#of course there’s others who worry for bad but she’s the only one actively investigating it
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since the q!bagi + q!bbh duo have been on my mind all morning, imma just ramble about why i love them for a bit. because the way those two see each other is so disproportionate. bagi trusts bad so much and has straight up said she sees him as her best friend on the island. it’s very adorable the way it’s been only several days and she sees him in such a positive light just like baghera did on her first few days on the island. bad on the other hand has such terrible trust issues. he absolutely sees bagi in a positive light but that hasn’t nearly gotten him to not put her on his list of people he doesn’t trust to be under the federation’s thumb. regardless of that, bagi already pinned him down as someone who won’t ask for help no matter how terrible things are for him. so she worries. she’s one of the only ones on the island to notice every time he looks worse. to carefully listen and pick up on his words when he’s trying to play something off. bagi is so careful and inquisitive in her attempt to help you can even see it in the way her character moves. the way she crouches down when talking to bbh, looking him over for any clue as to why her new friend is changing right in front of her eyes. and tbh i don’t think bad understands that. he probably just sees her as someone who likes to be nosy about it like the rest of the islanders tend to be. but instead bagi spends a good part of her stream talking to herself on how she’s determined to help him even when she doesn’t know how to and feels hopeless. my biggest fear is that in bad’s attempt to lie and keep his secrets he’s going to push bagi away. i really hope not bc those two have a very cute and interesting dynamic
#bagi is so genuine in her worries for him it breaks me#of course there’s others who worry for bad but she’s the only one actively investigating it#green flag that although bad loves to annoy the girlies they still trust him#qsmp#long post#kinda#q!bagi#q!badboyhalo#q!bbh#bagi#badboyhalo#bbh#madrugaduo
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Bleeding Heart Part Four
Part One | Previous Part
-
Cellbit is in the shower when his son comes bursting into the bathroom shouting, "Pai! Some guy wants to talk to you!"
Thank God for the shower curtain.
Grumbling, Cellbit sticks a hand out for his phone. Richarlyson dutifully hands it over before running out of the bathroom, forgetting to close the door behind him. Ugh.
Turning the shower off momentarily, Cellbit holds the phone up to his ear and says, "Hello?"
"Hi! Cellbit?"
He blinks.
"Roier?" he asks. "Hi? Can I help you with something?"
"Well, yeah, actually but shut up for a moment, how are you? Good? Done bleeding?"
Cellbit hasn't really talked to Roier since the hospital. He hasn't even thought about him beyond a few glancing thoughts of Roier's cheekbones. And his jawline. And his eyes. And his voice. And his arms.
He hasn't thought about him at all.
It's been a few weeks since they last saw each other, almost a month. Honestly, Cellbit wasn't sure he would ever hear from Roier again. But here he is... and Cellbit is talking to him. In the shower.
"Uh," says Cellbit, realizing that he is, in fact, naked and on the phone with the guy who saved his life. "Yeah."
But it's fine, right? Yeah, it's fine. Roier doesn't know that he interrupted Cellbit's shower. It's fine!
Roier lets out a dramatic sigh of relief. "Phew! I was worried, you know? That was a lot of blood."
"It's been a month. I'm fine."
"Okay, good. Good."
There's a pause as Roier audibly rummages around on his end of the line. Papers rustle, something wooden slams shut.
"Hold on, I'm getting my notes," Roier says.
Cellbit raises an eyebrow. "Okay...?"
"I called you for a reason, it's because- AHA!" Roier cheers so loudly that Cellbit winces and pulls his phone away from his ear slightly. "Okay, found them. So. You're a photographer, right?"
Oh. Of course. Roier saw the camera, he and Cellbit talked a little while waiting for Bagi to show up.
"I am," Cellbit confirms, trying not to sound too disappointed.
Why does it always come down to his work? He met Pac and Mike and Felps because he was Enigma. Bad and Phil and Max all started talking to him because he was Enigma. Baghera was interested in his private investigation work. Slime wanted Cellbit to take his wedding pictures.
"Cool," Roier says. "So I own a restaurant, right?"
"Mhmm."
"Well, we need some new promotional stuff done, and I was like, 'Hey! I know a guy!'"
"And I'm the guy?"
"Well, if you want to. I'll pay you, obviously, but we just need some pictures of the inside and one of the sign or something. Jaiden left some notes, I can show you when you get here."
Jaiden... a partner, presumably. Cellbit thinks he remembers hearing Roier mention a Jaiden in the hospital.
"Uhhh, let me call you back," Cellbit says, trying to think through his calendar and getting distracted by how cold he's getting. "I need to check my calendar."
"Ay, man, no worries!" Roier assures him. "Call whenever, it's my day off."
"Give me an hour," Cellbit tells him. "I might even be able to squeeze you in today."
"Oh? Who's squeezing what?"
He can hear the smile in Roier's voice, and that smile is infectious. No wonder he met Roier in a hospital.
Cellbit finds himself smiling back as he ends the call. The final thing he hears is Roier's laughter.
...
Cellbit shivers and quickly reaches out to rest his phone on the bathroom counter. He turns the shower back on and cranks the heat up until the water is steaming and his skin is red.
-
There's a superhero in the subway. She's with another hero, and they're both signing autographs by the stairs.
"Bluebird, Bluebird!" a little girl shouts, waving a glittery pink notebook around over her head.
One of the heroes takes the notebook and scribbles her signature down.
Cellbit watches from by the platform with disdain.
Bluebird is one of the newer heroes on the scene. She's only been active for a few weeks, but she's already made waves, partially due to her appearing at around the same time as Hombre Misterioso; they've already been labeled nemeses by the media despite them never having even seen each other, and it's just a little funny.
Bluebird signs a few more autographs. Her face is hidden by her beak-like mask, but she has got to be tired. (That's the thing about the hero business, you're always in customer service mode, even when you're literally fighting for your life.)
The hero next to her is Lavagirl, a veteran hero, and the former partner of Sharkboy. She's more or less become Bluebird's partner in the field, which the Federation is using as their newest diversity win: The Federation of Heroes is an equal-opportunity organization! Heroes of all genders can save the day!
Cellbit adjusts his equipment bag as his train starts to pull into the station.
Once upon a time, he would have slit Bluebird's throat with her own blood. He would have painted her name on the walls with her own dismembered hand, and he would have made her watch.
Now, he has a meeting with a new client to photograph his restaurant. It'll pay for a new pair of shoes for Richarlyson and maybe a lunch with Bagi later in the week when she's less busy.
That's just life, he supposes.
-
Roier's restaurant is, unfortunately, only a block away from the Federation's headquarters. It's a three-minute walk away from the place where Cellbit first met Hombre Misterioso, which makes sense. It all makes sense, Roier was walking home from work when he found Cellbit bleeding out.
El Loro Loco is a small little building nestled between two skyscrapers with the De Luque Enterprises name branded across them. It almost looks like a little house, complete with a pointed roof and a fence separating the outdoor dining space from the sidewalk. It's brick, but the bricks are all painted various shades of blue. The sign above the door reads the restaurant's name in fancy cursive, and the letters sit above a cute little cartoon parrot.
It's cute. It's charming. It's probably expensive as Hell.
Roier is sitting at a table outside of the restaurant waiting. When he sees Cellbit approaching, he stands and waves, setting down his newspaper on the table.
"Hola, hola!" Roier calls. "I got Jaiden's notes!"
"Good," Cellbit responds. He walks up to the table, glances down at the newspaper. Hombre Misterioso again, ugh. When will the press learn that they just encourage this kind of stuff by giving it attention?
Roier reaches into his hoodie's pocket and pulls out a rumpled-up sheet of notebook paper. It's stained with... something, and the handwriting is so heavy that Cellbit can see it through the back of the paper.
"So she's actually on vacation," Roier says, "I think I already said that."
"Yeah. This was her idea, right?"
"Mhmm. But we're co-owners, so I'm gonna do this and surprise her for when she comes back."
Roier looks up from the paper and finally seems to notice Cellbit's equipment. His eyes widen, and he pulls a chair out from under the table.
"Jesus, man! Put that down! We still need to talk about some stuff first!"
Cellbit rolls his eyes, but he sets his equipment down. He keeps his camera bag on, though; it's his baby, he isn't setting it down until he gets home.
"First, pricing," he says. "I charge 550 for outdoor shots, 450 for indoor. My commercial fee is negotiable. Since this is just for your website, it shouldn't be more than 200 per photo."
He's already prepared for the negotiation stage. He usually gets that even though people should know by now that photography is not cheap. He's gotten to events only to leave when his clients try dropping the price day of. (Bagi always says that he should make them sign a contract before he actually shows up to take the pictures, but he does. People are just stupid.)
Roier signed the contract electronically within minutes of Cellbit sending it to him. That doesn't mean much, unfortunately.
But Roier just nods seriously. "Sounds fair. Are you gonna need help setting your stuff up?"
Cellbit... is maybe just a little taken aback. But he quickly composes himself and shakes his head.
"Just tell me what you're wanting," he says.
Roier just smiles and holds out the paper.
Cellbit takes it and looks it over, nodding as he does so. Okay, outdoor dining, sign, indoor dining... easy enough.
"We'll start out here," he declares, handing the paper back to Roier and turning to his equipment bag. "It'll take me a bit to set up, so you can, like, clean up or whatever. Get that newspaper out of here, fix the chairs a little."
Normally, Cellbit has Richarlyson to help with shoots. Sometimes he even has Felps and Richarlyson, but Felps is sick (again) and Richarlyson is at home still super grounded after his stunt at the aquarium three weeks ago.
It's bad manners to ask the client to do anything, apparently, but Roier just gets to work tidying the space up and talking.
And talking.
Even as Cellbit is taking the actual photos, Roier is by his side talking.
Cellbit doesn't like silence. It makes him think too much, so he always appreciates the noise he gets to deal with as a photographer. It's a lot for some people, but it's easy for Cellbit to lose himself in his own thoughts if he's left alone with them.
Of course, Cellbit talks back. He doesn't really know what they're talking about, he's too focused on his work to really be paying attention, but it's fun enough. Keeps his mind off of the tower in the distance glaring at him.
Once it's time to take the picture of the sign, Cellbit first crosses the street. But, even with the zoom, it doesn't look right. So he goes back to the restaurant and tries a shot from sort of-below, sort of-diagonal. But... no.
Frowning, Cellbit takes a step back. And another. And another, all while staring down the screen of his camera. He's close with the sort-ofs, but-
His foot goes out from under him as he hits the curb. He shouts and falls backwards, cradling his camera to his chest protectively, eyes instinctively squeezing shut because he can hear a car coming, he can fucking hear it, he's in the middle of the goddamn city, oh, Bagi is going to kill him-
But he's yanked upright at the last second and pulled against a sturdy chest. He can hear blood rushing beneath him, but it's... cold? It sounds almost crunchy in a way, like Felps' blood when he uses his powers too much.
"Fuck!" Roier swears, stumbling back from the road and pulling Cellbit with him. "Watch where you're going, Jesus! I don't wanna have to take you back to the hospital, man!"
So his muscles aren't just for show. He's fast, fast enough to have gotten to Cellbit from all the way by the restaurant's front door before the car could get to him.
Cellbit opens his eyes and, first, checks his camera. He looks it over, stepping back from Roier and hurrying towards the outdoor dining area and his stuff so he can find his lens wipes.
Roier lingers behind him, out of sight and out of mind.
Cellbit's camera...!
Cellbit sags with relief as he determines that his baby is, in fact, completely fine.
And then he feels his mouth curl up into a pleased grin as he sees that he accidentally hit the shutter button and got the perfect picture of the sign. It's framed perfectly between the two De Luque buildings, and the parrot almost looks like it's flying in the sky.
"I'm going inside, now!" he calls, grabbing his stand from where he left it by a table and heading inside of the restaurant for the first time.
After a few moments, Roier joins him, pale-faced and almost sick-looking.
He stumbles to a table and sits with a groan, putting his head in his hands.
Cellbit frowns. He finishes setting his camera up on the stand and goes to Roier and just... sort of stands there. Awkwardly.
"Sorry?" he tries. "I'm, uh... a little accident prone. In case you couldn't tell."
Must have been terrible to almost watch a dude get his head squished like a watermelon by a moving car. Cellbit remembers the first time he saw it as a kid; the sound was almost worse than the sight.
Roier shakes his head. "Nah, you're fine. I do dumb shit, too. I'm just gonna... get some water. Want any?"
He sits up, bringing his head with him. He already looks better, good. Cellbit can't afford an ambulance call, even if Roier can.
"I'd appreciate it," Cellbit answers.
Roier shoots him a thumbs-up before standing and heading into the kitchen, leaving Cellbit alone in the restaurant.
It's... cozy. The walls are all an eggshell color, but the floors are blue-painted hardwood that barely look painted at all. There are obvious footsteps in some places- lighter sections of the paint in the shape of little shoes.
...Very little shoes.
Cellbit looks along the walls and sees lots of paint. Artworks above every table on the wall, little birds painted near the ceiling. There are painted hand prints by the cash register. Green vines and red roses around the kitchen's service window. Clouds on the ceiling matching the cloud-shaped hanging lights.
And above the cash register, hanging right next to the Health Board's certificate of approval, is a photo. There's Roier and a woman- Jaiden? And there's a little boy in blue overalls flipping the camera off and laughing, held in between the two of them.
Cellbit doesn't think that Roier and Jaiden are, like, together. Nothing about the way Roier talked about her made Cellbit think that they were.
But the little boy looks a lot like Roier, from the hair color right down to the dimples in his smile.
Silently, Cellbit goes back to his camera. He points it towards a set of tables, tilts it slightly towards the ceiling so he can get the clouds and birds in view.
When Roier comes out a few minutes later with the waters, Cellbit shows him the pictures he's got so far.
As he looks at the photo of the sign, Roier smiles: soft, and sad.
"It's perfect," he quietly says.
And that's all Cellbit could ever ask for.
-
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! I want to hear your theories, thoughts, opinions, everything!
#a.d.'s fics i suppose#a.d.'s fics i suppose.#enigma misterioso au#SURPRISE!!!#i told you guys i liked this au
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4: The Woods Don't Contain Just Secrets
series masterlist
Over the next few days, you throw yourself into the investigation, spending hours at the station as well as interviewing locals and searching the town.
During your time at the station, you’ve had numerous discussions with the Sheriff and Officer Carpenter, asking questions and absorbing every bit of information they were willing to provide. You also spend time researching the town's history, going over old reports of previous disappearances, and most importantly the “royal” blood.
Or otherwise said, the families that have been here the longest.
As you interact with the locals, you take note of their superstitious nature and the way they all seemed to speak about Ghostface with a mixture of fear and reverence.
You observe the dynamic at the station, noting that only the Sheriff and Officer Carpenter seemed relatively untouched by the idea of Ghostface being a paranormal entity.
The Sheriff, of course, was skeptical of the very existence of an entity at all, while Officer Carpenter appeared to be more preoccupied with her younger sister. You had noticed the officer’s worried glances whenever her sister is present. Which is so far, every day.
Honestly, it’s the most emotion you ever see Officer Carpenter show, other than when you’d stepped out for a smoke yesterday. She’d given you a weird look when she saw what you were doing, you’d silently offered her one, and you could’ve swore she almost smiled as she accepted it.
The younger Carpenter, who you’ve learned her name is Tara due to the amount of times Officer Carpenter has scolded it, is a lively and energetic presence at the station, always chattering away and putting everyone at ease. Even the gruff Sheriff seemed to soften when she was around.
But you? You, she barely acknowledges unlike everyone else. You, when she does speak to you, it’s with attitude and indirect answers.
Today however, you’ve been tasked to join Officer Carpenter out into the woods after a “disturbance” was called in. A particular name drop has the woman fighting back an eye roll you can clearly see.
The good news: it’s midday.
The bad news: a fog has settled over town.
You decide to go in the simple basis that the family that you’re going to speak with are heavily rooted to this town, going back a few generations. Their daughter however had been the first disappearance of a handful over a decade ago, according to the Sheriff the woman calls almost every other month looking for excuses to have the police come search her property for their daughter.
You’d tried making light conversation with Officer Carpenter on the drive, but she seems to be in a particular mood today.
She’s always in a mood, just more so today it seems.
As they reach the driveway, you sigh and slump back at the sight of the gate chained shut.
“She knows we’re coming right?” You mutter, half joking, but by the time you’d even turned your head to glance at her she’s already out of the vehicle.
You both trek through the dense foliage, the sunlight barely filtering through the trees and casting eerie shadows on the ground. The atmosphere was quiet and solemn, with only the sound of your footsteps and the occasional rustle of leaves breaking the silence.
You decide to try and break the quiet again, “so-“
“Take the hint.”
Instantly you bite your tongue, trashing the initial idea of casual conversation and decide to switch gears.
“You know as much as I don’t mind you projecting personal bullshit on to me, the stranger not from here, I respect it. But… dude you can at least reassure me you aren’t actively conspiring to bury me alive” I joke, which has the corners of her mouth slightly quirk. Fighting back a smile.
Familiar yet again, figures.
As you approach the Becker residence, you catch sight of an elderly woman standing on her porch, her face pinched with fear.
"Thank goodness you're here," she wheezed as you approach. "I’ve still been hearing strange noises in the woods behind my house for days now. Last night someone tried to break in again, thought it might be that dang Ghostface come to get me. He can’t take me, not after he took- he took my sweet-“
You exchange a quick glance with Officer Carpenter at the mention of Ghostface, your skepticism showing through in both your expressions. Nevertheless, you both put on a reassuring smile for the woman who’s clearly still grieving the loss of her daughter.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Becker," Officer Carpenter says in a soothing tone, one that almost makes your eyes bulge out at how strange it sounded coming from her. "We'll check out the area and make sure everything's alright, you mind showing me where the break in happened?”
The old woman visibly relaxed at the Officer's words, her shoulders sagged in relief. "Thank you, dearie," she said, her voice shaky but grateful.
Officer Carpenter then goes stoic once more as she turns her head to address you, “search the perimeter of the house, I’ll join you once I’ve finished up”
You shift uncomfortably, eyeing the fog that had started to accumulate, a part of you wants to protest but then again… you’ll cut your own tongue out before you ever admit to Officer Carpenter you’re a little uneasy.
This is your job anyhow, you’d seen far worse, dealt with far worse, you blame it on staying up in a hotel room with a stiff bed and restless sleep.
“Be careful and stay mindful,” Mrs. Becker chimes in, her uneasy expression now fixated on you “the woods don’t contain just secrets…”
You register her words and try not to let them unsettle you more, so with a curt nod, you make your way around the house and into the backyard. The dense foliage of the woods just a few yards away casting long shadows around them. Your eyes scanned the area, keen and sharp senses on high alert for any signs of anything.
As you venture further, you feel the fog creeping in more and more, slowly enveloping the area in a thick, misty shroud.
You try not to go too far just so you don’t lose sight of the house, but after a few strides further, the fog began to thicken and you lose sight of it anyways.
“This is the part in the movie where the protagonist start to regret their decisions” you mumble to yourself, hoping at least the sound of your own voice will sooth you.
It doesn’t.
Your footsteps slow as you try to make out any sign of the house, Officer Carpenter, or even Mrs. Becker.
The sound of a twig snapping has the equivalence of a gun firing off in this sort of silence, making your head whip around. Every nerve in your body prickles uneasily, a few hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
"Officer Carpenter?" You called out, voice low and cautious. There was no reply, the dense fog muffling your voice, and about that moment is when you don’t hear the crickets humming nor the cicadas singing. Frustration and worry began to build within you as you turn and take steps, hopefully, in the direction you believe you came from.
You strain to listen for any sounds, but all you hear was the rustling of leaves and the distant hoot of an owl. The fog was so thick that you can barely see a few feet in front of you, making it nearly impossible to locate anything.
"Damn it," you mutter under your breath, fishing into your pocket for your phone and flicking on the flashlight, which barely does anything to cut through the haze surrounding you.
“Sam!” you shout a bit louder, hoping to get a response, even when saying her first name feels weird.
With no other options, you simply just continue forward, which logically isn’t exactly ideal but what other choice do you have rather than standing still and calling out for someone like a child?
By this point your pulse thrumming slightly higher than normal as you continue to explore the backyard, and for a while it’s nothing. But then your peripheral vision began to catch glimpses of movement in the fog. At first, it was subtle, just brief flashes of movement that could be dismissed as the wind, approaching near the treeline and the fog breaking up enough to catch a glimpse of it, or even your imagination playing tricks on you.
But as you become more aware of it, those glimpses of movement became more frequent and more distinct. You could sense something watching you from the surrounding foliage, but every time you tried to catch a clear glimpse, it would disappear into the dense fog.
Your heart is now racing in your chest, your breathing quick and shallow as you move further into the backyard. Your eyes darted around the surroundings, flashlight beam barely cutting through the thick fog and illuminating nothing but foliage and shadows.
The feeling of being watched was overwhelming now, the sense of a presence just beyond your sight filling you with a creeping dread that makes your skin crawl. You stumble over a root in the ground, heart skipping a beat as you struggle to catch your footing.
Adrenaline and unease now clouds your better judgement, your breathing quick and shallow as you seem to move even further into the backyard. Your eyes darted around the surroundings, flashlight beam finally cutting through the thick fog and revealing the treeline just ahead.
You freeze and stare down the tall trees luring overhead, heartbeat pounding in your ears, thoughts racing with the implications of being out here alone in the fog so close to the woods. Another snapping branch makes you flinch, whirling and aiming the flashlight, body taut and ready for a fight.
At this moment you begin to regret choosing today of all days not to carry your weapon on you.
Your mind is racing, senses heightened and on edge as you back away from the treeline, knowing that if you go in a straight line the opposite direction it should lead you back to the house. The fog yet again closes in around you, claustrophobic and oppressive.
So focused on searching for the house and trying to calm your racing thoughts, you don’t notice the figure creeping up behind you, silently materializing out of the fog like an omen of death coming to reap toll.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, a bone chilling breeze making goosebumps erupt across your body as if screaming “danger”. Before you can even turn around, a sharp pain exploded across your shoulder, and you feel a stinging sensation as the blade slices through your flesh.
The abrupt pain and sudden attack causes you to panic, and you let out a strangled shout and spun around on instinct. You lift your flashlight, illuminating the figure behind you just long enough to catch a glimpse of a masked face. The figure stumbles, knife raised for a second blow getting deterred as the blinding light temporarily takes away their vision.
With adrenaline coursing through your veins, you cradle your injured shoulder with one hand, feeling the warm blood seeping through your shirt, and began to run as fast as you can through the fog.
You stumble through the thickening fog, breathing ragged and sharp as you try to outrun the attacker, your will to live keeping your legs moving. You kept going until you slam into something solid, the panic finally succumbing you as you believe you’ve met your end.
The impact causes you to stumble, but then very real and very solid hands quickly steady you with a firm grip. "What happened?" Officer Carpenter demands, her eyes going from your panicked expression and widening at the sight of the blood now soaking through your shirt.
"Ghostface," you gasp in between ragged breaths. "Attacked me. Came out of nowhere."
Officer Carpenter looks over your shoulder and into the fog, silence as well as no sign of the attacker presents itself in retaliation to your claim.
“You sure you didn’t just imagine it and cut your arm on a tree? I can’t see for shit right now” Officer Carpenter says as she releases you, pulling out her radio.
You grit your teeth as you apply pressure to your injured shoulder, the sharp pain causing you to wince “I know what I saw, there’s actually a motherfucker out here in a goddamn costume with a knife.”
Officer Carpenter nods at this, relaying the information back to the station through the radio and getting confirmation on backup underway to search the woods yet again. Once she relatches her radio to her belt, her eyes come back to you “you’re bleeding pretty bad, can you walk?”
"Thanks for the astute observation," you snark at the officer, voice laced with sarcasm. "As it turns out, I can still walk. Who knew?"
The officer rolls her eyes at your sass, but for once there’s a hint of a smile on her face. "Just making sure," she replied, her tone dry "let's get you out of here before Ghostface comes back to finish the job.”
You try not to roll your eyes, “I’d just like to stop losing the liquid that’s suppose to stay inside my body, if that’s alright with you.”
“Sure” Officer Carpenter grunts, making a show of tearing your sleeve right off your good arm before you can protest. She then is quick to wrap it under your arm and loops it back over your shoulder, tying it snug “looks like you’ll live to see another day, Detective.”
You sigh “I’m not a Detective, I’m a Private Investigator-“
“Too many syllables for me to give a shit” she shuts you down, gesturing for you to follow after her back down the driveway towards the car.
Your mind is whirling with everything that’s occurred. You try to rationalize it. You can defend yourself but you aren’t exactly a trained fighter, your mind is more of a weapon than your body is.
So, as you walk in silence, you use it.
You hadn’t actually heard the attacker coming, but it was too quiet, you should’ve heard them. You’d felt the knife, clearly it was very real, therefore there must be a person underneath that white mask and black robes. Logically, if you think about it, what doesn’t make sense is how they knew exactly where you’d be with all that fog.
By the time you reach the car, your head is hurting and the sound of approaching sirens signifying the arrival of backup filled the air.
Officer Carpenter is quick to debrief the Sheriff as the other deputies venture ahead to try and search the woods surrounding the house, which you know will be of ill effort with how bad the fog still is.
Numbly, you dig into your pocket and fish out your pack of cigarettes, the edges of the box already showing a bit of wear and tear. You pluck a cigarette out and place it between your lips, only to realize you have no lighter as you check the pack and your pockets yet again.
Great. But then again, not a surprise, those things never seem to be a constant. Coming and going when they goddamn please.
What does surprise you, however, is seeing Tara climb out of the back of the ambulance that had been called out for your injury. A bit unnecessary, in your opinion, however your entire shoulder is numb and you haven’t exactly looked to see how bad the wound is. As you approach, you watch her quickly pull all the medical supplies she’ll need to tend to you, your surprise gave way to realization.
"You're a doctor" You say dumbly, flinching as she suddenly snatches the cigarette out from between your lips and gives you an annoyed look before flicking it away.
You let out a pained hiss as she then pushes you to sit, cutting away at the material of your shirt to be able to assess the damage fully.
“Wow, good to know your eyes still work, sometimes getting stabbed in the back makes you go blind” Tara says sarcastically, giving you the same attitude you’d given her older sister just a few minutes ago.
You can’t help but smirk at the sassy response from the Tara. "Seems like being a smartass runs in the family," you quip back, wincing as she began to clean and bandage your wound.
As Tara continues working on you, she shoots you a pointed look. "You know, you're not exactly in a position to judge us small-town folk," she said, her voice tinged with irritation.
"You're the outsider here, Detective. You come here with your fancy city sensibilities and expect us to be some kind of backwards yokels.”
You wince as you feel small jabs of pain along your shoulder, the clicking of a sterile skin stapler following to a count of five before you stop counting, her ministrations efficient but not gentle.
“There you go with your allegations again when you don’t even know me” you catch her eye and smirked slightly. "Just for the record," you add. "I'm a Private Investigator, not a Detective."
"But regardless," you continue, "I'm here for the same reason as everyone else - to find the missing people and stop whoever is behind this. And in case you hadn't noticed, I just got a pretty damn good reminder of what we're dealing with out there."
Tara pauses in her work rubbing ointment along your injury, her irritation softening slightly as she looked at you. "I noticed," she said, her voice a bit quieter. "And it takes guts to go out there and put yourself in danger like that. I have to give you credit for that, my nerves are shot every day knowing Sam does the same.”
There was a hint of begrudging respect in her expression, though she tried to hide it as she starts to wrap your wound. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're still an outsider here, this town has been through more than it should’ve. Anyone with decency can see that, and as we’ve already established, you still have your eyes.”
Tara finishes wrapping the bandage around your shoulder and taped it in place, her hands moving with practiced ease.
You study her for a moment, admiring her skill and her witty attitude. "Tell me then, I could use someone with less biased insight," you start, tone casual. "And from what I've seen so far, you don't seem to be as superstitious as some of the others around here."
She says nothing, but you feel her watching you from her peripheral as she starts to put away the remainder of her medical supplies.
"How about we grab a drink later? I'd like to get your... less filtered perspective on things" you find yourself asking, a small smile playing at your lips. "Help me get a better perspective from someone who isn't either a skeptic police officer or a local caught up in superstition."
Tara raises an eyebrow at your suggestion, her expression clear disbelief at your sheer audacity to even consider asking her to get drinks with you. "You want to buy me a drink and pick my brain?" she echoes, her tone tinged with amusement.
You stammer for a moment, caught off guard by her blunt response. "Well, uh, I mean it's not like that," you fumble. "It's just... sometimes talking to people who aren't so entrenched in the local folklore or denial can give you a different perspective on things."
She raises an eyebrow, leaning against the side of the ambulance as she assess you yet again with those dark brown eyes. Judging? No. Maybe curiosity? If you are lucky.
You curse silently at yourself, annoyed by your lack of eloquence. "Besides," you added, "I could use a drink after the day I’ve had and… to be fair you’re the only person I’ve met so far that has an actual personality.”
Tara chuckles, her expression softening a bit more. "Flattery will get you nowhere," she teased, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips, clearly enjoying the fact that she has flustered you. "And what exactly do you expect me to talk about over that drink, Detective?" she retorted, a hint of teasing in her voice.
Regaining your composure slightly, you meet her eyes with a coy grin.
"Well, Miss, if I haven’t convinced you to join me for a simple drink, then I'm clearly not doing my job well."
This makes Tara laugh, a hint of surprise in her expression at your forwardness. There was a spark of what you read as tension between you two for a moment before she finally responded.
"Fine," she said, feigning indifference. "If I feel like it, maybe I'll consider joining you. But don't expect too much from me, Detective."
You give her a full smile, standing and rolling your shoulder experimentally to see if the bandages will hold. It hurts like a bitch, but you’ve had worse.
“Who said romance is dead?” you say, watching her slip into the back of the ambulance, the engine revving as she signals to the driver they were good to go.
She leans out to grab the doors, hovering over you just slightly, a bit of sunlight cuts through the fog above and reveals a scatter of freckles across her cheeks.
"Oh please," she retorted. "Romance might be dead, but clearly your ego isn't. Keep it in check, hot shot."
And with that, she shuts the back doors, leaving you standing there watching the vehicle drive off into the fog that’s finally dispersing slowly but surely.
Hell, maybe there’s luck after all.
“Detective!” you hear the Sheriff call, snapping you back to attention and turning to see him standing over by the now opened gate, no longer chained shut.
“Got some more fight in you? Or did a little scratch put you down?”
You can’t help but laugh, shaking your head at the absurdness of it all as you begin to head in his direction.
“Not at all Sheriff, takes more than a kick to keep me down.”
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Cupid!Moonie is here to match up Val 🩷 ( @frickingnerd )
For Danganronpa your best friend would be Ibuki Mioda !
Ibuki is really friendly and outgoing, she is quick to make friends and can easily become your best friend! Ibuki is really affectionate and expressive, she has no filter when talking but thats not really a bad thing since she always has good things to say!
First of all, Ibuki is incredibly supportive with everything, she is who she really wants to be, she express herself freely without much care even in her songs so of course she would always tell you to just be yourself, even when she gets to know that you want to become more extrovert and confident she is super happy, imediatly telling you that if you need help you count on her (she even offer you to teach you how to be more extrovert, just Ibuki being Ibuki)
Ibuki can be really spontaneous and really talktive, she likes spending time even if you two are doing completely diferent things and just speak her mind off, other times she comes to you to tell you that she has a really cool plan before dragging you around to do something funny!
She thinks is really cool the fact that you have so much interests and hobbies and ask you about it without a second thought, but she is sincere when she asks, she genuinely wants to know more and even ask you if you would mind playing with her! She will love to give a try to everything, she may not be good at most of the activities or doesn't even follow right the rules in the sports but the important is that you two have fun! Also, if you don't mind she will invite over her friends because the more the better!
She is also so spontaneous that it just become random, she constantly thinks in you and end up always comming to you to tell you about something silly that happened to her that remind her of you, she comes with new things that she things you may like and sometines just came out of nowhere with small gifts
Ibuki surprisingly has a gift with words, she can be really random and silly but there are times where she says things really comforting, just like she gets the habit to tell you at random times how much she appreciate you and how happy is to have a friend like you. She end up being of great help whenever you are being too harsh on yourself, it doesn't take her much to realice whenever you are close to overwork yourself and she quickly call you out, but it is always by reminding you how amazing you are and also how natural it is to make mistakes, good results are as great as perfect results so you don't have to be so harsh on yourself, she even end up telling you stories about the mess his friends have done in the past too just for you to see how it is fine!
For NieR Automata your best friend would be Eve !
In this both Adam and Eve could totally fit but Eve would definetly be closer to you! Although it would take a while for it to happen. At the start it was Adam the most interested because you are not only human but also all your interest and hobbies hold great value for his investigation of humans, for what Eve didn't even liked you since you were just stealing his brother's attention, but at the end is thanks to Adam that he would give you a chance and from that you two just grow closer and closer
First of all your caring personality leave a good impression on him, he doesn't really see why would you care for him since you are the one who's weaker but he apreciate, but what will definetly make him like you is if you worry and care about his brother too, he can relate since he also cares a lot for him so that will make him think that you are not that bad
Eve isn't as interested in humans as his brother is but he would just end up getting the time to get to know you (mainly for how his brother is so interested on you), he doesn't see much in the point of you wanting to grow as a person and become more extrovert since he likes the way he is and he is pretty simple, and he doesn't even try to understand it at the end, he just thinks is a human thing but even if he doesn't get it he respect it
What is more attracting for him about you is your hobbies, while Adam sees it as valuable information for Eve is just games he can learn and play with you, he always get bored about the books and even doesn't like eating those apples but all your hobbies are more like games! Besides, Adam would be happy to see any of those things in person so he is actually cheering for you two to give a try, what end up making Eve even more excited
Eve is more interested on anything that will be more active and not just sitting all day so he will love to give a try first for sports, he is so excited that he is actually putting close attention to learn how to play right and even willing to make the perfect place and get everything is needed to play any of those games, and at this end up being just the start because after having so much fun and with the fact that you were willing to actually play with him thats how he end up growing to become your best friend
After that it would just be matter of time for him to want to learn more and more! Everything become a game and he would be more than happy to learn all your other hobbies! He expect all of them to be as funny as the sports but he may don't end up liking some like when you write, but surpringly he end up thinking it is so funny whenever you do diferent voices or even sing! Thanks to you he may start to understand why Adam is so fascinanted by humans (for wich Adam is thankful since he get to see his brother happy AND learn more about humans). Things turn around so sudden that is even hilarious because suddently is Eve stealing your attention from Adam, he draggs you around to play more and even asking to teach him more funny things!
Eve becomes quite affectionate without even realicing, physical affection is something foreign for him but he is not shy nor hesitant to express how happy he is to have you in his life or how much he loves having you to play and learn new games! Besides, he is really clingy
For The legend of Zelda your best friend would be Link from Breath of the Wild !
Link tent to be too close off, he just is too focus on his job and even feels more comfortable this way, but since you two have become so close to even become best friends then he would open up a little more, he knows he can relax and put his guard down because you will be willing to take care of him just as he would be willing to protect you!
Link has being so introvert from most part of his life so he can easily understand you being introvert too, however you wanting to become more extrovert and even confident in yourself is something that have surprised him, he is just confy the way he is but you wanting to grow make him think on it and may even lead him to try to be more open (at least with the champions since now all of them are working together), over all he is supportive over it
Your infinite interests and hobbies is something that may overwhelm him but in a good way, he has being all his life a knight and then a champion but you being full of energy and life is quite refreshing from his normal day by day (honestly it reminds him a little to Zelda's Investigations but you are definetly kinder), he may not have much time or the same passion you have but he always tries to get some time to simply hang out with you and see how are you doing, he is actually excited to see on what new thing you have being working, besides as a champion he had got to know a lot of new things about the other races and even from the princess so whenever you two hang out he always had something new to share too (he actually tries to remember everything he thinks you may like)
But if it happens to be that you two meet after the chalamity then your precence would hold even a greater meaning for him, since he woke up all alone and even without memories meeting you have totally become a life-saving situation, but growing to become best friends happens naturally
In this case he would still be a pretty quiet person but as you two grow closer he grows more clingy and even expressive, he is learning everything again so he would be totally willing and even excited to learn from you! He thinks you are really admirable for learning to do so much things and getting so much interests so of course he would like to know from you! As well, whatever new thing he learns to do he quickly share it to you, most of the time is just because he is proud of his own achivements but if he manage to give you a new interest then he would be even more happy!
In both cases your caring personality leave a great impression on him and makes him value your friendship even more, but is in this case where he is all alone where he craves it a little more, quietly getting closer or even more willing to let you treat his wounds if you offer to do it, you presence become a great comfort for him no matter what time it is!
Also, your perfeccionism and harsh comments towards yourself is something that worried him a lot! In the first case Link can totally relate to you and would feel a little bad to telling you to stop so he just reminds you to be kind to yourself and ask you to respect your own limits but it is obvious how worried he is, in the second case he would be even more worried! he also wants to grow stronger to do what he has to do so he understands your feelings to some extent but you are one of the only person he has right now and he thinks you are more than amazing so it hurts him, he doesn't know what to do and doesn't really feel with the right to say much so he simply reminds you all the good things you have done for him so far, just hoping it makes you realice how great you are already
For Honkai Star Rail your best friend would be March 7th !
March is really cheerful and energetic, she is affectionate and clingy and as a friend you two could do a great duo (just like she does with the traiblazer but quite the opposite direction)
March is always optimistic and likes to day dream, she has a lot of energy and loves getting into all kind of new things so she is always up to try anything new with you! If you have a new interest or a new thing you want to try out March is always there to try it with you (as long as it isn't check trash cans, she has enough of that with the traiblazer). Besides, since March can't remember anything before becoming part of the astral express that just lead her to wanting to try all kind of things since everything is new to her!
Being a traiblazer means visisting all kind of planets and meeting all kind of new people so everytime the astral express arrive to a new planet she is already making plans to explore it with you to find all kind of new things to do together! Even if you decided to don't go at that time or even aren't a nameless you would still be in March's mind, she will go out of her way to try new things and text you about anything she things you may like!
March is a really affectionate friend so she will definetly call you by nicknames and hug you, she isn't shy to say how much she loves having you around! Just like the astral express are like her family you too are part of that family, she promise that she will never forget you and thats why she is constantly taking photos of your little adventures, every new hobbie (or not so new hobbie) its the perfect excuse to take more photos
Thats also the reason why she doesn't like hearing you being so harsh on yourself, she think you are amazing the way you are and you are one of her best friends so of course she is worried about you, she gets a little worried whenever she gets to know that you are being harsh and demanding more of yourself, she has a hard time trying to find a way to help you so at the end she just opt to ask you to stop and making you realice that you are doing it again before offering you to do other things and simply relax (a little awkward because she doesn't know what to do but doesn't want to leave you alone, wich she probably just end up admiting out loud)
It isn't that common to have serious conversations with March since she is really cheerful and prefer to talk about happy things but she has no problem to sit down and talk about more serious matters, she admits from the start that she doesn't remember anything about her past and she would probably just ask you to help her try to guest what could have being (she says it with the argument of you being super smart! just like Himeko and Welt), as well she has no problem with admiting how admirable she finds that you want to change for the better, but that quickly scaled to joking around about her teaching you how to do it
For Ouran High School Host Club I match you up with Tamaki Suoh !
Even if can take Tamaki way too long to understand his feelings for you he loves you with burning passion! Even before starting a relationship he already was pretty affectionate and cheesy but starting a relationship just give him a free pass to pamper you with love and affection
Even when you two are in a relasionship he will not leave the host club since is something he loves but he makes sure you understand that he doesn't have ill intentions AND that you are his one and only! He even makes it up for you by being extra affectionate and planning the most romantic dates! (he can be a little exaggerated with his gestures but he does it with all sincerity and love)
At the end the rest of the club would become your friends and know quite a lot of you because Tamaki just can't stop talking about you, but they are always kind and become really good friends, wich lead to situations where you are dragged around to their little adventures or even end up making plans to play around and try out some of your interest, they don't mean to pry but since Tamaki just doesn't shut up about you and the twins are always up to being mischievous, taking some of your hobbies and make them now group activities!
Even if it seems like Tamaki doesn't take things seriously he does, he may be quite childish but whatever you tell him is heard carefully and hold close to his heart, thats why he dragg the rest of the club at your activities because he admires that you have so much interests and want to show his support (besides, deep down he want you to feel supported, he doesn't want you to never feel lonely)
As well, even if serious talks aren't that common he tries to pay attention to you, when he proposes himself he can read you quite well, he can see how hard working you are and how caring you truly are so whenever he gives you compliments or even just feel like thanking you for being in his life he does it with a lot of sincerity and he actually does it pretty often, specially whenever you are showing true worry for him, something as simply as asking how have being his day and even offering to take care of him melt him from the inside, and of course he would do the same for you without hesitantion (although, if something happen to you he may act as if the world was ending, even if you just get a simple cold)
For Tamaki you are already not just beautiful but also perfect! Thats why self-esteem problems or being to harsh on yourself aren't well accepted for him, he won't exactly call you exagerated or silly but it does affect him, he takes it almost as personal offense but he has his own way with dealing it, in one hand he has a tantrum and rant a little annoyed about it with the rest of the host club whenever you are going too harsh on yourself because he feels like is someone's fault that you treat yourself like this while with you he tries to take out your mind out of whatever you are doing and make you rest, if you don't listen to him he will up to directly ask you to stop and give you his million of reasons why you are perfect just the way you are, and he is not hearing otherwise or he will cry
For Oshi no Ko I match you up with Rubi Hoshino !
Despite everything that have happened Rubi is someone full of life and determination, nothing will stop her from becoming the idol she wants to be, still you aren't less important for her, she is really caring and loving towards you and she is quite sure that she wants to share her life and achivements with you
Your incredibly caring and loving personality is something that have attracted her from the start, it makes her quite flustered whenever you are being caring towards her, she quickly blushes and has problems to react but she always thanks you for caring for her and, honestly, is something that not only comes in handy but also its highly appreciate when she starts her career as an idol, the industry is really hard and demanding but having you around makes Rubi feel like she can achive anything (besides, since you have show to truly care for his sister then Aqua would be let you two alone, he is protective over her but you totally has his aproval!)
And just like that Rubi quickly becomes your biggest supporter, even before start dating she had a already look up at you! You are amazing inside and out, she things you are inmensily beautiful, admirable and smart, even if you consider yourself pretty normal and even plain she has a complete diferent imagine of you and has no doubt on expressing it!
Also, because of her starting career as an idol she understand the feeling of wanting to give your 100% and want to achive the best results posible, she wants to do the same after all, however she doesn't like the fact that you are being too harsh on yourself and demanding more of you, it makes her feel incredibly troubled and even if she hesitant at first she will ask you to please stop being so harsh, she is clearly concern but there is a hint of determination when she is trying to convince you that you are more than enough and that your achivements are completely valid (she is surprisingly passionate when it comes to you)
Between her normal self and knowing how harsh you can be Rubi becomes really affectionate, she can be easily flustered when is you the one being affectionate but actually she is always holding your hand and giving you hugs and kisses, she absolutely love cute nicknames and giving compliments but also knows to be a tease and joke around with you, she just feel so free at your side. Sadly, since she wants to become an idol your relasionship would have to be a secret, even if you don't mind for her doesn't feel too fair so she always want to make it up for you
But since she is normally busy with school and her practice then you are always invited over her house to at least have quality time, just chatting about everything and anything, those moments are perfect for you to tell her anything you are into or anything you are working, she loves hearing you talk about it, besides she would talk a lot about her preparation to become and idol so is only fair (but at the end is mainly because she loves seeing you so happy and is easily influence by you, she will just end up wanting to try new things with you!)
For Genshin Impact I match you up with Lyney !
As a magician Lyney has always to put an act and he is always around, however his feelings are incredibly pure and sincere, no matter how much he flirts and play around, no matter how playful he can be his words of love are always sincere! (even when he playfuly tent to joke about it he does it mainly to brush off his own flustered state)
Lyney is incredibly romantic and cheesy, he is just really talktive and flirty and even when you two are in a relasionship his flirting won't really stop, he has the habit or trying to learn more and more magic tricks to be able to impress you, even when some of those magic tricks are simply an excuse to give you gifts and steal kisses from you, as well thanks for that playful nature of him he is always calling you by nickname or just saying your name a little too sweetly (he just can't not be all open with his love)
Still, behind all those games and tricks there is a lot of sincerity and love! Lyney is someone who loves with passion, even to his family, he would put his life at risk for his siblings a without a second thought and now that you are part of his life that will go for you too (honestly, for your relationship you become part of his family without even noticing, is just that Lynette and Freminet got so used to Lyney talking about you that they just accept you as part of the family now)
Lyney takes the time to actually get to know you and despite always saying that a magician always have trick under their sleeve and how is important to keep secrets he becomes incredibly sincere with you, the last thing he wants is for you to distrust him or hate him, besides your caring personally totally melts him, is just that he comes from a rough background and with high expectatives on his shoulders so you caring for him just for pure love and care make him way too flustered, it makes him want to share his life with you and protect you! (but he is too embarrassed to say it out loud)
He understand what it is to demand more of yourself to get the best results, as a magician he can't let himself making mistakes in his act (besides, an error could cost too much for him), but his case is diferent of yours so of course he is concern and doesn't like at all that you are being so harsh on yourself! In his eyes you are one of the most amazing and beautiful people he has ever met and it breaks his heart seeing you being so harsh on yourself, so whenever he feels like you are going to far he step in and uses his magic trick to distract you from whatever you are doing, he even steal things you have to use with the excuse to be necesary for the magic trick
Also, the fact that you have so much interests and hobbies is something he really admires, you are living your life at its fullest and he wants to protect that! Whenever he has time he goes and sneak himself between your project and hobbies, when you least notice you two are already doing a lot of things together! And he will not admit it but he tent to go out of his way to find new things that you may like, either a new interest or simply something that may bring you some inspiration
Here it is again my dear V-chan!! I made it with tons of love 🩷🩷 aaaaand don't worry, I didn't overworked myself I just was really motivated to write and your words definetly made me feel so good about my wiritng :3
I apologize for not adding Miraculous but I just simply couldn't think in a right character, I got a few ideas but non of the were the chosen one! sorry :(
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The Original Faery
Chapter 1
A/n: Adelaide Kane is kinda how I pictured Cassiopeia Salvatore.
Just a heads up, this chapter will be pretty confusing but don’t worry, it’ll make sense in time😜 I hope u like it.
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“Girls! Wake up! You have to go to school!”
I groaned as I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling before literally rolling out of bed. I let out an oof as I made impact with the ground.
“Come on sleeping beauty.” Giggles Caroline from the doorway to my room.
“Not everyone can get up at dawn and still function.” I roll my eyes at my sister, who has always been a morning person. “Us mere mortals however, need a few minutes.”
She laughs as she walks downstairs for breakfast.
I got to my feet, shuffled to the bathroom, and got ready for the first day of school.
I give my mum a kiss on her cheek as I enter the kitchen.
“Don’t forget that you’re supposed to show that new kid around school today, sweetheart.” She reminds me, with a kiss on my forehead, before heading to the door. “Have a good first day girls.” She was halfway out the door before she pops her head back through the doorway, “I may be home late but there’s some leftover Chinese food from last night. Or you can go pick something up after school.” She blows us a quick air kiss before finally disappearing.
“Do you think she’s investigating that animal attack last night?” Care asks, seemingly thrilled by the thought.
“She is the Sheriff, so… most likely.” I reply, still too tired for a proper conversation.
We eat breakfast in relative silence, before washing the dishes.
Just as I dried the last plate and put it away, Caroline asks :“Do you need a ride to school?”
“Yeah. My bike freaked out on me the other day.”
“Mum said that having a motorbike was a bad idea.”
“She was more concerned about cost, Care. And besides, I made it, so there’s bound to be a few hiccups.” She just rolls her eyes at me.
“Whatever, but I thought I was supposed to be the irresponsible one.” I laugh at that. Caroline has always been the one to sneak us into parties and get into all sorts of trouble. But I didn’t exactly have a pearly white record either, I get into fights at school (only when someone’s being a douche) and I did illegally assemble a blue 2010 Kawasaki Ninja 650R over the summer.
…
“Thanks for the ride, Care!” I call as I sprint for the administration office to greet the new kid. I push people out of the way, and I realised I probably looked like a maniac, but I needed to be on time!
I burst into the office with a loud proclamation; “I’m here!” I pant, resting my hands on my knees for balance.
When I finally look up, I come face to face with the new kid, and he was staring at me like he saw a ghost.
“Cassie?” He whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear.
“Yeah… How’d you know my name?” I ask, now suspicious of this mildly familiar boy. Looking at him gave me this itching feeling in my mind, as if it was trying to remember something.
“Uh, I was sent an email saying that Cassie Forbes would be showing me around.”
“Oh.” Is all I could think of as a response.
He sticks his hand out for me to shake, “Stefan Salvatore. Pleasure to meet you.”
I couldn’t help but snort at the formality, but I shake his hand anyway. “Nice to meet you too. Ready for a grand tour?” I ask with a little flourish and a fistful of glitter.
“You carry glitter in your pocket?” Stefan asks with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“Of course. How else am I suppose to be dramatic?” I say with an impish grin. He returns the smile.
“What’s first on the tour?”
“I suppose your locker, then English class, I think.”
“Lead the way.”
We talk about the teachers and various classes and extra curricular activities available at the school on the way to his locker.
I kept sneaking glances at Stefan, trying to figure out why he seemed familiar, and why he seemed so…distraught when he saw me. It was infuriating.
When we reached the lockers, I let out an extremely loud groan.
“What’s wrong?” Stefan asks, seemingly concerned.
“Tyler Lockwood.” I mumble back.
“Hey Little Forbes,” it was a nickname a lot of people were fond of, since I only just reached 5ft tall, “how was the summer?”
“Not too bad. But I’m sure you’re going to explain why yours was better.” I say with a grin.
Tyler flings his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t be like that Cassie.”
I roll my eyes, “How was your summer, Ty?”
“Wonderful, thank you for asking.” He says with a shit-eating grin. While Tyler was a pain in the ass sometimes, he was my friend.
“By the way, this is Stefan Salvatore, he’s new.”
Tyler looks Stefan up and down, “Hey.”
“Hey.” Stefan replies.
I wriggle free from Tyler’s grip and move towards Stefan’s locker, tapping it. “This is your locker, put your books and bag in, then we need to get to English.”
Stefan follows my instructions, keeping his English books tucked under one arm.
“First day of school. Let’s do this!” I throw a handful of glitter at Tyler, as I finish my proclamation. He sputters a bit, “Don’t you have a make up Bio test to get to Tyler?”
“Shit.” With that he sprints off.
“Shall we?” I ask Stefan.
“We shall.”
…
The day went smoothly after that, and finally, it was last period: biology. Ugh. While the subject was interesting at times, I hated our practical lessons when we dissected things. It made me sick.
It was also very content heavy, with homework and assignments practically everyday. I dragged my feet the whole way there.
But my spirits lifted when I saw Stefan occupying the previously empty seat next to mine.
I grin as I approach him, “Looks like we’re lab partners.”
He chuckles, “Yeah. Looks like it.”
“I hope you’re not gonna make me do all the work.” I tease.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Alright class has started. Attention up here.” The teacher, Mrs Thompson, says with a clap as she enters the room.
…
“I can’t believe she gave us an assignment on the first day back.” I groan, as Stefan and I exit the classroom.
“Yeah, it sucks, but at least it’s a simple one.”
“I guess,” I huff, “but I have no information about my ancestry.”
“Wouldn’t the town hall have information about the Forbes family? I mean, they are one of the founding families.”
“I’m actually adopted. So..” I trail off with a shrug.
“Oh. Sorry?”
I laugh at Stefan’s fumbling. “It’s fine. My real family abandoned me, so as far as I’m concerned, I am a Forbes.”
Stefan smiles slightly, “well, my house has a lot of books on pretty much everything, so we can start with my ancestors. Then later this week you can ask your mum about your parents, then maybe we can find something in the town records?” Stefan suggests.
“Alright,” I say with a grimace, I knew talking about my ‘real family’ made my mum feel bad, but this was for school, “can we start tomorrow? I’m going to the grill with some friends tonight.”
“Okay.” He says with a smile.
“Cool. Can I get your phone number? So we can arrange a time?”
Stefan recites his number, and I type it into my phone quickly. With that a wave goodbye, making my way to Caroline’s car.
…
“Thanks, Vic.” Matt says with a smile as Vickie put a plate of hot chips in the middle of the table.
“Need another refill?” Vickie asks Tyler, with a flirty smile.
“I’d love one.” Tyler replies, with an equally flirty smile.
Matt watches the exchange with suspicion. And as Vickie saunters away, I slap Tyler upside the head.
“Ow!” Tyler exclaims, rubbing the back of his head, “what was that for?”
“I can’t believe you, hooking up with your best friend’s sister, that’s low, even for you.” I chastise him.
“I’m not hooking up with Matt’s sister!”
“You’re such a dick.” Matt signs, disappointed.
We sit in uncomfortable silence for a bit, munching on some chips.
“Wanna play some pool?” Tyler asks.
Matt just rolls his eyes and gets up, heading over to Bonnie.
“Sure,” I sigh, “ I’m still mad at you though.”
“Then I’m sure kicking my ass at pool will make you feel better.” He replies with a grin.
We go over to the pool table playing a few rounds (all of which, I win) before we take a breather, chatting with Caroline.
Then Elena walks in, followed closely by Stefan. I quickly look over at Matt, and see his crestfallen expression. He stands up to greet Stefan and Elena politely though, before walking away dejectedly. I quickly follow, making sure he’s okay.
…
“So. You were born in Mystic Falls?” Caroline asks, as we sit around a table, trying to subtly interrogate Stefan.
“Mmhm. And I moved when I was still young.” Stefan replies conversationally, apparently unaware of how Bonnie and Caroline were trying to sus him out.
“Parents?” Bonnie asks.
“My parents passed away.” My heart falls, though I don’t know why I would feel that strongly about it. That itching feeling in my mind returning. I had tuned out the conversation, but Caroline’s voice snapped me out of it. But I could feel Stefan’s eyes travel to me for a brief moment.
“So Stefan. If you’re new then you don’t know about the party tomorrow.” Caroline chirps.
“It’s a school thing in the Falls.” Bonnie explains.
“I thought you said nothing was happening tomorrow.” Stefan accuses, with a small smile.
I laugh. “Alright, two things, and I list them on my fingers, “one, I said I was free tomorrow, because I’m not going -“
“oh yes you are.” Caroline interrupts.
“- two,” I continue, “the party isn’t until late, we could do some school work beforehand, IF you wanted to go.”
Stefan smirks, then turns to Elena, “are you going?”
“Of course she is.” Bonnie replies instead of Elena. Elena gives Bonnie a small smile, then ticks some hair behind her ear.
*******************************************************
History was a boring event as always, with Mr Tanner talking about the battle of Willow Creek.
“How many casualties resulted in this battle? Miss Bennett?”
“Umm, a lot. I’m not sure, but like a whole lot.” Bonnie says, trying her best.
“Cute becomes dumb in an instant Miss Bennett. Mr Donovan, would you like to take this moment to overcome your imbedded jock stereotype?”
“It’s okay, Mr Tanner, I’m cool with it.” Matt replies coolly.
“Hm, Elena? Maybe you can enlighten us about one of the towns most significant events?”
“Sorry, i-i don’t know.” Elena stammers.
“ I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break.” Tanner was such an ass!
“346 casualties, unless you’re counting the local civilians.” Stefan interrupts smoothly.
“That’s correct. Mr ?”
“Salvatore.”
“Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here in Mystic Falls?”
“Distant.”
“Except of course there were no civilian casualties in this battle-“
“Actually there were 27. Confederate soldiers fired on the church believing it to be housing weapons, but they were wrong -“ Stefan corrects.
“There were also 13 other casualties.” I blurt. Everyone looks at me. I had no idea where that information came from. “They were believed to be witches.”
…
After school I went to the Salvatore boarding house, where Stefan lives with his uncle. I knock on the door and wait politely for someone to open the door.
The door creaks open, and a man, who I assume was Stefan’s uncle. He had that same look of shock on his face that Stefan did, as he sees me.
“Cassie?” He asks disbelievingly.
“Yeah…” it was starting to freak me out, how this family somehow knew me, and that itching feeling in my mind was starting to piss me off.
Before I could say anything else, Stefan appears behind his uncle. “Hey, I’m about to go to the party, wanna come?”
I release a breath, “nah. I just came here to see if you had any books that I can read, to start us off on our reports for bio.”
Stefan gestures for me to enter the house, his uncle now composed. “I thought you didn’t want to do all the work.” Stefan teases.
I roll my eyes, “I’m not going to do all the work, I just thought that if you’re gonna be slacking off tonight, I might as well start us off.” I say with a grin.
He smiles back, we enter what looks like a mini library, filled with books, Stefan walks over to one of the shelves and pulls a few books off.
“These books are about the Salvatore family, but please don’t read them all, come over tomorrow and I’ll help you out.”
“Okay,” I say with a smile, “but I demand donuts, to help with brain productivity.”
Stefan laughs “Deal.”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A/n: I hope u all enjoyed this chapter, and I’m sorry it took so long😊
#stefan Salvatore x sister!reader#the original faery#Caroline Forbes x sister!reader#Liz Forbes x daughter!reader
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[ aslıhan malbora, 28, cisfemale, she/her ] Welcome to Antioch, EVREN ŞAHIN! Local sources report that you’ve been in town for a week and are known to be HELPFUL yet CAVALIER. Others have dredged up rumors that you’re involved in UNAFFILIATED, but most know you for your work as a/n PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. We’ll see you around town soon!
basics
name: evren şahin
nickname(s): ev
age: twenty eight
birthday: june 3rd
gender: cis female
pronouns: she/her
sexuality: bisexual
ethnicity: turkish
nationality: american
hometown: chicago, illinois
current residence: a room at on the road inn
occupation: private investigator
languages: turkish, arabic, & english
religion: islam (non practicing)
archetype: the explorer
zodiac: gemini
mbti: isfp
moral alignment: neutral good
love language: acts of service & quality time (giving) | words of affirmation & physical touch (receiving)
family: asil şahin (father; alive), miray şahin (mother; alive), rahmi şahin (older brother; alive), hasan şahin (twin brother; deceased), lale şahin (younger sister; alive)
pet(s): emre (german shepard)
personality
+ HELPFUL | - GULLIBLE
evren was raised to help those in need and always give people the benefit of the doubt. while she is not the warmest or bubbly person out there, she'll do her best to offer a helping hand when she can see that the situation calls for it. on the flip side, she is quick to take others at their word, which isn't always the wisest thing to do, and it often causes unnecessary strife in her day to day job.
+ LAID BACK | - CAVALIER
whether it be rude ass people or just the curveball life throws at you sometimes, ev is not one to worry. rent late? oh well, it'll get paid eventually. a karen being a karen? it's kinda cute they care so much. got stabbed? eh. it'll probably heal, and ev has a common blood type. so yeah, she's definitely not sweating the small stuff. or the big stuff. or the things she really should be sweating.
+ CURIOUS | - NOSY
you know those annoying kids who always ask why to everything? yeah, evren has always been that kid. she wanted to know how things worked, the reason stuff happened. perhaps it was this innate curiosity that initially drew her to investigative journalism and later on private investigations. regardless, her curiosity often crossed the line into nosiness. it wasn't like she genuinely cared about all the information she learned; she just liked to know things.
biography
her parents were traditional: asil was working as a surgeon while miray was a homemaker.
they immigrated to the u.s. soon after marrying. rahmi was born later that year.
they lived in a nice brownstone.
despite how loving and accepting her parents were, evren always felt like the black sheep of the family. it was like she was on the outside looking in.
while she never went through a rebellious phase, she never met the expectations she felt her parents had for her. she fell short in that regard.
it was worse when hasan died. not only was he the golden child with his perfect grades, star athletic qualities, and charming personality, but also he was her very best friend.
it was on a camping trip the twins were taking their last summer before their senior year of high school. some of their friends and them went water rafting. it went bad.
miray and asil didn't blame her. but evren did.
fun facts
she is currently trying to track down some rich college student who ran away from home. her search has brought her to antioch (surprisingly). hopefully, she can find the kid quickly and leave.
graduated college with a journalism degree.
evren often enrolls in different courses and classes for fun. from knife throwing to lock picking to tap dancing and beyond. her skill level, however, varies from activity to activity.
while she's not a straight out slob, evren is a disorganized mess. books, papers, and files scattered everywhere. jackets and hoodies slung over furniture. all that matters is that she knows where everything is....for the most part.
whenever she has the time, she still goes over to her parents' for family dinner and game night.
she has adhd.
emre was just a puppy when ev adopted him.
time is not real, thus evren is not beholden to it a.k.a. punctuality isn't her strong point.
girl is a smoker.
she also has multiple ear piercings.
she owns a yellow beetle car.
evren suffers from insomnia, survivor's guilt, and depression.
wanted
the target: a rich twenty something year old college student whose parents have hired evren to track them down.
the sidekick: this person has been a (helpful) pain in the ass. maybe they're genuine, or maybe they've got an ulterior motive. they've basically acted as evren's secretary.
the rival: evren trusts easily, but this person puts her on edge. maybe the animosity is one sided, maybe they're a good person despite her reservations, or maybe they're more dangerous than expected.
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A Rat in Storybrooke
Also on Fanfiction.net and A03
Chapter 2: A Typical Day in Storybrooke
Emma closed her locker and headed to her next class. It was chemistry with Professor Ratigan and she hated it. Everyone hated Professor Ratigan, because they all knew of his disdain for teaching students at the High School level. He believed they were all beneath him and his talent was wasted. But to her pleasant surprise, there was a substitute when she got to class and she decided that chemistry might not be so bad, after all.
School was already not the easiest time for her and not because she struggled. She got good grades and her mother made sure she was challenged by being very active in communication with her teachers since the Storybrooke curriculum was stagnant and outdated. But it had to remain that way for most of the students since none of the youths except her, her siblings and Alexandra were growing. Anything the other students retained over the course of the year was lost by the start of the next one. Memories were the only thing that had returned, since she had come to Storybrooke early and the curse wouldn't be fully broken until she turned twenty-eight.
The main source of her struggle was having any lasting friends her age. Her parents definitely struggled with it too. The closest town to Storybrooke was Misty Falls and they had debated if it would be feasible to find a way to let her attend the small town high school there since Emma could technically come and go as she pleased without consequence. But in the end, they had opted not and she was okay with that. It was just too dangerous and it would raise too many questions when her parents were unable to attend any parent-teacher meetings. Not to mention all the other risks. She could never bring any friends home and her parents couldn't attend any school functions with her.
She was on friendly terms with most kids in her grade, even though they wouldn't move on with her, but most kept her at arm's length, because of who she was.
She insisted to her worried parents that it was okay. She would much rather have them than be in a group home. In fact, she knew that school would be simply miserable as the kid without parents. She'd be the weird kid without parents that everyone would avoid. At least if they avoided her here, she knew it was because it was probably because of who her parents were. She much preferred her happy life with her family in Storybrooke versus her former miserable life as an orphan. She took her seat in class, glad that she didn't have to suffer Professor Ratigan for one afternoon.
~*~
"Ms. Tremaine…" David said in a low tone that made Thomas smirk from his place at his desk.
"Sheriff…I swear to you. Someone broke our window this morning! It's your job to investigate, is it not?" Drizella complained, as she stood before his desk.
"That's the third broken window this month and the first two times I came out to look at it, we pretty much determined that there was no foul play," David said. Drizella huffed.
"When you came out to the house, you wouldn't even come inside the house to investigate!" she complained.
"If someone is breaking your window by throwing a rock at it, then there would be no reason for me to come inside the house. Unless you're saying it's an inside job, in which case, I would have to charge you with filing a false police report," David said. She let out a shriek of frustration.
"Are you accusing me of breaking my own window, Sheriff?" she asked.
"I don't need to. Now, you can leave or I can arrest you," he replied sternly.
"You're so sexy when you're angry and handcuffs could be fun," she leered.
"Get out," David ordered. She huffed.
"Fine…but this isn't over. One day, you're going to realize that you belong with me, Charming," Drizella insisted, as she stormed out. David sighed and rolled his eyes, as Thomas chuckled.
"That woman is insane," he mentioned.
"I know…but her mother won't allow Archie to treat her and she hasn't done anything drastic enough to warrant committing her," David said.
"Give her time," Thomas replied, as he grabbed his keys.
"It's pretty quiet…I think I'll grab lunch and take some to Snow," he said, as he grabbed his leather jacket and headed out. Thomas smirked.
"I'll hold down the fort," he called.
~*~
"You're not doing enough!" Triton ranted and Snow rolled her eyes.
"So you've told me…but there really is nothing we can do until Emma is twenty-eight," Snow said.
"That is unacceptable! I must return to Atlantica!" he demanded.
"Atlantica, like the rest of the other realms, is still frozen. You'd be going back to a world that is not yet moving again, even if there was a way," she reasoned.
"So says the Dark One! What if he is lying?" Triton asked.
"We have no reason to believe he would lie about something like this," Snow replied.
"Of course he would, you little twit! He has potions that can do anything and keeps them to himself for his own use!" Triton said.
"I will not tolerate your belligerence, Triton. If you believe the Dark One has your answers, then go to the pawn shop and barter a deal with him," Snow replied sternly.
"You are useless!" Triton ranted.
"And you are so close to being arrested for harassment," David said from the doorway of his wife's office.
"Ah…the Sheriff has come to your rescue again," Triton said.
"None of us can cross the town line without consequence, but feel free to try it. I don't really care what you do, but get out of my office," Snow replied.
"As usual, my meetings with you are a waste of time, Madam Mayor," Triton said, as he stormed out, knowing that, if he didn't, David would make good on his threat and toss him in jail.
"He still think we're hiding something?" he asked.
"Yes…he wants to be changed back into a merman so he can go back to his Kingdom, which is still frozen in time," she replied.
"Good thing I brought lunch and dessert then. I think we can both use a long lunch together," he said, as he put the bags from Granny's down on her desk. She smiled.
"Rough morning for you too?" she asked. He shrugged.
"Just Drizella Tremaine throwing another rock through her own window to try and get me to come out to her mother's mansion," she replied.
"Ugh…that woman. She's worse than Triton," Snow complained, as they started to eat.
"Yeah…she's definitely unhinged, but not enough to have her committed. I told her to go home or I'd arrest her for filing a false complaint, but to be honest, the idea of having her in a cell at the station is terrifying," he said.
"Yeah…she'd never leave you alone. Are you sure I can't put an arrow in her?" she asked, in a teasing tone. He smirked.
"Believe me…it's tempting. But I'd rather not arrest my wife," he said.
"Handcuffs might be fun though," she replied, nudging him playfully. He smiled.
"With you…definitely," he said, as they continued to eat and enjoy lunch together.
~*~
"Got ya…" Leo said, as he picked the earthworm out of the dirt and looked at him.
"Sorry…I know this is not really fair, but there's some baby birds that need fed up in that tree," he said. Upon going to recess, he had discovered the poor mama near this tree had been killed, so naturally, he took it upon himself to care for the babies left behind in the nest.
"Leo…you know the teacher is going to be so mad if you get dirty again," Eva admonished.
"But the baby birds will die if I don't feed them. The mama bird died," he said.
"Oh…well okay, I guess that's a good reason," she replied, as she watched her twin climb up in the tree and present the worm to the babies. He smiled, as they ate, until he heard a very unwelcome voice.
"And here we see Dances with Wolves himself in his natural habitat. The dirt," Aiden Slade said snidely. He and his friends were older kids that skipped school all the time and of course, never aged or matured. By the time they did, Leo would be about the same age as Aiden and frankly, he couldn't wait until he was big enough to punch the bully out.
"I thought I smelled something and it's definitely not the worm," Leo retorted.
"Good thing you got a fence between us, pipsqueak," he hissed.
"Just go away, Aiden," Leo said, as he jumped down and went to look for more worms. Then he would bury the mama bird.
"Nice dead bird. That must be the one I got with a rock earlier," Aiden said. Leo froze and turned to glare at him.
"You killed the bird on purpose?" he asked. Aiden smirked.
"Yeah…I knew that would really burn you," he said.
"She has babies! How can you just kill like that?" Leo questioned. He scoffed.
"They're just stupid birds. Relax fur boy," Aiden said, as he and his buddies laughed. Leo growled and climbed the chain link fence, before scaling over it.
"Leo no…" Eva called.
"You really think you can take us on, shrimp?" Aiden asked, as he shoved the little boy. Before Leo could charge him, he heard a whistle being blown.
"Leo Nolan…you get back over this fence, right now, young man and to the Principal's office!" the teacher scolded, making Aiden and his friends laugh.
"Run along, pipsqueak," Aiden goaded. Someday, Aiden wouldn't be laughing though when Leo was old enough to hold his own against the bully. He climbed back over the
fence and the teacher led him inside by the arm.
"We have rules, mister," she scolded.
"I know…but he killed a mama bird on purpose! I was just feeding the babies and yet, I'm the one in trouble?" he asked. The teacher sighed.
"I agree that he is a horrible boy too, but he's not my responsibility. You are," the teacher answered, as she led him inside.
~*~
Once school had let out for the day, Ratigan returned and prepared for the undertaking ahead. He planned to be on sight when Fidget carried out his orders so as to give himself an alibi. He was practically gleeful. No one knew of his firing yet and wouldn't once Frollo was taken care of. It would be happening just about now.
~*~
David got the call during his evening patrol and headed to the High School quickly with sirens blaring. Thomas arrived about the same time and they headed into the school, which was mostly empty, except for the staff and janitors.
"Walter!" he called, using Sleepy's curse name and he led him to the room.
"I was just getting started when I heard the sound of smashing glass. I hurried, but the attacker was already gone when I found him," Walter said, as David and Thomas rushed into the chemistry lab.
"Professor Frollo…" Thomas said, as they heard the ambulance sirens, as they had already been called when David received the call. He was badly beaten, with multiple lacerations, but he was relieved to find a faint pulse.
"He's alive…and breathing," he called, as the paramedics arrived with a gurney.
"He's going into shock. We need to get him to the hospital right away," the paramedic said.
"I'll call Paul…I'm sure he'll be ready," David said, as the victim was loaded onto the gurney and rushed out. Bashful arrived not long after that with his team and they began to comb the crime scene.
"Does Frollo have any enemies in Storybrooke?" Thomas asked curiously.
"Not that we know of, though we don't know very much about his past," David answered.
"Dear me…what happened?" Ratigan asked, feigning shock and ignorance.
"Someone attacked Professor Frollo. Did you hear anything?" David questioned.
"No…I'm afraid I was in my lab, conducting some experiments," Ratigan replied.
"Any idea who might want to attack Frollo?" Thomas asked.
"I'm afraid not. He's a bit stiff and disciplined, something I appreciate. I know there are many cretins in his classes that are not fond of him, though I didn't think anyone would go as far as to kill him," Ratigan replied.
"He's not dead," David said, catching Ratigan off guard.
"Oh…well, that's encouraging," he stammered, while silently cursing Fidget for mucking it up.
"And this seems a bit extreme for a student," David said.
"Don't let these teenagers fool you, Sheriff. Some of them are tired of their repetitious lives," Ratigan replied, as they shared a long stare.
"I'll keep that in mind," David said, as he looked around.
"Call me if you find anything," he told Bashful, as he made his way out.
"Any ideas?" Thomas asked.
"Medusa's…it's where all the scum hangs out. Let's swing by," David replied, as they headed out. Ratigan smirked, as he watched them leave. He went back to his lab and picked up the phone.
"Yes…this is Professor Ratigan. One of my colleagues was just brought into the hospital in grave condition. I'm calling to inquire about his condition," he questioned.
"I'm sorry Professor…that information can only be released to family members," the nurse said.
"Of course…" Ratigan said, as he hung up the phone.
"Damn…I must make sure he doesn't survive," he mumbled to himself, as he decided to go to the hospital in person. If Dr. Sakura had the nerve to save him, then Ratigan would have to finish him off himself…
~*~
Snow arrived at school to pick up the twins, but instead of just getting them at their classroom, she went to the Principal's office to retrieve her son.
"It's about time, Madam Mayor…once again, your son was being a menace and wandered off school grounds," Rodmilla Tremaine scolded. Snow gave her a hard look and then softened when she looked at her son.
"My son didn't mean any harm, I assure you, Principal Tremaine. But we will be having a talk about climbing the fences," she said.
"See that you do…I would hate to have to expel your little urchin," Rodmilla threatened.
"Do that and I'll go straight to the school board to report you. Your hatred of me shouldn't translate to my child and I think they'll agree," Snow warned, as they shared a glare.
"Please take your troublesome child home," she said. Snow took his hand and they walked out.
"Aiden Slade again?" she asked.
"I found a dead mama bird and I was just feeding the baby birds and then he told me he killed the mama on purpose!" Leo cried. Snow knelt down in front of him.
"He's a very mean boy…the exact opposite of you. I love how much you care about all animals and the way you protect them. But he's so much bigger than you and I don't want you to get hurt," she admonished.
"Someday I'll be bigger and then maybe he'll think twice about doing bad things," Leo said. She smiled slightly.
"With you around, he better…so much like your Daddy. Always ready to protect those that are innocent," she said. Leo's chest puffed up a bit at being compared to his father.
"Am I grounded?" he asked. She smiled.
"No…you didn't really do anything wrong. But no more hopping the fences at recess or we will have to talk about punishment," she replied.
"Okay," he agreed.
"Come on…let's get your sister and go home. Daddy has a case so he'll be a bit late," she said.
~*~
David walked into Medusa's with Thomas behind him and immediately, the mood changed. He hated this eyesore of an establishment, but it existed within all the legal bounds of the law, so there was nothing he could do to stop much that went on here.
"Sheriff…can I offer you a drink?" Medusa asked.
"No…we're here on business. Professor Frollo was attacked this afternoon and since all the usual scum hangs out here, I thought we'd start here," he replied. She scoffed.
"I know nothing about any attacks," she answered.
"I'm sure…notice anyone suspicious this afternoon?" he asked.
"No," she answered quickly.
"Then you won't mind if we look around," he said.
"Of course…it's not like you're asking. You're going to do it anyway," she retorted. He smirked and they walked around. He noticed a man at the bar, who side-eyed them. He was twitching and almost shaking.
"That's some serious withdrawal," Thomas commented.
"Yeah…and he's here, so a fix is easy to come by. He seems nervous," David said, as he approached. The twitchy man tried to take off, as the Sheriff closed in, but tripped and face planted. David grabbed him the shirt and helped him up.
"Those are some serious cuts on your hands. You should get these looked at," he said.
"It's…it's fine," the man stammered, as Thomas searched him.
"Jackpot…" he said, as he held up a wallet.
"Professor Frollo's wallet…that's a little incriminating," David replied, as Fidget tried to get away, but was slammed against the bar.
"You're under arrest…" David said, as they hauled him out to the patrol car to take him in.
"I…I didn't do anything!" he claimed. Thomas sighed.
"Guess it's going to be a long night of interrogation," he said, as they put him in the back and then headed back to the station.
~*~
"Aunt Regina!" Leo called, as the door opened and he hugged her. She gave him a genuine smile.
"It's good to see you too," she said, as Snow met her at the door and took the casserole dish from her.
"I had an extra lasagna so I thought the kids might enjoy it," she said. Snow smiled.
Things had slowly thawed between them and they were on their way to something that might one day be friendship. But it was clear that Regina adored the twins and they adored her in return.
"Thanks…David is going to be late. I'll pop this in the oven and we can eat," she said.
"Oh…well, I can stay with them if you want to take him and Thomas some dinner," she offered.
"Yeah…we can play video games!" Leo said excitedly.
"That would be great and they clearly love the idea," Snow replied, as she went to the kitchen.
"Wanna see my new comics?" Leo asked. She smiled.
"Of course I do," she replied, as she followed him to the living room…
#Snowing#SnowxCharming#Charming family#AU#OC Charming kids#Regina Mills#Mr. Gold#romance#adventure#family#Charming family feels#the Finding You Always verse#A Rat in Storybrooke: A Finding You Always Story
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#personal
I swear I read this story years ago about a synth guy who was interviewed about the Berlin Wall when it finally came down. He said he had been in his basement for years just making music. He had complained that society was so bad that he had no choice but to pay bills, hole up and not be seen. Of course, I sometimes wonder if this was from a dream or some random ChatGPT log. I've been too busy to spend the day researching if it were true. I've sent one or two resumes off a day lately. I woke up to another rejection letter from Universal although like L'Oreal they keep your resume on file. I feel like I've been wandering around in the dark trying to leave this walled garden of a basement. And I start feeling it's just a waste of time to worry. I just completed that Dream On quest line in Cyberpunk after a few saves and reloads. You discover a politician and his wife are being rewired when they sleep in their apartment. Secret walls and surveillance. She even forgets the color of the flowers in a picture of their wedding when you talk about it. When V flags down the Maelstrom surveillance van and jacks in, he gets an ominous warning from some artificial intelligence. Don't cross their red lines. It was all a dream as far they were concerned and you weren't to interfere. I don't think the game really lets you go too deep in that quest line if only for a flashback at the end of the game. But it all does take my mind off the constant detective work trying to figure out why people more than just ignore me. I don't think I want to know the real answer to that one. And for all the Columbo work over the years I've done pro bono, I have figured out that I'm a lot like that guy I probably dreamed about. The environment around me is proud and indignant. Everybody assumes we're all in this together but nobody talks to anyone or acknowledges I exist. I've grown used to a special kind of friendship online when it comes to communication. Real hardcore detective work there. But I don't really think anyone reads or looks at my blog other than a few people. The only investigation going on is how my birthday happens in one week or so and nobody really cares.
That could be my fault holing up in this dungeon hiding from people. Or am I being hidden? I don't actively hide from much. Except maybe drunk people trying to get me to drink. I'm a very forward person. So is Columbo and he both amused and annoyed people with his mission. Everything after the first season kind of goes off the rails. But it's always Columbo on his same shit. Same coat. Same wife. I think he wears that coat as a strategic ploy to disguise his body language. Which is a joke because you can read the guy all over when he gets frustrated or nervous. He has no poker face to speak of. But maybe that is his ultimate trick. He is always acting thoughtful and nice. But underneath that coat you can tell that guy always solves a case no matter how easy he is to read. But I do wonder what would have happened if he just stayed in his basement playing acid keyboard to Herbie Hancock live performances on Youtube. He does end up in a jazz club tracking a suspect trumpeter named "Bill Riffkin." Each season of Columbo is a descent into Hollywood acting class hell. Bill has a history of domestic violence in which he accents to Columbo behind a bar by violently shaking his trumpet like a strangler. So much so he gets let go from the orchestra he auditioned for. A hard turn from the Supreme Court's decision to enable gun ownership for domestic abusers. It was s simpler time maybe back then. And as far as nostalgia goes, I never really grew up watching Columbo or anything. It was a little before my time. So it has this ambient nature from the other room of filling up the space with talking more so than NPR talking about war, poverty or things nobody wants an invisible person to change. Just like that synth guy, nobody has visited me other than my parents for a minute. People I thought were my friends were only here to take my money. And once you start understanding that you have finally carved out some peace and quiet for yourself you start to refine it. I pass the time sending out resumes not gossiping about other musicians. I do actually learn how to play jazz keyboard but only session with Bennie Maupin. The universal music group rejection letter was worded pleasantly enough. It said something about thanking me for wanting to share my love of music. But I don't think most people understand what love is when it comes to me as an individual. Not after all these years on this planet. I'm not exactly young. But people don't treat me like I'm old unless it's to make fun of me. In fact, I think most people fear aging so much that they're jealous I haven't gone too far downhill. Columbo looks pretty young for being old. Or at least he carries himself in a charismatic enough way to be seen as lovable. People out here project their insecurities so much, you can't really hide underneath a jacket.
Kolchak hides under a hat. Rather, he's defined by it. Made fun of for it. And constantly not believed for twenty episodes of one season. I remember seeing it on reruns and being obsessed with the voodoo storyline. The coolest thing about Kolchak is that it is a very Chicago show. And if you know about Chicago being founded by a Haitian, it kind of skirts the radical inclusive social justice tight ass perspective in modern times. Kolchak's world isn't very much different from modern Chicago. In fact, I see Chicago regressing into a car wreck of both the fifties, sixties and seventies. That's the only generations that people listen to out here. The rest don't give a fuck about the future or are battling out their insecurities. The night stalker is out there looking for the real dirt. And each episode he finds it in a sort of proto x-files sort of way. All the while, coming in contact with the gritty and corrupt nature of Chicago which is more scary than the supernatural guest stars per show. The effects are hilariously bad but the villains have a dream like quality to them. Are they for real? Is Kolchak just daydreaming his tabloid writing in a flashback or did that shit really happen? Jack the Ripper makes an appearance in the first episode as some weird silent mime jumping over construction sites, dodging police bullets and murdering indiscriminately. Kolchak gleefully and clumsily dodges his way out of everything. And every episode he gets in his quips outside of a writer's union in an office that I've passed a millions times on the elevated train on my way to the loop. He's out there in a very real and sensationalist way. But most people simply write him off as a loon. Every episode starts with him whistling alone in the newsroom. He's so fucking full of himself discovering every mystery nobody wants to admit. He's bathed in the loneliness of that newsroom in the early morning light. Just as the tune picks up on his confidence, the soundtrack kicks in to accompany him with a minor stabs and thrusts. Kolchak and Columbo aren't afraid to confront things. They aren't afraid to ask questions. To look dumb. To put themselves out there and fail. And then there's the guy who is sitting in his basement playing keyboard all day. Knowing it's all just one big meat market. Kolchak and Columbo aren't really solving any problems. Other than murders. Those already happened. At the end of a Columbo episode. Somebody gets caught. At the end of the Kolchak episode, nobody really believes him. But it was a good read. At the end of these blog entries, I'm just letting you know I'm still me. Neither a television character, a good actor, or a person with a resume than anyone is interested in. I'm getting pretty good at playing keyboard with Herbie Hancock though. Also pretty good at realizing there's nothing left for me to do but wait. <3 Tim
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I was rambling about this the other day, but I feel like I'm ready to expound upon it a little more, so... AU where Shinjiro Aragaki, post P3P femc route, ends up on the Investigation Team in Inaba two years later.
Obviously he couldn't go back to school right away after the events of the game, given that he'd just come out of a months-long coma and had been wasting away from the suppressants for years before that. So he had to take a year off for health reasons. But when the time came for him to actually have his third year of high school, he found that he couldn't go back to Gekkoukan. It was just... too painful. His only memories of that school now are either bittersweet at best or actively painful. And the rest of SEES had just graduated, save Ken of course, so it wasn't like he had any friends he wanted to stay for.
Mitsuru would want him to apply to a ton of prestigious, highly-ranked schools, of course, but don't get it twisted -- he agreed to finish high school, not become some model student out of nowhere. Sure, he's a smart guy, and he actually doesn't mind studying, but, even with his conscience cleared of the events of October 4th, he's still a badmouthed delinquent who hates authority and cuts class. Most prestigious schools aren't owned by a close friend of his, and therefore take issue with admitting someone whose attendance record and rap sheet are as bad as Shinjiro's. And it's not like he wants to put up with those high expectations and strict rules, anyway.
So, to appease Mitsuru, he applies to a decent enough school, one with pretty high average test scores, but he mainly makes his decision based on his own wants and needs. He wants a school that's relatively lenient with delinquents, but without a large delinquent population -- he doesn't have the time to be surrounded by punk kids, even if he himself is still a punk kid at heart -- and, most importantly, someplace calm. Someplace small and out in the middle of nowhere, so that he can get some damn peace and quiet.
It doesn't get much quieter than Inaba.
Of course, because God hates him, there's a murder in town, like, two days after he gets there. One minute, everyone in Yasogami is whispering non-stop about how one of the transfers this year is a third year delinquent-looking guy who's visibly pushing 20. The next minute, they're all being sent home, and then a dead body is found.
Initially, Shinjiro doesn't suspect any Shadow- or Persona-related weirdness is afoot, but then he hears all the buzz around school that something called the "Midnight Channel" was showing the victim's face in the days leading up to her death, and he has had enough horrid supernatural experiences at midnight to be suspicious. So he tests it out for himself, sees Saki Konishi on the screen, and the next day, she turns up dead the same way Yamano did.
So... great. Amazing. Perfect. Obviously something is going on, and Shinjiro has no idea what it is or what to do about it. At least back in Iwatodai, he knew that someone else was on top of the Shadow shenanigans, so he didn't have to worry, and he had a direct line to the Dark Hour experts if he ever needed to step in. Now, as far as he knows, there's no one around but him to handle this. Sure, he could probably call Mitsuru and have her send the newly-formed Shadow Operatives to handle it, but... well, he's not entirely sure that it's actually Shadow-related, and, even if it is, it's not like he has any other information that could help them solve it, so they would be wasting their time. And... okay, to be honest, things are still a little tense between him and the others right now, and his pride can't handle having to ask for help less than a week after moving away. Especially since Akihiko and Mitsuru in particular had both been hesitant to let him out of their sight.
So... for now, he's on his own. He'll look into this himself, at least until he gets a bit more information.
First things first: the next time he watches the Midnight Channel, he looks carefully and tries to find out who it's depicting. He knows barely anything about the town, so he isn't able to figure it out just from noticing it's a girl in a kimono, but he spends the next day looking around for a place where people might wear kimonos as daily attire, and the news pieces on the Amagi Inn put Yukiko on his shortlist.
Before he can do anything but hypothesize, though, she goes missing. Not yet knowing how the TV world works (or even of its existence), and hypothesizing that he might have until midnight to find and save her, he goes into crisis mode and starts frantically searching. Luckily, while he never would have found her on his own, in the midst of his search, he runs into something that he does know how to handle.
Namely, when he's asking around about Amagi, he hears a lot of people mention her friends, and said friends are acting suspicious as hell. Butting into the police investigation. Getting caught with weapons in the Junes food court. Skulking around outside Daidara Metalworks after school. Gathering around and muttering to one another in a cluster in the lunchroom.
This isn't Shinjiro's first rodeo. He knows the signs. Those kids are Persona users, and clearly they know what's going on more than he does.
But obviously he can't just leave it alone at this point. If those idiot kids bite off more than they can chew and get themselves killed, that'll be on his shoulders. So he corners them outside Junes, confronts them, reveals to him that he knows something supernatural is going on and that he can tell they have Personas, and manages to convince them to bring him into the fold.
They escort him into the TV world -- I think he probably wouldn't be able to enter by himself at first, but once he was in the first time, he would be able to enter freely. He doesn't manifest a Shadow due to already having his Persona, which makes them a bit less wary of him, since it lends validity to his story. He also summons Castor with an Evoker at first, but it freaks them out so much that he begrudgingly learns how to crush the tarot card instead, just so that these damn kids will stop looking at him like that.
With his help, they manage to rescue Yukiko in record time, but they're still a little leery of Shinjiro and his supposed old friends. Given that they kept the police completely in the dark as well, I think it's unlikely they would trust him to bring in an extremely shady group of unknown "Shadow Operatives", and... well, like I said, Shinjiro's pride doesn't want him to contact Mitsuru, either, so he doesn't fight them too hard about it. At this point, it seems like they'll be in good shape to safely rescue everyone who gets tossed in, so it's not like Mitsuru being there would necessarily help, anyway. Or he's able to convince himself of that, at least.
From there, the plot would proceed more or less unchanged. Maybe they manage to save everyone a little faster than they would've without Shinjiro's help; maybe they're able to resolve some conflicts amongst themselves that would've lasted a little longer if Shinjiro wasn't there to give them a smack upside the head and tell them to get over themselves; maybe a few other arguments run even longer than they would have because they strike Shinjiro in a sore spot. But, overall, they save everyone who gets thrown in and they collect clues as to the identity of the culprit at a similar rate to canon.
Eventually, the IT would warm up to Shinji and he would warm up to them. Like I said, the plot would be mostly unchanged up until around Naoto joined, at which point they would finally contact the Shadow Operatives for help.
Of course, they immediately come running to help, and Shinjiro isn't going to admit it, but he feels horribly guilty for having not contacted them earlier. Even though it was technically the Investigation Team who refused to let him, he still went along with it because of his pride, and now he feels that Morooka's death and the suffering that the rest of the IT went through are all on him, even if the Shadow Operatives couldn't have logically prevented all of that.
He starts withdrawing from the team somewhat, guilty and uncertain, until, at the worst possible moment, he suddenly finds that he can't summon Castor anymore. Next thing he knows, another dungeon is forming in the TV world and his Shadow drags him inside, forcing both the Investigation Team and the Shadow Operatives to rescue him.
I keep going back and forth on what his Shadow would be, but I keep going back to the idea of Shadow Shinjiro is literally hunting Shinji down like an animal, just like Castor used to turn on him -- because it's a manifestation of Shinjiro's self-hatred and inability to forgive himself for the death of Ken's mother.
Only after accepting his own Shadow does Castor evolve, and Shinjiro no longer has to take suppressants to stop it from rebelling. It was his own self-hatred and rejection of himself -- rejection of Castor -- that was making it act out. Finally, he's forced to face himself and accept himself rather than running from the guilt that's haunted him since October 4th.
And like. the ending of the game would not really change, either. But just. Shinji gets closure and self-acceptance. The Investigation Team gets someone a little older and more experienced to look after them. Kanji gets a good role model, even if Shinji won't admit that he is one. Yu gets someone who isn't afraid to question his decisions but is still willing to back him when they agree.
Just... soft self-indulgent fluffy fanfic where Shinjiro joins the Investigation Team and gets to experience the normal teenage years that he never got (even if there's also more Persona nonsense and a murderer thrown in there).
Before I end this post, here are the basic character dynamics I'm envisioning:
Souji/Yu: Actively trying to befriend Shinjiro from the beginning, but Shinjiro resists and avoids him because he sees too much of FeMC in him and it brings up bad memories. Yu tries to give him space at first, but ultimately is persistent and manages to make Shinjiro open up a little. Their relationship has a lot of mutual respect, but it takes a long time for them to progress past their uneasy alliance. Once they do, though, they're pretty tight.
Yosuke: Doesn't get along with Shinjiro at first, being much more wary of him than the others. Even when he decides that they're definitely on the same side, he's still kind of scared of him. Once Shinjiro proves himself, they get along better, often feeling like the only sane men in the group and bonding based on their shared exasperation. Shinjiro does get on his case a lot, though, and tends to treat him like a kid.
Chie: Looks up to him for his fighting ability and experience, but they also clash a lot because he snarks at her and calls her an idiot constantly. He can't help it. She's too much like a young Aki for him to treat her as anything but an annoying little sibling.
Yukiko: Thinks he's hilarious, much to his chagrin. They have a pretty average and respectful relationship most of the time, and half the time they end up feeling like the only sane men among the group. He also refuses to let her cook, even in the name of giving her "lessons", which annoys her, but whenever he bars her from the kitchen it usually means he'll take over, so she's willing to look past it.
Teddie: Flip-flops rapidly between being genuinely scared of Shinjiro and hanging off his arm. Shinjiro tolerates both of these behaviors because he thinks of Teddie as a young kid, and therefore is extremely protective of Teddie. This persists even when Teddie grows his body and looks/acts more like a teenager. In Shinjiro's head, he's just a very tall, very annoying toddler.
Kanji: Thinks he's the coolest guy ever. Shinjiro gets flustered by hates this lowkey idol worship and tries to dissuade it by being extra short with Kanji. Not only does this not help, but he can't even keep up the act half the time because he actually really likes Kanji and is way too fond of him to stay gruff. It doesn't help that, every time Kanji's "girlish" hobbies come up, Shinjiro feels the need to come to his defense as a fellow manly man who likes to cook and sew.
Rise: Thinks he's kind of unremarkable and a little intimidating. She's one of the few people in the group who actually has the guts to tease him to his face, though. She does not fear God. Luckily, being a non-combatant renders her completely safe from retaliation, so he mostly just glares and talks big whenever she pisses him off.
Naoto: Extremely appreciative of Shinjiro for being the Only Sane Man (Yosuke gets booted out of the position for being kind of a dumbass at times). Also annoyed because Shinjiro has a tendency to treat them all like kids, which bugs Naoto more than the others. They both appreciate one another's company and general maturity/intelligence, although Shinjiro doesn't like when Naoto tries to drag him into deductions or anything.
Nanako: Very scared of him and he doesn't know what to do about it. He tries not to show it, but it really gets to him. When she eventually warms up to him, he's so happy about it that he has to flee the house immediately before any of the IT catch on.
Dojima: Leery of him. Doesn't want Yu spending time with him at first, and only relents because he begrudgingly admits that it's not his place to decide who Yu befriends. Even then, Yu is constantly subject to prying questions about his group of shady-ass friends (known-delinquent Kanji and sword-in-food-court Yosuke don't help with this either, but nearly-twenty-and-still-hasn't-graduated-because-of-a-fucking-gunshot-wound Shinjiro takes the cake). Dojima eventually comes to accept that Shinjiro isn't a bad guy, but they never progress past icy stares and terse nods.
Marie: They get along okay but don't really like each other. They both think the other is weird as hell.
#Persona 3#P3#Persona 3 spoilers#MAJOR SPOILERS FR#Persona 4#P4#spoilers for that game too ig#IT!Shinjiro AU#Shinjiro Aragaki#Yu Narukami#Souji Seta#Kanji Tatsumi#Yosuka Hanamura#Chie Satonaka#Yukiko Amagi#Rise Kujikawa#Naoto Shirogane#Rage Writes#might write this fic eventually but i just had to get this out there
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( another gif by @unearthlydust from this beautiful set ! )
✪ — VACANT MIRRORS ; B.B. | 3/?
summary: you find out about bucky’s past, he finds out about yours.
pairing: bucky barnes / f!reader
tags: set before & during tfatws, friends to lovers, therapy positive, trauma healing techniques, ptsd mentions, the normalization of anxiety disorders, and a good ol’ slow burn
word count: 6.4k, va va voom
a/n: oh look out here comes the plot, charactization, and growth between to pals who are maybe starting to feel a little something begin to take shape. but ignore that, there’s danger afoot. no spoilers for tfatws here!
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“You know I have to ask these questions. It’s part of the check-in.”
“Yeah,” you fire back, flat enough to warrant Dr. Hart’s scowl to grow. You can’t see it over the phone, but you know the way her words whip around you means she’s upset, “I know.”
“If you’re not following the action plan set out by the judge,” she begins, leaning forward as her tone drops into a scalding hot sort of seriousness on the other end, “You will go to prison. You know this. So, do you want to spend ten years of your life behind bars? Are you trying to get yourself locked up? Come on.”
You can’t look up from your computer’s screen. Or maybe you can, but right now, there’s a dangerous mixture of anger and guilt and frustration boiling under your skin.
“I’m trying.”
“Trying isn’t good enough for the GRC,” Dr. Hart snaps, “You know this. They’re giving you a chance — they know you’re talented. You have the ability here to go straight, to earn a living, to finally make up for those years of blackhat work.”
“Everything I did,” you fire back, ripping your eyes up to meet Dr. Hart’s, “Was for others. I didn’t get a fucking penny.”
“You’re not Robin Hood,” she shakes her head as her tone softens, “We all make mistakes. But, everything has a consequence. You know this. And this conversation isn’t even considering the other charges.”
“You know the extortion case would never hold up in court.”
Dr. Hart sighs raggedly. “And I don’t intend on ever seeing it play out in court, because you’re going to follow the conditions of your pardon.”
“The GRC is a bunch of fascists—”
“Enough,” she snaps, “If you want to go and appeal your case with the judge, be my guest, but I can almost guarantee you’ll be perp-walked out of that Federal courtroom in cuffs.”
She’s right.
Dr. Hart is right.
Your knee is bouncing, up and down and up and down. You’re wound up around yourself, arms crossed tight, brows knotted. With a shaky exhale, you just nod. You breathe, and you remind yourself that she’s right. She’s right, she’s right, she’s right. It’s not worth it. Dipping yourself back into that world, the layer of the web beneath the surface, isn’t worth it.
The GRC is your way out.
Just be a good little girl and do as you're told.
“So, I’m going to ask you again,” Dr. Hart begins, pen clicking alive on the other end of the phone call, “...Have you engaged in any illegal activities online in the last seven days?”
◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
Inessa Sidrova’s photo stares up at him from its place on the speckled marble counter, stacked neatly next to his notebook where her name is scrawled in chicken scratch — between two other names: Zemo and Henrikson.
His laptop, technically on loan from the FBI, sits beside both.
(When Barnes had agreed in that closed doors meeting to the conditions of his pardon, a certain FBI agent by the name of Jimmy Woo had been rather insistent that Barnes needed a personal computer in order to carry out his portion of the conditions insofar as tracking down the remaining HYDRA pawns in the States. Woo had also insisted, to the agreement of Dr. Raynor, that a personal computer would help better acclimate Barnes to the new world he’d been dropped into.
Woo was even nice enough to take an hour of his own time to show Bucky enough to get started — but was whisked away for some investigation out in New Jersey.)
Bucky rubs the cold vibranium of his left palm into his eye, then exhales long and slow.
He’s done all he can. And still, no leads on the woman.
Rounding the kitchen island, he digs his cell from his pocket. He goes back to staring at that text — the one he’d laughed out loud at the moment it lit up his phone — and he can feel that ol’ bite of anxiousness creep into his arms. His fingertips tingle.
On the television, a laugh track plays over a clip of The Three Stooges. Blue eyes flick upward, and he partially wishes a ladder would put him out of his own self-induced misery.
Outside, the antics of a Saturday night in Brooklyn roll on.
In the last few days he’s parsed through his thoughts enough to realize it’s not telling you that scares him — no, it’s telling you the truth. The whole truth. All of it. After all, the good comes with a lot of bad; the sort of bad you chain in a chest and sink in the ocean. And Bucky finds that, even still, the good is questionable at best. The good is… small. Microscopic. Completely and totally tainted by the fuckin’ decades of brainwashed, war dog bullshit.
He groans and drops his head back against the wall.
He tries, for the next twenty minutes, to formulate some sort of reply to your text message. But, half the battle is figuring out what to say, and the other half is actually typing it out. This whole flip phone purchase was really starting to sting like regret — and as much as Bucky loved technology back before the war, and all the magical possibilities it held, he can’t help but feel like an ornery old man now.
It’s the change. Steve was right. Too much change.
He can’t find the space button and he can’t figure out how to delete the random 3 he’d accidentally punched in — so, with a grumpy huff of disapproval, Bucky simply dials your number.
You pick up on the third ring.
“Don’t you know it’s Saturday?” your voice is a welcomed sound, “The History Channel is running a bunch of old war documentaries you might enjoy, grandpa.”
Bucky snorts, fiddling with the hem of his hoodie. “What makes you think I’d wanna watch that shit?”
“Everyone knows that old men like two things,” your voice is light, half-distracted from the sounds of it, “World War Two, or grilling. And honestly, you don’t strike me as the grilling type.”
“I like a good burger.”
“Yeah?” you snort, and Bucky can hear you shift your phone from one ear to the other, “Is that why you called? To hint at being hungry?”
“No,” he exhales, looking out the window, “No, I was trying to reply to your text but I can’t find the fuckin’ space button. Calling is easier.”
“Oh my god—”
“Shut up,” he barks with a laugh, sitting up, “Don’t even start — are you hungry?”
“Almost always, why?”
“Got any plans tonight?”
“... You do know who you’re asking, right?”
Bucky grins, a little boyish and a little tired. “Good point. Loser.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re the one calling me to hangout,” you snort, leaning to prop your feet up on your desk and lean back. Your chair wheels backwards, far enough for you to get a good look down the street. It’s a nice night, cool enough, and it seems like the whole borough is awake, “But, I’m only hanging out if you tell me what the fuck is up with court mandated therapy. I can’t wait another three days.”
Your anxiety has been pricked the last few days over it.
“... Do I get to pick the place?”
You roll your eyes. “Fine.”
“Great,” he exhales tightly, “I hope you’re in the mood for sushi.”
◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
Izzy’s is busy, but there’s privacy in the bustle.
Bucky had buzzed your apartment’s ringer and you’d flown down the stairs, looking… alive. The sort of alive that was new — like a fresh bud beginning to bloom in spring. It had made him grin, and he’d watched you push a tress of hair behind your ear as you decided it was warm enough for no jacket tonight. The light of the crosswalk sign lit you up like a star.
He was sweating.
Dr. Raynor was right — that was it, of course it was — that it was getting too warm for his usual outfit. So, he’d settled on the next best thing: a sweatshirt that was big enough and black enough that he could bury himself in it. His hands are tucked neatly into the pockets.
No gloves tonight.
He feels naked.
He shoulders the door and holds it open with the toe of his boot as you duck towards the back of the restaurant. There’s a booth in the back by a large bamboo plant — you weave through the place with a new found confidence. There’s anxiousness in your shoulders but it melts when you look back at Bucky. Like a watchful guard dog, he nods.
You settle into the booth, toss your jacket in the corner, and smirk.
“I get out sometimes,” Bucky remarks before you can even say anything. He shifts in the booth and reaches up to scratch his cheek with his right hand, “Not often, but I do.”
“I didn’t say anything...”
“You were going to,” he nearly smirks back, his brows raised as he adjusts the chopsticks on the table, “I know that look.”
You snort, nudging his boot under the table. That works a huffed little laugh out the man across from you. Almost immediately you can sense anxiousness rolling off him — it’s the tightness in his mouth that gives him away, the way he’s fussing with the soy sauce dish and trying to get it to line up perfectly with the marbling on the table. Worry flashes in your eyes.
“Bucky.”
He raises his head.
“You alright?” you ask quietly.
“You have to promise not to flip out.”
Your brows knot tightly — but before you can even question what the fuck he means, he’s casually dropping his other hand onto the table.
And you almost don’t notice at first. Your brain fills the gaps in, figuring it’s his glove. But, then you blink and his hand catches the light and you realize it’s not leather. It’s glittering obsidian, garnished with gold, and it’s moving. Flexing. Seams bending and warping and there’s a gentle hum coming from the appendages and you squint because he’s tapping his fingers on the table and there’s a metallic tik-tik-tik that meets your ears.
Then, your eyes jump to his face.
He looks pained.
You’re confused.
And then you’re not.
“You’re —”
You slap a hand over your own mouth. You have to promise not to flip out. Your eyes are eighty miles wide and your jaw is falling open and you’re leaning forward, whispering in a rushed tone because what the fuck.
“You’re that Bucky?!”
Oh, you feel stupid.
The hostess appears, suddenly. You snap backwards in the booth, Bucky tucks his hand away, and you both muster forced smiles to the waitress. She’s young. Pretty. Her name-tag says Sarah.
She asks about drinks.
Bucky gets a beer.
Slowly, you knock your knuckles against the table and drop your head into your hand. The look on your face is exhausted. “Do you guys have Mai Tais?”
The answer is yes. And you’re glad. Because you’re going to fucking need it.
The two of you are quiet until the drinks come — avoiding one anothers gazes for completely different reasons. Bucky is sheepish, a bit mortified, like he always is when people recognize him. It’s why he shaved his fuckin’ head. It worked well enough but… the arm was usually a dead giveaway.
Meanwhile, you’re wondering if you could shave your own head and disappear. Because there’s no easy way to explain the weird elation swirling in your chest right now.
Bucky’s first to speak. His beer is in his good hand. He inhales quickly, eyes darting to you as he leans forward and whispers incredulously. He speaks quickly and his words are pointed with an edge of curiosity.
“...What do you mean ‘that Bucky’?”
“Y’know, I knew there was a reason you acted like you needed a senior citizen discount. And you know exactly what I mean,” you rush out all while waving your Mai Tai and jabbing the side with the umbrella towards him, “Listen, this is a lot to take in, Mr. Avenger.”
“I am not an Avenger—”
“You helped reverse the Snap. You’re the Winter Soldier. That makes you an Avenger—”
Bucky’s shaking his head, eye screwed shut tightly because the sudden equation to his past self being considered a hero is like being socked in the mouth. He stutters over his words and shakes his head more vigorously, like he’s trying not to hear what you’re saying.
“I am not the Winter Soldier. Not anymore. And it’s not like I’m not on the fuckin’ roster, doll—”
You hold a finger up, stopping him there, and take a long sip of your sunset colored drink. You swallow. You exhale. Bucky swigs his beer.
“One, don’t call me doll,” you say curtly, then raise a second finger. You lean in and squint, “Two… Christ, the haircut really makes a big difference, doesn’t it?”
“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” he sighs raggedly, dismissing your scrutiny.
You puff your cheeks out and exhale. Leaning back in the booth, you try not to feel so fucking insane.
“...I can never have you over now.”
Bucky’s brows narrow quickly and his eyes snap to yours. “What?”
“I can’t have you over,” you explain slower with your eyes rooted to the soy sauce in the corner, “Because I don’t think I could ever handle you seeing my signed and framed Captain America poster from his USO tour in 1943.”
Bucky’s face is deadpan. “You’re kidding.”
“I really wish I was,” you gripe, “It’s an original.”
“...You’re a Cap girl,” he says suddenly, leaning back with this look in his eye. It’s less of a question. You can’t pin it down. It looks like he's damn near traumatized.
Bucky thinks — honestly — that this is the cherry on top. Every girl back then was a Cap girl, too. It figures, now, in this new century where he’s making new friends that… as per usual, Steve gets the cake. That fuckin’ pint sized bastard.
He’ll have to tell him about this.
You yank your eyes up to Bucky’s face. His mortification is shifting to surprise to amusement. You’re fast to sit up, mouth opening to fire a retort — but Bucky’s suddenly really enjoying the look of pure horror on your face at the insinuation. He’s smirking. Plain as day. He swigs his beer.
“No, no—” you raise a finger, “No, stop it. Don’t make it fuckin’ weird, Bucky, it’s not like I have his name tattoo’d on my ass. And I knew a girl in college who did.”
His brows rise sharply and you’re finding you’re regretting everything that’s coming out of your mouth.
“Stop looking at me like that,” you guffaw, gesturing for him to show you his hand again, “I wanna see.”
Bucky sighs and plucks his hand from his hoodie pocket.
With a sort of tenderness Bucky wasn’t prepared to handle, you take his metallic hand into your own. There’s an immediate twinge — one that’s procured by flashes of violence from years of being a walking weapon. He breathes, and he reminds himself that this arm is not the same that tethered him to HYDRA all those years ago.
This arm is his, it is not him.
The sensation is different. He isn’t used to anyone touching him like this; he’s used to the feeling of flesh on the other end of a punch, or a throat caught in his palm. Not the gentle pass of your fingers, delicate and purposeful, over his knuckles.
You turn over his hand, eyes alight with curiosity — and Bucky, desperate to stamp out the hotness growing in his gut, moves quickly to flick your nose.
“Ow—”
“Don’t stare,” he says coyly, “It’s rude.”
The waitress is back. His hand is tucked away, and you wrestle the stupid expression off your face long enough to order a plate of assorted maki rolls and some fried tofu. Bucky orders what seems like his usual — shrimp tempura and spicy tuna rolls.
The waitress, Sarah, disappears with a smile.
You’re grinning.
“So… Does this make me the sidekick?” you whisper playfully.
“Shut up,” Bucky laughs, his lips almost darting into a smile.
You cock your head, pushing your chopsticks across the table with a horribly coy look on your face. It’s comical. “...I think this makes me the sidekick.”
“It — stop it — it does not make you the sidekick,” Bucky says slowly as he sips his beer and pins you in the booth across from him, “I’m not a hero. You’d have better luck asking Cap on that one.”
You grow silent. There’s a question hanging on your tongue. You’re wrestling with yourself — Bucky can see that much. He frowns.
“Spit it out, Goose.”
You blink. “Was that a Top Gun reference?”
“You wanted to be the sidekick.”
You wave it off, blinking into your Mai Tai. Your voice is quiet. Even as you speak, there’s a hesitancy akin to walking on eggshells. “What happened to Cap? Is he… alive? He’s gone off the grid. It’s, like, this massive conspiracy theory online.”
“He’s upstate.”
You blink.
“That’s ominous.”
Bucky shrugs. “Someday I’ll take you. It’s… nice.”
You go quiet. You freeze, drink halfway to your mouth. Bucky can’t help but smirk at that. His laugh is more of a scoff than anything.
“Relax, Miss America.”
“Shut up — do you mean that?”
“What, that I think you’re in love with Captain America?”
“No, you bastard, that you’ll take me. To meet him.”
Bucky’s words are easy. They roll off his tongue without a second thought. He feels… okay. Like this part is okay. Not as bad as he thought it could be. His anxiousness isn’t as heavy now. He feels like he isn’t losing you. But then again, he hasn’t gotten to the bad part yet.
“He’s my best friend,” Bucky explains plainly, “And so are you.”
The admission is warm. As easy as breathing. Two months in the making.
“Your only friend,” you say quietly, offering the joke as a cover for the softening tone that dances over your words. It’s affection, you realize, as you mimic his shrug, “But, go on.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” Bucky chirps, “But, yea, I mean it. He’d like you.”
You raise your chin, wiggling a bit in the booth. It’s pride — and as much as Bucky likes the look of it, he can’t handle the ridiculousness that comes along with it. But, it’s sort of comforting. He knows this playfulness, this easiness, it’s all because he’s him. You trust him. In.a way, it strikes Bucky with guilt. There are wall of his still built up high. Maybe they’re slowly coming down, but… he’s like a stray dog, slow to trust.
“Safe to say,” you breathe, “I have a few questions.”
“I figured as much.”
You sip your drink and swallow. You raise a hand. “But — I wanna know the boundaries. I don’t want to… I don’t want to pry about shit I have no business knowing, alright? It’s your life and even if we are friends, I don’t need to know everything.”
The relief is almost immediate. He thumbs the label of his beer.
“Ask anything. But I can’t promise I’ll be able to give you the answers.”
“And I’ll leave it at that,” you say sternly, propping your elbow up on the table and offering your pinky finger, “Until you want to talk about it. Promise.”
He crooks his pinky in yours, squeezing gently. You smile.
Sarah comes back with the food, and then Bucky offers his usual half-exhausted, half-amused smirk.
“You get three questions now. Then, we shut up and eat.”
You fold your hands neatly over themselves, eyeing your food as you try your best to sort out what questions come up with the most urgency. There’s… a lot. I mean, everyone knew about the Avengers — and everyone had their opinions. The Sokovia Accords, Lagos, the Blip… and SHIELD. Years of bullshit culminating around those who were considered the heroes. The kickback usually ended up on everyday citizens like you. After the initial amazement, the reality of it all set in.
But, to Bucky’s point, he wasn’t really an Avenger.
Nowadays, there really wasn’t a team at all. No up-state compound, no leader, no Stark and no Rogers.
You’re sure the GRC will try — that the military will try. Morale and hope and blah, blah, blah.
You narrow your eyes. “How old are you?”
It’s quick. “One hundred and six.”
“How’d they keep you alive that long?”
There’s a wince that flashes across his face like he’s been stabbed with a white hot poker in the ribs. You see a twitch of irritation bubble across his lips. Not with you. No, it’s that this question is still hard for him to answer. Bucky exhales sharply.
“Next question.”
You feel a pang of guilt flare in your chest. You move along.
“Who kept you alive that long?”
“The Russians. HYDRA, if you wanna get specific.”
You exhale and settle on the fact you now have more questions than answers. But, you nod and snatch up your chopsticks. Enough of the twenty questions game.
In all honesty, it’s not like Bucky’s existence was common knowledge. The Winter Soldier was known mostly, sure, to those who had floated in the same circles as him when he was nothing but a rabid cur on a choke chain. He can’t help but be a bit thankful for the minor erasure of his new self — sure, in the eyes of the U.S. government he was a high-level threat to be reintegrated as soon as possible and surveyed at all times. But, to the average New Yorker, he was just another person. Everyone was so used to seeing the heroes in their costumes with their bigger than life personas and…
Bucky was just Bucky.
Even he didn’t really know who that was. He was starting to.
His pardon had come with some flak from some of the more political news outlets but… somehow, the details of the Winter Soldier’s exact crimes were being kept silent. Probably to avoid panic. And, even then, the connection between the newly alive James Buchanan Barnes and The Winter Soldier hadn’t been made yet in the public eye. He was glad.
The haircut definitely helped.
It’s like he was a walking classified redaction.
Bucky has a sushi roll in his mouth when he finally speaks. “For such a Captain American fan, I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me.”
“Oh, you’re really not gonna let that go, huh?” you say as you chew, covering your mouth. You swallow and waggle your chopsticks at him, “Listen, it’s been a while since I’ve… y’know, had my Avengers phase. That was years ago. It was at its peak when I worked for SHIELD. And besides, you’re kinda new to the whole superhero scene.”
Bucky frowns. “You worked for SHIELD...?”
“For a year,” you say tightly, “Back before the collapse.”
“Only a year?”
“It was for my graduate program,” you wave it off, “I won out on the most competitive internship NYU had to offer. I was working within their cybersecurity division. I will say I spent more time trying to sort of email phishing scams than anything else, though. I’m sure they saw my record and wanted to keep me away from the juicy stuff.”
Bucky squints.
You offer a sheepish shrug.
“I got into trouble when I was younger,” you sip your drink and sigh, “I always liked computers. I used to spend all my time on forum sites just… reading and talking to people and figuring out how these sites actually worked, so learning how to write my own code was just the next step. When I was fifteen, I learned how to tap phones. At sixteen, I was hijacking my neighbor’s internet conenctions and remotely controlling his laptop.”
“Sounds like a good time.”
“Yea, well, he was a sitting Senator who was having an affair with the nanny,” you mutter, “And I was stupid enough to try and blackmail him for cash. I wish I could say I learned my lesson.”
Bucky exhales long and hard at that, like he knows where that snap of misguided judgement goes. It’s not like he’s passing judgement onto you, but… like he knows the feeling. And you manage to not feel so small, then — telling him this is easy. It’s not your favorite part of your life by any means, but Bucky is listening. Really listening.
He fiddles with the paper wrapper of the chopsticks.
“So, less a Goose and more a Kevin Poulsen type, huh?”
You snort. “For an old man, I’m surprised you know who that is. But, I wasn’t hacking into the Pentagon at seventeen. I was too busy doing community service.”
“HYDRA had their eyes on him in the 90s,” Bucky mumbles through a bite of spicy tuna, the memory popping into his mind and flying out before he can stop it, “I remember… I thought his username was stupid.”
“Oh, you didn’t like Dark Dante?”
“Like I said,” Bucky chortles, “Stupid.”
“You wouldn’t have liked mine, then,” you smirk lightly, “It’s worse.”
Bucky raises his brows, somehow doubting that entirely. “Really?”
“...I was hackrabb1t for a long time. Y’know, with a ‘one’ for the ‘i’,” you cringe, “People kept thinking I was a furry.”
There’s a pause. Bucky’s face is set in an unreadable emotion. It’s confusion mixed with amusement mixed with… something else. When he speaks, he clears his throat and tilts his head.
“It’s clever. But,” a pause, “What is a furry? I’ve been seeing that word all over PlentyOfFish.”
Your jaw flies open. You raise your hands as your head reels around. Bucky has a look on his face like he knows, he knows he shouldn’t have asked and he definitely shouldn’t have given you enough context to know where he’s seen that phrase before, because now you’re looking at him like he has seventeen heads and they’re all on fire.
“Y’know what, nevermind—”
“—Oh, no, no, there’s way too much to unpack here,” you lean forward, “You’re on PlentyOfFish?”
“ChristianMingle wasn’t really my speed — stop laughing.”
“Shut up — stop it, stop — this is too much,” you say with a high voice, “If you get catfished, I’m not helping you track the person down…”
“—What the hell is a catfish?” he nearly cries, raising both hands in a desperate shrug, “I don’t even know what any of these words mean.”
“Oh, you sweet, naive, innocent, man—”
“No, no, no, no,” he chirps, raising a finger with a deadly look of seriousness on his face, “No, I am not naive or sweet or any of the above. I’ll take ‘cute’, sure, but none a’ those.”
“Is that what the furries call you on PlentyOfFish? Cute?”
He drops his head back against the booth and stares at the ceiling.
“Our friendship was a mistake, rabbit.”
You choke out a laugh. “Shut up, you walking claw machine.”
You’re both laughing now — quieter but sustained and everytime you think you’ve calmed down enough to sip your Mai Tai, you just have to look at the distraught, scruffy man across from you to break into another fit of muffled laughter. Finally, after what feels like forever, you both manage to calm down enough to finish the plates in front of you.
There’s a warmth that’s settled in Bucky’s chest — it’s eaten away at the usual jitter in his legs, the anxious twitch of his fingers. It’s a different emotion. Acceptance, maybe. Comfort. Affection.
Then, while you’re piling the last bit of sushi rice into your mouth when your phone, set on the side of the table, begins to go off. It hums erratically, dancing in a circle, and all you do is stare at the name flashing across the screen. You’re smiling, hugging her. It’s from Jaimie’s wedding — out in some big, wide open orchard with the sun setting behind you. The picture there is old; you were both different people then.
Before… everything.
MOM Morristown, NJ
You scowl and stare.
Bucky blinks.
“You gonna get that?”
Quickly, you snap out of it. You reach and silence the buzzing with two quick taps. Quietly, you offer up a somber sigh.
“I never do.”
Bucky frowns again, this time with a worried look that digs deep into his eyebrows. You ignore it on purpose, pushing your plate away and leaning back in the booth. He knows what you’re doing — you’re avoiding his gaze, and therefore his own questions.
“Rabbit.”
“Oh, is that my new nickname, then?”
“It fits,” he chirps before crossing his arms, strategically hiding his metallic hand, “What’s up?”
You grow quiet — then it spills out.
“I can’t talk to her.”
“Why?”
You chew your lip. You bite your tongue and you hold back on the finer points of your anger — ones dredged up by the still present sting of your check-in with Dr. Hart this afternoon.
Here it comes.
“As a part of my pardon, I was ordered no-contact with my family,” you exhale, controlling the level of your voice, reciting the court papers you’d read over and over and over, “It was deemed that further contact would impact my progress towards reformed behavior and judgment.”
Bucky’s eyes are wide. His jaw is tight.
“What the fuck do you mean ‘pardon’?”
It’s your turn to cross your arms now, to ignore the sting of his look. It’s the kind that screams disappointment more than anything. You hate that you’re getting it from Bucky of all people.
“Like I said, I didn’t learn my lesson when I was a kid,” you shirk, “Last year I was arrested on a number of counts — I’d been evading the FBI, CIA, all of them, for years. I was doing it all for people like me. The ones who got left behind.”
Bucky’s tone is flat. It’s serious. His next sentence is less of a question, more of an order. The cadence is rhythmic and it reminds you of your brother the night he found out about the first time you’d been arrested; you decide, then, that Jaimie and Bucky would have gotten along.
“What did you do?”
“Whatever I could,” you wave your hands, “Identity theft, falsified documents, insurance fraud. Anything. There were people, like me, that in a blink, lost everything. Accidents, deaths, evictions and no one did anything for us. The insurance agencies wouldn’t cover damages related to The Snap. Life insurance policies, social security… It all got snatched up by people at the top while the system collapsed around us. I had to pay for my brother’s funeral out of pocket. And there were hundreds of thousands of people just like me, just trying to get by. And everything failed us.”
Bucky is stuck in silence. It’s like mud, dragging him to the bottom of a pond — the sort that’s dredged with misery. In an instant, his veins are on fire with an anger he hadn’t felt in a while. It manifests itself in the tightening of his jaw. He rubs his face and props his elbows up on the table.
“Why won’t they let you see your family?”
You fiddle with your napkin.
“My brother… His wife was on maternity leave when she disappeared in the Blip,” you mutter, “She came back to no job, a dead husband, and no home. Their apartment complex had been abandoned. She’s trying her best to make ends meet. She lives with my Mom in our old home. Neither of them can find work. They… The court thought that I’d be influenced to do something if I was around them.”
“What, like help?”
“They see me as a criminal,” you manage, “But I’m useful, so they’re keeping me around.”
Silence falls between the two of you once more — and the sad look on your face makes Bucky’s chest tight. He can see anxiety beginning to spill over; you’re wringing the napkin, fiddling with the edges. Suddenly, Bucky realizes you’re feeling exactly how he was an hour or so ago.
Your voice is soft. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you.”
“Looks like we’re two birds of a feather,” he says, knocking the toe of your sneaker with his boot, “Listen, we all do stupid shit. I’ve got a lot worse weighing me down. I get it.”
You look up, sadness glistening in your expression like sun off a lake. It’s harsh. He wants to look away.
He doesn’t.
“... So, that means you’re good with computers?”
◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
That’s how you find yourself in Bucky’s Brooklyn apartment at almost midnight, wandering behind him in the long halls and watching curiously as he digs his key from his pocket and shoulders the door open.
It’s a small apartment. One bed, one bath, a kitchenette and that’s really it.
For its size, it’s hardly lived in.
You suppose it makes sense — Bucky didn’t have a lot of personal belongings, and with the hints he’d dropped about his life before The Blip, you were beginning to understand that he may have never really had that much to begin with.
There’s a blanket on the floor by the television and a single couch pillow. It’s tucked in the corner, behind a small sofa. There’s a chair in the living room, one from an old dining set. At the kitchen counter, there’s a stack of papers and a single laptop. Even though all the kitchen’s wares are older models, the bones of the apartment are good. Bare, but good.
You stop in the doorway to the bedroom and stare at the untouched bed. The sheets are tucked tightly in the corners — there’s something militaristic about it. Across the hall is the bathroom. It’s small. You can see a few amenities scattered across the sink’s top.
Being in here feels something like an open wound.
It was lonely. Quiet. Cold.
“We need to make a trip to HomeGoods,” you mumble as Bucky flicks on the lights, “I get the whole minimalist thing, but sheesh.”
“I don’t have a lot,” he says, kicking off his boots by the door and shrugging off his jacket, “And I don’t need a lot either.”
You watch as his shoulders sag a bit, like he can finally let down his guard just a little in his own space. It’s endearing. You perch yourself up on the kitchen counter as your eyes follow him; he moves to fling open a cabinet and grabs a mug. Then, he hesitates.
“You want tea?” he asks over his shoulder.
“Tea?”
“Dr. Raynor said,” Bucky reaches for a container of tea bags from the top shelf. His henley lifts enough to flash a bit of skin along his lower back and you swear you see a scar, “It would help with my anxiety.”
You swing your legs a little. “Then sure.”
“You can use my Captain America mug,” he chirps, laughing a little to himself, “Seeing as you’re such a big fan…”
“God, I regret even saying anything to you,” you spit as you hop down and lean around him to get a look at the mug, “Did you seriously buy that?”
“It was a gift.”
“Bullshit.”
Bucky snorts as you shake your head and wander backwards, eyeing the rest of his apartment with a bit of astonishment. It’s really nothing impressive — but, you suppose it makes sense. Whatever meager disbursement that the government was willing to give Bucky for his efforts in fixing the Snap was better than nothing.
Your gaze hangs on the blanket in the corner.
He watches you; and he notes the sore sadness that dissolves your posture at the sight of the nest in the corner. A bit of shame colors his cheeks as he heats up the water. When Bucky speaks, it’s slow.
“The bed was too soft. I couldn’t sleep on it,” he shifts from foot to foot and focuses on taking the tea bags out and methodically wrapping the strings around the handles, “Dr. Raynor said that’s a typical thing for soldiers to experience when they come home from war.”
You’re quiet for a while after that, only speaking when he rounds the counter with your tea. He offers it up with a tilt of the head.
“You never got to come home, though, right?”
“No,” comes the short reply as you both watch the lights outside the window, “No, I didn’t. Not until now.”
You nudge his arm with yours. You lean a bit. Bucky leans back.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he manages after a sigh and sip of the tea, “I can’t just feel sorry for myself anymore. I’m trying to fix the wrongs I did — and that’s why I need your help.”
You quirk a brow. He reaches around you and grabs the stack of papers on the counter. With a steady grip, Bucky presents the photo of a woman who looks strikingly familiar. You can’t place her face, but there’s something about her that feels like a slap across the cheek. She’s young here, in a faded photo with tattered edges. Beside her is a man who is laughing. The photo is candid, and they’re both beautiful. They’re both wearing a uniform — but you can’t place the era or location.
You turn to Bucky for answers.
“Back in the 70s, at the height of the Cold War, HYDRA was working in tandem with the Russians to spy on American forces,” he offers easily, staring out the window, “The American HYDRA cell hadn’t yet been planted. This man, Andrei Kuznetzov, was a spy. He was feeding the Americans information on the Russian nuclear program. His wife, the one in the photo, was ordered to kill him. She refused.”
Bucky’s fingers twitch.
His words are soaked through with pain.
“I,” he continues, “killed him.”
You hold your breath. Then you spare him a mournful look.
“Inessa Sidrova went on to help form the same HYDRA cell that ended up taking over SHIELD here in America,” Bucky mumbles, “She’s dangerous. There’s others like her, ones who I helped create, all over the world. But, she’s my top priority. I just haven’t had much luck tracking her down.”
“That’s why you need my help.”
“I’m 106 years old,” Bucky deadpans, “The microfiches at the library were getting a little tedious.”
“But,” you chirp with a sly smirk, “You figured out how to set up a PlentyOfFish account?”
He shoulders you again as you sip your tea and laugh.
“Shoulda never said anything,” Bucky grumbles, “Dr. Raynor thought it was a good idea. Y’know, to get back out in the world.”
“I can promise you,” you say with a stern shake of the head, “The metal arm will get you plenty of chicks and dudes in due time.”
“Good to know,” Bucky replies as his words lilt with a playful sort of questioning that you purposefully ignore. You’re not feeding his ego today. Maybe tomorrow, after you take a crack at figuring out where this woman is.
It’s going to be a long night.
#vacant mirrors#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes imagine#bucky barnes x you#winter soldier imagine#tfatws imagine#bucky barnes#marvel imagine#bucky x reader
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Ok so this is the third time that I'm sending you an ask tonight. (or is it night time in your country?) I'm being annoying right now but whatever. So I've been cackling about those salt fics you wrote because they are just amazing. I have a request, though it is up to you to write it or not. So, can you write a salt fic where someone got an interview with Ladybug (probably Aurore) and then they ask her why they replaced the old heroes like Rena Rouge, Carapace and etc. and LB is just like I don't work with dumb shits or somethin'. Then there is also a new Black Cat (Probably Luka, Felix, or Damian) because Adrien here is an asshole and this fic is saltier than salt water. Then LB also insults Alya's blog and their school. Those foolish mortals get some lawsuits and the rest is up to you. (This request is probably messed up since it's already midnight here and I can't sleep.)
You're never annoying, I just apologize that it took me so long to get to you. I do hope you don't hold it against me, darling.
A one on one interview with Ladybug was basically unheard of if you weren't the Ladyblog or Nadja Chadwick. Ladybug had made it firm that she wasn't a celebrity, she was a hero. She wasn't there for clout, for attention, for fame or fortune. She just wanted to keep Paris safe.
That's was Aurore admired about her. And why she felt queasy as she sat across from the heroine, who had given her of all people an interview. But she got ahold of herself, taking deep breaths as the cameraman began counting down. And when he hit 'one', she put on her best smile and straightened in her seat.
"Hello Paris! Welcome back to 'Latest Buzz'! I am your lovable host, Aurore Beauréal. Today I am here with a very, very special guest, our very own heroine of Paris; Ladybug!"
Ladybug beamed right at the camera, but gave a shy little wave, giving away the nerves she obviously had.
"Now, Ladybug, I'm so glad you requested to be on the show. You know, I initially thought I had misheard when Estelle told me. Usually you're not big on personal interviews." Aurore gave her full attention to Ladybug, but keeping the bright, friendly smile and perfect posture.
"Well, I tried a few times actually. But when I did, none of them were really great experiences." Ladybug admitted and both girls immediately thought of that disastrous Face-to-Face interview. It left a bitter taste in their mouths. "My issue is that misinformation has been spread around a lot recently. It's made me realize that I need to find more trustworthy sources."
"Ladybug. I vow on my integrity as a host and Estelle's reputation as a journalist that we are people who research facts. We don't ambush our guests, we respect them." She said, placing a hand on her heart. Ladybug saw an honesty in her eyes that she hadn't seen in such a long time. It honestly made her feel.. Respected. "Now, Ladybug.. We both know you have a lot of fans. A lot of admirers. False information can be spread so easily these days, which sources specifically are you telling people to avoid?"
"Well.. With Face-to-Face, I found that I was entirely ambushed in that interview. I wanted to speak about my hero work, but instead Nadja kept trying to needle her way into my personal life. That picture she had shown in largely out of context; when Dark Cupid attacked and Chat Noir was under his spell, it was the only way to get him free."
"Yes, I remember watching that. I'll be honest Ladybug, I felt bad for you." Aurore bit her lip, but smiled a bit when Ladybug nodded. "I mean, Chat Noir wasn't helping either. He seemed to be trying to push this narrative forward that you two are a couple."
"And we're not!" Ladybug burst out before she could stop herself. Everyone in that studio could hear the utter stress and frustration in her voice. "I've begged and begged Chat Noir to stop with the flirting, the 'telling people we're dating', everything! I just wanted him to focus and he couldn't seem to do that!"
"Is that why you replaced him? Because of his slacking off and refusing to take anything seriously?" Aurora sat up an bit straighter, her eyes going wide.
".. Not exactly, no. It was a bunch of issues that eventually piled up and boiled over." Ladybug made some gestures with her hands, trying her hardest to find the words but just letting out a long and pained sigh in the end. "I do enjoy my new partner now. He is more serious, more stable. I know he won't go off and pout if I deny something he wanted. I needed an entirely new team, as a matter of fact."
"Well I am going to say, on behalf of everyone here, that we're glad. We swear on our integrity as journalists that if such rumours were to ever surface again, we will do our proper research." Aurore beamed and many of the staff and crew behind the cameras nodded and gave Ladybug their thumbs up. Honestly, it warmed Ladybug's heart to see such support.
When had been the last time someone had supported her like this? Sure, her parents supported her, but her friends..? Her peers? No, none of them had supported her in a long time.
"Speaking of research, I'd say to stay away from the Ladyblog." It burned to say it but it had to be said. Alya had crossed so many lines it wasn't even forgivable at this point. She had gone too far, had betrayed too many.
"Wait, what?" Aurore nearly jumped out of her seat but quickly composed herself, taking a deep breath. "Pardon me Ladybug, but the Ladyblog has been a vital source of information since the very beginning."
"And I'm not denying that!" Ladybug quickly held up her hands, her eyes desperate now. "But please let me explain. The Ladyblog was amazing in the beginning, but like all things, it started to go astray. It was things like trying so hard to find out my identity. Trying to push that narrative of that whole superhero couple thing.. Ladyblogger Alya Césaire has proven time and time again that she is not trustworthy. I mean, I thought she was my biggest fan. Why does she keep pushing my words aside?"
Many people who watched the interview would agree. If you idolized someone, respected someone, truly looked up to them.. Why would you push aside their words, their wishes to try and push the narrative you're so convinced is true, but isn't there?
"And don't get me started on the whole Lila Rossi craze she seemed to be on now." At Ladybug's mention of Lila Rossi, both Estelle and Aurore had to keep from rolling their eyes. They knew all about the girl.
"You speak as if you are quite frustrated, Ladybug. What an odd reaction to your best friend." Aurore leaned forward a bit in her seat. Everyone else got to the edge of theirs. Ladybug only shook her head, looking utterly defeated.
"That's the thing, she isn't my best friend." It took everything to keep from satin that she hated her, that she had taken away her friends and her life. "The only times she's met Ladybug is when she's been akumatized, which has been around six or seven times at this point. And the other things she's claiming are so outlandish! Saving Jagged Stone's kitten from a airport runway? Clara Nightengale stealing her dance moves? And the Ladyblog just posts it out there, claiming every single story is true. I'm just scared that people are taking this one hundred percent seriously. That's why I had to drop Rena Rouge and Carapace from the team as they believed Lila Rossi over me. They didn't even try to confirm these rumours! And it hurts to think that one day, someone will take Lila's words seriously and get hurt. What if she says it's safe to dip strawberries in bleach? Or tells someone that she found a way to tame some kind of wild animal? Someone would get hurt because they believe her story and try it out for themselves!"
"My goodness, I can definitely see how that is a problem. Misinformation is very easy to spread thanks to the internet, so you being worried is a very relatable thing." Aurore nodded, then tilted her head ever so slightly. "Ladybug, do you know anyone who has taken her word seriously? This is besides the Ladyblog of course."
Ladybug closed her eyes briefly, mentally debating with herself before finally giving in. These things needed to be said.
"Collège François DuPont. Now I wasn't there personally, but I heard about this situation and looked into it. The entire situation was appalling. Apparently a student was found to have cheated, assaulted another student, and commited thievery. But the thing that stuck out is only one person saw her do all of these things; Lila Rossi. No investigation was done, no questioning other students. This student was then expelled immediately. Her teacher and her principal didn't even give her a chance. And from what people have been saying, Miss Rossi's behaviour is actively encouraged in that school. She misses countless days, no, months of school, claiming she's traveling. But when she was supposedly in Achu, doing whatever it was she was claiming with Prince Ali, I was fighting her akuma here in Paris on Heroes Day!"
"I was at school the day that happened. I knew the student that happened to. They're the nicest person in that school! Never a bad thing to say about anyone, always willing to help! I agree with you on how things were handled, it's a level of incompetence that is baffling." Aurore's hands slowly curled into fists as she remembered it all. She slowly shook her head. "The principal, their teacher, their class who backed up Rossi. It must have hurt them so much, made them feel so alone."
"That's why I want people to be more careful with what information they take as fact. It's so important, because stuff like that can lead people to a desperate place. They feel alone, like the entire world is against them. I wouldn't have let the principal and the teacher get away with that gross negligence in their jobs." Ladybug leveled her gaze directly to the camera. "People of Paris, please listen to what I am saying. I am here to be a hero, to protect you from the terror of Hawkmoth and to defeat him. But please, do not be like Principal Damocles, do not be like that teacher and her class at DuPont. Do your research, look up your facts. Do not let a liar lead you to do something dangerous and hurt yourself as well as others. Respect each other, talk and be honest. I swear on my life that I shall do the same. You are the people I swore to protect and I love. I am saying this all to protect you. And I'll hope you'll all forgive me for not protecting you sooner."
...
The interview rocked Paris. Ladybug speaking so openly about her frustrations, about the discrepancies in the Ladyblog and Lila Rossi had many people double checking the sources of everything they learned from that blog.
Alya could barely show her face as she made her way though the school hallways. Her reputation as a journalist had gone down the drain. People had basically started boycotting her blog, harrassing her, or trash talking her on other forums and sites. Even a lot of news outlets picked this up.
What hurt the most from that interview last night was Ladybug's words towards her, both as Rena Rouge and as Alya. Surely the heroine had to be mistaken, she had never beytrayed Ladybug! And that Oblivio incident, it was just to show Chat Noir and Ladybug that they were meant to be together!
Her family was upset with her. No, upset was too tame of a word. They were pissed.
"I can't believe she lied to us.."
"Well what do you expect from someone who keeps harrassing Ladybug?"
Alya flinched when she heard the whispers and rushed into Miss Buster's class. The entire class was there, all seated, all looking utterly miserable. Many of them looked as if they had been crying all night. A lot like she had.
"W-where's Miss Bustier?" Alya asked when she eyed the empty desk. Many of her classmates shot her glares, but didn't say anything about the interview last night. After all, they had no room to talk.
"She and Principal Damocles are with the school board now. We're getting a new teacher." Adrien was the one that spoke up. He looked utterly miserable. So unlike his usual self.
"Lila isn't coming back. She was pulled from school when her mother found out what happened." Alix muttered from her seat, arms crossed and shoulders hunched.
The class went quiet as they all internally contemplated how things had gotten like this. Their eyes focused on the door when it abruptly opened and Marinette came strolling in, carrying a box.
"Good morning everyone!" She said brightly, pretending not to notice the downcast expressions on their faces. She set the box on the teacher's desk before she turned towards them. "Oh? What's wrong everyone?"
".. Did you not watch the interview with Ladybug on 'Latest Buzz'?" Alya stared at Marinette, a bit dumbfounded by her friend's lack of awareness of the situation. She had been expecting Marinette to rush in with support and a fiery vengeance against those who had humiliated her best friend, maybe even a fresh pastry. But instead she was greeted with empty hands and a cheerful hello?
"Oh, well I haven't really had the time to watch much television. I mean, with my transfer papers, needing to plan out my new schedule with all of those new classes. Busy as a bee, that's me!" Marinette just beamed, giving Adrien a playful wink that had his stomach churning.
"Wait, transfering?" It was Rose that spoke up, her large eyes seeming impossibly large now. "Transfer what?"
"To my new school, of course." Marinette giggled and clasped her hands together. "I start on Monday."
"New school?!" Alya was on her feet and rushing towards Marinette. The others quickly followed, crowding around her. "What do you mean new school?! When did you ever say you were going to a new school?"
Marinette blinked, as if stunned, then tilted her head ever so slightly.
"I told you all last week, don't you remember?" Marinette tapped her lower lip, seeming to be wracking her brain before she abruptly snapped her fingers. "Oh! I forgot, you all were deep in conversation with Lila about her upcoming event with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightengale. You know, the one she said she'd be attending with Ladybug, since they're such good friends. Did she ever say how it went?"
All of the students shifted uneasily, suddenly seeming to refuse to meet her face.
Alix murmured something so barely audible, Marinette held a hand to her ear and leaned closer.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Lila was lying to us!" Alix snapped as her cheeks went a flaming red.
"About everything! She never knew Jagged Stone!" Juleka spat out in fury.
"Or Prince Ali!" Rose sniffled.
"And she wasn't friends with Ladybug? They were barely acquaintances!" Alya wailed out as tears welled up in her eyes.
But Marinette hardly reacted the way they were expecting. She just gave them a small smile and nodded.
"Oh, yeah. I know."
Alya sucked in a breath sharply.
"You knew..? But why did you never..?"
"Oh Alya, you silly forgetful thing. I told you the day she returned from her long 'trip', remember? I told you she was lying." Marinette gave Alya a smile that said 'oh you silly thing'. "But you told me that I should really check my sources. And I got tired of trying to bring up any lies, since that was always your response. So I decided to just stop. I mean, since you're such an inspiring, honest journalist you must double and triple check every source you come across and found every story to be true!"
Alya flinched and looked away, feeling the churning feeling in her gut again. No, the Ladyblog had been the only source for the stories. The. Only. One.
"And I'm sure all of you knew what you were doing! I mean, it makes sense; trusting the words of a complete stranger over someone you've known for a while now. Some of you since we were in diapers!" She focused her gaze on Nino and Kim, who had the grace to at least look ashamed.
"Marinette, you really should-" Adrien began, reaching out for the girl, but was cut off by her clapping her hands together.
"But it's alright! I decided that fighting with you all wasn't worth it, so I took Adrien's advice and took the high road! Don't bother exposing Lila, she isn't hurting anyone!" Marinette announced brightly, giving her hands a little wave.
The temperature in the classroom dropped by several degrees.
".. Adrien, she's kidding, right?" Nino glanced over at his friend, his eyes pleading for him to deny it all. But the sight of the blood draining from the model's face and the sweat starting to bead at his forehead told him everything he needed to know. "Dude.."
"How could you?! You knew this entire time and didn't even try to tell me?!" Alya rounded on Adrien, fury in her eyes.
"Now, now, don't get mad at Adrien. I'm sure he knew you all were going to do you research. Besides, it's not like this did anything bad for anyone." Marinette pressed a hand to her cheek, still grinning. "I mean, it's not like you all took her advice without doing any research. You didn't try the things she suggested without actually checking them out to be true, right? No one lost any scholarships or job opportunities. No one's relationships were ruined. No one was hurt."
The nauseous feeling spread to all of the class as the reality of everything caught up with them.
"I'm sure everything will go back to normal, right? I mean, I'm sure that that woman from the education bureau isn't here to fire Damocles and Bustier for their severe neglect in their duties. Expelling me with the most mediocre and shaky proof. Surely that's a school I should feel safe in! That I should be proud to be a part of. But alas, my preparations for my new school are already done, so oh well."
Marinette shrugged and adjusted her purse strap.
"Anyhow, I wish you all luck with the amazing things Lila has helped you to do! I know it must have been worth ignoring me and convincing me I was crazy. With all of the free time I've had, with you guys practically replacing me with Lila in the group, I've had tons of time to spend with my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?!" Alya's eyes went owlishly wide as she gaped at Marinette. "But what about Adrien?!"
"Oh Alya, I fell out of love with Adrien forever ago." Marinette shook her head in an almost patronizing way that had Alya's cheeks burning with embarrassment. They didn't even pay attention to Adrien's noises of surprise. "I mean, you claimed I was jealous of Lila getting close to Adrien, that I should let the jealousy go. And you know what? You were right! So I decided Adrien wasn't worth the stress, the embarrassment.. I mean, I couldn't even talk to him straight. I thought he was the most perfect guy in the world! Goodness, did I learn my lesson!"
She giggled as if she found the entire thing amusing. She then beamed at the class.
"Well, ta-ta! I need to get back home and make sure everything is ready to go. I wish you all the best, I really do!"
They all watched, shellshocked as Marinette breezed out of the classroom like it was nothing. Like she wasn't leaving her friends, her school, her life behind. And they all would wonder exactly how badly they screwed up, if she could walk away do easily, without a care.
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Savage Love Chapter 15: Catching Feelings
Series: Savage Love
Fandom: The Royal Romance
Pairings: Riley x Liam, Riley x Drake
Rating: R
Warnings: Mature themes
Word Count: 3,377
My other stuff: Master List.
Riley
I spent the next half hour chatting with the other suitors. I zeroed in on Hana, Madeleine, Olivia and Penelope because they were either suspects themselves, or related to suspects. I ended up talking to Kiara a lot too, because she was always wherever Penelope was. It was an odd friendship to be honest. Kiara might be pretentious, vain and a little too fond of Drake for my taste, but she was smart and politically savvy. Penelope seemed sweet enough, but she definitely wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box.
“We still have a luncheon, a cocktail party and the derby gala.” Hana sighed.
“What’s the point of the derby gala again?” Penelope had made it no secret that she’d rather be home with her poodles.
“The gala is another chance to impress the prince and advance your position with him, of course.” Madeleine replied.
“Oh, give it a rest, Maddie.” Oliva yawned, “He’s just not that into you.”
Madeleine arched an eyebrow and sniffed disdainfully, “Oh, we’ll see about that.”
“We will.” Olivia smirked.
“The rest of you don’t worry though,” Olivia nudged me subtly in the side as she continued, “Prince Liam will be there too. Who knows? Maybe one of you harpies have a chance with him.”
“Do you think Captain Walker will be there too?” Kiara perked right the fuck up at that idea.
“Probably. He always is, but why? Who cares?” Madeleine asked haughtily.
“Oh, he’s very handsome, right Ki?” Penelope giggled.
Madeleine rolled her eyes. Kiara blushed.
Hana caught my eye, hers sparkling with amusement as she said, “Oh, yes, he’s very handsome!”
“Do you think he’s seeing anyone?” Kiara asked.
“Why do you care?” Madeleine asked, “You’re here for Leo. Not that I mind if you’d rather run off with his scruffy stepbrother, or whatever he is.”
“He’s a member of the royal family by adoption or something, right?” Penelope asked.
“What he isn’t, is a prince.” Madeleine stated firmly, as if that settled something.
“I overheard him telling Liam that he’s seeing someone.” I said with fake sympathy. Why the hell did I do that?
Kiara’s face fell, “Oh. Tres décevant.”
Hana was positively vibrating with mirth. I glanced at Olivia who was giving me an appraising look. Oops. She definitely knew I was lying, but she wasn’t calling me out on it. Yet. I was sure that conversation was coming.
My phone dinged and I looked down with a smirk. It had been exactly one hour. Liam text me first. He was nothing if not punctual.
Drake wasn’t far behind him though.
I was harsher with Drake because he did start it. Not that I could completely blame him. I did mark Liam up pretty good. I knew Drake wasn’t exactly going to be happy when he saw it. But still. If it hadn’t happened while I was actively building a relationship with a suspect, I might have found their bantering funny. They hadn’t crossed a line into actual fighting or bad feelings. But it did happen during the middle of an investigation and that was a problem. I would have to have a talk with each of them. I might have to pull back from both of them. I couldn’t jeopardize the investigation no matter how much I felt pulled to either one of them.
The luncheon with the queen was next. It was at a formal restaurant near the track. I stepped outside onto a patio for a little privacy so I could check in with Jared. I wasn’t the only one looking for privacy to make a call though.
“Mother, I’m telling you that he doesn’t like me like that…… No, yes, Prince Leo is exceedingly nice and charming but……no, he doesn’t……….Yes there are other men here, but I don’t………yes, mother……….I understand………but I’m not ready……You never listen to me! You don’t care what I want! You and father both just-OH!” She broke off when she saw me.
I made a face and shook my head to show her I was sorry for interrupting.
“I have to go, Mother, the luncheon is starting.” Hana ended the call though I could hear the sound of her mother’s voice still talking.
“I’m sooooo sorry!” I told her.
“It’s ok. If someone had to overhear that, I’m glad it was you.” She gave me a rueful smile.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
She sighed as she sat down at one of the tables, “Just the same old shit. Find a man from a good family, settle down, get married, continue the family legacy, blah blah fucking blah.”
I dropped into the chair next to her, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I’m still sorry you have to deal with that.” I said, taking her hand.
“Yeah, well. I’m used to it.”
“Have you considered just telling her you’re a lesbian?”
“What? No! No, no, no, no, no! That would not go over well at all!”
“But you deserve to be happy.”
“I’m pretty sure my happiness is the last thing on their priority list.” She sounded so defeated.
“So, you and your mom aren’t close?” I was half digging for information and half actually curious. Hana was a good person, I liked her. I hoped, for her sake, that her mother wasn’t involved with the Via Imperii.
“Not really. My parents are all about expectations and responsibilities.” She heaved a frustrated sigh.
“You said this was your first time at court, your first time in Cordonia.”
“Yeah.”
“Your mom didn’t bring you here as a child? You said she was from here. Did she never bring you to visit family? I don’t mean to pry; you don’t have to answer that.”
“My mother was an only child, like me. Her parents followed her to Shanghai. She hasn’t visited Cordonia in thirty years. Why?”
“I just wonder what the big push for you to be at court is, if she doesn’t really feel a tie to here. Like it’s not her home anymore, if that makes sense.”
“It makes sense to me. But to my mother, it’s not about caring about Cordonia, it’s just about me finding a suitable match and even living abroad, my grandparents are still Cordonian nobility.”
I gave her hand a squeeze, “Well, I’m sorry and I’m always here to listen if you need a friend.”
“Thanks, Riley.”
“You’re welcome. We should get inside; they’re probably wondering where we are.”
“Right. Did you come out here to make a call though? I could leave and give you some privacy.”
“That would be great, if you don’t mind.”
After Hana left, I checked in with Jared. I also told him that Hana’s mother hadn’t been in Cordonia in thirty years and asked him to dive further into what she’s been doing in those years.
I learned nothing of any value at the luncheon. The next event of the day was the cocktail party in grand dining hall of the palace, followed immediately by the Derby Gala in the grand ballroom . The Cordonian Derby was a weeklong event. The gala was traditionally held the evening of opening day. There would be related social events and parties all week. It was ridiculous is what it was, but it gave me plenty of opportunities to socialize and get closer to my suspects.
I changed into my formal attire for the night then sent a quick text to Drake to verify our plans for later.
Olivia found me about fifteen seconds after I entered the dining hall. “Soooooo….” She drawled.
I arched an eyebrow at her, “What?”
“You told Kiara that Drake is seeing someone.”
“I did say that.” I hedged as I looked around for a waiter. I needed a drink already.
She tilted her head as she studied me, “But he’s not….unless I’m missing something, and I don’t miss much.”
“Huh. Guess I misunderstood.”
“Right. You’re up to something.”
“Like what?”
Her eyes narrowed, “I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out.”
I suppressed a sigh. Great, just what I needed. Olivia fucking Nevrakis up my ass.
“I’m not up to anything, Liv. Drake is my friend and I know he doesn’t like Kiara. I did him a favor, backing her off.”
She lifted an eyebrow at my use of her nickname but didn��t comment on it, “Uh huh.”
I knew if she mentioned the incident to Drake, he’d be far too happy about it and I’d never hear the end of it.
I avoided Drake for the entirety of the cocktail party. Partly because of the Liv/Kiara thing but mostly because being seen with him would mess up my story that I disdained the lower classes. Which was ridiculous since he’d been raised with Leo and Liam. He was largely accepted as a member of the royal family and certainly treated as such by both Leo and Liam, as well as the king and queen. A fact that I’m sure only reinforced the Via Imperii belief that the Rys monarchy needed more control and oversight.
Did people like Neville and Madeleine really imagine there was something special about their DNA that people who weren’t born into money lacked? Of all the groups I’d infiltrated, they were one of the oddest. But in the end, it just came down to amassing more power and money for themselves, so they were no different than the drug cartels or the human trafficking rings. Self-centered, self-serving with no humanity.
I avoided Liam too, focusing on charming and dazzling people like Neville, Rashad and Tariq. I also made a point to talk to the few suitors I hadn’t met yet. Anyone could be a suspect. I would eventually narrow in on Via Imperii members, but until I knew who they were, everyone was a suspect. Even those who weren’t could have information on those who were.
At the gala I was seated next to Cedric Vescovi. His endless chatter about his family’s rightful legacy having been stripped by a conspiracy against his ancestor by an illegitimate pretender to the crown, a commoner who swayed the king’s opinion, put him firmly on my radar. A simple “Oh, please, do tell me more.” Kept him talking incessantly. I made a note to myself that if he was Via Imperii, he would be a treasure trove of information.
When dinner was cleared and the music started, Liam appeared at my side, “I believe you promised me a dance?”
I gave him a dazzling smile, “I did. If you’ll excuse me.” I said to Cedric before letting Liam sweep me into his arms and onto the dance floor.
Everyone was expected to mingle at these events. What you couldn’t do was be seen dancing too much with just one person. But no one would blame me for flirting with Liam, even though I was there as a suitor for Leo. Most ladies from noble houses were raised to do exactly that, cast a wide net. Every young woman there for the social season dreamed of being queen and Leo was the most direct route to that, but he could only choose one. Liam was a good alternative. If anyone suspected anything between the two us, they’d assume I was just hedging my bets.
The social season, from time immemorable, has been about young ladies from noble houses finding suitable husbands. And about wealthy men finding suitable wives. But the power dynamics have always been skewed. The women are pranced around like merchandise for the men to peruse. It’s gross. I myself had eschewed my own debutante season. I had never participated in any of it, which turned out to be a good thing. Had my picture been splashed all over the social pages, even just locally in Monterisso, I would never have been able to have an undercover career.
I would have been a celebrity in Monterisso, a member of the royal family, but in Cordonia I was just another suitor. It was why this case had to be wrapped up before the end of the social season. Because I’d have no reason to stay unless I got engaged to the prince, which I couldn’t do because then I would be news. So even a fake engagement was out of the question.
“Riley, I’d like to apologize again-“
He looked at me with such regret that any lingering anger or annoyance on my part evaporated, “Liam, it’s fine. You really did very little other than react. But as a prince, I know you’ve been trained not to let purposeful provocation get under your skin.”
“You’re right. I’m just not used to having to employ that with my best friend.”
“I know. And that’s my fault. I really shouldn’t be-“
“No! Please don’t finish that sentence, Riley! Drake and I are both grown men who knew what the situation was when we got into it. We’ll do better.”
“You can’t make promises for him.”
“No, but I can promise that I’ll do better. I won’t let him provoke me again, even if he tries. I promise. Please don’t let this come between us.”
I looked up into his pleading eyes and I knew I couldn’t cut him off, that I didn’t even want to. Shit. When had that happened?
Drake
Watching her dance and flirt with other men all night kind of got under my skin and I was pretty sure she was doing it on purpose.
Not that I didn’t deserve it. I knew I’d been as ass earlier with Liam, but damn. I couldn’t help it. Seeing those marks on his neck pushed a button in me that I hadn’t known I had. I mean, I knew they were sleeping together. Or that they’d slept together twice anyway. And I knew when she told me she had plans with him that it was probably going to happen a third time. But seeing the proof of it hit different.
I wasn’t really mad at Liam, though. How could I be? What was he doing differently than I was? I didn’t back off after I found out she was his mystery girl from New York. I mean, I did, but only for about five minutes.
She’d been very clear from the beginning that she wasn’t going to get involved, get serious with anyone. And that hadn’t bothered me, not back then anyway. I hadn’t wanted a relationship any more than she had. Too much work, too much investment and input for very little payback. Sex was easy to come by, for me anyway. Marco had been right in his assessment of my nonexistent dating life: I never took a woman anywhere, I just left with them.
I had never planned on doing the long-term relationship thing, much less marriage, kids, none of that. Mom wanted grandkids, she had Savannah for that. My line of work is dangerous. I just didn’t see the point in having a family to leave behind if I ended up dead. My job could very well require that someday. I didn’t want to shatter a child’s heart with grief. I knew what that was like.
But fuck if this girl didn’t have me reconsidering everything I thought I knew about myself. She had me wondering what a life with her might look like. She had me doing shit I hadn’t done since fucking high school. Planning dates. Spending my free time trying to think up things to do with her, things to say to her, things to impress her. She made me feel things I wasn’t used to feeling.
Not that it mattered. She didn’t want any of that. When it came to relationships, she was basically me but in a woman’s body. An amazing, beautiful, gorgeous body. It wasn’t just her physical attractiveness that drew me to her though. It was also her intelligence and sense of humor, and don’t get me started on the things she does in bed. Jesus.
So no, I was not mad at Liam for pursuing her, not really. I was mad at myself for letting it bother me. I’d never really experienced jealousy before. Not like this. I wanted to walk across the room and rip Neville’s hands off her, and Rashad’s and Cedric’s. Shit. I was in deep, and I knew it. I was out of my element. Picking up women was easy. Getting their attention was easy. Getting them into bed was easy. I wasn’t sure how to go about keeping that attention. I’d never wanted to before.
I wanted her to like me, not just like sleeping with me. But how was I supposed to find out how she felt without scaring her off? Pass her a note in fucking gym class?
Watching her ignore me all night was made all the worse because I didn’t know if she was still mad at me, wasn’t sure if she was going to tell me to fuck off. She’d agreed to go out with me after the gala, but that might not mean anything. She might be waiting until then to tell me she was done with me. I didn’t want her to be done with me. I didn’t want her to stop paying attention to me, I didn’t want her to leave at the end of all of this and just forget about me. I wanted something….more. And I had no idea what to do about any of it.
Liam
I knew she wasn’t as jaded as she wanted everyone to think she was. She had a heart, and it was soft and vulnerable and that’s why she protected it. I could see it so clearly. I saw it that first night in New York.
Yes, she was full of life and fire, she glowed with it. She was magnetic, drawing men to her effortlessly, most of them knocking into her in vain, unable to penetrate her shields. But she was more than that. Everyone could see the physical beauty and that spark of life that was so intoxicating, but not everyone realized how much more was simmering below the surface.
I did. And I wanted it, all of it. Not just her fire, not just her passion, I wanted her depths, her pain, her tenderness. I wanted every piece of her.
She was meant to be here, meant to be with me, I’d known it the day I’d walked into the conference room and found her there with Drake.
Speaking of Drake. I’d never seen him like he was with her. Had he ever even slept with same woman more than two or three times? No, he was completely gone on her and I couldn’t blame him, so was I. If it were any other woman, I would have backed off. I mean, how often does a man who has avoided romance his whole life actually go and fall in love?
But she wasn’t any other woman, and I couldn’t back off. I knew with everything in me that this woman was my destiny. She wasn’t there yet and that was ok. I could be patient, I could wait. I would show her that she could trust me, that her heart was safe with me. I had no idea why she felt the need to shield herself, but I knew that I would never hurt her, never give her any reason to doubt my love and devotion. It was going to take time, though. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all.
The problem was that time wasn’t on my side. The social season had an end, her investigation had a deadline and then she’d disappear into an alternate identity again. I was willing to wait forever, but I didn’t have forever.
What I did have was faith. There were almost nine million people living in New York City and roughly sixty-six million more visited every year. What were the odds, really, of the two of us running into each other that night? What were the odds that she would then, five months later, be assigned to this case? It was fate, it had to be. Time might not have been on my side, but fate was, I just had to figure out how to help it along.
#savage love#angelasscribbles#choices fic writers creations#cfwc fics of the week#trr#the royal romance fanfic#liam rys#drake walker#captain drake walker#agent riley brooks#drake x mc#liam x mc#liam x riley#drake x riley#the royal romance#love triangle#choices stories you play#choices#via imperii
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єxτrατєrrєsτriαℓ (ραrк sєσทgнωα) rατє∂
ραiriทg: αℓiєท! ραrк sєσทgнωα (ατєєʑ)× нυмαท! rєα∂єr (ƒємαℓє)
gєทrє: αทgsτ, ƒℓυƒƒ, sмυτ, ∂ysτσρiαท/ sci-ƒi/ ƒαทταsy αυ
sυммαry: ωнєท τнєy cαмє αท∂ iทvα∂є∂ τнєir ρℓαทєτ, нυмαทiτy ∂єscєท∂є∂ iทτσ cнασs αท∂ iทsαทiτy, нυทτiทg τнєм ∂σωท αท∂ vσωiทg τσ rєταкє τнєir нσмє. нσωєvєr, y/ท ∂σєsท'τ вєℓiєvє τнєy αrє ∂αทgєrσυs, ทστ αƒτєr sєєiทg σทє υρ cℓσsє αท∂ ρєrsσทαℓ.
ωσr∂ cσυทτ: 5к+
ωαrทiทgs: ∂ysτσρiαท sσciєτy, viσℓєทcє, αℓℓυsiσทs τσ ∂єατн, мαss ∂єsτrυcτiσท, єxτrατєrrєsτriαℓ вєiทgs, sℓigнτ нyρทστisм, кiทєτic ρσωєrs, sυρєrทατυrαℓ scєทєs, sєxυαℓ scєทєs iทcℓυ∂iทg вriєƒ вrєαsτ ρℓαy, ƒiทgєriทg, αท∂ υทρrστєcτє∂ sσƒτ, vαทiℓℓα iทτєrcσυrsє (αℓωαys υsє ρrστєcτiσท єvєท iƒ yσυ'rє ƒυcкiทg αท є.τ).
iทsρirατiσท: є.τ вy кατy ρєrry
ταgℓisτ: @multidreams-and-desires @little-precious-baby @yunhofingers @yunhoiseyecandy @galaxteez @brie02 @a-soft-hornytiny @deja-vux @rvse-miingi @daniblogs164 @couchpotatoaniki
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The world forever remembered the day when the sun suddenly went dark when it wasn't even close to being evening yet. The darkness that shrouded the city made them anxious, which then turned to fear when shining beams of light suddenly passed through the sky and fell onto various parts of the earth. At first they thought they were shooting stars or even asteroids that were there to destroy the planet. But alas, masses of rock from space don't have a perfectly oval shape and neither do they have blinking lights covering most of the base. And they certainly don't have strange beings coming out of them. When humanity saw the otherworldly creatures, they immediately went into panic, running for their lives, not wanting to find out or not if they were intelligent, friendly or were cold blooded killers. They simply shut themselves away, causing chaos amongst their land and hurting each other more than anything else.
Y/N definitely remembered that day but for different reasons. At the time, she was in the outskirts of the city, perched on top of a tree as she usually did to escape the bustling city life she was used to. Half daydreaming and half asleep, her leg swung idly as the warmth of the sun casted down on her face. She was jolted fully awake when something like thunder resonated from the heavens, her eyes immediately finding her surroundings to be pitch black. She squinted her eyes, trying to adjust her sight. A colossal spaceship landed near where she was, causing the earth to shake and she let out a piercing scream when she tumbled down from the tree, her knee getting scraped in the fall.
She let out a pained groan as she tried to get back up, but her legs gave out from how badly she was hurting. Looking up, her eyes went wide when a door opened from the ship, cold smoke blasting out and some of it reaching where she was, making her cough softly. She held her breath when several figures started pouring out of the ship, all of them scattering towards different directions. They all donned the same white uniform, their faces covered by a gaiter styled face covering in the same color. When one of them started nearing where she was, her feet scrambled to get up and hide. Only managing to take two steps before she tripped once more, the extraterrestrial turned his head in the direction of the sound and proceeded to go investigate.
Realizing that she had been caught, Y/N gripped onto the trunk of the tree, nails scraping so harshly that she felt blood trickling down. Finally able to stand upright, she turned once more to run but was stopped when two hands slammed against the tree, trapping her in place. The poor girl trembled in fear as two cold eyes looked straight at her. Scanning her body, the being's eyes took in her damaged knee, blood pouring out as some of the skin and tissue was badly torn off. Getting down on one knee, the being took off one its gloves that covered its hand before reaching out to press against her wound. Y/N flinched when they made contact with her scrape and nearly kicked them away but when a purple light emanated from their hand she stood still to see what would happen. When the otherworldly creature pulled its hand away, she was in shock when she saw that her knee was completely healed, not a scratch as if nothing had happened, as if she didn't suffer a nasty fall.
"How...how did you..?" She whipped her head towards the person or non-person in front of her, had gotten up and was slowly creeping their body closer to hers.
The being murmured out some words in a language she did not recognize, and she knew it wasn't just caused by the covering around their face. She gasped sharply when they suddenly pressed her back onto the tree, hands firmly keeping her in place. Once establishing that she would not run away anytime soon, the extraterrestrial lifted one hand up and pulled its covering off. Y/N was speechless as she gazed up into the most beautiful and perfect face she had ever seen. The being's face seemed to be perfectly sculpted to perfection by gods themselves. Blade straight nose, chiseled jawline and sharp angled eyes perfectly complimented each other and distinguished them as someone not from her world.
Before she could even comprehend what they were doing, she felt their hands cup her cheeks as they pressed their pink and soft lips against her own. When she tried to pull away, the creature only clung her tighter to them, their kiss becoming more forceful, tongue dipping inside her mouth which had her moaning. It seemed the extraterrestrial noticed the effect they were having on her since she could feel them smirking against her lips, and indeed they were still smirking when they pulled away and looked back at her. They curiously studied her face, as if they were trying to figure out something.
"Y/N? Is it?"
She was startled when she heard them say something she understood and even more so that they knew her name.
"You actually....speak my language?" She asked them.
The extraterrestrial chuckled softly.
"I do now."
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8 months had passed ever since the aliens first invaded the world, and things only went from bad to worse. The government fell in the hands of civilians who decided to take control after they failed in not only giving them answers but in failing to drive the intruders away. Without a proper leader to govern them, the people just ran rampant through the streets, criminal activity and violence escalating each day that passed. The only real form of leadership or organization that still was existed was the Resistance force, a group of individuals who had gathered together to fight off all the aliens, which always resulted in unnecessary attacks and bloodshed. And unfortunately for Y/N, her own father was one of the ones leading that force.
She shook her head everytime she watched him and all the other people march off in search of extraterrestrials, hoping to demolish them once and for all. Every time they went out, very few returned, but that wasn't the part that worried her.
What worried her was imagining if her friend was one of the few extraterrestrials that had been taken down, because as she'd learn, they were definitely capable of being killed. She let out a sigh and closed the blinds of the kitchen window to continue her task of washing dishes. It seemed that was her life from now on, attending to the house while her dad was away fighting off beings who were actually harmless as she soon learned. But of course, she could never say anything about it, one because no one would believe her given how brainwashed and unreceptive they were and two, which was the most important one, she had promised her otherworldly friend not to spill anything about the mission they were currently carrying out and she intended to keep that promise.
"Aliens! They're here!"
Hearing the frantic commotion outside that was followed by a loud blaring of sirens and shotguns being fired, Y/N ducked and stayed away from any windows or any glass. She slowly crawled her way out the door and went outside, as stupid as it was but whenever there was an attack such as these ones, she always went out to ensure no child was wandering the streets and accidentally got caught in the action. She didn't care that she was risking her own life in doing so.
She carefully ran through alleys, taking cover behind walls or dropping to the ground when she heard shots being fired. It had become a lot easier for her now than it was in the beginning. Peeking her head out, she was relieved to see that most of the civilians had already cleared themselves out. But her relieve was short lived when she saw a white uniformed figure fall in the middle of the street, their hand clutching their left side which was stained blue, clear indication they were seriously wounded. Even with their face covered, she recognized their eyes right away.
"Seonghwa." She whispered softly, panic rising in her when she heard more shots being fired in his direction.
Looking at the other side, her face paled when she saw that it was none other than her own dad who was pursuing him, gun in his hand as he reloaded bullets in them. She looked back towards Seonghwa, who was trying to desperately heal himself faster, but was running out of time. With her dad getting closer and aiming his gun right at him, Y/N didn't even think and bolted out of her hiding place, heading straight towards her father.
"Dad don't!" She exclaimed as she tipped over his gun, causing him to shoot instead towards the opposite direction. Both of them hit the pavement with the strength she used to make sure he didn't hurt her friend.
"Y/N! Get off me!" Her father grunted as he shoved her off his body. Grabbing a hold of his gun once more, he made way to aim once more at his enemy but unfortunately he was too late. When he looked back, he was surrounded by two other extraterrestrials, one of them holding a small device that he threw onto the ground which helped them teleport out of there instantly, leaving behind nothing but a faint cloud of smoke.
Livid at having his prey taken away from his hands, he turned his attention back to his daughter who was barely standing up. When she lifted her head up, she was instantly struck back to the floor as the brute force of her father's fist against her face knocked her down.
"You stupid bitch! You let them get away!"
Each kick laid against her stomach was felt not only by her but by the extraterrestrial being that had connected his mind with hers. From miles away, inside one of the space crafts, he cried out in pain and clutched his abdomen as he felt each and every one of the violent acts laid on her body. With raging and glowing eyes, he pulled off all the wires and needles connected to his body and stormed out of the room, ignoring the protests coming out of the medical team that was tending to his wounds.
"Seonghwa! Stop! You're not healed yet!" One of his comrades tried to stop him.
"I don't care Hongjoong! Y/N is in trouble and I need to save her!" He tried to pry off the other male's fingers off him.
"You can't go! It's too risky. You'll get caught." He tried to reason with Seonghwa.
"If I don't go she could die! She saved me and now I must go save her!"
Having left with no other choice, Hongjoong used his supernatural strength to pin his friend to the wall, keeping him locked in there with no way to escape.
"Yes you must, but now is not the time! You're hurt, if you go now you'll only get yourself killed and then what will happen to her?"
Seonghwa's lip quivered in rage and hurt. He was unable to speak let alone move. He looked down at the floor and wept softly, his mind filled with images of her bruised and bloodied body in agony and pain after the beating she just endured. He knew in such a state, he couldn't even contact her telepathically.
"There's only a few more days until we have to leave back to the home planet. Our mission will be completed and if you still want..... you can take her back with you."
Seonghwa whipped his head up at Hongjoong's words, but before he could get his hopes up, Hongjoong raised a hand.
"Only if she wants to. You can't force, hypnotize nor abduct her. Am I clear?"
Seonghwa immediately nodded.
"Yes Hongjoong."
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Y/N laid in her bed, body still sore even though 2 days had already passed since that awful day. Her sides would ache if she put too much strain on them, but at least she was finally able to walk again. What she really wanted to know was how Seonghwa was doing. Was he all right? Was he too injured? Did he make it? Or did he..?
She pulled her blanket over her face to keep herself from thinking such things. She only wished he'd talk to her like he usually did at night. It was funny considering the first time she heard his voice in her head she was beyond freaked out, but now she had grown accustomed to it, sometimes even scolding him for bugging her so much.
"Are you awake?"
She couldn't keep the smile of her face as she finally heard his voice after so long. But wanting to play it cool, she forced a huff out of her mouth.
"I am now no thanks to you weirdo." She responded, her voice sounding grumpy and making Seonghwa chuckle.
"You know I'm not that knowledgeable with your language yet, so I'm not sure what that word means, but I'm deducing it's not a compliment." He asserted.
"How can you still not know what some words mean? Didn't you suck the language out of me when you slipped your tongue inside my mouth months ago? Wasn't that enough?" She chastised him, yet her cheeks flushed pink as she recalled the first time they met and he greeted her with a kiss, which she ended up finding out was a method his kind employed to be able to understand and talk to beings that spoke differently from them.
"We only grasp the basics, our abilities only stretch so far." He calmly explained.
Y/N sat up and tugged at different ends of her blanket.
"Does that mean you've gone around on other planets kissing other people?" She questioned him, her voice tinted with a hint of jealousy at the thought of Seonghwa kissing someone else.
"I may have kissed other kinds, but I can assure you that you're the only one I've used tongue with." He smirked to himself as he read her thoughts.
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" She felt bitter knowing he had indeed gone around kissing other people.
"Well no... but that little action helped create the mind link with you. Lip to lip contact with another creature helps us communicate with them, adding tongue is a way to communicate and connect telepathically with the individual. Hence why I have been talking to you and vice versa without having to utter a single word. That and I can see what's going on in that tiny head of yours." He finished with a suspicious snort that unsettled her.
"Does that mean... you've been reading my thoughts all these months?" She fidgeted nervously.
"Some, not all. Although I've accidentally stumbled upon some that are rather..... interesting if you ask me."
Y/N whined as she slumped her face into her pillow and let out a high pitched scream. She felt so embarrased knowing he probably knew some of the explicit thoughts she's had at times that involved him.
"Do me a favor and take one of your laser guns and just vaporize me out of this world." She begged him.
"I'm afraid protocol doesn't allow me to vaporize any individuals without proper cause. So you're stuck with knowing that I know that you want me to-"
"Ok stop! Please don't finish that sentence and pretend like what you saw in my head wasn't real." She sighed.
"As you wish."
Seonghwa stayed quiet for a while, biting his lower lip as he pondered about how to approach his next subject. He knew it was now or never.
"Hey Y/N?" He asked softly.
"Yeah?" She responded.
"Can you..... do you think you could meet me in the place we first met?"
Y/N looked out her window and saw that it was past the curfew established by the Resistance, no doubt most of them standing guard at every street and corner, making sure everyone stayed indoors while keeping watch.
"I'm not sure I'll be able to get out without being caught."
"I thought just as much."
Before she knew it, Seonghwa appeared right in front of her bed, making her shriek as she pulled her blanket to cover body up. She was about to ask him what was going on, but he was faster as he took hold of her wrist before transporting them both in the outskirts of the city in the blink of an eye. Y/N cowered and shivered when she felt the night breeze blow, her arms wrapping around herself since she had gone to bed wearing nothing but black panties and a flimsy white tank top that left little to the imagination for anyone who saw her chest. And seeing the extraterrestrial looking intently at her, she knew he was taking in her state of near undress.
"Please tell me you don't have laser vision that let's you see under my clothes." She squinted at him.
"Some of my kind do posses that ability, but I'm not one of them....." Stepping closer to her, he tilted her chin up and grinned smugly.
"Unfortunately."
"Why you little perv-" She was cut off mid sentence when Seonghwa inexplicably wrapped his arms around her, holding her in a tight embrace.
"You're cold, let me warm you up."
She indeed started to feel heat being produced from his body which started to flow into her own. It felt so nice, not only having him act as a personal heater but to just have him hold her after having to go through endless shit day after day. Closing her eyes, she rested her head on his shoulder, slowly drifting off to sleep right then and there. One of Seonghwa's hands was busying itself by softly brushing her hair, being careful not to accidentally pull any out. He stayed like that for a few minutes before finally blurting out:
"The mission is finished. We'll be leaving at dawn tomorrow."
Y/N felt her heart sink when she heard him say that.
"So....bringing me here was so you could say goodbye?" She lifted her head off his shoulders and stared at the ground with a blank expression.
"Well it depends..."
Y/N raised an eyebrow when he paused.
"Depends on what?" She urged him to finish.
"If you wanna leave this place and come with me." He offered, his eyes growing rounder as he hoped she'd say yes.
Y/N looked at him in disbelief.
"Are you being serious right now or is this some kind of alien joke?"
Seonghwa nodded in earnest.
"Deadly serious. I want you to come to my home with me. I know.... I hope you'll like it. It's not that different from your planet, although you know the technology is more advanced and flying cars and what not..."
When he saw that she wasn't budging, Seonghwa gulped nervously.
"But the location I live in is a more... tropical one. The water is sparkling blue, the glittering sand is warm to the touch, and the weather is always cool and refreshing. Wouldn't you like to live in a place like that with me?" He spoke those last two words out softly but he knew she definitely heard them.
He could hear and see her thoughts, debating whether or not it would be wise to leave with him or not. She looked behind her towards the city she lived in, almost in complete ruin with possibly no hope of redemption.
"There's nothing left for me here, is there?" She asked to herself rather than to him.
When she looked back at him, there was still a hint of doubt in her mind. Clasping his hands on her head, Seonghwa's thumbs rubbed circles on her temples as his orbs started turning a light yellow color.
"Please come with me. Stay with me and live with me." He spoke out softly, his voice having a light melodic tune to it.
Y/N felt herself getting immensely drawn to him, her thoughts beginning to fill up with images of staying by his side. It was as if she was getting pulled to him against her will.
"Wait..... Are you using hypnosis on me?!" She exclaimed in anger, pushing him away when she realized what was going on.
"It was worth a try." He admitted in defeat, head hung low in shame.
"Since you failed miserably..... I'll spare you the humiliation and accept to go with you."
Seonghwa widened his eyes when he heard her.
"Wait, for real?"
Y/N responded by placing a kiss on his cheek.
"Don't make me regret my decision though or I'll steal your laser gun and vaporize you." She warned him.
Lacing his fingers with hers, Seonghwa nudged her to follow him.
"I promise you won't."
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Y/N shifted uncomfortably on the bed she was currently in, alternating between wrapping herself with the blanket and kicking it off a second later. She was still in the middle of her fight with the covers that she failed to notice the door opened and her current roommate walk into their small compartment. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched her struggle with an amusing smirk.
"Having fun there?" He broke her out of her trance.
"I can't sleep, I feel like I'm developing claustrophobia from mostly staying inside these 4 walls, and I'm still suffering from motion sickness." She grumbled, 1 week and she had still not adjusted to being inside an intergalactic spacecraft with no one but extraterrestrial beings to keep her company.
"Anything else you'd like to add?" Seonghwa raised an eyebrow.
Y/N pouted her lips and stared up at him with puppy dog eyes.
"I'm lonely and want company?"
Unable to resist, Seonghwa faked an exhausted sigh as he began taking off his jacket.
"I'm off my piloting duties anyway, might as well get some rest before my next shift."
Finally happy at having someone by her side, Y/N made some space on the bed for Seonghwa to fit in, although she wondered if it would be big enough for the both of them since it was a rather compacted area. When she looked back at Seonghwa, she nearly wheezed when she saw him sliding right next to her completely bare. Catching her staring, Seonghwa continued on as if it was the most normal thing in the universe.
"What? Don't you humans go to sleep the same way we do?"
Y/N covered her red cheeks and turned her face away from him.
"N-no....we wear clothes when sleeping." She explained, body heating up from embarrassment. Seonghwa replied with a slight gruff.
"Seems impractical."
Wrapping one arm around her body, Seonghwa pulled Y/N down on the bed and held her close to him, his breath fanning against the nape of her neck.
"Try to rest." He suggested.
Y/N wondered how on earth was she supposed to rest knowing the extraterrestrial being was pressing his bare chest against her back? She tried hard not to move in fear of accidentally brushing along his cock.
"Wait, do aliens have dicks? I didn't really get a good look between his legs. I just saw abs and looked away."
Her thoughts began spiraling deeper and deeper into not so pure territory. She began wondering about Seonghwa's anatomy. Do his kind even have reproductive organs? Do they even have sex? What if he could produce tentacles out of his body that would suction onto parts of her body like some of the kinky hentai she watched a long time ago? That thought aroused her more than it should. How would it feel to have Seonghwa's tentacles latch onto her nipples and suckle them as another one slithered inside her core and probe around until it made a mess of her? She clenched her thighs inadvertently as her mind started to produce more and more dangerous scenes.
She was startled when she heard the alien behind her laugh softly.
"I hate to interrupt your sexual fantasy foolish human girl, but my kind do not possess the ability to produce the slimy limbs that you are imagining."
She had completely forgotten that their minds were still linked and if he wanted to, he could still read her mind. She buried her face deeper in the pillow, wanting to cry out in shame.
"I do apologize for that inconvenience, I'm afraid the closest you can get is my hands around you."
Y/N half gasped half moaned when she felt one of Seonghwa's large hands snake inside her sweater and cup her breast. His thumb tweaked at her nipple, giving it experimental tugs and pinches until finally settling for simply rubbing them since it seemed to produce more effects on her body. He listened intently to the way her breath hitched with every brush of his thumb and squeeze of her soft skin, feeling her body start to get warmer just for him.
"Isn't this what you wanted? I remember you often fantasized about having my hands all over you." He recalled all those times where he refused to go to sleep because he was too busy prying into her erotic thoughts that included him.
"Y-yes..." She breathed out.
"Did you only want them here?"
Y/N whined and shook her head.
"No.... want them- want them..." She felt embarrased to say it out loud even if she did have Seonghwa groping her chest, so she hoped he'd read her mind and give her what she wanted. Obviously he got the hint since he moved his hand and slipped it inside her shorts. Pushing her panties aside, Y/N groaned when he dipped two fingers past her slick folds. She was so unbelievably wet that even with the slow movements he was making, they could still faintly hear the squealching sounds that were being produced.
"Right here? This where you want them?" Adding a third finger inside, he drove them deeper inside her body as their pace intensified, the slopping noises becoming louder.
Y/N bit down on the sleeve of her sweater to muffle the moans that were spilling out, afraid of anyone hearing what was going on.
"Don't worry about anyone else, just focus on the way my fingers are invading your most intimate places. Tell me does it feel good? Do you like it?" He asked as his lips kissed across the side of her neck.
"Feels so good- I love it." She sighed blissfully as his fingers continued to swirl around her hole, tips curling so they could graze at her g-spot.
"Want to feel something even better?"
Y/N hummed in affirmation and allowed Seonghwa to move her onto her back. He surprised her when all he needed to do was tap twice against her clothes and they immediately vanished from her body, leaving her completely naked under him.
"How long have you been waiting to do that?" She eyed him suspiciously when his lips curled upwards in a cheeky grin.
"Far too long."
Cupping her cheeks, Seonghwa kissed her, almost like the first time when he came to her home, but this time the kiss was more passionate and full of raw emotions. He took his time and didn't slip his tongue inside her mouth, instead he wanted to savor how soft and plump her lips felt against his own, pulling away every few minutes only to catch his breath before diving back in to mold his mouth over hers. They were so lost in their heated kissing and tangled bodies, that they forgot they were both in their most intimate state until Seonghwa's member brushed along her slippery folds.
"Oh god-." Y/N stammered as her hips grinded up to feel more of Seonghwa, who had a proud smirk on his face.
"Are you going to be ok with an extraterrestrial being breeding you with his cock?"
Y/N grimaced slightly at his choice of words.
"Is that what you guys call it?"
"Well what do you guys call it?" He questioned.
"We like to call it fucking." She giggled.
Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows as his hands lifted her legs up to wrap them around his waist.
"I don't like it, sounds too impersonal and distant."
The cry coming out of Y/N's throat cracked and only half sounded when Seonghwa stuffed her full of his cock, his size stretching her out in a delicious sting.
"I prefer to get as close as possible."
Taking hold of her hands, he placed them on top of his shoulders before proceeding to rock his hips against hers. Y/N clung onto him as if her life depended on it. She closed her eyes and let her body succumb to his. Every touch from him was magnetizing, and she completely melted when his lips sought hers once more, a cosmic sensation pouring into her. Her nails dug onto the flesh of his back whilst her legs tangled themselves tighter around his waist, wanting to keep him near her as she started to feel a knot unraveling at the pit of her stomach, similar to the ones she'd feel all those nights she daydreamed about having him close to her. Only this time the feeling was more electrifying and intense, almost as if it was magic. Her eyes shut even tighter as the knot came loose and her lips began spilling out chants of Seonghwa's name as her juices flowed out of her body and coated his member that was still sliding deep inside her, not stopping so it could further heightened the sensation she was going through.
Feeling her release herself all over him, it was only a few moments later that Seonghwa himself vibrated against her body and filled her core with his own cum. His body started to faintly glow due to the rush he just felt at being so intimately connected with another person, the pulse in his heart beating so rapidly he thought it would burst any minute. Stroking her hair in a gentle manner, he pressed his forehead against hers, panting softly as he layed his body on top of hers, careful not to put too much of his weight on her.
"Never in my life did I ever believe that on one of our scouting missions would I meet someone like you."
Pulling back so he could look at her beautiful face, Seonghwa smiled with adoration and fondness at his loving partner
"Yet here I am, going back home with the brightest star in the universe."
✧*:.。..。.:*✧✧*:.。..。.:*✧✧*:.。..。.:*✧✧*:.。..。.:*✧
#ateez#ateez seonghwa#ateez scenarios#ateez imagines#ateez reactions#ateez fanfiction#ateez fanfic#ateez smut#ateez fluff#ateez angst#ateez fantasy au#ateez sci fi au#ateez seonghwa fluff#ateez seonghwa smut#ateez seonghwa fanfic#ateez seonghwa scenarios#ateez seonghwa imagines#ateez seonghwa angst#ateez seonghwa fanfiction#park seonghwa#park seonghwa scenarios#park seonghwa angst#park seonghwa fluff#park seonghwa fanfic#park seonghwa fanfiction#park seonghwa smut#park seonghwa imagines#ateez dystopian au#alien!seonghwa
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Oh, here's a prompt! Nie Huaisang travels back in time to ensure that Jin Guangyao stays away from the Jin sect. When he gets back, he's disturbed to find that not only is Meng Yao now his stepbrother (or has at least become a very respected disciple of the Nie sect), but is also now engaged to Lan Xichen. Cue screaming and/or fainting. But at least Minjue is still alive, right?
It was surprisingly easy to make it all happen, much to Nie Huaisang's surprise. In stories time travel was always so complicated to orchestrate, with so much to plan for... but Nie Huaisang had just done it, and it seemed to be working well.
His first stop had been to Meng Shi, shortly after the birth of her son. He could have gone back further and prevented her from ever having that son, but... but at the end of the day, he'd been impossibly fond of Meng Yao even if he'd grown to hate Jin Guangyao. The solution, then, had been to visit his mother and make sure she didn't fill her son's head with impossible dreams.
It had taken some money to get Meng Shi out of the brothel for a few days, and she'd been quite suspicious of him at first. But Nie Huaisang had been a gentleman, and she'd warmed up to him a little. She'd even given up on trying to seduce him once he'd explained that while not opposed to feminine charms on occasion, he mostly cut his sleeve. She'd acted quite sorry for him when he'd explained that actually, he'd just gotten out of a long relationship that had ended badly due to some trust issues and a the betrayal of a man they'd believed to be their friend. Meng Shi had shared a few stories as well, some her own, most her colleagues'.
By the time they'd arrived in Lanling, Nie Huaisang had become quite attached to Meng Shi, and decided he might change his plans a little, depending on what would happen in the next few days.
Meng Shi was not happy to meet other women who'd had the dubious pleasure of sharing Jin Guansghan's bed. She was even less happy to talk to them and learn that none of them, not a single one, had ever received money or attention again after he'd left them, not even those who'd had a child. One of them, the servant of a powerful family of merchants, had gone begging at the door of the Jin sect when her three years old daughter had fallen sick with something nobody understood. She'd been sent home under threats of a beating if she ever showed up again, and her daughter had died.
That had been nearly four years earlier. Jin Guangshan hadn't been sect leader yet, but he'd been his father's favourite and most spoiled son, so he would have had the power to do anything he pleased, including sending a doctor to his daughter, or having her brought into Jinlin Tai to make sure no dark spirit was attacking her. He wasn't even engaged to his wife at the time, so it was impossible to use her to excuse his lack of care. And he'd known about the child's sickness, because he'd happened to be passing by when the mother came begging for help. It was he who had ordered she be sent away, annoyed by her crying.
Meng Shi had gone paler and paler as that poor woman told her tale of sorrow, clutching her son tighter against her chest. When Nie Huaisang and her had returned to their inn, she had asked him why he'd wanted her to meet those other women.
“I just don't like what he's doing,” Nie Huaisang replied, a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought she might get curious. It was stupid of him. Meng Yao surely couldn't have gotten his brains from his father after all.
Meng Shi, sitting on her bed, rocked her infant son in her arms in silence for a moment.
“They were all weak,” she said after a while.
“Who?”
“Those other women. They were all weak.”
Nie Huaisang tensed, fearing that she might announce she was cut of another cloth, that she would persevere where they had given up, but Meng Shi only sighed and kissed her son's forehead.
“He picked them so they were young and would have no one to turn to. Servants and prostitutes and unwanted daughters... he picked us so we'd have no one to turn to when he'd abandon us, no one to defend our honour and force him to pay for the children he made us have. Women like us, it's our own fault for getting pregnant in the first place, isn't it?”
Nie Huaisang stared at her, and realised she was right. He'd been so busy collecting names, he hadn't paused to wonder if there had been a pattern to Jin Guangshan's actions.
“Are there any more you want me to meet?” Meng Shi asked.
“No, she was the last one.”
“Then I suppose we'll started heading back to Yunping City tomorrow. I'll have to make new plans for...”
“No, we're not going back,” Nie Huaisang announced, startling her. “It's too unfair if you go back, you deserve better. Both of you deserve better!”
She blinked a few times, and gave him an amused smile, still rocking her baby. She didn't believe him, of course. Nie Huaisang could hardly blame her for that. After her last experience with a cultivator...
But Meng Shi really did deserve better. Nevermind that in a future he hoped to have now prevented, he'd desecrated her body to get back at her son, this was a different thing. Meng Shi was not a bad person. He'd once thought her guilty of ambition at least, but after a couple weeks in her company, he realised she'd just been desperate for a chance to escape her lot in life. He couldn't really hate her for that, even if it had led to such tragedies after her death.
Nie Huaisang liked her now that he'd met her, and he couldn't condemn her and her son to a worse fate than what they'd have known without him.
He needed a plan.
He needed a smart plan.
He had a plan.
“So, I might have lied a little, you're going back to the brothel,” Nie Huaisang said, earning an unimpressed smirk. “But not for long! I'm going to try something but... would you be willing to lie about who sired your son?”
“Why not? At this point, the truth won't get me much.”
“Perfect. Then I'm going to warn my sect that I have fathered a child, and that I'm unable to care for it at the moment. I'll have to write to them but... but I know Nie zongzhu will immediately send for you. He'll probably ask after me, he hasn't seen me in nearly a decade, but I know he won't have forgotten his cousin Nie Xingyu, and he'll do what's right for my son and his mother.”
And there was no risk of the real Nie Xingyu ever returning to ruin that story, Nie Huaisang knew. His father's beloved cousin, who'd become a rogue cultivator after an argument with their grandfather, had actually died a year or two before Nie Mingjue was even born. A Night Hunt accident, one which Nie Huaisang had discovered by chance while investigating some of Jin Guangyao's crimes. But he remembered his father always hoped to see Nie Xingyu return, always speaking so highly of that cousin who had been almost a brother to him.
Nie Huaisang's father would be delighted to meet his cousin's son, and if “Nie Xingyu” asked for it he would buy Meng Shi's contract in a heartbeat. It would only be a matter of convincing sect leader Nie then, and Nie Huaisang wasn't worried about that. His father had kept all the letters his cousin used to send and read them to his sons, so Nie Huaisang was confident he could imitate his prose and handwriting, not to mention he too carried the Nie seal to mark that letter.
At worst, if it didn't work, Nie Huaisang could always find the money somewhere to buy that contract in person and try to find somewhere to leave Meng Shi, but he'd rather know that she and Meng Yao were safe and sound in the Unclean Realm.
Meng Shi, of course, looked unimpressed by his plan. She still thought he was lying, or trying to sell wonders like other men before him so they could share her bed for a reduced fee, or demand more of her than they'd paid for. Nie Huaisang didn't mind. If people's opinions of him mattered, he would have chosen a different way to avenge his brother, wouldn't he?
-
It took nearly a month after Nie Huaisang had brought Meng Shi back to her brother, but one morning, from the room he'd rented across the street, he saw a small group of Nie cultivators go in. His father was among them, and when they excited the building, he was carrying little Meng Yao in his arms and chatting cheerfully with Meng Shi who seemed shocked at this turn of events.
Unseen by her Nie Huaisang smiled, and went to activate the talisman that would take him back to his own time. Hopefully this would have been enough to save Nie Mingjue. And if it hadn't... well, he knew how to travel to the past now.
-
Nie Huaisang opened his eyes. He was in his room, and yet not. This was what used to be his room when he was young, before he became sect leader. A little smaller, a little more private, with a view on a small private garden where he kept his favourite birds. Hisroom, the one he'd always preferred, and had only abandoned in a desperate attempt to be the leader he'd thought his people would need. If he still lived in this room, then it meant Nie Huaisang wasn't sect leader.
Delighted by this apparent victory, Nie Huaisang sprung to his feet and rushed out of the room, only to run head first into someone.
He'd ran into that person enough times that he knew them instantly, even before seeing their face.
“Well someone is in a hurry,” Nie Mingjue said with a laugh.
A laugh.
Nie Mingjue was laughing. Nie Huaisang couldn't even remember the last time he'd heard his brother laugh like this. Not since the Sunshot Campaign, he thought.
“Your cousins haven't arrived yet,” said someone standing just a step behind Nie Mingjue, her voice also full of laughter. “You didn't oversleep, don't worry.”
It took all of Nie Huaisang's willpower to look away from his brother (Nie Mingjue, happy, laughing, healthy) but he managed it, because that other voice was a little too familiar.
It was odd to find Meng Shi in her fifties when just a few hours ago, Nie Huaisang had seen her in her early twenties. Her hair had turned grey, there were wrinkles on her face, and she had exchanged the bold colours she used to wear at the brothel for the muted tones the Nie sect favoured. It suited her. Growing old suited her, if only because she would never have had the chance, had Nie Huaisang not changed her fate.
“I think he's not quite awake yet,” Nie Mingjue teased when Nie Huaisang stared too long, poking his little brother in the shoulder. “But at least I don't have to drag him out of bed. Can I leave the rest to you, auntie?”
Meng Shi smiled, and assured him she'd make sure Nie Huaisang was ready for his cousins' arrival. Nie Mingjue thanked her and left. Nie Huaisang almost ran after him, suddenly needing to touch him, to hug him, to make sure this was real, that he had truly...
“Now it's finally you,” Meng Shi noted, earning a curious glance. “I've realised a few years ago that you looked oddly similar to the man who helped me. Too similar to simply count it as family resemblance. But until today, you didn't look quite right either.”
When Nie Huaisang could only blink at her, she laughed.
“I thought so. I've been wondering for years, but... you did something to change what was meant to happen, didn't you?”
“I did. I wanted... I needed to save certain people.”
“Your brother,” Meng Shi guessed.
Nie Huaisang nodded.
“And my son?”
He nodded again. “Where is he? Is he well? He learned cultivation, right?”
Meng Shi smiled proudly. “He's one of the best in his generation, people keep telling me. He's married now, and living with his husband, but they come visit often. They wanted me to come live with them in the Cloud Recesses, but it's too cold for me over there, and I like the friends I've made here in Qinghe, so I... is something wrong?”
Nie Huaisang nodded, then shook his head. “His husband?”
“A-Yao is married to Lan zongzhu,” she explained. “I would have preferred if he'd married a woman, but Lan zongzhu is a very good husband to him, and they always seem so very happy when they're together. It's all a mother can truly wish for, isn't it? To see her child settled and happy.”
Nie Huaisang said nothing.
He did not run back into his room, didn't hurriedly prepare some ink so he could draw another time travelling talisman and set things right. It was tempting, so tempting. But Nie Huaisang resisted that temptation, and forced himself to smile.
“I'm so happy for them,” he mumbled after a while, and hoped he would learn to mean it.
#Meng Shi#Nie Huaisang#xisang#xiyao#mo dao zu shi#mdzs#jau writes#this was super fun to write thanks for the prompt!!
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You Can’t Be Here
NOT A PR0MPT
Could you do a villain who just had surgery. Hero gets him out of the hospital the minute he is out of surgery because she is worried or something. But at her home, he is all drugged up, delirious and scared.
******
Where am I? Where am I? Villain knew he was in the hospital before, but now…now…now. He wasn’t in the hospital- not where he was supposed to be. Not where Supervillain wanted him.
Unless…was this Supervillain’s home? Had he finished the procedure and wanted Villain to be relocated afterwards? Where am I? Supervillain’s home, or- or lab, monastery (as if), whatever it was, wherever Villain was, it belonged to Supervillain; it must have.
“Villain. Villain, hey, you’re awake. Here-”
The voice was familiar, but not familiar enough in Villain’s state. Drugs. He had been drugged before the surgery. They must have been still wearing off. “No,” Villain groaned lowly, tiredly. His ribs were hurting so badly; there was no way he could go through another surgery already.
“Here, I brought you some water; you need to get hydrated or else you’ll get sick.”
Did Supervillain give him a new nurse? Did the other one do something wrong?
“Hey, listen to me. Listen to me, Villain. It’s me. It’s Hero, alright? There was- there was a report on the television, on the news. What happened?”
What hap- Hero? No. No, that wasn’t possible at all, now was it? Hero couldn’t be with Villain, because if she were with Villain then that meant Supervillain would-
“You can’t be here. You can’t be here, Hero. You can’t. You can’t be here. You can’t be here.” His mind was a frenzy, one which wouldn’t stop. There were sharks in his head, his brain the chum being torn to shreds. Goodness, it hurt, but Villain didn’t care. He needed to tell Hero- needed her to know that she needed to leave. Leave while she was still in good health.
“It’s okay. It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re not at the hospital anymore. We’re at my place, okay? Nothing- nothing is happening, Villain, but I need you to drink some water.” Please.
Hero’s voice was becoming more worried, Villain could tell, but why? It must have been because Supervillain was returning. Maybe Hero wanted Villain awake so he could prepare her for what would happen if she couldn’t escape before Supervillain collected her for a procedure.
“If you’re lucky, they’ll numb you first,” Villain muttered.
“What?”
“It isn’t so bad when they do that, but…but when they don’t-” He couldn’t finish. “It’s okay. It’ll be fine.” But Villain wasn’t sure whether he was talking to himself or Hero at this point. He was just as worried for himself as her. It was selfish, btu Villain couldn’t help being sorry and scared for himself. “Don’t hold your breath when it begins. It will make it harder to think about anything else.”
“What are you- Villain, tell me why you were in the hospital. Tell me, please.”
He couldn’t do that- because doing that would make Hero panic, and panicking was terrible before the surgeries. Of course, they would usually put one to sleep beforehand, but not always- and certainly not for one’s first procedure. Supervillain wanted everyone to know what he was capable of if one didn’t cooperate.
“Villain. I just want to help. Please help me understand what happened to you so that I can help, Villain.”
“He’s targeting self-healers.”
Who were the self-healers? Very few people in the world possessed such a spectacular ability. Both Villain and Hero just so happened to be a part of these few unfortunate people.
Unfortunate.
It shouldn’t have been unfortunate. Hero and Villain should have felt lucky to be blessed or have felt lucky to have received such a mutation. Hero did, at least for now. Villain, not so suddenly, wished he could have passed on from his first surgery, if only it meant he wouldn’t have to go through those ten thousand more.
Maybe ten thousand was an exaggeration- not to Villain, though.
“He’s harvesting us,” Villain explained, feeling more and more awake, but no less panicked than before- even as he took in the safety falling from Hero’s caring tongue. “He- he wants to be a super-human, or- or something. I don’t know. He would-”
Hero interrupted, “Hold on, hold on. Who is ‘he?’”
“Supervillain.” Villain’s hands were beginning to quake, buzzing like a prank ring. “The hospital is his. How…” He shook his head, sitting up on what he now realized was a plush, and regrettably white couch. Had he really been laying down all this time? And had he really been staring at his eyelids- the ceiling, the fan, anything but the rest of his surroundings? Was he so used to waking up from surgeries that his instinctual casting gazes had been rid of? “How did you know where I was?”
Piecing everything together was difficult for Hero. She wanted to admit to herself that she knew exactly what was going on, but she didn’t. Villain was in such a delirious and panicked state, that nothing came out with a logical consistency, nor a reasonable plot. It was just pure-blooded panic, frenzy, delirium, madness.
“The news. There was a reporter who had gone missing months ago,” Hero began to explain. “An investigation ensued, and all the while you had been gone- no crimes, no taunting phone calls or texts, nothing.” Was she over-explaining? Hero didn’t know. She was feeling as anxious as Villain was after the statement ‘He’s harvesting us.’”
“Anyway- um- I kept tabs on the investigation.” Hero walked the glass of water she’d brought in so long ago to Villain, who, gladly yet hesitantly, took the glass. “Turns out that one reporter had learned everything, but she was- she was killed. I saw your name in one of the files she created about the hospital. I didn’t know if you were still alive or not.”
Saying he was alive would have been a lie. Of course, Villain was adept at the craft of lying. He spun truths like silk until he had single strands, which he tied into others- like a web. Now, though…it was easier to admit he’d feel better being dead than to lie and say he was happy to be alive. It was such an odd feeling- the duality of gratefulness of being saved and the dread at being alive, available to Supervillain to steal for vital organs.
“Are you okay?”
Villain took a breath, then a sip of the water. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to answer that question,” he told Hero. “My mind is…” Villain shook his head again, allowed a shudder to take control of his body for a moment. His head twitched at the thought of his brain being picked at- literally. With- with scalpels and tweezers, and all the like.
A tear fell from Villain’s eye. Hero never wanted to be so near him as in this moment.
“We have to hide, Hero. We should have never been so naïve as to think our blessings weren’t actually our curse. He’ll hunt us.”
“What did he do?” Hero’s voice was timid, like she was afraid to ask such a question again. It wasn’t her intention to force the trauma into Villain’s active mind. She only wanted to be prepared. Wanted to know what happened so that she could predict what would happen, and furthermore so she could prevent the would-be’s of the future.
“Supervillain wants to achieve immortality. What better way to acquire such a trait than to steal the organs of people who heal perfectly and within days?”
#NOT A PR0MPT#request fill#1235 words#You Can't Be Here#hero x villain#hero x villain story#hero x villain drabble#hero x villain snippet#heroes and villains#hero#villain#immortality#immortal villain#nonhuman villain#supervillain- but it's whatever lol#good villain#villain whumpee#supervillain whumper#hero caretaker#caretaker#caretaking#fluff#ish#surgery#mild gore
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I love your fatui! reader x genshin really tugged on my heartstrings right there.
if it's alright can i ask for a continuation for keqing? 👉🏻👈🏻 like the two of them inevitably have to fight each other ft. other fatui and keqing gets overwhelmed so the reader ultimately betrays her peers and gets gravely injured (i live for the angst-hurt/comfort)
again thank you for writing this it was definitely a fun read 😊
Thank you so much, I really enjoyed writing it as hopefully I'll do more for other characters! I love continuations so I was so happy to write this. I also apologize for not getting this out sooner as I had this in the works with a few other things; however, a couple of personal things came up. But that aside I do hope you enjoy this as I hope you don't mind that I did a hybrid of scenario/fic.
Keqing was asked to go investigate the suspicious activity that was going on near the entrance of the mines with only the mention that it is possibly involving the Fatui. On her travels to get to the location of course her mind had wondered to what she’d possibly find; then the thought of you popped into her head.
It had been so long… Maybe a couple of months since she last saw you since she cut ties after finding out you were with the enemy. There couldn’t be a possibility that you were still in Liyue after the whole incident that had taken place right, she didn’t want to worry about coming to come face to face when the pain and the memories of that day was still very fresh in Keqing’s head
Whatever or whoever was seemingly up to no good, Keqing’s resolve to keep all of Liyue and Liyue Harbor safe stayed strong. Upon arrival so far there had not been a soul in her sights, but of course continued to look around to see if she could find any signs of evidence that people were there. It was after a while of searching that Keqing walked up a couple of stairs until she heard a voice talking. She only saw two figures, one kneeling before the standing figure
“Boss, the rubble that’s blocking the entryway to the Chasm is far greater than initially suspected… It may take us longer to clear it all out,” the masked agent kneeling said. Keqing’s eyes widened at the new information as holding her sword in hand she rushed over to put a stop to the Fatui’s plans. “Stop right there,” she shouted getting both the agents attention; however, the kneeling agent was the only one who jumped up and looked at her
“Leave this to me, get back to the others and get the job done,” the other figure spoke as at that moment she knew right away it was you. When it was just the two of them Keqing’s hold on her sword loosened as she watched as the hood was pulled off. “Of all the people that could have been sent it had to be you… I really wish this wasn’t how we met again,” you said with a small sigh fully turned to face her removing your mask revealing the glimmer of the eyes Keqing had fallen in love with
“What’s the meaning of all of this (Y/n),” she asked as she was mad, she should be mad yet her heart betrayed her as it raced at the sight of you. “Unfortunately that’s classified information,” was all you spoke having a soft expression on your face before you summoned your weapon. “I’d much rather not fight you but knowing you, you just won’t simply walk away… So you give me no other choice.”
The fight between you two was fast as flashes of your elements clashed together blow for blow. The sounds of metals clashing and striking one another till eventually you both skidded apart from each other heavily breathing, small nicks and tears in clothing. The brief moment of the wind passing through before Keqing sprinted forward attacking again.
“You’re a traitor! A Lair,” Keqing shouted, striking her sword at (Y/n) who was simply blocking and staying on the defensive side. “You have every right to be angry with me; I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. I knew if I did you wouldn’t give me the chance to explain, but please believe me when I say that I dated you because I loved you; I wasn’t trying to use you,” You further said blocking the barrage of attacks. Keqing gritted her teeth as she felt the ache of her chest; how could she believe anything you said, for all she knew you were simply trying to sweet talk her. “How can I believe you when you told them everything that I told you and everything that was in the Jade Chamber,” She shouted angrily, swinging her blade.
Her words of her assumptions of what you possibly did brought a sharp pain to your chest; instead of using your weapon to stop her attack you grabbed the blade by the hand; the small pain of the blade cutting into the skin causing blood to seep out. Looking at her with a hurt expression you looked Keqing in her purple eyes as she was staring back with a shocked expression by your actions. “You-you really think I’d stoop that low to tell the Fatui all the things you’ve told me about and what was in the Jade Chamber? I never told them anything; I might be working for them, but I’ve kept all of our conversations and that of the Chamber to myself this whole time,” You said, causing Keqing to freeze at your words in complete bewilderment. Though before any more words could be exchanged during your fight, the sound of a gun being shot, the two of you jumped back to watch a bullet engulfed in flames hit the dirt of where the two of you just were.
The other members had suddenly appeared shooting attacks as one of the Vanguards charged Keqing. Panic started to slowly overtake you as you had to watch Keqing fight off the others. “What are you all doing?! I told you to get the job done didn’t I,” You shouted trying to get them to back down, but it didn’t seem to be working. “We’ll make quick work of this one,” The Bracer said, aiming his gun to fire another round. Glancing back to Keqing it was clear she was doing her best to at most keep up and dodge the enemies attacks. In this crucial moment there was a decision to be made: to either walk away and let the others continue the fight and simply pray Keqing would flee or betray the Fatui in order to save the woman you still very much loved. Finally coming to your decision you first attacked the bracer to get him out of the way before running over to handle the rest. Getting knocked down Keqing was doing her best to get right back up, but only managed to sit herself up; her attention now on the electro vanguard who’s hammer was up in the air about to come down on her. Closing her eyes she waited for the impact… However after not feeling anything she opened her eyes only for them to widen at the scene before her; there you stood your weapon blocking the hammer before managing to push the tall man back.
“Who do you all think you are?! How dare you go against my orders like a bunch of morons,” You shouted angrily as though she couldn’t see the look on your face, she could only imagine how mad you were. “For your unacceptable behavior you all will face punishment,” you now spoke in a much lower tone, your vision surprisingly enough started to change to a different color before you charged at the other members of the Fatui. It still almost felt unreal of the turn of events that have taken place yet here you were fighting your own peers to protect her, the feeling of guilt creeping in on how she treated you. The fight dragged on a while longer until the last remaining members fled while they could, leaving you to stand by yourself with the few bodies that laid on the ground. You turned around to look over to Keqing to check on her and to your relief she wasn’t hurt too much. “You okay,” you asked, feeling your body grow heavy and tired from the wounds you’ve sustained. Blinking she snapped out of her trance and nodded her head uttering a small yes. “That’s… Good,” you replied smiling before falling over.
“(Y/n),” Keqing shouted, scurrying up to get to you, carefully turning you over gasping at the sight of how grave your injuries were. “Hey! Hey,” she loudly said cupping the side of your face to make you look at her as a flurry of mixed emotions were going on. “What’s the big idea huh?! What do you think you were doing,” she asked sternly as it pained her to see you in such a horrible condition. A weak laugh came out as you reached up a hand to overlap the one holding the side of your face running a thumb over her hand in a comforting manner. “I was pro-tecting you of… Course,” you answered before a hard cough briefly stopping you from talking. “It-it’s okay if you still… Hate me, but I hope that… At least this makes up… For all the bad I’ve done,” you further spoke, wincing when trying to breathe. Tears falling, Keqing feeling the weight of your words hit her heart hard, regretting how cruel she was. The rain started to fall, Keqing couldn’t just mope around and let you die; putting her strong urge to cry aside, she carefully picked up your body and made a run back to the harbor as hopefully Dr. Baizhu would be able to help.
Who knew how long you had been out for, though much to your surprise you were actually alive but how? The sight of an unfamiliar ceiling was the first thing you saw before you tried to move to sit up to further investigate your surroundings. “Don’t you dare try to move, you’ll only reopen your wounds,” the stern voice of Keqing rang in your ears as looking over she was now right beside you causing a small strained laugh out of you. “How could you be laughing, you could have died,” She said now sitting on the edge as she had a sad expression on her face. “Hehe sorry, sorry… But really if it meant that I knew you were safe I was well prepared to die,” You answered as suddenly Keqing was now gently hugging you and the soft sound of her crying reached your ears. “You idiot, you can’t go dying on me! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for how cruel I was to you and all those harsh things I said to you. I love you so don’t try throwing your life away for me!” she spoke, carefully hugging you firmer. It brought a relief to you to hear that she still loved you so in return you put a hand on her back and rubbed it in a comforting manner. “It’s alright I never held it against you, though if it makes you feel better then I forgive you… I will always protect you, you’re the love of my life,” you responded with a soft smile. Having begun the mending of your relationship you two shared a short kiss before Keqing brought over some food and medicine for you to take; it would take time for you to get better, but at least you were still alive.
#genshin impact#keqing x y/n#genshin keqing#angst/comfort#genshin scenario#genshin fanfic#fatui!reader x genshin#fatui!reader x keqing#genshin x reader
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