember who made you feel this good.” he kissed your cheek. “Will you be a good girl, an’ do that for me?”

“Yes D-Dabi. I’ll- be good.”

“You’re completely falling apart with just my touch.” he chuckled, leaning to your ear again, his hands dropping from your neck, to your thigh. Feeling to flesh of your ass again, this time he tried to hold your thigh to his hip, like he was expecting you to let him carry you. But in all honesty, it’s so he could rut his hips against your thigh and try to pretend for a second he was fucking you. Dabi reveled in the feeling of your soft skin against his fingertips. Bet it would feel even nicer against his dick. “I could fuck you right now, just whip out my cock, and stick it right in. I bet you’d like that huh? Me fucking you in front of all these people? I bet you wouldn’t even try to be quiet. Dirty, dirty girl. Maybe I should, huh-”

“No! No, p-please not here. Not in public. P-please Dabi.”

“I like seeing you beg like that, so I won’t this time ‘round.” he attached his mouth to your neck. Making it a point now to mark his territory, and watch you squirm. Wait-- this time around?! In that moment, you felt you were seconds away from bursting and his words meant nothing. His fingers inside of you continued to curl, and push you in all the right places. Your body quickly beginning to flood with a familiar euphoric sensation, knees growing weak, and the blissful feeling of stomach growing tight was all you could think about.

“D-Dabi.” you mewled out, mouth left to hang open. Your hands quickly clutching the jacket he was wearing, trying to feel like you had some control. “Please d-don’t stop, p-lease- oh!” 

He stared into your face as you grew closer. Dabi liked how hard you were tugging at his jacket, it confirmed for him that you were actually growing a lot closer than he thought. Despite the feeling of your gooey walls clenching around his fingers as if it was trying to suck them in. “Cum for me baby, you’re so close.”

“Dabi-- oh God, fuck- Dabi!” you cried out, a little bit louder than you intended. The coil in your stomach finally snapped, releasing the overwhelming feeling of your formerly restrained orgasm. Your tight cunny was clenching vigorously around him as he continued to pump into you, enjoying as you struggled to breathe due to how hard you had just came. Every inch of your body was jolting, trying to adjust to the come down of the feeling, and the man above you was watching with a smile. Dabi brought his free hand up that wasn’t covered in slick, and wiped some sweat, as well with stray hairs from your face. 

“Open up.” he said, removing his hand from your aching, and pleased cunt, shoving them into your mouth. Suddenly alarmed by the feeling of tasting your own arousal, and having his fingers try to climb their way down your throat. “Suck.”

So that’s what you did-- suck on his fingers, and he pumped them as well. Watching your pretty mouth try to take all of his abuse, and after he deemed them clean enough, he pulled them out. “You did so well for me tonight. We a couple minutes left of this ride, let’s make out.”

Before you could even respond, his tongue was already in your mouth and silencing you. During the time it took for you guys to get to your train stop, you did exactly that. Passionately making out for all to see, against a pole inside of a train cart. His hands palming your ass under your skirt like before, and your hands running through the tendrils of inky black locks. Honestly, you really should feel more ashamed than you currently are. Making out with the same man who was making you cry not even fifteen minutes ago, and letting him grind his erection against your thigh. But, you needed to fix that ache in your womb. You needed someone, or something, to make that coil snap.

Then soon, the train was beginning to halt to a stop, and the two of you pulled away. Your hands still locked into his hair. Holding his face close to yours. “That was fun, but I oughta head off now. I’ll be lookin’ out for you, so don’t do anything stupid, or run off on me.” you nodded, feeling threatened by his words, but also excited at the opportunity to see him again. Never in a million years would you think this of all things would happen, but it wasn’t anything to complain about. He pulled you in for another kiss, and following it by pressing another one to your cheek. “Get home safe now, ‘kay?”

“Okay.” you said in a hushed voice, as he pulled away from your body. Pulling his hood further over his face. Leaving you a stick, sweaty mess in the now emptying train. Adjusting your skirt, and top, combing through your now horribly messed locks. 

Before stepping out, you got a disgusted look from an older woman in the back of the cart. Shaking her head at you. But it made you let out a little laugh, stepping out of the cart on to the platform. Eyes scanning the scene for any sight of your scarred, and disturbed prince charming. But by that time he was long gone. Which kind of made you sad, but also relieved. Your mind was hazy, and clouded with a confused lust. Wondering if his words were true— were you going to see him again? Did you even want to? Why weren’t you freaking out right now? What is going on?

The entire walk home, was filled with your mind being so loud it was drowning out all of your senses.

Including the one that could’ve sensed the man following you home.

Don’t worry though, he just wanted to make sure his pet got home safely.

[nymphigeon]

From me, to you || 07

♤ Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

♤ Genre: fluff, angst, romance, hybrid au, hybrid!Taehyung, detective!reader

♤ Words: 2.5k

♤ Rating: PG-13

♤ Warnings (for this chapter): Mentions of hybrid abuse, swearing.

♤ A/N: Surprise! I'm really sorry it took me this long, but I finally found the time and drive to write again :) Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Synopsis: A story in which he has never known love, so you’ll give it to him.

Series masterlist

06 07

"What do you mean this hybrid doesn't exist?"

Her eyes are wavering with an unspoken fear, perhaps caused by the bitterness my questions holds. I'm not happy, and she knows.

“It’s just, the chance that a dangerous breed such as the tiger hybrid would escape our system is basically zero..” The gaze she held on the computer screen unsurely moves my way. My expression must've instilled another layer of anxiety to the already existing one, as her mouth abruptly stops moving and her pupils dilate.

“Go on, explain.” The tone of my voice softens a bit as I notice her visible discomfort worsening. Even if there is no way that I’ll get any information from this place regarding Taehyung and his owner, I would still like to know why they’re both not showing up here.

Eun-ji takes a few deep breaths to stabilize her voice. As she does her posture slowly relaxes just a little and her eyes lose some of the nervousness they held before. “Because the first ‘successful’ tiger hybrid ran rampant after killing their creator, anyone who still breeds or creates them is being watched very closely by us, as well as by some other institutions.”

Perhaps it’s my lack of reaction that causes her to trail off at the end. Though I’m not judging her or her story, unlike she may think. To encourage her to continue, I give her a nod, tilting my head to show interest.

“The regular citizen isn’t even allowed to have one, needing special training to handle them. It’s like that for most hybrids that find their origins in wild animals. Creating tiger hybrids obviously requires a lot of knowledge when it comes to playing with genes and breeding them…. Well there are only three organization that are authorized to do so. All the resulting hybrids are registered and chipped.”

The explanation, which turns out to be a lengthy one, gets broken by a shuddering breath leaving her lips. She composes herself, clinging on to the little confidence she has left in her line of work to speak about the rest of her clarification.

“Of course people have tried to do it themselves, but those d.i.y operations have always ended in disappointment. If not taken proper care of, with substances only a board certified hybrid doctor can provide you, the pregnancy will fail. These are no easy practices they are dealing with.”

After the girls’ last words I give myself some time to think, letting a silence full of tension fill the room. It must be obvious that my mind is somewhere else at the moment, as the other girl in the room does her best to stay quiet. I don’t need much time however, my thoughts having quickly rearranged themselves as they were trained to do.

“So what you’re saying is, since tiger hybrids are hard to ‘create’, if you will, there are only a few people who actually manage to bring them to life. And so those few people are kept under close watch, as are the hybrids they successfully wake, am I correct?”

Eun-ji nods affirmatively, clearly happy that I seem to understand the situation. “So there is absolutely no way that someone without authorization has had a decent attempt at either genetically merging a human together with a tiger or getting a tiger hybrid pregnancy to be successful?”

Perhaps there might be a bit of scepticism in the question I asked, as her attitude immediately changes into a defensive one. “There is not! Whatever hybrid you’re searching for either gave you a false identity or is not a tiger hybrid at all, which would seem rather unlikely. I told you they get chipped right? Why not go look into that.”

“He doesn’t have one. We already had a hospital take a look at him, they didn’t find anything. ” The statement seems to shock her, the gears in her head instantly turning as to find an answer to this riddle. She however can’t seem to get one.

“They can be removed, can they not? They’re just under the skin. If someone decided to just cut it out they could. Terrifying, but plausible. Either that or one of your faithful authorized employees has been leaking information to outsiders.”

This is where Eun-ji seems to give up. Her shoulders sagging and a heavy sigh leaving her lips. “There would still be the problem of the missing equipment, test subjects, practice… How would you even get hold of fertilized human eggs to play around with? But I guess that wouldn’t be totally impossible. As for cutting it out… There would be a noticeable scar. The implants are always put in the same place, it wouldn’t be hard to miss.”

I make a mental note stating to ask Taehyung about all of this when I get back. If anyone knows how he got onto this world it would be him. “Is there a possibility that you could have someone look into it?” The girl nods in defeat, paying more attention to the ground than to anything else. “I’ll see if I can get someone on the case. I’ll have them contact you if we know anything.”

After those words she turns around in her chair, facing the monitor that had already put itself into sleep, and turns it off. Taking a notepad out of the drawer to her left, she quickly writes something down with the pen from her breast pocket. “I’ll get on it right away. Would you like me to walk you back to the exit?”

I shake my head. “No It’s okay, I’ll find my way back. Thank you for cooperating.” Eun-ji gives me a small smile, followed by a bow and walks out of the room taking the note with her, presumably immediately keeping herself busy with the extra work. Not wanting to waste any time I copy her, walking myself back into the direction we came from. Turns out it proves quite easy to find the exit by myself.

It’s already far past dinnertime when I make it back to the office. Not many of my colleagues have remained in their seats, most of them opting for a nice meal with their families. The few that have stayed behind are mostly known to live alone, quite like myself.

I quietly knock on my supervisor’s door, but when no response emerges from within the room, I can safely deduce that she too has already returned home. “I’ll have to write her a report about today later..” I mutter to myself, before stepping away from the door and instead heading to the cells at the back.

Technically the arrest period had already ended for Taehyung, as the law wouldn’t allow us to keep him locked up for any longer without any charges being held against him. His cell however technically was never locked and so even now, he is free to go wherever he wants. Though it didn’t change the fact that he still has no place to go to.

“Good evening. Had anything to eat yet?” He just chose to stay here and we accepted it. “Oh, hello! Yes, that tall handsome bulky man gave me something earlier, I can’t remember his name. He said something about it ‘being the best shit in town’.”

I slightly giggle at his quote, knowing immediately who it belongs to. “That definitely sounds like something Namjoon would say. What did he give you?”

Taehyung looks a lot better than he did yesterday. The stress of the interrogation seems to have completely worn off, instead traded for the sweet bouncy personality he used to show around me.

“Umm it was something in the shape of a circle and it had meat all over it… Oh! I think he called it a pizza? It was delicious!”

“You’ve never had pizza before?” The words leave my mouth before I actually get the chance to process them, causing me to instantly regret ever even opening my mouth. These days are stressful enough for him as they are, he doesn’t need a painful reminder of the life he never got to live on top of that.

The question doesn’t seem to hit him as hard as I though it would though. In fact, his demeanour doesn’t seem to change at all. Although sadly, it doesn’t make his next words any less painful. “Nope! When I first got adopted all they would feed me was wet cat food. It wasn’t great, but at least I got my three meals a day. The foster family I stayed at after my first owners mysteriously disappeared didn’t actually have the money to even take proper care of themselves, so at that time all I would get was whatever was left of their dinner that day, if there was even any left. It was mostly just greens. The lack of meat made me real sick at the time.”

He pauses talking for a second to look up at my face through the metal bars. The content look on his face quickly changes to one of worry once he catches my eyes. It’s no mystery why, I know I look at him pitifully. Even if he may not wish for my concern, I am only human. I can perfectly hide it when I need to, but this is not one of those cases.

“There it is again, that sad look on your face…” He sits up straight on the side of his bed to fully observe me, a tilt of his head giving him away. I send a sad chuckle his way as I reach for the door of his enclosure, inviting myself into the small space with him. He doesn’t object.

“Is it that obvious?” It was meant more as a way to lighten the mood, not as an actual question that needs answering. He still does however, giving me a simple slow nod. “You don’t need to feel bad for me.”

“Someone has to. You deserve at least that much.”

There’s a chair neatly placed under a small desk in the room. It used to be quite lively, with all kinds of bright colours blending into each other. It was a little positive additive into the dark grey room, but after all the anger that has been acted out on it, it no longer has that same shine.

I pull the chair out to place myself upon it, straddling the seat while I rest my arms on top of the back rest. Facing the tiger I use my arms as a pillow to lean my head on, making myself comfortable on the creaking furniture.

“Say, Taehyung, do you remember anything from when and where you were formed?”

He seems slightly taken aback at first, though quickly regains his composure. He also doesn’t immediately answer, first taking some time to think before coming back to me. “I was born a hybrid to two purebred tiger hybrids. They did their best trying to care for me in the little time we got to spend together, but seeing as it happened on a breeding farm getting to spend time with my parents wasn’t the plan. I got sold off pretty quickly, as soon as I learned to hold my first few full conversations.”

“Do you… Would you happen to know what happened to the farm? To your parents?” I fail to hide my apprehensiveness, needing too much space to form a careful approach. This shouldn’t feel like an interrogation to him, I never even announced one. There is little reason for him to answer me, the vital information from his side has already been given anyway. Nonetheless, even though I probably shouldn’t be doing this right now, I can’t just miss this opportunity.

“I heard my adoptive family talking about how the place was burnt down a while later. Most likely the police had caught a hold of it and they had to delete their left behind evidence. Both building and hybrids.”

Despite talking about the death of his parents, he seems to tell the story with relative ease. Probably not having much connection with the far past, his brain too young to truly hold on to the memory of them.

“They were successful too, as the case got dropped faster than lightning. It wasn’t long before the general public forgot about it too, believing it was just another misunderstanding. Besides, hybrid lives weren’t as important anyway.”

The amount of rights hybrids had when they were first created back in the day were close to zero, only strictly being seen as objects to show off whatever possible wealth one may have had. For a while there was even a popular theory going around that hybrids didn’t actually have the ability to feel any kind of emotion or pain. The genetic puzzle wouldn’t allow for it, as it had been tampered with to an extreme extent. This only built on the carelessness shown towards them, slowly chipping away at their sanity.

Although the rumours were wrong, they came from a place of truth. Facial expressions were rare for hybrids, as was the ability to speak. Most of them couldn’t even keep up with regular humans, exhaustion quickly taking over the little anger they could show. Scientists hadn’t yet quite figured out how to perfectly combine the pieces of genetic code and so hybrids were more like living dolls in the eyes of evil humans. Having no voice to object and barely any means to actually hurt anyone, it wasn’t much of a surprise the selfish nature in humans came to rise.

Luckily, or depending on how you look at it, sadly, these first generation hybrids were never able to reproduce. The doll like hybrid features eventually died out with the rise of the newly perfected pieces and the theory was debunked by a group of scientist who actually did care about the hybrids’ wellbeing. Those hybrids had lived through countless punishments, and every single one of them had hurt. A lot.

Right now hybrids in a lot of ways are superior to the rest of us. Having the combined senses of both animal and human alike, society has reluctantly given up on trying to contain them. They are still to be bought and owned, but no longer to be treated like dirt. The smartest of hybrids have even already gotten complete freedom to do as the please, no longer having to be bound to a human to roam freely. However, those unable to pass the close to impossible tests aren’t so lucky.

“I’m sorry about what happened.”

Taehyung gives me a reassuring wave of his hand, effectively trying to lighten the mood, along with a sad smile. It wouldn’t take a trained professional to know he still longs for his parent’s presence, even if he may do well hiding it.

“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.”

That doesn’t make the situation more okay, but I hold my remarks back. For now, that might just be for the best.

Taglist

@suhappysuho @intellectualxprincess @sana-b @littlewolfieposts @nellaphine @the8luvr @deathkat657 @elenaramos1 @namjoonies-dimple

[acourtofsnakes]

E’tad - Rogue, Chapter 9| The Mandalorian x Force Sensitive! Reader (f)

Summary: You are going about your time in Nevarro, completely unaware of the struggle and frantic journey the Mandalorian is making. Will he get there in time?

Warnings: A bit of violence/swearing, mentions of death/blood, alcohol/drinking

AN: I’m really sorry that this chapter isn’t as gripping as the others.  I’ve been super overwhelmed lately and been struggling to get my ideas down into actual words. I’ve been working on this for way longer than the word count reflects and just wanted to get it out. You can still count on a cliffhanger ending though, of course ♥︎

Also, I’m sorry if there’s parts that aren’t canon. I definitely made up a couple of the planets and potentially bits of Nevarro. 

Not yet beta read.

Word Count: 4832

As always, credit to whoever owns the gif. I usually find them on Google or Pinterest, so message me if it’s yours ♥︎

Rogue Taglist:  @snipskixandbeskar   @weirdowithnobeardo @the-bottom-of-the-abyss  @jackgrzs @sarahjkl82-blog @boomtownboy @goldielocks2004

Rogue Masterlist | Introduction| 1: Solus| 2: Arir | 3: Tor | 4: Gaa'tayl | 5: Kyr’am | 6: Cabur | 7: Ret'urcye Mhi | 8: Haran| 9: E’tad

Mando’a translation: E'tad - seven

You’d been in Nevarro for a few days now. 

Things were going... okay? 

No. Things were going well. Really well. You felt safer here, knowing that Cara and Greef were monitoring who was coming and going and making sure they posed no threat to you. 

There were a few tense moments, times when government officials came wandering past, but you always stayed hidden out of the way. 

No one looked twice at you here – and if they did, it wasn’t for long. 

When you first walked through the town, you found Cara and Greef waiting for you just inside the gates. 

They were kind, welcoming too. Greef took your bag and welcomed you to the planet, whilst Cara smiled at you and shook your hand. You sensed that she was strong, determined and loyal to her cause and friends. She had a kindness in her eyes though, and it put you at ease.

These were Mando’s friends. He trusted them to take care of you, so that meant you’d be able to trust them too. 

They had shown you around, giving you a tour of the places that you might need, like markets and small stores, but also the places to avoid. 

When you’d had your tour, they showed you to a quaint building a short walk away from the centre of town. 

There were only 4 floors to the building, and about 2 rooms on each floor. Stopping on the third floor, they had showed you where you’d be staying. 

Cara had apologised for it being more on the minimal side, but you’d shaken your head quickly. This was more than you’d had in… years. 

There was a little kitchenette area to prepare food, a lounge space with a slightly ragged looking armchair and table. To the right of the space was a curtained off sleeping area, containing a thin, but comfy looking cot and then just off of that a washing area. There was a decent-sized metal tub, big enough for you to be able to sit in and just extend your legs comfortably. 

It might not have been grand, or spacious but it was a home. A place to come back to at the end of the day and be safe. 

The two had left you to get settled, and you couldn’t help that sharp pang in your chest. 

The Razor Crest had become a… sort of home to you over the last few weeks. It’s softly lit corridors and spaces, things crammed in everywhere but all mostly organised… the little compartment that had been your – well, the Mandalorian’s, - bed. The cockpit, where you spent most of your days either bantering with Mando or sitting in comfortable silence. 

The kitchen area… his hands on your skin..

The weight of him behind you..

You missed him. And if you were honest, it still stung. That all of that had occurred between you and he was just getting rid of you. 

No, maybe that wasn’t the right phrase. And nothing had really happened between you. Just an outpouring of tension. Besides, he was so warm, maybe he had been running a fever. 

Mando had said that it was the only way to keep you safe. 

And you knew that you were also attracting attention onto him and Grogu. 

It still didn’t stop it from hurting any less. 

~~~~~~~~~

-----7 Days Left-----

The Mandalorian made it back to his ship in record time. He didn’t waste precious minutes explaining to Peli. Just stating he had to go, thank you for the repairs and the last few days. 

Seven days. He just seven days to get back, grab you, and flee. 

Easy. He could do that easily. 

Right?

He gave her a handful of credits, promising to come back soon. 

He probably came across as rude, but he just couldn’t afford to wait. 

You would have been on Nevarro for a little over a week now. He’d been with Peli for a good few days, and the travelling here had cost him about a day and a bit. 

You were probably settled. 

Maybe even.. happy?

His instincts were always right, and they were telling him that this guy, Haran, the shadow of Hell, had meant every single word. That if he found you before Mando did, you would never return. 

Even if that happened, the Mandalorian would tear apart the galaxy to find you. There wouldn’t be a corner of space that Haran could hide that Mando wouldn’t get to. He would kill anyone who stood in his way, anyone who stopped him from reaching you. 

The force of his determination nearly took his breath away as he switched on the ship, the engines roaring to life

Moments later, he was leaving Tatooine. 

“I’m coming for you.”

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

After that initial first week of settling in, you found that things improved a great deal. 

You knew your way around almost 100%, and frequently took walks around the town. 

Cara had reassured you that you wouldn’t have to hide here, but on busier days it would be best to keep your hood up. 

Just in case. 

Despite the threat of someone slipping through their watchful eyes, you relaxed. 

You worked with Cara sometimes during the days, going along with her for her Marshal duties and keeping things in order.

Other days, you spent time with Greef. You found him to be sort of… like an uncle in attitude. He was reassuring, and you enjoyed spending time with the both of them. 

You’d even begun to help out in the local school. Karga had suggested it one day, mentioning in passing how the teaching droids might benefit with a pair of extra eyes and hands. 

After making a few helpful comments, you had somehow established yourself as a teacher of survival. Not in the sense of, ‘this is how to disarm a bounty hunter who is coming at you whilst you’re sleeping., but more in the vein of, “Here’s how to find fresh water and a place to sleep.” 

The kids loved it, especially when you staged imaginary scenarios for them and had them running about the place or creeping through ‘the undergrowth’.

It felt good. To be using these skills you’d been forced to learn for something positive, something that the kids enjoyed. 

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~

-----5 Days Left-----

Of course he had to stop for fuel. 

He had forgotten to ask Peli to fill it up before he left. Mainly because they couldn’t get out there when the sandstorm had hit, and then because he had left so quickly. 

He wanted to punch himself. 

Maybe he would. It might make him feel better. 

The Mandalorian stopped at the next closest planet, barely having turned the engines off before he was climbing out of the cockpit and making his way through the ship, Grogu secured in his little bag. 

He was halfway down the ramp when he looked over his shoulder, to check that you and Duru were behind him. 

Only to stop short, because you were no longer with him. Remember?

He sighed, ignoring the wrench of his heart and he walked through the landing bay. 

A quick search revealed a man in a fuel operatives’ uniform. 

Relief flooded Mando’s senses, and he hurried over, “Excuse me, would you be able to fill my ship? I’m sorry but I’m really in a hurry.”

The man looked up, wiping his hands on his uniform and he came over to Mando. “The Crest that just landed? Sure, I can fill her up right away, sir.” 

Moments later, he had hooked up the necessary pipes and the ship was being pumped full of fuel. 

It didn’t stop him from pacing though, checking the time on the large display inside the landing bay. 

He was full of frantic energy, and he should probably stop pacing because he was going to make Grogu sick. 

The operative looked up, tilting his head a little, “Forgive me, sir, but you look awful jittery. Is something wrong?”

The Mandalorian spun on the spot, looking at the man suspiciously.

Was he working for Haran? Was this a distraction? 

Maybe he shouldn’t have come here. 

Grogu gurgled at his side, and he didn’t need to bother translating. He was being stupid; the kid was right. 

Mando sighed, curling his hands into fists and then uncurling them to try and release some tension. “Have you ever heard of the Shadow of Death?” 

The man cursed, dropping the tool he was holding. He looked around quickly, his colourful face going pale with fear, “Sir! I beg you, please do not speak that name. Even mentioning it can summon him here.”

The Mandalorian couldn’t hide the surprise form his voice, “You believe in him then?”

The worker nodded slowly, motioning Mando over. When he was close enough, the man said quietly, “I’ve seen his… work.”

A chill skittered over Mando’s bones, “You’ve seen… someone he’s killed?”

A green sheen had come over the operatives face, “Yes, sir. I’ve seen it firsthand and I still wake up screaming even today.”

The Mandalorian tilted his head, “Many people believe he’s a myth, thought up by the darkest of people to cover their tracks.”

“That creature is not a myth, sir. He came for my sister and her family. She ran, but he was waiting at the safe house for her.” The man’s eyes became hazy with memory. “I don’t know how he knew. She had told no one where she was going. Not even me. They had never uttered the location aloud, not even to each other. They wrote it down. Just in case he was in the walls, listening.” The man swallowed roughly once, twice.

“When we got there, there was nothing left to bury. Just clothes, a few strands of hair and blood coating the walls. It was like something from a nightmare. There were only a few… chunks left of them. They could never identify who was who.” He heaved a little, then turned grave eyes onto the Mandalorian.

“If you know someone he wants, you’d be best of killing them yourselves. It would be a lot kinder.”

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

-----2 Days Left-----

The Mandalorian was getting frantic. 

And with his frantic haste, came messiness. 

He didn’t know it was taking him so damn long to get to Nevarro. He should have been there three days ago. Hell, he should never have left you there. 

There had been a nebula on the way out of the planet. It hadn’t come up on his radar until the last moment and he had to swerve to get around it, which cost him a detour he couldn’t afford. He couldn’t risk jumping into hyperspeed until he was clear either. 

Though it had taken too long, he eventually cleared it. 

He was close, so close. He’d been about to make the jump when two X-wing’s had come out of nowhere and started to chase him down. He’d tried to get them away, tried to shake them off but they’d forced him down into some icy planet. 

He’d nearly crashed the ship, nearly lost Grogu because the little womp rat decided to climb out of his seat as Mando tried to land and then the engines had cut out because they got too cold. 

And now he was cold. Fucking freezing in fact. 

Tracking through the snow and the ice, looking for the two pilots to get rid of them so he could be back on his way to finding you. 

With each movement of the sun, he became more and more painfully aware of how slow he was. 

He was never this slow. Never this sloppy. He needed to calm down and clear his head, but the words of the fuel operative kept ringing in his head. 

“That creature is not a myth, sir. He came for my sister and her family. She ran, but he was waiting at the safe house for her. 

When we got there, there was nothing left to bury. Just clothes, a few strands of hair and blood coating the walls. 

If you know someone he wants, you’d be best of killing them yourselves. It would be a lot kinder.”

He gritted his teeth as a shudder shook his body, and not from the cold. 

You wouldn’t end up like that. 

He’d find you. You would be fine. 

Noise broke through his thoughts, the sounds of the pilots and he slipped behind a snowpile and sunk down to wait. 

~~~~~~~~~

Okay. So maybe the last few days weren’t going as well as they could have been. 

You were embarrassed to admit it, but at least two of them were spent drunk, and the third was spent in a state of hungover blurriness. 

Pinpointing the exact trigger was hard. 

It might have been the horrific nightmares that begun 4 days ago, or it might have been the conversation you had with Cara that day. 

You’d been sitting in the cantina, just talking after a day of work and she had begun to ask about your past. Nothing invasive, nothing forcing you to answer but something in you had wanted to spill some of the burden. 

She’d asked you where you learned your survival skills, and you thought about lying but… something stopped you. So, you’d told her. At least, as much as you could without revealing the real reason. 

You told her about the murder of your parents. How the market had been attacked that day, and you could do nothing to stop them dying. 

You told her how you’d run, spending two days hiding in a waste dump, crying and vomiting with fear and the horror of what you’d seen. How you’d dragged yourself out, and started your journey of planet hopping and hitching rides. 

Cara had asked what you did to get people coming after you, and you simply told her they thought you’d been responsible for the market attack, and the murders of the friends you’d made because people always seemed to die around you. 

You told her how it had forced you to not be able to trust anyone, to only be able to rely on yourself and how you had to learn to survive. 

It hadn’t been easy. You had made yourself sick countless times, including one really bad week where you ate some questionable vegetables and spent four days in a hallucinating stupor, convinced you were dying. 

She’d laughed at that and returned the favour by telling you about her shock trooper days. The fact they were dumped in on their own to hunt the warlords, being exposed to horrors that only you and few others could understand. 

The pair of you had spent the evening sharing stories, dancing around the subject of a certain beskar-clad hunter and his child. You couldn’t go there, couldn’t talk about it. 

She probably gathered all the information she needed from your lack of response though, by the look in her eye and the smirk when she mentioned him. 

That night might have been the cause of the horrific nightmare where you were convinced you’d just watched the Mandalorian and Grogu be torn to shreds by your own power. You’d woken up screaming, tasting their blood like that night and barely made it to the small bathroom area before vomiting. 

That was the last night you’d remembered before getting drunk. 

You supposed you were ashamed of yourself. 

You were giving in to feelings you’d spent years repressing.

You were wallowing. 

You’re hurting. You’re allowed to let go of the pain sometimes, to feel it. You can’t keep going like the ice queen all the time.  

How you hated that inner voice of reason. 

~~~~~~~~~

-----1 Day left-----

His gloves were soaked with melted snow, sticking to his skin and freezing again instantly, no matter how many times he tried to warm them. It made his movements slow and fumbly as he desperately worked to fix the engine of his ship. 

He’d tried to take off as soon as he’d gotten rid of the pilots, but as soon as he’d started the engines, they died with no more than a puff of smoke. 

They were frozen. 

Snow and ice had gotten into the rotors and they wouldn’t start long enough for him to heat them up. 

He was stuck here. 

Grogu was freezing. 

Mando had left him inside the cockpit with the doors shut, bundled in all the blankets he could find in the ship. The heaters weren’t working, and the backup generator barely provided enough heat to stop the windows from icing over. 

He made a frustrated noise as he dropped his tools, stooping down to scoop them out of the snow. 

He had to get this working. He had to fix this and get to you. 

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, you rose, dressed and returned to work. 

You apologised for your previous behaviour and threw yourself into your daily tasks with a determination that might have been bordering on insanity. 

You were eager to wipe away the shame of the past few days, so you spent the day doing every single job you could find and more. Even going out into the town on your lunch break to help around the markets and local small stores. 

It kept the thoughts at bay, the guilt and the shame, and also the relentless longing that plagued you. 

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

-----12 hours left-----

The sun had set long ago. 

He was working by the small light on his helmet now. 

It was barely enough to see in front of his face, but he couldn’t stop. Even though he couldn’t feel his feet, or his hands. Or any of his body, actually.

He couldn’t let you die. 

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the end of the day. 

You had just finished your work, helping Cara with maintaining things around town, dealing with the odd shady traveller that passed through looking for trouble. 

She knew your skills, that you were ruthless, quick and knew your way around a blade well enough to scare someone off. 

It was why you had started training with her a few days ago, before the drunken haze. 

You’d showed up to her office after a night of screaming dreams, shattered, wound up and tense. 

She’d taken one look at you, then taken you out the back to a big empty plot and begun to train with you. And it had worked. Sparring with someone and having to focus had helped you channel that anxious energy. 

It was a regular occurrence now, which was why you were engaged in another session with her. 

Greef had come to watch this afternoon, and sat on one of the huge, jagged hunks of rock that littered the volcanic planet. 

It didn’t put you off, you were too focused as you ducked under Cara’s punch, twirling around her body and delivering a sharp kick to her kidneys that had her coughing. You couldn’t help the chuckle, lightly springing back a few steps as she spun to face you, “Oh come on, you practically invited me to kick you.”

Cara rolled her eyes, advancing toward you, “And you were foolish enough to take it.” She flew into another attack on you, which you matched punch for punch, like you knew the moves she was going to take without her saying. 

You wondered if it had something to do with your power, some instinct from it. You still felt its presence more often than not lately, since that night it had helped you save the Mandalorian. You’d tried to push it back, but it was calling to you more and more recently. 

Shaking the thoughts free of your head, you focused back on fighting, pouring everything into it and letting go of all that nervous energy. 

You practically floated across the ashy ground, moving around her like you were breathing. 

It wasn’t quite the choreographed, effortless fighting you and Mando had engaged in, but it was still something. 

Dimly, you heard Greef laugh, clapping. “I never quite knew what Mando meant when he told us you fought like you were dancing, but I completely understand now.”

You froze, just managing to lift a hand and block Cara’s swing to your face, “What? He said that?” You looked over your shoulder, eyebrows raised in shock.

Karga nodded quickly, “Oh, yes! When he was telling us about the first time you met, and when you saved his life. He said he’d met more fighters in his life than he could remember, but you stood out most of all. ‘She fights like she’s dancing. Like she’s moving to a song of death only she can hear. It was mesmerising’ That’s what he told us.”

Mesmerising.

He’d really said that about you? Complimented you like that to his friends when you weren’t around?

It made your heart constrict and a sort of warm feeling spread through your veins. 

Unfortunately, it also made you distracted. 

Which gave Cara the opportunity to slam her knee into your back and knock you to the ground. “Stop getting doe-eyed over the Mandalorian and focus.” She was laughing, standing over you. 

Your cheeks flushed slightly but you snarled, flipping on your back and pulling out her ankles. “I don’t get doe-eyed.”

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

-----2 hours left---

The Mandalorian had never been this cold. 

He was still outside, and a snowstorm had begun now. 

His poor visibility was even worse, and it seemed to take him twice as long to do anything. 

It was like the commands he sent from his brain to his hands were slogging through the thick snow. 

His armour had long since frozen over, and every time he moved, ice cracked and fell from the crevice’s. 

He didn’t know how long he could do this for. 

He didn’t know if Grogu was still alive. 

He didn’t know if you were still alive. 

Haran may have gone back on his words and come after you anyway. You might have been dead for days already. 

No. 

No, he couldn’t let himself think that. 

He had to keep going. He had to… 

He had to rest…

He was cold. So very cold that he almost felt warm. 

A mournful cry of wind shot through him, sucking the little energy from his body in a sub-zero blast and his knees gave out, dumping him in the snow. 

Get up. 

He couldn’t. 

~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~

“Good fighting today. You were a lot more focused. Well, mostly.” Cara leaned against the doorway to your building, crossing her arms and grinning again. 

You rolled your eyes, “Thanks so much. The bruise I have on my back will forever remind me of your compliments.” 

She laughed, raising an eyebrow, “And the pain in my kidney’s will remind of yours.” She tilted her head, watching you, “Why did it throw you so much?”

You pretended not to know what she was talking about, “Me kicking you in the kidneys?”

Cara gave you a deadpan look, knowing what you were doing, “No. What Greef said about Mando. You looked shocked.”

You swallowed, looking down and pretending to examine your boots and you pulled out an easy shrug, “I just didn’t expect a compliment like that from him. The first time we fought, we were both trying to kill each other, and the second time he saw me, he was half-unconscious. I didn’t think he remembered.”

Whether she saw through your lie or not, she thankfully didn’t press it. “Well… He can shock you sometimes, trust me.” She stood up straight, pushing away from the wall “I’ll see you later for dinner?”

Relief flooded through you and you nodded, able to meet her gaze now, “Sure, dinner sounds great. I’ll come by after a drink.”

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

-----0 Hours Left-----

He was too late.

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

You were still thinking about what Greef said as you made your way into the cantina, Duru asleep back in your room.  

It had become a popular haunt for you whilst being here. You wondered if you might be starting to have a problem. 

But the chatter of the different people and creatures provided an ambiance that kept the wandering thoughts at bay. 

When you were alone and still, you had a habit of straying to the Mandalorian and Grogu. 

His last words kept echoing in your head, that you might see each other soon. 

When, Lori? Soon isn’t close enough.

You sighed to yourself as you slid onto a seat at the bar. You seriously needed to have an intervention with yourself. You didn’t pine like this. You didn’t get soft and sentimental. 

You couldn’t afford to, not the way you lived. 

But we aren’t on the run anymore. At least not like we used to be…

You ignored that voice in your head, the one that threatened to speak sense. Luckily, the droid that was serving as the bartender came over, placing your usual drink in front of you. 

You nodded in thanks, pulling it toward you. Maybe it wasn’t such a good thing that the droid knew your drink without asking. 

Then again… it was a droid. It was probably built into its hardware. It didn’t mean that you were an alcoholic. Although, your drunken stupor went against that argument. 

You brushed your hand over the bar in front of you, getting rid of the layer of volcanic ash that settled over everything. Every night you found it in your hair, under your clothes and even in your boots. It didn’t bother you much though. Over the years, you’d become used to it, being covered in dirt or grime. 

Except when you were on the Crest. 

You shook your head slightly at yourself. You weren’t going to go there. 

You could do what you wanted to on the Crest. You didn’t have to be covered in dirt or ash or mud. You were clean. Rested. Warm. 

Do not go there. 

You had company. Friends, even. 

You blew out a breath, taking a big gulp of your drink. It didn’t matter now anyway. You were here. You didn’t know how long you were to stay for, but this was your new… home. 

But it doesn’t feel like home. It’s not cosy. It doesn’t smell the same. You can’t hear the sounds of the engine, or Grogu or Mando. 

Maker, you had to find a way to shut that voice up. Maybe you’d knocked something lose back when you fought the guy with a tail. Things hadn’t been right in your head since then. 

Since you saved the Mandalorian’s life?

“Shut up!!” You didn’t realise you’d hissed the words out loud until a nearby trader gave you a funny look. 

Brilliant, now you looked drunk or possibly crazy. 

You dropped your head into your hands, rubbing your eyes. You needed to get over yourself.

And the Mandalorian. 

When you lifted your glass back to your lips, you noticed that your drink was already done. 

Whoops. Definitely looking more drunk than crazy now.

You looked up, raising your hand for another drink regardless and when the droid placed it in front of you, you slid over the required credits. 

Only for it to push them back, “Your drinks have already been paid for, miss.” 

You blinked in confusion at its monotone voice, “By who? I asked Cara and Greef not to touch my tab.” You had wanted to pay for it yourself. They refused to take any money in payment for you room, so you had managed to negotiate any expenses you racked up elsewhere – such as here. 

The droid looked at you with its expressionless robotic face, “They were not paid for by Marshal Dune or Greef Karga. Please, take the credits.”

You reached out, slowly dragging them back and putting them back inside the inside pocket of your cloak, “Who paid for it then?” You couldn’t help the insistent tone to your voice, even if it would be lost on the droid. 

Before it could answer, your question was answered. 

“I did.” 

The voice that came from behind you was silken, rising over the din background noise of the cantina. It caressed over your bones, those two simple words dripping like honey. Something tugged inside of you, pulled at that buried kernel of power. 

You turned on your stool, looking for the owner of such a magnetic voice. 

There, behind you, sat a figure. 

Decked in an expensive looking cloak lined with golden thread, lounging back in his seat like he didn’t have a care in the world. You could see the edge of a hilt peeping above broad shoulders, something drawing you to look at it but you couldn’t see it properly. 

You blinked again, raising an eyebrow, “Sorry?”

The figure leant forward, “I paid for your drinks.” He lifted a pair of gloved hands and pushed back his hood. 

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[jrumbots-sandals]

Okay, so I wrote a HC fanfic, because why tf not. The idea wouldn't leave my head, so now you get to deal with it.

Based on @mayflowers07’s "I can be the one you call" series. In that series, there is an established code word on the Hermitcraft server for when a prank goes too far or when a hermit is in danger: "blue creeper." When a player says this phrase, everything stops to help the hermit in need. Please go read their series--it's amazing! The premise of this fic comes from that series as well, so I take no credit for the idea, just the execution!

This is my first HC fic ever, so there's probably a lot of errors when it comes to canon. Impulse and Tango are probably OOC. Timeline is all over the place because 1. I've been watching a lot of hermits, and 2. I'm watching everything out of order. Let me know your thoughts if you like! I mostly wrote this for me, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Anyway, here goes.

The Sleep Prank

WC: 3540

Bdubs was tired. It wasn't uncommon; he was, after all, the sleep master. He had a natural ability to fall asleep as soon as the sun began to set.

Today, however, was different. Where there was usually the pleasant sleepy feeling that accompanied the end of each day, today there was frustrated exhaustion. All because of Tango and Impulse's stupid prank.

It had been going on for three days now. The prank was funny at first— a TNT explosion rigged to blow when Bdubs went to hit his bed. The first time it had happened, he had just finished clearing out most of a nearby sand biome, grabbing a large quantity for the concrete shop. At 10 pm precisely, he took out his trusty bed he travelled with, he set it on the ground and prepared for his nightly shreep sleep. When it happened, he had shrieked loudly and fallen off the bed, causing his fellow Boomers, who were hiding behind a nearby dune, to cry with laughter.

"Very FUNNY!!!!!" he had yelled in his trademark over-exaggerated voice. "Mess with ol' Bdubs while he's tryin' to sleep. You think that's FUNNY, don't you?!"

"Yes, actually," cackled Tango. "It's hilarious. Oh, your FACE…"

The laughter went on for several minutes, Bdubs pretending to be angry while the other two collapsed on each other in laughter. But Bdubs had taken the prank good-naturedly, and soon enough the other two left and he was alone again. Slightly shaken up, he picked up his things and headed to his base, ready to actually get some sleep.

The second time was still funny. Impulse and Tango had trapped his home beds to do the same thing, which didn't hurt Bdubs or any of his things, but did make him jump out of his skin. The two had clearly been expecting this, because soon after, his communicator buzzed:

ImpulseSV: TANGO IT WORKED

TangoTek: HAHAHHAHA YESSSS

TangoTek: Get some nice sleep Bdubs? >:)

Glaring at the offensive messages, he typed back:

BdoubleO100: NO >:(

BdoubleO100: YOU FOOLS SCARED ME SO BAD

BdoubleO100: You guys are the WORST

BdoubleO100: Trapping my BEAUTIFUL HOME

Bdoubleo100: I'll get you for that

Bdubs laughed as he typed out his mock rage. But it was all in good fun, both Bdubs and the Boomers knew.

Now slightly wary of the many beds he had around his base, Bdubs got up from the current bed, no real goal in mind besides getting away from the beds for a little while. It was 10:32 now. Usually, he would already be asleep, ready to skip the night and start on more building projects in the morning. Nursing a slight headache, he picked up a book from one of his many decorative bookcases and sat down away from any beds to read.

20 minutes later, eyes heavy from reading and body tired from the day, he cautiously hit a bed for the third time. Nothing happened. He sighed in relief, already starting to fade into sleep.

And then it happened again. An explosion of TNT, to his right.

"AAAAAGH!!" he screamed, again startled by the prank. This time, he heard a dispenser fire, and suddenly he had a piece of paper in his hand:

GOTCHA!!!!!! — your fellow boomers :)

With a stab of annoyance, he crumpled up the paper and huffed downstairs. Grabbing some rockets and a few blocks of wool, Bdubs took off into the night, heading...somewhere. He didn't know where he was going, besides away, away from his base and the stupid bed prank.

He touched down a few hundred blocks away from his base, finding a decently-sized patch of grass sheltered from the outside by the overhang of a small cliff. He spread out the wool and placed a few torches for safety. Without a true bed, the game's code wouldn't let him instantly sleep and skip the night like usual, but he could still sleep the old-fashioned way. Though not as substantial in length or quality, he would still get some rest, ready in the morning to dismantle all the stupid bed traps around his base and then get some real work done.

Sighing quietly, he laid down, closing his eyes and falling into an uneasy rest. It only lasted half an hour or so, just long enough for Tango and Impulse to find him and set off some more TNT. He woke up in a panic at the thunderous sound, disoriented.

"WHAT THE FU-"

He was interrupted by his two tormentors howling with laughter, peeking out from behind a tree not far from his sleeping spot.

"Sup Bdubs! Get some good sleep?" Tango called, smugly.

Impulse was doubled over beside him, absolutely cackling. "Yeah, you thought you could run away huh? Oh Bdubs…"

"Oh veRY FUNNY!" he tried, but his voice and face betrayed his tiredness and annoyance.

"Ha, ha, yes hilarious, now will you leave me alone?"

Tango gave him a cruel smirk. "Well why don't you try to sleep again and find out?"

His heart sank, seeing how invested the two were in this prank. They really weren't going to let him sleep.

"Please?" It was a pitiful request, free of any of the usual amusing inflection in his voice. Tango and Impulse looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Finally, Impulse spoke.

"Okay, if you can make it to tomorrow without sleeping, we'll let you off the hook. We just wanted to see how long you could go," he said, laughing.

"Yeah, Bdubs, it'll be a great challenge for you! See you in the morning then?" asked Tango.

Bdubs considered their offer. What choice did he have? He could make it through one night.

"Fine," he sighed. "I'll just...read or something."

The Boomers smiled.

"We believe in you!"

"Bye Bdubs!"

They flew off into the night, leaving him to face the rest of the long night alone.

***

It was painful, but Bdubs made it through.

Grabbing his things, he took off back toward his base, thinking about the day ahead. He had some farming to do, a small shack to finish detailing, and the concrete shop to restock. Not to mention finding all the Boomer traps in his house. Then he would go to bed early and be done.

The day passed uneventfully, with no bed-related explosions, thankfully. Bdubs dug out all the blocks around the many beds around his houses, ripping out the offensive redstone wiring whenever he found some. He pocketed the TNT. It served Impulse and Tango right.

Bdubs really didn't do well without at least 8 hours of sleep. It was just how he operated. A full night of quality sleep was essential to keeping up with all the building work on the server and keeping up his happy, boisterous personality. The effects of no sleep were already wearing on him. He had been grumpy and distracted all day, trying to keep his eyes open long enough to not fall asleep on his feet. While working at the concrete shop earlier, he had dropped a block of the stuff on his foot. Swearing loudly and hopping on one foot, he slammed the door and left the building, only to find someone he really didn't want to see: Impulse.

"Hello, Impulse," said Bdubs stiffly.

"Bdubs! Get some good sleep? Oh wait!" Impulse chortled.

He restrained himself from telling Impulse just exactly what he thought of their stupid prank and no sleep challenge (some of the younger hermits were nearby, after all). Instead, he forced out a laugh and put on an overexaggerated expression of indignance.

"You and Tango, I can't believe you would mess with my sleep. Do you KNOW how hard that was? I'm-I'm gonna fall over or something!" He yawned dramatically, pretending to start falling.

Bad idea. He lost his balance for real and fell, slamming into the ground. Impulse just laughed and helped him up, unaware that he wasn't joking.

"Boomers gotta boom, Bdubs."

"Fair enough. Imma get you back though. So you better WATCH OUT!" Bdubs grinned mischievously as Impulse sprinted away in mock fear.

Once he was out of sight, Bdubs slumped over, rubbing his hip where he had fallen. This prank was really starting to take a toll on him.

The rest of the day passed fine, but Bdubs was on edge, finding himself becoming annoyed at little things— the sound of blocks scraping against each other in his inventory, the lowing of animals around the village, the rockets being fired by a passing hermit. He brushed it off, knowing he just needed sleep.

That night, he looked cautiously at his bed. Even though he had checked underneath it earlier and found nothing, the Boomers were some of the smartest redstone workers on the whole server; they could definitely hide traps Bdubs would never find. And now that they knew that disrupting his sleep would get him so riled up, they were bound to do it again, even if he had technically completed their challenge.

Sighing, he flew back to the grass patch from the night before, this time with more wool. Settling down, he tried to fall asleep and realized he couldn't. Despite being bone-tired from last night and a long day today, sleep wouldn't come. A slight panic came over him. He had never not been able to fall asleep before. Was it stress? Anxiety? Both, probably, he thought.

Sighing, he propped himself up against a nearby wall and slapped on his communicator, needing a distraction. He scrolled through the day's messages, laughing at some:

Grian: Guys mumbos AFK again

Grian: What should I do to him

Iskall85: push him in a hole and then cover his floors with ice lol

Xisumavoid: New potion building is open! Free for all my hermits :)

Stressmonster101: Are u tryin' t put me outta business?

Stressmonster101: ill get u for that X, i will

Smiling at his friends' antics, Bdubs moved to get back into bed. But he was still uneasy— something felt off. Scowling at the thought of being woken up by another explosion, he turned over and closed his eyes, trying his hardest to sleep.

Except his paranoia had been for good reason.

Because moments later, TNT went off, startling Bdubs awake. Well, not awake. He never really got to sleep, but he was getting close, and now the goddamn TNT was back.

Groaning in frustration and cursing under his breath, he sat up to look for the victory message he had come to expect. Sure enough:

ImpulseSV: WE GOT HIM AGAIN BOYS

ImpulseSV: aGAIN AAGSAJH

TangoTek: Take notes, ladies and gentlemen

ImpulseSV: Bdubs weve been waiting like an HOUR for you

TangoTek: WORTH IT

TangoTek: lol

Bdubs played along, sending a funny message back, but he was privately glad it was over the communicator and not in real life. He was pretty sure he would have straight up punched the two in the face if they had been nearby. He had done the challenge. It had been over 24 hours since he had slept. Couldn't they leave him the hell alone already?

He thought about trying to be serious with him and ask them, point-blank, to stop. Surely they would see how much they had put their friend through and end it. They weren't that cruel. Right?

Huffing in frustration, he packed up everything he had brought and trudged back to his base. If he was going to get pranked again, he may as well be comfortable at home.

Once he reached home, he threw his things down unceremoniously. Dammit. He should really be sleeping by now. Instead, he tapped his foot anxiously, trying to figure out what to do. He really didn't want to risk another bed-splosion.

He went an hour or so wandering around his base, organizing things and doing odd jobs here and there, and by then it was 11:23. But Bdubs couldn't get himself to try the bed, no matter how much his tired body screamed at him to. He wouldn't do it, not when he knew he would probably just be woken up again. So he kept finding things to do. 11:30 turned to 12 am, turned into 2:30, turned into 5:00 am, and suddenly it was light outside.

Oh. That was bad. He hadn't slept in two nights.

Closing his eyes where he stood, he swayed slightly as he clenched his jaw. Two nights. Goddammit. He realized with horror that he could feel tears beading up in his eyes. This wasn't sustainable.

He took a deep, centering breath and thought about everything he had to get through to finish this never ending day. Groaning at the thought of getting through another day, he made a decision. He would just have to talk to Impulse and Tango. This wasn't happening anymore after today.

***

So today, he was tired. And crabby. He had been awake for over 80 hours, and Bdubs was in a mood and a half because of it. He snapped at Scar during a mayoral meeting, shoulder-checked Mumbo "on accident" while passing him in the shopping district, and kicked down a particularly ugly flower in front of the Barge. He looked terrible, too, with dark bags under his eyes, uncombed hair, and wrinkled clothes he hadn't taken off in two days.

Several hermits passing through the shopping district gave him worried, questioning looks, making him even angrier. He tried to reason with Ren, who saw him and stopped to say hello, and tell him he was perfectly fine, thank you very much, but his argument was weakened by the way he tripped and nearly faceplanted over a small bump in the road.

"You really don't look good, my dude, you need to take a break or something," laughed Ren, lending him a hand to pull himself and looking at him with a mixture of amusement and concern.

"Well I'm fine, so leave me the hell alone," he snarled in response. The other man had just raised his eyebrows and walked away.

After, he decided to go to his concrete shop to calm down and try to get away from everyone. He pulled out a spare bed and looked at it longingly. Maybe the prank was truly over now? It had been a bad day, and he was so tired…a nap wouldn't hurt.

Lying down gratefully in the comfy bed, (had it always been this comfortable? surely not) he felt the familiar pull of sleep. Just as he was about to doze off, it happened again.

The godforsaken TNT went off.

Bdubs lost it.

"GODDAMMIT TANGO AND IMPULSE YOU SONS OF-"

He was interrupted by laughter from the very two he had just cursed at. They emerged from a door in the wall sneakily hidden by pistons, cackling and falling over each other.

"Oh my God, he actually fell for it-"

"I can't believe it worked-"

"No, Impulse, cause he's so predictable-"

Bdubs closed his eyes, ignoring the way it made the world spin around him, just trying to block out the incessant, annoying laughter filling his ears. He could do this, he just needed to put on a smile and pretend it was all funny-

"He can't go ONE NIGHT without a bed, the precious baby boy," wheezed Impulse.

"Widdle Bdubs is scawed of the dawk, isn't he?" mocked Tango.

He tried to block it out. It's funny, it really is, it's just a prank. Chill out, Bdubs.

"What would we do without him protecting us from all the scaaawy mobbies?"

Tears welled up in his eyes for the second time that day. He was actually afraid of the dark, deathly afraid. It wasn't just a joke to him, they didn't understand...

"Oh, I'm Bdubs, I have to sleep in a bed otherwise i'll get SCARED-"

"SHUT UP!" roared Bdubs. "SHUT UP GODDAMMIT THIS ISN'T FUNNY-"

"Oh but it IS, Bdubs," Tango wheezed, "Cause you fell for it like FIVE TIMES AHAHA-"

He couldn't do this.

"BLUE CREEPER!" he finally yelled, desperate to stop their taunts, to stop everything about the awful prank. The laughter of the other two men died down, finally quelled by the use of the code word.

"Oh shit, Bdubs, are you good?" asked Impulse.

"Yeah, man, sorry, that was the last one we set up," said Tango, shrinking back a bit.

Bdubs hated that they were so suddenly worried about him. As if they hadn't just been making fun of something very important to him, as if this was all a joke. It wasn't funny. They knew he needed sleep and that he was afraid of the dark, of the mobs-

"Bdubs? Buddy? Hey, are you alright, what's wrong?"

But he wasn't paying attention to them. Breathing heavily, he pushed past them, running somewhere, anywhere but here with the other two. He found a corner and pressed himself between the two walls, hiding there for a moment, before reaching for his communicator.

BdoubleO100 whispers to Xisumavoid: blue creeper please come please need help i cantt do it anymore

Tango and Impulse found him there, and they approached him like he was a scared animal, hands raised and eyes wide. Bdubs just hid from them, hoping that-

Teleported Xisumavoid to BdoubleO100.

Thank God, he thought, as he saw the familiar yellow armor. Because suddenly the admin was there, looking at Bdubs with deep worry and care.

"What's happened?" Xisuma asked gently, tipping Bdubs' face up to meet his eyes under the visor. He jerked away, trying to hide his face and his tears. Xisuma instead posed the question to Impulse and Tango, who were looking guilty as hell.

"We sorta played a prank on him…" Impulse said sheepishly.

"Yeah," Tango added, "we just thought it would be funny-"

"To do what?" the admin cut him off sternly.

"...To make TNT explode every time he tried to sleep."

Xisuma glanced back at Bdubs with worry in his eyes. "Why would you do that? You know how he feels about the night!"

At the mention of his fear, a sob escaped him. He slumped to the floor, exhausted. He was so tired, so angry, so embarrassed. He looked back at X, sending a plea with his eyes.

"Please, 'suma, I just...just wanna sleep."

"I know, my friend."

Xisuma left the builder on the floor and stood up to face the pranksters.

"I expect you two to take down everything you set up to explode. Then I expect you to apologize to your friend once he gets some real rest. You took it way too far." He made sure to look both of them in the eye through the tinted visor.

The other two Boomers expressed their agreement and walked out, clearly embarrassed.

An ugly part of Bdubs' mind said good, they should be embarrassed. But he could barely find the energy to be mad anymore. He just wanted to sleep.

Xisuma turned back to him and helped him off the ground. Bdubs all but collapsed into the admin, finally letting some of the tension in his body dissipate. Xisuma shifted to support his mostly dead weight, chuckling softly and giving him a gentle hug.

"Sorry...couldn't take it anymore...goddamn TNT... bullshit," he mumbled.

"Hey, it's quite alright. Let's find you a bed somewhere in my base. I'll patch the code so you can sleep in an actual bed during the daytime. Does that sound okay?"

Bdubs half-sobbed, half-laughed into Xisuma's shoulder. "Yes please. It's… been… long few days."

Teleported Bdoubleo100 to -487.00, 45.00, 1,256.00

Teleported Xisumavoid to -487.00, 45.00, 1,256.00

Once they both successfully reached Xisuma's base, the admin pulled out a bed and set it down in a small building that definitely wasn't trapped. Seeing Bdubs looking at it nervously, Xisuma dug out the blocks underneath, showing no redstone trickery. At last, Bdubs let himself fall into the bed, eyes sliding shut instantly, his body finally free of the tension of the past three days.

Xisuma gently laid a blanket over the man, ruffling his hair fondly and smiling when he moved his head to get closer to the touch. Bdubs mumbled something, trying to thank X, but it was incoherent, his brain too tired to form actual words. The last thing he heard before drifting off was...

"Goodnight, Bdubs."

[lesdemonium]

romtober day 10: just friends

Rating: T Ship: Geraskier Word Count: 2305 Summary: Geralt can't seem to understand why everyone thinks he and Jaskier are a couple. 5+1 times Geralt and Jaskier were mistaken for being in love.

CW: mild & implied homophobia. If you want to avoid it entirely you can, just skip scene 2. Alderman.

read on ao3

1. Shopkeeper

“A flower, for your sweet?”

Geralt eyed the flower in the shopkeeper’s hand suspiciously. It was pretty; a simple pink carnation. Not what Geralt expected to find at an apothecary shop. He glanced at the shopkeeper holding it out to him, and though he expected to find something guarded in her expression, he found nothing. Just the kind smile of what he assumed was a sweet old woman. She held the flower out just a bit closer to Geralt, looking at him expectantly.

“Oh, I don’t--”

“It would look nice in his hair, don’t you think?” the woman continued. She gestured just past Geralt, and he turned to see Jaskier, fiddling with some glass vials in the corner.

“Geralt, are these big enough?” Jaskier asked when he noticed Geralt’s attention on him.

Jaskier seemed not to notice the shopkeeper’s attention, either, or the flower, for that matter. Geralt didn’t want to call attention to it, so he gave Jaskier a terse nod, then turned back to the shopkeeper.

“No, thank you,” Geralt said, instead shoving a potion toward her. “Just this, and the vial.”

She looked at him curiously, but obligingly put the flower away. When Jaskier came to stand by Geralt--frustratingly close, Geralt now realized--it was as if nothing had happened.

2. Alderman

The alderman’s eyes were dark the moment he set eyes on Geralt.

Geralt braced himself, more than well aware of what a look like that meant. Even if there was a monster in this town--and, according to the people who had pointed him in the direction of the tavern to find the alderman--this man was not going to be easy to deal with. He had already decided he didn’t like Witchers, and Geralt was more than prepared to deal with not only his bigotry, but with Jaskier’s likely reaction to his bigotry.

“Jaskier,” he said to his companion, and placed a hand on Jaskier’s shoulder. He turned Jaskier toward a table and nudged him into sitting, while Jaskier looked at Geralt curiously. “Stay here. I’ll talk to him alone.”

“But Geralt--”

“Stay here,” Geralt insisted, then walked away to avoid further argument.

As he turned back to the alderman, Geralt noticed his expression had darkened even further. Now he was eyeing Geralt as if Geralt was a threat to him. Well, people like this often thought Geralt was, so it wasn’t entirely surprising.

“I hear there’s a contract on a harpy,” Geralt said as he sat heavily on the seat opposite the man.

The alderman picked up his tankard of ale, and for a long moment, all he did was eye Geralt. “There is,” he said, then bent over to his side and produced a large bag of coins. “This enough for payment?”

Geralt lifted the bag. It was surprisingly full. Apparently, the problem was big enough that it was worth subjecting himself to paying a witcher a decent price. Geralt nodded his head, then handed the purse back.

“Just kill the monster, Witcher. We don’t care much for your kind around here.” And then, surprisingly, he nodded to Jaskier .

Geralt turned to look at his companion, who he assumed was causing some sort of trouble. Surely, he was flirting with the alderman’s wife or someone’s daughter. Instead, Geralt saw Jaskier just sitting there, thumbnail between his teeth, as he scratched some words onto the parchment before him. When Geralt looked at him, Jaskier looked back, and a smile stretched out behind his thumb.

“Our kind?” Geralt asked, turning back to the alderman with an eyebrow raised.

“Just keep your distance from each other, and we’ll be fine. And leave soon as you can.” The alderman’s arms crossed tightly over his chest and he glowered at Geralt.

Ah. Not the type of bigotry Geralt was prepared for. It made hot anger unfurl in his chest and he had half a mind to tell this man to go fuck himself. Geralt glanced back at Jaskier, now wondering at what had even led this man to come to that conclusion, and found it didn’t much matter.

He killed the harpy and took the man’s coin, but dumped the bloodied head on the floor of his home. Whatever Geralt had might be catching, after all. Wouldn’t want to risk the poor, delicate man.

3. Yennefer

“I see you two are still traveling together.”

Geralt glanced from Yennefer to Jaskier, who was over by Roach. He tried to make himself look busy, but Geralt could see that largely he was just weaving flowers into her mane. Geralt suppressed a smile; later, Jaskier would admonish Roach for eating the flowers as they fell, as if that hadn’t been his entire intention.

When Yennefer had shown up, Jaskier clammed up. They had traded a few barbs and Yennefer had come out as the clear winner, as she often did, and Jaskier had been sulking ever since. He was keeping his distance from both Geralt and Yennefer now, though Geralt caught the forlorn looks he tried to sneak every so often. Geralt, for his part, had moved his conversation with Yennefer far away from Jaskier to give him the space he clearly wanted; anything to help improve the foul mood he would likely deal with for the remainder of the day.

Geralt looked back to Yennefer and grunted. He didn’t like the look in her eye as she made the comment, or the fact that they had already finished their business, and yet she was still here, making conversation. Neither the look nor her continued presence was a comforting sign. Geralt had to be careful about how he answered her questions.

Yennefer watched him a moment longer, then sighed.

“Are you ever going to tell me ?” she asked, her face twisting into disappointment. “Or are you both just going to pretend that we don’t all know ?”

“Know what?” Geralt asked. His eyebrows furrowed.

Yennefer waved her hand impatiently. “You know! About you both. About how you feel for the other--” She cut herself off, then peered at Geralt a little closer, inspecting his face. “You don’t know?” Then her eyes moved to Jaskier, who was now locked in an intense discussion with Roach about something or other. “Neither one of you know, do you?”

“Know what ?” Geralt repeated, a bit impatient now.

“Oh, no. This is far better than I ever would have imagined.” Yennefer laughed and shook her head. “Please tell me when you figure it out. I will portal here immediately if only to see the look on your face.”

She refused to explain further, and even made her way back to the camp just to press further into Jaskier’s poor mood. It seemed to only fill Yennefer with glee, as she was laughing when she left them.

“What the hell was that about?” Jaskier asked.

Geralt wished he could answer that question.

4. Innkeeper

“Just the one room?” The innkeeper asked, sounding bored.

“Is there only one room available?” Geralt asked, and just barely held back the sigh.

They weren’t low on coin this time. Maybe Jaskier would like to have his own room for the night. He was too far away to ask; already he was trying to flirt his way into a free meal in exchange for his performance from the innkeeper’s wife. The patrons had perked up a bit when they saw Jaskier’s lute case; it was likely he’d make a fair bit tonight as well. They could splurge.

“No,” the innkeeper answered. “You have your choice of rooms. Haven’t had much travelers lately. Did you and your partner have someone else with you?”

The innkeeper nodded his head toward Jaskier, and Geralt’s eyes followed. Jaskier was getting his way, if the charming look on his face was anything to go by. His eyelids fluttered, and Geralt found himself momentarily distracted by the way his dark eyelashes fluttered against his pale cheeks.

It took Geralt a moment to realize the meaning the innkeeper imbued the word “partner” with. Another person thought Jaskier was his lover. It wasn’t an unpleasant thought. A confusing one, to be sure, as Geralt was sure they had done nothing to make anyone think so. Though, he had been wrong many, many times before about this very thing.

They had the money for another room. The room was available. He and Jaskier could sleep separately and have a little personal space from each other for once, and still have enough coin to get them a hot meal and through to the next town.

“No, no one else,” Geralt said, turning back to the innkeeper. “One room.”

5. Ciri

“You know you don’t have to be careful around me, right?” Ciri asked.

Geralt looked up from the rabbit he was skinning, only to be met with Ciri’s keen eyes. What, exactly, it was that she saw that Geralt hadn’t yet, he wasn’t sure. He raised an eyebrow at her, then went back to his task.

“Be careful how?” he asked. “Are you saying you want more work?”

Ciri groaned. “No, the training and getting the firewood and learning how to hunt and everything is enough, thank you,” she answered, sounding just a little petulant. As if she hadn’t been teasing Geralt earlier about not being able to keep up because he was an old man. Maybe he would throw a few extra drills at her. “I mean about you and Jaskier.”

Geralt’s hand slowed, just slightly, as he considered this. “What about me and Jaskier?” he asked.

He lifted his head to look at Jaskier, who was off bathing in a nearby stream after complaining for hours about how he had gotten covered in mud when a carriage rolled past. Even his face had been splattered, while Ciri and Geralt had managed to avoid the worst of it by sheer luck. Geralt had told him that if he would stop complaining and go bathe , then Geralt would catch three rabbits tonight. Jaskier had agreed, and didn’t even complain about how frigid the water would be. Not yet, anyway. Geralt was sure that was coming.

“That you’re… you know.” Geralt glanced at her in time to see her gesture… something. It mostly looked like she was pushing something invisible in Jaskier’s direction. “That you… love him.”

Geralt stared at her, baffled, for a long moment. “Ciri, we’re not-- Jaskier and I aren’t--”

“I’m just saying,” Ciri interrupted, ���that you two don’t have to hide anything from me. If you love each other, that’s okay.”

She stood, abruptly, and set about setting up her bedroll. She didn’t need to do it now, usually she waited until after they had eaten, but Geralt understood the message there. Cirilla did not want to discuss this further. That was fine by Geralt, who also did not want to discuss this further.

That didn’t mean he was done thinking about it, though. He glanced back at Jaskier, who was now cupping water and pouring it over his head, then running his fingers through the strands. Geralt didn’t have to imagine how soft his hair would be now--he knew, he had washed Jaskier’s hair before. The only reason he wasn’t doing it now was because Jaskier had annoyed him enough that Geralt refused to help him remove the mud. He found, in a distant sort of way, that he regretted that decision.

Jaskier came back just as Geralt was pulling the last rabbit off the fire. He took the meat from Geralt with a grateful smile, then settled close beside Geralt to eat.

“That water was freezing. I’m surprised I still have all my limbs attached. We might need a larger fire, Geralt, because if I do not warm my legs soon , I fear I will lose them.”

+1 Priestess

“Would you like to leap the flames?”

The Priestess’s eyes were wide and Geralt, for once, found it to be welcoming, rather than with curiosity or fear. She looked young, but it was impossible to truly tell how old she was. The priestess motioned toward both Geralt and Jaskier.

“It’s a Belleteyn tradition. You leap over the bonfire for luck or fertility. If you leap as a couple, it is supposed to grant you luck in your relationship. New lovers often partake in this tradition, and guests are welcome as well.” She smiled, then, and gestured broadly to the bonfire. “Care to see if luck smiles down on you?”

“Oh, we’re not--” Jaskier started, but stopped when Geralt touched his wrist. Lightly, so lightly, just enough to get his attention. Jaskier turned to look at him, his expression curious.

“Do you want to?” Geralt asked. His heart pounded in his chest and as soon as the words left his lips, his mouth felt dry.

Jaskier considered him a moment, and all along Geralt felt the dread rise in him like bile to his throat. But then Jaskier’s face split into a wide grin and he took Geralt’s hand, their fingers slotting together as if that was where they meant to be all along.

They stood together and lined up behind another couple and just as they were about to take their own turn, Jaskier pulled Geralt to the side, out of the line, and motioned for the man behind them to go.

“Geralt you--you mean this, right? Exactly as the priestess said?” Jaskier asked, and though their hands stayed pressed together, doubt crept into his voice.

“Exactly as the priestess said,” Geralt agreed, nodding. “We’ve been mistaken for a couple enough times. They might as well be right for once.”

“We’ve been--what? What do you mean?” Jaskier asked.

Instead of answering, Geralt pulled them back in front of the bonfire, and prepped to run.

“Geralt, if you do not explain--”

“You better get ready to run, Jaskier.”

[mykingdomforasong]

Do you take prompts that aren't from a prompt list? If so, could you write skymandolo with a sick or injured Han that tries to hide his illness/injuries from Luke and Din and they have to convince him to let them take care of him.

Thank you! Love your writing :)

I'll write almost anything! If you send something not on a prompt list but when I'm taking prompts, I'll probably write it, mostly because I'm just looking for things to write. If you send prompts when I'm not taking prompts from a list, theres a chance it'll get lost in my inbox because I likely won't get to it in the first few days after it's sent.

~*~

Han tried not to limp back into their small home. When Din and him had left, they gave Luke little explanation about where they were going, leaving it at "we're going to find trouble."

They found plenty of it. Between bounties, bar fights, and spice runs, they'd come home with a small fortune. And Han had come back with a foot that had been screaming at him for two days.

It didn't hurt that bad at first, so he kept walking and running on it, but now it hurt even when he was sitting. He was glad he and Din had to sleep in shifts, or else his partner would have raised some very serious questions about why he suddenly wanted to sleep with his boots on. (The answer, of course, was to hide the bruising and swelling).

Why he ever thought he could honestly hide it from Luke was beyond him.

"You're hurt," Luke said the moment they stepped in the door. Din turned to him, and Han could feel his confused look through his helmet.

"Don't look at me like that, bucket head," Han said, "if I was really hurt I would have said something."

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"Twisted my ankle, but it's fine," Han said.

The green bean waddled up to him, choosing to greet him first instead of Din, which was new. Grogu reached out towards his hurt foot.

"You know how I know it's not 'fine'?" Luke asked. "The baby is trying to heal you, that's how much pain you're in."

Han bent down and picked up Grogu, who made a small 'wooo' noise as he was lifted. "No need for that, Munchkin," Han said. He held the child gently in his arms, giving him a welcome squeeze for good measure. Grogu was Din's baby, but Han was his husband, so, as Han argued, Grogu was also his baby.

Han tried to step forward, ignoring the concerned and annoyed stares of his partners as he went to play with Grogu, trying to keep any visible signs of pain off his face. He placed the child in the living room, and managed to get himself onto the floor to push colorful balls around with him. But Grogu just went back to his foot.

Before Han could do anything, Luke was lifting Grogu and Din was lifting Han.

"We're putting you in bed, and looking at that ankle," Din said.

"You know how I know I'm not hurt?" Han said. "That promise to be taken to bed was enough to get my motor running."

Luke rolled his eyes and Din sighed, but otherwise, they ignored him.

A minute later he was laying in bed, his hurt foot elevated on pillows, with Grogu safely in his room for nap time.

"Alright," Din said, unzipping Han's boot, "lets get this off." But when Din touched him, even lightly, it sent pain shooting through his foot and ankle.

Han tried to sit up casually, hiding the amount of pain it had caused. "Seriously, guys, I'm fine." Din ignored him, and started to pull on his shoe again. "Really, there's no need for all of this."

Luke cut him off by climbing on top of him, straddling his waist, and pushing him down with his hands. "Would you sit still?"

Han smiled through the pain, letting his hands trail up and down Luke's thighs. "Anything for you, baby," he said.

Luke patted his hands against Han's chest gently, not hard enough to hurt or leave a mark, just to punctuate his point. "Stop," slap, "being," slap, "horny," slap, "for," slap, "five" slap, "minutes."

Din had stopped working on his shoe. "In his defense, Cyare, I imagine that'd be hard for anyone to do when they've got you like that."

Luke turn his head and torso around to face Din the best he could. "Oh sure, take his side," he said.

Han sat up, wrapping his arms around Luke's torso. "You're cute when you're angry," he said.

Luke smiled, and Han knew he was in trouble. "If you don't lay down, I'm going to be fucking adorable," he promised.

Before Han could say anything back, Din tugged off his boot with one quick pull that did enough to aggravate the injury. Han quickly buried his face in Luke's shoulder, stifling pained groans.

Luke's tone shifted quickly, wrapping his arms around him in a comforting hug, and offering quiet reassurances that he was okay.

"Thanks," Han whispered quietly. Luke just kissed his cheek and got off of his lap to help Din assess the damage.

"It's pretty swollen," Din said. "You probably fractured or broke one of these little bones," he pointed Han's foot. "They're easy to break, and hard to heal. We'll have to get you to a doctor soon," he said.

Han laid back. "Great. I love a long healing process."

"Don't be too sad," Luke said, "now you get to be stuck on world with me."

Han held out his arms towards both of his boys, trying to look as pathetic as possible. Now that his injury was undeniable, he might as well get some decent cuddling out of it before he limps to the healer.

Luke joined him first, then Din once more of his armor was removed, making him a much more comfortable bed partner.

"You know you don't have to hide your injuries from us, cyar'ika?" Din said.

"I know," Han said.

"He doesn't always have the best decision making skills," Luke said, holding onto Han just a little tighter.

"Hey, my bad decision making skills have pulled you out of a fair number of scrapes, kid."

Luke smiled and hummed a little. "I was never a bad decision," he said.

And Han couldn't deny that about either of them.

[kieraelieson]

Centaur AU 8

When Thomas woke up, rather slowly, feeling itchy and groggy and much in need of a shower, it was to soft voices and little clops of moving hooves.

“And where is the rest of the food?”

“That’s all there is out here. Mostly we tend to eat the pre-made stuff.”

“I’ll have to put it on the list too then.”

Thomas opened his eyes, registering that Patton and Emile were talking.

Patton sighed. “It’s just… strange. I worry that with all of the new nice things that once Thomas leaves it’ll be so miserable and I don’t know how I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Thomas won’t be leaving. Or if he does, we’ll be taking you with us.” Emile promised.

Thomas nodded slightly, staying silent.

Patton moved, peeking over the shorter wall that separated his stall from the one Thomas was using as a bed, met Thomas’s eyes, and jumped back with a sound rather like a loud squeak.

“Oh, dear! I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were awake.”

Thomas sat up. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s alright,” Emile said. “Little mishaps happen, you both are fine.”

Thomas stood up and stretched, gratefully noting that Emile was making breakfast for everyone. Between yesterday and now already this morning, he could tell he was going to greatly appreciate Emile. He was going to have to find some way to pay Emile back somehow.

He opened the stall, seeing Roman and Remy blinking and drowsy, and Virgil very much awake.

“Let me see what we have going for today,” he said, mostly to himself, as he walked over to the schedule on the wall. “Oh, Emile, thanks for making breakfast.”

“You’re welcome.” Emile said. “Though, as you may have heard, we are woefully short on ingredients.”

Thomas nodded.

“What about coffee?” Remy asked. “Please tell me they have coffee here.”

“Not yet.”

Remy let out a long groan and flopped onto the floor dramatically.

Thomas couldn’t help a little smile. He looked at the schedule, trying to parse out the rather terrible handwriting. He should get a new one and fill it out himself. His handwriting might not be that much better, but he could read it himself more easily, and he wouldn’t have to try and translate names with a tired brain.

Patton had a party at five, though it didn’t say when it ended. And Logan had one of those charity things, which he would certainly not be doing. Thomas considered a long moment, and then started looking for a phone number. He was probably the one that had to call and cancel things like that.

He finally found a whole list of phone numbers on the back of the calendar, and managed to get the right one, and tell them that Logan wouldn’t be able to participate in anything for at least six months, or however long the vet said after follow-up visits.

They weren’t very happy about it. But in this, Thomas wouldn’t take no for an answer, and if they were going to talk to the Authiers’ lawyer, well, hopefully the lawyer knew what to do. Because Logan wasn’t going back to a single one of those contests, legal or otherwise, until he was both healed and wanted to.

He turned back around to see worried faces, and wished that the phone wasn’t corded so that he could have taken it outside and not worried them all.

“It’s alright, I just canceled all of Logan’s events for the next few months. He’ll be fine to rest up and get well now.”

“Well that’s good,” Roman said.

Virgil and Patton nodded solemnly.

Thomas yawned and considered. What should he do next? It took a moment to come to his fuzzy brain, but he realized that he should come up with something for them all to do all morning, rather than just standing around. He felt slightly bad about having the paddock be his go-to, but it was worlds better than being cooped up in a stall, and he didn’t really know enough to give them somewhere else to… perhaps that’s what they could do. Explore the estate as a group and find all the places where they could go, and figure out what there was to do.

He had to have Patton back, clean and ready, by five then, and he needed to do something to set up Logan first, but that seemed like a very good plan. Also, considering clean and ready, they would all need a good brushing down at some point. Perhaps he ought to aim at getting back by three then, and asking Remy and Emile for help setting up a kind of grooming circle.

But he had a plan! And one that, barring unforeseen troubles, seemed like a good one. It wasn’t too ambitious, and it might even go well.

But first breakfast. Which… he didn’t really have. And he felt absolutely terrible to say it, but he didn’t want to try the centaurs’ food. He’d always kind of guessed they didn’t mind that weird grassy smell, cause they ate grass anyway. That was a thing he needed to ask about.

“Well, if they have a bunk room, they might have something like a cafeteria here, I’m going to see if I can find it and get some breakfast. If there’s coffee, I’ll bring you back a cup, Remy. Also, I might need your phone, and I’ll expect someone to call me if Logan wakes up.”

Remy, still splayed out on the floor in a rather uncomfortable-looking position, nodded and floundered, trying to reach his bag without getting up. He was unsuccessful, much to the amusement of everyone watching. He made sure to pout at each and every one of them once he got his bag and his phone.

“You know someday it won’t be little funny smiles!” he threatened, turning away from them all.

“Thank you, Remy,” Thomas said seriously. “I’ll be sure to get you coffee.”

Remy grumbled out something that might have been a thank you, or perhaps something else.

And then Thomas went for a walk, running his hands through his hair and swiping at his clothes to hopefully make himself look less like he’d been sleeping in a pile of hay. He vaguely knew that the bunkhouse was somewhere roughly straight from one wall of the stable, though he wasn’t certain how far it would be. And he just hoped someone would still be in the bunkhouse that he could ask.

Perhaps he should have asked one of the centaurs to come with him. It would be faster, and another set of hands in case he had to bring back several things. But he didn’t want to stop them from eating or having a bit of time to themselves. They certainly could use all the good things he could possibly get them.

He walked a good way before seeing the building, and jogging towards it. He was lucky enough to reach it right as someone else was walking out.

“Oh! Uh, excuse me, can I…” He had to pause a moment to breathe, but managed to continue. “I’m looking for a… cafeteria?”

“Yeah, it’s over this way, but breakfast ends at nine, you should hurry.” They pointed to a different nearby building, with its doors standing open.

Thomas nodded quickly. “Thank you!”

He ran into the cafeteria, grateful to see that the line was only a few people long. There was prepared eggs, sausage, bacon, something that looked like oatmeal perhaps, and toast. Thomas piled up his plate and then looked until he found the coffee. He served himself a cup of coffee and found some to-go cups, filling one up with coffee as close to the way he knew Remy liked it.

He felt rather overwhelmed by hurrying, especially as he glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that, if nine truly was the cut off, he only had ten minutes to eat. But despite his hurry, he had a fleeting question float through his mind. Would any of the other centaurs want coffee?

He should find a way to get decent food to them. Or bring them here. They may indeed like grass and hay and food made from it, but they also liked normal food, and should have it as a regular option.

He just didn’t know how. Yet.

He was working on it. And that would have to be enough for the moment.

Thomas tried to relax a little and eat, but he couldn’t help worrying that something bad would happen while he was gone.

Soon he was getting up and going back towards the stables, hoping that everything was fine, that they’d had a nice breakfast and Logan was still peacefully sleeping, but worrying that it wouldn’t be the case.

When he opened the door though, they all seemed perfectly fine. Logan was even still asleep. He really needed to trust them a bit more.

“Hi, guys,” he said, feeling more than a little awkward, all out of breath from having hurried back when nothing was wrong.

“Did you get my coffee?” Remy asked eagerly.

Thomas nodded. “ Yeah, I did, here. It’s not hot anymore, but it’s still a bit warm.”

Remy made a weird face, somewhere between grateful and still a bit displeased at the luke-warm coffee.

Thomas agreed with him, honestly. It wasn’t even close to ideal. And surely there was something better they could do. “I wanted to talk with you all.”

Virgil seemed concerned, but the rest of them watched him curiously.

“About what?” Patton asked.

“Well… this isn’t working out the best…”

On seeing the look on Virgil’s face, Thomas quickly backtracked. “Not like I’m giving up! Not at all. More like, I’m gonna need some help to know how to actually move forward. I’ve been doing my best, but it’s not exactly worked out well.”

“Ok…” Roman said slowly. “I think we can agree that things haven’t exactly gone the best, but… it’s not like we can help with much.”

Thomas nodded. “I know it feels that way, it does to me too, but there has to be something we can do. For starters, there’s the cafeteria. It exists, and I know that now, but do you guys want to go there? If you do, I’m sure I can come up with a way to make them let us in. It’s big enough. Or perhaps we could have them set out tables outside for you all. But I need to know that it’s what you want too. If you don’t care, or would rather stay here, we can work that out too.”

There was some shuffling back and forth, and several pairs of eyes staring at the ground.

“Well, I for one want hot coffee. Count me in.” Remy said firmly. “And I bet Emmy wants to come get some real food too.”

Emile nodded. “Yes, I’d prefer more of a variety of food than what is here.”

Thomas looked at Roman in particular next, hoping he would have more firm opinions.

Roman sighed, a rather pinched look on his face. “I like the idea of better food, but I’m not sure if I want to deal with all the other workers to get it.”

Patton nodded immediately. “We’d have to be quiet, and they would say rude things, and it would be pretty miserable even with the good food.”

Virgil nodded silently, clearly agreeing with Patton.

“Alright then,” Thomas said. “Well, what if I were to call the Authiers and see about officially changing what you’re all fed? If I insisted, I’m sure there’s a possibility of getting food sent here. We’d perhaps have to deal with the courier, but that would be less trouble.”

“If it’s at all possible, which is not certain,” Logan said.

Thomas went immediately to his stall to check on him. “Are you feeling ok? Would you want more painkillers? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

Logan gave him an odd look. Of all of them, Thomas had the hardest time decoding what Logan’s looks were supposed to mean.

“Yes. Painkillers would be nice, and I haven’t eaten yet.”

Thomas nodded quickly, shooting Emile a glance. Emile was ahead of him already, getting a plate of food for Logan. Thomas went and made the same kind of slurry with the medicine that Logan had asked for the other time, putting some drink mix into the water so it wouldn’t taste as bad.

Once he got back, Virgil was already in Logan’s stall, trying to help him sit up without jostling his legs. Emile handed the plate in and then backed up so Thomas could get in with the medicine.

“Here you go, and I’ll go get some clean bandages to wrap your legs up in.”

Logan nodded stiffly and then downed the medicine with a slight grimace.

Thomas grabbed a few rolls of bandages and went in, extremely concerned to see Logan looking spacey already.

He knelt down next to Logan’s shoulder, laying his hand on his gently and rubbing very small circles. “Hey, there, Logan, are you with me?”

Logan looked at him silently, his face concerningly blank.

“I’m a bit concerned, ok? Can you stay here with me? I’d like to know I’m not hurting you, so I’ll need you to talk with me, ok?”

Logan let out a sigh. “I won’t be hurt by the changing of bandages.”

“Well, I certainly hope not, but just in case, can you try and stay present with me? And with Virgil?”

Logan looked up at Virgil, who was much more obviously concerned than even Thomas was. He slowly nodded.

“Alright. Here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to run my hand down your leg to the end of the bandage and start unwinding it. Can you stay focused on Virgil for me? Tell me things about him, what colors can you see in his eyes?”

Logan frowned slightly, which was a good thing to Thomas. “What do you need to know the color of his eyes for?”

“To help you pay attention,” Virgil said softly. “You help me pay attention to safe things around me sometimes, this is like that.”

“Yes, exactly.” Thomas said, slowly and lightly running his hand down Logan’s leg. “Alright, I’m going to unwind this now. What colors can you see?”

Logan was looking far more attentive and present, staring up into Virgil’s face. “Mostly black. A very dark brown. Something that might appear green, except for the darkness of his eyes in general, which makes it look like a dark gray.”

Thomas very gently started unwinding the bandage. “That’s very good. What about his hair?”

“Most would classify the color as black. But when seen in the light there aren’t the cool undertones usually present in a pure black. I would classify it as a very dark brown.”

“That’s a very thoughtful way of saying it,” Thomas said. “My hand is going to move over to your other front leg, and then run down to unwind then bandage the same way.”

Logan nodded.

As Thomas moved to unwind the next bandage, he thought of another thing. “Why don’t you tell me about what you were doing in the paddock the other day? It seemed very clever. Something to keep you away from the holes without being able to see them clearly.”

Logan gave him another one of those odd looks when Thomas said the idea was clever. Thomas still wasn’t certain what it meant, but he decided to remember that, and use the word clever more often with Logan.

“It’s more of a common sense idea, but if you’re curious…” Logan trailed off, and Thomas looked up to see him looking the slightest bit bashful.

“I’m going to move to your back leg now. And yes, I am curious. It sounds like a useful thing to learn.”

Logan cleared his throat. “If you’d like to learn then, I suppose I’ll tell you.”

Virgil sent Thomas a look, a look that said he’d stumbled across a key, and that Virgil wasn’t certain how he was going to use it. Though to be honest, Thomas wasn’t sure either.

“I’m going to touch you now, and stroke down your leg to unwind the bandages,” Thomas said, careful to keep his tone light and unobtrusive, hoping Logan would continue.

“I am far-sighted, so I could see the holes at a distance, but not close to my own feet. If I could place the hole along the fence, and if I was careful to take measured steps, I could place it between the two fence posts, and I could know how many steps from the first post until I would need to step over or around it. Virgil was helping by confirming the distance. I haven’t yet mastered taking steps of perfectly regular length, so my calculations were often incorrect by a step or two.”

“Wow. -I’m moving to your other back leg now- That really is very smart, Logan. I’m impressed.”

Logan smiled slightly.

Thomas counted that as a very big win. “Alright, I’m going to go and get the ointment and then wrap your legs up. You can go ahead and eat your breakfast. And then the vet said we need to have you walking some, but slowly. I’ll be right back and then explain my plan.”

Logan nodded.

Thomas was quick, and soon got back with the ointment.

“So what is your plan?” Virgil asked.

“Well, first helping Logan,” Thomas said, kneeling again by his legs. “I’m going to go in the same order as last time, starting with this leg. And once I’m done, we’re going to very carefully help Logan up. If he’s doing well, then I’m hoping a few of you will help him walk around the outside of the stable a few times. -Alright, I’m moving to the next leg- And while you all walk around, I’m going to try and set up the iPad with a bunch of books, and see if I can make it so that Logan can get more when he wants to. That way he will have something calm and enjoyable to do while we’re gone. -I’m moving to your back legs now- And then I was thinking that some or all of the rest of you might want to come with me, and explore some of the estate, see what all there is, and where else we might like to spend time. Ok, last leg now, Logan.”

“That seems like a good plan,” Roman commented.

Thomas looked up to see Patton looking around at them all, confused. “What’s up, Pat?”

“Just… what’s an iPad? Is it like a bookshelf?”

Thomas was a bit concerned to see a few curious looks. Apparently several of them had never heard of an iPad.

“Well, I bought one… yesterday? Was it yesterday I went to the store? I think. Anyway, it’s a small rectangle, and it runs on electricity. It does a lot of things, and it’s pretty complicated, but the reason I bought it is that it can hold many many books inside it without taking up much space.”

Patton nodded slowly, still looking confused.

“Later today I’ll let you try it some too, ok?” Thomas said with a smile.

Patton nodded more confidently this time.

“And the rest of you too, I’m sure you’d all like a little bit to try it out. It’s mostly for Logan, especially while he’s healing, but everyone can try.”

Thomas stood up, looking around the stall. “Ok, Logan. Do you think you can stand up with just me and Virgil helping? Or would someone else be better? Or would you like to try by yourself?”

Logan frowned slightly in consideration. “I’d prefer just Virgil.”

Thomas nodded immediately and left the stall. “Just be gentle on yourself.”

Logan set his empty plate aside, held up a hand for Virgil to grab onto, and then heaved himself up. His face twisted in pain, and once he was standing he leaned heavily on the wall.

Thomas gave him a moment before asking, “How is it?”

“Painful. But bearable.”

Thomas nodded solemnly. “Ok. I’d like you to try walking around the stable. Take long, slow steps, don’t push it too much. If the pain changes at all, stop there and come back in to lay down.”

Logan nodded, very slowly moving to leave the stall.

Thomas left it to them all to take care of him, and tried to figure out where he’d left the iPad, and where would be a good place to plug it in.

From outside, he heard quite a few ‘be careful’s, followed by Logan saying ‘I may be injured, but I don’t want to be babied, I can walk on my own’.

Thomas smiled to himself. With Logan doing this well, if he could just keep going, he’d surely be better soon.

———

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