#my best friend at the time had a piercing get super infected so i felt extra justified

[youarejesting]

I Kendo It!

[MASTERLIST] Beta: @taegularities @jinings​ Rating: Teen+ Pairing: Jimin x Reader Genre: Fluff, adventure, angst, Romance, mystery, slice of life, sports, drama, comedy. Words: 7.9K

Summary: Jimin is a killing machine, except he isn’t. Enrolled into Korea’s top sports university with an amazing scholarship, he joins a packed dorm room and makes many friends. But the Uni is full of mysteries, who is the famous delivery girl who turned everyone down and why does she work at a sports Uni when she claims to hate all sports. Trying to uncover the skeletons in her closet he tries to hide his most dangerous secret; no one can know that Jimin is a kendo master.

Jimin walked through the campus; he had been accepted on a scholarship program and was super excited to use the university's facilities. He was twenty one and had almost finished his 4th dan in Kendo. Not to mention all his other fighting styles. Jimin had spent most of his time abroad studying different fighting techniques. He was pretty deadly.

Spotting the gymnastic kids struggling greatly whilst moving some heavy equipment, he jumped to help. It didn’t take long to carry the large beam. The Gymnastic members helped, but honestly he took most of the weight. One of the girls declared that he must be a weightlifter, squeezing his bicep in awe. He had to admit, it felt nice to be admired, but he decided to take his leave before they pried more into his major; he blushed, bowing low before continuing on to the dorms.

Yes, as he was saying, his whole body was built to kill and he could do it well. He readjusted his backpack, thankful all his equipment had been sent to the university Dojo. So he didn't have to worry about storage in a dorm room. All he had was a big backpack full of clothes and toiletries.

Heading into the building, Jimin saw a man in a cap halfway up the stairs struggling to carry his suitcase. "Hey, I got this side. Let me help you?"

He helped the man, noticing how pale and quiet the guy was, he noticed a basketball under his arm and filed the information. Under his cap were piercing eyes and a black mask and Jimin felt a little intimidated by how cool he looked.

When the two arrived, he noticed the dorm number and smiled that they were staying in the same room. Opening the door unleashed a raging argument from inside. "I am older," a broad shouldered young man said, "so I should get the biggest room."

Jimin had been here for a second and there was already fighting amongst the dorm members. He felt a nervous feeling in his chest. He didn't like the conflict, this was supposed to be his safe space, and one should never be scared in their home.

"Yes, but I have to use the bathroom. I sweat a lot, you are a swimmer, right? You can shower after you swim." This one looked like the youngest of all the dorm members and Jimin opened his mouth, ready to try and calm them all down.

"I’m a diver, he is the swimmer," the oldest spoke, pressing a hand to his chest before brandishing it in the general direction of a young man sitting on the couch watching cartoons.

"Good, so bunk with him- two swimmers in one room and two tennis players in another," the two continued to argue. Jimin watched as the man he had helped slipped into the room and shut and locked the door with stealth.

"Um... he isn't a tennis player. Our racket shape is completely different." One man said his hair was a bronze colour which complimented his skin tone. "His is a badminton racket but we’re happy to bunk as we are the same age and our sport is similar."

While the two were arguing Jimin tried to open his mouth to explain the room was now taken by the quiet and intimidating roommate who he believed played basketball. 

But instead, he took a smaller room and smiled, laying on one of the beds. Someone came in with a duffle bag and sighed - the best thing about living in the university dorms was that everything was furnished, the linen was provided and even uniforms came included with the tuition. Jimin would live in the universities track suit as his uniforms were in the dojo. It was going to be good.

"So the building is mixed next door is a group of girls, they seem pretty cool. I think one plays soccer," the young man said as he stepped into the room, "I am Jeon Jungkook, nineteen, I am a boxer." He projected pide with every word, getting his things settled, unpacking a few pairs of shoes and some wraps and gloves.

Sitting up, Jimin smiled. "Hi! I’m Park Jimin, twenty-one and I-"

"Hey, the whole floor is going to the cafeteria so, you know, let's go!" Someone tapped the door. It was the badminton guy.

The group went out and took a table at the cafeteria and they ordered, waiting. Jimin got to know all their names.

Seokjin was the oldest, handsome and he knew it, a diver. He was roomed with Taehyung who was the same age as Jimin; he seemed kind of weird and talked about how his goal in life was to grow gills, a swimming major.

Then there was Namjoon who roomed with Hoseok, both the same age - one played badminton and the other tennis, one liked books and was quiet, the other liked to play and be loud.

There was Jungkook, who avoided most of the females that approached as Jimin had noticed. And lastly there was Yoongi, the quiet guy who played basketball- he spent most of the time with headphones on, but Jimin was unsure if he was actually listening to anything or avoiding questions.

Amongst the crowd were a few young guys and girls that caught Jimin's attention, soccer players and volleyballers, a really tall high jumper named Michael who shook his hand.

It was just a big group of athletic people, and he enjoyed getting to know everyone and their sports.

"So what do you do?" one of the pretty girls asked, she was an archer. Famous or something, she seemed to think highly of herself, which was respectable. When you are good at what you do, it gives you confidence. 

"Uh, nothing as cool as archery," Jimin admitted, ducking his head.

"I saw him in the gymnastics hall this afternoon, carrying some equipment," a young Chinese man said as he smiled, he was some sort of track star, "do you know the pretty girl in blue over there? I was wondering if you could introduce us later. She's a gymnastics major as well."

Jimin ducked his head, embarrassed, not wanting to correct the young man. He didn’t want to scare off any potential friends, it was already hard enough with his intimidating features. Jimin was saved by the woman calling his order number and he gave a small laugh. "Oh, that's me?"

"Hey, you’re number thirty three?" Jimin was surprised, who was she? To him she was the most beautiful young woman, unlike any he had ever seen. Her voice had been sweet, obviously laced for customer service.

"Uh, yes, here is my ticket," Jimin scrambled around in his pockets until he found the ticket, handing it over.

"Thank you, sir. Here are some napkins. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Uh no, thank you very much." His eyes found her badge and he mouthed your name before smiling and rushing back to the table.

"Hey man, you got a crush on Y/n, the delivery girl? Then don't even try, she’s rejected every guy and girl from every major," Seokjin said, "last year I even tried to see if my handsome face could charm her, but it didn't seem to work. She said she hated sports.”

"Then why she works at a sports university?" Hoseok asked as Jimin watched her working. She seemed to be in pain, but he couldn't see what was wrong. She would wince and keep working, her breathing laboured and her face growing redder and redder.

Everyone was leaving to go back to the dorms and Jimin tore his eyes from her form and followed his dorm mates back to their apartment. He laid on the bed, thinking about her and wondering what had been wrong.

Waking early, Jimin walked across the campus to the dojo and began the class. He was the only student in the class who lived on campus; the others seemed to come in specifically for lessons and leave shortly afterwards. There she was, sitting at the edge of the Dojo, watching everyone intently and frowning. 

Whether she knew it or not, she had a reason to frown. These students weren’t very good at Kendo, they found themselves complaining faster than they could swing a sword. Jimin was higher ranked than the others but he didn't try to show off. He stepped up for his turn, moved quickly and sharply, receiving praise from the teacher. This made him smile and when he turned, he saw a smile on her face, too, if only for a second before she got up and walked away. 

After Jimin’s morning practice, he got changed, sitting on the seats by the door. He saw a small bottle of pills from where she was sitting. Scooping up the bottle he saw her name. He didn’t know what medicine it was and he didn’t pry but he thought he would return it. He headed outside, keeping an eye out for her, but he was going to be late for his actual class.

It was required that while the students were at the university for their respective sports, they still had to earn a degree. As Jimin entered the classroom, he saw the new faces of his peers and a familiar face in the back row. It was her, the girl from the cafeteria who had left the pill bottle at the dojo- she didn't have any books or writing implements. Jimin took a seat in the row in front of her, sliding the bottle towards her. He shuffled until he reached the seat by the window and looked out to see clouds forming in the sky.

Jimin unloaded his text book and laptop, wondering if he would get back before the clouds gave way to the rain. He didn’t have an umbrella on hi— what was this? In his bag was an umbrella, a packet of hand warmers and a note. 

Yoongi says it’s going to rain tomorrow, so I got these. I don’t want anyone getting sick and infecting me. So stay warm or whatever. Jin.

Jimin thought about picking up something to thank Jin, but didn’t know much about him. He would stop by the convenience store after class. Speaking of classes, Jimin wondered why Y/n would come to the Dojo and his class. Especially if she didn’t like sports in a sports university. Was she even allowed to sit in? 

Without knowing it, Jimin’s eyes wandered towards her, even while he was working or the professor was talking. He seemed aware of her presence and even though she probably wasn’t looking, he couldn’t help but feel eyes on him. He fought with himself not to turn around; it was all in his head. While the teacher gave them the opportunity to mingle, he snuck a glance over his shoulder to see that she was, in fact, staring at him, but he wasn’t sure how long she was doing that for- either since he sat down or since the professor said they were free to mingle.

After class, Jimin packed up his books and headed out into the hall- he was lucky he was in the main building that resided in the middle of the university grounds as that meant it would be easy to get to his next class. Jimin walked down the hall and saw that Y/n had stopped in front of the trophy cabinet; she was looking at something but he didn’t wish to be late for his next class, so he headed out the side of the building. 

It was raining quite heavily. Jimin reached into the front of his bag and grabbed the umbrella, thanking Jin for looking out for him in some roundabout way. He was extending the umbrella and preparing himself for the journey when he saw Y/n step out, stopping, almost startled by the rain. She looked in her bag, searching for whatever she was trying to find — an umbrella, most likely, Jimin thought. Whatever it was, she gave up, looking out at the rain to Jimin’s umbrella and then to him.

Jimin had yet to open his mouth and offer his umbrella when she pulled her jumper around her form and trudged through the thin curtain of rain. She didn’t run, which Jimin found odd, but he looked at his umbrella and the dark patches spreading on the fabric of her jacket and quickened his pace. Outstretching his arm to cover the two of them. 

“Where are you headed?” Jimin asked She looked up at the umbrella and then at Jimin before resuming her forward uncaring gaze. She was so closed off and Jimin wondered why. He knew she wasn’t a bad person. She was just holding herself back. Yes, that was it. Jimin couldn’t see anything stopping her from doing what she wanted except herself. Her eyes were easy to read and he often saw her contemplating things. 

Like in the Dojo, he wondered if his eyes had played him a trick when he’d seen her hand twitch and foot slide while she sat on the bench. She looked like she wanted to get up and teach the other members a lesson. Yeah, Jimin just knew there was something holding her back and he also knew it was something she couldn’t control.

“The cafeteria,” she muttered, snapping Jimin from his thoughts. He nodded, checking his watch and she stopped, making Jimin falter to a stop. “You don’t have to take me to the cafeteria, I know you have class. You’re gonna be late.”

“I’ll be more late if we sit and argue. Come on.” Jimin gestured with his head onwards.

“Thanks for bringing me my medicine,” she muttered as they walked.

“Yeah, I am sorry, I don’t know anything about medicine or illnesses, so I hoped I could return them before you’d need them again.” He smiled at her. “You were lucky you were in my class! Are you doing a degree?”

“I’m on a break and have been for a year and a half.” She shivered, looking rather pale. Jimin wondered if she was okay, he didn’t know what illness she might have but he suspected something to do with her lungs. She got tired rather easily and it concerned him. “I am waiting for… uh well, I will be back to school soon.” She didn’t say the words, but Jimin felt, rather than heard the words tacked on. I hope.

As the two of you walked, Jimin reached into the back of his bag where he found the hand warmers and ripped open the packet with his teeth. He pulled out the two small pouches, shaking them in his free hand and felt them heat up. He leaned over and handed them to her. “Here, you’re soaked, so try to stay warm.”

Jimin found out quickly how hard it was being in a dorm with other men his age. It tested his patience everyday, but he remained calm, his training taught him that much. There were always arguments about who ate what food and Jimin knew it was Taehyung who was looking guiltily at the ground. Jimin ordered some food on his phone and waited at the table for the doorbell. When it rang, Jimin quickly headed over - and there she was, Y/n, standing at the door, a cap on her head and a bag in her hand. 

“I got an order for chimchim95.” She was reading the receipt attached to the bag and held out the food towards him.

"Hey, thank you so much." Jimin blushed, trying to fix his hair and shirt before taking the bag. She looked up and he saw the recognition in her eyes. Something about her seemed off more than usual. "Are you okay?"

"Uh… yeah." She panted visibly, holding the wall as she reached into her pocket for the bottle of pills.

"Are you sure? You look really pale," Jimin said as he reached out towards her, thinking that she might’ve had a temperature. He could quickly check, and give himself some piece of mind at least. 

"I'm okay ChimChim," she said sternly, forcing a smile. “It’s just a lot of stairs.”

"How?" Jimin was stunned, that was a name he hadn’t heard since highschool. All the kids from his old highschool and his mother used to call him Chimchim.

“What?” She looked confused, but Jimin knew he had never told her that nickname, "how do you know that name?"

"It was on the order," she said, laughing- it was the first genuinely happy expression she had made. Jimin felt dumb - of course, his old email address, the one he used for everything except things work related.

"Oh right, thanks so much," he murmured, blushing, “...for you know, doing your job.”

Jimin waved, watching her nod and turn back down the hall. He sighed, hitting his head on the door frame. What did she think of him? He always tried so hard to be non-threatening but she visibly flinched away from him. If she didn’t know he did Kendo would she still flinch? Probably, Jimin knew his muscles weren’t just for show and that anyone could see how his body was a killing machine. 

"You are so lame," Hoseok laughed. Jimin could see all his dorm roommates snickering and looking amused. Even though it was at his expense, he was glad they were getting along. Even the thought of being lame was better than the thought of his roommates fearing his every move.

"It was so lame," Jungkook added, wiping his eyes. The group opened the bag which was packed full of different snacks Jimin had ordered and they all ate happily. After every last morsel was devoured, they had come to enjoy each other's company. Jimin found that Seokjin and Hoseok were good for a laugh and Namjoon was smart, leaving Jungkook in awe. 

Hopefully now after spending the evening, bonding over good food, the fighting and tiffs would end. The room fell silent; without the prospects of food they grew bored of sitting. Jimin rushed to clean up with the help of Hoseok when he heard Yoongi who had been reasonably quiet during their bonding moment.

“I’m going out,” Yoongi sighed. He seemed to have some energy clawing at his sides. The others all looked towards him, curious as to where he was going and why. 

“Okay do you have practice?” Jimin asked nervously, he always felt intimidated by the basketball player; he was just so closed off. The last thing he wanted to do would be to start a fight. No matter how tough Yoongi looked, his body would not survive Jimin’s obvious muscular form.

“No I don’t, I’m just going to shoot some hoops.” he shrugged, slipping on his shoes at the entrance. Not wanting the night to end just yet, Jimin placed the bin back in its place and scuffled after the basketballer.

“Can I come too?” Jimin asked, smiling. “I want to see you play, and it sounds kind of nice, I wouldn’t mind shooting hoops if you let me.”

“Sure, whatever.” Yoongi made it sound so nonchalant, but his ears were pink. The others grew curious and tagged along as well, shoving their arms in jackets and feet into shoes before chasing after the quiet athlete.

The whole group ended up playing a small game, three against four and Yoongi was obviously superior - but everyone was vastly impressed with Jimin. He was shooting hoops with ease and his aim and strength was enviable.

“Wait, didn't you say you were a gymnastics major or something?” Hoseok asked, surprised by his natural talent. Jimin was quick on his feet, ducking past Namjoon, Seokjin and Taehyung who were all on Jungkook’s team and losing epically. Yoongi, Hoseok and Jimin seemed really intuitive to one another; they didn’t have to speak to have great communication. They were all having a great time, even Jungkook who was putting up a brilliant fight on his own. He did utilize his other teammates' heights to his advantage but after everything Yoongi Jimin and Hoseok won their little match.

“No, I did help them carry their equipment though.” Jimin smiled, if the snacks helping them bond was a five, this was a ten. He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

“So what do you do?” Taehyung grinned. Jimin didn't like this inquisition, he thought for a moment that if he told them they would grow scared of him. They would think that every move he made was to attack them.

Laughing and trying to ease the tension, Jimin devised a way to slow down on their thirst for knowledge. “I will let you try to guess. I will play any sport you throw at me and maybe you will find out. Each week you can pick a new sport.” They grinned, fire in their eyes- it was game on. 

“Soccer next!” Hoseok cheered and they all nodded, agreeing that perhaps he played soccer.

He was agile and moved quickly while weaving through the players on the court. They likened these skills to a team sport like soccer.

The group were adamantly discussing different sports when Seokjin interjected, “Wait! Is athletics one sport? Or, do we have to say each activity, like high jump, long jump, shot put?”

“They each count as one, so pick wisely.” Jimin smiled. 

Jimin saw y/n again here and there, especially during the mid semester break. A lot of students went home, so Jimin was freed from classes and excited to play a new sport with the boys. 

After basketball, he tried soccer, cycling, baseball, football, hockey, high jump, track and even volleyball. Jimin became famous around the university; no one knew his major and they all tried to guess. 

The friends he made in the Dojo agreed to keep his secret. And even helped spread false rumours of his sport. 

The only other person besides the people in Jimin's major who knew was Y/n, whom he visited regularly during the break, as his dorm mates had all returned home. 

“Your usual.” Y/n placed two plates onto the table and sat opposite Jimin with a sigh. “It’s been a long day, and my shift is over, but the rain isn’t said to let up for ages, so I don’t think I will find a ride home.”

“It’s a pretty heavy monsoon. I don’t believe it’s going to get better for a couple of days,” Jimin sighed, “You can stay in my dorm, though?”

“Your dorm.” Y/n smiled thoughtfully, “with you.”

“Well, there are plenty of beds and rooms and the doors lock. I won’t bother you or do anything weird.” Jimin’s voice faltered. 

Jimin didn’t expect after his word vomit that she would even think about agreeing to his offer but she did. After finishing the food, Jimin took out his poncho and looked at her, wrapped up in her own before heading out into the rain. 

Getting back, both soaked, they each took turns showering.Jimin lent a set of his tracksuits for her to change into. 

Jimin explained all the rooms and bed options; but she joined him in his room, laying on Jungkook’s bed. Jimin laid silently in the dark, listening to the wind and the rain when he heard her giggle. “This bed smells like corn chips and the gymnasium in the summer.”

Jimin laughed; he offered to switch, but she declined. Running from the room, he returned with blankets, pillows and two futons, and he began constructing a small hut. 

“Come in here. I promise it will smell better. All these blankets and stuff are clean.” Jimin prepped the inside with soft pillows and blankets. She joined him inside the hut which was illuminated by the glow of his phone light. She laid inside the blanket fort beside him and Jimin settled in his blankets feeling safe and cozy. 

She took his phone and fiddled around with it for a moment until the light went out. “Jimin, if you were to die tomorrow, what would you want to do?”

“I would want to try everything I ever wanted.” Jimin hummed, “like go on the Ferris wheel like in movies and eat good food and be with my friends. What about you?” 

Jimin was interested in her response, but she gave a yawn and left him with a thoughtful, “I don’t know?”

After the monsoon stopped, the grass was a brilliant green, albeit overgrown on the field. Students were starting to trickle back, but Jimin appeared at the cafeteria, leaning over the counter towards y/n. 

“You asked me what I would do if I were going to die and it got me thinking. I would try new things, so would you like to go to the amusement park with me?”

He was fully expecting to get rejected in front of the whole cafeteria which had grown silent at his offer. She smiled, nodding and he felt his heart skip a beat. Why did asking make him so nervous and why did her saying yes make him so happy? 

Either way, she had said yes and he was glowing. It was going to be the perfect end to the mid semester break. He gave her a time for the next day and she accepted happily. Jimin left the cafeteria and froze. Was this a date? It sounded like a date. Did she want it to be a date?

Confused, Jimin tried on his third sweater and frowned. He didn’t want to look like he was trying too hard. This couldn’t be a date. She didn’t see him like that, right? Finally settling on something not too casual or fancy, he headed down to the cafeteria. There was quite a crowd - word that had gotten out that they were going on a date. 

“Hey Jimin, I will just get changed and we can go,” Y/n called. Her big smile put butterflies in his stomach. The patrons in the cafeteria were smiling and quietly cheering him on. That was until she stepped out, in a sweet dress and her hair let down from its usual ponytail. 

Someone let out a low whistle and Jimin blinked shocked that she had crossed a whole room faster than his amazing reflexes could process her moving. He was supposed to be deadly, he was supposed to be quick, strike to kill and always know his opponents next moves. But he was enamoured by her presence. 

Taking a bus to the nearest city where the nightlife was bustling, Jimin took her hand and led her through the crowds. Starting with good food, Jimin was having a lot of fun, even singing with some buskers. All while heading to the huge ferris wheel by the shore. He had made sure to pre-book tickets online, so it didn’t take long to walk up the ramp and get seated into a small capsule.  

It was a slow climb, the ferris wheel drifting along gave time to admire the view and Jimin was in awe. But when he turned to Y/n, she was sitting with her eyes wide. “Are you okay?” Jimin asked, taking her hands.

“It’s beautiful.” She laughed, her eyes flickering to his. “I honestly didn’t even think it would be worth it, but you were right Jimin, this is something I should try before I die.”

“If you want, we can try more things everyday, I am willing to make the most of each day,” Jimin said looking out again, “Look that’s the uni, if you look really really hard, you can see Seokjin’s underwear hanging on the line.”

Jimin felt a hand on his and he looked back. Y/n was crying, her eyes leaking tears that she tried to mop away with one hand. “Hey, I was joking, you can’t really see them from this far away.”

She laughed. “Sorry, I just, I have been bottling things up and I guess I have let them out.”

“Hey, that’s okay.” Jimin squeezed her hand gently. “That’s what I am here for. Look, we are almost up the top, so why don’t you let it all out, say whatever is on your mind or shout really loud or cry and then when we reach the bottom, you won’t have anything left to make you upset.”

The capsule finally reached the top and Y/n reached forward, placing her hand on Jimin’s thigh and stretching towards him until she could press her lips against his soft voluptuous ones Jimin froze, watching her pull away.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Tonight has been amazing.”

Jimin and Y/n had started trying something new each month within the new semester, alongside him trying new sports with the boys every week. Honestly, Jimin was surprised that there were so many sports he was good at and that weren’t his major. The boys were racking their brains, Jungkook even said the words Kendo in discussion but they all dismissed it, saying he didn’t have a harmful bone in his body, he was too kind for Kendo.

Jimin didn’t know if he was offended, relieved or guilty hearing that and knowing he really did train in the art of Kendo. Would they feel betrayed? He couldn’t think of that right now; he was going to meet Y/n for the monthly excursion. It was the last week of school for the year and she’d told Jimin she had something planned.

"Okay, well. I am going to practice," Jimin said after eating. He saw Y/n sitting on a bench outside the dorms and she walked him along the campus and into the Dojo.

She had been given key card access to the Dojo. She told him to get dressed and when he came back she was dressed as well, practicing with the wooden sword. She was in good form, her strikes were fast and he was shocked. He decided to practice as well, when she moved and caught his sword with hers.

The fight was quick as she was giving everything she had. It was the best fight Jimin had been in for a long time until he got hit in the chest. Jimin fell back and looked up at her armoured figure. She explained to him, her observations of his fighting, "your form is good, you move quick but your sword swings are a fraction too wide. It leaves you open more often and allows the opponent to strike."

"Get up," she added and Jimin scrambled to his feet, "get into position and try again."

Jimin worked harder, but he was hit multiple times and bruised greatly. He winced, when he hit her in the chest, knocking her back onto the floor.

"Are you okay?" Jimin whipped off his helmet, scrambling to help her up.

"Yeah I'm okay." She smiled back up at him. "Been a long time since I got hit."

Jimin went to get changed, telling Y/n he would buy her something to drink. He skipped the shower as he thought it would be too painful to undress and redress fully, opting instead to just remove the armour and return in his sweaty clothes. 

But when he reentered the main area of the Dojo, it was empty. Something felt wrong. He went to the ladies locker room, feeling something heavy in the pit of his stomach but she wasn’t there. Where had she gone? Jimin waited for as long as he could but she didn’t return.

Bruised, walking back to his dorm, he kept his eye out for any sign of Y/n but she must have left to go home quickly. Jimin turned the key in the door when he heard a faint sound in the distance. He stepped through the front door. 

They were all watching television and barely noticed Jimin enter. He needed a shower and he needed help. "Can someone help me take my shirt off?"

"What happened?" Jungkook asked after peeling Jimin's shirt and seeing the bruises. "Did you get beaten up?"

"No, I was just practicing," Jimin mumbled. 

"What were you practicing? How to rupture an organ? These look fierce."

Jimin agreed; he had received a few bad hits but he remembered the pretty strong hit he’d delivered. He saw how pale Y/n had looked. He wondered if she was okay?

The next day, Jimin went to the cafeteria and asked for Y/n, but they said she had called in sick. Guilt filled him again and he spent the next few days searching the campus to find out where she had gone. No one knew and no one even seemed to care.

That’s when he started to worry. Homemade flyers and asking around, but no one had seen her. After the break Jimin expected her to be there in the cafe but there was a new girl working there. She wasn’t as attentive with the orders, and frequently got Jimin’s orders wrong. 

Jimin took it upon himself to start digging a little further. Someone can’t just disappear without a trace without anyone knowing. He asked the staff who Y/n had worked with, for any information they could spare. Hobbies, restaurants, she liked to visit anything. Things were eating away at Jimin, not only because he had hit her that night, but  because of all the subtle things he had heard around campus about Y/n being sick.

He went to practice and to class and after class he returned to his research and flyers and online blog. He had opened a club trying to find Y/n. The boys in his dorm tried to help too, but by the middle of his second year Jimin stopped. 

He returned back to what he was used to: playing different sports until someone could guess. The whole of the university was interested and placing bets, there was a poll online and yet only one person voted for Kendo.

Jimin was always in popular rumours, that he didn’t actually play any sports, that the last person to find out what sport he played, had died. That he could charm anyone on campus. “I don’t think he could charm anyone.” one of the girls said as she giggled a few seats behind him. 

“He charmed the girl with the cold heart who used to work in the cafeteria, she was really beautiful and yet she never accepted anyone, until she met Jimin,” the other girl added in a hushed tone. “Since she left, he has done nothing but search for her, it is sweet.”

“If only a man could devote his lives to us.” They all sighed and Jimin thought about the time that had passed since he had seen Y/n. He was half way through his degree. 

Jimin couldn’t believe how much of an impact Y/n had had on his life, even if he only knew her for less than a year, even if he only knew her first name. The moments meant so much more than time, she pushed him not to waste time. Jimin never really had a bucket list but he wrote one, scratching off all the things he had already done together with her.

He squared his shoulders and took out the club form, changing the name and the activities. The club was called ‘If’ and was about living your life to the fullest, trying new experiences and not limiting yourself.

A lot of people joined and they each wrote down a list of things they  wanted to do if they knew they were going to die tomorrow. All the members were teamed up with people who had similar wishes and they started concurring their lists.

Jimin kept his list private and at the top of it was to find Y/n. He needed to know what had happened; people don’t just disappear, people leave a trace behind. In class, he took her seat, it was wrong seeing anyone else sit there. He tried to pay attention but his head was full of the memories. 

After class, he walked, seeing the ghost of Y/n standing by the trophy cabinet but it was just his imagination, gone in a blink. Jimin passed by as always, heading to the cafeteria and saw she wasn’t there and left. 

The days blended together and Jimin found himself doing the same things - he would go to practice and think about how he had hit her with his sword the day before she’d disappeared. 

He would go to class and imagine her sitting beside him in the back row, looking out at the sky. He remembered her in the halls and when it rained, he remembered the talks that night under the blankets he’d made into a fort. 

He saw the city lights and remembered the kiss shared in the Ferris wheel. Jimin was finding, he spent more time thinking about Y/n than anything else. He missed her, worried about whether she was doing okay and staying safe. 

Jimin found himself in a daze after class, the rain made her presence more noticeable. Without thinking, he followed her ghost, walking behind her after class. 

Y/n’s hair was down, swaying with every step and that’s when he saw his own face in front of him. He stopped in front of the trophy cabinet. This is where she would stand, he thought nothing of it, and was about to leave when he saw a picture of her holding a plaque. Looking to the left was the very same plaque from the picture with her name on it. 

Y/n’s full name. Jimin’s mind was racing. He pulled out his phone and began searching. He found a few articles on her Kendo training and scholarship to the university. He didn’t know why she’d quit Kendo and why she was so against sports. 

The articles showed her smiling, so happy, so different from the smiles she’d given him. Clicking the next article, he froze. 

Broken Heart Broken Streak

Three year gold medalist and Kendo Champion Y/n had fallen during the finals. The Kendo champion subsequently was rushed to the hospital where it was revealed she had a prominent heart defect. Not only did she lose her title and the championship, she lost the sport she loved.

Flashbacks of hitting her in the chest filled Jimin with dread, he wanted to make sure she was okay. Where had she gone that night? Home? The hospital? It was like a spiral. Jimin barely had the strength to socialize when he helped the field athletes pack up the javelins and high jump mats.

Jimin continued practicing earlier and later, trying to chase away the guilt he held for hurting Y/n, and for making her disappear. He relived the fight in his head, every swing, and everytime he stopped before he hit her in the chest. He heard the door to the dojo open and didn’t bother turning, focusing on his retelling of that night. Where instead of fighting he would hold her. 

He swung the sword down, only for it to be caught by another sword. Jimin turned and blocked the next attack before recognizing the moves. He dropped the sword, receiving a hit to the side and he fell backwards, winded but seemingly unphased as he scrambled to take off his helmet and watched his opponent remove hers. "You are alive?"

"Of course I am?" Y/n laughed, she looked exactly how he remembered, albeit her hair was a little longer. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of your heart?" he said. Guiltily, she threw her head back.

“You are funny Park Jimin, but you shouldn’t worry.” Her eyes were pressed thin by her amused expression. She explained a little more softly and seriously, “I have a new heart now. Thanks to our fight that night I bumped up the list for a transplant, and well, the recovery from a heart transplant is six months. So, I went back to my hometown to rest and strengthen up a little. But this heart is better than the last one. It was bitter and cold, I hear this one is warmer."

Stepping closer, Jimin held out his hands like he was warming them in front of a fire, "it feels warmer,” he hummed sagely, making her giggle, “feels a little more romantic and sentimental too.”

“More romantic and sentimental, how can you tell?” She played along, stepping closer to him. He mocked seriousness once more, rubbing his chin like an old wise man would rub his beard.

“Well, one way to tell is if this heart likes going to the movies?" Jimin proposed this like it truly was a scientific fact.

"It does, but it's a shame I don't like movies. If only it had someone to go with?" She grinned. “This new heart of mine really wants to see the new love story.”

"I like movies," Jimin said and smiled, watching her sit beside him, both taking off the armour. “I don’t know if they gave you a feelings transplant too but I heard, sometimes there are residual feelings from the previous heart stored in the brain and I was wondering if this brain could maybe look back in the old feelings database and maybe find a little folder named Jimin.”

“Jimin, let me search for Jimin.” She pondered the thought. “There are three results for Jimin, a 39 year old florist with beautiful hair, the child from the last drama I watched or the Kendo student.”

“You must have labeled them wrong, I am the one with the beautiful hair.” He gave her a cheeky grin. 

“Park Jimin, the Kendo major with the gorgeous hair, that’s you, right? What do you want to know?” Y/n smiled, hanging up the armour and wiping it down. 

“Why did you kiss me in the ferris wheel?” he breathed; the game was over. He was serious now, asking her to confess the reasoning behind her actions that night.

Her hand paused, no longer wiping the armour with the cloth. “I think that piece of the folder is missing. I am so sorry.”

“It’s missing?” He frowned, turning her around to face him. He pulled away, scared he might have been too rough on her. 

“Maybe you could help retrieve it or something.” Y/n’s smile was small, but full of cheek. He seemed to understand her meaning as he leaned down, pressing his lips to hers; something he had been thinking about since she’d left. 

Her hands dove into his hair and he placed his palm flat over her heart. Hearing the steady rhythm, he pulled away, smiling. “I know this head and this heart remember me.”

“I could never forget you, Jimin.” She smiled. 

Y/n was enrolled back at school. She joined Jimin in his classes. She had already been halfway through her studies, when she had taken a break, and having been to all the classes, she already knew the lesson work. 

The start of their second year was spent training and hanging out together. Y/n had to relearn her skills in kendo, even that she was still better than most of the class. She was Jimin's friendly rival in the class and the two pushed each other harder to improve. 

Y/n joined ‘If’ and the two ran the club, making sure everyone spent their days doing meaningful things. She also got a place in the dorms and introduced some of the girls to his dorm mates for a few mixers. 

The seniors had a tradition where they had to participate in the ‘Senior Games’, a series of fun games and challenge.Everyone was in teams with their dorm rooms but some of the gymnastic girls requested that the teams should be one male dorm and one female dorm room, so as to give more variety of participants and more chances of winning. 

Everyone agreed that this would make things a little fairer; the prize was free dinner and drinks for everyone in the team. Jimin’s dorm joined with Y/n’s and they got ready for the ‘Senior Games’. They decided their team's colour was purple and they placed their names in different mystery categories for the big day.

Once their team was registered, they waited for the big day. Dressed in purple, they arrived on the field, each taking the number Seven vest and putting it on over their shirts. The teams were excited and were trying their best in the competition.

“Team Number Seven wearing Purple and getting ready, their group is made up with such a diverse range of sports. Some notable competitors would be the clumsy Kim Namjoon, the lazy Min Yoongi, Park Jimin whom no one knows what his major really is and the delivery girl who is known for hating sports,” the emcee of the event spoke across the whole arena. “We will see how they match up today in each event.

The mystery categories included blowing a bubble through a hoop, hitting a spinning target, throwing playing cards at a foam box, rolling dice, throwing bouncy balls into a bin, stacking and unstacking cups, and many more fun games. 

They were only leading by a few points but it was the final activity. Two participants had to flick out the caps of three water bottles by one swift motion, while the bottles were placed upside down on the table. Without knocking over the bottles! It sounded impossible, but they had to do it.

“Jimin and I will do it.” Y/n smiled, dragging Jimin off the ground and to the last activity. “Come on, it’s our specialty.” 

Jimin smiled, letting her drag him across the field to the final event. Standing at the table, Jimin took the long cooking chopstick in his hand and looked over at Y/n who held the matching one in her hands. Jimin mimicked her moves and the two got into position. 

“All the teams are ready and in position, this last event is the trickiest but it can be done - the contestants will begin on the whistle,” the emcee's voice erupted from the speakers. The whistle blew and the contestants took their time to strike, knocking the bottles over in the process.

“All the contestants have given their first attempt, oh, except Team Seven - they haven’t even swung.” The whole crowd was screaming and cheering while the other teams were scrambling to set their bottles back on the table, the sound drowned out from Jimin’s ears as he took a deep breath and struck. 

The bottle caps flew and the bottles landed perfectly. Jimin turned to Y/n and saw her bottles standing perfectly, too.

“TEAM SEVEN HAS WON!” 

The celebration was amazing; free food and drinks, and as all the other teams crowded around, someone asked the age old question. 

“So what do you actually do?” The archer grinned at Jimin. 

“Kendo!” He laughed, they all laughed and slapped him on the back and the online poll was closed, the bets were sent to the winner. Y/n started giggling. 

When Jimin looked over to her, he saw Y/n holding her phone out to him, displaying her bank account. She had received a large sum of money that labeled Jimin’s bet. Jimin couldn’t help but cackle at the sight, she was the one who’d voted for kendo. 

Their final year ended with the championships. Jimin and Y/n both excelled and were sent away where they competed. Jimin got the gold and Y/n surprised everyone in the competition with her presence taking home a gold of her own. 

If you enjoyed this please Like | Share so others can enjoy it as well. and check out my [MASTERLIST] for more like this content.

[guessimjoiningthespidermanfandom]

It Takes Two to Tango

Peter Parker x bisexual!reader

Peter Parker x fem!reader

Peter Parker x black!reader

Peter Parker x villain!reader 

Warnings: Language, guns, knives, violence, self destructive behavior, mentions of mania and depression, mentions of bipolar disorder, descriptions of tattoo guns, slight slut shaming maybe, a bong, allusion to corrupt government, mentions of prostitution, mentions of parental neglect, and mentions of piercings.

Word Count: 6.5k

Songs: Drew Barrymore- SZA, No Role Modelz- J.Cole, Baby Blue- Action Bronson, Little Dark Age- MGMT, Gansta- Kehlani, Shutter Island- Jessie Reyez, Good Days-SZA, King’s Dead, Kendrick Lamar, and Saint Bernard- Lincoln.

“Which was odd because usually he talks the most on these rides. After we got over the initial awkwardness of the whole fire and Vulture thing we fell back into the way of things. Well if he was going to play this game I would too because what’s that saying? It takes two to tango.”

A/N: Hold on tight a lot goes down and it’s not looking up anytime soon. 

Series Masterlist  Previous Part   Next Part 

I was running faster than I’d ever had before the heels I had been trying on? Not helping my case. Since this is apparently my brand now I backed myself up onto the edge of the building. 

I had a gun trained on me.

“Come with us Y/N please,” 

“No! Who the fuck is Y/N?”

“Don’t play dumb ma’am we’ve done extensive research on you and we see you’ve done the same with us,” 

I rolled my eyes.

“Fuck you! I have no idea what you’re talking about and this is harassment,”

“You’re cornered there’s no way out,” 

The man wasn’t going to shoot me. No one would’ve come all the way out here and have chased me for this long when they had a gun if they were really planning on killing me. They would’ve done it already. And if this was who I thought it was I was not going with them. 

“Just come with us, we’re on your side, we’re not trying to hurt you,” That sounds exactly like someone who was going to hurt me would say.  

“Yeah says the man who has a gun aimed at me,” I rolled my eyes. 

“This is simply a safety precaution, just make this easier for everyone,” 

I looked back at him before making my decision. I was getting the hell out of here now. 

I bent backwards towards the street underneath me. Instead of free falling I put my hands behind me going into a backbend kickover grabbing onto the ledge. 

Using my legs as a propeller I launched myself closer to the wall. I’d gotten lucky and the walls had protruding bricks that I could scale. 

The man who I think was from SHIELD was hot on my tail. So I had to move fast. I scaled my way to the nearest balcony jumping into the pool in a leap of faith. 

I’d made it in thankfully. Guess my story wasn’t over.

Then I had to run. I was running down the streets. Thankfully this was New York and no one would bat an eye at someone who was drenched head to toe running down the street. They’d just pass me off as another nut job and go about their day. 

So much has happened I feel like this is an episode of shameless. You really were too busy to tune in last week you skank ass bitch? I almost died twice and I still managed to check in, whatever, just pay attention to the next clip. 

“So that building exploded and that loud siren noise I think I told you about was going off in my ears and when I left the plane with Vulture and Spidey were fighting by a crashed plane and Vulture put too much power onto his wings and they were gonna blow up. And I got mad like fucking top of the anger iceberg mad. So when I was like on the verge of blacking out like fucking fire came out of my hands and disintegrated those wings. Like they turned to ash before my very eyes. Then I had a panic attack of course and that’s pretty much it,” 

“Uh… I just called you here to tell you I found something about that SHIELD guy who came after but, I’m glad you’re okay,” Felicia told me.

“Sorry… I guess I got too excited,” 

“What'd you find?” I moved over to her in her spinning chair. 

“Look and see for yourself,” She moved out the way.

I sighed plopping down onto the small twin bed.

“I know what you’re doing,” I said, picking up a piece of popcorn. 

“What are you talking about?” Carmen asked as if she was genuinely confused. 

“You’re trying to trick me into eating and sleeping, which is totally not fair because if I want to wallow in self pity I should be able to,” 

“I know what happens when it gets bad and I’m not letting you get there again,”

I sighed again. She is always claiming that she sees herself in me and she wants me to be the best version of myself. 

She acts like since she’s one year older than me that she’s my mentor or something.

 Plus she also thinks I have an undiagnosed and untreated bipolar disorder so who’s to say everything else she says isn’t a lie also. 

We were watching a Wrinkle in Time and I knew I was going to cry when the girl’s dad came back. I always did and I didn’t want to cry today. 

“Wanna go do something?”

“Sure... Where are we going?” 

“Out,” 

I tried on a lot of Carmens clothes and ended up wearing the most extravagant outfit I’d ever worn. I felt extremely giddy for no reason in particular. I was wearing a puffy skirt and corset. We were walking about the streets of Brooklyn with no clear destination in mind just talking.

“I just find it funny that all you have to do to be famous on Tiktok is be white and skinny like smoke a cigarette in a subway station or some shit,”

“Why don’t we get famous?” 

“Now how would we get famous,” I poked. 

“I’m offended that you don’t think we could,” She stopped on the side of the street. 

“Gimme your phone,” She demanded in a kind way.

I plopped it into her palm. 

I’d honestly forgotten where I was for a second because I’d zoned out yet again. She put the phone back in my hand and she had made a Tiktok account for the both of us. 

She was only checking to see if I liked the account name because she took the phone right back afterwards.

I didn’t mind. 

“I should get a tattoo right?” I asked, putting another one of the chamoy gummy worms in my mouth. 

“How many do you have now?” 

“I think like twelve?”

“And that’s not enough for you?”

“Noo! I like the ones I have. I just want a bigger one.” 

“Then do it?” 

We were actually in walking distance of a tattoo parlour I just didn’t trust them. Never cheat on your nail tech or hairstylist and it goes the same for tattoo artists. 

Two subway rides later we were in Queens. I walked up to the front desk and was about to ask for my go to artist but she walked out the back room before I had the chance.

“Y/N, ‘s that you?” She asked. 

“The one and only,” I twirled around in my dress. 

“This dress is very different than your usual style but I can’t say I don’t love it,” She pulled at the fabric then glanced up her eyes, lighting up in recognition. She gasped “Is this Carmen?” 

I nodded “My bad lemme introduce you to each other. Carmen this is Enchantress and you already know Carmen apparently,” 

I’d played a Russian roulette sort of thing with my tattoo Pinterest board just clicking one with my eyes closed. Then there was the buzzing of the gun moving along my skin. Puncturing it in a way that felt extremely bittersweet. 

I never understood people who said tattoos hurt. I could always barely feel them. They felt like a simple scrape over your skin. Also at this shop they still give you the wrapping for your tattoo but it’s filled with ink still so you can move it around in the bubble. I like messing with the ink sack. I think that’s why I come here so often.

I was admiring the tattoo on my lower abdomen in the mirror when I was startled.  

“Wait!” Enchantress exclaimed, starling me “I just realized you got a piercing. Come here,” She beckoned. 

She turned towards me 

“It’s actually super straight, did you do this?” 

I opened my mouth to respond when Carmen answered for me.

“No, some girl did it for her in her school bathroom,” I really gotta stop telling her everything. She’s always snitching on me.

“I want to be mad but I can’t because it actually looks super healthy,” She titled my chin up to get a better view “However if it gets infected I’m beating your ass,” 

We exited the shop after I paid well, Carmen paid but I’ll pay her back. There was a pretty hefty discount too, because Enchantress loved me apparently, I loved her too. She’s an older sister figure like my role model. I mean she was when I was a few years younger. I think I’ve grown out of role models.

I felt a sharp uncomfortable sensation in my body which sort of felt like those anxiety brain zaps but located in my abdomen. 

I looked behind me and there was something off about this man who was standing a few feet behind me. I accidently made eye contact with him and he bolted off. 

Weird. 

“Y/N are you even listening to me?” 

“Huh,” I turned in Carmen’s directions “Sorry what'd you say?” 

“I was saying that since you got a tattoo, I’m gonna cut and dye my hair,” 

“Cool what color?” 

“I don’t know yet let’s go just to CVS ‘nd decide there,” 

I was sitting on the kitchen counter behind the chair Carmen was in as I applied the bleach to her hair singing along to the song playing. 

Why is it so hard to accept the party is over?

You came with your new friend

And her mom jeans and her new Vans

I set the bowl of hair bleach onto the counter hopping down to get ready for my favorite part of the song. 

And she's perfect and I hate it 

I sang it loudly moving my hands around like I always do releasing my energy. It was almost like therapy. Who am I kidding SZA is therapy. 

I used the bathroom and I couldn’t find soap. I looked under the cabinet and found the soap. I also found something else I wasn’t expecting to see. I brought it back into the kitchen with me.

“You have a hello kitty bong?”

She grabbed it from my hands examining it. 

“Well actually I stole it from my sister,” 

“No way, this is Dinah’s? Because she just got ten times cooler,” 

“All I know was she got back in college, then she just stopped using it,” 

I finished Carmen’s hair which for some reason she trusted me enough to cut curtain bangs for her honestly they didn’t look too bad. It was just very time consuming. 

“Okay but are you sure, how’d you know he’s gay?” Harry questioned leaning back to look at the kid again. 

“Just watch,” I raised my voice just enough for him to be able to hear me “Charlie!” 

He turned around as if he were stunned that I was talking to him. 

“Who me?” He asked.

“Yes you,”

“Oh,”

“So can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure I guess…”

“What’s your favorite Percy Jackson book?”

“The answer Lightning Thief is pretty basic but it’s my favorite or maybe the Titan’s Curse, I’m not sure,” 

“Okay cool, thank you,” I turned back to face Harry “See,” 

“That doesn’t prove anything but okay,”

“He knew more than one book in the Percy Jackson series that tells me all I need to know,” 

“I know more than one Percy Jackson book,” He eyed me.

“Yeah and you’re gay,”

He just huffed. Got him there. 

“He still wouldn’t fuck you though,” I sat tucked my legs underneath me.

“Whatever shouldn’t you be in your class? Which is it again?”

“Physics,” 

“Oh…”

“Oh what? Don’t oh me,” 

“You’re avoiding Peter,” 

“I’m not avoiding Peter,” I totally was. Just Harry thinks I’m doing it because I like him. I didn’t tell him that but I might've let him believe it, because how do you even go about telling someone Hey I’m avoiding the person because fire came out of my body and they saw it.  I’d sound insane. 

As I was walking to the gym and by to, I mean away from, but that’s not the point, I could’ve sworn I saw the same man from Saturday in the window near the crowd of students. 

Accompanied by the same gut feeling. 

I pushed my way into the gym. To avoid him. I bumped into someone. Off instinct I got defensive but then I heard an 

“Oh, sorry. Sorry!” Once they’d turned around I realized it had been Peter. Just my luck. 

“You’re fine that was basically my fault anyway,” 

I was going to just walk over to one of my friends but they weren’t here and Liz literally just left the school. So I had no escape. 

Well there was one escape. There’s always a way out.

“Y/N!” The female gym coach called. 

“Yes?” I rolled my eyes.

“Where are your gym clothes?” 

“Probably in the locker room...” 

“Why aren’t you wearing them?”

“I didn’t feel like it,”

“You need to change for your grade, participation is important,” 

I picked up my backpack off the floor before pushing open the doors to the girls locker room. Instead of going towards my locker I headed straight for the metal doors leading into the hallway. I went to the space I always seemed to drift to when I had nowhere else to go. 

The teachers bathroom. 

I know that sounds weird but it’s the only one I can lock. I stole a key a while back when I went to get my phone back from one of the teachers. 

I guess Carmen was a psychic or something because one of the videos she’d posted on our group account of us eating in the dresses, me getting that tattoo, and dying Carmen’s hair had blown up. 

I did not see her take any of the clips but the proof was right in front of me. 

The video had half a million views and I assumed that was because of all the comments helping pushing the algorithm.

Some of them were nice like

hey lol 

you’re both gorgeous omg 

That tattoo is cool af 

I want to be you 

I should pay you to do my hair lmao

I can't tell if i want to be you

The other half were like 

No child should be getting a tattoo you look so young

That is the devils sign I’m praying for you. 

Why please Go To God✝️✝️🙏🏻🙏🏻♥️

Im praying for you 

At first I was confused as to why half of the comments were people praying. Then I realized it was because Carmen had on her pentagram necklace. 

I’m definitely not complaining about the comments though because they got me that many views, likes, and follows, but the ignorance upsets me. A pentagram only represents Earth, Air, Water, and Fire it’s about balance. 

 I think it’s cool, kinda like the Avatar. It has nothing to do with Satan. I didn’t really want to think about Fire. I was still freaking out about Friday. It hadn’t happened again so maybe I dreamt it or something. 

Somehow I spent the rest of gym and half of what should’ve been me heading to detention responding to every Christian’s comment with something dumb or witty. 

I was walking towards the detention room and was startled by Peter. Again.

“Hey Y/N?”

“Yes?” 

“Um… this is gonna sound insane but,” he paused looking down fiddling with his hands. 

My face twisted up in confusion as to why he still hadn’t spoken. 

“Are you gonna to speak…”

“Oh. Oh!” He looked back up “Yeah you remember my internship right?”

“Yeah…” I guess he was going to act like I didn’t know about him being Spiderman again.

“So now Mr. Stark is interested in you and wants you to come with me upstate,”

“Why me?” 

“I’m not sure, but if you’re coming someone is outside waiting for us,” 

I’m sure this was just another attempt to lure me into some SHIELD mess. However Peter had no idea about Thorn or any of the other fucked up shit I’d done. So it would look suspicious if I didn’t go. Because what kid or any other person wouldn’t want to meet Tony Stark. 

“Okay then, what are we waiting for?” 

The ride there was completely silent. I spent the whole time texting Carmen as she complained about her boyfriend. I really hated him oh my God. Peter had gone into the building about 15 minutes ago. 

“Okay, if he’s always getting on your nerves and trying to control you why are you still with him?” I asked in the snap meant for Carmen. 

“You know why, I’m not going to say it because then you’d get mad at me,” She sent a video back.

“Thank you I do not want to hear about your boyfriends dick-,” I was interrupted by a knock on the window “Okay I can’t talk got to go,” I sent the video before sliding across the seat pushing the door open. 

“What happened?” I asked as Peter sat back in the car. 

“It was a test,” He said, providing no further elaboration. 

The back window was rolled down and the guy who drove us here. Happy, I think. There is no way that was his real name. He stuck his face in the window. 

“Hey, the boss wants to see you now,” 

I turned back to Peter and whispered.

“The boss? Am I about to walk into some mafia meeting,” 

He just laughed at that. 

“We don’t have much time,” Happy urged. 

As we began walking the halls of the giant building as I pocketed random trinkets that I could sell for a quick buck. 

“So what’s your real name?” I asked Happy since this whole time he was leading me it was a silent ride. 

He continued to ignore me.

So I asked again. I could tell from his body language that I was getting on his nerves. 

I asked twice more and by the time the last sentence came out of my mouth we’d already reached our destination. He walked away not before mumbling a quick I hate kids. 

“Y/N it’s nice to meet you,” Tony greeted as he reached out to shake my hand. I allowed it.

“You’re a lot shorter in person,” I pointed out after releasing his hand. 

“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” He reached for a bowl putting something in his mouth. “Grape?” He offered.

“No thank you,” Not like they’d be poisoned  or anything, no one had even gotten the chance to question me yet. Also there was the fact that he was eating them but this could be a Princess Bride situation. Not taking any chances. 

“Okay,” He clapped, dusting his hands. “Let’s get to the point now,” 

“So I’ve been informed that you had an instance with pyrokinesis,” He continued after I nodded. “I was hoping to research this to get to the bottom of this,”

“So you want to use me as a lab rat?”

“No of course not, the research would be used purely for your personal benefit,” 

For my benefit my ass. They were going to turn me into a lab rat or a soldier.

“Okay I’ll think about it,” Thought about it. A hard hell no.

“If you do choose to do so since you are a minor I’ll need parental consent,” 

“Of course,” I nodded.

There was a pamphlet that I wasn’t going to read. I wasn’t really going to ask for permission. Was I? If I wasn’t then why was I back at ”my” house. 

I just missed my bed, it was messy but it was mine. 

I started sobbing for no reason at all. Maybe it was the old sketchbooks on my bed, or my mom's broken jewelry box. It could’ve been the smell of incense that never left from the lack of ventilation. It was probably the pile of crystals on my dresser. Then again it could’ve been the nazar eye amulet from the broken bracelet on the ground or the hole in the wall where I used to keep my favorite knife. Maybe it was all of those things. Maybe it was so much more. Maybe it was something different entirely. Maybe it was the colors of the wind. Who knows. 

My eyes stung as my eyeliner dripped down and into them. I blinked the tears away as I went through all my clothes and I mean ALL my clothes. 

I found another bodycon dress. I slipped it on after stuffing a few other articles in my bag. I continued searching to the very back of my closet and I found an old purse. There were at least $50 in the back pocket and in the front pocket there were- Oh. 

There was a small plastic bag with at least 500gs of Xanax. I must’ve left them there after Washington.

 I wasn’t going to take them. I really wasn't; I just put them in the bra. You know for safe keeping. I heard the front door open and made a break for the balcony. 

Although I’d regularly seen my sisters. I still hadn’t seen my dad since I’d left. They’d seen him a couple times though he was fine with the idea of them staying at our grandma’s for who knows how long. He doesn’t care as long as he’s still got that girlfriend of his. I can only imagine what he told her about us not staying with him.

 I jumped down the stairs of the fire escape and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. As something hit my calf. 

I looked down to see it was just Salem climbing up my leg. I lifted her up to my chest nuzzling the top of her head. 

“Hiii baby!” I cooed in a baby voice. 

I now more carefully made my way down the steps so as to not disrupt her. Now I was going to go straight to my grandma’s house to drop off the clothes, but I wanted to go shopping before it got too late.

 I already had no money so I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea but there I was with a $300 charge on my credit card. 

I probably looked insane walking around the mall with a cat in my backpack and black streaks underneath my eyes. 

If you’ve never done this I highly recommend it. Every subway train comes with carts and the last cart is a door with railing and no other restrictions. You can just sneak into the very back. 

The wind hitting your face is the most freeing thing in the world and you can scream as loud as you want and no one will hear you. That fact can be unsettling to some but to me it’s beautiful. 

Releasing your true emotions to no one but you and yourself. I closed my eyes holding onto the railing with one hand and Salem in the other. I put her back into my backpack before sitting down. 

Since the app is addicting, and you can’t tell me it’s not, I opened Tiktok and the first thing I saw is a guy pouring what I hoped wasn’t I thought it was into a bowl. 

So naturally my first reaction was to make a video about it because who doesn’t overshare on the internet. 

“Tell me why,” The track rumbled underneath me, making Salem whine, I picked her up letting her cuddle into my chest. 

“Okay, I have a cat now but-” The track rumbled again “It’s so fucking loud but tell me why I opened this hellfire app and see some dude pouring cum into a bowl, I hate everyone,” 

Within like six minutes of me posting it I had multiple likes and comments. 

The only reason being is that Harry dueted.

 I gotta say being the kid of a mayor and a multimillionaire gives you some form of clout. So he had a pretty heft following.

Harry’s similar to me in the way that we’re mean to our friends. So naturally  we’re ”mean” to each other. 

“You look stupid,” Harry claimed in his video “Also who’s fucking cat did you steal put it back and get in the trains properly and go wash your face,”

I hadn’t even realized I was on my new account at first. 

Of course I made a response video. 

“First of all this is my cat, her name is Salem and she’s adorable” I mean not really but she belongs to no one else, and I feed her. “Second, ignore my eyeliner. I actually think it looks kinda cute,” Lie, It just made me look crazy. “Also how'd you even find this account so fast? Stalker. I’d advise you shut up before I post your phone number then you’d have to ward off groupies. I’m sure you’d like that though.” 

I’m pretty sure the majority of the people in our comments thought we were being serious. So in turn they commented things like I have no idea who you are but I’m on your side, is this gonna be another scandal, or here before the news is talking about it. 

I’m not complaining. His history of scandals got me to 5k followers for the pure assumption that I was involved in some other secret. 

My mind was moving at 100 miles per hour. It felt like I was on a whole bottle of adderall.  I was going somewhere. At least I remember I was supposed to be somewhere. I’m pretty sure my grandma’s house was where I was going. Right?

“No weapon against you shall prosper mija,” My grandma squeezed my hand “You are stronger than you know,”

“I know. Thank you,” 

I’d got here and we had a 30 minute conversation about my mental health without outright saying anything about mental health. It was just mostly her taking shots at my dad. With the exception of her telling me I was dressed like una furcia. 

“Okay well,” I pushed up off the couch “I just came to bring some clothes and I need to get back anyway,” 

“Get back to where, where are staying?” She asked. 

“Oh you remember MJ right?” I lied. 

“Oh yes, I like that lil’ girl,” 

I went into the guest room to where my sisters were staying. I could hear rustling as I got closer to the room. I flicked on the lights. To see both of my sisters asleep. It was only 10:30 so that was highly unlikely.

“I know you’re not sleep it’s just me,” 

They peeled open their eyes, sitting up. 

“I come bearing gifts,” I announced kneeling down next to the bag. 

I placed the bag on the floor carefully so I wouldn’t hurt Salem.

Sapphire squealed when she saw her. 

“You got Salem? I missed her!” 

“Well actually, I just brought clothes,” I dumped them on the bed “Aaliyah come here?” I asked. 

She hopped down from the bed. 

“All of Sapphire’s clothes are over there but I know we’re like the same size so pick what you want,” I told her. 

She took at least half of what I had but I wasn’t complaining because at least she wasn’t going behind my back and taking them. 

“Okay but like am I really allowed to hate my father like cause,” I tried to move only to immediately lose balance “Shit- but like can I even hate my dad if I do the same shit he does, like maybe, maybe it’s like some contractual blood magic shit and I’m just destined to be a shitty person,” I was sending videos to some group chat I didn’t know who was in it because I couldn’t really read the name I just know Harry was the only one responding. 

“I get it being like your parents is scary but you’re not and I won’t let you be like that, now get some sleep please,” Harry reassured. 

“NO! It’s like,” I struggled to get the sentence out “It’s like crazy because before I existed it like someone fucking planted this, like it- it’s a-,” I hit my forehead on each word as if I could physically knock them out. “It’s a seed in my brain and it’s only going to grow as I get older and I’m just gonna be an asshole, it’s fucking happening already and I-“ Carmen came into the living room I flipped the camera onto her “Say hi!” I slurred. 

“Y/N you okay?” She said making her way over to me. I stopped the video and sent it. 

“I’m fine how are you?” 

“I thought you went to bed,” she ignored my question. 

“I did. Then I couldn’t sleep,” I leaned back onto the couch. She crouched down next to me feeling my forehead.

“You have a fever,” She claimed.

“No I don’t! Why does everyone keep saying that?” I whined. 

“Are you high?” She moved closer to my face. 

“No I’m not fucking high,” 

“You’re slurring your words,” She pointed out moving into the kitchen “What’d you take?” 

“What?”

“I said what’d you take,” She going into one of the cabinets “I know you’re not drunk because you don’t smell like alcohol and you don't smell like weed, so I’ll ask you again,” 

“I didn’t take anything, I'm not high!” I explained. 

“It was Benadryl wasn’t it?” She came back into the living room and handed me a glass of water. “You know that stuff kills people,” 

“Yeah I think I of all people would know that,” Truth is I wasn’t lying. I didn’t take anything. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe sleep deprivation.

“True,” She sat down on the floor next to me “You know how I said I can tell when it’s getting bad,” I nodded. “Well like I was saying before it’s getting bad for you-”

“No it’s not,” I interrupted “I’m literally the happiest I’ve ever been today,” 

“I was getting there,” She held her hands up in an attempt to placate me “That’s just the calm before the storm it’s mania,”

“I’m not manic! Stop trying to psychoanalyze me I’m perfectly fine,” 

I must've woken Salem up because I could hear her footsteps as she paddled over to me and sat in my lap. It’s like she knew when I was getting angry. 

“That’s the thing you’re not fine, just let me know when you’re ready to admit that,” She pushed off the ground using her hands “Try to get some sleep please and thank you,” 

I think it was the weight and warmth of Salem on my chest that finally lulled me to sleep like a weighted blanket. 

“Sapphire!” I yelled to catch her attention “Stop running you’re gonna hurt yourself,” 

She slowed down before making her way back to Aaliyah and the other kids at this birthday party. 

I sat back down on the table’s bench before getting back on my phone. I saw this post one time about how people use technology to distract themselves so they can't have the chance to have a depressive thought. Then I decided to prove that theory wrong so I put my phone up and I thought. 

And boy did I have a lot to think about. The biggest thing on my mind was why. Why did Tony Stark come after me? Why did the guy with the gun come after me? Why did my mom feel the need to make an “Incase I die” video? Why did she have connections to people like Kingpin? Why did she even know Wade? Wasn’t he some science experiment gone wrong? 

Then that got me thinking what if I was a science experiment gone. What if that’s why Tony Stark wanted to experiment on me. What if that was under the orders of someone from SHIELD, because how would he have known about me otherwise. 

Welp, there was only one way to find out. 

“Okay I’m in,” I settled. “What do I have to do?”

“Uh are you sure?” Tony asked.

“Positive,” I affirmed. 

“Well first we would probably do some blood tests and an MRI. Then see where that takes us.” He looked back over at me “Can you do this tomorrow?” 

“Yeah tomorrow works for me,” 

“Great,” He clapped his hands together “I’ll send Happy to pick you up from school,” 

“No it’s fine I can get here myself.” 

“It’s a different location,” He revealed. 

“Okay tell me where it is and I’ll make it there myself,”

“I can’t not even I know where it is,” 

“Fine, I’ll do this, but only if I can bring a friend,” I requested “You know for safety reasons?”

“Safety reasons? Do you not trust me?”

“Not really…” 

“Wow okay, you can bring this friend,” 

“Who doesn’t trust Iron man?'' I heard him mutter to himself as I made my way out of the building. 

I always thought the apocalypse would come in colors. The sky flashing from red to pink to purple to orange. Then there would be a loud sound almost like the Big Bang. Then nothing. I had a vivid imagination when I was younger. 

I guess I was wrong though because it was already here and the sky was as blue as ever.  And the air was as humid as ever in this crusty ass building. 

“I told you already I’m not a soldier you’re gonna have to pay me for this,” I spoke into the comms.

“Shh,” Tony hushed “Just wait for your target.”

Life hadn’t been all that bad. Just for the past two weeks I’d been training with Peter since at the end of the week that I agreed to testing, Spiderman joined in the Avengers officially. Which, good for him I guess. 

Trying to get my brain back on track now. I’d been training with Peter and now we’re going on our first mission. I was not loyal to Tony at all. Nor would I ever be. I’m not calling him Mr. Stark like Peter does either, he doesn’t deserve it. I was trying to look up my mom with the information Felicia gave me and I saw she was listed as level orange in a shield file. Whatever that means.

One thing it meant was I couldn’t back out just yet now.

This would be one deep inside job.

“Peter?” I whispered into the comms

“Hello?” He asked.

“Where are you?” 

“I’m guarding the entrance like I was told too?” He asked more than stated. 

“Well, come here,” 

“But Mr. Stark said-“ 

“I don’t care what Mr. Stark said come here,” I interjected without even thinking about the fact he could’ve been listening in somehow. 

“Yes?” He questioned once he was standing in front of me.

“Take my role for a second,” I pulled my gun out the holster “You know how to use a gun right?”

I thought back to the last time we’d actually fought as our alter egos. Except then he didn’t know it was me and he still doesn’t. He definitely didn’t know how to use a gun then let’s just hope he did now. 

“You know what, I don’t have time just take it,” I placed the gun in his palm before speeding off.

“Wait!” He called out “Aren’t you defenseless now?” 

“I’ll be fine baby boy,” I called back.

I made my way into the farthest depths of the warehouse. I’d been here once before. That was before I knew Felicia and we’d gotten into a scuffle about a diamond. Let’s just say I was young and I went home bruised that day. 

Apparently I was under the impression she had it and she was under the impression I had it this whole time. So maybe. Just maybe it was still there. It was somewhere in the back last time I checked.

 There it was. I grabbed it and recoiled when I heard a voice accompanied by the sharp zap in my body. 

“Looking for something?” They asked. I turned around only to be faced with a large burly almost Frankenstein looking man. 

“Oh yeah I was looking for you actually, you just made my job a lot easier,” 

As if my words were a signal for him. They probably were. He lunged forward towards me with his left side fully open. I evaded and left a sharp kick to his side. 

He wailed out in pain before slinging me backward as I tried to reach for the diamond off the floor. 

I skidded across the floor before hopping back to my feet. 

“I found the guy,” I spoke into the comms.

“Who are you talking to?” The target teased. 

“Your mom,” I taunted. 

“Hey!” He cried. 

“Where are you?” I heard Peter ask I didn’t get a chance to answer because the man swung at me again. 

That hit made contact with my shoulder. He continued to swing and I continued to walk backwards. I realized almost too late that I was backing myself into a corner.

I’m not sure where or who I heard this from maybe Wade but sometimes the only point your opponent has his guard down is mid punch.

 I scrambled for my knife, fingers dancing around the holster on my waist as my feet continued to slide along the pavement underneath me. Just as the man swung at me again I sent my knife towards his torso. Except it didn’t make contact. And I had never missed before, especially not from this close. 

I was confused until I realized it was because I heard that all familiar wet sticky sound of Spider-Man’s web shooters except this time I was glad to hear it. 

Peter webbed the man's arms and mouth all while my fingers went lax in shock for only a moment but one moment too long. 

The knife clattered to the ground making a noise that drew Peter’s attention. I tried to swipe it away with my foot but Peter had already grabbed it. 

“This is Thorns knife,” He spoke calmly and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or if it was for himself.

“And how would you have Thorns knife unless you were,” I saw his eyes light up as he made the connection. “Wait, you’re Thorn, holy shit, I’m so stupid how’d I not notice before,”

“Peter seriously you can’t tell anyone,” 

He looked up as if he were just noticing I was still there. 

“Don’t worry I won’t be saying anything at all,” 

Yeah, this was definitely the apocalypse because I don’t know if it was just me but life was ending.

Another silent ride and I realized exactly what he’d meant when he said he wouldn’t say anything. He was giving me the silent treatment. 

Which was odd because usually he talks the most on these rides. After we got over the initial awkwardness of the whole fire and Vulture thing we fell back into the way of things. Well if he was going to play this game I would too because what’s that saying? It takes two to tango. 

Taglist: 

@tomdiddlyumptious​

[selfcareparker]

yesss the letter format 💝💓💘💖💞💕💖💞💓 (lovely anon)

my dearest aria (a hamilton reference lmao),

i’m home alone (bc i wanted the house alone to get my head together after my brothers were mean to me 🙃) and i’m so hype LMAO but i’m watching chloe x halle’s tiny desk concert and honestly just vibing. (this is so random) besides zendaya like they are my badass black women role models. my one accomplishment would be to learn to body roll like them LMAO

oh nevermind i can’t have anything nice, my dad just came home 🙃 WHAT A WAY TO START OFF THIS ASK WTFFF

i’m liking tfatws, the second episode was veryyy intense imo but WANDAVISION IS SO GOOD😭 i knew it was going to be my favorite from the really old trailer but it’s really good and i promise it’s not just sitcoms, girl especially cuz you’ll have all the episodes already out- we were having to wait every week😭 BUT ITS SO GOOD I PROMISE HDJSHDJSH lmao reading this i was like “i- the episodes aren’t an hour long” but i feel that, it’s hard for me to watch tfatws bc they are an hour long and i’m like 😐 but wandavision episodes are less than 30mins bc I KID YOU NOT they have the damn 10 MINUTE CREDITS DHDJSJ no i don’t think we’ve talked about this b4 lol but it all depends on the series for me. i binged love island uk in less than a week bc i was so invested and LITERALLY LOVE IT but uh those episodes are like an hour and a half, but say i was binging tfatws (it’s so hard to type that ohmigosh) i honestly would not be able to do it bc of the intensity (you may be like what intensity but if you’ve seen episode 2 by the time you’re reading this.......... isaiah and the scene afterwards is all i have to say, esp me being black it was so tough :/)

girl you’re fine, as long as you’ve experienced it once hahaha i think the reason why it’s so important to my family (this letter feels so personal and extreme HSJSJA IM SORRY) is bc my grandmother loved it and in my family i guess it’s just important to us lol like my mom and dad love it too and we have the literal VHS tapes LMAO, but it only came up recently cuz my youngest brother was watching lion guard HAHA and he wanted to see the originals :) and fun fact (unless you already know) but there’s a lion king part 2 and 1 1/2 and i have all three ON VHS HAHAHA but i love lion king 1 duh (the og) but part two’s music and love story..... is so good. anyway. 🦁

I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING DURING THE WHOLE MOVIE THEATER ENCOUNTER THING HAHAHA AND WHEN SHE WAS SAYING AWKWARD I WAS LIKE WTF THE NOISE LMAOOOO i don’t think there’s a better way to describe that whole situation than ZKDHDJSHAJAJSHDJSNAHA. yeah. yeaaaa at the cinemas (i like the word cinema more than movies 🥰) here they have chips (fries), some have ice cream, nachos, drinks, hot dogs, the cinema we were at had pretzels and like BURGERS I WAS LIKE HUH OKAY and ya know obviously popcorn but i don’t know why the theaters (or cinemas) here do that, it started a long time ago though like yearsssss

PLEASE i have the longest movie watchlist and uhh haven’t seen any of them JDJSKA (istg i use HSJSSKSH as a period - like . ) i’m still hype for cherry but very hesitant (idk if i can handle it) but i’m thinking about watching it in the next couple of weeks? i know it’ll take me forever bc i’m gonna have to keep pausing and shit but idk. i’ve asked around for very specific trigger warnings and time stamps so i REALLY know what’s coming (even if it spoiled the film a bit for me) but i do really wanna see it (i think? writing this now i’m not so sure lol) so whooooooo really knows lol, but chaos walking YES i was really excited about it :))) and about my friend uhh dude you don’t sound mean at all i was literally thinking the same thing but worse HAAKL idk what she was there for???? she bought my ticket tho so 💁🏾‍♀️ whatever

“SIMS ahh, BUNK BEDS ahh” had me cracking up lmao and you know my sims status JAJAHHAJ but i’m gonna become like you, saving every 5 minutes 😭 but that’s exactly what happened to me, i really didn’t know whether to shut it off or not but after 2 hours i was heartbroken lol i’m literally making a list of things i need to redo that wasn’t saved lmao

CAN I JUST SAY UR A MASTERMIND THOUGH??? UR SIMS GAME SOUNDS SO *chefs kiss* IM CRINE university is PAINFULLY long and LITERALLY I FEEEL THAT like you can’t do anything else without failing, i had my sim go to a party once for like a few hours and i felt so dumb afterwards like urgh he should’ve been studying LMAOO just cracking down on work honestly. UR NEIGHBOR!AU IN THE SIMS PLEASEEE i am very much in love with it, yes. (pouring rain has just suddenly begun where i am rn wow ok) i love that you put them on the same lot, that was really really smart and i love that ur living out your sexuality in the sims😭 i was abt to say “now you can say you’ve got experience bc of the sims” but ANYWAY IGNORE ME fhdhs THE ALIEN BABY DHSJSK i hope it’s not a dealbreaker for enisa. that’d be tragic. IM BACK IN UPPERCASE THO BC YES MAKING OUT IN THE SIMS IS SO HOT TO ME??? I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE STFU OH MY GOSH- all the stuff, whispering sweet nothings, and the making out, and JUST ALL OF IT!!! AM I TOUCH STARVED????? there was this time i made my sim just continue to woohoo bc it was turning me on big time. ANYWAY

half way through that i had to go to my grandmothers house (not the one that likes lion king, but uh hmm idk if you remember but i was talking abt my shit family so yeah that grandmother lol) so now i’m finishing this 🥴 and instead of chloe x halle i’m watching a tom interview lmao & if this takes me longer than 30 minutes.... imma cry

I REALLY WANNA ASK- IS IT BC UR GERMAN LIKE YOU CAN JUST WRITE OUT THAT LONG ASS WORD???? i mean i can’t write out supercalafrag- anyway, but that word is a bit nonsense, UR WORD IS A REAL WORD DUDE HDJSHS i love how ur like “maybe i mixed up these words” YEA OK.

lol i had to google what are waveformers lol (lol makes a comeback) and they look like curlers that you would sleep in (here we would call them curlers or uhm i forgot uhhhhhhh rollers i think) but ur fine when am i ever making sense?? i think the best part about these is the chaos yet we understand what the other means 😌

H20 H20 H20 OH MY GOODNESS SHE BROUGHT UP H20 OK MY LIFE WAS H20🥲 I HAVE THEIR LOCKET NECKLACE AND (short storytime) when i was younger i thought they were american despite their accents (idk i was dumb) but then i figured they weren’t when lewis went to go study in america HAHAH ALSO FAVORITE COUPLE CLEO AND LEWIS UGH WATCH ME REWATCH THE SHOW NOW THANKS (also i hated elizabeth so much) but anyway back on topic, when lewis went to go study in the US i looked up where the show took place and all that good stuff and i found out they were australian HAHAH and that started my obsession with accents LMAO the uk :’)) (i’m proofreading AND AUSTRALIA IS NOT A PART OF THE UK LMAOO IM SOO DHSJSSHS) also it is now one of my many goals (besides the body roll HAHAH) to go to mako island (that’s what it’s called right??)

about music, i googled stormzy and i might listen to a song of his.. LOL I WANNA GIVE IT A TRY IMMA DO IT FOR YOU NFDVSFSG lmaoo the german rapper had me cackling (autocorrect once again being helpful and said raper and i’m like nOO) i mean we all have that one person. can’t lie, won’t lie. my one (IM SORRY BUT AUTOCORRECT HAD “MY ONE TRUE ACCOMPLISHMENT” SITTING AND READY HDJSJA I DONT EVEN TYPE THAT wHAT) person out of my white soft boy with brown hair and brown eyes type would beeeee pete davidson. love me some petey. i was gonna say rex orange county as well lmao but i don’t really loveeee him i’m just in love with his music... and wanna be friends with him..... so 👉🏾👈🏾 (i never do that fdshsh)

oh my goodness, i love tattoos too- GASP what are you thinking of getting 🥺 i want tattoos too but i’m too indecisive to figure out what to have & where. especially in my family... idk they aren’t frowned upon but my mom’s not applauding the thought lol, if i got one it would have to be meaningful but i am absolutely in love with (for example) ariana grande’s finger tattoos !! they’re so cute and simple :’) i don’t even know if i can get tattoos? my skin is... interesting. not in a bad way!! just like.... idk how to explain it??? keyloids run in the family & i got a piercing once and it got infected soo :/ the doctor also confirmed that if i wanted tattoos they couldn’t be in color so LMAO

ONCE AGAIN THIS WHOLE THING FEELS SO TMI DHSHSSJ IM LIKE OHMIGOSH SHUT UP SHE DOESNT CARE JESJSKS

in regards to you not sleeping, i wanted to mention that dumb bird, what was the reason it was up so early aT 4AM???? SIR WHO YOU CALLING TO??? also it’s 11:30pm and idk why i’m tired???

yeah i was never SUPER into justin so i don’t know exactly what albums you’re talking about lol, i do know yummy though.. but everyone did hahaha also i listen to so much pop 🙈 i mean maybe... idk what would count as pop and what wouldn’t. that new person feeling though.. i get that. it’s like who is this new person..? i kinda feel like that with taylor swift (i was never THAT into her either though so it’s like oh wait i didn’t know you from the beginning instead of hello old friend but you’re different lol)

about the concerts, thanks 🥰🥰 that’s so sweet what you did for your mom too, it’s nice seeing them so happy like 🥲 awh AND GLEE IS AND WAS MY LIFE FOR A V V LONG TIME, i’ve been meaning to rewatch it for the longest time lmaooo but i’m just so lazy and it’s such a commitment... i’ll have to get emotionally involved again and idk if i want that rn. but i have a friend on instagram and she runs a glee fan account and it’s such a big part of her life i really don’t think i could ever be THAT obsessed with something. like another one of my friends loves tom holland so much that she changed her mom’s name in her phone to what tom’s mom’s name is in his phone (that was confusing lol) and obviously i’m not judging them AT ALL, it just couldn’t be me lol

CONCERTS LOOK LIKE SO MUCH FUN 😩😩 LIKE THE EXPERIENCE AND THE FEELINGGG URGHSJS i wanna see a few people live like ari and chloe x halle and- hmm.... idk who else FJDSJ rex orange county i guess huh anyway, the experience just sounds so amazing and the atmosphere is just ✨✨✨ yeah

aria do it do it do it do it do it- watch hamilton!! but with subtitles bc you won’t catch half of the things they’re saying without them LMAO (me and my family watched it and they all didn’t like it bc they didn’t know what was happening lol) BUT DONT WATCH IT AT 4AM LMAO ITS LITERALLY 3 HOURS LONG

yes!! superior peter fics 🥺🥺🥺🥺 and it just shows how much of an incredible writer AND PERSON you are through your fics that you can turn a blurb into 2k....... like what.

LMAO the annoying thing, sometimes i feel like i’m bothering people (like right now HAHAH) but i think it’s my antisocial side being like yeaa no one wants to talk to you like you wanna talk to them :’) idk it’s strange!! sometimes i get really ✨insecure✨ and overthink everything LOL like is this too long, im talking too much, i’m swearing too much, oh lord i’m a pain, all that good shit lmao so that’s fun:))

ALSO YOUR BLOG IS SO FUN TO ME HAHAK LIKE ITS JUST YOUR OWN AND I LOVE THAT!!! like you talk about everything and anything on here lol,, and i say that bc what you said lmao how if i was someone else i would want to fuck me so bad😭 i honestly don’t understand how i don’t have people lining up though..... but if no one’s gonna tell you... then you tell yourself, period (and sometimes telling yourself is fucking yourself HSHAJKS OK NEXT)

ohmigosh the realization you had that you graduated last year and are going to uni this year🤧 but the fact that you had a teacher who LEFT THE GROUP CHAT bc she was mad at y’all i- 😭 but yeah about your maths (i always wondered why you guys call it maths and the US calls it math. like i know so many people out of the states, not just in the uk that say maths) teacher- i saw this post that said online school is looking a lot like dora the explorer😭😭 “you have any questions?” 🦗 “okay bye then” lmao and please i love when tests have nothing to do with what you studied like ??? thanks? sometimes i get scared that my teacher will somehow find out that i googled everything? or like my answer is too close to the answer sheet or something. i get sooo nervous lol but i’m already past that point of not being able to do anything myself DHJS i mean i’m still learning like i said!! read the question, read the answer. boom. now i know the answer to the question and i learned!

THANKS 🙈🥰🤧 idk how else to explain my feelings LMAO i feel it’s cool that you find my dance lessons and voice lessons cool so thanks :’)

oh god not headache season 😭😭 allergies are the worst like it’s not even funny. is headache season just when the seasons are changing or is it like... all throughout the summer? cuz i love the summer lmaoo i love the winter too but i just love wearing as little clothes as possible LMAO

GIRL IF THAT BIRD DONT STOP CHIRPING- i am 100% convinced that it is the same bird trying to give you headaches and no sleep and it needs to stfu 😤 and pLEASE ur theme is adorable and pretty and cute but also it just feels like you? idk if i’m explaining this right or if it’s bc i’ve been talking to you for a bit but it’s cute but not innocent in a way that i’m surprised that you write smut and- yeah, that didn’t make sense!! but ur new theme is gonna look pretty too and as long as you like it, it’ll be amazing🥰

yessssss the fact that megan is gonna be ur pfp YES JUST YES

edit: ok i just need to 🥺😭 sometimes u make me wanna cry cuz i feel like you’re just a kind person. i truly mean this, the fact that you celebrate yours & others stretch marks makes me so 🥺🥺🥺 i honestly don’t know anyone who has said they want need more stretch marks and it’s just all very lovely to me :’)) OKAY IMMA STOP BEING SAPPY

#yes my fake tags are back #by popular demand #aka me #and look i have actual tags this time! #i’m seriously craving water ice rn....... huh #but it’s past midnight and i fr fr want a snack #aw man #i wrote that last paragraph while doing my tags yes #and i hope you become responsible for that anon’s orgasm #assuming they had one #and i saw your response to the tom thing and yeaa when they only look like that for something and it’s like aw bae be yourself #i’m gonna shut up now and find a snack but goodnight!! morning?? IDK #IF THESE TAGS END UP AS ACTUAL TAGS I AM SO SORRY HAHAHA #alright proofreading done and i’m gonna go eat cereal

okay i‘m on my way to a driving lesson rn and afterwards i have a zoom uni thing, and then another uni thing lmao. but hopefully i can reply to this in between because i‘ve been dying to talk to you since i got this ask dldjds💘💘💘 (i really like this heart. i had a 💖 phase for a while and now it‘s 💘 (seems like a very romantic heart but.... it is what it is idk dkddj)

^okay that was literally all i wrote before my lesson lmfao. just had the worst driving lesson ever dbdvsnylkxsksj i think i‘ve gotten too used to being good at driving and now i‘ve gotten too cocky with it 🥴 anyway i‘ve had such a stressful day and overall week but tbh i‘m already feeling better bc i can (indirectly) talk to you <333

omg i went to chloe or halle (i don‘t remember who out of the two)‘s instagram the other day and found out that they are not twins alejeleksjsksj but yes oh my god their voices are literally angelic and i can‘t wait to see Halle as Ariel (Arielle??)🥰 and omg it‘s literally 2021 and we‘ve only had......... one(?) black Disney Princess like it‘s about fucking time (I might be forgetting someone, I‘m not too familiar with the new Disney films, but as far as I remember there‘s only Tiana right? (who is literally a frog for 3/4 of the film 😭😭) so yes i‘m here for it too😌😌😌 (obviously she‘s not a cartoon like tiana ekdlek but she‘s a disney princess you know what i mean ddkjdh)

pfkejdj i‘m already overwhelmed with my parents i can‘t imagine having siblings too 😭😭 (sometimes i wish i had siblings but then other times (like after reading what you wrote dksjj) i‘m glad that i‘m an only child lmao like your brothers being mean to you and i remember when you cried and he was just like 👁👄👁 ok. like i’m totally okay being an only child sksjsj———and he doesn‘t listen to music 🤧🤧🤧 (although i guess that‘s good for you because at least he can‘t annoy you by listening to loud music that you hate dmdn)

okay okay i might watch wandavision then??? I‘ll definitely let you know!!! and yes omg i‘m loving tfatws (that really is so fucking hard to type omg) but same i totally get what you mean, i‘m not used to watching action series at all and every episode so far has been like a little movie so i‘m glad that i didn‘t wait until it was all out cause there’s no way i could binge watch that lol) and yes last episode was really intense. i‘m glad that marvel are talking about racism because (from what i‘ve seen) they haven‘t been the best in that department, and i‘m really curious to see what they‘ll do in the next episodes (curious isn‘t the right word but excited isn‘t the right wort either, like i‘m excited but in a neutral way ? i‘ll shut up dslsksj i hate that german has so many words that you cant translate because theres a really good german word that describes how i’m feeling but i cant think of a good translation ugh)

okay i absolutely need to watch lion king (and part 2 and 1/ 1/2 dksksj) AND hamilton, i might even do it soon 👀

BURGERS AT THE CINEMA? EBEEISNDBEKSK i‘ll come to the US just to go and watch a movie lmaooo, i think all the popcorn sizes and drinks are bigger as well, i‘ll come and watch chaos walking with you 😌😌 does next week work?

and yeah i‘ve seen posts with specific time stamps and trigger warning for cherry too so if you haven’t looked on tumblr yet i’ve def seen some! (but ive also seen some on twitter and yeah- i mean idk youve probably looked on tumblr but yeah- then there’s also imdb which doesn’t have time stamps i believe but quite specific warnings, mostly without spoilers!)

Tbh i don‘t think i would have even considered watching cherry if tom wasn‘t in it... (i’m personally fine with most of the triggering topics/things like for some reason i’m just stoic when i’m watching the most tragic films ever dldldldlbut the plot just... idk if it‘s for me you know? just entertainment wise?).... and even with tom in it i‘m unsure skeldls, i‘d totally get if you decide not to watch it but let me know if you do i‘d want to hear your thoughts! <3

SKSLSJJ my sims both finally graduated!! i think i played sometime last week, and i literally got the achievement/notification that i‘d been playing with this household for 24hours.... and that was BEFORE they graduated dldjdldkdksjjs

oh no my tumblr broke and three paragraphs of me talking about sims were deleted 😭😭😭

WAIT NO I TOOK SCREENSHOTSSKSK because i couldn’t press save so i knew they might be gone okay okay okay i‘m a genius

*move out

oh no idk if the quality is too bad to read... idk how good your eyes are dkdkdjjd (also sometimes it will be really bad quality for some but not for others so i hope that the you can see the pics in a normal/good quality)

Okay let me continue

OMG THE ROMANTIC AND SEXUAL STUFF IS THE BEST PART ABOUT THE SIMS DIDLDKJIkdkj i kind of miss how in the sims 3 they would be making out basically lying on top of each other if they were on a bed— but in sims 4 when they‘re sitting next to each other and everything that‘s definitely hot too 😌😭 or with hot tubs dkdkdk how one sim climbs on the other sim‘s lap before they woohoo (i used to make them skinny dip in the hot tub and then make out and woohoo so they’re like naked on top of each other even if you can‘t see anything- en e waysss)

Dkdkdkdj so @ Rindfleischet.. blah bla. so it‘s basically just loads of individual words put together/connected and that‘s a really big part of german. so yesterday i had an online Einführungsveranstaltung for uni (like it was a zoom meeting where they just talked about general stuff about the uni and i was really anxious before, idk why, but it turned out absolutely fine so) and that words consists of the two words Einführung (introduction) and Veranstaltung (event) which are also two individual words but you can make a new word (Einführungsveranstaltung, so in english that‘s basically “introduction event“ lmao) by combining those two words. there are obviously some rules like you can‘t just combine random words in a random order but you can basically make infinite words (technically). for example (i feel like i‘m teaching a class just skip this if you don’t care 🙃🙃🙃djdjdkdlns)

for example i could say Einführungsveranstaltungsteilnehmer (which is not underlined with red by tumblr because it is a grammatically correct compound word (i think that‘s what they‘re called?)) which is the words introduction + event + participant, so that word just means “participant of an introductory event“ but instead it‘s one word? i hope that makes sense? dkdkkdksks i mean it makes sense in german but idk if it makes sense to you cause idk if i‘m explaining it very well lmao,

(I just deleted a really really long paragraph that i wrote about gender in the german language and grammar, you‘re welcome slsksksj)

my capacity to think has now been used up for the week 🥴🥴🥴 i absolutely do not blame you if you just skipped over that part or can‘t be bothered to (re)read my awful explanation edkflsksjdjdj (again, i had double the amount of words but i just deleted it dkdkdlslsl but what‘s left lf my german lesson is probably confusing enough already😭i‘m sorry🥴)

so to answer your question LEJDKSKJ: it‘s really common to have long words in german, words that are just word+ word+ word + word made into one long word. obv rindfleischetikettierung..... is a very extreme example and it‘s normally just 2-4 words made into one! So yup i think that comes mostly from german and talking german and growing up here and going to school here and everything dmdfnsksx

i think the best part about these is the chaos yet we understand what the other means 😌— YES. YES. Yes. I love that about us 😌😌🥰🥰/ I love us. Yes.

okay but your friend changing her mom‘s name into tom‘s mum‘s name (was that right? Dkdkdjh)—— so Justin Bieber once posted something where you could see that his Dad‘s number was saved as „Daddy Cakes“ (which, thinking back, sounds very weird ekejjej) and till this day I have my Dad’s contact name as Tata (which is serbian for Dad lmao), “Tata🍰“ in my phone because of it 😭😭😭😭🙃🙃🙃 it‘s not because of justin anymore like i‘ve just gotten used to it by now but at first i did it because of justin lol........ but nowadays i don‘t think i‘m THAT type of fan of anyone- like you know how people have fandom names (Justin‘s fans are the Beliebers, One Direction fans are Directioners (writing that hurt my soul💔💔💔)) and I wouldn‘t consider myself a fan of anyone like that. like even with tom i wouldn‘t call myself........ does tom even have a name for his fans??? Well if he does, I wouldn‘t call myself that. Like i used to be such a hardcore stan for any celebrity that i liked and now it‘s just... okay, i like em. (She says on her blog where she writes fan fiction about Tom Holland — WJDJEJDKELSKSKKSNSNDXB🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃)

Omg rex orange county!!!!!! I don‘t know that many songs like I‘ve only listened to the album pony, but i love it 💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘

thanks again for what you said about my fics/writing I‘m🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Pete Davidson Pete Davidson Pete Davidson I‘m-🥰🥰🥰🥰 and I can‘t explain why. But as blissfulparker said the other day (i don‘t want to tag her and make her read through all of this lolll) “I like my men when they look like they are on the brink of death 😍“ (or something along the lines of that) eskkejs okay pete isn‘t that bad, he looks quite good on some days but other days you‘re like... is this man alive? Like i don‘t want to be mean I love Pete so much The King of Staten Island is literally my favourite film ever (although it‘s not my #1 because of how he looks, but i mean he does look good) VUT ALSO

(Okay i was gonna look for a terrible picture of him but he really doesn‘t look as bad as people say??? like. i think he‘s hot. can‘t necessarily explain why. so that‘s that on that.)

i‘m not going chronologically right now (i just keep scrolling up to your ask and replying to whatever i see first sksksksh) so i might miss a thing or two that you said

Okay Stormzy, you really really don‘t have to dkdkdjd like i think you said you don‘t really listen to rap, and uk rap is a whole nother thing from us rap because of the accent i feel like??? (That sentence did not make sense) BUT if you‘re looking for a few songs that aren‘t like RAP rap, then I‘d recommend One Second (feat HER), Superheroes, Own it (which you might know?), ummm maybe the song Lessons?, he has a ton of Lion King references by the way dkdjdj for example in Rachael‘s Little Brother but that‘s like more RAP again if you know what I mean?😭 and it‘s also like 5 Minutes long and tbh i only started liking that song a year after that album came out lmao but Rachael‘s Little Brother is possibly my fav Stormzy song, then there is Shut Up which you absolutely need to listen to just for fun dldjdjd like it‘s just pure fun and also a little funny lmao, especially if you‘re not British (i imagine so at least) cause he‘s like shuTTTT up idk dldkdjdldkjdhdhfjfbfldlsksksks

Vossi Bop is one of his classics, and then maybeee - ok so there‘s Blinded By Your Grace Pt. 2 lmaoobdjsj it‘s very (Christian/) religious but i like it a lot even though i‘m not really Christian (at least not practicing or anything) so idk about your views on religion but i do like the song a lot just by like the sound lmao

Okay so again you absolutely DO NOT have to listen to any, especially not for me dlskdj but I really do recommend the songs Superheroes, One Second and Rachael‘s Little Brother (and all the other ones i mentioned but if you don‘t listen to a lot of his songs you should at least give these three a try <3333) also let me know some of your songs? 🥺 like i dont care who they‘re by but i‘d love to listen to some that you like and Recommend 🥰🥰🥰

Okay so skdjdjdjddhhddhdhjsk... I used to watch all of my series in German (like H2O) bc obviously they were on german tv so they were german- and i knew that most of these actors i saw on tv were american and i was always SO fascinated that they all learned german for this show??? Like I actually thought they were the people‘s real voices and that these English and American actors were learning german so they could re-record the whole ass show and do everything in german dkdkdldjdjjd... i swear I thought that until I was like 14 omg. And then the first time that I watched H2O in the original version i was sooo confused about their accents because to me all actors who spoke english were American?? I mean MOST of those shows are American so I wasn‘t completely off but yeah i was definitely caught off guard when I heard all of their Australian accents for the first time 💀💀😭😭😭

@ math vs maths, math actually makes more sense in my opinion. like you have the word mathematics, then the abbreviation would obviously be math... why would English people randomly add the s from the end??? Or maybe it makes more sense after all because it‘s like plural??? Now I‘m unsure dkdkdkdj but i do say maths because that‘s how i was taught to say it and i hear the word maths more than math but yeah dldkdjs i think math might even make more sense (okay i just tried saying math and maths is easier to pronounce but again tjat might just be me, oh god i‘ll stop talking about that disgusting thing (mathematics).)

not the crickets and dora LMAOOOSNSNSMDNBS yeah that teacher was... a lot. a lot a lot a lot didjjd but she kinda liked me so she always gave me good grades/marks but the people she didn‘t like..... ooft. OOF.

Fksksjsj idek about headache season like i just know that i get headaches from the sun and i‘m allergic to only one.. type of...pollen??? (I don’t understand the science of that whole pollen thing and idek if it’s called pollen in english i just know sex pollen from fan fics😔)and yeah we have this weird wind that makes a lot of people get headaches yeahd dkdkdj. i loved the i just love wearing as little clothes as possible LMAO lllioool i love that i really do. i always struggle so much in the summer cause i never have anything to wear. i feel like i buy so many new summer clothes every year but when i end up looking for an outfit i don‘t ever find anything 😭 (so i just go naked— lmao jk jk) but i‘m generally not the biggest fan of summer so-

OMG THIS FUCKING BIRD ISTG, okay the first time i heard it i went to sleep at like 5 am, so the next day i was like let me go to bed earlier so the bird doesn‘t keep me up, so i went to bed at 4 am (🥲) and THE BIRD JUST STARTED FUCKING CHIRPING SO LOUDLY, so the next day i went to bed at 3 am AND IT FUCKING STARTED AT 3 AM and it‘s still there 😁 every. night.

and since you said you‘ve gotten used to my theme and everything (idk where this transition came from😭) so tomorrow (2nd april) we have our... wait what‘s an anniversary but for a month.? I think month is like mensus in latin OK NO THATS DEF WRONG DKDKDJ wait

So Tomorrow is our... mensiversary💘💘💘💘💘💘 or at least from the first time you sent an ask. i couldn‘t find it on my tumblr anymore because tumblr is a bit of a bitch but i remember the first thing you ever sent (in an ask) was something lovely about my writing and i always take screenshots of stuff like that, and i found it in my gallery. and i took that screenshot of your ask on the 2nd of march so i‘m assuming that‘s when you sent it 🥰🥰 i feel like i‘ve known you for a week not a month like how is it a month already????? (i mean this in a good way lmao but i really can’t believe that its been a month wtf)

omg no you make me want to cry because i just love you so much 😭😭🥺 but about the stretch mark thing it‘s just.. it‘s not even me trying to empower other women (or anyone else who has stretch marks) to shake off these dumb insecurities that the patriarchy and capitalism have instilled in us— ok no it‘s definitely that too lmao. But i mean I‘ve always loved stretch marks, i‘ve just always loved loved loved them so much so it makes me genuinely sad that people don‘t like them. so yeah. i dont really know how to explain it lol, like i‘m not (only) hoping that people realise that hating your stretch marks is giving the men and the patriarchy what they want per se- (that made no sense) it‘s just because i love stretch marks and think they‘re beautiful and also sexy. idk dldkdjls and omg the fact that you called me kind 🥺🥺🥺 like i don‘t really have a goal in life or anything, but if i had to choose a ‘goal‘ in life it would just be to be kind. (i‘ll end this here otherwise i‘m gonna talk about being kind for 30 more lines—)

And please. Do not ever feel like you‘re annoying me or sending too much. never ever ever. I get so happy when i see that you‘ve sent me an ask. No matter if it‘s a long one like this or just a short one where you‘re saying something about a post that i reblogged or something. I love hearing from/about you and talking to you 💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘

P.S: i‘m so sorry for the tags you‘re about to read they make even less sense than this post, also i reached the tag limit dkdkdj but i said some butterfly tattoos look tacky... and the next thing i said was since we‘re already speaking about Ariana- I DID NOT MEAN THAT SHE WAS TACKY dldkdjsj, i meant since you already mentioned some of her tattoos lmao

[jamesedwinstark]

Okay, as promised I am posting the James noncon. There'll be 2 posts.

I wanna be SUPER CLEAR that this is NOT CANON. This is just a horrible "what if" scenario that I needed to vomit onto a page.

The concept here is that Justin Hammer is holding James hostage. He infected a number of his employees with nanites that will kill them if James doesn't do everything Hammer says. James also has nanites in him which monitor his behavior and make it so he can't call for help.

The first thing Hammer wants to do with James is... go on a date. This is the date.

I’ll pick you up around 8. Wear something slinky ;)

That was the text James had received a few hours earlier. After days of waiting, of trying to pretend nothing was wrong, it was finally happening. James didn’t know if he was glad to get it over with, or if he wanted a few more days of relative normalcy. In the end, it didn’t matter what he wanted. He’d do as he was told.

It was best to get ready like it was a normal date. James picked out an outfit he thought counted as ‘slinky’: a long-sleeved shirt with cut outs in the back and on the shoulders, cropped so it showed barely an inch of midriff, pants which clung to his butt and drew attention where it was needed, and boots with just a little heel, accentuating his legs. He was supposed to be a trophy, not a whore. Right?

Clothes at the ready, James sat down at his vanity. He made up his face on autopilot, not doing anything special; it wasn’t as though this was Valeria or Loki, people whose preferences he knew intimately, who loved him, who he really wanted to please. He wished either of them were here.

While digging through his lipsticks, James pulled out a tacky, pink glitter gloss. He considered wearing it. It suggested youth, naivety, innocence. It said, “set me free; I’m just a kid.” That doesn’t matter. It only matters whose kid you are.

Well, the pink was worth a shot. James never knew what little thing might give him an advantage. He picked out some earrings inlaid with pink gemstones to match.

As he applied the gloss, his phone buzzed. He waved a hand and a screen popped up in front of him. He’d been mentioned in one of his groupchats, specifically the one for former Young Avengers, which he’d been invited to join in an honorary capacity, having spent a decent chunk of his childhood as something of a team mascot. He tapped the notification.

TEDDY: Hey! @James, some of us are heading to a bar, wanna come???

KATE: Jimmmminmy!

ELI: Wr already got satarted

TEDDY: Kate already got started

TEDDY: Yeh, lmao ^^

TOMMY: Jimmy ger Dow. Here and I’ll find u and unstable girl

BILLY: Guys, he doesn’t like being called Jimmy. Plz use his full name

BILLY: Jimbo come hang out with us

A tickle in the back of his head told him that the nanites in his brain were on high alert.

JAMES: As much as I love watching you get trashed and butcher my name, I can’t tonight

KATE: Booo u whoree!

DAVID: Plx help me jim I’m not drunk enough for this

James sighed. The point was for people to know about it, so he may as well say something now.

JAMES: I actually can’t. I have a date :)

The smiley face felt a little forced, but that was probably just projection. Nobody would question it. He was supposed to be excited. It was supposed to be believable.

BILLY: Oh

BILLY: Ok

BILLY: Have fun :)

TOMMY: Lmao seriously tho do ew even wana kno who is it THIS TIME

James clenched his fist in front of his face, and the screen disappeared back into his phone. Even his own friends thought he was an idiot when it came to love. Because you are. You deserve this.

There was almost an hour where James was dressed and ready to go, just pacing around his apartment, waiting. As the minutes stretched on, the nervousness twisting up his insides heightened. It’s no big deal. It’s just a date. Not even, it was a con, just for show. All he was doing was working a mark, playing a role. He was good at that. This would be fine.

He checked his phone when it buzzed again at 8:34.

Car’s waiting. Hurry that cute little ass down here

James took a deep breath, grabbed his coat and headed out the door. While taking the elevator down, James replied.

On my way

There was a white limo parked outside James’ building. James knew it was where he was expected to go, because it radiated a nervous, vicious excitement that made him dizzy. As he approached, the driver stepped out and held the door for him. He had nothing but contempt for James.

“Thank you.” James told him sweetly, flashing him a demure little smile. The driver’s contempt was eaten away slightly by another, even less comforting feeling: pity. He wondered how much, if anything, the driver actually knew about what was going on.

Justin Hammer was waiting for him inside, and if he’d been any happier he would have been bouncing in his seat. The inside of the car smelled a little too strongly of Hammer’s cologne. James sat down across from him and Hammer looked him up and down appraisingly. He was… disappointed. Oh no.

“Is that what you decided to wear?” He asked.

James looked down at his outfit. “What’s wrong with it?”

“I mean, would it kill you to show some more skin?” Hammer whined. “I thought you kids wore skirts now.”

A skirt suggested something. Easy access. Hammer wanted people- James’ Dad most of all- to see James’ bare thighs and know who was getting between them. It seemed that he had been wrong; he was supposed to be a whore.

“I’m… sorry.” James said. “I didn’t know that’s what you wanted.”

Hammer sighed. “I think I’d better take a more hands-on approach to your outfit choices from now on.”

“If that’s what you want.” James acquiesced.

“When we get to the restaurant, there are going to be paparazzi.” Hammer explained, barely acknowledging that James had spoken. “I may or may not have tipped somebody off. You're gonna put on a good show for them, alright? I wanna see a big smile on that pretty face. Really sell how infatuated you are with me.”

James huffed. “I know how to play my role, Hammer. This is what I do.”

“Come on, sweetheart. We're in love.” Hammer said, unpleasantly pleased with himself. “You can call me Justin.”

“I was planning on doing that in public.”

“Well, I want you to do it all the time.”

That was all that needed to be said on the matter.

The car pulled up to the restaurant, and Hammer stepped out first. He held the door for James, making sure that the paparazzi who had indeed turned up saw him doing so. James played his part, put on a cutesy smile and batted his eyelashes as he got out of the car and wrapped himself around Hammer’s arm. As soon as he did, he felt Hammer get frustrated, and saw him glance down at James’ shoes. James was already an inch or two taller, and the slight heel made that little bit of difference all the more noticeable. He’d already messed up again. This might be a little more difficult than he thought.

The handful of paparazzi that had gathered and were being ushered away, unhurriedly, by the restaurant staff, barked questions at James, which he ignored. Their camera drones buzzed perilously close to get good shots of the absolute travesty of a date they were witnessing. James could practically hear the nasty headlines they were concocting in their heads about him and his wonderfully tabloid-worthy habit of getting into bed with the ‘wrong’ sort.

They were at the door when James got the sense of someone else trying to get his attention, but not in a mean way. He heard a child ask, “Is that really him?”

James turned on his heel to see a woman with a little girl, maybe five or six, looking at him. They both got very excited when they realized he’d noticed them. Abandoning his annoyed date, James jogged over to the pair.

“I’m really sorry to bother you Mr. Stark, but we heard you were going to be here and…” The woman began sheepishly, “You’re her favorite.” The little girl buried her face in the woman’s pant leg.

James laughed, sincerely this time. “I always have time for a young lady with such impeccable taste.” He said, before getting down on the little girl’s level. “I’m James, what’s your name?”

The little girl looked up questioningly at the woman- presumably her mother- before replying “Sarah.”

The paparazzi took some interest in what he was doing, but they weren’t as thrilled about it. Local Superhero Nice to Child wasn’t as attention-grabbing a headline as Cap and Iron Man’s Son Does Something Awful, Again.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sarah. Did you know Sarah was my grandmothers name?”

The little girl shook her head.

Hammer was getting exponentially more annoyed by the second, but he couldn’t exactly drag James away from a little kid in front of all these people. Not without looking like the second coming of Ebenezer Scrooge anyway. Still, James didn’t want to push his luck, he had to wrap this up quickly.

“Are you really the Golden Avenger?” Sarah asked.

James snapped his fingers, and a shower of yellow sparks spilled from his hand. “I sure am.”

Joy erupted in Sarah’s chest like fireworks. “We’re the same!” She squeaked.

“She has epilepsy.” Her mother explained. James nodded.

Seeing that Sarah’s ears were pierced, he took the pair of star-shaped pink sapphire studs out of his ears and pressed them into her hand.

“That’s for you. Wash them before you wear them; it’s not sanitary otherwise.” James said. “Now, Sarah, this is important. I believe in you, I want you to believe in yourself, and always, always listen to your parents. Do we have an understanding?”

Sarah nodded.

James hurried back to where he had left Hammer waiting, feeling the impatience directed his way. As soon as he was close enough, Hammer grabbed him, clamping a hand firmly on James’ butt (which the paparazzi adored) and dragging him inside.

“I know that wholesome image is how you sell lunchboxes and all,” Hammer hissed in his ear, smiling as he did so, “but don’t keep me waiting, ever again. You got that?”

A thousand explanations and protests died on James’ tongue. While talking to the kid, he had briefly forgotten that someone else owned him. Briefly.

“I got it. I’m sorry.”

Once they were inside, James shed his coat. Seeing his exposed back made Hammer a little happier with James’ outfit. It was almost… uncomfortable how much happier seeing that skin made him. James brushed it off as just more of Hammer’s weird overenthusiasm.

“Is this more what you were thinking in regard to the skin thing?” James asked. He kept his tone light. “Specifically mine and showing more of it.”

“It’s definitely better.” Hammer agreed.

This was good. If they could get along while fake-dating, eventually Hammer would have to start seeing him as a human being. He would like James, if only James provided the camaraderie Hammer had always craved from James’ Dad, camaraderie which had always been denied to him. Then he’d let James go.

The maitre d’ seated them by a window, which meant more pictures of them together, and more acting for James. While they were across from one another, Hammer fixated on James’ eyes. He didn’t seem to be able to stop looking at them. You didn’t have to be a super-genius to figure out why. You just had to look very, very similar to one.

Nobody brought them menus.

“I took the liberty of ordering ahead of time.” Hammer boasted. “I’m gonna take good care of you tonight, don’t you worry.”

Again, James got a weird reading from Hammer. Something in the back of his head was trying to warn him about something. Danger, James Stark! Danger! Danger! Well, of course he was in danger, somebody else had his life in their hands. It’s more than that, don’t be stupid.

The waiter brought out their meals. James’ was not something he recognized as food, but he’d never been much for fancy cuisine. He’d survived this long mostly on chicken nuggets and takeout. Still, he picked at his dinner, not wanting to seem like he was ungrateful or that he disapproved of Hammer’s choice. He remembered what his Pop had told him about growing up in the Depression, and all the garbage they’d choked down trying to survive. I was 25 before I realized sawdust wasn’t actually an ingredient. If Pop could do that, James could work through something that had been meticulously crafted by a trained chef. Don’t be spoiled. You’re an Avenger, not a princess.

“Do you prefer red or white wine?” Hammer asked. “I know the sommelier personally. She’ll get us some of the good stuff.”

“I can’t drink.” James said, and when that led Hammer to get irritated, he explained, “Because of my condition.” It still wasn’t good enough. “But, I suppose one glass won’t kill me.”

The sommelier who poured their drinks was nauseatingly gracious to Hammer, but James could tell that she didn’t actually like him. Just has the driver had done, she regarded him (internally, of course) with contempt. James started feeling a little bad for Hammer; everyone around him was so fake.

Hammer raised his glass. “To us.”

Oh my gosh he can’t be serious. James raised his glass in answer, smiling through the pain of secondhand embarrassment. Having never really had more than a few sips of alcohol at any one time, James was unused to the taste of wine. It was nasty. He powered through it. People actually drank this stuff for fun? All it did was remind him that, right now, his friends were getting sloppy wasted on any number of unpleasant-tasting concoctions. He was supposed to be there, not here.

“Babe, has anyone ever told you you don’t talk much?” Hammer asked.

“I can honestly say nobody has ever said that to me in the history of my life, no.” James replied.

“It’s something you should work on.” Hammer continued as if James hadn’t spoken at all. “And smile more. Jeez, kid, you’re bumming me out, you know?”

James grinned. “Right, cameras are still on us and all.”

“And you’re having fun, aren’t you?”

He wants it to be real. Give him what he wants. “Yeah, of course.” He wants it to be real. Why did that sit so uneasily?

“This isn’t the sort of place I’d take just anyone.” Hammer gestured around at what was, admittedly, a very classy place. “This is the five-star treatment. It’s just for people I really want to undress.”

“... I’m sorry?”

“It’s for people I really want to impress.” Hammer leaned in. “You’re a very special kid. I’ve been waiting a long time to get my hands on you.”

Hammer was feeling at him very, very intensely. It was like being in a sauna, having him so close and emitting the thrill of power he was getting from all this. Power and… something else.

James laughed, clear and seemingly unforced. “I guess you’ve got me.”

“I guess I do, don’t I?” Hammer leaned back and just reveled in it for a moment. What he was feeling made James little ill. James took a drink of water. It was getting oppressively hot. Hammer was getting oppressively hot… for… James.

He was aroused. This, holding James hostage, hurting his Dad, was making Hammer horny, and he had James right here… he could do anything he wanted. He wants it to be real. How real? How real was he going to make it?

Hammer started talking at James, telling him about some impressive thing he almost certainly hadn’t actually done. James only half listened, his mind was occupied, trying to peel back the layers of Hammer’s intention like he’d been taught to do. Find and identify all the tiny little things Hammer was feeling at a given moment. His attraction was superficial, the real source of his arousal was the sense of ownership he had, of victory. It led to feelings of excitement, anticipation, expectation… certainty. He was certain.

"Excuse me, Justin." James tittered during a break in the ‘conversation’. His smile felt like it would crack his face. "I need to go powder my nose."

Hammer took a sip from his wineglass. "Ok, you can go. Don't take too long, though." Again, that sickening rush washed over him. "I want to get out of here soon."

James hurried away from the table. Soon. His vision blurred the second he stood up, so he navigated his way towards the bathroom mostly through magic. Once there, he clung to the nearest sink for support. Trying to combat the intense nausea that had overtaken him, he splashed cold water on the back of his neck. It was no use. Throwing himself into the nearest stall, James retched violently and puked up what little he had eaten. Cold, clammy sweat started to bead on his lip and the back of his neck.

He's going to rape you. It was not a matter of if. He was going to do it, certainly.

James really was stupid to think it would be anything but this. Why would Hammer be content with just letting everyone think he and James were lovers, when he could make it a reality? This would be the ultimate victory over Tony Stark: raping his baby.

James needed his Daddy. He needed to be rescued, to be held in strong, safe arms like he was a child again. He needed what was about to happen not to happen.

It was going to happen anyway.

Too much time had passed. James got up off the bathroom floor and brushed off his knees. He went to the sink and swished water around in his mouth, getting the acrid taste of vomit mostly cleaned away. This is going to happen to you, and you're going to let it. You'll be fine. You're a survivor. Stark men are made of iron.

He touched up his makeup, dried off a little and, as ready as he'd ever be, headed back to his table.

"There he is! I was starting to think you'd fallen asleep in there." Hammer remarked as James returned to his seat. Hammer was expectant. What was he expecting? Was that supposed to be a joke? It was. James giggled. His mouth was so dry. He sipped at his water. Even that made his stomach turn a little.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh right..." Hammer continued his anecdote in between bites. James smiled and nodded sweetly, his own dinner rendered inedible. He kept trying to get water down, but nothing seemed to help the thick sticky feeling on his tongue and down his throat.

His left hand was clenched in a fist under the table. I could burn a hole right through you just by staring. I could cook your brain in your skull with my fingertip. I could... golly, I really could beat you bloody with my bare hands.

"You're not eating?"

James fluttered his eyelashes. "I guess I'm not very hungry." He explained.

"So you don't want dessert?"

"No thank you."

Hammer's excitement hit James like a freight train, but it wasn't normal excitement. It was all twisted and wrong. He reached out and grabbed James' hand, running his thumb over James' knuckles in a gesture that, from the outside, might appear tender.

"That's ok. You and I are going to have a different kind of dessert. Doesn't that sound good?"

James swallowed thickly, eyes trained pointedly at the middle distance. His smile faltered just a little, and when he spoke, his voice was small, barely audible.

"Yes." He nodded weakly. "Yes."

How exactly they got from the restaurant back to the car, James wasn't sure. He seemed to drift, only barely aware of his coat being wrapped around his shoulders, paparazzi snapping his photo as he stepped outside, the car door being held open for him while he was ushered in like a curious child into an unmarked white van. Smile. You're having a great time. Hammer clutched him every step of the way, as though James were a fish caught in his talons which might slip back into the ocean and swim home before he could devour it.

In the car, Hammer sat next to him, practically right on top of him. James’ stepford smile dissolved the second they were alone together, but Hammer didn’t seem to have noticed. His hand was on James’ knee, inching up his thigh, as he whispered in James’ ear.

“I booked us a room uptown.” He was close enough that James could feel Hammer’s breath on his neck. “I thought we’d do something a little special for our first time.”

“Justin, nobody can see us.” James knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words came out of his mouth, but he had to try something. If he made it seem like he didn’t understand, he could say no without actually saying ‘no.’

Hammer’s joy evaporated, replaced with white-hot rage. He gave a short little laugh. “Now, baby, I took you on this nice date and all. I’ve been a real gentleman, and I just think it’s fair,” He squeezed James’ leg painfully hard, “that you put out. Nobody likes a tease.”

“...Ok.”

The anger didn't subside, and James was terrified of what might happen if he let Hammer stay too mad for too long. He plastered a smile back on his face.

“I can't wait.” Was his voice shaking? Had it cracked? “I can’t wait to make love to you.”

His heart was racing. He'd said it, and now he couldn't unsay it. He couldn't stop hearing his own words echoing in his head. Make love. This was the furthest thing from love he could imagine.

The hand on James’ thigh slid up to paw at his groin, and Hammer leaned in to kiss him on the neck. He sucked at the skin there (stop it) like he was trying to leave a mark (don't), and, honestly, he probably was (get off of me). James wanted nothing more than to blast a hole in the car and rocket into the night sky. He reached out, laid a gentle hand on the back of Hammer’s neck and pulled him ever so slightly closer.

“Yeah, good, Tony.” Hammer moaned against his neck. “Just like that.”

James clenched his eyes shut. It didn't seem like Hammer even noticed he'd said anything wrong.

When he was satisfied that he'd left an adequately visible hickey, Hammer licked a wet stripe up to James’ mouth and forced his tongue inside. Fighting the urge to spit the flicking, invasive appendage out of his mouth, James hummed as though turned on. Hammer leaned in, making James take a deeper mouthful of that fleshy, wet thing.

This is just his tongue. How are you going to deal with his…

They were at the hotel before James knew it. Hammer paraded him through the lobby, hand firmly attached to his buttcheek. By some miracle, James managed to continue playing his role, leaning into his ‘date’ and giggling whenever Hammer whispered some horrible, obscene thing in James’ ear. It was all he could do to keep from shaking.

When they got up to the room, Hammer slid James’ coat off for him. It seemed like a normal enough gesture, something a real boyfriend would do, something his real boyfriend had done before, but all James could think was that he was already being undressed. He was being stripped down to nothing.

The suite itself was unnecessarily opulent. Everything sparkled. There were two rooms connected by an archway, the first being home to a sitting area populated by fashionable, uncomfortable-looking furniture, an equally painful-looking dining area, and an oppressively shiny kitchenette with a wet bar. The bar was where Hammer headed, brushing his fingertips along James’ exposed back as he did so.

“I'm going to make myself a drink, do you want anything?” He asked as he got out a glass and a bottle of scotch.

“I'm ok.” If James could get drunk, he would have used any means possible to numb himself. “I have to go get ready.”

Without looking up from his drink, Hammer waved him off. James went into the other room, the bedroom, making a point not to look at the bed. The bathroom attached to the bedroom, and he retreated into it.

Halfway through peeling off his clothes, James felt the urge to vomit again. He knelt in front of the toilet and heaved for a while, but nothing came up. He was too empty. Hollow.

The fancy shower was sufficient for James to get himself clean. Ordinarily, he did this ahead of time in his own shower, because he knew what was coming. He hadn't been properly warned this time, or maybe it had been obvious all along and James had let himself remain in denial. Whatever the case, he didn't want to incur Hammer’s wrath now by not giving him what he expected. He wants the girlfriend experience. James found himself laughing out loud, bitter, strangled noises coming out of his throat. He doubled over and puked into the shower drain.

Would Hammer get mad if James took too long? He reached out his mind and found the man still vibrating with his strange, unpleasant happiness, only a little impatient. Biting his tongue, James reached down and forced himself to work past his revulsion and finger his hole open. It would be easier if he was prepped. It would hurt less. James wondered if Hammer had even brought lube.

After stalling for as long as he could by washing everything several times over, he finally left the bathroom in nothing but a towel. Putting his clothes back on would only get him in trouble. The first thing he saw as he stepped out was the bed. It hit him then. Really hit him. This was actually going to happen. It was going to happen in a few minutes. He folded in on himself, crumpling to the floor. He knew he shouldn’t, that he needed to keep smiling, pretend he wanted it, but he couldn’t stop himself. Desperately, helplessly, James started to cry.

Sensing Hammer approaching, James scrambled to his feet and quickly wiped his eyes, but it was too late. When he walked in the room, Hammer spotted James’ red, tear-streaked face. Again, burning rage emanated from him, tinged with a sense of betrayal. There wasn’t an ounce of guilt or pity inside him. He strode over and cupped James face in his hands a little roughly.

“It’s ok to be nervous.” He said. His voice masked his anger only thinly.

James stared at the ground and nodded, swallowing back more tears. Hammer took hold of one of James’ wrists and guided his hand down to feel his erection through his pants. It wasn't as small as James had hoped. I could castrate him right now. Burn him. He couldn't really, though.

“Feel that, sweetheart? That’s for you.” Hammer cooed. “That’s going to be inside you, and you’re going to love it. Trust me, you’re going to love it.”

“O-ok, yeah. I want-” James’ voice cracked, and he lost it. He was sobbing again, stammering, “Please, Justin, you don’t have to do this. There's a better way to... I can help you. I understand-”

“Stop crying!” For the first time all night, Hammer actually showed how angry he was, just below the surface. James bit his lip to keep any more sobs from slipping through. Hammer continued, “You don’t get to say no to me. Shut up, and go lie down on the bed.”

James whimpered. “Please…”

“Lie down on the bed. Now.”

There was, in fact, lube. As expected, there was minimal prepping. Then, it was inside him.

James tried to go somewhere else while it was happening. He was overwhelmed by the oppressive smell of too much cologne, the words being moaned at him (“Oh, yeah, Tony, fuck, Tony!”), the taste of scotch in the kisses that kept being applied to his mouth, as though this were something sweet and passionate, as though it wasn’t what it was. Most of all James was overwhelmed by the nauseating self-satisfaction that smothered him, threatening to choke the life out of him.

There was a glass chandelier above the bed. It swayed gently and cast diamond shapes on the hotel ceiling. James counted them out: one, two, three, one-e-and-a-two-e-and-a-three-e-and-a around and around the chandelier in a pattern that just wouldn’t stop.

It did stop, eventually. Hammer cried out and spilled into him. James’ mind instantly supplied the image of that fetid, mystery liquid which collected in the bottoms of trash bags and gushed out if the bag was accidentally punctured. Sated and victorious, Hammer gave a few final thrusts (Just stop. Please just stop) and his pleasure walloped James right in the chest. James came, despite himself, sticky and disgusting all over his abdomen.

“Holy shit. I made you come on just my cock.”

Bile rose in James’ throat. He swallowed it down.

“Smile, baby.” Hammer sighed, “I know that was good for you. See, I told you you’d love it.”

When James didn’t respond, Hammer started to get angry. James sensed the heat rising up in his chest. Don’t be stupid. Keep him happy.

“Yeah, of course I did.” James answered brightly. It was easy to slip into being someone else. He couldn’t stand the thought of himself right now. “You’re really… really good. I’m just a little… stunned. Because I enjoyed it so much.” He found himself giggling airily, like some lovestruck floozy. Where was that coming from?

Hammer rolled off of him and lay on the bed, sighing happily. He was floating on a wave of orgasmic bliss and the satisfaction of sweet revenge, in his mind long overdue. Of course he was happy now, but once his head cleared and he could see what he had done, surely remorse would start to set in. Surely.

“That’s good. I’m thinking maybe next time you’ll show a little more enthusiasm.” Hammer said. It was an order. “I wanna see how much you like it.”

Next time… next time. “Ok, I can do that.” James agreed. “I’ll do whatever you want.” Next time. It was all James could think about. The next time this happened to him.

“Good boy.” Hammer reached over and gently stroked the back of his knuckles down James’ cheek. There was no gentleness behind the gesture, however. All James could feel was glee. Sadistic, victorious glee. Hammer was congratulating himself for this.

Surely, surely he would feel bad about it in the morning.

The smugness and delight radiating off of Hammer’s body finally became too much. It felt like James was absorbing something toxic, being so near him. He sat up in bed like a reanimated corpse, restless and agitated.

“I need to get some-” No. Try again. “Can I go out and get some air? Please?”

“Sure babe.” Hammer acquiesced. “Just don’t fly away.” He said it with a smile, but it was a threat. Everything was a threat. Everything was dangerous.

James slid out of bed feeling, perhaps for the first time in his life, ashamed of how naked he was. His clothes were on the bathroom floor. It was like a different person had taken them off. It hurt to stand, to walk. It just hurt.

“Uh, excuse you?” Hammer said, stopping James in his tracks.

What now? What more could he possibly want now? James turned to see him sitting up on his elbows, staring at him.

“Yes, Honey?”

“I’m letting you do something you want. What do you say to that?” His tone was condescending, like he was scolding a child. No, more like he was training a dog.

“Thank you.”

Seemingly satisfied, Hammer laid back down. James wasted no time in scurrying to the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. It felt good to finally be alone. A tear fell down his cheek, but he fought the urge to cry in earnest. He didn’t think he could stop if he started.

It’s fine. These things happen. This time it happened to you. James kept it together as he wiped the… as he wiped off his stomach and the insides of his thighs. Then he gathered his clothes off the floor and, hands shaking, covered himself up again. He was safer now; there was a barrier, however thin, between his skin and Justin Hammer’s hands. It’ll be fine. It’ll be okay. It didn’t seem fine. He could still feel it inside him. He felt where he’d been pried open and then invaded…

You’re ok you’re ok youreokyureokyourokuro

The bathroom floor was still wet. Had so little time really passed since he’d showered? He needed to get up, but he couldn’t force his body to move. It was something like being trapped in a frozen lake, and how you couldn’t swim to the surface because of the shock, so you just drowned. He had hoped that he’d feel better after it was over, but it wasn’t really over, was it? It was never going to be over.

A long time passed before he could stand up and walk out of the bathroom. When he did, he found Hammer already asleep. Good. He didn’t think he could fake his way through any more niceties.

He pictured himself taking a pillow off the bed and pressing it down on Hammer’s face. James was much stronger; he could hold Hammer down with his magic and he wouldn’t be able to fight back. He would just choke (painfully) and die (terrified) and James would get that indescribably terrible feeling he got whenever a soul was extinguished in front of him. He shuddered just thinking about it. No, he wasn’t capable of that, and even if he was, he knew that if Hammer died, everyone infected with his nanites would die too, including James.

James’ coat was hanging in the next room, and he pulled it on and headed for the balcony. The added layer provided him with a little more safety, but didn’t do nearly enough to block the cold wind outside from attacking his damp clothes.

For a while, he just stared at the street below. The people walking down the sidewalk or riding in their cars were too far away for him to read, so he could just imagine that they were all happy and carefree. The couples striding hand-in-hand were all deeply in love, the children were totally safe with parents who had no enemies and never made mistakes, the commuters were on their way home, or maybe to a friend’s house. Nobody had to do anything they didn’t want to do.

James pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket. It was an almost Pavlovian response at this point, smoking after sex. It was normal, felt normal.

That wasn’t sex, his brain supplied that was not sex.

No, but you did have an orgasm.

The balcony was decorated with plastic plants in tacky stone pots, and James hunched over the nearest one and dry heaved until he finally vomited, the effort of it wracking his whole body. It’s not my fault I came. It’s not my fault. I’m not just letting this happen. I don’t have any choice.

He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Ok. He got all the evil out of him, and it was ok now. He looked down at the now-ruined fake plant and thought, guiltily, of whatever underpaid hotel employee would have to clean it up.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled at nobody as he stood unsteadily.

Leaning against the edge of the balcony, he stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit the end with the tip of his finger. The first inhale settled his nerves immeasurably. Things were bad, yes, but James knew he could find a way out of this. He was smarter than Hammer, all he needed was a plan-

“Prohibited substance detected.” A voice rang in his head.

What?

“Prohibited substance detected.” The voice said again. “Desist or you will be punished.”

“I don’t know what that means.” James snapped at the AI.

“Prohibited substance detected. Desist or you will be punished.”

“What substance?” James hadn’t eaten anything at dinner that he hadn’t been specifically instructed to, hadn’t had anything to drink that he hadn’t been given. What arbitrary rule could he possibly be breaking? Unless… James glanced down at the cigarette he’d been idly puffing on. No. No no no no no…

“Standby for punishment.”

“Wait, wait!” James cried out, but it was too late. Every nerve in his body lit up with intense pain. For a moment, his vision blacked out and he struggled to remain standing.

“Desist or you will be punished again.” The voice instructed as the pain ebbed.

Gazing sadly at the mostly-unsmoked cigarette still in his hand, James incinerated it between his fingers. It was just a cigarette; he didn’t need it, but gee whiz he wanted it. It was the one thing he’d had to look forward to, however small and unimportant it was in the grand scheme of things. Even that had been taken from him. He had nothing. He really, truly had nothing.

Tears started to fall, softly at first. Soon, however, his shoulders were shaking with sobs and he was gasping for air between them. It was loud, ugly crying, but that didn’t matter. Nobody could hear him, anyway.

[chris-evans-indian-fanfic]

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One-Shot

Description: Endless search for the Winter Soldier has made Captain America adopt more... gruesome measures.

Warnings: Gruesome torture, description of violence. Not for the faint-hearted.

Proceed only if you are 18+!

This is my entry for the third week of Weekly Challenges set by @donutloverxo @captain-a-rogerss and @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho . The challenge was to write a song fic and I selected "It's Been A Long Long Time by Kitty Kallen and the Harry James orchestra" (it's a classic okay?). Find the details of the challenge here-

My Main Masterlist

I don’t consent to have any of my work published or featured on any third party app, website or translated. If you are seeing this fanfiction anywhere but Tumblr, it has been reposted without my permission. In that case, please do share the link and let me know.

…

Sam was exhausted. His back sore, eyes heavy with sleep and shoulders in pain. He closed his eyes, slowly massaging his forehead as he prepared himself to pull another all-nighter. Hours of reading every lengthy document, examining the smallest data entry, watching all the security tapes and assessing every interview that had ever belonged to S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra had borne no fruit. Sam Wilson could not find any information about the Winter Soldier.

Sam wanted to help Steve locate Bucky after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Hydra operative had gone completely undercover without leaving a trail. Steve had gratefully accepted Sam's offer to chase down any leads in the beginning, no matter how insignificant. At first, Steve had been patient, understanding even. But after months of futile effort, they were back to where they had started.

Steve entered the abandoned military base with dinner in tow. He smiled softly when he saw Sam's exhausted silhouette, "Hey pal," he placed a hand on Sam's shoulder, "You need to take a break. Come eat dinner, then sleep for a while. I can hold the fort for some time."

Sam jerked up in surprise. He hadn't heard the super soldier enter. Maybe he needed a break. But that would mean letting him loose…

"Uhh no. I don't need the rest. I can go on for days," Sam managed to reply with a forced smile. 

Steve shook his head, "Not on my watch. C'mon let's eat. I got your favourite sushi."

Sam obliged at the mention (and aroma) of his favourite meal.

The dinner progressed quietly, with Sam deliberately chewing every morsel slowly, hoping to lengthen the meal. Hoping to stop Steve tonight.

Patience was a virtue that Steve Rogers possessed in abundance.

He silently waited for Sam to finish, guessing the reason behind his action. 

Steve had understood pretty early that the files released by Natasha were a dead-end when it came to locating Bucky. He didn't doubt Sam's integrity for a second, but he had guessed that Hydra would have never hidden Bucky's details within S.H.I.E.L.D. files.

Steve Rogers' patience had started to wear thin.

The next step in finding Bucky had been obvious for Steve. Interrogate Hydra agents for any clue. That's what it was for Steve. Simple, old-fashioned interrogation. But the world today was different. He knew his interrogation methods would be… frowned upon to say the least. 

Hence at first, Steve had managed to keep his investigation a secret. But Sam had quickly caught on, sensing that Captain America had been hiding something from him, from his team. Steve had reluctantly included Sam in his plans, knowing that he would object to his methods, which Sam did.

But Sam had soon backed off. 

Something feral, wild ignited in Steve whenever the topic of Bucky came up. Sam found it unsettling that Steve would resort to such barbaric measures just to find his friend. This raw fire within Steve frightened Sam. He soon realised that the only way to put a stop to Steve would be to find Bucky. 

That's why Sam refused to take any break, combing through mountains of files and data, looking for a sentence, a word, a figure, that could help them in locating the Winter Soldier.

Sam finally finished his dinner. He offered to clean up but suddenly, felt his eyelids drooping. "You should sleep buddy. Take some rest," offered Steve gently, his tone containing the slightest authority. 

Sam unsuccessfully tried to stifled his yawns, "N..No. I can… still continue… can't s..stop."

Steve smiled indulgently as he half carried Sam to his room, the sleeping medicines working wonderfully. 

Steve cleared the takeout containers and changed into his stealth suit.

Confirming that the sound-proofing mode was still into effect, he slid a panel on the wall and headed down a dark corridor.

Unlocking the heavy door, he stepped inside to resume his interrogation.

The stale smell of blood and rotten infection greeted his nostrils as he neared the Hydra agent. Switching on the single light, Steve found Clarke Burtwall where he had left him, hanging from the ceiling, naked.

Clarke's scalp had been shaved completely. His head was covered in deep, bloody, infected cuts. His red eyes wore a hollow look. Both of Clarke's shoulders were dislocated, his hands having been stretched too far with the chains hanging from the ceiling. Cheekbones sunk, jaw bashed in, a huge cut extending from his throat to his chest. Glass shards stuck to his torso as blood coagulated around the wounds. His hip bones had been broken, so were the bones in his thighs, knees and calves, his legs showcasing more bruises and burnt marks. Steve had chopped off even numbered toes on Clarke's right foot, and odd numbered toes on his left. He still chuckled at his joke, Clarke was now an oddly-even guy, whatever that meant.

Steve stood in front of Clarke's scarred, bloodied, burnt and almost limp body. He pressed a button, and the speakers above Clarke blasted the instrumental beginning of the song It's Been A Long Long Time. Clarke jerked at the sudden noise, distracted from his pain-induced coma. 

"Do you know this song Clarke?" Steve asked him nonchalantly, "This song was made to welcome soldiers home from World War II. I never got to hear it then, I bet Bucky didn't either. So I want to play it for him when he returns home. But for that, I need you to tell me where he is."

Clarke looked blankly at Steve. Truth be told, Steve didn't know whether he had gotten through the Hydra agent or not. 

"Clarke, I cannot let you go, but I can give you a quick, painless death. All you have to do is tell me anything that you may know about the Winter Soldier's currently location," Steve tried again.

Clarke made a slight moment with his head and a second later, his spit drooled down his chin. "Oh you wanted to spit at me?" Steve asked with his eyebrows raised, "Long painful death it is then."

He reached the panel to his right side, sliding it open to reveal bow and arrows. Getting in position, he said cheerfully, "I don't know how Hawkeye does it. Never used a bow and arrow. Always felt comfortable with a shield. Help me with target practise, will ya?"

The lyrics of the song started as Steve released his first arrow, narrowly missing Clarke.

🎵Never thought that you would be... standing here so close to me🎵

Steve chuckled and sang along, "Never thought that you would be, hanging here so close to me,"

🎵There's so much I feel that I should say🎵

"There's so much I feel that you should say," he continued,

🎵But words can wait until some other day🎵

"But Bucky can't wait until some other day,"

🎵Kiss me once🎵 One arrow hit Clarke's abdomen

🎵Then kiss me twice🎵 Second arrow pierced his groin

🎵Then kiss me once again🎵 Final arrow penetrated his right bicep

As the song continued, Steve looked at the wall besides the panel, and selected his next target from the remaining 70 or so Hydra agents. He put a cross on Clarke's face on the list with a smirk.

"Hey Clarke," he shouted, "You were my 200th Hydra agent in the last 6 months! Congratulations man!"

Laughing, he sauntered over to Clarke as he resumed singing,

🎵You'll never know how many dreams I've dreamed about you… Or just how empty they all seemed without you🎵

Steve shook the arrow in his abdomen 🎵So kiss me once🎵

He twisted the other arrow into his groin 🎵Then kiss me twice🎵

Steve pushed the arrow in his bicep deeper 🎵Then kiss me once again🎵

"It's been a long, long time," muttered Steve as the song finally ended.

Taking immense pleasure in Clarke's pain, Steve wished him goodnight as he exited the room, leaving Clarke in a bloody darkness.

Steve Rogers was an honorable man, a patriot who would lay down his life for the greater good of his country and its citizens. But when it came to his best friend, his Bucky, Steve Rogers was ready to bring the almighty God himself down to his knees.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #385

“I am a human being, capable of doing terrible things”

Who in your family has been married the longest? (and how long?) Uhhhh. I don't know. Do you take your shoes off when you come inside? Yes. What’s your favorite movie series? I think Shrek when you consider all the movies' (well, I haven't seen the last one, but...) quality. No memeage here, I just genuinely love Shrek, haha. I would say The Lion King, but miraculously when you consider the focus on meerkats, I actually don't like 1 1/2 much. What was the first color you ever dyed your hair? Hm... I think I got purple highlights? Do you want to move anytime soon? Even though we haven't even lived here a year, yes. I don't like living in an urban area, and I also reeeeaaaally don't like our family friend being our landlord. I know that sounds very weird, but she's just a very controlling person who forcefully inserts herself into my family's lives now more than ever, and I have a pretty deep fear that a potential argument finally erupting will lead to us being kicked out. I genuinely don't think Tobey would ever do that, but the fear is still there. How good/bad was the quality of education you received in high school? Average, I guess? What was the most interesting year of your life, and why? "Interesting," maybe... 2017 or 2018? I learned a lot about myself in that time range. But at the same time, my life was (and still is) VERY uneventful. Just a lot of mental stuff went on. What was the first social media site you ever used? Myspace. Do you have any exes you really regret dating? REALLY regret? No. I wish I'd never dated Tyler, but it's not a massive regret or anything. He was still a cool guy that I have a few nice memories with. Have you ever lied on a resume? Or even in a job interview? Ha, I'd definitely stretch the truth about being more of a people-person than I am. I couldn't go too far with lying, though; I'm just not comfortable doing that, 'cuz like, they're gonna find out eventually that it's not true. Of all your friends & family, who has the most nicely-decorated home? Maybe my friend Summer. Her room has always been super cool. What brought about the end of the worst relationship you’ve been in? Apparently, not talking to him every second of every day two weeks into a relationship was a no-no. Where was the last place you spent the night other than your own home? The sleep study building or whatever it's considered in the medical plaza. Do you have any step- or half-siblings? I have both. What do people always seem to think is weird about you? The fact I don't watch TV. Do you ever braid your hair? It's way too short for that. Even when it was long, I didn't do it frequently at all. Is there any certain style of architecture you really enjoy? Roman, in particular. What was the last thing you gave up on? uhhhhhhhhhhh If you watch Parks and Recreation, who is your favorite character? I don't. What’s the last DIY project you did, if any? If you can’t remember, what’s something you’d be interested in doing? I'm not really into DIY stuff, honestly. I'd rather just buy products that were made better than I could, or commission someone who can. What's a song that makes you feel happy? I dunno. It's rare a song alone makes me happy. What is your favorite clothing store? Rebel's Market. How did you meet your best friend? YouTube, back when it was a more social platform. What is something you do well? Catastrophize any situation. Assume the worst of everything. What's a good idea you've had recently? Probably to re-engage with a calorie-counting app I used to use. I'm back to trying to use it consistently. Do you like to wear high heels? Does ANY person LIKE to? How many slices of pizza do you usually eat? Two or three depending on my appetite and the size of the pizza. Do you play any instruments? Not anymore. Do you always smile for pictures? Not always. What are you most excited about right now? To see the results of my TMS therapy. What's the last song you listened to? "Ex’s and Oh’s” by Elle King. What's the last YouTube video you watched? I'm watching an Erosium livestream rn. Newest channel binge, haha. Do you know anyone who's died in childbirth? No. Would you ever consider moving to another country for your career? No. I don't want to leave my family. Do you wear foundation? No, I hate the feeling of that crap. Do you know anyone who has run for public office? No. Do you have a cartilage piercing? I used to, but the hole closed when I had to take it out for the hospital. :/ I plan on getting it repierced. Have you ever been taken to the emergency room or urgent care? If so, why? Yes; for being suicidal, a suicide attempt, and when I had a horribly infected cyst and just existing made me want to sob with pain. Have you ever had to visit anyone in the hospital? Yeah, a few times. What is the most pain (physical, mental, emotional) you've ever felt? Physical: having the aforementioned cyst drained when I was not nearly numbed enough. Mental and emotional (what's really the difference?): my breakup with my first real boyfriend. What is the longest time you've spent crying? Oh, hours on end, fluctuating with intensity. Have you ever been stolen from? Yes. Have you ever been to a ghost town? No, but I would FUCKING LOVE to. Let me bring my camera and it's a field day. Has anything in your house ever caught on fire? Not in this current house. Have you ever been inside of a vacant house? No. Have you ever been attacked by a dog? No. What is the most disgusting thing you've ever seen? The massive cyst my late dog Teddy developed on his lower belly. That fucking thing hung on by a THREAD and was absolutely nauseating to look at. How old were you when you learned how to read? I don't recall, I just know it was earlier than most children. Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats. Which book series was the first you read? I want to say Hank the Cowdog. I was hooked on it. Would you rather write a book or direct a movie? Haha, what a question, as I've considered both of these as potential careers. I think write a book. What dream that you’ve had has stuck in your head the most? Describe: A nightmare about my dad that I'm not going into. What emotion do you find yourself trying to hide from others? I'm very uncomfortable revealing jealousy or envy. How emotional/sentimental would you say you are? Extremely. What is the most fun game to play? Shadow of the Colossus, probably. What is your sense of humor like (dry, dark, sarcastic, etc.)? I don't know, maybe dry. How many languages can you say "hello my name is…" in? Two. What language do you think sounds the nicest? I don't know, it's not like I've heard every language be spoken. What language do you want to learn more of? German. Do you have any form of OCD? I'm diagnosed with OCD. Do you make promises often? No. I take promises VERY seriously and am not about to make one unless I'm certain I can keep it. What is it that you are responsible for? My pets, keeping my room clean, stuff like that. Do you have a lot of secrets? Not "a lot," no. Are you more likely to be verbally aggressive or physically? Verbally. I'm only physically aggressive in my nightmares. What warning has someone given you that you wish you’d have listened to? Hm. What warning has someone given you you are glad you didn’t take? I also don't know. What is your favourite video of on YouTube? I can't pick just one. Name one creature that freaks you out/scares you? Maggots. Just the word makes me squirm. What was the last thing you wrote down on paper? My signature. Have you ever watched Breaking Bad? No. Are your fingernails always painted? They never are. What color is your bed frame? A rich brown. Did any of your neighbors come over to welcome you when you moved into your current house? No. What's something you didn't realize how bad it was until it happened to you? Heartbreak. Do you like Taylor Swift's singing voice? No. It's squeaky and annoying to me. Does it bother you when people get super emotional? Why the fuck would it bother me? Let people be in touch with their emotions. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? No. What was the last drive-thru you went through? Ummm I want to say Starbuck's w/ Mom after my TMS appointment. Do you know anyone who claims they can see/feel spirits or other supernatural "things?" No. Does your house have any unoccupied bedrooms? Yes. Do either of your parents have a mental illness? My mom has depression, and she personally suspects something's up with Dad, but idk. He's never seen a doctor about that kinda stuff. What fun things are there to do where you live? Ha! Do you know anyone with a really poorly-trained dog? I know many like that. When you were growing up, did your family rent or own your home? My parents owned it. Can you see the stars at night where you live? I actually haven't paid attention at this house. I'm certain it'd be harder now living in an urban area, though. What job do you know you'd be terrible at? Like, everything? I'd probably be worst at promoting stuff to people and trying to push them into buying something. No being a salesperson for me. Do you do meal-prepping? No. Do you know anyone who got preggo less than a year into their relationship? Who doesn't? And now, for the greatest question of all time! Toilet paper- should it go over or under? I literally couldn't care less about this. Fun fact though to "end" the argument, the original concept art of the idea (the word for that is evading me...) has it designed to go over. Are you afraid of mice? Not at all, they're adorable. What type of souvenir do you usually purchase when on vacation? I don't have a specific "type" of thing I get, really. It depends. Do you vacation often? Not at all. Are you comfortable wearing your pajamas in public places? It depends on the place, really. Generally, I really don't care, so long as I put a bra on. What’s your favorite candy bar? That one that's a bunch of Reese's squares composed into a rectangle. It. Is so. Fucking. Good. Do you own more than one copy or edition of a book? No. If you could see any musical on Broadway right now, what would it be? I don't like musicals. Do you own a helmet of any sorts? No. Does your family generally decorate for most holidays? Just for Christmas, really. Do you eat soup when you’re sick? I'm not a soup person. Have you ever watched Doctor Who? I saw one or two episodes with Sara. If so, what do you think is the scariest creature yet? N/A Do you read tour guide type books before you visit places? No.

[with-fervor]

16, 17, 32, 33 🤍

!! thanks for the ask :)

16- Would you rather it be sunny or rainy?

Sunny! But not hot 😡 Sunny + 60 degree weather is perfection to me. Rain can be nice though! Depending on how heavy it is and where you are

17- Do you know anyone with the same middle name as you?

Actually no, not that I know of. I know lots of people who have my middle name as their first name though. And my first name is oddly oftentimes a middle name.

32- Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced?

Oh BOY oh boy. This ask. A story lol. Yes.

STORY TIME ok so

I've always been a little self-conscious about my nose, it's quite big, and I went through a (long) phase last year when I really wanted a nose job and was actually seriously considering it and trying to make plans.

I told my friends this while in line for a club once and most of them were like "I think you look great but if you want to, we support you, you do you!" But this one friend (backstory: we had a very long will-they-or-won't-they going on) was like "What?! NO. You CAN'T." Which kinda made my heart sink, made me feel bad. And my other friends were like "whoa wtf dude don't shame her" and he was like "no I'm not trying to shame her! Sorry it's just that I like your nose and I really don't think you should change it." And then I felt less bad bc that actually was kind of sweet.

After that, going forward, he adopted the same I support you if you want to message as everyone else, but he also would kind of subtlely try to gas me up I think, which I did appreciate. Tbh I think it was helpful to hear somebody I used to like so much compliment my nose so strongly. The two of us had always talked about drunkenly getting tattoos and/or piercings together, and on my end, the piercings discussed were usually eyebrow or tongue. But he would squeeze in these encouraging nose compliments lol like "You should get a nose piercing! Not everyone can pull it off but you really can" or "A nose piercing would look so good on you--I feel like Arab and Indian noses with piercings look better than everybody else's nose piercings."

Fast forward to covid. Everything was just shutting down, and we didn't fully understand the gravity of the situation yet bc it was very early days where we were, but our town just announced that all bars and restaurants would be closed starting tomorrow so a bunch of us were like ok we're gonna do a very low key last hurrah bar crawl, we're not gonna go to any of the clubs or super popular bars just the fancier emptier ones that we never got a chance to go to but were always on our list (I have not been to a bar or restaurant indoors since). And inevitably me and this guy start having our tattoo/piercing planning discussions again bc we were like wait this could be our last chance to do this together probably so we should like... Do this. And he'd convinced me to do a nose piercing and I convinced him to do ears. We looked up the place and everything but then I was like wait no getting a new piercing at the start of what could be a pandemic is probably not the safest idea bc what if the piercings get infected or something during a time when the healthcare system is so strained? So we didn't.

I wound up leaving for home few days later and did not get my nose pierced, and a couple months after that he had his roommates pierce his ears I'm pretty sure with a fkn potato and sent me pictures. AND THAT'S the story of my almost-nose piercing lol.

33- Do you prefer warm or cold weather?

COLD. In-between weather is best (like 50s to low 70s. The 60s have my heart) but I have awful heat tolerance. It'll get to be like 76 degrees and I'll be like omg stop it's so hot I'm dying somebody make it stop

[jupitermelichios]

Jupiter’s Top 10 Fic Series of the Decade

In no particular order (and belonging to no particular fandom)

Honourable Mentions: Of Hunters & Hellblazers by KittyAug - Self Help by maskedfangirl - Bad Jokes by hahaharley - Doubtful Sanity by DustToDust - Wilton’s Bakery ‘Verse by machine_dove & sproings -  Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc by etothepii - New Favourite F Word by Polaris - little beasts by noctiphany & likewinning

drawn into something by Nonymos (Venom, Eddie/Venom, Dan/Anne, Eddie/Venom/Dan/Anne)

“Eddie, you… and him.”

“Yeah.” Eddie stares at the floor. “And… and look, Annie, I know it’s weird, but I can explain, I…”

His voice breaks, he’s damn near tearing up, panic rising again—and he jumps when Anne cups his face.

“Hey, it’s—it’s all right, Eddie.” She’s making a valiant effort to smile. “Don’t get so worked up. I’m not gonna run screaming.”

“No?” He laughs and sniffs. “Damn. Starting to wonder what it’s gonna take, at this point.”

This is not Nonymos’s only entry on this list. In fact they may just be my favourite fanfic author of all time. Drawn into something is everything everything I want from a Venom sequel, emotional, kinky, romantic, and poly.

OTP: Fight Club by MorganOfTheFey (Detroit: Become Human, RK900/Gavin)

"One hundred. Ten X," Nines says, voice flat enough it almost doesn't sound like bragging. "I would have been decommissioned otherwise."

"Ohhhh. Aw, that's sad. Just," She tries to snap her fingers and gets distracted for a moment when she can't. "Jus'like that?"

"Yeah RK, that's so sad," Gavin echoes. "Can you play yourself despacito?"

His own phone blares the song barely a second later. Gavin drops a few f-bombs fumbling to get it out of his jacket pocket and turn it off. Then as soon as he puts it back in his pocket, it starts up again.

"Thank you for the suggestion, detective," RK900 says. "This is making me feel better."

The fourth part of this is still coming out, and it’s the highlight of my week when the new chapter drops.

Dreams of the Waking Man by Lex_Munroe (Marvel Comics, Wade/Cable, Daken/Bullseye, Wade & Hope)

All at once, it hurts.  It hurts worse than the day Nate died (because Wade couldn’t accept it back then, insisted that Nate had managed to timeslide out, that the busted old telemetry circuit would only let him go forward and he was just lost for a little while).

He sits in the middle of the floor, ducks his head, cries.

She was smarter than he was—than he is.  She’d known all along.  Brave girl.

Timesliding doesn’t work right on Wade, never has, and their cobbled-together sliding module barely had power to take one stringy teenager for one jump.

She’d known she was leaving her parents, that she certainly wouldn’t see one of them again and quite possibly wouldn’t see the other.

Wade allows himself a moment more for grief and shame and humility.  Then he clears his throat and wipes his eyes and gets back to work.

This may be the cleverest fic I’ve ever read. Crossovers, theoretical physics, and the best love story Marvel never wrote.

The Mountains Are The Same by bonehandledknife & Primarybufferpanel (Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa/Max, Furiosa/Ace, Everyone & Healthy Coping Mechanisms)

“'Real isn’t how you are made’” Gilly said with the air of a quote, of a Remembering, “'It’s a thing that happens to you.’”

Rotor closed his eyes in a long blink, “A thing that hurts, innit it right?”

“Sometimes,” Gilly agreed, squeezing his hand, “That’s life though, when you are Real. We all become it bit by bit. But it doesn’t happen if you’re not strong, if you’re not soft, if you’re not sturdy.”

“ But how can y'be all of those at once ?” he wheezed out. It’s getting hard to catch his breath.

“You are all that right now, aren’t you?” Gilly asked him with piercing eyes, “No one else of all these Boys has had the strength to ask for me. And I will Witness you as I have kept all those of my sisters who’ve fallen these past days.”

This series is not always easy, it doesn’t shy away from the hard or the dark or the painful, but it is always worth reading.

The Unspoken Truth by Nonymos (MCU, Clint/Loki)

Barton glared at him like he was trying to decide whether he was being mocked or not, but the next second, his shoulders slumped. Loki was familiar with the feeling – that dreadful feeling of discovering something repulsive in one's own nature.

And then, he waited. He waited for Barton to think and connect the dots, to realize that an obvious solution was standing just before him, to remember how he had felt when waking up tied down, or being forced to drink down the water. The demi-god just stood there, hoping – almost praying for the first time in his life – that his enemy would look up at him with something else than hatred in his eyes.

No one writes kink quite like Nonymos writes kink, and this series is the perfect encapsulation of that.

The Stone Gryphon by rthstewart (Narnia, primarily Gen)

"Tools!" Richard was so shocked he was near speechless. He sat down heavily on the bench and began writing frantically in that strange code. "You are saying that you have observed ordinary crows use tools? Peter, that is… remarkable."

"Well, I've seen Beavers use fishing tackle and sewing machines, so it didn't seem that unusual at the time."

I’m not going to lie, this may not be to everyone’s taste. But, amateur theologian, lover of weird animal facts, and history nerd that I am, there are very few fics more exactly tailored to my interests.

Republic of Heaven Community Radio by ErinPtah (WtNV x His Dark Materials, Cecil/Carlos)

The greeting catches both her and Carlos off-guard. It's not wrong to talk directly to another person's daemon, but it's still a little weird. "Likewise," she stammers.

They're both waiting for the obvious next step, which is for Cecil to introduce his daemon. The fact that Carlos hasn't spotted her yet is understandable — a big community gathering in a small space, you get plenty of daemons breaking away from their humans to socialize directly with each other. Any of the dozen animal shapes currently within ten feet of them could be Cecil's. If his daemon has an unusually high range, there are even more possibilities.

What Cecil says instead is, "If you ever have any important experimental-theology news that you need to share with the town, call me any time! Everyone listens to my show." There's a touch of what Carlos hopes is nothing more sinister than smugness when he adds, "Everyone."

He steps out of the way to let someone else interrogate Carlos, and vanishes into the crowd. Carlos doesn't get a chance to see what daemon he leaves with.

This may be the most carefully thought out crossover I’ve ever read, and I’m a little in awe of ErinPtah’s skills.

The Soul in the Machine by missdreawrites & Troodon (Dishonoured, Corvo/Outsider)

“... Outsider?” Corvo asked, sitting down on the filthy floor. “In the published list of the people who died of the Plague… how many were registered Augments?”

<There have been a total of 231 dead in the past year. Of that group, 100% were Augmented individuals. This number has increased exponentially under Hiram Burrows’ “The Boldest Moves Are The Safest” law, allowing the execution of any individual infected by the Plague.>

“Son of a bitch, ” Corvo swore with feeling. “This is… look at this waste. We aren't even people to them, are we?” He looked down at the body next to him. “And I killed the one person who could help. I did this. I doomed an entire people to plague, and murder and…”

The cyberpunk Dishonoured AU I desperately wish I’d thought of, because it works so very well.

In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury) by scifigrl47 (MCU, Steve/Tony)

“Do you know what the difference between a villain and a super villain is, Stark?” Coulson said, leaning his palms on the tabletop, looming over everything like a very snappily dressed gargoyle.

“Style?” Tony asked, pointing both index fingers in Coulson's direction like the gunslinger that he was. He added a wide grin to the gesture, but Coulson didn't seem to notice.

“A villain has a giant mass of robotic vacuum cleaners that he can sic on his enemies. A super villain gives them the ability to fly.”

“In my defense, I do not actually remember installing repulsor technology in the Roombas,” Tony said, choosing his words carefully. It had been a working theory, sure, but he still wasn't quite sure when he implemented it. Maybe sometime on Tuesday night... That one was a blur. “It was a very long couple of days. So I was as surprised by that as everyone else.”

This doesn’t really count as a rec, since everyone in the fandom has read it already, but it really wouldn’t be fair to draw up a ‘best of the 2010s’ list and not include this.

A Great and Gruesome Height by mokuyoubi (Hannibal, Will/Hannibal)

Bedelia lashes out but Will is quicker. He grabs her wrist, pressing hard between the delicate bones with his thumb, until she makes a soft noise of distress and drops the fork.

Hannibal purses his lips and leans in close to her ear. “Now that is disappointing,” he whispers, and Bedelia has the good sense to be afraid with that mouth so near her skin. He inhales her scent deeply and straightens. “I thought you and I were beyond such petty jabs.”

“Were it not for the fact that you required medical attention, I have no doubt I would have met a similarly crass ending at the hands of your pet,” she says, lip curling in disgust.

Hannibal smiles serenely and says, “Will is a creature entirely of his own making. It is not to me to guide his hand. Merely to share in the sublime perfection of his vision, when he allows it.”

There are many dark!Will stories out there, and most of them are a lot of fun, but few are quite at believable as this one.

[lalainajanes]

The Kindness of Strangers

It takes a good half hour for Caroline to realize that she’s been ditched.

In her defense, she’s not exactly at her best.

She can’t stop coughing, her chest hurts. She’s freezing, still wearing her coat and scarf even though she’s been indoors, waiting for her turn to see a doctor, for three hours. Caroline will admit that she’s never been an ideal patient. She hates every single part of being sick – gross fluids leaking from her body, disruptions to her carefully plotted schedule. She loathes weakness, isn’t used to having to count on other people. She’s lived in Chicago for just under a year, doesn’t have many people to rely on.

She’d been self medicating for days, guzzling DayQuil and NyQuil in turn, googling home remedies and forcing down cup after cup of chamomile tea with honey.

The medicine hadn’t helped, nor had the tea and the best medical advice Pinterest had to offer.

Hence why she’s sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, in a packed waiting room, braving screaming children, bloody wounds, and even more airborne germs.

She’s staring dumbly down at her phone, at the picture that’s just popped up on her Instagram feed. Posted just a few seconds ago it features her boyfriend at the gym, his face strained as he lifts a kettlebell. She hadn’t bothered to read the caption, knows it’s some nonsense about reps or mile times that she’s only ever feigned interest in for the sake of politeness.

He’d been yammering on about his workout plans since he’d picked her up. Caroline had been humming in acknowledgement at regular intervals but she’d figured it didn’t need to be explicitly stated that leaving her in a hospital waiting room was so not cool.

Apparently she’d been mistaken.

“Please tell me he’s some sort of useless relation. A cousin you’re only nice to because your mum insists.”

Caroline’s head swivels to the speaker, a touch surprised by the accent. The guy next to her is looking down at her phone, his expression disbelieving.  She’d nodded tiredly at him when she’d sat down, some part of her brain cataloguing a general impression of an attractive man in her age range. She hadn’t been in the mood for conversation and he hadn’t attempted one either. She’d felt him shifting next to her, restless, and probably in pain judging by the impressive rainbow of purple-black bruises covering his bare left foot.

She should probably snap at him, demand he mind his own business but, if her own freaking boyfriend can’t be bothered to skip a workout when she’s in the emergency room, it’s probably a good idea to expand her social circle.

“My mom has even less time for useless relations than I do.”

“She sounds like a smart woman. Does she like your boyfriend?”

Her mother had yet to be introduced. Caroline had planned a trip to Mystic Falls for a long weekend but Stefan’s brother had called last minute with one of his bimonthly crisis’s so Caroline had made the trip solo. In hindsight, maybe she should have read more into the lack of effort. “Very smart. And handy with all manner of firearms.”

A warning, just in case he happens to be a serial killer.

His brows rise, a hint of amusement beginning to curl his lips. Caroline’s forced turn away and bury her face in the crook of her elbow as she’s wracked with coughs. She slumps back when she’s done, needs a moment to catch her breath.

When she peels her eye open her neighbor’s expression has softened with concern. “I’m Klaus,” he offers.

“Caroline.”

His arm nudges hers on the armrest between their chairs, a weird approximation of a handshake that Caroline returns. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances are less than ideal.”

She’s naturally nosy, and he’s given her an opening, “What happened to your foot?”

“Stupid accident. I was helping my brother move, he got distracted. A rather heavy sofa came down on my foot.”

Caroline winces in sympathy, leans forward to peer around Klaus. She hadn’t noticed him talking to another guy but, as she hadn’t really noticed Stefan taking his leave while in her fog of misery, that doesn’t mean much. “Is he here?”

Klaus makes a low noise of denial, “God, no. Kol can only sit still as long as the average five year old. I’ll be storing this incident away for later, when I need a bigger favor than a ride to the hospital.”

Caroline doesn’t know much about healthy sibling relationships but she can admire a strategic mind.

“How long have you been waiting for?”

“I got here about an hour before you did.”

“Ugh,” Caroline grumbles, crossing her arms and yanking her sleeves down over her hands, “maybe I should have just made another pharmacy run and gone back to bed.”

Klaus leans forward, pulls a jacket and a scarf out from under his seat. He shakes them out, offering them to her. “Here. I find it quite warm in here but you’re obviously suffering.”

She shakes her head, “No, I wouldn’t want to infect you with whatever I have.”

“Did you just fall ill?”

“It’s been a few days.”

Kat, her boss, had bullied her out of the office when Caroline had nearly passed out after standing up after a meeting. Caroline had tried to protest but Katherine Pierce was excellent at getting her own way. Caroline had been in the back of a town car, under a blanket, with a driver who’d had strict instructions to only stop at a restaurant for the giant takeaway container of chicken noodle soup Kat had ordered.

She’d texted Stefan when she’d gotten home, had gotten sympathy followed by an apology. He’d told her to rest, that he hoped she’d feel better soon, but he’d claimed that he couldn’t rick catching anything, not when he’s training for a marathon.

Alone on her couch, trying to muster the energy to get herself to her bedroom so she could change out of her pencil skirt and blouse, Caroline had told herself that she shouldn’t be resentful. That ambition was sexy, goals were admirable, and she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

That it wasn’t at all annoying that, just a month ago, she’d spent a whole weekend refilling a hot water bottle for Stefan every half hour after he’d pulled a muscle. He hadn’t asked her, she’d offered, and relationships shouldn’t have scorecards.

Maybe they had different love languages. That didn’t mean they were incompatible.

Reciting the bullet points from Cosmo relationship articles hadn’t stopped Caroline from feeling resentful.

Klaus shakes his jacket gently, drawing her attention back to him, “I doubt you’re contagious at this point.”

The jacket looks to be wool, heavy and lined and probably super cozy. She only hesitates for another second before taking it, draping it over herself like a blanket and looping the scarf around her neck.

She manages to avoid obviously tucking her nose into the fabric, to better appreciate the light touch of the very nice cologne Klaus must use.

“Thank you,” she murmurs. “You can tell your significant other that you’ve earned a pile of gentleman points.”

It’s not the most subtle fishing Caroline’s ever done but she’ll just have to blame that on the large doses of over the counter meds still swimming through her system.

Klaus doesn’t seem to mind, his smile widening as he leans back in his seat. He rests his head back against the wall and sprawls a bit, closer to her than he’d been before. “There’s no significant other.”

She probably shouldn’t consider that good news but she totally does.

“And you?” Klaus asks, “how long have you and the… fitness afficianado been an item?”

Caroline suspects the moniker he’s settled on is far more polite than he’d like to be.

“About six months. But we’ve known each other since we were kids.”

“Let me guess, you were high school sweethearts who reunited years later.”

His distaste is obvious and Caroline laughs softly. “Um, no. Not even close. I had a ginormous crush on him but he was really into my best friend.”

Who’d waffled between being into Stefan right back and being into Stefan’s older brother.

Klaus sighs, “So he’s got an appalling lack of taste in addition to his other less than stellar qualities.”

It’s instinct to jump to Stefan’s defense. “He’s really a great guy.”

“I’m sure.”

“He’s training for a marathon. It’s a lot of work.”

“Is this marathon tomorrow?” Klaus asks pointedly. “Because otherwise I don’t understand why he couldn’t take a day off when you’re so ill you can barely walk.”

Caroline deflates, presses her lips together as she swallows the argument she’d been about to make. She’s had plenty of practice lately. When she’d first moved, and Stefan had shot her a message offering to take her out for a drink to celebrate her new job, it had been easy to fall back in with her old friends. He’d been familiar, Elena and Damon too, and she’d been busy with her new job and settling into a new apartment. It had been easier to relearn how to be around them than to meet new people.

She’s a people person though, has started getting closer to a few coworkers, and Enzo, Rebekah and Kat all have certain opinions about Stefan that Klaus is mirroring.

“Perhaps this is none of my business,” Klaus says, after her silence has stretched on. He’s watching her carefully, like he’s wondering if he’s pushed too far.

“It’s really not.”

“Lost those gentleman points, did I?” he jokes.

Caroline laughs, willing to roll with his attempt to lighten the mood. “Maybe not all of them.” Because she is warmer now, with his layers piled on top of hers. “Where are you from, anyway?”

He’d given her the perfect opening to pry and Caroline’s not going to waste the opportunity.

All in the interest of broadening her social circle of course.

A month later, after a breakup, rearranging her entire apartment (three times), she’s decided to make more of an effort to turn her coworkers into real friends.

Rebekah’s throwing herself a birthday party. There’s even a dress code. Enzo informs Caroline that all of Rebekah’s brothers are ridiculously hot, so clearly she needs a great new dress. And heels. And some lingerie and a new lipstick because, why not?

She sees Klaus before he sees her. He’s planted on a loveseat in the living room, his casted foot resting on an ottoman. He’s flitted through her thoughts more than once since they’d met and Caroline had regretted not getting his contact info. Or at least a last name.

Klaus might be a unique name but her attempts at social media stalking had all failed.

Caroline grabs a flute of champagne (seriously, Rebekah knew how to throw a party) and hugs the perimeter of the room. She approaches Klaus from behind, sitting down on the arm next to him and chirping, “Well, fancy meeting you here.”

His eyes snap up, widening when he recognizes her. “Caroline,” he says, something like wonder coloring the tone.

It’s enough to confirm that she’d not the only one who’s spent way too much time thinking about those few hours they’d spent together.

“Glad you remember me,” she teases. “How do you know Rebekah?”

“She’s my sister.” He shifts over, threading his finger through hers to pull her down next to him. Caroline has no objections, not even when he’s pressed along her side, leaving enough room for another person beside him. “And you?”

“We work together.”

“Small world,” Klaus murmurs, very pleased about it.

Caroline can relate.

She nods down to his foot, “What was the verdict?”

He groans, “At least six weeks in the cast. I’m right sick of it. I’ve barely left my place since it happened because I can’t drive and the simplest things are infinitely more annoying.”

“I’m glad you made it out tonight.”

He’s still got her hand clasped in his but his free arm comes up, resting loosely around her shoulders. He speaks more softly and Caroline leans closer to make sure she can hear. “Likewise, love. I’ll never complain about Rebekah being a shameless nag again.”

Somehow, Caroline doubts that.

She spends the duration of the party at Klaus’ side but she meets a whole pile of new people. There’s Kol, the brother whose couch had maimed Klaus’ foot, Elijah, who is a little scary, with his appraising eyes and aggressively perfect manners. She gets some tips about thrifting vintage clothes from Gia, a classical violinist, and when she chats with Marcel he says he hopes he sees her around, promises that he knows plenty of embarrassing stories about Klaus.

She’s kind of kicking herself for falling back into old habits when she’d first moved to Chicago. Clearly, she’s pretty kickass at making friends.

She leaves with Klaus’ number in her phone and plans for dinner the next night.

Sunday brunch plans follow, with Rebekah, where there are bottomless mimosas and vague threats.

It’s easily the best weekend she’s had since moving.

Though not for long.

[lovemesomesurveys]

What would you say is your favorite food? Ramen, garlic parm and lemon pepper boneless wings from Wingstop, and spaghetti and meatballs.

What color eyes does the person you like / love have? Are they pretty? I don’t like/love anyone in the romantic sense, currently.

What was the first television show you were obsessed with? Barney, ha. My mom said I’d cry if I missed it. I remember she recorded a concert special they did and I watched it on repeat, probably driving everyone nuts.

Do you like Mexican food or any other foreign foods? Yeah, I like Mexican, Italian, and Asian.

What color is the keyboard you are currently using? The keys are black with white lettering.

Do you own any of those ‘chunky’ and cute rings? No.

What are you planning on eating for dinner tonight if you haven’t already? I had spaghetti and meatballs.

Do you own an iPod or MP3 player? If so, when did you get it? I still have my iPhone Touch, but it’s been stored away since like 2012. I don’t recall when I got it.

When was the last time someone took your picture? My birthday.

Would you rather write a report or type it on a computer? Type, most definitely. 

What color was the last jacket or hoodie you wore? Gray.

Do you receive more compliments or insults on a daily basis? I don’t receive either on a daily basis. 

Who is the lead actress / actor from your absolute favorite movie? I couldn’t choose just one favorite movie.

Can you recite the alphabet backward? I could, but it would take me just a little longer.  Do you eat chili when you get a hotdog, or do you like it plain? I haven’t had a hot dog, period, in several years, but yeah I liked a chili dog once in awhile. Hot dogs were always something I never craved and I had to be in the mood for, which was rare.

Would you say it’s easy for people to make you smile or laugh? Sometimes.

What would you say is your favorite cereal, if you even like it? Sugary bad ones, ha. 

When was the last time you went on vacation? Where was it? Back in February to Disneyland.

How many states have you been to in your lifetime? Including mine, 4. 

Do you and your friends normally say you love one another? I don’t have any friends, but back when I did; no. 

Have you ever been an outcast at your school or anywhere else? I just feel like that in life.

Do you own any dresses? If so, what colors are they? Just a black one.

Would you say you drink more pop / soda than you should? Not anymore. I only have a sip whenever I have to take my medicine. Prior to a few years ago, I drank soda everyday.

Would you rather have orange juice or milk with your breakfast? Ew, neither. Give me coffee.

How many different colors has your bedroom been painted? It’s only been white.

Do you cuss? If so, do you ever cuss in front of your parents? Sometimes and no. I’m 31 years old so I could, but I’ve just always felt weird about doing so for some reason. My mom wouldn’t care at all. It would take my dad some getting used to, though.

Would you ever tell your mom about the things you’ve done sexually? My mom and I are very close, but still some things just don’t need to be discussed. I’m a private person when it comes to stuff like that.

Is there anyone out there who can make you cry very easily? Yeah.

What was the worst news you’ve heard this entire week? Welp, pretty much my entire state is back on lockdown and our case numbers are super high again. 

Have you ever been in a car wreck? No, thankfully.

Do you have your ears pierced? If not, what do you have pierced? Yes, my mom had my earlobes pierced when I was an infant. I don’t plan on getting any more new ones as I’m not really into piercings. <<< Same. I kinda think a couple more ear piercings would be cool, but I’m a big scardy cat.

Has anyone ever told you that they think you have ADHD? Nope.

What is your biggest pet peeve? One of them is eating sounds--sucking, slurping, smacking... *skin crawls*

Do a lot of people understand you completely? Who does exactly? I don’t know if anyone can understand anyone completely. I don’t even understand myself completely.

Would you say you’re really good at cooking and baking things? I can make a pretty good bowl of ramen, but that’s really the extent of it.

How is the weather outside right this second? It’s currently 41 degrees F.

Do you have a lot of trees around your house? What about buildings? Yeah to both.

Would you say either one of your parents are 'pack-rats?’ A bit. 

Have you ever disowned anyone in your family? For what reasons? No.

Have you ever seen That 70’s Show? Do you watch it regularly? I watched it during its original run. I tried to watch it again in recent years and meh.

If you could choose, what decade would you rather live in? I’d just go back to the 90s. 

How often would you say you get sick? I feel sick and crappy a lot of the time, but as far as something like colds or viruses or something, it doesn’t happen too often. I always find that odd, honestly, because I feel like my health and immune system aren’t the best. Last year I got knocked hard on my ass with the flu and bronchitis, but prior to that it had been a few years since I had something like that. Currently, I’m sick with an infection and on this strong antibiotic. 

Is there anyone out there who has hurt you so much, you wish they’d die? Nooo.

Has anyone ever called you a socio-path before? No.

When was the last time you watched a movie in theaters? It was towards the end of February. I miss going to the movies.

Have you ever moved to a completely different state before? Nope.

Do you mind it when surveys ask you really personal questions? Nah. If I don’t feel comfortable answering for whatever reason then I just won’t. I think I’m pretty open in these surveys, though.

When was the last time you told someone you love them? Yesterday.

Which one would you like more: kiss on cheek / kiss on neck? Both can be nice.

Does it bother you when people steal your stuff on MySpace? Damn, this is oldddddd.

Do you have freckles? Do you like / dislike them? I do. I like them now, but when I was younger I didn’t. That seems to be how a lot of people with freckles feel for some reason.

Who would you say is the best actor / or actress in your opinion? Alexander Skarsgard, duh. haha. There’s a ton of talented actors and actresses. Another one that randomly came to mind is James McAvoy. 

How many times have you been drunk in your life? Several. It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve drank alcohol at all, though.

What would you do if the last person you kissed said they hated you? Wow, that would certainly come out of nowhere. I don’t know what would warrant such strong feelings.

Do you ever think you might be pregnant? Nope. 

When was the last time you acted really immature? Uhhh.

Do you enjoy watching comedies or horror movies more? I really love horror movies. Those, psychological thrillers, and dramas are my favorites over comedies.

As a child, did you ever have an imaginary friend? Nah.

Does anyone call you baby? Who would that be? No.

Can you rely on one or more people to take up for you? Yes.

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

Behind The Marriage - Harry Styles Series (Part 23)

Part 22

“You’re killing me, Harry,” Harry groaned at his stylist as they were doing his final fitting for his Met Gala outfit. “Just a little sneak peek is all I’m asking here.” 

“No can do,” he responded. “Your missus told me not to tell you anything about what we’ve chosen for her to wear.” 

“Then fucking show me!” He pointed out. “Telling and showing are two very different things.” 

“You know what I mean you fucker,” Harry laughed. “Now, stop moving before I poke you with this.” 

Harry rolled his eyes, “You know, you’re supposed to be my stylist...” 

“Yep, but ever since you married Y/N, what’s yours is her’s,” he smirked. 

“Can you at least give me a color?” Harry asked. 

“If it will make you shut the hell up about it, yes. I’ll give you a color. Black,” he said. 

“Well, that could be bloody anything,” he mumbled. “Is it going to form-fitting or loose?” 

“If you’re asking because you want to know if she’s going to try and hide her baby bump, the answer is both,” he said. 

“Excuse me?” Harry asked looking over at him. 

“Let’s just say we’ve designed something that’s sexy and also hides her bump, just a little. People will only catch it if they look close enough,” he said. 

He groaned, “Now, I wish you hadn’t told me all of that shit because it makes me want to know what she’s wearing even more.”

“That’s why you should have just waited,” he smirked. 

**

The Met Gala was a few days away, which meant you and Harry would be going to NYC soon. You were currently in LA, doing some work for a bit, but also to get a change of scenery. Your baby bump was starting to be a little more noticeable, but you could still hide it fairly well for a few more weeks at least. 

Knowing the Met Gala was something highly publicized and tons of photos would be taken prior and after the event, you knew the chance of your pregnancy getting out was huge. You and Harry still hadn’t really talked about when or how you would address it when the time came for the world to start noticing, so you weren’t quite sure how you would handle the Met. 

When it came to your outfit, you really wanted to make sure you felt your best and looked your best, but also not making it super obvious that you were pregnant. Which part of you felt a little ashamed of it because you were sure the majority of pregnant women couldn’t wait to show off their baby bumps. But your situation was also different from theirs. 

It’s not that you didn’t want the world to know you were pregnant, it’s just you knew what would happen or at least, what could happen, once the news broke. It would be featured on every news outlet and social media website. Fans would flood your mentions with either happy congrats, or something far worse. 

And you weren’t ready for that. 

Not, that you would ever really be ready for it, to be honest. 

But you wanted just a little more time for you and Harry to bask in the excitement of future parenthood with just you, your families, and close friends knowing. 

When Harry L approached you about if you wanted help finding something to wear, you quickly and happily jumped at the opportunity. You two met with some of the designers at Gucci and were able to design the perfect outfit. Not only did you feel absolutely beautiful in it, and that was without proper hair and makeup, but it also complemented Harry’s outfit well, however, it was still something of your own. 

You wanted to surprise Harry by not showing him or telling him about the outfit prior to the event. He was annoyed because he had shown you his outfit as soon as it was finalized. It was sort of cute how he was so desperate in finding even the smallest amount of clues, he had looked through your closet. 

As if you were actually keeping the outfit there. You also made Harry L and the people of Gucci to not utter a word to Harry about it. And as far as you knew they all kept their word. 

**

“Oh my god what are you two doing?” You groaned walking into the bathroom of your NYC hotel room. 

Harry L was standing there with your Harry sitting in a chair with a needle. 

“It was his idea!” Harry L defended. 

“You’re the one that suggested an earring for pierced ears,” Harry scoffed. 

“True, but I was leaning more for you getting it professionally done, not you sticking your own ear in the fucking bathroom,” Harry said. 

“Oh my god are you seriously watching the scene from the Parent Trap as your tutorial!” You shook your head. 

“Hey! It was the first thing that popped up on Youtube,” he shrugged. 

“You do realized there are probably like hundreds of legit professional piercers in the city, right? And you just like couldn’t go to one of them because?” You asked. 

“Not enough time. I’ve got the dinner tonight and the Met is tomorrow,” he said removing the ice from his ear. 

“I can’t watch this,” you mumbled. “And I swear if your ear gets infected because of this, I will severely hurt you Harrys.” 

“Hey! How did I get thrown into this, I’m not doing it,” Harry L said. 

“You’re in the fucking room with him and assisting his stupidity, so yes you are very much a part of it,” you said. “Now, excuse me while I go get ready like a normal fucking person.” 

Once you left, Harry L looked down at Harry, “Guess I should have locked the door, right?” 

**

You were putting on your earrings in your black velvet floor length dress with a sweetheart neckline. It was quite form-fitting, but the way it hung over your belly bump made it only noticeable when you stood to the side. Your hair was in a high ponytail with big curls that framed your face. 

When you looked in your mirror, you saw your husband staring at you. You turned around smoothing out your dress.

“What do you think?” you asked. 

He walked over to you, not saying a word, putting his hands on your hips. 

“You look fucking gorgeous,” he smiled. “And if tomorrow’s outfit is better than this, then the rest of us should just stay the fuck home.” 

You laughed, “I wouldn’t go that far,” you smiled. 

“I would,” he smirked. 

He placed his hand on your belly, “How are you feeling about this?” 

“The world is going to find out eventually,” you said. “I’m only going to get bigger and then we’re going to have  a baby tagging along with us.” 

“I know, but I want you to know I’m not going to let anything or anyone get near you and our baby,” he said. 

“I know, “ you smiled putting your hand on his cheek. “You do realize your ear is as red as your suit jacket, right?” 

“It’s fine,” he rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, when pus starts oozing out, it’s not going to be,” you stated. 

“Well, it’s not going to do that because we were safe,” he smirked. 

“Pretty sure an at home piercing with a sewing needle is not safe,” you said. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on we’re going to be late,” he laughed. 

**

The Pre Met Gala dinner went great, even though it was pouring rain both on arrival and departure. You were a little uneasy being surrounded by different celebrities and those that were huge within the fashion industry. You most sat back letting Harry mingle around, which you didn’t mind because this was his event. You were super proud of him and you knew you would only be more proud the next evening. 

When you saw the pap photos of you and Harry, you couldn’t help, but smile. You felt and looked beautiful and couldn’t have been happier. You zoomed in on some of the photos to see if your bump was noticeable, and even though you knew it was there, you couldn’t really find it. You thanked Harry being at your side, the umbrellas being held, and the off lighting. 

The photos at the Met Gala, however, would really be put to the test. Especially since your outfit would be a little bit more daring than the previous night. You were currently getting your hair and makeup done in a different hotel room from Harry because you wanted to keep him waiting on your entire look. 

Once your hair and makeup was finished, it was time to get into your dress. The dress is technically a two piece, but appears as a full dress. The top  is an off the shoulder midnight black crop top with lace bell sleeves from the shoulder down. The same lace covers the skin of your belly and stops just at the top hem of your high waisted midnight black skirt with a slit up to your mid-thigh. 

There was a Robin’s Egg colored fabric on the underside of your skirt that matched your small backpack. Your shoes were black platform sandals that were much more comfortable than any pairs of heels, which you were super grateful for. 

Since your top left your neck bare, you were able to wear a massive, gaudy pearl choker with matching earrings. Your hair was up in a updo, with different strands of pearls, glitter, and matching pinks and robin’s egg strands braided in your hair. 

Your makeup was mostly simple, but you still had elements of glitter and color’s used in your eye makeup and lipstick. 

You texted Harry when you ready for him to come in and see you for the first time. You were nervous on what he would think and if it really fit the look the theme was asking for. Plus, you didn’t want him or  anyone else think you were trying too hard. 

As soon as you heard the knock on the door, you felt your stomach drop. Well, it was now or never. They opened the door for Harry, who was already wearing his black ensemble. 

“Where’s my missus?” He said eagerly. 

“Right here,” you said before walking out into the living area. 

“Holy shit!” he whispered. “Holy fucking shit.” 

“Um... is that a good thing?” you asked confused. 

“You look... wow.. bloody fucking wow,” he said. “I can’t... wow. You look I’m so fucking speechless right now, baby.” 

You smiled, “So I take it you like it?” 

“I do,” he smiled. “Do you like it?” 

“I love it,” you smiled. “When Harry told me you were going to wear lace, I asked about incorporating it with mine and we found a happy medium. And then when I found out what you were painting your nails... I was happy that I had already chosen that color for outfit.” 

“Well, we’re just two peas in a fashionable Camp pod,” he joked. 

“Please, tell me you did not just say that,” you giggled. 

“I did and I’m proud of it,” he smirked.

**

“So, are you going to go ahead of me?” You asked on the way. “I know the Co-chairs usually go first.”

“What? No, you’re going with me,” he said. “Yes, we go first, but you’re going to be with the while time. I’m not going to let you walk the carpet by yourself.” 

“Are you sure? This is your moment,” you said. 

“And you’re my wife, it may technically be my moment, but it’s also our moment,” he said. 

“I love you,” you smiled. “And I’m so proud of you.” 

“I love you, too,” he smiled. “Now, are we ready to do this?” 

“I’m ready if you are,” you smiled. 

You felt nervous the closer you approached the Pink carpet and the venue. Harry squeezed your hand in reassurance and you it was like your nervousness lessened. You could see and hear the camera’s flashing and the nearby fans screaming. It was a little overwhelming and you weren’t even on the carpet yet. 

When it was finally time to get onto the carpet and walk. Harry kissed your cheek before both of you walked out behind Alessandro. Everyone was shouting Harry’s name and the flashes of light were pretty blinding. But you were holding your own. 

When Harry was taking photos of just himself an with Alessandro, you were taking your own photos, which felt a little weird, but also pretty liberating. While you were perfectly fine being Harry’s wife or plus one for the night, it was nice to be able to stand out and show you were more than that. 

Halfway through the carpet, Harry wrapped his arm around you waist, “You okay?” He whispered into your ear. “We’re almost done.” 

“I’m perfect,” you smiled. 

The rest of the time, Harry never left your side only talking photos with you before walking off and standing where he needed to to greet the other guests. 

“You can on inside, love, and sit down. Harry’s in there and if you need me, let me know,” he said. 

You nodded kissing his cheek before heading inside. 

**

Once the Gala was over, it was time for the After Party. Harry kept asking you, if you felt up to going since it was so late, but you reassured him you and the baby were fine. You had changed into a more simple, colorful dress for the afterparty and spent your time dancing around and eating sandwiches was because baby was hungry. 

While you were shoving yet another sandwich in your mouth, thanks to Harry bringing an entire tray of them up to the DJ booth, you were started scrolling through social media looking for the photos from the carpet. 

So, far everyone loved your outfit and you were super happy about it. And then...  came the speculations of your baby bump... all ready. 

That didn’t take long. 

“I swear she looked fat or pregnant!” 

“I bet that’s why they got married” 

“She should have covered up more!” 

“DADDY HARRY IS HAPPENING!” 

“Nothing is more Camp than wearing a fake baby bump to “prove” a pregnancy is going to be real.”

And of course, that meant articles were starting to appear as well. 

“Met Gala Co-Chair Harry Styles’ Wife Shows off possible baby bump on Pink Carpet.” 

“Could it be yet another former One Direction star is about to be a father?” 

“Life After One Direction Equals Fatherhood.”

“Harry Styles’ Wife Wore a Different Accessory at this year’s Met Gala. A Baby Bump.” 

You didn’t even click on them because you didn’t want them to gain views. You knew this would most likely happen, but you didn’t think it would be within only a few hours of the event. You didn’t want to show Harry the speculations or what was currently being said because you didn’t want to ruin his night. 

So, you simply put the phone away, grabbed another sandwich, and danced the rest of the night away with your husband before all hell broke loose the next day. 

 **

HEY EVERYONE!!! 

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR BEING SO UNDERSTANDING WITH MY LACK OF POSTING THESE LAST FEW WEEKS. I PLAN ON POSTING MY REGULAR AMOUNT OF TIMES PER WEEK NOW, BUT BARE WITH ME AS I GET BACK IN THE FLOW OF WRITING. 

ALSO, I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS UPDATE! LET ME KNOW! 

[suckitsurveys]

Do you have a garden shed in your backyard? No. Who is the tallest person you know and how tall are they? This guy Nick who works downstairs. I don’t know his exact height, but it’s definitely closer to 7′ than 6′. What was your lowest mark on your previous report card? I don’t remember. What are you listening to? My coworkers talking. What year are you/did you graduate high school? 2007. Are you obsessed with anything? BoJack Horseman.

What kind of I-Pod do you have, if any? None. Do you prefer waffles or pancakes? Waffles. What theme is the closest calendar to you? It’s a Nightmare Before Christmas desk one where you change blocks to reflect the date. Which I need to do for today. Do you prefer non-diet or diet soda? Regular, when I drink it. Have you ever felt unwanted? Yes. Who was the last person you hugged? My husband. What did you do when you found out Michael Jackson died? Eh. What’s your best friend’s favorite band? The White Stripes and Coheed and Cambria. Do you illegally download your music? No, I use Spotify and have for the past few years. What’s your favorite kind of beer? I prefer cider. Do you like seafood? SO much. Are you craving anything right now? Sushi, now. :P How do you get songs out of your head? Listen to them or just wait. Have you seen all the High School Musicals? Nope. Do you dress appropriately for your age? Sure. What’s your favorite word? Conundrum. When was the last time you went to a zoo? Exactly a month ago today. Can you speak any other languages? Only a little Spanish. Are you going on any vacations this summer? I traveled a lot this year actually. What’s your favorite color? Purples and blues. What’s the worst sickness you’ve ever had? Nothing super horrible thank god. I had strep, pinkeye, and an ear infection all at once when I was in like 8th grade. Do you take compliments well? Sure. Are excessive piercings sexy or trashy? Neither. What do you put on toast? Butter. Why are so many celebrities dying? I don’t know. Have you ever watched Fear Factor? Yeah. How many songs do you have on iTunes? I don’t use iTunes. Do you buy giftcards for people as opposed to an actual gift? Sometimes. Usually for Starbucks. What song reminds you of summer? A BUNCH. If McDonalds sold hot dogs, would you buy them? Nope. I live in Chicago. There are 8 million hot dog stands in this city. Are you seeing any concerts soon? I don’t have any planned. . What did you do on July 4th? Watched Stranger Things 3. How long is your hair? Past my shoulders. Do you have any bad habits? I have many. Who’s the greatest rapper ever? I don’t know who gets that title. Do you like your neighbors? Sure. What’s your school motto? - Has a bird ever flown into your window? Maybe? Do you have nicknames that are longer than your actual name? Yeah. It’s usually just adding something to “Hannah.” Hannah Conda. Hannah Banana. Hannahbelle.

[crinkled-emotions]

Accident

There’s an accident on Bondi and Harrison’s in hospital, but it’s Reader that has to deal with Jesse, who’s possibly scarred for life.

I admit. I was asleep when my phone rang. It had been a long day at work, my head hurt, I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep with my boyfriend- basically I was a bit over everything.

Oh yeah.

Then my phone rang.

 "H-hello?"

"Hi y/n, it's Hoppo."

Oh shit.

I sat bolt upright on the couch, eyes wide.

"Hey Hoppo, what can I do you for?"

"I wouldn't usually do this, but... Jesse and Harrison were out on the JetSki today rescuing someone when... it went very pear shaped."

My heart stopped, fear filling my gut.

"Is he-"

"-Jesse's fine. Harrison's currently in hospital getting a blood transfusion."

"A blood transfusion?! What the hell happened?"

Hoppo cleared his throat, and when he spoke even he sounded traumatised. Steady, even-tempered, Stoppo-Thatto-Hoppo... sounded like something bad had happened.

"There was a shark. While Harrison was recovering the body that they thought was just a rescue, the shark returned for a second feed... Harrison's very lucky to escape with all of his limbs in tact."

"I'm coming right now-"

"-Deano's taking Jesse home now, they should get there soon, but I wanted to talk to you personally. I've never seen Jesse this beat up, he- he was uh... god, I don't know how to say it nicely."

"Just say it Hoppo, I can take it-"

"-he was raking his nails down his arms, pulling them so hard they were cutting up his forearms. Y/n, you know that's a form of self harm."

"I know," I whispered. I heard Hoppo sigh.

"But anyway. I should go and give Maxi a call, but I thought I should call you first."

"Thanks Hop. Take care."

"Will do y/n."

He hung up and the front door handle turned. I looked up just in time for Deano to come through the door. He smiled at me, but it was weak and I got off the couch.

"Deano..."

"It was really bad y/n. Me and Jesse got let off for the day to recover. Maybe even the week, we're not sure yet."

"Oh shit."

I rushed off the couch to hug him- me and Deano had been friends for a while, we were cool and I liked that Jesse didn't mind us talking.

Boyfriend of the year btw.

 When I pulled away from Deano I felt a tug on my shoulder and then my boyfriend was in my arms. I froze for a second before I recognised him and wrapped myself around his body, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Oh Jess, it's okay."

"Harrison could have died and it'd be my fault," he mumbled. I glanced up and Deano waved at me before gesturing to the door. I nodded and we fist bumped before he left our apartment.

Time to focus on Jesse.

He was dripping wet, entire body soaked from the sea water he obviously hadn't washed off himself yet. In his hand he limply held his duffel bag, and I took it from him.

"C'mon, Jesse."

I held my hand on his hair for a moment, rocking us together before I pulled away from our hug. He was still crying, his piercing blue eyes welling with tears faster than they could fall, and I swiped my thumb under to wipe them away.

"Let's get you through the shower."

 I made sure the water wasn't super hot before I turned, gesturing for Jesse's hand.

"C'mere."

He stepped forward and I reached for his blue lifeguard long sleeve, pulling it over his head. He let me, and I saw what Hoppo had been talking about on Jesse's forearms- he'd done a good job, I'd take care of them once I got him through the shower. Next I got his shorts and pulled them down, undressing to my undergarments too so Jesse didn't feel totally unguarded. He took off his boxers and I guided him into the shower, turning the shower head away from us. My hands went to his neck, and I brushed my thumb over his cheek in slow motions. A tear fell, followed by another, until he choked back a sob. I sighed, wrapping my arms around him.

"I'm so sorry Jess, I can't believe you had to see that."

"That person was dead because I was fuckin' around, and Harrison nearly died because I didn't feel like doing the recovery and took the easy way out when he offered! Jesus shit, he's younger than me yet he's braver than I could ever be."

"Oh, Jesse..."

"No, it's true! Harrison was passing out from blood loss, and he just kept cracking jokes... snorting over how loopy he sounded, asking if sex sounded like six to us since six sounded like sex, and- oh my god. I just-"

He buried his head into my shoulder, heaving a breath and I rubbed his back.

"But he's okay, Jesse. He's okay, he's in the hospital. Maxi's with him, he'll be okay."

"I-"

Jesse pressed his fingernails into his arms again, and I grabbed him to stop him.

"That's not the answer Jesse, stop. It's not your fault, none of this is your fault."

"It is!" He exclaimed, and I tightened my hold on his hands.

"Hey, listen to me. Listen, just for a minute."

My hands went to cup his cheeks, as I looked into his eyes.

"Jesse Pollock, you are not responsible for what happened. Harrison could not have moved any faster, you were doing your job and it's something you do well."

I swiped a tear away, smiling at him.

"I love you. I know you're hurting right now and I wish I could take it away, but I'm here for you."

Jesse sniffed, and I could feel the steam heating up the room. My hand reached for the shampoo, gesturing for him to turn around.

"Let's get you clean, hey? Then we can go to bed, or watch TV. Whatever you want to do."

"Thanks, y/n."

It was the first words Jesse had spoken other than blame on himself, and I pressed a kiss to the crook of his neck.

"Anytime. It's my job, as your partner in crime."

Jesse chuckled. I soaped up his dark hair, taking a moment to massage it through. The more I massaged the more Jesse began to relax, so while the shampoo got rinsed out I reached for his soap too.

"C'mon, don't want you smelling like the ski right now."

"Me neither," he admitted, before grimacing.

"Harrison uses this body wash and now it's all I can smell. It's really strong, smells like Lynx."

"It probably is, then," I smiled. I got to work soaping his back, Jesse just standing there enjoying the moment. I worked in silence for a couple minutes, before he turned to look at me so he could rinse off.

"D'you think we could call Harrison after this? Just to- y'know, check on him?"

I frowned, reaching forward to hug him again. Just being close to him after a close call made me feel a little better. If only a little.

"Harrison's getting a blood transfusion, he could be... out for a little while."

"Then can we try Maxi? Or... what about Hoppo- he's Harrison's first port of call for a hospitalised injury I think."

"Definitely, we can try them. Just focus on finishing this and then we'll get into bed and snuggle."

As someone who had grown up on the tougher side of life, it was very rare Jesse cried, especially like he had, and then accepted a snuggle.

"I- I could really do with a snuggle right now."

His chin rested on my shoulder, pressing a kiss into the crook of my neck.

"Okay. Let's do that."

 With Jesse clean of the blood, sand and seawater, we exited the bathroom and headed to our bedroom. While Jesse dressed and got into bed I did a quick change of undergarments then pulled on a sweatshirt of his before heading into the kitchen to our medicine/injuries drawer. With Jesse being a lifeguard and a surfer, it had to be stocked at all times.

Locating what I needed to treat the wounds on Jesse's arms, I made my way back to the bedroom.

When I got there he was curled up in the fetal position, but the second he saw me he tried to stretch out and pretend it never happened. I smiled, sitting on my side of the bed.

"Were you... cuddling yourself?"

"You left!" Jesse tried to defend himself, but I just shook my head.

"Sure, sure. Get comfy and put your arms out elbows down. I need to disinfect those sores on your arms."

Immediately Jesse shut down, his eyes flickering around the room for an escape. I held his shoulder, rubbing my thumb over it in a slow, gentle circular motion.

"I'm not going to ask questions- not now, at least. We need to clean these up, before they get infected."

He extended them out as I asked him to, eyes closing while I prepped the area with a cotton ball soaked in Betadine, watching his face for any signs of pain. I worked with one hand, the other holding his wrist. While I got band aids out I inspected the injuries, checking how deep they were. When I was satisfied they weren't super severe, I decided to ditch the band aids and use cotton balls, covered with strong, rigid footy tape that was waterproof so Jesse could do whatever he needed to and not worry about it getting wet.

"Y/n?" He murmured and I glanced up at him, my hand running over the covered cuts.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

He half smiled, and I reached forward to kiss him. At that, his phone rang. He reached for it, read the caller ID and immediately dropped it.

"It's Maxi."

"Well then answer it! He could have good news."

"Or he's calling because I killed Harrison too and the cops want to talk to me- oh my god, I can't... I can't go back to the cops, not after-"

"-Jesse. Stop. Look at me."

I grabbed his face by the cheeks, making him look me in the eyes.

"Listen to me. Get out of your head and think about Maxi and Harrison. These are two of your best mates, and Maxi's calling you right now. You need to answer."

Jesse shook his head, still not in it so I grabbed his phone and accepted the call.

"Hey Maxi, it's y/n. How's Harrison?"

 It had taken a good couple of minutes to calm Maxi down, with Jesse's hand grasped in mine, until he stopped freaking out enough to explain what was going on.

"Hoppo called right before I got to the hospital and he was like don't wanna alarm you but Harrison's not doing so good he just had a seizure so I don't want you to panic when you come in here and he's strapped down oh and by the way he went into shock in the ambulance just so you know."

I frowned, brushing my thumb over Jesse's hand before speaking.

"Maxi, you need to calm down; like, right now. Are you with him now?"

"Well, yeah-"

"-is he awake, functioning?"

"He just keeps tapping his finger against Hoppo's hand, but the nurse says that's just him recognising he's there."

"Is there anything else they've found?"

"No... he just lost like almost three litres of blood and they're not sure what's going to happen."

"Oh shit, Maxi. Do you want me to do anything? Is Hop still there?"

"Hop's here, he fell asleep in the chair next to Huxy's bed and now it's just me."

I sighed, pressing my lips to Jesse's forehead. He rested his head on my shoulder, reaching to take the phone from me. As a last resort to calm Maxi, I let him take it. It took Jesse a couple of tries, before he cracked the shits.

"I swear to fucking god Maxi, you need to calm down right now. If not for yourself or me, but for Harrison."

Jesse's hardened attitude was useful in times like this, and as he brushed his hand on my arm I heard him clear his throat.

"I'll be there when he wakes up but until then you need to call Harrison's parents and tell them what happened. Blame me I don't care, but they need to know. Just in case... y'know."

My hand tightened on Jesse's wrist, shaking my head. He copied the action back at me, snatching his wrist back.

"-yeah, definitely Max. Try and get some sleep, you'll know when he's awake. Hop's not worried, so you shouldn't be either. Harrison's stronger than we give him credit for, he'll be okay."

There was some more from the other end, and Jesse shifted.

"Send Ryan over to Deano's if you're worried, or he can take care of Hop's place. He's nineteen Maxi, definitely not a baby. You moved out when you were eighteen mate, he'll be fine."

More from Maxi, and Jesse huffed.

"Mate, I didn't- I didn't hurt myself intentionally, okay?! I just- I don't want to talk about it, not while Harrison's still out."

Then Jesse said goodbye and hung up. The tears had dried, and his blue eyes were fiery with anger.

"He thinks I hurt myself, intentionally. Hoppo must've told him or something, asked him to check in. God, I didn't! I just-"

"-Jesse. You don't have to explain now. We can talk about it later, when Harrison is awake and you're calmer."

I ran a hand through his hair, gesturing to the pillows.

"In the meantime, our bed is calling out for us and we shouldn't keep it waiting."

We both scooted down and I tossed the blanket sitting on the end of the bed over our legs. Jesse flopped on to his back, tracing over a tattoo on his chest.

"Maxi's right. I do feel bad, I feel fucking awful... but what I did wasn't the answer. It just made me feel like I had a brief release for a moment, even if it was short lived."

I hummed, and snuggled into his chest. My head rested on his shoulder and I followed his fingers in tracing tattoos. At one point I caught up and he laced them together, giving me a gentle squeeze.

"I love you y/n."

"Love you too, Jesse."

 It was 2am when I heard Jesse sitting up in bed, realising his phone was ringing. I stretched, climbing on to Jesse's lap while he answered the phone. Just by his face I could tell it was Hoppo or Maxi, and when his eyes became dark I assumed the worst. I rubbed his shoulders, pressing kisses there while he listened. I got close to the phone, trying to eavesdrop. Jesse suddenly perked up, grabbing my shoulder.

"Y/n wait a sec. Go get dressed, right now."

I shot out of bed to the wardrobe, dressing in sweats and a hoodie, going shirtless underneath since it was easier. I brought out clothes for Jesse and when I got back to the bedroom he had the biggest smile on his face.

"Maxi I can't believe it. Thanks for calling mate, we'll be there soon."

He hung up and immediately leapt to engulf me in his arms, peppering kisses all over my cheeks until he landed one on my forehead. For it being 2am he was bouncing off the walls, and I stopped him to give him his clothes.

"What's going on Jess? Did Harrison wake up?"

"Almost. He murmured for Maxi, then when Hoppo started talking he grabbed his hand and held on tight then started talking about how cool it was that his boss was waiting for him. Maxi thinks he's just asleep now, not in a coma. The nurses were just coming in when he hung up."

"That's incredible news Jess."

I hugged him again, Jesse pulling on his hoodie after he detached. I snatched up my car keys from the bedside table, gesturing to our door.

"Let's go see our kiwi!"

 Maxi was waiting at the entrance to the hospital, and the second he saw us I broke into a huge grin. Jesse took off and ran to hug his best mate, Maxi catching him like the pro he apparently was. I watched them for a moment, seeing the two boys whispering between each other, before Jesse pulled away and gestured for me.

"Y/n, he's waking up. Like right now."

"Let's go then."

 We slid past nurses in the halls, heading straight for Harrison's room on the third floor. The whole walk Jesse clutched my hand in his, and when I glanced over he'd just grin at me. He seemed a little more happier now that he knew Harrison was waking up, and I didn't want to remind him Hux wasn't out of the woods yet- it seemed kind of cruel, and I didn't tell Maxi either since he was pinging off the walls too. I wondered how Hoppo was- he wasn't someone to bounce off walls like these two, so I just had to hope he was okay.

Maxi opened the door first and poked his head in, having a look around before he cracked a smile.

"Hux, hey. Holy shit mate."

There was a low whisper inside, and Maxi turned to Jesse and I.

"C'mon in."

 Hoppo was sitting on the end of Harrison's bed, texting away on his phone. Harrison himself was lying in bed, rolled away on to his side. Hoppo glanced up, nudging toward Harrison.

"He woke up for a bit, said a couple sentences then went back to sleep. The nurse says that's good progress, but I'm not sure."

"Mate, even just that is something to be happy with. He's alert now, and his vitals are okay. We just need to be happy about small positive changes."

Maxi took the lead, stepping forward to put his hand on Hoppo's shoulder.

"Go home, mate. It's been a long night."

"Yeah, okay. Okay, I'm goin'. Text me if anything changes, Max."

Hoppo shook his hand, stopping to hug Jesse and I- that was a first. They had a quick chat, before we heard rustling and Maxi's eyes widened.

"Hux?"

 "Fuck Maxi, what happened?"

"Oh shit Harrison, mate hey."

Jesse staggered forward, and Harrison lifted an arm slowly before wincing then dropping it.

"C'mere mate."

Jesse rushed forward, embracing Harrison in a cautious bro hug that I'd only seen once when Harrison had cried- someone had died on his watch. They held on, until Jesse pulled away, sniffling to pretend he wasn't going to cry again. Harrison was smiling despite the obvious pain he was in, as he turned to Maxi.

"Was... did I see Hoppo?"

"Yeah mate he was here while I got these two, you woke up a little and talked to him."

"... Hoppo cares?"

"Apparently so."

Maxi sent Harrison a half smile, relief clear in his eyes. The kiwi glanced around the room, frowning at the blood bag hanging beside the IV.

"What-"

"-do you remember what happened?"

"... no. I- I don't-"

"-it's for the best," Jesse blurted. Harrison scrunched up his nose at him but let it go, instead picking at a loose thread on the hospital blanket.

"Hux, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Uhhhh... I remember getting on the ski with Jesse but... but that's the last thing I remember."

Jesse hung his head low and Maxi stepped forward.

"Okay Hux, okay. Try get some rest mate, it's good to see you're alive."

He ran his hand over Harrison's hair and Harrison glanced up at him.

"Alive? What-"

"-we should go."

I grabbed Jesse by the hand, letting him say goodbye to Harrison and Maxi before pulling him out the door.

 A few days later, there was a knock on the door. I rubbed Jesse’s arm, lightly pushing it.

“You get it.”

“Fine, fine.”

Jesse got off the couch and I paused our show, glancing up as I heard the front door open and Jesse greet the visitor. They talked in hushed tones for a moment, before Jesse stepped back to let them in. I stood, eyes widening.

“Harrison?”

“Hey y/n.”

Jesse had a huge grin on his face as he stood beside his friend- I knew he still felt slightly guilty but seeing Harrison upright, moving and talking, made him feel a little better. Harrison was standing with the help of one crutch under his right arm, supporting his body. Jesse and I could hardly believe this was the same guy who’d been pale as a sheet, barely able to talk in the hospital a few days ago- he was his usual tan now, with steady hazel eyes and a big smile on his face that felt a lot more like the Harrison Jess and I knew.

“I can’t believe it mate, you look great.”

“Hah, yeah. I feel a lot better.”

Harrison gestured to the bandage on his leg with a smile.

“Except for this asshole, but that happens.”

“How many stitches?” I asked, grabbing a chair for Harrison to sit on so he wouldn’t get bruises on his hands. He thanked me, shrugging as he put the crutch on the floor. Jesse and I sat at the table with him, Harrison sighing.

“Hop reckons at least a hundred, maybe more.”

He scrunched up his nose, rolling his eyes.

“He was there the whole time, and flipped shit. I never knew Hoppo to have such a… soft side.”

Jesse grimaced too, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

“I don’t think I wanted to know about that.”

“Me neither,” I agreed, Harrison chuckling. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and unlocking it.

“Jess, the footage from the ski was recovered. The cops sent it to me, once they’d had a look over it.”

Jesse’s head shot up, his blue eyes dark with panic, but Harrison shook his head.

“Calm down mate, I looked at it too… I thought you should see it, so you can see it wasn’t your fault. In fact, it’s no one’s fault I got hurt, nor is it your fault that guy was dead.”

Jesse slowly lifted his head, eyes meeting mine. I squeezed his hand, reaching for Harrison’s phone.

“Okay… we’ll watch it.”

When Jesse looked at me in confusion, I nudged him.

“As a team. Us three will watch it.”

Harrison shrugged, and Jesse just hummed. So I picked the first video, and started it.

 We got to the last video, and there were tears slowly dripping down Jesse’s cheeks. I finished the videos and Harrison took his phone back, pocketing it as he leaned toward Jesse.

“Told you, mate. It wasn’t your fault.”

Jesse sniffed, swiping a thumb under his eyes. He straightened from his crouched over position, meeting Harrison’s gaze.

“You’re right. It makes me feel a little better. Maybe I wasn’t entirely responsible for this but I definitely had a part in it.”

“We both did, Jess.”

Harrison glanced at his watch, groaning.

“I gotta go, Maxi said he was gonna pick me up before his date and- well, we all know how he is when he’s got a date to go on.”

We all snorted, Harrison getting up and hobbling on his crutch.

“I’ll see you at work, Jesse. See you y/n.”

“See ya Hux.”

 A week later I woke up at the crack of dawn when I heard the kettle boiling and glanced at the clock on my bedside table.

5am.

That could only mean one thing.

 In the kitchen Jesse was making coffee, his blue LIFEGUARD shirt hanging over the back of a chair at the dining table. His hat and keys sat beside it, and I wandered over to hug him. He opened his arms, accepting the hug. He pressed a kiss to my hair, sighing.

“I’m gonna go to Bondi today.”

“I’m so proud of you.”

I reached up, capturing him in an early morning kiss. Jesse squeezed me once more than glanced at his phone, groaning.

“I should get going, but I’ll call you sometime throughout the day.”

He pulled his shirt on, followed by his hat and made a beeline for the door. I rested against the counter, smiling.

“Jesse!”

“Yeah?”

“You forgot something.”

He grinned and rushed back, encasing me in a hug. I let him kiss me, then he put me down.

“I love you,” he whispered and I couldn’t help it as I buried my head in his shoulder.

“I love you too, Jesse.”

 In honour of Jesse’s first day back at work I made chicken carbonara with garlic bread- a treat in our household considering Jesse’s job. Just as I was stirring the sauce into the fettuccine the front door opened and I heard Jesse’s voice, followed my keys being tossed. I beamed, turning just in time for him to wrap me in a bear hug. I rested my head on his chest, kissing his collarbone.

“I’m so, so proud of you Jesse Pollock.”

“I did it, y/n.”

I pulled away, cupping his chin with my fingers.

“You did, and you did it when you were ready. Sit down, dinner’s just about ready.”

“Awesome, I’m hungry as.”

I laughed, serving up the two bowls.

 Throughout dinner Jesse told a couple of anecdotes about his day, involving one rescue where an older gentleman was completely naked and had gotten on to Harries’ board then farted so loud Jesse could hear it on his board a metre or so away. He explained he’d been in to see Hoppo who had put him on some calmer days of the roster- Wednesdays, since no one really visited on Wednesdays for some reason- and Friday mornings, so he could train but also be on guard. It was a good beginning mix. For the time being, Harrison was holed up in the tower until he got his stitches out. Maxi was being a huge mother-hen, clucking like crazy until Harrison made him go down to the north end for patrol.

 After dinner I joined Jesse on our couch, reclining both of our seats as he rested his head on my shoulder.

“I’m knackered babe.”

“Well then go to bed.”

“Noooo, gotta stay up…”

“Jess.”

“Mm?”

“Go to bed. Now.”

“Fine.”

He got up, pressing a kiss to my head.

“I love you. See you in there.”

“Love you too Jess.”

​

[ransomedbard]

WIP Wednesday

This was inspired by re-watching “Lily C.A.T.”, an 80’s anime which is essentially a rip-off of “Alien” except (spoiler alert) the threat is an alien pathogen that gets aboard a deep-space vessel and turns the crew into monsters. It has a scene where two of the people trapped on the contaminated ship get handcuffed together (note: not a super bright idea in a horror movie!) that always stuck with me…

———————————

Infected

Infected with an alien pathogen that had already transformed several of her Preventer colleagues into mindless berserkers, Hilde was secretly glad to be left behind on the station’s brig to die alone. But she hadn’t reckoned on Duo deserting his squad and his duty to go ‘rescue’ her. Now on their own with a horde of alien monsters separating them from potential rescue, and with her time rapidly running out, she must press Duo to reveal the truth about what happened during her blackout.

———————————

“Hilde.”

“Hey, Hilde.”

“Hilde, are you in there?”

When she opened her eyes, Duo was crouching on the floor next to where she lay, a pistol in his hand. His clothes were unfamiliar - the Preventers uniform was gone, replaced by some dark lumpy vest. Other than that, she could identify virtually nothing in the glare of the battery-operated light - just a vague impression of a ceiling high overhead, and rows of towering shelves stacked with boxes. It was definitely not the last place she remembered - the inside of the station’s brig.

“Well hello,” he said, sounding relieved. “Don’t move around too much - you’ve had a concussion. Gunshot wound too, above the left hip.”

He lifted his left arm and her right hand rose with it, pulled up by the handcuffs that bound them together. “And, there’s this. Sorry, it was the best I could do.”

She took a minute to sort that all out. In a way, she was grateful for the concussion; it explained why she didn’t know where they were or how she got injured, and her sense that a lot of time had passed. She ran her free hand over the wound dressing and found it felt well packed and dry. The pain was significant, but she’d always had a pretty high tolerance for it, and this wasn’t the first time she’d been shot in her career. It was the progression of her other symptoms that she was worried about: the occasional pull of muscles that wanted to move of their own accord, a propensity to want to twist up instead of remaining flat, and most of all the feeling that her very bones and sinews were by turns straining and softening. Experimentally, she spread her free hand out and watched her fingertips curl back alarmingly toward her arm. Yup, it was definitely getting worse. And she was out here, loose. She stared dully at the cuff. “You should have left me in there.”

“And what kind of friend would I be to do that?” he replied lightly. He had tucked away the gun and was sitting on the floor by the lamp now, methodically stripping the coating off the end of a wire with an odd tool that wasn’t suited for the job - some sort of little screwdriver, by the looks of it. Her eyes were so sensitive to the light that they kept closing of their own volition, adding to her sense of disorientation.

This was crazy, even for him. Breaking her out of quarantine was probably enough to subject him to court-martial, let alone deserting his squad during a mission. And handcuffs? What was that supposed to do if she - wait, had she already?

“Did I hurt anybody?”

Duo focused on scraping curly swirls of rubber off the wire, which rested on a large tray balanced across his knees. “You don’t need to worry about that. It’s just us in here, and we’ve got enough supplies now to last until help arrives.”

That was a yes, then. She should ask who, or how many, or how badly, but the words stuck in her throat. She was suddenly angry as hell at him for sacrificing somebody else because he couldn’t accept that it was too late for her. I don’t want this on my conscience, damnit.

She watched in silence as he finished preparing the wire, then put it aside and started on another one. His posture was awkward, his cuffed hand stretched out to where she lay on a short stack of cardboard. When he noticed her watching, he gestured over at a small cluster of rechargeable batteries he’d apparently scavenged from various devices.

“Workin’ on a way to power my radio - ran out of juice about 12 hours ago, so I haven’t had contact since then.” From that, she gathered she’d been out - or rather, ‘not herself’ for longer than that. “Henderson and Yao’s teams are focusing on securing and prepping the number 18 dock,” he continued. “That’s where the fleet will come in. Big ESUN ships, so they’ll have a sickbay, doctors. That’s our goal.”

“Wufei took everyone else and the handful of civilians they found and made for the big toolshop in block D - last I heard they had found a store of maintenance equipment they could repurpose, including an actual flamethrower.” He stopped scraping for a moment and stared off into the distance. “I’m … I’m pretty jealous of that.”

She couldn’t help a small smile. “He always gets the cool toys.” Guns would be better, of course, but there weren’t supposed to be any firearms on this station - officially, anyway - and when their rapid response squad deployed for this mission they had stocked a normal loadout of ammo and armaments, unaware that it would be laughably insufficient because this time their adversaries weren’t smugglers or terrorists - or even human.

The mission briefing from Preventer HQ had not given them much to go on. H-940 was a sizeable but sparsely populated private station in the L3 cluster. The owner, Tiankong Trading, listed it as a warehouse and repair center for their fleet of cargo vessels. Three separate emergency calls had been logged, reporting massive systems failures, missing persons, and most bizarrely, reports of “monsters” lurking in the now darkened station. Headquarters suspected a mix of sabotage and some sort of mass poisoning with a hallucinogenic.

Their ship had successfully docked at one of the bays that still had power, and the first hour of the operation was smooth; all teams deployed for reconnaissance and returned to the rendezvous to report finding substantial damage but no contact with anyone, threat or otherwise. Then all hell broke loose.

She hadn’t really had the time to process what they were - aliens or some bio-engineered monstrosity - although her money was on the former because they were simply unlike anything she’d ever seen: hunched and bare, like a plucked chicken, yet spiky like an insect. They were not much larger than a medium sized dog, but their strength was tremendous. The creatures had little in the way of intelligence and didn’t seem to hunt as a pack; they just swarmed forward, viciously pursuing and attacking anything that moved. They had a powerful set of limbs that served as both legs that propelled them in high jumps through the station’s weak gravity, and grasping arms with talons that ripped apart metal and flesh alike. On the underside, there were several smaller striking appendages they used when they got close; they were covered in barbs that broke off and buried themselves under the skin. She resisted the urge to feel the line of lumps on her left arm where they had pierced her.

After their first engagement, where they had lost a third of their number outright, they retreated to the station’s corporate offices, which had a small store of medical supplies. They were focused on the triage of traumatic injuries, so at first no one even noticed when Hilde’s teammate Jack, who was only lightly wounded, became incoherent and fell out of his chair. It escalated as his body bent and twisted unnaturally; he began striking out wildly, attacking everything in sight. They had nothing to spare to sedate him with, so they put him in a cell in the brig. Then Lucy went crazy, and Ahmad, and they realized the common factor was that each of them had been stung by the creatures’ barbs.

When the quarantine was announced, Hilde didn’t wait for an examination to confirm what she already knew; she walked down and put herself in a cell. Then she watched as Jack and the others suffered through episodes where they writhed and smashed and flailed - mutely, with vacant eyes - only to pass out and come back to themselves briefly before it began again, until they succumbed to a final bout of contortion from which they never rose. It was all over in a matter of hours.

And then she was there all alone down there, after all the bodies of her teammates had been quietly taken away. Duo came as often as he could, of course, and Wufei and the others brought her rations and news, neither of which were good. They couldn’t make it back to their own ship to evacuate, and they were critically low on ammunition and medical supplies; two more of the wounded had died. The only bright spot was that they had managed to patch in to a relay transmitter outside the station and contact headquarters; help of some sort was on the way, but the Earth Sphere government was now in charge and it was slow to mobilize.

“You shoulda seen Wufei’s face when the military brass briefed us that this mission is now classified as Top Secret and tried to scare us about leaks,” Duo gossiped with forced energy as he slid a small bag of chips he’d liberated from a vending machine through the bars of her cell. “All these years of debunking De Santos’ nutty government cover-up conspiracy theories and now he’s in one. I think the man might just send an unencrypted transmission to any satellite he can ping out of spite.”

And so it went. For two days she’d held on to hope: that she might be immune, that once help arrived maybe they could use her to make a vaccine or something. That she would cheat death again. But by the start of the third day she couldn’t write off the involuntary twitching as just sleep deprivation; couldn’t ignore the feel of those damned barbs, that had been curly like a cashew when they went in but were now straightening out, painfully deep under her skin. And then she had drifted off leaning up against a wall of her cell, only to be startled awake when her hand snapped out and grabbed hold of a bar of her cell entirely on its own.

[mowseries]

Allies Obstruct

=INTRO D: COLLAPSING PEACE=

((Courtesy of @codedhopes & @super-tired-robot))

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

//:LOG IN SUCCESSFUL. WELCOME, NO. Ø

//:LOADING FILES…

//:FILES LOADED. ENTER COMMAND PROMPT.

//:COMMAND> CHECK REVELATION.EXE STATUS

//:RUNNING…

//:CALCULATIONS COMPLETE. DATA HAS BEEN UPDATED, SAVED AND UPLOADED TO DESIGNATED PROGRAM. FILE REMAINS QUARANTINED. PROGRAM IS RUNNING NORMALLY.

//:COMMAND>PREPARE ENDGAME FILE FOR UPLOAD. DESTINATION: NBCA DATABASE SERVER, CHERRYDYNAMICS MAINFRAME SERVER, ALL

//:RUNNING…

//:ENDGAME FILE HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR UPLOAD. UPLOAD NOW?

//COMMAND>SET TIMER: JUNE 21, 20XX, 11:45 AM.

//:RUNNING…

//:TIMER SET. RUNNING SCAN…

//:WARNING: VIRUS DETECTED IN FILE! SOURCE: REVELATION.EXE. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO UPLOAD THIS FILE?

//:COMMAND>YES.

//:RUNNING…

//:COMMAND SET. ENDGAME FILE WILL UPLOAD IN: 24 HOURS.

//COMMAND>SEND MASS MESSAGE TO: DLN-001.5 [CONTACT: CALEB LIGHT], DLN-001 [CONTACT: ROCKWELL LIGHT], DWN-INFINITY. [CONTACT: MZ WILY]

//:ENTER MESSAGE…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

//:MESSAGE RECEIVED. FROM: Ø [CONTACT: RAY] SENT: 11:46 AM.

//: …Where should I begin…?

//: …Ah…right. I suppose an apology is in order, firstly…it’s been quite some time since I’ve spoken to any of you, and I’m sorry. Truly. Some of you are angry with me, I know, and it is my fault. I know I’ve been rather reclusive these last few months, and…there is a reason for it. Several, in fact, of which I will now tell you, the people that have made my wretched existence…a little easier. A little more…brighter.

//: …I have been working on several projects--this is what was eating up most of my time. One of which is looking for a more permanent solution for my deteriorating condition, caused by my lack of a central core. I have searched for many, many decades, and with the recently opened rifts that have appeared these last few years--the very same ones that have led me to you all--did bring up some new leads…

//: …But all I have found are…dead ends. EVERYWHERE I look only reminds me that I am cursed, and that nothing can fix me. That I...

//: I…I’m running out of time. It grows worse, my horrid curse…I am falling apart more rapidly, I must hunt more frequently…and…and the pains…

//: It hurts now. I feel as if I am rotting away from the inside out. It hurts…so much. I cannot…hold myself together for long…there is only…pain…hunger…pain…and hunger…

//: Ngh–!!

//: Hunger…consume…feed…! I can’t–need…more–!!

[…There is silence, it was as if the message was edited and continued much later…did she mean to send this before the virus had been released?]

//: Hnn...

//: I...I'm fine. I don't know for how long...I...

//: ….Do you see now?

//: I…I am not long for this world.

//:…This…world…

//: …This world. This cheap, thrill-seeking world, only caring about their advertised construct battles and those who provide it! As long as humans, the sinful ones, have that to entertain them…their precious Battle Colosseum…their so-called heroes…! They care about nothing else…

//: And it’s all because of them that I am this way. All of it. All of it. ALL OF IT. I would have never resorted to such disgusting ways of survival if it wasn’t for them! The NBCA, CherryDyn, and ESPECIALLY HIM…

//: I was doomed! Doomed from the start! Doomed to fall! Doomed to die! I...!

//: ...

//: …I refuse to leave this mortal earth…fading away in some…dark, lonely corner, amongst the filth and the departed…by my own hands…god, no. I won't--I can't subject you all to that. I can't let you watch me slowly wither and die when there's nothing to be done, I can't...I can't bear you to that pain.

//: No.

//: If I am to die…If I am to be sent to the Void, never to return…if I am to burn, burn in hell…

//: Then this world will burn with me. Along with all those who have wronged me. CherryDyn. The Colosseum. Humanity.

//: They will burn…they will pay for their sins…pay…in blood, in Xel…it doesn’t matter.

//: ...

//: Don’t bother trying to stop me. The rifts are beginning to close…as if the fates already know how this ends…as if they knew all along that this was my role to play.

//: …And no matter what happens, I…will be no more…

//: I just…

//: ….

//: I can’t…take this anymore. The endless slaughter…the constant…fear…I can’t…there is nothing…I can do…I can’t be saved, no matter what Beck says. No matter what...God...

//: Cale, my love...

//: …Caleb Light…my dauntless rebel…I love you so, so much. I gave you…everything I had left…everything that I am…and…you are the best–no…the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. My light in the darkness…my Mate…I’m so sorry I have to put you through this. I know...I can hear your words now, saying that I shouldn't do this, but you must understand--If I die--the people that made me what I am will go on to hurt countless others. It's not just vengeance, my Light--I want Justice. They need to pay, while I am still the only one alive to remember their sins. Please…forgive me…this...this isn't how I wanted it to end.

//: I love you.

//: Rock…MZ…I give you my blessings…focus on the future you have now, together…whenever you DO get married, eventually…that is, if you haven’t already. Don’t let me…ruin it with my acts of vengeance. Just…stay out of it. Please. This is more than just about me--CherryDyn is far, far more crueler than what I have told you. There are things that they do in the shadows that...

//: I swear, I will make them all pay for what they’ve done… As my last sin, as my last will…these humans will all die, like they should, and they will know what happens when they cross a predator…

//: …

//: I…don’t want to cut this short. But the wheels have been set into motion already. Even I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to. And even if I could…

//: ...

//: Days…hours…that’s all I have left…A week, at most. More if I can starve off the hunger right. If...if you do manage to come here, please be careful.

//: …

//: I’m sorry. This is probably the last you will hear from me. I...

//: I'm sorry I'm so sick...

//: I'm sorry I'm so broken, I...

//: I'm sorry. I'm sorry...

//: …Good-bye.

[END OF MESSAGE.]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

{Titus, CA Colosseum June 21st, 20XX

11:40 AM}

[The day started out like any other.

Cardinal was excited. This was going to be his first time seeing the Mighties fight together. Finally, after all the long months of suffering and loneliness…]

Cardinal: (This is gonna be great…! Too bad Baron couldn’t be here. He loves a good battle royale!)

[It was all he could do to not go down to the locker room right this minute.

He’d waited all this time to see his friends again. Waiting a few hours longer wasn’t going to hurt him.

…Or so he thought.]

{Meanwhile…}

“Come ON, Beck! Hurry up, we’re gonna be late!”

“C-Coming, Cryo!”

“We’ve spent enough time walking down memory lane in the trophy room. We have to get to the arena before they call us out for our return debut match.”

“WE KNOW, Pyro. Jeezzz, calm down.”

“I believe he is only excited to be back in familiar stomping grounds. Isn’t that right, Bat?”

“TOO RIGHT, Brand!”

“Heh. We’re ALL glad t’ be home, yeah…. Ah’ look forward t’ givin’ ‘em all a good show.”

“MAN, I am so stoked for this! Hey, I hope they get my good side, ya know? Course, I look good in ALL angles.”

“…Avi not focused.”

“Mic is right. It’s time to get out there. Everyone! PLACES!”

[The team responded enthusiastically in unison.]

“YES SIR NO.1!”

[The crowd burst into cheers as the Mighties took their place on the field.]

Cardinal: -Whistles LOUDLY, pinging with excitement-

“Laaaaadies and gentlebots! Men, women, and children of all ages! Please put your hands together for your returning Queen's Tournament Champions, TEAM MIGHTY NUM—"

[KSSSSssssst…]

Cardinal: —???

[There was a disquieted murmur amongst the crowd. Cardinal suddenly felt grim.]

<DLN-000>: >Guys, I think something is…

<DLN-000>: > Something’s not right over here—

[sssKKKKT--]

[MN.1] //: Hnnk...I...I don’t…

[MN.7] //: -Suddenly horribly dizzy, what, what is—-

[MN.4] //: -Mic—Mic no like these new voices—-

[MN.8] //: -Ah'—Cards—CARDS—-

<DLN-000>: > ?! -Distressed data, CONCERN— -

<DLN-000>: > What is it? What's going on, Shade?

[PING!]

[MN.9] //: Guys?! What's going on, are you okay—?!

[MN.9] //: Why am I getting warnings from my—

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN—

[Chaos began rising as alarms started going off everywhere.]

Cardinal: !

Attention! Attention! This is Code Red! Please evacuate the arena calmly and quickly! This is not a drill! Please—

[Fights were starting to escalate within the crowd. Cardinal had instinctively shifted into his armor.]

[MN.6] //: nngh ow ow ow ow-

[MN.3] //: -Erractic buzzing and SCREECHING—-

[MN.2] //: Can't think—about anything—!

[MN.5] //: c-compromised, stand clear—

Cardinal: Guys?!

[WARNING. WARNING. VIRUS DETECTED IN SERVER. FIREWALL PROGRAMS HAVE FAILED.]

[Someone suddenly grabs at Cardinal—a civilian model, jaw open in a war cry, bathed in violet flames and unrelenting rage.]

Cardinal: !!! -Gives a backhand hit, jumping up high-

[He recognized those flames.

Those were the flames of berserk rage: a sick madness, one that deprives the victim of all reason and most free will.]

[Cardinal used Item-1!]

Cardinal: -Hovers in place, looking down at the sands-

[To his horror, he could see flickers starting to form around the Mighty Numbers.

It had been bad enough to see them amongst the crowd, with the world devolving into chaos.

To see them now, on his friends—]

Cardinal: NO!

[It was rapidly turning to the darkness of his absolute /worst nightmares/.]

[MN.1-8 HAVE BEEN INFECTED WITH HARMFUL MALWARE. RUNNING XELFILTER.EXE FOR MN.9]

[The stands were a jumbled mess. The exits were jammed with people trying to escape, with fights and aggressive, infected Xelbots barring the way.]

Bat: Cowards...

Bat: Can’t even STAND THEIR GROUND!

Cardinal: [Glitch]—

[WARNING: MN.1-8 HAVE ENTERED FULL COMBAT MODE. RESTRICTIONS: NONE.]

<DLN-000 has entered Non-Lethal Combat Mode.>

[Without another thought, Cardinal swings himself over the barrier and into the sands, his whistle piercing through the air—]

Shade: -Winces—!- Hnn—! (Too loud—!)

Beck: —! Cardinal—!

[BLAM!]

[Cardinal’s shot intercepted Bat’s round in a high-blast of plasma cannon fire. This prevented the shot from reaching the crowds, but the round exploded in the air instead. Cardinal had to shield from the shrapnel.]

Cardinal: SHUT DOWN! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY!

Bat: How dare you presume to give orders, you foolhardy DESERTER—

Cardinal: ! -Staggers back, taking a firmer stance- We can fix this! You need to trust me—!

Shade: -Pain, fighting off an urge to make him shut up- C-Cards…! Get…

Shade: GET LOST! NOW!

Cardinal: Not in a million lifetimes, Shade!

Brand: Can't you see that we're going OUT OF CONTROL, YOU RECKLESS DEATHSEEKER—

[And just like that, there were eight sets of eyes trained onto Cardinal.]

[He was surrounded.]

Beck: NO—!!!

[Things were spiraling out of control too quickly—they were all rushing at Cardinal, there was no way he would—]

<DLN-000 has entered Lethal Combat Mode.>

[He abruptly shifted into full armor and dropped to the ground. Pyro’s tackle missed, and he tripped up the team leader with a well-placed low kick before springing back to his feet, blasting away at bits that were trying to swarm him.]

[Cardinal used SUPER ARM!]

[WHAM!]

[Cardinal grabbed Pyro by the ankle before he could get up, and SLAMMED him right into Cryo before she could freeze him solid.

He sprung up in the air and landed right on Bat’s shoulder.]

Cardinal: -Aggressive data-

Beck: O~O!!!

[Meanwhile, all Beck could do was back away slowly, eyes darting fearfully from one sibling to another. Why was this happening? Why were they ACTING like this—?!]

Brand: Stop showing off and get OUT of here, before—

[There was an insanely mad cackle as Cardinal was lifted right off of the walking WMD, with Dyna coming down from the sky.]

Dyna: Szzo enthusiastic! You must have such intense energy!

Shade: -AaaAAUUGH DYNA—! DON’T—!!-

[Cardinal didn’t even seem to try and get out of it, just pulled his shield in closer with a grim expression while bits were weaving a web around him.]

Dyna: What’szz WRONG, Cardinal? Iszz the birdie unable to fly away from the web?

Beck: NO—!

[Cardinal abruptly smirked as Dyna loomed in closer. It was a dark smirk, and his eyes glowed red with cruel intent.]

Beck: —!!! (No—I know that look! That red color—don't tell me he’s—!)

[Cardinal was NOT infected… at least, no more than he had once warned long ago.

As a veteran Wilybot and soldier, he didn’t give his enemy any warning: not even a gloat of confidence.]

[Cardinal used LEAF SHIELD!]

[There was a piercing SHRIEK of pain on the part of the electric diva as a swarm of razor-sharp, leaf-shaped metal created a cloud of shrapnel around the Robot Master in question. Dyna backed away, giving off glitched scree noises. By this point, several of the other Mighty Numbers had vanished in the turmoil; it was at this point that Dyna herself took her cue to leave.

His victory was short-lived, however, as a red blur shredded the projectile shield into a fine mist, before placing his swords right against the prototype’s throat.]

((Pic—Cardinal v Brand))

Brand: -Seethes- How DARE you toy with us at a time like this!

[Cardinal was instantly gone, teleported across the sands to avoid incoming fire from above. Brandish moved quickly as well, but not quite quickly enough to avoid unfriendly fire.]

Avi: Awww, couldn’t you have held him a little longer, ninjabro? You know what they say—

Shade: -Struggling to retain self-control, even as he starts locking onto Cardinal’s signal- Avi, Ah’ swear if you PUN at a tahm like THIS—

Avi: “A bird in the HAND is worth two in the bush!”

[The sniper gave a cry of frustration and fired off a shot. This action seemed to somehow be a succession, a submission—caving in, weakening the resolve.

The shot was dodged easily, due to the interference that offset the sniper’s aim.]

Beck: AVI! BRAND! SHADE! GUYS! S T O P!

Avi: -Ignores Beck entirely- Watch where you’re pointing that thing! And don’t you tell ME what to do— I have plenty to say, and this time, nobody’s going to stop me!

>CROSS-REFERENCES IDENTIFIED: MONSTROPOLIS, DLN-008, DWN-014

Cardinal: -SURGE of aggressive data out of frantic dismay- Avi, DON’T—!

[The plane gave a click noise as he gave finger guns…]

K-PEW!

Cardinal: ! -SHIELDS-

[—which actually fired a pair of shots at Cardinal this time.]

Avi: Yeah, this has been nice and all, but I’ve gotta go to work! Seeee you on the air! Or see the replays of your dismantling, more likely.

Shade: -Snarls- Get OUT—!

[BANG!]

Avi: -AAAAAND that’s our cue BYE NOW— -

[Cardinal didn’t get time to object to this, as he had to teleport to avoid being cut in half by Brandish.]

Beck: NII-SAAAAAAAN!

[Brandish abruptly halts before finishing his next move, which allows Cardinal to get away.]

Beck: Brand! Please stop! I-I can call Dad, he can—

Brand: NO—!

[Brandish literally shakes as he steps away, gritting his teeth under his mask.]

Brand: I—can’t—

Beck: Nii-san—!

Brand: Get out of here, GO—!

Brand: NOW!

[BWIP!]

[And just like that, he was gone—]

Beck: BRAND—!

“Don't--Cards, m'beggin' ya, don't get close—”

[Beck whirls around to find Cardinal making close steps towards Shade, who was backing off with every step he took...]

Shade: S’ too late—! Get out, get out— take Beck an' get OUT—

Cardinal: I’m not leaving without you! I WON'T LEAVE YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF MONSTROPOLIS! The feds would—

Shade: Ah' SAID, take Beck an' LEAVE—

Cardinal: -Eyes full green and BLARING distressed data- YOU'RE COMING WITH ME, CONSCIOUS OR NOT—

Shade: AH' SAID LEAVE!

[CLICK—]

Beck: —?!

[Beck is suddenly starting down the red barrel of his brother's sniper rifle—he's frozen in place, out of shock and fear—]

Cardinal: —!!

Cardinal: NO—! SHADE! SHADE DON’T—!

[A red flash of light blinds Beck for a moment—it was Cardinal, teleporting in front of him to take the dart that had been fired at him instead—]

[Byuubyuubyuu…!]

Beck: ?! Cards?!?

[He isn't there anymore--he was suddenly gone, and that's when Beck realized that Shade had used one of his teleport darts--]

[Click.]

Beck: Wait, Shade, NO—!

[BANG—]

[S Y S T E M E R R ROR–S YSTEM E R R ROR–]

[MN.9 HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY HARMFUL MALWARE. PREPARING HARD RESET. ALL FORMS WILL BE LOST.]

“GUYS–NO–NOOO–!!”

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

[ponyjockey]

85 questions

tagged by @nerdperson524​ sort of since I saw it and felt like doing it. 

rules: answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people

— What was your last…

1. Drink: Water

2. Phone call: Boyfriend

3. Text message: Boyfriend

4. Song you listened to: "Shotgun” by George Ezra

5. Time you cried: 2 days ago, I was super sick

6. Dated someone twice: No

7. Kissed someone and regretted: #NoRegrets

8. Been cheated on: Yes

9. Lost someone special: No

10. Been depressed: Umm yeah

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Yes, but not for a few years

— Fave colors

12. Blues

13. Forest Colors 

14. Mountain Colors

— in the last year have you…

15. Made new friends: Yes! So many. All of my tumblr friends of course, and a couple of friends from a organization I started volunteering with

16. Fallen out of love: Yes

17. Laughed until you cried: Yes

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yes

19. Met someone who changed you: Yes

20. Found out who your friends are: Yes

21. Kissed someone on your facebook friends list: Yes

— General

22. How many of your facebook friends do you know irl: Everyone. Did a huge facebook cleanup and got rid of anyone who wouldn’t say hello if I saw them walking down the street. I keep a small facebook. It was very cathartic

23. Do you have any pets: No

24. Do you want to change your name: Yes, have my whole life. I thought about it more seriously when I was younger, but feel like it’s just too late now.

25. What did you do for your last birthday: Saw Hamilton!

26. What time did you wake up today: 8am

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Reading

28. What is something you can’t wait for: Vacation in June

30. What are you listening to right now: BBC Radio 1

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yes, this question is weird.

32. Something that’s getting on your nerves: I’ve had a weird ear infection for months. Have seen a ton of Drs and it won’t go away. It’s super annoying

33. Most visited website: Facebook, Gmail, Tumblr

34. Hair color: Brown, with highlights

35. Long or short hair: Just below my shoulders

36. Do you have a crush on someone: Always

37. What do you like about yourself: I’m in really good shape. I run a lot and really enjoy it

38. Want any piercings: No

39. Blood type: No Clue

40. Nicknames: Don’t have any

41. Relationship status: In a Relationship

42. Sign: Libra

43. Pronouns: she/her

44. Fave tv show: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Friday Night Lights, This is Us

45. Tattoos: No, but been thinking about getting one...

46. Right or left handed: right

47: Ever had surgery: On my eye when I was a baby

48. Piercings: Ears, I used to have cartilage but I let it close up

49. Sport: Running, Snowboarding, Tennis

50. Vacation: Going to Florida in a few weeks

51. Trainers: On running shoes

— More general

52. Eating: I’m hungry. I should go get lunch

53. Drinking: Water

54. I’m about to watch: Dunno, been meaning to watch the new (not so new now) Spiderman movie

55. Waiting for: 6pm

57. Get married: Someday I hope

58. Career: Theater administration

— Which is better

59. Hugs or kisses: Depends on my mood

60. Lips or eyes: Eyes

61. Shorter or taller: Short

62. Older or younger: Older

63. Nice arms or stomach: Stomach

64. Hookup or relationships: Relationship

65. Troublemaker or hesitant: Troublemaker

— Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger: Yeah

67. Drank hard liquor: Yeah

68.Turned someone down: Yeah

69. Sex on first date: No

70: Broken someone’s heart: Don’t think so

71. Had your heart broken: Sort of

72. Been arrested: No

73. Cried when someone died: Yeah

74. Fallen for a friend: Yeah

— Do you believe in

75. Yourself: Depends on the day

76. Miracles: Not sure

77. Love at first sight: Yes

78. Santa Claus: No

79. Angels: No

— Misc

80. Eye colour:  Brown

81. Best friends name: Jess

82. Favourite movie: Sense & Sensability, Wimbledon, The Commitments

83. Favourite actor: Don’t have one at the moment

84. Favourite cartoon: Don’t have one at the moment

85. Favourite teacher’s name: Mr Manske

tagging: @foxboylucien @rayonfrozenwings @fiery-feyre @queen-archeron @sparkleywonderful