#screaming from the rooftops that they should of fucked at least once

[bisexualalienss]

Roswell New Mexico Galentine's 2025 ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Day 2 : Ludus: playful, non-committal love

[impala124]

Bad Buddy Ep 8

My thoughts on Ep 1 | Ep 2 | Ep 3 | Ep 4 | Ep 5 | Ep 6 | Ep 7

Me, at the end of this episode:

Awww. Pran really went from not knowing about Nong Nao doll to snuggling with him in a matter of days.

Wait a fucking second. How dare they just give me a shot of their photos together on Pran's headboard? No, I need the lore behind each and every one of those pics.

Pat is serving him breakfast in bed. And making references to the first time Pat slept over❤️.

The (rival) faculty shirts hanging on the wall side by side in the background are just chef's kiss.

A major chunk of their relationship is happening off-screen, so it's running my imagination wild. You know what that means—a lot of potential for fanfics. Help a girl out and share your favorite BB fanfics!

I've seen ice cream kisses before (thank you, Brian Kinney), but thanks to Pran, I'm witnessing ketchup(?) kisses too, though not as explicit and that's okay, I'll take it. I love it when they are playful with each other.

Pran, my beloved, taking 0.001 seconds to adjust to holding his boyfriend's hand in the corridor is just AGFDHKH

I mean, they weren't technically lying to Pa; they just happened to live in their own version of the play they were supposed to be rehearsing.

Pa is onto them, but being the best sister she is, isn't pushing for more details.

Excuse me, what do you mean they held hands behind Pa's back while she was walking ahead of them. I'll take this, please and thank you; the parents and their rivalry can go to hell for all I care at this point.

I know they are taking me to the highest of highs to push me down to the lowest of lows. Let me get my parachute out.

WHAT SHOULD WE HAVE FOR DINNER?! Nothing is easy with Pran; my son has to make Pat guess the answer he's giving using the fucking Thai xylophone. Once again, I ask, why is this kind of flirting not seen on any shows airing right now?? I want this back on my screen so bad!!! I want to scream about it in real time. Who do I need to write a letter to to make it happen?

I do feel bad for Director Toto, first, one of the main leads quit, and now the new main lead is busy fooling around with his music composer, but, Sir, be careful there; don't hurt Pran.

Ink is on my screen WITH Pa. Why is Wai here? This manipulative asshole is dampening my good mood. Oh, he wants info on Pa, but Ink, my girl, isn't having any of it. Get his ass, bestie!

Drinks with Wai or dinner with your boyfriend? Seems like an easy choice, Pran. Drop Wai's ass, stat.

Can't wait for the day Wai finds out that Pa is Pat's sister!! I hope he doesn't find out until he's in too deep with Pa. Might seem a bit schadenfreude, but I don't like that boy at all.

Pat telling Korn that he's having dinner with his mom and Pran telling Wai that he's having dinner with his dad will definitely not come back to bite them in the ass. FOR REAL.

My boys are making the grave mistake of not having at least one person who they are both familiar with be in the know about their relationship. Pran, bestie, send me your mail ID so that I can link you to some sources as to how to be in a secret relationship successfully.

Okay, so someone knows about their relationship. Who could it be? My money's on Wai. When Pran mentioned that he was meeting his father for dinner, he must've followed him because his mom loves having Wai over. It can't be any of Pat's friends because they are impulsive shitheads and would've been on Pran's ass the second they saw him approaching the car.

More of Ink and Pa, I've been blessed. Thank you, senior, who couldn't make it to the restaurant.

I am not enjoying watching Pran be so helpless on the rooftop!!

Acts of service, my beloved!!!

Oh Pat, my lovable puppy, you didn't really think this through now, did you?

The parallels between the play and their reality are very clever because Pran is never going to talk about his issues with Pat openly, at least not yet.

Pran's "I'm just the music guy shtick" is so funny that even Toto is like, I'm on my way to book a hall to hold a fan meet with you guys after the play, byeeeeee.

Pran, you are just not a sound guy anymore. So, Wai found out that Pa is Pat's sister. I mean, Pran disclosed it to save his boyfriend's ass, so I'll take it.

Pran waxing poetic about love😍, but with Wai🤮. I have a lot to say about this conversation; put a 📌 on it for now; I promise I'll get back to it. Needless to say, PRAN officially became a HALL OF FAMER in my favorite blorbos of all time category.

Oh, incoming angst, how much I hate you and love you at the same time.

I snorted out loud when Pat's dad said, When did I teach you to lie? Sir, with all due respect, which is none in your case, the correct question to ask YOURSELF would be, Where did I go so wrong that my son couldn't be honest and had to resort to lying to me? Just a suggestion; take it or leave it.

Not the fucking "I thought you knew your priorities, but clearly I was wrong." How about asking your son if he WANTS to play rugby anymore? You, sir, are on a TIMEOUT again, indefinitely this time.

Pran, my beloved, I know that you're new to the whole boyfriend thing, so let me offer you a crash course. When your normally happy and upbeat boyfriend calls you sounding sad and dejected and asks if you're free to talk, you say YES AND LISTEN TO HIM.

I knew you were a quick study. Now, cheer up your boyfriend.

Virtual hugs, my beloved!!! And back hugs too!! Why are they so stinking cute??!

You heard it here first. Pran is Pat's Nong Noo (baby girl)!!

Call me a wuss, but Pat saying, Familiar scent of you, while sniffing Pran's shirt, made me tear up a little. "Give me a big smile with small eyes. Show me your dimples." AAAHHHHHH. It should be illegal to be this cute!!!

Not Pran keeping up with the elevator bit till the end.

Pat could wear Pran's shirt, but no, my baby boy draped it over his already covered chest.Now, I need to know for reasons if this is the same shirt Pat borrowed last time, because it looks the same, but Pran might have multiples, so is there any way I can know for sure??

Oh Pran! Oh no, Pat took off the shirt. My boys are hurting.

Wow. Pat playing the Thai xylophone to express that he's upset and the fucking montage!!! I'm in tears.

Oh, the little detail of Pran looking around to see if anyone's around before approaching Pat😭

Okay, it's good that they are apologizing to each other. "Aren't you afraid people will find out? I am. But I care about you more." Pran, when I catch you—

Pat, you damn cheeseball, with your "Telling the world we're not just friends.". STHAP IT!!

FUCK!!! What in the ever-loving hell just happened?! What do you mean the curtain fell down? And the theater isn't empty.

Let me note that the curtain falling down is so fucking symbolic because the curtain falling indicates that something has ended, and in this case, the secrecy of their relationship has ended.

Oh my god, their friends are in the audience. Wai, you fucking asshole. You were the one who saw them leaving in the car together, weren't you? You switched on the sound, and everyone heard Pat saying that Pran is his boyfriend. Why are you the fucking worst?? Were you not held enough as a child? Maybe you were mad that Pran lied to your face and discouraged you from going after Pa, but this isn't how you treat anyone, least of all your best friend!! I don't care for your reasons; I hope you rot in hell!!

Now, I expect Pran's mother to make an appearance in the next episode because he's involved in the play with Pat. Now, why did Pran agree to take on the role of the music composer? It's because Wai fucking manipulated and guilted him into doing so.

Pran's conversation with Wai at the bar:

Our facalties are rivals..... Do you really believe Pat's family will accept you? In the end, you have to keep your relationship a secret. It's an exhausting relationship. It's so hard just to see each other. It's tough just to talk to each other. It's not important enough that it can't be reversed. No moving forward because it's a deadend. It's a kind of relationship that I always avoid unless a relentless puppy that I'm particularly fond of enters the equation.

There we have it, the crux of the issue. Pran doesn't believe that he's worth taking that chance, because, as I've mentioned before, Pat might be willing to throw caution to the wind to see where things land, unlike Pran, who deeply believes that he brings bad luck to Pat (backstory required asap). They can't move forward until they resolve this issue.

It actually makes me think that it was very intentional that it was Ink who took Pat to the noodle shop in the last episode, the same Ink who told Pran that she isn't interested in Pat romantically, because if it were a potential romantic interest for Pat in the picture, Pran WILL back off because Pran feels like he doesn't have the right to feel jealousy over Pat. On the other hand, Pat, my beloved, doesn't have any such hangups and feels like it is his god-given right to feel jealous of Wai in relation to Pran.

To end on a happy note:

Pat's " If my victory puts my boyfriend in trouble, I'd rather lose." 🤝 Pran's "I'm afraid of the world finding out about us, but I care about you more."

Tagging the usual suspects: @shortpplfedup, @incandescentflower, @starryalpacasstuff, @7nessasaryevils, @greenteadumplings, @grapejuicegay, @madworld-bbs, @usodeshou, @tao-moonb, @fanatic-freakshow . If anyone wishes to be tagged in the future, let me know.

[celestiall0tus]

Adamsapple Angst Week - Day 2 Fall From Grace/Hatred/Abandonment Issues - Endless War

Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 || Day 5 || Day 6 || Day 7

            Adam tossed and turned in bed. Sweat beaded and fell as he was consumed by the same nightmares that had plagued him since his fall. Trapped in Eden, surrounded by dark, horned angels. He always tried to run, but they always found him and tore him asunder. They started with his wings, then removed his limbs one by one, cut off his dick, and tore out his innards. Other times he was nailed to a cross and used for target practice for various weapons. The worst of them were the ones that took their time. They carved him up slow, and like the others, always started with the wings. Next they would cut his vocal chords before they cut open his torso and removed every bone and organ in him, severe all his veins, before cutting all the nerves.

            Adam screamed and sat up. He took short, quick breaths as he looked around. He was still in his room in the dead of night. Everything dark except for Lightning’s, his bodyguard, battle suit that was lit up with a sterile, white glow. He focused on her as she shifted and moved beside him.

            “Another nightmare?” Lightning asked.

            “What do you fucking think?” Adam snapped.

            “Do you want the list again?”

            Adam growled. “Fuck you. C’mon. We’re going for a walk.”

            Lightning sighed and followed Adam through the hotel until they were outside. He flew up and landed on the roof with her right after him. She kept close to him as he paced around the rooftop.

            “This is fucking bullshit. I shouldn’t even be down here. I’m Adam! I’m the fucking man! I started everything on fucking Earth. Without me, there’d be nothing! I should be up in Heaven, fucking enjoying my afterlife, but guess what, I’m stuck down here with all the freaks!”

            Lightning didn’t answer.

            “That’s another thing. I shouldn’t have to be doing any work. I shouldn’t be answering to anyone, except maybe Sera. But still! Especially that little creep that fucking killed me. They’re only lucky I play along in case those stupid angels show up again, but playing nice is fucking lame.”

            Lightning remained silent.

            “Are you fucking listening, bitch?”

            “Was I supposed to?”

            “Uh, yeah. I’m talking. You should be listening to everything I say.”

            “I’m sorry, could you repeat that? Your mouth was moving, but I didn’t hear anything.”

            “Ugh! Fucking weak. Wish Lute was here. Or Lucifer. At least they listen to me.”

            Adam sat down as Lightning stomped her foot once. Adam furrowed his brows as he remembered other gestures after similar comments.

            “Wait, no. I didn’t mean-!” Adam started.

            Another of Adam’s bodyguards, Rain, appeared with Lucifer held up like a stuffed toy.

            “Put me down this instant!” Lucifer demanded.

            “We are under no orders to listen to you, Lucifer. Put him over there,” Lightning commanded.

            Rain obeyed and dropped Lucifer beside Adam, then vanished.

            “Oh, fuck! Uh, hey, Adam. Uh, lovely night?” Lucifer fumbled.

            Adam growled and turned his back to Lucifer.

            “Right. So why was I brought up here?” Lucifer asked.

            “Adam wants someone to listen to his complaining,” Lightning answered.

            Lucifer smirked and leaned on Adam’s shoulder. “You like me listening to you?”

            Adam rolled his eyes and pushed Lucifer away. Lucifer raised a brow before a mischievous look spread across his face. He transformed into a snake and slithered in front of Adam. Adam’s eyes widened as fear gripped him seeing the snake again. Adam looked away as Lucifer transformed back with his head resting on Adam’s lap as Lucifer looked up at him.

            “So, what troubles you this fine night?”

            Adam’s heart raced from a maelstrom of emotions. He scooped up Lucifer and tossed him over to Lightning.

            “Would you knock it the fuck off? I’m not some gay ass, rainbow humping loser like everyone else in this shit hotel!” Adam roared.

            “Could have fooled us,” Lightning retorted.

            “You can shut the fuck up! I don’t need that level of sass from anyone. Don’t forget who I am!”

            “You are the idiot that tried to kill Lucifer’s daughter and was killed by a filthy janitor. The very same janitor that has you on collar and leash.”

            Adam snarled as his form shifted. Lucifer gasped as Adam became more draconic in appearance. Lucifer scrambled to his feet and held his arms up.

            “Easy, please. There’s no need to lose control, big guy,” Lucifer said.

            “Control? Control? I’ve not been in control since I fell into this hellhole! I’m Adam! I’m the one that’s supposed to be in control! I have to be everything!” Adam roared.

            “I mean, you don’t have to, right?”

            “Yes, I do. You don’t know what I had to go through after you ruined my life! If you hadn’t given Eve that apple, everything would have been fine! I wouldn’t have had to-! Eve wouldn’t have-! My sons, Abel, he-! Dammit all, this is all your fault! I hate you!”

            Lucifer flinched as Adam grew and was more dragon than human. Adam reached for Lucifer, but he avoided Adam. Lucifer jumped back, took a deep breath, and held up a hand. Blinding white light filled the area and when it faded, Adam reverted to his sinner form. Lucifer stepped forward as Adam fell on his knees.

            “What… what was that?” Adam asked.

            “Uh, well, you see, sinners, like the hellborn, have demon forms. And, well, that was you turning into it. Fun, right?” Lucifer added with a nervous smile.

            Adam stared at Lucifer, then dropped his gaze to the floor. “Fucking unreal. This nightmare doesn’t fucking end.”

            “H-hey, it’s not all bad, right?”

            “Oh, yeah, you’re right! I could be stuck serving the people that fucking killed me and have the capability of turning into a fucking dragon all while not being able to sleep because of some vengeful stupid exorcists that can’t let go of the past. How is it not that bad?” Adam demanded.

            “Says the man who can’t let go of his own past,” Lightning muttered.

            “Oh, fuck you! At least I didn’t go out of my way to make people suffer!”

            “No, you just tried to kill their daughter because of whatever reasons that lead to your own death.”

            “I-!” Adam started.

            “It’s time you just stopped. No one here gives a fuck who you were, what you were, or whatever grand plan you were supposed to be part of. We’re not the angels and winners, we’re the demons and sinners. Why should we care about you at all?” Lightning challenged.

            “Now hold on! Not everyone may care, but I do!” Lucifer announced.

            “Oh, wonderful. I’m so glad to have your fucking pity,” Adam hissed.

            “No, it’s not like that. Look, things are… complicated, right now. Especially about you, but there is one thing I know for certain. I do care about what happens to you. You’re an ass, and you tried to hurt Charlie, but I still care. I… I won’t abandon you like the others.”

            Adam’s eyes widened and his face softened for a moment before he glared down at Lucifer and sneered. He opened his mouth, but words failed him. He turned his back to Lucifer as they stood in silence.

            “Adam?” Lucifer asked.

            Adam shook his head and flew off with Lightning behind him. Lucifer lingered a moment longer before he left.

            Adam landed on the ground near the hotel with Lightning. He leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. Tears threatened to well in his eyes, but he forced them down. He sneered and punched the wall behind him.

            “Fucking idiot. Thinking his words mean anything. Who does he think he is?” Adam hissed.

            “Someone who wants to help you?” Lightning remarked.

            “Yeah right. He took everything from me. And now he just wants to act like nothing happened? To say he won’t abandon me like Heaven did… twice! Yeah fucking right.”

            Lightning huffed and knelt beside Adam. “How do you feel? Holding onto this hate? Does it feel good? Does it make you happy?”

            Adam opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked at Lightning, then at the ground, but didn’t respond.

            “Well?”

            “No, but what do I have to feel good about? What do I have to be happy about? I lost everything… twice! Eden and then Heaven.”

            “Maybe, but this hate, did it make you happy even back then?”

            “I… no, but I didn’t have to think about it. I was a celebrity. I was… I was Adam, the first man. I was too busy with my fans to worry about any of that. But now I’m here and it’s all I can think about, and I don’t like it.”

            “Perhaps then you should allow yourself to reflect. Maybe even find peace with yourself.”

            Adam snorted. “Yeah right. What would I need any of that for?”

            “Because otherwise you’ll cling to that hatred. To all that anger. It’ll continue to poison your soul until it has killed you again. And at that point, why bother living at all? Why not just… die?”

            “Are you going to tell me what I should do, or just continue speaking in riddles?”

            Lightning sighed and stood. “Peace begins with forgiveness.”

            Adam laughed. “Why would I forgive any of them?”

            “Did I say it had to be them?”

            “What? Then who the fuck am I supposed to be forgiving?”

            “Yourself.”

            “What? Why would I need to do that? I’ve never done anything to myself.”

            “Neither did I, but I had to forgive myself to be standing here today.”

            Adam snorted. “Oh yeah? And what did you have to forgive yourself for? Being too much of a bitch?”

            Lightning stepped over Adam and stared up at Heaven. “I was… not right. I was not fit for such an orderly place. When my eyes opened, I couldn’t be what I was made to be. But I didn’t see it at the time. I thought I could be given a new purpose in such a place, but it was not meant to be.”

            Adam raised a brow as he stood and moved closer to Lightning.

            “You… you are one of them, aren’t you?” Adam asked.

            “I was. You threw me, Thunder, and Rain down when we approached you, begging for another option to all the bloodshed. We didn’t want to kill innocents anymore. Thunder and Rain found forgiveness in their hearts sooner than I did. I clung to that hatred for more than a thousand years.”

            “Then why aren’t you like those other ones that did all that shit to me?”

            “Because I had an epiphany. You may have thrown us down, but you were carrying out the will of another.”

            “That doesn’t make any sense. Even if you don’t blame me, don’t you blame this other person?”

            “I suppose a part of me questions them, but even then, I can’t bring myself to blame them. Not when I wasn’t fit for such a realm. I belong in chaos, and chaos is where I’ll stay.”

            “Why? What can you possibly love about this shit hole?”

            “The freedom to just be. No rules. No conditions. Just… free. Even from the past. A past I thought would haunt me, and did, until I let it go. I’m not Claire anymore. I’m Lightning. Now I ask, who will you be? Will you be Adam, the first man, or will be become something more?”

            Adam considered and sighed. “I don’t know.”

            “Well, it’s a start. And we’ll help you figure it out.”

            “You will?”

            “Of course. Much like Little Star, I know everyone is capable of change. It’s just a matter of them wanting to change. So, do you want to change?”

            Adam paused. He hadn’t felt a need to change while in Heaven. Everything went by fast that there wasn’t a moment to feel anything. His life as a human was full of strife and struggle that whatever change he endured was to survive the new harshness and loneliness of everything. Now that he was here in Hell, there were too many moments to think and reflect. Where his past constantly kept sneaking up on him. It was easy in the moment to push it back and ignore it, until it came back and made him feel worse. He didn’t like feeling like that and wanted it to end, but to change felt like a lot to him.

            Adam snorted. “We’ll see, bitch, but you’re still helping me.”

            “We will. And Lucifer too.”

            “I… I guess so,” Adam whispered with a slight blush.

            “Oh ho! Someone’s blushing. Do you have a crush on the False King?”

            “What? No! Who the fuck do you think you are even implying that?”

            Lightning shrugged. “You certainly looked quite happy when he laid his head in your lap.”

            Adam’s blush deepened. “I did not!”

            “Thunder said otherwise, didn’t you?”

            Thunder materialized beside Adam. “Clear as day. Right as you lifted Lucifer off it. Didn’t want Luci to notice too?”

            “Dammit all you fucking bitches! I don’t like men like that!”

            Thunder hummed. “That boner said otherwise.”

            Lightning and Thunder laughed while Adam fumed.

            “I demand to be escorted back to my room!” Adam yelled.

            “Of course. Shall we get Lucifer too?” Thunder asked.

            “One tap and Rain will get him,” Lightning added.

            “Fuck you both. Let’s go, Lightning!”

            Adam stormed off in a huff, but paused as he glanced back. He watched Lightning and Thunder fist bump before they took each other’s hands and spun around. A pang of guilt struck Adam as memories of them surfaced. The smiles and laughter they shared with Rain in those blissful days. Even down here, they were able to find it again. He hummed as he thought maybe he could find it again too.

            “Thinking about Lucifer?” Lightning asked.

            “What? Fucking no! I wouldn’t ever do that!”

            “Right. You weren’t thinking about how you wanted to bend the silly little man over and peg him. Or is it the other way around? Does the amazing ‘Dickmaster’ secretly enjoy being filled like an éclair?”

            Adam’s jaw dropped as his face flushed. “You fucking little-! I’m going to end you!”

            Lightning dodged Adam and flew up. “You’ll have to catch me first.”

            Adam snarled and chased Lightning around the outside before they flew inside towards his room. He felt his anger fade away and, for the first time in ages, he felt a sliver of joy.

[laurrelise]

saw your tua post about five i dont go here but i need to know did they pull an incest again. is that why everyones mad or did the ship just suck

ok so i’m assuming you’re talking about season 4!! i’ll leave this part very vague and spoiler free and if you don’t mind more specific spoilers (only about the ship, not about the actual end of the season) than check under the cut! :)

ok so not incest this time. the ship just reeeeeally sucks because it’s not only out of character but it ruined multiple arcs and relationships.

unhinged angry explanation of my least favorite part about season 4 below the cut!! (beware: yapping)

ok hi again! so five and lila get together. they fall for each other after they get stuck between timelines in this alternate dimension subway station thing, and they spend 7 years trying to find their way back home.

it turns out that lila was only doing it to survive because she needed something to hold onto while five, having been through this once before, had fallen head over heels for her.

he withholds information that can take them home for 6 months and lila is pissed and tells him it wasn’t real because she wants to get home to diego and her children, and five tells her that she knows she’s happier between timelines with him, blah blah blah it’s a whole thing.

five reluctantly goes back with lila and it’s really awkward and he’s pissed at diego (even though it was LITERALLY NEVER HIS FAULT) because lila is clearly still in love with him. they argue a little, lila gets between them, diego suspects something’s going on and asks, and then the truth unfolds and he’s (REASONABLY) heartbroken. it’s really sad to watch tbh

anyways then the end of the world starts to happen once again and i won’t go into specific spoilers for that because it would take WAY too long but basically five and diego are beating the shit out of each other and five literally outright says “i wanna fucking kill him” and lila tells him that it’s over between them and he goes and sulks because he was truly in love blah blah blah blah blah. anyways

it ends with five and diego hating each other. and it’s really fucking frustrating. and i really don’t mind what people ship for the most part, but this specific ship pissed me the fuck off because it should NOT have been canon. in my mind it still isn’t canon because this whole season sucked ass and i refuse to accept it as real.

you’re telling me five hargreeves, the man who survived for 45+ years with the single goal to save his family gave up on them after 7 years with the only other person around because he fell for her? why the hell was this necessary? why did the writers do this bro 😭 that is not the five i spent 3 seasons absolutely cherishing. i refuse to accept it

but also you’re telling me that the entire show ends with five hating diego and diego hating him?????? this entire season was SO out of character for the both of them but i STILL can’t get over (and will absolutely NEVER get over) that the writers really thought they could get away with the hargreeves despising each other like this. so pissed about this season omfg

so not only was the ship problematic for age differences on BOTH ends (fives body was 19 but lila’s was 36ish, probably older, while fives mind was 64 while she was AGAIN 36ish???? like how did they manage to make it pedophilic on both ends bro lmfao) (and do not even get me STARTED on the age differences of the actors and the fact that this has clearly been planned since aidan was a very young minor and the writers were waiting around for him to become 18 so it would be legal like fucking creeps) but it also involved cheating / homewrecking (with family no less) as well as multiple relationships ruined. i LOVED five and diego as a duo before. why the FUCK was this necessary *i scream from the rooftops*

anyways sorry for my chronic yapping, that is all.

i hate five x lila, have a good day.

[rowretro]

𝕾𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗

WARNINGS: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DISTURBING MANIPULATIVE SCENES AND DRUG USE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

✧taglist✧: @nxzz-skz   @nshmrarki @wntersm

✧CHAPTER 2✧

Babe sat on one of the chairs as she examined her surroundings, briefly. multiple burnt-out cigarette butts, a few empty bottles of beer. a few fragments of glass that remained. what triggered the girl was the tiny specs of what looked like dried blood.

"Like what you see?... this is only one of our favourite areas to hang out sweetheart... there are plenty more that you will discover soon." One of the males said, his cat-like eyes scanning her face.

 "Jungwon- pass me a roll up." Riki asked as the male tore his gaze away from Rowan and passed Riki a joint. Riki licked his lips as he stared at Babe. "Have you ever smoked?" Riki asked, his deep voice sending shivers down her spine. "N-no, I don't really smoke..." the girl responded as Riki darkly chuckled.

"Here... try this... It'd look perfect between your pretty lips princess...." Riki smirked as Heeseung twirled the girl's hair.  "No thank you... Appreciate the offer though... I guess" 

Suddenly, Heeseung burst out laughing, making the girl flinch "For a little girl you sure have some balls huh?!... Oh come on princess... it's your first day here and we accepted you into our friend group right?!... the least you can do for us is smoke it." Sunghoon said with a smug smile.

"No seriously... I'm fine" the girl replied. Oh the boys weren't taking it. Heeseung yanked her hair back as he leaned into her neck from behind "Won't you fucking listen?! god I cant believe we were being so nice... You're really asking for it you know?!!!" Heeseung seethed through his gritted teeth, his grip tightening as Riki's hand chocked her small neck.

"You're being a bad girl... what we call a brat. Do you know what happens to brats?..." Riki smirked, the joint that was in his mouth now played between his fingers. Seconds passed, and then the poor girl felt a burning sensation on her collarbone. 

She screamed and cried as she impulsively kicked, trying to rid the fiery pain of the small joint. Riki laughed. just a tiny circular burn. That was all it took to see tears in those innocent eyes, to make that sweet sweet smile disappear.

"Fucking whore going around smiling at others... You're ours now. We're all the attention you fucking need." Riki cursed as he smoked his joint. 

Suddenly, a rather sassy boy walked up to the rooftop followed by his friend, he locked the door as he turned to the others. "Should we skip lesson? all the girls are so noisy down there." Sunoo ranted as Heeseung rolled his eyes.

"Deal with it, its  not that big of a burden" Hee said as he finally let go of Babe's hair.  "What did you say your name was?" Sunghoon asked as he lit a new joint and smoked it oh so slowly "B-Babe..." "Babe... we can't have other people calling you that now can we?...." the male added as he leaned in.

Sunghoon got up as he pinned the girl down, hovering over her his face only inches away from hers, as the joint remained in his fingers. "Open your pretty mouth princess." Sunghoon supervised, knowing just how disgusted the girl felt.

"He won't say it once. Open will you?!" Another boy who had been silent the whole time, spoke out. Remembering the little burn on her collarbone, Babe hesitantly opened her mouth. Sunghoon placed the  joint between her teeth, as he gently pushed her jaw to let her hold it in place. 

"Inhale it... let it do its work for a minute or so, then exhale." Sunghoon instructed as the girl did just as told, not wanting to be hurt. She coughed a little the first time, but once she had successfully taken a puff, Sunghoon pulled the joint out of her mouth and placed it in his, his eyes still locked on hers...

Boy she was so disgusted and scared...

. . .

Babe walked into her next class, English, 17 minutes late, with Jay following from behind. The teacher didn't tell her off as it was her first day and also because Jay threw a threatening glare at her.

Sure he was older and wasn't even in her class but he didn't care, he had a free period and he's a mafia boss so the fuck is going to tell him to do otherwise?

As Babe took a seat beside Sungchan, Jay immediately pulled her up. "Babe... You're really asking for it aren't you?!" Jay seethed quietly into her ear. "Babe, Jay, you can take a seat on the 7th row by the window, please let me continue teaching my class." The teacher calmly asked as The girl sat beside Jay.

She felt as if she was a snowwoman melting under the laser rays of the sunlight, only she was human, and Jay was the said sunlight. However, the girl was somewhat thankful, she had taken note of Sungchan's perverted stares when ever Jay was busying himself with his phone.

"Why does your hand writing look like that? pfft- Jake would beat the shit out of you if he saw your grammar mistakes what- why are you pouting?!" Jay asked,  as the girl stared up at him, annoyed.

"If you're so good why don't you write my notes for me?!" Babe immediately regretted letting her thoughts slip out of her mouth like that. Her back was met with the wall as Jay leaned into her face. "Someone's feeling a little too comfortable around me already hmm?... don't worry, you'll know your place at lunch when we introduce ourselves in our own ways." Jay smirked as he turned to face the front, slipping in his seat.

✧𝕾𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗✧

[doodling-doodle]

Through The Eras (Ch.6)

Things were good, Jack was now finalizing his record deal with a really good label, and he was ready to start recording his next album. It had been way too long since 1996, he needed to put it out… Without making it clear who most of the songs were about, but thats a different story.

But he was thinking about what Khloe said… maybe he should make a move… maybe?

Maybe not… Or, should he do it subtly- fuck it.

Cross-posted on AO3

---

“Alright, that’s it.” One of the men at the desk, one of the owners of his new record label said, “Your officially in.”

Jack smiled, standing and reaching out to shake his hand, “Thank you, sir.”

“Pleasure. Goodluck with all the music.”

“Thank you.” He said, re-buttoning his suit jacket as he was turning to walk out of the office, “Have a good one!”

He siged as he shut the door, quietly clapping his hands together in his own celebration as he started walking out of the building. He’d always think of this label whenever he thought about ones he could switch to if he ever got out of Eternyx. He’d heard nothing but good things about it, and now, he was in. He couldn’t wait to start recording again.

He sighed as he got outside the building and walked to his car- Oh shit, his phone was ringing. 

���Hey, Wandie.”

“Hey! How’d it go?”

He smiled, quickly getting in his car, “I got the deal.”

“Really?! Jack, that’s awesome!!”

He chuckled, “On my way home now, I’m gonna make myself some food… what are you up to?”

“In between things right now, about to go to my own closing on a deal. Renewing my own contract with a record.”

“Goodluck.” He sighed, “Meet up on the roof tonight?”

“Sure! 10:30 good?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” 

“Cool, see you then!”

He chuckled, “See ya soon, Wandie.”

He sighed, hanging up and leaning back in his car, groaning before starting it up.

It had been about a week since the ball, and he had kept thinking about what Khloe said. Yes, he should take the shot. No, he was not going to… He shouldn’t, at least. This was The Prince he was talking about, not an actor, not just another singer. The Prince.

So yeah, he was fully stuck. Not much he could do… Other then write about how he felt.

Right, food, he needed to get home and make lunch.

…

He hummed to himself as he waited on the rooftop for Wander, just lost in his notebook. Once again just pouring thoughts onto paper.

He had an entire album and a half. But only a handful would likely make it onto one before he got new ones. So, maybe he’d re-record in the meantime? He didn’t know he order he was going to go in yet. 

But-

He heard the portal behind him, and he perked up, turning around, “Hey! How’d the- Oh shit.” He mumbled the last part when he saw Wander looking off, “Are you okay?” He got off from the ledge of the roof, standing and looking at Wander, who was shaking his head. Oh he didn’t look sad, or upset or anything. He was pissed. Like entierly pissed.

“One fucking day, one FUCKING DAY of my life, I want him to just-!” He growled, though it was more like a scream. It seemed like magic was just hovering around him, jolts of electricity leaving his body. Jack took a step back.

“No. No- that fucker decides to hide it from me for MY WHOLE LIFE, and only tell me because I told him what happened- because OF COURSE I have to clean up HIS mess! I Have to deal with it!” He paced around the roof, finally stopping and leaning against the edge, on the wall at Jack was just sitting on, putting his head down.

“Wander…?” Jack asked cautiously.

“No… No, I’m not okay.” Wander said, panting a little.

“Hey…” He said softly, slowly walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, “Take a deep breath. Calm down…”

Wander inhaled, looking up as he pushed off the roof, shaking his head and wiping his face.

“What happened?” Jack asked, “Talk to me.”

Wander sighed, taking a second as he turned towards Jack, “It- It’s Father, he…” He groaned.

“Apparently, there was a ‘prophecy’ for someone that was ‘The Chosen One’... they would have to fight the person who would threaten the safety of everyone in The Danceverse’s… Guess who that is.”

“Night Swan?”

“Obivously. And guess who The Chosen One is?”

He blinked, taking in a sharp breath, “It’s you…”

“Oh but that’s not the best part.” Wander said, turning back out to the city, “The best part is, the bitch isn’t even from The Danceverse’s, let alone Eternyx!”

Jack looked at him, confused, “What do you mean…?”

“She’s human. She’s fucking human, Jack!”

“No, she isn’t.”

“My father brought her here!”

He was in shock.

“You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t fucking know!”

Wander growled lowly, “My father brought Leda here, Night Swan. He brought her here, let her stay… until power went to her head, he banished her and forced her into Eternyx, the one place that was failing…”

“She met mine and Cygnus’ father and now we’re here.” Jack finished the story for him, “Holy Mother of Seilos…”

“So. I have to clean up the mess he made, pretty much!” Wander said, pushing against the bricks. Jack saw it crack slightly. “That fucking…”

So… he was part Vampire, and part human? He was only… half a coach? What else? 

“Wander, I…” He sighed, “I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault… You didn’t cause any of this…” Wander leaned his back on the wall, running a hand down his face as he unbraided his hair, “But that makes you partly human. And as we saw with Sara, clearly, humans have more connection to Flow… She never teach you any?”

Jack shrugged, “I taught myself. Had it until I was… fifteen. She took it from me.” He held out his hand, forcing out a small bit of energy to make a purple mist, “That’s all I got.”

Wander sighed, “There’s almost no way that someone can take Flow from another person entirely.”

“It’s not just Flow… She took…” He sighed, “It was my own magic… I think once she found out that I had more then just Flow, she… got jealous…”

“What else did you have?”

“I had fucking wings!”

Wander looked a bit shocked. Good, he was taking his mind off of what else was happening. “Really??”

“Yeah!! I had wings- best thing ever!!”

Wander chuckled, “Shame, that must have been fun.”

He smiled, happy with how he got Wander to calm down and stop thinking. Keep going.

“Anyway, how’d your meeting go?” Jack asked.

“Oh! It went well, I got my contract renewed!”

“Perfect, looks like we’re both still in business.”

Wander smirked, “You gonna start recording soon?”

“Gonna try… I’ll work on it.”

…

“So, you up for getting lunch today?” Khloe asked when she called Jack in the morning.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be free about 12:30, wanna meet in Sun Horizon?”

“Yeah, thats good. Oh wait- how’d your meeting go?”

“I got the contract!”

“Fuck yeah, Jack, knew you could!!”

Jack chuckled, “I’ll talk about it more at lunch, I gotta run.”

“I’ll be there. See ya soon, Feather.”

“See ya, Thorns.”

She hung up, sighing softly as she finished her breakfast. She managed to get a job in Sun Horizon that she would start tonight, so this worked out. Next was moving to Sun Horizon, but that could wait a little bit. 

So for now, she would wash and iron her new uniform so it was ready for tonight, probably do her makeup before going to lunch so she wouldn’t rush to do that when she got back, and go to the store. 

Then she’d talk some sense into Jack. He was so down bad for Wanderlust it was almost comical. She felt bad for him, but there was only so much she was able to do. So, she was going to smack some sense into him. She’d done it before, she’d do it again.

…

She found herself listening to some music while getting ready, putting in her earrings, putting on some bracelets, wearing a breathable shirt and trousers and her hair up. It was Sun Horizon after all.

She got a text before she was about to leave. Jack.

“Hey, would you mind going to the Hotel and checking on Wander? I know he’s there, but he hasn’t been answering texts. Worried about him.”

Well crap- “Yeah, I’m on it.”

She knew about the fight they got into last week. She knew how worried Jack was about Wander not knowing how to fight- apparently, he’d already taught Wander a few things about a fist fight, mostly defending himself, but also how to brake bones as a last resort. 

She quickly made her way to the entrance of the lobby of the Hotel, where there were many portals to other Danceverse’s, and people passing through. She knew Wanderlust was often in there and talking to people, so she was just looking around on her slow way to the portal to Sun Horizon.

She heard Discoball behind her, and she turned to see them flying around her and beeping happily.

“Hey, buddy!” She said, “Where’s Wander? Don’t tell him I said it, but, Jack’s worried about him, he’s not answering any calls or texts.”

They beeped, opening up a small portal to show Wander’s room, where he was alseep in bed.

“He okay?” She asked, and Disco beeped a little too lowly.

“Stress? Jack told me what happened yesterday.”

Disco nodded.

“Well, tell him I said hi for me, okay?” She smiled, “I’m meeting up with Jack. See you later!”

She walked up the stairs as she walked away, going to the portal to Sun Horizon… At least Wanderlust was okay, but it wasn’t like him to just… go off and sleep without anyone knowing. Was something really, really wrong, or was he just stressed?... she’d find out, even if just to help Jack.

But she also needed to find him now.

She decided to shoot him a text though.

“He’s fine, just asleep. Stressed.”

“Disco find you?”

“Yeah. No word on Traveler, but I’m assuming he’s out and thats why Wander’s sleeping.”

“More then likely… Where are you now?”

“I’m on the way now, grabbing a taxi.”

“I’ll be there in two.”

“See you then.”

She sighed, getting in the taxi and getting to the restaurant as she shook her head slightly.

Whatever The Traveler said, it hit Wanderlust hard… it was hard to see him like that. Where was the smiling prince everyone knew?... or was it always an act?

Shit, she had to worry about it later, if she was worried, Jack would worry more, and she didn’t want that.

She thanked the driver before getting out in front of the restaurant, seeing Jack hiding in the alley. 

“You alright back there?” She asked, smirking.

“Yeah… Just didn’t want to attract too much attention.” Jack said, “Did, uh… Disco mention anything else?”

She shook her head, “They just said that he was stressed…” She said, “I’m sure he’ll call you once he wakes up.”

Jack nodded, “I’ll worry about that later… Come on, let’s just get some food, lets talk.”

She smiled, walking inside with Jack and going to a table.

“So the final meeting went well?” She asked as they sat down and he took his hood down.

“Yeah! I think all of them went well. Now I have a five year contract, and I can go from there.” Jack said, smiling, “I don’t know what order I’m going to go in, but I will be re-recording my old albums.”

“As you should.” She sighed, “Just be careful, the one thing no one wants is for you to release an album and Swan finds you and kills you.”

“I had Wander sneak me in my old room a while ago… I have my old weapons back. If thats my last resort, I ain’t going down without a fight.”

“Of course your not, I know you.” She chuckled.

Jack glanced around quickly, leaning closer to her, “I need you to do me a favor.” He whispered.

She nodded, “Dealer?”

“I need you to talk to him. I need a second one for Wander that he can keep.”

“Same as yours?”

“If he has it.”

“Who are you kidding, of course he does.”

He nodded, “His price the same?”

“He’ll do it for free if its for you. He always does it for his folks.”

“You all still consider me a part of it?”

“Of course. Your still Feather to us. You’ll always be our friend.”

He smiled, nodding softly, “Thanks…” He sighed, “He still make his knives?”

“Two?”

“Yes.”

“I got it.”

Jack sighed, leaning back slightly and shaking his head.

“Your worried.”

“I’m not around him all the time, I can’t be and I know that.” Jack said, “He said that it’s happened before, either people don’t care, don’t realize who it is, or don’t like him. He’s never properly been able to defend himself, he never knew how to properly fight… So I’m trying to give him the tools he needs because I know how.”

She chuckled, “Your so hopeless.”

“I know I am, Khloe. I know I fell in love with someone I really shouldn’t have, I know it’ll never work, so I’m just… making myself fine with it.”

“Or… you could shoot for it.”

“Fucking impossible.” He sighed, “He’s the Prince, I’m so far below him, I’m basically in hell.”

“Your his friend. Your spending a lot of time with him, and, honest to Seilos, he seems to be more loose with you. He didn’t seem to want to be at that piano, until you ran in with the guitar. I have to wonder how much of Wanderlust he is when he’s around press, or when he’s singing, when he’s seen… How much of Wanderlust is he when he’s around Sara, or Brezz, or- anyone?... and how much of Wanderlust is he when he’s… around you?”

Jack sighed, shaking his head slightly, “He doesn’t like showing how stressed he is… I’ve noticed it. He tells me, he shows himself to me. The others… He hides. I’ve started to notice his real smile and his fake smile. His smile for the camera.”

“And how often is that one seen?”

“Too often… More often then not…”

Khloe looked at him, holding his hand to make him look up at her.

“Don’t you see what I’m saying, Jack?”

He nodded slightly.

“So… What are you going to do?”

He sighed, “I’m going to to… try. But I need a few days to think about how I’m going to do it.”

“Sounds like a plan. But if you don’t come up with one by the weekend, I will make it for you.”

Jack nodded, “Okay. Deal.”

“Deal.”

They both looked over to the waiters as they brought over their food, and they both thanked them as their plates were sat down.

“You got this.” Khloe said.

“Hopefully.”

…

Wanderlust panicked when he realized how long he had been asleep, quickly calling Jack and apoligizing for not answering anything earlier. He just got a chuckle.

“Don’t worry, I had things to get done today.”

Okay… well, that was fine, but he needed to catch up with some others. He fell asleep because he didn’t have anything that day, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have emails, calls, or other things. He spent a good two hours on his laptop just answering and making emails, then another hour on the phone before he went to do anything else. And after all of that, he finally went downstairs to make himself dinner.

“Where have you been all day?” His father asked when he walked in.

“Sleeping. Was just really tired.” He replied, not meeting his eyes.

“You feeling better?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Good.” His father sat down, “You seeing Jack tonight?”

“Yeah, probably right after dinner.”

“Alright…”

He sighed, biting his tongue as his father started saying how they may need to go to Eternyx to map out Night Swan… 

He tuned him out pretty quickly, just thinking.

“Fuck off. Just fuck off, you lying, hiding…” He cut off his own thoughts as he ate, sitting at the counter rather then sitting across from his father.

“Oh, and a question.” His father said, and he finally looked over.

“Are you actually planning on realising that version of Devil Town?”

Okay… this one could be fun.

“Yeah, why not? I’ve thought about it for a while, its a very different interpretation, It’s been over ten years since the original came out. I think it deserves to be aged up.”

His father sighed, “Why now? Suddenly?”

“I’ve wanted to do it for years.” He said, turning to him, “Finally got it done. It’s just going to be a single.”

His father nodded, “Well… Alright.”

He was giggling in his mind.

He sat his plate by the sink, “I have to head out.” He said as he stood, “I might be back late.”

“Just spend the night with Jack.” His father said, walking out.

He sighed, walking upstairs and texting Jack.

“Is it alright if I spend the night with you?”

“You alright?”

“Father told me too.”

There was a pause…

“I’ll be gone around 8:00 in the morning. You okay waking up alone?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Or I can go to Mihaly’s?”

“It’s fine if your here, I actually got my guest room up now, so it’s comfortable.”

“You fine with me rummaging through your kitchen?”

“Make sure its clean when you leave and we have a deal.”

“Deal. See you in a bit!”

He sighed, packing up a bag and opening a portal to the park in Dancity, sitting down on a bench next to the river.

He didn’t have to meet with Jack until later. He just wanted out of the Hotel for a bit longer.

There would be tension for a while. Then it would be fine. That’s how it always went. How it would always go.

He was still just so tired, and he wanted to just…

It wasn’t that he needed sleep. He wanted comfort. 

Maybe he’d go to his mom’s soon. A good talk and some hugs might straighten him out.

…

“Hey, quick change of plan.” Jack said over text, “You able to meet near the beach in the City?”

“Yeah, on the way.” Wanderlust replied, standing and getting his bag off the bench, deciding to just walk. He really didn’t want to throw a portal right now.

But… why the beach? He guessed it was more private, no one went out there too often… But did that mean much?... Was Jack going to say something?

Who was he kidding, he was pretty sure Jack would never be looking anywhere his way. But… Fuck, Jack was all he could think about.

He smiled when he saw Jack on the boardwalk, leaning on the railing and looking out to the water.

“Hey.” He said as he walked up, taking his hood down and looking up at Jack.

“How’d you sleep?”

He chuckled slightly, “Fine… I’m sorry, I just needed some sleep… Didn’t get enough last night.”

“Don’t worry about it. You need it.” Jack said, patting his shoulder softly and holding him to his side, “You okay?”

“I’m fine… Father just doesn’t seem to like a few things I’m doing…”

“Devil Town?”

“That’s a part of it…” He sighed, “It was a blow up fight yesterday, okay…? He didn’t want to give me a fucking answer to the question of why he couldn’t just… get rid of Leda. Send her back home… Now I have to clean up after him.”

Jack nodded, “Your not gonna be alone, okay?” He said, “We’ll be there with you. I will be there to help you.”

“I’m not a fighter, Jack… I don’t know how to stop her.”

“That’s what we’re all going to figure out.” Jack sighed, letting go of him, “But that brings something up.”

He looked up at Jack as he turned to face him.

“I’m still worried about you not knowing how to fight.”

He smiled softly, “You taught me how to fist fight.”

“Not enough.”

He tilted his head.

“You can’t assume no one is at least somewhat armed. You can’t bring fists to a knife-fight, and you can’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Not everyone has the gun, but most will have the knife. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared for anything.”

He nodded slightly, watching as Jack took his backpack, reaching into it.

“So…” 

He watched as Jack pulled a holstered pistol out of the backpack, and his eyes widened slightly.

“Do you know how to shoot?”

He blinked slightly, looking up at him, “Wh… What…?”

“Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

He shook his head, “Never even touched one…”

Jack nodded, taking the pistol out of the holster and looking on the side before flipping it around, holding it by the end so the handle faced him.

“It’s not loaded and the safety’s on.” Jack said, “Just hold it. It’s okay.”

He slowly reached for it, gently wrapping his hand around the handle. It was cold, and oddly heavy. He looked over it, running his hand over the details and looking at the trigger.

“Don’t put your finger on it unless your ready to shoot.” Jack said, holding his hand out.

He quickly gave it back to him, and studied how Jack held it. It looked so effortless.

“See this?” Jack asked, pointing to a small… switch? On the gun, “This is the saftey. Stops you from doing anything. Can’t pull the trigger, can’t chamber a round.”

He nodded.

“And this-” He put his thumb over a small button next to the trigger, putting his other hand under the gun, “-Is the mag relase.” He pushed the button, and Wanderlust watched as the… Mag, he guessed, dropped from the gun into Jack’s hand, and he turned back to face Wanderlust again.

“Never. I mean Never. Leave a gun chambered- or even loaded- when you don’t use it. If it’s in a safe, the mag is out of the gun. If it’s on you, it’s unchambered and the safety is on until you have to fire it. Understood?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

“Good.” Jack held the pistol back up with the mag, “Loading it, simple. Just shove it back in and make sure it stays.” He quickly put the mag back in the pistol, “There should be a click and the mag relase will go back out.”

He nodded, watching as the button, did in fact, pop back out.

“Take the safety off-” Jack said, pressing on the switch to turn it off, “-And then to chamber it, you pull the slide back.” He held the gun out, pointed towards the ground, and he gripped the sides of the “slide”, pulling it back with ease, and when he let go, he went back into place in the blink of an eye.

“Now it’s chambered and ready to shoot.” Jack said, “Now, how you stand matters, and this is how I was taught- by the man who gave me my first gun, actually.”

Wanderlust nodded, smiling softly as Jack moved slightly.

“Feet slightly wider then shoulder width apart, dominant foot back slightly, bend your knees slightly, lean forward slightly, and bend your elbows.” Jack said, doing exactly as he said as he described it, “And then you aim… And squeeze the trigger.”

There was about a second of silence before the gun went off, and Wanderlust gasped slightly with the loud sound, watching as there was a bright flash coming out of the gun. He looked out to the water, where Jack had shot, and his jaw dropped slightly, summoning Discoball.

“Can you go down there and show me if I’m crazy, or is there a bullet in that rock?” He asked, and Discoball flew down, and they threw open the portal.

“No fucking way- are you kidding me?!” He asked, turning to Jack after seeing the small bullet hole in the small rock in the water.

Jack smirked, “Now trust me, I did not learn that overnight. Neither will you. Don’t even try to aim for anything but the sandbank.

He blinked slightly, “What?”

“Your turn.” Jack said, “But first, unloading it. Once you chamber it, it will keep being chambered until it’s empty. So, you have to unchamber the next round. It’s the same process as chambering it.” He pulled the slide back again, and Wanderlust watched as a bullet flew out of the side, and he picked it up before handing the gun to him.

“Got it?” Jack asked, and he nodded, carefully holding the gun, pressing on the saftey to turn it back on.

“Perfect.”

He pushed the button, hearing the metal of the mag sliding out of the gun as he caught it, holding it for a second.

“Now before you put it back in.” Jack started, holding out the bullet that flew out, “Reloading a mag.”

He nodded, taking the bullet and looking at it for a moment.

“Slide it in the back.” Jack said, “Slide it in and push down.”

He looked at the mag and the bullet, sliding the point into the back and pushing it down, watching as it went right into place.

“Woah.”

“Pretty neat, huh?” Jack said, smiling, “Its a spring. It holds seven rounds. I’ll give you a box and a few spare mags.”

Wanderlust nodded, looking at the gun and the mag again.

“Go ahead.” 

He struggled slightly, but quickly got the mag back in the pistol, hearing the click and seeing the button pushed back out.

“Good. Safety off.”

He flicked the switch off, seeing it click down.

“Obivously, you don’t need to do that every time, especially if you need to change mags and keep shooting. Just teaching you the ins and outs.” Jack said, “Now, chamber the round.”

He nodded, gripping the sides of the slide and trying to pull it back… 

“Here, try it like this.” Jack said, moving his hand to the top of the slide. He could feel his face heating up. Jack was a gentleman, a sharpshooter, AND a great teacher?! Why him?!

“Now, push the pistol forward, hard as you can. Point it towards the ground, make sure your finger is on the side and not on the trigger.”

He did just that, the slide finally going back and clicking into place. It kinda hurt.

“There. Now your ready to shoot.”

He nodded again, exhaling slightly. Right. Feet slightly more then shoulder width apart, dominant foot back, knees bent, lean forward slightly.

“Don’t lock your joints.” Jack said, softly bending his elbows as he stood behind him, “It will knock you back. Don’t resist it, don’t flinch before it goes off. Let it knock you back.”

He took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to aim before remembering he wasn’t supposed to. But there were three little prongs standing up, on the edges of the slide, and in the center on the end of the gun. Were these what you were supposed to aim with? Jeez, how were you supposed to?

“When your ready… squeeze.”

He let Jack point the gun down, and he thought he finally got how the prongs worked. The center one was where you were aiming, the other two were to center you? Right, just fire it-

He squeezed faster then he meant to, and he gasped slightly, feeling his hands being forced up and back- maybe thats why he wasn’t supposed to lock his elbows- seeing ripples in the water where the bullet went.

“There you go!!” Jack said, patting his shoulder, “Keep going!”

Keep going?? This would waste his bullets!

“It’s okay. Keep firing.”

Well… okay…

He squeezed slower this time. He expected the force of the pistol. He somewhat tried to aim for a little sandhill he could see in the water, and he hit it!

“Perfect!” Jack said, smiling brightly, “Empty the mag. Just get used to it.”

Okay, he’d admit, this was fun now. It let out some aggression.

He didn’t even realize he emptied the gun until he heard the click the next time he squeezed the trigger.

“Empty.” Jack said, “Take the mag out, don’t flick the safety.”

He pushed the button, fumbling with the mag slightly as it dropped from the pistol.

“Fire it one more time to put the slide back into place.”

He did that, hearing as it clicked and the slide went back, as if chambering another round. 

“There you go!” Jack said, moving back to be next to him, “That was great!”

Wanderlust smiled, handing the gun back to Jack as he put the gun back together and the saftey back on before putting it back into his bag.

“We’ll work on aiming soon. This was just getting you used to handling a gun. And knife-fighting, I’ll get you a knife.” Jack said, staying kneeled on the ground and picking up the little things that flew out of the gun, leftover from the bullets.

“Getting rid of the evidence?” He asked, chuckling.

“That too.” Jack said, standing up and putting them in a bag before putting it in his backpack, “I keep the casings. I make my own bullets.”

“You can do that?!” “I’ll show you how.” Jack said, picking his backpack up, “For now, I think both of us could use some rest… wanna just head to my apartment?”

“Yeah… that would be great.”

…

“I honestly just… want an anger song right now.” Wanderlust said, “I’m putting out Devil Town v2, but…” He groaned, “Screaming sounds very fun right now.”

“Don’t blame you.” Jack said, “You want to find a time where he won’t be there and we can just go write slander songs in the rehearsal room? I’ll bring my guitar. You got your piano.”

“I would fucking love that, actually.” He sighed, laying back on the bed.

“I think… You need a genuine break, and a few days of just… nothing.” Jack said, “reschedule meetings if you have too. Just… take a break.”

Wanderlust nodded, running a hand down his face, “I need that…”

“Then do it. You may be a deity, but you do need rest. This was… Probably pretty traumatic. Just learning that your the one that… has to clean up after someone else.” Jack said, standing, “I think you should go back tomorrow night, not in the morning…”

“Yeah… I’ll do that.” Wanderlust said, sitting up “I’m going to… go to bed early…”

“Sleep in.” Jack said, “I’ll keep some things out in the kitchen for you, hell, if I’m back by the time you wake up, thats fine too. Don’t get up till you want to.”

He nodded, tearing up slightly, “Thank you, Jack…”

Jack smiled softly, leaning down to hug him, which he gladly took.

He wanted comfort so badly, but it wasn’t like he could ask Jack to cuddle. Fucking hell, it sounded stupid just in his head…

“Goodnight, Wandie.” Jack said, smiling softly.

“Goodnight, Jackie.” He smirked softly, and Jack chuckled as he walked out.

He sighed heavily, deciding to text both his mom and his father. Mom first.

“Hey, mom? Is it alright if I spend a few days with you?”

“Of course, darling. Are you alright?”

“Well… Yes and no? I just need some comfort time.”

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“When I get there, please.”

“Of course. See you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“Alright, darling. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Then his father.

“Hey, I’ll be spending a few days with mom. I’ll be back next weekend.”

“Okay. Stay safe. Love you.”

“Love you too <3”

“Oh, and don’t forget, Music Video Award’s are next month.”

Well. Shit, he did forget.

Welp. He was in the process of getting ready to shoot a music video for the new Devil Town, maybe that’s how he would announce it?

Okay, he really wasn’t in a good headspace to really think about it.

“Got it. Thanks.”

Sleep. Please, he needed it.

…

“Keep it unloaded.” Jack said as he gave him a small case for his new gun, “You have a safe to keep it in?”

“Yeah, in both the hotel and the palace.” Wanderlust replied.

“Good.” Jack handed him the case, “Holster, belt clip, leg strap, three mags that are full and fifty extra rounds. If you need anything else, tell me. Dealer has all you could need.”

He nodded, taking the case and smiling, “Thank you, Jack.”

“No problem.” 

He hugged him tight, sighing softly and closing his eyes for a second.

“Have fun at the palace, okay?”

“I will… see you soon.” He said, turning and opening a portal to the palace, to his room so he could hide the case under his bed for now. He’d get it in his safe later. 

He made sure his mom wouldn’t see that he was just in his room, and jumped through the portal he made, walking through the palace slowly, looking for her.

“Oh, Wander!”

He turned, seeing his mom running up to him and holding him tight.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” She asked, looking over his arms, where there was still a mark left from the wall he was slammed into last week.

“I’m fine, mom… Physically.” He said, and she gently cradled his face.

“What happened, baby?” She asked, “You look so upset…”

He wasn’t a real crier. He didn’t like to, not in front of others. If he did cry, it would be quietly in his own room, into Discoball. 

But now, he felt tears in his eyes, his breath shaking, and his shoulders shuddering in front of his own mother.

“Oh, darling…” She whispered, softly taking his backpack off of him, holding him as they walked over to the couch, and she sat him down, holding him tight, “Your okay, my dear… I got you now, okay?”

He held her tight, like his life depended on it, as he cried into her dress. 

“What’s going on, darling?” His mom asked, holding his face, softly unbraiding his hair to take his crown off.

“It… It was Father, he…”

“Did he do something…?”

“He said…” He sobbed more, “He told me… about being ‘The Chosen One’... We got into a fight. I was just mad, I was upset… I know he’s still mad at me for Devil Town. But… It just got out of hand.”

She nodded, “When did that happen?”

“Two days ago now… I ended up sleeping most of the day yesterday…” He took a deep breath, “I just need a few days away from him. I’m angry, I’m sad, I don’t know what to do…”

She nodded again, holding his hands and looking at him, “You know I’m more then happy to have you here. But you do need to work things out with him.” “I will, okay…?” He said, wiping his eyes, “I just need a week away and off. Please…”

“Of course.” She softly kissed his forehead, “Why don’t you get some sleep?”

He already slept most of the day again today…

But he wasn’t going to complain about more.

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m going to bed…” He said, standing and grabbing his backpack, “Can I sleep in…?”

“Oh, of course, dear.”

“Thanks, mom…” He finally walked upstairs, Discoball appearing next to him as he opened his door, beeping sadly and pushing him towards the bed.

“I know, I know…” He said, sighing, “I need to get… it in the safe, and changed.”

He started with the gun. The safe was empty and in his closet, embedded in the wall. He put the code in, hearing the soft beeping sound as he opened the door, setting the case in there before locking it back up.

Then he got out of his clothes, which, was honestly just a hoodie and sweatpants, but they were too stiff to sleep in. He needed softness right now. He changed into a soft t-shirt and shorts, not bothering to brush out his hair, or wash his face. 

But as he crawled into his bed and under the thick blankets- that felt like heaven as it weighed him down- he felt the cold chain of his necklace still around his neck. He needed to take it off… but he didn’t want to move anymore. And it oddly comforted him. 

It felt like Jack. It was so comforting to just feel something from him.

He held the ruby in his hand, running his thumb over the smooth jewel, and it calmed him quickly. His eyelids got heavy. 

And he didn’t wake up for nearly thirteen hours. And it felt great.

[butterflyintochains]

Too Close For Comfort

When Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson met in 2011 and became official in 2012, they made each other one promise. To keep their relationship a secret, to only tell everyone once they were teammates, or when they were both comfortable with it, whichever came first. It's not been easy, but they've somehow made it work for them. At least the media don't ask them any more stupid questions than they already do get, right? Sure, they've wanted to scream it from the rooftops, but it's better this way.

But, there have been some close calls over the years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I. The Game After The Weekend Before

Touching down in Ottawa after that three game homestay set Kris' heart racing, not yet two months have passed since that wild and wonderful weekend in Raleigh. That weekend that has turned his life upside down in all the best possible ways. He has no idea what this is that Erik awoke in him back in January, he can't put a name to it. All he knows is that it feels really good, and he never wants to stop feeling it. This will be the first game they play against each other since those three beautiful days. They get bussed to the hotel, Kris gets up to his room, and on cue his phone rings. ''Wondered when you'd call me.'' He says.

Erik laughs, he'll be in his apartment or at the gym. ''Tried to time it so you'd be alone. Excited for tonight, Kris?'' Kris smirks, joking with Erik. ''Like you'd not believe, can't wait to win tonight.''

Erik says, voice cocky but light. ''We'll see about that, I like our odds.'' Was it like this in private between Sid and Geno at the beginning? Did Flower and Max ever have this easy way with each other? Is this what that felt like for them? ''Kris? You still with me?''

Kris gives his head a shake, no time for zoning out today. ''Yeah... yeah, shit... just got zoned out for a second.'' Erik says, sounding relieved that he wasn't hung up on. ''That's fine, it's been happening to me a lot too. I'll see you tonight.''

Kris nods, running his free hand through his hair. ''See you tonight.''

That night, they get suited up apart, mere yards from each other, sitting on one hell of a story. One no one is getting quite yet, they barely even know what they are to each other. Friends doesn't quite fit, lovers is a bit much for now. They hit the ice for warmups, Erik spots Kris from across the ice, and allows himself a smile. Kris sees Erik warming up for the game, he also feels the glance from Flower. No time for that. The game is going well for the Penguins, both young defencemen seeming a bit distracted by something. But, the Penguins win 5-1. Somehow, in all the post-game chaos, Kris finds some time outside with Erik. ''We'll win the next one.'' Erik insists, brown eyes glistening. Kris just kisses him, and says. ''I like our odds, but okay.'' They kiss again, but the distant sound of Kris' name being shouted breaks them up. ''Fuck, that's Brooks. I should go.'' Erik nods, and says. ''I understand, go.'' Kris squeezes his hands, and heads for the bus. Brooks asks him. ''Where the hell have you been?''

Kris just says. ''Seeing a friend.'' The word feels weird, friends don't do what they were just doing, friends don't do what they did in Raleigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

II. The French Connection

Alright, this isn't so bad, is it? He learned English as a kid, as every school kid in Sweden does, he can - and will - learn French. Kris is down south, no doubt getting started on learning Swedish. The books are spread out on the table Erik is using, he's taking notes diligently, trying out phrases. French sounds so pretty when Kris speaks it. This might just be one of the most important things he ever does, and he knows Kris will be taking his own studying seriously. This is huge, and terrifying, but holy shit does it feel good. He finds one word, a simple one, five letters long: 'Amour', and something finally clicks into place. Kris called him that on the phone last night. ''Love, helvete.'' He takes his phone out, and calls Kris right away. ''Bonjour, Erik, ca va?'' Kris asks in French.

Erik clears his throat. ''Je suis bien, Kris, l'anglais sil vous plait?'' Kris laughs, and says. ''Sure, what's up?''

Erik swallows, hoping no one else is using the training rink today. ''That word you called me last night, 'amour', did you mean it?'' Kris sounds confused. ''Erik, mon amour, you know me, I never say anything unless I mean it.''

It's been just over a year since Raleigh, they became official right here last month. ''Okay... if you meant that. Then, I mean it too, hjartat mitt.''

Kris asks, after a moment of silence. ''What's that mean?'' Erik just says. ''That's for me to know, and you to figure out.'' They hang up, and Erik gets on with his studying, something beautiful in his chest. Jakob and Mika come in together for a gym session, and venture over to Erik's table, seeing the French books spread out. ''Learning French, Karl? What for?'' For someone he now knows he loves, and loves him. ''Just... felt like learning a language, Jakob.''

Mika asks. ''But, French? Wouldn't German be easier?'' It would, but Kris doesn't speak German, Erik says. ''We're in Canada, Zibby. Helps to have both.'' He prays to God that his friends believe him, those are equations he doesn't want anyone putting together yet. Sure, he spent all of that weekend with Kris, but no one can know why. ''If I didn't know any better, I'd say you like someone.'' Jakob says. Erik tries to contain the blush rising to his ears, this went past like months ago, and they both know it. ''You do, we can tell! Who is it, Erik?''

Erik just says. ''Someone who speaks French.'' That's all they're getting. Maybe he should keep this for when he's at home next time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

III. The New Letter

God almighty, he looks gorgeous as captain, almost too gorgeous. Kris thinks to himself as the team watch some highlights from the most recent Senators game. Kris' gaze flits between Erik and the new letter on his jersey, the red still looks weird to him, but that's a dream that seems far off now. Teams don't trade captains willingly. He is so lucky, he truly is, and he'll never forget it. The feed pans to the team bench for a bit, and Stone must be either very brave, very stupid, or both. Kris doesn't need to be a genius to see that Stone is flirting with Erik for all to see, who wouldn't? Is the first thought in his head, then is replaced by: that's my job, fuck off. Stone is lucky Kris is a Penguin, and Kris is lucky Sid can't read his mind. ''God, Stone is brave, rumour has it Karlsson is spoken for.'' Kuny says.

Horny seems surprised, Team Sweden never keep secrets from each other. ''Is he? Who's the lucky one?'' Kris can feel his heart pounding, ever aware of the defect, he takes a deep breath. ''Oh, they've gotta be hot, Karlsson wouldn't settle for someone with no teeth and a fucked up nose.'' Dumo posits.

Sid laughs, petting Sam's ears. ''I dunno, he might, we don't know what he's into.'' Me, Kris thinks, he's into me. That petty part of him from two seasons ago threatens to come back out. But, he has Olli to set an example for now. ''Nah, Cap, Dumo's right, Karlsson could only date someone who matches his energy.'' Brandon says.

Geno just has to ask for a timeline. ''How long has Karlsson been taken for, then?''

Duper says. ''Almost four years. That's what some friends up north said anyway.'' Kris risks sharing a glance with Flower, one of just six who know about them. Flower casually sips his coffee, and turns back to his book. ''Kris, you've been quiet this evening.'' Flower says, the asshole.

Ever ready to cover their tracks, used to it by now, Kris adjusts his blanket around himself, and says. ''My doctors said I'm not to get agitated, might fuck up my recovery.'' Which is partially true, and mollifies the peanut gallery enough. Still, the gossip goes on. ''Four years, Duper? He won't say anything after four years?'' Rusty says. Duper shakes his head, and says. ''Nope, says he met someone at a league thing, and that's it.''

Dumo is awestruck. ''He must love that person a lot to keep it a secret for so long.'' He does, Kris knows Erik loves him, he feels it every day, it was once a rush to the head, now it's just a comforting presence. ''Yeah, he looked so disgusted at Stone just then.'' Rusty agrees. Kris looks at the TV again, and thanks God for the wonderful man who is now the Senators captain. He hopes no one else notices the smile on his face, because it's the one reserved for Erik. ''Anyway, Ottawa chose the right guy at least.'' Sid says, stepping back into captain-mode.

Kris says, hoping they don't hear the wistful air in his voice. ''Yeah, they did.'' He knew about this well before anyone else did, that was one hell of a night trying to calm Erik down, but Kris has never been prouder of his partner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IV. Cup Winning Goal

Logically Erik knows he should be supporting the western team in this final, playing against Penguins with a point to prove usually ends in disaster for his Senators. San Jose are a great team, they even won the President's Trophy. But, as ever, there's the small matter of a certain someone on the Penguins. The love of Erik's life, his partner of five and a half years. He so longs to be on that ice with Kris right now, this has been a dream of theirs for years now, winning that cup together somehow. But, he's at home with the team, watching game six over lunch, wearing one of Kris' Val D'Or hoodies, a safer alternative to his jersey. At least the colours are similar, if you look past the green. ''Allez, allez.'' He mutters to himself, tracking Kris' every movement with his eyes.

Mike Hoffman says. ''I take it you're gunning for the Pens, yeah?'' Erik nods, and says. ''Yeah, they've done so well this playoffs, they deserve it.'' Kris deserves it, after being cheated out of a Masterton and half a season with that stroke. Kris deserves this cup. And, he'll hear no one say he doesn't. ''I agree.'' Alex Chiasson says, joining them from the kitchen. ''Like, the Sharks are whatever, but the Penguins have had to fight for this.''

Erik heard from Kris last night about some plot he and Sid cooked up for this game, apparently they've planned to score the winning goal together. How that works Erik has no idea, you can't just plan a goal, right? Well, all he can do is sit back and watch. Sid and Kris take to the ice together, Mika says. ''Oh, here it comes, the most annoying duo in the east.''

There's a battle in the corner, Sid stealing the puck, and breaking the Sharks' ankles. He passes to Kris, who takes the shot, and the Stanley Cup. The team mob him in celebration, even if the job isn't quite done yet. The gathered Senators are too busy gushing over the goal to notice Erik crying, two years ago, Kris had a stroke, now he's scored a cup winning goal. ''You good, Karl?'' Stone asks.

Erik regains composure, a herculean effort right now. ''Yeah, that was just... so fucking good.'' He'd give anything to have been on ice with Kris today. But, they'll be together again soon enough, in Montreal then in Sweden. Craig asks his captain. ''What's got you all emotional on us, Erik?''

Drying his eyes on the white hoodie, Erik says. ''You'd never believe me if I told you, Craig.'' He'd not know where to begin right now anyway, he'd probably need to take a nap first. But, they promised to do that together, so he'll honour that promise.

That night, he leaves Kris a voicemail. ''Hej, hjartat, I'm so proud of you, and so proud to be yours. Sleep off the hangover before you call me back. I saw the goal, you are the best. I love you, and hope you always know that.'' The team no doubt sense something is up by now, he loves Kris, and if he's to be punished for that, it'll be years too late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

V. A Dream Turned Nightmare

The Penguins are en route to California right now, it's late January, and will be warmer out west. One good thing about the depression Kris has had lately is that it's never difficult to get to sleep anymore. He's out like a light as soon as they're in the air, too heartsick to be awake for this flight. It's been a shit week, it also would've been his and Erik's seventh anniversary in a few days. Seven years, not quite as impressive as Sid and Geno's decade together come May, but it would've been nice to get there. For some reason, his mind takes him to Cranberry.

The first thing he feels as he heads inside is warmth, that same warmth he gets with Erik. He goes to the dressing room, seeing a stall with the number 65 on it. He'd know if that happened, right? They'd have spoken first, right? He heads out onto the ice, hearing that familiar laugh, the one he'd do anything to win back. He sees the name, and the number, in gold and white. 65, Karlsson. Erik turns to face him, that same furious look on his face from that terrible night. And, Kris bursts into tears.

He vaguely registers Geno waking him up, somewhere far away. ''Kris, wake up for us, Legend.'' Kris wakes up like he's drowning, forcing air into his lungs. ''You were crying in your sleep.'' Sid informs him. Kris says, panting like he's skated a whole game twice. ''Sorry, bad dream.''

Geno asks, gently so as not to wake the rest. ''Do you wanna talk about it?''

How does he begin to talk about it? He's been having that dream since 2013, and it's never made him cry like this. ''No, not yet, it never goes like that normally.''

Sid asks, curious, but not prying. ''You've had it before?'' Kris nods, and dries his eyes again. ''For four years, yeah. It's usually happy, but now it's not.'' All that came down around his ears that night last May. Someday, he hopes, this will stop hurting, he can win Erik back somehow. He has no idea how he's going to do that, he can't just hand back the ring and ask for his name to be removed from the cup. He'll figure it out, though, he has to. ''Can I ask you two something?'' Kris says.

Geno nods, and affirms. ''Always, Legend.''

Kris asks them both. ''Do you believe in destiny?'' Sid and Geno share that look, the look that makes him want to jump out of the plane window. ''Yeah, I do at least.'' Sid says. Geno nods, clearly on the same frequency. ''So do I. Do you?'' Kris sniffles, and admits to the two most important people in his life. ''I don't know anymore. I wish I did.''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VI. Point Of No Return

PPG Paints Arena feels less hostile now, it's been about a month since the sun started shining again, and Pittsburgh is as beautiful as ever at this time of year. Erik has his Kris back, forever now, who knew all it'd take was another All Star Game? They got back together right on their eighth anniversary. This game is their first as a reunited couple. Erik knows he shouldn't blow this for them, things are still so fragile, they are still so fragile, but he really wants to see Kris right now. They take to the ice for warmups, Erik finding those gorgeous dark eyes in the chaos of black jerseys. Kris beams at him, eyes watery. God, this feels good. ''You good, Karl?'' Joe asks him. For the first time in forever, Erik says. ''On top of the world, Jumbo.'' Nothing is going to piss him off tonight, judging by Kris' face, his beloved feels much the same way.

They get going for faceoff, the captain centers taking this very seriously as always, not knowing quite how much this game means. Erik winks across the blueline at Kris, who winks back. They risk some flirting during a play. ''Dejtar du någon just nu?'' Erik asks in Swedish.

Kris responds. ''Ja, ses ikväll?'' They're back, and it feels so much better already, Erik says. ''Ja, alltid for dig.'' They split off to their benches, Erik's head spinning in all the best ways again. As the game goes on, he loses track of the score, but they do end up winning 4-0. Erik risks skating up to Kris, and utters something into his ear, Kris puts a hand on his shoulder, and nods. Erik soaks in the looks from his team as they get ready to leave. ''So, we gonna talk about that thing earlier?'' Timo asks.

Erik puts his watch on, and asks. ''What thing earlier, Timo?'' Timo blinks a few times. ''Uhh, you and Letang?''

Erik smirks, and heads for the doors to grab his stuff from the bus, a celebration is in order for tonight. ''What about me and Letang?'' He asks, Kris' last name feeling weird in his mouth, it's been eight years since they were on last name basis. They aren't Letang and Karlsson to each other, they're Kris and Erik. He grabs his bag, and meets Kris at his car, they finally kiss after hours of waiting. ''I've missed you, hjartat mitt.''

Kris runs his fingers through Erik's hair, sending chills up his spine. ''I've missed you too, mon amour.'' They jump in the car, and get going to Kris' house. ''I think my guys noticed our little chat at the end of the game.'' Erik says.

Kris laughs, rapping his fingers on the steering wheel. ''That wouldn't surprise me, I'm sure mine have found me insufferable today.'' Erik can bet, when they're in the same city, it's like a fire is lit, one only they can control. ''Do they ever ask you why you like playing us? Or why you got so excited for your games against the Senators?'' Erik asks.

Turning down the road, Kris says. ''Sometimes, yeah. How about you? Have your teams ever wondered why you love playing the Penguins so much?''

Erik puts his hand on Kris' thigh. ''I'm sure they have, but that's for us to know, and them to find out.'' The fact that they'll likely not meet again on ice until a possible cup final hangs in the air, but at least they've got summer back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VII. Stuck In The Bubble

This is bullshit, this is bullshit, and he fucking hates it. Kris has barely been in Hotel X for two days before he gets bored senseless. He's rooming with Dumo at least, the best defence partner he's ever had, but that doesn't make this any less bullshit. He's never been a jealous person, everyone's lives are different. But, this is bullshit. And, yeah, he helped put this thing together, fine, whatever. But, Erik is at home in Montreal, and he's so achingly close in Toronto. And, for some stupid reason, Sid and Geno have chosen now to flaunt their marriage in front of the Metro division. Some contest with Ovechkin and Backstrom probably. He'd normally encourage their nonsense, but it's hard when his future husband is somewhere fucking else, probably walking Buddha and Freya now he thinks about it. ''Mon dieu, mon amour, this fucking sucks.''

Erik laughs down the line at him, because of course he does. ''What's happened now, sweetheart?''

Kris leans against the balcony wall. ''Well, Sid and Geno are in some weird contest with Ovechkin and Backstrom for best married couple in Hotel X. Meanwhile I'm handling PA stuff with Turbo to keep this from collapsing around us.'' Erik listens intently, as always, they can always vent to each other. ''You are doing an amazing job with the bubble, sweetheart. As for Sid and Geno... helvete.''

Kris leans over to close the balcony door. ''It'd not be so insufferable if I hadn't spent this spring being domestic with you, but you'd think we'd become the Pittsburgh Peacocks.'' Erik laughs again, what he wouldn't give to see his smile right now. ''Is it that bad?'' Kris sighs, pinching his nose. ''Yes, darling, it is.''

Erik muses, voice cocky for some reason. ''Could be worse, I suppose.''

Kris knits his brows together. ''How could it be worse?'' Erik chuckles, and says. ''Come on, hjartat, if I was a Penguin it'd be a three way contest, and we both know it. I think we'd win too.'' Kris smirks to himself, when Erik is right, God is he ever right. ''Yeah, amour, we would.''

The next day, Kris is in the hotel restaurant on his laptop, looking over some stuff from Edmonton, texting back and forth with the reps from the Western teams. Bo Horvat is reporting boredom from his Canucks, but so is everyone else. Seems like the Knights set up a movie night in their hotel theater, probably Flower's idea. Ovechkin walks in to grab something to eat. ''You good, Letang?'' He asks. Kris nods, checking some regional Covid statistics. ''Yeah, just PA stuff. Not much else to do today. How's your little contest with my brothers going?''

Ovechkin laughs. ''It keeps us entertained, why don't you and Dumo join in?'' Kris almost spits his tea out, he's been linked to Flower more times than he cares to count, but Dumo? ''Dumo and I aren't a thing, Ovi. My partner doesn't even play for us, his team didn't even make it to the bubble.''

Ovechkin looks intrigued, this whole conversation is the weirdest thing he's experienced this year. ''Yeah? He at home in Montreal, then?''

Kris nods, and says. ''Yeah, and between us - as two people who love annoying my brothers - if he was a Penguin, Sid and Geno would freak out.''

Ovechkin laughs, he doesn't ask further, but he does ask Kris. ''Any pointers?''

Kris just says. ''If you know any Swedish, whip it out with Nicky. It's what I'd do, y'know, if I was in your position. Tell Nicky to try some Russian while you're at it.'' As though he was a bad game strategy, Ovechkin immediately reads him. ''Speaking from experience?'' Kris nods, and says. ''Perhaps.'' This can't possibly come back to bite him, right?

Well, turns out it can. During training, Sid corners Kris, and asks him. ''Why did you tell Ovi to speak Swedish with Backstrom? You know I don't speak Russian, right?'' Ah, so it did work, then. Good to see he can still have fun while pissed off at being parted from Erik. ''Well, as a Swedish speaker myself, I just thought it'd be a nice gesture.'' Kris says, trying to contain his energy.

Geno says. ''You won't even tell us why you speak Swedish, though.'' If he did, they'd faint, that's why. ''Yeah, what's with that?'' Kris skates off to talk to Johnny. ''Take a lucky guess.''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VIII. The Wedding Ring

The gold band on Erik's finger only took days to get used to, a symbol of his eternal bond with the only man he's ever loved. He's married now, and he never knew he was capable of being this happy. However, this is going to be a bitch to explain away, a golden ring on his left hand. He'd not give this or his husband up for anything, though. He is lucky their first game as a married couple is after New Year, maybe the rush of their wedding will have worn off by then? Probably not, but that's fine. He gets in for training, and heads into the locker room to get changed. Feeling eyes on him right away. ''Holy shit.'' Logan says.

Jonah remarks, laughing. ''Looks like someone had an interesting summer.''

Middleton says. ''Our boy is off the market!'' Little does he know, Erik's been off the market for the best part of eleven years. Kris had him at 'hello', and it's been full steam ahead ever since. Not that it's any of their business yet. ''Oh, who is it, Karl? Come on!'' Nick Bonino says, as if he didn't win two cups with Erik's husband in 2016 and 2017.

Burns joins in on the fun, asking Erik. ''Yeah, who's the lucky guy, Karl?'' Erik says nothing, sliding his jersey on, and placing his wedding ring on a chain. ''Tell us, Karl.'' Timo says.

And, because he's still swept up in his own happiness, Erik says. ''You really wanna know who my husband is, don't you?'' Logan, dropping the captain mask for a bit, says. ''Uh, no shit, Karl! Not everyday one of my alts comes back from summer with a wedding ring on, is it?'' Erik playfully says, holding up three fingers. ''Okay, you get three hints, you put them together, cool?''

Matt Nieto says, buzzing with excitement. ''Go on, give them to us!'' Erik says, sitting down at his stall again. ''Okay, one: He's a cup winner. Two: He's also a defenceman. And, three: He plays out east.'' Picking his sticks up, he says. ''Good luck, boys.'' And swans out onto the ice. That doesn't narrow it down too much... hopefully. He could go on for hours about Kris, and probably has to Danny numerous times. Just as Flower says Kris used to ramble for ages about Erik. But, it does hit him as he practices shots... he also described his best friend, Victor is going to hate him. So is Steven now he thinks of it.

The days crawl along, and so do the games. The team mostly leave Erik alone about his wedding and mystery husband, he gave them their hints, and they're doing their best to put them together. He does hear from Kris one night that things are going the exact same way on his end. At least they're facing this now, and not earlier, they've come so far even since 2019. Long dead are the young and dumb versions of them from back in the day. Hallelujah. The team have a very long shortlist put together by about December. ''Alright, Karl, here's the list.'' Logan says, handing it over.

Erik reads the mixture of handwriting, his thumb does briefly linger on Kris' name, so do his eyes. He prays they don't notice. ''This is quite extensive, boys, I'm impressed.'' He says, ready to keep the game up. ''Want two more hints?''

Jonah exclaims. ''Yes! Oh, my God, go on!''

Erik hands the list back, and says. ''Okay, one: he plays in New England. And, two: We're different nationalities.'' Instantly, the list is getting updated, Erik sits back with his book, and grins to himself. Wouldn't be them without some chaos, long may that continue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IX. First Training Camp

This is actually happening, after twelve years of waiting for this, it's actually happening. Here they are, arriving for training, together at long last. No one seems to question why they walk into Cranberry together. Or why they look so blissfully happy to do so. No one knows why they're talking in hushed French to each other. That's fine, they will know why eventually. Once things are more settled. Once they're used to being teammates themselves. They suit up for practice together, Kris is in awe of the golden 65 on Erik's back. ''Well, how do I look?'' Erik asks, a cheeky glint in his dark eyes.

Kris bites his lip, not caring one single iota that Sid and Geno are across the room from them. ''Like a Penguin. Like how you should've always looked. Ready, mon amour?''

Erik nods, also not caring that they're not at home, life's too short, they know that better than most. ''Always, hjartat mitt.'' With that, they leave for the rink. Leaving a very confused team behind them. Do friends call each other that? What the hell have they all missed? Jake says, after a few moments to think it over. ''They're definitely a thing, right?''

Rusty says to his brother. ''Oh, them? Oh, totally. No idea what they called each other, but the looks are enough.''

PO looks like something has clicked in his head, he recently moved in with Drew from Kris' place. ''Oh... oh, my God! Kris?'' He bolts out of the room. ''What? What's going on?'' Lars asks, looking lost.

Tristan says, picking at his nails. ''Well... looks like someone has kept a big secret from us for a while.''

Sully calls the rest onto the ice, no time for gossiping, there's work to do. Joining the two best defencemen of the generation on the ice doesn't help matters any. Anyone with eyes can see that they were born to play together, just as Sid and Geno were. The way they speak without words, but always find each other. The way they know how each other skates down to the last motion. Two halves of a whole. ''I'm impressed with you two, only a day as teammates, and you're already so good together.'' Sully tells them after training.

Erik chuckles, sliding his ring back on. ''Thank you, coach. There's kind of a reason for that, actually.''

Sully looks intrigued by that, he's known Kris was spoken for for a while, and that wedding ring threw even him off in 2021. ''Oh? Go on.'' Kris gives his coach a sheepish smile. ''So, Sully, remember that season I came home married?''

Sully nods, and says. ''Yeah, of course I do, I also remember the chaos it caused in here.'' Kris and Erik share a look, one which clearly holds something that predates his job here. ''Oh... oh, really? Wow.'' Erik says, smiling. ''Surprise?''

Kris adds. ''We're kinda letting the boys put it together on their own.'' Sully grins, already picturing Sid and Geno's faces when the ball drops for them. ''Good luck with that.'' He says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X. A Record Breaking Night

That was generational, first game back from Christmas, and Kris goes and gets six points in one game. Sometimes, these achievements feel unreal, like someone else should've earned them, but this is something special. Erik is in awe of the man he's married to, that stack of pucks will look very nice in the house once they're back home. Sully gets done with his speeches to the team, and Kris sits back with the pucks in his hands. Not really saying anything, just soaking in the thing he's just achieved. Normally it's his brothers doing this kind of stuff, but this is his. ''Kris, sweetheart, you okay?'' Erik asks. The hum in the room going silent really quickly. Kris nods, and takes Erik's hand. ''Yeah, darling, just... letting this all sink in.''

It's now that the stares register, surely everyone knew by now, right? They look up at their teammates, all slack jawed at the pet names. Sid and Geno look ecstatic for them, Jeff Carter asks. ''Well, how long has this been going on?''

Erik says. ''Thirteen years in three weeks' time. Why?'' Jake says to the team's oldest player. ''Carts, you're a bit late to the party here. Rusty, Drew, Jars, Ned, PO, and I had them figured out during preseason.''

Kris asks his family. ''Were we that obvious?''

Sid nods, standing up from his stall. ''Yeah, kinda. Worst kept secret since me and Geno, actually.''

Geno remarks, a wry smile on his face. ''Best kept secret in the league, though.'' One of the weirdest stories too, no doubt. 2011 feels so recent and so long ago all at once. They've had so many close calls with this secret, and they're glad they made it here without the media getting their noses in. But, the time for secrecy is clearly over. ''So... the wedding rings, then?'' Marcus asks them.

Kris says, quoting a part of their vows. ''We are one when together, we are one when parted.''

Erik adds. ''We hold in our hands the making of this union.'' With that, they go for showers, and get back into their suits for the bus. Certain that they'll need to regale the team with this story on the plane ride home, at least they can do that together now. It's a damn lot better than the alternative, they know that for sure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Been working on this for a couple of days now, and I'm finally over this month long cold I had (hopefully), on a course of vitamins to build my system up. This started as close calls with people almost finding out about Kris and Erik's relationship, but morphed into them dropping hints to people. But, that's fine. I'd imagine after they got back together, they were more just focused on being happy together than keeping up the secret. As I said, they were just waiting until they were teammates before telling everyone outright.

Very happy to have this finished at last! I think it could've been longer, but I'm satisfied, so that's all I care about.

Enjoy!

[atinyjules]

Broken Melodies : Fake or True ft. Lee Jeno {ch-6}

A/n: Welcome to chapter 6! And as promised, it's my birthday so three chapters for this series and an update on Mark's fic.

I'm finally 18!

But anyways! Here it iss✨

The mini - masterlist for this series can be found here

Eunbi's

"Are you okay?" I ask a rage filled Jeno as I try to keep up with his footsteps after he almost popped at Jaemin.

"Do I look like I'm okay?" he says through gritted teeth.

"Well, no. But calm down!" I say as I follow him to the roof top.

"Don't! Tell me to calm down! Stop acting like a leech and leave me alone!" he shouted at me making me scoff.

"You! Need to learn! How to fucking control your fucking ANGER!" I exclaim and hit him on the chest before leaving for class making him kick the flower pot and scream in anger.

After we returned to class he triggered another argument by nudging me, ruining my notes while walking past me to go to his seat. I got up and threw my textbook towards him, making the rest of the class gasp when it hit the back of his head.

"Everyone says that you're a nuisance. CLEARLY they were wrong cause you're the Demon's Spawn himself!" I exclaimed as he looked at me offended before breaking into a sarcastic chuckle.

"Like you're any better. If you think you're a graceful princess you're wrong cause you're Viking! Everyone said that I won the lottery cause you were like a Goddess but damn...you're a pig instead!" he said making me gasp.

"Lee Jeno!" I exclaim.

"Na Eunbi!" he exclaimed when the sound of a book hitting the desk brought us back to reality. Professor Kim glared at us through her glasses and smiled.

"Well, since the beautiful couple can't live one second without screaming at each other...why not punish you together?" she said as we widened our eyes.

"This is all your fault." I breathed out as I struggled to scrub out the burned food from the pot.

"Stop blaming me, you played a part in this as well!" He exclaimed and aggresively scrubbed the pot.

"You always blame me for any minor inconvenience you face!" I exclaimed and threw the dirty scrubber at him.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" he exclaimed and wiped the dirty foam from his cheek aggressively.

"You! After the argument at the rooftop we could've just quietly gone about with our day but of course you being LEE JENO had to do a classic Lee Jeno move by showing your anger and taking revenge!" I exclaimed and he was about to reply when Hyuck's voice caught our attention.

"So cute, our power couple is already embarking on marvellous adventures with each other all the while showcasing their undeniable power of love~" Hyuck cooed as the both of us faced him at the same time.

"Shut it Hyuck!" We both exclaimed in unison.

"Whoa whoaaa- I'm just kidding!" he exclaimed with his hands up in defense. Hyuck decided to take a seat by my side as he watched us intently.

"You know, you guys should audition to become actors. Everyone at class is convinced that you guys are having that one big fight every couple has once in a while." Hyuck said with a smile when Jeno threw his scrubber at me.

"What the FUCK, LEE JENO!" I exploded as he huffed.

"So you went on to spill the secret to this big mouth huh? Who else did you spill it to? Girls can't even keep a secret." he said making me dip my scrubber in the dirty water before throwing it at him and standing up.

"I can tell whoever the fuck I want. At least Hyuck and Renjun are more reliable than you'll ever be! You can do the rest of the dishes on your OWN!" I exclaimed and stomped away to the girls wash room.

"Bro, it doesn't hurt to treat a lady with respect you know..." Haechan told Jeno who just shrugged and chased him away.

After doing my business I looked at my face in the mirror, sighing before turning on the tap and washing my hands.

"That Lee Jeno will get it from me." I mumbled and washed my hands and face aggressively before silence enveloped me and I stared at my hands.

Why does he always treat me so aggressively the moment we're out of eyes and ears shot?

And why does he always...stare at Xiaolian?

I was brought out of my thoughts when someone stopped the tap.

"You're wasting water." I turn to see the devil herself.

"Oh, I didn't realize." I mumble as I wipe my hand and face with my mini towel as Xiaolian herself touched up her makeup.

"I heard...you and Jeno are dating." she said while reapplying her mascara making me tense.

Why does she care? Its not her business anyways.

"And?" I ask, clearly making it obvious that I don't have any interest in having a conversation with her. She sighed as she got the hint.

"Someone as amazing as him is your boyfriend, he treats you like a queen...so I think you should return the favour and treat him with care and respect." she said making my eye twitch as I took out my lip gloss and applied it on my lips after completing my skincare.

"And I think that you should worry about your own life instead of butting in other peoples love life." I say in a cold tone before turning to face her.

"Besides...its none of your business how we treat each other." I say before turning and leaving the wash room.

After walking out of the wash room I walk towards the class and stop in my tracks. I take a deep breath and decide that I want to go home. Today was just...not my day. I send Jaemin, Hyuck and Renjun a quick text before making my way to the parking area.

Jaem ￣へ￣

I'm going home, I think I'm running a cold.

Hyuckie ☀

Dong Xiaolian fucking pissed me off, I'll spill the tea later. Come over.

Junnie 🦊

Dong Xiaolian fucking pissed me off, I'll spill the tea later. Come over with Hyuck.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Jeno's

"Where's she?" I ask Haechan as he lets out a sigh.

"Home, she caught a cold cause someone threw a damp scrubber at her." he said in a monotone voice making me smack his head.

"She can't just suddenly catch a cold like that." I said in an angry tone.

"I already told you the reason! What else do you wanna hear?" he exclaims while rubbing at the spot I punched him in.

I huffed and turned around. I took a short glance at Xiaolian but quickly diverted my eyes elsewhere, the moment we made eye contact. I internally cursed the moment I saw her small figure come towards me.

She smiled and sat on the empty seat in front of me as I cleared my throat.

"I don't see Eunbi anywhere?" she asked as I controlled my bashfulness and looked at her.

"She got sick." I said as she furrowed her brows.

"But when I met her in the wash room she seemed normal. Maybe she was just in a bad mood." Xiaolian said as I scoffed.

"We had an argument and she ran off." I said as she nodded.

"No wonder she went off at me. But its fine, I'm sure she had her reasons." she said making my eyes go wide.

"S-She went off at you? I'm sorry." I apologized as she waved it off.

"No, no! It's fine. I get it, us girls tend to have anger episodes...well I'll get back to my seat." she said with a smile before waving and walking off.

I smile softly as I watch her figure retreat to her seat.

Xiaolian is so much better than Eunbi. Compared to Eunbi, Xiaolian is more soft and tender.

She's definitely the one for me.

I turned back only to see Haechan staring at me and his phone simultaneously.

"What are you looking at?" I questioned as he narrowed his eyes at me and tch'd at me.

"Nothing." he said and turned towards the board.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Eunbi's

I was currently laying on my bed with warm clothes and a large blanket on me when Hyuck and Renjun arrived. I immediately let out a sigh of relief and motioned them to come by my side quick with a smile.

"Did Jaem come too?" I asked as Renjun motioned the door.

"He's right behind us." he said and as if on cue Jaem entered my room with a stone cold face.

"You would never date someone like Jeno. Just admit you're lying." he said making me roll my eyes.

"I'm not. We just had a fight today because someone tackled and attacked him like a wild animal." I said referring to him.

"Don't lie." he said in a warning tone as I scoffed.

"I'm not, now leave." I said as he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Jaemin, love doesn't lie. Eunbi is sick, don't parade her with questions like that." Renjun said as Jaemin peered at me and the guys one last time before leaving for his room.

"We're not done." he said to me, stopping by the door and closing the door behind him before leaving.

"He's so dramatic." Hyuck said making me agree with him as they sat by my bed.

"So...spill." Renjun said as I let out a frustrated sigh.

"After me and Jeno had an argument I went to the wash room to clean up but I met Xiaolian there. She was being so annoying!" I exclaimed as Hyuck motioned me to continue.

"What did she do?" he asked as I took a sip of my tea.

"She was blabbering on about how much of an amazing boyfriend I had and that I should return the favour and treat him with care and respect because he does the same with me." I told them as Renjun and Hyuck narrowed their eyes.

"That's not even her life." Hyuck said and I nodded.

"Exactly, so I told her to fuck off and worry about her own life." I said when Renjun spoke up.

"Why is she so concerned about how you treat Jeno? It's not her business or her love life." Renjun said making me nod.

"Exactly, she's was being so specific about me treating Jeno nicely. But in reality it's Jeno who doesn't treat me nicely." I say as Renjun still has a monotone look on his face.

"I...I'm gonna be honest right now. I think she definitely has her eyes on Jeno. Even after you left, during class...she went up and talked to him." Renjun said making my eye twitch.

"That was exactly what I was gonna tell you about! After you left, she came and sat infront of Jeno asking where you were. Jeno told her that you were sick and she went on to tell him about your little chat at the girls wash room." Haechan said making me narrow my eyes.

"What did she say?" I asked in a low tone.

"She told him that you might just be in a bad mood and Jeno told her that you guys fought then she acted so...she acted like a victim. She told him that maybe that was the reason you went off at her and told him that it was fine and it was a girl thing since girls usually have anger episodes once in a while. And Jeno looked so shocked the moment she told him that, he quickly apologized for your behaviour."he said making my blood boil.

"I didn't even go off at her. She started the conversation and I just told her to mind her own business." I said in disbelief as Hyuck nodded

"That's why, when you sent us the text I was confused." Hyuck said as Renjun came back from his thoughts.

"She...definitely wants him. I mean...why else would she confront you about your love life and give a bad image of yourself to Jeno?" Renjun said as I looked down at my hands.

"I shouldn't be affected by any of this but these days...she's been eating my brain. Jeno keeps stealing glances at her and talks to her with such a delicate tone. He treats her differently and I shouldn't feel threatened or affected but that's all that occupies my mind." I say and groan as Hyuck rubs my back.

"You like him don't you?" Hyuck asks carefully as I sigh and sit up.

"I...I don't know." I say as Renjun clears his throat.

"I don't want to pop your bubble and make you feel worse but...I have a theory..." Renjun says as I motion him to continue.

"Even before you came...Jeno always behaved differently in front of Xiaolian. She was the only person he allowed near him. Not to mention...he keeps stealing glances at her and smiles in adoration when she makes a mistake or embarrasses herself accidently. So...what I'm trying to say is...maybe....MAYBE...Jeno likes her too...?" he say making my stomach drop as an overwhelming bad feeling takes over me.

"Today...when they were talking...he smiled at her so sweetly...he didn't even break out in anger." Haechan said adding to the bad feeling as I stared at my hands.

"Be honest Bi...you feel hurt don't you?" Renjun asked as I thought about it.

Am I? But why? I mean it's not like I am but why would I feel hurt? We aren't even that close to begin with.

Ooh is that jealousy I smell? Eunbi is unsure of her feelings towards Jeno, do you think she likes him?

That's it for this chapter ✨

Chapter 7 can be found here

Taglist: @multifandomania @chenlesfeetpic

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter 💖✨

Likes and rebloggs are appreciated 💖✨

[sinisterexaggerator]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @ashcroft-writes. Figure hey, why not. Feel free to do this, but no pressure @downrightembarassing @dukeoftheblackstar @my-sun-m00n-and-stars @pickleprickle

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 27 total. I should have MORE.

2. What's your total A03 word count? 551,012 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for? The only fandoms I have written for as far as fanfiction goes is Grand Theft Auto 5 and Star Wars, though back in the day I used to RP all kinds of stuff with my friends in the good ole' AOL chatrooms. Pretty sure I also used to post to RP forums.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

All the Wrong Places | Trevor Philips (GTA V)

Once you figure out one, the rest are easy.  (Series of Cad Bane oneshots)

Stars Above! | Cad Bane  (Cad Bane x OC)

Handcuff Marks and Stubble Burn (Trikey / GTA V)

The Interrogation  (Cad Bane x Reader )

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yessss.

It may not be super longwinded or elaborate because I may not know what to say, but I always try to return a comment with a thank you at least, because they are very much appreciated.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh, I can't tell you because it isn't finished yet. >D In fact, I am a slut for angst. You can just go ahead and expect terrible things to happen if I'm writing it.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Hm, probably something with Shriv Suurgav, actually. He's a total sweetheart, and if I am in the mood for fluff, he is usually my go to. Better than Candy was always one of my favorites. You get what you want and Shriv gets a blowjob. ;D

8. Do you get hate on fics? Nope. So weird to see it happen to others. Like, what?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Are you kiddddding? LOL That is basically all I write besides PWP - which is pretty much the same thing - angst/hurt, and sometimes a little comfort fic here and there. Though I am not sure what you mean by what "kind." I am all over the place.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? No. Not into it, really. AU's are a little different, but I like to still be as canon compliant as possible without deviating too far from the original characterization. Maybe they're more like silly little "Crack" scenarios.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not exactly, though I brainstorm and talk about Cad Bane and Hondo with my internet BBF like every fucking day nonstop ( we're obsessed ).

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? BANAKA! I will scream it from the rooftops, preach it from the pulpit, rub it in your faces (not really), and force you to see the perfect relationship that is Cad Bane x Hondo Ohnaka if it is the last thing I do. I also really like Cad Bane x Jango Fett, and Shriv Suurgav x Cad Bane, and even Shriv Suurgav x Poe Dameron. >D

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I want to finish all of them, but sometimes I wonder if I will get around to finishing "Handcuff Marks and Stubbleburn." I haven't been in a GTA V mood lately, but I really DO wanna finish All the wrong places. I can't just let it go at chapter 94. AHHHH.

16. What are your writing strengths? Characterization and descriptive language. Also not too shabby with dialogue and plot. I sort of just come up with shit as I go along by the seat of my pants. Sometimes, I will take a few notes down or make a rough outline, but that's about it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Perfectionist. Being a little verbose on occasion, but honestly IDAGAF and write what I want.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I won't do it unless it is a "fake" language, such as Huttese or Durese. I am not above making up words and using context clues to figure out what a character is saying, such as Jabba the Hutt. They basically did that in the first three Star Wars movies. If we can deal with Chewie making his Wookiee sounds and using Han as a translator, I feel like it's fine to do it in a fic.

I think I tried to write ONE line in French to be funny, as Trevor Philips is French-Canadian, but I won't do so otherwise, and especially not in a serious context. Google translate isn't the most accurate, I hear.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Probably Hercules the Legendary Journey's or The Vampire Chronicles back in middle school.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Hmm.

I really liked writing Trigger Happy, which Cad Bane masturbates aboard his ship alone in the darkness of deep space, thinking about a warm, mammalian reader who is lightyears away...

I also really loved writing Better than Candy. I love writing for Shriv and his self-deprecating, jaded sense of humor. I wanted him to get a little "treat," and was quite happy with the results. I had the idea on the way home from work; I was sucking on a lollipop in traffic. >D

[imafrickinglion]

But we can shout FUCK PARAMOUNT over the fact that they've cancelled an amazingly well animated and incredibly diverse show with well written plot points for shitty reasons like 'tax cuts' and 'making space for more Showtime offerings'.

And the takeaway here should be that absolutely no media you love is safe if it's not directly in your hands and a means to acquire it for your own safekeeping isn't offered.

No media that is ever created should be allowed to just be 'disappeared' from existence like this. And we absolutely should be screaming to the rooftops about that. I'd go so far as to say that we need to be making fucking laws about what happens to digital media once it's no longer available on any platform. It should be allowed to be saved for archival purposes, and I mean *everything*. Audio books, music, old tv series' and new, movies, news articles only printed online, digital magazines, etc.

At the very least if something is removed from a streaming service it should be out on Blu-ray and DVD. This isn't just about someone's pockets though HBO and Paramount and Disney would all make money off of releasing it like that (so idk why the hell they don't do it??). It's about saving things for the future so that they don't just go up in smoke.

Also

Hoist the fucking colors.

Paramount canceled Star Trek Prodigy in retaliation for SGW strike and no one can't change my mind

and you know? FUCK PARAMOUNT! WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

[lytters]

jealousy, jealousy || b. katsuki

chapter nine

masterlist

part of you is concerned what, or who, you’ll find at your door when you arrive home. nothing and no one is there. relief has never tasted more like the bitterness of disappointment, and it bites deep into your already aching heart. you unlock your door, and shuffle in, dropping your bag with a heavy thud.

you’ve been holed up at hitoshi’s for almost a week, leaving only for classes. and yet your apartment does not hold that stale scent that hints at being unlived in. in fact, the pile of jackets you had left piled on the sofa are gone, the dishes in the sink washed and stacked above the sink, and you’re pretty sure the floor has been swept and cleaned. hitoshi must have cleaned it all up the time he was here. your heart warms, and you thank whatever entity above that loves you enough to at least let you have hitoshi in your life.

(you wish it loves you more though, to let you keep katsuki selfishly close to you, to let his heart belong to you.)

taking a step towards the kitchen, you hear footsteps coming from behind the main door. your heart jerks; dreading, hopeful. you creep towards the door, peering out the peephole. it gives another traitorous thump at the sight, and you’re not quite sure how to feel.

katsuki stands there, fist raised as if to knock on the door. he looks unsure, a foreign expression on his usually so self-assured demeanor. his hand wavers, and he makes to turn. you watch as he repeats the actions several times, wavering, until his face hardens. as if he comes to a resolution, katsuki turns back to face your door and suddenly your breathing sounds too loud, too harsh. you hold it, terrified he knows you’re there.

he raps on the door sharply, once, twice, thrice. you bite your tongue, nails digging into your sweaty palms. should you open the door? are you ready to face him? your ears ring from the deafening silence, but it does not last long, broken when katsuki calls your name. you freeze.

“i don't know if you’re home, or if you’ve even been home since… since that night.” katsuki’s voice is raspier than usual. he doesn’t know you’re there… your shoulders slump in relief. you can't help from pressing against the door a little closer to hear him better. “if you’re there, i just… i just want a chance to talk to you, to explain everything. i-” katsuki cuts himself off, running a hand through his hair and tugs on the ends, hard.

“it wasn’t meant to go like that, fuck-” he scowls at the ground. your chest tightens at his twisting face, like he can’t decide if he wants to cry or punch something. the wood of the door is rough against your forehead, nails leaving crescents in the flesh of your palm. it still hurts less than hearing his voice, than hearing him sound so… upset.

you’re at fault for this. for ruining your friendship. katsuki treasures his friendships fiercely, for all the resistance he gave in the beginning. and here you are, destroying something so precious to him, all because you couldn’t swallow down your stupid feelings.

katsuki sighs your name, and it pulls at your heartstrings. “i love you.”

your heart stops and your world goes tilting out from under you.

“i love you, and not in the friendly way. i love you in that stupid, mushy, romantic, want to scream your stupid name from the rooftops way. i’m sorry i fucked things up before i could even get the chance to tell you. i’m… i’m sorry.” katsuki’s shoulders slump, head dropping, and it kills something in you to see him so defeated. he begins to walk away, and you can feel him slipping away from you once more, like sand through your fingers. the door swings open and you’re staring at him, no longer through the peephole, but open and vulnerable in the doorway.

“what did you say?” your heart beats wildly in your ear, blood rushing to flood your face.

katsuki spins around, eyes wide.

“did you mean that?” you ask urgently, desperately.

“you heard all of that?” katsuki’s expression wars between horror and something you can’t quite put your finger on.

“do you mean it?” you repeat breathlessly. it takes a long moment, a few shaky breaths that feel like an eternity before katsuki responds; unflinching, cautious, searching.

“every last bit of it.”

your knees wobble, and katsuki rushes forward with a sound of alarm. he catches you, shifting just enough to have both of you half-kneeling on the ground. you feel faint, and yet so utterly aware of katsuki’s arms wrapped around your torso, the way his fingers grip onto your firmly, how his eyes are trained on you, and only you.

“are you okay?” he asks, reaching a hand up to your forehead. “are you feeling unwell? do you need-”

“i’m fine,” you shake your head, trying to dissipate the hazy shock. “i’m more than okay.” your fists tighten from where they’ve twisted into his shirt, crumpling the soft fabric. “you love me.”

katsuki face flushes red, and damn if it wasn’t the best sight you’ve seen in ages. it’s becoming of him, you think. but then again, maybe you were a little biased. he loves you. he loves you. the giggle that bubbles out of you is partly out of disbelief, and partly pure happiness that your feelings were reciprocated. katsuki loves you. then the thought strikes and your stomach drops.

“what about- what about harada?” your stomach heaves itself back up into your throat, lodging itself there as you wait for the other shoe to drop.

“she’s nothing, it was nothing.” he shakes his head brusquely. “it’s you i love. it has only ever been you.”

your heart spills over in tears, threatening to drown you in years worth of pining and hidden affection. but katsuki is here now, keeping you afloat with steady hands. you curl yourself tighter into him, pressing your face into his shoulder. he holds you tight, and you relish the slight hitch in his breathing that comes from being held like he never wants to let you go.

“katsuki,” you pull back slightly. you want to see his face as you say it. “i love you. i love you too. i have loved you since we were stupid teenagers, from the time you got me in detention with aizawa-sensei, to the time we got stuck climbing that stupid tree. i love you.”

a quiet, half-broken noise slips out from him, and he closes his eyes.

“call hado-san now.” he says softly.

“what?” you’re utterly baffled by his request. here you are, confessing your love to him, and he wants you to call nejire? for what?

“call her,” he grits out. “and break up with her so i can kiss you and not have either one of us be branded as a cheater.”

you laugh. you can’t help it. you laugh right into his face and watch it twist in irritation, crimson eyes narrowing at you.

“what’s so funny?” he demands, shaking you a little.

“oh-oh katsuki,” you’re breathless with laughter, pressing your forehead against his. “nejire-senpai and i were never together, we were just fake-dating.”

“fake-dating?” his tone is incredulous and it pulls you back to earth a little, embarrassment seeping in.

“to make you jealous,” you admit, unable to meet his eyes. “it was stupid, i know. and i don’t think it really worked-”

“fake-dating.” katsuki says flatly. “this is the stupidest fucking shit that’s ever existed.”

you bristle in indignance, ready to snap at him-

“harada and i were fake dating too. and it definitely worked to make me jealous.”

you pause, wide eyes shooting to meet his. he and harada- huh?

“you mean- we were both- what?” you have never felt more like an idiot right now. “katsuki… why were you fake-dating harada?”

katsuki rolls his eyes even as his blush deepens. “isn’t it obvious? to make you jealous, stupid.”

“we could have been together this whole time? and instead we were torturing ourselves by fake-dating other people to make each other jealous?” your voice ups a pitch, bordering on hysterical.

“it sounds fucking dumb when you put it like that.” he scowls, and wow, you really love this man.

“because it is.” you grin, and before katsuki has a chance to retort, you’re surging forward, pressing your lips against his. he stills under you for a second, enough for self-doubt to creep in. you begin to pull away, and that’s when katsuki kicks into action, wrapping one arm around your waist, pulling you closer, the other hand coming to cup your neck.

you savor this, all sweetness and relief, of longing melting into appreciating. he kisses you with much more gentleness than you’d have expected. all you know is katsuki, the heady scent of his cologne filling your senses, the warmth of him wrapped around you. if it wasn’t for the cursed need to breathe, you would never have parted from him.

“i love you.” you whisper, eyes still closed as your forehead leans against his. his nose brushes against yours, and he repeats it back to you. your world rebuilds into something new in a singular moment, with a simple, three-worded phrase.

“i love you too.”

[blushinggray]

change of plans: part 6

crying. it just keeps getting longer… but i can't stop

sero hanta x fem! reader

part 6/? (part 5 | part 1)

rain. coffee. music. these were the three ingredients used to create the perfect spontaneous booty call. but then there was an extra ingredient added to the concoction: pasión

nsfw // cw: fluff, (light) shower sex, growing feelings, sero knowing spanish

—

Ashido and Hagakure have not stopped giving you “I know what you did” eyes since the kickback last weekend… You wish they would give it a rest, since it’s been almost a week already.

They haven’t let the topic go since you returned to the party that night — rather inconspicuously, you’d say — hand in hand with Sero. Which was all him, by the way! You tried to create an opening to part ways for each of you to do your own thing several times, but Sero just kept you with him for the remainder of the evening. Not that he was keeping a close eye on you or anything, but he’d just find a spot for both of you to join a group or conversation together and once you were settled in, you didn’t really see a need to leave.

You did eventually part ways though, when the bestie duo insistently announced they would take you home when you decided to leave for the night. Hagakure drove the three of you to get some late night fast food and eat it in the car while they extracted every drop of gossip they could get from you about your little rooftop adventure with Sero. There was a lot of excited screaming that night, and despite how careful you’re still trying to be, you couldn’t help but join in every so often.

So yeah, now that they know that you like Sero and have officially fucked him, they have become physically incapable of bringing him up every time you see them.

“Has he texted you since then?” Hagakure asks while the three of you are having lunch on campus together.

“Yeah. Like ‘good morning’ and stuff like that.” You shrug, “Haven’t really had any extended conversations with him through text before.”

Even though he didn’t totally lose interest in you after you finally did the deed, you still know better than to wait for his texts or to expect too much from him now. Because you never know when you’re gonna catch sight of him wrapped up with someone else again. And while having to accept that possibility scrapes and gnaws at your chest, you still have to take care of yourself. Even if you like him, you don’t need to put yourself through more pain than necessary.

“Ugh, what the heck is that guy doing?” Ashido groans, stabbing at her salad, “He’s got such a catch, but he has no idea how to lock it down!”

“Uhm… I’m not really—”

“Maybe it’s because he hasn’t had a steady partner in a while.” Hagakure interrupts, “So he’s forgotten how to pursue someone seriously?”

“No, he’s not that stupid.” Ashido waves off, “He may be a serial lover, but he should know how to make someone feel special. The problem is his timing! Doesn’t that guy know there’s only so long a girl will wait for him? It’s been days, and not even one invite to coffee or lunch since then? Ugh. Boy’s fumbling.”

"Big time." Hagakure agrees with a groan.

“Guys, I don’t think…”

“Or maybe!” Ashido interrupts this time, “He’s out doing all his photography stuff again. I remember he mentioned he has some project going on about that.”

“True. He does get pretty busy when he does those.” Hagakure nods, then puts a hand on your shoulder, “But still! It’s [Name]. And you guys have like, crazy good chemistry that he hasn’t had with anyone in a while. He should at least be doing something!”

“Right? Totally agreed.” Ashido stabs at her salad again before taking a bite.

“Guys!” You speak up, finally, “Look, thanks for your concern and stuff, but… have you ever just thought that maybe he’s not actually that into me?”

“Huh?” The girls give you the same blank look for a pause before they burst into protest.

“What are you talking about? Of course, he’s into you!” Ashido insists.

“He wouldn’t have been all over you at the party — and all the parties before that — if he wasn’t!” Hagakure adds.

You sigh, wondering how you can explain it to them in a way that would make sense.

“Yeah, okay, I mean sure, he’s ‘into’ me. But that doesn’t mean that he’s serious about me, you know?” You say, but only get more confused looks and retorts so you try again, “Look, what I mean is, like… Maybe I’m his favorite right now, or he’s curious about how far he can take it with me. But at the end of the day, it’s not like he’s gonna be my boyfriend. You know?”

The two girls look at you with deadpan reactions for another beat before Hagakure starts shouting in disbelief and Ashido is sighing in frustration.

“I thought Sero was bad, but girl… the density of your brain!” Ashido shouts, slamming her palms on the table, “I mean, I know you’re not dumb, so are you just in denial?”

“Such strong denial…” Hagakure shakes her head sadly.

“Okay, shut up! I know you guys have been friends for a while and you probably know him better than me, but I just... there's this feeling I get about him. Like yeah, he's cool and sweet and kinda sexy when we're together, but when we're not," you take in a breath to think about how to explain it, "He's kinda vague and just lets himself fade into the background. I barely hear from him when we're not around each other."

It's just a feeling in the back of your mind, but you'd rather not ignore you intuition just to chase after an exciting romance. You've done that before and it certainly didn't turn out well for you then.

Because with Sero, you like him. His charm, his hands, his voice, and all of the small things he does that make you feel good. But sometimes, the things he says to you just feel kind of paper thin. Almost like a pretty flyer printed with sweet and alluring words that could be used on anyone, to appeal to whoever's passing by to read it.

That time he surprised you with a French pickup line was the first time you've heard anything remotely catered to you, since he happened to learn that you knew some French. Yet even then, it was still just a pickup line. One that could be said to anyone whether they understood it or not.

You just don't feel like there's enough substance in his words for him to truly mean them, which is what makes it that much harder for you. Because you like him. You like him to the point that you're thinking about it hard enough to give you a headache. But you still can't tell how much he actually likes you or he just thinks you're another fun pursuit.

No matter how Ashido and Hagakure try to convince you, you can't shake the feeling. And you won't betray yourself this time, so you'll just have to continue being careful for now. You spend the rest of lunch trying to change the subject, bothering them about their own love lives and other things until it's time to part ways.

The rest of the day is graciously easy on you during classes, but you are still exhausted by the time you're finished. It's getting darker earlier these days with the change of seasons, so the sky is already losing light by the time you leave campus. Today was especially cloudy, so it feels even darker than usual.

There's one thing you need to do before you go home though, so you make a detour to one of the local import grocery stores a few blocks away from campus.

However, by God's graces, your simple errand is interrupted when a voice calls out to you before you even make it into the store.

"Hey." Sero calls your name when he spots you, coming from the opposite direction. "Heading home for the day?"

"Hey." You reply, trying to hold in the awkwardness that bubbles up as you remember 'this guy has been inside of me before.' "Uhm yeah, was just gonna grab a few things first." You gesture towards the small grocer.

"Cool. Can I join you?" He asks.

"It's a grocery store. Not like I could stop you even if I said no." You shrug as you walk inside, grabbing a basket.

He follows you in and walks beside you, chuckling, "Suppose not. But I just meant to help you with your shopping, if you wanted."

"I'm good. I'm just here for coffee and some other things." You say, heading to the import section, and scanning the shelves before grabbing the one you want, "They don't have this brand at most places, so that's why I always come here when I need more."

Sero hums as he reads the label of the coffee that you show him, "That does sound pretty good. But if it's coffee you like, you should try this one."

He hands you another bag from the shelf, which you see is labeled to be from the Dominican Republic. While you do like coffee, you don't actually know all that much about it, so you have no clue as to why this one would be worth recommending over any of the others.

"This is a really good one. Especially if you like it a little sweet." He explains, "Goes with any cream or sugar combo."

"I see." You say, reading more of the info on the package and then back at the shelf. It's around the same price as the coffee you were originally planning to get, so you wonder if you should actually try it.

"Actually," Sero takes the bag from you and returns it to the shelf before leading you towards the front of store, "Let's go see if they have the actual fresh beans in stock."

You have no idea what to say so you just follow him and watch as he greets the employee working behind the counter with a smile. "Hi there, do you guys still have the Dominican blend right now?"

"We do. How much of it would you like?" The employee asks.

"Just the regular 200 grams, if you please." He says, then turns back to you to ask, "Do you have some sort of grinder or blender at home, by the way?"

"Uhm... yeah." You answer.

"Cool, then let's just take the beans as they are. They'll be fresher if you just grind them right before you brew it." He suggests before relaying the same thing to the employee.

"I don't really remember asking for a whole new coffee recommendation, but sure, I guess..." You say.

"I swear by this one, okay?" He promises, "I drink it all the time when I'm visiting family back in South America."

"You have family in South America?" Your brows quirk up at the new tidbit of information.

"Yeah, in a few places. I visit them a lot and I've tried a bunch of the local coffees all over, so you can trust me on this." He says with a wink, as if he didn't just drop one of the biggest bombs on you. But before you inquire further, the employee puts the sealed bag of coffee beans on the counter and rings him up.

"Anything else for you today?" She asks.

"Did you get everything else you needed?" He asks you, "Ring it up together. It's on me."

"What? No, that's fine. I can pay for it myself—"

"Don't worry about it, okay?" He takes your basket and puts it on the counter for the employee to scan.

You let out a sigh before asking him to wait for you to pick up a few extra items and bring it back to the register. After all your things are bagged and paid for by Sero, you take your now free groceries and leave the store with him.

"You didn't have to do that, you know." You remind him, "But... thanks, I guess. I'll try the coffee."

"Great!" He smiles, "Let me know how you like it."

"Sure..." You trail off when you step out of the store and are suddenly faced with an unexpected dilemma.

Rain.

Thick, loud droplets that deafen the entire block. You thought it was a bit cloudier than usual, but you didn't expect anything like this after the few minutes you were in the store.

"What the heck? Where did this come from?" You say, holding your palm out to catch a few raindrops, getting totally soaked within a matter of seconds.

"Wow, it's really coming down hard." Sero observes beside you.

"I don't suppose you have an umbrella hidden anywhere on you?" You ask, though you already know the answer, considering Sero is only carrying a small messenger bag around his back.

"Nope."

You check your phone to see if the weather is going to let up within the next hour, but it seems that this sudden rain is going to persist for the rest of the evening... So letting out a sigh, you turn back towards the grocery store, "Maybe they sell some inside. I'll go check."

But Sero stops you from going in with a hand on your wrist, and when you look up at him in confusion, he just gives you that cheeky smile of his and says, "I've got a better idea."

Before you can ask, he takes your shopping bag and ties it up tightly before tucking it into his jacket, which suddenly makes you suspicious.

"Sero... don't tell me you're thinking about—"

But before you can finish, he's already snatched your hand in his and is dashing out into the pouring streets. You yelp as you get pelted down on by the cold, heavy raindrops and can already feel your shoes getting soaked through. Sero jumps easily over larger puddles, but your legs aren't as long as his, so you end up getting a few shoe fulls of rainwater.

You're screaming at him to stop and calling him an idiot as you get pulled down so many streets, trying to keep pace with him as his hand stays warm and latched to yours. The two of you are splashing with every step you take, and sometimes he pulls and twirls you around to avoid an extra dirty shower from a passing vehicle. It's complete chaos, especially because you don't even recognize where you are anymore.

At some point, however, when you turn another block and you're already soaked through to the point where it couldn't get any worse, you let out a laugh. It's drowned out a bit by the sound of the rain, but Sero seems to hear it and turns over to smile at you with his own rain-soaked face.

His hair is completely matted and flops a bit in waterlogged ropes as he continues to run, but it just makes you laugh again. Something about this entire stunt, as stupid as it is, makes you smile. Even splashing into bigger puddles now makes you a giggle now instead. So you just hold his hand tighter and keep going with it.

By the time he finally ducks into shelter, you’re pretty sure you’ve soaked through a few layers of skin. Despite the running, you’re shivering from the cold that’s started to seep into your body. You’re almost certain you’re going to catch a cold after today. And yet, you still can’t help laughing.

“You are absolutely crazy.” You chuckle as you let go of his hand to wring out your hair and shirt.

“You make me a little crazy.” He winks as he wrings out his own shirt.

You groan and roll your eyes at him for throwing the usual line. It’s shit like that that makes it impossible to take him seriously. Though you can’t say it’s totally ineffective, since you still continue to stick around.

“Do I also make you annoying?”

He laughs as he wrings out his own hair, “That might be a personal issue.”

“Figured.” You scoff with a shake of your head, but the smile is still on your face.

“So you’re not mad at me for dragging you through a rainstorm?” He asks after a short pause, his voice changing into that softer, more genuinely curious tone.

You're surprised he's even bothered to think about the consequences of your reaction after the water damage has been done. Even more surprising to you, is your actual reaction.

“You know, I thought I would be. But I guess I’m not.” You shrug. As much as you’d like to pretend to be upset and have a real reason to dislike him, you’re not really all that bothered about it. It was actually more fun than you thought.

“Good.” He smiles, taking your hand again and leading you into the building you were standing just outside of, “Let’s go inside.”

“Inside?” You look around and realize that this must be an apartment complex. You don’t know why it didn’t occur to you earlier. “Do you live here?”

“Yeah. It’s close by so I figured a light jog wouldn’t kill us.” He chuckles as he leads you up to the third floor and unlocks the door to the apartment at the end of the walkway.

So that’s why he just ran out into the rainstorm without telling you a thing. You want to beat yourself over the head for falling for a trick that led you right into his apartment before you knew it, but you know it’s already too late. You are far too soaked to do anything else at this point.

Once you’re both inside his apartment, the both of you slip off your shoes and he leaves his messenger bag on the floor in the living area. Then he slips the plastic bag filled with your coffees and groceries out of his jacket to put down as well. You follow his lead and set your own backpack down, internally grateful that you invested in a more expensive one with water repellent material.

But it’s not a second later that Sero has his hands on your hips and pulls you in for a soft, but chilled kiss. His skin is just as cold and damp as yours, but somehow, the sparks warm you up a little from the inside.

“Let’s go take a shower.” He says when he pulls away slightly.

“Separately?” You try.

“You’re cute.” He chuckles before dragging you by the hand into the apartment until you step into the bathroom together.

As he turns on the water to get it heated up, your mind is already sprinting. Is this really happening? Are you really going to just let yourself be swallowed up in his pace like this? Should you stop it? Do you want to stop it?

When Sero pulls his damp jacket and shirt off over his head to reveal his surprisingly ripped torso, you immediately decide that no, you don’t think you want to stop this.

It suddenly occurs to you that despite how you’ve already fucked and been inside each other’s bodies, you’ve never really gotten a full look of him naked. Neither of you stripped anything beyond your thighs that night, what with the hurry that you were in. So you had no idea that in addition to his monster dick that he would have such a sculpted chest, or abs, or shoulders, or arms.

He’s pretty tall, but he actually looks a little lanky compared to some of his gym rat friends like Kirishima or Bakugou. His baggy clothes don’t really give his body much definition either. So while you knew he was strong from touching him through his clothes a few times, you had absolutely no clue that he would be this… this fine.

And while you’re drooling over his upper body, he seems to be thinking about the same thing, since he’s back in front of you, hands on your hips, and eyes on your lips. You’re not sure if it’s his focused gaze on your mouth that’s making it warmer in here, or the steam that’s starting to fill the room from the hot water, but you take in a shaky breath before you follow his lead again.

You slip off your jacket and let it drop to the floor before you slowly pull your shirt over your head as well. Your skin is actually quite sensitive from the cold now, and your nipples are so hard that they’re poking through your bra. So you have no choice but to be slow with unhooking it as well.

Sero seems to appreciate the show, considering he can’t take his eyes off your naked chest now. His tongue even darts out and grazes over his lip ring as his hands drag up your sides to cup the underside of your breasts and bounce them a bit in his hands, playing with them for a moment.

“Fuck, these are beautiful.” He rasps, giving them another knead and squeeze, “Such a shame that I didn’t get a look at them the other night.”

“You must have been preoccupied.” You say, voice equally as raspy as Sero’s, as you undo your pants and drag them down your thighs. As much as you want to bask in this growing sexual tension, the steam from that hot shower is calling for you. You’re fairly certain that you’re starting to get wet between the legs partially because you know that the shower is right there, waiting to warm your cold skin.

“Oh, yeah.” Sero agrees, watching as you undress yourself completely, his eyes roaming everywhere on your body now, “Definitely preoccupied.”

He’s naked in seconds, his bottoms shucked off somewhere as he pulls you right into the shower. And once the perfectly tempered water hits your cold, naked skin, you let out a shuddering moan in relief.

Sero gets the shower door closed and he settles himself right behind you, pressing his hard chest into your back and bringing his hands up to palm at your breasts again as the hot water and steam envelopes the both of you.

You’re already moaning. And embarrassingly, you can’t stop. Between the delicious hot water, Sero’s hands on your breasts, his growing erection resting between your ass cheeks, and his lips on your neck, you couldn’t get yourself to shut up even if you tried.

“Mmm, do you like that, baby?” He asks into your ear as he pulls gently at your sensitive nipples, making you yelp and arch your ass back into him, and your chest closer into his hands.

“Yes, yes! Yes…” You beg, one hand hanging onto his neck behind you and the other holding yourself up against the wall.

“Mm, thought so.” He hums in approval, slipping his thigh in between your legs and making you sit back slightly on it.

Your pussy isn’t particularly sensitive yet, but it’s certainly wet, and you are more than happy to have something hard and thick to stimulate your clit against. “Agh! Yes… yes…! Please.”

It feels so good. Everything. The water pelting down on your face and running down your skin, Sero’s hands playing with your chest and now your clit too, his strong thigh acting as your little riding saddle, and the thick steam clouding up your lungs just makes it all that much more intense. Like your body is being taken over by Sero and the elements until you let go a few minutes later with a breathless shout and come all over his thigh.

You’re trembling against him, pulsing and rubbing against his thigh to ride out the high for as long as you can, until Sero hums against your ear again and pulls his leg away. Only to turn you around to face him before he gets to his knees and spreads your legs apart to stick his face between them.

“Ahh!” You yelp, clutching at his head for support and balance. Your hips squirm against his poking tongue and fervent lips, knees starting to buckle every time he dips a little too deep. “Sero… Sero, wait. I dunno if I can… can stand if you keep… ahn!”

He doesn’t seem to care in the slightest, only responding by inching you towards the adjacent wall so you can lean your back against the flat tile. And he only comes up for air briefly to shelve your thighs onto his shoulders before burying his face right back in between your legs.

Just watching this is enough to get your pussy throbbing. The sight of Sero on his knees, easily holding you up with his shoulders and hands as he gets rained down on by the steaming shower water. You’re more than warmed up now, but his tongue you stirs up an even deeper dormant heat inside of you, making you sweat.

You’ve already come once, but he’s really about to send you into another high with this one shower. And there isn’t a thing that you can do to stop it, even if you wanted to.

You’re shouting his name helplessly into the bathroom walls, pleading for him to finish you off, to lick you apart from the inside, to soak you up in his special type of rain. And he delivers with a thorough aggressiveness, adding a few fingers to stretch you out with his tongue until your muscles tremble and squeeze around them to try and trap them inside.

The rest of the shower is a blur. It takes all your strength to stay on your feet even with your back still against the wall as Sero finishes cleaning himself off and turns off the water. He somehow leads you out of the shower and gets a towel wrapped around you before he lets you sit on the toilet lid to regain your strength.

By the time you come to, he’s already dried himself off and got a towel wrapped around his waist as he blow dries his hair in the mirror. You wipe yourself off completely before wringing and soaking out some of the water from your own hair, silently reflecting on the whirlwind of events that just happened. Though it’s actually quite difficult to think properly when your brain’s half melted from two consecutive orgasms.

Once Sero’s finished drying his hair, he offers the dryer to you, but you shake your head, knowing you are way too tired to do that right now. He chuckles and leans down to give you a soft kiss before bringing you to your feet, “Why don’t you head into my room first? It’s just down this same hallway. I’m gonna get these wet clothes in the washer first.”

He piles up both of your wet clothes in his hands and waits for you to have your towel wrapped around your body before opening the bathroom door. Giving your butt a quick squeeze, he exits the bathroom first, leaving you to tiptoe in the direction he told you his room was in.

There’s only one other door in this hallway that isn’t for storage, so you step inside of the surprisingly well-decorated bedroom. It has a totally oriental theme, with all kinds of different prints and fabrics and furniture that seem to come from different parts of Asia.

There are a few plants scattered about the room, and it smells like a mix of cinnamon, flowers, and a little bit of weed. There’s a bed on one side of the room, and a desk with a large computer monitor on the other. But there’s also a cute floor hammock by the window. A few knickknacks and photos tucked into some cool, Asian-style frames are scattered about the room. They look like they’re mostly of his family, just goofing around or posing at some sort of special location or event.

Seeing the big smile or goofy expressions on Sero’s face in the photos makes you smile a bit, too. There really is so much more to this guy than meets the eye, or what comes out of his mouth. You never would have imagined he would be this into Asian decor, or to know much about coffee, or to have family in South America.

These smaller details you learn are what make you so much more curious about him, despite your initial plans to avoid falling into his playboy trap. Things like this kind of give you hope that it’s not all a trap, that he isn’t just a hopeless flirt who can’t be taken seriously.

Eager to find more details, you drift over to his bookshelf. Skimming over the titles, you find a few of his university textbooks, a couple of fiction and nonfiction novels, a few books about photography, some manga, as well as a couple books in other languages. Wow.

At the top shelf is a line of CD albums and a radio/CD player device. You mean to scan through the different titles, but one pops out to you before any of the others, and you’ve already reached to pluck it out. The nostalgia and excitement bubbles up so much that you forget to hide the fact that you’re snooping once Sero gets back to his room.

“You like Pink Martini?” You practically beam at him.

“Huh?” He blinks in confusion before he spies the album in your hands and smiles in understanding, “Ahhh. Yeah. Sure, I do.”

He takes the album from your hands to pluck the CD out of the case and tuck it into the CD player. Pressing a few buttons to turn it on, he skips to a certain track to play first, “I’m guessing you like the French song, right?”

“Yes! I love it.” You say excitedly, “It was one of the first French songs I ever heard and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Sero chuckles as he closes his bedroom door and uncaps one of the water bottles he brought with him, sitting down on his bed to take a drink while you sing along to the whimsical lyrics of 'Sympathique.'

You twirl around in your towel and physically act out a couple of the lyrics as you sing them before plopping yourself down to sit beside Sero with a cheeky smile and shrug of your shoulders.

“Oh my god, hold that for a sec.” He says, holding his fingers up in a rectangle shape to point at you like a camera. Except he actually jumps off of the bed to pull out one of his weaved box drawers to dig out his digital camera.

“What? Oh my god, no! Stop.” You huff in exasperation, holding a hand out to block his lens from your face.

“Come on, that was the perfect shot. You’re beautiful.” He insists, plopping down beside you again and adjusting a few dials to hold the big DSLR up in front of you, “Gimme that gorgeous sim-pa-teek attitude again.”

“Sympathique.” You correct him with a half-scoff-half-chuckle, shaking your head.

“Oui, oui. Come on, just the one pose. Please?” He pleads jokingly.

You sigh with a roll of your eyes, but with the last chorus coming on, you just sing along to the lyrics again, trying to channel the same energy you had at first to pull off the same cheeky pose you gave him earlier. And he snaps away, the shutter noise clicking restlessly even when you stop posing.

He asks you to do the same thing once more, but you're done. It was embarrassing enough to have to do it again the first time.

"That's enough." You push his wrists to get his camera out of your face, "What happened to 'an honest subject is the best subject'?"

"Well, you were honest." He smiles, relenting with the camera and clicking through it to scan the photos, "That's the first time I've seen you enjoy yourself that honestly with just the two of us. I kinda wanted to keep it."

You narrow your eyes at him, wondering if that's really all there was to it. Though if you think about it, he has a point. It's not like you've ever really let your guard down around him before. You still haven't really done that yet.

"Here," he scoots closer to you to show you the preview on his camera screen, "Look at that smile and tell me it wasn't worth capturing."

From the angle he took it from, you look like you could be naked, since you're only shown from the shoulder up, and the way you're shrugging hides the towel that's wrapped around your chest. It does have a bit of a pure, joyful, and almost dewy look about it, what with your playful smile and your damp hair leaving a few droplets visible on your skin. While it's not a photo you would have chosen to take, you can't say that it doesn't look good.

You're suddenly getting deja vu, recalling a scenario rather similar to this one at that Thai restaurant Sero first took you to. He had unexpectedly taken your photo, but he still showed it to you and proved even then that he wasn't a half bad photographer. Though with that photo, this one, and the one he took of you in the Cellophane hoodie, the photos of you in Sero's possession seem to be accumulating...

"Whatever," you deflect, "Just don't send that one to Mina. Or anyone else, for that matter."

"Oh, believe me, I'm keeping this beauty all for myself." He reassures you before turning off his camera and setting it aside. Then without warning, he wraps his arms around you and pulls you down to lie on top of him on his bed, making you yelp as he jokes, "This one, too."

"You jerk." You scoff, feeling your towel come loose around your chest.

"Ay de mí..." He laments dramatically and reaches up to steal a kiss from you. At the same time, the song playing on from the CD player changes tempo and the singer starts crooning in Spanish.

And Sero sings along perfectly as he rolls you over to lie on top of you.

You're absolutely stunned as he just continues to put on a theatric performance as he sings along, caressing your cheek and making dramatic gestures as you listen to his perfect accent. The way his tongue curls around the trills and syllables is evident of nothing less than fluency...

"You know Spanish..." You address the obvious, still staring up at him with what must be a dumbfounded look on your face.

His smugly amused smile is back as he watches your reaction, leaning down to nose along your jawline, "Sí, querida." he purrs, "I told you I've been all over Sudamerica, didn't I?"

"That's right." You recall the new fact you learned about Sero earlier today. You had actually wanted to ask him more about that before you got swept up in his impromptu rain dash and shower sex.

He hums as he rubs his chest against your naked skin, your towel having completely fallen open by now. "So even if I can't keep up with your sympathique, I can try to make up for it with a little pasión."

Wow. You wonder how many people he's seduced rolling his tongue around a few words like that. You're rather upset at how easily it's working on you.

As much as you want to ask him more, learn more of these interesting, new facts about him, it seems like it'll have to wait. His dick between your thighs and naked skin all over yours leave you warm and unfocused. It doesn't help that he's looking down at you with that soft, tender expression on his face that you've seen on occasion. The one that leaves your brain privy to your heart.

He takes you in with another slow, syrupy kiss, this time without any of the urgency from the shower, or the roof. You're in his bed, pliant and aroused, and he seems perfectly content — or rather, completely intent to take his sweet time.

But if he keeps this up, you don't know if you'll make it through this. If he keeps kissing you like he's in love with you, hugging you like you're precious to him, and pulling back to just... look at you like that, you don't know if you'll get out of this unscathed.

You don't know if you can leave this room without falling for him.

Because when you're with him like this, and he holds you and looks at you like that, you're no longer plagued with that feeling that stops you. He erases any trace of doubt or hesitance you have towards his advances or intentions with you. When you're together like this, sharing heat and skin and air, it all goes away, and only leaves you floating from his ardor and affection.

And until you get your fill, you can't do a thing to bring yourself back down to earth.

—

tbc

a/n: the sympathique album by pink martini is absolutely filled with multicultural and linguistic flavor!! i highly encourage giving it a listen!!

and much love/thanks to leo @4xesp for helping me with the spanish in this one!!

//

part 7

[gretavant-garde]

Even Sinners Go to Drink the Wine - Jake Kiszka

TW//: NSFW 18+, smoking and drug use, swearing, religion, blasphemy, oral (m&f receiving), unprotected//penetrative sex.

It’s Halloween night and instead of attending the typical parties filled with people from your High School dressed as slutty bunnies and sexy pirates, you and Jake decide to walk around the neighborhood finding a perfect place to people watch and relax. As you both realize the streets are filled with parents and kids even though it’s pretty late, Jake spits out the idea, “Hey why don’t we find a rooftop. We could get closer to the stars, and become good friends with this little guy” you look at Jake with furrowed brows and curiosity in your eyes. He huffed a laugh at your misunderstanding and pulled out a joint from his front pocket. Your eyes widen in excitement and you immediately grab his wrist pulling him across the street to escape to the church roof to smoke. Before you make your way up to the bell tower and onto the roof entrance, you and Jake decide to explore, making your way down to the dark, creepy church basement where you find nothing but extra tables and chairs for church events. As you wander through the halls, you get the sense that Jake isn’t following you anymore. You turn around to find that you were right; Jake was nowhere to be seen and you start to feel like you're being watched. As your eyes wander across the walls you make eye contact with each picture of memorable past church members, pastors and Jesus himself. You swiftly walk down the dimly lit halls checking every door to see if Jake was inside, quietly calling out for him with no luck. As you give up and start to make your way back upstairs, figuring he wandered off without you, a hand grabs your ankle from under the stairs. You let out a blood curdling scream followed by Jake's name in a string of expletives. As you listen to his giggles from under the stairs, you make eye contact with the beautiful boy, taking in his smile and glowing eyes. 

“Jake, what the fuck, why would you do that!?” You asked. 

“Oh honey, it’s Halloween, remember? There’s no way I could make it through the night without scaring you at least once.” He’s now standing in front of you on the stairs looking deep into your eyes, a smirk on his lips. 

“Well I hope it was a good one because it’s the only chance you’ll get.” You stare back at him, feeling as though you could melt in his presence no matter how tense and rigid he made you with that scare. 

You both make your way up the bell tower stairs and step onto the gravel covered roof, Jake popping open the door and giving you his hand to safely step out and get your balance. You find the perfect spot to sit behind the ledge of the roof where the wind is blocked from your bodies and you’re out of sight in case anyone should see you and snitch. Jake pulls out the joint from before along with a lighter. Insisting you take the first hit: he tells you to open your lips, placing the joint between them as you softly close around it perfectly. Jake stares at your lips for a little too long, taking note of how easily he could make you open up for him and how well you obey. You watch as he brings the open flame closer to your face, lighting the paper as you inhale making the tip light up red and get the joint rolling. You take the first few hits, blowing your smoke out at Jake making his figure look hazy in front of the night sky. You pass it off to Jake, who takes a few hits.

In the midst of your smoking session, Jake gets an idea that he knows you to be fond of. He stares into you but before you can question his thoughts, he commands you, 

“Come here princess.” 

He says with a seductive smirk trailing on his lips as he anticipates his next moves to drive you mad. You blush at his pet name for you, sending a dizzying feeling to the pit of your stomach. Without hesitation, you do as you’re told by Jake once again. You move to mirror his cross legged position, facing him directly, knees touching, leaning so close together your foreheads almost touch. He takes the joint from your fingers, softly grazing them with his as he plucks it away from you bringing it to his lips once more. Jake knows you love the intimacy of shotgun smoking with him, it makes you giddy at the thought of him remembering that detail about you. 

 “Open up that pretty mouth for me again, baby. I trust that you’ll know when to suck it in.”

You look up at him through your lashes, biting your lower lip slowly and giving him an obedient nod. Jake turns his head slightly and takes a long drag of the joint, you watch as his chest rises and his eyes flutter shut. Giving him your full attention, he moves back to center and opens his eyes to see you leaning in front of him catching on to how your eyes are watching him intently. To heighten your senses even more, Jake leans forward, placing both his open hands on your thighs, opening you up to him even more than before. You place your hands on his, feeling him start to curl his fingers into your skin, the heat in your core rising more and more as his touch lingers on your body. Jake moves one hand from your thigh to grab your chin with his calloused fingers, making a mental note of the rough feeling on your soft skin. To get you into the perfect position for him, he places his thumb into your mouth just slightly to part your lips for him to blow into. You let out a soft moan, just barely for either of you to hear. Just then Jake moved his gaze from your lips to your eyes as he let the heavy smoke leave his lungs and spill into your mouth. Jake allowed his lips to graze yours, causing you to gasp at the almost nonexistent touch.  You tried to cover up your reaction with a pointed, deep inhale but there was no fooling Jake. As you take in his smoke, you softly shut your eyes as you consciously take in his breath and presence, still feeling tingles from his touch on both your lips as you catch his hand on your thigh creeping inward to graze over your core. You hold your breath trying desperately to hold onto that moment for as long as possible. You lift your head towards the sky as you exhale the shared smoke from your lungs, hoping it would float to the stars as you wish upon them to stay in this moment, to keep this feeling of being with Jake for forever.

You two continue with your back and forth pattern until the roach is no good and Jake stamps it out of the ledge. You sit and admire his fingers as he traces through the gravel on the rooftop, trying to distract himself from the stillness in the air. Just then, you hear kids below screaming and giggling at friends, dancing with their bags of candy, just as high on life as you too were on the rooftop. You lean your head over the edge to make sure you don’t lose your balance and watch the crowds from above. Jake follows your lead and scoots closer to you to watch where your eyes have landed down below. You can feel his body heat radiating onto your right arm as he leans into you, asking you a question, 

“ y/n, do you ever want to have kids?” You slowly turn your head to look at his side profile which you adore for a second too long, catching him grinning from ear to ear while watching the kids below. 

“Yeah, I think so, I just want to make sure I find the right person, that's all.” 

“Yeah, me too. Watching these kids makes me not want to wait. They’re all so cute in their little costumes and I know I’d be able to eat my kids candy when they go to sleep…. Oh my god, candy sounds so good right now, can we get some when we leave?” he replied, looking at you with puppy dog eyes. 

“Yes, of course we can Jakey,” you replied as if you’d ever be able to say no with him being so cute and looking at you like that.  

That conversation was quickly cut off as Jake lay back, looking up at the stars. With his body splayed out on the rooftop, chest open like a pillow calling your name, you lay down next to him taking the initiative to place your head on his chest. You feel Jake gasp and his chest rise as if you’d done something wrong but as you try to get up and readjust to be next to him, he gently whispers to you, 

“No you're ok, stay there, please,” as he raises his hand to your hair and lowers your head back onto his chest, then runs his hand down your arm drawing delicate circles onto the back of your hand. You both lay there for what feels like forever, but as you feel yourself getting heavy and drifting off to sleep under the twinkling stars, you jolt up making Jake jump from the surprise. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. Were you sleeping?” You asked him, looking into his weighted eyes. 

“No, just admiring the beauty above me.” As he catches your eyes with his, he smirks cheekily and you feel your cheeks blush, visible to him in the moonlight. 

You catch yourself drifting closer to his face, pacing your eyes between his and his lips, thinking all the thoughts possible. As you feel him move his hand from the small of your back to the nape of your neck, pulling you in, you smell the slight smell of weed left on his lips mixing with the cologne on his neck. In an effort to tease him like he did to you earlier, you close the gap between your lips and move in sync as you climb on top of him, straddling his hips. Moans flying out in the tone of both your voices. You dip down to move your lips across his neck and chest. You feel his chest rise and fall rapidly under you and a growing bulge on the inside of your thigh. 

“Jake..” you trail off teasing him further with your voice. “Are you doing ok? Looks like the cold isn’t bothering you.” You meet his eyes and quickly move your gaze to his tight jeans to direct your words to his growing bulge. 

“No, that’s all you baby.” He says deeply into your ear, as you giggle at his attempt to be seductive, you snake your hand from where it rested on his hips up his chest around his neck, giving him a light squeeze making his breath hitch even further. You feel him shift under you trying to get a sense of relief but you're having too much fun. You place both of your hands on his chest, splaying out your fingers to touch as much of him as possible. As you throw your head back, you use your movement and his chest to lift yourself to your feet to stand over him, making sure to grind your hips onto him as you rise up. You step to one side and lend a hand out to help him up. 

“Let’s go explore some more.” He gives you a refusing look as he reaches out to try and pull you back into him, but you move too quickly for his high, delayed movements to catch you. You make your way to the door, propping it open with your body as you turn as see Jake still standing where you left him. “Jake, what are you doing? Get inside silly!” 

“Y/N, I genuinely don’t think I can move right now, everything is too tight and it hurts,” Jake whines back to you, you erupt in a belly laugh at the condition you’ve been able to elicit and leave him in. 

You coax him over to you by saying, “well that’s why we need to go inside to finish, we need to warm up. We can go faster that way.” You leave him in the dark with a smirk and a wink after you descend the stairs, you hear the door swing open and next thing you know, Jake is hard against your back, pushing you to find a room. 

As Jake tries a door and finds it unlocked, you watch his hand turn the knob moving you both inside swiftly. For a moment you catch yourself wondering how his hand would fit perfectly around your hips.. or your throat. You both make your way inside quietly shutting and locking the door behind Jake. As you look around you notice you're on the balcony above the altar that overlooks the empty cathedral seating. As you turn around to inspect your surroundings you are met with a beautiful dark wood organ with ivory keys and bronze petals that glow through the darkness. You can’t do anything besides bring yourself close to Jake itching for any sense of relief on your body as you're now on fire fueled from the thoughts in your head. Jake's presence and the mystery of where the night will lead has you hot and bothered. Taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of the instrument in front of you, you move to sit on the bench. Jake moves to be behind you, pressing against your back and moving your hair to the side opening up your neck to him. He attacks the flesh under your ear with his lips and teeth, lightly scraping the skin leaving a trail of bruises and making a sharp hiss leave your lips, subconsciously making your hips wiggle in need of relief. As Jake sits next to you he wastes no time grabbing your thigh, and moving his fingers up higher slowly until his touch feathers against your core. He can feel the wetness seeping through your leggings. Wanting to finish what you started upstairs, you pull Jake into you again but this time not planning on breaking away. You start to make out, moving your lips in sync taking in his presence and matching the force he is using to bruise your lips with his. You use your teeth to softly bite his bottom lip, as he moans into your mouth opening up for you to stick your tongue into his mouth, dancing around his teeth, painting his mouth with your spit. 

Jake quickly moves to grab your thighs shifting you to lay you down on the bench, the red velvet fabric cushioning your quick movement and pillowing your head. Jake doesn’t hesitate ripping off your clothes, finding you’re wearing no panties under your leggings and a black lace bra that perfectly perks your boobs up to spill just slightly over the scalloped edge. Jake's eyes widen at the sight of you exposed under his gaze. You are all his, and his hunger for you is tearing at his self control as he fights himself not to take you immediately right there. Jake moves down your body, his lips ghosting over your neck to your collarbones to the swell of your breast, stopping for a moment to give tender kisses to each, then continuing to leave a trail of licks and kisses down your stomach. Once he gets there, he pays special attention to each of your hips, teasing the skin at the top of your mound, blowing cold air to the area giving you goosebumps. Jake melts at the reaction he’s able to elicit from you. As Jake uses his mouth to go down on you, he stops at nothing to wrap his arms around your thighs, lifting your hips slightly, pulling you closer to his face. He splays out his hands on the insides of your thighs, fingertips pressing into your delicate skin ensuring there will be bruises, little love reminders for you to admire the next morning. You knew from the talent he has as a guitarist that he was good with his fingers but it couldn’t compare to the poisonous power of his tongue. He focused intently on your clit causing you to wiggle under him to get more pressure, it only intensified his hunger for you, he turns aggressive almost and holds your hips down and demands in a deep tone, 

“don’t move or we’re done here” you giggle under your breath at his try to be a hard ass but you know full well he is dying in his jeans. As you climb towards your climax your hands grab for anything to keep you steady.

“Jake oh my god baby, please don’t stop. Jake. Jake!” You look down to watch as he continues to lap you up, making eye contact with you as his mouth works its magic and his nose and chin gleam with your slick. Jake breaks away from you for a second to let a string of his spit drop from his mouth down onto your throbbing bud, as he dives back into your heat, his nose nudges your clit, pushing into you at the perfect angle. This brings you higher with the addition of Jake’s two fingers beating against your walls curling perfectly into your sweet spot as he swirls his tongue in between your folds, letting his moans vibrate into you as you squeeze his head in between your thighs. Jake works on you with the perfect combination of his fingers pumping into you and his tongue flicking at your clit with the occasional bump of his nose which sends you into a spiral. Your legs begin to tremble on Jake's shoulders, toes curling as you press your heels into his back, one hand flying into his hair, pulling every strand you could gather and the other hand hitting the keys of the organ to your side. This thoughtless motion sends a roar of noise through the empty church but the echoes of the music notes cover your screaming moans that erupt from your chest as Jake brings you up to and down from your climax.

Jake stands up still positioned between your legs and strips of his clothes. In full love and admiration for what he just did for you, you want to return him the favor. You sit up on the end of the bench with him standing in front of you, grabbing his bare hips slightly pushing him back giving you enough room to fall to your knees. 

“Y/N, you don’t need to. I’ve been ready for you since we walked in here.” Jake says wanting to take you all for himself at this point.

“Oh, I know Jake, but what’s a better place to practice being on my knees than here?” You ask looking up at him through your eyelashes, a playful smirk creeping onto your lips. At this point with the sweaty, hot environment and both of you in high states of euphoria, you were both hazy beyond belief and feeling every emotion and want at a heightened level. As you lean forward, your face is met with Jake's hard, protruding bulge. You quickly pull down his boxers and release him. This movement alone has Jake rolling his eyes back into his head and grabbing at your hair, pulling it into a makeshift pony, giving you all the freedom to go down on him. After a few pumps of him in your hand, you wrap your bruised, swollen lips around his head, tasting the precum on his burning red tip immediately. You slowly tease him by licking a stripe on the underside of him from base to tip before you take him fully in your mouth, swirling your tongue around him, covering him in your spit and moans, sending vibrations through him before you let him hit the back of your throat. Jake only pulls your hair harder only to push you onto him further, this motion sends him deep into your throat threatening you to gag and tears forming in the corners of your eyes. You pull yourself together, focusing on his praises to you. His words itch your brain and you moan onto him more, causing a chain reaction of moans and expletives to leave his mouth. 

“Oh fuck, thats right baby, right there. You suck me so well. Don’t stop love. Make me cum.” Jake moans in a raspy voice, so deep you feel rumble in your core. Before he can release onto your tongue, he lets go of your hair and pulls you up by wrapping his veiny hand around your throat. Jake uses the leverage of his hand around your neck to toss you back onto the bench, deciding he wants to be in you, deep in you when he cums. The depth of his stare on your body left no room for misinterpretation. Jake grabs himself, pumping a few times and lines up with your core. Even though he knows you're ready and wet for him, he still slowly pushes in, stopping when he’s maxed out to make sure you're comfortable and ready for him to move. 

“Jake, move now, please fuck me Jake, fuck me!” this confirmation causes Jake to go feral and start pounding into you raw, the sound and stinging feeling of his skin slapping yours makes your breath leave you faster than you could breathe back in. Your eyes roll into the back of your head, going in and out of consciousness as Jake doesn’t let up on his pounding pattern, gripping onto your hips to move you both in sync with each other. To get him deeper you arch your back at the perfect angle and wrap your legs around his waist. Giving him a tight squeeze letting him know to pick up the pace. Jake hurries his movements but realizes how you're feigning for more as you grab the back of his neck and pull him down to you, catching him in a rough passionate kiss. Jake pulls out of you for a moment to flip you around on the bench, you’re now kneeling on the bench doggy style with your ass at the ready for him. This sight of you only urges Jake to pound into you faster as he reinserts his cock into you and grabs your hair pulling you closer to him. Jake returns to his devilish pace of ramming into you from behind, you’re already feeling sore and bruised from how his hips were pounding into you. He places his other hand on the top curve of your ass, caressing your skin for a moment only to grab a handful of you the next. As moments pass you feel that Jake is close to finishing as his movements get more sloppy, “Jake touch me please” he does as he’s told and travels his hand down from your hair to your front in the journey to your heat, Jake grabs and squeezes your tits, lightly grazing your hardened nipple on the way knowing the featherlight touch would drive you mad. Finally stopping to rub perfect circular motions onto your swollen bud as you reach your peak. 

“Fuck baby you feel so good, let go baby, cum with me” Jake’s words are like honey dripping onto your body, you do just as you're told. You and Jake moan into the air meeting each other in between arching your backs in unison as you climb higher to your climax. 

You let out a string of seemingly religious toned expletives. “Jesus Christ, holy fuck Jake, oh my god” you scream as Jake collapses on top of you. As your walls contract around Jake, he lets out a string of moans interwoven around your name. Both of you arching your bodies in unison, throwing your heads back and eyes rolling back into your skull, you blackout for a minute or two as you both ascend to what you believe to be as close to heaven as you’ll get now with where you are. As you and Jake move your bodies together to ride out your highs you take in the beautiful glow behind Jake that makes him resemble an angel. Before pulling out of you Jake places his T-shirt from the floor underneath your ass praying to not stain the bench fabric as you sit down, knowing you're sure to leak out a bit with how much he filled you up.

You lay there trying to steady your breathing as Jake stands and admires your naked being for a few seconds before picking up the rest of your clothes and helping you get dressed not with much ease from the restriction of your sweaty sticky skin. You help Jake do the same as he dresses himself. Just before leaving, Jake plays the beginning notes of a beautiful hymn on the organ behind you. His fingers delicately caress the ivory keys, contrasting the force with which his fingers touched you earlier. In your high state, the chords that filled the empty cathedral echoed in your ears and fell upon your mind like stardust, clouding your thoughts with the precious echoes of yours and Jake's synced moans and screams earlier. You’re now leaning your body against Jake's back by standing behind him, placing your head on his shoulder. Your hands snake over his arms and around his chest as if still needing him to give you stability with your legs being too wobbly and sore. He paused his playing, and your eyes fluttered back open to catch his gaze as he tilts his head back. 

Your eyes and minds hazy, you both agree to get going, in desperate need of fresh cold air to reset your bodies. As you make your way back to the exit of the church, you pass by a row of confessional booths, jokingly Jake stops you and asks “You think we should take a moment to ask for forgiveness?” 

“No, I’d like to keep that sin for a little bit longer.” 

As you both giggle your way out of the church, Jake grabs your hand leading you outside to the cold brisk fall air. Now surrounded by a lessened crowd of people, the new scenery hits you as a refreshing wave seemingly cleansing you from the warm, sex filled air you just left behind.

“Now, let us go get that candy, sweetheart.” You say to Jake, remembering his want from earlier in the night.

Jake blushes at your comment, “Damn, two desserts in one night? By god I must have done something right.” he replies in a cheeky tone referring to your body being his first sweet indulgence. 

“Maybe not by god Jacob, but by me you did, that’s for sure.” The memory of his burning touch makes your eyes smile as you look up at him, seeing the smirk on his lips illuminated by the above streetlamp. You both break into profuse laughter at each others puerility and dirty thoughts; leading yourselves into the darkness, hand in hand high on life and each other. 

- 🧿

[muuuumin]

At the mention of getting into one of the gen ed science classes, Jason felt himself pause in his mind, wondering if he would be able to take one of the classes without letting it show that he never really got any proper education. Sure, when he lived with Bruce he had diligently gone to school and loved every second of learning because when such an opportunity was given to a once poor and weak boy from the depths of Gotham, he was going to grab it. He cocked his head to the side as he wondered if it would be okay if he took a chem class, he knew some…chemistry, specifically having learned and trained to notice various kinds of dangerous mixes and sometimes, its antidotes.

“That’d be interesting.” He said, snorting a little at the idea of learning a new dangerous chemical formula from a middle aged professor who would simply be warning his students. 

Every second Tim was quiet, not responding to Jason’s apology at all, Jason felt an uneasy twist in his chest. Maybe he really shouldn’t have apologised, at least not at this timing. Jason’s fingertips twitched and tapped against his helmet as he waited, eyes carefully trained on Tim’s back before they fell to stare at the dirty concrete of the rooftop.

As he told the other vigilante, he wasn’t expecting any acceptance of the apology, maybe even a part of him wanted to see Tim get upset at him. Jason knew Tim had every right to be mad, scared, and upset at him and he knew he deserved to be shouted at, at the very least. Jason wanted to hear how Tim felt all those years ago when he had tried to kill him multiple times, how Jason was a terrible person and even if he had changed now, it was going to be hard to work on this case with him as a normal ally. He needed to hear how much Tim had hurt not just at that moment but after it as well, especially at the loss of his mantle as Robin.

‘Fuck, just tell me you hate me.’ 

That would be easier. Hate was easier than.. Trying to fix whatever bond they had not only just for this specific case but in general. He could go back to avoiding Red Robin, calling him ‘replacement’, doing his best to rile all the bats up by leaving a few bodies here and there. If Tim said he hated him, it would be the easiest thing in the world to go back to what they were before. 

But alas, perhaps fate was not done with troubling Jason Todd.

Jason’s teal eyes widened under his domino mask at Tim’s words, his head snapping up and almost giving him whiplash from how harshly he moved.

“What?” he croaked out in a low tone, he soaked in the words Tim had said. Did babybird really feel this way? That all the messy dirt from their past was nothing to talk further about apart from that they’re “well past everything now.”? 

Jason might not have expected this response but he knew he should have, they both knew who had trained all the Robin’s to hide every single inch of their emotions to gain an advantage over everyone around them.

Fucking Bruce and his emotional constipation.

“We both know that’s bullshit so when you get the balls to confront your feelings, just give me a call and maybe we can set up something where you just scream at me.” Jason huffed out with a wry grin, jamming on his helmet again.

Way to make amends, Jason Todd style.

He grabbed his grapple gun and shot it at a nearby building, letting it pull and catapult himself to the next building. He glanced back to see Tim, wondering if he should have stayed to see if Tim had anything else to say.

But fuck, he was a hypocrite with emotional constipation too.

Red Hood jumped to the next building and was gone, not feeling any better about his apology at all. 

Birds of a Feather

(closed RP with @muuuumin)

Things were not going according to plan. 

Tim really didn’t like it when things didn’t go according to plan.

Sadly, that was the nature of Gotham City, which was exactly why Tim had backup plan after backup plan, accounting for every conceivable variable. He’d written an algorithm just for this case. There was a stack of paperwork heavier than Tim was. 

And yet, somehow, none of that accounted for faulty construction of the barrier along the route Tim expected to chase the criminal along, and just like that all 27 of Tim’s backup plans went out the window, and he and this thug were tearing through the streets of Gotham City. 

Fortunately, Tim had always been quick. Maybe not quite as strong as some of the other bats, but he was balanced in agility, which was useful when it came to jumping over the wooden palettes that had been knocked in his way. 

He’d been chasing this guy for months, the leader of a trafficking ring that made Tim’s stomach turn with each new detail he learned. Finally, Tim had him… nearly. Weeks of careful planning were reduced to instinct, fueled by the base knowledge that whatever happened, he had to catch this guy. Because of that, he wasn’t particularly paying attention to where the man was running, only that Tim needed to catch up to him.

Tim was getting close. His chest burned with it, but he was closing the distance. The leader was about three times Tim’s size, but that made him slow, which Tim used to his advantage. 

One last turn lead them down a long alley with far fewer obstacles to jump over, and Tim took that as his chance. Putting one last burst of energy into moving forward, he could reach out and touch the man before him. So, he did. He leapt forward and used all his momentum to send the both of them tumbling to the ground, pinning the man’s arms behind him. 

“Get off- you little shit,” the criminal squirmed violently, pinned face down as he was. Tim was fully sitting on his back, using his entire body weight to keep him down and frankly unconvinced that was enough. Tim was strong, but he couldn’t hold someone like this forever. “I ain’t getting taken down by some pipsqueak-ass kid. I’ll fucking kill you.”

Tim used his position to secure handcuffs around the man’s wrists, trying to catch his breath. He might’ve secured them a little tighter than necessary, but knowing what this man did Tim frankly didn’t feel bad about it. 

Things hadn’t gone exactly according to plan, but Tim had gotten the criminal in the end. This would just serve as… something to keep in mind for the next time he had to make a plan. Always double check the strength of the barricades along the predicted potential chase route.

Breathless and full of adrenaline, Tim forgot another much more important rule: Always pay attention to where your target is leading you.

[stressedoutcanary]

Do You Ever Feel Like A Misfit (Everything Inside You Is Dark & Twisted)

Dick Grayson x Reader

Word Count: 3.5K (I don't know how tf that happened)

Warnings: Explicit language, Blood and Violence, lots of angst, Hurt/Comfort ✌

A/N: Guess who's back! Just for some context the reader is a magic user and her style is similar to that of Zatanna <3

•°•°•°•°

She’d have reasoned with herself that stealing from one of the most secure and heavily guarded safe-houses of a deranged sociopath was probably not the brightest idea she’s had all day. It never even made it on her to-do-list for the weekend, but here she was, running across rooftops, holding on to the stolen totem like her life depended on it, it probably did. The three assassins sent after her were no Lady Shiva or Talia Al Ghul but they weren’t exactly amateurs either. The deep cuts and two broken ribs she got from their earlier encounter were proof of that.

She glanced back and even though there was no sign of her would-be-killers she knew better than to assume they’d just let her be. They were sticking to the shadows, exploiting her blind spots. The only thing she was sure of was that they were still hot on her trail and would happily plunge a dagger into her back given the opportunity.

She was right. As of this moment she hated being right.

She caught the glint of the two sharp objects slicing through the air, hurtling towards her at full speed. A slight shift of her upper body was all she could manage as one of the daggers got embedded right into her scapula while the other one, fortunately so, whirled past her, slightly grazing her left hip. The impact of the blade on her shoulder made her lose what little balance she had left. Despite her best efforts, when the wounded shoulder made contact with the hard concrete, a loud, ear-piercing cry ripped out from her throat before she could push it back down.

Cursing under her breath she knew, she knew all she had were those few seconds of numbness and disorientation to get a grip and figure out her exit strategy. However, all her hopes started to sink as she saw one of the assassins come closer, appearing more of a blur than a person. Then again that was probably because of the nice, little concussion she got from her fall. The assassin walked over to her, unsheathed their sword and placed it right on her neck, blocking any and every way out.

“You were warned. The Demon’s Head does not tolerate treachery. We are here under his orders to bring back the totem along with the witch’s head; your head”

If she could, she would’ve rolled her eyes at the classic villainous dialogues thrown at her.

“Witch? Who’re you calling a witch Snow White? I’m clearly a sorceress, don’t they teach you the difference between the two in assassin school or something? Hell, I’d even let you call me an enchantress, though that name’s already been taken but you get my poin-” 

The remaining words died in her throat as the sword on her neck shifted slightly. She knew she had extremely poor self preservation skills considering she’s clearly been instigating the very person sent to kill her, but even she wasn’t dumb enough to keep talking when the tiniest movement on either part could result in her having a severed jugular or carotid. 

‘This is a pretty shitty way to die’ 

She thought back to how she used the last of her mystic energy to hide the totem away before her fall and how stupid that decision really was because now she could actually feel the agonizing pain coming from her shoulder. It started to spread throughout her back like wildfire, eyelids grew heavy against her wishes. Suddenly she felt really tired and the idea to close her eyes just felt so goddamn appealing. 

‘No (Y/N) that’s the blood loss talking. Blood loss doesn’t get to make decisions’, she mentally scolded herself, still not breaking her eye contact with the person standing above her.

“Give us what you stole and we shall grant you the mercy of a quick death.”

That made her raise an eyebrow, “Ah, lemme think...the correct response here would be…”, she hummed, making a show of how hard she was thinking about the offer she was granted, “How about a fuck you? How would that do for you?”, she gave them a vicious grin, it was all teeth.  They probably weren’t impressed by her response and it showed.

She knew there was no way out but she had promised herself once that if she were to die, that if she ever goes out, she’d be anything but a whimpering and sobbing mess. She was scared shitless, more so than she’d ever been while fending off the league, she won’t deny that but she would rather die than let them know that.  ‘Well at least I got that ‘rather die’ part down to a T.’ she thought, eyeing the sharpness of the blade which was now raised up in the air

She felt bad for just giving up the way she did. Her whole life she was told to fight her way through the impossible, to attain the strength rivaling that of Zatanna Zatara, John Constantine and Doctor Fate himself. To be better than them, and there she was lying on the ground limp as a sword came down on her throat; all for a silly necklace. She would’ve huffed out a laugh if only her ribs weren’t broken, if only her body wasn’t screaming in pain, if only she had a way out. She didn’t. She was too tired, too drained, too numb to do anything else. Closing her eyes she stopped fighting, she let her growing unconsciousness claim her.

‘This is what you deserve anyway’, her barely there conscience remarked.

‘Fuck you too.’ she replied.

Everything went pitch black. The darkness encompassing her was peaceful, unlike the pain she had felt before. It was nice for a change. It sounded pathetic  but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

•°•°

 When she came to, the first thing she observed was the feeling of something soft against her back, next was a dull rhythmic sound which she realized was her own heartbeat. Though opening her eyes was a tiring task. It shouldn’t have been, but it was. She used all the energy she had into it and her eyelids fluttered open. She stared at the white ceiling and stayed like that for a few seconds; a few minutes? She couldn’t tell, but the pain was back now, not too much but enough to tell her it was there, to tell she was still alive.

She saw something shift in her peripheral vision and her body instinctively went stiff. Her mind which was blank before now ran in all directions.

‘Could be Ra’s Al Ghul… Could be worse’, she tried not to think about the worst case scenario, but she knew she had pissed off a lot of beings, beings far more powerful and far crueler than Ra’s himself. An involuntary shudder passed through her at the thought. That must’ve caught her captor’s attention as she felt the person move closer to her. Begrudgingly, she tore her gaze from the spot on the ceiling which she had been staring at this whole time and tilted her head. The man in black and blue who appeared, was probably the last person she had expected to see.

“Nightwing…”

Her voice was barely above a whisper and the hoarseness with which it came out it took her by surprise, but her body visibly relaxed at the sight of the familiar figure, at the sight of someone who would never hurt her.  

She watched him pull out a chair from the desk nearby. He sat next to the bed she was lying on and gave her a soft smile, a smile that spelled one word ‘relieve’. She remembered how when she first met him two years ago, she found that particular smile extremely annoying, she had no reason to, but she did. What she couldn’t remember was when she had grown so fond of it.

“How do you feel?”

“Like shit.”

He snorted a laugh which made her pout. She was planning to point out how he was being mean; laughing at her when her response truly defined the way she was feeling, but any words she thought of were cut off by the change in his expression. His smile faltered, lips were now pressed in a thin line, face contorted in a way which showed his genuine concern.

“This is the second time, this week.”

That you almost died, he didn’t say. That I had to save you and bring you back from the clutches of death, he didn’t say.

“I know.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“I know.”

The silence that settled, stretched far too long for comfort, but she wasn’t going to be the one to break it. She wanted to, but there was nothing she could say, that would make it better. Nightwing ran his fingers through the locks of hair, burying his face in his hands.

For the first time since she woke up, she took in his appearance, he looked disheveled,  his suit was torn in different places along visible faint cuts, most likely he got them when he rescued her. She felt a pang of guilt rising in her chest. He risked his life for her, she knew he had done it before, she didn’t get it then and she didn’t get it now. Why would someone do that? Why would he? She was pulled back from her spiraling thoughts when he spoke again, exhaustion evident in his voice.

“Why are you so reckless?”

“Excuse me?”

She looked at him like he had grown another head. She wasn’t ready for this conversation but by the looks of it they were gonna have it anyway.

“What if I hadn’t been there today? Or any of the other days you almost died. What then?”

“My best guess? I would’ve been dead.”

“And that fact doesn’t bother you at all?!”

She flinched at little when his voice rose, but she stood her ground, at least figuratively since she was still in bed.

“I don’t know, should it?” She didn’t try and tone down the venom dripping from her words. Her words cut deeper than the wounds he got from the assassins; she saw it clear as day on his face. She let out a deep sigh but continued. She had to get it out and he had to hear it, that’s the reason she gave herself for the confession that followed.

“I don’t need your help, Dick. I don’t know what gave you the impression that I did but I’ve never needed it.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘Why was it getting harder to speak?’ “I don’t need you to save me every time. I don’t need you to risk your life for me and I definitely don’t…” She moved to sit up straight, her back resting on the headboard. She shifted her gaze on her open palms resting in her lap; palms covered in blood, in her blood, not very long ago.

“I don’t need you to care...”

The last part was a whisper and Dick was silent, so silent that for a brief moment she wondered if the man she’d come to care about even heard her, admitting something that was so painful for her to say out loud.

Dick moved to sit beside her, his shoulder bumping hers. He didn’t know where all this was coming from but he knew better to leave it unattended.

“(Y/N) I help you because I care about you. I always will, you know that.”

“Why? You have nothing to gain from it”, blinking back the unshed tears in her eyes, she looked at him with a hurt expression as if she couldn’t bring herself to understand.

“Why… as in why do I care?”, Dick tilted his head to look her in the eyes, trying to understand what she meant all the while making sure not to let his own surprise at her words show. She nodded not trusting her voice to not betray her anymore than it already had.

“I don’t care about you because I feel like you need it nor because I would gain something from it”, Dick knew he shouldn’t have to explain it to her. He briefly wondered what she had gone through to make her think that she needed to be useful to be cared for or that she had to need it to be cared for. He felt something pull at his heart at the thought; It was sorrow.

“I care about you because… well I do and there’s nothing you could or couldn’t do to change that. And it is because I care about you that I ask you to be better at taking care of yourself. Now I know for a fact that whatever you stole from The League’s safehouse definitely did not belong there, but I also know that whatever it was, it wasn’t worth your life (Y/N) It never will be.”

Dick grasped one of her hands, interlacing his gloved fingers with hers; she hadn’t even realized she was shaking until he did so. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to take a deep breath despite her protesting ribs. Opening the palm of her free hand she muttered an incantation with practiced ease

“Eveirter tahw saw neddih “, her hand glowed, the golden aura taking the shape of a object. When the light subsided, Dick saw the object in her palm as she rubbed her thumb across it, quietly leaning her head on his shoulder.

“It was this totem. It belongs to Madame Xanadu. Don’t know what Ra’s wanted it for though”, she shrugged as best as she could with an injured shoulder then continued, voice firmer than it had been the whole evening,“ She asked me to retrieve it in exchange for information on a girl I was looking for. The girl was somehow sucked into some other dimension, a mystic one and her mother was so desperate when she approached me that I just couldn’t say no. So when I say the Totem was important, then I want you to know that it really is.”

Dick shook his head at that. “Still not worth your life.”

“Dick…”, she sighed. It was all she could do at the moment because she was really getting tired from all the arguing.

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“You mean the time I met the infamous vigilante Nightwing in a dumpster of all places.”

“In my defense I was badly injured”, she hummed in agreement.

“You smelled bad”

“You try smelling like flowers after falling from a building and into an open dumpster.”

His playful grumbling pulled a short laugh out of her. She was more than a little confused at the sudden trip into the past but happily accepted it as a change of topic. She should’ve know better than to think he’d have let the matter go.

“Anyway my point is when you saw me that day, you first instinct was to help me. You pulled me out and used your magic to heal my wounds. You didn’t have to. You could’ve dropped me at a hospital. You could’ve even walked away and pretended that you never saw me, but you didn’t. Why is that?”

“Because I thought you were handsome?”, she said trying to lighten this too-heavy-for-comfort conversation he was trying to have.

“Nice try. I know you. You saved me because you cared. You helped me and the Titans save the city more than once because you cared. It is who you are. I’ve seen you care about and worry over complete strangers without conditions. So why do you think that there has to be some kind of a barter system when it comes to you? Why think that I would want to gain something if I cared about you?”

“Because everyone else did.”

The words shot out from her mouth quicker than she realized. She had voiced her greatest insecurity to the one person who never had anything to add to it and Dick’s heart clenched at the implications of her words, ‘She has never been loved unconditionally before’ his brain provided.

The tears she blinked back earlier came back with full force. She felt two strong arms that wrapped around her, all the while being mindful of her injuries. Dick pulled her into a hug and that was it. She couldn’t control the sobs that tore through her throat, the pain in her body flared due her erratic movements. She knew once the tears started flowing they wouldn’t stop at least not for a while, but now that her façade had been broken she couldn’t bring herself to give it another thought.

He waited for her to let it out, let out all the pent up emotions she had. Now that he thought about it he had never seen her cry. He never questioned it, maybe he should’ve.

“I don’t know who’s responsible for hurting you (Y/N), God, how much I wish I did”, his arms slightly tighten around her at that. “I am so sorry that you have felt like you have to have your walls up all the time, even around me and I should’ve seen that, I should’ve realized that before but I didn’t and I am so sorry for that. I can’t undo the damage you’ve endured and I will not pretend that I can. What I can do is promise you that I’d never let you down like that, never.”

The words he spoke were clear. He didn’t try to tell her to put her walls down, to trust him when she had no reason to. He also didn’t need to justify himself or make such over the top promises but it felt nice to hear it. She had already stopped crying the moment he started speaking again but she still had her forehead pressed against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, it was calming in a way she couldn’t describe. She pulled her head back to look at him, and the honesty in his voice earlier matched the one in his eyes.

“Okay”

Hearing her response, he gave her his signature grin. It sent unexpected warmth through her, he always had that effect on her. She was sure she was just blushing at this point and was suddenly thankful for the dim lighting in the room. 

She ended up composing herself rather quickly, jabbing a finger at his armored chest with her usual smirk plastered on her face.

“Now that you’ve made that promise, know this, Dick Grayson, if you let me down I will drop a mountain on you.”

“You mean that figuratively?”

“No I mean that geologically”, he waited for her to say she was kidding. She didn’t.

“Alright, alright”, He held his hands out in mock surrender. After considering the look in her eyes, Dick refrained from questioning the feasibility of that action nor did he want to question her magical abilities or intent. Last he remembered, Wally did that and that conversation ended with him being teleported to Sahara and Dick would very much like to avoid the same fate as his best friend.

Deciding that was more than enough exhaustion for one night, he got up from the bed and kissed her goodnight, informing her that he’d be sleeping on the couch so that he wouldn’t accidently hit her injuries in his sleep. She agreed and watched him slip out of the room before falling into the blissful sleep she had been putting off since forever.

•°•°

She knew Dick Grayson was full of surprises but the next morning when he put forward the offer of become a full time Titan, in front of her, she wondered if she fell from the bed in her sleep and ended up  getting another concussion because he was so not making any sense.

“So let me get this straight, you want me to come live with you and your superhero friends, in the Titans freaking Tower?!”

“I was hoping for a little less yelling after an emotional evening but yes that is exactly what I’m asking.”

“Dick that’s just ridiculous!”

“Look, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

He looked like a kicked puppy which made her feel kinda guilty for all the yelling.

“It’s not that…It’s just there is still a lot about me I haven’t told them. There is still a lot I haven’t told you. I don’t see a reason why you all would want to trust a possible threat, let alone live with it”, she gestured to herself.

Dick felt like there was a deeper meaning behind her words, as if she was voicing her own fear rather than theirs but he trusted her enough to tell him about it when she was ready, on her own terms. He could wait till then but for now he crossed the short distance between them, going around the breakfast table till he stood in front of her. He grasped both of her hands in his and ran his thumb soothingly across her knuckles. He bent down to place a soft kiss on her forehead, and then moved to meet her gaze.

“(Y/N), I know you and I trust you and…It sounds silly considering I was raised by the worlds greatest detective but I believe that you don’t have to know every little detail about someone as long as you already know what’s in their heart.” Bruce probably would’ve disagreed but he wasn’t Bruce.

“And you know what’s in mine?”

“And I know what’s in yours.” His statement was firm and left no room for argument, not when it came to this.

“If you’re sure about this, then I guess...”

“Is that a yes I’m hearing?”, There was that smile again, seriously what was up with him and his smile that made her giddy inside.

In between thoughts she realized he was still waiting for a response so she nodded. Any underlying doubts she had about her answer vanished when she took in how happy it made him. As cheesy as it sounded seeing him happy made her happy. A part of her said it wouldn’t last long, but seeing her boyfriend hop onto the couch full of joy as he called his friends about the latest development in their lives, she wanted to believe otherwise.    

°•°•°•°•

[persephones-wren]

heyy! Could I request a Kaz brekker and reader fic where shes really sensitive and kind and the opposite of him and they're dating but he seems to be spending more time with inej planning a heist and reader gets jealous and during the heist she saved inej from a bullet, getting hurt in the process and tells Kaz,in a delirious state, that shes happy she saved inej for him and everyone helps him plan a picnic for her while shes healing and suprises her? Its quite a long request but it would be wonderful if you wrote it!! thanks💕

Ends of the Earth (Kaz Brekker x Reader)

Hope you enjoy reading! I had a lot of fun writing it :)

Warnings: reader gets shot, that's about it?

Genre: Angst to (minimal) Fluff

Word Count: 2126

You’re not sure how you could have ever expected him to return what you felt for him.

You and Kaz were essentially opposites- he was a hardened criminal, you were more of a person who just ran with the wrong people. He was mean and commanding, you were sweet and endearing. Where he’d kill people with no hesitation, you’d probably be torn over it for the rest of your life.

Though the Barrel seemed to have no room for someone as kind as you, you had found yourself to fit fine along with rest as someone to watch over the rest. Your skill of memorization was appreciated when Kaz needed to reflect back on a certain part of the plan, and besides, having someone counteract his cruelty was appreciated by the others.

Sometimes, like now, it was hard to be a part of the Crows. Watching Inej stand by his side, watching them work together like well-oiled parts of the same machine, it was bittersweet. You couldn’t help the jealousy that overtook you, but kindness was ingrained in you. You couldn’t hate him. You couldn’t hate Inej.

“So we’ll take them out there. Inej, I’m going to need your backup here.” His voice snaps you back into the moment.

“Got it.” She nods.

“Before then, though, You’ll be stationed here. Y/N, I’m going to want you to stick close to her. She can fight for the both of you in case anything goes wrong.”

You’re useless, you berate yourself. You’re going to need Inej to save you. Maybe if you could defend yourself the way she could, he’d like you more.

“Understood.”

“That should wrap everything up. We’ll meet at the usual spot tonight. We’ll take transport there and sneak in. From there, everything should go according to plan.”

…

Night quickly falls, and you’re all gathered.

“To reiterate, I’m going to go grab the paintings. Inej and Y/N, stick together and communicate when it’s safe. Jesper, you’re going to shoot out the lights when signaled, and make sure that carriages are ready when it’s time. Wylan, wait it out here with him. If all goes to shit, blow this place. Clear?”

Echoes of agreement echo from around you, and you nod. This should be an easy heist.

“Y/N, c’mon. Let’s head over this way.”

Inej takes your wrist and leads you to the edge of the building. Her stare is intimidating as she surveys the building, before turning back to you.

“I’ll scale the walls, and then I’ll use the rope to pull you up. We can wait on the top of the building for a bit, before slipping in through a window. That okay?”

Damn her for even being considerate to you. And you still have the nerve to be jealous over her. Her and Kaz are so similar- they’d be perfect for each other.

You still can’t find it in your heart to be completely happy about that.

“Y/N? You alright?”

“Huh?” you snap out of your reverie, and give a bashful smile. “Yeah, that’s good. I’ll spot you. Hopefully I’ll be able to get up there…”

Inej throws you a reassuring smile back. “You’ll be okay.”

You watch with awe as she scales the building with no issue, truly living up to the nickname she had been given. She’s nearly invisible as she reaches the top, you note. She’s incredible.

You wait on the ground patiently as Inej lowers the rope, before you hear voices.

You stare up at her, wide-eyed, before running and diving behind a tree.

“The wine good tonight?”

It’s a guard. Your heart rate quickens, and bring a hand over your mouth. Quiet your breathing. If they catch you, you’re dead, and you’ll be the dead weight of this mission.

“I don’t know, haven’t had a drink yet. Maybe once everyone’s gone. Ha! The Stadwatch won't penalize me if there’s no guests to guard!”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit! All we have to make sure is no scum tries to steal the painting.”

“Like anybody would dare show their face here.”

The other guard laughs, and you wait with baited breath as they finally round the corner.

You check both directions, before you quietly slip out.

“Inej?” you’re quiet and slightly shaken. Death and capture was always palpable on these missions, but it had come swinging at you quicker than you had expected. “You still there?”

“Yeah,” her voice comes from above. “I’m here. You’re fast on your feet. Good thinking.”

“Thank you, and thank you for waiting.”

The rope drops down for the second time, and you take a hold of it, pulling yourself up with a bit of her help. Your hands finally grasp the ledge of the building, and Inej extends one of her hands to help pull you up. You’re hauled onto the rooftop, and though it’s a bit ungraceful, you’re okay.

“Thanks,” you whisper.

“No problem.”

Your eyes are both directed on the walkways below.

“You scout out for guards down there, and I’ll check for guards in the windows? We should signal to Kaz soon.”

“Sure.”

You keep a careful eye down below, hearing Inej scurry to different window points. You watch as she slips to one of them, peering through.

“Just our luck,” she mutters cheerfully. “This window’s fine. Let’s open it. I’ll go first, but send a flare for Kaz. I’m going to need that window open as soon as that flare goes up.”

“Alright.” You take a deep breath, before shooting the flare off. Inej thrusts open the window and pulls you in behind her.

You watch a figure walk past the doorway. That should be Kaz, and now, he should be slipping past you to go to the next doorway to take the painting-

“To the roof again, now-” Inej says, and starts to step out behind the boxes, and the figure turns back.

That’s not Kaz.

A click.

She’s going to be shot.

You’re acting on pure impulse and nerves when you shove her aside, and the bullet pierces through your shoulder. You crumble, and Inej tries to keep you from completely collapsing.

You grit your teeth. You’re trying not to let tears stream down your face, but everything hurts and Inej is over you and she’s saying something but you can’t hear her-

You try to force yourself to sit up, and you see a cane poised to hit the guard over the head. You turn away, and thank your murky hearing that you can’t hear the scream that emits from the guard.

Kaz.

“What happened?” His voice is losing it’s cool quickly.

“She was shot by the guard, I don’t think she’s quite registering it-” Inej’s voice is more panicked, but she forces herself to be analytical. “She’s going to need treatment, and quickly.”

“Okay,” he breathes in sharply. “Okay. Go down the hall, grab the paintings, and meet Jesper by the transportation. I’ll get her out.”

“Okay.”

Inej dashes down the hall, and he takes in your state. Your pupils are blown wide, and you’re trying not to cry, but it hurts.

“Kaz,” you breathe out. “Thank the Saints. Is Inej okay?”

He frowns at that. What about Inej? Inej was fine, you’d been shot. Did you have no self-preservation instincts?

“Inej is fine,” he mutters.

“That’s good,” you sigh out. “That’s good. I don’t quite think I’m going to make it out here alive, so just in case I don’t, I love you. Though I’m glad she’s okay, for your sake.”

His frown deepens. “I’m sorry? For my sake?”

“You’re in love with her. She with you. You guys can live your happy ending. As happy as the Barrel can get, anyway.” Your smile is slightly delirious, and he knows you’re not thinking rationally.

“Stop talking.”

“I’m sorry, are you mad at me? Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t-” you cough, “think I’d die, but if it’s for you and Inej, then I think it’s worth it.”

“Nobody is worth your life,” he nearly yells. “You’re not going to die, Y/N. I won’t allow it.”

“Please, just let me stay here. They’re going to find you if you don’t.” “I don’t care.”

He’s pulling off his jacket and carefully using it as a tourniquet for your shoulder.

“Can you walk?”

“Kaz, please-”

“Can you walk.” It’s a statement, maybe a threat.

“Maybe- maybe with a bit of support,” your words are weak. You’re running out of time. “The world looks sideways, though- face it, Kaz, I’m not going to make it. I don’t want to be dead weight, your touch aver-”

“I’m not going to combust into fucking flames if you lean on me! Goddamnit, let me help you!”

His anger startles you. You hold back more tears as he pulls you up. At least he took the care to pull you up by the other arm. “Okay.”

The world is spinning and his face isn’t clear, and time seems to speed up as both of you go through the hallways, finally meeting Jesper and Inej in the courtyard.

“Bloody hell,” Jesper mutters.

“Go. To the White Rose. Nina should be able to do something.” Kaz leaves no room for argument. You’re passed out now, and he’s almost thankful you can’t feel anything as the carriage rushes through harsh weather and bumpy roads.

I don’t quite think I’m going to make it out here alive, so just in case I don’t, I love you.

Were you that oblivious? Did you think he was in love with Inej? How could you be so blind?

How could you sacrifice yourself so he could live what you thought to be a “happy ending”?

You didn’t plan it, did you?

He carefully takes off one of his gloves, hovering his hand over your forehead.

You’re still warm.

He doesn’t believe in Saints, but now, he’s almost praying to them that you’ll be okay.

Please be okay.

...

Inej glances at Kaz, standing over her in the White Rose.

She’s been out for days at this point. Nina could only do so much, with whatever corpse-like power she’d gained. The rest had to be natural healing.

Inej clears her throat. “She’d go to the ends of the world for you. For your happiness.” Kaz remains still.

“Don’t make her do so again.”

..

Your eyes flutter open, the brightness of the room nearly rendering you blind.

Your shoulder hurts like a bitch, but besides that, you’re alive.

Happiness and heaviness fill your heart at once. You’re alive, you’re okay. What had you said to Kaz in your state?

Hopefully nothing stupid.

“You’re awake. I’m glad.”

Kaz’s voice comes from the edge of the room. He’s leaning on the wall, cane in hand. When was Kaz upfront with his emotions?

“Yeah. How long was I out for?”

“A couple of days.”

“Days?” Your voice cracks. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

That’s a lie. You thought you were dead, for sure. He doesn’t have to know that.

“...Right.” He’s skeptical, but pushes himself off the wall and makes his way over to you. “This may be a bit early, but would you want to go for a walk?”

“Sure.” Is he kicking you out of the Crows? Why would he want to go on a walk just after you’ve woken up? You’re screwed.

He waits for you to stand, and then you’re both walking side by side, into the gardens of the courtyard. He doesn’t say anything, just leads you to a small place under an apple tree. A picnic blanket is spread out, with a small basket laying on top of it.

Your eyes widen in surprise, and a brief smile flashes across his face. “Nice, isn’t it?”

“Kaz- what is all of this?”

“You said you loved me.”

Horror paints across your face, and you lower your head in shame. “I’m sorry, I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry, I know you love Inej, that- was a bit unprompted of me, I’m sorry-”

He blinks at your rushed words. “Y/N. I’m not in love with Inej. She’s part of the Crows, as are you. Though- if you mean it,” he clears his throat, “that you love me- then take this as a surprise first date.”

Your expression morphs into a shy smile. He’s probably not ready to say it back. It doesn’t matter. He feels the same way.

“Happy first date, then.”

You’re both talking and eating, small smiles on both of your faces, a stark contrast to the harsh atmosphere of Ketterdam. It doesn’t matter to him. You’re alive, you’re safe, and you’re with him. You’d go to the end of the world for him. He’d do the same for you.

He loves you.