#so statements like 'what truly matters is x' are from the character pov and not my beleifs

[ladyhindsight]

one thing i'll never understand is why so many fans are still riding for the idea of tessa loving both will and jem equally when the author didn't show that in her writing. yes, clare made tessa telling us that she loves them both in the same way and that it could not have been otherwise and also made some statements about it, that “not everyone can understand this type of love” or something like that, but is that true? or maybe she lacked the writing skills to make tessa's love for both of them believable? because, from clare's tid trilogy, all i can understand is that she just loves will so much that all of the story basically revolves around him even though tessa is the main character (and i always wondered what this trilogy could have been if we had him as a protagonist alongside jem). i could add a lot more—jem being an underdeveloped character, clare not giving us his pov, tessa treating him like a placeholder because will rejected her etc—but i want to hear your thoughts

Here are couple posts [x] & [x] & [x] I wrote about this very subject once upon a time. I’ll reiterate couple points from those.

The feeling of Jem being a placeholder is exactly what Clare’s capabilities as an author has created. Her execution of love triangles—called that only by name—suck because she cannot fully commit to them. She knows the end which is Tessa with Will, one of Clare’s great loves, so she spends her time churning out awful prose about him and forgets to hold Jem to the same standard. Clare does not treat Jem reciprocally or even as a truly viable option for Tessa’s first proper relationship.

Tessa’s attraction and eventual love for Will is so over-pronounced that it never seemed like Tessa truly loved Jem as passionately as she loved Will, despite that “two great loves in a lifetime” was the zinger. Will was blatantly obvious endgame from the very beginning. Tessa and Jem were engaged, but Jem was more invested in the relationship than Tessa who incessantly kept pining after Will during her engagement to Jem (and tonally her feelings and thoughts read more like pity than love to be honest).

Jem feels like a placeholder because he is a placeholder. Jem wasn’t independent as a character from Will like Will was of him. At least in the first book, he was primarily there to narrate Will and show the kinder and caring side of Will that Will himself was intent on hiding. Jem was a gateway for Tessa to see Will as Will truly was, because Jem was the sole person with whom Will was his genuine and truthful self.

Will has a strong character on his own while Jem’s is dependent on other characters and the existence of the love triangle. And so, as Will and Tessa’s mutual attraction to each other begin to develop, Jem’s role in Tessa’s life was aside from the aforementioned more of a confidant and a voice of reason. Tessa and Will connected over their love of literature and similar taste in books—now that I think about it, what else even was there? Either way, Clare failed to build a similar connection with Tessa and Jem like she did with Tessa and Will. Though both Tessa and Will were shamelessly self-indulgent inserts to discuss Dickens, at least they had that, no matter how feeble a basis it is.

While Clare may claim that Tessa’s love for Jem was equal to that she had for Will, all she managed with her writing was Tessa pitying Jem and pining after Will. It’s a love triangle between contrivance, convenience, and incredible annoyance.

[hermitreunited]

Hargreeves Character Worldviews

I am obsessed with the Hargreeves, and trying to understand them better.  As part of writing a fic a while back, I wanted to get a better grasp of character dynamics and it ended up spiraling into this huge and ever-changing theory, that I still think about when thinking about them.

Here’s some point of view statements I settled on for them, and under the read more I’ll put what they all mean. (It gets,, really long down there. Lots and lots of thoughts, enter at your own risk.)

Worldview Statements

Luther: I’m scared I’m not good and if I don’t get results, people will find that out.

Diego: I am good and I am going to get results and that will prove it to people.

Allison: Trying to be good matters more than getting results.

Klaus: Trying gets no results, people can see that, I’m a failure, who gives a fuck.

Five: The results are everything, but failure can be fixed as long as you keep trying and eventually get there.

Ben: If you try, you’ll get results. If you want it enough, you can make it happen.

Vanya: I’m good but no one will see that, and if they aren’t watching, there’s no point.

How to Look At All This

So way back when, when I was starting to think about this, I kept trying to pin down specific terms and evaluating each Hargreeves along those lines (there were attempts at drawing out a chart, for goodness sake). The difficulty is that the meanings of things are varied with them, and some might find importance in things that others simply don’t care about. Even within one person, definitions might get tangled because people don’t always make sense.

Good is closely related to worth, for the purposes of this meta. For some of them, this means doing good, but for others it is being good. Failure is the flip side of that, having to do with a lack of success at doing good work, or being a person with little worth. These two things don’t always line up in ways that make sense, because meaning can be layered and people are complex and contradictory.

There’s also some stuff to do with intent and trying, usually tied up together with each other and with results. They care to varying degrees about how they are viewed by others, and about controlling that narrative. There’s also questions of destiny - how much of their lives do they believe is based on their own choices, and how much is just fate? Because if fate is to blame, then they don’t need to carry guilt, and there may be no point in trying.

Luther - I’m scared I’m not good and if I don’t get results, people will find that out.

The pressure of being Number One is a pressure. I don’t think he views that responsibility as a birthright; he wouldn’t need to be so defensive about it (ie, insisting he go through doors first) if he thought it was a given. It makes him smile when he’s at his lowest to hear Klaus call him Number One, and then it sends him spiraling. Because it reminds him that he can lose it.

Reggie made it clear through his treatment of the others that failure is a possibility, even for kids with superpowers. He kept calling him Number One even when no one else was left, keeping Luther’s good standing in question even if the others had gone.

Luther is secretive, on the whole. He tries to keep his mutation a secret because he’s ashamed of it, and I wonder if that’s part of why he is so sensitive about Diego’s comment about Reg not being able to stand the sight of him? His body is more than a new uncomfortable shape, it’s a proof of his failure on that mission, a reminder he wears every day.

It’s also another twist to add into the confusing knots about worth and goodness being tied to successful deeds and the opinions of others. Now he’s adding ‘monster’ to the list of things that he’s scared he might be, and that he wants more than anything to prevent others from seeing.

Sum-up: Worth is mainly determined by how other people value you, so if he fails, he can become worthless. Destiny might have decided that he’s a failure, but at least he can try to hide that through successful results and get others to keep perceiving him as good, for as long as possible.

In One Word: frightened

Diego - I am good and I am going to get results and that will prove it to people.

He didn’t always think this. He spent a lot of his youth thinking that he needed to play by the rules Reginald set, which meant that he was worthless as long as he was number two. Part of what made him so angry about it was that it was rigged against him, but also part of it was that he knew it wasn’t true. Once he left the academy, that instinctual knowledge was able to take root and flourish, and now he can admit on a conscious level that he is good, both in terms of his worth and in terms of the results he gets. Diego saves people; he’s been doing it his whole life.

He’s got this inferiority complex but it’s less about whether he is actually a failure and more about how other people see him. He’s decisive and confident in his choices, the way he butts in on Eudora’s case because he knows he can help, how he gets rid of Reginald’s monocle because he trusts his instinct that it needs to be disappeared.

He doesn’t see worth as an inherent quality, though - his worth is dependent on what he does. He knows he has worth, but he hasn’t separated out yet that his worth is based on him as a person, and not him as a series of successes. Maybe once he can prove to everyone else that he is more than a number two, he can quit having to run the race so hard, but until then, he’s going to keep endlessly working for the recognition he deserves.

Sum-up: Destiny can go suck an egg, Diego’s worth is based on his results. He’s only a failure if he stops trying, or if he strays from his good intent of helping others. If he works hard enough, saves enough people and projects a cool enough image, he can eventually get the way he is perceived by others to match up to the truth.

In One Word: righteous

Allison - Trying to be good matters more than the results.

Allison is excellent at getting results. Her power hands her results without her even trying - but that’s the trouble. Trying is important and right and hard and what good people do, even if it doesn’t give them the results they want in the end. Allison can appreciate exactly how hard it is, which is why she took the easy way so often, and she carries a lot of guilt for taking the easy path instead of the good path for so long.

Even good intentions can result in a bad outcome, because trying isn’t enough to guarantee success, or because a bad action is still a bad action even if done with good intent. Using her powers to manipulate people is wrong, even if it is done with the best intentions, even if it has a good result. That doesn’t fix the bad action at its core.

Allison can speak certain results into existence, but there is still no way for her to know the full ramifications of any choice she makes, and in that way, she is just like everyone else. But she is so powerful that her choices can have outsized effects; she is a conduit that can cause massive harm. How much bad has she put into the world, intentionally or not? How much good could she have done if she had made different choices? Everyone deals with questions like this, but it’s usually a lot more theoretical. Allison takes personal responsibility for all of the bad that she’s never stopped, and all the good she might have missed.

Refusing to use her powers puts her in the same weight class as the rest of the world. Her limits are the same as everyone else, and so she should be held to the same standard as everyone else. The more people that view her that way, maybe she can relax and let herself believe it.

Sum-up: Results don’t matter as much as your intent and your methods of reaching them. Destiny can set you up with certain strengths, but your worth comes from your choices, not abilities. If people can see that you are trying to make up for your failings, maybe you can be forgiven.

In One Word: guilty

Klaus- Trying gets no results, people can see that, I’m a failure, who gives a fuck.

He has really been through it. He’s been through a lot, and he protests a lot, but every time he screams ‘no,’ no one ever listens to him, and it never changes his situation. Time and again, he’s learned that his desires don’t matter, trying doesn’t matter, because he never gets results. The best he can hope for is trying to find a way to maneuver himself away from situations before they get too bad, and to train himself to believe that he doesn’t mind when he fails and things hurt him. He can’t fight destiny, and destiny apparently wants to punish him. Maybe he can decide to be into that.

There’s a power in this viewpoint. Whatever is controlling his life, it’s certainly not Klaus, so there’s no point in him worrying about it. That’s what Luther is seeing when he’s talking about Klaus being carefree. Luther has lived his whole life bent over from carrying the weight of responsibility that Klaus happily discarded.

This is also one of Klaus’ biggest issues, though, because it’s not true that he is destined to be a fuck-up, and he doesn’t actually want it to be true, and even his siblings who reinforce this viewpoint for him also don’t actually want that for him. Sliding so hard into apathy is harmful for everyone who loves him and himself, because it sets him up to be hurt, and for his only defenses to be accepting it by trying to believe that he deserves it.

Sum-up: He’s destined to be a failure, and everyone who sees him knows it. It doesn’t matter what he tries, he’s not going to get good results, and since he’s a bad person, it’s all coming from a place of bad intent anyway.

In One Word: apathetic

Five - The results are everything, but failure can be fixed as long as you keep trying and eventually get there.

This at first seems like a forgiving attitude, but it’s only to an extent. He can and will keep trying, and that doesn’t devalue the success, but he must eventually succeed.

His ‘keep trying’ attitude would be forged in the apocalypse - how else can he keep going? But it was part of him before that. He kept going through Reginald’s abuse, he kept going in the apocalypse, he just keeps going. He has the time to keep trying, until he doesn’t, and that’s when he starts to panic and dig in.

Maybe this is also why he sticks to his plan so rigidly, even if it starts to prove to not be a good one. If he just keeps trying, he can get it and everything won’t be a waste. It’s an all-or-nothing game, and Five won’t accept that he can get nothing.

The apocalypse needs to be stopped for the obvious reasons, and because he wants to save his family, and because the commission wants it and Five doesn’t like authority, and because he decided to and can’t give up something that he’s decided to do. But it’s also fundamentally important to him because if it’s the end of everything, then it’s the end of Five’s ability to keep on trying. The idea that this could be forcibly taken away from him by the apocalypse is unacceptable.

Sum-up: It doesn’t matter what destiny says, because if you try enough you can change it. You can do bad things if you have a positive intent, and if it helps you reach your results. Who cares what anyone else thinks about it, as long as you get the results you need. If you fail, everything you’ve done is for nothing, and you are worthless.

In One Word: tenacious

Ben - If you try, you’ll get results. If you want it enough, you can make it happen.

From the little we see of Ben, he is Klaus’ reluctant cheerleader. His style of pep talk is mainly of the ‘just do it’ variety. He sees Klaus struggling with his addiction and gets frustrated, since he sees life in simpler terms. He figures that if Klaus just tries hard enough, he can overcome his problems.

When Ben was a kid, he didn’t want to unleash the horror, but he did. He was forced all the time to do things he didn’t want to do, and sees that as proof that it’s possible to do things you don’t want to do. You just have to get over yourself and do it.

He’s never known the freedom of adult life without that kind of control being exerted over him, so he hasn’t had the chance to sort through the difference between coercion and choice. He hasn’t known that burden of adult life, either - of having to navigate decision-making when the only taskmaster is yourself, with all the failures, fears, and contradictions that come with an adult life.

Sum-up: Sometimes you have to do bad things with a good intent, even when you don’t want to, because that’s what gets results. Destiny is a non-issue, and worth is self-determined, too. If you want to achieve something, all you have to do is try hard enough.

In One Word: frustrated

Vanya - I’m good but no one will see that, and if they aren’t watching, there’s no point.

Like Diego, she was told to believe she was worth less than the others - in Vanya’s case, very literally told to believe this. She had to learn to separate her worth as a do-gooder from her worth as a person in order to survive, so she is able to believe that she has worth even without powers. It’s undeniable, however, that she believes she would be worth more if she was special.

She’s also always lived in worlds that are ranked. The academy with its the endless debate on relevance of their numbers, the orchestra where being first chair definitively means you are the best and is a goal she hasn’t been able to reach. She knows that she has worth as a person, but no one has ever recognized that, just as she never gets recognition in these very performative spaces where she’s spent her life.

It’s hard to say how much her subconscious rebels against the ‘ordinary’ rumor, but it’s clearly something that has dogged her. She names her book ‘Extra-ordinary’ as a way to fight back against how she is perceived because perceptions matter a lot to her. They don’t define her to herself, but they are the definition the rest of the world sees.

Unlike Klaus, she doesn’t have a negative perception to combat - she just has nothing, and she hates that more than anything. Maybe she knew when writing the book that it would hurt her siblings and be a bad look, but at least it’s a look. Being ignored she cannot abide, because it denies her any kind of agency in crafting her own definition.

Sum-up: Destiny says she’s worthless, everyone’s perception is the same. It should matter more that she is good and that she is trying, even if she isn’t getting the results of saving lives, because that’s never been something she could do anyway. The true failure is in the perception of others, not in herself.

In One Word: angry

Whew, anyway, so. 

I hope to post a part two at some point about how all these different viewpoints fit (or very much do not fit) with each other. Like I said at the top, originally I went into this trying to get a grasp on their dynamics together. But this post has surely gone on long enough already.

This is just my interpretation, and maybe my elaborate bait in trying to have more character discussions. It’s also definitely malleable -  I am folding in new takes all the time. If you’ve got points you’d like to make, in support or disagreement, I would totally love to hear it! I clearly like to overthink and talk about this an awful lot, and adding new perspectives is always fun.

[selkiewife]

Hi I really like your appreciation for Theon and I see you ship sansa x theon and I would like to ask you if you really think there is some kind of foreshadowing between these two characters (and what would that foreshadowing be) or just ship them for fun because I am really starting to like theon x sansa and I would like to know is it possible that this happens in the books 😭

sorry to bother you <3

Thank you so much for the question anon! You are not bothering me at all! I’m just so sorry it takes me forever to respond! Well, the short answer to your question is that yes, I ship them both in the show and in the books. Basically all the shipping I do is for fun. To me, it really doesn’t matter if it happens in canon or not. But I wouldn’t be opposed to it certainly! And yes, although I think the chance of it actually happening is incredibly slim, there are definitely interesting similarities and parallels in book canon that could build to a future ship in my opinion. 

This got long, so the rest is under the cut:

One thing I like so much about both show Theonsa and book Theonsa is how incredibly DIFFERENT they are and yet their core, I think, is the same. I saw the show before I read the books and even though I feel like the show fumbled the potential of Theonsa in many ways (and I’m not even talking about romantically- but just the potential exploration of their characters, their abuse narratives, and their parallels.) I absolutely loved their dynamic so much that you will have to tear show Theonsa from my cold dead heart because I will never stop shipping it. In fact, I will probably write a defense of show Theonsa that literally no one asked for at some point, but getting back to your actual question: I do think that show Theonsa succeeds, in spite of the chaotic writing around it, because of Theon and Sansa’s personality similarities and narrative parallels in the books (and also because of Alfie and Sophie’s amazing acting, of course!)

I do think there are definitely seeds for a possible ship planted in the books. This mostly comes from Theon’s POV chapters where he mentions wanting to marry Sansa when he was a boy:

He remembered a time when he had thought that Lord Eddard Stark might marry him to Sansa and claim him for a son, but that had only been a child's fancy. 

~A Dance with Dragons, Reek I

His statement is indicative of his deep, deep desire to find belonging as opposed to actual romantic feelings towards Sansa- especially since they were both children at the time and she is much younger than he is. I think he saw marrying her as a way of truly becoming Ned’s son and part of the family. Now from Sansa’s perspective, she definitely doesn’t want to be loved for her Stark name. She wants to be loved for herself. This is shown both in the hopeful way she talks about Willas Tyrell and in the mournful way she thinks about her Aunt Lysa arranging her marriage to Sweetrobin:

She wanted to look beautiful for Willas Tyrell. Even if Dontos was right, and it is Winterfell he wants and not me, he still may come to love me for myself. 

~ A Storm of Swords, Sansa II

It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love.

~ A Storm of Swords, Sansa VI

And then, unlike Theon, who mentions Sansa a number of times in his POV, she only mentions him once- and that is to tell Tyrion that he killed Bran. So I must admit that’s not very compelling when it comes to foreshadowing a ship lol. 

However, I don’t think the way they thought of each other as children really matters that much for a potential future ship, because what would bond them together are the experiences that they have had since they last saw each other. And I do think that if their paths should cross again, the reunion would be incredibly interesting based on what they have both been through. Hopefully Sansa will learn the truth about Bran and Rickon and also find out that Theon saved Jeyne Poole- her “truest friend”-  and that he actually became the kind of hero that both she and Jeyne use to dream about. Sansa has been forced to see that “life is not a song,” and “in life, the monsters win,” yet  she is also still desperate to believe that the songs are still true:

There are gods, she told herself, and there are true knights too. All the stories can't be lies.

~ A Storm of Swords, Sansa IV

And what Theon did for Jeyne is truly worthy of a song. So if Sansa meets him again, she may feel kindly toward him based on what he did for her friend. And if they spent any time together, I do believe that they could form a strong bond. Especially since they have been through such similar situations. 

I find the idea of their parallel hostage narratives particularly compelling. Especially the idea of them both being seen as traitors to their families and to their captors. Sansa’s hostage arc is an interesting juxtaposition to Theon’s because, as a member of the Stark family, hers is generally seen as a true hostage situation- whereas the Stark POV chapters tended to “gentle” the idea of Theon as a hostage. Calling him a “ward” instead. This coupled with Theon’s own complex feelings towards the Starks often lead readers to push the narrative that he is an “adopted brother” to the Stark family instead of a hostage, erasing his trauma in order to paint the protagonist Stark family in the best light. It is incredibly interesting to have Sansa’s hostage arc occur in the same book that Theon’s POV begins to challenge the Stark narrative about his own situation. But it is also interesting to view Sansa’s hostage arc through the lens of the patriarchal society in which they live. Because, there is a very fine line between arranged marriages and hostages. Especially in a society where peace and alliances are formed through the offering of girls’ and womens’ bodies in marriage- much like a hostage, they are putting their bodies on the line to keep the peace or to forge an alliance. Theon and Sansa’s identity and abuse narratives are also extremely similar. As soon as their hostage narratives end- when their identities have already been incredibly shaken from that experience- they are thrust into a situation where they are forced to take new identities- Theon with Reek and Sansa with Alayne. 

I also think they are both building toward a “becoming their own hero” narrative. Theon has already done this when he realized even though he kept saying, “there are no heroes here,” he had to become the hero himself and save Jeyne. And through saving Jeyne, he saves himself. And I think that Sansa, who has been seeking “a true knight” and hero throughout her own arc, will come to the same conclusion based on the Ghost of High Heart’s prophecy, “And later, I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow.” 

I do think at the very least they could establish a significant bond based on their similar journeys. Here are some posts that highlight those: one, two. I also think that Sansa and Theon’s personalities are very compatible both pre canon and post canon. The way they describe things in their POV are incredibly similar: one, two (who can ever forget worm lips?), three, four, five. I mean, both Theon and Sansa have a similar way of looking at the world in the beginning of the novels. With both of them, I found myself stopping during their POV chapters often to be like- Did they really just SAY/THINK that? lmao. But they are also both growing beyond the views they’ve internalized from living in a patriarchal feudalistic society in ways that are very interesting to see. 

So I just rambled forever and I feel like I still didn’t express all that I think and feel about this ship! lol. I also want to say that I also ship them as purely friends just as much as I do a potential romantic relationship. I would just love for them to have some future interaction in the books. I am not sure if it will happen but I would absolutely love it if it did! 

This is also a good book theonsa post that makes a great case for the ship far more succinctly than I just did lol. And here is some lovely book theonsa art: shebsart, keptrefler. 

[taeyongdoyoung]

summary: the forest is your only escape from the everyday troubles with your family until you find danger lurking behind the trees. or rather, danger finds you. your fateful encounter with the vampire ravn leaves you wishing for a different life. you strike an unexpected deal with the stranger that will soon turn into something more…

pairing: vampire!ravn x reader

side characters: leedo and seoho

genre: vampire!au, angst, romance, humour

warnings: kidnapping, cleithrophobia, manipulation, lies, human trashnaming, blood mentions, stabbing, swearing (like twice)

word count: 2.5k

author’s note: @mariuscheng i deeply apologize, you’ll see why *mwah*

part one 🌙 part two 🌙 part three 🌙 part four 🌙 part five 🌙 part six  🌙 part seven 🌙 part eight 🌙 part nine 🌙 part ten 🌙 part twelve 🌙epilogue

Minutes turned into hours and hours into days. You began to lose track of time. You had no idea how long you’d spent in this terrifying place where Leedo had taken you to. You just wanted to go back home. Not where your parents were, no. That had never felt like home. You wanted to be back in Ravn’s castle, in the safety of his arms. He was the one…well, not person, but rather being who had treasured you and cared for you like nobody else. 

And no matter how hard you tried to convince Leedo that you would never change your mind and love him the way he wanted you to, he just refused to let you go. Which only frustrated you further. You felt like a bird in a cage and that feeling was the worst in the world. You needed to think of a way to escape. But how? These metal bars were so hard. And Leedo never let you out of sight. True, he never physically harmed you or forced you to do anything. 

But the mere fact he had kidnapped you, taken you away from the place you called home was enough of a red flag to change your friendly feelings for him into something that resembled distrust and annoyance. Since you couldn’t find a way to escape, your only hope was that Ravn wouldn’t give up on you. Maybe he would come for you. 

As more days passed by, you realized you were on your own. Harbouring hopes was foolish and would do you no good. You could either die or make peace with your current situation. Or…you could try something else entirely. Something wicked and a bit cruel, but it could work, nonetheless. And since you weren’t in the mood for dying and you weren’t one to give up so easily, you decided to go for it.

“I changed my mind,” you told Leedo one day, the lie coming out easily. “I’m willing to give you a chance. I can try…to love you like you need me to.”

Leedo eyed you suspiciously. He doubted the sincerity of your words. And for a good reason.

“Do you expect me to let you go, then? Just like that?”

Actually, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But of course not. You weren’t that stupid.

“Someday, you will,” you responded, attempting to sound absolutely convinced by the validity of your statement. “Give it time.”

A desperate wish for it to be true appeared in Leedo’s stare. Good. Let him dream.

“Really? You’re willing to try?”

“I am if you are,” you lied once more. What’s another one? You’ve come so far…

“What about the vampire you claim you care about?” Leedo reminded you, which briefly troubled you. But you had to play your cards right if you wanted out of here. You had to deceive Leedo successfully in order to go back to the one you truly loved.

“Well, you were right about him. He’s just a cold-skinned bloodsucker. You could be so much better for me,” the words sent pangs of guilt down your spine as you pronounced them. You didn’t mean any of it, of course. But you had to try your best to convince Leedo you did. If you couldn’t escape on your own, you could manipulate him into letting you go. You only hoped that you were good enough an actress to make this work.

“I’m glad you’re finally beginning to see the error of your ways. We could be so good together, you and I.”

You resisted the urge to vomit. He was delusional. But you had to play along.

“Sure, we could. Now, tell me,” you murmured in what you were wishing sounded like a seductive voice, “What does a girl like me have to do to get some fresh air and a bit of sun around here?”

Leedo laughed. He obviously wasn’t as dumb as you’d hoped he’d turn out to be.

“Not yet. But we’ll get there, I promise. I’ve been very patient with you. What’s a couple more weeks?”

Weeks? If you had to spend another night in this godforsaken place, you would die. You had to get out of here soon or you would lose your mind.

“Right,” you attempted not to sound too crestfallen about it. “Well, until then, we could get to know each other better.”

Leedo smiled.

“What do you want to know?”

🌙🌙🌙

Ravn’s POV

As soon as I found Seoho, I told him everything that had happened and begged him to help me find her. I couldn’t live without her and I had no intention of letting her go. He listened to my pleas calmly, without saying a word. When I was finally done, he spoke:

“Of course, I will help you,” Seoho started. “Even though I don’t trust humans…”

“I’m sensing there’s a big but coming.”

“But I’m afraid we might be too late.”

“Too late?” I whispered, immediately panicking. “Is she dead? Did the werewolf do something to her?”

Seoho shook his head in a composed manner.

“That’s not what I meant. Too late as in…she might have betrayed your secret. You could be in danger, Ravn. You don’t want what almost happened to Xion to happen to you, do you?”

“Y/N’s not like that, I swear. She would never do this to me.”

“Alright, then. Do you have something of hers so that I could cast a locating spell?”

I nodded and handed him one of the books I’d gifted her a while ago. She would read from it every night before sleep. I figured it was her most prized possession.

“Shakespeare, huh?” Seoho chuckled. “Okay, just…go sit in the other room, don’t distract me and I’ll call you when I’m ready.”

I agreed, even though it was impossible for me to sit and stay calm in this current predicament. I was losing my mind. I had to find her soon. What if she was hurt? What if…I never got the chance to see her again? The chance to…tell her everything she meant to me…Tell her…

“She’s near the river in that forest of yours. In some sort of…prison cave,” Seoho informed me a while later.

I wasted no time and stormed out of the room without even bothering to thank my best friend. He’d understand, I told myself. But before I could make it outside of his house, Seoho had teleported next to me and grabbed my hand.

“Where do you think you’re going, lad?” he scolded me. “I’m coming with you.”

“I can’t ask you to…risk exposure. I know how much your secret means to you.”

Seoho obviously disagreed with me.

“You’re not asking. I’ll come on my own free will. You’re my best friend, Ravn. If you care about that foolish human, I feel it is my duty to help you out.”

“Seoho, you really don’t have to…”

“No time for arguing,” he shut me up. “And besides, me teleporting us there would be much faster than your vampire speed.”

I laughed wholeheartedly at his sensible observation.

“Lead the way, powerful wizard.”

Before I could blink, we were standing near the river. Closeby, there was indeed a cave that I had never seen before. I had heard rumours of its existence but never laid eyes upon it. So strange…I rushed ahead, eager to save Y/N from whatever torments that…dog had put her through. But before I could do so, Seoho stopped me once again.

“What now?” I complained because of his apparent eagerness to slow me down.

“Before we go in there, there’s something you should now.”

“Just say it already, the tension is killing me,” I groaned.

“Ravn. You’re already dead,” Seoho reminded me.

“Not helping, Seoho,” I sighed.

“Okay, okay, sorry. Y/N must be nearby so I…heard a fraction of her memories. She had just told that werewolf something very disturbing about you. I’m not sure I can even say it, it’s too vile.”

“Just go ahead,” I rolled my eyes. What could possibly be worse than losing her?

“She said and I quote here, so please, don’t get mad at the messenger ‘He’s just a cold-skinned bloodsucker. You could be so much better for me.’ Listen, man, it’s highly possible that her and the werewolf have been working against you. I told you that humans can’t be trusted!”

I shook my head, refusing to believe him.

“No, that can’t be true. Are you sure you heard it correctly? It must have been the wind or…”

Seoho, however, was determined that she had, in fact said that.

“I’m telling you, it’s best we get out of here. It could be a trap. We don’t know what we’re walking into, Ravn! Humans are such wicked creatures, it’s not safe.”

“No, no,” I repeated helplessly. “I can’t just leave her here. I love her, okay? And even if she doesn’t love me back, even if she did say these things about me, I still can’t let anything happen to her.”

Seoho scoffed in disbelief.

“It’s your funeral, mate.”

I shrugged.

“Like you said earlier. I’m already dead.”

I hurried towards the entrance of the cave.

“Then I’d rather die by your side than just stand outside like a coward!” Seoho yelled right behind me.

“If you’re scared for your life, you don’t have to come in. I won’t blame you, I’ll understand,” I reassured my friend.

“I’m not scared for my life. It’s you I’m worried about,” Seoho replied.

“While I’m sincerely touched,” I squeezed his arm. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

“Not against a werewolf, you’re not. Dumbass,” he added that last part affectionately.

“Well, two dumb brains are always better than one,” I joked and the two of us went inside.

🌙🌙🌙

Reader’s POV

This shit wasn’t working. You were being so nice and pliable to Leedo and he still hadn’t let you go! Ugh, men! You wanted out so badly but you couldn’t risk being too forthright about it or it would ruin all the careful planning, all the progress you’d been making so far. Just a few more days, you kept telling myself. Just a few more and he’d believe you. You had to be strong enough to continue with the lies, with the whole acting scheme. They would be successful. Or you didn’t know what you’d do with yourself. You missed everything so badly. You missed holding Ravn’s hand. You missed reading books in his big…library. You missed making flower crowns for him. You even missed him drinking your blood. To think that the one time you’d found a home for yourself…only to have it taken away from you so cruelly. It was really unfair. You had never before been in a situation where you had to deceive someone on purpose. You had never wished ill upon anyone. So, for whatever crimes you were being punished, you couldn’t help but get frustrated by the injustice of it all. Just when you were getting entirely lost in the memories, Leedo interrupted your thoughts.

“You know…I was thinking we could have a walk. I won’t let you out of my sight, so don’t try anything stupid.”

Was this actually happening? Or were you dreaming?

“Of course not. I told you already. I changed my mind.”

“Good,” Leedo gave you an encouraging smile, which you desperately wanted to wipe off his smug face. No sooner had he unlocked the metal door leading to the outside world, to the light, to freedom, than you heard unexpected noises coming from somewhere nearby. Was it possible? Had he really come for you?

Seconds later, you were greeted by a heavenly sight. Ravn and Seoho were only a couple of metres away from you. Never before had you felt so grateful to see such familiar faces! You immediately forgot all about your plan to deceive Leedo and rushed into Ravn’s arms. He let you hold him but didn’t say a word, simply welcoming you silently. But why? You had missed the sound of his voice.

“It was a trick, wasn’t it?” Leedo finally realized. “You never loved me, you just said all these things so I’d let you go, didn’t you?”

You gulped nervously and even though you didn’t want to leave the comfort of Ravn’s arms, you felt like you had to confront Leedo yourself.

“Yes, it was all a lie. I never meant any of it,” you confessed.

Ravn gave Seoho a pointed look, which at the time, you didn’t understand.

“Well, I don’t care. If I can’t have you, then neither can he,” Leedo attacked Ravn before you could register what was happening. You wished you could do something other than beg them to stop, but you were so scared that you could barely move. They were going to kill each other right in front of you and you were too frozen to think. Luckily, Seoho’s reflexes worked faster than yours. He hurriedly got between them, trying to make them stop. However, before he could do so, Leedo accidentally pierced him in the stomach with a blade that had somehow appeared from thin air and Seoho stumbled onto the ground. You ran to his side and knelt down next to the magician.

“Oh, God, are you okay?” you asked.

Seoho nodded weakly.

“I didn’t mean to stab him,” Leedo defended himself. “I meant to kill the bloodsucker!”

“Oh, right, ‘cause that makes us all feel so much better!” you hissed sarcastically.

“Just…stop fighting and ask the girl who she wants to be with, you imbeciles!” Seoho murmured before passing out.

“Shit,” you and Ravn swore simultaneously, desperately trying to help Seoho regain consciousness.

“You didn’t answer the question,” Leedo pointed out.

“Is that really your biggest concern right now?” you snapped at him. “Seoho could literally die because of you!”

Leedo looked away as if it wasn’t any of his concern. That bastard…

“I want to stay with Ravn and help Seoho, in case it wasn’t obvious,” you spelled it out.

Leedo nodded and started walking away wordlessly. In the meantime, you were pressing your hand against Seoho’s wound so that he wouldn’t die from the blood loss.

“If I ever see you again, I will kill you,” Ravn vowed, giving Leedo an icy glare.

“Likewise,” Leedo roared and left you all in that damn cave.

Once he was out of earshot, you noticed Ravn slowly backing away from Seoho.

“There’s so much blood,” he panted weakly.

“Fuck, I almost forgot,” you were worried for a second that Ravn would lose control. Despite the fact that Seoho was his best friend, it was only natural that he was disturbed by the smell and look of it.

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Ravn closed his eyes, pained and ashamed to admit that he was so easily affected.

“You won’t. You should get out of here and bring me supplies from your castle. Herbs, medicine, anything you can find,” you sensibly suggested. “It’s my fault he got hurt in the first place. If it hadn’t been for my friendship with Leedo, none of this would have happened,” you couldn’t help but blame yourself for it all.

“It’s not your fault you see the good in people. And…I’ll do what you asked. We’ll talk more when I return, promise.”

You nodded.

“I’ll stay with Seoho and try to stop the bleeding.”

“Thank you,” Ravn said and ran outside at the speed of light.

To be continued…

[cordonia-continued]

In The Shadows

Book: The Royal Romance 1 & 2. Bastien’s story.

Pairings: Bastien. Liam x MC (Riley Taylor)

Warnings: slight swearing, slight angst

A/N: I thought it would be nice to see things from Bastien’s POV. Any similarities to anything else out there is unintentional and is purely coincidental. I fell in love with the TRR series late and have only just got into it. I felt that some of the chapters just needed a bit more - it goes along with my previous fanfic where Riley went back to New York briefly after the coronation ball.

All characters belong to Pixelberry.

Apologies in advance for any typos, grammar or spelling errors.

Chapter 3

The night of the Coronation Ball dawned and Bastien was once again in the shadows watching the festivities around him when he saw Liam lead Lady Riley into the maze. His heart constricted at the sight, he had been around Liam enough to know what his plans were for this evening, he had watched the young prince’s love for Lady Riley grow. Against his better judgement he had arranged the secret meetings they shared, made sure they weren’t disturbed.

He watched from afar as they emerged, laughing, kissing, straightening their clothes as they went back into the ballroom casting shy glances at each other. He closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face, Bastien knew that even if The King had known that his son had just declared his love for Riley he wouldn’t have cared. He was set on destroying the young prince’s life before it had properly begun.

And then it happened, just as Liam was about to choose her, the timing couldn’t have been any worse for her or any better for Constantine. Bastien closed his eyes, unable to face what he’d done as the beeps and buzzes of the phones rang out around the ballroom. Shame crept over him as he led Riley out of the room, his face flushed crimson and he cringed at the scene playing out in front of him. She pulled back from his grip and screamed for Drake; he had to be honest with himself hadn’t expected that, they must have got closer than he realised. He led her to the security office, apologising as he did so, none of this was her fault. He knew he had to act fast, the King was keeping Liam occupied until Bastien could get her out of the palace and away to the airport. He had arranged it so her bags were packed by the time she was allowed back to her room to change. The palace guards had taken her passport from her, but little did she know that flights had been booked long ago, a plane was strategically scheduled to take off after the news had broken.

He bundled her and her belongings into a waiting unmarked car, and that was it. She was gone. Bastien left the palace, he couldn’t handle the questions, the accusations flying around. He found a bar on the outskirts of the city and ordered a neat whiskey. He felt he deserved a night off for a change, he’s given his life up for that family, been constantly at their beck and call. He knew that Liam didn’t believe a word of the Tariq scandal, he could see it in his eyes. No doubt Drake had already told him about what happened that night. It was obvious to everyone that Riley would never cheat on Liam, well not with Tariq anyway. Now Drake, that was something that Bastien kept turning over in his mind, the way she called his name when she was being led out, the way Drake was there to save her that night from Tariq. It was clear to him from the coy looks that Drake was also in love with the American, that much was evident, but had he missed something between the two of them? Did she feel the same way about Drake? Bastien shook his head, no, he’d seen the way she looked at Liam surely she wasn’t leading Drake on as well...would she?

His phone lights up with yet another message, he ignores it like all the others he’s received tonight. After a few minutes it starts vibrating on the bar in front of him, he picks it up and looks at the caller ID. Drake. He hits the decline button and puts it back face down on the bar. He would love to switch it off but he daren’t, even on his night off he’s never truly off the clock. It buzzes again. He picks it up. Drake. Oh for fucks sake give up he thinks as once again he hits decline. It buzzes for a third time and this time he gives in and answers it.

‘What?’ He’s not in the mood for pleasantries.

‘What the fuck was all that about Bas?’ Drakes voice is loud and shrill. Bastien takes another sip of his whiskey. ‘I think it was quite evident what all that was about Drake.’

‘Where are you Bas? I’m at your office but you’re not here, you need to help us sort this out.’

‘I don’t take orders from you Drake.’ Bastien’s mood is making him cranky with his young friend.

‘What? Bastien what’s the matter with you? And where are you? Are you with her? Let me speak to her.’

‘No.’

‘Bastien, please.’ Drake begs.

‘Drake listen to me, you need to step away from this. Whatever it is that you’re thinking of doing. Don’t.’ Bastien’s tone was firm.

‘What the fuck Bas? You can’t seriously believe she’s done anything? I told you what happened that night, I was there. You said you’d step up security, check the room locks. Remember?’

‘Drake, it doesn’t matter what I believe. What’s done is done. I can’t do anything to change it. Go home, you can’t do anything either.’

‘I’m sure as hell gonna try Bas. I’m gonna go after her. Where is she? Was she sent back to the US? Back to New York? What flight is she on?’

Bastien remains silent, he rubs his forehead with his hand.

‘Bastien?’

‘Drake, please I’m asking you as a friend, go home, leave her. It’s for the best. This is bigger than you can know.’

‘How can it be for the best? She didn’t do anything. Liam knows that, so do I, and so will everyone else when she makes a statement, I can vouch for her.’

Bastien lets out a long sigh. ‘And who are they going to believe? Two commoners or a court full of nobles?’ He knows his words will sting Drake, he’s always had a chip on his shoulder about not being a noble. ‘They’ll think you’re just siding with her, without proof they won’t believe you.’

‘Nah fuck that shit, I’m going to go get her, she’s been sent back to New York hasn’t she?’ He can tell by Drakes voice that he’s angry and knowing him as he does he knows Drake’s prone to acting rashly when he’s angry.

‘Drake, please’

‘Bastien just tell me!’ Drake shouts

‘Yes’ Bastien feels like a brick has been dropped in his stomach, he knew this was going to end badly. He expected that it would be her fighting against being deported, demanding to speak to The King, causing hell until they let her go. But word from the men at the airport was that she went willingly in the end, resigned to her fate. They told Bastien that she sat sobbing, that even the Beaumont’s couldn’t convince her to stay. He can’t imagine Riley Taylor crying, Liam choosing Madeleine must have broken her heart. He knows there’s no stopping Drake when he’s set his mind to something, the lad would row a boat to the States if he had to.

‘Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let Liam get on that plane. Do you hear me Drake? He can’t leave, he CANNOT be seen to be going after her. Is that clear?’ Bastien demands.

‘Crystal’ with that Drake hangs up. Bastien rubs a hand over his face and downs his drink, ordering another one.

She came back with Drake. She’s got guts he’ll give her that. She’s been staying back at the Beaumont’s estate again. Constantine was pissed when he found out. He told Bastien that maybe he should have got rid of her after all.

Maybe it’s just to ease his conscience but Bastien is glad she’s back, she deserves a chance to clear her name, he hopes she’ll manage it, he’s only sorry he can’t help her. Even though he now serves King Liam, Bastien can’t disclose his previous duties to King Constantine. He assumes Drake has told Liam she’s back, but if he has then Liam hasn’t mentioned it. The poor King looks so dejected all the time, he puts on a front for the staff, the politicians and press, but Bastien sees behind the mask. Since the coronation Bastien has been reassigned to Liam’s personal protection, he’s tried to keep a distance so far, he can’t look the new king in the eye, he swears his betrayal is written all over his face. He’s not keen on Liam’s new fiancé either, she’s demanding and rude to the staff, considering all the schooling some of these nobles have had they haven’t been taught manners. Luckily she’s not at the palace often, however the engagement tour is going to test Bastien’s patience he can tell.

As the night of the engagement party draws closer Bastien has heard from his sources that Riley will be there. He’s still yet to figure out if Liam knows, from the way The King has been acting he doesn’t think he’s aware, it wouldn’t surprise him if that stupid Beaumont boy is planning some kind of surprise reunion, risky he thinks to himself making a mental note to keep an eye out for any confrontations and to make sure he diffuses them before they happen.

Bastien watches from the door as Lady Riley and Lord Beaumont greet Countess Madeleine, her smile is sly and snide, even though he can’t hear what she says from his position he’s sure it’s condescending. He tenses as he sees The King walk over to the the trio, he’s primed ready to step in if Riley so much as raises her voice to The King. It’s then that he’s convinced that Liam didn’t know Riley would be here tonight, it’s the first time he’s seen a genuine smile on his face since his coronation, however brief it was.

Thankfully the party goes smoothly, that is until Liam foolishly orders two dozen roses to be sent to the American’s room. He needs to let it go Bastien thinks, The King Father will be furious if he finds out, even though it’s not his problem anymore he’s sure Constantine will make it his problem.

Bastien doesn’t know how he did it but somehow Liam has arranged for her to meet him on his balcony, he knows it wasn’t via phone call or text that’s for sure. He pretends he doesn’t notice her scurrying around the grounds after the party, puts a call out on his radio for his men to hold off, reassigns them to the front of the house, tells them he’ll deal with it. Liam doesn’t need an audience for this. He can’t help but smile to himself as he watches her scramble over the railings of the Kings balcony, barefoot and shivering in her little blue dress. Liam’s not a fool, he must have known there would be security watching his room, he must have had faith that Bastien wouldn’t intervene. He hopes that Liam will end it here tonight and tell her to leave, but he knows the young king too well, no way is he letting her go without a fight. This whole situation is becoming way too complicated, he should have known she would come back. Bastien radios the guard assigned to Madeleine’s room, tells him to make sure he reports any activity directly to him, the last thing he needs is for her to show up and cause a scene.

He keeps a distance as the couple argue, she’s very clearly upset but she’s not crying. Bastien’s got to admire her strength, not too many girls would be able to keep control in a situation like this. His heart sinks as they kiss, even though she eventually pushes Liam away. He knew this would happen, they’re like a fucking real life Romeo and Juliette now he thinks, and he remembers how that ended for the star crossed lovers.

Liam comes to Bastien’s office a few days later, he enters the small room closing the door behind him.

‘Your Majesty.’ Bastien rises from his desk bowing to The King ‘I would have come to your office if I had known you wanted a meeting.’

‘It’s quite alright Bastien, I need your help on the Tariq situation and I thought it a discussion better placed here.’ Bastien’s stomach drops, he had been dreading this day.

‘My help Your Majesty?’ Bastien plays dumb. ‘Yes Bastien, please use your contacts to track down Tariq so we can confront him about what happened that night, find out why he was in Lady Riley’s room, I need to help her with this, it’s because of me she’s in this situation.’

‘Are you sure Your Majesty?’ Bastien questions, this is not something he wants to be doing.

The King looks at Bastien in confusion ‘Of course I’m sure, why would I not be sure?’

Bastien weighs up his options here, he was told by Constantine to get rid of Riley but he no longer serves Constantine. He could pretend to look into Tariqs whereabouts, or maybe just delay looking into it until after The Kings wedding to Countess Madeleine to keep The King Father happy.

‘It’s just...excuse me if I am speaking out of turn Your Majesty, but you are engaged to another woman. I’m not sure that getting involved in a scandal concerning a past suitor will give the right impression.’

Liam creases his brow at his security guard ‘Bastien Lady Riley deserves the chance to clear her name. Finding Tariq will provide that opportunity. We must do all we can to help her. But alas you are right, Countess Madeleine must not know of this. Please avoid discussing the matter in her vicinity.’

Bastien hesitates for a moment then walks over to his locked filing cabinet, pulling the key out of his pocket he takes the file marked Riley Taylor from the draw and hesitantly hands it to Liam.

‘What’s this?’ Noticing the name on the front of the file Liam swallows. ‘Why are you giving me this?’

‘Just read it Your Majesty and then come and see me tomorrow If you still want me to find Tariq.’

The Kings face turns crimson, the lines of his forehead crease once again. He grabs the file from Bastien’s outstretched hand.

The Kings voice raises in indignation ‘If you think anything in this file will change my mind Bastien then you don’t know me very well, I want Lady Riley to clear her name regardless of what her background is, I don’t care where she’s come from, I’m not interested in her past! Do what you can to find that man.’

The King turns on his heel and marches out of the office and down the hallway. However passionate his protests were Bastien notices that he took the file on Riley Taylor with him.

[the-is13]

Pinch of Salt Pt. 2

Description:  You didn’t expect to be working tonight. It was a regular Friday night, or so you thought. Two beautiful men happen to come into the small pizza joint, one with particularly captivating hazel eyes.

Characters: Jared, Jensen, Reader, OFC’s OMC’s

Relationship: Jared x Reader

Warnings:  None really, cursing? A bit of fluff

Word Count: 1804, not as long but oh well

A/N: So this is my first fic, I read a lot but have never wrote anything. This stemmed from a dream I had. For the purpose of this fic its set in early stages of the boys filming Supernatural. Jared is a bit younger, late twenties. Him and Gen are friends but nothing more. This purely fiction! I mean no harm to J2 or their families, I love them all the to moon and back. Any hate will not be tolerated. Please be kind and let me know if you liked it!

Thanks as ALWAYS to my Alycat even after being sick you still beta for me @team-free-will-you-idjits-67 love youuu 

Part two

*Your POV*

“YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING MEEEE!!!!” Hannah practically screeched on the other end of the line, nearly bursting your eardrum.

“No, Han, I would definitely not kid you about this,” you deadpanned.

“How in the world did my best friend manage to meet Jared fuckin’ Padalecki and get his number all in one night?! Girl, did you sell your soul? How is this real?” She questioned

Truthfully, you were wondering the same. No one ever showed an interest in you. Well, except for grabby drunks. Now here you were with a tv star’s phone number and a supernaturally hot one at that.

“Ha, I really dunno Han, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t sell my soul. I think I would remember.” You laughed slightly at her statement of selling your soul.

Hannah had always been a character, it's why you got along so well. She was the crazy to your normal. You were two halves of the same piece. She pushed you when you needed it and you toned her down when she became too much.

When she graduated college with some scientifically geological degree she moved off to Denver to pursue her career, which you still weren't exactly sure what it was, but you supported her through and through. That left you all alone in San Antonio. You were supposed to stay here together and live the dream. Although you were still trying to figure out what that dream was, you were supposed to do it together, just like everything else in life.

But in traditional Hannah fashion, she fell in love with the environment and decided she was going to do everything she could to save it. You were a little sad that she wanted to move away after graduation, but she always promised to visit, even if it had been a little while.

You just missed your best friend. You were too caught up in wishing she was here with you freaking out alongside, that you momentarily zoned out.

“Y/N?! You still with me here?? Heeelllloooo..” She said trying to catch your attention.

“Yeah, sorry Han, I’m here. I just wish you were here with me. You know I miss you and our girl talk.” You said with a bit of sadness in your voice that didn’t go unnoticed.

“Sweetie, I know, as do I. You just need to put yourself out there and make some friends.” She replied sympathetically with a tinge of hurt lacing her words.

“But you’re my friend Hannah.. No one is going to know me as well as you,” You laughed half heartedly trying to lighten the mood, “I’m not sure I want anyone to know me like you do.”

She chuckled lightly but, as always, could see right through your rouse. You could hear her sigh through the phone, you knew what was coming next, she was about to whip you into shape.

“Y/n,“ Uh oh, mom voice, it was definitely coming. “I know I left you for work, but that does not mean you need to throw a little pity party for yourself. I’ve been gone for 8 months! You can’t be a hermit as much as I know you’d like that, you need to put yourself out there.” Another sigh lingered through the phone “I know you’re feeling overwhelmed, you miss me, you miss mom, but I think that you’ve hit a wall and Jaaaared,” She drawled out his name almost seductively, “Is going to be the one to break through it! When was the last time you got laid?!”

You nearly choked on the water you had been drinking listening to her monologue spitting it all over your lap. “Uh-eh, what?! Why does it matter? My love life has nothing to do with this!” You exclaimed.

“Excuse me! Yes it does! You’ve been so uptight since Cole and what was that? Two years ago??” She exclaimed with a hint of irritation.

Getting slightly irritated with her tone you snarked back, “You know very well what me and Cole had was complicated and he’s the one who decided to cheat! That asshole was fucking with her for seven months behind my back!”

“This is my point, you’re wound up, you need to get laid, like now.” She huffed back at you.

“Okay, whatever, besides the point. What in the world makes you think that Jared is going to sleep with me?! He probably just feels sorry me.” Now it was your turn to sigh. “I’m so pathetic and he knows it, I definitely don’t need sympathy sex, and god knows Jared Padalecki isn’t going to give it to me.” You whined.

“Alright y/n do NOT make me jump through this phone and beat your ass!” Hanah yelled at you. “He obviously gave you his number for a reason! Why can’t you just give him a chance? Who cares if he’s famous? Maybe he just wants to have a normal life and maybe you can give it to him?” She questioned.

You really didn’t know how to answer, you never thought of it like that. You had been too wrapped up in feeling sorry for yourself that it never crossed your mind that Jared might want normal. What did that even mean? Normal. Your life was normal, a bit boring, but fairly normal.

A fuzzy voice snapped you back to reality and out of your thoughts. “Y/N! Are you listening to me, like at all?”

You cleared your throat, “What? Of course, Han. I’m always listening to you.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” She snipped back before sighing into the phone once more, “Just give him a chance, please. He might be the thing you need. A friend and maybe even one with benefits at that.”  You could practically hear her wiggling her brows.

“Haaaaan-” You were about to reprimand her for being so vulgar, but didn’t get the chance as your phone chimed in your ear. “Just a sec, I think someone texted me...” You told her, pulling your phone away from your face.

You clicked open your messages wondering who would be texting you at this hour as you glanced at the clock on your phone, 11:54pm. Wow, you didn’t think two hours could’ve passed so quickly, but then again, when you talked to Hannah time always seemed to fly.

Going back to your messages you opened it and screamed out loud which had Hannah effectively screaming on the other end as well.

11:53pm: I really did have a good time tonight, I don’t want to seem like I’m coming on too strong but I really wanna get to know you better. I have to fly back out to Vancouver tomorrow afternoon, but I would really love it if you could join me for coffee. :)  -Jare

You were stunned. You couldn’t even breathe. Hannah yelling through the phone at you barely registered in your ears as your heart was pounding so hard.

“Holy shit,” You whispered

By some miracle you came back to reality. Ignoring the yelling on the other end of the line you brought your phone back to your face.

“It was him..” Was all you could muster.

“IT WAS WHO?? I NEED SPECIFICS, DETAILS, GOD, Y/N, DON’T BE VAGUE!” She continued to scream.

“Jared” You whispered. “I-it was him.. H-he wants to meet..”

“WHAT! What did I tell you?? I’m always right and you know it!” She snarked. “Now what’re you going to say? ‘Yes’ obviously, but you gotta be cool, let's face it y/n/n, you’re two gray hairs from being more lame than Mema, and you knoooow she’s lame. I mean, who eats dinner at 3pm and goes to bed at 6?!”

“I am not!” You huffed. Although, as usual, Hannah was right. You were lame. You didn’t have a life outside of work. You just sat at home and watched Netflix or read a book. ‘God I am so lame,’ you sighed to yourself.  

“Whatever you want to tell yourself y/n/n. Anyways, you need to play it cool, be cute and seductive, but not needy or desperate.” She quipped

“Well thanks for the confidence boost Han,” You deadpanned. “I’m going to let you go so I can think of a ‘witty’ reply.”

“Urg, fine, but you better let me know everything!!” She whined. “Night, love you jerk.”

“Night, love you too. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I promise, bitch.” You replied hastily.

After hanging up with Hannah, you proceeded to just stare at the message from Jared. What should you say? Trying to take your friend’s advice in not sounding as lame as you were, you began typing a reply. After almost ten minutes of typing, deleting, and retyping you had come up with a decent reply and you didn’t want to keep Jared waiting any longer since it was already past midnight.

12:13am: Hey, yeah that sounds nice. Wish we had a little more time though. I’d love to get a coffee, there’s a shop down on broadway st, it's amazing! Know the place?

Sent.

“God I hope this wasn’t a mistake,” Saying to no one imparticular as you thought out loud.

Watching the little text dots pop up almost immediately had your heart beating out of your chest.

Chime

12:15am: Yes I actually do know that place, you’re right. It is amazing, and I love their muffins! They’re like as big as your face! Can we meet at 10? - Jare

Oh lord, he was in. He was actually in, he agreed to meet you, again, after the horrible shipwreck at dinner you really didn’t think any of this was going to happen.

Typing a quick reply not wanting to keep him awake, I mean this is Jared Padalecki he needs his beauty sleep. Yes, beauty sleep, you internally sighed to yourself getting lost in the thoughts of how truly beautiful Jared really was.

You looked back down at your phone to make sure the message sent, of course not, so uncoordinated. Clicking the send button you anxiously waited for a reply.

12:19am: Ha, you’re right the muffins are HUGE! 10 sounds perfect I’ll see you there, goodnight!

His text bubbles took a little longer, of course you kept him waiting too long.

12:21am: Perfect. See you then, g’night. Xo - Jare

You read the message over and over until your eyes felt like crossing. He sent you ‘xo’. “X FREAKING O” you exclaimed loudly to yourself.

You quickly sent Hannah a text briefly telling her what was going on. Before waiting for her reply you locked your phone, avoiding another two hour phone call.

Making sure your alarm was set for promptly 7:30am you cuddled up in your bed and fell asleep, thinking of Jared.

You were going on a date with Jared Padalecki. 

A/N: Hope you liked this part. I’m still very new to this. Tell me your favorite part I LOVE feedback since I'm brand new. I will write a third, not sure post date, but maybe sooner than later if I get feedback!

POS tags

@crystallstaircase @squirelnotsam @allaboutthebooz @team-free-will-you-idjits-67 @squirrelnotsam

#supernatural rpf#jared padalecki fanfiction#jensen ackles fanfiction#jared padalecki x reader#jared padalecki fluff#supernatural fanfiction#supernatural fluff#jared padalecki and reader#sam winchester fluff#sam winchester fanfiction

[prettywordsyouleft]

The Sex Contract  - Part 14

Genre: friends to lovers au / friends with benefits / mature content / romance / angst

Characters: Shim Changmin x Kaia Ashton (OC)

A/N: Due to the overwhelming request I have followed your encouragement to bring back one of my older stories. This was back in a time where OCs were everything and writing one chapter in each main’s point of view was the trend. I hope that even though I have edited this drastically, that you can appreciate this story comes from my older style of writing. I definitely still read this often and find it enjoyable so I hope you will too.

Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 - FINAL

Chapter 14 – Kaia’s POV.

 Two days passed by quickly. Kaia had never truly had access to Changmin’s entire schedule before and although she did nothing but take notes and a few photos here and there, she was exhausted with trying to keep up. She constantly felt like she needed more caffeine in her system, whilst Yunho and Changmin seemed to power on effortlessly. They had an uncanny way to make the most of every minute of the day in Japan, working from dawn to dusk, and last night they had even continued through to nearly five am. It literally felt like Kaia had only closed her eyes for ten minutes before she was violently shaken awake.

“Kai, wake up, we have to get to the studio for our interview this morning.”

“Sleeping,” she mumbled and rolled over, only to feel Changmin’s weight now over her body, his hands prying her away from the blankets. “No Minnie, I need sleep. I’m not a robot like you, I’m human. I can’t sleep on ten minutes.”

“You’ve had four hours, now come on get up.”

“Lies, I just closed my eyes.” Kaia relented and squinted through her tired eyes to find the alarm clock on the bedside table saying it was 9AM. She was sure it was tricking her but the sun shining through the blinds that Changmin had opened proved that she was wrong. Kaia let out a loud groan.

“Now would you get up and shower so I can?” he urged impatiently, hoisting her out of the spare room’s bed and carrying her into the bathroom. He dumped Kaia on the cold tile floors and she gasped at the sensation, glaring up at him. He pointed at the shower cubicle. “Shower. Now.”

“Mr Grumpy pants, why don’t you just shower instead first?” she told him from the floor and he gave her a look.

“Your hair is ridiculously out of control.”

“So?”

“So you’re meeting Kaori Kimura today. Aren’t you going to put any effort in for me?”

Kaia shook her sleepy head. “Why? It’s you dating her not me.”

“What rubbish backup you’re turning out to be,” he grunted and yanked down his pyjama pants, turning on the shower and hopping in. Kaia finally was awake enough to move and got up, glancing into the slowly steaming up mirror and gasped.

“My hair!”

“I told you it was like a bush,” he said matter-of-factly from within the shower cubicle. “And I gave you the opportunity to shower but now I’m just going to enjoy my time.”

“Ugh!” Kaia exclaimed, whipping off her own bedclothes and yanking back on the shower door. Changmin gaped at her, but Kaia didn’t care, pushing her way into the water too. “Share with me.”

“Uh, no I like hot water too much.”

“You also like sex too much and you won’t get any if you don’t share,” she bartered, the taller man groaning at her fact. He complied, stepping an inch to the left.

“Now my side is getting cold!” he complained, shoving her aside instantly and letting the hot water warm him back up. Glaring at his rudeness, Kaia moved in closer to Changmin and reached around to reposition the nozzle head.

“Better?”

He shot daggers at her. “Would be so much nicer if you weren’t in here, but yes I suppose it will do.”

“Sharing showers in movies always seems so easy.”

“Sharing showers with people only works if you’re about to do something in it. You’re not worrying about being out of the water droplets then.”

“Ahhh,” Kaia murmured with a nod, stepping closer to Changmin again. He eyed her appreciatively and she stretched up to his face. “Something like this?”

Kaia kissed his lips and he instantly responded, grabbing her body and pressing it against his. Taking advantage of his weakness, Kaia continued to kiss him and spun them around, pulling away from his lips to smile in triumph. He stared at her for a moment and then realised what she had done. By then, Kaia was happily rinsing the shampoo she had previously put into her hair.

“Goddammit woman,” he cursed and then grabbed for the soap, the pair of them fighting over the water until they were both done.

Kaia could tell that Changmin was on edge as he completed his morning and afternoon schedules. As the time ticked forward, he grew quieter and brooding. She didn’t like this side to him much, whenever he closed her out there was nothing she could do to help him. And since Kaia was there as a press member for SME and Korea Star, she was hardly allowed to overstep boundaries in front of all the professionals surrounding them. All the same, at every opportunity she tried to get his mind off his task ahead. It was fruitless on her behalf; Changmin had been trained too well to keep his mind on his job, even the dirty work.

“You reckon he will crack tonight?” Kaia asked Yunho worriedly as they stopped for a quick dinner and the older Korean shook his head. “But he seems so-”

“He’s psyching himself up to put on the best acting you’ll ever see live. Don’t worry, he’ll do us proud.”

“Right. What will he be like afterwards?” she wondered and Yunho gave her a weird look before smiling.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“W-what?!” Kaia cried and then shoved him playfully. “He’s your friend too, and he’s not happy, why wouldn’t you be concerned?”

“Changmin’s a big boy. He’s survived bigger deals than pretending to date some woman. But you however, how will you cope?”

Kaia frowned. “What do you mean? I don’t have a part in this.”

“Don’t you?” he asked, and leant down to her ear. “What about the agreement?”

“How does that have any implication here Yunho?” she asked weakly, feeling her heart beat slower. It was an awkward topic to be discussing, even though Kaia knew he was aware of it all.

“Emotions are tied into everything we do, Kaia.”

She nodded slowly. “I’m not really following.”

“You will in time.”

Although Kaia wasn’t allowed into the event being held that night, she got to see Kaori Kimura several times that evening. Kaia had been lucky enough to be a part of the staff admitted into the building though, the boys’ manager taking a bit of a shining to her with every cup of coffee she bought him without being asked to. Because of this, he seemed to like having Kaia wherever he was, and thus she was able to watch the monitor in the dressing room of what was happening at the event.

Her first encounter with the woman was on that screen, watching as she brightly smiled at the audience, her thin and elegant face making Kaia let out a sigh in awe. She was truly a classical beauty and for a moment Kaia wondered what exactly made Changmin despise the idea of being with the woman. She was truly envious of her carriage, and could understand why she was so many girls’ inspiration looks wise back in Korea. With this new judgement, Kaia was determined to tell Changmin he was being silly as soon as she saw him. She knew he was stubborn, but from what Kaia had seen, Kaori seemed so lovely.

This view soon changed when Kaia went to the bathroom and managed to see Kaori and an entourage of staff around her in person. She threw her fur shawl at a small Japanese woman beside her, whilst prattling off in the language. Although Kaia couldn’t understand much, the body language and vicious sounds that accompanied her words were enough for her to get the gist of the model’s true nature. Kaia stepped towards the door of the ladies room just as Kaori approached it and she gave Kaia a hard look, her dark eyes travelling up from her legs to her face, and finally settled with a smirk adorning her pouty lips. Kaia dove into the bathroom quickly then, feeling like Kaori’s eyes had attacked her. Taking a deep breath, she shakily went over to a cubicle and then washed her hands, looking into the mirror. A poster of Kaori Kimura was conveniently reflecting from the wall behind her and Kaia sighed, feeling a little inadequate still. She could now understand why Changmin found her so vulgar. She reminded Kaia of UEE’s character in the Korean drama You’re Beautiful with the many faces that she shared with the people around her. Making her way out of the room, Kaia hurried back to the TVXQ dressing room and waited for the pair to return.

The only way Kaia saw them for the following hour was on the monitor and she was unable to take much more of the acting between Changmin and Kaori. Yunho was right; his younger friend was very good at playing his part when requested. To the average viewer, they would be able to see some kind of romance was about to blossom between the pair. Kaia almost started to believe it herself as she watched the show, and the stylist whom Kaia had enjoyed the company of soon clasping her hands together.

“Aren’t they a dream worthy match?” Nayoung sighed happily and Kaia merely nodded in response. “Do you reckon Changmin will like her as much as she seems to like him?”

“Hard-” Kaia stopped her first thought and cleared her throat. “I’m not sure, but I wish them luck if they do end up together.”

“Fans will go crazy over it though.” She seemed to get serious over the matter. “Do you reckon they’d accept it? I mean Changmin is deemed a god in Cassiopeia’s eyes. And she’s truly a goddess. So perhaps fans will be happy that two people in the same league are together?”

“I’m not sure,” Kaia repeated though she felt sad at Nayoung’s statement. It made sense and that was probably what SME was counting on. Even though fans wished to be with Changmin, the likelihood of any idol dating a non-celebrity was as small a chance as winning the lottery twice in your lifetime. Kaia had been incredibly lucky to get as far as she had with Changmin, and they weren’t even dating.

Looking back at the screen, Kaia watched as the glamorous couple danced around under the romantic lighting and nodded to herself. It was a good thing she was not trying to date Shim Changmin after all.

_________________

Part 15

All rights reserved © prettywordsyouleft

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[deviantconnorarmy]

Details: Chapter 3--Pin Drop

AN:  I’m doing a scary thing for me, and this chapter is from Connor’s POV.  I haven’t tried writing Connor yet.  We’ll see how this goes.  Did I mention this is a slow burn fic?

Characters: Cecilia Manfred, Connor, Hank Anderson, Leo Manfred

Pairing: Connor x OC

Warnings:  Language, Violence, Angst

Word Count: 3567

<--- Previous Chapter   Masterlist   Next Chapter --->

*Connor POV*

Carlos Ortiz’s android was safely removed from the interrogation room without much incident--aside from Detective Reed threatening to shoot Connor in the head, and Lieutenant Anderson threatening to shoot Detective Reed if he did so.

The deviant was still in one piece, though, and that was what mattered.

Connor followed quietly after Lieutenant Anderson as they left the interrogation room, the Lieutenant grumbling something about the time under his breath while Connor pondered the deviant’s soft-spoken words to Connor as he was led out.

The truth is inside...

What did it mean?

One of the other officers in the precinct stopped Hank before he could get too far, the Lieutenant not one to hide his displeasure.

“Jesus Christ, whatever it is, it can wait until there’s fucking sunlight--I don’t want to hear about it till I come in tomorrow,” Hank told the officer harshly.

“You’re going to want to get this one settled now, Lieutenant,” the female officer told Hank as Connor stopped quietly at the Lieutenant’s side.  “It’s high profile, but it’s cut and dry.  Just a bit of paperwork and it won’t be your problem.”

Hank looked conflicted, but the promise of less of a headache if he just filled out a few forms seemed to win him over.  “All right--who bit the dust this time?”

“Carl Manfred, the famous painter.  His son says their android got violent, pushed all of them around, injured his half-sister--she’s still in shock over by Chris’ desk in the other room, we can’t get her to react to anything--and triggered the heart attack that killed his father.  The android’s already been destroyed and disposed of, it was shot by the first responders.  We’re just finishing getting the son’s statement and the paperwork and we’ll close it up.”

Another deviant, but this one destroyed and already out of his reach.  Pity.  If it had been recovered in one piece he could have cross examined it.  He might still be able to learn something, though.

Connor left Hank and the female officer without saying anything, weaving effortlessly through the rows of desks to Chris’ desk in one of the far corners.  There wasn’t anyone around at the moment except for a lone figure sitting hunched forward in a rolling chair that had been taken from another desk.  The woman’s black evening dress was torn and filthy, moved enough off her frame with drag patterns of dirt to show she’d been crawling on the floor.  There was a cut on her head disappearing into her hairline, already attended to by medical personnel--it was going to leave a scar, and looked like it came from the side of a metal shelf.  She was covered in Thirium, the spatter patterns indicating that she might have been not only on the ground, but behind the android when it had been shot.  A standard blanket was draped around her shoulders for her shock, covering up what her dress no longer could.

Connor kneeled down in front of her once he was closer, gaze calculating as he continued with his analysis of the woman.  She didn’t even react to his presence, eyes glassy and fixed straight ahead of her.  Her body was rigid with tension, and Connor could detect a slightly faster-than-normal heart rate, though her hands lay loose, cradled in her lap, like she wanted to reach out to something but knew it was useless to do so.  There were scrapes and bruises, indicating she’d been thrown into the metal shelf she’d gotten her head injury from.  Her face had traces of tears, her make-up smudged and a few trails of black making it halfway down her cheeks.

Finally Connor did a facial scan, quickly registering the basic information it provided him with.

Cecilia Manfred, born February 23, 2013, journalist, no criminal record.

“Connor, what the hell are you doing?”

Connor didn’t turn at the sound of the Lieutenant’s voice, though he did answer him.  “She saw what happened--the deviant was right in front of her.  Has no one collected her statement?” Connor quizzed.

“Look at her, she’s in no state to be giving a statement, she doesn’t even know you’re sitting in front of her.  Besides, we’ve already got the son’s statement, case closed.”

Connor stayed crouched in front of Cecilia Manfred, still studying her.  “Her reaction seems extreme for what the son reported.”

“She was just attacked by the family android and saw her father die--I think she’s earned the right to be in shock,” Hank scoffed.  “Her brother already said he was taking her straight home after this--said she’s been through enough, tonight, so it’s out of our hands, anyway.”

Connor still didn’t agree, though he did slowly rise back to his full height.  He detected someone approaching them at that moment, turning just enough to see a man being escorted in their direction by another officer.  A quick facial scan identified the man as Leo Manfred.

He must have finished giving his statement and came to collect his half-sister.

Once Leo got close enough, Connor saw Cecilia twitch out of the corner of his eyes, and turned his head to see if she was going to show further responsiveness with her half-brother’s presence.  She raised her head marginally, her eyes focusing on her approaching half-brother.  For a few moments, it looked like there would be a family reunion, the disheveled woman rising steadily from her chair, blanket falling off her shoulders on the way.

Then her heartrate sped up, her cheeks flushed, muscles strained with more tension, pupils contracting substantially.

“Lieutenant--” Connor started to warn, but the woman had already launched herself forward as she violently snapped out of her state of shock.  Her scream brought the activity in the DPD to an abrupt halt.

“YOU MURDEROUS BASTARD!”

Cecilia was on top of Leo in seconds, punching him with a left hook that had enough momentum behind it, the man stumbled into the wall.  She tried to go at him again, but the officer who had been escorting Leo got between them, and Connor grabbed Cecilia by the arms from behind.

Considering her head injury, the last thing the woman should be doing was getting into a fight.

Cecilia was still shouting--screeching--and straining against Connor’s hold on her to reach Leo.

“You got them both killed!  He was begging you to stop and you kept going!  And framed Markus for what, spite?  Because Dad’s caretaker was more of a son than you ever were?  Both of them dead, all because you wanted a goddamn fix!” Cecilia screamed at a suddenly frightened Leo, trying to pull free of Connor.  “You bastard, you killed them, killed them both for fucking drug money!”

Cecilia pitched forward, and Connor suddenly found himself holding the woman up as she stumbled drunkenly, the stress and exertion doing nothing to help her head injury, but she kept cursing Leo all the same.  Even as she slumped backwards against Connor, and he had to wrap an arm around her to keep he up.

“That’s it, get them out of here, now, before they make more of a scene!” Lieutenant Anderson barked, gesturing back towards the interrogation rooms.  “And keep them separate so they don’t attack each other!”

Connor shifted his grasp on Cecilia so that he had a more secure hold on her as he guided her into the interrogation room the deviant had been in minutes ago.  He brought her right to the chair, which she sank into while folding her arms atop one another, resting her head on top.  Conner did another quick scan to check on her physical state--she was supposed to be resting, not getting into fights or having more emotional strain put on her. Her breathing and heartbeat were both erratic, her shoulders tense with pain and anger, and he was certain that she was crying again.

It looked like Leo Manfred's story was flawed--they needed her side, but she also needed to be treated carefully due to her current state of being.

Slowly, Connor settled into the chair opposite Cecilia, already making the calculations and choosing what words to say to get her talking. She would need a far more gentle approach than he'd taken for the deviant.

"You suffered a serious head injury--you shouldn't have starined yourself like that," Connor informed the woman. She still didnt lift her head or acknowledge him in any way, so he continued. "I'll give you a moment to collect yourself, and then we can talk."

Again, Cecilia didn't respond, but Connor didn't expect her to, not right away. The silence in the room was enough to disturb any human being, though Connor remained unfazed, gaze fixed on the distressed woman and watching as her heartrate evened out and her breathing steadied. When her vitals were back to a normal range, the woman raised her head so she could look Connor in the eyes.

"What does Leo say happened?" she asked, voice rough.

Connor stayed silent for a moment, making sure she truly was calmed down before answering.  “From what I’ve been told, Leo Manfred’s story is that your father’s caretaker android attacked the two of you, and caused your father enough stress he suffered a heart attack.  Then the police arrived and shot the android before it had the chance to cause any more damage.”

Cecilia was shaking her head from the start, but Connor kept going so she would have all the facts and could dispute whatever was incorrect properly.

“For starters, Leo and my dad aren’t...weren’t close.  It wasn’t normal for Leo to be at the house--the only time he ever showed was when he wanted money.”

“For drugs,” Connor added pointedly, drawing on her outburst in the hall.  Cecilia nodded.

“Either to buy more drugs or to get himself out of trouble with someone he owed money to.  My dad wouldn’t feed his habit.  If he was clearly on something, or looked like he was withdrawing, my dad wouldn’t give him any money.  Which Leo wasn’t too happy about.”

“So what was Leo doing at the house?”

Cecilia reached like she was about to rub her head, then remembered the injury and switched sides.  “Earlier he came to the house asking for money.  He was strung out, we could all tell.  Dad said no, and Leo tried to pick a fight with Markus, but Dad kicked him out.  We all thought that was the end of it, until we got home from my dad’s retrospective and found the lights on.  Leo had broken in and told us flat out that he was taking some of my father’s paintings to sell them for the cash he’d wanted earlier.”

Cecilia’s dropped her hand back to the table palm-down, wincing when she agitated one of her scrapes.  Her fingers tapped rhythmically against the surface, and she slowly shook her head.  “Dad and Markus tried to get him to leave, even warned him that the police were coming, but he wouldn’t leave.  And then he started going off about how Dad loved Markus more than Leo, started pushing Markus around...”

Cecilia wiped a freshly fallen tear from her cheek, Connor watching her every move closely and noting how her vitals had started to pick up again at the memory of what happened.  “My dad tried to break it up, but Leo just pushed him out of the way--I managed to catch his wheelchair before it tipped over or he crashed or anything.  And I could just see that Markus wanted so badly to do something, to stop Leo, to defend himself and get Leo out of there before Leo hurt someone, but my dad told him don’t do it.  He wanted to, but he didn’t, he didn’t raise a hand to anyone the entire time.”

“Your injuries came from Leo, then?” Connor asked, gaze flickering back towards her head injury while he noted Cecilia’s comments on the android’s behavior.  So it hadn’t attacked anyone...and yet it had still shown some signs of deviancy, perhaps?  It may have still been deviant.

Cecilia nodded.  “Leo hit Markus across the face and knocked him into a table.  Dad was...yelling for Leo to stop, to leave Markus alone, but Leo wouldn’t listen, and I could tell he was in pain and the stress was getting too much, so I charged Leo, to get him off Markus.  I knocked him into one of my dad’s paint shelves.  He grabbed me and I tried to push him away, to push him out, I was telling him to go, but he threw me to the ground right into the paint rack we’d knocked over.  When I hit my head, I blacked out, and when I came to, Leo had ahold of Markus and was yelling in his face about how Markus was nothing and he was going to destroy Markus.  Markus still didn’t do anything, but he looked so angry, like it was barely held back, and his LED was flashing red and yellow, and Leo hit him again, hard enough Markus doubled over, and...my dad fell out of his wheelchair.”

“Did they stop fighting?”

Cecilia looked up at Connor with a frown.  “I wouldn’t call it a fight.  Markus wasn’t saying or doing anything, he was just standing there and taking it.  He wanted to do something, but...he didn’t.”

Connor wanted to correct her, tell her machines couldn’t want or feel anything, but right now he wanted her full, unedited story.  He could go over details and technicalities with her after.

Once Cecilia saw Connor wasn’t going to say anything, she continued with her account.  “It did stop what was happening, though.  Markus ran over to my dad, and I had to crawl over to him.  By the time I reached them, he was gone--he only had time to say goodbye to Markus.  Leo was just standing there, he hardly waited for my dad to stop breathing before he started raving about how it was Markus’ fault.  And when the cops came in the room, he instantly blamed Markus, and he hadn’t done anything, he was just standing there, but they still shot him, I couldn’t even get a word in, and they were both gone.  All cause Leo wanted a goddamn fix...”

Cecilia seemed to have finished her recounting of the nights events, so Connor didn’t press her for further questions as he processed this new information.  Her heartrate informed him that she was telling the truth--or at least what she felt was the truth.  Considering his mission was regarding deviants, he wanted to immediately get to questioning her about her father’s android.  Having lived around a deviant, she could have valuable information about them.

He had to confirm the suspicions the android Markus had been deviant before getting to those questions, and before he pressed her about the android, he had to address the matter of her brother.

Clearly, after that display out in the hall, she wanted justice.  He’d offer it to her.

“Right now, its your word against his,” Connor informed her, leaning forward to emphasize his point.  “But with this new information, I could go back to the crime scene and reconstruct what happened to find evidence and prove your side of the story...if you wanted to press charges.”

Cecilia’s eyes locked with Connor’s, and he was mildly surprised at the determined fire that was in them.  “What’s he looking at, potentially?”

“According to your story?  Breaking and entering, destruction of property, attempted theft, filing a false police report, assault, and manslaughter, to start with.”

Cecilia gave a bitter laugh, wiping a few new tears from her cheeks.  Connor couldn’t fathom why she was crying again...all the charges she could press was good news, right?

“D’you know what’s messed up?” Cecilia said dryly, still looking Connor directly in the eyes.  “Markus was family, more of a son to my father and a brother to me than Leo ever was.  And his death is being treated as damaged property.”

Connor’s brows furrowed, and he tilted his head to the side as he worked to understand why this fact of all things bothered her.  “It was a machine designed to accomplish a task.  An android.  He wasn’t human, wasn’t alive.  You can’t kill something that was never alive to begin with.”

Connor saw Cecilia’s eyes flicker briefly to his LED before returning to meet his gaze again.  “I know he was an android.  That doesn’t change anything.”  Connor’s LED flashed, stuck in yellow as she continued.  “And would you please stop referring to him as an it?  He had a name:  Markus.  And despite what everyone else thinks, he was family.  He was different.”

Connor was still trying to process such intense feeling for an android, when they were just machines, nothing more.  However, he saw his opening, and in order to get her to be more willing to talk to him, Connor obliged to her request he refer to the possible deviant android by its given name.

“All right.  Why don’t you tell me what was different about Markus?” Connor asked calmly, his LED finally settling back to a cool blue.

Cecilia’s gaze narrowed on Connor for a moment, studying Connor in turn as she tried to determine why he was asking her these questions.  His patient, calm expression encouraged her to speak, and after a few moments where they simply watched each other, she began to answer him.

“He was a prototype, an RK200 model,” Cecilia began, gaze flickering to the RK800 on Connor’s jacket.  Connor’s LED flickered to yellow for a split second before settling back to blue like nothing had happened.  “Elijah Kamski gave him to my dad after he was in that accident where he lost his legs.  They actually didn’t get along much at first, my dad just saw him as a stupid machine, but...that opinion changed, obviously.  Like I said, my dad thought of Markus as a son.”

“What about behavior?” Connor asked searchingly, taking care to refer to the android as a he and as Markus lest he offend Cecilia.  “Did he develop attributes unusual for an android?”

“Of course,” Cecilia answered.  “Compared to when my dad and Markus were first together, Markus started showing actual care for me and my father, he could be...artistic--truly artistic.  Just this morning we...we were listening to him play the piano, and it sounded so...intimate.  And it was an original piece.  Then in the studio he actually painted an original piece with emotion and meaning.  He told me when he made it he was thinking of humanity...empathy.  He said once he hadn’t understood the complexity of human relationships but...he’d started to understand.  And I asked him if he was starting to feel...he said he did.  And I could see it in his eyes--regular androids don’t get that look.  Markus was different,” Cecilia finished quietly.

Definitely a deviant.  And for how long, living peacefully with this family?  How many deviants were lying right under their owner’s noses?

“Cecilia,” Connor began patiently, folding his hands atop one another and making sure he was emphasizing his every word.  “Cyberlife has been looking into such anomalies.  Androids don’t actually feel--they just emulate human emotion, it’s all just errors in their software,” Connor explained patiently.

Cecilia’s gaze narrowed, something harsh suddenly appearing in her features, entirely aimed at Connor.  “I understand that you’re also an android, but just because you don’t feel--at the moment--does not mean that Markus didn’t.  I saw him sob over my dying father, saw the tears streaming down his face, heard him call my father Dad.  The painting he created from his own imagination with its own unique meaning is still sitting in that studio.  I don’t give a damn what Cyberlife thinks they know--Markus was more human than Leo, than half the people in this city, maybe more.”

She wasn’t going to change her mind on this opinion.  Whatever she’d seen with this android had convinced her there was humanity in machines.  But he still had her as a source for deviants, someone who’d lived with one for so long.  Even if her belief in what deviants were was a little deluded, she could still hold useful information.

“Did Markus ever mention something called RA9?” Connor asked carefully.  The switched tracks of conversation surprised Cecilia, though the woman eyed him suspiciously.

“No, I’ve never heard of that in my life...what does that have to do with Markus?”

Connor sighed.  “Nothing, apparently.”

Perhaps he could learn more if he saw the house.  She’d said there was a painting there?  And he still needed to reconstruct the crime scene in order to confirm her version of what had happened.

Carefully, Connor rose from his seat at the table.  “What happens next?” Cecilia asked before he could say anything.

“I’ll go speak with the Lieutenant, and we will figure out the best course of action.  In the meantime, try to relax--you’ll only worsen your condition if you strain yourself.”

Cecilia looked around the interrogation room, eyebrows raised.  “Sure, it’ll be easy to relax in here--it’s like a resort!”

Connor’s expression furrowed into a cross between contemplative and confused, but he made no comment, leaving Cecilia Manfred alone in the interrogation room while he went into the observation room to speak with Lieutenant Anderson.

Next Chapter --->

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 1x03 Dead in the Water

An updated version of this analysis is available on my new blog here

This week I'll be discussing Lake Manitoc as a metaphor, trauma, and Dean's knack with children. 1x03 Dead in the Water is the first episode not written by Kripke or directed by Nutter, and it would have been a better second episode than the relatively weak and predictable 1x02 Wendigo. The writers for this episode are Sera Gamble (she who loves soap opera drama, Sam, and single mums with troubled kids) and her writing partner Raelle Tucker (the better writer of the two, and apparently more of a Dean fan than Sera), and they do a solid but not perfect job with the script.

Supernatural was also one of director Kim Manners’ last big projects before his untimely death from cancer in 2009. His body of work includes a handful of Star Trek episodes and a lot of The X-Files. Nobody at this point should be surprised by comparisons between Supernatural and The X-Files (nor with Buffy/Angel, for that matter, a show Supernatural was commissioned to replace on the WB network). A lot of the similarities come from Kim Manners linking the two, working as he did as both director and executive producer, His directing style evokes an older age of genre television shows, with the early shot through the leaves at the young girl swimming in the lake invoking the sense of something lurking, waiting and watching for its moment in a very 1990s way that pleases me greatly.

This episode also marks the beginning of Jensen’s tutelage under Kim Manners, a relationship largely responsible for Jensen eventually taking up Kim’s mantle and directing a handful of Supernatural episodes later in the series. An effect of Kim’s tutelage is also Jensen’s self-confessed habit of trying to see his own performances as a director would.

Speaking of Jensen, this episode is also the one where he stated he began to get a real grip on Dean’s character. In her review of this episode, Paula R. Stiles discusses the parallels between Jensen’s own well-documented shyness (entirely at odds with people’s expectations of such a confident, talented man) and the revelation of Dean’s own childhood trauma and connections with Lucas. Funnily enough, this is also the episode where I truly begin to see the Dean I know as Jensen takes him away from Kripke’s womanising dude-bro sidekick into what I (completely without bias, of course) see as the true driving force behind the show’s success.

But first, I discussed the location in 1x02 Wendigo being a weird choice to have a wendigo, wendigo being by the show’s own admission native to Minnesota and North Michigan (wendigo are Yoopies), and here we have an episode taking place in Wisconsin, literally on the other side of the river from Minnesota to the west and sharing a border with Upper Michigan to the northeast. This is wendigo country, so why could 1x02 not have been set here? That was a silly choice, Kripke.

That aside, the location of this episode provides a nice continuation of the elements theme that has been building up over the previous episodes: fire played a prominent role in 1x01, and earth or the forest in 1x02, with the water in 1x03 being the third of the four elements (see 1x04 for air). The symbology of things hiding beneath the surface ready to drag people down to their deaths is more relevant and useful symbology, however, whether or not it was intentional. People are being dragged to their deaths by things their fathers and grandfathers buried in the lake and kept hidden, like generational trauma. This is interesting symbology as a one shot (and once more referring to Paula R. Stiles, has Lovecraftian flavours to it) but when applied to the boys – Dean in particular, who is this episode’s POV character – it’s a stark statement on things hiding in the depths of his mind that he tries to keep hidden.

Not for the last time, but since the show makes little secret of its Stephen King connections (2x09 being a particularly obvious example) I’m reminded of The Overlook Hotel in The Shining, a symbolic manifestation of the Jack Torrence’s mind and the memories of his drunk and abusive father haunting him. The demons, of course – as in the best of King’s work – are metaphorical ones. I rarely lose sleep because of werewolves or spider-demons from the primordial abyss, but mental health problems are another story altogether… I posit, dear reader, that Lake Manitoc serves as a representation of the families’ minds and the things they can’t face or deal with openly. It is also a reflection of Dean’s mind, make explicit by his association and empathy with Lucas: the episode is overtly about Dean and Sam stopping the ghost killing people, but it's covertly about Dean beginning to face his own issues and perhaps rescue a part of his inner child that would otherwise be dragged down and drowned by monsters.

Dean’s admission to Lucas in this episode that he experienced selective mutism after his mum died is one of the first big moments marking a change in how he’s portrayed and how the audience should perceive him. The new perspective on him in this episode isn’t in conflict with the other parts of his personality, but add a lot of depth. In her review of this episode, Paula R Stiles discusses at length how Dean’s confident, witty, sexualised personality could be a result of him learning how to hide his trauma as a child and keep others from getting too close, essentially a coping mechanism. Hiding underneath the surface of Jock!Dean (not Scottish!Dean) is the traumatised child waiting to drag him down and drown him.

This is not something he is oblivious to. It seems to be just me and Paula R Stiles up here on the Dean Is Intelligent hill, but his knack with children is partially due to his own awareness of his tribulations as a child. The prologue of 1x01 showed us that Dean didn’t actually see Mary burn up on the ceiling, but if we take his statement less literally it’s not much less horrific to know he saw his house burn with his mother inside when he was four years old. He’s very much in touch with the part of himself wounded by that experience, even if he almost never feels able to share it with anybody because a) John didn’t care and b) he doesn’t really trust Sam with it.

That he talks so freely about it with Lucas might seem contrary to this, but it’s trauma-bonding to form a rapport and a link of some kind with Lucas by sharing a relatable experience with hi,. In doing so, Dean lets Lucas know he doesn’t have to go through it all alone (as Dean did), but does not put any pressure on him to do or say anything he doesn’t want to do. An effective trick, if ‛trick’ is even the correct word, as Lucas is shown to trust Dean and even look for comfort in him by a) drawing him a picture of the house and b) grabbing Dean’s arm and wanting comfort from Dean rather than his mum or the sheriff when finding out Bill Carlton’s death on the lake.

This is in complete contrast to Sam’s claim at the beginning of the episode that Dean doesn’t like children. From a production perspective, it’s likely the writers didn’t have a complete idea of who Dean was or what they wanted to do with him this early in the show, but from the characters’ perspective it suggests Sam doesn’t know Dean very well at all.

The comment in question was in reference to Dean’s supposed attempt to engage in coitus with Andrea by saying ‛kids are the best’. Whether or not this is what he was actually doing (it would be incredibly insensitive and single-minded to try to pick up a newly-widowed mum like that) is debatable, but I come down on the side of not. As will be made abundantly clear in subsequent episodes such as 1x11 Scarecrow, Dean is all kinds of socially inept (that tends to happen when you grow up with no friends) and his line here seemed more like a feeble attempt to begin a dialogue with Andrea about something she clearly cared about and that they could bond over. After all, Dean did raise Sam mostly by himself. Even Sam himself admits to Andrea that Dean isn't giving her ‛the Jerry MacGuire act’ by being nice to Lucas.

Andrea’s smackdown of Dean after he says ‛kids are the best’ therefore doesn’t give me the chuckles. I understand from her perspective he looks like what the Americans call a horndog, but it was unnecessary. I was happy to see Amy Acker in the show, even though it was only for one episode, and I didn’t dislike her character, but Andrea was a bit bland. I expect the choice of actress was likely to try to draw in fans of Angel which finished only about 16 months before Supernatural began, and this is far from the last time a Buffyverse actor will make an appearance on the show.

Speaking of the episode’s one-shot characters, it was far too obvious that the sheriff was hiding something. Paula R. Stiles’ review of the episode discusses his skepticism being a tad too exaggerated in this episode (and reminds me of Leoben in 1x02), especially for a policeman: in her experience, emergency service workers etc tend to be a little more open to weird explanations because of all the weird and traumatic stuff they see. The end result is the sheriff is obviously guilty of something, especially when effectively running the boys out of town. This is a mistake repeated in 1x11 Scarecrow when the police run Dean out of the little town in Indiana.

The plot of the episode revolves around the sheriff and the secrets he’s hiding, secrets which gets his family killed. It also brings to mind generational trauma, or just trauma and loss, grief and guilt that last a lifetime (both in the residents and Dean). There is also little justice in this episode, and no satisfying conclusion. Certainly the men guilty of killing the boy die, and their punishment is commensurate with the seriousness of their crime, but is it justice for an adult to pay penance for crimes committed as a stupid child? And there is no justice whatsoever in their children and grandchildren being killed to punish them. In addition, the viewer does not know what happened to the ghost after killing the sheriff. Did it disappear, or was it still there after the lake was drained?

This is not the best episode of the show, but it is definitely atmospheric and leaves the viewer with questions. Sam was largely absent in 1x03, not the best idea if we’re supposed to identify with him and follow things from his perspective. However, it takes a huge step forwards in its portrayal of Dean in particular; if he were portrayed as the horny 18 year old in a 26 year old’s body for longer than two episodes, it’d be harder to get behind him, physical beauty notwithstanding.

Aside from his affinity for children (and children’s affinity for him), the other thing that stood out to me in this episode was Dean’s association with Mary, and I’ll have MUCH more to say on his association with Mary in later episodes. This first contribution from Kim Manners was a welcome episode, focusing on Dean and adding depth to him. Unlike last week, I’m not in a rush to leave this installment, but 1x04 Phantom Traveler introduces an important bit of lore into the Supernatural universe in another episode reminiscent of The X-Files.

[teamevilwinter-blog]

Luna (A Winter Soldier Story) Part 6

Pairing: Bucky x female(Luna) 

Word Count: 1,961 

Summary:Character is a super soldier who escaped Hydra after S.H.E.I.L.D fell. As she recounts her past she finds herself in New York City seeking out a certain soldier who is the only one who can help her find peace within herself.

 In this chapter is it possible that the unnatural connection Bucky and Luna share will drive them to be more than just friends??? 

Authors note: Ok so this chapter was really just Bucky and Luna talking. Not a lot of plot but I wanted to explore their connection and get more into how they feel about it. Plus I wanted to start making them feel more comfortable with each other. Cuz next chapter..lets just say things will change. 

Catch up here: Luna Master-list  

Bucky’s POV 

Project Alliance. Possibly the answer to all our questions. But to what cost? 

 I was on my way to the labs to check on Luna when I heard Steve’s loud and authoritative voice. He was saying something serious and I wasn’t too keen on walking in and interrupting. So I hung back close to the doorway listening in. 

“Project Alliance…super-soldier partnership….you and bucky….Hydra’s best super soldier’s…..perfect kill team.” 

Silence followed Steve’s last words. I waited for her to speak. As if Hydra couldn’t get anymore twisted. The poor girl didn’t ask for any of this. Then again, neither did I. I began to realize how alike Luna and I were. The things we had endured under Hydra connected us in a seemingly tragic way. 

I continued listening and caught Steve’s latest statement ,”I feel its entirely your decision whether or not you want to tell Bucky.” I felt this was probably an appropriate time to reveal myself. 

Stepping out into the doorway I said, “Too late. I’ve already heard it all”. All eyes in the room turned to me. Luna’s expression was of pure disbelief and I noticed  a hint of fear pass over her eyes. Was there a chance she didn’t want me to know? Probably should have thought about that before you stepped out, idiot. 

Steve gave me a stern look, “How come I didn’t hear you coming down the hall?” 

“Guess I’m just the better soldier”, I smirked. I realized quickly this was not the best time for teasing. I had to reassure Luna of my stance on all this.  

Before I could get a word out, she spoke,”James, did you really hear all of that?”

I nodded.“Every last word. But you don’t have to worry. I’m not upset or anything. You clearly didn’t know what the project was and neither did I.“

After several seconds she turned her attention to Steve. “Did the report mention anything about a...mental connection? Between me and James?”

“All I read was the preliminary report. Unfortunately, most of the recorded files regarding the project are heavily encrypted. Hopefully, Natasha will be able to decode it once she gets back from Europe.”

Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath.“I think I just need to…get some fresh air.” She moved passed us swiftly and soon she was gone.

I made a move to follow her but Steve held me back. “I think it’s best if you give her some time before you talk to her.” Nodding in agreement I held back, ignoring the invisible tug that had reappeared.

Luna’s POV

Once I knew they wouldn’t be able to hear my footsteps any longer, I took off running. 

I knew I couldn’t leave the tower because Tony’s system would alert him. So I went to the next best place—the roof. I pushed the roof access door open and was met with a wall of brisk, fresh air and the rays from the bright sun above. I instantly felt better as I made my way to the ledge.

I lost track of how long I stood there, looking out at the city skyline. The Avengers tower was one of the tallest skyscrapers in New York City, so from where I stood I felt as though I was top of the world. Oh how things have really changed. 

I heard the door open behind me and footsteps approached. Like always I already knew it was. “Notice how we keep meeting like this.” I turned to face James. “Outside, as we gaze at a world we can never truly be apart of.”

He joined me at the ledge and let out a big sigh “Well at least we have each other.” He suddenly seemed taken aback by his own comment.“Um, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I mean we barely have known each other a week…”

“But it feels like we’ve known each other for ages.” Now it was my turn to be stunned. Where were these words coming from? As unfamiliar as they were, they were spoken effortlessly. 

He didn't seem to care though as he went on,”Yeah...about what happened down in the lab. What we heard today about Project Alliance-”. 

“James,” I felt bad interrupting,” I know this is something we’ll have to talk about eventually but can we just leave it for another time? Please?” 

“Oh, of course! No problem, its a....lot to take in”, I heard James swallow then finally say, “Whatever they did to us….Hydra, it goes much deeper than either of us realize. I know now that’s why this exists.” He reached out without warning and took my hand. The energy pulsed through us, pushing strength throughout our veins and into our beating hearts. It was intoxicating and in that split second I knew it wasn’t enough.

A force deep within me took over and  my arms found themselves attaching themselves around James. I expected him to push back to say it was too much, too soon. However I was surprised when he returned the embrace tightly. 

Human contact was something I was deprived of for so long. The only touch I had ever known at Hydra were the times the black suits led me to and from the lab rooms. The scientists did their work, devoid of any emotion.

However, when memories began coming back to me, they were of my life before Hydra. Although I didn’t have the complete picture just yet, I knew that my past life was full of care and affection. 

So standing here now, embracing James, I felt a spark of familiarity. I had done this before. I had hugged someone like this once long ago. As for who that someone was, I had no clue. But of course this was different because the sensation was triple what we felt when we merely touched hands. It was as if we had been struck by lightning, giving our bodies the strength to accomplish anything. 

A loud crash from the streets below brought me back to my senses and I ripped myself away from James. The sensation faded to a dull and I was left to deal with the aftermath of what I had just done. “I-I am so sorry, James. I don’t know what came over me. It’s just when you grabbed my hand, everything was so int-” I spoke quickly doing my best to avoid eye contact.

“Hey, woah Luna. Calm down.” He spoke in a hushed tone, one I had never heard from him before. “It’s alright, really. I understand…Luna just look at me, please.”

I reluctantly looked up and found myself staring into those intense blue eyes of his. As of recently, I noticed a change in them. I wasn’t quite able to pin it down until now. Emotion. There was pure emotion in his eyes. Perhaps I’m managing to break down that wall that he is so infamous for putting up. Listen to yourself. Have you gone mad? One little hug and your acting like it’s destiny!

Perhaps it is. “Look, Luna I just want you to know one thing. This connection we share. Its…unnatural. We still don’t know what it means or the extent of it. But it clearly does us no harm. In fact it does the opposite. With that being said I think its best if instead of avoiding it and then apologizing everytime something happens, we should begin to embrace it. Or at least make the effort to try to understand it better. We shouldn’t be scared of it.” 

I inclined my head to look at the sky. I had been out here so long that it was no longer day. The sky was beginning to darken, revealing the stars above. “You’ve felt it haven’t you? That pull deep within you?” My voice was close to a whisper, matching the mood that had overtaken us. 

His fingertips grazed over the top of my hand, like sparks dancing across my skin. The action seemed so natural that I don't even think James knew he was doing it. It was astonishing how comfortable we had become with each other in such a short amount of time.  “Yes…I have felt it. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. I thought it would go away with time. But its gotten stronger. The only time I don’t feel it anymore is when….” 

I slowly locked eyes with his, ”Is when we’re together.”

“This isn’t like Hydra. Hydra rips people apart, doesn’t pull them together.” I felt as though James was saying that more to himself than anything. 

“Unless you were creating an assassin duo. Then you would want them to be as close as possible. To work in unison. In sync. No matter what it takes”. I noticed the slight bitterness in my voice. All the things they did, all the painful work they put us through, was ultimately for Hydras own greedy and corrupted gain. 

“You survived though. Hydra fell before they could through with their sadistic plans. Luna, that’s something you ought to be proud of.” I could tell he meant what he said. Before I had thought there were only two sides to James. Either he hides his emotions extremely well or he lays it all out there. Now though, as I look at him before me I realize there is more to the soldier then I once believed. He can be subtle in the way he expresses himself but not to the point where he seems too put away. 

“Why are you looking at me like that” he asked. I didn’t notice that during my little analysis, I was actually staring at him. I felt myself blush and I ducked my head. Wow, real smooth tough girl. 

“It’s just… Thank you, James. Its nice to talk to somebody who finally understands what I’ve been through. Just remember, it wasn’t just me who survived. You did too. You should also be proud of yourself.” 

He smiled. Something that was rare for him but nonetheless charming. He leaned against the ledge casually, now having to look up slightly to talk to me. “So what now?”

“Well I was just gonna stay out here a little longer. Stargaze. Get lost in my thoughts like always. Would you care to join me?” I teased expecting him to back out of the proposal. 

But to my surprise he accepted.”Why not? Got nothing to better to do. It really is a beautiful night.” 

“It truly is….,” I agreed as we both gazed up at the sky in silence. 

Some time had passed when suddenly he spoke up,”Why do you call me James?”. 

Surprised by the question it took me a moment to respond, “Because its your name?” I couldn’t tell whether this was a trick question or not. 

He laughed at that. “Yes, its my name but most people call me Bucky or Barnes. With the exception of Tony who sometimes calls me Buchanan to piss me off. Your the only who calls me James.” 

“Would you rather me call you Bucky?” 

He paused for several moments.”Not if you don’t want to. I was just curious, thats all.” 

“Ok…Bucky” I coudn’t help smiling. The name sounded weird coming from my lips but I could get used to it. To be honest there was a reason why I called him James instead but I wasn’t ready to open up that chapter of my past yet.

Part 7  

Would this be considered low-key fluff?? Idk honestly. But I love writing these two getting to know each other. As always I hoped you enjoy and feedback is always appreciated. 

Tags: @nodramaaloud @peony13