#only 'fixed' meant 'replaced the whole tire' which leaves me broke

[galindathegay]

I'm. So tired.

[killianglyndon]

Reunion (tbb ep.16 fix-it fic)

Pairing: Crosshair x Medic! Female Reader

Warning: tbb ep.16 spoilers, mentioned of killing people, inhibitor chip?, some kissing, grammar mistakes, typo (cause i didn’t proof read lol. im too tired to do that.)

A/N: anyway, i was so mad and sad about tbb finale, so i decided to write a fix-it fic. That doesn’t mean I hate the episode, this is just my version of story. im not really good at writing so...haha. that’s why im a gifmaker, also my main language is not English, so there would have some typos and grammar mistakes.

Word count: 1.6k

read on ao3

You and The Bad Batch were on the way to save Hunter. You knew this would be a trap, but you couldn’t help but think of a certain sniper, your lover.

You and the batch didn’t understand what had happened to him at first, his brother, your love. The way he called you and the batch traitor, the way he raised his gun to you, and the way he talked. This wasn’t him, this was not the crosshair you know. 

Then, it turned out that the kaminoans had implanted inhibitor chips in every clone to make clones blindly follow orders, even killing the jedi.

“Good soldiers follow orders” This line kept echoing in your head after you heard Crosshair say it. This, this was not the crosshair you know.

***

“You and omega wait here” Echo told you and omega.

“No, we should stick together!” Omega protested. 

You put a hand on Omega’s shoulder, trying to calm her.

“No, echo’s right” Wrecker agreed with him.

“Stay out of sight, if things go south we’ll send you a signal. Go back to the ship and contact Rex.” Echo added, looking at you and omega.

You gave him a nod and pulled Omega back to your side before watching them ascend to the training room.

You know how much Hunter meant to Omega, the way they interacted, and the way they cared for each other. You understood why the young girl looked up to him.

“Omega, I’m sure they’ll get Hunter back.” You reassured her.

“I know, and Crosshair.” She looked at you with her bright eyes.

You were a little shocked when she mentioned him. All this time, you tried so hard to suppress your feelings for him, your love for him. The batch knew that you missed him, they could tell. The way you stared into his empty bed, and the nights that you cried until you were too tired and the tears were dried.

“Yeah, and Crosshair…” You smiled sadly at the young girl.

***

When you and Omega joined the batch in the training room, you, Omega, and AZI stayed in one of the gun towers. That was when you saw him, your Crosshair. Hunter and he were tackling each other while Tech, Echo, and Wrecker were shooting the droids.

“I believe you may have activated a few too many droids.” AZI said to Omega and you.

“ We can see that, AZI.” Omega raised her bow, aiming for the nearest droid to Hunter and Crosshair. Meanwhile, you used your blaster to shoot some of the droids near the others.

***

After clearing out all the droids, you, Omega, and AZI joined the others on the ground. You walked closer to Crosshair and Hunter. 

You could see that Crosshair was shocked to see you, the coldness in his eyes, mixing up with a tiny bit of shock.

The big scar on the right side of his head was horrifying, did the empire did this to him? Your heart almost broke into million pieces, seeing the love of your life like this.

“Crosshair…” Your voice almost sounded like a whisper. 

For a moment, you see the real Crosshair, your Crosshair. But soon replaced by the coldness and aloofness.

“Crosshair, forget the empire. This isn’t you, it’s the inhibitor chip.” Hunter tried to talk some senses into him.

“Wrong.” Crosshair stared back at Hunter. “I had my chip removed a long time ago.” He added.

All of you looked shocked, Tech and Wrecker looked at each other, speechless. Hunter almost looked hurt. 

“Since when?” Hunter asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes”

No. No. This is not Crosshair. The Crosshair you know would never do this.

“Cross, the empire lied about many things, what if they lied to you?” You asked, trying to hold back your tears.

“This is who I am.” 

Crosshair tried to raise his rifle, but Hunter was faster. He stunned him before Crosshair’s attempt.

***

“Hunter, three Venators are descending on the city. We need to leave, now.” Tech stated.

“Wrecker, grab Crosshair. He’s coming with us.” Hunter grabbed Crosshair’s rifle and backpack, while you went to picked up Crosshair’s helmet.

You saw Omega gave Hunter a nod before walking away. Hunter caught you staring at him, so you gave a sad smile to him in return.

“He’s coming home with us.” Hunter said.

***

You and The Batch finally made it to Nala Se’s lab, Tech and Echo were currently trying to figure out a plan. After Crosshair and Hunter’s intense conversation, you saw him walking to the window and taking a seat to rest.

“AZI, come with me, I need your help on something.” You asked.

AZI followed you to Crosshair, you took a seat beside him.

“Crosshair…”

“What do you want?” He asked coldly.

“AZI is a medical droid, he can scan you to check if you still have the chip.”

“Indeed, I helped CT-5555 removed his and CT-5385’s chip according to my memory database.” AZI said.

“Fine.” Crosshair agreed reluctantly.

“CT-9904, this scan only takes a few seconds” AZI said before scanning Crosshair.

To be honest, you knew he still had the chip, you hoped he still had the chip. Cause there was no way, no way the Crosshair you knew would be like this.

“The scan is completed.” AZI said.

“So..?” You asked.

“CT-9904 still has his chip, the chip’s effect was weakened due to the injury from ion engine.” AZI answered.

You felt almost relieved? 

The Batch heard it and rushed to you, “He still has...his chip?” Hunter asked, sounded a little guilty.

Echo, Tech, Omega, and Wrecker looked at each other, surprised by this unexpected news as well.

“That would be correct.”AZI replied.

“Could you remove it, AZI?” Omega asked, she wanted his brother back as much as any of you did.

“Yes. I’m capable of removing CT-9904’s inhibitor chip.”

“Do it.” Hunter said.

You stayed next to Crosshair while AZI removed his chip. The surgery was faster than you think, you hold Crosshair’s hand during the whole surgery, and you still holding it now.

“CT-9904’s chip has been removed. He should be awake in any minutes.” AZI stated.

You felt his hand pressing yours, “Crosshair?”

“I...I…”

“Hey, you’re okay now. We removed your chip.” You reassured him.

Crosshair looked away from you, his eyes filled with guilt, confusion, anger, sadness.

“Don’t you hate me?” He asked. “All those things I had done…”

Your hand reached out to stroke his face, “No. Never. I know it’s the chip, Cross. It’s not your fault.” You smiled at him. “I love you, always and forever.” 

Crosshair put his hand on your face, wiping away the tears falling down your face. “ But I shot at you, I tried to kill you… I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…”

“Shhh, I forgive you, Cross. All of it. I’m sorry we didn’t come to save you earlier…” 

Crosshair sat up and pulled you into a hug, you melted into his touch, inhaling his scent. Your Crosshair was finally back to you, this is real. The sleepless night without him, the loneliness, the emptiness, the desperation, were all gone. Crosshair was back to you, alive.

“I love you too, cyare.” He said it back.

He pulled away a little so he could kiss you on the lips, his hand trailed to your nape, kissing you with force. You and Crosshair clung on to each other so hard, afraid you would lose each other again. That was when you heard Hunter cleared his throat, you two finally pulled away from each other.

“I know you two miss each other but this lab is about to collapse. and this is not very…” Hunter said and eyed Omega.

“Right, sorry about that.” You answered, then looked at Crosshair whose arm was still wrapped around you. “Cross.” You nudged him.

“Fine.” He gave up and retreated his arm.

“I see Crosshair still has his severe and unyielding personality.” Tech stated.

“This is called missing someone, Tech.” Crosshair said and pulled out one toothpick to throw it at him.

“Ha! He’s back!” Wrecker exclaimed and playfully punched Crosshair’s shoulder. 

Crosshair pretended to show an annoyed face, but deep down you knew he missed his brothers.

“Listen, Crosshair. I’m sorry. We should have come for you earlier.” Hunter said. “I was trying to keep the rest of the squad safe, but you are one of us. I’m sorry.”

Crosshair didn’t say anything, just stood up and walk toward Hunter. For a moment you thought he was going to punch him, but instead, Crosshair extended his hand to Hunter.

Hunter looked at Crosshair’s hand then his eyes, he reached out his hand to shake Crosshair’s. 

“We need to leave fast, the structure could not hold much longer.” AZI chimed in.

***

All of you finally made it to the platform, for once the Kamino is sunny.

Omega stared at the Tipoca City, which was all destroyed. “It’s… all gone.”

You looked at that direction, the place all clones called home was all gone. The Batch and you took a few seconds to process this, to accept the fact.

“We should leave before Empire’s scouts show up.” Tech said.

“You coming with us?” Wrecker asked, looking at Crosshair.

“Yeah.” Crosshair said and took out a toothpick, putting it into his mouth.

Hunter nodded at him before walking to the ship with the others.

You still stood next to Crosshair, “You ready?” you asked.

“Yeah.” He gave you a little smile then intertwined his hand with yours, leading you to the Marauder. 

You didn’t know what the future would be, but one thing was sure. Crosshair would be right beside you, always and forever.

tagging: @ahsoka1 @kavecika @starwarschicken @itsjml @ct-1994 @loth-wolffe-main @theiirs @thefeatherofhope @ahs0ka-tan0 @mallr4ts @kriffclone

[lazuli-bloom]

Roses and Styx

Chapter 3 – Kids' Games To Pass The Time

Beetlejuice x Reader

Word Count : 5,399

New day, new problems. Sure things aren't the worst they could be, but that new hire isn't making things all that easy at work.

Last Chapter | Archive | Next Chapter

--=--=--

An annoying, rhythmic buzz cut through silence. Light seeped its way in, chasing away the shadows of sleep. You groaned and rolled. It was too early to face the new day.

Compounding your groggy state was the fact you didn't sleep for shit last night. The chilly October night sucked the warmth from your room, and you had only a few blankets to shield yourself from it. And the chill didn't stop your mind racing most of the night. When sleep came to you, it brought restless dreams.

The first wasn't terrible, just strange. A weird bug followed you home wanting to be friends. The other dream, however... A vile pit formed in your stomach.

Your thoughts drifted to the dream. You couldn't move. Arms, legs, head, nothing. You couldn't budge an inch no matter how hard you fought. Something wanted you to stay still. And it wasn't as if your surroundings gave you any clues either. Darkness blanketed the room. No details, just a barren inky void. The only thing you found with you was a set of pinprick lights.

A voice spoke. It whispered beautiful words coated in honey. Your guts twisted. A warm touch held your face, and the voice asked you a question. Your words caught in your throat. The entity glared at you with icy eyes, and the sweet words soured to a nasty venom.

You clutched your chest as the memory of searing heat replayed. It sank blazing claws into your waist and arm, blistering and cooking the flesh.

You drew in shaky breaths and wiped away the leftover tears. It was just a dream. It was just a bad dream. You're safe.

You took in one more breath before getting up to start your day.

Normally you would go straight to the bathroom, but you wanted to check something. You stepped out into the main living space and found it empty. A DVD case sat on the coffee table, but the TV screen was dark. The couch laid devoid of any unexpected house guests. No sign anyone else was ever there. Your heart sank as you realized the encounter you remembered was just another dream cooked up by your tired brain. A frown pulled at your lips and you sighed. No time to mope. You needed to get ready for work.

You opened the bathroom door and peered inside. Rigel napped on the top of the toilet's water tank, surrounded by shredded toilet paper. At least it was less of a mess than yesterday. You clean up the ribbons and tossed them in the garbage under the sink. After you topped off his food and water, you hopped in the shower.

The water in your apartment only ever got up to lukewarm on a good day. And that was not a good day. Frigged rain pelted you, giving you goosebumps. Not wanting to linger, you got out and dressed a few minutes later.

You combed your fingers through your hair as you looted the kitchen. Damn cat, why'd it have to throw up on your hairbrush? You grumbled to yourself and pulled out the off-brand cereal to fix breakfast.

"What 'cha doing, babes?" A voice from nowhere spoke in your ear.

Your knees buckle and you collapse, taking the bag of cereal with you. You gripped at your chest to still your heart, and rolled to sit with your back to the cabinets. A man in a rotting striped suit floated in your kitchen, clutching his rounder stomach as he cackled.

"Oh sweets, that's great! I wasn't even trying!"

As the shock fades, your features scrunched up. You got to your feet and tossed the bag on the counter. With crossed arms you pivot to glare at the ghost, still laughing his ass off.

"Giving me a heart attack first thing in the morning," you said with a huff, "I came out here and you were gone. I thought I had dreamed the whole thing, you jerk."

"So you're saying you missed me?" He batted his eyes at you, setting your cheeks on fire. You would not dignify that with a response. Instead, you turned back to the counter and fixed your breakfast.

"Where did you go then?" you asked and riffled through the silverware drawer for a spoon.

"I was checking on your neighbors. Did you know the guys a few doors down have a shit-ton of electronics?"

"Yeah, and old lady Smith has a garden in her closet."

"Really? Which one is she in? I didn't find that."

"She's on the third floor, but don't bug her too much. She's nice. Plus she bakes amazing cookies for me whenever I help her."

You scarfed your breakfast, and double checked you had everything done. Rigel was in the bathroom with his things. You had your wallet and phone. After you finished the last bite, you set the bowl in the sink along with the one from last night.

You rinsed out the bowl and hummed to yourself before you glanced over your shoulder to the ghost. He grinned at you with a tilt of his head. You gave him a small smile, only to frown.

"I have to head to work."

That simple sentence wiped the grin from his face. His shoulders sank, and the color of his hair shifted. A dull purple seeped in and overtook the green. That couldn't be a good sign. "You're leaving me here?"

"Well, you could stay here, or..."

"Or?"

"If you can be out of the way and let me focus on my work when I need to, then you could tag along with me. It’d be nice having someone other than my boss to talk to during the downtime."

His grin stretched across his face again, and he spun up to you, batting his eyes. "Oh babes, you do care! Of course I'll go with you! Not my idea for a first date, but I'll take it."

You pressed your lips tight. Was this a mistake? Not like you can take back the offer, though. That would crush him. You let out a long sigh and rubbed at your temple.

"Not a date, dude."

"If you say so," he purred.

You shook your head and grabbed the keys before heading to the car. The ghost trailed you, with an ever present chill at your side. On the way to the car, he pointed out each of the apartments and spilled whatever secrets he found out. You had an inkling of some of your neighbors' crimes, but you weren't one to go tattling. It was best to let them deal with their lives and you deal with yours. So you ended up nodding along to what the ghost told you.

When you got to your car, you sat behind the wheel for a moment. Once your ghostly friend floated into the passenger seat, you took in a breath.

"Okay. A few things before we get there," You said as you fought to start the car, "If either my boss or a customer comes up and needs to talk to me, I would appreciate it if you hang back for a minute and let me handle them. Otherwise, I mostly just front-face merchandise and I can talk with you so long as I'm quiet. Also, I take my lunches in the cemetery, so I can talk a bit more freely there."

"Sounds good to me, toots."

You rolled your eyes and got the hunk of junk started. The car protested with clangs, but you drove off with a little more of a fight. On the scenic drive to work he asked you to turn on the radio, which got a dry laugh from you.

"What's so funny?"

"Radio's broke. Most things in this car are broken. Radio, heater, a/c. All of them are broken."

"Can't you get a new one? There's cars all over the place, just take one."

"Th-this isn't Grand Theft Auto,"

"It will be once you take a car!"

"Okay, technically true. I meant this isn't the game GTA, this is real life. And I would get arrested."

"Not if you had help from the ghost with the most!"

You rolled your eyes and turned onto the main road, heading for work. The rest of the drive, the "ghost with the most" filled the air with his own voice, singing a medley of songs. Some of them you recognized, others you suspected he made up on the spot.

You pulled into the employee parking and parked your car alongside the two much nicer ones there. As you collected your things, Beetlejuice pointed to the sleek mustang.

"That car looks fun! We should steal a car like that!"

"I'm pretty sure that's Brandon's car. I'm not stealing my coworker's car to take for a joyride."

"But it would be so cool!"

"Maybe later," you said, stepping out of your junker.

The bell chimed as you entered the store and caught your boss's attention. He came over to greet you and made sure you were doing better. You gave a small laugh and rubbed at the back of your neck.

"Yeah, I'm doing better." You glanced sidelong to the ghost wandering over to the front counter.

"Good. Now hopefully I can focus on training Brandon without as many interruptions. He keeps breaking away to chat with every customer that comes into the store. So I need you to handle the customers so he doesn't have an excuse."

"Got it. And if you need help with him, I can always smack some sense into him. The new order of mallets is in the back, right?"

Mr. Turner laughed and turned to go back to teaching Brandon. You smiled to yourself and meandered over to the counter. Your ghost pal sat on the countertop next to the computer.

"You never mentioned you get to hit people at your job, any openings?"

"Sorry, spot's filled. For now, anyway. But who knows, maybe we'll need a replacement soon."

"Save it for me. I would kill to get to hang around a pretty little breather like you all day and get paid for it. But doing that for free is nice too."

"You're a shameless flirt."

"How can a sexy beast like me not be with you around and able to see me?"

You shook your head and glanced at the computer. There was something you wanted to look up, you were sure of it. But what was it? You stepped closer and opened a new tab for the search. It sat blank for a moment as you retraced what the topic could have been.

"What are ya doing, babes?"

"I can't remember what I wanted to search for."

"One hundred great ways to skin a cat?"

You raised a brow and frowned at him. "I'm not hurting Rigel." A light flicked on in your head.

You typed in the cat's name and clicked on the page for the star. A picture of the Orion constellation to the side of the page showed off the stars. Most of them had fancy looking letters next to them, with a few having numbers attached. Rigel marked the lower right star, while the upper left was the only other star with a word.

"Beh-tell? Goose? Wait..." You jerked your head over to the ghost, who wore a Cheshire grin. "That's how you spell your name?"

"Yep. That's me. Behtellgoose."

You read the name once more. Betelgeuse. Such a strange spelling to sound like beetle-juice. Kind of cool though. You smiled and closed out of the tab when an unfamiliar voice called out to you.

"Good morning, Art. Great to see you doing better!"

"Heh, yeah. Feeling better." You forced a tight-lipped smile to prevent yourself from frowning. Brandon stayed still with his own fake smile plastered on his face. After a beat of him not saying anything, you asked, "Do you need something?"

"You forgot to go grab your apron. What if a customer came in? That would look very unprofessional. Here, I'll watch the counter and you can go grab your apron."

The corner of your mouth twitched, and you took in a deep breath. You stepped away and grabbed your stupid apron. As you threw it on, the bell chimed. You rushed back out, hoping to catch the customer before Brandon.

The counter stood unattended and you found Brandon down one aisle with a woman discussing products. You groaned and pinched the bridge of your nose.

"Isn't that what your boss wanted you to stop him from doing?"

"Yes, Beetle, it is."

You hissed out a sigh and shook your head. As you walked over to them, you prepared yourself to speak in your chipper customer service voice. Brandon insisted he could take care of the customer, only for Mr. Turner to order him to get back to training. Brandon grimaced and stepped away to let you take over.

Your smile was easier to keep on your face after that. You helped the customer find what she needed and rang up her items. She left with a wave and you went back to the computer.

"What the hell is that guy's deal?" Betelgeuse asked, gesturing with a thumb to Brandon.

"I don't know. I don't know if I really care." You leaned back onto your heels and let your mind wander. Whenever you were alone, stuck at the counter, you always pulled up simple web games on the computer to pass the time. But with Betelgeuse there, you couldn't ignore him to play games.

"What are ya thinking about, sweets? How hot it would be to make out right now?"

You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms. "No, you flirt. I'm thinking of what we can do to pass the time. All I'm coming up with are twenty questions and I spy."

"I'm fine with that," he said as he flashed you a sharp grin. "Okay, I'll start. I spy with my rotten eye, something... metal."

"Well, that narrows it down."

The two of you spent the rest of the morning going, taking turns playing those silly kids' games. Betelgeuse huffed and whined whenever a customer, or worse, Brandon, pulled you away to help them. Any time you called him out on his grumbling, he denied it as the color in his hair shifted.

He caught you staring at his hair once or twice, which exacerbated the shifting colors. Each time that happened, Betelgeuse quickly picked up whichever game you two had been playing. You left the topic alone for the moment, but stashed it away to ask about later.

Halfway into a difficult game of twenty questions, Mr. Turner came up to the counter. You ignored Betelgeuse's smug punchable face and greeted your boss, hoping your frustration didn't bleed into your tone.

"Cass, I'm stepping out for a bit to pick up something. I should be back for you to take your lunch break. Keep an eye on the store and Brandon for me, while I'm gone, okay?"

"Got it. Burn down the place and leave no evidence. Can do."

He shook his head with a laugh. Mr. Turner said, "you turd," before he waved goodbye and left the shop.

"Ooh baby, I love you talking about crimes like that! Tell me how you'd light up the place."

You turned back to the ghost. He floated with his stomach parallel to the ground as he held his scruffy chin in his hands and swung his legs pointed upward. You laughed at the dork and smiled.

"Well, the kerosene is over there, and the rolls of rags are an aisle over. There's a blow torch with some of the other tools."

"Artemis!" You whipped your attention to the stick in the mud, frowning at you. You didn't even get the chance to speak. "That kind of talk is highly unprofessional! Going over ways to burn down the store, shame on you."

"I was joking dude, it's not—"

"Well, I don't find that funny. And you shouldn't address your elders as 'dude', it is very disrespectful."

"Alright, I'm sorry."

"Good. Now I need your help."

You gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded. Brandon motioned for you to follow him, and once he turned back, you brought two fingers to your temple and jerked your head away.

In the middle of a tedious and painful walkthrough of creating an order of paint, the bell rang. Brandon broke away the second it chimed and went straight to helping the customer. That was irritating enough, but after the regular said they didn't need any help, Brandon insisted on assisting them.

You took in a deep breath and let the man dig his own grave. If he doesn't value your help, then he's not getting it. You marched back to the counter and found Betelgeuse picking his teeth.

He licked a striped tongue over his sharp teeth then said, "What a douchebag."

"Tell me about it."

The customer came up to the counter a minute later, followed by Brandon. You greeted the regular and switched the computer over to its register display. Your new coworker nudged you aside and insisted on being the one to ring up the customer.

"Artemis, you should have stayed at the paint desk. I'll meet you back there in a minute, after I help this gentleman."

You wanted nothing more than to slap that man. Who the hell does he think he is? Calling you unprofessional and pulling stunts like that? You grit your teeth and forced a smile before excusing yourself to head back to the paint desk.

Betelgeuse floated after you and lounged on top of the desk. You spared him a glance, but stuck to pacing the small paint pit, waiting for that douche-canoe to get back there. The customer didn't even have a lot of things to buy, so it shouldn't take Brandon that long.

"That freaking jerk," you said under your breath, "I can't believe Mr. Turner hired a guy like that."

"Want me to kill him?"

"Tempting, but no. I'm just going to talk to my boss when he gets back." You checked your phone for the time. A quarter after one, which means only fifteen more minutes until your lunch break. "God, I hope he's here soon."

You tapped your nails against the metal top of the tint machine, the speed of which accelerated the longer you waited. What the hell was taking him so long? Did another customer show up? This was getting infuriating.

"You sure you don't want me to kill the guy?"

"No, Beetle, I don't want you to do that."

"Art, who are you talking to?"

You turned around to the voice. Brandon stood at the threshold of the paint pit with his hand on his hips and raised a brow at you. Your face burned as you laughed, attempting to cover up your embarrassment.

"Oh, just this annoying little beetle. It was crawling under the tint dispenser."

"Do you regularly talk to disgusting bugs?" he asked. You opened your mouth to speak, only for Brandon to keep talking. "It doesn't matter. You shouldn't act so childish. How old are you? Late teens?"

"No, Brandon, I'm closer to my thirties than my teens."

"And you're talking to bugs, where any customer can come up and see that behavior. You ought to grow up and act your age, Artemis."

The bell chimed again, and you shuffled to the side to get an unobstructed view of the front. Mr. Turner stepped in with a smile and a wave. You waved back and checked the clock on the computer. One twenty-seven, perfect. You pulled your apron's strings and took it off in a swift motion.

"Where do you think you're going, Artemis?"

"Lunch."

Brandon frowned, and you folded up your apron with a smile. He probably wanted to stop you from leaving, but that shit would not fly with the boss back. Betelgeuse hopped down from his spot on the counter and followed. You tossed your apron behind the front counter and greeted Mr. Turner. After a quick rundown of what had happened, you left for your break, with a quick stop to your car to grab your food.

On the walk to the cemetery, Betelgeuse mocked the stupid things Brandon said. He was dead on with his impression, too.

"Artemis, do you think I give a shit? I'm a giant douche with a stick up my ass! There's no fun allowed in the store."

You did your best to hold back your laughter, but that only caused you to snort. A laugh roared out next to you in Betelgeuse's voice. You covered your mouth with your free hand, but that couldn't stop your shoulders from bouncing. As the two of you crossed into the graveyard, you glanced sidelong at the ghost, who shot you a grin.

In the cemetery, devoid of any other visitors, you veered towards your usual spot, off in the corner and near the front gate. You sat on the stone bench, setting your lunch beside you. Betelgeuse, however, sat on a gravestone, with his feet propped up on the one next to it.

You opened up your small bag of chips and started snacking on them. Betelgeuse looked over from picking at his nails and raised a brow at you.

"That's all you're going to eat, babes?"

"I have a granola bar too."

You grabbed the other half of your lunch and showed him. He tilted his head with a frown, but said nothing. It grew quiet, save for your munching on the chips. Your mind wandered, and you zoned out, staring unfocused in a random direction. Betelgeuse moved, catching your eye, and you studied him.

He gnawed at his black nails with jagged yellow teeth. Stubble covered his round chin, matching the same green mixed in his hair. Has his stubble changed color like his hair has? And why did his hair change color to begin with?

You hummed to yourself after finishing the last of your chips.

"What's up, sweets?"

"I... was hoping to ask you something."

Betelgeuse tilted his head to the other side and raised a brow and pursed his lips. You gave a half smile and laughed. He looked like a curious puppy. How could this ghost-demon look so cute?

"What is it?"

"I've noticed that your hair isn't always green." 

As soon as the sentence left your mouth, the color of his hair shifted to a deep purple. You shrank back as your stomach twisted into knots. Even without knowing what the colors meant, the frown on his face and sudden dodging of eye contact weren't good signs. On no. You messed up, didn't you? Why couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?

"I'm sorry. You don't have to say anything. Forget I ever mentioned it."

You dug your nails into your palms and turned your gaze to your knees. Betelgeuse produced a mix of a growl and a groan, and you peered up at him through your hair. His lips pulled into an almost smile as he kept sharp eyes pointed at his hands, where he raked his nails through the hair of one.

"I might as well tell you, you'd figure it out eventually. My hair changes color with my mood."

You dared to lift your head more. Your lips parted as your brain processed the new information.

"Like a chameleon?"

"Like what?"

He tilted his head and raised a brow as his nose wrinkled. You forced out a small laugh and smile as you wrung your wrists. "A chameleon, the little lizards that change color. It's to communicate their mood. Darker colors like black are when it's stressed, neutral tones are when it's calm, and vibrant greens, or reds can be excitement or aggression."

Betelgeuse lurched forward with a growl and ran his hands through his hair, shielding the deepening purple from view. Your stomach twisted into knots. This wasn't getting better. You parted your lips only to press them shut a second later. Why did you have to screw up and bring up his hair in the first place?

Your nails dug deeper into your palms. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"If you're going to strip a guy naked like that, babes, you could at least buy me dinner first."

Your face wrinkled as you tilted your head at him. Betelgeuse still held himself curled and closed off, but he wore a weak crooked smile. Your lips twitched, and you huffed out a dry laugh.

"Alright, we can go through the drive thru to get a few things off the dollar menu."

"Ooh! I wanna try one of those green sludgy shake things from that Old MacDonald place."

"Sorry to break this to you, but they only sell those in March."

"What? That's lame!"

"Everything is pumpkin spice right now."

He pouted and crossed his arms with a huff. Despite the childish act, the purple in his hair faded back to a muted green. You chuckled to yourself as relief washed over you. With a soft smile, you grabbed the other half of your lunch and hummed before you opened it.

"Hey Beetle."

"Hmm?"

"I won't bring it up again if you don't want me to, but I wanted to say I think your chameleon hair is pretty cool. Like, is it magic? Or is it a demon thing? Or—sorry. I'm sorry. I'll shut up about it now. Sorry."

Your eyes darted to focus on your granola bar. You fumbled with tearing open the packaging for a second, only for the wrapper to give. The force sent your food tumbling to the ground. You stared at the broken bar and heaved out a sigh. Just wonderful.

Your pocket buzzed, veering your attention to it. You pulled out your phone and checked the caller id. Unknown number. Chills cascaded down as you stared at the phone.

"Something wrong, babes?"

"Nope. Everything's fine. Just some spam call."

You shoved it back into your pocket and let it ring. If the caller wanted anything, they can leave a voicemail. Besides, you needed to get back to work.

You picked up your trash and nodded your head to the gate. Betelgeuse hopped up and floated alongside you. After a few steps out of the cemetery, your phone rang again. Every fiber in you tensed up, but you left your phone in your pocket. The third time your phone rang, Betelgeuse spoke up again.

"Who the hell keeps calling you?"

You shrugged and laughed despite your dry throat. "Who knows? I have to get back to work though."

With a hurried pace, you made it back to the store in a few minutes. The bell swung, chiming away as you beeline for your apron behind the counter. Brandon stood at the register with a phone up to his ear.

"There you are, Art! I've been calling you and you never once answered!" Brandon frowned at you and slipped his phone into his pants pocket. "You're obligated to pick up if I or Mr. Turner ever need to call you."

"O-oh, that was you calling." A small breath escapes passed your lips and you relax, only to register what he said. "Wait, how did you even get my number? I've only ever given this number to Sam and Mr. Turner."

"Why does it matter how I got your number? The issue is; if work calls you, especially if you have a shift that day, you need to answer."

"Fine, okay. I'll save your number so I don't panic again when I'm called three times in a row."

"Oh please, three phone calls make you panic? Artemis, you're an adult. You should know better than to be worried about something as simple as a phone call."

You grit your teeth and smiled. This conversation wasn't going anywhere you wanted, and you didn't plan on sticking around. You threw on your apron and marched to a far corner of the store to get away from everyone. Well, save for the ghost haunting you.

"Wow, babes, that guy is a major piece of work."

"Piece of shit is more like it."

You grabbed at products on the shelf and pulled them forward, turning the labels when needed. If you looked busy, maybe Brandon would mind his own fucking business. You clenched your jaw and growled as you brought more things forward.

"I shouldn't be worried about phone calls? What the fuck does he know? He's never had to put up with the shit I have!"

"And what shit would that be, babes?"

You glanced up to the ghost laying on his stomach across the top of the aisle shelving. Betelgeuse tilted his head. Soft and earnest curiosity graced his features. The corner of your mouth twitched before you closed your eyes and let out a hiss.

"I don't want to get into it," you said, keeping your voice quiet, "but I've had someone call me over and over before. It wasn't fun."

You pulled the rest of the items forward within arm's reach before sidestepping to get more. Betelgeuse floated after you as you inched down the aisle. He picked the games back up, and you welcomed the distraction.

There were one or two rounds of I spy, several goes at twenty questions���which you're positive Betelgeuse cheated and switched his topic multiple times. Towards the end of your shift, well after Brandon left for the day, you two asked a few "would you rather" questions. While he asked a few risque questions at the start—bite or be bitten, top or bottom—his questions took a tamer turn, similar to the ones you asked.

"Okay babe, would you rather find a rat in the kitchen or a roach in your bed?"

"I mean... I guess I'd prefer seeing another rat in the kitchen over finding more roaches?"

"M-more?"

"Donna hires her incompetent nephew to do the pest control for the apartments." You swept the line of dirt into the pan and tossed it into the trash. "Actually, speaking of, I should double check the traps and make sure something isn't rotting somewhere in the apartment."

Betelgeuse watched you finish the last of the closing routine. You clicked the pan back around the neck of the broom and stuffed it into a corner behind the counter. The only thing left was Mr. Turner to finish locking up the cash and heading out. You leaned against the counter and rolled your head back to look at the ceiling.

A quiet stillness overtook the store. It lasted a few seconds before Betelgeuse spoke up again.

"Would you rather have a nicer place but the same landlady, or the same apartment with a nicer landlady—"

"Alright Cass, you ready to leave?"

You turned your attention from the unseen ghost to your boss. He smiled and gestured to the door. You returned a half smile before exiting. Mr. Turner locked up, and you waved goodbye. A minute later you sank into the car seat and rested your hands on the wheel.

"Well babes, this certainly seems familiar."

You glanced his way and rolled your eyes before getting the car started.

"Yep, it's been an entire day since a demon followed my home, like a lost puppy."

"I'm way cuter than any puppy. Plus, you can keep me in your apartment all you want and your shitty landlady can't do anything about it!"

"Nicer landlady, by the way," you said as the car sputtered to life.

"What?"

"I'd rather have a nicer landlady than a nicer place. Donna would just let a nicer place fall to ruin."

You pulled out of the parking lot and drove home. At the first red light, you tapped your finger on the wheel and hummed.

"Hey Beetle, would you rather stay in a comfortable and familiar place with people that don't believe half of what you say, or cut all contact with them and be alone if it meant freedom?"

Betelgeuse tilted his head from one side to the other, closing his eyes as he mulled over your question. As he thought, the light changed, and you continued on your way home. A sharp grin stretched across his face a moment later.

"Easy. I'd take my freedom."

Your lips twitched up. "Yeah... me too."

[viaryius]

I couldn't resist  🤍Little Caranthir story 🤍

He is so sweet 🤍

Little Caranthir is bored. Eternal reading of books and learning does not make sense to the little elf. He is very tired, he needs a break. He needs to have fun. What happens when he gets the chance?

Story Link: HERE 🌿

In a room full of books, there was an echo of quiet snoring. An elf who has dressed in a green tunic, sat on his chair and slept. His blond hair slid into his face during sleep and gently rubbed against his cheekbones.  He held a book in his hands, which he read until he fell asleep from exhaustion. His relaxed body dropped the book on the ground.

The book slid slowly on the ground from tired hands that could no longer hold it. The fall of the book on the ground made a small rumble. But not big enough to wake the sleeping elf. His eyelids were closed, and at times there was a hint of restlessness or disapproving growl, caused his dreams. The peace of a fallen book, was disturbed by a small child's hand.

The child looked curiously at the book. His ice-blue eyes focused on the title, which was engraved in silver. Herbal Arkanara. The boy rolled his eyes boredly. He knew this book very well. He read it so many times, that he could recite the whole book from beginning to end. The long days of boredom, he tried relieved by reading the various books, which he found. But most of the books have been repeated.

With his bored childish expression, he looked at the elf, who was sitting and sleeping quietly. There was only a quiet blow in the room. The little elf watched him lazily. His eyes returned to the book. He walked over to the table and quietly placed it in front of his teacher.

Little Caranthir was not afraid of him, but he had respect for him. Especially when his teacher was involuntarily awakened from sleep. The memory of waking his teacher was not the best for little Caranthir. Only at the slightest hint of that memory his shoulder hurt again. He did not want to run away again from the flying books. which his teacher throws at him. A mischievous smile appeared on Caranthir face and he chuckled. At least then, the old elf was funny. Red as pepper.

The little elf sighed resignedly and walked slowly but very quietly to the other end of the room. He sat down at a table with many different books. But he didn't read today, he wasn't in the mood for it. He knew them by heart, like all other books. His eyes ran around the room, looking for some kind of fun or distraction.

Caranthir sighed boredly again and put his hand on his chin. The platinum strand of hair, that wandered into his face quickly hid behind his ear. His ice blue eyes stopped at his teacher. He narrowed his eyes and studied him carefully. Hair, clothes and his face. Nothing. No change. Avallac'h was so boring in some cases. He sighed in frustration and hid his head with his hands in despair.

His eyes brightened wildly. He knew what to do. He had waited too long for this, and now when his teacher did not perceive reality, he could do it. Mischief gleamed in his eyes.

The old elf is sleeping. Caranthir grin his teeth mischievously. Now I have a chance to finally had some fun. He had a cheerful smile on his face. His steps quieter than a cat, he sneak very slowly to a table with various elixirs and bottles.

Caranthir attention was focused on one particular elixir. A small oblong bottle, containing a red-white powder was right in front of him. He grabbed it quickly and hid the bottle in the inside pocket of his pale blue tunic. He twisted quietly and jumped. Behind Caranthir was a smaller wave of ice-colored energy, which disappeared after a while.

The little elf landed on soft grass. It was quite far from his teacher's home or town. He stood up carefully and checked to see if the bottle had been damaged when he fell. Sometimes he teleported without thinking. A satisfied smile appeared on his face. The bottle was whole and undamaged. He pulled a small piece of text from his other pocket, which Caranthir had written off while Avallac'h was asleep.

Now is the right time. No unnecessary instruction, prohibitions and orders. I can do it without his help. After all, I'm more special than other magicians. Pride appeared on the boy's face.

He focused his attention on his surroundings. He tried to find the perfect place to perform his spell. It can't be any ordinary place. Magic and power must breathe from that place. It has to call you.  He echoed the Avallach commands in his head. Aha! I have it! Caranthir looked at the huge tree. Its crown formed an ideal hiding place, and at the same time a huge force of energy passed through it.

Caranthir worked ingeniously and skillfully, knowing very well what he do. With the stones around him, he created a smaller stone circle into which he inserted the leaves of the Aarkh tree. The leaves were often used for similar magical purposes by various elven magicians.

He smiled proudly after completing the stone circle. He did it himself without the help of some grumpy older elf. He giggled and his eyes sparkled with joy and pride. He was satisfied with himself.

Caranthir took the last step. Invocation of the natural spirit itself. This will be the more difficult step. He frowned uncertainly. But if I can do it, I can prove that Avallac'h made a mistake about me. He starts to take me more seriously.

In the center of the stone circle, engraved a symbol that was on paper. The last step was to apply red and white dust to summon a fiery spirit guard.

With a careful but consistent eye, he poured dust into the center of the symbol. He had to do it slowly and precisely to avoid an unsolicited side situation. Working with fire dust is dangerous, especially for young apprentices.

Done. His ice-blue eyes glowed with joy and pride. Everything was exactly as he studied. Caranthir is a perfectionist on the details, he took great care of. He waited for the sun to cover the huge cloud, which would absorb even the last rays of the sun.

When the sun was covered by a large cloud, Caranthir did not wait and took his chance. He stretched his small thumbs toward the circle and closed his ice-blue eyes tightly. He listened to the sound of the wind, which stroked his platinum hair.

An ice-blue light came out of his hands, and he began to whisper words that were very old and even ancient. Light shot from his hands toward the center of the circle. Caranthir eyes were still closed. He knew he had to resist his childhood curiosity. If he stopped concentrating, it could turn him in a negative direction.

In the center of the stone circle appeared wonderful orange-red sparks, which cluster in one larger one. The noise cluster began to take shape. There was a strange crack. Instead of a cluster and unbridled noise, a small fiery owl with the color of fire sat in the center of the symbol. She looked around curiously.  Caranthir couldn't stand it. Curiosity overcame him. The boy's ice blue eyes opened. He stared at the tiny owl elemental of fire. Her tail… burning ?? He was honestly surprised.

Their eyes met. The owl looked into the boy's eyes. She spread her wings and flew to the level of the boy's face. For Caranthir, she was beautiful. The owl maneuvered her wings sharply. Caranthir was startled by her sudden movement. He lost his balance and fell to the ground. The little fiery elemental used his freedom and flew away.

No! I have to find her! The fire owl can cause big problems. Not only me but also others! In despair, his head flashed and he ran in the direction she was flying. He stopped a little closer to the forest. Caranthir looked around nervously, with little hope of finding her. Avallac’h would not be pleased with my exercise. A sharp nervousness ran through his small body.

His eyes shone with hope, when he saw a small point of fire towards the forest. Found her! Without further ado, he ran after her. She was flying over a branch of a withered tree. Smoke began to rise from some parts of the tree. The boy scratched his head nervously.

I have to call her to me! Otherwise, the dry tree may collapse very quickly. The worst option would be to switch to the surrounding trees. I can't risk that! Avallac'h would throw at me not just one book, but the entire library in his study!

Caranthir held out his hands in front of him again, directing his power toward the owl. She understood the command immediately and came to him again. This time she fluttered her wings more slowly, looking straight into Caranthir icy-blue eyes.

There was silence around them. Only the quiet flapping of the wings of the owl's spirit, echoed. Caranthir raised an astonished eyebrow. The color of the owl elemental began to change. The red-orange color has disappeared. It was replaced by blue, which was replaced by black. Caranthir frowned his forehead. She didn't like her color. He realized what that meant. The spell broke. The fiery spirit will explode! Before he could get to safety, the elemental was engulfed in black dust and exploded.

Caranthir saw nothing. He didn't notice the world around him. He was in the dark. The shock wave of the blast threw him into the meadow. He woke up to a long and uncomfortable whistle in his head. Caranthir sat disoriented on the grass and tried to analyze the location.

Explosion. The fiery spirit exploded. His voice echoed in his head very tired. He sighed in disappointment and looked embarrassed at the ground. He was disappointed on yourself, he felt he could do nothing right. I failed. With his right hand, he wanted to fix  hair, that had tickled on the right side of his head.

His hand touched his head ... the boy froze. Shock and horror filled his ice-blue eyes. HAIR! Horrified, placed his palm on the right half of his head. He could only feel tiny hair under his fingers. With the bag he had on his belt, he quickly pulled out a mirror.

Caranthir froze. He was missing a piece of hair on the right side of his head. He had only tiny hairs that the explosion did not absorb. The boy just exhaled in frustration. He knew that Avallac‘h would demand the truth of what had happened to him. Caranthir icy-eyes darkened and sparks of fierce anger erupted. He threw the mirror in his hands with all his strength on the ground. The mirror breaking  into several pieces.

His eyes filled with coldness. It was the eyes of a winter storm that destroyed and killed everything in its path. He was angry on yourself. On his inability to rise above his curiosity. He clenched his fist. The power in his veins began to circulate rapidly. She connected with his anger and disappointment. Cold and ice began to form around him. He was beginning to lose control.

Caranthir's rage of anger was interrupted by a wild neigh. He looked toward the sound. Not far from him stood several unicorns, who aggressively stomped and scratched. One of them dangerously turned his horn towards the boy. Caranthir felt a noise in his head. He remembered what Avallac'h had told him to do if he found himself in such a situation. He began to mumble a song taught to him by his teacher.

With cautious and slow steps, he began to back away from them as far as he could so, that he could teleport to safety. The boy's body was tense and he felt fear intensify inside him. The black unicorn overcame the boy's intentions and walked slowly behind the boy. Other unicorns joined him.

A cold shiver ran through Caranthir body. The unicorns hurry up. Unpleasant feelings of fear and anxiety ran through his body. He remembered stories of the enormous pain in which elves died of wounds from unicorn horns.

A black unicorn threatened the boy aggressively with his horn. Caranthir anticipated and jumped. Fortunately, he didn't touch him. He regretted leaving Avallach office without his knowledge. He'd rather be bored to death.

Behind the boy came a battle cry of riders. The unicorns stopped, stamped anxiously, and stood on their hind legs. Not a second passed, riders on horses with bright red cloack, attacked on the unicorns. At the speed of the riders, the little elf lost his balance and fell to the grass. The unicorns ran away from the red riders.

The riders proudly called out their triumphant shout. One of the riders turned his dark brown stallion and walked over to the boy. The boy looked at him with curiosity, astonishment and respect for him. The rider carried himself proudly on his stallion. Elegance, pride and something unpredictable and dangerous radiated from him. The rider's green eyes looked closely at the little boy, who was looking at him in great astonishment. Caranthir was not afraid of the rider's predatory eyes.

The rider grinned confidently. He's not afraid of me. I like it. It passed through the head of the green-eyed rider. He removed his helmet from his head, revealing his raven-black hair. For a moment, the boy forgot to breathe in amazement. The elf's green eyes watched the boy's expression in amusement.

"Boy ..." The black-haired elf began in a calm voice, "Tell me what you're doing here alone. Where are your parents? Do they know you're almost at the magic line? ”The elf raised an eyebrow suspiciously and watched the boy's expression intently.

"I don't know my parents, but I have a mentor who teaches me and takes care of me ..." The boy began to talk to him while his ice blue eyes look to the the rider green eyes.

"And he doesn't know I'm here ..." He added quieter. The black-haired elf just tilted his head to the side curiously.

"Doesn't he know? Who is your mentor? ”He asked with interest in his voice. Caranthir just sighed softly and scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Avallac'h .... sir," he muttered. Surprise appeared on the black-haired elf's face. So you are to be our salvation? He looked at the boy with great interest.

"Golden child. That's what Crevan calls you, if I'm not mistaken. ”The black-haired elf kept watching him with interest in his eyes. The boy just nodded silently and added.

"My name is Caranthir Ar-feiniel, thank you for saving my life. I owe you one. ”He introduced himself very politely and bowed. The black-haired elf grinned foxly. Crevan raised you well.

"My name is Eredin Bréacc Glas. I am the leader of Dearg Ruadhi. ” Eredin noticed a spark of knowledge and great admiration in the eyes of young Caranthir.

"I heard about you! You're really amazing! ”Little Caranthir shouted enthusiastically. Eredin laughed at his childish haste and admiration.

Eredin held out his hand to the boy and said with a smile on his lips.

"I'll take you home. I'm sure your mentor will run away from his senses. ” Eredin's green eyes sparkled with malice. Caranthira was surprised, but he didn't ask. The boy did not hesitate. He took the elf's hand and the black-haired elf placed it on his horse. Little Caranthir felt his pride grow. Eredin just narrowed his eyes and looked at the boy closely.

"Hmm ... I swear the last time I saw you, even if only from a distance, your hair was on both sides of your head. Didn't you start experimenting with hairstyles to make Avallac'h angry? ” Eredin asked with a curious grin. Caranthir froze for a moment. My hair ... I completely forgot about it in the confusion. The boy shook his horse in embarrassment.

"I was experimenting ..." Caranthir replied uncertainly. He was ashamed to admit the real reason why he was missing a piece of hair.

"So, the rebel?" Eredin tease him with a cheerful smile.

"Very well. Crevan needs to have blood flow in his veins so he doesn't mummify completely. ” A mischievous smile appeared on Caranthir face.

Eredin just pulled on his stallion's reins and ran across the meadow at the wind. Little Caranthir didn't even think about it and noticed his teacher residence. He swallowed nervously. He will have something to explain.

Avallac'h was about to go looking for Caranthir when he noticed a rider approaching. It was Eredin. Avallac'h went against him, when his eyes widened in surprise and relief. Eredin was not alone. Caranthir also sat on his horse. His stiff face relaxed. He was fine and healthy. He narrowed his eyes carefully. What happened to his hair?

"Crevan," Eredin said calmly.

"Eredin," Avallac‘h replied. There was a strangely tense atmosphere between the two elves. Caranthir was measured first by Eredin and then by Avallac’h. He frowned thoughtfully. Strange. He thought to himself.

"I feel like you've lost someone." Eredin took the boy and laid him on the ground. Caranthir took cautious steps toward his mentor. He didn't even have to guess. He could see very well in the mentor's eyes that he was not thrilled with his trip.

“Lost ..." Avallac'h began in a calm voice, staring his aquamarine eyes into the green eyes of a predator.

"I could argue about that. Since Caranthir has his own head and is responsible for what he does." Avallac’h said and glancing sternly at Caranthir. Caranthir just guilty lowered his eyes and crossed from foot to foot.

"Pay more attention on the golden child. His life was in danger of a unicorn. ”Eredin spoke. He looked into the boy's icy blue eyes and added mysteriously.

"He will play an important role in the future, won't Crevan?" His green eyes looked into the eyes of aquamarine again. Avallac'h just sighed frustration.

"It doesn't matter to me, but to him ..." Avallac’h added lowly. Caranthir looked at him in curiously. What are they talking about?

"Caranthir has learned his lesson today. I think he had several opportunities to learn.” Avallac’h looked at Caranthira. Eredin grinned foxly and nodded.

" Well then. It was an honor to meet you, Caranthir. And by the way, a good haircut.” Caranthir straightened in surprise and looked at Eredin in amazement. His head flashed. He knew what he wanted to be. He wants to become a red rider. Protect his people and be like him the leader of Dearg Ruadhi. Strong, fearless and admired.

Caranthir's thought process was interrupted by his mentor's voice.

"I think you have something to explain to me ..." Avallac'h stood in front of the boy. Caranthir had no choice. He sighed and looked into his teacher's eyes. Did he notice worry and fear in Avallac'h eyes? Caranthir wondered.

"I'm sorry ..." Caranthir began.

"You slept and I was bored ... I didn't want to disturb you ... so I decided to go for a walk." Avallac'h tilted his head gently to his side and raised an eyebrow. He knew that was not entirely true.

"Did you need fire dust for the walk?" Why did you take fire dust?" He continued. His tone was stern but soft at the same time. He didn't need to raise his voice. He was Aen Saevherne after all. Just his presence and conversation with him was a test for some.

"I wanted  ..." Caranthir paused. He exhaled and stared into mentor's eyes.

"You wanted?" Avallac'h repeated after him.

"I wanted to summon a fiery elemental ..." Avallac‘h looked at Caranthir and touched the spot where the boy's hair had burned. He stared at him for a moment with a worried look. Then he looked him straight into his icy-blue eyes.

"I guess from your appearance, it didn't turn out the best ..." He saw shame and disappointment in Caranthir eyes. With one small nod of his head, he confirmed the teacher's words.

"I just wanted you to be proud of me ... that I could do it without help ... that I deserve to be a mage ..." The boy's voice broke. He felt tears of shame and disappointment running down his cheeks. He bowed his head so his teacher wouldn't see it.

Two fingers lifted Caranthir head. He looked into his teacher's eyes again.

"It's fine. Sometimes even great magicians fail. ”Avallac'h eyes were calm and radiant warmth of encouragement. He wiped the boy's wet cheeks with his thumb.

"You are still very young. Don't worry about failing. You're still learning. ”A smile appeared on Caranthir face.

"Caranthir, I'm here to guide you and help you on your journey to becoming a magician. It is not a shame to ask for help. You're lucky Eredin found you in time. I'm not angry with you, but you can never do something like that again without my knowledge. Do you promise me that? ” The boy just nodded eagerly. He saw the boy's face relax. The grief disappeared from his face.

"I promise and forgive me ..." A soft smile appeared on Avallac'h face.

" One more thing. I don't say that often but I'm proud of you ...” Caranthir looked at him in astonishment and gratitude. His eyes glowed with pride. Although Avallac’h never confessed aloud, Caranthir was more of a son than an apprentice.

The boy made a gesture that surprised Avallac'h himself. He hugged him tightly. Avallac’h was frozen for a few seconds. But he returned his kindness with his hug. Avallac’h was happy he was okay. He needs to pay more attention to him

"Eredin was wrong in his statement that you were turning into a mummified ..." Caranthir said out of nowhere. Avallac’h stopped. And he looked at the boy in shock. "Mummified?" He repeated, looking at where the rider had disappeared.

You snake..

[minimitchell]

Can you write 4 - "You're so perfect. And I'm so lucky."?

(mentions of sex ahead)

.

Ben can’t move.

Even if he wanted to - which to be honest he doesn’t even want to right now, Callum is way too comfortable under him - he isn’t sure his legs are working anymore.

Sweat is still cooling on their skin, Ben felt it running down his back not too long ago in the heat of the moment, and their chests are still heaving where they’re pressed against each other. Ben’s face is tucked into Callum’s neck, where he landed falling forward after what was him probably coming his whole brain out.

One of Callum’s hands is trailing up and down the dip of his spine; his breath slowly turning from harsh pants back to its normal rhythm while he comes down from his own orgasm. His other hand is still tangled somewhere in the sheets next to their bodies, though it’s resting comfortably now rather than gripping the fabric with all his might like before.

Ben doesn’t want to gloat or pat himself on the back too much but they really outdid themselves this time. It’s always good, phenomenal even, with Callum but this was something else entirely. Otherworldly even. He’s glad they have the house to themselves tonight because he’s pretty sure he was screaming all sorts of things in-between.

“You broke me.”

His voice is drowsy where it’s still pressed into the skin of Callum’s neck. He’s not tired and it’s also not that late into the evening yet, but it feels like all his energy just got drained out of his body, coaxed out of him together with his climax.

“Sorry?”

Callum’s hand runs up into Ben’s hair, tangling in the strands at the back of his head. He doesn’t untuck Ben’s head, knowing that Ben likes to wrap himself around him like an octopus and just feel for a few long moments after they’ve slept with each other, just lightly running his fingertips along the back of his neck.

It’s peaceful; this love and closeness and pure serenity around them right now, a stark contrast to the wild passion from moments before.

“I honestly think you broke me this time. Shagged me too good with your perfect dick and now I’m broken.”

“Give over.”

Callum squeezes the skin underneath his fingers, pressing his thumb and forefinger against the space behind Ben’s ears. Ben untucks his face from Callum’s neck, instead resting his chin on the patch of skin underneath Callum’s collarbone, looking up at him through thick eyelashes.

Ben loves looking at Callum when they’re like this, all pliant and fucked-out, because he looks so peaceful and content that it makes Ben’s heart beat just that little bit faster. Seeing Callum completely unguarded still tugs at his heartstrings and he’s still so unbelievably grateful that he gets to see him like this; that Callum chose to give himself to Ben body and soul.

Forever now even.

“I’m serious. I can’t feel my limbs. Maybe I’m paralyzed. God, Cal, paralyzed by sex. They’re gonna write medical articles about me.”

“You’re such a pillock.”

Callum’s hand leaves its place in Ben’s hair to sneak around to his chest, pushing until Ben falls onto his back. They’re both laughing, Ben letting out one of those rare belly-laughs no one but Callum and Lexi get out of him and Callum’s quiet giggles betraying his faux-annoyance at Ben.

Ben throws himself half back on top of Callum when he starts making moves like he wants to get up, trapping him underneath his body. Realistically, he knows they should get in the shower soon, before they become all sticky and gross, but Ben wants to stay like this for a while longer.

They don’t get to just be too often; there’s always something that needs to be sorted or fixed or dealt with. They so often have to be sons or brothers or dads; they rarely have the chance to just be fiancés. To just lounge around and have sex and talk all afternoon like they did when they first got together.

Not that he would change what they have now for anything in the world, he wouldn’t. The security, the domesticity, the unwavering trust and support - he’d never give that up. Not even for sex. Because as it turns out, they still manage to blow each other’s mind when it comes to that anyways.

He looks up at Callum again; at the way he’s still slightly shaking his head at Ben and at the faintest trace of dimples on his cheeks.

God, he’s so in love with him.

“I’m proud of you, you know.”

Callum meets his eyes, his eyebrows knitting together for a moment. There’s a smirk twitching at his lips and it’s obvious he doesn’t take the comment as serious as Ben meant it to be.

“For shagging you?”

Ben can’t help the laugh that bubbles up in him, trying to hide it in the naked chest underneath him.

“No, idiot. You’re so unashamed of who you are now. Not afraid to be or do what you want. I forget how far you’ve come sometimes but I’m so proud to see it. You’re so perfect. And I’m so fucking lucky.”

Callum’s eyes soften immediately at that, as does his entire expression really, and he takes Ben’s face in both of his hands to pull him into a kiss. They stay like that for a while, trading languid kisses with one another, fingers dancing over each other’s skin, until there’s a crick in Ben’s neck from the weird angle and they’re both breathless.

When they lean back again, Callum runs his nose over Ben’s cheek, pressing a faint kiss to the hinge of his jaw before falling back against the headboard.

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Ben leans back on his elbow, still keeping eye contact with Callum. Their almost saccharine smiles stay firmly in place and Ben could swear Callum’s eyes are liquid and sparkling from where he’s lying - a perfect ocean of warmth and love.

He lets the silence between them stretch for another moment, lets the edges of the world surrounding them turn rose-colored and soft before he continues, a smirk already fighting its way onto his face.

“You’re also super hot like this.”

The eye roll he gets from Callum in return is enough to crack him up, falling onto his back and throwing an arm over his eyes, laughter tumbling out of him in bursts.

“God, you’re insufferable.”

Ben lifts his arm and peaks over at Callum when he feels their mattress dip, being greeted by Callum’s naked ass when he plants a knee onto their bed and leans over, looking for something on the floor. Ben doesn’t exactly know what, if he’s maybe looking for his underwear even though they’re still home alone, but he can’t really form a coherent thought anyway. Not when Callum’s pert little butt is on full display in front of him.

“Go on then. Hit the showers, kid.”

He’s still giggling under his breath and that coupled with the sudden lack of blood in his brain from looking at Callum’s ass must make him do what he does next. Because before he can even register he’s doing it, he’s reaching out and gives Callum’s right butt cheek a timid slap.

The quiet smack echoes through their bedroom and Callum stills his movements at the same time Ben does, hand now resting on the naked flesh he’s slapped before. Callum is silent while he slowly turns around to face Ben again, eyebrows climbing higher and higher into his hairline as he does so.

Ben is sure he’s about to get a telling off and he almost rushes to apologize, but the sudden heat in Callum’s eyes stops him before any words can even escape his mouth. Ben’s eyes drop from Callum’s pinking ears down to his hardening dick and he can just about hold back the appreciative groan, biting his bottom lip to keep any noises in.

Callum crawls over to Ben again, swinging one leg over his waist so he’s sitting in Ben’s lap now, mirroring Ben’s position from earlier. He’s still only looking at Ben, but his eyes are getting darker and darker by the second. Ben has a good idea what he’s thinking about.

“Oh? Seems like we’re unexpectedly going into overtime.”

His laughter soon gets swallowed by kisses; giggles replaced by pants and moans.

Being able to use your extremities seems very overrated to Ben anyway.

[prettybuckybaby]

god, your mama, and me

Peter is a single father and Tony finds out.

part one of single parent peter parker

masterlist

read on ao3 here

It’s when Peter is nearly two hours late and has missed three of his phone calls when Tony really starts to worry.

It’s just, it’s not like Peter to miss lab days. In fact, in the year and a half in which Peter has been officially interning for Tony at Stark Industries, Peter hasn’t missed a single day. He comes to the tower after school on Mondays and Fridays, and spends most of the day Wednesday, when he doesn’t have any classes, there as well. And that’s a lot of days when Peter hasn’t missed the internship, so Tony doesn’t really have any idea why Peter could be missing today. And he’s not panicking. He’s not.

Except, he kind of is.

He’s known Peter for over two years now, known him from when he was a stuttering fifteen-year-old kid in his small bedroom in Queens. Now, he’s an awkward seventeen-year-old, who sleeps in a bigger room in a bigger apartment in Queens thanks to Tony, when he finally managed to get May to accept the help he was offering and get out of the shitty apartment block and into a nicer town. But his point is, he’s known Peter quite a while, and this is out of Peter’s normal behaviour.

So, sue him. Tony’s worrying.

The worry, however, ebbs away slightly when Peter finally answers the phone on Tony’s fifth attempt.

“Mr Stark?” Tony can feel how tired the kid is the moment he hears his voice.

“Underoos? You alright, kid? You sound…tired,”

“It’s been a long day, Mr Stark,”

“Sounds it. Is everything alright?” When Peter doesn’t answer right away, Tony keeps on talking. Subconsciously, he blames it on the adrenaline crash from the sudden decline in panic after hearing the kid’s voice. “You were meant to be at the lab a couple of hours ago. You never miss lab days. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Has something happened-”

“Mr Stark,” Tony can feel the eye roll through the phone and only frowns slightly at the sigh he hears. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”

“Where are you then, kid, becau-” Tony stops talking when he hears another voice on the other end starts talking.

“Mr Parker? Dr Garcia said you can come through now,” Tony waits until Peter finishes thanking the other person to start talking again.

“Are you in a hospital? I thought you said you weren’t hurt? Is someone else hurt? Where are you? I’m coming now.” His frown deepens when Pete sighs again.

“It’s Aunt May. Listen, now’s not a great time, Mr Stark. Can I call you back later?” Peter doesn’t wait for a response before hanging up the phone, leaving Tony frowning in his lab.

---------------

Peter’s been in the hospital since 7am. He’s been sitting around without any answers for ten and a half hours in uncomfortable plastic chairs that are making his back throb in pain. Honestly, Peter hates hospitals enough that this experience would be horrible enough were he alone. But he’s not alone. He is suffering this hell with a three-year-old. And, while Leia may be the cutest three-year-old he’s ever seen and is definitely his favourite three-year-old and has been napping for the better part of four hours on the uncomfortable plastic chairs, she’s still a three-year-old. And three-year-olds and hospital waiting rooms, Peter has discovered, are not a good mix. So much so, that it’s even more of a relief than it might have been when Doctor Garcia finally tells him that May is out of surgery and is in recovery, and they can go and see her. He picks Leia up gently when he finishes the phone call with Tony, holding his breath when she stirs in her sleep, letting out the air when she just rests her head on his shoulder and continues her nap. He carries her and the bag he packed in a rush this morning into a different white room, where his Aunt lies on a bed, wires all over the place and her skin pale. He stays quiet while Doctor Garcia talks to him, her voice quiet enough that Leia sleeps through the whole conversation. Doctor Garcia explains what happened with May; a car crash on her way home from her night shift at the same hospital they are in now, a truck driver over the limit, both alcohol and speed, driving on the wrong side of the road. May’s injured quite badly, but she’ll recover, and she should wake up in a few hours.

Peter thanks the doctor, smiling when she placed a hand on his shoulder before she leaves the room, leaving just Peter, May, and Leia, silent apart from the beeping of the machine monitoring May’s vitals.

Leia wakes up from her nap soon after Doctor Garcia leaves the room, stirring in Peter’s arms, warm brown eyes blinking up at him.

“’Addy?”

“Hi, sweetheart,” Peter whispers, kissing her forehead, smiling when she rests her head on his shoulder again. “Did you have a nice nap?” The child in his arms hums quietly smiling when Peter starts running his fingers though her hair.

“Is Aunt May ‘kay?”

“She’s going to be just fine, baby. She’s just sleeping, and Doctor Garcia said she should wake up soon.” Leia is quiet in his arms for a few moments before she looks up at him.

“Can we get her a get better card?”

“We could do that,” Peter starts, reaching down for the bag he’s placed next to the chair. “Or, we could make her an extra special one!” Leia grins up at Peter clapping her hands together when he pulls out a wad of coloured card and a pencil case filled with her crayons.

---------------

Leia and Peter sit in the room talking quietly, making a card for May and a mess of the floor, which Peter apologises profusely for whenever a nurse comes in. The nurses, a different one both times, just smile at him and tell him not to worry, and praise Leia for her artwork. It has been around forty minutes when Leia looks up at Peter and stops talking mid-sentence.

“Daddy! There’s someone at the door!” Just as she says it there is a knock, prompting Peter to turn around. His eyes widen slightly when he sees Tony standing there, small smile on his face.

“Princess, will you be okay on your own for a minute?” When Leia looks up at him, eyes wide, he is quick to continue. “I’ll just be at the door with Mr Stark. You can shout for me if you need anything, alright?” Peter waits until she nods to stand up, ruffling her hair. “I’ll just be here, sweet. You carry on with your card.” He smiles at her as he opens the door, leaning against the wall. Tony quietly makes his way into the room, eyes stilling on Leia for a moment before he looks up at Peter.  “Hey, Mr Stark,”

“Hey, kid. What happened?” Tony nods towards the bed where May is still sleeping, looking slightly less pale than she did before. Peter sighs before explaining what Doctor Garcia had told him before, keeping his voice quiet so Leia couldn’t hear him.

“But they said she should be waking up soon, so,” He finishes with a shrug. He smiles softly when Tony squeezes his shoulder, letting his hand rest there.

“And the kid?” He asks, looking across the room. “She-” Tony is cut off when the girl in question gasps, turning towards Peter.

“Da..Daddy!”

“Leia?” The teen asks, eyes running up and down, looking for injuries. “What’s wrong, baby?”

“I bro…broked the cray..on,” She sniffles as she speaks, eyes filling with tears that threaten to fall. She takes a breath as she holds the crayon up for Peter to see.

“Oh, no!” He sighs heavily as he crouches down, taking the two pieces from her small hands. He looks at them for a few moments, before nodding and looking up at Leia. “I can fix this, Princess,”

“You can, Daddy?” Her eyes meet Peter’s as they widen, a hopeful look on her face. “How, Daddy?” Peter looks around the room, purposely looking at Tony before beckoning Leia closer towards him.

“Magic!” Leia gasps quietly at Peter’s words. “You remember the magic words I taught you?” Leia nods and opens her mouth to reply before Peter puts a finger over her mouth. “Ah ah ah! Not until I tell you to, otherwise it won’t work, turtlebug,” Leia nods seriously as she closes her mouth, waiting for what Peter is going to say next. “Okay. First thing, you’ve got to close your eyes. And you can’t open them until I tell you to. This is very important, Leia, to make sure it works right,”

“Okay, Daddy,” She smiles as she closes her eyes, squeezing them tightly shut. “What next?”

“Next, you’ve gotta spin around slowly, okay? Three times,” As he speaks and as Leia completes her tasks, Peter goes into his bag and pulls out a new box of crayons, replacing the broken red one with a new, whole one, before moving to crouch in front of Leia again. “Okay, now you haveta jump up and down three times as well. Super! Okay, open your eyes for the last bit, pumpkin,”

“Hi,” She giggles as they make eye contact, a smile on her face.

“Hi,” He smiles back, before lifting his hands, crayon clasped within them, up in front of them. “Okay, last bit, babe, got to get it right.” Leia takes a deep breath and nods at Peter. Peter nods back, before looking at his hands. “Okay, put your hands around mine. Good, okay. I’m going to count to three, and then we have to say the magic words together okay? And you remember what we have to do after we’ve done that, don’t you?”

“We have to blow on it. To make the magic work!”

“That’s right! Ready?” He waits for a moment before she nods her head. “Okay. One…Two…Three!”

“A’ra cebabra!” She shouts out before blowing on Peter’s hands. She waits a moment before meeting Peter’s eyes. “Did it work?”

“I don’t know, sweet. We’ll have to have a look, won’t we?” Leia nods enthusiastically, bouncing gently on her feet. She gasps, a smile growing on her face as Peter opens his hands and the crayon is in one piece. “Thank you, Daddy!”

“You’re very welcome, baby. You go and finish your card before Aunt May wakes up, yeah?”

“Okay. Love you, ‘Addy,”

“I love you, too, Princess. Off you pop,” He smiles, ruffling her hair as she grins up at him before dashing off towards her card again. Peter sighs quietly as he stands up, turning towards Tony. The older man is stood in the same position he was when they were talking, a small smile on his own face. “Mr Stark?”

“She’s yours?” Peter looks up sheepishly at his mentor, nodding slowly. “You’re really good with her,”

“Thanks,”

“I mean it.” He says, eyes flittering between the teen and his child. “How old is she?”

“Just turned three,” Peter smiles as he looks towards where she’s digging through her pencil case and pulling out a page of stickers. Tony whistles lowly.

“And you raised her yourself?”

“Well, May helped. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Tony agrees, nodding. “Not what I meant, though,”

“What?” Peter looks up at him, confused, before his face clears. “Oh. Yeah. There were…complications. With the birth. She, uh…she didn’t make it,”

“Oh. I’m sorry, kid.” Peter shrugs, looking down at the floor. “Must be tough,”

“Just the cards we were dealt, Mr Stark,” He turns his face away and he rubs his eyes as subtly as he can. Tony is nice enough not to mention it, turning his own head away. “Anyway. I’ve got Leia. I’ve got a little bit of her with me every day.”

“And you loved her?” Peter sighs softly as he wraps his arms around himself, still not meeting Tony’s eyes.

“We were fourteen, Mr Stark. I loved her for what I knew love to be,” They stood in silence for a few moments, both unsure of what to say. “I miss her a lot.”

“Does Leia know about her?”

“Yeah,” Peter smiles softly. “There’s some pictures of her in my room and we visit her grave and I tell her stories a lot. I’m not sure Leia understands what I’m talking about, but she always asks about her,” His smile turns sad as he talks, eyes on Leia the whole time. “She’s the spitting image of her,”

“She’s beautiful, Pete,”

“Yeah,” Peter looks back up at Tony, meeting his eyes for the first time in this conversation. “Yeah, she is,” They watch Leia together in a comfortable silence, the peace only breaking when Leia speaks again.

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, darling?” Peter crouches down to pick his daughter up, settling her of his waist. She giggles softly as Peter spins her around, the teen grinning down at her.

“I’m hung’y, Daddy,”

“Well, that just won’t do, will it, princess?” Leia shakes her head quickly, eyes widening and hair falling in her face. “Come on, then. Let’s see what we’ve got,” As Peter crouches down again to shuffle through his bag, Tony clears his throat.

“There’s a café across the road, kid. Go and get a proper meal. Something warm. I know you’ve not had anything proper today,” When he notices the hesitation on Peter’s face, he continues quickly. “I’ll stay with Aunt Hottie. I’ll call you if anything happens,”

“I…I don’t know, Mr Stark. I don’t want to leave her,”

“Okay, then,” Tony sighs and bumps their shoulders together softly. “I’ll take little miss to the café. Get her a proper meal, at least. You stay here with May, get some rest, and we’ll bring you something back, right, Miss Parker?” Leia giggles quietly, nodding up at Tony and smiling.

“I can’t ask you to do that, Mr Stark,” Peter sighs as he stands up again, Leia’s arms still tangled together behind his neck, legs tight around his waist.

“You’re not asking, kid. I’m offering. You need a rest, Peter. Even if it’s just ten minutes while Leia eats,” Peter hesitates for a moment, rocking Leia gently.

“Alright,” He sighs eventually. “Will you be alright with Mr Stark, Leia?” The toddler nods her head as she unwinds her limbs from her father. Peter puts her down on the floor and smiles when she walks over to Tony, tugging his hand.

“Than’ you, Mista Stark,”

“No problemo, Sweetie,” He takes her hand and grins at her, and then looks back up at Peter as they walk up to the door. “Hey, Leia? Did Daddy tell you about the time that he fell over in my lab and broke one of my robots because he saw a spider?”

“No!” Leia giggles, skipping next to the man, looking up at him with wide eyes. Tony smirks when he hears Peter huff behind him.

“Well, I’ve got lots of stories like that that I have to tell you about. Your Daddy falls over a lot, you know,”

Peter smiles as he hears Leia giggle from down the hall.

[crescentsteel]

Run

plot: Zombie run with Eita Semi genre: fluff, crack wc: 2k A/N: 

- Thanks again @newfriendjen​ and @kaitycole​ for the betaread and the encouragement to post this. Also to @hidden-otaku-stuff for big brain ideas. I luv yall so much u hav no idea

- We also have a spoofy halloween collab at @babythotshq​

The usual chilly Autumn breeze is not present tonight among the crowd you are standing with. The sun has already set hours ago and darkness has completely enveloped the usually deserted area. The only source of light in the place is that one large orange fluorescence which only covered a certain spot. Tall trees are looming over the few empty, abandoned houses with only a narrow concrete path that accommodated the amount of people here tonight. 

It was downright eerie, if not for the excitement buzzing in the air at the event that is about to take place. You’re so darn excited that your fingers are curling up. You clasp them together to contain the anticipation pumping in your whole body.

“Are you sure about this, y/n?”

Your gray-haired boyfriend wore a smile to hide his worry, but you see through it anyway. It doesn’t affect you though. The fact that he went with you to attend this event is enough to make you silly happy.

You cling to his arm cheerfully. “Of course! This is gonna be so fun. I can feel it already.” You go in front of him and embrace him, burying your face on his chest. You squeal giddily from the promise of the thrill you will experience with him tonight.

Semi looks at people around you with a mild pink tint on his face. Compared to you, he’s a bit more reserved in showing affection, especially publicly. But he doesn't have the heart to push you away while you happily embrace him. He puts his hands on your shoulders as his way of reciprocating. 

You look up to him with bright eyes beaming with zeal. It mellowed him up. He forgets about his surroundings and just admires how pretty you look like this. 

“Thanks for coming with me,” you say with the most adorable smile. He cups your cheek  and rubs it with his thumb.

“Just don’t hurt yourself later, okay?” 

A loud siren drowns out the murmuring of the crowd. It was disturbing to say the least. He looks around to see where it came from. He knows that aside from the people here, there’s literally no one else around. This place is as abandoned as it gets.

You pull away from him.

“It’s gonna start soon. Let’s go.” You drag him to the starting line where they’re giving out instructions. Present there are a few staff distributing your kits which consists of a flashlight, a belt with three red bands, and white paper that has (3) on it. Behind the saff is a black gate that’s closed shut. He attempts to look beyond it just to get a glimpse of what will take place, but he fails to see anything at a significant distance from the lack of light. 

Earlier, there was enough space for everybody. Now that everyone’s gathered and restless from the anticipation, it’s getting a bit too cramped for his taste. You aren’t fazed though. You looked more excited actually. 

“Have you done this before?” 

You frown at him. “Didn’t I tell you? I do this every year.”

That took him by surprise. For someone doing this annually, you’re way too pumped up.

“Why are you so excited then?”

“Cause you’re with me, of course.”

He can never understand how you say whatever’s in your head without any hesitation. Yet, he finds it so endearing because it’s something he’s unable to do. As much as he loves you, his thoughts just don’t come out as they are in his thoughts. It’s usually filtered out to reduce whatever lovey dovey cheesiness his words might have. Sometimes he feels bad about it because he can’t be as candid as you are. You never complained though.  

He clears his throat to rub off the fluster he’s holding in.

“So tell me if I got this right. These 3 red strips are our lives?” He softly tugs the bands hanging on your waist. They’re flimsy and he can tell that a soft pull can easily remove them.

“Mmhmm. Lose them all and you’re out.”

“And we can’t touch the ‘zombies’?”

“Yep.. We just outrun or avoid them.”

“For how long?”

Your eyes dart to the side then up, evidently thinking of the answer to his question. 

“Hmm, they won’t be onto us all the time. But the track is 6 kilometers long.”

6 kilometers? He didn’t think this whole thing would cover that much distance. Not that he can’t handle it. It should be nothing compared to Coach Washijo’s training. But you, he wasn’t aware that you can cover that gap. You’re not exactly the type to be into any strenuous physical activity. The only time is when …

“What’s wrong, Eita? Your face is flushed.”

When you put a hand on his neck to gauge his temperature, he grabs your wrist in a flash and puts it down. 

“It’s nothing. Don’t mind it.”

Your once exuberant demeanor dwindled down to a despondent one.

“Are you mad because I dragged you into this?”

Oh shit. He didn’t mean to sound harsh. He just didn’t want to let you know that his mind took a sudden lewd turn. 

“Heeey,” he says softly while squeezing your hands. “I swear it’s not that. There’s just a lot of people so it feels hot.”

“Are you uncomfortable?” the same anxious look still spread on your face. 

He pinches your cheeks upward to form a goofy smile on your troubled face. “Don’t worry about me, y/n. We’re going to outrun these zombies like shit, okay?” Your lovely smile comes back as you nod.

The same siren rings again, signalling the gates to open. The orange light powers down, which is replaced by flickering, dim lamp posts beyond the gate. It reveals a concrete path. It’s supposed to be the only path, but there were signs that say (1) (2) (3). (2) was the concrete path in the middle while the (1) and (3) led to the left and the right which are soiled grounds.

The number you drew from the staff was three so you went right. There were less people now since the crowd had been divided into three. He wasn’t expecting much, but he didn’t expect anything. There were no zombies, just the attendees that were grouped with you two. If it weren’t for the signs where to go, he’d have no idea how to proceed. 

There were no fixed lights, only the flashlights that were handed to everyone. Even with a group of people, footsteps and the rustling of the leaves were the only sounds he could hear. No one talked. Minutes of walking forward in silence went by and still, nothing. Yet, he’s getting creeped out. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s being watched. He let his eyes wander at the darkness lurking in the seams of the forest-like area. 

The fragile tension in the air broke when someone screamed. It came from behind. All those who were near you turned their heads back to see what it was, including him. But he doesn’t see the source of commotion when the people suddenly sprints to his direction. 

He knew that it was the zombies, but he just stood there because he wanted to see them in action. When they come into view, he regrets dawdling around. They aren’t like the zombies you’d see in theme parks for fun. If he didn’t know that this was just a halloween event, he’d be convinced that they’re real. To make it worse, they’re not the limping, sluggish zombies - they are out to get people.  

‘The fuck are they supposed to be - track runner zombies?’ he said in his head.

He was too absorbed in the scenery that he only snapped out of it when he heard snarling and huffing too close to him already. 

He pivots a complete 180-degree on his heels and dashes away. He might have reacted late but his athleticism will make up for it. He didn't look back and focused his energy on his legs. He thought that the zombies only came from behind. Apparently, they also came from the side of the pathway. Everything seems straight out of a horror movie. Shriek and snarls filled the forest air. It’s like Wrong Turn but with zombies. 

So what if it’s not real? It’s too creepy. No way he’s letting any of those zombies near him. 

He sees a sign that says ‘200 meters from the end’ when he feels something’s not right. Something’s missing. 

He forgot about you! Fuuuck. He stops dead on his tracks and looks around while panting. Maybe you’ve caught up to him. But he highly doubts it. He was running at full speed. And just like he thought, he couldn’t see you anywhere near him. He panicked when the zombies came that you completely slipped from his mind.

 ‘Shit. Shit. Shit. I’m an idiot.’ 

He lets out a grunt knowing that there’s no other choice but to go back and look for you. You might be a regular attendee, but that didn’t ensure your safety. 

Zombies were sparing him second glances because he’s the only one who’s heading back to where they came from. 

Going back meant facing the zombies head on while not getting caught. Running away was easy. Avoiding the zombies head on while looking for you simultaneously right after sprinting with all his might was not. He’s already tired.

With two zombies growling in front of him as they blocked his path, he just gave up. “I’m just looking for my girlfriend, okay? Can’t you just let me through?” He took his “lives” and dangled it in front of them. “You can have these. Have you seen someone wearing a pink sweater and gray pants?” The two zombies stood straight and looked at each other. 

“I think we passed by someone wearing pink.” Zombie A said. “Not really sure if that’s her though.” Zombie B added. He hands them his lives for the information they gave him. Now that he doesn’t have any, the zombies won’t bother chasing him anymore.

The two went on running after other attendees. After they got out of the way, he sees you right there jogging towards him. 

“Eitaaaa.” You half-shouted. When you reached each other, you slouched with your hands on your knees while panting.  “Why did you,” more panting, “leave me?”

“Uhh.” He scratched his head trying to find an excuse. “I thought you were with me the whole time.” He smiles apologetically at you. You stand straight and look at him with sulking eyes. “But you ran so fast! I thought we were gonna outrun them together.” You raised your voice at ‘together.’

“Well, we can outrun them now.” He says in an attempt to console you.

You pout as you softly speak, “I lost my lives already. I was distracted trying to find you.” He was going to apologize but a zombie suddenly appeared behind you without you noticing. He grabs you to his side. “Dude. We don’t have lives anymore.”

The zombie looks at both your empty waistbands then runs away.

“Wait. How come you don’t have any left? You were so fast.” 

He felt bad about lying previously so he admits what really happened. He was expecting you to sulk even more but you put your arms around him and smirk. “Hehe. Did you really get that scared?” 

He pats your head lovingly and indulges your amusement of having him spooked. “Yes, I did. Let’s try again next year?” Your eyes become wide as saucers before they sparkle with excitement. “You want to do it again?!”

He smiles.“Yeah, why not?” He has to admit that the run got him going. Looking back at what happened, it was actually thrilling. If only he didn’t ‘accidentally’ lose you, he ‘s confident that you two could have finished the whole marathon. 

“Yes!!” You pressed yourself to him and held on to him completely. Everyone seems to be busy in the chase anyways so he envelops his arms around your waist and returns the hug this time. Two seconds passed and he realized how ludicrous you two looked, snuggling in the middle a marathon with zombies. 

As of reading his mind, you pull away first and meet his gaze with your distinct warm smile. “Let’s go home?” 

He grabs your hand and holds it. “Yeah.”

Amidst the zombies and people running around in the moonlit forest, you two walk to the end of the pathway with your fingers intertwined. 

[littlegoldenbirdie]

A show I never watched

Guess who’s crazy/dumb enough to write an alternate finale for a show I never even watched? Me!

Well, what can I say but that I have found a different road to the same destination? Any inaccuracies can be blamed on me being nuts enough to do what I stated above.

----------

As the dark mist of Rayblood’s corruption poured out of Belial, his body slackened in his son’s desperate embrace. Neither of them noticed. Rather, Geed watched the departing cloud with a mixture of surprise and triumphant vindication, while Belial merely stared upward in a numb haze due to his mind being purged of the darkness’s influence. Reeling, he pulled away from the younger Ultra, stumbled a few steps and… changed. A momentary lapse of consciousness brought him to his knees, landing as a vastly different being from the one who had initially fallen. A monstrous red and black warrior hit the ground as a perfectly normal if somewhat elderly Ultra. “F-Father?” Geed could only manage the one word, and it went unnoticed. Eventually the older Ultra stirred, looking at his newly clawless hands as if they were alien to him. “These are my hands,” he said in quiet awe. His voice had changed drastically as well, Geed noticed. The pitch was a bit higher than before and the growling thunder was gone, as was the malice, along with the cruel glee and any sort of rage. Belial (was he still?) slowly, gingerly ran his hands along his face. “This is my face… and my voice,” he murmured, though his son could hear. He stood up slowly, awkwardly, unfamiliar with his new body… or was it his old body? Geed couldn’t tell, but he had a feeling. “Father…” Now the world as a whole could see what the landscape of their shared minds had shown him… Deep down inside, the intergalactic tyrant was, had almost always been, a tired old man who just wanted to stop.

At last, Belial responded, as if he had forgotten Geed was there. “…S-son? My… son?” Their gazes met for a long, long moment. “Look, it’s me,” he said in an astonished yet undeniably happy-sounding voice. The next few words stumbled forth almost as a laugh, which sounded incredibly strange to both of them. “It’s… it’s really me.” When had been the last time Belial truly laughed, rather than cackling or gloating? Neither of them remembered, and deep down Geed doubted there was anyone left who could. Well, now that had changed, he realized with no small measure of satisfaction. It was over… Belial’s reign of terror over the galaxy at large had finally ended, and nobody had to die for it. “You’re free now, Father. It’s over. All of it.” He paused for a moment. “I think we’ve both already had a long enough day at this point. Let’s just go home.” He realized that wasn’t quite the right thing to say when his father recoiled as if struck. To Belial, ‘home’ was, had always been, the Land of Light, the place he had been exiled from and longed to return to… in vain! “…No,” he said eventually, looking down and turning away. “I can’t go back after all the things I’ve done,” he continued. “If I go back to the Land of Light with you, the best I can hope for is the isolation cells again… for the rest of my natural lifespan.” The last remnants of their shared mental landscape gave the shudder he didn’t allow his body to show. “I won’t go back to the isolation cells… I-I can’t. Immobility and darkness, total silence…” This time he really did shudder. “And that’s if I’m lucky! A criminal of my caliber might just warrant immediate execution!” Alarmed, Geed blurted out, “But the Rayblood…” The words were barely spoken before Belial cut in sharply. “You and I are the only ones who saw that! As far as everyone else in the galaxy knows, it was all me! There’s no way they’d ever listen to me, and I doubt anyone would listen to you without any evidence. And even if they believed it, that doesn’t cover my original crime.” Geed sighed. “Yes, Zero told me all about it. You tried to…” He was cut off. “Yes, I tried to steal the Plasma Spark’s power. It nearly burned me to death when I did. Had the officers sent to arrest me arrived any later, they’d have found a pile of ashes instead of a screaming half-dead fool. It would have been better if they had… For me, anyway.” His voice grew more bitter with each word. “They at least had the decency to let me recover a bit before they put me on trial for my crime… They tried me, found me guilty, sentenced me, exiled me… and not once did any of them ask me why!” 

Geed knew that sometimes the best way to win a battle both physical or mental was simply to talk… or to listen. “Father,” he said gently, “I’m asking.” The sudden rage and bitterness drained out of the older Ultra, replaced by surprise and relief, followed swiftly by sorrow. “I was so young back then. So very, very young…” He sighed. “The one thing they don’t tell you about during training is all the people you won’t save. Try as you might, there will always be enemies you can’t defeat, innocents you can’t get to, or times when you’re simply too late to do anything.” Another pause. “I’ve seen my share of battles, and I’ve seen what that inevitable realization does to people. I’ve watched colleagues throw themselves into further training and push themselves until they broke, their minds just as often as their bodies. Others refused to accept failure and threw their lives away when they could never have succeeded anyway. I know I can’t have been the only one to think that maybe, must maybe, if I was stronger…” He shook his head sadly. “I was the only one to think the Plasma Spark could fix that, though. Dumbest thing I ever did. My encounter with the Rayblood came after my exile, as I fled to a barren planet and raged in vain as I finished healing. It only got in because I let it in. Blinded by anger, I accepted its offer. Its influence led to my worse deeds, but my banishment was all me.” He raised his arms. “And now look at me; I’ve lost all my power. How long do you think it’ll be before my old ‘friends’ back in the Land of Light send officers to arrest me for my crimes? How do you think a life on the run sounds to me? And that assumes I won’t end up crushed beneath the weight of my sins, mind, body and soul!” For a moment, he looked like he was about to laugh, or cry. “We Ultras are creatures of light, son. We’re not meant for darkness. Of any kind. Places or deeds, it’s all the same. The shadows corrupt us, consume us… destroy us. And once they’ve touched you, there’s no going back. Ever.” He drooped, his posture showing pure sorrow and resignation.

His next words confused Geed, and not in a good way. “I want you to know, you’re the only good thing to come out of my miserable existence… and I wasn’t even involved, technically speaking! And also, I know there are things they drill into you in training, the basics that become even more than second nature, responses as automatic as breathing, as reliable as a heartbeat… such as putting up a reflective Ultra Barrier when fired upon.” Barely even a split second later, he turned and did just that. “Deathcium Beam!” As Belial had effectively predicted, Geed instinctively countered with an Ultra Barrier, bouncing the beam right back at its sender. His training ensured that he reflected it at the precise angle to ensure maximum damage, striking Belial full in the chest and sending him flying backward like a ragdoll. “FATHER, NO!” He recognized a fatal hit before he even started moving, rushing to the elder’s side to kneel by him. He yet lived… for the moment. “Father, why? Why?” Clasping hands with his son, Belial struggled to speak. “…S…such a… good Ultra. Better… than I… ever was…” Weak though his voice was, he sounded… happy. “T…tell the others… I was a monster, yes… But I started… as a deluded young fool…” This was as close to redemption as he could hope to get, his dying mind decided. Letting others know that although evil had ended up consuming his life, he hadn’t started out that way. But wait, there was still… He looked up at his son even as his vision dimmed. Perhaps… perhaps… “Geed… As your father, I am… part of you. So please… Let your light shine upon the galaxy. Then maybe… just maybe… my light will shine… too…” Those last few words spoken, he let himself slip into darkness.

Geed bowed his head in sorrow as the older Ultra’s body went limp in his arms. It really was over now… “Goodbye, Father…” Victory had never felt this bitterly painful before, and he could only hope it never would again, no matter what battles the future threw at him. But now was not the time to think of the future. There were more important things to take care of first. Giving a sigh, he gently gathered the limp, cooling corpse in his arms, cradling it against his chest. The reign of the dark Ultra had finally ended. The Land of Light had decreed that Belial could not return while he lived, but perhaps now… Getting his legs beneath him, Geed leapt upward and took to the sky, leaving the planet and taking his grim cargo with him. Now, at last, Ultraman Belial was going home.

--------------

Like I said, the end is the same, but it came in a different way.

[mari-vargas]

Ok so I’m sitting waiting for my car to get an oil change (yes…the alert popped up Monday afternoon…just a day after my whole tire adventure), and since I just told this story yet again recently (to my tow truck driver on Sunday) I figured I’d share one of my “when it rains it pours” stories about my car. This is the story I mentioned in the teaser/reminder post, about my car transmission.

So I was headed home from university for winter break one year, and I had my two cats and a friend from high school that wound up eventually following me to university. Wow I just realized how much I’d love to tell the story about this friend of mine, but it’s a whole thing in and of itself so I’ll get into that another time…maybe soon so I’ll make a bit more sense…idk it’ll be fine I’m sure.

Anyways, we lived about an eight and a half hour drive away from our university. We were about an hour and a half to two hours in to our drive, in an area looking just like any other on the main stretch of the journey and I had no clue where precisely I was. All of a sudden, my car started making a weird noise. I’m not even sure I can describe it, but I absolutely will still recognize it to this day and am terrified of hearing it. When my tire was about to blow out it started making a similar noise and it’s only because it was missing the next few things to happen that I didn’t freak out as bad as the first time my battery died. ANYWAYS after it started making a sort of…clunking sound, it started revving (which I will be perfectly honest, happens sometimes with my car especially going at higher speeds with resistance like air or a slight incline or a slight decline), but the next two things were especially weird. The needle on my rpm meter started hard swinging back and forth like a pendulum on a grandfather clock even though I was keeping a steady pressure on my accelerator…and then my acceleration started rapidly declining.

I was in the far left lane of a three lane section of the freeway, and I was rapidly decelerating without any idea why or any ability to get myself to go faster. Also couldn’t find my hazard lights because it wasn’t in the same place as the car I had learned in. Anyways…somehow, miraculously, and with an awful lot of anger on other drivers parts (mostly towards the end because I was freaking out and didn’t just stop) I managed to get all the way over before the next exit, exited, waited at a light to turn left like an absolute dummy, and very very slowly made it into the parking lot of some sort of mall or shopping center thing. Where I then parked, and proceeded to freak the heck out. My friend was freaking out too and honestly I think I had more knowledge about what to do than he did, which considering the near white out panic I was in for at least a moment there is kinda saying something. I didn’t know what was wrong with my car. I tried to compare it to things I’d seen happen and just…didn’t know. My gas was full, the battery seemed to be working, tires all fine of course (don’t even remember if I’d even thought about tires at the time). All I knew was that my car had stopped accelerating at all. Maybe there was something wrong with my accelerator? I just didn’t know. It was out of my depth for what I knew how to deal with.

I started messaging everyone—texting because autocorrect could carry me through the worst of my hands shaking, fingers slipping, and eyes blurring which were all getting in the way of my ability to call anybody. I remember talking a lot with my sister, and a bit with my dad, probably even my mom at some point (who would’ve had a significantly leveler head and some more info than my dad). My sister meanwhile was talking and relaying information back and forth with my niece’s dad who was a mechanic at several points before and during the time we knew him (honestly don’t know if he currently was or wasn’t at that exact time but knowledge and skill like his doesn’t just go away). But whatever I’m amongst all that my sister was also the first to remind me about the AAA our grandma has gotten for all of her grandkids as soon as they start driving (yes, same grandma I travel with all the time. Makes sense, no? Always glad she’s able to do that for the five us).

So I call AAA and my friend is on the phone talking with his mom. My dad, knowing I could get a tow up to 100mi, sends me the address for a steak house exactly 100mi from the shopping center I was in (and had a decent sized parking lot for trucks). Tow truck pulls up, finds out I actually really am aiming for the full 100mi, calls his boss to get clearance for the long distance tow rather than the in town tow he was told he was cleared for because he didn’t want to pass us off to someone else since I guess he was sorta attached to making sure we got through this after hearing probably a full blown spiel from me, gets the OK and loads up my little red spark which I had cracked the windows of for my cats. We all hop into the cab of the truck and he goes and gasses up and as we’re pulling out of the truck gas station, I realize where I am. My car had died just past the exit I usually would stop for coffee at. Needless to say I was a bit superstitious after that and always stopped at that coffee shop either direction after that, whether I needed coffee or not.

So he tows us to the steak house a hundred miles away and it’s dark and the tow truck driver is concerned about leaving us in the middle of nowhere but I reassured him that I have someone with a car trailer on their way already. In case you’re wondering, that would be my sister’s coparent (here on referred to as B) with mechanic experience who would also fix up friends’ cars on the side and even had a couple of project cars.

So yeah we’re waiting there my cats are fine, frustrated over not being done with being in a car yet but seemingly understanding something unusual and out of my control had happened. It’s dark and around late dinner time. There’s a chain restaurant of some kind across the way, so my friend and I walk over there to get some dinner. Before that though, we had a talk because well…we’re wandering around in the dark. Now my friend, he’s tall like super tall and has a face that would at least warn away casual glances. However. He cannot throw a punch or literally defend himself in just about any way whatsoever. Me on the other hand, I unfortunately look like easy pickings. But I can throw a punch and otherwise escape an attacker and potentially help others get away too. So we had an agreement. He’d be there looking big and tough and warning away people, but if anything actually happened I’d be the one throwing fists and feet and getting us out.

I mean, we were fine. Got our food, got back to the car, no problem. But fact remains we had to have that conversation. Anyways it was another 2-4 hours before B showed up with the trailer. But show up eventually he did and he got us loaded up and into his truck (with my cats WITH me this time) and we hit the road, dropping my friend off with his mom at around 0100 and I finally made it home about half an hour after. He left my car on his trailer to get in the morning to take to the dealership.

So the dealership takes a look at it and says “well the transmission is completely dead, good news it’s still covered under the factory warranty.” It took a good while to be replaced but it was and again it was all on warranty.

Now I said “when it rains it pours”.

I could’ve just meant it was something major, out of nowhere right? But no…unfortunately, no. This was the winter break I’d been volunteering at that museum (have I mentioned this before? Eh….) and since I didn’t have my car I borrowed my mom’s. When I finally got my car back, we decided to keep having me use my mom’s car because I’d had to register it with security so they’d know not to charge me for parking. So my car sat in the driveway for the next…let’s say two weeks before I had to head back to university (again with my friend and cats in tow).

So it’s now I think the day before I leave and my dad takes my car to the grocery store and to gas it up for me while I’m working. Only…it doesn’t start. Or gives him problems or something I don’t even know the specifics. B can’t look at it before I have to leave, so we decide to just have my mom and I swap until spring. B came over maybe halfway through my drive and found a rodent nest in the engine compartment (rabbit or rat, we’re not entirely sure). Abandoned, but it looked like they’d chewed through some wires and other connectors to make room for their home. B got it taped together just enough for it to be taken back to the dealership to be properly fixed. It was.

BUT THEN (oh you thought it was over? Haha eh… almost)

It’s not quite spring break yet so my mom and I still have each other’s cars. My mom went to turn the key (on or off I honestly don’t know) and it broke. It was apparently a bit of an adventure for her involving at least three different shops but she got it replaced.

My little red car was running beautifully by the time I got it back 🤣

[fanfiction4thesoul]

Dreams

Pairing: Roger Taylor x Reader

Word Count: ~3.4

Warnings: Smut (18+ only), fluff, angst-ish

Summary: Queen’s tour gets extended. And your plans get put to the backseat.

Request: Ooo, saw your requests are open ❤️ please can I have something angsty with Rog with a bit of smut and fluff thrown in?  Thank you

A/N: Thank you @jennyggggrrr​ for this request. I’m not quite sure how angsty this turned out but it’s still there at least ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Hope you like it! My requests are still open for anyone interested and I’ve started a taglist so if you want to join just comment or message me. Thanks to anyone that comments/likes/reblogs!

Picture from Queen in 3D by Brian May

“You’re… extending the tour?” You weren’t quite sure you heard Roger right. He was so excited, he was talking almost too fast for you to keep up.

“Yeah! Management is adding nights at some stops on top of bringing on whole new locations. It’s gonna be great! They said wer--”

“Roger!” you cut him off. “How long is the extension?” You twisted the phone cord around your finger nervously. This was great news for his career but you were supposed to--

“It’ll tack on about four weeks. And then--”

“And then you have the studio in L.A. booked three days later.” You finished for him, your heart sinking.

“Well, yeah, that’s been the plan, love.”

Your heart dropped straight to your stomach with that. He didn’t remember. “What about our plans, Rog?” Maybe it was just a momentary lapse. He was on tour for months now and it’s not like you talked about it since before he left.

“Wha… what plans?”

Even as you felt your eyes burn, you felt your anger rise. “Yes, Roger. Our plans. The ones where we were going to try and start a family after the tour and before you head to L.A.” 

Roger started fumbling on the other end, stuttering over his words, but you were barely listening. You stared at the fireplace in your big, empty house and all you could think was that it would stay empty. No family to fill it. Not even Roger because he’s always out gallivanting across the globe. But he’s living his dream. There’s no way you could ask him to give that up. Not even for your dream.

You sighed, talking over whatever Roger was trying to say. “Just… just forget it, Rog. It doesn’t even matter. Talk to you later.” 

“Wait, (Y/N), don--” You hung up the phone with a click. Closing your eyes, you leaned against the head of your bed, not sure what to do. The next moment the phone was ringing again. You reached over, lifting it up and clicking down the receiver, putting the phone on the table. You couldn’t deal with Roger right now. Not with the amount of hurt he left you with. 

Children had always been a promise for the future and right before he left, it finally felt like you wouldn’t be waiting anymore. Roger laid out the plans for the band, their tour, the break, the time in the studio with a projected time it would take to make the album. With a rockstar for a husband, there was no good time to start a family. It was mostly just finding out how to fit it in and hope it coincided well with his schedule. 

Sighing, you laid down in bed, back turned to the cold side behind you, and tried to go to sleep. 

The next few days passed in a blur. You kept the phone off the hook, almost afraid to put it back on. Half because you thought Roger would try to keep calling but also half afraid that he wouldn’t bother. You weren’t sure which made you more apprehensive. Work was a simple distraction but not a big enough one to stop your mind from wandering back to Roger.

Finally, after four days, you put your phone back together.

And nothing happened.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and forced yourself to walk away from the phone. That didn’t stop you from jumping to attention when it rang ten minutes later.

“Hello?”

“(Y/N)?”

“Fred?” You asked, confusion replacing the tension in your mind.

“My God (Y/N). What have you been doing? Roger’s been calling the house for days and he says it’s been busy.” Freddie said, worrying lacing his voice.

You felt slightly embarrassed, not thinking your behavior would cause such a problem with everyone. “I, uh… took the phone off the hook after… well after Roger and I talked.”

“Well we gathered that much, darling. Rog won’t say anything about what happened. Just that he fucked up and needs to make it right. Honestly, I’m always cleaning up after his messes. Now. Tell me. What did Blondie do.” 

“Fred… I don’t… If Roger--”

“Nuh-uh. Nope. (Y/N), tell me now or so help me.” Freddie said sounding rather irritated. He paused and sighed a moment later. “He’s been moping around like a lost fool, (Y/N). I just want to help if I can.”

Freddie’s words were soft and you knew he meant it. He was often the mediator between you and Roger when your fiery tempers became too much. Fred was always there as the go between. But you weren’t just angry this time. No. You were far too disappointed and hurt for your anger to rise up.

“Rog and I… well we were gonna try for a baby,” you started out softly.

“Oh (Y/N) that’s wonderful news! What’s the problem then?”

“Fred. We planned everything out before the tour. We talked over when he’d be back, when he’d leave again. He even said how excited he was!” Your voice was rising but you couldn’t help yourself. “And then you extended the tour. Which is-- it’s fine-- great! But… he forgot.” You paused as your throat closed a little and tears well again. “He just… forgot. Which makes me feel like he doesn’t care at all. Or, if we have a child he’ll get so wrapped up with the band that we’ll just be… left behind.”

“Oh, (Y/N)...”

“Tell me my fears are unfounded.” You choked up a little. “Tell me, Fred.”

Freddie stayed silent.

“That’s what I thought.” You let out a small sob before you compose yourself a little bit. “Tell Roger I’m alive, but I don’t want to talk to him. Not yet. Maybe not ‘til he gets home. If he even comes home. Okay?” You repeat yourself when Freddie didn’t answer right away.

“Okay, okay. I will. Take care of yourself darling.” He sounded tired.

“You too, Fred.”

Freddie hung up the phone and turned to the other person in the room. Roger was staring intently at him, waiting.

“You fucked up.” Was all Freddie said.

“Well, shit Fred. I fucking know that. What did she say?” Roger wasn’t sure whether to be angry or not. Sure, (Y/N) disconnected the line. And then answered for Freddie. And Freddie wouldn’t let him on the phone. But he messed up so he kept quiet and waited patiently for their conversation to be over.

“She was crying.”

“Fuck,” he swore, his heart breaking a little bit. He closed his eyes, bracing himself. “What else.”

“She doesn’t think you care.” Another blow. “And she thinks you might forget about her and your child.” Straight to the gut. 

“Shit.” Roger collapsed on the end of the bed, pulling at his hair. “Shit, shit, shit. I really messed up Fred. Shit. What am I gonna do?” He felt like he was at his wits end. It’s not like he meant to forget. On the contrary, it was always on his mind. But touring can get crazy. He often doesn’t have time to think about through the day until he’s laying in bed. And suddenly he remembers your promise until he feels all giddy before falling asleep. And the news about selling out shows and getting more venues was so exciting that it just slipped while he was on the phone with you.

Freddie didn’t look too impressed from where he sat. His lips were pressed into a thin line as his eyes held Roger’s. “You’re going to fix this, darling. And we’re going to help”

“We?”

The date Roger was supposed to come home came and went without much fanfare. Freddie must have delivered your message because you never got a call from Roger. The longer it went, the more guilty you felt. It felt like you were putting your own dreams before Roger’s. And getting angry at him for being excited over a great moment in his career just feels like a shitty thing to do. 

You went back and forth in your mind over being indignant and upset or guilty and worried. The two of you could talk it out when he got back. But then again, he might not even stop in and rather just head straight to their studio appointment. 

This was all on your mind on your drive back from work. So preoccupied with your thoughts, you didn’t realize you weren’t alone until you’d already taken your shoes and coat off at the door. The lights were on in the house and someone was clattering around in the kitchen, making something that smelled really good.

Carefully making your way to the kitchen, your spirits lifted when you saw Roger hunched over a book on the island, hair sticking up everywhere like he’d run his hand through it a million times.

“Rog?” You broke the silence.

He spun around wide eyed with his glasses on that he quickly discarded. “(Y/N)! I- I thought you were off later?”

His nervousness was unusual and it made you a little nervous as well. What was he doing home? And why wasn’t he angry? “I… got done early.” You tried treading carefully to figure out what exactly was going on.

“I, uh. I made dinner. It’s jus--keeping warm in the oven, yeah?” His eyes darted around, looking everywhere but you.

You walked up to, still not catching his eye until you forced him to look at you with a hand on his cheek. “Rog.”

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out, startling you. “I didn’t mean to forget, love. You have to believe me. Our promise was most of what I thought about on the tour. But--but I got caught up in the moment and didn’t even think when we were on the phone. God, I feel awful.”

He kept rambling, grabbing your hand on his cheek to bring to his chest while gesturing wildly with his other hand. “--Fred helped too and it was such a pain. Management didn’t want to do it but Bri and Deaky kicked up a fuss as well and--”

“Roger!” He stopped wide eyed again, looking at you in alarm. “Again. But slower, yeah?” You tried to be gentle.

He took a breath before starting again. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you that enough. And I want to make it right with you. So with the help of Fred and the others, we told management we were ending the tour a day ago and that was that. And we called the studio and rebooked our time there. So… so I’ll be home… if you still want to start a family, that is.”

He squeezed your hand tight, almost pleading you with his big blue eyes.

“Roger… “ you started, and immediately saw him dim. “I’m not going to lie. It hurt. It felt like--like you didn’t want this.”

“I know, love,” he whispered. At your confusion, he continued, “Freddie told me about what you said. And I know how it looks. But I want it. God, of course I want that. I want a little one running around here that’s half of me and more importantly, half of you. Let me show you.” He tugged you forward, bringing you flush against his front.

This wasn’t over. You’d still have to talk more. But for now, you could be happy that he made the effort. That he was here with you now.

“I’m not gonna let you off easy,” you murmured, angling yourself up towards his lips.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, love.” He leant down and captured your lips with his, sealing them with such sweetness, you melted under their warmth. 

Your anger faded away, and your worries quickly changed into feelings of happiness. Roger was quick to swipe his tongue against your lips, demanding entrance.

After all, it had been months since he was home.

As you let him devour your mouth, his hands came around to your ass, pulling you more securely against him so you could feel his growing bulge. You tangled your fingers in his hair, urging him on, only for him to pull away.

“Roger, what are you…” you started to ask, but he was already tugging you along and out of the kitchen.

He laughed as he was guiding you up the stairs and towards the master suite. “I don’t think you want to tell the kids they were made in the kitchen, now do you?”

You giggled along with him up until he pulled you into another kiss. He turned you around and backed you up until your knees hit the bed. Collapsing back, you grabbed onto his shirt to pull him with you, never breaking the kiss. 

His hands found their way under your shirt, smoothing up your sides and back, making you shiver. They eventually reached your bra which he was eager to unclip. Roger moved away, tugging your shirt and bra off in one go, exposing yourself to him. 

You felt a blush rise up on your cheeks as his eyes roved over you before meeting yours. “You’re stunning, love. Better than I remembered. I missed you so much.”

Your heart tightened at his sincerity and any lingering doubt vanished completely. “Rog… I missed you, too.”

He smiled down at you before disposing of his own shirt and pressing down onto you. The kiss he gave you was sweet and chaste and so full of love. But it quickly turned into more when he trailed down to your neck with open mouthed kisses while his hands ghosted up your sides to tease your breasts. Sucking a mark right below your ear, Roger grinded down into your core making you moan.

Your hands were trying to find purchase on his back, tracing over the defined muscles Roger always seems to get after a tour. He grinded down again, pulling noises from the both of you. “Roger, hurry up,” you commanded, though the desperation in your voice took away from it.

“Shit. Yeah, alright.” His hands found their way into the waistband of your pants, yanking them down along with your panites. Roger trailed kisses down your legs as he pulled them off before moving back to shed his own. He hissed as his half hard cock was released, pumping it a few times to bring it to full hardness.

You licked your lips, a little involuntarily, thinking about getting your mouth around him. But that would defeat the purpose of everything. When you draw your gaze away from his movements to look at him, he was staring back with such hunger. You reached out for him and he leaned down to capture your lips again. 

Before you had time to process, Roger had pulled away and flipped you over on your stomach, leaning over you.

He moved your hair to the side, nibbling your ear. “I did some research on the tour,” he mumbled.

“Yeah?” you breathed out.

“Yeah.” His hand smoothed over the globe of your ass, dipping between your thighs and skimming your folds. Roger teased the area, dipping in enough to gather your wetness to smear around but not going farther. You wanted to clench your legs together and give yourself some much needed friction, but Roger’s legs held you wide open. “Do you want to know what I read?”

“Tell me,” you whispered biting your lip.

His fingers slipped into your core, jolting you slightly. It felt slightly strange; he never fingered you from behind and it felt… well backwards.

“It’s all about gravity, love,” he said while trekking his mouth across your neck towards your collarbone. “The deeper I go and the downward angle of your hips-” a hard thrust of his fingers and a whimper from you “-helps with conceiving.”

You clutched the sheets underneath you as his fingers rocked against you hard. “Th-then get on with it, Rog and put a baby in me!”

He froze, fingers stilling inside you and mouth stopping on your shoulder. You turned to try and look him but your movement spurred him into action. His fingers left your core, smearing wetness on your thighs and his other hand brought your face around for a bruising kiss. 

You moaned into it when you felt his shaft rub against your folds.

“God, I love you,” he whispered against your lips. “Ready, love?”

He gazed at you for a moment, waiting for your nod. Moving back, he guided the head to your entrance and pulled your knees up, pushing gently on your back to keep your chest on the bed. In one smooth motion, he hilted himself completely, making you both groan.

Roger was right. This position put him so deep inside you, it felt like he was trying to make a home for himself. The ache of the stretch burned in the most delicious way as your body relearned what it was like to be filled. After a moment, Roger pulled out slowly almost all the way before pushing back in, just as measured. 

You squeezed your eyes shut, moaning into the bed at the sensation. Roger’s grip on your hips tightened, moving you along with his thrusts, drawing little groans from him as well. 

He gradually picked up speed, growing impatient with the pace, ramming into. On one thrust, he swiveled his hips, grinding into your sweet spot and making your back arch. “You like that, love?” he panted out, repeating the action and prying another loud groan from you.

Everything he was doing to you was adding to the building heat in your gut, but you needed more to get you there. Snaking a hand underneath you, you found your clit, rubbing in tight circles bringing you closer.

“God, that’s hot,” Roger’s hips stuttered. One hand left your hip and your opened your eyes when you felt it grip the top of your free hand, interlacing your fingers together. “‘M close, love,” he panted above you.

“M-me, too.” This was going far quicker than you imagined in your mind, but then again, that was how it was everytime Roger returned to you.

“Then come with me, (Y/N),” Roger managed to plunge into you a few more times before he held himself deep inside of you, hand tightening on yours and released with a groan. The feeling of him filling you up spurred your movements on, grinding back against him and working your clit faster. 

Roger’s hand knocked yours away, though, and quickly brought you to completion, your orgasm rocketing through you. You clenched around him as you rode out your high, drawing his seed farther into you.

As you both came down, Roger collapsed on top of you with a groan before rolling to the side, dragging you with him. He was panting in your ear and you weren’t doing much better, still clenching around his softening length.

The quiet was interrupted by Roger, “Shit. (Y/N). You stopped your birth control, right?

You laughed breathily. Normally it was the guy making sure you were on birth control. “Yeah. Yeah, I stopped the day after you left.”

“Thank God,”

“What, don’t want a repeat performance?”

“Not at all. But it would kind of throw a wrench in the plan, yeah?”

“Yeah…” You gazed across the bedroom, staring at the bathroom door.

Roger, sensing your change grabbed your hand and brought it to your chest, pressing you tight against him and moving his cock inside you. You felt a squelch of cum against your insides but didn’t it pay it much thought.

“What… what are the plans now, Rog?” He said he pushed back the time in the studio, but he didn’t say for how long.

“Well we’ve got about four weeks before we have to head to L.A. and I was thinking…”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“Why don’t you come with?” His voice was soft as he asked, almost hesitant. “I’m sorry I got caught up in the moment. That was… well it was just bad. I know it’s not a perfect fix, but it gives us more time together. And that way I can be there for you.”

“Roger…” you started, not wanting to disappoint him. “What about my job? What about when you have to go on tour, or even a press tour beforehand? I knew, marrying you, it wasn’t going to be easy. But I can’t fathom doing this without you and there’s so many ‘what if’s’ going on. Your plans for touring changed so easily. What if it happens again?”

You felt near tears again despite everything.

Roger released your hand to tilt your face up to him. His blue eyes were soft and sincere. “It’s not easy, love. You’re right. But we’ll figure it out, yeah? Together.”

Yeah. With Roger, you’re sure everything would turn out okay eventually. “Together.”

[randomdcfangirl]

The Story of The Red Hood

(A/N): This is something I wrote a long time ago but didn't post because I felt like it was too unfactual. This is my version of Jason's backstory.

Jason telling his story on BuzzFeed Unsolved channel anonymously, not even the staff knew who he was. It was just audio and they put a few diagrams in the actual video to make it better.

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"I'm The Red Hood and this is my story. I lived in Crime Alley which was formally known as Park Row in downtown Gotham. It's the hood or ghetto whatever you call it, there was a lot of projects around there, we lived in some but they have since been knocked down. My earliest memories are of my mom and dad arguing, a lot of times it would end in physical violence against me and my mom. My dad was a piece of shit to keep it short. He was a drug dealer and alcoholic, my mom ended up getting addicted to what he sold. I don't know what type because I was 4 when I noticed she was changing. It was pills of some sort.

So it was a repeat of yelling, beatings, going hungry and mom being high for about 2 years. One thing is my dad was a drug dealer but he wasn't a good one. It ended when my father got arrested and sentenced for a very long time. I was 6 and all I knew was that he was gone and that maybe things would get better, but they didn't. My mom didn't have a job and I was basically keeping us both alive at the age of 6. I knew how the hood worked, people out there were the only people I'd ever known. So I somehow kept us alive for another year and a half. Until one day I came home from school because I was in school at this time, can't tell you how I got there. But I called out for my mom and she didn't answer, I assumed she was high again so I searched the apartment and found her on the bathroom floor. She OD'd while I was at school, she was cold so she'd been there for awhile. So I called the ambulance and gave them the address then hung up.

I already knew I didn't want to be in the system or an orphanage so I grabbed some stuff in a little backpack and left. I'd rather be a street kid then in the corrupt system. I was a smart kid, I knew not to get mixed up in gangs and drugs. I was about to turn 8 when I first got on the streets. It was rough, I was already small and malnourished because we were broke and didn't eat often. After the first few months of being on the streets I had to prepare for winter and Gotham winter's are no joke. But I found out my dad was killed in prison, I wasn't upset, he deserved it after everything he'd done to people including me and my mom. But that meant I was the last of my family, I didn't know my Grandparents and I'm pretty sure my parents didn't have siblings so I had nobody left.

So I was on the streets for just over 2 years. The streets were probably better then my home with my mom and dad to be completely honest. One night I was in an alley and I saw the batmobile, I saw his wheels and in my head I was literally like "those will go for a lotta money down at the shop". So I started taking the wheels off, I got one off and was going to go for the other one but there was a deep voice behind me that said "what are you doing?". I turned and Batman was behind me and in my 10 year old brain I thought I was dead because he looked scary. I grabbed the tire iron I had and hit him in the gut to try and get away but it didn't work. I tried to apologise but he didn't let me and just asked a question "are you hungry?" Is what he asked me. I nodded and he took me to get burgers and we ate at a random place. He gave me a place to stay and it was scary at first because I didn't think I could trust him. I found out who he was, obviously I can't tell you that information, and I got even more skeptical about him. But he ended up adopting me and those first 3 and a half years were amazing.

I became the second Robin at age 12, I was trained by him and he was the father I never had. I truly considered him my dad, still do but don't tell him that. His somewhat dad was there too and he is like a Grandfather to me, he is the only other person in that family I will admit I love with all my heart. We call him Agent A. He's awesome. But everything went kinda bad when I turned 14 and was starting to see more of the shitty things people do. I got to reckless and if anyone knows that Batman or any other hero, unless they're like me, they have a strict no killing rule. So it got close many times with me, Batman and I started arguing a lot. It drove our relationship apart and he benched me from being Robin. So I wasn't allowed to patrol or do missions anymore because I was getting to reckless.

I didn't have anything to do and I don't exactly remember how I found this out but at 15 I found out my mom was alive and in Ethiopia. My mom who was dead wasn't my actual mom, she was just my dad's wife but she took care of me when she could. Before all the drugs, I mean I don't remember much but I have a few memories of her being a mom to me. So it was a complete shock to find out that my mom wasn't really my mom and that my real mom was in Ethiopia. So I told Bats and he said he knew so we got into another fight. So I did probably the stupidest thing I've ever done. I decided I would go to Ethiopia by myself so I did. How I got there and what I did when I got there isn't important.

I found my mom and went to her. It was good for a few hours then the Joker showed up. I was familiar with the Joker because I was Robin, I knew how crazy he was. So I was trying to protect my mom but she stabbed me in the back like a lot of people have. She was working with Joker and basically lead me to him. This is where my story gets really complicated. We both ended up tied up in a warehouse with him beating us with a crowbar. Mostly me because he wanted to teach Batman a lesson. I was going through this for months, I was in the middle of a warehouse being beaten to death with my mom by a deranged clown with a crowbar. He killed my mom at some point then he left the warehouse one day because he knew Batman was close. He told me to tell Batman 'hi' but he knew I wasn't going to make it to then. I tried to get the door open but he locked it on his way out and as I leaned up against it I saw the bomb. I knew I wasn't gonna make it and I didn't.

I know that's very confusing and the only way you'll understand is if you listen. The bomb went off and it burned for a few seconds but then it was cold and peaceful. You're at peace and it's nice, especially if you had such a life as I had. But it didn't last long to me, it lasted for what felt like a few minutes before I woke up underground. I was dead for 6 months, no pulse, no heart beat, I had an autopsy, I still have the scar. I woke up in my coffin at 16, I was calling for Batman but by his real name. I realized no one was coming and I freaked out and clawed my way out of the coffin. I wasn't all the way there, I was dead for 6 months so I had a good bit of brain damage and don't remember much from after I dug myself out of the coffin except that I broke a couple fingers, it ripped my nails out and I was bleeding all over my hands. After that I somehow ended up with a whole organization of assassin's. This woman who is very significant in a few of the bats lives was apart of it and was trying to nurse me back to health but it wasn't working.

The amount of brain damage I had was to much to fix so she threw me in something called the Lazarus pit. It's basically a fountain of youth except it can bring people back to life as well. Her father who was the leader of the assassin's discovered it and kept it secret. Most of them are destroyed now but I think there's one. The pit was painful, I remember that, it feels like you're burning alive and it does for a few minutes after you get out. Then you're extremely disoriented and crazy full of rage and anger. I still have some of that running through me but it's a lot better than the first few years. At this point in my story I'm 17, I started training with the league and the woman to get my memories back because most of those were still blank. I still have a few gaps in my memory but most of it is from before my dip in the pit.

In this training I was learning about Batman and Nightwing who was the first Robin and is kinda my older brother. We weren't close when I was Robin because him and Batman weren't on great terms so we didn't hangout much. I regained my memory at some point then I was told Bruce had another Robin, who is now currently Red Robin, and the Lazarus made me angry about it. I felt replaced but what made it worse was the fact that Joker was still alive. I was never mad at Batman or blaimed him for my death, the reason I was so angry was because after everything Joker put me through he was still alive. I felt worthless and it was even worse because I felt replaced as well.

I ended up leaving the assassin's base a month or so later. I was set on tormenting Batman, I was going to try and kill him, Nightwing and Robin. It was definitely the anger because I'd never put a kid in a situation I put Robin in now. I got to Gotham and started killing the bad people, like rapists, murderers, drug dealers, abusers, pimps, just anyone making another person's life a living hell. The reason I started doing it was because prison wasn't working for them. The drug dealers not as much as everyone else but I still killed some of them. I never killed the innocent, that's something I never did or ever will. So eventually I got Batman's attention and it took a couple months for him to figure out it was me. I wanted it to take longer but I made the mistake of saying his name. So because no one really knew it at the time it made things make sense but it didn't at the same time, because in their head I was dead.

So about a week later we ended up in another fight but he was holding back because he figured out I came back to life. But I had this whole plan to have him choose between me and Joker. Unfortunately it fell through and he didn't choose either of us, we were in and apartment building in a random apartment. I had Joker and we had a talk I guess you could say. More of me being angry and having a few choice words to say to him then anything else. I gave him choices but he didn't really choose. There was a bomb and it had like 10 seconds left and I shot at him. He had his back turned but he's Batman so he dodged it, with a few seconds left he grabbed me and Joker and jumps out the window so we're not caught in the blast. It was still kinda close but I left before he had a chance to register.

Let's just say I wasn't okay after that. I have PTSD, Anxiety and Depression from what Joker did to me so it was hard to except that I didn't mean anything more to Batman then Joker did. So I was a wreck, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, all I did was drink, I was about to turn 19 and definitely should not have been drinking. I became a bit of an alcoholic just like my dad and I hated that. I eventually got a grip on myself even though it was only a little. I left Gotham because I wasn't in the right state of mind to stay there. I traveled all over the place and in my travels I ran into Arsenal and we became best friends. Still are. We started working together as Red Hood and Arsenal, we were broke as hell. Eventually we ran into Starfire and we kinda just decided we'd become a team after hanging around each other a lot. Then The Outlaws was formed.

That was probably some of the best and worst years in my life. Best because I had those 2 by my side and they are still my best friends. Worst because my mental health was at an all time low. I couldn't sleep, I was having very bad PTSD episodes, my Anxiety was through the roof, so was my Depression. Arsenal had his own problems, so did Starfire and all we had was each other to lean on and it was all we could ask for. Just people who cared and understood. We did missions pretty often as a group and we would get paid by people who requested the jobs but it wasn't much. We've slept in the worst places, most of the time not sleeping at all. But our own lives kinda pulled us away from each other. Starfire went off world back to her planet, Arsenal and I stock together for awhile until he went back to Star and I went back to Gotham. I was in a better place, wasn't killing as much, the Lazarus through my system calmed down a lot. It still effects me but no where near as bad.

I was laying low in Gotham but the Bats found out. It was only 4 of them at that point, Batman, Nightwing, Robin 3 and Agent A. It was all good until I tried to kill the Joker. It was in another not so good state of mind but I wasn't able to kill him because the bats came. I was planning to kill him the same way he killed me, beat him with a crowbar and blow him up. I was 22 at that time. They got me away from Joker and took him into custody and I left to one of my safehouses. We eventually crossed paths again but it was awhile before I could actually talk to them again. So me and Nightwing ran into each other we ended up having a talk and we kinda made amends. It wasn't anything crazy. It took a long time for us to be okay with each other again. But eventually I was able to call them family again and I visit the house Batman lives in to see them.

But as time went on we added new people, we became a bigger family as you can see. Robin became Red Robin, then the current Robin, then Orphan, Spoiler, Batwoman, Signal, Bluebird and Bluebird's brother who isn't a Vigilante. I'm pretty much cool with everyone, no one I really have a problem with except Batman because we've been through so much together. I'm 25 now and things are better, I still have my struggles and family issues but that's my family. As much as I pretend to not care they're my family and I love 'em. So this was a less detailed version of my story and look how long it is. But anyway I don't really know why I did this but I did so bye I guess.

Oh and before you ask I am not the rapper NF. I actually really like and relate to his music because we've been through similar things but I'm not him. I know someone is going to ask that question."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The NF joke was just that a joke, don't come for me I love him lol.

[ladyloggy]

Home - John Constantine x reader

I also posted this on my wattpad. Everyone over 18 as there is smut, hope y'all enjoy!

For (Name), it had been months since she had last seen John. The two had worked together since the Newcastle incident which John had blamed himself for ever since, but (Name) had stayed with the demonologist and their friendship had evolved into casual sex and then finally a relationship that neither of them had planned for. Like John, (Name) was in control of the dark arts, and along with their friend Chas, had encouraged John to go and work with the Legends for a while, whilst (Name) stayed in the US to help local exorcisms and other demon issues.

But, here (Name) was getting ready to go out on a date with John for the first time in three months. She had missed John as her partner - in both meanings of the word. She loved working with Chas, but she missed John desperately. He knew her inside and out, and she always felt safe and comforted working with John, even in unfamiliar or cruel circumstances. Of course, (Name) also missed John romantically - she missed waking up with him in the morning, going to sleep snuggled in his arms and wearing his shirts and obviously the more intimate part of their relationship. As (Name) hadn't seen John for a while, she wanted to impress him, so she decided to wear some new lingerie that she knew John would appreciate and the outfit that he often complimented her on. With the finishing touches on her outfit, (Name) started to style her hair and fix her makeup, doing her best to cover the bruises that she had gained on her last job so John didn't freak out. By 7pm, (Name) had finished getting ready and just as she grabbed her bag, there was a knock on the door to what (Name) classed as now her apartment. Looking through the peep hole, (Name) couldn't help but smile when she saw the face of her boyfriend holding some flowers and a pack of beers.

"Hi there, stranger." (Name) said, smiling at John as she opened the door.

John smirked, extinguished his cigarette and looked (Name) up and down, "You look stunning, love."

"Not so bad yourself, mister. I've missed you Johnny, come in. How long has it been for you?" (Name) asked, putting the flowers in a vase and the beer in the fridge.

"Couple of weeks love, you know time works different in the temporal zone." John replied, taking a seat on the sofa.

"So you've said." (Name) laughed and offered John one of the refrigerated beers that she had purchased prior to the night. "I got your favourite!"

John grinned, grabbing the beer and reclining as (Name) took a seat next to him on the sofa, her own beer in her hand.

"To date night." John clinked their bottles together before taking a swig.

The two chatted for a while, catching up and reuniting. They told each other stories of the Legends and Chas, and after an hour, (Name) was sat on John' knee as the pair kissed. (Name) had her hands in John's messy blond hair whilst John's had settled on (Name)'s ass, grabbing and squeezing in what was a very John Constantine way. (Name) groaned as they parted, resting her head on John's shoulder.

"I missed this," she confessed, biting John's neck playfully. "I've missed the way your arms feel around me and your unique charm."

"Is that what you're calling my prick now, love?" John teased, wicked grin on his lips. "My charm?"

(Name) laughed, swatting the man on his shoulder. "Head in the gutter as always Johnny."

"Mmm, only for my bird. You said something about food?" John asked.

"I said nothing about food, you hungry bastard, but I was thinking we were going out to your favourite pub." (Name) told John who nodded.

"That'll suffice, love. Come on, I'll get my coat and we'll go."

Conveniently, (Name)'s apartment wasn't far from John's favourite pub, and they were seated at a private booth with drinks and food menus in front of them rather quickly. It wasn't too long before John had his usual beer and (Name) had her drink of choice, as well as their favourite meals. (Name) was happy and content, tucking into her dish with gusto, laughing and joking with John as she ate.

All was calm.

Until it wasn't...

When they had finished their food, the pair moved to a different seat. Whilst no longer a secluded booth, the table was still for two but had a good view of the bar and the live singer.

"I'm just going the men's, love. Get us another round, will you?" John asked.

"Of course Johnny, the same again?" (Name) said, smiling as John nodded with a grin.

"Bang on, babe."

So (Name) went over to the bar, watching as John walked away. His golden blond hair instead was illuminated a shade of emerald green by the fire exit sign above the toilet. Of course, he was wearing the same white shirt as ever, but his red tie had been replaced with a newer one with a slightly lighter shade of red. He looked tired but his smile was genuine when she made him laugh, and other than a few flecks of gray put there by stress and a couple of healed scratches, John looked better than (Name) had seen him in a long time. These Legends people were good for John, maybe even better than she was for him.

"What's a pretty thing like you doing here all alone?"

The voice broke (Name) from her thoughts and with a glare, she fixed her gaze on a stranger.

"I'm not alone, mate. I'm with my boyfriend." She replied.

"Then where is he?" The strange man countered with a cocky smirk.

"If you have to know, he's taking a piss." (Name) rolled her eyes as the man recoiled slightly.

"Language like that doesn't suit a beautiful girl like you." He continued.

(Name) ignored him, instead speaking to the bartender who passed (Name) her drinks. With her two hands full, (Name) made her way back to their seat where John was waiting for her.

"Thanks, love." He said. "You alright?"

"Yeah Johnny, just some idiot at the bar." (Name) replied, taking a sip of her drink.

John's face darkened with what (Name) could only assume was a look of possessive jealousy. She knew the look well, as even before they got officially 'together' and were still just casual sex partners John got jealous if other strange men tried it on with (Name). That look on John's face often resulted in more rough sex than usual, and (Name) looked forward to their homecoming, as after two months apart, she had missed sex with John.

"Come on love, drink up. We're getting out of here." John declared, leaving half his beer.

The walk home from the pub was silent but the proxemics held a festering sexual tension. John's arm was around (Name)'s shoulders and his hand clutched her arm tight enough to be possessive but not painful. (Name) unlocked the door quickly and as soon as she had closed and locked it again, John's hands were all over her. They kicked off their shoes into a heap by the door as they kissed heavily, the man's hands roaming over (Name). Before they reached the bedroom of the apartment, John had gotten rid of his tie and a trail of (Name)'s clothes had been left behind as she was slammed into the bedroom wall.

"Bloody hell John, ease off a bit there." She muttered, moaning as John bit down on her neck.

"Be a good girl and hush for me love, I've waited a long time for this." He replied. "Wanking to your pictures just isn't the same."

(Name) laughed softly, doing her best despite the onslaught of kisses to rid John of his shirt.

"Mmm if you carry on like that, you'll have to do the same to me in real life. I get enough bruises from this bloody business without you carrying on." She said, gasping as John slipped his hand down her underwear.

"You can be in charge next time, I'm on a mission tonight to make you scream my name."

A shudder of pleasure coursed though (Name) at those words and she felt her knees buckle as John worked his magic. Crying out as she was brought closer and closer to the edge, (Name) grabbed John' naked torso as her whole body shook.

"Oh! John I'm gonna-"

"No you're not, pet. Let's get you all bare for me, lie down on the bed and spread those legs of yours - I want what's mine."

(Name) slid of her knickers and discarded her bra before lying on her back and opening her legs, baring herself to John who removed his pants and walked over to her. His eyes were focused on her, hungry with lust and desire as he approached her almost like a predator stalking its prey. He pried her legs open with his hands, squeezing slightly before lining himself up and entering her.

"Oh my God!" She cried, back arching.

"That's it love, just relax."

John let go of her thighs, trusting them to stay open for him and he grabbed her hair into a handle in one hand and gripped her thigh tightly with the other. He got into a rhythm and before long, (Name) was writhing and bucking wildly. She closed her legs slightly by accident and John brought the hand holding her hip down hard on her right thigh. The sensation triggered (Name)'s scream of John's name, and half triumphantly John groaned hers in return.

(Name) lay still, feeling John lie down beside her. He kissed her shoulder and wiped her hair from her sweaty forehead.

"I've missed you, love."

"I love you too, you big softie."

(Name) knew what John meant, and she knew that he couldn't say those three little words due to his turbulent past but the look in his eyes and the tone of voice conveyed what he really meant.

Here, they were both home in one another and safe to fight another day.

[just-some-random-blogger]

Somewhere In Between

GOT7 + Super Junior Civil Engineer!Park Jinyoung x Reader + Architect!Henry Lau Summary: You are a graduating Interior Design student, and your boyfriend Jinyoung is in Engineering. You two share an apprenticeship training under the supervision of an alumnus in Architecture named Henry. Word Count: 1k+ Warnings: Angst prolly but idek i cant write angst.

---

I looked at Jinyoung and his focused expression. Even under florescent his complexion glowed.. The frames propped on the bridge of his nose did not take away from the symmetry of his face. He looked at the lamp on the stall. It was one similar to the Pixar lamp, except this one was a navy blue, which happened to be his favorite color. He took the object in his hand and examined it. He then turned to me with bright eyes, “Jagiya, its as pretty as you.”

I managed a chuckle. My heart did not race though I knew it should’ve. It was a compliment for he loved lights very much but it had been a while since he made me flutter. “Focus Jinyoung, we’re here for a shelf, not a new lamp.”

He craned his neck to the left. The expanse of the warehouse felt smaller to me, as Jinyoung and I frequented here. Due however to their relocation of items, it felt a little foreign.

“We should go that way then,” Jinyoung pointed, narrowing his eyes, “I think I vaguely see a sign that says tables and surfaces.”

As we walked and he reached out for my hand, I felt my shoulders grow heavy. 

Jinyoung looked at me with such sweetness and kissed the back of my hand, “One day, I’ll build you a house.”

I nodded and sighed, “Your house would be a perfect square.”

Jinyoung broke into a laugh and dropped my hand, He leaned in and kissed the exposed skin of my neck, “It won’t be because you’ll be on my side.” He proceeds to wrap his arms around me.

“Jinyoung, focus.” I say and pull away from him.

He pouts, “I’ve been needing to ask what happened to Jinyoungie.”

I knit my brows.

“You don’t call me that anymore.”

“You said you hated it when I did that.”

Jinyoung’s face falls into an expression that seems like it was repressing hurt, and he crosses his arms, “I never meant it.”

I roll my eyes. This was tiring me. “Jinyoungie, let’s get this done.”

Jinyoung perks up immediately.

 The drive back was quiet. It has been quiet for a while because I’ve lost things to talk about with Jinyoung. I was met with a beautiful sky, and yet I did not speak up about it.

“Thank Henry hyung for helping me out with my plates, by the way.”

The sudden words and mention of Henry make me whip my head to the driver and my pulse beat against my ear drums. “What?”

Jinyoung spares me a look and knit brows, “What do you mean what?”

I feel blood rise to my face.

“I have a test today.” Jinyoung says to jog my memory.

I feel my face grow redder, “Ah, yeah, sure.”

We arrive back at my apartment. Jinyoung brings up the box that had my small shelf in it. We step inside and the moment Jinyoung puts the box down, he turns to me and steals a kiss on my lips. Once he pulls away he smiles and I blink at him.

“Jinyoung, w-”

“Jinyoungie.”

I look at him blankly. “... we need to talk.”

Instantly, Jinyoung shifts. The smile that was a second on his face is replaced by a clenched jaw, “I’m trying.”

I knit my brows and I shake my head, “What? I-- whatever. I’ve been needing to--”

“I know. I know exactly what you’re going to say.” Jinyoung licks his lips. He grabs my hand, “I don’t make your heart flutter anymore. I no longer reverberate in your mind and--” he turns to his feet and lets out a sharp huff, “I’m trying.”

Jinyoung turns to me, eyes suddenly glassy, “I... I can change.”

My heart shatters, and like defeated face of a younger version of him flashes in my mind. It was when he got a failing grade at math, and he cried in the corner of the school gym. I talked to comforted him, as any infatuated teen would, and he kissed me.

But I pulled my hand away because the hurt in my heart was not that of love but of pity.

“No Jinyoung... it’s for the best.” I say, feeling hot tears prick in the corner of my eyes, “We should break up and end this.”

  Two days later Jinyoung stood two feet away from me and the air between us was thicker than tar.

With the walls barely constructed, the sunlight shone harshly light a flashlight on Jinyoung’s face, leaving no hint of his disdained features unnoticed. He looked just as handsome as he always did, but his eyes were distant..

“How are my two favorite interns doing?“ a loud voice echoes in the high ceilings of the unfinished building. Henry struts towards us in a coffee colored suit with shoes and sunglasses to match. His hands were raised by his shoulders and his lips attempted to meet his ears.

I found myself smiling even though I did not want to.

Henry turned to me, expecting a reply, as I was the only one who ever did. “Alright, Mr. Lau.”

“Aish, what do I tell you about calling me mister,” Henry pouts and crosses his arms, “Making me feel old... I’m not that much older than you two anyway.”

I purse my lips and feel my throat constrict, “Alright oppa.”

Henry claps his hands and points at me. He proceeds to then cock his head to the side, place his hands on his hips, and let out a breath “Alright...” he trails off, “You say that but something feels like it isn’t all right.” Henry notes and turns between I and Jinyoung.

With a contantly bubbly and charasmatic Henry, Jinyoung is put too much out of character. Instead of his usual focused features that scrutinize the interiors--a person who didn’t know him might think he was actually aloof, he’s looking at Henry in such a way that he really isn’t. This was he tell-tale signe that Jinypung was in fact aloof. When he stared in a glare-like manner. He always looked angrey when he overthinks.

Henry takes a second to knit his brows then raise one. He somehow finds himself needing to hold a laugh. One of the other workers come around and call his name.

“Oh right,” Henry says then calls me, “I have something to show you.” With that, he grabs my wrist and whisks me away. 

Jinyoung sighs in exasperation of the common sight. Henry was always one to drag someone in the direction he was enthusiastic about. He had done it to Jinyoung many times. Jinyoung loved him for it and aspired to reach his level of passion for his work... but not today.

 Henry moves his hand from my wrist to my own and looks back at me. He gives me one of his crooked smiles. It takes every fibre in my hand to hold on to him and not slip away because of the sweat my palms were shedding.

My chest was thumping so hard when we stopped. I feared he’d hear it. As I caught my breath, I turned to Henry. His smiling gaze was fixed on me like a hot ray of sunshine, and I was winded all at once again. I looked away immediately but the sensation of our still connected hands were making me too nervous. I started thinking of a way to separate them without hurting his feelings.

“My hands are sweaty.” I say without meeting his eyes.

He brings our hands to his cheek, forcing me to look up at him. My hands felt hot and sticky against his, and the fact that my body was burning up and my pulse was so strong was not helping. 

The feeling of his cool skin against the back of my hot hand left goosebumps forming around me. 

When I noticed he had a pouty smile on his face, I felt more heat rise up to my neck. “I don’t care,” says Henry.

I gulp and slowly pull away from him, “I... do."

Henry lets me and releases a laugh. 

He finally averts his eyes, “Look.”

I turn to where he was looking. Henry sneakily turned his gaze back. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

I smile at his work and turn back to him, jolting slightly when I notice his stare. I clear my throat and look back at the decorated wall, “Yes. It’s beautiful.”

Henry chuckles, “Well, you’ve expressed how much you like Rococo, so I incorporated a few embellishments just to keep the design... interesting, you know.”

I nodded at fell in awe at the meticulous designs before me. I had seen him sketch a few things here and there, but to see it in real life was a whole another experience.

“It’s ama-” “Have dinner with me tonight.”

My heart jumps to my throat at his sudden statement.

Henry looks at me with a serious face, and my eyes linger only a moment in his direction. “It doesn’t have to be tonight,” he says as I wrap my arms around myself, “I can do any night you want to.”

I am unable to reply. Henry doesn’t seem to mind.

At this point, Jinyoung who had found himself immersed in the structure of the place finally finds his mentor and his--... ex. He had felt a little better after being impressed with the structure of the place and all, but now he walks towards them feeling a weight dawn on his shoulders.

Jinyoung can’t help but think how familiar this scene before him is.

Henry places his hands in his pockets, “One day, I’ll build you a house.”

Jinyoung’s steps falter and his heart stills.

In this moment, I turn to Henry and he turns to me. I somehow find myself chuckling and shaking my head. Henry smiles at this and raises his brows in expectation. I shrug and turn away from him, “Okay.”

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[plaguedparadox]

Request by @wolfiegal98: Dark x reader where her apartment was broken into while she’s away and she comes home to the whole place looking like multiple tornadoes came through here, and she feels like everything is against her as she had already had a horrible day. She just resigns herself to clean up the mess, and when she finds out that the thieves stole the necklace that her mother had given her, she breaks down. Dark, being the ever so curious demon boy that he is, comes over when she doesn’t show up at the office like she usually does after work, and comforts her, and helps clean up the mess, all the while saying that she can move into the mansion if she wants. Then, when they were almost done cleaning, Wilford, who had originally popped in secretly earlier to startle her for fun, shows up, a bit bruised up and the missing necklace in his hand.

Ah, this was fun to write. And I’m happy that I was able to stick quite close to what you wanted. Enjoy!

Exhausted was all the poor assistant could feel as her throbbing feet carried her home. A horrible day at work was haunting her. Sure, a part of her was glad that just because she was friends with her boss it didn’t mean he’d give her any preferential treatment but sometimes he’d at the very least just let her have longer breaks or even a nap break - something just to hide away for a little bit. Sleep sounded like heaven as she slipped into the apartment building’s elevator, her finger lazily pushing her floor’s button as a yawn slipped through her. The calming elevator music was not helping to keep her awake as the tendrils of sleep curled around her, making her eyes slowly shut and her head bob as she tried to keep it raised. It was the elevator’s sudden stop that snapped her out of it, making her shake her head to wake herself up just a little more so she could walk down the hallway and not stumble over her feet. She had done that before, ended up with a bruise on her knee that made her boyfriend absolutely lose his temper because he assumed that someone attacked her, not realising the huge klutz his girlfriend was when she was tired. The poor guy was used to it now, but he did nearly give her neighbour a heart attack from the yelling.

Her day was bad, everything that could go wrong did and she was honestly surprised that she didn’t get fired. Another perk for being friends with the boss. Her mind began to focus on all the things that happened that day as her feet dragged across the floor. Being late, spilling coffee over paperwork, nearly missing an important meeting due to nature’s call being at a weird time, shoe getting stuck in gum that someone left on the break room floor, tripping over and nearly breaking someone’s leg. She cringed to herself as she thought back on those incidents. But her bad day was going to get worse as she noticed her door open, only slightly but still enough for her to notice, a horrible sinking feeling hitting her as she felt as if she was about to throw up. The woman’s hand brushed against the door, gently pushing it open more to see the whirlwind that had happened inside. Anything that could have been thrown around was, they even went out of their way to tip over her bookshelves and couch. Despite the mess, they didn’t even bother to take her almost decade old electronics. A sigh wracked through her as she slowly began to pick up the pieces of what remained of the place she called home.

Plans on how to start ran through her mind before she settled on cleaning up her bedroom first, she’d need that room before the others so it made sense to start there. Whoever broke into her apartment were rather thorough with looking through everything as she saw her clothes and underwear all over the floor. Tears finally began to well up in her eyes but she fought them back as she cleaned up the floor, placing things back inside her wardrobe and drawers. Her eyes naturally scanned the floor for any more articles of clothing but froze on one spot, her eyes widening as the tears finally began to spill. “No no no no no no!” Sobbed chants left her lips as she scrambled over to the destroyed jewellery box that her beloved got her,  her fingers rummaging through what was left trying to find one item. That one item that mattered more than all her belongings. An old necklace, passed down from family member to family member, given to her by her mother when she left home. A piece of her family that she had even if they were miles away. And it was gone. Taken. Thieves only seeing the money behind the item and not the true value of such a treasure. She really couldn’t stop the sobs now as her legs buckled and sent her crashing to the floor, her tears running off of her face and creating a puddle on top of the broken wood pieces as she cried over the box. ”Why me…?” Was all she could ask, her heart too broken to do anything else.

Minutes went by, or maybe hours. She couldn’t tell. She just sat there and cried. “Darling? Are you in here? You didn’t come to see me like you usually do!” A flinch stilled her as her lover’s voice called out from another part of the apartment but the poor woman couldn’t bring herself to move. “What the hell happened here?” His voice began to echo as his emotions became more frantic, his feet pulling him in the direction of sobs. “Darling? Are you okay?!” He cried out, now rushing into the room, his feet skidding to a stop as he saw the scene in front of him. “Darling!” Relief flooded him upon seeing that she was okay, aside from the crying obviously. Carefully, he knelt by her side and his eyes scanned the broken box, frustration filled him as he recalled how much she enjoyed the gift, it was relatively new as well. “What’s wrong…?” His echoed voice asked softly, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his chest, allowing her to nuzzle in and wipe her tears and the other byproducts of crying off on his blazer - not that he could care, she came first.

“They took it, Dark. They took her necklace…” Her voice cracked as she looked up at him, tears welling up in her eyes again before being gently rubbed away by the tip of Dark’s thumb as he stroked her face. A sigh left his lips as he pulled her up from the floor and into the front room, away from the box so she couldn’t cry every time she was reminded. Dark would happily replace the box but the necklace was something he couldn’t replace, and it hurt to know that he couldn’t simply just fix this problem with the click of his fingers. It tore him apart to see her cry. Dark could feel his shell start to crack as he suggested that they work together to clean up, seeing her look at the floor and nod weakly. Family was important to both of them. The grey skinned man had suggested before, numerous times actually, that she moved into the mansion with himself and the rest of the Egos so that he knew that she was safe when they weren’t together but upon looking at the wreck that was her apartment, he began to insist that she move in. And while he couldn’t replace what was lost, he’d try his hardest to make her as happy as possible. Eventually, she agreed which let some weight off of his shoulders as he was going to place her room near his so they’d be close but still have their own space.

About an hour went by, filled with little kisses and quick cuddles to cheer the upset woman. Luckily, the apartment was close to spotless aside a few books needing to be put back in place, a couple of knickknacks that still needed to find their places and things like that. Dark was about to suggest they finally call the police to report the incident when a huge bubblegum pink puff of smoke filled the air before quickly dispersing to reveal Wilford, beaten and bruised with his shirt torn and a couple of blood stains here and there. The pink moustached man breathed heavily as he held up the missing necklace, a pained smile coating his face as Dark’s lover pulled the pastel dressed man into a tight hug, thank yous and happy squeals leaving her lips. “Wait, how did you know that the necklace was taken? No one was called.” Dark inquired, gently pulling his love away from his sore best friend.

Wilford’s lips twitched, flicking his moustache to the side as his mind tried to find the words amongst the pain. “I had poofed in so I could hide and startle her when I noticed the mess so I went looking to see if anything had been taken. Upon noticing what exactly what had been taken, I went on a little hunt.” He explained, clipping the necklace around the woman’s neck and smiling at her when she asked if he was okay. Wilford shifted a hand to rub the back of his neck as he plopped down on the now upright couch, bouncing slightly. “They tried to fight back but it’s nothing this ol’ colonel can’t handle!” His slurred voice gloated, his moustache darkening for a moment before settling on his iconic bright pink once again.”I’ll clean whatever’s left, you two go nap. You’re both terrible when it comes to sleeping regularly.” He huffed, crossing his arms as he looked around, recalling where everything was meant to be.  

“You’re just as bad as my sister…” Dark hissed under his breath, recalling the countless times that Celine had scolded him about needing sleep. “Anyway, don’t work too hard. Darling has agreed to move in with us,” Was all he said as he lead his love to her room, her holding the necklace close to her as they walked. The suited man just registered his friend call out that he’d start packing for her as he closed the bedroom door, a yawn ripping its way through him as exhaustion finally reared its head. It now beckoned to both of them, and as both of them laid together with her head on his chest, they listened.

[authorbarbie]

10 Ways to Say ‘I Love You’

Summary: There’s more than one way to say ‘I love you’. You just have to be paying attention. (TW: Blood)

One

After two long weeks, the mission was complete.

Although it had consisted of countless sleepless nights and the occasional bout of bickering due to tiredness and overall frustration, you felt relief that it was finally over. The final fight had ended considerably well, with both you and Steve only receiving a few scratches and bruises by the end.

Despite your success, however, you were exhausted. Over the last few days, you estimated that you had probably slept for around 8 hours at most, and it was starting to take its toll.

Sighing, you kept one hand on the wheel and used the other to rub your bleary eyes while the tiredness practically seeped into your veins. The clock on the car dashboard told you it was currently 1:32AM and the radio that was down low was playing a song that you felt would lull you to sleep at any moment.

When you had initially arrived in Moscow for the mission, both you and Steve had made the decision to hide the quinjet - somewhere nobody would be able to find it - until you were ready to use it again. Unfortunately, Steve had chosen a spot that was so well hidden that it required a 3-hour drive from where you had been living during your stay in the capital city. You were currently on hour two and cursing past-Steve for his choices.

Speaking of Steve, he was currently sitting - more like slouching - in the passenger seat next to you with dark circles under his eyes. The man had stubbornly refused to sleep until you did, insisting that the serum meant he didn’t get tired as quickly as others. While you supposed that might have been true, you knew he would still need to rest soon.

You were broken out of your thoughts then when the car suddenly fell silent as Steve switched off the radio. Your eyes fell to him with a questioning look before you quickly looked back to the empty road ahead.  

“Pull over. Let me drive for a while,” he said.

“I’m fine -”

“You’re exhausted,” Steve smiled tiredly at your stubbornness. “We still have at least two hours until we reach the quinjet. Let me get us there.”

A moment passed as you thought about his offer and with a sigh, you found yourself stopping at the side of the road and hauling yourself out of the car to switch seats with Steve, who proudly took his new place in the driver’s seat and started the car once more.

Curling up in the passenger seat, you quietly thanked Steve before closing your eyes and letting your head rest against the window, the gentle humming of the car as Steve drove proving to be a good lullaby.

Two

Your heels clicked as the group made their way back to the tower. None of you had planned on walking home but once Tony had gotten you all kicked out of the cab with his obnoxious drunk singing, the team decided to finish the journey on foot.

The cold bit through your thin shirt and you thanked whatever deities were out there that you had thought to wear jeans that night instead of a skirt. Nevertheless, you were still freezing and swore you were beginning to lose sensation in the tips of your fingers.

“I told you to bring a jacket,” Clint said smugly when he saw your attempts to warm yourself up.

“Shut up, Barton,” you frowned, flicking his ear as he walked by and smiling at the pained noise that left his lips.

“Nat, she hurt me!” Clint whined to the redhead who only rolled her eyes in amusement.

“You kinda deserved it,” Bucky chimed in from his spot on your left. Bucky, who had thought ahead and was currently wrapped up in a nice, warm coat. Stupid, smart Bucky.

Just as you found yourself beginning to glare unnecessarily at all of your friends for being all warm and toasty, you felt something knock into your right arm. Frowning, you turned to see Steve who had just finished shedding his jacket and was holding it out to you with an expectant look.

“Take my jacket,” he explained. “You’re cold.”

Almost immediately, you began to shake your head and refute his claims, but it seemed Steve had anticipated this. Ignoring your refusal, he simply reached around and placed his jacket snugly over your shoulders. Instantly, you felt your body begin to warm up and you couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh which caused both Steve and Bucky (who had been watching the exchange) to chuckle.

“A true gentleman,” Bucky teased, causing your cheeks to redden as you continued to walk.

You patiently waited until Steve had looked away to give Bucky a small pinch on the arm for his joke.

Three

Pain. That was the first thing that registered with you when your eyes fluttered open. The next thing was that your arms and legs were both bound to a table with tight, leather straps and no matter how hard you struggled, they wouldn’t budge. The third was that there was a red symbol painted onto the wall opposite you.

The large skull with protruding tentacles was practically taunting you as you lay there, helpless. Of course it’s Hydra, you thought. Evil bastards.

Just as you had laid your head back on the table and tried to calm your racing heart, the door opened up and approaching footsteps were heard. Quickly, you closed your eyes in an attempt to feign sleep, but your attempts were in vain.

“I know you’re awake,” said a familiar voice.

You frowned. What was she doing here?

“Open your eyes,” she ordered, running her fingers over a selection of weapons that lay on a small table behind your head and choosing her favourite. “You don’t wanna miss the show.”

You did as you were told, albeit unwillingly. A curtain of red hair had fallen around the woman’s face and for a moment, you thought you had made a mistake… but then those sharp eyes turned to stare down at you and you found yourself whimpering involuntarily. The soft green gaze that used to look at you with such fondness was gone and instead, something much darker and much more evil lay beneath.

“Nat,” you whined as she moved closer. “What are you doing?”

“My job. You understand, don’t you?” she replied simply, taking her chosen knife and letting the point lightly graze your thigh as she toyed with her prey. “Hail Hydra.” Without warning, the knife was plunged into your flesh.  

You woke with a start, sweat pouring down your skin as you frantically tried to catch your breath while tears formed in your eyes. Your heart was pounding against your rib cage while you ripped the blankets off of your body and searched, panic-stricken, for the wound that was sure to be covering your bed with blood… yet you found nothing.

Fumbling in the darkness, you switched on the lamp that sat on the cabinet next to your bed and blinked rapidly as your eyes adjusted to the light. Your eyes fell to your thigh once again but instead of a fresh wound, all you saw was a thick white scar you had gained a month previously. You really had been captured by Hydra but, of course, it wasn’t Natasha who had been inflicting the pain upon you. Despite this, ever since you had been freed by the team, you had been having nightmares about the events; the torturer in your night terrors being replaced each time with a different friendly face - Natasha wielding a knife, Wanda using her powers to dig deep into your brain, Bucky’s metal arm wrapped tight around your throat as he squeezed and squeezed…

You jumped as a knock sounded at the door to your room and you found yourself not wanting to answer. Taking a deep breath and cursing yourself for being so silly - you know that you were safe in the tower - you slowly crawled out of bed and padded over to the door.

“Steve?” You whispered in confusion as you opened the door wider to let the man in.

“Are you okay?” He immediately asked in concern, blue eyes scanning your face for any sign of distress.

You frowned. Had you been screaming? Did the whole tower hear?

“I… I had a nightmare. But I’m fine, don’t worry.”

At Steve’s disbelieving look, you scoffed weakly and lead the way back into your bedroom with slightly shaky legs. “Okay, maybe I’m not fine but… I’m coping. That’s good enough, right?” Taking a seat back on your bed, you watched as Steve wandered over and began to fix the blankets that had been thrown around haphazardly in your panic. Your heart swelled at the simple gesture before you caught another glance at the scar on your thigh, causing you to tug your shorts down further in an attempt to cover it up.

Catching a glimpse of your actions, Steve sighed as realisation hit. He took a seat on the other side of the bed next to you. “Was it the same one?”

You nodded, not entirely trusting yourself to speak.

“Who was it this time?” He asked gently.

“Nat,” you whispered as flashes of her cold, unforgiving eyes came back into your head. “Did I wake everyone up?”

“No. Actually, I didn’t hear anything,” Steve broke eye contact at your confused look, reaching up to rub the back of his neck nervously. “After the incident a few nights ago, I, uh… may have asked FRIDAY to let me know if you had any other nightmares.”

A few nights before, you had woken up from a similar night terror; only that time, it had been Clint who had been inflicting the pain. That nightmare had been particularly gruesome and had resulted in you leaving your room at 1AM and making your way down to the gym in an attempt to make yourself feel strong again. To regain some control.

You were discovered by Steve a few hours later, who had only been woken up by a noise from the downstairs area and had found you on the floor, in tears. The man had somehow managed to calm you down and bring you back upstairs to your bed where he waited until you fell asleep before leaving.

“Thank you, Steve,” you said simply, blinking back tears as you let your head rest on his shoulder. Steve’s hand found yours as if on instinct, and with his comforting presence, you felt yourself begin to relax again.  

“You should try and get some more sleep,” Steve suggested.

You shook your head. “I don’t think I can.”

“It’s okay. I’m here,” Steve reminded you. He understood your fears as well as anybody could, after all, he had nightmares, too. Hell, everybody in the tower did.

And if they could get through it, so could you.

Four

Steve was light and spry on his feet as he went through the motions of his daily workout, his heart racing, the endorphins being released making him feel exhilarated in the most satisfying way. His fist had just met the punching bag again when he heard a rowdy spell of laughter from the living room. Although he was curious, he tuned out the noise and continued on with his movements.

Then there was another outburst of laughter - this time louder than the last. Tilting his head to the right and listening closely, Steve easily picked out who the laughter belonged to - you, Wanda, and Natasha… and nothing good ever came out of that particular trio. He thought Natasha was bad but when he added you and Wanda to the mix, all three of you became instantly more spirited and mischievous.  

Steve, whose curiosity was getting the better of him, made the decision then that he wouldn’t be able to get any more exercise done. Sighing, he began to unravel the boxing tape from around his hands when he heard you squeal Natasha’s name in shock.

“What the hell?” He muttered in bemusement.

Grabbing a towel and doing his best to wipe the sweat from his face, he made his way from the gym to the living room where three Avengers sat, two with amusement in their eyes and you with a blush covering your cheeks. Wanda was the first to notice his presence.

“Hi, Steve,” the girl grinned playfully.

“Wanda,” he acknowledged with a slightly apprehensive nod. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” you were quick to answer.

“Just girl talk, Cap,” Natasha said, her gaze on the tablet in her hand that she continued to scroll through. “Nothing to worry about.”

Steve raised an eyebrow. “I could hear you guys laughing all the way from the gym. Must have been some pretty funny girl talk.”

“Did we interrupt your workout?” You asked with a small frown as you finally turned to look at the man, your eyes widening just a fraction at the sweat on his skin. How could someone look that good while sweating?

Natasha and Wanda stifled their laughs.

“Don’t worry about it. I was almost finished anyway,” he said honestly. “And I like your laugh.”

“Aw, thanks, Steve,” Natasha joked, knowing full well his compliment wasn’t directed at her. “But you’re not my type.”

Both you and Steve rolled your eyes then, the latter coming to find a seat next to your little group.

“C’mon,” he said, “I’m intrigued.”

“The only thing you are is getting sweat all over the couch,” Natasha retorted.

“We’re looking at art,” Wanda said in an attempt to help ease the man’s confusion.

Steve nodded slowly, still not seeing how art could be so hilarious. “Okay… What kind of art?”

“Art made by fans… People who like us; the Avengers,” you shrugged, still slightly embarrassed by the last image you had been shown.

“Wow,” Steve said. “People make art of us?”

“Art, stories, a little of everything,” Wanda answered. “Some people are very talented.”

“We were just reading an interesting story about the two of you when you happened to show up,” Natasha smiled, gesturing between both you and Steve.

“Can I see it?” Steve asked.

“You really don’t want to -” Your protests were cut off by Natasha happily placing the tablet into the Captain’s hands. “Nat, don’t!”

Wanda reached out to grab your arms to stop you from ripping the tablet out of Steve’s hands and throwing it against the wall, which meant that all you could do was watch in embarrassment and horror as Steve’s blush deepened with the more he read of the piece of fiction.

Once he was finished, he quickly excused himself, stating that he needed to shower after his workout.

“I think he liked it,” Wanda laughed, prompting Natasha to laugh along even louder than before.

“I hate both of you.”

Five

“You know I could have paid for my own coffee, right?” You asked, shooting Steve a thankful smile as he returned to your table with two coffees in hand.

“That wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me though, would it?”  

“I suppose not,” you replied, rolling your eyes good-naturedly while you ran your fingertip along the rim of your coffee cup. “It’s been weird having so much downtime recently, huh?”

Steve nodded in response as he sipped his own coffee. “It actually makes me a little uneasy at times. Like I’m just waiting for something to go wrong.”

“Yeah, me too,” you frowned. “I guess it’s because we’re not used to -”

You paused mid-sentence as a scream that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up was heard in the distance. “Did you hear that?”

“I heard it,” Steve replied, his eyes staring out the window of the café.

Both of your phones chimed then with identical messages from Tony stating that there was trouble at the tower and you were both needed ASAP. With one quick glance at each other, you had both forgotten about your coffees and were running out of the building and back towards the tower. Sometime during the run, Steve had grabbed your hand in order to help you keep up with his pace and with his assistance, you managed to arrive at the tower within a few minutes.

From your point on the ground, you could see a window on one of the top floors of the tower had been smashed and smoke was billowing out of it. A small part of your brain also registered Sam and Clint who were trying to evacuate the building and clear the streets.

“I’m gonna help the guys down here,” you decided quickly.

“I’ll grab my shield and see what the hell is going on up there,” Steve agreed, beginning to make his way to the tower’s entrance. He hesitated briefly before entering, turning to face you with a seriousness in his eyes. “Be careful.”

“You too, Captain.”  

Six 

“Does this look okay?” You muttered to yourself, turning your body to view yourself from various angles in the mirror. You smoothed the edges of your lilac laced dress down and squinted at your reflection in an attempt to find any imperfections.

“I’m sure you look wonderful, Agent,” said a disembodied voice, causing you to jump in fright.

“Damn it, FRIDAY,” you sighed, placing a hand over your racing heart. “I always forget you’re here… But thank you.”

Deciding to leave your bag in your room as you would only be a few floors down anyway, you gave yourself one last look in the mirror before making your way to the elevator; there was no way you were taking the stairs in heels, after all.

Before the elevator had even stopped at the correct floor, you could already hear the hustle and bustle of a good old-fashioned Tony Stark shindig and fondly rolled your eyes. It’s not that you hated Tony’s parties. In your opinion, they were just too loud. Too busy. The only reason you decided to make an appearance was that Tony was your friend… and because he threatened to lock you out of your room if you didn’t. That was a pretty good motivator.

You held your head high as you exited the elevator into the usual hustle and bustle of a Stark party, reminding yourself that you only had to stick it for an hour or two before you could sneakily retreat back to the comfort of your own room.

You passed by a lot of familiar faces as you walked around. Sam gave you a smile, raising his glass in greeting. Sharon told you she loved your hair. Tony thanked you for showing up and promised that your room was safe (for now). As much as you loved your friends, you soon decided that you needed a drink if you were to get through - you quickly glanced at your phone - another hour of drunken agents and Tony’s proud boasting. Settling down at the bar, you breathed a sigh of relief at the chance to rest your feet.

Natasha, who had decided to take a shift behind the bar, soon came over and began to wipe down the counter with a rag, cleaning up any spillages from previous customers.

“What can I get you?” she asked with a smirk.

“You look like the biggest bartender cliche right now,” you observed.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” the redhead shrugged casually. “Surprise?”

You nodded and a minute later, a perfectly made, albeit nameless, drink was sitting in front of you.

“I think this might be your best creation yet,” you told her after taking a huge gulp. “You have a gift, my friend.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s my best creation,” said Natasha. “I think that’s you.”

You raised a curious eyebrow. “And how exactly am I your creation?”

“I convinced you to wear that dress tonight, didn’t I? And let’s face it, you look hot. I have great taste.”

Self-consciously, you found yourself tugging the end of your dress down a little at Natasha’s words which caused her to roll her eyes.

“I’m serious,” she reached over the bar to give your arm a shove. “And I bet Cap here would agree with me.”

With furrowed brows, you followed her eyeline and glanced over your shoulder, right as Steve approached with an amused smile.

“What am I agreeing on?” He asked, leaning against the bar so he could easily see both of you. Natasha was quick to slide him a bottle of beer before he even had the chance to order. Nodding thankfully, he took a sip.

“Her dress is hot,” Natasha said simply with a nod towards you. “Yes or no?”

“Nat,” you groaned in embarrassment.

Steve swallowed his drink slowly, being extra careful not to choke like he almost had. He knew Natasha was blunt but she had admittedly taken him off guard. That’s what he gets for assuming they could just have a casual conversation, he supposed.

“Uh -”

“You don’t have to answer that,” you told him quickly. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Natasha smugly wander off to serve someone else.

“No, I want to!” Steve cringed at how eager he sounded. “I mean, I was already going to tell you - before Natasha… was Natasha, I guess…”

Steve sighed and you watched in bemusement as he struggled with his words.

“You look beautiful,” he settled on eventually. “I wanted to tell you when you first got here but I couldn’t seem to get away from a drunk Rhodey.”

A small smile spread across your lips then and you playfully replied. “You look pretty beautiful, too.”

This time, Steve did choke on his beer.

Seven

“Hurry up or we’re starting without you!”

“I said I’m coming!”

Who knew Avengers could be so impatient? 

A frustrated sigh left your lips as you tugged a loose hoodie over your tired frame. Your fingers got tangled in your knotted hair in your attempt to tame your bedhead and you groaned, quickly grabbing your brush instead. Maybe taking a nap before your scheduled movie night with the team wasn’t the best idea but it’s not like you intended to oversleep.

“Your popcorn is getting cold and eaten!” 

With a huff, you all but stormed out of your room, muttering under your breath about how you were going to kill Sam Wilson. You could probably get Bucky to help if you asked him nicely enough. 

When you reached the living room, the opening credits were already rolling - you had missed the chance to vote on which movie you would be watching - and you squinted into the darkness of the room to find a free spot to sit.

“Get enough beauty sleep, princess?” Sam asked sarcastically.

“Seems like you could use some,” Bucky retorted on your behalf. 

A chorus of “oooh”s came from the team, to which Sam told them to shut up and eat their food. It was then that you noticed the bowl of popcorn in his hands. He really had taken yours. 

Stupid bird, you thought bitterly.

As everyone settled down again to watch the movie, a quiet voice came from your left.

“Hey,” said Steve with a gentle touch to your arm to alert you to his presence. “I saved you a seat.”

Sure enough, a free spot sat next to the super soldier while Peter sat on his other side. It wasn’t a big space but the kind gesture was enough to warm your heart. You noted that Steve tended to have that effect on you.

About 10 minutes into the movie, you had no idea what was happening because you were far too distracted by the warm presence sitting next to you while you were also shooting glares at Sam who happily munched away at what should have been your food. Your thoughts were broken when you felt a small movement and turned to see Steve offering you his own bowl of popcorn to share with him.

You decided then that Sam could keep your food.

Eight

There were dark circles under your eyes, your back ached from sitting for so long and you were pretty sure you were going to get carpal tunnel from all the writing you’d been doing but still, you persevered. A glance at the clock told you that it was close to midnight and you groaned, resigning yourself to another long, sleepless night.

The glamorous life of an Avenger.

You stood up, taking a quick break to refill your mug before placing yourself back in front of your laptop, ignoring how your eyes attempted to droop closed every few seconds. You were so focused on your task that you barely registered the footsteps behind you. 

Steve had quietly padded out of his room to get a glass of water, cautious of making too much noise as most of the tower was asleep by now. Glass of water in hand, he turned to retreat back to bed when he noticed you - tired eyes, bushy hair - in the same spot he had left you a few hours ago. A frown immediately crossed the soldier’s face and he found his feet carrying him over to you before he could even really think about it. 

A gentle hand was placed on your shoulder and you jumped a little at the sudden touch. Steve immediately held his hands up. 

“Sorry,” he said gently. “I was trying not to startle you.”

“Epic fail,” you muttered causing Steve to chuckle quietly.

“What are you still doing up?” 

“Working,” you said with a gesture to your screen which currently held 8 pages of a report for Fury. Just 4 more to go…

“You’ve been working on that since you came back this morning,” Steve observed. “You need to get some rest.”

“I can’t,” you argued. “This report is due in one day. It’s important.”

“You’re important, too,” he stated. “You can finish it tomorrow.”

You wanted to protest but when Steve reached over and shut your laptop (he saved the document first, of course), you felt a small sense of relief. Your shoulders slumped and you let out a quiet ‘thank you’.

Steve shook his head at how stubborn you had been - although a small smile remained - and offered you his arm to help pull you up from your chair. When you reached out to take your laptop, however, you were stopped by his hand on top of yours.

“Nope,” Steve said, tucking the laptop safely under his arm. “I’ll take this. You can have it back tomorrow when you’ve woken up after at least 8 hours sleep.”

“Sure thing, mother,” you replied, sluggishly allowing Steve to guide you to your room.

“It’s nice to see you still have enough energy left to sass me.”

“I’ll always have the energy for that, Rogers.”

Nine

To say your night had been a disaster would be an understatement. Why, oh why had you thought that going out with old school friends (acquaintances, really) would be a good idea? You hadn’t ever been that close to them but when they came into town, they had reached out so you figured ‘sure, why the hell not?’.

Now you knew why you should’ve said no. 

You were currently stranded on the sidewalk outside of an obnoxiously loud club by yourself, your head thumped with the beginnings of a headache and you just knew that your feet would be hurting tomorrow. To add insult to injury, you were on the other side of town from the tower and didn’t have enough money left to get a taxi.

Pulling your phone out of your bag, you opened your contacts and called the first person that came to mind.

“Shouldn’t you be doing shots right about now?”

“Hello to you too, Captain,” you joked. 

“Hi,” Steve replied and you swore you could hear the smile in his voice. “Is everything okay?”

“I guess so,” you shrugged despite the fact that he couldn’t see you. “I’m just about to leave.”

“Really? It’s still pretty early,” he replied. “Are you getting a cab?”

“I don’t have enough money,” you told him. “I’m just gonna walk.”

“What?”

You winced as his loud tone pierced through your skull and repeated yourself. “I’m going to walk.”

“You’re going to walk from the other side of town, tipsy, while it’s getting dark out?”

“Yes? I’ll be fine, I can handle myself.” 

“I know you can, I’ve seen it, but I don’t like the idea,” There was a rustling sound on the other end of the phone as Steve moved around. “Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”

“Steve, you really don’t have to -”

“I’ll be there soon, okay? Don’t move.”

True to his word, Steve pulled up around 15 minutes later and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t relieved at the sight of him. When he unlocked the doors, you happily climbed into the car where Steve’s eyes did a subtle check on your appearance for any injuries before he started the journey back home.

“Are you gonna tell me what happened? he asked, his eyes never straying from the road ahead.

“They didn’t invite me out because they cared about me,” you explained. “They only cared about the Avengers.”

“How so?” Steve frowned.

“When I tried to talk about myself - outside of work, I mean - they kept redirecting their questions to the Avengers; how big the tower is, how much money we get paid… All that kind of bull,” you rolled your eyes as you rested your head against the window. “After being asked if Thor is single for the third time, I finally decided to leave.”

There was a pause in the conversation as Steve thought over what you had said.

“Well, the joke’s on them,” he finally decided.

“How so?”

“They were already hanging out with the best Avenger and they blew it.”

Ten

You had always told Steve that you would take a bullet for him but he wasn’t prepared when the day finally came. One minute, Steve was telling the team that the two of you had successfully downloaded the files and were on your way to the rendezvous point and the next, Steve was being pushed to the ground and you had a bullet wound in your shoulder.

Acting on instinct, Steve immediately took out the assailant he foolishly hadn’t seen coming and called out for emergency evac. He dropped to his knees and started to apply pressure over your wound, doing his best to ignore the whimpers that left your lips when he pressed a little too hard.

“It’s okay,” he told you. “You’re okay.”

“Hurts,” you managed to mutter through gritted teeth. 

“I know,” Steve shushed you quietly. “But I’ve got you.”

Behind you, the quinjet touched down and Bucky rushed out to help.

“We need to get her to medical now!” Steve exclaimed. He didn’t have time to waste.

With hurried but careful movements, the pair carried you onto the jet and gently placed you on the floor where Steve placed his hands back over your wound. Natasha didn’t say a word and began to fly back to the base as quickly as she could.

“What do we do?” asked Bucky who felt like he was in a daze.

“Radio ahead,” said Steve. “Tell them we need doctors there the minute we touch the ground.”

While Bucky moved to the cockpit to contact the base, Steve continued to whisper gentle affirmations to you, telling you that you were doing great and that you would be okay soon; that he was getting help. He hoped that if he said it enough, he would be right. The sight of your blood on his hands almost made him sick to his stomach as you struggled to take deep breaths in order to slow down your heart rate. With blood, comes life. Without blood, comes death. 

Steve refused to let that happen. 

He couldn’t help but think about how wrong this all was. The shot you took was meant for him, after all. It shouldn’t be you that was experiencing the fiery pain of a bullet while you writhed on the ground. It should never be you.

“Almost there,” Natasha called out while she prepared to land safely.

“You hear that?” Steve gave you a weak smile. “We’re here.”

The ramp of the quinjet lowered and the familiar doctors were already there, just as Bucky had ordered. They raced into the jet and began to take you from Steve and place you on a stretcher for easier transportation. Your eyes felt heavy and your limbs felt weak. You knew you were close to passing out but reached out and grabbed Steve’s arm as tightly as you could. He looked down at the weak grip you had on his uniform in surprise.

“Don’t leave,” you croaked out.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, his heart clenching.

The scarlet blood that had once flowed through you, had kept you alive, was now dried and brown, coating Steve’s hands and arms. If he had bothered to look in a mirror, he would’ve seen a streak of it on his forehead too from where he had kept nervously running his fingers through his hair. But Steve didn’t care about that. He hadn’t moved from his spot in the medical wing since you had arrived hours ago.

The rest of the team sat with him, their faces somber and their minds racing. Nobody had heard from the doctors since they brought you in for surgery and everyone was beginning to fear the worst. It was approaching hour 6 when a doctor finally approached them and they all rose from their seats in anticipation.

“Well?” Tony was the first to speak. “How is she?”

“She’ll make it,” the doctor replied, knowing that was the main news they had been waiting for.

Sam and Natasha relaxed their stiff postures. Wanda almost burst into tears. Bucky felt like he could finally breathe again.

“We had to perform debridement to remove some shrapnel that was left behind but the bullet went through her pectoralis minor muscle and managed to avoid any arteries or nerves,” the doctor continued. “All things considered, she got lucky. If it had severed a brachial artery or hit the brachial plexus, she could’ve bled out or lost all function in her arm.”

“Can we see her?” Steve asked, not wanting to hear anything about how much worse it could’ve been.

“She’s awake but drowsy, and obviously in a lot of pain,” she responded. “As long as you don’t crowd her, I don’t see why you can’t visit her for a little while.”

Tony thanked the doctor before she left and the team took a minute to let the news sink in. You were okay.

“I’m thinking of giving that doc a pay rise,” Tony commented, causing the group to smile for the first time since the accident. 

“Why don’t you go first, Steve?” Although Bucky desperately wanted to see you, he knew that Steve should be the one to do it first. “I’m sure you guys have some things you want to talk about.” 

When nobody objected to the idea, Steve nodded and nervously made his way to your room. Exhaling slowly, he pushed open your door and faltered at the sight of you. You had always been shorter than him but seeing you lying in the hospital bed with a bandage covering your shoulder and part of your chest, you looked so… small.

Steve approached your bed and lowered himself into the chair they had placed next to you. When you took in his appearance, you frowned and carefully lifted your good hand to brush your fingers over a cut placed above his eyebrow. 

“Are you okay?” 

Your voice was quiet but Steve heard it clear as day and choked out a laugh, the tears building in his eyes threatening to fall.

“You just got shot and you’re asking if I’m okay?”

“I worry,” you said simply.

Steve swallowed the lump in his throat and gently took your smaller hand in his. The blood on his hands contrasted harshly with the whiteness of the room.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “You shouldn’t have been the one to get hit.”

“It was either you or me,” you attempted to shrug but quickly stopped when the now-familiar pain shot through you. “It was an easy decision to make.”

“I’ll be with you through all of it,” he promised. “While you’re recovering, I’ll be here. Whatever you need, just say the word.”

“I think your presence is enough,” you smiled.

“Today was the closest I’ve ever come to losing you,” Steve began to brush his thumb across the back of your hand. “I was terrified. The thought of never being able to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” you asked when it became clear that he wasn’t going to finish.

“You should get some sleep.”

“Steve.” Despite the trauma you’d been through, your voice was firm. You gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. “Talk to me.”

He shook his head in response, seemingly at war with himself over what to do. You didn’t want to rush him and allowed him the time he needed to think. Your hands remained joined together, both providing the other with the comfort they needed. 

You weren’t sure how long the silence lasted but when Steve finally spoke, his voice seemed stronger than you’d ever heard it before.

“I love you.” 

[ranxiaolong]

A Silver Thread

Summary: (Y/N) finds herself distracted by a thin chain attached to the Doctor’s earring, mind adrift, wondering about a small, silver string.

Pairing: The Doctor (13) x fem!reader

Warning: so much fluff, a suggestive comment by Yaz

A/n: My first fanfic for Doctor Who! (for this account! I’m not telling you what I used to write under! Don’t be a creep! jk, love you!) SO… I hope you enjoy my fluffy 13 x reader floof ヾ(´｡• ∀ •｡`)

As the Doctor’s hands waved about in her explanation of some space-y swirly whatchamajigger (which made little sense and caused you to zone out of her excited rambling quite some time ago), you noticed it again, glinting in the light. Your eyes focused on the small earring in the doctor’s ear. It was simple, silver and gold. The Doctor’s arms wildly waving about caused the thin, silver chain connected to it to swing back and forth. Your eyes followed the chain on its upward path to where it ended. A small cuff. Nothing extraordinarily fancy, considering. A few stars that wrapped around her ear. So why did it draw your gaze?

The Doctor turned towards you and your eyes snapped up to hers, feigning attention.

——————————————————

The TARDIS door had just slammed shut behind you, the inhabitants of the planet angrily banging on the blue box. Yaz had halted beside you, using your shoulder as exaggerated support. The Doctor continued her sprint to the control panel, nearly skidding straight past it, to push on various levers and buttons, the TARDIS making her usual whooshing noise signaling her departure from the hostile planet.

Once the Doctor had finished fiddling with the control panel she spun around to face you, the silver chain on her earring catching the light.

Your eyes linger on the metallic gleam.

I wonder how it would feel—

“(Y/N), are you okay?” The Doctor tilted her head slightly with her question, worry tinting her voice.

God that’s adorable.

You shook your head. “Just a bit out of it from running across half of what was apparently a hostile military base,” you teased lightly. Yaz let loose something halfway between a gasp for air and a snort before wandering off to the kitchen to fix a kettle of tea, Ryan and Gram in tow.

——————————————————

You were sitting and playing cards with Yaz and Ryan, Gram taking the momentary quiet to read a book he had found in the library. Some novel printed in the year 5 billion. (Though it looked oddly familiar, with a giant wasp on the cover. You couldn’t quite place it)

Looking at the cards in your hand you gave a frown.

“(Y/N), you have the worst poker face,” Ryan laughed.

Yaz just raised an eyebrow as a smirk edged up on her face.

Ryan pushed all of his salt, sugar, and pepper packets (a quickly thrown together replacement for betting chips) with a smug grin.

You looked over at Yaz, who seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, holding her hands up in mock surrender. You pushed your own haphazard stack in the middle of the table. Ryan raised his eyebrow.

“You sure you want to do that?”

“Yup,” popping the ‘p’ and leaning back in your chair, “besides, Yaz beat me the last four times, thought you deserved a chance.”

Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes, “suit yourself.” Ryan looked over at Yaz, waiting to see what she would do.

Yaz smiled as she placed her cards face down on the table, “I fold.”

Ryan grinned and turned his hand over, displaying a full house of three aces and a pair of jacks. “What’ve you got?”

A full on smirk broke out across your face as you tossed your cards face up onto the table. “Royal. Straight. Flush.” A small accentuating pause was placed between each word.

Ryan looked incredulously at your ten through ace of hearts staring back at him. “I thought you were bad at five card!”

“I am,” you grinned, “but I hate preparing dinner for you people even more.”

Yaz cackled.

Ryan let out a huff before sticking his hand out for a handshake. “Well, I lost fair and square.”

You took his hand and shook it, the grin never leaving your lips. “Aww, don’t feel too bad. I got Yaz pretty good last time, I wasn’t sure if she was going to speak to me for the rest of the day.”

Yaz mumbled “‘mercy killing’” with mild resentment under her breath before looking at you. “Liar, you’re good at this game, you just don’t play well until you’ve got us hook, line, and sinker.”

You stuck out your tongue in protest.

Ryan stood up from the table, “Well, I’m gonna go ask what me grandad wants. I suppose you two still want the same?”

A unified “yup” left both you and Yaz.

Ryan nodded and left the room in search of the library.

“It’s nice that Ryan and Gram are getting on,” you smile at the door where Ryan had exited.

Yaz glanced towards you.

“You like her.”

“What?”

Yaz repeated herself, “You like the Doctor.”

Your eyebrows came together as a confused frown graced your lips, “Of course I like her, she’s my friend. I wouldn’t be traveling with you guys if I didn’t like her.”

Yaz rolled her eyes, “I meant romantically, you moron.”

A flush took to your cheeks, you refused to meet Yaz’s eyes, “She’s just a friend, Yaz. I don’t like her like that.”

Yaz snorted.

“What!”

“You’ve been giving her those googly eyes and have been staring at her non-stop. If you’re trying to be subtle, you’re doing a horrid job of it. I’m surprised she hasn’t caught on by now.”

“I haven’t been giving her googly eyes,” you huffed out, “It’s her stupid earring.”

Yaz’s eyebrows scrunched together, “Huh?”

“The Doctor’s earring,” you clarified, “It’s weird.”

Yaz was no less confused. “I wear earrings, are mine weird?”

You shook your head, “No, it’s just that cuff and chain. It’s really distracting. I don’t really know what it is about it, it just keeps catching my attention. It’s so odd, every time I notice it I can’t seem to ignore it. I keep on thinking about how it might feel, or how the light keeps catching on it or something bothersome like that and I can’t just look away.” You concluded with a noise somewhere between a huff and a growl of aggravation.

Yaz’s mouth dropped open as her eyebrows rose in shock before her cheeks settled in a grin. “Oh my god, (Y/N), you have an earring cuff kink!”

Your cheeks flared scarlet, “No, I do not! It’s just distracting! That’s all!”

——————————————————

The Doctor had taken team TARDIS back to Sheffield, everyone had wanted to get something from home. Mostly clothes that were clean and not covered in smelly alien goo.

(Y/N) had gone to and from her flat rather quickly, and was therefore first back in the TARDIS. After you had finished putting your clothes away in your room, you wandered into the console room, the Doctor nowhere in sight.

You had sighed and turned around quickly, nearly smacking straight into the chest of the excitable Time Lord that was right behind you.

“Oh good grief, Doc, Sorry!”

The Doctor had chuckled softly, “Ah, no worries.” She pushed some hair behind her ear, “Shoulda given more warning.”

You gulped.

“So,” the blonde alien rocked on the balls of her feet, the small chain attached to her ear swaying loosely, “any ideas on where you’d like to go next?”

Your brain only processed half of the words that were just spoken to you. “I’m-I’m sorry, what?”

“Where would you like to go? We’ve got the whole universe, all of space and time! Except some places… can’t go some places, very bad there, can’t cross time streams… but other than that all of space and time at your fingertips. Just say the word and I can take you there. There’s some great planets out there. How about Barcelona? Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona—”

The Doctor continued on her rambling as you zoned out once again, only half hearing something about dogs with no noses, all your attention on the shiny metal clasped onto the Doctor’s ear.

The Doctor stopped suddenly, “(Y/N)?”

What was it about a stupid piece of metal that was so intriguing?

“(Y/N)?”

I mean, sure, earrings, in general, drew attention on themselves, it’s what they were supposed to do.

“(Y/N), are you all right?”

But why were you paying so much attention to it?

“Can you hear me?”

Especially that chain and cuff, for some reason looking at it made your stomach start to feel warm.

“(Y/N—).”

Seriously, what was up with you? When you saw that small piece of metal wrapped around her ear, all you could think about was how it might feel. How she might react if you touched it, ran your fingers over the clasp, lightly placed your lips over—

“(Y/N)!”

You were jolted out of your thoughts, the Doctor right in front of your face.

“Wha-What?”

The Doctor looked at you with worry. “(Y/N), are you alright? You’ve been spacing out a lot recently. Have you caught something?” She took out her sonic screwdriver and quickly scanned you. She brought it to her face to see the reading, but frowned when nothing was recorded as wrong.

“I’m fine, Doctor. I’m probably just a bit tired, ‘s all right.” You sighed, shaking your head dismissively.

“No, it’s not,” a frown still decorated the Doctor's face and her eyebrows creased, “This isn’t the first time this has happened. It’s hardly the second time, even. Is there something you’re not telling me?” She bends down slightly to be eye level with you.

You swallowed thickly.

“I’m fine.”

That seemed to only make the Doctor more stressed. “(Y/N), I need you to tell me what’s going on. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it.” The Doctor’s eyes flicked across your face in search of an answer before her body went stiff and her jaw tensed shut. Some sort of thought or realization going through her head.

Ah, shit.

You were about to open your mouth when the Doctor’s quiet (and strangely vulnerable sounding) voice broke through the silence, “Do you want to leave?”

You looked up in alarm.

“No!”

The Doctor startled by your sudden exclamation recoiled back a step.

“I don’t want to stop traveling with you!” You continued, eager to say anything to stay, “I love being able to see all of the wonderful things you show us, all the excitement.” Your voice became more meak.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. So you don’t want to leave,” in your panic of wondering if you were being asked to leave, you didn’t notice the Doctor’s sigh of relief or her mood become lighter. “If that’s not it, then why have you been so distracted lately?” The Time Lord tilted her head slightly to look into your eyes, the silver chain reflecting the light within the TARDIS.

“‘S your stupid earring,” you mumbled.

“Sorry, couldn’t quite hear that, what?” Confusion flickered across the Doctor’s face as she leaned in closer to hear you properly.

“It’s your earring!”

You didn’t mean to shout.

The Doctor reeled back from the sudden outburst, eyes wide.

Unable to stop the words from spilling from your mouth, cheeks heating up from embarrassment and refusing to make eye contact, you continued, “It’s been driving me insane. Every time I look at you and I can see it, I can’t look away for some reason. It’s like it keeps nagging away at my brain.”

The Doctor’s nose scrunched in confusion, “Is there something wrong with it?”

Your face was starting to burn, “No, nothing’s wrong with it. It’s just…” you trailed off.

“Just…?” the Doctor prompted.

You looked straight into her eyes, red painting your face completely, “I really want to touch it!”

Silence.

Oh God, you just screwed everything up, didn’t you? Now the Doctor would think you were weird for wanting to touch her earring, of all things. She would think you were weird and then become uncomfortable having you around, but she would be too polite to show it. Then after a few weeks, maybe days, she would ask you to leave because she wasn’t comfortable around you anymore because of your stupid outburst. Why did you have to say that? You should have just kept your mouth sh—

“Okay.”

What.

“I said, Okay,” the Doctor responded gently to the word you didn’t realize was said out loud. “You can touch my earring if you like.”

You paused before nodding slowly and the Doctor bent down slightly for you to touch the metal accessory.

You raised your hand up to her ear, hesitating before softly touching the piece in her earlobe.

You notice neither the Doctor closing her eyes nor the shaky breath she releases at your touch.

Your fingers trace along the shape of the silver adornment, your fingers momentarily brushing along the Doctor’s ear.

The Doctor inhales sharply.

You continue running your fingers along the trail of the Doctor’s earring, your fingertips tracing along the chain, all of your senses focused on the captivating piece of jewelry.

As the tips of your forefingers reached the end of the chain, you hesitated slightly before running them around the cuff. You swipe your thumb softly over the front, taking in all the smooth bumps and edges along the line of stars.

The Time Lord hoped you couldn’t hear her hearts hammering away in her chest. (Of course you probably couldn’t, you were human. Human hearing wasn’t fine enough to be able to hear the pulse of another creature from so far away. It was just a figure of speech.) Having you so close, your scent completely surrounded her, and it was not doing good things for her self restraint. She was already having trouble with you living on the TARDIS. Constantly distracted. Wasn’t good really. Even now, all she could think about was how would it feel? Your soft hair, your smooth skin, your plush lips—

You eventually pull your hand away, a bit regretfully, and slowly bring your hand to your chest, clutching it within your other unconsciously.

The Doctor took an extra second to savor the memory of your fingers so soft upon her skin. She finally opened her eyes slowly, pulling away, her ear still tingling from your touch.

The Doctor’s eyes focused themselves on your face and swallowed, conflicting thoughts racing through her mind. Hesitating, leaning a few centimeters closer, hesitating, withdrawing, repeat.

You bite your lip looking at the Time Lord distracted by her own thoughts before in an instance of bravery—or possible stupidity—you took a  few paces forward, rocked yourself onto your toes and pressed your lips right on the side of the Doctor’s face, breath tickling her ear.

“Thanks, Doc.”

You scurried away quickly back to your room before she could see the red taking over your face. You may still be distracted by it later, but at least you pulled together the courage to get closer, you would take your silver linings wherever you could get them.

The Doctor stood there in a moment of stunned silence before she touched her cheek, her finger then playing absentmindedly with the silver thread.

She refused to answer the rest of Team TARDIS’s questions on why she seemed more happy than usual nor why there was a grin wider than normal seaming to be plastered to her face the rest of the day.