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jinxs-gf · 3 months ago

Text

snack thief

the team x spider!reader

summary: someone is stealing your snacks and you’re going to figure out who.

content, warnings: kind of a crack fic, spider cusses a lot? not proofread

word count: 1.8k

a.n. Aunt May mentioned! who cheered?

It was peaceful in the confines of Mount Justice. So peaceful it was almost suspicious to the team. They barely get downtime nowadays, something they used to practically beg for. Now all they want is a break.

It's perfect and quiet and peaceful.

Until they hear their friend scream bloody murder.

Spider.

Everyone jumps up, alarmed and ready to fight.

You're in the kitchen holding an empty container, the refrigerator wide open, and looking more stressed out than they've ever seen you. But there was no threat?

The team is still worried but confused. There was no one else in the kitchen with you so...? Why were you screaming? And there was seemingly no spider on the container you were holding, the only creature that could scare you bad enough for you to freak out like this. (You denied this claim again and again, unfortunately they didn't believe you. How embarrassing was that? Spider had arachnophobia? How damaging to your reputation.)

You continue to stare at the container, and your friends have concluded their near heart attack at your cry for help was all for not.

Their shoulders all sag simultaneously, breaths of relief leaving their mouths.

Kaldur is the first to speak, "What has gotten into you, Spider? You scared us all." He does not sound happy.

And if you took the time to look at the rest of your teammates, the annoyance would be evident.

But no. You continued to stare at your stupid container.

"Hello!" - Artemis

"Earth to Spider!" - Robin

"We're not getting any younger over here." - Wally

Roy only sighs, shaking his head, Conner raising a brow beside him, amused for the most part.

M'gann just stands quietly, wondering if she should read your mind without your permission to figure out the problem or not.

"Which one of your imbeciles did this?" Your voice was eerily calm...it was disturbing.

They all shared the same sentiment. What?

You glare in their direction, eyeing each one of your supposed friends carefully.

"One of you is the cause of this," you hold up your empty container. "Someone ate my cookies. I've had the worst day of my life and the only thing that could help was having my precious cookies. Only I get here and they're gone!" Ah. They get it now.

"I'm going to find out which one of you is responsible. And it won't be pretty."

"Uhh why was it in the fridge anyways?"

"Shut it Robin. They’re leftovers. And you’re at the top of my suspect list. You and your little buddy there," you eye Wally.

He squirms in his spot.

You were grocery shopping for your aunt when you spotted them.

Spider-Person gummies.

You wince, the name Spider-Person did not roll off the tongue correctly. You prefer Spider like the team calls you. Or maybe Arachnid would be cool? Oh well, it's too late now. The name Spider-Person was plastered onto kid's snacks for Pete's sake! There was no coming back from that.

Whatever. You threw it in your basket and immediately opened the box when you got home. Showing off to Aunt May, she was very proud, just like you thought she’d be. Except for when—

"I always thought you'd be known for curing diseases or something, but children’s snacks? This'll do!"

"Hey!" She was joking of course (right?).

And later that day you brought it to the team's kitchen, wanting to show off to them. You didn't want them to eat it of course, it was going to be your post-mission snack. A little pick-me-up.

No one but Red Tornado was there, which was a little weird but it was a rare day off. You'll just come back when everyone is here.

You made sure to stick a post-it on the box of gummies, effectively claiming them yours that shall not be touched.

You hadn't left your snacks alone in the kitchen of Mount Justice since your cookies disappeared a mere week ago.

You still hadn't figured out who the culprit was.

You will. One of these days.

You leave and don't come back until the next day, everyone is there.

"Oh goodie! I have something to show you guys!"

Only you get to the kitchen cabinet, open the box, and...no.

Nonononono

The box of "Spider-Person Gummies" was completely empty.

The box that clearly had your name written with the words "DO NOT EAT!" on the post-it!

You scream like the first time.

"Who did it?!"

The team is a little slower this time around, not trusting your panicked screams after the first incident.

Robin face palms, "Come on spider, it's not that serious."

You gape at him, "Not that serious?! Are you crazy?!" You eye him suspiciously, "it was you, wasn't it?"

"What?! No! I'm just being reasonable here. You can always buy more,” he shrugs, clearly not seeing the bigger picture. Someone is eating your snacks without permission. Deliberately ignoring your name that was written in bold on the post-it stuck to the front. You try a different approach though.

"First of all, I don't exactly come from a background of money. I can't just waste valuable green for some fruit snacks! And second, it was the last box in that section. How do I know they'll be restocked by the time I get back? What if they were there for limited time?!" The thought terrifies you, "oh no."

The team watches you nearly have a breakdown over your gummies "...those snacks are usually less that 10 dollars, Spider."

"And that's too much!"

"You can't be that poor."

"Eh, you'd be surprised."

It’s a full two weeks of the snack thief’s attacks.

Your spidey senses go off at the two week mark and they lead you to the kitchen.

You gasp.

"You!"

Wally is caught mid slice into the chocolate cake you made for the team, he looks petrified at being caught.

His voice cracks, "what?"

"It's been you! I knew it was you!"

"What! No! You made this for the team, right? That's not fair to pin the blame on me when I have permission to eat this!"

Okay, he's got a point.

"Whatever. You're still at the top of my list."

You’re in stealth mode with the rest of the team, waiting for your cue to attack.

You communicate through the mind link to keep yourself from boredom, this is gonna take a while.

You decide to bring up the most recent snack attack.

‘I still need to figure out who this snack thief is. They took my leftover brownies this time! The ones May made for me. Do you know how upsetting it was to see the brownies made by my very precious, hardworking Aunt all gone?’

You hoped to weed the rat out through sympathy.

‘Oh...that was yours?’

‘M'gann!’

‘I'm sorry! I didn't know!’

Just then, Kaldur makes your cue to attack. And before you know it, you’re in battle. However, your mind is elsewhere.

The distraction earns you a kick to the face, your spidey senses were screaming but you couldn't be bothered to really care at the moment, too focused on the fact that M'gann admitted to eating your brownies.

She's the snack thief?! But she was at the bottom of your list...

You regret ignoring your senses immediately, that kick was more powerful that you thought it’d be. Definitely going to bruise later.

‘I'm not the snack thief! I just thought Red Tornado left them! Remember? He said he wanted to be more involved with us outside of missions? I swear I know better! You forgot a post-it with your name this time. I'm really sorry, I should've known.’

You sigh, she sounds too sincere for it to truly be her.

‘It's alright, I forgive you. This time. It was my bad anyways.’

There’s many instances of coincidences as your friends would call it.

Robin caught digging into your chips;

“But you said I could have some!”

“No not those ones! My other chips!”

“Wow, thanks for specifying that.”

Conner caught…eating your candy?!

Conner doesn’t even eat sweets like that, so what changed? Or was that all a ploy? Pretending to not be fond of sweets only to eat yours behind your back…

But his eyes pleaded forgiveness, truth. Damn him.

Roy, Kaldur, and Artemis also had their moments of suspicion.

So who was it?

You only had one more course of action. You beg May to let her borrow your phone.

“It’s an emergency!”

“An emergency that could last all day? Or more?” She lifts a brow, don’t let her intimidate you, Spider.

“Pleeeaaaase,” you bat your lashes at her.

She can’t resist you. The child she’s come to see as her own. You are hers, no one could tell her otherwise. She sighs, “Don’t know why I even try with you.”

“Thanks May!” You plant a kiss on her cheek, “love you!”

“Whatever kid,” trying not to show disappointment in herself for allowing you to get to her.

Set your phone up in the kitchen cabinet of Mount Justice with your snack. Hit FaceTime with Aunt May’s phone and accept on yours.

There’s no way you don’t catch your thief now.

You wait a good 20 minutes before you’re already tired of your plan.

You groan in annoyance, can they hurry up and attempt to take your snack already?!

It takes another three hours before something happens.

Your spidey senses blare, making you jump from your place on the couch with Artemis and Roy. They look at you like you’re crazy, yeah you were getting used to that.

There’s shuffling on the other end of the call.

Whoever is in the kitchen is toast. You look down at May’s phone.

“You!”

“Uh oh.”

“I knew it! I knew it I knew it I knew it! From the beginning! How could I be so stupid and not listen to my gut?!”

Wally states back at you through the phone screen, eyes wide.

“You lying son of a-”

“Listen, we can talk this out-”

“Put my cookies down! You know damn well my name is written on the box!”

He surrenders, placing the cookies back in its place.

The rest of your team came out to witness this very amusing and long awaited moment.

It was funny, the living room you were in was right next to the kitchen, meaning speaking through the phones was pretty useless. They won’t say anything, lest they catch your attention and get yelled at.

“I’m going to ruin you for what you did, Speedy Bitch.”

Roy hears his code name and it’s enough for him to scare. He holds his hands up, “whoa! What did I do?”

“Not you! Obviously not you!”

You get up from the couch, bolting to your “friend.”

Wally panics, “Someone call Superman! Spider’s gone crazy!” And he books it.

It’s okay. He may be the fastest man alive, but no one messes with a Spider’s food.

so who’s attending Wally’s funeral? definitely not spider.

this is based off a video I saw, someone’s sibling was on FaceTime w a phone in the cabinet to catch who was eating their snacks 💀 I just HAD to use it

#spider & the team #young justice x reader #conner kent x reader #robin x reader #superboy x you #superboy x reader #kaldur’ahm x reader #kaldur x reader #wally west x reader #artemis crock x reader #m’gann m’orzz x reader #roy harper x reader #aqualad x reader #red arrow x reader #dick grayson x reader #omg it’s 2am what am I doing #young justice fanfiction

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training4theapocalypse · 6 months ago

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A Royal Misunderstanding (Prince Friedrich x f!Reader)

Rating: Explicit - 18+ only

Word Count: 7k

Warnings / Tags: SMUT, virgin Prince Friedrich and experienced(ish) reader, kinda switchy Prince F, unprotected sex (for the plot).

Summary: He's looking for the future Princess Consort. You're looking for a life out of the spotlight. It'd never work.

A/N: K and an E and a T and a T, E and an R and an ING. T and an O and a W, N. Kettering Town. F.C. Also thank you to my regency queens @stealsteels and @shinytalent for reading this 👑

Masterlist

There’s an unnecessary knock on the open stable door as you move to untack your mare. She needs a thorough brush after the ride you had today.

“You are the stable hand?” inquires a young man’s voice.

You whirl around, ready to deliver a sharp retort, but hesitate when you see his earnest, slightly incredulous expression. You’ve never encountered him before, you’re sure of it. His handsome face, tuft of blonde hair and wide-eyed demeanour would certainly have been memorable.

“I was told I would be meeting the stable hand here,” he continues, still uncertain. “To collect a horse.”

An accent. Foreign. He must be part of Prince Friedrich’s contingent, newly arrived from the Kingdom of Prussia this morning. And he must be exceedingly green to mistake you for a stable hand. Despite your riding breeches being muddied from your ride, any discerning footman would recognise that the fine tailoring is not typical of a servant's attire. Even one in the employ of the Crown. His own attire, however, is old-fashioned and ill-fitting - it bears all the marks of a hand-me-down from another household servant or perhaps an older family member.

You purse your lips to stifle a smile. The opportunity to toy with one of the charmingly naive lackeys from the Prussian delegation sparks your mischievous side. Besides, he’ll need to toughen up if he’s to survive in London. “Don’t they permit women to become stable hands in Prussia?”

He blinks. “No.”

“And this horse is for Prince Friedrich?”

“Yes.” He raises his eyebrows, as though it should be self-evident why he’s here. As if everyone should recognise Prince Friedrich’s footman. The man pulls his shoulder back and there’s a subtle hint of authority in his stance. You’re unsure if it’s the language barrier or his presumption, but his curt answers irk you.

“Very well, then,” you say, gently guiding your horse towards him. “This is Artemis. She’s the finest in the stable.”

“This is your finest horse?” He chuckles heartily and your mouth becomes a thin line and your nostrils flare.

“Perhaps His Royal Highness would prefer a pony?”

He straightens, a haughty glint in his eye. “It’s covered in filth.”

“My lady is a keen rider and has already been out this morning. But if Prince Freidrich can’t handle a little dirt -”

“Of course, I can manage.”

You arch an eyebrow, his tone further irritating you. “If you say so,” you reply, handing him the reins.

As he mounts Artemis, you can’t help but decide to give him a parting gift. You give her a firm slap on her hindquarters. Artemis bolts forward, sending the young man bouncing precariously in the saddle. You watch with satisfaction as he disappears down the path, his shouts of alarm fading into the distance.

Perhaps now he’ll think twice before assuming someone is a servant.

With a contented smile, you leave the stables, already brimming with excitement at the thought of telling your ladies-in-waiting about your encounter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As far as you’re concerned, there isn’t enough wide open space in London. Far too many locked doors and whispered secrets. Or worse. Written down secrets. Specifically, the sort published by Lady Whistledown. You’d much rather be at home than endure another visit to the capital but when Queen Charlotte invited you to stay at her residence for the duration of the social season, you could hardly refuse. Not when Her Majesty and your late father, the Duke of Kettering, were such dear friends.

You suspect this invitation to spend the season at the palace might be the Queen’s ultimate attempt to honour your father’s memory. It was expected that you’d be desperate to find a husband after he passed. On paper, it should have been simple enough - your inheritance is decent enough to tempt a husband.

But finding a suitor hasn’t been easy. You’re not asking for much. You don’t want titles or wealth. Just a husband who’d be content to let you spend the day out riding rather than attending social engagements. Events like this one are your idea of hell on earth. Although it wasn’t as bad as yesterday when you had to present yourself to the Queen as one of the eligible misses of the season.

As you stepped into the centre of the room, your palms turned cold and you could feel your stomach turning inside out as you waited for the Queen to give her verdict. There’s an old saying: the brighter a lady shines, the faster she may burn. And you’d rather not find yourself turned to ash at the hands of the ton.

You exhaled an audible sigh of relief when Her Majesty remained seated and deigned to give you a small nod of approval. Neither the diamond nor the disgrace of the season and you’re glad of it - it means fewer eyes on you. But even that short burst in the relatively dim limelight made you want to flee from the room and vomit. You put yourself through your paces in the saddle this morning just to shake off the lingering feeling of dread.

You should be grateful that the Queen did not wave you away dismissively. This is your second social season after all and your value is quickly plummeting. You just need a husband who is content to stay out of the spotlight. And is resigned to the fact that you’ll probably prefer your horse’s company to theirs.

If only you really were a stable hand instead of the late Duke of Kettering’s daughter.

As you mingle in Queen Charlotte’s banquet hall amongst other guests, waiting upon the arrival of Prince Freidrich, you feel a twinge of guilt about your encounter with his footman this morning. Perhaps after this welcome dinner, you’ll discreetly invite him to meet you in the stables as a gesture of apology.

The footman was handsome, after all, despite the blonde whiskers he must have grown in an attempt to appear more mature. You wouldn’t mind ruffling his perfectly coiffed hair before letting him bend you over the stable door.

Your companion jolts you from your daydream by squeezing your arm with her silk glove excitedly. You turn and smooth the front of your gown as Queen Charlotte and her nephew Prince Friedrich’s arrival is announced.

The doors open and it takes every ounce of your self-control to maintain a dignified composure as Queen Charlotte walks in, arm-in-arm with Prince Friedrich’s footman.

Or the man who you thought was Prince Friedrich’s footman.

Damn.

Of course, you sent Prince Friedrich himself chasing across the palace grounds on the back of your startled mare.

While your face retains a dignified composure, you can’t do anything about the prickle of embarrassment flushing your chest. It’s only a matter of time before the Queen introduces Prince Freidrich to you and you will need to eat copious amounts of humble pie, slathered with grovelling apologies and dusted off with begging for forgiveness.

There’s no avoiding it. Even though tonight’s dinner isn’t an official event of the season - just a small dinner for the fifty or so palace guests and members of the Royal Family, Prince Friedrich is still introduced to every eligible woman in the room. Including you.

Queen Charlotte, eventually steers him towards you. “Allow me to present my nephew, Prince Friedrich of Prussia.”

You curtsy and allow him to greet your gloved hand with a kiss but your stomach twists in anticipation, waiting for him to admonish you in front of the Queen.

“Lady Kettering, your gown - it is exquisite,” he says, in the usual formality. “And I hope your ride this morning was more pleasant than mine.”

You take a breath to compose your apology but you’re saved from the necessity.

“Yes, the Prince had a simply awful time this morning. First, his footman forgets to pack his riding wear so he has to borrow some from the Viscount of Paisley. And then a common girl posing as a stable hand gave Prince Friedrich your horse and sent him galloping across the plain.”

“I see,” you say cautiously but the corners of Prince Freidrich’s mouth twitch like he’s trying not to laugh. You ask, “And is my horse alright?”

Queen Charlotte laughs at this. “I should have known that you would be more concerned about your mount than the Prince of Prussia.”

You smile. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. It’s only that I’m confident a duplicitous stable girl was no match for His Royal Highness.”

“Your mare was returned safely,” smiles Prince Friedrich, a roguish glint in his eye.

Prince Friedrich bows and Queen Charlotte bustles him away onto the next group of eager girls.

As you watch him greet the next group you wonder: why is the Prince of Prussia making excuses for you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the grand dining room, you search for your place setting at the far end of the table beside the other noble families from minor houses to no avail. They’ve missed me, you think in horror as you look around at the filled seats but one of your friends nudges you and nods at the empty seat next to Prince Friedrich.

There must be some mistake.

But when you glance at the Prince, still standing behind his chair expectantly at the middle of the table, he catches your eye and places a hand on the empty seat.

Barely daring to breathe, you wonder if this is his way of getting back at you for the events of this morning. Perhaps he arranged for your table setting to go missing and you’ll be publicly humiliated when you dare to assume the seat next to him would be for you.

You walk for what feels like a very long time to the other side of the table, feeling eyes on you as every step is like your shoes are made of lead. You do your best not to clench your fists as your face grows hot in anticipation of being embarrassed in front of everyone.

Dipping your head, you refuse to look at Prince Friedrich and instead discreetly look at the place cards as you pass. The titles become increasingly grand as you approach the centre of the table until you reach the grandest of them all.

Her Majesty, Queen Charlotte.

His Royal Highness, Prince Friedrich.

Then you see your name. Etched in gold on eggshell paper. At the place setting beside Prince Friedrich’s.

You blink, feeling relief course through you. You’ve never sat this close to the Queen before. The centre of the table was reserved for distinguished guests like, well, Prince Friedrich.

“Lady Kettering, I hope you don’t mind me stealing you away from your usual dinner companions,” says Prince Friedrich, looking at your friends staring wide-eyed at you from the other end of the table.

“It’s my pleasure, Your Highness,” you say, giving them a sharp look. As the servers remove the cloches from the banquet before you, conversation erupts around the table, giving you the chance to swallow your pride. “And I do apologise for this morning,” you add quietly. “I had mistakenly assumed you were Prince Friedrich’s footman.”

“A footman?” He grins, and tilts his head, picturing himself as a footman before adding. “I too would like to apologise. I should never have assumed a beautiful woman such as yourself was a stable hand,” he says.

“When did you come to the realisation that I wasn’t?”

“I knew your horse’s name. When I asked who owned her, I was told it was a lady who was as wild as the horses she keeps.” Your mouth twists into a reluctant smile. “Is that true?” he asks, his green eyes twinkling with interest.

“Oh no,” you smile, sipping your freshly poured wine, aware of his eyes following your every movement. “My horses are very well-behaved.”

He laughs. It’s a pretty laugh. “Can I assume that means you are looking forward to the season beginning?” He gives you a wry smile. His eyes are alight with enthusiasm as he waits for you to share in his excitement for the beginning of the social season. But there’s something else in his gaze, something more intimate.

You must put an end to this before he gets the wrong idea and you’re made a spectacle of. Prince Friedrich will be the most sought-after man of the season and you don’t want the attention that accompanies competing for his affections - to be thrust into the spotlight and have Lady Whistledown write about you would be more attention than you could bear.

You glance around to see if anyone is listening before lowering your voice. “Your Highness - may I speak candidly?”

“Nothing would please me more,” he says sincerely, his tone softening.

“Why did you arrange for me to sit here?”

Prince Friedrich looks taken aback. “Well… after this morning, I knew I had to find out more about you.”

You nod sadly. This is what you were afraid of but you had expected it nonetheless.

“This is my second - and hopefully last - season. You see, I’m not used to being in the public eye and I find the social season to be entirely mortifying.”

“I see…” says Prince Friedrich slowly.

“You Highness, please don’t mistake me. I’m honoured to be in your presence but -”

“Lady Kettering -” Prince Friedrich lowers his voice. “You told me you would speak candidly. Please disperse with the airs and graces.”

You push your food around on your plate. It’s risky to speak so plainly to aristocracy. Their fragile egos normally demand a guarded formality. “I am sorry but the idea of competing with other women to become the Princess Consort of Prussia is more publicity than I can handle. I need to find a husband quickly. A marriage of convenience.”

“Convenience…” He nods thoughtfully. “I understand. A marriage to me would certainly draw attention.”

He’s not offended. Thank god. “Exactly, Your Highness. Being in the public eye. The scrutiny. It would be unbearable.”

“It is a pity,” he says quietly. “Because I’m sure a mutually convenient marriage would have its benefits.”

Mutually convenient? Your own inheritance pales in comparison to the riches that Prince Friedrich is heir to. What would he gain from marrying you?

You look up from your plate to see that he’s brazenly smirking at you.

Oh.

It’s undeniable this time. He’s flirting with you. You feel heat creeping up your neck and you know you must look feverish when his eyes roam across your corseted chest.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Your Highness,” you say, your whisper barely audible.

“I mean that sharing a marital bed would have its… advantages.” Prince Friedrich takes a sip of his wine, seemingly pleased that he’s made you flustered. Now, you can’t have that.

You glance over his shoulder to make sure Queen Charlotte is occupied. “I don’t need a husband to reap those sorts of advantages.”

When you say that, he slops half of his wine down his front in surprise. “You - you don’t?”

You arch an eyebrow. “You don’t have other companions for that sort of thing?” You pass him your napkin so he can clean himself up, your fingers grazing his knee under the table, making him inhale a sharp intake of breath. “You’re not worried about being unable to please your new wife?”

He stares straight ahead, momentarily stunned. Like he never realised sex was something you could be bad at. After a beat, he shakes his head. “It would not be prudent if people knew I was having - ”

“You mistake me. It is not my intention to get caught.”

Prince Friedrich sighs, a sad smile playing on his lips. “If only it were that simple. I’m surrounded by people. Always.”

The two of you sit quietly, allowing the servants to replace your empty plates with dessert. You can practically hear the cogs in the Prince’s head as his brain works overtime, trying to decide how to respond to this new information. Prince Friedrich takes a polite bite of chocolate cake and sits back.

“Once again, being the Queen’s nephew complicates things,” you say, sitting forward and sliding your fork through a sizable portion. “Don’t you have an appetite after your ride this morning, Your Highness?”

“I think the news that you do not wish me to court you has disappointed me so much that I never want to eat again,” he jokes half-heartedly before returning his focus entirely to you.

“If only we really were a stable hand and a footman - waiting until all the palace guests had gone to bed to meet in the stables after dark,” you say after eating the last bite of cake on your plate.

Prince Friedrich swallows thickly and your eyes move from his Adam's apple to the almost untouched piece of cake on his plate.

“Are you - are you still hungry, my lady?” he asks.

You lean forward and steal a scoop of whipped cream from his plate with your fork. You eat the whipped cream and he watches with bated breath as you take several seconds longer than necessary to drag the polished silver fork from between your lips.

"I'm insatiable, Your Highness."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You scratch Artemis’s head in the dark stables, wondering if you’ve made a mistake in being here. Mostly you were interested to see if the sweet, naive Prince Friedrich would turn up. But you know how noblemen are. Their egos are so easy to bruise that an adverturess could scare them off simply by existing.

Which is why you can scarcely believe it when there’s a knock at the closed stable door. You don’t breathe for a second before remembering that only Prince Freidrich would knock before entering a stable of all places.

He opens the door and for a moment is visibly relieved to see you. You stare at each other. The only sound is the soft rustling of the horses, that is until he closes the door behind him and moves to you with an agility that surprises you, considering how unstable he was on your horse earlier.

If he had no appetite earlier, it has certainly returned now. Prince Friedrich has a hungry look in his eyes as he pulls you close by the waist and kisses you. You squeeze your eyes shut, expecting a clash of teeth but his kiss is passionate, even skilled. Your shoulders untense as you relax into it and slide your arms around his neck, allowing him to pull your body against his. Even through the many skirts under your evening gown, you can feel that he’s hard.

His tongue enters your mouth, licking and swirling it against yours - it’s surprisingly good. And he smells good. A beautiful sandalwood cologne that can only be from the finest perfumery.

You pull back breathlessly before you can allow the inebriating scent and feel of him to rid you of your senses. “Prince Friedrich, I -”

“Please, just Freidrich.”

“Friedrich.” Even with his permission the name feels strange in your mouth. “How much romantic experience do you have?”

“I’ve read books,” he says quickly and you press your lips together to stop laughing.

“You mean romance books? Like Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron?”

“No, I mean… instructional.”

“Instructions on how to fuck?” He nods and flushes a deep shade of pink at the question and this time you can’t help but laugh. “Remind me to spend time in the palace library in Prussia if I ever visit.” You study him. “I meant more… practical experience. It’s not the type of thing you can learn from a book.”

“I have a little experience.”

“Like what? Just kissing?” He hesitates and you move your hand down between your bodies and brush his hard cock through his trousers. “Or has anyone ever touched you like this before?”

Friedrich swallows. “Before now, you mean?” You nod and he hesitates again, guessing that it’s not the answer you want to hear. “No,” he says, truthfully.

You withdraw your hand. “Maybe this is something you should save for your future wife.”

“Marry me, then,” he blurts out, his voice trembling slightly with urgency.

You groan inwardly, shaking your head. “Friedrich, I wasn’t being coy when I told you I don’t want to be wed to a Prince. Besides, the season is starting tomorrow and you’ll be introduced to a hundred wealthy, beautiful women. Each one of them would be a better match than I.”

“Impossible.”

“You don’t know that -”

“I know that nobody has ever spoken to me the way that you did tonight. Or this morning for that matter.”

You smile despite yourself. You can believe it. If you were trying to secure the Prince’s hand in marriage, you would have carried yourself with much more grace and dignity than you have thus far.

“That’s because I have the manners of a common mule and the propriety of a common whore,” your grin falters and you look at him seriously. “And both of those qualities make me thoroughly incompatible with the Prince of Prussia. Marrying you is out of the question.”

“I understand,” he says, clearly worried that you’re reconsidering lying with him. “Let me be one of your companions. Show me how to do it.”

“Will you promise not to ask for my hand in marriage when this is done?”

Your hands undo the lacing on his trousers as he hitches his breath. “Anything. Sh-show me. Please.”

You remove your gloves and toss them on the stable floor. You slide your bare hand into his underwear and feel him shudder when you grip his cock. Christ almighty. It’s bigger than what you had expected from the innocent Prince.

“Since we’re practising so that you can please your future wife,” you tell him as you jerk your hand along his length. “I’ll tell you what feels good and what doesn’t. And you must do the same.”

He exhales shakily. “This - this feels good.”

“That’s a good start,” you smirk. “And you have a nice cock, Your Highness. The Princess Consort of Prussia will be a very lucky woman indeed once I’ve shown you how to use it.”

“Oha,” he breathes.

“So eager,” you tut playfully, your face inches from his.

You pull him close and he moans into your mouth as you kiss him. The sound of his evident pleasure sends heat tearing through you. You make a mental note to tell your future lovers to share their vocal appreciation because the sounds Prince Friedrich is making are driving you wild.

As you kiss him, you lead him over to the loose pile of straw and get to the floor. The straw is scratchy on your bare arms but your legs are thankfully spared by the protection of your skirts.

“When the time comes to do this with your lady wife, you should both undress. But our clothes will remain on - mostly. This is more convenient if there’s an unexpected intruder. Plus, this hay is itchy.”

“Allow me,” says Prince Freidrich, sitting back on his knees and pulling off his jacket. For a second you wonder if he’s misunderstood what you said about undressing but then he flattens his jacket on the straw behind you for you to lie on.

If you were the swooning type, you might just have fainted then and there.

“May I?” he asks, touching the hem of your skirt at your ankle. You nod and he pushes up your skirts. You lift your hips, allowing him to remove your satin underwear. “Verdammt,” he breathes. He moves his head between your legs and you almost sit up in surprise. You don’t mind him having a better look at you if it’s his first time but this feels extremely personal.

“What are you doing?” you ask.

He looks up at you and you pull your skirts close to your stomach. “My book - it said to kiss you here to make sure you are ready.” His face is so close to you that you can feel his hot breath against your pussy.

“Your book said to kiss me… there?” Your eyebrows knit together but you think about how his tongue felt swirling inside your mouth and a stab of ache pierces through your ribs.

“It is not customary?” You shake your head and he frowns in confusion but doesn’t move.

And you realise that you don’t want him to go anywhere. That the idea of him kissing you there in the skilled way he was kissing your mouth inflames you. Out of amused interest, you lift yourself up onto one elbow only to find him looking at you intently, hanging on your every word, waiting to find out what he should do. You realise that you rather like the look of him here, between your legs.

“You -” You swallow. “- You may try. If it pleases you. But I warn you, I - oh -”

Your warning dissipates into the air as Prince Friedrich leans down and glides his hot tongue deep into the seam of your pussy with absolutely no hesitation. You feel yourself relax as you let him get on with this custom he’s learned from his book. You admit, it’s not unpleasant. But you’re not sure what he’s trying to achieve.

It sort of feels like when you touch yourself. Maybe less dextrous but it’s hotter and wetter and - and -

Good lord.

Much to your surprise - and your delight - you feel a soft, delicious warmth spreading from your core as he kisses you where you’ve never been kissed before. You splay your fingers through his blonde hair - your other hand still clutching your dress as his velvet mouth envelops your clutch of nerves and a wave of pleasure cascades through your body.

“Oh - oh fuck,” you curse, not caring that you’re swearing in front of the Prince. He pulls back abruptly and you pant.

“My lady?” he asks. “Are you okay?”

“Yes - god, yes,” you whine, impatient for his mouth to return to you.

He looks at you with that same subtle glint of authority he gave you this morning and says, “In that case, you are not keeping up with your side of the bargain. You promised you’d tell me what feels good.”

Prince Friedrich dips his head and resumes, going from sucking on your clit to lapping up your juices and back again as you squirm and rock against him. This time you remember to hold up your side of the bargain. You pant and tell him how good his mouth feels - how good he feels. Everything is soaked, from your skirts to his chin and nose as he lets you grind yourself against his face.

The flat of his tongue slides across your heat and it’s heavenly. Usually, when you’re with a partner, you’re used to working hard for your release - at the exact right position and tempo to pry yourself apart. But right now you’re just lying back and taking what Prince Friedrich’s tongue offers to you. And it’s offering exactly what you need.

“Don’t stop,” you mewl. “So good. S’good. So good -”

You feel yourself unravelling, your praise and words of affirmation turning into an incoherent babble as your orgasm breaches the surface. You must be making some semblance of sense because he listens - he keeps going and it’s all too much and not enough at once as your walls squeeze around nothing while Prince Friedrich continues his delicious assault on your bundle of nerves.

Damn. You do your very best not to cry out and draw attention to the stables as Prince Friedrich gets closer and closer to making you cum on his tongue. But it’s nigh impossible as you feel the heat rise from your stomach and pull back like the tide.

And then there’s the drop you’d been waiting for.

“Oh - god,” you moan, drawing out the last syllable so that it drips as slowly as treacle. Ecstasy courses through your body as your release washes over you, making your thighs tremble on either side of the Prince’s head. Your chest heaves and you gently tug on his hair, away from your oversensitive cunt. “That’s - that’s good. It’s good. It’s enough,” you gasp before collapsing your head back onto his jacket.

Prince Friedrich gives you a few more slow, gentle licks and murmurs, “So feucht.” before drawing a finger over your twitching, soaking wet entrance, admiring his own handiwork. You don’t know what his words mean and you don’t have the cognizance to ask as you stare up at the wooden beams and try to regain your senses.

After what feels like a lifetime of bliss, you’re happy for your view of the stable roof to be interrupted when Prince Friedrich moves up your body to kiss you and you taste the unfamiliar taste of your arousal on his lips. You kiss him back, slipping your tongue into his mouth and nipping at his bottom lip. God, this was supposed to be you teaching him a few things - not the other way around. When you anonymise this encounter and retell it to your friends later they will certainly be hearing about this.

“Good?” he asks when he pulls back and you nod, before swallowing air.

“I have half a mind to sell my estate and move to Prussia after the social season is over if that is what they do there,” you say breathlessly.

He smirks. “I have told you that it could be arranged. Come home with me and we won’t have to be discreet. We could do this every day.”

You pout playfully and push a loose curl from his forehead. “But I like the stables,” you joke even though your back is aching and a palace bed sounds much more appealing.

“Well, we have stables in Prussia. You could bring Artemis.”

Artemis.

He remembered her name.

Your face softens as you picture her as a royal steed, wearing a white feathered plume like she’s the diamond of the season.

But then the fleeting daydream disappears when you tell yourself that it’s a fantasy you can’t allow either of you to indulge in. As much as Queen Charlotte favours you, you know it would be seen as unacceptable for the Prince to marry someone from such a minor house.

And besides, you remind yourself that you don’t need a royal husband. You have your own home. You have your own horses. You have your own friends. You have everything you’ve ever wanted. But then, why does the thought of him making his social season debut at the ball tomorrow make your heart ache?

“There’s something else I’d like to ride, presently,” you say, in an attempt to rid the thought from your mind as you gently push on his shoulders until he lies on his back.

You straddle the Prince and unfasten his trousers so you can pull his cock out. The sight of him, hard and ready for you and the way he twitches involuntarily in your palm makes your heart pound as hard and steady as horses hooves galloping.

You wriggle forward until you feel the smooth underside of his cock sliding under your messily slick folds, still wet from the orgasm the Prince had bestowed upon you with his mouth. A flicker of dark enjoyment ignites in you when you see a line between his brows as he knits them together and watches as you lift your skirts so he can watch you sliding back and forward along the length of his cock.

“Do you enjoy watching me do this, Your Highness?” you ask as you grind against him.

“I would enjoy watching you do anything,” he says, pushing your gown out of the way to take hold of your hips. “Du bist schön.”

You pause. “Do what?”

“Nothing. Please. Don’t stop.” He presses his thumbs into your hipbones, urging you to create friction against him again.

“You don’t want to fuck me?”

“Isn’t - isn’t that what we’re doing?” stutters Prince Friedrich.

“Oh, my sweet Prince.” You bring your hand to his jaw as you lift yourself so you can position the head of his cock between your soaking folds with your other hand. “We’re only just getting started.”

You lock eyes with him and watch his face contort in pleasure as you slowly sink down, inch by glorious fucking inch. “Oh gott,” he whines. Your German is poor but you’re pretty confident you know what that means.

“Let me know when you’re going to spill - I don’t want to carry your bastard,” you murmur, still cupping his face. “Do you understand?”

“Ja,” he says through gritted teeth. “I understand.”

You’re not sure he really does but that primal part of your brain that wants to fuck him now and worry about the consequences later tells you to shove your hips down against the resistance. You force the rest of his thick cock into you and inhale through your teeth, feeling the delicious way he stretches and fills you. His hands clamp down hard on your hips, his thumbs pressing fresh bruises into your hipbones.

They don’t make them like this in Kettering. Or London for that matter. Equal parts sweet and naive yet firm and decisive. He doesn’t know what he wants yet but he still wants it. Desperately.

As if proving your point, you lean forward to feel the beautiful way he drags out of you and he seizes the opportunity to bury his face into your cleavage, your corseted dress making it exceptionally easy for him.

He moans open-mouthed against your chest, his tongue sloppily trying to find your nipple. You move your hips back and down and wildfire bursts in your lower belly when his cock nudges against that sweet spot you’ve been longing for.

It’s not enough for him - he wants more. He lifts his hips and the tip of his cock drives against your G-spot.

“Oh - fuck. Freidrich. That feels good.”

“So it is okay for me to move too?” he asks.

“Please,” you murmur, closing your eyes and feeling him slide back into you at that perfect angle.

You don’t need to tell him twice.

He rolls his hips upwards to meet yours as you ride him. You can hear how fucking wet you are. Everything is slick and hot and drenched as you roll your hips up and down on top of him and he fucks himself into you.

“So schön,” he grunts and the foreign words sound guttural to your ears.

“I hope that means ‘good’,” you tease, leaning forward to breathe hot air onto his neck.

“Pretty,” he murmurs in your ear. “So pretty.”

“Oh,” is all you can manage as his hips pick up pace. Fuck - you like him being under you like this. Even here, in the stables where someone might come looking if they notice that Prince Friedrich is missing from his chambers.

The sound of your stretched, wet cunt fills the stables so obscenely that it peppers shame into your consciousness. But he hears it too. He jerks up so fiercely that his balls slap against you. You suck air in through your teeth at the sharp sting and he looks concerned but you reassure him. “It’s - oh fuck - keep going. Right there.”

You go from slamming yourself down on him to your whole body stiffening, letting him drive up into you as your hot orgasm approaches, creeping over you in pulsing waves. Your walls grip him, tightening and convulsing as -

“I should - tja - remove myself from inside you -” he stops thrusting up into you and you almost wail with disappointment.

“No - fuck - keep going.” What are you saying? You rock your hips and bounce on him, every nerve inside you applauding your decision to ignore your conscience as you manage to hang onto the precipice. “Don’t stop.”

“I’m going to -”

“Fuck it,” you heave, your walls squeezing impossibly tighter as you fuck yourself on him. “Cum in me. I don’t care.” What the fuck are you saying?!

“Really?”

“Yeah,” you breathe.

It’ll be fine.

You’ve had an accident or two and have been lucky so far.

You may as well have told the Prince that Christmas had come early. The sight of your flushed face, dishevelled hair and the way your tits are threatening to spill out of your dress with every bounce of your hips drives him wild.

Frankly, you’re the most deliciously intoxicating thing he’s ever experienced. He just doesn’t have the necessary vocabulary to tell you this in English.

By this point, “Oh gott,” is the only thing he says that you can understand. You hardly hear the rest as he babbles away in German - you can barely hear anything over the pulse of blood pounding in your ears as Friedrich picks up his pace again. Your body locks down around him so tightly you wonder if you might break him.

“Just like that - fuck, there,” you whimper. He takes the instruction well, driving his cock deep into you - exactly where you need it. The coil of heat in your core tightens impossibly tighter as he chokes words you don’t understand into your ear as he pulls you close to his chest

Maybe one day he’ll teach you what those words mean and you’ll find out that he was telling you what a good girl you are for taking his cock like this.

“Fuck - I’m - that’s it,” you sob, your chest heaving against his fine silk shirt and your fingers entwined in his soft blonde hair. You squeeze around him like a vice. “Friedrich, I -”

“Do it,” he groans. You hadn’t expected him to say that. And certainly not with the commanding tone he chooses. “Let me feel it.”

The coil inside you snaps. A blaze of white-hot fire bursts through you like stitches being ripped. You seize and cry out as your release whips through you with such force that you think you might go cross-eyed. You bury your face into his neck, smelling the rich sandalwood scent splashed on his skin, mixed with his sweat.

Freidrich keeps his tight hold of your hips, fucking into you even as you shake and tremble.

“Ich komme,” breathes the Prince. “Ich komme, ich komme.” It only takes a few more rough, slapping thrusts until you don’t have to guess what that means. You feel him finishing inside you, thick ropes of his spend painting your insides.

You lie here like this for a few moments, collapsed onto his chest and feeling his seed leaking out of you. You feel dizzy as his chest rises and falls underneath you and his fingers tenderly trace lines up and down your back. He closes his eyes, feeling the satin of your gown as his fingertips dance across it.

You could easily fall asleep like this.

Instead, you hoist yourself off him and lie flat on your back as if unattaching yourself from him will place a barrier between you. Put a halt to the immense surge of affection you feel for him in this moment. But he doesn’t let you get far. Prince Friedrich rolls onto his side and cups your face, his thumb tracing your cheekbone and skirting across your lips before he leans down to kiss you. You close your eyes, letting the kiss dissolve into a wet, lazy haze.

He pulls back and looks down into your eyes. “I promised I would not ask for your hand when this was over. So I have nothing else to say.”

“At least now you are prepared for the social season beginning tomorrow.”

“I don’t care about the season. I want to leave. Tonight. To take you with me.”

“I don’t have the wealth or the beauty for that to be allowed to happen,” you say. “The Queen would never find us to be a suitable match. Never mind Lady Whistledown having a field day.”

“You have more than enough of both for me.”

“For you, Friedrich. But not enough for Prince Friedrich. Not enough for The Crown,” you say, your heart breaking as you do. This was a bad idea, after all. You adjust your gown and get to your feet, pretending to ignore Prince Friedrich’s attempts to help you up.

“And what about my - my seed? What if you’re with child?”

You laugh mirthlessly. “We’d have to be exceptionally unlucky for that to happen on our first try. Put it far from your mind. Go and meet with the diamond of the season tomorrow and all of the ladies queuing up to become the Princess Consort of Prussia. They will make you much happier than I ever could.”

You walk towards the stable door but he takes your hand and gives you your discarded gloves. “Please don’t go.”

“I’m sorry, Friedrich.” You can’t. You can hear the gossip already. A thousand people whispering behind your back about how you’re not good enough for the Prince. It would be like that every day for the rest of your life in the spotlight if you did marry him. You tear your eyes away from him and open the stable door.

“Will I ever see you again?” he asks after you.

You pause and turn around. “Perhaps.” You smile at him sadly. “Who knows? If I am with child, maybe you’ll have no choice but to whisk me away back to Prussia and marry me, never to be seen in London ever again. And everyone will wonder why.”

You turn back before he can see your face crumble, leaving the stable door open behind you as Prince Friedrich watches you leave into the night. Your mare whinnies, nudging him gently over her stable door.

Prince Friedrich gives in to her pestering and scratches her neck, much to her enjoyment. Before dawn, he will write a letter. To make sure a stall is prepared for Artemis in the palace stables in Prussia.

Just in case.

#bridgerton #prince friedrich #prince friedrich x reader #bridgerton smut #smut #fanfic

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orangflowalober · 11 months ago

Text

What do you mean dad went out to get milk?!

Pairing: Park Jay Jongseong x Reader

Genre: crack, established relationship

Summary: your darling children Artemis and Anton get the wrong idea when you tell them their dad is going out to get milk

Word count: 936

Warnings: mentions of food- tiramisu and milk, talks of divorce

A/n: just a random idea I got and I thought it was absolutely hilarious so I just had to write it hehe

“Mooooooooom!”

You heard a yell and thumping on the stairs from your place in the kitchen where you were doing your best to make the tiramisu cake while keeping an ear out for your seventeen year old daughter.

As if following in her mum's genetic footsteps, she looked so much like her dad, only with her hair being similar to your own- long and brown. Her eyes were black and her face had that ever-present sleepiness that her father had too.

“Mom, where's dad?” you heard her ask, “I need his help with something”

But while you were keeping your eyes and focus on the melting pot in front of you, you didn’t really pay attention to what was leaving your mouth.

“He went out to get milk” you responded, eyes zeroing in on what you were supposed to add next into the mixture in front of you.

Meanwhile, Artemis’ gut dropped.

Went out to get milk???

THEY'RE DIVORCING????

She quickly let out a choked okay and ran back up the stairs, hearing you absentmindedly call out to her; for the thousand time, do not run up the stairs Artemis!

“ANTON!” the brown-haired girl yelled bursting into her twin's bedroom.

The boy had features eerily similar to their aunt (ironically) with a dash of their dads more prominent features; his nose and eye shape namely. His green eye-colour almost felt out of place. His black hair was pushed back by the headset he wore.

“What is it ‘mis?” he groaned, words dripping with annoyance as he put pause on his game.

“Dad went out to get milk,” she said, her voice grave.

Anton merely raised an eyebrow at her and laughed, mocking her.

“Ha ha ‘mis,” he said, voice deadpan, just like his dad’s, “that's a good one.”

“Mum's words” she interrupted him, her black eyes wide and hand on the door trembling, “not a joke.”

Anton stared at her, for long ten seconds, waiting for the impending moment when she would say “SIKE!” and laugh at his blank expression.

But the moment never came.

“They're seriously divorcing?” he wondered aloud, eyes clouded with betrayal, “Without telling us?”

“I don't know,” Artemis murmured.

“Mum? And dad?” he kept repeating to himself, “Those two are obsessed with each other…?”

Artemis only stood quietly at the door.

But then she got a brilliant idea.

“Jay, did you get the milk?” you asked in a hurry seeing your husband at the entrance of the kitchen.

“Yeah” he responded, panting heavily, passing his wife the carton of milk, “I hurried As much as I could hon.”

He stood behind the island in the middle of the kitchen watching you fret over the tiramisu.

“Hand it over” you reached over, taking it from his grasp, “I need to hurry up so it can cool before that maniac Sunghoon comes.” you huffed, sounding annoyed, knowing you wanted the tiramisu to be the best as possible because both you and Jay missed your good friend.

“Mom, dad?” Anton called from the door of the living room with Artemis next to him, holding a laptop. “Can we talk to you guys?” he asked cautiously.

You should have known that your two teenagers were up to something the moment they asked that.

They’re never this polite.

“It's serious” Artemis supplied quickly.

You blinked, surprised.

“Sure”, you murmured, separating from the huge shelf next to the window, walking over to the couch where your husband was already sitting.

“Is everything okay?” Jay asked, face scrunching in worry.

Your twins only looked at each other as Artemis plugged the laptop to the TV and fixed her blazer.

Wait.

Blazers?

“Why are you two wearing suits?” You asked.

“Mum, wait please” Anton requested, with an air of an exasperated lawyer, “all will be explained in due time.”

Your eyebrows raised and you and Jay made quick eye contact as your children started bickering about something.

“So.” Artemis started. “We are all here today, present to discuss-”

“Plead” Anton added, making Jay squint at his son.

“Your not-so-impending divorce.”

“Wait what?” You interrupted, confused

“Who's getting divorced?? Jay asked surprised, feeling a good decade being shaved off his life.

Anton and Artemis looked beyond stressed.

They looked at each other and Artemis spoke up.

“Mum said that you went out to get milk and-”

“Artemis, baby,” you interrupted her in a gentle voice, seeing your younger almost in tears, “I was making tiramisu for when your uncle comes,” you explained, “your dad literally went out to buy milk.”

The two boys looked lost and Artemis was slowly starting to look embarrassed.

“Why would you even get that impression?” Jay was confused, “Why would I want to divorce your mother?”

“You know dad,” Anton said with a dead look in his eye, “we know you're a simp. It's more about what mum wants.”

At that you burst out into laughter, getting up to hug your kiddos and caress their hair, listening to Jay's outraged sounds in the background.

“You don't have to worry about a thing my darlings,” you told them gently, before your face took on a more serious look, “And even if it does come down to divorce, that's NOT how you're finding out.”

“WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING ABOUT DIVORCE” Jay cried.

~ Of course, this story was later told to Sunghoon who came to visit them and naturally his reaction was to burst into laughter and mercilessly tease both Jay and his niece and nephew (you probably wouldn't have been spared if you hadn't shot him a threatening look and a promise of taking away the tiramisu).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My dearest girls: @ch3rryc0smos & @janaicetea

if anyone wants to be a part of the taglist send an ask <3

#jay #jay park #park jay #park jongseong #jay enhypen #enhypen #enhypen x female reader #enhypen x reader #enhypen x you #enhypen imagines #jay x reader #jay x y/n #jay x you #jay park x reader #❄️.works.#❄️.fics.

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clean-bands-dirty-stories · 11 months ago

Text

Here, Allow Me ~ D.G.

A/n: Another one check marked :) It's still not the one I promised but uh... I hope that's okay. I've been struggling to write rip

Request: “ZATANNA MALE READER X DICK GRAYSON, they go on a mission together and dick and reader get hurt but dick more so and reader teleports them somewhere trying to keep him alive while help arrives. end it fluffy please” by anon

Word Count: 2900+

MASTERLIST

There were certain things you just had to accept if you were going to date Dick Grayson. One of them was that he would always be in the field. Whether or not he was Robin or Nightwing, or even Batman, the suit would always be apart of his life. Another thing you had to accept: You would have to just keep up.

It wasn't easy to match pace with anyone in the Batfam, let alone someone you were dating. It was a little easier for Y/n though. After all, he had magic.

Everyone associated Y/n was Zatanna, but he had trained with John Constantine first. It was an accidental situation, but expected when a demon with a grudge against Constantine met a young, impressionable kid with a bone to pick with the world. He'd wormed his way into Constantine's life playing as someone born with magic he couldn't control and had gotten training from the man himself. Which allowed Y/n to get more powerful as he learned more and more about his target up close and personally - weaknesses and abilities alike.

Y/n was the only one who'd ever gotten close to defeating Constantine, and almost got killed doing it. But when he revealed himself as a secret bad guy - well, Batman was impossible to fool. He'd prepared for this, seeing Y/n's anger and noticing the way his magic was almost alive - not something inborn, but something almost separate that worked to keep him alive. That was actually how Y/n and Dick had first met - when the Young Justice had come to Constantine's aide and saved his ass. At the time he'd been dating Zatanna, but that hadn't lasted much longer.

It had been rough at first. They'd had to find the demon behind Y/n, and Zatanna had banished it and destroyed the link between it and Y/n, leaving the poor teen completely defenseless. He'd hated the team for it, and hadn't talked to anyone until Constantine offered to train him for real. After all, Y/n still knew a lot about magic, and the deep connection he'd had with that demon had left behind the potential to harness such energies. With the opportunity to remain able to defend himself and a rough home life he was on the run from, the team took him on and Zatanna began to help him along with Constantine. Eventually she joined the League and Y/n was left to stay on the team as the resident magic user.

After a while, Dick Grayson could claim he'd dated two magicians.

Y/n had taken a lot after Zatanna. He used magic by speaking backward as well, and took up the magician aesthetic. They looked like a set... which had been a little painful at first. She'd given Y/n her father's old suit and matching with him like that had been a little startling. But Zatara had approved and eventually everyone had adjusted. Because of all of this, Y/n hadn't been open to Dick's advances at first; he was sure Nightwing was just rebounding on someone who reminded him Zatanna who Y/n was sure Dick just missed.

Because of this they almost hadn't happened, but Bruce was tired of watching his family be alone because of this life they lead, and took a single moment to play a little matchmaker. He'd invited Y/n over for dinner - no masks. Y/n had discovered the identities of the entire Batfam when he had been analyzing them to take them all down, so there was no need for pretenses. Bruce invited the kid under the proposition that Y/n could go to school with Artemis, but that it would require a scholarship from the Waynes and they should get to know each other first.

Everyone knew it was bullshit - Artemis had gotten the scholarship without knowing the Waynes after all. But Y/n didn't, and that was the point. With Bruce's only slight tampering out of the way, he left the rest to the others. Y/n bonded with Jason first, then Tim and then Barbara. They all adored him and seeing him get along with the family was enough to have Dick tripping over himself by the end of the night. When Alfred himself approved of the lad, the deal was done. And with some words of comfort from Barbara, Y/n got over that lingering impression that Dick didn't really care about him.

Dick drove Y/n home, and they had a first date confirmed before they even topped at the cave where Y/n was staying with everyone else who didn't have anywhere to go.

After that it wasn't hard to get approval to work with the Batfam directly as well as the Team. Y/n was busy a lot, working with Dick side by side and sometimes even without him. They learned how to balance work and relationship and personal life rather well. It wasn't perfect but all of it was theirs, and that was what mattered.

Then Jason died.

Jason and Y/n had always been particularly close. They understood each other in a way the others really didn't. They were both carrying dark pasts on the corners of bright smiles, with the constant yearning for trouble settled in their throats. They'd been horrible pranksters, and not even Dick could always predict them or avoid them. Only Alfred had never been touched. Y/n had been on the mission with Jason when he died. He'd been knocked out and Jason had been kidnapped... and then had to just sit and wait for Bruce to find his best friend.

Something changed after that. Y/n was darker, angrier. He smiled less. He was still good in the field, but he suddenly got really protective. Dick understood why Y/n felt the need to watch everyone, always run to their aid, but when it almost got Y/n killed he'd had enough.

Their first argument since even the beginning of their relationship had been ugly.

Y/n had to handle a lot more during the relationship than Dick did, and he felt irritated that after all he had taken with complete ease and no complaint, Dick was still asking more of Y/n. And then Dick asked Y/n to retire and...

When the two said they were going on a break, everyone knew that wasn't all. Everyone knew they were due any day for a break up. The Team, the Batfam - they'd all seen Connor and M'gann fall apart in real time and it had looked exactly like this. Y/n began to draw further and further from Dick, and seemed to stop caring about him altogether. He didn't seem to watch Dick's back every second anymore, but he also seemed to lose every single emotion he'd ever had. Batman was seconds away from cutting him off the team forcibly and resigning himself to losing Y/n as he distanced himself from everyone.

The moment never came.

It was a mission like any other. Infiltration and extraction. Y/n was particularly good at staying back anyway, so he had fallen into the role of look out. He had a lot of spells that helped his awareness and allowed him to play support. And with his recent habit of keeping an eye on everyone anyway, putting him on the front lines just wasn't where he was best.

It was Garfield who got spotted. It was hard for him to sneak around, and he could turn into something small for sure but when you're green it's a pretty obvious tell and some people just knew how to spot him.

Everyone was almost out when one of the flying bullets caught Dick's leg and he fell. Y/n didn't even hesitate - he teleported into the fight immediately and began throwing spells, keeping people back to try and give Dick the space to get away. Everyone else had scattered; they didn't even know Dick had fallen. It was up to Y/n, and when all you are is a spell caster there's just not a lot you can do against so many people by yourself.

Dick was amazed. Y/n's focus, the way his eyes took in every single detail. His words and the easy way they formed, even backward. He wasn't as good as Zatanna but he was excellent at the trade. The problem was Dick was losing blood fast, and it was becoming quickly clear that it wasn't just a bullet at all - he was poisoned. He couldn't get out of here without being followed and that would be even worse. So he moved closer to Y/n instead of away, gripping his ankle.

It distracted Y/n, allowing something large to shatter against his shield spell, shrapnel slicing his shoulder. He screamed, and grabbed it, but it knocked him out of his stubborn decision to stay put and stand tall until he died. It forced Y/n to acknowledge that he was losing, and Dick needed him. Despite everything between them, that seemed to be enough. Y/n reached down, grabbing Dick's forearm, and Dick returned the hold. Y/n spoke quickly, and the pair was teleporting away again.

The second they were alone Dick was arguing with him. "Why didn't you do that immediately?"

"Because you were running away from me and I couldn't get to you without compromising both of our safety," Y/n snapped back without missing a beat. Right back to their forming bad habits...

Dick wasn't satisfied with Y/ns answer. "Why didn't you just teleport closer to me?"

"Because the point was to draw their attention, not grab you and get out! You were supposed to at least bind your wound so you weren't just freely bleeding."

"There was something in the bullet, I could feel it almost immediately. There's... something.." As the adrenaline of the moment faded and all that was keeping him talking was arguing - which, as it rose his heartrate, probably wasn't a good idea - he began to lose strength and collapsed in Y/n's arms. His eyes fluttered closed and he went silent.

Y/n's breathing immediately quickened, growing shallow. "Nightwing," he snapped, slowly lowering him to the ground. He forced himself to work slowly through the panic, checking Dick's pulse. It was skittish and getting slower. Something was wrong. Y/n could feel the panic increasing. He grit his teeth and forced away the images of Jason's broken body in Bruce's arms. He instead grabbed Dick's arm, turning it to access the body monitor all the Batfam wore.

As he had the thought to get in contact with everyone else, he felt Miss Martian's psychic link restore and he reached out to her, drawing her to their location. He ran down the entire situation and analyzed how fast whatever was effecting Nightwing was effecting him.

M'gann didn't have to tell Y/n that they weren't going to make it to the two and back to the Cave in time. Y/n closed his eyes, forcing himself to focus. He needed to know what was wrong with Dick in order to save him. If he didn't, no one would. And Y/n wouldn't lose Dick. Not like he'd lost Jason. Not him. Anyone but him.

Finally the spells Y/n was casting to figure out what the hell was wrong came with a result. A specific poison, fast acting, 100% fatality rate. Y/n felt his anger rise as his vision blurred with tears. He blinked quickly to clear it, ignoring as the tears fell down his cheeks. He closed his eyes to force his mind to come up with the words he needed.

"Ezilibats mih." His words echoed and Y/n was immediately rechecking his heartbeat and vitals, but his vision was too blurry. He couldn't see anything, couldn't make sense of it. He was out of ideas - if this didn't work Dick was dead. The thought made Y/n crumble and he pulled Dick into his chest, burying his face in his hair. He was begging under his breath, shaking, in shambles. And that was how the Team found them.

At first everyone thought Dick was dead, but when Miss M told them he was fine, Y/n only began to cry harder and everyone exchanged looks but they knew what had happened without even having to ask. Y/n was silent on the ride back to the Cave. Dick woke up there, in their little hospital wing, all healed and completely fine. He was updated on what happened in the mission, and Connor took him aside to tell him about Y/n's reaction to the whole thing. "Just so you understand why."

Dick tensed. "Why what?" He demanded.

Connor pursed his lips. "He quit. The Team, everything. He said he's done and has been looking for entry level jobs so he can buy his own apartment and move out of the Cave." Bruce had given him a secretary job at Wayne Enterprises, and Y/n had been doing wonderfully - even after Jason's passing. If he was looking to get out of the job, then that would mean he'd stop coming to family dinners, stop dropping by for Holidays. He'd be alone and the Batfam would be missing one more member. The Team would lose their friend. Y/n was trying to disappear.

Dick didn't wait and no one stopped him. He was up immediately, only gritting his teeth at his hurt leg but otherwise walking perfectly fine as he moved through the halls at as quick a pace as he could manage while he hunted down Y/n.

He was in his room. Where he had been every free moment since Jason's death. Unsurprising then that Dick looked there first and, upon knocking on the door, wasn't shocked to see Y/n open it. He looked horrible, with heavy lids and bags under his eyes and a slouch to his shoulders. He looked exhausted.

"Before you try and-" Y/n began.

Dick pushed through the door and pulled him in a hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't thank you, thank you. Thank you for all those years ago, choosing to let us help you instead of turning away. Thank you for loving our family as much as I do and becoming apart of it. Thank you for giving Jason a best friend - he really needed it. Thank you for joining the team and saving so many of our lives so many times. Thank you for letting me love you. It was the best time of my life and I will always treasure it because you're an amazing person. Thank you for letting me know you."

Y/n was silent for a long time. He didn't move, didn't even seem to breathe. But then, just as Dick was losing hope, ever so slowly, Y/n's arms moved to wrap around Dick and hug him back. They melted into each other and Dick could feel the material of his shirt get wet as Y/n cried on his shoulder.

"Bruce was right, I can't do this. I need to take a break." The words were a relief to hear.

"Okay," Dick agreed. He held his boyfriend tighter. They hadn't broken up yet, and he tried to hold onto that in this moment. It might be his last chance to think that.

Y/n seemed surprise at the lack of a response. "I won't be able to fight with you anymore - maybe ever again. We'll have way less time together, I won't be able to help you with cases. You'll have to face so much more on your own and we'll come to resent each other eventually. It'll fall apart like it always does. No time, no energy-"

"If you think that I'd ever resent you for prioritizing your needs, you're an idiot." Y/n's words died. "I will always love you for doing this. You should. You shouldn't keep going if you can't. I just can't lose you completely. I need you to be some part of my life. Everyone will miss you; the team; the family. Everyone. Promise me you won't quit at Wayne Tech. Promise me you won't disappear because you feel bad about retiring."

A shaky breath came from Y/n then and he held Dick tighter, burying his face in Dick's shoulder. They hadn't hugged this long in ages and it was what they both desperately needed. Y/n sighed, shaking his head. "Okay. I promise."

Dick leaned back and Y/n let him, even as Dick raised a hand to wipe away the remaining tears and pulled him into a kiss. They both lingered, and after a moment even relaxed. melted into each other. Dick didn't go far when the kiss ended, resting their foreheads together. "I don't want to break up with you. I want to give it a shot. I want to try, I want to fight. I don't want to fade from each others' lives - if it ends ugly then that's how it ends. I want to hold onto you."

Everyone knew how Dick's relationships ended. It was fire and joy and passion that slowly dimmed and faded into professionalism and business relations. They grew distant, but the fondness remained, and they parted on mutual, good terms. Dick always wanted to avoid ugly break ups, wanted to preserve relations as much as possible. The fact that he was willing to throw caution to the wind meant a lot.

Y/n chuckled, sighing a second time. "You're impossible, Dick Grayson."

Dick smiled. "Impossibly in love with you."

For the first time since Jason had died, Y/n laughed. Loud, with his full chest. His head fell back and he pulled Dick closer. The moment was warm and bright and all of the darkness and heaviness that had been plaguing them fell away completely, leaving them free and light. One thing was certain: they'd succeeded. They'd made it out the other side.

At least for now, they'd be alright.

Male Readers: @ravenpuff-oli @sortzz @fadedver

#male reader #nightwing #dick Grayson #dc #young justice #nightwing imagine #nightwing x reader #nightwing x male reader #dick Grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #dick Grayson x male reader #young justice imagine #dc imagine #dc x reader #dc x male reader

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persevereforahappyending · 7 months ago

Text

Maybe in Another Life |7|

Pairing: Clarisse La Rue x Hunter of Artemis!Reader

Summary: You are a Hunter of Artemis, but you start to question what you truly want when you meet Clarisse and get to know her.

Warnings: Spoilers for Titans Curse

Word Count: 2.6k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

ch. 1 | ch. 2 | ch. 3 | ch. 4 | ch. 5 | ch. 6 | ch. 7 | ch. 8 | ch. 9 | ch. 10 | ch. 11 | ch. 12 | ch. 13 | ch. 14 | ch. 15 | ch. 16 | ch. 17

You were sitting on the edge of a cliff that hung over the lake at Camp Half-Blood. After talking to Artemis, you went back to the cabin and informed your sisters about Zoe. After telling them to be at the top of the hill and ready to leave by sunrise you left. You had been sitting on the cliff’s edge looking up at the stars ever since. You didn’t have a lot of stuff; your bag was never unpacked so you were ready to go the second Artemis came to you. You were going to take the few hours before sunrise to grieve, alone. You loved your sisters, but you had been at Zoe’s side for a thousand years, you needed a moment to yourself.

Despite the centuries of fighting by your goddess's side, despite the many sisters you watched fall in battle, it never got easier. You couldn’t deny that Zoe’s loss hit different than all the others. Zoe had been at your side since you joined the Hunters, she taught you, she trained with you, she was the one who you first met, the one who brought you to Artemis.

You knew you should have gone on the quest. If you had been on the quest maybe you could have saved Zoe, maybe it would have been you who lost their life instead. That certainly would have been for the best, Zoe was needed at Artemis’s side, she deserved to continue on, the Hunters needed their leader and that was Zoe. You were Zoe’s second, you were meant to protect her, despite what she may have said, it was your duty to make sure Zoe always returned, and you failed.

You could hear the dirt crunch behind you as someone approached. “I thought you went back to your cabin,” you said softly, not needing to turn around to know who it was.

“I couldn’t go back to sleep without making sure you were okay,” Clarisse said. You had only known her for a little less than a week, but you had never heard her speak so softly, not even to Silena, who she was arguably the nicest to. “How are you doing?”

You sucked in a breath, your eyes remained unblinking as you stared at the new constellation. Zoe always loved the stars, it’s the one thing that never changed over time, despite the years that would pass, the stars were always there. She deserved to be up there among the stars, running across the sky and watching over the Hunters as you continued your journey.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve lost a sister,” you responded, trying to stop your voice from cracking.

“That doesn’t make it easier,” she said. She was right behind you; you felt her eyes on the back of your head, but you still refused to turn around.

“No,” you whispered. “No, it doesn’t.”

Life without Zoe, you couldn’t imagine it, it didn’t seem fathomable. You always figured you’d be the first to go. You didn’t doubt your skills but with how often you put your life at risk, with how reckless you could be to accomplish your goal, you never imagined Zoe falling before you. You would trade your life for Zoe’s in a heartbeat.

You heard the slight crunching of dirt as Clarisse shifted from foot to foot. You knew she was still behind you, though you hadn’t turned around. You weren’t sure how long she intended to stay there; it wasn’t like you were good company at the moment.

“You probably want to be alone,” Clarisse mumbled. “I’m going to go. Sorry for bothering you.”

You hummed out an acknowledgment. You listened as dirt shifted beneath her feet as she turned to walk away. “Wait,” you whispered. You were sure it was barely audible but clearly, she heard you, the shifting of her feet stopped. “Stay.” Tears began to fill your eyes; you weren’t sure how long you’d be able to hold them back anymore. “Please.”

There was some slight shuffling and next thing you knew Clarisse sat beside you, her legs dangling off the ledge. You glanced down, watching as Clarisse��s hand slid silently across the dirt, her pinky out as she got closer to you but didn’t actually touch you. You slid your hand across the dirt until your pinky brushed against hers. Your entire body froze at the contact until you felt her move, slowly intertwining her pinky with yours.

You weren’t sure how long you stayed there, staring up at the stars. Clarisse stayed with you the entire time, neither of you saying a word. You couldn’t deny the connection you felt with her, the comfort her presence brought you. You knew you couldn’t get attached to the feelings Clarisse brought out in you, that you shouldn’t get attached to them. You took an oath, and you would not dishonor your fallen sister by breaking that oath, you owed it to Zoe to be a better Hunter, to do better.

Morning rolled around before you knew it. You watched the sky; it was only a matter of time before the sun would start to rise. You made your way back to the cabin after your night with Clarisse, making sure to part ways before you got back to your cabin. You slung your pack over your shoulder and made sure the others had their stuff. You looked around the cabin, making sure everything was spotless until your eyes fell on the bed in the corner, Zoe’s bed. There technically weren’t assigned bunks but when it came to the Hunters, since all of you were immortal when you chose a bed it kind of became yours.

You walked over to the bed, looking down at the perfectly tucked sheets. Zoe always left her bed pristine, as if it had never been slept in. She was only at camp for one real night before she was sent on the quest, and she still managed to make her bed before leaving. You slid open the drawer of the nightstand right beside the bed. Your breath caught in your throat when you saw a silver circlet sitting in the drawer, the only thing sitting in the drawer.

“Until we meet again my sister,” you whispered, gently picking up the silver circlet before placing it in your bag.

“Let’s get moving,” you called out to your sister, clearing your throat to get rid of any emotion.

The Hunters followed your orders, falling into single file out of the cabin. They marched quietly through camp, each one of them looking at the sky, at the new constellation when it came into view, before it would disappear completely until nightfall again. You glanced around, noticing not a single camper was awake, there was a slight rumbling in the distance indicating the coming rain, you couldn’t think of more perfect weather for the occasion. You caught sight of Dionysus and Chiron standing outside the big house, each of them holding somber looks.

You weren’t surprised they already knew what happened. After all Zoe wasn’t the only one to lose her life on the quest. Bianca hadn’t even been a Hunter for a week, and she had already fallen in battle. You didn’t know the details of the quest and you didn’t need to; you were sure Bianca fought bravely till the end. You hadn’t spent much time with her, and you had your reservations about her going on the quest, her loss made you wish it had been you on the quest even more, she was so young, she had a little brother, so much to live for, it should have been you.

Chiron bowed his head to all of you as you passed the big house, each Hunter giving him a nod in acknowledgement. You caught Dionysus’s gaze and for the first time in your entire life, which was saying something, you saw sympathy in his eyes. You held your head high as you gave him a nod as well, he responded with a raise of his glass. You knew it was diet coke, but it was the thought that counts and that was about as high praise as you could get from Dionysus. Despite Dionysus’ distaste for the Hunters and the arguments he had with Zoe he had a heart, at least on some level, he cared for all his campers, including the Hunters when they were there.

As all of you began your journey up the hill you could see the silhouette of a spikey-haired girl, with her classic leather jacket, leaning against the tree she once was. A few of your sisters glanced back at you but you gave them a nod to continue. None of you had any experience of having another lieutenant other than Zoe. You had been with Artemis longer than any other Hunter and Zoe was already her second before you took the oath. You were just as hesitant as they were, but you knew Artemis always needed a second and if she deemed Thalia worthy of that position then you would follow her into battle without question.

You whipped around when you heard the someone’s feet slapping the grass hard as they ran towards you. Your mouth parted in question, your eyes going wide when you saw Clarisse. You had thanked her for her company and then you went your separate ways, you figured she had gone back to her cabin to get some sleep. She slowed down when she realized you had come to a stop.

“Hey,” she said slightly breathless. You raised your eyebrows at that, it took a lot for Clarisse to get breathless, that meant she probably sprinted all the way from her cabin. “I just…” she let out an awkward chuckle looking up at the sky. You smiled, it was clear she didn’t get nervous often, it seemed you were both in uncharted waters when it came to your feelings for each other. “I wanted to say goodbye.”

You smiled at her, she was gorgeous with the sun rising behind her, almost as gorgeous as when she was drenched in sweat, standing over a poor camper with her spear at their neck. You shook your head when you realized the thoughts you just had. You glanced behind you to see the rest of the Hunters had made it over the hill, only Thalia remained at the top, resting against the tree as she looked down at you and Clarisse before quickly directing her attention at something on the other side.

“Thank you,” you said, smiling softly at Clarisse.

“For what?” she asked.

“Being the… friend,” you emphasized the word, staring into her eyes, hoping your eyes said what you couldn’t. “I needed.”

“Well, anytime you need a…” she gave you a sad smile. “Friend, I’m here for you.”

You smiled at that. You were a Hunter, she was a demigod, there was a chance you’d never see her again in this lifetime, you didn’t come to camp often enough. You reached out, crossing the invisible barrier that separated the two of you and took her hand within yours. You heard her suck in a breath, but she didn’t say anything, her eyes remained cast down, watching as you lightly swung your intertwined hands back and forth.

“I’m sorry things couldn’t be different,” you mumbled.

“Me too,” she whispered. She quickly let go of your hand and cleared her throat. “How do you feel about that?” you turned to see her nodding up the hill at Thalia who was looking at the two of you again.

You let out a long sigh before directing your attention back to Clarisse. It didn’t matter how you felt about it, it was Artemis’s decision, and she made her choice, you would never question your goddess about something like that. You certainly had your opinions on Thalia though, you had them when you first met her all those years ago and they pretty much remained the same when you met her again nearly a week ago.

“I trust my goddess’s decision,” you said, with a small smile.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. You knew she wasn’t overly fond of the Hunters in general and probably didn’t have the highest opinion of Thalia either. You were pretty sure she wasn’t a fan of any of the gods, even her own father, though she was still desperate to make him proud. She didn’t know what it was like to have full faith in a goddess, to follow them, not because you were their child but by choice, though, most demigods didn’t understand the reason you and the other Hunters took the oath, why you were all so willing to fight and die for your goddess.

“Not jealous she didn’t choose you?” Clarisse inquired, crossing her arms. “You seem to give orders pretty well,” she mumbled the last part, her eyes on the ground as she kicked a rock.

You couldn’t help but smirk, even when the two of you were getting along, she still found it difficult to compliment someone else’s leadership skills. “No,” you said instantly, glancing back at Thalia one last time. “I’m not much of a leader. More of a third-tier leader type.” You chuckled making Clarisse chuckle along with you.

“Stay in touch?” she asked. “Everyone here is an idiot,” she was looking everywhere but you. “Besides Silena,” she added with an eyeroll as if Silena were going to pop up and yell at her for saying that. “And I kind of like talking to you,” she glanced at you before quickly looking away again.

“Of course,” you smiled.

You finished your goodbyes with Clarisse then made your way up the hill to where Thalia was waiting. She was leaning against her tree, her arms crossed with an unimpressed look on her face. “Took you long enough,” she said as you got to the top of the hill.

You rolled your eyes, she was definitely going to take some getting used to, she wasn’t Zoe. “Let’s go,” she said, pushing off the tree. “Artemis is waiting for us.”

“Wait,” you said, reaching around for your bag. Thalia paused, turning to you with a furrowed brow. “I know it’s probably not your thing,” you looked Thalia up and down. “But every lieutenant of Artemis should have one.” You pulled out the silver circlet, holding it out to Thalia.

Thalia’s face softened, her eyes not leaving the circlet in your hands. You figured she knew where you got it from. She had seen Zoe wearing one every time they interacted, and it wasn’t like you had been around anyone else where you could have acquired one. You hoped she understood what you offering this up meant. She could get a new one from Artemis, you were sure your goddess intended to give her one but offering her one of Zoe’s felt right.

“Thank you,” Thalia said, gently taking the circlet out of your hands. She hesitantly lifted it up and placed it on her head.

You sucked in a breath, staring at Thalia wearing Zoe’s silver circlet. You had to blink a few times to stop the tears from forming, you just officially admitted that Zoe was in fact gone.

“After you, lieutenant,” you said. Thalia nodded and began to make her way down the hill again. A smirk slowly crept onto your face before you turned to follow. “Unless you need more time saying goodbye,” you nodded back at the tree. “The squirrels that used to live on you probably miss you.”

Thalia kept walking down the hill to where the rest of the Hunters were waiting but she made sure to flip you off as she walked away. You gave a small chuckle; it would take some time and things would be different, but Thalia would make a good lieutenant. You looked back down at Camp Half-Blood one last time, seeing Clarisse in the distance. You smiled, giving her one last wave before you turned and followed after your sisters.

Taglist: @cxcilla @touchmyfracturedomens @luclue @manu-007s-world

#clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse la rue x you #clarisse x reader #percy jackson #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #maybe in another life

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restinslices · 9 months ago

Text

Everything pt2

PJO Show Ares X Child!Reader (no gender specified)

Word count: 6168 (I realized a bit late that majority is me setting up the scene. If you just wanna see their talk, read after the “~~”)

Summary: You haven’t seen your father since the last time you talked, but of course with your luck he finds you again and you’re forced to make a big decision.

Warnings: Reader is going through it, poor attempt at a fight scene, the lore and timeline is probably fucked up but ignore that, OOC Ares probably and as of typing I’m realizing MAJOR SPOILER FOR THE TITANS CURSE. To avoid this, scroll until you see “I don’t have any friends that come over” or “~” if you wanna be extra careful.

You’d love to say that not seeing your father after your last talk was some sort of surprise, but it wasn’t. Thankfully (is that selfish to think?) none of the demigods had a real good relationship with their parent. Well, Percy seemed to have a solid relationship with Posideon, but it’s not like he saw him everyday. And as selfish and heartless as it sounded, that offered you a bit of relief and comfort. It’s not like your father was sensitive and loving to you and you screwed it up. Everything was pretty much back to normal.

It was a pretty somber day at camp. Percy, Grover and Thalia had managed to save Annabeth and Artemis, but it didn’t come without casualties. You weren’t necessarily friends with Bianca or Zoë but you still grieved over them. The hardest part though, was watching how sad your friends had gotten, especially Percy. You knew what Percy was like. Percy was extremely loyal but that loyalty led to carrying a lot more weight on his shoulders than what was necessary. If your suspicions were right (and you knew they were), he’d blame himself for Bianca’s death. That made zero sense to you. He told you exactly how she died and to you, it seemed like Bianca made a choice. Percy couldn’t have done anything to stop it. He didn’t see it that way and you weren’t sure why you insisted on telling him over and over again and trying to cheer him up.

“Nico?” Percy raised to his feet when he saw you approaching. You shook your head,

“No sign of him. He’s been missing for a week now Percy. If we were gonna find him, we would’ve found him by now”. Percy looked defeated. You were sure he knew the chances of finding him were slim to none, but you kept combing areas of the woods for him to keep him somewhat at peace. If he thought there was a chance, he wouldn’t be as depressed hopefully.

“I’m gonna say it again-“

“Don’t”

“Well what should I say to calm you down?”

Percy thought for a moment but just shrugged and started heading inside his cabin and you followed. Percy collapsed on his own bed and you took it upon yourself to sit on the bed next to his. You didn’t know if it was because you held resentment towards your father, or if you actually liked Cabin 3 but you really wished this was your cabin instead. “Must be nice having a cabin all to yourself. No obnoxious cabin mates, no extra noise, nobody leaving their shit on the floor”.

“I guess” was all he said back to you and you sighed. You didn’t wanna keep repeating yourself but you genuinely didn’t know what to say but not saying anything made you feel like an asshole that was ignoring the situation.

So you tried to change the subject.

“Is it like this at home too? Just you and your mom? No friends over?”.

“I don't have any friends that can come over”

“None at school?”

“None”.

That made you frown. You were older than Percy by a few years, so you had time to adjust to how lonely life could be as a half-blood and by now, you didn't return “home” either. Camp was your home now year round. You understood why Percy kept going home though. You heard about his mom and she seemed like a nice woman. You were grateful he at least had that.

But instead of saying something sweet and nice and voicing your thoughts, you made a joke instead. “That's why your little ass keeps getting into trouble. You have no one out there watching out for you”

“My mom watches out for me plenty”

“But she's not keeping schools from being blown up now is she?”. Percy rolled his eyes, but he didn't look as sad as before so you took this as a sign to keep talking “if I was watching you, you'd be alright. At least you'd have help”

“You're tryna live with me now?”

“Sure”, you said with a shrug. “A cool mom, random blue food, stopping you from exposing yourself - it all sounds grand”. You both laughed at your joke because that's what it was. A joke.

At least… it was at first.

Either Percy didn't know what a joke was, or he was pretty fond of having a big sibling when he was home because the next day he told you he sent an Iris message to his mom and she was fine with getting an air mattress for you. You almost told Percy that it was just a joke, but then you thought about how lonely he must be at home and how annoying it can be only having his mom to talk to about this demigod stuff. Plus, it hopefully wouldn't hurt to get a break from camp.

You didn't know why you decided to pray and tell Poseidon about this, but you did. The sun had set and you slipped out of your cabin and snuck into the woods. You made a mini fire and threw two candy bars the Stoll brothers managed to sneak in, which was a real shitty offering but it was all you had. You couldn't do it during the feast. You had too much to say and someone would hear.

“Terrible offering, I know. I hope you're listening anyway” you started. “I'm gonna be following Percy around when he goes home and I'm gonna try and keep him and Sally somewhat safe. I don't know how safe Percy can really be but I'll try anyway. I hope that's not a problem. I'm not tryna step on your toes or anything”.

In all honesty praying and giving offerings felt strange. You were supposed to pray to Ares everyday and give him an offering, but you stopped doing that after your last talk. The first time you threw food in a fire and didn't say his name, you thought you'd combust as a punishment. You didn't though, so you kept doing it. Occasionally you'd give offerings to other gods but it was mainly Athena. Partially because she was like Ares but not really and partially because you hoped it would upset Ares. Was it childish? Yes. But compared to someone as old as Ares, you were a child.

“That's all I really have to say. If you don't want me to go you can drown me in my sleep or maybe send a letter. Whatever works for you”. You looked around, expecting for some paper saying “absolutely not” to land somewhere around you but nothing happened, so you put out the fire and snuck back into your cabin.

You don't think you have a huge ego, but you definitely felt you deserved a pat on the back for how good your work was.

You were able to convince your own lousy family to hand over any legal documents to Sally and thankfully Percy's middle school had a highschool right next to it. Although the demigods weren't supposed to use phones, a minor text here and there saying “hey, I think there's monsters here” didn't hurt anyone. There were plenty of times you had to sneak out of your school and into his, and if you weren't so busy fighting for your life, you'd audition to be in some spy or assassin movie.

Thankfully though, you weren't always busy helping Percy. You figured you might as well help Sally out so you got a job at a nearby bookstore inside of a mall and honestly? You'd prefer fighting monsters over dealing with bratty customers. Seriously though, how can you be a bitch at a bookstore?

“I've already told you ma'am” you said in a monotone voice, “we can't give you a refund if you do not have a receipt”.

The black hair woman scoffed and looked at you as if you caused the problem she was having. “A receipt? Do I seem like the type of woman who keeps a receipt?! When I bought Twilight, I expected better and I hate it and now I want a refund and as the customer, I am always right!”.

The entire conversation made you wanna explode in front of her and change the trajectory of her life, but unfortunately it didn't happen. What was with mortals and not understanding basic store rules?

“I would love it if you were right but you're not. No receipt. No refund”. She scoffed again and you wanted to grab her by the throat and stop the noise from ever leaving her mouth again.

“Well what do you expect me to do?!”

“Pick up a different book then get out maybe?”.

You couldn't put a finger on the noise that came out of her next. It was some deep throaty sound with a mix of anger and disgust. “Do you know who I am? I'm Holly Holiday-” you accidentally cracked a smile at her stupid name and that just fueled her rage. She pointed a finger at your name tag and said your name, followed by “you are so done for! I'll have you eaten alive for this!”.

She turned on her heels and left in a huff. Fucking finally.

You looked over at your coworker Harper and pretended your fingers were a gun and shot yourself, getting a laugh out of her. Harper and her twin Hazel shared a few classes with you and by some coincidence they also worked in the mall. Harper was with you while Hazel worked at the costume store downstairs. You couldn't tell them apart and you weren't sure if you'd ever pass the “we talk sometimes” stage but it didn't matter right now.

“I know it's closing time but are you ok if I take a bathroom break really quick? I can help out when I get back”

She waved dismissively, “take your time man. Hazel'll be coming up here too”. You nodded with a small thank you and stepped into the mostly vacant mall. The mall was usually lively but with it being so late at night, the only people around were other people like that annoying customer and workers who had the misfortune of still working this late.

It was eerily quiet. Sure, you thought you were used to how silent it was at this time of night, but you still got the creeps and did not take your time alone in the bathroom.

Maybe you should have though, because once you left the bathroom that same annoying lady was waiting outside, which she definitely should not have been doing.

“I told you I did not like that book”.

Seriously? She was still complaining? She was still here after the store had pretty much closed?

You said something that would've gotten you fired if your boss was around, “yeah? Tough shit lady. No receipt, no refund, it's as simple as that. Don't buy books you haven't read. Now get out the mall and go take care of your kids”.

She snarled. A genuine snarl that made you start to sneakily slip off the bracelet you were wearing. You didn't know if gods could give other kids gifts, and either it had been allowed this whole time or Poseidon didn't care since shortly after your “chat” after hours you received a dagger that could transform into a bracelet. You thought maybe Ares had sent it, but his gifts didn't smell of the ocean and a fresh breeze.

Regardless of who gave it to you, that snarl didn't sound good.

“I don't think you're very good at your job”

“I guess I'm not. Now do us both a favor and just leave”.

She didn't leave. Instead she smirked and that was all the confirmation you needed to know something was wrong. The bracelet slipped off your wrist and while the monster was transforming, you gripped your weapon and brought it up through the bottom of her mouth. You pulled it out, but not through the entry wound. You pulled it towards you, letting it split her face in half.

Just in case, you stabbed her in the heart, twisted the knife then pulled it out of her through the side of her chest. You didn’t have to wait for her to crumble. It was game over. A surprisingly easy win.

You grabbed some nearby napkins so you could wipe your dagger clean then returned it back to your wrist.

“What happened?” Harper asked once you stepped back inside, which was really odd for multiple reasons.

Firstly, you looked like you usually did. Nothing about you was particularly out of place. At least you didn't think so.

Secondly, she didn't sound curious. She didn't sound concerned. She sounded frustrated, like you did something wrong.

“Nothing” you lied. “It's nothing. Let's just clean up, yeah?”.

“I'm sure it's not nothing Child of Ares”.

Your brows knitted together and you hoped you just heard wrong. You turned to look at Harper and that's when it started to click.

Harper. Hazel. Holly.

Harpies.

They were too lazy to pick a different initial for the first name and you fell for it like an idiot. Plus the “I’ll have you eaten alive” comment. But in all fairness, who actually takes those comments seriously? If you took every threatening comment seriously, you'd be sent to an asylum.

Harper's short red hair looked like flames now. Her green eyes looked hungry for your flesh and her sharp teeth glistened in the light as feathers grew from her arms. Realistically, you should've been scared. There were two alive harpies in the building, but something about a monster with a gray shirt with mini white books decorated on it really made you wanna laugh. She must've sensed this since she sneered,

“You think I'm funny?”

“Do you want an honest answer?”

“You won't think I'm so funny soon you spoiled demigod!”. You wanted to make a joke about how calling children with severe abandonment issues “spoiled” was silly, but you decided this wasn't the time. Instead you took the bracelet off.

Harper laughed in your face. “You think that will stop me?”

“Handled your friend pretty well. How about you stop trash talking and come over here so we can see if you're any different”. You don't know which comment got her so angry but she leapt at you.

You sidestepped her and planned on delivering a quick stab to the neck, but she must've seen it coming. She grabbed something and quickly turned to bat you in the face with it, making you stumble back. It took you a quick second to realize she hit you with a book. A Goosebumps book no less.

“You are incredibly childish” you mumbled and you wished you could laugh it off. Maybe you were childish too because you picked up the book and launched it at her face, feeling a tad bit disappointed when she dodged it.

You swung at her but she caught your wrist and squeezed hard enough to make you drop your dagger. You were quick on your feet though and you brought your available elbow down on her inner elbow (you were sure it had a scientific name but honestly who cares?). You heard a crunch and Harper screeched. Her grip loosened enough for you to snatch away while kicking her, her flying and hitting the railing.

You grabbed the dagger and threw it. You meant for it to hit somewhere fatal but she moved and instead it hit her directly in the eye, which made her screech even louder.

You snatched your necklace off and the object quickly took the shape of a double sided sword. It was a gift from your father and although he was probably pissed at you, you figured he probably wasn't watching and wouldn't care.

You charged at her and swung the sword. Although she was screaming in pain and was no doubt in agony, she slid under the blade. As she turned to face you, her hands moved and a sharp gust of wind knocked you off the third floor.

To make matters worse, Hazel decided to make an appearance. She was right below you, cackling, arms outstretched and you knew if you landed in those arms she'd devour you.

You did the only thing you could think of with such short timing. You angled the sword vertically and aimed directly for her mouth. She seemed to understand but it was too late. You came crashing down, your sword along with you and it slid directly in her mouth and down her throat. Because of the sword having a solid middle so you could hold onto something, it didn't go all the way through and you stumbled a bit, but you were better off than her. She stopped all movement and to make sure the job was done, you ripped the sword through her, cutting her in half.

“MY SISTER!”, Harper screeched and you looked up at her with your messy sword in hand.

“You want more from the Child of Ares?!” You claimed you hated trash talk and you especially hated being called his child but the adrenaline was really getting to you. “I have plenty to give!”.

She flew up higher and started to come down fast towards you. You readied your sword, prepared to end this but suddenly she stopped and started trembling.

“L-L-Lord Ares. I-”

Before you could ask any questions and she could finish her sentence, you were being launched into the air. The scream you let out was embarrassing but it didn't matter in the end. You both collided and hit the wall and instead of being knocked out or injured like you thought you'd be, you were completely fine. Your sword went straight through her chest and pinned her to the wall behind her and you were hanging above the ground, grasping onto the hilt of your sword and hoping your hands wouldn’t start sweating.

“L-L-Lord Ares. I-”

No. No way. It couldn’t be. But who else could’ve launched you in the air like that?

You looked down and there he was. You don’t know why, but you expected him to look somewhat different. Maybe a new haircut or a new jacket. Maybe he’d try contacts, but no. He looked exactly the same. You didn’t know if you were comforted or unnerved by it.

You wished you had something cool to say but all you said was “what are you doing here?”.

“Saving your life”. Yeah right. You had everything 100% under control. He chuckled and you started to wonder if he could read your mind. When you screamed internally though, he didn’t flinch so that theory went out the window. Maybe you looked annoyed and didn’t know it.

“Are you gonna catch me?” You asked.

“What for?”

“Because you threw me all the way to the fifth floor and it’d be nice not to break something”

“You need me to warm up milk up for you too?”.

Fuck it. You’d risk the broken leg.

You tightened your hands around the hilt and planted your feet on the wall then pushed off with all your might. Fortunately, you got the sword out the wall. Unfortunately, you were now falling from five floors up.

You braced for impact, but instead of falling and hitting the floor, you fell into someone’s arms. You looked up, thinking that maybe someone was with your father that you didn’t see before, but no. It was him. He caught you. Something you weren’t expecting but you weren’t against.

You mumbled a thanks and stood on your feet. The year was 2006 when you last talked. It was early in 2008 and while that wasn’t that big of a gap, the talk you had last time made things more awkward.

“I thought you’re not allowed to interfere”

He raised a brow at you as if saying “you care about rules now when you’ve been breaking them?”. Were you breaking them though? Sure you were encouraged to give offerings to your parent but you hadn’t been punished… yet. If it was so bad you wouldn’t be walking right now. And you doubted he paid enough attention to notice. He was probably relieved to have one less kid bothering him.

Gods, you were a downer.

“Are you gonna tell on me?” He asked.

“If you hadn’t caught me”

“And now?”

“My lips are sealed”. You didn’t see his expression. You were too busy looking down at your shoes. A habit you hated you developed. It made you feel small. But you guessed demigods were supposed to be small in comparison to their parent. That’s why you showed them respect but they hardly returned the favor.

A moment of silence passed before he spoke up again.

“You have money on you?”.

Was he gonna rob you now? “Uh, yeah”.

“You’re paying for dinner. Let’s go”

He started walking away before you could even respond, and like a reflex you grabbed his arm to slow him down. “I can’t”.

“Can’t?” He said so calmly it kinda scared you.

“Yeah. I can’t. My uh…” you decided not to tell him the entire truth about staying with Percy and Sally. “My ride… mom. She’s coming to get me. You don’t want mom knowing you’re in town, right?”.

He looked you up and down and you tried your best to not seem nervous. You weren’t sure he believed you but he let it go for the night.

You wished it stayed that way. That he’d just go back wherever he came from but instead he told you the name of a diner nearby and said to be there by noon tomorrow and that you were paying.

“Great. Thanks dad” you thought. “I always love our talks”.

The good thing about his random plan to go to a diner at noon was that you were allowed to clean yourself and sleep beforehand. The bad thing was that now you were sitting across from him and it was incredibly awkward.

Ares kept laughing at his phone and you debated on asking him what was so funny but he said “started a Twitter war about vaccination. It’s getting good”. You screamed in your head again, but once again he didn’t flinch. Maybe he just had a good poker face.

“I’m happy for you?”. He glanced up at you and instead of going back to his phone, he set it face down on the table. You didn’t know if he seemed to glow because of the little war he started, or if a source of light was hitting him nicely. Maybe it was a god thing.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve called you here”

Was this an HR meeting? “I’m wondering why I’m paying”

“Ask me”

“You know I wanna know though so why am I asking?”

He didn’t respond. He just looked at you and you could hear his foot tapping on the floor.

You rubbed your brow, already feeling a migraine coming on. You took a deep breath and let out a sarcastic response (which was not a good idea but your mouth worked faster than your brain).

“Ares, the amazing God of War. The Protector of Mistreated Women. Wearer of biker jackets. I come before you as your humble child, begging thee to tell me what required my summons and why you were at the mall last night. Please please please tell me. I’ll fall over and die if you don’t”.

Sarcastic or not, he accepted it. He motioned towards the platter of burgers and fries, “this is your thank you. This is your offering to me since you haven’t been doing that”.

Well fuck. You didn’t think he’d notice.

You leaned back in your seat and your fingers strummed against your knees and you had to remind yourself that running out probably wouldn’t end well.

“You noticed?”

“I did” he said simply. It reminded you of how emotionless he was the last time you talked. It reminded you of how frustrated you were that he talked as if nothing was wrong and as if your pain didn’t affect him.

“You demigods think you’re so smart. You have these big egos and think you’re ahead of us. You gave your offerings to Athena and Poseidon of all people ” he spat their names like it left a bitter taste in his mouth to mention them.

“And then you stay with that fish boy and his mom. Yeah. I saw that too. And I save your life and you don’t seem the least bit grateful”.

Grateful.

Something about that word you hated.

Grateful? What was there to be grateful for? “Yeah dad, I’m super grateful my life consists of monsters trying to eat me and a dad I only see once in a blue moon. Totally grateful”.

“We can’t interfere”

“Didn’t stop you last night”

He tsked, “I don’t get you. You complain about my absence then you complain when I’m here when I could be doing anything else!”. His voice rose but the people in the diner were either used to this or didn’t care enough to say anything.

The nervousness and the fear rolled off you the more he spoke. Gratefulness? Doing anything else? You weren’t stopping him.

“Then go do those things. I’m not holding your hand and making you stay”. Your brain told you to shut up and apologize, but your mouth wasn’t having it. “And this isn’t about us and you know it. This is about you. This is about your ego being hurt. You don’t care about my safety. You didn’t go to the mall to protect me. You just love a fight and you were probably disappointed you couldn’t do more”

“That’s what you think?” His eyes burned with something you couldn’t quite place. Anger obviously, but it seemed like something else was there. Or maybe there was literal fire in his eyes. Either way, it was clear he was upset and if you didn’t shut up soon, he’d probably turn you into a random animal.

But who didn’t love animals?

“That’s what I know. And I didn’t need your help. I was just fine. The only thing you would’ve missed if I somehow died was your little offerings. I don’t matter to you. Just admit it so we can move on”. Ares opened his mouth to say something, but you spoke again “and for your information Percy and Sally are very nice people. They feel more like family than you do”.

That shut up whatever he planned on saying. The last time you two talked you swore you saw an emotion cross his face. This time you were definitely sure you saw something cross his face before it went back to its default expression.

Was that regret?

No. That was stupid and you’ve had plenty of stupid thoughts.

It went silent. Weirdly, eerily silent.

The diner wasn’t silent obviously but you two were.

You both were just staring at each other like statues. You wished you could read his mind. You hoped you would see thoughts of regret and sorrow and maybe hopefulness about your relationship going forward. You wished he had the same thoughts you had. Another stupid thought. Being hopeful didn’t work with him.

For whatever reason, your mind wandered off to the late night talks you’d have with Sally and for whatever other reason, you started to speak.

“Have you heard the song American Pie? Yes, it’s somewhat important to what I have to say. Yes or no only please”

He looked bored and unamused but he answered anyway. “I don’t know. Maybe? Who cares?”.

“There’s a line in the song that says this’ll be the day that I die. And for whatever reason it made me think about what I’d do if I were dying. If I woke up one day and I knew I was gonna die that day, what would I do? You wanna know what I realized?”

He raised his brows for a second and leaned back in his chair. There was a possibility he was still bored but he seemed somewhat interested. “Shoot”.

You smiled bitterly. Here he was so calm and fine and here you were, speaking slow and hoping your voice didn’t waver or crack. “I realized-” you failed. Your voice wobbled a bit and you cleared your throat a little too loud. “I realized I’d spend every second trying to make you love me”.

You didn’t bother trying to read any expression he had next. You knew you’d always get it wrong and you’d imagine what you wanted to see. “And I uh… I don’t wanna be that way anymore”. You blinked rapidly, trying to prevent any tears from falling out. You didn’t have the rain to cover your face and blend in like you did last time. “And selfishly I hope that scares you”.

“Gods don’t feel fear”

“Well whatever you wanna call it I hope you feel it. I hope -and I’m gonna keep calling it fear- I hope you feel afraid for what that means for us”

“Allow me to humor you for a bit” you felt as though the comment was supposed to be sarcastic but it didn’t sound sarcastic or aggressive. It was weirdly soft. “Why would you not wanting to spend your last day with me scare me?”

“Because that means I won’t admire you anymore” you answered. “You don’t get it. You don’t get how much you mean to me. You don’t get how much I used to idolize you. Before I was claimed, I was already intrigued by you. Once I was claimed I read every single story that had to do with you. I was honored to be your child and tried to show you how honored I was everyday. I didn’t do all this for me. The training, bettering my Greek, learning everything I could about mythology. I didn’t do that for me. I did that so I would never shame your name and make you look like you raised incompetent idiots. The way I would defend your name and what you represent, you’d think I was being paid”

“Me not admiring you anymore means I won’t care about defending you. It means I won’t care anymore about our family relationship. And I hope the idea of me calling you Ares instead of dad terrifies you. That emptiness or indifference I’ll feel when I hear your name… I know it hasn’t happened yet but thinking about it terrifies me too. Maybe I’m just selfish and don’t wanna be alone”. You used your sleeve to wipe at your wet face, a mix of embarrassment and relief for finally getting this out of you. “I could be right. I doubt it. I’m probably just making all that up but either way I need you to stop doing this. Seeing you at all, it gives me hope. I don’t want an enemy for life. I’m not Percy. But this is just gonna make this harder and if you hate me I am begging you to have mercy and leave me be. No visiting. I won’t come to see you when we do that little field trip either. I’ll stay at camp or I’ll go bother another god. Hermes is really nice. And if I break my end of the deal you can do whatever you want to me. Turn me into an ant, rearrange my fingers, throw me down a flight of stairs at full force, whatever”.

There you went again making up shit. Swearing you saw something worse than sadness on his face; grief. That was impossible. Your eyes were just playing tricks on you like they always did.

You didn’t know what you wanted him to say, but you didn’t expect “you think, but you don’t know anything”.

“Then tell me what I don’t know”. He didn’t say anything. He went silent and you were getting real tired of his silences. You sighed, “Sally’s been waiting outside so…”

“Yeah…”. He let out a breath. Annoyance. Had to be. “You want this?” He asked.

You were honest. “No” you said instantly. “No I don’t but this just seems like the best thing to do”. He didn’t argue with you.

Your hand went to reach inside your pocket for money but then he spoke again “keep it”.

“It’s no problem-”.

“Just keep it”.

You nodded.

You stayed sitting down. Why was it so hard to stand? Why did your legs feel so wobbly and your throat so dry? Why did your chest feel like a huge weight was crushing it? Weren’t you supposed to feel the opposite? Free and lively? Feel like you could float?

Another stupid thing escaped your lips. “Can you do me a favor?”.

“Another one?” He asked lifelessly- no. He was not lifeless. He was happy. You were sure of it. You’d leave and he’d cheer because he wouldn’t have to deal with another kid anymore. You knew it.

“It’s not a favor if you don’t wanna see me either”. Another bit of silence but you weren’t surprised. “Can we do that thing mortals do? You know, when they hug and say they love each other before they go their own way? Or maybe just the ‘I love you’ part”. He looked at you for a bit and you were about to apologize for making it weird and leave but Ares stood up.

You stood up.

It’s strange how something you’ve never done before can feel so right. Like it was always meant to happen or always supposed to be this way. You weren’t necessarily cold and Ares wasn’t a heater, but the second he wrapped his arms around you and you did the same for him, you felt much warmer. Not a burden type of warmth. The kind of warmth that brings you relief on a freezing cold day. That crushing feeling stayed the same though.

“I love you dad” you said and it fell out so naturally, you’d forgive anyone for thinking this was a normal occurrence. That the fight you had was just a small disagreement but otherwise you two had an amazing relationship.

You didn’t know how the words “I love you too” would sound coming out of his mouth, but it sounded better than you hoped for. It once again sounded natural and genuine even if you knew it wasn’t.

You thought it wasn’t.

No. You knew it wasn’t. This was no time for brain tricks and delusions.

Pulling apart was probably the hardest thing you had to do and your job was keeping Percy Jackson safe. That sudden coldness fell over you again and the crushing got worse.

It didn’t get any better when you left. You didn’t have the guts to look at him one last time, afraid you’d call off your deal right then and there if you made eye contact with him.

Luckily Sally was an intelligent person. She was smart enough not to ask how it went. Even if she did, it’s not like you could answer with the huge lump in your throat.

“Do you want ice cream dear?”.

You shrugged. There was that word again. Want. You didn’t know what you wanted anymore. You thought you did but it all felt wrong. There was no weight lifted off your shoulders and you didn’t feel light on your feet. You felt cold and hollow. The weight got worse and pushed down on you with so much force, you didn’t know it was even possible.

Then your eyes landed on his bike and it all came out. Your head fell into your hands and you let out sobs that were lodged deep in your chest. Your ears were ringing and you were sure you looked and sounded like the most pathetic person alive but you couldn’t care anymore. Sally, once again being an intelligent woman, took that as a sign it was time to go and pulled off. You assumed Sally would’ve dropped Percy off after you went inside. You assumed he wouldn’t wanna wait out here for you while you talked to one of the people that hated him the most. His hand patted your shoulder, notifying you that he was in the car still. Usually you’d make a joke and tell them that you were fine, but nothing came out but borderline hysterical sobs.

You grew jealous of Percy. He didn’t see Poseidon much but at least he knew deep down that Poseidon cared for him. Sometimes you’d get that feeling but you thought it was all a delusion. Fuck. Why did you keep doing that? You knew it was all a delusion.

That choice had to be the right one. It needed to be the right one.

That didn’t stop this wave of agony from drowning you, and you’d fight a thousand harpies if it meant this feeling would go away.

Omg y’all I did it😭. I mixed two ideas someone suggested with my own ideas and here we are. I hope y’all like it even though a huge portion is me yapping but to be fair I didn’t realize until after I was done and summarizing all of that didn’t seem like it’d sound right, yk? There was definitely a way I could’ve done it but I’m stupid soooo… yeah. Anyway, OOC Ares but this is my angsty fantasy so I’m making him care about his kids. In my head the whole “I hate my own kids” is him trying to convince himself he doesn’t care for them so it’s easier to stay apart from them. Idk, maybe I’ll make a part 3 from his perspective and answer why he said he was saving their life. I make no promises tho. And I know I said it’s show Ares so skipping ahead doesn’t make sense but we know what’s gonna happen Taglist: @kyuupidwrites @chadmeeksmartinswifey @lebguardians @beansficreblogs (one asked to be tagged, one asked for more dad fics, then one commented plus reblogged and one reblogged, so although majority did not ask, imma just assume y’all would wanna see a part 2😀. We’re getting the band back together like this is Phineas and Ferb)

#percy jackson #percy series #percy jackson ares #pjo tv show #ares pjo #percy jackson angst #pjo angst #ares x reader #ares x child #ares angst #idk what else to tag #HEY YOU GUUUYYYSS #I yell like we’re on Electric Company

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jake-g-lockley · 2 years ago

Text

Wherever You Stray, I Follow (Javier Peña x reader)

Masterlist | Spotify Playlist

gif by @bruhlpng

Warnings: Angst, canon-usual violence.

Word count: 3.7k

A/N: I wanted to write soft!Javi first, idk everything he does just seems so pure to me and eee I love him. Most of this was inspired by Taylor Swift’s Willow heh so enjoy <3

Tagging: @brekkers-desigirl @in-between-the-cafes @senassn

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Javier Peña was knee-deep in shit. It might not have been literal shit but it might as well should have because he would have preferred that over anything that was happening to him.

It all started a few months ago, when everything in his life decided to take a confusing turn. It was a gloomy Monday and after a failed late night stakeout with Steve made sure that Javi overslept, stumbling around finding his clothes and trying his best to look put together. His sleep for the past few weeks had been restless, his mind flooded with thoughts that he wanted to forget. He was admittedly tired but had slipped on the hardened mask that he always wore whenever he was out and about chasing cartel members and wiping scum off the streets of Colombia.

He had a gut feeling that that Monday was going to be a long one, with the way nothing went right for him. Still, he collected himself and went through every single page of paperwork that was left on his desk, eventually letting himself get lost in the momentum that he had created. He was, unfortunately, rudely pulled out of his deep concentration by a loud bark followed by a shrill whistle. He instantly stood up from his desk, as if he had been hit by a Pavlovian response, only to be hit by darkness as he felt his body hit the floor below him.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

On your first day at the DEA office in Bogota, Colombia, all your walls were up high. You’d decided that arrogance triumphed over whatever pleasantries you had in you because you were only here to do your job. Your six inch red bottoms clacked intensely against the cold marble floor as you strut into the office holding your chin high as Artemis cleared the way for you. People around you scrambled, gasping as their eyes landed on the unleashed rottweiler before you. You scanned the lobby, looking for any sign of a man that fit the descriptions of Steve Murphy. You finally found him leaning against the reception counter smoking a cigarette. You whistled for Artemis and she led the way again before stopping in front of a bewildered Steve.

“Nice doggie, please don’t bite.” he murmured under his breath, a little softly but you caught it nevertheless and it elicited a laugh from you.

“She’s very well trained, you have nothing to worry about Agent Murphy.” you assured, placing your hand atop Arte’s head, giving him your most elegant smile.

“You’re the new recruit?” Steve asked, clearly floored by your appearance.

“You sound surprised?” you questioned back, your gaze hard and unfaltering.

“You were supposed to be a man.” Steve chuckled before extending his hand for some formal introductions.

He cautiously led you around the place, warily stepping around the dog, before finally taking you to the room where everything goes down.

“Your office will be here, Agent. Once again, welcome to the team.” Steve said, beaming.

Suddenly, you heard a loud bark. You whistled loudly for Arte to stop whatever she was up to but it was too late, she had pinned down a man onto the floor. You rush to get to Arte, worried that she had found someone who had been a threat to you and was about to kill a man right here in your new office. But instead, to your absolute confusion, you found her tail was wagging happily as she licked the man’s face.

You whistled once more and Arte jumped off the man, revealing who it was she had pounced upon. Your jaw dropped and all the air left your lungs as you stared down at the person before you, the unmistakable unconscious face of Javier Peña bringing back a flood of memories to you. For a split second, you felt the insecure child that you had left behind years ago attach itself back onto your new frame, but you pushed it away instantly as you teared your gaze away from Javier.

You looked around you to see guns drawn and looks of fury on the officers faces. All of them were mad, except Steve. Steve was howling with laughter, clutching his chest as he struggled to keep himself upright at the sight of the unconscious Javier. The officers lowered their guns at the sound of Steve’s laughter, looking at him as if he had turned up to work in a clown outfit.

“Knocked out by a dog!” Steve heaved as you knelt down to slap Javier across the face to wake him up.

You knew that wasn’t really the best thing to do to someone you hadn’t seen in the last six years but it sure felt good to watch him stir under you as the singe of the slap burned a satisfying tingle on your palm.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Maybe god, whoever god was, had taken Javi back to heaven for all the things he had done right. A sharp sting followed by a bright light greeted him as he awoke. The one thing that had him concluding that he was dead was that he was looking at you. You, his first love, standing above him looking like a real goddess, in a full black suit that made you look like a badass, your hair flowing and your eyes sharp as you glared down at him. He smiled up at you, a big goofy smile that made him feel dizzy.

And then he heard it.

The cackling laughter.

“Oops, nevermind, I might just be in hell.” Javi thought as the laughter just got louder and louder as the ringing in his ears cleared.

Then something clicked and Javi recognised the voice. It was Steve.

“Shit, Steve, you’re in hell too?” Javi called out but his voice sounded wobbly.

Suddenly, something big and wet dragged across Javi’s face. He sat up abruptly only to be faced with a rottweiler. Hell hounds are not this happy are they? Javi took a while to right himself, looking around from the rottweiler to you and to the people around him. He had the itching realization that he was in fact still on Earth, in Colombia, in his office. But that couldn’t be, then why were you here? His heart raced and he panicked for the first time in years, his feelings jumbling up his thoughts.

“Agent, meet my partner, Special Agent Javier Peña.” he heard Steve say.

Javi looked at Steve, still trying to process what was going on. He realized he was on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him and he jumped up and stood properly in front of you, stretching his hand out for you to take. You shook it and dropped his hand quickly as he sat back down at his desk rubbing his forehead. You felt real, so Javi might not have been dreaming.

“Apologies Agent Murphy, Artemis never really does this.” You said to Steve watching as Artemis stares up happily at Javi.

Of course she was excited to see him. Arte’ mother, Leto was Javi’s dog and she clearly remembered him, or at least remembered his scent. You watch as Artemis turns back into a puppy, licking Javi’s hand as he pats her snout. The sight of Javi had short circuited your own brain and you couldn’t help but stare at him, not believing that you were actually looking at him. You had to physically get a hold of yourself when you caught the dimple that pulled on his cheek as he smiled at your dog. Your hand found your throat, fingertips tracing the same lines it did six years ago when you screamed your throat hoarse trying to get Javi to stay home.

Why are you leaving me?

You and him had engaged in competitive battles with everything, from school to sports to even hobbies. It lasted for years and shaped you into the person that you were today. You had to be better than him and he had to be better than you. Weirdly enough it brought the two of you closer. Javier was someone you can hold onto, someone you had trusted to be with you forever. He was your everything and you had no relationship purer than the one you had with him.

Until that one harrowing day, where everything turned upside down for you. He had turned up to your home on your 21st birthday with a bouquet of flowers and Artemis who was sitting in a basket with a red ribbon tied around her neck. The both of you talked for hours over rum centered chocolates and little pretzels with little Artemis curled up in the little space that your folded legs made. He pulled you onto your feet after a while, holding onto you and spinning the both of you around to a song on the radio.

The both of you danced till you were dizzy and that was when he stopped and held you close, his nose grazing yours as your breaths mingled with his. It was then when he told you his real plans. His plans of leaving the states. He didn’t tell you where he was going or what he was going to do no matter how much you begged. The giddy few hours that the both of you had spent together dissolved into chaos as you screamed at him, throwing the closest pillow at him.

“Please, please Javi, don't leave me here. I have no one, please.” you sobbed, clutching at his button down shirt as he pressed his forehead to yours.

Tears were streaming down his face but he reached out to wipe yours away. He held your face in his hands as he shook his head at you, willing for you to understand. The second he let go of you, you sank onto your knees and watched through teary eyes as he walked out your front door, never turning back. He was gone, it was as if you had lost him to the winds and you hadn’t heard from him since that day, not even a single phone call. Now here he was, dimple and all, as if fate had just decided to lead you back to him.

He was looking at you now and he looked lost for words with the way his mouth was hanging open a little. Before he could say anything, you subtly shook your head at him, indicating that you didn’t want to cause a scene now. He gave you one sharp nod and turned to Steve, and started to chastise him for laughing at Arte knocking him unconscious.

Frantically, the both of you pushed your emotions aside and layered on the masks thick, not willing for anything to slip out.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

That was two months ago, but till the present day, Javier and you had been skirting around each other, not acknowledging the fact that the both of you were old friends and that he probably knew more about you than he let on and vice versa. Now, you and him were crouched behind a wall, guns drawn, silence shrouding the both of you. Javier had some information about the location of one of Escobar’s sacarios and the both of you were waiting to gun him down.

“Where did you get this information anyway?” you found yourself speaking to him directly for the first time in six years.

It must have surprised him because he looked at you as if you were speaking gibberish.

“I have my sources, muñeca.” he murmured, wincing slightly at the nickname that left his mouth.

You rolled your eyes, knowing what the possible answer could be. You heard rumors but you were smarter than that, your eyes frequently caught the dark tinges on Javier’s neck, turning your stomach and coating it in poisonous jealousy.

“When are we going to talk about it?” Javier said before he could stop himself.

Silence weaved in between his question, lacing the both of you in an awkward position.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” you declared, your eyes sweeping for any sign of movement.

Javier sighed your name and the sound rang in your head like a sweet melody. You turned to glare at him but your hardness faltered when all you saw was sadness etched onto his handsome face.

“I’ve moved on and I have nothing to say to you, Peña.” you insisted, refusing to cave.

“There's no one here, you can just call me Javi, like you used to.” he sighed.

“Never.” you said, keeping your eyes trained into the darkness over the wall.

“I’d kill to hear you say it.” he murmured.

His words were drowned by the sound of bullets flying through the air, one flying right in between the both of you. Javier was faster, launching himself into action and shooting with precision. You watched his six, pressing your back against his, the feeling of him grounding you. Once you found nothing, Javier walked away from you and stood over one of the sacarios, his gun held in front of him. He pulled the trigger and pulled it again and again and again and you stood there rooted watching blood splatter everywhere.

“Javi, stop!” you yelled and he finally stopped, his shoulders heaving.

He turned to you, and your eyes widened at the dark look that was painted on his face. The cops swarmed the place and Javier grabbed your hand and pulled you away from the scene.

“Why are you here?” Javier said, pushing you against a wall. “You come back to me after years and you’re suddenly a DEA Agent too?”

Javier was seething with anger, pent up anger that had pushed far past his breaking point. He had been watching you for months, putting your precious life out on the line right in front of him.

“ANSWER ME!” he yelled when you didn’t answer.

Your heart jumped at the sound of his voice and before you could stop yourself, you raised your hand and let your palm collide hard with Javier’s face.

“The same fucking reason as you, Javier! I’m here to take down fucking narcos and their fucked up empires.” you said, grabbing onto his jacket. “And don’t fucking yell at me!”

“Fuck, you know how dangerous this is, muñeca?” he said desperately, searching your eyes. “A few more centimeters and that fucking bullet would’ve hit you.”

“THAT'S MY RISK TO TAKE!” you yell back.

“I can’t lose you again, please, not again.” he pleaded, grabbing ahold of your arms and pulling you closer to his chest.

“I’m not yours to lose anymore, Peña.” you spat, wrenching your arms out of his grip and walking away, leaving him to stare at the wall before him.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

It had been years since you’ve cried this hard. You buried your nose in Arte’s coat and couldn’t stop the tears from flowing out of your eyes. If you had a penny each time Javier Peña made you cry, you’d be so rich that you could take over Escobar’s entire empire. You felt unreasonable, stupid even, crying like a stupid school girl. Arte was probably fed up with your shenanigans, but she sat in front of you quietly as you hiccuped through your sobs.

A loud knock sounded at your door causing both you and Arte to jump. You pulled out your gun as Arte darted towards the door.

“It’s me.”

You scowled at the sound of Javier’s voice but Arte barked happily. You shushed her and leaned against the door, crossing your arms. You refused to see his face, not after how he decided that your choices were now his choices.

“Look, I can hear you and Arte, cariño.” he sighed. “I know you don’t want to see me but I really just need to talk to you.”

Javier knew he fucked up. It was as if he voluntarily stepped into the world’s biggest pile of shit. He’d rather have Escobar piss on his face than to sleep knowing that he had upset you.

You stayed silent as you stared into the door, wondering how Javier looked behind it.

“Can we just go on a ride? Bring Arte too, it’ll help calm you down.” he said softly, pulling out his big guns.

When you and him were younger, he used to take you on random car rides whenever your parents would fight or when things got too tough. He would drive you around until you fell asleep and you’d always find yourself tucked into your bed the next morning. When he was gone, you’d find yourself doing the same thing, but it didn’t feel the same when you had to drag yourself out of the car and into your house.

You opened the door a little so that you could see Javier between the cracks. His hair was a mess and he had a cigarette between his lips. His guard was clearly let down as he looked more like your Javi and less like a hardened agent.

“Only if you get me a hamburger.” you mumbled, watching as a small smile creeped onto Javi’s face.

Javi carried Arte’s dog bed down the stairs and into his truck as she scampered happily at his heels. You watched on as Javi knelt down and gave Arte a big kiss on her snout and encouraged her to jump into the back seat. Your heart almost seized at this as you remembered the way he used to talk to Leto and bring her out on walks with you everyday.

You slid into the front seat as Javi held the door open for you. You clicked the seatbelt on and went on to stare at your hands as he got into the car and ignited the engine. You zoned out on his scent, breathing him in, occasionally turning to watch him talk to Arte. Once you were satisfied with your hamburger and fed some to Arte, you settled into the seat and turned your whole body towards Javi, not caring whether you were being subtle or not.

You deserved this, you deserved to absorb as much of Javi that you could after years of being deprived of it. You loved him and it was as if something had been looking down upon you and is letting you have a second chance at everything. You soon found yourself being lulled to sleep as the emotional exhaustion took over your whole body. You awoke to the feeling of being carried. You gasp and hooked your arms around Javi’s neck as he chuckled and lowered the both of you down onto a blanket on … grass?

“Where are we?” you whispered scanning Javi’s face.

He didn’t say a single thing instead he pushed you down and laid down next to you. The pitch black sky was littered with millions of stars, and your eyes widened as you stared at the void of space above you. When you got the chance to tear your gaze away from the heavens, you found Javi staring at you, the soft look in his eyes turning you into a human puddle. He had lit a cigarette and was running through it quickly, making you roll your eyes at him. You rolled your body on top of his, straddling his abdomen and taking him by surprise as you snatched his cigarette away.

“You gotta stop smoking these, they’re bad for you.” you say sternly.

“You’re bad for me yet, here we are.” he mumbled, staring at the way your body connected with him.

You placed the cigarette onto your lips and took a long drag, coughing when the smoke hit your lungs. Javi laughed under you, and you scowled at him, stumping the cigarette out on the grass. Javi thought that there was nothing more beautiful in this world other than you. He gathered his last bit of courage and pushed you slightly downwards so that he could sit up and look at you before reaching out to cupped your cheek with his hand. He relished at the way you leaned into his touch and at the way your eyes fluttered close.

“I-i don’t know where to start, so I’m just going to say sorry. I’m the fool who hurt you and I don’t expect you to ever forgive me.” he whispered. “To leave you was to leave my soul behind and I don’t know who to thank or curse for bringing you back to me.”

“Javi…” you started but he placed a finger onto your lips.

“My girl is a DEA Agent.” he said nodding to no one in particular. “My smart, badass girl. Honestly, when I saw you standing over me when I passed out, I thought god was a woman and god was you.”

You giggled and ducked your head into his chest, letting him pull you impossibly close to him. This was it, this was your place of refuge, right here in Javier Peña’s arms.

“Javi?”

“Hmm?”

“Does this mean that you’ll finally get a hold of your balls and kiss me?” you said, bringing your face to the same level as his.

You laughed at the way Javi’s face was arranged, as if he didn’t know whether to be shocked or happy.

“How did you-”

“Because I do too, Javi. I love you and I can’t have you slipping away from me, like you are one of my lost happy memories. The little girl in me knew that you’d come back to me.” you said, before pressing your lips onto his.

A part of you always knew that your soul was tied to Javi and nothing in this world could pull him away from you. Javi let his hands explore you, taking his sweet time to kiss you back, slowly. Once he was sure that your lips were swollen with his touch, he pulled away and pressed his forehead to yours as you caught your breath. He breathed you in and you smelled like home. You made him feel unstoppable and as he hugged you close, he realized that no cartel member could even stand a chance around him now that he had you with him.

That's my girl.

#javier peña #javier peña x reader #javier peña fanfiction #javier peña x y/n #javier pena x reader #javier peña x you #narcos fanfiction #narcos #soft!javier peña #javier peña fluff #javier peña fic #javier peña angst #javier pena x you #javier peña smut #pedro pascal #pedro pascal narcos #narcos fanfic #javier pena fanfiction #narcos x reader

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nysus-temple · 10 months ago

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Apollo & Dionysus [Part 1]

MAN. not sure if i know what i'm doing, they're very complicated and this won't be my only essay about them. But I've been delaying this essay for way too long, to a point in which I was close to crying about it.

Hope you enjoy, in any case, how i give you all the connections, both good and bad, of my favourite god figures from the Greek Folklore.

1. Karneia [Καρνεῖα].

One of Dionysus' main characteristics is how he's depicted with horns. It's part of his identity as a god, it's horns what (according to the Orphic hymns) made him look like Persephone's son. you can't take away his horns and pretend he's still Dionysus. Euripides knew that well.

Apollo, on the other hand, not many are aware that he sometimes was represented with horns, as well ! This festival, held mainly in Sparta, was to honor Apollo (and a couple of other gods but, he was the star of the show).

The reasons for why this festival was held vary; like Pausanias saying it was to calm him down so he wouldn't send a plague.

But, you see, the main reason this festival is mentioned here: the Spartans would stop any military activity to honor a horned Apollo, he resembled Dionysus during that time. And not only that, but he also was related with vines during it, and that's Dionysus sacred plant. Just like the laurel (or bay, i think it's called in English) is the sacred tree of Apollo.

Seeing Apollo with that plant, and harvesting grapes while having horns, has a strong conection to what Dionysus is.

2. Delphi's Oracle.

It's still Apollo's Oracle, wether Dionysus kept it while he was gone at Hyperborea or not. He killed Python, Gaia's big-ass snake, in order to get it.

But.

While Apollo had to leave during the winter time to go to Hyperborea, it was Dionysus OF ALL GODS the one who kept Delphi, and thus, his festivals were celebrated there.

On one side of the main temple, you could see Apollo with his twin sister, Artemis, and his mother, Leto.

And on the other side, it was Dionysus.

Dionysus wasn't related to prophecies, at all. Maenads did shenanigans during the time Apollo wasn't there.

But it's, you know... Interesting, that Apollo's most important oracle was kept by Dionysus during the time that he wasn't there.

With this, you should think "then, they're in good terms, right?" Yeah, well, they're supposed to be, there's nothing stating that they have a bad relationship, it's the other way around, actually !

But the next point... Is gonna leave us all confused.

3. Orpheus.

Or, as i like to call it:

And my favourite part of this essay, gotta say !

Orpheus brought many cults to the Greeks, according to Pausanias. Like the Eleusinian Demeter one, for example. And not to forget, Orphism gets his name from him, as well as the Orphic Hymns, obviously.

But, apparently, besides doing all that, at the end of his life, he claimed to not care about any gods, not even Dionysus, the main figure of Orphism, that weren't Apollo.

And his death was explained in a lost play of Aeschylus, one that two different writers describe; Eratosthenes and Pausanias, so pick your favourite:

P: 1. the maeneads saw Orpheus refusing to worship Dionysus, and killed him.

E: 2. Or, the interesting one: Dionysus saw that Orpheus devoted himself to Apollo and Apollo only, and got... Jealous. Jealous of his devotion to Apollo.

He was the one who started Orphism, the one who wrote many hymns for him. Seeing him being devoted to someone else than him apparently wasn't a good move. In this version he sent the maeneads to kill him, they didn't go for their own will, which makes it more peculiar.

I'm not writting down Ovid's version because it doesn't fucking count.

Plato also says some odd thingy, that "the gods imposed on Orpheus the punishment of dying at the hands of women for not having had the courage to die for love like Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, who had died in the place of her husband Admetus." ... Which, yeah, sure, I guess, whatever you say, buddy. We have to keep in mind Plato's texts are more related to philosophy than anything.

People always say it's Apollo the one who was envious of Dionysus' talents and parties, (for... some reason i guess) specially knowing how he had two of his muses related to him (tragedy and comedy) due to Dionysus being, after all, the god of theatre.

But, surprise ! It was the other way around. Dionysus was jealous of Orpheus' devotion to Apollo. "If you won't devote yourself to me, you won't devote yourself to anyone".

And, well, either because the sources didn't survive or because he wasn't considered his son in these versions, Apollo didn't do anything. In fact, we never see him doing anything towards Dionysus.

So, what now, Nysus? What was their relationship exactly, after all of this?

It's... Complicated !! Okay !!! This needs more research from my part, plus we all should keep in mind that, while all the authors mentioned here were Greek, they were different guys. You always need to keep in mind the place, person, era... All of that, before starting to judge how a dynamic between two gods work.

( If you enjoy my badly-written posts, please consider buying me a kofi ! You're not forced to, though, but please, reblog this post at least if you are gonna leave a like ! 💕 That's what will motivate me to keep working on my essays )

#dionysus lore #apollo #greek mythology

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hobeemin · 4 months ago

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amygdala

genre: angst, fluff, smut, fantasy, romance, greek god au

pairing: hades!min yoongi x oc (persephone)

summary: while they met under the most unconventional circumstances, there seemed to be a spark bloom about which each was uncertain. what can the future hold for them?

rating: 18+

warning(s): swearing, mentions of an orgy, greek gods being over-excessive, jealousy, drinking, self-consciousness, mild depression

word count: 1.9k

credits: thank you to @okiedokrie for beta reading

banner resources found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

a/n: this is for @k-vanity summer event "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

prompt(s): love affair; "I’ve been alive for seven hundred years, and you’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met."; "Why are you falling for me?"

this is a prequel to dionysus and jamais vu, my own little hades and persephone universe. def more to come in the future 🌼

Why?

Why was he here?

He watched with bored scrutiny as his brothers mingled among the partygoers. Why had they talked him into this, he’d never know.

He would have much preferred the solace of his home, his dogs by his side, and the comforting glow of the cooking channel. A faint frown creased his face as the raucous laughter filled the air.

He needed alcohol. And tons of it.

Pushing himself off the wall, he made his way over to the bar. With some effort, he squeezed through, waving his hand to get the bartender’s attention. Just as he was about to order, someone slapped him on the back, making his knees buckle. Yoongi’s expression darkened as he turned to the culprit. The party host himself, Taehyung, stepped back with his boxy grin.

“Why the long face, Yoongs?”

“Trying to get a drink,” he mumbled.

“We gotta get you the good stuff,” his speech slightly slurred as he gestured to the vast array of drinks.

“I’m not trying to get fucked up like you,” Yoongi warned.

“I’m pretty sure no one can out-drink the God of Wine,” Taehyung teased.

Yoongi rolled his eyes as Taehyung ordered a bottle of Ambrosia, filling his cup to the brim. “Stop mopping around and go mingle. If your brothers can do it, so can you!”

“I wouldn’t call what they do mingling,” Yoongi muttered.

Sure enough, Namjoon whispered to a giggling nymph–shocker–and Hoseok had two sprites in his lap. No doubt they’d be leaving soon, if not now. Figures the God of Thunder and the God of the Sea would abandon their brother in his time of need.

He glanced at his phone with a sigh. She wasn’t coming. He should have known he’d get stood up. It wasn’t like he and Minthe were “official”, but it would have been nice for her to attend the party with him. Secretly, he felt things were going downhill over the past year. She became distant, always having an excuse to reschedule a date.

Yoongi thanked Taehyung for the Ambrosia, sipping it slowly. It perked up his mood a bit as he walked around the party. People would attempt to bring him into a conversation, but he shied away, giving them a sheepish wave.

Instead, he walked into another part of the house, looking at the paintings and sculptures with interest. He had to give Taehyung credit for his collection. Of course, Athena and Apollo deserved their flowers, too. After all, he bought some of their pieces from them. Just as he entered another room, his eyes met bright ones…in a state of undress. She shrieked as he spun around, red blooming on his face.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry. I didn’t think anyone was in here!”

The voice that spoke almost put him in a daze. The melodic tone reminded him of wind chimes. She rambled on as she slipped on the white strapless dress.

“N-No, I should be apologizing! I spilled red wine on my dress…well, my friend's dress, and I couldn’t find the bathroom–gosh, why did I come here? I’m not supposed to be here! I can’t believe Artemis talked me into coming and her stupid brother, argh…my mother is gonna kill me!”

Tears began to form as she started to hiccup.

He turned to look at her, breathing a sigh of relief to see she was fully clothed. Her beauty enchanted him. Yoongi blinked as the haze dissipated, set his drink down, walked up to her, and pulled out a handkerchief.

“It’s going to be okay. The stain isn’t so bad.”

She took the handkerchief, mumbling out a thanks, and plopped down on the couch. “It’s a silly thing to cry over. I just…I don’t know, but I feel like I don’t belong here.”

He snorted, grabbed his drink, and sat beside her. “Don’t I know it?”

She glanced at him curiously. “What do you mean by that?”

Yoongi took a sip of his drink before answering. “I got dragged here by my brothers. Apparently, I've been sulking too much than normal.”

“It sounds like your brothers and my friend could be friends. I got dragged here by her, too. For her, it's because I don’t get out enough and only study.”

“What’s wrong with studying?”

“That’s what I said! I’d rather be in my garden or curled up on the couch,” she pouted.

Wow, she looked cute, pouting like that, he thought. Even the flowers in her hair seemed to move on their own. Fluttering their petals whenever she spoke, or her expression changed. He nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m missing my dogs right now.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “You have pets?”

“Uh-huh,” he pulled his phone out, searching for a picture to share, “Too many to count. They’re my babies.”

She scooted closer to look at his phone screen. She let out a squeal as he flipped through the pictures. “That’s Cerberus. Don’t let him fool you; he’s the sweetest. That’s Holly…the brown one. He’s spoiled…well, they all are. And that lil furball, the black cat, is Pluto.”

“They are the cutest! I love animals. Never got to have pets growing up–mom wouldn’t allow it, but I love them.”

Yoongi smiled, putting his phone away. “Whose your mom? Have I met her before?”

She bit her lip, looking away from him. “Well–”

“Persephone!!”

Panic crossed her face at the sound of her name. Just then, a muscular man stumbled in with an equally attractive woman in tow. His face was completely red from the ambrosia, and he pointed at her before looking at the woman.

“See sis, I found her!”

The woman sighed in exasperation, walking over to her. “Persephone! Is this where you’ve been hiding the whole time?!”

I’ve been alive for seven hundred years, and you’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met, she thought to herself.

Persephone seemed to shrink away on the couch. “Hey, Artemis.”

“Don’t ‘hey Artemis’ me. I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I’ve been babysitting this dweeb for the past two hours!”

The man’s face twisted in annoyance. “Listen, no one told you to watch me.”

“I told you not to try to drink with Dionysus, Apollo.”

He sucked his teeth before settling his attention on Yoongi. “Uncle Hades!”

Yoongi’s lip slightly twisted as the God of the Sun lifted him in a bear hug. “I didn’t think a sourpuss like you would come to one of these!”

Persephone watched in wonder as he was lifted like a ragdoll. She tried not to snort at the expression on his face. He was anything but amused.

“Hello, Apollo, Yoongi is just fine.”

Once he was set down, he brushed his jacket with a frown. “I see you’re starting to take after your father.”

“Not too much, but that’s what everyone else says.”

“Uh-huh,” he glanced at Persephone with a tiny smile. “Nice meeting you, I’m gonna go find Namjoon and Hoseok.”

Stay.

The thought crossed Persephone’s mind as she watched him walk away. There seemed to be an ache deep down. But why? Why did she want him to stay?

Artemis poked her friend with a frown. “Earth to Sep. You in there?”

She shook her head. “Y-Yeah.”

“Let’s get you a drink. A real one this time.”

She let Artemis and Apollo lead her back to the bar. By now, things had taken a wild turn. People’s inhibitions were loosening more. Persephone stayed close to Artemis as she ordered them drinks. She tried looking for Yoongi in the crowd but couldn’t find him. So that was Hades. The big evil God of the Underworld, at least that is what her mother had been known to say.

”Stay away from those Olympic Gods!”

Persephone held back the urge to roll her eyes. Sure, Zeus and Poseidon had a less than savory reputation, but Hades…Yoongi didn’t seem like that. Artemis handed her a champagne flute and turned to observe the rest of the party.

”Are you alright?”

”How do you mean?”

”Yoongi didn’t try anything, did he?”

Persephone blinked at her in disbelief. “Why would he?”

Artemis shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. “He is one of the big three; they got a reputation.”

”He’s different. I don’t think he’s like them,” Persephone thought aloud.

”Whatever. They’re all the same,” the Goddess of the Moon grumbled.

Persephone loved her best friend, but she didn’t get it. Artemis made a vow of chastity long ago, as did her mother, Demeter. While it had been an option for her, there had to be more to life than vows and rituals. She felt she was destined for something greater. It didn’t take long for her to be shaken from her thoughts as the host returned to the crowd.

Taehyung appeared, jumping on the bar. “I hope everyone is enjoying themselves! It's that time of the night when it's about to get nasty!”

The cheers grew louder as the young Goddesses watched everyone remove their clothing.

“What the hell–”

The lights darkened as the music took a sensual tempo. People began pairing up all around the room. Persephone tried not to gasp, seeing what a particular nymph and Zeus were doing in the corner. Moans grew louder, making her discomfort grow. Naked bodies writhed around her. She backed out of the room, reaching out for Artemis until she got pushed backward. She almost cried out until someone caught her. The warmth of their hands radiated on her skin. She could barely make out who it was until she was led outside to the backyard.

She blinked a few times as the torches surrounding played tricks in the night.

“Y-Yoongi?”

He nodded, still holding her hand. Persephone glanced down at it, and he dropped it, as red covered his cheeks.

“Sorry. Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine; just was not expecting all that.”

He chuckled nervously, pushing his hair back. “Yeah, I didn’t sign up for that.”

She returned a smile. “Same.”

He cleared his throat trying to grow the courage to ask her more questions, something about her. She wasn’t like her. Far from it.

“So Persephone–”

“Sep!”

Fuck.

She turned away from him to see Artemis running towards her. She carried two coats and purses in her hand. “We’re leaving now! I’m gonna kill Taehyung for that! Wait until Athena and Hestia hear about it!”

She continued to fuss as Persephone gave Yoongi a look, making him snort.

The Goddess of the Moon punched in a number angrily. “Damn, rideshare won’t be here for another ten minutes! I’m going up front. You coming?!”

“Y-Yeah, I’ll follow you out.”

“Better be. Bunch of horny, sweaty gods ruining a perfectly good party. Stupid orgies!”

As she stormed off, Persephone gave Yoongi a pout. “I guess I gotta go.”

“Oh, I understand. It’s crazy in there. Don’t want to get caught up in all that.”

“Agreed.”

The flowers in her hair closed slightly as her mood saddened. But why? Yoongi wished she could stay outside with him and talk all night, but it was selfish of him to think that. He didn’t deserve any happiness, and that wasn’t in his future.

“It was nice meeting you, Yoongi,” she whispered.

“You too, Persephone.”

“Maybe I’ll see you again,” she said, her eyes hopeful.

Damn. What was happening to him? She seemed to have him under a spell.

Why are you falling for me? He wanted to ask.

“I–”

“Persephone! Hurry up!”

She winced, frowning at her friend’s voice. Glancing at Yoongi, she took a purplish flower from the ground and handed it to him. “It’s a pomelia. It kind of reminds me of you. It means kindness. You’re not like your brothers; you’re more than that.”

She squeezed his hand before running off in the direction Artemis called her in. Yoongi glanced down at the flower as a small smile appeared.

#kvanity #kdream #kwritersworldnet #houseofddaeng #ksmutsociety #bangtanarmynet #min yoongi #bts #yoongi x oc #greek god au #yoongi angst #yoongi fluff #yoongi smut

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moonperil6 · 16 hours ago

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Blessed by a Trickster

Chapter Four: The Scary Part? He's Tiny

Prev/Next

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 763

You stood at the helm of the ship, next to Eurylochus, who kept glancing at you when he thought you weren’t looking. He’s rather awful at judging that.

“Is something wrong?” You asked, turning to him.

“What?”

“You keep looking at me weirdly.”

Eurylochus hummed, debating whether or not to tell the truth. He settled with telling half of it.

He shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong.”

You raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you in the slightest.”

Eurylochus was saved from having to try and stutter out an excuse by Polites, who sprinted up to you, barely acknowledging the second in command’s presence with a small nod as he turned to you.

Polites’s glasses kept slipping off his nose and he continued to adjust them as he spoke. “There’s an island- Ody thinks it might be- what the lotus eaters were- talking… about.”

You blinked. “Oh,” was all you said.

Polites raised his eyebrows. “Oh?” He demanded. “That’s the first thing you think to say?” You shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Eurylochus snorted in amusement and Polites narrowed his eyes mockingly at his friend.

Then the world seemed to move in slow motion. Eurylochus was speaking to you, but you couldn’t hear a word he was saying. You yourself seemed to move fine; you could shake out the stiffness in your arms and legs in normal time. You snapped your fingers in front of Polites’s face, but you didn’t get a reaction.

You heard laughter from above your head, and you looked upward.

“Reveal yourself,” you ordered.

“Hm… I don’t think I will.”

You smirked. “I meant, please reveal yourself, Lord Hermes.”

A handsome yet short man appeared before you. He had a mop of curly light brown hair and a black mask covering his eyes. The snakes that were curled around his staff flicked their tongues at you as the tiny wings on his sandals flapped. “How did you-” He looked down at himself in surprise and yelped.

He gave you a reproachful look. “Please don’t do that again, little lady,” he said, shaking his caduceus at you.

You crossed your arms. “Hello, Lord Hermes. Please stop stalking me.”

Hermes giggled and glided around you, studying your stance and scars. “Now, now,” he chided. “You shouldn’t talk to a potential patron like that!”

You raised your eyebrows. “Patron?” You asked, unable to keep the skepticism from your voice.

“Oh, yes.” Hermes came to a stop in front of you, still hovering a few feet above the ground. “I’ve been watching you for quite some time, Y/N of Ithaca.”

“Yeah, I sort of got that part. Your voice in my head and all.”

Hermes laughed again. “Ooooh. Quick-thinker, too, I see.” The tips of his sandals skimmed the deck of the ship as he looked at you thoughtfully. “I think of myself as lucky to have reached you first, before any other god could offer to be your mentor.”

You blinked.

“Come on,” the god urged. “I’m sure Odysseus has told you of his own mentor, Athena? Shame she abandoned him.”

“I-I…” You couldn’t finish, your mind skimming through the possibilities of how this could end. “What could you offer? Why should I not wait for a different god or goddess like Ares or Artemis?”

“So glad you asked!” Hermes beamed. “I am the god of thieves. I will teach you how to steal more than objects in the heat of the moment. I will teach you how to detangle hidden meanings and important information from the most confusing of sentences.”

You tilted your head slightly. That skill sounded useful.

“I am the god of travelers,” he continued. “I can aid you in your journey home.”

“I am the god of speed. I can train you so hard, you’ll have more stamina than any man. You’ll be as fast as Achilles was.”

“I am the god of language, and I can teach you the skill of negotiating-”

“Let me sleep on it,” you interrupted.

“Oh.” Hermes gave you a sad smile. “You won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“What do you-”

Suddenly everything sped up, leaving you stumbling. Eurylochus grabbed your shoulders to steady you. You could feel Polites’s concerned gaze on your back as you grabbed Eurylochus’s forearms in an attempt to make the world stop spinning.

“Whoa,” Eurylochus said as you swayed slightly. “What’s wrong, Y/N?”

You opened your mouth to respond, only to slump forward.

“I forgot about how fragile mortals are,” Hermes giggled inside your head. “You might be having that sleep earlier than either of us expected.”

Then you blacked out.

#eurylochus #epic musical #epic the musical #cyclops saga #epic the musical x reader #polites #polites x reader #eurylocus x reader #hermes x reader #hermes #blessed by a trickster

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wandixx · 13 days ago

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You'll never find the aswers ch.4

Words in this part: 5547

Story summary: M'gann was having an amazing day. She met with her civilian friends, drank an amazing smoothie, saw a cute dog. For a few hours, she didn't have to think about problems that took more than 20 minutes to solve. For a few hours, she could just be Megan.

And then there was a scream of a woman, mother, who thought too loud and faded too fast and M'gann wasn't enough to save her and it made her whole world come crashing down

And then Danny found her, with a soft smile and patient voice. He kneeled beside her to pick up the pieces.

And shards cut them both in the process.

This part summary: M'gann and Danny hold a funeral ceremony

Trigger warnings: Mention of Character Death (should I still put it in chapter tw with... everything this fic is?), (Made up) Funeral Traditions, Referenced Cultural Appropriation (I think? I'm not sure. He means well, he's trying but he just couldn't learn everything)

Please let me know if I forgot to put something here

first chapter, previous chapter

M'gann's hands were trembling. It didn’t make any sense since she was sitting in a relatively warm room and just trying to force herself to do her homework. But her hands were trembling and her head was empty. She pressed her pen to the paper anyway and wrote her human name in the corner to at least have something. It looked wrong. Her handwriting always looked weird when she was holding her pen so hard.

Mountain was unusually quiet. Most of the time it was just her and Conner here, and neither of them were particularly loud, but usually there was something to be heard. Rooms were soundproofed to give people with super hearing some chance to rest and everyone else some privacy, but M’gann almost always left her door at least cracked. It still was too quiet. Like there was nobody there in a fifty mile radius around her. Her ears were ringing just enough to be counted as a sound.

Artemis said once that when she couldn’t think of a way to start writing an essay, she would try to find a definition of the key word in the topic. It apparently was a good way to get started.

M’gann stared at the printed sentence for what felt like milenia and still didn’t know what she actually read, let alone identified a crucial part of it. Her brain just felt disconnected a bit. Not quite like she stood next to herself but like she leaned back a little.

She sighed and threw her head to stare at the ceiling for a moment as if it held answers to any of her problems.

Knock… knock, knock, knock-knock-knock!

Danny was at her door, knocking on the frame. At some point or another, way back when she thought she could actually help and save people and be a hero people expected her to be, back then Danny would come around to her room a lot and along the way they created a knocking system. This pattern meant something important.

She really didn't feel like she had energy for important.

Knocking repeated. She got up and opened the door fully. Her telepathy felt harder to use lately, as a side effect of overall impairment of psychic powers Martians typically experience at the times of great distress. In her case it depended on a day. Sometimes she could use her powers like nothing happened. Sometimes, like today, even the easiest tasks felt out of reach.

Danny smiled solemnly at her and slowly held out his hand. There were two colorful spheres in it, a bit smaller than a ping pong ball and imperfect in shape as if they were handmade by someone inexperienced. Her fingers brushed on the uneven surface. Breath caught in her throat, her lungs stilled. She recognized the colors, she recognized the texture, she recognized the scent.

Those were mourning orbs.

“Everything is ready” he announced earnestly, whispering as if it would be an utter sacrilege to speak any louder. She nodded. She looked back at her room, her eyes darting around anxiously. She was supposed to prepare urns. She didn’t even think about touching it.

“It alright, I've got it” Danny placated seeing her fear and shifted his bag to bring her attention to it. He was so gentle that M’gann wanted to cry a bit. What did she do to deserve it?

He held her hand now, soft and tender. There was an unexpected comfort coming from his familiar calluses rubbing against her still bruised skin.

“Are you ready? We can do it another time if your not”

Her vision blurred a bit but she nodded, exiting her room. They began walking, Danny leading the way to the place he found. She couldn’t bring herself to wonder where it was. Contact helped her stay more firmly in her body but her thoughts were still fuzzy around the edges. Their footsteps weren't making any sound. Danny most likely shared his intangibility with her, to make sneaking around easier. She was familiar with the tingling of her skin it caused.

He was careful but sure in his route. His head was slightly tilted, like always when he was continuously using his enhanced hearing. He was probably making sure they won't bump into anyone, even if they could turn invisible the moment someone showed up. If they wanted to disappear at all, in theory nobody should stop them from just coming outside.

She appreciated it. She didn't want to see anyone else right then.

She rarely thought about how harsh lights in the Mountain were and how intense smelt the lemon detergent they used for floors. Silence around them was heavy, overwhelming, loud in a way that didn't make any sense. Main room was staring when they crossed it, despite being empty.

She wasn't sure why she was able to breathe a little deeper only when they were by the door. Mountain was her home. She liked it. She felt safe there.

She felt like tearing her skin off until they left.

She had to blink a few times when the sun hit her eyes. She didn’t even realize how much darker it was inside. She didn't like the thought that it was her first time outside since she came back from school on Friday. It was late Sunday. Danny stopped and only continued after making sure she was alright. He let go of intangibility, letting their feet break twigs on the ground and brush along the soft grass.

It was warm outside, sun low enough to begin painting the sky in yellows and oranges and pinks while most of it stayed light blue. M’gann breathed in the scent of earth and leaves and overall life outside that felt too strong for how dry the past few days were.

“We're almost there. I hope you'll like it“ Danny said with a reassuring smile when she slowed down to take it all in. They stopped walking for a moment.

M’gann tried to return his smile but it felt wrong. Like she was possessing her own body and had to almost manually pull muscles for every gesture, continuously using wrong controls.

“I'm sure I will,” she said. She realized with a strat that it was the first time she spoke that day. Her voice was scratchy and uncomfortable. Judging by the concerned glance Danny sent her way, he caught it too. She cleared her throat like it could change anything. Her hand was lightly squeezed. They went deeper into the forest surrounding Mount Justice.

They walked a bit more, slower than before. Despite released intangibility that would indicate they didn't need to sneak around, Danny was careful to not break too many branches and M’gann followed suit. Here silence wasn't suffocating but sacred. Gentle wind was rustling leaves above their heads while a few birds sang. It was late enough both in the day and the year for them to appear after doing whatever they did the whole day outside of mornings and evenings full of music. Before… before the accident, she sometimes woke up early to watch the sunrise and listen to them, before heat became unbearable even for Earth born beings. She too wasn't too keen on the heat of summer.

They stopped in the clearing small enough that most of it was still in the shadows of surrounding trees. Only some rays of golden sunlight made it through the leaves, illuminating a miniature, fragile looking bush in the middle. The earth around it was freshly disturbed.

“We're here” Danny explained, barely louder than the breeze “You said you wanted something human to it and we usually put flowers so I took liberty and planted it here. Maybe it was too much. If it is, just tell me, I don't think it's settled enough to not survive uprooting. Sam helped me pick it, she mentioned something about flower language. I don't know much about it but I can try expla–”

“It's perfect, thank you” she choked out, not really listening. It truly was.

“Oh, okay. Okay, cool”

Sun was peeking in between leaves, marking their faces with golden flecks. Any other time she would say it looked almost magical. She felt alone all of the sudden. Of course Danny was there, silent and solemn but other than that, outside of this little clearing stopped in time, the whole world could stop existing and she wouldn't realize. She wouldn't care.

Mourning orbs somehow made their way to her hand, accompanied by a traditional necklace to carry one of them. Both of them already had some emotional residue in them, like all handmade things tended to. She liked it. Her heart felt warmer sensing utter devotion that sinked in with the time Danny spent working on them. It was too faint for him to catch, sincere as one could get.

Traditional necklace meant to hide one of them was clinically clean, made by some professional.

Danny put his bag on the ground, and took out a set of two urns. M’gann winced internally. They weren’t made by him, obviously. It wasn’t a problem. Process of creating urns was too complicated for even an untrained Martian to replicate, let alone human who had two weeks to learn. It was a sophisticated art, specifically cultivated by White Martians in their workshops. Urns Danny brought weren’t wrong in any outright visible way. They were clearly made by someone who knew their craft, a bit wider than normal but not enough to be incorrect. Clearly, the big rim was a part of the design for some reason. If she focused enough, she probably could even guess from which artist family they came. The urns were frankly stunning, painted with rusty reds, some oranges and muted yellows and white, the color of death and danger, bright yellow like Priest’s skin to signify how sacred the item and ceremony in general were, barely there smidge of hopeful light blue and saturated red like royalty’s skin to tell anyone who could see it, how important the person mourned was to the people attending a funeral. They held weird green tinge to them and M’gann carefully didn’t consider what most likely caused it, focusing on the a bit too complicated, ornate shapes and perfectly even surfaces. If she had a chance to get a traditional funeral when the time came for her, she’d like to get urns almost like these.

But they were dead. Carefully kept from being polluted by foreign feelings. M’gann knew it was an industry norm, almost no one wanted stranger’s feelings on their gift for the dead. But it rubbed her the wrong way. She wanted feelings on her gifts, even stranger’s would be better than this unnerving emptiness. She couldn’t stand that something so personal was so dead. It didn’t make sense on a level so fundamental she couldn’t quite express it in words in her own head. Her urns should be ingrained with her tears and if not, with anything else, they should hold someone’s passion for the craft or annoyance at weird request or something, anything really.

Many others shared her opinion on the matter, so often in between getting a finished product from a workshop and the funeral itself, there was a set time when family and others that were supposed to attend the main ceremony would meet to fill urns with their feelings.

But obviously Danny couldn’t know that. So his urns were empty, perverted, wrong like a macabre funhouse mirror. off just enough to make people unsettled while being right enough to immediately recognise yourself in a distorted image.

“Do you want me to leave or do it with you?” he asked, bringing her back from her mussing.

Did she want him to leave? Not really. It felt intimidating for some reason. Overwhelming. Lonely. She didn’t want to be by herself while pouring her heart out to the world. She wasn't supposed to be on her own while doing it.

On the other hand, despite his clear, enormous effort, Danny didn’t know what it was supposed to look like. If anything, this slight mishap with urns proved that there was so much he had yet to learn and she didn’t want his lack of knowledge to profane the ceremony. Especially since he didn’t have any connection, any reason to feel anything towards the woman in whose memory they even did it.

But he seemed earnest in his respectful silence, ready to give the unknown dead person all of the reverence they deserved. And she didn't want to be alone.

“Stay please“ she breathed out, so softly she wasn't sure he heard her. But he nodded, taking out two other orbs from his hoodie pocket.

“These were the trial runs,” he explained hurriedly “I took them just in case. I didn't plan on using them. And I only have two urns. I’ll get another two later, I promise”

“It's alright. You put a lot of effort into it all. Thank you”

Danny stared at her with a look somewhere between offended and absolutely appalled.

“You can't halfass preparations for the funeral, it's like, the most basic decency!“

There was some sort of weird longing and jealousy(?) that flared up when she said that, strong enough that her impaired brain picked it up. They should talk about that later. It was potentially something she could do to at least partially repay him for all the effort he was putting in helping her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad-”

“It’s okay, you did nothing wrong. I’m just a bit touchy about this stuff. It’s not even a ghost thing, just a me thing, really. You had no way of knowing, it’s okay”

They’ll definitely have to talk about it later. Not now though. They had other things to get done at the moment.

“Alright. I’m still sorry”

Danny just sighed and went back to searching his bag.

With gritted teeth M’gann changed back to her true form. After so long in Megan’s body it felt wrong, too stretched out and squeezed in all of the uncomfortable places, but she stayed like that. There were no lies to be told at the funeral.

Some part of her wanted to scream and rub the skin off of herself.

“Should I switch to Phantom?” Danny whispered.

“It depends. Which form do you consider the true you?”

Halfa hadn’t said anything, furrowing his brows, analyzing her question from all the angles by the looks of it. After a long moment his face smoothed over again and looked her in the eyes.

“I’m here as your friend not as a hero. Tell me when you’re ready to start”

She nodded and with an unpracticed gesture she put one of the Mourning Orbs in the necklace. She took a few steps to stand at an appropriate distance from the bush. Under normal circumstances, in its place would be preserved brain and ashes of the body, or if it wasn’t possible, something truly personal to the dead person. They had neither. Even little bit of blood that got on her clothes wasn’t available as it disappeared the moment she switched clothes. It still made her sith when she thought about it. Her ectoplasm was useless two, covering M’gann in a way that even Danny couldn’t reverse.

Boy stood on the opposite side with a grim expression on his face, holding his a bit shapeless orb like it was both a lifeline and the most precious thing he ever encountered.

She wasn’t ready. She was terrified. The memory of the dead body in her arms was just at her fingertips and she wasn’t ready to actually remember. Her breath hitched. Danny nodded with an encouraging twitch of emotions.

Let it all out~ he seemed to say. His voice and that of her home sang in unison and she could only do so much against their joined forces.

First tear ran down her cheek, quickly joined by next and next.

She held the body in her hands, staring as the life slowly left it, each desperate thought getting quieter and quieter, more hopeless as M’gann tried her best to put crushed ribs back together based on telepathic touch alone because she didn’t have an x-ray amd the family was getting broken in front of her and she wasn’t sure if the gut wrenching sobs she heard came from her or from the little boy whose smile she saw in his mother’s dying thoughts. She destroyed this little boy and his family and she couldn’t do anything to fix it and an apology would be pointless but she was going to do it anyway. She was powerful and yet, she couldn’t save life in front of her and it was so unfair that her shortcomings hurt these innocent people.

She would switch their places if she could because they deserved to be happy and together and she could stand that they weren’t because of her and her knees hit the ground much stronger than she would think was possible in relieved memory. There was blood on her hands and she spent countless nights trying to wash it off, even though most of the bleeding was internal. Three was cheerful little boy waiting for his mom and she would never get to him because she was dying on M’gann’s lap and it was her fault and why wouldn’t world punish the responsible and not the bystander and she was choking, her chest tightly squeezed and it didn’t make sense because she didn’t need to breathe as much but earthly air still felt to thin and a woman on her lap drowned in her own blood and how could M’gann let it happen and, and, and…

And now she was using her friend who was already stretched thin and she kept worrying him and others and she was trying to get better and help people like she was supposed to instead of adding to their workload. But she couldn’t force herself to appear alright enough, not in front of Danny, being naturally more intune with emotions, and it was only a matter of time before they left because she was too much to deal with and was too weak and too useless to justify all their effort. She couldn’t get alright but she had to because she was supposed to be better and she trained more to get where she should already be but her mind and body kept slipping, kept betraying her and she was dead, the woman was dead because M’gann didn’t, couldn’t save her and now she was dead, she was dead.

She was dead, she was dead, she was dead…

Only when she couldn’t cry anymore, and when she got too tired to feel, did she open her eyes. With some surprise she realized she actually fell to her knees, back in the form she had that day. She shivered and quickly turned back to her true form. It wasn’t something that was supposed to happen.

Danny solemnly stood where he did before, fiddling with his hands like he did when he was stopping himself from doing something very intently. All of his feelings were kept tightly in his grasp, undetectable without an almost violent pressing. M’gann knew from experience how straining it was and it had to be undeniably harder for someone as unused as him.

She was almost sure he did that to not overwhelm her even more. She probably wouldn’t be able to tell him how thankful she was for that.

Curiously enough, despite how well he hid at the moment, she could sense the tangled mess of feelings he let out just before. She wasn’t in the right headspace to wonder or read what these emotions were but she knew they were strong. Much more intense than she expected of him. After all, he never even met the woman. He knew her only as a victim of M’gann’s shortcomings, taken from the world too soon. He wasn’t obliged to feel anything, to work on the whole memorial and yet he did, with more respect than she saw during some ceremonies she witnessed back home.

“Now we should burn it,” she said, her voice not raising above the quiet rustling of the leaves above their heads. In her White Martian form she could probably brush on them with her head if she stood straighter.

Burning was a complicated part. It had to be done calmly and slowly, with a confident hand so none of the ashes ended up outside of the small urn. Back on Mars, there were Priests and Priestesses, Flame Tamers who trained for ages to get rid of natural fear of fire and control flames before they caught anything they shouldn’t. Anyone inexperienced would taint the ceremony. Obviously they didn’t have anyone experienced anyway and they were both quite susceptible to the heat alone.

Flame Tamers always had a set of heavily ornate tools, that only ever they were allowed to touch. One of them, probably most important, was a stick with a funnel on the one end. It was still really precise to work with, but from what M’gann understood, it significantly facilitated the task. Danny took out a thin metal stick, from his seemingly bottomless bag. It looked like it belonged to chocolate fountain assorted silverware but she couldn't really judge him on that. She wasn't sure if there was punishment great enough for someone who would pervert such a sacred tool and gave it to anyone.

“Sorry, that's the best thing I could find”

No matter how he got everything else, there was no way he could get it too. It would be both too good and too unsettling. She was already uneasy from the horrible contrast between the calm, warm, beautiful day in the forest near the place she wanted to call home and the ceremony from her cold, unforgiving past, which was always held in the coldest of the caves, ones with the thinnest air. The most inhabitable ones.

“That’s alright”

Danny winced, looking like he wanted to disagree but didn’t say anything. They both stayed quiet for a long moment, on a lonely, quiet clearing.

“How do you want to do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I only have a really vague idea how this part looks. Nobody wants to tell me how it looks. What do we do now?”

Of course nobody told him. She was surprised he learned this much anyway. He shouldn’t. How the ceremony goes was supposed to stay secret from anyone and everyone who didn’t attend it. It was too vulnerable an event to share anything outside.

But now Danny needed to know. Someone had to tell him.

M’gann explained even though her tongue felt too big and too dry in her mouth.

She wished she could just put information in his brain. She knew far too well how Danny would react to that.

“Oh, alright, alright. Do you want me to do it or…”

“You. I wasn’t trained.”

I still fear fire, she didn’t say.

It will hurt less if it’s you who messes up, she didn’t say.

He heard it anyway and responded with a nod.

He stabbed the mourning orb with a stick (M’gann didn’t wince, M’gann didn’t wince) and fished out a lighter from his hoodie pocket. It was the lighter, night sky blue one, patterned with golden stars. The one he almost never used because it was too precious to him. Gift from someone he couldn’t bring up without tears, let alone mention them by name.

M’gann felt like crying again.

He kneeled, doing his best to stabilize his hand over the urn and let a flame lick an urn until part of it turned warm gray and started crumbling. If Danny used the right materials (and he did, as far as she could tell by texture) it didn’t need to be on fire the whole time. Just this starting nudge.

Smoke smelled like iron on the surface. Just right.

She started whispering prayers around the gulp in her throat, their soft melody rolling easily off her tongue. She should be louder, they were meant to be heard, because how else can gods know to help her traveling to whatever was her place to rest. She should be louder because her song was lost in between chirping birds and quiet wind.

But the prayer was never meant to be sung by one person. There was never supposed to be anything else that could be louder. (She wasn’t sure if she remembered words right).

This woman had her own gods anyway. Martian ones didn’t need to guide her.

She sang a little louder anyway.

She was on a very poetic passage about promise to never forget and always grieve when Danny’s hand trembled. Ash almost got over the rim of the urn, almost got polluted. M’gann flinched and stopped singing.

Up until this point he was doing surprisingly well. Maybe even suspiciously if she didn't know he had no way and no reason to actually train it. But there he was, almost as sure and precise as some Flame Tamers were.

Whoever designed the urns probably suspected that. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if they were standard size.

Even from the height of her ‘true’ form she could see tremors running through his body and a way his face was screwed to contain crying. The way he seemed to carefully measure each breath. He caught his wrist with other hand, his grip so strong that his knuckles turned white.

“Sorry about it. Don’t interrupt yourself” he muttered, his voice hoarse from unshed tears.

Some dark part of her mind wanted to listen to him, but the thought lasted no longer than half a second, drowned by guilt. Up until this point M’gann had never really considered how attending a funeral would affect Danny. He just seemed so ready and almost… excited for the lack of a better word. Eager to help like he always did. Never uncomfortable, even a slightest bit, with an idea, other than the first time when she wrote it off as overall stress from consoling her right after the… right after.

But she wasn’t really looking for it either, was she? How many things she missed because of her stupid impaired brain or because she was too self centered on her own pain or because he tucked it fast enough to consider it her mistake. But he was clearly not fine and his orbs were filled to the brim and everything filling them was just tad too personal.

“Are you sure you’re alright? We can take a break. Or I can finish on my own.”

It wasn’t really supposed to happen but really, there were so many rules they broke. It wouldn’t change anything if they broke one more. Danny’s wellbeing was more important anyway, plus it’s not even that she needed Martian gods to help the woman. He said himself, it was mostly to help her and she wouldn’t feel any better if her friend worked himself to breakdown.

“I’m fine Meg” he muttered, hiding his tears a bit better “Just… It’s a beautiful prayer. I got moved by it” he explained, not lying but not telling the truth. There was another pang of jealousy that slipped his control. She made sure to remember it. They couldn’t talk about it at the moment, but they had to speak about it later “You can finish, I’m fine”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Sing Meg. I want to know how it ends,” he said softly. If his tone was a bit less sincere he would sound demanding. He didn’t. She knew if she really dug her heels in she could stop and Danny wouldn't fault her.

She sang again, this time it didn’t feel like she had to fight wind to be heard. She was singing for the victim and Danny both. Yes, they both had their own gods but Martian ones could lend their hands. Maybe that’s what they both needed to rest.

This time it felt like a soft breeze carried her voice, like chirping birds turned a bit more solemn and they complemented the simple but powerful melody. Words rolled off her tongue with ease. Last bits of her devastation and grief were unsticking from her soul, leaving her body with each line, each sound.

It was cleansing.

She looked up at the sky when she finished, pinks and oranges familiar in a beautiful and terrifying way.

She heard rustling when Danny stood up. She didn’t realize she zoned out long enough for him to finish burning the second orb. It wasn’t important. He smiled at her, small and comforting, craning his neck to look her in the eyes. He rummaged around his bag again and took out intricate containers that usually held the brain and ashes from the rest of the body with some solvent. They too were created by a clear master of the art.

She really needed to ask Danny how he got all of this.

“Where do we…?”

Before he could finish, she gently took both objects out of his hands. It was something she needed to do on her own.

She carefully put them in the same distance from the anemic bush that marked the center of the grave circle. Usually the remains of the dead were placed first thing first during the ceremony, but in cases like this, when there was nothing, the reminder of it was put as almost last. There was no place for lies during the funeral. Even if the lie was just to make it hurt a tiny bit less.

Then she fixed the placement of the urn, in the circle around the brain. She carefully didn’t think about how it should be half circle, about to be finished when everyone moved on, and not mere two lone urns.

“To finish we need stones that’ll mark the border of the grave,” she explained, looking for anything sufficient. Usually funerals were attended by enough people so there was no problem with making a consistent circle but there were only two of them. Stupid tears filled her eyes. She wished she could do it properly. There was no way they could do all of the steps correctly and she knew from the start. It went better than she could expect.

She still felt an urge to throw a tantrum about everything that was wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Danny fished out two big stones, almost squares, a bit less than foot wide, about four inches tall. She knew that he had enhanced strength but it still looked unnecessarily heavy. Especially when paired with everything else he had to carry.

“Do you try to get a hernia or something? There are other ways to skip training, you know?” she joked, drying her eyes with her wrist.

Danny stayed silent for a moment, as if he was looking for words, with empty eyes and blank face. M’gann didn’t know if it was an angle or new light or something totally else, that made dark bags under his eyes more pronounced. He seemed a bit paler, too.

“Nah. But you two deserve all the best things I could get for you,” he muttered softly. He raised both stones higher, pointedly closer to her hands. He smiled at her, earnest and solemn.

Was he trying to make her cry again? If he did, he was doing a great job at it.

“Yeah?” she choked out around a sudden gulp in her throat.

“Of course”

They put stones across each other, small, missed twig snapping under the weight. Birds kept singing cheerfully and wind kept blowing as if to spite them, as if to remind them that the world was still moving forward and even things closest to them wouldn’t stop for even a second.

It should be silent. Why wouldn’t it be silent?!

M’gann finally turned back to her green form. Danny quietly opened his arms, a quiet invitation to the hug she could reject if she so wanted. She threw herself into it fast enough to make the boy grunt.

It wasn't an all encompassing type of hug, they were too similar in size for that. But it was warm, soft and unyielding in all the right places. She was safe in it, separated from the outside world in a way no walls could ever manage. Like the most beautiful song, she could hear and feel life in Danny’s body, each deep breath and small twitch of muscles and subconscious moves of his head that made his hair tickle her cheek. She wasn’t exactly tense before but her body uncoiled the longer she was being held. It wasn’t hard to tell that Danny did too.

Neither of them mentioned hands fisted on the backs of their shirts. Neither of them mentioned how the deep breaths turned just a bit more shallow and hitched. Neither of them mentioned how tender grass cushioned their fall.

M’gann couldn’t tell she felt better, with a tension headache and all of her emotions just too close and raw.

But she felt lighter and that was probably the first step.

******

I love this chapter, it's probably one of my favorites, but god damn was it pain to write. I liked writing it, but I was getting to it like dog to a hedgehog. I just had to be in the right mood to write it, y'know. It's probably kinda why I didn't finish rewriting before I had to start posting and why I run out of backlog hah (and right at the part that I think needs the biggest rewrite and cannot bring myself to it. Though now I have college deadline maybe I'll manage to procrastinate in a productive way)

And I had absolute blast comming up with these traditions, @audhumla-sailor can confirm that

But yeah, I love this chapter, I hope you like it too thanks to or despite a bit more... poetic way of writing

Drink something and check in with yourself if your binge reading

AO3 link

Next part

#dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdcbang2024 #g&g24 #danny fenton & m'gann m'orzz #wandixx writes #have a nice day dear stranger who got to this part

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djarinsbeskar · 1 year ago

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HERE, THERE BE MONSTERS: THE MINOTAUR PART 3

A/N: Me? Updating within a week? Surely we're in the wrong timeline, but believe it! This update is indeed a canon event, as is our poor nymph's first encounter with the brutality of the Minotaur. Once again, special thanks to @astroboots for the beta and cosntant hype! Artwork by machiavellicro on deviantart!

Pairing: Minotaur!Din Djarin x Nymph!Reader

Rating: Explicit (18+ NO Minors)

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: gross misuse of mythology, gore, horror, suggestive themes. Reminder that this is a MONSTER FUCKING fic, so be warned for future chapters.

NOTICE: If you want to keep updated on when I post fic turn on notifications for @djarinsbeskar-writes c:

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Day 4

Something was out there.

Maybe you were naïve to assume the size of the labyrinth would ensure you wouldn’t cross paths with the monster who made his home here, and for several days, you didn’t.

A gust of wind made you whimper and curl into the pocket of space between raised, gnarled roots of the tree you’d taken shelter in. Burying your face in your knees to wait out the gale, you berated yourself for the nth time for thinking the forest would be a better bet than the maze.

It was so, so much worse.

At least in the maze, there was only four directions, and it was easier to tell when things changed. In the forest, it was next to impossible.

Half the time, you suspected you were the one being altered, not the labyrinth. As though, by some divine power, the wind was sweeping you off to a different part of the prison to disorient you anew. But nothing was crueller than the moments the wind changed nothing.

You knew you should be grateful in those moments, but it had the opposite effect.

It plagued your mind with paranoia, leaving you doubtful of the route you planned to take, your vision tunnelled on trying to find every little difference with frantic eyes and a pounding heart.

Was that tree always there?

Had the next left turn always been that far away? Was it even left? Maybe it was right…

Does the ground feel more uphill than before?

It was hell, and a few days within its snare made you feel aged beyond your cosmic eternity.

But that wasn’t the worst of it… because like all prisons, there was always a gatekeeper.

Something was out there…

Instinct had sent you hiding as you scavenged for fallen walnuts and bramble berries to fill your empty stomach. Like one of Artemis’ deer, your head had snapped up when a sudden hush fell over the land. An unnatural disquiet that was imperceptible at first until you looked up at the organic awning of leaves and branches, none of which were making a sound as they rustled against each other.

A warning breeze disturbed the litter of leaves around you silently, causing goosebumps to erupt with molten adrenaline all over your body.

You hid in the first place you could find, slight enough to fit into such a cramped space entirely, the only perk to a disadvantageous physique that was continuously punished by the unrelenting environment.

Cold water drenched your spine now, locking your bones in place and refused to let you move even as your muscles complained from how small you made yourself huddled between the roots.

And then… whispering.

Humans?

“I’m tellin’ ya,” the voices were faint, far away but still too loud in the oppressive silence, “this dust is comin’ from somewhere.”

In the air, a heavy oppressive presence poisoned the air. Your eyes widened, trepidation coating your tongue in fluff.

Whatever was out there, whatever you sensed, was not them. Your stomach sank at the realization; they were doomed. Walking passengers of Charon… their sacrificial coins blinding them to the death they were walking into.

How did they not feel the atmosphere shift? The potency of malice thickening to a point it felt like even the blood in your veins was congealing, so tight you just knew the tension would have to burst eventually. But too skittish to give your position away lest you suffer another humiliating encounter as you had in the village, you were forced to wait them out and listen.

“We need food, not dust.” The other human grizzled.

Dread draped over you as your eyes dropped to your muddied feet where your toes curled into the dirt. A faint glimmer of stardust surrounded where you sat and doubtlessly littered anywhere you spent any prolonged amount of time in.

“Are ya kiddin’?” The footsteps stopped, your heartbeat following. “Look at how this shit glows. It could help us navigate this hellhole. Outside’a havin’ the strength and sword to kill the beast, tha’s the most valuable thing we could have in this place.”

Oh, merciful gods… you lamented, burying your face in your hands.

Your fear and anxiety were so heightened here that, unbeknownst to yourself, a fissure had formed that allowed your essence to escape. Your astral soul was instinctively reacting to the burden of stress placed on your physical body and expelling stardust tracks in a bid to guide you home.

But here, in this netherworld, even it didn’t know what direction to lead you and ended up falling in a flurry of cosmic snow that did the opposite of help. Indeed, it led everyone in the labyrinth to you.

If those people found you…

If he found you.

The thought surfaced just as you realize the voices had halted.

They finally noticed, the atmosphere a tightly drawn back bow and their hurried steps the trigger to finally release it. Suddenly, the vacuum of silence was dispelled, the rustle in the canopy a battle cry of nature and the thick foliage a shield of leaves that continued to separate you from the light of the stars.

The hairs on your arms stood on ends, a drag of fingers up the back of your neck that resulted in a violent shiver when you glanced behind you, paranoid. You inhaled shallowly; lungs suddenly starved of oxygen as though you’d been holding your breath since you first hid.

Maybe the land wasn’t the only thing affected by whatever caused that silence to fall.

And then, as if to prove its iniquitous presence, the silence was finally filled with a dreadful sound.

Crunch… crunch… crunch…

Your stomach dropped into a pool of freezing water, blood pounding in your ears as your heart hammered wildly. The weight behind those footsteps… it wasn’t human. It wasn’t divine. Not even Hephaestus with his mighty hammer and full belly carried the power of this new presence. Every footstep sank into the detritus littered forest floor, telling you in no uncertain terms that whatever was out there… was huge.

Monster…

A tumult of noises, animals fleeing as they were possessed by their instincts, resonated through the air.

Crunch… crunch… sniff… crunch… crunch… crunch… sniff.

Tears welled in your eyes.

You knew, on an instinctive level, what was up there. The very thing that gods and mortals alike spoke about in whispers, a warning tale to scare naughty children into obedience lest they find themselves where you were now.

The Minotaur.

Fear like you’d never known before – not when you’d first been thrown into the labyrinth or even when you were dragged before the Queen of Gods herself – overcame your senses as it consumed you. It eradicated your identity in an icy riptide of terror, dragging you under until only your fear floated and became your entire existence.

A horned silhouette stretched across the treetops in front of you, a shadow among shadows. Darker than the blackest hole and just as hungry to destroy anything that came close to it.

He was close…

You covered your mouth to silence the sob that sought to escape you, unable to blink as you witnessed the shadow of the bull-headed monster hunting you grow as he moved.

He turned his head, a wide muzzle exaggerated in his profile and distorted by the disorderly wall of trees that created a mismatched canvas for his shadow. You watched the silhouette lift his head towards the sky, intentional, measured… followed by another series of sniff sniff sniff.

You didn’t even realize the tears were falling before they pooled in the crevice where your hands were folded over your mouth, tracking down your cheeks in a constant stream as a bugle blared in your mind, resisting the existence of such a nightmarish creature even as you saw his shadow with your waking eyes.

Closer he walked, crunch crunch crunch, his shadow growing from the bovine head to the body of a man—strong, broad shoulders large enough to carry those horns and the defined curve of his muscles evident even through the flatness of his silhouette.

You were trapped.

Bark dug into your back as you pressed as far back into the roots as you could, silent and wishing you possessed the wood nymphs’ ability to sink into the trees themselves for protection. But your salvation was out of reach, far above the trees and cloud cover that the twinkling light of stars couldn’t pierce.

A bellow—bullish and remarkably, with tones of a human voice undercutting it, echoed throughout the forest. The wind carried it farther than it ought to have travelled, in service to him and reminding all who dwelled within this prison, just who the jailor was.

Did he know?

You tucked your knees and feet tighter against your body, eyeing the treacherous trail of stardust in front of you. He only needed to catch sight of the gleam and it would lead him directly to where you hid, cornered against the roots.

You could risk it and run. Either into the maze or up one of the trees, but you had little faith in your speed given your only experience with running was in pleasure. In coy chases through the trees that ended with you sprawled in some meadow with your hunter’s cock buried inside you, claiming the prize you presented.

That train of thought led you somewhere taboo in your mind, somewhere sinful… somewhere you shouldn’t linger as the image of a bovine beastman doing just that flashed across your mind.

You shied away from it, confused by the sudden rush of adrenaline that banished the cold on your skin. There was a harsh exhale above you, he smelled something.

Get a grip, you scolded yourself harshly. This wasn’t some flirty chase of your own design… where your pursuer even seeing you, let alone catching you was at your will. This was different.

Here, with him… you would be running for your life. And if he ran you down…

What prize did a Minotaur want? Was it the spilling of blood like legend would tell? Was it something more carnal… like all those of flesh and bone desired?

No.

The only other option you had was to remain still and pray he moved on, so you never had to find out. Every step closer he took to the precipice of the roots you were under, however, diminished that hope and when you could practically smell the musk on his skin and fur, hear his exhales, and see the billowing clouds of condensation from his breath, you tried to make peace with the fact that you’d been caught.

But it was not to be your end.

Another bellow proved to be your salvation as the noise broke the courage of the other poor souls hiding close by, those who had followed your stardust and who you initially thought long gone.

Your heart seized at the sound of them scrambling out of hiding and running, their ragged breaths overshadowed by a ferocious snarl as the Minotaur’s shadow whirled around. Instinct overtook him, or luck was on your side, his heavy footfalls charging – too fast – after their fleeing forms and away from you.

There was no relief though, not when the sudden scream some distance away warned of you meeting the same fate if you didn’t move now. The screams were cut off as suddenly as the drop at the hangman’s gallows, that same cruel wind carrying the wet gurgle of flooded windpipes to you.

It chased you as you pulled yourself out of your hiding spot, fleeing the carnage and praying you could put enough distance between you and the carnage. At least until the wind picked up again and dropped you somewhere else in this maze of madness.

For surely you were going mad… because no matter how fast and far you ran, there could be no other reason that anything other than fear or revulsion should fill you at the thought of that murderous brute.

You hoped you were going mad… to justify the inkling of attraction that continued to simmer low in your navel hours later.

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dreamingofep · 28 days ago

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Sinned Awakening Reimagined: Pt. 5 🩸

An AU Elvis fic

(Vampire!Elvis/ Vampire Austin! Elvis x reader)

Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Prompt: Elvis is fighting his need for blood, making him weaker by the day. Then you walk into his life, making you the perfect target for his next meal. But an unknown force is making this more difficult than he expected... [Elvis' Perspective]

TW: Cussing, mentions of blood, angst, thigh riding

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4.9k

A/N: Hello everyone! Hope you enjoy this part as much as I do! I had this scenario in my head for a while and didn't know where to place it and finally made it work. I'm sure you all have noticed... but Elvis has very long legs... and his thighs are quite nice and strong... So my mind went places when I was watching TTWII a while ago and yea the rest of my thoughts are in here🫣 Anyway, please enjoy this next part!

If you'd like to start from the beginning, start here or Ao3! Hope you enjoy and message and comment what you think.

🩸

You were stubborn, he should have known. You wouldn’t come over without a fight. He thought it would be better if he didn’t surprise you and arrived at your apartment unannounced. But he was starting to think he had to do just that.

He needed to get more blood for himself because he was too scared of losing control around you again. It wasn’t as fulfilling as he wanted it to be but it did make his thirst at least tolerable.

He still needed answers about why you couldn’t be compelled. Or why he was so attracted to your blood… or more importantly, why he was so attracted to you.

As he waited to hear if you would come over, he decided to try to look for answers in the books he had thrown around the penthouse. There were so many vampire legends to sift through. These books were written by people who experienced these occurrences firsthand and decided to write them down to help other vampires.

Elvis turned to these books a lot throughout the years. He knew nothing of what it meant to be a vampire. The man who bit him, Raphael, basically left him for dead and didn’t tell him what he did to him. He just woke up with an intense desire for food but soon discovered it wasn’t food he craved; it was blood.

He decided to start from the beginning, from the first vampire that ever existed. It was in Greece and the man was cursed to never see his love, only at night. Artemis gave him great hunting abilities, strength of the gods, and sharp fangs to drain the blood from beasts to write letters to his love. He was forbidden to touch her or even kiss her. While she lay there dying, he begged Artemis to make his love immortal. She agreed and let him touch her to drink her blood. This would kill her mortal body but from then on, her blood mixed with his would create immortal life for anyone who drank it.

The story was incredible to him and made him envy that kind of love. He wanted someone to selflessly love and care for. He had read that story many times before but he just always thought it was too long ago for it to happen to him. He had met other vampires that were in love with each other but they were both turned when they met each other. They never knew each other when one of them was human. That’s what makes him so frustrated with this whole situation.

He had to constantly remind himself you were human. It would never work. You were too fragile, too incompatible with him. Well, he knew that was a blatant lie. You two had enough attraction to make the world spin. You being human just wouldn’t work in the long term. He’d end up hurting you or worse. He was too fearful that his need for blood would end up making you despise him. The only way it would work was if he turned you.

No! You’ve gone absolutely mad! He scolds himself.

He had never had such a selfish thought. He couldn’t turn you just because he wanted you with him forever. That would be the worst thing he’s ever done. He’s given the choice to anyone he’s bit and made them seriously think about what it meant to be a vampire. He was never given that opportunity to contemplate what his decision might do to his life.

He felt a bit cheated that way. He was delirious and weak when Raphael bit him. He just remembers the excruciating pain of when his fangs tore into his skin. It felt like branding irons getting plunged into his skin. His bite was vicious and cruel. He had no mercy for Elvis and took his mortal life away without giving him a chance to think about what he was giving up.

He swore to never be like that. He wanted to give the person a chance to think about this life-altering decision. Especially for you. You needed to make the decision if you wanted to be with Elvis like that. He wasn’t sure if your feelings were the same as he felt for you. That’s why he needed to talk to you. He needed to see if you felt the same or if he was too disillusioned by this all and needed to come to terms that you could never be his.

He continues to sift through book after book, not getting a clear understanding of what he is going through. He read for hours and was about to give up for the night until he picked up the last book in the pile, making him stop in his tracks.

There were a few instances where a vampire couldn’t compel a human. It was almost unheard of but there were instances of a vampire being so attracted to a human, they were all they could think about. Their blood almost called to them, luring them in to feed off of them. Elvis knew exactly how that felt. That’s how it was to be in the same room as you. This overwhelming need to be next to you or to be feeding on you.

The text further explains that it was difficult to feed though, these kinds of vampires couldn’t compel them to feel any pain or have them forget about the bite. In this particular case, the vampire went to seek help from the oldest vampire he knew in the area. He asked how it could be possible to not compel a human and to be so astronomically attracted to them.

The older vampire was shocked but understood what was happening. It was fate. Like the very first vampires on this earth, they were meant for each other. Bound to each other by the gods and by their blood. A soulmate. A chosen.

Elvis drops the book on the table. No, it can’t be, this is a legend. These kinds of things don’t happen anymore. He had never met anyone like this. Granted, he had only been like this for little over a decade but still, no one uttered a word of something like this. The chances of this happening to him felt like lightning striking in a bottle.

He had to breathe and think about this rationally. He needed to see you as soon as possible. He needed to know if these feelings he had were under false pretenses or if it was something more. Was it actually fate? Did something like that actually exist? Were you made for him and only him?

He glances at the clock and sees it well past 2 am. This couldn’t wait though, he needed to see you now. He quickly gets dressed and rushes to the ground floor of the hotel. He gets in his car and speeds to your apartment. It would have been quicker if he ran but he thought this would be easier to get you in and back to the hotel.

He pulls up to your building and turns the ignition off. It was very quiet over here compared to the liveliness of the strip. He walks up the stairs and straightens out his jacket, he wants to look as good as possible for you.

He listens for you, seeing if you’re alone or not. You were and he breathed a sigh of relief. You were still up, sifting through a book it sounded like. At least you wouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night by his visit. He grew nervous but he had to do this, he had to talk to you.

He knocks on the door gently, not too harshly to frighten you. He hears your heart beat a bit faster, intrigued by who might be at the door at this time of night. He backs up from the door, wanting to give you as much space as possible to not startle you.

You slowly walk to the door and the sound of the door unlocking makes Elvis hold his breath. He was afraid you’d slam the door in his face once you saw him. The door cracks open and you peek through the crack to see who it might be. Your heart stuttered when you saw him. You stood there frozen and looked at him shocked.

“Hi honey,” he says low. The sound of his voice makes your heart beat louder, which he loved.

You open the door a bit wider, “What are you doing here? How did you know where I lived?” You tremble.

“I needed to talk to you, that’s all,” he explains, taking a few steps forward.

“I know, your men tried to get me to come with them to see you. You must have been crazy if you thought I was going to get in a car full of vampires,” you hiss.

He winces at your accusation. Yeah, that probably wasn’t the best idea.

“Well, I’m here now. I just want to talk to you,” he sighs. “May I come in?” He places his hand on the door frame, stretching his arm above his head.

You huff, “Do you have to be invited in, is that how it works?” You say as you roll your eyes. You were testing his patience. He didn’t want to play any more games with you. He was here to talk to you and figure things out. His hand squeezes frustratedly on the doorframe, making the wood make a cracking sound. You freeze and look up at him nervously. He presses his lips together and takes a deep breath to recollect himself.

“No, I don’t need to be invited in. But I’m trying to be better and not be so forceful with you” He growls. You shake your head at him and your eyes lower.

“You can come in,” you say softly, as you open the door wider for him.

He steps inside and he still smells that other man’s scent in here. He wasn’t here that long ago and his scent was stronger than last time he was in the apartment. It pissed him off but he had to hide the fact he was in here before and act like it didn’t bother him.

He stands in the living room, inspecting you as the door closes behind you and you turn the lock. You turn to face him and your entire body language is closed off. He could tell you were still nervous but you tried to fight it. You look at him a bit closer, furrowing your brow when you do.

“What’s wrong with you?” You ask bluntly.

He’s taken back, not understanding your harsh tone.

“What are you talking about?” He says gently.

“You look… sick… your eyes are so dark and there are hallows in your face,” you say a bit wary.

He hardly ever bothered to look at himself in the mirror. He hated his reflection for years now. He always knew he’d see that monster staring back at him. And the last week without you, he knew he’d look the same. A sad, weak, pathetic excuse for a man.

“Yeah, well… I haven’t been feeding so…” he says

“Oh.”

“I wanted to make sure you’re okay. I saw you at my show,” he says slyly.

Your cheeks flush and you look away from him.

“Yes I was there with a friend that wanted to see you,” you say flatly.

“And you didn’t want to see me?” He asks smartly.

“No, not really. I’ve seen you enough times to last me a lifetime,” you snap.

Thumpthumpthump thump…

You were lying right to his face. He couldn’t help but find it amusing.

“You’re lying,” he growls.

You stand there frozen, knowing he’s right.

“I-I don’t know-,” you stammer.

“I hear your heart pounding away when you’re fucking lying to me,” he seethes.

You stay quiet, nerves shooting through you.

“You just make me nervous. I can’t think straight,” you mumble.

“You have no idea how much worse it is for me just being around you,” he hisses.

A silence forms between you two and he tries his best to calm himself down. He didn’t want to scare you off again. He had to reign in on his emotions the best he could.

“Who lives here?” he asks you.

“How can you?…” you ask confused.

“It reeks like a man in here,” he says through his teeth.

You straighten out your posture and walk closer to him, crossing your arms when you step in front of him.

“My fiancé lives here, why do you care?” You snap.

“Because I don’t like you being with another man,” he snaps. He freezes when he registers the words that just came out of his lips. It was so uncalled for. He didn’t expect himself to say something like that out loud.

“You don’t have the right to say such things to me!” You yell, “You don’t know anything about me!”

“I don’t care, I don’t like it. He can’t take care of you the way I can,” he fumed.

Your face was in shock, you couldn’t believe the things he was saying to you. He couldn’t either in all honesty. He was telling the truth though. The very idea of another man near you made his blood boil. You remain quiet, looking at him with disgust.

He knew it was pointless, but he needed to try anyway. He wanted to try to compel you. Maybe his strength was strong enough to make you forget everything that’s happened.

“Sit down,” he commands, pointing to the couch behind you.

You look at him with shock, his blunt tone clearly upsetting you.

“What? Why are you talking to me like this!?” You rasped.

Elvis audibly grunts with frustration, hating that he can’t do the one simple thing of compelling a human to forget about his existence. He was so weak for your blood that he couldn’t function properly!

“Can you please not be difficult and just listen to me!” He snarls.

“No, I don’t have to do anything for you!” You hiss.

That was it for him. He needed to put you in your place.

His patience ran dry and was tired of your attitude.

He picks you up and quickly sits you down on the couch. You gasped at how quickly he moved and how tight his hands were on your arms. Your eyes bored into him and you tried to wiggle out of his grasp to no avail.

“That’s enough,” he growls. “I need you to listen and answer me,” he scowled.

You take a deep breath before you speak and stare into his dark eyes. He petrified you but he sucked you in regardless of what your instincts told you to do when you were around him.

Run as fast as you can...

You don’t though, something was keeping you there with him.

“I need your honest answer. You know I can tell when you’re lying,” he says as he glances at your chest. You hold your breath and nod your head at him. The grip he has on your arms doesn’t let up and your skin melts into his so effortlessly. He needed to focus and get back to why he was here in the first place.

“What did you want to know?” You ask low.

“Do you have feelings for me? Are you, attracted to me even if your instincts tell you not to be?” He asks you.

Your face looks a bit shocked and you can’t form the proper words right away.

“No,” you say quietly.

THUMPTHUMP THUMP THUMP…

He growls when he hears that loud, tempting sound come from your chest.

“I told you not to lie,” he says through his teeth.

You take a shaky breath when you hear his tone and see he’s not playing games. You still try to wiggle out of his grasp but he doesn’t let you move. Your eyes well with tears and you struggle to breathe normally.

“Yes… yes, I do feel something for you. I don’t know what it is but I-, I can’t help it. Everything tells me to run when I’m near you but you’re like a magnet. You pull me in every single time without even trying. It's so frustrating! You are probably the most lethal creature on this earth and there is nothing I want more than to be near you. It’s stupid and reckless of me,” you stammer.

He stares at you intensely, feeling the same way for you.

“And I can’t fathom what I did with you. I can’t believe I begged for you! You’re a vampire, a soulless creature and I’m a human! We should have never done that,” you scold.

“But we did and it only made us more inseparable,” he says low.

“I can’t be with you Elvis, it would never work. We're not meant to be together,” you tell him.

He hated that prospect. Living away from you has been torturous enough this week. He needed to be near you, protecting you everywhere you go. He had to be the one to take care of you in every way you needed.

“It can, I think it can,” he tells you.

“How?! You have said it yourself you can barely be around me without wanting to suck me dry,” you hiss.

“I want you,” he growls.

“No, you don’t! You want my blood and that’s it!” You scream at him.

He hit his boiling point again, he couldn’t hold back any of his feelings. He stands up and turns away from you.

“You have no idea what it’s like for me,” he snarls, slowly turning back around to face you.

“Since you have walked through my door, you have been the only thing on my mind. I can’t go on with my day without feeling empty inside and the only thing I want to make me whole is you,” he confesses.

You sit there stunned, not expecting him to be so blunt about his feelings. He can tell you’re trying to make sense of all of this but you can’t. You’re from different worlds and don’t belong in each other’s.

“You can’t-… you can’t have me, Elvis. I can’t be in your world, you don’t need me,” you say insecurely.

“You can if you want to be. That’s all I want,” he admits.

“And until you get bored of me and find someone else, you’ll see that this was all for nothing,” you say frustratedly.

He walks back to the couch and sits next to you, legs touching, making you both sigh heavily.

“I will never get bored of you. That’s the thing, there is no one like you,” he says as he eyes you up and down. He grabs ahold of your hand and your whole body freezes at his touch. He rubs small circles on the back of your hand and he can feel you melt by the way he’s touching you.

“Honey, you have no idea how I crave you. In every single facet. There has not been a day that has gone by where I don't miss your very presence. I miss the sound of you breathing and the way you say my name,” he breathed.

“Elvis please,” you say shaking your head, your cheeks burning.

“Mhmm, like that… that’s just music to my ears,” he hums. “I crave other things too… like you naked in my bed,” he coos. He watches you bite the inside of your cheek, trying not to show him how much you liked that too.

Your heartbeat rose and fluttered away as he spoke.

“I’ve missed having you there. The way we fit together perfectly… that’s just something I can’t get out of my mind,” he sighs, leaning a bit closer to you. You take a shaky breath and can’t look at him. If you looked at him you might just be done for. He puts his hand through your hair and rests at the base of your neck, making you look back at him. "I can't get enough of you. Just the sound of you moaning when I'm deep inside you makes me hard if I think about it for too long," he says low, leaning in to place a kiss on your neck. You gasp and squeeze onto his thigh.

“You miss me too, don’t you?” He says softly, licking his lips when he looks back at you.

You looked at him drunk, fighting everything he was saying but he could see right through it.

“Yes, I miss all of that. All of you,” you whimper as you squeeze your hand tighter on his leg.

“There might be a reason why this is happening… why we feel so strongly toward each other. The way I can’t compel you…the powerful attraction I have for you… it’s because of something stronger than us… it might be fate pulling us in,” he says.

“What?” You say shocked.

“There’s legends of this kind of thing happening to vampires before. The way they couldn’t compel them, the way the attraction they felt for them the first time they ever saw them. How their blood called to them like a siren. Their blood is the only thing they ever want to drink to keep them satisfied… that’s what I’m dealing with. I crave only your blood. I’ve tried to drink other’s blood while you've been away and it’s never enough.”

“I think that’s what has been wrong with me the whole time, why I can never control my thirst or get enough. It's because I needed you. You are the only one who can satisfy me. You are my missing piece,” he coos. He wanted to kiss you, he wanted to feel those soft lips crash into his and feel on cloud nine.

“Elvis… it can’t be,” you say in a daze, “these things just don’t happen. I’m human, I will die one day and you’ll walk this earth sad and miserable again,” you try to reason.

“It won’t be that way because… I’ll have to turn you one day. I don’t think I can live without you,” he confesses.

You get up from the couch to get away from him, too shocked over this revelation. He feared this is how you would react. It wasn’t easy to hear. He was telling you your whole life has changed just because you walked into his penthouse.

“No! No, I can’t become like you! I can’t do that!” You say petrified.

“I’m not asking you to want to be changed now. I’m not evil like that. I’ll still give you the choice of when you want to be bitten,” he says gently.

“Never! I never want to become like you! Fate or not, I can’t be yours,” you say exasperated.

Thump thump thump…

He flashes his eyes at you and smirks. That wasn’t completely truthful. Despite your fear, something enticed you and your fluttering heart gave it away. He gets up slowly, making you back up against the wall with apprehension. He stands in front of you, placing one of his hands above your head on the wall, and looks at you hungrily.

“I know this isn’t easy… but you like the idea of being mine, don’t you?” He purred.

You swallow harshly and look up at him weakly. Your breathing hitches and you can’t get the words out you want to say. Elvis takes a step closer to you, the magnet that attracted you two together was pulling him in.

“Tell me,” he whispers.

You look away from him, not wanting to give him that satisfaction of hearing such things from your lips. He carefully puts his hands around your waist and squeezes you softly. He feels your body stiffen and then relax because of his touch.

“Please tell me,” he asks again.

You continue to stay silent, not budging. He takes one more step closer to you and the top of his thigh is in-between your legs. His thigh pushes up against your core and you gasp when you feel him touching you. You look back at him in a bit of shock, unable to hide that you like his body on yours a bit too much. He wants the truth out of you. He needed to know he wasn’t crazy and you were feeling the same way he was.

“Why do you want to fight me, honey? You know I’ll give you anything you ever wanted,” he coos, gently pushing his thigh against your core more. You sigh at him and look down at where his leg is. His hands are still on your hips and he starts to gently rock your hips against his thigh, making your core grind on him. You let out a deep groan and look back at him in shock.

“Goddamn it, Elvis please,” you bleated.

He smirks at you and your whiney tone, “What is it, honey?” He asks innocently, moving your hips some more. You grab onto his shirt and ball it in your fist.

“You make me weak,” you groan.

“I know, I feel the same way. I can’t say no to you,” he breathed.

You try to pull him closer and he suddenly feels your hips move on their own, loving the friction against your core.

He keeps his hands on your hips, guiding you as you continue to groan with how good this feels.

“Do you want me? Do you want to be mine?” He asks you again.

You softly whine and look at him helplessly. You gasp every time he grinds you onto his thigh more. You let your head lean back against the wall and look up at him with heavy eyes. He couldn’t get enough of how you looked when you were turned on. He felt his cock get hard just watching you get off on him.

“Come on baby, say it,” he begs you. You press your lips together and hold back the whiney moan that forms in your throat.

“I-I can’t,” you stammer.

“You know you want to. You like the very idea of it. I heard how excited you got,” he says as he puts his hand on your chest. The loud patter of your heart beats against his hand and makes him hum contently.

“And look at yourself, grinding on me trying to get off. I know you want me. I just want to hear it,” he teases. Your hips roll onto him with his tempting words and you cry out frustratedly.

“Yes I want you,” you whine, “I want you so much, it kills me. I shouldn’t want you this much but I do. I want you all the time. I want to be yours,” you professed.

He sighs delighted, loving the words that just left your lips. He leans in and kisses you passionately, groaning when he feels your eager lips meet his. You both were a mess, grabbing and holding onto each other for dear life. You run your hands through his soft hair and try to pull him in as close as possible. You moan into his mouth as he moves your hips more, trying to get you to finish.

You break the kiss and moan his name, breathless and needy. He watches as your eyes flutter and your brow furrow together as your body tenses on him.

“That’s it, baby, let me see you cum,” he coos. You groan and hold onto him tight, letting your orgasm rip through you. You cuss his name and pant for breath. He loved watching you like this. You looked so sexy and perfect in every way.

He lets you calm down a bit before going to kiss you again. There was something about the way you kissed him this time that made him feel aflame. Like you were truly meant to fulfill him. He takes his leg away from your core and pins you to the wall with his body. You instantly groan when you feel his hard length pressing into you. He ravages you with his kisses, starting from your lips, then your cheeks, to your neck, and down to your breasts. God, he missed doing this to you. He wanted to cover every inch of your body with his kisses and lick his favorite part of you. His hands roamed your clothed body and wanted so badly to feel your warm skin on his.

He briefly pauses and picks you up, carrying you to the bedroom. He doesn’t stop kissing you until he sets you down on the edge of the bed. He goes to close the door and lock it, starting to unbutton the shirt off of himself. You look at him apprehensively, not sure what he was going to do with you.

“What baby?” He asks innocently.

“What are you going to do with me?” You ask as your eyes trail down his body.

“Oh me? I’m not going to do anything. You, however, are going to ride me until the sun comes up. How does that sound?” He says peeling his shirt off of his body and standing back in front of you, giving your forehead a kiss.

You take a sharp breath in when you feel his lips on you again and stare at him in complete shock at his request.

“I umm… it’ll be hours before the sun comes up,” you quavered, your fingertips brushing along his chest.

“Good thing I never get tired,” he says deviously.

🩸

Tagging:

@neptuneismysister @velvetelvis @ccab @presleyenterprise @theresalwaysep

@sillybookmarks @dkayfixates @ellie-24 @rktismylife-blog

@myradiaz @tacozebra051

@flwrs4aust @emma181873

@austinswhitewolf @eliseinmemphis

@everythingelvispresley @chasingwildflowers @idontwanttoputanything. @ohjustpeachy_

@elvisalltheway101 @austinsmutler @kingdomforapony.

@generoustreemystic @claire-elvisgirl

@ashtag6887 @burnthheparaphilia @richardslady121

@jaqueline19997

@returntopresley. @iloveelvis @rimartin11@that-hotdog.

@louisejoy86 @misspresley @cattcb @annapresley8

@arrolyn1114 @raginginkedslut @epthedream69

@mh777ep1938

@50sexyshadesfashionista

@oldhOllywOod @hooked-on-elvis @livelovedilfs @sloppiest-of-jos

#elvis presley fanfiction #elvis x reader #elvis x you #elvis imagine #elvis presley #elvis presely smut #elvis smut #elvis x y/n #70s elvis #vampire elvis #sinned awakening

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the-al-chemist · 5 months ago

Text

Me and Jacob Down by the Seaside

I have been hoarding asks like a dragon recently. Thanks to life being busy, it’s taken me almost half a month to finish writing the answer to this one from @drinkyoursoupbitch, to whom I am grateful as always.

Warnings: references to death of a parent and child neglect.

The waves were werewolves today.

Artemis could see them appearing from the surface of the water before they came running towards her, the sound they made a menacing growl, the white sea foam their gnashing teeth as they chased at her heels, nipping at them as she ran to the shore. She mustn’t let the teeth get her, that was the rule.

Luckily, she was fast. The were-waves were no match for her. Again and again, she ran in from the water, reaching the dry pebbles just in time. Each wave lapped at the shore behind her, each werewolf retreated back into the shadows of the sea from whence they came.

It was a good game, for a while, but it soon became repetitive. It would have been more fun if she had a friend to play with her, or her brother, but Jacob was not in the mood for playing today. He was sitting further up the beach, a book open on his lap in front of him. He had been reading the same book for longer than she had been running from the seafoam. Surely, he must be bored by now, she thought. Maybe she could convince him to play with her after all.

Jacob Hexley was almost ten years Artemis’ senior, and in her opinion, there was no finer big brother in the world. He was cleverer than any adult she had ever met — except for maybe Daddy, but she wasn’t sure she could count Daddy anymore — and a lot more fun. He alone knew how to fold paper napkins into flying dragons, he always snuck Artemis’ cauliflower onto his plate so she wouldn’t have to eat it, and he invented the best games.

The only downside to having him as a brother was that he spent more time at Hogwarts than he did at home. Artemis only ever got to see him at Christmas and Easter and, as was the case now, during the summer holidays. When she was really, really small, it hadn’t been so bad. Her mum had been happy and good at making up games and telling bedtime stories. But, since Daddy died, the games and the stories had become fewer and further between. Nowadays, she spent most of her time just finding ways to entertain herself whilst she waited for Jacob to return home.

And now that he was home, he was too busy reading to pay her attention properly. That simply wouldn’t do. She turned away from the sea and traipsed over the pebbles towards her brother, sitting quietly on the beach with an open notebook on his lap.

“What’s that?” Artemis asked, leaning over Jacob’s shoulder and squinting at the peculiar writing in the book.

Jacob chuckled. “None of your business, that’s what it is.”

But he couldn’t have minded Artemis looking, because he did not close his book. Perhaps it could be a bit of her business, after all. Still, she couldn’t read what was written. Not because she couldn’t read, of course she could, she was a whole eight years and two months old now, but because the writing wasn’t in English. Most of it wasn’t even in the alphabet.

“What are all those funny letters?”

“They’re not letters, they’re runes,” Jacob told her. Artemis frowned, and Jacob explained further. “It’s a really old language. You know about different languages, right?”

Artemis rolled her eyes. “Obviously.” She wasn’t stupid. Still, she didn’t know absolutely everything. “Where do they speak runes?”

“They don’t, not anymore.”

“What? So why are you learning it?”

“Because it’s interesting.”

That was a matter of opinion, thought Artemis. She screwed up her face.

“It’s a waste of time learning a language that no one else speaks,” she told Jacob. “You should do something else instead, like play with me in the sea.”

“Of course, playing in the sea is never a waste of time,” Jacob replied. The way he spoke made it sound a little like he was making fun of Artemis, but he ruffled her hair like he always did and turned to a fresh page in his notebook. With his quill, he wrote two words in his spidery handwriting: SLOSHY LIMES.

“What does—”

“Look.”

Artemis did so, and with a wave of his wand, the letters on the page of Jacob’s book wriggled around to form two new words: HELLO MISSY. Artemis giggled.

“Hello, Jacob,” she replied. “Do another one.”

“In a minute. Did you see what I did there? You didn’t know what I’d written, because I’d jumbled all the letters around. But now you know that if ever you see the words ‘sloshy limes’ again, you’ll know that it’s someone saying hello to you. But no one else will know that, only you and me.”

“So, it’s like a secret code.”

“Exactly. Same with the runes. If I know someone else who has learned about runes, I can use them as a code.”

Now, Artemis understood why it might be interesting to learn about runes. If Jacob knew about them, and she learned about them, she could share his secret code.

“Teach me how to do runes,” she told her brother, who laughed. “What?”

“It’s a whole language, Missy. It takes years to learn properly. But okay.” He picked up a pebble from the beach and pointed his wand at it. Tiny, funny letters appeared on the pebble. “In the olden days people wrote runes on stones. They didn’t have room for lots of letters to make words, so each symbol is one word.” He showed Artemis his pebble. “This rune means the sun. This one means water. This one means child. Here you go. You can keep it.”

As he handed the pebble to Artemis, she frowned at the little symbols. “How do you know what symbol means what word if there aren’t any letters?”

“You memorise them.”

“Are there lots of different symbols?”

“As many as there are words,” said Jacob, as if it were simple. It was not simple. There must have been hundreds or thousands or even zillions of words in the world. Artemis’ mind boggled at the thought of memorising each and every one. Maybe runes were not for her, after all.

Still, she did like the idea of a secret code.

“Maybe it would be better to stick to the jumbled up letters,” she said. “Can you do another one now?”

Jacob obliged. OWL ACQUIRED IN? he wrote.

But though Artemis stared at the letters and thought so hard her eyes and head started to ache, she could not unjumble the letters without her brother’s help. Eventually, Jacob had to use his wand to help her.

LIQUORICE WAND? the letters now spelt out. Jacob reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of sweets.

Artemis took one and bit into it. It was tough and chewy and more sour than it was sweet, and she wasn’t entirely sure that she liked it. She would definitely have preferred to have had an ice cream. But liquorice was Jacob’s favourite, so it had to be good. She continued to gnaw on the liquorice wand anyway, digging her feet into the pebbles and looking out at the sea. The waves had calmed a little, as if the werewolves were resting, waiting for her to return so they could try to catch her again. The sun was high in the sky, and a salty-smelling breeze was cooling her bare legs, and her favourite person in the whole wide world was by her side.

“I wish it could be summer all the time.”

“There isn’t any point in wishing for things, Missy,” Jacob replied. “Wishing never changes anything.”

“I guess. But if it was summer all the time then you would always be here and we could come to the seaside and play and eat sweets every day.” Though Jacob smiled, he did not look overly excited by the idea. Artemis sighed. “It’s so boring without you and Ma is sad. I mean, she’s always sad now, but she’s definitely more sad when you’re not here. Is she sad because of Daddy, do you think?”

“Yes,” said Jacob. “So we have to look after her, don’t we?”

It struck Artemis that this was a peculiar idea, that she should be the one looking after her mother. Surely, it should have been the other way around? But Jacob always knew best, and he was good at looking after everyone. Maybe she could be good at looking after people too, even if she was only small. Yes, she was certain that she could. She gave Jacob a definite nod of her head.

Her liquorice wand was not even half finished, but the taste of it had not grown on her. She was reminded yet again why she only ever ate the stuff when Jacob was around. Tired of working hard to chew the sweet, and even more tired of sitting still, she jumped to her feet and pointed the remnants of her liquorice wand at Jacob.

”On card!”

Jacob laughed, but he didn’t get up. Artemis sighed again.

“Come on, Jacob. Play with me.” She widened her eyes and tilted her head to one side. “Please?”

Remembering her manners must have done the trick, because finally, Jacob closed his book and stood up. He pointed his own liquorice wand back at her. ”Titillandus!”

“What does that spell do?”

Jacob grinned. “It’s the tickling charm,” he told her, before running at her with his arms outstretched and fingers wriggling.

He was clever, but Artemis was quick. She leapt away from him and ran away, back towards the sea, squealing and giggling, the werewolves in the waves all but forgotten.

#artemis hexley #hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm fic #the hexley saga #jacob hexley #hphm jacob #jacob’s sibling

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