#once again 90% of this chapter is flirting

[ejzah]

In Miss Blye’s Class, Part 21

***

They kissed for several minutes, unhurried and freed by their mutual revelations. Deeks could have easily spent all night with one hand along Kensi’s back, the other woven through her hair, lips playing softly against each other.

Unfortunately, the scent of perfectly spiced roast wafted towards from inside. Deeks eased away from Kensi reluctantly, kissing the corner of her lips a final time before he settled both hands on her lower back.

“I hate to say this, but we should probably stop unless we want dinner to be cold,” he said regretfully.

“Mm, I think cold beef tips sounds like a delicacy,” Kensi teased, eyes playful as she toyed with his collar. “But I wouldn’t want all your hard work to go to waste. Besides, we have all night, right?”

Running her nose along his jaw, the sensation enough to make him shiver, Kensi stepped out of his arms, spinning around once. Deeks’ eyes fell to her legs as her skirt swirled around, revealing tantalizing hints of golden skin. She sashayed to the patio table, leaving a stunned Deeks in her wake.

“You’re going to be the death of me!” he called after her. Kensi’s laughter drifted back to him as he wandered back to the house.

He filled two plates with beef tips, potatoes and gravy, carrots, and sautéed asparagus, adding each item with care. The whole time, his mind kept returning to the compelling thought of Kensi’s legs, the perfect curves of her shoulders framed by thin strips of red, the way he ached every time they kissed.

It felt like his awareness of Kensi had suddenly increased tenfold in the last day. Maybe it had something to do with basically admitting their importance to each other. Or the knowledge that for tonight, he didn’t have Caleb to distract him, for better or worse.

Putting a damper on his wandering thoughts, he grabbed both plates, bringing them out to the patio. He placed on in front of Kensi and the other on the setting across from her, then uncorked a nice Cabernet, and poured two glasses with a flourish.

“Impressive. Did you learn all this from your mom too?” Kensi asked, waiting for Deeks to it down before she took her first bite. “Oh my god!”

He was momentarily struck silent when she tossed her head back, eyes closed, the long line of her neck so inviting. “Uh, some of it. I also worked in a pretty high end restaurant senior year of high school through undergrad where I picked up a lot of tips.” Deeks winked, and added, “But don’t tell my mom that. As far as she’s concerned, she taught me everything I know.”

“I won’t say a word,” she promised. “So, I know you’ve worked for your mom, at a restaurant, and bartending before you became a lawyer, what else have you done?”

“Oh, I’m not sure I want to go there,” Deeks sighed, already embarrassed as he thought about his least favorite, but most lucrative college job.

“It can’t be that bad. I took a low level modeling job freshman year. It sucked.” Spearing another piece of meat, Kensi wrinkled her nose. He was dying to ask for more details, but given his own reticence, that hardly seemed fair.

When Deeks still hesitated, running his hands along his thighs, Kensi leaned forward, clasping his forearm.

“Hey, whatever it is, I promise not to judge. And, I’ll even tell you something embarrassing about myself.”

Deeks was touched by her offer, and after another moment of deliberating, exhaled heavily. “Ok,” he relented. “When I was in law school, I was an…exotic dancer for a while to make ends meet.”

Kensi’s eyebrows incredibly high, but otherwise, she gave no indication Deeks had said anything unusual.

“Huh, and here I thought you were going to say you made adult movies or were a male escort or something,” she said bluntly after a second, and Deeks snorted the sip of wine he’d just taken.

“Kensi!”

“What? That would be really surprising. No judgment though, if that’s what you needed to do to get by,” she continued, and Deeks was grateful for her purposely flippant response.

Monica had found his prior procession hilarious when he first told her, mocking him, and even going on to bring it up to her friends. She’d never seemed to understand his shame or embarrassment around the topic.

He slid his hand into Kensi’s, trying to communicate the strength of his gratitude. At first she seemed startled by the intensity of his stare. Then after a few moments, she relaxed into a smile and squeezed back.

“Ok, so what’s your big, dark secret?” he asked, and Kensi groaned.

“Damn, I hoped you would forget that part. Fine.” She took a healthy sip of wine, apparently for courage. “My sophomore year of college, one of my college roommates moved out of our apartment, in the middle of the night, while I was out cramming for finals,” she told him with the air that she was revealing something truly horrid.

“That’s rude. Why?”

“Ok, you are absolutely not allowed to laugh at this,” she warned him severely, and that alone had him fighting back a smile. She inhaled deeply and held it for a count of five. “She left a note that said I was too messy and she couldn’t take it anymore.”

Deeks snorted despite himself, and shook his head.

Before he could say anything, she added, “In my defense, I was super busy that year and I’ve gotten way better since then.”

He nodded with mock understanding. “I’m sure. If it makes you feel any better, one of my college buddies was arrested for smoking pot.”

“Oh my god! What happened?”

“Well, I already knew I wanted to go to law school, so I, a Junior with shoulder length hair and zero idea what I was doing, tried to negotiate his release.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t work,” Kensi surmised.

“Nope,” he said, pursing his lips. “Not even a little bit.“ He smiled reminiscently. “Shortly after that, Ray decided that college wasn’t really for him and dropped out.”

“Ah, I should have known it was the infamous “Ray” at center of this story.”

“Yeah, Ray always had a knack for getting both of us in trouble. Now he’s a mechanic and has a nice little family. So he turned ok in the end.”

“I’m glad,” Kensi said, and from her voice, he gathered she happy for his sake more so than Ray’s.

With a contented sigh, she pushed her plate away, leaning back in her seat, and stretching her arms above her head, flashing him a delightful peek at the top of her breasts.

Kensi caught him staring before he could look away, a knowing smirk raising the corners of her lips. Instead of stopping, she picked up her glass of wine, arching her back, deliberately accentuating her curves. Still holding his gaze, she lifted one sandal covered foot to the edge of Deeks’ chair, as she took a slow, seductive sip of wine. His shirt felt too warm and tight.

He swallowed thickly as her dress fell back to reveal her entire thigh. He suddenly had the desire to run his lips along the warm brown skin. Or sweep the dishes off the table and lay her down across its surface.

He lifted his gaze to Kensi’s, tilting his head in an unspoken question. She stared right back, a challenge in her eyes.

“Are you trying to tell me something, Kensi? Cause I’m not sure I’m getting the message,” he teased, and Kensi made an exasperated sound.

Sliding out of her chair, she walked the few feet to him, sliding one leg along the side of his. Deeks rose up to meet her as she cupped the back of his head, angling his mouth to kiss him.

[thebibliosphere]

Hi Joy,

Sorry if you have answered this before, but I was wondering which purchasing platform actually gives you the most money (or is most beneficial to you if there are other factors in play)? I would prefer my purchase to benefit you the most.

I have, but thanks for asking!

I gain the most money from my Payhip storefront, where I'm able to offer DRM-free editions of all my work.

But if that doesn't work for you, anywhere you buy from is good for me as it helps boost my sales ranking.

For paperbacks, I do earn slightly more from BookShop.org because they offer better affiliate rates (Flirting Edition) (Fluff), but otherwise I earn roughly the same flat rate across the board for all paperbacks regardless of how much the bookstore is charging, with the exception being Australia where the conversion rate faffs things.

My paperback rates will be going up in the last week of February to accommodate for the price hikes the publishers are pushing again, so if anyone's been thinking about it, now might be a good time.

(I list the books as $14.99, but retailers are allowed to take that as a suggestion and charge significantly more. I'll likely be raising it to $17.99 on my end because, at present, I'm earning 90 cents per paperback, or in the case of Australia, $00.01 🙃)

For audiobooks, I'd appreciate it if people bought from my Payhip rather than Audible, as Audible takes 80% of my royalties and doesn't let me set my own prices. As requested, I'll be uploading large files along with the chapter-by-chapter files for those who wanted that. (I'm actually doing that just now!)

But again, if Audible is more convenient or you've got credits, great! That boosts my sales rankings which makes it more likely for the algorithm to push it.

Speaking of algorithims, once a book or audiobook gets more than 50 reviews, the Amazon algorithm starts pushing it to wider audiences, so that's another great way you can help authors! So if anyone ever feels guilty about only ever being able to afford Amazon, please know authors still appreciate the sales, but we'd love it even more if you left reviews!

[sinkingteethinwhitenoise]

Limoncello - Chapter 10

Pairing: Nick Folio x OFC (Maeve)

Warnings: Fluff, kissing, fish, flirting, sexual tension if you squint, scary stuff at the end, MDNI

Word Count: 1.8k

Series Masterlist

“Heaven’s hiding barely out of frame, but Hell embraces like a hurricane.” ~ Thousand Below, Hell Finds You Everywhere

Maeve awoke late the next morning with arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Gentle kisses and warm breath tickled her neck. “G’morning,” she murmured, smiling, voice raspy from sleep.

“Good morning, doll,” Nick rasped into her neck. “You sleep well?”

“Mhm,” she hummed, turning to face him. “Did you?”

“Slept like a baby,” he grinned. He moved his arms so that she could face him fully, then rested a hand on her hip, rubbing his thumb across the sliver of skin exposed from her shirt riding up. Nick’s hair was tussled, his eyes sleepy, and his goofy smile was spread across his face like he’d just won the lottery. To him, he had.

“How’s your hand?” she questioned. She placed her hand on his bicep and ran it down his arm until she reached his hand, grabbing it and moving it from her hip to in front of her.

“It’s a little sore,” Nick shrugged. “I’m not too worried about it.” He watched fondly as she inspected the bandage that was still securely in place around his knuckles. With a gentle touch and focused gaze, she began to unwrap his hand to check the wound underneath.

“It looks a little better,” she commented under her breath once she could see the wound. She set the bandage on her nightstand before she pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles as she made eye contact with him.

Nick felt his heart jump into his throat and his eyes began to crinkle from how hard he was smiling. “It’s all thanks to you,” he grinned. He took his hand from her gentle hold and used it to pull her closer to him. “Best nurse ever,” he chuckled before pulling her in for a kiss.

Maeve giggled against his lips as she kissed back, her hands moving to cup his face. The kiss was soft and slow. Both of them kept accidentally breaking the kiss because they couldn’t stop smiling.

Nick was the first to fully pull away. “Can I take you fishing today?”

“I don’t really know how to fish,” Maeve shrugged. “But I’ll come with you.”

“I’ll teach you,” Nick sat up excitedly. “This is gonna be sick.”

“Slow your roll,” Maeve giggled, sitting up. “I need coffee and food first.”

After a quick breakfast, Maeve sat in the passenger’s seat of Nick’s truck with the air conditioner blasting while Nick loaded up the poles, chairs, tackle boxes, and a cooler filled with water and beer. It was absolutely precious how excited he was to take her fishing. He hadn’t stopped smiling once, rushing around to get everything they needed packed up like a kid helping pack the car for Disneyland. The next thing she knew, the driver’s side door swung open and Nick plopped into the seat. “You ready?” he chirped, buckling his seatbelt with a quickness.

“Ready.”

Nick plugged his phone into the aux and put on a mix of 90s and early 2000s country music before peeling out of the driveway. His right hand made purchase on Maeve’s thigh for the majority of the drive, which took about 30 minutes. It felt like no time at all as they laughed and joked all the way to the lake.

When they arrived, Maeve tried to get out of the truck. Nick stopped her. “Ah ah ah,” he patted her thigh. “Don’t touch that door.” Maeve furrowed her eyebrows at him as he got out of the truck and ran to the passengers side to open the door for her. He offered her his hand.

She grabbed it with a giggle. “Thank you,” she chirped, getting out of the truck with his help and pressing a quick kiss to his check. She didn’t miss the way his face flushed.

Maeve stood by as he unloaded the truck. He was trying to figure out how to carry everything in one trip, and struggling.

“Nick,” Maeve laughed. “Let me help.”

“No way, doll,” he grunted, trying again to adjust his grip and ultimately failing. “Shit.”

“Please?” she asked with a slight whine to her voice, eyes wide and lips pouted.

Nick looked up at her and nearly dropped everything he was holding. “Fuck, you’re so cute,” his lips curved up into a smile. “Fine. C’mere and grab something.”

She smiled victoriously as she walked over to him. She pushed her prescription sunglasses up the bridge of her nose before she took the lawn chairs and tackle box off his hands, her own bag hanging on her shoulder. He was left to carry the poles and the cooler, which was definitely the heaviest thing he’d brought. They then started the short hike to Nick’s favorite spot on the lake.

Once everything was set down, Nick pulled Maeve close and pressed a long kiss to her lips. His hands held onto her hips while hers snaked around his neck. “What was that for?” she asked, giggling, once he pulled away.

“For helping me,” he pecked her lips. “And for coming with me.”

They pulled away from each other and Nick unfolded both of the chairs. He sat down and started to set up the poles. Maeve got her sunscreen out of her bag and began to apply it. When she was done, she stood in front of Nick. “Babe,” she said.

He looked up at her with a smile, eyes sparkling. “What’s up, doll?”

“Let me put sunscreen on you.”

“I don’t burn. I’ll be okay.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Nick, you need sunscreen.”

“Alright,” he chuckled, setting the pole he was working on to the side. “Go for it.”

Maeve smiled and sat down on his lap, facing him, not noticing how his eyes turned into saucers as she did. She put sunscreen in her hands and gently spread it on his face, ears, and neck, rubbing it into his skin with a soft touch. She did his arms next and then pressed a kiss to his cheek. “All done,” she stood up.

Nick cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Thank you, baby,” he breathed, face burning hot. He went back to setting up the poles. When he was done, he handed one to her, leaving the other leaned up against the chair. “I’m gonna teach you how to cast, okay?”

Maeve awkwardly held the pole and nodded at him. He led her to the edge of the water. He adjusted her hands so that her left hand held the bottom of the grip and the right hand was above it near the reel. “Just keep your hands here,” he murmured as he adjusted them. “Now, take your right pointer finger and press the line against the pole,” he instructed. She followed his instruction. “Good,” he hummed. “Now, take your left hand off the pole.” She did. “Now, flick the reel up.” He guided her hand to the correct part of the reel and she flicked it up.

“Good job, doll,” he praised. Her face was red. “Put your left hand back on the pole.” When she did that, he continued. “You’re going to swing the pole over your shoulder, don’t let go of the line.” He wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands over hers to guide her motion. “Now, swing it forward and let go of the line. Flick the reel back down when it hits the water.” He guided her arms to swing the pole forward and helped her carry through and finish the cast. Satisfied, he kissed her cheek with a huge, goofy smile. “Great job, baby.” Then he grabbed his own pole and casted.

“Now what?” Maeve asked, holding back a smile as she reminded herself to breathe.

“We wait,” Nick shrugged.

It took a while for the fish to start biting. Maeve got the first bite. The top of her pole began to bend. “Nick,” she squeaked. “What do I do?”

He looked over, “Reel it in.” He stepped closer to her and held his pole between his legs as he helped her. The fish flopped as it was reeled into shore. Maeve squealed when it was finally out of the water. She held the pole while Nick worked to get it off of the hook. “Look at that,” he smiled proudly. “First catch of the day. Wanna hold it?”

She smiled wide, “Yeah, actually. I kinda do.”

“Alright,” he moved the fish closer to her. “Put your thumb in its mouth and pinch.”

She did as directed and Nick pulled his hand away once she had a good grip. She giggled as she held it, “Holy shit.” Then it started to flop around in her grip, splashing her with water. She squealed and held it further away from herself. “Take it,” she squealed. “I don’t wanna hold it anymore.”

Nick laughed and laughed hard as he took the fish back and tossed it back into the water. “You big baby,” he teased.

The rest of the day was spent fishing and drinking. Nick even chased Maeve around with one of the fish he caught just so she’d scream and laugh. That resulted with him getting pushed into the water, and her getting pulled down with him.

When they returned home, the sun was setting. It would be dark in no time. “Do you wanna come over and hang out?” Nick asked her as they turned down their street.

“Yes,” she chirped. “But I need to shower first. I’ll come over after.”

“That’s fair,” Nick nodded, parking the truck. “I should do that too.”

“Yeah you should,” Maeve teased. “You stink.”

Nick rolled his eyes playfully, “We’re here. Go shower. And be quick because I already miss you.”

Maeve gave Nick a quick kiss before grabbing her bag and hopping out of the truck.

Maeve went into her house and locked the door behind her before rushing to her bathroom to take a shower. It was a relatively quick shower. She did her skincare right after. By the time she walked into her bedroom and put on a cute lounge set, it was dark outside. She threw her hair into a ponytail and was ready to go.

Just as she reached her bedroom door to leave, she heard glass shatter. She figured it was likely a window. She nearly jumped out of her skin. In the heat of the moment, she was somehow able to keep herself from screaming. Frozen in fear, she heard a chilling voice, taunting her.

“Honey, I’m home,” the creepy voice sang.

She instantly sprung into action. She knew that voice anywhere. Gripping her phone tightly in her hand, she locked her bedroom door and quickly made it into her closet, closing the door behind her as quietly as she could. She hid herself in a pile of clothes that were on the floor as she heard heavy footsteps booming throughout her home, headed straight for her room. “You can’t hide from me,” the voice shouted threateningly. With trembling fingers, she pulled up her and Nick’s text messages.

‘I need help. Call 911.’

She sent the text before calling 911 herself. Her eyes welled up with tears as she silently prayed that someone would get to her before Tanner did.

[nimuetheseawitch]

Non military Bradley 🤗

This is one of my favorites. To be fair, I love all my WIPs, but this AU is full of some of my favorite headcanons: Bradley dealing with tons of medical debt and struggling to pay for college because of it, Carole and Penny dating in the 90s, tattoo artist Carole, and so much more. And to clarify, it isn't just non-military Bradley, this Bradley is actively anti-military and ended up a Poli Sci professor. But he and Jake manage to make it work anyway, or at least they have for a few years, and now they're dealing with this mission.

Because I love it so, so much, you're getting a long snippet from the first chapter, which will be under the cut.

Fanboy set the beers he’d just picked up down distractedly and hissed at them, “Guys! Guys! See the dude at the bar chatting with Penny?”

Everyone took surreptitious looks in that direction while fending off Fanboy’s protestations about not looking all at once. Jake and Javy shared a look and smirked.

“Yes, and?” Jake raised an eyebrow.

“Well, he definitely knows Penny, but I couldn’t get a read on him. Do you think he’s flirting with her?”

As one, all the aviators turned to watch just as the guy at the bar said something that had Penny throwing her head back in laughter.

“Well, they do look pretty friendly,” Halo mused.

Omaha nodded. “But he really doesn’t seem like her type.”

Jake snorted in amusement. “You can say that again.”

“Look at those patches and pins on his vest – he looks like he just came from a protest,” Yale chimed in.

“And that hair – is that a mullet? And with the mustache? He looks like a fucking hippie,” Harvard added.

“I would’ve gone with ‘hipster’ over ‘hippie’ with those piercings,” Fritz jumped in. “And are those tattoos?”

All of them watched as Penny leaned forward on the bar and placed her hand on the man’s forearm, which was indeed covered in tattoos.

“Well, Fanboy’s right, there’s definitely something between them.” Payback took a swig of his beer but continued to watch the bar.

“Of course, you agree with him.” Phoenix turned a thoughtful look to Bob before asking, “What do you think?”

“Hmm...,” Bob took a sip of his drink. “I think we’re missing something.”

Any further conversation was cut off as they all went silent when Penny pulled the man in and kissed him on the cheek before handing him a beer. He turned towards them, and all the aviators quickly turned away, trying to look like they hadn’t just been staring.

Fanboy snuck a quick glance back at him. “Oh, fuck, he’s walking towards us. Do you think he noticed us watching?”

Javy couldn’t keep it in anymore and burst out laughing, and everyone stared at him. Phoenix narrowed her eyes and looked between him and Jake, who was rolling his eyes. She was opening her mouth to say something when Bradley came up next to him and slipped his free arm around Jake’s waist before leaning in for a quick kiss.

“Hey, babe. Sorry, I had to catch up with Aunt Penny.”

The rest of the squad just gaped at them, but Jake ignored them in favor of properly greeting his boyfriend. He pulled him back for another kiss, indulging in the softness of Bradley’s lips and the familiar scratch of his mustache. When he pulled back from the kiss, he didn’t let Bradley go far. “Missed you darlin’.”

Bradley smiled. “Missed you too.” He glanced to the side briefly before turning his gaze back to Jake. “You gonna introduce me to your squad?”

“Who, these judgmental assholes?” Jake smirked at the pained noises coming from the other aviators. “I guess so.”

Before he could turn back to everyone, Javy pulled him away and swept Bradley up in a hug. “Bradshaw, man, it’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you too, Javy.”

By the time they all turned back to the squad, they seemed to mostly have gathered their wits about them, although Fanboy was mouthing ‘Aunt Penny?’ and looking lost at sea. Phoenix looked between the three of them and then turned to punch Jake in the shoulder. “So, this is the boyfriend, Bagman? You couldn’t have told us sooner?”

“In my defense, it was much funnier to listen to you guys try to figure out how he knew Penny.” The look he threw Bradley was full of mischief, and Bradley’s mouth quirked up like he knew a secret.

“Yeah, how do you know Penny?” Fritz asked.

Bradley shrugged. “She’s an old family friend. I think she went out with my godfather in the 80s briefly, and then she lived with us for a bit in the 90s when she was dating my mom. Reconnected with her after she bought the Hard Deck when I was at UCSD.”

Everyone just stared at him, speechless for a bit, until Fanboy took a long drink of his beer and said, “That is...not what I would’ve guessed.”

Jake cleared his throat. “Anyway. This is Bradley, my boyfriend. Bradley, these are, apparently, the best the Navy has to offer.”

[indecentpause]

WIP Wednesday

heeeeey so for this WIP Wednesday I’m gonna share something from another new Sheraton Academy AU called The Black & Blues. yes it is about Meara again. also eventually Josselin will be there. this is an idea I’ve been half-assedly bouncing around for a while, then two days ago hit all at once, and now I’m twenty-one pages in, lol.

I don’t have an actual summary yet, but basically, Meara and Danny grow up queer together in a small, regressive town in the late 90s early 00s, and save their lives and each other by finding and sharing the queercore/homocore movement with each other. they dream of moving to Chicago and starting a band and when they graduate, they’re able to make it happen. I’m on chapter three and they’re starting the band! It’s a punk-colored period piece, I think! I’ll come up with a summary and add it to my WIP pinned post soon :)

also, I have a feeling this will be done in two months max, and I’ll still be working on Puzzle and Princess in the meantime. don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere :)

cw: internalized homophobia

Everyone [at the venue] looks like you and Crystal. Denim and leather, DIY patches, bottlecap pins, shitty home hair dye jobs done in someone’s sink. And everything gets a little lighter, because you’ve finally found your people.

You hang back when the mosh pit starts. You don’t want to get a fist in your eye and have to explain it to your parents, if they would even care. You don’t want to put Crystal in their line of fire.

So you and Crystal stay back against the wall, watching the thrash punk band on stage, enraptured. They suck, and it’s awesome. The songs are no longer than a minute each.

When the show is over, and you’re back in Crystal’s car, you’re smiling more than you can remember doing in years. Your face hurts with it. Your heart is pounding and your breathing is a little erratic. When you look at Crystal, she’s looking at you weird, hands loose on the steering wheel and head tilted to the side. The soft fluff where her hair is growing back from its buzzcut is sweaty. Her shirt is clinging to her torso with it. You look at her back, unsure, and before you can ask, “What?” she takes your hand and leans in to kiss you.

You turn your head away in a panic and her lips just touch your cheek. She pulls back like you’ve punched her, and her hands shoot to her mouth.

“Oh, God, Meara, I’m so sorry, I thought, I was, we, I–”

“It’s okay.” Your breath is even more shallow now, your heart pounding, because if she asks why you’re not interested, what do you say? Will she leave you here? You don’t have any change for a payphone.

“It’s okay,” you repeat. “Just. We can pretend it didn’t happen. I’m not mad.”

She nods a little too enthusiastically. Her hands are on the steering wheel again and she’s carefully looking out the windshield and not at you.

“Okay. I’m sorry. Fuck, I should have just asked. I’m sorry, Meara.”

“Really, it’s okay.”

She nods again and starts the car.

“Where… where did that come from?” you ask, because you thought she liked Danny, you thought nobody would ever like you, you thought, you thought, you thought–

“Meara,” she says gently. “I’ve been trying to flirt with you for weeks.”

Your eyes go wide and you turn bright red. “Really?”

Crystal chuckles softly. Her face is a little red, too, but she’s smiling.

The ride is silent after that, except for the nighttime radio ska hour blaring through the car. Neither of you speaks until you get back in the general area and she asks, “Am I dropping you at yours or Danny’s?” 

“Danny’s,” you mumble. You’ve been staying with him on the weekends. She glances over at you, and you glance at her, and all at once, realization dawns over her face.

“Meara, can I ask you something?”

You’re going to have a heart attack. You’re going to die in this car without ever escaping this shitty town.

“Yeah?” you choke.

“Are… are you gay?”

You force a laugh, even though your face is bright red in shame. “What? Why would you ask–”

“Don’t give me any bullshit,” she interrupts gently. “That’s what happened last year with your face. That’s why you’re staying at Danny’s.” She pauses. “Is that why you didn’t want to kiss me? Because you like him?

“I, I don’t, it’s, I–”

“Meara.”

You squeeze your eyes closed, waiting for the hit to land, tensed in preparation, but it never comes. Just a gentle hand on your elbow.

“Meara, it’s okay.”

You sniff hard and wipe at your face with the back of your sleeve. You still wear the jacket Danny gave you whenever the weather will allow it. You’ve collected a lot of patches and doodles and buttons in the past year, too.

“The only reason I haven’t moved in with him is because I’m afraid of what my parents will do to his parents,” you say, pointedly ignoring the question. A long pause. “Please don’t make me walk back to his house.”

“What?” She sounds scandalized. “Why would I make you walk?”

“Because I’m weird. Because there’s something wrong with me.”

“Oh, Meara.” The heartbreak is evident in her voice. “Meara. There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s the rest of the world that’s fucked.”

General taglist:  @ohsugarfoot @abalonetea @only-book-lovers-left-alive @poore-choice-of-words @leadhelmetcosmonaut @jasperygrace @drippingmoon @athena-anna-rose @viskafrer @thelaughingstag @athenswrites @kaiusvnoir @magic-is-something-we-create

Let me know it you want to be added or removed! I will use this for excerpts and, when I start posting chapters, for updates as well. This is just my general taglist, so I can always tailor it without removing anyone from any other taglists!

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

An interesting tale is that, in the manga, Centaur Man was written to be a woman in disguise pretending to be a man. While the canonicity of the manga is questionable at best, the entire point of being in disguise is that you present as something else, and so nothing else in the series really debunks this. With Crystal Lady being rejected for Crystal Man and Roll’s status as a robot master being up in the air, this makes Centaur Man possibly the first female robot master.

See, in Shigeto Ikehara's manga of Megaman 6, there's a lot of interactions between the different robot masters. It’s really quite cool to see all of them banter back and forth, interacting together.

みそこなわないてほしいわミスターX / "Make sure you watch real closely, Mr. X!" (Rough translation, my Japanese is rusty. Please don't take this as a scanlation)

Most notably are the interactions between Centaur Man and Knight Man. Centaur Man and Knight Man share a lot of scenes together, most notably with Knight Man training harder against a group of baddies (and ranting because none of them have a spine) and Centaur Man being worried about him.

There’s even a big ol’ scene where Centaur Man is pining over him.

ナイトマンは今ごろロックマソと... / "KnightMan is now with RockMan..." ナイトマンの騎土達に反しないものなら今すぐにでもとんで行ってー緒に野いたい / "If it wasn't against Knight Man's wishes, I'd love to go wild and jump into the fray myself." でも...ナイトマンの名誉をまもるには... / "But, to protect Knight Man's honor..." ここであなたの勝利をいのるし��ないわ... / "I must wait for your victory here...” ナイトマン... / "Knight Man..." (Again, rough translation, my Japanese is quite rusty)

Unsurprisingly, Knight Man is destroyed by Megaman in a dramatic fight. One of his remaining minions limps away from the carnage to tell Centaur Man the news, and Centaur Man breaks down into tears, screaming in anguish at the sky. Once Megaman actually shows up, Centaur Man goes on the aggressive, tearing into Megaman and screaming at him about Knight Man (and Mr. X’s orders) the entire while.

Eventually, Megaman equips Knight Crush and slugs it into Centaur Man, the helmet breaking away and revealing an 女, or a woman. Long-haired men who wear earrings don’t exist in this world, I suppose, but this was the early 90s and Bob Capcom (or more specifically the writers for tie-in media) hadn’t really discovered what exactly an unreliable narrator is yet. Anyway, she screams about how she won’t let go of her hate against him, and Megaman muses very briefly about if she disguised herself to be with him. But either way, the battle must continue. Despite all of his emotions running high and the questions going through his mind, Megaman continues using Knight Crush and crushes her utterly, letting her exit this world in a smoking pile of debris and death.

Tears streaming down his face, he slowly starts moving on. Another robot master defeated. But, for just a brief moment, there was something more--something that was forcibly taken away from her.

It’s a stirring chapter in an otherwise-pretty-dry manga, flirting (very lightly) with a pretty poignant subject. Even if your enemies are evil, or in this case programmed to be evil, they still hope and dream and love much in the same way you do. It very much reminded me of the classic Cyborg 009 stories that a lot of Megaman took inspiration from.

It was all a very touching tale about love and unnecessary sacrifice, and you can't fuck Centaur Man.

[themoontoyourshine]

Thanks again to Lin, @ssahotchswife , for inspiring me and answering all of my questions.

SUMMARY: What happens when Aaron’s neighbor has a bad dream? Will he see just how much she cares about him and his son?

PAIRING: Aaron Hotchner x Neighbor(fem)! Reader

WARNINGS: Some content may be triggering so please read before continuing. 18+ Minors DNI

INCLUDES: This chapter includes strong language and partial nudity. The word ‘blood’ is mentioned once and so is ‘stroke’. One line eludes to a minor but there is no minor in this story. Jack is mentioned but is out camping with the scouts. Is the reader more of a brat than we thought? Is Aaron more of a flirt than we thought? Who are the six people at the foot of the bed? Please let me know if I miss anything. This chapter is a little lighter and hopefully you laugh. This chapter does contain a steamy make out session.

WORD COUNT: 3,533

A/N: This story is probably going to have 5 chapters. I initially broke it down so it wouldn’t be too long all at once. Chapter 5 will be the smut chapter and I’m still currently writing it. I may have messed you guys up because now it’s looking like chapter 5 will be lllooooong. I don’t want to break chapter 5 down because nobody wants their smut cut in half lol. It might not be too bad. We’ll see. I’ve never done anything like this so please be patient with me. Feedback is always appreciated. AGAIN, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I’M DOING!!! As always, I love you guys. Without further ado, chapter two!

Link to chapter one:

Taglist: @ah-blossom

Daydreams and Nightmares

Chapter 2

“Guys, what the actual fuck? Why are you all standing in my bedroom?”

“You were supposed to meet us for breakfast but you never showed.” a tall, skinny blonde woman answered.

“We tried calling but we couldn’t reach you.” said a pretty brunet woman.

“We were worried, sir.” a colorful blonde stated.

“I used my spare key Aaron.” an older man with a goatee admitted.

“Who is your friend?” said a muscled man in a teasing tone with a smirk plastered on his face. Your cheeks heated and for the first time you and Aaron looked at each other.

“How old are you?” asked a tall, skinny guy looking right at you. That earned him a look from Aaron that you had never seen before as well as a nudge in the ribs by the muscled man.

“Oh, uh, I-I’m 21.” you managed to stutter out. Aaron ran a hand down his face and pinched the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes. “But this isn’t what it looks like. I can’t even imagine what you all must be thinking. I’m Aaron’s neighbor, y/n. Last night I had a bad dream that he was in trouble and I needed to see that he was safe. He let me tell him about my dream but then I must have fallen asleep on accident. Nothing happened. Nothing has ever happened. Aaron is a complete gentleman. Y’all must know that.” You were talking 90 miles an hour and you hadn’t taken a breath. Everyone was looking at you with wide eyes. You didn’t want them to tease Aaron.

“Y/N,” Aaron said, putting his hand on your shoulder. “You’re rambling. This is my team, JJ, Emily Prentiss, Penelope Garcia, Dave Rossi, Derek Morgan, and Spencer Reid.” he said going down the line and pointing to each one. They all offered you a smile and small wave.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’ve heard a lot about each of you. Aaron always speaks so highly of y’all. I wish it were under different circumstances” you say through a nervous laugh.

“Y/N, do you mind going in the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee so I can have a moment alone with my team?” It was at this moment that you remembered that you were only wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt and a pair of Harry Potter underwear.

“Sure,” you said, “I’ll even make everyone breakfast seeing as how ya’ll didn’t eat. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not wearing pants.” you admitted, slinging your legs off the bed and standing. Your shirt almost covered your ass. Everyone’s eyes followed you as you rounded the foot of the bed to get to Aaron’s nightstand where you left your keys. When Aaron saw you, his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

“I thought you were kidding when you said you weren’t wearing pants”.

“Sorry,” you whispered with a guilty expression. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep here, and I certainly didn’t think I’d be meeting your team.”

“Ugh” he groans, running his hands down his tired face. “It’s too early for this shit” he swore. With your keys in hand, you turn and head for the door. “Wait, what does your butt say?” Aaron asks.

“I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.” a man you now knew as Spencer replied. The team tried to contain their giggles. You were mortified and Aaron looked like he was on the verge of a stroke. Yap, it was going to be one of those days.

You were pouring the fourth cup of coffee when you heard voices coming down the hall. “Hey, lil’ mama, boss man wants to see you” Derek said while wiggling his eyebrows. After you finished pouring the coffee, you passed out the 6 cups and placed the cream and sugar on the kitchen table. Taking a deep breath, you slowly walked back to Aaron’s room not knowing what to expect. When you walked in, Aaron had put on a white t-shirt.

“Aww, come on Aaron. I can’t be the only half naked person at breakfast” you teased. He huffed a laugh through his nose.

“You won’t be” he said, turning to face you with a pair of blue plaid pajama pants from his dresser. “Use the draw string to tighten the waist and you may need to roll the bottoms up a bit.”

“Not exactly how I imagined getting in your pants but it’ll do” you smirked.

“Y/N,” he said in a warning tone “I need you to solemnly swear to be up to good around my team.”

“And when we’re not around your team?” you deadpanned with a cocked eyebrow.

Suddenly he took your chin between his thumb and pointer, raising it to look you in the eyes. “Don’t be a brat.” That shouldn’t have made your stomach do cartwheels like it did. Getting a hold of yourself, you walked yourself back until the backs of your knees hit his bed. You sat down and began putting on his pants.

“How bad was it?” At his confused stare, you elaborated. “The teasing. I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I’m sure they gave you a hard time.” He sat down beside you and gently squeezed your knee to comfort you.

“It really wasn’t that bad. You have nothing to apologize for. They don’t really have any room to talk. None of them. They’ll tease me for a few days before something similar happens to one of them. My money is on Dave.” You chuckled at that.

“Do they hate me?”

He turned to face you and grabbed both of your shoulders. “Look at me” he said in all seriousness. “These people are my family and I love them. They love me so if I like you, they’ll like you…and I do like you. They thought it was funny. They are the least judgmental people in the world. If they tease you, they like you. It’ll all be in good fun. It’s when they’re nice to you that you have to worry” he said with a wink.

“Gee thanks, that makes me feel a lot better” you laughed playing with his messy bed head. “I really like morning Aaron. No suit. Crazy hair. I could get used to him. I also didn’t hate waking up in your bed” you said playfully. Before he could answer, Dave appeared in the doorway.

“If you two could solemnly swear to behave, I’m hungry and we were promised breakfast.” You and Aaron exchanged glances while standing up.

“Dave, I can behave, it’s Aaron you have to worry about.”

“Don’t I know it, kiddo.”

Just then you felt a slight tug on your wrist causing you to fall a couple steps behind. “Don’t make me spank you” Aaron warned.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time” you retorted, making your way through the living room and towards the kitchen.

“Aww man, Hotch, why did you give her pants?” Derek said with a smirk as he noticed you.

“This is your only warning Morgan!” Aaron said, pointing a finger at Derek. Derek raised his hands in mock surrender. You couldn’t help but blush, both at Derek’s comment and Aaron’s reaction.

“So, y’all call each other by last name?” you asked, after hearing their exchange. The team nodded around you.

“I tell everyone to call me Hotch instead of Hotchner.” You just look at Aaron and nod in understanding.   

Picking up the remaining two cups of coffee, you offered one to Aaron. “Alright, what does everyone want for breakfast” you asked the seven people sitting at Aaron’s table.

“What are the options?” Emily asked.

“Good question” you said, opening Aaron’s pantry door. “I see oatmeal, bran flakes, and pancake mix in here.”

“Oh, I’ll take pancakes love. Now seems like a good time to mention I’m a vegetarian” Penelope said.

“Good to know. Any other dietary restrictions I should know about?”

“No, that’s it, but I’ll have the pancakes too” JJ said.

“Me too” Emily echoed.

“I’ll eat some oatmeal” you heard Dave say. Just then you felt Aaron’s hand on the small of your back.

“Here, I’ll help you” he said, grabbing the cereal he clearly wanted as well as the oatmeal. “You don’t have to do this” he whispered.

“I know. I want to. It’s my fault they’re hungry.”

“They are capable of feeding themselves.” Following Aaron over to the island, y’all set everything down. You made your way to the fridge next.

“In here we appear to have orange juice, eggs, facon, and fauxsage. Aaron, what the hell is facon and fauxsage?”

“It’s meatless bacon and sausage” he answered.

“You’ve got to be shitting me” you mumbled under your breath.

“I’ll take some facon” Penelope said with enthusiasm.

“Me too, please” Spencer said.

“What’s good enough for my baby girl is good enough for me” Derek chimed in.

“What the hell, count me in” Dave said.

“Alright,” you shrugged “I guess I’m taking a gamble with the fauxsage. Anyone brave enough to try it with me?”

“Me” you heard Emily and JJ say at the same time.

“I’ll take fauxsage too” Aaron said as he carried the orange juice and eggs to the island before getting out all of the dishes you were going to need to cook breakfast.

“Who wants orange juice?” you asked. Seven hands went up at the same time. “And eggs?” Spencer and Derek both kept their hands raised.

At that point you told Aaron to have a seat and leave you to it. He had laid out everything you were going to need. You had something going on every stove and you were terrified of messing this up. You wanted to make up for the teams first impression of you. 

You were flipping pancakes when you felt a presence beside you. “Hey, I’m sorry if I offended you earlier.” You looked over to see Spencer. “I didn’t mean anything when I asked your age. I don’t know how much Hotch has told you about us, but I’m not great with social cues. I know Hotch would never have an underage girl in his bed. I guess the whole situation took me by surprise.”

“Spencer, you have nothing to apologize for. I was embarrassed and overwhelmed by the whole situation but I was never angry. You guys seem great and it’s amazing how much better I feel in pants” you joked.

“Well that’s good, because we all really like you. Hotch hasn’t been this happy in a long time. I know you are not seeing each other romantically but you seem to make him smile which is no easy feat.” That thought warmed your heart and made you smile.

“Go take a seat Spencer. I’m ready to dish up plates.” He nodded with a tight lipped smile as he walked away.

“Ok, I have two plates of facon and eggs” you said as Derek and Spencer raised their hands. “Here y’all go.”

“Next up, two plates of pancakes and fauxsage” JJ and Emily were pointing at themselves.

“Penelope, here is your facon and pancakes” you say, setting her plate down in front of her.

“Dave, here is your oatmeal and facon. Aaron, last but certainly not least, here is your bowl of cereal and fauxsage. I’ll be right back with your milk.” You came back to the table and sat down the milk and orange juice. You sat your oatmeal and fauxsage down next to Aaron. “Does anyone need anything else before I sit down?” you ask, standing behind the last available chair.

“No sweetheart, this looks amazing” Dave said.

“Yeah, thank you so much cupcake” Penelope beamed.

“We really do appreciate it.” Aaron smiled at you as you sat down beside him. You just winked at him.

“So sweet cheeks” Derek began “how long have you lived in the building?”

“About four months” you responded.

“And there really is nothing going on between the two of you?” JJ asked.

“Aaron is just a great friend and I am lucky to have him and Jack in my life. You can ask him. He’ll tell you the same thing” you reassured her, pointing to Aaron.

“They’re profiling you” Aaron said, looking at his team.

“I’m sorry?” you said, confused.

“We’re all professional liars. We have to be for the job. They know if they ask me about us, they wouldn’t be able to tell if I was telling the truth or not” Aaron said, not taking his eyes off his team.

“I see” you said, suddenly feeling nervous about saying the wrong thing.

“But you do like Hotch, don’t you?” Emily inquired. You couldn’t stop the nervous laugh or the way your eyes fell to your oatmeal.

“That’s enough, Prentiss.” Aaron retorted.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” she replied, sheepishly.

“It’s fine, really.” you assured her.

“It’s not like we didn’t get the answer from her giggle.”

“Damn it, Dave, you too?” Aaron bellowed.

“You’re right, I apologize.” he said.

“Ok, Ok, new topic” Spencer proposed.

“Good idea pretty boy. Let’s play two truths and a lie with the new girl” Derek suggested.

“Alright, I’m in” you agreed. “One, I grew up in Nashville. Two, I have a cat named Garfield. Three, growing up I took dance lessons and was part of a competition team”

“To be fair,” Penelope said, standing up “I’m going to grab a pen and everyone is going to write their guess down on their napkin.”

“Ok, but Aaron can’t play because he knows the answer” you inform everyone. “I’m not playing either” Penelope said, sitting back down with a pen. “I’m not a profiler, I’m their technical analyst.”

“So you’re the brains of their whole operation?” you ask.”Basically!” she says with her signature smile.

You watched as the pen made its way quickly around the table. “Alright everybody, wow me!” you said with a hint of skepticism in your voice. Five napkins went up all revealing the number two on all of them. Your jaw hit the floor.

You felt Aaron’s arm around your shoulder. “Close your mouth, it’s giving me ideas.” he whispered in your ear. Your head jerked around so fast you thought you might have whip lash. Aaron had never been this forward with you. He had the biggest smirk on his face you’d ever seen and you had never blushed so hard in your life. You knew he was proud of himself for that one. You quickly averted your eyes back to the team, remembering what was going on.

“Ok, how did y’all guess my lie?”

“You broke eye contact when talking about the cat like you were having to think of something to make up” Spencer answered.

“Well color me impressed,” you said “I’m officially sold on this whole profiling business. I’m genuinely fascinated by y’alls ability to do this. The fact that y’all use this to hunt down the worst of the worst is mind blowing to me” you confess.

“Well, we appreciate you fussing over us but I think it’s time we head out Bella” Dave said, standing and pushing in his chair. Everyone seemed to agree and follow suit. You appreciated everyone taking their dishes to the sink and putting any trash in the trash can. It was going to make cleaning up easier. You really did enjoy meeting his team. Aaron was right, they didn’t judge you. They shared their embarrassing stories and even teased you a bit like Aaron said they would. The girls didn’t leave without giving you their number and within minutes you were part of a group text. Everyone hugged you bye including Spencer.

Turning around to look at Aaron, he already looked exhausted. “You want to take a nap old man?” you teased.

“Keep it up, see where it gets you.” You smiled at his threat before facing the sink and turning on the water. “Nope, you’re not cleaning up after you cooked” he said.

“Watch me” you hollered over your shoulder, already loading the dishwasher. All of a sudden you felt him pressed up against your back. Both of his hands were on the counter on either side of you effectively caging you in.

“Bold choice of words, care to try again?” You had never felt anything like the shiver currently shooting down your spine.

“Aaron,” you began, “please just let me finish what I started.”

“Fine, but I’m helping” he said, grabbing a dish.

“Your friends are great” you say after a few minutes of silence.

“They are” he agreed “and they really seemed to like you.”

“Were you worried they wouldn’t?”

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect after the way we woke up.”

“I’m sorry. You have no idea how bad I feel.”

“I thought I told you not to apologize again. Everything turned out fine.”

“I know. I just can’t help it. If it hadn’t been for that stupid dream. Gosh Aaron, I still see it all so clearly. I’m awake and I know you’re ok but I still see everything so vividly. I hate it” you say, exasperatedly, handing him the last dish to load in the dishwasher.

After he started the dishwasher he grabbed you in a tight embrace. “That’s how nightmares work. I probably share too much of my work life with you. Combine that with all the blood you see on a daily basis and it’s a recipe for disaster. I’m glad you felt comfortable talking to me about it though and I’m always here if you ever need to talk some more…about anything.”

Pulling away, you grabbed his hands in yours. “I know and I appreciate that” you said looking into his eyes “but I don’t want you to have to censor yourself around me. You can tell me anything. Besides, for every horrific thing you tell me, Jack tells me 10 silly little things to make me laugh. I absolutely adore him. I tolerate his dad” you joke.

“Oh, so now you just tolerate me? I’ll remember that.” he says, putting his hands behind his back, forcing you to hug his waist.

“I’m kidding” you laugh, burying your head in his chest and inhaling his intoxicating scent “but I should probably get going. Can I bring you your pants back later this evening?”

“Sure, or you can just keep them. Although they don’t seem to fit. You have them cinched as tight as they will go and they are still sitting dangerously low on your hips. Plus, you’ve rolled up about a foot of material on the legs.”

“Aaron, if I were going to steal an article of clothing from you, it’d be a hoodie. Or maybe one of your button ups.”

“I’ll keep that in mind” he says as y’all reach his door “thanks again for everything.”

“Oh, you mean embarrassing you in front of your team?”

“I told you that was no big deal. I meant the breakfast.”

“I know, and you’re welcome. Thank you for the pants” you said as he opened the door.

“Anytime” he said as you leaned up on your toes to kiss his cheek. It was at that exact moment that he turned his head and your lips collided for the briefest of seconds. It was like you had been struck by lightning. Instantly you apologized.

“Aaron, I am so sorry. I went to kiss your cheek and then you turned your head and I”

You were cut off by Aaron grabbing your face with both hands and crashing his lips to yours. If you had been struck by lightning before, this was Heaven. He ran his tongue across your bottom lip and you instantly parted your lips. One of his hands slid down to your hip while the other snaked behind your head allowing him to deepen the kiss. Your arms were on his shoulders both to keep him closer and ground yourself. This was the definition of euphoria. This kiss was all consuming. He was in complete control and he knew it. You don’t think either of you would have it any other way. Just as your lungs were beginning to burn, he pulled away with your bottom lip between his teeth. You whimpered at the loss of contact. He rested his forehead against yours as you both took in a much needed deep breath.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you like that” he apologized.

“It’s fine” you reassured him “I didn’t exactly try to stop you.”

“I shouldn’t have lost control like that.”

“Aaron, it was a great kiss. I’m not complaining” you say trying to ease his guilt. He let out a sad chuckle. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go home and write in my diary” you tease.

“What am I going to do with you?”

“I have a list of things in my diary if you need inspiration” you say, winking over your shoulder from the hall. He just shakes his head at your antics with a grin. He waits until you shut your door before closing his.

[percontaion-points]

Crush chapters 89-92

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 89

As I head for the door, I dread having to field Hudson’s snark in the middle of all this. But for once, he doesn’t make a sound.

Chapter 89 summary: Grace gets ready for the ceremony with Jaxon. Hudson is his usual charming self, and he gets into a heated argument with Grace about her not going to pick up the bloodstone. Meanwhile during all of that, Jaxon is kind of standing there, listening to whatever Grace says, and obviously unable to hear what Hudson says. 

Eventually, Jaxon says that there is another way, and that is to break the mating bond. Hudson doesn’t think that such a way exists, or else their mother would have left their father. But Jaxon says right after he realized that he’d been mated to Grace, he went to the bloodletter, who gave him a spell to sever it. But he threw it away when he got back, determined to at least talk to Grace so that they could work through these things. Grace is upset that he would have done something like that, and that he would even consider “breaking up” like that. 

Plot? What plot? Not in my 713 page novel. 

Chapter 90

As I head for the door, I dread having to field Hudson’s snark in the middle of all this. But for once, he doesn’t make a sound.

Chapter 90 summary: They go to the auditorium, where there’s too much faffing about. I’m done. 

Anyway, after the author finally remembers to get back to the fucking plot, they sit down and the doors are randomly locked. Cyril makes the winning team come up onto the stage, where the narration glosses over how they shake the hands of everybody else, but Cyril stops at Grace.

He then waxes poetically for way too long about her performance in the games. But then the chapter ends with him announcing that he’s basically going to force her to come to the vampire court with him. 

Chapter 91

“We’re fucked, aren’t we?” I ask. 

Both Hudson and Jaxon reply at the same time. “Definitely.”

Chapter 91 summary: Cyril goes on to say that this is for Grace’s “protection”. But considering that Cyril was the one who exterminated the other gargoyles a thousand years earlier… I think that we all know that he’s full of it. 

Hudson instructs Grace to say that she challenges for inclusion, and how to demand that gargoyles will once again have a seat on the council. However, the test that she has to go to prove herself is basically the thing that eventually developed into the sport that they played the other day… but with more murder. And since it’s only allowed for couples, Jaxon is being dragged into this as well. But as Hudson says, it’s either that or wind up in daddy’s dungeon for a couple hundred years. 

Chapter 92

“Over my dead fucking body,” Jaxon replies, ice dripping from every word he bites out.

Chapter 92 summary: Back in his rooms, Jaxon and Grace get into a huge fight over this. The game that they have to play is the same one that they played the other day, but without any of the safety measures. People have died trying to challenge the leaders. 

Then everybody gets into an argument over how they’re going to go kill the “unkillable beast”. Hudson and Grace are having their own conversation about things, and Hudson admits that he wasn’t romantically involved with Lia. That he’d flirted with her a few days before he’d died, and he thinks that’s what sparked all of her insanity. 

Grace then says that they should do the removal without the unkillable beast part, but Jaxon is determined that if his brother must come back, then it will be without his powers. 

[sulphuryasecretcloset]

What if...10b

Okay, so this ‘epilogue’ became... a monster. I decided to split chapter 10 into two parts because it was already so big, and, uh, yeah, now I’m splitting 10b into three parts. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ENABLE ME, PEOPLE. Your lovely comments, your kind reblogs and support turned this from what was supposed to be no more than 4 chapters into 90 000 word ramble.

*ahem*

So part 10b is Dulcy POV, 10c is chaotic everyone POV, and then there will be a bonus part for someone who didn’t get to join Dulcy and Dav’s little family.

-

What if Dulsissia hadn’t died, what if she had grabbed Corin and fled? What if she met Davarax? What if…

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10a

Epilogue; Dulcy

“We’ll be back later, dad!” Corin exclaims from where he’s standing next to Din in the doorway, eager to call Davarax that at every occasion he can find.

Davarax nods and gives a light wave to the two teenagers about to step out of the house they have rented on this obscure, little planet and head into the nearby town. (Having picked up a bit of Motti credits makes things a lot easier.) “Duly noted, son.”

The slight smile on his face tells Dulsissia that Davarax is well aware of Corin’s need to constantly reaffirm their new relationship and indulges him with never-ending patience. But what she also notes is how Din hesitates half a second while Corin turns to leave and she sees there is hurt in his dark eyes as they linger on Davarax.

That evening, while Barthor wraps up his conversation with his father via the holo-communicator, Davarax holds Raga back until the boy is done and the line is free for her to call her parents.

Dulsissia glances after Barthor shuffling back towards their house, helmet held low and shoulders slumped. Just like during previous calls, his parents show close to no interest in their son and he is equally disappointed every time. “Dav?”

Davarax turns his attention away from Raga and over to Dulsissia. “Yeah?”

“Why don’t you adopt the others too? Like you did with Corin?” Her heart breaks every time she sees these children with sadness in their eyes and Davarax is the one who always brings smiles to their faces.

Sighing, Davarax leans against the door frame. “It’s not that easy…”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, Paz and Raga have their families. The Saxons are… unique, but they love her. And Dez, well, I hope that maybe he’ll come to his senses.” Davarax looks over at Barthor’s retreating shape as well. “Barthor… I might have to talk to him about it.”

Dulsissia frowns as he doesn’t mention the most obvious one of all; “What about Din?”

“Din…” Davarax looks down at the floor. He looks guilty. “I messed that up. Big time.”

“He’d forgive you in a heartbeat.” Dulsissia declares. “He worships you.”

“Maybe.” Davarax replies, not sounding convinced. “But I don’t deserve his forgiveness. And after what he’s been through, I think Din needs to be allowed to hold on to his roots before another adult tries to pressure their identity on him.”

What that boy needs is a father, Dulsissia thinks, but before she can voice her thoughts she’s distracted by someone shouting. Looking over, she sees Raga’s mother in the holo-projector screaming at someone out of sight before turning back to focus on her daughter again.

“What was that, Raga? You said something about how many push ups? You’re up to what now?”

“Fifty-”

“PUT THAT DOWN!” Raga’s mother bellows to her right and then makes a frustrated grunt and reaches out to grab someone. “Here. Talk to your brother. I have to murder your other two brothers for a bit.” She steps away and a smaller Mandalorian with a green helmet takes her place.

“Raga. Still ugly I see. You really should have kept the helmet on.”

“Sioben. Still a moron, I hear. I was kind of hoping dad had followed through on his threat to dropkick you into space.” Raga counters. “Paz taught me some new tricks. I’m going to kick your ass when I see you again.”

Sioben shakes his head. “I don’t know why he puts up with you. He could have anyone he wants, he’s a huge badass ‘and’ a Vizla. I can’t think of a single reason why he lets you stick around.”

“Don’t hurt your brain trying to think.” Raga snarls.

“At least I have a brain. Unlike you.” Sioben fires back.

A hand appears and smacks into Sioben’s helmet and he goes toppling out of sight and Raga’s mother appears again. “Listen, I have to go. I’m a bit busy here. Say hi to Davarax from me. Be careful out there, Raga. Byebye.” The woman’s holo-image dissolves and she’s gone.

When Raga walks out of the room, Dulsissia reaches out and touches her shoulder. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“What for?” Raga asks with a huge grin. “Didn’t you hear that? She didn’t yell at me once!”

Dulsissia looks over at Davarax with a look of slight belief while the girl walks away, humming happily and he can only offer a weak shrug in return.

-

And on the subject of Paz and Raga...

While there are still sides to the Mandalorian culture that are still a mystery to her, Dulsissia remembers more than enough about what it was like to be a human a teenager to see what is happening there.

The two have been drawn together as friends since they were small children, as far as Dulsissia understands. They always gravitate towards each other. If you see one, odds are good that the other is nearby or about to appear. And Dulsissia feels both compassion and amusement as she sees the growing awkwardness as a different kind of attraction between them starts to enter the picture.

Dulsissia tries to hide her laughter when she sees Raga pretending to need a water break but only so she can let her gaze roam all over Paz as he continues his intense training next to her. Raga has always been climbing him like a jungle gym, but these days it brings a flush to her cheeks when he holds her close or play-wrestle with her, and Raga even smiles in her sleep the times she drowses off with her head resting on his chest. It’s a shame she seems unable to voice what she feels.

This leads to the seething anger in Raga’s eyes when Paz mindlessly flirt with the local girls and basks in their attention. An anger which causes her to pick fights with Din and the others, violent fights that always ends badly for at least one of them and Davarax has to patch them up while trying to calm Raga down.

At the same time, with a stealth worthy of admiration, Paz’ gaze discretely seeks out Raga with an interest and longing he doesn’t show any of the local girls desperately trying to hold his attention. His attention trail along her curves, he flushes at glimpses of her skin and it is kind of cute how he’s only happy if Raga is happy.

Unfortunately Paz seems too insecure, which is absurd, to actually show how her how he feels.

His temper is as bad as Raga’s, though, which causes Paz to one day actually punch a hole in a wall. He flat out refuses to explain why he’d done it, even when Davarax wraps up his bleeding hand and asks in a frustrated voice what is going on with him, but Dulsissia accidentally overheard earlier when Raga agreed to go out on a date with a suitor of her own and suspects that is why.

“I’m going to help them.” Dulsissia declares one morning after Raga had managed to draw both Din and Corin into a vicious brawl the previous evening, just after Paz had gone out to meet some girl.

Davarax grunts, half-asleep on his stomach with his face partly burrowed into the pillow. “They’ll figure it out eventually.”

She sends him, or his back to be more precise, a dry glance. “Are you kidding me? Those two? If someone doesn’t help them along, it’ll take yeeaars.”

Davarax snorts a laugh. “At your own peril, cyare.”

Dulsissia thinks about all her excellent work as a matchmaker back on Seswenna. That included family ranks, politics and enough credits to buy a minor planet. These are two teenagers. She’s got this.

It’s a delicate mission. First Dulsissia establishes through a little research that there is absolutely no doubt that these two feel the same and are just too emotionally constipated to do something about it, then she goes to work on them separately. Hints, questions and light nudges.

It takes a surprisingly short time for them to admit to her what she already knows, but neither is willing to make the first move.

“Why not go for it?” Dulsissia eventually asks..

“I don’t think he/she thinks of me that way…” Raga/Paz replies. Her face bright red as she half-heartedly trains defensive moves with Dulsissia one sun-soaked day. Him with quiet sadness when Dulsissia delivers some clean laundry to his room one evening.

“I think you’d be surprised.” Dulsissia teases and winks.

After that, they become a little braver. Instead of just friendly bickering, Raga and Paz both add a little intent and teasing to their interactions, and that eventually develop into outright flirting.

During training Davarax sends Dulsissia a dry look when Paz, instead of following through with his attack, merely keeps his hands against the wall, fencing in the grinning and uncharacteristically passive Raga and hovers there with a slight smirk of his own. Davarax rolls his eyes when Raga, after flipping Paz over and have him land on his back, simply straddles his stomach and pretends to hold him down with her hands on his shoulders instead of following through with her attack and Paz, also uncharacteristically passive, looks like he’s enjoying himself more than anything else.

Dulsissia regrets nothing.

-

Barthor is in heavy denial, Din wrinkles his nose and Corin is incredibly oblivious as Paz and Raga keep inching their way closer to what they both dream about having. They push things as far as they can go and then some, before one of them finally dares to cross the line...

Sitting next to each other on the stairs behind the big battle arena, Paz and Raga had decided to sneak outside the building instead of staying with the others to watch the final game. Usually they both live and breathe for such big fights, but for some reason it seemed more tempting to sneak off like this.

They sit in this dark back-alley, her shoulder bumping lightly against his upper arm, talking.

It’s silly. They see each other every day, they talk every day, and yet they struggle to look at the other right now. Words tumble a little awkwardly. Hearts thump hard.

Then there is a huge cheer from the crowd inside the arena and Paz looks over at Raga. She looks back over at him, and after a moment of hesitation, he cautiously leans towards her.

Raga’s eyes light up. Oh. But just as she lifts her chin a little to meet him, giving him an unspoken invite, Paz abruptly loses his courage and quickly withdraws to stare down at the ground again.

Raga exhales, disappointed. Suddenly her eyes flare with angry annoyance and she thumps her shoulder against his arm, and when he looks at her, she quickly leans over and presses a brief, hard kiss to his lips. After that, she’s the one to turn to stare at the ground while heat burns in her face.

Stunned, Paz stares at her. He stares for what feels like a small eternity, then he slowly reaches out his hand, touches by her jawline and eases her into facing him again. And that is when he finally has the courage to lean over, his fingers still resting on her skin, and ever so softly touches his lips to hers.

It’s a gentle, trying thing. Raga draws a shivering breath, her lips trembling a little as well but soon they move to meet his as he cautiously coaxes a response from her.

After a little while, Paz pulls back and scans her face for her response.

Raga grins.

That makes him smile as well.

-

Dulsissia is obnoxiously pleased. Declaring herself the matchmaking champion.

Davarax only regrets not stopping her when stolen kisses in secret between the two becomes public make-out sessions. Truth be told, he wouldn’t have minded if had taken yeeeaars before he had to see that.

But he draws the line of having to watch it in their house. Entering the living room and finding them at it again, Davarax kicks at the sofa, making them jump apart. “Tongues in separate mouths when I’m around. Not negotiable.”

Paz flushes deep red. Raga glares.

And Dulsissia wonders who she can match up next...

-

While Dulsissia’s stop on Seswenna had resulted in them having a nice amount of credits to use on their family, Davarax knows they won’t last forever and he’s too used to support his family to stop, so he takes on the occasional job. And it’s easier now than before Dulsissia came into his life.

It’s strange not be be constantly exhausted. It’s even stranger not to have nightmares any more but wake up in the mornings with a sigh of satisfaction or even a smile on his face.

His favourite jobs are the ones where Dulsissia joins him. She’s come far from the helpless beauty he’d met what feels like a lifetime ago. Now she’s a deadly beauty. And the sight of her in Mandalorian armor is the best bonus he’s ever gotten on a job.

This is an easy contract. Just head up to a damaged cargo ship floating just above the planet, pick up the shipment and bring it to the owner on the surface. It’s the rumours of pirates in the area that makes them want to hire a couple of Mandalorians.

The ship is where it’s supposed to be, there are no signs of pirates, and Davarax does the mistake of thinking this mission will go without a hitch. He and Dulsissia board the ship and walk towards the cargo hold to secure their target.

It is years of experience combined with quick reflexes that saves Davarax’ life when something drops from the ceiling in the hallway. He jolts backwards and sparks fly as something sharp slides across his breastplate. Davarax tries to lift his blaster to fire at his attacker, but a boot kicks his arm and the shot goes wide.

It becomes a wild dance of attacks launched at him, sparks flying again and again when his armor takes the brunt, and he frantically back-pedals to stay alive. A streak of yellow spins in front of him and Davarax gets his arm up just in time for the vibro blade to impale it instead of his throat. The pain rages through him and instinct makes Davarax turn to the best weapon he has in such a close encounter; a harsh kov’nyn.

His opponent collapses while he stumbles backwards and clutches his arm. The blade is still vibrating and sending waves of agony through him while tearing more of his flesh. He yanks it out, fighting back the intense urge to scream with pain, unable to respond right away despite hearing Dulsissia calling out his name in fear.

Once his eyes clears again, Davarax realizes Dulsissia is by his side and trying to make him let her look at his arm and he sees the crumpled shape on the floor.

A skinny Twi’lek youth around Raga’s age. Her skin under layers of dirt looks to be pale yellow, her clothes are rags and even unconscious she looks angry.

Well, that was unexpected.

“She’s just a kid.” Dulsissia whispers with quiet disbelief, wrapping his arm.

“I was too busy trying to keep her from cutting my throat to notice.” Davarax rumbles, twitching slightly when Dulsissia tightens the bandage. His heart softens. “I wonder what her story is...”

Her name is Zev’sonya and she’s anything but friendly. Sure, his own kids have a habit of baring their teeth every once in a while, even at him, but this one? She’s outright hostile and extremely dangerous. And while his kids’ trust in others has been severely damaged, hers is non-existent. Whatever her story might be, she’s not telling them anything beyond her being on her own.

Davarax has absolutely no idea how Dulsissia manages to persuade the girl to come with them.

It takes over a standard week to make her stop trying to kill and rob them. A lot longer for her to actually trust them, especially Davarax.

-

Zev’sonya and Raga end up in a fist-fight two minutes after the initial introduction. Paz watches her with some cautiousness but he’s not unfriendly. Barthor avoids her like the plague. Corin is terrified of her and claims she keeps stealing the blades in the house. (Dulsissia knows he’s right as she keeps retrieving them from the twi’lek’s room.)

The only one she instantly connects with is Din, who seems to share her way of communicating in as few words as possible and have no fear of her scowls.

-

They renew their rent on the house and Davarax recruits Din to help build a couple of sheds and do some repairs on it.

After a scorchingly hot day, emerging from the refresher room, Dulsissia saunters over to the big bed in their room where Davarax is reading something on his datapad. She crawls into the bed and rolls over to face him with a dramatic sigh. “Dav? Cyare?”

“Mmh?” He replies, not looking up from his datapad.

“I’m hungry…”

Davarax lowers the datapad and reaches out to run his hand gently over her hair. “What are you in the mood for?”

“There’s leftovers from dinner...”

She rarely asks him to bring her things because she knows he will stop whatever he’s doing and get it and she doesn’t want to abuse that kindness. But this is a special occasion. After he’s padded out of the room, she slides the medical scanner out of her pocket and places it on his side of the bed.

A few minutes later, Davarax comes back with two plates. “Food for my love. And I brought some sweets for dessert too. Might as well make it a proper meal when we’re dining in bed.” He hands her one of the plates with flourish.

She leans up and gives him a kiss, which he is very pleased to accept, and waits as he circles the bed to get in on his side.

Davarax frowns a little when he sees something in his way, reaches down and picks it up so he can settle in his spot again. “This yours?” He holds it out to her.

Sighing, Dulsissia fails to hold back a smile. “Look at it.”

He studies the device but the numbers on the screen doesn’t make sense to him. Davarax glances over at her again, now a little worried. “A medical scanner? You’re not sick, are you?”

She shakes her head, losing the battle against a bubbling laugh. “No. Look at it, silly.”

Davarax looks again. “I’m looking, but what am I supposed to…” Finally the information on the screen makes sense to him and what it means. His gaze snaps back at her. The plate in his other hand is completely forgotten. “Y-you’re…? Are you…?”

Taking a bite of her food, Dulsissia nods and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “I’m pregnant.” It’s almost funny how happy she is with this fact. After Corin was born, the mere thought of having another baby offended Dulsissia after she had come to realize that was the only reason why Macero wanted her. But that was in the past. Things are so very different now.

Davarax nearly drops his plate, only his quick reflexes prevents him from spilling it all over the bed. He cautiously, but as quickly as possible, places his plate on the night-stand so he can hold on to the medical scanner with both hands, reading the information once again. “You… You’re sure?”

“You’re looking at the evidence, mister. I scanned ten minutes ago.” She takes another bite, endlessly amused by the whirlwind of emotions visibly rushing through him. He keeps wobbling back and forth between intense happiness, paralysing fear and blind excitement. It is so painfully sweet to see how much he wants this. “Breathe, baby.” Dulsissia advices.

Davarax gulps down some air, then puts the scanner aside and turns all of his focus on her. “Are… are you okay? Do you need me to do anything? What do I do?”

Laughing a little, even more charmed by him being so uncharacteristically clumsy and helpless, Dulsissia glances over at him. “I thought Mandalorians were experts on children. They didn’t teach you about how this is going to work?”

Davarax hesitates and then he reaches out and touches her hand. “Sort of, but all I care about is what you need me to do. Weapons and flowers, remember?”

Dulsissia feels the usual wave of warmth and adoration when Davarax is his sweet self and she curls her fingers around his. “I remember. And we’ll work this out as well.”

That seems to reassure him and his shoulders relaxes a little. Enough so that she lets go of his hand and goes back to eating. Maybe it is just knowing she’s pregnant again that makes her so hungry, but at least it is a very valid excuse to indulge.

Davarax is silent. Too silent.

After a while, Dulsissia has to laugh again as she realizes what he’s doing. He’s staring at her stomach. “There is nothing noticeable going on there quite yet. It’s too early. You’re going to have to be patient for a while before things get exciting for you.”

Davarax gives a tiny shake of his head. “This is already one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been a part of.” He looks like he’s about to say something more but loses courage.

“What?” Dulsissia asks, taking another bite of her food.

“Can I…?” He lifts his hand a little in a mute request.

Stars above, she loves this man more than she thought was possible. Dulsissia lets out a soft laugh. “There’s nothing much to feel right now, like I said, but… if you want to, go ahead.”

Davarax inches closer, reaches out further and cautiously places his hand on her stomach, below her bellybutton. His hand is warm and so very careful and lingers there for a while. “Hey, you…” Davarax eventually says in a quiet voice, a little strained with emotion. “Welcome to the family.”

Dulsissia doesn’t make a sound as the first tears trail from her eyes, overwhelmed by how right this feels, how much she loves him and their unborn child and their beautiful family. This time, she knows, this time everything will be perfect.

-

When Dulsissia tells him, Corin is incredibly excited to become a big brother. Paz declares he’s mighty pleased their clan is growing, sounding like the adult he now looks like despite still not having enough years on his back to deserve that title in Dulsissia’s eyes, and the other Mandalorian youngsters eagerly agree with him. Davarax looks a little awkward when they start talking about how they can create a Covert of their own at the pace their clan is growing.

Half an eternity later, when the evening comes where she feels the first barely noticeable change, Dulsissia calls Davarax over and slides his hand over her stomach. She feels him shiver and he looks at her with breathless awe. She has to laugh and then kisses that look off his face.

A little over six standard weeks after that, Davarax feels the first curving before she notices herself, on a sleepy morning when he, as usual, runs his hand over her stomach.

Corin and the other boys hover near her with innocent curiosity and watch the development with bright fascination, while Raga and Zev’sonya stay a little more in the back and observe with cautious interest.

When Dulsissia really starts showing, that is the point where Davarax’ self-control starts slipping. He has tried his hardest to act normal, yet now he becomes downright clingy. Others might have gotten a bit annoyed with the man’s behaviour, but Dulsissia knows the sadness of going through this with someone who doesn’t care, who can’t even bother to be there, so she happily suffers through his tactile presence.

Dulsissia even has to hide tears one evening when he inches close, runs his hand over her stomach yet again and softly hums a Mandalorian lullaby to their restless child.

Then she gets even bigger and Dulsissia realizes she’d forgotten this part. She gets grouchy, her feet aches, her back aches, everything aches, she has to pee all the time, she can barely get up if she does the mistake of sitting down, she can’t sleep like she wants to, and Dulsissia decides the thought of delivering the child isn’t all that bad if she can just get back to normal, please!

It is all worth it when the time comes after seven hours of hard work and sweet, sweet pain killers, and Dulsissia gets to meet her daughter as she’s placed in her arms.

She is absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way and so very, very loved!

Looking up at Davarax by her side, Dulsissia is both crying and laughing at once. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

Davarax, pale as a sheet, nods with a look of awe on his face.

Allowing herself another moment of holding their child, admiring her, kissing her, Dulsissia makes herself look up at Davarax again. “You want to hold her?”

To her surprise, he hesitates and looks like he’s about to take a step away. Catching himself, Davarax remains where he is and tries to remember how to speak. “I… Are you sure?”

Laughing a little, Dulsissia is far too exhausted to untangle the mystery of his mind at the moment. “Of course I’m sure. She’s your daughter too.”

“It’s just…” Davarax reaches out a cautious hand only to withdraw it before he can actually touch the wailing baby. “I don’t know how. I mean, I don’t want to hurt her. I-I’ve never held a baby before. She’s so tiny, Dulcy.”

“She’s tougher than you think.” Dulsissia replies, then turns a little to make it easier for him to pick up the baby. “Support her head, careful with the neck, like that, yeah… Perfect.” She leans back, exhausted and strangely enough a bit hungry, but for the time being she is satisfied to just take in the sight of her husband and their child connecting.

“Hello, ik’aad.” Davarax looks nervous, awkward and absolutely devastated by the intense adoration he feels for the still screaming bundle in his arms. The baby really do look tiny in his embrace, fragile even, but that doesn’t prevent her from aimlessly raising her tiny fist in what looks to be a threat.

Mandokarla from the birth.

Dulsissia sees how tears well up in Davarax’ eyes and he leans down to place a feather-light kiss on the baby’s head.

-

Corin is staring wide-eyed at the baby and eagerly reaches out when his mother eases her over into his arms.

“Say hello to your new sister.” Dulsissia says in a quiet voice, hoping not to wake the sleeping baby.

Din hovers over Corin’s right shoulder and reaches out to ever so gently run his fingers over the dark tufts of hair on her head. “She’s cute.”

“So tiny…” Paz observes, hovering over Corin’s left shoulder, sounding a bit worried.

“She’ll get bigger, idiot.” Barthor mutters, tilting his helmet as he studies the baby too.

“Are… are you okay?” Raga asks Dulsissia while the boys block the view to the new arrival.

Smiling, reaching out a hand and curling her fingers around Raga’s when she takes it, Dulsissia gives her a reassuring nod. “I’m fine, baby. Corin gave me a lot more trouble than this one.”

Corin blinks and looks up to focus on her for a moment. “I did?”

Dulsissia nods. “Yeah, you were not inclined to come out to greet the world. It took over two days to persuade you.”

“Two days?” Raga blurts out, with no small amount of horror.

“It sounds worse than it was.” Dulsissia reassures her. “Without the pain meds I’m sure it would have been a nightmare, but with them, it’s mostly just uncomfortable and boring.”

“Two days and you still decided to have another child?” Davarax asks from where he is hovering in the background.

“Well, yeah.” Dulsissia shrugs. The amount of joy her son has given her was well worth it. And without him she would never have broken free from her golden cage, so, no, she had not hesitated to do it all over again. Her daughter is already worth it too. “Zev. Baby. Come say hello. Don’t just hide over there.” She waves the Twi’lek over and fails to see everyone there stare at her with the kind of awe saved for the most impressive of Mandalorian warriors.

They call the baby Nemi.

[hello-nichya-here]

Zucest - Is It Really Flirting?

(Originally posted on AO3 as chapter 43 of Defending and Analysing Zucest)

@azdaema-does-art asked: So I think a big stumbling block for me with this ship is that I very much adhere to the reading of the show that holds:

Quasi-Seducer!Azula (as seen virtually anytime) and Quasi-Seducer!Zuko (as seen in "The Waterbending Scroll") are not actually expressions of desire from them. Rather, this is Zuko and Azula trying to be intimidating by modeling their behavior off their father (circling, personal-space-invading, low seductive tones, etc)

When actually trying to flirt neither Zuko nor Azula acts anything like that. When Zuko goes on that date with a girl in the Earth Kingdom, or Azula flirting with that guy on Ember Island, they're both awkward disasters.

I'd be curious to hear you address this. (Or point me to some awkward disaster!zucest fanfic.)

***

That is a really good point and I'm glad you brought it up. While I understand that reading of the show, I disagree with it slightly for a few reasons (beyond my own bias).

Need to be in control: No one can argue against the fact that neither Zuko nor Azula know how to have "normal", healthy relationships with others, mainly due to how unequal 99% of the relationships in the Fire Nation are since imposing your own will over someone else's has become part of their culture. Both Zuko and Azula accepted being treated like mere tools/punching bags by their father, Zuko was constantly insulting Iroh over the smallest things and Azula full on threatened Ty Lee's life to make her join her on her chase after her brother and the Avatar - both were scenarios where desire wasn't a factor at all (thought I know many fans that would like to think otherwise XD)

However, during The Beach, we saw how both of them try (and fail) to deal with romance. Zuko was extremelly paranoid that Mai was interested in another guy, for no real reason, and was constantly trying to intimidate her into either admiting to it or into saying she disliked the guy, even though she had clearly said she was completely indifferent to him. And Azula, after her kiss with Chan, decided, on her own and not giving a damn about his feelings on the matter, that not only would they be officially a couple, but that they'd dominate the earth together. Control is, more often than not, a major factor in all of their actions and relationships, so Azula wanting to intimidate Zuko in the bedroom scene (which she very much tried to do and succeeded at) doesn't automatically rule out the possibility of atraction.

Mixed feelings: While "I wanna fight/kill my sibling" is sort of these two default state, there are moments that show that they do have at least some positive feelings for each other. Zuko doesn't give a shit that Aang is going to kill Ozai, but seeing Azula falling "to her death" and then chained up and defeated after their Agni Kai quite clearly made him emotional, even if he tried to control himself. Azula's positive feelings for Zuko are so obvious I had to do an in length discussion of it in chapter 12 "Is Zucest just about sex?" Combine all of the conflicting emotions they have for each other with their need to control the other, and some scenes end up getting some connotations the writers weren't planning them to have... supposedly (I'll get into that in a bit)

Awareness and familiarity: Don't get me wrong, Zuko and Azula are two extremelly traumatized, socially awkward teenagers who have no idea how to flirt (or how to fit in with people their age) but we also need to take context into consideration, especiall when it comes to Zuko's date with Jin and Azula's interactions with Chan.

In Ba Sing Se, Zuko was outside of his comfort zone, away from home, in enemy territory, and so paranoid that he assumed Jin came into the tea shop so often because she knew they were Fire Nation, not because she had a crush on him or simply enjoyed their tea. And while he liked her and the date was nice, Zuko was very "stiff" and even looked a bit uncomfortable (not to say very uncomfortable) at some points - which is oddly simmilar to how he was acting during the bedroom scene (hell, Azula was quite clearly looking at him just like Jin did, as I pointed out in "The most important parallel in Avatar"). Finally, we cannot forget that, even though he was awkward as fuck during 90% of the night, Zuko did manage to do something kinda romantic by lighting up the place, meaning he isn't completely oblivious to the concept of flirting (which is proved by his relationship with Mai).

Now, when it comes to Azula, the poor girl has almost no idea how to flirt. Almost. Talking about Chan's sharp outfit shows she's got some of the basis down, like "say something nice" - the problem is that her concept of "nice" is very different than that of most people. She did sort of know what to do once Ty Lee gave her some tips... but she quickly reversed back to her regular ways - which once again shows that flirting/seduction has an element of control and intimidation for her. She probably doesn't always mean to act in ways that could be considered flirty, but that doesn't mean she is completely oblivious to the implications of, let's say, invading her brother's personal space and talking to him in a low tone while wearing nothing but a robe.

And since I mentioned Azula going back to what she knows, that leads us to another thing to take into account: the fact that Zuko and Azula quite literally knew each other their whole lives - meaning if they were to ever flirt with each other, it would probably look at least somewhat different than when they were out of their element. Azula was the one in control, so she was far more comfortable and confident than she had been with Chan, and Zuko was the one being intimidated, which explains why he kept his guard up. Once again, that "theory" is sort of confirmed if we compare how Zuko acted while flirting with Mai on The Headband versus how he tried to interact with her in The Beach - when he used a non-traditional, but very Mai-esque "You're so beautiful when you hate the world" he got her equivalent of an "I love you" when she told him she didn't hate him, but he tried to do more "normal" things like getting her a pretty shell it blew up on his face. He knows Mai since they were both kids, meaning he usually knows how to deal with her, just like Azula usually knows how to deal with him.  

Intensity: While a lot of Azula's behavior can be explained by her copying Ozai, we need to remember that there's only so much he could affect, especially since her way of "intimidating" Zuko was far more touchy and incestuous than his, and lasted a lot longer. Azula gets close to people when she's intimidating them (see how she toyed with Aang in The Drill), but not as close as she did with her brother. The sole exception to that being Sokka on The Day Of Black Sun - but that is on somewhat shaky ground despite the accidental sexual tension since the first time she got close to him she was being launched by the Dai Li and he just happened to be standing a little bellow the direction she was launched at, and the second time had him pinning her to the wall (which is in character since Sokka usually goes straight at his foes to intimidate them while fighting), and as soon as she had her firebending back she pushed him away. On top of that, she was trying to distract him, Aang and Toph, meaning he wasn't her focus at all, and she ignored him on all the other times their groups were facing each other.

With Zuko on the other hand, she was going full force, like I said on my analysis of the bedroom scene. She played coy, stared at him in a very intense, weird way, circled the pillar on her bed, stretched in front of him, got on his personal space touching his shoulder and chest, and bit her lip while talking basically purring her words. That is all a bit too much for me to believe it was just about intimidation. And the touching gets even more suspicious when you notice Azula does enjoy and is willing to give physical affection - she hugged both Mai and Ty Lee after seeing them again, pulled Ty Lee close while conforting her and apologizing for her harsh words at The Beach... and put her hand on Zuko's shoulder while saying he restored his own honor to reassure him after he was feeling bad for betraying his uncle.

Intention of the actors/writers/animators: Avatar is no stranger to parallels. It also isn't a stranger to adult themes/jokes, fanservice, and ship teasing. For instance, even thought they didn't end up together and were never canonically interested in each other, there was A LOT of hints/teases of Zutara - dude fucking took lightining to the heart for her.

Just like the writers and producers were aware of Zutara, Tokka and many, many other ships, they were also aware of Zucest and even jokingly shipped Azula and The Blue Spirit at a panel. The animators habit of sexualizing the characters speaks for itself, so I won't even go into that. Finally, Grey Delisle, Azula's voice actress is a Zucest shiper, has brought it up many times, asked people to send her fanart and fanfic of it, created the phrase "Zucest is best cest", and has full on said she voiced the scene as if Azula was trying to seduce Zuko,  - which regardless of whether or not the writers intended for the character to be doing, means that there is a very strong incest subtext to the scene and that, in a weird way, "Azula" herself confirmed her motives to act the way she did.

[weregonnaneedmorewhiskey]

Covet

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4

Chapter 5: “San Francisco Nights”

Let me know if you want to be tagged for future chapters :)

Warning: Strong Language

Songs for this chapter:

Westside- Ariana Grande

Loooooove Song- Rihanna ft Future

April 9th- 8:30pm

Karla

“I can’t believe I’m doing this again. I’m on a date with this guy again. Why did I let Adrienne convince me to go?! Maybe I should just get a cab and go home and he’ll never know I showed up to the hotel. What am I saying?! Of course he’ll find out, this guy found out which building I live in and paid my rent. Let me just go to the front desk and find out if he’s in his room”

Walking into the lobby of the hotel, I take a close look at the marble floors and bask in the beauty of my surroundings. If the Miami pool party felt like something out of a music video, then walking into the St Regis felt like I had just walked into a scene from Ocean’s 11.

“Welcome to the St Regis, how can help you?” The upbeat receptionist greets me. His name tag says his name is Edward. Looks middle aged and has a few greys hairs in his dark hair.

“Hi, I’m meeting someone at this hotel and could you let them know I have arrived and waiting for them in the lobby?” I ask him

“Sure. What’s the name of the guest?” He asks.

“James Brookes”

“And your name Miss? So I can let him know who’s waiting?” Edward informs me.

“Karla” Maybe I should have said my last name too. Oh who I am kidding, he’s gonna know it’s me, he’s the one that wanted to see me in the first place.

I take a quick look in the mirror whilst Edward the receptionist makes a call to his room. There I was. Slick back ponytail, black satin shirt slightly opened, leather pants and some strappy heels. Not exactly an outfit I’d typically wear but Adrienne decided to chose my outfit for tonight.

“Yes good evening Mr Brookes, I am just calling your room to inform you that Miss Karla is waiting for you in the lobby. Ok then. You’re welcome” Edward ends his brief phone call.

Suddenly, a bunch of butterflies enter my stomach and I feel...nervous. It’s not like I really liked James that much. Sure, he was attractive and intelligent but I don’t know if I’m interested in that way. Also that rent thing I still think is super weird.

“Karla” There it was once again, that baritone voice. The first thing I notice was the bed of curls on his head. In comparison to his slick back look in Miami, the curls made him look slightly younger, more boyish. The blazer, crisp white button down shirt dress pants and Louboutin loafers made him look like a GQ model.

“Hi James, so where are we going” I ask him

“Well there’s a pretty nice bar here so I was thinking we could stay in the hotel?” He suggests.

As soon as I heard the words “stay in the hotel” I immediately raise an eyebrow. Does he think he can fly out here just to fuck me?!

“I’m not trying to get your in bed, I just want to get a drink and enjoy your company” He breaks my train of thoughts. It’s almost like he knew what I was thinking. He goes to link his arms in mine and we walk towards the hotel bar.

“Well then, I’m assuming you’re paying for drinks since you have no problem paying several months of a woman you slept with once’s rent” I joke

“You’d be correct to assume correctly. How are you?”

“I’m good. How are finding San Francisco?” I ask him

“Good, I think it’s gonna get better though” He says. We find a couple seats at the bar and I couldn’t help but notice that his dress pants was well tailored especially around his ass but I’m looking respectfully.

“Well...aren’t you optimistic? I’ll have a glass of some very expensive merlot since you’re paying” Normally I wouldn't be so bold but fuck it, let me have some fun.

“Great. I'll order a bottle so I can have the same. How you been?” He asks and he actually sounds like he’s interested.

“I’ve been good actually. I didn't have a seminar today so I just sent out a few applications to some galleries. Thought I'd get a head-start on the job front you know?” 

A woman walks towards our table and I'm assuming she’s the waitress due to her all black uniform and apron or she just likes to dress like that.

“What can I get you two tonight?” She asks. She eyes Wyatt up and down like a predator eyes its prey and bats her lashes. How cliche. Might as well ask him if he’d like his dick sucked too. 

“Yes, I'd like a bottle of your most expensive merlot please” He barely looks at her and I can tell she’s bothered by that but instead she maintains her perky attitude and says...

“Fabolous, I'll be right back with that, Sir”. As she walks away, she sends a wink in his direction but still, he doesn’t look to catch this. Maybe he does like me...or just doesn’t care for that waitress.

“Which galleries are you looking to work at?” Once again, James baritone voice interrupts my inner monologue.

“Different studios. Some in the Bay Area, some in LA, some in New York, some in Atlanta. I don't like limiting my options. I want as many as I can get” I explain. 

“I have a couple art buyer friends that are looking for assistants if you're wanting to further expand your options” Once again, he just says that oh so casually like it’s normal.

“Is there anyone you don't know James or is that just the life of working in marketing?” 

“What can I say, Karla? I'm a sociable person. That’s all. I like making friends” He explains. I guess with a job like his, you would have to be a social person...or at least persuasive.

“Here is your bottle Sir. That will be $180. Would like to pay cash or card?” The perky waitress returns, still trying to flirt.

“Just charge it to my room. I'm staying in room 520″

“Will do, Sir” The perky facade melts away and you can see her disappointment that he still didn't notice her. 

He opens the bottle and pour two glasses with a concentrated expression on his face, tilting the glass at a 90 degree angle.

“For you. Here’s to...” He passes the glass to me. 

“Making new friends” I finish the sentence. 

Clinking our glasses, I take a sip of the merlot. I let the fruity taste dance on my tongue and reunite with that familiar burn in my veins that clouds my judgement. 

“So how long are you in town again?” I ask him

“Four days” He reminds me.

“There’s an opening at this gallery I did an internship at. I’m going to it tomorrow night” 

A smirk comes across his face upon hearing this information. “Are you asking me on a date?”

I shouldn't find that smirk sexy but I can't help. He's not even trying. Not that he has to try.

“Yes” On our first date, he very much had the power and tonight, the power was mine.

“What time?” 

Author’s Note: Ok, I’m the worst when it comes to update but writing this chapter got me so excited for where this story goes. Please let me know in the comments, DM or an Ask if you want to be tagged in future chapters

Taglist: @laketaj24 @emjayewrites

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 31

First

Previous

Next

Idk what happened. I was struggling to get this chapter to reach 1k words and then I blinked and it was 2k

... sorry?

Rena was the queen of pissing people off.

(She pinned most of it on her kwami, but it might just be because she had siblings. She’d been the baby for over ten years. It was the youngest’s job to piss off the older ones, it was basically in the job description.)

But even she knew that Chat had gone too far. She didn’t even have Chloe’s power of sensing emotions, but she knew from the moment Ladybug walked inside that shit was going to go down.

There are two types of anger.

Some people’s anger runs hot. Red faces and a voice raw from screaming and tears rolling down their cheeks. Rena’s anger ran hot, so did Chloe’s and Carapace’s. When Ladybug had stormed into the house, eyes full of fire, Rena had placed her in the hot anger category with them. She was fine with that. Preferred it, even. It was easy, predictable.

But it ended up not being predictable. She’d pointed the woman on her way and waited for the banging on the door, for the screaming to start.

… it never did.

Rena hesitated for only a few moments before heading up the stairs. For once, she was glad her kwami made it so people couldn’t easily sense her presence, because she did NOT want Ladybug’s anger to transfer over to her.

The woman’s hands were limp at her sides, her head resting against the door, her eyes squeezed shut. Rena watched, not daring to breathe…

And then Ladybug’s face forced itself into a neutral expression and she headed up to her room.

Rena watched her go and found herself almost scared of one of the people she’d used to idolize.

Ladybug had cold anger. Cold anger was everything that hot anger was not (obviously, cold and hot are opposites...). It was all thin lips and quiet words and dead eyes. And it was far, far worse for anyone involved. Because hot anger was traceable, there was a distinct escalation to follow until fists and words were thrown at each other. You knew when it was coming, you knew that when it did it would be over quickly.

But cold anger… it simmered under the surface. You may be able to detect when someone was experiencing it, but you’d never know when it would boil over or how.

Rena hoped that, whatever Ladybug did to retaliate (because she WOULD retaliate, pretty much everyone does at some point and she’d already had something against Chat), that it wouldn’t be too bad.

She made sure to be extra nice to the woman as she waited for something to happen. Ladybug probably knew why she was doing it, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t accept Rena’s offer to take patrols off of her hands when she’d noticed she was swamped with work or say no to the snacks she was giving her.

It was great. Rena’s chance of being murdered was like… 10%. Which she would take. It was better than Chat’s 90%.

~

Days passed, and the tenseness in the house did not leave.

Rena, obviously, was not a fan of the high tensions. No one likes to be in a tense place, and in Paris this was even worse. She was practically waiting for an akuma at all times.

On the other hand, it was a pretty good distraction. If she was constantly worried about what Ladybug was planning, then she wasn’t worrying about what Fu said --.

Damn it. Now she was worrying about what Fu said.

Because, as much as she hated it, the words they’d exchanged about her possibly getting corrupted felt far more real.

Back when she had only known about the other four miraculous holders, she hadn’t been worried. He’d gotten it right four times in a row; even Chloe, who was decidedly NOT a nice person, was very kind. All four of her predecessors were clearly chosen very carefully to fit the characteristics of their miraculi while also possessing heroic traits. Why would he drop the ball with the last hero?

But, no, now she had to live with the fact that he wasn’t totally infallible when it came to choosing heroes. Had Pieris been a fluke? Had the other miraculous heroes been the flukes?

Pieris had had the easiest miraculous to control. She had the hardest. Would she be able to stay sane while using it?

Part of her hummed that she’d already slipped some. That her time watching Chat had been an abuse of power and she knew it. So why had she done it?

Because it was necessary, the other part of her whispered. It was for the good of Paris.

… was she even completely sure that part of her WAS her?

She curled her fingers around the miraculous that hung around her neck like a noose.

And then Ladybug walked into the room and thank FUCK a distraction. Chat tensed up from his spot at the window.

… Ladybug brushed past him, her lips pressed together thinly as she made her way to the kitchen.

Rena couldn’t stop wondering about Chat. He had a tiny frown on his face as he watched the doorway she’d disappeared through. She wondered, vaguely, why he’d done it. It was a bad idea, anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know that, so why?

But she wasn’t really close enough to ask. So, she was left to just look on the internet for some theories.

(Her personal favorite was ‘it’s flirting!!!!!!’. The LadyNoir stans were always fun. Wrong, but fun.)

~

Four days in, Ladybug struck…

How did she know? Chat screamed at five o’clock.

She groaned and shuffled out of bed, rubbing her eyes as she slowly poked her head out the door to see what had happened.

Chat was standing in the doorway to his room after a long patrol… and it looked like he’d dropped into a pool of glitter… or, as her eyes took in the amount of glitter around his feet and the polka dotted tote bag resting on top of his head like a hat that was much too large for him to pull off, a pool’s worth of glitter had been dropped on him.

There was a beat before he slowly pulled the bag off of himself and tossed it into the room. And… wow, there was even more glitter than she’d thought.

It stuck to everything about him (the sweat probably didn’t help). She no longer felt like she should be rubbing her eyes because damn did he need it more. Not that it would help all that much, his hands were just as coated in glitter and it would probably only hurt him more.

There was a click of Chloe’s door opening and the woman stared at the scene before she mumbled a ‘it’s too early for this’ and closed the door again, presumably to go back to sleep.

Carapace walked out, the bags under his eyes more pronounced than usual and the cup of coffee in his hand was the size of a water bottle. It was midterms for him. He was… not taking it well.

“Sorry, Carapace, go ahead and go back to studying. Didn’t mean for him to come home so early,” called Ladybug. She was sitting in the ladder to the attic, legs swinging idly. She tipped her head to the side as she considered him. “Go back to studying. If you need help, I’m good with math and science.”

He looked between her and Chat, who was struggling to blink his eyes open without permanently going blind.

“Do you really want to get on my bad side, too?” Mused Ladybug. “You don’t need anything distracting you from school right now…”

Carapace winced at the threat. He continued to look between the two of them before sighing and slouching a bit. “Can I at least help him get to the sink? He’s going to blind himself.”

She clicked her tongue but nodded. “Sure, I guess.”

Rena hesitated. “May I take a video?”

Ladybug fixed her eyes on her and she fought the urge to shrink back into her room or look away.

And then she shrugged. “Sure. News is kinda your thing, right?”

Rena tensed a little, her brain screeching to a halt. Did Ladybug know about her Ladyblogger days? There was no way she did, right? Sure, Ladybug had known her a little bit back in the day because Rena had often hung out around akumas for her blog, but surely it wasn’t well enough to figure out her identity, right --?

… wait, no, she was still talking about the TikTok. Ladybug looked very confused about her sudden freeze up and Rena had to think of an explanation FAST.

She pulled a bright smile to her face. “Yeah. Not allowed to do as much as I’d like, but y’know… it is what it is.”

Ladybug still looked a little confused, but she shrugged to herself and started heading up to her room.

~

The video on Rena’s account was just a video of the aftermath in short cuts.

“Ladybug got Chat back for that video he posted about her!” She explained to the camera.

Chat was covered head-to-toe with glitter outside of a small area around his eyes. He was also struggling to figure out how brooms worked, it seemed. Rena had considered helping but honestly it was kind of funny to watch him attempt to sweep something with the wrong end and how did he not know how a BROOM worked it was a BROOM --?

“Regretting it?” Said Rena, sitting down beside him.

He wore an irritable expression, though that was hard to look at all intimidating when he looked like a child’s arts and crafts project. “A little, yeah.”

“It was dumb to mess with her.”

“A little, yeah.”

She laughed a little at that.

He brought up a hand to rub his eyes tiredly, because he wasn’t as used to not sleeping as Carapace and Ladybug were, and Rena had to grab his arm to stop him so he didn’t die by glitter-in-eyes-syndrome.

… but now she was kind of regretting it. Because her hand was all glittery.

He gave her a tiny smile.

“Thanks. And, uh, sorry about the hand.” He looked down at the broom and dustpan he was apparently still unsure about how to use. “Well, at least it’s over, right?”

Rena privately disagreed. But she didn’t say that aloud, instead she just smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek… which she also regretted.

The camera caught her vague choking noises and curses for a few seconds before it cut.

Carapace was struggling to write an essay because of all the glitter on his hands.

“Fuck I should’ve let it go I should’ve let it go fuck c’mon I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my professor fuckkkkkkk --.”

“Do it online.”

He whipped around, brandishing his pencil like a weapon, and only slightly relaxed when he realized it was her. “When did you --? Nevermind, whatever.” He sighed. “My teacher is old so he only accepts stuff on paper. It’s stupid.”

Rena reached out and gave him a little head pat.

The video cut briefly to a video of Chloe sleeping and decidedly not helping anyone with anything.

Ladybug was only there for a few moments. Rena had gone up to see her in a red crop top and black leggings. She sent her a smile and a wave despite the fact that she was currently doing her best impersonation of a pretzel. “Hey! You filming a video, too?”

Rena stared at her, wondering how she’d managed to get that flexible, and then realized she was talking to her and quickly nodded. “Yeah yeah yeah, just reporting on the incident… how’re you feeling?”

She watched Ladybug do a back roll and by the time she was finished all of her limbs were miraculously untangled, which was insane and should be impossible but I digress. “Great, honestly! I mean, it was bad that the internet got to see me on an off day and all, but…” She shrugged. “I feel much better now.”

She smiled at the camera and waved it goodbye.

The video ended.

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write @trippingovermyfeet @melicmusicmagic @meimei3841 @roseliali

[samwrights]

Pining After You pt. 6 [hc]

This request is brought to you by @90s-belladonna hope you enjoy bb!

Also, minor warning. Osamu gets a little dirty. I’m not sorry.

Y’all really just here for Pining, huh. I see how it is. If you want sad, mutual pining, and want to support my writing, you can check out my new mini-series called Elixir here

Ushijima;

His pining comes out in the form of aggression, this isn’t up for debate.

He doesn’t understand why the melodic lilt in your voice gives him the willies or how every time you glanced at him after class, his skin would crawl.

Or why it bothers him so fucking much when you make it a point to greet everybody in class but him

But only six more months and you both were done with high school, ready to begin the next chapter in your lives.

Ngl, he’s a little sad about that but, again, he doesn’t know why.

It frustrates him more when he genuinely can’t stop thinking about why he doesn’t understand why it bothers him, and he’ll end up spiking a ball so hard everyone swears he left a dent in the gym floor.

He knew he wasn’t the most approachable person, but for someone to deliberately ignore them made him want to pull his kneecaps out through his shins.

Ushiwaka’s a tad dramatic, he hides it very well though.

With the end of the year encroaching, he decides to actively focus on letting go these strange bitter thoughts he has about you. What was the point in him resenting you when he was never going to see you again?

When he masters this skill is when you finally say Hi to him. For the first time in three years, he was the last one you greeted in the classroom—everyone else noticed it too.

All of his hard work and practice and discipline was out the window now.

He tries to confront you during lunch, but you had retreated as quickly as you could to find your friends, succeeding in aggravating him more.

At the end of class, he calls your name in his typical, gruff voice, successfully stopping you before you could make your escape.

“Uh, hi, Ushijima.”

“This is now the second time in our three years of being in class together that you’ve ever said hi to me.”

“I-I’m sorry.” Sorry? For what?

“I’m confused.” You stood there, cowering in his gaze while looking at the speckles in the lineoleum flooring, the way there were rings of dirt around the legs of each desks—anything but looking at him.

“You, uh, looked like you were in a better mood today, so I finally felt like I could say hi to you...” He doesn’t ever recall you being bashful. So where did this new facet of your personality come from?

“Are you saying you felt that you couldn’t before?”

“Y-yeah? You always just looked like you hated me, so...” Unsure of what to do, Ushijima bows before asking if you would allow him to walk you to your locker before he attended practice. So formal.

As the two of you walk, he explains that he didn’t understand why you made him feel certain strange sensations that he was unfamiliar with feeling, things he’d only heard about in passing from others. They were foreign.

Most of all, he explains how ashamed he feels that the reason you never said hi was because of these underlying complexities of not understanding. Without words, all you could do was give him a shy hug, and hope he doesn’t throw you off of him. All he wanted to know was why

Why did he feel like a child being wrapped in his favorite blanket when you gave him a hug? Why did he feel remorse for inadvertently upsetting you to the point where you didn’t want to say hi to him? Why did he have the overwhelming urge to hug you even tighter?

To found out why, he had to just do it. So his burly arms pull you in close, swallowing your torso as he nearly lifted off the ground, soothing the irritation that had built up over the last three years.

Yahaba;

Oh, Yahaba. This dirty, shallow mfer.

You’d think he would grow out of his stupid antics when took over the team as captain, or you only hoped when you finally caved in to being the manager in your guys’ third year.

“Why do you want me to be the manager exactly? I know nothing about volleyball.”

“Our manager has to be hotter than Karasuno’s, duh!”

He always spewed some shit about how you were the most beautiful girl in the school, blah blah blah.

Was anything ever sincere coming from his mouth?

He found a new girl to obsess over every week not that you were jealous or anything.

It was just really tiresome trying to keep him on focusing being the captain. With you as the manager, you felt it was your duty to drag him by the collar to make sure his team was ready to go. Duty, not envy.

Despite finding a new “most beautiful girl in school”, Yahaba always came back to you.

Every chance he got, he amped up the charm 100 fold, just to try to get you to indulge him

No matter what, your response was a roll of your eyes and a shake of your head while you continued writing down notes.

Yahaba loves irritating you this way, thinking that your hard-to-get attitude was the sexiest thing. Loves it so much that it drives him to flirt with others more upon seeing the envious shade of emerald paint over your irises.

“Ya know, captain,” you drawled at practice while he was making salacious comments regarding a second-year he’d acidentally bumped into earlier. “If your flirting skills were a fraction as good as your volleyball skills, maybe you wouldn’t have to thirst over every bitch that doesn’t want you.”

Kindaichi is fucking rolling—you’d never called Yahaba out THAT bad before.

But homie isn’t phased. Nah, instead he just rests an elbow atop your forehead, disregarding the fact that y’all were literally in the middle of practice.

“Baby, the only one I’m thirsting over is you.”

“You literally just proved my point, I don’t want you either.” 💀💀 RIP

You’ve had enough of this shit and, with permission from the coaches, you pull Yahaba outside to give him a stern talking to.

“You need to knock it off and take this seriously, dude.”

“[name], I’ve been serious this entire time.”

“No you’re not! All you’re doing is bs flirting with every girl you see—“

“[name], I’m flirting with you. I only say stupid things because it makes you mad and you get all red and it’s fucking hot.”

For once, you hear the sincerity in his voice, yet you can’t help but retort with, “I still don’t like you.”

Osamu;

The dichotomy between Osamu’s two internal monologues contrasted more than day and night. They were the sun and a black hole.

But even more so in the fact that star giants eventually cave in on themselves, and become a black hole.

That was what you did to Miya Osamu.

You were profane and vulgar and your favorite past time was playing with the twins to see you could get a rise out of more. And you were good at it too.

While Atsumu really couldn’t give less of a shit about your teasing antics, mostly because he would easily dish it right back, it drove Osamu insane because you were giving his twin brother more attention.

You knew that it got under his skin, but that was all the more reason you did it. You wanted to see Osamu snap. And you wouldn’t stop trying until you succeeded.

The first time, you dropped your pencil on the floor, picking it up in front of the boys after ensuring your skirt was pulled up high enough that they had a prime showing of your underwear. “Oops sorry, ‘tsumu.” You’d tease after returning to your seat.

“No need to apologize, we know you’re a hoe by nature.”

The second time was at the beginning of class when you had a quiz. How you managed to unbutton nearly all the buttons on your uniform top just so that the edge of your bra peaked out, was beyond Osamu. Unfortunately for him, Atsumu sat in front of his twin and was able to see your cleavage that day.

“Looks like you could use a good fill in there.” Atsumu drawls, referring to said cleavage.

The final attempt is what causes Osamu to snap. Everyone is filtering out of the classroom, with you following behind his twin brother cracking jokes about how you’d dropped your pencil again in the middle of lab just so you could get a closer look at the natural bulge in his pants.

Osamu slams you up against a locker, red in the face and sweating profusely as he’s painted and doused with rage. “Why do you only ever fucking pay attention to my shithead brother?” He snarls, unable to look you directly in the eye.

A lopsided grin touches your lips as you unabashedly tilt his chin up to make him look at you. “Because I know it gets under your skin.”

It felt like gravity was being pulled through his chest—the sun giving way to its weight and collapsing in on itself. Giving into the black hole.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” His voice, while not lacking intensity, was now lacking in volume as it barely came above a whisper. “How is that funny?” He asks in response to your sudden bubble of laughter.

“This is everything better than I thought it would be.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Another laugh dances on your lips before you pull the grey haired twin to you, kissing him deeper than a black hole.

“Atsumu told me you get real mad sometimes, so I wanted to see it for myself. It’s even hotter than I dreamed of.”

“I’ll fucking show you angry.”

Wanna see a specific character? Or a different head cannon? Want to see a whole story?

Send in requests!

[marcykinsmaki]

The despair disease request anon, yes the reader has the despair disease, sorry if the original ask was kinda vague :( thank you! Also I love your writing!

hi hi!!! thank you so much, i’m glad you like it! even though this is my second piece, i really enjoy that people are so enamored with it already. thank you guys for being patient and here it is!!

Kazuichi Souda x Reader.

Words: 2,267 (medium)

CW: 90% of this pierce is in the hospital, mentions of hospital equipment, DANGANRONPA 2 CHAPTER 3 SPOILERS, flirting at inappropriate times, suggestive moments

Rating: Teen 

--

[Your POV]

You felt horrible. Your body ached, your temperature was a high 102 degrees, a migraine raged in your head. You weren’t sure what happened, feeling just fine before you went to sleep and by the next morning you could barely get out of bed without some help. That would have been fine if every word out of your mouth didn’t come out some degree of seductive or flirty. Of course, you didn’t think those things, but your body just forced it out like that. You tried to apologize, but it just came out all wrong. Everyone was looking at you weird all morning. You were brought to the diner by Sonia that morning, complimenting her looks and personality the entire way there. Thankfully, she was understanding that you weren’t feeling yourself. A few others arrived looking and feeling just as sickly as you are, all with different ‘symptoms’. Monokuma suddenly appeared, giving us our next motive.

“The Despair Disease!” He announced, looking among you all.

“The what?” Hajime squinted. Monokuma bore his sharp teeth.

“The Despair Disease! A disease carried around by  little bugs that carry certain…. Side effects. Well, good luck! And be careful, wash your hands, you filthy teenagers!” The bear snickered before disappearing. You almost fell down, Kazuichi, who is your crush of all things, quickly scooping you up before you could hit the floor.

“Woah there, Y/N, you almost hit your head on the table! Are you alright?” He didn’t seem worried to catch the disease, looking down to you. You took a deep breath, before a smirk grows onto your face.

“Oh my, have you come to save your royalty in distress?~” You look deeply into Kazuichi’s eyes, swearing you almost saw the embarrassment in his eyes. He quickly set you down.

“H-hey, how about we slow down a bit…” Kazuichi laughs awkwardly, looking desperately to Mikan.

“R-right, we should g-go now, before they g-get worse!” Mikan nods, everyone helping assist everyone who has been affected to the hospital two islands away. Kazuichi helps you, since you’re closest, and you can see him dreading the trip. You don’t blame him. You were quiet, reserved, kept to yourself and stayed out of people’s ways. But now you’re a huge flirt who can’t keep to themselves. You felt really bad, your heart is racing and you’re sweating beyond belief and that just makes it worse.

“Kazuichi, darling, you should stay in my room with me!~ I get so lonely, and I think I’ll need your company.. It’s what you deserve after you saved me.” You coo into his ear. He groans, biting his lip a little.

“Do you really need me to? I-it was no trouble-”

“God, Kaz, just stay with me, pretty please? I’d die if you didn’t!” You call out loudly, people looking back to you two, Kazuichi’s cheeks flushing over.

“Alright, alright! J-just stop yelling, people are looking!” He shakes his head, causing you to giggle softly.

You all eventually make it to the hospital, Kazuichi setting you down on the hospital bed and Mikan quickly handing you a change of clothes, Kazuichi turning to leave before you hook onto his shirt with your finger.

“Now where are you going, handsome?” You look onto him with a flirtatious gaze.

“Uh, o-out of the room so you can change?” He gasps as he falls back onto the bed, looking up to you.

“You can just turn around, I don’t mind.” You smile. He shakes his head, quickly making a bee line for the door. Your heart aches with sympathy for him, definitely needing to make up for this later.

“You’re not well right now, Y/N, I need to keep my distance anyway!” He calls out, before he finally leaves the room and slams the door behind him.

--

[Kazuichi’s POV]

I pant as I finally escape them. Geeze, what a workout.. It’s a damn marathon to run around flirting back with them. And I got to carry them… b-but I need to calm down, before they get well again and never talk to me again! Y/N is so nice to me, they hang out with me and listens when I speak to them! I try my best to treat them as nicely as I can, but every time I look into their eyes they make me swoon... everyone calls me obsessed but I’m just admiring them! Plus, I’d totally stop if they asked. But what am I gonna do? I can’t keep up this facade for long, they’ll totally notice!

I turn back to the room after a minute, knocking on the door.

“Y-Y/N? Are you done yet?”

“One sec!” They call out, spending a few moments to myself before they open the door and look at me, their legs shaking, but seemingly ignoring it as they lean against the doorframe. “Hello, Kazuichi~ You may come in now-” They began to fall again, quickly going to save them before they hit the floor again, shouting out a little before I get them into my arms again. Thank God I’ve been putting a little more elbow grease into my work lately, have they noticed I’ve been working out?

“You have to be more careful, Y/N, you’re still sick!” I sigh, bringing them to their bed. “I-I’ll go get Mikan, you stay here. P-please.” I kinda beg them. I don’t want them falling again. I feel them grab onto my shirt again. They pout up at me, they look even worse.. They’re sweating really bad! I grab onto their hand, and we both blush. I peel their hand from my shirt. “Please.” They sigh, nodding, still pouting. I smile, nodding down at them and turning to go get Mikan.

--

[Your POV]

You still feel horrid. Kazuichi has refused to come by your side, and you’ve flirted up a storm with Mikan, which she could only blush and say thank you, offering a few things that you thankfully declined, quickly and silently reminding her that you’re still sick and most likely don’t mean it. Oh, crap, you forgot Kazuichi probably thinks that, too.. Oh well, there go your chances. You’re alone, eating a cup of jello before you hear a knock on the door.

“Come in~” You speak up enough to let whoever’s behind the door hear you. You reach your hand up to cough into your elbow. You were getting better today, your fever down to 101. The door creaks open, Kazuichi stepping in and poking his face in. Your smile widens. “Don’t be shy, I don’t bite.” You wink. When will this be over.

“Right, t-thanks, Y/N. I kinda wanted to talk to you, actually.” He grabs a chair, sitting next to you. You look down to him with curiosity. “Uh, you don’t mean the things you say, right? L-like, this is all part of the illness you have?”

“Well of course it’s genuine, Kaz, why would I lie to you?~” Well, you weren’t wrong, in a way. You did like him, but you weren’t this flirty. It’s more like a truth-telling disease than a flirting disease.

“Ugh, I’m so stupid, I know you’re only saying this stuff because you’re sick.” Kazuichi groans, looking down to his lap. You reach down, taking one of his hands.

“How about, we go out sometime?” You lean in towards him. He looks up with an even deeper blush, lips wobbling.

“R-really?” His eyes kinda light up. You feel super embarrassed. You’re not ready to go this far, but apparently your illness is. Oh well, why not? It’s already on the table, just go on with it. What’s the worst that could happen?

“We could go and take a walk on the beach once I’m out of here~” You turn over a bit. Your body ached. Your throat was sore from coughing all night. Kazuichi looks hopeful.

“Wow, that’d be great, Y/N. So get better soon, o-okay?!” He stands up with his hands on his hips in a sort of hero pose, which makes you giggle. It was genuinely cute.

“I will. Don’t worry, baby~” You coo up at him. He looks back down with a blush as pink as his hair. He nods.

--

You wake up the next morning, your condition significantly improving. Your headache is gone, your body aches have gone down, your body temp is at a normal 98.5. Still have a bit of a stomach ache, but nothing a few tums can’t fix. Mikan shuffles out as she’s done with your daily examination, and a few minutes later, the body discovery chime goes off. You sigh, watching the screen in the corner of your room play through Monokuma speaking to you and hearing the same dreadful, tension building announcement sound through the air. You push yourself up slowly and redress yourself, going to go join everyone in the music venue. You tear up a bit seeing Ibuki laying on the stage and Hiyoko propped up against the pole, joining everyone in the investigation. You join Kazuichi as a silent ‘I’m better’ and stay back to your reclused self.

--

The trial passed and the execution almost flies by. Everything was blurry when it got like this. It was terrifying, though, how the rest of us could have died as well from the same person who swore to make us better. We silently think about if the body discovery would have been for us, but I didn’t spend too much time on it. You return to your cottage, only to hear a knock at your door. You grunt, dragging yourself to the door and opening it. You were met with vibrance, your heart thrumming with nervousness.

“H-hey, Y/N, sorry for bothering you so late.. But can we do that thing?” We both stood in silence for a minute. A blush was brought to both of our cheeks. “N-not saying that you have to! I’m just r-really excited that you want to hang out!” He waves his hands in front of him. It makes me giggle.

“That was a genuine statement, Kaz, don’t worry. I would love to.” You said this… easier than you thought you would. This was crazy. This is crazy. Oh well, there’s no going back and this was your chance. He held an arm out excitedly, and you take it anxiously, closing the door behind you and walking off to the beach. You almost shook with nerves. You two exchange small talk until you get there.

--

You arrive at the beach, you both taking off your shoes and carrying them as you approached the soft and increasing sound of the crashing waves as they settled on the shore. The twinkling of the stars and bright light of the shining moon casting its bright rays onto the beautiful scene. It’s breathtaking, but if walls could talk, the beach would lose its worth. You two quietly stand in front of the ocean, watching the water.

“Thank you for doing this with me, Y/N.” Kazuichi mutters quietly. You notice him looking at you, returning it with a small smile.

“Of course. I know the Despair Disease really threw me off, which I am very sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but…” You drifted off with your words. He quirked a brow.

“But?”

“... I have something to tell you.” You turn completely towards him. Body facing him and everything. Your heart thrums again, reminding you of your anxiety. You shove it down for now. “I am terrified of how this will end. If we’ll be walking out of here hand in hand, if that’s even possible.”

“Hey! Don’t be saying stuff like that-”

“What I mean is,” You interrupt him. “, I need to tell you this, before it’s too late. I love you, Kazuichi Souda.” You look at him deeply into his eyes. He looks relieved. 

“I love you, too Y/N. I know saying I love you this early is really fast, but ever since I met you, I knew you were the one for me. And you actually gave me the time of day unlike everyone else. I can be myself around you.” He nods. Your blush from earlier returns, as if it’s never left.

“I… feel the same. You don’t egg me to speak or be included in conversation. You can tell when I don’t feel like it, and just respect my boundaries. I didn’t catch right away, but eventually I just fell.” You shrug. It also baffled you how open you were being right away, but the Despair Disease make you worse than this, so it didn’t really matter. He’s opening up, too, so you’ve gotten a vibe that you both enjoy on the table.

“Can I kiss you?” He suddenly spurts. Your eyes widen. You aren’t  sure what to do, but it’d be hypocritical if you didn’t follow through with your whole ‘confession before tragedy’ narrative.

“Yes.” And that sealed the deal. His surprisingly soft lips were onto yours, his hands slowly snaking on your hips. He was reluctant about his hands, but yours slowly guided his to stay there. You could feel his slightly rougher hands, tracing across his physical efforts as proof of his Ultimate. He smiles into the kiss, and you do as well. A soft breeze blows through the gentle warmth of the summer night heat. The stars and moon feel brighter before, almost as hot as the sun itself. He slowly dipped you, one of your knees bending so your foot relaxes onto the soft sand. 

Maybe having the Despair Disease wasn’t that bad after all.

--

AAAAAAA OKAY HERE YOU GO! I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED!!!

edit 1: i wanted to mention that the reason i chose the point of view/style of writing i did for the reader is because it’s what made sense to me. it was starting out as a description but i like it to be a “surprise” until you read it fully. i felt like the jolt would be too sudden from that “you/your” style to a “i/me”. so yeah just wanted to say that

[breaniebree]

A Second Chance

For those who have been asking... this is my master list once more:

ASC Chapter Titles as If They Were Friends Episodes

Part One: Harry’s First Year With His Dads (Chapters 1-49)

1. The One Where They Were Dead 2. The One Where the Rat Is Out of the Bag  3. The One Where James and Lily Die  4. The One Where Moony and Padfoot Make Up  5. The One Where Harry Meets Padfoot  6. The One Where Sirius Kidnaps Harry  7. The One Where Sirius Punches Vernon Dursley  8. The One Where Harry Meets Remus  9. The One Where Sirius and Harry Make Grilled Cheese  10. The One With Thea  11. The One Where Harry Asks What a Kiss Is  12. The One With the Library Card  13. The One Where They Remember the Past  14. The One With the Tonkses’  15. The One With Harry’s First Nightmare  16. The One With Professor Moony  17. The One With The Puppy  18. The One With the Second Best Day Ever  19. The One Where Harry Meets An Excellent Secret Keeper and Her Brother  20. The One Where Sirius Learns What He Missed in Azkaban  21. The One With the Brownies 22. The One With the Date  23. The One With the Weasleys  24. The One With the Bad Dreams  25. The One Where Sirius Learns the Key to Moony's Secret Pranking Success  26. The One With Operation Prank the Piss Out of Harry Potter  27. The One With the Wolfsbane Fight  28. The One Where the Marauders Discover A Wolf  29. The One With the Spanking  30. The One With the House Rules and Where Sirius and Ted Build a Treehouse 31. The One With the Wolf  32. The One Where Remus Tells Sirius To Deal with the Blacks  33. The One Where Harry Asks About Boobies  34. The One With the Locket  35. The One With Blackbird  36. The One With the Birthday Orgasms  37. The One With the Three Brothers  38. The One With Godric’s Hollow  39. The One Where Sirius Speaks French 40. The One With the First Christmas  41. The One With the Pensieve  42. The One With the Memories Part I  43. The One With the Memories Part II  44. The One When Padfoot and Prongs Become Blood Brothers  45. The One Where Harry Has A Sleepover  46. The One With the Tickle War  47. The One With the Viscount of Falmouth  48. The One With Roni  49. The One With the Birthday Planning 

Part Two: Harry Growing Up With A Family, Ages 7-11 (Chapters 50-61)

50. The One With the Best Birthday Ever  51. The One Where Padfoot and Moony Know Nothing About Sick Kids  52. The One Where Remus Slaps Sirius  53. The One With the Giant Cheese Fort 54. The One With Operation Get Lily Evans to Fall in Love With Prongs  55. The One Where Remus Thinks He’s a Very Bad Man  56. The One Where Harry Asks About Sex  57. The One Where Tonks Turns 17  58. The One Where Remus Feels Like He’s Robbing the Cradle  59. The One Where Remus Learns He Has A Mate  60. The One Where Sirius Shags the Realtor 61. The One With the Letter 

Part Three: First Year (Chapters 62-73)

62. The One Where Harry Gets Hedwig  63. The One Where Harry Understands the Fear of Voldemort  64. The One With The Sorting  65. The One Where Sirius Was Almost Bitten By a Panther… And Totally Didn’t Pee His Pants  66. The One With the Youngest Seeker In Over a Century 67. The One With the Three-Headed Dog  68. The One With Zee  69. The One With Sheer Dumb Luck  70. The One Where Sirius Lets Zee Drive His Bike  71. The One Where the Weasley Boys Come Over for Christmas  72. The One Where Minnie Tells Sirius To Get A Job  73. The One Where No One Listens So Harry Has to Do Everything and His Friends Follow Him So He Doesn't Die 

Part Four: Second Year (Chapters 74-105)

74. The One Where the Whole School Knows  75. The One Where Harry is Jealous  76. The One Where Sirius Eats Crow  77. The One Where Zee Meets Minnie  78. The One With the Proud Enough to Cry Letter 79. The One Where They Realize Their New Professor is a Moron  80. The One Where Remus Gets His Shit Together  81. The One Where Harry Meets His Fanboy  82. The One Where Binns Doesn’t Put His Class to Sleep For Almost Ten Whole Minutes 83. The One Where Sirius Finds Out  84. The One When Remus Punches Lockhart  85. The One With the Mad House Elf  86. The One With the Great Shoebox Capture  87. The One Where Sirius Tells Zee About the Marauders  88. The One Where Harry is Homesick  89. The One Where Sirius Says I Love You  90. The One With the Sex Talk 91. The One With Ted Walking in on Remus Fingering Tonks… And Remus Adds Another Finger  92. The One Where Draco Comes to Christmas  93. The One Where Sirius Actually Gets a Job  94. The One Where Sirius Asks About Cursed Scars  95. The One Where Remus Tells Tonks and She says ‘Duh!’  96. The One Where Fred Hears the Name Padfoot  97. The One With Peter’s Trial Part I  98. The One With Peter’s Trial Part II  99. The One Where Ginny Tells Harry She Has A Pen-Pal  100. The One With the Eyes As Green As a Fresh Pickled Toad  101. The One Where Tonks Is Under the Desk  102. The One Where Harry Writes in the Diary  103. The One Where It’s Not Follow the Butterflies  104. The One Where Sirius Is Sent Home Without An Explanation 105. The One Where Ginny is Scared Harry Will Never Speak To Her Again 

Part Five: Third Year (Chapters 106-143)

106. The One Where Sirius and Remus Demand Answers  107. The One With Prophecies and Horcruxes  108. The One Where Harry Learns to Drive  109. The One Where Bill and Charlie Talk About the Importance of Being A Good Big Brother 110. The One Where Sirius Realizes He Wants Zee Forever But Is Too Chicken To Say It 111. The One With Operation Fuck Up Voldemort’s Plans  112. The One Where Cissy Tattles on Abraxas  113. The One Where Harry Sees More Than He Should Between His Roommates  114. The One Where Colin Tells Ginny To Get Over It  115. The One Where Theo Comes Out  116. The One Where Sirius Tells Lucius If He Fucks Up He Will Kill Him  117. The One With the FUVP Pow-Wow  118. The One Where They Return to the Chamber of Secrets  119. The One Where Harry Finds Out  120. The One Where the Marauders Prank Snape 121. The One Where Draco and Theo Make Bad Detectives  122. The One With Nyx  123. The One Where Harry Throws a Tantrum  124. The One Where They Skive Off Class Because Harry Talks 125. The One Where Harry Asks Out Cho  126. The One With Harry’s First Date  127. The One Where Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore Fuck Up  128. The One With Moody  129. The One Where Harry Gets Slapped  130. The One Where Sirius and Tonks Decide To Fuck With Snape  131. The One With Lily’s Ghost  132. The One With the Gaunt Property  133. The One With the Defence Club  134. The One With the Wizengamot  135. The One Where Harry Meets the Americans  136. The One Where They Forget to Tell Sirius  137. The One With the Insomniacs Club  138. The One Where Bellatrix Shows Up  139. The One With the Time Turner  140. The One With Umbitch's Creepy Song  141. The One With the Wolf in the Cage  142. The One Where Harry Shouts at Sirius and He Just Shouts Right Back  143. The One Where Both of Them Feel Like Shit 

Part Six: Fourth Year (Chapters 144-179)

144. The One With the Elder Wand  145. The One Where Sirius Tells Harry Not to Drink  146. The One Where Sirius Acts the Adult and Tells the Grangers  147. The One Where They Drink the Potion  148. The One Where Harry Can’t Change His Arm Back  149. The One Where Ginny Sees Harry Naked  150. The One When Harry Calls Remus a Bad Dog 151. The One Where Theo Goes to the Burrow  152. The One Where Harry Has a Fling  153. The One Where Sirius Panics Over Commitment  154. The One Where Zee Takes Harry Shopping  155. The One With the Quidditch World Cup  156. The One With Winky  157. The One With Babymort 158. The One Where Sirius Asks Zee to Move In  159. The One Where Snape Apologizes and Harry Thinks The World Ended  160. The One With the Pretty Boy, the Biggest Flirt, and the Flying House 161. The One Where Tonks Wants A Boob Job 162. The One Where Drama Queen Sirius Learns About Pens  163. The One Where Zee Just Wants A Damn Telephone But Sirius Can’t Stop Bitching 164. The One Where Girls Giggle and Ginny Looks Different 165. The One Where Harry Outflies a Dragon… Almost  166. The One Where Zee Tells The Paper to Back the Fuck Away from Her Son  167. The One Where Harry Thinks It’s the Formal Wear  168. The One Where Mr Weasley Thinks ‘Oh, Bloody Hell!' 169. The One Where Sirius Takes A Bath  170. The One Where Harry’s in Denial  171. The One Where Harry Thinks He Has Two Hostages  172. The One With the Love Potion  173. The One Where Zee Seduces Sirius in the Work Shed  174. The One With the Secret Swimming Pool  175. The One With the Bats From the Crotch 176. The One That Ends With ‘Oh Shit!’  177. The One Where Everyone Dies  178. The One With the Lullabye  179. The One Where Tonks Marks Remus 

Part Seven: Fifth Year (Chapters 180-222)

180. The One Where Remus Proposes  181. The One Where Lucius Gets Arrested  182. The One Where Remus Proposes Again and Harry Dies  183. The One With the Coconut Smell 184. The One Where Tonks Isn’t Pregnant 185. The One Where Dean Realizes He Fancies Seamus  186. The One With Baby, I Love You  187. The One Where Theo Meets Voldemort  188. The One Where Harry Calls Ginny His and Then Denies It  189. The One Where Everyone Breaks Out of Azkaban  190. The One With the War Council 191. The One Where Harry is Dumped  192. The One Where They Discuss The Size of Remus’ Package  193. The One Where Harry Learns About the Potters  194. The One Where Harry Finds the Tower Room  195. The One Where Zee’s in France  196. The One Where Harry Gets Constantly Interrupted  197. The One Where the Glacier Finally Melts  198. The One Where Harry Finally Asks  199. The One Where Sirius Cuddles and Zee Buys A Motorbike  200. The One Where Everyone Is Worried About Theo  201. The One With the Frying Pan  202. The One With the Fluke  203. The One Where Minnie Walks In  204. The One Where Remus Finds A Present Under the Tree  205. The One With Bellarosa and the Snake  206. The One Where Everyone Gets Motorbikes  207. The One Where Padfoot Suggests Pranking Umbitch to Fred and George  208. The One With the Great Escape from Umbitch  209. The One With Prince Finley and the Switching of Teacups  210. The One Where Theo is Courted and Dean Admits He's in Love  211. The One Where Hinny Says I Love You and the Fluke Continues  212. The One Where Sirius Picks Out A Star  213. The One With the Cathedral Star 214. The One Where Sirius Answers the Phone 215. The One Where George Gets the Girl  216. The One Where They Compare Proposals  217. The One Where Sirius Has the Man-Flu and Gives it to Zee  218. The One Where Ginny and Theo Are Kidnapped and Remus Hears Heartbeats  219. The One With the Thing After Learning the Thing  220. The One Where Everyone is in Shock 221. The One Where Zee Confirms  222. The One With the Will 

Part Eight: Sixth Year (Chapters 223-Present)

223. The One Where Remus Finally Lets Go  224. The One Where Hermione is Blind But Her Mum Isn’t 225. The One Where the Dragon’s in Trouble and George Snogs the New Bat 226. The One Where Ginny Tames Ebony and Theo Goes to Tara  227. The One With the Sovereign Chalice and Zee’s Dream  228. The One With the Party  229. The One Where Ginny Claims Her Man  230. The One Where Harry Has a Really Great Birthday  231. The One Where Harry Asks Remus For Sex Advice  232. The One With the Surfing  233. The One Where Harry Buys a Pgymy Puff  234. The One With the Naughty Dream  235. The One Where Harry’s Afraid of Grandpa  236. The One With the Race  237. The One Where Ron and Hermione Almost Fluke  238. The One Where Bill Gets a Headache  239. The One With Compass and Bad Puns  240. The One Where Harry Uses Parseltongue For Something New  241. The One Where Slughorn Is An Armchair  242. The One Where Its All Fluff  243. The One Where Draco Calls Blaise A Stupid Son of a Bitch  244. The One With the Patronus and the Lingerie  245. The One With Advanced Potion Making and World War One  246. The One With Luna’s Question  247. The One With All the Smut and Where Ron and Hermione Fluke Again 248. The One Where Minnie Freaks Out on Walburga  249. The One With the Fruit Basket  250. The One Where Percy Gets a Date and Remus Skives Off Work  251. The One With the Iron Blade  252. The One Where the Fairytale Ends  253. The One With the Golden Dagger  254. The One With Charlie’s Surprise  255. The One With The Bet  256. The One Where They Celebrate Christmas Without Sirius  257. The One With the Tantrum About Heels  258. The One Where Lucius Fucks Up  259. The One Where Tonks Plays Bad Auror  260. The One With the Goblin Potato 261. The One Where Fred is Scarred for Life  262. The One Where We Hear From Althea 263. The One Where Harry Is Told He Owes Theo A Fruit Basket 264. The One Where Neville Plants A Tree

[whatdyk]

Saviour (Pero Tovar x Fem!Reader) | Modern AU.

Part Three.

Warnings: None that I can think of? 

Word Count: 2.9k.

Chapter Three: 

Deep brown eyes and a strong, rugged voice. Accent thick with a low, serious tone. Brown hair with soft curls; an almost signature frown. The images that lace through your mind keep you accompanied almost every day. Whether you're working, sleeping, or cooking, it doesn't seem to matter. They're always there, curving between your conscious and subconscious mind.

It was even becoming frustrating for you now, how your mind just couldn't seem to escape the thought of Pero. You've even caught yourself wondering whether he feels the same way about you, but you know that that could never be true. Besides, that would be weird, he doesn't even know you.

So instead, you go about your days as if nothing's bothering you. Nothing at all.

With a yawn, you eventually sit up in bed and reach for your phone. It's finally the weekend, and so you decided to indulge yourself in a rare lie-in. Though, to your dismay, your new idea of a relaxing, lazy morning, seems to be waking up at 8 am. You have a few emails and messages from work waiting for you, but thankfully you're able to push them to the back of your mind until Monday. You place your phone back down and slump into the covers, closing your eyes for just five more minutes.

Roughly one hour later, you wake again feeling refreshed and well-rested. And, as soon as you're up and about, the morning before you goes quickly. You're able to eat, shower and dress in just 90 minutes, deciding to wear one of your favorite outfits. Covering yourself in soft knits and an over-sized coat, you're ready to battle against the chill of the oncoming winter. The cuts and scrapes on your face have also fully healed now, leaving you to feel confident in your own reflection once again.

Yesterday, you'd decided that you would go to the park for a walk, ensuring that you're able to make the most of the sunshine and mild weather before the evenings start to get cold and dark. You might even treat yourself to hot drink or a new book, though you'd definitely be sure to stop by the florists. It's a strange feeling to be so excited for such a seemingly mundane day, but you can't help the smile that's beginning to spread across your face.

Grabbing your gloves and bag, you take one final look around your apartment. For the first time in a long time, you're desperate to get out and explore.

Your quick trip had been going well so far, the weather may have been chillier that you had anticipated, but the final rays of the sun shone brightly throughout the city. So far, you'd been able to stop by your local book shop and purchase a few new novels, you'd even spotted a few classics to add to your collection. Luckily, you also know the owner of the store quite well, and she was more than happy to let you peruse the items not yet for sale.

After ringing up your purchases, you only have one more task to complete for the day, flowers. You'd only just thrown out the vase from before, and your apartment was desperate for some colour. You weren't really able to customize the walls of your rented home, so you attempted to brighten up the place in any other way you could imagine.

Deciding to cut across the park, you make your way to your favourite place-

"Oof!" You gasp out as something solid hits your shoulder, knocking you slightly off-balance.

Too lost in your own thoughts, you hadn't even noticed the man making his way towards you until it was too late.

"Shit," You mumble out, reaching down for the bag you'd just dropped, "I'm so sorry"

You hear a muted grumble in response, but it's not until you're stretching back up again that you realize just who you've bumped into. Your heart nearly falls through your stomach as your eyes meet, "...You" you whisper to yourself, meeting the frown that was becoming increasingly familiar.

"You should be more careful" he mutters under his breath, remembering your name and causing your pulse to sky-rocket. You can feel the heat begin to rise in your cheeks as you clear your throat, readjusting your bag on your shoulder. Has he always been this tall?

"I'm really sorry about that," You begin once you realise that you've been staring for way too long, "Honestly, my mind was somewhere else"

To nobodies surprise, the man just grunts in response. Yet, you're pleased to see the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips.

"Pero, right?" You question, not wanting to sound too eager as if his name hasn't been on the tip of your tongue since the moment he gave it to you.

"Sí" He responds, "I'm impressed that you remember."

"Of course!" You speak out a little too loud for your liking, "I still owe you for, well...everything" you mumble, moving your eyes to ground beneath you.

It's still a difficult memory for you to relive, but now, and especially in front of him, you can't help but think of when he turned down your first offer of re-paying him. You can feel the tips of your ears begin burn as you recall that moment, the look of pity in his brown eyes as he left you standing in the doorway to your apartment-

"I'm free now?" Pero's gruff voice knocks you out of your thoughts, "If you are too, that is"

Wait, what?

You must have looked up at him with a face of pure confusion as a small smile etches across his features, "If your offer still stands, I'd like to grab some lunch with you" he elaborates.

Your eyes go wide, but you can't help it as a broad smile breaks out, "Of course" you rush out, "I know the perfect place."

Unsurprisingly, the walk between you is quiet. It's not necessarily an uncomfortable silence, but there's certainly an air of tension between the two of you, and you can't seem to put your finger on why. Though thankfully, the place you had in mind isn't too far away.

"It's an Italian, I hope that's alright?" You say, struggling to walk in time with his long strides. He doesn't answer you verbally, but he nods his head as he places his hands into his jacket pockets.

Eventually entering the venue, you're instantly hit with the soothing warmth of the inside. There's a burning fire in the corner that's calling your name, and thankfully, you notice that the place quieter than usual. It may not be the fanciest restaurant in town, but it's rustic features and muted color palate hold a special place in your heart. Plus, their baked gnocchi is to die for.

Making your way to grab a table, you watch as Pero takes off his coat and rests it on the back of his chair. Taking the seat opposite you, he's quick to peruse the menu and you smile to yourself as his eyes widen. He notices that you haven't looked yourself but he chooses not to say anything, instead, allowing you to order and pick out some drinks for the both of them.

"You come here often, then?" He eventually asks, moving to sit back in the padded leather chair.

You smile and nod your head, relieved that you don't have to attempt to break the ice first, "It's my favourite," you explain, "I live nearby and it's the first place I came to when I moved, I'm a sucker for good pasta and wine"

He exhaled through his nose at that, and you guess that that's his version of a laugh. You can't help but smile, once again admiring his dark features.

"So, Pero" you start, "what is it that you do?"

At this question, you can see clearly as he begins to inch out of his shell. He gestures with his hands as he tells you about his role, that he's a security guard as the Museum of Natural History and is currently saving up money to start his own company. His expression seems to always be guarded, but you're careful to notice as snippets of excitement or happiness slip through his facade. You like it when he smiles you decide, watching the usual lines between his furrowed brows dissipate.  

"I've got to ask though," you begin as he takes a bite of his food, "what type of security guard carries a card?"

You think back to the intricate card he gave to you when you first met, his name and number spelled out in delicate printed writing. A stark contrast to the man who's sat in front of you now.

"I'm...well, I'm trying to get my name out there" he answers, "though, I don't usually give them to strangers, I'm hoping to start building my own clientele"

"I'll be sure to hang on to it then" you smile, "I seem to be getting myself into an awful lot of trouble recently." Your laugh is dry, but thankfully the raised eye-brow he offers you in response is enough to make you smile again.

As the afternoon wears on, you probe him with more questions and it appears that he's happy to answer them. From your initial meeting, you're surprised at how well the conversation flows now, it's almost as if you've known eachother for years, or if you're already good friends.

Eventually, the topic of conversation turns to you; you tell him all about your job and life in the city. It isn't a particularly long conversation considering it's just you living here, but you can't help but notice as he hangs on to your each and every word. The look burning behind his chocolate-colored eyes is almost intense as he listens, an emotion flitting behind his pupils that you can't quite decipher.

You take a small pause to sip at your drink as the conversation eventually comes to a lull, and you can't help but gasp when you see how dark it is outside. How long have you been here for?

"I can see why you like it here so much" He eventually says, picking up his own glass and returning your attention to him, "I've...I've had a nice evening."

"I told you, the best pasta in the city." You laugh.

"A very strong argument," he pauses to consider, "but, I can assure I know where you can get the best burger."

"Well then, you may just have to show me some time" you respond without thinking. Though with that, you can feel the tips of your ears begin warm, it's been far too long since you last attempted to flirt.

"I know this may sound a little strange," he says, causing your heart to drop. Not the answer that you were looking for.

"But, I can't help but feel like, I've met you before?" He questions, the hardened lines between his brows coming back. So, not a rejection?

You can't help but look at him as you wonder how to respond, considering his words carefully. But then, you begin to think about how this particular man has been the sole subject of your thoughts recently, the echo of his voice never far from your mind. Does this mean that he has felt the same about you?

"I don't think we've met before," you answer, choosing your words carefully, "but, sometimes...you have felt, familiar?" you finish your sentence with a small laugh, hoping to come off as cute rather than stalker-ish.

He hums in response when you finish, but the intensity in his eyes never leaves as your waiter comes provide the bill and clear the table. As you sit back, you're almost glad for the buffer between you as you take a quick glance at him, his hands forming into fists as he waits.

"Are you alright?" You decide to ask as you grab your bag, pulling out your purse to pay.

After a second, he seems to snap out of his reverie, shaking his head and tapping the pockets of his jeans for his wallet.

"Yes, yes...of course" he mutters out, his usual stoic disposition quickly returning, "please, let me"

You hold your hand out against him, stopping him from reaching for any cash and you place down your own notes, "Like I said, this is a small thank you," you say softly, "I'm just sorry that there isn't more that I can do."

He nods his head and concedes, but he's quick to quell your anxieties, "this is more than enough." a pause, "I never actually expected to see you again"

You hum to yourself this time, "me neither" you respond almost thoughfully, "but, I'm glad that you did."

At your words, you swear that you can see the hint of a blush travelling up his neck. But, he's quick to shake it off, instead offering you just a small smile and a nod as you both begin to stand. Gathering your things and putting your coat on, you take a moment to look outside of the window next to you. It's only early in the evening, but the darkness is fast approaching as you plan out the quickest route home in your head.

"I think I can remember the way back to your apartment" Pero's voice disrupts your spiralling thoughts and you turn to face him, "I'd prefer to walk you home if that's alright."

For once, without any argument you nod your head and begin to make your way to the exit, Pero following behind closely. As you leave, you can't help but wonder whether he saw you looking out of the window, guessing your own anxieties before you even had the chance to express them yourself. But either way, you're grateful to have him so close by.  

Once again, the walk between you is quiet. Yet this time, you notice that the silence is almost comforting as you make your way back home. You're even left surprised when he indulges you, waiting patiently as you buy fresh sunflowers on your way back. Though, you're left almost completely speechless as he takes the bunch from your hands, carrying them for the rest of the way as soon as you hand over the money to the florist.

You can't help the smile spreading across your face as you look at him, surrounded by yellow as you take out your keys to unlock the door to your apartment.

"Thanks for carrying those, by the way" you say, walking in and turning on the light, "you didn't have to"

He nods but follows you in silently, laying the bunch down carefully on the kitchen counter. You watch as he begins to move towards the door again, but you're quick to stop him for just a moment.

"Wait!" You say as you turn towards your bedroom,  "You can finally have your jacket back!"

You root around your room and return to him just moments later, his jacket in your hand whilst he waits in the frame of your door.

"Gracias," he responds quietly, taking the thick material from your hands, "I didn't think I'd ever see this again either."

You let out a small laugh and look up at him, allowing yourself to get lost in his eyes once more, "Thank you for humoring me today, I'm sure you had a different idea of how you wanted to spend your afternoon and evening"

The lines on he forehead shrink as he lets out a lazy smile, "You'd be surprised" he motions with a raised eyebrow, "the food was worth it though"

"I told you" you quickly retort, your own brow raised in retaliation, "and, I would like to taste the best burger in the city too, if you're still up for showing me" You can feel the heat in your cheeks as you speak, but fuck it. Time to shoot your shot.

"I'd like that." He eventually breathes out, taking a step back to exit your home, "You have my number, yes?"

You nod enthusiatically, but you're quick to stop him from moving any further by wrapping your arms around his torso.

"Thank you, again" You mumble out against his chest, your eyes closed as you breathe in his scent.

After a moment, you feel his arms begin to wrap around you too, his chin moving down to rest on your head. Minutes seem to pass as you enjoy the warmth of his embrace. However, you are surprised that he doesn't say anything more as your touch continues to linger. You'd thanked him enough today, you thought to yourself. Perhaps he's just finally tired of hearing it? So, after a few more seconds of selfish self-indulgence, you decide to unwravel yourself from around him before he becomes uncomfortable.

With a large sigh, you release your arms and take a step back. Smiling as you start to look back up to him.

Except, this time when you look up to him...you understand exactly why he hadn't said a word.

"Who the hell are you?!"

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