#so i had time to go to cvs after all but i helped this guy get gas which is fine we all need gas whatever

[gideonisms]

Had such a Day. Idk what's making me approachable to everyone but I need to stop doing it

[willowrites]

𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞. ᥫ᭡ 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨.

𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬. you had been pressing chris’s buttons all day and one time he finally did something about it.

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭. can u please write a chris fic where the reader is being kinda bratty and trying to make him mad and well we know what happens from there. please. by anon

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. smut! dom!chris bratty!reader dynamic, begging, overstimulation sort of, rough sex, choking, name calling (bitch, whore, slut, ma, etc.) everything is ofc done with consent!! mdni 18+ !

𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬. sorry it took me so long! i had serious writers block omg.

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭. to be counted.

at the moment you were driving around with chris to run some errands. him getting his license was a game changer for you guys so you didn’t have to ask matt for a ride everytime you needed to do something.

you didn’t know why today you got irritated by everything. whether it was how chris pressed on the brake or how he was breathing like he was running out of oxygen. everything had you irritated.

“wait till the last minute to brake why don’t you?” you remarked as chris almost gave you a hard attack when you thought he was going to hit the car in front of him.

he shrugged your comment off. “the car in front of me was the one that stopped abruptly, not me baby.” you rolled your eyes keeping your gaze on the view in front of you.

“i have to stop at cvs really quickly to pick up some stuff.” you mentioned. he nodded looking where the closest cvs happened to be. he turned into the parking lot and parked. you got out not saying another word. you didn’t wait for him to turn off the car or get out either.

“what’d you need to— ” he got cut off by the slam of the car door and he watched as you went inside. what the fuck? he thought, feeling himself become annoyed at your dismissive action.

he shook his head taking a deep breath before heading in after you. he saw you grab a few items and head to the register. “can i use your card? i’m not sure how much i have in my debit and i didn’t bring my credit card.”

chris raised his brows. “after you just slammed the door in my face?” he called out, looking at you as you stood in line.

you let out a strained breath. “are you gonna let me use the fucking card or not, i don’t have time for this.” your tone laced with irritation. chris picked up on that and laughed in disbelief.

he poked his tongue with his cheek as he looked down and retrieved his wallet before handing you his card. you took it from him and went to self checkout scanning your items and inserting the card. you grabbed the receipt and left without a word.

he squinted his eyes and clenched his jaw while he observed you walking away. he controlled his temper now but his patience was starting to wear thin. he didn’t want to get into an argument now but he figured when you both got home he’d mention how you were acting.

you both sat in the car, silence louder than usual. you saw the way chris’s temper was slowly starting to rise and you admitted, you liked it. he looked so good with his jaw clenched like he was holding back from putting you in your place.

you smiled at the thought while you looked out the window as street lights passed by.

you guys finally got home and you were quick to grab your stuff and bring it inside closing the door behind you, not leaving it open for him. you knew it was a shit move but the outcome would hopefully be worth it.

you heard the door open and close harshly. oh shit.

you took off your shoes and left them by the door before setting your bags on the counter. you made sure you looked unbothered when in reality you were slightly shitting your pants. you pursed your lips trying not to show any emotion but you couldn’t help it. you smiled tightly as you tried to contain your grin.

“what the fuck you smiling about?” he was pissed. “think that shits funny?” he gestured to the door. you gulped, noticing how the veins in his neck and arms were popping out.

you dismissed him by sighing loudly before getting a soda from the fridge and popping it. “i’m serious what the fuck is up with you and that shit attitude you’ve been wearing all day.” he took off his hat combing his hair back before putting it on once again. God you were already so wet.

you took a sip of your soda and leaned against the counter staring at the kitchen wall. “swear to god you’re gonna make me do some shit to you.” he muttered under his breath trying to calm himself down. you raised your browse at his threat then laughed under your breath before taking another nice drink of the pepsi in your hand.

he crossed his arms together waiting for a response. the black shirt that hugged his body so well had your pussy pulsing. “so you’re just not gonna say shit?”

you set the pepsi down and spoke up turning to look at him. “the fuck you want me to say, kid?” the attitude that was once again laced in your voice pushed his last nerve. you grabbed the can about to bring it up to your lips before you saw it fly to the ground.

he just slapped the pepsi out of your hand.

your jaw was practically on the ground as you also noticed the splashes of soda on your perfect outfit. before you could say a thing he was quick to grab and carry you over his shoulder. “are you a fucking idiot?” you asked in disbelief as you flailed in the air. “chris. put. me. down.” you tried to get out of his grip but he was too strong.

he walked you both to your room and let you go on the bed. he closed and locked the door. “you like seeing me mad and shit?” he stood before you. you propped yourself up on your elbows just staring at him with a smile on your lips. his nostrils flared at how you seemed to enjoy his response.

his final straw was when you muttered under your breath. “like you’ll do anything about it.” one of his brows rose. he nodded slightly at your words before tugging you by your legs to the edge of the bed. he then tugged your shorts down harshly before throwing them to the side. “wanna be a bitch with your bitch ass attitude?” he questioned, not expecting an answer you were sure. “k, then you’ll get treated like one.” he unbuckled his belt, the sight looking heavenly. he through it to the side before taking off his jeans and letting them pool at his feet before pushing those to the side as well. “you know to tell me when to stop, baby.” he nodded to you, earning a nod back.

he looked down at you as you were trying to pull yourself together from being completely manhandled. he then pushed your shoulder down so you were laying on the bed. he pulled down your panties swiftly before feeling your pussy. “this wet just from me taking off your shit, ma?” he laughed humorlessly before shoving his fingers in your mouth. you swirled your tongue over and over his fingers before he pulled them out. he then went back in immediately entering his fingers inside your entrance and thrusting them in and out at a mid pace.

he kept his actions going for a few seconds, earning whimpers and moans from your pretty lips. he then sped up his pace, aggressively pushing his fingers in and out. in and out. your body spasmed as you reached your peak incredibly fast. “h-holy shit, chris! gonna cum.” you grunted feeling your orgasm crash into you. officially the fastest you’ve ever cum.

he didn’t stop his antics. at this point, he was on your side holding you down by your stomach while he continued to finger the living shit out of you. the feeling of your impending orgasm creeping up on you once again. “fucking slut, trying to get me angry just so i could fuck the shit out of you, huh?” he chuckled, the squelching noises of his fingers and your own juices clashing together were echoing through the room as well as your whines.

“please..” you and no idea what you were begging for, him to stop, or him to keep going. it just hurts so good.

he bit his lower lip as he saw his fingers disappearing in and out of you. “please what? begging like a whore already. clarify what the fuck you want?” he continued to press down on your stomach keeping you from flailing around.

all you did was nod aggressively as you felt your second orgasm crash into you without any warning. your staggered moans shot straight to chris’s dick. you could tell when you looked at his boxers and saw his apparent tent.

seconds later, you hadn’t noticed what had happened until you heard chris speak through the fog in your brain. “holy fuck. squirted all over my hand huh.” he licked your release up with a ‘pop’ as he sucked on his fingers. “not done yet. need to fuck this brat attitude out of you.” he mentioned as he saw your limp and exhausted body.

he stood up and dropped his boxers down before climbing on top of you once again. he took his cock in his hand pumping it a little bit before speaking. “mm, i got a better idea to get me ready for this pussy.” he chimed. he leaned forward grabbing you by your throat and pulling you toward him. “come on ma, get my dick wet.” he demanded. you immediately opened up your mouth to take him.

you looked up at him looking for approval as you began to move your mouth over him. you saw his lips open up, agape at the sensation you were giving him. he threaded his hands in your hair straightaway making sure you could take all of him. “mouth of a fucking angel.” he praised quietly. the non-degrading comment had your arousal dripping down your thighs. “m’kay, that’s enough.” he pulled you off before placing a hand on your neck and connecting your lips in a chaste kiss. as quick as your lips connected, they broke apart when he then pushed you down onto the bed and choked you slightly as he lined himself up with you.

he pushed in all at once taking your breath away. he wasted no time before pulling out and slamming back into you; hand still on your throat. your jaw went slack as he was ramming into you over and over again, nudging your g-spot soo good your legs already began to shake. “always take me so fucking good. fuck—” he moaned, before removing his hand from your throat and placing both of his on your waist for more support. he then plowed into you with more force than before.

he hit new angles as he moved your legs all around before resting in the position where one leg was resting over one of his shoulders. “fuck chris. right there!” you wailed trying to get a grip on anything you could but settling for the duvet you were laying on.

he had a lazy grin as his own obtrusive groans and moans made their way to your ears. “fuck— tell me, who this pussy belongs to. come on.” he needed to hear it. he was so incredibly close, he needed that nudge. “come on, baby. come on my cock as you say it. go on.” he clenched his jaw trying to hold back his orgasm.

your legs shook and knuckles turned white as you found the strength to mutter — then scream, “y-yours chris! shit—” as you clenched around his dick, during your third orgasm of the night.

he groaned and let his own orgasm hit him. he painted your walls white as he did his best to continue thrusting himself in and out of you, trying to ride out his orgasm as well as elongate your own. he did his best while his thrusts started to slow. he was sweaty as his movements finally stopped, still buried deep inside you. he took off his hat feeling the air hit his sweaty face. he threw it to the side before combing his hands through. sweaty chris… fuck.

another round couldn’t hurt, right?

© willowrites

[hana-no-seiiki]

Ohh I got soooo many ideas, like CV reader got kidnapped by black mask (I think it's red hood nemesis, am not that deep in DC comics but I know the basics) so he could have a deal or take information out of red hood using CV reader. And when Jason found out about it he was pissed but when he got there the bad guys already down because CV reader took them down.

P.s I don't mind if you use this as a reference to make a headcanon or story on contrary i would love to read it, but it's up to you!!

🎧ྀི » [ what a catastrophy ! ] «

0:00 ─〇───── 0:00

⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

tw/cw: yandere, jason being horny/implied noncon, cat villain! reader being an absolute menace and a whore as always.

pairings: yan! batfam x cat villain/vigilante! reader

note: this happens after conflict between jason and other members of batfam are resolved and at that point cat villain! is more solidly on the cat vigilante! side

“How long is this going to take exactly? I’m about to take an involuntary cat nap with how utterly slow you all are being.”

The Court of Owls were a group of people you’ve absolutely despised on every era you’ve had under your cat mask. Whether it was your wild years as Cat Woman’s protégé or when you were basically assimilated as the Batfam’s shared s/o. You could never bring yourself to like absurdly rich people that well. Much less rich people who do bad things.

For legal and safety reasons, you have to say that the Batfamily are an exception.

You don’t know how on Earth they managed to get their hands on equipment that prevented your powers from working, but it was proving to be quite the annoying conundrum.

“I’m sorry but I’m feline a little too underwhelmed by this whole kidnapping thing. Why don’t we hurry things up a little?”

MEANWHILE . . .

“Where the hell did you take them?!”

Jason slammed Black Mask unto the wall, using the backside of his arm and pressing it against the man’s chest.

The latter’s men took a defensive, alert stance. Ready to pounce on command.

But Black Mask only gestured them to stand down.

“You have to understand, the fact that I even thought of informing you of my deal is a huge risk. I could lose my biggest benefactors.” He replied, calm and polite. In contrast to the harsh kick he deals to his assailant, making Jason back off. “I’m doing you all a favor. I’m doing [Cat Villain Name] a favor.”

“They’re currently on a private island to the south. I can’t give you the exact coordinates but here’s the general location.” He tossed a flashdrive, one swiftly caught and skimmed through by Tim.

“Why are you helping us?” Damian’s mind was already calculating the best way to get rid of everyone in this room. The grip on his katana tightening by the second. He had full faith that you were capable of taking care of yourself, but it did not help with the fear of disappearance whatsoever.

He was sure that the sight of you getting hurt would lead to him going on a rampage.

“Maybe the fact that even with my help, you kids being too late would open their mind and make them come back to our side. They’d finally learn that you’re only as good for them as Batman was to —“ Damian couldn’t stop himself anymore, knocking the man unconscious as the rest of the crew took down his goons with ease. Their worry over your current condition giving them a surprising amount of efficiency as a team.

“It’ll take several hours to even get to those islands much less even find which one . . .” Tim bit his lip. He wasn’t concerned at all. He knows you inside and out. In fact, he already knew where you were exactly. All of this info gathering was just his plan to delay things so that your patience would run out and he’d get front row seats to the carnage you’d inevitably cause. After all, there was something he can always predict when it came to you.

Your unending thirst for fun and chaos.

It took about a week for them to find you. Just about enough time for you to get antsy about not seeing your beloved pets and home.

And plenty of time for you to have your fun, pretending to be hurt, crying out in feigned agony, before you finally took down your prey.

“Red Hood! Come back! We can’t just barge in—“ Dick called out to Jason.

But all Jason could think of was the way you screamed in terror. The footage of your ‘torture’ was something he had nightmares about.

“Kitty! Are you—“ He kicked the door off its hinges, guns ready to fire.

But his sights only landed on a singular breathing being in the middle of a room. Covered in the blood of your victims. Grooming yourself clean.

Each lick sending shivers down his spine.

He sighed in relief. “You really have to stop playing with your food, Kitty.”

His lips envelopes yours as the world disappears from your vision.

୨ ©️ ୧⸝⸝﹕hana.no.seiiki - yun | 2024﹐⊂☁️⊃ ‹𝟹

[luvz-me]

being at the last year of your sports medicine university course abroad in america was like a dream come true. but in all honesty you just wanted it to be over and quick. the prospect of having to intern at a random clinic for three months wasn't appealing at all. you made sure to send your cv to different physiotherapy clinics, gyms, sports clubs but still no answer.

watching all your colleagues start earlier than you was discouraging until one afternoon, after watching 2 boring movies a guy at a club told you to watch last night you got a call.

someone with a very poised voice starts talking almost immediately, "good afternoon, i'm speaking on behalf of the sports clinic and i was wondering if you'd be available for an interview tomorrow morning regarding your internship application?"

you almost envied the way there wasn't any hint of nervousness in their voice. it was almost immediate the way you accepted the offer, in all honesty you just wanted to get it over with.

you started your internship there after almost a week until one day, by the evening you witnessed something you never thought you would. tashi fucking duncan walking in the clinic right as you were about to leave. you felt your stomach turn, not in the bad way, but in the - what the fuck, did i hit my head somewhere and wake up in an alternate universe? - way. your anxiety making you want to throw up seeing one of the people you wrote countless essays about stand before you.

"i'm looking to book a sports physician. medium term for art donaldson, need them to be able to come in-house monday through friday." you heard her say to the receptionist, blunt yet always polite. one of your idols standing just a few meters away from you made you weak at the knees. you were aware the clinic was well frequented but you never thought she'd be in your sight ever.

you looked at your nails, pondering if you should start biting them, regaining a bad habit just because you found yourself in a situation you couldn't control sounds very much like you but tashi probably would think that's gross so you stop.

a client you had been assigned to arrives and you curse yourself out for not being able to keep listening to the conversation anymore. the day never ended. each glance you took at the clock just seemed like you were stopped in time. sighing while helping the elder woman stretch her upper body and muttering some words of praise, explaining to her that she'd have to keep coming for at least one more week so the pain could dissipate. you flashed her a smile as she got up and said goodbye, thanking you endlessly for helping her ease the pain.

your supervisor had been watching you. giving some criticism on this session with the client. as you were about to leave she pulled you aside and informed you that starting tomorrow you'd be going to tashi duncans house.

everything inside was pristine, you were even scared to even lean against the furniture in fear you'd somehow break it. tashi had given you a quick house tour, her heels clacking on the hardwood floors as she warmed you up to her, occasionally telling jokes about herself and saying you reminded her of herself. when she was in college. you didn't really know what that meant but you decided to take it as a compliment, nervously fidgeting your fingers. art was nowhere to be seen up until you reached the gym area.

standing there, broad shoulders scrolling through his phone, distracted and flashing a smile towards his wife once she clears her throat and wraps an arm around his shoulder. introducing you to each other and leaving promptly, saying she had a meeting with her pr team and that she'd be back at 8 pm.

you swallow dry. standing there awkwardly with your backpack on your shoulders.

"so.. umm were gonna start with wall angels maybe. tashi told me thats your problem area right now" you blurted out, trying to sound as professional as possible "just. place your arms against the wall in a 90 degree angle and slowly straighten them"

art follows suit, standing against the wall awkwardly moving his arms up and down before asking "how old are you?" breaking the silence

"i'm 21" you mutter in surprise analysing his form and his toned shoulders, and arms.. and muscles. eyes narrowing trying to remind yourself that this is not one of your hookups, this is art fucking donaldson and you're here for an internship. at his house. in his fancy home gym. hes not yours to admire. "why?"

"ah.. just wanted to know" art shrugs, looking at you intently. he gets up suddenly, yet his movements are deliberate. you feel the knot tighten in your stomach, your pulse quicken as i looked at the man before me. "can you show me how to do it properly?" his voice drops to a lower tone and all you can do for a few seconds is flutter your lashes at him

"but this is pretty easy already, i don't know how to ex-"

"i said, i want you to show me" art cuts you off, his gaze literally burning through your skull

art mirrors your movements, his eyes never leaving yours. you hope he doesn't notice the slight tremble in your hands.

"like this?" he asks, his voice even softer now, almost a whisper.

you nod, your breath hitching. "yes, just like that. make sure to keep your back flat against the wall."

he follows your instructions, his body inching closer. you can feel the heat emanating from him, a stark contrast to the cool, clinical setting of the gym. there's a tension in the air, a charged silence that makes your heart race.

"you're good at this," he murmurs, his eyes darkening with an emotion you can't quite place

your cheeks flush, the compliment catching you off guard. "i appreciate that, mr. donaldson."

he moves closer, his body now just inches from yours. you can feel the magnetism between you, a pull that's impossible to ignore. his hand reaches out, gently brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. the gesture is tender, almost too intimate for your professional setting. "it's art, yeah? call me art, i don't want to feel like an old fart" he grins

"i should… i should check your shoulder alignment," you stammer, trying to regain some semblance of professionalism. "you're a bit tight here," you say, your voice trembling slightly. "let me help you."

you guide him through a series of stretches, your hands lingering a bit longer than necessary on his shoulders, his back. the room feels smaller, the air thicker with each passing moment.

the session was over. finally. you gathered your things and slid your backpack over your shoulders. art's gaze is still on you and it's impossible not to feel it "are you in a hurry to leave?"

"umm, no i just. no im not in a hurry" you smile "just don't want to bother you anymore" your breath catches in your throat

"i was hoping we could talk a bit more. get to know each other better." he smirks. what the fuck "tashi told me some things about you but i think one on one conversation is far better" grabbing your hand and guiding you to a small resting area at the gym engaging in some superficial conversation about you while tracing circles in the back of your hand. you can't help but sigh. his hands becoming more and more pervasive, touching your thighs, reaching up up up until he's close to your crotch. a slight whine escapes your mouth. you're not focusing on the conversation at all.

"art, this is not-"

"tashi doesn't have to know" he replies knowing tashi knows damn well. hell, she even planned this for him. it wasn't her intention to scout a pretty little physiotherapist like you at first. but you were at the right place, at the right time. the moment she took a glance at you she knew she had to have you. it was a plus art needed help with his shoulders. his hands roaming on the waistband of your tight leggings, your mouth parting with a sigh. sigh that he takes as opportunity to crash his lips against yours. your eyes narrow at first and for a second you try to pull back but you don't really want to.

his fingers edging closer to your panties, the tightness of the leggings increasing the skin on skin contact. "aw you look so pretty with your lips parted. you wanna take my fingers in you don't you huh?" now hovering over you, caressing you over your top "fucking corrupt that little head of yours"

you can't help but let out a moan that sends him over the edge. sliding your leggings down caressing you over your panties. before pushing two fingers inside your mouth for you to suck. "you want this don't you baby?"

"mhm" you nod trying your hardest not to bite him when he uses his opposite hand to caress your sensitive nub. furrowing your eyebrows trying your hardest not to grab his arm. his calloused fingers leaving your plump mouth suddenly and making a 'pop' sound "but tashi might" cut off by the pads of his fingers circling your clit

"tashi doesn't mind" his voice hungry "im just helping you out yeah? we're just getting acquainted" one of his fingers teases your entrance slowly entering earning a sharp wince from you. the unfamiliar feeling slowly turning into pleasure as he slid it in and out "open your eyes f'me, let me see those pretty eyes"

you bite your lip staring at his face as he does such a lewd thing to you, and you let him. knowing he has a wife. somehow this made it even more arousing. whats wrong with you? "gonna add one more finger, fuck you're so tight around me, so good. i bet that clit would feel so good around my tongue" small tears cornering around your eyes. the soft noises leaving your lips only encouraging him to keep going.

"feels good huh baby?" he coos, his face edging closer and closer to your clit as your hips rise, only to stop once you're about to cum. abruptly sliding your panties back up along with your leggings.

this earns him a well deserved mewl. edging you like this. stopping when you were just so so close was just so mean of him. looking up at him just to see him lick your juices off his fingers, feeding them to you. "suck" he commands "don't be mad, i just need to make sure you come back for more sessions" fixing your hair and picking up your backpack from where you left it on the gym floor

[n3ptoonz]

How’d u think earth realm boys would react to their wife telling me there ready for kids 🎤

mk1 hcs: how the earthrealm guys react to their wife being ready for kids

warnings/tags: suggestive, fluff, female reader obv

Liu Kang

The way you brought it up was so subtle and casual. It was during his downtime, which was kinda rare. A simple "Hey...I think I'm ready to have children." and Liu is looking at you with surprised eyes and a full heart.

Being the kind of man Liu is, and how busy his life has become since being appointed as a god, this man set an exact date and time where there would be zero distractions. All his focus and effort was on you. And in you (ba dum tss)

So be prepared for a long night of passion, love, lust, and care. Cause you're not leaving that bed until you've gotten every last drop

Doesn't mind the gender. Boy, girl, he would love them just the same. Hell, even if it was more than one child at once, he wouldn't hesitate to give them the world.

Smoke

You mentioned it while you two were cuddled up on the couch. Little did you know how red his face turned until you felt his heart beat increase in real time, looking up at him with his genuine concern.

At first you thought he was nervous or probably didn't want to, and once he saw your slight frown he immediately countered that thought. He was so excited he froze. Endless reassurance from him until you verbally say you got it.

Did you think he wouldn't nervously suggest you start as soon as possible?? Pish posh, you are sad- happily mistaken. "Why not try right now?" he said, except he's stuttering over his own words and sweating profusely. No matter how many times you've been intimate with one another, he's always nervous around you <3

Gender doesn't matter to him either, however he does lean more on the side of a daughter. Simply because he'd die at the sight of a little girl running around the house that looked like you. If you had a son though, he'd be sure he doesn't meet ol uncle Bi Han bro would prob try to recruit

Johnny Cage

What if I told you he brought the idea to you one day as a "joke" and you're immediately like "That's crazy, I was going to say the same thing!"? You both looked at each other with narrowed eyes before making a run for it to the bedroom

Less talk, more action. It's safe to say y'all were up all night, touchin', lovin', going multiple rounds to the point where you forgot the entire reason for heading straight to bed. But hey, who's complaining? Johnny promised to tap that at the earliest opportunity (yes, i went there)

He SWORE that cowgirl and mating press were the "only efficient ways" to make sure you'd definitely get pregnant. As if going raw wasn't enough already-

Daughter. He wants a daughter. Give the man a daughter. He won't shut up about being a girl dad when you aren't even a month in yet. He's practicing dad jokes. Even coming up with ones that are tailored to daughters. Has a CVS receipt list of girl names and the only one you both decided that was perfect is "Cassandra/Cassie" (wink) He CANNOT wait to have another favorite girl in his life to spoil!

Raiden

It was after training. You finished first and watched him complete his, and the idea came to you while he was helping one of the younger recruits. You just laid it on him without warning: "I think we should have kids." and cue him almost spitting out his water. Was he dreaming?!

Another nervous one who blushed and stuttered a bunch upon trying to conjure up a response. The thought of having a child with you has been on his mind for some time now and it's like you read his mind, he just didn't want to overwhelm you.

Speaking of overwhelming, that was all out the window once you got home. Going from a peaceful walk to a heated make out session on a matter of seconds. Not to mention, you both had a longgg day of training and could use a shower...why not save some money on the water bill!

Raiden is too good with all types of kids to really have a preference. Growing up with his little sister AND kung lao gave him experience on both sides

Kung Lao

After your weekly sparring session, you got to thinking. You're already married, you've seen him handle kids and younger people well, and most of all he looks so damn hot when he's sweaty and out of breath. Not an unfamiliar sight to you at all!

It was when you two went to Madam Bo's for a good after-spar meal when you slyly threw it into the conversation. Mid bite, he couldn't help but back up from his food and look at you with that classic smirk he does and his dimples are fully visible (currently dying at this imagery.) And he'd end up saying something cocky but playful like "You think I'd oppose you carrying the next great Kung Lao?"

Got straight to it when you got home. Luckily you had already showered after the session, otherwise the water bill would've been looking like a traditional Chinese scroll after you were done. Prepare for his teasing, flirtatiousness, and pride to be multiplied by a thousand

I feel like he'd want a boy, and we all know why. He's not at all opposed to the idea of having a daughter. But if your first child was a daughter, you're going back to that king sized mattress once you've fully healed and trying again! (who's complaining 🤨)

Kenshi Takahashi

He had come home from a long day of a series of trips and tasks given by Liu Kang. You were in the kitchen brewing some tea late at night just because when you heard him come in. He wasn't exhausted, but you could tell he just wanted to drop everything and spend all his time with you the way he plopped down at the dining table.

When you offered food he politely declined since he had already eaten earlier. But he could sense something else was on your mind by the slight shift in your tone. Being visually impaired, his auditory has improved considerably since. "Is something on your mind?" he asked. "I think we should have kids." you responded, sitting next to him with your cup of tea.

He was at full attention now, whatever tired him from the day vanished just like that. You took his silence as uncertainty, so as you began to start listing the pros and benefits, he quickly cut you off with a "Let's do it." "Seriously?" you said, just to make sure you heard him. He stood and took your hand in his, "I'm very serious. We can start tonight, tomorrow, next week. The sooner the better." (hey, starting tonight didn't sound like a bad idea 😮‍💨)

He says he doesn't really stress the gender, but he'd like a son. Kenshi would adore your child under any circumstance, but being an only child (idk if that's canon but it's gonna be today XD) who practically raised most of his younger cousins who mostly consisted of girls, he gets a little giddy at the thought of having an older son younger daughter dynamic around the house.

Sub Zero

With how busy he is all the time and how even more tense he's become since the rift, it was a little difficult to find a way to get his undivided attention. However, the whole reason he married you is because you don't take any shit. You voiced your opinions and concerns whenever you deemed fit, and it never got in his way. So, you waltzed into his office on a mission.

It was one of the few times he wasn't running around or training his heart out. He just got done talking to Cyrax when you walked in looking as determined as the day you met. He knows you never interrupt him unless it's something terribly important. At a moment's notice, he gestured for Cyrax to leave so you could speak your peace.

"What is it?" he asked. You made sure the door was securely closed behind you before walking over to sit in his lap. He was quite surprised but also would be lying if he claimed he didn't enjoy it. "Let's have kids." you said. He always told you to be blunt with him about anything, and this was no exception. "Alright." he replied, seldom reason to say no, especially to the love of his life.

Bi Han would for sure want a son. He's set on carrying on tradition, even if he did oppose some of his late father's views. If you had a daughter as your first born, like Kung Lao y'all aren't stopping until you had a son. Though, he knows he will have to learn to raise your kids better than how he was raised. He'd rather die than ever neglect or overwork his children. Plus, you wouldn't have any of that anyway.

Scorpion

Despite being busy a lot as the head of his new clan, he always makes time for you. All his down time was yours unless you said otherwise. You were giving fighting advice to a recruit when Kuai approached you, a gentle warm hand on your shoulder. Earlier in the day, you said you wanted to talk in his free time

After excusing yourself and talking to him on the way to his office, you wasted no time laying it on him. "Kuai...I think we're ready for kids." He stops in his tracks and looks directly into your eyes. "...You're sure about this?" he asks softly, taking your hands in his with the most gentle gaze you've ever seen from him. He's been thinking about this for a while now, but didn't know how to bring it up. Your approving nod with a smile set his heart ablaze with happiness.

Because of his busy schedule, like some of the other kombatants with a lot on their plate, there's a set day and time. And once that time comes...it's tiimmeee (mariah carey voice) That night is gonna be filled with romance and deep love for one another.

Kuai wants a boy. He, like Kenshi, wants the older son and younger daughter dynamic, but for no particular reason. He just likes it. His feelings wouldn't change if your first kid was a girl though, the older daughter younger son dynamic would remind him of how his mother treated Tomas when they were kids before she passed.

a/n: as a mf who doesn't even want kids, this was so fun and cute to write omg😭ty anon for the idea! remember y'all my asks are open and i'd be down to do x or 11 if you want! just clarify pls <3

[strangerqueerthings]

The Camaro

Neil was adamant: Billy had to get his own car if he wanted to go anywhere that wasn't school, and he had to pay for it himself.

Billy was equally adamant that he was going to get his hands on one.

So he worked his ass off, starting at the age of thirteen. He started small and local, mowing lawns, or offering to help elderly neighbors with grocery shopping- and bringing them in for them afterwards.

The latter got him far more pinched cheeks than he wanted, but when he laid on the charm, he was paid well.

To his delight, an elderly neighbor, Mister Grant, gifted him with a bike. His grandson never visited anymore now that he was in college, and Billy had been so helpful with the yard work, so he was happy to give it to him.

Billy kept the bike at Mister Grant's, afraid that Neil would take it away, or worse, destroy it or give it away- if Neil knew that he'd been given something like a bike, he'd accuse Billy of being weak by accepting charity.

The bike opened up entirely new venues of work, expanding his reach. More work offers, thanks to the bike, and his work ethic- which was talked about, spread by word of mouth.

All the while, he checked out car maintenance books from the library, rode his bike to the closest mechanic and volunteered to help, in exchange for the mechanics explaining what they were doing, so he could learn as much as he could about cars.

By the time he was sixteen, three years of working in the sun, doing manual labor, Billy was tanned, fit, and had plenty of money to start searching for something even better than a bike.

His first car.

Billy had never even dared to dream about getting a new car, even a relatively new used car. He'd saved up nearly 1,500 dollars, had it hidden in various places to keep it out of Neil's reach, going to the bank to swap out coins and singles for bigger bills so it'd be easier to hide.

He had finally brought the bike to the house. He told Neil he'd bought it used, to help him get more work, and Neil had almost been pleased at his work ethic- but as Billy had expected, it was taken away as punishment whenever Billy pissed him off.

He browsed the sale pages in the newspapers, kept his ear to the ground for deals, and finally, a few months after his birthday, Sid told him a cousin was selling his Camaro.

"It's kinda shitty," he drawled, exhaling clove cigarette smoke into the summer air. "He swiped a few cars and a mailbox with it, so it needs body work. He also didn't do a lot maintenance on it, and it's a 79, so... yeah. He's selling it for cheap."

"Does it run?" Billy asked. That was all that mattered, really.

"Yeah," Sid said, nodding. "It runs, it just... it's a mess. Real fixer upper."

Billy hadn't minded in the least. He'd wanted something with horsepower, something that would be loud, go fast, but he'd suspected he'd get something rusted and slow with the money he had.

"How much?"

Sid shrugged.

"I think he said 900 or so, but you know... you could probably haggle."

Billy did just that. He ignored the scratches and dents- they were all cosmetic. What he pointed out were all the mechanical issues- just like the guys at the mechanics had told him.

'College kids who have something like a Z28? They don't know shit about cars, just the model,' Bert had said, and had showed him what to look for, and told him what to say to bluff his way into a reduced price.

"I don't know," he said, putting the dusky blue car into park after a test drive. "That clunk? That's a CV joint- either I'd have to replace the boot, or the entire front axle."

He popped the hood and got out, peering into the guts of the car he already wanted more than anything in his life- save for freedom from Neil. He winced audibly, a sharp, hissing intake of air through his teeth.

"Yeah, I dunno," he said, folding his arms over his chest. "The serpentine belt is starting to look a little frayed. I'd have to replace that before disaster hit."

He pulled the dipstick out, examining it, making a show of sniffing the oil on it, and made an overly exaggerated face.

"When's the last time you changed the oil, man? It smells burnt."

Derek looked taken aback, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Honestly... idunno," he said helplessly.

Billy replaced the dipstick, closed the hood with a loud clang and dusted his hands off.

"Yeah I dunno," he repeated. "Nine hundred bucks can get me a car that isn't riddled with issues- mechanical OR body."

"It's a Z28, man," Sid's cousin said, scowling.

"Yeah, but she's nearly fifteen years old, and she's been poorly maintained- and I'm being generous," Billy retorted. "I'd be better off saving up for another three years for something better than getting this heap. It'd cost me nine hundred to fix all the shit that's wrong with her."

Derek was quiet for a bit, and Billy shrugged, moving to pick up his bike and head home.

"Eight hundred," Derek blurted.

Billy paused, making a show of consideration.

"Six hundred."

"Seven hundred."

"Six fifty, and you write the bill of sale as five hundred so I don't pay as much on the title fees."

Derek sighed, defeated.

"Done."

Derek wrote out the bill of sale, and filled out the title. They both signed where appropriate, and Derek handed the title and keys over to Billy, who fought to keep his hands from shaking as he took them.

Registering the Camaro would have to wait- he couldn't take her home as she was. He took her to the shop, where Bert congratulated him on his haggling, and enthusiastically offered to help him fix her up.

By the time October came around, Billy pulled up at home in the Camaro, and Neil came outside, clearly surprised at the car his son had managed to find.

She was perfect.

He and Bert had changed out her fluids and filters, put new tires on her, replaced her old serpentine belt, put in a whole new front axle, and had hammered out and smoothed out the dents and scratches.

She looked good as new, gleaming in the driveway.

Billy handed him the title and bill of sale, showing him how much he'd paid, and Neil had immediately held out his hand for the keys.

"You may have paid for it, but legally, you can't own it until you're 18," he said. "When you turn 18, it's all yours, provided you don't do anything stupid."

Billy's heart sank, but he knew it was going to happen. He placed the keys in Neil's open palm, watching his father's fingers curl around them.

"I'm not going to ask how you got the money for a car that looks this good."

"She didn't," Billy blurted. "I worked on her. I fixed her up. She's been at Bert's. Bert helped me learn how to work on her, so I can maintain her upkeep without using my money for someone else to do it."

Neil glanced at the Camaro again, his look appraising, critical.

"And here I was worried that you'd learned nothing."

He turned to go back into the house.

"Glad to learn I was wrong."

Billy didn't dare read too much into it, but he could have sworn there was a note of pride in Neil's voice. It made the affection he felt for his new car swell in his chest.

Neil may have taken ownership of her for now, but he hadn't been mad. He hadn't punished Billy for taking initiative.

For once, he'd done something right, and the proof of it sat on four wheels, gleaming like a beacon of freedom in the driveway.

[ell-arts]

Just some talking

Not quite a life update, but not quite an activity post either lol, just a plain post about some general things I guess?

I've slowed down quite a bit on content and activity on here. Ever since graduating and moving back in with my parents, I've been hit with art-lethargy and burnout fully settled in, and so I just kinda allowed myself to be stagnant for a while, recovering from the harrowing year that was 2023. It's been helpful. Of course, I couldn't rest for too long because I had to finalise my portfolio/CV and prepare for the working world. Good news is that starting today I'm working on a concept art/storyboard internship for an animation company for two weeks. I don't know if I'll stick with them after the internship ends, but I do have my eye on some other job offerings. We'll see.

I also just realised that 13 Jan was the 1-year anniversary of me returning to being active on Tumblr again. Since then, I believe I've made more content for PMATGA than ever before, and its all thanks to your support! Hoping for another year of PMATGA fanworks.

That being said, I want to get to the main point of this post. In the next few days (weeks?) I won't be talkative or very active for a bit.

If I may be honest, there's been a heck of a thing going on with my family and in my personal life right now. It's sucking at all of my energy and driving me to the point of having an anxious/depressive episode. Outside of work, I really don't have the motivation or will to work on any content at this point in time.

I've been trying to at least do small bits of writing, hoping to get a few fun drabbles out. But they're uninspired and being done haphazardly, because of emotional lethargy and feeling drained regarding irl drama. I am still barely recovering from last year's burnout from uni. So I'm not going to force it. My drive will come back in time, I just need time to readjust to a new work schedule and deal with personal issues first.

I know that Call Me Cyli is much anticipated. I know that The Veil has now gone precisely a full year without an update, equally as anticipated, if not more. I know how much you guys love these stories.

I am not giving up on them. I just need some time.

Hopefully, after I've landed a permanent job somewhere, I'll be able to have a bit more stability in my time and schedule.

Thank you all so much for being so kind and supportive during my first year back on Tumblr 💙 I'll see you when I see you :)

[punkeccentricenigma]

Hello, I saw your requests are open. So I decided to send something.

Could you write a few headcanons for the rise boys with a reader that’s from another country. And could you leave it open from where? And reader has a different native language, English would be their second language. It would be kinda funny if the turtles (or one of them) doesn’t realize reader is a foreigner at first.

I‘m not from the USA and would love to see something with a foreign reader.

Thank you and have a nice rest of your day. :3

Rise!Boys with Reader from different country

Relationship status: platonic/romantic

Reader prounouns: They/Them

TW: Some grammatical errors because english is not my first language.

Author's note: I apologize for the long wait for this order; a lot has happened in my life. Not only did many of my childhood idols turn out to be bad people, but also my mom told me to leave home after we argued, and I poured out all my grievances to her. So, well, soon I probably won't have a place to live because my savings are too small to even rent a room. Plus, my mom took away all my painkillers, and the migraines haven't disappeared, so I'm in pain all the time.

But on the bright side, with the help of my friend, I managed to create a CV, and tomorrow I'm going to submit it to a company where I can work :D Unfortunately, I'll have to wait over a month for the tests, but it will be the first step in overcoming my fear of people.

But anyway, thank you anon, have a nice day/night too!! :D

Leonardo

◇Do I really have to state the obvious as if it weren't clear? Leo is a goof; not a single thought crossed his mind that you might be even more different than him.

◇Even if April dropped subtle hints about your nationality, it just didn't register. Comics with Jupiter Jim are too captivating for him to bother with trivial facts.

◇It only hit him when your phone rang during a shared skateboarding session. When you answered and started speaking in your language, the guy literally had a Pikachu's surprised face.

◇After that, brace yourself for a million questions from the curious turtle. You'll be happy to answer.

◇Leonardo has a knack for learning languages, even if it's just basic words.

◇Thanks to Sr Hueso in his life, he's picking up Spanish. So, what's stopping him from learning your language too?

◇Btw, praise him every time he says something right; he needs that.

◇He'll also be eager to learn about cultural differences between you two. You might not seem very different, but a deeper look might reveal significant distinctions.

◇Ohohoho! National costumes? He'd gladly try them on.

◇But expect him to tease you by intentionally mispronouncing a few words or judging you based on stereotypes about people from your country.

◇If it makes you cry or get angry, he'll make sure never to do it again.

◇He likes food from your country but more as an occasional thing. If he could, he'd probably just eat pizza all the time.

Raphael

◇Raph, despite not being as dumb as Leo, suspected from the start that something was up with you that you hadn't mentioned.

◇But it never occurred to him to ask.

◇He ultimately found out from his father. Indirect, but still.

Raphael sighed throatily, rummaging through his kitchen cabinets. Your ears lightly twitched at each muffled or not-so-muffled clatter of things in those cabinets.

"What are you looking for?" Their voice carried both curiosity and a hint of irritation as she added more pepperoni slices to the light pizza dough. The turtle sighed again, this time softer, closing another cabinet to look at Their.

"I can't find any cups or glasses anywhere," his gaze expressed annoyance. "Probably those idiots kept taking new dishes instead of washing theirs, and now they're hoarding a mountain of dirty ones like hamsters."

"You complain about them, but guess whose kitchen I found a bunch of dirty plates breeding a new species in?" Their laughter started to grate on his head, but despite his efforts, a smile appeared on his rough lips.

"That's different; I, um... I'm the oldest, I'm allowed!"

"Ohohoho! [Y.N], my dear!" Splinter entered the red kitchen excitedly, appearing right behind the teenager using his ninja skills. "Are you making your delicious [Most popular dish in your country] again? My mouth waters at the mere thought!"

"Er, what?" Raph had a slightly puzzled expression, hearing about such a dish for the first time. What is that even?

"Oh, unfortunately no, just regular pizza," [Y.N] replied with an apologetic look, placing the last slice of meat. "But don't worry, maybe I'll bring that tomorrow, sounds good?"

"Oh, yes, definitely!"

◇Shortly after that incident, he asked about that dish.

"Oh? That's one of the dishes from my country."

"From your country? I didn't think America had such food to offer."

"Raph, I'm not from America."

"... What?"

◇Less surprised than Leo, but still.

◇Since then, you've been explaining everything about yourself and your country to him.

◇The biggest fan of dishes from your country, especially the way you make them.

◇Raph has a simple mind, so it will take a long time before he grasps the basics of your language, but he remembers many words that he tries to use at the nearest opportunity.

◇He loves it when he says a word correctly, and you pat him on the head as a reward.

◇As for clothing... sorry, but he's too big for that.

◇BUT, you'll make him bracelets in the colors of the flag if he insists.

◇There won't be jokes about your origin; Raph is too respectful turtle for that.

Donatello

◇He's not dumb (usually), and I think he'll be the first to ask if there's anything you haven't told him.

◇Of course, what is life without a bit of fun? You denied it.

◇Thanks to that, it was a game of cat and mouse for two weeks.

◇Eventually, Donnie hacked into one of your social media accounts where you clearly stated which country you're from. If not, he just had to check the login history in different countries.

◇Of course, he got a smack on the back of the head.

(And it's very possible his brothers put him in isolation overnight, you know, that place when Splinter had a fever? Who knows.)

◇You think he won't quickly learn the basics of your language? Dude, he taught a squirrels sign language, what can't he do?

◇Thanks to that, you can talk about various topics that shouldn't be brought up around his family in your native language.

◇And as a fun fact, wanting to surprise him, you asked Shelldon to teach you binary code. The guy was amazed, and Leo wanted to perform exorcisms on you.

◇Maybe he's not as intrigued by your culture, but he wouldn't want to offend you, so if you start talking about it, he won't stop you.

◇On the other hand, he really appreciates national costumes, maybe even doing that scene with you like they were hypnotized? You won't have to ask him for long.

◇Not a big fan of your national dishes, maybe because of the consistency? Or the unusual taste?

◇He'll likely tease you about your origin, but they'll be harmless jokes.

Michelangelo

◇Silly kid. Just a silly kid.

◇Nah, kidding, it just never crossed his mind that his friend is from a different country.

◇And you found it amusing to some extent.

◇Eventually, you told him about it when he got fascinated by a painting from your country.

◇Surprised Pikachu face ver.2

◇Probably the most excited about learning your culture, even if he doesn't understand it and it differs significantly from what's prevalent in America.

◇If your country has an unusual drawing style, he'll beg you to try it together. How can you refuse such an angel? (Not really an angel, especially when Dr. Rude comes into play)

◇He'll be the first to want to try on national costumes, both male and female.

◇He'll also want to, this time by himself, cook some dishes from your country.

◇He burned the kitchen.

◇A total failure when it comes to learning languages, so either you give up on teaching him, or you'll need a lot of patience.

◇Relatively supportive turtle, but he won't be as mindful of your origin afterward; it'll be like it used to be with the extra toppings.

[beevean]

Top 10 favorite CV characters!

I remember when you sent me this ask a year ago! I was in the middle of playing CoD and I still had other games to go lol. Well...

10) Julia. She deserves more than for being remembered for an awkward romance plot :( I like her coy attitude towards Hector, and I'm intrigued by the implications that she's repressing her pain for the Isaac situation, for the sake of assisting the man who wants to kill her brother.

9) Walter. Honestly for a guy just meant to be Beta Dracula, the dude is very fun! He's like a Dracula if he didn't even pretend to have a shred of decency or justification :P dude just wants to play with his food because he's bored, and he's entertainingly cruel about it, from deliberately turning the women he kidnaps for shit and giggles to subjecting Joachim to a fate worse than death. Proof that villains don't always need a tragic backstory, as long as they have style.

8) Joachim. I warmed up to the guy! He reeks of "cut from development", because his concept is very fascinating and he's so wasted as a random boss. He's antagonistic to Leon because he's a haughty vampire who clearly thinks he deserves at least his castle lol, but also to Walter because holy shit the dude really punished him in an exemplary manner. That art of him looking out of his mind says a lot. Also he has very cool powers that make him a joy to use in Joachim Mode.

7) Leon. A pure, noble-hearted knight, so honest that he won't even take a sword that didn't belong to him, who only wished the wellbeing of his fiancée and his best friend... and oh. Oh how he paid for it :) Leon's story is utterly miserable, made even worse by how he ends his game with the most depressing canonical ending imaginable. My man has immense mental fortitude, and I love the scene where he angrily rejects Mathias' offer of immortality because he'd rather honor Sara's dying wish, unlike a certain vampire we know... but he didn't know that, by swearing revenge on the newly-turned Mathias, he'd doom his own lineage to a lifetime of terrible pressure...

6) Rosaly. girl <3 I once again have to thank Ayami Kojima and Kou Sasakura for breathing life into this character, especially the latter. She's just an aggressively kind girl who will love you to death. Even if others think she's too nice or too trusting, she stubbornly helps people because she likes to do so. And I find it a very interesting detail that she seems absolutely unconcerned with Hector's past: she only sees the good in him, without the baggage. I find her endearing :)

5) Trevor. He's the Sonic of Castlevania. He's shaped like a friend <3 I like what personality we can glean from CV3: that despite being shunned by people for his powers (now where did I hear that before) he was ready to accept the quest of slaying Dracula - he didn't even do it for the Legacy, he's just that much of a brave guy! - and he was able to easily befriend and lead all sorts of people, hinting at his charisma and at his good heart. And of course in CoD he's just sass central :P I forgive his weird hostility against Hector because, despite his cockiness and ferocity, I like how he still takes the time to give credit to his friends for their victory <3

4) Dracula. The bastard himself :) I really like how, by being the most recurring character in the series, he ended up being quite fleshed out. His tragic story does little to justify how much of a hypocritical asshole he is. He loves so intensely, yet so selfishly. He wants his son by his side, but only after cutting his human heritage. He takes two abused boys under his wing, but only to raise them as his loyal knights and forgerers of armies. And overall, you can see the degradation of his morals and even his personality through the centuries, as he loses a piece of his humanity with every resurrection... not that he was a saint as a human, either.

3) Shanoa. Things Shanoa deserved: the world. Things Shanoa did not deserve: all the shit that happened to her :) it's hard to make an interesting character out of an amnesiac without emotions, yet Shanoa is intriguing. This girl who was taken in by Ecclesia as a young child, raised to become a weapon to vanquish all evil yet constantly protected by Albus... even when she loses everything, even when she learns that her entire life is a lie and for her beloved mentor she was nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter, she still wants to fight, she still chooses to sacrifice herself. And by the end, she finds a place to live in Wygol Village, after rescuing and befriending all the villagers. also she kitty :3

2) Isaac. A pathetic wet cat of a man <3 just terrible in every way <3 miserable and bitter and ready to make it everyone else's problem <3 genuinely tragic backstory of terrible loss that makes you pity him but never to the point of excusing his terrible actions <3 how much he strives to be nothing but a tool and dying as one (and a defective one too) <3 absolute banger of a theme too <3

Hector. I just think he's neat.

:P

I talked enough about the guy. I know that he's basically a smoothie of Alucard and Guts. But something about his journey of self affirmation, how he chose to serve Dracula out of a need to belong somewhere then chose to put his principles above his trauma but still paid the consequences for his past alliance and betrayal, the parallels with Isaac and Dracula showing that yes you can fall into evil but you can rise again as many times as you want, his development thanks to Rosaly, his struggle with his own humanity and powers... It just speaks to me, what can I say.

[polarisbibliotheque]

Updating by writing you guys this huge post. I mean it, it's really long xD

Heeey-ho!

I know, I know, I couldn't keep my Halloween promise T-T

Tha Halloween gods are now shouting at me "HOW COULD YOU?!"

Die Halloween gods, slowly coming after me - black and white edition

As it has happened before, I'll be posting both Dante and Vergil's part during november. I'm still working on them, so it might take a while. Do apologise.

They will be here, just with a little delay. I do think Halloween should last more than just a few days, so screw it, until Christmas, it's still legal to celebrate Halloween at the Bibliothéque \o/

Now, now, for those who don't like too much talking, I'll be explaining a little bit below why I'm taking so long. Feel free to skip it if you don't want to read it, no worries ;)

(There's a "conclusion and TL;DR for those who don't want to read this whole novel" in pink down there if you want to scroll down to that point!)

As *not* expected, my health took a crazy downturn. I know I say it all the time, but hell, I've no idea what gives this time. I literally stopped everything. I spend most of the day in pain and the rest of it sleeping. That's it.

I have an appointment with my doctor next week, but I'm not too much hopeful. Last exams showed I have two ulcers - which means scarring and bleeding in the stomach - that can be literally anything.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty worried it can be something worse than I was expecting, although it never even appeared to exist before, but well... My anxiety isn't exactly logic.

Secondly, as you guys might not know, I'm graduated in Law, worked as a lawyer for 5+ years before having a burnout and all those health issues (yeah, yeah, don't do what I've done, all that sort of thing). But something you don't know, and honestly probably only my close family knows and cares about, is that my graduation thesis was "The Conflict of Israel x Palestine and International Law".

I researched it for 3 years before defending my thesis, got a college prize for it, the professor who mentored me made a huge speech on how I proved "we women can do it on academia and research" and that my work was really nice. I'm not saying all this 'cause I'm boasting, I'm just saying I know what I'm talking about (because you know, who has never met a man who thinks their opinion is better than yours "just because" while you have a fucking huge CV on research and graduated with honors on the same matter but, somehow, you can't beat the opinion he just pulls out of his ass?).

All of this to say, I'm devastated by what's going on. This is more than politics to me. This was my thing, you know? I had a dream, stupid ~promising young woman~ dream of doing something with my intelligence to actually help people. To actually stop massacres of happening. I wanted to work at the UN, I wanted to speak with world leaders, to show people how much I can research and how much basic human rights matter so horrid things cannot happen ever again.

When the war broke and the bombings started, I followed the news. And then the news weren't reliable anymore. I started digging to find the truth - and hells, the truth is ugly and bloody. I think that's when all those last shards of dreams came crashing down. I thought I could do something, you know? Actually do something. But in the end, my parents were broke, I had to work to help at home, I kept sending my CV to the UN but I was never enough, and I just wasted my energy and health under the boots of someone who had more power and influence than me to break me and kill my career before it even started.

I felt so horribly powerless. So horribly broken. It seems stupid, but everything that is going on out there fells personal to me, I have history with it. And it broke me. Completely. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't force myself to at least watch the horrible things going on and try to like/share so the algorithm can make it reach other people.

That's all I can do.

You know, I have a lot of Vergil in me. For the things I wrote, I think you all can see I have a thing of "I never want to feel pain again and I want power so no one can never hurt me again" - that's why I think I want to kick his ass every time I see this fucking man being so emotionally constipated and ruthless because of his trauma. It's a way to protect himself, burning every path so he never feels powerless again - and I guess we all HATE to see the parts of our own personalities we hate the most in someone elese

So yeah. I know things took a dark turn on this one, but I decided to be honest with you guys - since I'm owing so many updates: the 2 Halloween fics, Nemesis and Survivor's Blood. I'm not really well currently, and only the gods know how much effort I'm making to keep it together... At least a little bit.

Physically, I'm like V. And I'm not even trying to be funny, every time I see that lil' goth twink I want to yeet him away because, hell, I'm MAD I see myself in him (mind you, I used to be more on Dante's side of the fitness spectre xD) - and not only regarding fitness, but tiredness. Falling apart. It's so... Harrowing. I think that's the word that fits the feeling better.

Mentally, I'm Vergil. I don't want to, I want to beat him with a stick, I want to yell at his face and kick his stupid ass, but damn. I get it. That crippling fear of not wanting to feel powerless again, to have people abuse you? The feeling you're trapped in your own body? The "feelings bring only pain and suffering"? The terrifying dread of discovering you failed at everything even with all your talents and never wanting to admit it? Check all of those. I hate you Vergil, but I get you.

I'm trying, though. I use writing as a coping mechanism and as a way to resolve many things mentally, but the last months have felt SO overwhelming I went back to my paralysed state of not being able to do anything and running away from things that remind me of all THAT.

You guys might be alarmed, but there's no reason to be, though. This is a ~moment~ I'm going through and I just need to sort it all out. I'm starting to get some warning signs of numbness, vivid nightmares of past issues, the paralysis, avoidance - but I've been there before. I just haven't figured out a way to pull myself together and I don't even remember how I did that once, so it might take me some time.

I don't know why, I had some sort of weird ~boost~ while thinking in the shower today, and I might know how to give the small steps to start getting back on track and gaining that momentum I need. This weekend I had to convince my mom to celebrate her birthday 'cause she's my Samwise Gamgee carrying me up Mount Doom and she wasn't in a mood to do so - therefore on monday, I have some things in mind to discuss with her and, hopefully, things will slowly go back to their place.

Conclusion and TL;DR for those who don't want to read this whole novel hahaha

THAT BEING SAID: I'm really sorry I can't deliver everything I wanted to you, guys. I didn't expect life to get so much more fucked up than it already was, but here we are. I just have to get used to the new pace of things, but it might take a while. My output of writing will be slow, but hey, after I can get out of that paralysis phase, I'll probably be writing more and posting more - 'cause I really, really love this. With all my heart.

(also, if you people see me active on my drawing thing, posting a bunch of things, it's 'cause I'm finally getting to look at all the art I've done but never posted and actually updating it and putting my art blog to some use I haven't in a while - I won't be creating new stuff. All old stuff I procrastinated as HELL and those will be some of my small steps to get out of this rut)

Now, as a last thing, I intend to use a video from a guy I always watch on youtube as some sort of guiding light in these trying times hahahaha but seriously, he has some really sound advice and he is so down to earth. Maybe someone who's going through some fucked up times can use his advice as well and unfuck their life too :)

That's it. I felt like I needed some raw honesty today. Like I said, small steps. This is part of it hahahaha

I hope you guys understand. There's nothing I love more than writing, creating something for people - and all of this, everyone I met here and every single person that uses their time, which is the most precious thing we have, to read something I wrote gives me the greatest gift I can be given. You guys have no idea how much I appreciate you and how much I don't want to disappoint you.

So thank you. I will work slowly and I will need some time to get my shit together, but I'll always be here. I'll update everything I need and won't leave you hanging but you know... It's like Dracula Daily. It starts in April and finishes by the end of the year, taking time to put the letters together.

Aaaaand, if you read Lord of the Rings, the whole adventure takes a year. We are very much conditioned to be given content constantly to keep algorithms happy, but I do have a view that humans (and art for that matter) can't keep up with being content.

Zygmunt Bauman said we live in liquid times, and made the theory that everything is liquid nowadays (for people who like sociology and philosophy, I highly recommend his books, I love him with all my heart), so we're not really used to things that are a little more... Constant. Earthy, perhaps. Slow, stable, never leaving.

I try my best to be like that, not like a liquid, inconstant, fleeting presence. I want the things I do to be part of something that will stay, and I like being someone that stays - and doesn't just flow away because everything has to be fast and ever moving nowadays. The Bibliothéque is to be like that, I think, a place that no matter what, you can come back after ten months and you'll still find me here, drinking some tea and writing stuff. And I'll be happy to see you again, for as much as you can or would like to stay :)

kinda like Dante in his lil' shop :')

That's it. Thank you for reading me mumbling nonsensically in order to tell you I will keep updating my fanfiction, even if at a slow pace HAHAHAHAHAHA

Hope you guys have a fine weekend and a good next week! I'll be always lurking around, but the creation process will be a bit slow.

Will still be here to mumble randomly about DMC and scream random things in the void though :D

*me getting ready to tackle life for the next months, going like "still heeeeeeeeere bitch!!"*

***

And I'd like to add that I searched for "Obi Wan" on GIFs to find some sassy defying mood too add here and one of the first hits was this:

I'll leave you guys on this note 'cause I'm still wheezing about it, it's so friggin' on point I can't EVEN

[whiskey-tango-matcha]

A Cup of Tea and Paracetamol pt 2/?

I’m back with part 2! Sorry for the delay, last weekend was wildly busy. This part features a staunchly miserable Elijah, so I hope you guys enjoy that. Unedited, basically unread by me until I look at it later and hate myself for a random spelling/grammar mistake. Part one can be found here, if you’re interested in reading that/understanding what’s going on in this part lmao. I’m thinking this is going to be 3 parts, and the final one should be up later this week (hopefully. No promises lol). 

OH ALSO I am very much so not from England, I’ve never been outside the US so I’m sorry if I say something that sounds super weird or wrong about England. Just go ahead and pre-suspend your disbelief that basically no cold medication can be found in London while you’re at it. This is fiction and it’s at the mercy of what makes my characters the most miserable lmao. 

Enjoy!

cw: male sneezing, colds, contagion is mentioned but not explicitly in this part

A Cup of Tea and Paracetamol (pt 2)

“Stop laughing.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m not laughing, I’m getting it together,” Greyson took a deep breath slowly, but it came out once again as a squawk of a laugh. Elijah elbowed him hard in the arm before snatching his bag off of the moving carousel.

“You’re an ass,” Elijah grumbled, moving towards the exit.

“Boss, hey, I’m sorry, man,” Greyson said jogging a bit to keep up with Elijah. “But I mean, come on. It is kind of funny.”

“I literally cannot think of anything less funny,” Elijah said, pulling his hand sanitizer out of his pocket for the millionth time that day and squirting the last of it on his hands. “That was a fucking nightmare.” The sick man Elijah had been sitting next to literally couldn’t have done a worse job of keeping his germs to himself; he had basically sneezed and coughed for the entire seven hours, minus maybe thirty minutes of snoring with his open mouth facing Elijah. Greyson hailed a cab as Elijah shuddered; at least it was over.

“We’re gonna have to find an English CVS or something,” Greyson mused. “Do they have Emergen-C here?”

“I have no idea,” Elijah said, massaging his temples before opening the cab door. “Let’s just get away from this godforsaken airport.”

The ride to the hotel was thankfully quick, and by some miracle, the gift shop in the lobby did stock Emergen-C. Greyson and Elijah loaded up, dropped their things in the room, and headed out to dinner. Their first day was completely blown because of the flight and the time difference, so over their meals Elijah was busy texting the contact for the event.

“What’d she say about the product we ordered?” Greyson asked, his leg bouncing nervously under the table. Elijah gave him a pointed look and showed the chef his text stream with the contact – a woman named Samantha.

“She said she has it all,” he said as Greyson read through their texts. “Stop worrying so much.”

Greyson snorted. “That’s rich coming from you,” he said, taking a bite of his sandwich. “The king of fuckin worrying.”

“It’s a festival event, Grey. We’ve done a thousand of them. It’s not like we’re doing it in Mumbai and we don’t speak the language.” Greyson shrugged and Elijah sent off another text.

“Okay,” Elijah said, clapping his hands together. “Tomorrow: prep. It’s 1,000 portions, if we get to the kitchen at seven, it’ll probably take us ten hours to get everything done.”

“Seven?!” Greyson asked, incredulous. “Isn’t that like three in the morning our time?”

Elijah shrugged. “We have to get it done, Grey. We don’t have the team help us; I think the event provides a couple of culinary students, but that’s it. It’s gonna be a long one.”

Greyson groaned and put his head in his hands. “Fine,” he said after a moment of mourning his sleep. “But I’m gonna complain the whole time.”

Elijah chuckled as he flagged the server. “I’d expect no less.”

***

Greyson peeled his eyes open at the ass-crack of dawn to see that the bathroom light was on and the shower was running. Jesus christ, he thought, does Elijah ever fucking sleep?

The chef rolled unceremoniously out of bed and grudgingly shoved his legs into jeans and his arms into his chef coat. It was so goddamn early. He was so goddamn tired. While buttoning his chef coat, Greyson fantasized about running away, skipping the event and just enjoying London like it was a vacation; beer and fish and chips in a dark pub, strolling through museums with no schedule, taking a long ass hotel nap and then going to a Michelin-starred restaurant for dinner. Yeah… now that sounded like a trip.

Just as he was about to pound on the bathroom door and ask if Elijah had fallen in, Greyson heard his boss’s breath hitch.

“hehh...huhNGTSH-uh!”

Oh, mother fucker.

“Lij…?” Greyson called into the bathroom. When he didn’t get an answer, he knocked tentatively. “Y’okay in there?”

Greyson heard nothing for a moment, the a sudden – “HGTSHH-ue!” Greyson set his jaw in anticipation, and just as he was about to knock again, Elijah opened the door.

“I’m good,” he said, his voice slightly lower than it usually was. “You ready?”

“Uh, yeah,” Greyson said, motioning to his getup. “Are you sure you’re alright? I heard you, uh… sneezing.”

“I’m fine, Grey, just steam from the shower. C’mon, we need to meet Samantha in the lobby in five minutes.”

Greyson followed Elijah silently to the elevator, and continued his silence as they descended to the lobby. He couldn’t lie; he was worried. Worried about his boss, a bit, but mostly worried about the event - if Elijah was sick, who was going to work the booth with him tomorrow? He couldn’t do it himself, he knew that much for sure, but, to be frank, he was fairly scared of invoking Elijah’s wrath by asking if he was sick, or even offering to get him medicine. Instead, while Elijah went through the finer details of the event with Samantha, Greyson snuck off to the giftshop, bought two bottles of water, and filled them both with Emergen-C. Before Elijah could notice he’d left, Greyson breezed back to the lobby and placed a bottle in his boss’s hand.

“What’s this?” Elijah asked as he waved goodbye to Samantha. Greyson shrugged.

“Emergen-C. Long flight, long couple days; better to be safe than sorry.”

Elijah gave Greyson a pointed look, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he unscrewed the cap of his water bottle and chugged half of it.

“Right,” he said, screwing the cap back on. “Let’s go check out the kitchen.”

***

Not to be dramatic, but Elijah really wasn’t sure how he was going to make it through the weekend.

It was about seven hours into prepping the short rib nacho they were serving for tomorrow’s event, and Elijah’s eyes were drooping at even the thought of another seven hours. He’d definitely been entirely too optimistic about his and Greyson’s abilities to get this knocked out in ten hours; the culinary students he’d assumed would be helping them prep were, as it turned out, scheduled to help run the booth tomorrow, not cook with them today. Elijah and Greyson were balls-deep in chopping, searing, frying, and basting with no end in sight. And it really didn’t help that Elijah couldn’t seem to get one little thing under control.

“hehhNGTHSH-uh! HGSTH-oo!” Elijah sneezed into his elbow for what felt like the billionth time that day and sniffed as hard as he could before returning to slicing potatoes on the mandolin.

“Careful,” Greyson said, also for the billionth time. “Do you want me to take those over, boss? We really can’t have you slicing your finger off.”

“Ndo,” Elijah said, wincing at how his own voice sounded. “I’mb good.”

Whatever monster of a cold the man on the plane had had yesterday, it certainly traveled quickly. Elijah had woken up that morning with a scratchy throat and slightly runny nose, and now at just after noon he was fairly sure he was dying. “HETSSHCHH-ue!”

“Bless,” Greyson said, curt. At the beginning of the day, Greyson had been sympathetic – almost overly sympathetic, bordering on neurotic. He’d offered to buy Elijah medicine in the gift shop, which Elijah had staunchly declined until about ten am. After the third offer, Elijah had broken down and given up on the ‘I’m-not-sick-I’m-totally-fine’ charade. “Fine, yes, find me what they have.”

But Greyson had come back empty-handed, with exception of the mystery drug the man on the plane had requested yesterday – paracetamol. After a quick google search, they found out it was pretty much just tylenol.

“Tylenol??” Elijah had asked, dumbstruck. “That’s really all they have?”

Greyson had nodded. “I asked the woman at the front if there was, like, a drug store somewhere that sells dayquil and she had no idea what I was talking about.”

“You have got to be fucking shitting – HGTSHH-oo! Huhh...hehESTCHHH-ue! Snf.” Elijah wiped his face on his sleeve, defeated. “Shittigg mbe.”

He was not. A call to a local drugstore confirmed that dayquil and nyquil weren’t available in the UK, and their best bet was going to be the paracetamol. Elijah had tried to stifle a groan, and Greyson had offered his sympathy.

“I’m sorry, boss,” he said as he browned the short ribs in a huge tilt skillet. “I can ask the front desk to make you some tea?”

After Elijah had grumbled something about hating tea, Greyson had sighed and seemingly given up on the niceties. Now, several hours later, he had taken to not even mentioning Elijah’s condition.

“HRETSSHHOO!” This one caught Elijah off-guard, and he ended up doubled over his legs with his arms over his head to keep from contaminating the food. “Mbother fucker,” he mumbled, moving towards the hand washing station to blow his nose. From across the kitchen, Elijah heard Greyson sigh.

“Boss,” he called as Elijah threw away a handful of paper towels. “Go take a break.”

“Grey, we have so mbuch left to do. I’mb not leaving you.”

“Lij, please. Just go lay down for an hour or something, I literally am standing here with my stomach in my asshole freaking out that you’re not going to be able to do the event tomorrow, so please please just go and take a nap with some tea. Please.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow at Greyson and coughed lightly into his fist. “What the fugck are you talkigg about?” he asked, walking closer to the chef.

Greyson ran a nervous hand through his hair, then, noticing what he’d done, snapped the gloves off his hands and threw them in the trash with much more force than was necessary. “I’m just worried, dude, like you look like fucking hell. You look like you’re going to fuckin keel over, and I literally cannot do this event by myself. I can’t, Lij.”

Elijah huffed out a laugh that turned into a dry cough. “Greysond,” he said, as gently as he could muster, “I don’t care if I have two brokend arms and two brokend legs. I’mb going to be at the event. Okay? It’s a cold. I’mb fuckigg miserable, but it’s a cold. It’s gonna be fine.” He placed a careful hand on the chef’s shoulder and shook him lightly. “Okay?”

Greyson let out a shaky sigh. “Okay,” he said. “Good,” Elijah said, giving his friend’s shoulder a squeeze. “But you’re right about onde thing: we ndeed a break. And I think I mbight take you up ond – HGSTHH-oo! HRSHH-uh! Huhh…hhNGSTHH-ue!” Elijah groaned into the sleeve of his shirt and took the paper towel Greyson held out to him. “Ond the fuckigg tea.”

[whiskeylucciano]

I definitely should be working rn but im having dangan tma au thoughts so. i'm making that tumblr's problem

hajime is the mc, a regular guy with no life plans or friends who gets a job at the institute of hope (hpa but its focused on the research instead of the school) to have something to put on his CV. gets archivist-ed

he's a part of the junior department. its basically an internship program. the other members are -

murasame soshun : fellow regular guy ! no supernatural encounters yet but has an irrational fear of ghosts. the (unofficial) manager. helps hajime around to begin with and they get along well. probably the most mentally well in the group though he definitely overworks himself hard + puts other people's needs ahead of his own. depending on how i decide to have the story go, he gets lonely'd

fujisaki chihiro : tech support. bit of a recluse. in a constant battle to get anything in the archives recorded on something that isn't paper, so she ends up helping hajime in sorting the archives fairly often. not totally sure if i want her to end up as an avatar? if i did though it would probably be eye, flesh or spiral

gekkougahara miaya : ok she's here i haven't planned very far beyond that. i'm thinking she does a lot of the online research on statements? her and chihiro often work together on both of their jobs though. she probably stays human. i think nwp trio needs at least one human lol

matsuda yasuke : end avatar w/angsty backstory. love making my favs suffer. more of a forensic pathologist than a neurologist in this au, but just as self-taught. technically a part of the junior department but doesn't leave his office/lab area unless forced to.. which is mostly when the proper ioh workers need him for shit. soshun, chihiro and miaya visit him because they actually somewhat get along with him. hajime, however-

there's also their actual boss, kirigiri jin, and chisa/kyosuke/kouichi/etc work in the main part of the facility. juuzou exists but probably works elsewhere (probably as a cop or sth). jin is an eye avatar (+ probably kouichi too), kyosuke is a lonely avatar, im not certain about the rest yet. desolation juuzou seems fitting i think?

i have some characters who i want to have join the archival team later in the story but i also haven't planned most of that story yet so. lol. sato joins after an end encounter (twilight syndrome murder case-adjacent, kuzuryuus are end-aligned). i'm not sure if shinobu gets employed there but. she's a journalist ! she has connections ! just don't worry about her family i'm sure there's nothing weird happening there (togami corp is buried-aligned, but shinobu is eye-aligned if anything). nagito isn't an archival assistant but he's a vast avatar, and the first avatar that hajime knowingly interacts with. he collects leitners and provides info to hajime but he's also kind of a prick. he still self-depreciates he just also kinda worships the fears and considers all human life worthless. and he doesn't THINK he's being that rude but wow this hajime guy sure is sure of himself better remind him of his (unimportant) place in the universe. also he's very much rooting for the guys carrying out the fear rituals so thats fun.

+ you can't forget the former archivist, who had to be kirigiri kyouko. who else would it be. born to the kirigiris who run their own eye-aligned info-gathering organisation (their detective agency), and mostly raised by fuhito to be the heir of it. befriends samidare yui in a way basically the same as in dr kirigiri (but with more . supernatural crimes), and over time comes to question her family's dealings with the fears. comes to the institute of hope to figure out what happened to jin, but leaves mysteriously w/yui and nobody has heard from them since.

and thats it for the main cast ! there's other characters i have plans for (i have an imposter statement planned, and i want sayaka to start a stranger ritual... junko is also important i'm just not 100% sure how im going to handle her part in the story and how much of what i have planned i want to put in a summary post. and so on)

maybe i'll actually write some of this as a fic later. Who knows

[jaybarou]

I'm turning some of my most AU fanfics into Original short stories in the hopes of selling them to a publisher. (And thus get some cred to send my CV to Publishers and leave my job)

While I unfic them all, I'll post them here and you can read them with the tag #limited edition. I'll delete them after a few days

<7k words

Freddie is running out of time before the presentation for Stenson Industries and he needs a competent technician yesterday. How fortunate, then, that someone who was waiting and overheard his problem is willing to help.

Freddie burst into the hall and everyone held their breath while the second son of the boss made his way to the head of department. The rest of the employees mourned the poor woman and settled to watch the dismemberment. There were three rules in the company. Number one: Don’t piss off the boss. Rupert was a clever bastard who should have been a lawyer. Number two: Don’t mess with Tim, he was under Rupert’s protection and Rupert would utterly destroy you if you dared contradict the guy. Number three: Keep Freddie as a friend, but only behind Rupert’s back.

Freddie had turned into a tyrant lately. He used to be the most understanding of the three and the one to go to if the others were being unreasonable. The Winter fiasco had taken its toll on him, but even with the new bitterness, he was far more flexible than his relatives and he was your man if you wanted something that was technically off-limits. Going against Freddie was a suicide too, especially after the winter thing. Today Freddie had his ‘I have had a horrid day and I’ll be polite about it until I’m not’ face going on. The head of the department was so doomed.

She didn’t know it yet, though, since Freddie was coming from behind.

“Rosita,” Freddie’s icy tone clued the woman in, so she was properly scared when she turned to face her boss. “May I inquire as to the whereabouts of our IT crew?”

Ow, he was using the big words, he must be royally crossed.

Oh, but the head of department was breathing relieved, she probably had an ace up her sleeve. Anyone who worked at the Intenur Company for longer than a year had to lean to be prepared for their bosses’ moods.

“I alerted them when you asked me; I have sent no less than three messages this week and three more during the morning in anticipation. They assured me that the material would be ready yesterday and that they wouldn’t work on it today.”

Wow! Perfectly deflected blame! And the IT crew wouldn’t have it too bad; they were Tim’s friends. This was not a surprising development all the same; they always messed up Freddie’s tasks, and everyone knew that it wasn’t a coincidence. Tim’s protection was the only explanation as to why they still had a job.

“And the material is there for Tim’s and Rupert’s worthless power points, but I told them there was a compatibility problem with my presentation a week ago.”

“With all due respect, sir, that is not my responsibility.” Rosita had brass balls, or ovaries.

Freddie pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed slowly. “I’m aware; Rosita, but now I need a solution.”

“The other presentations are not causing problems,” she had the cheek to mention.

“Of course not! They are using the company’s system!”

“And why is that a problem? Maybe if you didn’t insist on using your personal computer...”

“It is a problem because it is Pi-21’s stupid technology, Rosita. What kind of impression do you think we will give to Miss Lloid and Mr Stenson if we present our data with their rival’s technology?”

“I’m sure they know by now.” Rosita sent a furtive look at the clients whispering into each other’s ears; a businesswoman and some oil-stained technician. Freddie didn’t spare a look. They were probably gossiping about Freddie’s tantrum; that seemed to be the default these days. Maybe Freddie’s interruption was making them impatient, but Freddie couldn’t care less. He had bigger problems.

“I can’t just transfer my presentation; Pi-21’s software keeps wrecking everything, I could write the transfer code, but not in the next...” Freddie looked at the clock on his mobile. “Not in twenty minutes!”

“I could call the IT crew for you.”

“Today it is Sophie’s shift; she will say that it is my fault, for working with Stenson technology. She only works with simple ‘intuitive’ code like Pi-21’s. I want someone competent!”

One of the two waiting clients approached them.

“I-” he started. 

Freddie didn’t give him the chance to complain.

“I’m terribly sorry for the delay, but there is an emergency in the company.” Freddie usually kept his cool like a boss, well, better than the other bosses. He was usually PR’s wet dream, but he could be downright irrational if the situation really got to him. The Winter Project had been proof enough. “Unless you can fix the computers in time, kindly stay put for a few minutes.” The ‘or else’ was implied.

“I certainly could,” the client said cheerfully. Freddie looked at him skeptically.

“But…” Rosita tried to intervene.

“Do you have a solution, Rosita?” Freddie asked.

“Of course she doesn’t, she is a clever girl, Pi-21’s software is not for clever girls. Show me to the problem, Mr Legs.” The man had the gall to walk to the door where Freddie had come from and open it for him.

Freddie regarded the man warily. Twenty minutes. He still had time to look desperately for someone else if the man couldn’t help and fail. “Why not? I’m doomed anyway.” Freddie walked to the door with a sigh.

“But, sir! He is Ryan Stenson!” Too late; the door was closed. “I’m so screwed,” Rosita muttered thinking of the moment when Rupert heard how she had failed to stop Freddie.

Miss Lloid put an understanding hand on her arm; she probably knew a thing or two about trouble with bosses.

*

Freddie took the man to the conference room where he would have to meet the head of Stenson Industries. He had his custom Stenson laptop there with his presentation and an enormous mess showing on the Pi-21 screen of the company. There wasn’t even an error message, just all the text overlapped with the images and the data, and then it had frozen. If Rupert wasn’t such a resentful man, they’d have Stenson’s holo-displays everywhere instead of that waste of space that Pi-21 called technology. Unfortunately, Rupert would own the company for as long as he lived and Tim would follow his steps like a trained monkey.

The unexpected client-turned-help didn’t ask for permission, he just sat in front of Freddie’s computer as if it was his. He sent a disdainful look at the problematic frozen screen and he turned to Freddie with an amused smile to say: “Let’s start with archaic solutions for archaic technology.” Then the technician crouched to unplug the projector.

“I’ve done exactly the same more than once today.” It was the only way to unfreeze the projector, but Freddie resented the know-it-all attitude of the technician.

The man seemed to take that as a challenge, so he cracked his knuckles and promptly opened the familiar black window of MS-DOS. He started to write while Freddie looked over his shoulder. He was pulling pieces of code that Freddie had not considered, and he didn’t even need to do much after he was done. He just opened the Stenson software for presentations and saved the file that Freddie pointed out in a format that wasn’t there before the man had touched the computer.

The smug bastard had a cheeky smile when he presented Freddie with the pen drive.

Freddie saved all his praise until he plugged the USB drive on the projector and it miraculously worked. The clock on the screen said it had taken the technician… less than five minutes. Freddie was pleasantly surprised; he was going to thank the stranger, but then the presentation played the music that Freddie had saved without hope of it working.

“This thing never plays music, at least never at the same time as the presentation!” He let himself slouch on the chair closest to the projector. The presentation was saved. 

“It was just too easy,” the smug technician commented.

“I would have managed with a bit more than twenty minutes,” Freddie said, pride a bit hurt.

“If your coding is as good as your people skills, twenty minutes would have easily become a week of work.”

“What gives you the right to say that?” Freddie protested.

“You have not even asked my name.”

Freddie pursed his lips. Despite having collapsed on the seat, he was tense all over. He had been stressed since he found trouble with the presentation a week ago and predicted more trouble with IT on top of the other preparations. The man was right, he had been snappy and the presentation hadn’t even started yet, so he took the chance to breathe deeply. And to collect his politeness from the depths of despair.

“Excuse my manners, I-”

“Yes, you don’t need my name, just my services,” the man cut him without retracting that annoying smirk of his.

“Fortunately your coding is better than your own people skills, then,” Freddie said, annoyed.

“No, just as good, people love me, I have people skills to spare somewhere, just not today,  and I have a lot of class.”

“And what are you implying there exactly?”

“That music in your presentation? Tacky.” Let it be known that Freddie knew when he was being mocked and when he was being teased, he just had more experience with the former. 

“I didn’t expect it to work and I can put whatever music I want, because the content is solid.”

“Show me.”

Freddie leaned forward. “What?”

“I said show me!” The technician leaned forward too. “You have time, right? I want to see the monster I helped to create.”

Freddie didn’t have time to reply, because the man stood up, took the remote control from the table, walked in front of the screen and played the presentation. Freddie did have the time now; Stenson should be with Tim and his unproductive dreams of harnessing storms to generate electricity. The technician’s opinion wouldn’t be very enlightening, but this way Freddie would have the chance to check his own presentation one last time.

“This section, why is it so short?” The technician said about the grid connection as he sat on the table. Freddie sat next to him.

It was Freddie’s favorite section, but Rupert didn’t like it, so Freddie had only sneaked a basic idea. He was quite proud of having passed it under the old man’s nose.

“Rupert is old school.” Freddie smirked privately. “He likes the old power plants and he hates Stenson. Hates that his green approach to energy is harming our productivity, and he doesn’t see that an update could benefit both of us. After all, as you see here, we already have a power grid that Stenson wants; we would only have to update the power plants. It would be a great investment, but he doesn’t like it.”

The technician crossed his arms. “He doesn’t like Stenson?”

Freddie laughed. “It is more than dislike. Stenson is the bane of his existence, as Rupert says: who does he think he is, that short-sighted idiot? or whatever short joke he thinks at that moment; apparently the man is quite short.”

“Yes, people say that. Go on.”

“Well, Father always says that Stenson will destroy America, because Forbes might call him a hero but his technology is destroying jobs everywhere, his words, not mine.” Freddie rolled his eyes.

The technician kept playing the presentation and smirked at one of the references.

“That is the project I… saw in a magazine about Stenson. It is not well known, is it? Have you been stalking him or something?”

“I’ve done my research. That high-entropy alloy project is spectacular, but it is not showy enough for the press, or the shareholders, Miss Lloid and he will probably value that Intenur-”

“Your boss is not here, Legs.”

Freddie hesitated for a moment, but the man was smart, he was learning how the Intenur Company worked incredibly fast.

“They will value that I recognize the real potential out of the flashy prototypes for the general public.”

“Are you saying that they lie with their flashy prototypes?”

Freddie looked the technician dead in the eye.

“Of course they do. That’s what marketing is about.”

“Would you tell them that to their face?”

“Of course not. Rupert would behead me if I did something to hamper his deal.”

“Why would he want a deal with a man he hates?”

“I convinced him that he could push his hate aside for the good of the company and to leave a better legacy to Tim.”

“The company, of course, because clean energy and the bigger picture are nothing compared to stock numbers.”

“Obviously you have never discussed it with Rupert. I told him what he needed to hear; I won’t jeopardize the ‘bigger picture’ as you say, by telling him something as feeble as the whole truth.” Freddie leaned his hip against the table. “Then the shareholders gossiped about Stenson and how easy it would be to negotiate some changes with him and Rupert was sold.”

“Huh? And what did they say about Stenson?”

“Why do you ask?”

The technician shrugged and grinned. “Because I want to keep listening to your voice, but I don’t think you’d appreciate me distracting you from the topic.”

Freddie raised an eyebrow at the blatant flirting, but let it slide. “They said that it takes a lot to keep Stenson interested in a single topic unless it is really engaging, but they also told us to use eye-candy to keep him involved.” Freddie allowed himself a private smile, the one that people compared with a snake’s. “Tim called his girlfriend to play the part of eye-candy. She is an expert in the field of his presentation, so he was terribly angry that she was called only for her looks.”

The technician shared his smile with the same subtle touch of cruelty that Freddie found… endearing.

“Maybe you should have read more magazines, and you would know that you put eye-candy in your presentation anyway?”

The technician was looking up and down at Freddie quite obviously. Freddie’s lip twitched and he retreated any endearing thought that had passed through his mind.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he swings both ways, you know?” Freddie didn’t dignify that with an answer, which was a bad decision, because the technician came back. “Don’t tell me you are one of those bigoted idiots who think bisexuality is just...”

“You are lucky I needed you. That comment would have you in the street by yesterday if you worked here.” Freddie didn’t appreciate being called bigoted; he had enough putting up with Rupert daily trying to keep his second son’s “scandalous ways” in the closet, thank you very much.  “I was merely surprised; I don’t think I’ve ever been called eye-candy before.”

“Why the hell not? Do you usually hang out with blind people? Wait, Rupert is the guy with the eye-patch, right? Does that count as half-blind?”

“That is very insensitive of you.” Freddie chastised, but his twitching lip was persistent. He would love to say it was annoyance, but deep down he knew it was amusement.

“Let me guess; that comment would put me in the street by yesterday if I worked here. How lucky that I don’t actually work here, don’t you think?” The man had no sense of self-reservation. “And let me tell you, if your definition of eye-candy is allowed to have brains, you totally qualify, take it from an expert in eye-candyness.”

“An expert.” Freddie deadpanned with only a badly concealed hint of interest showing.

“An expert indeed! I look into the mirror every day, after all.”

Freddie pretended to think seriously, looking the technician up and down on his spot sitting on the table. He was indeed quite handsome, but Freddie was not going to make the same mistake twice and appreciate a man within Rupert’s earshot. “No, I don’t really see it.” Despite the words, Freddie sent a challenging look at the technician that contradicted is words, just in case the presentation went well and Freddie decided to celebrate when he went home.

“I’ll have you know I look amazing in a suit, in any suit, or with nothing at all, I’m only wearing the workshop uniform to piss… my friend off. Hell, I could wear a corset and stockings and I’d still look hot as-”

Freddie’s phone pinged. He put a hand up to make the technician stop for a moment while he read Tim’s message and his face fell a little.

“Apparently the eye-candy won’t be necessary after all. Tim says that Stenson didn’t come; it was only Miss Lloyd in his presentation, and apparently she is headed here.” Freddie looked at the clock. “Early. You should probably leave, ask Rosita anything you want at the front desk and tell her I approved it. She’ll make an invoice if necessary.”

“Unless she’s giving me your phone number I’m staying.” 

Freddie glared at the man. 

“What? Pi-21’s technology is famously unreliable as fuck. What if you suddenly need a dashing hero to help you?” 

Freddie glared harder.

“I told you that I wanted to keep hearing you; what makes you think you’ll get rid of me anytime soon?”

Unfortunately for Freddie, Rosita showed Miss Lloyd into the conference room at that exact moment and Freddie had to put on his public mask and shake hands with the woman. Lloyd excused Stenson for not coming. She said something about a last moment change of plans; she also said that her chief engineer was prone to last-minute impulses and ideas while sending a look at the technician by Freddie’s side. There was no polite way to get rid of the man in front of Lloyd, though, and the man knew it. So he rolled on with his presence and ignored Ms Lloyd’s look. She’d have to suffer his presence too.

Freddie would have said something scathing about Stenson’s absence, but his lips were sewn as long as there was a possibility of a deal on the horizon.

The presentation ended up being a disaster and it was the technician’s fault. He kept interrupting Freddie and addressing Ms Lloyd directly, to Freddie’s chagrin. Freddie couldn’t explain the man’s presence now and he couldn’t just throw him away in front of Ms Lloyd. His comments were on point, but Miss Lloyd wouldn’t appreciate that someone that Freddie had not even introduced interrupted like that. Also, Freddie had prepared the presentation with Stenson in mind, he didn’t know as much about the discrete CEO.

A complete disaster.

Ms Lloyd left the room an hour later to speak with Rupert and as soon as the door closed behind her, Freddie collapsed on one of the rolling chairs. The technician was giggling like Freddie’s career wasn’t crumbling before his eyes.

“That was brilliant!”

“No it wasn’t. You were interrupting!”

“I assure you she won’t mind, she is used to much worse.” And as an afterthought he added, “probably.”

“Even if that is true, I don’t think Rupert will see it your way.”

Freddie wallowed a bit more in his misery before the technician derailed his train of thought.

“If Stenson had known what kind of presentation you had in your hands, he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

“I guess we will never know.”

“Hey! I’m telling you! I’m sure!”

Freddie huffed sarcastically, but the technician was having none of it. “How come you know about a small project of Stenson but you ignore the most basic things that everybody knows about him?” He had an elbow planted on the table and his teasing tone was both baffled and soft at the same time. 

“When I started to investigate I didn’t know he was a celebrity. When I realized he was, I did everything in my power to avoid yellow-press literature. It’s just too unreliable, and it would poison my own vision.” Freddie was defensive over his choices. “I think that reading his papers is enough. Don’t you think?”

“You have read his papers?” His eyebrows lifted briefly. 

“And patents. Of course.”

“But most of his patents have nothing to do with clean energy, why would you read those too?”

“He is quite inventive; the material innovations were clean solutions. Masterpieces in a field that still managed to convey how his mind works. You can follow his thought process by-”

“Reverse engineering?” The technician ended his phrase. Freddie didn’t like how surprised he looked.

“I might come across as Rupert’s left hand, and the convenient scapegoat but I assure you that I’m more than the company’s tool.”

“I don’t know you,” the technician showed his hands conciliatory. “Maybe you should show me how much more you are.”

“Don’t play with me. It is not a good moment.” Freddie regarded the technician; he wouldn’t be trouble. “I planned today’s meeting with a high risk to my career, things are already terrible as they are.

“Why risk so much? You would have convinced The CEO of Pi-21 instead easily.”

“First, no matter what Intenur does, I only deal with the best and second… Well, I was looking forward to meeting him in person.”

“Why?”

“That is not your concern.” Freddie knew he had said the wrong thing, because now this man’s interest was piqued. 

“Awww, how cute, you have a crush on him!”

“What? No! I don’t know him!”

“Yes you do, why would you bother otherwise?”

Freddie was done with that conversation, but he was starting to remember that this technician was supposed to be a client who was owed an apology for getting dragged into this whole mess, so he ended up answering in defeat. 

“His research into AIs. There is speculation about him having made great leaps, but he covers it with zeal. It’s been years since he last published on the subject and I think it is because he made something spectacular.”

“His AIs... You are a nerd, aren’t you?” The technician-maybe-still-client laughed. “Why would you want to know about that and not his super-amazing robotics sowcase?”

“Because… Well, I have a couple of AIs myself, and as I developed them beyond what we currently know about AIs... I understood that I would never expose them to the public, no matter the sum offered. You wouldn’t understand, it is a strange connection with something that you’ve created that sounds… ridiculous. A program…” Freddie shrugged. “Tim says it is unhealthy, being attached to a few lines of code. But I found that I want the best for them and to make sure they cause no harm either.” He turned to watch the man warily. “And you won’t make me feel ashamed of it.”

“Perish the thought.” 

“Any joke about cyberphilia and I’ll make sure nobody finds your body.”

Freddie could see the alternative joke forming in the technician’s mind, but before he could brace himself, the communication system came to life and Rupert’s voice filled the room.

“Freddie, Ms Lloyd has left the building without a closed agreement. Your plan has failed! and the company will suffer for it!”

“Maybe if Tim’s presentation hadn’t been so bland, Ms Lloyd would have been more interested in that agreement.”

“Your brother’s proposal was bland because you let him down, to do your own thing, like you always do. I hope you are proud of yourself! I should have known that you would make this deal a failure. Do you know how much time I put into this? Time I don’t have, Freddie! Time I can’t waste if you can’t even make Stenson come to listen to us.”

“You can’t blame me for that too. He is the one who decided not to come.”

“I warned you, my son. That little man isn’t worth a single minute of our time. Now, you will make sure this has been your last failure, you will forget about this venture or, as much as it pains me to say this, you will leave the company.”

Freddie’s blood went cold. His whole world darkened around the corners, all of him was focused on that speaker. Leave the company?

“Sir, negotiations have only started; it was almost six months until we convinced Vanestia co. to sell the company. We could still strike a deal with Stenson Industries in that time.” Freddie tried to hide how much it hurt him to think of giving up on this opportunity.

“No, son.”

The communication system died and Freddie held his breath. Rupert had never been so direct, he always insinuated and implied that Freddie was a waste of time and space that should only help to make Tim climb higher, but he was never this blunt. Rupert knew how to make Freddie stay by the company’s side and Freddie tried to earn the same respect as his brother, well, his not-blood-brother, as Freddie had discovered during the last project. His efforts had been less and less effective since the winter affair.

Of course, Freddie had suspected that Rupert favored Tim; it was plain to see, but Freddie had expected to overcome that favoritism with hard work or trickery. Apparently nothing was enough, nothing would ever be enough. What was the sense in trying anymore? Freddie should give up, leave Intenur definitely before being pushed out. But what would he do? He had worked there his whole life; there was nothing he could do now. Other companies hated Freddie because he had inconvenienced them in favor of Intenur. There was nothing to do.  No solution. Nothing.

“Hey, ravenlocks? Someone home?” Freddie looked up to the Technician. Freddie had been still looking at the loudspeaker for a few seconds after it disconnected. Without the man’s interruption, he would have kept falling for a long time, he was sure of it. “After that, you look like you need a drink.”

“I won’t have a career by tomorrow morning. I think I need more than a drink.”

“You need to stop thinking before you give yourself an aneurysm, pretty thing, and I know just the place.”

Freddie wouldn’t be needed anymore that day. Maybe ever, if Rupert was to be believed. Freddie could just… Let go. There was a chance that Rupert would want him to be there, but if Freddie only did what Rupert told him, he’d stay put quietly in a closet until the old man had use for him. Therefore, and to spite Rupert if he actually called, he sneaked out of the building with the technician, who still avoided saying his name claiming that Freddie had had his moment to ask and that the moment was gone. 

Freddie wanted… Freddie didn’t know what he wanted now, but he was on the verge of wanting to find a cliff, which was probably bad for his continued existence. Being alone now would be his worst decision to date, so he let himself be dragged away. The technician made inappropriate jokes and kept the self-destructive feelings at bay, so Freddie decided to cling to the man until he felt better or until he found something better to cling to.

They drove through New York like a pair of clueless tourists and they hit all the bars in what Freddie had named ‘A list of the most outrageous places’. It seemed like the technician knew his way around a good number of holes in the wall.

Once there was enough alcohol intaken, Freddie answered the Technician’s questions very easily. He had always been quite private about the family part of the business, and he had never spoken badly of it, but nothing had been the same after the winter collapse. The company had lost his respect; the family had lost his respect. And today Freddie’s career had crumbled down; sometime after the sixth drink he had realized that he didn’t really have any career to speak of. All his skill set was built around making Intenur work. He didn’t have a job description; he embodied all the spare parts of the well-tuned machine of Intenur. He was… a puppet, even though he was the spine of the company… the spine of the machine… maybe he should stop mixing metaphors, or drinks, maybe he should stop mixing drinks.

In between realizations, Freddie had decided that there was nothing to lose if he talked with the technician. He wouldn’t get into more trouble and he would finally get it off his chest, even if the man didn’t believe him, so he told the cheerful and rather handsome mysterious man about the project Rupert had in the works to create energy out of cold.

The man had laughed loudly enough to startle the other tables and the sound had pleased a petty and vindictive part of Freddie.

It was a senseless monstrosity called Productive Winters; a stupidity, of course, anyone with basic knowledge of thermodynamics would know it: it was a ruse to keep some clueless, idiot, brain-dead shareholders interested, but Freddie’s brother had wanted to put it into practice. Tim had been in charge of the company while Rupert was recovering from an eye operation in some spiritual retreat center. One of the mildly intelligent shareholders, Mr Ludwig, had suspected that the whole thing was a huge lie and Tim didn’t take kindly to being called a liar.

Freddie had been in charge of damage control. Mr Ludwig had been dealt with, but the problem was far from over. Both Rupertsons fought over the path to take and Freddie destroyed the project behind Tim’s back so it would never see the light of day and uncover Intenur as scammers or worse: idiots. In doing that, Freddie broke the shareholder’s trust and when Rupert found out, he ordered the PR department to make Freddie into the jealous villain who wanted more power in the company, to save face.

In that click-bait story that Rupert’s PR department fed to the newspapers, Tim was the magnanimous, kind brother who took Freddie in back again despite his ‘treason’. The story was heartwarming enough to save Intenur in the stock market and there was everybody’s happy ending. Freddie had been willing to sacrifice his public image to save the company, but he had never realized how much of himself he was giving away. Now he saw it as it was: a cage of his own making.

Intenur was the place where Freddie could live until he retired if only he submitted to Rupert’s rule. Only now, after decades of loyalty and sacrifice, did Freddie realize that he was considered chaotic and a liar in the larger world of business. Freddie had been pleased to take the burn of any problem in the company; it was not as if he would ever need to have references outside of Intenur. But now he had nowhere to go. He had built his own golden cage one bar at a time and Rupert had provided the tools all too happily.

His only chance of staying away from this was his mother. He could still try to find her wherever she had escaped from Rupert and beg forgiveness. She would receive him with open arms, but after years of defending his father and brother, Freddie couldn’t bring himself to concede defeat, the shame was too great.

The lack of flavor in his latest drink made Freddie realize that he had a bottle of water in his hand and that he had been complaining out loud. The technician was still next to him; he had two untouched colorful glasses in front of him and a boozed smirk. It took Freddie’s alcohol-filled brain a few seconds to realize that the man must have been the one to change the glass for the bottle of water, but the reason eluded Freddie. 

The feeling must have shown on his face.

“Believe me, you will hate yourself tomorrow enough as it is. You don’t want to worsen your prospective hangover.”

Freddie took another sip of the bottle. They were in a nook away from prying looks. It was comfortable. He wasn’t sure of what he had said and what he had only thought, but the technician had a strange, mellow look, so the silent part had probably been very small. Freddie prided himself in knowing facial expressions, but he didn’t know enough about the man, and he couldn’t concentrate on his face beyond the basic features.

“Why don’t you try to work abroad, my emo friend?”

The technician had slipped an arm around his shoulders. Freddie didn’t even care when; he was very very focused on the face in front of him. He was going to read that face, he knew he could if he tried enough.

“It is not the job, it is me. If they don’t fire me, I’m leaving tomorrow.” He sighed. It had always been him, hadn’t it?

“From where I stand, it is them.”

“You don’t understand.”

“I do! I do I do! Who do you think sinks the market points in my company?” The technician seemed to be quite drunk too, he wouldn’t have shared anything personal otherwise. Freddie was watching the corner of his lips; there was a tell when people lied… or was that the corner of the eyes? It didn’t matter, because Freddie kept getting distracted with the rest of the lips. “A company I didn’t ask for, too! A goddamned company that has almost killed me more times than I care to count.”

“Yes, Intenur is killing me slowly too.”

“And all because I had to carry on some kind of legacy, stepping on the heads of giants or something like that. It is what my father used to say to the ladies when my mother wasn’t around.”

“Wait, you have a company,” Freddie said unwisely. “And it was your father’s.”

“Ok, story time. My father built the company…” The man slumped against his seat. “No, I don’t think I’m up for story time.”

“What?” Freddie realized that he had scooted closer, to listen. Not because the warmth was nice and distracting. “You must tell me something, I told you a lot of things, now you owe me.”

“Since when are stories currency?”

“Since I want them, and you want me to stay, so I will have my stories.” Freddie hung his head back, supported by the nook’s headrest and closed his eyes. He opened one of them in what he hoped was a discrete move. He was not sure he was being successful. The man had that drunken smirk and his eyes half-lidded, as if Freddie’s gesture had made him sleepy in turn.  

“Spoiled brat. Have it your way.”

The man said something about a company, a step-father? a story that seemed made to fit an action script, and Freddie was not sure why he kept mentioning the son of Sten. Freddie didn’t know, and only half of it could be blamed on the soft buzz in his head; the bastard was being cagey on purpose. He had the feeling that something in his brain was demanding he pay attention. He knew that story b- What if he is a corporate spy? The thought had already crossed his mind a hundred times during the day when he decided to let the man help with the presentation. He had ruled it out because… because of logic at the time. Logic that was not currently accessible.

Even though he didn’t know exactly what the man was talking about, he got the feeling that he was sad and Freddie had something to do with it. Oh! He was telling Freddie something sad about his company, or his family, or both, because Freddie had made him sad too.

“Hmm. I had planned to celebrate with you, not this.” Freddie most definitely didn’t whine.

“Don’t look at me! I’m the party king! I’m never a sad drunk! It is all your faul-hmpfmm.”

Freddie only knew that he had finally seen the sadness behind the smiling lips, and he had decided that he didn’t like it. The man was sad, he was also sad and they could make each other less sad, so the only answer to that was a kiss, obviously. Obviously? Huh. There was something about two negatives floating in his head, but logic was still not available.

For a delightful moment he wasn’t thinking about anything but the sensation of the other man’s lips against his, the sweetness of his latest drink, the tickling of his beard… He plunged deeper into not thinking when the technician responded by pressing and holding his neck first with one hand, but then he moved to sit on his lap and cradled his nape. Nothing mattered now, especially not when he sneaked an arm around his waist and pulled them closer together.

The water bottle and the time listening to the man had helped to clear his head moderately, so his brain had enough presence to kick in when he felt the man’s hand pushing him away. He let it happen, not without regret. The technician looked regretful too; he was breathing deeply as if he could get rid of the desire in his chest that way.

“Look, let’s stop here. Because tomorrow this will be very… interesting, but if we end up in my room…”

“Mmno,” Freddie protested and hid his face in the other’s neck. He felt the jawbone and cheek against him pressing back. “If I don’t work there, you can go back to being the client tomorrow and this would mean nothing.”

The hand that had been on his neck was still over there playing with his hair. “I’m not going back either. I shouldn’t make decisions right now, but I’m thinking of poaching one of their workers and be done with them.”

Freddie’s smile couldn’t be seen from his position, but it was audible. “You are lucky I don’t work there anymore, or I would have destroyed you for saying that.”

“You still work there.” 

“Not mentally, no.” 

“You made up your mind, then?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but whatever I do, it’s going to be easier to decide if I don’t go back to Intenur. Beyond that… No idea.” 

“I know exactly what you are going to do.”

Freddie emerged from his hiding spot, regretting not being able to kiss that neck. “You think so?”

The man climbed off of Freddie’s lap, but he didn’t back away from his personal space. 

“Go to sleep.” He leaned on the backrest, trapping Freddie’s arm. But Freddie didn’t mind keeping it around the tech’s waist. “And once you have slept the hangover away, you are going to call me.”

“You are very sure of yourself.”

“You would be too if you were in my place.”

“If I were in your place I wouldn’t have stopped this.”

“Yes, you would.” The tech called the waiter over and asked for a pen, then leaned against Freddie’s chest for balance and took to writing on his white shirt, left side, close to the collar.

“Are you going to pay for this when I take it to the cleaners?

“I’ll be happy to, because you’d have to call me for that. And you’d have to use this number.”

After a few numbers Freddie was not ready to guess by feeling alone, the man paused for a moment, squinted while looking at Freddie’s face and went back to his task, but higher, closer to his neck.

The silence while he wrote was meditative. Freddie could still draw circles with his thumb on the man’s hip and he still squirmed very sweetly.

“Maybe I could leave the country, as you said,” Freddie wondered aloud.

“Call me first,” the man mumbled while capping the pen. He waved over the same waiter, gave back the pen and paid before Freddie could protest.

“Maybe I could start my own company,” Freddie kept daydreaming.  

“Call me first,” the man insisted. He got close to Freddie’s ear. “We have much to talk about.”

Freddie woke up only a few hours later with his mobile in his hand. First, an alarm. He dismissed it. Then there was a 5% battery warning in red. He dismissed it. When the warning closed, he squinted at a perfectly composed e-mail, addressed at Rupert, cc’d at Tim, where he told them that he was leaving Intenur in not the politest terms. It was unsent. 

He thanked his luck and the version of himself that had been too tired or too out of it to send the mail (but not too tired to spell asinine). He would have hated waking up only to see that email marked as sent. 

He pressed send. 

It was much more satisfying to do it when he was going to keep the memory of doing it intact. 

He found the charger cord that he had failed to use the previous night. The phone died just before he could plug it in, but it was better that way anyway. He had no desire to dodge family calls for hours. 

He turned to leave the mobile on the nightstand and he hugged his pillow, ready for some lazy extra rest now that he didn’t have a job to go back to. 

Before tiredness could do him in, his eyes fell on the shirt that he had taken off the previous night and had discarded on the floor by the bed. It was no longer prim and proper, and from where he was, he could see a few numbers, written just an inch below the collar. The memory of the last night and the technician brought a smile to his face that was almost enough to wake him up all the way. 

He stretched one foot to drag the shirt from the floor, grab it and memorize the number, or maybe write it down somewhere, but once he had the fabric in his hands, he noticed that over the phone number, under the shirt’s collar, there was more. He could see a “R”. Finally, a name! He flipped the collar up. 

“Ryan Stenson xxx”

He threw the shirt across the room and rolled the other way, groaning into his pillow.

[middleearthpixie]

Wanted Man ~ Chapter Twenty-One

Summary: A price on his head, Loki of Asgard finds himself stranded on Earth and in need of one woman's help in order to free himself from the bounty and try to reclaim what he sees as his rightful throne in Asgard.

McKenna Carlin just wanted to put a horrible day behind her. She had no idea that things would get worse before they get better…

Pairings:  Loki Laufeyson x ofc McKenna Carlin

Characters:McKenna, Loki, Thor, Shannon, Tony, Agent Phil Coulson

Warnings: None

Rating: T

Word Count: 5.1k

Tag List: @fizzyxcustard @court-jobi @guardianofrivendell @piggledy-higgledy @evenstaredits

If you’d like to be added (or removed) to the tag list, please just let me know!

Previous chapters can be found here! 

For McKenna, adjusting to life returning back to normal took some doing. Sleeping became a rarer and rarer occurrence, as she often found herself wide awake at three in the morning, staring up at the ceiling, Cinder curled in a ball beside her.

And there were times when she thought she was going crazy. She’d swear she saw Loki from the corner of her eye, only to find that when she whipped around, he was never there. 

The nights were the worst. Not only was she not sleeping well, but when she did manage to doze off, she would dream of Loki and when she woke, her pillow would be wet with tears she hadn’t realized she shed and her head would ache and she’d lie awake until the sun streamed in through her windows.

“Where are you?” Scott asked one Friday night, about two months after her return, when she inadvertently poured peppermint schnapps instead of apple schnapps into what was supposed to be an apple martini.

“I’m sorry, Scott. I just… I don’t know. I’m not feeling so well.”

“Well then go home. I can’t afford to have you ruining any more drinks.”

“I know… I just…” Her throat squeezed shut and her eyes filled with tears. Damn it, she cried so easily now, and all the time. Why, just last night, she burst out bawling over some stupid commercial about back to school shopping.

“Look, I get it, Kenna,” Scott’s hands cupped her shoulders and he bent to meet her eye level. “Shay told me about the boyfriend. It sucks, but you have to let it go. He’s in jail and you can do a lot better than some guy in jail, right? Maybe it’s time to cut your losses and move on.”

Move on. In theory, perhaps, but in reality, it was not quite that simple. She absently ran her thumb along the band of the diamond ring still on her hand. “That’s much easier said than done, Scott.” She drew in a shaky breath and reached up to rub her forehead. “I’ll be all right.”

“You know, why don't you go home? Take a few days because I need you come Friday. Labor Day weekend? We’re gonna be packed.”

“Well, I’ve already missed—”

He waved off her protest. “I know. And maybe I’m going soft in my old age, but go home and get yourself sorted out, Kenna. Take a couple days and hopefully it’ll help.”

She nodded and dumped the ruined appletini and grabbed her purse from under the bar. Then, she pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to Scott. “For the drink.”

He waved it away, but she tossed it onto the bar and made her way around it to leave. Shannon stopped her just short of the door. “Go home and get some rest, Kenna. You look kinda green.”

“I know. I am and I’ll call you in the morning.” She kissed Shannon’s cheek and stepped out into a godawful, hot, steamy August night. 

Her car was parked down the street from a CVS and after a quick peek over her shoulder to make sure Shannon didn’t follow her, she ducked into it. It only took her a few minutes to find what she wanted and paid for it, and then hurried back to her car.

Cinder did his best to trip her as she came into the apartment, yowling for food. “Okay, okay,” she said, tossing her purse and bag on the counter and hurryied into the kitchen before the cat attacked her.

He dove into his food, his yowl becoming a contented purr, and she crouched to scratch him behind the ears before stretching across the counter to grab her phone and the bag.

She locked the bathroom door, although she didn’t know why, and her hands shook as she opened the box. It took three tries before she got the instructions unfolded, and on the third try, she ripped it along a fold. 

Five minutes later she was staring down at the counter, her stomach threatening to reverse itself even as a sense of budding excitement swelled through her.

The word was so small, but still unmistakable, all in capital letters spelling out one word:

PREGNANT

She didn’t know how long she sat there staring at that stupid little stick. The box came with a second one, so she took it as well. Now she had two sticks with the same tiny little word on it.

“Holy shit…” she breathed, rubbing her forehead with one hand. How the hell was she supposed to let Loki know he was going to be a father? Somehow, she didn’t think S.H.I.E.L.D. still had their little shop at the boardwalk up and running.

But, she did have Coulson’s number, or at least she hoped it was still his number. The crumpled business card was long gone, but she kept his number. Just in case. 

Her legs wobbled as she went back out to the kitchen and dug her phone from her purse, found Coulson’s number and hit send, her hands shaking the entire time.

“Agent Coulson.”

“Agent Coulson, it’s McKenna Carlin. I need to get a message to Thor. Can you do that for me?”

“Miss Carlin, I’m not an Asgardian answering service.”

“This is very, very important. Please.” She switched the phone to her other ear. “And I don’t mean like I have a hangnail important, but really, really important.”

“Is everything all right, Miss Carlin?”

“No. No, it isn’t and I need to see Thor. Soon.”

“Okay, Miss Carlin. I’ll do my best.”

“Do you have my number?”

“We do.” He clicked off and she dropped the phone as the enormity of those two sticks lounging on the bathroom counter hit her like a ton of bricks. 

But at the same time, perhaps this was what could change Odin's mind about keeping Loki in the dungeon? 

Or would she and the baby be in danger now instead?

She walked back into the living room, where she promptly began pacing, since her nerves would not let her be still. Thor would have a better grasp on what Odin's reaction might be, should he learn about the baby. Now all she had to do was wait. And that was the worst part.

But she didn’t have to wait long. Not more than half an hour after her phone call to Coulson, there came a knock at her door. Damn… that little man worked fast. 

She opened it to find Thor standing in the hallway, his red cape dusty and Mjölnir in his hand. She almost laughed at the absurdity of the scene, especially when he came inside and hung the hammer on the doorknob.

“Son of Coul said you needed to speak with me? What is it?”

“I really don’t think I should tell you first, but I need you get a message to Loki. Or better yet, if you could maybe sneak me in to see him? I need to talk to him and it’s very important.” 

He arched one golden brow. “I cannot smuggle you into the prison. How would I? Never mind if something happened and someone got out.”

“Then you need to find some way for me to talk to him. Please. I cannot even tell you how much I need to see him.”

Thor pulled back before she could touch him and shook his head. “It is out of my hands, Miss Carlin. I cannot—”

“Please! You must—” Her voice broke and hot tears stung her eyes. She tilted her head back, squeezing her eyes shut to try to hold them back. How could she make Thor see how important it was without actually telling him? “You don't get it and I know that, but I have to talk to him. It really is that important. Really. I promise you, it is.”

“So, why not just tell me then?”

Her head snapped up at the low, familiar pull of Loki's voice and her tears became those of joy as she snapped her head back to see Thor vanish in a veil of green mist and to find staring into Loki's beautiful blue eyes. “Ohhh… oh… God…” she stammered, her hand clapping over her mouth. “What… how…?”

“What did you have to tell me, love? Or can it wait a moment?” A slow smile pulled at his lips as he caught her by the hands.

At his first touch, she all but fell into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing with everything she had. “Oh my God… how is this even possible? Please, please tell me this isn’t a dream.”

“It’s no dream,” he whispered, lifting her up to meet his eyes. “And I will explain everything—”

She cut him off with a kiss that let loose every single emotion she’d experienced since seeing him dragged off in chains. His arms tightened about her as his lips parted and as her tongue met his, he groaned in the back of his throat.

He staggered back, thudding dully against the door, but never loosened his hold on her any more than she loosened hers on him. She slid her fingers into the cool length of his dark hair, tears sliding over her cheeks as she broke the kiss with a laugh that came out of nowhere and just hugged him. 

“I know it’s been a while, love,” he chuckled, his lips against her ear. “But I am fairly certain you aren’t supposed to be laughing at my kisses.”

“It was my kiss and I’m laughing because I can’t believe you’re here. How the hell did Coulson do this?”

“Son of Coul?” Loki pulled back with a puzzled look. “What does he have to do with anything?”

“I just talked to him a little while ago. Didn’t… I asked him to get word to Thor that I needed to see him. Or you.” She caught his face between her hands, just wanting to look at him. He was a bit thinner than the last time she saw him, and he looked tired, but other than that, he was every bit the handsome god she loved so much. Her eyes teared up again and she shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”

“Believe it, love. I’m here and I’m not leaving.” Holding her easily in one arm, he smoothed her hair away from her face, his fingers lingering against her cheek. “I’ve missed you, McKenna. More than you could ever possibly know.”

“Oh, I have a pretty good idea, Loki.” 

He smiled and kissed her again. This time, his kiss was hungry, and he scorched her with the passion behind it. He pushed away from the door and shifted to scoop her into his arms. Cinder meowed and between kisses, Loki whispered, “Not now, cat,” as he carried McKenna down the narrow hallway to her bedroom.

Loki gently pressed her down into her bed, covering her body with his. His lips moved gently along the curve of her neck, down over her collarbone, while he slid one hand beneath her black Scott’s Tavern tee shirt. His fingers were cool as they swept along her ribs, slid beneath her to run up along her. She shivered at the touch, so light and gentle, and yet powerful enough that she bit down hard on her bottom lip. 

His fingers just grazed the lower curve of her left breast and then he moved down, his kisses soft on her ribs, and a breathless laugh bubbled to her lips as he swept a kiss down the center of her stomach. Without thinking, she reached down, slid her fingers into his dark hair and her eyes remained on him as he spread those teasing kisses over and down, stopping at the waistband of her jeans.

He lifted his head to gaze at her with passion-smoked blue-green eyes. “I have never had the pleasure of undressing you, my love,” he murmured, hooking one finger over the button of her jeans. “And I shall rectify that at once.”

She smiled as he pressed a hot kiss into her lower belly. He shifted, brushing the tip of his tongue along her left hipbone as he slid the button through its hole. The zipper slid down, and he folded back the two sides, his breath warm against her skin as he murmured, “I do so love the lacy bits you wear,” in a husky voice.

She held her breath as he rose to tug the Levis from her hips. The velvety denim was like a caress as he slid it her legs, and she bit down on her bottom lip as he just let his gaze wander over her and a sinful smile curved his lips. 

“So beautiful,” he whispered, letting his fingers sweep gently up over her shins, over her knees, along the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. She sighed at the tingles rushing through her with each touch, at the way his eyes seemed to darken from blue to green as they moved along her.

He eased a finger beneath the scalloped lace edge of her thong and she sucked in a sharp breath. Then, he bent forward and there was nothing cold about his lips as they teased her left inner thigh. His tongue caressed the crease of her hip and thigh and her fingers twisted in his hair.

She realized how tightly she held the thick lock of black hair she held, and she released it immediately, whispering, “I’m sorry.”

Loki shook his head. “Don’t apologize,” he said as he hooked his forefinger in that delicate black lace to gently tug. “You didn’t hurt me, you know. Actually, I rather like knowing how strongly you react to my touch.”

“Loki, you have no idea.”

He tugged the lace from her hips and his smile turned feral. “Much as I like the lacy bits, I far prefer you like this, love.”

She shivered—a full body shiver as he dipped back down and at the first sensual stroke of his tongue against her most sensitive flesh, she didn’t care how hard she grabbed him. He left her breathless and on fire, her fingers twisting against in his hair to press him harder into her. Her hips rose to meet him, his name rose to her lips and her back bowed sharply as he pushed her over the edge.

“Loki!”

He held her there, suspended in time, her entire body humming with pleasure, and then, when she thought she’d go mad from it all, he gently brought her back to earth. She was breathless and fighting for air, tugging him to bring him up so she could wrap herself around him.

He obliged, but slowly, kissing his way up, just as he kissed his way down. He was leisurely and teasing, no matter how she pulled at his hair and, when that didn’t work, gripped the shoulders of his green and gold leather tunic. Tunic? Damn it, she had to get him out of his clothes and now!

He knelt between her knees and caught her hips with both hands, his thumbs pressing into her, and pushed her shirt over her ribs, and she bit back a breathless sigh at the cool brush of his lips against her skin. The tip of his tongue swept out against her, and then came the gentle nip, followed by a soft kiss.

This was his pattern as he moved upward, the soft tee shirt skimming over her breasts. She gave up tugging on him. There was no point. He was in no hurry and honestly? She didn’t care, it was far better to just lie back and enjoy those delicious sensations as they rippled through her, to savor them as they swelled and build off one another to create a fiery desire she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She wanted him with a fury that bordered on the maniacal, but if he was in no hurry, why on earth should she rush him? 

“Loki…”

“Mmmm?” he murmured, his lips teasing the right side of her ribs. 

“Oh, that feels so nice…”

He came up to whisk her tee shirt over her head. “More lacy bits,” he whispered, tracing the lacy edge of her left bra cup. “I am a fortunate man, indeed.”

“I hate to disappoint you,” she whispered back, “but pretty much all women wear bras.”

“But I doubt any of them look as ravishing as you, love,” he replied, his finger slipping beneath the bra cup to brush her breast. Her eyelids grew heavy as he inched further beneath it, easing her breast from it entirely.

He kneaded her breast gently, his thumb brushing her nipple, and when he bent to kiss her, she wrapped her arms about his neck. The air rushed from her as he rolled to pull her atop him. A moment later, he had her bra unhooked, his voice heavy with seductive triumph as he murmured, “On the first attempt, no less.”

“Very smooth. Now, how do I get you out of this?” she breathed into his ear as she tugged at the front of his tunic. “Because it definitely needs to go.”

He pulled away to grin wolfishly at her. “But I’m not finished with you yet.”

“Loki.” She tried to scowl at him, but couldn’t quite manage it. “I’ve missed you just as much, you know.”

He rocked back. “It would take me far too long to allow you to undress me, McKenna. But, I promise you, when I’m in your Midgardian clothes, you may indulge in undressing me as slowly as you wish.”

With that, he twitched his fingers and her jaw almost dropped as his clothes simply disappeared. She reached down to let her fingers slide down over his chiseled, smooth belly. His skin was so cool to the touch, the muscles like slabs of marble beneath it. 

She bent to brush a kiss over his chest. Then another. And another still as she inched her way down. His hands came to rest on her back, his fingers stroking her gently as he whispered, “Oh, love… what you do to me. You bring the most wicked of thoughts to my mind.”

“Do I?” She moved over the ridge of his hip. “Then I’m doing something right.”

“Oh, Midgardian,” the air rushed from him as she moved and his voice grew throatier as he added, “you most definitely are.”

She smiled as she continued teasing him, using his sighs and groans as an indicator of how he enjoyed her attentions. Then, he caught her, tugging her back up into his arms. His lips seized hers, hot and hungry, and he flipped her onto her back, then surged up between her thighs to fill her with one sensually long stroke.

Her back bowed with his first powerful thrust and that was all it took. She melted around him, legs about his waist, arms about his neck, fingernails sinking deep into his back. She met his rhythm, his name a breathless cry on her lips as he surged hard inside her. 

He drew back just enough to capture her lips in a long, deep kiss. She clung to him as he thrust faster and when they went over that glorious summit, Loki broke that kiss to growl, “McKenna!”

He sank against her, his body trembling and as she slid her arms about him, she whispered, “Oh, Loki… Oh, God…that… oh, that was amazing…”

He nodded, still fighting for his breath, which came across her skin as short, hard blasts.  His head came to rest on her breast, which he kissed gently and murmured, “I do so love you.”

She smiled up at into the darkness, tears stinging her eyes. But for the first time in two months, they were happy tears and they slid back into her hair as she brokenly whispered, “I love you, too.”

He lifted his head, his eyes tender as he murmured, “Are you crying, Midgardian?”

“Tears of happiness this time, I promise,” she replied, reaching up to stroke his hair away from his face. “I thought I was never going to see you again.”

“I wouldn’t allow that.”

“You didn’t have much of a choice.”

“True. But I was not about to let a little thing like a dungeon prevent it, either. Not even Odin’s prison could keep me from you in the end.” He kissed her forehead. “And now I am here and we have much lost time to make up for. Tell me, how much hot water does your shower offer?”

She smiled. “Not nearly as much as the Winchester, I’m afraid.”

“We’ll make do.” 

As he settled back against her, his head cradled by her breast, she drew her fingers along the black sheen of his hair. Her thoughts whirled with the magnitude of what she had to tell him, but the words were a jumble in her mind. 

She took a deep breath. “Loki?”

“Yes, love?” he murmured, not lifting his head.

“There’s something we need to talk about. Now that you’re here and all.”

“Is something wrong?” His voice held a hint of suspicion.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Do you like children?”

Now he lifted his head. “I beg your pardon?”

“I asked if you like children.”

“I don’t know any, but I don’t think I’d dislike them.” His eyes glittered in the glow of the bathroom nightlight. “Why?”

“Well, that’s kind of why I needed Thor to come here.” She curved her hand against his cool, smooth cheek. “You’re going to be a father.”

Confusion clouded his eyes. “What?”

She nodded. “I’m going to have a baby, Loki.” She traced her fingertip along his bottom lip. “We’re going to have a baby.”

“You mean to say that you… and I… A child, McKenna?” He waited for her to nod, and then he hurriedly slid off her to stretch out beside her. “How—when—you—”

She laughed as his eyes cleared of all confusion and filled with something that looked very much like wonder. He slid his hand over her hip, letting it come to rest between both hipbones. “Are you certain?”

“I’m positive, Loki. I was late, so I bought a pregnancy test. Two, actually. And both came back positive.” She covered her hand with his. “They’re still in the bathroom, if you want to see them for yourself.”

He shook his head, his gaze going to his hand on her belly, whispering, “A child,” in a disbelief-laden voice.

Her stomach fluttered as the next words came to her lips. “How do you feel about that, Loki? I know it has to be a bit of a shock, but—”

“How do I feel about it?” He turned to look at her, but his expression was unreadable. “It’s the last thing I expected you to say, to be honest.”

Her heart sank and a hint of nausea rose in the back of her throat. “I know. It was a surprise to me as well.”

“But, as to how I feel about it—” To her surprise, he lifted their hands from her belly, and bent to press a gentle kiss where his hand had been. Then, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed that. 

Finally, he came back up to her and whispered, “I love you.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “And I look forward to this new life we’ve created, be it a boy or a girl.”

“Do you, really? Like I said, I know you weren’t expecting this but—”

“Hush, McKenna, and worry not about how I feel. I think it amazing. A surprise, yes, but a very welcome one.” He pressed his hand against hers, palm to palm, and entwined their fingers. “Tell me, though, would you have told Thor to pass the word along or would you have told me yourself?”

“I wanted to tell you, before I told anyone else. I would have only told him if there had been no other option.”

His thumb swept along hers. “You do realize, if this child is a girl, I will kill any boy who comes near her.”

“You’ll do no such thing.” She squeezed his hand. “Will you teach him or her your magic?”

“Absolutely.” He grinned. “You may come to fear what tricks may be played on you, though.”

“Wonderful.” She sank back against the pillows and smiled at him. “Try not to make me too crazy, okay?”

He bent and swept a kiss over her belly again and then came up to stretch out beside her again. “I promise nothing. I am the God of Mischief, remember.”

 As he spoke, he pulled her into his arms and she sank into him, snuggling her head against his chest. “So, how are you here, then? I mean, if Coulson didn’t tell Thor?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Thor helped me escape. Again.”

“How?”

“How do you think?”

She looked up at him and smiled. “Captain America again?”

“No. But as an Asgardian guard.”

“Try saying that five times.” When he gave her a puzzled look, she added, “It’s a joke. Your tongue will twist trying to say it five times.”

“Oh, I assure you, love, my tongue never twists.” He gave her a seductive smile. “Unless I want it to, that is.”

She shivered at the promise in his voice. “Is that so?”

“Absolutely.” He gently eased her onto her back again, and covered her body with his. He leaned in until his lips just brushed hers, and whispered, “Do you have to work in the morning?”

She shook her head. “No. Not until Friday. Why?”

“Because I’m planning on keeping you up far too late this evening.” His voice lowered to a whisper and he kissed her lightly. “As I said, we’ve much lost time to make up for.”

“We can sleep until noon if we wish,” she replied.

“Oh, I wish.” He kissed along her temple, and she shivered as his breath came lightly along her ear and he whispered, “I wish to hear you cry out my name again as I love you from here,” he kissed along her jaw line and down her neck, “to here,” his lips moved over her breast and down her ribs, “to here…”

Here made her suck in a sharp breath and her back bowed sharply again. Her god most definitely had a silver tongue and left her aching for him. For all of him.

He obliged and as he slid inside her, he caught her hands in his, pinned them to the bed on either side of her head, and laced his fingers with hers. His eyes held hers, soft and tender, as he began moving inside her again, with slow, carefully controlled thrusts. 

Her eyelids grew so heavy, but she refused to yield to them. She didn’t want to miss one moment of this, didn’t want to miss the slightest flicker of pleasure that crossed his face, or the way the muscle in his jaw bulged from the effort it must have taken for him to thrust so slowly. 

“I love you,” he growled, squeezing her hands.

“I—” She gasped as they neared that amazing edge—“I love you, too…”

Whereas the last time, he crushed her close and surged hard into her, this time, he was every bit as tender as he promised he’d be. He moaned softly, shuddered, and as he peaked with her, his forehead pressed into hers, his eyes locked with hers, and she felt him all the way to the center of her soul. This was love—love like she never dreamed could really exist, but was only dreamed up by poets and writers to appeal to the dreamers in everyone.

He arched hard, and then sank against her, burying his face in the slope of her neck to kiss her softly. Only then did he let show how much effort it took for him to remain so controlled as his breathing was ragged about the edges. She stroked his hair with a trembling hand as she whispered, “Hmm… so hard to believe you are the same man who demanded a thousand people kneel before you.” She traced her fingernails lightly down over his nape and along his left shoulder, laughing softly as he shivered. “Especially when you tremble at my touch. Perhaps you should kneel before me?”

“No one else will ever see this side of me,” he replied sleepily, lifting his head to smile at her. “Although, if I were you, I wouldn’t be gloating quite so, since I do intend to have you on your knees at some point this night.”

“Is that so?”

“Darling girl, I certainly hope so.” He eased one hand from hers and shifted off her. As she yawned, he tugged her up against him, nestling her back against his chest. “But if not tonight, definitely another. It will happen.”

She rubbed one eye, her post-coital drowsiness becoming full-blown exhaustion. It was one of the longest days she could remember and although it ended more wonderfully than she ever would have hoped, she was still wiped out. 

But on the other hand, she was still apprehensive of going to sleep, afraid that she would awake to find that this had all been yet another dream and she would be alone. Loki wrapped his arms about her, smoothing her hair away from her left ear as he murmured, “Are you asleep?”

“No,” she murmured drowsily, peering up at him. “I’m just… it’s silly…”

“What is?”

“I think I’m dreaming and when I open my eyes, you’ll be back on Asgard again.”

“I won’t be, love. I promise you, I will be right here when you awake. And I promise not to try to cook any more bacon.”

She laughed softly. “I still have to replace that stupid smoke detector.”

He lifted his left arm and swished his fingers. “Done.”

As that hand slid back over her belly, she sighed and snuggled back into his chest. “I could get spoiled by this.”

His palm skimmed gently over her stomach. “I look forward to being able to spoil you, McKenna. I’ve the feeling not many men have.”

“Some. But not many.”

“I will make you forget any other man ever touched you, love. That any other man ever hurt you. That any other man ever made you feel unworthy of being loved.” He whispered these words, but there was no denying the ferocity behind them. 

His arms tightened about her and he pressed a gentle kiss into her temple. “Sleep now, darling. I promise you I will be here when you wake.”

She nodded, her eyes closing as sleep crept over her like a stealthy cat. For the first time in eight weeks, she slept without dreaming and in utter peace.

[cvbullshit]

Influencers (Dusttale: Bad Influence x CV)

Before we get started:

-The "Dusttale: Bad Influence" AU is created by @liliallowed / @lilibanned

-I did this solely for fun

-If I got characters wrong, I'm sorry lili

-This is not canon... To at least Dusttale: Bad Influence

Part 3:

Hello, Goodbye

Sans stared at Sunshine, untrusting after the interaction he just went through. Sunshine looked at Sans and smiled softly, "My name is Dream, it's nice to meet you. I'm from another multiverse." He dropped, casually. Sans blinks a bit, thrown off, "Another what." He said, narrow eyed and slightly bewildered. "Ah, it's a lot to explain.. Just go with it for now, okay? We don't have all the time in the world to go through that." Dream said, sheepishly. Despite Sans being confused, slightly curious as well, he decides to let it go, as he did need to finish The Core and check on Noelle before sitting down for a long ass bedtime story. Sans sighs roughly and faces back towards The Core before glancing at Dream, "Don't go anywhere or do anything..." He began to say before thinking. It probably wasn't the best choice to just leave this guy unattended, sure he seemed more capable of not causing harm to neither him or Noelle but he's still an unknown monster from an unknown place and all that junk. Sans stares at Dream for a moment, rethinking the conversation that was just had, "How likely is it that you'd be willing to either, quietly, keep within my line of sight or go keep your boss from getting too far from here?" He asked. Dream perked up, "Oh, very willing and I can do both!" Dream reassured, Sans raised an eye lid in response only for Dream to gesture to his shadow, where Facilier's face appeared in and grinned at Sans. Sans stared at Facilier before blinking, "You sure that thing is even going to be able to reach him?" He asked. Dream nodded, "Mhm!" He hummed happily. Sans sighed, looking away a bit, "Fine. Send that thing after him and you come with me. I'm not in the mood for a story but you're still going to explain how you got here." He said before walking back to The Core. Even small answers would be best right now. Dream looks to Facilier, causing Facilier to slither off, leaving a shadowy trail that still connected it to Dream, Dream then quickly follows Sans.

Sans goes back to where he was working and began working again, though a bit more quickly, not too quickly of course, Dream stood a decent distance away to let him work, "So. How did you end up here? There's no way you were a monster who survived, especially considering how you look sort of like me, among other things." Sans asked, glancing to Dream every now and then. Dream thinks a bit, "Well, we just kinda just popped up here. It happens a lot for us. Sort of." Dream answers, looking away a bit. Sans glares at him a bit, not sure if he should believe that, though it would make sense at this point, the only bit of sense, "Uh huh." He simply responded as he continued working. Dream stands there for a bit in awkward silence, looking around. They stayed like that for a few minutes as Sans worked, leaving Sans to think and process things in silence.

"Interesting thing you got going on with your boss." Sans brought up, not looking at Dream, the comment made Dream perk up then look away a bit, "Ah, yes. I guess. Why do you bring it up?" He asks, looking back at Sans, "Well, the fact that there's clearly more going on than poor working conditions." Sans responded in a sort of joking but very much serious way, glancing to Dream with a look. Dream stared for a moment, confused for a moment before blinking, "Oh, no, if you mean the whole angry thing Maf had, that's not the norm. Well, it is the norm but that in particular wasn't technically." Dream said, trying his best to explain, but it only made Sans a bit more suspect, "Technically?" Sans asked, not really interested in helping this guy out but if it means getting one guy to not be so possibly violent towards Noelle, that would leave room for a breather. "Well, he is a Fell variant so the anger and toughness was always going to be there." Dream added, nonchalantly. Sans just looked confused for a moment, "Fell variant- What?" He asked before shaking his head, "Whatever, doesn't matter. What does matter is that you don't let that guy boss you around, even if he is your boss." Sans said calmly as he looked away from Dream a bit, "If you don't want to kill someone, you don't have to. Nothing should determine if you kill people or not." He advised. Hypocrite. Sans flinched a bit when he had said that, though tried to make it unnoticeable. "Oh.." Dream simply replied, looking away a bit. Sans sighed roughly, "Whatever, but yeah, don't listen to that guy..." He began to think about his next words, which were so corny and hypocritical for him to say that he could almost feel all his sins crawling up his stomach to either make him swallow back down the words or throw them up. Or maybe he actually was going to throw up from how stupid it sounded. "Whatever you did back then can probably be forgiven and understood." Euuughh. He said it. Even the 'probably' didn't help it. Was that even worth to say?? How much could that even apply to Dream's situation, huh? Sans, are you self projecting? You sad that no one had said it to you? You don't deserve it being said to you, do you- "Yeah.. Maybe." Dream just mumbled in response, looking away in guilt. Sans took a breath, at least Dream actually responding pulled him out of his thoughts a bit. Though, not like that response was any good, pretty sure you missed the Homerun with that one. Completely passed whatever this guy did or went through.

Sans got finished finally, wiping the sweat from his forehead, he looks to Dream, gathering his tools and putting them somewhere safe near where he normally worked, "Alright, let's go find your totally-not-abusive boss." Sans grumbled, he was honestly more interested in checking on Noelle but not like Dream needed to know that. Dream seemed a bit conflicted when Sans accused Maf of being abusive, looking to wanting to speak up in defense but holding it back, watching as Sans walked passed him before following. Sans glanced at The Core as they walked before looking back forward, debating on ditching Dream to check on Noelle, though then there would be the risk of losing sight of both him and Maf. Sans grumbled as he walked, "Are you just going to stare at me?" He asked, glancing to Dream as he walked beside Sans, Dream blinked and looked away a bit, "Sorry, I just thought we'd continue talking." Dream said, sheepishly. "Yeah, just continue talking with the stranger who's boss and even own shadow threatened to attack me." Sans said, sarcastically, causing Dream to look away more, looking to the lava of Hotland as they make it to the normal roads outside The Core. They walk in silence for a bit, Sans just now deciding to ditch Dream until... "You haven't had time to really talk about what happened, have you?" Dream asked, causing Sans to look at him, "What are you talking about?" Sans asked in response. "With what happened during the resets. Your family." Dream said simply. Sans stopped for a moment, if he had a physical heart, it would've stopped like he did, he could hear slight ringing in his non-existent ears. What does he say to that? Does Dream know? Actually know? There's no possible way. Play dumb? Drop the act?? "..."

Dream kept walking for a moment before stopping as well, turning back to Dust and looking at him calmly, "Do you need to talk about it? Talking about it could help a lot, Other Dust." Dream said in a somber yet comforting manner. "...'Other Dust'? The hell?? Th.. Wh.." Sans stumbled on his words. Guess a free mini therapy session gets one offered back to you. "Like I said, we're from another multiverse. I know someone exactly like you. Well, not exactly but I know a version of you." Dream explained. Sans stared for a moment, not knowing how to react to that, "You... I.. How.." He muttered. "If you're looking for an ounce of confirmation that we're thinking about the same thing, I won't give it to you. The only way I can confirm it is.. Bringing the most painful parts up and I don't think you'd want that." Dream said, though a bit bluntly. Sans then glares, turning his head away, "...I'm good on the therapy, I don't need it." He retorted, a bit jokingly, "Besides, unless I don't remember paying you to regretfully be my baggage dump, I don't know you, so I'm not gonna sit here and spill out every inch of my mind while you play the 'everything's going to be okay' response." Sans crossed his arms, glaring at Dream a bit. Dream just stared and sighed softly, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to make you feel comfortable with me." "Great job you did so far, buddy." Sans replied quickly, rolling his eyes. Dream looks away a bit, "..." Sans growls a bit as he looks at Dream's face, "Jeez, you do everything with the energy of a sad puppy despite having this weird ass affect on me where I feel like the concept of happiness is just floating around me!" Sans said, irritated. Was that meant to be an insult or...?

...

Blue speaks up, looking at Noelle, "You said you had a Sans here.. How about we all go speak to him? Drop this subject for now and just get to know each other." He suggested. Noelle looks at Blue, trying to push her mini crisis to the back of her mind, "Y-yeah..! That sounds much better than this.." She agreed, standing up. Mad stands up straight as well, Ink staying on Noelle's shoulders. "Where should he be right now?" Error asked, looking like he was preparing something. "Oh, he should be at The Core right about now, or maybe Hotland in general.." Noelle responds, thinking. Ink giggles, "Road trip!" He says childishly as the mug in Noelle's hands glitches into nothing this, making her look at her now empty hands in confusion. Error then summons some white glitchy mass, "Alright, let's go!" He said proudly before walking in, Aliza casually following after him. Noelle looks confused as all hell, staring at the mass as Blue casually walks in as well, "What is-" Noelle began to ask before Dust wraps an arm around her shoulds, causing Ink to scamper to the other side of Noelle and glare at Dust, "You ever done portal travel before?" Dust asked, smirking excitedly, "Just try not to get sick!" He playfully added before pushing Noelle and Ink in. Monika's voice could be heard sternly saying "Dust!" as Noelle falls through the mass, gasping in fear a bit, having nothing but Ink to grab onto for support, suddenly, like a doorway, she passed through and ended up in Hotland, though on the edge of one of the roads due to the push, threatening that she fall into the lava below. "GAH!!" Noelle let out a yelp of fear, going to hold onto Ink with both arms so he didn't fall off her shoulders but someone grabbed onto one of her arms, saving her from falling. Noelle still used her one free arm to keep Ink from falling before looking at who had helped her, seeing Dust there but suddenly wearing red tinted glasses, he grinned playfully before pulling Noelle to the middle of the path in an almost dance-like motion. Noelle tensed up in the middle, shaking a bit and feeling like she was going to puke. "You good?" Ink asked Noelle, smiling a bit.

Noelle just stood there, deer in headlights style, as Monika and Mad walk through the glitchy mass as well, the mass shrinking and disappearing behind them. Blue stands beside the proud looking Dust before smacking him upside the head, looking done with his bullshit. Monika goes to Noelle, "Are you okay, Noelle?" She asked, worried. "Y-yeah.. I- I- i'm fine..." Noelle nervously stuttered, putting on a shaky smile just to make sure none of them felt bad. Noelle then blinks, realizing that they were now in Hotland, "W-whoa... How.. That's.." She mumbled as she looked around, noticing Error walk up next to her, she then smiles at Error, though a bit sheepishly and nervously, "That's... Pretty wild... And cool!" She compliments, adding the 'cool' part quickly so he doesn't misinterpret it somehow. Error grins proudly, closing his eyes as he puts his hands on his hips, "Thanks, I got a lot more cool shit you haven't seen yet!" He says confidently. Aliza then pops up between them, "Yeah, yeah, Error's so cool, it's unbelievable." Aliza added sarcastically before roughly pushing Noelle's face away, "Now back up, skank, he has issues with people getting too close." She said, glaring at Noelle as she wraps her arms around Error, who seemed completely fine with the gesture. Noelle rubs her cheek a bit as she falters back, confused a bit, "U-um.. Sorry.." She mumbled, looking away as Ink flipped Aliza off childishly, "If you push us back towards that lava, I'll have your head!" Ink threatened, just as childishly. "Let's not start fighting." Mad said sternly, causing Ink and Aliza to look at him and both look away with grumpy or annoyed reactions, however staying silent.

Mad then starts walking, taking the lead as Blue follows him and walks by his side, closely. Error and Aliza start walking by each other's sides, talking as if the hostile interaction Aliza had with Noelle and Ink didn't just happen. Dust takes off his glasses and gestures for Noelle to walk before him, which she hesitantly does, Dust following behind her. Monika stayed at the back of the group, following and smiling contently.

Noelle walks in silence for a bit before deciding to make conversation, looking to Ink, "Um.. How old are you exactly?" She asked, a bit awkward. Ink looks at her and huffs, "I'm an adult!" He responded quickly, making Noelle go a bit wide eyed, "Oh..! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.." "Ah, it's fine!" Dust said from behind her, chuckling, "The rat gets that a lot!" He laughed a bit. Noelle looks to Dust, confused, "The rat??" She asked, "He means me." Ink added, looking from Dust to Noelle, who questioned if it should be counted as more of an insult than a nickname, though Ink didn't seem to take it as one. "Oh.. I see.." She just ended up responding. She then glanced at Mad and Blue, who were holding hands at this point, before looking to Error and Aliza, who oddly just started singing now.

"Oh, I say! You gave me a fright there! I thought I was having a little nightmare!~" The two sung happily, "Oh, I say-" "H-Hey.. Aliza? That was your name, right..?" Noelle spoke up, walking close to them as they both stopped singing, "I'm.. Sorry if I offended you... Or Error somehow... I didn't mean to.." She apologized, smiling nervously. Aliza looked irritated and didn't even look at Noelle, "Ugh, Glitchy Bitch, why is this ugly hag talking to me?" Aliza insulted, huffing, Error looks to Noelle and smiles calmly, "She means 'it's alright and you didn't do anything wrong'." Error reassures. Noelle stares at the two in confusion, the jarring responses making it hard to figure out what to say, "Erm... Did she mean that though?" Noelle asked in a mumble. Aliza then groans a bit, "It's still taaaaaalking!" She complained, rolling her eyes dramatically and childishly. Error chuckles, "She's just built different!" He joked, "Still coming to grips about the whole AU thing?" He asked, changing the subject. Noelle looks away a bit, "Uh.. Not really.. I don't know how to feel about it. It seems so... Complicated and... Messy. I don't know what to make of it." Noelle says softly. Error stares at her for a moment, "Hey, it's going to be like that, it's part of life after all, and that sure is a mess already!" He tries to comfort. Noelle thinks before looking at Error and Aliza, "Are... Are there more of you?" She asks. "Oh yeah." Error responds quickly, looking away with a dead panned look, "Deffo." Aliza responds as well, just as deadpan, "You wouldn't believe how many!" Ink adds in from Noelle's shoulder. Error looks to the lava below, "Though, it's best we not get into that, you'll probably ever see us again after today anyway. Or forget." Error says, calmly. Noelle was going to question this but spotted Sans up ahead with another skeleton, she looked at them confused before pointing at them, "Is that another one of you?" She asked simply.

...

"Look, I just need you to know..." Dream said before smiling softly at Sans, "Everyone needs to get stuff out, so it's best to talk about it." He says. Sans stared for a moment, thinking on how to respond. Suddenly! Blue strings wraps around Dream's body, causing him to go wide eyed as he was pulled into the air and then slammed onto the ground on the opposite side of Sans and a sudden group of people. Error was controlling the blue strings with Aliza holding onto his arms as if trying to help, they both then repeatedly slam Dream into the ground, yelling "Die die die!" In unison before Error used his strings to throw Dream far away from the path they were on, like very far away, in the direction where only lava awaited him. Sans and Noelle stood there, shocked and dumbfounded while the other members of the ground just acted like this was sort of the norm, with a bit of tension in the air still though.

Noelle was too shocked to say anything but would've been heavily questioning why in the hell they would do that. Sans looks to Error and Aliza before blinking, "The hell????!! The hell was that-" He began to question. Aliza and Error slid over to Sans, Error catching his breath a bit and Aliza looking annoyed and sassy, "That was your free discount in savings. You could've died, you're welcome!" Aliza said, giving Sans a look while putting her hands on her hips then crossing her arms.

The whole group stood in silence for a moment.

Previous | Part 3 | Next

[scurvgirl]

Scurv's Simple Guide for Helping Your Hands, Cuticles, and Nails

Alright, one (1) person (<3 @theladypirate) wanted this so of course I'm making it!

Disclaimer: I am not a nail tech or dermatologist, these are just some habits and items that have greatly helped me improve the look and feel of my hands, cuticles, and nails. I am in the US, I am a healthcare provider so I am constantly washing my hands and using hand sanitizer which dry out my nails and cuticles. I also have dermatillomania which is a body focused repetitive behavior that results in skin picking and my hands have been my primary target for YEARS. Anyways, let's get into it.

Products that have helped me:

The first one being the Healthy Hands lotion I found for $3.80 at CVS. Holy moly, you guys, this stuff is the BOMB. I use it ALL the time and it does a phenomenal job of moisturizing my hands and strengthening my nails despite recurrent water exposure. I like this because it's accessible both in location and price. I started using this around 6 weeks ago and I JUST had to replace the bottle - a little goes a long way. I use this about...6 times a day. As I said, I use a lot of hand sanitizer and wash my hands a lot, I need to lotion up a lot. Your mileage and use may vary.

The second product that has helped me a lot is nail oil. Now I use the Roll On Essie one that I found at Ulta, and it's great. I just roll it on around my nails and UNDER my nail then massage the oil into the nail and surrounding cuticle area. I do this 2-3 times a day, again, due to constant dehydration of my nails and cuticles.

Third, the flowery glass nail file and shaping tools - also picked up at Ulta. These are AMAZING as shaping your nail, including using the more pointed end to get problem hand nails or the sides that are trying to become ingrown. It doesn't hurt. I know whenever I go to the salon my hands feel kinda sensitive afterwards from the rough shaping, but with this, I can control the pressure, location, and application of the removal - not to mention the glass actually FEELS better than any emery board I have used. As I've heard "Once you go glass, everything else is ass."

Fourth, cuticle remover - that's the little blue bottle up there. Read the directions on the cuticle remove as well as the ingredient list before using. For me, this is helpful for cleaning up the overgrown cuticle on the actual nail. IT SHOULD NOT BURN OR HURT IN ANY WAY. IF IT IS HURTING YOU, GET THAT SHIT OFF YOUR BODY ASAP. Make sure to wash your hands THOROUGHLY after using cuticle remover, these chemicals should not have a prolonged stay on your body. I use this as the first step, if needed, when applying a new manicure.

What has helped me with my dermatillomania:

Telling myself "STOP IT" did not and continues to not work. Behavior replacement has worked much better for me than complete cessation. Painting my nails has helped with two things: the act itself replaced picking when I was home and alone. When out and about, instead of digging my nail into my skin, I ran the pad of my finger along the smoothness of my nail.

Another behavior replacement that has helped is using the cuticle oil or lotion to massage my hands instead of picking when I feel the urge. The compulsion is still there, I am no longer fighting it, I am instead redirecting it.

Not being hard on myself when I do pick. I still pick, especially when stressed. I am accepting that this is a difficulty in my life but also encouraging myself to heal at the same time - these two aspects are not mutually exclusive. I accept that this is a process and this takes time.

Please know that NONE of this has happened overnight. This has been a process for around...2 and a half years now.

This video has been very helpful for me for cuticle care and nail painting! This is the owner of Holo Taco, so she will be using Holo Taco products and trying to sell you that, but know that the things used in this video are not exclusive to Holo Taco.