#oh wait this wont ping who i got the tags from i should tag you what was your name

[publicdomainbooksdevotee]

There's definitely a thread of unfinished business/incompleteness going on—I keep thinking of more examples. The freeway onramp that connects to nothing. The math that wasn't worked out yet. Even the Tupperware of ashes was labeled 1/3.

@mummer

Thinking too hard about what it means that the schoolbus ran over a coyote offscreen and throughout the movie the roadrunner wanders unchased.

[ncityislove]

In Bloom

➳Pairing: Playboy!Jaemin x Florist!reader

➳Genre: Fluff and angst, angst and fluff

➳Word Count: 9K

Requested? yep

A/N: I hate myself so much for posting this so late but I sold my laptop thinking I would be able to buy a new and guess what? LOL I still don’t have one :) I’m using this old broken one my dad has and hopefully it wont die on me while I’m writing this. Good news is while I’ve been saving for a new laptop I’ve been writing on my phone so I have some other goodies ready and qeued to go!

"Oh, please," Xiaojun said, shuffling around on the other line.

You winced at the loud bang blaring from the speaker, throwing your arm out so that the phone was a safe distance from your ear. Xiaojun was doing laundry which was a rare activity to find him doing.

Normally you washed all the clothes to prevent any...mishaps. Xiaojun had a bit of a rough time when it came to simple house chores, as his mom always took care of that for him. You tried to teach him on several occasions but somehow the loads always mysteriously came out shrunken or pink when they hadn't gone in that way.

You pressed the phone back to your ear at the same moment he turned on the dryer, a beeping noise nearly causing you to go deaf. He cursed, apologizing.

"You've got to have more confidence than that....be a man!"

You frowned at this, slowing your pace when you realized you were nearing your destination, a feeling of unease washing over you. "I can't help it," you whined. "It's my first day."

Xiaojun sighed. "You already made it through the interview, y/n. You got the job...so what is there to be nervous about?"

Your stomach gurgled as the most embarrassing scenarios run through your mind. Shaking the owner's hand with sweaty palms, smiling at the customers with food stuck in your teeth, giving people the wrong change, trying to push the door open when it was the pulling kind. You clenched the bottom of your tee, wrinkling your freshly ironed shirt.

"Ugh, I think I'm gonna sick," you grumbled.

"Hey, shouldn't you be there by now?" you could tell by the tone of his voice his cheeks were lifted in that teasing smile.

You pressed your lips together, letting out a breath before finally ending the call. You could do this, right? This wasn't your first job--what was there to be nervous about? You trekked down the littered sidewalk taking deep breaths to calm your nerves. It didn't work.

The green neon sign hanging above the door signified your arrival and you gulped.

N BLOOM

You let out a shaky breath as you craned your neck up at the sign, reaching for the door handle. A chime went off as you pulled the door open and you stepped in, glancing around, relieved no one was in sight. You checked your teeth in the camera of your phone before maneuvering through the narrow path full of greenery. The entrance was full of all the typical houseplants: jade plants, sword ferns, spider plants, rubber figs, etc. After passing through there, the path widened, exposing the coffee-colored tiles. Your eyes analyzed the brightly colored flowers in your passing, noting the Peonies needed to be watered as the soil looked just as shriveled up as the plant itself.

You waited at the register, unsure if you should go into the back room. Of course, you'd been there for the interview but it still seemed a bit impolite. You could hear a voice nearing you, talking to someone—on the phone maybe?—whoever it was they were coming out and your stomach began to flip again.

The owner, Taeil, emerged with an ancient-looking house phone. His hair was messy as if he had run his hand through it several times and his lips were turned downwards in a frown. His dark eyes met yours briefly, a smile flickering across his face, waving for you to follow him behind the counter.

"I know they aren't in season yet, but I'm just letting you know what I want ahead of time so that...no...no. Yes, I'm aware—I'm not an idiot." Taeil handed you an apron, trapping his phone in between his shoulder and cheek as he helped you put it on.

"I'm just asking for the seeds it's not like I'm asking you to plant them for me," Taeil said, his voice sounding bitter. He gently tied the strings behind your back and lifted his hand towards the hall mirror.

"Take a look," he said before turning and murmuring something you didn't catch into the phone. You took the short walk to the hallway to see an out-of-place floor length mirror. This wasn't so bad, right? Taeil seemed nice—when you weren't pissing him off, that is—and the apron was actually kind of cute. It was striped and crossed at the back, resting just above your knees. It wasn't anything like the filthy, plain black one Taeil was sporting.

When you returned, Taeil had ended his phone call and was digging through a drawer. You stood idly behind him as he pulled out a name tag and handed it to you.

"Y/n!!" he exclaimed, making you jump. "Sorry I didn't get to welcome you properly but I'd be glad to give you a tour of the place."

You nodded eagerly and followed Taeil around the small shop as he explained where everything was and the functions of the tools. Thankfully, it was pretty easy to grasp since you had experience with gardening.

Both of your parents were botanists and their love of plants was passed down to you. Although they were retired now, they continued to study through their own garden in their backyard. You had memories of being in that garden since you could crawl and you often found yourself spending most of your time there. It was something about the fresh air and the serene and pure beauty of the plants that made you feel at peace.

After the short tour, you sat at the counter and filled out the last of your paperwork to finalize your new position. It was a relief none of the crazy things you imagined actually happened although there was a slim chance it would to begin with.

Taeil took the papers when you were done, beaming at you. "So what do you think so far? Do you think you can handle working here?"

"Mmm...I think so. I've always liked gardening so it feels like I'm just doing a hobby."

Taeil stacked the papers against the countertop. "Glad to hear it."

You nodded your head awkwardly, unsure of what to say next. Taeil maneuvered around you to squat down and put the papers in a filing cabinet. "So," he said grunting as he stood back up. "Let me brief you on the customers while no one's here yet."

"Okay," you agreed, sitting in the nearby wooden chair when Taeil sat on the stool next to you.

"The store isn't ever crowded really, but we do have some regulars who I think it's really important to know of. Like Ms. Lee, for example," he clasped his hands together. "Ms. Lee has been coming here for years, twice a month for fresh flowers. Mostly daisies but sometimes she'll pick up a fern from time to time."

You nodded, encouraging him to go on.

"Oh! How could I forget? My best customer! He used to come every two weeks or so but now he visits almost twice a week."

Your eyebrows raised on their own accord and you couldn't hide the shock on your face even if you wanted to. Twice a week? What would a person do with THAT many flowers? Did he work for a funeral home or something?

Taeil chuckled at your expression. "Pretty crazy, right? His name's Jaemin. Pretty nice guy, cute as a button but I wouldn't trust the guy with my life."

You cocked your head to one side. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ah," he said, suddenly serious. "He's a pretty sneaky guy, I'd say. If I were you, I wouldn't get too close to Jaemin. He's flirted with all my past female employees."

Your face contorted into a look of displeasure. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. I can't stand men like that."

Taeil looked content with your response but still unsure.

"Trust me," you assured him. "I don't fall for those type of guys."

"Well, you haven't met Jaemin," Taeil said just as his pocket pinged. He slid his phone out, glancing at the screen before scowling. He gave you an apologetic smile before excusing himself to the back to make a phone call.

You got to your feet, using the spare time to check out the cash register. Taeil hadn't taught you how to use it yet and you didn't want to look like a complete idiot when he decided to. It wasn't long before the bell above the door jingled, alerting you of a new customer. Your heart dropped when you realized Taeil hadn't returned and you still didn't know how to do anything.

"Yeah, about that," said the customer. "How about you skip the party to hang out with me?" You could see the customer walk further into the store but the leaves of the ferns blocked everything but the top of his head.

"I've got a gift for you," he said pausing at the roses. You caught a glimpse of his face through the thick of the orchids but couldn't quite make out his features.

"Great. I'll text you, okay?" he said, ending the call. "Yo, Taeil!" he called out peering around the flowers.

You ducked behind the counter praying he didn't see you. Your heart thudded in your chest as you wondered why the hell you were hiding from a customer in the first place.

"Taeil, 're you there?" he asked wondering towards the front. You decided it would be better to show yourself now before he makes it to the register and finds you curled up behind the stool. You sprung up just as he reached the counter.

"Can I help you?" you said giving him a practiced smile.

The man seemed taken aback by your sudden presence before he responded. "Oh," he scratched his head. "I thought no one was here. I was calling..."

"Sorry, I didn't notice before, I was....tying my shoe," you said mumbling the last bit. Your face started to heat up at how dumb you sounded. It was your first customer and you were already screwing it up.

"I didn't know Taeil hired a new employee. I'm Jaemin, by the way," he said holding his hand out.

You shook it, retracting yours quickly when he held on a little too long.

So this was Jaemin. You didn't think you'd meet him so soon. Taeil wasn't wrong when he said he was handsome. In fact, he was a little too handsome. His hair was a pretty golden brown—almost blond—and his thick eyelashes kissed the tops of his cheeks when he looked down. It was almost unfair how sculpted his face was. You shook your head when you realized you were checking him out; you couldn't let yourself get carried away, remembering Taeil's warning.

"Nice to meet you," you said walking around the counter. "Did you want to purchase some flowers?"

"Ah, yes. Six black roses, please."

You nodded, grabbing a pair of scissors lying around and followed Jaemin to the roses. It was when you actually reached them that you realized you didn't know how to cut them. You had your own way of cutting flowers but what if Taeil liked to cut them a specific way? Maybe there was a proper way of cutting them you didn't know about?

"Is there something wrong?" Jaemin asked from behind you.

You opened your mouth to respond before the sound of a door opening and closing interrupted you.

"Back again so soon?"Taeil's voice boomed across the room.

Jaemin leaned against the table supporting the flowers and it wobbled, nearly giving you a heart attack.

"I got worried you'd miss me too much so I stopped by."

Taeil scoffed as he made his way over to you and Jaemin. "As if. You seem to be quite the fan of black roses lately. Who're they for this time?"

Jaemin's eyes looked panicked as he looked at you then back to the roses. "For me, of course."

Taeil squinted at him before he hummed, motioning for you to hand him the scissors.

"Six please," Jaemin chirped.

Taeil nodded, explaining to you what he was doing as he snipped the stems diagonally with attentiveness. The three of you walked to the register and Jaemin knelt over the marble counter to watch Taeil wrap the plastic and tie it around the stems.

"This is my favorite part," he said smiling at you.

You let out a small "oh" and moved to the opposite of Taeil to put some distance between the two of you. You listened carefully as he explained how to work the register and watched as you sold Jaemin the roses.

"Wow, you picked that up quickly. Much faster than my past employees," Taeil said patting your shoulder.

You blushed at his compliment, thanking him. You wondered how he'd react if you told him you secretly got a head start while he was gone.

Taeil's phone began to ring and he rolled his eyes, stepping a few feet back to answer the call.

"What?" he hissed through his teeth, waving Jaemin goodbye.

Jaemin waved back, exposing a smile that was so perfect, you began to doubt if he was human. Surely no one could be that pretty. He was definitely a robot.

"I never got your name?"

You pointed to your name tag. "Y/n."

Jaemin's eyes followed your fingers. "Miss Y/N, how would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight? We can go to my favorite restaurant down the street."

You fought the urge to roll your eyes.

"I thought you had plans though?" you said folding your arms across your chest. "Don't you have a gift to deliver to a certain someone?"

Jaemin merely smiled at you, his eyes holding a playful glint. "Not if you don't want me to, I don't."

"Have a great day, sir," you said, pushing past him to tend to the Peonies. "I hope she enjoys the roses!"

"I hope so too," he said gathering his wallet and the bouquet. "See ya, Taeil."

Taeil glowered at him as he pressed glowing red 'end call' button. Jaemin exited the store with a skip in his walk and Taeil gave you a knowing look.

"That boy sure is something."

"He sure is," you agreed.

The sloshing sounds of water filled the room as you tipped the watering can. "What on Earth does he do with all those flowers?"

"He buys them for all his flings," Taeil said, patting down the soil of a few plants.

Your lips curved downwards. It was guys like him that you made you want to stay single forever.

The door chimed again as another customer walked in.

"Welcome!" Taeil cheerfully exclaimed, greeting the customer.

--

The next time you saw Jaemin it was a week later and you were in the middle of planting more roses. (Apparently, there was always a shortage of those. Go figure...) The moment Jaemin came in, he set is path straight for you and you inwardly groaned.

"Hey, y/n. Wonderful day today, isn't it?" he said, shoving his hands in the front of his baggy hoody.

"Not really. My allergies are kicking my butt," you said, sniffing.

"Doesn't help much to be working in here, huh?" he asked.

"I guess not but I need the money. Speaking of money, how can I help you today?" The transition wasn't as smooth as you hoped but you wanted to get him out of the store as soon as possible.

The longer you were around him the more you could feel yourself slowly getting sucked into his escapade.  When he wasn't being a flirty douche bag, he wasn't all that awful from what you could tell but the problem was that he was almost always being a flirty douche bag. A jerk who uses the same cheap tactics to get any girl dumb enough to bend over backwards for him at the snap of his fingers.

"Maybe you can help me," Jaemin mused. "What's your favorite flower?"

"Going on another date, huh? I'm guessing she liked the black roses."

"Maybe," Jaemin smirked.

You paused, taking off your gloves. "Well, if I had to choose just one, I'd probably pick Middlemist's Reds. Although they're very rare so they're pretty hard to get a hold of."

"Never heard of them," Jaemin said, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Of course you haven't."

Jaemin froze, opening his mouth to say something but must've changed his mind. "Well, anyhow, I'll just take some roses." Jaemin pointed his thumb in the direction behind him. "The pink ones."

You sold Jaemin the roses and he left waving a hand at you with that perfect smile plastered on his face. Maybe he was an alien.

You let out a sigh of relief just as Taeil waltzed out of his office with the brightest smile you've seen since you've met him.

"What's going on?" You asked, his smile contagious as a small one spread across your own lips.

"You know the ramen place across the street?"

You nodded. You ate there once before when you first moved into your apartment but hadn't been back since.

"I've finally eaten there enough times to get five free meals!"

"Oh, wow, five free meals," you teased.

"Laugh all you want, y/n, but you didn't win a free meal, did you?"

You rolled your eyes playfully. "No, I did not."

"Exactly," he said, looking smug. "Let's walk over there after your shift for lunch. My treat."

"That's really nice of you, Taeil, but I promised my roommate I'd have lunch with him."

"Perfect! He can come along too."

"Really? I don't want you to waste your coupons," you replied, sitting on the small stool.

"Yeah, we can just get the king size bowl as one meal. It takes three people to finish those anyway," Taeil said waving a hand passively.

"Okay then! I'll text him right now," you grinned, pulling your phone out of your back pocket.

--

When you and Taeil arrived, Xiaojun was already sitting in a booth with an oversized menu up to his nose.

"Oh, no, Jun, when'd you get here?" you asked plopping down on the plush cushions.

"About a minute ago. I just wanted it to look like I'd been waiting a long time," he said placing the menu flat on the table.

You made a face, scooting down to give Taeil enough room to sit.

"You must be Taeil," he said, reaching out for his hand and shaking it.

"Nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about your laundry issues," he teased.

Xiaojun laughed, kicking your shin under the table. You hissed, snatching the menu from him.

A silence fell over the three of you as you each examined the menu. The waiter came by with a pen and a notepad, jotting down your desired drinks and sauntered off to the kitchen. After your drinks arrived you all decided to just order spicy beef flavored ramen.

"Ah," Xiaojun hummed, running a hand through his dark hair. "Free food is the best food."

"This is true," Taeil said pointing his chopsticks at him.

"How many times did you have to eat here to get the coupon anyways?" you asked, taking a sip from your drink.

"Forty-two."

Xiaojun's hand flew to his mouth as a shocked laugh came out.

"Unbelievable," you gasped.

"What? I like a challenge."

You and Xiaojun exchanged looks before bursting into laughter.

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Xiaojun laughed.

Taeil grinned. "Maybe. They probably thought no one would bother to do it but I never give up the opportunity to eat free food."

"Good to know," you chortled as your food arrived.

Another silence fell over you as you ate and you were the first one to speak.

"So, what's Jaemin's deal?"

"Who's that?" Xiaojun asked.

Taeil shook his head. "A customer of mine who buys flowers twice a week for girls."

"So he's a player?"

Taeil nodded grimly, his cheeks bulging with a mouthful of noodles. "He started coming around when school started up and hasn't stopped coming since."

"What a tool," you scowled.

"Don't get me wrong, he's not all that bad. Pretty sweet kid, if you ask me but I would never introduce him to my daughter."

"You have a daughter?" you and Xiaojun asked in unison.

Taeil looked at the two of you in confusion. "Of course not, it's just an expression."

"No, it's not..." you said fighting back a smile.

"Really? I could've sworn it was," Taeil said, a hand lifting to stroke his chin. "The point is, he'd almost be half-decent if he at least bought different gifts for them. It's always roses."

You began to get ticked off the more you discussed the boy. Jaemin was playing with other girls hearts like it was a game and you couldn't stand it. You knew the pain of falling for a guy who didn't actually like you back all too well. Too many times to count, you were confined to the walls of your room, crying your high school days away after some immature kid broke your heart.

"I don't understand how he gets away with it. I mean, just how many girls has he done that to?"

Taeil paused to think. "Dear god...who knows? And the worst part is, it's not even a sex thing with him. He makes them fall in love with him then dumps them for the next girl waiting for their heart to be broken."

"Sounds like a grade A ass hole," Xiaojun scowled at his bowl. "How does he live with himself knowing how many girls he's broken—probably torn them to shreds single-handedly. That kind of heartache lingers for months."

You and Taeil agreed solemnly before changing the subject to lighter topics. You and Xiaojun ended up playing a game of "who can drink their water through a straw the fastest" and of course you won, as you did every time. It wasn't that you were particularly good at it, it was that Xiaojun lost every game he played. Taeil, amused by your game, challenged you and beat you by a landslide. Xiaojun was happy about this, slapping his knee in an over-the-top fake laugh.

"Ha! You lost, you loser!" he said, high-fiving Taeil.

You just shook your head, chewing on a piece of ice.

"Look at her. She's such a sore loser," Xiaojun whispered loud enough for you to hear.

Taeil snickered and you rolled your eyes.

"Do you wanna go again then? Because I remember winning against you so who's really the loser here?"

Xiaojun clutched onto Taeil. "Help, she's attacking me."

You gawked at him as the two of them began to snicker again.

The rest of your meal was filled with laughter and jokes thrown at Jaemin here and there. You and  Xiaojun thanked Taeil for the meal and he invited Xiaojun out to a bar he goes to every Saturday with his friend, Lucas—some kind of guys night they have or something like that. Taeil was becoming more of a friend to you than he was your boss and you were grateful to be working for someone so friendly and caring. You also were glad your best friend and your manager got along so well because Xiaojun needed to get of the house more than he did.

You bid each other your farewells and headed home, Taeil returning to the shop to open it back up, as he closed it temporarily to go eat with you. You and Xiaojun played a few board games in the dining area before you each retired to your rooms to wash up. You dozed off as soon as your face met your pillow, tired from waking up so early from your morning classes, the world around you fading to blackness. --

The radio softly played an indie song of some no-name band as you typed up your thesis. Summer was coming soon and that meant the end of the semester was approaching. That also meant finals were near, so you started to bring your laptop to work to finish everything. You even had Taeil proofread your work and give you feedback just to have another set of eyes look over it after you did a jillion times.

You were in the midst of wrapping up the conclusion when the telltale jingle of the door sounded.

"Welco—oh it's just you."

You looked up from your laptop to see Jaemin (surprise, surprise) approaching you with a sideways grin and an unhappy Taeil.

"Good afternoon, Miss y/n," he said, propping his elbows on the counter.

"Wow, it's only been three days and your back already?"

"Unfortunately," Taeil muttered underneath his breath.

Jaemin threw daggers at Taeil with his eyes. "I just," he said, looking back at you. "really, really like flowers."

You rolled your eyes, beginning to type again. "Okay."

Jaemin frowned. "What's that look for?"

"Hmm? What look?"

"Your eyes. You rolled them at me," he said.

You looked briefly at him before your eyes flickered back to the screen. "Did I?"

"Yes, you did. And what are you typing anyway?" he said hauling his body over the countertop to peek at the screen.

You slapped the laptop shut, placing your hands on your hips. "Did you come here to buy something or just to annoy me?"

"Jeez, 'you in a mood or something?" he said standing up properly.

"I have an essay due tomorrow and you're preventing me from finishing it."

"Essay?" he said giggling. "How long ago was it assigned? Sounds like you waited last minute to start if it's due tomorrow."

"That's none of your business," you glowered.

"I'm a customer, you know. You shouldn't talk to me that way," Jaemin said.

"I'm the one who gave her the permission to," Taeil said, wiping the dirt off of his hands on his apron.

"Taeil," you whined. "C'mon, why aren't you wearing your gloves? Your apron looks disgusting."

"I tried but it doesn't feel right with them on," he lifted his shoulders then dropped them.

You sighed, reopening your laptop.

"So, what the topic on?" Jaemin said, his chin in the palm of his hand.

You exhaled out of your nostrils when you realized he was still standing there. He was starting to really bug you now.

"Me. I have to write about the obstacles I've faced and how I accomplished my goals despite them."

Jaemin pursed his lips. "Huh."

You raised an eyebrow but didn't look up from the screen.

"Do you go to the community college on 3rd Street by chance?"

This caught your attention. "Yeah...how'd you know?"

My dorm mate has the same assignment." He said, his eyes narrowing at you. "He finished it like a month ago."

"Y/n!!" Taeil scolded, shaking his head.

Jaemin let out a boisterous laugh, bending over, a hand clutching his stomach. Taeil began to join in as you stood there with your mouth open.

"I-I had stuff to do—"

"HA! Like what?" Jaemin said slapping the counter.

"Okay fine, I waited until the last minute, okay?" You said, the corners of your lips turning downwards.

"Aw, don't get upset, I'm sorry," he chuckled.

You furrowed your eyebrows. "You're still laughing."

"Sorry, sorry!" he said, straightening his face. You could still hear Taeil snickering faintly.

"Wait a sec, are you saying we go to the same school?"

"Oh, god no. I just live there."

Your jaw dropped. "You what?"

"I know how it sounds but I wanted to move out of my parents' place and I'm not ready for another four years of school yet," he waved his hands around. "so I live on campus with my friend."

"Does the school know?" You said, your eyes nearly popping out of your head.

"Nope."

You gaped at him, Jaemin obviously loving your reaction as he smirked. He explained how he got into the situation, him being well known at college parties before he even graduated high school which led to him being a party promoter. He posted the location and time on his Instagram;  people showed up and he got paid. When you told him you didn't like parties, he insisted you go to one that night with him and you declined immediately.

After a lot of begging, he finally dropped it but looked disappointed afterwards. You noticed how long you were talking and urged Jaemin to buy his usual roses and leave.

It was the next day that you realized it was a mistake to indulge in his shenanigans because there he was, waltzing into the store for more roses—although he seemed to be more interested in you than the flowers. Then he came the next day, and the day after that for three weeks straight, suddenly in need of more and more roses.

"What girl has you so whipped that you have to buy her roses every day?" You asked when Jaemin came in the third day that week.

"They're actually for my mom this time," Jaemin said, cheesing at you. "It's her birthday today."

You weren't sure if you believed him or not but told him to send her your birthday wishes regardless.

Whether you liked it or not, you were beginning to get used to his presence. He finally stopped trying to get you to date him all the time and treated you like an actual person. Taeil was the most surprised at his sudden change of behavior towards you, making overly dramatic shocked faces whenever Jaemin turned his back.

He asked you things no one ever cared to ask you before like questions about your family and your childhood out of genuine curiosity and the more you got to know him, the more your feelings towards him started to change. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Eventually, Jaemin stopped buying roses altogether, only stopping by to chat with you and Taeil for a while then leave to go off someplace else. You were curious as to why he stopped buying flowers but didn't say anything, not wanting to pry. Maybe he finally decided to be in a serious relationship for once. Maybe he met the one girl who's heart he didn't want to break. Could he possibly be in love? You highly doubted that but it would explain his change in behavior. You decided not to give much thought to it considering he wasn't someone you wanted to waste time thinking about but he kept sneaking into your mind when you were least expecting him to. Like when you first woke up in the morning or when you were eating dinner, wondering if he was eating at the moment too.

--

Summer finally came and you managed to pass all your finals with flying colors thanks to the help Taeil and Xiaojun. With the semester finally over and done with, you felt as if the world was lifted off of your shoulders like you were finally able to breathe.

Although you weren't too happy about the weather. You had your hair tied in a sloppy ponytail to keep your hair from sticking to the back of your sweaty neck and of course, there was no air conditioning because you worked in a greenhouse. Taeil plugged up an old fan behind the counter for you but it hardly made a difference, nonetheless, that's where you stayed the majority of the day unless you absolutely had to move.

It was nearing the time Jaemin usually visited and you were beginning to wonder where he was. As if he knew you were thinking about him, your phone lit up with his name flashing across the screen.

Jaemin :3 [2:40] : @ starbucks Jaemin :3 [2:41] : want something?

You smiled at your phone, trying to remember all the cold drinks on the menu. You weren't really a coffee drinker so you normally only ever ordered hot chocolate but it was definitely too hot outside for that.

You [2:42]: any cold drink will do

You clicked your phone off, standing to stretch your legs. A blonde lady wearing an ugly pug t-shirt approached you, asking for a bouquet to pick up tomorrow. You wrote down all her information and got to work. You hardly ever arranged bouquets unless they were for the display outside, so you worked cautiously, mulling over where each flower would look best. Taeil would come back from his break soon and you wanted to show him how well you did.

A few minutes later, Jaemin arrived with your drink and a few cheese danishes. He was wearing a thin white button up with sleeves rolled up and a few buttons were undone, exposing his chest a little with a pair of ripped jeans. He looked good—not that you cared or anything.

"Hey," he said, his nose scrunching as he smiled.

"Hello there," you said, removing your gloves. Your eyes zeroed in on the drinks he was carrying. One was pitch black, the one next to it vibrant purple, and the last two were white with whipped cream.

"This one's yours," he said handing you the purple one.

"What is it?" you asked, examining it.

"Try it," Jaemin replied, sticking a straw in the black drink.

You sucked from the straw, bracing yourself for the strong coffee flavor to come but it never did. Instead, your taste buds were met with a deliciously sweet fruity flavor. You looked at the drink again to see chunks of a mysterious purple fruit sloshing around inside it.

"Do you like it?" Jaemin asked as he'd been watching your reaction the whole time.

"Yeah, actually.  I'm surprised. What's the purple stuff?"

"It's dragonfruit. I know you don't care much for coffee and I didn't want to buy you something you wouldn't like so I got you a Mango Dragonfruit Refresher."

Your hands felt jittery all of sudden. You don't remember mentioning coffee to Jaemin and although he seemed to not only remember it but pick something out that he thought you liked. You looked down at your shoes to hide the pink tint in your cheeks.

"What'd you get then?" you asked.

"Americano. And the other two are for Taeil. He has a thing for Frappuccinos." he said, his mouth stuffed with his cheese danish.

"I'll never understand what the difference is between those drinks. Americano, Espresso, Frappuccino. They all sound the same to me," you said, shifting on your feet.

"Wanna try it then?" Jaemin reached his arm out, offering the beverage to you.

Your face flushed, knowing that you were about to use the same straw Jaemin did but pushed yourself forward to wrap your hands around the larger one holding the cup, taking a large gulp of it.

You swallowed the liquid with a shiver down your spine, gagging a little. "Jaemin, what the hell?? That tasted like ass!" you yelled, coughing.

Jaemin threw his head back in laughter, falling to the ground during your coughing fit.

"Who drinks black coffee?? Shouldn't you be a middle-aged YA writer or a college professor or something?" you shouted.

Jaemin laughed harder at this, holding on to your legs for support. You kicked him off of you, angrily shoving a danish in your mouth to rid your tongue of the nasty flavor.

"Unbelievable," you grumbled.

"I thought you knew!" he teetered.

"How?! How could I have known?" you perplexed, pieces of the danish flying out of your mouth.

He chuckled, getting to his feet. "Doesn't everyone know what black coffee looks like?"

"I guess not me," you pouted.

Jaemin made a sour face before his expression changed as a thought passed through his mind.

"Hang on, I forgot something in the car," he said, jogging out of the store.

You blinked, watching him run down the sidewalk until he was out of view. You put the cold drink to your forehead as Jaemin walked back inside a little out of breath with his hands behind his back.

"Sorry about that. Anyways, how's your day going so far?" he asked, his teeth showing from the big smile plastered on his face.

"It's a thousand degrees in here so it's been hell," you said eyeing him suspiciously. "Why are you smiling at me like that; you're scaring me."

Jaemin's grin dropped before it reappeared. "I don't know what you mean. I always smile like this," he said biting his lip in attempt to stop smiling. "Anywho, you got any big plans tonight?"

"Ha! I don't go out—you know that," you said, shoving his shoulder playfully. "The only plans I have is with Netflix and my bed."

Jaemin 'ah'ed, nodding in understanding before his sneaky smile returned. "I don't want to ruin your plans with Netflix but," Jaemin pulled a small bouquet of red poppies from behind his back. "I've got two tickets to a basketball game at seven and I'd be really happy if you came with me. What do 'ya say?"

"Absolutely not!" you declined, taken aback.

Jaemin lowered the flowers, crestfallen. "What? Why not?"

"Wh-why not??" you sputtered. "You really are as bad as everyone says! What?—was this your plan the whole time? To get close to me? To butter me up so I can fall in love with you so you can dump me like everyone else?"

Jaemin's eyebrows scrunched together. "No, no, God, no—that's not it at all. Why would you think that?"

You shook your head in disbelief. "I know everything, Jaemin. The games you play with girls. Getting them to fall for you just to break their hearts."

Jaemin's lips parted in realization. "No, it's not like that. You don't understand—"

"Save it Jaemin," you interrupted. "Taeil said you'd be like this but I didn't listen. I stood up for you! And now I know I was wrong..."

"Y/n, please...I thought...I thought you liked me."

Tears welled up in your eyes because you did. You did like him—no matter how hard you tried not to. No matter how much you tried to push him out of your head he ended up moving into your heart instead. You enjoyed his daily visits and you secretly liked it when he'd stay to watch you work, even if you didn't talk. You fell in love with his smile and the sound of his laughter over the months and when you realized it, it was too late.

"God, this is so fucked up," you whispered to yourself. "It's not that I don't like you, Jaemin—that's not the problem here. It's the fact that you knew I liked you but decided to ask me out the same way you asked out all those other girls! Well, sorry to break it to you, but I'm not like those girls. You can't woo me with the same tricks you've used on every other tramp in this shithole!"

Jaemin reached out to you and you jerked your body away from him.

"Please, if you'd let me explain—"

"I don't wanna hear whatever lame excuses you have, Jaemin! I thought you were different. I thought you changed," you said turning away from him. "Just...leave, Jaemin."

Jaemin stood there numbly for a moment, trying to wrap his head around what you just said. "Y/n.." he started, unsure of what to say.

"Please," you begged, your voice sounding strangled.

"I know you're not like those other girls, y/n and that's why I like you, okay? This isn't just a game to me—I'm serious about this—about you! You have to believe me."

You said nothing, as you kept your back turned, a silent tear escaping your eyes.

"Fine," Jaemin said, dropping the flowers to the ground as he stormed out of the store. You flinched when the door slammed behind him.

Your shaky hands gripped onto the counter as you broke down into tears, letting out a painful sob. Taeil ran out from his office when he heard your cry, rushing to console you.

--

It had been two weeks since the fight and you hadn't heard from Jaemin. No text, no call, nothing. It was hard to believe your friendship would end just like that. It was ridiculous, even, that he's ignored you for so long—as if friends didn't fight. But you couldn't be too mad at it him about it, considering you hadn't attempted to make the first move either. A part of you wished everything could go back to the way it was—back when Jaemin would come to the store and tell you lame jokes or poke fun at your expense but there was another part of you that wished you never met him at all because either way—whether he liked you or someone else—it would've ended the same, with your heart aching.

Although you weren't quite sure what it was your heart was aching for. You liked him a lot but you didn't necessarily want to date him. You were never to keen on the idea of being in a relationship—especially with someone like him and that was selfish and you knew it. You hated that you felt that way but you did. You wanted to trust him but how could you? With his reputation, would you ever be able to?

You were sitting at the ramen restaurant across the street with Lucas, Xiaojun, and Taeil, watching the noodles slide off your chopsticks as you picked it back up again. They were all indulged in an argument about something small and insignificant and you began to question why you even let Taeil drag you here. You could tell he felt bad about what happened between you and Jaemin but it's not like your entire world came crashing down. You only knew him for a few months; how attached could you have become? Yeah, that's right, you weren't attached. Only a careless idiot would become attached so quickly.

"He's the one who got attached!" you blurted out.

Everyone's eyes snapped towards you.

Xiaojun scrunched his nose. "Huh?"

"I know why you guys invited me out—and I really appreciate it—but I'm okay. Jaemin is the one you should be trying to cheer up," you explained.

Lucas leaned forward, furrowing his eyebrows. "Why would we do that? We hate him."

"I didn't mean literally....I'm just saying," you shrugged.

"And what is it exactly that you're saying?" Taeil asked, a small smile curving on his lips.

"I mean, he's the one who can't handle rejection. He basically threw a tantrum when I said no."

"He threw a tantrum?" Lucas questioned, looking between the three of you. "No one told me that part."

"Okay, I may have exaggerated a bit but my point still stands. He needs to get over that big ego of his. He needs to realize he can't have every girl he wants because frankly, he's not all that cute either," you finished, dusting the invisible dirt off of your tank.

Xiaojun and Taeil exchanged looks leaving you and Lucas confused.

"What? What is it?" you frowned.

"Well.." Taeil trailed off.

"Are you sure," Xiaojun started, "he can't get any girl he wants?"

"I'm positive," you said holding a hand up.

"You sure about being sure?" Taeil giggled.

"You seem pretty smitten to me," Xiaojun said, slurping the noodles from his bowl.

You face flushed red as you stuttered to defend yourself. "W-What?"

Lucas seemed to have finally connected the dots as he laughed wholeheartedly, clapping his hands. "Ohhh, you like him but you're pretending you don't!"

Your eyes nearly popped out of your head. "That's ridiculous! Of course not—"

"AHAHAHA!!" Lucas chuckled as he stood, chair scraping loudly against the floor.

Taeil and Xiaojun laughed at Lucas as you ducked your head in embarrassment. People looked over at your table in search of the loud commotion and you wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.

"Yukhei, sit down!" Taeil laughed, fanning his hand at the chair.

"Yes! I love it! I love this!!" he exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air as he sat back down. "And you," he said pointing at you, "love Jaemin."

You patted your cheeks with your hands to calm the warmth underneath them as you began to question yourself. Who were you kidding? If you couldn't fool them then how could you fool yourself? You were in love with Jaemin.

--

The heaters Taeil brought in from the back room hummed blending into the radio. Your gloves gave your fingers a shield from the biting cold and you were grateful your job required you to wear them. You were arranging a bouquet of red poppies with Taeil for a wedding. The bride wanted 21 bouquets—1 for each table—which left you and Taeil very busy. Although you couldn't help but think about a certain someone while looking at them.

Four months. Four months had passed and you still thought of Jaemin every time you look at flowers and considering the store you worked at, that meant nearly every day. Roses especially were hard to look at and unfortunately for you, they were the most popular flower sold. To you though, they were overrated—lost its meaning of romance a long time ago.

Taeil finished his bouquet, wrapping it in plastic and a rubber band and you did the same.

Taeil glanced up at you. "You're quiet today. Are you alright? It's not too cold in here is it?"

"The temperature's fine. I'm just thinking, that's all."

He hummed setting the bouquet aside and hopping on the counter. "Listen, I have to leave early today so I need you to close the store by yourself tonight."

"By myself?" you repeated, wide-eyed. You never opened or closed the store on your own before.

"By yourself," Taeil said, chuckling.

"Is it that guy you're always angry with on the phone?" you asked, approaching him.

"You mean Lucas? No, I've got more important things to take care of."

"Lucas is the one who blows up your phone all the time??" you guffawed.

"Yep. He thinks he needs my advice on everything so he calls a billion times a day."

"Aw, that's sweet," you cooed.

"Isn't it?" he retorted, sarcastically. "Let me show you how to close the register and I'll be on my way. As for everything else, you've done it a million times—you know the drill."

You nodded walking to the register and Taeil explained what to do, pulling out a wrinkled paper of instructions. It was a little complicated but you could manage. Taeil left shortly afterward and you pulled out your textbook, deciding to study for your midterms before rush hour came.

Before you knew it was almost time to close. The evening sky made the lighting inside the store dim and the temperature dropped twenty degrees causing you to go fetch your coat. It was strange being there alone at night. You always had Taeil cracking jokes to keep you from dying of boredom but tonight your only company was yourself.

You locked the door, flipping the 'open' sign around. You sighed, ready to go home and lie down already. You opened the register, counting the money, then following the instructions on the paper. You patted yourself on the back when you finished it without error and was heading to the back to turn off the lights when the bell chimed at the door.

"We're closed!" you yelled, rushing back to the front. You could've sworn you locked the door.

"Sorry, we're clo—" you started but didn't finish when you saw who it was.

Jaemin swallowed, waving Taeil's keys with his right hand. "Hey. It's been a while."

You turned your back, grabbing your purse. "We're closed."

Jaemin stepped closer to you, only for you to brush past him, busying yourself by closing the blinds. "Y/n, I'm sorry."

You said nothing as you walked to the next window, twisting the handle.

"Okay.." he said more to himself than you. "I understand why you wouldn't want to talk to me. I wouldn't want to talk to me either. It's been four months and I know I should've apologized sooner than this but..." he trailed off.

"Anyways, I just wanted to apologize and I hope it's not too late."

You stalked past him, picking up your book bag and throwing it over your shoulder.

"I'm about to turn the lights off so you might wanna get going," you said.

"Wait!" Jaemin exclaimed grabbing your shoulder. Sparks jolted under your skin where his hand touched you, causing you to jump.

"Uh, wait. Please?" He begged, retracting his hand. You turned around, folding your arms across your chest in an attempt to hide your trembling hands.

"I-I got these for you," Jaemin said holding out three middlemist's reds.

You gasped, slowly reaching out to take the flowers.

"I know getting you flowers was the problem in the first place but...I know how much you like these with your weird obsession with plants and all," he chuckled.

You frowned at him, pausing to smell the scent of the flowers. Middlemist's Reds were your favorite but you never seen them in real life, let alone held them in your hands.

"It's a good weird. I like it," he added, his words rushed. Jaemin stuffed his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

You smelled the flowers once more entranced by its sweet fragrance. "How did you get these? They only grow in two known places on Earth—and that's thousands of miles from here..."

Jaemin smiled. "Taeil has a cousin who lives about six-hundred miles out who grows exotic plants. Apparently, the soil out there is perfect for Middlemist's Reds.

Your frown deepened. "Taeil?"

Why would Taeil, the main person against your friendship in the first place, help Jaemin?

"Yeah," he said nervously laughing. "Anyway, I drove out and got them for you. Sorry, there's only three but who knew Middlemist's Reds were so expensive?"

You knew but you didn't say anything as you continued to examine the flowers. He drove six-hundred miles to buy your favorite flowers? He must've been driving for days. No one had ever done anything like that for you before, not even your parents would go out of their way to do that. Your heart pounded in your chest as you chewed your lip.

"Again, I apologize for that day. I royally fucked up and I know this doesn't make up for everything but this is just the beginning. I swear to you, y/n, you're the most amazing girl I've ever met. Everything you said about me was right. I played with girls' feelings just for the hell of it. I didn't care about anything or anyone but that all changed when I met you."

How cliche was that? Yet, you blinked, tears welling up in your eyes. There was no way this was actually happening. You'd seen this before. Heard those words coming from his lips in your dreams—it had to be a hallucination.

Jaemin took your cold hand, pressing his lips to the skin of your knuckles.

"Ever since I walked out the door that day, I've been miserable. I tried to forget you and I tried to stay away because I know I'm not deserving of you. I don't deserve to be your friend, your boyfriend—I don't even deserve to be in this room with you right now, asking for your forgiveness but I'm too selfish to keep myself away from you...I swear that guy you saw the first time we met is long gone. I can do a real relationship—at least I want to try...with you," he finished, his hand shaking as it held tightly onto yours.

"Okay," you whispered, closing your eyes.

"Okay?" he repeated, the biggest smile stretching across his face. "I'm forgiven?"

If you were smart you would say no and run as far away as you could. You should've kicked him out the moment he came in. Who gave him the right to come waltzing in as if the past four months didn't exist? It shouldn't have been so easy to wear you down but it was. Just seeing his face again made your heart jump and you had to suppress the urge to pull into a hug and beg him to never go away so long again. If Taeil saw something in him worth redeeming then it wouldn't hurt to try.

Tears spilled down your cheeks as you nodded your head. "Yes, now stop asking before I change my mind!"

Jaemin's eyes looked glossy as he threw himself into your arms, picking you up and spinning you around. You squealed in surprise, giggling.

"I missed you," you admitted, clutching tightly onto his jean jacket.

Jaemin pulled away, holding a warm hand to your cheek. "I'm sorry I was gone so long. Those four months was hell."

"It's okay...you came back right?" you said, leaning to his touch.

Jaemin shook his head. "I don't deserve you."

"Jaemin, I think...I think I love you," you stuttered.

Jaemin let out a shaky breath before he smashed his lips onto yours, almost knocking you over. His hands wrapped around your waist, balancing you, as you kissed him back. The hairs on your arms raised as the skin under his hands began to tingle again, your heart thundering in your chest.

Jaemin pulled away, his ears red.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking at the ground. "I just—I think I love you too."

You placed your hands on his neck, pulling him down to meet you halfway, your lips touching his. He tasted like bliss and coffee. When you pulled away you were both breathless and rosy-cheeked.

Jaemin grinned. "Can we finally go on that date now? I told you this was just the beginning."

You pecked his lips, a smile spreading feverishly. "What did you have planned this time?"

Jaemin mimed zipping his lips shut as he gestured towards the door. You turned out the lights and excitedly hopped into his car, cheesing ridiculously hard at each other, heading downtown to begin the start of the time of your life.

[vintageneptune92]

Nothing Breaks Like A Heart: Chapter 2 Part 2

Okay so here is Part 2! Thanks for reading!! :)

Tag List:

@shreddedparchment @fanfictionjunkie1112

Part 1  Masterlist

Nora felt stunned from the fall and her ears were buzzing from the loud explosion.

“Nora, babydoll, listen to me.” Tony grabbed Nora’s face. She looked like she was in shock. Her eyes met his. “Steve is going to take you someplace safe. I want you to stay there until one of us comes and gets you okay?” Nora shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. Things were intense in there and the explosion surprised me. You’re going to need my help with that engine. We don’t have time to argue. You need my tiny hands” Tony sighed.

“The two of you find engine 3. I’ll meet you there. Rogers you keep her safe.” Steve nodded and he and Nora headed towards the engines. Nora looked up at Steve trying to decide what to say to him.

"Steve?" He looked down at her frantic green eyes waiting for her to continue. "I just have to say this one thing and then we can move on from it. You don't know shit about my Uncle. You know the persona he allows the world to see. He is one of the best men I know and he is actually a hero. If I ever hear you speak to him like that again, super soldier or not, I'll be handing you your own teeth."

Steve smiled for a moment. "Understood Nora. Are you sure you're okay to do this? You really don't look okay."

"I'll be fine Steve. I can push through." He nodded and they continued on until they reached engine 3. Nora stared wide eyed at the damage. “Shit, this is worse than I thought it would be.” She was squeezing Steve’s hand trying to quell the fear she felt creeping up.

"Stark we're here" The words were barely out of Steve's mouth when Tony came flying in and started to examine the engine as his suit started scanning through the different levels of machinery.

"Nora- we have to get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors. Why don't you work on dislodging the debris. Cap I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position. Nora watched with admiration as Steve jumped and swung himself over to the control panel. "Oh my God, not you too. Stop with the heart eyes." Nora glared at her uncle and got back to work on the engine. "Captain, what do you see?"

"It seems to run on some form of electricity." Steve's voice carried over the comms.

"Really? They should have named him Captain Obvious." Tony laughed as they kept working. They worked silently and cohesively until Steve’s voice interrupted their work.

“Okay, the relays are intact Tony. What’s our next move?”

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing wont re-engage without a jump....I’m gonna have to get in there and push.”

“You can’t do that! It’s not safe!” Nora cried out.

“If that thing gets up speed, you’ll get shredded!” Steve added in agreement with Nora.

“Cap I need you to stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage- “ Tony couldn’t finish without Steve interrupting”

“Speak English” The frustration was clear in his voice.

“Steve, you should seen a red lever near you. It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for Tony to get out.” Nora instructed

“Stand by it, wait for my word.” Tony added once Nora finished. They felt the Helicarrier drop slightly. Fury’s voice came over their comms.

“Stark, we’re losing altitude.”

“Nick we noticed” Nora shot back. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Steve was knocked off the edge by a gunman almost dropping off the carrier, hanging on by a wire. “STEVE!” She screamed in terror all while the Helicarrier continued to drop and Tony was working furiously on the rotors. Then he was yelling for Steve to pull the lever as she watched in horror as Steve was still fighting off the gunman and unable to get to the lever. She couldn’t swing herself to where Steve was to help him. She wasn’t a super solider. Tony was screaming for Steve to pull the lever. Nora didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t help Tony and she couldn’t get to Steve to help him. She screamed in frustration as she felt them loosing more altitude. Tony was sucked into the blades and was spun wildly around. Nora stood helpless but then saw Steve pull the lever. Tony went flying out but got control back and flew back towards the ship and took out the gunman attacking Steve.

Once Nora felt confident that Tony and Steve were okay she headed back inside to see where she could help. She ran into the room where Loki was being held captive and let out another cry of agony when she saw Phil Coulson slumped on the floor with one of the giant guns in his lap. She rushed to his side.

“Phil?! Oh my god! What happened? Where are you hurt?!” Nora willed herself not to cry so she could help him.

“Loki got me. But don’t worry kid, I got him back.”

“I’ll kill him.” Nora saw where he was wounded and started putting pressure on it.

“Nora, look at me.” Her tearful green eyes met his and he put a hand on the side of her face. “Your father would be so proud of you. You’re kind and brilliant. You keep Tony grounded.”

“No! No no don’t do that. Don’t you dare” Nora was interrupted by Fury walking in. Phil looked over at him. Nora felt the tears fall down her cheeks. Phil had been a source of support after Tony got back from the Middle East and had come out as Iron Man. He was a friend.

“I’m sorry boss. They got rabbited.” Fury knelt down next to Nora.

“Just stay awake. Eyes on me.” Nick encouraged. She knew how close he and Coulson were.

“Oh I’m clockin’ out here.” Nora noticed how pale Phil was getting. She tried harder to stop the bleeding.

“Not an option Agent.”

“It’s okay, boss. This was never gonna work- if they didn’t have something- to” Nora felt his breathing stop and Nick pulling her up by her arm so the medical team to get in. All she could think was that this was another loss of another person she cared about. She barely heard Nick as he was speaking to Agent Hill over her ear piece.

“Agent Coulson is down.”

Nora was seething. Far too many people had died because of Loki. She wasn't about to sit on the sidelines and allow him to get a pass after he killed Phil Coulson. She finished loading up her holsters with weapons and headed down the hall. As she was walking she came upon Steve talking to Natasha.

"Go where?" Natasha gave Steve a questioning look.

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those Jets?" Nora cleared her throat.

"I can." Steve started to protest. "Don't Steve. You're not going to stop be from joining you guys on this. I'm not looking for your permission. I can get my own jet and just fly myself."

"Don't argue with her, we'll just waste time. I'll get Clint to suit up and we'll meet you there." Steve eyed Nora as they walked down to the jets. He didn't want to fight with her, but he was concerned.

"Nora look, I'm just worried. You still don't look great. I just don't want you to jump into a fight and get hurt because you aren't 100%." Nora stopped walking.

"Captain, I appreciate the concern. I really do. But I'm not a child. I know what I can handle, you don't. Believe me when I tell you I know how to fight and I know how to work a weapon. I'm fine." Steve held his hands up in surrender and they continued walking to the jet to wait for Natasha and Clint. A shield agent was about to stop them as they climbed onto the Jet.

"Son, just don't." Nora burst out laughing.

"Look, I know you're actually like 90 some odd years old. But really, you look half his age and you called him Son. We need to brush you up on your slang and lingo."

"Are you offering to help?"

"We get through this Steve, and maybe."

Nora was heading to the top floor of Stark Tower. She had seen Tony land on the roof to try and talk some sense into Selvig. She wasn't sure he was going to be able to get through to him. Loki was using that scepter to control him, the same way he had controlled Clint. Nora was about to enter the Penthouse, but stopped when she heard Loki's voice.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity" Loki's tone was teasing.

"Actually, I was going to threaten you." Tony's retort was sharp and sarcastic. Nora didn't like the idea of Loki being so close to her Uncle. She didn't want to take the chance of Tony being hurt. Clearly Loki didn't care who he took out on his quest for power.

"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki was cocky.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the uh...blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me wont change anything."

"No, no no, threatening. No drink? You sure I'm having one." Nora normally enjoyed the games of verbal ping pong Tony played with people. She was too apprehensive this time to appreciate his wit.

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that, what do I have to fear?" Nora was hoping that he would underestimate them enough that it would lead to his demise.

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves. Sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing".

"Yes, I've met them." Nora couldn't understand how Loki and Thor were so different. Tony and her father had been different, but their core values were the same.

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God; A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; my beautiful and brilliant niece that is a complete bad ass. Don't let her tiny stature fool you, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them." Nora couldn't help but smile at her Uncle's assessment. She watched as Tony approached Loki, her nerves kicking back up. "Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you." Loki scoffed.

"I have any army" Nora rolled her eyes.

"We have a hulk" Tony didn't miss a beat. Loki gave Tony a condescending smirk.

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off."

"Yeah- you’re missing the point. There’s no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. ’Cause if we can’t protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it." Nora held her breath as Loki walked over to Tony, pointing his scepter.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?" Nora took a step towards where they were standing as Loki placed the tip of the scepter over Tony's heart. She heard the tip clink against the arc reactor. "This usually works." The scepter controlled the person through their heart? And since Tony's arc reactor protected his, Loki couldn't touch him. She watched Tony shrug.

"Well, performance issues. You know" Loki grabbed Tony by the throat and throws him across the room. Nora burst in, pointing her assault rifle at Loki. She heard Tony yell.

"JARVIS, anytime now." Loki let Tony go and moved towards Nora. She didn't flinch as he approached her. He stopped short of putting his hands on her.

"You will all fall before me" Nora stopped to think for a moment and wondered if someone else was controlling Loki the way he was Selvig and Barton. Her thoughts were broken as Tony yelled again.

"JARVIS! DEPLOY!" Nora screamed as Loki turned and charged at Tony, shoving him out of the window. She heard him yell for JARVIS to deploy again. Her heart was in her throat when she saw one of his suits shoot past her and go after Tony. The suit must have caught him because all of the sudden Tony was back up at the window staring Loki down. Nora let the breath she didn't realize she was holding go. "And there’s one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil." Tony fired a repulsor blast at Loki and knocked him down but not before he could shoot a stream of blue light towards the sky, opening a portal for the Chitauri army to come through.

"Oh my god..." Nora couldn't believe her eyes. She was paralyzed for the moment watching them all pile through. She watched as Tony flew at the incoming army, shooting at them. Nora stared down at Loki. "You are nothing like Thor. He is kind and good. You are everything that is wrong in this universe. You could use your power for good. To leave a mark on this world as a hero. Instead you choose to do this." She watched as he looked up at her, the look in his eyes darkening.

"Being a hero is overrated. Ruling over a lesser species is so much more satisfying. You humans think you're so special." He approached her and ran the back of his hand down the side of her face with mock affection. She jerked away. "Although you, you are so much more than just a mere human. You posses a power that you haven't tapped into yet."

"Don't you dare touch me, not ever again. And stop with your cryptic nonsense. You're trying to get into my head. Though I'm surprised you haven't tried to use your little magic wand."

"Oh darling, that's because it wont work on you."

"How do you know that? How could that be true?"

"I promise you, in time, you'll come to understand."

"Loki, step away from her." Thor's voice boomed throughout the Pent House. Nora was happy to see that he was okay. Deep down, she had known he was okay, she just didn't understand why she knew he was okay. That wasn't important now, she would address all of this when the fight was over.

"Hello brother. I didn't think you'd be joining us." Thor crossed the Pent House and approached Nora.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" Thor looked over Nora with concern.

"I'm fine. And no, he didn't hurt me."

"Nora, get out of here. Go somewhere safe." Thor begged.

"Thor, I'm not leaving."

"Then go help Captain Rogers, please. This is between Loki and I." Nora hesitated for a moment. She nodded and ran out of the Pent House and headed to the chaos below.

Nora immediately felt overwhelmed when she approached the street. People were running and screaming. The Chitauri were everywhere. As she looked up, she could see Thor and Loki fighting each other. She felt Thor's pain. It was like pressure on her heart. This was his brother and he was hell bent on destroying their relationship. Nora couldn't imagine what that must be like, she never had siblings to have a connection like that. But the fraction of heart ache she felt was enough to convince her she was glad she was an only child. That kind of betrayal must be impossible to get past. She pulls herself from her thoughts for what seemed to be the 100th time that day and pulled a gun out of one of her holsters and starts shooting the Chitauri one by one, chasing after them down the street. She needed to take a breath and re-load her weapon. With her back flushed against a brick building, Nora took a moment to look around at all of the destruction. How were they going to stop this? And if they did stop it, how were they going to put this city back together. She steeled herself, shoving those thoughts into the back of her mind. She couldn't think about repairs right now, she had to focus on stopping Loki's army. She almost cried out in relief when she saw Steve, Natasha and Clint to her left battling the aliens. She jumped back into action, making her way over to the trio.

"Nora, thank God you're okay." Nat could have hugged her if she didn't have her hands so full. She was worried about Nora since she had seemed to vanish. She was tough, but this was beyond anything the young woman had faced before. Nora quickly brought her elbow back, bashing a Chitauri in the face. Before she could shoot it, she watched as Steve's shield shot by her and took it's head off. She didn't have a chance to even say thank you. All of the sudden she was on her back on the ground, a Chitauri on top of her trying to choke her. She shuddered in disgust when it collapsed dead on her after Clint's arrow had pierced it's skull. Steve put his hand out and pulled Nora to her feet.

"Thanks for the assist Captain. And before you ask me, I'm fine." He let out a small laugh.

"Am I that predictable?"

"Everyone seems to think I'm made of glass. But I'm good."

"Well then stop chatting and get to work." She pursed her lips at him and gave him a slight shove. He watched as she ran off to a small group of Chitauri, effectively taking them out with a round of bullets. It seemed like anytime she took one out, two more came in it's place. She felt like they had been fighting for days. The Semi-Automatic was the most efficient and she knew soon she'd be out of bullets eventually. Nora screamed in pain as she felt a blade go through her thigh and she dropped to the ground. She rolled out of the way and hid behind a taxi. The cut was deep. She felt nauseated when she saw the thick dark blood pooling from the wound. She saw a jacket on the ground a few feet from her. She reached over and grabbed it. She used a knife she had to cut it into a few strips and started tying them around the stab wound to stop the bleeding. She needed to rest for a few moments or she wasn't going to make it out of this fight. She took a moment to watch the others fight. It was like watching poetry. Natasha and Clint were in perfect harmony, fighting off alien after alien. Using each others strengths and compensating for the other's weaknesses. Nora winced when she heard Natasha scream out in pain as a Chitauri threw her into the cab Nora was leaning against.

"Nat are you alright?" Nora tried to examine her for any serious injuries.

"I think so, are you?"

"Yeah, I got a nasty cut, I had to sit back and get the bleeding to stop. Nat, there are too many of them. We're out numbered. The three of us can't keep doing this." Before Natasha could respond Steve is charging at Chitauri, knocking them out of the way. And then Thor was dropping from the sky taking out a large group of Chitauri with a bolt of lightening. Both Nora and Natasha took a breath of relief. For the second time that day, Nora put her hand in Steve's and he pulled her to her feet. He gave her hand a squeeze and then turned to Thor.

"What's going on up there?" Thor shook his head in dismay.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable. I could not stop it."

"Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys." Nora felt relief when she heard Tony's voice over their comms.

"How do we-" Nora was interrupted by Bruce arriving on a motorcycle. "Bruce!"

"So this all seems horrible." He commented as he surveyed what was going on. They all watched in horror as the Leviathan Tony was trying to take care of was heading their way. Steve turned to Bruce.

"Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Steve was surprised to hear himself suggesting that the Hulk come out and play.

"That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry." Before he could utter another word, Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk, punching the Leviathan and smashed it into the ground."

"Seriously, why didn't he get here sooner?" Nora was incredulous. She watched as Tony swooped in, blasting the strange creature with a missile. The victory was short lived as the 7 of them watched as more Leviathans and alien warriors poured from the portal above. "Jesus- how many of these guys are there?!" Nora's frustration was building. Steve took control of the situation.

" Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow ’em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up. Nat, you, Nora and I are staying on the ground to keep fighting them off." 

Tony lifted Barton up to the roof and Thor swung his hammer and was gone. Natasha and Nora were preparing themselves to continue to fight. Steve turned to Banner. "And Hulk? SMASH!" Hulk grinned, jumped into the air and began to take out dozens of the Chitauri at a time. Nora watched on in amazement as Hulk jumped up and slapped a flying craft out of the air.  Nora was fighting the Chitauri off when she saw Natasha jump and push off of Steve’s sheild and jump onto one of the Chitauri flying vehicles.

“Rusty?! What the hell are you doing?” Nora screamed into the comm.

“We have to close the Portal. Don’t worry Nor. I got this”

“Please be careful.” Nora leaned back against the police car that was near her. The thigh she was stabbed in was throbbing.

“What happened to your leg?” Steve walked over to Nora in a rare lull in the fighting and action. He noticed she had been favoring it.

“One of the Chitauri stabbed me. Apparently their blades can cut through protective gear.” Steve knelt down in front of Nora to examine her leg. He looked at the makeshift bandages tied around her thigh. He could see dark blood caked around them. Her leg was filthy and clearly covered in alien like blood or slime or whatever it was. He had barely even put any pressure on her thigh near the wound and she jumped and winced in pain. She was going to be looking at a nasty infection

. “I think the adrenaline is masking the pain. It’s a deep cut. But you touching it? I felt like I was being stabbed again.”

“As soon as we’re done here I’m getting you to someone that can look at it and stitch you up. If you need to rest, then rest.” Nora nodded and stayed leaning against the vehicle. Steve knew she must be suffering because she didn’t insist that she was okay and could fight.

Nora watched as the others continued to fight the aliens. It was a magnificent scene. Steve and Tony has put their differences aside and were working together. Steve lifted his shield and Tony used it to reflect a blast from his repulsor effectively taking out another large group of Chitauri. She slid down against the car to sit on the ground. She was in a good position to take out some of the aliens without being seen or having to be on her feet. She felt a wave of relief when Natasha’s voice came into her ear piece to tell her she had made it safely to the top of the tower and that Selvig was himself again. Maybe they could win this after all. Steve was directing Natasha to close the portal and then Tony’s voice was heard telling them to wait. Nora pulled herself  up to join Steve where he was standing, visibly was limping.

“I got a nuke coming in and it’s gonna blow in less than a minute...and I know just where to put it.” Nora and Steve both had wide eyes as they watched him fly overhead.

“Stark- you know that’s a one way trip.”

“Uncle Tony, don’t please!” Nora could not lose him too. Her grandparents were dead, her father and mother. They had been betrayed by Obediah. He had been a grandfather to her.

“I’m sorry Babydoll but I have to. You know I love you more than anything.” Nora covered her mouth. He was going to sacrifice himself to save the city and everyone in it. Thor was suddenly next to Nora. The two of them and Steve looked up and watched as Tony flew by, redirecting the missile and barely missing Stark Tower, pushing it up towards the portal. Nora couldn’t breathe. All of the sudden the Chitauri started collapsing all around them. She willed her Uncle to come flying back through the portal.

“Natasha” Steve started.

“STEVE NO! Don’t you dare!” Nora screamed at him. The genuine look of sorrow in his eyes told her he was going to anyway. “Close it.” Nora tried to run at Steve but Thor caught him in his arms and held her back. Nora let out a cry that hurt Thor’s heart. He’d never heard a human make a noise like that.”

“NO! YOU SON OF A BITCH!” She raged at Steve. “Oh my god” Nora saw Tony’s limp form falling through the sky a few moments later.

“He’s not slowing down.” Thor was alarmed. The impact would kill Iron Man. Before any of them could move to help Tony, Hulk caught him out of the sky and slid down the side is the building and crashed to the ground in front of them. Hulk threw Tony off of him as Thor helped Nora to the ground and then pulled off Tony’s face plate. Steve joined them listening for a  heart beat. Nora felt silent tears fall as she noticed the Arc Reactor was dark. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Hulk roared. But Tony’s eyes shot open.

“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.” Nora laughed and her tears were now ones of relief. She felt Thor slide his arm around her waste to help her keep herself upright.

“We won.” Steve was smiling when he said it. Tony let out a breath of relief.

“Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”

“We’re not finished yet.” Thor’s voice reverberated through Nora’s body. He helped pull her to her feet. She couldn’t put any weight on her injured leg now and she was about to throw up. Thor could feel her body burning up. He looked over at Steve with concerned eyes.

“And then shawarma after?”

 Nora slowly opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was being rushed into a medical bay that Tony had put into Stark tower. Dr. Banner had transformed back and was there. Natasha and Steve were cutting her pant leg off. She remembered seeing the angry almost purple skin on her thigh. She was screaming in pain as Bruce tried to clean it. She either had passed out from the pain or he had knocked her out so he could work without her thrashing. At some point, she hoped Natasha, had changed her into an Iron Man t-shirt and a pair of short sweat shorts. Her right leg that had been stabbed was elevated and her thigh was wrapped in gauze. She had an IV in her hand that was attached to two tiny bags and a big bag of fluid.

“You’re awake.” Bruce was looking down at her with kind eyes. “I put you to sleep. You were in too much pain. We had to clear out some of the infected tissue in your leg. You couldn’t have tolerated that while awake. We did that and cleaned out any fluid in the wound. I stitched you up after. You’re going to have a nasty scar but we didn’t want the infection to travel and have you lose your leg or worse. The infection came quickly. It must have been something alien you were exposed to. The bags are a strong antibiotic, some strong pain killers and just some fluid so you don’t dehydrate. You can leave once the drips are done. You’ll have to keep taking the antibiotics for 10 days. I’ll give you some pain meds because you’re going to be hurting for a while.”

 Nora took in all of the information."We?"

"I have a friend that is a surgeon. She owed me a favor. I didn't want to take you to the hospital with all of the cameras and media. This was safer."

“Thank you Bruce. Is Tony okay?”

“He’s fine. He, Fury and Thor are dealing with Loki and the tesseract. I’ll let him know you’re awake.” As Bruce walked out, Steve Rogers walked in. Nora immediately tensed up.

“Please leave.” Nora demanded pointing to the door.

“Nora?” He didn’t understand.

“The Chitauri were down. You could have waited another minute or so to make sure he got back through. One minute wouldn’t have made a difference.“

“But it could have.” He protested.

“Or you just didn’t care if he made it through or not. He’s only in it for himself right? You made it clear how you felt about him.”

“I was wrong. And even if I wasn’t I wouldn’t be okay with someone dying. He knew the risk when he flew up there. He was trying to save you, to save all of us.” His heart broke a little when he saw tears fall down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away.

“Just go. I want to be alone.” He nodded and backed out of the room. He knew she had been upset in the moment but thought she would understand once things had calmed down. He was shocked he had been so wrong. Nora was impatiently waiting for her IV bags to finish. She just wanted to get out of this room. Tony had been in to see her. She cried and he held her. She had been on an emotional roller coaster ride. She looked up from her magazine when she heard a knock at her door. Before she could answer Thor’s head poked in. 

“Tony said you wished to see me.” Nora nodded. He took a seat next to her bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Truthfully kind of drugged. These pain meds are no joke. But I feel drained.”

“It’s been quite the day.” Nora shifted. There was a strange awkwardness in the room”

“Thor- I feel the strangest connection to you. We’ve never met before but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. I know it sounds crazy.”

“I agree. I feel it too. Though I do not understand it.”

“Loki said some things. He said that I wasn’t just a ‘mere human’ and mentioned powers that I haven’t yet tapped into. When he was in the cage thing. He called me something. It wasn’t English. I meant to try and look it up. But I got distracted. And then he told me his scepter wouldn’t affect me.”

“I am bringing him back to Asgard. I will try and get information out of him. I will let you know if I find anything out.” She nodded again and he squeezed her hand. “I’m sure I will see you again.” He stood and headed towards the door and turned back to her. “Nora, if I may, do not be so hard on Captain Rogers. He had an impossible decision. I know he said some harsh things to Tony, but we all said harsh things. I think it was because of the scepter.”

“I already planned on apologizing actually. I was wrong and it wasn’t fair to him. He didn’t deserve my anger. I just feel so angry right now.” Thor smiled at her.

“Nora Stark, you may be little, but you’re mighty.”

“Goodbye Thor.” She threw her head back against the bed. She needed out of the med bay and find Steve.

[ladye11e]

Blades, Trains, Assassins, Thieves pt 9

SFW

Word count:3376

Characters:Jacob Frye x Reader

Tagging @geekgoddess813​ @swiggle-muffin​ @sweet-flash​ @thank-god-its-fryeday​ 😍

Without anywhere else to go, you decided to hideout in the train for a while, much to Jacob’s delight, but it was beginning to drive you insane. Being left to your own devices for the most part, the current assassin missions either too dangerous or didn’t warrant a thief, left you mulling about and wondering what to do about your store.

Picking up your fathers journal that Jacob had managed to sneak in and get for you, before being thrown out by several policemen that even Freddie didn’t have any sway over, you curled up on the sofa and flicked through the book until you came to a blank page.

About an hour later, you smiled to yourself when you heard familiar heavy footsteps clambering about on the roof, looking up to see Jacob drop down in front of the door, completely covered in what looked like soot.

“What on earth have you been doing??”

You squirmed when he flashed you a beaming smile and dropped down in the seat next to you, draping his arm over your shoulder and kissing your cheek, leaving a huge black mark across your face.

“Trust me, you don’t wanna know. What you got there?”

Grinning when you passed him the book to show him the brass knuckles you had designed, you burst out laughing when his eyes lit up and began nodding furiously.

“Oh you know me so well! Can you make it? Maybe two, those Templars won’t know what hit them.”

Taking the book back off him and snapping it shut, you got up off the sofa and sighed, dropping it down on the nearby desk and rubbed at your cheek with the cuff of your coat when you saw your reflection in the window.

“I would love to, but no forge, remember?”

Jacob jumped up and spun you around, wrapping his arms around you tightly and kissed you, covering your face in the black dust again.

“I said I’ll get it back for you, and I will. Even if I have to take on the whole bloody police force, I will.”

Chuckling to yourself when you could actually imagine him doing that, your attention snapped to the door when Henry walked in, immediately lowering his gaze to the ground when he saw you.

“Oh. I was just looking for Evie, I’ll come back later….”

Slithering out from Jacob’s embrace and gesturing for him to give you and Henry a moment alone, you scoffed when he pouted and took two whole steps towards the other side of the carriage. Turning your attention back to Henry, you couldn’t help but blush when he was now staring at the very window that he saw you pushed up against earlier in the week. Clearing your throat and stepping towards him, you lay your hand on his arm and decided not to acknowledge the embarrassing situation that you had gotten in, but apologize for the blighter catastrophe now that you had finally gathered up the nerve after avoiding him for the best part of a month.

“Henry, I’m so sorry for what I did. I didn’t mean… I shouldn’t have.. Oh bloody hell, this sounded so much better in my head.”

You breathed a sigh of relief when Henry chuckled and hugged you briefly, before brushing your face with the back of his hand to get some of the dirt off.

“I could never stay cross at you (name), just promise me that next time you will speak to me first?”

“I promise. Evie went out not too long ago, said she was meeting someone named Clara?”

Noticing that Henry’s hand was now grubby, you pulled out your handkerchief and wiped the smudge off it before trying to clean up your own face, letting out an exasperated sigh when Jacob walked up behind you and rubbed his cheek against yours, making your efforts completely futile.

“Well, I better get going, have fun getting yourselves cleaned up.”

Grumbling to yourself as you watched Henry smirk at you and hastily jump off the train, you dropped the now black handkerchief on the floor and turned to face Jacob, who now had his eyebrows raised in confusion.

“What was all that about? He can’t still be that pissed about what happened at the station?”

“No, everythings fine, it doesn’t matter. You do realise that you’re absolutely filthy?”

You shrieked when he winked at you suggestively and quickly swept you off of your feet, carrying you back over to the sofa and ungraciously sitting down with you in his lap.

“When it comes to you, I can be extremely filthy.”

Giggling when he nuzzled into your neck and his fingers began massaging the inside of your thigh, your mouth dropped when he whispered something in your ear. You bit your lip in trying to stop a smile from creeping up your face when he looked back up at you, but your eyes obviously gave you away when he gave you a rather enticing wink.

“Oh you like that idea do you?”

Fiddling with the coin around his neck, you gave up trying to hide your expression, grinning widely and nodding.

“Mmmm, god you’re amazing. But unfortunately thats going to have to wait, we need to go in a few minutes.”

“Where are we going?”

Getting up and trying to brush yourself off to at least look a bit more presentable, you abandoned your attempts with a huff when Jacob jumped up next to you and grinned, drawing his initials on your cheeks with the soot.

“Lambeth. There’s someone who you could probably help.”

Following Jacob in through some random front door without even knocking, your eyebrows raised in wonder when you noticed that you weren’t in a house, but a rather large room with alot of instruments and apparatus laying about.

“Aleck? You here?”

You stood back when a smartly dressed man poked his head around the corner, not at all concerned that there were two people stood in the middle of his workshop unannounced.

“Ah Jacob, been hard at work I see. Have you seen Starricks latest lies?”

You cocked your head to one side as the man passed Jacob a newspaper, quite surprised that he had a thick Scottish accent.

“Lies? In a newspaper? I’m astonished. How’s the darts coming along?” Jacob asked in a sarcastic tone as he handed him back the paper.

“Not quite finished I’m afraid, I’ve completed the serum, but the dart mechanism isn’t working correctly.”

Stepping forward when Aleck presented a syringe type item to Jacob, the corner of your mouth twitched when you spotted what was wrong with it almost immediately. Jacob, noticing your expression, passed it to you so you could look at it closer for a moment, smirking when you fumbled in your pocket and pulled out a small file.

“Aleck, this is (name), she’s on our side. (Name) this is Aleck Bell, an inventor.”

Using the file to ping off an extra piece of metal on the side of the tube that would no doubt cause any kind of mechanism to jam, you gave it back to Jacob and extended your hand to the Scotsman, who now looked quite impressed.

“Pleasure to meet you Mister Bell. Your design was slightly flawed, but I’ve fixed it. It should work now.”

Smiling when he took your hand in both of his, it soon dropped when he shook it a little too enthusiastically, making you twist out of his grip before he pulled your arm off.

“The pleasures all mine my dear. Tell me, are you an inventor also?”

“Me? God no, just a blacksmith. Jacob, does it fit now?”

Spinning around to see Jacob grinning and slide the vial neatly into his gauntlet, you breathed a sigh of relief that what you had done actually worked, and you hadn’t made a fool out of yourself.

“Excellent. A blacksmith you say? Would you mind giving me your opinion on another of my inventions? Oh and Mister Frye, I intercepted a line, mentioning cargo that contains our cable lines had been seized at College Wharf.”

“Well then, I suppose i better go unseize it. (Name) will you stay here? I wont be long, especially with this new toy.”

Chuckling at his enthusiasm for his new contraption, you shooed him off when he grabbed you around the waist and kissed you quickly, eager to find out what Aleck wanted you to look at.

“So, you and Mister Frye?”

Following him to his workbench where he picked up a flask and spilt two drops into a dish, you gingerly plucked up some weird metal device off of the counter top, fiddling with it and wondering what on earth it could be.

“Yes. So what is it you wanted me to look at?”

“Ah god damn it!”

Flinging the curved piece of metal across the counter and grasping your finger tightly, you winced when a trickle of blood dripped down the side of your hand.

“Are you alright? Here, let me take a look.”

Holding out your hand to Aleck when he came rushing over with a cloth and wound it tightly around your fingers, you cursed under your breath for having cut yourself yet again. Whining when he pulled the fabric away to see how bad it was, you scowled when you saw quite a deep gash down the side of your index finger.

“Thats pretty bad, hold it tight, I shall get you a bandage.”

Squeezing as hard as you could to stop the bleeding, you were grateful that he came back quickly and pulled up a stool inches from yours, and began cleaning up your hand.

“Im sorry for getting blood everywhere, Im usually really good at this kind of thing. Guess I’m just not great in using other people’s tools.”

“Oh hush, you’re doing a marvellous job. It took me days to build just one of those things, and you have managed three in the past few hours.”

Staring at your hand as he wound the bandage firmly around your finger, you couldn’t help but notice that he was trembling slightly.

“Aleck, are you okay?”

“Erm, yes, just a little squeamish when it comes to blood. Pitiful I know.”

Taking his hands in yours when he finished doing the dressing, you gave him a broad smile and tried to take his mind off of it.

“Yet here you are, fixing me up. That’s incredibly brave to face something that scares you.”

“Trust me, I’m not brave, I feel like I’m about to throw up.”

“You better not, this is a new shirt!”

You both burst out laughing at the same time, stopping instantly when you turned your head towards the door at the sound of Jacob clearing his throat.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Aleck dropped your hands and jumped up out of the chair faster than you’d ever seen anyone move before, your eyebrows raising as you saw that Jacob was smiling, but his voice didn’t match his expression.

“Not at all. Just had a bit of an accident, Mister Bell was just fixing me up. How did the mission go?”

You clenched your teeth together when Jacob grasped your hand and inspected the bandage, his eyes narrowing slightly as he turned his attention to Aleck.

“I can answer that, you have triumphed once again Mister Frye!”

“Wait, how do you know that?” Jacob asked, his voice still laced with slight annoyance.

“We have entered the age of communication remember? I have already received word that the shipment has arrived safe and sound, thanks to you.”

Unwinding your dressing when you felt your hand starting to go numb because it was so tight, you stifled a chuckle when Aleck turned away quickly so he didn’t see your wound. Now that it had stopped bleeding, you held up your finger so Jacob could see the cut, flinching when his brow furrowed and he kissed the tip.

“So what else was in the shipment Aleck? There were too many blighters for it just to contain cable lines.”

“Ah, I’m afraid that Starricks poison has made it’s way to the open market.”

Jumping down off the stool when Jacob gestured that it was time to go, you quickly picked up the cloth and wiped the traces of your blood off the piece of metal you had cut yourself on and handed it to Aleck, so he could finish the infernal thing himself.

“Well, if Starrick thinks that will stop us, he’s wrong. Shall we be off?”

Waving to Bell as you followed Jacob out the door, you brow furrowed in confusion slightly when you walked side by side down the street in complete silence. Picking up your pace slightly so that you got in front of him, you stopped and turned to face him, your eyes narrowing as he just stared over your shoulder into the distance.

The corner of you mouth twitched when you suddenly realised what was wrong, so you lay your hands on his shoulders and jumped up, wrapping your legs around his waist and pressing your lips against his firmly, ignoring the comments of the startled onlookers. It didn’t take long for him to return the kiss, you let out a gentle sigh when you felt his hands on your hips, and his tense posture quickly melting away. Pulling back to see his usual cheeky expression had returned, you tapped him on the nose with your good hand and tutted.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, just so you know.”

Holding on tighter as he carried on walking with you around his waist, you laughed at the woman who was briskly walking in the other direction, scoffing and covering her childs eyes with her hand.

“Jealous? I’m not jealous.”

“If you say so. Are you going to put me down? Or do you plan on carrying me all the way back to the train?”

You giggled when his hands wove around you, kissing you again then apologising when he bumped into a group of men who were deep in conversation. He dropped you down when you reached the end of the street, his attention snapping to an older gentleman with a bushy white beard who was yelling at another man that was jumping into a carriage.

“Mr Darwin? What’s all that about?”

You just managed to stifle your laughter when the man held on tightly to the door handle as the cart sped away, yanking it clean off and throwing it to the ground in annoyance.

“That is Richard Owen! A vile, despicable man!”

“Really? Could have sworn you were close friends” Jacob scoffed.

“Wait, Mr Owen works at the asylum…. He would know who makes the syrup! Get him! Get him!”

Breaking into a sprint behind Jacob when he immediately ran off in the direction that the man was travelling, you felt slightly smug when you managed to keep up with very little effort. Jumping up into a nearby empty carriage so you could gain some ground on the man, you were quite surprised when Jacob passed you the reins.

“Get as close as you can, and try to keep us steady.”

Nodding and cracking the reins, you managed to catch up to the other cart quickly, pulling up to the side of it in a steady path as Jacob climbed up onto the roof.

“Go find Evie!” Jacob shouted as he jumped across to the other carriage and pushed the driver into the road, taking his place in the front seat.

Slowing down and pulling up to the side of the street, your heart jumped into your throat when you watched Jacob drive more recklessly than usual, slamming the carriage into nearby objects, in what you guessed was his attempt to scare the man into giving him the information he needed. Now he was out of sight, you slowly walked down the street in the direction of the train station, wondering just how on earth you were going to find Evie this time of evening.

Stopping in your tracks when you heard alot of commotion from the other side of the street, your eyes narrowed when you saw four blighters circling a young woman dressed in green and yellow. Picking up your pace so you got close enough for them to hear you, the corner of your mouth twitched when you saw who it was.

“Oi! John, piss off and leave her alone!”

You just managed to suppress your laughter when the big blighter turned to face you, noticing quickly that he had a black eye and several lumps and bruises all over him.

“For you my dear, anything. You still owe me for that beatin’ I took helping you out though.”

Pulling a face and shooing him away when he waved at you and began walking off with his colleagues in the opposite direction, your brow furrowed in confusion when you saw the girl was now scowling at you.

“Erm, you okay? Bloody cowards, four of them ganging up on you like that.”

“I don’t need your help. Least of all from some blighters fancy bit.” She spat at you whist brushing herself off and pulling her waistcoat straight.

“Hmph. You’re welcome. And I’m not some blighters ‘fancy bit’ thank you very much.”

“Coulda fooled me. Great, now I’m late meetin Miss Evie.”

Your eyes widened and you started following her as she began walking away, much to her obvious annoyance.

“Wait, I need to talk to Evie, where is she? I’m (name) by the way.”

Nearly crashing into the back of the girl when she suddenly stopped and turned to face you in astonishment, you smiled brightly in hopes that she would let her guard down and tell you where her boss was.

“Mary. You know Miss Evie? How?”

“Nice to meet you Mary. I’ve been helping her for a while now, hopefully that proves I’m not a blighter, I wouldn’t be standing here if I were.”

Letting out a sigh of relief when her face softened slightly, you carried on walking beside her when she gestured for you to follow, hoping that you weren’t walking into some kind of ambush.

“Good point. Miss Evie’s definitely not someone you should mess with! She’s this way, scouting out a gang hideout.”

“Thanks. So you’re a Rook? What made you join them?”

Grinning when she walked taller as you said this, the slight nerves you had about following her drifted away as she began gushing about being part of the gang.

“I worked in a factory near here, boss treated us something terrible, and used kids to work the machinery. Miss Evie set us all free, so doing all I can to repay the favour. Then of course, there’s her brother.”

Your ears pricked up and you looked at her out of the corner of your eye, smirking when you knew what was coming next, given the expression on her face.

“Jacob? What about him?”

“Are you kidding?! Have you actually seen him? Apart from being rediculously attractive, and strong, charming, and the way he fights…. Oh the things I could do to that man.”

Dropping back slightly so she couldn’t see the smug look on your face, a pang of wickedness erupted inside you, and you decided to continue with the conversation.

“Well, I suppose he’s okay, I guess. Does he know how you feel?”

“Okay? Just okay? Are you blind or something?! I have tried, but he’s not done anything, yet. Just a matter of time. He’s got alot on his mind at the moment.”

Stopping when you got to the outskirts of the Southwark gang hideout, you spied the familiar black smoke from the Fryes train, and figured it would be best to wait for Evie there, rather than interrupted her while she was scouting.

“Hmmm, I see. Well thanks for your help Mary, I’ll find Evie on my own from here. Nice to meet you.”

You quickly ran off in the direction of the tracks grinning to yourself, but also trying to ignore the sudden twinge of guilt that pulled in your chest for not saying anything as you left the Rook staring at you, with a rather dumbfounded look on her face.