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paper-n-ashes · 3 years ago

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sparks and embers - chapter 1

Characters: Poe Dameron x Original Female Character, Kylo Ren x Original Female Character

Story Tags: Explicit (18+), Canon Compliant/Divergent (Set after TLJ), First Person POV, Love Triangle, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Porn with Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Kylo Ren hates Poe Dameron

Summary: Alexys is a doctor living a life of exclusivity on Raxus, hoping to survive through a peaceful existence, concealing herself from those she believes would use her, or kill her. When fate intervenes and instigates a perilous journey she'd been desperately trying to avoid, Alex finds herself caught in the middle of two sides in both war and love.

Preface: Let me say, I am immensely nervous about this. After months of back and forth inside my mind, I’ve decided to go for it and begin the long process of moving my long running series to Tumblr, along with changing the name (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time). I hit a big emotional road block after over a year of writing and posting, so I’m hoping this move will eventually get me back into the swing. But for now, I’m looking forward to revisiting the beginning of this space love triangle.

If you’ve already read the saga, absolutely NO pressure to read again. Each chapter will be edited a little, but no major plot points will change. To any newcomers who find themselves interested, the story is already posted on AO3 if you are desperate to continue. Otherwise if you prefer reading on Tumblr, or simply like the forced breaks between chapters, I’ll be posting a new chapter every couple of days. I know it’s not written as reader insert, but I just couldn’t make the story work out in any other fashion. I poured a lot of love and heart into Alexys so I hope you’ll give her a chance.

Chapter 1 - Crash Landing

Words: 3.4k

Chapter Tags/Warnings: descriptions of severe injury including blood and bone, medical procedures

Read on AO3

I felt it before I heard it.

A booming crash of metal and glass, sending a shattering vibration through the walls and furniture around me. After the years of mostly silence I’d become accustomed to, the noise that came pummelling into my ears almost made me shriek in surprise. It was short lived, coming and going in a flicker so quick I had to wonder if it was real at all.

Lights began to flash, blinking rapidly in uneven time. The mixture of harsh beeps indicated something was faulting my electricity circuits, plunging me into the darkness of night over and over.

I could only question myself again at the plausibility of this being a dream, but the slow, increasing creak emanating from beyond the walls of this building brought me to a certainty.

Something had crashed outside.

Fear radiated through my limbs, leaving me stuck where I was standing for a few moments, before an uncontrollable urge of selflessness and honestly, curiosity, forced me to move and exit the safety of my clinic.

There wasn’t really a way to prepare for what I saw not metres away from my front entrance. A ship, an X-wing of some variety, was wrecked into itself, varying metals twisted and curled over each other, flames beginning to billow out from the creases. I could feel the heat of them rise as I cautiously stepped forward, taking in the scene with wide eyes. Only seconds had passed when I saw it – the movement of something – no, a person, demanding my attention. The pilot of this battered machine had been thrown just beyond the edge of its hull, broken transparisteel smattering the ground around them.

Hm, the Resistance should probably investigate their flight safety measures.

That thought quickly flittered away when the pilot moved again, this time with a painful moan echoing into the atmosphere. The switch inside quickly flipped, and an all too familiar feeling of conviction flooded through.

This is your cue Alexys.

I raced quickly to the pilot and knelt on the ground before them, fingers carefully removing the black and red helmet with both urgency and restraint as to not cause any more possible damage to their head or neck. The moan I'd heard just moments before let me know this person had some kind of airway, but it was pertinent I assess further. With the helmet gone I noticed the short, lightly waved black hair of a man, his eyes pulled closed, a few bruises and smudges of grey soot smattered over his face. His chest was moving, laboured breathing with the occasional heave on inhale.

At least he’s breathing.

“It’s alright,” I insisted. “I’m here to help you.”

There wasn’t any discernible response from the pilot other than a groan that withered away slowly, and that in itself was worrying. Kneeling over his body, I placed two fingers under the line of his jaw, halfway down, trying to feel for a pulse. I could sense the thump of blood under my fingertips, but it was too slow, too faint, too uneven.

Not great, but it was enough for now.

I began to scan over his body, knowing it was time to assess what was giving him reason to cry out in pain. There were severe burns on his left arm which had caused some of his flight suit to stick to the skin, with more scalds reaching down to his torso and abdomen. His right arm was almost definitely broken with the limb morphed into an irregular angle almost halfway along.

Without being able to look at them directly to ascertain whether I was going to be able to move him, I pressed on his hips gently, silently praying he hadn’t broken his pelvis. He muffled softly, but anyone who had actually shattered the bone would have screamed. As my eyes continued to scan down, it became obvious all too suddenly the shattered edge of his right femur bone poking out of the orange flight suit.

Kriff, this is not ideal.

I wanted to kick myself for not noticing it before, but there was no time, not with the very real possibility of him bleeding out in front of my eyes. My feet moved under me, racing back to the clinic room, knowing where the bandage and splint lay waiting, along with the anaesthetic injections I had stocked in the pharmacy cupboard.

He was certainly going to need them.

Within minutes I was back to the ground with the pilot, clicking together the injector handle and vial, piercing the needle straight into his thigh above the fracture site. I wouldn’t be able to wait for it to dull most of the pain, so internally, I braced myself for the scream I was about to elicit from this poor human's chest. The second I started to wrap the bandage around the splint, a piercing wail echoed through the air, almost causing me to hesitate. Still, my hands continued to haphazardly wrap the white material around his leg, pushing through the guilt it ignited.

Suddenly, the noise stopped.

My eyes darted to his face as his head slumped over on its side. “Hey!” I shouted into his face as I scrambled back to the top end of his limp body. “Hey can you hear me? Open your eyes if you can hear me!”

There was no response.

I pinched at the muscle on his shoulder, harder and harder to elicit any kind of reaction. Nothing. My hand pulled into a closed fist and grinded against his sternum. “Come on, open those eyes if you can feel this!”

Still nothing.

Again I took check of his breathing, chest still rising and falling, yet shallow and with little power. His heartbeat had begun to race, but through my fingertips I could feel the strain in the muscle. Something was seriously wrong, even more so than his other injuries. Something internally. If I didn’t get him into the clinic, he was going to die.

In a snap decision, I chose to forgo an attempt to run back and locate the hover-stretcher. It would take too much time to set up and power on, time this man didn’t have. I would have to move him myself.

How the hell am I going to do this?

With my arms hooked and locked under his armpits I began to drag the pilots hefty body backwards towards the clinic behind me, thankfully only a few meters away, barely making it past the entryway when a roar of flames overtook the X-wing. I looked up to see the blaze almost completely engulfing the ship, a ferocious heat searing into my eyes and face. With even more urgency I heaved the body into the large clinic room, getting up and slamming the door just in time. Just before a house rattling explosion sent shockwaves into the atmosphere.

Lucky didn’t seem to be an appropriate feeling considering the situation I was in, but at least no one had died. Yet. With my last bit of brute strength, I hoisted the pilots limp body onto the closest hospital bed, noticing then the trail of red liquid I’d brought along with me.

Oh no no no.

With him still lifeless, I tugged at his body and limbs to lie flat on the bed, scurrying to my medical trolley and hauling it back to where the pilot laid, ragged breaths still thankfully escaping into the air. Snatching the heavy shears from the top drawer, I began to tear through the thick fabric of the flight suit, unclipping and removing as much of the life support vest and belt as I could. I had to be careful not to rip away the fabric that melted into the burns scattered all over his body, the number of them increasing as I peeled away the suit, starting from his legs, up to his abdomen and chest over to his upper arms. His torso was in full view now, a smattering of dark hair over his pectorals, underneath which showed the bruises of his crash’s impact.

Oh he’s definitely got some broken ribs.

As my gaze scanned over his skin, I could finally isolate where all that blood had escaped from. A deep penetrating wound just below the last rib on his left flank. As I registered his quick shallow breaths and the uneven rise in his chest, it became obvious.

Collapsed lung.

Whatever had pierced through his chest had poked an extremely damaging hole in his lung, the pleural space now filling with air, leaving no room for his lung to expand. My following movements were swift and calculated, almost automatic. A pointed scalpel was soon in my hand, poised to cut. But I couldn’t help but hesitate. It had been so long since I’d had to do this. And yet, somehow, concern for this stranger’s life was quick to weave it’s way through, dissolving my fear into pure resolve.

I made my incision in between the 4th and 5th ribs, using a clamp to push into the underlying tissue and past the pleural cavity, a gloved hand then entering to check I’d made it through. With an instinctive confidence, I guided the chest tube between the layers of tissue, undoing the ratchet of the clamp to an immediate rush of air. The pilot’s chest heaved in relief, along with my own.

One crisis averted.

But there was more to do. Connecting a drain to the tube, I haphazardly sutured it in place, before flying to the pharmacy cupboard. My stock of bacta was limited, returning with an already prepared vial into the pressurised injector, reminding myself I would need to use it sparingly if this stranger was going to make it through the full extend of his injuries. I had cursed at myself only a few times in the years past at being so far removed from a higher level medical centre that would be overflowing with bacta and medical droids that could help in exactly this kind of situation, but the thought had never burned me so badly. There was no way to know if I could keep this man alive with the resources that yesterday I had been more than comfortable with. I would just have to try.

I injected some of the bacta solution throughout the surrounding area of the wound and covered it with heavy dressing, knowing the bleeding would quickly be curbed. Unfortunately, the wound itself would take a few days to fully close, only ever being able to afford lower quality bacta. Before moving on to the burns, I placed some basic monitoring, lines extending from electrical dots over his chest, wrist and neck to the data monitor above the bed. As the numbers lit up on the holo screen, I felt myself breathe a small sigh of relief, having prepared for a much worse result. His heart rate was better, oxygen levels returning to normal, blood pressure not optimal by any means but high enough to sustain his life, for now.

After securing an oxygen filter over his battered face, I continued to inspect and clean as many of the small and more sizeable burns dotting his body. Even with the many I had uncovered, the one extending from his shoulder past his elbow was the one of most concern. Third degree and extremely unhappy looking. If I wasn’t quick to treat this, it could leak even more fluid from his already compromised circulatory system. I was thankful he still remained unconscious when I began to slowly shed the charred material melted into the skin layer. I couldn’t help but shudder as I remembered the initial scream this man had let out, knowing I would be hearing it now if not for his comatose state.

Covering the immense scald in as much salve as I could spare, I began to wrap it in protective antibacterial bandage, soon moving on to protect his many blisters and deeper burns with dressings. Glancing at the monitor screen, he was still stable, and swallowed hard. Now it was time to attempt possibly the most daunting part of this patient’s treatment.

His femur was still sticking through the tissue of his thigh, slightly dried dark red blood creating lightning strike looking lines extending from the wound.

I need to get some blood into him before moving this.

I quickly got to work on an IV cannula, his poor blood pressure making it significantly more difficult than it should have been. Two bags of O- blood were all I had, and a wave of dread coursed through me with the thought of that not being enough if this all went wrong. My fist squeezed the fast flow pump of the IV line, pushing fresh blood urgently into his system, making his blood pressure rise only slightly. With the last of the red liquid trickling through the line I wheeled over the portable X-Ray. It was so old the mechanical arm screeched at me as I positioned it into place over the pilot’s leg. The bone had to be at least somewhat in place before getting the bacta to work its magic or this guy might walk with two uneven legs for the rest of his life.

If he actually made it through the rest of his injuries, that is.

Shaking my arms out at my side, I sucked in a few deep breaths to build my stamina. Unfortunately, this stranger was stuck with a small framed female to attempt reducing his severe fracture. With one last inhale, I drew the courage to pull as hard as I could horizontally at the knee joint, digging my fingers into a vice grip around the limb and yanking it towards me. To my relief, the fractured edge of the femur to slipped back into the hole it was peeking out from, settling back under the skin.

Thank all the stars in the galaxy he’s not awake for this.

I quickly pressed the image button on the X-ray to assess the progress I’d made. The faint white lines of bone edges were stark enough on the grey background of the image. The fracture wasn’t reduced even nearly enough. I prepared myself again, with another deep breath I pulled hard. This time my efforts were forced into angling the lower portion of bone to try and lock it back into place. The grinding of bone edges could be felt through my fingers, pushing myself to pull even harder, creating more space between the fracture in the hope of giving a fighting chance of lining up the splintered edges. My muscles were whining, begging for this to be over, tears of exhaustion soon stinging at the edges of my eyes.

With one final twisting motion there was a sudden click.

Finally.

My relief was short lived.

It was slow at first, before racing faster. A stream of dark red blood pooling at the wound the broken bone had made.

Oh maker no.

Within moments the pace of the blood quickened. I shot my hands to the open flesh site, pressing down hard in an attempt to disturb the flow. The liquid quickly covered my gloved hands, already sure I’d sliced into the femoral artery. The pressure of my hands into the area made the blood spurt out onto my arms, my clothes, my face, everywhere. The monitor was screaming, blood pressure falling quickly. Wiping some of the hot coppery fluid away from my left eye, I slid my fingers back into the gash, moving desperately to stop the overflow before the man lying in front of me bled out, knowing it would all be my fault.

You have to do it Alexys. He will die if you don’t.

The voice nagged at me, pleading to do what it wanted.

He’s with the Resistance! If he survives, if he contacts them, they’ll find me. And they’ll know.

It is time to decide. His life. Or yours.

Seconds ticked by fleetingly, numbers flashing on the monitor trickling down, the speed of blood flow from the pilot’s leg stubbornly keeping it’s intensity.

Everything I’d done to get here, to isolate myself so no one could find me. It would all amount to nothing. My easy, albeit lonely life, would be gone. All because of this stranger.

But I couldn’t let him die. Not like this.

In one flash, I removed my hands from inside the wound, ripping off my gloves and placing two palms at either side of the leg. With closed eyes, I willed the energy out of the depths of its slumber. From the darkened corner of my mind I pulled it back into existence, opening the gate I’d locked it inside for so long, letting it finally burst through and fill up my brain. From there it down through my neck, through my chest and down my arms, right to the end of my fingertips. Its warming glow was almost comforting, friendly. I would have basked in it for a while if not for the life that hung in the balance before me.

Through the pads of my fingerprints I pushed the stream outwards, connecting past the skin of this innocent human being, and felt the overwhelming heat of pain and dimming of energy.

Hurry, he’s dying.

I began to map out the tissue of his leg, frustratingly slowly, starting at the smallest of capillaries, weaving and winding through the flesh, connecting them through the maze of fat and muscle. I could feel the sweat forming on my forehead, my breathing forced and harsh. The vessels grew bigger as I pushed the energy through, skipping past broken points of other smaller injuries. I could fix them later.

Finally, I felt a molten warmth radiating close to where the maze had guided me. Racing to it, I sensed something pushing me back, the pressure of escaping fluid holding my efforts. I’d found the cut, but now I had to somehow knit it back together.

You’re taking too long.

The alarms of the monitor started to echo with a hollow ring inside my ear, fading until I could hear almost nothing. The world around me was blurry, only the image of vessel tissue and all-consuming redness visible in my minds eye. The energy I was expending began to burn me - I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer. I reached out with it, what felt like many hands grasping desperately at the severed edge of the vessel, frantic yet delicate, pulling whatever tissue I could hold back into place.

Several fringes connected, the pressure pushing forcefully against me, making it harder to hold. I couldn’t help but begin to shake at the strain, the sound of my own heart pounding over the slowing heartbeat of the pilot. My grip was already beginning to fade before I started to sew the pieces of artery back together, an ache growing behind my eyes as I pierced an invisible needle through the tissue, over and over, still clawing at the unsewn edges as I made my way around the tube.

I was so close, the tension of the fluid still being driven out of the broken seal almost overcoming me. The unseen thread had almost made its way full circle. I was almost there.

My entire body rattled with exhaustion and pain. One final thread wove itself around the artery, its abrupt closure alleviating the strain on invisible fingers that had been clutching it all together.

You did it.

The energy dissipated quickly in a rolling wave, letting it retreat back into my mind, scampering to the secluded area of my brain, hidden once more. I felt light suddenly, dizzy, the world coming back into focus, screaming alarms growing louder. It was too much, all at once.

A sharp pang of fatigue enveloped every part of my senses and I faltered back, knees giving way, slumping to the floor.

Then, there was only darkness.

Next Chapter

Tag list: @tlcwrites @roanniom @foxilayde @blackberries45 @hopeamarsu @caillea @princessxkenobi @direnightshade @mariesackler @leatherboundbirate @blowthatpieceofjunk @mylifeisactuallyamess @poedameronloverx @millenialcatlady @jynz-andtonic @lightsinthedistancee @star-killer-md @morby @modernpaw @cornmousequeen @paterson-blue

Just let me know if you would like to be removed or added, no judgement!

#poe dameron #poe dameron x original female character #kylo ren #kylo ren x original female character #star wars #star wars fanfiction #adcu #adcu fanfiction

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tweedlydumbtweedlydoo · 4 years ago

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Trouble, Trouble (Part 2) | Javier Peña x Murphy!reader

Summary: You’re Steve’s little sister and show up to Columbia for a visit. You catch a certain DEA agent’s eye.

A/N: I’m so sorry for the delay. I haven’t felt like writing and there’s been a lot going on at home. I finally got to writing this and I hope you all like it. It’s been a while since I’ve watched an episode of Narcos, so if i’m a little off character, apologies. Also, please ignore any grammatical errors. I read over it like three times but sometimes errors get through. Hope y’all like it! xx

!! It’s got some flashbacks in the beginning that might be triggering, so proceed with caution. !!

Tag list is at the end. Let me know if you want to be added xx

**MASTERLIST**

Requests: {OPEN} CLOSED

** Rules for Requesting **

** Who I Write For **

********************************************************************************************NOT MY GIF, CREDIT TO OWNERS (@ithinkwehitametaphor - owner is listed below the bottom of the gif)

You’d met Tony at one of the nightclubs in Miami. You were working as one of the entertainers for some extra cash when he’d took a liking to you. He started coming in every couple of days, making sure to leave a good tip for you. You hadn’t thought much of the cash. Cash was cash at this point and it was more than enough to cover your debts. However, Tony had come back a month later with a new group of guys, this time cocaine under their belts, which at the time you had no idea about.

Tony cornered you one night and asked about you wanting to make extra cash. Again, cash was cash and you were naïve. Your instincts should have been better considering who your brother was. You were to take the boxes which were to be delivered every Friday to other night clubs surrounding the Miami area. Rule was, no looking in the boxes. Just deliver them to the night clubs and leave it with the bouncer. You figured it was easy enough.

However, two months in, 8 deliveries total, you became brave and curious. What was this guy getting you to deliver? Why was it so secretive? Where was he getting the cash to pay you every week, especially the large sum that was delivered to you the next night after a delivery was completed. These are questions you probably should have asked yourself before getting into this situation, but again, you were naïve. You peeked into one of the boxes one night and there wrapped inside was cocaine. You knew right away, you were dealing with a drug cartel and there was no escaping now. The next night when you saw Tony, you told him you didn’t want to do deliveries anymore.

“You don’t want to do deliveries no more?” He’d asked you with a cigarette between his lips. It was you, Tony and two other guys in a private room. He never came without backup. Yeah, Steve had taught you self defense, but to take on three guys, who were all carrying guns? That was a death wish.

You shook your head, “N-no.. I.. I want to work here on Friday nights again.”

He narrowed his eyes at you, flicking the cigarette against the ash tray and bringing the cigarette to his lips again, “You stop making deliveries when I tell you to.” He stood and took a step closer.

However, when you stepped back, your back hit the chests of the two men. You gulped as you stared up into his dark and soulless eyes, “I just.. I miss my girls on Friday’s you know?”

He stared at you for a few moments before he gave a signal to his boys. The two men grabbed you by the arms and held you against them as Tony lifted part of your skirt and pressed the cigarette but into your skin and burning a small hole into your thigh. You’d cried and screamed against one of the man’s hands.

Tony gripped you by the chin and made you look at him, “You’re in this now, chica. There’s no escaping. You do deliveries until I tell you stop. You understand me?”

You whimpered against the man’s hands and as he dropped it so you could answer, Tony’s fingers gripped your chin even harder, “I said, do you understand me?”

“Yes.” You whimpered. The men’s grip on you loosened and you fell to your knees in a sobbing mess.

He had not been stupid. He knew you’d looked into those boxes. He also knew you were too scared to say anything. Especially when he personally delivered a note to your door that threatened to kill your family and that he knew you’d seen the deliveries. However, you were smart. You worked under a different name and he had no idea who you truly were. It was an empty threat.

You spoke to Steve a few days later during one of your routine checkup calls and you’d mentioned coming to visit. That’s when he told you no; Columbia wasn’t a safe place for you. However, you figured it safer than having to face Tony again. At least you would be with your brother. He could protect you right? Or would you be making a mistake and bringing danger to him?

“Please tell me there’s coffee.” You mumble out as you walk into the kitchen.

“Geez, you look rough.” Steve snickers into his mug.

You flip him the finger and make a face at him, “asshole.”

“Here is a cup and creamer is in the fridge.”

You gratefully take the coffee mug from Connie, “You’re a saint.”

A knock sounded on the door. “Probably Peña.” Steve comments before calling out toward the door, “Come in!”

“I smell coffee.” Javier says as he walks into the kitchen, slipping passed you he takes in your messy hair. You hadn’t slept well at all last night. “Damn, you look rough.”

Your mouth is agape as you stare at him. The balls on this guy, “Yeah well, so does that mustache you’re trying to grow.” You bump shoulders with him as you stalk passed him.

He holds a hand to his heart, “Ouch.” Connie and Steve can’t help but chuckle at the jab. He proceeds to make his coffee, “You want a ride to the office?” He directs his question to Steve, but you pipe up.

“Oh, can I tag along?”

“it’s not bring your little sister to work day.” Steve answers, “You’re gonna hang out here with Connie. Don’t want you roaming the streets and get lost or something.”

“Uh.. I have work today, remember?” Connie says, pointing at the calendar on the fridge, “it’s been written on the calendar for a week!”

“Damnit.” Steve mutters, “Fuck.”

“I’m not a little kid. I can handle being home alone.”

Javier leans against the counter and sips his coffee, “Why couldn’t she come? We haven’t had a lead in weeks and we’re probably going to be doing paperwork all day anyways.”

You raise your hand into the air, “Um hello, not a child. I can take care of myself. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Just let him baby you. Makes him feel better.” Connie teases Steve and gives him a kiss, then rounds the counter to give you a hug, “See you guys tonight.”

“I don’t get a hug or kiss?” Javier holds his arms out.

Connie rolls her eyes at his antics and blows him a kiss, “That’s as close as you’re getting to me. There’s no telling what diseases you have.”

The three of you finish your cups of coffee and you stand, “Let me get ready then we can go.”

“Hurry up or we’re gonna be late.” Steve takes the mugs and washes them out as you head to the bathroom to shower.

Javier can’t help himself as he watches you saunter to the bathroom. You can feel his eyes watching you and decide to tease him a little. A little teasing never hurt anyone. Leaving the door cracked, he can see your reflection in the mirror. He leans forward to get a better look around the wall, just in time to see you pull off your shirt and shut the door.

When you arrive at the Embassy, you three walk directly back to Javier and Steve’s desk. “Not too bad.” You comment looking around. You spot their board filled with photos of what you assumed were cartel members. Some had red X’s over their photos, indicating they were dead. There was a column for Columbia and another column for Miami. Your eyes scanned over the different photos.

“We shut down this group last week.” Javier boasts, pointing to the group of men on the left.

You nod, “Connie said Pablo was always one step ahead.”

Javier sighs and leans back against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest, “Yeah. The fucker is quick. I think we’re getting close though.” He points to the right side of the board, where Miami column was located, “Found out a few members are working in Miami.”

Your breath catches when you see his photo pinned to the board.

“His name is Tony. From what we know, he’s the one who delivers the cocaine to various clubs around Miami.” He could tell by the look on your face something was wrong.

Your face had gone pale, like you’d seen a ghost. You knew he was in the drug cartel, selling cocaine, but what you didn’t know was he was working alongside Pablo Escobar.

“Hey, are you okay?” Javier takes a step toward you and gently grabs your elbow.

You gulp and nod, trying to shake it off, “yeah yeah.. I’m fine.” You definitely were not fine. You were in trouble.

Narcos tag list: @neymarlionelmessi7 , @weirdowithnobeardo , @1950schick , @xremember-me-notx

*if your name is crossed out, tumblr is being stupid and won’t let me tag you.

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capcarolsdanver · 4 years ago

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Why Her? (Part 2)

Summary: This fic is based off a request from an anon after some speculations that have been made on my blog. Brie enlists the help of the reader to get a date with a girl that reader knows from class, only for unexpected feelings to be caught. Drama/angst/fluff to come! Pairing: Brie x Reader

A/N: Second instalment of Why Her? is here! Much longer than part 1! As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback, so please let me know what you think about anything. Particularly for this one, this is one of the first times I’ve written text messaging into a story and the way I formatted it didn’t translate well to tumblr. Do you think the story still read smoothly during this part? Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

Please do not repost my writing anywhere without my permission.

PART 1 | PART 3 | PART 4

You stare up at the ceiling from your spot on your bed. Thankfully, after the somewhat eventful morning you had, the rest of your day had been pretty low-key, and a calm day combined with the aspirins Brie had given you had you feeling much more like yourself by the time your last class had been dismissed.

You still feel that deep feeling of exhaustion from a late night of drinking and dealing with the consequential hangover, but at least your brain is back to it’s regular working order, giving you a chance to finally replay the unexpected chat you’d had with a total stranger that morning.

It was a ridiculous request she had asked of you. Absolutely ludicrous, in fact. You still can’t for the life of you figure out why Brie had sought you of all people out to help her, but you also can’t help but feel intrigued about the situation. On top of that, there’s something else you can’t quite comprehend that’s making you feel kind of compelled to help the girl.

You sigh heavily and reach into your jeans pocket, pulling out the small slip of paper you had torn out of your notebook earlier. You only look at it for another second longer before you grab your phone and add the number into your contacts. You type out a new text and hit send before you can even think about it.

"What’s in it for me?”

You drop your phone on the bed next to you, though you might as well have held on to it because it’s only a matter of seconds before your phone pings, signalling a new text. You pick up the phone again and glance at the screen.

"I don’t know, I suppose it depends on who this is and what you’re talking about…”

You mentally facepalm at your mistake, quickly tapping out another text.

“Sorry! It’s Y/N. You talked to me at the library this morning?”

This time you keep hold of your phone, expecting another quick reply.

“Oh, right! I should have known it was you. I don’t have a habit of handing my phone number out to people who I just meet, I swear!”

You smile, tapping out another response.

“Well that is why you need my help, right?”

“Ha ha. Very funny.”

You chuckle slightly, probably the first time all day you’ve even come close to laughing, and before you can reply again the bubbles indicating that Brie is typing another message pop up on your screen.

“So how’s the hangover treating you now?”

“Hangover is all but gone now. Thanks for the aspirin by the way”

“No problem. Let’s count that as just one thing”

Your brow furrows in confusion as you read her text, clearly missing something.

“One thing?”

“One thing that’s in it for you if you help me”

You roll your eyes, but can’t stop yourself from chuckling at her message. You’re startled when barely a second later your phone starts ringing, and you’re quick to sit up from your reclined position on your bed and tap the answer button, pressing your phone to your ear.

“Hello?”

“I figured this would be easier,” Brie says in lieu of a greeting. “Are you busy tomorrow?”

“Um. Why?” You say dumbly. You’re usually much more articulate when you speak to people, but so far you’re yet to show that to Brie.

“Can I buy you breakfast?” You’re silent, considering her offer, and she jumps in quickly again when she must misinterpret your pause as something else. “You know, so we can strategise.”

“Strategise?” you ask with a lilt to your voice. “What is this, some covert mission?”

“Come on, just humour me,” Brie replies. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I figured some planning can’t hurt, right?”

“I guess not…” you say unconvincingly, still entirely too unsure about the whole situation.

“Breakfast will be my treat. Count that as another thing to add to the “what’s in it for you” list.” Brie’s voice takes on a pleading tone and you sigh, running your fingers through your hair.

Despite your better judgement, you’re only silent another beat before you’re accepting her breakfast proposal. “Fine. Breakfast it is.”

————————

You stand outside the entrance of the small diner where you and Brie had agreed to meet for breakfast that morning. You’ve never been her before, though Brie had convinced you to give the place a go, singing her praises for the small diner that she apparently frequented often.

You glance in through the windows to see if you can spot Brie but the glare against the windows from the sun makes it impossible. You let out a quiet sigh and push the door open, stepping into the building.

Surveying the interior of the diner, you’re met with the overwhelming and inviting scent of coffee, something you desperately crave in the mornings. You notice a waitress behind the counter towards the back of the diner, and she smiles and nods towards you in greeting before turning to talk to one of her co-workers near the open doorway to the kitchen.

“Y/N, over here!” you hear and your head snaps to the direction of the voice. Brie is seated at a booth near the corner of the diner and she eagerly waves you over. She grins at you as you approach the table and sit down opposite her.

“Well, someone seems awfully chipper this morning,” you say in greeting. You do try for a light tone, though your words come out as more of a grumble. Mornings were never really your thing. No matter how many morning classes you attend, you never seem to get used to being expected to function so early in the day.

Brie watches you, clearly stifling a laugh, though she doesn’t hide her amusement when you squint your eyes at her in a glare.

“Something funny?”

“No, of course not,” she says, but does little to hide how much she is apparently enjoying your suffering. Not that you’re being dramatic or anything. She looks off in the direction of the counter and captures the attention of the waitress who you had seen when you walked in.

“We better get you some coffee before you do something crazy, like murder me or something.” When your face scrunches up in question at her words she shrugs, her eyes cautiously scanning you. “You kind of have this look that tells me you hate my guts for making you wake up too early to come have breakfast with me.”

“Sorry,” you say, trying to relax your facial features and drop the scowl that is apparently a permanent fixture on your face every day before your first cup of coffee. “I’m not really a morning person.”

Brie breathes out a laugh. “Yeah, I kind of figured that one out on my own. I’ve known you barely 24 hours and both times we’ve spoken face to face I’ve worried you would bite my head off for talking to you so early in the day.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! I was hungover yesterday. Nothing I said or did should go towards your opinion of me as a person.” You notice too late that the waitress, whose name tag says “Dani”, is now standing by your table. Her eyes are filled with just as much amusement as Brie’s and you smile sheepishly at her, realising that she’d caught your small outburst.

“Morning, Brie,” she says, though her eyes remain on you. “I see you’ve got a friend with you today.” You feel your cheeks heat up with embarrassment and you have to consciously stop yourself from shrinking down into the booth.

“I do. Dani, meet Y/N. She desperately needs coffee.” Dani laughs and you shoot a glare at Brie, though she isn’t wrong.

“Coffee coming right up. Any food?”

You realise that in your non-morning person brood, you haven’t taken even a glance at the menu yet, but your empty stomach tells you that you don’t want to dismiss Dani without placing your breakfast order first.

Brie watches your silent dilemma and catches your eye. “The pancakes here are amazing. Especially their blueberry pancakes. They may be my favourite food.”

Your stomach loudly grumbles and your face flushes in embarrassment again. “Well apparently my stomach thinks pancakes sound good,” you mumble when the other two women laugh, though not unkindly, at your stomach’s interruption.

“Okay, so two stacks of blueberry pancakes and two coffees?” Dani asks and Brie nods in confirmation.

“Thanks, Dani,” she says and the waitress smiles and spins around, making her way back to the counter. You don’t even realise your eyes are following her as she saunters away until the sound of a throat being cleared brings your attention back to Brie.

“See something you like?” she teases.

You drop your eyes to the table, annoyed at the amount of embarrassment you’ve already experienced today.

“Hey,” Brie says. You see her hand reach across the table, though it stops short of meeting your own hand and she rests it on the table between the two of you. You look up and you’re surprised by how serious she looks. “I’m just teasing, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you say, acknowledging how sincere her apology seems to be. You drop you gaze again, her eye contact too intense to maintain in the moment. You can practically feel her eyes all over you, carefully looking you over.

“I didn’t know you were into girls,” you hear her say, though it’s so quiet that you have to glance up again to make sure you hadn’t just been hearing things.

“Why would you? We literally only just met.” You shrug with as much nonchalance as you can muster. You don’t generally care when people learn about your sexuality. It’s not something you hide, though it’s also not something you confidently broadcast either. You were always cautious of people’s reactions, and unfortunately during your time in college you have dealt with some bad apples who have given you hell for it. At least the majority seemed to accept it perfectly fine, though.

“I know, but my gaydar is usually pretty on point. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I mean, look at how you’re dressed.” She gestures at your clothes and you glance down at the patterned button up shirt you had lazily thrown over the top of a white singlet that morning, which is paired with your favourite pair of jeans.

You know the way you dress isn’t typically “feminine”. You’ve had comments from friends, and even strangers, about your not-so-straight fashion sense. In fact, you’re pretty surprised that just yesterday, she was so confident that Sarah is attracted to women that she had approached you to help her get a date with her, despite not even knowing Sarah. Yet she apparently hadn’t even considered that you could also be into women.

Though, to have her scrutinising your outfit of the day while she sits directly in front of you makes you a little uncomfortable and you squirm under the heavy gaze of her eyes on you.

“So, you wanted to make a plan?” you ask, pulling her attention away from you for the moment.

————————

“Here you go.”

You look up from your spot on the uncomfortable couch you find yourself sitting on. Brie holds out the drink she had promised you and you gratefully take it from her.

“Thanks,” you say. Brie drops onto the couch next to you and her disruption threatens to spill your newly acquired drink, but you manage to balance it enough to keep the contents of your cup from spilling over the edges.

You take a sip and Brie watches as your eyes widen and you almost wince when you swallow the liquid. “Wow,” you cough out.

Brie laughs. “I thought you’d probably appreciate a strong drink seeing as I dragged you to a party you didn’t want to come to tonight.”

“Well, you thought right,” you laugh, and feeling brave, you go for another sip of the drink. You can’t help the wince this time. Brie grins widely at you in response and takes a sip of her own drink.

“Any sign of her yet?” Brie asks.

“Not yet.” You shake your head and turn your eyes back to the open doorway that you have been diligently watching since basically the moment you took your spot on the couch.

You had only arrived at the party minutes earlier, and it’s still only early, but the crowd have already significantly grown in size since Brie left you alone to get the two of you your drinks.

You and Brie had planned to come here together after she had somehow found out that Sarah was planning on attending. You had begrudgingly agreed. The last party you attended was a good few days ago now, and this one thankfully won’t be followed by another school day. But you still feel like you have sleep to catch up on, and you certainly aren’t going to be able to do that when you’re being dragged along to more of these parties by Brie.

You turn your head away from the door to look at Brie. You actually take her in for the first time that night. She’s dressed in a pale blue a-line dress that suits her really well and her hair is up in a bun, a few strands loose around her face. She effortlessly looks beautiful.

You personally had opted for a more casual look, knowing that you weren’t coming here to impress anyone tonight. You’re wearing your favourite pair of jeans and a grey shirt. Simple enough to pass as a reasonably acceptable outfit for a college party.

Brie seems more anxious than you’ve ever seen her, although you can tell she’s trying to cover that up with all kinds of fake confidence. She still can’t seem to control the bounce of her knees though, and her eyes scan practically every person that walks passed you.

“How you doing over there?” You ask.

“Hm?” Brie turns to you. She’s nervously biting her lip and you can’t help it when your eyes drop to the action on their own accord. You catch yourself after a second and quickly meet Brie’s eyes again.

You internally scold yourself. Now wasn’t the time to let your mind get any ideas about Brie, especially while you’re at a party with the sole purpose of helping her get with some other girl.

“You seem nervous,” you tell her.

“I do? Shit,” she frowns. “I was going for confident.”

“Wow, you really weren’t lying when you said you struggled with talking to women you were interested in, huh?” You barely stifle a laugh, though you do feel a little guilty when she defensively shoots you a glare.

“Don’t be a dick,” she pouts. “I told you that’s why I need your help.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” you say, hoping she can pick up on the sincerity of your words. “I’ve just never seen you this nervous. I thought you were exaggerating.”

“I wasn’t exaggerating,” she says unnecessarily and huffs out a breath. You can feel her anxiety climbing by the second and her eyes still continue darting around at all the partygoers as they walk by. You realise it’s up to you to try to calm her down.

“Brie, hey,” you say, surprising even yourself with the gentle tone your voice drops to. When she doesn’t look at you, you drop your hand to her bouncing knee, settling it. Her eyes land on the contact before she looks up at you. “Why don’t you have a drink to calm your nerves a bit?”

“Right,” she says when you gesture to the drink in her hands that she’d apparently forgotten about. She lifts the cup to her lips and gulps down almost all of it at once. She winces a little, so you assume she’s made her drink just as strong as yours as well.

“Better?” You ask. She shrugs a little in response.

“I guess we’ll see.” She breathes in deeply, slowly releasing the air from her lungs in an effort to further calm herself down. You can feel her knee begin to bounce again underneath your hand, and you’re immediately reminded that you had never removed it from her leg.

Going against your initial impulse to yank your hand away from her skin, you choose instead to squeeze her knee. It promptly stops moving again and you purposefully avoid making eye contact when you feel her eyes land on you again.

“Let’s just keep talking to keep your mind busy, okay?” You say, and when you see her nod in your peripheral you continue. “So, we’ve talked a few times now but I still have no idea what you do,” you state, though you trail off and pose it almost like a question, prompting her to fill in the gaps.

“I’m an actor,” she says, and you almost give yourself whiplash from how quickly you turn to her in surprise. Her eyes widen at your sudden movement.

“Wait, you’re an actor? Shouldn’t you be able to, like, act confident when you’re talking to someone you’re interested in or something?”

“It doesn’t quite work like that,” she grumbles, finishing what remains of her drink in one more gulp and dropping her cup onto the coffee table in front of you. “Put me in front of a camera and I can pretend to be an entirely different person, but it doesn’t work the same way for me in my own life.”

“I can totally start following you around with a camera if that’ll help,” you joke lightly in an effort to lighten Brie’s mood. You instead receive a glare from her, though you do think you see a hint of a smile on her lips before she faces away from you. That hint of a smile, however, is quickly wiped from her face as you see her eyes lock onto something ahead of her.

“Oh shit,” Brie blurts out. “She’s here.”

Your eyes follow Brie’s line of sight and spot Sarah across the room. She already has a drink in her hand and she’s laughing amidst a group of her friends that you vaguely recognise. You wonder how long she’s been at the party for, and how both you and Brie managed to miss her entrance.

“Are you gonna go talk to her?”

“What?!” Brie asking incredulously, looking at you like you’re crazy for a moment before she looks back at Sarah. “No, we talked about this, remember? You’re supposed to introduce us.”

“Oh, right. Your super vague plan,” you titter, taking a sip of your drink and watching in amusement as Brie expectantly shoots you yet another glare.

“It’s not a super vague plan. It’s a step-by-step,” she stubbornly explains in defence, which makes you laugh more fully.

“A step-by-step? First step; I introduce the two of you,” you bring your hand up to your chin and look up as if deep in thought. “Remind me what the next steps are, again?”

“Shut up,” she sulks, weakly nudging you. “I’ve never done this before. I figured we’d just take it one step at a time.”

“Well that’s definitely the best way to describe whatever this plan is,” you chuckle. “One step at a time.” You finally reach the bottom of your drink and discard the empty cup next to Brie’s.

You take another glance in Sarah’s direction and notice that she’s slightly separated herself from the large group of people she was standing amongst before, talking to a smaller number of them. It leaves a perfect opportunity for you and Brie to approach her. You turn to Brie to tell her, surprised to find her eyes already trained on you.

“What?” you say self consciously, a feeling you’re not typically used to.

She clears her throat slightly and looks down at her hands. “Nothing,” she says, shaking her head a little. Her eyes lift to meet yours again and you struggle to maintain the strange intensity of her gaze. “I just wanted to thank you for doing all of this for me.”

“It’s no problem,” you say dismissively. You feel your cheeks flush for no reason in particular and you squirm a little under her gaze. “Should we go talk to her then?” You nod your head in Sarah’s direction and you feel the heaviness of Brie’s stare leave you.

“Okay,” she nods and you stand from the couch, taking the lead as you start walking towards Sarah. Brie follows closely behind. You’re unsure if it’s because her nerves are returning or because she doesn’t want to risk losing you in the ridiculously thick crowd you now have to manoeuvre through, but she maintains the tight distance between you.

When you finally reach the other side of the room you see Sarah leaning against the wall, drink in hand as she absentmindedly listens to whatever one of her friends is rambling about.

“Hey, Sarah,” you say, although it’s more like a shout over the music. Sarah curiously looks in your direction and spots you, her face lighting up with a grin.

“Y/N! Hi!” She quickly says something to her friends and steps away to join you, greeting you with a friendly hug. The interaction only catches you off guard a little. “I didn’t know you’d be here,” she says when she pulls away from you.

“Yeah, I decided to come last minute,” you explain. “I actually brought a friend with me.” You expectantly turn to Brie, silently urging her to step forward from where she was awkwardly lingering behind you. “This is Brie. Brie, this is Sarah.”

Sarah’s bright smile remains on her face when she regards Brie. “It’s nice to meet you, Brie!” She doesn’t go so far as to hug Brie as she did with you, but she does offer her hand to Brie. Much like you when Brie had offered her hand to you in the library the other day, Brie seems to be a step behind as she looks down at Sarah’s hand for a long moment. Her brain eventually catches up and she rushes to grab Sarah’s hand with her own.

The handshake is awkward at best, but Sarah easily lets the moment pass. “So how do you ladies know each other?”

You and Brie share a quick look and both begin stumbling over your words, but you’re luckily saved from any further embarrassment when a guy from Sarah’s friend group calls her name, pulling her attention away for a second. He gestures for her to join the group again and she nods at him, turning back to you and Brie.

“Well, I hate to cut this short, but I’m being beckoned,” she says with a playful roll of her eyes. “I’ll catch up with you guys later on?” She asks.

“Yeah, for sure,” you say. “See you later.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Brie blurts out. It takes more energy than you’re willing to admit to keep from laughing at her. To Sarah’s credit, she smiles back at Brie kindly.

“You too,” she says, and then she’s turning on her heels to join her friends again.

“Oh my god,” Brie says, facepalming. “I literally only talked to her for less than a minute and I managed to make a fool of myself.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” you try to reason.

“Are you kidding? That was a disaster.”

“It’s okay. One step at a time, right?” Brie reluctantly lowers her hands from her face to look at you. “We just have to figure out the next step now,” you shrug.

“I guess.” She groans, and with one last fleeting look towards Sarah, she faces you again. “Are you ready to go?”

“You don’t want to stay a little longer? Sarah said she would find us later on.” Honestly, you’ve been more than ready to leave the party since you arrived, but you also feel bad for Brie. It’s obvious that she’s internally berating herself and you don’t want her to leave the party early if she wants to try redeeming herself tonight.

“Nah, I think I’ve done enough damage tonight,” she laughs self-deprecatingly. “Come on, I know you don’t want to be here either.”

She walks towards the open door and you have no choice but to follow her, catching up with her once she’s already outside. You walk silently along the empty road together, both deep in thought. The silence of the night is more pronounced now that you aren’t surrounding by blaring music and loud shouting.

Your mind runs wild, going from topic to topic. You vaguely wonder if you’re heading in the direction of your dorm building, and then you’re wondering what time it is. And then finally, your mind lands on something that seems to come out of nowhere.

“Why her?” You suddenly ask, not entirely sure where the question comes from. Though now that the words are out of your mouth, you realise that you are eager to hear her response.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… why her?” You repeat. “I get it, I do. But you barely know her. You only talked to her for the first time tonight.”

The words seemingly slip out of your mouth without your permission, and in the back of your mind you wonder if the drink Brie had made you was even stronger than you first thought. Brie opens her mouth and closes it a few times, her pace slowing slightly before she eventually looks at you again.

“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I’ve seen her at a couple of these parties now and she just always seems to catch my eye.” She seems to search for more words and she comes to a halt on the side of the road, causing you to stop too.

“Why not her?” She eventually says.

You end up contemplating her question for the rest of the night.

#brie larson imagine #brie larson x reader #brie larson fic #mcu imagine #captain marvel #captain marvel imagine #brie larson #mine #fic

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sinsbymanka · 4 years ago

Note

Hey. I'm sorry. So. Your post about sunseekerknight is really long and it seems out of date. I thought everything had been resolved and she promised to make amends but this all started back around again and it sounds like your issue isn't solved. Can you update me real quick? Sorry.

Thanks for being polite and coming to me. I’ll try to summarize things to the best of ability while also noting this is kinda a clusterfuck. It got long, so it’s under a cut.

In March 2020, I commissioned @sunseekerknight (I’m blocked so I can’t actually @ her) to do a Tarot Card commission of my Inquisitor for $80. I sent the money via PayPal friends and family as she requested which is something I no longer do for artists, even though I’d done it before with no problems.

The main post goes over my initial experience really well - the repeated attempts at contact and missed deadlines. This post was made on June 18, 2020 and blew up. I informed Ada that day I was making the post and she told me she’d be doing so as well.

I’d already filed the PayPal claim which was ultimately denied because I’d sent the money via friends and family, despite SSK’s assurances she’d help me resolve it in my favor.

I didn’t hear from SSK after this and I didn’t contact her. My father passed away on June 20th and I was busy dealing with the personal fallout of that (he’d been in the hospital the whole month of June as it was) so my priorities swung towards processing my own grief and planning what happens next.

On July 10th, my PayPal claim was denied. I forwarded the claim to SSK with the following message:

I want to inform you that PayPal has indicated, due to the way you asked me to send the funds (friends and family), they are unable to provide any sort of refund based on their policies. It is your responsibility to make the refund.

Because of the history of fraud I've uncovered, I will be pursuing this further. I am, in particular, asking PayPal to mark this account as one used for fraudulent transactions and scamming money before closing it. My hope is that this account is in your real name and that getting this account marked for fraud has real consequences you have to live with.

I honestly didn’t expect to hear from SSK again, but I did on July 12th:

Oh, I see. Now the difficult situation has become even more difficult. I'm sorry to say this, but, as I said earlier, I had only two offers for people affected by my actions - a PayPal dispute or finished art. And since PayPal is useless in this situation, all I can offer you - is art. I’m still ready to finish your commission because I don't want you to be left with nothing. I would like to return the money, really, but it will take time and I don't know how much, considering the current situation on Tumblr. I still want to resolve this issue peacefully, despite what is happening now. I know that you don't trust me, and I understand this, as well as the fact that you are disappointed, angry, etc., but still I want to do at least something so as not to leave the situation as it is now. But if this is your final decision, then okay, I understand and accept it.

This message struck me as victim blaming. I am, after all, responsible for the situation on Tumblr which means she can’t get commissions. I reacted with some venom and my tone is not great here, but I do ask you to understand the frame of mind I was in here on July 13th:

I don't think it's fair to claim that PayPal is being unhelpful in this situation when it is you who are refusing to refund money for a service that was purchased and not completed. I think it would make me feel better if you started phrasing the "situation" in a way that took responsibility for it. Such as: "I cannot refund the money to you myself, because I spent it before delivering what you paid for, and I cannot get your dispute resolved through PayPal because I asked you to send the payment a specific way that precludes disputes."

I also feel hurt that immediately after I sent my email on Friday, you blocked me from Tumblr and turned all your social media accounts private. I can't think of why you would do this when you claim to still want to resolve this and when I have been more than kind. I find it difficult to believe that you didn't know what my review would cause - it sounds to me like this is something that has been brewing for awhile. Frankly, I'm amazed it took three years. I would also appreciate if, instead of blaming the "situation" on Tumblr for your inability to receive new commissions, you began taking responsibility for that as well. May I suggest: "My actions in the past three years have harmed many people and they are angry about it with good cause. Because I have damaged my reputation to a great extent, I will probably not receive many, if any, people willing to pay me money for commissions."

I fully expect to receive nothing from you: art or my money returned. When speaking with PayPal on Friday, they advised the only way to shut your PayPal account down is if I file a criminal complaint with the IC3, which is the US's Internet Crimes division of the FBI. I did so and sent them the screenshots I have of all our conversations, your posts on Tumblr, and links to the posts of other people who publicly came out regarding the same behavior they experienced. I'm uncertain I can withdraw my complaints from both PayPal and the IC3, and if I could I don't think I would. I'm sure this isn't something that is high priority for them, but I assume eventually they will contact you to discuss your actions. The way I see it, you have three options at this point in time:

Find some way to issue a refund to me, and any other customers you've wronged. If I am contacted by investigators, I will say a refund was eventually issued in my case.

Deliver the art you promised to me, and any other customers. If I am contacted by investigators, I will say a product was eventually delivered in my case.

Continue to ignore what you've done and hope that no real consequences come of it.

As to the art, I don't want it anymore. It has been tainted by this awful experience and I will not enjoy it. I will, however, accept it if you choose to do it to lessen whatever consequences you may end up facing because, truly, I'd rather you learn from this than end up with financial or legal consequences that are even more burdensome.

Honestly. I never expected to hear from SSK again. But I did because this is the drama that never ends. On July 20th:

I must apologize for the long silence. Sorry, I just got home from an unexpected vacation with my family, and I followed the advice of my parents and friends - spend these days away from work and the Internet to feel better. As I said, I understand you. You sound reasonable and you are totally right - it is my responsibility for that. And I'm trying to work it out, even if these are rather strange ways. And it wasn't about you personally. This was part of another problem with a friend I was trying to protect, and I followed the advice to keep the accounts private during the "war" and block some people on the tumblr during this time to avoid any collisions. But still, I was available for correspondence via email, and now all my accounts are again freely available. I know how it looks like, especially for you, when you have really been more than kind to me, and I cannot apologize enough to somehow change and improve this situation. I just fucked up on all fronts and I admit it. And I see, yes. I don't mind returning your art or money, it's just a matter of time. These are not days, these are weeks or months, and it is solely a matter of your patience. If you do not mind waiting, then I will try to return the money to you, since you no longer want art for obvious reasons. I understand and accept it, and it's okay. If you're willing to wait, I'll keep you informed of the refund situation and will do it as soon as I can.

You’ll note earlier I told you I can’t tag SSK cause I’m blocked. I’ve never been unblocked since July despite her saying she would. This is also the last email I got from SSK. I’ve had no communication since to my knowledge.

At this point in time I was tired. Really tired. It was bad news I got this email exactly a month after my father passed because I just didn’t want to do it anymore. This is my second to last email to SSK in response also on July 20th:

Please feel free to do what you need to do to manage the situation. For my part, I have said and done all I can. I have asked for a refund for a service you have been unable to provide in a reasonable time frame, and thus you are legally obligated to return my money in the same reasonable time frame. That time frame has passed already.

When I am contacted by authorities about this matter in response to my complaints, I will tell them you have promised refunds but have not delivered. The only thing you could do to change this answer is to issue a refund before I am contacted.

This exchange is draining and unhelpful for me. I ask that you please do not contact me again until you are ready to issue a refund.

On September 25th, I was informed SSK had successfully opened commissions on Twitter and Instagram. This spurred me to send one final email:

I've been informed you recently reopened commissions to buy yourself something and met your goal, even though you only advertised on Twitter and Instagram.

I would like to remind you that I'm still owed a refund AND you shouldn't spend that commission money until you deliver on that art. Please do not rip and entire new group of people off.

There are other people, in the notes of the original post, who can attest to terrible experiences similar to mine. In particular, @starsandskies, @vorchagirl, and @charlatron have all come forward to talk about what she’s done and their experiences. Her pattern seems to be to open commissions, deliver a few, have the rest dragged out of her, and then to not do other ones. I drew the short straw this time.

I don’t know if she’s reading this - if she is, at this point all I really want is an apology, a list of people who are waiting for art/refunds from her, and a plan as to how she’s going to make it right. If she doesn’t do those things, I suspect I’m going to keep getting dragged back into this cluster for awhile to talk about my experiences.

If you’re waiting for artwork Non, open PayPal disputes and file complaints if you need to. The sooner the better.

#manka answers asks #sunseekerknight #this again #I'm tired of it again #sorry guys

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bulkyphrase · 3 years ago

Text

Everybody & the Avengers Team

I've got a new fic rec list for you!

The stories in the "X & the Avengers Team" tags focus on one person's relationship to the Avengers team as a whole. Courtesy of AO3's tag browse and Excel, here's a ranked list of the top 20 most popular pairings:

Tony Stark | 2470 total, 240 OTP

Peter Parker | 2255 total, 85 OTP

Steve Rogers | 602 total, 56 OTP

Loki | 387 total, 26 OTP

Natasha Romanov | 308 total, 35 OTP

Clint Barton | 268 total, 46 OTP

Bruce Banner | 244 total, 15 OTP

Thor | 209 total, 7 OTP

Avengers Team | 174 total, 24 OTP

James "Bucky" Barnes | 156 total, 7 OTP

Wanda Maximoff | 143 total, 4 OTP

Phil Coulson | 105 total, 9 OTP

Darcy Lewis | 91 total, 6 OTP

Matt Murdock | 60 total, 8 OTP

Sam Wilson | 53 total, 5 OTP

Nick Fury | 41 total, 5 OTP

Harry Potter | 40 total, 0 OTP

Pepper Potts | 31 total, 1 OTP

Vision | 29 total, 2 OTP

Stiles Stilinski | 25 total, 0 OTP

In chart form, if you like charts:

Notes:

The numbers after the names are the number of stories tagged with that ship. OTP means the number of stories where that is the only relationship tagged on the story. Numbers are accurate as of July 2021.

Story Recommendations

For your reading pleasure, included below is at least one fic rec for each pairing except the crossovers from non-Marvel fandoms (apologies to Mr. Potter & Mr. Stilinski). Most are gen fic, and even in the ones with a romantic pairing, romance is not the focus.

Tony Stark

As Subtle As Cognitive Recalibration by petroltogo (Teen, 8949) tumblr: @tonystarktogo

Standing inside his penthouse, listening to Rogers, Barton and Banner explain to Fury how they just happened to stumble over the Tesseract on a routine security check of Stark Tower’s roof and wouldn’t you know, they’ve managed to fight off the looming alien invasion before it could really start and secure the missing overpowered nightlight is one of the most surreal situations Tony has ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

Peter Parker

the worst field trip ever by shrill_fangirl_screaming (Teen, 3420) tumblr: @i-am-having-an-emotion

"We're on a field trip," Peter said. "To here. And Tony decided to be our tour guide and absolutely embarrass me, so can you please help get him under control?"

Which is how Peter Parker, architect of his own destruction, ended up with not one but two superhero pseudo-dads being annoying on his school field trip.

Steve Rogers

Do You Remember Being Happy? ('Cause I Sure Don't) by GalaxyThreads (Teen, 11022) tumblr: @galaxythreads

That seems about right. He doesn't know how he knows that, though. He does have vague memories of an annoyed fondness at finding peanut butter in some sort of jam. Thor's doing, because he doesn't see the point of using two knives when one works just as fine. He knows that. How does he know that? He knows all those little details, though, almost innately. How can he know these strangers so deeply?

Everyone else below the cut!

Loki

Proprietary by TheThirdMarauder (Teen, 7639)

No, Loki simply wants the Avengers conquered. The details of whom, how, and when matter not. Unless, of course, said details interfere with Loki's plans. Then, well, then none can fault him for protecting his own interests.

Loki has always been exceptionally good at lying to himself.

Natasha Romanov

What Girls Are Made Of by enigma731 (Teen, 4613) tumblr: @enigma731

She rolls her eyes but does as he’s indicated, using his shoulders to leverage herself up onto his back, her arms around his neck and her legs hugging his waist.

“You know,” he says blithely, “this isn’t really what I tend to picture when I think of a hot girl riding me.”

Natasha groans, deciding that if his sense of humor gets them arrested, she’ll kill him herself. “Just go.”

Clint Barton

Dear Clint Barton (circa age 7) by pollyrepeat (Teen, 4221)

With a normal person, this might count as blackmail material, but a) this is a case of mutually assured destruction if ever there was one, and b) Fury is immune to embarrassment. Not just in the regular, Tony Stark way, either, oh no. Things that could possibly end up being embarrassing to Fury get somehow warped and changed until they go from mortifying all the way over into useful and/or good for his image. It’s like a superpower.

Carrying Clint’s small child self around on his shoulders more than once has probably already hit the interagency rumour mill as an example of Fury’s innate awesomeness: good with rocket launchers and small children.

Also available as a podfic!

Bruce Banner

They're Not Wrong by Trumpeteer34 (Teen, 10163)

As Tony began to pace around the hole in the road to keep himself from shooting repulsors at the nearby buildings in a fit of rage, Thor began to study the nearby area. There was no sign of either the Hulk or Bruce Banner beyond the crater. The surrounding area, aside from the rubble of the fight, held no clue as to their friend’s location.

“Guys, he’s gone,” Tony growled into the communicator on their private line, drawing Thor out of his darkening thoughts. “Someone tranqed him and took him. He’s gone.”

Honorary mention goes to the Responsible Science series by @letteredlettered - the stories don’t have the "Avengers Team & Bruce Banner" tag, but they could, and they are amazing. The best Bruce Banner writing I've ever come across.

Thor

Fortunately, I Am Mighty by onward_came_the_meteors (General, 3062)

Steve was the first one to speak. “Are you okay?”

Thor nodded. Which was a bad idea, as it turned out, because now there were little gray lights flashing in front of his eyes. “I’m fine.” Absolutely everyone narrowed their eyes, and he added, “But, uh. Could we possibly not get back in the car just yet?”

Avengers Team

Civil Wasn't by onward_came_the_meteors (General, 7123)

"We're having an ideological conflict here," Tony stated with disbelief. "Are you telling me you still want to go out to dinner?"

"It's a standing engagement, Tony," Rhodey reminded him.

"Not you too—"

"We already had to reschedule from Friday when Natasha was..." Rhodey frowned. "What were you doing?"

The question was directed toward Natasha, who shrugged and said, "Spy stuff."

James "Bucky" Barnes

You Know How I Feel, aka, The Adventures of Bucky and Muffy the Dinosaur by ifeelbetter (Not Rated, 4511) tumblr: @ifeelbetterer

“As you may have heard, Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier, recently rescued a tiny part-robot dinosaur during the Avengers’ battle with Dr. Doom in Antarctica,” the other newscaster explained. “Pictures of Barnes and the dinosaur were posted on twitter by fellow Avenger, Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, and immediately made Barnes’s new pet America’s sweetheart.”

“Her name’s Muffy,” said Steve."

Wanda Maximoff

and the woman was young again by Mira_Jade (General, 3669)

Tony Stark called them the Cap's Kooky Quintet, and sometimes the term amused her – causing her to lift a sardonic brow where someday a smile would truly smile. She enjoyed the presence of comrades – true comrades – and she enjoyed the way their minds wove and bound together about each other to fluctuate against her senses as one. There was something soothing about being in their midst, and even when their loud and brash ways – their painful Americaness - rubbed her raw and drained on her, it was ever the knitting of their minds that soothed those moments over, and made them inconsequential.

Phil Coulson

Coulson's First Day of School by storiesfortravellers (Teen, 3055)

Coulson looked up at him. “I like drawing pictures with Mr. Rogers. I like having tea parties with Ms. Potts. I like it when Dr. Banner reads me books, and I like it when Natasha teaches me things. And I like when you play with me. You do really good voices when we play action figures. And you’re the only one who lets me do stuff like jump off the high diving board at the pool or eat three cupcakes or play tackle with kids at the park.”

Clint didn’t realize that. He was pretty sure that meant that he was doing something wrong.

Darcy Lewis

Beginner Yoga for Dummies (Darcys) and Sad Hobos by chailover (Teen, 3434)

Darcy had a theory: crazy attracted crazy, working kind of like gravity. It was pretty much her explanation for her life after Thor. And if she had thought the type of crazy Thor attracted was bad, be it Loki or the Warrior Three and Sif, or the dark elves and the Convergence, it was still nothing against what the Avengers manage en masse.

Matt Murdock

Double Blind by smilebackwards (Teen, 2381) tumblr: @smilebackwards

Stark snaps his fingers. “You can’t see half of my inventions. This explains so much about you and why you’ve never been properly impressed by me.”

“Does it?” Matt says, ambiguously.

Sam Wilson

Bystander by scribblemetimbers (Teen, 52029)

“I just want you to know,” Sam says loudly, cautiously raising his hands, “That I’m very poor and very sleep-deprived and literally the only thing you can kill me for right now are my notes.” He pauses. Wait. On second thought: “Please don’t steal my notes.”

“I’m not—I’m not a mugger,” Not Mugger rasps out, and for all that he looks about to keel over and die, the man actually manages to sound offended.

Nick Fury

Bedtime Story by dixiehellcat (Teen, 2532) tumblr: @deehellcat

Fury snorted. “I have to check in with the duty officer. I’ll be back in, let’s say twenty minutes. I expect all of you to have whatever your pre-bedtime routines are completed, and be in here pajama’ed and ready to be read to.”

He tapped the book under his arm, then left with the usual dramatic swish of his long coat. Bruce scratched his head. “Did…he just say be ready to be read to?”

Pepper Potts

Pepper and the Avengers (Which She Knows Nothing About) by rebelmeg (General, 6696) tumblr: @rebelmeg

The Avengers, that mismatched group of hurt and heroism, was one of the most important things in Tony Stark’s life. So, naturally, Pepper had made them an important part of her life too.

Vision

039. Intoxicated by aimmyarrowshigh (Teen, 100) tumblr: @aimmyarrowshigh

It might be nice to fit in, just this once. To lose a bit of composure.

Vision floated over to the refrigerator and, with some timidity, pulled off a magnet. He stuck it to his forehead.

#marvel fic rec

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goodgirlsfanficawards · 4 years ago

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This Wednesday we’ve lined up five WIPs that feature pairings other than Beth and Rio. Make sure you check them out and leave a kudos or comment especially if you can’t wait to see what happens next!

Not So Simple by makemeanybraver

Annie x Nancy, 05 June 2020, T, 1/?

"Hey, Nance, you want to tell me what's going?" Annie said in a stern and defensive tone, but not trying to give too much anger. Annie walked past her and pulled off her beanie and scarf. She took a seat on the couch and patted the spot next to her. Nancy closed and locked the door again, then went and took that spot. She slumped over her shoulders, wrapped her arms around her knees, made herself look so small.

"I feel so useless. He cries and it takes me half an hour to find out what he wants. I give it to him and it takes him another half hour to be satisfied with it. And then, an hour later, he wants more and more and more," Nancy whined, looking down at her feet. She felt Annie's hand on her back, rubbing up and down to comfort her.

"I read about this... In all the books. But I didn't think it would happen to me because I wanted him so bad. We tried so hard to make it happen. Now that he's here, I don't feel happy... I just feel so... Exhausted..." she said as she started crying all over again, putting her face in her hands. Nancy slowly inched closer and closer to Annie until she was fully leaning up against her and crying on her shoulder. "And I can't stop doing this. Every night I cry myself to sleep," she whined softly, taking in a gulp of air with every other word. Now, Annie put both arms around her and squeezed her while rubbing her thumbs against her arms. She thought very carefully of what to say. Saying that it happens to everyone didn't seem very useful. Saying that I know how you feel didn't seem very comforting. Then Annie realized that if Nancy really cried herself to sleep every night, she didn't need to say anything comforting. She just needed to be there. And listen.

Navigate a Broken Path by flashindie / @pynkhues

Mary Pat x Mick, 15 Nov 2020, T, 12K, ½

The next night, he can only watch again as she spills out the medication on the kitchen table, rifling around for something to ease the baby’s cries, and then he remembers something else, and at least it makes sense.

The memory of how fucked up Rio had been when Marcus had croup, and shit, at least there was only one of him. He doesn’t know how she’s coping with all four kids wheezing and sneezing, and okay, maybe she’s not really coping, he thinks, watching when she stumbles outside, like she needs the air, the baby clutched to her chest and howling.

He watches her do a lap of the front yard and then another, kicking up khaki green grasshoppers as she tramples overgrown grass. Watches her neck flush red and her too-blue eyes close and the tears pearl in her lashes, and then he hears her too:

“You’ll get better, you’ll get better, you’ll get better,” she says, her voice raw, and Mick blinks and he sees his own hands, trembling as he tries to lay stitches in Rio’s side the first time, the second, the third.

He blinks and he sees them gripping the steering wheel too tight.

“Come on,” he hears her say. “Get better for mommy.”

Secret Escape by BreannaM13

Beth x OFC, 11 Dec 2020, E, 11K, 5/?

The woman climbed into the chair and ordered a beer. “Long day?”

Beth laughed, “Something like that.”

“I get that. Going through my own shit. Hints why I’m at the bar at 11 am.” she laughed. “Frankie by the way.”

“Hi, Frankie.” Beth greeted.

“You got a name?”

“Oh god. Yes sorry. It's Beth.”

Frankie laughed, “You really are having a rough day. Nice to meet you, Beth.”

Beth downs the rest of her drink and grabs her purse off the back of the chair. “Nice to meet you as well. I better get going, I have to get things done before my kids get home.”

“Here, let me pay your tab.” she gestured as she flagged down the bartender.

“Oh, that's not necessary.”

The woman looked at her with her big brown eyes, “How about I pay for your tab and then you pay me back by going out to dinner with me.”

Knock Knock by Melaniemia

Rio x OFC, 28 Dec 2020, M, 67K, 13/?

“Can I help you, sweetheart?” he asked, leaning against the door frame and regarding her cautiously. He didn't know this woman, and the fewer people who knew where he lived, the better.

“This is gonna sound crazy since you don't know me but I live in the apartment right next to yours and it got broken into today while I was at work.” she spoke so fast that he was immediately disarmed by her. She was obviously nervous, and wanted to be anywhere but standing here in front of a strange man she didn't know.

“You wanna wait in here until the cops come or somethin?” he asked, still wondering what she was doing here and growing more impatient by the minute. He still wanted nothing more then food and to collapse into bed.

“No, see I can't call the cops.” she said vaguely, making no indication that she was going to give him anymore information then that. “Just wondering if you had a baseball bat I could borrow for a few minutes.”

His eyes flashed a bit at this as he raised an eyebrow in response. He had pegged this girl all wrong, that much was becoming very clear.

“Sure do.” he smirked, grabbing his wooden bat from its place against the table directly to his right. He tossed it at her suddenly, surprised by her once again when she caught it without missing a beat.

It's All Coming Back To Me by BourbonOnTheRocks / @bourbon-ontherocks

Beth x OC, Rio x OC, 23 Jun 2020, M, 49K, 10/11

"I think I'm being followed," she explained.

They both remained silent for a while. He looked away with that amused expression on his face, the one he usually pulled on whenever he was about to explain to her why what she'd just said was ridiculous.

"Yeah... You think or you sure?" he asked.

He'd never trusted her. Since the very beginning. Obviously it could only get worse in the aftermath. She wasn't exactly sure of why he'd kept working with her. Of course she owed him money, but if she'd been in his shoes, she'd rather have written down that line under miscellaneous losses than gotten back in business with the very person who'd... done that. Whatever.

"Pretty sure," she replied with a defiantly raised chin.

Never tell Rio she was sure of anything, that was her number one rule. No, not exactly, it was probably number two, the number one actually being all about always standing at least five steps away from him. Anyway. Displaying absolute certitudes would be suicidal, that was the fucking point. He was too much of a I-told-you-so person for her to take that risk. He gave up pretty quickly this time, though.

If you know of anyone’s tumblr/twitter and we haven’t found it or tagged incorrectly, please send us an ask to let us know.

#good girls nbc #nbc good girls #good girls fanfiction #good girls fanfic #wip wednesday

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gaspardcaderousse · 4 years ago

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Masterlist of Amedot Moments & Tidbits

This is a post I originally made and maintained starting around the time Beta came out, but accidentally deleted it recently (rip the hundreds of notes it had accumulated). Luckily, I was able to find an earlier version via Google Cache, so behold: the edited masterlist, ten whole pages long in Google Docs. As of 1/30/2021, this contains every moment from the show and comics and won’t be updated unless more media is released in the future.

If you can think of anything I might’ve missed, please let me know! Reblogs are obviously welcome. I’ve also got a video of all amedot moments in the show if that interests you. Amedot rights!

IRL

Amethyst and peridot gemstones are commonly paired together in jewelry, similar to how ruby and sapphire (a canon couple) are.

There has been a fair bit of art of them drawn by the crew. There are multiple pieces of them interacting by Danny Cragg, Maya Peterson has drawn art of them (she has an amedot tag of her own art on her tumblr, plus some other romantically suggestive art of them together), Nicole Rodriguez has drawn shippy art of them (she doesn’t have an amedot tag, but some can be found in her peridot tag), comic writer Grace Kraft has drawn them (she has a tag), and Rebecca Sugar has drawn them together, too.

Catch and Release

When Peridot is running up the stairs, Amethyst pulls out her whip and says “Hey” to Peridot in a rather provocative tone.

Too Far

Peridot is obviously desperate for Amethyst to pay attention to her and see her as cool. She made jokes about the other gems to impress her (even if she was unknowingly being rude) and said to Steven that she thought she was being “cool” by doing so, and tries to make Amethyst laugh with her names for things (ex. “rythmatic pulverizer”). This behavior is typical of someone who has a crush, and was not just due to Amethyst’s status as a quartz; Peridot argues with and states that she dislikes Jasper, another quartz (and not a defective one, at that).

Peridot was visibly upset when Amethyst didn’t find her funny and said she felt “smaller” when Amethyst gave her the cold shoulder.

Peridot goes out of her way to save Amethyst from the drill head, even managing to break her leash in effort to do so.

After saving Amethyst, Peridot is shown to have fallen on her; that and her reaction seem to reference the anime trope where the character will fall on their love interest and immediately become flustered.

Peridot’s apology at the end of the episode! This is probably the most heartfelt apology she’s given (compared to her actions at the end of Back to the Barn and throughout Barn Mates), and she specifically calls Amethyst “the best gem here”. She also admits that she was in the wrong with her statements and this is the first time she does so – compare with Back to the Barn, where she acts like Pearl needed to prove herself to her before Peridot could apologize. In that way, this was a huge turn for her character.

That little exchange of smiles at the end. It’s adorable.

Steven’s Birthday

Amethyst invites Peridot to join them and even blows up a cute lil Peridot-shaped balloon.

It Could’ve Been Great

Peridot tries to impress Amethyst with her knowledge about gems (specifically how they immediately adjust to the gravity of any planetoid), and is disappointed/surprised when Amethyst doesn’t find it interesting.

Peridot tries to compliment Amethyst by saying that the Beta Kindergarten was nowhere near as impressive as the Kindergarten Amethyst originated from.

Message Received

Aside from Steven, Amethyst was the most visibly upset at Peridot’s betrayal, likely due to how close they were.

Log Date 7 15 2

When trying on the paint cans Steven gives to her, Peridot is shown to want to impress Amethyst with her new height. She also wants to show it off to Pearl, but she’s specifically trying to help Amethyst, whereas it’s just her height she wants to show Pearl; she wants Pearl to see how tall she is, and wants Amethyst to see how capable she is and actually wants to do something to actively help her.

If we assume Peridot’s shipping chart represents the gems, and that the green is Peridot and the purple is Amethyst, it is clearly shown that they are paired together.

Peridot’s descriptions seem to imply that Percy and Pierre represent Peridot and Amethyst respectively, and she obviously thinks those two belong together. At the very least, the pairs have similarities.

Amethyst says that she uses shapeshifting to be cool and directly shapeshifts into Peridot, showing that she obviously thinks Peridot is cool.

Amethyst is shown to know Peridot well enough to perfectly mimic her speech patterns, and says that she has been practicing doing so. She also says it’s “hard to beat the original”, to which Peridot responds to by blushing and giggling.

Peridot states that she finds Amethyst’s company entertaining.

Barn Mates

Peridot seems to be picking up some phrasing from spending time with Amethyst, directly referenced in the “Holy smokes!” scene.

Hit the Diamond

As soon as Peridot says that she’s scared, Amethyst immediately decides to ambush the Rubies in her defense.

Too Short to Ride

Peridot shows off her tablet-velcro innovation to Amethyst, attempting to impress her again.

Amethyst tries to win Peridot’s desired prize for her.

Amethyst gives a whole little speech to Peridot about how they like her for who she is, which shows that Amethyst genuinely likes Peridot for who she is and wants her to enjoy herself.

Amethyst tries to throw away Peridot’s tablet. While not necessarily the right thing to do, she was still trying to help Peridot in doing so. This also unintentionally means that Amethyst is the reason Peridot discovered her powers.

Amethyst also casually touches Peridot a lot throughout this episode (ex. putting her arm around her shoulders). Peridot doesn’t seem to mind this, in stark contrast to how she reacts when Mr. Smiley touched her.

Beta

Peridot is obviously very excited to see Amethyst; she runs down to see her, arms open wide, shouting her name happily.

Peridot is excited to show her art off to Amethyst (and specifically Amethyst).

When Steven tells Peridot why Amethyst is upset, Peridot doesn’t hold her attitude against her and immediately tries to make her feel better by telling her that she’s better than Jasper and insulting Jasper’s Kindergarten. I mean, it’s not the best way of comforting someone, but Peridot hasn’t been shown to be particularly good at comforting people.

This episode makes Amethyst the first person for Peridot to give affectionate nicknames (Ams, Big A).

Peridot is also obviously more physical with Amethyst (for example, putting her arm around Amethyst’s shoulder) similar to how Amethyst was with her in Too Short to Ride, even though Peridot seems to be have an aversion with physical contact except with those she is very close with.

Earthlings

Peridot seemed particularly worried when Amethyst left to fight Jasper, even more so than Steven did.

They both seemed to share a mutual desire to protect one another. Even so, they were also trying to protect Steven, so this doesn’t necessarily solely indicate romantic interest.

Back to the Moon

When Amethyst walked away from Peridot during Doc’s rant, Peridot reached out to her for a few moments.

The Kindergarten Kid

Given Peridot’s previous attempts to impress Amethyst, her behavior at the beginning of the episode seems to be in attempt to show off to her. She may also be trying to show off to the other three Crystal Gems as well, but she specifically says some things in response to Amethyst and has tried to impress her more in the past than the others, so this is possibly directed more at her.

Amethyst is the most clearly insulted by Peridot’s comments at the beginning of the episode, showing that she really does care about her opinion. However, she forgives her after Peridot beats the corrupted gem and admits her misjudgments.

Amethyst is the first to compliment Peridot’s ability to bubble.

Last One Out of Beach City

When they arrive at the party, Amethyst tells Pearl to talk to a nerd. While this isn’t necessarily just referring to Amethyst and Peridot’s own relationship, it could be interpreted that way, as Amethyst calls Peridot a nerd rather frequently.

Adventures in Light Distortion

Amethyst seems to be actively listening to and taking interest in Peridot’s comments about the space ship, shown further when she refers to Peridot saying the gravity engine “bends reality”. While not necessarily romantic, it does show how their relationship has developed since It Could’ve Been Great, when she mostly ignores Peridot’s similar comments.

The New Crystal Gems

When Lapis says she doesn’t know who Amethyst is, Peridot seems visibly annoyed.

Peridot indirectly states that she thinks Amethyst has a good sense of humor (an opinion which she has voiced multiple times before).

Back to the Kindergarten

Amethyst’s entire motivation in this episode is to cheer Peridot up; she obviously cares a lot about her wellbeing and emotional health. It is obviously very effective, as Peridot begins to feel better throughout the episode in direct response to Amethyst’s actions, which goes to show just how well Amethyst knows her, and how much Peridot cares about Amethyst’s opinion.

The first time Peridot smiles since the beginning of her depression is in direct response to Amethyst complimenting her. She’s also very visibly blushing.

The two are essentially flirting throughout the entire episode. Amethyst poses while leaning against a wall while complimenting Peridot resulting in the above reaction, they joke with each other while gardening, and at one point Peridot can be heard speaking passionately to Amethyst about their project while Amethyst smiles at her with half-closed eyes. Amethyst replies, “Oh yeah?” in a tone that sounds very obviously flirtatious.

Again, Amethyst is shown to casually touch Peridot a lot; she puts her hand on her shoulder and even picks her up and carries her at one point. Again, Peridot is perfectly okay with it.

The gardening project happened because of Amethyst, and ultimately is what taught Peridot that even when some things are beyond saving, there is always hope to be found somewhere, and sometimes you have to move on. This is another major character development for her - again, one caused directly by Amethyst.

Letters to Lars

Amethyst and Peridot are seen doing improv together and seem to consistently agree with and encourage each other. While this isn’t necessarily romantic, it does show that they have been spending a good deal of time together casually offscreen.

Can’t Go Back

While Lapis is spying on the Crystal Gems on Earth, Peridot can be seen looking upset. Amethyst approaches Garnet and Pearl in what seems to be a worried way, and the three of them talk to Peridot, who eventually seems to brighten up. It seems like Amethyst noticed that Peridot was upset and came to the others with her concerns, leading to them cheering Peridot up, making her the direct cause in Peridot’s change in attitude and showing, again, that she cares for her emotional state.

As the Crystal Gems walk away, the projection of Peridot is the first to walk through Lapis, followed by Amethyst. This could be symbolism; Peridot is moving on from Lapis and her sadness over her leaving, with help from and while forging a stronger relationship with Amethyst.

Made of Honor

Amethyst and Peridot are seen standing together and casually interacting on multiple occasions throughout the episode - more than either with anyone else.

At one point, Peridot leans back on a chair while talking to Amethyst before falling over. The way it’s posed looks like a pretty textbook example of flirting (… and then making a fool out of oneself in attempt to flirt).

At the end of the episode, Amethyst puts her arm around Peridot’s shoulder. This is, yet again, an example of how physical they are with each other.

Reunited

Like in Made of Honor, Amethyst and Peridot are seen standing together and casually interacting multiple times onscreen.

Peridot is very physical with Amethyst in this episode, grabbing her arm and hiding behind her and pushing her in attempt to help push Steven’s shield. This shows again how physical they are with each other, and again shows that Peridot is very comfortable being physical with Amethyst (noticeably more so than with any other character at this point) despite her aversion to contact.

They can be seen bragging to each other about how they attacked Blue Diamond. Bismuth is also there, but they noticeably seem to be directing their boasts at each other.

Change Your Mind

Peridot and Amethyst seem to be taking inspiration from each other on their new regenerations. Amethyst has a triangle shape around her gem now, and Peridot has her stars on her knees like Amethyst’s old designs.

After the battle with White Diamond, Peridot immediately runs over to Amethyst and practically tackle hugs her. This is far more physical than she’s been with anyone else before in the series, and they both seem genuinely overjoyed to be with each other. Amethyst also holds her hand up right beforehand, either to wave or high five her.

Steven Universe: The Movie

When Amethyst recovers from Spinel’s attack, Peridot doesn’t initially realize that she’s back to normal and reacts very strongly upon seeing her, exclaiming that she can’t bear to see Amethyst “vacant and bereft of personality”. Interestingly, Peridot doesn’t seem affected at all to see Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet, or Pearl in such a state, but she’s so upset by the sight of Amethyst reduced to a shell of herself that she physically refuses to look at her.

In addition, Peridot immediately changes attitude and reacts excitedly when Amethyst tells her that she’s back to normal, despite the fact that the world is in dire threat of destruction.

When the gems are seen working on repairing the city towards the end of the movie, Peridot can be seen riding inside of Amethyst (who is shape shifted into a crane) to put up the donut on the Big Donut. They share a wink and a smile while doing this. It would have been just as easy for Amethyst to put it up on her own; Peridot isn’t really doing much to help, she’s just chilling there to hang out with Amethyst.

Bluebird

Throughout the episode, Amethyst and Peridot are the only two characters to point out that Steven likes tomato soup. Of course, this isn’t really evidence and by no means indicates anything romantic, but it does highlight how similar their thought patterns have become in certain ways. It’s reminiscent of the “Holy smokes!” scene back in Barn Mates.

Everything’s Fine

Peridot mentions to Steven that Amethyst told her that he was prohibited from messing with plants. Since Steven Universe: Future focuses so heavily on Steven, the other gems don’t interact all that much, but this makes it clear that Amethyst and Peridot, at least, are hanging out offscreen.

2017-Present Comic Series

Please note that all the comics are written by different people, and are considered “level 2 canon”; rather, not inherently canon but you’re free to consider them canon as long as they don’t contradict the show. Any italicized points are from entirely non-canon comics that directly contradict the show in some way. Even the non-italicized ones are not necessarily canon, however.

All throughout Issue 4 (in which Amethyst, Peridot, and Steven visit a renaissance fair together), Amethyst and Peridot are continuously very physical with each other, especially Amethyst towards Peridot.

When Steven calls Peridot cute, Amethyst can be seen blushing and holding her hands up to her face in a way that shows her clearly gushing over how “cute” Peridot is. While this is pretty typical behavior for Steven regarding cute things, it really isn’t for Amethyst; she just thinks Peridot is that adorable.

Amethyst is very excited when Peridot wins a joust, notably more so than Steven.

In Issue 9 (in which Vidalia gives Peridot and Lapis art lessons), Amethyst models for them. Peridot is notably very enthusiastic while illustrating her.

Amethyst seems concerned for Peridot specifically when she and Lapis start arguing.

In Issue 11 (in which Steven, Lapis, and Peridot take part in a cooking competition), Peridot runs into Amethyst at the competition and is especially happy to see her.

In Issue 17 (aka Peridot Becomes A Gamer), Amethyst is the first of the Crystal Gems to try to convince Peridot to get out and do stuff.

She also seems to be cheering for Peridot during her match against Pearl.

Although Peridot had been entirely immersed in the video game when the others first approached her and then smug during her match against Pearl, she actually indulges in some genuinely lighthearted banter with Amethyst before their match. She actually seems pretty happy, despite the context of the comic. In turn, she also reacts downright fondly when Amethyst loses.

Amethyst is also the first to comfort Peridot when she admits that she’s been using video games to cope with Lapis leaving, and in turn opens up to her a bit in attempt to empathize.

In Issue 33 (in which Peridot introduces Amethyst and Pearl to Camp Pining Hearts), Amethyst is the first to approach her and asks to watch the show with her.

Amethyst and Pearl make Peridot blush when they agree to continue watching CPH with her.

It’s Amethyst’s comment about Percy and Paulette’s lack of chemistry that gets Peridot excited; she blushes and gets the star effect in her eyes.

Harmony

Peridot and Amethyst are seen paired together throughout the course of the comics, walking close to each other, sitting together inside the Harmony Core, etc.

There’s a panel where Peridot’s Twitter is visible, and Amethyst is, interestingly, the only other gem visible in her image gallery.

Camp Pining Play

At one point during rehearsal, Amethyst comes up behind Peridot and announces herself while sparkling.

Peridot is clearly impressed and enthusiastic about Amethyst’s acting abilities.

Crystal Clean

Similarly to in Harmony, Peridot and Amethyst are often paired together.

Amethyst is also physical with Peridot like in the show, grabbing Peridot’s arm once she gets onto the warp pad at one point, which Peridot doesn’t seem to mind.

Directly after this, when they warp back into the temple, Amethyst seems to be standing in front of Peridot in a protective position.

Misc.

Peridot and Amethyst’s relationship has been consistently shown to advance the plot and cause them to develop as people – it is undebatable that they are important to each other’s characters and the plot as a whole.

Amethyst has more nicknames for Peridot over the course of a few episodes than she has for any other character, including characters like Steven and Pearl who she has known for the entire series.

Overall, there are actually quite a few parallels to rupphire (one saving the other soon after meeting (Too Far and The Answer, with one even being followed directly by the other, drawing further attention to this), both couples being short with somewhat opposing color schemes, one being higher ranked and the other lower ranked on the gem caste system, one acting on emotions and the other one logic, etc.) The parallel is strengthened in Steven Universe: The Movie, when Sapphire saves Ruby from a berserk pizza cutter; this scene is even more similar to the drill scene from Too Far.

As with rupphire, amedot also parallels conniverse in the sense that one saved the other when they had very little knowledge of each other, both are short in stature with somewhat opposing dispositions, etc.

Relating to the former two points, Rebecca Sugar has called the act of saving another in such a way as was done in The Answer as “ridiculously romantic”. Given all the parallels with two of the show’s largest ships and then this…

#steven universe #su #peridot su #amethyst su #amedot #perithyst #screms

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muddyhippy · 4 years ago

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Night Terrors, Chapter 5: Check-ins and Check-ups

A Lily Of-Many-Names Mechanisms Story

(Re-posting again because Tumblr refuses to have this pop up in the mechanisms tag and I am determined to try all the things I can think of before I give up!)

Summary

Lily has another nightmare filled with darkness and bad ones later than her usual night terrors torment her and when her usual source of comfort is nowhere to be found she decides to try her luck with the one person she’s pretty sure will still be up…

Featuring; Some science officer observations, discussions of nightmares, lots of comfort, medical practice, some past Jonny whump, and some soft mechs at the end!

Check-ins and Check-ups

There was a tentative knocking at the lab door.

Raphaella frowned, she checked the ship’s time, 4:54 am. That was unusual. The only one who bothered to knock like that was Lily and Lily would be in bed by now and—

Ah.

Raphaella moved in a fluid motion, rising from her workbench and opened the door to be greeted by a slightly soggy Lily, the tear tracks and snotty nose was evidence of what had happened, clutching a fuzzy lump of something.

“Jonny not in his room?”

Lily shook her head, “M’sorry.”

Raph sighed. It wasn’t a great inconvenience, she was hardly interrupting a breakthrough, she’d just lost track of time documenting one of her less hazardous bio-concoctions. Without a word she scooped Lily and her fuzzy thing up and carried her back to the bench. Lily immediately cuddled in close to her, Gemini tucked against her chest, breathing in the science officer’s familiar scent of chemicals, leather and a hint of flowers from her long golden hair. Lily loved Raphaella’s hair, it was so beautiful and silky. She loved being allowed to play with it, threading her little fingers through the fine strands and trying to plait them carefully.

“You want to tell me what it was about?” prompted Raph.

“It was silly.” Lily thought the science officer was so clever and busy with all he experiments she felt shy and small and silly admitting what was wrong, she was a big girl and she should be able to handle one little nightmare. Even if it had really scared her. Lily hadn’t wanted to bother her, Raphaella was always kind when she did her checks on her but that was always at the same time, they were planned. So were all her fun science lessons. This was definitely interrupting and interrupting was rude.

Raphaella sighed, disappointed at Lily’s conclusion, “If it upset you then by definition it is not silly. Just because dreams are caused by synapse transfer and your brain’s interpretation of events does not mean that the outcome can be deemed ridiculous if it has an impact on you.”

“Oh.” Lily wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but it sounded like she didn’t think Lily was silly after all.

“Quite.”

“I dreamt the Aurora was all dark and cold and I could hear banging like a big, angry someone was trying to get in.” Lily explained quietly.

“I see.” Raphaella frowned.

Lily quailed a little, misinterpreting her expression and began to hide her face, “I said it was silly.”

The science officer sighed, realising what Lily thought she’d meant, “And what did I say?”

“Sorry.” The child cast her eyes down as she mumbled.

Very gently Raphaella caught Lily’s chin and pulled her face up to meet her, “No, don’t be sorry. This is a perfectly rational thing to dream Lily. You’ve been very brave and you continue to be brave. My research indicates that nightmares are a way of processing something very frightening and unpleasant that as happened to you. What happened to you was not silly so your way of processing it is also not silly.”

It had actually be a good excuse to research nightmares in general since she knew full well the whole crew got them, regardless of age. Her own ones were manageable if unpleasant, determined to remind her of things she’d much rather forget.

Lily’s lower lip wobbled dangerously.

Raphaella sighed and for once decided to take a leaf out of Jonny’s book.

Logical rational explanations could wait until she was little older. And she knew Lily responded extremely well physical comfort, she’d seen evidence of that be beyond that farthest doubt.

“Come here little proton, it’s alright.” Raphaella wrapped both her arms and wings about the upset child and began rocking her like she’d seen Jonny do. It seemed to work after all and if observed action had been proved to yield positive results then who was she to argue with empirical evidence?

“It’s alright. You’re safe. Aurora is never truly dark, Nastya, Jonny, Tim and Brian don’t really like the dark either so she makes sure it’s always bright enough. And no one can get into Aurora without our say so. Aurora wouldn’t let them in anyway.”

“An’ you’d shoot them if they did.” Came a convinced voice.

“We certainly would. Or do something more interesting but we’d make sure they never got to you.”

“Promise?”

Raphaella was not in the habit of keeping promises, they were ephemeral and inconsequential unless you could use them to get what you wanted but this one felt important.

“On my honour as a scientist.”

Lily’s eyes widened at the words, that was very important. Raphaella was the best scientist there was and science was very, very precious to her. So she very much meant it.

“Thank you.” Lily snuggled closer

Raphaella sighed once more, not really put out, she began to card her fingers gently through Lily’s silvery hair. It had been more pleasant than she’d been expecting to show Lily an exact comparison for her hair colour in the natural world, sunshine reflected off the surface of the lake. She rather thought the explanation of how light travelled and refracted might have gone a bit over her head but Lily had been an enthusiastic listener all the same which was better than her crewmates most of the time. She had been thrilled at being compared to sunshine too.

Lily tentatively inched her fingers towards Raphaella’s cascading tresses, seeking the comfort they represented, Raphaella was kind and she was safe, she looked after her using her science. Lily loved sitting on the science officers’ lap, it made her feel important and special when Raphaella spoke science to her, (like when the others told her about things they loved too) even if she didn’t always understand it, she especially loved it when she let her play with her hair. Lily wanted to grow hers just as long.

The science officer gave Lily her warmest smile, the one she had cultivated especially for the child. “Go on little proton, I don’t mind.”

Lily gave her a smile filled with wonder that quickly turned into one of happy, soothed exhaustion. Two hands, one large, one small, each carefully combing fingers through soft hair, both knowing a singular form of peace.

It took precisely two minutes and thirty seven seconds for Lily to fall asleep under the science officer’s ministrations. Lily had never fallen asleep on Raphaella before, she wasn’t normally the lulling type, leaving it to the others when the occasion arose but this was immensely satisfying, she could now see why Jonny never really complained about holding her till she slept.

She was glad this interaction was being recorded too, it would be useful to refer back to when comparing different calming methods they all used to see which was the most effective. She had a suspicion that despite all their research, Jonny’s instinctive cuddle and rocking combination from the first night was probably the more sure-fire way to settle Lily. Not that she’s tell him of course. He didn’t need to know just what a comparably good job he was doing. The thing Lily had been clutching was likely to be a Jonny concoction too, the man was deceptively good at needlecraft, he’d mended enough of the crew’s clothes over the years when sufficiently bribed with whiskey, he’d even fixed the Toy Solider’s uniform when it got torn badly enough, complaining that he’d done so only because he couldn’t stand it moping around lamenting the damage.

He’d even carefully embroidered eyes on the thing Lily held which seemed to be some sort of geological shape. She could admit whilst in her own company only that the craftsmanship on it was rather remarkable. He’d obviously gone to some effort to make her something with crystalline accuracy in some sort of fuzzy fabric and given how tightly Lily had been holding it but she’d never seen it in the mess at meal times nor had it accompanied the child to her check-up sessions, it was her comfort-at-night object. That, that was surprisingly thoughtful of him. She smiled quietly to herself.

He definitely didn’t need to know what a good job he was doing.

Maybe a hint.

He also didn’t need to know the general positives these interactions were having on the pair of them and by extension, the rest of the crew. They would all work it out eventually and if she said anything too soon the idea would be dismissed out of hand, no, it was much better to be able to make unobtrusive observations and predictions unhindered.

Lily was beginning to grow at a healthy rate, she wasn’t back up to where she should be yet but after three months she was now making steady progress. At her last weekly check-up Lily was now projected to be back on track to reach where she should be for a healthy eight year old in the next three months. They’d successfully reversed the physical damage done to her by the three weeks of acute malnutrition but the longer effects of a lifetime of not having quite enough would take longer to mend.

Still, it felt, well, nice to see her improving.

The first time she’d insisted on a proper check had been only few days after Lily had joined them. She’d asked Jonny to bring her to lab so she could get a real idea of what they were working with for Lily, exact height and weight, not to mention resting heart rate, lung capacity, bone density and a blood test to make sure everything was functioning as it should be. Lily was human so there were some basics that could be taken for granted but Raphaella wanted a solid starting point for knowing how best to reverse the damage of long term malnutrition.

She’d argued with Jonny about it for 47 minutes before he finally saw sense and agreed to bring her along. His hang ups over poor medical practice were one thing and even understandable but not to the point that it impeded Lily’s recovery.

He’d grudgingly agreed, especially when the others added their voices in assent and Raphaella assured him that she’d keep to the bare minimum of procedures to assess Lily.

Marius had argued that it was so they could help her not hurt her. Given how delicate the matter was nobody teased Marius that surely it should be him leading the investigation if he was, in fact, a doctor. As it was, they all recognised that Raphaella’s dedication to the scientific approach would probably yield better results long term. Marius and Brian advised on what she should be looking for specifically all the same.

It was Nastya who’d finally swung him into accepting the proposal. She pointed out that if they didn’t check her properly when they could have and it turned out that they’d ensured the damage done by her ship management was permanent then that made them no better than the idiots that had led her mission. A grim accolade no one wanted to earn, the more Lily talked about life on her ship the more everyone was convinced it was mission led by utter idiots doomed to failure.

She added quietly that they weren’t like their creator, that Carmilla would only be interested in tests to see how she could exploit Lily. They needed to conduct tests to work out exactly how to help Lily properly and make sure she stayed healthy and happy.

Jonny couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could. But he wouldn’t, Lily being safe and well and as healthy as she could be was too important. Kid was a bag of bones, a mortal bag of bones at that and he should know, she still spent half her time attached to him and he was honestly worried by how light she was. He had very vague memories of being young except for a few key things but if he really thought about it he was sure at eight he’d been taller and broader. That wasn’t a bullshit boy vs girl nonsense thing either, he was sure he’d been taller and heavier at her age and that was with his family set up. Something was wrong. Raphaella was right, they did need to check.

He didn’t have to like it though.

Raphaella wasn’t sure which of the two were the more nervous coming in to the Lab.

She made it more into a game in an attempt to settle them both, it wouldn’t do for their nerves to set up a negative feedback loop. She got them both to play catch with one of her more robust recorders so she could check hand to eye coordination and reflexes. She challenged Lily to scrunch up as small as she could then stand on her tip toes and then stand as straight and flat-footed as she could on her weighing scales.

Raphaella had Jonny pick her up and hold her as though they were posing for photo whilst she deployed the scanner for Lily’s bone density, explaining that she wanted close ups of her smiling face. It covered her dental development too.

Checking her ears and throat had been relatively easy, getting silly to pull as ridiculous faces as she could whilst trying to sing ‘Old King Cole’ worked on her throat and the otoscope was hardly invasive.

Jonny had managed to keep things light enough asking if Raphaella had found some of Ashes’ missing gold down there. Lily had been indignant and Raphaella had played along, pleased he was trying to make things easier.

The blood test was unsurprisingly a little harder of a sell.

Lily went rigid with fear when she saw the needle.

Hmm. Understandable but not helpful, it was one of her smallest ones as well.

Jonny cleared his throat, his own spine stiffening and also not taking his eyes off the syringe. “Why don’t we have a go with the stethoscope first?”

That was a surprising suggestion coming from him. Raphaella had been planning to brace herself and try to use that as a wind down but maybe there needed to be buffer. She decided to put it to Lily to decide.

“Lily, I’m not going to hurt you. I need to take a little bit of your blood to check everything is working as it should be inside you. Your blood can tell me all sorts of important things that you yourself won’t be able to tell me.”

Lily still looked scared. Raphaella found it wasn’t an expression she liked to see on so young a face. Raphaella had no problem being seen as intimidating or even down right terrifying by those who crossed her path or got in her way. That was half the fun, but on Lily? No, she didn’t like being the cause of that fear one bit. The test was still needed though.

“But you’ve got a choice,” she continued in the tone she’d already modulated especially for the child, no-nonsense but gentle, firm but soft enough to put her at ease most of the time. “I can take this sample now then use the stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs or I can listen first and then take the blood sample but either way I need to take it.”

The child had tried to melt into Jonny, clinging to him, fingers burying in fabric and belts.

Raphaella tried not to notice that the comforting hand that was running up and down her back was trembling.

Lily turned to face Jonny. “What do you think?”

Jonny tore his gaze from the poised syringe and did his best to look relaxed and nonchalant despite the fact his heartrate had audibly trebled, “I think it’s always better to get the thing that scares you done first. Raph’s right though, she’s only doing it because she wants to make sure you’re okay inside and out. It won’t hurt, it’s more like getting a sharp pinch on your skin for a second and then it’s done.”

He didn’t mention that it was fine when blood was being taken from you rather than a bunch of different poisons being injected into you over and over again to see how quickly each one affected you and how quickly you came back. How each one burned and cramped and ripped through every single system until he was desperate for death. He was the first after all. Carmilla had to make sure her new creation was full-proof and indestructible. That he could come back from anything.

“How do you know?”

Jonny smiled ruefully, “I’ve had a lot of injections over the years, given lots of samples too. It doesn’t hurt.” ‘It’s what comes after’ remained unsaid.

“Oh.” Lily clearly thought about it, weighing up the pros and cons. She eyed the stethoscope on the science officer’s workbench. She knew how that worked at least. There was something right next to her that might make her feel braver. “If Raphaella takes a sample can, can I listen to your heart while she does it?”

Jonny was halfway to opening his mouth to say ‘no’ on sheer reflex when Lily added in a small voice, “I don’t want to watch. I don’t like blood. It goes bad and gloopy and changes colour too quickly. And it smells horrible.”

Well fuck. He could hardly say no to that.

“You won’t be able to smell it Lily, it’ll be in the syringe.” Raphaella tried to distract, she was well aware of Jonny’s dislike of anything to do with exam practice. She was actually impressed he’d not just dumped Lily on her and run, that he’d taken part so far. He had more courage than she gave him credit for, that or a greater sense of guardianship than she’d expected. Either way, he was making her job much easier and she appreciated it.

Raphaella had tried to get a better understanding of his Mechanism not long after she’d joined the crew, intrigued by the ticking of his chest. She’d come at him with a stethoscope and woken up in the wreckage of her workbench recovering from 6 gunshot wounds.

She hadn’t pursued that line of research further.

“Still don’t like it.” Lily half spoke into Jonny’s chest and half to the science officer.

“That’s fair enough.” Conceded Raphaella

Lily’s eyes were doing the thing again. The thing where they took up half her face, she gazed imploringly up at him. “Please?”

Fuck. He really had to immunise himself against that. Later. Now though?

He swallowed. “Sure.”

Raphaella raised an eyebrow, fully prepared to snatch Lily out of his arms and rocket skywards if he looked like he was going to detonate like he did last time.

Jonny gave her tiniest nod.

This was Lily. He shook himself internally. It was Lily. Lily couldn’t hurt him if she tried. Okay, well she could but she wasn’t armed right now and she liked his ticking. He forced himself to watch her, to brace for the touch of the disc. He’d be ready, he’d know. If he closed his eyes there was no guarantee he’d be able to hold it together for her. This was Lily reaching to him for comfort, he reminded himself firmly. She needed him to distract her from something frightening but necessary. Lily wasn’t going to sigh and tut and then open him up.

He wasn’t strapped to a table.

He forced himself to breathe as calmly as he could, the way Ivy had shown him from one of her books when he’d taken refuge once in the earliest incarnation of the library.

He was fine, he was holding Lily. He was free to move. He was holding Lily and being reassuring because needles were frightening. He was proving it was fine. It was fine.

The disc made contact.

It took everything in him not to bolt.

“Jonny, your ticking is very fast.” A little voice piped up matter-of-factly.

Before he got a chance to answer Lily had already drawn her own conclusions.

“I know I’m not a proper doctor like Raphaella but I won’t hurt you. See?” She took the disc off then pressed it even more gently against him, then rested her head on him too, trying to be reassuring.

Fucking Hell. That she thought she could hurt him? Like this? At all? But the pressure helped. Carmilla had never been gentle with his chest. She’d never been gentle full stop.

Lily was.

This was Lily and it was fine. He held her a little tighter. “I like this,” she spoke quietly, as if she was speaking directly to his heart but then again, when wasn’t she? “I can hear your ticking all around. It’s going slower now.”

It took two tries to speak.

“T-That’s because you’re doing a good job.” Raphaella was watching him like a hawk, despite the fact he’d drained of colour and there was a noticeable (to her experienced eye at least) tremor running through him he was still sat still and solid for Lily, making no sign that he was about to flip her workbench.

“I am?”

“Of course.” He managed the ghost of his usual grin, “I don’t let just anyone listen to me.” If only she knew how true that was.

Lily beamed at him, utterly delighted. Just as Raphaella took her moment.

Jonny was aware enough of the situation to catch Lily’s face as she turned to see the source of the sudden pinch, directing her back to look at him, the surprised ‘Eeep!’ already escaping her lips. “Keep looking this way Lemondrop, it’s alright. Keep listening to the ticking.”

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

“It’s alright,” he ran his fingers through her hair, hating that she was upset, hating that they were doing this. He’d always sworn he’d have nothing to do with anything like this but here he was. A necessary evil. “It’s alright, she’ll be done soon. You’re being very brave.” He didn’t dare rock her and risk jostling the needle so he hummed instead.

She clung to him with her other hand, with a muffled whimper but did as he asked. It didn’t hurt, not really but the idea of something being stuck in her was an idea she didn’t like. Still, Jonny had her and she could hear his ticking loud and clear and he said she was being brave so that was good. She could hear him humming Rose Red as well and she couldn’t help but relax, Jonny had her, she could hear his ticks and the humming and she could smell his spicesmokewhiskey.

It was okay.

She was safe.

They were looking after her because she was part of the crew, they cared about her. It was alright.

All at once there was the feel of something going away and something pressing on her arm.

“There we go, all done, good girl, you’ve been very brave.” Raphaella finished taping the small cotton gauze to her arm covering the tiny pinprick of blood.

Lily took a moment to take in the sight of her arm and then the science officer, Raphaella had been right, it hadn’t hurt. It had been scary because she wasn’t sure what it would be like and she was scared it would hurt because they were bigger and stronger and braver than her and that they said it wouldn’t hurt because it wouldn’t hurt them when they had to have needles in them but actually, it had been a bit of a shock but it hadn’t hurt at all and Jonny had made her feel safe all the way through and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or let anything else hurt her anyway.

She gave a sunny smile to Raphaella.

“It didn’t hurt!”

Despite herself, Raphaella was rather pleased, she allowed a knowing grin to bloom across her face, rather than the haughty scoff that she saved for the others, “I did say.”

“You did!” Lily beamed wider.

“Well I’m glad I was proved correct. Are you ready for me to take a turn listening to you?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I just need a listen to your chest and then we’re all done. Can I have the stethoscope back?”

Lily carefully removed the buds from her ears and hand the piece of equipment back, she missed hearing Jonny’s ticking quite so loudly. She leaned against him instead.

Raphaella decided not to comment on the sudden drop in tension from Jonny the second the disc was taken away from his chest.

With gentle efficiency she had the device in her own ears.

“Can you sit up straight for a moment please?” Lily did so, “then take some nice deep breaths for me.”

Lily did the best she could.

After a few minutes Raphaella sat back, satisfied.

Her initial suspicions were well founded, Lily was almost chronically underweight and under-height but that could be fixed with care. Her lungs and heart seemed strong through and her reflexes as well as hand to eye coordination were sharp and focused, ears and throat were clear of infection too and that was the most common source of ailments for human children according to her research. Lily was a fighter and, pending the results of the blood tests had no reason not to make a full recovery. That was pleasing and definitely worth the few uncomfortable moments.

She gave Jonny a short nod over Lily’s head.

The relief in his face was something Raphaella was going to remember for long time to come. She might find him deeply irritating most of the time but he’d certainly proved himself when it counted. He was many things but could not be accused of being a selfish bastard. At least, not right now.

“Alright then, all done here. I think you’ve earned something nice.”

“Really?” Lily perked up even more.

“Oh yes.”

“What?”

“I happen to know Brian’s been busy in the kitchen with Marius.” She happened to know exactly because they’d planned it earlier, it was only fair for Lily to get some sort of recompense for having to go through something unpleasant. It was something they all wished they had had when they were young (not to mention everything that had happened since they were young).

The excited squeal that erupted was something that warmed both of the adults in the room and would certainly not get passed on to the chocolate cake bakers. It wouldn’t do to give them ideas after all.

Not for the first time they found themselves hand in hand with Lily, swinging the excited child all the way to the mess.

Raphaella came back to the present and smiled as she held the currently comforted and sleeping Lily, the child had got far more used to the weekly check-ups following the first one, it helped that her blood came back fine and healthy, no underlying issues to be concerned about so no more blood tests were needed.

She still liked to listen to Jonny’s heart with the stethoscope during the check-ups.

Jonny still endured it for her sake.

Raphaella thought that over the weeks he’d looked a little more relaxed each time.

The check-ups proved what they were seeing in real time. Lily was mending. She was putting on healthy weight and starting to grow, her skin was starting to have a glow to it again. It felt nice to have used her research and scientific approach for unquestionable good for once. She’d shared her findings with them all. The rest were pleased too. They’d made a comprehensive list of supplies with Ivy and Raph’s information that Ashes organised and sourced. Marius and Brian eagerly added more recipes to the collection and the others made a point of each eating vaguely healthy snacks every so often so as to not make Lily feel like she was the odd one out. Regular mealtimes helped too.

It was satisfying to see that improvement over time, Lily was proving to be a fascinating research study that Raphaella was very much invested in. It was also immensely satisfying that the rest of the crew was just as invested her topic of study for once. Seeing Lily grow and heal and improve was something that was having a positive effect on the rest of the crew, she’d noticed (and made notes of course) that the crew interacted more frequently and more positively usually when Lily was present but sometimes even without her there. These developments were, pleasing, to put it into layman terms. Though Raphaella wasn’t entirely sure why. It would take further investigation of course but she did have eyes, the positive interactions were slowly improving the general well-being in the crew, communal mealtimes and friendlier banter seemed to be improving moods across the board.

Most notably of course was Jonny.

His general comportment had softened a little, his violent outbursts reduced and he definitely looked like he was sleeping more regularly. Raphaella estimated his alcohol consumption had dropped by a least a bottle a night which was rather impressive, it wasn’t like the alcohol did anything long term since all their mechanisms prevented permanent internal damage, especially when one was killed far too frequently to even consider organ failure due to extensive alcohol poisoning. But still, it was nice to see him looking more, centred, for lack of a better word.

Heavy boots made their appearance on the peripheries of her hearing.

Think of the devil…

Raphaella took a moment to soak up the situation, Lily had fallen asleep against her peacefully and easily as if she were her mother. It was a completely new experience but not an unpleasant one it turned out. Raphaella had enjoyed introducing the scientific process to Lily over the past three months, teaching her the basic principles of chemistry and physics and now botany since she’d set up the hydroponics lab with Nastya and Ivy. That had been a fun collaboration and all three enjoyed Lily’s delight at each seed sprouted and new leaf grown.

She’d added a whole new strand of research to her study too, the poisons and toxins of plants were fascinating and she was eager to put those to good use when the next opportunity arrived. There was always opportunity for hybridisation too. Excellent.

The heavy boots stopped right outside the lab door followed by an uncharacteristically gentle knock.

“Come in Jonny.”

The first mate entered looking annoyed at the presumption that quickly melted into relief when he saw a sleeping Lily in her arms.

The science officer gave him an appraising look. Despite the obvious panic at not knowing where Lily was Jonny still looked calmer and better rested than he had for centuries. Raphaella found she liked that look on him, he seemed far more settled, music rehearsals with everyone had become a lot more productive too, always a bonus.

She still found it funny he refused to use his ship communicator to ask the group chat where Lily was on an evening she had a late nightmare-startled wander, clearly too proud to admit he’d lost her. It wasn’t as if she could get into any real danger any more. Both the Octokittens and Stowaways knew not to touch her and Aurora wouldn’t let her get lost anywhere too dangerous. Then again, the day he did they knew it would be a serious one.

As it was the first mate was only looking marginally stressed and panicked, a whole lot better than she’d seen him look.

Jonny took in the sight of Raphaella as he entered the lab. From the lights behind her and a sleeping Lily in her arms the science officer resembled an angel that he’d seen statues of on multiple worlds, beautiful and terrible, just as he remembered the preacher talking about on Sundays when he was small. He’d seen what Raph could do to somewhere or someone that irked her and he’d come to believe all those stories.

Still, the look she was giving Lily as he walked in was something else, it was a face he knew she saved just for Lily, that slight softness, a pride in her eyes and smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Jonny knew Raphaella was incredibly pleased by the progress Lily had made both physically and with all the science lessons she’d been teaching, Lily had talked his ear off about all the things she’d made by experimenting. The physical checks were good too, in their way. Much as he hated them. If he really had to admit it, the checks were worth it, it was good to know Lily was on the right track at least, that they weren’t making a mess of her, at least not physically.

“Thought she might be here.” Came his way of explanation,

“Well congratulations.”

“She been here long?”

“Only half an hour or so.”

“Good.” He stayed curt, not wanting to give her room to rinse him more than he was expecting, Raphaella had a way with words that could cut like one of her scalpels if he wasn’t careful, most of the time it didn’t bother him but if it was about Lily and how he handled her, it tended to cut to the core of him, much to his annoyance.

“How did you lose her this time?”

“I didn’t lose her!” he snapped, “She just got up when I wasn’t around. I do check the times on things you know, she’s usually up at 11, 1 and 3 so much that you can set a metronome by her. It’s not my fault she just got up out of sequence!”

“And you weren’t in your room because?” pressed Raphaella, not giving an inch.

“Because I wasn’t!”

“Jonny,” Began the science officer in a deceptively gentle voice, “I could wake her up and make Lily ask you with her big blue accusing eyes.”

The first mate looked furious he was about to say ‘you wouldn’t dare’ but Raph absolutely would to prove a point and he really didn’t want to risk having to admit the truth to Lily, he found it incredibly hard to lie to her properly after all.

“Fine, Lily mentioned a birthday coming up some months from now and I am making something for that. Away from my room. Lost track of time. That’s it.” He ground out.

“A secret something I take it?” Raphaella teased, amused to have caught him in such an obvious lie, Jonny on the whole was usually quite good at lying. He managed it effortlessly on stage after all. And he was damned good poker player.

“You won’t find it.”

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with the bits of clothing several of us have missed over the last few weeks would it?”

Jonny’s ears began to turn red.

“No.”

‘Aha.’ Thought Raphaella. But she was intrigued enough to let it stand, it was honestly rather refreshing to have Jonny do something vaguely productive outside of his musical and lyrical talents, repair work not-withstanding. There were only so many theoretical studies of chronic alcohol abuse and sleep deprivation she could observe before it got tiresome. This proved to be far more interesting.

“Alright then, well I await to see the results with bated breath.”

“Fuck off Raph.”

“I could just wake her.”

“I could just shoot you.”

“You know you won’t.”

The impotent rage on Jonny’s face was amusing to witness.

“Fine, but I fill find a way to make you suffer.”

“I look forward to it.”

He matched her feral grin, feeling like he’d at least gained somewhat of an upper hand he moved on to the more important issue, Lily hadn’t been out of her bed unexpectedly for the last month, not since she found Brian during the poker game.

“What was it about this time?”

“Doors being rattled and banged on by enemies in the dark.”

“Oh, standard then. Good.”

“Standard? I thought they were all like this one?” This was interesting, there were others? Raphaella got halfway through that thought and froze.

Uh, Jonny realised he’d not actually shared a lot of detail of Lily’s nightmares, he passed on the basics to everyone at Tim’s insistence after she’d climbed in with him, demanding to know at least what they might have to deal with if the crew was now fair game to ask comfort from. The others had backed him up, the bastards, and he’d been forced to share a bit. He didn’t really want to, nightmares were private things after all and it wasn’t fair for him to share stuff that bothered someone else but as it had been pointed out, Lily was a child whom they all cared about, whom they were all guardians for and thus they all needed to know likely sources of upset and triggers to avoid when they spent time together, either during the day or if they happened to be the ones to comfort her at night.

He’d relented, wanting to make sure she always had some solid options for comfort. He knew in excruciating detail how unpleasant it could be to suffer that sort of fear and misery on your own. Until you learned to ignore and bury it that is.

So the others knew the basics at least, it was always the threat of attack, rattling and banging and bellowing in the dark unsurprisingly. He tended to keep the extra details to himself though, he knew how desperately Lily wanted to be seen as a ‘big girl’ by the crew. Even though there was nothing she could say or do that would actually make them think she was somehow less. Kid had endured enough and was still pretty functional, that was one hell of an achievement already. And she was stil mortal.

Sometimes her nightmares was flavoured with gunfire (though not Tim’s apparently, that sounded different according to Lily, Jonny had no idea how the hell gunfire could sound ‘friendly’ but supposedly Tim’s did-children clearly had a higher nuance of sound perception-it made music lessons all the more interesting that was for sure), sometimes it was visions of what was left of her crew, her parents dying and on one particularly horrendous night images of her parents demanding to know why she hadn’t saved them. He had mentioned that one to Marius and then the rest of the crew since it had taken the singing of the entirety of ‘Alice’ to lull her back to sleep bookended with ‘Rose Red.’

The one about her being left behind that she told to Brian was concerning, that one he had talked to the others about straight away, worried that taking her to a planet had, in fact, been a bad move. Given that that was as near as an admission to the idea he’d been wrong about wanting to take her planetside actually had them all discussing it properly with only minimal jeering. It ended up being pointed out that since it was such a new experience, even though it had been very positive, Lily’s subconscious was so traumatised it wasn’t surprising it had sparked off a different set of nightmares.

It had assuaged the guilt a little at least. He was glad she clearly had really enjoyed the visit.

“Jonny?”

He realised he’d been staring into the middle distance and not actually talking. Shit.

He refocused on her. A look crossed Raphaella’s face that he’d seen maybe once or twice before in all the years he’d known her. A hint of worry.

“Does, does she have nightmares about what we, what I,” she corrected, “do here?”

That question knocked him sideways, his initial instinctive bastard response died on his lips. This was Raphaella actually asking him, Jonny, for reassurance, reassurance that what she was doing wasn’t physcologically damaging their charge. He’d never seen the science officer look unsure before. Jonny realised he had a choice, he could lie and tell her that yes, the check-ups upset Lily and he’d had to calm her down from a lot of nightmares inspired by Raph’s actions or, or he could be honest.

He thought about how genuinely devastated he’d be if one of the others told him that the reason Lily had come to them wasn’t because she couldn’t find him but that she was scared of him, that she’d had a nightmare about him because of something he’d done. He felt his guts twist. No, he couldn’t do that to Raphaella, he could murder her happily along with the rest of the crew whenever Lily wasn’t about and he’d been suitably bored or antagonised but lying about this?

He couldn’t do it.

If he stopped to think about it, there were quite a few things he couldn’t do now. All involved Lily, he couldn’t lie to the others about her, they were all in this together, more so than anything they’d been bound by previously. Jonny knew he was the primary source of Lily information but he actually respected that fact and that he should share as much as was reasonable to make sure it was as easy for the others to comfort and look after her as possible. This communal guardianship parenting thing they’d fallen into was working but it needed proper communication much as it felt like pulling teeth sometimes. It was needed so he did it. So they all did it.

He fixed Raphaella with as sincere look as he could manage.

“No Raph, she’s never had a nightmare about you or the check-ups, I think she’d settled into them, always asks me stuff about what you do in the lab so I reckon you’re fine.”

Raphaella tried and failed not to look relieved.

“Oh, well, thank you that’s, that’s preferable.”

Yeah, it is. Her ship’s done enough of a number on her, she’s been here long enough now to know, I think, that we’re not trying to fuck her up.

That seems like a reasonable conclusion. She’s not been put off by what she sees on a daily basis, between Tim’s shooting practice, TS’s stories and my science if that’s not affected her negatively then, for the moment we may remain in grace period.

“What do we do when that ends?”

“We’ll have to slowly introduce more regular elements of life on board to get her more used to things, little by little, it seems to be working so far.”

Jonny considered, Raph did have a point, last week something had exploded and whilst Lily had gone stock-still and the colour drained out of her face she hadn’t cried or outwardly panicked, instead asked Jonny very quietly if they could find out what happened, because ‘it was probably Tim trying his new canon that he had been showing her through the building process but could they go and check please just to make sure?’

So they had and it was. Jonny was feeling pretty fucking murderous but Tim had ignored him and got there first, explaining when they arrived exactly what he’d been upto, that he was sorry it went off without her there to see but the trigger had been too sensitive. He’d shown Lily the system and rig so that she understood the weapon and where the sound had come from, feeling much happier that she knew this was something to protect them and not a sign that they were under attack.

Jonny had planned an elaborate murder for Tim and braced himself for an onslaught of nightmares that never came. Well they did but it was just the usual, banging on the doors in the dark one nothing to do with Tim or his explosions. He’d been waiting a full eight days and nothing. He was beginning to suspect Tim’s approach of including Lily in the construct of the weapon really had been a big help. Clever bastard.

“Yeah, that’s, that’s probably as good a plan as we’ve got.”

Raphaella considered, Jonny didn’t have to have been kind a moment ago. But he was. She’d almost entirely forgotten what it was like to be concerned about the long-term effects of her science and she hadn’t liked the feeling whatsoever. He could have made it worse and didn’t. That certainly counted for something and definitely towards her working theory about him and his own developmental track.

“It’s probably better than what she would have in any other circumstance or with anyone else who might have rescued her. We’re all doing well with her, physically and mentally, we’re all in this together and it’s working, I can see it in my results and charts as clearly as I see it on her, against more odds than I think even Ivy would be comfortable calculating we’re improving her, as a crew, she’s healing and mending, and,” she considered her words, “you’re both the catalyst and accelerator in this compound of all of us, with all the variables.”

Jonny began to open his mouth.

“You’re good for her, my research indicates it.” Elaborated Raphaella stiffly. Being kind and gentle with Lily was far easier than she expected it to be, transversely being articulately kind to her crewmates was decidedly harder, she’d had very little practice and took refuge in her scientific terms, they always flowed more easily.

Jonny’s eyes widened at the implication of what she was saying. That it was her saying it.

Still, with him, sometimes actions spoke louder than words.

Very carefully she handed over Lily to him, fuzzy rock thing and all, taking care to catch Jonny’s hand in the process and squeeze it for the briefest of moments.

She was deeply surprised to receive a returning squeeze, equally as brief.

She tried to read his face, a myriad of expressions flitted over him, shock, confusion, wariness, pride and elation before settling back to his default of ‘cocky bastard smirk’

He held Lily close a moment then allowed a softer, sincere expression to linger in his eyes, “Thanks Raph, s’what the crew’s for, everyone’s got a job with this one.”

He sobered and shifted, face returning to its usual look, his regular swagger sliding into his stance, “See you at breakfast.” He threw out his familiar feral grin without the need or will to add a snarky comment and sauntered out with a Lily tucked up against his chest who was at least half an inch taller and several pounds heavier than when she arrived.

They were working as a crew and it was mending Lily.

Not for the first time Raphaella considered the pair as they left her lab, a fond smile spreading across her face. The unlikeliness of this scenario had already cost Ivy one full notebook but the science officer could honestly conclude that she was deeply satisfied by this anomaly and looked forward to the further variables it generated.

Otherwise, what even was the point?

Smile still on her face she settled down to update her research log on the day’s nocturnal events. Her file was getting decidedly long.

Raphaella found that only pleased her more.

#the mechanisms #jonny d'ville #raphaella la cognizi #Lily Of-Many-Names #I really hope this posting works #I am sick of tumblr screwing me over #I just want my mechs content to make it on to the mechs tag #IT'S NOT HARD TUMBLR #Just post it like I tag it!#Argh!

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smilexcaptainx · 5 years ago

Text

Locked In | Ransom Drysdale

Wanna be part of my Imagines Tag List?

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x Reader

Requested: Anonymous

Request: My 2020 just got better seeing that you write for Ransom Drysdale now! May I have an imagine with Ransom where the reader pranks him to prove a point by ghosting him. She attends Harlan’s birthday party a couple days later. Her original plan was to drop off a present and a treat and leave because she wanted to avoid Ransom. She gets side tracked and Ransom gets to her and locks himself and the reader in a room and won’t let her leave until he gets an explanation. The rest is up to you. Thank you

A/N: My 2020 just got better from this request. Thank you! I love you and I agree with your statement of Ransom being a sexy beast. I hope you enjoy!

Warning(s): Language

Word Count: 1.5K

masterlist

“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” ransom exclaimed loudly. “she still isn’t responding back to me. It’s been three days!‌”

“Maybe she finally saw through your bullshit,”‌ meg called out, putting down a pile of plates on the nicely set up table. “I mean, it took a while but I’m glad that she eventually figured out the asshole that you are.”

“Oh Meg,” ransom chuckled in amusement. “you’re such a bitch.”

Megan threw the blue eyed man the bird, only to retrieve the same gesture right back at her from him in mockery. Megan scoffed and stormed off into the next room over. Ransom remained in his seat and turned back to his phone to scroll through the text messages he has been sending you. Ransom was continuously shaking his head as his ocean blue eyes snaked their way down the texts.

Not one response. Nothing. Not even a read. It drove Ransom absolutely insane. Ransom has been texting you, but no response. He has been calling you, but you never picked up. He even went over to your house, but never had the door opened to him. It was as if you had totally and completely disappeared out of his life, and he wasn’t ready for that to happen.

“I believe (Y/N) is coming to my birthday party tonight,” spoke his grandfather who came entering the room. “you are talking about (Y/N)‌ (Y/L/N), correct?”

“When is he not?” the ignorant teenage girl asked, strutting her way back into the room. “Ransom is utterly obsessed with that woman. Poor (Y/N).”

Ransom ignored Megan’s remark and turned to face Harlan. “Yes. I’m talking about (Y/N). You said she’s coming tonight to your birthday party? Are you sure?”

Harlan nodded, which was all Ransom needed to interpret a plan that included the help from his grandfather.

—

Ransom was the only thing on your mind as you pulled up to the mansion. Your gift and batch up cookies were sitting in the back of your car and ready to be taken inside. The only thing that you weren’t ready for was taking the risk of bumping into Ransom. Earlier this week, he claimed that the silent treatment wasn’t effective, and you knew you already proved him wrong after the first day, but you decided to keep the prank going. It was entertaining.

You slammed the car door shut with your gift and batch of brownies in your arms. The dogs happily greeted you as you made your way to the front door.

—

Ransom snapped his eyes at the front door as he heard the familiar knocking pattern, the one that was done only by you. Ransom wanted to race to open the door, but was beat by Megan instead. He grumbled bitterly and carried on in the room where everyone was chatting with each other. His ocean blue eyes lit up as he saw the love of his life enter into the house. He noticed the gift in your arms and he knew where the gifts were supposed to go.

Ransom brushed off his stylish, brown coat and confidently began to approach your way. Ransom saw you glance at him, which meant you saw him coming, but your next action wasn’t what he was expecting. You sped off the complete opposite direction. He couldn’t believe it. You were avoiding him. He bit down on his bottom lip, not aware of what he could have done to cause this.

Ransom decided to ignore it and stomped his way to his grandfather. He gave him the code tap on his shoulders to indicate to put the plan into action.

—

You secretly peeked around the corner to see what your boyfriend was doing. Fortunately, he was going upstairs, which meant that the main floor was free from him. You couldn’t help but giggle. The prank was going smoother than his lips. You left the kitchen and placed the gifts and treats down in their rightful places. Once everything was done with, you went up to Harlan to wish him happy birthday.

“Happy birthday Harlan!”‌ you cheered happily, giving him a tight hug from behind. “Eighty five already huh?”

Harlan laughed at your comment and told you how happy he was to see you. He pulled out a random letter out of his jacket and placed it on the table in front of him. He raised it front of his eyes and squinted at them.

“Now, let’s see here,” he sighed, bringing the letter closer. He grunted in frustration before looking up at you. “sweetheart, would you mind going upstairs to my room and retrieving my glasses? I can’t read worth a damn without those glasses.”

“I um, I can read it for—”

“Ransom isn’t in my room, (Y/N),” harlan interrupted, making your cheeks heat up from embarrassment. “you’re safe sweetheart.”

You trusted Harlan’s words and nodded in agreement. You leave him and walk up the creaky old stairs. You never knew why they never fixed the creakiness of the stairs, it really bothered you. You walked up the stairs to Harlan’s closed door room. You opened the wooden door and entered the room. You walked straight ahead and turned to his drawers that held his glasses.

A sudden door slam alarmed you and you whipped around, only to see the person you wished not to see tonight. Ransom. He had a smug look on his face, but overall, he didn’t look amused. Ransom turned around, and a few clicks later, the door was locked. He twisted back around and held the key up, soon tucking it away into his coat.

“I’ve got you locked in now (Y/N),” ransom claimed. “I have one question for you, sweetheart. Why did you ghost me?” ransom asked, now slowly approaching you. “If you tell me, I’ll let you out, but if not, it’s going to be a long night.”

His eyes glistened with anger, but you knew he wasn’t. You knew for a fact he was soft for you. He always was. You kept your mouth closed and slowly backed away from him as he was coming closer. You couldn’t break. Ransom raised his eyebrows and clenched his jaw in response.

“Hello? (Y/N)?” ransom called out, waving his hand at you. “Am I all of a sudden the ghost now? Why the hell aren��t you responding.” You remained silent, angering him even further. “Stop with the bullshit (Y/N). TALK TO ME!”

You were inches away from the wall, but was instantly pinned against it by Ransom. His hands were pressed against your shoulders.‌ You could tell he didn’t want you to leave. You avoided his gaze as you felt his breath against your skin. In the process of Ransom trying to break you, you sneakily slipped out the little note out of your pocket and slid it into his coat pocket, switching it out with his key.

“(Y/N), why the hell did you ghost me?”‌ he asked again. “Nobody ghosts me.”

A small smirk appeared across your lips and you rose your eyes up to meet with his.

“There’s always a first for everything.”

Ransom’s face scrunched up in confusion and breathed out a, “What?”‌ before you gripped onto his arms and broke free from him. You took his arms and forcefully pulled them behind his back. You leaned in close to his ear.

“Point proven.”

Ransom was still confused, but next thing you did was shove him to the ground. He inhaled sharply as his body hit the ground. You jumped over him and raced toward the door, immediately shoving the key into the door. Your heart was racing as you heard Ransom continuously scream your name, demanding you to stop. You ripped the door open and flew down the stairs, surprised that Ransom didn’t catch you.

You dashed out of the house and to your car, laughing to yourself. You did it!‌ You were able to prove a point to Ransom, and it was one hell of a ride.

—

Ransom scrambled up to his feet, already pissed off that he wasn’t able to catch you. He ran down the stairs, and seeing that everybody was looking outside the open front door, he knew that you had already escaped. Ransom yelled in anger and slammed the front door in defeat, frightening everyone in the room.

“I can’t believe all you shithead’s let (Y/N)‌ get away like that!”‌ he shouted at everyone. “This family is a—”

His hand fell upon a paper in his pocket. His eyes glanced down at he pulled it out almost instantly. He aggressively unfolded the paper and his temper began to die down as he read the letter. It was you taunting to Ransom about the prank and how your point was proven. It made your “point proven” sentence make sense to him. When he finished the letter, he lifted up his eyes to see the room full of his family staring intensely at him. He chuckled softly and tucked the letter back into his pocket.

“Okay, I may have overreacted a little bit.” he admitted. Nobody reacted and just kept staring. “Um, who wants cake?”

The End

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Tag List:

( If your name is in bold, that means Tumblr won’t let me tag you, but I will still message you so you can still be notified )

@whenpugzfly , @mo320 , @hauntedhoagiesoulkid , @babydazz , @cporter003 , @let-the-music-take-c0ntrol , @trashparker , @catislittlecorner , @cruciomondani394 , @me-lis , @sincerelyfan , @taman-a , @iwastornsincethestart , @jillanaholland , @swagbearfreakmoney , @aavocadocloud , @missmulti , @bellagrayson-wayne , @mschrisaholic

#imagine #imagines #knives out #chris evans #ransom drysdale #ransom drysdale x reader #ransom drysdale imagine #my writing

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barnzbucky · 5 years ago

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reach for the moon - chapter 2 (Ivar x Reader)

Pairing: Ivar x reader; Hvitserk x reader (quite a lot in this chapter)

Summary: Hvitserk finally found out who you were. Ivar and Ubbe need a plan to make Hvitserk stay in the agreements of his marriage.

Warnings: mention of arranged marriage; mentions of war; mentions of unrequited love; canon divergence; oc characters; fictional city; uncanon light hearted characters; cuteness of the wrong couple; (please, let me know if I missed something)

Word count: 1.6k

A/N: Hi! I’m sorry for my inability to do anything useful these last few weeks, I hope you haven’t given up on me, haven’t been on tumblr for a while. Enjoy ❤️️

masterlist | series masterlist

In middle of laughing and flirting, Hvitserk had convinced you to take a detour from your original path, claiming it was his utmost obligation to show you around Kattegat, a town he had proudly showed off, saying it was seeing its best days thanks to him and his brothers. You couldn’t help giggling at the way he excitedly introduced you to the fishermen and the merchants selling their produce at the market, to the cows and goats passing around, to the children and the ancient, to the houses and the ships and the docks, and everything else you already knew by heart.

Initially you had been too shocked to tell him you had grown up in Kattegat, still having a hard time believing he hadn’t recognized you. But as the hours passed with him dragging you around, you managed to slip out that bit of information, and told him you knew each other. He was mostly embarrassed for not knowing who you were, so he avoided talking about it, quickly trying to distract you with baked goods or entertaining stories.

Walking hand in hand with Hvitserk was something you had daydreamed throughout your life more times than you could count. You had imagined how his eyes would be shining because of daylight and how his skin would feel against yours; what types of things you would talk about and if he would laugh at your jokes or say cheeky things you knew he usually said to women he was interested in.

He did not disappoint you. Even while trying to show off, as he usually did, his eyes always fell back on you, and his warm hand only occasionally left yours, making you feel elated and special and bringing warmth to your whole body, something you were almost thankful for, because it made you ignore the cold completely.

It was almost dark, and with the sun hidden behind the clouds since earlier, you weren’t too sure you would be able to get home before nightfall if you stretched your outing much longer.

“That place is the Great Hall,” Hvitserk gestured towards the big wooden doors.

You chuckled, “I know the Great Hall, prince Hvitserk, I don’t think it changed at all.”

His eyes slightly widened and he squeezed your hand tighter. You had to stop yourself from laughing, because that was the exact reaction he had every time you’d mentioned something to do with you having lived in Kattegat before.

His adorable reaction distracted you from the bad memories immediately flooding your thoughts, and you had to take a deep breath to focus back on reality.

“Yes, I forget.” He laughed and scratched the back of his neck, “Do you want to go home now? We can go to yours or to mine.”

You laughed loudly at his attempt to take you to his bed, too amused to think much of it, “I think it would be better if you took me to my house and then go back to yours.”

“Are you not going to tell me who you are?” Hvitserk asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

You were almost reaching your destination and he still didn’t know who you were, and you refused to tell him. As soon as you started to make your way to your house he dropped the embarrassed act and went to attempt guessing where he knew you from.

You hadn’t stopped laughing the entire way, too amused with the entire situation.

“No, I’m having too much fun!” you giggled, your cheeks almost hurting from the smile on your face.

“This is torture,” he groaned, throwing his head back. But he wasn’t truly annoyed, your sweet smiles and giggles, even if at his expenses, made up for it.

“Don’t worry, prince Hvitserk, you’ll remember me soon,” you grinned.

He shook his head, the crooked smirk never leaving his face, and squeezed your hand. You were sure he knew they way your heart reacted to those small touches, and did them on purpose just to make you flustered.

“There aren’t many people who live this far into the woods,“ he acknowledged with narrowed eyes, going back to his mission of finding out who you were, “I only know two.”

“Oh?” you gave a lopsided grin. He was getting closer, but you doubted he would figure it out before you got home. “Who?”

Before he could respond, you heard your name being shouted from afar and a second later your parents came into your view. Immediately dropping Hvitserk’s hand, you sprinted towards them, throwing yourself in their arms.

To be back home so far had been an otherworldly experience, but finally being able to see your parents, knowing you would see them tomorrow and the day after tomorrow made you feel ecstatic. They had been the only people you had to rely on for so long, supporting you through everything, and you felt the most happy being back beside them. You could finally say they didn’t have to worry about you anymore. Or so you hoped.

They whispered apologies in your ears, telling you your mother had a late commission for a dress outside of Kattegat, and they had lost track of time trying to get it done in time for the trading ship to arrive.

Hvitserk slowly made his way to you, your trunk in his hand, and your parents let you go.

“Thank you for bringing my daughter home, prince Hvitserk,” your father spoke politely, wary of him.

Hvitserk was astounded at the vision of your parents. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized you. You knew each other since childhood; your father was one of the warriors training other people for the raiding parties Ragnar organized, and you were always around, trying to keep yourself from playing with Sigurd.

But he remembered you being quite different than he was seeing now. Back then, you were shy and meek, nothing like the confident teasing woman he spent the day with.

He cleared his throat before answering, “Yes, Arne, I couldn’t let her unaccompanied.”

Your father approached him and took the baggage out of his hand before returning home with your mother, giving you and the prince privacy to talk.

“Thank you for the company, Hvitserk.“

“Of course, I go out of my way to help a friend, Y/N.” The mention of your name, indicating he, in fact, knew you, made you drop your head back and laugh loudly. “I can’t believe I didn’t know who you were.”

The subtle blush in his cheeks made your smile wider, “Well, I can’t blame you. I certainly look quite different.”

“Yes, you do,” he responded with the same tone he had been using the entire day, and you could almost sigh in relief because he didn’t stop his advances after learning who you were.

You slowly got closer to him until your noses were almost touching, his smirk matching yours.

“I’m sure you must be busy, I’m sorry I took so much of your time,” You said softly, your eyes going over his face. “Goodbye, prince Hvitserk.”

You couldn’t help but smile at his stunned expression, with eyes still fixed on you even after you turned your back and went after your parents, not waiting for his response.

Hvitserk walked into the Great Hall with a huge grin on his face, quite the contrast from the last time he was there. Ubbe was sitting at the table sipping on mead and he exchanged a surprise look with Ivar, sitting at the throne sharping one of his knifes in one of the few moments he had for himself.

“Hello, brothers,” he greeted cheerfully, patting Ubbe in the back and sitting beside him. Reaching a hand over the table, he grabbed a piece of bread and a the jar of mead, filling his cup to the brim and downing in one go. “You’ll never guess who’s back!”

Ivar raised a brow, still deciding whether he wanted or not to ask who made him so happy, “Who?”

“Y/N! Arne’s daughter,” Hvitserk ignored Ivar’s frown and shoved a piece of bread into his mouth, swallowing before speaking again, “she looks beautiful, I didn’t recognize her, can you believe it?”

“Hvitserk-”

“As much as I love to hear about the women you bring to your bed, Hvitserk, I have to remind you, you are getting married soon.” Ivar interrupted Ubbe, instantly reprimanding their brother.

“I don’t think Tove will care too much about other women, Ivar,” he chuckled, grabbing more bread and standing to go back outside before Ivar had the chance to ruin his good mood.

“But her father certainly will!”

“He is not here,” Hvitserk laughed and turned away, not waiting to hear his younger brother’s response or to look at the way he had to bite his hand to not lose his temper.

“That went well,” Ubbe broke the silence, wary of Ivar’s angry stance.

“We need to solve this,” Ivar breathed deeply, finally calm after a few seconds, “Fredrik’s going to be here soon, and if he sees the man betrothed to his daughter, who I promised would be somewhat faithful, with another woman, he will cancel the agreement and declare war on us. You know he battled for less.”

“What do you suggest we do, Ivar? Hm? It was already hard to have Hvitserk agree to this marriage, do you expect him to just… stop taking women and be loyal to someone he is marrying against his will?”

The king stopped for a minute, pondering his brother’s words, before deciding on an obvious resolve.

“She needs to go.” Before Ubbe could object to killing her, he spoke again, “we convince her to return to where she came from, Hvitserk marries Tove, and then she is free to come back to Kattegat and do whatever she wants.”

tags: @luvjiminssi ; @ryukjin ; @hecohansen31 ; @heavenly1927 ; @youbloodymadgenius ; @ace-fiction ; @poisonous00 ; @jzr201 ; @rose1729 ; @shestrying2write ; @zuxiezendler ; @learninglemni-blog ; @didiintheblog ; @the-jess-life (if you’d like to be tagged or to be removed from the tag list, just send me a message/ask, no problem ☺️ if I wasn’t able to tag, please check if your blog is available to show on search)

#ivar x reader #ivar the boneless #ivar imagine #vikings imagine #vikings fanfiction #vikings #vikings x reader #reach for the moon #reach for the moon update #barnzbucky

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kdlovehg · 4 years ago

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From the angsty-ish prompt you just shared: Everlark “It’s all YOUR fault!” “Don’t fucking touch me.” Can't wait to read your little brain concoction, I just know it's gonna be amazing! :D xx

I’m terribly sorry for not answering this sooner, considering it was sent ages ago. I hopped on Tumblr a few days ago and noticed this lil prompt chilling in my inbox and I’m in retail now so I thought I’d put the two together. Please ignore the misspelling of the F word, I don’t swear so I just prefer to write it this way. Hopefully, anyone who sees this enjoys it, and again, I’m always open to new prompts.

///////////////////////

Katniss pov

“Don’t fcking touch me” I growl, as his body looms over me, his arm nearly whacking me in the face.

“Well maybe if you’d finished the returns yesterday we wouldn’t be in this mess”. With a click, he hangs an orange dress on the rail in front of me.

I squat down and begin rifling through baskets for any more tops.

The plastic boxes scrape as he drags them across the floor behind me.

“Quit making so much noise!”.

“It’s all your fault!”.

“What did I do?.

"Look at this mess Katniss”, he snaps. I glance over my shoulder to see him tossing cotton pads and shoes out of one of the boxes. Hats and baby socks go flying, and stained pajama trousers litter the floor.

“As if that helped” I reply snarkily.

“How complicated is it,” he says, scrubbing his hands through his blonde waves. He turns around to look at me. “This was all organized when I left. There are tags on all of this junk, how hard is it to put it in the right box”.

“That doesn’t matter”.

“To you! I’m the on putting up with Effie when she’s telling me off cause she keeps finding swimsuits in the winter department”.

“Oh please”, I roll my eyes and get back to digging. “Effie loves you”.

“Take some responsibility Katniss, I can’t bail you out all the time”.

I drag three t-shirts from beneath some damaged makeup and I attempt to brush the brown stains off of them. Do people really think we can’t tell that they’ve bought something and worn it for weeks before returning it. You’d think if they’d try to scam the system they’d at least chuck the clothes in a bucket of water. I lift the shirts to my nose and gag. They reek of sweat. I toss them over the railing, into a box at the back of the fitting room. I’ll get Gale to reduce them later, surely some fool will buy them.

Peeta starts humming behind me and I’m bumped forwards as he squeezes past me.

I jump to my feet. This space is too confined for two people let alone the six rails of returns, dozens of boxes, and four or so baskets that have been haphazardly left spilling onto the shop floor.

I throw my arm out to stop him as he tries to go past me.

“That’s meant to be folded,” I say nodding towards the dad jeans in his hands.

“No”, he reaches into a bin of hangers and retrieves one. “Jeans are supposed to be hung”.

“Give it to me”.

“No”.

I reach for the denim as he lifts his arm up, his green employee shirt stretching thin to accommodate for the movement. He’s not that much taller than me and I could easily grab the leg of the trousers but I know he enjoys these childish stunts.

“See you’re the one wasting time now”.

“A please wouldn’t hurt” he grumbles.

I go to grab the jeans and he leans backward, holding them out of reach, causing me to retreat. No way do I want to be near him. I glance at my watch. 11 am. Has it only been an hour? I have three more till my first break. This is why I don’t do double shifts, I somehow always managed to get lumbered with the goody-two-shoes who seems to take up all the space with his muscular build alone. Why couldn’t they have put me with Rue. The petite little thing who always did what was asked and scuttered around like a mouse, so she was never in your way.

“Look at the sticker,” I say gesturing to the one stuck on the right leg of the jeans.

“It’ll crease” he pouts. I hide my half-smile at proving him wrong. He’s never liked not getting his way. It’s just a shame I’ve always enjoyed it.

“Fold it”.

He drops his arm and begins doing as I ask. “I have a name y'know”.

“Not like that” I interrupt, trying to grab it, “No, you’re doing it wrong! Fold it in half”.

“I’ll fold you in half”, he grumbles shoving past me. Clearly, he’s still upset that I avoid using his name as much as I can but what does he expect. I’m not here to make friends, and the less I have to talk to a six-month retail newbie the better.

I squeeze into a small room adjacent to the fitting room and begin stacking some of the boxes so that they’re ready for being dragged back to the correct department. After a few minutes, a voice calls from the shop floor. I peak outside my room and see his head pop up from behind one of the rails.

“Do you wanna help me put some of this back?” he says quietly, gesturing to the rail that loaded with returned bras and teddies. Of course, he wants help with the women’s lingerie. Twenty-six departments and that’s the one he chooses. I ignore the warmth in my cheeks and struggle to get over to him.

“Only so I don’t have to stay late with you again”. I grab a handful of the underwear.

“Aww but we had so much fun last time” he teases sarcastically, bumping into me again. I almost snap at him to quit touching me but I know that’s what he wants. He just enjoys getting a rise out of me, since I’d been the one to start this nonsense his first week here.

“I’ll start with the…”, he starts looking through the hanged lingerie and then he glances at the one’s in my hands, “non-wired bra’s, Katniss you can start with the push-up bra’s. I’m sure we’d both appreciate that” he teases, with a wink. I avoid his gaze and bite my tongue as he swipes two items from my hands, a bunch from the rail, and sets off.

The nerve of some people.

The nerve of him.

Stupid Mellark.

As the hour goes by we trek back and forth, sorting the underwear by size and colors, everyday use and special occasions. Each time he passes me he tells a few lines from a story, something that happened to him years ago. At first, I found it annoying, not only that he talked but that he’d tease you with a few lines and then leave only to do it time and time again but as the minutes passed I began to look forward to the words that’d spill from his mouth. Sure, he could just shout it. The store isn’t that busy since its a Monday morning; the children are at school, and the men are sleeping after working most of the night, and he’s only a few rails over most of the time but I let him play his game and tell myself that it’s only so I can hear the end of the story.

By the time half twelve has rolled around, he’s finished his anecdote, and we’re on the last few items for this department. My cheeks hurt from hiding my smile and I eagerly wait for the fool to start a new story. I’m sure he’s got a ton up his sleeve and he’s just waiting for the right time to voice them. I glance around at the silence, confused as to why he’s stopped speaking.

“Well say something” I implore, searching for any hint of his head. I return to the fitting room and peak behind each of the rails before returning to the shop floor. Where did he go? There’s no mess of the floor indicating that he’s found another task to do and I would’ve seen him if he’d returned for more clothes. I stalk around, confused. Having someone leave isn’t that uncommon, considering we’re constantly understaffed but having been around Peeta for so long I’ve grown accustomed to his heavier footsteps.

I startle as a hand lands heavily on my shoulder. I whip around, flinching as my braid smacks me in the face. “Where’d you go?” I ask breathlessly. How did he sneak up on me? I need to pay more attention.

“I found a bag behind some of the nightwear. It looked like someone forgot their shopping and it had some er, adult toys from one of the other stores. I figured I’d deal with it so you didn’t have to”.

“You’re not supposed to be in nightwear”, I scowl, “You’re supposed to be with me”. It’s only after I’ve said it that I realize how that sounds. I’d meant that since we’re both on returns we should be sticking together but I know that I’ve just given him another thing to make fun of me for.

I ignore the odd warm feeling that settles in my stomach when he grins at me. “Aww you scared of losing me Katniss?”.

I stay silent, embarrassed at my poor choice of wording. I’ve never been good at saying what I think.

“It’s okay”, he says gently as he steps back. I almost sigh in relief, grateful that I don’t have him so close to me. Not that I didn’t enjoy it. It’s just, distracting.

“I’m not going anywhere”.

I evade his eyes and nod in silence. What a fool I must look like.

A voice breaks out over the intercom and I recognize it as Haymitch, one of the more lackadaisical security guards. “Staff announcement”, he grumbles “Peeta to childrenswear, ya got some clothes to fold”. With a crackle, it switches off and I hear Peeta chuckle. He stretches and I avoid looking at how the material clings to him.

“Good timing hey, you get your quiet at last” he teases, as he heads towards the stairs. “Give me a call if you need anything alright Katniss”, he pauses and it’s only then that I realize he’s waiting for my response. I nod and murmur a “yeah” but he’s so far away I know he doesn’t hear me.

He stalls for a moment longer and gives me another smile before turning the corner and ascending the stairs to the second floor.

I stand still, the smile no longer on my face as I realize I got what I’d asked for. Now I’ve got a pile of work and the next six hours - including my break - likely on my own. No stories, no-one interfering with my space.

Just what I’d wanted, and yet, for some strange reason I just… I miss him. And I hate being so alone.

#my fics #prompt response #ahh i'm sorry its late #and i don't have a name for it but yknow #everlark #feel feel to request any prompts #retail!everlark

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missmonsters2 · 5 years ago

Text

Drive Her Crazy || Part V

PAIRING: Wanda Maximoff x OFC/Reader

Summary: AU. Meet Wanda, the new ‘It’ girl. She’s built her social standing as a social influencer through Instagram and vlogging on Youtube. Queen Bee in her social circle, she’s got everyone wrapped around her finger. She’s perfect, you think. Girls like that require a little finesse, and you’re ready to play the game.

Warnings: Non-healthy relationship, psychological games, eventual smut. 18+ only.

Note: Welcome to a Tumblr exclusive! PM me if you would like to be added onto the tag list for updates.

PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV

DRIVE HER CRAZY SETLIST 🎶

PART V of X

Count: 3354

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶

It was incredibly hot out, but you basked in the warmth. You had to head to Wasteland earlier to ensure everything was good to go with the equipment and sound check. You decided to stay and relax with a drink. Wanda, Vision, and Natasha wouldn’t be on the ground until the evening to hear some of the more prominent names play.

Your cell began to vibrate in your pocket.

“Hey, you’re going to be here later, right?” You answer, knowing it who was right away.

“Of course, bitch, I wouldn’t I miss this for anything. Boyfriend is just getting ready, and we’re going to eat first before coming.” David said through the line.

You smile.

“Perfect. I’ll introduce you to Wanda later then. Don’t forget what you promised me.”

You could hear an exasperated sigh on the other side. “How could I forget when you literally text me every day about it. I can’t believe you’re going to use the favor I owe you on her instead of yourself.”

“A favor’s a favor. Besides, I think when you meet her, you’ll forget it’s a favor.”

“Big words you’re talking there.”

“I certainly put the money where my mouth is.” You could tell David was grinning.

“Alright, I’ll see you later. The man is ready to go to eat.” David says, and you bid him goodbye briefly before the line disconnects.

The festival had provided you a tent to rest in behind the stage. You had nearly dozed off when your phone went off again. It was a text message from Wanda.

Hey, we’re here. Where should we meet you?

You quickly text a reply to Wanda and leave the tent. You meet up at one of the drink stations and smile as you approach the three. Vision looks like he’s a little out of place, and you almost feel for him.

Wanda looked amazing with her shorts, blouse, and converse. She had a couple necklaces on and rings on her fingers like she usually did, but the sun was just hitting her the right way. You made sure to not linger on her too long and focused your attention to Natasha who looked good as well.

“You guys made it,” you say as you walk up to them, adjusting your sling bag. over your shoulder.

Wanda comes to embrace you and your pat her back affectionately but signaling her to let go. Once she does, you walk over to Natasha, who also gives you a hug in greeting. When you part, you make sure to slide your hands down her arms intimately. She’s smirking at you while you grin.

Your eyes catch something though, and you frown a little at it. You lift your hand to her ear and lightly brush her hair behind it to get a better look. She’s looking at you intently, and you can feel Wanda’s eyes on your back.

“You don’t have earplugs?” You ask Natasha.

Natasha looked confused for a second. “No? I didn’t know I would need to have them.”

Your finger brushes her lobe lightly, and you bring your hand back to bring your sling bag around to the front of your body. You open it up and pull out a new pair of earplugs still in its packaging.

“Here, take these. Make sure you’re wearing these if you’re close to the stage, I don’t want you to go deaf.” You hand them to her, and Natasha is smiling at you.

“You sure?” She asks, and you nod.

“Yeah, these are my backup pair so no worries.” You turn your head to look over at Wanda who quickly smiles as soon as you’re looking at her. Her hair is tucked behind her ears, and you see she has only one in currently. The other she must be waiting to put in when she’s close to the stage. It wasn’t her first festival, after all.

The first thing you do is buy everyone a drink. Since you’re working later, you don’t drink as much.

“Is it hard to be in this kind of environment without getting drunk?” Natasha asks. You chuckle and tilt your head left and right to indicate ‘kind of.’

“At festivals like this, it’s easier to be in this section as you’re cut off from the general public. Less crowded. When I’m playing gigs at clubs or other venues, I typically only mingle for a bit before or after my set and then leave.”

“How kind of you to stick it out here with the rest of us then,” Natasha teases.

“Have to collect on your promise somehow,” you flirt right back causing Natasha's mouth to quirk upwards.

In the background, Wanda was watching the two of you, holding her drink a little tightly.

“Wanda,” Vision called, but she didn’t even hear it even though he was right in front of her.

“Wanda!” He calls again, and this time she whips her head at him, eyes wide.

“What?” She asks, willing her eyes to not go back to you and Natasha.

God, what was wrong with her today?

Vision gives her a concerned look but doesn’t say anything.

“How long are we staying?” He asks instead. Festivals weren’t really his scene, wasn’t his type of music, or what he could consider fun.

He only went because there was an odd feeling nagging him that he shouldn’t let Wanda go alone.

“I want to stay until it ends,” Wanda tells him, then nodding over to you with her chin. “She doesn’t play until tonight because she’s the opening act.”

Vision immediately frowns. That was a lot longer than he was expecting.

Wanda and Vision begin to bicker a little about how long they were going to stay.

“Vision,” Wanda finally says, a hint of irritation and frustration in her tone. “I’m staying. You can leave whenever you want to, I’m not forcing you to stay. I’m just saying it would be more fun if we’re here together.”

Vision doesn’t say anything back but sighs and nods. Wanda doesn’t really know if that means he’s staying or leaving earlier, but she doesn’t want to argue with him anymore. Lately, he’s been very strange.

Resolved to lift her spirits, she tells everyone they should get closer to the stage and dance. She can’t help but stare at you and Natasha dancing together. You were behind the redhead, pressed up against her, and seemingly saying something in her ear before helping her with her earplugs, and tapping the beat of the music against Natasha’s ribs.

Vision, seemingly trying to make up for bickering with Wanda earlier, grabs Wanda’s hand to twirl her around and pulls her close.

It’s a good couple of hours they’re out there listening to the music and dancing. You’re feeling pretty parched, and everyone follows you out to grab water. You run your fingers through your fringe, running it all the way back to help with the heat.

You’re supposed to be playing soon, so you’ll need to leave to go prep. Everyone is going to walk around until you’re about to play and will then make their way up front to the stage.

Suddenly, your phone is vibrating again. You pull it out see that it’s David who has arrived on the grounds.

“Hey,” you say to everyone. “I have another friend who came to see me play. I’ve been wanting to introduce you to him.”

You lead them in the direction David says he’s at. He’s at another drink station, and you can see him in the distance drinking and laughing with his boyfriend. He spots you in the distance and excitedly waves you over.

You walk over, and he pulls you into a hug. “My god, California is doing you wonders.”

David checks you over, you slap him lightly, and he laughs. His boyfriend stands up and gives you a hug as well.

“How are you, Liam?” You ask him and he tells a short tidbit on how he’s been.

After that, David is looking at the people behind you, and you turn and smile.

“As I told you, David, this Natasha, Wanda, and Vision.” You tell David, and he nods in greeting to them with a smile, keeping his eye on Wanda.

You turn to the three and smile. “This is my friend, D--”

“David King,” Wanda breathes out in awe. You chuckle lightly. David goes to shake everyone’s hand, saving Wanda for last.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m standing with David King right now,” Wanda whispers.

“Who’s David King?” Vision asks with a confused expression. David isn’t offended, but he does turn to you, giving you a look.

“Vis,” Wanda says, almost embarrassedly. “David King is a renowned photographer. All of his works are insanely famous. Anyone he’s worked with blows up. He’s known as the Golden Eye in the industry.”

Vision furrows his brows but nods with a soft, “Oh.”

David is smiling at Wanda, “Sounds like you know your stuff.”

Wanda nods enthusiastically. “Of course! My favorite work of yours is the piece you did in Italy in the countryside. It was so beautiful, it made me feel like a child.”

David raises his eyebrow at Wanda, feeling impressed, and you knew why. Out of all of David’s work, that piece was his least popular because the purpose of it wasn’t to make anyone or anything famous. It just showcased the land and some local people.

But it was special to David because that was his hometown, where he had grown up.

He sighs, looking at you and you smirk. David turns back to Wanda, pulling out his business card and holding it out to her. She takes it, eyes wide.

“I’m still working on a project, but I’ll be done in about 6 weeks. Call this number, and my assistant will make sure you’re booked in. We’ll start collaborating then.” David says, and Wanda is shellshocked. He winks at her before turning over to you.

“You've got a good eye. I’ll catch you later for your set.” David gives you one last hug and walks off with his boyfriend.

Wanda just turns to you. “Oh my god, am I dreaming? How did you do this?”

You just laugh at her, “I didn’t really do anything. David just owes me a favor, but even I can’t force him to work with anyone he doesn’t want to. He agreed to at least meet you and clearly he liked you. That was definitely all you.”

Wanda just squeals, jumping onto you with her legs wrapped around your body. You let out a surprised yelp, immediately having to put your arms around her to keep her from falling as you laugh. Her arms are wrapped around your neck, and she’s peering down on your face.

“You’re seriously too amazing,” she says, and you just roll your eyes teasingly to play it off. You gently set her down, ruffling your hair again, looking at your watch.

“Alright, I gotta head over to prepare for the set. Grab some more drinks and put it under my name. See you at the front.” You turn to Natasha, looking at her ears again and you softly lift your fingers underneath her hair to touch her ear.

“Don’t forget your earplugs,” you tell her softly and she smiles at you and nods. You wiggle your fingers at them and walk off.

Vision turns to Wanda and sighs. “I’m going to go. Don’t stay out too late.”

Wanda frowns at him. “Now? She’s just about to play.”

“I’m quite tired,” Vision says, and Wanda doesn’t say anything even though she’s a little upset, but she doesn’t want to argue with him again. He kisses her forehead and walks off.

With Natasha left, the two girls go grab another drink before heading to the front of the stage.

“She treats you really good,” Natasha comments as they’re walking. Wanda turns her head over to look at Natasha.

“Yeah, I suppose she does.”

“Vision told Tony about how she spent the day with you on Pietro’s anniversary too.”

Wanda narrows her eyes as they’re nearing the front of the stage.

“Yeah, she’s a good friend,” Wanda says, not sure what the problem is.

Natasha nods, smiling at the younger girl. “Yes, a friend. Thanks for introducing her to me.”

The redhead puts her earplugs in as the stage begins to flash. Wanda bites her lip, refraining from grabbing Natasha’s earplugs out and throwing them as far as she could. She wanted to scream that she met you first, you were hers!

Wanda huffed silently. She wasn’t too good at sharing, and you were a really good friend.

Shaking her head, she focused back on the stage. People were cheering around her as you came out with your mask.

The beat drummed along Wanda’s spine, and she closed her eyes, dancing away. A couple songs in, Natasha seemed to get a call and a text. She swore loudly, grabbing your attention.

“Tony has a work emergency, I need to head over immediately. Tell her I’ll call later,” Natasha says, looking at the stage once more before making her way out the crowd.

You were getting into your groove when you saw Natasha look at you, holding her phone up slightly with an apologetic look as she left the crowd. You were a little confused, but you assumed something happened. You look over at Wanda who is just beaming at you.

Smiling at her, you point to her, telling her the next song is for her.

Wanda throws her head back and lets out a laugh you can’t even hear and blows you a playful kiss.

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶

An hour passes by quick and before you know it, your time is over. You introduce the main act tonight, getting the crowd hyped up before you leave the stage. Backstage, you take off your mask and put your laptop away securely so you can bring it to your car later.

You make your way out into the crowd, finding Wanda in the same spot. She’s still dancing on her own as you come up behind her. When you tap her shoulder, she turns around and smiles widely at you, putting her arms around your neck to pull you into a hug.

“You were amazing!” Wanda yells loudly enough that it makes through your earplugs and the music. She looks a little flushed from the heat and dancing, so you hand her some water you brought along. She looks at you gratefully, taking a huge gulp of water. She gives it back to you, and you put it away in your sling bag, adjusting it back around you.

Some drunk YouTuber is flailing around dancing next to you. He’s nearly knocking into Wanda, so you wrap your arm across her collarbone to her other shoulder, pulling her closer to you and away from this menace. He’s getting too aggressive, and security at the front actually comes up to him, dragging him away from the crowd.

You sigh, rolling your eyes. You’re about to let go, but Wanda puts her hands up and settles them against your arm to keep it there. She leans her head back, resting against your shoulder and gets you both to sway with the music.

You settle your fingers more comfortably on Wanda’s arm just right under her shoulder. Your fingers automatically start tapping along with the beat, and you feel her body vibrate against you as she giggles.

The song changes and the beat starts to pick up much more. The crowd begins to jump with their hands in the air, but Wanda just spins around, facing you so close that your noses are nearly touching.

You’re both jumping to the music, but you can only focus on how you could feel her breath on your lips.

It feels like everything is happening in slow motion as you grab her hips and pull her close to you. You’re biting your tongue to hold the groan that wants to come out of your mouth, and she’s smirking at you.

Wanda closes her eyes, tilting her head back more, exposing her neck to you as she enjoys the music.

God, she was so fucking hot. You’re telling yourself to be patient, but you can’t help it when your lips ghost over her neck and she sighs.

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶

The two of you stay until the event is over. You’re currently driving her home because apparently, Vision was her ride. Then Natasha was going to drive her home, but she also left. She still seems full of energy as she’s singing along to the radio dramatically and dancing in her seat the best she can.

You’re just smiling as you have one hand on the wheel and the other perched up on the window ledge with your head in it.

“I don’t want to go home yet,” Wanda whines.

You chuckle since it’s 3am, but you humor her.

“Alright,” you tell her, changing the route. You take her back to Manhattan Beach, and since it’s so late, there’s no one but the two of you. Getting out of the car, you guys are walking on the pier, admiring the view.

Taking a seat on the edge, you both let your bare feet swing over the water. Wanda is leaning against you, head on your shoulder as she sighs in contentment.

When she looks up at you, she grins. “What are you thinking about?”

You tilt her head down to look at her, a small smile gracing your lips.

“What I’m going to do next,” you tell her. “I don’t have any more gigs after this.”

Wanda sits up immediately, frowning. “You’re leaving?”

You shrug in response. “I did only come here for work.”

“Didn’t you say if you enjoyed it enough, you would consider moving?” Wanda recalls from the first night you both met.

“Can’t say if I’m enjoying myself enough,” you tell her hauntingly with a smirk. Wanda just laughs and slaps you on the shoulder as you rear back.

“I do actually have some collab offers to work with some local artists around here,” you tell Wanda after a moment, making sure you sound unsure if you were going to take it or not.

“You can’t leave yet,” Wanda tells you seriously. “My birthday is in a month, and I refuse to let you miss my party.”

While you knew her birthday was coming up, you grin at her attempt to make you stay. You had, of course, knew you were going to stay longer. You even already lined up some collabs to keep you busy.

Everything was progressing well, better than you may have even hoped for. You certainly didn’t miss Wanda glaring at Natasha all day, and from the looks of it, things were getting tense between Vision and Wanda.

You licked your lips, lost in thought. There was just something about Wanda that made you want her and keep her. You were entirely invested in seeing her edge.

“Well,” you say, your lips curled upwards. “I suppose I can’t miss your birthday. What a crime that would be.”

Wanda nods satisfyingly, settling back next to you with her head on your shoulder. “It would be. So, what are you getting me?”

She sounds so cheeky you can’t even hold back your laughter. “Aren’t presents supposed to be a surprise?”

You had known her birthday had been coming long before and had started working on it since the trust fund kid’s party. It was coming along together nicely, and you were just waiting for a call.

“Just a little hint?” Wanda negotiates, and you jut your chin out and purse your lips.

“How do you feel about crocs?” You ask, trying to not cackle. Wanda sits back up, narrowing her eyes at you.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Ask again about your present and I just might,” You warn her, eyes twinkling.

Wanda’s jaw drops, and then she shakes her head, “And you call me wicked.”

The corner of your lip quirks up.

“You have no idea.”

PART VI

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addictofsupernatural · 5 years ago

Text

The Road So Far (pt. 1)

Sweet Pea x reader

Summary: Y/n Winchester and her two older brothers go to the small town of Riverdale for a case. Y/n must enroll into Riverdale High to help the case, and meets one Sweet Pea on tbe way.

Riverdale + Supernatural crossover

Requested by: @sgarrett49

Author Note: So Tumblr cut me off from writing any more on this text, so it's going to be stretched out into a mini series.

Chapter 2

Word Count: 3402

"I just don't get why I have to go to school to hunt a werewolf."

Dean closed the trunk of the car. "Because, we heard from some of the people here that the teenagers basically run this town."

"Really?" You said. "Ugh, it's like we got a case inside of some crappy new age TV show." Sam laughed and Dean nodded. You all went inside of a motel next to some trailer homes.

The next day you took your stuff and went to school. Apparently a school got closed down due to some hazardous stuff, so there was only one in the town.

When you got to school, there was a small crowd of teens waiting for you. "Excuse me, are you Y/n Winchester?" You nodded. "Okay then. Hi, I'm Veronica Lodge, and welcome to Riverdale High."

"Lodge, as in Lodge Industries?" You asked. Her smiled faded a bit, then came back just as quickly.

"Yes, but whatever daddykins does with his business, I am not associated with."

You smiled and compressed your laughter. "Daddykins, huh?" She nodded. "That's a new one."

She let out a small laugh. "Well, this is Archie, my boyfriend."

He waved. Then another one spoke up. "I'm Betty, I'm one of the people who run the blue and gold newspaper. This is Jughead, he also runs the blue and gold."

"You guys solved some murders right?" Maybe they could help you with the case. The two of them nodded.

Then Jughead spoke up. "This is Fangs and Sweet Pea." They both nodded.

You look at Sweet Pea's tattoo. "What's that mean?" You put two fingers to your neck pulse, indicating the tattoo.

"It's a symbol for the Southside Serpents." Her said, looking down at you.

"That a gang?" You asked as a joke. When he nodded, you responded with, "Wait really?"

A person bursted through the doors. "Ignore the hoodlums. Don't pay any attention to the raggamuffins, they're only important in their greasy, Southside bar. Hi I'm Cheryl blossom. Maybe if you lose the flannel and band shirts I could consider you to be a River Vixen."

"So you're captain of the cheerleaders?" You asked, amused.

"Yup." She said, smug. "I basically run this school."

You bursted out laughing. "Okay, let me get this straight. There's turfs, gangs, murders, and, no offence Ronnie, a mobster in this town?" They all agreed. "And yet, for some reason, cheerleaders and football players are still important? And the head bitch in charge is a ginger?"

You had began to laugh again. "Aw, this is a bad new aged TV show, isn't it?" Jughead snorted.

"You you have a problem with my hair color?" She looked pissed.

"Of course not, gingy #2, I think gingy #1 seems like a nice guy. Look, minus Carrie White over here, you all seem like pretty cool people, but unfortunately I won't have the pleasure of getting to know you. My brothers and I will probably be gone in a week or two. So where do I go to get my schedule?"

"Um, I have it right here." Veronica said. You were going to grab it, but she took it away. "But, we have been asked by principal Weatherbee to make you feel at home."

"No, you and Betty were and you two dragged us into it." Jughead said.

"Well, either way, I want to become friends with you, even if you will only bless us with your presence for a short amount of time."

You looked at her, amused. "Okay then."

She beamed her smile. "Alright, well you have a class with each one of us, and also four classes with Sweet Pea, so we will be with you for the whole day."

Sweet Pea had been watching the entertainment you had been giving this whole time. Who was this girl? One of the first people who didn't care about the social status in Riverdale.

The bell rang. "Alrighty then. You ready Sweets?" You asked. He was taken aback by the nickname. You did the same with Veronica earlier. Was that just a thing you did?

"Uh, yeah, let's go."

As you walked down the hallways, you see signed about some Red Circle group. You grabbed one off the wall. "The Red Circle? What is that?"

"The bulldogs made a group to terrorize the Southside. Trying to clean up the streets and protect their people."

"Really?" You giggled, confusing him. "What kind of piss poor excuse is that? They want to pretend that their in a gang so they can sound cooler than just being a group of sex deprived football players."

He laughed. He was so intrueged by you. You said what was on your mind, and your logic was that of an outside perspective. You were funny and adorable, and came with an I don't give a fuck attitude.

You walked into class together. The teacher told you to sit next to Sweet Pea, who sat in the far back, since you seemed to get along with him. As you walked to your seat, a guy said, "Careful sweetheart. I wouldn't get too close with the snake boy. He's not like us."

You stopped, looking at the letterman jacket he wore. You then held up the red circle sign. "You in this?"

"You know it. The name's Reggie Mantle."

"Wow!" You said in a fake overly happy voice. "You know, when I first walked through those doors I thought you were a douchebag, but I was totally wrong. You're a wanna be ghetto ass douchebag!"

You crumpled up the paper and threw it at him, continuing to walk. Everybody gasped and Sweet Pea smiled excitedly, nodding in his seat.

You silently laughed at him. "Woah."

"What?" Sweet Pea asked, still smiling.

"You look adorable when you're happy." You turned back to the front, missing the smile slide off his face as he stared at you.

As classes went by, you both enjoyed each other's company. Turns out that in every class Sweet Pea is in the back because the teachers fear him. You liked being in the back of the class with him though.

When it came to lunch Veronica practically dragged you to their table. This was your chance to get some information. "So," you said, looking towards Betty and Jughead. "I heard there's been murders of people and animals recently. Do you know anything about it?" They all looked at you, confused. "I'm just really into that stuff."

"Well you'll fit right in here." Veronica joked.

"Not much, but people have been saying things about werewolves." Betty said. "Ethel said that they had a pack at Fox Forest. We were gonna check it out tonight. Do you wanna come?"

"I'd love to." You genuinely smile. If you were to ever stay at one place, it would probably be this one.

Betty smiled. "Okay. This'll be fun."

"Gee gang, sounds like the start of a new mystery." You said without much thought.

"Did you just quote Scooby Doo?" Jughead asked.

"Yes?"

"I think this is the beginning of a new relationship." He said as he munched on his food.

When you got to PE Sweet Pea heard girls talking about you. They were talking about how you had scars covered up, and laughing about how they were ugly on you. He was about to go and tell them off, but was stopped by you calling out for him. "Hey, Sweets!"

"Yeah?"

"We're supposed to partner up, and I think you're the only one who could be close to keeping up with me." You playfully put your hands on your hips.

"We'll see about that, won't we sweetheart?" He gave a smirk.

"Sweetheart, huh? My brother calls his one night stands sweetheart." You counter.

"Don't worry Winchester, you're worth more than that to me." Your cocky smile faded and was replaced with a small, genuine smile with some red on your cheeks. "What's wrong? Not used to the praise?" He slyly said.

"Not at all." You said truthfully. He faltered a bit, but you just brushed your embarrassment off. "C'mon, let's just start the stuff."

Sweet Pea learned just how in shape you were. No matter what exercise was being done, you seemed to excell in it. It was a hassle trying to keep up with you, but he did.

PE was your last period, so the two of you were seen talking together right after school. It seemed that everybody saw, because the five others who greeted you in the morning, except Cheryl, went to go talk to the two of you. It was a rare thing, to see Sweet Pea even give a second glance to someone who isn't a Southsider. But here he was, happy as can be right next to you.

"Hey guys." Betty said. You waved.

"Well well well," Veronica said. "It seems that the new girl in town has found herself a man, and no other than the toughest guy in Riverdale." She was smiling slyly.

They have never seen Sweet Pea so happy, at least not at Riverdale High. Nobody had even seen him look at any girl except Toni, who was one of the guys to him. So having someone crack a smile on his face was a sight to see, and they all automatically wanted the two of you to be together. After all, you made him smile.

Betty then had an idea spring up in her head. "Sweet Pea," he turned his attention towards her, his face unintentionally being a little more colder. "You should come with the three of us tonight to Fox Forest. We're working on the deaths of those people and animals."

Sweet Pea thought about it for a bit, but looking at your waiting face made him not need to think about it at all. "Sure. You guys will need protection, so it's smart if I tag along."

Your face perked up into a smile. Just then a 1967 black Chevy Impala pulled up to the front of the school, classic rock being heard from inside. Two men stepped out and were both leaning on the side of the car. You were guessing that they wanted to look tough to show people not to mess with you.

"Nice ride." Sweet Pea muttered.

"Thanks." You said, everybody turning to you.

"Oh my God, who are those beautiful men standing over there?" Veronica asked. "Especially the one on the left." She said, staring at them.

"That would be Dean. The other one with the long hair is Sam. Those are my brothers." Everyone was in awe of how badass the two looked.

"Well now, some new blood hotties have rolled into town." You all turned your heads to see Cheryl enjoying the view as well. "Who would have known that they were related to a greasy little raggamuffin like you."

"Okay, let's not check out my brothers guys, this is weird and gross for me."

You look at Sweet Pea, who seems to be in a trance as well. "Really? You too?"

He laughed. "No, it's not that. I'm looking at the car." You laughed back. "Don't worry y/n, you're the only Winchester I like to look at." You giggled.

Dean spotted you laughing with some guy. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Look at that kid, getting a little too chummy with y/n. I'm gonna have a little talk with him."

"You don't know if he's doing anything bad, they could just be talking Dean."

"The kid has a neck tattoo. He's a douche." They watched as you nudged him, smiling and talking. Sam cleared his throat, not knowing how to defend you anymore.

"Oh hell no." He angrily went over to the group of teenagers, ignoring Sam's calls. Everybody brought their attention to the eldest Winchester walking up. "Hey there." He said to Sweet Pea with a smile. "Wanna tell me why you're standing so close to my sister?"

"Dean." You said, standing in between the both of them, although not making a difference from you being a lot tinier than the two. "Don't."

"We were just talking sir." Sweet Pea said, sweating bullets. He stood up straight and his voice was clear, but he was more nervous than anything.

"Oh, you were just talking. Well to me it seemed like flirting, and if you think I'm gonna let-"

Suddenly a hand clasped hard on Dean's shoulder. "Okay, that's enough. Sorry you all had to see that." He smiled at everyone, making the females melt.

Dean took a few steps back before pointing to Sweet Pea and saying, "We have guns."

"Dean!" Sam said in a sturdy voice.

"Are you satisfied big bro?"

"Get in the car." He said in a strained voice. You mouthed the word sorry to Sweet Pea, then looked at Betty and Jughead, nodding. They nodded back.

When you got to the motel, you were on your way to the bathroom. "Imma go take a shower."

Dean grabbed your arm and plopped you on one of the beds. "Oh no, you're not." You innocently smiled at him, making him even more annoyed. "What the hell were you doing with that kid?"

You looked at him, dead face. "Talking."

"Talking my ass! I saw you two, way too close for friendliness. I don't want you around that guy anymore."

You huffed, kicking off your shoes and getting comfortable. "Why not?"

"Because that kid is bad news. He has a neck tattoo of a double headed snake, I mean, that says it all." He smiled, although unamused.

"It's just a tattoo! I have one too." You were referring to the anti possession tattoo just below your collarbone, which was the same place your brothers had theirs.

"That's different."

"Sam, help me out here."

Sam sighed. "I don't know y/n, you guys were standing pretty close."

"Ha!" Dean said.

"But you really could have only been talking."

"See?! Thank you Sammy. You know what, whatever. I'm gonna head to that 50's themed diner. Want anything?"

"Burgers."

"Just a salad. Thanks."

You nodded and opened the door. "Don't forget the pie!" Dean called out as you shut the door.

You huffed as you went into a diner called Pop's, heading to the front. You didn't notice the four people with leather jackets. You smiled as an old man with the name tag of Pop came. "Do you have pie?"

"Cherry's our best slice." He smiled.

You smiled back. "Perfect. I'll have that, two combo #1's, and a Caesar salad to go please."

"Sure thing. What kind of milkshakes?"

"Milkshakes?"

"Of course, everyone who comes here gets a milkshake. They're the best you'll ever have."

You shrugged, still smiling. There was something that you liked about him. He was just so peaceful. "Surprise me." He nodded and headed to the back. You sat at the counter, waiting for your food.

Meanwhile, Sweet Pea ducked his head when you walked up to the counter. "What's with you?" Toni asked.

"He's into the new girl over there." Jughead said.

"Until her brothers came and scared the crap out of him." Fangs teased.

Sweet Pea flushed from both embarrassment and anger. "No they didn't, I was just showing them respect."

"Then go up to her and ask her out." Fangs said all too casually.

As his three friends stared him down with their evil grins, he awkwardly stood. He knew he couldn't get out of this. He walked over to you, sitting next to you. "Hey."

You swiveled your seat in his direction. "Hey. Sorry about my brothers. Dean likes to get overprotective sometimes, especially when it's with guys that have tattoos on his neck." You have him a teasing smile.

"It's fine." He chuckled out, rubbing where his tattoo was.

"We still on for tonight?" You cocked your head as you waited for his answer, which he found adorable.

"Yeah, I have to be there in case you get yourself in trouble Winchester."

"My hero, but how do I know you won't leave me hanging with Jug and Bets?" There it was again, the nicknames.

"I'm not that kind of guy." He put a hand over his heart jokingly.

"Then why are your friends staring at me?" You squinted your eyes a bit at him.

He put his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it nervously. "They, uh, wanted me to ask you out." You raised your eyebrows at him in an unimpressed manner. "But, I know that you deserve more than some date from a dare. The date will come, but it will take more time. And I don't care if you'll be leaving soon, I'll drive out to wherever you are and pick you up, and we'll have a good date."

You giggled. He suddenly felt hot, having watched him just pour out his soul. He probably seemed like an idiot right now. "That might have been the sweetest thing anyone has ever told me." You nodded. "Okay, you've got yourself a date. Full warning though, never been on a date. So if I'm weird I'm sorry. But on the bright side, you won't have to top anything from my experience."

He put up his hands to his eye level in victory. "I hit the jackpot."

"Just one thing," you put up your index finger. "You didn't answer my question. How do I know you aren't lying and leave me waiting for you?"

He took off his skull ring and put it on your middle finger. "I have to get my ring back from you." He saw you looking back behind him, then at you. "They're still watching aren't they?"

"Yup." You then leaned to him in your seat and gave him a hug. "Don't worry, I'll put on a show for them." You whispered in his ear, turning your head to kiss his cheek.

"Sorry to interrupt you two love birds up," Pop said, with a bag and a cup holder with three drinks in hand. "But your order's ready. The pie is on the top, and I labeled the flavors of milkshakes on the cups."

You leaned away from Sweet Pea. "Bless your beautiful heart Pop." You reached for your wallet, but Sweet Pea smacked some money down before you could get your own money out. You gave him a side smile. "Ever the gentleman."

"Does that surprise you?" He looked you up and down.

You grabbed your dinner, hopping off your chair. "I bet it would surprise most in this town."

He ignores your comment, and instead focuses on your situation. "Do you need a ride?"

"Um, on your bike?" He nodded, to which you responded by raising the items in your hand. "I have precious cargo."

"Then I'll walk you back to your place."

You gave him a questioning look. "And possibly see my brothers again?"

He shrugged. "I have to protect you, remember? I'm your hero."

You rolled your eyes and smiled. "If you insist."

You both walked and talked, you holding the food and him holding the drinks. "I'm thirsty." He said. "Which one of these milkshakes is yours so I can steal some?"

You laughed. "I have no idea. I told him to surprise me, so that's what he did. Which one do you think I'd like?"

"Peanut butter cup. Definitely." He then took a sip of it, taking it out of the cup holder and putting it towards you. "Try it. Maybe it'll make you stay."

You look at him as he smiled. "I wish. If it tastes bad I'm releasing my brothers onto you." He chucled. You then took a sip, not ready for that level of tastiness to be in that shake. "Holy crap that's amazing!"

"See?!"

"What is up with this ghostly bipolar town? I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone." You then both got to the motel. "You can go if you want."

"You're living in a motel?"

"Always. Well, sometimes we sleep in the car." You said casually, knocking on your door.

Dean answered the door, eyeing Sweet Pea. "What are you doing here kid?"

"He was at Pop's, and wanted to help me carry dinner." You said with a smile. "He also bought our food! Isn't that so nice of him?"

Sam came to join in. "How considerate."

Your smile became even wider. "Right Dean?"

"You two go on ahead, I'm gonna have a little talk with Mr. Nice Guy outside."

#sweet pea fluff #sweet pea fanfiction #sweet pea fic #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea #riverdale fanfiction #riverdale fandom #riverdale #supernatural fandom #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural #riverdale supernatural #riverdale supernatural crossover #supernatural au #riverdale au

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theonetheycallhannah · 4 years ago

Text

The Treatment of Captain Syverson-Chapter Six: Sensory Integration 2

Pairing: Captain “Sy” Syverson x OFC (Shane Benton)

Summary: It’s a fine night for a walk by the water with a handsome vet holding your hand. I think that says it all.

Behind on your sessions? Want more from the author? Click Me

Word Count: Almost 1.9k (a bit shorter, hopefully y’all don’t mind by the end!)

Warnings: Basically still fluff, but also some saucy morsels near the end…not full on smut, though, so don’t get too excited. We aren’t there yet, my little lovelies. Soon, though…soon.

Author’s Note: As I said before, this date totally got away from me, nearing a whopping 6k in total. Thanks again for all the love. And in other news, I told a couple of my PT friends about this story, and one of them agreed to be my official technical consultant on the project for future chapters and even if I wanna flesh it out, modify it to include strictly “original” characters, and eventually take it to a publisher! I sent what I’ve done so far to her just before I started drafting this post, so hopefully she’ll have good insight for me! She said it was about time someone wrote a story like that! Lol! (She reads a lot, so I guess people really don’t think of PTs as the heroines of love stories. Sad, really! Most of the ones I know are lovely and loving people!) The other was just instantly excited and can’t wait to read it.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism.

Tags:

@onlyhenrys

@cavillryarchive

@summersong69

@titty-teetee

@bloodyinspiredfuck

@agniavateira

@oddsnendsfanfics

@omgkatinka

@thisismysecretthirstblog

@misslaland

@speakerforthedead0@tumblnewby

@suavechops

Hope I’m not forgetting anyone! If you want to be notified when I post a new chapter or work, I’ll be happy to add you to my tag list! Stricken blogs are getting personal messages from me when a new chapter is uploaded because Tumblr’s faulty tagging system will not stand in the way of me delivering what the people want!(?) lol! (Although...their lackadaisical notification system might...sorry for that. I have no control. lol!)

The lake was fairly near her clinic, not two blocks away. He wasn't wrong about her feeling up to a walk when the time came. She was looking forward to the fresh night air near the lake. It was a deep-seated part of who she was to love the water.

He'd pulled into the small, empty gravel lot at the head of the paved walking trail. It was well dark since it had just turned 10:00, and the moonlight danced off the water, calm, but with a faint shimmer from the light breeze. The stars danced, winking at them as if they knew the romance that surged between the couple was burgeoning right here below them.

"Now, last time I walked this trail, I'll warn you…I got approached by a gang. And they were…pretty vicious. I had to resort to some guerilla tactics that I'm not too proud of to fend 'em off."

"Oh no!" she wasn't aware of any gang crime in their fairly peaceful city! "What kind of gang?"

"A goose gang." He looked at her gravely. Before they both burst out laughing in hysterics.

"I thought you were serious!" she wiped tears carefully from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I was! They are stupid territorial! I had several of them tryin'a bite at my legs at once. It was quite the ordeal, I assure you!" he said, serious, but still laughing.

"Well, you'll save me if the Ya-Gooz-ah descend on us tonight, wont you?" she teased, clutching at his arm in mock fright at the thought of a band of Yakuza Geese being an actual thing, but thinking it was a great way to keep him touching her.

"As long as you stay real close to me, sunshine. I'll protect you from the devil himself." He kissed her on the top of the head, sealing the promise and warming her from the point of contact all the way to her toes.

As they traipsed along the pavement path, they talked about everything and nothing, the gentle night wind a whisper against their skin, which had been made slightly dewy from the walk and the humidity. They had made two laps around the small body of water when they came back around to one of several benches placed at intervals on the trail running its perimeter. Without breaking their conversation, she pointed to the nearest one, indicating her desire to sit, which he understood and lead them there.

“See, the problem I have with sports at that level, especially football is the harm I’ve witnessed it do to a kid’s body. We’ve treated athletes in high school and as early as 7th and 8th grade that the coaches are completely obsessed with getting them out on the field or court again. These kids are taking more impact than their bodies are ready for. They can’t miss a game, or even practice for therapy even if they’re just riding pine. And the parents are so laser focused on that potential college scholarship for that sport that they can’t see that if their child doesn’t get better, no scout is gonna want to dole out a free ride. Not to a broken-down athlete. Did you feel that kind of pressure when you were playing football? Because I don’t remember it at my school.” She went off a on bit of a tangent because she’d just been told by Heather before she left that her torn meniscus, Jason couldn’t get in for several weeks because of his practice and game schedule limiting his availability.

“I mean, I felt pressure, I guess, but not outside of practice or the games. I’d hurt my knee my junior year early, same one we been workin’ on, and they just had me sit out a few weeks and work with a PT, but I don’t remember it being a problem to miss out on anything related to football if it was because of my health.” He sat down next to her on the fiberglass bench, which was molded to have the look of fine blonde wood, and put his arm around her shoulder. No pretense of the reach, no awkwardly sitting for a while beforehand, just continuing to touch her as he had been their whole walk.

She leaned into his shoulder, comfortably, as if they’d done this a thousand times and this wasn’t their first date. And continued their discussion.

“What has gotten into people these days? It’s like they’re not satisfied with anything. Nothing is ever enough for a single person on this good earth!” She sighed, frustrated by the neediness of people that seemed to come with her own job and projecting that on to the world…not that there wasn’t at least a measure of truth in it.

“Personally speaking, I think you’re wrong.”

“You don’t think that the world is full of dissatisfied Karens?” She laughed.

“Oh I do. But it’s not every person. You’re sitting next to one very content man right here.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhmm.” He confirmed.

“Was it the steak, or the lobster mac?” She’d be fantasizing about them both until the next time they went there. Yeah, she was already thinking about “next time” and “they.” She was in trouble.

“Not to knock either, but I’m a hun’ert percent sure it was the company.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

She smiled, nuzzling into him, feeling the downy softness of his shirt again and smelling his intoxicating cologne. She suddenly remembered a promise from their session.

“Oh, hey. I was gonna have a response for you…to your 'question' from earlier.” She said, mischief burning in her eyes. She kneeled up on the bench and turned his face to hers, brushing a hand against his impossibly soft beard before descending slowly in for a kiss.

It started sweet, a few languid, full pecks, then she parted her lips barely enough for her tongue to venture out to explore his full mouth. They were met after several attempts with a reciprocal openness from him. She dared, then to search him with her tongue. It was simply browsing now. Feeling no rush to complete its quest. Only a sense of the need for due diligence. She was surprised at the flavor she'd encountered. She hadn't seen him pop a mint, and she hadn't left his side all evening. He was sly. It was a sweet and strong taste. Wintergreen on steroids, with the mildest hint of vanilla. She wanted more. Of the flavor. Of him.

She let her tongue find his, knowing what would happen, somehow, even though they had never kissed like this before. Never when it wasn't rushed and needing to be…PG. Here in the dark of night, with no one but the celestial bodies as witnesses, they didn't have to worry about her job, or the public. The judgement of the outsider's gaze.

She knew, by instinct alone, that this would spark him into more than latent participation. And that's exactly why she did it. As previously stated, she was definitely an intentional beast when the occasion called and mood struck.

He did as she'd expected, his own tongue waking, beginning a playful dance with hers, exploring her mouth with more urgency and desire, pulling a ragged gasp from her lungs. She broke away to give some attention to his neck. She held him by the base of his head, thumb playfully brushing into his thick facial hair. A breathy moan that sounded very much like her name escaped his lips. This was the reaction she had been dying to get from him for so long. A surrendering bliss that only came from this kind of personal, intimate, and one-one connection. She'd gotten hints of it when she'd helped him stretch, when she heard those stifled groans he felt at the good hurt she brought him with her expert touch.

She bit his earlobe, and sealed her fate. He growled and pulled her up to his lap in an immodest straddle. Not that she cared in the empty dark. He seemed to need her lips back on his, desperate to find a purchase that would never present itself. The paradox of a kiss.

His hands roved over the back of her from neck to behind, very much favoring the latter. It was an odd sensation. Most of her experience with ass-grabbing had been less than pleasant. Either dirty old men had touched her without consent, or boyfriends had done essentially the same thing as a show of their dominance over her, also without her strictest consent. The way Sy held her was tender, exploratory, and…she couldn't help but think the word loving. "Love" wasn't a word they were ready to even bring up. But she thought he was showing it in his feather touch and hungry kiss.

The breeze was cool, and felt extra cold where she seemed to be warmest. Her position had her…very exposed to the elements, covered only by the fine layers of her underwear at some angles. She was suddenly very aware that they were on a precipice here. If they carried on much longer like this, she wasn't going to want to stop. She already didn't. And she was just out of practice enough to be unsure of where her point of no return was. Dammit. She broke away, in agony from it.

"Sy, I…I think …you should take me back." she stuttered.

"Okay." he pulled her back in for another kiss, pretending to misinterpret,which she indulged a moment but quickly escaped.

"No, sweetie." she chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"Or…I could bring you home with me." It was only a suggestion, but there was a plea in his eyes that pulled at her guts. He wanted her. And she wanted him. With every single cell in her body, she wanted every singe cell of his. But she truly felt that taking things slowly was the best option given the complexities of their situation.

"You don't know how badly I want to accept that invite, Sy." she rested her forehead on his. They were both breathless.

"It's just two little letters, sunshine. O. K. Easy as granny's peach pie."

"I'm terrible at pie crust." they laughed.

"Let's go." he said, helping her off his lap, and preparing to stand, but sitting back down immediately.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned. "Is it the knee? Did I hurt it?" she was already mad at herself, and at him a bit, if this indiscretion had caused him a setback…how ironic it would be!

"Nope, knee's great. Dandy."

"Did you get lightheaded?"

"No, but uhh…it's definitely SOME sort of blood flow issue. Gonna need a minute." he explained without explaining with a sheepish expression on his face…it hit her like a speeding bus.

"Ope." she looked to his lap without thinking, and immediately averted to the water again, as she sat beside him, hands clasped over the seat of the bench. His hand found hers, and covered it, asking to hold it, and getting its way.

"I had…the best time tonight, Shane." he told her, staring at the opposite bank where the maple, oak, and sycamore trees swayed to the tune of the gentle night's breeze.

"So did I, Sy."

"You free tomorrow?" he asked, hopefully.

"You tell me!" she replied…hopefully.

Up Next: Chapter Seven: Non-Productive Time

#netflix sand castle #sand castle #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x ofc #captain syverson #captain syverson fanfic #captain syverson x ofc #sigh for sy #is that a new tag i started? idk maybe...lets use it. teehee!

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