#oc: ruth kennedy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

floosies · 5 years ago

Text

bury a friend: The Story of Noctua

pairing: steve rogers x possessed!oc x mcu!au

summary: there have been sightings of a dark creature who vanishes with night and in the mornings only remains of once living people are found scattered in open fields or forests nearby.

warnings: mentions of abuse, mentions of attempted suicide, violence, gore, cursing, mentions/scenes of sexual nature.

Please read with discretion. 18+ content.

A/N: This is my first attempt at something more dark. It’s been in my brain since hearing some of biilie’s works and quiet frankly I want to venture into new territory. However, I understand the severity of some topics that I will write about. If you or someone you know is in need please look at these resources

Tags: @indecisivedolly

Series Masterlist

Part 5: Cold, Cold Heart

It took some time before they let the man get out of the room. His mind was steady fast on her. Was she dead? Why did he care? She was no better than him, and murdered people for sport. Still he raced to the med bay, with hopes she was doing well. When neared the entrance he found Steve waiting there, his face full of concentration. “What’d they say?” The look he gave his friend made Bucky’s heart drop.

Ruth was a little girl that greeted all the creatures of the woods. The kindest soul anyone could ever meet. It was what Tenebrae admired about her. What her parents saw from the great beyond. A kindred spirit with good intentions. Yet, here she laid feeble and fighting to wake up. She wouldn’t give up, especially since she only just discovered her freedom to be herself.

“Cho, you’re joking right?” It made sense, but a part of Bucky seemed to be in disbelief. The doctor shook her head though, “this girl seriously malnourished, under weight, and has serious bone damage. I’m surprised she’s alive.” It was reaching nightfall, Steve was still hoping she’d wake up. Outside the door of her room was the elderly man from the previous night, “Tenebrae right?” He smiled at the boy, “Bucky. How is she?” The being could read the anger well on the boy. “How could you let that happen to her?” With a look of shock he mockingly answered the boy, “I thought she was a monster? Is that not how you viewed her?” Of course this took him aback.

Steve heard the voice of someone else, he left the room to see the two men standing in silence. “Sir? Can I help you?” The elderly man looked at Steve, but Bucky answered, “it’s the Tenebrae thing.” “I am not a thing, I am an entity.” Being ever polite Steve asked why he had returned, “she is like my daughter. I must check on her well being.” A scoff arose from the one armed soldier at the very comment, “she’s malnourished, and has multiple bone fractures. How caring.” Because of its human form, it could finally express emotion, “those bone fractures came from a terrible early childhood. Or had she not mentioned what drove her to nearly kill herself?’

The silence was not one of awkwardness nor anger, but of guilt. The entity explained her misfortunes. How she would still smile and try to make those wretched people love her. How they did everything to try and break her. Explaining why all the rotten souls were killed, and how she cried after kill out of guilt. Steve wanted to cry, ever the sentimentalist. “So when you go and call her a monster remember that she is very aware of her impending flaws soldat.” The elderly man whispered something and then disappeared.

She woke up in the middle of the night, she knew where she was even if she had never been through the whole of the compound. There were so many floors to go through, this time she’d found a room filled with records and a great gramophone. She found an old french record that made her smile. It didn’t take long after to sense she was going to have company. She had already guessed who.

He walked in with an urgency, “Doctor Cho said you’re malnourished and fractured everywhere.” He then proceeded to take seat, “well I’m still alive though.” The record play in the background, “did you know those people weren’t your real parents.” Her puzzled look was a quick indicator that this was new to her, “the spirit thing told us about your upbringing.” There was no time to react, her palm left a burning sensation his cheek. Her eyes began to brim with tears, “you are an empty shell of man. Your soul is rotten, if you still have one. You vicious, cold blooded, cumberground.” “Cumberground?” She went to strike him again, but his metal arm gripped her wrist. “You serve no purpose, you merely exist to take up space. That is what you are.” She spat at the soldier.

“You’re no one to talk to me like that-” “someone should! I have done nothing to you. Yet you belittle me and glare when my presence is near.” His heart was racing, “why do you let me? Why don’t you kill me?” She pushed herself away from, “kill you? Kill you?! Do you hear yourself?! Are you mad? You must be absolutely insane! Why would I ever wish death upon anyone?” Was she serious? “Your history says otherwise-” “those heathens hurt children, women, other men. They suffered their endings because they were awful people. I’ve witnessed them in the midst of their horrid acts. I’ve seen the lives that were destroyed because of the scum I kill. You think I kill for sport? I live with each and every memory, the agonizing screams as they try to ask for forgiveness. It aches my heart sometimes, but they were merely trying not to pay for the injustices they made on the feeble.”

There was only the sound of her sobs for a moment. He quietly asked, “so why do it? If it pains you?” She looked at him, the blue in his eyes was like the ocean in late summer, their gaze was content on her. “I do it because I know the pain of being taken advantage of. I nearly lost my virtue out of forceful brute from someone who was supposed to care for me. The reassurance that someone else doesn’t have to feel the pain I did is why I continue.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “if I had died like I’d planned I would have never been able to save any of them. I cherish the fact that have been given a second chance. You may not, but I do. A fear lives in me, one that makes me believe this may all be taken away from me and I’ll have to live in the horrors of my past. So I carry on as best as I can. I am a kind soul at my core, but I will not live to please anymore.”

His mind was rushing with many thoughts, she could not read all of them. Perhaps she should have stayed in that bed, “when we were in the alternate past and I saw that Kennedy was alive. I realized that it meant I was dead, there was a comfort in that.” Here was the glimpse into the fragments of darkness that haunted him, “to find comfort in one’s own demise is a feeling I longed for. Your past does not define you. It should not guide who you are now, you do not have to be cold, the best thing would be to look forward.”

The record was ending, “when the old man explained your past. I thought of my own pain. I’ve been seeing you like they saw me. It’s easier to see everyone as your enemy when you’ve been made to believe that for so long.” She listened, not sure what would come from it the next day. He was really just a scared boy, filled with paranoia and insecurity. When he began to sob, she made him sleep, presenting him a sweet dream. Something comforting from his past.

Her room was in the same state she left in. Despite the softness of the linens and the cushion of the pillows, an unsettling feeling sat in the depths of her heart. How would the days work now? Would his glares and harshness continue? She decided on not erasing his memory of their conversation. Fatigue soon answered for her, and soon she was in her dream land as well.

Steve went to look for her in the morning, she wasn’t in her room or in the med bay. She was gone. He called Tony, “what do you mean she just disappeared?” The billionaire’s voice came from the cellphone, “I don’t know. I’m searching everywhere-” FRIDAY’s voice interrupted the conversation, “she’s in the basement kitchen.” A sigh of relief erupted from Steve as he went to the elevator down to the basement.

As the elevator opened, he looked over at the kitchen area of the basement. She was sat next to Bucky, they appeared to be in a deep discussion. “Sorry to interrupt, I couldn’t find you in the med bay.” She smiled at the golden haired man, “I apologize for not advising you about my whereabouts. Could some breakfast make up for it?” He smiled at her, “sure.” Bucky just sat there for a while. He listened to his friend make the young witch laugh, somewhere in his heart he was a bit upset that she was happy in Steve’s presence.

So much so that he didn’t hear her talking to him, “you alright Bucky?” Her voice was so soft, “yeah? Yes. Sorry what was the question?” She giggled, “Steve and I were wondering if you wanted to come grocery shopping with us?” There was this gleam of hope in her eyes. Her doe like eyes, the ones he’d seen before he fell asleep and dreamed about the first time his ma took him to Coney Island. He agreed to go with them though, he had to ask her more questions about how she did it. If she could bring back more of his memories, if she would help him find himself.

#sorceress #witch #oc!female #steve rogers #Bucky Barnes #Captain America The First Avenger #mcu #mcuedit #Avengers #chris evans #Sebastian Stan

8 notes · View notes

anniesocsandgeneralstore · 3 years ago

Text

Come Over Here and Overwhelm Me: goodbyes (Jake "Hangman" Seresin x OC)

Summary: Jake makes a decision he's never been more sure of, but Ronnie begins to doubt as his secret mission draws closer.

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x OC (Ronnie Bradshaw)

Word Count: 8262

Warnings: angst, heavy foreshadowing, hangman being soft, flashbacks, blood mention, injury (skateboarding accident), panic attack symptoms described, background bob x oc (ruth kennedy), rooster being a good big brother for once, a hot kiss and hickey giving

SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE

A/N: likes are great but comments/reblogs are even better! this is a rewrite of the same chapter. i wasn't happy with the first version i posted. so here we are. much happier now that there's a shit-ton of angst.

Jake woke up first, just before dawn. As he always did. Rolling over, he groaned softly as he dragged his hand down his face. The bedroom, he didn’t know if it was Ronnie’s bedroom or their bedroom anymore, was bathed in that dark light of just before sunrise. The world on the precipice of a new day. Teetering on the edge of a knife.

The team was getting the new flight plan today for the mission. The “safer and easier” flight plan that was most likely going to get whoever was chosen killed. Part of him wondered if he even wanted to be chosen, no matter how good it would look for his career. He didn’t like the idea of that risk. Not anymore.

Ronnie whined softly in her sleep as she blindly reached for him. He chuckled quietly as she finally found purchase on his chest and dragged herself closer to him. Practically laying herself on top of him with another little half-asleep noise.

“Stay,” she grumbled into his collarbone.

God, he wanted to squeeze her to death she was so cute. Instead, he opted to wrap his arms around her shoulders and hold her close. Breathing in the smell of her hair that she washed the night before. Coconut and salt water and a day on the beach. It was warm and good and everything he never knew he wanted. To think he was satisfied with no one laying in bed beside him. With waking up alone. With no purple nurples, or loud singing in the shower, or humbling jokes made at his expense. This moment, in the darkness before morning, was captured sunshine.

He wanted to wake up every single day just like this.

“Pretty ring,” Jake commented as he thumbed the piece of jewelry on Ronnie’s right hand.

It clearly wasn’t something she picked up herself. It was nice, really nice. With real diamonds and a real sapphire at the center. Too expensive for a bartender to afford. A sickening jealousy clawed at his gut at the thought that someone must have given it to her. He tried to push it down, fight it, hate it — but it was inevitable and nasty.

They were hidden away in the back booth at the I-Bar, sat on the same side with Ronnie tucked under Jake’s arm. Her mid-day shift just ended, and they were getting a few drinks before inevitably heading back to her place for the night. It was something they probably shouldn’t be doing if this was just a casual fling, but neither of them could help it. Despite everything — the promises made, the distance he wanted to keep, the fear of being known — Jake wanted to be with her all the time. Wanted to sit there and get drinks and go back to her place for food and a movie and good sex.

“Thanks.” Ronnie smiled down at the ring fondly.

He tried to act casual as he took a swig of his beer. “Who gave it to you?”

“My mom,” she replied, taking a sip of her own drink. “Left it to me when she died. I…Wear it sometimes — when I miss her.”

It felt like every muscle in his body relaxed now that he knew some guy hadn’t given her the ring. He tried not to notice the sad little look on her face as she twisted the ring around her finger. Too much vulnerability for his taste. Then her eyes widened as she sunk down low in the booth.

“What?” he asked, chuckling at the way she brought her head down between her shoulders and slid down till she was practically under the table.

“Brad’s here,” she muttered.

Jake looked over towards the door, and sure enough Rooster was there. Stupid Hawaiian shirt and stupid mustache twitching as he looked around the bar for his friends. Jake sputtered around the neck of his beer for a second, barely escaping eyecontact with his fellow aviator, before he turned towards Ronnie and caged her against the wall behind. Effectively hiding them both from view.

Her brown eyes were big as she looked up at him, trying to sneak glances around Jake’s shoulder to see if Rooster had noticed them. He couldn’t help the way her eyes reminded him of the baby cows he used to help his mother feed. It made him want to kiss her. Try to tell her that through his touch because he would never be able to admit it, even to himself. Jake smirked as he looked down at her. She hit him on the chest lightly as she glared.

“What are you smiling about?” she whispered harshly, “Bradley is right there. We are this close to getting caught and you’re smiling?”

“He’s not gonna come over here, darlin’.”

“How do you know that?”

Ronnie grunted in surprise when he slotted his lips against her own, pushing her back further into the booth. Her hand reached up and fisted his shirt in her hand. He couldn’t tell if it was a pull to keep going or a push to stop. The small noise at the back of her throat told him to keep going. Jake scooted closer, one knee bent up onto the bench slotted between her own spread thighs. A thrill went down his spine at the thought of other people watching — of being caught. Of people knowing, even the members of his TOPGUN class knowing that he was seeing the most beautiful girl. Shit, but he couldn’t have thoughts like that. Ronnie was just a bit of fun. A bit of fun that he couldn’t seem to get enough of.

He pulled the hand still latched onto his shirt away and threaded his fingers between her own. He made sure to swivel her mom’s ring around before he pressed the back of her hand into the wall behind them.

With a few more minutes of bathing in sunlight, Jake pulled himself out of bed with a mass of reluctance in his gut. Leaving Ronnie face down on the mattress and her hair spread out around her like a halo. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.

After showering and changing into his flightsuit, Jake tried, as quietly as he could, to snoop around the room. It was an absolute disaster zone in there. Clothes all over the floor and cups accumulating on nightstands. If their room in DC was anything like this one he was going to have an aneurysm he was sure. But he needed to find what he was looking for before Ronnie woke up. Judging by the time, he only had a few minutes before her internal clock would kick in and she would grumble into awakeness.

He peeked inside the closet to see if there were any boxes stored on top, labeled like they were important. There was nothing except a basket full of scarves she could never possibly wear in California weather and some spare blankets. He cursed lightly as he turned back to the bedroom with his hands on his hips.

Then he spotted an old wooden jewelry box on top of her dresser. That had to be it. Jake grinned when he got up close to it. It was clearly Ronnie’s from childhood — moved from house to house and clung to like a prized possession. There were faded pink flowers with yellow centers painted on the lid. Her name was stuck on with glitter foam stickers he remembered seeing on girl’s pencil boxes in school.

He pulled open the lid and cringed. On top was a mass of tangled old necklaces and hairties — a few dark hairs sticking out of it. Face pinched in disgust, he lifted the ball out of the box with his forefinger and thumb and dropped it on top of the dresser.

Yeah, their place in DC was going to make him blow a fuse, he was sure of it.

But once the tangle was removed, only one thing remained in the jewelry box. At the bottom was a lone velvet ring box, pristine and pink in color. Jake pulled it out and flipped open the lid.

There were two rings inside.

Ronnie was only wearing his t-shirt as she stood in front of her dresser, putting something away. Jake laid out on the bed, spread-eagle, waiting for her to come back. But she was taking too long, and he couldn’t stand the sight of her in his shirt without getting his hands on her any longer.

Jake rose from the mattress and came up behind her. Ronnie only hummed in response as he smoothed his hands up her sides, hitching his shirt up around her waist.

“What’re you doin’?” he asked into the soft flesh of her neck as he looked over her shoulder. “Jesus, how many rings do you have?”

Ronnie was holding a ringbox, putting away the ring she was wearing at the bar earlier. But there was another gold and diamond ring tucked away inside.

She laughed softly and it reverberated through her back straight into his soul. “Only the one — technically.”

“The sapphire?” he guessed and she nodded. “Who’s the other one belong to then?”

“It’s Bradley’s — to do with whatever he pleases, whenever, I guess. It was our grandmother’s engagement ring.”

She closed up the box and dropped it on top of the dresser. Just as Jake pressed her front into the piece of furniture and attacked her neck with open mouthed kisses sure to leave bruises.

One ring was a simple gold band with a square-cut diamond. A grandmother’s engagement ring. The other had a swoop and curve to the band, a marquise-cut sapphire at it’s center surrounded by at least two-dozen smaller diamonds all along the band. A mother’s ring. Jake pulled this one from the box and smiled.

Success.

Ronnie groaned from her place on the bed, the low noise turning into a squeal as she stretched like a cat. Jake quickly stowed the ring away in the breast pocket of his flightsuit and put the jewelry box back in order. When he turned, Ronnie was patting his side of the bed, looking for him. Then she rolled over and caught him standing in front of her dresser with hands held behind his back — definitely not looking suspicious at all.

“What’re you doing?” she slurred, still groggy from sleep as she rubbed at her eyes.

“Just finished getting ready,” Jake lied easily.

“Hm, okay.”

He met no further resistance from her and he released a shallow sigh. Ronnie rolled out of bed and stretched one last time. She was only wearing one of his t-shirts. An old Naval Acadamy thing that he really only wore when he was working out. It was stained and stretched and looked amazing on her. The edge of it barely hitting the tops of her thighs and the collar opening wide across her collarbones.

Yeah, he wanted to wake up, he wanted to come home to this every single day of his life. Forever. Always.

She barely even looked at him as she walked past him towards the door. She patted him once on the chest as she slipped by and said, “I’ll start the coffee.”

“Alright.”

Jake turned and followed after her into the kitchen. The ring in his pocket practically burning.

When Bradley and Ronnie were young, they were considered the menaces of their neighborhood. Well, more like Ronnie was a menace and Bradley tried desperately to keep her out of trouble. During the summer, when there was no school and an abundance of free time, they would hop on their bikes in the morning and ride around the little Southern California town their mom relocated them to until the sun went down.

They would go to the gas station and buy candy from the old man that worked there. The little ritz theatre that only played movies that were about to come out on home video. The beach to collect shells and search for treasures. They were attached at the hip during all those summers growing up. Some things changed over those years. Ronnie started riding her skateboard around instead of a bike. And sometimes Bradley would have a girl from school riding on his handlebars that Ronnie could barely stand.

Eventually, those summers of fun would come to an end. Bradley went off to college after his papers got pulled. And Ronnie had to try to make friends that weren’t her brother.

Bradshaws always stick together.

It was their motto. Their mantra. It was surprising that their mom didn’t have it stitched into a throw pillow. Something forged through heartbreak and loss. We have to stick together because the world is out to get us. But now there was a separation between them — a rift that hadn’t been there before. One that only grew wider as they got older.

Now, they were both in their thirties. Gone through so much. Too much, maybe. Loss and love and heartbreak and joy beyond compare. Medals were won and accomplishments were celebrated. All with so many degrees of separation between them now. A canyon too wide to cross. A river too deep and wild.

How could they come back together now — with so much time and pain and distance between them?

Start at the beginning.

At least, that was Ronnie’s idea when she asked Bradley to come over early in the morning two days after the funeral. When she pulled the old, rusted bike out of her shed and leaned it against the gate with her longboard.

Bradley laughed when he pulled up to her house, instantly spotting the bike and knowing what she had planned, head thrown back and all as Ronnie came through her front gate holding a pair of to-go cups filled with coffee.

“I know we didn’t drink coffee as kids, but I will fall asleep while riding if I don’t,” she said as she handed him one of the cups.

He took the coffee gratefully. “Any destination in mind?”

“Not really.” Ronnie bent down to retuck the laces on her Vans. “There’s a corner store like two miles away — it’s no Speedway gas station wih Mr. Tanner, but…”

“God, Mr. Tanner,” he said as he hitched his leg over the bike and lowered himself down into the seat. He had to raise it a little so his legs would fit. “What a freakin’ creep.”

“Dude, he was such a creep. With the goatee and the long nails and the smell. Why did we keep going back?” she laughed.

“Cause he gave us free candy, obviously.”

“That’s why he was so creepy, though!”

They laughed as Ronnie picked up her longboard and dropped it to the ground, one hand still wrapped around her coffee cup. She put one foot down on the board to keep it from rolling away. It was another beautiful California day. The sun was bright, the air had that slight bite of morning, and the sky was already cerulean blue.

Bradley nodded his head towards the Corvette parked down the street. “Hangman here?”

“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes at the annoyance in his tone. “Pretty sure there’s nothing left in his bunk on base.”

Ronnie kicked off on her board, balanced easily on top as she continued to drink her coffee. Bradley followed behind on the bike, catching up with her quickly. They rode along in silence for a while. Turning down one street and another, sipping their coffees, often times precariously. Especially Bradley, who had to ride with no handlebars in order to get the cup up to his mouth. But it seemed he hadn’t forgotten at all how to ride. And for a moment, just a fleeting moment, they were kids again. With nothing better to do and no where to be and the entire world ahead of them.

Bradley pulled up beside Ronnie and sighed as he leaned back, keeping the bike upright with subtle movements of his legs instead of his hands on the bars.

“You really like him — don’t you?”

“Brad.” She looked at him with such sincerity, such open truth as she swerved around a pothole. “I love him.”

He put on the brakes. Ronnie didn’t even notice at first, just kept on riding. But then she didn’t see out of the corner of her eye and she stopped too. Looking over her shoulder, she saw him with his feet planted on the concrete and empty coffee cup crumpled in his hand. He stared at her with furrowed eyes and mustache twitching. She knew that look. Knew it all too well. She rode back over to him with a sigh.

She stopped beside him and waited expectantly, eyebrows raised. He opened his mouth, once, twice before finally shrugging his shoulders and saying, “You’ve only been seeing him for two weeks, Ronnie.”

There was no bitterness or annoyance in his tone now. All of it replaced with a concern that really was only reserved for Ronnie. All he ever wanted was for her to be taken care of, for her heart not to get broken. For her not to come to him with tears in her eyes and whimpers about how he broke things off when she was so in love. He both loved and loathed that Ronnie was someone with her heart on her sleeve, who gave out affection so easily and so fully. It had happened more times than Bradley liked before. And if Hangman hurt her, he wouldn’t stop at one punch to the jaw. It would be an all out beating. All she saw was that same love and care in her brother’s eyes, in the buckle of his brow, in the way he now fiddled with the paper cup.

Ronnie put a hand on one of the handle bars and sighed, deep and long with her head thrown back towards the sky.

“Look, I…Don’t know how to tell you this without outing myself as a complete ass,” she said, face scrunched up in a way that was all too familiar to Bradley.

He knew that look. Knew it all too well. She did something she wasn’t supposed to.

“What did you do?” he asked, suspicion pulling on his brow.

“You — You have to promise that you won’t take it out on Jake.”

“Oh, my God what did you two do?”

“Nothing! S’just that…When you guys were in TOPGUN together…” She pulled another face as she looked to the heavens, praying whatever was up there would help her out. “Me and Jake were kinda a thing.”

Bradley was surprisingly calm and measured when he asked, “Like you slept together a few times?”

“Not exactly. We were seeing each other for a year.”

“A year?” he practically shouted.

For the first time, his expression was unreadable. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Completely blank, but she could also see the gears turning behind his eyes. It flashed with anger for a moment. Then went back to calm. Confusion riddled that spot between his eyebrows, creating hills and valleys that hadn’t been there in his youth, as he looked down at the street beneath them. When he looked back up at her, his eyes were narrowed, mouth hanging open. Ronnie smiled at him awkwardly, trying to relieve the tension that was suddenly created at her confession.

He repeated it again, quieter this time, “A year?”

“Yeah, a year,” she chuckled, finding the whole thing rather humorous. “There was even a few times when you came over that he was hiding in the bathroom.”

“He was there…? I — ?” Bradley put his head down in the center of the handlebars with a groan. “How did I not see that?”

Ronnie put her hand on his shoulder. “Honestly, I have no idea. We weren’t exactly subtle. Especially Jake. Sometimes it felt like he wanted to get caught.”

“So — So when I brought you on base and introduced you to everybody…”

“Yeah, we definitely already boned at that point.”

“Ugh, don’t use the word boned!” Bradley protested, but he still laughed.

“We are literally adults now I can use whatever word I want! Boned!” she yelled after him as Bradley started peddling again, telling her to stop as he tried to get away.

They laughed like they were kids as they raced up the street. Bradley easily speeding ahead as he pumped his legs hard. Ronnie gave up eventually with a groan, screaming out one last boned as he reached the intersection. He let her catch up and they carried on. They stopped at that corner store to throw away their coffee cups and pick up a bit of breakfast — mostly powdered donuts that they both instantly made a mess of. After that, they decided to start heading back to the house. The squadron’s training started soon and he didn’t want to be late on base.

“Hows’s uh — how’s working with Maverick been?” she asked, pushing herself forward with her leg, the breeze created whipping her hair back. “Jake hasn’t told me much, but I know he’s the one training you guys for whatever you’re doing.”

Bradley’s eyebrows furrowed. “He didn’t tell you? Mav got booted by leadership yesterday.”

“He what?”

Just as she said that, her front wheels caught on that pothole she had managed to avoid earlier. Ronnie was flung from her board and down onto the pavement several feet in front of the pothole that caused her ruin. She landed hard on her back, trying not to break her fall with her hands so she wouldn’t snap her wrists. But she felt her right elbow as it scraped the rough concrete, the flesh being torn away and the sudden heat of the injury. Once the momentum stopped, she stared up at the sky flat on her back — feeling more shocked than anything.

“Shit! Ronnie!” she heard Bradley yell out, accompanied by the sound of a bike clattering to the ground.

Then the pain hit her all at once. She groaned as she sat up. Luckily she hadn’t hit her head or anything, those reflexes from when she was a kid on ramps kicking in to tuck her chin to her chest. Keep her head from smacking against concrete. But that meant her shoulders and back took most of the impact and both already dully throbbed with a familiar ache.

Bradley finally came into view, squated in front of her. “You okay?”

“I’m good.” She nodded her head, then moved her head from side to side to stretch out her neck. “I’ve suddenly been reminded I’m not sixteen anymore…But I’m good.”

He smiled, relieved. Then he looked down at her arms and he blanched. “You’re bleeding.”

“Huh?”

She looked down at her arm, turned it over where she thought a stinging pain was coming from, and sure enough there was blood. A lot of it. Weeping from a giant hole that started at her elbow and ended in the middle of her forearm. There were bits of gravel shoved into the wound as well. She lifted her arm to get a better look and crimson red started to drip on her jeans.

“Okay, we need to get you back home,” Bradley said as he got back to his feet. He held out his hands to help her up. “Come on. You can ride on my handlebars.”

“I am perfectly capable of riding my board home,” she said as she smacked her hands into his and yanked herself up.

She wobbled on her feet as soon as she was standing. Black spots danced in her vision like little dark fairies. Bradley steadied her with a quirked brow.

“Yeah, no, that’s not happening. Come on.”

He helped her over to the bike, and once he was seated, up onto the handlebars. She hoped never to be in this position. Riding on her brothers bike like all those girls did when they were in school. It was childish and embarrassing. But she felt better for it, even though the metal dug into her ass uncomfortably and she was starting to bleed all over everything. Running down her arm till red dripped from her fingers.

She looked over her shoulder at him as he rode them both home. “Do you know why Mav got booted?”

“Something to do with Iceman being gone.” Bradley shrugged. “We didn’t get many details.”

Ronnie nodded. It stung. Not just the gaping hole in her arm. That the people in charge would change things so quickly after Iceman’s death. It was like they didn’t even care about his wishes or his legacy. He knew that Maverick was one of the best pilots in the Navy, probably the only one who could teach that squad how to run that mission, and he trusted Maverick. That was the important thing. Trust. It didn’t matter the methods, the absurdity of it, Iceman trusted that Maverick would do his job and do it right in the end. It was why he was chosen, over everybody else. But it seemed that everyone else in the Navy didn’t really care about that. They cared about rules, structure, procedure, following orders. But when it came down to it, did any of that really matter when it was just one man up in the air facing down death itself?

Another thought snagged in her mind as her house came into view. Like a belt loop caught on a doorhandle. Suddenly the most aggravating thing in the universe.

Why didn’t Jake tell her about this?

Bradley pulled up to the gate and helped her down from the handlebars, trying not to get any blood on himself as he led her inside. When they came in through the front door, Jake was sitting on the couch scrolling on his phone, in his flightsuit ready to head to base. He smirked when he saw Rooster come inside as well — but it fell immediately once he noticed the state of Ronnie’s arm.

“Jesus, what happened?” Jake asked as he jumped up from the couch.

“A pothole attacked me,” she grumbled, now holding one hand beneath the other to try and catch the blood before it fell onto the carpet.

Jake looked to Rooster to confirm, eyebrows raised as he gently took hold of Ronnie’s shoulder to start leading her to the bathroom. Her brother shrugged. “Wasn’t paying attention — fell off her board and hit the ground hard.”

“Jesus,” Jake repeated, “Thanks for getting her home.”

“I’m her brother. It’s my job.”

“I can handle it from here.”

Jake and Bradley stared each other down, Ronnie trapped between them. She rolled her eyes as she shrugged Jake’s hand away.

“Ugh, will you two stop already!” She trudged towards the bathroom, not looking back to see if anyone was following, because she really didn’t care if someone did. She grumbled on her way, “Next they’re gonna whip out their dicks to see who’s bigger — or maybe they’ll kiss.”

She ripped open the door to the bathroom and rummaged under the sink looking for the first aid kit. Finding it with a small noise of success, she set it on the tile floor. Then she grabbed the hand towel from the hook and wetted it in the sink. She needed to clean everything up first before she could even think about bandaging it up — or worse, going to the hospital for stitches. But she was making a mess everywhere she went. It looked like she had murdered someone in that bathroom. Thinking quickly, she stepped into the bathtub and began to clean up her arm.

She didn’t want either of them to come in after her. She liked that she had a second alone, a second to think. Jake only kept things from her when they either made him look bad, it was a matter of national security, or because he knew it would hurt her. He knew that finding out about Maverick getting basically fired, against Iceman’s directive, would hurt. But it felt like there was something more to it. Something that she couldn’t pick out. Something too real, something rotten, something once uncovered couldn’t be again.

There was a tentative knock on the door. Ronnie looked away from her arm and the bloodied towel. Jake stood in the doorway with a shy smile and his hands shoved in the pockets of his flightsuit.

“Can I help you?” she asked, more harshly than she intended.

He stepped further inside the small bathroom. “Can I help you?”

She sighed, relenting as she handed over the towel. He urged her to actually sit in the tub as he found a seat on the edge, cleaning her arm gently, making sure not to miss a spot.

“Did Brad leave after you guys were done with your little spitting contest?” she asked quietly, fiddling with the edge of the blood ruined shirt she wore.

“He did.” Jake nodded, hissing along with Ronnie as he finally reached her actual wound with the towel. It looked painful. Several layers of skin ripped off and left on the concrete. But it wouldn’t need any serious medical attention. Just a good wrapping and some ice. “I’m sorry…I don’t know why I said that to him.”

Ronnie tried not to roll her eyes. A pained groan slipping past her lips as he dapped at her wound. He apologized quietly as he picked out the bits of gravel.

“He’s my brother, Jake. You don’t need to get so defensive around him.”

“He’s the one who gets defensive,” he grumbled as he gave her arm one last wipe, then he grabbed the roll of bandages and antibiotic cream from the first aid kit.

She narrowed her eyes at him as he squirted a good amount of the cream onto his fingers. “Don’t.”

“I’m just saying.”

“I said don’t.”

“Fine, fine,” Jake sighed, applying the antibiotic liberally to the wound with a gentle touch. He glanced up at her face as he asked, “Something else bothering you?”

Ronnie screwed her eyes shut. Did she want to talk about this with him now? They never had been good at talking about the serious things. The things that hurt, the things that weren’t working. It was always a constant cycle of silence and festering wounds that usually resolved themselves when he would do something nice or would make her feel so good she forgot what the problem even was. Until it eventually repeated itself. But they couldn’t do that. Not anymore. Not when this was real and they saw something down to the core of one another. Not when they were looking at housing options in DC and getting boxes for her stuff. Not now when they were trying.

Her answer was soft as he started wrapping up her arm. “Why didn’t you tell me about Maverick?”

Jake went stiff for a moment, eyes widening a fraction, readjusting the toothpick between his lips. She hadn’t even noticed it was there. She focused on it as he wrapped her arm up tight — the slight pressure of the gauze making her brow furrow in pain. For a moment, she wondered if this was going to leave a scar. A massive thing on her arm to remind her of this day when she totally ate cement and Jake revealed some terrible truth. Her mind couldn’t help going to the worst thing imaginable. She wasn’t even quite sure what that was.

“I didn’t tell you…” Jake started off slow, finishing off the wrapping with a bit of medical tape. “‘Cause I didn’t wanna scare you.”

“Scare me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked as she finally dropped her arm back down to her side, now suddenly feeling gross in her bloody and sweat drenched clothes.

“Okay, I can’t tell you much, but…Maverick’s flight plan was difficult. But it was the safest option for us pilots,” he said and she nodded along slowly, she already knew that. “Now that he’s gone — they’re gonna change the plan. Less difficulty…”

“But more danger,” she finished for him and he nodded.

There was a tight feeling in her chest. Like a hand was wrapped around her heart and squeezing till it popped. She knew who’s hand it was. It was Jake Seresin’s hand. Holding her heart in his fist as he tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at her in a way no one else ever had. Like she hung the stars, like he was terrified, like all of him was tangled in all of her.

She couldn’t keep the thought at bay as it overpowered her mind: He’s going to leave me.

Tears stung the backs of her eyes sudden and fierce. And before she even knew what was happening they were falling down her cheeks. She blinked, surprised at their appearance. Jake made a noise, almost like protest, as he cupped her jaw and gently forced her to look up at him.

“I’m not gonna leave you,” he whispered like they were in some holy place and not a tiny bathroom.

He squeezed her heart even harder with those words.

She barely choked out a response, “You don’t know that.”

“God, you’re right, I don’t,” he confessed, pressing his forehead flat against her own. “But I’m gonna try. I’m always gonna try, Ronnie.”

She didn’t even realize she wasn’t breathing until she was suddenly gasping for air. Her fingers curled around the front of his flightsuit and tugged him closer, trying to pull his body into her own where she could keep him safe and all to herself. Jake told her softly to breathe, to match his own intake of breath as he pressed his thumb into her thrumming pulse point. He spat the toothpick out on the floor before he put his lips to her skin.

“Jake…”

His name was a prayer, a plea, a desperate cry. Something said into the face of altars to uncaring gods. She couldn’t lose him. Not like this. Not when she just got him back. Not when he saw all those pieces of her that she would rather keep locked up. Not when he looked at her the way that he did. Not when they were trying. Then she saw Bradley in her mind’s eye, his concerned face as he knelt in front of her. The tears in his eyes as she confessed her unending love. She gasped again, fresh and reched and torn from her lungs in a cruel reminder to breathe. She couldn’t lose Bradley either. Her brother, her hero, a piece of herself that she just got back.

Jake guided her to stand, telling her gently to get out of her dirty clothes. Then he caught the time on his watch and cursed under his breath.

“M’sorry darlin’, I gotta go.”

He kissed her forehead in a way that felt like he was trying to reach through her skull and kiss all the terrible thoughts away. Then he slanted his lips against her own. Soft and nearly like a caress. A reassurance. A promise.

“I’ll come back.”

She wanted to believe him.

It was a busy night at The Hard Deck. Everyone from the air base showed up for drinks and pool it seemed. Pencil pushers and corporals, mechanics and aviators in training. The place was packed like it was the end of the world. And everyone was either overjoyed or agitated by its cruel ending.

Ronnie was just glad that the constant flow of patrons at the bar distracted from the buzzing thoughts inside her head. From the ache in her chest. From the fear that threatened to drown her.

She noted on particular Naval mechanic, Ruth, was on edge. More so than usual. They had spoken a handful of times and she seemed nice enough. Albeit a little intense and grumpy most of the time. But Ronnie enjoyed the fact that she took no shit from anyone — at least she enjoyed watching her take no shit from anyone. Ruth was tall, taller than even Jake maybe, with beautiful dark skin and wavy black hair, and thick arms and legs from lifting heavy machinery. Tonight, Ruth was taking shots like it was her job — though she didn’t seem too effected by the copious amounts of alcohol. She was kicking enough ass in pool to have dollar bills threatening to spill out of her pockets.

Ruth came up to the bar with a sigh and pool stick in hand. She flagged Ronnie down from the other end of the bartop with a tight-lipped smile.

“Can I get three more tequila shots, Ron?” she asked as she slapped the sticky bartop.

Ronnie nodded as she bent down and pulled out the three shot glasses. Then she grabbed the bottle of tequila and began to pour with an expert hand. There was something brewing in Ruth’s dark eyes as she watched the alcohol go into the glasses. A frustration and a reason.

“Not to pry,” Ronnie said as she topped off the last shot. “But you usually don’t drink this much. Everything okay?”

“I mean, you’re definitely prying.” Ruth took one of the shots and hissed through her teeth as she set the glass back down. “I barely know you, but…I’m a lil’ drunk, so whatever. You know those flightsuit shitheads, right?”

Ronnie opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally saying, “Uh — yeah. I guess I do.”

“I know you do.” She pointed at Ronnie around the next shot in her hand. “One them has your picture tucked in the canopy of his plane like a complete chump.”

Ronnie swallowed thick as she looked down at the bartop. Jake. She bit down on her lip hard, trying to fight the smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth. Her mind raced with fresh thoughts she didn’t want to have. Unwanted guests, an invasion, a swarm. Jake flying high like he was always meant to, like he was born to. Jake being shot down, looking at her photo tucked into the glass canopy of his plane as he crashed back to earth. The last thing he ever saw.

“Y-Yeah, I know them.” She swallowed down the emotion in her throat, the tears in her eyes, as she looked back up at a none-the-wiser Ruth. “What’d they do?”

Ruth took her last shot and grunted as she slammed the glass back down. “One of them is just — so goddamn cute. Ugh, but I’m mad at him.”

“Why’re you mad at him?” Ronnie asked as she noticed a patron sitting further down the bar point at his drink.

She began to make him another one. Thankful once again for the multitasking to distract her from thoughts of crashing plans and her smiling face watching as her love died.

“He’s so — “ Ruth held up her hands like she was strangling someone, then she dropped them back down to the bartop again. “Frustrating. He’s quiet and hard to read and I cannot deal with it. I do not like beating around the bush.”

As Ronnie finished off the man’s drink with a sprig of mint leaf, she thought through the pilots she had met over the past few days. Who was quiet and cute? Then it hit her with surprise like a freight train. Ruth was talking about Bob. Sweet, mild-mannered, blended into the background Bob. A smirk pulled at her mouth as she set the drink in front of the correct patron.

She came back to Ruth just as the mechanic finished flipping all of her empty glasses over. “Have you told him that?”

“Told him what?” Ruth grumbled back.

“That you want him to be more straightforward,” Ronnie explained. “You’re both grown adults. Plus, if he’s shy he might just need a little push.”

“Whatever.” Ruth pushed away from the bar and picked up her pool stick. “This is none of your business and we never had this conversation. Capeesh?”

“I got it, I got it.” Ronnie raised her hands in surrender with another smile as Ruth stalked back to the pool table, asking loudly if anyone wanted to go for another round.

Ronnie shook her head as she took the empty shot glasses and put them in the dirty bin beneath the bartop. It was getting full, she would have to take it back to Jay soon and trade it out for an empty one. Her back cracked as she stood up straight, muscles still sore and aching from her fall that morning. She glanced around a the people crowded around the bar — searching for anyone who was trying to get her attention for a refill or a new order or anyone who even left their phone on the bartop. But her eyes snagged on a flash of white near the door and she stopped looking. Stopped trying to find a distraction.

Maverick was standing there, just beyond the door, surveying the bar in his full dress white uniform. Ronnie’s heart lept into her throat — her stomach turned. She knew exactly what that meant. He was shipping out, and if he was shipping out, the rest of the team was going too. It was an assumption and a known fact that Maverick had somehow found his way back to leading the team. She gulped hard against the nauseous feeling rising in her chest as Maverick smiled in a sad sort of way and approached the bar.

“Hey, Veronica,” he said as he took his hat off and tucked it beneath his arm. “Where’s Penny?”

“O-Over by the darts.” She couldn’t help the way her jaw trembled around every word.

He grinned again, far too knowing and gentle for her to handle. “Thanks. And Ronnie?”

“Yeah?”

“He’s right behind me.” Maverick nodded his head back towards the door.

She looked over his shoulder, and there he was. Jake Seresin. Standing just inside the door in his dress whites, looking at her with a small smile that threatened to kill her. Her chest heaved as she looked at him. He had a picture of her in his plane. A reminder, a shrine, a hope. But she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t get hurt again. She couldn’t be left again. She couldn’t expose her heart and soul only for them to be left in the cold to whither and die. She gasped, small and quiet.

And she couldn’t fucking breathe.

The sky was dark and bright with stars as Ronnie practically burst through The Hard Deck’s back doors and out onto the beach. Jake came running after her, calling her name as she marched down the beach. Just trying to get away from it all. The pain, the fear, the unknown. All of it. All of it was too much. Everything was so much easier two weeks ago. When she had no one to worry about and nothing to lose. Now she worried about everyone and had everything to lose.

She loved and loathed it all at once.

“Ronnie!” Jake called out just as he snagged her wrist in his grip.

She whirled on him with a trembling lip and eyes so wide, tears on her cheeks glistening in the moonlight. Her hand ripped away from him and he nearly looked offended. They were far away from the hustle and bustle from the bar. Away from the lights and the people and even the general noise was muffled by the distance.

“You’re shipping out?” she asked loudly, her voice echoing off the water. “Tonight?”

Jake looked down at the sand then back up at her with an expression unreadable. “Yeah. They want us on the carrier as soon as possible.”

“A-And Maverick?”

“He’s gonna lead the squad — whoever he picks.”

A sob broke free as she dropped down onto the sand. Her body tired and her soul aching. Then she whispered, soft and longing and full of pain, before she could stop herself:

“Help me, please.”

Jake was down on the ground with her in an instant, not caring at all that his crisp white uniform may get dirty. It didn’t matter when she was looking so broken, so desperate. He put his arms around her waist and dragged her into his lap, her knees straddling his thighs. She whimpered and cried right into his ear, cracking his heart in half. God, he never wanted to hurt her like this. Not again. Never again.

Her arms caged around his neck, her chest flush with his own, knocking the hat from his head as her fingers threaded through his hair. It was like she was trying to get him inside her ribcage. And maybe she was.

“I can’t…” Jake started as he traced his hand up and down her spine. “I can’t tell you that I’m gonna be safe. That I’m gonna be okay. But I’m gonna try to come back — to you.”

And that was really all she could ask of him. For him to try.

She pulled back just enough to put her forehead against his own, nodding furiously in reply. His gaze was intense and reassuring, full of a fear untapped since he was a little kid. Before, there wasn’t a whole lot for him to come back to, there weren’t that many people to miss him if he was gone. But now there was everything to come back to. A life with Ronnie — a life that sounded idyllic and too good to be true and full of a love that made his heart ache so bad he was sure it would give out on him.

Her forefinger and thumb latched onto his earlobe and started to rub — Jake smiled. “Make sure…Make sure that Brad comes back too, okay?”

“Okay.”

There was no assurance. No promises, empty or full. And that was okay. That was what she was going to have to live with if she wanted him — all of him, forever. And, God, she wanted Jake Seresin no matter what stood in their way. Distance or danger he was hers. She was his. She would do anything for him. Even sit through this intimate sorrow.

One of his hand’s gripped the back of her neck as he kissed her then, soft and sweet and gentle. Her tears that still fell and dropped of their own accord wet his face as he pulled her even closer, deepening the kiss with a swipe of his tongue. Ronnie whimpered as the kiss became fierce, hips dropping down into his lap. Teeth bit lips and gasping breath mixed together.

“Jake,” she whispered as his lips trailed along her jaw and down her neck.

He moved aside the strap of her dress with his teeth, his hands clawing at her back. His lips latched onto her shoulder and sucked a mark into the tender flesh, making her gasp into the night sky as he scraped it with his tongue.

“A little something to remember me by,” he muttered into her skin as he kissed the already forming bruise. “Don’t want anyone forgetting who you belong to.”

“Cheeky bastard,” she breathed and he chuckled against her throat. When she spoke again, it was light as a feather but dropped on his heart like cement. “Come back to me…Please.”

Ronnie grabbed his face and brought his lips back to her own. Feverish and slow and her fingers digging into the collar of his uniform jacket. She pulled back and his brow was buckled with something between hope and misery.

“Hey, Seresin!” someone called from the parking lot above. “Stop hogging my sister!”

They laughed into each other’s lips. Jake gave her one last kiss, a brand on her heart, before he pulled away from her completely. She got up from his lap and helped him to his feet. Helped straighten his uniform out and wipe off the sand, handing him back his hat with a sheepish smile like they had been caught doing something naughty. They walked hand in hand up the beach towards the parking lot.

Bradley stood at the lot’s edge, hands in his white uniform pockets as he kicked at something on the ground. Jake winked at Ronnie as he pulled his hand free from her grip.

“She’s all yours Bradshaw,” he said, then he began his walk back towards the bar.

Bradley nodded at her arm. “How’s your battle wound?”

She angled her elbow so they both could get a look at her wrappings. There was a nice, large crimson stain in the center of it all. Then she shrugged and wiped at her chilled cheeks.

“I’ll survive,” she said.

“You gonna be okay?” He wasn’t asking about her injury this time.

“Yeah. Yeah — I’m gonna be okay.”

“Good.”

He reached out to bring her into a hug, but she was already diving head first into it. Punching all the air out of his lungs she crashed into his chest so hard. He chuckled as he put his arms around her shoulders.

Her voice was muffled as she said, “You come back, too, okay?”

“I’ll try,” he replied and she nodded.

That was all she could ask of any of them. To try.

But God, she didn’t want to be alone. Not anymore. So she clung to her brother a bit tighter, like she used to do when they were kids. When all those summers stopped and he was going to be away from her for the first time in her life. It said everything she couldn’t with words then just as it did now.

We have to stick together, the world is out to get us.

taglist: @oneirataxia-girl @arrthurpendragon @pasta88love @theforevermorereject @sqrlgrl22 @townley-29 @alittlelostalittlefound @fenderenderender @chaoticassidy @capswife @marrianena @luckyladycreator2 @fulla02 @fangirlofallthings22 @dempy @imagineyneyjr @blue-aconite @commxnderwolffe @darkestbeforethedawn16 @sopheeg @mizzy-pop @loveforaugust @hope-love-equality2 @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @onlyheretowastetime @supernaturaldawning @frenchtoastix

wanna be tagged? just drop in a comment or message me directly

150 notes · View notes