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fablesrose · 1 year ago

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Ch 9 - The Top Hat Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: The team has to play as magicians to get into a food company that has contaminated food on the shelves. *Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about magic, so don't come for me*

Words: 5377

A/n: So I've burned through my stock of chapters after this and I've been having a bit of a tough time for the next couple of weeks. I've got final weeks and then surgery to fix my wrecked knee, I want to get back to this as soon as possible, but I'm not sure when that will be. Thank you all for reading this far, it means so much to me!

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While Nate and Sophie were downstairs in the pub meeting with the client. I was watching as Eliot, Hardison, and Parker were starting recon on the target: Lillian foods. From what brief background we already had, their frozen food was contaminated, but one of the higher-ups calculated the risk and said that the amount of deaths was acceptable relative to cost in lawsuits vs pulling the food off the shelves. So, a real dirtbag, like all the rest of them.

Hardison and I were in Nate’s apartment monitoring all of the tech stuff while Eliot and Parker were doing the leg work. Eliot was posing as a pizza delivery man with comms and a button cam, going into the heart of the beast. We watched as he approached the front desk where a pretty brunette sat taking phone calls.

“Her name is Katie,” Hardison told him as he balanced a tennis ball on his forehead casually, “Likes wild horses, dislikes vanilla toothpaste.”

“Please stop talking,” Eliot responded.

I laughed a bit, “The fact you can find those things is wild.”

“Hey,” Eliot greeted the receptionist, and I could hear the smile in his voice, “How ya doin’?”

She didn’t respond to him, only lifting a finger signaling for him to wait a moment.

He turned away from her in a way that I could visualize him leaning against the counter. “Oh, I’m so in,” he said a bit cockily.

My smile soured a bit, remembering just how much of an eye for pretty chicks Eliot had.

“Hey Eliot, what’s that blocking your button cam?” Hardison asked him. I furrowed my brow, as while it was a bit warped because of how small it was, it wasn’t too bad. That was until Hardison finished his thought, “Oh yeah, it’s your ego!”

That made me smile a bit again before moving it along, “Parker? Whatcha got?”

“First ten floors are free climbing heaven, but after that, it's a slip and slide,” she responded easily before a random person started to vaguely harass her, saying she had pretty hair.

“Uh, Parker, maybe don’t stay next to that person.”

I didn’t get a response from her as Nate and Sophie walked in bickering.

“When was the last time you had a date?” Sophie asked him which caught my attention. “A real date… with food?”

“Stop,” Nate responded before his attention turned to us, “Hardison…”

“I don’t think that counts,” Sophie commented before turning to me to answer her question.

I only shook my head to indicate that it had been a long time.

“Are you running recon on Lillian Foods?” he asked us.

“Uh, yeah?” Hardison responded for the both of us.

“Don’t you think you should consult with me first?”

“Did he just…?”

“We do this all the time, Nate,” Sophie defended.

“Hey, look man, where do you think all my intel comes from? For the last time, there is no blueprint fairy.”

“Yeah, well, I want you to pull them out. Do it now,” Nate told him as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Why? What’s up?” I asked him. He seemed a bit more strict than a usual job.

“Look, we know what we’re doing, man. It’s a food company,” Hardison rebuffed.

“No, you don’t. No. Not with a place like this. You don’t know what you’re doing,” Nate insisted.

I watched on the screen as Eliot started to get escorted away, “Eliot?”

“Give it exactly two seconds before this becomes a train wreck.”

And just like that Eliot responded, “Hardison, we’ve got a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” He asked.

“They’re MRI-ing my pizza and their stance says ex-CIA.”

“You could tell somebody worked for the CIA just from how they stand?” Hardison asked before I could.

“It’s a very distinctive stance,” he whispered back.

I watched anxiously as a bunch of red flags and alerts popped up on Hardison’s screens. Hardison started to hack back with a vengeance to try and take back some control. I had faith in him, but the beeping and buzzing and flashing lights really didn’t make me feel better. Suddenly it took a turn for the worse where the screens said system lock out.

“Uh, Eliot, I think you should get out of there,” I said into the comms before the power in Nate’s apartment went out.

“Right now,” Hardison added on.

I glanced back to where Nate was sitting at the kitchen table with his hands raised as if to say, ‘see? This is what happens.’

“I’m working on it,” Eliot responded, accompanied with the sounds of fighting. “Parker, I’m comin’ out hot.”

“Okay, all clear out here. Just me-” she started to respond before the same person from earlier’s voice came through.

“Copy that, I think I got one out here, too.”

“Parker, did you stay next to that guy? That doesn’t sound good,” I commented, partially to her, but mostly myself.

It sounded like Eliot got through the worst of his escape as he whispered, supposedly to the receptionist, “I’ll call ya.”

I rolled my eyes to myself, of course he would do that.

“You know when I said you had pretty hair?” the guy next to Parker asked, “I was lying.”

I gagged, what a creep.

“Yeah, well, so was I when I said you didn’t… wait, damn it.” Parker responded before it sounded like she made her escape.

“Hardison?” Nate asked him after a little bit.

“Wait for it,” he said as he typed on his keyboard before the lights came back on. “See? There wasn’t no problem. I mean, I had it under control.”

He rambled on for a little bit longer, clearly flustered, as I laid my head back against the chair I was sitting in, letting out a sigh of relief that it was okay.

Later, when Eliot and Parker were able to make it back to the apartment, we sat around the kitchen table as Nate talked to us. I was still trying to figure out if he was going to chew us out or be nice and just explain what went wrong.

“So, pizza delivery guy was your big plan?”

“You know what man?” Hardison said, “It was recon, okay? Information gathering has historically been a very safe and peaceful business. It was a food company! Wasn’t like they were making weapons.”

I glanced at Eliot as he shifted an ice pack he was holding to his arm.

“Listen,” Nate said, “I’ve worked insurance for companies like this. Anyone gets their hands on the company’s food patents could cost them billions. And by the way? The guard that stuff better than defense contractors.” Nate explained.

Hardison looked at me in disbelief, but I shook my head, “Hey, I didn’t know that.”

Parker poked at Eliot’s arm, “does that hurt?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that explains all the ex-spooks hanging around the lobby then,” Sophie commented.

“You know what?” Hardison said a bit aggressively, “Ya live and ya learn.”

“No. I lived, alright,” Eliot cut in, “You sat behind a computer and acted like Kool Moe Dee.”

“What’d you call me? Kool Moe Dee? Like you even know anything about Kool Moe Dee. I was gathering very crucial information.”

“Does that hurt?” Parker poked Eliot again.

“Yeah.”

“How about now?”

“Alright!” I stood from my seat and smacked my hands on the table, a little overstimulated with all the arguing, which stopped it. “Parker, please stop poking Eliot, assume that it hurts. Eliot, we are very glad you lived, and Hardison…” I sighed, the little bit of adrenaline that I had worn off already, “what crucial information did you happen to gather in this train wreck?”

“Yes,” Nate said, backing me up a bit as I slowly sat back down, “How about you share that crucial information with the rest of us.”

I glanced up at Eliot who was looking at me with a softer expression, but I looked back down at the table, my hands in my hair.

“You know what?” Hardison answered Nate, “You ain’t said nothin’ but a word.” He pulled a remote out of his pocket, starting up the screens.

We all started to make our way to the living room to hear what Hardison had gathered.

“Hey, you heard y/n, stop it,” Eliot said to Parker after she poked him one more time.

“Eliot, what are you doing?” Nate asked, walking around the table towards him.

“She’s poking me,” he replied, watching as he came closer. “Don’t man…” He said, shrugging him off as Nate grabbed his hurt arm too, rubbing it in a little more.

I chuckled, “Come on Eliot, I’ll protect you from the meanies.” I walked ahead of him and was pleasantly surprised when he sat down so I was next to his injured arm.

He tapped his knee to mine, “you better.”

I tried to fight the smile that was growing a bit too wide as Hardison began the briefing.

“Lillian Foods is the third largest food company in the world. Last year it made 12 billion dollars,” Hardison started. “This is the vice president of the frozen food division, Erik Casten. Erik with a K, Casten with a C.”

“How is that relevant?” Nate asked.

“Oh,” Parker answered, “Eric with a C, nice and friendly. Erik with a K, evil.”

“I mean, she has a point,” I corroborated.

“I didn’t know that,” Sophie commented.

“Everybody knows that,” Parker replied.

“According to Dr. Jameson,” Hardison continued, “Erik with a K is trying to cover up salmonella in the frozen dinners so his division doesn’t have to pay out for the recall.”

“That’s why I grow my own food,” Eliot said next to me.

“How do you find the time?” Sophie asked.

“You make time. I only sleep 90 minutes a day.”

“I didn’t know that,” I whispered to him, “The growing your own food part. That’s super cool. I only have a basil plant on my window sill. But I don’t think that that little sleep is good for you.”

“The basil’s a good start,” he whispered back, not addressing my sleep comment.

I could never tell what the next thing I was going to learn about him was. I’ve started to seriously wonder what this man couldn’t do. I already knew that failing to steal my attention was not on that seemingly shorter list.

“So what we have to do is, we have to get a hold of Casten’s report and make it public,” Nate said. “It’s on the servers. How do we get into the building?”

“I think pizza delivery guy is off the table, for the record,” I commented, nudging my knee against Eliot’s, purposefully avoiding his gaze, but I heard him huff a laugh anyway.

“I am so far ahead of you, man, it’s scary,” Hardison told Nate. “Look, I can’t hack their system from the outside, so I sent a Trojan phone. It’s hacker 101.”

I pulled out my phone, “Oh, if this is a course, should I be taking notes?”

“You might as well be,” Hardison answered before continuing, “What I did was messenger a smartphone with an extended battery to an employee that’s on vacation. The package sits in the mail room. It scans for wireless and bluetooth access points. Unfortunately, even their internal servers are locked down like the CIA. So all I was able to get was employee emails.”

“Oh, anything useful there?” Sophie asked.

“Oh yeah, you know what?” Hardison sat on the edge of his seat, leaning towards her, “Marie from Payroll has a crush on Steve from Accounts Receivable.”

She and I were more invested in this gossip then we probably should have been.

Hardison pulled up a picture of a shirtless below average guy, “Look, that’s Steve right there on his vacation in Florida from a month ago.”

“She likes him? Really?” Parker asked half-heartedly, voicing my own thoughts as well.

“Oh yeah. That man is a sexy man-beast right there” Hardison half insisted before moving onto the next piece of gossip. “Now, Shannon and Chris from Marketing, they got a little fight going on with Lauren from Ads.”

“Office politics,” Sophie concluded, “God. It’s lucky we don’t have that.”

Eliot and I shared a look that showed we were both skeptical of that. It was just different kinds of politics.

“Everybody’s up in there complaining about this state of the company thing tomorrow,” Hardison continued, “And Brian from IT-”

“That’s it right there,” Nate cut in, “That’s our way in.”

“Brian from IT?” Hardison asked, “No, he is not a team player.”

“No no no no no,” Nate responded, “That’s our way in… yeah. Yeah yeah. That’s it. The state of the company meeting. Here we go.”

“What is that?” Eliot asked, “I don’t know what that is.”

“Me neither,” Parker said.

“It’s like State of the Union?” Hardison offered.

“What is that?” Sophie asked as well.

“Nate,” I said, “You’re the only one here who’s had like a traditional corporate job. Even with me, the places I worked never did that.”

“Oh right, right,” Nate said, finally understanding, “You guys have never had real jobs.”

The rest answered in the affirmative while I gave him a pointed look. He nodded apologetically as if to say, ‘I know you did, but yeah.’

“Alright,” Nate began to explain, “so when I used to work for IYS we would do this all the time. The company, big companies, they make their employees sit for an entire day listening to these boring speeches, lame entertainment, bad food. It’s…”

Parker huffed a sigh, “I’m so glad I don’t live in the real world.”

I nodded in agreement.

“It’s mandatory,” Nate added. “It’s the only time that all the employees are away from their desks at the same time.”

“Alright, so we go in as caterers. We download the report while everyone’s chucking back the mini quiches. Easy,” Sophie concluded.

“No,” Hadison contradicts, “see, it’s a food company. All the catering is in house. The only outsiders involved in the whole big operation are the entertainment.”

“And who would that be?” Nate asked.

“Oh, you gonna love this… It’s a magician.”

Nate perked up, looking at me, “ah…”

I, in turn, deflated, “no…”

The now former entertainment was a magician, and from what Hardison told us, he was pretty slimy. A couple of sexual harassment charges didn’t help. It didn’t take much for Hardison and Parker to dismantle his show and get him arrested for punching Hardison in the face.

The next day Sophie called Lillian Foods to explain the problem and give us an in to replace ‘Chronos the Magnificent.’ Nate went in first as ‘head magician’ talking to the head of security.

“Harry Turner,” he said, handing the security guard a business card.

“The magician, I know.”

“Illusionist,” Nate corrected, “Magicians do kid’s parties. I do Fortune 500 companies.” He waved us over, “Uh, right this way gang.”

“Woah, and who are these people?” The security guard asked.

“Oh, this is my team, I believe you spoke with my manager, this is Nell Carver,” he waved towards Sophie who was rolling in a cart of supplies before introducing the rest of us, “my illusions designer, Frank Brunner, my lovely assistant Clea, and of course my beloved apprentice Miss Birdie.”

I fought to not roll my eyes at Nate introducing me as such, hoping we could get past security without me blowing it.

Hardison stepped forward towards the guard, “Hey man, I hope you have a doctor in the house, because this man right here is gonna blow your mind.”

“Alright, come on, we’re on a very tight schedule,” Nate said as he started to walk forward.

“Nothing gets in or out of this building without being scanned,” the guard said, stopping him.

“These crates contain my illusions, my life. I’m not gonna reveal my secrets. Come on.”

“That’s not my problem, is it?”

“I’ll take care of this,” Sophie said, stopping Nate from continuing, “Mr. Markland, I’m sure we can figure something out. It’s not possible-”

“Let’s pull up the van, Frank, and let's get out of here,” Nate said.

“Harry, are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Then an older man walked up to the commotion we were making, “what is going on here?”

“Mr. Price, sir, this is…” the guard started.

Nate turned and introduced himself with a business card, “Harry Turner, illusionist extraordinaire, you are Mr. Price, CEO of this company?”

“I am, what’s going on here?”

“I would like very much, sir, to give your people a wonderful show, but your doorman here would like to look at our boxes of illusions and destroy the illusion.”

I bit my lip to try not to laugh at the obvious manipulation that Nate was pulling, particularly with the context of us being magicians. I never would have dreamed of us being in a situation like this.

“Markland, just lighten up, will ya?” the CEO asked. “It’s a magic show for Pete’s sake.”

Nate repeated him as he followed Mr. Price and led us through security into the building.

Once we were on stage Nate said, “Okay, we’re clear, let him out.”

Harison opened the giant upright box to let Eliot out. He was dressed in his black stealth related outfit with a beanie on his head that I liked a little too much. He held a classic white rabbit and hat in his arms and carefully stepped around a bird cage at his feet when getting out.

“It’s a good job you’re not claustrophobic Eliot.” Sophie commented.

“I was when I was a kid,” Eliot said, shoving the rabbit into Nate’s hands, “take this damn thing.”

“Really? How’d you get over it?” Parker asked while taking the rabbit as Nate handed it to her.

“I locked myself in a woodshed behind my house for a couple nights. After that I was fine.”

I looked at him in disbelief, pausing my task of unpacking the bird cage and checking on the birds inside, “That is the worst form of exposure therapy I have ever heard of… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“That is so funny,” Parker said, “I was scared of the dark and did the exact same thing.” She then relayed a story of how her friends buried her alive in a wood chest when she was a kid.

“That is not the same thing,” Eliot responded. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I take it back Eliot, Parker’s is worse.” There were moments like this where I questioned where my life path has taken me to get to the point where my friends are these people. Then I remember that it is my own damn fault for willingly following Nate’s hard left turn in life. I shrugged to myself before continuing to prepare.

“So, you’re actually enjoying this,” Sophie said to Nate.

“You know, being a magician, it’s the next best thing to being a con artist, you know? It’s all about misdirection and control.”

“So no one actually told you that you can’t control life. You see, this is why you’re not in a relationship.”

“No, Sophie, I’m just very focused on my work right now. You know, I was out of control before. Now I’m in control, it's a good thing.”

Hardison turned to me, “You do not seem very pleased about this, but you are kinda confident right now, so I’m confused.”

I glanced at him as I kept unpacking stuff, “Uh, yeah, because when I was in middle school, Nate and I went through a magic phase where we worked together and learned a lot of this stuff. We got pretty good at it, not gonna lie…” I then pointedly said, “Though I don’t understand why I have to go by Miss Birdie like I did when I was like 12 and Nate can’t go by Monsieur Kitty!”

“Do you hear yourself right now, y/n?” Nate asked.

“Yes, and I can be petty when I want to be, you’re using my childhood nickname against me.”

“So you know how to do all this magic stuff?” Eliot asked.

“Absolutely,” Nate answered, “Positively, yeah. It’s all about the rabbit. You know having… by the way, where’s the rabbit,” he asked, turning around before shrugging it off. “Hardison, let’s go over the plan.”

We all gathered around Hardison as he started to outline the plan. As he did so, I couldn’t help but notice how my heart was beating faster than it should be. I knew I was nervous about this, the stage, performance, how much the team was relying on this distraction, and every little thing that had to go right, but I maybe didn’t realize how much until we were here and I took the moment to stop.

“Okay, the show opens with our friend Erik Casten delivering the state of the company speech,” Hardison said. “The speech is scheduled to last an hour, giving myself, Eliot, and Parker enough time to go down to the server room, hack the servers, download the report, and get back downstairs.”

“So, massively there will be no magic show,” Sophie said.

This helped calm my nerves a little bit, but something in my gut told me something was going to go wrong.

“Oh no, there might be a magic show. Absolutely,” Nate said which counteracted Sophie’s statement and its effects. “We might want to treat these people to the illusionist extraordinaire!”

Eliot and Nate laughed a bit as Nate bowed to the empty auditorium. I tried to laugh with them, but all that came out was a shaky breath. To counteract this, I turned my attention back to the props, including the birds, and pantomimed the motions of making them appear and disappear. I vaguely heard Sophie say something about Nate getting a girlfriend, but I was too focused on practicing the few tricks that I remembered.

My gut turned out to be right, unfortunately. Instead of giving an hour long speech, Erik Casten’s speech was barely five, keeping it ‘short and sweet.’

“...and let’s give a warm welcome to… Harry Turner, illusionist extraordinaire,” Erik finished.

“Shit,” I said, mostly to myself.

“That’s you,” Sophie realized. “Hey, you’re on.”

“Parker, I need my assistant,” Nate said into the comms, as the other three were somewhere in the building going to hack the servers.

“How come Parker gets to be the assistant?” she asked.

“How come Nate gets to be the magician?” Hardison asked. “I do card tricks too. I do great card tricks.”

The rest of them were bickering over comms, asking about doing each other's jobs, while the stage was sitting empty. I eventually shoved past Sophie and Nate to get on stage, ignoring the nerves and my rapidly beating heart. I approached the center of the stage and looked at the crowd of people sitting in the previously empty auditorium.

“Hello Lillian Foods!” I said, trying to decide if the waver in my voice was noticeable to anyone else. “As you might suspect, I don’t quite fit the name ‘Harry Turner.’”

To my relief, the crowd laughed a bit which drowned out the bickering still going on in my ear.

“To everyone’s relief, as well as my own, that is not my name. I am Harry’s apprentice. You may call me Miss Birdie.” The thought of changing my stage name crossed my mind, but I thought it was easier this way. As some people in the crowd said hi to me, using the name, it made me smile. “I think I am on the same page as most of you when expecting a big long speech from your vice-president. And while you may all have been relieved…”

The crowd cheered and laughed as they could see where this was going.

“My mentor was not as prepared as he should have been to be on stage this soon, that is where I come in. I’m sure any interns in the audience know the feeling.”

That got a particularly large roar from the crowd. I glanced off stage where Nate and Sophie were arguing still, though not as much as before. Nate gave a pointed eyeroll and shrug at me which encouraged me to continue.

“I must apologize as I am a little more familiar with close up magic, so let me know if you can’t see anything and I’ll try to make it work. Do you see what is in my hand?” I raised my hand to show some quarters pinched between my fingers.

The crowd responded in the affirmative before I continued. I did some subtle disappearing tricks before making them reappear with the exception of one.

“Hmm, it seems I lost a quarter somewhere… Any ideas?”

The crowd booed a bit with the skeptics yelling out where the quarter could be. ‘In your hand! In your pocket!’ etc etc.

“In my pocket?” I asked, I pulled out my pockets inside out and a few coins came out. “There's some coins, but they look like pennies to me, how about my coat pockets?” I took my blazer jacket off and shook it upside down. A comically large amount of pennies fell out of it. “I need some help examining all these coins… Is there a Dave Bickle in the audience today?”

There was some cheering in one corner as he stood up.

“Dave, do you mind coming up here and helping me?” He started to walk over before I added, “Bring your coffee, I know you can’t live without it.”

The crowd chuckled as he came up, coffee in hand. I asked him if he saw my missing quarter anywhere in the spread coins, which he said no. When he wasn’t paying attention, I was able to slip the ‘missing’ quarter in his coffee mug. I was glad it was a mug rather than a covered cup or tumbler, which made it easier. I made sure there was no splash and that it was out of sight for most of the audience.

“Well, I guess I’m too good at making things disappear, but not great at making them come back… You know something about that, especially with coffee, huh, Dave?” I knew I was milking this bit, but Mr. Price didn’t give us much to work with for crowd work. When Dave laughed and took a sip of his coffee he came out with the quarter in his mouth. I held up my handkerchief to take it back from him, “Oh! You found it, thanks, that’s my bus money for later!”

The crowd laughed and gave a little applause as Dave went back to his seat. I glanced over to Nate to see Parker had joined him and Sophie backstage. I took this as an okay for me to finish up since they seemed a bit more prepared now.

I quickly introduced Nate as Harry Turner and had him come on stage for his performance. He graciously brought me a broom to sweep up all of my pennies so they wouldn’t interfere later.

“That was really good, y/n! You have all the skills of a pickpocket with sleight of hand, why didn’t you mention it earlier?” Sophie congratulated me once I got off stage.

“I have blocked out those memories up until yesterday and to be completely honest, I can only half hear you over the blood pumping in my ears right now, how is everything else going?” I kind of laughed to myself, I couldn’t believe I had done that. As I picked up the coins from the floor I could see that my hands were still shaking.

“That’s natural after being in front of a lot of people, we’ll get you trained up as a grifter and thief in no time!”

I smiled at her sentiment, but didn’t encourage it. As I slowly calmed down I could hear that things were not going great upstairs; Erik had the same idea as we did: accessing the server room while everyone was downstairs. Except he was deleting the files we were trying to access.

Hardison and Eliot were able to make it up to a higher level to gain access to the computers but they needed higher clearance authorization to gain access. Nate was able to gain Mr. Price’s fingerprints by simulating a trick on stage, but then Hardison said we needed him for retina scanners as well. Nate caused Mr. Price to ‘disappear’ in a magic box by switching it out for an empty one. Sophie and I pushed the box Mr. Price was in to the elevator and shipped him up to Eliot and Hardison.

It wasn’t long after Sophie and I returned to the backstage that Hardison gave an ‘uh oh’ in addition to the fact that Erik had deleted all of the files before he could get to them.

“Uh oh? What do you mean uh oh?” Eliot asked.

I heard a security guard demand that he get out of the elevator.

“Oh. That uh oh.”

Sophie and I looked at each other in worry and returned to the elevator as we heard Eliot beat up some guards.

The elevator opened and Eliot stepped out over the guards, “Show’s over. We’re blown.”

“Nate, bring down the curtain,” Sophie said.

“We’ve got to go!” I added.

The three of us made our escape and listened for the others to do so. We all made it out with the exception of Hardison who had been caught in the locked junction room where he accessed the servers. They had brought Hardison out of the building to try and find the rest of us when Parker swiped Erik’s phone.

Nate proceeded to call one of the guards and talk to Erik on his own cell phone and blackmail him into removing the frozen food line that was contaminated off the shelves. He did so by planting the company’s patents on Erik’s phone. The client was there to stick the final nail in the coffin by informing Mr. Price and getting Erik fired.

When we rendezvoused at Nate’s apartment, the rest of us were unwinding and eating dinner while Nate continued to research clients… Working.

Sophie voiced her concern about him.

Eliot shrugged her off saying that he’s fine. The fact that we pulled this one off proof that he’s at the top of his game.

“Well that’s the problem. He keeps winning.” Sophie said, “And everytime he wins he believes a little bit more that he can control… life.”

“It’s what gets him through the day,” he replied.

“What happens when he loses? The last time he lost, it broke him. He breaks again… I don’t think even we can pick up the pieces.”

I didn’t know what to say to that since I thought she might be right. Instead, I stood and moved to the fridge behind Eliot to see if there was anything there that tickled my fancy. Eliot followed me with his box of takeout, leaning against the counter beside me.

“Do you want some of this Kung Pao?”

I looked at it for a second before grabbing some chopsticks off the counter and grabbing a bite.

“So, you really know some of that magic stuff, huh? I heard it over comms, the crowd was digging it,” Eliot said between bites.

I laughed, “Yeah, a little bit.” I took another bite before saying, “I didn’t get to do my signature trick though.”

“Oh yeah?” He smiled, “show me.”

I thought about it for a second before obliging him. I moved to tuck some hair behind his ear, a slight misdirection. He watched me closely, eyebrow raising slightly at my movement. When my hand was slightly out of his sight, I flipped my wrist and released the dove that was sleeping comfortably in my sleeve. It made a louder rustling noise than I had anticipated, but he didn’t even flinch. I pulled my hand back so I could show him the bird sitting on my finger.

He smiled as he looked at it. He then looked between me and Nate, “birdie.”

I nodded, “Birdie, but he’s the only one that can call me that.”

He laughed and stroked the bird, “That’s alright. I’ll stick to sweetheart.”

A/n: Reblogs and comments are welcome and encouraged! Thank you for reading!

Tags: @isoldeahlstrom @kniselle @technikerin23

#eliot spencer x reader #eliot spencer #leverage #rewrite #slow burn #multichapter #nate ford #sophie devereaux #alec hardison #parker #ford!reader

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exactly-another-one-piece-blog · 3 years ago

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The Evolving Dynamics of the 5 OG Straw Hats

1. Luffy recruits Zoro. Zoro is originally an infamous bounty hunter known for going after pirates specifically. Despite his reputation and initial resistance to joining Luffy he’s not really opposed to pirates on principal and he and Luffy actually quite similar people who see the world in similar ways. But while Luffy is happy enough just meandering through life and enjoying the sights and side quests that come with achieving his dream Zoro has a very strong sense of purpose. So when he accepts Luffy as his captain he takes that very seriously and goes about his role as Luffy subordinate with true loyalty and obedience to his captain despite his laidback personality.

Also, Zoro is the only crewmember to date that Luffy actively seeks out. Weirdly enough specifically because of his reputation which Luffy normally would disregard. It’s probably just because they are the first and Oda’s earliest work, though never bad by any standard, will always be less polished than later material just due to less overall experience on his part. IDK thought it was worth mentioning.

2. Luffy and Zoro meet Nami. When talking about just Zoro and Luffy Nami is very much a foil for them. She is weak where they are strong, smart where they are dumb, materialistic where they are not, you get the idea. She’s the only one of the OG five Straw Hats to have a strongly negative view on pirates even though all of them know what pirates are and the harm they can do. As the crew grows in East Blue Nami sets herself apart by being the uptight one. The one who barks orders and makes sure what needs to be done is done so they can continue on their way and not die. In a very real way this makes her more of a leader on board the Merry than Luffy. And that is a problem that is never directly called out and addressed but is corrected over time. It’s also reflective of the fact that Nami has more experience in both sailing and crime than anyone else by far. So she has to take responsibility and bark orders because no one else really knows what needs to be done... yet.

3. Luffy, Zoro, and Nami meet Usopp. Usopp compliments Nami in the quartet. Both are physically weak and cowardly yet intelligent and tactful with commonsense in spades. But they don’t see the world in the same light at all. Nami’s perspective is informed by trauma and fear. When she acts cowardly it’s because she experienced real pain and suffering and knows the consequences of getting caught. When Usopp acts cowardly it’s because he hasn’t. Early Usopp is childish in ways not even Chopper ever is. He quite literally plays at being pirate with actual children. While Nami was an established criminal Usopp led a fairly peaceful civilian life with not much trauma to speak of. He has the most idealist idea of piratehood but is the least equipped to actually take it on. His pirate-positive views and childish antics make him a good friend to Luffy but oh boy does this all come to head in Water 7.

4. The gang meets Sanji. Amongst the 5 OG Straw Hats Sanji is fascinating in that he acts as an equalizing force amongst the cast. He is strong but not a musclehead obsessed with fighting like Luffy and Zoro, he’s smart but not a genius, he’s cool unless he’s trying impress a woman. He’s the guy who can do a bit of everything but none of them are the focus of his character and in that way is the most well-rounded and also the most independent. Hence why he often wanders off to accomplish small but strategically important missions. He rivals Nami with relevant experience and a traumatic backstory that taught him that the world is harsh but instead of making him fear the world it just made him kind. And I cannot stress enough that Sanji is, fundamentally, a kind and empathetic person. Which also makes him in a way the emotional core of the group. If Oda ever needs a mouth piece to explain to the audience what a character is really feeling, Sanji is his guy. God, I love early Sanji. The good old days when he was a common simp.

#one piece #one piece analyse #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #Nami #Usopp #Sanji

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parchmentedpetrichor · 3 years ago

Text

➳the search party ❦

in which there is much one-sided pining after a mystery girl saves fred weasley in the battle of hogwarts. the reader helps him search for her but what fred doesn't know is the girl is y/n l/n, his flatmate.

fred weasley x fem!reader

word count: ±1.6k

tw: mentions of the war

ft. the reader's very good acting skills

and all the pieces fall

right into place

the search party

the last thing fred remembered of the girl who held the wall up was her gaze. under the dimness of the world around them, he could tell she was on a mission. her eyes were cold and determined. her ponytail had swerved violently and that was the last time he ever saw her. or so he thought.

he didn't know that the very girl sat opposite to him, munching happily on icecream with a satisfied smile on her face, curiously drinking in the very familiar view of hogsmeade.

y/n l/n kept two secrets from him. the first was the massive crush she had had on him ever since he had left to open the joke shop, and the second, well, it was that she was the girl he had claimed that had saved him.

she had listened to his tales of pining after the girl with a bittersweet mood. he'd probably lose all romantic feelings when he discovered that the girl was her. if she was anyone else but her, she'd find herself very unpleasant.

he had suggested that they go on a trip to hogsmeade one sunday to possibly find the girl. with a little hesitation, she'd agreed.

for the most part, playing clueless was easy, especially when you knew everything he didn't.

there was just one problem. he only knew her by her gaze. y/n scoffed quietly to herself. fred was probably the most dreamy out of the both of them, surprisingly, considering y/n's terribly romantic thoughts that she had conjured from her lifetime of watching her friends absolutely fall in love with people.

☆

they watch the people that pass with a sort of hidden interest.

y/n doesn't even bother trying to find the girl, instead observing every passerbyer with interest, analysing them quickly.

"d'ya think she's here or maybe in london?"

y/n shrugs, "anything's possible in a world of people. if it's fate, it'll happen."

"none of these people have the look in their eyes!"

"well that look did happen in the war, so it must've been a special type of condition that caused her to have the gaze," y/n offers.

"yeah, i think so."

they fall back into a comfortable silence.

fred now has a sneaking suspicion that y/n knows who it might be. right now, she's wearing sunglasses though. he can't tell anything.

"she's got the same sort of hair," fred nods his head in the way of a girl with her hair up.

y/n nods, "wanna approach her?"

"nah, she's looking over here."

"quick, avert your gaze subtly."

"okay, okay. i don't see why though. is my gaze not smouldering enough?"

y/n laughs, "it's creepy for sure."

"you wound me."

"truth hurts, freddie."

they watch as the girl watches them with narrowed eyes.

"that's definitely not her. she had pretty eyes," fred ponders.

"maybe you could post a note of some sort on the joke shop?" y/n jokes, "girl wanted, strong gaze, ponytail, saved me in the war?"

she laughs at his disgruntled expression as he folds his arms.

"maybe i should."

y/n bursts out laughing again, "i was joking!"

"i wasn't!"

she shakes her head, "suit yourself."

"why, i do have a suit!"

"it's an expression, dummy."

"how am i supposed to know?"

"you just do!"

"extremely helpful."

"that i am, mister."

this type of playful banter continues into the night, as they occasionally walk up to strangers to check their 'gaze'.

the search is unsuccessful, and soon y/n needs to get to her job at flourish and botts, where she works as the manager on the nights of weekdays, whilst she works as head of magical wellbeing at the ministry from monday to saturday.

"hi mister boris!" she says as she fiddles with an apron, open up the cash register and sorting the new stock.

"bonjour y/n," he says distractedly, frantically searching for something, "have you by la chance seen the book of french for wizards?"

y/n nods, immediately climbing a different shelf and hands him the leather bound cover.

"this is why i hired you. excellent."

"you hired me because i could find books...?"

"you were in here too much tes jours d'école."

"it's a nice place," she gives him a small smile.

"ahh, the weasley boy from just down the road, he came up to me and asked me if i knew of a girl with a ponytail, and when angry, has the prettiest eyes. say, it does sound like you, oui?"

"non," she answers in an easy manner, "not at all."

"and how come, mademoiselle?"

"it is not."

"well i do hear angeliqua johnson saying something, oui, what was it? sauveuse, perhaps that is like tu?"

she laughs, "you got me. angie's right. i dunno how she knows though."

"so it is you! comme c'est excitant! how exciting!"

"not really, boris."

"how so?"

"he's looking for her! imagine how disappointed he'll be when he finds out she's me!"

"eh?"

"it's half true, i guess. it's not exciting, but the story's very well real."

"i n’y a pas de verités moyennes. there are no half truths, mademoiselle."

"very sophisticated, boris." y/n rolls her eyes and continues to dust the shelves.

at the end of her shift, it's almost 10p.m.

she closes up and is surprised to find it's raining.

smiling to herself, she walks in the rain happily, enjoying the beautiful ambience of hogsmeade in night rain.

a tap on her shoulder brings her out of her thoughts. she stands face to face with cormac mclaggen.

unbeknownst to her, fred stands watching the exchange.

"hello, mclaggen."

"nice night, isn't it, darling?"

y/n sighs, "what do you want?"

"i want your company."

"no, goodbye. come to chase another girl who won't give you what you want?"

he scoffs, "i get all that i want. every single girl."

"get out of my face mclaggen," her tone is dangerous and hard. fred can tell she isn't angry just yet.

"as soon as you accept my date request."

"the first words you spoke to me, mclaggen, was 'you are a miserable beauty'. what makes you think i'll ever accept?"

"well just look at you, all pretty and vanilla-"

"get out of my way," she snaps, "all pretty and vanilla is out of your league."

fred watches as her eyes turn cold and furious, before she turns away with a swish of her ponytail, sparing one last cold glance at cormac and walks quickly away.

he's struck with realisation. he's seen that expression before. he's seen the hair before. those pretty eyes that gleam ominously. it's the girl. she's the girl. suddenly everything comes into place.

he doesn't know how or why or when exactly.

all he knows is that he loves y/n. and she's the one he's been looking for after all.

he runs after her. "y/n!"

"mclaggen just get out!" she turns to face him with those eyes, and that hair.

her eyes soften at the sight of him. they turn a bit lighter.

"oh, hi freddie."

"why didn't you tell me?"

"what?" y/n fiddles with her jumper hem. he can't know, can he?

"that all this time, we've been searching for you!"

she looks dismayed, "uh huh. yeap."

"why did you keep it secret?"

"i did think of telling you, but y'know, i played it out all in my head, and you seemed very excited and all, i didn't want to ruin it by just telling you this magnificent love story," she put quotation marks, "was with me. if i were you, i'd be disappointed, so i just let you go on with the nice fantasy. and whilst i'm spilling all my secrets i might as well get it all out. i like you maybe more than i should. and so it would hurt twice as much if you reacted badly to it and, and-"

she's cut off by a kiss on her lips.

her eyes widen. when they both pull out of the kiss, he chuckles at how surprised she is.

"what?"

"i like you too."

"so you're not mad?"

"no, just never keep a secret from me again."

"okay."

"and you need to promise me something."

"what is it?"

"that you'll be my girlfriend."

she smiles, "okay."

"that's it?"

"yup. okay."

she's grinning as she places a kiss on his nose, having to balance on her tiptoes to reach him. he blushes.

"and thank you."

"for?"

"saving me, loving me."

"always, freddie."

#fredweasley #fred weasley x y/n #frederick weasley #fred weasley x reader #gryffindor #hansel and gretel #fanfic #harry potter #hogwarts #hufflepuff #angelina johnson #alicia spinnet #y/n #harrypotter #hogsmeade #battle of hogwarts

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teletraan-meets-jarvis · 3 years ago

Note

hello ma'am id like to request a captain rex x f! or gn! reader,, maybe he's promised to take reader out on a date after he returns from a mission and when he does he asks you out and stuff bksbegksgjsn hope that provides inspiration

Ooooh I love this idea and it really did spark something in my brain so thanks for that!! :D. So happy to be writing again. See below for some happiness and fluff!

Date Night With The Captain

AO3 Link

Pairing: Rex x gn!Reader

Summary: You and Rex have been pining over each other for a while now, thankfully your good friends in the Elite Guard intervene to help speed things up.

Warnings: General Audience. Don't think there is any. One bit of swearing.

Word Count: 1.5k

It was another warm, smoggy day on Coruscant. The hatch door to the landing bay of the Republic Military HQ was open, allowing whatever small breeze the planet had to offer through. The top of your Republic issued jumpsuit was tied around your waist, letting the trousers hang loosely around your lower half, in attempt to keep yourself cool. You had the radio on as you worked beneath a red A-Wing, your mind on autopilot as you rewired, cut and welded through the repairs. Casually rolling back and forth on your dolly, humming along to the newest song the radio had to offer.

Given your work as a mechanic for the Republic since the start of the war, you’d gotten to know a lot of the clones from various battalions. You always had fun working on the ships for the Wolfpack as they were natural pilots who took a real appreciation in your work. In return, you made sure to always touch up the artwork of the two buckets and General Plo’s face for them on each ship, as you knew how much it meant to the men. Other battalions, while lovely, really did love to make your job difficult. Aka, the 501st. The clones weren’t too bad when it came to flying, it was more the involvement of General Skywalker which usually meant most of your ships didn’t even make it back, and the few that did were in a questionable state. Captain Rex always had the job of checking the ships back in to you due to Skywalker’s fear of facing your wrath for another ship mishap.

Captain Rex... you felt your mind drift to think of the clone you’d been getting close with over the past few years. He was easy company. A strong, friendly presence that was always welcome in your repair bay. He’d usually stick around for longer then he should, relaying their latest mission as he nursed a cup of caff while you worked away. You’d developed quite a crush on the Captain as time went on, how could you not? His buzz cut blonde hair, his caring nature, and that handsome face which despite being a clone, had something unique about it that made you smile every time he looked at you.

Yep, you were crushing bad on the Captain. But it wasn’t entirely one-sided. Just before he departed for his last mission, you think he was attempting to ask you out on a date before his comm went off and pulled him away and back to the war. You’d been running that interaction through your brain ever since he left, trying to guess how he would’ve liked to finish his sentence.

You let out a sigh at the thought. A person could dream right. You were suddenly pulled out of your thoughts when someone yanked your dolly from out under the ship, taking you with it. You were presented with a helmet-less, Commander Fox who’s curly hair was hanging just above his eyebrows. He didn’t say anything as he shoved a cup of caff in your direction.

You got yourself up from laying on your back and gratefully accepted the caffeine “Cheers, Fox”

“You need to take a break every so often” he stated while sipping at his own beverage.

“Rich coming from you” you winked at him, “Let me guess, Stone forced you to take a break by sending you to bring me a drink and make me take a break”

“Pretty much”

“Classic” you enjoyed the comfortable silence which fell between you both. Despite his overly stressed exterior, Fox was one of your closest friends. He and the other Elite Guard Commanders always made sure to check in and look after you and you did the same for them.

After a few minutes, he spoke again “Oh, Thorn needs your advice on something. He asked you to meet him in the mess hall”

“Dating drama again?” You questioned with a chuckle.

“Most likely” Fox replied with a roll of his eyes.

You bid Fox a farewell and set off to find Thorn. The military base very much stuck to a black and grey colour scheme so it was near impossible to distinguish one hallway from another if you didn’t know you way around by memory. Your jumpsuit made some swooshing noises as your legs skimmed past one another while you walked. Tools and bolts rattled in your pocket as you went. A contrast to the quiet you found in the hallways this evening.

Eventually you spotted Thorn standing outside the mess hall where he waved you inside and disappeared into the room.

You eventually caught up and walked in and the sight you were met with took your breath away. The lights in the hall were dimmed and there was a single table set up. A few candles lit up the centre and there were two portions of standard mess food waiting on either side in their signature metal trays. Standing next to the table was an awkward looking Captain Rex, his armour still dirty from battle. He had his helmet off, letting you see the flush of pink on his cheeks as he rubbed a hand down the back of his neck.

Thorn was practically bouncing with excitement as he pushed you forward into the room. “Well you kids have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t dooo!” He shouted as he ran out the door, closing it behind him.

You and Rex stood there for a moment, taking each other in. He looked quite vulnerable in that moment, waiting to see your reaction.

“Hey Captain, glad to see you’re back safe and sound” you said with a smile as you walked towards him. “What’s all this?”

“Well, I uh, I’ve been meaning to take you out for a while now, but things kept getting in the way. I know it’s not Coruscant’s finest dining experience-“

“It’s perfect” you cut him off, smile beaming on your face as you realised everything you’d been dreaming about these past months was true. “How’d you manage to pull this one off?”

“It was Thorn’s idea to be fair, he managed to get Fox on board to give us access to the mess hall after hours.” You chuckled at his words, of course they were meddling. Not that you minded of course, you knew exactly what you signed up for when it came to being friends with the Coruscant Elite Guard.

“You hungry?” Rex asked, much more relaxed now he had your approval on his surprise.

“Absolutely starving” you replied as you took your seat opposite the handsome Captain.

The pair of you chatted away as you ate the standard food that the base pumped out on the regular. Rex filled you in on his latest battles and 501st drama. He mentioned that it was only him from his battalion who had returned, and he was only back for a couple of days with the General to give a briefing to the Council before heading back out again. Which explained why Fives, Kix and Jesse hadn’t come storming into the repair bay to say hello to you.

You relayed what you and the guard had been up to, the pranks that Stone and Thorn had been playing on poor Fox, any fun stories about Palpatine that Fox had bitched about to you all.

Everything came so naturally with Rex; you spoke for what neither of your realised was hours. The candles burning slowly down until they were nearly running out of wax. You didn’t realise how much you’d missed his presence until right now.

Seeing an opportunity, you took his hand in yours on the table. Running your thumb over the hardened skin on his knuckles. “This has been probably the best evening I’ve had in a long time” you admitted, blushing.

“You and me both. But it’s not quite over yet” you cocked your head at the trooper in front of you as he hit something on his comm link and suddenly some slow jazz song started playing through the room’s speakers. Rex stood up and offered you a hand to join him. You nearly swooned at the entire thing. You’d never experienced romance like this. How did you get so lucky that he’d chosen you for all of this?

You took his outstretched hand as he led you to a slightly more open portion of the hall. You wrapped your arms around his neck, he was about to put his on your hips but paused and quickly asked for permission with a quiet “May I?” before he did so. It surely was not possible for a living being to be this adorable, handsome, perfect. Right?

The pair of you began to sway casually to the song that was playing. “So how did I do?” He asked with a small smirk on his lips.

“Honestly Captain, you couldn’t have done anything better. This is perfect” you smiled up at him. Your eyes met his fiery amber ones, filled with such warmth and content. You couldn’t wait any longer, you leaned up and placed your lips on his in a soft, first kiss. Both your movements were slow against one another, enjoying the languid pace set by the dancing and music, letting it guide your kiss.

You pulled away and met his eyes again. Yep you were falling for this man. Badly. But from the looks of it, he wasn’t too far behind you.

The pair of you danced the night away, the war forgotten for that one evening.

Back to Masterlist

#clone wars #star wars #rex x reader #captain rex #commander fox #commander thorn #commander stone #star wars fic #clone wars fic #fluff #coruscant #anakin skywalker #general skywalker

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searenbound · 3 years ago

Text

Commissioner wished to stay anonymous

They asked for a personalized love letter from Kirishima

For more comm info check this post for general prices and this one for love letter info and price

Warnings: self ship commission, physical features mentioned are that of the commissioner’s, female commissioner/reader, pinning Kiri, like one swear

Pairing: Eijirou Kirishima x commissioner/reader

Total word count: 619

Why and how he writes the letter

He’s honestly just kinda smitten with you. He may have a very happy go lucky demeanor, but there’s some real insecurities and anxiety under the surface and you make him feel comfortable with just being him when you hang out. You’re just comforting and easy to get along with.

So easy in fact, it’s started getting distracting. When you hang out he’s been finding it harder and harder to focus on anything that isn’t you. No matter the song you show him, the games you play together, or those action movies he’s usually just as into as you are, his focus has been on you. He writes the letter after realizing his feelings when his first thought on a game he was looking at was if you’d like it and he thinks about when he started putting your opinion on things first and noticed it’s not just simple things like movies and video games but pretty much everything he considers important. You’re important to him.

He doesn’t want to overwhelm you though, as cute as he thinks your reddened face is, he doesn’t want to put you on the spot when he knows how uncomfortable being center of attention is for you.

His penmanship is a little sloppy and his punctuation is pretty much none existent, but you can feel the passion he’s trying to convey to you. It does get a little rambling at parts though, you can tell he was nervous. He doesn’t do anything grand in terms of presentation just a folded sheet of paper he hands to you in private and telling you to read it and let him know what you honestly think once you have.

What the letter says

Ahh I’m no good at this sorta stuff! What do I even say? Uh? Write? It’s one of those not the point though!

Um I guess the point is well what do you think of me? Like as a boyfriend? Your boyfriend?

Only if you want me to be of course! I just think you’re really cool! Kinda like one of the guys.

Wait crap that’s not a good way to put it is it? I’m not saying you’re like a guy! I just meant well you’re just really easy to get along with. I like spending time with you and I always look forward to it. Always have. Lately though it’s been different?

I mean when we’re together I can’t think about anything but you.

We’ll be playing something all of a sudden you’re beating me because your eyes sparkle when the light hits them and all I can think about is how blue they are.

When you laugh at my stupid jokes like it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard I’m over the moon.

And when you share your favorite songs and bands with me I have to listen to over again because I couldn’t focus the first time and if it’s important to you then I want to understand why.

When we watch a movie I always end up watching you instead. That last one sounds creepy doesn’t it? Can we pretend I didn’t say/write that? Please?

I’m getting off topic.

I just really like you Pebbles. I’m not sure how you feel about me but I just wanted you to know how much I care about you. I want you to think about it, give me an answer when you’re ready and I’ll accept it no matter what! Just promise me that will still be friends if it’s a no?

Also if you say yes how does takeout and old action movies sound as a first date? We can build a pillow fort!

#eijirou kirishima x reader #eijirou x reader #kirishima x reader #kirishima eijirou x reader #comm work #commission work

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awesomefringey · 3 years ago

Note

if nothing changes at the end of the year i think i will believe it’s his son because i do not want to deal with it anymore. the less i dig the better for my mental health

I think for me, it’s hard to “unsee” the reality of what babygate is.

From the foreshadowing of bbg before it was even happening, to the pap that asked for a pic for The Sun which then was used as pic for The Sun, to the announcement when Brianna must have been like 8 weeks pregnant, to how Louis was literally beside himself during…

…the RBB/SBB comms towards fans, the whole photoshop madness and using other people’s baby belly pics and birth pics, Friends references, messing up the date of birth, Brianna carrying that baby like it’s nothing when stitched up like two days after birth, wearing a tiny leather dress to go partying a few days later, Louis calling the paps to present a probably empty stroller, later Louis wearing a Billie Jean shirt and then not doing anything about the kid publicly for years and Brianna pretty much verifying all rumors about how Freddie was brought into the world with the fertility clinic sono last year.

Louis still used all kinds of warnings for us to get ready in 2021. So these recent bbg moments aren’t random but planned incidents. Nothing has changed.

The situation is so messy, it had Louis stunned and frozen in place for years. The more empathetic we are as fans, the tougher it is to watch him doing it. I get it. Also there is a kid involved that never asked for any of it. Ethically, it doesn’t get worse than that. I really think Louis wants the best for F while his parents have sold him off to get their surrogate paid and moving forward to get the kids college tuition covered and Austin a brand new car a few days ago and what not.

There will always be official narrative vs unofficial narrative. Everyone needs to navigate this fandom the way it’s best for them of course. It should be fun at the end of the day. If it’s easier to go by “official program”, that’s alright too.

I think especially newer and also younger fans are willing to accept F is his kid and think Larry is real too without looking much further. The cruel reality of closeting is hard to comprehend and even harder to accept. Please take care. 💜

In reference to this and this.

#bbg #for show #ask #larries in crisis #is my sarcasm tag btw

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years ago

Text

The “Perfect” Couple

Natasha Romanoff x reader

warnings: alcohol, guns

a/n: i feel a lil gay in this chilis tonight

prompt: natasha and you were history, but still worked together. fury just paired you up for another mission, what could go wrong? or right?

You and Nat tried to keep things professional, but you also tried to keep a distance. After the two of you split, there were still some hard feelings. But you two do what spies do best, you lie and hide what could get in the way of a mission. The current mission was...to mask your true feelings about the breakup.

“Agent Romanoff, Agent l/n, I have a mission for you.” Fury called the pair of you over to debrief you, but this was already a bit worrisome. You and Nat? What was he thinking?

“A mission for the both of us?” You asked as you approached the director together.

“I’m glad to know you can hear, Agent.” He sarcastically and you held your tongue as Nat gave a sly smirk. “You two are going to be attending a gala hosted by a high-profile threat. As a couple.” You held your breath and waited for Natasha to comment.

“All due respect, sir, but why us?” She and you exchanged glances. “Me and y/n, we...” She paused and cleared her throat. “we’re not exactly on great terms right now.”

“Well, Romanoff, you two are my best agents, so you better learn how to get along on this mission.” He turned away and left you both a bit speechless. “And do not. Blow. Your cover. Agent Hill will be detailing the rest of the mission for you, I just needed to break the ice.” You noticed a little curve in his lips and heated up in the face, he could be so mean sometimes. But there was no getting out of this one, time to get professional. Next, pair of you would head to Maria for debriefing.

—————

Natasha was stunning in the deep red and black dress she chose to wear, you could just barely keep your eyes off of her and you knew she noticed. There was no doubt she was sneaking looks at you, too. God, you missed this, being such a power couple. Whatever room you walked into together, it was all about you and her.

You led Natasha through the crowd of fancy rich people who could all be tagged as criminals, but there was a special one you were there for. Nat and you had locked your arms together, but she used her opposite hand to clasp onto your arm, nails starting to dig into your skin.

“Is there a problem, ‘Natalie?’” You looked over to see a genuine looking smile on your face, but as a fellow spy, you could tell when she was faking it.

“No. No problem here, my dear.” She answered through clenched teeth before the two of you found your seats and felt a sense of relief from finally separating by just a foot or so. “Could I get some champagne?” Natasha asked the waiter and he quickly complied. “Thank you so much, you’re wonderful.” She took the glass and quickly began drinking.

“Are you done or do you need another? Because he have a job to do.” You rolled your eyes at her tendencies and waited for her to finish.

“If you want me to look like I’m enjoying myself tonight, you’ll let me drink, got it?” She set the glass down and took a quick glance around the room to see if there was any suspicious activity to check out. “Out of all the agents at SHIELD, Fury just had to stick me with you.” Your ex-girlfriend commented under her breath.

“Hey, Nat, I don’t like this any more than you do, but we agreed we would keep things professional and that’s what I plan to do.” You snapped at her while she gave you a tired expression, as if she didn’t care one bit for what you had to say. “We have a job and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can go on with our lives.” Your disagreement seemed to be causing a small scene, a few pairs of eyes were on you. So Natasha leaned forward and pulled your face in for a passionate kiss, you hadn’t tasted her lips in such a long time.

“You were gonna blow our cover.” She swatted your leg as she pulled away. There was nothing fun about this mission, but that kiss sure brought back some memories. You could barely remember why the two of you broke up in the first place. You sat there staring at Natasha for just a moment more while she smiled at you, probably thinking you were pathetic for getting bit flustered from that. “‘Mx. Rushman,’” She started, “would you care to dance?”

“Sure thing, Natalie.” You took a deep breath and offered your hand to take her to the dance floor, a slower song was being played by the live band. “Remember how we used to dance in my living room?”

“How could I forget?” Nat placed her hands in the appropriate position and looked over your shoulder, if anything where to happen, you were literally watching each other’s backs. “You always stepped on my feet.” She switched her gaze back to your eyes and smiled.

“Oh, well, I’m sorry I’m not a perfect ballerina.” You scoffed and turned your head as you shook it. Her little chuckle took you back, as well. This night sucked because it made you feel like you were missing out, you wondered how Natasha felt. “Four o’clock.” You whispered and Nat inconspicuously took a chance to see what you were looking at. The target.

“Keep and eye on him, we’ll finish this song and then go after him.” She instructed, leaving you to accept that before you realized something was wrong.

“Wait, what?” You whispered. “You don’t want to go after him now? While we have him?” You asked your ex in disbelief, this wasn’t very typical of her, the mission always came first.

“I’m having fun dancing.” She admitted as her red lips curved up. Was she serious? “Don’t get too flattered, y/n...We’ll find him in a few more minutes.” Nat closed the gap in between the two of you and leaned her head on your shoulder as each of you swayed back and forth along with the music. “This mission could be worse, I guess.” You heard her mutter into your ear and you gave a little exhale out of your nose in place of a chuckle.

“Oh, I’m sure.” You remarked ask the song officially came to an end. “Wanna wrap this up now?” You asked as your felt a warm kiss on your cheek. “Natalie” grabbed your hand and led you to your target, this wouldn’t take long if you chose the right timing.

“Wait for him to enter that room right there, It’s empty for now, we’ll be able to get him without much of a hassle.” She told you over the comms as you separated. You watched from afar as your target entered said room and decided this was it, time to make your move. “Now.” She headed towards the door and you followed a couple moments behind. In she went to confront the wanted criminal, who quickly had his men come in...with guns.

“I thought Fury said this would be hard.” You shook your head in disappointment and equipped your own guns, pointing them at the wealthy mister that was about to go down. “If anyone moves, I shoot twice, you hear?” Natasha watched proudly with her own weapons out. You never went down without a fight, she admired that.

“Anyone feel like getting their asses kicked today? The party’s been a little dull, so we’re bored.” She paced the room, training her weapons on the goons she passed, it’s almost as if she smelled fear. “Yes, no, maybe..? Okay.” Your (ex) partner spun and kicked a goon right in the kneecap with the tip of her heel, making him tumble to the ground instantly. All hell broke loose from there as you fired your warning shot and charged for some hand-to-hand combat with the boys who wouldn’t last out here.

“Give it up, guys, we can do this all night.” You shouted as you fired a shot into another guy’s leg, causing him to fall instantly with a thud. “Did that hurt?” You asked when you passed him, going directly to tackle the target while Nat finished up her four-course beating. You restrained the crook as she gracefully walked over and kneeled down next to you.

“Huh, guess we still make a pretty good team.” Nat winked and helped you pull this guy up, then contacting SHIELD to come on in and take him away.

“Still hate my guts?” You cocked your eyebrow and saw her shining a grin that was as real as could be, seems the two of you had gotten over your differences on this fateful mission. Nick Fury was a clever SOB.

“I wish I could say ‘yes,’ but you’re just so hard to hate.” She wrapped her arms around your neck and brought you in for an amazing kiss that you knew was meant for you from Natasha, not from your alter-egos. Reconciliation, something you thought would never happen between yourself and Nat. “Can we get dinner tomorrow night? Call it a date?” She suggested as she pulled away, still keeping her face close.

“I think that could work.” You bit your lip to hide the giant smile fighting to show. “I have to say, we did some good work today.”

“No kidding, and we looked great while doing it, too.”

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @allthecreativeonesaretaken // @frostedgiant // @emygirl // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisbisexual // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @purpleskiesstorm //

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff imagine #natasha romanoff #black widow imagine #black widow x reader #black widow #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #avengers #avengers x reader #avengers imagine

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necro-hamster · 2 years ago

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Hello!!! I'm currently trying to save up for school and so I can eventually get out of a not-so-amazing living situation!

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#commission sheet #open commissions #commissions #emergency commissions #:^/#art #fanart #original character #gift commission #furry #anthro #cyberpunk 2077 #fallout #red dead redemption #far cry 5 #<- main stuff i tend to do on this blog #illustration #figured i should make a new post

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boldlyanxious · 4 years ago

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Remember When 18-Party

RW master list

Casual drug and alcohol use

She shouldn't be surprised when she heard boots land behind her not long after she left the grocery store. She groaned internally as she heard the familiar sound of his cape fluttering. The timing couldn't be better for such an inconvenience because her destination was her co-worker's party rather than home so he still wouldn't know the direction she lived in.

"Greetings, Disapproving Night Beast. I was just not thinking of you."

"We have things to discuss."

"I have nothing to say."

He took a step towards her. Her grocery bag made a crinkling sound as she gripped it tighter but she refused to be cowed. She left her feet planted and didn't break eye contact.

"You are getting information from somewhere. Tell me," he commanded.

From the look he gave her, he was not expecting her to laugh. It was very clear he expected her to yield to his demands for information. Possibly it would have been effective if she hadn't already given them all the information she had.

"This isn't a movie plot and I'm not a super spy. I've already told you everything I know."

"I will find a way to get you to tell me everything. So you aren't working for them anymore, but they would be interested to know more about you."

His step towards her along with his words felt much more menacing and she took a half step back to keep herself upright. Marinette hoped her eyes didn't betray her terror at his implication. She would certainly give him any information she had at that veiled threat but she knew nothing. He just seemed to refuse to accept that. Perhaps he disapproved of her being with Red Robin. Based on conversations she had heard Batman and his team had a varied past with the law and the media but currently they were celebrated by both. Perhaps this dark side of him was what had turned opinion in the past.

"When you have done that, what then? Will you feel any better when you finally realize that I never knew anything?"

She turned away and continued walking, not even turning when he promised to be back after she had a chance to think about it. She was shaking. She wasn't sure if it was anger or fear. She felt like crying. She wished she didn't think of Tim and how comforting it would be to have him wrap his arms around her but she knew he would be out patrolling just like Batman was.

She actually really hoped the party would distract her from thinking about it for a bit. If she thought too hard she would have all her things packed and be gone by morning.

---

Tim got home from patrol and he was actually in a pretty good mood. Finally everyone was getting along and working together. Patrol hadn't gone that well in a long time. They were able to find a few possible leads that sounded promising and even Batman seemed hopeful. Actually he had seemed to be in a better mood all night tonight. He allowed more personal chatter on the comms and even made a joke himself. Maybe Alfred gave him the good tea before patrol.

Tim hoped Marinette would be awake to chat. He had seen her three other times since they met again the previous weekend. Twice for coffee and once for a movie in an almost deserted theater so they could talk without disturbing others and she wouldn't feel trapped. He couldn't convince her to go on a real date or go back to one of their apartments. She thought all of them knowing where she worked was more than enough information.

He smiled to see that he had a message from her. He kicked his shoes off and sprawled across his couch before unlocking his phone, grinning the whole time. He bit his lip as he passed the notification and then bolted upright when he read it. His stomach knotted and his smile disappeared when he read her simple message.

I can't see you anymore. It was great while it lasted. <3 M

The time stamp was from 42 minutes ago. He called her phone. He knew she wouldn't pick up but he had to try. They had just talked this afternoon and everything was great. He knew she had been hanging out with coworkers tonight. He wondered if they had said something about him. He didn't tell her exactly who he was. He gave his name but he knew she didn't know exactly what that meant. But with her ability to see through masks knowing him would tell her the entire bat family. He tried calling one more time but texted when she refused the call.

Please talk to me.

---

Marinette wasn't entirely comfortable at the party. She had never really been to one like this. Last time she hung out with her co-workers they all sat around watching videos and drinking beer or wine. Arnold, the cook, followed her when she went for a refill. He had kissed her and she let him. But then at work things were really weird for a few days. First 2 days he avoided looking at her the rest of that week he talked loudly about his new girlfriend.

This party though was loud and crowded. She tried to not make her drinks strong but she found herself drinking nervously a lot. There were too many people she didn't know and a lot of them seemed to be using heliotrope. It reminded her of her experience and of Batman telling her he would tell them how to find her. She sent a message to Tim knowing it would leave him in the dark but perhaps would get Batman to leave her alone.

She was filling her drink when he called back. She watched the screen until it stopped buzzing. She used the nearest bottle and took a shot before ending the next incoming call. She knew there were people watching her probably curious why she was staring at her phone while it rang. She took another shot before she picked the phone back up and read the message. She looked over as one from the group watching her spoke.

"He isn't worth it. You should have some of this. It will help you feel better."

She shook her head at the offer of the heliotrope. She definitely didn't want that again. She held up the drink she had filled just before her phone rang.

"I still have to work in the morning. This will probably make that hard enough."

She walked over to join their group anyway. She didn't know anyone except her co-workers and they were all spread out. The girl who spoke to her made introductions to the rest of the group and Marinette introduced herself as Meg. The conversation was pretty basic. They talked about work and activities they liked but the girl, Ashley gestured back to them phone that Marinette had looked back at again.

"Is your boyfriend giving you trouble?"

"I don't think he's my boyfriend anymore."

There was a commotion from the other room followed by cheering. Ashley dragged her along as they headed over to see what was happening. Marinette wished she hadn't once she got there. One of the people at the party knew a supplier for heliotrope and they had called them over to bring some for the party goers. The first one who there were 3 who came in to travel around seeing who wanted to buy.

That would have been fine but one of Ashley's friends pushed her forward and announced she had never had any and was afraid to try it. There was lots of encouragement from the others to give it a shot. Even one of the other waitresses told her she would be fine for her shift tomorrow. Ashley suggested it might make her feel better after breaking up with her boyfriend. Her friend though had a different plan.

"Maybe you have an extra or two she could try. I bet she would really feel better then."

Marinette suspected he either wanted her to feel loopy or wanted to benefit from the free doses that she didn't want. She tried to decline but the dealer called over his boss. It all happened at once. She looked down at her phone to see a second message from Tim. Then she looked up and made eye contact with the man she knew was swat or former swat as her cup clattered to the floor with a splatter of liquid and half melted ice cubes.

Tags

#maribat #timinette #timari #boldlyanxious

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holycafe · 4 years ago

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Preview for Just Friends ch23

Hey @legendarilymessedup you said you were after something to cheer you up, so I hope this helps <3 and I hope your night gets better.

And for anyone who hasn’t read the first 22 chapters and wants to give it a go, you can find the fic here on AO3. It’s a fake-dating slowburn fic where Barry doesn’t realise he’s actually in a fake relationship. Lots of shenanigans.

Len felt like he was dreaming.

He had Barry in his arms; finally, after hours of worrying, Barry was safe. That alone would have been enough to make him smile. Even if Barry had shot Len down, broke off their real-fake-relationship, and crushed Len’s heart, he still would have been happy to get Barry back home to his team, safe and sound.

But none of that happened.

Instead…

Instead, Barry loved him.

Those three words swam around and around in Len’s head, playing on repeat and blocking out everything else.

Barry was kissing him, and Barry loved him.

“–Err… Snart?–” Iris’ voice said through the comms in his ear, and Len groaned in annoyance as he broke the kiss. “–Hate to break up the party, but I can’t keep Eddie hanging around outside forever–” Barry looked confused – and extremely cute, even covered in mud as he was and sporting a serious split lip and bruised jaw – by Len suddenly pulling away. So, Leonard shook his head, pressing a reassuring kiss to Barry’s cheek and gesturing towards the earpiece. Cisco’s comms unit was about as covert as they came, so Len knew Barry couldn’t see it. But he understood anyway, nodding and taking a step back out of Len’s arms.

For a moment, Len began to panic that the kid was going to freak out again. Kissing Len in front of the Rogues was one thing, but doing it while Team Flash was listening in was an altogether different matter. It didn’t make a difference to Len, of course… but it surely would to the Scarlet Speedster.

Len tensed, preparing himself as he expected Barry to pull away and leave again…

But Barry just stooped down to the floor and picked Len’s cane up. When he stood back up again to pass it over, he was smiling; his green eyes shining happily beneath the mud, and blood, and bruises covering his delicate skin.

Len kissed him once more, grinning while Barry laughed against his lips.

“Get a room, would you?” Scudder muttered, having roused again after the fight. Rosa had been awake for a while, sullenly silent. However, Len was only paying them the bare minimum of attention, trusting Lisa and Mick to keep their enemies under control. Which was exactly what Lisa did, kicking Sam sharply in the shin until he grunted and shut up.

“–Seriously, Snart!–” Iris said, impatient. “–Eddie doesn’t know about the two of you, and I don’t think Barry would want him to find out by him just accidentally walking in on you guys mid-make out–”

Len groaned again and pulled away from Barry once more.

“Fine,” he drawled, his fingers brushing against Barry’s as he finally accepted the offered cane. “Send Eddie in.” Barry straightened up a little bit at the drop of the detective’s name, looking a little nervous. He cast a look over his shoulder and then seemed to altogether freeze.

Len attempted to follow Barry’s line of sight, trying to figure out what was wrong before it could bite them in the ass… but there appeared to be nothing there. The area of the room that Barry was running his eyes over was completely empty.

But then, that was apparently the problem.

“Where’s Shawna?” Barry asked, sounding worried enough that it made the hairs on the back of Len’s neck rise.

Mick shrugged before grunting out an answer. “She and Mardon poofed out of here while you ‘n’ Snart were playing tonsil hockey.” He paused for only a moment before grumpily adding: “Can’t say I blame ‘em.”

“Oh, crap,” Barry muttered quietly under his breath. Len wanted to ask what was wrong, wanted to raise his hand to cup Barry’s face and force him to make eye contact again, wanted to hold him and assure him that – whatever it was – they could get through it. Together.

But then Eddie Thawne entered the room, cautiously with his gun drawn but not aimed. Len waited and watched as the detective gave Barry a smile and a pat on the shoulder – his hand coming away covered in mud from Barry’s clothes, making Len look down at himself, realising that he too was coated in the stuff now. He supposed he could come up with something to explain that away though if he needed to.

Eddie moved to arrest Barry’s kidnappers, keeping a cautious birth from Mick who was still non-too-happy to be working with a pig… not that Len blamed him. And while the detective’s back was turned, Len quickly holstered his cold gun and used his now-spare hand to lead Barry out of the room.

Or maybe ‘to be led by Barry out of the room’ would be a more accurate description. Because, although Len gave the first subtle nudge towards the door, it was Barry who ended up offering Len a shoulder to – literally – lean on as they walked. Because now that the adrenaline of the fight was wearing down, his injured thigh was beginning to burn with a white-hot fury again from overuse. Len gritted his teeth as he limped away from the scene, putting far too much weight on his cane, and possibly squeezing just a little too harshly on Barry’s shoulder. And, Christ, Len wished that he could focus on that. He wished that he could lose himself in the moment and revel in the closeness of Barry’s body and the intimacy that they were finally sharing after all these months of being so completely oblivious to their feelings for one another.

But the look in Barry’s eye and the worried set to his bruised and bloodied lips reminded Len that nothing was ever that simple. Not for him.

Once they were outside in the fresh air, Barry took a deep breath and sighed up at the grey clouds above while Len took the comms piece out of his ear, wanting some privacy.

“What’s going on?” he asked, and Barry’s shoulders drooped as he turned to face Leonard.

“Shawna nearly got shot,” Barry explained, and Len nodded. He’d seen Sam fire the gun at her, but he’d also seen her get out of the way as the bullet drove straight into the wall behind them. He didn’t understand what was wrong here, but Barry’s anxiety only seemed to have grown. “I had to use my powers to save her.”

Ah.

‘Oh, crap’ was right.

“I’ll talk to her,” Barry quickly reassured him, and Len nodded. He was going to offer his company, but he could already see the answer to that question in Barry’s eyes. This was something that he felt like he needed to do alone, and Len could understand that. He knew that he wasn’t the most welcoming of people; he was often cold, and people could find it difficult to talk freely while he was around. Barry would have a much easier time talking to Shawna and Mark if Len wasn’t there.

Len could understand that, but he didn’t have to like it.

“Wear something Cisco can track,” he said. After all, Len had only just got Barry back, he didn’t want to lose him again. Not now. Not ever.

Barry smiled and nodded and looked like he was about to go in for another kiss. But then the door behind them opened again. Barry just about managed to stop himself before it was too late as Eddie Thawne walked out, leading the now-handcuffed Rosa Dillon and Sam Scudder towards his police cruiser. Len tensed his jaw in annoyance, wishing that they could just stop getting interrupted already.

“You’re pouting,” Barry laughed, and Len mustered up a glare. But they both knew there was no real ice behind it.

Barry’s grin softened around the edges as they stared into each other’s eyes. He still looked as though he wanted to lean in for a kiss. But, instead, he reached out and casually adjusted the hood on Len’s parka, his fingertips brushing softly against the skin on Len’s bare neck.

“I have so much I need to tell you,” he said, his voice so soft-spoken and yet so raw. Len yearned to reach out and touch him, to hold his hand, to kiss his cheek. But he couldn’t. They were already pushing their luck here with the gentle way that Barry was fixing his coat, and Len knew that anything more would surely give away their game to Detective Thawne.

This wasn’t exactly the first time that Len had needed to resist the urge to touch Barry. Yet, somehow, the weight of their physical separation felt heavier now that he knew Barry loved him back. Now that he knew the desire to hold and be held was mutual.

Len stared across into Barry’s beautiful green eyes, marvelling at how gorgeous he was. Even coated in mud – which Len would really need to get the story behind later – and bruises and his slowly-healing split lip… he was beautiful. Len wondered how he’d ever got so lucky as for Barry Allen to fall in love with him. And it was lucky. No matter how much heartbreak Len had felt this past few days, it was all worth it to just be able to look into Barry’s eyes and have him look back as though Len was his whole world.

Barry bit nervously against his bottom lip and then winced as the movement reminded him of the cut that he was still sporting there. Len raised his hand instantly to Barry’s face wanting to soothe his discomfort away. But he had to stop himself before he could cup Barry’s jaw and run his thumb along Barry’s lip. His hand uselessly hovered there for a moment, inches away from Barry’s face, before Len balled it back into a soft fist and dropped to his side once more.

“Oh, fuck it,” Barry breathed out, Len’s only warning before he stepped forward that last few inches and collided their mouths together again. Barry was holding on tighter to the fur of Len’s parka now, using it to pull Len forward even though there was no more ‘forward’ for Len to go.

Len wrapped his arm around Barry’s waist and buried his fingers into the back of his shirt, not even caring that the thick layer of mud there was still very much damp. Len couldn’t care less that he was getting covered in mud, not so long as Barry was the one behind it. Barry’s tongue skirted against Len’s, pushing and taking and driving him insane. Len chased the kiss, holding on for as long as he possibly could.

But eventually, they both had to come back up for air. And when that moment came, Len closed his eyes and pressed their foreheads together, and did everything he possibly could to pretend that they were alone.

Another moment passed before Barry pulled away from Len’s touch and turned to face the music. Len followed Barry’s gaze, and their movement was enough to catch Detective Thawne’s attention. He had been leaning against the hood of his police cruiser, appearing as though he was doing his best not to pry on Barry’s moment with Len while he attempted to get a meaningful conversation out of Mick. Len didn’t have to imagine how that endeavour was going.

But now that Barry and Len had pulled apart again, Thawne stood up straight and gave Barry a reassuring smile.

Barry was definitely relieved to see Eddie wasn’t looking overtly angry or uncomfortable about their latest act of PDA. And Barry’s happiness made Len happy in return. Barry looked back up to Len and smiled nervously.

“Could I borrow your bike?” he asked. “I really don’t think I should wait much longer before I track down Shawna, but I can’t exactly go running off right now.”

“You can, actually,” Len corrected. “Mick and Lisa already know you’re the Flash.” Expectedly, Barry frowned at that, so Len shrugged. “Ask Cisco about it.” Because Len couldn’t have answered any questions about it if he’d wanted to. He was still very muggy on those particular details.

“Oh, okay,” Barry nodded, taking the revelation in stride. “I… uh… I’ll see you tonight?” he asked, sounding hopeful in a way that made Len’s stomach do little happy flips.

“I hope so.”

Barry nodded again, looking as though he was going to step away. But at the last second, he leant back in and pressed a sweet kiss on Len’s cheek. Then Barry backed up, heading towards the where the bikes were parked. The second that he was out of sight of the police cruiser and the criminals handcuffed inside, he slipped into superspeed and ran away.

#i don't think many of my coldflash readers still follow me #so this probably only to get like 2 notes i guess #¯\_(ツ)_/¯#coldflash #leonard snart #barry allen #dc #len x barry

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dearest-bucky · 4 years ago

Text

Birthday wish (One Shot)

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Bucky Barnes doesn’t love his birthdays, but maybe he can learn to.

Words: 2.5K

Warnings: none, a fluffy ending as usual hihii

A/N: I was supposed to write and post this on Bucky’s birthday but couldn’t find it in me to do, so here it is now. I hope you like it! Feedback is truly appreciated! xx

Originally posted:�� March 19. 2020

Monday, 11:05 PM

It was late and they were all battered and exhausted, but despite that, they still had to swipe the place to find any new information on Hydra and then blow it up to hell.

What was supposed to be a simple recon mission, ended up being a real bloodbath. As always. When has there ever been such thing as a simple mission with the Avengers? Something would always come and fuck up the plans for an easy in and out job.

This time the fuck up came in the form of more than a dozen Hydra thugs charging at them with guns and knifes, resulting in the death of them of course. But despite the result and the fact that they won the battle, the Avengers didn’t come out without scratches or wounds themselves.

Steve had a busted lip, Bucky was having technical problems with his arm because of a bullet that was caught in it, Sam had a seemingly deep gash on his side that kept oozing blood out and Y/n was fuming because ‘she had just done her nails the other day and she broke one of them while fighting with those Hydra bastards’.

“Thirty seconds until explosion.” Steve informed over the comms and all of them made a run for the jet before they could get caught in the big boom.

As soon as they got in, y/n was on Sam’s side, helping him with his wound.

“C'mon Bird Man, I have get you out of this shirt if you don’t want to die of bleeding out.”

“If you wanted to see me naked all you had to do was ask sweetheart.” Despite the fact that his skin was paler than ever before and he was losing all energy, Sam still couldn’t give up him sense of humor.

Bucky who was sitting just a few inches away, chuckled at his words but said nothing anyway.

Y/n rolled her eyes playfully and pressed on his gash with an alcohol pad a little more than necessary, making Sam wince in pain. Then she continued to clean his wound and did her best to stop the bleeding until they got to the compound. She was no doctor after all, and every specific procedure would have to wait for a real specialist of medicine.

Tuesday, March 10 3:34 AM

After arriving at the compound and literally taking Sam with force to the medical bay, Y/n could finally get to her own room and get a well deserved shower. The mission had taken a toll on her, same as on everybody else, but to be fair, those super soldiers had it easier when it came to fighting.

Once she got in the shower and let the hot water wash down all the dirt and blood off of her, she felt herself immediately relax. It was all she needed and she could live there forever. However, after another 10 minutes of thoroughly washing herself she turned the water off and wrapped a big fluffy towel around her body.

Next thing in the list: sleep.

She patted her body dry with the towel and changed into a pair of clean pajama, falling in her bed like the dead, immediately shutting her mind out and letting sleep take her away.

She was soundly sleeping when her door silently opened and somebody got in her room with small, quiet steps.

“Doll, you awake?” Nothing more than a whispered voice breaking the silence of the night, and when the only answer he got was her heavy breathing, he turned around without so much as a noise and left, just as he had come.

Y/n was still soundly sleeping.

5:00 AM

Bucky couldn’t sleep. No matter how tired he was. No matter how much he wanted to close his eyes and get a couple of much needed hours of sleep. He couldn’t close his eyes. He couldn’t shut his mind.

Today was his birthday. Not that he cared that much about it. He had had more birthdays than he cares to count anymore, but there was something about the date that made him restless.

He was currently in his room, half laying in his bed, a few old photos scattered carelessly on his blanket. He couldn’t tear his eyes off of them.

One of his mother with a little baby on her arms, his baby sister Rebecca. A couple more of his parents, one of his sister alone. Another of him, in his army uniform, a boyish smirk plastered on his face.

“Young fool.” He thought to himself.

All those pictures were some kind of present from Steve when he first got back from Wakanda. He said they would help him with his recovery, and of course everyone should have at least a couple of photos of their family.

After all, they were the only thing he had left from his family. And Bucky really held on to those photographs.

With most of his memories back, he remembers one of his early birthdays. He was turning 20, probably, and he and Steve had gone to this dance club in Manhattan.

He had literally begged Steve to go with him there just to dance with some pretty dames he couldn’t remember their names anymore. And that was not because of the brainwashing.

Now he hated his birthdays. Just another day to remind him he shouldn’t be alive now, in this year. Another reminder of all the things he had been through in his long, miserable life.

He let out a long sigh and turned to lay on his side, placing the photos carefully on his nightstand.

10:30 AM

The kitchen was buzzing with lively chatter, however not everyone was feeling their brightest today.

With most of the team having a day off, it was natural they wanted to spend it relaxing at home, so they were all enjoying their late breakfast and talking with each other about everything and more.

Y/n made her way to the coffee machine for the second time that morning and Natasha chuckled at her state; eyes puffy from tiredness, as if she hadn’t slept a wink, hair messy, she didn’t care enough to look at least presentable today.

“Aren’t you a treat for the eyes?” She teased and y/n just grunted in response, chugging down a large sip of her coffee.

Only after she had drank the second mug, she rubbed her face with her hands and tried to pat down the messy hair by combing it with her fingers.

She turned to look around the room, finding Natasha and Wanda sitting near her talking about God knows what, she wasn’t paying attention to any of it.

Steve was standing a few feet away, reading a newspaper like a grandpa. No matter how much anybody tried to convince him to read the news online, he insisted that actually touching the newspaper was quite a feeling. Weird old man.

Bruce and Tony were just next to Steve talking about their next science project, apparently, and Vision was creepily floating on Tony’s left side, listening intently to what they were saying.

Just as she averted her eyes to look for somebody else, Sam entered the kitchen looking so much better than last night, a bright smile adorning his silly handsome face.

“Good morning everyone.” He greeted cheerfully and all the people in the room greeted him back with the same enthusiasm.

Steve was the first to fold the newspaper he was reading and got up from his seat, patting Sam on the shoulder and asking him if he was doing okay.

When they both sat down again Y/n went to Sam with a plate of pancakes Wanda had made earlier and a cup of hot coffee, offering it to him.

His eyes shone bright and he stretched his arms out to give her a hug. “You’re an angel.” He said only for her to hear and she grinned in response.

“Do you know where Bucky is?” Y/n then asked when she sat down next to both men. “Is he still sleeping?”

Steve shifted in his seat uncomfortably and smiled sweetly her way, trying to not make his best friend look weird in y/n’s eyes.

“No, he actually got up about an hour ago and he left the compound. Said he had some work to do.”

Y/n only nodded her head in understanding.

She knew today was Bucky’s birthday and she knew how much he hated it, just like he hated making a big deal out of it, like celebrating or throwing a party. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t even wish him “Happy birthday”. However if he was out of the compound all day there was no way for her to do that either.

If there was one thing y/n knew though, was that she wasn’t going to let this go. No matter how much Bucky tried to disappear on his birthday as a way to avoid the wishes and presents and whatnot, y/n was a really stubborn person, so she wouldn’t let him off the hook easily this time.

Last year she had made him a cake and when all the team were having dinner together she brought the cake out singing “happy birthday” to Bucky. What she didn’t expect though, was for him to get upset with her and storm out of the room.

When she went after him to ask what was wrong he yelled at her saying that 'She didn’t have to do anything for him. They were not even friends so why would she care about his birthday. He didn’t even care about his own birthday!!’

But that was last year though. Last year Y/n was new to the team and Bucky was right, they weren’t even friends. They were barely teammates at that point.

This year however, things were different.

With each passing day after that 'dreadful one’, as y/n jokingly calls it now, they have actually created a special bond with each other, relying on each other a little more than they both would care to admit. It was a unusual connection, something neither of them could name. Something between more than friends but less than lovers. Something between denial and acceptance of feelings. Feelings they still hadn’t labelled.

9:15 PM

Bucky hadn’t returned to the compound the whole day. She had been waiting for him to come back sometime, but after waiting around for most of the day, she decided to stop sulking around in her room waiting for Friday to let her know when he was back.

With a newfound purpose she made her way to the kitchen and got out everything she needed from the cupboards to make little cupcakes. Every flavor she could think of; chocolate and peanut butter, vanilla, chocolate filling, sprinkles strawberry, red velvet.

After whole hours of mixing and baking she put them all in a serving tray, putting them on the counter for anyone who would pass by the kitchen to see and eat.

All but one. She picked a chocolate one and a small birthday candle and headed to Bucky’s room. She knew he wasn’t back yet, but she figured she could wait for him there.

After more than half an hour waiting and still no sign of Bucky, y/n was starting to feel sleepy.

She glanced at the small clock on his nightstand, bright red numbers shining 11:54 PM on the screen.

Figuring it was only 6 more minutes until his birthday would be over, she just lit the candle and placed the cupcake on the nightstand as well, the candle slowly burning. She decided to lay down on his bed to rest her eyes for a moment before he would come back.

She knew he was about to come back. With the day finally being over and everything.

It was strange how well she knew him. But then again, they had spent the best of last year’s together, most of the time attached to the hip and during this whole time they had learned almost everything about each other.

With thoughts of him in mind she fell asleep slowly, then all at once.

11:57 PM

Bucky sighed when he arrived at the compound. He had been all day out wandering around New York, mostly in Brooklyn, comparing new stores with the old ones, alleys, streets, bars, everything.

He opened the door to his room quietly, force of habit really, this whole having to always be quiet thing. But he also didn’t want to make too much noise that could wake any of the guys up, especially Steve whose room was next to his.

Just as he got inside his room, his eyes fell on the body that was curled on his bed, sleeping soundly. Then to the cupcake on the nightstand, with the candle almost entirely melted, but still lighting. His mind connected the dots easily and he let out a breath he didn’t know was holding.

He shuffled awkwardly around the room until he decided to wake y/n up, going to the bed, half hovering over her.

“Y/n…” He shook her arm slightly, but it was enough for her to wake up.

“Bucky.” She smiled at him sweetly, one of her smiles that was always directed to him and he knew that well.

Her eyes quickly averted to the cupcake beside her and she got herself up, now sitting on the bed and quickly took the small dessert in her hands. The clock was showing the time 11:59 PM.

“Quick, blow it!” The candle was half out, just a small flame hanging in there, like a last breath of life.

Upon seeing the hopeful glint in her eyes, he blew the candle out without a second thought and she smiled at him again.

“Happy Birthday Bucky!” Her voice was barely a whisper but he heard it clear.

Not wanting to break her heart with his grumpiness he smiled back and thanked her.

“Did you make a wish?”

He nodded his head softly.

He had made his wish way before that moment. Actually, since the moment he saw her enter the compound after Nick Fury when she was just a new recruit. Then he had made his wish when she made a birthday cake for him in his last birthday. And he had made his wish yesterday before they went on that mission, and after they came back.

He had been making wishes every day since the day he met her. And it was always the same.

With big eyes she was looking at his face, expectantly, waiting for him to tell her what he wished for.

Instead he showed her.

Putting the cupcake back on the nightstand he took her hands in his and closed the distance between them, kissing her softly. He lightly swept his tongue between her lips, pressing his warm, soft lips to hers.

She sighed against his mouth and he felt his heart flutter in his chest. Maybe he could learn to love his birthday again.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes imagines

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aricazorel · 3 years ago

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Writing Tag Game

Tagged by @ljanderson Thank you! Haven’t done one in a while!

Tagging: @ripley95 @rpgwrites @crqstalite @noire-pandora @commanderadorkable anyone else who wants to play! No pressure, just fun.

How many works do you have on AO3?

Eighteen (a mixture of one-shots, prompts fills, and multichapter fics)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

703226 posted words

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Anchor (Dragon Age: Inquisition/Cullen Rutherford/femOC): 251

2. Anchor: Ripples (Dragon Age: Inquisition/Cullen Rutherford/femOC): 54

3. Last of Your Line (Dragon Age: Origins/ Alistair/Elissa Cousland): 49

4. Pieces (Dragon Age 2/ Fenris/Cora Hawke): 42

5. Anchor: Moments (Dragon Age: Inquisition/Cullen Rutherford/femOC): 29

Mass Effect stories:

1. Rebecca Shepard (Mass Effect 3/ F!Shenko): 25

2. Messages (pre-Mass Effect 3/Kaidan Alenko/femOC); 15

3. Broken Road (Mass Effect 3/ Kaidan Alenko/femOC): 10

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Most of the time I do. There are a few times I get busy with other tasks or real life, but I always try to respond. I know that as a reader who leaves comments it’s always nice to receive one back from the author.

Leaving comments on the stories I read is something I am working on. As I’m something of an introvert, it’s sometimes hard to write something but then I remember the happy feeling I get when someone leaves me a comment.

Sometimes I’ll be having a bad day and then receive a wonderful comment on a story and those words from someone I don’t know just makes my day. So while not required it is very nice to know that a comment I left made someone’s day.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

What’s an angsty ending?

All of my stories tend to have happy endings. That’s not to say that I don’t include angst in the story itself, but I write these stories for me first and foremost. That means that a happy ending is required. I’m not going to write 50,000+ about characters I adore and have them not end up happy. (So yeah, my ME3 fic definitely has the ‘everyone lives’ tag attached to it)

The only thing that I can possibly think of that has an angsty ending was a random prompt I did with one of my femsheps—Kayla. The last prompt I did for her involved Kaidan receiving the news that she hadn’t been found and while he listens to the comm traffic from the recovery teams after the Citadel fired, it was implied she was dead.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

“Broken Road” featuring Kaidan Alenko’s rekindled relationship with someone he had served with on the SR-1 (Kori Reese) probably has the happiest ending. It wraps up ME3 with an ending I envision where Kaidan and Kori come to terms with their relationship, and you can save everyone if you try hard enough.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No. I’m not interested in writing one. I will occasionally read a cross-over someone else has written but the very idea of writing one myself seems overly complicated and tedious.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

If you mean straight up, “I hate this fic and everything about it” comments, the answer would be no. What I have received is people questioning why I had a character react the way they did to a situation. I get that everyone has their own headcanons on somethings, but part of reading fan fiction is accepting other people’s ideas. If you don’t like the way a story is going just stop reading it. There is no need to debate it with the author who put it out there for free. Just move along and find something more to your taste.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I don’t write sex scenes just for the sake of writing them. When I write one, I hope it is written as if it is important to the characters. Usually, it’s about the characters making an emotional connection than smut. (But I suppose some of them could be categorized as smut.)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so. I’ve seen where other people have and I can only imagine how that would feel. Why would anyone do that anyway?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I’ve had people who have read my stories who’s first language is not English, but they have never asked for any of them to be translated. I’m not sure I’d want to entertain that idea either. I’d have to look into more truthfully.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope. I’m too much of control freak over my own writing to be able to co-write anything with someone. Group work was never a favorite thing to do in school. That’s hasn’t changed in adulthood.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I’m a little weird with this one. I like reading and writing ships that involve an original character created by someone who crafts this person from scratch and weaves them into the story/game/movie they are writing for. I like seeing how they use the established lore/canon and work a totally original character into the game.

For Mass Effect: Kaidan Alenko/femOC & for Dragon Age: Cullen Rutherford/femOC

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I do a lot of writing that usually ends up in a binder of works that I won’t ever use. Some of them I repurpose for scenes in a story that I will finish but not often. I wrote a series of stories revolving around what happened to the Normandy after it crashed on the unknown planet at the end of ME3. It involved Kaidan dealing with the death of Shepard and not being able to return to Earth. While he deals with that, he begins to lose control of his biotics. It became way darker than I intended. Dark Kaidan is not something I want to read about led alone write.

What are your writing strengths?

I’d like to say plotting and dialogue (but sometimes I think I have characters talk too much.)

What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes and describing the setting sometimes. (I use references for these sometimes and edit these types of scenes repeatedly)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it’s okay to use it sparingly. I’ve done it myself and offered a translation either in the story or in the author’s notes. But for full blown conversations while it might seem like a good idea, it can become cumbersome and annoying for the reader who is just trying to keep up with what the characters are taking.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

This is going to date me, but it was the X-files.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Messages and Broken Road

#tag game #ao3 #mass effect #dragon age

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willow-salix · 4 years ago

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Fluffember prompt: Jacket (hoodie)

Day 21 of Isolation on Tracy Island 2.0

"What the hell kind of noise was that?"

"I sneezed."

"That was NOT a sneeze," Alan argued, looking at me warily, like he expected me to explode again any second and take them all out with me. I glared at him, because how dare? I was the sick one and he was treating me like I was doing it to spite him.

"Be nice to her," John sighed, but his tone said he was barely listening and was pretty much done with all of us now.

I was camped out on the couch, where I'd been for much of the day. I'd gone past the point of having a head that felt like a steel band was rehearsing in there and had downgraded it to little demons with pitchforks that jabbed me whenever I coughed, sneezed or moved my head quickly. It was more bearable and wasn't as affected by sound levels made worse by noisy brothers.

I looked like crap, I knew that, my hair was scraped up on top of my head in a loose bun, I was wearing the shirt that John hates (but it was hidden by a blanket so his eyes were safe), soft leggings and the fluffiest socks imaginable. I wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants any time soon but at least I was comfortable. And I was still cold.

I know, I know, I could just go and put a jumper on or something, but that wouldn't work. Because I was in that awkward stage where I was too hot with a thick jumper on, but too cold without it. The blanket helped but it still wasn't right. And I was getting rather fed up.

Gordon, sweet boy that he is, handed me a mug of his famous tea (which is a lot more useful than his equally as famous squid sense right now) and immediately went into lecture mode.

"Have you let Virgil check your temperature lately?"

"Yes," I sighed and he lifted an eyebrow, clearly not believing me.

"She has," John confirmed. "And she's taken those vitamins. She's behaving."

"Makes a change from last time."

"Hey! No picking on me," I croaked, pausing to have a coughing fit. "Last time I was a strong, independent woman and now…" I paused, not sure how to finish that sentence without making myself sound bad or proving his point. I rephrased. "Look, last time I was used to doing everything for myself and not relying on anyone, now I've learnt to accept a little help now and then."

"You mean you were awkward, argumentative, you bit me and we had to resort to underhanded tactics?" Virgil joined in, earning himself a glare.

"Anything sounds bad when you say it like that," I grumped, lifting John's arm to snuggle under. "I said I was sorry for biting you but you were trying to do medical things to me and you know I don't work that way."

"Let me see your throat," Gordon asked, ignoring the ranting going on. I dutifully tipped my head back and opened my mouth.

"Not as bad as it was," Gordon admitted, after shining a light inside. "Close."

I closed my mouth and straightened my head so he could feel the glands in my neck.

"See, in being an adult and allowing myself to be looked at," I said, turning my head slightly to stick my tongue out at Virgil.

"Oh yes, you're a very mature adult," Virgil drawled. John sniggered but hid it with a cough that I knew was faked but I couldn't be bothered to argue about.

"Glands have gone down, she's definitely on the mend," Gordon told John, completely ignoring me. "Did she sleep OK?"

"I am here you know, I can answer questions." Again I was ignored. "You don't have to fuss over me, I can look after myself."

"EOS said she was very restless and woke up a number of times."

"I could have told you that," I said. "Since I was the one not sleeping."

"Did she drink much during the night?"

"They aren't listening to me, are they?" I asked Alan.

"They never do. Try being the youngest with four big brothers and a grandma. I've found it's best to just let them do their thing and just ignore them," he shrugged and offered me his spare controller. "Wanna play?"

I shook my head. "Thanks for the offer, baby bean, but I'm crap at it most days and this is not most days, plus I think the screen would make my headache worse."

Alan nodded his agreement, seeing the wiseness in my answer and went back to his game.

"I've been doing some research," a voice piped up from the portable comm on Jeff's desk.

"You have, EOS? What about?" John asked, pulled from his conversation with Gordon about my apparently fragile physical health.

"Cold remedies," she answered proudly.

"Cold remedies?" I asked dubiously. "Thank you, but I don't think I need-"

"Some of them seem to have no basis in scientific fact and so I cannot vouch for their effectiveness, but I do believe that some may help," she continued, completely ignoring the fact that I had been talking.

"Per my research I have disregarded some ideas and made plans to implement others."

"John?" I whispered, looking up at him.

"Hm?"

"Are we sure she's not still evil and trying to kill me off?"

"Well, nothing in life is a hundred percent certain," he mused. I sat up a little and tried to shift away but his arm tightened around my waist and dragged me back. "I'll make sure she doesn't try to kill you, OK?"

"Promise? Death by AI might be cheaper than a divorce."

"Tempting as that sounds, I promise."

I narrowed my eyes at him but stayed put, he was comfy and smelt nice but the second Scott got back I'd be swapping, Scott would never treat me this way.

"One of the remedies involves a drink called Gogol Mogol," EOS announced.

"That doesn't sound good," I muttered under my breath.

"What's that? It sounds vaguely Russian," John asked, already interested. Damn him and his desire to allow her to continue to grow and think for herself. He encourages her far too much.

"It is, it originates from both Russia and the Ukraine, you whisk together warm milk, honey, sugar-"

"That doesn't sound too bad so far," Gordon said, sounding surprised.

"Butter and egg yolk," EOS continued.

"Nope! I'm out, I don't do egg in drinks, it's just weird. And butter should be on bread, not in a drink."

"So you don't like eggnog?" Virgil asked.

"Eww, no, I'm English, we don't do that sort of thing." Yes, I admit, I said 'that sort of thing' like it was something disgusting and inappropriate, which to me it was.

"You never know, if this lockdown continues we might actually get a peaceful Christmas at home this year, then Dad can make his famous eggnog, the one that we all have to drink Christmas eve…" Virgil grinned evilly.

"Why are you picking on me today, Chonky? You're supposed to be the nice one."

Virgil batted his eyelashes innocently in my direction, but I wasn't fooled, I knew the truth.

"If you do not like that remedy there is also the one with the dirty socks."

"Erm, the what now?" Virgil was let off with a warning as I became instantly distracted. "I refuse to have dirty socks anywhere near me, let alone crushed up or stuffed in my mouth or whatever form this remedy takes.”

“You simply massage a substance called lard into your neck and then use dirty socks as a scarf…”

“Pass,” I declared.

"I've heard of that one!" Gordon said.

"I've looked into what lard is and my research says it is the rendered fat of the fatty tissue of a pig."

"We could try bacon grease," Alan suggested.

"No, we can't. That remedy is definitely not true," John insisted, seeing the look of horror on my face.

"It is, I read about it on Wikipedia," EOS argued.

"Oh, then it has to be real," John rolled his eyes.

"I have more if bacon fat is not to your liking," EOS interrupted.

"What are they?" I asked suspiciously.

“Pickled plums,” EOS suggested. “In Japan they eat umeboshi, also known as a pickled plum, to prevent and fight colds and flu.”

“That doesn't sound too bad,” Alan commented, obviously listening in.

“Although it’s not actually a plum, it's a variety of apricot-”

I gasped loudly, lifting my head in horror. “I TOLD you she was murderous!”

“I am not!”

“EOS, she’s allergic to apricots,” John explained. “And feeling dramatic.”

“I am not dramatic, I’m just not well,” I pouted.

“Garlic in a glass of milk,” EOS tried again.

I shook my head.

“Next?” John said.

“Onions are said to be very good, you can put them in her socks or she can wear them as a necklace.”

“Is she determined to make me smell?”

“Two pairs of socks,” EOS continued to reel off.

“I’m already wearing the thickest I can find,” I assured her.

“No, for this you soak your feet in hot water, then take a pair of socks, soak them in cold water, wring them out and wear them with dry socks over the top and sleep in them.”

I didn’t even dignify that with an answer. Wearing wet socks was never going to happen.

“That’s not healthy, EOS, wet socks will make her feel worse. Plus she already puts her cold feet on me, I don't want to suffer them cold and wet.”

“What about lizard soup?” EOS offered next.

“What, with real lizards?” Gordon asked with a laugh.

“Yes, the recipe calls for dried lizards simmered with yams and chinese dates to make a broth.”

“John, please,” I whined, burying my face in his neck in an attempt to escape all my problems. I love EOS, I do, she is our weird AI child but my gods does she try my patience sometimes.

“EOS, if you do not have any sensible suggestions then let’s not have any at all.”

“I do have sensible suggestions, I told you that I had disregarded some as they had no scientific basis or the ingredients would not be available on the island,” she argued.

“And you think that dried lizards are something we just have hanging around in the pantry?” I asked, completely bemused, my voice muffled against his shoulder.

“No, but we have lizards in Scott’s office. As far as I can see they serve no purpose…”

“I’m out!” I coughed, sitting up and throwing the blankets off. “I won’t sit here and have her suggest I eat our babies because I have a cold.”

I don’t know if John said anything to her because I’d left the room, but I hope so, she needed telling. There were some things that should never be thought about let alone suggested. Honestly, next she'd be telling me to skin Armstrong and use his fluff as a vest or something.

I had only moved from the lounge to the kitchen but I was already feeling a bit shaky and very chilly, wishing I'd brought the blanket with me.

I reached for the tea kettle, checking there was water in it before putting it on the stove to boil. I’m old fashioned in many ways and any good witch will tell you that when it comes to tea leaf or coffee grounds readings you have to have fresh boiled water over flame, it’s the law and so I have to have a proper old style kettle in the kitchen at all times. And yes they tease me about it. I flicked on the flames and that was when I heard it in the distance, the familiar whining drone of powerful engines.

“Oh, thank the gods,” I groaned, my salvation was incoming.

I had made my fruity herbal tea and was sipping it by the time Scott came to find me.

“I heard that you stormed out of the lounge,” he told me by way of greeting.

“EOS told me to eat our children," I informed him.

He blinked. “Well, I can’t say that I ever expected to hear that, but unfortunately I’m not that shocked either.”

“Mood,” I muttered, sipping from my cup and shivering pathetically.

“I might regret asking,” he started, helping himself to one of my blackberry and apple tea bags and pouring in hot water, “but how did the subject of eating Buddy and Ellie come up?”

“EOS was trying to help by offering cold cures, apparently lizard soup is a thing,” I shrugged, adding more honey to my tea. I like things sweet dammit.

"Well, you learn something new every day, I guess. Did any of these remedies sound like they might actually work?"

"Nope," I sighed. "And I'm not going back to hear more, I'm just going to sit here and freeze for a bit and then maybe got to bed."

"That's not exactly what I'd call a sensible plan, the freezing part I mean, the bed would be good."

"But I'm bored of bed," I whined, yes, I'm admitting it, I was in whining territory today, I'm not proud of it but it is what it is. "I've been waiting for you to get back to save me from them all, I'm counting on you, don't let me down."

"So the fact that I just had to save a family of hikers from a broken down Gondola cable car half way up Ben Nevis means nothing when I should have been here to save you?"

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Nope."

"Were the kids excited to ride in Thunderbird One?"

"Yep," he grinned, proud of his baby.

"Then no, it means nothing, I'm more important," I decided, sipping my tea, daring him to argue. "You need to go and sort your idiot brothers and EOS out."

"Fine, you win," he chuckled, getting up from his chair. "I'll go and whip them into shape."

"Thank you," I said. He dropped a kiss on top of my head and left me alone to my misery.

It was actually quite nice to sit quietly for a while, the only person who wandered in was Jeff, but he didn't disturb me to the point of being annoying. He just helped himself to some coffee from the pot that was on its warmer and after checking on me briefly, left again.

Scott returned after twenty minutes, finding me half asleep with my head on my folded arms which rested on the dining table.

A warmth encircled my shoulders and I sighed gratefully, sliding my arms into the sleeves.

"I knew you had it," I muttered.

"Well, it is my hoodie."

"No, it's our hoodie," I corrected him, sitting up. "But I appreciate the loan of it at this, my time of need."

"Come on."

"No, I've not finished my drink."

Scott picked up my half finished tea, felt the temperature, luke warm would be kind, and abandoned it, knowing it was a lost cause, I was just using it as an excuse. "Back to the lounge, you can't stay here all day."

"I think you'll find I can," I argued, but I didn't put up much of a fight when he dragged me to my feet and propelled me up the stairs to the lounge.

Scott deposited me on the couch beside John and took the other side, sandwiching me between them so I couldn't run away.

"EOS, don't you have something to say?" John prompted in a semi-stern voice that I would have been a lot more interested in if I wasn't feeling so close to death. I made a mental note to explore it at a later date, preferably when I had rejoined the land of the living.

"I am sorry that I suggested using the bearded dragons to make soup," she parted obediently.

"And?" John pushed.

"And I have presented my findings in a more helpful way to Gordon and Virgil and they have agreed to help me implement them," EOS continued.

"Do I even want to know?" I asked Scott, who was my saviour, champion and provider of the hoodie and there I trust him.

"It's safe, we promise," John assured me. "I checked her research and picked the things I knew you could actually stomach."

"OK," I sighed. "What am I getting?"

"EOS was right, onions and garlic do help, so, since I can actually follow a recipe and Virgil isn't too bad either, we're going to make you your favourite bolognese with lots of onions and garlic."

"And lemon, honey and ginger are all recommended ,"Gordon added, "so I'm going to make you a big pot of lemon, ginger and honey tea from scratch."

"That doesn't sound too awful," I admitted.

"We can't do anything for the reduction of stress," Scott added, "we can't do miracles, but we'll try to behave for a few days until you feel better."

"I'd appreciate that."

"While we're doing that you're going to go and enjoy a hot bath, as hot as you can stand, because sweating out a cold is recommended," John continued. "Then you're going to get dressed in your warmest sleepwear-"

"My bat onesie!"

"Oh! I'm gonna wear my onesie too," Alan decided.

"And me," Gordon grinned, glancing at Virgil.

"Sure, let's have a onesie night."

"I refuse to wear that thing," John argued.

"Me either," Scott said, joining in. "They don't fit us."

"I'll allow that," I agreed generously.

"And then we can watch that ridiculous puppet thing that you like because you always say it makes you happy," John finished.

"Seriously, you're volunteering to watch the Muppets with me?" I was so shocked you could have smacked me around the head and called me Melvin.

"Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the good of the family," he answered seriously. "Now scoot, we have cooking to do and you have a bath to stew in."

There wasn't much I could say to that, so I did as I was told, heading to the biggest bathroom where I kept the good bath oils, the one with the jacuzzi tub. I could feel the bubbles calling my name.

"You know you're not getting that hoodie back any time soon, don't you?" I heard John telling Scott as I went up the stairs. I didn't need to hear the answer to know he was right, I was keeping this for at least a week.

#Isolation Island #Thunderbirds in isolation #thunderbirds #thunderbirdsarego #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds 2015 #fluffember2020

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