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nyxdreamweaver · 2 months ago

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Meeting the Cabin of Eternal Nap Time

Jason's POV

Word count: 4,906

Warning: Spoilers to TLH, grammar issues, the HOO canon has derailed and crashed into the Grand Canyon!!

Likes ❤️, reblogs 🔁 and comments 💬 are much appreciated :3 Lmk if you want to be tagged for the next updates

Ao3 link

<<Previous Coming Soon>>

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Jason and the redhead, who introduced herself as Rachel, and Annabeth put Piper on the couch while Silena rushed down the hall to get a med kit. Piper was still breathing, but she wouldn’t wake up. She seemed to be stuck in some kind of coma.

“We’ve got to heal her,” Jason insisted. “There’s a way, right?” Seeing her so pale, barely breathing, Jason felt a surge of protectiveness. Maybe he didn’t really know her. Maybe she wasn’t his girlfriend. But she tried to help him even when he thought she was a stranger and they’d survived the Grand Canyon together. They’d come all this way. He’d left her side for a little while, and this had happened.

Mara put their hand on Piper’s forehead and grimaced. “Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?”

“I wish I knew,” she said. “As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera’s cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice.”

“Was it a prophecy?” Chiron asked, walking closer.

“No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like a long distance, a power trying to speak through me.”

Silena ran in with a leather pouch and she knelt next to Chiron, who was checking on Piper.

Annabeth continued for Rachel. “Chiron, what happened back there—I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve heard it in Rachel’s prophecy voice. But this was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper’s shoulders and told her—”

“To free her from a prison?” Jason guessed. Annabeth stared at him. “How did you know that?” Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

“Jason, tell them. Silena, the yellow vial, please.” Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper’s mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason’s patron.

When he was done, no one spoke, which made him more anxious.

“So does this happen often?” he asked. “Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?”

“Your patron,” Annabeth said. “Not your godly parent?”

“No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life.”

Mara frowned. “I’ve never heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?”

“I don’t think so,” Jason said. “If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She’s imprisoned. She’s worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about someone dangerous rising from the earth on the solstice—”

Annabeth turned to Chiron, panicked. “Not Kronos. Please tell me it’s not that.”

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper’s wrist, checking her pulse. At last he said, “It is not Kronos. That threat ended long ago. But …”

“But what?” Silena asked.

Chiron closed the medicine bag. “Piper needs some rest. We should discuss this later.”

“Or right now,” Jason said. “Sir, Mr. Chiron, you told me the greatest threat was coming. The last chapter. You can’t possibly mean something worse than an army of Titans, right?”

“Oh,” Rachel said in a small voice. “Oh, dear. The woman was probably Hera. Of course. Her cabin, her voice. She must have shown herself to Jason at the same moment.”

“Hera?” Annabeth’s snarl was even fiercer than Seymour’s. “She possessed you? She did this to Piper?”

“Rachel’s sorta right,” Jason said. “The woman did seem like a goddess. But she wore this—this goatskin cloak. It's the symbol of Juno, isn’t it?”

“It is?” Annabeth scowled. “I’ve never heard that.”

“Me either,” Mara said, speaking up. “We usually don't have Roman goddesss hijacking our oracles or coming out of magic stuffed leopard heads.”

Chiron nodded reluctantly. “Of course. Juno, Hera’s Roman parallel, in her most warlike state. The goatskin cloak was a symbol of the Roman soldier.”

“There’s something else I haven’t told anyone yet.” Jason said, everyone in the room was quiet. “Before I woke up on the bus, I had this dream and someone spoke to me. There was this giant goddess with a lotus crown asking me to free her as well, that must be Hera. Maybe it’s all connected.”

Silena’s face looked a bit surprised as she connected the dots. “That must be the reason why Olympus has shut down, and why Mr. D and Miss Hestia left: Hera went missing and got captured by someone so they recalled all gods to protect themselves.”

“So Hera has been imprisoned?” Rachel asked. “Who could do that to the queen of the gods?”

Annabeth crossed her arms. “Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera—”

“Annabeth,” Chiron warned, “she is still one of the Olympians. In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods’ family together. If she truly has been imprisoned and is in danger of destruction, this could shake the foundations of the world. It could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great even in the best of times. And if both Juno and Hera has asked Jason for help—”

“Fine,” Annabeth grumbled. “Well, we know the Titans can capture a god, right? Atlas captured Artemis a few years ago. And in the old stories, the gods captured each other in traps all the time. But something worse than a Titan … ?”

Jason looked at the leopard’s head. Seymour was smacking his lips like the goddess had tasted much better than a Snausage. “Juno said she’d been trying to break through Hera’s prison bonds for a month but she couldn’t do it.”

“Which is how long Olympus has been closed,” Mara said. “So both Greek and Roman gods must know something bad is going on.”

“But why use her energy to send me here?” Jason asked. “She wiped my memory, plopped me into the Wilderness School where Leo and Piper are, and sent you a dream vision to come pick me up. Why am I so important? Why not just send up an emergency flare to the other Greek gods—let them know where Hera is so they bust her out? Why is even Juno involved in the first place if she’s a Roman goddess?”

“The gods need heroes to do their will down here on earth,” Silena said. “That’s always been that way. Their fates are always intertwined with us demigods.”

“That’s true,” Mara said, “but Jason’s got a point. Why him? Why take his memory? And why would Juno try to help Hera?”

“And Piper’s also involved somehow,” Rachel said. “Juno sent her the same message—Free me. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy and Emir disappearing.”

Annabeth fixed her eyes on Chiron. “Why are you so quiet, Chiron? What is it we’re facing?”

The old centaur’s face looked like it had aged ten years in a matter of minutes. The lines around his eyes were deeply etched. “My dear, in this, I cannot help you. I am so sorry.”

Annabeth blinked. “You’ve never … you’ve never kept information from me. Even the last great prophecy—”

“I will be in my office.” His voice was heavy. “I need some time to think before dinner. Rachel and Silena, will you watch the girl? Call Argus to bring her to the infirmary, if you’d like. And Annabeth and Mara, you should speak with Jason. Tell him about—about the Greek and Roman gods.”

“But…”

The centaur turned his wheelchair and rolled off down the hallway. Annabeth’s eyes turned stormy. She muttered something in Greek, and Jason got the feeling it wasn’t complimentary toward centaurs.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said. “I think of myself being here—I don’t know. I’ve messed things up coming to the camp, somehow. Chiron said he’d sworn an oath and couldn’t talk about it.”

“What oath?” Annabeth demanded. “I’ve never seen him act this way. And why would he tell me to talk to you about the gods...” Her voice trailed off.

Apparently she’d just noticed Jason’s sword sitting on the coffee table. She touched the blade gingerly, like it might be hot enough to burn her skin.

“What is it?” Mara asked, glancing at the gold sword as well. “Oh! This is the sword you were talking about earlier.” Jason nodded, watching the two inspect it.

“Is this gold?” Annabeth said. “Do you remember where you got it?”

“No,” Jason said. “Like I said, I don’t remember anything.”

Annabeth nodded like she’d just come up with a rather desperate plan. “If Chiron won’t help, we’ll need to figure things out ourselves. Which means… Cabin Fifteen. Rachel and Silena, you’ll keep an eye on Piper?”

“Sure,” Rachel promised. “Good luck, you three.”

Silena and Rachel waved goodbye to the three demigods as they exited the Big House.

“Hold on,” Jason said. “What’s in Cabin Fifteen?”

Annabeth walked into a different direction than Jason and Mara came from. “Maybe a way to get your memory back.”

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They headed toward a newer wing of cabins in the southwest corner of the green. Some of them were fancy, with glowing walls or blazing torches, but Cabin Fifteen was very different.

It looked like an old-fashioned prairie style house with light blue walls that match the blue window shutters and a cream white thatched roof. It may not be fancy or cool looking like the others but Jason thought it was pretty homey. On the blue door hung a wreath of crimson flowers—red poppies, Jason thought, though he wasn’t sure how he knew. Nor does he know why he knew six different ways he could eat the poppies if found stuck in the woods. One part of him wanted to question his strangle knowledge but deep down Jason knew he wouldn’t get any answers.

“You think this is my parent’s cabin?” he asked.

“No,” Annabeth said. “This is the cabin for Hypnos, the god of sleep.”

“He’s also the twin of Thanatos, the god of Death and the cabin of my half brother.” Mara mentioned casually, making Jason confused. Both on what Mara just said and why they’re here.

“Then why—”

“You said you forgot everything when you woke up,” she said. “If there’s any god who can help us figure out memory loss, it’s Hypnos.”

Inside, even though it was almost dinnertime, there were many kids who were sound asleep under piles of covers. Soft violin music played from somewhere. A warm fire crackled in the hearth. Above the mantel hung a tree branch, each twig dripping a white liquid into a collection of tin bowls. Jason was tempted to catch a drop on his finger just to see what it was, but Mara held his hand back.

“Don’t touch the branches,” She warned. “Those are leaves that produce a special liquid just like the Lethe river. You could have your memory fully wiped clean if you drank it, only children of the Underworld could drink without any consequences.”

Jason nodded, really glad that he didn't touch the hanging plant.

The air smelled like fresh laundry. The cabin was so cozy and peaceful that Jason’s eyelids started to feel heavy. A nap sounded like a great idea. He was exhausted. There were plenty of empty beds, all with feather pillows and fresh sheets and fluffy quilts and maybe he could take a quick—Mara nudged him in the arm. “Wake up.”

Jason blinked. He realized his knees had been starting to buckle.

“Cabin Fifteen does that to everyone,” Annabeth told him. “If you ask me, this place is even more dangerous than the Ares cabin. At least with the Ares kids, you can learn where the active landmines are and if you get hurt, you could go to the infirmary and get patched up but if you end up falling asleep here, you’re stuck until someone comes to rescue you.”

Jason’s spine shuddered at the very idea of being trapped in a magic nap haven, he pinched his arm to keep him awake. “Got it, stay awake.”

Both Mara and Annabeth glanced around the beds– which was everywhere. There were hammocks hung up, sleeping bags covering the ground, and many mattresses of different sizes littered through the comfy cabin. Jason was careful not to step on the blankets, scared that he might hurt a sleepy and defenseless demigod.

“So who are we looking for?” Jason asked, muffling a yawn.

“We are looking for our friend, Clovis.” Mara answered. ”He’s not the Head Counselor of the cabin, but he is an expert with dreams and memories. If anyone here that can look through your mind and bring back your memories, it’s gotta be him.”

Jason wasn’t sure he wanted someone to look through his head, let alone someone that Annabeth labelled more dangerous than the entire Ares cabin, but he had no choice. Unless Juno decided to give his memories back early, this kid is his only hope. The two dark-haired girls found Clovis pretty easy: he was, of course, passed out on a dark blue bed. He was covered in a giant blanket with a black cat stuffy lying on top of him. The kid looked like a baby cow. He had an ivory tuft of hair on a wedge shaped head, with thick features and a thick neck. His body was stocky with pale white skin similar to Jason’s, but he had spindly chubby arms like he’d never lifted anything heavier than a pillow. Jason wanted to coo at the sight but Mara beat him to it.

“Aww.. I feel bad now. He’s so sleepy looking.” She murmured. Clovis shifted around in his sleep, subconsciously grabbed his cat plush, cuddling with it, making Mara and Jason go ‘Aww..’ again.

But that didn’t stop Annabeth.

“Clovis! Wake up.” She said, waiting for the stout boy to get up and help. When he didn’t get up, Annabeth was about to try again but Mara stopped her.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Mara said. She knelt down to the boy before grabbing his shoulders and shaking him awake. “Clovis! The Hermes cabin messed with your cabin’s homemade candles and now it smells like seaweed and fish sticks!!” they shouted, making the boy wide awake.

“What!? How dare they!” Clovis gasped, sitting up and squinting. His eyes were filled with malice and plans of revenge. “The violet and honey scented candle sticks we made were perfect for comfort and sleeping and they just go fuck it all up! I’ll cursed them all with three weeks of horrible nightmares–”

“Actually, I lied, we just needed to wake you up.” Mara interrupted, ruffling with his hair. “Sorry Clover.”

Clovis scowled at her and pushed away her hand. He then crossed his arms, which reminded Jason of a giant, cranky teddy bear. “How dare you? You’ve betrayed my trust by lying about our special candles, leave now traitor. I’m going back to sleep. Good night.” Before he could pass out, Mara yanked his pillow off the bed, holding it hostage.

“That’s not fair,” Clovis complained. “Give it back.”

“Then stop napping for a minute.” Mara said. “We need your help.”

“Well you need a nap, you’re being very rude.”

“No– I mean yes, but not right now.” they sputtered. “What I need is your help.”

Clovis yawned loudly, making everyone else yawn as well. “After that, I can go to sleep?”

“First, you help,” Annabeth interrupted. “Then you can go to sleep. I promise”

Clovis sighed. His breath smelled like warm milk. “Fine. What’s your problem?”

“Actually, Jason here needs help.” Mara explained. “He’s a new camper here. Right now, he’s unclaimed but he has a weird gold sword and memorizes the Roman gods and monsters names instead of the Greek ones.”

Clovis hummed in reply. He kept humming and humming until he managed to hum himself back to sleep. Mara smacked her forehead while Annabeth huffed in annoyance. Annabeth thumped him into between the eyes, and Clovis sat up straight again. “I’m awake, mom!”

‘This must happen a lot.’ Jason thought.

Clovis shook his head around and squinted at the group. “Okay, new camper with a cool, gold sword and weird knowledge. What does that have to do with me?”

“Well if this helps, I also don't have a single memory of my life since this morning.” Jason imputed helpfully.

That must have been what Clovis wanted to hear because he didn’t pass out. He actually stood up and stretched, staring wide-eyed at Jason. For the first time today, his eyes were full of light and really wide open.

“So you’re dealing with memory problems? Why didn’t you start with that!?”

Jason was about to say ‘Well, we were getting to that part.’ But Clovis already moved on, walking over to a corner with a velvet blue couch covered in fluffy pillows and a large, soft armchair. The Hypnos’ kid sat down in the armchair and waved Jason over.

“Come! Sit, sit.” He said, patting the couch.

Jason went over and sat on the pillow-covered couch but he hesitantly looked at Clovis, whose smile was a combination of a sneaky cat and a mad scientist. “What.. are you going to do?”

“I’m going to place a trance on you, and while you’re in a trance I’ll try to find where your memories are locked up.”

Jason was having second thoughts about this now, but this was the only way so he took a deep breath and asked, “What do I need to do?”

“You just need to follow the sound of my voice and hold this candlestick.” Clovis grabbed one of the candles sitting on the windowsill and handed it to Jason. The tiny blue flame danced around with the gentle breeze, emitting a sweet mix of cinnamon and ginger.

“But please cover your mouth if your nose feels itchy. Last time this happened, someone,” Clovis glanced at the girls, Annabeth quickly looked away in embarrassment while Mara muffled a grin. “sneezed in my face during the process.”

Clovis laughed at the memory. His laughter sounded sweet and comforting, like a weighted blanket sitting on Jason’s shoulders. The faint smell of cinnamon and red poppies seeped into his nose as Clovis continued to talk with him.

“So tell me, what was the first thing you saw when you woke up?” Clovis asked.

“Well, when I woke up on the Wilderness bus, Piper was sitting next to me, holding my hand.”

Clovis hummed in reply. “What else happened?” He moved his hands and held Jason’s face, cupping it delicately. Clovis’ warm hands touching Jason’s cold skin, sent a chill down his spine.

“Then she calls me.. her boyfriend, which was really shocking because I never thought I could date someone so pretty like Piper. And… Leo also appeared, saying that.. we’re friends.”

“Okay, what happened after?”

Jason was about to say some more but he had slowly forgotten what was about to say next. Something about…Leon.or maybe.. Penny.? The whole room was silent, except the sound of Clovis’ calming voice quietly speaking to him, telling him to stay focused on him. Jason was ready to answer another one of Clovis’s questions, all fine and dandy.

And soon, Jason was no longer in Cabin Fifteen.

He found himself stuck in the woods again. Unlike the first dream he had earlier, the trees stretched high up to the sky, covering it with its leaves. The faint scent of Arroyo lupine filled Jason’s nose as he attempted to walk through the dense woods.

Redwood Parks. The name echoes through his mind as the bushes rustle behind him. Gray wolves from different directions start coming out of the bushes, surrounding him like a piece of prey. The wolves led him to the remains of an old house. During this, Jason showed no sign of fear towards them. Deep inside, he knew they wouldn’t harm him. But was it out of care or because of an order, Jason wasn’t so sure, but he knew Jason couldn’t show any weakness to them. Weakness was a plague that’ll get him killed here and now.

One of the wolves that were walking beside him bared its teeth at Jason before snapping at his heel: both a playful gesture and a threat. Jason snapped his teeth back at the wolf. Always fight back.

Soon, the strange pack of wolves walked Jason inside the ancient house where a pool of water stared back at him. It seems bottomless with a blue mist surrounding the whole thing. Wanting to investigate the area, Jason tried to step forward but the wolves began growling at his defiance. Soon, a female wolf appeared from the shadows, towering over him glaring at Jason with calculated stormy blue eyes. She wore a grin that is a mixture of a smile and a snarl, both dangerous if Jason doesn't play his cards right.

‘You of all demigods would know better than to step forward without an order’ The She-Wolf spoke with hostility.

Jason looked up to the wolf. “I think.. I know you.”

Her ears flicked around and her eyes flashed, but Jason understood it- she wasn’t a human but a wolf. They don’t use words but their body to speak, and what she said was. ‘That you do, but in order to complete her mission, your mind has been wiped clean and you were placed there to meet them.’

“Her mission..?” Jason said, trailing off. “You’re talking about Juno- I mean Hera, right?”

Just then, the other wolves growled in unison and the ruins’ mist began to clear away. The imagery that he saw almost made Jason want to gag, even if he didn’t understand what it was. Two glowing orbs stood in front of him, sharing two different scenes. The first orb revealed an image of a familiar vine dirt cage, woven like a ball of twine. Sitting inside was a woman dressed in black robes, looking more exhausted every minute but he could feel the remaining power she had left radiating from the cage. The second cage meanwhile, looked more inky and corrupt, it radiated a more malevolent energy that even the giant she-wolf shuddered from it. Before he could ask, the mysterious cage shook and slowly rose upwards from the ground. Jason looked back at the wolf, puzzled about what this meant. “What is this? Who’s inside the other cage?”

‘That is the enemy of the sky.’ The wolf growled, her eyes glared with malice. ‘The ground wishes for the crown to rise again by misusing our sacred land.’

“Well where is this place, then? I can come over there and help you, just tell me where it is.”

She huffed. ‘You wouldn’t become half of the soldier you are if we made it too easy for you. Besides, you’ve made the journey before. After all, it was the place where it all began for you.'

“But how?” Jason pleaded. “I don’t even know who I am, let alone where I’m supposed to go.”

‘Nil sine labore: nothing without effort. You have conquered the impossible and you will do it again. Now our time to talk has come to an end. Now, arise. Son of-’

Everything happened in a flash. Jason sat up, gasping for air and jerked his head around. Annabeth, Mara and Clovis all stood by him, sharing a look of anxiety and worry, though Clovis looked more intrigued than beforehand. Jason rubbed his eyes. “What happe-”

“You were about to fade away.” Annabeth said abruptly. The look in her eyes made JAson believe that Annabeth- much like the she-wolf from his dreamscape, likes to get straight to the point. “We had to wake you up from the trance. You were asleep for less than five minutes.”

Jason’s shoulders sagged after hearing that. “I’m assuming that you couldn’t find anything?”

“If by anything you mean your memories or any answers to your predicament, then you’re right but also wrong.” Clovis said a bit too cheery. “While I couldn't find out your parentenge or why you memorized all of Roman mythology, I did find something interesting. See, your memories are ‘gone’ but not erased, they’re just blocked out by magic. Usually, I could bring them back after one dream session but in your case, it’s a special one. There are only two ways to bring them back.”

“Which are?” Mara said, trailing off.

“One, you would have to find the one responsible for this and make them reverse the magic on you. That might be difficult depending on which god casted the spell since the gods can be fickle and can change their minds quickly on a whim but it can be accomplished.”

“What about the second option?” Jason asked.

“The second one involves more on Jason’s ability rather than the god’s ability. When I went inside Jason’s mind to have a look, there’s a giant wall built around the suppressed memories, making your mind wiped clean. There are some bits of memories that weren’t locked away, hence why you can remember the Roman god names and your name. Another thing I noticed was the tiny cracks forming in the wall. Whoever did this, the magic they casted is fragile, like they did this during a weakened state out of desperation.”

“If you want to get them back, you must find a connection to your old life- a key and open the lock on your own at the right time. This is also pretty difficult and very vague but it can also be accomplished as well.”

But Jason didn’t understand. How in Tartarus was he supposed to find something that’s connected to his old life? Maybe his sword was a clue? It did give him a glimpse of someone he knows.

Annabeth frowned. “Well, what does that mean?” she asked, sharing Jason’s thoughts out loud. “When is the right time? And how are we supposed to know what this ‘key’ is?”

Clovis yawned, once again making everyone yawn in unison. “I don’t know, only the Fates and the Author truly knows the full picture.”

Ignoring that cryptid and odd reply, Jason made sure not to show his disappointment on his face. He patted Clovis’s shoulder and smiled. “Well, thank you for trying to help. It’s better than nothing. I’ll see you around.”

“No problem.” Clovis murmured, flopping back into the comfy armchair and already halfway asleep. But Clovis looked back at Jason and winked at him. “If you ever want to take a nap with us– come by some time.”

Jason felt his face warming, but before he could answer, Clovis fell asleep.

A distant conch shell horn echoed in the background, and Annabeth sighed. “Alright, it’s dinnertime now.” Jason and Mara both gave her a look, but before either of them could protest Annabeth said, “Look, it’s not like I’m giving up helping you with your problem. But what I am saying is that you won’t find a solution here. You’ve been given a quest by both Juno and Hera, so we’re going to need to discuss that during the campfire with Chiron and everyone else, and you’ll be off in the morning. Besides, I got a feeling you’re feeling hungry.”

With precise timing, Jason’s stomach growled making the trio laugh before getting shushed by one of the dazed Hypnos’ kids. The three demigods started exiting out of the cabin, tiptoeing carefully around the sleepy bodies of the hypnos kids.

“Bye Clover!! Sorry for lying to you!! I’ll bring you a gift to apologize soon.” Mara loudly whispered, closing the cabin door behind them.

Jason sighed, finally free from the powerful magic from the cozy nap cabin. The day was almost over by the time they left and while they didn’t find out about his past, at least there was another way to get back his memories. Looking up, the once cerulean skies were now a fiery orange fading from the west. Many campers were leaving their cabins and started walking to the east, chatting with friends about the day’s events.

“We should head to the pavilion now.” Annabeth said, breaking the silence. “We don’t want to be late and miss dinner.”

Mara’s ears perked up at the word, ‘dinner’. “Oh yeah! Dinnertime! Perfect timing ‘cause I’m craving a cheeseburger and some french fries.”

Just then, a noisy owl swooped down towards the trio and landed next to Marar. It’s feathers were a shade of mahogany, the frantic bird’s coat was messy and dirty and it only had one long feather sitting on top of it’s head. The owl was shrieking and hopping around in a panicked manner, like it’s trying to tell them something. To Jason’s surprise, both Mara and Annabeth understood what it was saying.

The owl was flapping it’s wings and pointed in a different direction. During this, Annabeth’s eyes widened while Mara shouted aloud, “They’re doing what?..With what!?! Ok, Annie, go take Jason to the pavilion. I’ll take care of the problem.” The goth girl dashed after the owl leaving the two behind.

Jason glanced down at Annabeth. “Will she be fine?”

She hummed. “Yeah, I’m sure. Come on, the pavilion is this way.”

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A/N: Finally done with this chapter. Made the Clovis and Jason scene pretty gay, I swear someone possessed me.

Next chapter will finally star Mara's POV and the story will follow this POV order for now on

Jason, Mara, Piper, and Leo

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Taglist: @punkeropercyjackson @dontspillthefrijoles43 @puriteenism @aurantiumred @yawnwhatyadoing @emmidemi @justhereforthememesnangst @padfoot-sirius-black @darwizzylover @sarcasticallyperfectperson @its-teeem @novaclips3 @an-asexual-crow

#demigods against fate #champions of hera #heroes of olympus #jason grace #piper mclean #rachel elizabeth dare #annabeth chase #mara muhammed #chiron #pjo clovis #pjo hoo #pjo #percy jackson #nyx's writing

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peachymilkandcream · 5 months ago

Note

Hi! Can you do another modern au where Evelyn is imprisoned for a crime she didn't do and Levi is the warden who likes to torment his prisoners?

Jailbird|Levi x Evelyn AU

(A/N: Interesting idea Anon! We've all seen Levi abusing his power and taking it out on those weaker than him so this fits right into his personality. Honestly, I might leave this a little open ended and you can tell me, a part two, or, a full series? I definitely could see a full series coming out of this request. Let me know what you think in my asks, messages, and replies! Thanks for the request and I hope you enjoy!)

WARNINGS: implied noncon/dubcon, big age difference, kidnapping, slavery, violence, power imbalance, implied somnophilia, forced pregnancies, mind breaking, yandere behaviour, yandere themes, forced exhibitionism, sexual coercion, blackmail, misogyny, sex trafficking, etc.

================================================

Evelyn stalked around her cell feeling utterly dejected. She thought she would've been a free woman by now, but instead she was just rotting behind these bars because no one could trust the courts to actually deliver justice. She hadn't done anything wrong but now she was framed for fraud and was forced to spend the next two years of her life in this box.

That's what she got for being the scape goat for a crypto scam, even though one of her close friends Eren assured her that crypto was the investing strategy of the future.

That friendship was over.

It could be worse, there were much more serious charges she could've been convicted for, with much worse sentences. But still, two years of her life would be put on hold and now she would have a permanent record as a felon because once again the government protected the rich while letting the poor rot in the gutter.

A bang on the bars startled her out of her thoughts. "Enough of that pacing, it's driving me insane."

Evelyn looked up at the warden, his cane still poised to strike the bars again if she didn't obey. Levi Ackerman had a reputation for being a stickler for the rules and an asshole, she'd heard it before. He had to be transferred from a maximum security prison because his methods of disciplining the more rowdy and violent inmates ended up with severe injuries and several attempted lawsuits. They figured more docile and less threatening prisoners would suit his fragile temper.

Just her luck. Best to keep on his relatively good side to avoid making her life even more of a hell than it was. Although she did think it was odd that a man ran a women's prison with all women working under him, probably some chauvinistic stance regarding women's places in society. What an asshole.

"Right. Sorry."

"You're new, I saw that you'd just been transferred here. Evelyn, correct?"

"Yes, that's me."

"I thought it would be best if I came and introduced myself properly, considering you and I are going to get to know each other quite well in the time you're here."

Evelyn swallows, the thought of that causing more than just a ripple of fear. "Thank you for taking the time-"

"Don't flatter yourself, it's merely a formality. I don't understand why women like you end up here anyway. None of you little cunts would be in this situation if you just abided by the rules that have been so painstakingly set out for you."

She was right, he was an asshole. "And what kind of rules are those?" She barely concealed the animosity in her voice.

"Getting your base education so you're not stupid, marry, spread your legs, and then repopulate the earth."

Evelyn frowned, she had a feeling this is what he'd be like, but seriously, the guy really did suck. "Not all women want that lifestyle sir, and prisoner or not I'd appreciate it if you didn't make those comments to me."

He scoffs. "Cocky bitch." In an instant he reaches through and grabs her jumpsuit, pulling her hard against the bars, her feet on their tiptoes as he brings her up to his level. "Listen here you little shit, I don't give a damn what you want or don't want. For the next two years you're mine to do with as I please. You're seen as less of a human now, a drain on the system, it's my job to rehabilitate you and that's to be done however the hell I see fit. It's in your best interest to sit down and shut the fuck up and listen to all the lessons I'm taking my precious time to teach you. If you're lucky you'll leave here a little less useless. Understood?"

She wants to argue back, wants to spit in his face and tell him to go to hell. But the way he was gripping her collar was choking off her air supply, making it impossible to do anything but nod pathetically until he put her down, gasping for air.

"That's more like it. You think you can defy me and get away with it? You're in for a rude awakening girl, and you'll be thanking me for it in the end." His eyes rake over her, so slowly, menacingly, she shivers. "Enjoy your stay here."

#break me slowly #attack on titan #levi x oc #levi ackerman #levi aot #levi x reader #shingeki no kyojin #yandere levi #yandere levi ackerman #yandere levi x reader

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mi-i-zori · 6 months ago

Text

When Silence is No More - 2

CoD - Astronauts!141

SUMMARY : A quick thought about the 141 being stationed on a space station and catching the eyes of a cosmic horror.

WARNINGS : A few lines mentioning blood and death in Simon’s part. This is intended to be a subtle kind of horror, so it might be unsettling.

I do not allow anyone to translate, re-use or re-publish my works, be it here or on any other platform, including AI.

CoD AUs - Masterlist

Main Masterlist

The song never stops. Covering their ears in the hopes of getting a few seconds of silence is useless. If anything, it only seems to get louder, as if they were trapping it inside of their heads instead.

It soon get mixed with a series of strange knocks on the windows. It soon evolves into banging, violent and loud, shaking their very bones painfully. It wakes them up at night, when the nightmares seem to quiet down.

They barely sleep anymore.

The silhouettes are getting clearer. Instead of playing hide and seek, they now linger behind the windows. Cooing. Whispering. Watching. Despite their best efforts, the strange, flashing lights burning behind them make it impossible to make out the details of their bodies. But the team knows they’re far from being the stranded humans they once tried to think they were once the knocking and banging echoed on the walls of the station. For they don’t seem to wear any protection against the ruthless void, and their eyes glow dangerously among the shadows. Catching them coaxes a sudden, ear-shattering screech from the cosmic depths, full of tortured wails and mad laughter. It rattles their minds and bones, lingering in every single one of their cells for hours afterwards.

The silhouettes, however, always disappear in the blink of an eye.

Kyle remembers every single one of his nightmares.

Most of the time, he sees groups of countless birds fly in an underwqter sky with fire licking at their wings, so quick and graceful, leaving burning embers in their wake. Around them, flames erupt from clouds of lightning. He floats among them, then gets carried away by silent, violent currents. Asteroids collide in his chest, and he feels the deep rumble of their fall echo in his bones, bounce around the walls of his body like shockwaves and bass. Colours resonate with the otherworldly sounds around him, pulsing in his eyes as silence turns everything back to a black and white monotony. The symphony is demonic, hellish even - but beautiful and mesmerizing all the same.

Then the dream shatters. Shards of glass escort him back to the waking world, mind shredded and numb.

And the banging continues.

Sometimes, Simon hears a voice behind him. Familiar, and clear as day. « Simon, » it calls out, « did you get any news of Tommy ? »

His mother sounds worried - scared, even. It takes him back to those times when he had to fish his brother out of muddy sidewalks, barely conscious due to the drugs flowing through his veins. Barely alive.

His broken, guttural groans still echo in his ears, and the memory becomes too real when Simon sees Tommy’s lifeless body float in the corridors of the station, littered in needle and bullet holes, leaking bubbles of blood against the white walls. Then his mother joins in the macabre scene, with his sister in law and nephew, replaying the disastrous day he lost them all, this time in the infinite cosmos. The sight is scorching, akin to the sun - it burns his mind, the ashes clogging his throat and lungs. Thick, dry and heavy.

They’re gone the second Simon blinks. But the visions keep haunting him now, and he once collapsed under the pain tearing through his guts. It was Kyle who found him, wandering aimlessly through the space station, unresponsive, with a living death clawing at his face.

« Thought you were dead, Sir, » he said once Simon came back to his senses. The man only grunted in response.

For a moment, it felt like he was.

More and more static covers the voices of their colleagues back on Earth. Price can barely decipher their words anymore - but they seem to hear him perfectly. It’s as if nothing was wrong on their side, as if they didn’t hear him ask to repeat themselves more and more often. The few words he manages to catch seem joyful, unbothered ; a stark contrast to the exhausted tension haunting his. They always end the calls with a broken « Catch you later, John ! » - leaving him to wonder if there will be a next time.

He tried shouting at them during the latest call, letting his frustration get the best of him. But nothing changed. Their voices remained full of enthusiasm and glitches, and the conversation stayed the same - except he barely understood a single word from his contact.

No matter how much Johnny tried to tweak and twist their wires and cogs, it was impossible to find the source of the malfunction. The systems detected nothing either.

After that, it didn’t take long for the comms to fully go down.

To realize how real the nightmares had always been.

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skylarmoon71 · 2 years ago

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Timeless Wells (Flash) Soldier- Chapter 1

Surviving a war wasn’t hard.

It’s the path that came after.

They always said that the battle would be hard. For you it really wasn’t. Most of your life was a fight. Jumping from home to home was no way to live. So when you were offered a chance to serve, you took it. Not because of patriotism. Nor was it for some need to protect. It was only for a roof over your head, warm clothes and something to eat. You were strong, you’d always been. So fighting for a cause was worthwhile.

Months, years of training and drills, you were exposed to the real thing.

Life.

It was cruel.

Brutal.

Standing out there with a rifle in your hand and the people you’d come to call your friends drop one by one felt unreal.

For the first time in your life, you felt fear. Not for your own life. But the ones of the people who actually had something to live for. Someone to go back too.

“Fall back!!”

You ducked behind the boulders after the yell from your lieutenant.

“Sir we’re surrounded!!” Your evaluation was an understatement. If you made it out of this situation alive, it would have been a miracle. His head laid back on the rock, clutching his tags. You just watched. Waiting for some kind of signal from him. It was down to the both of you. There were more than a dozen people out there. You swallow.

“I’ve got a little sister back home. For the longest time it’s just been the two of us. She’s always taken care of me. Whether I live or die out here, her tuition is getting paid. I was a wash out. I’d never done anything good with my life. She is the only thing that matters to me.”

It feels like yesterday that he’d told that story. All of you had been sitting at a checkpoint as you went over lost loves and past screw ups. You’d never been someone of sentiment. That’s why you’d spent the night just listening to the very entertaining stories of your comrades. Your family.

He was your family.

Maybe your life didn’t have to be for nothing. For once, this felt like a decision you made out of understanding what was next. Not just a choice for your convenience.

“It’s been an honor sir.”

His eyes shift to your side, and when you jump from behind your spot, he panics, rushing to load his gun.

“S-SOLDIER STAND DOWN!!”

He cursed, scrambling to reload. His attempt to follow was stopped, because the onslaught of bullets continued. He jumped behind a thicker rock. You just lifted your weapon, taking out as many enemies as you could. The crashed truck from earlier presented a good cover. Huffing, you did a mental note of the positions of each person. You’d only managed to strike down two, and that alone felt like sheer luck.

Gritting your teeth, you continued. Your first shot took down another, and you gasped when a bullet struck you right in the shoulder. Eyes clenched in pain you pushed through. You're fired with all your might. The second your bullets ran out, you accepted your faith. There were maybe six men left. Help was ten minutes out. If your Lieutenant was smart about his approach, he could survive this. So you dropped your empty gun, waiting for the inevitable.

The sound of lightning ahead is what seems to stop all movement. At first you assumed it was some kind of enemy battleship that was approaching. Because the earth seemed to shake. But your enemies didn’t look very reassured. Because they had seized all attacking to look at the gaping hole that opened in the sky. You staggered back, eyes wide in disbelief.

That doesn’t seem like the only unrealistic situation. Just beneath it, your eyes catch a flash of green. The light seems to disappear just as fast as it came.

“YALE!!”

Your mind just barely processed your name being called. Your superior was sprinting in your direction as he fired his gun. It’s obvious that he was just as terrified at what seemed like an impossible anomaly in the sky. He took down each target, easily. They were far too distracted by the freaking worm hole that appeared in the sky. The second he was by your side he grabbed your hand.

“We need to get the hell out of here!!” It was an order, but your body wouldn’t move. It refused to.

“SOLDIER!! WE HAVE TO GO!!”

You blinked, staring at him. Motion returns to your body, and the second you take a step, your Lieutenant is thrown at least ten feet away by what looks like a spark of lightning.

“LIEUTENANT!!”

Your scream echoes and so does the clap of thunder. You race to his side. When you drop to your knees, you check his pulse urgently. He’s unconscious, but alive. You sigh, dropping your head on his chest in relief.

“I’m back.”

The tremoring tone of something behind you makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. You turn around shakily, greeted with demonic red eyes. This stranger is wearing a bright yellow suit, with a bolt as what you can only assume is his emblem. If you can call it that. The red slowly retracts from his eyes, and you make out a very human gaze. Blond hair, dangerous eyes. This is not a friend. It can’t be.

“W-What the hell are you…”

He tilts his head, a satisfying crack ringing. His steps are slow, taunting almost. A sinister smile planted on his lips.

“Never mind who I am. It seems you both are in a tough situation.” His eyes mark the many dead bodies. Some of which are people from your squad.

“You’ve lost quite a bit of people, how tragic. “

His tone is mocking, and you grit your teeth. Your evaluation of an enemy is correct. Your eyes drift to a gun a few feet away. One you hope has bullets for you to at least defend yourself.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Your eyes dart back to his form.

“What do you want?” You try to level your voice. Because he seems to get off on your fear. He’s just a few feet away.

“Ultimately, I’m going to kill the Flash. But I suppose I could have some fun here with the both of you. What year is it, where are we?”

Your mouth stays shut. You aren’t sure who or what this Flash is, but it can’t be good if this thing is after it.

“Not in the talking mood.”

You barely have a chance to breathe, because your body is lifted right off the ground. You struggle to pull in air as he holds you upright. You grab at your neck, but his grip offers no resistance.

“Speak.”

Your gaze hardens. Even though you’re terrified, you would quicker die then let this enemy gain whatever it is he’s after.

“Maybe if I kill your little boyfriend over there, you’ll be more willing.” He shoves you to the ground, and you hit the dirt with a grunt, coughing, gasping.

He moves over, the sound of dirt beneath his feet are like daggers to your chest. You crawl, trying to stop him.

“N-No...”

The closer he gets to your lieutenant, the faster your heart beats.

“If I manage to make it back after this tour, I promised her I won’t come back. It’ll be over. We’ll move to a nice quiet town in Florida and just enjoy life. “

You sob at the words of your commander that rush back.

The man kneels, lifting his hand that now appears to be vibrating.

“I’m going to kill him, then I’ll make you suffer until there is nothing left. You’ll wish those men had killed you.”

It all feels like it’s happening so slowly. His hand is aimed right for your Lieutenant’s heart.

“STOP!!!!”

A pulse of green flashes throughout the entire terrain, and he grunts as his body is forced into the air. You stare as his body hits a boulder. He’s wedged between the rock, and all you can do is gape. You’re still somewhat groveling in the dirt, You can hardly comprehend what just happened. But it’s clear that whatever it was, he’s not happy about it. He pulls his limbs out of the rock aggressively. When he’s free, the deadly red light in his eyes return.

“I’m going to kill you.”

He rushed forward, but didn't even make it within ten feet of you or the Lieutenant. His body is stopped by what you can only assume is an emerald shield. The bubble sound it makes is so loud. Both your bodies are completely sheltered. The being in yellow slams his hands angrily against it. When it's clear that he can’t get through, his angry grunts turn into laughter.

“I will be seeing you again.”

The tone of that brings an unpleasant chill. In a rush of red lightning, he is gone.

There is nothing you can say to try and make sense of all that has just happened.

All you can do is be thankful that you are still breathing.

That is all your brain can truly process.

It is the only thing that appears real.

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eponastory · 2 years ago

Text

Tell My Heart To Beat

Chapter 2 - Run

11 Long, Miserable Years Later...

She was the only one sitting on the bench outside the headminister's office. The bell for recess had rung signaling it was time for all the other children to go outside, but not her. No, she was in trouble. Again. It was not her fault, really. Emily Martin had started it, but Evan finished it with a well aimed punch to the face.

Evan had never learned to control herself when it came to being bullied. Her mother always insisted she rein in her temper and 'turn the other cheek', so to speak, but that never did any good. She was always quick to react to someone threatening her. As it was, this was the third time this month she was sitting out in the hall watching as all the other kids got to go outside.

No one really paid attention to her. She was just the funny looking kid who had a temper and could not control it. Everyone else stayed away from her except Emily Martin and her friends. They always found a way to disturb Evan's peace.

"Evan?" She looked up as Mrs. Turner came out of the office. "Your grandmother is on her way, sweetie." The dark-haired woman was kind, and she always played the advocate for the children. "Are you okay?" Evan could see the lady had deep concern for her. She shrugged.

"I'm fine." The young girl pulled her knees up to her chest. "I just want to be alone." Her school uniform was wrinkled, and she was pretty sure some of Emily's blood splattered on her white shirt, but it is what it is.

"Okay." There was a curt nod from the woman before she retreated back into the office.

She waited for as the bell for recess rang again. Watching everyone go back to class was like watching a stampede on one of those nature documentaries she used to watch with her mother. Now, her mother had no time for her since she was always working or with her fiancé. There were always apologies and the classic 'I'll make it up to you' speeches, but that did not matter. Evan was just a waste of space.

The main door to the building opened to reveal her grandmother. The woman barely had any tolerance for her as she always complained about Evan's attitude. She was wearing a powder blue pants suit and a scarf over her head to protect her ashy blonde hair from the sun. Evan never understood why her grandmother acted like she was the most famous woman in the world, but that was how the woman was.

"Evan Harper... what on Earth did you do?" The tone her grandmother used was the same tone she used when Evan broke something expensive at home. Her blue eyes were wide with fury as she looked down on Evan with disapproval. "I knew you were trouble the day you were born." She sighed as she adjusted her purse on her arm. "You stay here while I go try to fix this."

Evan did not say anything. She only sighed before laying her head on top of her knees and closing her eyes.

She did not fit in anywhere.

She could hear her grandmother's high-pitched 'southern movie star' voice sweet talk the headminister into keeping her enrolled at the school. Evan did not even like this school. She honestly did not like any school she had ever been to before. Lately, though, she realized that she was the problem. She was the outsider who was misunderstood and lonely. She had no friends, but what did it matter?

She did not belong.

"Thank you so much, sir." She heard the door to the office open, and her grandmother stepped out with a pleased smile on her face. "I'll be sure to drop off that check tomorrow morning." Evan rolled her eyes as she watched her grandmother drop the act. "You ungrateful child, get your things and come on."

Evan did as she was told and grabbed her book bag off the bench next to her. She said nothing as she followed her grandmother out of the school doors and to the car that was waiting for them. Her grandmother's driver, Tommy, stood holding open the back door for them. Evan knew that there was about to be some harsh words slung her way as soon as Tommy closed the door.

Her grandmother kept silent for a long time as they rode back home. Evan knew she was going to fire off backhanded insults at her during the ride at some point, but she hoped that the woman would not. She was already feeling guilty for what she did. She played with the tie that went with her uniform as she waited for whatever unslaught her grandmother had planned for her.

"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you, Evan Harper." The woman sitting next to her kept looking out the window. "We have tried to accommodate you over and over... since you were born, but all you have ever done was complain and be unruly." Evan did not believe that one bit. She had always tried to keep to herself and not cause trouble, but trouble always found her. "We put you in the best schools, you get everything you want, and you have a roof over your head. Would it kill you to show a little bit of gratitude?"

"I do!" She felt like she was being cornered into feeling something she should not.

"Then why do you beat up other girls for no reason?" Evan was trying hard not to let her emotions go overboard, but maybe it was too late for that. She was about to jump ship.

"I didn't beat her up!" She yelled inside the car, prompting Tommy to look at her in the rear view mirror. "She pushed me, so I pushed back, then she tried to hit me!" She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and the burning globular sensation catching the back of her throat. "I did not want to hit her, but she kept coming at me!"

"That's not what she said." Why did no one believe her? Evan started to cry hard as her grandmother took the other side. "She said you punched her for no reason, and her friends were there. They said the same thing." The woman was always going to take the other side. "You broke her nose on purpose. You know you did, so don't try to play innocent with me, little girl."

Evan wanted to open the door on her side and jump out. She wanted to run away as her heart started to pound in her chest. How could these people she lived with claim to love her but make her feel so inadequate? She was nothing to them. Just an unwanted child from her mother's affair with a stranger. That was all her grandmother ever said to her.

"Oh, dry it up." The dismissal from her grandmother made Evan cry more. "No one believes your crocodile tears." The accusations towards Evan were heavy but false, and she knew it.

She curled up against the door, crying as the car moved on. Home was supposed to be a place where she should feel safe, but how could anything be safe when her grandparents constantly reminded her they did not want her? She only had her mother's love when she was around.

The remainder of the ride was filled with leftover tears, exasperated groans, and no words spoken. The moment the car stopped in the driveway of her grandparents' mansion, Evan bolted out. She ran through the front door as her grandfather opened it and strait up the grand staircase to her room.

The moment Evan slammed her door shut, she jumped into her bed and began to cry. To her, it felt like she was born to be miserable. Ever since she could remember, she had been treated like a stray dog that just showed up one day. That was not the case with her mother, but what else was she supposed to think.

Eventually, Evan cried herself to sleep.

She woke up hours later when she heard her door open. It was her mother coming in to check on her. Her mother, Ali, silently kneeled down next to her bed and ran her fingers through Evan's hair. The deep look of concern on Ali's face was the only clue Evan had that her mother knew what happened.

"Hey, sweetheart... do you want to come down and eat dinner with me?" Evan looked at her mother while she laid in her bed. No, she really did not want to be in the same room as her grandmother at that moment.

"I'm not hungry." Evan was unwilling to even move from her spot on the bed. Ali noticed her curled up state and how disheveled she was.

"Your grandmother told me what happened today." She kept running her fingers through her daughter's hair. She was not disappointed in Evan, but she was concerned that her child was getting out of hand. "She told me you beat up another girl."

"I don't want to talk about it." Evan turned over with her back facing towards her mother. Ali only sighed.

"Well, I do." The green eyed woman was not going to let her daughter hide away from her. "I know that your grandmother likes to spin things around. She's been doing it to me all of my life." She reached out to put a hand on Evan's shoulder. "She is a very controlling woman." She wanted to leave so many times. To take Evan and run away, but there was always something keeping her here. Whether it was the guilt tripping or the threats, Ali was dependent on her parents. "We'll talk about it later." She stood up and leaned over to kiss Evan on the cheek. "I love you."

Ali quietly walked out of her daughter's room and shut the door behind her. The life she had was not of her own making. The life she wanted had been ripped away from her with veiled threats and a contract she was forced to sign. She was in this prison as much as her daughter was.

Running a hand through her brown hair, she made her way down the large staircase that wrapped around the foyer. At the bottom, she saw her parents waiting for her with frowns on their faces. Ali knew they wanted to talk about what happened with Evan, especially since they were disappointed in the girl.

"Alicent, I think it's time we had a serious talk about your daughter." Her mother, Julia, said as she looked at her husband. Ali only sighed as she came to the bottom of the stairs.

"By all means, Mother, let's talk about Evan." She motioned to the parlor across the foyer. She followed her parents into the room reserved for such talks. There was always a decanter full of whiskey or scotch on the sofa table for her father. However, this time, she poured herself a glass before sitting down on the sofa across from her parents. "Alright, let's talk." She took a sip of her whiskey.

"Your father and I have done our very best to accommodate your daughter." Julia put her hand on her husband's knee with a sincere smile on her face. "In light of today's events, we both believe that it may be time to part ways with her... so to speak." Ali almost spit out her whiskey when her mother enlightened her on the proposal. Just like when they sprung up her engagement to someone she barely knew.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that for me?" She leaned forward to actually try to understand what her mother was saying.

"We have done everything in our power to make sure your daughter is well fed and taken care of for your benefit." Her father, George, spoke up. "We put clothes on her back, gave her a place to rest her head, and we've given her the best education possible. Yet, she constantly undermines us by spitting in our faces." This was not happening. No way in Hell was she hearing this right now. "Beating up other children and being a nuisance has gone too far, Alicent."

"We think it's time she find a new family." Julia smiled, thinking her plan was solid and Ali was going to go along with them out of obligation. Ali was not having it.

"Excuse me?" She stood up with the whiskey in her hand and disbelief on her face. "Did you just tell me that we need to rehome my daughter like some dog?" She pointed at her mother. "My child is not an animal!"

"We never said that, Alicent!" Her mother raised her voice in hopes to convince her. "We only said it's time for her to leave. You have to focused on your wedding and your fiance."

"Alicent, this has been a stain on our family for years now." Her father sat there as calm as could be with his righteous ego. She shook her head and laughed.

"A stain?" Ali threw the glass at the wall in anger. "She is no more a stain on the family as she is a blight to your fucking egos!" She yelled out. "If my child goes, I go too! And fuck both of you for your manipulative egotistical bullshit!" She ran a hand through her hair and sighed letting her anger roll off of her. "I should have stayed with Dante." Her mother's eyes narrowed as she moved to stand in front of Ali. There was no warning when Julia slapped her daughter across the face.

"And then where would you be you ungrateful little bitch?" Julia was furious. "If it weren't for your father and I, you would be out on the streets while that sorry excuse of a man left you. He didn't even show up when your daughter was born!"

"That's a fucking lie and you know it, Mother." Ali's anger flared again. "How did you think I came up with Evan's name?" She knew that Dante had in fact been there at the hospital when the nurse whispered the name he had chosen in her ear. "I knew that you lied then, just like you lied to me when Evan almost drowned in the pool. You are a manipulative bitch that has always tried to control me and my daughter for your own fucking game and I'm done." Her mother slapped her again. Despite the sting on her left cheek, Ali looked into her mother's eyes with a fury she had never felt before.

"You will sit down and accept what is going to be done without a word." Ali nodded knowing she had made her decision right then and there. "You signed a contract and you will abide by it."

"The Hell I will." She pushed her mother out of the way. "I'm taking my chances on the street." She was quick to run up the stairs to her daughter's room and hastily open the door. "Evan, get up... we're leaving." She turned on the light which elicited a groan from her eleven year old. "Pack the important stuff and clean clothes."

Evan sat up in a hurry as her mother walked out of her room. She had no idea what was going on, but it seemed her mother was furious. Not with her, but she could guess it had something to do with her grandparents.

She did as she was told, reaching under her bed for her small duffel bag and began to pack up all her clothes. She quickly changed out of her wrinkled school uniform into a pair of leggings and a hoodie. Hopefully, she would never see the ugly plaid skirt or wear that stupid red tie again. There were some things she wanted to bring, like the little stuffed cat she had since she was born, but she knew it would not fit in her bag. Oh well, she was going to carry it if she had to.

Picking up the little tabby cat plush, she put it under her arm before grabbing the bag. She went into the hall just in time to run into her mother who had two bags packed and ready to go. Was this really happening? Were they really leaving this place?

"Mom, where are we going?" Evan fell in line with her mother as they went down the stairs.

"Capulet." Ali told her. "It's a long drive, but it's far away from this place." Evan had never been outside of the city they had lived in. They had made it down the stairs when her grandparents appeared with their security detail behind them.

"Alicent, we can't let you leave." Evan looked at her grandmother as they attempted to stall her and her mother.

"Well, too bad." Ali adjusted the strap on her shoulder as she grabbed Evan's hand. "I'm leaving. If you don't let me go, I'll tell everyone your dirty secrets, because we all know my daughter isn't the stain on the family. It's your dirty dealings with the mafia."

"No one will believe that." Evan was becoming uncomfortable with the situation, but she had no choice but to wait.

"That's the thing, Mother... you're so wrapped up in your own lies that you can't see the truth." Ali stood firm. "You think you're on top of the world when you aren't. Sooner or later, its all going to come crashing down on you and I can't wait." She squeezed her daughter's hand and began to walk towards the door. "Goodbye, Mother."

Evan did not look back as her mother pulled her through the front door and out to the driveway where her car sat. It was not a fancy sports car or a rich man's car, but it was something nice that got them from one place or another. Ali opened the trunk and threw her bags in before telling Evan to get in the front seat. This would be the last time she ever saw the mansion ever again.

"Why are we going to Capulet?" Her daughter did not need to know the truth just yet, but she could at least tell her something.

"There is an old friend there who can help us until we get on our feet." Ali put the car in drive just as she spotted her mother running out after her. She put her foot on the gas and drove away as the tires threw rocks. She hoped that one hit her mother in the face. "It's a six hour drive, so get some sleep."

Evan could not sleep. Four hours into the drive, they needed to stop for gas, which was hard to do when nothing was open late at night. The quickest way to Capulet was through the national park at Raccoon Mountain. Before that, they were on the interstate for a while and would have to get on another interstate to Capulet. Either way, it was a drive through a forest and up a mountain.

The car was almost on empty when they came to a gas station that was just about to close for the night. Ali parked the car next to the pump then looked at her daughter with a small smile. They were out of that horrible place and on their own, but at least they had a chance now. She pulled out her purse to find some cash. She had enough to fill up the tank, which would get them the rest of the way.

"Okay, I'm going to go pay for gas." She put her purse back down at Evan's feet. "You stay in here and lock those doors. Do not open the door for anyone, got it?"

"Got it." Evan gave her a thumbs up, which was accompanied by a small smile.

Ali exited her car looking at the man who was in the window by the cash register signal to her to go on in. She closed the door and looked at Evan who locked the doors. Being in the middle of a forest at night was unnerving, but it was better than staying in that prison again. She sighed when she opened the front door and walked in. There was no one else in there except the old man at the cash register.

"Evening miss." He greeted her with a tip of his trucker hat. "I was just about to close up when you pulled in."

"I don't want to make you work any later, but I'm on empty and I've got my daughter with me." She smiled at him sincerely as she put the cash on the counter. "How much will this get me?"

"It should get you at least a full tank." She nodded as he took the cash and put it in the register. "I'll tell you what, why don't you grab some snacks and a couple drinks and we'll make this work."

"Oh I don't want to inconvenience you any further." She waved down his offer, but she knew he was not going to take no for an answer.

"It's no inconvenience." He gave her a warm smile. "I've got the pump set, just take what you need and take care of that youngin." He was such a kind man that she really could not refuse his generosity. She nodded before turning around to browse the snack isle.

She knew what Evan liked well enough, but she really had no appetite for anything herself. In the end she grabbed a couple bottles of water, some of Evan's favorite chips, and a pack of cookies. She could not thank the man enough for doing this.

"You really didn't have to do this." She told the man as she put the items on the counter for him to bag up.

"No, I did." His smile turned into a frown. "A woman and her daughter out here this late at night... that means she's running away from someone. I've seen it so many times and I try to help them when I can." She grabbed his hand as a tear came to her eye. Kindness was something she valued more than anything else, except Evan. "Oh, don't you go crying on me now. You get that youngin of yours somewhere safe and sound."

"Thank you." Ali smiled whole heartedly as he handed her the bag. "If we meet again, I'll pay you back for all of this."

"You don't worry about that." He said as she began to walk out the door. "Say, where are you headed anyway?"

"Capulet." The look on his face changed, which made her stop. "That's where her father is."

"If you can, avoid the turnoff to Raccoon Mountian Trail... some strange things have been happening out there lately." Ali nodded as she turned to step out of the door.

"Thanks again!" She gave him a small wave as the door closed and then she walked to her car. Knocking on the window to the passenger side, she signaled for Evan to open the door. "I got you a water and some of your favorites." She handed Evan the bag.

"Thanks, but I'm okay right now." She shut the door as Ali began to pump the gas. Once the tank was full, she was back in the car and they were driving off into the dark forest. "Who is your friend in Capulet?" Of course Evan would ask about that.

"He's just someone I met while in college working at a bar." Ali was going to keep details as little as possible. "He didn't stick around long though."

"Was he a boyfriend or something?" More questions.

"Sort of." She answered vaguely as she tried paying attention to the signs. "He was on a job when I met him, then we stayed in touch after." That was one way of putting it.

"So, what's his name?" Ali debated on whether to tell her daughter the name of the man who fathered her.

"Dante." There was silence as Evan took the time to process the name. She thought it was a cool name, to be honest. She had never met anyone with a name like that before, so hearing it automatically made her mother's old friend pretty cool. "Any more questions, Miss Detective?"

"Nope, I'm all out of questions." Evan decided to dig through the bag of snacks and pull out a pack of cookies. "These are pretty good."

"Yeah, you haven't had anything like that in a while huh?" Ali reached over and ran a hand through her daughter's hair. "I promise when we get settled in, I'll buy you as many cookies as you want."

"I prefer strawberry cheese cake, but cookies will do." Ali laughed at her daughter's declaration of her favorite food. Evan looked at her with a smile. "Anyway, I can't wait to meet Dante."

"Yeah, I think you'll like him a lot." She turned her head to look at her daughter, but saw something out of the corner of her eye. She barely had time to avoid the form in the middle of the road when she slammed on the breaks.

Evan watched in slow motion as the car she was in hit the tall creature in the middle of the road. The force of the impact caused her to collide with the dashboard as the car suddenly stopped. She looked at her mother who was pinned between the steering wheel and the seat with blood coming out of her mouth.

"Evan... " She heard her mother say weakly as the car suddenly became airborne. The pain that coursed through her body as the car hit a tree on the other side of the road was intense, but somehow she was still alive. When she looked at her mother, all she could see was her crushed body and her bright green eyes wide open. "Run... Evan... go... " Her mother rasped out as the light faded from her green eyes.

The girl barely had time to pull herself out of the spot she had been wedged in. The pain was slowly fading away as she pulled herself out of the wreckage. She could hear large footsteps moving towards her as she slipped out of the passenger side window. She had to run. She had to go. She had to survive.

Evan ran into the dark forest not caring about the branches and vines that tried to slow her down. She needed to hide as she heard the growling sounds from behind her and the sound of metal being picked up. Then a large crash made her stop. It was the car with her mother's body in it that came hurtling down from the sky.

She screamed as it landed in front of her, blocking off any escape further into the forest.

#devil may cry #devil may cry fanfiction #dante #dantes daughter #fanfic #dante sparda #dmc #dante fanfiction #amwriting #trauma #childhood trauma

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redrobin-detective · 4 years ago

Text

The late Daniel Fenton

It was shaping up to be a beautiful if chilly December day and Casper High, as always, was bustling. It was 7:49 and class was about to start. The teacher watched the last few kids stumbling in at various levels of wakefulness. He already knew who would be the ones to rush in after the bell but that was alright. Life was too short to stress about being a few minutes late to class, especially in Amity Park of all places.

He looked up to see Madison, one of his shyer students walk in before making a beeline for his desk. She was biting her lip and nervously rubbing her hand down her skirt. “Hey,” she began quietly.

“Good morning. What’s up, Mads?” He asked casually. She looked upset, he could probably put on a video for the class if she needed to talk. They really needed a permanent counselor but the constant ghost attacks ran off most of them so he’d taken up the unofficial mantle. It felt good to help his students like that, make up for past wrongs.

“Are we um, expecting any new students?” She asked, her eyes darting over to the door she’d just come through. “Any transfers, exchange students or anything like that?”

“No,” the teacher frowned. “Amity isn’t the kind of place people transfer into. Why?”

“There’s a kid in the hallway,” she mumbled. “I don’t recognize him, he’s got a backpack and everything but he’s... I don’t know he doesn’t feel right.”

“Oh you’re talking about that weird dark haired kid,” Kyle said as he entered and sat down with a slouch. But even the class slacker looked unusually tense. “Dude’s creepy, can’t put my finger on why but he definitely doesn’t belong.”

“Oh,” was all the teacher had to say. Suddenly he realized how cold the classroom had become, the uncomfortable feeling that was pressing ever so slightly down on them. “I suppose it makes sense, the ghosts have been quiet lately with the Truce and all. He probably got bored.”

“Sir?” Madison said.

“Shannon,” he said instead, looking over at the frizzy haired girl hunched over her sketchbook furiously at work. “Would you do me a favor and move to the vacant seat in the second row? Just for today.”

“What? Why?” the girl whined even as she gathered up her various arts supplies and got ready to move.

“That’s Mr. Fenton’s seat,” he said taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes in preparation for what he was about to see. Danny would come here, of course he would. This was Lancer’s old classroom and Danny had him for first period English Lit. He and Dash both did.

“Mr. Baxter? What’s going on, is it a ghost?” Malik asked from the back row while Shannon shuffled to her new temporary seat.

“Yes but you don’t need to be scared,” he said softly, evenly. “He won’t hurt you.” The bell rang but Dash didn’t start the lesson. Instead, he waited. Danny had never been on time to class the entire time Dash had known him, of course death wouldn’t change that.

“Sorry, I’m late Mr. Lancer,” Dash gripped his desk so he didn’t jump when Danny Fenton simply appeared in front of his desk instead of walking through the door like any other student. “My folks couldn’t drive me, they’re still working on their stupid ghost portal.” A quick glance over at this class showed varying levels of fear, shock and curiosity but they were Amity kids through and through. The cold, powerful energy radiating off Fenton told them it was best to play along with whatever the ghost wanted.

“Perfectly alright Mr. Fenton,” Dash said softly, searching the 14 year old’s perpetually young face. He hadn’t changed a bit since Dash last saw him their second week of freshman year. It seemed unreal seeing how the years had taken their toll on Casper’s favorite son, Dash Baxter. God had they really been that young once? “Take a seat and we’ll get started.”

Danny shrugged and walked over to the seat Shannon had just vacated. He sat just the same, one leg stretched out and the other propped up against the leg of the desk. As soon as he took off the backpack and put it around the chair, it disappeared. He didn’t say anything else, just sat as stared at Dash with piercing blue eyes like he could see right through him.

“We had been talking about the lead up to the Civil War but let’s table that for today,” Dash said, proud his voice only wavered a little. He knew other people had seen Fenton around town. Lina saw him standing outside the Nasty Burger maybe five or so years ago. Dale, who used to live near Fenton Works swore he sometimes saw someone moving through the windows of the long abandoned house. He’d always secretly dreaded the thought of seeing Danny Fenton again, afraid he’d finally get was coming to him.

“Instead, we’re going to talk about local history,” he continued, not daring to take his eyes off the undead teen. Every other living student was tense, afraid. He wished he could assure them that the ghost wouldn’t lay a hand on them. In the event Fenton decided to ditch the hero schtick, it would be Dash and Dash alone he’d come after. “Amity Park has long had rumors of being haunted dating all the way back to the 1600s. It wasn’t until the last century that scientists determined that Amity Park is located on top of a thin spot between our world and the ghost realm. Natural portals form here all the time allowing spirits to pass through.”

No one spoke and barely anyone breathed except for Danny would wasn’t breathing at all. He just sat and stared at Dash with steady, unblinking eyes.

“Jack and Maddie Fenton were the scientists who discovered the weak point in reality in Amity. They devoted their entire life to the study of ghosts and made remarkable advancements in our knowledge of ectobiology and culture, the first being,” he paused as Danny cocked his head in confusion, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Dash. “The first being their manmade portal to the ghost zone. The portal remained active for almost two decades for research purposes but was shut down following their deaths.”

“You’re not Mr. Lancer,” Danny said suddenly, his eyes shifting from baby blue to an ectoplasmic green. Marty, who was sitting to the left of Danny, swallowed a squeak of fear and squeezed his eyes shut.

“No,” Dash sighed, “Lancer died almost thirty years ago now. Best teacher I ever had, he gave me his blessing when he passed on the job to me.”

“I,” the ghost ran his hand through his hair which was starting to lose its color. Seeing Fenton looking so scared and confused made him ache. It reminded him of old times. Dash had spent most of his life making sure he helped hurt kids if only to make up for the one he’d never been able to make it up to. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay, Danny,” he soothed. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“The portal, it wasn’t working at first,” Danny justified, his aura glowing a little more. “Sam and Tuck, they were curious. They wanted to look but I told them it wasn’t allowed, Sam, Sam she dared me to go in. I put on the hazmat suit and went inside and found the on button inside. I accidentally hit it and-” he paused midsentence and looked down at his hands. They weren’t pale flesh anymore but covered in white gloves. The black was completely bleached from his hair. A few of the students gasped as they saw the strange would be student melt into Phantom, the ghostly hero who’d been protecting their town since their parents were young. “I died.”

So much time had gone by. People were born and people were buried and the truth became distorted until it was just a legend passed jokingly around cafeteria lunch tables. Amity’s youth had forgotten their town’s history until it was sitting in a desk, trying once more to be one of them.

“You did,” Dash said sadly. He remembered hearing the news of Fenton's death. An assembly had been called the morning after the accident. Lancer had cried at the podium, Manson and Foley hadn’t returned to school for a week and had never been the same again. Dash hadn’t known what to think at the time, only that the kid he’d beat up for the crime of being different would never show up to school again. Or so he’d thought. “It was a tragedy, you were mourned by a lot of people.”

“I know you, don’t I?” Danny said quietly before he sat up straighter. “Dash?”

“In the flesh,” Dash grinned shakily.

“But you’re so old,” Danny said, once more distressed. “Your hair is grey and there’s wrinkles on your face and-and you’re a teacher now?” The last line was said with incredulity, his eyes flaring again. “You used to push me down the stone steps of the school and shove me into my locker and call me names.”

“Yeah, I did,” he sighed, feeling every one of his years. He was pushing 70 but he didn’t think he’d ever stop feeling like a stupid 14 year old who took out his frustrations on the ones who didn’t deserve it. “But you were the last; I never touched another kid again. I’m married now, four kids. I’m vice principal now, teach History and coach the school’s football team. It’s,” his voice caught again, still unable to process how young and stupid Fenton looked sitting there like no time had passed at all. It made Dash feel like all his accomplishments and attempts to be better would never amount to anything so long as his last victim roamed the earth unable to find peace. “It doesn’t fix what I did back then but I make damn sure that there won’t be any bullying at Casper so long as I’m here.”

“Huh,” Danny said, slouching once more in his seat but it looked less like his earlier teenage laziness and more weary. He and Dash were the same age after all, just because only one of them got old doesn’t mean time didn’t still affect them. “You did change, a lot of things did.” Danny looked down at the desk, “how long has it been?”

“Almost 50 years,” Dash sighed. “My wife wants me to retire but I guess I always find more things to do.” He paused then decided it was now or never. “I’m sorry Danny, for hurting you back then. I wish I'd gotten to know you better.”

For just a moment, Danny was perfectly clear. Even half floating out of his chair and looking like the local celebrity, his eyes were so painfully human. A boy killed before he ever got a chance to get started. Who’s will to protect was so strong it lasted half a century. It haunted him late at night to think of the glory and power of Phantom overshadowing just how incredible Danny Fenton had been. Not that anyone had seen it at the time. Soon there wouldn’t be anyone left to remember that quiet, kind teenager and then Danny Fenton really would be dead. Kill him just as thoroughly as that portal had.

The moment was broken by a breath of cold leaking out of the ghost’s lips and, just like that, his highschool classmate was gone and Phantom was left in his stead. He looked curiously around the classroom as if he didn’t know how he’d gotten there.

“There’s a ghost, stay here and don’t leave unless the fighting gets too close. I’ll get it though, don’t worry. No kids are dying today.” Maybe it was Dash’s imagination but he thought he saw Phantom’s eyes linger on him for an extra moment, trying to place where he knew the teacher from. Dash just smiled.

“Our lives are in your hands. Good luck, Phantom,” the ghost teen saluted before fading away entirely. Dash let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, suddenly exhausted but also lighter at the same time. It wasn’t every day you got to look your mistakes in the face and apologize. “Shannon, you can move back now.”

“No, I’m okay here,” Shannon said as she flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and looked intently at the spot where Fenton had once sat. “It’s like you said, that’s Danny’s seat.”

“I had no idea, Phantom’s been around for like, ever,” Freddie mumbled, pushing up his glasses. “But he used to be just like us.” And still was, Dash thought sadly. Danny would never grow old, never go to space like he’d always dreamed or marry Manson like he’d probably intended to. He was stuck, in more ways than one for who knows how long.

“Yes, that’s why it’s important to know your history. The Civil War and my other lessons are important but we can’t forget these smaller, more intimate histories. If we lose these lessons to time then we risk repeating the same mistakes over again.” He looked his students in the eyes, holding their attention.

“So we’ll continue today with the local history. Before he was ghost butt kicking superhero, Phantom was Danny Fenton, son of the local ghost hunters and a bit of an outcast in town. The Daniel Fenton Foundation was founded about a year after his death and was-”

#danny phantom #dead danny au #if bitch fartman won't redeem dash then I guess it up to me #god can you imagine growing up and growing old only to look at your past victim in the eye and see nothing has changed for him?#i could go on and on about what other characters got up to #but this is about the tragedy of the loss of Danny Fenton #not only his life but his memory #time moves on and Fenton got lost in the mix #once Dash's generation dies then Fenton will just be a cautionary tale #a ghost story #No one will remember that their hero was one long before he got his powers #god Im fuckign sad now #eat up and enjoy your angst

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bestiesenpai · 4 years ago

Text

Area 51 - Nanami Kento

This is for @natsuonii’s creature feature collab! :) It’s got alien!reader, scientist Nanami and a whole lot of weird shit I’d say. Femme reader...there’s alien pussy lol 9.8K words

link to the collab!

Content warnings: sex pollen, alien heat, reverse knot, daddy kink, blood + needle(it’s brief I promise) and random medical terms and fake science shit lol don’t look too deeply at it

“This...this is the best scientific breakthrough we’ve ever had.” Nanami was at a loss for words, watching as decked out military men brought in case after case of wreckage from a shot down spacecraft. Working at a highly secure government facility sure did have it’s perks, and being one of the first people to know about all this was certainly the biggest one.

Nanami had spent so much of his life studying and clawing his way to the job he was at now. He’d sacrificed so much in the name of science, in the pursuit of finding extraterrestrial life forms no matter how small and insignificant, and it was finally paying off.

“Doctor, we’ll take the embryos to your lab.” One of the men said, quickly walking away tailed by people holding glowing blue cases. He hadn’t really been briefed on what all was coming in and what exactly happened to get it here, but he was sure he would find out soon enough.

“Careful!” Another person shouted and he was pushed out of the way. Coming in through the large steel doors was what looked like a four armed monster strapped face down to a flatbed. Markings went up and down his face and body and there were an extra set of eyes staring at everyone as it was wheeled by.

“What is that creature?” Nanami mumbled, clutching his clipboard tightly. The creature was breathing hard through its nose, nostrils flaring dangerously wide and a light growl rumbled from its chest.

“It appears to be the leader of the spacecraft, we could only get the creature's name, nothing else: Sukuna.” Someone answered him, but Nanami didn’t acknowledge, he was unable to take his eyes off Sukuna.

“Incredible.” His mouth hung open like a fool, unblinking as he watched Sukuna be wheeled past him and to the elevator shaft. “How far down are they taking him?”

“I heard the chief say as far as they could. He’s highly dangerous, it was a miracle the team was able to get the upper hand.”

“I’ll have to pay him a visit soon.” Nanami had enough security clearance to go anywhere in the building, but something was telling him he’d have to ask for a lot of permissions first before making contact with Sukuna. Nanami learned quite early on that the deeper underground you went, the more power you needed to be there.

Once the final bits and pieces were brought into the facility, Nanami peeled himself off the wall and made the way to his own lab. With his badge hung proudly from his shirt pocket, Nanami made the descent and as the elevator went floor after floor and the numbers got higher and higher, he let some excited exhales out.

Going down the metal corridor, he came to his lab to see it teeming with people. Nanami often worked alone on things and to see so many people milling about in his space made him a little nervous.

“Tell me about the embryos.” Was the first thing he said when he entered, donning the white lab coat he’d left hanging by the door. Walking over to the giant test tubes lining the back wall, he peered into one of the open cases.

Nestled inside atop a pile of hay were glowing blue orbs, some too bright to look at directly. They had a light blue smoke coming off, gradually spilling out the sides of the case and if he looked hard enough Nanami could just barely see the outline of a creature inside.

“They were on the spaceship Sukuna came in on. He was hellbent on protecting them, killing five of our people right off the bat.” The military man he’d spoken to earlier was here, answering right away.

“Were they in a case like this?” Donning a pair of gloves, Nanami picked one up. It was cool to the touch and quite heavy, making the muscles in his arm work harder than expected to stay upright.

“No, he had them suspended in some type of thick goop, like clear maple syrup.”

“How scientific, thank you.” He snorted, setting the embryo back down. “Do you have any of this ‘goop’ left?”

“Only this, sir.” Holding up a capped beaker filled halfway with the fluid, the man let out a defeated sigh. “Sukuna actually swallowed most of it, I guess trying to keep the embryos from us any way possible. This stuff is crazy acidic though, it’s melted almost everything it comes in contact with.”

“This should be enough…” Already making calculations in his head, Nanami took the beaker and walked to the control panel of the test tubes. “Load up the embryos and I’ll try to mimic the solution they were in. In the meantime, I’ll put one in that should be similar enough to keep them alive for a while.”

Pressing a few buttons on the panel, the test tubes began to fill with a murky pink liquid, filling the air with a pungent aroma. The embryos were loaded in quickly and the tubes sealed off. Watching them as he walked over to a table full of supplies, Nanami grinned slightly at watching them float.

It took him little time to come up with the properties of the amniotic fluid the embryos had been in. Making slight adjustments to the formula, he watched the liquid go from murky to clear, with only a light pink tinge left.

As the days wore on, Nanami studied the embryos intensely, opting to sleep in his lab instead of the barracks provided so he wouldn’t miss a single change should any occur. Going days without sleep, a week went by without any significant change.

A soft tapping on glass roused Nanami from an impromptu nap. Drawing his head up from where it was nestled in his arms on the metal table he was slumped over, he rubbed his face roughly and looked around.

“Who is it?” He called, assuming it was someone at the door. But when no answer came and the door wasn’t opened, he fully sat up and looked around. “Where the hell-” Cutting himself off as he looked at the test tubes, Nanami almost fell out of his stool.

In the seven test tubes lining the wall, there were three embryos that had come to term. He knew some would fail, resigning himself to the possibility that all of them would, but to see three newborn aliens was beyond his wildest expectations.

“Oh my god.” Snatching his clipboard off the table, Nanami rushed to the test tubes. He was writing furiously, capturing every single detail he saw about them and even making quick sketches of what they looked like.

There were little nubs right above their behinds, what looked to be the beginnings of a tail. All of them had two sets of eyes, unopened and tiny on their infantile faces, faces that were beginning to bear the same marks Sukuna had.

The tapping on the glass, Nanami quickly found out, was from them floating freely in the tubes, softly knocking against the glass as they hung suspended in the fluid. Nanami couldn’t see any kind of umbilical cord or method to get them the possible nutrients they needed to stay alive. So he just had to hope that they woke up soon to tell him what they needed.

The babies rapidly took shape after coming to term, morphing into a human-like form right before Nanami’s eyes. It seemed that with every couple of hours that passed they grew more and more. Fingers, webbed toes, tufts of hair and tails all appeared.

“So when do you think they’ll be able to come out?” His supervisor asked, nearly a month after the first encounter. The aliens under Nanami’s care looked like full fledged adults, ones that you could see out in public and - despite a few glaring differences - not pay any mind to.

“I don’t know, ma’am. I don’t know if they can survive out here.” In the month that passed, the facility wasn’t able to get any intel from Sukuna about the embryos or why he chose to come to Earth. All he did was snarl and growl, slurring a few death threats when he could.

“Take one out and see.”

“What?” Gasping loudly, Nanami’s eyes went wide. Surely his boss didn’t mean for him to sacrifice one of them? They were too precious of an asset to possibly let die like that and Nanami was ready to put his foot down.

“Don’t worry, doctor, Sukuna’s told us a bunch of times that more of his people will be coming, and I’m willing to bet they’ll have more embryos for us to study.” Giving him a swift pat on the back, his boss turned on her heel and started to walk away. “The usual assistants will be here to help you should you need anything and don’t feel bad if they all die, that’s just how these things go.”

The parting words were less than heartwarming. Letting out a rough sigh, Nanami turned to the team of people behind him. They worked with him before, most of them idolizing him with a gleam in their eyes.

“We’ll wheel in the examining table and take them out one by one. If there’s any adverse reactions, I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it. Get the usual supplies ready, we’ll start in ten.” Giving the group a curt nod, Nanami turned back to the test tubes. Pressing his hand onto the glass of one, he closed his eyes. “God, I really hope you all don’t die.”

In ten minutes, Nanami was dressed in full hazmat gear and so was his team. The crinkling of plastic suits was loud in the otherwise deathly silent room as everyone held their breath. Draining the fluid of the first tube, Nanami swung open the door.

“Let’s take a look.” Nanami said as the body was lifted onto the table. It had no external sex organs to speak of, not even a hole for a cloaca. Cool to the touch, Nanami waited for it to show any signs of life.

“It’s not moving.” Someone called out after five minutes, scribbling it down on the notes. They’d tried everything, strapping an oxygen mask over the face, chest compressions and returning the body back to the fluid it had previously been in, but it was no use.

“Take that away to Getou’s lab, he’ll dissect it.” Waving the first body away, Nanami looked up at the second. “We need to instill a gradual change in environment or else the same thing will happen.”

“Should we try to set up a feeding tube or an IV?”

“IV, yes.”

The second attempt went marginally better than the first. Slowly shifting the fluid to one of a normal human amniotic fluid seemed to work. The alien twitched and rocked side to side, seemingly waking up from its slumber.

Drawing it out from the tube, it appeared to be just fine. Gasping for air, fluttering eyelids and squirming limbs - all things Nanami wanted to see. What he didn’t want though, was for the creature to lash out with unexpectedly sharp claws, cutting through the sleeve of his suit and drawing blood.

“Holy shit!” Stumbling back, Nanami watched in horror as the creature licked the blood from its nails. Smacking its lips together, the creature pointed at him. It was rapidly losing the color in its cheeks, struggling to form whatever words it needed.

“Blood? Do you need human blood to survive on this planet?” Nanami shouted, scrambling away from the table he’d flung himself onto and holding out his arm. “Take it! Quickly!”

“Doctor no!” A few of his assistants tried to yank him away from the examining table. They didn’t want to see the blood get drained from his body or him possibly get eaten by the creature.

“Stop it, let me do this!” Struggling with them, Nanami watched in rapt horror as the creature nodded slowly before fully collapsing on the table, drawing it’s last shaky inhale before falling limp entirely. “You fucking idiots, we just lost another one!” Pushing the people away, Nanami banged his fist angrily on the table.

“Doctor, we couldn’t let you do something so dangerous! You’re the most valuable scientist here, we can’t lose you!”

“Bullshit! I don’t care if the next one wants to swallow me whole, you let it!” Glaring at all the people in the room, Nanami began to rip his gear off. “And if it dies for any reason, I’m going to make sure none of you ever find work again.”

With the threat hanging heavily in the air, Nanami stormed over to the control panel one last time, punching in the codes needed to change the fluid on the remaining test tube. His arm was slowly leaking blood and he could feel the warmth drip down to his hand.

“Get me an IV, I’m going to give this last one a blood transfusion.”

“Doctor, are you sure you-”

“If you question me one more time I’ll cut your tongue out. Now do as I say.” Pulling up a chair, Nanami sat down and leaned his head against the cold glass of the tube. None of this was going as he wanted; Nanami didn’t plan to lose two out of three creatures, nor to give blood to the last one.

Hooking up an IV, Nanami watched the blood drain from his arm, flowing up and into the top of the test tube where there was a needle inserted into the last alien. Trying not to get too woozy as he was drained of blood, Nanami pressed his forehead to the glass and squeezed his eyes shut.

“I don’t believe in you but God if you’re out there, please make this work.”

“Doctor?” He wasn’t sure when he passed out, but when Nanami came to, he had a crowd of people gawking at him.

“Yes? What?” The IV was out of his arm and there was a blanket over him and as he tried to get out of his chair he nearly fell.

“L-look behind you.” Pointing with a shaking finger, the assistant that woke him up turned him to face the test tube.

“Why do you all look so-” Turning around, Nanami stumbled back, for once grateful to have someone else in the lab to catch him. “Scared?” Whispering out the last word in a high pitched voice, Nanami couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The once nondescript alien in the tube was now a fully fledged human being. With complete and fairly dark markings on their face, breasts and a vagina, the creature before him could be mistaken for any other adult.

And the thing that was most shocking was the way all four eyes honed in on Nanami, tracking his every move. Pressing it’s forehead and hands to the glass, the creature turned as Nanami walked side to side.

“It’s been watching you since you passed out.”

“How long has it been like that?” He asked, getting closer to the test tube.

“It just suddenly changed shortly after you lost consciousness. A flash of light went off and poof, it looked like that.” Pressing his hand to the glass, Nanami let out a breathless laugh as the creature scurried back only to return in mere seconds.

“Open the tube, we have to let it out.” Unable to take his eyes off the creature, Nanami could hardly wait for all the fluid to be drained before opening up the test tube and helping the creature out. Surprisingly steady on its feet, Nanami barely had to help it stand upright.

“Hello.” He smiled, shrugging off his lab coat and placing it over its shoulders. “Welcome to Earth.”

“Hello.” You said back, attempting to smile as well. “Welcome to Earth.”

When Nanami first got the embryos, he wasn’t expecting anything to come out of them. The most he thought would happen was possible growth but never any of them coming to term and certainly never of them to actually be able to communicate.

It appears you were destined to prove him wrong, however. Nearly the moment you stepped out of the test tube, dripping in fluid and with a long tail you couldn’t quite control, you exceeded all of Nanami’s expectations - not that he even had any to begin with, especially not when it came to taking you out of the tube.

The first hour, you were sitting perfectly still while the team ran tests on you. Pressing a cold stethoscope to your chest, a few of them got a giggle out of the way you gasped and squirmed. Nanami watched it all happen, taking calculated notes and even doing some of the tests himself.

“What’s your name?” He questioned after another hour of hearing you repeat the phrases around you. Staring at him from the stool you were perched on, you tilted your head. It was only you and him left in the lab now, he sent everyone else away, wanting a chance to study you on his own.

“What’s your name?” You parroted back, mimicking the way Nanami had his arms crossed over his chest.

“My name is Nanami Kento. What’s yours?”

“Nanami Kento.” He made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, rolling his eyes at the giggle you let out. He understood he was dealing with an alien, one that might never be able to fully communicate the way he desired, but he wanted to get somewhere.

“What’ll it take for you to stop copying me?”

“Reading a book.” He’d meant it as a rhetorical question, and hearing your voice form a stilted sentence all on it’s own was a big surprise. Nodding curtly, Nanami walked over to a set of bookcases and grabbed a thick dictionary and a thesaurus, placing them onto the table next to you. Flipping open the first page of the dictionary, Nanami pointed at the words.

“Can you read these?”

“Mhmm!” Leaning over, your eyes scanned the script.

“Good, read all of it and tell me when you’re done.” Setting up a chair on the other side of the table, Nanami fixed a pile of notes and other documents he needed to work over. He could take time to catch up his reports while you-

“Done!” Slamming the dictionary closed, you picked up the thesaurus. “I have to read this too?”

“Y-yes.” Nanami’s mouth hung open slightly as he watched you speed through the second book. He expected this whole process to take an hour at least but you were done with both books in just a few minutes.

“All finished.” You were still a little unsure of forming sentences, lifting your voice in slight question at the end.

“How did you do that so fast?”

“When Mother made us, she gave us all the information she could on this planet, including rudimentary language. I just needed a way to conceptualize actually speaking on my own.”

“Who’s Mother?” Grabbing his pen, Nanami began to scribble down what you were saying.

“Mother is the one that made us. All of us, me, my companions, and Sukuna too.”

“Right…” Nanami’s hand hesitated at the mention of Sukuna, drawing inky swirls in place of words. “Then Mother is the one who sent you here with him?”

“Yes! She said that to take over this planet, we would need to assimilate to the environment and that we’d need a strong warrior to protect us.” You had a dreamy look in your eyes, no doubt thinking about Sukuna. “So far I like this-”

“Hold on, take over the planet?”

“It’s what my people do: we come to a planet, impregnate the population and take over.” He was sure there was more to it than that but for his own peace of mind Nanami didn’t question it further. For now, he wanted to focus on the positives, mainly the one of you finally speaking on your own.

“So…” Nanami struggled to find the next topic of conversation.

“Oh, I remember my name now! It’s (Y/N).”

“Did Mother also give you that name?”

“She did!” You truly looked overjoyed to be talking about all this. The smile on your face led to Nanami being able to see the sharp canine teeth in your mouth, akin to a set of teeth he’d find in a vampire movie.

“So (Y/N), I have a question. I gave you my blood so you’d be able to live on this planet.” He paused to make sure you were following along. “I want to know why you’re a female when you received male donor blood.”

“Mother determined which gender would be useful for me to have on this planet, so all I needed was your DNA to complete the transformation and become a human.”

“Mother thinks humans have those extra eyes and a tail?” Nanami snorted at that, there were too many things to give away your unhuman origins that couldn’t be ignored.

“Sukuna is supposed to teach us how to hide them until we need them.” Your shoulders visibly slumped and you looked around. “Where is he? He was supposed to be here when we woke up.”

“He’s somewhere else-”

“Where? Where is he?” Putting both palms flat on the table, you leaned forward. You seemed desperate, your brows scrunching together as you worried your lip. “I can tell he’s close, but where is he exactly?”

Nanami heard what you said. He knew exactly the words that were spoken and their meaning. But he was having a hard time thinking of anything as he suddenly became aware again of the fact that you were still naked, the lab coat you had on falling open to reveal your breasts.

“How about we talk about that while you get dressed in something more appropriate?” Clearing his throat roughly, Nanami pushed away from the table. His cheeks were getting a bit warm and he didn’t want you to see.

“No, tell me where Sukuna is!” Slapping your hands loudly on the table, you glared sharply at Nanami when he tried to come closer. “I don’t want to be alone any longer! My companions didn’t make it, he’s all I have!”

“(Y/N)...” Sighing softly, Nanami didn’t know what to do. If he tried to raise his hand, you growled at him, flexing your fingers as if you were going to strike him. He couldn’t tell you where Sukuna was, no matter what. “You’re- you’re not alone.”

“What do you mean?” Your face softened just a fraction, and you leaned back as Nanami lifted his hand slowly, placing it on the table near your own hand.

“You have me.” Nanami felt something odd twisting his stomach, something that told him this simultaneously was a good and bad idea. It wasn’t wise to say this to you, to try and build some kind of relationship beyond a scientist and his test subject, but what did he have to lose? You were the first alien he’d ever come in contact with, there were bound to be some risks he’d have to take to keep you happy.

“Really?” Relaxing your body, you let your hand get closer to Nanami’s.

“Really.” Fully grabbing your hand now, Nanami tugged you from the stool, craning his head away to avoid looking at your open chest. “Now follow me, I think there’s some scrubs in one of these drawers.”

“Nanami, I’m hungry.” After finding you a set of clothes buried in a drawer and cutting a hole in the bottoms for your tail, Nanami was greeted with the sound of your growling stomach.

“What do you eat?”

“Whatever you eat.” Taking up residence on the singular fold out couch Nanami used to sleep on, you watched him pick up the phone on his desk.

“Let’s have some pasta then.”

While Nanami preferred to cook his food himself rather than ordering it from upstairs, he didn’t have the heart to tell you that the cafeteria food was less than ideal. You seemed to love the dish he gave you, eating it with no hesitation and a smile on your face.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about your kind?” Picking over his food, Nanami watched you finish eating in record time and pushed his plate over to you.

“Like what?” Tilting your head to the side, you gladly took his food.

“Anything that comes to mind like cultural things, maybe you celebrate holidays?”

“We do! I was created to leave the planet, but others get to stay and cultivate life there. We have something close to what you call Christmas and others for things you wouldn’t understand.”

“Really? You’ll have to write them down for me later.” Nodding to himself, he made the mental note to teach you how to write. Glancing down at the two now empty plates before you, Nanami flicked his head toward the phone. “Fancy some more?”

As it reached midnight, Nanami became starkly aware of the fact there was only one place for the both of you to sleep. He wasn’t sure how much sleep you actually needed or if you needed any at all for that matter, but he knew for sure that sleeping on the same fold out mattress with you would be crossing a line he wasn’t ready for. It was already too short to hold his entire frame, and putting two bodies side by side wouldn’t be a good idea.

“(Y/N), are you tired?” Standing up from the couch, he motioned for you to stand as well.

“Yes.” Your voice was chipper as ever, not a hint of exhaustion heard. You watched with rapt interest as Nanami unfolded the mattress and set it on the ground.

“Alright, well you’ll be sleeping here and I’ll be sleeping in the barracks.”

“I’m going to be alone?”

“Is that a problem?” Quirking a brow, Nanami glanced at you.

“Well not necessarily but I- I don’t want to be alone. Not on my first night, at least.” Curling your tail on the ground, you worried your fingers, claws clicking together as you did. Nanami could feel his resolve wearing down, the nervous look you tried to hide made his fingers flex; he felt an overarching urge to protect you.

“I’ll grab another couch from the lab next door.” Turning on his heel, Nanami took deep breaths as he left the room. Forcing his head to get clear, he drug another couch into his lab, setting it up across from the first one.

“Is this what you call a sleepover?” You asked, watching Nanami set up both couches with blankets and pillows.

“You could say that, yes.” A strange giggle left your mouth and it made Nanami pause and look at you. “What was that sound?”

“A laugh?” Dropping your face in confusion, you looked him straight in the eye. “Is something wrong?”

“No no it’s just-” clearing his throat loudly, Nanami rushed out the next words, “That was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.” At his admittance, you giggled again and he had to bite his lip hard from audibly swooning.

“Mother made it special for me, she makes all her children special.” Mimicking the way Nanami climbed into bed, you laid down and stared at the dark ceiling. “Only some of us can laugh like that, and others have pheromones and what not to attract the native people on a new planet.”

“(Y/N), do you have special pheromones too?” Your casual mention of impregnating and taking over the whole planet flashed in his head.

“I think I do, why else would you have agreed to stay here with me?”

“Good to know.” Nanami would have to install a high tech air filter later, he didn’t like the idea of slowly succumbing to your desires. Fully laying down in bed, he drew the blankets up to his chin and tried not to think of it anymore. “Good night.”

For a month Nanami studied you nonstop. Gathering medical information, he discovered you had three stomachs and two hearts. Through plenty of trial and error you learned how to keep the swinging of your tail under control and not trip him anymore. He even learned your favorite foods and the relative location of your home planet in the galaxy.

When Nanami had to step out for meetings, he begrudgingly let fellow scientist Gojo watch over you. The best in his field and horribly obnoxious about it, Nanami tried to limit the time you two spent together. He didn’t need Gojo influencing you too much and ruining the work Nanami had put into acclimating you to society in an appropriate way.

“You’re back!” It was like he was coming home from work whenever you greeted him like that. You bounded over to the door from wherever you were and bounced on your toes, eager to talk to him about what he’d done while away.

“Mhmm. How’s it been with Gojo?” Nanami glanced up at said man, not liking the fact that he was lounging on the couch with his laptop perched precariously on his thigh.

“It’s great! He showed me something really interesting.” A shy giggle left your lips and you avoided further eye contact with Nanami.

“What is it?” Narrowing his eyes, Nanami began to glower at Gojo, who started to shrink under his gaze.

“(Y/N), don’t you have something to say first?” Gojo smirked, barely hiding a chuckle behind his hand.

“Oh, you’re right!” Squaring your shoulders at Nanami, you took a deep breath. “Welcome back, daddy!” Taking a brief glance at Gojo, you cupped your cheeks and stuck your tongue out, crossing your eyes for extra measure.

“W-what the fuck!” Scrambling back in shock, Nanami glared sharply at Gojo as a harsh red flush coated his cheeks. He was ashamed to admit he’d seen that face before, late at night when he was too restless to sleep and needed something to help soothe his mind.

“What’s wrong, Kento? Do you not like what (Y/N)’s doin’?” The dark chuckle behind Gojo’s words had Nanami wanting to throttle him. Of course he liked it, he was a grown man wasn’t he? Not to mention Nanami couldn’t remember the last time he’d laid down with another warm body like that and the face you were making was bringing several repressed thoughts to the surface.

Unable to form the proper words, Nanami side stepped you and went to his desk, placing files down that needed to be typed out later and trying to still his rapid heartbeat. The way you said that sentence so enthusiastically, saliva making your tongue glisten in the light - it was too much for him to deal with so abruptly.

“Why’d you teach her that shit?” Nanami growled, covering the lower half of his face with his trembling hand.

“(Y/N) deserves to know all aspects of human life, wouldn’t you agree?” Closing his laptop, Gojo stood up and walked to the door. “Besides Kento, I know you get lonely at night.” Smiling sweetly at you, Gojo left the room without any further comment.

“(Y/N).” With his back still facing you, Nanami heaved a sigh.

“Yes?” You said slowly, relaxing your body. The tension rolled off Nanami in waves, making the air thick and uncomfortable. It was hard to read whether he was angry or not.

“What has Gojo been teaching you?” The subtle sag in his shoulders isn’t missed by you, making you scramble to the desk and face him.

“I don’t know! He said there were some interesting things you’d yet to show me and he pulled up some websites and- and-” A bit of fear spiked in your head. You’d only gone along with what Gojo said was right, Nanami had entrusted you to his care after all and your whole reason for being on the planet was to assimilate. “Are you mad at me?” Rubbing at your four eyes to stem a sudden wave of anxious tears, you looked at Nanami, waiting nervously for his answer.

“Not at you. Him.” Sensing your oncoming distraught, Nanami shook his head and cleared his throat. “I want you to learn all the good things of human life and well-”

“Sex isn’t a good thing?” You gasped, leaning your hands on the desk.

“Did he teach you about sex?” Nanami nearly yelled back.

“He did! We read a lot of medical journals about it, it releases so many good chemicals into the human brain! And then Gojo went to this website called PornHub and-”

“He what?!” A heart attack. Nanami was going to have a heart attack.

“Let me finish! He showed me humans having sex and it looked like they were having a great time!” Your breath was coming out short and Nanami could hear the drag of your tail on the ground as you got worked up. “But it didn’t do anything to me, I haven’t reached that point yet!” He didn’t understand what you meant and while the urge to drown himself in the bottle of dark liquor he kept hidden away tugged at him, his pursuit for knowledge was greater.

“What do you mean you ‘haven’t reached that point yet’?” Collapsing into the desk chair, Nanami was more worked up than he thought. The shock of hearing you call him daddy, learning that you discovered what sex was and now he was going to know when you would begin to show interest in such a thing.

“Sexual maturity, I’m not there yet, so seeing that stuff didn’t do anything to me.”

“When will you be?” He pressed, grabbing a pen and getting ready to write down whatever you said on the corner of a file.

“It’s been a month since I’ve transformed, so in about a week or two.”

“That fast?” Nanami blanched, mind spinning at how he was going to deal with that. “Humans take years, though, shouldn’t my blood affect that?”

“No, my DNA only takes what it needs from yours. My base mechanics like lifespan and in this case sexual maturity are all hardwired by Mother. They won’t change just because a few drops of your blood mix in.”

“So...so what does that mean for you? Do you need some kind of special uh- a special thing or-?” His cheeks and ears burned fiercely and Nanami cleared his throat in the middle of the sentence. He knew exactly what he meant by ‘a special thing’ but he couldn’t bring himself to say it in front of you.

“I don’t know, actually.” Shrugging your shoulders, you sat on the edge of his desk. “Sukuna is supposed to tell me what happens and what to do after we pick out a suitable mate for me.”

There was that mention of Sukuna again. The creature buried so far underground some people wondered if he was passing the Earth's mantle. He’d settled down in the month since your arrival, seemingly knowing that you had emerged from the embryo and survived. He still refused to give any answers and you hadn’t mentioned him in nearly three weeks.

“You don’t need him. We can figure it out once it gets here.” Shaking his head, Nanami could feel himself getting a little high off your pheromones with you sitting so close. The air filter he put into the room could only do so much when your scent rolled off in such thick waves.

“Okay.” Sighing the word, you resigned yourself to playing with your fingers. Silence washed over the room, less tense than before but still tainted with an edge to it. Both of you were flushed from talking about this subject and Nanami was glad you had your back to him.

“(Y/N), I have another question.” A few minutes later, Nanami couldn’t hold back the question burning in his mind. You let out a hum of acknowledgement but didn’t face him. “What would be a suitable mate for you? What kind of human?”

He blamed it on your pheromones, he blamed every last less than professional thought in his head on your pheromones and what you did to him and he especially blamed Gojo for forcing this topic of conversation to come up. Nanami tried to reason with himself, put the narrative in his head that he wanted to know for science, but in the dark recesses of his mind Nanami wanted to know who your type was if you even had one.

“Well actually, a human like you is perfect.” Your back curved just a little to keep your face hidden as you spoke. The words hung in the air, leaving Nanami’s mouth hanging slightly open and his mind bouncing to a hundred different places at once.

“Like me?” He whispered, barely registering the words coming out of his mouth.

“Exactly like you.” This time you looked over your shoulder at him, your eyes narrowing as you took in his reaction. His shock seemed to be enough for you, your secondary eyes pinching closed as you smiled, and you turned back to face forward. “Nanami, I’m hungry.”

Having grown accustomed to your new home, you slid off the desk and to the couch that was yours. Nanami’s eyes were glued to your back, watching the way your tail moved on the ground as you walked. His throat was suddenly thick, there were plenty of things he wanted to say, things that would definitely violate his code of ethics.

“Nanami.” Your voice snapped him out of his thoughts, back to reality where you were far away from arms reach. The weight of your eyes bore right back into him and Nanami knew he’d been caught staring.

“Yes?” He forced the word out, his tongue feeling heavy and foreign in his mouth.

“Should we have pasta tonight?”

Nanami hardly slept at all that night, plagued with ideas of what you thought about him and less than savory images of you and your body. Shame settled over him like a second blanket as he tossed and turned throughout the night, trying to rid his mind of such things to no avail.

In the morning, Nanami got rid of the second couch and made the decision to sleep in the barracks when he needed to. While nothing inherently sexual had occurred, he still felt like he betrayed some sort of trust between you two, sullied the pure relationship you had together.

Ignoring your whines and protests, he also made the decision to get rid of Gojo as your babysitter. He didn’t want or need your mind filled with things he didn’t deem appropriate and Gojo was the main perpetrator of such things, and he was confident enough that he could leave you alone for a few hours and nothing bad would happen.

It almost hurts to leave you alone at night, the old ritual of slowly nudging you along your night time routine and laying down on adjacent mattresses was now replaced by getting you ready for bed but then leaving shortly after you were all tucked in. Sometimes you whined and wanted him to stay, claiming that you didn’t sleep as well without him there, and sometimes Nanami hesitated at the door before steeling his resolve and leaving.

He doubts he’ll ever tell you that he stopped sleeping as well too.

An abrupt evening meeting three weeks later called him away from you sooner than either of you would have liked. You’d developed a cough and a bit of a rash over the course of time and while Nanami was sure this meant you were reaching sexual maturity, he was still hell bent on finding some medicine to help you, not wanting to go to this meeting about another potential UFO sighting.

“(Y/N), I’m back and I-” Nanami all but ran back to his laboratory with some medicine he’d swiped from Gojo. He was worried for you, not just as a scientist but as a friend. Throwing open the door and locking it quickly to contain any possible airborne particles, Nanami was assaulted with the harsh smell of something sweetly floral.

“N-nanami!” His eyes immediately find you, writhing in what looks like agony on the mattress he’d pulled out for you before leaving. Walking quickly over to you, every inhale he made felt like he was breathing in a thick fog.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Coughing and putting a hand over his face, he looked over you. It was normal for you to just wear a long, oversized t-shirt Gojo got you from a local thrift store to sleep and right now it was clinging tightly to your body from the sweat pouring out of you.

“Nanami!” Shaking your head side to side, he could see the tears leaking out of your eyes. Against his better judgement, Nanami crouched down on one knee and put a hand on your forehead.

“Shit, you’re burning up.” Pulling his fingers away, there was a light yellow powdery film left on them. “(Y/N) what is this? Has it started?” The substance tingled on his fingers, making them go slightly numb.

There was a pitiful noise from you as a response and a limp nod, and Nanami rushed to the sink to wash off his hands. The scent in the room was overwhelming, almost choking him with every inhale he made. Turning the ventilation system on as high as it could go did nothing and there was still pollen visibly floating in the air.

“I have to go, I can’t be here.”

“No!” You cried, falling out of bed with a loud thump and crawling toward Nanami. “D-don’t leave!”

“I have to, this stuff isn’t good for me.” Nanami kept his back to you, hastily trying to grab some things from his desk. His cock was already beginning to stiffen painfully and the sounds you were making were echoing inside his head.

“Wait!” Tugging on his pant leg, you dug your claws into it.

“(Y/N), let go.” He tried to shake you off, staunchly avoiding eye contact. The heat on his skin was rising and if Nanami were to look in a mirror he would see how red he was. You refused to let go, sitting up on weak knees and pushing your hand further up his leg.

“D-daddy, please! Help me!”

That was it. That was the moment that broke Nanami Kento. He knows Gojo has told you that he likes to be called that in bed, among other things. He knows that the pollen in the air is what’s making his head impossibly foggy with only one thing able to be focused on. Nanami knows that if he stays here any longer, he’ll do something that he won’t regret, but that might cost him his job.

“Daddy…” Emboldened by unbridled desperation, you force Nanami to face you with strength he didn’t know you possessed. Eye to eye with his cock straining against his slacks, you shove your face right into it.

“(Y/N)!” Your name comes out as a rough groan from his lips and Nanami’s hands fly to grab the back of your head. As he grips your head, Nanami makes no move to pull you away and doesn’t stop you from rubbing your face along his clothed cock.

“Please please please, just this once! I need to do this-” The pleading you're doing is muffled by your mouth running along fabric, words slurred and barely coming out properly. Just from this stimulation alone Nanami can feel his balls tighten like he’s about to cum.

“Sto-stop, stop this.” Nanami’s own sense of morals, his will to do anything besides being in this room with you was going to be torn to shreds the longer you touched him. And it was, as he came in his pants, rutting his hips like a pathetic teenager into your face.

He came but his cock was still as hard as before, maybe even more so. There was no reprieve from the painful need to be stimulated, to feel you touch him again and again and again. With a mangled groan, he shoves your head away and grabs his waistband.

Swatting your hands away that still rest on his hips, Nanami undoes his belt and shoves his pants and underwear down to the ground. His cock slaps against his dress shirt, glistening from the previous load of cum and leaking more like he’s never seen before.

“What did you do to me?” He asks under his breath, feeling sweat pooling on his skin despite being half naked. As he takes off his remaining clothes, Nanami can feel the tingle from the pollen settling all over him, sticking to his hair and to every crevice of his body.

“D’ya like it, daddy? That’s what M-mother chose for me, it’s a new- a new evolution we got from a previous planet.” It’s amazing that you can stand on your own feet despite the way your legs shake violently. Nanami can tell you’re in a sorry state, so he lets you lead him to the mattress and fall back onto it.

“Mother made you pollen? How interesting.” Somewhere far back in his head, he really did find it genuinely interesting. But right now he was merely making conversation, settling on the bed as you climbed on top of him and took your wet shirt off.

The rash that had been on your skin was now turning into powdery pollen before his very eyes, falling off and into the air like a flower's pollen would. Laying down on Nanami, pressing your breasts against his chest, you fell into a kiss with him.

Even though it was your first kiss, Nanami was the one left feeling inexperienced as you slotted your mouths together and slid your tongue past his lips. Even your saliva was sweet as it dripped it into his mouth and down the sides. Nanami’s hands roamed your body, pinching into your sides and squeezing your ass painfully tight. Surprisingly, your tail didn’t get in the way, just languidly swaying side to side and sometimes tickling his shins.

“Daddy, please- I want more!” You whined loudly, breaking the kiss to trail your lips along his neck and chest and nip at the skin every so often.

“Tell me. Tell- tell daddy what you want.” There was the slightest hesitation, a tiny tinge of shame for doing this with you that got washed away as quickly as it came up by your wet cunt sliding against his cock.

“I want you inside me.” Wrapping your fingers around his cock, you stroked it slowly, unable to focus on putting it in and kissing him at the same time. Giving up with a grunt, you settled for rubbing your cunt along his shaft.

“Shit, roll over.” Flipping you with ease, Nanami grabs onto your thighs and holds them apart. Staring down at your cunt, it looks just like any other human sex organ, giving Nanami some peace of mind that he wouldn’t need to do anything too complicated to make you feel good.

You whine again when he doesn’t immediately push himself balls deep into you, instead laying on his stomach and giving your inner thighs kisses. Nanami grabs your hands, silently telling you to hold your legs apart as he delves in deeper.

One lick up your slit and you fall apart so easily, gushing around his mouth so much Nanami is sure you just had an orgasm. Greedily drinking it up, Nanami can attest that this is the best thing he’s ever tasted. Burying his face into your heat, he can’t keep his tongue in one place for too long, torn between pushing it deep inside you and licking at your swollen clit.

You’ve given up holding your legs open a while ago. As Nanami sucked on your clit, your thighs clamped down around his head and your fingers threaded through his hair. The feeling of his mouth on you was the best you’d ever experienced in your short time being alive and it was one you’d think about forever.

“Oh my- daddy, I-” Your eyes were closed so tightly you were seeing stars and you were sure Nanami couldn’t breathe anymore from how tightly you squeezed him as you came. His head thrashed side to side, tongue swiping all along your sex and inner thighs to catch all of your release.

“This is the best scientific breakthrough we’ve ever had.” Wrenching his head away before he passed out, Nanami laid limply on the bed. As the words left his mouth he remembered all those weeks ago now when you first came to him as just a tiny, glowing embryo. He never would have been able to imagine that you’d be here, turning him to lay on his back and crawling between his legs.

Grabbing the base of his cock firmly, you gave one lick to the tip before engulfing it fully in your mouth. Nanami’s back arched high off the bed in shock, surprised at the lack of hesitation from you and how easily he hit the back of your throat.

“S-slow down a little.” He panted, trying to cup your face and get you to look at him. Swatting his hand away, you let your tongue loll in your mouth as you sucked him off, easily planting your nose on his lower stomach and swallowing around him.

It must have been the pollen in the air to make him cum so quickly, Nanami reasoned with a harsh blush on his face. That was the only explanation for why he was currently spilling a thick load of cum down your throat in less than two minutes of you sucking him off.

“You taste so good, daddy.” Pulling off his cock, you licked the sides and down to his balls, gently sucking one into your mouth and looking up at him. Despite just cumming, Nanami felt another orgasm wash over him and another wave of cum came out, dribbling down the sides of his cock and onto your face.

Slapping a hand over his face, Nanami let out a few moans he’d been holding back. There was no way he would ever be able to look at you the same way after seeing your face covered in his seed.

“C’mere.” Stopping you from your current ministrations, he pulled you to lay over top of him again. Grabbing your sweaty shirt from the ground, he wiped the cum off your face, kissing your skin after he wiped it clean.

“Daddy, will you put it in already?” You cried, smacking your ass against his thighs angrily.

“Be patient, baby.” Petting down your back, Nanami shushed you, giving your ass a quick pinch before gripping the base of his cock. Keeping a hand on your hip to keep you steady, he helped you sink down on his cock, easily all the way to the hilt.

Digging your claws into his chest, you let out a loud howl. Finally you were getting what you really needed, the feeling of Nanami’s cock hugged tightly by your cunt spreading a warm feeling throughout your body.

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” He hissed as you dragged your hips upward and back down again. Sure he’d been with other women before but none like this. Your cunt squeezed him incredibly tight, making it impossible for him to do anything other than lay back and let you move however you saw fit.

You weren’t shy in your motions either, riding his cock with a dizzying confidence and nearly fumbling down into a heap of loud moans on more than one occasion. Even with all the prep before your arrival to the planet and research you’d done about sex and the human experience, nothing could have prepared you for how good it actually felt during your heat.

Nanami was sure everyone within the compound could hear what was going on in the room, your noises were as loud as they’d ever been. The sound was as beautiful as when you laughed, hypnotizing him further into compliance.

“Shit!” He cursed harshly, nails digging into the flesh of your hips as he came. As his orgasm came over him, Nanami got no break from the pleasurable waves washing over him because you refused to stop.

“More, more!” You panted, working even harder to get him to cum again. With the added vigor, more pollen released into the air and Nanami breathed in a deep mouthful. Snaking an arm around your back, Nanami rolled you over, acting on pure instinct as he pushed and pulled your body into a mating press.

“You’re so- so demanding, baby.” The pet name came without thinking, not that Nanami was doing a whole lot as he pounded the full length of his cock into you. He wasn’t sure you could hear him, even while being face to face like this. There were too many sounds in the room, the moans that left both of you freely, the wet slapping of skin against skin and the creak of the old mattress springs.

“Please, give it all to me!” Throwing your head back, your cunt spasmed around Nanami’s cock for the umpteenth time, making another gush of your release coat everything within its reach.

Nanami was sure you’d have bruises later from how hard he gripped you but right now he couldn’t find it in him to care. The only thing on his mind was fucking you so hard you stopped babbling and crying like a baby for more of him. He wanted to give you all that he had and more until he himself collapsed as well.

Pushing a hand between your bodies, when he touched your clit Nanami briefly went deaf, unprepared for the incredibly high pitched moan that left your lips. His ears were ringing fiercely but he kept going, refusing to take his eyes off the way your mouth fell open as he rubbed your clit in quick circles.

“H-how many- how many times have you cum?” He gasped, feeling the very beginnings of a burn in his thighs.

“Not enough, it’s not enough.” Thrashing your head against the mattress, you wound your arms around his shoulders. “I need more, daddy.”

“I don’t have any more.” Nanami spoke around the smothering kisses you gave him.

“You do! Just- just a few more!” He wasn’t really in a position to argue with you, you were holding onto him with far more strength than he could ever hope to possess, and while the pollen on your skin had started to diminish there was still a lot in the air that refused to let him truly come to a stop.

As if on command, Nanami felt his balls tighten up and he came again. The arms holding him up broke down and he fell on top of you, burrowing his face into your neck and holding your hips up with his hands.

“Fuck, baby-” With his eyes squeezed shut, Nanami lost track of where he actually was. Nothing mattered except for the feeling of your body underneath him and your cunt holding him in a vice grip. There wasn’t any reason to keep track of how many times he’d emptied a load inside you, so when he did it again so soon after the other one, Nanami paid it no mind.

“It’s coming!” You gasped suddenly, cradling the back of Nanami’s head as your body suddenly came to a stop. Unable to stammer out a question as to what was coming, Nanami was met with the harsh shock of your cunt getting so tight he couldn’t move any further.

Raking your fingers through his hair, you sobbed openly, words slurring together. Nanami was only able to catch something about a ‘seal’ and how you were making Mother so proud for your first heat cycle on Earth.

“Baby, what’s going on?” Craning his head down, Nanami was just barely able to see the swollen flesh of your sex encompassing his cock.

“Y-you humans would call this a knot, right?” Shifting your hips a little, you slowly unwind your legs from around Nanami and let them lay on the bed. “I have to keep you inside for a while.”

“You’re going to get pregnant though.” With his mind still in disarray, Nanami found that he didn’t actually care. He knew that was why you came to the planet and he was willing to help you fulfill your mission.

“Not this first time, I’m only keeping it for later.”

“Of course an alien has sperm storage.” Mumbling to himself, Nanami felt the aches in his body finally starting to settle in as the rest of the pollen was cleared out of the air and the world around him returned to normal. Laying down as gently as possible, Nanami rolled you onto your side and hooked your leg over him. “How long will we be like this?”

“At least another five minutes.” Snuggling closer to him, you tucked your head under his chin. Taking a deep breath, Nanami felt around for the blanket you used that had managed to stay on the bed during all the moving. Throwing it over the two of you, he let out a sigh.

“I can wait five minutes.” No doubt there was going to be a lot of explaining to do on his part, and he could possibly get fired, but Nanami refused to think about that right now. He was far too tired, and the way you cuddled into him had not an ounce of regret or shame going through him. He would do it all again in a heartbeat.

“Nanami?” You whispered, fighting through sleep.

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

Did you know what love truly was? Did you have the capacity to love him like any other human, or were you thinking of a different emotion that you wanted to convey? Maybe you loved him in a way that he couldn’t understand and never would, or perhaps you were lying to further your agenda.

“I love you too.” Kissing the top of your head, Nanami pushed all other thoughts out of his head that could lead him to a negative outcome. Focusing on the sound of your breathing, he knew you had fallen asleep, and he kissed you again. “Yeah...I love you too.”

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen smut #nanami kento #nanami x reader #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen scenarios

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royalydamned-archive · 3 years ago

Text

Last Wish

(Kingo x Reader)

Summary: Kingo left his family, refusing to fight both with them and against them. The moment he realized he was going to die, he made up his mind to make one last important confession.

|AN|: Found this in my drafts all the way from January. Edited it instead of sleeping, so it's probably not edited too well.

Also shoutout to billcwingcloaks for the movie reference.

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"Wait, where the hell are you going?"

"I still think Ikaris is right," Kingo said solemnly, darkness dancing in his softened gaze, facing something that pulled his heart and his mind in opposite directions, tearing him apart.

"So that's it, huh? Just gonna follow him?"

Follow Ikaris, help – allow – the destruction of this planet, of all the people they were supposed to protect. No, he couldn't. Kingo's own thoughts hurt, each and every one agreeing with the inevitable destruction painful, his own mind punching himself because as much as he knew stopping the birth of a Celestial was wrong, the thought of the whole humanity ending in nothing but mere hours burning him up from the inside.

"We can't win," he said in quiet defeat. They were no match, the end was inevitable, coming closer and closer, and each second seemingly approaching faster than the other. "There's no stopping this and we need to accept it."

'What do you want to do?' He smiled at Makkari, a little too sadly compared to the usual spark his eyes always shone with. 'We need you.'

Kingo nodded, yet the gesture carried the opposite meaning, his lips pressed together as peace spread through his body, knowing his fate is sealed and the future he might fear or look forward to would never come.

He has seen humans in similiar situations, when they knew how limited their time spent alive was, something in them seemed to snap, the desire to break free and not think of the consequences of their actions. As an Eternal, he had never been forced to hurry his life as it was never-ending, but now mortality has caught up to him. One thing he would never expect. The few little things he craved to try on his mind, whatever happening next insignificant.

Something inside him ached thinking of the loss, of the world crumbling apart, the terrified cries of all living slowly dying down in shortest moments patching a way for new generations – new lives. It was a sacrifice that was necessary, a sacrifice that was good, yet he despised it.

He loved Earth.

He love humans.

He loved...

He loved and he needed say it out loud, almost as if it would make the truth more real. The last thing, his death wish, consequences didn't exist, reality was ending, every sense in his mind keeping him from this now wielding no weight.

"I won't join Ikaris," Kingo said finally. "But I won't join you either. We would be fighting a pointless battle."

"We must try–"

"I love this planet," he cut through Sersi's interruption, holding out a finger towards her, to give his words more meaning or just warn her to let him speak, either way the room fell as silent as a grave, all gazes sharp and stabbing him through. "I love the people in it as much as any of you do, and I wish–I wish this wasn't happening..."

"It is," Phastos reminded him carefully. They all knew the meaning his words held, they understood him even without anything being spoken out loud, at least a bit they did.

"It is," Kingo agreed. "And I don't want to waste my last moment doing something pointless."

"So you think saving the world is pointless?"

"If you can't win then yes." With this, he pushed past the others, not looking back as he exited the Domo, barely waiting for Karun to say his goodbyes.

"Are we going home sir?" Kingo noticed traces of tears in his friend's eyes and all humor and good things to say had left him. He nodded, subconsciously grabbing the phone in his pocket, as if to make sure its still there, waiting for him to take action.

"Ah, there's something important on your mind."

"You have service here Karun?" he dodged the topic, nonchalantly trying to steer away from the serious conversation.

"Yes sir."

"Can I borrow it? Mine's not catching anything."

"Of course, of course." The man started fishing around his pockets, the tip of his tongue trapped in between his teeth, and wobbled slightly from side to side, struggling a bit to find his phone.

"You can go ahead, wait for me on the plane, I just need to make a quick call." Karun smiled at Kingo, a small knowing spark flashed across his gaze before he turned his back to him and walked away. He knew, of course he did, there was nothing that man didn't know when it came to Kingo.

He let out a long sigh, quickly dialing a familiar number by memory, his fingers typing almost on their own, it was a habit, something automatic he didn't need to control anymore. There was no way to go back, there would be no time to do this again. People often said to die regretting the things you did, not the ones you couldn't do, and Kingo had all the time of a mankind itself to thinking about the experiences, the memories, take the amazing things with him to his death: his success, his fame, the thousands of years of his life. He had plenty to regret, far worse than a few simple words, far more embarassing than the feelings he held against his will or a better judgment carried in his apparently robotic heart.

The phone rang, once, twice, seconds passing a sudden change of his mind flashed through him, almost like he jerked awake from a dream, a daze of too many things happening at once clouding his judgment. What was he doing? This wasn't him, he wasn't serious, he wasn't so upfront. He couldn't– he–

"Hello? Karun?" Your voice on the other side of the line answered and Kingo's hand shot up to his ear the second he heard you.

"Oh? Oh! Hi, this is... uhm... not Karun." He pinched the brindge of his nose with his fingers, cursing at himself in his head. Really smooth buddy.

"Kingo?"

"Yeah."

"What do you need? Did something happen?"

"No," Kingo lied and licked his lips nervously, his gaze wandering towards the Domo small in the distance, still floating above the ground. Everything was going to die. "Everything is fine, just felt like chatting, you know me."

Coward. Someone from the depths of his thoughts shouted.

You deserved to know in person. You deserved to be told better than over the phone. Or so he tried to convince himself, excuse the way he suddenly backed away.

"I do, you're very chatty."

"Incredibly, people love it, who else makes conversations as interesting as me?"

"No one, I admit that." He heard your laugh, a proud smile creeping up his lips as he listened to the delightful sound.

"Are you home?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just wanted to drop by, make sure you're still as much of a delight to look at as always, bless you with my presence." You were a great journey away, sitting at home clueless about the future, just going on about your day like it was no different to countless other before or those that would happen later on. Nobody knew. Nothing he said would linger on this earth, it didn't matter. His immortality wouldn't hurt you, he wouldn't risk grieving your death dacades later still trapped in the same ageless body as you would slowly fade away. It was all about to end at once.

"Alright, I'll be waiting."

"Great." The line beeped and for a few seconds he found himself just staring at the phone fondly, just your number glowing on the screen. No picture, no name. He had taught Karun to save his contacts one too many times by know, still, he stuck to his old ways. He envied him the luxury of not adapting if he didn't want to, missing a certain parts of the past more than the others, sometimes wishing to go back in time where everything was simpler and his family was still together.

When walked into the jet, Karun was seated comfortably, gleefuly watching the recording he acquired throughout their little family adventure.

"How did it go sir?" the man asked, a cheerful smile on his face still even after learning his fate.

"Aren't you a bit too nosy?"

"Just a little curious sir," Karun shook his head. "I like romance very much, it's beautiful, I watch 'Dilwale Dulhania Leh Jayenge' at least twice a month."

Kingo chuckled to himself. This was nothing like 'Dilwale Dulhania Leh Jayenge'. It was a cold reality, the pressure of death the only thing forcing him into action. No space for the fire of passion, or the stories of happily ever after people humans told each other on quiet evenings.

"This is not a romance movie, dear friend," he said, sadness hiding behind the thoughtful expression. How much he wished it was. So many evenings he had spent reading his scripts over and over, playing men with happy endings, who fell in love without fear, spent the rest of their lives knowing for sure that one day it would just...end. Sometimes he envied them, wishing for his existence to be so simple, now even craving to be more than someone's luxury appliance for destruction.

"There are those with sad endings."

"Nobody likes those."

"My wife loved them." Kingo raised an eyebrow at the man, a small amused grin spreading across his face.

"That's a bit worrying."

"What I wanted to say, sir, not every movie ends well. Like Romeo and Juliet–"

"–not a movie–" he piped in, but Karun ignored him.

"–they both died, just like you will," his valet beamed, however, the smile dropped into a serious expression once he saw the way he was looking at him. "Which is very sad, of course."

An awkward silence filled the space between them, heavy with the worries in Kingo's heart. Karun wanted to help, he always wanted to help, only nothing could make this better.

It made him wonder why he wasn't scared, or didn't seem to at all, given the fast approaching demise.

The rest of the journey they spent in silence, Kingo looking out of the window, too many things running across his mind. Words he planned on saying and words he was too scared to; the whole time gathering the courage to truly look you into the eyes and say whatever he held back, hid inside him, for so long. He winced in emberassment whenever he caught himself thinking in such soppy way and if it were any other time, he would make fun of himself on his own.

When they landed, his mind shouted in protest as he moved, trying to talk sense, but his legs like with a brain on their own. His whole existence conflicted, more than once thinking back about the others, how he chose something selfish instead of staying with them. Instead of trying. But he couldn't die without you knowing, no matter the conflicted feelings.

Before he knew it, he was at your door, knocking nervously, shifting his weight from his heels to the toes and back while he waited for you to answer, box of chocolate in his hands. It was dumb, but it was the best idea he could come up with in the given moment.

"Took you long enough." Were your first word when you spotted him standing at your doorway, eyes fixated on the ceiling making it almost seem like he was praying. "Where did you call me from, Cuba?"

"Something like that." Kingo muttered, just staring at you, unable to find the right word to start. Till now he hadn't really knew the weight of what he planned to do, he didn't think about what he would say, words always coming naturally to him, he regretted it.

Silently, Kingo handed you the box, his gaze bearing into you, uninterrupted even with such a thing as blinking. His mouth opened, lips waiting to form a sound that never came.

"What, is it my birthday?" you smirked, taking the chocolates from him. Normally, he would return the witty remark, he really would, but that was not the time. Not the place.

Not the world.

"Nothing? You're starting to scare me."

"Can I come in?"

"Kingo, what's wrong?" you urged, ignoring his question just like he ignored yours. You were both living two different situations.

He felt like prisoner awaiting his death sentence, feeling the tight knot in his chest, the cold breath just at the nape of his neck. It was almost like time was no longer a concept, but a real force actively pushing against him, fighting and winning.

"Have you ever thought about what would be your last wish?" he said quietly, examining your eyes like they were the only thing he wanted to remember. They carried the galaxy Kingo cared the most about – your soul – and he found them the most beautiful he had ever seen. Even not remembering his past lives, he was certain none other could stand a chance against you.

You frowned, taken back. You weren't really prepared for something like that. Not from him. It was always just a friendly banter, poking fun and even the most serious moment turned into one filled with laughter. Kingo was the sunshine you always turned to, like a flower desperate for its light. That solemn man was not your sun.

"Theoretically," he quickly added when he saw your expression, almost hearing the doubt in your mind. Of course you knew something was wrong.

"Just...come inside." You gave up quite quickly, sensing it was not the time for games. Something was wrong and it was too visible on a cheerful face like his.

Stepping back, you opened the door enough for him to slide by, your bodies and clothes briefly touching as he passed. Neither of you tried to think about it just like all those times before where you both were just a little too close.

Soft click sounded from behind him as you closed the door, but Kingo couldn't bring himself to turn around and face you. It was easier, with his back turned to you, hiding the face his face twisted, how his gaze fell to your lips when he was too weak to resist.

"Kingo?" you asked into the heavy silence and only a quiet humm was your answer. "Talk to me?"

"Believe it or not, I don't know how."

A sad smile creeped to you lips as you watched his back and you remembered his question. "What would be your last wish?" You couldn't see his face, but his body twitched like he was about to turn around and stopped himself the very last second.

Maybe for the first time in his life, Kingo was truly scared. This was the only chance he could get, to open his stupidly synthetic heart to you, that beat all the same as a human one, and not fear what would happen if you rejected him. Not fear what would happen if you didn't.

Yet, at the same time, the thought of dying with the knowledge of your rejection, of him destroying all that you had and what he held dear, was still there.

"You know you can tell me anything," you whispered, trying to encourage him as you heard the tension and uneasiness hanging in the air above you.

He chuckled, dryly and ironically, as if all his good humor had left him, and turned to face you. Once again memorizing the shadows over your face, creases of your skin. He could remind himself of your humanity; of that one thing he thought he knew so much about and pitied the Earth for having to carry as a burden. As he watched you however, sculpting your image forever into his memories, hoping that in his next life he wouldn't forget you if he tried just hard enough, he wished to share the vulnerability of a human body.

Life seemed to be worth more if you knew it could end anytime.

"I wanted to keep this a secret, but I think you deserve to know." If you wanted to live the last moments elsewhere, with people you cared about, or had a wish just like his, you deserved to have the freedom to do it. To die the way you wouldn't regret. You are the one who only had this one short-short life.

"Yes?"

"The world is ending." You raised your eyebrows, an amused smile slowly spreading through your face, but disappearing when you saw no hint of humor in his features. Usually he would smirk, laugh at you for falling for something so obvious and maybe reveal the chocolate box was full of baby carrots, or something similiar. Not this time. "Wait, you're serious?"

"A really big alien is going to tear the Earth apart." The way he said it, like it was something ordinary, something he had made peace with, and just accepted the the destruction awaiting everyone. It must have meant he was messing with you. Why else would he be so calm?

"How do you even know this?"

"My family–" he stopped himself, trying to think if the best way to phrase it, "we...might have something to do with it."

"Kingo–!"

"That's unimportant right now!" He cut you off.

"Unimportant?!"

"Unimportant," he agreed. "So why don't you go and do that last wish thing we talked about?" Kingo hugged you around the shoulders, flashing you the usual charming smile, but it was stiff and as forced as his movements seemed to be.

"No." You freed yourself from his grasp. "You can't just say this to a person and not expect questions."

"Okay," he answered quietly and ran a hand through his hair. "Ask."

"What is happening? And start from the beginning."

From the beginning he did start. A bit more literally than you wanted him to. It felt like a knowledge you weren't supposed to have, but he kept going, every information crazier than the last and it all felt either like the craziest dream or the worst possible lie. So you just stayed silent and listened. About his family, about history and about he beginning of mankind. About Kingo's eternal life and a plan of the birth of new worlds; and the destiny of yours. He told you about the possibilities of rebirth and innovation, the sacrifice this world had to make.

"So you think the billions of innocent people aren't worth saving?" You asked him when he finished. His expression turned blue, he didn't shine as bright as you knew him, the weight of this knowledge heavy on his shoulders. He wasn't evil, you knew it, but you refused to believe he would let so many people die.

"It's more complicated than that." Kingo understood your anger, just like he understood the anger of his family. The desperation and naive hope that maybe with enough effort, destiny could change. His faith was strong, or so he assumed his whole life on Earth, but when he looked at the pain twisting your face, the fear hiding behind the tears in your eyes, his faith wavered.

"Why are you really here, Kingo?" you whispered and held his dark warm gaze. His lips parted as he drew in a sharp breath, but stopped himself from answering the very first thing that fell on his tongue. "No," you stopped him from another lie. Another attempt to dodge and escape from what he truly wanted to say. "The truth."

You knew him, you knew him too well. None of his true intentions could be hidden, not in such an open moment, not when he wanted to say everything he had been hiding for God knows how long. "This is my last wish," he admitted, the weight in his chest lighter, allowing him to feel the wild beating of his heart.

"Letting me know I will die?"

Kingo shook his head and stepped closer to you, his hand came resting on your cheek, caressing the skin with his thumb. He didn't look at you first, pondering over the possibilities, discussing with himself whether it was worth it. Hurting you both this way. But like he heard some say: love was pain. It didn't matter, you wouldn't have to bear it too long. "Letting you know, that I love you."

He heard the way your breath hitched in your throat and could feel the regret. Guilt over what he had now forced you to face. You didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve his selfishness, you didn't deserve to die.

Nobody did.

An apology was already forming in his mind, wishing he could take it back and let you live in a world in which death didn't await you, where your death wasn't his fault.

However, as he was about to speak, try to save as much as he could, fix as much damage he had done on you, your hands cupped his face, pulling him close and silencing all his words with your lips. Just briefly, for a few seconds, just like you were unsure, either with yourself or the meaning of his words. Whether they were serious or the most though-out joke.

When you pulled away, worry written in the crease between your brows and he wanted to be selfish just for a few more seconds. Feel the kiss, your warmth and your touch before his very last bad decision. Maybe last decision ever.

His hand sneaked around your middle, crashing your body against his in an embrace, allowing you to be as close as he wanted, and sealed your lips back together. It was needier than before, he couldn't let go, all he needed to breath and feel was you.

Your hands came into his hair, subconsciously backing away as he pushed you against the wall, not once breaking the contact between the two of you, until your back hit the hard surface behind.

Kingo didn't seem satisfied and his lips left your mouth, smirking as he saw you whine in protest, and started kissing the outline of your jaw, pulling you even closer when you moaned and dug your fingertips into his shoulders, urging him on.

He moved down your neck, butterfly kisses turning into more passionate, sucking the skin and kissing it right after, breathing in the scent lingering everywhere in you body.

"Kingo," you cried out, hugging him tighter to yourself, read to plead for him to continue, to never stop, when his lips left your neck.

"You're right," he whispered to you, your faces so close you were breathing as one, and your lids almost fluttered closed every when your noses accidentally bumped into each other. "They are worth saving."

You looked up to meet his eyes, gentle, with the saddest smile that could ever adorn his handsome features, and smiled when he cupped your cheek with his hand once again. "You are worth saving."

With those words, he placed last gentle kiss on your lips, as a goodbye and a promise of seeing each other again. A promise that he will come back. To you.

"Please don't die."

Kingo smirked, some playful mischief back in the way he looked at you. Finally something you recognized, something that was the same as the old times. "I wouldn't dare. That was not even foreplay."

With a wink, he was gone. Off to save the world, back to his family, leaving you wanting and hoping to see him again. To have more than just a few desperate stolen moments to share. A lifetime together.

He could never have you for eternity. People age and die, fade from the memories of living, but stay in the hearts of those who loved them. Your memory will never fade. Kingo will carry it forever in his eternal heart.

#kingo x reader #eternals x reader #kingo x you #eternals x you

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elysianslove · 4 years ago

Note

are requests open?? if so may we get some best friends to lover hcs for gojou-sensei 🥺😽

hi!! omg thank you for requesting this, and i really hope you enjoy!!! kiss kiss mwah <3

i think that, because of his personality, it would be easy to be drawn to him

like he just seems so

intriguing

so early on, before he became a teacher, the two of you met on a mission

the both of you were assigned to deal with this curse, and the way the two of you moved

it was incredible

this had been the first time you’d have had to work with him, but it went so well. the two of you fought like you’d been doing it for years

to the untrained eye, you’d grown up fighting alongside each other

and that’s inevitably what drew you together as partners

of course, the two of you understood each other’s boundaries, and respected that yk each of you have separate lives and occasionally, you’d wanna go on missions alone

but neither of you hesitated to contact each other if needed

or just for old time’s sake

when he began teaching at tokyo prefectural jujutsu high school, he invited you to come teach with him, telling you that he knew no one more capable

ur like aw stop 😏

but obviously ur par w the satoru gojō like 🤑

u don’t officially teach but he asks u to come along w him during missions w his students

as a best friend, he’s extremely reliable

and insanely trustworthy

but also

can be really annoying <3

in the middle of battling out w a curse he’ll straight up be throwing puns at you

like baby now is really not the time but i see what u did there

(this isn’t really following an arc or timeline btw)

at some point he invites you w him on a mission where yuuji’s there

listen yuuji’s dense but even he can see the chemistry between you two

(and the sexual tension)

thing is maybe you realized you’re growing steadily closer to gojō

and that you’re more protective of each other

touchier with each other

the source of teasing differs

but you never really gave it much thought because he’d been your partner and friend for so long that it had only felt natural to grow closer

like nothing felt out of place

but that was only bc it was mutual hehe 👁👅👁

anyways after the mission you guys won yay everybody’s happy

u n gojo are like breathless but just cracking jokes and making fun of the little slip ups that happened

yuuji kinda cocked his head to the side n was like

“are u two together?”

he really did mean it innocently bless his heart

the two of you freeze

people have assumed this before

whenever u were out together or from some of gojo’s other students when they’d be like “omg u guys would make such a cute couple” yk those students

but for some reason

this time it felt

shocking to hear

the same time you go “uh, no” gojō says “not yet”

and then you freeze again

u turn to gojō like ⁉️⁉️❓❗️‼️‼️

and he just shrugs and starts walking away

nicki minaj posses u for a moment and u go

just answer the question please don’t play w me rn

the tension is coming off of you two in waves yikes

yuuji just kinda

🏃🏻‍♀️

outta there

leaves u two together

and you reach out for gojō, stopping him for walking any further, and turning him around to face you

and then you ask

“what did you mean by not yet?”

he just kinda smiles slyly down at you (bc mf is way too tall) and goes “i think it’s self explanatory, right?”

you’re getting kind of annoyed and you just huff and go “if this is a joke, satoru, it isn’t funny.”

he gets all serious when he hears you say that and kinda frowns

“it’s not,” he confirms. and then you can visibly feel yourself kind of relax

you ask him, “do you really mean it?” and he nods

you’ve battled the worst of curses okay

you’ve been nearly beaten to death

you’ve faced situations where you honestly don’t even know to this day how you’ve survived

but nothing was scaring you more than standing before satoru gojō underneath only the moon’s light right now

but he knows you

so well by now

like the back of his hand

and he just raises a single hand to cup your cheek, returning you back to the present and grounding you to the earth beneath you and just calling for your attention

he says, “i can feel you panicking,” and offers a small smile. he tells you that it doesn’t have to mean anything until you decide

and then he says, “i’ll be waiting for you, always.”

just that sentence confirms for you your own feelings, and with a sudden burst of courage, you push yourself up and press a chaste kiss to his lips

it was super quick, barely anything, but it still erupted warmth from your head to your toe

“you don’t have to wait.”

i will never get tired of best friends to lovers pls

at first it’s slightly clumsy, the shift from best friend’s to lovers

you guys want to act the way you normally do

but you always want to kiss and hold hands and do all these couple stuff

and you’re not sure when to do what

but slowly you ease into it

you realize that being best friends with him isn’t too far off from being his lover

except now you have the privilege of kissing him and holding his hand

yeah speaking of kissing he loves to do it

so much

like too much

he says he’s making up for lost time like 🤔 ok sir whatever u say

he’s also a lot more freely affectionate after missions now

straight up will make out w you afterwards and claims he’s only celebrating

missions are a lot more nerve wracking than they used to be

bc he’s even more worried about you now

but it’s okay he knows u can handle yourself 😏

anyways he really does love you with all his heart and would do anything to keep you safe

all while annoying you to death with the endless amount of puns he seems to have 💖

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanon #saturo gojo x reader #gojo x reader #satoru x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagine #gojo imagine

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bitsandbobsofwriting · 4 years ago

Text

Soulmate AU part 2; Things drastically change for the better:

Arthur and Merlin’s relationship develops, Uther becomes increasingly annoyed at his failed attempts to control them, Leon continues to have heart palpitations over trying to protect them, and Morgana thinks the whole thing is hilarious.

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

So that conversation... happens.

To say it was awkward would be a MASSIVE understatement.

Arthur and Morgana spend the whole time answering Uther’s questions, so much so that Merlin barely speaks (he wasn’t great at keeping secrets, so he wasn’t too mad at them for answering for him) and Uther spends the whole time trying and failing to assert his dominance over his two dumbass kids (but they aren’t having it).

Eventually Merlin did speak up, quietly saying:

“I, um... I’m really sorry to interrupt Sire, My Lord... uh... Your Majesty Sir-”

Morgana smirks slightly and covers her mouth with her hand, Arthur rolls his eyes and squeezes Merlin’s hand, and Uther looks upon the whole scene with barely concealed bewilderment:

“-uh... my mum is waiting for me, and I’m usually not gone for this long so... could I... I mean would you mind if I... went?”

Uther looked even more taken aback at that. As much as this whole conversation had been based on Merlin, he hadn’t actually processed the fact that he was a whole person who would have family and places to be and a life outside of being The Prince’s soulmate.

He nods his head slightly and purses his lips:

“Right. Of course. Arthur said that you lived outside of Camelot?-”

He doesn’t wait for an answer before continuing:

“-Well I’m afraid that that is unacceptable. You are the soulmate of the Prince of this kingdom, inform your family that you are to move here as soon as possible, preferably before the month is out.-”

At Merlin’s wide eyes and Arthur and Morgana’s scornful faces, he waved his hand:

“-Don’t worry, housing and anything else that you will require will be provided by the Crown.”

Merlin still looks a bit dazed and surprised at his demand, so Arthur replies instead:

“Father, Merlin and his mother have a life in their village, you can not just demand that they pack up and leave everything behind to live here.”

Uther looks annoyed at this, but patiently (or as patiently as Uther is able) retorts with:

“Well he was going have to move eventually. The two of you are only a few years from being of age, and you can not possibly live in separate kingdoms when that happens, especially as you are Crown Prince. I’m allowing this... bond... to continue, but we are still royalty, and rules must be followed.”

Morgana goes to argue this time, but Merlin tugs her sleeve slightly and says quietly:

“It’s alright ‘Gana, he is right, I was going to have to move here eventually anyway. This way you finally get to meet my mum, and we’ll get to see each other more often. Mum won’t like it, but I know she’s missed Gaius, so it won’t be too bad, and I’ve always sort of wanted to explore the city.”

Morgana and Arthur stare at him for a few moments whilst he looks between them. Arthur sighs before replying:

“Fine, but only if you’re sure. And take your time, don’t pressure your mum into leaving right away, OK?”

Merlin nods, and everyone at the table stands, stepping back.

Uther mutters that they are dismissed, but watches as they say goodbye to each other. He furrows his eyebrows in interest as Morgana hugs Merlin, mentally noting that he doesn’t think he’s ever seen her smile that widely before.

When Arthur embraces Merlin, much tighter, and for much longer, a hand cradling the back of the peasant’s-... of Merlin’s head, and a soft, but powerful smile on his face, Uther forgets for a moment the distastefulness of the situation, and revels in the feeling of pride and happiness; his son had found his life partner.

The King sweeps any thoughts of his late-wife from his mind, and drops the small smile gracing his face, but not before Morgana spies it and tilts her head at him, giving him a teasing smirk.

The boys whisper something that Uther can’t hear, and Merlin steps back, giving him a quick bow and an awkward wave, before disappearing into thin air. A familiar pop echoes around the hall, and a few gold sparks fall silently to the floor.

Arthur and Morgana bow to him very briefly, before turning and leaving the room without another word, arm in arm.

Uther stands alone in the room for a moment, sighing before muttering to himself:

“This is going to be a bloody nightmare. Public announcement. Before that I have to tell the council. And I have to figure out how I can legally make these people nobles, to justify everything-”

He looks to the ceiling, sighing once again as he says:

“-Gods give me strength.” Before turning and sweeping out the room.

The moment Arthur and Morgana leave the room, they turn to each other and burst into slightly hysterical laughter, sputtering about “the look on his face” and “oh my gods, *sire my lord your majesty sir* ” between breaths.

The whole situation was unexpected, but to be perfectly honest, they didn’t regret it; they knew that the longer they waited before telling Uther, the bigger the problem would be.

Morgana straightens up after a moment, wiping tears from her eyes, before whipping her head around to Arthur in sudden panic:

“Oh my Gods, Arthur. Leon.”

Arthur’s eyes widen, and he curses suddenly before taking Morgana’s hand and running towards his chambers. They almost ran into multiple people, Nobles who tutted, and castle staff who jumped out of the way, not even having time to bow before the two teenagers were out of sight again.

They loudly burst into Arthur’s chambers, out of breath, to see Leon pacing a groove into the floor:

They stand with their hands on their knees, panting, but before they can say anything, Leon rushes to speak:

“Where on earth have you been?? A guard said you were in a meeting with the King all afternoon, what happened? Is Merlin ok?? They wouldn’t let me in, so I came back here to wait but-”

Arthur held up a hand to stop him rambling, and gave him a comforting smile. The Prince straightened up, and took one last deep breath before saying:

“Sorry, for worrying you Leon. But you are not going to believe what just happened...”

Morgana starts laughing again, and with that, the two of them shut the door behind them and explain in great detail what had happened, how Merlin had just appeared and Uther had freaked, and Gaius and Geoffrey had to be called, and how funny the look on his face was when they’d explained.

Arthur had wanted to skip it out, but Morgana gleefully insisted on recounting just how much she and Arthur had ordered Uther around, and how he’d just taken it.

By the end of their explanation, Leon had collapsed in a chair, looking very pale, and a lot like he’d aged twenty years.

He holds his head in his hands, fingers messing up his curls, and stares at the floor as Arthur and Morgana glance to each other, trying not to laugh at the poor man.

After what seems to be hours, Leon straightens up, and looks to the two of them with a stricken expression:

“I can’t believe that... well I suppose he had to find out eventually but... dear Lord I can’t decide if I’m grateful I wasn’t there or not... oh my Gods I’m going to be demoted, disowned, banished.”

Arthur laughs at that and Morgana rolls her eyes at the man’s panic:

“Nothing’s going to happen to you Sir Leon, don’t panic. We didn’t mention you, as far as my father is concerned, the only ones who knew were us.”

Leon finally smiles briefly at that, muttering a quiet thank you, before standing up suddenly, looking panicked once again:

“Wait... you said he’d be moving here?? What about his... gift?? He can’t live in Camelot it’s dangerous. You may have protected him from the King for now but... if he finds out nothing will stop him from... nothing will stop him.”

The two of them sighed at that. They had been mentally considering it, but they were just taking it one victory at a time. Arthur replied moments later:

“We’ll just have to be careful. He has to be careful in Ealdor anyway, he’s already a bastard, he had to hide magic from the other villagers because it probably would’ve been fatal for him to give them a second reason to hate him. We can set ground rules when he actually moves here and... we just have to be careful. It’ll be a new life for him and his mother, we can be careful.”

He says the last bit with a decisive nod, and Morgana and Leon relax slightly. Arthur was right, they’d been fine so far, they could keep it up.

He would never say it out loud, but if his father found out... if he tried to hurt Merlin, Arthur knows without a doubt in his mind that he would give up his inheritance, take Merlin’s hand, and run. Without hesitation.

He would love nothing more than to turn his kingdom into a place where Merlin could be free and happy one day, but until then, he would do anything to keep him safe, even if it meant leaving everything behind.

The next few weeks rush by.

Uther had tried to limit the number of visits between Merlin and Arthur, but neither of them were having it, and if anything, they were seeing each other more with the upcoming move.

Hunith did in fact freak out at Uther’s demand of her and Merlin moving to Camelot. For several reasons.

First off, she had a life here. It was difficult, but simple, honest work. The winters were hard, but the summers made up for it. The villagers may have started of being a little cruel to her and Merlin, but they warmed to them when the dark haired boy was nothing but sweet and kind to everyone.

Second off, her son was magical. Both naturally and unnaturally magical. Essetir was dangerous, yes, but Camelot? Camelot was so much worse.

She supposes it had to happen eventually. She didn’t like to think of it often, didn’t want to tempt fate, but her son was the Crown Prince’s soulmate. That meant that one day... he would be married to the King. He couldn’t exactly do that whilst living in Essetir, least of all because the Essetir Crown would throw a world ending fit.

In the end, she agreed to the move rather quickly, at least she would be close to her brother, and she could finally meet Leon and Morgana.

As much as Merlin and Arthur urged her not to rush, she really had nothing to do but say goodbye before they made the journey to Camelot, and the three of them were leaving the village behind them within the month, just like Uther wanted.

Though he definitely hadn’t wanted Arthur to pop away one morning, a full travel pack and a sword on his person, intending to make the journey with them. But in the end, Arthur ended the argument by rolling his eyes (much to Morgana’s amusement) and disappearing before The King could get another word in.

No public announcements had been made (they decided to wait until Arthur came of age), but the council had been informed. They were NOT happy.

Uther would never admit it, but he did feel a swell of pride when Arthur slammed his hand on the table, and firmly told them that this was happening whether they liked it or not, and if they dared complain instead of help, they would find themselves without a chair at the table, and severely lacking in titles and land.

Uther was relieved when he found out that Hunith was Gaius’ younger sister. Gaius wasn’t a noble, but he was a life-long, close friend of the King, and a trusted advisor. Hopefully that would make it easier.

The Court Physician wasn’t a title that came with land, or nobility, BUT it was the most respected position in the royal household, below actual nobles.

If Gaius could take Merlin on as his apprentice... then he would be an almost fully trained physician by the time he came of age, and that would be respected. Then at least he would have a role outside of being the Prince’s Soulmate.

It was all coming together in Uther’s mind. Of course it wasn’t perfect. The absolute ideal outcome would’ve been if Arthur’s soulmate had been foreign royalty (if only anyone knew about Merlin’s father...), but he could make do with this. He would have to, if he didn’t want to lose his son and his ward.

The day of Hunith, Arthur, and Merlin’s arrival finally comes.

Uther didn’t greet them in the courtyard (it would be unsightly for a King to greet two commoners, even if The Prince was with them) but Gaius, Morgana, and Leon did.

Everyone breaks into wide smiles when the castle gates are opened, Arthur and Merlin rushing forward to meet Morgana and Leon in a big hug, and Hunith rushing forward to meet her brother, whom she hadn’t seen in several years.

There is laughter and hugs all around before Merlin finally steps back and takes his mother’s hand, realising he should probably give actual introductions:

“Mum, this is The Lady Morgana, ward of the King-”

Morgana gives Hunith a wide smile and curtsy, before stepping forward and giving her a brief hug. Morgana was very touch averse with everyone but Merlin, Arthur, and Leon, but in her books, any woman who raised Merlin into the young man he had become, was a woman who deserved her trust. And a hug:

“-and this is Sir Leon, Knight of the King.”

Leon took Hunith’s hand, placing a brief kiss on her knuckles before stepping back respectfully. Hunith quickly followed him, and to his great surprise, wrapped the taller man in a tight hug. He wraps his arms around her after a few moments in shock, when she whispers in his ear:

“Thank you for keeping my boys safe.”

He steps back, a wide smile on his face and his hands on her shoulders. He replies quietly so that only she would hear him:

“It has been my genuine pleasure, and I plan to continue to do so for the remainder of my service.”

Hunith gives him an even wider smile, and pats his hand, before the two of them step back. The others watch on in adoration, before Leon clears his throat and addresses the group:

“I have been instructed to show the two of you to your new residence, before you are to meet with the King.”

Arthur steps back before saying regretfully:

“Unfortunately, Gaius and I should go and meet with my father immediately. Leon, you lead the way, we shall remain with him until you return and we can get this over with.”

He says the last bit with a grimace, and Morgana gives him a sympathetic smile as Merlin squeezes his hand.

The group separates, Arthur and Gaius heading up the castle steps, and Leon leading the rest of them back out the gates.

Hunith and Merlin had been gifted a small house in the upper city, close to the castle, but not within it’s walls. Arthur had argued endlessly against that, saying they deserved chambers inside the castle, but Hunith was the one who refused.

She wasn’t nobility, and she enjoyed her simple life. She had already given up her farming and livestock, she refused to be cooped up in a giant stone castle where she would have nothing to do, and didn’t understand how anything worked.

Arthur finally saw the sense in that, he can understand that it would be difficult for Merlin and Hunith to live in the castle. He hated to admit it, but they would certainly be looked down on, and Arthur was almost of age, he didn’t have the time to spend all day entertaining Merlin, even if he wanted nothing more than to spend all day every day with him.

The house was small, but still three times the size of their place back in Ealdor. They had separate bedrooms, a large kitchen/dining area, a small storage room, and an extra room for relaxing (”City folk call them living rooms apparently.”). There was a small, fenced off grass area out the front, which Hunith was particularly excited about; she wouldn’t have to give up growing things after all.

The home came fully furnished, and Hunith was speechless at the large, comfortable beds, the soft chairs, and the abundance of cooking equipment. The living room also had a large hearth, and two ceiling-high bookshelves, though they were empty.

Once Hunith had had a good look around (the others had already seen it, and Arthur had been checking with Merlin at every step to see if he approved), Morgana excitedly grabs her hand and drags her back to the slightly larger of the two bedrooms.

Merlin follows confusedly, but Leon follows with a small smile on his face, he had seen what Morgana was planning, despite her best attempts to keep it secret.

Morgana finally stands Hunith in front of the wardrobe and gestures for her to open it. The older woman opens the doors with a little hesitation, before stepping back and gasping, her hands over her mouth.

Morgana grins proudly before speaking to a speechless Hunith:

“My gift to you. I organised a few things for Merlin as well. Of course they’ll all have to be adjusted because I could only pass on to the tailor Arthur and Merlin’s descriptions of you. I thought that could be something nice you and me could do at some point in the next few days, after you’ve settled.”

Merlin steps around Leon to try and see what’s got everyone so wound up, and takes in a quiet gasp at what he sees. The wardrobe is filled with new, tailor made dresses, a few thick cloaks, and two pairs of good quality shoes. Two of the dresses were incredibly nice, royal-gala kind of nice, and the others were a mix of practical, casual, smart.

He smiles widely, tears in his eyes at what Morgana had done for his mum. He’s always felt a little guilty at being the soulmate of royalty, but not being able to provide her with more than she had, but that changed, starting now.

Hunith finally rips her gaze from the new clothes, staring at Morgana:

“I can’t possibly...-”

Morgana’s tilted head and raised eyebrow forces Hunith to change tracks. The boys have told her how stubborn Morgana was, she has a feeling she wouldn’t be able to return the gifts:

“-I don’t know how to thank you, My Lady.”

Morgana rolls her eyes fondly, and brings her into a hug before stepping back:

“Oh none of that “My Lady” shit, and you don’t have to thank me, you and Merlin are part of the family now.”

Merlin gives her a grateful smile over his mum’s shoulder, which she returns, before Leon speaks up:

“I’m sure you can find time to get them all properly fitted in the coming days Morgana, for now we should get back up to the castle. I imagine The King and The Prince are waiting for us.”

Morgana nods, and Hunith subtly wipes her eyes, before allowing The King’s ward to intertwine their arms. Merlin smiles at the sight (he knew they would get along) before turning and following Leon out the house, and back up towards the castle.

Merlin was only a little nervous, he’d met the King multiple times now, and whilst the man was always painfully polite, it was clear that it was only because the whole situation bewildered him a little. But he’d never met his mother yet, and this next meeting would make the rest of his life go very smoothly, or very difficultly.

Leon pauses a moment outside the door to the throne room, glancing back at Merlin, who takes a deep breath before standing straight and nodding.

Leon smiles encouragingly at him, before pushing the doors open and walking into the room.

Arthur, Uther, and Gaius were stood in front of the thrones quietly discussing something, but look up when they hear the doors open.

Arthur smiles widely and walks forward, giving Merlin a brief hug (which Morgana lovingly rolls her eyes at, they’ve only been apart for half an hour) and Uther straightens his back, before walking forwards regally, a practiced blank look on his face. Gaius gives his sister a reassuring smile, but stays back.

Leon and Merlin bow (Leon deeply, before stepping aside, and Merlin briefly and shallowly) and Hunith curtsied as best she could with Morgana protectively gripping her arm.

Arthur and Merlin stand next to the girls, hand in hand (Uther’s mind bounces between wanting to smile fondly, and wanting to grimace at the PDA), and Uther stops just in front of Hunith:

“Welcome to Camelot, your swift arrival was pleasing.”

Hunith nods, a polite, but strained smile on her face:

“Thank you, My Lord. Anything to make the boys lives easier.”

Uther clenches his jaw, and Morgana has to hide a smirk at the implication that she’d only moved to help out the boys, and not because Uther had ordered it.

“Of course. I hope your new home was to your liking?”

Hunith nodding in reply, the smile on her face a little brighter this time:

“Yes, My Lord, it’s wonderful, I can not thank you enough for providing it. I look forward to exploring your city.”

Uther nods slightly before saying:

“Yes, yes, it’s rather lovely this time of year. The Crown will provide a small allowance for a time, until you can get yourself on your feet. I’ve already discussed it with Gaius, and arrangements have been made for Merlin to become the physician’s apprentice, at Gaius’ earliest convenience.”

“Thank you, I’m sure it won’t be long before I can find work, in such a bustling city.”

Uther nods tersely, before turning back towards Gaius. He waves his hand dismissively over his shoulder as he says:

“I have other matters to attend to for the rest of the afternoon. Sir Leon, Arthur and Morgana, you have the rest of the day off to show our new... residents, around. You’re all dismissed.-”

Leon is the only one who bothers bowing to Uther’s back, and Morgana raises an eyebrow at him, before rolling her eyes and turning to leave, dragging Hunith with her, closely followed by the boys.

Just before Leon can exit the room, Uther turns around hurriedly:

“-Before I forget, Sir Leon, I would like a word.”

Leon turns around after wiping the panic from his face. He shuts the door after the others, who look at him worriedly, before turning around to face The King:

“My Lord?”

Uther settles an assessing gaze on the knight, and Leon has to stop himself from gulping in response. Uther sighs, and speaks after a moment:

“After paying a little more attention to the relationships between yourself, the boys, and Morgana, I have realised something. You obviously knew of this... relationship, long before I did. Do no deny it.-”

Leon does gulp at that, but before he can defend himself, Uther asks:

“Can I trust that it would have been brought to my attention had anything problematic started?”

Leon widens his eyes in shock, before gathering his thoughts and replying, injecting as much confidence in his voice as possible:

“Of course, My Lord. I kept a close eye on them myself, and made sure that the Prince’s safety was my highest priority at all times. Had anything worrying happened, I would have come to you immediately. I am loyal to the throne, My Lord.”

(A big fat lie considering the whole “Merlin is a sorcerer” thing, but the King certainly doesn’t need to know that.)

Uther nods thoughtfully, before meeting Leon’s gaze again:

“Good. I am glad that Arthur has someone looking out for him. I trust you will continue this?”

Leon nods:

“Of course, My Lord.”

Uther nods once again:

“Excellent. Make sure none of... this, interferes with his studies. You are dismissed.”

Leon bows deeply, before leaving the room. He shuts the door behind him, leaning on it and taking a deep breath, before looking up to meet the worried gazes of the others, who had waited for him. He smiles shakily:

“Nothing bad, I’ll tell you later. Come on, let’s show these two around the upper-town.”

Arthur fixes him with a scrutinizing gaze, but Leon meets it (Arthur has yet to win a staring contest against Leon, in fact, Morgana was the only one who ever came close), and after a moment, Morgana shakes her head, and begins to walk down the corridor, the boys trailing after her and Hunith.

They spend the rest of the afternoon showing Merlin and Hunith around the upper-town. The tour leads them around the market, the town square (where the well is) and other important fixtures of the town, such as the tailor, blacksmith’s, and some of Morgana’s favourite shops (Uther hated it, but Morgana and Arthur regularly sneak out of the castle to spend time in the city).

By the time the sun sets, the group is relaxed and getting on well. Merlin knew Morgana and Leon would love his mum, but it was still nerve-wracking, and he was overjoyed by how well it was going.

The kitchen of Hunith and Merlin’s new home had yet to be stocked, so they stopped off at some street vendors before heading back to the house. Hunith tried to argue when Arthur insisted on paying, but she was shut down pretty quickly when Arthur reminded her that he was The Prince, he could more than afford it, and anyway, “I like contributing to the local businesses, I wouldn’t be a Prince if I didn’t have my people around me, I like to give back where I can.”

Leon and Morgana smiled proudly at that, but the smiles on Hunith and Merlin’s face were more fond.

(Morgana quietly thinks about how differently he would’ve been without Merlin to ground him. With a father like Uther, Arthur easily could’ve turned into an absolute prat.)

They stay together long into the evening, talking and laughing, before Leon finally says it’s time to go. Morgana, Hunith, and Merlin may have tomorrow free, but Leon and Arthur had training early, followed by a day full of meetings.

Morgana smirked at Arthur’s grumbling, but dutifully stood up. The three of them give Hunith and Merlin tight hugs, before leaving them alone, heading back to the castle.

Hunith and Merlin sit in comfortable silence, wide smiles on their faces, before Merlin breaks the silence:

“So what do you think? I know Uther is a bit of a prat, but he’ll want to see as little of us as possible, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Do you... like it here?”

Hunith smiles at him fondly, and runs her hands through his hair when he rests his head on her lap:

“You’ve really made a life for yourself here, haven’t you Merlin? I’m proud of you. Lady Morgana and Sir Leon are exactly how I expected them to be. The house is far more than I expected, but I’m grateful, and I’m sure it won’t take me long to find a job. I’ll always miss our rural village, but nothing is stopping us from visiting every once in a while, to get away from the city, and we have a nice little garden here.-”

Merlin closes his eyes, soothed by his mother’s fingers in his hair, and hums thoughtfully before Hunith continues:

“-You know, I had always considered sending you here to apprentice under Gaius when you were older anyway. Funny, how things turn out. Though perhaps I should’ve realised that nothing was going to go to plan when the little blond boy that appeared in my kitchen all those years ago turned out to be foreign royalty.”

Merlin huffs out a laugh from when he laid, and responded sleepily:

“Yeah. You know I don’t even think of him as royalty, most of the time. He’s just... Arthur.”

Hunith smiles gently down at him, and takes a few minutes to respond:

“I know what you mean. I’m glad you found your person... or more accurately, I’m glad your person found you.-”

She chuckles, before adding the next bit on quietly:

“-Your father would be proud of you.”

Merlin opens his eyes, and looks up at her blearily:

“You think?”

Hunith’s smile widens, and the both of them politely ignore the tears gathering in her eyes:

“I know.”

Time passes quickly. The next day, Merlin, Hunith, and Morgana spend the whole day shopping and stocking up on food and other necessities (the small allowance Uther had provided for them actually turned out to be quite a lot, especially compared to the amount of money Hunith was used to having around).

At some point over the next week, like Morgana had suggested, her and Hunith spent a day in the tailor’s, having all of her new clothes adjusted properly.

Hunith was also ecstatic to get a job off the back of that. She may not be at quite the professional level yet, but she was the one most of the locals would go to, to fix and patch and re-sew old clothes back in Ealdor.

Merlin started his apprenticeship with Gaius, which meant the days being near, but not with Arthur, were less boring, and slightly more bearable.

He picked up healing quickly (after seeing all the various injuries Arthur and Leon had sustained over the years during training, he was eager to learn how to help them), and he soon became known around town as Gaius’ Boy.

His cheerful demeanour and wide smile endeared him to all of his patients, and he made a point to try and be polite to everyone he came across. Suddenly living in a bustling city, and having what was basically a full time job, was a little overwhelming, but being here meant being with Arthur, so he was determined to make the most of it.

The boys spent the evenings together whenever they could (and still slept in the same bed most nights, out of habit. Merlin’s nightmares had made a brief reappearance after his first meeting with Uther, but they stopped again fairly soon.), and Arthur would often pop out of the castle to share meals with Merlin and Hunith, Morgana and Leon joining them when they had the time.

This did however, involve a few instances of Merlin or Arthur appearing at inopportune times.

An emergency patient coming in meant Arthur appearing in the physician’s chambers, instead of Merlin’s home, like he had expected.

Luckily the patient was unconscious at the time.

(Uther had informed them that the council members and guards who worked in the castle had been informed of the situation (so that Hunith and Merlin wouldn’t be bothered), but the public wasn’t to know at all, at least until Arthur came of age.)

A council meeting overrunning meant Merlin appearing just behind the Prince’s seat, and turning wide-eyed and red-faced before squeaking out a quick apology and disappearing again.

The meeting was side-tracked for a good five minutes as Arthur tried to cover a smirk, Morgana (who insisted she be involved in important meetings when Arthur was) openly laughed, and Uther held his head in his hands, rubbing his tired eyes and muttering something about “stupid kids” and “stupid soul-bonds”.

They tried to be more careful after that incident, and they got better at exploring the bond. With some focus and practice, the boys got fairly good at sensing where the other was, and sometimes, if they were with other people (though that particular sense wasn’t as reliable).

About a month after they moved to Camelot, Merlin was introduced to a lovely girl called Guinevere. Her mother had served Leon’s family, and once she was old enough to have a job herself, Leon swung her a position in the castle as Morgana’s maidservant.

Arthur was oblivious at first (until an amused Merlin explained it to him later on), but Merlin and Leon definitely noticed the... bond, between the two girls, though all four would deny it to anyone who asked, in order to preserve their privacy.

Guinevere, or Gwen, as her friends call her, quickly joined the group. Morgana was grateful for another female presence, and Leon was most certainly grateful for the addition of someone who cared about safety and being careful.

He loved his kids, (”Oh my Gods... I’m a father... how do I... Gaius I know nothing about teenagers, what do I do?? I’m not ready to be a father!”), and Hunith was a good influence, but they couldn’t be around all of the time, and the boys had a bad habit of making trouble, especially with Morgana egging them on.

He stressed a little less when he knew that Gwen was with them.

Shortly after Gwen’s appearance, the group (unfortunately without Leon, he had a patrol:( ) went exploring in the woods beyond the city. Uther was stuck in meetings all day, but Arthur and Morgana had a free day, and after much begging, Gaius let Merlin off as well.

Morgana having a free day, meant that Gwen had a free day as well (not that Morgana ever made her do many chores anyway, only enough to keep up the pretence that they were Lady and Servant and not... something else).

They put together a picnic, took some horses from the stables, and headed off at first light. It was a warm, summers day, and they planned to spend the day in the sun, Arthur didn’t have to worry about duties, Merlin didn’t have to worry about memorising herb lists and symptoms, Morgana didn’t have to worry about being a Lady, and Gwen didn’t have to mind her place as a servant.

It was planned to be the perfect day, and it almost was.

After a couple hours journey, they found a beautiful lake, and they spent the morning splashing around in the water, playing and laughing and messing around.

They spent the middle of the day drying in the sun and snacking on all the sweet meats and fruit that Arthur had snuck from the kitchens.

They spent the afternoon playing stupid games, and relaxing in the shade, holding hands with no worries, and even sneaking the occasional kiss, revelling in the freedom of being alone.

They were sad to have to leave, but it became an agreement that at least once a month, whilst the weather held out, they would come to their spot by the lake, and relax with each other. No responsibilities, no obligations, no “My Lord”s or “My Lady”s, just four friends, hopelessly happy and in love.

It was on the way home that things went a little wrong.

Usually this stretch of the woods was completely safe and bandit free, but the group was not so lucky as to have an eventless journey home.

When they were about halfway home, Merlin halted his horse suddenly and sat up straight, letting go of Arthur’s hand and tilting his head, eyes closed, listening to the woods around him with a frown on his face.

Arthur looks back and frowns, before calling to the girls, a few metres ahead of them, to wait for a minute.

He looks to Merlin, still with a frown on his face:

“Merls? What is it?”

Merlin waves his hand in Arthur’s direction, gesturing at him to be quiet. He is silent for another few moments, before he opens his eyes wide, and speaks in a low, but rushed voice:

“Gwen, ride ahead with ‘Gana, everyone get your swords out, we’re being watched.”

Arthur tenses at that, and he and Merlin pull their swords out (Leon had insisted that Merlin learn, he wasn’t nearly as good as the others yet, but he could hold his own. Leon was also the one who insisted they be armed when he learnt of their plan for the day.), quickly followed by Gwen and Morgana.

Instead of riding ahead, Morgana speaks up quickly:

“Gwen can fight just as well as me, I’ve been training her, we should stay together.”

Arthur looks worried, but Gwen just rolled her eyes before adding quietly:

“I’m also the daughter of a blacksmith you know, I’ve been handling swords since before I could walk.”

Arthur sighs and nods, before looking back to Merlin, and quietly, so that only Merlin can hear him:

“How many, and where from?”

Merlin tilts his head away from Gwen, so she can’t see the gold of his eyes, before flexing his hand slightly, and responding:

“Six or seven, I think from the South.”

Arthur nods once more, before turning his horse to be facing South, and he peers into the trees. It wasn’t quite dark out, but it was dimming, and the forest was so thick, the underbrush so overgrown, that it was difficult to see much beyond the edge of the path.

The girls urge their horses back the way they came, to be close to the boys, and stay alert, swords raised, feet braced and ready for action.

Merlin clenches his hands and gasps slightly, before murmuring, loud enough for everyone to hear him this time:

“Twenty seconds.”

Gwen goes to question how he knew that, but a quick look from Morgana, and a shaken head meaning “Later” stops her, and she instead focuses her gaze on where the others were looking into the trees.

Like Merlin had said, twenty seconds later, the treeline breaks, and seven men burst through yelling, and brandishing swords, the shock of which sends the horses scarpering, and the four of them have to jump off and let them go.

Battle broke out immediately, the teenagers aiming to incapacitate or injure, but the bandits not being so kind with their attacks.

The battle is intense, Merlin using little bits of subtle magic here and there to trip or confuse various attackers, Arthur and Morgana slowly but surely taking down men, one by one, and Gwen easily enough holding her own.

But, four, mostly inexperienced (Arthur had only had to actually fight for his life once or twice at this point, and before, he was surrounded by fully trained knights whose top priority was keeping him safe, even to their own detriment) teenagers, aged 15, 16, and 17, were no match for seven seasoned attackers.

In the end, it’s the four of them left (each with bruises and cuts, but nothing serious) vs three remaining attackers, but the battle quickly stops when Merlin turns around (a gut feeling) to see one of the men silently raise a sword, readying to bring it down on to Gwen’s turned back.

He instinctively raises his empty hand towards them, and yells:

“NO!”

He sends the man flying back, head hitting the tree behind him with a thwack.

Gwen stares at him (or more accurately, the golden glow of his eyes) in astonishment, and Morgana and Arthur use the momentary distraction to deal with the last two attackers, giving them swift knocks to the head.

Morgana rushes forward to Gwen and tugs at her shoulder, trying to get her attention to see if she’s ok, but she ignores her just staring at Merlin.

Merlin drops his hand, and his face morphs from anger to shock to fear, the gold in his eyes fading back to blue as Arthur reaches his side and takes his hand.

Gwen finally stutters out a:

“What... you’re... but Uther?-” before wiping the shock off her face, and setting it in grim determination, clenching her jaw.

Merlin’s eyes widen at her expression, and he takes a fearful step back, Arthur steps in front of him and Morgana tries to grab Gwen’s arm as she begins to stalk quickly forwards, but it slips from her grip.

Arthur holds his hands out, and begins to speak, seemingly trying to talk her out of hurting Merlin, but she ignores him, and pushes him to the side with surprising strength.

Merlin gasps and tries to take another step back, tears in his eyes, but she grabs his shoulders and, before anyone can say anything more, pulls him into a crushing hug.

Merlin takes a few moments to respond, clearly not expecting such an affectionate reaction to being discovered as an evil sorcerer, but hugs back at Gwen’s watery “Thank you.” whispered in his ear.

Arthur lets out a breath, and he and Morgana smile, not really sure why they were so surprised at Gwen’s acceptance. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up in Camelot, expecting hatred and violence and fear in response to magic is ingrained in you.

Gwen finally pulls back, and takes Merlin’s hands, the both of them have tears on their faces, and Gwen sniffs before quietly saying:

“I’m sorry that you have to live in fear, and I’m sorry I wasn’t clear enough in my adoration for you that you felt you had to be scared of my reaction. I promise to keep you safe, to the best of my ability.-”

She fondly punches him in the arm, before continuing with a smile:

“Next time, you can just do that right at the beginning, and save us all the trouble, yeah?”

Merlin nods slowly, before pulling Gwen into another tight hug. He buries his face in her neck, and she runs her hands through his hair and they both quietly weep.

Arthur and Morgana both feel the strong urge to step in, and comfort their own soulmates, but they resist, and instead give them a moment of privacy as they round up the horses, and search the bandits.

After a few minutes, Gwen and Merlin pull back, and walk towards the other two, holding each other’s hand comfortingly.

Whilst searching their unconscious bodies, Arthur hadn’t found anything identifying, but had found a length of rope in one of their discarded bags, hidden in the underbrush.

He cuts the rope into separate pieces and ties the bandits up, to individual trees, before looking back to the group:

“This won’t hold them long at all, but we don’t have the means to transport them back to the city. I can get my father to send a search party to look for them, but by the time we get back to the City, and the Knights get out here, they’ll probably be long gone.”

Morgana raises an eyebrow and replies:

“I thought you Knights were excellent trackers. They won’t wake up for a while, and they’ll be dazed, so it’ll take them a while to get out of the rope, if your knots are any good-”

Arthur goes to retort, but Gwen quickly interrupts him:

“That’s not the point. What if one of them remembers what Merlin did? And accuses him? Uther probably wouldn’t take their word against all of ours, but it would attract unwanted attention, wouldn’t it? And, no offense Merlin, but he’s already not exactly fond of you.”

Arthur nods at that, and Morgana hums thoughtfully, whilst Merlin just stares at her in shock. He speaks up after a moment:

“We could loosen the knots, and wake them up a little before leaving? That way they’ll have plenty of time to escape before the knights get here? But we have to report it. The types of men to attack four teenagers, none in armour, and two of whom are women, need to be warned about.”

Arthur and Gwen look troubled at that, and Arthur speaks up first:

“Morgana is right though, the Knights are brilliant at tracking, what if they find them anyway? I won’t risk one of them remembering what you did.”

Merlin looks annoyed, always the one to sacrifice himself, and Morgana furrows her brows before looking up, and speaking slowly:

“You could... over exaggerate how violent they were? Request a kill on sight order? That way, none of them make it back to testify, but they’re also no longer a problem for travellers.”

Arthur tilts his head in surprise, and Gwen widens her eyes at the suggestion.

Arthur looks like he’s genuinely considering it, when Merlin gasps:

“Oh!! Wait! The other day, I read about a spell. It’s like a memory charm, I can make them forget the last ten minutes or so, if it works, and we time it right, they’ll remember attacking us, but not how the fight ended!”

He has a grin on his face, but Morgana and Gwen look doubtful, whilst Arthur looks thoughtful, before speaking:

“Have you tried it before? Do you know it would work?”

Merlin turns a little pink, before looking to the floor, and saying:

“Well... do you remember agreeing to let me try it on you last week?”

Morgana grins as she realises the implication of the question, and Gwen gasps as Arthur’s eyes grow wide, and he shakes his head slowly:

“...No.”

Merlin finally meets his eyes, with a nervous smile on his face as he says:

“Then yeah, I’ve tried it before and it worked fine.”

Morgana and Gwen start laughing as Merlin bites his lip and Arthur blinks a few times, before speaking again:

“...Ok, you cast the charm or whatever, I’ll make sure the ropes are done tightly, then we’ll wait for one of them to wake up, to check that it worked, then we’ll leave, and send a patrol back to arrest them.”

With the girls still laughing in the background, Merlin goes to the three attackers who had witnessed him perform magic and cast the spell, whilst Arthur double checked all of the bindings.

The group only has to splash cold water on the face of one of the attackers for him to cough himself awake. He looks around, clearly bewildered, and yells:

“What?? How the fuck... what did... how hard do you hit, kid? Jeez, how the fuck did I-”

He’s cut off by Arthur hitting him in the head again with the hilt of his sword, before he steps back and says:

“Ok. It worked. I think it’d be best if we got home as quickly as possible, we’re already going to be late.”

With that, the group takes one last cursory glance (and fill with pride at the idea that they’d managed to fight off a group of thieving murderous bandits all on their own) at the bound bandits, before mounting their horses, and urging them into a gallop towards Camelot.

The report to Uther was definitely intense, The King was furious that a group of violent criminals were attacking citizens, especially women (though Arthur made sure to point out that Morgana fought just as well as him, and Gwen held her own just fine) so close to the city.

He immediately sent out a large patrol to scour the woods, focussed especially around the path they used, and to not come back until the seasons changed, or the criminals were found.

Arthur was right, the ropes hadn’t held them for long, but he was also right in saying that Camelot Knights were excellent trackers, and they were hunted down within a week, and brought back to Camelot for sentencing.

Arthur and Morgana tried to speak against it, at Merlin and Gwen’s request, but Uther ultimately sentenced the offenders to execution, for crimes against the Crown and Citizens of Camelot, and didn’t question why they couldn’t even remember half the fight.

In fact, that actually had Uther praising the group for fighting well, and he begrudgingly admitted that Morgana’s sword lessons (which she had been ruthlessly demanding since she was a child) and Guinevere’s subsequent training, had paid off well.

THE END OF PART 2

Wow so I finished this way quicker than I was expecting, I just really love this concept, thanks anon, for requesting :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy gang

412 notes · View notes

starshipsofstarlord · 4 years ago

Text

All This Hassle, and What For?

Pairing | Loki Laufeyson x reader

Summary | getting taken hostage, along with Loki, is far more amusing than ever intended to be, despite it leaving your captors anything but impressed.

Warnings | kidnapping, mentions of depression, swearing, implied smut, innuendos

Based off this tiktok. All original rights to the plot go back to the creator.

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

Opening your aching eyes, you found yourself to be in a large room, there were plenty of feet stood at your eye level, and such a sight made you frown. You certainly didn’t remember being knocked out, but who would, the exposure to unconsciousness was most likely sudden.

But nevertheless, you raised your head, glaring up at those whom had captured you. As your eyes scoured the room, your eyes landed promptly on the god of mischief, who had his hands bound and shackled in chains, and by Odin, did he look good.

However, your attraction the man who once reigned terror down upon New York wasn’t the focus now, and so you licked your lips, and kicked the nearest guard in the leg. He stumbled, the noise loud enough to draw the attention of all others, and you were pleased to stifle a laugh. Loki frowned at your behaviour, knowing that this was not the way that you were trained to be an avenger, but it was clear that you were no longer on earth, so human pleasantries did not apply here.

“And by the gods, who in the galactic council’s name do you think you are?” The closest asked, wrapping his large hand through your hair, and tugging your face up to stare up at him, wanting you to be treated as the lesser being he thought you as.

“Actually, he’s the god.” Tilting your head, you diverted it towards Loki, who squinted feebly at your answer. “But I think you already knew that, since you have him rattled in metal. Just a word of advice, rumour has it that he likes to be restrained in such ways; really, you’re doing him a favour, and you may just earn yourself a big tip.”

You sent a wink up at the commander, watching with inward joy as he grimaced at your development within your speech. “Quite a nice sight, to see him so vulnerable and at someone’s mercy, so thank you general.”

Sending him a smile, he huffed, whilst Loki tried his darnedest to contain an amused grin. It wouldn’t be the first occasion that you had made suggestions regarding the new troop of the avengers; even when he was around causing mischief, (which he still tended to do), there were always words said that gained the god’s intrigue.

Tony at the time, and to this day, despite him being a part of the heroic team, which Thor was ‘inclined’ to drag him into, thought nothing more than disgust at your meaningful jokes. In his words, ‘you two may as well screw so we don’t have to listen to anymore of this dirty banter, you in regards to reindeer games’.

How you wished right now, preached silently even, that Tony could bare to listen again, so that he could send in the team whom could deal with these aliens that were keeping your imprisoned. But all communications were cut, and that just left you and Loki.

By no means did you doubt if Loki got the chance to escape, he would leave you. It was in his nature to do so, but if you could pose a lack of threat, they may loosen up on their efficiency in guarding you. After all, Loki was the one they wanted, not you. And then, both of you could get away from this galactic nonsense.

“Humans.” The general huffed, causing you to grimace as the stench of his breath wafted through the air, and hit your nose. “You all think that you are so special, but when it comes down to it, those who are not from your planet do not care. Loki here, this god, does not care about you little one. And he never will.”

“That’s okay with me, because I don’t care about him either. It’d called self preservation.” You informed your captor, noticing Loki staring across at you with an icy gaze. Who were you kidding? Of course you cared about the god, but right now, you would do anything to get out of this predicament.

“Aw would you look at that.” The feet moved back towards the main reward of their capture, staring down at the green eyed trickster with mocking eyes. “This woman has attitude just like yours, if either of you cared, I’d call it a match made in Asgard.” A laugh bellowed from the wide chest of the being, finding his own comedy quite humorous.

“Excuse me, I’m way out of his league!” You pretended to be offended, bringing your hands that were free of restraint to your chest. They thought not to tie you down as they did to him, after all, you were nothing but a midguardian. That was their mistake. “What’d you want with old horse shagger over there anyways? Don’t be alarmed, but he actually does some kind of good now, even if it be out of his own self interest.”

A heavy sigh fell on deaf ears, as the protector of space glanced unsurely between the pair of you. “He has the tesseract, and I wish to take it from his slippery hands, he cannot be trusted with such a powerful source of energy.” His words bellowed a laugh of absolute surprise from your mouth, earning a frown from those keeping you hear, and a cock of the head from the god of mischief.

It was clear that not only was he confused by your supple, yet somewhat pleasant burst of amusement, but he was also in the dark about what in the Hela this predominant being was speaking of. Yes, he had had the tesseract at one point , however, no longer was it in his untrustworthy grasp.

Thanos had taken ownership over it, after killing many of the people that he had saved from the events of Ragnarok. It was not just some energy source, it had been an infinity stone all along, tricking the eyes of elders and the young to believe that it was nothing more than a harbouring of power. But it had indeed been the space stone, and it was taken from him, in exchange for saving Thor’s life.

The Guardians of the Galaxy had found the pair of them upon the aftermath of the wreckage, taking them in, amongst plans of taking Thanos down. It had been a failure, up until the avengers went back in time, going to their past that would not affect their future, so that they could reverse the affects the Titan had brought upon earth and everywhere else.

During that time, Loki had nurtured his brother, watching as he fell apart with the responsibility of their people, and collapsed into a spiral of depression. You had also been there for Thor, doing your best to take the drink away from the bulky god, but to no avail did you manage to succeed. And so, during those tormenting five years, you and Loki would sit side by side, both basking silently in your failures.

“I thought you guys’d know everything, but I guess that you and your highness are stuck in one time line; all of them. But for us humans and every lesser being, there are multiple, and that Loki that stole the tesseract, yet I say again, is one much different. And we are on the search for him, to stop his disruption and crossing over of the times!” An exonerated, and audible exhale of air left you after your little speech.

Loki smirked, at the premise of you protecting him with the admission of the truth. But he couldn’t help but feel a feeling of warmth flutter within his immortal insides, it was rather a nice feeling he realised. “He is quite difficult to catch, we have been tracking him since the time heist went sideways.”

“That’s because he’s you!” You pointedly exclaimed, unable to pin some of the blame upon the god himself. Sure, in recent times he had changed, and was much different from back when he wanted all mortals to kneel before him (which you’d willingly do if it ever came to that, though you’d never tell him under which circumstances that would be), but at the end of the day, that had been him once!

The tricks and the lies still remained, but he had found a reason to thrive, and a long and enduring career that he was well at tackling. Often, he made out being an avenger, despite the government’s rouse of concern, to be a bore, and that he had far better things to do. But he stayed, with a light in his eyes, and continued following along with the heroic traditions, breaking a few rules here and there.

“Dear, why do you always have to put the blame upon me? I was not the one who decided to put that green dye within your shampoo, but I’ll have to admit, did you look so enrapturing.” He was running a ploy, dragging out the time that you spent bantering in hopes of something happening.

Unlike Heimdall, he did not have foresight, but it was a requirement whilst the pair of you were on your expediting mission, that you check in with the base, via the comms that had cracked under brutal feet. And so, he spoke, with the promise that you’d return the conversation and leave all others in the room confused with your meaningless discussion.

“I did, didn’t I?” You asked, to which he hummed in reply, lightly nodding his head, as his feline eyes ran up your body, paying ample attention to how your limbs were free, unlike his own. “But I’d say fine sir, that the blame is down to Clint, and if I’m correct, may we kick his ass as soon as we get back home?”

“Of course we can my beloved-“ you froze at his choice of words, and it appears that he did too, suddenly realising his mistake. Gulping for a second he went to speak again, but the commander felt much inclined to but in, and stop the headache that was bubbling in his large head.

“Shut up; the pair of you!” His scolding made you feel as though you were in school over again, it was impossible not to drop your head down and try to contain your laughter. Loki too found such enjoyment in this predicament, sporting a cheshire grin to emit his emotions.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again? Maybe a just a tad louder?” You pinched your thumb and forefinger together to show how much, and it was clear that you were pissing this primal being off. He began towards you, and you were prepared to fight him, you were never one to back down, which was one feature upon the various reasons that Fury had initially recruited you.

Awaiting the first strike, you stood despite the others around you, your eyes wide open as you bravely stared up at your opponent. But before the fight could begin, a distant crash assumed preference in your ears, causing you to turn your head in the direction it had came from. And then, all of a sudden, a ship crashed through the dock, guns blazing from its side.

“What are you waiting for?” The distinct voice of Rocket asked, and obediently you ran through the terror, finding Loki already upon the ship, but then, he appeared behind you also. “Quill, get ready to go!”

Taking glances, you stared between the two practically identical copies, a light frown on your face. Both were restrained, yet the one that was seated beside Groot, whom was playing a game on some nineties device, was glaring up at the pair of you.

“An avenger, really?” The seated one laughed, mocking his once future self, as you felt the ship steer clear away from the scene. Your Loki quirked his brow, smirking at his self that had avoided the wars that he had chosen to fight upon earth.

“Yes, an avenger.” He responded, causing his other to languidly scoff. An ‘I am groot’ came from the tree, and it was uncertain in your spoken languages of what he had said, but either way, you were more intrigued by the conversation that was happening between the Loki’s. “And I’ll have you know, that she is infinitely more brave than you, you cower-some fool.”

“Oh, so we’re going there?” You asked, causing the pair to snap out of their mutual rivalry, and stare haphazardly at you. “No, don’t mind me, feel free to continue.”

“We’re not going to be unable to unbind your until we reach earth.” Gamora cut in, speaking to the Loki that you knew to be the original.

“That’s fine.” He nodded humbly, before casting his attention back at his alternate reflection. “And this woman, is not only an avenger. She was there for your brother when you were not.”

“Aw.” The other Loki smirked, almost cruelly. “So she’s your beloved?” He remarked rudely, and it seemed to break something within Loki, him wishing not to listen to the other version of himself. He decided he did not like him, and understand how you must have felt upon your initial meeting.

“Yes.” You went to speak, but instead, Loki stood before you, powerlessly pulling your face to his own, and colliding his lips upon yours. On impulse, you ravenously replied with much affection, clasping his jaw and allowing him entrance into your mouth. It earned a disgusted groan out of the Loki that had caused all this hassle.

“I hate to interrupt...” Rocket returned, after putting his gun down and having gone to the front of the ship with Quill, so that he could contact Stark. “But these may get those off.” He held a pair of golden pliers, that were far larger than his body. At the sight , you pulled away from Loki’s face for a moment, raising a brow.

“It’s fine, I think I want to keep them on.” You smirked, earning another sound of disapproval from Loki’s identical rival, pulling him back to your face. Wildly, he hummed into the cavern of your mouth, as the pair of you stumbled around on the spaceship.

“Bedrooms are down the hall to the right.” Nebula informed you, her voice monotone, and in turn, you dragged the god towards said direction, finally releasing all the tension that had been pent up through the years.