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m-neuvillette · 11 days ago

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Star Rail and Genshin men: Giving them the silent treatment

Characters: Boothill, Diluc, Jing Yuan, Lyney, Moze, Neuvillette, Sunday, Venti, Wriothesley, Yanqing

Notes: female reader, blood, injury, creepy guy in Diluc's, jealousy, drinking, Moze being Moze

Author notes: FINALLY FREE OF FINALS!!! Prepare for more posts in the future hehe. Comment if you want a pt 2 (let us know what men you want!)

Boothill

Boothill is all kinds of confused right now. After that damn profnana messed with his head, now you avoiding and not talking him has his brain in overdrive.

He doesn’t fully know what changed. March 7th told him what profnana tried to make him do to you. He really wishes he could shoot that forkin thing in the head after the shirtbag tried to make him shoot you. March 7th also said he talked about his past but he’s fine with that. So he really doesn’t get what is up with you.

You’re sitting in one of the open sitting areas Boothill has on his ship thinking about all that has happened. You met Boothill early into your journey as a galaxy ranger and were always really close with him. He helped you so much and liked being around you so he asked you to join him.

You two only grew even closer as time passed and everyone knew you were more than friends. You two only got together before the whole trip to Penacony so the relationship is still fresh. But that isn’t what’s bothering you or has you upset.

It’s about Boothill’s past. It broke your heart hearing a young Boothill talk instead of the raspy voice you’re so used to and love. As you listened to that little soft voice talk about his past, you couldn’t stop your heart from breaking. It also made you realize you don’t know much about him. You know he wants revenge on the IPC for what they did to his planet but you didn’t know what happened.

Did he not trust you as much as you thought he did? Did he only see this arrangement as convenient to help reach his goal? Does he actually have feelings for you? You don’t know and don’t know how to talk to him about it. You feel the ship go into cruise mode indicating Boothill planned the next planet and you two have time before you get there.

You can’t help but get frustrated at yourself because all you want to do is to talk to him but you don’t know how. You start to tear up while thinking about a plan when you hear him walking into the room.

Boothill was quick to set the ship to cruise so he can figure out what’s going on. Once he’s got everything lined up, he makes his way to where you are.

He sees you with your head down and your hands clenching at your pants. He instantly knows something is wrong. Boothill makes quick strides over to where you’re sitting to start figuring this out.

He stays standing and tilts your head up to see your red eyes and tear stained face. Boothill rarely gets shot but seeing you like this feels like he’s got shot hundreds of times. He lets go of your face and sits next to you and pull you into his lap. Boothill tucks your head into his neck then says, “I can’t help ya, if ya don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

You’ll pull yourself from his neck to look at him. He reaches one of his hands up to wipe your tears which makes you let out a shaky breath. You lean your forehead again his and quietly ask, “Boothill, do you not trust me? Am I a bad girlfriend?”

Boothill eyes are wide open now as he stumbles out, “Wait whaddya mean? Of course I do. I trust ya with my life. And you’re not a bad girlfriend at all. Why would you ask that?”

You look down not being able to look him in the eyes anymore and start to play with the zipper on his shirt, “When you talked about your past with that soft voice my heart broke. But it also made me realize I never got to know you.” You start to cry again but you continue to talk, “I want to know you more. I want to help you. I want you to count on me so I don’t have to hear that soft little boys voice be in pain again.”

Boothill tilts your head back up to face him. He wipes your tears then kisses your cheeks, “Baby I want nothin’ more than to share everythin’ with you. I’m sorry that’s the way you had to find everythin’ out. From now on I’ll be more open with ya. But you also gotta promise you won’t shut yourself out from me and doubt yourself. Okay? I love you.”

You look him in the eyes and respond, “I promise Boothill. I love you too.” Then you go to give him a tight hug burying yourself in his neck again. Boothill quickly returns the hug holding you tightly to him and pressing a soft kiss on your forehead.

Diluc

Diluc didn’t think he could meet anyone as stubborn as Kaeya, that was before you decided to give him the silent treatment. It has been two days since your guys argument.

It all started at Angel’s Share. You asked Diluc to teach you how to make drinks so you can help him and Charles when times got busy. After a while you started working there. You love your job and everyone you get to meet. Well most people.

You love the regulars like Venti, Kaeya, and Rosaria. You also love when Lisa drags Jean here or when you meet new faces from or outside of Mondstadt. But there are a good amount of men who have been creepy towards you. You keep your work outfit simple with a white blouse and a black skirt (and sometimes Diluc’s jacket when you get cold). Whenever a man gets too creepy or tries to touch you Diluc is quick to stop the situation and kick the man out.

Your outfit isn’t that revealing. You made sure to keep the skirt at a medium length so no perverts could try to see something they shouldn’t. You also keep your chest covered so again no perverts could be weird. But sadly it’s only been getting worse lately and it’s making you stressed.

One night Diluc couldn’t get to Angel’s Share until later in the evening due to a meeting he had to be at. You are perfectly fine working with Charles and love talking to him when times are slow. Tonight is pretty slow but a couple groups needed refills so you offered to do it so Charles can stay behind the bar and continue his conversation with Kaeya.

You walk over to the group in the far back corner and see all the men drunk. You roll your eyes before tending to them. You ask if they would like anymore drinks but all they respond with is that they want you to warm them up. You ask again if they want DRINKS but none of them say yes so you begin to walk away. As you do one of the sleazy guys grabs your wrist and pulls you back. He starts to say something but that is before you see a tanned hand grabbing the guys wrist. You look up to see Kaeya glaring at the man.

“Let go of her now and get the hell out of here.” The men quickly follow Kaeya’s order and he follows them out making sure they don’t try to come back in. When he’s outside he sees Diluc walking towards him and says a little hello. Diluc quickly asks what happened and Kaeya relays the story. Diluc gets visibly mad and stomps inside to go find you. Once he does he grabs your hand and has you follow him to a spare room upstairs.

He gives you his jacket and asks if you are okay and if the guy did anything to you. You say you’re okay and that he didn’t do anything. Diluc shakes his head and tells you to stop working here and that you don’t have to work because he can fully support the both of you. You argue back saying you’re going to continue working here whether or not he likes it or not. Then march out of the bar leaving him behind.

Diluc then quickly follows you after telling Charles he’s got to go. He also turns to Kaeya and begrudgingly thanks him and leaves. Kaeya knows you two got into an argument but he definitely knows you aren’t too mad because you left still wearing his jacket.

After you thought about it for two days you realized you overreacted. You barely let him explain why he thought about you stopping now you feel bad because you haven’t spoke to him in three days. So you sat down in front of the fire waiting for him to get back from his Dark Knight Hero patrol.

Diluc walks into his mansion expecting it to be pitch black but he sees you sitting in front of a fire. He sets his sword by the entrance then makes his way over to you.

He kneels in front of you and breaks the silence, “Hey, everything okay? Did you have a nightmare, is that why you’re down here?”

Oh this man even when you’re giving him the silent treatment he is still asking if you’re okay. You shake your head and respond, “No I was waiting for you to apologize.” You brush his bangs out of his eyes, “I’m sorry Diluc. I overreacted and didn’t let you explain why you wanted me to stop. I just want to help you and not sit around here all day. Plus working at the bar with you is so fun. I get to see you in a whole different light and I love it. I don’t want to let go of that.”

Diluc gives you a smile and reaches for your hand and gives it a tight squeeze, “No pretty girl it’s me who should be apologizing. I’m sorry for getting so mad, I just hate seeing you get harassed. It also didn’t help Kaeya was the one to help you and not me. But you don’t have to stop. Just every time you work I want to be there so I can stop it or prevent it.”

You smile down at him and squeeze his hand, “That is perfectly okay with me. I have more fun working with you anyways, sorry Charles. I love you Diluc.”

Diluc smiles and brings your hand to his lips to give your knuckles a soft kiss and replies without hesitation, “I love you too.”

Jing Yuan

You thought you believed the phrase “wisdom comes with age” because that is Jing Yuan in his entirety. But now? You are starting to doubt that very much, because it’s not very wise to have wise to have an old friend spear you to take out an enemy now is it?

While you do understand that everyone was ready to defeat Phantylia at any cost, you really didn’t think that Jing Yuan would try to sacrifice himself in the process. Did he even think at all during that moment? Let alone think about how he’d leave you behind? You’ve already been left behind by so many people, and Jing Yuan knows all about how that’s affected you. So why would he try to leave you behind too?

When Jing Yuan first comes back after the fight was over, his first priority was to see you. He wanted to make sure you were okay, and he wanted to make sure that you didn’t find out about his little stunt against the Lord Ravager. He didn’t want you to worry about him. But unfortunately for him, March 7th found you first and told you all about the fight, including Dan Heng hurling his spear through him.

To say you were upset and fuming might have been the understatement of the century, because as soon as he came into your line of sight you were glaring daggers at him. Yanqing had been right next to you when Jing Yuan came up to you and he could feel the anger coming off of you so he turned around and ran off before he got caught in the middle of a “lover’s quarrel” as the General called them.

“GOOD LUCK GENERAL DON’T DIE!” Yanqing gave his best regards to the General before scampering off to avoid your rage. Jing Yuan tilted his head amusedly before fully looking at your expression. “Now what could have you this angry, my dear?” If it was even possible you narrowed your eyes even further and harshly grabbed his wrist and dragged him to your shared home.

The entire time you were dragging him tears were burning in your eyes because even though you are behind thrilled that Jing Yuan is safe and sound you can’t help but think that he wanted to leave you behind too, just like everyone else. “My dear, can I request that you be a little less harsh, your grip is beginning to hurt my wrist? Also, may I know what is troubling you so much? You know you can confide in my right my dear?”

When he said that you had reached his room and you dragged him to the nearest chair and shoved him in it, while also being careful not to aggravate his glaringly obvious injury. When you lift up his shirt to take a look at the injury and once you see the blood seeping through the bandages, you take a minute to take a deep breath before finally talking to him.

“Jing Yuan, tell me were you really trying to leave me behind too? Why would you ever think that having your old friend throw his spear through you to defeat an enemy is alright?! Don’t you always teach Yanqing to not be reckless?? What you did goes against those teachings don’t you think?! Please, I’m begging you, tell me why you thought that was the best course of action? Did you even think at all? Let alone about leaving me behind, like everyone else has?!”

Jing Yuan’s eyes widen in alarm before he’s trying to get up to comfort you. “Don’t you even think about getting up Jing Yuan! Do you want to make your injury worse?” At that he say right back down and responded sitting down. “My dear let it be known that what I did was the only option that we had to defeat that Lord Ravager, lest I become a Mara Struck. That, my dear, would’ve been much worse a fate than I would ever allow you to witness. I am deeply sorry for worrying you, know this, I will never leave you behind, not if I can help it. Though as an Arbiter General you just realize that I cannot choose my death as freely as others can.”

You turn around after he finishes and he realizes that you had been crying this entire time. “I know that Jing Yuan’s, I knew that the second I got into this relationship with you that your life as an Arbiter General was not going to lead to a pretty death, but sacrificing yourself like you did is beyond me! What would the Luofu do without you? What would I do without you?? Please just don’t leave me behind, I can’t take anyone else leaving me.”

Jing Yuan’s eyes soften and he beckons you to come closer to him. As soon as you reach him he’s standing up and wrapping his arms round you and kissing your forehead. “My dear I will never leave you, not of my own accord and that I swear on my life. I am deeply sorry for any pain I have caused during this time. When I am fully healed I intend to make this up to you to the best of my abilities.” You gently wrap your arms around him and place your head on his chest. “I will hold you to that my darling, I love you so much.” He smiles softly down at you before leaning his head on top on your head. “And I love you so much more dearest.”

The next day Yanqing giggled and smiled smugly before remarking with hand gestures and all. “I see the General lived through yet another ‘lover’s quarrel’. Nice job General, I’m impressed, can I have a few pointers?” Jing Yuan looked at him with the most deadpan expression before smiling softly and telling Yanqing to get back to training.

Lyney

A magician’s charm is like no other, that is the first thing you learned when you met Lyney. And it became even more prominent when you got into a relationship with him. His charm is his best quality and it attracts so many people, including unwanted gazes of new assistants of his.

As his popularity as a magician was increasing, Lyney decided that he should get a few more assistants to make his shows run more smoothly. And you are perfectly fine with him getting more assistants, after all that that’s how you two met. But this new assistant he chose is getting in every last one on your nerves, because who is she to flirt nonstop and try to get to get with your magician, when it is incredibly obvious that you two are together?

While you are helping prep for Lyney’s next show, it seems that the new assistant, Louise as you’ve unfortunately come to learn, is yet again all over Lyney. Instead of actually preparing the necessary materials for the show, Louise is clinging to Lyney’s and asking about a million questions about completely random topics. Everyone in the room can see that Louise has the hots for Lyney, his magician’s charm seems to work wonders, must to your dismay.

Even though he has a show to prep for and he has a girlfriend, Lyney doesn’t try to stop Louise and her antics at all, he even answers all of her random questions. It’s quite disheartening to see your boyfriend have another girl all over him and him not stop any of those advances, it makes it look like he doesn’t have a girlfriend when he actually does.

“Oh Lyney! What are you going to have for dinner after this? Do you want to go get dinner together? I’d love to have dinner with you!” You had to walk away to keep yourself from gagging at her horrible flirting. Though you stopped when you heard Lyney’s chuckle in response. “Oh my dear, what a most generous offer that is indeed! I have yet to make plans for dinner, but I will get back to you on my thoughts on dinner after this show, so wait for me alright?”

When you heard him say that your heart broke and you couldn’t help but let the tears fall from your eyes. Was he really going to have dinner with another girl, when having dinner with you, Lynette, and Freminet, has been your tradition since you guys were in your “courting stage” as Lyney loved to call it.

Lynette, who saw the whole interaction, was also very stunned that Lyney was entertaining the thought of having dinner with someone else. She walked up to Lyney and told him that the show was starting soon and that he needed to get on stage and then immediately went to find you. When she found you, you were sitting on one of the boxes that was backstage hugging your knees to your chest and your head buried on top of them. Lynette could tell that you had heard what Lyney said and walked up to you.

“Hey, I heard what that idiot said, just try not to take it to heart I guess. He’s not one to let people know they’re bothering him. If I had to guess he’s, probably, going to turn her down after the show. If it’s any consolation, I am also mad that he would ditch us for that idiot of a girl.” You look up at Lynette while she talks and silently nod your head in agreement.

After the show ended, the first thing Lyney did was look for you because you were always waiting backstage with a hug and a kiss for him. When he didn’t immediately see you when he walked off stage, he was very confused because you had never missed your routine hug and kiss, it’s become a tradition for you two. While he is looking for you, Louise clings onto his arm and begins questioning him about dinner again. He looks down at her and says that he’s looking for you and that he can’t talk right now. Louise let’s go at that and walks away.

Once Lyney finds you, he realizes that you haven’t moved since the show began. “Hello there, my dove! Let us go home now shall we?” You look up at him silently and get off the box you were sitting on and begin walking out. Lyney’s eyes widen in alarm once he sees the dried streaks of tears on your face and when you start walking he rushes to grab your hand.

“Oh my dearest dove, what could have you crying?” You shake your head and continue walking, because you can’t handle talking to him right now. Not after him basically accepting to eat dinner with another girl. He decides to leave it alone until you get home because that is the best place to discuss what happened. Once you two get to your home, you fumble with the key to unlock the door and more tears begin to fall out of your eyes in frustration.

Lyney sees this and gently grabs the key out of your hand and unlocks the door. He grabs your hand and pulls you to your shared room, so that you two can sort all of this out in private. Once you reach your room you let go of his hand and sit on the bed and pull your knees to your chest again and look away from Lyney. His eyes soften and he walks around to the other side of the bed and wraps his arms around you.

“My dove, what is it that’s troubling you? Please talk to me, I want to help you but I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what the problem is.” You shake your head and mumble “it’s nothing, just go have dinner with Louise.” His eyes widen again before he realizes that you must’ve hear him and Louise talking about dinner before the show.

“Oh my dearest dove, I was never going to entertain her and have dinner with her. I just didn’t want to create animosity before the show, though you have my deepest apologies for even saying that I could have dinner with her. I will never have dinner with anyone but you, Lynette, and Freminet. You have my word on that, I promise. So please forgive me for making you cry.”

You look up at him and swiftly wrap your arms around him and bury your head in his chest. “Please never do that again, I don’t think my heart could take it. I love you too much for you to do that.” He lightly kisses the top of your head before responding, “my dearest I love you more than you could possibly know.”

Let’s just say that he got an earful from Lynette when it was time for dinner, because no way was he ever eating with anyone eot on her watch.

Moze

Birthday presents are surprises. At least that’s how they’re supposed to be. Moze does not seem to understand this, not at all. Moze’s birthday was coming up and you wanted to surprise him, but could he let that happen? No apparently he could not, and he just had to spoil your surprise.

His birthday was coming up and you wanted to surprise him and get him a new custom dagger, you thought he would really like it. So when you decided what to get him, you got up extra early that morning and slipped out of your shared bed to go to the blacksmith. You made sure you were extra quiet so you didn’t wake Moze up and spoil your surprise.

When you finally made it to the blacksmith and made your order you decided to walk around and get some food. The dagger wouldn’t be ready until later that week so you had a lot of time on your hands. You decided to bring some food back for Moze and when you got back to your shared home he appeared out of nowhere and nearly gave you a heart attack.

“Moze seriously you got to stop appearing out of nowhere like that, you’re going to give me a heart attack one day.” He softly laughs and wraps his arms around you. “Where’d you run off to this early in the morning my love? You never get up this early.” You panic internally for a moment before you remember that you got food too, so you don’t have to worry about spoiling his surprise. “I went and got some food for us for breakfast, I woke up early and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I thought why not get some food?” He takes that answer and leave it at that.

Later that week you had to go pick up the dagger again, conveniently it was the day of Moze’s birthday. That day you got up early once more and snuck out of bed to go pick up his present. Though little did you know that when Moze woke up not long after he was surprised to not find you in bed once again, 2 times in one week? That’s suspicious, so he wanted to make sure you were okay, so he decided to go look for you.

He was looking all around the Yaoqing and he found you outside a blacksmith holding and admiring a dagger. What could you possibly need with a dagger? He decided to walk up to you to ask you about it and once he was in front of you, you about jumped out of your skin. “Moze! I swear please stop appearing out of nowhere!” You also realize that you have the dagger on full display so you quickly hide it behind your back.

“Now why are you hiding a dagger behind your back my love? That’s dangerous you know.” You then realize that he caught you red handed and quickly put the dagger in the bag you had along with the little card you made inside and shove it in his hands and run off. He stands there stunned at the fact that you just ran away, but before following you he looked inside the bag that you had given him. It held the dagger and a cute little note that said “Happy Birthday Moze! I love you” with a little heart next to it. He then realized that today was indeed his birthday and he came to the realization that he spoiled your gift for him.

When he finds you after he looked at your gift, you are in your shared room on the bed with your head between your knees silently crying, though he could still hear it, it is Moze after all. He quickly puts the bag on the nightstand and gets on the bed and pulls you into his lap. “My dearest love you have my deepest apologies for spoiling your gift for me. I wanted to make sure you were okay since you left so early but that does not excuse me from spoiling your surprise. Please forgive me my love.”

You look up at him teary eyed and bury your face in his neck. “You really don’t get the point of surprises do you, please try not to be so nosy around your birthday next year. I love you too much to have your birthday surprise spoiled.” He laughs softly before gently taking your head out of his neck and softly kissing your lips. “And I love you, I’ll try not to be so nosy next year, though I did forget it was my birthday in all fairness.” Your jaw drops at that and you realize that you have a new story to tell Jiaoqiu and Feixiao.

Let’s just say you three did not let him live down forgetting his own birthday, but you did it by giving him the best birthdays ever. Though when you told Jiaoqiu and Feixiao about all of this, Moze was lectured for hours on how to not ruin a surprise.

Neuvillette

Neuvillette is stressed. He doesn’t completely get “the silent treatment”. Why is it even a thing? Don’t humans love communicating? So why do they do this to themselves?

Furina watches in amusement seeing all the gears in Neuvillette’s turn trying to figure out why you’re giving him the silent treatment. You went to her to talk about how much he’s been working and it feels like he doesn’t even try to make time for you two anymore. She told you to talk to him about it because that’s the only way it’s ever going to get fixed. Little did she know it was going to make everything worse.

You went to talk to Neuvillette about it that night after you talked with Furina and he completely brushed it off. All he said was “What do you mean? Aren’t we spending time together now? We do this every night, get ready together and go to bed. That’s spending time together.”

You try to explain that you want to do more than that. You want to go on a date with him, you want to go on a walk, or even just stay in and cuddle. All he said back was “As the Iudex I am quite busy and you know that.” Then went to bed. Since then you’ve been ignoring him and going to bed before he gets home so now his routine is thrown off and he hates it.

Furina speaks up, “My dear Iudex what is troubling you?”

Neuvillette looks up at Furina and asks “Why am I getting the silent treatment? I don’t get it”

“Well Neuvillette, do you make time for her? Do you take her on dates? Do you get her flowers? Do you show her you love her?”

Neuvillette clears his throat and looks away, “Um… no…”

“Here lies your problem. It’s like how you make time every week to have a tea party with me and relax. Or catch up with Sigewinne. You’re not making time for your girlfriend you claim to love.”

Neuvillette sits there and reflects on this. He looks at Furina and says, “I must go. I have to fix this.”

Furina smiles and dismisses him as he walks out she calls out to him, “There’s no cases today so take the rest of the day off. But you have to start planning this stuff on your own.” Neuvillette shakes his head and leaves his office.

He stops on his way back home to get you flowers and some baked goods. Neuvillette arrives home and looks for you. He sees you and walks towards where you’re sitting in the bay window.

You’re shocked when you see Neuvillette home so early and then you see what’s in his hands. He has flowers and baked treats.

Neuvillette reaches you and begins to ramble, “My love I am so sorry. I didn’t put into perspective your feelings and how you want to spend more time with me. Which you 100% deserve because we are in a relationship and as a good boyfriend I must be present and make time for you. So after today I am going to make more time for you. I mean well it starts today as well because I am taking you out for dinner tonight. But in the mean time enjoy these flowers and treats I got you. I promise I won’t ever do this again. I love you so much.”

You watch and Neuvillette catches his breath after that long declaration but it makes you smile. You scoot over and make room for him to sit next to you. You pat the cushion and he is quick to listen and sit next to you. You grab the flowers and treats and put them to the other side of you.

You turn to give your full attention to Neuvillette. You reach out your hands and cup his face, “Thank you Neuvillette, that means a lot to me. I can’t wait for the date tonight and for many other moments together. I love you so much.” You go to give him a kiss which he quickly returns and pulls you closer to him.

Once you two break apart you stare lovingly at each other. Neuvillette vows to himself he will never have this happen again because he HATES the silent treatment.

Sunday

You’ve known Sunday and Robin since you were kids. The three of you were always playing together and created some unforgettable memories. Robin could tell yours and Sunday’s feelings grew into something stronger as you three got older. She made it her mission to get you two together before she left Penacony which she was successful with.

You laugh at her determination now but it also breaks your heart. You are Sunday’s girlfriend but you never knew what he was planning and what he was going through. You can’t help but blame yourself a little bit with not being able to stop him. But you’ve heard he’s out of confinement and planning on leaving. Is he really leaving you behind again? Can he not say goodbye? You look at the stars and wonder what will happen.

You hear a cautious hello behind you which makes you turn around. You see a young man with gray hair and a girl with pink and blue hair. You recognize them being the nameless that helped Penacony. “Why hello you two. I’m sorry I don’t remember your names could you remind me?”

The girl introduced herself as March 7th and the young man introduced himself as Caelus. March then asks, “Miss you’re Sunday’s girlfriend right?”

You smile at her, “Yes I am. I am sorry for all the trouble Sunday has caused you. Only if I knew I could have tried to stop him. But if you’re here to ask where he is, I don’t know. I just know he’s leaving and he could have left.”

March quick responds, “Oh we aren’t looking for him. We were curious if you would like to come with us? Like back to the Astral Express? We want to invite you to become a Nameless if you would want to.”

You think about the offer and quickly agree because you don’t exactly have a purpose right now. This can give you what you’re looking for.

March and Caelus took you back to the express where they showed you around and introduced you to Himeko, Dan Heng, and Pom Pom. Himeko tells you everyone has agreed to make you a Namless and that Welt is bringing someone else back to see if the Express wants them as a Nameless. To kill time you sit with March and Caelus.

You hear the door open and you see Welt and someone walking behind him. The person feels so familiar. March and Caelus stand up and walk over which you follow them. You stand behind them listening to Welt catch everyone up. Then you see him walk out from behind Welt. The man you dreamed of seeing since this whole disaster started.

Everyone begins to vote and say yes. Sunday looks happy but Pom Pom is quick to say, “Well we haven’t heard from our other new recruit. What do you think?” You step out from Caelus and March and make eye contact with Sunday and he sucks in a breath. “Yes I agree. He should become a Namless.” Everyone smiles and cheers for Sunday but he is frozen in place.

As soon as you and Sunday recite the creed you quickly go off ignoring Sunday. He tries to reach out for you but he realizes it’s futile. He knows he messed up. Welt comes up behind him and places a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t give up so fast. You’re on a new journey, don’t you want her on it? Go and talk to her.”

Sunday quickly follows where he saw you go and sees you looking at the stars. He takes a deep breath and walks over to stand next to you, “Aren’t they beautiful? They’re real and not fake ones. I’ve grown to learn that someday we will wake up from our dreams and have to face reality. I know that better than anyone now. After saying goodbye to Penacony and Robin I realized that I must start a new path. I regret not finding you first. You’ve always been in my path, dreams, future, anything really. I am lucky the Nameless are giving me this chance to fix everything. My angel I am so sorry. I should have went to you first, but I just thought about how I shouldn’t. You shouldn’t have to deal with a criminal and someone that went on the wrong path.” He starts to tear up, “Aeons I cannot imagine a life without you. I want you in my life and I want to take this next step with you. I am truly and deeply sorry for all I have caused. I love you so much. I understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore but just know if you give me another chance I’ll do everything in my power to prove to you I will change.”

You turn to face him and start to cry looking at his tears. You dive right into his chest and hold onto him tight. He quickly wraps his arms around you and cries with you. You missed this, you missed him. Sunday’s familiar scent is home to you.

You hiccup, “Sunday, Sunday” you grip him tighter. “I don’t care if you’re criminal. I don’t care if you walked the wrong path. I want you. Yes it hurt that you didn’t say goodbye but I know that it isn’t necessary because anywhere you go, I’ll follow. I’ll always be right with you because I love you so much. I want nothing more than to continue this Nameless journey with you.”

Sunday takes a deep breath and buries his face in your neck and plants light kisses on your neck. Between kisses he thanks you and promises you it will always be you and him.

Venti

When you’ve been alive as long as Venti has, you tend to not forget things you find precious or important. At least that’s what you had come to think. But now you are starting to doubt that. Because why else would you be sitting in front of Windrise for hours all by yourself, with all the picnic essentials, and no sign of your lovely bard showing up, if he didn’t forget?

When it started to get dark you decided that you had waited long enough for Venti to show up and made your way back to the city. When you walked through the gates you run into Rosaria, which was a pleasant surprise because you only really see her when you go to Angel’s Share with Venti.

“Oh, hey there Rosaria! How are you doing tonight?” She tilts her head at you and looks at you a little confusedly, “huh I’m surprised you aren’t at Angel’s Share with that bard tonight. He’s never there without you anymore, something happen between you two?” Now it’s your turn to look at her confused because what does she mean Venti is at Angel’s Share tonight?

“Rosaria, what do you mean? He’s at Angel’s Share right now?” You then mumble to yourself “that would explain why he didn’t come to Windrise for our picnic date then I guess.” Her eyes widen just a fraction before she narrows them. “You’re telling me he skipped out on your date to go drinking with Kaeya, what a lousy guy.”

You let that all sink in before tears start forming in your eyes at the realization that you were in fact ditched by your beloved. You let your head fall before you quietly tell Rosaria that you’re going to go home now.

When you get to yours and Venti’s shared home you place the picnic basket on the counter and you immediately go to your shared room. You change out of your clothes and hop into your bed, and it doesn’t take long for the tears to pour out of your eyes. Next thing you know you hear Venti walk into the room, and you don’t even want to know how long it’s been but you’re awake now but facing away from the door.

When he gets into bed you realize that you are now facing him and you will yourself to go back to sleep, because you don’t want to cry anymore tonight. When he fully settles into bed he softly looks at you and notices that you’re awake and softly whispers to you.

“Well hello there my windblume, what has you up at this hour? Sleep is important you know.” He reaches to cup your face and when he rubs his finger across your cheek he realizes that it’s kinda of wet. “Oh my windblume, whatever could have you crying?” He pulls you into his chest, and you immediately try to pull out of his hold and turn around.

He looks at you quizzically because you have never pulled away from him before. Did he upset you in some way? “My dearest, please talk to me, I wish to know what is upsetting you. Allow me to be the one you confide in my windblume.” You sigh before whispering softly, because that’s all you can manage without crying again.

“Venti do you remember what we planned to do today? Am I really that forgettable? That you would stand me up on our picnic date that we’ve been planning for weeks? Was drinking with Kaeya really more important than our picnic?” Venti’s face pales at what you said because he realizes that he totally forgot about your guys’ date.

“Oh my dearest windblume, no apology could ever be worth your forgiveness and tears. But please allow me to apologize all the same, I have no excuse for forgetting our date. Please allow me to make it up to you in any way possible, I’d even do the impossible for you because that is what you are worth. I hope you can find it within your heart to forgive me for this transgression but I know that an apology alone will not suffice. My beloved I am truly sorry.”

Venti then wraps his arms around your waist and gently kisses the top of your head. You sigh softly and turn around in his embrace, hug him tightly, and bury your head in his chest. “Please never forget about me again my beloved bard, I couldn’t stand it ever again.” He takes one hand from around your waist and brings it to tilt your head up towards him and he gently kisses your lips. “Never again my beloved muse, I will never forget you again.”

Let’s just say from that point on you guys were practically glued to each other, you could never find one of you without the other, and that’s just how everyone came to know and love Venti the bard and his muse.

Wriothesley

The strong and formidable Duke is passionate in his job. Maybe sometimes a little too much for your liking. Which is why you are shocked to hear from a guard that a big brawl broke out and your boyfriend was in the middle of it and didn’t leave unscathed.

You went up to the surface to get some quick refills of some supplies you and Sigewinne needed before the bigger supply would come to the fortress. After hearing the news you quickly run to the fortress to see the wounded and you can tell the guys that were on the receiving end of your boyfriend. But you don’t see the man in question here.

Sigewinne sees you come in and walks to meet you. “If you’re wondering where His Grace is, he isn’t here. I think he went to his office after the brawl. Go to him and I’ll stay here.” You nod and tell her to send a guard if she needs your help.

You walk to his office and smile at the guards and tell them not to come in. You hear grunts coming from upstairs knowing he is in pain. You head up the stairs and see him on his chair. You walk to one of the cabinets and grab the mini first aid kit you kept in here for situations like these. It only makes your blood boil now.

You got the kit and walk over to Wriothesley. You take a good look at his bruised face, split lip, blood dripping from his eyebrows, and scraped up knuckles. You see his nicely done hair flattened against his forehead and his nice dress clothes out of place. Then you see his bright blue eyes staring right at you. Wriothesley smirks at you, “It was a rough one wasn’t it haha.”

You glare at him and unbutton his bloodied gray vest so he isn’t wearing bloodied clothes, “Ohhh so that’s what you want. You wanna have some fun sweetheart?”

You glare at him again and take off the vest. Then grab the kit and start working on his face. You clean up the blood and put some bandages on his face then some ointment on his split lip. “Hey leave some scars, gotta scare the prisoners somehow.”

Once again you sent him a glare, “Wow that’s a death glare. Wait why aren’t you talking?” What a real funny question, he promised you last time he wouldn’t take on a big brawl again. But he obviously didn’t keep that promise. It makes you angry and upset. You just want him to stay safe, is that too much to ask?

You reach for his left hand start to clean and bandage it. You then switch to his right hand and can’t stop the tears that fall. Which fall right onto his knuckle which makes his freak. “Hey wait why are you crying? Sweetheart come on please look at me.” He grabs your chin and sees your tear stained eyes. “Talk to me please. I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

You sniffle and let more tears fall, “You broke your promise. You told me you wouldn’t take on a brawl by yourself again. Wriothesley I get you’re the Duke but seriously hold yourself in a higher regard. You are still a person and don’t deserve to be beaten up to stop a fight. You have people that can help you break it up. It’s not your burden to carry all by yourself. Don’t you care about your body? Because I do. I care SO much. I don’t want to see your beautiful face beaten up and your nice clothes ripped and bloodied. It breaks my heart and I can’t keep seeing you like this.”

Wriothesley stops, wait were you breaking up with him? “Sweetheart please don’t break up with me. I know I promise, and I’m very sorry I broke it. I’m the Duke and I want to send a message and not have my men get hurt over stuff I can handle on my own. I truly promise from now on I’ll go into these situations better. I’ll bring extra men just archons don’t break up with me. I love you so much it hurts.”

You think he misinterpreted the last thing you said but at least this promise seems like one he won’t break. You smile at him, “I’m not breaking up with you handsome. You misunderstood.” You brush your hands through his hair, “I just don’t like seeing you hurt. I like seeing your handsome face free of blood and bruises. I love you so much too Wriothesley.”

Wriothesley smiles up at you and pulls you toward him and slots his lips with yours. You feel like with this kiss he’s sealing your promise.

Yanqing

Yanqing is not only recovering from his little run in with Blade and Dan Heng but is now having a crisis because you’re ignoring him for some reason?? He tried to ask Jing Yuan why you were avoiding him, but he was like “I don’t know Yanqing, I think you need to solve your little lover’s quarrel by yourself.”

To say he was bewildered might have been an understatement. All he wanted to do after he was thoroughly beat up by an infamous Stellaron Hunter and the previous High Elder was to just be in your presence and have you tend to his wounds because you always did it better than he ever could.

So here you sit, all by yourself, in the Exalting Sanctum, trying to calm yourself down. You just can’t believe that Yanqing would try to recapture one of the Stellaron Hunters, when he knows just how dangerous they are, and all by himself on top of that.

When you had first heard that Yanqing had gone off on his own accord to try to recapture Blade, it wasn’t even from Yanqing himself, rather from the seat of Divine Foresight himself. To say you were bewildered and just plain terrified was probably an understatement, because Blade is a very dangerous criminal with a high bounty on his head. Why would Yanqing try to go after him by himself for starters and without an order from Jing Yuan??

When he first got back after Jing Yuan told him to take his leave, he finds you sitting in Exalting Sanctum all by yourself looking quite upset. His first thought is that someone bothered you but when he reached where you were sitting all he got was a very harsh glare.

“Hey there my dear, what’s got you so upset? Did someone bother you?” You glare at him even harder once you see his injuries and stand up and huff before grabbing his hand and dragging him to your home. Yanqing can tell that you are very clearly upset but he can’t seem to figure out why, because you have never been this mad before. You drag him to your room where you kept your medical supplies and push him to sit on your bed, and you were not that gentle with it.

He winces at the sting it causes his injuries when you push him and you glare harder at the floor. You grab your little medical kit that you have, for times just like this, and begin on working tending to his injuries. He looks at you quizzically, because by now you would have said something, anything at all in response to him, and he is growing more confused and nervous by the second, because was it something he did?

The silence between you two lasts for a little longer until he speaks up and asks “hey, did I do something wrong? Did I upset you somehow? Please just talk to me?” You look up and glare at him again before silently getting back to his injuries, and you don’t know if it’s because you’re angry or because you were so nervous for his safety, but you realize that your hands are shaking.

Yanqing soon realizes this too and his eyes widen in alarm. “Wait, why are you shaking? Please tell me what’s wrong and I’ll do all I can to fix it, please, please just talk to me!” You begin to fumble with the last of his bandages and as soon as he sees that he grabs your hands with one of his and your face with the other. You look up at him and it doesn’t take long for you to break, tears start forming in your eyes before you’re spilling what’s bothering you.

“Yanqing how could you think that going after a Stellaron Hunter all by yourself was a good idea?? Do you have any idea how worried I was when Jing Yuan told me that you went off on your own with no orders?? Blade is such a dangerous person and you thought that the best course of action was to go off on your own and try to recapture him?? You could’ve avoided getting these injuries, don’t you know that?? It hurts me every time that I have to tend to your injuries because I know you’re out there getting hurt everyday and there’s nothing I can do about it! That’s why I’m upset Yanqing because I hate seeing you hurt!”

To say Yanqing was stunned was an understatement, because he was the reason you were upset? How could he have let that happen? “Wait, I’m so sorry my dear I never meant to upset you. I just wanted to prove myself and recapture the Stellaron Hunter after he escaped, I know he’s dangerous but I thought I could do it. I’m sorry for overlooking your feelings when I get hurt, please forgive me.”

Your eyes soften before you take your hands gently out of his and wrap your arms around him. “I forgive you Yanqing, please just stop being reckless alright?” His arms immediately come to wrap around you before he buries his head into your stomach. “I promise I’ll try to be less reckless, my dear.”

Let’s just say that from that point on Jing Yuan was impressed when he noticed that Yanqing got just a little less reckless, and he mentally thanked you for that.

#boothill x reader #sunday x reader #jing yuan x reader #moze x reader #yanqing x reader #hsr x reader #star rail x reader #diluc x reader #neuvillette x reader #wriothesley x reader #venti x reader #lyney x reader #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader

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sh1-n0bu · 7 months ago

Text

✿ 𝙠-𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨?! ✿

characters: currently every adult characters x gn!reader

warnings: fluff, established relationship, characters might be OOC due to not having much interaction with them to know them enough yet, short hc formats, slightly suggestive on some characters’ due to their tacet mark placement

notes: i wanna kiss calcharo’s tacet mark so bad and this idea stemmed. decided to add a certain someone that people cough cough @lufenianwol cough has been simping for

as known to everyone with eyes, calcharo's tacet marks are on his forehead. sometimes, it gets mistaken for a scar simply due to the placement and his... not so safe job

the easiest place to smooch upon!!! though, with someone like calcharo, it’s either a lose lose situation or a win win situation and there is sadly no in between

in win win situation, you would manage to get a reaction out of him. see how his cheeks turn a cute shade of pink, slight pout tugging on his lips as his eyes widen before furrowing at you. like the secretly yearning lover he is, he would tug on your sleeve, asking for a proper kiss instead of a fake one

however, in lose lose situation, you won’t be able to land a single fucking kiss on this man. he will either straight up dodge your love assaults or place a hand over your mouth, stopping your kisses with a “enough. i’m working” or “the hounds are watching me right now”

but around 80% of the times, he will relent and give into your sweet puppy eye tricks. just make a sad noise and a “aww…” and he’s pulling you back to his side with a faux sigh of annoyance as he lowers himself to your level

“fine… consider yourself lucky that i love you so much or you would have died already”

general jiyan’s resonator mark is on the back of his spine, quite the peculiar spot as it is a sensitive place by both resonator standards and also simple human anatomy standards. but by [name]’s standards, everything is kissable. even jiyan’s resonator mark

it’s always so cute to see his reactions whenever you place a quick kiss to the star aligned shaped marks. a little jump of his body from the suddenness of it all — he genuinely didn’t hear or felt your presence creeping up on him — turning around quickly to grab ahold of you with a chuckle and a blush

“now, where do you think you’re going after pulling such a stunt, dear?”

place another kiss to his chin then his lips. that will shut him up real quick and turn him into a putty in your hands. but if you end up kissing his tacet mark when he is in front of his soldiers, beware that his midnight rangers will giggle and tease you two — their general more than you, to be frank — of how you two were such an adorable couple

it always gets him jumpy and blushy blushy too. a good place to startle him and get him all flustered. it also rejuvenates the tired general, as it feels like a cute non-verbal “do your best!” cheer from you

“alright, i loved the kiss but how does a proper kiss sound, dearest? in private”

resonator yangyang’s tacet marks are also in a place easily visible to those who have eyes and great eyesight, on her forehead

the position makes for a perfect way to tease her but also to give her affection. yangyang is quite shy when it comes to affection and she is still getting used to your relationship, so whenever you lean in to brush her bangs away from her face to place a kiss on her tacet mark, she always turns beet red, cupping her cheeks as she turns her back to you

please don’t — or do, depending on the mood and your preferences — kiss her tacet mark in public, especially in front of chixia. poor girl would not hear the end of chixia’s teasing words and eyebrow wiggles of the gunslinger. and poor yangyang ends up with a squeak, a beet red face and not one, but two cruel teasing from both her lover and chixia

also one of the easiest places to smooch upon!!

sometimes, it can also work as a form of comfort to her too. on the days when she’s feeling particularly homesick and feeling down in the dumps, just kiss her tacet mark and keep your foreheads together. it’ll brjng back the sweet smile on yangyang’s face real quick

“thank you… it means a lot to me”

to those who briefly skim over something or someone, resonator mortefi’s tacet marks will be quite hard to spot. that alongside the way he wears his doctor’s white robe, but it is located on the right side of his chest, resembling a scar more with its vertical placement and large size

but when it glows and becomes bigger whenever he uses his powers, that’s when it becomes easy to spot that it is indeed a tacet mark and not a scar

a very easy place to smooch upon due to the way he wears his doctor’s white robe but also a perfect place to tease him

mortefi isn’t exactly the biggest person when it comes to PDA and it shows on how he prefers to simple hold hands or hug you in public. but don’t be fooled. take his taller frame and hug into advantage and kiss the tacet mark and voila! you have a surprised mortefi!

though it is nice to see your lover’s cheeks turn red and the nearby area to suddenly start feeling more warmer — wait is his cup of cold coffee starting to steam now? — the way he would pinch your cheeks and lecture you is not so fun

don’t worry though, mortefi will let you go eventually with a sigh and kiss your reddened cheeks

“don’t pull such stunt again if you want to keep your favorite clothes from being burned”

resonator yuanwu’s tacet mark is on the right side of his neck. an easy to spot place though due to his preferences to wear high collared shirts and clothes that generally cover his neck, it becomes a bit hard to spot them at times

yuanwu is the one who has the most calmest reactions out of everyone, me thinks. the most you will get out of him is a momentary freeze before he chuckles and wraps his arms around you

he finds it adorable that you yank down the collars of his clothes to place a kiss on his tacet mark, a sweet gesture of affection that makes him go doki-doki

if you’re on the shyer side of things, it’s okay. yuanwu is a gentleman after all, he will take off his hat and hold it over the two of you as you place a kiss on his tacet mark. but be warned that he will pull you in for a proper kiss on the lips afterwards if he takes off his hat

yuanwu loves cats and hot teas but he loves you more, so whatever you ask, whenever you ask to place a kiss on his tacet mark, he will simply chuckle and lower himself to your level like the gentleman he is. sometimes, he even kisses the back of your hand after you kiss his tacet mark as a form of returning the affection

“a kiss for the fairest of them all”

resonator aalto’s tacet mark is also on his neck too! except it’s on the left side of his neck and compared to yuanwu, aalto doesn’t really wear clothes that covers his tacet mark so it’s easier for you to smooch upon!

the most overdramatic reactor out of everyone. giggling, kicking his feet, tucking a hair behind his ear, blushing and going “owhh stop it you~!” — the whole pack. aalto’s a tease and a drama queen so don’t be surprised if he starts swooning over you and your kiss on his tacet mark after you pull away

as purposefully dramatic he is, aalto simply reacts that way so he won’t show just how caught off guard he is and genuinely melting on the spot by the sweet gesture on the inside. his heart is going doki-doki! 103873829 miles per hour and he will cover it up with his overreactions

if there are flowers around when you kiss his mark, he will zoom away for a second, pick up a few flowers and zoom back before putting the flower into your hair. that, or if there are enough flowers, he will create a makeshift bouquet for you. his mist abilities makes him super quick so don’t underestimate his love for you too!

just be aware that afterwards, he would pucker up his lips, making kissing noises as he asks for a kiss on his lips

“this place! this place has a tacet mark too and you forgot?!”

resonator sanhua is a special case for her tacet mark is in her right eye rather than on her body like the other resonators. but that will not deter you and your mission to kiss it

simple, ask sanhua to close her eyes. sometimes her sharp mind will catch up and she will understand what you are about to do and let out a laugh or two while calling you silly

sometimes she won’t. especially if you’re acting like you’re hiding something behind your back. she will think it’s another shiny rock or pretty flower you stumbled upon and want to show it to her

only to get a surprise kiss over her right eyelid!

either way, sanhua is a woman who recovers quickly and acts quickly too. so don’t be surprised if she pulls you in for a quick kiss or straight up dips you in her arms before placing a kiss over your eyelid. after asking you to close your eyes of course

sanhua loves the latter option more as if shows her strength while she also gets to hear your startled noise. she thinks it’s very cute, akin to a sweet little hamster squeaking

“you never cease to catch me off guard, my snowflake”

resonator danjin’s tacet mark is on her left bicep! an easy access area for a quick smooch but also a sweet place to show her a romantic affection as well

wanna learn the quickest way to fluster sweet danjin? just pick up her hand and kiss the back of it. slowly trail your kisses up her arm, one by one, kiss by kiss before making it to the now already glowing and furiously moving about tacet mark

just be warned that when you pull this stunt — especially in public where people could see and tease you two for it — she might momentarily lose control of her power before BAM! a big red shield like thing hits your face, pushing you away from a flushed danjin

but nothing to worry! danjin is a sweet lover and she will always fuss over the already forming red mark on your forehead, while also scolding you on the side

as much as she loves you and your affections, please don’t pull such a stunt in public! she might end up hitting you in the face again! — she says as the very same action takes place again for the 4th time this week

“please don’t do that in public! i don’t wanna keep dealing with your bruised forehead…”

resonator xiaofang— ahem, chixia’s tacet mark is on the left side of her stomach as easily seen by everyone! bright, big and always buzzing, just like the owner of the tacet mark. a bright and bubbly young woman she is, full of energy and mischief to spread around

the same can be said about you, her loving partner, whenever you steal a kiss from her. especially on the tacet mark of hers

wanna know how you first broke your nose? you spooked chixia by kissing her tacet mark without beforehand warning. it was meant to be a cute little surprise, a gesture of affection but chixia got spooked and her instincts kicked in. swinging her elbow, a quick little crack! noise resonating around the place the two of you were in before you groaned out as what she just did dawned upon chixia

safe to say, you learned your lesson and never did it without afore mentioned warning again. you are not dealing with another broken nose, nuh-uh

it is much more preferred for both chixia and you to kiss each other’s scars and tacet marks in the privacy of your home. you can kiss them but also tickle her too! a perfect place it is for her to get tickled

“pfaaahahhahahha—! [n-name], enough enough! uncle! uncle!”

madam magistrate, resonator jinhsi’s tacet marks are also on the back of her spine! but compared to general jiyan, her’s is a bit longer and bigger

a perfect spot to kiss to soother her and help her de-stress. especially when you sneak inside her office to find her slumped over her desk with hundreds upon hundreds of paperworks stacked upon each other

somehow, one way or another, jinhsi always knows it’s you who had sneaked inside her office. you always make sure to be as silent as a mouse but nope, she will know it’s you the moment you slip in through the doors or the huge windows

nevertheless, it eases her mind and soothes her soul all the time. it doesn’t matter if she was asleep, taking a quick nap while hunched over her desk. the moment you kiss the glowing star marks on the back of her neck, a smile will adorn jinhsi’s face as a soft pleased hum is let out

in her opinion, every drop of affection from you is dearly held by the madam magistrate. due to her title, she can’t spend as much as time with you as she hopes for… but these small moments and drops of love helps her keep moving on

“mm… lover~ don’t tell me you’re leaving without giving me a proper kiss? that is an order from the madam magistrate herself”

resonator baizhi’s tacet marks are… a bit on the suggestive part of place. it’s located on the outer of her upper right thigh and therefore, makes it impossible to kiss when in public

but the same can’t be said when in private! so be sure to pepper the star shaped marks in a lot of kisses before you two step out of the comfort of your home

“it’s a way to help you rejuvenate and prepare for the draining day that lay ahead!” you always argue, daring to pout when baizhi softly scolds you for having an obsession with her thigh. but who can blame you? baizhi is a gorgeous woman and the placement of her tacet mark is an added bonus to tease her

whenever you lower yourself to kiss the softly glowing mark, if you’tan is near, the poor creature squeaks before leaving to another room of the home

seeing that even you’tan is embarrassed by your shameless actions, baizhi couldn’t help but sigh as she pushes your head away from her thigh with a finger on your forehead

though she would never admit it, seeing you clinging to her leg will make her feel… something

“that is enough. really, how shameless can you get, [name]?”

resonator changli’s is another one that is… in a provocative place. it’s under her breasts, a small, white glowing tacet marks of five stars in one line, waiting patiently to be kissed

due to the placement of her tacet mark and her quite… sizable breasts, changli has received more stares than she could count to the point she had gotten used to it and started to tease others for staring at them. whether that be her tacet mark or her boobs, the mischievous teacher of the current madam magistrate will not hesitate to call out someone for staring inappropriately

all the while with her ever so present calm, collected, shit-eating grin

but with you, her lover, she is a bit more different. sure, she will still call out your shameless staring and saying that you should have a handkerchief in hand at all times when around her because according to her, “you were drooling”

be sure to stare even more or give her the same shit-eating grin back and say that they were distracting. all three of them before leaning in to place a kiss on her exposed tacet mark. kiss her breast if you’re feeling mischievous and be suffocated between them because changli will pull you in for an unexpected hug. it is her form of getting back at you

“tsk tsk… naughty [name] for doing such actions in broad daylight, in public”

resonator, overseer scar’s tacet marks can be hard to find at first glance. one, they are on his neck, two, because of his damn high collared, neck covering jumpsuit

but to you, he allows it to be easy to be seen. he will dramatically spin around and flop himself down into your lap and throw his head back, exposing his tacet mark to you as he moans about being extremely deprived of his [name] affections and how his [name] affection meter was dropping low extremely quickly to a dangerous degree

it’s been 5 fucking minutes since you last been beside him, kick his overdramatic ass off of your lap

either way, scar is a clingy lover and he will pout and whine and even hiss like a needy, clingy cat while he complains that his lover isn’t paying attention to him. the quickest way to shut him up is to either ignore him completely until he gives up or to yank down the collar of his jumpsuit before kissing his tacet mark

it will either way, turn him all gushy, giddy and diva-like as he kicks his legs, cooing out “ooohhh [naaammeee]~” in a sing song voice or two, genuinely catch him off guard as he yelps, blinking at you with a slight pink on his cheeks. wanna make him even more wordless and flushed beet red? kiss his scars

“y-you… hey no fair, you’re supposed to be the prey here…”

resonator yinlin’s tacet mark is a bit hard to find truthfully. people can easily skim across it, thinking of it as a scar or a tattoo and it makes yinlin smug. not only is it somewhere hidden but it is also so small to the point it can’t be described between a tattoo, scar or a tacet mark. it is on the outer of her upper left thigh and it’s easily hidden between her intricate dress design

truthfully, whenever you ask her if you could kiss her tacet mark, it brings out the slight sadistic parts of yinlin out. she can’t help it, you’re just so adorable like a puppy asking for their favorite treat!

will allow you to kiss them, just not in public. perhaps hidden behind a bunch of boxes stacked upon one another or in a waiting room where no one can see you two

yinlin is… a bit cruel. sadistic, more like, as she huffs before a grin would spread on her face. uh-oh, you have signed your fate

but with all her bravado and cruel pranks that she likes to pull on you at times, she loves how you would kiss the small star marks with so much love and gentleness. will pull you in for a proper kiss afterwards of course

“if you wanna kiss them so bad, then you better get on your knees, [name]~”

resonator taoqi’s tacet marks are also placed on her spine just like general jiyan and madam magistrate’s! another perfect spot to smooch upon when you find her slumped over on her desk, whining about too much paperwork

being the director of border defense at the ministry of development is a tough work. she has to keep her eye on every midnight rangers and outriders, making sure to ensure their safety above all else alongside the borders to never falter. which is why due to her nature of work, every moment shared with you is one that brings her utmost happiness

you two could literally be just quietly cuddled together on the couch, watching some movies without saying anything. and even then, that would make her just happy to be beside you. your presence is something that she loves most after all

another thing she loves is whenever you pepper her tacet marks in kisses. taoqi would laugh, finding your fascination with her tacet marks endearing as her hand comes up to pat your head. she might leave a kiss or a few on your own spine, leaving a peach pink lipstick behind

“teheheh… now we are both the same!”

rover’s one that is on the back of her right hand. a perfect spot to kiss and show affection in my opinion!

take her hand into your own and place a gentle kiss to the back of her hand. like a knight revering their princess as you like to say it, to which rover quietly giggles at, a cute blush on her cheeks that matches her red eyeliner

rover finds your act of affection to her tacet marks adorable. even with the amnesia and identity crisis she goes through at times, rover couldn’t help but find your actions… oddly familiar. the same pose, the same voice, the same gentle kiss to the back of her hand

when telling you about these thoughts, she couldn’t help but just want to pinch your cheeks when you always, cheekily say that “perhaps we’ve been lovers in our past lives and was simply fated to meet again!”

you and your cute cheeky words. beware that fem rover will bite your cheeks as a sign of a threat. and she sees your cheeky words as a threat

“hmph! maybe… just maybe, we are indeed past life lovers and was fated to meet again.. though, no more of that theory or i will bite your other cheek”

male rover’s is also on the back of his right hand! such an easy place to tease him for whatever reason you may have

compared to fem rover, male rover is a bit more shy. he is a sweetheart like that and he will turn beet red whenever you get down on your knees, take his hand and place a soft kiss to the tacet mark. might even get too embarrassed if the two of you are in public and some people around cough cough chixia cough will tease you two for being all lovey dovey

when too embarrassed and pushed to the brim, rover will accidentally use his havoc powers and before you know it, you’re knocked away with a big black feathery wing smacking your face. he will even cover his face with his hands and hide himself behind his wing

he won’t come out from behind the wing at all, even when coaxed gently. if anything he will just smack you in the face if you try to pull the “we must have been fated to be lovers in all our lives” narrative. wanna learn how to see his cute red face? just kiss his wing instead! it gets him squeaky real quick

“you—! you are absolutely ruthless and i wish i could throw you off of a mountain…”

oh general geshu lin… one dreamy man he is with his tacet mark out in the open on his neck, proudly put on display as he uses his black flames to destroy anything that dares to step in his way

he also gifted you a matching earring like his own and a necklace to wear! the one that looks like a fang dangling from a thin leather string. but that is only if you want to wear them or even one of them that is... he secretly wants to see you wear both the earrings and necklace one day. everyone knows the general is down bad crazy for you and would probably tackle you down with kisses if you do end up wearing them. he just wants people to see that you and him were a couple and that you were his...

don’t look at him! it’s just that you’re so gorgeous and he is so happy and counts himself lucky to be your significant other that he gets a bit possessive when he sees others eye you with a certain glint in their eyes... hes just a teensy bit insecure about himself so please kiss him and his tacet marks to soothe his worries

be sure to wash away the general’s worries and insecurities with kisses to his tacet mark and the scar on his lip on the daily!

“mmgh… you are so unfair… one more, you missed a scar”

resonator jianxin’s tacet mark is… a tad bit hard to find. it’s not on her hands, her arms or her legs… perhaps it’s on her back or spine?

“hey! come on you silly, it’s right here!” a hand cups your cheeks, directing your gaze to her… shoulders? oh! now you know why there is an odd slit on the left shoulder of her clothes. you simply thought of it as an odd choice of fashion that jianxin really loves but no. there, on her left shoulder, peeking through the odd cut was her tacet mark

it is indeed a bit hard of a place to find or even kiss. but that won’t stop you nor your determination. a kiss on the tacet mark in the morning for good luck, a stolen one during her lunchtime at the tea shop — though beware that you may or may not get bonked upon the head for it — and one before going to sleep

the monk finds your obsession with kissing her tacet mark a bit odd as she doesn’t think much of it but alas, she will humor her lover at each kiss and sliver of affection before returning her own. jianxin is a sweetheart like that after all. though, please don’t interrupt her meditation, she will accidentally send you flying with a punch

“ah—! oh no, i told you to not kiss me while i’m meditating [name]! oh dear… which direction did i sent you flying…?”

resonator camellya could be a bit tricky and hard to find at first glance to be honest. it’s not big like mortefi nor jiyan nor is it in a noticeable place like calcharo or aalto

camellya uses it to her advantage too. it does a good job in hiding her powers and she uses it to her advantage to deal with… a trickier clients or information brokers. one moment she will act helpless and innocent and the next, her hair is turning red and large deadly flowers are chomping at the annoying brokers

though she will always make an exception with you. you have always been her favorite after all and camellya loves her favored client and information broker

“for the last time, ‘lya… we are dating” she could hear you groan, wrapped up tightly in her vines and flowers as you dangle upside down from them. camellya simply giggles, cheeks flushing slightly at your nth reminder of your recently official relationship. hands cupping her own cheeks as she swoons over imaginations of your future dates. you wanna become free? just use her momentary weakness to your advantage, swing yourself back and forth before leaning in and planting a kiss to her chest. especially on her tacet mark

“oh—! oh, [name] you naughty lover~! would you like to become my flowers’ next feast?”

art credit to koitotwt on twt!

okay he isn’t a resonator but pls act like he is for the sake of the story resonator yhan’s tacet mark is completely hidden away compared to the other resonators! it is safely hidden under his layers of clothing, spread over his chest horizontally like a scar

it does get mistaken for a scar because… well, yhan works a dangerous job and he has many scars. but he isn’t at all deterred by the markings on his body. in fact, he will cheekily flex his muscles and take off his shirt and pants for you to stare at if he catches you sneaking a glance in his way

if he thinks you will flush red like a maiden and turn away, he is dead wrong. if anything, it will be him who will be blushing and turning away like a maiden when you quickly approach him, placing a kiss on the tacet mark over his pecks with a squeeze to his chest to further dig in your victory

find him cupping his cheeks and squirming in his spot with a blush as if this is your first date all over again. you’ve been with his ass for years, you know what gets him flustered. he should have picked his battles wiser, even more so considering that he quite literally trains the next generation of midnight rangers and outriders

“but [nameeee]~ what if i like being your victim?”

smack his ass

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youunravelme · 3 months ago

Text

reunited

author's note: just a little drabble to make up for my absence. this takes place in the nothing happened in the way i wanted verse about six months after reader and matt get back together (aka stanley cup finals).

summary: you told matt you couldn't make it to the stanley cup finals...and yet here you are

pairing: matthew tkachuk x reader

warnings: cursing? pda?

you heard the disappointment in matt’s voice when you told him you couldn't make it to his playoff games. you'd managed to come to a game vs. the rangers, but when the panthers made it to the finals, it was clear that your schedule might not even allow you a week off. but when you looked at the calendar and saw you had an opening before you summer internship, you immediately booked a flight to miami.

everything was set.

until two days before game seven, the flight was canceled.

“matt, i’m so sorry—”

“baby, it’s fine. you can’t control it.”

“i’m trying to look for flights but they're all full.” you could hear the way he tried to stifle his sigh. but you knew him like the back of your hand, you knew how much this meant to him, how close he came last year. and you wanted to be there. you knew he wanted you to be there.

which is why you took your airplane refund (and a little out of savings) and starting looking at rental cars.

in hindsight, making an eighteen hour trip alone was not the smartest decision you ever made, and it surely wasn't a choice matt would approve of if he knew about it. but maybe he'd be so caught up in the post game that he wouldn't ask how you got there.

when you got into the city, taryn was the one who met you at their hotel. she smiled and gave you a tight hug.

“how was the drive? not too bad i hope?”

you gave her a sheepish smile. “i might need another five hour energy.”

she bumped her shoulder with yours. “i’m sure the game will be hyped enough to wake you up.”

“thank you for waiting for me.”

taryn’s laugh was immediately swallowed up by the sounds of traffic, but you felt it just the same. “matt would kill us if we left you to walk to the arena alone.”

“he doesn't know i’m here, does he?”

she shook her head. “we haven’t said a word. but please believe he's done nothing but mope about it.”

you rolled your eyes. “he doesn’t have time to mope, not when winning the cup is so close.”

and it was.

you couldn't remember a time where you'd screamed as loud as you had. your blood was pumping, heart pounding, you were torn between squeezing your eyes shut from anxiety and keeping them focused on the game. maybe after the game, you'd apologize to taryn for holding her arm so tightly, but she was squeezing yours back just as hard.

you watched as they kept the puck in the corner as the clock ran down. the nail polish you'd painted on your fingernails were in fragmented chips on the floor. your eyes kept darting from the jumbotron to the ice, back and forth back and forth.

but the buzzer went off and your boyfriend hopped onto the ice with his teammates. taryn was pulling you into a threeway hug with brady. before you knew it, you were being shuffled out of your seats, down the stairs, and onto the ice.

you were operating on autopilot, sticking close to taryn and brady. you were in the back, behind his parents and siblings, not really focusing on where you were going, only knowing that taryn’s grip was on your wrist.

people bumped into you, cameras were everywhere, yet your gaze was solely on taryn’s red leather jacket. maybe you should've dressed differently, worn something fancier instead of a jersey and jeans. it was game 7 and your boyfriend just won the stanley cup and you probably looked exhausted and there were going to be pictures that would probably live on the wall of matt’s childhood home for the rest of time.

taryn and brady stopped walking which could only mean that they'd found matt. if you could see over brady´s broad shoulders, you might have been able to see the embrace matt gave his mom, then the massive hug he gave his father. you couldn't hear what was being said, but you a glimpse of a red sleeve hug taryn before brady was next.

matt’s arms went around brady’s shoulders, his head peeking over, when the two of you made eye contact for the first time in weeks. his blue eyes widened in shock before he physically shoved brady off of him and out of the way.

“no way!” matt said over the noise before you were being yanked into his arms, lips pressed against his. it was clumsy and mostly teeth, but who could blame either of you? he’d just won the stanley cup.

you pulled away first with matt still chasing your lips until you placed a hand on his chest. “congrats, baby.”

“what're you doing here? i thought you said you couldn't make it! how’d you even get here?”

you smiled sheepishly. “i drove.”

matt’s smile dropped for a moment as he rolled his eyes. he placed a kiss on your forehead and brought you into your chest. “you're an idiot, but i love you.”

“i love you, stanley cup champion.”

he preened for a moment until he realized you'd successfully navigated the conversation back from yourself. “don’t think we won't talk about that later, baby.”

as the celebrations continued, regardless of who came up to him, matt’s hands never left your body. maybe it was the high of winning or maybe it was because you hadn't seen him since game five against the rangers but he wouldn't let you out of his sight. you tried to sneak away to stand with his family while he was being interviewed, but he never let you get far enough. at one point, you were standing just far enough to be out of shot of the camera, but close enough to where he was somewhat paying attention to the reporter interviewing him.

“you sure you don't wanna come with me?” he asked after the last interview.

“matt, i promise she does not wanna go into a locker room with you and your sweaty teammates,” taryn chirped. “i’m sure you can survive without seeing her for a little bit.”

he didn’t look convinced.

“whenever you're finished, i’ll be ready to do whatever you want. i’m here for a week.”

his eyes lit up right before he kissed you again. “fuck yes.”

you laughed and pushed him away. “go celebrate with your teammates, we’ll be ready when you are.”

he glanced over his shoulder at his teammates and then back at you. “i love you.” he started moving backwards but kept his eyes trained solely on you, not a care in the world as to who he was bumping into. “and don't think i’m not gonna say something about you driving eighteen and a half hours.”

he knew the time it took?

“how’d you know how long i drove?”

a familiar smirk graced his lips. “baby, i always know how far you are from me.”

“you’re both sickening,” taryn joked as matt disappeared down the tunnel.

“maybe, but i love him.”

#matthew tkachuk x reader #matthew tkachuk imagine #matthew tkachuk #nhl blurb #nhl imagines #nhl imagine

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azen13 · 4 months ago

Text

CW: Yandere Themes

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Yandere!Alhaitham x Endangered Animal Hybrid!Reader...

It starts off innocently enough. After escaping a group of Treasure Hoarders looking to sell you off to whoever would pay the most, you find yourself lost in Gandharva Ville for several days until Tighnari finds you. Knowing that you're at risk of being poached due to your rarity, but also knowing that keeping you—a feral, dangerous, and intelligent being—in close proximity to Collei is a bad idea, the Forest Ranger writes to Alhaitham asking him to house you and keep an eye on you.

After several letters sent back and forth over the course of days, it only takes a little bit of begging on Tighnari's part to convince Alhaitham to look after you for a month. Soon enough, you're moving in and sulking around the confines of your new "home", a pout on your face at the fact that you can't escape. After all, for all your strength and agility, Alhaitham possesses a vision and a powerful intellect. You're outmatched.

Despite your attitude, Alhaitham pays you little mind. He makes sure you're fed, hydrated, and healthy, but rarely speaks more than one or two sentences at a time when talking to you. Over the days, the two of you warm up to one another a little, but nothing noticeable changes in the Scribe's demeanor.

Until he comes home one day to you sitting on a sofa, a book plucked from his personal collection spread on your lap. An Introductory Guide to Zoology, the title reads. After a moment, your ears perk up, registering the door creaking. In a flash, you turn to face him, shock painted bright red across your face.

For a few seconds, all you can hear is the battering ram that is your heartbeat smashing against your mind, chastising you for being so stupid. Now you'd be thrown out and defenseless, with plenty of dangerous people who'd jump at the chance to earn a pretty penny by pawning off a rare hybrid such as yourself.

"S-sorry," you say, shaky hands shutting the cover. But before you can, Alhaitham is quick to grab hold of the book, keeping it open.

He's so close to you, to the point where you can see the rise and fall of his chest, the sheen of sweat on his forehead from walking home in the warm weather, the pure intrigue in his eyes at this new discovery.

You intrigue him.

His eyes narrow slightly. "I didn't know you could read?" He glances at the text, discerning what exactly you're studying—if you are studying at all, that is.

You nod. "I learned when I was very young," you say, your own eyes slowly falling to the floor, willing this conversation to be over. Luckily, the divine seem to answer your prayer and Alhaitham simply shrugs and walks away.

Little do you know, the spark of curiosity he allowed you to see had already grown into a roaring fire, burning with the desire to know you. He could hardly call his interest rational, though he does his best to find justifications and act like he believes them.

The month flies by, and you continue to believe that all is well in the world. You've just begun looking through your few belongings, trying to decide what to keep and what to get rid of before you move out, when Alhaitham enters the doorway. "Tighnari told me that you plan to leave in less than a week."

Looking up from the knick-knacks you own, you turn to Alhaitham. "Yeah. I was planning to go back to Gandharva Ville and live there for a few months," you say, your attention beginning to shift back to your possessions. Conversations with Alhaitham mostly ended after one or two sentences, and you had no reason to believe that this conversation would be any different.

"About that." Alhaitham's voice breaks through your focus like glass. "There have been reports from the Matra of increased poaching in the areas around Gandharva Ville. I'm not forcing you to stay, and neither is Tighnari, but we won't be able to protect you there as well as we can here," he says.

You frown. You had been looking forward to leaving for so long now, tired of being cooped up inside Alhaitham's home with only brief walks outside—under the Acting Grand Sage's supervision, of course—to break up the boredom, only to learn that it would be dangerous to leave the city.

"I...I suppose if it's okay, I'd like to stay," you say after a moment of mental debate.

For a moment, you swear you can see the corners of Alhaitham's lips quirk upwards.

"I'll inform Tighnari of your decision as soon as possible." As per usual, after a moment of silence, Alhaitham walks away.

Time seems to fly by in increasingly rapid intervals. One week becomes two. Two weeks becomes four. Four weeks becomes eight, and so on and so forth. You slowly find yourself ensnared by Alhaitham's careful, subtle manipulation. Gandharva Ville really isn't overrun with poachers, but with how sheltered you are, you don't know that.

And week by week, day by day, you don't realize it but Alhaitham is slowly working to decode you. What about you fascinates him so deeply? As he studies you like he would one of his projects, he only finds himself falling deeper and deeper into obsession, an inescapable loop of positive feedback.

The realization comes to him one night, as dreams of you dance in his head as he sleeps. Your hand brushing against his for only a moment. The empty space on the other side of his bed filled by you, his arms holding you close every night. The tender press of your lips against his. The kind of love that transcends human nature. The kind of love that is divine.

Alhaitham is in love.

And now that he knows it, he can't let you go. Luckily for him though, you'll never escape. After all, he's already domesticated you. It's only a matter of time before you learn to love him, too.

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fefern · 7 months ago

Note

Hello!! I'm in love with your Wuwa hcs and writing in general and I'd love to put in a request, if you're still open for them :0 <3

I'd like to request some fluffy hcs for Jiyan with an s/o that's part dragon, has horns and tail and maybe some scales like Mortefi(forgot if you spell his name like that I'm sorry😭 the red scientist guy). The s/o is super protective of him but also aloof in public, super cuddly in private when the time is right, brings him rocks and flowers as gifts and all that cute stuff, basically courting him by "dragon standards" hajsjdjd

Thank you for your time!<3

✧˖° his reaction to a dragon hybrid lover. | jiyan headcanons.

⋆ ˚☁️ ⁀➴ synopsis: look in the sky! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a... dragon hybrid reader? just how will jiyan react to being courted by you, and how does he love you as someone who's part dragon?

⋆ ˚☁️ ⁀➴ characters involved: jiyan and gender neutral reader.

⋆ ˚☁️ ⁀➴ warnings: none!

⋆ ˚☁️ ⁀➴ notes: hello hello hello! i hope you are doing well lovely anon!! thank you for sending in an ask, and i hope this fufils what you were looking for ;;!! sending lots of love, and as always, requests are open! ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

ᡣ𐭩 •｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅ jiyan ᡣ𐭩 •｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅

your tail would be so so pretty, decorated with scales that had colors that mimic the colors of the clouds and skies.

your horns would be cute on the top of your head, a bit pointy and glowing in the night.

jiyan has come to adore your dragon features, finding them both unique and absolutely beautiful. he’s caught often staring at the way your scales on your face, neck, and tail all catch the sunlight just right to create a glimmer like nothing he’s ever seen before.

he’s quiet in the way he admires you, gently curling a piece of your hair behind your pointy little ears and smiling whenever you look over at him when he does.

he didn’t have time to confess to you about his feelings though, he was caught up with being a general and of course, he also had to consider the fact that he didn’t really know if you would reciprocate them back.

would you prefer mating with another dragon hybrid yourself? is that how these things work?

after a few months of being around you though, he began to notice some… strange things.

for example, whenever you two were walking around the city, you’d always be on the defensive, not letting anyone get too close, not even the chef when you’d go get lunch together.

then, sometimes, when he comes back from long patrols, you overload him with rocks and flowers that you’ve gathered for him, and he always says thank you, even though it’s a bit difficult to bring back to his home.

(he keeps them in his room forever to admire when you’re not around.)

also, lately, you’ve been much more affectionate with him, rubbing your cheek against his and getting very touchy as well, always wanting to be close to him physically.

he expresses his confusion about your behavior to one of the researchers when he stops by one day to gather some intel for a mission for his rangers.

one of the researchers directs him to a shelf that discusses about dragon hybrids, and the man spends almost the entirety of one day learning more about you and your species.

the way he feels his cheeks flush a soft pink when he realizes just what it means for you to have been doing all these actions. he feels like he had a revelation, but at the same time feels stupid and dense.

he’s quick to come back to you one day with flowers and your favorite food in hand, giving them to you and confessing his love for you on top of a quiet hill with a beautiful view of the starry night sky.

“my pretty dragon, you’re prettier than anyone in all of huanglong, and i have loved you for quite some time. will you do me the honors and be mine?”

when you say yes, he feels overjoyed and wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you into a tight hug as he’s careful not to hit your horns or tail while doing so.

after the successful confession, a few things change.

for one, when you begin sleeping over more at his place, he begins to gift you dozens of fluffy blankets and pillows. he organizes them in a nest-like position for you to cuddle up in, and finds it adorable when he comes back to the sight of you curled up in the fluffiness.

jiyan will cuddle with you more often now, guiding your tail to wrap around his strong muscles so that you get your fix of touching as much of his skin as possible. jiyan likes to run his hands over the smooth scales to coax you to sleep.

he enjoys pecking soft kisses on the scales of your face and neck; it’s his little reminder to you to not be insecure about something so beautiful.

overall, you’re jiyan’s most beloved treasure. he will do anything to make sure his little dragon is safe and loved.

#wuwa #wuthering waves #wuthering waves x reader #wuthering waves headcanons #wuwa headcanons #wuwa x reader #jiyan #jiyan x reader #wuwa jiyan x reader #wuthering waves jiyan x reader #jiyan headcanons #wuwa jiyan headcanons #wuthering waves jiyan headcanons #wuthering waves jiyan #wuwa jiyan #qi writes

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puck-luck · 7 months ago

Text

the open secret | seth jarvis

warnings: oral (m!receiving), allusions to free use after the fact, cockwarming pairing: seth jarvis x fem!reader summary: bestie!jarvy head as inspired by this request: "i'm a simple girl with simple wants (blurb abt giving bestie!jarvy head and he's like goofy and silly and guiding the reader's head) (OR, on the other hand, post-loss head to make him feel better cause that's stinkabutt and he deserves it for his game this post-season)". I combined the two <3 wc: 2568

You weren’t ashamed of your oral fixation. It was like an open secret between your friends– you always had a pen, or some gum, or a nail in your mouth. You were constantly chewing on something and you weren’t exactly coy about how much you loved to go down on your partners.

You spoke about it often enough that your best friend Seth had taken to finding a new way to shut you up, as if you were the talker between the two of you. Over the past few months, he would trace over the line of your cheek and press his fingers onto your tongue while you were mid-word.

The first time it happened, you were stunned silent, looking up at him with doe eyes until he withdrew his hand and apologized in a sheepish voice.

“I don’t know what came over me,” he said.

“Okay,” you replied, uncertain but aching to move past the awkward moment.

The second time, you had watched him think it over. You had seen the look in his eyes change. His eyes had been fixed on your lips for nearly an eternity (it felt), and you saw him cock his head from one side to the other. He licked his lips and blinked, his gaze cloudy and far away. You watched his fingers rise up and how his thumb stroked over your chin before he slid the digit into your mouth.

The moment was so heavy. It felt like all of Seth’s weight was pressing against you with just his one finger in your mouth, pressing down on your tongue while his pointer finger rested underneath your chin. It pushed into the submental space, creating an unnaturally satisfying pressure. Almost mindlessly, your lips closed around his thumb and you sucked.

Seth snatched his hand away in an instant, his eyes wide and full of shock.

“Oh my God,” he said.

“Jarvy, it’s okay,” you replied, shaken by his reaction.

“I have to go,” he announced and booked it. He was out of your presence in a split second, and if it had been a cartoon, you could have seen the cloud of dust he had kicked up in his wake.

It hadn’t happened since, but Seth had thought about it. You knew because he continued to get that far away look in his eyes when you spoke for too long, his gaze trained on your lips. You thought once that you saw his fingers twitch at his sides and it drew your gaze, which snapped him out of his. You had watched him shake himself out of it multiple times, even when there was already something in your mouth– the straw of your coffee, most notably.

You had seen him flush a little, his cheeks red, when the two of you went on a little lunch date and you applied lip gloss right before sipping your iced drink. Then, a bit of chocolate had dripped onto your finger from your croissant and you licked it off. You were filled with a sick sense of joy when you watched Seth shift in his seat and not-so subtly look down at his lap.

You hadn’t considered Seth in that way before you noticed his fixation on your mouth– he was just your best friend, a man who you could joke around with an tease and have a good time. He was unnecessarily mean at times, although you knew by now that it was how he expressed affection. He was cuddly because he was energetic and loved to touch his friends. Now, you were thinking that maybe he was touchy with you for another reason and that he was being mean because he was flirting with you.

Your other friends agreed and slowly, over the course of the first two rounds of the playoffs, you realized that you weren’t just friends with Seth either. That was why, when the Canes lost in the second round to the Rangers, you weren’t terribly upset.

It meant that Seth was coming home and staying home, at least for a little while, and you could make your move.

You and Seth made plans to see each other the day following the loss. He spent the night alone at home, mourning the end of his season and resting after battling through injury for so long. He hadn’t even told you about it, just occasionally acting miserable about some soreness in his joints. You were angry about that, sure, but you knew a way that he could make it up to you.

But all of that hinged on getting Seth to put his fingers in your mouth again.

He came over to your apartment under the guise of watching a movie– a low-risk activity, because you were still punishing him for not telling you about his injury. He knew that if he had told you about it, you would have told him not to play. You would have convinced him that it was dangerous and that he would just hurt himself more and the worst part is, he would have listened. He would’ve prioritized you over hockey, which is much more dangerous to him than any injury could be, considering you’re not even together.

You let Seth pick the film, because you obviously weren’t planning to watch it. He chose to watch Wolf of Wall Street, like a typical man, and as much as the success story and subsequent downfall of Jordan Belfort interested you, you didn’t care. You talked. You talked and talked through the movie, something you knew Seth hated.

He was reverent when it came to films he enjoyed, and you knew that each time you opened your mouth, he clenched his jaw just a little bit harder. He was holding himself together well, but when the elevator scene comes on, you know you have to make your move.

“Jealous,” you mumbled under your breath, quieter than most of the things you had said during the film, but loud enough for Seth to hear.

“What?” Seth asked, looking to confirm that he heard you right.

“I’m jealous, Jarvy.” You threw your head back on the couch cushions in exasperation and tilted to look at him. “It’s been so long since I had something in my mouth.”

Seth paled at your words. The color drained from his face in the way that it does when a man thinks something dirty, but is ashamed of it. You almost wanted to laugh at him, but you held yourself together.

“You, uh, haven’t been with anyone lately?” Seth asked, feigning nonchalance by clearing his throat. He wiped his hands on his shorts, shifting in his seat.

You threw yourself over his lap, draping yourself dramatically. This wasn’t uncommon for you to do, but Seth stiffened. He was tense beneath you, no doubt trying to keep you from wiggling over his cock and causing him to grow hard. He’s already a little stiff just from the thought of your lips wrapped around something and the bliss that he imagines would cover your features.

“No,” you whined, complaining with a miserable pout on your lips. “Every guy I’ve met is just so boring.”

“Boring,” Seth repeated, already looking a little far away… your pout had served its purpose. It had drawn his eyes to your mouth and now he was transfixed, his mind still racing with the image of your lips around a cock– his cock.

You sighed in satisfaction when you felt his cock twitch in his shorts, growing harder near your head. It would be so easy to just reach over and take him out of his shorts, fit him in your hand, and suckle at his tip. You covered up the satisfaction by pretending like you’re sighing in frustration.

“What should I do, J?” You asked, batting your eyelashes.

He’s quiet, still watching your mouth. His hand found your arm, rubbing it softly. His other hand toyed with the ends of your hair.

“Seth?” You pressed.

“I could…” He trailed off, bringing his thumb down from your hair to caress your cheek.

You stared up at him, hoping to look helpless, hoping to look like you needed him to guide you. You wanted him to think that it was his idea, that he made the jump from friends to more. You just led him there.

“Do you want something to suck on?” He asked.

“Mm-hmm.” You nodded, hoping your hum came out like a whine.

He brought his thumb to your lip, tracing the bottom edge of it. “I could give you my finger,” he offered.

You nodded again, opening your mouth to take it.

“Or,” he wondered, then hesitated.

You pulled back, eyes shining. “Or what?”

“You could suck my cock.”

The idea sent a shiver up your spine. Seth said it like he’s nonchalant, like he’s just throwing it out there, but there’s a hint of desire in his eyes. He needs this, you can tell. He wants this.

You licked the pad of his thumb, fitting your tongue around the digit. You bobbed your head just a little bit, never tearing your eyes away from Seth’s. While his pupils were still transfixed on your plush lips around him, you trailed your hand up his thigh to palm his bulge.

His lips parted at the contact, giving you a good view of his tongue sweeping over his chapped lip, then biting it.

“I want to,” you said, sliding his hand from your mouth to intertwine your fingers. You maneuvered so that you were between his thighs and he was laying longways on the couch, the Wolf of Wall Street still playing on in the background. You bit your lip and pulled the waistband of his shorts down, achingly slow. You brought his underwear with them, inching them down to reveal his cock, which sprung back toward his stomach once your freed it. You paused, then admitted shyly, “Been thinking about it.”

Seth moaned at that, taking your hand again and holding it against his chest. You pushed his shirt up so that you could splay the fingers on your other hand over his abdomen, thumbing over his happy trail. You looked up at him from between his legs, your mouth open near the base of his cock.

You leaned forward, drawing one of his balls into your mouth. You lathered your tongue over the skin, groaning softly at the feeling of having something in your mouth, at the taste of Seth. You held him in your mouth for a moment, savoring the slightly salty, very musky taste that enveloped the buds on your tongue. You drew your mouth away reluctantly, licking up his shaft until you reached his tip.

His cock kicked against your lips, but you followed it with your jaw wide. You took the head into your mouth, closing your lips around it. You sucked in soothing, gentle beats, closing your eyes with the satisfaction that came with having something in your mouth again– something you had plotted so diligently to acquire.

You let out a quiet moan, content with where you were. You sucked on him the way you sometimes, shyly, always alone, sucked on your own thumb when you were feeling particularly needy. It was slow and deliberate and comforting.

And absolutely miserable for Seth.

It felt good– God, of course it felt good– but it wasn’t enough. You were teasing him, your lips tight around the most sensitive part of his cock, your tongue occasionally flicking over his slit to gather his precum. When it wasn’t tasting him, your tongue was pressed against the underside of his tip, flexing with each suck.

And the way you looked up at him, fuck. Your eyes were wide and full of love and Seth could barely handle it.

He gasped and brought a hand to your hair.

“More,” Seth breathed out, pushing your head down, but not hard enough to actually move you. He didn’t want to make you gag.

You gagged yourself anyway, sinking lower and lower until you had taken all of him in your mouth. Even then, even after gagging, you looked up at him and the only thing that could describe the light in your eyes was this: you were filled with glee.

Seth’s chest felt tight, like he couldn’t take in a full breath. He was stuttering, no longer paying attention to the movie. He couldn’t form words– for someone who talked so much, you were proud of yourself for rendering him speechless.

You bobbed your head, drawing Seth closer to orgasm with each stroke. You let your eyes shift in and out of focus, looking up at Seth at times so he could see the tears building along your waterline. You took in the hair on his body– the dark line of his happy trail, the tickle of his trimmed pubes against the tip of your nose on particularly deep swallows.

Seth’s hand squeezed yours, his grip tight. “Fuck, Y/N.” He thrust his hips up, causing your throat to constrict around him. You moaned at the reverent call of your name, bringing your other hand down to trace the skin of Seth’s balls, cupping them gently in your palm.

You could feel them tense beneath your fingers, a laugh building in your throat. Seth wasn’t far from orgasm now. You pulled your mouth off for just a second to say, “You should come, Jarvy.”

His jaw dropped open, hand tightening in your hair. He convulsed under you, twitches that pushed his cock further down your throat until his tip was brushing the back of it. His spongy head was bumping against your oropharynx and it sent shock waves up his spine with each touch.

He chased the sensation, curses tumbling from his lips as he started to let go. He filled your mouth with his tangy seed, and whined at the moan you released, wanton as if you were drinking the nectar of the gods. You swallowed eagerly, your muscles working around the length of him.

Seth came for what seemed like forever, the aftershocks keeping him tense. His hand stayed on your head, keeping you there. His hand stayed on your hair to ensure that you were still real, because if he looked down at you again, he’d come for a second time. If he looked down at you, holding his softening cock in his mouth, still so happy to be sucking on something, he might pass out.

You could fit his cock in your mouth much better now that he was soft. You readjusted, laying with your cheek on the inside of his thigh. You burrowed into him, filling yourself with him, and closed your eyes.

“What are you doing?” Seth groaned out, confused.

“Finish your movie,” you told him, words jumbled as you spoke around his length. “Wanna hold you a while longer.”

You closed your eyes and breathed deeply, the sounds of The Wolf of Wall Street filling your ears. Seth’s hand pet through your hair and lulled you to sleep, a bit of drool leaking out of your relaxed mouth and onto his thigh.

When you woke, you brought him to orgasm again. When you came over to his the following day, you kneeled beneath him again. Like you said– your oral fixation was an open secret. Seth just used that to his advantage.

notes: guys i need some fingers in my mouth SOOO bad. i'm also a slut for hickeys and for giving head so i fear i just need something in my mouth... i am y/n fr

#puck-luck's fics #andy writes anything🍄#seth jarvis #seth jarvis smut #seth jarvis x reader #seth jarvis x y/n #seth jarvis x you #seth jarvis fanfiction #nhl smut #nhl x reader #nhl fanfiction #nhl fic #nhl x y/n #sj24

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rivendell-poet · 4 months ago

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Hello! Can you do a headcanon on how the fellowship reacts to the 10th member being so oblivious to flirting?

Thanks so much anon! Sorry it's taken me a bit to answer, but hopefully you enjoy these <3

*･༓˚✧❝𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬-𝐭𝐨-𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡-𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫❞‧͙⁺˚༓˚✧ « headcanons »

○ Aragorn ○ Legolas ○ Gimli ○ Boromir ○ Pippin○ Merry ○ Frodo ○ Sam ○

GN!Reader | No TWs | Wordcount : 1k

𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐧

✧ His main ways of showing affection/romance isn’t flirting, so if you pick up on him being more caring/his eyes constantly drifting to you/wanting to listen to you speak then you’re good.

✧ However, if you miss all of those queues as well, eventually he does realise he needs to be more obvious.

✧ Aragorn is pretty good at flirting, the voice definitely puts it from good to pretty good, although a lot of his lines are still done when he’s close to you.

✧ The two of you will be leaning against a wall and he’ll come closer before saying something.

✧ And then you still don’t figure it out.

✧ Confesses pretty quickly after realising it isn’t going to happen any other way.

✧ Will still flirt with you, especially after a fight. Grins when you just look at him like ‘???’

✧ Eventually you understand when he’s doing it, although that’s more because he’ll always come very close to you before saying something. (Comes up behind and hugs before whispering in your ear.)

𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬

✧ Also a more traditional romantic, except whenever he takes you on long walks with him it always ends up with one of you infodumping about some flora/fauna you’ve seen.

✧ Still loves you for it, but decides to try a different approach.

✧ Merry and Pippin decide to step in and help their good friend Legolas, and give him some of the worst flirting lines anyone has ever heard (made most of them up).

✧ Says them to you in his softest voice, before staring deep into your eyes and trying to see if you liked it.

✧ You just end up in weird staring contests until he looks away, or you ask him what he said and he repeats it (you still don’t get it).

✧ Isn’t sure what he’s doing wrong.

✧ Asks Aragorn to help, and does spend a night trying to flirt with the ranger as though he were you.

✧ Aragorn has far too much fun during this, and Legolas takes it far too seriously.

𝐆𝐢𝐦𝐥𝐢

✧ Is also so confused as to how you’re not getting it, and what he’s doing wrong.

✧ But he is a great smooth-talker, genuinely 10/10 lines. Has one for most occasions, and in most tones.

✧ Does experiment to try and find which ones you like and is just so confused as to why none make you blush.

✧ Eventually realises it’s because you’re being oblivious and not because his lines are bad (which is a big relief for him).

✧ Finally, after saying a great line to you, he gets exasperated and asks if you even know he’s flirting with you.

✧ You immediately go red, and he takes that as a ‘no’.

✧ Grins and asks if you’d like to hear any for a second time.

𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐫

✧ Mainly shows affection by physical touch and acts of service. His loving words to you and generally acts of praise, or asking you to continue talking - he’s better at listening.

✧ Is also given advice by Merry and Pippin to flirt with you, although he recognises how bad their lines are and genuinely asks them if any of these have ever worked before.

✧ Does not believe them if they say yes.

✧ He has experience with flirting, although it’s generally over ale and with people flirting at him - not the other way around.

✧ At first is more subtle with his flirting. Then, when you aren’t getting it, it eventually devolves into much more obvious flirting - the kind used at slightly seedy bars.

✧ Knows from experience (himself) about people being oblivious to flirting so eventually just confesses.

✧ Still flirts to see the ‘???’ face and laughs before hugging you, telling you he loves you if you ask what he meant.

𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧

✧ Good at flirting, but not in a serious or romantic way. He’s better at getting a smile from his lines, and getting his feelings across, than he is actually starting something intimate.

✧ Flirts quite often from the day he meets you, and doesn’t realise you’re not understanding them.

✧ Slowly gets more dejected until Merry is like, ‘you know they haven’t picked up on you flirting with them?’

✧ Instantly brightens.

✧ Flirts quickly get more and more obnoxious. Gandalf audibly sighs at quite a few.

✧ Eventually tells a very obvious one while looking directly into your eyes and winking.

✧ Takes a lot of pleasure in your embarrassment, will take advantage of you finally realising he’s been flirting with you and tell you almost every line.

✧ Occasionally comes up to you and says something random but with a wink - you then have to guess if it’s a genuine pick-up line or nonsense.

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲

✧ Quite similar to Pippin, although his pick-up lines are slightly better.

✧ Uses them as a way to subtly show his feelings to people, as a way of confessing without the harshness of rejection.

✧ Catches on fairly quickly that you’re pretty oblivious. Has a small amount of fun with it.

✧ Makes some small bets about if you’re going to notice him flirting (mainly with Merry, very occasionally Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, and Gandalf join in. Legolas could, but just bets with Aragorn).

✧ Confesses normally to you.

✧ Attempts to rig the gambling ring by telling you how you should act ahead of time - this is quickly discovered.

𝐒𝐚𝐦

✧ Sweet, little Sam.

✧ Cannot flirt for the life of him. He truly is trying.

✧ Even gets coaching from Merry and Pippin (and a pep talk from Frodo) to try.

✧ Doesn’t realise you’re oblivious because he’s also so bad at it.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐨

✧ Frodo is surprisingly good at flirting, he just never uses them.

✧ And whenever he does there’s always a slight aura of him being uncomfortable about them. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

✧ Wouldn’t use them as a way to show you his feelings, and would confess before flirting with you.

✧ Does it very occasionally, and when you don’t realise he grins a little.

✧ Tries flirting a bit more, you don’t pick up on any of it, and lets you know at the end of the night.

✧ Very occasionally would flirt with you - but if he’s going to talk to you with romance in mind, he rather be vulnerable and open than flirt.

Hopefully you enjoyed! In any case, I'm thankful you stuck around until the end <3

« 𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 » « masterlist of my works »

thank you for reading *･༓˚✧ wish to be tagged?

#lotr x reader #lotr x you #the fellowship x reader #the fellowship of the ring x reader #aragorn x reader #legolas x reader #boromir x reader #pippin x reader #frodo x reader #merry x reader #flirting #x reader #x gender neutral reader #gender neutral reader #lotr headcanons #headcanons

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queenendless · 3 months ago

Text

THEM AND I

A/N: I am so sorry for this improvised mess of a piece. F Hurricanes. F Florida. F my ADHD self that can't force ingenious masterpieces outta my anxious fatigued brain. How does anyone put out long ass pieces on a consistent basis? I'll never know.

SHORT 🔞 DARK MATURE CONTENT DOWN BELOW.

Your very presence changed the foundation of the anime universe. They are the moths, and you are the flame. An anomaly like one. The dozens to hundreds of certain folk you crossed paths with immediately rewired their brains and tainted their cores.

Each one taking every chance to show off for you flexing their skills and pros to win your favor. Cheering on champion class soccer games. Taking motorcycle rides with fine delinquents. Treated to private tea parties with tier layered savory and sweets.

Having all this special treatment was flattering even though all those eyes on you was quite overwhelming, like the Six Eyes.

But of course, none are satisfied with having so many opponents standing in the way of you being with just themselves. All walks of life and death stalked you from every corner. Wizards gone overblot. Duelists who wacked their duel disks in others' faces. Apple- obsessed Shinigami employed shady tactics to derail everyone else's endeavors.

Cue the bloodbath.

Giant killer robot bears swarming the streets to laser eye and topple buildings on those from their master’ hit list. Geass brainwashed many to take their own lives. One of your lovesick options wanted you to unalive yourself with his bandaged wrapped self right off a roof. Not even butler cutlery was safe as it clashed with holy loaded guns for ownership over your soul. The sword wielding slayers beheaded many in their path.

Devil hunters trembled, crybaby heroes broke down, rangers' smiles cracked in fury, and so many unfortunate hunters were crushed; literally. Sinful demons would relish in the chaos. For crimson enveloped their now shared world.

Love letters for you, smothered in bloody kisses and hand prints, fell from the sky. Bouquets of white roses splattered with crimons drops on the petals. You felt your stomach twist in knots, your chest suffocating from the various hands and arms wrapped around you, and your vision being flooded with the color red.

Basically …

The fight for your love would result in WWIII.

But who would win in the end?

At that point, would it even matter?

Who's to say?

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m1d-45 · 4 months ago

Text

snapshot

summary: short, soft moments with your lover, featuring tighnari and neuvillette (separately) in that order.

word count: ~1k composite

-> warnings: big mention of bugs in tighnari's ! none shown but theyre discussed, as are bug bites. none for neuvi.

-> gn reader (you/yours)

taglist: @samarill || @thenyxsky || @valeriele3 || @shizunxie || @boba-is-a-soup || @yuus3n || @esthelily || @turningfrogsgay || @cupandtea24 || @genshin-impacts-me || @chaoticfivesworld || @raaawwwr || @ryuryuryuyurboat || @undrxtxd || @rainswept || @wanderersqt || @rozz-eokkk

< masterlist >

bug bites were common among forest rangers. a special bug repellent was included in every pack, a black bottle with plain instructions. tighnari put effort into making it easy to apply and easier to understand, constantly finding new ways to promote its usage. if gone untreated, even small beestings can become serious. add onto it the fact that he was the one that inevitably had to treat them, and he had every motivation to ensure it was used. he made sure that spares were easily accessible, included demonstrations in training, and emphasized the importance of proper application before every patrol.

so why in teyvat did you keep getting bit?

every time, without fail, you returned from patrol scratching your wrist or ankle or wherever you inevitably got bit. and every time, he had to be the one to drag you to the medical hut. at least if you acknowledged the severity of the situation and brought your injuries to him on your own, that’d be understandable. he understood that the feeling of lotion wan’t bearable for everyone—he was in the process of transforming it into a mist to make it even easier—and he’d be happy to find ways to keep you inside if that was the case. there was no shortage of small chores to be done, and with collei now in full recovery, you could easily take her place.

but no. of course not. that would be too easy. his partner happened to be the most stubborn ranger on the squad, with the worst affinity for bugs he’d ever seen.

“how does this always happen to you?”

you shrug, pulling his mint plant off the shelf and beginning to tear off a few leaves. part of him is proud you at least know the proper treatment, though it’s quickly overshadowed by the angry swelling on your hand. he takes the leaves and nudges you toward the chair, searching his drawers for the rest of the poultice.

“how long ago did you get bit?”

“maybe half an hour.”

“half an-” he twisted open the tin with too much force, sighing. “and you didn’t come back immediately why?”

he can hear the smile in your voice. “it wasn’t that serious.”

“…what color was it?”

“yellow.”

“really?”

“and striped. probably a wasp.”

he didn’t know how you had the energy to be sassy, tearing the leaves into shreds and mixing it into the tin. your eyes were red with tears and you hissed when he spread the medicine over your wrist, clearly in pain. the area around your bite was hot to the touch, and he could feel his ears pull back in worry.

“why do you insist on going on patrol?” why do you insist on getting hurt?

“it’s not a big deal.” i don’t care about my pain.

“it is.” i do.

he wiped off his hands and grabbed a roll of bandages, wrapping your hand. your fingers flinched whenever he pulled it too tight. how could you insist on putting yourself at risk like this?

he taped down the end, holding your hand in his. “if it gets too itchy, come back to me, okay?” will you let me care for you?

“of course i will.” i’ll try.

he brought your hand to his, pressing a kiss to your knuckles.

maybe this time, you’d mean it.

rain was common in fontaine. gutters lined every road and fountains sprayed wherever there was enough room to put one. carved bricks channeled water out of the plazas, every inch of the city designed with rainfall in mind. steep roofs fell over wide awnings, thick greeting rugs in front of every building. when it rained, it poured, though no puddles lay in the streets. sharp lights cut through the dense fog hanging over ivory walls, lighting up the city even when the clouds blocked out the sun.

but the world did not come to a standstill merely because the weather asked it to. boots were sold covered in waterproof wax, many-layered skirts designed to flick off water in a single twirl. fashion was as beautiful as it was untouchable, the very idea of something being vulnerable to waterlog appalling and confusing. who would create such a thing? who would wear it without an umbrella? and, entirely separate from that: who would ever consider leaving the house without an umbrella?

umbrellas were as vital to fashion as they were to the ever-changing weather. they came in every color and shape, made to match every conceivable outfit one could wear. and if, by some miracle, you couldn’t find one that did, there were a plethora of boutiques offering custom embroidery. the steambird was eager to comment on the shifting designs across officials’ umbrellas, trends flowing in and out of their fashion column like the tide. everyone who worked in the court that had stepped outside on a rainy day—which was about as common as the sun rising—had their appearance meticulously documented; unless they refused being in the paper, of course, in which case other less-reputable sources picked up the story instead.

all were reported on, making the front page if not the headline. all, but one.

the iudex did not carry an umbrella. he also declined to entertain any questions as to why, merely stating that simple fact and moving on with his day. his hair clung to his face, even his suit darker with water. he walked down the less crowded roads so he wouldn’t bump into anybody, seeming entirely unbothered by the rain. sometimes he’d turn a palm toward the sky, as if checking that it was still there, and then continue on his way.

you always hated this habit of his. no matter how many times he insisted that he wouldn’t get sick, it was always worrying to open your door and find your lover soaked from head to toe. no water slips from him to your floors, not even from the soles of his boots, the click of his heels and your worried tone the only sound in the house. it was already late as it was, and there was no point to fuss about details at this hour.

“what happened?”

he shed his coat, suspended droplets hovering in the air around him. “the marechaussee phantom were called to mount automnequi; a melusine was badly injured by a rogue mek, and a fisherman had to pull her from the sea. i paid her a visit after work.”

that would explain things. he lets you wipe off his face, careful not to smudge the eyeliner that never seems to fade. already, the rain was beginning to let up, lightening from a downpour. rain in fontaine was as fickle as it was frequent…

“is she alright?”

“of course. the gardiennage provides excellent doctors.”

“then there’s no need to worry.” cupping his now-dry face in your hands, you pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “she’ll be back in her feet in no time.”

the slightest of smiles crossed his face, his hands keeping yours on him. outside, the skies were clearing, pale blue quickly streaming through the clouds.

perhaps umbrellas would fall out of fashion soon, if rains could cease before they truly had the chance to begin.

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mendeshoney · 1 month ago

Text

rough ride, hold on tight

a/n: this is a part three to "a taste of the devine," and you can read part one here and part two here! this is all because of @smileysvech and her moodboard. gif is courtesy of @pyotrkochetkov because I think it contributes to remind you all how broad this man is, for absolutely no particular reason. title is from "railway" by bang chan of stray kids.

summary: andrei buys a new car, and you both take it out on a test drive.

word count: 8,680

tags: five year age gap, older woman x younger man, fluff, l-bombs, previously established dynamics (including msub x fdom dynamics, switch, mdom x fsub dynamics - in this fic, mainly mdom x fsub, andrei is a pleasure dom/service dom if you can't tell), smut, morning sex, oral sex, drool/spit kink, car sex and therefore semi-public sex, penetration, finish inside, unprotected sex

Russian terms used (bearing in mind the author does not speak Russian and definitely Google’d these) can be referenced here.

***the events in piece this are pure fiction and are potentially dangerous, therefore please drive responsibly (ya filthy animals)

You purse your lips, eyes flicking up between Andrei and his sheepish smile, and back toward the brand new cherry red Lamborghini Urus sitting in the driveway behind him. It's sleek, shining in the Raleigh sun, and the sparkle of the rims in the afternoon light screams dollar signs back at you.

You absolutely do not sigh.

The only reason you recognize the car is because you’d seen Andrei looking it up on his phone a few times over the last couple of weeks, and now that it’s in front of you, you don’t know how you didn’t put two and two together before.

From where you stand inside your shared three car garage, your Range Rover rests on your right, and Andrei's black Mercedes S-Class and his green BMW sit in the other two spots to your left.

Andrei’s new toy is definitely not going to fit in here.

"I traded my other Lambo in for this one," he explains, the smile impossibly wide on his lips.

"Who is it for?" You ask, though you don’t know why, considering it’s obvious, and Andrei flashes you a kilowatt smile.

"It's mine!" He exclaims. "You can use it too, obviously, if you want to. You can use any of my cars, you know that."

You hum noncommittally, glancing at the car again, then back at your clearly very excited boyfriend.

"Well?" He asks, antsy, practically bouncing on the heels of his feet.

"It's really nice, malysh." You say honestly, because it is a very nice car, despite being far less discrete than the other two sitting next to you. It's also subtly flashier than his last one, and certainly more roomy. His old Lambo was a classic two-door, two-seater deal.

At least this one has a backseat.

"But...?" He asks, taking a step closer to you.

You shrug, welcoming him when he wraps his arms around your waist. "Does Daniel know?"

Andrei scrunches his nose. Daniel's his accountant, who Andrei is usually good at calling before he makes big purchases like this. "It wouldn't be here if I didn't call him."

You pinch his side lightly, "Don't get sassy, I'm just making sure."

"I'm not," he protests, the slight whine in his voice not going unnoticed. "But you don't like it."

You frown, shaking your head, "That's not true, I said it was really nice."

"That doesn't mean that you like it." Andrei points out.

Carefully, you withdraw from his embrace and lean back against the door of your Ranger Rover. You consider your words carefully, because you know what it means to him to be able to spoil you, his family, and himself. But this is...well, kind of a lot.

He surprised you with the Range Rover for your birthday, which you had been eternally grateful for - your thighs throb a little with the memory of just how thoroughly you'd thanked him for it - but that was only a couple of months ago.

And a month before that - when you agreed to move in together as opposed to continuing the long sleepovers at the other's house - he'd moved the two of you into your current home. It had a three car garage, huge backyard, and a master bedroom with the most ridiculously large bathroom you'd ever seen in your life.

So this was a bit…well…

You weren’t the kind of person who dictated how others lived their lives or spent their money. And it wasn’t like Andrei didn’t have money.

But, you remember a conversation the two of you had early on in your relationship. Andrei held you tight in his arms as you lounged on a chair by his pool, gazing at the stars as his fire pit kept you both warm. He’d told you about his upbringing, about the things his parents did and how much they sacrificed for him and his brother to keep them safe so that they’d be able to pursue their dreams.

He told you about what it was like to feel the want for things, both out of survival and desire. He told you about how being in the position he was in empowered him to give back to his family and to himself to make sure he never felt that want ever again.

So…

While you understood all of that, the shiny new car in front of you still gives you pause.

“As long as you’re happy,” you say, “then I’m happy with it.”

Andrei stares, considering the - what you hope is neutral - expression on your face. Whatever he sees there doesn’t convince him though, so he pulls you back to him, looping his arms around your waist and pressing his lips to your forehead.

“You trust me don't you?” he asks.

You're nodding without a second's worth of hesitation. "Of course I do."

"Then I'll show you it's worth it."

You’re not entirely sure what he means, or how he plans on doing that, but you nod anyway, tilting your head back so you can kiss the sharp angle of his jaw. “Okay, malysh. But you’d better park that new ride in the garage. You can move my car into the driveway.”

There’s a delicate caress to your waist that coaxes you from your mid morning nap, followed by gentle kisses that trace the line of your jaw, then neck.

You stir, exhaustion still running rampant in your body, shifting to lay on your back.

"Kroshka," Andrei murmurs. You feel when he makes his way under the covers, lifting up his shirt that you wore to bed to expose your bare lower half.

He carefully rests your thighs over his shoulders, placing kisses to each as he goes, before you feel a kiss to your sternum, your belly, and then a kiss to your core, before he hums to himself, content. His hands rest on your waist, fingers gripping your body in a way that anchors him to you.

His tongue is warm and gentle against your skin when he takes his first taste, and you stir a little more, back arching in a stretch.

Andrei makes a soft noise to calm you, reassure you, and you smile, hands disappearing under the covers. Your fingers tangle in his hair, and you can feel when he smiles against you. He tilts his head to meet the touch of your other hand, where you gently caress his cheek, thumbing against his jaw.

"My love," you say sweetly, and he presses a kiss to your palm.

"My love" he says in turn, turning back to your pussy. You welcome the open mouthed kisses he presses there, the long and filthy licks he gives you in between, moaning when he sucks your clit into his mouth, rubbing his tongue against it in a way that makes you dizzy.

You arch into his mouth, both hands diving into his hair as you giggle, scratching gently at his scalp.

"Won't you come up here and kiss me properly?" You tease, tugging lightly at the strands before your hands fall to your sides.

He laughs, pressing noisy kisses to your skin. Andrei wiggles dramatically, your thighs still draped over his shoulders as his head pops out from under the covers, body bending you in half a little. His hair is a mess from your hands, lips pink and wet, smile dazzling you.

You can't help but think of how cute he looks like this.

"Hi beautiful." He says, eyes crinkling with his smile.

You return his smile with a bright one of your own, arms reaching out for him. "Hi handsome.”

“Have a good nap?”

You nod, “I did. Can I have a kiss?"

He goes to you, eager as always. Your arms wrap around his neck, fingers dancing at his nape. His kiss is soft, gentle at first, like he’s coaxing you to fully wake up, drawing the exhaustion from you with his mouth. Your lips fit together like puzzle pieces as they move, exchanging delicate kisses back and forth as the mid morning sun creeps in through a small gap in the curtains.

It’s not long before you’re more awake, more aware of the fire pooling in your belly, and your tongue teases at the seam of his lips, turning your kisses dirty in an instant.

You moan when you can taste yourself on his lips, head going dizzy. He moves his arms, allowing your legs to drop from his shoulders so you can wrap them around his naked waist.

You lock your ankles at the small of his back, arching into him, pussy rubbing against his hard cock. He’d worn briefs to bed, and after you two went for a run this morning, then came back to shower and eat breakfast, he’d changed again, and was definitely dressed before your nap, but had clearly shed them before he decided to wake you.

Little shit.

You’re usually sensitive in the mornings anyway, so when his cock brushes against your folds, Andrei grinding himself against you, and your nipples brush against the fabric of your sleep shirt as you press against his bare chest, you feel yourself getting wetter, mouth dropping open in a whine.

He makes the already filthy kiss filthier when he slips his tongue in your mouth, caressing it against your own, almost massaging it. You reciprocate, and he takes you by surprise when he sucks on your tongue, Andrei moaning in approval.

The noises his mouth makes as he sucks on your tongue echo in your brain, bouncing around the edges and intensifying the haze of arousal. Andrei presses his hips tighter against you, the slide of his cock up and down along your pussy getting easier and more slippery with each passing second.

The haze clears for a second when you feel the head of his cock catch at your entrance, and your hands trail from the back of his neck to his shoulders, pushing at him. He parts from you with a small dissatisfied noise, breathing heavily through his nose as he gazes down at you.

“Are you going to be good for me, shchenok?” You murmur, one hand coming up to cup his chin, thumb gently rubbing against his bottom lip.

He nods, pressing a kiss to the pad of your thumb.

"If you make me come," you start, sugary sweet. "You'll get a reward today."

Andrei's eyes flutter shut, turning his mouth to suck lightly on the tip of your index finger, tongue delicately licking at the digit. Your finger slips out of his mouth when you pull your hands away, resting them down at your sides again.

Nothing else needs to be said as Andrei wiggles his way back under the covers, settling back between your thighs and resting them on his shoulders. His mouth latches onto your pussy without preamble, tongue dragging up through your folds to taste you before the tip of it flicks against your clit. He repeats this a few times, and it draws a pleased high pitched noise from you, arching yourself closer against his mouth.

His tongue dips into your entrance and you keen out, his name leaving your lips in a breathy moan. He rests his forearms across your abdomen, pushing down just a little to anchor you to the bed, fucking his tongue in and out of you, burying his face into your pussy, nose brushing against your clit.

"Shchenok," you sigh, lifting the hem of your shirt a little higher. You wiggle your hips, trying to ease his grip on you so you can take what you want, but he's too strong, too focused and too pussy-drunk to do anything except reach up, cupping your tits in his hands and squeezing, his arms pressing down against your stomach so he can continue fucking you with his tongue, burying his face against you, stimulating your clit with gentle bobs of his nose.

You can feel your orgasm approaching quicker than you expected, and you give into it fully, hands descending back into Andrei's hair and gripping at the strands when you come, thighs tightening around his head as your body shakes, a cry of relief tearing from you throat and echoing around the bedroom. Andrei groans at the taste of your release, lapping you up and cleaning you up with his mouth at the same time.

After you've had the chance to calm down and catch your breath, you're quick to throw the covers back, taking in his flushed appearance and thoroughly mused hair. He climbs up your body a little, resting his head on your chest and his hands at your ribcage as you comb through his hair lightly, trying your best to tame it.

"Happy, kroshka?" He asks, lips brushing against the bare skin of your breasts.

"Always," you nod, pushing a happy sigh through your nose. “Do you need-”

He shakes his head. “No, I’m alright.”

You nod. Andrei’s always been the giving type, good about not always expecting things back, but even more so the longer you two stay together.

You also did promise him a reward for later, so you suppose him holding off right now isn’t so bad.

He squeezes you, burrowing his face further into your chest. "I love you so much, you know that?"

You smile, squeezing him back. "I do, Drei. I love you too."

You can feel his kilowatt smile more than see it, and your heart pounds behind your ribcage. You hear him hum to himself, which is his telltale sign that he's got something on his mind. So you wait him out, let him gather his thoughts.

"Will you go somewhere with me today?" He asks finally, fingers dancing gently where they rest on your sides. It tickles a little, causing you to squirm, and it makes Andrei laugh, pressing a small kiss to your skin in apology.

"I'll go anywhere with you," you say honestly, and mean it.

There are moments more often than not lately, especially now that you'd been together a little over a year and a half, where you felt like you two were never going to get out of this “honeymoon phase.” Maybe it’s the domesticity of living together, maybe it’s how easy the two of you fell together, or maybe it’s the optimism for the future - either way, you’d go anywhere so long as you had Andrei at your side.

He smiles, kissing your sternum once before he’s carefully climbing off of you and off the bed. You notice the small wet patch on the front of his boxers and giggle.

It also still amazed you at how easily you could turn Andrei on, how he could come without touching you, how giving you an orgasm was enough to send him into his own.

“Get dressed, kroshka,” he says, pointing at you with a mischievous smile. “Wear something pretty.”

About forty five minutes later you’re slipping into a sundress, grabbing your purse, and putting on your sandals as you head out to the garage, then stop the second you’re in the doorway.

The garage door is open, and you fully expect to see Andrei in the driver’s seat of your Range Rover, on his phone and waiting for you to go. Instead, your car is back in its old spot, and he’s leaning against his Lamborghini from where it sits in the driveway, his charming smile too hard to ignore.

You make your way out, locking the door behind you, and Andrei presses the garage door opener on his keys the second you’re in the driveway and in his arms.

“What’s this?” You ask, curling into his embrace.

At the hesitation in your voice, Andrei gives an easy shrug and a reassuring smile. “Thought we’d go for a drive. Maybe even along the coast.”

You raise an eyebrow at that. “The coast is two and a half hours away, Drei.”

“Good thing we have the right car to take us there then.” He wiggles his eyebrows, then makes a show of opening the passenger side door for you. “Your chariot awaits, kroshka.”

You take his outstretched hand, letting him help you into the passenger seat safely before he closes the door behind you. You take an appreciative look around as you buckle in, noting the sleek leather interior and the softness of the seat beneath you.

Andrei climbs in, buckling himself up before starting the car, and you jump a little when the rumble of the engine reverberates even through your seat, vibrating beneath you.

…Interesting.

He smirks, putting on his sunglasses before driving away, and you settle in, relaxing in your chair as the car continues to rumble under you.

Andrei’s been driving for about forty five minutes when you start to get antsy.

The car practically purrs beneath you, Andrei maneuvering the luxury vehicle with a practiced ease. He looks ever so handsome in his fitted black shirt, the fabric sticking tight to his muscles and accentuating the hard work he’s been putting into his body over the off season.

His jaw clenches when the road opens up in front of him, allowing him to press on the gas and send the car flying forward on the highway. The engine rumbles to life, the vibrations of the car getting stronger as you speed up, the other cars becoming a blur beside you.

The vibration rumbles against your skin, but particularly, between your thighs, and you find yourself turning your head toward the road, biting your lip to keep from making any noise.

You were still sensitive from that morning and had been turned on since then by the wheels in your brain turning to figure out what Andrei’s reward would be for being so good, the anticipation of it all sending liquid heat through your veins.

Andrei eventually slows down a little, speed plateauing, and the intense vibrations of the engine only dull down slightly. You can feel yourself getting wetter, and you end up squeezing your thighs together, trying to pass it off as nothing as you stretch your arms and then your legs, wiggling as you try to get comfortable in your seat. Your hands fall into your lap, right where the skirt of your dress rests, and you flex your fingers to stop yourself from lifting the fabric and rubbing against the cotton of your definitely soaked thong to get some reprieve.

He notices - because he notices everything about you - and rests a hand on your thigh, right above your knee, rubbing his thumb in gentle circles on your skin. “You okay, kroshka?”

You hum, nodding, trying not to focus on how warm his hand feels, how far it is from where you want him to be. “I’m okay, malysh.”

“Do you need me to take the next exit? Get food or anything?”

You want to say no, but you need a break from this goddamn car that you’re starting to think has been sent to drive you insane, so you nod instead, saying “Maybe, I think I just need something to drink.”

He nods, reaching for your hand where it rests in your lap. A little gasp almost escapes when his hand brushes against your lower belly, taking your hand in his and bringing it to his mouth to press a kiss to your knuckles, his other hand still on the wheel and driving expertly.

It’s a few minutes to the next exit, but Andrei takes it smoothly, driving till he gets to a gas station. He doesn’t need to fill up the tank quite yet, so he follows you inside to get some drinks and a couple of snacks.

You head straight for the sugary stuff - taking your time as you browse to try and calm yourself into some semblance of normal. You go about grabbing some lollipops, sour strawberry belts, a couple of chocolate bars, a pack of M&Ms and some Skittles, before heading toward the soda fridge and grabbing a Diet Cherry Vanilla Pepsi. Andrei grabs his usual chips, an energy drink, some water, and a couple of packs of his favorite gum.

Andrei usually travels with a cooler in his trunk, and he must have grabbed it before you headed out for your drive, because he also grabs a few ice cream bars and a bag of ice, before you follow him to the counter. He pays for everything, grabbing all of the bags so you can grab the receipt and get the door on the way out.

You both eat an ice cream bar each in the car before Andrei gets back on the road, slowly picking up speed about ten minutes later. He’d loaded most of your cold items in the cooler in the backseat, save the two ice cream bars you ate, your Diet Pepsi, a cherry lollipop for him and you, and his water.

He’s currently sucking on the lollipop while you quietly sip your soda, trying to focus on the lingering taste of vanilla ice cream and the cherry vanilla-esque taste of your drink instead of the heat that had been plaguing you earlier.

It works, but not for long, because soon the road opens up again and Andrei’s slowly pressing down on the gas, the engine purring to life beneath you. It’s like a rollercoaster, the way you can feel the vibration of the car slowly get more intense before it starts to rumble as Andrei reaches a higher speed.

This time, you’re not able to stifle the quiet moan that spills past your lips, and you immediately tense, clearing your throat to play it off as you put your soda in the cupholder, fidgeting in your seat.

Andrei notices.

Out of your peripheral vision, you see him turn his head to you, eyes no doubt curious behind his sunglasses, before turning back to the road. His hand returns to your knee, thumb resuming his rubbing in gentle circles as he speaks around the lollipop in his mouth.

“Kroshka?” He asks. “Are you alright?”

“Mhm,” you respond weakly, “‘M fine, Drei.”

When he doesn’t say anything back to you, you chance a glance at him yourself, and Andrei turns his head toward you, observing, before turning back to the road.

His hand squeezes your knee, and you know he knows.

It’s probably all over your face at this point, and your stomach clenches when he smirks around the lollipop, control hanging on by a thread when his hand travels up your knee, higher and higher till it’s right below the hem of your dress.

He flexes his fingers, the tips of them dancing on the insides of your thighs, and your teeth sink into your bottom lip, trying your best to tamp down the moan that threatens to spill over. Andrei speeds the car up suddenly, switching lanes, and the sudden rumble of the engine has your thighs squeezing together before you can register what’s happening, trapping Andrei’s hand there.

You pry them apart only a second later, but Andrei makes a small noise of protest.

“What’s got you like this, kroshka?” He says, lollipop tucked against his cheek. His lips are so red.

Shaking your head, you reach for your soda, taking another sip, letting the bubbles dance around your tongue to give you something else to focus on. When you put it back in the cup holder, Andrei’s hand moves from your thigh to your hand, bringing it to his mouth and wrapping your fingers around the stick of his lollipop, helping you guide it out of his mouth.

The candy leaves his lips with a soft “pop!” that nearly makes you dizzy, the sound going straight to your pussy in an almost painful throb. You can feel yourself getting wetter, the cotton of your panties probably soaked by now.

Andrei, careful as his eyes flick between you and the road, guides the lollipop to your mouth, gently pushing it past your lips to rest on your tongue. You see the way his throat works around a swallow, and you know what he’s probably seeing, imagining. Your lips wrapping around the head of his cock, sucking him like this stupid lollipop, lips bright red as his precum drips onto your tongue.

You make sure to purse your lips nice and pretty around the candy before his hand leaves yours, resting back on your thigh, squeezing once.

“Zajka,” he practically croons, his voice deep, teasing, taunting. It nearly makes your thighs squeeze together again. Instead, you try to shift a little in your seat to get comfortable again, but Andrei’s hand feels like a solid weight, keeping you still.

You pull the lollipop from your lips, the cherry flavor sticky against your lips. “Yes, malysh?” You answer.

God.

You’re shocked at the sound of your own voice, how fucked out it sounds, and that just about does it. The last grip on the control you maintained this morning is gone, slipping from your hands and right into Andrei’s lap.

It’s not like Andrei never takes control in the bedroom. He does, and he’s damn good at it, but he revels in the moments where the control is in your hands, where he can do whatever he can to please you, to be told that he’s perfect for you, being so good for you.

But when the control changes hands, when he takes charge, he takes it firmly by the reins and relishes in it, makes you question why it’s not like this all the time.

He looks at you briefly, his eyes tracing from the lollipop to your mouth, before glancing back at the road. You comply, slipping the candy past your lips to rest on your tongue, teeth biting down on the stick when you feel Andrei’s hands against your pantie clad pussy.

A pleased noise rumbles from his chest, knuckles brushing against your clit. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

You nod, a muffled “mhm” coming from your chest. He puts a little pressure behind his hand, and though you don’t mean to, your back arches, thereby taking your lower half a little bit away from his touch, and his head snaps over to you, brow raised, the corner of his mouth turned down in a slight frown.

The apology is on the tip of your tongue, but it’s too late, because he takes his attention away as well as his hand, and the loss of his touch is almost too much for you to bear, especially when he directs his attention back to the road, both hands gripping the wheel as he speeds up, the engine rumbling to life beneath you with a vengeance as the luxury car tears off down the open highway in front of you.

“You’re gonna have to be patient, zajka.” He says, voice toeing the line between stern and gentle. “I need to find somewhere for us to go so I can take care of you.”

“Mkay,” you murmur around the candy, squirming a little in your seat as the car vibrates under you once more.

Andrei laughs to himself. “I just got this car, baby,” he says pointedly, “and you’re already going to leave a wet spot?”

You say nothing, too overstimulated, too desperate for him to fight him or comment on his teasing. Between the car, Andrei’s not-enough touch, and this lollipop that you suspect was used to keep you occupied in the meantime, you’re halfway to delirious, panties soaked with arousal growing uncomfortable with each passing second. The purr of the engine feels nice, but it’s nowhere near enough to satisfy.

All it does is push you closer to the edge, but never allowing you to leap.

You can only let your eyes flutter shut as you rest your head on the window, trying to focus on your breathing, on the sticky candy in your mouth, resting on your tongue. You try to focus on anything and everything other than the luxury car sent from hell - the heat fluttering low in your belly, and Andrei’s heavy breathing from beside you.

You’re not sure how much time has passed when you feel the car finally start to slow down, too lost in the haze to process anything.

“Kroshka,” Andrei murmurs, and your eyes blink open, head turning to gaze at him. His voice is rough, the way it always sounds when he’s barely hanging on by a thread, and you squeeze your thighs together.

Taking a look around outside, you notice he’s pulling up to a hotel with a tall parking garage, and as he pulls into the guest side of the garage, you raise an eyebrow.

Pulling the lollipop from your mouth, you ask “Are we staying here or something?”

Andrei shakes his head, using one hand to take off his sunglasses and toss it onto the dashboard before he grabs a ticket from the machine, pulling forward once the arm raises. You note that the garage seems mostly empty, so you turn your body to look at him curiously, taking another sip of your soda before pushing the lollipop between your lips again, watching as he passes all of the empty spots and continues up to the next level, then the next, until he gets to the roof.

He parks in a spot at the corner of the roof, one not in the eyeline of any of the rooms of the hotel beside the garage, or one that can be seen from the street. There’s a cement base to a tall street lamp that hides the front seat of his car, obstructing the two of you from the view of the rest of the parking spots up here.

Andrei turns to you then, leaning over the center console and gently pulling the candy from between your lips. He reaches behind your chair to the backseat and grabs the plastic bag from the gas station, tossing the candy inside and then tossing that bag in the backseat before he all but launches himself back at you, pulling you to him with a hand behind your neck and seizing your mouth in a bruising kiss that has you rising up to your knees, sitting back on your calves.

A surprised noise leaves you before you moan into the kiss, loving the way his hand tangles itself in the hair at the nape of your neck, pulling your head back a little. It causes your mouth to open a little more, and Andrei takes full advantage, licking into your mouth rubbing his tongue against yours as his other hand snakes its way down your torso and into your soaked panties, Andrei passing your clit altogether and sinking two fingers into your soaked cunt, all the way down to the knuckle.

“Oh!” You cry out, arching your body towards his, and a wicked grin crosses his features.

He’s the picture of arrogance, cocky as ever as he starts to work you open on his fingers, scissoring them this way and that but never curling to touch that sensitive part of you. The noises that his fingers make as he works are obscene, echoing around the car and mixing with the little whines you let out against his mouth.

Andrei breathes them in, his lips curling around your tongue as he sucks on it, the meat of his palm grinding against your clit and sending a fresh wave of arousal through your body, dripping onto his wrist.

“Taste so good,” he says around your tongue, licking into your mouth. It’s so obscene, nasty as his spit and yours starts to trail down your chin, neck, onto your chest. He bends his head, licking it up before pushing it back into your mouth with his tongue, lips and tongue messy as he kisses you.

His fingers finally brush against that sensitive spot inside, distracted by your mouth, and you moan, grinding down on his hand only for him to grip your hair in his hand again, a warning that says “Behave” as he pulls you back just a little.

“Naughty little zajka,” he says against your lips. “You say you hate my brand new car then rub your little pussy all over the seats when the engine purrs for you, hm?”

You shake your head in protest, mewling when Andrei drags your bottom lip between his teeth before he sucks on it, pressing messy wet kisses to the corner of your mouth, chin, lips, all over as you speak. “Never said I hated it, I - nghhh!”

Your words die in your throat when Andrei starts to finger fuck you in earnest, the pads of his fingers rubbing against your g-spot each time as he fucks them in and out of you.

“Show me then,” he taunts, “Show me how much you love it. Come all over the seat, zajka. Make a mess.”

You shake your head - it’s too fast, the pressure’s just right and you’re aching for release but it’s too much too soon. Your orgasm is racing towards the finish line and you can barely catch your breath. You reach out to touch Andrei, hands landing on his forearms where you squeeze as his fingers bring you to the edge.

“Can I come, malysh?” You plead, pushing the words out through stuttering breaths.

He nods, leaning forward to bury his face into the crook of your neck and suck a bruise there, his ministrations never stopping. His fingers practically beckon you to him, beckon your orgasm out of you in their insistent “come here” motion, and when Andrei drags his teeth against your skin, fingers pressing deep against your g-spot, your eyes squeeze shut, body seizing as stars burst behind your eyelids and your orgasm overtakes you, arousal dripping down Andrei’s fingers and through your soaked panties onto the seat below you.

You can distantly hear soft sobs as Andrei’s voice pulls you out of your daze, calling for you gently, and it takes you a long moment to realize that it’s you sobbing, tears of relief streaming down your face as Andrei’s fingers inside of you keep still while his other hand holds you steady.

“So good for me, zajka,” he praises. “So beautiful. You did so good waiting for it, didn’t you? Waiting for me to make you feel better.”

Your head feels heavy when you nod lightly, and Andrei waits till you come back down a little more before he carefully and slowly withdraws his fingers from you, careful to avoid your sensitive clit as he brings his hand out from where they’ve been in your now soaked cotton underwear.

You don’t see it when his eyes glance below you, at the wet spot on the chair, and he smirks, his broad chest somehow getting ten times bigger at the sight.

You do see it when he sucks his fingers coated in your release between his lips, eyes fluttering open the moment he does so, watching with apt amazement as his eyes drift shut, lost in the taste of you.

Carefully, you rise back to your knees, arranging yourself until you’re sitting normally again so you can slump against the seat. Your chest heaves as you breathe, trying to calm your racing pulse, ignoring the fact that despite how hard Andrei just made you come, your pussy still throbs between your legs when you hear Andrei’s fingers finally leave his mouth with a wet “pop!”

It’s quiet, and for a moment you think he’s going to say something smart or cocky, tease you more, but instead, he leans over the console, hand reaching for the lever on your chair and pulling until your seat is pushed all the way back, leaving a large amount of room in the well under the dashboard in front of you.

You could almost laugh, watching Andrei and his broad, tall body maneuver itself out of his chair and across the console until he’s on his knees in front of you, pulling your legs apart gently. His hands come up to your waist, pulling your soaked underwear off of you in one go, stuffing them into the pocket of his shorts before he’s reaching for your waist again, pulling you until you’re perched on the edge of the passenger seat.

He looks up at you with a fond smile, and you can only find the energy to peer down at him with a curious look, head still thick and dizzy with your recent orgasm.

“Gonna clean you up, baby.” Andrei answers your unspoken question, pressing his hands on the back of your thighs and pushing upwards.

He moves so fast that you can barely get out an “Andrei, baby, wait-” before he buries his face in your still wet pussy, tongue pushing into your entrance.

Your back arches, mouth dropping open in a loud cry as your body unconsciously pushes your pussy further into his face, body wrought with overstimulation.

Between the time he spent between your legs this morning worshiping you with his mouth, and how he fucked you on his fingers just now, you’re more than overwhelmed, overstimulated, and spent, but you should have seen this coming. When Andrei gets like this, when he takes control, he’s prepared to wring orgasm after orgasm out of you until he gets too impatient and finally slides his cock into you to the hilt.

And lately, Andrei’s become very good at being very, very patient.

He licks and sucks at you like a starving man, like he’s been stuck in the desert and you’re his first drink of water in days. His mouth is even more insistent than this morning, tongue alternating between lapping at you, circling around your clit, dipping inside of you, and his lips sucking you into his mouth, making you buck your hips into his face. Every time you do, he moans, the vibrations rumbling against your skin, and he ends up just yanking you impossibly closer to him, hands on your waist feeling like an anchor.

You can feel your orgasm creeping up on you like a runaway train. It’s almost too much, too soon, but at the same time it’s never enough.

Since you’ve been with Andrei, it’s almost never been enough. It’s why you both end up in this constant push and pull of control, patience, restraint, restricting yourselves to “just one” or “just one more,” putting limits on yourselves until the dam breaks and the two of you end up going at it for hours.

Afterall, you two became so addicted to one another from the very beginning. There had been ten whole days between the first…well, several times…and you two entering a relationship, thereafter which you spent two unbelievable days practically glued to his bed, his shower, and your favorite, his kitchen counter, which you spent at least thirty minutes cleaning once you’d come out of your horny stupor.

Whenever Andrei gets like this, near delirious with the need to please you before he can seek any kind of relief, it takes you right back to those two days spent in his bed, to the way he made you both physically and emotionally feel his desire for you.

Now, that desire is still there, but his love always overpowers it.

It’s what drives you straight over the edge when he dips his tongue inside of you then sucks on your clit, his name falling from your lips as your hands fall over his, fingers intertwining as you shake under his mouth.

When you’ve come back down, chest heaving as you try to get your breathing under control, Andrei licks at your pussy lazily, cleaning you up with his gentle and caring attention.

You allow it for a few moments, until you realize there’s still a small fire in your belly, and you know Andrei’s probably as hard as a rock beneath his shorts.

So you squeeze his hands, offering a small smile when he looks at you.

“I said you’d get a reward, didn’t I?” You say, and Andrei nods, tongue still gentle as he licks at you again. You gesture for him to come to you, so he does, rising up on his knees, resting the back of your knees on the crook of his elbows as he carefully bends you in half. He doesn’t waste another second before he brings his lips to yours, kissing you with all the desperation and desire he can convey.

You reach for his waistband, undoing his belt, the button, and the zipper before pulling the waistband of his briefs down. Andrei helps, not breaking away from your kiss as he shimmies his clothes down his thighs until his cock springs free, red and leaking against his abdomen.

He bucks into your hand when you wrap it around his cock almost immediately, moaning into your mouth. His hands rest on either side of you gripping the cushion of your chair so tightly that his knuckles turn white at the force, every part of his body fighting to restrain itself from fucking his cock into your fist, especially when you make your grip that much tighter.

“You wanna fuck me, baby?” You murmur, moaning in surprise when he licks into your mouth, body leaning into yours that much more.

“So badly,” he asserts, sucking on your tongue the second you lick into his mouth in return. He moans, all but drooling into your mouth. He’s so desperate, so lost in your kiss and earnest in his desires that it’s a little bit messy and a little bit uncoordinated, but Andrei doesn’t care and neither do you.

You pull your head back a little, and Andrei makes a small noise of protest. “You want to do it like this? Here?”

He nods, trailing his lips to your chin, your jaw, and to your neck, his lips wet with your lingering arousal and spit. “Pozhaluysta,” he pleads, leaving open mouthed kisses at your nape.

You adjust your hips, lining him up with your entrance. His hips buck, restraint most likely breaking, and the head of his cock slips inside.

The moan that echoes around the car belongs to both of you, and you can feel Andrei’s breath stutter against your neck. “S-Sorry, moya koroleva.”

You shake your head, hands coming up to cup his face, bringing him from his hiding spot in your neck to come face to face with you. Your eyes flutter shut, and you pull him closer to rest your foreheads together. “No need to be sorry, baby,” you murmur, squeezing around the head of his cock experimentally, smiling a little when you can hear him start to whine.

“No games, Drei,” you promise, kissing him sweetly, sucking his bottom lip into your mouth, running your tongue over it gently before pressing little kisses to it. “Just you and me, okay?”

He hums against your mouth, chasing after your kisses even as he speaks. “No games?”

You shake your head gently, careful not to detach your lips from his. Andrei needs you too much to deal with the push and pull, and you’re still too needy to bother with it. You rub your thumbs against his cheekbones, murmuring against his lips when you say “I just want you.”

The sigh of relief he lets out practically stutters past his lips, and you swallow it down, breath catching in your throat when he finally pushes in a little more. He groans low and deep in his chest, hands releasing the seat cushion and fitting themselves against your waist as he continues to push his thick, long cock inside until his pelvis is flush with your ass, the head of his cock close to kissing your cervix in this position.

You both physically relax when he bottoms out, and Andrei cups his hands over yours where they rest on his face.

This is the kind of sex that Andrei loves having with you the most - the kind where you can both just lose yourselves in how good you both make each other feel, and how good it feels for you both to be able to please each other in a way that’s basically instinctual at this point. He loves being close to you, loves being attached to you in every way; buried inside you, lips attached to yours even if it’s just to kiss lazily, arms wrapped around you.

A shiver runs through your body when you feel him throb inside you, and you tug at his bottom lip gently. “Please, Drei,” you plead on an exhale, only to inhale sharply a second later when Andrei pulls his hips back, only to drive them forward and bury himself deep inside once more.

He starts at a slow pace like that, withdrawing halfway to just push himself back in, jaw clenching when you squeeze around him each time he’s buried deep inside once more. He keeps his forehead pressed against yours, his hands resting over yours, keeps your knees tucked safely in the crook of his arms. When he buries himself deep, pressing almost tightly against your cervix, he exhales through his nose, shakily breathing in on his next inhale.

A whine works its way out of your throat when he starts to pick up speed, still keeping the depth, still driving his cock in so deep that it hits that soft part inside of you that makes you see stars now each time he drives inside. It stokes the fire in your belly, pleasure rolling over you in waves.

When you squeeze down on him again he moans, low and deep, pushing a breath through his nose as he tries to keep focus, but he’s losing it so quickly. His hands finally fall from yours and grip onto your hips, setting a quicker pace, lighting you up from the inside out.

The pressure and the drag is so good for both of you that moans and whines echo around his car, and your eyes roll back into your head, hands dropping from Andrei’s face to his forearms, fingers flexing uselessly, too weak and pleasure drunk to grip onto him tightly.

Meanwhile, Andrei feels like he’s going insane. It hasn’t been long since you’d both been intimate, and it hasn’t been long since you’d both been intimate like this, but it never mattered when it came to you. You lit something on fire inside of him, walked into his heart and his soul and turned on all the lights and settled in. It was almost laughable with how good you made him feel, about anything and everything, but especially this.

He can feel a knot form at the base of his spine at the same time he starts to feel your pussy flutter and clench around him, the way your body wants to push him away and pull him deeper at the same time. Carefully, he tightens his grip on you and thrusts harder, a little faster, careful to keep you in place on his cock and not jostle you too much.

His car is definitely shaking with the force of his efforts, and the moans and whines falling from your lips start to get louder, dragging out as you both climb and race towards your orgasms. You tilt your chin up, eyes squeezed shut as your lips search for his. He captures them in a bruising kiss, groaning into your mouth as one of your hands reaches up weakly to cup his jaw.

“I love you,” you manage to choke out, pressing the declaration to his bottom lip. “I love you so much.”

A low whine of relief echoes in his throat, and Andrei leans forward, burying his face in your neck, pressing your hips down as he fucks into you with reckless abandon. “Ya tebya lyublyu,” he grunts out against your neck, sealing his words with a kiss. “Ya lyublyu tebya bol'she vsego na svete.”

His confession takes you by surprise, and you gasp, spine arching as you come and pussy squeezing him so tightly that it’s almost painful for him as he fucks you through it, bullying his cock into you as he chases after his own orgasm. When he comes, he presses deep inside, leaning into you, and you wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him as close as you can, your fronts pressed together.

Your heavy breathing fills the car, the silence echoing against your ears and making your head throb a little bit, but you hold tight to Andrei, feeling his chest heave against yours as he tries to get his breathing under control. He drops your legs after a moment, and you stretch them delicately behind him before locking your ankles at the base of his spine.

“I like your car,” you eventually say.

The silence that follows is brief, Andrei cutting it when he laughs out loud, and you can feel his teeth press into your skin with how wide he smiles from where he’s still hiding in your neck. He noses along the length of it, nuzzling that ticklish spot under your ear, and then presses a kiss there, whispering a soft thank you.

He’s still weakly pulsing inside of you, and you willingly wait him out, content to just sit here with an armful of your doting boyfriend who just fucked you silly in the front seat of his stupidly expensive luxury car that secretly (apparently) doubled as a vibrator.

“There’s baby wipes,” he says eventually. “In the glove compartment. We can throw the wipes in the bag from the gas station.”

You raise a brow. “Did you come prepared for this?”

He shakes his head, slowly pulling himself back to look at you. His face is flushed, pupils blown wide a little, gaze still slightly hazy. “Not completely, but I brought them just in case.”

Carefully, he twists his upper body a little so he can turn and open the glove compartment, taking a few of the wipes out and turning back to you with a happy grin. You smile, pressing a quick peck to his lips. “My smart guy.”

Andrei chases after your mouth, and you let him catch you, savoring the delicate kiss he gives you. He presses three more to your lips. “Gonna pull out now, baby. Gonna clean you up.”

You nod, fully relaxing back against the seat and unlocking your ankles from behind him. He carefully withdraws himself, and is quick to begin cleaning you up with the wipes when his come starts to immediately fall out of you.

You’re not surprised at how much there ended up being - he had been pent up since the morning, after all.

You reach behind you to where the plastic bag with your lollipop fell to behind his seat, and you hold it open for him as he deposits the wipes before tying it off and putting it back behind his chair. He carefully massages your legs, offering you a wolfish smile.

“Should we keep driving?” He asks, “Or should I maybe book us a room here? Since we’ve basically commandeered the roof of their parking lot.”

You smirk at him. “Fucking in a Lamborghini not enough for you?”

“It’s never enough when it’s you,” he says. Even though it comes out playfully, you can hear the seriousness in his voice.

You reach out, running a hand down his front. “Let’s go home, actually. The coast can wait another day.” When he looks at you, confused, since he didn’t mention that as an option, you smile mischievously at him. “I want to suck your cock while you drive and see how many times I can make you come by the time we get home.”

He blinks at you, stunned, before he’s fumbling, pulling his briefs and pants up before all but launching him out of the passenger side of the car and racing back to the driver’s seat.

You can do nothing but grab the hair tie on your wrist and pull your hair into a ponytail, a content feeling running through your veins.

You could definitely get used to having this car around.

#andrei svechnikov #andrei svechnikov x reader #carolina hurricanes #andrei svechnikov smut #hockey writing #hockey fanfiction #hockey smut

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ladykailitha · 11 months ago

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The Harrington Pattern Part 2

A longer chapter today because it didn't want to end. It's Steve finishing all the costumes.

@mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @emly03

Part 1

****

Steve worked on Max’s costume first. Like Robin’s Max was going to be a pirate. He had the names of a couple of lady pirates in his back pocket for them to pull out if they ran across assholes at the Fair.

Because Max was underaged he set out to find a less form fitting costume then Robin’s.

He found a large men’s black shirt and pants and tailored the waist to fit Max’s slender form. Paired with the boots and the hippie vest he dyed red, she looked bitchin’.

Then he focused on Lucas’s costume in secret. Every time someone came by, Steve would hide it out of sight. He didn’t want anyone to see it before it done.

Whenever anyone would ask about it he would pull out the tunic that he had been working on for his costume.

It was blue and white in a checkerboard pattern. Blue on the right of the top portion and then on the left on the bottom portion.

The pants that he was using for Lucas’s costume were similar to Steve’s for his.

Not loose like Max’s, but not tight like Robin’s. He knows it’s technically inaccurate, but he wants to be comfortable and he’s not about to make a poor little sophomore to-be uncomfortable either.

He finishes it with a week to spare and then picks up the other outfits from the moms.

He throws a party and has them all make their own weapons for their costumes.

Lucas is the only one that didn’t join in.

Steve put his arm around Lucas. “So why aren’t you in there making something, too?”

Dustin is making a spear, Max is making a cutlass, and even El is making healing potions with water and food coloring.

“I don’t know what to make,” Lucas admitted shyly.

“What does your ranger use?”

“A bow,” Lucas said. “But I wouldn’t know even where to start with that.”

Steve smiled. “A bow’s easy. Come on, I’ll show you.”

He helped Lucas build up a stick with toilet paper and aluminum foil.

“Shouldn’t it be curved?” Lucas asked as Steve was putting on the handle.

“Nope!” Steve said cheerfully. “It curves when the bow is strung.” He added the long string and the bow bent. “See?”

“Oh!”

Lucas pulled back on the string and the bow bent further.

“It’s more for looks,” Steve said with a wince when the bow remained bent. He straightened it out. “But let’s make you a quiver. No arrows though, your mom would kill me.”

Lucas laughed.

“It’s so cool you know all this stuff, Steve,” Will said. “Why don’t you ever want to join us for D&D? I think you’d be really good at it.”

Steve flushed. “Too much math and I’m not very good at the role-playing part.”

“What would you do if you could play any character?” Eddie asked. “It doesn’t have to be any of the classes or races.”

Steve licked his lips. “You won’t make fun of me for it?”

Everyone looked down at their feet. They were swiftly learning that teasing Steve was one thing, but that they tended to take it too far.

“Go on,” Eddie urged. “If anyone makes fun of you for it, I’ll nuke their character to hell.” He grinned at all the kids.

“That has no effect on me,” Max said, tossing her hair back. “I’m not in your nerd game.”

“Whatever you say, zoomer,” Eddie said with a wink.

She gasped. “Who told?!”

El tilted her head to the side. “Why? Is a zoomer a bad thing?”

Max deflated. “No.”

Eddie winked at El and the girl blushed.

“So Stevie, what would you like to be?”

“The merchant.”

“But that’s–” Mike stopped when he saw Eddie’s glare. He licked his lips. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to be the hero?”

Steve tilted his head to the side and then scratched his cheek. “Um...I’m not trying to brag here. But I’ve been the hero in real life. It’s not fun. It’s terrifying. But being able to armor and arm the heroes? Make sure they have everything they need to succeed? Now there’s the dream.”

Eddie rubbed his bottom lip thoughtfully.

“That’s his DM thinking face,” Dustin said.

“Is that a bad thing?” El asked.

Lucas shrugged. “Sometimes. It can end in us fighting the worst Big Bad ever. But it can just make things more interesting. Like a tidbit of backstory for one of the NPCs.”

“So a former hero who has retired and settled down with the love of their life to sell the fruits of their travels...” Eddie spoke out loud more to himself than to everyone else. “Magic items, healing potions, weapons and armor the shopkeeper is willing to part with now that they’ve settled down.” He looked up at Steve with a grin. “I like it.”

Steve blushed hard.

Will lit up. “Does that mean the next merchant we meet is going to be Steve?”

Eddie’s grin got bigger. “Anybody have a problem with that?”

Everyone turned to look at Mike. “Hey, I don’t care what your NPCs do, man. As long as the story’s good.”

Steve’s blush spread from his cheeks to the tips of his ears and down the column of his neck.

He cleared his throat. “Everyone done with their weapons? Because I think we should do a final fitting so we can make sure nothing needs to be adjusted.”

“Why?” Will asked. “Don’t you think our mom’s did a good enough job?”

Dustin crossed his arms. “Yeah. I thought you trusted our moms.”

Steve sighed. “It’s because you’re adolescences. Your bodies are always constantly changing. Lose weight, grow two inches, fill out in weird areas. I just want to make sure everyone is going to have a good time next week, okay?”

Will and Dustin looked at each other and then nodded.

“Yeah, okay,” Dustin conceded.

“There are three bathroom and four bedrooms,” Steve announced. “So there should be rooms for everyone to change into their costumes.”

They all grabbed their costumes and then dashed for their favorite rooms to try and get there first. Max beat Dustin to the upstairs bathroom, sticking her tongue out at him before slamming the door. So Dustin got Steve’s bedroom.

All the other kids went scrambling for the other bathrooms and bedrooms while Lucas was left standing in the middle of front room, looking down at his sneakers.

“Did you want to try yours on right now?” Steve asked, leaning down to try and look Lucas in the eye.

“I don’t know if I want to be an elf anymore,” he muttered darkly.

Eddie and Steve shared a concerned glance.

“Did someone say something?” Eddie asked. “You were really happy about it when you were making the bow with Steve.”

“Not really,” Lucas said with a shrug. “I just kept thinking about the ears. I know I can have Will draw some really good ones, and he wouldn’t give me shit about it, but...”

Steve sighed. “But you know that Mike would. Fuck, I’m going to kill that kid.”

Lucas waved his hands. “No, no. It’s fine. I’ve got an old pirate costume from a school play I did. I’ll just join Queen Max’s crew.”

Eddie licked his lips. He didn’t have them yet. Jeff was still making them. He shared another glance with Steve.

Steve nodded.

Eddie turned back to Lucas. “It’s up to you, man. But Stevie and I have something in the works regarding the ear situation.”

Lucas glanced between Eddie and Steve but couldn’t find any indication that they were mocking him.

“This isn’t a prank to make me look stupid, is it?” he asked, just to be sure.

“Scout’s honor,” Steve said holding up the correct salute.

Eddie snorted. “Of course you were a boy scout. Could you be any more perfect?”

Steve blushed and ducked his head bashfully. “I’m really not.”

“Anyway,” Eddie huffed, shoving his hands in his back pockets. “Try on the outfit at least. Because you don’t have to be an elf with the costume Stevie made for you. But at least see it before you dismiss the idea completely out of hand.”

Lucas took a deep breath. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m being stupid. I shouldn’t care what they think anyway. Just as long as I’m having fun.”

“That’s the spirit!” Eddie said clapping him on the shoulder. “So where is this masterpiece, my liege?”

Steve walked up to the sofa and pulled out a plastic bag. He thrust it at Lucas’s chest.

Lucas looked down at the bag a moment before taking it from him. He pulled out the warm grey breeches first. They weren’t the broad kind that Steve had made for Max, but they were loose enough that they would hang a little over the top of the boots.

“They’re so soft...” he whispered.

“They’re made out of light weight material to keep you cool,” Steve explained. “There will be absolutely no heat stroke or heat exhaustion on my watch.”

Lucas let out a small huff of laughter and he took that as one for the win column.

He then pulled out the pale blue gambeson, it was trimmed in antique silver ribbon.

“It’s not strictly historically accurate,” Steve said with a shrug. “But I figured I could take liberties considering it was supposed to be fantasy based.”

“Steve...” Lucas said, voice rough from emotion. “It’s perfect.”

He threw his arms around Steve and hugged him tightly and Steve hugged him back twice as fierce.

“Let’s put these away for now,” Eddie said gently tugging them from Lucas’s grasp. “You try them on after everyone leaves.”

Lucas nodded and let Eddie pull them away, but he kept hugging Steve.

Suddenly there was a burst of activity as the other kids came back. Robin, too.

Steve let go of Lucas to take a look at his ragtag crew of misfits. Robin and Max’s costumes he knew would fit to perfection. His exacting standards would bow to nothing less.

The costumes that Joyce and Claudia made were good too. He let out a little breath through his nose.

“Looking great, guys!” he told them. He tugged Will’s tunic a bit. “You grew some, there.”

Will looked down and blushed. “I didn’t even realize.”

“That’s because you’ve been wearing shorts,” Steve explained, “so you just didn’t notice.”

“You were right to make sure the costumes still fit,” he murmured, trying to pull the tunic down to the right length.

Steve’s shoulders sagged. “You were just trying to defend your mom, dude. It’s fine.”

Will and Dustin still shared a look of chagrin anyway.

“I can add a couple of inches to the hem,” Steve continued. “I have some ribbon that will hide the extra material.”

Will nodded.

Steve moved on to Dustin and tugged on the side of his shirt under the vest and then tugged on the waistband too. “Don’t tell your mom this, but you’ve lost weight. She’ll freak out and try to feed you the entirety of your cupboard.”

Dustin blushed. Claudia Henderson was notorious for constantly feeding anyone who came through her door.

“But I’ll just pin it in case your weight fluctuates again,” Steve said. “The hazard of being teenagers unfortunately.”

Dustin nodded with a sigh of relief.

Max’s was perfect, as was El’s beautiful red dress.

But she was looking at the ground twisting her hands together.

“What’s up, Supergirl?” Eddie asked.

She looked over at Will and then down at her feet again. “I don’t want to be ungrateful. Joyce did an amazing job.”

Steve tilted his head. “But?”

She sighed. “But I was wanting a gold trim, but Joyce didn’t have any and I didn’t want to make her buy some...”

Steve held up a finger and then dashed off.

But he was back before they even had time to wonder where he had gone. In his hand was a cloth bag that he handed over to her. “Pick your ribbon. It’ll take me a day to add it to the dress, no problem.”

El looked down at the bag in shame. “Steve...”

He clicked his tongue. “I don’t want to hear it. I have to extend Will’s tunic anyway, adding ribbon to yours would be cinch in comparison. In fact, why don’t you both pick a matching ribbon to be twins.”

Will and El perked right up and the two of them wandered over to the sofa and began sorting through what Steve had.

That left Mike. Steve walked around the outfit. It had a white, billowy top with broad black pants and red tunic to watch El’s dress.

“Looks good, Mike,” he said. “Is there anything you’d want a little different? I don’t mind adding to your costume, too.”

Mike chewed his bottom lip. “There is the one thing. I asked Claudia about but she said she wouldn’t have the time...” He looked over at Dustin and blushed.

“What’s that?” Steve asked.

“Little...” Mike grunted. “I don’t know what they’re called. They aren’t strings or tassels, but kinda a cross between the two to kinda hang down off shoulder of the tunic...”

Steve pulled out his drawing pad and doodled something out really quick. Mike peered over his shoulder.

“A little more spaced,” Mike muttered.

Steve erased and doodled some more.

“Yeah, like that.”

Steve nodded. “I can do it, but you want to see something cool?”

Miked nodded back and Steve left the room again. He came back with a weird little device.

“This is what I use to make tassels,” he explained. “I’m betting Claudia doesn’t have one.”

Everyone looked at Dustin.

“I’ve certainly never seen one if she has,” he replied.

Steve nodded again. “That’s what I thought.” He showed them how to make tassels and Mike’s face lit up.

“This so cool, Steve,” he whispered.

“Do you want to make your own tassels?” Steve asked, gleeful at finally finding a common ground with the prickly teen.

“Can I?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t see why not. You’ll just have to do it here. I’ll get the leather scraps from the tanners on Saturday and you can come over on Sunday to do it, okay?”

Mike nodded. “Thanks, man.”

El and Will picked out a nice braided gold ribbon and he set it aside, making a note to grab another spool to be on the safe side.

Soon it was time for everyone to leave.

Eddie took home Mike, El, and Will. Leaving Steve to take home Max, Lucas, and Robin.

Steve turned to Lucas. “You okay with these two seeing your costume?”

He figured Max was fine, but Robin might be a no go.

Lucas looked at her thoughtfully.

“I can go make us all lunch if you don’t want me to see it yet?” Robin suggested.

Max hopped up. “I can help. I want to be surprised next week.”

Lucas let out a sigh. “Thanks, ladies.”

Max rolled her eyes and Robin snorted as they wandered toward the kitchen.

Steve tossed Lucas the bag and immediately he began to strip. He put on the costume and ran his fingers over the material.

“Steve you really out did yourself.”

Steve grinned. “Bend, twist. Make sure you can move in it. I don’t want you popping a seam.”

Lucas did as he was told and Steve circled around him.

“Looks good,” he said. “Now go take a look in the mirror. Then tell me what you think.”

Lucas nodded.

Five minutes later Lucas came out with tears streaming down his face.

“Oh no!” Steve cried. “It’s that bad?”

Lucas shook his head and then launched himself into Steve’s arms. “It’s perfect, Steve. Thank you.”

Steve blushed. “You’re welcome.”

****

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13

@spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @gregre369 @a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @danili666 @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @justforthedead89 @vecnuthy @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @dragonmama76 @scheodingers-muppet @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @thespaceantwhowrites @paintgonewrong @mogami13 @beelze-the-bubkiss

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #steve is a history nerd

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cough-droplet · 10 days ago

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People have been discussing what Shirakura said in the "Toei's Secret-Spilling Special!" that came out yesterday on TTFC but I've seen a lot of confusion based on partial translations so I recruited my usual co-conspirators michaelele and Flame to translate the full thing. The text of the interview follows. The video will probably be up on my wordpress at some point today.

Please introduce yourself.

Shirakura: My name is [Shin'ichiro] Shirakura. I'm a poor old man who TTFC has abducted and forced to talk to you all. Glad to be here.

We have a load of questions for you. Are you prepared?

Shirakura: I heard we received hundreds of questions, which I'm really grateful for, because that means Toei's secrets are as dark and alluring as the ocean depths. Keeping their secrets is usually my trade, but today I get to do the opposite. I'm a bit nervous and hope this doesn't upset anyone.

What does the Character Strategy Department do?

Shirakura: Character-based IP have been at the center of Toei's business for over 50 years at this point, so it seemed like high time to make it more official. The Character Strategy Department creates business strategies for our various character-based IP, or plans for them at least.

Looking back to 2024, what do you think of the hype surrounding Royal Sentai King-Ohger's final act?

Shirakura: I'm truly grateful to all the King-Ohger fans, because it wouldn't be possible without them. TTFC was already working with Producer [Takahito] Omori on cutting together the final three episodes into a special edition for release on TTFC. So the plan was always there, and, in fact, I considered giving that cut a straight-up theatrical release. It did get a limited theatrical showing in the end, albeit as a one-day-only deal for members. We would like to do something similar again at some point, but it's really all because of our fans.

What are your thoughts on its successor, Cranked-Up Sentai Boonboomger?

Shirakura: When I first heard the title, "Cranked-Up Sentai Boonboomger," I thought it was weird, but... it kind of rolls off the tongue nicely. Despite its strangeness, it has a certain aura. Then, upon closer inspection, I knew only Producer [Yoshito] Kuji could have come up with it.

Whenever you'd ask Kuji to describe what the show's about, he'll be like... [stone-faced] "It's a cranked-up show." He'd say it just like that, cold as ice. He's really passionate, but he keeps it under the surface, so on the surface he's this mild-mannered, gentle kind of guy. So then I heard the red ranger go, "THAT'S CRANKED UP!" and I shouted "That's where that came from!"

I don't know if "secure" is quite the right word, but I think it's a show that's made with a lot of care.

So the production schedules have seen a shift?

Shirakura: Boonboomger is still following King-Ohger's production cycle, but the series after it will have a two-month head start. The idea of that is… Well, earlier I joked about the Character Strategy Department, but the point isn't just to expand our business dealings with regards to character-based IP such as the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider franchises, but to actively improve the shows in every way possible. Looking at it from the business end of things, Kamen Rider Gavv is actually the first show made in this adjusted production cycle.

The first reason for this is to reduce overseas piracy. The problem with our shows being pirated… The people who pirate our programs are huge fans who love the shows, there's no doubt about that, but in a way, they're also fanatics. What I mean by that is... When these people form their opinions on the shows before the official release has a chance to come out, they're in a position to color the opinions of the fans who watch the official releases. So, for instance, when the official release comes out, the streaming platforms will be flooded with comments like, "If the toys were like so-and-so instead I would buy them," "If they did this then the show would be good."

The head start from pirating lets fanatics drown out all other conversation about a show, even though fanatics judge things differently. So one of our goals was to reduce that.

Another reason was just to revamp our working environment. For years, it's been a mad rush to get each episode to air, giving ourselves barely any time. Obviously, it's very demanding, and it's very easy to go over budget in that situation. But this recent shift in our production schedule should give our budget management, as well as working conditions for cast and crew, a big refresh, so to speak.

We've decided to set this new schedule with Gavv and stick to it over the following years, with all our upcoming projects planned around this. We've been running these franchises for 50 years, but this is totally new for us—Even though I feel like we should have made the change years ago.

What are your thoughts on Kamen Rider Gotchard?

Shirakura: Well, Producer [Yousuke] Minato was under me when we worked on [Avataro Sentai] Donbrothers, so this was his first time being Chief Producer. Obviously, it's got a bit of a school setting, as well as a very young cast, so I think it's a show that's got a youthful energy to it.

The title of the show, Gotchard, was something Minato really pushed for. There were a lot of objections to it. When it came to deciding the all-important title, though, he wasn't forceful about it, but he made it clear he felt really strongly about "Gotchard". [laughs] He said that, along with Decade and Ex-Aid, it can be a sub-series of shows that end in ド (-do). So he pushed the objections aside… In a way, I see that as a sign of how reliable he could be.

How has the shift in the production schedule affected Kamen Rider Gavv?

Shirakura: One of the reasons for Gavv's production shift is China's censorship system. That's where the piracy problem is biggest, and it takes quite a while to pass the censorship process, so we thought we'd give ourselves a three-month lead. We weren't able to pass censorship by September, but finally, as of October 13th, the show has been simulcast day-and-date in Japan and China. This means, for the first time, the official release could make it out before the pirated versions, which I'm really glad we managed to do.

But beating piracy is really just one part of it. As the producer, [Naomi] Takebe tells me, it's had a great overall effect. One major example is the cast. The rushed schedule we had before meant episodes had an extremely fast turnaround. By giving ourselves more lead time, filming Gavv before anyone else knew about it, it gave everyone several months to focus solely on Gavv. Of course, when it aired, all the comments would come, and the interviews and press tours… A sudden influx of noise, for lack of a better term. But, until then, that's three extra months the cast has to focus on their work, their characters. That's the best thing about it.

It also helps with the promotional materials. Take the videos we make to announce the show: We had a lot more material to work with this time, and the CGI was even finalized in time for those trailers. The same goes for the previews at the end of each episode. Even Takebe wondered why didn't do this ages ago. "Why have we been rushing ourselves like this? Why were we so stuck in our ways?" It's really a dark side of Toei no one can understand.

This is the big one. Talk to us about the winter movie.

Shirakura: This year, we're releasing the Fuuto PI movie, and in the new year, there's the Gotchard V-Cinext. As for the so-called "winter movies" we've done each year since 2009, there won't be one. Nor next year, most likely. We're reorganizing the structure, which is getting into Character Strategy again.

So, there's the summer movies, winter movies, and we used to have spring movies as well. Now we have V-Cinexts, which are usually epilogues at the end of a show's run, or movies we make for anniversaries. But there's also stuff like Fuuto PI, or Shin Kamen Rider, which are in their own categories. There's a need to put a structure to all of that. This question is about Kamen Rider, but we're applying this mindset elsewhere, too, of course.

When we talk about Rider movies, though, including V-Cinexts, the question is, what's the demographic? Who are we targeting? Who'll enjoy this? These are questions we've struggled with 'till last year. We need to be more clear about our audience and make things for different demographics to enjoy. We're just starting to do that now, and there's still a lot I can't say, but we have multiple projects in the works right now which we'll start announcing in 2025. Please look forward to those.

Can you give us any specifics?

Shirakura: To be more specific… Well, I can't be that specific, but we'll have something based on the series on TV, a so-called "anniversary" project based on a prior TV series, and something that isn't based on any show at all. So those three projects are all being worked on.

This is because we realized that only the people who follow the TV shows understand our movies. So we're reflecting on that. The core fans will obviously show up for our spring, summer, and winter movies, but with the number of Riders increasing, some people, even us, will forget about certain Riders, and their forms, etc… That's not a big problem for the super dedicated fans, but the average viewer will be completely lost. Lately, it's been feeling more like we've been alienating part of the audience.

That's why, and this is just my way of putting it… We should make things that old people like me can enjoy, too. I honestly think it's important that someone who's not watching the show could catch the trailer and think, "Wow! That movie looks interesting!"

The things that triggered this line of thought are probably [Kamen Rider] Black Sun and Shin Kamen Rider. We've had some experience now — and I'm not saying we'll make stuff like those again — but we're making movies that anyone can enjoy, movies that can stand on their own. We've got a few of those lined up, so I hope everyone can look forward to them.

Tell us about Super Sentai's future as we come into its 50th anniversary.

Shirakura: Next year, 2025, will be the first Super Sentai series' 50th anniversary year.

Super Sentai up 'till now— Let's use [Kikai Sentai] Zenkaiger and its "#45 Bang!" as an example— We've celebrated anniversaries based on the number of series, but I'd like to start celebrating based on the actual years. The reason being… Also, [Pirate Sentai] Gokaiger was heavily pushed for being the 35th series, which begs the question, "why all the emphasis on the numbers that end in 5, like 35 and 45?" It's because we wanted to match with Kamen Rider.

I forget whose idea it was, probably Suzuki Takeyuki, I think, but we've been doing these "double anniversaries". We say it's to celebrate both Rider and Sentai, but we just don't want Rider taking all the spotlight. So that's what we've been doing, but I think it's best if we stopped coupling Rider and Sentai together so much. Rider and Sentai should each have their own space. That's why we're revamping the way we count these.

[laughs] Besides, if we're honest, we're not even sure how many Sentai there are anymore. It's all LuPat's fault, really, [referring to Thief Sentai Lupinranger VS Police Sentai Patranger] because now the amount of years, the amount of shows, and the amount of Sentai all no longer match each other!

It's not really a total reset or anything, but we're ignoring the number of series and number of teams and just celebrating the actual anniversaries from now on. Though, I guess it works out, because considering LuPat, next up is the 50th Sentai and the 50th anniversary year, and this isn't a chance we'll ever get again.

What can you tell us about the Super Sentai series airing in 2025?

Shirakura: In 2025, after Boonboomger finishes its run, it'll be followed by a new show starring a new Sentai.

A while ago, I was outside Toei when I ran into this guy Ricardo, from Brazil. I was like, "I haven't seen you in six years!", and he told me "Shirakura! I heard about the new Sentai!"

Oh? Looks like someone's here...

(The second part of this interview will release on TTFC on December 29th)

#tokusatsu #super sentai #kamen rider #kamen rider gavv #bakuage sentai boonboomger #boonboomger #gozyuger #king-ohger #ohsama sentai king-ohger #gotchard #kamen rider gotchard #toei #production interview #zenkaiger #gokaiger #lupinranger vs patranger #whatever else he mentioned in this lmao

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sh1-n0bu · 5 months ago

Text

✿ 𝙞 𝙖𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙜𝙪𝙣 ✿

characters: boothill x gn!reader

warnings: fluff, angst/no comfort, spoilers to his character story, reader death, canon typical violence, blood, death, injury description, slavery mention, reader is a galaxy ranger, reader also has burn scars, some mechanical and medical things might be incorrect

notes: i have been spoiling yall too much with the constant fluff and smut. so here throws this fic into your face. divider from @/cafekitsune. a deep thanks to @theblades for helping me find a way to kill reader off😇

word count: 6.2k words

bright sunlight, gentle breeze ruffling through his bi-colored hair and the soft laughter of children. he loved the days spent at the farm, playing hide and seek with his siblings in the corn field, looking after the animals at the farm and taking some out for a walk. if him and his siblings could be sneaky enough, they will be able to snatch a few of graey’s handmade cookies through the kitchen window before dinner time. if not, they’ll get caught red handed, yet be let off the hook with a few soft pinches to their cheeks and one cookie for each since graey was just that soft.

sometimes, him and nick would ride their horses, wilding through the forests and endless fields to lead their cattle to better water and brilliant clouds. nick would sing loudly and proudly — he always does — and soon, he would join in with his young, soft voice pitching out the same song. nick would laugh boisterously, ruffling his hair and knocking off of his hat in the process. he would whine about it, saying things such as his hat getting dirty and being scolded by graey. nick would just laugh and shrug it off with a “sorry kiddo”.

he loved this place. he loved the corn fields he runs through with his siblings, he loved the loud voice of graey yelling out, scolding the kids as they run off laughing like a bunch of menaces, the oldest holding the box of cookies graey keeps on the highest shelf away from them, he loved the guns that nick would pull out from his old box of tools, teaching him how to properly aim and how to shoot the empty cans placed in the distance. and the excited yell of the other kids when he finally manages to knock one down, making him feel giddy as nick congratulated him on his first shot. after he fully mastered the old handgun of nick and shot down all 5 cans in a row, he was rewarded with nick’s old cowboy sheriff medal. the golden, 5 pointed star was old and looked rusty but to little ol’ him, it was the biggest and most treasured gift he ever got.

little ‘loaded gun’ never separated from that medal. he wore it his jacket ever since nick pinned it there for him, proudly showing it off to his siblings and talking about how he will take after nick and graey’s profession in the future. how he promises to nick and graey that he will make them proud, how he will live up to their expectations and become an even better cowboy.

“you sure will, little partner” nick would always laugh and pat his head, re-adjusting the medal. graey would sigh and roll his eyes at nick’s actions before reminding him that he doesn’t have to choose that life if he doesn’t want to. young ‘loaded gun’ would pout, whining that he wants to.

“but i want to be a cowboy! i want to be like you and nick, taking down bad guys, bringing justice and firing big guns!” he would yell, shooting his arms up in the air and jumping around.

“uh-huh. talk about firing big guns after you lose that lisp of yours” graey would chime in, always quick to reprimand him for his missing tooth and lisp as his hands affectionately smoothen out his messy hair, groaning in defeat as the mess of black and white refuse to be tamed.

“but i already lost it! i’m a big boy now!”

“hey graey! am i a big boy capable of firing big guns now?” were the first words he said as he brought back his first successful bounty. the smell of gunpowder and ash clung heavy to his jacket but he didn’t care. the smaller kids ran up to his sides, asking for upsies while his siblings who had already grown up and decided to stay at the farm pat his back and ruffle his hair with affectionate teasing quips.

he did it. he held his promise and followed in the footsteps of graey and nick, the old rusty gun and the sheriff medal being a motivational tool for him to reach his goal. now, all grown up and a master trickshot amongst the cowboys of aeragan-epharshel, ‘loaded gun’ was ready to aim and fire at anyone who dares to harm the innocents. although it had been years since the last time he saw his parents and siblings, everything about them and the old red barn stayed the same. though, the corn field looked a little bit bigger than he remembered.

‘loaded gun’ had done a lot in his life since becoming a cowboy. from fighting bandits in the dusty fields, chasing thieves at the dangerous cliffsides to having a gun fight against rival gangs. there were many times he had narrowly escaped death, breathed nothing but the metallic scent of blood, death and bullets and he still prevailed. although he had lost friends along this deadly road, he had also gained many.

that night, ‘loaded gun’ sat across his parents, seated amongst his siblings as he recalled tales of his adventures. the warmth of his younger siblings’ hugs, the teasing quips of the elders’ back pats and the proud looks nick and graey gave him — he was sure of it; this place was where he was the most happiest.

so when he found a little figure, wrapped in a measly ragtag of a fabric, crying out and lonely, he knew he had to step in and take in the little one. it’s what was right and what graey and nick would have done. a small bundle, not even a month old was left to fend for herself. ‘loaded gun’ carefully cradled the baby close to his chest, trying his best to soothe her cries as much as he could.

“graey! nick! i need some help here!” and ‘loaded gun’ had become a father.

ever since becoming a father, ‘loaded gun’ has experienced everything that parenthood had to offer. sleepless nights of the baby wailing at an ungodly hour, searching for his comfort and warmth. having to change the baby’s diapers and bathe her. checking the temperature of the milk in the bottle before feeding time — everything parenthood brought him, he took it all in strides and jolly laughs.

sometimes, he would put the baby in a small bucket and take her out on the farm with himself. the little baby would laugh and clap her tiny hand together, big bright eyes unknowing of what was happening as ‘loaded gun’ fails to tame a wild stallion, proceeding to get his ass thrown off of the horse’s back. seeing his little girl so happy, how could he ever stop making a fool of himself? he even went far as to carve out a mini guitar for her after seeing her fascination with his old, weathered one.

“from now on, yer name will be clementine. can’t have my little girl going around without a name, right?” he asks, bringing up the white haired girl into his arms and raising her into the air. clementine only giggles, blabbering some stuff as she laughs at the feeling of being in the air. seeing the baby’s innocent wide eyes staring down at him, head haloed by the high sun, ‘loaded gun’s grey ones soften as a teary smile forms on his face. the scars on his hands remind him of his profession and dangers of being a cowboy, but in his heart, he swore that he will keep his little girl safe and to be the best father he can be.

“my little clementine…”

gone... it was all gone.

the corn fields where he used to run through with his siblings when they were young, the old red farm that was in the middle of being repainted, the comfortable warm yet dingy house that him and his family used to live in — it was all gone. the scent of sulfur and burnt bodies hung in the air, ash raining from high above like it was some sort of a rain, turning his already dirtied and burnt clothes into black. there was no sign of nick, graey, his siblings nor the panicked farm animals.

little clementine... where was she? aeons, you can do anything you want to him but please spare his little girl, please by some blind miracle, let little clem be alive. he won't care what he has to do or which burning log he has to push away with his bare hands, just let him hear the sound of his little girl's cries to let him know that she's still alive and he'll do it. he'll do anything to save his little girl.

running through the scorched earth, 'loaded gun' calls out for his family. nick, graey, his siblings and even by their childhood nicknames. clementine, where was clementine, where was his baby girl? his little girl, where—

small red scarf and a burnt mini guitar. that was all he had managed to dig out from the burning farm house of his home. that was all he had left of his little girl, the red scarf that was the same copy of his own and the hand carved guitar with its strings plucked due to the heat of the bomb. those two things were the only things he brought with himself as he travels through the vast galaxies, searching a certain doctor who had made themselves into a cyborg successfully.

on the kingdom of bandits, talia, did he found the doctor. heart heavy, eyes full of vengeance and burnt hands holding onto the strap of his bag that had his little girl's memoirs. the doctor tried to persuade him into thinking over his decisions again, to woo him into staying as a human and not to lose said humanity. but 'loaded gun' was steadfast in his decision. if he wanted to stay as a human, he would have already thrown his body into the fires that engulfed his home.

with a deep sigh and slight reluctance, the doctor fulfilled his wishes. blue colored blood being pumped into his new metal body, no longer warm, scarred flesh but rather a clean plated metal being wired into place. at least his head was kept intact. after everything was over and he regained consciousness, he simply thanks the doctor and leaves his payment on the operation table full of his former human blood mixed with his new cyborg blue ones. he didn't wanted to look at the walls or the floor — it was covered in filthy purple liquids.

"before you leave, will you at least tell me your name?"

"... it's boothill now"

"well, good luck with your hunt mr.boothill"

it has been... how long now? boothill doesn't know. since his 'rebirth' as boothill, he has spent so much time traveling from one world to the other, destroying one ipc ship to the next. it has been a bit too long in his opinion, as the destruction of his home planet has stopped being brought up as the latest hot topic at every bar or saloon he visits. or maybe they never talked about it to begin with. the ipc had friends and slaves everywhere, at every branch or organization or world, boothill wouldn't be surprised if they had ended up covering their filthy work by masking it as an another 'horrific accident that befell a poor world before we could save them' type of thing. the ipc were amazing at their manipulation after all.

"those ipc folk sure have been having some hard time since your sudden emergence huh, cowboy?" a voice rings out to his left, a body covered in a bright red coat sitting down beside him at the bar. gesturing to the bartender, he watches from the corner of his eyes as you order a glass of earl grey and marmalade cooler with extra ice. boothill doesn't know this stranger draped in red was nor did he care. but judging by the way you easily knew of him as the latest troublemaker against the ipc, you have probably heard of the bounty on his head or you just travel the galaxies a lot. or it could be both at the same time.

turning his head just a little bit more towards the side, he looks you up and down, trying to see if there are anything that makes you stand out in any form of way. anything to hint at what or who you were.

old, faded, long, red coat left open at the front, smart by the way you have easily deduced he was a cowboy by just his accessories and clothing alone and ordering anon-alcoholic drink despite having set foot inside a bar and took a seat beside him. he can't see any weapons on your body at the moment and your red coat was covering most of your body too. he'll just have to go in blindly then.

"done checking me out, cowboy?"

by the time he had finished assessing you and had looked up to see your face, you were already staring at him with a nonchalant smirk on your face. for some odd reason, boothill could feel his cheeks heat up and wires zap inside his metal body. there was just something about the way that you easily teased him and wasn't ashamed to hold an eye contact with his target shaped pupils that got him feeling weirdly self conscious. had he forgotten to shine the metal plates of his body today? was his revolver still in place, shiny and strong? what about his bullets? his hat? his hair? oh what if he smelled? can cyborg bodies have any odor to begin with—?

"come on now, don't look away from me. i was talking to you" he could hear you coo out, your hand coming up to turn his chin so you could look at his face. the warmth of your hand touching the only leftover human part of his, the laidback confidence you had in your own self, it all got boothill letting out a steam from his ears like a cartoon character as he quickly turns away from you, his hand pulling down his hat to save whatever tiny drops of image he had.

what a shame, turning into a flustered mess like a high school girl talking to her crush by just the smallest amount of flirting he received. where was his class? his sarcastic remarks? the sassy quips and bites he gives to those who touched him? his tongue felt heavy, cheeks felt like they were on fire and he could just hear the gears inside his body shifting and turning at an uncomfortably fast pace that made him feel like he was overheating. or maybe he truly was overheating. darn, he should visit the doctor again to get some certain things removed.

"a-ahem, didn't yer' parents teach you it's not okay to flirt with strangers at a bar?" curse him for stuttering over his words, he was supposed to appear cool not like a teenager boy dammit! and the way your lips curled upwards even more at the tripping of his words wasn't helping. well he'll be damned, you have a smile that cowboys would kill each other for.

"i'm [name], a galaxy ranger. and you are, dear cowboy?"

idiot cowboys like him would kill each other for.

"name's boothill, sugar"

it has been exactly 2 years and 4 months since boothill first met you and was introduced to a faction called the galaxy rangers. apparently, galaxy rangers are a voluntarily formed group that follows the teachings of lan, the hunt and carries out acts of service, upholding peace and justice. some galaxy rangers are a bit ruthless in the ways they deal with the injustice that happens at some worlds or galaxies, some are a bit more diplomatic, some travel in groups of friends and colleagues while some travel alone.

you were once the latter one; a galaxy ranger that travelled the cosmos alone, a bright red shooting star that shine and never fade till the break of day, bringing hope and destruction at once. were; because it has been precisely 2 years and 4 months since boothill has started to travel alongside you. he had decided to become a galaxy ranger, the voluntary group's ideals appealing to his own sense of vengeance and justice that he wishes to bring to a certain group.

"boothill, it's time to wake up" you call out, having always been the early morning bird out of the two of you. walking towards the bedside of the asleep cowboy, you poke at his eyebrows and nose, pushing his lips into random emotes, snorting at the slight hint of drool on his lips. despite having an all metal body, the cyborg was still very human at heart. you've seen the way he helps the elderly cross the roads, entertaining the kids of your stop of the day by teaching them how to properly hold a gun or to shoot one, how he pets a stray dog or a cat, how he sits down at the bar with you after a successful mission, a guitar in hand as he starts to sing in an unfamiliar language. how he looked sad as he regularly cleans the sheriff medal on his jacket, how he stares at a certain picture that he keeps in his jacket pocket.

or even the ways he calls out to a little girl with white hair, addressing her as "clementine", before apologizing and patting the girl on the head to say "be careful, kid". you've seen it all, or what you like to think of as all of boothill.

"fuck meeee, it's still early dawn sugar" the cowboy groans out, voice groggy due to his voice bank having been on resting mode and just restarted. reaching an arm out, he manages to grab a hold of the back of your shirt before you could escape, pulling you down onto his bed as you let out a shriek. grunting at your flailing limbs and attempts to escape his clutch, he only tightens them, climbing on top of you with a cheshire grin on his face.

"that's what ya' get for trynna wake up a cowboy, sugar. ya' get put in time-out" boothill grins at the red of your cheeks from laughing too much, a surprising flare of cuteness aggression coming over him as he leans over your face to gnaw at your cheeks with his shark-like teeth.

"on-nom nom nom nom nom, i'm gonna eat up yer' mochi cheeks, sugar!" the cyborg says, making an overdramatic munching noises as he gnaws the sharp edges of his teeth over the soft fat of your cheek. you could only laugh, throwing your legs back and forth as you try to escape his hold.

"boothill! you're a whole damn 700 kilogram of pure metal alone, get off of me!" you shriek out when the mischievous cowboy starts to gnaw on the skin of your neck and chin, akin to a baby kitten throwing a temper tantrum. as if to spite you, he only rolls his body over yours more, squishing you flat down onto the bed with a menacing laugh.

it was usual to start the day like this between you and boothill. he was not a morning person, you were and usually you would have to end up paying for being the early bird as he squishes your body flush against his own metal one. sometimes you two would end up just falling back asleep, with you being held hostage in boothill's grasp and boothill comfortably squeezing his face into your body. sometimes, you two would end up like this, just laughing and having a harmless prank time together. other times, you two end up with a bunch of ruined pillows, the feathers dancing in the air as you try to get at least a hit on him. but somehow, boothill was always better than you when it came to pillow fights.

"now what happened 'ere, sugar?" you could hear boothill ask, finally managing to get a deep breath in as he finally lifts away some of the weight he had on you. a cold, hard metal tenderly ghosts over where your neck and shoulder met, over the old burn scar you had. oh right, you forgot of that little fella there.

"ah, that. it's just some old burn wound from one of my earlier days as a galaxy ranger. there's nothing to worry about, don't worry" you hum, bringing a hand up to run through his mess of a bi-colored hair. his hair was always a mess no matter the circumstances, it was honestly a wonder how he doesn't have urges to cut his hair short. not like you were complaining, the long hair suited him perfectly and you wouldn't want him to change his looks.

as you lay there on the hotel bed, looking up at the ceiling, thinking over where to go next or what route you two should take during this next new mission of yours, boothill was busy remembering an old memory. an old memory that he wished to forget so vehemently.

red and orange — that was all he could smell all around him. the burnt down farm that was in the middle process of being renovated, the burnt carcasses — it wouldn't be right to call them carcasses, there was nothing much left remaining to even properly call them as that — the corn fields burning down. sulfur and death — that was all 'loaded gun' could smell as he dug into his burning home. the heat that scorched his face or licked away at the skin of his hand didn't bother him. all he wanted to do was to find his daughter, his little girl, his little clementine. please, let her be alive by some miracl—

"boothill?" your voice echoed in his head, snapping him back from the dreaded memory lane he accidentally made a trip down towards. looking up at your face, he could see the furrowing of [c] brows over your [c] eyes as they stared at him with so much concern, affection, wonder and care. he takes in the details of your face as his breath gets stolen, seeing the way the [c] locks circled around your head as you reflected the perfect image of what he thinks aeons looks like. by the mighty aeons, you were gorgeous. and how his breath is found once again as you run a hand through his hair, blunt nails lightly scratching at his scalp. you stole his breath away as easily as breathing it back into him.

leaning close into you, he felt the way your breaths mingled with his own, how if he were to try and reach out, he could feel your body heat against his only remaining body like an anchor, like a long awaited lover returning home. there was warmth in your eyes that was missing in his cold, metal body. humane marks that was reflected onto his own vibranium plates that tried to imitate human flesh. there was humanity in you that boothill feared he lacked in himself.

"[name]... i want to taste your lips" boothill breathed out before he could even catch whether he was imagining his words or was outright saying it. and he did get what he politely asked for, your split lips connecting with his own intact ones. he tasted life that he was sure that he had lost on your lips, a memory of something old and tender that had been burned away in the fires that scorched his home and your body. he felt something move and beat rhythmically within the confines of his gears and wires, convinced that he had somehow, by some way regained his heart. regained his human body. regained his humanity.

you breathed life into him and he found himself asking for one more when your lips left his own, and one more, and one more. and one more.

"boothill, when was the last time that you went to the doctor to have your body checked over?" you say, turning your attention away from sharpening your sword to his body. even from such distance, you could see some screws getting a bit looser, some little wires or the ends of wires peeking out from behind the plates of his body. from what you could remember, the last time your partner had told you of going to the doctor to have himself checked over was... perhaps a year ago.

as galaxy rangers, you two now constantly get into fights and battles. especially with the ipc as the corporation has added you to their list of wanted figures besides boothill's growing dead or alive bounty. in an order to be ready for any ambush or unplanned fights that may take place, you and your partner must be ready for any sort of fight that may come your way. which also means making a trip to the kingdom of bandits and thieves, talia, a bit often to see the doctor.

something that boothill insists doesn't have to be done after every fight or to have you follow him. the cyborg insists that it's for your own safety but you know that he just doesn't want you to see him being taken apart and put back together again like... like he has lost his own sense of self. despite his flair and bright smiles, you always knew that boothill had a deep sense of problem with his body. you know, since you were always the one to collect his breaking consciousness into your awaiting warm arms to place him back together again. peace by loving peace, you were akin to a warm candlelight that soothed his worries and shooed away any fears that might dig its claws into his wires.

"uhhh... dunno sugar. maybe a year? or even over a year ago..." the cowboy replies, looking up from his own weapon that he was cleaning. seeing your eyes narrow at him and shoulders become stiff, boothill quickly places down his revolver, waving his hands as a form of self defense from your already approaching lecture.

"h-hey hey hey! but don't worry, i'm genuinely doing fine, sugar! if anything, it should be nagging you for not resting and properly taking care of that shoulder wound!" the cyborg was quick to defend himself, instead pointing a finger towards your direction. more specifically, your shoulder.

"it's just a small cut, boothill! i've already gotten it cleaned and wrapped in bandages" you raised your arms in a surrendering motion, now taking on the side to defend yourself from his words.

just as boothill was about to retort back with something smart-mouthed, you two suddenly fall silent as the familiar sound of the heels of an eerily familiar corporation uniform resounds in the hallway boards of the inn. those footsteps and the light click! clack! of their weapons told you two everything you needed to know. silently, boothill puts on his hat, reloading his revolver at a terrifyingly fast pace. meanwhile, you shrug on your signature red coat, newly sharpened and cleaned blade ready to slice through the ipc's weapons.

waiting patiently behind the doors of your inn room, you two wait with bated breaths until a very quick clicking of the door opening is heard. before the door could even creak open on its old hinges, boothill has already taken the first shot. without needing for words to talk about tactics or which side to take, you rush out, the sharp edge of your blade cutting through the ipc's every weapons. behind you the sound of gunshots and bodies hitting the floor follows.

it was simple, really. you disarm the ipc and boothill takes care of the rest. surrounded at all sides? you will always take the east side while boothill takes care of the ones on the west. and if there's a ew weapon or a surprise in your way, boothill will just blast it high into the sky with his arm canon and you can make the rest of them into thin noodles at record time. a deadly duo you two were, gutsy as you stood against the ipc in its whole with no fear, only excitement at what new weapon you'll come across or who could get more hits in. perhaps that's precisely why the ipc decided to send battalion after battalion after you two this time. perhaps it was the bounties on your head that caused the inn owner to betray your trust and rat you two out.

either way, nothing could exactly stop in your way. weapons cut, guns exploded due to bullets meeting inside the hole, armories torn apart and ipc managers blasted. there was nothing that could stand against a hurricane of two galaxy rangers. a red coat flashing past the ipc, a grey shine that took down a panicking soldier standing kilometers away. but there was a little problem. boothill's loose wires had connected with the wrong ones, causing him to stay in his lock 'n loaded state. target shaped pupils now bright red with the grey of his irises now bright red that perceived all those with a weapon as an enemy.

after the final ipc manager fell apart in a heap of metal and wires, you heard the sound of a gunshot still being fired towards the west. was boothill ambushed? was he okay? rushing over to where the sound is the loudest at, you couldn't help but gawk at the state of the corpses and remains of some of the robots. the large gaping holes were not normal, if anything it looked more like a canon bullet with how the entry holes were bigger and the exit holes were smaller. why was boothill using his arm canon at every chance he got? what was happening?

"boothi-!" a bang rings out just as you make it to where the gunshot was the loudest, bullet wizzing past your ear, nipping at the shell of it. the wound left ringing in your ear as you hold up a hand to cover the injured ear, looking on in fear as the red iris and white pupils of your partner looks straight back at you. you could see your own reflection in his eyes and boothill didn't look happy to see you.

eyes that used to stare at you with fondness and sea of affection now stared dead into your own pupils as if you were an enemy. a threat.

"whatcha' lookin' at, scum? come on, let's see ya' dance" this was not your boothill, this wasn't your beloved, this wasn't the same sweetheart whose eyes turn into heart shapes every time your own gaze meets his. this was not boothill.

dodging a bullet by a mere graze, you duck behind an overturned table. shit, think [name], how do you get him out of that state? you briefly remember him telling you that he briefly goes into lock 'n loaded state when he has a stand-off duel. but what more? he was locked in that state of his, ready to kill anyone that comes close. do you have to duel with him to make him snap out of it? but you don't know how to shoot a gun.

but... what if it doesn't have to be a gun duel?

"hey!" you call out, sliding on the floor to hide behind another chair that was flipped over when the canon bullet of boothill shoots through your old coverage with no mercy. "how about a duel, cowboy? you think you can be a faster draw than me?" you can hear his gun click, knowing that now he needs at least a few seconds to reload. maybe 5 seconds at best, boothill was fast in his reloading. you hear a soft scoff as you hear his gun open, the soft clanks of his bullet entering the cylinder resounding in the empty room. one, two, three -- all six bullets in and the soft clink of the hammer of his revolver releasing indicated that boothill was ready for a draw.

"hah, what do you think, sweet cheeks? think you can keep up with me?" you can just hear the taunting in his voice, goading you to make the first move. deep breath in and out, your hand holding the sheath of your sword, ready to draw. silence takes over the room as you speedrun any plans or ideas to catch him off guard. any idea to make him snap out of it. you can be the faster draw but that won't promise you a win if your life is going to be lost.

a steady hand is what you need. just a steady hand to knock some sense back into boohtill... a steady hand to knock some sense.

"come on, fucker. what's taking ya'—" the table he thought you were hiding behind is abruptly flipped over towards boothill, taking him by a sliver of surprise before he aims and pulls the trigger. once, twice and the table was split into half. a chair was next, a single explosive bullet causing the woods to splinter and cover your form as you dash through the room, straight at him.

"'atta you fuckhead! packing some guts, i see!" boothill laughs, aiming straight at your head and pulling the trigger. the bullet doesn't hit, you managed to draw your sword in time to cut it in half. a grin matching the sense of a maniac high spread across boothill's face at the clinking of the two bullet pieces hitting the floor. all you had on mind was to get near him at this moment, nothing else. another bullet is fired, getting cut apart in the middle before his revolver joins, being split apart by your expert swordsmanship.

close enough, you can do it, you can snap him back into his senses.

the sound of broken revolver and dulled blade hitting the floor is disregarded the moment you lean in close to him, hand raised, fist reared back, ready to knock some sense into him. at the same time, boothill's left arm raises towards your abdomen. time seemed to slow and all you had in mind was to deliver a sharp knuckle sandwich.

BANG! CRACK!

your sharp punch landed straight across his face, making his hat drop to the ground. if this was any other bar fight, you would have laughed in his face as you witness his red iris turn grey again, paired with the signature marksman symbol pupils. you did it, your plan worked and boothill was back. when you wanted to point at his face and scold his ears off, all you managed was a weak wheeze. strange...

the world spun around you, the horrified face of boothill catching your attention alongside the sharp pain at your side. you didn't even knew that you fell to the ground as boothill cradles you up into his arms, holding you like how he always does as his metallic fingers gently hold your cheek. his mouth was moving, bi-colored hair falling like a curtain over you two as if to keep this moment hidden from the prying eyes of the corpses in the room.

what was he saying? there was a permanent ringing in your ears and you couldn't be more annoyed about the timing of something more than now. you wanted to listen to his voice, the gentle rasp as he apologized for now listening to you, the hidden tenderness as he calls you an idiot for getting too close to him. breathing became harder for you, black dots appearing in your vision, hindering you from seeing the way boothill was desperately holding you tight against his body. you must have hit your head pretty heard when you fell.

"... i told you... to have yourself checked o.. ver..." you barely manage to say, your voice dying in your throat as you try to talk to him. shaking hand comes up to cradle his cheek, trying to wipe away the tears that streaming from his grey eyes. why was your hand bloodied? it left stains on your dear boothill's cheeks and he will surely complain about it as he tries to wipe it away with his own metallic ones like a cat. you felt cold from the inside, you couldn't move your legs and even holding up your hand felt like a chore.

perhaps a nice rest will help you relax and gain your strength back. and when you wake up again, you will be back in the inn's room, your favorite cowboy by your side, clinging to you like a lifeline as he snores open-mouthed, wiping his drool all over your shirt. when you wake up again, your favorite cowboy won't be covered in blood. when you wake up again, there won't be this annoying sharp sting at your side that felt like your whole intestines were spilling out.

"sugar...? sugar, no, don't close your eyes! [name] wake up!" boothill yells, shaking your bloodied body as he tries to make you regain consciousness. you can hit him all you like, put pink ribbons in his hair, steal his hat, scold him for all you want, just please don't close your eyes. please don't fall asleep. please, don't leave him alone.

"... i'll get lost again if you leave me..." there was no pulse. your body was cold already. and the cyborg wished he could cry again. at least one last time.

#nobu.writes #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail x you #honkai star rail x gender neutral reader #honkai star rail angst #hsr x reader #hsr x you #hsr x y/n #hsr x gender neutral reader #hsr angst #boothill x reader #boothill x you #boothill x y/n #boothill x gender neutral reader #boothill angst #gender neutral reader

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persevereforahappyending · 13 days ago

Text

A Beacon in the Dark |11|

Pairing: Joey x Reader

Summary: Joey likes helping people, it's what she's best at. Hunting down the monsters of myth and legend might be the best way to save people.

Warnings: Death, Murder, Killing, Kidnapping, Guns, Shooting, Stabbing, Blood, Violence, A LOT of Violence

Word Count: 17.6k

Note: This chapter was always going to be long turned out MUCH longer than expected. Probably should have tried breaking it up... but oh well!

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

You rolled over with a groan, as soon as you opened your eyes you closed them, bringing a hand to shade them from the bright light. You rolled over again, blinking the spots away as you focused on the cool ground beneath you. You furrowed your brow, tilting your head as you looked at the cold concrete you were apparently laying on, there hadn’t been any concrete in the woods. Your head snapped up, your eyes going wide, the woods. You had been in the woods. Joey. Joey had been with you.

Your heart began beating out of your chest as you frantically looked around, you’d never forgive yourself if you hurt her. You finally looked down at your hands and saw them stained red. You shook your head, there was so much blood. You backed away, as if you could get away from it. When you looked down you saw your entire body was caked in dried blood.

You looked up when you heard a door open. You held your breath until you caught the familiar scent of Grace. You were home, you were in your cage. You remembered giving Joey the device, meaning she used it if Grace found you and got you back here. You had no idea what you did before that though, no idea how long it was before Joey pressed the button, what you did during that time before or after. Your eyes tracked Grace as she walked across the room to your cage before pulling out her phone and unlocking the door. The door swung open, she stood at the entrance, but you didn’t move.

“Did I hurt her?” You rasped out. Your throat was always so dry after changing, especially if you had killed. You couldn’t help the way your eyes filled with tears as you awaited Graces answer.

“No,” Grace whispered. She always spoke so soft after you shifted back, like she was afraid to spook you.

You let out a relived breath. “Who did I hurt?” You might not have hurt Joey, but you clearly killed someone, multiple someone’s from the amount of blood covering you. You knew it wasn’t an animal, you weren’t that lucky, besides, you could smell it.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does!” You roared. You pinched your eyes shut, this was why Grace treated you like this after shifting back, you were always irritable at best. “Who did I hurt?” You looked up, meeting Graces eyes for the first time.

Grace walked up to you; she brought a hand to your cheek, but you pulled away. She gave you a pointed look and when she caressed your cheek again you couldn’t help but lean into the touch. “The witches.” Your tear-filled eyes searched her face, trying to figure out if she was saying what you thought she was saying. “They were the only ones killed.”

You let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through your hair. You didn’t care about the blood, you were already covered in it, you would need a shower anyway. “The girls?” You ask hesitantly, just because you apparently didn’t kill them didn’t mean someone didn’t. You got ambushed by the witches and once you shifted everything was blank, you weren’t sure what happened, if the witches started the ritual before you killed them all or not.

“They escaped.” Your lip twitched, you wanted nothing more than to smile at a successful mission, but you couldn’t. “Were found by a park ranger, who got them help.” You nodded, your eyes drifted down to the concrete, all that mattered was that the girls were safe. “They didn’t see you; they just said a group of women kidnapped them. An investigation is underway, they’ll find the tunnel and the room the girls were kept in, but no bodies.”

You nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

You mindlessly nodded. Every time an incident happened you apologized, and every time afterwards Grace said the same thing. You wondered what it would take for you to need to apologize. You couldn’t control what you did while shifted, you had no memory of your time as a wolf. Despite all that, the guilt never seemed to go away, you never knew what you felt guilty for, you just knew you deserved to feel that way.

“She’s in the living room,” Grace’s soft voice cut through the self-hatred. You froze, you weren’t expecting that, you didn’t know why Joey was still there, she saw you for what you truly were, she should have run back home where she would be safe.

“Why?” You asked, keeping your eyes fixated on the floor. You thought she was warming up to you, but you didn’t think you had developed the kind of loyalty where she would stay. She probably only wanted to get answers, learn the truth, learn why you lied to her, then she’d cut you off, tell you exactly what kind of monster you were. “She probably hates me.”

“I convinced her to stay.” You looked up, meeting Grace with tear filled eyes. “She deserves the truth.” She was right, Joey never deserved you lying to her. Everyone was entitled to their privacy, but your secret could have gotten Joey killed, or worse.

“What did you tell her?”

“Nothing, it’s your story to tell.” You nodded, it was never easy to talk about, the only one you talked to about everything was Grace and that was because she was the one to find you. You would tell Joey though, you would tell her everything, assuming she wanted to stick around and hear it. “Get cleaned up.”

You mindlessly walked out the door. You made sure to take a path that wouldn’t lead you past the living room. You listened for Joey’s heartbeat, hearing it was steady as she didn’t move from her spot. You didn’t want her to turn a corner and come face to face with you all naked and bloody, she might have already seen you at your worst, but you were hoping she didn’t see the aftermath.

When you got to your room you went straight to the bathroom. You didn’t have any clothes to peel off since shifting shredded them, so you just hopped right into the shower. You turned the shower on the hottest setting and let the water pour over you. You didn’t react as the water got progressively hotter, until it would burn a normal person, but you could take it, you liked the sting. It felt like the only way you could ever clean yourself of all the blood was by taking a scalding hot shower, you weren’t sure if it was because it hurt, and you deserved the pain or because the hotter the water was the more it felt like you were actually getting clean.

You kept your head down, your eyes staring at the drain as all the water going down was tainted red. After a few minutes of letting the water run over your body you finally grabbed your scrub brush and got to work. It took several minutes of scrubbing your entire body before it was finally not stained red. You tilted your head back, letting the water wash over your hair before running your hair through it a few times, making sure to get the clumps of blood and anything else out. When you didn’t scrub well enough you learned glops of blood or chunks of flesh tended to get stuck in places. Ever since the first time you learned to be incredible thorough with your scrubbing.

When you were finally cleaned up you stepped out of the shower, looking back to see the tile stained as well. You would have to bleach and spray it down when you got done with your talk with Joey. You went through this every month, you wished there was an easier way to clean the shower, you felt bad for always leaving it a mess, even though Grace understood and always said it was fine. You grabbed a towel off the rack wrapping it around yourself then grabbed another to run through your hair.

You made your way out of the bathroom, smiling when you saw Grace laid out a set of clean clothes, all nice and folded at the end of the bed. You slipped on the sweats and the t-shirt, not even bothering to put on socks as you walked back into the bathroom. You put an obscene amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush and began scrubbing your mouth, trying to get rid of the taste of whatever you tore apart out of your mouth. Not that it mattered, it was usually a few days before things went back to tasting normal. When you were finished you frowned at the toothbrush, seeing all the bristles broken and curved. Ever since you changed you went through a toothbrush pretty much once a month.

After tossing the toothbrush in the trash you gripped the edge of the sink and stared at your own reflection. There were dark circles around your eyes, you usually took a very long nap after shifting back but you didn’t have time for that, you needed to talk to Joey. At the thought of Joey, you gripped the counter tighter, the last time she had seen you you were a raging monster filled with bloodlust, you remembered the fear in her eyes when you started to change in front of her. You finally released the counter when you began to hear a crack, it wouldn’t be the first time you broke one of Grace’s marble countertops, but you knew it wasn’t cheap to replace, and it was always awkward trying to explain how it happened.

You shook your head, you couldn’t keep stalling, Grace got Joey to hear you out, she had been here long enough. You flung open the door and made your way out of your room, as soon as you got to the stairs you hesitated again. You didn’t kill her, but you didn’t know what you did do, if you hurt her, how close you came to hurting her, you knew you didn’t bite her, Grace would have told you that.

“Stop stalling,” you heard Grace whisper. Your head snapped up; she was probably in her office, if she wasn’t still cleaning out the cell, but you heard her as if she were standing next to you. One of the perks to what you were, came in handy on missions, but the benefits definitely didn’t out way the consequences in your opinion. No amount of strength, speed, heightened senses, none of it was worth it when you had to go through what you did every month.

You let out a shaky breath and took the first step. You had to get it over with. There was no doubt in your mind Joey would hate you, she would hate you for lying, for being a monster, for almost killing her, she’d never want to see you again. You slowly descended the stairs, completely lost in your mind, it was better this way, probably. Joey hating you was for the best, she would be safer, it’s not like you actually thought she’d ever like you back, this would just help rip off the band aid. Joey would be alive and safe with her son as far away from you as possible, and you were better off alone where you couldn’t hurt anyone.

You came to a stop once you hit the entryway of the living room. Your eyes instantly found Joey, she was sitting on the couch, hunched over and had her hands bawled into fists. Her entire body was tense, and it was all your fault. “Hey,” you whispered, afraid to break the uneasy silence.

The second you spoke Joey somehow tensed up even more. She slowly lifted her head, and you could tell she was cautious, she had no idea what she would see when she looked at you. You held eye contact for a moment, seeing the distrust all over her face. You walked across the room, her eyes tracking every move you made. You would normally sit on the couch, it was much more comfortable, but Joey probably didn’t want you anywhere near her, so you opted for the chair that was as far away from her as possible but still around the little coffee table.

“Ar-are you okay?” You asked. Your arms were on the armrest, but you gripped it tighter than necessary. You wanted to appear open to Joey, showing her there was nothing to fear, even though you knew that was useless at this point.

Joey let out a humorless chuckle. You couldn’t help but look away when she looked at you, the anger burning behind her eyes. “Am I okay?” She scoffed.

“Did I hurt you?” You whispered, gripping the armrest tighter. You would never hear the end of it if you ripped Grace’s chair, but you couldn’t relax until Joey answered the question, until you knew you didn’t hurt her.

“No.” Your grip instantly relaxed making you flex your fingers and let them hang loosely on the armrest again. “You certainly tried though.”

You closed your eyes. You wondered how close you got; how close you were to tearing Joey apart. “I’m sorry,” you rasped out. It didn’t mean anything, even if it was true, you still did it, you lied and almost killed Joey, an apology didn’t mean shit, it’s not like she’d forgive you anyway, it’s not like you deserved her forgiveness.

“You lied to me, from the very beginning. You told me we were going to hunt down monsters,” she let out another humorless chuckle. “You talked about how much you hated them. When all this time…” you flinched at her words, she never finished her sentence, but you knew what she was about to say when all this time you were a monster as well. “Why lie? Why put me on a mission when you knew what would happen?”

“I didn’t want you on that mission,” you said instantly. “I fought against it every step of the way. I wanted to go out there alone, it’s what we should have done.”

“Grace said she wanted me there.” You nodded. “Not for the witches or the girls but for you.” You let out a deep sigh, Grace was always trying to protect you, you didn’t deserve it. “Why? It’s not like I could have stopped you.”

You nodded, taking in Joeys question. You fought her on it but you knew exactly why Grace wanted her on that mission. “It was to give everyone else a chance,” you answered. “If I had gone alone, I would have torn through everything in my path.”

“You did.”

You looked up at Joey through tear filled eyes. “It would have been so much worse.” You looked back down in shame; you couldn’t stand the judgment coming off of Joey. “You alerted Grace, that allowed her to get to me in time before I could hurt innocent people. You being there also stalled me, the wolf only wants to hunt and focusing on the witches and then you kept the girls alive and Grace getting there stopped me from finding campers or who knows what else I could have come across.”

“So, I was just a distraction,” Joey scoffed.

“No, not exactly,” you quickly denied. “Grace always hoped that if I was around someone familiar when I was changed, that I would hesitate, that I might recognize them.”

“You don’t recognize people when you turn?”

You swallowed a lump and just shook your head. “I don’t remember anything after I shift. The last thing I remember before everything goes black is my bones breaking.”

You didn’t know why you didn’t remember. Every other werewolf you ever came across had control, they attacked who they wanted and left others alone, they had their human memories as a wolf and vice versa. You learned a few blacked out their first few shifts but you had yet to experience that.

“So, you know you don’t remember things and you left me completely defenseless,” Joey nodded along. “A heads up would have been nice, a way to stop you. I don’t know what kills a werewolf but-”

“Silver,” you cut her off. You looked over at her to see her eyes widen, as if she didn’t expect you to say that, or didn’t expect you to answer at all. “Anything made out of silver will hurt me.”

At that Joey furrowed her brow. “That knife,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t like mine; it wasn’t iron.”

You shook your head. “It was a precaution; I had hoped to use it to hold myself off.” You scoffed, “Lot of good that did.” You thought maybe having the knife would give Joey a better chance, but you never even got the chance to hand it off to her before the witches got you. “Silver will hold me off but a silver bullet right here,” you held a finger to your head. “Will kill me.”

“Is that how Grace restrained you?”

“Partly,” you nodded. “She had that trailer rigged in case anything like that happened.” Which it had happened more times than you cared to admit, but at least Grace’s invention was getting use. Despite the fact that it was literally meant to contain you, you had to admire the device, it was pure genius. “She avoided my head, but she did shoot me with silver bullets, then the trailer is metal, thick and strong enough for me to not instantly break through.”

“Meaning you can break through if you want?” Joey raised her eyebrows.

“Technically yes.” There were metals you couldn’t break through easily, like the cage downstairs but to use that for a trailer would make it too heavy and Grace needed to be able to drive you away, whether it be in the middle of the woods where you couldn’t hurt anyone or back home. “The spikes she shot me with,” you gestured to your shoulder where one of them hit you. “Are made of silver. Then once I was in the container, she released wolfsbane.”

“Wolfsbane?” Joey raised her eyebrows at that. “That’s also real?”

You couldn’t help but smile. There were so many movies and shows about werewolves, like vampires, one didn’t know what was real and what was pure fiction. There were a lot of weird things fiction brought into the werewolf curse but the two things they always seemed to get right were silver bullets and wolfsbane.

“It’s a plant but it can be spread through the air or mixed in with a liquid, there’s a lot of ways to get it in the system,” you said. “It won’t kill a werewolf, but it hurts like hell, it burns us.” You winced just thinking about all the times wolfsbane had been used on you.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Joey asked. Despite what you and Grace told her about her questions being answered she clearly didn’t believe that would actually happen or maybe she didn’t believe you would be so willing to tell her how to kill you.

“So, you know what to do next time,” you shrugged. “Even if you don’t continue working with us, it’s good to know what’s out there and how to stop it.” You let out a deep sigh, if Joey by chance wanted to continue working with you, you wanted to give her a chance to escape next time. You also knew what else was out there, the kind of wolves that existed, not many of them were as restrained as you.

“You’re literally telling me how to kill you,” Joey let out a disbelieving huff. “Who does that? You kept this secret from me the entire time and now you’re just willingly telling me how to kill you.”

“Because I hate what I am!” You snapped. You closed your eyes then clenched your fist and slowly unclenched them. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Grace, or anyone.” You opened your eyes again. When you looked at Joey this time, it was through tear filled eyes. “If it came down to it, I would rather be killed then have to hurt you or Grace or someone innocent. That’s not who I want to be.”

You gripped your knees tight. When you slowly release your knees you stared down at your hand, it was still human looking. You had been getting better at control, there were times you’d grip your knee or clench your fist so tight that your claws popped out and you usually didn’t notice until blood was running down your arm or leg.

“How long have you been like this?” Joey asked softly. You weren’t sure if she was being kinder because of your outburst, and she was worried you’d rip her throat out or if she actually cared about not upsetting you.

“I was bit two years ago,” you rasped out. Looking down at where the bite mark was, you had forgotten about until it was all over, that night flashed through your mind.

“That’s how it works?” You looked up to see a spark of curiosity in Joey’s eyes. She might have been pissed at you, but she still had that wonder about all this stuff. “A bite?”

You nodded. “Not sure how it all started,” you shrugged. “There’s families who are born into this, but then someone can also be turned by a bite.”

“H-how did it happen?”

You sucked in a breath. You knew the question was coming but you still weren’t ready for it. “That’s a long story.”

“I know you promised me answers, but if it’s too much to talk about, you don’t have to.”

The corner of your mouth twitched up, even after lying to her, Joey was still so understanding. “No,” you shook your head. “You deserve to know.” You let out a long sigh as you leaned back in the chair. “It’s not a pretty story.” You looked at Joey until she gave you a nod to continue. Just because it wasn’t easy for you to talk about didn’t mean it wasn’t hard for other people to hear. “Two years ago, I was on my way home when…”

You walked down the street like any other day. You had just got off a late shift at the bar and were making your way back to your crappy apartment. You shoved your hands in the pockets of your jacket, trying to keep them as warm as possible. You really needed to save up for a car, the New York winters weren’t doing you any good.

Someone came up behind you, throwing a bag over your head. You tried whipping around but you felt strong arms grab you and hold you in place. Your eyes darted around, even though you only saw darkness. You could hear the squeak of brakes as, what you assumed was some sort of vehicle, pull up to your left. There was a click, a door sliding open, and the next thing you knew you were tossed into the back of the vehicle. You crawled around, trying to find your footing when you heard the door slide shut and a second later a car door close.

You reached up and ripped the bag off your head only to be met with more darkness. You blinked, trying to get your eyes to adjust to the little bit of light coming from the little lights on the roof of the vehicle. You were definitely in a van of some sort, you looked back and saw nothing but a metal wall blocking you from the front seat, there wasn’t even a window to see the driver.

You whipped back around when you heard whimpering. You squinted and could just barely make out a group of two girls and two guys huddled in the corner. With a shaky finger one of the girls pointed to the other side of the van. You followed her finger to see a large man in all black and a mask covering everything but his eyes and mouth. He jerked his head to the side, telling you to huddle together with the others. You couldn’t see any weapons, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any and there were at least two more people in the front seat, so you did as he asked.

The two girls gripped onto you, pulling you into the huddle as soon as you got within reach. You could feel the others trembling against you, or it might have been you, you weren’t quite sure. You weren’t sure what was going on, you had heard stories of human trafficking and people getting kidnapped, you just never thought it would be you. Something about this felt different though, they were wearing masks, but they weren’t worried about restraining any of you, maybe they were just that cocky or they were confident that none of you would fight back. You could only stare up at the man in the back with all of you, his body jostled from side to side as the van continued to speed down the street. All you could see was his dark eyes when they met yours, you held your breath, waiting for him to say something but he just smirked.

You weren’t sure how long all of you were in the car before it came to a stop, sending all of you flying forward into the far wall. You heard the man chuckle and through the pile of limbs you noticed him get up. He was just a giant shadowy figure towering over all of you, then someone opened the back doors of the van, and the man was illuminated in moonlight. The man walked backwards, not bothering to turn around until he hopped out of the van.

“Let’s go!” Another man shouted, slamming his fist on the side of the van. You and the others froze, you were sure ignoring the man was a bad idea, but you didn’t know what would happen if you didn’t listen to him. “Now!” He pounded the side of the van even harder.

You and the others scrambled to your feet, most of you needing to crouch down so you didn’t hit your head on the top of the van. All of you hopped out of the van single file, with you making sure to stick towards the middle of the group, you wanted to bring as little attention to yourself as possible. You kept your head down; you didn’t know what would happen if you began looking around or caught the eyes of one of the men around you. You tried to sneak a peek through your lashes though, you saw three men near the van, most likely the ones that grabbed you, then you saw more boots further to the side, though you couldn’t make out whether they belong to men or women.

You tensed when you heard the wheels of another vehicle approach, you took a risk and looked up, seeing an identical van come to a stop. Two men hopped out of the van and made their way to the back, where the man from the passenger side opened the back doors, allowing a third man to hop out. They did the same thing as the guys from your van, they banged on the side of the van and ordered everyone to get out. A few seconds later a group of another five people, one girl and four guys, hopped out of the van and stood in a single file line, each of them with their heads down. You could practically see them shaking from where you stood. There was now a total of ten of you, with six masked men standing around all of you.

“Everyone line up!” A man shouted. Everyone seemed to freeze at the same time, you weren’t sure if your two groups were supposed to line up together, technically you were lined up, unless they wanted a different type of line. “Now!”

You all quickly scrambled, forming a long single file line. You all kept your heads bowed as the men walked up and down on both sides of you. You held your breath when you heard the crunch of boots getting closer. You weren’t sure where you were, but you were standing on dirt, you tried glancing out of the side of your eyes at your surroundings, but everything was so dark, the only lights seemed to come from the vehicles.

“March!” The man ordered. This time none of you hesitated to get moving.

You all marched in single file, some people moved too quickly and stepped on the heel of the one in front of them. You weren’t sure where they were taking all of you but eventually you crossed over onto a grassy area. You strained your ears to try and decipher anything that might tell you where you were, but you heard nothing, not even bugs.

Everyone bumped into each other as the line slowly came to a stop. There was a loud groan, like a latch on a metal door being lifted, then there was the sound of a large metal door creaking open. “Move!” Someone from the back shouted. You assumed whoever it was shoved the person at the end of the line because the person behind you stumbled into you, making you stumble into the person in front of you.

All of you shuffled forward, eventually leaving the outdoors and entering some sort of building. You couldn’t tell what it was, there were no lights inside, but when you passed by the door you saw it was indeed a giant metal industrial style door. The door had a large latch that had to be lifted up to unlock the door, and there was nothing to open the door from the inside. You had never seen a door quite like that, you knew a door that only opened one way was always meant to keep something in, though you couldn’t imagine what they possibly wanted all of you for, that would make them want to lock you all up.

“Along the back wall!” A male voice echoed throughout the room.

Since there was no light you all stumbled forward until you hit a brick wall. You kept one hand on the wall, feeling the cold stone beneath your fingers as you turned around. You kept your head down even though it was dark, for some reason you thought they’d know if you looked at them. You heard several pairs of boots shuffling away from all of you, indicating the men were making their way out of the room. A second later there was a loud sound of the metal door slamming shut, and then the latch being flipped back into place, locking all ten of you in the cold dark room.

There was only the sound of everyone’s breathing for several minutes. It seemed as though all of you were afraid to move. You were pretty sure not a single one of the people who had taken you were in the room, but you didn’t know what would happen if you moved. You weren’t sure what game they were playing, why they wanted you or any of these other people. For all you knew there were cameras or listening devices in the room and as soon as any of you started trying to escape someone would come in and take and do who knows what to you.

“What the hell is this?” One of the guys asked.

“I-I-I-I was ju-jus-just wa-walk-walking ho-home,” one of the girls got out. You couldn’t see her, but it sounded like she was hyperventilating or close to a panic attack, not that you could blame her for that.

“Me too,” one of the other girls whispered.

“Same,” one of the guys spoke up.

“So, they grabbed all of us off the street?” the same man who asked the question spoke again.

“Seems that way.”

“What do they want? Who the fuck are these people?”

“I didn’t even know they were there until they tossed a bag over my head,” another man said.

“Same,” you finally rasped out. “Two men grabbed me, tossed a bag over my head, I didn’t see anything, I just heard the car roll up before they tossed me in.”

“Someone had to see something right?” another girl spoke up, sounding more hysterical than the first one. “We were picked off the street, there’s cameras, witnesses, something!”

“It was the middle of the night,” the first man replied not unkindly. “I don’t know about all of you but as far as I know there was no one around.”

Everyone remained silent, everyone seemed to have been in the same position, you knew it had been the same for you. The girl wasn’t wrong about cameras, there were traffic cams, store cams, ATMs, there was some form of camera all over the city. The only issue was that if no one knew any of you were missing, or no one knew where you last were, then there would be no reason to check the cameras. You highly doubted some store owner checked the cameras to his shop every morning, unless he had a reason to, and even if by some chance they did, they’d also have to care. People had a habit of remaining quiet when something happened, usually not wanting to get involved, or not wanting to put a target on their own back. In this case you honestly couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to talk about a van rolling up and grabbing someone, the speed and way it happened told you it was definitely not the first time for these people, they were professionals.

“Well, someone will miss us, right?” the girl asked again. “Family? Friends? Someone will definitely notice when we don’t show up to work!”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “I have no one,” you said with a careless shrug. You had a job but even if you didn’t show up your boss would only be pissed about the inconvenience, he might leave an angry message but otherwise he’d write you off, fire you without giving your existence a second thought.

No one spoke up, no one tried to say their friends or families would look for them, it seemed everyone was in the same boat as you. All of you were taken the same way, all of you were people that no one would miss. You furrowed your brow, for the guys who grabbed you to know all that it meant they had to be watching all of you for some time. They had to know when and where each of you would be to plan this so perfectly. You let your head flop back against the stone wall and slid down to the floor, something this big, with this much planning and so many people involved, there was no way any of you were getting out of this.

“What if we attack them when they come back?” one of the guys asked. “We can work together and as soon as they open the door, we grab them!”

“What about the other five?” the first man asked.

“Not to mention all the others,” you added. “No idea how many, but there’s a lot more than the six who grabbed us.”

“There’s still ten of us!” the guy continued to try and be hopeful.

“And who knows how many of them there are!” the first guy snapped. “They’ve clearly planned this all out. We don’t know their numbers or what kind of weapons they have.”

“I didn’t see the guy in the back of the van with a weapon,” the man said weakly, still trying not to give up on his argument.

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t have one.”

“Or that others don’t have one,” you added. “They’ve clearly done this before; it would be way to risky to take this many people and not have a way to keep us in line.” Even if all of you made it out of the room you had no idea what awaited you on the outside. You didn’t get a good look, but you had to be out in the middle of nowhere or on a large patch of property. You didn’t know the area so odds were if you ran, you’d get lost, it would probably be easy for them to catch you all again, or take you out, they might just shoot you in the back as you tried to run away.

“So, what do we do?” the guy asked.

You and the man didn’t respond, there didn’t seem to be anything you could do besides wait and meet your fate. When no one answered it seemed to take all of the fight out of him because you heard someone plop down on the floor with sigh. Hope was the strongest thing one could have in this type of situation, hope of someone rescuing you, hope of surviving this, hope of getting out, but none of you wanted to provide hope. As much as you wanted to fight back, you wouldn’t just roll over and let them do what they wanted, but it was still hard to find any sliver of hope that you would get out of this. If you were being honest with yourself, your only hope was that your death would be quick.

You remained against the wall, your leg propped up and your arm resting over your knee, while the other leg was stretched out. Your eyes had adjusted to the dark as best as they could, but it still wasn’t like you could see anything. Everyone had shuffled around the room, it sounded like someone was feeling around the walls, hoping for some sort of weakness, two of the girls were huddled together to the left of you and were sobbing as quietly as they could. You turned your head, when you felt someone slide down the wall and sit next to you, even though you couldn’t make out any sort of features on the person.

“Hey,” the guy said, and you recognized him as the one who first spoke up. “Are you the person who actually agreed with me?”

You huffed out a laugh. “Yeah,” you replied. None of you could see each other, you barely knew what anyone looked like. The only way to identify each at the moment was based on each other’s voice, and not everyone had spoken, there were still two guys who had yet to speak.

“My name’s Cody.”

You weren’t sure why he was telling you; you didn’t believe any of you would be alive long enough to warrant knowing each other’s names. “Y/N,” you told him anyway.

“What’s your take on all this?”

You let out a deep sigh as you gave it some thought, not that you hadn’t been trying to figure that exact thing out since they first grabbed you. “I have no idea,” you shrugged. “At first I thought maybe human trafficking.”

“It doesn’t feel like that.” Cody seemed to be thinking as he said that, he wasn’t trying to dismiss your thought, he just wasn’t sure he agreed with it. “I’m not sure I can explain why.”

“I know what you mean.” You let your head flop back against the wall again, you weren’t sure why, but you didn’t think the people who grabbed you would be coming back to transport you all again, you had a feeling that whatever was going to happen to all of you would be done here.

“Clearly they’ve been watching us,” you whispered, even though the room was empty, and you knew the others could hear your entire conversation. “There’s a reason they grabbed us, they didn’t pick us at random.”

“But?” he asked, clearly already sensing you weren’t done yet.

“But it also doesn’t seem like they care who they grabbed. They grabbed both men and women, but not an even number.” You furrowed your brow, there was ten of you and you’d normally think if they were kidnapping both men and women that they’d want an even number of each but that’s not the case, the number of men was higher than the number of women.

“Maybe that’s not what’s important to them. Maybe the most important part is people who won’t be missed.

“Then that makes what they’re planning even more concerning.”

Cody sucked in a breath, seeming to understand what you meant. They didn’t care about gender, that didn’t play any importance in their plan, that just meant the same thing was going to happen to all of you. That didn’t do anything to ease your worries, that only made them worse. You weren’t sure if the guys were going to come in an take you out one by one, take you out in pairs. Or do something to the entire group of you, there were endless possibilities of horrors they could put you all through.

“Whatever happens,” Cody whispered. “We need to stick together.”

You weren’t sure if Cody actually had some sort of hope that you guys could make it out of this or not. The way he spoke to the other guy made it seem like he knew fighting back would be pointless, but this kind of comment made it seem like he thought there was a fighting chance. Even if there was no chance, even if you all faced what was surely a guaranteed death, at least sticking together would mean you might not die alone, and maybe it would mean making things a little more difficult for your captors, which even if you did die would definitely be worth it.

Everyone fell silent after that. Sobs eventually died down, whether it was because they passed out or because they were finally gathering themselves you didn’t know. The guy who had been looking for away out kicked and pounded on the door, screaming in frustration until finally slumping to the floor, seeming to realize there truly was no way out. You weren’t sure how long all of you had been in there, no one ever came to check on you, no one ever came to drop off food or water, for all you knew it would be days before anyone ever came back. Eventually you found it hard to keep your eyes open and you fell into a restless sleep.

You shot awake, your eyes darting around trying to make out anything but only seeing darkness. “Hey, hey,” Cody said, his hand coming over to rest on your shoulder. “You fell asleep.”

You let your head flop back against the wall and you closed your eyes as you let out a shaky breath. You had hoped everything had been a horrible nightmare, but it wasn’t, you were still locked away in some mysterious dark building. You didn’t open your eyes again until your heart no longer felt like it was about to beat out of your chest.

“Did I miss anything?” you rasped out. You cleared your throat; you couldn’t tell how much time had passed exactly but your dry throat told you it had been several hours.

“Nope,” Cody sighed.

All of you continued to sit in the dark, occasionally the sound of someone shuffling around could be heard but no one tried to find a way to escape again. You and Cody sat in silence for the most part, some of the others had whispered conversations but you didn’t see the point. There was no use in getting to know each other when you didn’t know what was going to happen, you didn’t want to build connections with these people, for all you knew this was some weird fight club and you’d be forced to fight and kill each other. That was doubtful in your mind but still, there was a chance something would happen, and you might have to choose between yourself and one of the others, or maybe they’d make you choose who lived and who died between the others, you had no idea what these people planned.

The sound of the latch being lifted had all of you perking up. You straightened your back but didn’t pull yourself back up to your feet again. You held your breath as you waited to see who would walk through the door, but no one did. There was a groan as the door swung open slightly, just enough to show it was open, but no one came through. It was dark outside, but a small bit of moonlight was enough to let a bit of light in the room.

You and Cody, both pulled yourselves back to your feet and glanced at each other. You each had the same suspicious look in your eyes, not quite sure if you should move and what would be awaiting you if you stepped outside. You finally got a good look at Cody, he hadn’t been one of the guys in your van, he had been in the second one. He looked about your age, his hair was dirty blond, he was in a blue t-shirt and jeans, each of which were rather dirty, and his boots were caked in dried mud. Cody definitely looked like he did manual labor, most likely working in construction of some sort.

“This could be our only chance,” the guy who kept trying to convince you all to fight back said. He ran to the door but turned around when he realized no one else had moved. “Come on!” he gestured with his arm.

“We don’t know what’s waiting for us,” Cody said.

“So, we should just sit here and wait to die?” you looked at Cody and saw the way his eyebrows knitted together. Cody seemed just as conflicted as you, if you stayed you were just giving up, waiting to let them do whatever they wanted but if you ran, it was an unknown, who knew what they’d do to you then, it could be so much worse. “Whatever,” the man scoffed. “I’m not sitting here to wait to die.” And with that he pushed the door open the rest of the way and took off out into the night.

You stepped forward and Cody instantly grabbed your arm. You looked back to see the worry in his eyes. You raised your hand, silently asking him to give you a minute, you could see the internal struggle behind his eyes but eventually he, although reluctantly, let go of your arm. You inched forward towards the door; you could feel everyone’s eyes on you as they waited to see what would happen.

You finally came to the threshold and couldn’t bring yourself to cross it yet. You peeked your head out the door and saw nothing and no one. You furrowed your brow, you could see the man still running at full speed towards the woods, but no one was chasing after him.

“What do you see?” one of the other guys whispered.

“Nothing,” you answered, shaking your head. “It’s just a giant open field and it looks like woods surrounding us.”

“I’m out of here,” he said and pushed past you and took off towards the woods.

You opened your mouth, but nothing came out before the other three guys pushed past you, taking off after the others. You looked back to see Cody had stepped forward a bit, but he still seemed cautious about leaving the room. One of the girls stood up and made her way to the middle of the room. “What are we waiting for?” she asked. “This is our chance!” when none of you moved, she just rolled her eyes and ran out the door as well.

You looked back to the two other girls, seeing one curled in a ball in the corner of the room, while the other stood on her feet, trying to get the other girl to stand as well. The other girl tried to coax the girl to get up as softly as she could, but the girl just sobbed and shook her head, curling in on herself even more. The girl eventually let go of the other one and took a few steps away, shaking her head as she made her way out of the room as well.

“What are you thinking?” you asked Cody.

Cody shook his head as he stared out the open door. “Something about this doesn’t feel right.”

“Agreed.” Someone clearly opened the door, they wanted all of you to run, but you couldn’t figure out why. You weren’t sure why someone would kidnap ten people only to just let them go. “But we can’t stay here.”

Cody gripped at his hair and groaned. He eventually nodded, seeming to reluctantly agree with you. “We can’t just leave her,” he pointed at the girl still in the corner.

You opened your mouth, but Cody was already crouching down next to the girl. He was whispering comforting words to her, trying everything to get her to stand up. It seemed futile though, the girl wouldn’t budge, she wouldn’t so much as look at any of you. It was harsh but you needed to leave her, you couldn’t stick around waiting for them to come and pick you off, all because you didn’t want to leave some girl you didn’t even know.

“We can come back for her,” you suggested. Cody looked up at you with a furrowed brow, clearly not liking the idea of leaving the girl here. “If she doesn’t want to come, we can’t do anything.” You were really jus trying to be practical, even if Cody wanted to carry the girl it would only slow the two of you down. “We can’t do any good if we don’t save ourselves first.” You didn’t lie, if you somehow managed to make it out alive, you would come back for the girl, you would send help, but you weren’t about to stand there and die for someone you didn’t know.

Cody slowly got up and reluctantly nodded as he joined your side. You grabbed Cody by the arm and pulled him through the door, he didn’t take his eyes off the girl the entire time. When the cool air hit you both Cody finally turned around. “Everyone took off that way,” you said, pointing towards the right where the woods were.

“Where the hell are we?” Cody asked.

The two of you stepped away from the box and spun in a circle. A box was the only way to describe what you were kept in; it was literally a giant box made out of stone and metal. There were no windows or ventilation of any kind, if you were all left in there, after a few days you would have all surely suffocated. There was nothing else around, there was a patch of dirt that you had all been standing on when you first arrived, but the rest of the area was just a large grassy field. There wasn’t even an actual dirt path the vehicles drove on, just tire tracks from them driving the same path over and over again.

Both of your heads snapped back towards the woods when you heard a howl echo throughout the air. Your eyes widened, you had never seen a wolf in the wild before but that was most definitely a wolf, though it sounded larger than you expected. A few seconds later a screamed ripped through the air, making your entire body shudder. You didn’t know who the scream belonged to, but you knew it was a man’s scream.

“We need to go,” you said. You weren’t sure why, but every fiber of your body was telling you to run. “We need to go now!” you took off to the woods and only looked back once to see Cody was following your lead.

As the two of you ran for the woods you heard several more howls begin to echo throughout. You weren’t sure where any of them were coming from, it sounded like they were surrounding you, yet nowhere near you. As soon as you hit the woods you came to a stop, every direction looked the same, you weren’t sure how far you were from civilization to begin with. You jumped back, Cody and you grabbing onto each other when you heard a girl’s scream pierce the air next.

“What the hell is going on?” you whispered. You hadn’t seen any of your captors, but you had a feeling this is exactly what they planned.

“Let’s just keep moving,” Cody said.

It was clear he was trying to come off as confident, but you could see the way he was shaking. You nodded and the two of you began making your way through the woods. Unlike the previous night it was now a full moon and lit your surroundings as well as it could, but there were still too many obstacles that prevented the two of you from taking off and running again.

You heard another girl scream, but this time it came from behind you. You and Cody both looked back in the direction you had come, each of your eyes widened when you realized there was only one person in that direction. Cody didn’t hesitate to take back off the way you had just come. “Wait!” you called after him, but nothing seemed to be stopping him. You looked in the direction you had been going and then back to Cody’s disappearing figure, you groaned, internally slapping yourself before turning and taking off after Cody.

You quickly caught up to Cody before he broke through the woods. The two of you slowed down as you approached the box again, the screaming had died down, but you could hear snarling and growling coming from the inside. When you got close enough you could see a large black wolf chomping down on something in the corner. You brought a hand to your mouth when you noticed the pool of blood now coating the floor and the human hand at the wolf’s side.

You must have made some sort of noise because the wolfs head snapped back and glowing yellow eyes were now staring back at you. You stepped back, nearly tripping as you realized it wasn’t a normal wolf at all, it turned around on all fours, but you could see that the creature definitely wasn’t just a wolf. It lunged for you, but Cody slammed the door on it. He kept his back pressed to the door, putting all his weight on it as he tried to keep it closed. Cody’s eyes widened as his feet began to slide and claws slowly started to inch their way out of the door. You shook yourself out of your shock and ran towards Cody, slamming your body into the door. The monster let out a whine as it pulled its claws back in and you and Cody flipped the latch, locking the creature inside.

“What the fuck was that?” you shouted, gesturing at the box. You jumped back when the entire box shook as the monster began throwing itself at the walls and growling.

“Who fucking cares,” Cody said. “We need to go!” He grabbed your arm and the two of you took off back towards the woods. This time neither of you slowed down when you hit the woods, you just kept running, jumping over logs and rocks as they appeared in your path, and ignoring the way the branches smacked you.

There were two more screams just like the others and if they met the same fate as the girl that meant there was only one more girl left and two more guys, plus you and Cody. Your numbers were quickly dwindling, and you were pretty sure you and Cody were the only ones paired up. You weren’t sure if the creature you locked in the box was the only one out there or if there were more, you also weren’t ready to admit to yourself what it was, all you knew was that it wasn’t a normal wolf.

You and Cody kept running until your foot got caught on a branch, sending you tumbling to the ground. You groaned as you pushed yourself up, but your eyes widened when you were met with the face of one of the girls. You scrambled back and snapped your head back when you felt a boot but quickly relaxed when you saw it was only Cody. Cody reached down and helped you back to your feet, neither of your eyes ever leaving the body.

“What the fuck,” Cody whispered. “She was torn apart.” You shook your head, the girls’ lifeless eyes stared up at you, the rest of her was ripped to shreds, her entire stomach look like it had been clawed open and her rib cage was practically ripped in half.

“You think this is from the same one?” you whispered. Almost as soon as the question left your lips you heard another howl, then another, and another, as if they were communicating.

You let out a shaky breath as tears filled your eyes. “They’re hunting us,” you whispered. Cody shook his head as if denying your claim, but he still couldn’t form the words to actually argue against it. You didn’t say it outright, but you implied that the people who captured you were these monsters, and they brought you out here to hunt you down. Which was insane, monsters weren’t real, the Wolfman, all of that, it was just fiction.

“We need to keep moving,” Cody whispered.

You nodded even though you honestly didn’t see the point. You trapped one in the box, but that was only because it was already in there. You weren’t sure how many of these things were out there, you had no weapons, there was no way you could outrun a normal wolf so you highly doubted you would be able to outrun one of these things.

“Come on,” Cody said, and gently led you over the body.

The two of you took of through the woods again, not as fast as you had been moving before but much more careful than previously. You tried to ignore the howls as you ran through the woods, none of them sounded close but for all you knew they were waiting and watching for the perfect time to attack the two of you.

Cody suddenly stopped, making you run into him. You furrowed your brow until you heard a branch crack, making you freeze. Cody scanned one side while you scanned the other, each of you holding your breath. Not even the insects were making a sound, you were just waiting to catch the glimmer of yellow eyes before you saw razor sharp teeth lunging at you again. There was another crack and then more, whatever was coming at you was coming fast. You and Cody both turned when you could determine the direction the sound was coming from only to see one of the guy stumbling out of the woods.

You both jumped back, it was the guy that ran out the door first. He was panting and covered in dirt and blood, you weren’t sure if the blood was his own or someone else’s. He looked around until his eyes landed on the two of you, there were tears streaming down his face. “It killed them,” he sobbed.

“Who?” Cody asked.

“The-the girl,” he pointed off in the direction he had come from, that meant all the girls were dead. “And two of the others,” he shook his head. That meant that there was at least one man still out there, you, Cody, and the man in front of you. You weren’t sure if the guy you heard scream was part of the one’s the man mentioned or if that had been two other men. “It-it just tore them apart.”

“What did?” the man was looking around frantically; you weren’t sure he had even heard Cody’s question. “Hey,” Cody grasped the man by the shoulders and forced him to look at him. “What was it?”

The man was still shaking, and tears were still streaming down his face as he stared right into Cody’s eyes. “Werewolves,” he whispered.

Cody let go of the man, giving him a forceful shove away. “Bullshit.” The man stumbled back but remained upright. “Those aren’t real!”

You stumbled back, grabbing Cody by the arm to pull him with you. Your eyes widened and stared above the man’s head when you saw a large grey wolf standing on his hindlegs as it towered over him. The man choked on a silent sob, seeming to already know what was behind him before he turned around. You and Cody could deny it all you wanted but there was no arguing that standing before you was a werewolf, there was nothing else it could be, despite how insane it sounded.

The werewolf swiped its large claws at the man. The man stumbled slightly as he slowly turned to face the two of you again. He brought a hand to his neck, and you could see blood gushing between his fingers. He opened his mouth trying to speak but nothing came out, nothing needed to though, you could see the word he was trying to form, ‘run’ that was all it seemed Cody needed to grab you by the arm and yank you off in another direction. You looked back over your shoulder to see the werewolf swipe up, impaling its claws through the man’s back before lifting him high in the air. The werewolf let out a monstrous roar and you turned back around, unable to watched what happened next.

As the two of you took off through the woods you heard another scream from a man, not too far away from you. The two of you slid to a stop, the scream came from just in front of you. You tugged on Cody’s arm to drag him to the right, you needed to keep moving, you already knew what awaited you if you continued forward. If your math was right, then you and Cody were most likely the only ones left. There was a small probability of one other guy was still out there, but for all you knew he was already dead, and if he wasn’t dead yet, it was only a matter of time before one of the wolves caught up to him.

The two of you continued to run until you broke through the woods. You slowly came to a stop, furrowing your brow at your surroundings, it was different than where you were previously. There was still a large patch of land but in the center of it was, what you could only describe as, a giant mansion. There was a paved driveway that led to the house, making a giant circle out front and to the right was a giant four car garage. There were no gates or walls around the mansion, it was completely open, and then surrounding the area was woods. It seemed the driveway led to the only road out of this place. You wanted nothing more than to run the entire way, but you knew if you didn’t get a car or weapons of some sort, the two of you would never make it.

You heard more howling, making the two of you turn back to the woods, it sounded like the monsters were all off, still trying to hunt you down, they probably didn’t know the two of you had reached their home. “Let’s go,” Cody said, nodding at the house.

The two of you took off across the lawn as quickly and quietly as you could. You tiptoed up the front steps, you and Cody shared a look before Cody rested his hand on the door handle and gently pushed it open. It was unlocked, meaning they certainly didn’t expect anyone to make it to their home. Cody slipped into the house first with you right behind him, you quietly closed the door as soon as you entered.

You strained your ears, listening for any sort of movement in the house but heard none. The house was gigantic though, so you knew you’d have to be careful, you weren’t sure how many of these people there were still. You followed Cody as he creeped forward, gently pushing open the door to the left before peeking his head in. He looked back at you and gave a small nod, indicating it was all clear.

The two of you moved through the house, checking each room before entering them. You hadn’t run into anyone yet and still had yet to hear a sound. Besides the werewolves hunting you outside, this seemed like a relatively normal mansion, well, as normal as a mansion could be. You finally pushed open the door to what appeared to be an office. Your eyes widened at the large oak desk centered at the back of the room, there were two oak chairs in front of it, then in the middle of the room was an oak coffee table, accompanied by two oak sofa’s, each of the chairs and sofas had matching lush red cushions, and everything looked hand carved.

“Hey, over here,” Cody whispered as he made his way towards one of the cabinets in the room. He tried to open the doors, but they didn’t budge, he groaned as he began searching the surrounding area for what you assumed was a key.

You started to make your way towards Cody when something above the desk caught your eye. You walked past Cody and made your way around the desk. You sucked in a breath as you stared up at the painting hanging on the wall. “Hey, help me look for a key,” Cody said. You were only partially aware of him beside you as he began opening the drawers of the desk. “What’s wrong?” he finally stood up and you could feel his presence behind you.

You were staring at a hand painted family portrait. If you counted right, there were fifteen people in the portrait. Several men and several women, standing side by side in matching outfits. Most of the men were large, anyone of them could have been the ones to grab you off the street. Your eyes landed on one man in the middle of the back row. You pointed your finger at him, as it tried to click in your brain as to how to recognized him.

“That’s the man,” you said. You looked at Cody who scrunched his eyebrows together before looking back at the painting. “He was the one in the back of the van.”

“Are you sure?” Cody asked hesitantly. “You said they were wearing mask.”

“He was but yes.” You turned to face Cody, absolutely confident that that was the man from the van. “He’s got the same stupid smirk,” you flicked a glare at the portrait.

“So, what,” Cody’s furrowed brow only deepened. “This is like some family bullshit? They kidnap us then hunt us down? Like, some weird sort of cult?”

“Like a pack,” you whispered, your eyes widening in realization. You didn’t know how everyone in the portrait was related but based on what you’d already seen tonight, you would say this wasn’t just some psycho family, it was a pack of werewolves, who seemed to like to hunt for their prey under the full moon.

“This is insane!” Cody shook his head.

“I know! But I got nothing else, do you?” Cody just closed his eyes, unable to come up with a better argument.

“There’s weapons over there,” he pointed at the cabinet he was trying to get into before. You looked over to see a large wooden case that had several types of guns and various other weapons locked behind it. “We need a key.”

You nodded and turned to help Cody continue digging through the desk. Eventually you found a small metal key taped under one of the drawers of the desk. You handed it to Cody, giving him a hopeful look. If the key didn’t work you would need to find another way to get the cabinet open, there was no way you’d survive without any weapons. Cody rushed over to the cabinet and after jiggling the key in the lock a few times there was finally a click.

You ran over to the cabinet, swinging both doors open so the both of you could look at everything together. You grabbed one of the shotguns and a box of shells. “Do you know how to use that?” Cody asked.

You opened your mouth then shook your head. “Never really been into guns or hunting,” you admitted.

“Here,” Cody took the shot gun from you. He opened it up and held out his hand and you dropped two shells into his palm. He placed the shells into the barrel of the gun and then flipped it up, snapping it back into place. He pumped the bottom part of the gun; you weren’t sure on the technical name, but you knew from movies that doing that meant as soon as you pulled the trigger the gun would fire. “It’s got two shots,” he handed you back the gun. “Then you’d need to reload. You nodded and slipped the box of shells into your pocket.

“Will any of this even work?” you looked at Cody. He grabbed one of the magazines and placed it into a handgun; after giving it a quick check he slipped it into his waistband. “It’s all we have.” He grabbed another handgun, doing the same thing but this time he handed it to you. You looked down at it before copying Cody’s move and slipped it into your waistband.

Cody pulled open one of the drawers and revealed several types of knives. You each grabbed a large hunting knife and another smaller one you could slip into your pocket. You opened another drawer, and your eyes widened as grenades lined the drawer. You looked at Cody who had the same look as you, you each grabbed a few grenades, and the stuff needed to strap them to your bodies.

Your head snapped up when you heard the creak of a floorboard. You both froze and heard nothing for a second until the floor creaked again. Cody held a finger to his lips and pointed at the door to the right of you. You inched towards the door with Cody following behind, neither of you taking your eyes off the door to the office. You turned the doorknob, flinched at the quiet squeak it made but sounded loud as it echoed throughout the otherwise quiet mansion.

You pushed open the door as quietly as possible and backed into the room. As soon as you turned around your eyes went wide. You stumbled forward when you felt Cody bump into you as he made his way into the room as well. You could hear him suck in a breath, telling you he was seeing the same thing you were. The entire room off the office was filled with werewolf stuff.

The two of you stepped further into the room that seemed to show the history of werewolves, or at the very least this family. There were paintings of various werewolves, none of which looked like the two you saw earlier, based on the clothing of who they were killing they looked older, possibly this family’s ancestors. Each of the paintings involved a werewolf standing over someone, based on the weapons strewn on the ground they were most likely a hunter. There was also a bookcase lining one of the walls and it was stuffed with, not books, but what appeared to be leatherbound journals.

Cody made a noise, making you turn around, he waved you over to a large table in the middle of the room. You furrowed your brow as you joined his side, looking down at the table when you got close enough. Your eyes widened, the table had a large map pinned down, it seemed to be the layout of the land, there was a red dot that you assumed represented the house you were currently in, then surrounding the house, as expected, was nothing but woods, then there was a large patch of land with a small yellow dot, which you assumed represented the box.

You found the driveway and ran your finger down the path, trailing it through the woods, then eventually finally hitting a road, which you followed down until you hit what looked to be a main road. You let out a scoff and shook your head, you were literally miles from civilization, you had to get onto a small two-lane road, then turn down a one lane path that led through the woods, then you would finally hit the driveway that led up to the house. You really need to find a car to get out of there otherwise the two of you would be walking for hours.

You felt Cody brush your shoulder and you looked to see him sliding photos and documents across the table. You scrunched your eyebrows together, they weren’t just any normal photos, they were photos of you, and everyone else that they had grabbed. The photos were taken from far away, like they just snapped the picture while you were walking down the street or coming out of a store. You noticed there was a single page document on each of you, each of the papers said the same things, some basic details about where to find each of you, what your patterns were, and that none of you had any family.

You shook your head and walked away from the table, needing a minute to process everything. It was one thing to suspect how well they planned everything; it was another to see all their plans and researched laid out on a table in front of you. You ended up making your way over to one of the walls that had the largest painting of a werewolf, it was standing tall, it had dark grey fur, its arms rested at its side, but the black claws glinted in the moonlight, and its glowing yellow eyes stared down at you, with the moon being partially blocked by the beast standing so tall. Unlike the other paintings this one didn’t have any bodies around the werewolf, it was just the creature itself, standing tall and imposing.

You noticed a little golden plaque at the bottom of the painting. The plaque had the name ‘Edward Whalen’ etched into it. Underneath the name plaque was another one, this one was slightly bigger and has an inscription on it as well. You bent down to get a better view, your eyes scanned over it and learned Edward was a rather infamous werewolf a long time ago, he was the original leader of this pack, known to be the biggest and strongest of all the wolves. As you read on you learned Edward was slain by a hunter, who used a spear to kill him.

You looked down at the case and noticed a painting of the man who seemed to be the hunter. There was a knife and a few other items that looked like they would have belonged to that period of time. You looked to the right where there was another display case, this one talked about how the rest of the pack hunted down the hunter and killed him. You nodded, those were definitely his actual items in the other case. You looked up to see there was a large spear mounted to the wall next to the painting of Edward, the little gold plaque under it confirmed it was the spear the hunter had used to kill Edward.

“We need to get out of here,” Cody whispered. You nodded and followed Cody to a door you hoped led back out into the hall and not to another room.

You held your breath as you turned the doorknob and waited, listening for any sort of movement. You hadn’t heard anything since the floors creaked, you figured that was just the house settling, it was old, those types of homes made noises all the time. When you heard nothing you both slipped into the hall, staying back-to-back as you check both ends, making sure it was all clear. The two of you slowly made your way down the hall towards the other end of the mansion where you knew the garage was located. You both froze as you passed the main entry when you heard a howl. You waited and listened, it still seemed like the wolves were out in the woods.

You continued to make your way through the mansion, eventually getting to the garage. You opened the door, your eyes widened, as it was in fact, filled with four vehicles. The two vans all of you had been tossed in weren’t there, you weren’t sure where they kept those. The garage was filled with two large SUV’s and two large trucks.

“Which one?” you asked.

Cody shrugged and pointed to one of the trucks. While Cody dug through the little key box on the wall to search for the correct key set you ran around to the passenger side. As soon as Cody unlocked the truck, you hopped in, and Cody jumped in the driver’s seat a few seconds later. He hit the garage door button and began backing up before it was up all the way.

Cody whipped the truck around and began speeding down the driveway. Before you could hit the edge of the woods a large brown werewolf dropped down in front of you. Cody jerked the wheel, making the truck swerve, trying to avoid the werewolf. It was no use though, the werewolf jumped onto the hood, and smashed it’s clawed hand through the windshield. You pushed yourself against the door, trying to avoid the claws and smacked around for your knife until your hands finally wrapped around the hilt. You stabbed the knife through the creature’s palm, making it let out a pained howl. Cody jerked the wheel back and forth, trying to regain control until you slammed into a tree, pinning the werewolf between the truck and tree.

The werewolf arched its back, letting out another howl. Cody slammed his foot down on the gas, pushing the werewolf harder against the tree. “Gun!” he shouted.

You struggled but you lifted the shotgun and stuck it out of the newly shatter windshield, aiming it right at the creature’s head. You pulled the trigger, the kickback making you groan as it pushed you back against the seat. The werewolf’s head snapped back, both of you held your breath as you watched the blood and chunks of fur drop down onto the hood. The werewolf slowly lowered it’s head, acting as if half its face wasn’t blown off by the blast, and then then it let out a growl right in your faces. You raised the gun again and fired at his head once again. Its head snapped back again but it slowly lowered it and showed all its teeth as it snarled.

“Go!” Cody shouted, already opening his door as he bailed out of the car. You followed his lead, running around the truck as you reloaded the shotgun just as Cody showed you. The two of you could only stand there as the werewolf gripped both sides of the truck, its claws digging into the metal as it began to push the vehicle away. Your eyes widened; it was slowly rolling back, but it was only a matter of time before the werewolf was free, then two of you would be dead.

Cody raised his gun and began firing at the gas tank on the car. You saw a few bullets go into the car but only gasoline poured out, nothing caught on fire. “Fuck!” Cody said.

A large grey werewolf jumped into the bed of the truck. Both of you stumbled back, your eyes now on the newcomer. All of them probably heard the howls of the one pinned, it was only a matter of time before they all showed up. The grey wolf looked to the one pinned and you could swear its eyes darkened as it slowly turned its head towards the two of you and let out a snarl.

You reached around and grabbed one of the grenades strapped to you. You looked down at it, pulled the pin and threw it. The grenade landed in the bed, making the werewolf look down. A second later the grenade blew, the reaction causing the back of the truck to explode, the bit of gas that leaked onto the ground catching fire. The grey werewolf caught fire and was slashing around its claws, trying to put itself out. Almost instantly the fire traveled to the front of the truck and blew up, setting the wolf that was pinned on fire as well.

The two of you could only stand there as you watched the truck along with two werewolves burn. The one pinned to the tree eventually slumped forward and the one in the bed fell forward out of the truck. Both of them were left unmoving in burning heaping lumps of flesh. You felt Cody grabbing at you and you turned and ran back into the house where the garage door was still open.

As soon as you got back inside Cody closed the garage door again. You furrowed your brow; you figured you were just going to grab another vehicle. “We’ll never make it,” Cody said. “Not with them still out there,” he pointed towards the outside. “We need to kill them.”

You let out a humorless chuckle. “Did you not see what it took to kill those two?” you asked. “I shot one in the face, twice!”

“And fire worked!”

“There’s at least thirteen left.” Cody furrowed his brow, you just shrugged. There were fifteen people in the family portrait and now two of the werewolves were dead, assuming there weren’t others in the pack and the entire family was out there tonight that meant there were thirteen left. “How can we possibly kill all of them?”

“We need a big explosion.” Cody looked up; his mind looked like it was running a mile a minute as his eyes darted around the garage. “There!” he pointed to a few gas cannisters. “We can pour this around the house, then light it up and…” he made an exploding motion with his hands.

You nodded, blowing up the entire house with them inside would certainly work. At the very least it might weaken them enough that a shot gun to the head would kill them. “That only works if they’re all in the house,” you pointed out.

Cody nodded. “They had to have heard all that,” he gestured towards the outside again. “It’s only a matter of time before they come running.”

You nodded and the two of you got to work, knowing you wouldn’t have much time. You each took two gas cannisters and began walking towards the door. The doorknob started to move as soon as you approached it. You dropped the cannisters and slammed your body into the door, closing it on whoever was on the other side. You stayed like that for a moment, tilting your head as you listened for movement on the other side.

A hard forced slammed into the door pushing it open. You gritted your teeth as you pushed back trying to keep the beast at bay. You screamed at you felt something sharp pierce your side, you looked down to see your shirt torn and blood already beginning to soak through. You didn’t have time to dwell on it though because on the other side of you a claws had burst through the door. You saw Cody flinch, raising his hand to block the woodchips flying at him. You saw Cody’s eyes widen before you felt something sharp stab you in the shoulder.

You were pulled through the door and dragged through the hall. “No!” you heard Cody scream as you were dragged further away from him.

You kicked your feet trying to catch yourself on something. You tried punching back at the beast, but it only made it dig its teeth into you further. You reached down and felt the hilt of the smaller knife you had grabbed earlier. You brought the knife up, stabbing blindly until you heard the creature let out a whine, finally releasing its hold on you.

The wolf was whipping its head around and then suddenly an axe came down, slicing right through the top of the creature’s head. Blood gushed from the wound, dripping down on to you. You felt a hand grab you and yank you back to your feet. You saw Cody looking at you with concerned eyes. You jumped when you heard something flop to the ground, you looked down to see the werewolf dead, an axe sticking out of its head. You then noticed you had stabbed the knife right through its eye, you bent down and pulled it out, swiping the blood on your jeans.

“Oh god,” Cody whispered. You turned to see him looking you over. You let out a hiss when his finger brushed over the wound on your shoulder. “Sorry.” You looked over to see blood was now soaking through your shirt over your shoulder and through the tears you could see the puncture marks of where it dug its teeth into. “Are you okay?”

You looked up, meeting Cody’s eyes. You could feel your hair sticking to your forehead and your body suddenly felt much more exhausted than a moment ago. “I’m fine,” you brushed it off. “Let’s end this.”

Cody looked at you for a moment then reluctantly nodded. You followed him back to the garage and picked up your cannisters again. “I’ll take the upstairs,” Cody nodded to the staircase.

You nodded and picked up your cannister and began pouring. You started at the garage and made your way down the hallway. You made sure to open the rooms you passed and pour some gasoline in there as well, though you didn’t enter the rooms all the way. When you got to the staircase you saw them already soaked with gas. You looked up at the balcony to see Cody making his way down the hall.

“Hey,” Cody whispered. “Look for a lighter.”

You nodded and continued on your way down the hall. You sat the can down when you got to the kitchen. You had already ransacked the office, so you knew there was no lighter there, the only other logical place would be the kitchen. You entered the kitchen, slightly taken aback by how large it was, there was a dining room with a large wood table off to the left of it. You shook your head and began digging around until you finally came up with a lighter.

You smirked to yourself as you twirled the lighter around on your finger. When you looked up you were met with glowing yellow eyes staring back at you through the window. You dropped to the floor just as its arm shot through the window, shattering the glass. You flipped open the cabinet under the sink and dug through it until you found a cleaning spray. You slid to the side and stood up, you raised the spray can and pressed the top, spraying the werewolf in the face. It shook its head, but you raised the lighter, clicking it a few times until a flame appeared, instantly igniting the spray and creating a small flamethrower.

The werewolf backed away from the window, clawing at it’s face but you knew that wasn’t enough to kill it, it wasn’t even enough to catch it on fire. You didn’t waste time as you ran over and opened the oven. You turned the knobs on the stove, making sure to turn everything on but not ignite the gas. You then hit the button to start heating up the oven even though the door was open. You dug around through the drawers again and pulled out all the silverware you could get your hands around, you shoved it all in the microwave and shoved the cleaning spray in there as well and slammed the door shut.

The door that led outside burst open and the werewolf stomped in, standing on its hindlegs. You hit the popcorn button and ducked down, barely catching sight of the werewolf snapping its head in your direction. The werewolf stomped around the island, and you ducked out of the way, making your way out the door. You looked back to see the werewolf look at the microwave just as it began to spark and make a popping sound. You slammed the door shut and took cover. A second later there was a loud explosion and a howl of pain. What followed was another bigger explosion that blew the door apart, sending wood pieces raining down on you.

You pushed yourself off the floor and peaked your head back in the kitchen, seeing everything charred black, small fires still going on the wood surfaces, and a werewolf laying dead and burnt on the ground. You picked up the gasoline cannister again, silently thankful the explosion wasn’t big enough to ignite what you had already poured.

You made your way into the office and actually poured a trail of gas all around the room. You dumped some on the desk and tossed some on the family portrait. You then made your way into the history or trophy room and poured more gas all around the room. You made sure to toss gas on each and every single one of the paintings and a good amount on the table with the map and all the files on you and the others.

You stopped at the display with the spear one last time. You weren’t sure why, but you ripped the spear off the wall. You figured if the spear was actually used to kill a werewolf before then it would surely work again. You poured the remainer of the gas out as you entered the hallway again. You dropped the cannister when you heard Cody scream.

You ran to the entryway and saw Cody on the balcony with a large werewolf standing over him. The werewolf raised its paw and swiped Cody across the chest, making him let out another yell.

“Hey!” you called out, but the werewolf didn’t even look at you. You reached for the handgun Cody gave you and fired, aiming for any part of the werewolf you could hit.

The werewolf whipped it’s head around and glared down at you. It seemed to forget about Cody as it stood up on two legs and launched itself over the railing. You fell to the ground as the creature landed on top of you, dropping the spear in the process. You turned your head as the wolf roared in your face. You pinched your eyes shut, preparing for the tearing of your flesh to begin but it never came.

You slowly turned your head and opened your eyes to see the werewolf still above you, tilting its head as it stared down at you. You let out a shaky breath as the creature raised its paw and gently pulled back your collar with its claw. The werewolf leaned forward and took a good whiff. You weren’t sure why it hadn’t killed you yet, you searched its face, it opened its mouth in what you could only describe as a smile.

You fumbled around until you could wiggle the shot gun out from under you and slide it around to your front. You raised the shot gun up, pressing it under the werewolf’s head. It looked down at you, so the barrel of the gun was directly under its chin. You stared into its yellow eyes and pulled the trigger, sending chunks of werewolf raining down on you. Its body slumped to the side and your grip on the shotgun only tightened. You looked over to see it was in fact dead. You guessed that at such a close range the werewolf couldn’t survive having its head half blown off. You wiggled out from underneath the creature the rest of the way and grabbed the spear.

You whipped around when you heard Cody stumbling down the stairs. You caught him, wrapping an arm around his waist and one of his around your shoulder so he didn’t collapse. “We’re not done yet,” Cody said through gritted teeth. “Down there,” he pointed to one of the doors.

“Let me,” you said. “You’re too weak.”

Cody shook his head. “I’m fine.” He stumbled as he moved away from you and let out a long groan as he picked up his second cannister. He shuffled on his feet towards the door and opened it, revealing a staircase that descended down into the dark.

You rolled your eyes as you went and grabbed your second cannister. You knew there would be no arguing with Cody, you would just have to make sure he didn’t bleed out. You followed him down the stairs into the darkness, making sure to pour the gasoline as you made your descent. As soon as your feet his the ground you brought a hand to your nose, even the gasoline wasn’t strong enough to cover up the wretched scent that was the entire basement.

There were flickering lights lighting the way as you pour gasoline behind you. You bumped into Cody when he suddenly came to a stop. You turned around, your eyes widening at the sight of cages lining one side of the room. You weren’t sure how you didn’t hear them before but there were five wolves, each of them locked in a cage. They were pacing back and forth, snarling and snapping at you and Cody.

“Keep going,” you said, nodding at Cody.

He got to moving and you each poured more gasoline, making sure to toss some into the cells, watching as the locked-up werewolves flinched away and growled at the intrusion. You weren’t sure what made these werewolves different, why they were locked up if the others got to roam free. Assuming these five were part of the same family, you began counting in your head, by your math there were only five werewolves still running around somewhere.

A large force hit you, sending you flying back. You coughed as it knocked the wind out of you. You pushed yourself up on your forearms to see a large werewolf standing in front of you. “Hey!” Cody shouted and fired his shotgun at the back of the monster’s head.

The werewolf smacked its arm back, not even looking as it hit Cody, sending him flying into a brick wall. Cody slumped to the ground, his shotgun falling to his side. You had just begun to pull yourself to your feet when the werewolf turned around and dug its claws into Cody’s gut. Cody tried to let out a scream, but it was more of a cough as he began to gag and spit up blood.

“No!” you yelled. You didn’t even think as your grip around the spear tightened and you ran to Cody. You jumped, raising the spear high and shoved it through the werewolf back, impaling it through the heart, and coming out the other side.

The werewolves in the cells began to howl and throw themselves at the bars of their cages as the werewolf slumped forward. You dropped down next to Cody, pressing your hands to his wounds to try and stop the bleeding. Cody coughed again, spitting up more blood.

“You need to go,” Cody rasped out.

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Cody’s bloody hand dropped onto yours, making you look up at him. “I’m done.” Tears filled your eyes, and you shook your head, this couldn’t be the end, you almost made it, the two of you needed to make it out. “I can at least do this.” You furrowed your brow then you looked down when you felt his hand move, you followed his hand as he reached for a grenade.

“No,” you reached up, covering his hand holding the grenade.

“You have to go.” He blinked his eyes a few times, you could see how hard he was fighting to stay conscious. “This has to be worth it.” You buried your head in his chest and shook your head, this was exactly why you didn’t want to care about the others. “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

You looked up at Cody one more time before pulling away. “I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“Go,” he ordered, getting weaker with each breath. As soon as you started backing away, he pulled the pin from the grenade but didn’t let go of it, he couldn’t risk it blowing until you were out, and the remaining wolves were in the house. “Hey!” he yelled with a burst of energy. “I’m down here!” he lifted his handgun with his other hand, despite all the shaking he fired a few rounds, hitting one of the wolves in the cell, making them cry out.

You wiped your tears on your sleeve as you realized what he was doing. You ran across the room and hid on the side of the wall when you heard the pounding of something big running down the stairs. You pressed yourself against the wall as you watched one wolf run into the basement, then another, then another, then another. Four. There were now four wolves in the basement, the last ones left. You looked back just as Cody pointed his gun at the incoming wolves, firing more rounds, even though he knew it wouldn’t stop them.

You took the opportunity, knowing Cody was buying you as much time as he could to run up the stairs. You heard an explosion just as you reached the top of the stairs, you didn’t look back, you could feel the heat of the flames as the fire quickly spread. You burst out the front door, not bothering to close it behind you. You barely got away from the house before a bigger explosion happened, the force of it sending you flying further away from the house and into the grass.

You stumbled as you stood up again, watching as the entire mansion was ablaze. You could hear the cries of the remaining werewolves as they slowly burned alive. You reached for your wounded shoulder, not even flinching when your fingers brushed over where the wound should be. You pulled your collar down to see the bite mark was still there but had completely healed. Your eyes widened and you lifted your shirt, only to see the gash that you had gotten was also healed. You shook your head and turned away from the burning house, you couldn’t think about what this could possibly mean as you began your long walk down the driveway.

“Eventually I stumbled upon a gas station,” you said, blinking away the tears that had started to fall during your story. “There was a bathroom around back and used it to clean myself up. Jumped in the back of a pickup as it left the station.”

You looked over to see Joey nodding, seeming to process your story. “That’s how you became…” she said but unable to finish her sentence.

You nodded. “Tried to pretend everything was fine, acted like everything was normal, and it was normal, for about a month, until…”

“The full moon.”

You nodded. “I had no idea what was happening to me. I was walking home from work when…”

You stumbled out of the bar. You had gotten a job at a different place because even though you were only gone twenty-four hours, as you had suspected, your boss had replaced you. You didn’t know what was wrong as you gripped the edge of a dumpster, you felt like you were burning up and you had been irritable all day. Customers were always jerks but for some reason you seemed to have a short fuse today.

There was a pounding in your head, making you bring a hand to it, trying to ease the ache. You pulled your hand away when you felt something sharp scratch your scalp. Your eyes widened when you held your hand out and you saw claws where your fingernails should be. You pulled away from the dumpster when you saw that hand looked the exact same. You shook your head and ran down the alley.

“No, no, no,” you mumbled to yourself. “This can’t be happening.” You tripped as you tried to cross the road, your ankle snapping in a direction it wasn’t meant to go.

You pushed your way forward, dragging your broken angle with you as more of your bones snapped. You eventually made it to the closest bit of woods you could find and collapsed to your knees. You pressed your palms into the ground, your eyes watching as your claws dug into the dirt. “No!” your growled out, your back arching as it snapped, forcing you to look up directly at the full moon.

The werewolf that stood over you played through your mind, it had peeled back your shirt, it saw the bite healed, it knew. You had been bitten and now you were one of them. Tears streamed down your face as more of your bones broke and reformed until everything went black.

You groaned as you rolled over, slowly opening your eyes only to raise a hand to block the sun shining down on you. You were squinting as you tried to get your eyes to adjust, the last thing you remembered was leaving work. You looked down and scrunched your eyebrows at the sight of leaves and twigs under you. You brought a hand to your head, trying to remember what happened. Bones breaking flashed through your mind, you jolted backwards when you remembered your hands having claws.

You raised your hands to see they were back to normal, but they were covered in blood. You looked down, seeing the rest of your body was stained with dried blood. You shook your head as tears filled your eyes, you had hurt someone, you became one of those monsters and hurt someone. You collapsed forward, pressing your forehead into the ground as your fingers dug into the back of your head, you just wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

You froze when you heard the sound of a shotgun. You held your breath as you felt the barrel of the gun rest against the back of your head. You slowly lifted your head and came face to face with the barrel of the gun. Past the gun was a blonde woman, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, her eyes were unforgiving and trained on you.

“Please,” you whispered. Tears continued to fall from your eyes as you leaned forward, putting your forehead directly against the gun. “Please,” you pleaded as your body shook with sobs. You didn’t know who this woman was, but you wanted her to pull the trigger, you deserved it, you couldn’t live like this, you couldn’t hurt people like the monsters who hurt you. “Please.”

“That was Grace,” Joey concluded. You nodded, neither of you talked about that day but it never left your mind, you would never forget begging Grace to end it all. “But she didn’t shoot.”

You shook your head again, wiping away one of the tears that had started to fall. “Said she saw something in me,” you said with a little shrug. You still weren’t sure what made Grace save you, she had no reason to. She came across a monster covered in blood, and she should have put a bullet in their head, but she didn’t. “She took me in and said she’d help me.”

“And you’ve been with her ever since.”

You nodded. “I owe Grace everything,” you looked over at Joey. “She saved me.”

You suddenly stood up, wiping your eyes as you refused to look at Joey again. “Now you know,” you looked down at the floor. “That’s my story.” Joey still hadn’t said anything, and you weren’t sure you wanted her to, you weren’t sure you could handle whatever she had to say. “I’ll send Grace in; she can take you home.” You knew there was no way Joey would want to be alone in a car with you ever again.

You made your way across the room and rested your hand on the entryway as you glanced back, but not enough to actually look at Joey. “I understand you probably never want to see me again,” you cleared your throat, you couldn’t breakdown again. “But it was an honor working with you, anyone would be lucky to have you as an employee or a partner.” You quickly left the room, not waiting to see if she’d respond as you went to get Grace.

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