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catastrophe-at-sixteen · 4 years ago

Text

strawberries and cigarettes (m)

Jungkook x reader

“For a biology project, you and your class are going on a field trip to collect evidence for your hypothesis. It is all going well until the dark haired nuisance called Jeon Jungkook decides to piss you off.”

Also - a nerd. The resident bad boy. The police. Annoying friends. A loose psycho killer. What could go wrong?

This is my first time ever uploading any fics !! im super nervous haha - i'll probably post a little of each one and see how it goes !!

Jungkook x reader.

This is your classic enemies to lovers but with a slight little twist!

This is set in the 80s/90s and is your typical bad boy/nerd girl trope- but , there is a killer on the loose. I mean this is kind of based on jack the ripper (serial killer) and my teenage fantasies of falling for bad boy jungkook. I hope you’ll give it a go and tell me what you think !!! <3

Tw : cursing, killings, descriptions of death and psychopaths, masturbation , making out, smut.

WC : 11K

also a big massive thank you to @ggukkiereads for helping me gain the confidence to write and dedicate time to finishing this ! ik its been a while since we spoke but much love to u angel <3 may u always have the best !

Begrudgingly the students lag off the bus at 10pm, finally having reached their destination.

Tired and sore from their journey the teachers find no trouble in distributing bedrooms for everyone.

When your name is called out along with Tiffany you internally groan - great you think one of the most plastic girls in the school all to myself.

You grimace but make no argument as you could have gotten worse you suppose.

As you grab your belongings and ignore her protests that she doesn't want to room with a loser like you, a dark clad figure pushes past you, almost tripping you over.

Angrily you shout

"Watch where you're going you prick"!

Yet he doesn't so much look in your direction.

Under the dim moonlight you can faintly make out the low blunt of a cigarette in a tattoo clad hand - so it was the infamous Jungkook.

Honestly you didn't understand why all the girls fawned over him when he was just a rude and ignorant asshole. Sure, he had a pretty face but no good soul to match.

Calming yourself, as it was unlikely that you'd ever receive an apology from the school rebel you just head to your new room.

The school had organised a biology trip so that you could gather authentic evidence on the correlation of birds and wood growth in a certain designated area and honestly you were excited- not having enough expenses to get out of town when you were younger meant that this was a treat for you and paired with you being a biology major your inner geek was surfacing pretty quickly.

You move into your room and begin unpacking your things ignoring the chatter coming from your new roommates.

You set everything nicely, precisely -just to your liking. Maybe some would call you fussy, but you like to think of yourself as organised and classy.

You don’t have many thoughts that night as you lay down for bed, but you do hear the news playing in the background.

" a killing has not been sighted for a time breaking the pattern of the 1-week intervals in which they have been happening, but police still advise to remain on high alert at all times. "

You shudder as you think about it, a killer on the loose in the country and everyone powerless to stop him.

He fed of the insecurities of people, the fear of not being safe. He did a damn well good job at it as well.

You look outside and see the police on night duty setting up, the country while terrified also was reluctant to admit the threat and instead of protecting you properly they had merely sent police force units as glorified bodyguards to ' keep you safe '.

You sigh, as you climb under your covers those problems seem like a long way away from you as you drift off with an empty mind.

It was morning, the sun was shining brightly through the windows giving an orange glow to the room.

You were up before your roommates, had brushed your teeth and were already preparing for your project.

You had to do well, you were depending on a scholarship for university, your family could simply not afford it otherwise.

When your first signs of morning hunger begin to strike you venture outside your room in order to satiate yourself. You find that it’s still quiet only a few students up like yourself, you find a coffee machine and immediately begin to make one for yourself.

“While you're at it could you make one for me too".

a deep voice drawls out.

You almost jump out of your skin at the sound his voice breaking the silence you had been enjoying. Jeon Jungkook.

You scowl at him, choosing to ignore him carrying on making your own cup.

He whistles under his breath.

“wow, edgy or a bitch? I can’t decide".

He taunts you.

You roll your eyes at him and sigh in annoyance, his eyebrows raise at this.

“you’re clearly not a morning person".

He speaks.

You mutter under your breath.

" or maybe I’m just not a YOU person, not everyone lives to be nice to you. "

He lifts his hands up in a mock surrender.

“Okay, okay I get it it's a bad time for you jeez.... I suppose I'll have to make my own coffee".

He moves closer to you, totally invading your personal space, clearly, he had never heard of a personal bubble! You scowl and try to move away but he’s faster and is hovering over you before you know it. He looks down at you with those pretty dark eyes.

They’re so gorgeous.

Not that it matters to you because he is still an asshole, and he still ruined your morning.

“get out of my face Jeon Jungkook".

You say between clenched teeth.

You’re not some sort of pushover.

Yes, you're clever, as society classes a nerd but you're not one to let people walk all over you.

If he’s shocked, he doesn’t let on, just hums and lets you walk away, which you do, a little aggressively. You got back to your room and let out a sound of annoyance, the girls are still sleeping.

You sigh.

This was going to be a long trip.

After an uneventful morning, the wait was over and finally the teachers had called you to gather in the common area. Much to your dismay however there would be no actual data collecting until the police had secured the area, which meant that your whole day was pretty much wasted. The other students were chatting and gossiping and being idiots as per usual.

It’s not that you thought you were better than them, it's just that they were so mundane, so lifeless. They were just living on with no sense of direction. You suppose that's what you get for attending a school for rich kids though.

You could never fit in.

So, you never tried. People took pity on you every now and then offered you a smile. You smiled back but that was it. Your thoughts are running and to clear your head you decide to go outside for a little breather.

There isn’t much, just a few abandoned train tracks that seemingly lead into nowhere, a few broken fences and lots of grass. Not much time after this you head to bed.

Finally, the day had arrived, you could collect your samples.

You are so glad that it’s an individual project because you honestly cannot even imagine working with one of those air heads.

You shudder at the memory of having to work with Taehyung last semester for a chemistry practical.

You had to basically pull all the weight for your grade.

So, you get on working your way through your work and proving or disproving your hypothesis.

You’re pleased at the work that you completed. Not entirely satisfied but satisfied enough, for now.

You let out a stiff yawn, you need to stretch and need a little fresh air since you had spent the last few hours writing up your data and making graphs to compliment them.

You forgo your jacket since the weather isn’t so bad.

It’s nice.

When you go outside there are quite a few students already there, goofing around. There is also a pretty scenery, that in all honesty you had not appreciated until right now.

“Wow" you mutter under your breath.

Maybe I should try living outside my own head sometimes.

You spot some students surrounding a police officer and the curiosity gets the better of you and your soon wandering around the outskirts of their conversation.

Alas, it was merely a fruitless conversation. The police officer telling the other about his escapades and how they will be good in hands.

You lose yourself to your own thoughts again and look at the scenery. Until a little scuffle, breaks you out of your thoughts.

“What was that? There was a movement down there!! “

A boy called Josh calls out.

The police officer had also noticed it, then a sound of a gunshot sounds through the air.

The police officers curse and begin to get ready to scout the area. They want you all to go away, be safe inside but you’re all young adults- you want to see what’s going on.

Everyone gathers, watching the officers.

You scan the area; you spot the balcony that looks over the area just in front of the cabins.

Perfect you think that’s the perfect spot to see what’s going on.

So, you begin to climb up the steps to that room, when you get there, you can see everything.

You see a dead dog, a dead bird and the gun which had killed them laid out to where the officers were heading.

Fear grips your heart; your heartbeat is erratic. You think you see the shape of figure retreating into the distance but before you can look again, you feel the ground give way under you.

You let out a shriek, feeling yourself falling.

Is this truly how my life end you wonder I didn’t even get to complete my PhD?

Yet, instead of the hard fall that your body had been anticipating; your landing is softer and lets out a low grunt.

You're sure you're dead and have entered heaven.

Slowly you register a warm feeling under your legs and a secure one at your waist.

oh, this feels nice.

you think, eyes still closed until you hear some chaos in the distance.

what's happening?

Why is heaven so noisy? Are they partying because I’ve arrived? Was I actually an angel all this time am I coming home?

Ah you think this must be the angels- I knew all those days spent doing charity would help me.

You open your eyes and you’re met with bambi eyes staring back at you.

Slowly you begin to piece the rest of your angel together.

“Jeon Jungkook? “

You try and raise your voice to compliment your surprise, but it comes out in a more whisper.

“But this, Jungkook, you were an angel all this time? “you say.

His eyebrows knot together in confusion.

“What are you talking about strawberry?”

You gasp.

"Do we all get code names in heaven? You’re a pretty angel Jungkook. “

Then your eyes zero in on the scar on his cheek.

“Aren’t Angel’s supposed to be blemish free? Is that? Are you fallen? Wait.... for me? Are you my angel Jungkook? “

His eyes, which had previously shown confusion are now coloured with amusement.

“You talk a lot don’t you my little strawberry”.

You vaguely hear the sounds behind you before you begin to feel drowsy and fall limp the arms of your unexpected angel.

Jungkook was, of course no angel, your delirious ass was just doing and saying delirious things. You were going to be mortified when you woke up.

When you come to your room in a dark room, tucked into a warm bed. Your headaches aches as if someone is using a sledgehammer to hit it every second.

‘Agh’ you let out a pained groan.

What even happened? you wonder in your head.

You move quickly, getting out of bed ignoring your protesting limbs. You almost reach the doors until a pair of arms trap you.

‘woah woah where do you think you're going?’

You let out a scream, completely startled. A hand comes to cover your mouth.

‘man, you really do have a set of lungs, don’t you? ‘

You stop struggling in his embrace to match his voice to a face. Its familiar.

‘Jeon Jungkook?’ you let a little unsure and panic still evident in your voice.

‘your one and only’

You frown.

‘mine?’

He smirks at you,

‘that's right yours strawberry’.

You shake your head.

‘are you smoking something? Are you high right now?’

He pouts a little then, it changes his look completely. He looks a little cute.

‘you don't remember? ‘ he cocks his head to the side and points to himself. ‘I'm your angel’.

You scoff.

‘Please in what world are YOU an angel? You're far from it’.

Then it all comes back to you.

Jungkook watches as the realisation begins to show on your face.

‘Oh my god I had a concussion, you cannot be serious right now ‘

He chuckles.

'The words still came out of your mouth' Jungkook counters, he leans closer to you, his face way to close for your liking.

You feel your face grow warm from his proximity, but you don't give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

You scoff and push him away.

‘You're insane’.

He accepts the distance you've placed between the two of you and he chooses to smirk at you from where he is standing.

‘And you're crazy for me’.

You let out an incredulous laugh, not believing him.

‘Oh, my lord, please shut up for the sake of my sanity’.

He chuckles at your flustered state and you scramble your brain to find a change of subject.

‘okay whatever now just excuse me because I need to go back to my room’.

You move to begin walking to the door, but his voice halts your movements.

‘This is your room now’.

You whip around to face him.

‘What?! Ha as if Jeon, why would they room us together- were supposed to separate for the opposite genders- which I totally get when you're involved’ you say disbelief painting your voice. You whisper the last part though.

He puts his hands into his pockets and shrugs.

‘Protection?’

You set him a hard stare.

‘Save your lame ass men superiority talks for someone else i am having a severe case of I'm not interested’.

Why the hell would you need Jungkook for protection, it reeks of patriarchy and you hate it.

He shrugs.

‘Listen princess I don't know why either really to be honest but I'm not complaining-’

You don't bother entertaining him for much longer.

This can't be true. You cannot be paired into a room with him. He cannot be your new roommate - heck now tiffany doesn't seem so bad. Flirting asshole, you mutter under your breath as you begin searching for your teacher.

You only learn a bitter truth, due to the collapsing of the room you had to be relocated into another room and the only person without a roommate was Jungkook. They ‘trusted’ you enough that you would be able to handle it and not to do anything you were not supposed to.

‘We trust you, y/n’ was what she had told you.

You spend your time cursing out both her and Jungkook as you gather your belongings to move into your new room.

You're so caught up in your own thoughts that you don't notice a foot that comes out to trip you.

You look up and see the faces of three stupid bitches.

Tiffany Jessica and Irene.

They seemed to consider themselves above everybody else, though you've no idea why. Aside from flawless looks they seemed to live pretty empty life in your eyes. They were living definitions of empty shells walking around.

You get up quietly from the ground, you'll gain nothing from engaging with them, maybe you'd lose a few brainless. You just want to go back and rest - your head is killing you.

But to your disappointment they begin to talk.

‘Well, well well, if it isn't the school's new slut moving into MY boyfriend's room’.

You have to let a little laugh at this. This one is seriously deluded. Jungkook didn't do relationships you knew that. Everybody knew that. They had hooked up about 3 months ago and even though he does his best to ignore her she still insists that he is her boyfriend. It's just pathetic and a bit sad you suppose. Her obvious attraction to him which he just does not reciprocate.

She becomes enraged at your actions.

‘listen here you little bitch you better not even think of starting anything with my man-’ she spits out at you.

You snap back then, unable to hold your tongue.

‘I am not a slut, and I will not go after your man- which fyi he is not. He is a human and he doesn’t belong to you he never has’

She grows red at your words.

‘you little piece of shit-’

She raises her hand but just then a voice interrupts her and she halts her actions.

‘well if it isn't my new roomie, l’ll take that from you strawberry’ Jungkook says, too cheery for your liking, your still contemplating hitting Jessica.

Jessica begins speaking up, but he ignores her turning to you.

Your mouth almost drops open at his dismissal of Jessica but then again, she is annoying, and he cannot be immune to that.

‘Jungkoooook’ she whines when he doesn’t respond to her the first time.

He still doesn’t entertain her.

He moves to take your things from you, but she speaks again, latching onto his arm.

‘just leave her -cshe's just an annoying stuck-up bitch’.

He responds to this under his breath laughing.

‘reminds me of someone ’

She doesn't understand his comment.

‘huh?’ she says almost comically.

‘who baby?’ she pouts at him ‘my poor baby having to deal with such people, just leave with me and we can-’

‘no’ he sets her with a hard stare.

It's like she has forgotten that you're there, so you decide to use this to your advantage, letting Jungkook deal with them. You move to get your suitcase, but a hand stops yours. Its Jungkook.

‘I don’t think so strawberry - I'll be getting those for you’.

You turn to look at him scowl adorning your features.

‘I don’t need your help Jeon’.

He smirks at you.

‘no no - I insist’.

He dismisses Jessica with a wave of his hand and begins to walk away your suitcase in his hand, which prompts you to follow along.

‘What. Was. That. Jungkook?!’ you say when the door closes, you’re fuming because he had made it seem as though you were dating or doing things together which meant that they would keep bothering you, which is just something that you don’t want.

He turns around to face you.

‘oh, don’t get your panties in such a twist, I just needed to get the fuck away from her’.

He sounds angry and this is the Jungkook that you are more accustomed to. Not the flirty one you have been seeing. Hopefully he had given up on whatever he was trying to achieve with that. He was a rude asshole who was just to used to seeing things come out in his favour.

‘excuse me, you just fuelled her whack ass thoughts and next time don’t use me as your escape route’ you say matching his hostile tone.

‘oh, don’t be such a priss, it saved you as much as it saved me’.

An exasperated noise escapes your throat.

‘well maybe you should have kept it in your pants lover boy’.

He sets you with a hard stare.

‘oh, shut up - you don’t know me’ he grits out.

You cock your head to the side much like he had done to you earlier in the day.

‘hmmm I think I know you pretty well Jungkook, you're not as unreadable as you like to think, Jeon Jungkook the infamous bad boy who uses girls to fuel his ego and is used by girls to fuel their own ego and status quo among their own stupid--’

You do not get to finish you sentence however because you're harshly being pinned to the door. His grip on you is hard and it stings but you meet his gaze.

‘shut the fuck up y/n’ the tone of his voice is almost carnal, animal like.

You seriously had hit a nerve.

‘I go beyond your perceptions of me- you little miss goody two shoes’.

You spit back in his face.

‘I've yet to see you act more like a crazed rabbit Jungkook and to be honest I don’t plan on finding out the depths of your character either. I don’t fucking care about you’.

You push him aside and move to unpack your suitcase.

He mutters something under his breath that you can't hear, and he walks out slamming the door behind him.

‘well, that was fun’ you say and begin to take out your notes and books that you will need through the day.

When you wake up the next you feel like you’ve been hit by a ton of bricks. The painkillers had given you the illusion that you were okay. You look a mess, you're tired, you cannot believe that this happened. You had been looking forward to this for so long, they had told you that another student would be collecting your data. Your new roommate. Jeon Jungkook. He was going to be collecting your data.

This is preposterous! He would probably sabotage you on purpose! This cannot happen, but they wouldn’t budge from their choice. You huff as you look out of the window, where you could be collecting your data along with the other students. Darn you and your curiosity.

They always did say didn’t they- that curiosity killed the cat.

Your walking around the room, pacing- that’s how bored you are. You had reorganised your things 3 times and colour coded all you notes, redrew your graphs, you had done everything that you thought would keep you busy but here you are sitting with nothing to do. You look around the room see Jungkook's things laying on the ground.

You sigh into the empty room again and just lay down waiting for them to come back. You end up falling asleep.

You're stirred from your sleep, quite rudely by a book being thrown at the foot of your bed. You sit up, still groggy and look at Jungkook.

‘what the hell man’

He stares at you blankly.

‘There's your work priss’

You're not bothered by his hostile tone instead open the book and seeing what he had done, or you suppose looking at it what he had not done. The more you look at the work the more the frown on your face deepens.

‘what the hell is this Jungkook?’

He looks up at you annoyed.

‘the work? Thought you were meant to be a genius?’

You scowl at him.

‘this Jungkook? Is unacceptable a nursery kid could do way better than this !’

He rolls his eyes at you.

‘and? That’s what you're going to get priss so deal with it’.

You make an exasperated sigh.

‘you've used the wrong measurement and everything Jungkook’.

‘look - I don’t care. I didn’t want to do this for you anyway’.

‘like I wanted YOU to do it for me’.

You sigh,

You keep bumping into him everywhere, you know he is your roommate but he is always there at the cafeteria taking the last donut which you had been craving pushing in line, making unnecessary comments and he makes the room so messy!

It’s the same thing for the next few outings, Jungkook comes with the same half assed versions of the data you need.

You try, you really you try so hard to use the data sets he provided but its no use. They're absolutely useless, so you decide to take matters into your own hands.

Your going to sneak out early in the morning, you have to sneak past the guards which as you’ve gathered won't be as hard as one may think because they are not good or much invested in their job anyway.

You prepare yourself and head to set out in the morning. You quietly get up so as not to disturb or wake Jungkook. If he sees you, you know that there will be trouble.

You throw on a hoodie and grab a notebook, a pen and your watch. You have to be back before anyone can notice that you're gone. You steel yourself one last time, giving yourself a pep talk and sneak out. You hold your breath as you walk past the room of your supervisor and out the back door of the cabins.

This isn't so bad you think. Once you're out of sight of the guards and you think your safe, you let out a sigh of relief and do a little shimmy out of your happiness. You are so pleased and proud of yourself. What you didn’t know that behind you, watching your every move was a boy covered in tattoos with a cigarette in his hand watching you with an amused face.

Jungkook was, not as you thought asleep when you had snuck out. He was also outside, leaning on the side of the building a cigarette in his hand, he couldn’t sleep that night, it happened to him on most nights so he routinely wakes up to have a smoke. On this particular day there is not the usual eerie morning silence that he is used to, but a few grunts and hisses to accompany it. He furrows his brows.

Is that? He thinks y/n!?!?!?!?!?

No way he thinks what the hell is she up to?

Then he catches sight of your notebook and pen.

'Oh, what a nerd' he mutters under his breath. Then he smirks.

He can totally use this to his advantage.

He stubs his cigarette, pulls his hoodie over his head and follows you.

Your heart is still racing you honestly cannot believe that you. l/n f/n are doing this.

‘What a badass’ you say into the silence.

‘Badass? Sneaking out to do bloody work is your idea of badass?’ a voice speaks up behind you.

You shriek startled and are met with Jungkook.

Why is it always him?

‘what in the bloody tarnation's.... are you trying to kill me Jungkook?!’ you say putting your hand on your heart.

He grins pleased at the reaction he had elicited from you.

He cocks his head to the side.

‘what the hell are you doing here ?!’ you hiss at him.

‘could ask you the same thing strawberry’ he replies.

You look at him.

You were so sure that you had been quiet, how could he be here to ruin everything.

‘you do realise that I actually have name, and it's not strawberry’ you say to him.

He shrugs.

‘Yeah but you always smell like them’.

You scoff;

‘and you always reek of cigarettes.’

He frowns but then asks you again.

‘what are you doing here?’

You think of excuses,

‘I'm - I'm on a walk’ you say.

He lifts his eyebrow up.

‘a walk?’

You nod.

‘that's right for my daily exercise its been a pain to be stuck indoors’.

He snorts.

‘you're on a walk with your graph paper pad and pencil case?’

You curse inside your head.

‘yeah I am a nerd after all’ you say, hoping and praying that he’ll just let you go on your way.

He doesn’t

‘I don’t know, you look awfully suspicious to me, do tell why you're heading to the sight of our data collection points when the trail track is in the opposite direction?’ he says.

You rack your brains for an answer.

‘well, I like an adventure’ you say, standing straight.

‘oh, is that so?’ he says laughter infiltrating his tone.

‘yes’, you say meeting his eyes.

‘hmm’ he says ‘I don’t believe you’ he says.

‘do you wanna know what I think?’ he continues.

He takes one step closer to you.

‘I think that our resident miss goody two shoes is sneaking off when told specifically that she can't’ his gaze burns into yours

You feel yourself going red out of embarrassment.

‘I literally have no idea what you're talking about Jungkook' you say breathless.

He leans closer and you can feel his body heat, he continues to bore his eyes into your own and you almost fall into his gaze until you feel your book being snatched out of your hand.

‘HEY!’ you say reaching for it.

But he holds it higher than himself, opens it to the last written on page.

‘new data collection points’ he reads out ‘and oh would you look at that ! It has todays dates written on it’ he says looking down at you with a squint in his eyes.

You huff.

‘well obviously I had to do this because how on earth could I let your lame ass results and data reading be used for my final piece – I'm not looking to fail’ you say venom laced in every word.

He scowls at you.

‘there was nothing wrong with my results princess’ he grits out.

‘oh, please save it’ you snap back ‘you didn’t even use the same measurements – your hopeless’.

‘well, if I'm so fucking useless you should do my work for me’ he says.

You set him a level stare.

‘what?’

‘you heard me’ he says with a roll of his eyes.

‘and why in the hell would I do that? I don’t care if you fail Jungkook, heck I don’t care if you get kicked out’ you tell him.

He shakes his head.

‘well, I mean I could go back right now and tell Miss Taylor-’ he begins.

You narrow your eyes at him.

‘You wouldn’t dare’.

He holds a staring contest with you.

‘oh, wouldn’t I?’ he says.

You both hold each other's gazes before you give in.

You cannot believe the audacity of this asshole.

‘fine whatever asshole’ you say folding your arms and turning around.

He grins in victory and places your notebook back into your hands.

‘chop chop partner get to it’ he says.

You glare at him.

‘partners pull equal weight Jungkook ‘

He rolls his eyes.

‘I don’t really care – you just need to get a move on’.

You turn around no longer wanting to deal with his annoying ass.

You make it forward a few steps before you stop and turn around.

‘why are you following me?’ you ask him.

He rolls his eyes at your apparent dumbness.

‘well smartass, there is a killer on the loose if you didn’t know’.

You freeze up for a second,

Shit

You had almost forgotten. You don’t let him see that you're scared.

‘and? ‘ you say feigning composure.

‘what the hell are you going to do if he pops out of the woods anyway?’

He shrugs.

‘I dunno actually a lot more than you could do anyway’

You stare at him.

‘I could be a black belt in karate for all you know’.

He laughs.

‘okay princess whatever - I just need to make sure that you're not going to fuck this up’.

So, you turn going to the place you need to, to collect your data pieces.

With having to do Jungkook's work as well, it takes a lot longer to complete than you would have liked.

He is surprisingly bearable in the mornings that you both sneak off though. He doesn’t say much. Just watches you – pretends he isn't though.

You catch him once. Its been about 2 weeks since you started this godawful task, and Jungkook's notes and work were in dire need of help so its taking you time. This time however you meet his gaze before he is able to pull away.

You cock your head to the side.

‘what are you staring at?’ you say placing your hands on your hips.

He says something inaudible under his breath.

‘what was that?’

He snaps at you.

‘do you think you have tie to stand around making idle talk with me? The work ain’t going to do itself princess.’

You huff in annoyance.

How dare he! This was just plain wrong anyway I should not even be doing this, but you knew it was the only way. You couldn't risk getting caught and with Jungkook you wouldn't be surprised if he really did rat you out you to all the teachers. And if he did well, you wouldn’t be receiving a very good reference.

It was during an early morning that you hear Jungkook walk off into the distance. Probably to smoke, such a bad habit you tsk.

But you're also done for the day – so you begin to head back on your own.

You feel the grass brush against your feet as you walk back. You’re humming along to that song that was always on the radio, when you hear it. A little whimper - then a cry. You know that you shouldn’t go to look, you know that you're paying for your curiosity already and you don’t need another thing to happen, but you just cannot help yourself!

You follow the sound, going on a detour from the track.

You do consider yourself somewhat of a badass but a serial killer? Yeah, they kinda scare the shit out of you. You hold your breath and walk as quietly and slowly as you can. You hear the whimper again to your left but its deeper into the woods.

As you walk closer you see a pool of blood - your eyes widen, and your heartbeat becomes erratic.

‘what the fuck?’ you whisper into the silence.

You walk closer to the body of the animal and you can feel your knees grow a little weak you can see a white paper which has been tainted red with the blood of the animal that was killed.

You gasp, taking it up in your hands. Your hands also become stained with the redness.

It's in Morse code.

-.-- --- ..- / ... .... --- ..- .-.. -.. -. .----. - / -... . / .-- .- -. -.. . .-. .. -. --. / --- ..- - / .- .-.. --- -. .

(YOU SHOULDN'T BE WANDERING OUT ALONE)

You look at it for a while and rack your brains to be able to translate it but no such look. Your mind is busy running at 100miles per hour. As you try and clear your head and look at the note one more time, but a noise in the distance pulls you way from any semblance of concentration that you could have obtained.

You frantically look around trying to locate where the sound had come from. Your senses are all on a high right now. You shove the piece of paper into your pocket and begin to go back the way that you came. After the first few steps you begin running your head running wild with the idea of being found dead in ditch. Your nearly at the main path which you had strayed from. You make it onto the path, and you bend over catching your breath when two arms encircle you from behind.

You let out a scream.

A hand is placed over your mouth.

‘shut the fuck up y/n’.

You recognise THAT voice. Its Jeon Jungkook. Why is this motherfucker always trying to scare you? Your turn around and hit him on the chest,

‘what the actual hell Jeon, you gave me a bloody heat attack and a half’.

He doesn’t respond. He is looking at you, his eyebrows are furrowed and his eyes have a glint of anger. He is furious.

‘where the fuck did you go y/n?’ he says, he holds your wrist stopping you from hitting him again.

He holds it in the air holding your gaze.

‘I was.... walking back’ you didn't want him to know what you had found. He would probably tell you it was a bad idea to even translate it. Which it was, but what is life if not for taking risks?

You yank your hand from his grasp.

He looks at you an unreadable expression on his face.

“you’re a fucking liar “he says.

You scoff.

“oh please, what’s it to you anyway jungkook, you left me first “

He doesn’t say anything, but observes you, trying to look for signs of what you’re hiding.

He had found one too, a dead animal and a note written in Morse.

But he could read it and he knew he was in trouble

“Be careful, or your little girlfriend may be snatched from right under your arms “

He swore under his breath as he read it and immediately began to make his way back to you.

“strawberry?” he calls out but you’re not there.

You’re not there and he hates the feeling of dread that sits in his stomach.

He runs back the way you came, but he still finds no trace of you

“fucking hell where did she go?”

He almost gives up and is going to tell the police when you appear before him, out of breath and you look terrified.

He knows you’re lying, if you were where, you said you were, he would have seen you.

He narrows his eyes at you again.

“I left for two seconds and you ran off. Where the fuck did you go? “

He asks, he wants you tell him, needs you to, he’s overcome with this sense to protect you but you don’t trust him. He needs to change that.

He lets you believe that you have him fooled, that he believes your story and he begins to walk back to the cabins right before the call for breakfast is sounded. You follow after him breathing in a sigh of relief that he had believed you.

That night you find it difficult to sleep. You need to find out the meaning of the Morse code, but you don't have access to a book that will help you translate, meaning that you will have to ask around without looking too suspicious.

You decide that a police officer would do nicely, if you seem overly invested in their job, they would just give you the information.

You spot the officer who looks younger than most, you remember his name.

Park Jimin.

You approach him cautiously.

“Officer park?”

He turns around to face you, smiling softly.

Oh, he’s cute you think.

“yes miss?”

You smile at him warmly.

“nothing serious it’s just that I was wondering if you would like some company, it must be a little boring for you out here on your own “

You say to him and you’re glad you asked him because either way his face breaks out into a smile that has your heart fluttering.

“how very kind of you miss! And yes, a little company wouldn't hurt “, he grins at you.

As you strike up conversation, with the officer you fail to notice a figure dressed in black listening in on your conversation. Jungkook listens in as you try and get information out of officer. He knew it. You had also come across the same note, as he had. He wonders what yours said.

He leaves after a bit, leaving both of you oblivious to the fact that he was even there in the first place.

When you get back to your room, you see Jungkook sitting at the foot of his bed frown on his face.

You ignore him and write down the information you'd just got given by Officer Park. You felt a little bad manipulating him when he was so nice but you just had to know what it meant.

Jungkook speaks up.

“that was a nice conversation you were having with Officer Park “

He says,

You whip you’re head up to look at him and closing your notebook harshly.

“What? Were you eavesdropping on my conversation?”

He rolls his eyes

“Why would I be listening to the conservation of the school nerd with a cop? No, I just happened to hear in passing “

You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding.

“That’s mighty rude of y-" you begin to retort before he cuts you off

“what’s a biology nerd like you need with Morse code?” He asks.

Your mind malfunctions for a moment until you bring yourself back together.

“A little extra knowledge hurts no one you know?” you say appearing nonchalant.

He narrows his eyes

“I know it”

You look at him

“you do?”

He nods,

“why need something translating?” he tries.

You think about it, but ultimately decided against showing him the note you found.

You have no clue what it says. You don’t want him understanding before you do.

You shake your head,

“No, I don’t “

You say, deciding enough is enough and you need to sleep now to be up in the morning.

The next morning you sleep in, meaning that you couldn’t do the work that was set out for you. You stretch and moan as you get out of bed when you sit up and open your eyes fully your locks onto the Bambi ones from across the room. You let out a shriek!

‘What the hell why were you watching me you creeper!’ you say pointing a finger at Jungkook.

He rolls his eyes at you.

‘oh, please don’t flatter yourself’.

‘why didn’t you wake me up? Its so late !’ you question him.

He looks at you and says words that you don’t think that you would hear.

‘I think that we should lay off for a bit strawberry’

You look at him in shock

‘but why!?’

He doesn’t really give you much of an answer in his usual Jungkook manner.

You sigh.

Over the next few weeks, you rarely bump into Jungkook, you see him sometimes in the cafeteria and you can always feel him just watching you it makes you grow warm when you notice his staring.

Jungkook is also going crazy. You drive him crazy.

You guess that you'll have to work at the same pace as everyone, truthfully you had actually caught up with your work that was missed a while ago, you were just doing extra readings to stay ahead. One step ahead of everyone. But you guess that that is going to be changed now.

It had been a while since you had been on your morning trips with jungkook and though you hate to admit it, you kind of missed it.

He wasn't as bad company as you thought he would be, he was oddly quiet which meant that without him talking as much, you really got to admire his beauty. And good lord was he handsome, you understand why people are attracted to him, when his mouth is closed, he’s fine. Basically, you became a little horny when you saw him, it had been ages since you had had sex even masturbated, since you now had room with him.

Jungkook has such strong sharp features which sometimes go all soft, if he pouts while he’s thinking or a bird catches his attention, his eyes will go big and doe like. It's cute. Everybody had two sides you suppose, yours was your horny side (lol what)

Okay maybe, more time to admire him was a bad thing, you did not need to have sexual fantasies with him, no, that was a big no no.

It's been a few weeks since Jungkook had asked you to lay low for a while and in that time, you had been asking around about the killer to the police. You tried your best not to seem suspicious about it though, if they caught on – well it wouldn’t exactly end well. So, you make slow progress, you did make progress though, however.

You could now understand the note and while it scared you, it also ignited something in you that you didn’t even know that you possessed inside of you. You wanted to outdo him, you want to find him, lead him into a trap or something like that anyway. You want to catch him.

Something in the back of your mind is telling you begging you to stop being so stupid, but you ignore and continue to daydream about catching this bastard.

But it can only cure your boredom for a while – you get bored and what better to do when you're bored than to read erotica novels?

You had packed this book with you – the secrets of the alluring painter in France. You had taken to reading at night time on some nights.

Like tonight.

You need a wind down, so you pull out your book, and it has such racy scenes that leave you clenching around nothing.

Your sexual imagination goes wild when you read the erotica in the book and the way they make it seem so fiery, you were no virgin - you knew what sex was like, but never has it been close to the way it is in the book.

You’ve allowed yourself to fall into this horrible habit, at night, when Jungkook is asleep to touch yourself, play with yourself, pretending it is you who is being touched by Kim Taehyung the painter with many secrets.

You feel yourself growing more frustrated with each passage you read, it becomes a little irritating and, you have to touch yourself or you'll go crazy, the man in the book was doing it so well, so hot.

Kim Taehyung, he was described as an utter beauty, soft black hair and soft eyes, a deep voice that just made the reader swoon, you close your eyes and reach your hands down to your shorts, they slip past the hem.

You wish you could moan, wish that you could be vocal, like you were in your bedroom when it was just you and your pillow, but there was one big problem and that was Jeon Jungkook.

Why did you have to room with him?

You lighten your breathing and listen for signs of him being awake, but he seems to be breathing really deep, he is asleep you assure yourself.

You turn the lamp off, at the side of your bed, setting the book on the bedside table.

You trail your hand down your stomach, much like Taehyung had done to the main character, he slowly lets his fingers flutter over the top of her shorts, and you do the same. You build the tension, like it's his beautiful hands working against you.

You pause and let your fingers slip past the hem of your panties, you trace over the fabric covering you - first over your mound, stroking sensually.

How had Taehyung done it?

Right yes, he had used his nails slightly and grazed over lightly, a slight pressure but nothing that hurt - it was just enough to make you squirm under your own touch.

You feel your own wetness, feel how obscene it is in the darkness of the night.

Jungkook is right there, and while it scares you, it also thrills you, you feel a new wave of arousal and adrenaline when you remember he is there.

Slowly and as quietly as possible you shuffle, moving to take your shorts off, it's a little loud but you think that you're okay, Jungkook is out like a log. After a moment you continue to tease yourself.

Running your fingertips over your lips, pressing down on your hole and clenching, withholding the need to hiss.

You raise your hand further and your fingers land right at the centre of your pleasure.

Your clit. Oh, the beautiful bundle of nerves.

You cover your mouth with a hand to stifle the moan that you almost let out when you begin to rub small circles around the sensitive nub.

When you can’t get enough your panties are next to go, and when the cold air hits your wet centre you have to hold your breath, shaky.

You reach down and gather your slick slowly, spreading it all over your centre, making yourself drown in your own arousal, you use your middle and ring finger to slide up and down at a pace that leaves you edged and eager for more, you need to bring yourself to the very edge to get yourself the release that you’re after, you free hand travels up to your ever sensitive boobs, you play with them, brushing over the nipple, making them perk and then groping them while you rub at your clit.

A dirty thought crosses your mind, when you remember the boy who was asleep across from you.

What if, he was the one to touch, the one touching you, with those beautiful hands of his, those big hands.

You stifle another moan, as you think about him, hovering over you, giving it to you just right. You had heard that Jungkook could actually make a girl cum while having sex, that made you a little interested. It’s just he always opens his mouth and is an ass and ruins everything. But right now, in your imagination, only his looks and reputation matter, you twist and turn his character to be someone that you can gain pleasure from.

You can the pleasure increase and you begin to fasten your speed until you feel the signs of your orgasm and then you pull away. Edging yourself.

Your breathing is a little heavy and your work on controlling it, both your hands go to fondle your breasts and you unconsciously lift your hips, humping the air, you lean down again and enter three fingers easily into your own heat.

The squelching sound heard is deafening in the silent room, your cheeks burn red and you pull out slowly, so that was a no no, you would have to focus on your clit for you orgasm. Which was fine because you were so sensitive from playing with yourself, you know that it would only take a few more strokes to get there.

You press the fingers that were just inside of you, against your sensitive bud and you rub in slowly circles and then fastening your place and then slowing once more.

Jungkook comes into your mind again, ugh, now his lips, his pretty pink lips and the way he licks them, and the way they glisten under the sun. What if they were attached to your clit, if he was using his face to give you pleasure, like Taehyung had done to the main character of the novel, God it was so filthy.

Its driving you insane and you love it, the frustration will only make your release all the more powerful.

After a while you feel the fire blooming in your bottom of your stomach, and you quicken your pace to the point where you feel light and the waves of pleasure rack over your whole body.

You press your hand to your mouth again to conceal the gasps that are escaping you, you sigh and fall back onto your pillow feeling so much better and lighter.

Gosh did that feel good. You were aware that in your mind alarms were going off in your mind. You had thought of Jungkook while masturbating. It was a line you have no idea why you crossed. How would you look him in the eye now?

After a while, you pull up your panties and shorts and you promise yourself a shower in the morning.

What you didn't know was that the raven-haired boy of your fantasies was in fact awake and now painfully hard as he listened to your filthy little moans and gasps, he grabs his own member in his pants, strokes slowly. He spreads the pre-cum over his member before setting the fast pace that he liked, his breaths through his nose – to conceal the way his breathing has become strained. His hair becomes damp from sweat and it sticks to his forehead. He came much faster that he would care to admit the thought of you right there yet unreachable the fact that you were so NAUGHTY under all that good girl.

Turning him on, making him needy.

He breathes heavy, thinking of you under him as he squirts out cum into his pants, Jungkook too showers in the morning after you.

After this Jungkook stays up at night, listening to you, seeing if you would do it again, you do and, on those nights, Jungkook cums at the same time as you. He feels a little pathetic, he knows that he can fuck a lot of girls in the class right, but it wasn't you, God he wants it to be you writhing underneath him.

It’s the next morning and you're getting ready for your shower.

You're gathering your clothes and shampoo and creams into a little bundle and are about to open the door to the shower, when it is opened for you. The song that you were softly humming gets stuck in your throat when you register that the door was opened by Jungkook.

A very naked Jungkook.

Your face grows red, and your eyes wander over his gorgeous body, the tattoos that trail up his arm and a few on his waist, God they looked amazing.

Your ogling comes to a stop when he clears his throat. Oh, shit you think - I was staring. You quickly look up and your eyes meet Jungkook's.

He is smirking at you and as soon as you meet his gaze, he lets his own wander over body – taken in the skin that was exposed in your pyjama shorts and a t-shirt that had been small for you since you turned 13 years old.

He looks up and down your body brazenly before meeting your eyes. He licks his lips, and you zero in on it. God it was so annoying that he was this hot.

How could this be happening now? When you had spent a while avoiding him? And him you? Why did this happen after you were thinking of him last night? Oh god you grow red again and you think what if he had heard you? God, that would be embarrassing. You look at his lips again, avoiding his gaze again but maybe his eyes would have been a better option because as soon as you look at his lips, the same filthy thoughts come back to you - you shift uncomfortably trying to calm yourself. In that time, you don't notice but Jungkook has come closer to you.

You register his closeness when a water droplet from his hair falls onto your cheek. You move away slightly.

You don’t realise it but in your extended silence of checking each other out the both of you have moved closer to each other. There is no longer what people would call a healthy distance between the two of you anymore. He looks down at you and licks his lips again. His hair is wet and the way he runs his hand through it – he looks so good like this. Your dirty thoughts run wild again. Its only when another water droplet from his hair falls onto your cheek that you finally snap out of it. You move a step back.

“You look a little hot strawberry is anything the matter?” He asks you, a teasing lilt on his voice.

It’s way too early for this, you cannot be dealing with this right now, not when your mind has gone on a memory flashback to last night and he was right here in front you, so very naked.

Still, you feign your ever composed self.

“I’m just fine” you say through gritted teeth.

“I need to shower and your kind of standing in my way” you tell him.

He chuckles, a deep chuckle, gosh how are you this horny in the morning? Stop it y/n you think.

“I don't think you really mind though do you strawberry, you seem to have a very different secretive side” he says, cocking his head to the side.

You blush, shit had he heard you?

“I have no idea what you're talking about Jungkook” you say to him “I need to shower though”.

You move to get away from his hearted stare but just before you enter the washroom, a hand grabs onto your wrist and pulls you back.

Jungkook looks at you, a deep and confusing stare.

“Be careful, it’s quite wet in there” he says and then his tongue pokes into the side of his cheek. Then suddenly, he lets you go and walks off to his side of the room, your left in shock at his words and quickly scurry to get into the bedroom before more heated tension breaks through.

You shake your head of all thoughts and quickly go into the shower, what you don’t realise is that you accidently drop something, the note with the raven-haired boy who you had left in the bedroom.

Its later on during this day that Jungkook approaches you.

'Hey strawberry’ he says to you.

You raise your eyebrows at him, what’s with his sudden kindness.

‘hey’ you reply voice dipped in surprised.

‘Oh, shut up, I just came to talk to you’.

You look at him.

‘I didn’t say anything but okay…. talk then’ you gesture your hands between your two bodies.

He lets out an exasperated gasp.

‘The note – did you find one?’ he asks. You still in the next sip of coffee that you were going to take. You feel yourself grow cold. How did he find out?

He looks at you.

‘So, you did’.

‘I didn’t say that’ you say tone slightly higher than normal – you were a terrible liar.

He laughs at you

‘Hmm is that so?’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about Jungkook’.

He looks at you, more serious this time.

“Listen y/n there's no point playing dumb, I found your stupid note anyway”.

You watch mortified as he pulls out the note that you had thought was in your pocket. Well shit then.

“I- I have never seen that before in my life Jungkook” you can't let him know; he would ruin everything - you convince yourself.

He looks at you, he’s getting annoyed that you're lying to him. He pokes his tongue against his cheek again.

“I suggest you stop lying”.

You scoff.

“Why would I ever need to lie to you your nobody to me Jungkook”.

Something akin to hurt flashes across his face for a few seconds before he slams his hands on the table.

“I don’t think you know what you're even getting into strawberry”.

You gather your belongings getting up, you need to get away from him.

“And I don't think you know what the fuck you're talking about Jungkook”.

You walk off leaving him there, but he follows after you,

“Listen I found one too, you don't need to be miss hero or anything”.

You carry on walking, not bothering to give him an answer, he would want to tell the teachers and everyone, they would cancel the trip and then how would you finish gathering your evidence? No, he was insane.

“I don’t know what you're talking about”.

‘you think your so fucking slick, don’t you? Asking around and acting unsuspicious but your wrong I could sense your stupid plan from a mile away’ he says to you, pulling you on your arm effectively stopping you so you can't walk away from him anymore. You struggle out of his hold.

‘and so, what? So, what if you know? What the hell are you going to do Jungkook? Tell on me? Are you going to threaten to tell the teachers because you know what? I’ve been thinking about it and I think they would much rather take my word for yours and all this work I’ve been doing for you – I could easily go right now and show the teachers and say that you forced me to do it!! ’

He looks at you angrily, looks like he is going to swear or curse you out but then his face relaxes.

‘you say that baby, but the truth is I have money and you don’t if I want to manipulate something I can because I have the means and power to do so, my dad's made himself something while yours totted away in the fucking garbage can’.

You feel the anger come over you and he smirks at you.

‘real fucking classy Jeon, yeah insult my parents – like it's their fault they were born into a world where people are born with silver spoons on their mouth, and at least my parents love me Jungkook’

His eyes flash with hurt

‘how do you now my parents don't love me you little bitch?’

You laugh an empty laugh at his face.

‘just look at you – you’re the very definition of boohoo my parents don't love me so I'm going to kick up a mess, so they notice me for once’.

He groans in frustration at your words then.

Somehow amidst your confrontation with Jungkook you had managed to reach your room, why are you here? Why did your feet have to leave you here?

You walk into the room and as soon as he gets in, Jungkook grabs you by the wrist and pins you against the door, your books and pencils fly across the room and while your mortified - he doesn't even bat an eyelid.

Your breathing is both heavy as you look each other in the eyes, waiting for the other to say something.

You struggle against his hold, uselessly, curse him for doing his workout routine every morning.

“You found the fucking note y/n when you went missing in the woods that day, the note that’s in Morse code, the note that you spent a week trying to decode, don't act fucking dumb” he grits out.

You still try and keep up your act,

“I have no clue in the world what you're talking Jeon, I think you're going fucking insane” you seethe out

He growls, yes, he growls.

“Your seriously fucking pissing me off now, I know you did, I know you found it”.

“Fuck off, Jungkook does it look like I care if I am fucking pissing you off”.

He looks into your eyes again and whispers something like “fucking priss” before he is connecting your lips in a kiss, a kiss that is full of ego, passion and heat. You can feel in searing through your body so fiery, setting your nerves alight.

He is relentless in his pace. His mouth against yours and God indeed Jungkook is good kisser. Before you knees grow weak you move your hands to tangle in his hair and you pull at the end causing him groan against his lips, when he does you swipe your tongue into his mouth getting a taste. You pull harder, and he groans again. It was a sound that you know you would like to hear again.

His hands move from the door and one tangles in your hair while the other presses harshly on your waist. You gasp at the pleasure and at this he takes over, he fights your own tongue for dominance and once he wins, he is rough, he wants all his saliva in your mouth, wants his taste on you, wants you to feel him in every way.

When he knows that your just as enthralled by his kisses he pulls back to taunt you - whispering the words against you bruised lips.

“You act like such a fucking little priss don't you? Act like your better than me? Lying to me? Fuck you drive me insane”.

He attacks your neck now, leaving open mouthed kisses along your ear and neck. He nibbles lightly at a few areas and when he gets to just the right place - where your breath hitches and you move your thighs together he bites down harshly without warning and you try you best to suppress your moans. Not wanting to give him any satisfaction.

“I am better than you” you say to him breathlessly, “I don’t just act like it, I am”.

He bites harder at that and you wince - Jungkook is painting you skin wine and purple and your letting him and it feels so goddamn good. He pulls you back by the hair to look at him,

“You don't look much better than me when you are bending at my will, when you're looking so fucked out and I’ve done is fucking kiss you”.

Your answer is swallowed by a moan that you let out as he takes you breasts into his big hands, and squeezes hard, you pull him up from your neck and kiss him again, his lips, your lips bruising and fighting against one another.

He trails his hand down further and dances around the hem of your pants for a while, and you place your own over his, just as your about to lead him further down a knock is heard at your door.

You both freeze

“y/n?” A voice calls out.

You calm yourself before answering, still a little shaky.

“Yes?”

“Our guest speaker has arrived, I just thought you might like to ask him a few questions before he gives his talk”.

Jungkook swears under his breath, raking a hand through his hair.

“You fucking nerd”.

He pulls you back by your pony tail and the back of your head lands on his shoulder, he tilts you slightly, so he has better access to kiss and leave more marks against your skin.

“Ah- I thank you, I’ll come in an ah- while” you say, and you hear the footsteps walk off, Jungkook spins you around and he goes to kiss you again, but you pull away.

“No, just, stop I have to go and talk”.

He looks at you “you fucking nerd” he kisses you once more, like he can't get enough of your mouth.

You pull away again.

uh what in the fuck just happened you think.

This was not meant to happen.

“Look Jungkook, I did, that is my note and I- I’ll, we can talk just not now, okay? I-I have to go. This is important"

He doesn't say anything, just watches as you fix your appearance in the mirror, an appearance he had ruined, and he smirks a little in triumph. He watches as you gather your books that had been thrown onto the floor and he watches as your ass is on display for him and God, he wishes he could grab a handful, but he doesn’t. He just watches.

You walk out the room, without so much as looking at him again and he feels oddly rejected.

He knows that you had felt good, he had heard you groan against his mouth, grind against his clothed member but he hadn't ever been walked out on before. He's not sure what exactly he is feeling. Its not a good feeling - that he was walked out on and for some old ass lecturer too.

He watches the door close, and he sits and waits for you to finish being a nerd. But truthfully it is a little hot to him that you’re so independent, you do things for yourself, your confidence and your wit, it makes you fun, you piss him off, but your company is nicer than the ones that he is used to.

He sighs what the fuck is he getting himself into.

You take a breath as you exit the room,

What in the fuck just happened? you think.

Well, when you promised Jungkook that you would talk to him you hadn't been in your right mind. Why did you agree to that like fuck? You have no idea what to even say. How do you even start that conversation like...?

"Hey, was just wondering if you would like to you know? Go on a hunt for a serial killer with me?"

Gosh this was so stupid and the kiss, gosh your face heats up as you remember the way he had kissed you - oh so sweet and so naughty!

Gosh you were in bad, as an adult you decide to deal with the problem logically, you'll just ignore him. That will work, Jungkook had a small attention span anyway. You're sure he would forget. You really hope he does.

#jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #jungkookxreader #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x y/n #jungkook x you #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook imagine #jungkook series #bts x reader #jungkook angst #jungkook fluff #bts imagine #jungkook smut #jungkook #bts imagines #bts angst #bts fluff #e2l

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theanoninyourinbox · 3 years ago

Text

Longstar Au May the 4th be With You Always part 2

Hello and welcome back to an AU that has gotten out of my control. Sorry it’s been a bit, I’ve had this written up for a few days, but it’s been tweaked and retweaked until I had to stop or it might gain sentience or something. Just a quick note, I have some notes on the designs page of some of the deaths of the villains - some of these have been retconned. With that in mind, let’s finish - that’s right, I said finish - the Longstar AU!!!

Up in Starclan, it’s chaos. Cats are yelling, Bluestar is hollering about prophecies, and Yellowfang wants to know if ANYONE was watching Dovepaw. As the chaos dies down, discussions on the war begin, and Yellowfang is angry that it’s being talked about as casually as gossip about who’s dating who. Canon continues until...

Lionblossom is finishing treating Thunderclan’s wounds, while Jaywhisker sits nearby, trembling. He can’t believe he’s responsible for the death of Russetfur, she just twisted wrong and landed on his outstretched claws. Lionblossom tried comforting him, but words won’t bring back a good warrior, who would have been a wonderful leader. He finally drifts off to sleep, only to see a golden-pelted warrior training with Tigerstar.

Jaywhisker jerks awake to Cinderheart gently prodding him. She apologizes for waking him, but something flew into the hollow, and she doesn’t want to look for it alone, and Jaywhisker looked like sleep wasn’t restful, so could he come? Jaywhisker agrees, glad for the distraction, and the two scare off an enormous white owl. Cinderheart tells Jaywhisker that she’s worried about him, and he thanks her for the concern, even if he’s confused why she cares. They head for an early patrol, and run across Embertail. He’s furious, but before he can run off, Jaywhisker begs him for a chance to explain. Embertail spits, about to fire off a retort, but Jaywhisker looks like misery incarnate, and Embertail pulls himself together, and listens. Jay quietly wails out his horror and guilt, and asserts that none of this should have happened, especially to such an honorable warrior like Russetfur. As he leans on Cinderheart, trying to pull himself together, Embertail recalls how the blind warrior helped his family when Shadowclan abandoned their faith, and how loyal he was to the Code and his family. So, instead of calling him a murderer, Embertail says he’ll go to Starclan for guidance, and Jaywhicker begs him to ask Russetfur for forgiveness. Embertail agrees and heads back to Shadowclan, and Jaywhisker apologizes to Cinderheart for crying on her. Cinderheart responds, what else are friends for? Canon continues until...

Dovepaw tries to convince Ivypaw to stop spying on the Dark Forest. Look what they did to me, and I’m the Prophecy Cat! Ivypaw retorts back excuse me, if you’d gone to someone before yowling your pretty little head off about Shadowclan being evil, maybe this wouldn’t have happened! Maybe make this not all about you? And Ivypaw storms off, genuinely angry at her sister for once. Canon continues until...

Littlecloud, laying near death in the medicine den, asks Embertail to go to the Moonpool, and ask Starclan for guidance. The ghosts of Shadowclan rise in flames, and tell Embertail the clans must stand alone. Before they can fade, Embertail, who’s been thinking hard and talking to his mentor, fires back that if the clans were closer, maybe the battle wouldn’t have happened in the first place! Stunned by the retort, most of the ghosts return to Starclan, where Yellowfang says I told you that was stupid, but Runningnose and Russetfur hang back, with Runningnose congratulating Embertail on his bravery, and Embertail giving Russetfur Jaywhisker’s apology. Russetfur says she needs to think on it, and the last Starclan cats return to the stars. Blackstar, on hearing the message, agrees with the Shadowclan ghosts, but Littlecloud and Embertail argue for unity. Canon continues until...

Ivypaw goes to train in the Dark Forest, and bumps into Mapleshade, who shows interest in her. Brambleclaw inserts himself between them, commanding Mapleshade to back off, but he’s a few octaves higher than normal, and Mapleshade bows out, laughing. Ivypaw then fake praises the Shadowclan ruse, and Brambleclaw preens, then introduces her to his posse. In the group of Dark Forest residents is Snowtuft, hanging back, and every time Brambleclaw looks away, Snowtuft looks miserable, which is normal for the Dark Forest, but also regretful, which is definitely new. Later, she overhears Tigerstar praising Goldenheart on learning a new technique. When she wakes, Ivypaw tells Jaywhisker and Lionblossom about the Shadowclan warrior and the possibly remorseful ghost, which both interest the brothers greatly. Canon continues until...

Embertail falls through the ice. Jaywhisker leaps into the water, his blindness a boon in this situation. As he struggles to hold onto Embertail, a weird floaty old tom tries to convince him it’s Embertail’s time. Jaywhisker completely ignores him, thinking it’s a Dark Forest trick, and drags Embertail free of the waters, but it’s been hours, and Embertail’s breathing steady, but he won’t wake up!!!

Meanwhile in the Dark Forest, Ivypaw is lead to the wandering spirit of Embertail by Tigerstar and commanded to kill. Goldenheart leaps in, and as the two squabble, Embertail is lead away by Yellowfang. Tigerstar is impressed by Ivypaw’s spirit, and decides she’s loyal to the Dark Forest.

Meanwhile in the Tribe, Feathertail watches over her brother’s kits. She looks tired and worn, but when Brook asks if she’s alright, Feathertail insists she’s fine. Back in Shadowclan, Embertail wakes up!!! All he remembers is falling in the water, and seeing Yellowfang, but nothing with his brother or Ivypaw. Canon continues until...

When Icecloud falls in the hole. Jaywhisker begins to have a panic attack, and Cinderheart helps him breathe throught it. Behind them, Ivypaw, Dovepaw, Wormpaw, and Icecloud all bet on how long before they start dating. When they get back to camp, Dovepaw becomes Dovewing, Ivypaw becomes Ivyleaf (for her capability to grow), and poor left-out Wormpaw becomes Wormwood (for his steady, dependable spirit). Canon continues until...

Jaywhisker ventures into the tunnel, hoping sadly to recover Hollywish, but all that’s there is a tuft of fur, and an old bloodstain. To his dawning joy, maybe his sister is alive?!? But he refuses to keep his hopes high. He doesn’t want to get hurt. Canon continues until...

Ivyleaf and Antpelt fight in the Dark Forest, and she beats him so soundly he wakes up. Mapleshade emerges from nearby, and promises Ivyleaf that she’s ready for “special training”, which worries Ivyleaf, but what choice does she have? Canon continues until...

At the Gathering, Dovewing refuses to talk to Goldenheart, pissed off at him. Bumblestripe follows her around a tad creepily, but is interrupted by Grasspelt asking about Briarlight. Dovewing gently breaks the news to Grasspelt, who’s horrified but relieved, and asks Brightheart is he can come visit, and she agrees. Dawnpelt catches Dovewing before gathering ends and tells her that Goldenheart is in it for Dovewing. Canon continues until...

Lionblossom hars voices calling from the mountain, and Longstar, knowing he’ll just sneak off if not allowed, sends him off to the Tribe with Foxflight, Shrewleg, Wolfleap (formerly Foxleap), and Frostfoot. Yellowfang wonders what the Tribe is up to, that’s HER himbo descendant, excuse you! Canon continues until...

While walking out in the woods, Cinderheart tells Jaywhisker that she overheard Dovewing talking to Ivyleaf about Prophecies, and Jay admits to what’s going on. Cinderheart starts panicking, oh man I’m not worthy to date such an important cat!?! Jaywhisker goes wait wait wait, we’re dating? And I’m supposed to be the smart brother! There’s a moment where they just stare at each other, then burst into laughter until they fall down. Wormwood wins the Date Bet by a day, and gets three juicy mice for winning. Canon continues until...

Breezepelt stops by Thunderclan, obviously in a state. He tells Longstar that someone snuck into camp and killed his friend Antpelt, have you seen any wandering loners? Dovewing panics, thinking Ivyleaf’s in danger, but Ivyleaf scoffs. What, you think a measly Dark Forest warrior could take me? I’m so offended I’m gonna give you a noogie! Canon continues until...

When Goldenheart pins Ivytail in the Dark Forest, she whispers in his ear that she’d never hurt his sibling, and he backs off, but also because she yeets him off. When Blossomfall is introduced as a new trainee, Ivyleaf is horrified, excuse me, you’re the sensible one?!? Canon continues until...

The patrol makes it to the Tribe, and Foxflight reunites with her old friends. Wolfleap convinces the Tribe trainees to show him their eagle-catching techniques, though he gets scolded for it. While there, Lionblossom dreams of the origins of the Tribe, and when Half-Moon speaks to him, Lionblossom confesses his crush. She reciprocates, saying she’s been keeping an eye on him, which isn’t creepy at all! Canon continues until...

Somewhere in here, Sandstorm and Coldlight become mates, after both searching their feelings and discussing their boundaries, like sensible adults. Ivyleaf and Blossomfall become lost in the tunnels, and a shadowy molly leads them to safety, along with a ghostly Fallen Leaves. Canon continues until...

Flora is nearly carried off by an eagle, and Wolfleap, Foxflight, and Frostfoot attack it, saving Flora but losing Swoop, to their grief. Lionblossom talks to Stoneteller, and chooses Crag as the next Stoneteller. He silently promises Half-Moon he’ll wait for her if she’ll wait for him.

Sol approaches the Clans, vowing revenge, but boy oh boy will he be surprised!!!

While out patrolling, Birchfall tells Ivyleaf he saw her training in the Dark Forest, and Ivyleaf internally flips out. At the border, Furzepaw sides with the Thunderclan warriors, confusing Heathertail and Breezepelt. Whitewing and Dovewing are gathering moss, and Dovewing has to tell her mother that no, she does NOT want to be set up with Bumblestripe, maybe try Rosepetal, she like him. Can we talk about something else? Please? Whitewing agrees, and later sets up Rosepetal with Bumblestripe in a scheme involving a frog, moss, and a convinient field of flowers. The two become mates, and Dovewing sighs in relief, especially when Bumblestripe apologizes for being obsessive. Also, because Embertail lived, Dawnpelt doesn’t hate Jaywhisker. Canon continues until...

Cherrypaw and Molepaw are rescued from the tunnels by the shadowy molly, but Sol shows up, claiming he rescued the apprentices. He’s chased from Thunderclan and yeeted over the border by an angry mob. Later, Dovewing hears Sol setting up trouble in Windclan, and she and Ivyleaf head through the tunnels to stop him.

of course they get lost almost immediately, and are also lead out by the shadowy molly. As the molly heads back into the tunnels, Jaywhisker appears. Oh there you are, where did you goooOOO MY SWEET GRAN-GRAN’S LEFT FANG!!!! He leaps past the warriors and tackles the molly, yowling in joy. It’s Hollywish!!! Jaywhisker drags her back to camp, with Dovewing and Ivyleaf trailing behind. Hollywish’s return to Thunderclan camp is a joyous occasion, as her mother, brother, aunt, uncles, and grandparents descend on her in tears of delight and relief. Dovewing heads to her grandmother Brightheart and tells her about her “suspicion”, plus aren’t there some family members missing? Shortly after, Crowfeather and Breezepelt charge into camp, with Heathertail and Gorseflicker close behind with Ivyleaf. Canon continues until...

Hollywish explains that she was injured badly, and became badly lost and disoriented, only saved by Fallen Leaves, and was regaining both her strength and her confidence before returning. The Windclan warriors and Thunderclan hatch a plan to catch Sol in his own trap. Canon continues until...

Lionblossom fills Yellowfang in on Jaywhisker and Cinderheart, and they both realize she might get confused if Cinderpelt’s memories show up, so they break it to her gently. She freaks out, but Jaywhisker notes he’s never seen Cinderpelt in her dreams, so she must be more of a watchful spirit. She calms down and calls for Cinderpelt to appear, and she does. The two have a private conversation, and then Yellowfang escorts her apprentice to Starclan. Canon continues until...

Ivyleaf and Dark Forest Antpelt fight on the order of Brambleclaw, and she kills Antpelt. Sunstrike and Furzepelt threaten her, and she stalks off, acting haughty, until out of earshot, where she loses her mind, lashing out and weeping bitterly. When she stops wailing, she hears someone else weeping. On investigation, she finds Snowtuft tearing up the ground, wailing into the muck, and cursing his own stupidity and cruelty. Ivyleaf, seeing an opportunity, and a cat that might be salvageable, she walks up to him and comforts the Dark Forest cat. When he’s done, the two have a conversation that leads to a future surprise. Canon continues until...

Windclan fakes allowing Sol in, and fake an attack on Thunderclan, but loop back with Thunderclan in tow. Mudstar and Longstar stand united, and after spitting hate to a distant clan, Sol flees. Later, he’s found by some twolegs, and becomes a pampered internet star.

With all four of the Prophecised cats here, preparations begin in the clans, in the Dark Forest, and in Starclan. Mothwing finds a shadow that refuses to fade, and the medicine cats bring their leaders to the Moonpool. Starclan reveals that they’re ready for battle, and plans are hatched. Canon continues until...

Ivyleaf tells the Four that Birchfall and Blossomfall are Dark Forest trainees, which horrifies Dovewing, but then Ivyleaf reveals she’s undermined all the trainees from within. When she and Snowtuft had their talk, they planned together. Snowtuft secretly took each and every trainee, and showed them what they were truly doing, planting doubts and turning some back to the clans. Canon continues untill

The Battle Begins!!

Shadowclan calls for aid, and Greystripe and Jaywhisker bolt there to help. Even in his blindness, Jaywhisker can see the gruesome Ghosts and shining Spirits battling in his peripherals. As they enter the camp, Blackstar rises from losing a life. He then kills Redwillow for being a traitor, and Jaywhisker duels with Shredtail, scattering him into the aether. Suddenly Greystripe yowls in grief, and Jaywhisker hears the voice of Feathertail assuring him she’ll always be with him and watch over Briarlight. Canon continues until...

Ivyleaf runs into Goldenheart, and she confronts him angrily. He swears to do better by the Code, the clan, and by his sister. Ivyleaf declares that he better, because Dovewing still loves him, even if Ivyleaf thinks he’s a big fat jerk. Goldenheart says you know what, that’s fair. Canon continues until...

Over in Windclan, Heathertail and Breezepelt drag drag Furzepaw and Sunstrike apart as the battle rages around them. Furzepaw declares Sunstrike a traitor to their true ideals and the Dark Forest, and Sunstrike yowls back that the Dark Forest lied to them and killed Antpelt!! Breezepelt reels back in shock, as Antpelt was his best friend. They’re interrupted by Crowfeather and Nightcloud racing past, then pouncing on and killing Houndleap. Gorseflicker is heard screeching in rage, shredding and scattering a ghost to the winds, and a shining Deadfoot trounces a cat until they flee, past the glowing forms of Onewhisker and Tallstar. Canon continues until...

Brambleclaw confronts Ivyleaf, spitting curses at her disloyalty. She counters that she’s not the only one, and Snowtuft drops out of a tree. The three tussle until Ivyleaf is pinned and Snowtuft was thrown loose. As Brambleclaw raises a paw for the death blow, two blurs knock him off - Hollywish and Foxflight! They professionally murder him, and Ivyleaf thanks Snowtuft for his help, and wishes him well. As she thanks him, the gruesome aura all Dark Forest cats have lessens on Snowtuft, though it doesn’t completely fade. Mousefur, standing nearby, goes I beg your PARDON that’s wild. She peppers Snowtuft with questions, and the two race off to fight side by side. Canon continues until...

Darkstripe and Brokenstar attack the Thunderclan camp, with Brokenstar heading straight for the nursery. Sorreltail and Brackenfur nearly gleefully kill Darkstripe, as Honeyfern and Fercloud face off against Brokenstar. She kills Honeyfern, and pins Ferncloud, but Yellowfang slams into her errant kit, and kills Brokenstar once more. Yellowfang then lays Honeyfern somewhere safe, and sets herself up to guard the camp. Canon continues until...

Crowfeather rushes to Thunderclan to find Swiftpool and the rest of his kits, after seeing Windclan safe. Mapleshade leaps into his path, just as he sees Swiftpool in the distance. The pair double team Mapleshade before she can spout any rhetoric about forbidden love. Canon continues until...

Longstar faces off against Tigerstar, but the nearly blinded leader is slowly losing his strength.�� Nearby, Spottedleaf tells Fireheart that his destiny awaits, and he takes off from the medicine den. As Tigerstar stalks forward, Fireheart leaps from the shadows and latches onto Tigerstar’s throat. Longstar charges, remembering all the cats dead or injured because of Tigerstar, and throws himself at his once-friend. A yowl of pain echoes, and cuts off abruptly, sending the Dark Forest warriors fleeing. Flamewish bolts out of camp, searching for her mate and brother, with her family close behind. They find Longstar and Fireheart laying side by side, dying. Flamewish rushes to them, screeching in grief, and her family surrounds the dying cats, and after a touching farewell to their family, the legendary leader and his legendary medicine cat pass, rising to Starclan with the others who passed on in the battle, as shining spirits.

Brightstar is instated as leader of Thunderclan, and chooses Hollywish as deputy. Frostfoot and Whitestorm retire and join Purdy in the Elder’s Den. The Dark Forest trainees are put on probation for at least a year. Dovewing gets a heartfelt apology from Goldenheart, and the two reconcile. Hollywish visits Fallen Leaves as often as she can, with other cats visiting him as well. A few moons later, a loner named Fern asks if he can join Thunderclan.

And that’s the end of the Longstar AU! It’s not the end of the story tough, just a transition into Brightstar au! The rest might take a wee bit longer to post, but I’ll try to get something up eventually. In the meantime, I have a list of cats to draw, like Wormwood, who kind of just showed up, and Snowtuft, who loudly insisted on more redemption arc please!

Again, thanks so much for the likes and subscribes! I really appreciate it!

That’s all for now!

#Longtail #Longstar #longstar au #Warrior cats #warrior cats au #warriors #I had Feelings writing the Battle #I know they're obviously not MY characters but also they're my babies #oh my heart

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bellesque · 5 years ago

Text

Respite

The Mandalorian x Reader

Summary:

There are three things the Mandalorian can’t have at the same time, or at all:

An excursion with the kid.

No one tracking him.

A brief window for him to let his guard down.

In other words: peace.

But maybe, just for one day... he can.

Read on AO3.

Rating: T

Word Count: 5.8K

Warnings/Tags: Fluff, Daddy Din, Softness, Light Angst like it’s barely there, me just trying to make things make sense just shhh ignore science and some canon for the fluff

A/N: yes, i couldn’t help myself. oops. y’all know i’ve been obsessing over this show lately, lemme just ease into writing for mando too okay okay great

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So. Holding a little baby ball of green wrapped in scratchy brown wool was not something you thought you’d be doing today.

Not that you plan your days particularly. No, but you had some idea of how it would go. Tinker a little at the shop, maybe bargain with the offworld Jawas outside the city. Come back home for a bite to eat and then maybe tinker some more.

Cruise through hyperspace, this baby with the hugest fucking eyes in your arms? Never in your wildest dreams would you have thought this is what you’d end up doing.

His pointy ears perk skyward as he stares up at you, cooing softly in question. Shit, what does it want? Does it need anything? You’re not exactly sure what you’re supposed to—

“Put the kid down.”

Maker, your heart almost jumps out of your chest. The modulated voice isn’t angry. It’s not impatient, but it’s not patient either. It’s quiet at the same time loud enough for you to hear through the iron that encases it. It’s stoic, emotionless, intimidating…

Fucking scary is what it is. Is what he is.

You’ve heard the stories. About the Mandalorian as a people. To see one? Be in the same ship as one?

Well, if you were back home, you’d be considered a legend just alongside them actually.

You bounce the baby gingerly, so minutely it’s almost like you don’t move your arms at all. Maker, you’re confused. You don’t know what it is, why it looks aged at the same time so adorable, and you don’t know what it needs.

Which brings you back to the Mandalorian, whom you’ve known for approximately—oh, about an hour or so now, and his change in verbal directive. “I thought you said—”

“I know what I said. Put him down.”

Who are you, really, to argue with him? All things considered, it’s his ship, his rules, and his baby. Apparently.

There’s no way he’d be all green and bug-eyed underneath all that armor right?

You ignore the burning question that stations itself on the tip of your tongue, instead bending down to set the baby on its feet on the metal floor of the Razor Crest. The baby coos again, wobbling its way towards the pilot chair where its dad sits.

Stars, how is it so fucking cute?

You’re a little too intrigued by the way the baby moves: his whole body leans heavily towards one side with every waddle forward. Slow, purposeful, adorable waddles. It’s amazing how he just doesn’t teeter off too much to one side and fall in a heap of wool and large ears.

The baby manages to soundlessly end up by the Mandalorian’s feet, tugging at him with its stubby three fingers. The Mandalorian’s helmet turns briefly, glancing down at the green creature that helplessly reaches for something too far up the console. Too far for his little grubby hands to reach.

He audibly sighs as he scoops up the baby in one hand, settling it onto his lap while it continues to make grabby hands at something.

“I meant the pram.”

“O-oh,” is the only pathetic thing you can say. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed, but it stubbornly makes its way into your system anyway. This wasn’t a job you signed up for. In fact, you don’t know exactly why you’re here. The Mandalorian simply looked you up and down after you made a few repairs to his ship, and asked quite bluntly, “You good with a blaster?”

You blinked, twice, just enough time for your mind to catch up and process what he just asked. “I’m sorry?”

“Can you shoot?”

“Um.” Eloquent. “I’ve tried, a couple times, bu-but—”

He expertly threw the blaster rifle at you, which you struggled to catch perfectly. Him, as intimidating as ever, jerked his head to the side. “Shoot,” he said simply, raising a gloved hand to point at a canister several feet away. “Right there.”

And you did. By beginner’s luck, the canister split open.

Which, for some Maker-forsaken reason, warrants your presence on this ship. Are you a babysitter? His… partner for a day? Extra help? Maintenance? You had one job: tune up his Razor Crest. That’s it. You should be back home. Tinkering. Fixing. Bargaining.

But you’re here. A backdrop to a mysterious bounty hunter and his equally mysterious baby.

“I can put him in the crib,” you offer a little nervously.

The Mandalorian says nothing. He sits, stoic and silent in the pilot’s chair, the baby cooing periodically in his lap as he plays with the tiny metal ball the Mandalorian hands him. You swallow. He doesn’t even have to look at you for your palms to start sweating.

And it doesn’t help your rising nerves that you don’t know why you’re here. You’re not a quarry—right? Oh, shit, is there any way you could be and you just don’t know it?

To venture forward and say something, or continue to stand several feet behind him in silence. Have your questions answered, or just wait until he deems it the right time to provide you with them. It’s a mental battle that has you chewing on your lip and glancing skittishly at the glowing buttons around you.

Eventually your nerves win out, unable to take the quiet that stretches out seemingly into lightyears. “Um. So… what do you… need me to do?”

The Mandalorian takes a beat to respond. He presses a few buttons on the console, and mutters a curt, “Hold onto something.”

You’re glad for your quick reflexes, because as soon as he says so your fingers latch onto the nearest metal bar just as you lurch forward in hyperjump. The impact leaves you a little dizzy, swaying on your feet as you struggle to regain your bearings when you exit hyperspace.

He swivels to face you, standing from his seat and regarding you with… subtle interest, maybe? Or maybe he’s just amused at how you’re still swaying in your spot.

The baby fits snugly into the crook of his arm, and the image of this broad man covered head to toe in beskar with the tiniest little thing tucked into the bend of his elbow is so bizarre that you physically have to bite back a question: Are you green too?

“I need you to cover me,” he says eventually. The baby gurgles and looks up at the metal visor. “Just for today.”

“Cover you how?”

His helmet tips down as he glances at the baby in his arm. “Make sure no one’s following me. If you see someone, shoot.”

“Now hold on,” you interrupt. Finally you’ve regained your balance, and apparently, your voice. “I only shot that canister once.”

His pauldron lifts as he shrugs with one shoulder. “Once is enough.”

“I don’t think I can get lucky a second time.”

“Look,” he says, and there’s something in his voice that quells the arguments forming in your throat. Desperation, maybe? Just a hint? A little urgent, a little… pleading? It’s a little hard to decipher, between the general lack of emotional lilt in his voice and the synthetic warp of his helmet. “I can pay you. Handsomely. Just watch my back, only for today, and I’ll take you home right after.”

You consider it—well, not like your consideration changes anything. You’re already on this forsaken ship, hurtling towards who-knows-where, so might as well. A little extra something never hurt anyone. Especially you.

You need the credits. Bad. The shop’s been struggling a little, and if you’re being honest, having the Mandalorian come in was the best thing to happen to you financially in weeks.

Okay. Okay, maybe you could do this. Watch his back. Just for today, like he said. You nod, mostly to convince yourself rather than to affirm him. “Okay,” you say aloud. You watch as the Mandalorian descends the ladder with one arm, still cradling the baby in the other. “So where are we going? A bounty, maybe? Someone who needs some good Mandalorian-style telling off?”

It surprises you entirely when you land on the Forest Moon of Endor.

Really, there’s nothing here. Except for Ewoks. You have absolutely no clue, no idea what could possibly attract the Mandalorian to this place.

Except maybe, you think as the baby stumbles through the lush forest as fast as its little legs can take it—maybe this is why.

The Mandalorian hasn’t whisked you off to some exciting, gunslinging adventure. Not a bargain, or a job.

He’s brought you here for a day of nothing.

Granted, it’s not like you’re actually a part of it. You’re an awkward, outside-looking-in kind of spectator, eyes flitting nervously from vine to vine and grip tightening on the blaster whenever you hear even the slightest snap or crunch of nature. The gentle breeze carries the light laughter of the baby to your vicinity, and he holds your attention before your eyes focus on his guardian (dad?) a few meters away.

He’s… quiet. As usual. But for some reason, despite the seemingly impenetrable fortress of beskar and your inability to get a read on him, you can just tell, clear as day. It’s a soft sort of silence.

The chrome visor is undeniably trained on the little green baby as it chases after something that crawls on the grassy earth. The sky is a dusty blue, painting shadows over the Mandalorian and his tiny companion.

Serene. Peaceful.

You don’t know how long it takes until your tense muscles begin to relax from the calmness of Endor. Your breathing evens out and you set the blaster on your lap as you sit yourself on a large rock. It’s… nice. No pressure. Just a day with a kid and his dad doing absolutely nothing.

Peaceful.

While your body loosens up, the Mandalorian continues to stand across from you in soft stoicism. Based on his body language, his fight-or-flight response isn’t at the fore, but it’s ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice.

But he’s, for the most part, present. Watching. Observing. Admiring, if the gentle tilt of his helmet is any indication.

You wonder, fleetingly, what it must be like to be him. To follow in the ways of the Mandalore. What he has to give up, what he has to live with.

His helmet snaps up to look straight at you. You jump.

He walks over to you in long strides, and you can’t help but feel like prey. Maker, he could have a smile on his face, could be the least intimidating person in all the galaxy—but the way he walks, all bulk and purpose, makes you feel like a rabbit in a snare.

You nod your head in the general direction of the baby, hating the way your heart thumps loudly against your sternum when he approaches. “So. Endor? For this?”

“Yes.” He moves to stand next to the giant boulder you’re perched on, holding his posture straight as ever. Your eyes flicker from his helmet to his chest plate, and this time your questions burst at the seams.

“Isn’t that heavy?” you blurt.

His head tilts slowly to face you, and you hastily turn yours away. Your cheeks burn. Scary. Fucking scary.

“Y-your armor.” He doesn’t have to say anything. Somehow with the look he’s giving you, shielded at the same time piercing, gets your mouth moving. Like a bounty trying to negotiate. You can’t look at him. You can’t. You’ve made a fool of yourself, asking such a dumb, rhetorical question that continues to hang in the air. “I-I was asking, if—if—”

“The beskar becomes a part of a Mandalorian. It’s worn with pride.” There’s a pause, and you can see in your peripheral that he frees you from the weight of his gaze and returns it to the giggling child. “But. Sometimes.”

You nod in short, slow jerks, trying to empathize with him. “You ever take it off?”

“No. Not in front of people, at least.”

“Even the helmet?”

“Especially the helmet.”

You’re pushing it. Testing the limits, the boundaries of his silence. For all you know he could snap like a twig from your probing.

… Maybe one more.

“But why?”

The Mandalorian exhales, his chest visibly expanding and compressing as the sound seeps out of the modulator, long and drawn out like the silences you’ve spent with him. “This is the Way,” he murmurs.

The Way. The tone in his voice, though barely noticeable thanks to the filter, is enough to remind you that he is a man underneath all that metal. You feel a little… bad for him. Covered head to toe in armor, never able to take it off.

So you kick off the rock, without a real solid plan in mind, and hold out your palm to the Mandalorian.

He cocks his head to the side. You imagine he’s giving you the wariest of looks inside the metal that sheaths him. “What?”

“I’m going to go.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know, I’ll scout or whatever it is you call it. Just—what is it—secure? Yeah, that. And you,” you glance around, searching for the baby, “are going to get some downtime alone.”

He visibly tenses, and the stark contrast of his hardness and the thriving, dancing foliage amuses you just a little. Cracks that hard shell of intimidation you held for him moments ago.

“The kid—”

“I’ll look after him,” you cut in. Maker, he’s so protective over the little bean. You wonder what this bounty hunter had to go through with him to warrant such concern. “It’s why I’m here, right?”

You can tell he’s considering it. Just when you think he’s going to accede, however:

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I’ll fire two warning shots into the sky if anything happens,” you promise. Your mind’s working a mile a minute—stars, you don’t know why you want to help him, ease whatever burden he faces—but you try to come up with solutions and answers where you’re able. “I’ll skirt this perimeter, far from you. I’m handy with a blaster, remember?” You hold it up for emphasis. “And, and—you can stay on the ship. Or in a super secluded corner, I’ll slip you some food and you can take off your helmet—”

“Stay here with the kid.”

“Huh?”

He takes a step backward. “Don’t let him out of your sight.”

The Mandalorian disappears into the dense woodland without another word.

The baby gurgles at your feet, gripping the hem of your pant leg as it looks up at you once again. Imploringly, almost as if to ask, Up?

You scoop him up into your arms and sit back down on the boulder. “Think your daddy’s gonna have a good time on his own?” You scratch his ears, his eyelids drooping into inky semicircles at your actions. You soften. “You’re cute. No wonder he likes you.”

You get the feeling he doesn’t like anyone else as much.

It’s well and truly dark when the Mandalorian comes back.

The evening creatures have started up their symphony to welcome the night, a gentle accompaniment to the rustling of the leaves and the faint, distant gush of water. The baby slept in your lap for a bit as you battled your own stupor, and he woke up with an energetic babble to continue exploring the small patch of forested, open space the Mandalorian landed you in.

He doesn’t scare you as much when he comes back. Maybe it’s the way he walks, a little less battle-ready and a little more eased, or because you’ve gotten past that image of him just being some steel-plated bounty hunter. Either way, you greet him with a smile.

“Okay?”

He nods, one short dip of his head. “Thank you. For taking care of him.” He turns to watch the baby attempt to catch something that… most probably isn’t there. “I’ve secured the area. Scanner says there’s no one here but us for another thousand mile radius.”

“That’s good to know.” You rise to your feet. “Ready to head back?”

“Actually,” he starts, the word dragging slow and easy, “I was thinking we could head back tomorrow.”

Well. That certainly surprises you.

“It’s… nice here,” he admits quietly, almost like he doesn’t want to say it. But you understand. Sitting in silence here in one of the less populated parts of Endor has been therapeutic for your soul. You didn’t realize how hectic your daily life back home truly was: fast-paced, requiring you to be two steps ahead to survive. Here, you’re able to be free from the need to stay on your toes, even just for a moment. Maybe the baby’s carefree energy is contagious, but being here, alone with him, has already done wonders for the invisible weight on your shoulders.

“It is,” you agree. One contemplative inhale; two more. Should you ask? Maybe you shouldn’t.

Ah, fuck it.

“So… since we’re staying one night,” you swallow, “do you want to, maybe, watch the suns rise?”

Mando looks at you. At least, you think he does. The hard lines of his helmet make you feel that his personality is the same way: sharp, cutting—he’s probably the type of guy who always looks people in the eye. You imagine he’s looking straight into yours. He stays like this, still as a statue, while you make it a point not to buckle from the attention. You wish you knew what he was thinking, how he was looking at you. Just to know if you’ve missed the mark and suggested something downright preposterous.

“Yeah.” His shoulders relax after an excruciating, lengthy moment. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

You breathe out a soundless sigh of relief, wind you didn’t realize you were holding gushing out of your lungs, and you beam weakly at him. “Okay. Great.”

“Get in the ship. We can rest a bit, get up in time for the suns to rise over the horizon. Then I can take you home.”

Ah. Home. Something inside you sinks at the thought as you climb into the cockpit, pulling you back to the harsh reality that your life is. Surviving. Working. It’s not that you don’t love what you do, it’s just… this is such a welcome reprieve. You aren’t exactly ready for it to end, even though this trip wasn’t meant for you at all.

At least both of you are on the same page.

You and Mando make camp on a relatively open field on a ridge that overlooks Endor’s teeming lush vegetation. Not much is different here, it’s still trees and plants and earth, but with the baby’s giant bug eyes full of wonder and zeal, it’s as if you’ve landed somewhere else.

A small fire crackles to life, and Mando throws a branch into the flickering flames. He settles back on his haunches and you sit cross-legged next to him.

There’s really just. Something about him. Something that intrigues you, pulls you in just enough, not too close to the fortress he’s built for himself but still, close enough for you to want to know more. You have questions. Still, so many. You gaze at the chrome visor, the fire’s reflection dancing off it in steady flickers.

Steady. Controlled. The possibility of bursting into a large, engulfing wildfire ever-present. You wonder if that’s him—if the Mandalorian is like fire.

“You should get some sleep,” he says after a while, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the peace that blankets both of you. “You look tired.”

Right on cue, you stifle a yawn. You couldn’t exactly take a nap and watch over the baby, and it’s beginning to take its toll on you. “What about you? You gonna sleep?”

“Maybe.”

Silence. The embers glow within the logs, a pretty, warm orange that makes you vaguely remember the suns you’ve seen before on other star systems. It coaxes you into a state of relaxation, your heartbeat slowing and your eyelids growing heavy. The walls you put up for yourself crumble just the slightest as you let your guard down. Just a little. Perhaps the fire has the same effect on him. What are the odds of him humoring you with another answer?

“Do you… sleep with it on?”

One second drags into many more. The fire crackles. The crickets chirp. The baby gurgles.

“Mostly.”

You don’t pry further. There it is again, crawling up your gut, that mild feeling of secondhand guilt coupled with a little secondhand sadness. And just very steadily creeping in at the edges—the inexplicable need to give him a taste of something he’s probably haven’t had in a long time.

“I can sleep out here. With the baby. You can sleep in the ship, so you can…” The tail end of your statement goes unfinished, fading out into just another crackle of the fire.

But he understands. There’s a weight in this silence this time, pulled with gratitude and perhaps a little awe. You don’t consider yourself a believer in the Force, but. You can feel the wave of subtle relief that radiates from him. Like… like no one’s asked before, and he’s too honorable to ask for something like some time to himself.

“Thank you.”

Your chin dips forward, the same time you feel your cheeks warming—from the fire or something else entirely. You don’t exactly want to name it. “You’re welcome.”

A pause. “Will you… be okay?”

“Tough girl like me?” You give him a sleepy half-smile. “I’ll manage.”

You think you’ve just gotten used to him, acclimatized to the way he keeps you at arm’s length simultaneously trying to maintain a certain degree of chivalry—but what you think you know of him is tossed completely out the window when he stands and pats you on the shoulder.

It’s brief. Just a second, nothing more; casual in itself yet somehow it holds the weight of a star system. To you, at least. The Mandalorian are warriors. They should not know softness… but they do. This one does.

He retreats into the safety of the Razor Crest, his silhouette fading into nothing more than a shiny glint, but the mystery of him shines brighter in your mind’s eye than ever before.

∎∎∎∎∎∎

“Mando. Hey, Mando. I can call you that, right?”

You bounce the baby on your hip, significantly more confident in your movements than you were yesterday. He’s taken a liking to you, you think. He lights up with giggles when you raise the pitch of your voice and scrunch up your nose to amuse him. You can see why the Mandalorian likes him.

You’re quickly growing fond of the little womp rat too.

The Mandalorian straightens. He looks at you in question. You don’t know how you can tell—you just do.

“Suns’re about to rise. Stop checking that thing and let’s sit down.”

He taps his vambrace a couple more times before his arm drops to his side. “Habit. Don’t come crying for help if there’s an ambush we don’t know about.”

You roll your eyes, scratching the baby’s whiskery forehead. “Sit. C’mon.”

You plop onto the ground for emphasis, and the Mandalorian follows in a far more bulky, yet somehow graceful, manner beside you. Endor is still colored a pale indigo, the first few rays of sunlight barely peeking out from the horizon.

You’ll be quiet this time, you promise yourself. No more prying questions, no more trying to wheedle information out of him. Just peace and quiet, a change of pace from the brutal noise of bounty hunting he’s used to.

“I actually… shouldn’t have done. What I did.”

You wait for him to continue; you get the feeling he’s talking more for his benefit than for yours. He’s not trying to fill the void with needless chatter. This is different.

“Picking you up and taking you away from your job. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

You shrug. Truthfully, you don’t mind as much as he thinks you do. “I needed a change of scenery. I’m guessing you did too.”

“I did.” He straightens. “But. Still.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Now, you count the seconds until he starts speaking, just to keep your mind from initiating the conversation. You get the idea that if you start talking, asking more questions, saying random things you notice about the changing color of the sky, whatever spell he seems to be under—being freer in his words, the beskar fortress opening just a tiny crack for you—will be broken.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight—

Eight whole seconds.

“I’m not even supposed to be doing this. Staying in one place for too long is… dangerous.”

“For you, or the kid?”

“Both of us.”

“Just a few more minutes,” you encourage lightly. “Until we see the suns completely.”

And there it is, that tip of the strong lines of his helmet dipping low, a finality in the gesture that renders you mute. An acknowledgment. Silence.

Golden beams of light begin to bleed over the tops of the terrain, the trees turning from a shadowed teal to a full forest green. But… slowly. You don’t realize how slow sunrises are until you’re actually watching one. The giant star inches its way up over the sleepy Forest Moon, its second half just barely noticeable and following suit. It’s kind of fun to try and figure out where one sun stops and the other begins.

“It’s been a while,” Mando starts, voice pleasantly low and modulated and throwing you for a loop completely, “since I… last watched a sunrise.”

You pick at the wool covering the baby. “Really? When was the last time?” You bounce the kid to keep him from fidgeting in your lap, a constant rhythm to lull him into a tranquil disposition.

Mando leans back against both his arms, head going to one side in thought. “I was a foundling. I can’t remember much of it—just the feeling. How warm the sun was. Everywhere. It was… it was blinding. I think.”

You gaze at him. The threat of heaviness hangs between you, and you attempt to keep an air of lighthearted conversation before it can drag you down into a pit you’re not quite ready to jump into. “And now? Too many bounties to hunt?”

He turns his gaze to the horizon. “Something like that.”

The morning breeze caresses the tendrils of your hair, fanning out behind you while the baby reaches in vain to capture a tiny insect that flies past.

Stars. Something in his answer shakes you. Not an earth-splitting, roaring kind of shake—it’s a quiet rumble, enough to rouse one who was sleeping. Enough for one to go, “What was that?” and wonder if what they felt was real.

He’s a bounty hunter. He shouldn’t be sitting here, with you—with a kid, for Maker’s sake—watching a sunrise on Endor. All beskar, all tough, he probably fought tooth and nail to survive. He’s probably killed more people than you’ve seen at the shop. His silence is probably calculating after years of hunting. Distrustful of strangers, always strategically two steps ahead. For him, it’s probably killed or be killed. That’s probably second nature, hell, first instinct maybe, for him. Probable. Not fact. Still—you get the feeling you’re not quite off the mark.

But for him to mention the last time he saw a sunrise.

He’s scary. Stoic, emotionless, intimidating…

But he was someone before he put his armor on.

Metal maketh a Mandalorian. But also, not really. Of course there’s more to it. But it’s all you and most see him as: just some metal bounty hunter chasing coin. It’s easy to forget there’s a man underneath, warm and alive and likely just as human. Does he allow a smile underneath his helmet? Does he hold his laugh back, does he let his tears fall freely?

And then somehow, gazing absently at the lazily rising suns, its warmth spilling over the horizon, something guts you. A realization. One not so outrightly jarring, but it hits you with surprising force nonetheless. It wriggles its way to the tip of your tongue, somewhere between a question and a statement that you fight to withhold.

You don’t doubt that he’s seen the sun rise. Has he taken the time out to sit here, like this, and watch? Probably not. But you don’t doubt he’s seen it.

You doubt that he’s seen it since he swore the oath.

The baby brings you back to the present, his gentle grip on your forearm rousing you from your deep thought. You glance at him, and then to the Mandalorian beside you. He’s absolutely set in his seat, still and silent like he always is. You wonder if he’s always been like that. Or if without the helmet, it’s a different story.

You have too much respect for him—fear, yes, but mostly respect—to ask him to take it off with you next to him. So instead, you scoot gingerly, careful not to jostle the baby too much, until you’re sitting with your backs pressed together.

You feel the slightest shift of metal against your hair as the Mandalorian turns his head partially to the side. A silent question.

You’re nervous. You don’t know why the tiny action has your heart thumping. Your fingers pick at the wool once more. When you speak, your voice is small. “I… you can—um, you can. Take off your helmet. I won’t look. Promise.”

The wind whistles in your ears, and you wonder if it carried your voice away. Or if you’ve just insulted him. Oh, Maker, why do you have to be so fucking impulsive—

“The suns are rising here. On this side.”

“I-I know,” you trip, “but you know. Endor. Binary star system, all that. But we’re on the Forest Moon, right? So—so I’ve heard stories that—”

“You want to watch the suns rise.”

You huff, a little exasperated. What exactly are you frustrated about? That he’s deflecting so much? That you’re stammering every two seconds? That you’re trying to do something nice but you feel it’s going completely over his stupid metal head?

You exhale and try again. Sure enough, climbing inch by inch, another celestial body begins to rise up into your eyeline. “They say Endor—the planet, I mean—sometimes acts like a second sun.”

“Endor has two suns.”

Maybe you’re crazy, but you swear you hear a smile somewhere through that warped voice filter.

“I mean—” your cheeks are heating up now, “they say you can watch the suns rise on both sides if you’re on its moons. But one of them’s not really the sun. Duh. Endor just. Reflects the light, so it looks like the sun. Or-or something like that.”

“And you see it?”

“Right now? I do.” You bite your bottom lip, briefly debating if you should vocalize what you’ve been thinking just now. “I just… have you ever seen a sunrise? Without that thing on?”

Oh, you’ve done it now. If you were toeing the line before, now you just straight up cross it, ignoring any and all boundaries. Maker, you’ve literally just met him. But here you are, running your mouth and doing uncharacteristic things.

But he’s surprised you multiple times too. His kid. His awkward softness. Or at least, his willingness to try for it.

“I’m sorry,” you blurt out. “I-I wasn’t thinking, and—”

Something thunks against the hard earth. A fraction of a tilt of your head to the side, and a brief glint of metal twinkles out of the corner of your eye.

You’ve never straightened so fast.

Your heart continues to thump, a staccato that has your nerves skyrocketing. Don’t look. He’s trusting you. Don’t look.

You never expected the steel fortress to crack even just a little. But here, right now, he’s opened a fucking gate with you.

You’re too afraid to even speak right now, afraid that it will burst whatever precious moment you two are both sharing and experiencing separately. You feel the Mandalorian inhale and then exhale, equally long and deep, as he sags against you.

Tired. Relieved. Heavy. Eased.

Unmodulated.

Vulnerable.

After a few moments your taut muscles begin to loosen and you nestle as much as you can into the armor on his back. His head gently bumps against yours, and you stiffen.

The baby coos in your arms. You relax minutely.

You spend seconds, minutes, possibly even hours sitting back-to-back with the Mandalorian in companionable silence. Endor isn’t as blinding as its suns are, but it’s still incredibly pretty to watch its reflected light crawl over the horizon. You sit and watch until the light spreads over the entirety of the Forest Moon, until your shadows slowly disappear, in awe of the absolute tranquility of it all. It just feels right, even with his beskar pressed against your back and the baby babbling from time to time. It shouldn’t, but it does, and your heart fills with warmth that spreads through your veins, like the sun’s a beacon of warm feelings and you’ve just absorbed it all. You close your eyes. And you commit this moment—this singular, uninterrupted moment that’s forever yours—to memory.

“This is nice,” you whisper.

“Yeah,” he quietly agrees, “it is.”

∎∎∎∎∎∎

It kind of really fucking breaks your heart when you exit the Razor Crest and enter the shop with a bag full of credits.

Of course it had to end. What were you thinking? That somehow, the Mandalorian was going to offer you to stay? What would you even do?

After you and Mando shared such an intimate (at the same time, not) moment together, it’s kind of… strange to be back where you started. In the shop. A good distance apart.

About to say goodbye.

“Thank you,” he says, his modulated voice ringing familiar and foreign at the same time.

“My pleasure.”

Awkward. It’s not strained, but… it’s off, considering this morning. The intimacy of such an innocent moment. Do you… hug? Do Mandalorians hug?

He glances at the ship. “I should get going.”

“Your ship’s all good. I, uh, checked once we landed.”

“Thank you.”

Gratitude. Always, with him. Your cheeks burn.

He turns to walk up the ramp, and before you can stop yourself your mouth opens before your mind can protest.

“Hey Mando—”

He stops, turns to face you. That piercing gaze. You just know it. You smile, hoping he smiles under his helmet. You really, really hope he’s smiling under there.

“Be safe.”

He waits a beat. Then another. And then—

“You too.”

Your heart drops, just a little, but you keep your smile on your face and your eyes trained on the Crest as the engines power up. And then he’s off, taking his kid with him along with the memory of his brief period of respite with you.

Maybe another day, when the last thing you’d think you’d be doing is holding a little baby ball of green wrapped in scratchy brown wool, will be the day he comes back.

The chances of that are slim. But still, you’ll take your chances.

You like those odds.

#the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin x reader #the mandalorian fanfic #daddy din #that’s basically all this is #respite #by belle #mando x you #mando x reader #idk what else to tag tbh

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guardianofjunmyeon · 4 years ago

Text

Finding Atlantis (part 9)

Genre: Action/Adventure, Enemies to Lovers, PirateAU

Description: 20 years ago the seas became angry. Unruly and unkind to any sailor, to any ship that dared venture too far out in her waters. Many a man has heard the tales of Atlantis, the lost city, the key the ocean. But fewer men know the tale of it’s missing child. The key to the ocean, the key to Atlantis but a lost little one. The power one would hold should they find this child would be nearly that of Poseidon himself. Thus, the hunt began.

A/N: long time no see!!!! Here’s the new update^^ ive been on summer vacation for a few weeks now and unmotivated to write since this is the first time in a while i can really rest but ive been playing a lot of mysme and watching a lot of tv lmaooo

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18

What does this mean?

Your thoughts are jumbled together as Baekhyun falls asleep against your chest. His soft whimpers and twitches are comforting almost in the quiet of the room. This isn’t the first time that he’s fallen asleep before you after a night together, but it is the first that he’s fallen asleep like this.

Curled around you, against your chest, breaths puffing out softly against your skin.

You can recall countless times you’ve woken up in bed with him, at opposite ends of the bed, not touching any more than absolutely necessary. Pissed off at any little sound or movement that he would make in dreamland. Bothered by the feeling of sweaty skin touching your own once the lust has faded to nothing.

It’s a startling comparison to how you feel now, but there’s no part of you that feels bothered by it.

You let your fingers run through his soft dark hair absentmindedly. It doesn’t take long for you to be lulled asleep by the feeling of warmth surrounding you and the soft snores filling your room.

~~~

The tension doesn’t go away.

The arguing doesn’t stop.

Better yet, it amplifies.

“If you step foot in my quarters without permission again, I’ll kill you.”

“Oh really?”

“Really.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Do you want to test me?” There’s a smirk fighting to break out as you say the words. He takes another step forward and you feel your heart rate picking up at the excitement visible in his eyes.

Jongin steps between you. “Please, can you not fight today? You guys have been going at it every day. We’re tired.”

You blink and look at the man amusedly. He looks genuinely exasperated standing in front of his captain like this. “Would you rather I fight with you?” You take a step towards him and watch excitedly as he takes a surprised step back and pink flushes across his cheeks. You feel playful, but it seems as though Jongin doesn’t fully realize it.

Baekhyun pushes Jongin behind him. You can still see the color on his cheeks as he ducks his head down behind Baekhyun. “Don’t flirt with my first mate!”

“You flirt with mine!” you state with a scoff.

Junmyeon blinks at your words from where he emerges from the kitchens. You cast him an accusatory glance and he shrugs before turning away and resuming his duties. You know that it doesn’t bother him in the slightest, being called out for flat out flirting with Baekhyun, but you’ve still decided to give them both shit for it. They’re both naturally touchy, they can’t help it. Once Baekhyun finally got over whatever was making him pissy at Junmyeon, the two have become quick friends. Close friends.

A bit too close for your own liking –if you’re honest with yourself.

Minseok takes it upon himself to grab you by the arm and drag you away with a pointed look in Baekhyun’s direction. You let him pull you to the hull and wave away Ten at the wheel without a word.

He doesn’t seem exasperated by the arguing as he did the last time he pulled you aside, but you still expect a lecture of some kind from him. You won’t be the one to break the silence in fear of getting a talk like that of the one in the infirmary all those days ago.

He crosses his arms over his chest and looks at you blankly. “Do you think that you might want to go back to doing your job now, Captain?”

“I am doing my job,” you throw back easily. His lip twitches but he doesn’t bother to humor you with any kind of response outside of a disbelieving chuckle. He turns around and you watch him walk off and grab Baekhyun by the back of the neck with a squeeze so hard that it nearly brings the younger to his knees. Minseok whispers harshly into his ear and Baekhyun nods rapidly in agreement to whatever he’s being told. It takes a full 5 seconds of you watching the scene to realize what you’re doing.

Nothing.

Maybe Minseok was right. You should go back to doing your job.

You settle at the unoccupied wheel of your ship and look out in the distance at the empty expanse of water ahead. At this point in the journey, you only know to continue sailing forward until there is a sign of Isla de Sirena. Truthfully, you wish that your crew could avoid this trial entirely.

After the first one, the storm that almost claimed your life and your ship, you fear for the state of the Storm Chaser and your men in the face of what are essentially evil mermaids. Unfortunately, the only way to advance on to the third and final trial is to face each one before it head on. There’s no shortcut in the return back to Atlantis, but fuck do you wish there was.

This time, you hope that Junmyeon is able to use his song a bit more helpfully so that you aren’t nearly killed again.

It hasn’t even been 2 weeks since the storm and your embrace with death.

You hear the sound of boots against wood and feel a presence behind you. A glance to the side and you see Junmyeon stopping a few feet from your right with his eyes trained out on the horizon.

“Junmyeon?”

He blinks a few times as if clearing his mind from a stupor. Something about the look in his eyes worries you.

“I…I don’t have a good feeling about where we’re heading.”

Your eyebrows pull together in concern. You feel as though you may need to talk to Junmyeon in private, but you can’t do that at the helm. You look over the ship for someone to take your place.

“Sehun!” you shout across the ship once you spot the man. Sehun turns from his conversation with Jongin by the entrance to the crew cabins at the sound of his name. You motion him over. He jogs up to you immediately and you step away from the wheel. “Can you steer for a while?” you ask. He frowns slightly but nods in agreement. Sehun looks between you and Junmyeon, who has turned back to staring off with a sort of glazed look in his eyes, with worry.

You grab at your first mate’s arm and pull him off to the side where you can talk to him out of earshot of anyone else.

“What’s wrong?” you whisper once the panic clouding over his eyes disappears yet again. You don’t like the way he’s acting.

He shakes his head at your words. “The tune of the song is off. There’s something wrong about the song,” he says softly, fearfully.

“What do you mean? Are we not going the right way?”

“No it’s not that, we are…I’m still sure we are. I just…” His eyes lose focus just behind you; you squeeze his arm to bring his attention back to you. You frown at the blank expression on his face. “We should be extra cautious of what’s to happen next…”

His behavior and words fill you with unease. For Junmyeon to be so out of it is abnormal –extremely so. Of anyone on the ship, he’s always the most aware of everything going on at any point in time.

And he was fine earlier.

“Do you need to lie down for a bit? You’re kind of scaring me,” you admit. When he blinks again and his look is suddenly clear and focused, you shudder.

“No, we all need to be on high alert. We’ll come across Isla de Sirena at any moment from now to tomorrow. We only know the general location of the island, and that doesn’t help us out very much-”

“Captain!” You whirl around at the frantic voice. Yeri pants as she runs up to you. “Captain,” she gasps out again through desperate inhales of air. “We see something up ahead!”

You catch the way Junmyeon swallows nervously before you make your way back to the hull where Sehun is still steering. You squint out ahead of the ship.

You see nothing.

“Where’s my telescope?” You bark out. You scan the deck of your ship to find a few of your men at the bow, surrounding Baekhyun with your telescope up to his eye.

“How many fucking times do I have to tell him not to use my shit…”

Yeri flushes at your side. “I’ll...uh… I’ll go get it from him Captain,” she says apologetically before jogging away to the huddle of people trying to catch sight of whatever has been…sighted.

Yeri taps on Baekhyun’s shoulder and waits until he investigates who has disrupted him, before she snatches the device directly from his hand. You watch as he stares at her retreating figure with an offended look at her curt behavior. You smile proudly to yourself. When Yeri returns to your side and your telescope is back in your possession, you catch Baekhyun’s eyes and flick him off.

He sends you a finger back with an upwards twitch of the corner of his mouth.

You turn your attention back to Yeri before he can catch sight of you own lips itching to break out in a smile. “What’s the report?” you ask, bringing your telescope up to your eye so that you can find what has caused the commotion on the ship.

“It seems as though we will be approaching the island within the next few hours,” Yeri starts. You’re finally able to train your sights on a mass of land. It is small, even taking the distortion from how far away it is into account. The ship could easily just go around it.

You lower your telescope.

“Sehun, can we just go around the island?” you question.

“No!” Sehun says loudly just as Junmyeon nearly screams the same. You look back and forth between them in confusion.

“We can’t go around it. We can’t,” Junmyeon’s voice shakes as he says it, eyes wide with fright.

Your mouth opens at his fear shrouded expression, but no words come out.

Sehun cuts in to save you the trouble of trying to figure out why your first mate looks so terrified. “The island may look small, but that's because that is the only part that you can see. There are rocks and reefs that stretch out for miles on either side of it. They’re just hidden enough to be invisible from a distance, but it’s nearly impossible to maneuver around them. The ship would crash if we tried to go around at this point.”

“There’s a passage in the middle of the island that is large enough for a ship to sail through without problem,” Chanyeol’s voice booms from behind you. Confusion paints your face as you try to figure out where the hell he appeared from.

You try to figure out the reliability of going directly through the island versus around it. “Is it safe?”

Chanyeol sighs heavily at your question. “No, but it’s faster than trying to dodge reef and rock and inevitably crashing by going around.”

You swallow at the prospect of your ship crashing from something as dumb and avoidable as coral. “Alright, so we’ll sail through the island. That’s fine; that was the initial plan.” You speak mainly to yourself, trying to reason with the part of you that fears this will end horribly. Junmyeon’s behavior, the conveniently placed passage in the middle of the island, it doesn’t bode well.

“Sehun, you can navigate it?”

“As long as it’s through the island and not around, I can get us through safely.”

“May Poseidon be merciful…”

~~~

The first tendrils of music begin to float around the ship once you have sailed an hour closer to the island. Isla de Sirena is still too far in the distance for music to logically be able to reach your ears.

The song is beautiful, tinkling and melodic. Alluring, but it makes your skin crawl regardless of the beauty of it. It’s haunting, the harmonies, the mix of voices.

It makes you a bit dizzy.

You climb down the stairs to the main deck and walk over to the side of the ship to peer into the water. For the music to be reaching you, the sirens must be closer to you than they seem. As you expected, you can see movement beneath the waves.

Squinting, you try to make out whether the movement is just that of normal fish or of mystical creatures trying to drag your ship to the depths. Whatever it is, is too quick for you to clearly see.

You’re yanked away from the railing with a force that makes you stumble backward over your own feet. You collide clumsily into a disturbingly familiar chest.

You can feel one hand on your wrist and the other curled around your shoulder.

“Stay away from the edge of the ship. If they catch sight of you then they can shift themselves into your lookalike,” Baekhyun says against you, voice vibrating in his chest against your back. You twist your head to look at the hand squeezing your shoulder.

Embarrassment floods your veins at the intimate contact and you shrug yourself out of his hold. He doesn’t seem bothered by it.

“Keep away from the sides of the ship. We keep moving forward no matter what,” Baekhyun commands to your crew. Frozen in their spots, looks are thrown your way as if asking whether or not to follow his words.

You shrug. This isn’t your area of expertise. “You heard him, full sail ahead,” you call out. Your words snap everyone into action as members work to keep away from the edges of the ship while continuing to do their jobs.

It’s not long before the music gets louder, more insistent and the island is visible to the naked eye. It’s distracting, but you will not fall a fool to its melody. “Keep your minds clear! Do not trust anything that you may see outside of the Storm Chaser herself,” you shout as you walk around ensuring that things are going smoothly. You have to keep yourself busy to keep from listening too closely to the tune.

The call of the sirens starts to affect the members of your crew the closer the ship veers towards land. The younger crewmen are the most susceptible to the melody as their senses are blurred and beautiful images are projected in the waters. 3 members have to be forcefully dragged below deck as they’re caught, zombie-like, walking to the edge of the vessel hypnotized and willing to throw themselves into the sea.

They don’t seem to realize what’s wrong even as others try to explain to them that it’s just an illusion. You warned the crew ahead of time, but to see the siren song impacting your men so easily is frightening.

“Mom? Mom!?”

The music has dulled down to a faint buzz in the back of your mind, but you have a feeling that it must still be loud, if not louder, to others. Johnny struggles to restrain one of your newest boatswains, Lucas from jumping into the water. There are tears in the boy’s eyes as he screams out for his mother, eyes wide and hands reaching towards the waters. When you follow where he’s desperately trying to escape to with your eyes, you see a grotesque creature atop a rock peaking out of the ocean. It’s mouth is open in song, a grin so large on its face that it’s sharp teeth gleam in the light.

A siren.

Its skin is a shade of grey so dark that you dare liken it to a dark blue. Torn fins stretch between skinny fingers. Spikes made of its own bone protrude from its back and undulate with every note that floats from its mouth. You feel sick at the sight of it.

Lucas continues to scream towards the siren in anguish. Your heart hurts watching him look out at the monster with all the sadness, love, and regret you know that he had for his mother. You all know that his mother died earlier in the year, and that he hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye.

The sirens have already begun to resort to despicably low tactics.

Chanyeol runs over to help pull Lucas below deck as he thrashes against Johnny’s arms in an attempt to crawl overboard. You turn away, unable to watch the scene any longer. You know that with the two of them, they’ll be able to get Lucas safely below deck and calmed down.

Sehun is still at the hull, intensely focused ahead as he tries to safely keep the ship moving forward while trying to ignore the call of the sirens. As soon as the ship enters the passage that splits the island in half, the music stops.

You look around in confusion at the sudden silence, and only feel the feeling deepen at the sight of some of your crewman covering their ears as if they can still hear the singing.

You’re the only one who can suddenly hear nothing.

The rocks on the island sparkle like diamonds under the sunlight. The water that cascades down in miniature waterfalls tinkles pleasantly. The air feels crisp and clean, and if you were not aware that this is all meant to lower your guard, you would appreciate the beauty of the small paradise. A paradise or a well-disguised hell.

If you look beyond the shining rocks and the crystal clear waters, you can see signs of destroyed ships, shredded pieces of clothing, bones too similar to that of humans. Beneath it all is death. The end goal for the sirens is the death of you and your men. They’ll sing you to your demise.

Movement catches your eye from one of the rocks that overlooks the passageway. A woman with blonde hair and black eyes that pierce into your soul sits lazily overlooking your ship. She catches your eyes and a smile breaks out across her face. One dainty hand comes up to wave with nothing but a wiggle of delicate fingers.

You feel pulled into her bottomless gaze. It’s only when she stands up atop her rock that you realize she is naked save for a thin dress that seems to be made of water. The water moves with life, as if sentient around her body. It acts like some kind of clothing although it does nothing to cover her body.

She laughs and it chimes through the air like precious jewelry clinking together. You glare at her as she stretches out her muscles from above.

And then she jumps down from the cliff into the water below.

Like awakening from a spell, you snap out of your entrancement. Stricken by panic, you run off to find someone, anyone that you can to let them know of what you saw.

Yixing is massaging his temples near the crew cabins when you catch sight of him and run up to him. You grab the front of his shirt tightly, frenzied. “I made eye contact with one of the sirens.”

“You what?!”

“I- Fuck I don’t know I wasn’t thinking. She didn’t…do anything to me…she jumped into the water though after. I think she was able to get a good look at everyone currently on deck. She jumped into the water I don’t know where she went,” you rush out. “If she manages to get aboard we are fucked. She could see everyone, and she definitely saw me.”

Yixing blanches. “Fuck…”

You swallow.

“Fuck!” He curses again. He looks around frantically at the members left above deck trying to ignore the pull of the sirens’ song. “Stay here. Stay up here; do not leave this deck. If they can transform into you now, there’s a better chance at catching them if we see two of you in one place, and this will be where they first appear,” he commands. “I’ll go inform Junmyeon and the rest of the crew about the one you saw.” Yixing rushes off and you stand in your spot unsure of what to do.

You can no longer go below deck or else you will put everyone’s safety in jeopardy. You’re a liability now.

All because of the blonde siren.

The song begins to fill your ears again and you almost want to laugh at the timing of it. It’s like they’re mocking you. Soft notes curl around your body and try to sway you towards the water.

You shudder violently and run up to Sehun.

“How much longer until we’ve cleared the island?”

“20 minutes if we keep moving without issue…as long as we can keep everyone aboard and safe,” he says through clenched teeth. His knuckles are disturbingly pale as he grips the wheel tightly and tries to maintain concentration.

So long as Sehun stays right where he is, things will be fine.

Just 20 minutes. You all can survive that.

You begin to wonder if the siren’s song has distorted the Atlantian song. Maybe that is why Junmyeon said that it was off earlier. The song may have been warning of distortion between the songs. He has to have some kind of cryptic advice or warning now that the music is audible to everyone on the ship.

You turn in circles in search for the black haired Atlantian. He’s nowhere to be seen above deck. Did he go below?

A splash shakes you from your thoughts. You turn in the direction of the noise, and then you hear the shouting.

Hesitantly you make your way toward the edge of the ship where the splashing and shouting has picked up volume.

You see Junmyeon thrashing wildly in the waters below.

Your blood goes cold.

“J-Junmyeon?” Your voice comes out weakly at the sight of him barely keeping himself afloat in the water. It has to be an illusion. You watch him struggle to keep his head above the water and your own body starts shaking in horror.

That can’t be Junmyeon. There’s no way that Junmyeon would fall overboard like that.

But the sound of his voice, the desperation in his tone as he screams out your name, that all sounds just like him.

The body in the water seems just like him.

But no one else seems to hear him. It’s only you.

That’s not him.

You pull yourself away from the sight of him.

Kyungsoo rushes by you and you reach out to stop him in his tracks. “Where’s Junmyeon?” you ask him worriedly.

He blinks and looks around the ship quickly. “I last saw him going below with Yixing,” he says with a frown. You nod and let go of his arm so that he can return to whatever he was running to do.

Trying not to let the sound of the false Junmyeon’s shouts trick you, you close your eyes and take a few steps away from the edge of the ship. It’s getting quieter, but the sound of his screams is still there.

Distracted, you bump into another body. You whirl around and come face to face with Baekhyun. You blink at him and all of a sudden the sound of Junmyeon yelling is gone.

Baekhyun looks at you with genuine concern. “Are you okay?”

“I…” you furrow your eyebrows and try to gather your thoughts, try to calm your racing heartbeat. The song of the sirens buzzes lightly in the back of your mind. “I thought that I heard Junmyeon fall overboard.”

Baekhyun frowns deeply and shakes his head. “Yixing took Junmyeon below deck. He said that he’d made eye contact with one of the sirens. Junmyeon didn’t want anyone to get confused and wanted to stay below to keep it clear where the real him is.”

You swallow at his words and turn to look back in the direction of where the fake Junmyeon had thrashed and called out for your help. Baekhyun grabs your arm and gently turns you away. “Hey, don’t fall for it. We have to keep going forward remember? That’s fake; that’s not Junmyeon,” he says while looking into your eyes.

You nod along to his words, but something in the pit of your stomach feels off. Something feels wrong.

If Junmyeon had gone below deck, he or Yixing would have told you. They would have told you the same way that Yixing went off to tell Junmyeon about what you saw.

Yixing told you to stay above deck after you made eye contact with that siren. Why would he take Junmyeon below deck if the same happened to him?

Baekhyun’s words feel off.

You look into his eyes, “You’re right.” You try to keep your tone even. “I’m going to go make sure that Junmyeon is alright then,” you say.

“No, you stay here. I’ll go check on him,” Baekhyun says quickly. He plasters on a smile to cover up how rapidly he decided to take the task upon himself.

It’s then that you know this is all wrong.

You shrug off the hand on your wrist and hold in a shiver. “I can do it,” you press on.

“I’ll go with you then!” he says. You give him a measured look. If not already looking for a break in the facade, you would have missed the way that the image of him wavers like a mirage in a desert for a split second. Sick rises in your throat.

This isn’t Baekhyun.

Your skin breaks out in goosebumps at the realization, but you try to maintain composure. You don’t want the siren to know that you’ve seen through her illusion.

“Okay, we can go together. Just give me one second,” you say. You spin on your heel and try your hardest not to let how unsettled you are show in your steps up to Sehun. At his side, you give Baekhyun a thumbs up and then pull Sehun down so that you can whisper in his ear. “Stop the ship right now,” you whisper quickly. You let go of him and ignore the look of confusion on his face in lieu of squeezing his arm as another silent “stop the ship”. Baekhyun watches your interaction closely but doesn’t mention it as you make it back to his side.

“Let’s go,” you say. Normally, you would grab Baekhyun’s wrist or arm to drag him along, but the thought of touching the siren makes your skin crawl, so you settle for walking in front and leading the way towards the ladder below deck. Your senses are on high alert as he follows silently behind you.

There’s no plan, but you know that you need to get rid of the siren as soon as possible. You just hope to the Gods that you’re right in your assumption and that it’s not actually Baekhyun following you.

It would really be fucked up if it’s the real him because of what you plan on doing next. You can’t think about it for too long.

You turn on your heel and with a quick inhale of breath to brace yourself –you shoot Baekhyun right in the chest.

He stumbles backwards, once, twice. From the wound, instead of warm red, out spills inky blue blood. Your hand wavers in relief, still pointed at who you thought was Baekhyun. The Baekhyun imposter looks down at the wound in shock, and then up with eyes shifting to full blackness. It releases a hiss and piercing screech that fills the ship; you fire another two shots right into its head. It falls to the ground with a thud. You watch it shift from what looked like Baekyun back into the ugly grey creature it is with fury.

“What the fuck!?” Kyungsoo shouts. You cock your head to the side and find that he watched the entire encounter. You exhale the breath you’d held in and lower your gun.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” you growl at Kyungsoo. He flinches at your tone and looks away from the body at your feet.

“He was helping calm Lucas down…he’s been in the crew cabins for a while now. Wha-”

You turn on Kyungsoo in the middle of his question in order to shout to anyone who can hear. Your fear from earlier has transformed into pure rage. They tricked you.

Fully and completely the sirens tricked you and now you know that what you saw earlier was the truth.

Junmyeon is no longer on the ship.

#exo #byun baekhyun #baekhyun #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exo story #exo imagine #exo pirate au #baekhyun fanfic #baekhyun imagine #baekhyun story #baekhyun pirate au

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ribcage-rodents · 4 years ago

Text

Post four

“How did you know that?”

Robin

Robin’s glowing eyelets appeared as he swung hanging upside down from a tree branch.

“Tall, buff, inhumanly strong woman wearing rustic leather armor.. Pretty obvious.”

He then swung back up.

Wonder Girl

Hesitantly she followed him up.

More time passed as the two crawled up the tree Robin using his mask to see and pick fruit, then tossing it to Wonder Girl who dropped them on the ground, neither had a basket and Wonder Girl’s other hand was occupied by something that she used to see in the dark bc it's night rn and I didn’t think that through.

Robin

“Do you have a plan?”

Robin asked as he pulled another fruit down.

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl caught the fruit staring at the floating white eyes.

“Plan?”

Robin

“A plan to get off the island, you’re the team leader right?”

Robin said as he maneuvered his way up to a higher branch.

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl followed after him.

“No, we don’t really have a leader, we’re all working together as a team.”

She stopped, pulling on a mango until it snapped from its branch and letting it fall to the ground.

“Do you have a plan?”

Robin

“An inkling,”

He responded sounding far away,

“There’s a lot of trees and vines, fruit too. I was thinking of building a raft.”

A couple seconds passed as both thought this over.

Robin

“You know it might work better with your team, I mean you have an Alantian right? He could help steer and-”

His voice got quieter and faster as he spoke, seemingly falling away from the situation as he neared the brink of an epiphany,

“Kidflash could be a sort of motor.. We could make a compass out of Speedy’s arrows maybe..unless mine is still working, and Wonder Girl could definitely help build the raft… assuming that Amazons are trained in desert island raft making…. Maybe she knows how to make a compass.. If only we could solve this with like a sword fight.. Then we could just do it and the others would be an emergency back-up..wait! That's it Wonder Girl can help cut down the timber.”

Wonder Girl

“Hey Man of Mysteries, focus!”

Wonder Girl called peering into the dark tree line for any sight of Robin.

Robin

Suddenly he dropped to the branches in front of her.

“I think we got enough, we should get this back before he dies, plus we need to work shop our escape plan.”

Robin stooped down and grabbed an armful of mangos before running off into the woods.

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl stood staring after him.

“Since when is shadow demon part of our team?”

She then grabbed as many mangos as she could and followed after him.

Scene 13

Garth

As the two heroes emerged from the jungle mangos in their arms, Garth stood up from the freezing water.

“Where is he here!?”

He growled. Speedy twisted to look at them, his eyes popping wide before his face was transformed into one filled with anger.

Speedy

“Yeah get that demon freak outta here?!”

Speedy yelled reaching back for an arrow but finding nothing.

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl dropped the mangos at his feet then held a hand hard on his shoulder.

“Speedy shut up!”

Kidflash

Robin bent down next the Kidflash slapping him lightly holding a mango under his nose, Kidflash stirred briefly blinking his eyes blearily, a heavy hand coming up to bite the given fruit. After four mangoes Kidflash started to gain a better grasp on his consciousness, upon noticing who was caring him Kidflash revolted.

“Ah! Demon dude, demon dude!”

Robin shut Kidflash by handing him another mango then completely ignored him, Kidflash’s head whipped to his teammates looking for any amount of alarm when he was met only with Speedy’s rage and Garth’s annoyance he settled.

Robin

Robin stood tossing a mango to each hero,

“I’m here because I have a plan that’ll save us, but it’d work better with your team.”

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl spoke up before any of the others could.

“What’s the plan?”

Robin

“Raft, we’ll need to gather supplies and some more fruit for Kidflash. Wonder Girl take Speedy and Garth out to the jungle,”

He pulled a batarang form his belt flicking it transformed into a battleaxe, he pulled two more turning them into different swords.

“As the strongest of the group you should be able to get some thick logs for the raft.”

Robin handed the weapons over to Wonder Girl.

The trio of heroes descended into the woods Wonder Girl handing a sword and battleaxe to the boys.

Kidflash

Kidflash paused in his frantic eating,

“Hey I’m strong too!”

He cried standing up to the other boy.

Robin

Robin regarded Kidflash with a bored look, pulling out another batarang to slice open the mango.

“You’re a speedster, your strength comes from your speed. You can knock a baddie out with your pinky if you go at the right speed. You’d be able to to get us timber but the forest is thick you can’t run full speed to knock a tree down, plus it’d be overly destructive.”

He went to pop a slice into his mouth but seemed to remember that he was wearing a mask and stopped.

“And you’re pretty smart, I realize that building a raft isn't exactly science but I think you’ll be more useful with me.”

Kidflash

Kidflash stopped eating to retort, his eyes becoming daggers.

“How do you know that I’m good at science?”

Robin

“Well, the Flash got his powers form a science experiment therefore his sidekick probably got his powers the same way,”

Robin went to turn away.

Kidflash

Kidflash followed after him cautiously.

“How’d you know how the Flash got his powers?”

Robin

Robin stopped twisting to look at the other boy cocking his head to the side.

“News interview, aired a couple of years ago, caused a bunch of school science classes to be banned,”

Kidflash

Kidflash’s eyes went wide and a splotchy blush rose up on his cheeks.

“Oh right, the interview,”

Scene 14

Robin and Kidflash bent over the beginning of the raft, tying a few more logs together with vines and some spare rope Robin had.

Robin

Robin pulled on a vine tightening the knot.

“Hey I get that I’m a stranger that was fighting with only a couple of hours ago, but maybe you could tell me how Captain Cold’s tech works I have a couple of theories,”

Kidflash stared at him contemplative but a smile slowly slid onto his face.

Scene 15

The three teens wandered through the jungle looking for low hanging fruit, Speedy snuck a glance at Wonder Girl moving to bump shoulders with her.

Speedy

“Are you sure we can trust Smudge Boy? I mean wasn’t he trying to kill us like.. Five minutes ago.”

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl rolled her eyes.

“No, but we don’t really have any other choice right now, so at least for tonight ‘Smudge Boy’ is a part of the team.”

Wonder Girl walked ahead leaving Speedy to glower behind her.

Garth

Garth had ventured ahead of the other two heroes, ducking behind a tree he pulled out a slim necklace with a small pendant and raised to his mouth.

“Log day #1, these ‘heroes’ are just children in ridiculous outfits. So far during this mission the land dwellers have only fought one another and come up with useless nicknames. I think taking them down will be easier than we originally planned.”

Wonder Girl

“Garth! Come help us bring the extra fruit back!”

Wonder Girl called from where she and the still pouting Speedy were loading themselves up with freshly picked mangos. Garth emerged from the dark trees tucking his necklace back into his shirt.

Scene 16

Robin

Robin stood up dusting his gloved hands off.

“Alright Kf, I think it’s done!’

Kidflash

The bright smile fell of Kidflash’s face, he looked at the ground.

“Ok I can do this, just say something cool and relatable, Uncle B’s right I’ll have a friend in no time.”

Kidflash muttered quietly to himself, he looked back up at Robin.

“So who do you think the hottest girl in the JL is? Wonder Woman is a classic bombshell but Black Canary is super hot!”

Robin

Robin whipped around a fierce glare on his face draining all the color from Kidflash’s face.

“That’s disgusting. You do realize that those women are crime fighters who save the world on a monthly basis and their cities daily? And their suits are clothing they feel comfortable fighting in, not something they use to impress others and even if they did want to impress someone it wouldn’t be some greasy little teenage creep.”

Robin’s voice was stone cold.

Kidflash

Kidflash’s face flushed red again as he stood up at super speed.

“What kinda guy doesn’t like girls in leotards! What are you gay or something?!”

Robin

Robin rolled his eyes behind the mask and turned to look bordly at Kidflash.

“A guy who doesn't objectify women?! He must be gay. But oh no Kidflash you’ve spent the whole night with me, what if you’ve caught my gay!”

Robin mocked jumping at Kidflash who fell into the sand and panicked despite the angry look on his face.

At that moment the three other teens emerged from the tree line.

Robin

Robin whipped around a small smile tugging at his lips.

“Alright let’s head out!”

Speedy

Speedy’s face twisted into a snarl.

“Dude what?! It’s like 6am, we’ve been up all night dontcha think we should get some sleep?”

He asked patronizingly, looking over at Wonder Girl for support.

Robin

Robin raised a single eyebrow, his eyelets widening.

“No, we need to head out as soon as possible our mentors are probably tearing apart the city looking for us.”

The teens shared a look before Wonder Girl grabbed one corner of the raft the other teens followed suit minus Kidflash who busied himself with eating.

Wonder Girl

“So, who’s your mentor?”

She asked in a hushed voice looking over at Robin, who was carrying the raft in one hand and trying to fish his compass out with the other.

Robin

“I don’t think I can tell you that,”

Robin answered in the same tone of voice, his eyes shifting over to her.

Wonder Girl

Her eyes narrowed inspectfully.

“Are you an assassin?”

Robin

“No,”

There was a lit of humor in his voice as he finally pulled his compass out. A somewhat pleased smirk over came Wonder Girl’s face as she climbed onto the raft next to Robin.

Speedy sat closer to Wonder Girl than necessary, while Garth was sent to the front and Kidflash dangled off the back.

Robin

“Alright Kidflash use your super speed to propel us forward as quickly as possible without sending us to a different dimension, um.. Aqua..Lad? Uh you’re gonna shift the water to make sure we keep going in the right direction.”

Garth

Garth glared at Robin as he went to hand over the compass, his gaze hardening futher when Speedy snorted at the name making some comment on how that should be his new nickname.

“I can’t just water bend at super speed, it’s a delicate process.”

Robin

“Fine, I’ll keep track of the direction and make sure Kidflash stays on track.”

Kidflash made an angry noise from where he was freezing in the cold water.

Kidflash kicked off and the group descended through the fog at lightning speeds, Speedy grabbing onto Wonder Girl’s solid form to keep from flying off into the ocean. After several minutes the group smacked against the beach hard the heroes went flying. Robin was the first to recover dusting the sand from his clothes and disappearing in the early morning light. The others slowly groaned back to life.

Scene 17

The team picked their way through the boardwalk stopping at the first open business they could find. The manager of the restaurant handed over the company phone to Kidflash in a daze.

Speedy

“No! No way I am not getting picked up by Green Arrow like some loser kid at a party.”

Speedy went to take the phone away but KidFlash sped out of the way, dialing and redialling, his gloved fingers moved too quickly across the screen.

KidFlash

“Hey Unc- I mean Flash!”

Kidflash sped away from Speedy to the other side of the room to avoid another fight.

Scene 18

All four heroes stood in the town square of the small, bustling city as a shimmering outline of Wonder Woman’s plane landed beside the large fountain the kids gathered at. The corresponding mentors and Batman exited the invisible jet, Flash was quick to envelop Kidflash in a hug.

Speedy

Speedy chuckled, sneering at Kidflash being crushed, his face turning that familiar blotchy red as he loosed his grip around his uncle in uncertainty. Speedy’s tormenting was cut short by his own mentor pulling him into an all too parental bear hug complete with wet kisses to his forehead and hair petting.

“Ugh!”

Speedy groaned desperately trying to free himself from Green Arrow’s embrace. Green Arrow did let go, chuckling as he did so attempting to ruffle his hair one more time but Speedy slipped from his range angrily fixing his hair and shoving his hat back on.

Black Canary slipped behind Speedy wrapping him in a much more gentle hug, he seemed only slightly less annoyed. Batman lagged behind as Aquaman slowly walked toward Garth, a stern look on his face and Wonder Woman rested a comforting hand to her little sister's shoulder.

#dick grayson #wally west #roy harper #donna troy #garth #teen titans!fab five #writing is hard

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savannahsdrabbles · 5 years ago

Text

Adaptation (Encounters-verse)

rating: PG summary: Despite the general happiness among their small family, April learns that at least one family member holds resentment about their situation.

notes: :D Sorry that this took so long to finish! 6.8k words, Ao3 link here

Even after nearly two months of regularly walking through the sewers, April still couldn’t help but feel the taddest bit unnerved whenever she ventured through the massive concrete maze alone. The flickering lights lining abandoned maintenance tunnels did little to cast aside the shadows that loomed around each corner, and the constant shuffling of small rodents and bugs along the ground still made her stomach turn ever so slightly.

However, for once in its existence, the sewer was definitely dryer than the same path above ground.

It was almost impossible to hear the thunder and lightning crashing through the thick layers of concrete and rebar over her head, but the rushing dark water that ran through the center of the tunnels was evidence enough that the storm had not yet let up. A chill had also fallen in the sewers as a result of the water, making April wish she had grabbed a second jacket that morning to replace her currently wet one. She stomped her feet a little harder as she walked, teeth chattering slightly as she picked up her pace.

It had been raining hard all morning, so she hadn’t been too surprised when her school’s lights suddenly shut off– though it apparently caught enough students off guard that the hallway was immediately filled with the piercing shrieks of dozens of sixth graders. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a buzz of excitement when the principal had come over the speaker and announced that they were sending everyone home due to the weather.

April’s mom typically worked weekdays at the hospital, so the young girl was used to coming home in the afternoon to an empty apartment. However, with school closing at noon today, that meant that she now had five hours of alone time to kill – and she wasn’t intending on spending any of it actually alone.

Bursting through the school doors with her backpack serving as a makeshift umbrella, April left a quick message on her mom’s cell to explain the situation and say that she was spending the rest of the school day at a friend’s house. She promised to text if anything changed and would still be home in time to start dinner, and then hung up as she darted into the nearest subway station.

To no surprise, she could hear the guys laughing and yelling before she even reached the alcove where their train car home was parked. April grinned as she heard young voices bouncing through the tunnels, punctuated by raucous laughter from the turtles and the occasional paternal warning from Splinter. Despite how they might appear on the outside, the guys really did seem like four normal, rambunctious little boys.

“Throw the ball my direction! Over here!”

“Donnie, the point is for us not to know where you are, remember?” Leo’s voice reminded with a laugh.

“I know- but you guys never chase me right!” Donnie’s responded, voice high and pinched with frustration.

“No, I’ve got the ball! Chase me!” Mikey laughed, immediately followed by the sound of thundering footsteps and a shriek of excitement.

“Hey, guys!” April chirped, announcing her presence as she rounded the last corner and hopped down onto the subway tracks. The five mutants froze and perked up immediately, heads swiveling to face her. To April’s surprise, the four boys’ eyes were covered – their color coded bandanas had been twisted around to obscure their vision, forcing them to fumble blindly through the alcove.

“April?”

“It’s April!”

“April!”

Before she had time to react, several pairs of arms wrapped around her waist and April found herself being whisked off of her feet. She’d come to expect this from the boys – although they tolerated the cool sewers and temperatures, their heat-seeking nature called for lots of hugs and physical closeness. However, almost as soon as she had left the ground, April felt herself being hurriedly put back on her feet and stepped away from.

Raph fumbled with his bandana and stuck out his tongue in displeasure as the other boys followed suite. “Ew, April – you’re all cold and wet!”

April laughed and shrugged off her damp jacket to reveal a slightly drier long-sleeved shirt. “Yeah, I got caught in the rain on the way down here. I was hoping I would dry off a bit by the time I made it, but I guess not.”

“You should have let me know that you were coming, April,” Splinter admonished as he joined the small gathering around the human girl. The rat’s ears were tucked against his head in concern as he took the jacket from April and motioned for everyone to follow him back into their home. “If I’d known that you were on the way, I would have met you – the concrete and ladders can get very slippery during the rain, and you could have been hurt.”

April blushed slightly at the correction. He was right – it probably would have been a good idea to call ahead. “Sorry, Splinter. School let us out because of the storm and my mom isn’t expecting me to be home until later, so I figured now would be a good time to hang out.”

“So we all get to hang out the rest of the afternoon?” Leo grabbed onto April’s arm and bounced excitedly, making the girl stumble slightly. Even though three of the four boys were smaller than she was, they still weighed a heck ton. “Best! Day! Ever!”

Splinter reached out and laid a hand on top of the red-eared slider’s head, slowing down his bouncing until the turtle finally landed solidly on two feet and released April’s imprisoned arm. With a small sound of approval, the rat ducked into their home and hung April’s jacket over the humming space heater that had been set up in the boys’ school area. “That’s another reason it would have been a good idea to call ahead. This weather has had me thinking more about the fact that we need to relocate soon, and I had plans to go out.”

Mikey pushed his way past his brothers and pulled himself onto the steps, brow creased in concern. “Wait – like we’re moving?”

“Yes, Orange.” Splinter patted Mikey’s head as he returned to the doorway and looked down at the small crowd. Even though she and Splinter were nearly the same height, watching the way that the boys solemnly listened to their father reminded April that this small creature was roughly thirty years her senior. “We’ve discussed this before – we’re already outgrowing this home, and it is about time we start looking for one that is more prepared for the elements and for housing four rowdy boys. Plus… it would be nice to have room for a bigger TV.”

“And maybe room for me to build stuff?” Donnie’s hopeful voice piped up from where he stood beside April. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet since April had arrived, hanging back from his brothers and still looking frustrated about the game that they had been playing. April looked down at him.

It was only then that she noticed Donnie was still wearing his ever-present backpack – though she guessed that she shouldn’t be too surprised. In the two months that she and the turtles had been friends, April had never seen the purple-clad boy without his backpack on. She’d asked about it before, inquiring as to what he was constantly carrying around with him, but Donnie had always found a way to dodge her questions or change the topic. Whatever was inside it, he clearly was not keen on discussing. Maybe it was full of tools and things to tinker with? That would definitely fit his character, but she imagined that it would have been easier for him to play without the hinderance– surely the material slowed down his movements or rubbed uncomfortably on his shoulders.

“We will see, Purple,” Splinter gave a half nod, and April could see Donnie wilt slightly at his lack of enthusiasm. “As I said, I was planning to go scouting for a new area this afternoon, but I suppose that since we have a guest…”

“Oh, don’t let me stop you!” April turned back to the rat and waved her hands in front of her. “You can go – I really just wanted to get out of the rain. I’m totally cool with hanging out alone with the guys.”

After a few minutes of debating, Splinter finally agreed to leave the five children at home with strict instructions not to wander off or fight – he entrusted a small, recently scavenged hand radio to Mikey and told him to spill the beans if anything went down in his absence. With a few more guidelines about lunch and a promise to be back in time to walk April home, the robed rat was gone.

“So April, have you ever played Bandana Ball?” Raph asked hopefully as picked up the tennis ball they had been playing with and tossed it to her.

“She couldn’t have, Raffle,” Leo leapt into the air and caught the ball before April could even raise her hands. The red eared slider landed gracefully and bowed to his older brother, a smug grin on his face. “Donnie made it up, remember?”

The bespectacled turtle at April’s side shrugged, sticking out his foot to trip Leo as he attempted to waltz away. The blue boy landed on his plastron with a heavy OOF, the ball slipping from his hands and bouncing back up into Donnie’s waiting palm. “Well, I kind of did. It’s basically just Marco Polo mixed with catch and football. I just made up the rules.”

April watched as Leo rolled onto his shell, half expecting him to launch upwards and tackle Donnie, but was surprised when the turtle settled on kicking his brother’s feet out from under him and then darting away. The braniac child stumbled, arms waving as he caught his balance, and then cast a frustrated scowl at his Leo’s retreating form. As if sensing an imminent argument, Mikey chose this moment to seemingly materialize near his purple brother and offered him comforting pat on the shoulder. In the same quick move, he snatched the tennis ball from Donnie’s hands and clambered up onto April’s back.

“Yeah, Donnie came up with the idea. Basically we all blindfold ourselves, and then we have to use ninja skills to figure out who has the ball and get it from them– like in Lou Jitsu’s movie ‘Blinded by Barbarians’. Once you have it, you have to bring the ball to the far side of the tunnel without being stopped. If you get tackled, you immediately lose – but that’s also the most funnest part!”

“Not if you don’t play fairly,” Donnie huffed quietly in frustration, but Mikey didn’t seem to notice as he scrambled back down April’s back and onto the ground.

“We can play a few rounds first so that you can see how it works, but then do you wanna play?”

“Totally!” April shook her head, casting aside curious thoughts about Donnie as determination swelled in her chest. She made a fist and punched it into her other palm. “April O’Neil is ready for action!”

“So is Leo… Nardo!” Leo yelled, spinning his mask around to blind himself. The other boys followed suite – Donnie removing his glasses and sitting them to the side -and all immediately crouching down in anticipation. The sound levels in the alcove dipped for a moment as the four turtles slowly began to circle each other, arms out and palms down as they tensed for movement. It was then that something inside of April told her that she needed to step back – and not a moment too soon.

“Think fast!” Mikey bellowed as he suddenly whipped the dingy tennis ball across the tunnel. Instantly, the lair exploded into chaos. The ball whizzed past April, nearly brushing the top of her head as she leapt back onto the train car’s steps.

“I’ve got it!” Donnie dove forward, arms outstretched as the ball hit the wall inches in front of him and then rocketed back towards the other end of the tunnel where Leo was already waiting. The slider leapt into action, climbing up a confused Raph’s shell and launching himself into the air with hands waving wildly. Unfortunately his timing was off, as he dropped to the ground while the ball fell directly into Raph’s waiting hands.

The snapping turtle let out a gleeful laugh and stumbled forward, feet sweeping the ground in front of him as he scampered towards the goal area. April opened her mouth to cheer Raph on, but an orange blur suddenly zipped forward and crashed against his plastron, sending both turtles sprawling on their shells.

“Gotcha!” Mikey crowed proudly, hands patting the plastron of his brother experimentally before he gave a satisfied nod. “Gotcha, Raphie!”

“You ain’t got nothing,” Raph laughed as he knocked the younger boy off and rolled to his feet. “The ball went that way!”

Sure enough, the ball had rolled several yards away, and was now balanced on top of the train tracks behind their home. April watched in amusement as all four boys stumbled around, bent at the waist and frantically sweeping their hands across the ground in hopes of finding their treasure. A fleeting image of one of the turtles clutching the ball to their chest and hissing warningly for no one to touch their ‘precioussssss’ crossed April’s mind, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

Suddenly Leo was on the move. The blue masked turtle finally found the ball and took off silently towards the tunnel wall – only for Donnie to lock onto his location and throw himself forward chest first.

Leo let out a shocked laugh as he was knocked to the ground and landed heavily on his back. “Whoa – nice tackle, D!”

Donnie snorted dismissively, making April frown. Leo had seemed genuine in his compliment – why was Donnie brushing it off so flippantly? As she continued to watch, the purple masked turtle took off running towards the opposite end of the tunnel. His movements were more calculated than Raph’s had been, as if navigating without his eyes was just a simple problem to fix rather than a handicap. However, unlike Leo’s and Raph’s attempts to move quietly to avoid detection, Donnie move loudly and purposefully – almost daring the others to come and get him.

Mikey was the first to take the bait and chase after his brother, but April could tell that his own movements lacked the wild, reckless enthusiasm he’d had when tackling Raph. The small turtle jogged alongside Donnie, seeming to time his steps, before he finally dropped and latched onto his target’s ankles.

The older boy stumbled forward, arms pinwheeling for the second time that day before he toppled and fell ungracefully onto his plastron. April heard him give a small grunt when his chin hit the ground, and she tensed. Owch – that had to hurt.

Mikey had apparently heard it too, as he immediately sat up and started to reach for his blindfold. “Oops – are you ok, Donnie?”

“Yes!” Donatello pushed himself back onto his knees and groaned in exasperation. Across the alcove, the other two boys had frozen in their spots and were listening intently to the exchange. “You guys have to stop doing that – you have to treat me the same as everyone else!”

“But I wasn’t– ”

“Yes you did – you held back.” Donnie let out another frustrated sound, and then reached out to pull the blindfold back over Mikey’s eyes. “I’m not fragile. Just HIT ME.”

Before Mikey could respond, Donnie was on his feet and tossed the ball into the center of the alcove.

The game was back on. The ball bounced back and forth across the tunnel, sometimes carried by one turtle and other times being chased after by a cartoonish swarm of flailing limbs. This went on for several minutes, to the point that April began to wonder if anyone was going to be able to secure the ball for long enough to get it where it needed to be.

Eventually, Donnie made his move. He snatched the tennis ball as it soared through air and dribbled it on the ground, then began to jog in the direction of the wall. This time was different than his last attempt, though – he moved silently and kept his mouth closed, allowing no sound to give away who exactly had the ball or where it was in space. Even the rustle of his backpack was muffled as Donnie used his free hand to pull the straps tight against his body. April watched as he ran, glancing over his shoulder to track his brothers’ movements.

“I hear it!” Raph called out, pointing in the general direction of Donnie and then surging forward.

April tensed – this didn’t look good.

The smaller boy had almost made it to the far end of the tunnel, when he suddenly planted his feet and turned to face his brother head on. The snapping turtle kept moving, unaware that his target had stopped, and then the two boys collided.

Donnie let out a yelp as he was thrown backward, Raph’s momentum transferring into his frame and catapulting him into the concrete wall behind them. His body hit the brick with a dull thud that echoed through the alcove, and then he slid to the floor in a crumpled ball.

“Oh my gosh – Donnie!” Raph ripped the bandana off of his head and threw it to the floor, hands flying to his mouth in horror. “I’m so sorry – I didn’t mean to -”

Mikey and Leo were on their feet in an instant, quickly tearing their own bandanas off and dashing across the tunnel. “Donnie? Dee? Are you ok?”

April felt a chill run through her body as she pushed herself off of the car steps and ran over to join the boys. Something was off – that had been a hard hit, yes, but the other guys had taken similar hits throughout the game – why was Donnie not moving? She dropped to her knees around the small semi-circle gathered around Donnie and reached out a shaking hand. “Donnie?”

At first glance she wasn’t even sure if he was conscious– curled on his knees in a fetal position and pressing his head to the cold concrete floor. Then she saw the way that his body was shaking, and the white knuckled grip with which he was holding himself. A sharp, strangled sound escaped his throat as he struggled to suck in air.

“Let me see,” Leo reached out and grabbed at the straps of Donnie’s backpack. He tugged at them, attempting to slide them over his brother’s shaking shoulders, but Donnie pulled his arms tighter around himself and gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. Leo sighed, and gently laid a hand on the boy’s neck. “C’mon, dude – we’ve got to check it out.”

Donnie shook his head again, a bit more firmly, but made no attempt to fight as Mikey and Leo worked together to pull the backpack off and lift up the purple hoodie to reveal his shell.

Or at least – what should have been his shell.

Compared to his brothers’ armored plating and thick layers of keratin, Donnie’s back looked almost bare. His shell appeared to be made of an almost leather-like material, hardly thicker than the rest of his skin and seemingly flexible to the touch. A small row of ridges ran down the center, and April gulped at the sight of them – was that his spine pressing through? Oh gosh – where was Splinter when they needed him?

“You’re not bleeding, but there’s a couple of big scrapes and it looks like a bruise is already forming,” Leo finally said after a few seconds of poking and prodding, during which Donnie made only small sounds of discomfort. He rolled the hoodie back down to cover his brother, but left a hand on Donnie’s back. The injured turtle kept his forehead pressed to the ground, shoulders tensed and not looking up at the rest of them. His body continued to tremble, and nearby Raph let out a hiccupping sound.

April cleared her throat nervously. She was beginning to feel that she should do something as the oldest in this situation. “M-maybe we should use the radio and call your dad?”

“No!” Donnie shouted suddenly, causing all four of the others to jump in surprise. The turtle slowly forced himself to his feet, keeping his head down as he twisted his bandana back into place. April couldn’t see his eyes, but the twin wet splotches now on the back of his mask said enough. Before anyone could say anything, he shouldered past the others and ran into their train car, slamming the metal door shut behind him.

Raph stumbled after him, hands outstretched to grab the door handle. “Donnie-”

“NO!”

“I just want to-”

“LEAVE. ME. ALONE!”

There was another crash from within the train car, and then the alcove fell silent.

April slowly turned to face the three remaining turtles. “What was that?”

At this point, Raph looked like he was .03 seconds from bursting into tears. “I didn’t mean to hurt him – I didn’t know he had the ball or was in front of me or I would have stopped – I thought it was Leo –”

Mikey reached up and patted the snapping turtle’s quivering shoulder. “I know, buddy. It’s not your fault.”

“Guys? What –”

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Leo cut her off, rubbing his neck awkwardly as he searched for the right words. “Donnie was just born with a different kind of shell than the rest of us. He and dad explained it at one point – it’s something to do with our DNA or something? I don’t know the word for it, but basically he isn’t as strong as the rest of us and so he can get hurt easier if we’re wrestling or something. It doesn’t matter most of the time, but he really doesn’t like talking about it.”

Mikey nodded his head emphatically, still patting their hiccupping older brother. “Dad used to strap a towel or something soft to his back when we were little, but then Donnie got really mad about it and just started covering it up.”

“Will he be ok, though?” April nodded her head back towards the train car. The walls were thick enough that they couldn’t hear anything going on within the small home now, and April couldn’t help but feel worried about what the upset turtle was up to. “I’ve never seen him act like that before.”

Leo nodded, but shared a look of concern at their home. “He’s taken worse hits before – I think he’s mostly just embarrassed that you saw him get hurt, too.”

April blinked. She hadn’t considered the fact that her presence could have added to his discomfort. “Oh.”

It was at that moment that the small radio Splinter had left them sputtered to life with a burst of static. Mikey darted across the alcove, giving Raph one last pat before he left, and scooped the device up from where it had been resting. He twisted one of the large dials on the side and frowned as the static increased, then twisted it the opposite direction until Splinter’s tinny voice rang through.

“-lo? Hello? Is this thing wor--ng?”

Mikey nodded, twisting the dial some more and then pressed down the main button. “Hi Dad – yeah, it’s working.”

“Oh, good. I need a bit of help.” There was a slight pause, and the kids could hear Splinter grunting. “Do you remember the small bistro that we gathered at a few weeks ago? The one with the cake?”

“Yeah?”

“Apparently they had a bake sale recently – I currently have several boxes of different baked goods, and I need some assistance carrying it all back home. Could at least two of you come meet me at the tube underneath the store to help? Tell April that she’d better hang back – one of the tunnels is nearly flooded, and I don’t know how well she can swim if necessary.”

“Ok – we’ll be there in a few minutes.” Mikey flicked off the radio and turned back to the others. “I don’t think Donnie’s going to want to go anywhere soon, but maybe some cake will make him feel better?”

“That is pretty good timing.” Leo nodded. “But the tunnels there are pretty deep – it must still be raining a ton. It would probably be a good idea for all of us to go, just in case. Do you mind staying here alone, April?”

April shook her head, even though the thought of essentially being alone this deep in the sewers was a bit unnerving. “I’ll be ok. I guess I can let Donnie know where you guys went in case he comes out and is confused.”

Raph let out a big sniffle, snot bubbling from his nostril as he scrubbed the tears from his cheeks. “If he does come out, tell him I’m really really sorry and didn’t mean to hurt him, ok?”

April nodded and gave the turtle a big hug. “I will – I promise.”

***

Minutes passed after the boys had taken off, leaving April alone in the alcove. She paced nervously, casting frequent glances towards the train car’s door and pondering whether or not she should try to knock. Whenever her younger cousins threw tantrums, their mom would usually give them time to blow off steam before trying to reason with them. But that was with LITTLE kids, and when they had done something wrong. Donnie had been hurt, so should she go make sure that he was ok? Or should she –

April stopped mid step and ran her fingers through her curls. What in the world had she gotten herself into? She didn’t even know where these guys technically came from, let alone how to handle something like biological differences within species. She would have to borrow her mom’s laptop later tonight and try to do some research on soft shell turtles, like she had done when the other guys had mentioned their species – maybe that would help. Until then… April pulled her cell phone from her pocket and glanced at the time.

She imagined that the boys were just now reaching where Splinter was, meaning that it would likely be twenty minutes until they got back – and that was if they didn’t run into any flooded areas or roadblocks. Maybe she should try to talk to Donnie one on one, without the others present. If he was embarrassed to talk about this stuff, maybe it was better to try to do so without an audience – right?

April turned towards the train car and nodded her head. Alright. Game plan. Let’s do this.

She took a deep breath through her nose, attempting to settle her nerves – and then froze. Hold on – why did she smell smoke? She sniffed the air again, turning towards the scent and squinting down the train tracks. The area around their home was relatively well lit, especially in comparison to the rest of the sewers. But several dozen yards down the line, she could see the light flickering brightly – alternating between normal lighting and lighting so bright that it seemed as if the sun had found its way under the streets.

Casting a quick glance at the train car, April shook her head. Ok, maybe she should check this out first – what if it was a fire or something dangerous? She should know in order to try and catch the guys before they got home.

With quick strides, April hurried towards the flickering lights. A loud crackling noise echoed through the tunnel with each pulse of light, getting louder and brighter as she closed the distance between them. She shielded her eyes as she finally rounded a corner, not looking directly at the light but gasping at what she saw.

“Donnie?”

The bright lights immediately cut off as a small form turned to face her. “Oh... Hey, April.”

The girl blinked rapidly, her eyes struggling to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. “I… I didn’t see you leave.”

“I climbed through the window.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

April glanced around the concrete tube that Donnie was holed up inside of. “Can… I come in?”

“I guess.”

April ducked her head as she stepped into the tube. It wasn’t as large as most of the ones she had seen throughout the sewers – only about seven feet deep and the same measurement in diameter. However, despite the lack of square footage, every inch of the floor had been taken advantage of. Neat piles of loose materials were scattered about the tube – pieces of scrap metal, loose wires, random rusted tools… it looked as if hundreds of small devices had been carefully dissected and sorted back into their bare essentials. Even the walls had not been neglected in the organized chaos – hundreds of notebook papers had been taped to the exposed brick and concrete, each filled with a mixture of frantic scribblings and meticulously labeled diagrams. Stacked on the floor beneath the drawings were several piles of neatly stapled pamphlets – owner’s manuals, from the looks of it.

To an outsider, this whole set up looked like something straight out of a mad scientist movie. However, instead of a wild-eyed, crazy-haired genius crouched among the piles of machinery that stood almost as tall as April, there was only… Donnie. He looked even smaller with just a hoodie and no backpack on – closer to Mikey’s size, really. He’d removed his mask at some point, likely to hide any evidence of his emotions, and now looked at April with a blank expression from behind a large pair of goggles.

“Whoa – this place is awesome,” April breathed as she knelt at the makeshift table beside him. “Did you collect all of this stuff yourself?”

The turtle scooted to the side, allowing her to get comfortable before nodding. It was hard to read his expression through the tinted lenses, but April imagined that he was avoiding her eyes. “Yeah. Dad said I could keep any extra gadgets that we gathered, as long as they don’t get in the way. So, I started collecting stuff in here.”

April nodded at the welding torch he clutched in his hands. “And you guys just found that?”

A small smirk tugged at Donnie’s lips and he touched the machine proudly. “Naw – this was here when we moved in. I think that it was left over from when they were originally building the subway tunnels. Dad said I’m technically not allowed to use it until I’m ten, but he never specified that he meant ten YEARS.”

“I guess that makes sense,” April snorted. Ok, there was some of the Donnie sass that she’d come to know. She gestured towards the stack of instructional manuals on the floor. “Wait – so did you just teach yourself how to use it?”

After pulling the goggles over his head and setting them to the side, Donnie leaned back into a resting position and gave a nod. “Uh-huh. It took me a while to figure out how to read German, but once I got the basics I learned the rest through trial and error. After that it was just a matter of getting the acetylene tanks from construction sites.”

Despite his nonchalant manner, April could see his chest swell ever so slightly in pride. She blinked, looking around the room again. Maybe she hadn’t been too far off with that mad scientist comparison.

“Holy cow, Donnie – that’s amazing! I’m sure your dad is really proud.”

Donnie’s expression immediately fell, twisting into something partially angry and partially sad as he drew his knees to his chest. “Dad doesn’t really know about or understand this kind of stuff.” His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “I think he wishes I was normal like the other guys.”

“Normal?” April pulled her head back at the word, brow creasing. “Donnie, you’re not NOT normal.”

The turtle cocked an eyebrow, giving her an incredulous expression and gesturing at his body. His whole body had tensed now. “Then how do you explain… this situation?”

April cringed internally. “Ok, you’re right in that you guys aren’t… typical –”

“April, nothing about us is ‘typical’!” Donnie interjected, his voice pitching as he leapt to his feet and waved his arms in front of him. “That’s why we have to live in the sewers and can’t go out like normal people.”

April’s eyes widened and she gaped helplessly. How was she supposed to respond to that? Before she could think of anything, Donnie continued on.

“We’re weird and not normal and our Dad isn’t even our real, biological dad. But he won’t even talk to us about it – he always just avoids answering questions or puts on a movie or something whenever I try to ask him.” The turtle brought his hands to his forehead, physically shaking it in frustration and then wrapping his arms around himself. “And if that’s not enough, out of all four of us, I’m the weirdest one. All of the other guys are normal and can do regular stuff, but whenever I try to do fun things I always get hurt. And then Dad will just… just look at me like I’m made out of glass or something. Like I’m weird and he doesn’t know what to do to fix it and…” Donnie took a shuddering breath, and then slumped to the floor with his head in his hands. “I know he loves us, but…. Sometimes I think that he wishes he didn’t have to be my dad.”

The small tube fell silent as both kids sat and processed the weight of his words. Finally, Donnie raised his head and used the heel of his hand to scrub at his eyes. “I’m sorry – I shouldn’t have said all of that.”

“No!” April exclaimed, catching the turtle off guard. She took a second, reverting to a normal voice, and then reached out to take Donnie’s hand in her own. “My mom says to never apologize for feeling hurt – that’s … that’s just … normal.”

Donnie let out a little huff of amusement, but his brown eyes focused on their now intertwined hands. He moved his thumb lightly over her knuckle and adjusted his own fingers so that they could fit together better. “Yeah, but… I don’t know.”

The turtle fell silent again, lost in thought but still clutching her hand like it was a life support. April squeezed it lightly to get his attention. “If it helps any, I don’t think that you or your family are weird – and even if I did, what’s so wrong with being weird? You guys are all special and unique in your own way, and I don’t think that anyone was made incorrectly or by accident. Everyone is made exactly how they were supposed to be, and that includes any differences that they have to struggle with.”

“And about your dad,” April hesitated, thinking through her words before she spoke. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean to treat you differently – I think he just wants to protect you, you know? Because I can already tell you, based on the letters he wrote about you guys – he loves you all so much. He’s just not the kind of person to show it, I guess.”

Donnie squeezed her fingers tighter and used their joint hands to wipe at his face. “I wish he was.”

“What about when you were little? Mikey said that he used to wrap a towel around you to make sure that you didn’t get hurt, right?” He nodded. “That’s because he loved you, and wanted to protect you!”

“It was still embarrassing.”

“Yeah, but every parent is embarrassing sometimes – I think that’s part of their job or something.”

“Really?”

“Oh my gosh, yes.” April rolled her eyes as she recalled a distant memory. “Like when I was learning to ride my bike. My mom was really paranoid that I would crash or get hurt, so she made me wear every kind of safety gear she could find – knee pads, elbow pads, shin guards, a helmet, you know. And then for a while she even made me stuff a pillow under my shirt! It was super embarrassing, and the other kids at the park made fun of me for weeks.”

“Did you tell her that you didn’t want to wear it?”

“Of course! I remember arguing with her and saying that she was being way too overprotective, but she refused to let me practice riding until I had all of that stuff on. But then one day while we were out practicing at the park, a kid fell off of their bike and broke their whole arm.” April shuddered at the thought. “I remember seeing it happen and waiting for the ambulance to come get them – it was awful. But then I was really glad that my mom made me wear all of that junk. Sure, it seemed dumb at the time, but she was making me wear it while I was learning so that I would be safe whenever I fell. And now that I’m older, I still make sure to wear my helmet.”

Donnie hummed softly. “That’s true… but I’m still not going to wear a pillow or whatever.”

“What if you didn’t have to?”

“What?”

“I mean, what if you had something else to protect your shell? Something that YOU liked and approved of, but that still kept you safe?”

“That’s actually kind of what I was working on,” Donnie took a deep breath and finally released April’s hand in order to reach out for the object he’d been welding. “It’s kind of like a battle shell – something I can wear to protect my real shell when we’re out playing and stuff. See?”

Donnie moved the metallic object to his lap and then pulled at the hem of his hoodie. He glanced at April and gave an awkward smile, then tugged the clothing over his head. April winced when she caught sight of his shell – like Leo had hypothesized, a deep purple bruise was already forming and taking up a large portion of his back.

“Oh, owch.”

“I’ll be ok,” Donnie turned so that his back was fully facing April and then craned his head to look over his shoulder at her. “Can you help me get this on?”

Together the two maneuvered the metal into place. It fit over Donnie’s shoulders similar to the way that his backpack had, but this invention was much more intimidating and solid looking. The purple metal curved perfectly over his shell, sealing it in and totally hiding it from view. Four metal straps extended from the sides of the device, which Donnie carefully latched around his shoulders and waist. After a moment of adjusting, the turtle turned to face April and gave her a nervous smile. “What do you think?”

“Donnie, you look awesome!” April clapped her hands together and squealed, causing the boy to blush. Already, Donnie looked like he was standing taller. His usually hunched shoulders curled back in pride, and the turtle looked like he was ready to charge into battle – or at least into a game of Bandana Ball.

“It’s not finished yet,” he admitted, rotating his shoulders and giving a small wince. “I’ll probably have to add some sort of padding to keep it from chafing, and the next version will definitely need to be made out of a lighter material. But… it’s definitely better than a pillow.”

April gave a small laugh. “I bet – and you should totally show this to the others. I’m sure they’d all be super impressed, and would probably want to help you make them!”

“You think so?” Donnie looked nervous, but he couldn’t hide the hopeful grin that was pulling at his lips. “You don’t think they’ll think it’s weird?”

“Are you kidding me? Donnie, look at all of this stuff,” April gestured towards the small inventions scattered around the room, the drawings on the wall, and then back to the battle shell. “You’re only eight years old, and you’ve designed all of this stuff without any teaching or guidance. You saw a problem and innovated to overcome it. Heck, if the rest of the family isn’t impressed, I don’t know what will impress them.” She reached out for his hands again. “Donnie, you and your brothers are amazing.”

The turtle froze, lip trembling. For a moment April wondered if she had said something wrong, and then the boy threw himself at April. She stumbled backwards, suddenly aware of the extra weight now on Donnie’s back, but then righted herself before the two tumbled onto the floor. Donnie locked his arms around April’s neck and buried his face into her shoulder.

“Thank you, April. For everything.”

April smiled and hugged him back, her eyes closing as she placed a small kiss atop Donnie’s head. “You’re welcome.”

#rottmnt #tmnt 2018 #savannah drabbles #donatello #rottmnt donnie

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frankieshq · 5 years ago

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[ itzy vc ] hey, hey, hey, it’s your girl summer coming at you with her twenty years of mediocre existence to present miss FRANKIE KWON. meet my self-conscious, awkward babie who uses sarcasm as a defense mechanism. you can find info about her under the cut !! i might have written a long ass bio that i didn’t bother to finish on a google docs but will be linking that one soon.

BACKGROUND

[tl;dr: young girl grows up in a matriarchal household that is heavy with regret and blame. dad comes and makes her childhood a bit happier, only to leave and break her heart because he’s an asshole. grows up thinking her smarts is gonna save her, but it’s actually her humor that does]

to truly understand frankie kwon, one must go way back--back to when her grandparents first immigrated to michigan. landing in detroit, sunhwa kwon and her husband didn’t have it easy. she had a two-year-old hanging by her neck and a brilliant but unambitious husband. she had to struggle with odd jobs for years while taking care of her family and helping her husband learn english, so he can use his engineering degree in america. she became a severe woman, never softened by affection but hardened by grit and hard work. eventually, the her husband was able to land a stable job and the family relocated to chelsea.

sunhwa made sure to train and hone her daughter jina’s natural intellect, but her methods were severe and lacking in affection. jina looked for the affection she didn’t find at home elsewhere. she fell in love with the first boy that called her beautiful, and at eighteen, gave birth to francesca areum kwon.

and so it goes that frankie was born in a household heavy with guilt, blame, and regret. there was love there somewhere, but it was constantly shadowed by feelings that existed way before she did. the emotional scars her mother and grandmother inflicted on each other were too deep-seated that their love for each other hid behind a cover of blame and snark. at a young age, frankie learned how to read a room, learned what to say or do so as to not aggravate the precarious balance of their household. she learned how to figure out whether her mother was too tired from work or whether her grandmother was in a snappy mood. it was a tightrope dance she learned how to perfect, growing up faster than she should have.

all her grandmother’s lost hope for her mother transferred to frankie, and her grandma supervised her education with the same vigor. although, this time, she was a tad bit more affectionate to her granddaughter (i mean all grandmas can’t resist their grandchildren, let’s be real). her mom wanted to protest, but aside from the guilt, she was always busy. being a single mom was hard enough, but she also had to take care of her aging mother.

frankie is a shy kid by nature, but her household just intensified this predisposition. she had few friends because she was scared about approaching kids first. she spends her time watching cartoons, studying, and writing in her journal.

enter: frankie’s dad, andrew grant. he left chelsea and his pregnant ex-gf bc he’s an asshole. but he comes back nine years later because he failed at whatever version of the american dream he was following at that time.

he taught frankie to have fun !! she’d spend afternoons at his car shop bantering with him and telling jokes. eventually, she relayed these jokes to people at school and was shocked when people actually laughed. she became more well-liked, developed a sense humor, and had more friends. the ages 9-12 were probably her happiest.

at 12 years old, she got invited to a middle school sleepover for the weekend. but she had a big test on monday, and her grandma doesn’t allow her to go to stuff if she has tests the next schoolday. with the help of her mom, she was able to go to it by pretending it was a school event. had so much fun and forgot to study. she didn’t get a grade high enough for her grandmother to be happy, though. once her grandma found out what she did and her mom’s involvement, she was livid !! that was the biggest fight her grandma and mom got into and frankie was grounded for a month. the worst part was, throughout the fight, frankie felt like she was a burden to the two women she loved the most. she felt like she was the reason her mother was always tired, constantly nagged on by her grandmother about wasted potential.

to make matters worst, her dad left town again. fell in love with some other venture. he told her he would come back but never did.

since that day, frankie dedicated herself full force to her studies. she felt like she needed to make it up to her mom and grandma for all their sacrifices. she built a wall around herself because it’s easier that way. she had few friends, but it was better for her.

her grandmother died during her senior year of high school. she loved her grandma, but she felt as if a weight lifted from her chest. her mom encouraged her to go to school as far as she liked.

she got a scholarship to columbia and studied statistics like the big nerd that she is !!

she met roman and lucy here, finally felt that she had friends that she felt she can really open to.

after college, she worked for a firm. she finally felt secure, like she payed some sort of unsaid debt to her grandma but she wasn’t happy, folks :(((

she first did stand-up as a dare on an open mic and she was so shocked that people laughed. she was tipsy then, and kept made self-deprecating jokes of her childhood trauma. love that for her.

the more stand-up she did, though, the more nervous she got because she gets really worried if she’s doing things right. instead of improving, she got worse because her nerves always get to her. don’t get me wrong the jokes are great, it’s just that her execution doesn’t always land.

comedy was just a vERY beloved side hobby for her until a small production company based on youtube offered her a writer position. she would get to write their skits and stuff, but she it payed wAY less than her present job. she was like fuck it, and took the offer. she wanted to make people laugh.

that leads us to here, a girl who is still unsure whether leaving a secure job was the way to go, secretly hoping to be a famous comedian.

PERSONALITY

frankie is like a spring roll you guys. outside, she masks her awkwardness and shyness with some cRunCHy self-deprecating jokes and sarcasm. so, she has an intimidating exterior because she tries to be tougher than she actually is. inside, she’s just a soft and sad girl. she doesn’t talk much if she isn’t comfortable with you, but once she is, she talks a loT. but it does take a while for her to warm up to people. can be extremely judgmental (a trait inherited from her grandma), but her mind can be changed. isn’t stubborn, though, and is actually a doormat. the type of person to say something and obsess over it because she’s scared that it might have offended someone.

HEADCANONS

lots of repressed femininity because there was a lot of internal misogyny in her household growing up !! it was only until college with the help of lucy, that she was able to access her girlier side.

is a lesbian, but has a lot of internal homophobia as well. her grandma was a very traditional woman, so frankie feels very guilty about liking girls, and is very hesitant about going on dates and actively looking for relationships even though she’s really lonely.

likes writing a lot !! used to keep journals since she was 8 because it honestly made her feel less lonely growing up.

nOBODY CALL HER FRANCESCA. she hates that name, but likes her second name a lot. only her grandma called her areum tho.

spends a lot of time at mon’s deli, and mon could also be counted as her bff. she and the old man gossip and chitchat about the bennington street residents for hours. is this also because she is in dire need of a father figure?? maybe, yes, absolutely

used to have really low alcohol tolerance, but sort of grew out of it?? if she doesnt drink for a month or two tho, her tolerance goes back to zero like dont ask me, i dont make the rules

still a big fan of cartoons and kid humor !! loves amazing world of gumball and steven universe

makes her own kimchi because her grandma and mom have a special family recipe, will happily share if she likes you

i imagine the level of closeness she has in the group varies, like she’s closer to some people than others and acts differently around them

would really like to do stand-up again but still has stage fright

want her to either end up working on something as big as snl or writing movies or overcoming her stage fright and becoming a successful stand-up comedienne !!

#laughtrackintro #hello hello im late for everything #did not put a connections part bc i will be dm-ing all you

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chaniters · 5 years ago

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SUNKEN TOWN

Episode 4 of my Awan Cormac second series! (Belonging to @kruk-art)

Spoilers in this one too!

Enjoy!

__________________________

Rangers HQ

“There’s nothing there!” Anathema says, enhancing the image

“We just need to go over the parameters. Can you switch to thermal readings?”

“Already did and it’s not turning up anything”

“Why are we letting the civilian into the city’s camera security feed again?” Steel complains.

“If he thinks he’s onto something,” Ortega says tiredly “We ought to try”

“Combine thermal and visual trough this filter,” you say handing him a Data-rod. “That should get us what we want”

“Sure, but I think we’re a bit past filters by now. This isn’t going to… “ he stops mid-sentence as the image changes radically

“...wow. You’ve got to be joking!” he says as the image shows a ghostly figure walking the streets, unseen by all civilians.

“I told you he was using cloaking devices!” you say exasperated.

Ortega goes silent as he observes Void leave the camera’s fixed angle.

Anathema doesn’t wait for your cue and applies the same procedure to other cameras. Soon, they begin showing images of Void, setting up the hospital attack from the shadows.

“That’s enough, the tech team can take it from here,” Ortega says putting a palm on Anathema’s shoulder. Technicians begin duplicating the procedure over the rest of the city-wide security feed as you all follow him to the meeting room.

“Good job, Sidestep,” he says with a smile

……………………………………………………….

It takes hours, and they won’t even let you back into the tech-room. Your access got rescinded after Steel started quoting regulations. Nothing to do but wait and you’re in no mood for Ortega’s shenanigans.

You keep fiddling with your targeting jammer, trying to amplify its powers, since that’s all you can really do. The ranger tech-tools you stole are admittedly better than your old work tools at home, and you want to fine-tune the hell out of it for the next time you meet Void.

An annoying tingling at the back of your skull starts distracting you from your work, while you do your best to ignore it. Contrary to what you would expect, It doesn’t go away but begins burning mercilessly, like a hot iron. No. Not iron.

“What?” you say without turning, as you feel you can’t take it anymore.

“I see you already helped yourself to our tech,” Steel says, arms crossed, staring at you.

“I shared something, so it’s only fair you share something in return, don’t you think?” you retort. You generally respect Steel but you’re on edge.

You. Are. Not. Having. It. Today.

“I want to stop that asshole, just like you and rescue all the patients while at it. Isn’t that enough for you?”

“You seem to know an awful lot about Void”

“We do have a history. Ortega knows that already, I think he told you unless I imagined that part”

“No one fully explained what that history is, and I don’t think he knows either.”

“I helped stop him last time in case you forget!”

“Maybe so, but I think you know a lot more than you’re letting on. And I think we’re going to be at risk because you’re holding on to information.”

He’s right, and you know he’s right. But you can’t really tell him that Void was trained by a government program that creates artificial humans because that would lead to a whole different can of worms. “I told you everything I know about his mods!”

“Yes, you did. Still, I also know cloaking devices like that are experimental army tech that you’re not even supposed to know about. How you have a filter capable of seeing through it, that’s what I’m wondering.”

“Experimental stuff gets misplaced all the time, right? Like drugs that kill people or give them powers. You’re seriously coming at me because the army lost another toy? I’ve just happened to have seen this stuff before” At least this is the truth. Void’s cloaking is government made, and they misplaced it. Big time. How Void got authorization to even use back when you were both in the farm it is something that you always wondered about. Whoever handled it to him back then must be regretting it very much now that he’s gone rogue.

He says nothing, so you take the chance to speak again.

“If that’s all you got, please go away? I don’t like being stared at”

“I’ll stop when I figure out who do you work for.”

“What the fuck are you implying?!” you say standing up and facing him…

“ENOUGH!” Ortega says entering the room. “Can’t I leave you two alone for more than a couple of minutes?”

“I WISH I was alone” you complain under Steel’s glare.

“You know what? You two should just…” Ortega starts before realizing the futility of it all “... whatever. I’m not your nanny… Just came to let you know that we lost them. The trail goes cold when they reach Sunken Town. The cameras end there”

“So when do we leave? I’m ready right now” you state standing up and shoving the scrambler on your backpack

“Nobody’s going right now ... What we’re going to do is keep working on it day and night. There are other… whoa. Wait!”

You’re already walking to the door, Steel stepping to the side more than happy to have you out of the HQ

“That’s it, I heard enough. I’m going to Sunken Town alone then”

“That area’s not even mapped! And it’s huge! You’re never going to find them like that. And they’ll see you coming from miles away! Our teams are trying to trace their comms… something’s going to show up, we just need to be patient, that’s how these things work!”

“Well, that’s not how I work!”

“But… one does not simply walk into …”

You slam the door leaving him and Steel behind.

“...Sunken town” he finishes the sentence groaning.

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

Sunken Town.

Blacked out on tourists maps of Los Diablos, the government would have it be looked at from afar but never visited.

Former Los Angeles’ city center, the area was sprawling with skyscrapers right until the big one hit. The city’s iconic skyline turned wasteland in a matter of minutes, as the earthquake seemed to hate this area hardest. What remains now is a labyrinth, of interconnected toppled buildings leaning unsteadily onto each other in odd angles, along with a series of tunnels, garages, basements and old subway installations.

The new system combined to create a massive man-made cave system that is constantly expanded further by its duellers in (often catastrophic) attempts to create new passages and recover pieces of sellable wreckage and valuables. Everyone refers to it as the “Sunken Town” and only the most desperate dare venture -or live- here, the population consisting mostly of criminals, treasure hunters, social outcasts and the desperate.

Declared unsafe by virtually every engineering survey, the whole area became abandoned after attempts to bulldoze the rubble caused heavy tremors and deadly incidents with the locals. By all accounts, it is a death-trap with buildings collapsing almost every week and populated by hostile and armed pariahs under the ugly shadows cast by of Los Diablos brand new buildings.

Ortega wasn’t kidding when he said you’d never find Void like this. Even with your telepathy, the residents simply don’t know the layout well enough beyond their own turf and have confused and conflicting ideas about the rest. Picking their minds to create some sort of map won’t be effective if the pieces won’t add up.

You switched strategies to focus on rumors of the kidnapped victims, but all you get is some silly urban legend about people getting taken in their sleep and murdered by some sort of cult hiding somewhere in here. You have a hard time imagining Void joining a cult, and while Psycopathor and his fans are actually a sort of cult, their killings tend to be public.

You’ve been at this almost the whole day now, and not a single mention of them. It’s maddening. You might as well go back to the rangers and see if they got something by now, but that’d be admitting defeat. The night-vision setting on your mask is really giving you a headache by now but there’s no electricity here.

Your thoughts are interrupted by stray thoughts atop one of the inclined buildings. You can hear gunshots as you lift your gaze, and then a figure jumping several stories down onto the pile or rubble below, the fall slowing down into a glide before her feet touch the ground.

Impressive. Some sort of levitating boost?

You’re getting an adrenaline rush from her mind. Someone’s after her… and soon enough you can see her pursuers, wearing night-vision goggles. All of them jumping down behind her.

Unlike her delicate fall, they’re using a simple combat exoskeleton enhancement over their clothing, landing heavily and leaving cracks on the old pavement. You considered getting one of those, but the batteries are faulty and need recharging all the time.

But more importantly… Matching uniforms and equipment, and all of them chasing the same individual…? This stinks of supervillain minions.

Without another thought, you start running towards them with your gun drawn. If you don’t act, she’s going to get caught. You hide behind a corner and pull her by the arm the moment she runs next to you.

She tries to pull away, but you hold her arms and look into her arms while trying to calm her mind. It takes a few seconds for her to realize who you are, and then she stops struggling. In turn, you can see she’s no ordinary civilian… she’s wearing her own costume.

“I’m Sidestep, and I’m here to help.”

“Wow. I thought I was the only one in this dump, less of all someone famous. I’m Elyise, nice to finally meet you!”

“Any idea why those goons are chasing after you ?”

“I don’t know.. Maybe my magnetic personality? No?” she laughs nervously “Help me take those jerks down and I’ll share what I know”

“You’ve got it,” you say to that peeking at the rubble pile from your hiding spot.

Your mind’s sensing something odd about her. Some sort of telepathic ability bouncing off yours, too faint but it’s there. She might be an empath?.

No time to give much thought to it as you can see her pursuers catching up.

“She can’t have gone far! Find her now!” one of them demands, furious.

The enemy starts running in your direction, four males and a woman, all armed, all furious and charging with their exo-skeleton suits, so it’s do or die. You pull quickly and take a shot at the one who spoke. He collapses with a shriek as the energy blast hits him squarely on the chest, while the other one avoids you taking cover. He shoots his own gun right back at you, but you’re behind cover now. Telepathy always gives you an edge in shootouts.

Elyise jumps to the side, waving her arm… causing several pieces of debris to lift from the ground and rain in her general direction. Telekinesis… magnetism? Hard to tell. One of the enemies gets hit by a piece of wreckage and falls flat, while the other covers with their exoskeleton’s arms. Your mind tells you the one hiding is about to shoot Elyise, and thus you’re ready to take a shot the moment he pokes his head from his cover, taking him down as well.

Only two left.

“It’s Sidestep!” one of them screams

“I don’t care who he is, he’s not gonna get past me!” the woman answers in turn, ripping the door from a rusted car, and charging towards you. The old door blocks your shots and Elyise’s wreckage rain, letting the other minion follow.

Both of you are forced to duck as the one closer to you flings the door in your direction, missing narrowly. Falling to the side, you roll to avoid getting stomped by the male minion, but end up taking a hit to your hand, forcing the gun out of your fingers. Elyise’s got her plate full, gliding to the side to avoid the other one.

“You're so beautiful in that suit… I’m going to enjoy turning you to a pulp!” the woman screams charging her, sending fist after fist, edging closer to her.

Your opponent gets ready to finish you off, pulling his fist back, ready to crush your skull… but luckily he’s forgotten who you are. You haven’t.

Stepping to the side, you let his fist get stuck in a decayed brick wall.

You can’t help the smile under your mask as he struggles to free himself realizing his mistake, not fast enough to avoid the spinning kick that turns light’s out for him.

Turning to help Elyise turns unnecessary, as she’s lifting her opponent in the air as she flails her arms fruitlessly before being slammed into the dirt so hard it makes you close your eyes.

“Who’s the pulp now, asshole??” she says kicking her a few times. Perhaps there are some anger management problems there…?

“Well, that takes care of the trash,” she says dusting her hands “We have to bind them so they don’t report back on us and…”

“Leave that to me,” you say focusing on their unconscious minds. It takes a few moments, but it’s relatively easy now that they’ve been taken down. “They won’t remember a thing,” you say standing up.

“You… you did something to them?” she asks uncertainly. Of course, you were right, she is a telepath of some sort. This just confirms it, that she could tell you did anything in the first place.

“Just a minor thing. Let’s get far before they wake up” you say taking a tunnel formed by a collapsed structure as she follows.

……………………………………….

“Come in! Come in Elyise” the intercom says

“I’m here! Stop yapping already!” she answers

“Oh thank god! I thought they’d get you! And it’d be all my fault!”

“Nobody’s going to get me, you hear me?. I had it under control! And now Sidestep’s here so we have an even better chance!”

“Sidestep? Sidestep is that you?” the voice sounds different than what you remember… he seems confused. You look at the image… Reaper’s on the other side, sitting on a sofa with a cast arm and a cigar on his mouth in a very richly decorated room, a half-empty whiskey bottle next to him. What the hells is going on…?

“Hey, Reaper… it’s me” you say

“Thank you! Thank you for looking after my protegee.. She’s…”

“I’m not your protegee!” she interrupts “I found you drunk at Owl’s wailing about what Psycophator did, and took the case, remember? I needed your resources and your computers! You’re the one helping me, not the other way around!”

“Thank you Sidestep…” he goes on and on ignoring her.

Elyise groans, turning off the audio. “He’s under meds for the pain… his doctors are a bit… liberal about painkillers. He’s been in high cloud nine right now since the fire, and he’s also drunk because he thinks it’s somehow his fault” she says before turning the audio back on.

“... and if something happened to her, it would be like Hood’s death all over again! She’s even telekinetic like him… I mean not exactly like him, she’s not nearly as insufferable but still, if something happened I wouldn’t even know what to…”

“Nevermind that! Did you find any extra intel?” she cuts him off

“Intel?” Reaper asks losing his previous train of thought. “Oh… right. Yes, Charon found a lot actually interesting details”

Charon… his supercomputer named after the mythical ferryman according to the comics. Supposedly an AI. You never thought it was real.

“The structure you found, is part of a collapsed chemical plant” he explains showing a diagram in the intercom's screen. “The plant’s been abandoned since before the big one. Also, hear this out… It’s the original plant where they first manufactured the hero drugs, back when they were just diet pills! It was a big scandal back then when the media broke the entire story, the corporations, they stole this researcher’s papers and used them without her consent to develop...”

“You can spare us the history lesson… we could use plans of the place tough” Elyise interrupts again. It would seem she’s officially had it with wasted Reaper by now.

“Hm.. here,” he says the intercom updating with schematics. “The building’s partially collapsed now, but many floors and labs should be intact, and it had several basements, you’d have to go check on them yourselves.”

“It wasn’t abandoned now,” she says “It’s been turned into some sort of clinic, guards everywhere, and they’ve got the patients from Houswald captured inside. I think they’re experimenting on them… “ she says looking at you.

“Those bastards! They can’t do that!!!! You just hold right there… I’ll go get my suit and…” he says suddenly enraged.

“Enough!” she yells “You’re wounded, and in no shape to fight Reaper, and besides you’re retired! If you want to help, you need to pass on the coordinates to the rangers, your the only one with the tech in place to have communications in this dump!” Reaper’s gizmos are the most advanced you’ve seen yet rivaling farm’s experimental tech, and way ahead of the rangers. No wonder he was the top hero for so long if he had that much money to burn on it...

There is a silence on the other end and you can tell Reaper’s trying to process the words in slow motion. He’s so darn high, it’d be funny if your lives didn’t depend on him right now. “Fine… I’ll tell the rangers. Just wait till they are close before you make your move, you don’t want to get caught without reinfor..-”

“I know!!! It’s not my first time doing this!” Elyise complains, but Reaper keeps going on about the dangers of the job until she simply turns off the intercom frustrated.

“Wow… you’re really harsh on him”

“Spare me,” she says walking onwards “I’ve been taking his tale of woe for three days straight while Charon investigated. And the worst part? The AI It only works with HIS voice recognition. HIS. Not mine. So I had to get him to repeat every question I asked, and you’d think he ‘d stop drinking while at it? He did not. And the crying. God, the crying is the worst… You wouldn’t believe how bad he…”

You smile as you keep walking behind her hearing her huge list of complaints.

____________________________

My fanfics: https://chaniters.tumblr.com/post/181692759294/my-fanfiction-for-fallen-hero

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and the setting of the Fallen Hero: Rebirth and upcoming Fallen Hero: Retribution games written by Malin Riden. I do not claim ownership of any characters from the Fallen Hero wold. These stories are a work of my imagination, and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. These works are intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by the author. I am not profiting financially from the creation of these stories, and thank the author for her wonderful game/s, without which these works would not exist.

#fallen hero: rebirth #Awan Cormac #Elyise #Reaper #Sidestep #Steel #Ortega #Fanfic

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thefifthturtleismyicon · 6 years ago

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Glowing Pt. 2

TMNT × Reader

Warnings: violence, language???

The Ninja turtles run into a human like mutant who is after the same kind of ooze as them, but when they keep crossing paths, they realize they have a lot more in common than that.

(I want to do some fun things for this story, so its so cool that u you guys liked the first entry. I was thinking of posting my playlist for this story, and maybe doing smaller requests for turtles, so message me if you're interested!)

Part 1:

“So what do you think that was about?” Mikey asked, dropping into the sewer after he let go of the manhole cover with a thud.

His brothers looked back at him, expressions varying from annoyed that Mikey had brought it up, to impressed nodding in agreement. They had just left you up there- a human-like mutant that had would have kicked their shells if they hadn’t finally worked together.

Leo furrowed his brow as he followed behind Donnie, arms beginning to fold as he walked.

“I’m not sure. She didn’t talk very much… All we know was that she wanted the ooze.”

“She was wearing military issued gear.” Donnie replied, but sounded like he was almost talking to himself. His older brother widened his eyes, reaching forward to grab his shoulder. But before he could ask, Michelangelo interrupted.

“Psh. There’s no way you coulda known that. You’re just making stuff up.”

“She was wearing special kevlar fabric; breathable, but still sturdy. It’s used to equip fast moving ground combatants.”

“Her guns don’t look military grade.” Raph said, pulling out the weapons he had taken a few minutes earlier.

Donnie’s eyes widened and he snatched them away from his brother before he could react, turning them over in his hands.

“I forgot you had those.” Leo mumbled as he peeked between the red and purple clad turtles, watching as Donnie ran his fingers across the glowing pink lines that ran across the surface of the gun.

“It looks like they’re powered by the lights. I don’t see any compartments for bullets.” He ventured, holding the small guns in either hand and pointing, closing his left eye. “It’s almost as if…”

“Don-”

A loud bang echoed through the sewer, accompanied by two shots of bright pink light shooting down the tunnel, before falling into the water.

The turtles stared in shock, then looked up at Donnie slowly before erupting.

“That was cool!”

“Why did you pull the triggers?!”

“I didn’t mean to! The firing must be really sensitive-”

“Or not used to three giant turtle fingers.” Raph snickered, receiving a pointed look from Donnie.

The tallest turtle let out a shaky breath, dropping his hands as he shifted his grip on the guns.

“She could’ve used those guns on us. She didn’t.” Leo said as he walked forward, hands on his hips.

“That was nice of her.”

“More like dumb. If she really wanted the ooze than she should have tried harder.”

“No- Mikey’s right.” Leo said, pointing back at his brother, “She was holding back. Someone that experienced in combat wouldn’t have bothered to use their guns if they were as desperate as she was.”

“Well then why did she do that? Like you said, she could’ve easily shot any of us. Especially Raph.”

The brother mentioned glared at Donnie, who smiled back at him.

Leo thought for a moment, reaching the entrance to the lair as he did so. It was true that it didn’t make sense. You could have easily taken them out with your guns, but you didn’t use them. If you were militarily trained, why hadn’t you used those weapons?

Raph pushed past him as he thought, nudging him in the stomach.

“You know what? It probably doesn’t matter. We tied her up and we’re back at the lair. She won’t be able to find us now, so there’s no point in worrying right?” Raph tossed the canister in his hands as he turned to face his brothers, still walking backwards as he caught it, “This thing isn’t going anywhere.”

If only he knew how wrong he was.

You smiled softly to yourself, pressing against the sewer wall as the turtles walked inside the liar, more or less agreeing with their brother. Now all you had to do was wait.

****************************

You peeked around the corner of the sewer wall, watching as the last turtle disappeared to what looked like his bedroom. You had been waiting for… three hours? It had felt longer. You might have been able to sneak in while they were busy playing video games or training, but you hadn’t wanted to chance it. As soon as they knew you were here, they would team up on you again and the most likely outcome of the situation was that you would end up the loser.

You couldn’t afford to end up as the loser.

You stood up slowly, knees cracking loudly enough to cause you to pause, pressing back against the wall. You thought for sure that ninjas trained as well as they were would hear you. But after a few moments, you realized you had been wrong.

Peeking around the corner once again, you stared into the place the turtles called home, eyes scanning for any sign of the ooze. You saw a large open room that was almost as wide as it was tall, with ladders and poles- as well as a spiral staircase- leading into the bricked ceiling above. There was a kitchen tucked into an area on your left, framed by large circles in the wall above that you recognized to be fans. As you crept into the interestingly decorated home, you realized that it was even bigger than you thought. There were areas that sloped down and around furniture, or up into smaller room that used to be maintenance offices. You stepped forward and immediately recoiled, a wet piece of pizza unsticking from your foot and slapping to the floor. Your nose wrinkled in disgust as you stumbled back, careful to stay light on your toes as you braced yourself against a 70’s patterned loveseat.

Gross.

You shook the initial shock from your head and then tiptoed around the chair, gaze swiveling left and right. If you were a turtle, where would you hide the incredibly toxic and powerful chemicals?

Just as you began to think, the quiet bubbling of steam drew your attention to the left, landing on the desired canister. The sight almost made you cry out in frustration.

The can of ooze was sitting in a pot of boiling water, droplets of moisture beginning to gather on its surface. The turtles must have been trying activate the mutagen particles in the mixture!

If it had been any other time, you would’ve turned around and left, leaving the stupid, stupid turtles to their own devices. You had seen what that mutagen did to people, and there was no way that these guys were going to be able to manipulate the chemicals. If the scientists at Chimera couldn’t- then there was no way they could.

Unfortunately, you didn’t have a choice.

You let out a hiss of frustration and scrambled over to the kitchen area, this time careful not to step on anything that had been left out ( you just barely avoided stepping on a skateboard). Stopping in front of the dented stove, you peered into the boiling water and tapped the metal surface of the can, flinching when a flare of pain shot through your nerves. You hadn’t wanted it to come to this.

Your gaze snapped up to the hanging oven mitts, mouth set in a hard line as you carefully removed them from their hooks and slipped them on. You then carefully removed the ooze, shaking the can as the excess water dripped back into the pot.

A sigh of relief left your nose as you slowly backed away from the stove, the canister once again in your possession. You almost let yourself smile as you turned- that was of course, until you made the turn and saw the turtle.

Your mouth dropped open as you flinched backwards, staring up at the red clad ninja. What had they said his name was again?

Ralph?

The turtle in question recovered from his shock quickly, grabbing for his weapons- which turned out to not be there.

“Mikey!”

Your head snapped to your left, spotting the kitchen island and launching over it, doing so without knowing what was on the other side. You really should have checked before you did. What you did know five seconds before the jump was that the kitchen was the upper most area of their home, and looked out onto the lower levels. That meant you had just leaped into the air, with ground nowhere near you.

You stifled a yelp as you fell about 20 feet, landing in a shaky roll that sent you running across old wood tiling. It looked like… a skatepark.

They had built a skate park?

Of course they did.

You scrambled across the lower level, dodging between various ramps and pillars, seeing other miscellaneous items such as old arcade games, foosball, and dart boards. Colors of all kinds lined the wall and wood panels, matching the cacophony of memorabilia hanging from the ceilings and walls. It was a weird setup, almost as if five year olds had been the interior decorators. You turned around another ramp, sliding across the raising wood panels, head swiveling. Where was the exit?

Suddenly, the loud roll of wheels caught your attention and you fell against the sloped curve of the ramp, covering your mouth to try and silence your loud breathing. The ramp vibrated, and you felt a large thump shudder run through your back.

“Raph? What’s got you yelling?”

God.

He was right above you.

You bit your lips to keep from cursing, glancing up slowly. It was the orange one… Mikey. The one you that you had paralyzed in the arm.

You squeezed your eyes shut, fighting the temptation to band your head against the ramp. It was hard. At this point, you were again left with two options: run, or fight.

Those options were starting to get repetitive.

You peered back up at the turtle, watching him gesticulate and motion at his brother, yelling stuff you didn’t care to listen to. You needed to beat them one on one- because right now, you didn’t have your guns, and the canister was starting to feel warm through the cooking mitts.

You glared at the skateboard, shrugging to yourself. It was now or never, so you might as well play dirty.

Back at the front of the opening to the skating area, Raph watched as Mikey fell head over heels, disappearing behind the ramp with an almost girlish scream.

“Mikey?!” Raph let out a yell before he could stop it, rushing forward a few steps, “Leo, Don- we’ve got company!”

The largest brother looked around himself, eyes searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. Leo kept them scattered around the lair, just in case any of this ever happened. His gaze finally landed on one of the large bats that they sometimes used for baseball- that would work.

Back on the other side of the room, Mikey wasn’t having the same luck as his brother.

As soon as you had ripped the skateboard from under his feet, the turtle had fallen on his face, sliding down the other side of the ramp. You had swiveled around to the other side, throwing the heavy skateboard at the top of the turtles head.

‘Please don’t get up, please don’t...’

He got up.

You set your mouth in a hard line as he shook his head with wide eyes, realizing what had snatched his skateboard.

“Hey, you’re the girl from b-” Michelangelo was quickly silenced as you ran up the side of the ramp, launching off and into him.

The turtle backed up quickly, arms blocking the powerful kick aimed for his head. Your momentum carried you behind him, and you spun, sending a second kick into the back of his knee.

Mikey yelped in surprise, stumbling away as he turned to face you.

“Hey!” Michelangelo yelled, sticking his hands out to stop you with such force that it surprised you, and kept you from attacking, “So did you like, follow us home?”

You punched him in reply.

That hadn’t been the kind of conversation you had been looking for.

Mikey stumbled back and off of the platform, grabbing ahold of the metal railing that kept him from falling into the sewer below. He chanced a look back behind him, heart skipping a beat when he realized how close he was to falling into the warpool of trashy water. But, you weren’t that mean were you?

Mikey turned around to see you walking towards him, holding the canister of ooze like you were going to hit him with it. At that second, he believed that you would without hesitation knock him into the water.

Luckily, his brothers got there just in time.

Leo, Raph, and Donnie each came sailing down from a ramp, landing in a perfect circle, weapons pointed directly at you. You flipped rapidly, sizing the three up as your stomach began to fall, the ooze pressed hard against your stomach.

“Ooh, that was cool. Did you guys plan that?” Mikey asked, his voice still weak from the punch.

Your gaze snapped back to the orange turtle, eyes narrow.

“Miss, please don’t try anything. If you haven’t already noticed,” Leo gestured with his katana, meeting your gaze, “you’re outnumbered.”

You looked down at the canister in your arms, eyebrows furrowed. Honestly, you would have loved to give them the ooze. You didn’t really care about the chemicals, and you could see the turtles needed it for some reason. Not to mention how much it was taking to get it. A mitt traced across the large label on the front and for a moment, you almost gave it to them.

But of course, fate didn’t want you to have it easy.

A loud beep rang through the air, piercing through even the loud blaring of the rushing sewer water. Your gaze snapped down to the lit up watch on your wrist, paling as you read the display.

SEVEN HOURS LEFT

“Crap.” You sighed in resignation, looking back up at Leo slowly as you rolled your shoulders. You were never going to catch a break were you?

“Wait- what does that-”

“It means she’s not giving up without a fight.” Raph growled, beating you to the punch- literally.

You yelped and ducked as the turtle came at you, feeling the rush of air from the bat flying over your head.

“No Raph!” Leo exclaimed, watching as his brother claimed the first punch.

You shot up from your duck, catching Raph’s elbow as it was thrown back at you, leaping away as he kicked in the same direction. The sharp whistling of a staff alerted you to the purple brother’s presence, bending at the waist as the weapon passed over your head. You countered as the two brothers began to attack you at the same time, dodging and moving with the attacks, at one point even bending backward on one leg to avoid the both of them.

Leo sighed as he bounced on his feet, unable to stand by any longer as he bounced his katanas in hand. He rushed into the fray, leaving Mikey near the railing. You could feel him coming at you from behind, and your eyes snapped between the two turtles in front of you, an idea forming.

You dodged a swing from Raphael, and you grabbed his arm, pushing the bat into Donnie’s face, sending him scuttling backward. You lunged at Raph, pushing off against his bent leg and jumping into the air, flipping backwards as Leo swung down at the spot you had just been- catching Raph.

You landed in a crouch then took off to the right, having maneuvered you’re way out of the dead end.

“Ha. Cool.” Mikey mumbled, stumbling up as his brothers began to recover.

As they did so, you were shooting back through the ramps. Shouts of outrage and frustration followed in your wake, undiminished as you gained more and more distance.

You quickly made it back to the entrance of the skating area, gaze snapping up to take in the full view of the lair. Where was the exit again?

Before you could really figure it out, a hard kick sent you flying across the floor, smashing up against a stack of DVDS.

Leonardo had caught up- and you had gotten careless.

“If I was you, I would be tired of running by now.” The turtle quipped at you, earning a piercing glare thrown over your shoulder, lip cut from colliding with the case.

Didn’t they ever give up?

“If I was you, I would be tired of chasing me!” You yelled, throwing the DVD you had ripped from its case when your back was turned.

The disk cut through the air and Leo deflected it, eyes wide. He almost asked you what DVD that had been. And then you threw another. And another.

“Will you- Hey-”

You got up as you threw, putting more power into it with each disk.

“Those are fragile!”

“Good!” You yelled, grabbing a handful of cases and throwing them, trying to use it as a distraction to run away. Instead, they clattered to the ground, much lighter than you thought they would be. Leo looked at the cases and then up at you, a smile beginning to play on his face as you groaned.

With that he rushed forward, hoping to catch you off guard. Usually when someone had a sword and the other didn’t, the other usually gave up.

You didn’t.

Leo brought the katana down, aiming to scratch your arm, to keep you from fighting without really hurting you. Instead, you met the blade, catching it in between your palms.

Honestly, you didn’t think that would work.

Leonardo looked at your hands with wide eyes and you smiled, kicking him in the chest. The turtle stumbled backwards a couple feet, almost losing his footing. Karma.

By the time Leo looked back up, you were sprinting up to the sitting room. As he began to chase after you, Donnie pushed through one of the broken down fans that led from the skate area, skidding across the floor behind his brother. Raph followed after, and then Mikey came skating in from up high, having taken one of the extended pipe routes. They all landed behind you and now you were ducking and leaping around obstacles, hope growing in your chest the closer and closer you got to one of the spiral staircases. It wasn’t the way you had come- but it had to have been an exit.

Your mitted hand just barely brushed against the railing- your victory almost in sight- as you were caught around the middle and hoisted high into the air. You wriggled and squirmed as the grip grew tighter, turning you to face the huffing and puffing turtles as they caught up to you… and the giant rat.

“Sensei!” The four brothers spoke in almost perfect unison, clumping up uncomfortably in front of the tall rat that now held you aloft in his tail.

You simply stared down at the sleek furred, kimono-wearing mutant, unable to speak.

“Would any of you like to explain this to me?” The rat asked, shifting you to dangle closer to the turtles.

(Hit post limit, continued in reblog)

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a-pretty-nerd · 7 years ago

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50 Shades of Devon: Part Eight

Devon bostick x reader smut series

Concept: 50 shades of grey…but with Devon Bostick.

A/N: It’s been a little bit, and this being the eighth part, it is now my longest running series. This chapter is the photgraphy smut ya'll originally wanted! As always, your requests and feedback are what keep me goin’!✌❤

Warnings: NSFW, because…sex…and pornography…and bdsm…aaand anal.

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You hadn’t been working as an intern for very long. Perhaps a few months, at most. So when you were told that you would be travelling with the cast and crew to continue filming. You were confused to say the least. Couldn’t they simply hire another intern? And why were you the only intern ask to go?

You sat in Economy class, between two very large and hygiene lacking crew memebers who also worked on the movie. To save time, the majority of the cast and crew flew on the same plane. As a result, you found yourself in a very uncomfortable situation. Once again. Especially when Devon texted you to meet him in the bathroom in five minutes. You never knew he was apart of the mile high club.

He wasn’t. But that didn’t stop him from taking you in the cramp bathroom of the plane. His face stuffed in the crook of your neck, he panted as he finished. Holding you as close as he could. There was something very intimate about it. But also something, extremely terrifying.

The hotel you were out up in, was something of a rat’s nest. Most of the crew, like yourself had to stay there for the few weeks or so while filming occured. Much of which, happened in the gorgeous New England coast side. Filming a scene on the roof of a lighthouse, was probably the most difficult thing, for everyone. By the end of shooting, the majority of cast and crew were ready to get the fuck out of there. Everyone, except for a certain man. Who decided to hide out for a little bit at the very top. When the manager couldn’t find Devon, she asked you to find him. Your legs ached as you walked up the hundreds of stairs all the way up to the deck. The cool, salty, sea air washed over your skin as you stepped up. On the other side of the large light, which was turned off and hidden behind large pieces of glass. A figure stood, leaning against the bar. He looked out onto the serene view over looking the beach. You watched him, as you stepped closer. Stopping a good distance away, not wanting to disrupt his clear, focused state of mind.

“Mr. Bostick?” You ask eventually. His head slowly turns, almost not wanting to look away. He looks into your eyes, and smiles. The sound of the seagulls, and the waves crashing against the land surround the two of you as the wind brushes your hair as it pleases. You look down, and notice something in his hand, a camera. Your cheeks flush at the memory of previous ventures with one.

“My name is Devon, Y/N.” He almost scolds, but yet he has a calm and sweet tone. He gestures for you to walk forward, which you do. You lean on the bar in front of you, and stand next to him. He looks you over, and brushes aside some hair from your face. “May I take a picture of you?” He asks.

“What kind?” You joke, and he huffs in amusement.

“A normal one.”

“Sure.” He stands back, and holds his camera to your back. He directs you to look onto the scene. You hear the ‘eeer eer eer’ and 'click’ of the camera. You go to turn around, but he asks for another one, and you oblige. You turn after two, and he smiles.

“Gorgeous.” He remarks.

“Better than the ones from before?” You ask.

“Nothing is better than the one from before, baby.” He cooes the last word, and leans closer to you. Suddenly he’s not Devon, he’s Master again. He holds your arm and leans in for a kiss.

“We should get going. We’ll get in trouble.” You say, making your way to the door. He sighs.

You spend, maybe a night in your own hotel. One night in particular, Devon requests that you spend the night with him. In the drastically nicer hotel that many of the other actors are put up in. You knock on the door, and unlike any other evening, you’re pulled into the room rather quickly. Devon locks the door behind him, and then leans against it to look at you. Up and down his eyes trail your still clothed body. He’s breathing a little heavily, upon further inspection of his state. He is already hard as a rock, and theres an animal-likeness about him.

“Clothes. Off. Now.” He orders. And you strip for him. You stand there, naked. Goosebumps decorating your skin, and your nipples harden as a result of the cold air. He gives another good hard look at you, and goes to reach down to his cock. Only throw his hand away. He adjusts his posture to stand tall, and walks over to you. He removes his shirt, and tosses to the side. Before looking over you again. “My good girl.” He cooes, gently stroking the back of his hands across your cheek and arms. “You’ll be my good girl tonight. Won’t you?” He asks, and you simply nod. You hear what could have been a soft growl from him. As his hands caress your hips, and slide up your pack. “You reminded me, of those pictures.” He states. “I reviewed them. And somehow, they made me want more.”

“More?” You ask, and he nods slowly. His deep brown eyes staring into yours.

“I brought a few things. I hope you don’t mind.” He smiles, almost cruelly. Leaning in, and kissing your neck. Forcing small gasps from you. “Be my muse. Won’t you?” He asks. You give a nod as you let your eyes close. Giving yourself up to him. “Adda girl.” You hear him step away, and you open your eyes to watch him. He has a few different cases of objects. One, filled with a blindfold, a wip, fabric to tie you up with. The basics of your training. And in another, you watch him put together a digital camera. One of the nice ones, professionals use them. Your heart begins to race.

Suddenly you realise this isn’t a normal session. It’s more of an erotic photo shoot. You ask why he couldn’t till you return home, and he confesses. He wanted to do it in a hotel, because he enjoys the planeness of the room contrasting with you. You has you kneel, and blindfolded. You hear a few clicks. He hands you stand, you hear a click. It starts off, simple. Until you have your hands tied behind your beck. Until you are bent over the bed, with your legs spread. You hear a few clicks. Suddenly, you feel a cold substance drizzled on your backside, and you flinch. He reassures you, its just lube. And he proceeds to practically cover you in it. Producing this shine across your skin. You can almost hear the smile as he talks. You hear a few clicks.

Different positions. Different objects. Within an hour, Devon has teased your properly to the point of beggind. He’s photgraphed you with vibrators, pearls, plugs, dildos, his own figures and tongue. And yet, no release. You whimper helplessly as you hear his shift off of the bed. Leaving you there, tied with your hands behind your back.

“M-Masterrr…” You whine.

“What, darling?” He knows what he’s doing, the bastard.

“Please.” He chuckles cruelly.

“Please, what?”

“Please…make me cum.” You pleased, and you hear another click.

“Had enough, huh? Hmmm. Well. Since you’ve been such a good girl, I’ll let you choose with what I’ll make you come with.”

“Your cock.” You moan without hesitation. No matter how many toys, nothing could compare to the way that man fucks you. To the way he holds you. You should have seen him. Almost surprised. Then it’s replaced with utter pleasure. As he sets the camera down at the side if the bed, and you feel him move over you.

“You want my cock?” He asks, and you nod again. “Mmmhh can’t get enough of me, can you?” He asks, and you shake your head. He hooks his arms under your thighs, and pulls you up and close. He pulls himself out of hi pants, and slowly incerts himself into you. You gasp, as the aching feeling in only hightended. You hear a click. He pulls you closer onto his length so that he as deep as possible. Pushing on cervix gently. Before he suddenly starts to move.

He begins fucking you, making your cry out in pleasure into the hotel room. The idea that others may hear, other actors and staff my hear come to mind. You bite your lip to prevent yourself.

“Let them hear.” Devon growls. “Let them hear you.” He demands. You let yourself go, allowing yourself to cry out Devon’s name. He smiles at this, and removes your blindfold. As his hips smack against yours, he leans in for a deep, passionate kiss. “Thats it baby. Scream my name.” He sucks your neck as he holds your to pound into you. The tightness in your stomach is too much to bare.

“I-I’m gonna cum!” You cry out in reflex to your training. Devon’s body swings back and he grabs the camera. Snapping a picture as the ecstacy washes over you. Capturing your expression in such a moment. For a second, you worrry your look bad. Until you Devon pull out, and plunge his cock into your ass. Thank god, he had prepared you for the moment. Another picture as your eyes go wide in response. “Oh! God!” You cry as he proceeds to fuck you more. Your used pussy confulses from pleasure as the odd sensations course throught you. Before you know it, youre cumming again.

“Sh-Shit.” Devon curses, and you can tell him his expression. He’s more than close. You feel his twitch as he cums inside your ass. “Ohhhh fuck thats it.” He cooes, as he puts the camera down, and caresses your body to calm the both of you. Panting, he pulls out, and lays down on top of you.

“Devon?” You ask after a moment.

“Mh?”

“You’ve never let me call you that in the bedroom before.” You note. “And just now you had me scream it.” He takes a moment, and thinks about it.

“You’re right.”

#50 shades of devon #devon bostick x reader smut #devon bostick x reader #devon bostick imagine #jasper jordan x reader smut #jasper jordan x pregnant reader #jasper jordan x reader #jasper jordan smut #devon bostick smut #rodrick heffley x reader smut

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notgonnarememberthis · 4 years ago

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Honey

Hello!! After last week’s sequence I just couldn’t get this idea out of my head and had to write it down but I promise I am working on the next chapter of fywbym. Hopefully this angsty little one shot can keep y’all happy until then!! Enjoy!!!

Jessica spins in the mirror for the hundredth time, reassessing the dress Ainsley picked out all over again. Not that she doesn’t trust her daughter’s decision, no, her intuition is normally on point. However, absolutely nothing can go wrong tonight. She has worked 21 years to have this night.

When Gil asked her to dinner out of the blue she’d almost dropped her tea. Sure they’d unofficially been dating for a couple weeks but dinner felt solidifying. A public statement would be made, tabloids would explode with headlines how The Surgeon’s ex-wife has a new man in her life. It will be all over the news by tomorrow.

Oh, Martin would be so furious.

The thought makes her smile even wider.

Almost on cue her phone begins to ring, with her tongue pressed behind her teeth she checks the caller ID. Relief spreads through her at the picture that pops on the screen. She picks it up, holding it to her ear. “Couldn’t wait to see me?” She teases with a flirtatious lull.

“Nope.” Gil pops the end of the word and she can hear the giddiness in his tone. It fills her chest with a warmth that has been so rare over the past few months. It leaves her feeling like she should be dancing through the hallways like a drunken teenager. So carelessly free that her happiness can’t be contained.

Even Malcolm and Ainsley have joined in on the feeling. They’ve shared family dinners with Gil at the table more than a few times now. Ainsley bouncing with glee at their hands clasped together and Malcolm sitting a little taller with each exchanged glance. Her family, at last, feels complete.

“I was just calling to let you know I’m running a little late. We’re polishing off a case but I will be there as soon as I can.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I haven’t even left yet. I want to make sure I look perfect.” She passes by a mirror and checks her hair once again, fluffing the curls with her free hand.

“You would look beautiful in pajamas.”

“You say that because you have the dream of me in one of your turtlenecks.” His chuckle sends fire running through her veins and she bites her bottom lip.

“I prefer you with nothing on, actually.” She stammers thoughtlessly, her brain short circuiting after being beaten at her own game. His laugh sends a blush across her chest and she coughs trying to pull herself together. “Did I actually just make a Whitly speechless?”

“Hardly.” She purrs making a swift recovery from being thrown off track. “Just didn’t know if you wanted everyone at your work to know.”

“I don’t care. Let them know.” Now she really feels like dancing across the room.

“Oh, you’re definitely getting a treat tonight.”

“Promise?” Her laugh cuts off when she hears a door close from the other room. She pokes her head out the door of her bedroom and listens for a moment. “Jess?” She hears the line call out to her at the sudden silence. Sure enough she can hear footsteps coming from the main hall.

“Malcolm!” She calls out, “You really should have called to let me know you’d be coming. I was just about to head out!” She shakes her head when her son doesn’t respond. She huffs pulling the phone back to her ear. “Sorry about that.”

“Jess, Malcolm is still here.” Gil’s voice sounds apprehensive. “I’m looking at him right now.” Her heart thumps heavily in her chest. She knows he has a window in his office and it makes sense that Malcolm would be there at least until he left, determined to see these cases all the way until the end.

“Well it can’t be Ainsley, she goes on air in an hour.” She tries to laugh away the anxiety pooling in her stomach. Something doesn’t feel right. She shakes out her hand grabbing her clutch from her vanity. “It must be Adolpho. I have been taking much longer than usual.” The half hearted noise Gil makes is indicative that he’s not convinced. Truth be told, she isn’t either. Adolpho had only ever come inside to check on her once and it was when Ainsley was so sick that she had to cancel attending a gala all together to take care of her.

She’s just overreacting though, it has to be Louisa. Or maybe Ainsley forgot a file and came back to the house to retrieve it. Surely she’s imagining that the footsteps sound heavier than she’s familiar with.

Surely.

“Jess, stay there. I’ll be there soon. Don’t hang up.” She could hear him gathering his things over the line and barking out an order to another officer about finishing up the file. He should bring Malcolm, she thinks absentmindedly. Just in case something were to happen.

She shakes her head trying to will the dark thought away. She’s just anxious, is all. Maybe she hadn’t heard anything at all. She rounds the corner of the dining room trying to compose her best annoyed look to mask her deepest fears. However it fell as quickly as it appeared when she laid eyes on the person standing there.

Martin stands in the middle of the room, his eyes tracing over the walls with an almost gleeful smile on his face. A brown jacket covers his white psychiatric ward uniform. Briefly, she recognizes the jacket from his office in the basement. It should have gone up in flames with the rest of his things; it made no sense for it to be there.

This has to be a nightmare.

That’s it. This is a sick twisted nightmare from her subconscious. She just needs to wake up. Yet when he turns around to face her with that smile she stumbles back all the same. She crashes into the bar cart sending the glasses and bottles crashing to the floor with her weight. The pain that echoes through her side is a horrific confirmation.

This isn’t a dream.

“I have to go.” Her voice is thick, betraying the fear in her tone. She hears Gil try to fight but she hangs up anyways. Martin has always been jealous of Gil. It was probably safer to keep him busy until Gil arrived. Not let him know. However, when her eyes meet his she instantly regrets every choice she made.

“Jessie!” The nickname alone makes her feel sick to her stomach. She should have trusted her intuition. Run to the back and hid there until Gil came to get her. She should have listened, fuck. “It’s remarkable how different it all looks. Love what you’ve done with the place.”

“Martin-” Her voice barely comes out in a whisper. She swallows before trying again, “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m home!” Now she really feels sick, gripping onto the cart for the support her heels are denying her. He spreads his arms like expects something; what a hug? She shuts down the expression of disgust before it crosses her features. She stands up straight, steeling herself with a cold gaze. All the while her hand reaches behind her for something, anything to protect herself with. She feels a sense of calm when her fingers successfully wrap around the heavy metal shaker. “I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

‘No,” She sighs. “That was just Malcolm.” The lie spills off her tongue effortlessly. In any other setting she’d tell the truth and revel in rubbing it in his face. He tilts his head with narrowed eyes. If he senses that she’s being anything other than truthful, he doesn’t say. But he senses the lie regardless, of course the pathological liar would. She would need to do better than that.

“You’re awfully dressed up to be spending the night alone.”

“I’m not.”

“Oh,” His face darkens and she stumbles to find a new purchase.

“I have a meeting with the new investors of the Sanders’ Foundation. I made a promise to Malcolm that I’d carry on Eve’s charity after she passed. We’re officially signing tonight. It’s a celebratory dinner.” It’s not entirely a lie. She had that meeting last week, not tonight. When his posture straightens up she lets herself breathe a little easier.

“Well you look beautiful. Personally I’ve always preferred you in red, but the green is lovely too.” She weighs her options as he steps closer. The shaker is heavy and if she’s accurate she can stun him at least. From there her plans are null. Where can she run to where he wouldn’t know about, that he wouldn’t suspect from her. One of the guest rooms would work but she’s outmatched if she gets caught.

It’d be safer to play along. “Can I make you a drink?” He glances down at the shattered bottles with a raised eyebrow. “I have more in the kitchen.”

“Where is my boy?”

“Finishing off a case. Surely he talked to you about the-”

“The Candyman, yes I’ve been keeping up with Ainsley’s broadcasting. Riveting stuff.” He smiles, an empty one devoid of all emotion. “Where is she? I’ve been wishing to speak with her for,” He sighs. “Well for ages.”

Absolutely not. Her protective instincts shift into high gear. At least at the precinct Malcolm is safe from him, however she doesn’t trust Ainsley’s studio enough. She would not send him directly to her. No matter what it cost her. “Surely trying to get a closing argument from her brother that’s actually on the record.” Martin guffaws at that, the harsh sound causing her to jump. The sound stops as soon as it started when his eyes land on something new.

“Who’s that from.” It’s not a question. His eyes are trained on the bracelet on her wrist. It’s a simple thing, far less attention grabbing than anything else she’d worn in the past. A simple gold chain with two birthstones intertwined, Malcolm and Ainsley’s. It’d been a birthday gift that she wore fondly.

From Gil.

“Jessie.” The tone comes out as a warning. His eyes are trained on her but with his head tilted upwards his eyes are focused down. Like he’s looking down on her. As if he has any right to the truth, much less to her.

A lie here would be pointless. He knows it’s nothing either of the children would have gotten her. Gifts between the three of them rarely ventured outside of an expensive bottle of alcohol. Who needed them when they could buy anything they could possibly want? Truth be told, the bracelet having been the first gift she’d received in over 15 years brought tears to her eyes.

Of course she had to pick tonight to wear it.

“It’s from Gil.” She’s proud that her voice doesn’t shake with the statement. Her entire body is doing enough of that just standing a few feet from this man.

“You have a date.” The last word spits out like venom. She tightens her jaw, anger blossoming beneath her chest. How dare he? As he steps forwards again she makes the split second decision.

She swings the cup with all of her might, ready to bolt as soon as she makes connection with his head.

She almost did. He, however, seemed just as prepared for the attack catching her wrist in his hand with ease. The cup clatters loudly to the ground as she drops it, all the momentum of her anger dissipating in a split second.

For a frightening moment they are chest to chest. She can feel his breath fanning her face while his unreadable gaze traces over her features. This close she’s almost certain he can feel how fast her heart is beating, that he can read the fear beneath her rage, he can feel the tremor of her wrist clasped tight in his grip.

Three swift knocks stop whatever he planned to say or do. Strong, heavy raps indicative of the police at her doorstep. For a moment she’s not certain that he will even react. His face an absolutely terrifying blank slate. Then a lighter, much more frantic knock.

“Mom!” She can hear Malcolm calling out to her. “Mom, open the door!”

She watches the switch in Martin’s eyes, a teasing laugh escaping his lips. “Our children have always had horrible timing.”

“I should get that.” She whispers side stepping out of his way. Yet as she walks, he pulls her wrist back spinning her to face him again. He’s making a decision, she recognizes in horror. Whether to take her with him or let her go. She bites her cheek so hard that she can taste copper on her tongue.

She would put up a hell of a fight.

She would lose.

He draws her hand to his lips pressing a kiss to it with a smile. “I’ve missed you. I’ll see you soon.” And he let’s go.

She doesn’t hesitate to see where he goes. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter to her in the slightest as she rushes to the door. Safety is so close but the hallways feel like they stretch forever with Malcolm’s pleading tone getting farther and farther.

Wrenching the door open to see Malcolm and Gil staring at her terrified feels like waking up from a nightmare. Malcolm crashes into her with a quick hug that she barely has time to return before he’s rushing off to see what the hell had spooked her over the phone. Gil’s face is stone, looking at her with a mixture of worry and annoyance.

He knows. Only one person in the world can scare her that much.

“Jess,” He sighs, relief and comfort soothing her fears. “Are you alright?” She shakes her head, almost indecipherably as the tears finally slide down her face. All the rage, terror, and anxiety of the past few minutes crashing over her as she falls into his arms. Gil is the only thing holding her upright as she slips into the cascade with Martin’s threat still ringing in her ears.

I’ll see you soon.

#prodigal son #gil arroyo x jessica whitly #jessica whitly x gil arroyo #gilica #gilssica #jessica whitly #gil arroyo #martin whitly #prodigal son spoilers #prodigal son AU #martin whitly is a bitch #and one day i will let a character stab him #inspired by 2x03 #notgonnarememberthis fics #fanfic

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feynites · 8 years ago

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♜ for stronk muscle warrior lavellan getting a massage from solas! (In cannon or the mit au???)

Life for the Dalish isn’t always what people imagine it to be, she knows.

Clans, after all, have children, and elderly, and sick, and disabled people - just like communities everywhere do. There are holidays. Rest days. When times are good, and hunting grounds are plentiful, and foraging is rich - when there’s trade to be had, even, with other clans, or with friendlier human settlements - she would venture to say that it’s a much more pleasant life than that of a peasant farmer, who works field after field and sees most of their gains vanish in taxes and tithes to their local lord.

Dalish do not have lords. When things are hoarded, it’s because they’re being stored away for the clan’s future.

But. That doesn’t mean it’s a life without considerable strain, especially for those who are strong enough to bear it. She’s no stranger to gruelling days. And nights. Working from sunup ‘til sundown. The Inquisition is more mercurial in its demands than the clan. She’s more apt to get back to camp, or to Skyhold, only to find that she has to turn around and march right back out again. And if there’s one thing she’s learned to hate about Ferelden and Orlais alike, it’s mud.

Especially in Ferelden. Thick, clinging, stinking mud that cakes on and sinks in, that makes roads into swamps, and turns considerable areas of terrain into sinkholes and traps. Scout Harding tells her that the mud worsened, after the Blight. A lot of forest had to be burned down, and plant life cleared out, to try and stop the spread of blighted flora and fauna. Even after the darkspawn had been driven out. With no trees to shield huge segments of soil from rainfall, or roots to block off flooding rivers, mudslides became a much more common hazard of northern Ferelden. It’s one reason why she tries to avoid any treks out to Denerim, wherever possible.

Mud makes for hard work on the road, especially when it strikes where least expected. They’re a week out from Skyhold when a nug dashes across the road, and spooks the horse pulling their supply cart; and the animal bolts, and between one thing and another, the cart and most of its supplies end up stuck in a veritable river of roadside mud.

As Inquisitor, she’s gathered, she’d be within her rights to just let the troops and some of her party handle it. And this time, she’s almost tempted to.

But she dismounts, anyway, because she’s strong and unlike some of the troops in their party, she managed to sleep through the windstorm last night. There are biting insects, and the mud is - to be honest - probably full of horseshit, too, and all of it sucks and stinks and fights their best efforts to get the cart out. Even Solas’ attempt at levitating the thing only lifts it up just enough for them to start hauling the back wheels free, before he has to relent to the tenacity of the earth.

It takes them three hours to get the cart unstuck, and to load up all the crates full of keep supplies that fell off of it. Nothing broke, at least; the mud made for a soft landing point, she will grant it that much. Then they have to resume their trip, with the insects following along. They have no hope of bathing, so the only thing for it is to let the mud dry - itching and hot - and then scrape it off.

An hour after that, they find out that their Inquisition banner got left behind in the muck when a group of bandits decide that they look for easy targets. Tired, covered in enough muck to dull even the brightest shine of armour, and clearly loaded down with goods.

It’s not a pleasant fight.

She’ll leave it at that.

In the end, the delays pile up, and they don’t make it to their set rendezvous point in time. She sends a few scouts ahead, to let the group they were supposed to meet with know about the delay, and the rest of them set up camp with the only piece of good fortune being that they manage to find a decent-sized stream before they do. Fit enough for some of them to finish getting the worst of the mud off of them, although the water is ice cold, and it’s still tough work; scrubbing skin and armour, standing in the riverbed, with the wind whipping around and the water freezing her ankles.

She feels like one entire bruise by they time she settles in front of the roaring fire which, she thinks, looks most definitely magical.

“Thank you,” she tells Solas.

He inclines his head.

“You over-exerted yourself,” he notes, settling next to her at the fire.

She supposes it’s a little obvious, now. Even cold as she still is, she hadn’t had the energy to pull on much more than her spare tunic and an untied pair of breeches, before slumping in front of the fire.

“I wouldn’t have, if I’d known we’d be fighting suicidal bandits very shortly after pulling everything out of the mud,” she assures him. She knows her limits. Life just seems very set on testing them, of late.

“Going into the water was unwise,” Solas proceeds to opine, and she glances sideways at him.

“Trying to sleep while every crease of me felt caked with shit would have been worse,” she assures him. “I know what you mean, though. I’m going to be stiff in the morning.”

She stares into the fire, resigned to her fate; and then the sound of something clinking, slightly, draws her attention.

Solas settles an unfamiliar tin onto the ground next to her knee.

“I may be able to help, if you are willing,” he says.

She raises an eyebrow.

“With a spell?”

He chuckles, just a little.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a salve and a backrub,” he admits.

For a brief moment, then, all she can do is envision Solas’ hands on her skin. His very lovely, very fine hands, which seem to have been pleasantly warmed by the fire, and which put decidedly warm thoughts into her, too. She clears her throat, and in an effort to keep from making a fool out of herself, picks up the tin he placed next to her. The contents look creamy, and smell a little odd. But not unpleasant. She thinks she’s seen some of Cullen’s troops using something similar, though it’s not much like Deshanna’s concoctions.

She glances at Solas, and hands the tin back to him.

“That would be very kind,” she says.

He inclines his head.

“I confess, I feel a moderate amount of guilt for not wading in with you,” he tells her, as he shifts around towards her back. She swallows, and tries not to think too many inappropriate thoughts, as she slides the back of her tunic up.

“You shouldn’t,” she tells him. “You wouldn’t have been much help if you were standing knee-deep in it and couldn’t actually move enough to cast a spell.”

“I am fit enough. I could have helped in other ways, if I had chosen to,” Solas tells her. She hears him rub his hands together, and smells the salve; and lets out a slight breath when he touches her. His hands are, as expected, warm, and the salve warms easily, too. Solas’ touch is very deft, and he seems to know what he’s doing as he pinpoints the most strained spots along her shoulders and spine, and begins to work them over.

“Magic is helpful,” she assures him, a little more breathlessly than she means to.

“It is,” he agrees. “And I do not have your musculature, that is for certain. You are very... well-built.”

She raises an eyebrow - that he can’t see - and a snort of amusement escapes her.

“Flattery?” she asks, and then gasps as his thumbs find a knot, and press it in just the right way to make it ache tellingly.

“Once again, I am only declaring verifiable facts,” he assures her. “Though if you find my facts flattering, I will not object.” His thumbs roll over the knot, digits smoothly working it out, until she feels a rush of relief that tingles all the way up to her neck.

“And if I begin to find you charming?” she wonders.

His hands pause, just for a moment.

“I would hardly object to that, either, I suppose,” he permits, though his tone changes. Getting a little more deliberate, maybe.

She lets out a breath.

It’s a lie anyway, of course. She’s found him charming for quite some time now. The ship has sailed, as it were. The aravels are on the trail. Solas continues to rub at her back, moving along up to her shoulders. She can’t bite back the occasional groan of appreciation, as he manages to ease aches she hadn’t been wholly aware of, and untangle muscles that loosen whole other ones in the process. Eventually he even ventures his touch to her arms, running his palms across her aching biceps, and shifting in place a little as she begins to sag.

She imagines what it would be like if he did this for her legs, too, but she stops that train of thought quickly enough. Massages are tiring work for the masseur, and his day has been long, too, and she won’t presume upon him anyway. This is nice enough; and it will keep her limber enough for tomorrow, as well.

Still, she can’t quite resist the urge to capture one of his hands, when he finally pulls back.

“Thank you,” she says, curling her fingers around his own.

Solas stares at her for a moment, his gaze unreadable. And then he inclines his head.

“It was no trouble,” he assures her. Courteous, and nothing more. This kind of interaction wasn’t uncommon among her clan, for that matter. It’s just practical not to let the people whose strength you’re relying on run themselves ragged, or risk needless injuries.

She should just leave it at face value, she supposes. For the kindness that it is, and not for the other kind of warmth that his touch has inspired in her. And that’s what she’ll do.

That’s what she does.

She finds it takes a moment of effort to relinquish his hand back to him, even so.

#Anonymous #filled prompt #solavellan

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prinanalogicality · 8 years ago

Text

The Physical Space

So, for this AU I came up with, I was thinking that there are the different areas where the sides can exist. They can exist within the mind space of a person, where they can only exist with one another, host’s space where they can only interact with one another and their host, then there is a third space called the physical space where they can be seen by anyone and interact with the sides of anyone else. The sides all look similar to one another in the physical space, but they have distinct differences, much like humans. The reason for this is because I view the physical space as something dangerous. When exposed to the physical space, though the sides are not humans technically, they can die or get hurt in the space much like any other human. The effects that can result from the injury or death of a side can obviously be detrimental to a host and the other sides. Thus the differences in their appearances, like humans. The physical descriptions are as follows:

Thomas: Still the same as normal.

Roman: Roman’s hair is darker than Thomas’s and shorter in length so it can fold back in the perfectly princely hair-do when needed. His shoulders are broad, he is two inches taller than Thomas, and he has more muscle. Probably from all of that battling, honestly. His eyes are also darker, and his skin is practically inhumanly perfect, and he is maybe a shade or two more tan than Thomas.

Logan: Logan is the tallest, about an inch above Roman. His overall frame is a bit more narrow and his skin is about a shade lighter than Thomas’s skin tone. He has natural muscles, not anything twig like, but he definitely has some there. His hair is a darker brown than Roman’s, and his eyes are a deep blue, but so dark that they can easily be mistaken for dark brown or black if one doesn’t pay much attention. The blue really stands out in the light, though.

Morality: Morality is an inch shorter than Thomas. He feels like he is a small bean and prances around gleefully when in the physical plane, despite the fact that he looks more like Thomas than any of the others and is only an inch shorter. He and Thomas have similar builds, the main differences being that Morality’s hair is a bit more of a golden, burnt blonde and his eyes are more golden. He also has the same skin tone as Thomas, if not just a slight tad darker.

Anxiety: Anxiety looks the furthest from Thomas. My aesthetic is short Anxiety, so he’s standing three inches shorter than Thomas. He is still relatively tall, but Anxiety being annoyed over not being able to reach things he normally can is my aesthetic, like I said before. His hair is the darkest, remaining brown, but so dark that it almost looks black, save for in the light. His eyes are a lighter, almost hazel green color, and his build is more slim overall. His shoulders are eternally slouched, making him appear a bit smaller than he actually is, but that’s his fault. He is also the most pale, so finally that white foundation matches him.

All of them still got the booty, though. I like to think that Morality and Anxiety somehow have even more booty, and while Anxiety gets all huffy when teased about it, Morality is just like “Don’t twerk kids, but I’ll totally twerk if you ask me to.”

All in all, they still look mostly similar to Thomas, save for specific things like build, height, hair, eye, and skin color.

This particular fic will be prinxiety. I am happy with this idea of the three spaces I have created, so I am more than happy to write different ships in this AU. All you gotta do is ask, my friends.

AO3 link here.

Summary: The sides experience their first time venturing out into the physical plane. Thomas, knowing how they bicker and afraid that he would somehow lose one of his sides, had always refused to let them out, but one day he gives in and decides to take them to the local park. Morality is ecstatic to pet all the dogs he sees, Logan is constantly flitting about to make sure Morality doesn’t contract a disease from any stray dogs, Anxiety is just trying to chill and admire nature and how cool it is to be free like this (despite feeling really anxious about being around so many other people face to face) and lastly, Roman wishes he can pay more attention to his new surroundings, but the beauty that is Anxiety in the physical space distracts him more than anything.

“Okay, okay, you guys. We can all - you know. I’ll let you guys out for a little while. But, we are just going to the park. And we are going to be testing the waters for an hour, that’s it.”

“But come on, kiddo! If we all behave, why not let us stay until sundown?” Morality interjects, ever the advocate to lengthen the time window for fun to be had.

“Don’t push your luck. You all are already lucky enough that I’m willing to take you guys out for a little while.” Thomas releases a nervous sigh, running a hand through his fringe. He loves his sides, but it is no secret that he is nervous about the risks that people run when letting their sides out into the physical space. If one of them were to somehow die, a part of himself would die too. That thought is terrifying.

“Yes, but I suppose you should have at least a small amount of trust in us. At the very least, between Anxiety and myself. Perhaps Roman. Morality is questionable, but I am confident that he would be the dog that runs away from home and returns a few hours later.” Logan reasons, earning a snort from Anxiety on the stairs landing.

“What do you mean perhaps me? Of course I am trustworthy! The utmost trustworthy person here! I would never abandon you all or allow harm to come to any of you. I solemnly swear so.” Roman’s hand lands over his heart as he makes his promise, his chest puffing out.

“Let’s just get this over with, guys. If you can all behave past the hour mark and you can stay out, maybe we can chill out longer. Okay?” Thomas offers, and the others nod immediately. Thomas closes his eyes and a warm sensation washes over each trait as they are transferred from the host’s space into the physical space, and once there... nothing is different. Thomas’s house looks the same, everything does, until they look at one another.

It is a bit shocking to look at one another and not see, well, carbon copies of Thomas, but it is welcome. It makes each trait feel more human themselves.

“The park is just a block away, so we can all walk. You all need to follow me and do not walk into the street, no matter what you do. Just- listen to what I say. Please.”

Each trait agrees and follows Thomas out of the front door, immediately overtaken by their surroundings. They have seen the outside world through Thomas, but it is very different to actually be out here themselves. They can smell the fresh cut grass, feel the breeze on their skin, feel grass beneath their shoes as they walk. Each trait agrees that they will definitely enjoy the physical space.

Despite being absolutely astounded by the different surroundings in the physical space, Roman is finding it hard to keep his eyes off of Anxiety, who now stands several inches shorter than himself. He looks so pale, his hair so dark, but his eyes are bright, shining a green in the light. He’s more beautiful than anything out here.

Coughing into the crook of his arm at both an attempt to hide the blush on his cheeks and clear his head of his thoughts, Roman sighs to himself, walking into the park alongside the others.

Morality is the first to bound forward, laughing joyously as he lies down in the grass, his arms and legs extended. “Can I make a grass angel? Do you think I can do it?” He laughs as he waggles his limbs, in which Logan nags at him about the potential diseases and life within the grass.

Thomas just laughs and takes his place on a park bench beside a large tree, in which Anxiety chooses to sit in the shade of the tree, leaning against the gnarled bark. Everything is so green, so bright. The sky is so blue, the clouds are so fluffy. The day is absolutely perfect - which only serves to make Anxiety dwell on what can possibly go wrong to ruin this all, because never is anything this good. He can see other people that can actually see him too. He can see - oh god, children. How is he supposed to handle a child? He really doubts he has the patience for kids. He tries to enjoy times like this, he honestly does, but just like how the others cannot help who they are, he cannot help who he is.

He notices someone taking a seat beside himself, in which he looks over to see Roman, who in turn offers a small smile and a nod. Anxiety is confused as to why Roman is sitting beside him when there are plenty of other more exciting things he could be doing, but it isn’t like he is complaining. He finds that he rather enjoys Roman’s company, contrary to belief. He tries to not dwell on why.

“Isn’t this lovely? Being here, like this? I love it.” He speaks, his tone more relaxed from his normal confidence laden, brash tone.

“I guess it’s nice. For now.” Anxiety tacks on the end as he looks around, watching as a dog runs after a Frisbee. He can’t help but to smile when the dog jumps and catches the flying disk, bringing it back to their owner.

“Everything I have looked at is simply stunning.” Roman says softly, his gaze trained on the beauty before him. Truly, Anxiety in the physical space is a sight to behold. His eyes hold a depth and sparkle that Roman had never seen before, or perhaps he never noticed or cared to look so closely. But, here and now, it seems he can’t stop noticing things, like the smatter of freckles across Anxiety’s nose and cheek bones, how full his lips are, how long and dark his eyelashes are. The boy is a work of art.

“I bet you’ve been staring at yourself in a mirror.” Anxiety teases, turning his head to look at Roman’s new features properly, not expecting to meet such an intense gaze. His cheeks flush and his freckles practically glow in contrast to the dusty pink, and again, all Roman can think is what a masterpiece he is.

“For once, I have not been, actually.” Roman grins and finally looks away from Anxiety, looking up to the tree shielding them from the sunlight. The way the leaves rustle as the wind blows, and occasional leaves falling down around them. He will have to ask Thomas to take everyone out into the physical space more often.

“Whatever you were looking at - fine. But now, I want to just be quiet and sit here, all right?” Anxiety manages to force the words out, wanting to ask if he was stunning to Roman, but there’s no way he would do that. Not even when Roman’s hand gently caresses his own, and as Anxiety had requested, no words are spoken. They sit in silence and watch as Morality pets all the dogs he can handle, Logan reads and chats with Thomas, and a sense of content washes over the both of them. Maybe one day Roman will get around to informing Anxiety that he is in fact stunning, but for now, it feels like they have all the time in the world and rash confessions can wait for another day.

#prinxiety #prinxiety fluff #my fics #not yet together but getting there #i'm kinda nervous to post this because i don't know how people will react to the changes in each person's appearance #but honestly i am excited about this au #i hope people enjoy it like i do #physical space #mine

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kagapop · 8 years ago

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is buff fish bokuto a valid prompt?

“BitW AU where everything’s the same except Akaashi and Bokuto’s roles are switched” has been discussed a lot lately, so here’s a rewrite-ish-thing of that beach scene from Chapter 5 or whatever.

It was a shame that birds didn’t live under water.

It was a terrible shame, because Koutarou, really, truly loved them. He loved his time at the sanctuary, he loved spending time with Yui, but, god, these legs.

Legs were the worst possible invention. Period. Why did people like them so much?

Well, okay, maybe they didn’t have a choice. That was… fair. And, really, his legs weren’t so bad, all the pain and fuss that came with land exhaustion aside. He had good legs. Good, thick, sort of scaly legs.

Right now, however, he did not have those legs. Instead, he had a strong, gold and black and white tail, and it felt so good to have it immersed in the salty water again. This part of the beach was pretty abandoned at night and early in the morning, so he’d been venturing out to soak up as often as he could without getting caught.

Koutarou dipped his head and all beneath the water, sighing something content as his gills parted and the sounds of the sea calmed his racing mind, free of things like Eventide and serpents and all that nonsense.

Except, that wouldn’t last. That never lasted. He was trying really, really hard to make it happen, though.

He poked his head halfway above the water, only to gaze at the moon with a clearer view. It was so glowy, and calm. Why couldn’t he be that calm? Fuck the moon.

At that very thought, he heard a tiny splash, as if the big round thing in the sky was retorting through the waves. The jerk.

Except, the moon didn’t do that. Probably wasn’t capable of it. So, he looked for the source, and found something far more interesting, and far prettier than the moon.

He grinned, and dipped beneath the surface. He could see the visitor’s feet through fading clouds of sand in the more shallow water. When he came close enough, that water was far too shallow to properly swim in, so he promped himself up by his arms with his fin still mostly-submerged.

The jerk-of-a-moon had its light reflected in Keiji’s wide, unexpectant eyes, and it made Koutarou think that the moon couldn’t actually be that much of a jerk, if it could somehow make the sailor look even more pretty.

“Surprise!” he said, but not too loudly. His grin was loud enough on its own.

Keiji was definitely staring at his tail, so Koutarou gave it a show-offy little flop. It sparkled in the moonlight, he knew it did. Humans were fascinated by this sort of thing, right? And Keiji looked pretty amazed right now, he was sure.

“…Shouldn’t you be more careful with that?”

“I am being careful!”

“Anyone else could have seen you. Aren’t you concerned someone might…”

“Throw a fishing net at me?” Koutarou blew that off with a “pfft” sound. “I’ve been at this for months, Keiji. I know what I’m doing.” He pulled himself upright, almost sitting, or as close to sitting as he could come without a proper butt. “But what are you doing out here? Did you come to see my tail?”

“I hardly expected to run into you again, Koutarou.”

Koutarou pouted, and gave his tail another little flop. “Okay, but, here I am. With my tail. Isn’t that, like, a really rare sight for you sailors? I’m letting you look at it! You can even touch it!”

Keiji looked down to said tail, and offered a very slow nod. “It is… quite impressive.”

“A-ha!” His tail splashed again, this time not on purpose, and getting Keiji wet.

The sailor frowned down at his pants, soaked far more than he’d intended, but he wasn’t exactly unaccustomed to wet clothes, anyhow. “Perhaps, if you’re going to come so close to shore, you should… change back?”

Another pout, and Koutarou stared long and hard at the shore. He’d been in the water for long enough tonight, right? Sure. It would be worth it. Definitely worth it.

“One second,” he said, and turned to dive back into deeper waters, leaving a confused Keiji behind. Moments later, he was rushing out onto dry stand, stark naked and making a dash for the clothes he’d left by the rocks. When he finally put on some pants, he found Keiji sitting in the sand, looking very much like he’d just seen something he shouldn’t have. As if his tail wasn’t naked when he was looking at that, too. Humans were weird. “I thought you’d be gone by now!”

“I did contemplate leaving while you changed.”

“I– what– not just now,” he huffed, “I mean, your ship! I thought you were just delivering some stuff and ditching?”

“We’ll be leaving port later, after the sun has risen. There are more supplies we need before we head out for Kingston.”

“Then you have more time to spend with me!”

Keiji didn’t look as excited as Koutarou wanted him to look. He looked more suspicious of him, actually. Shouldn’t a human have been more excited to spend time with a handsome merman like himself? He definitely should have been. Maybe he was. Maybe he just didn’t realize he was. Koutarou had to make him realize he was.

“Wait,” he said, then, completely ditching that train of thought, “Kingston? Your ship’s going there, next?”

Keiji quirked a brow. “Have you been?”

Koutarou threw his head back. “Yeah, that place sucks! It’s way better here, right? Everyone’s friendlier, and there’re more birds and nature and stuff.” And it was easier to hide, on Owl Roost.

“Everyone’s so friendly, but you sure wanted to avoid that person in the tavern, before.”

“Keijiiiiii,” he groaned, rolling his head until he was looking the sailor in the eyes. Fuck, those eyes. Humans weren’t supposed to have such nice eyes. Or hair. Or faces. Or anything in general, really. “That’s not fair. That’s an exception.”

“I don’t suppose you intend to explain it, either.” Keiji drew his legs up closer. “You don’t have to answer that. I wasn’t expecting you to. I… did want to ask, though….” He looked like he was contemplating a few different ways of going about his question, first. “…Do you know anything of any kidnappings? Regarding your kind, I mean.”

Koutarou’s expression fell, then, and Keiji’s eyes were suddenly a little less distracting. “Oh, er….” His feet pushed through the sand until they were straight out in front of him. “Like, anything specific? No… That stuff happens a lot, though.” He ran a sandy hand through black and white hair. “A lotta humans are assholes. I mean, you’re fine! I don’t really know you, but I kinda feel like I can trust you, for some reason!” He made eye contact again, just once, but he couldn’t handle the questioning look Keiji was staring him down with. “I mean, most of you don’t realize people like me exist, right? But then the ones who do are just… really fucking sick, y'know? They think they can use our tails and scales however they want.”

“You mean for decor,” Keiji said, not asked. His eyes trailed to the patches of scales dotting Koutarou’s stomach, then the ones outlining the muscles of his arms.

Koutarou seemed to catch onto his question before it was even asked. “That, or clothes, or jewelry…” He ran a finger over a patch on his upper arm. “It’s fucking stupid. Most of you guys don’t even think we’re real, so what’s the point in choppin’ us up for that sorta thing? You already got snakes and shit.” He gripped at his arm. “The people buying that stuff don’t even buy into the ‘mermaid scale’ thing. They just think it’s pretty. Which, I mean, we are pretty.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, Keiji made a small sound that seemed like one of agreement.

He let go of his arm, then, and flexed it in front of the sailor. “I’m not afraid of you tryin’ to rip 'em off me, though. So, you can look or touch all you want!”

Keiji did stare, for just a moment, then turned away. “That’s very considerate of you,” he said, “But I think I’m fine.”

“They’re smooth, Keiji.”

A pause. “I’m sure they are, Koutarou.”

He dropped his hand to the sand all pathetic-like. “Fine. If you aren’t gonna appreciate my amazing scales, we should do something else, while you’re still in town.”

“I don’t recall making plans to spend the rest of my day with you.”

“You just did!” Koutarou nudged his arm. “C'mon, how many people get to say they spent their day with a merman?”

Koutarou did not know about the merman sitting in a barrel on the sailor’s ship.

“I can’t say I know too many,” he said, anyway. When he caught Koutarou’s beaming look, Keiji sighed and got to his feet. “It’s early, Koutarou. I will give you an hour, at most.”

Koutarou jumped right up with him with a whoop, and pulled shook the sand from his shirt before pulling it up and over his head. “An hour of what, then?”

Keiji’s eyes wandered, and he pursed his lips. Then, he said, “How well acquainted are you with Barnwood Trail?”

#bokuaka #hq sailor au #ask #haikyuu!!

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drtanstravels · 5 years ago

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The annual Euretina Congress was upon us again and this year it was to be held in Paris, France. Anna was speaking at the conference on the morning of September 3 and attending other events as well. We figured that while we were in France on this occasion we should venture out of Paris for the first time once the conference was over. Anna and I got married in Colmar Tropicale, a fake french village in Berjaya Hills, Malaysia so we decided we should take the opportunity to visit the real village of Colmar in northeastern France. However, there were a couple of other events that reared their collective heads during the planning of this trip; first of all, Anna’s cousin, Robin, was to be married in Vancouver, Canada on September 7 and nobody from Anna’s immediate family were able to attend. Secondly, Anna had been invited to speak at another conference in Paris on September 15 so our adventure would be as follows:

We would fly out from Singapore on the evening of Tuesday, September 3, arriving in Paris early the following morning.

We would stay three nights in Paris before flying out for Vancouver on the morning of Saturday, September 7 and, due to timezones, landing the very same morning of the wedding.

After four nights in Vancouver we would return to Paris on Wednesday, September 11 and immediately make a two-and-a-half-hour train ride to Colmar after we landed on Thursday, September 12, changing trains in Strasbourg along the way.

We had two nights in Colmar to see the legit town before making the same train journey back to Paris on Saturday, September 14.

After two more nights in Paris we would make the 13-hour flight back to Singapore on Monday, September 16.

We had a hectic and exhausting itinerary planned and this post is about the initial Paris leg of the trip, but the story begins a little before that — My 40th birthday fell five days before we were to depart, on Friday, August 30. Anna had planned several surprises for me, but they didn’t quite go as secretly as she wanted, nonetheless it was a fantastic night all the same. She had initially organised a surprise party at my local pub, Coq & Balls, complete with karaoke and a bar tab for my friends, however, the surprise was kind of ruined when one of the staff asked me if there was anything else I’d like planned for my birthday after Anna had just finished organising everything while I was in the bar’s toilet. A few days later a package arrived in the mail for Anna, but the contents were written on the outside; my favourite films are the original Planet of the Apes series and Anna had found a copy of the Mad magazine from 1973. She also caught on that I knew what was in the package because I left it discreetly on the bench, as opposed to telling her like I usually do when something comes in the mail for her. None of that mattered, though. When the night came it was so much fun, just hanging out with mates, drinking, singing, and eating an incredible sushi cake that Anna’s friends, Pat and Roshini, made for me, as well as a crêpe cake from Anna’s favourite store, Lady M. Pat and Rosh didn’t want to try their own cake though, because they did a trial run the previous weekend and had been eating sushi all week as a result. A great night was had by all, take a look at some scenes:

I’m pretty pleased with this!

Belting out a tune with Mike in the Trump-ish tie that Anna’s auntie bought me without a hint of irony

Cheers Rosh and Pat for the sushi cake, I can just never get a photo where they all have their eyes open

With Pat and Rosh’s cake

But enough about me, let’s get down to brass tacks here — Our epic journey.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019 There wasn’t much that is particularly relevant to this post that happened on the Tuesday, however, before we left to the airport that evening, Anna had been notified of a promotion she had received. Her official title will soon be Adjunct Associate Professor so that made me feel more than just a little bit proud. Anyway, we had no problems boarding our flight, popped a sleeping pill each, and when we woke up it was time to prepare for our landing in Paris.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 It took us forever to get out of the airport as there was only one booth open at immigration, but after about an hour we were through and in a taxi en route to our hotel. I remembered from the last time we visited Paris that it was a very dirty city with dog shit everywhere and countless tramps wandering around, the level of both depending on the area in which you were staying, but I had completely forgotten about the large villages of small tents, some legit one-man camping tents and swags, others a folded piece of cardboard propped up with a stick, in which the more privileged homeless dwell, occupying large parks and grass areas, particularly along the freeway in the spaces between entrances and exits as you get closer to the city from Charles de Gaulle Airport. We eventually made it through the insane traffic and checked into our home for the next few nights, the Hotel-Residence Foch, a name that had required us to ask our taxi driver for the correct pronunciation so as not to offend the staff or other potential drivers. Apparently it’s pronounced “fosch.” Once we had checked in we took the tiny elevator that barely had space for the two of us and our suitcases up to our room, one where there was only space for one suitcase on the counter and one on the floor. The only problem was that my suitcase was the one on the floor and when it was open the door could only open wide enough for someone to slide through sideways, but in a strange twist the bathroom was really large.

Once Anna was ready we left the Foch, her for the conference and me to just have a bit of a wander around. Just like our last visit we were staying near the Arc de Triomphe so I just Googled some flea markets and stores that I thought I might like, inadvertently ending up walking quite a distance to where we had spent an entire day on that previous trip. The ever-unreliable Google Maps led me past the Eiffel Tower, where there were endless stalls selling unofficial merchandise, as well as counterfeit and stolen goods, and then I made my way across the Seine to a dodgy-looking market under the train lines that was beginning to shut down by the time I had arrived. I put my wallet in my front pocket and had a look through the stalls that were still open and the rest of the afternoon was spent browsing through stores and looking at statues in the 15th arrondissement until Anna messaged me to let me know that she was done with the conference and to meet her back at the hotel. A bit of what I saw on my walk:

Even Napoleon himself would say that our room was definitely on the small side

Looking at the bathroom from the bed

The view down our street

A statue on a roundabout taken during a split second when there wasn’t traffic chaos

Not sure what’s going on here

The fake goods start well before the Eiffel Tower…

…but this is just a fraction of the knock-offs sold once you are nearby

It doesn’t look all that dissimilar to one of the numerous cranes on the surrounding construction sites to be honest

A chair baked out of bread in a bakery

A bridge over the Seine

A closeup of the figures on the bridge

A statue near the bridge

Carvings on the way back to the hotel

Another carving

“To the glory of the French army 1914-1918”

Once I was back at the hotel Anna told me about an area where there were a bunch of shops she wanted to look at, as well as some decent restaurants, it all just happened to be in the general direction from where I had just come. We wandered to where I had been, albeit taking a few different streets, looking at some cool shops, as well as a really bizarre furniture store. Anna loves French bakeries, especially all of the cakes and macaroons, so we also visited some bakeries along the way, despite the fact we would be having dinner soon, and it became clear it wasn’t just the case with the one I bought a coffee at that morning — The cabinets in the bakeries in Paris that contain all of the sweet pastries, tarts, and cakes also have bees flying around inside and absolutely nobody seems to care at all! The cabinets with quiches and cheesy items are fine, but if I were working there I’d be extremely hesitant to put my hand in one to grab a sugary dessert item. Seriously, some of the bakeries we saw over the course of our time in Paris had swarms of bees inside the cabinets! I guess the flies pay more attention to all of the dog shit on the ground instead.

Maybe it was just the bee-ridden cakes, but Anna was starting to get peckish, it was around time for dinner and she had her heart set on soufflé so she managed to find what was rated as one of the better soufflé restaurants in town, however, they were completely booked out that night. We walked around for a bit, but there wasn’t anything else on the block except for a small restaurant that looked a little suspicious with menus in multiple languages and the word ‘pasta’ stencilled largely on the wall among the names of some French dishes. Still, we were hungry and it had a lot of people inside so we took a seat at the only spare table, one which had to be pulled out so Anna could sit. In fact, if she needed to go to the bathroom while eating, at least three other people would need to slide across the bench seat to let her out. It took forever for menus to come and while we were waiting it soon became abundantly clear that everyone in the restaurant was a middle-aged person from the USA. “This is the best foie gras I’ve ever had, it’s even better than that one in San Francisco!” was one pearl of wisdom we heard while sitting there. We were a tad disappointed at the prospect of what was potentially going to be our first dinner on this trip to Paris, one of the food capitals of the world. Generally it isn’t a good sign when a place has the menus out the front written in several different languages with no mistranslations and there isn’t a single local person eating there, plus the service was so slow so I gave Anna a nod and we both stood up to leave. This got the waitress rushing over with the menus, but I had already prepared for this by looking at my phone with a shocked look on my face as we stood so we could simply tell her we had to go, as if it were an emergency.

Once out, Anna took to Google again and found what looked like was going to be a decent restaurant in the 6th arrondissement. When we arrived it turned out to be unbelievably good and as an added bonus it had a whole bunch of different soufflés so we ordered beef tartare, foie gras, a phenomenal local pasta dish with mushrooms and truffles, and an escargot soufflé to top it off. By the time we had finished all of that food, all of the other patrons had left and it looked like the staff wanted to close up so we went to a nearby bar for a drink or two, but we were tired from the flight and Anna had the conference the next day, plus we were super-full, so we didn’t have a late night. Here’s some shots from that strange furniture store, plus some from dinner:

Just a bed frame covered in pictures of people doing it

This would probably clash with most of our other furniture

Even though it has a tail, this still wasn’t the weirdest bike we would encounter in France, but you’ll have to wait for the other one

I guess it’s kind of cool if you like polar bears or fluffy white dogs or whatever the hell they’re supposed to be

That’s one bad-ass bike

There was some strange stuff in this shop

Notre Dame de l’Assomption

Snail souffle

Beef tartare

Anna with some foie gras

Place Vendôme

The interior of the restaurant as we were leaving

Thursday, September 5, 2019 Anna was at the conference again in the morning so I waited until she was done and then we checked out another part of town, this time in the 3rd and 10th arrondissements with a lot of vintage and retro stores. Much like the previous day, we spent a fair bit of time looking at shops and avoiding bee attacks in bakeries when Anna got it in her mind to check out Canal Saint-Martin, which is described on Wikipedia as follows:

Today, the canal is a popular destination for Parisians and tourists. Some take cruises on the canal in passenger boats. Others watch the barges and other boats navigate the series of locks and pass under the attractive cast-iron footbridges. There are many popular restaurants and bars along the open part of the canal, which is also popular with students.

That seems cool so we walked down through the Place de la République to the canal, but we definitely didn’t end up at the section Wikipedia was referring to. To be honest, I’ve been considering updating that portion of the page to something along the lines of this:

Today, the canal is a popular destination for the homeless and beginner graffiti artists. Some take the wallets, phones, and other personal items of unwitting visitors. Others watch the drunks and strung out junkies while navigating a winding path through garbage and, of course, canine faeces. There aren’t many shops or restaurants along this particular open part of the canal due to a fear of everything in the building, right down to the final length of copper piping, being stolen in order to fund the perpetrators’ various addictions.

Yeah, that sounds like a more accurate depiction of what we saw along the particular length of the canal that we walked. After the canal we looked around a few more stores in a different area, grabbed a coffee each, and then went home to clean the grime off ourselves before we had dinner at the house of Anna’s former colleague from New York, Polina Astroz, and her husband. We took an Uber to meet up with her and instantly remembered exactly how bad Parisian traffic is, especially at peak times. The main roads have many roundabouts with at least six other roads consisting of about the same amount of lanes leading into each roundabout and thousands of drivers throwing caution to the wind, and when it comes to traffic lights, nobody tends to care either, both situations resulting in a massive gridlock. Our driver told us about how the key to driving in Paris is stubbornness, as it is the only way you will get anywhere, you’ll just get stuck or cut off if you obey the rules or give way to other drivers, and when two truly stubborn drivers won’t budge, it usually results in a fight on the side of the road. Just as he finished talking we passed a fistfight between two drivers who both refused to budge. It took us almost an hour to get to where we needed to be, making us extremely late, and it would’ve been almost twice as fast if we had’ve walked, but we finally made it. Prior to dinner we had drinks with Polina and one of her friends at an awesome rooftop bar near her place until Polina assumed her husband had almost finished preparing dinner. When we arrived at their beautiful apartment we spent a few hours that night chatting, mainly reminiscing about old times in New York over home-cooked duck confit with apricots, a traditional dish from Toulouse, the area of France they are both originally from, and a few more drinks. It was quite late when we left and some of Anna’s Singaporean colleagues were meeting up in a bar that night, but that was all over by the time we were done. I didn’t take any photos around the canal for fear of my phone being stolen, but here are some others that I got that day:

The Museum of Modern Art

Me with some of our lunch

Although she had been there before, Anna still wanted the token shot

Place de la République

Walking around

The view from the rooftop bar

A closeup of the church

Now at dusk

Looking out Polina’s apartment window

Friday, September 6, 2019 We did most of the tourist attractions on our first trip to Paris; we walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, visited Notre Dame, and saw the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. However, there was one attraction I had always been fascinated with and wanted desperately to see — The Catacombs:

The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone quarries. Extending south from the Barrière d’Enfer (“Gate of Hell”) former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began not long after a 1774 series of gruesome Saint Innocents-cemetery-quarter basement wall collapses added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’ cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.

The ossuary remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty-place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations and the construction of accesses around Place Denfert-Rochereau, it was open to public visitation from 1874.

The catacombs in their first years were a disorganized bone repository, but Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service from 1810, had renovations done that would transform the underground caverns into a visitable mausoleum. In addition to directing the stacking of skulls and femurs into the patterns seen in the catacombs today, he used the cemetery decorations he could find (formerly stored on the Tombe-Issoire property, many had disappeared after the 1789 Revolution) to complement the walls of bones. Also created was a room dedicated to the display of the various minerals found under Paris, and another showing various skeletal deformities found during the catacombs’ creation and renovation. He also added monumental tablets and archways bearing ominous warning inscriptions, and also added stone tablets bearing descriptions or other comments about the nature of the ossuary, and to ensure the safety of eventual visitors, it was walled from the rest of the Paris’s Left Bank already-extensive underground tunnel network.

Although the catacombs offered space to bury the dead, they presented disadvantages to building structures; because the catacombs are directly under the Paris streets, large foundations cannot be built and cave-ins have destroyed buildings. For this reason, there are few tall buildings in this area.

Anna booked an audio tour of the catacombs for us and after we caught the train to that area and walked to the entrance, we were glad that we already had tickets. The line for tickets was around the block, and we even had to wait for about 15 minutes to enter, because according to the official catacombs visitor’s website, despite being 1.5km (1 mile) long, the number of simultaneous visitors is limited to 200 so those people in line for tickets could be there for hours! Once inside we walked down the 131-step spiral staircase to the tunnel network and soon we were in the winding corridor of human bones. One thing that became abundantly clear is that some people can be complete dicks when visiting historic sites. An extreme case you may remember was when a fifteen-year-old Chinese school student was identified back in 2013 as he who had scratched his name into a 3,500-year-old Egyptian artwork in the Temple of Luxor. Although the defacing of the catacombs may not be quite as severe as that, it is extremely frustrating to enter and see that tags have been sprayed and stickers stuck allover the place, some even on actual skulls! However, this soon ceases and we spent over an hour walking through a mile of winding passages consisting of exquisitely arranged human remains, all the while learning how it came to be that way. Take a quick tour of this macabre, yet beautiful construction for yourself via just a handful of the pictures we took during our adventure underground (all translations via Google Translate):

It’s a long way down

There are some areas I struggle to fit

A tunnel leading to the catacombs

I’m not sure why this guy has a bone in his eye

Upon entrance not all of the remains are organised

Arranged into a heart

I guess I shouldn’t try to smile for ALL photographs

“Bones of the old cemetery St. Laurent deposited in 1848 in the western ossuary and transferred in September 1859”

A collapsed cross

“They were what we are, dust, toys of the wind; Fragile as men. Weak as the nether!”

Winding our way around

Don’t let the expression fool you, Anna thoroughly enjoyed it, but just thought this look was a little more appropriate

Continuing either side of a supporting pillar

Random arrangement

A skull bearing torture scars

The amount of effort that went into arranging the remains of six million bodies is staggering

Dick move example #1

A pile of bones beneath an inscription too small to translate

“M.D. bones of St. Laurent Church filed on April 17, 1873”

Still making our way through

“Bones of the Old Cemetery of the Magdalen (street of the city Leveque No. 1 and 2) deposited in 1844 in the ossuary of the west and transferred in the catacombs in September 1850”

Approaching the end

Dick move example #2

The piece de resistance

A little bit of trivia: Scenes from Will Smith’s upcoming film, Gemini Man, appear to have been filmed in the catacombs, although it was more than likely just a set.

Anyway, after the catacombs we had dinner with some of Anna’s colleagues and then went out until the wee hours of the morning to avoid sleeping too much; we had to catch an early flight in a few hours that, due to timezones, would arrive at almost the exact same time in Vancouver, and then we would need to rush to a wedding so we wanted to sleep as much as we could on the plane. But that story is the basis of my next post so stay tuned for Part 2!

Oh, and I just wanted to say that while we were touring the catacombs, I could help but smile as I thought of this classic Michiel Sweerts piece, Self-Portrait with Skull, circa 1660:

It was tempting… (Image source)

The first leg of a trip that would have us covering a lot of distance over a relatively short time The annual Euretina Congress was upon us again and this year it was to be held in Paris, France.

#bones #canal #catacombs #food #Paris #traffic

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