#so when I saw gd's story I recognized them right away

[daesungindistress]

GD went for a bike ride around Seoul, found these fun BIGBANG stickers that had been placed around the city by a fan, snapped a pic, and posted it to his IG story! He even added a few BIGBANG stickers of his own, including some for VIP 💛

Pictured above is the pole where the stickers were placed. The link on the stickers is for the BIGBANG Discord server: discord.gg/bigbang

[sindrafalcone]

Double Combo

Fandom: BIGBANG/ Choi Seunghyun x reader x Kwon Jiyong

Synopsis: Yeah, you read that right… 

Warnings: Smut… lots and lots of unapologetic smut (with just a little fluff, because I’m a romantic sap at heart). Please don’t read if you’re not 18+!  Also, this is not a GTOP fic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, you just won’t find it here.

Author’s Note: I started writing this as just a story for myself years ago. Then my #1 decided to confess to me that she was having trouble with GD creeping into her Ultimate Bias spot. Naturally, I felt like I had to finish this & share it with her. Here you go @andperset​, hopefully you like it. <3

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. This story contains fictional representations of real people. None of the events are true. This is from an American standpoint, so some of the situations may not happen the same way they might in Korea. I make no money from the writing of this fictional work.

Masterlist

When you woke up early Saturday morning the first thing you noticed was a pair of strong arms gathered around your waist and soft breathing against the left side of your head. Glancing down, you also saw what looked to be a black mess of hair resting on your chest. In your groggy post-sleep haze, you blearily realized that you had not only one, but two men lying naked next to you, one on either side. You tried your best to recall the previous night’s events. It took you a few moments, but then you came to the sobering realization that these weren't just any two random strangers in bed with you. Oh no... you were completely surrounded by none other than Kwon Jiyong and Choi Seunghyun, Kpop's notorious rapper kings.

Your vague memories of the previous night slowly started to come back. You remembered getting ready at your apartment; carefully styling your hair and applying the perfect seductive makeup, slipping into a strapless red dress accompanied by a pair of killer black heels. You remembered arriving the hottest club in Seoul, and you vividly remembered the burn of the four shots of tequila you slammed back in quick succession at the bar. You remembered making your way out to the middle of the dance floor & the pair of strong hands that landed on your hips from behind... the heated gaze you met from another man across the crowded room. Oh yeah... it was all coming back to you now. There in bed, sandwiched between two gloriously naked men, how could you ever forget what had happened the night before? It was easily one of the best nights of your life.

______________________________________________

It had been a rough week for you, both at work and personally. All you had wanted was a break... a night of fun where you could let loose and forget about the real world for a while.

That was how you found yourself in the middle of the dance floor, carelessly swaying from side to side to the beat of the music. Your hands slid teasingly down the length of your body, the hem of your skin-tight dress riding up ever so slightly with every seductive rock of your hips. Your eyes were closed as you continued to dance, trying to lose yourself in the rhythm and the familiar buzz of alcohol. You were so caught up in the moment that you didn’t even realize a man had moved up behind you until you felt a pair of masculine hands grab you by the waist. Usually when this type of thing happened you would step away, not wanting to be groped by some random stranger.

But this week had been horrible and, propriety be damned,  you were looking to have some fun tonight. The tequila in your system helped you to not over-think the situation. So you leaned back into him, raising one hand to wrap around the back of his neck as you began to grind back against him. His hold on your waist tightened as the man pulled you closer and started to move along with you. You could feel him hardening against your backside which only served to heighten your own arousal. One of his hands disappeared from your hip and you found yourself momentarily disappointed before he deftly swept your hair to the side and began placing open mouthed kisses along your neck. Your eyes were still closed and you reveled in the sensation of his soft lips on your overheated skin.

When he unexpectedly sucked on your pulse point, your eyes flew open as a gasp escaped your lips.  Eyes roaming the crowd as you attempted to focus, you were surprised to find a man at the bar, watching you. No... watching both of you. You locked eyes with him as he slowly began to make his way towards where you were on the floor, his gaze never once leaving yours. It struck you just how much he looked like a wolf stalking its prey & you were more than willing to be the proverbial lamb in this case.

The closer he got, the better you could make out his face. He was attractive. Sexy. With piercing eyes and a chiseled jaw that you wanted to feel against your inner thighs as you rode his face. You groaned at the sudden erotic thought, feeling yourself dampen even more.

The man behind you hadn’t stopped rocking his hips into your ass, letting you feel his impressive length through his pants. One of his hands moved to your front, pressing you more tightly to him and his lips ghosted up to your ear, nibbling until he sucked the lobe into his mouth.

The man from the bar had finally made his way through the dance floor and was currently standing right in front of you. Now that you were seeing him up close, you thought he looked familiar but it was difficult to tell through the haze of the alcohol. You'd know if you had met him before though, maybe he just had one of those faces. The kind of face that said ‘I’d bend you over the kitchen counter and fuck you senseless while your roommate was watching TV in the next room.’ Yeah, you would've definitely recognized a face like that.

He finally tore his gaze from you and instead focused his attention on the man behind you. He said something, but you couldn’t hear the words being spoken over the sound of the music. Were they going to fight over you? Try to decide which one of them was going to get to take you home? You didn’t like to think of yourself as some sort of prize to be won, but you were so turned on by this point that you honestly didn’t care which one of them you spent the night with, just as long as you didn't leave the club alone. But they couldn’t really be arguing over you, could they? You felt you were reasonably attractive, but you never imagined you'd be the type to illicit such a reaction out of two complete strangers.

You didn’t have any more time to try and make sense of the situation because the man from the bar gave a slight nod to the other guy before placing both hands on either side of your face. He tilted your head up ever so slightly before bringing his lips to yours, kissing you softly at first but with a building intensity that made you cling tightly to him as you kissed him back. You began to feel dizzy, both from the heat in the club & because of the two men. Did this mean he had won the testosterone battle? He must not have, because you could still feel the other man pressed up behind you, his arms wrapped tightly around your middle.

Holy shit...

Neither man had let up, which meant they must have come to some sort of agreement to share. You opened your mouth in shock and the guy from the bar took the opportunity to invade your mouth with his tongue. The one behind you continued to rock his hips and you felt a hand graze your breast —who it belonged to you had no idea—but you decided to stop thinking for once and just feel.

"Let’s take her back to your place, Ji." the guy behind you said, his mouth close enough to your ear that you could actually hear his deep voice over the noise.

'Ji?' The guy from the bar. Wait... they knew each other? What the hell was going on? You looked back and forth between the two men, trying to understand exactly what was happening. The man from the bar, Ji— you really hoped that was just some nickname—nipped playfully at your lower lip before looking at you and asking, “What’s your name?”

"It’s uhh...” your brain temporarily turned to mush by the look of pure lust on his face & he smirked. “I... I mean..." you took a deep breath to gather yourself. "My name’s _________." you answered firmly, slightly embarrassed by your momentary slip of the mind.

You heard a light chuckle from the man behind you."Beautiful name for a beautiful woman.” his voice rumbled, sending a shiver up your spine.

The man in front of you smiled at that, actually showing teeth this time. It only increased his attractiveness, if such a thing was even possible. You would have laughed at the clichéd line if you weren't so confused. And aroused...

“What do you say we get out of here?” Ji said, still grinning. “You, me, and Seunghyun. My place isn’t too far, just a few blocks away.”

"You want to take me home?” your voice squeaked despite itself. “Both of you? Together?”

"Jiyong and I would like to continue this in a place much more private... and comfortable." the man behind you explained patiently.

You stepped out of his embrace just far enough to get a better look at him. This was the first time you'd gotten a good look at the man whose length had been pressed against your backside all night. He was insanely handsome. Platinum silver hair and a boyish grin that probably brought all the ladies to their knees. Seunghyun. And Jiyong. Why did those names sound so familiar? You looked back and forth between the two, studying their faces.

You gasped in sudden recognition. No, they couldn’t possibly be…could they? But why would two of the richest, sexiest men in the music industry want to take you, of all women, home with them?

"Because the way you were moving was sexy as fuck and I’d like to see if you move the same way when I'm buried inside of you." Seunghyun all but growled the last part of that sentence and you couldn’t help the small moan that escaped your lips. You hadn’t meant to voice your thoughts out loud  like that. It was a bad habit that had a tendency to happen when you were extremely nervous.

"And I really, really want to know what you taste like.” Jiyong spoke directly to you, not stopping there. "I want to feel the way your thighs shake when I suck your clit into my mouth. I want to taste you on my tongue. And most of all... I want to hear you scream.”

You were finding it hard to breathe. Hell, you were finding it hard to stand. You had to squeeze your thighs together after listening to them describe what they wanted to do. What they were going to do to you if you consented. Were you really considering this? You weren't opposed to the occasional one night stand and after the week you'd just had, hot sex with a complete stranger sounded amazing. But this...? Sleeping with two men at once? You wanted to. At that moment you couldn’t recall wanting anything more in your entire life. Seunghyun and Jiyong were both staring at you intently, waiting for you to answer. To hell with it...

You tried to speak, but it came out just above a whisper. Both men tilted their heads and looked at you, obviously not hearing what you had said.

Jiyong leaned down to speak in your ear, “Yes or no, ________?” The way he said your name caused you to pause for a moment, swallowing hard before replying.

"Yes." you finally managed to say more forcefully.

That’s all the guys needed to hear. A low groan escaped Jiyong's throat and he slid an arm around your waist, keeping you close to his side as Seunghyun took one of your hands and led you out of the crowd and into the parking lot.

____________________________________________

You took Jiyong's two seat Lamborghini, him behind the wheel and Seunghyun in the passenger seat with you sitting sideways in his lap, turned toward the drivers seat. Jiyong hadn’t even pulled out of the parking lot before Seunghyun started pinching your nipples through the fabric of your dress as he kissed and bit along the column of your throat. Not wanting to be left out, Jiyong took his right hand off the wheel and placed it on your inner thigh, wasting no time in finding the juncture between your legs. He was satisfied to find you already dripping wet as he stroked the outline of your folds through your silk panties, pulling a long breathy moan from your throat. Without warning he hooked a finger, pulled the scrap of fabric to the side & plunged a finger into you, causing you to buck against his hand. You started to move your hips faster, silently asking for more until another finger finally joined the first. A shout erupted from your throat and Seunghyun covered your lips with his, muffling the moans.

He released your mouth long enough to pull the top of your dress down, revealing your breasts to him and took a hardened nipple into his mouth, laving at it with his tongue. Jiyong continued to finger you at a maddening pace. It felt amazing. It felt more than amazing and you were quickly nearing your climax. You started moving your hips more desperately, chasing your release and then Seunghyun suddenly bit down on your breast and that’s all it took for you to come apart in his lap. Your moans filled the small space as you came around Jiyong's fingers. He didn’t stop his movements as he continued to stroke you through your first orgasm of the night. Damn... you’d never come that quickly before. You were slightly embarrassed, but the feeling quickly passed as you watched Jiyong remove his fingers and bring them up to his mouth, licking them clean, one at a time.

"Fuck, you taste so sweet."

You were still trying to catch your breath, pulling the top of your dress back up when Seunghyun turned your head towards him for a slow, languid kiss. He took his time as he moved his lips against yours & your hands wound around his neck, pulling him closer so you could deepen the kiss. He sucked your bottom lip into his mouth before licking across the seam of your lips, expertly opening you up to him. He was good at this. You felt like you could kiss him for hours. But not tonight... No, tonight you had other plans.

"I can’t wait to be inside you.” he rasped in your ear, and you could only nod your head in agreement.

"We’re here." Jiyong announced as he pulled into the parking lot of an expensive looking apartment complex downtown. You all climbed out of the car, you still in Seunghyun's arms before Jiyong came around the car and helped you to your feet. The three of you all but ran inside the lobby, Seunghyun desperately pressing the button for the elevator.

As soon as the doors slid shut, Jiyong had you backed up against the wall. He palmed your ass through your dress, raising your leg slightly so he could drag your slick core along the outline of  the obvious hard on in his pants.

"Oh my god..." you keened, your back arching off of the wall. He rocked his hips forward and you both groaned at the contact. There were way too many layers between the two of you for your liking. You needed to feel him inside of you and it couldn't be soon enough. Suddenly the elevator doors opened and he took a step back, but not before he grabbed your hand.  Jiyong all but dragged you toward his penthouse, Seunghyun's palm on the small of your back as he followed you down the hall and through the front door.

__________________________________________________

They both maneuvered around you with ease in a way that could only be described as choreographed. It was as if they had done this before. You belatedly realized that they probably had, several times in fact. You could picture them doing this with other women, attacking them like a tag team with equal precision. You had a fleeting thought that you should have been bothered by it, the fact that you were just another woman being used in their little game. But with Jiyong peeling off your dress, only stopping to suck a nipple between his lips and Seunghyun grabbing your panties, all but ripping them from between your legs, you really couldn’t find it in yourself to give a damn.

You managed to make your way into the master bedroom, a California king bed taking up most of the space. The two men eased you back onto the mattress. Jiyong followed suit, his hands ghosting up your thighs & slowly spreading your legs so that he could settle in between them. He placed soft kisses on your inner thighs, and you finally got to feel the delicious slide of his jaw as he made his way up to your center.

Seunghyun was watching on from the side of the bed, clothes already discarded on the floor, his hand stroking up and down his aching length. You beckoned him over to where you were spread out on the bed. He crawled over to where your head lay against the pillow, that boyish grin once again gracing his exquisite face. As you looked up at him, he rose to his knees, erection in his hand stoking lazily until you replaced his hand with your own. You smiled to yourself when you felt him twitch against your palm. You gripped his shaft, pumping up and down a few times before running your thumb across the head, spreading the moisture that had already gathered there. You licked up the side of him, from base to tip and then proceeded to take him into your mouth.

As soon as you closed your lips around the head you felt Jiyong sweep his tongue through your folds, flattening his tongue up until he reached your clit. He lightly sucked it into his mouth and you bucked your hips up, seeking more, but he placed a firm hand on your stomach, halting your movements as he continued to tease.

You then began to focus on Seunghyun. You sucked hard, swirling you tongue around the head. One hand continued to stoke his length & occasionally you would twist your wrist as your hand slid up and down. His hand made its way into your hair, gripping tightly. You took that as a cue and slid more of him into your mouth, Seunghyun began to slowly and carefully thrust into you. Your head was bobbing faster now, your tongue swirling around him and you had almost forgotten about Jiyong, but then his fingers joined his mouth and yeah, you were very aware of what he was doing now.

He continued to flick your clit with his tongue all while pumping two fingers into you, matching the rhythm that you were moving up and down Seunghyun's shaft. Jiyong pushed harder, and you wiggled your hips, trying to force his fingers deeper. He curled them, pressing up on your g-spot and you completely unraveled, Seunghyun falling from your mouth as cries of satisfaction left your throat, body overcome with pleasure.

You were trembling, chest heaving as you tried in vain to relax. Your face felt flushed and you were pretty sure a slight sheen of sweat already covered your entire body. You watched as Jiyong slowly began to make his way up to you, leaving soft kisses above your navel and between the valley of your breasts until he reached your mouth where he placed a chaste kiss on your lips. You could taste yourself on him & it was incredibly arousing.

"That was better than I imagined." he murmured against your mouth and pecked at your lips again.

Then he got off of the bed completely, moving to stand. He made his way to the bedside drawer, pulling out a pack of condoms.

You shook your head at him. “No.”

Both men stopped moving, eyes wide at your declaration. “No condoms.” you repeated firmly.

Concern washed over Jiyong's face before he spoke. “Are you sure?”

You nodded confidently. “I’m on the pill and I’m clean.” then you continued more softly, “...and I trust you.”

You heard Seunghyun's sharp inhale and saw the way Jiyong squared his shoulders & blew out a heavy breath from your confession. With one final look at you he dropped the pack of condoms back into the drawer.

You felt Seunghyun lean down next to you, whispering in your ear. “Get on your hands and knees.” You couldn't help but shiver at his sultry tone and quickly did as you were told.

You felt the bed dip as he moved behind you, his palms grabbing your ass before suddenly pulling away. The next thing you knew Seunghyun's hand came down, slapping your right cheek, hard.

"AHHHH!" you yelled in surprise, not prepared for the sting from his palm.

"God, that’s beautiful. Don’t you love that sound, Ji?" he said as he slapped your ass again, the loud sound of his palm hitting your flesh echoing in the room.

"Fuck yes..." Jiyong replied, his voice laced with arousal.

You looked over at him, watching as he stripped himself of his clothes, revealing his naked, tattooed form to you for the first time. Damn, he was built like a fucking work of art. Just the barest hint of muscles and abs. You wanted nothing more than to run your tongue along the lines of his tattoos & feel the taut muscles beneath your fingertips. Jiyong had been following your gaze, head tilting slightly as he smirked at you.

Seunghyun's palm provided another powerful blow and you cried out. Then you felt the blunt tip of him pushing against your opening as he slowly eased his way into your wet heat.

“Fuck, _________...” Seunghyun said when he was fully sheathed inside, his voice breathy. “You feel incredible.”

He held the position for a few seconds, letting you adjust to the feel of him. He wasn't small, stretching you in all the right ways. You circled your hips once to let him know it was okay to move. He started with slow, shallow thrusts, barely leaving you at all. But you didn’t want it slow. No... you wanted, needed, so much more.

"Faster. Seunghyun, please.” you didn’t care that you were already begging. Both men had been toying with you all night and you were done with games.

His broad hands gripped either side of your waist and he started fucking you harder, moving faster against you. You braced your hands flat on the mattress, pushing back into him, meeting him thrust for thrust. Yes... this was exactly what you had needed. Seunghyun slapped your ass again and you moaned loudly, the sting much more pleasurable this time.

Jiyong was completely naked now as he made his way to the foot of the bed, right up to where your head was. You looked down at the obvious sign of his arousal, licking your lips at the sight of his precum. Jiyong rubbed the bead of it against your half-parted lips.

"Open." he commanded. And you did. You opened your mouth wide as he pushed inside, your eyes meeting his.

This was amazing. Sex for you had never been this good before. But this wasn’t just sex... oh no, this was absolute raw fucking and you were loving every second of it. You reveled in how incredible it felt... to have two different men, with two very different hard lengths pushing inside of you.

Seunghyun was still pounding into you from behind, the force of his thrusts causing you to take more of Jiyong into your mouth and you swallowed impulsively.

“Fuck, that’s good.” he growled. You looked up through your lashes to see Jiyong's flushed face, eyes screwed shut as his grip on the back of your head tightened.

You took him into your mouth as deep as you could, hollowing out your cheeks as you did so. When he hit the back of your throat you slowly rocked your head from side to side, listening as Jiyong swore under his breath. Then you pulled back and began sucking him faster, a ribbon of hair slipping out of his hands to tickle your nose slightly from the constant motion. Jiyong brought the hand not currently wrapped in your hair up to your face, taking hold of the stray lock and tucking it behind your ear. 'Well that was nice of him.' you thought to yourself. Good to know the man currently fucking your mouth had manners. The intimacy of the act was not lost on you, but you didn’t have time nor the mental capacity to analyze exactly what that meant right now.

“You look so sexy getting fucked like this, __________. Do you know that?” Jiyong asked.

You shook Your head no. Jiyong's hand cupped your jaw, raising your head up slightly. “You do...” he said, his voice throaty and hoarse. “You look sexy as fuck like this. With me filling your mouth and Seunghyun fucking you from behind. Damn...” he released your face, moving to wrap your hair more firmly around his hand instead while he pushed further into your mouth.

Speaking of Seunghyun, he was still slamming into you at a grueling pace, hands digging into your flesh hard enough to bruise. Then he leaned forward to speak into your ear. “Touch yourself.” he said, almost breathlessly. You quickly maneuvered yourself & reached down between your legs to rub at  your hardened nub desperately.

You came quickly after that, humming around Jiyong's length, triggering his own release as he emptied himself down your throat. You swallowed as much as you could while Seunghyun continued to fuck you at an erratic pace. He lost his rhythm every so often and you knew he was getting close. With a pop you released Jiyong from your mouth, then you ground your ass back into Seunghyun. You swiveled your hips once... twice... until you felt him surge forward, stilling as he reached his climax. A low growl escaped his throat as he spilled into you.

Feeling Seunghyun pulsate within you brought on an unexpected wave of pleasure which resulted in another orgasm. It wasn’t as strong as your previous ones, but it was still just as satisfying and you moaned in appreciation as both of you came down from the high.

Before you even knew what was happening Seunghyun had pulled out and flipped you onto your back. His mouth descended onto yours and you granted him easy access as his tongue swept into your mouth, his tongue stroking yours. He kissed you thoroughly and you knew he would be able to taste Jiyong. Most guys would be put off by that, hell most guys wouldn’t even let you kiss him after you’d finished sucking them off, but Seunghyun didn’t seem to care and fuck if that wasn’t one of the most erotic things you had ever experienced.

Suddenly you felt yourself being pulled up from the mattress. Seunghyun kissed you again, hard and fast, all tongue and teeth before he pushed you into Jiyong's arms. He was now sitting on the edge of the bed, legs dangling over the side. Jiyong picked you up by the waist, swinging you over his lap so you were straddling him. Somehow, he was already hard again. He took himself in one hand and lined it up with your entrance, running the head through your folds a couple times before slowly lowering you down onto him.

“I want you to ride me, _________. Take every single inch of me into your drenched core.”

You made a small whimper but easily complied, your knees digging into the mattress as you rose off of him, leaving just the head inside and then slamming back down again. He felt so fucking good like this, hitting spots deep inside that you never even knew you had. Where Seunghyun had been solid and filling, Jiyong was long and rigid. His hands fell to your ass, kneading the soft flesh as he helped to lift you up, encouraging your movements.

You bit down on your bottom lip to silence your screams and Jiyong quickly reached for your chin, freeing your lip from the confines of your teeth. “Don’t do that.” he snarled. “I want to hear you. I want to hear how good riding me makes you feel.”

“Oh…fuck. Jiyong!.”

“That’s it, ________.” he said through gritted teeth. “Harder!”

Damn, the sound of his voice was so commanding. The low growl that emanated from his chest as he spoke made you even more wet if that was humanly possible. You thought that you would do anything for him if only he kept speaking to you like that. You’d probably jump off a cliff right now if he told you to, your brain was so addled with lust.

"Harder, ________." he repeated. "I said to ride me harder!” he lifted his hips roughly to get the message across.

So you did. You rode him for all you were worth and then some. Your head was thrown back as your arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders, using him as an anchor. Your breasts were bouncing directly in front of Jiyong's face and he took one nipple into his mouth before alternating between the two.

You heard Seunghun's low muttered 'Fuck...” from somewhere. Looking up past Jiyong's shoulder, you found Seunghyun kneeling in the middle of the mattress, hard in hand, gripping himself tightly as he watched you ride his friend. His pupils were completely dilated, his eyes searing into yours.

"You like that?" Seunghyun asked with a smirk, his voice husky with need. "Do you like watching me stroke myself while you ride Ji?"

You could only nod in answer.

"I want to hear you say it.”

Fuck. These two were going to be the death of you.

"Yes..." you practically purred. "I like watching you stroke yourself while Ji…oh god, yes!” you cried out suddenly as Jiyong bit down, his teeth grazing one of your nipples. “…while Jiyong fucks me.” you barely managed to get the words out as Jiyong continued to thrust up into you.

Seunghyun stroked a little faster now, satisfied with your answer. He actually looked at you and winked... the smug bastard.

You began to shake, your breath coming out in short pants and you were having trouble keeping your eyes open.

Jiyong noticed and he roughly demanded, “Look at me, __________. I want you to watch me as I make you come.”

You slowly opened your eyes and were met with Jiyong's heated gaze. You continued to stare at each other, his hips rising up to meet yours as you lowered down onto him. You both kept up the pace for a few minutes, nearing the edge. With one last thrust and swivel of his hips you came hard, your inner walls clamping down on Jiyong as your forehead tilted forward to rest against his own. Your grip on him was so tight as you rode him through your orgasm that Jiyong was quick to follow, his hands stilling your movements as he emptied into you. Your foreheads were still pressed against each other’s, breaths mingling as the waves of pleasure subsided.

You felt absolutely spent, eyes drooping as you melted into Jiyong's embrace. He reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear before cupping your face with his palm entirely. You leaned into his hand, opening your eyes.

“Hey...” he spoke quietly, looking at you with an unreadable expression.

You smiled softly. “Hi...” you leaned down to capture his lips, kissing him slowly. Then Jiyong rose to his feet with you still in his arms as he softened inside you. He turned around and carefully set you back down onto the mattress. He pulled out, rolling onto his back, laying down to your right.

Seunghyun, who was still rock hard, went to kneel in front of you on the bed. He placed his broad hands on your knees, rubbing small circles into your skin with his thumbs. Your legs parted instinctively for him and he moved forward, stopping once he reached the apex of your thighs. Seunghyun took hold of his erection and smacked the head of it directly onto your already overly stimulated clit and your hips jumped off the mattress at the contact.

“Seunghyun! Oh my god!” you half-yelled, half-laughed at him.

Then, without warning, he slammed into you, wasting no time in developing a harsh rhythm. You gripped the bed sheet hard, knuckles soon turning white.

“You feel so fucking good, ____________. So. Fucking. Good.” he punctuated the last three words with deep, hard thrusts.

You turned your head to look over at Jiyong, noticing that he was hardening once more. 'The stamina on this guy is unbelievable.' you thought. You reached over to grab hold of him, starting to pump the length of him with your hand. You adjusted the angle of your head so you could cover his lips with your own. The kiss was sloppy, desperate.

Seunghyun hitched one of your legs over his shoulder, changing the angle in which he entered, hitting that sweet spot deep inside. His hand reached up to squeeze one of your breasts and he rolled a hard nipple in between his thumb and forefinger before pulling on it gently.

The sensations were incredible. Your body was glistening with sweat as Seunghyun continued to fuck you senseless. You didn’t want the pleasure to end but felt exhausted and knew that you wouldn’t be able to handle much more. And you could also feel the tension building with each thrust of Seunghyun's hips. You'd already lost track of the number of times you had an orgasm that night, but felt like you needed just one more.

You mumbled breathlessly against Jiyong's mouth. “Touch me, Jiyong. I need you to touch me.” your voice coming out desperate, needy. His hand traveled down to where you and Seunghyun were joined and he quickly began to rub your throbbing clit. Seunghyun's hand was still on your breast, squeezing roughly and you arched into his touch.

You were close now, you could feel the wave of bliss building from somewhere deep inside. You dug the heel of your foot between Seunghyun's shoulder blades, rocking your hips faster against him as your hand furiously pumped Jiyong's hardness.

This was it. Stars danced behind your eyes as your loud cries of pleasure filled the room.

"Come with me." you begged, your voice ragged from screaming. "I want you both to come with me!"

“Shit, ___________.” Seunghyun said as he pushed deeper into you.

You felt Jiyong rock faster into your hand, his breathing labored as he buried his head in the hollow of your neck. “Oh, fuck.”

"Yes!" you screamed, "That’s it! Don’t stop... oh god... now! I need you both to come with me now!” and as soon as the words left your lips you came, the orgasm hitting you hard as your body shook from the onslaught of the intense feeling.

Seunghyun came with a shout, your name tumbling from his lips as he unloaded himself into you for the second time that night.

Your body was still shaking uncontrollably and you felt Jiyong bite down hard on your neck, his cum shooting out in strands across your hand and abdomen.

Holy... fucking... shit.

None of you moved right away, all slowly trying to catch your breath instead, bodies still trembling from the aftershocks.

After what felt like an eternity, Seunghyun was the first to move. He pulled out so that he could lay flat on his back beside you and you whimpered at the loss of contact. You felt the bed shift to your right and you watched as Jiyong made his way into the bathroom, probably to get himself cleaned up.

Your eyes began to shut for real this time, exhaustion taking over. You moved to the left slightly, cuddling into Seunghyun's side. He reached over, tenderly smoothing the hair away from your sweat-dampened forehead. You felt the right side of mattress dip again when Jiyong returned. He crawled in beside you and began cleaning off your body with a warm washcloth. You hummed in thanks at the sweet gesture. When he was finished he threw the cloth aside and slid in next to you, drawing the covers over all three of you.

The last thing you remembered before falling asleep was Jiyong lacing his fingers with yours, and Seunghyun placing soft kisses onto your shoulder.

________________________________________________

You could feel the moisture that had collected between your legs as you relived the previous night’s events. You looked down past Jiyong's messy hair to see that his fingers were ghosting across your abdomen, right down until he reached your core.

"What are you thinking about that’s got you so wet, hmm?" Jiyong asked, just as you felt his fingertips lightly travel across your slit.

You shivered under his touch. “Last night.” you smiled fondly at the memory. “Thank you.”

Jiyong kissed your sternum softly, “Anything for you, baby.”

"So... did we successfully fulfill your fantasy, Ms.________?" You turned your head slightly to look at a now awake Seunghyun .

"Yes. It was perfect." you said as you ran a finger down the side of his face. "But I’m pretty sure my ass is going to be sore for a day or two." you angled your head a bit more to glare at him properly.

He ducked his head cutely, “Sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away... in the moment.” he replied, cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

"It’s okay, Seunghyun. As long as you promise to kiss it better." you teased.

"Oh, I’m sure I can manage that," he stared down at you with that private smile you adored so much.

"Last night..." Jiyong began, his voice growing serious now, "we didn’t use any condoms." You chuckled softly. Jiyong wouldn’t be Jiyong if he didn’t find something to agonize over.

You sat up so that you could look at both of their faces before speaking. “I wanted to feel both of you, only you.” your head moved from side to side so that you could look directly into each of their eyes.

Both men stared at you in amazement. Jiyong opened his mouth to speak, “But...”

You silenced him by pressing a finger to his lips. "I love you." you said, the tone of your voice leaving no room for uncertainty. "I love both of you, and I didn’t want any barriers between us."

You looked between the two of them, waiting for a response. But Seunghyun and Jiyong were quiet. Too quiet... and you feared that your confession had been too much for them. It was the first time any of you had said those words to each other in the few short months since you had started this little relationship. Were you moving too fast? Were they not ready for that? Was this whole arrangement just sex for them?

Tears started to form in your eyes and you began retreating into yourself. I shouldn’t have said that. I ruined a perfectly good thing by opening my mouth and now I’ve probably scared off the both of them. I was stupid to think that these last couple of months meant anything to them other than sex. I’m so stupid for thinking that they loved me too.

Your mind was racing with a million different thoughts that you didn’t even notice Jiyong grab your face until his lips descended onto yours. He kissed you roughly, swallowing your gasp of surprise. He pulled back suddenly, just far enough so that he could look into your eyes. And he looked…angry?

Then he spoke, his voice came out as more of a growl than anything else, “This was not about the sex. You’re not stupid for...”

You yelped in embarrassment, pulling your head away and shutting your eyes. Shit! Of course you had said those things out loud.

Jiyong took hold of your face more firmly in his hands. “Look at me, ________.” he pleaded, and the evident desperation in his tone caused you to open your eyes.

"I love you." Jiyong stated, his voice was thick with emotion and you noticed he had tears in his eyes too. "I love you so much."

You were crying openly now and you pulled Jiyong's  face to yours, kissing him passionately. You heard a throat clearing politely behind you & tore your mouth away from Jiyong's so that you could face Seunghyun.

He was smirking at you. “He's wrong, you know...” he began and you felt your heart drop in your chest.

“You are stupid.” he paused, chuckling at your confusion before continuing. “You are so stupid for ever thinking that Ji and I could be anything but head over heels in love with you.”

Fresh tears now formed in your eyes and a strangled sob escaped your throat. Seunghyun moved forward to kiss you gently, his hands reaching for yours where they lay in your lap. You grasped his hands tightly before turning his palms over so that you could intertwine your fingers with his. Jiyong slid behind you, wrapping his arms tightly around your waist and you leaned back into his chest, never letting go of Seunghyun's hands.

Your heart was fluttering rapidly in your chest and you couldn’t help the wide smile that had spread across your face.

Seunghyun opened his mouth to speak again, breaking the silence. “I just want to add that even though this relationship isn’t entirely about sex, the sex part of the deal still means a lot to me. Because last night was fucking incredible.” he said with a wistful, far away smile.

Jiyong huffed out a laugh, his chest rumbling against your back as he held you in his arms. Gods, you loved that sound.

"I’ve got to admit, it was extremely hot to be on the receiving end of the infamous GD&TOP double combo seduction game. I’m a little jealous of all the other women you pulled that stunt on before meeting me."

Jiyong just held you tighter and Seunghyun leaned in to kiss your forehead.

"You have nothing to be jealous of, angel. All those other women were just that... other women. We were never in love with any of them."  Seunghyun said sincerely.

Jiyong pressed a soft kiss into your hair. “Only you.”

"Mmmm. Only me."

Yeah... you definitely liked the sound of that.

[featherymalignancy]

Like a Lonely House, Part VII

JFC, I finally did it. PLEASE ENJOY! Also, if you need a refresher because it’s been a GD age since I updated, please check out the PARTS I-VI RECAP. Also please enjoy!

Like a Lonely House: A Nessian Story Of Betrayal and Redemption                                                

                        “so I wait for you like a lonely house

                       till you will see me again and live in me.

                              Till then my windows ache.”                                

                                           -Pablo Neruda

Warning: NSFW for language, mild violence, mentions of sexual assault, and smut. This story is not ACOFAS complaint, but it will borrow elements from the story. oh, also tons of angst. Synopsis: Fifty years after the Hybernian War, Prythian is finally at peace. For Cassian and Nesta, animosity has turned to something more amorous, and they stand on a precipice of something that scares and excites them both. However, it only takes one night of weakness on Cassian’s part to change everything, and with a young Illyrian prince gaining power in the North, Nesta agrees to an marriage alliance, both to protect her family and get her as far away from Cassian as possible. As things unravel between them, Cassian begins to suspect there is something more deliberate seeking to keep them apart, and he struggles to uncover the truth and win Nesta back before it’s too late.

If you’re new to the story, please click HERE for the masterlist.

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of sexual assault.  Please proceed with caution.

Part VII

The Macaran crowd roared its approval as Adan rose to his feet at the High Lords’ invitation, but Cassian couldn’t hear a single voice.

It was as if all the sound had been sucked from the world, leaving only a roaring silence in its wake.

Cassian had the sensation of falling, of drowning, of he didn’t even know what. All he did know was that he couldn’t think—couldn’t breathe—as he watched the prince turn to offer Nesta his hand. The smile she offered the spoiled little prick in return ran Cassian straight through, and he wondered if the female  from the Corona was somewhere in the crowd smiling too, reveling in all she’d done to steal this moment for her Şehzade.

Blood slicked Cassian’s teeth as he bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood. The muscles in his back screamed at the effort of keeping his wings pinned, his every instinct demanding he find the female—whoever she was—and simply shred her to ribbons, all the rest of this theatre be damned.

His body was so tense it had grown hard to breathe, but he called on the promise he’d made to Rhys to play his part and managed to settle, if only slightly. Gritting his teeth behind pursed lips, he willed the ire which bubbled under his skin to cool, trying to force it out of his scent. He needed to wait until he was alone, until he could speak to Rhys and Az...

He glanced at the latter to find his friend already watching him, hazel eyes glittering as the shadows slithered up to neck towards his ear as if they meant to tell him a secret. Cassian couldn’t speak to Azriel mind-to-mind the way he could with Rhys, but Az knew him well enough by now to read his body posture, even as Cassian fought to keep his face and scent neutral.

Casually as he could manage, he reached up to touch his collarbone with both hands before sweeping his fingers across his chest. To the uninitiated it would have seemed little more than a stretch, but Cassian knew Azriel would recognize the message coded in the gesture, one of many they’d invented to convey information when traditional communication was impossible.

We need to talk.

Azriel rolled his neck as if simply trying to relieve some stiffness in the muscles,  but Cassian knew it was meant as confirmation. It wasn’t enough to settle him, but it was enough to bolster his control as the gates of the Hewn City boomed open and the High Lords, the Macarans, and their respective retinues were all welcomed inside by a seductive string symphony typical of the Night Court.

The temptation to look at Nesta weighed Cassian’s every step, make his feet feel as if they were made of lead. However, he resisted, knowing that seeing her so near the prince would be enough to break the tenuous grip he had on his fury. It had melted from a burning in his blood to a frigid blade he could almost feel pressing against his palm.

Three moves, he told himself.

That would be all it would take to reach the prince and sever his spine. Three moves to rid himself of the threat, and two more to remove her from danger entirely. In less than a minute he could have them both in the sky, up and out of bow range in no more than thirty heartbeats.

He felt a warm hand slide into the crook of his arm as a soft, feminine scent twined around him.

“Peace, Love,” Mor breathed, linking her arm through his as she casually peeled them away from the prince and towards their own side of the grand dais. “We’re not yet unobserved.”

“I need—“ Cassian began, voice quaking with effort as his eyes remained on Nesta. He could feel her hovering near the edge of his consciousness, closer now than she’d been for months.

It was enough to drive him out of his mind.

His heart surged and sputtered in his chest, breaths becoming too shallow as his face began to grow numb from lack of oxygen.

“I can’t—“

“Cassian—”

Cassian brushed off Mor’s hand before she could protest, pealing away from the assembly and down the nearest corridor, not caring where it took him.He burst into the first door he found—which turned out to be a servants’ pantry—slamming it behind him before letting out a scream of undiluted rage.

All the time he’d spent searching, all the time he’d wasted not being at Nesta’s side, and now the female was here as a member of the Macaran court.

He screamed again, shattering the gritted mirror hanging on the wall with a fist.  

It was too much; it was all too much, and Cassian felt it tugging at his every seam, unstitching him one pulled thread at a time. He warred with the violation seeing the female had riled in his gut and the vengeance he felt stirring in his bones.

It was in the Illyrian blood to meet every transgression committed against you blow for blow. It keeps the soul unblemished, his mother had always told him; that which is left to languish will eventually begin to fester and rot.

He could feel that rot now, coursing like venom through his system as he struggled for control.

He’d been right, all this time. The Macarans were behind everything, and still they were here, dining at the High Lord’s table and—

Cassian screamed a third time, picking up a jug of wine and hurling it at the wall with all his might before crumpling to his knees, breaths sawing through him.

“Sorun nedir, arkadaşim?”

Cassian lifted his head at hearing the Dalyanian dialect of his childhood, so different from the Atalyan they’d always spoken in the war camps.

Azriel had appeared out the shadow in the corner of the room, eyes lambert in the dim light.

Cassian bent his head, still fighting savagely from composure. He knew that after all they’d been together he and Azriel were beyond being ashamed in front of one another, but still he felt a gelid wave of it wash over him as his friend knelt at his side.

“What’s wrong, brother?” Azriel repeated, this time in the common tongue.

Cassian let out a shuddering exhale, falling back onto his haunches as he ran hand along the plait in his hair.

“She’s here. The female from the Corona. I saw her in the crowd earlier.”

Azriel’s brows drew together as his hand on Cassian’s shoulder tightened. He clearly needed no clarification on who Cassian meant.

“Are—“

“Please don’t ask me if I’m sure,” Cassian croaked. “You know that I am.”

Azriel bowed his head for a moment.

“I’m sorry. I should have—it shouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Cassian’s throat felt too tight for words, so he only nodded, hauling himself to his feet and cuffing Azriel’s neck to pull him in close until they were brow-to-brow, an old gesture of respect among Illyrians he knew Az would understand.

“It’s not your fault, Az.”

Azriel’s head snapped up, his eyes blazing with a cold fury his expression would never betray.

“I failed you,” he said, pulling from Cassian’s grip and flexing and unflexing his knife hand. “You and Nesta both.”

Cassian shook his head, unable to bare Azriel’s self-recrimination on top of everything else.

“Then make it up to me. Help me find a way to get her away from the Macarans.”

Azriel nodded, seeming to gather his composure.

“Does Rhys know?” He asked.

“No, I—“ Cassian broke off, running a shaking hand over his lips. “I didn’t want to rouse suspicion.”

He didn’t need to add that he’d also been losing his composure and had to get away to avoid making a scene; one look around the ruined storeroom was proof enough of that.

Azriel nodded again, jaw working as he considered.

“I will send Nuala and Cerridwen to scout the Macarans’ rooms. It’s possible whoever is holding her leash wants to keep her out of sight.”

“The smarter move would be to keep her close,” Cassian pointed out. “I’m sure that’s why they took the risk in bringing her here.”

A muscle worked in Azriel’s jaw.

“Adan knew I would send spies to Macar to search for her while the territory was unmanned.”

“Then he’s not as stupid as he looks,” Cassian said through his teeth.

“If he was really clever he would have killed her,” Azriel pointed on, hand straying to Truth-teller as if he was imagining doing just that.

Cassian had thought the same. The fact that they hadn’t—

“We need to be on our guard; it could be they’ve spared her for a purpose.”

Azriel’s eyes flashed in the semi-dark as he ran a hand over Truth-Teller’s obsidian hilt.

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

Cassian nodded, feeling his own resolve growing as Az clapped him on the shoulder.

“I promise, brother,” Azriel said, voice cold steel. “Tonight you'll get your answers. Right now we need to get back; we’ve been gone too long already.”

Cassian nodded, scrubbing a hand across his face and straightening his leathers as Azriel disappeared out of the door. Picking up a pewter goblet from one of the shelves, Cassian filled it with a mouthful of wine before he too slipped from the room.

He forced a slight stagger into his stride as he re-entered the grand hall, draining the small measure from his goblet before dropping it with a slightly-drunk chuckle and grabbing another from a passing servant girl. A cluster of Summer Court guards who stood nearby cheered as he drained the new goblet, and he raised his empty cup in salute before taking a third and heading for his place at the head table.

Mor laughed at seeing him, though the merriment didn’t reach her eyes.

“Are you drunk, Lord Commander?” she said, patting his arm as he dropped into his seat before adding in a whisper, “Cas, are you alright?”

He flashed her the lazy, edged grin he knew everyone expected from him.

“It’s a party; we should all be drunk.”

He raised his glass to closest Illyrian dignitaries, who all laughed obligingly as he did. Ellaria—who sat to Mor’s left—seemed to understand the diversion for what it was and turned to engage the Macaran finance minister in small talk to give him and Mor a reprieve from prying ears. Cassian was so grateful that were Ellaria not Mor’s mate, he would have kissed her.

“What is it?” Mor said, flashing Ellaria a smile as well.

“She’s here,” Cassian breathed. “The female. I saw her in the crowd when the Macarans arrived.”

The only indication that Mor had heard was the pallor in her ordinarily-bronze skin. She glanced down at the table in a casual gesture before whispering, “Have you told—“

“Az already knows,” Cassian said into his goblet, still not looking at Mor directly. “He’s going to tell Rhys and Feyre.”

“What are you going to do?”

Cash took another drink of wine, this one not entirely for show.

“We need to find her first. Then—“ he blew out an unsteady breath. “I’m not sure.”

“My gut says she’s here,” Mor murmured, pretending to straighten the skewed collar of his leather doublet with the affectionate fuss of a nursemaid.

“Mine too,” Cassian admitted. “How many of these servants do you recognize? the smart thing to do would be to hide her in plain sight.”

Mor scanned the room over the rim of her gem-studded goblet.

“Not enough,” she murmured. “Especially with all the other courts here as well.”

“Black hair,” he said into his own drink, quiet enough he couldn’t be overheard. “Dark eyes.”

“That’s half the females in the territory, Cas.”

“You’ll know her when you see her.“

Mor nodded her assent before casually turning her attention back to Ellaria to keep the conversation from seeming suspiciously intense.

Maintaining the pretense of drunken content through dinner was almost unbearable, but Cassian managed to hold on until the plates were cleared and Rhys stood, a hush echoing over the crowd as his power swirled around him like a onyx-studded cape. He raised his glass, his smile resplendent even as his gaze remained shrewd.

“Tomorrow,” he began. “We will celebrate the union of two great houses with all the solemnity and pomp such an occasion is due. But tonight, let us simply drink and get to know one another! Every hospitality my house has to offer is open to you all, and I only command you honor the Night by indulging in all its pleasures. May we look back on this evening years from now and celebrate all the friendships forged, memories made, and perhaps even the younglings conceived.”

At this there was a titter of heated laughter, and Rhys raised his goblet.

“Please, begin!”

There was a ripple of shock and applause as all the banquet tables disappeared at once, the soft, honeyed music growing dark and drugging as a haunting waltz began. Rhys offered a hand to Feyre and they descended onto the floor and began moving across it with the ease of two people who’d memorized how the other moved.

Cassian watched as the dance drew more participants from other courts, the space Rhys had cleared quickly refilling with bodies as the wine continued to flow.

Cassian was afraid to look too and see Nesta spinning across the floor in Adan’s arms, though curiosity quickly got the better of him. He glanced to where Nesta had been sited at the center of the grand dais to find her deep in conversation with the prince, Adan’s smile as effortless as the arm which he’d strung behind Nesta’s chair as he listened to her speak.

Red fizzed at the edge of Cassian’s vision at seeing the female he so adored with someone else, especially one as unworthy as the spoiled, treacherous princeling. Though his expression was mild, Adan still looked at Nesta like a target and not the arrow Cassian knew her to be, and it was enough to drive him mad.

Needing to do something productive, Cassian peeled off the wall and started towards Mor. He needed a way to survey the room without seeming suspicious, and the easiest way to do that was to go to the place he was least likely to be observed. Mor obliged him as he slipped a hand around her waist, fingers skimming the soft skin of her bare back as he swung her around and onto the dance floor.  

She didn’t miss a beat. Using one hand to keep her voluminous plum skirts from underfoot, she strung the other around his shoulders, letting him guide her around the room as if the floor were made of glass.


“Anything?” She breathed.

He tried to keep his focus muted as he scanned the faces of the hundreds of servants scattered around the room, as terrified as he was eager to see that face—her face—again.

“Not yet.”

By the third time around the floor he knew they needed to take a break; too long in his arms and gossip would spread in a bleed pattern Cassian didn’t want staining Mor’s reputation so close to her mating ceremony.

Just as he was preparing to release Mor back to Ellaria, who stood patiently waiting, he saw something which caught his eye.

Amidst the beehive of activity, there was one servant who’d remained in the same place the entire time he and Mor had been dancing. He didn’t dare look at the female  head-on, but Cassian couldn’t help the way his fingers tightened on Mor’s waist as he swung her around again, using the diamond comb she wore as a mirror to get a better look.

Cassian couldn’t breathe.

The female stood with a jug of wine in her hand, but she made no move to refill any of the rapidly-drained goblets of the guests surrounding her, her back instead remaining glued to the wall.

“Where?” Mor said as he twisted her again in time to the music.

“Far wall,” he said, leaning in like they were sharing a private joke as he directed Mor to look where he’d indicated. “Standing behind the prince’s cousin.”

Mor’s face didn’t change from its beautific smile as she surveyed Lazar briefly, but disgust limned her eyes.

“We need to get Rhys and Azriel,” she said quietly as they spun a final time. “Meet me at the far refreshment table in two minutes.”

Cassian only forced a grin in reply, giving Mor a slightly drunken bow as he kissed her hand and headed for the table she’d indicated, looking for all the world like a drunken male in search of his next fix.

Indeed, when he arrived the long drought he took from the proffered goblet is was not merely for show. Cassian couldn’t be certain what would happen next, but he knew in his belly it would be painful. Perhaps it made him a coward, but he didn’t want to have to face it entirely sober.

Azriel appeared at his elbow several heartbeats later, and Cassian fought down an almost frantic anticipation as he turned to his friend.

“Where?” Azriel said in greeting, and Cassian indicated with his eyes as he took another heady sip.

“She hasn’t moved from that spot for ten minutes at least,” he explained, forcing his posture to remain languid.

“Lazar,” Azriel surmised, and Cassian nodded.

“We need to draw his attention elsewhere,” Cassian said. “Any ideas?”

“Not off the top of my head,” Azriel admitted. “I suppose I could—“

“I have one.”

Cassian’s heart squeezed almost painfully as he turned to find Elain standing behind him, her expression solemn but more gentle than he’d seen it in weeks.

“You would help me?” He asked.

Her brows knitted as she pressed forward to lightly cup his cheek. He couldn’t help the way his eyes fluttered closed at the touch. It wasn’t just Nesta’s company he’d missed these long weeks alone; it had been Feyre and Elain’s as well.

“Forgive me I didn’t do it sooner,” she said, eyes glassy. “Az told me the female from the tavern is here, traveling with the prince. I was wrong to doubt you, Cassian.”

“You were protecting Nesta,” he said, pulling her hand away to kiss her palm. “I will never fault you for that.”

Elain nodded, clearing her throat as she seemed to collect herself. She turned to her husband, the famed Archeron steel flashing in her eyes.

“When I give the signal, grab the girl and go. Feyre will be in position to take her place should anyone care to look.”

“What is the signal?” Azriel said, eyes scanning the dais to ensure that Adan was still suitably occupied.

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Elain replied. “Stay out of sight until then.”

With a final smile tossed in Cassian’s direction she swept off, her sage gown adorned with burgundy rosettes so at odds with the darkness surrounding her. Between her gown and her beauty, the crowd parted easily for her as she made her way across the room to where Céres—Tamlin’s wife—stood beside him lost and somewhat lonely.

Tamlin remained deep in conversation with Tarquin as Céres wistfully studied the couples dancing, her face brightening as Elain came to loop an arm through hers. Elain made the proper greetings to both Tamlin and Tarquin before gently steering Céres away to take a lap about the room. Cassian felt for the girl as he watched her chatting animatedly to Elain, clearly grateful for someone to speak to at last.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what part Elain needed her play. He could tell—even without looking at him—that Azriel was thinking the same, though Elain didn’t leave them wondering for long.

Cassian caught sight of a familiar figure in the crowd as he tracked their progress around the room, and he couldn’t fight a sardonic smile as he watched Elain press a hand to her rounded belly and winced, understanding now what she intended.

Céres paused in just the right spot as Elain doubled over slightly in pain, reaching for Céres’s arm to steady herself as she seemed to recover. A second later Cassian watched, his heart beating nearly out of his chest, as Elain pretended to stumble, sending an unsuspecting Céres sprawling backwards—

And straight into Lazar.

Surprised, he grabbed her around the waist to keep her from falling to the floor, his attention fully diverted away from the female who remained glued to the spot when Cassian had first spotted her.

It was enough.

In an instant Azriel had disappeared from Cassian's side, reappearing as nothing more than a long shadow behind where the female stood, watching the exchange between Céres and Lazar with alarm. Cassian's heart thundered as her grabbed her by the wrist and they both vanished.

By now Tamlin was there, an abashed Céres scuttling behind him as he wrapped a protective arm around her and bared his teeth at the younger Illyrian.

"How dare you," Tamlin snarled.

Lazar put his hands up, bronze skin paling at the fangs Tamlin now had mere inches from his throat

"Please, High Lord, this is a misunderstanding!"

He looked somewhat helplessly to Rhys as he approached, hands tucked into the sable pants he wore under his floor-length velvet great coat.

"My Lord, please!" Lazar begged

Rhys clicked his tongue as he surveyed the scene with dispassion, crushed sapphire eyes glittering in the low light.

"Oh Lazar, you do like to make trouble, don't you?"

"I swear, My Lord, she fell into me!"

Tamlin snarled, the sound entirely ursine.

"You had your hands all over her!"

"Lazar, what's going on?"

Adan appeared at his cousin's side, subtly inserting himself between the Tamlin and the younger male. Cassian didn’t dare look to see where Nesta was.

"I'm afraid Lazar's found himself in a bit of trouble," Rhys purred, eyes glittering behind the mask of the cruel High Lord Cassian had seen him wear so many times before. "He seems rather good at that."

Cassian heard Rhys speaking in his mind, voice markedly less amused.

Azriel has her in the dungeon, last door on the left. Be discreet. Make sure you aren't seen, and don't be gone too long. I'll keep the Macarans distracted.

Cassian needed no prompting. Casting a final look to ensure the Illyrians were suitably occupied, he slipped into a shadow and out into the hall, trying to steel himself for what was coming next.

The trek down into the labyrinth of dungeons that coiled beneath the great hall felt like it lasted both an eternity and an instant, and Cassian felt himself—his sanity, his control—unspooling with every step he took.

Azriel had the female, and in mere minutes Cassian would finally know—

Cassian’s heart was in his throat as he pushed open the heavy wood door, making a deliberate show of closing it behind him before turning to face the room’s only two occupants. Azriel stood against the far wall with arms crossed, arctic fury glazing his eyes as he waited for Cassian to speak.

And in the center of the room, seated in a chair with hands and feet bound, was the female Cassian had spent the last three months turning the territory inside out to find.

She looked just as he’d remembered her: a curtain of blue-black hair, eyes dark as pitch and skin the bronze of the Northern climbs. The only thing that had changed was her expression. The morning after their—coupling, she’d first been content and then, seemingly, afraid, and Cassian often wondered what face she’d wear when he finally caught her. He’d expected smugness at what she’d managed to wrought for her Illyrian masters.

What he got instead was...devastation.

She wasn’t making a sound, but there were tears rolling down her cheeks, fresh ones welling in her eyes as she took in his thunderous expression.  Somehow, they made him angrier than if she’d been arrogant, and he bared his teeth.

“Save your tears. I won’t be ensorceled by your treachery a second time.”

“Please,” she began, her voice devoid of the sensual husk she’d used on him before. “You don’t understand. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

Pain lanced through him at those words, the same ones he’d pleaded to Nesta so many times since this nightmare had begun. He’d lost a great deal of conviction as time had worn on and Nesta had drifted further and further out of his reach, but here now was the truth—long sought—sobbing in his face.

He crossed his arms over his chest.

“What’s your name?”

The female’s brows pulled together as if she meant to resist him by remaining silent, but when she caught the flash of True-Teller’s blade from the corner of her eye, she relented.

“Rabia.”

“Who sent you to Velaris, Rabia? Who told you where I’d be that day?”

The female shook her head, tears falling to soak the unadorned servant’s livery she wore.

“Please, it’s not what you think.”

“Speak plainly,” Azriel commanded. “If you cannot use your tongue, we’ll have no further use for it beyond supper for the hounds.”

“Please!” Rabia said a third time,straining at her bonds. “I didn’t have a choice!”

“Why not?” Cassian pressed. “You’re not Macaran; you’re not even Illyrian. Why do this for them?”

“For my son!” she burst.

This stopped Cassian in his tracks, some of the anger bleeding out of him. Even without Mor’s gift, he could tell from the look in Rabia’s eyes that she was telling the truth.

“What would the Illyrians care for one high fae child?” Azriel said.

“He’s half-Illyrian,” Rabia said. “And his father threatened to have him sent to the camp at Kaletaş if I didn’t help. I would never have been allowed to see him! Please, try to understand.”

Cassian and Azriel traded a look over the female’s head. Kaletaş was the Northernmost camp, and one famous for its brutality even among people undaunted by harsh measures.

“Who is his father?” Azriel said, peeling off the wall the circle the female. “He must be well-connected if he has the power to influence the Kaletaşi camp-leaders.”

Rabia winced as if the question had dealt her a physical blow.

“He’ll kill me,” she said, voice growing hoarse from her tears. “If he found out it was me who’d told you. He’ll kill me, and send Safet to Kaletaş. Please, he’s only ten. I’m all he has.”

“If the Macarans succeed in starting a civil war, your boy won’t stand a chance whether you are there to protect him or not,” Azriel snarled quietly. “Tell us who his father—“

“It’s Lazar,” Cassian said, watching as the remaining color drained from the female’s face. “Isn’t it?”

Her sobs began anew, trapped in her throat as she fought to master herself. Cassian wasn’t surprised. It was just the sort of cruel and foolish thing Lazar would do, using the mother of his child to achieve his selfish ends.

“It was a mistake,” Rabia breathed. “A horrible mistake, but by the time I realized it was too late; I was already pregnant. I tried to flee, but someone told Lazar I was with child and he dragged me back. We have been beholden to him ever since.”

“Why did he send you to Velaris? What did he tell you?”

“Nothing!”

Cassian bared his teeth, temperature rising again as she sputtered, fighting her bonds.

“He didn’t tell me why he wanted me to go,” Rabia said. “He just gave me orders and sent me South.”

“And what were your orders?” Azriel prompted.

Color flooded Rabia's cheeks even as she withered under Cassian’s unceasing stare. It was the question he’d dreaded to ask, even as every part of him strained to hear the answer. Rabia shook her head, and Azriel’s hand went to Truth-teller in warning.

“Speak,” he snarled.

The female bit her lip.

“To seduce the General.”

Cassian felt his axis tilting. It was the answer he’d been waiting for, been hoping for since he first began putting the puzzle together weeks ago. Still, the confirmation was a knife in the ribs. He felt sick when he remembered the score marks on his wings the next morning, the realization that Lazar had likely instructed her where to touch him in order to scent-mark him enough to drive him mad with humiliation and grief.

“And Adan? Was he in on this as well?” Azriel said.

Rabid shook her head, brows synched.

“I don’t know.”

“Do not lie to me.”

“I don’t know!” Rabia repeated with more conviction. “I’ve never even met the prince. If he is complicit in Lazar’s scheming, I have no knowledge of it.”

It was exactly what Cassian hadn’t wanted to hear. They still had no evidence Adan was involved, nor any to prove he was innocent either. And if he was innocent, what would it mean for his betrothal to Nesta? The idea was enough  to make Cassian’s tomach roil, and he forced himself to focus on Rabia’s interrogation instead.

“I was sick for weeks after,” he said. “What did you give me?”

“I—“

The door boomed open as Nesta swept in, Mor on her heels. The latter eased the door shut and locked it behind them as Nesta’s blazing eyes took in the scene before her.

She looked every inch the commanding Şezhana in the resplendent ebony gown she wore, the conical gold combs in her hair resembling a corona of spikes. She stood completely motionless, the glimmer off the torchlight against the gems studding her bodice the only indication she was even still breathing.

Cassian’s heart became an exploding star in his chest, its force threatening to tear his soul from its mooring as he watched Nesta. He could see the exact moment Rabia’s scent hit her from the way her back when rigid, as if she could no longer feign indifference or miscomprehension. Finally, she turned her burning gaze on him. It was the first time she’d deigned to look at him full-on since this had all begun, and her beauty made his knees weak even now.

“What is this?” She said, hands forming into such tight fists that her knuckles had gone white.

“You know what this is,” he said.

He could hear her heart as it began to beat faster, her ribcage struggling to expand against the corset she wore. He longedto cut the damn thing off her so she could get a good breath, but he knew he had to stay where he was.

After a moment she looked at Azriel.

“Is it true?”

Azriel in turn faced Rabia, crossing arms across his chest.

“Tell her. Tell her what you told us.”

Rabia swallowed, voice thin when she finally spoke.

“I was sent to Velaris by Lazar to seduce the Lord Commander.”

“And if he couldn’t be swayed?” Azriel prompted.

The female bowed her head.

“I was given a tonic. I was told it would make him—pliant.”

“And was he?”

It was Mor, her voice hammered thin by a fury Cassian rarely saw from her.

Rabia looked around, eyes wide.

“Was he what?”

“Swayed. Were you successful in seducing him?”

Rabia’s throat worked, and that she settled for looking at Cassian and Azriel was a testament to the fear both Nesta and Mor managed to inspire.

“No,” she admitted. “I offered myself to him, but he—“

She broke off, trying to master herself.

“Speak,” Mor snarled.

Rabia swallowed a sob.

“He said he was flattered, but that he was in love with another female. That they were...” she made a sound that was half-sob, half-wretch. “That they were mates.”

Cassian felt dizzy. It was the first time any of them had formally acknowledged the word out loud, and it clanged through him with such violence that he felt for a moment he might be ill. He waited, breathless, for Nesta to deny the claim, but she didn’t, jaw set as Mor pressed, “So you drugged him, and had your way with him while he was too incapacitated to stop you, is that it?”

“No!” Rabia said. “I would never—“

“But you did!” Mor snarled, drawing a dagger from the folds of her gown and advancing on the still-bound Rabia with alarming speed. “Can you deny it? When he rejected your advance, you slipped something into his drink!”

Rabia sobbed.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”

“What did you think was going to happen?” Mor said, teeth bared. “After you rap—“

“Enough, Mor,” Cassian said, not able to hear the next word said aloud. “You’ve made your point.”

“I’m just getting started,” Mor snarled, but then Azriel was there, slitting the bonds on Rabia’s hands and pushing her into Mor’s arms.

“Take her to Rhys,” he said. “Tell him to alter her memory and let her go; we can’t afford to let Lazar know we suspect him yet.”

Mor’s lip curled in disgust, but she took Rabia’s arm without further comment, dragging her from the room.

Cassian hardly noticed. His full attention was on Nesta, who was staring at him almost as if she’d never seen him before.

“I will leave you to talk,” Azriel said with a glance between them.

Before Cassian could think to reply, Az was gone and he and Nesta were alone.

For a minute they merely stood looking at each other, the silence deafening. Finally he couldn’t bear it, and Cassian broke.

“Nesta,” he began, advancing a step. “I’m sorry.”

Her only reply was several steps in the opposite direction. After everything they’d endured—that she’d been forced to endure—he wasn’t sure why it surprised him; he’d been foolish to think of few words from Rabia would undo all the hurt that festered between them. Still, he knew he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t at least try to explain.

“Please, Nes,” he said. “I—“

“Why are you sorry?” Nesta interrupted, voice clipped and cold.

His brows drew together, her sharp tone a freshly-whetted blade he knew she would use to carve out his heart even now, even knowing the truth.

“Because I failed you.”

Her expression grew stormy, and he wondered where things had gone so wrong that even now she still hated him. However, after a moment he watched the thunderhead raging in her grey eyes swell and erupt, her face melting into something sorrowful and stark.

“No,” she said, and he realized the tightness in her voice wasn’t anger—it was tears. ”It’s I who has failed you.”

“No, Nes—“

She held up a hand to ward him off when he chanced another step in her direction, several tears skidding down her cheeks as her lip trembled with the effort of maintaining her composure.

“I should have listened to you,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I listen?”

Cassian’s heart strained to near-bursting.

“It doesn’t matter now.”

Her brows synched as her anguish seemed to gain some ground on her composure. He knew that besides Elain and perhaps Feyre, he was the only one who’d ever seen Nesta Archeron so undone, and it was not a burden he took lightly.

“Of course it does,” she said, voice brittle but no less edged. “How can you stand to look at me knowing how I’ve wronged you?”

Cassian’s throat grew tight, everything he’d learned from Rabia coalescing with his missing Nesta to form a leaden knot in his stomach.

“Because I love you,” he said.

“I know,” she said, tears flowing freely now. “I know that now.”

Cassian’s eyes burned.

“Then please, won’t you let me hold you?”

Nesta let out a choked noise, eyes almost fearful as she looked up at him.

“I can’t.”

“Why not? Please Nesta, let me—”


Nesta shook her head, arms wrapped around herself like she was afraid she’d physically fall apart.

“If I let myself near you, I will never find the strength to do what I have to.”

The words were a knife to the gut.

“You can’t mean to go through with the betrothal.”

Nesta bit her lip.

“What choice do I have?”

“We have proof—“

She shook her head, seeming somewhat resigned now.

“It’s not enough, and we both know it. If we truly mean to expose Lazar’s treachery, we must have hard evidence of his crimes.”

“And Adan?”

She flinched a bit at thename, though her back remained straight as she said through her tears, “perhaps Adan is my penance, for what I’ve put you through.”

Cassian couldn’t fight the tear that slipped out at that, at the blade Nesta had turned inward upon the realization she’d been wrong.

“You haven’t put me through anything I wouldn’t have gladly endured for your sake,” he said. “Please, don’t do this.”

She shook her head, jaw set despite the tears shining in her eyes.

“Our problem remains the same, Cassian. Unless we can prove the Macarans have ill intent, we risk civil war. I can’t put my sisters through that, not again. I have to—-“

Nesta covered her hand with her hand and began to sob, and it was a sound so stark in its grief and Cassian felt it tremble through every cell in his body.

Damning the consequences he dropped his shield, his consciousness racing down the bridge towards hers as he surged for her, just in time to catch her as she sagged to the floor.

He gathered her into his arms as she unraveled, her face buried in his neck as her whole body shook with the force of her tears.

“Forgive me,” she sobbed. “Please, say that you forgive me.”

Cassian coaxed her head from his shoulder, brushing the loose hair from her face as he gazed into her eyes.

“There is nothing to forgive, minu südame süda. None of this is your fault.”

Nesta’s eyes fell closed as she rested her cheek against his palm, even as her long nails dug into his arm.

“I will kill her for what she’s done to you. I will spike her head to the gates of this foul city, and Lazar’s alongside it. You have my word.”

He brushed away a tear skidding down the apple of her cheek.

“I would rather have your promise that you will not go back to Macar. Please, Nes. I’ve only just gotten you back. Do not ask me to send you away.”

She pulled his hand away from her face.

“You would go, if our places were reversed.”

“Not if you asked me to stay.”

Her gaze was steady but unyielding as she studied him.

“I know what beats in your heart; you cannot lie to me.”

He felt the pressure building behind his eyes at the realization she was right. He fended off a choked exhale as she reached forward to press a hand to his heart, gentle in a way he rarely imagined Nesta being.

“I must go, and you must let me.”

“And if it turns out to be only Lazar? If Adan is innocent in all this?”

A muscle feathered in her jaw.

“I don’t know.”

“You would be honor-bound by the kilhamine to marry him. He would steal you away to Macar, and we would never—“

Nesta shook her head, fingers brushing his lips in a silent command.

“Our path has never been easy, but still it’s always found a way to lead us back to one another. For now that must be enough.”

“Nes...”

“Te cакам,” she breathed.

Had Cassian not already been on the ground, his knees would have given out to hear her say it. He’d all but given up hope that he ever would.

He pressed his forehead to hers.

“I can’t lose you.”

“No,” she said, eyes fluttering closed. “You cannot, because I am already yours.”

There was a long pause in which neither of them spoke, and despite everything Cassian had longed to say to Nesta all these weeks alone, in that moment he knew there was nothing he needed to say that she didn’t already know.

He would have assumed it was the bond, but he realized it was nothing so complicated as any of that; it was simply the ease of two people who’d known and loved one another long enough not to need to speak to be mutually understood.

Instead Cassian reveled in her light, elegant scent and the softness of her skin as he breezed his thumb across her cheekbone. When she didn’t pull away from his touch he leaned a fraction closer, lips brushing the remaining tears from her cheeks before gravitating towards her mouth and hovering.

“Nesta,” he breathed, free hand tangling in the mass of curls coming unspooled from the heavy gold pins.

At her name she seemed to snap from her trance, pressing her fingers to his lips as she shook her head.

“I can’t,” she said. “We can’t.”

Mastering herself she pulled away, wiping her eyes as she struggled to her feet amidst the obsidian sea of her gown.

“I have to go. Adan will be suspicious.”

Cassian would be surprised at her composure but for the fact that Nesta seemed to possess strength beyond what the Mother had given other, lesser creatures. Even now with her gown rumpled and her eyes slightly red-rimmed, she was a pillar of steel.

“Go,” he said. “I will wait before following.”

Nesta nodded, though her lips tightened as she studied him with increased scrutiny.

“Promise me you’ll do nothing rash until we can speak with the others and formulate a plan for dealing with Lazar.”

Despite everything he found himself smiling weakly. He’d missed hearing his Nesta giving orders. However, the mirth faded at seeing her grave expression and the spectre of fear still shading her bright eyes.

“You have my word,” he said.

She nodded again, and he bowed his head as she turned to slip through the door. Even knowing why she had to leave, he didn’t think he could bear to watch her physically go, especially knowing who she was going back to.

“Cassian?”

Surprised, Cassian glanced up to see her still standing in the arched doorway, the torchlight dancing off the gems in her gown making her appear as if she were tongued in dark flame. Her brows drew together as they studied one another for a moment in silence. Finally, she continued, voice soft but resolute.

“I’m sorry for what she did to you. I understand you may need time to process or to grieve, but when you’re ready to speak, I will be here to listen.”

Cassian’s throat was instantly, unbearably tight, and all he could manage was a croaked, “I love you.”

She didn’t repeat the sentiment, but Cassian could feel echoes of it drifting down the bond between them as she gave him a final look and disappeared.

Cassian didn’t know how long he remained there in the dark after that, knowing there were a million things that needed tending to without being able to make himself do a single one. All he could think about was Rabia admitting she’d slipped a tonic in his drink, and Nesta saying ‘I love you’. Pain and joy coalesced, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or sob in weighing what he’d both lost and gained that evening.

In the end he found himself too fragile to do either, and he pushed them down instead, rising to his feet as he transformed from a heartbroken male to the General of the Night Court legions.

If he had to be patient to get his hands on Lazar, so be it; the wait would make his death all the sweeter. And if he had to wait for Nesta—he sighed, expelling a shaky breath before steeling himself and exiting the dungeon cell. If he had to wait a thousand years for Nesta, he would do it. For now he could only do his part and pray it wouldn’t come to that.

xx

The morning after the welcome feast, Nesta found herself once again in her dressing room, though this time she wasn’t alone. She tried to ignore the faint echo of her pulse which buzzed in her ears, a symptom of stress she’d suffered from on and off since childhood. It had largely subsided the last fifty years, though it had begun to occur with more frequency since things had gone to pieces with Cassian. After what she’d learned the night before, it had been pounding non-stop, the ringing enough to nearly drive her mad.

It had been so loud and persistent when she’d first torn herself away from Cassian’s side and rejoined the feast that it had been difficult to hear anything being said as she fought to maintain some semblance of normalcy.

It had grown from a buzzing to a roar when she’d felt the slide of a warm, calloused hand at her elbow.

“There you are,” Adan had breathed in her ear, close enough that his lips nearly brushed the pointed tip. “I thought I’d lost you.”

It took a lifetime of unassailable self-restraint not to stiffen at the proprietary touch, especially as Adan continued, “come, dance with me.”

With that he’d slipped a hand around her waist, the other tucking behind his back as she brought her hand to his shoulder, the other going to keep her sea of skirts from underfoot. She wondered if he could hear her heart as they turned across the floor, other guests stepping out of their path as Adan maneuvered her with ease.

Adan had watched Nesta with curious scrutiny as they danced, but Nesta hadn’t been able to bring herself to smile at him as she perhaps should have. The female’s confession had still been ringing in her ears, fraying her sanity.

Cassian had been right; all this time he’d been telling her the truth, and she’d been too guarded and selfish to see the truth. And when she thought of what had been done to him in order to sow discord between them...

“Are you alright, prensesim?”

Nesta had forced herself to look at Adan, trying to mimic the guileless expression Elain used when she wished to feign sweet ignorance.

“Fine,” she’d said. “Only fatigued from the day’s festivities.”

“Perhaps you’ll allow me to escort you to your chambers, then.”

Nesta had glanced around for someone who might spare her from this fate, but finding no one she’d merely nodded. They ascended into the royal apartments in silence, and when they’d reached Nesta’s rooms she’d attempted a hasty kiss on the cheek as she bid Adan goodnight.

However, he’d gently caught at her hands, pressing her into the door as his soft lips found hers. Nesta had contemplated shoving him off considering everything she’d heard that evening.  After all, this was a male who’d possibly been responsible for abusing Cassian, and that was enough to make Nesta want to gut him like a fish.

However, it was just as possible he was innocent, and they would need his support in punishing Lazar and breaking the engagement given that it had been made under false pretenses. With no proof of the former, she’d let him kiss her, even as she searched for a way to end it. If he was innocent, she didn’t want to be accused of fallaciously leading him on.

She’d been relieved when he’d pulled back, though the feeling was short-lived as he whispered, “I know I promised I would not force you, but may I come to you tonight after the city sleeps? I feel I will go mad if I cannot—”

“Nesta.”

The stricture in Nesta’s throat had loosened at seeing Elain, her smile benign but her doe-brown eyes flashing with a fire Nesta had been sure only she could see.

“Forgive me, I am interrupting?”

Adan had flushed at that, stepping back from Nesta and giving Elain a courtier’s bow. He’d then turned back to Nesta a final time, eyes full of yearning as he said, “Until tomorrow then, my princess.”

With that he’d disappeared, and Elain had pressed into Nesta’s arms, grip fierce.

“Azriel told me what happened,” Elain had said, touching Nesta’s cheek. “Are you alright?”

“I feel a monster,” Nesta had admitted. “I was wrong to doubt him.”

“No one blames you,” Elain had assured her. “Least of all Cassian.”

“I don’t believe you would have treated Azriel in such a manner, were our places reversed.”

“Don’t torture yourself, please. The good news is that you know the truth now, and we have a chance to stop all this before Lazar succeeds in whatever it is he’s planning. The others are waiting to discuss strategy. Would you—”

“I can’t,” Nesta had interrupted. “It’s all too raw.”

Elain had only nodded.

“We’ll speak before the ceremony tomorrow. Try to rest, my love.”

Nesta had nodded, Elain squeezing her hand a final time before turning to go.

“Elain? Please, tell Cassian…”

When she’d trailed off, Elain smiled.

“He already knows,” Elain had said. “But I will.”

Nesta had no further energy after that, and she’d slipped inside her room, staying only long enough to change into a more comfortable shift and slippers before summoning Nuala and asking she wake the tailor.

There was something Nesta needed done.

Now, sitting in her dressing room in the moonstone palace surrounded by the rest of her court, she felt more composed, though admittedly no less anxious inside.

Cassian had yet to arrive, but Rhysand, the Shadowsinger, the Morrigan, and both of her sisters were discussing their next move.

“We ought to use the girl to expose Lazar’s lies and be done with the whole affair,” Mor snarled from where she lounged on a nearby chaise. “This has gone on long enough.”

Azriel gave a dismissive sound from where he stood near the window, monitoring for unfriendly eyes and ears on the balcony beyond.

“Lazar will dismiss Rabia as a liar, and it will be her word against his.”

“So we force the truth out of him,” Mor said. “Between Rhys’s gift and mine, it would be over fairly quickly.”

“I tested them last night,” Rhysand said. “The Macarans mental defenses are impressive. Tunneling through would take more time than we have.”

“Besides,” Feyre added. “How will it look if the High Lord is caught trying to break into the minds of his vassals? We’d be facing the exact war we’ve been trying so hard to avoid.”

“Where does that leave us, then?” Elain asked.

“In the same place,” Nesta said tightly. “I must go forward with the kilhamine. I will use the time I have in Illyria between now and the wedding to discover proof of Lazar’s betrayal and determine whether Adan is involved as well.”

“If you fail, you’ll have no choice but to go through with the marriage,” Feyre pointed out in a soft voice. “You will be bound to Adan for the rest of your life, whether he is guilty or not.”

Nesta stiffened at the idea, even as she forced her shoulders back.

“It’s a risk we have to take. Cassian agrees.”

“This will be agony for him,” Mor said, tone edged with frost. “For you the bond will be easier to ignore, but for him it will be a physical and emotional torment now that you’ve acknowledged the claim.”

“There is no claim. He’s not some beast ruled only by primal instinct. He knows why I’m doing this, and that it does not change what lies between us, bond or no,” Nesta clipped.

“Does he?” Mor challenged.

“Yes. And I do not remember inviting you into our affairs, now or ever.”

“This decision doesn’t affect just you—”

“Mor, enough,” Rhysand cut in. “Nesta is right; this decision is between her and Cassian, and it is also the best one available to us right now.”

At this he turned to Nesta.

“Az and I will work on Lieutenant Na’ahmah while you are away. She seems an honorable female, and she’s in the prince’s confidence. It is possible she may know some of his secrets. At the very least, she’ll know where his skeletons are buried; it could be useful in scaring up proof.”

Nesta nodded, not wanting to discuss this any further. She knew in her gut that she was making the right choice in forging ahead with the kilhamine, but it didn’t make the idea of binding herself to a male other than Cassian—even temporarily—any easier.

“I need to get dressed,” she said in dismissal. “We can speak more after the ceremony; I don’t leave for Illyria until nightfall.”

The males and Morrigan—still looking displeased—nodded their understanding and filed out, leaving only the Archeron sisters.

“I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now,” Feyre again. “But for what it’s worth, Nes, I’m proud of you.”

“Don’t be. I’ve made so many mistakes.”

“Who among us hasn’t?” Elain said. “That you would acknowledge them at all is a testament to your character.”

Nesta’s throat tightened at this, and not wanting to delve further she instead asked, “Have you seen him yet today? How—” she swallowed, fighting to keep her voice even. “How is he?”

“He went on patrol early this morning,” Feyre said. “I think he needed something to distract him from—” Feyre broke off to squeeze Nesta’s hand. “He promised he’d return before the ceremony began. I’m sure this will be his first stop.”

Nesta merely nodded at this, grateful for Nuala and Cerridwen as they appeared, the latter bearing a garmented wrapped in soft linen.

“We’ll leave you to it, then,” Elain said, smiling.

“Let us know if you need anything,” Feyre added with a kiss to Nesta’s cheek. “We will send Cassian to you the minute he returns.”

With that her sisters disappeared as well, and Nesta half-collapsed into the small divan in front of her vanity, taking a deep breath. It all seemed so much more dire now that she was alone.

She hadn’t had the courage to ask her sisters to stay. Despite the fact she knew they loved her, it was difficult to let herself be vulnerable with them. She was the eldest, and yet she’d failed to protect them in so many ways whether they were growing up. The least she could do for them now was remain composed, at least when they were around.

“Are you ready to begin, My Lady?” Nuala said, a hand resting on Nesta’s shoulder.

Her touch was cool even through the silk of Nesta’s dressing gown, and she found it oddly reassuring.

She nodded, and the twins began on her hair. For the ceremony it would remain unbound in the Illyrian custom, save for a portion at the top. Nuala and Cerridwen brushed out the conker mass of Nesta’s hair before coaxing curls into the ends and teasing volume into a section at the crown.

When it was finished they helped her into her restrictive undergarments and tightened her corset before unwrapping the package which lay on the bed.

“Straight from the dressmaker, My Lady,” Cerridwen said, pulling the gown from it’s bed of linen. “And just as you instructed.”

Nesta exhaled a shaking breath, coming forward to brush the silken skirt. Originally the gown had been white and studded with diamonds. An unusual choice for a kilhamine gown, or so she’d been told, though in the end it acceptable for the occasion. However, after what Nesta had learned of Cassian the night before, she’d been desperate for some way to show him what he still meant to her.

So she’d gone to Rhysand’s famed tailor, waking the ancient female to ask her that the gown be dyed cardinal and that the diamonds be replaced with rubies. The gnarled faerie had grumbled at the inconvenience at first, but something in Nesta’s expression must have convinced her because eventually she’d agreed, informing Nesta it would be ready in the morning before all but slamming the door in her face. Nesta had listened to the soft purr of the female’s magic as she began coaxing color into the gems one by one before retreating to her own room again.

Cardinal was the color most closely related to glory in Illyria and as such it would make an obvious choice for a kilhamine gown. However, Nesta had been sure to explain the exact shade she’d wanted, and seeing it now, she was not disappointed.

It was somehow richer than an ordinary red, and the color perfectly matched the slumberous flame of Cassian’s siphons. It was an ode Nesta was positive would not go unnoticed by those who knew where to look.

Nesta accepted a hand from Nuala as she stepped into the gown, fitted through the low-cut bust before billowing out at the hips. She tried not to fidget as the twins trussed up the army of satin buttons which formed an orderly line down the back.

She could hardly breathe by the time Cerridwen ushered her to sit at the vanity again, easing an elaborate headdress out of a box and placing it atop Nesta’s head before beginning to secure it in place.

A coronet of blood-red roses formed the base, each in perfect bloom. On top of the roses sat a complicated gold crown of sorts, a ruby set into the center, and jutting above it all was a halo of iridescent blue-black macaw feathers which glimmered in the soft light.

It was magnificent beyond measure, offering a beautiful counterpoint to her gown and ruby painted lips. Mutely she accepted a pair of plain good earrings which hung to her bare shoulders from Nuala before meeting her own gaze in the mirror.

She looked no less fierce than she had the day before, but she could acknowledge that she looked less sad. The road ahead still reached farther than she cared to admit, but somehow it felt a little less dark now that she knew the truth: that she was not as weak nor as unlovable as she’d feared.

There was a knock at the door as Nesta rose to her feet, a glance out the window telling her the sun was nearly set. Her heart was in her throat as she reached for the knob, though it sank as she opened it to find Rhysand waiting for her.

He opened his mouth to speak and she merely held up a hand.

“Spare me; I’m not in the mood for your games, Rhysand.”

Rhysand gave a sardonic smile, though she could see something more sincere lurking below it.

“I was merely going to tell you that you look beautiful.”

“I always look beautiful,” she snapped, needing the vitriol to provide her some sense of normalcy.

Rhysand chuckled.

“You look particularly beautiful then.”

When she sniffed, he added, “That color suits you greatly.”

She turned to glare at him for the jibe only to find the mirth had evaporated from his face.

“When did you decide to change it?”

“Last night. After I heard—”

He nodded, offering her his arm as they began the long descent to the great hall of the Hewn City.

“I’m sorry for what you’ve been forced to endure, Nesta. I know this must be difficult for you.”

“It’s Cassian who deserves your sympathy, not me.”

“And he has it,” Rhysand said, tugging her arm to halt her as he gently touched her chin. “But you were also deceived, and made to suffer for it. I know you don’t care for being fussed over, but know that you are allowed to grieve as well.”

Nesta gently brushed his hand away.

“When did you become so tolerable?” She said, beginning to walk again.

Rhysand laughed.

“I knew I would wear you down eventually, Nesta Archeron.”

“Don’t push it,” she warned.

Still, something warm had kindled in her chest, helping to fight off the darkness as they moved farther and farther into the belly of the beast. Soon enough they could hear the primal heartbeat of the bone drums, and Nesta felt her own heart’s rhythm falling into step, hammering so hard she was afraid her ribs would be bruised. The gown and her nerves made it difficult to breathe as they halted outside the large wrought-iron gates, the twisting metal meant to represent the scale body of some serpentine beast.

“Azriel will escort you down the aisle,” Rhysand explained, drawing her from her reverie. “But we have time, would you like me to wait—”

“No,” she interrupted. “I wish to be alone for a moment.”

“Alone” wasn’t what she meant and they both knew it, but it was clear from his expression Rhysand had decided against making a comment about it.

“As you wish,” he said, nodding. “Azriel will let you know when it’s time.”

She nodded, warring with the urge to ask where Cassian was. Still, she bit her tongue. If he needed time to gain his composure, she owed it to him without complaint; it was the least she could do.

Instead she found herself pacing back in front of the gates as the drums continued, accompanied now by Night Court strings meant to celebrate the High Lord’s mixed heritage. She couldn’t have said how much time had passed before she heard the rustle of wings and turned to face the Shadowsinger.

Except it wasn’t Azriel. It was Cassian, dressed in the same ornamental armor as the previous day, the same silver hoops strung through his ears.

She watched his throat work as he struggled to speak, and she waited, breathless.

“Nesta,” he said finally.

“I thought you wouldn’t come,” she admitted. “I would not have blamed you for wanting to stay away.”

“I could never stay away from you,” he said, though she noted he’d yet to come any closer. “Never.”

She nodded, glancing down at her velvet slippers.

“You changed your gown,” he said after a beat. “It’s lovely.”

“It’s for you,” she admitted.

Only with him had she ever felt safe enough to be so vulnerable, and it was a relief to know she still knew how after what they’d been through.

His syphons pulsed dully in response, as if the admission had awoken something in his very power. When he didn’t respond beyond that, Nesta forced herself a step forward.

“How are you?”

He exhaled a shaky breath.

“I would be better were this our kilhamine, and I were waiting for you at the end of that aisle instead of Adan.”

It was a thought she’d spent all day trying to avoid, and hearing him say it out loud made her heart ache.

“I may say the words to Adan, but my vows will be to you.”

Inside the hall the drums seemed to intensify, and Nesta felt the time between them slipping away like sand through an hourglass.

“I’m sorry I did not believe you when I had the chance. Perhaps if I had—” she could hear the tears in her own voice, even knowing she couldn’t let them escape.

Cassian only shook his head.

“I would forgive you anything,” he said. “And in this case there is nothing to forgive. I only ask now that you don’t give up on me.”

“I could never,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Even in my darkest rage I could not hate you the way I longed to.”

The drums changed again, growing more rhythmic. Nesta and Cassian seemed to realize at the same moment they’d run out of time, and in an instant he was there, crushing Nesta against the wall as he kissed her. She strung an arm around his neck to pull him closer and he lifted her nearly off her feet, his tongue brushing hers as he slid his leg between her thighs to keep her upright. Even that slight touch was enough to set her body on fire, and she moaned softly into his mouth.

“Nes,” he groaned, winging flaring slightly as she pressed closer, her breast flush against his chest. “Nesta.”

Her fingers dug into leathers as he moved to her neck, lips brushing the first spot on her body he’d ever touched. She forgot everything but him as he grazed her pulse point with his teeth. A primal fae part of her wanted him to sink them into her flesh in a claiming mark, even knowing such a thing would be damning giveaway—

“Cassian.”

The muscles in Cassian’s back stiffened at hearing Azriel’s voice, but after a breath he gently extricated himself from her embrace, easing her back to the floor and smoothing her rumpled gown.

“You’re needed in the great hall,” Azriel said. “People have begun to take note of your absence.”

Cassian nodded before turning back to Nesta, pressing his forehead to hers.

“I love you,” he said quietly.

“Cassian, now,” Azriel prompted, and as Cassian made to leave, the Shadowsinger caught his arm. “And take more care the next time. Anyone could have seen you two just now.”

Cassian didn’t offer a retort, just gave Nesta a last lingering look before disappearing down the hall towards the ball door into the great hall.

She felt hollowed out in his absence, her legs wobbling like a fawn’s as she fought to keep herself composed after his touch had threatened to undo her.

She was grateful at least that Azriel didn’t seem inclined to comment, and after several steadying breaths she accepted his proffered arm. As with the day before, her gown was heavy and unwieldy, and her corset tight enough that every step was an effort.

She found her breaths growing shorter and shorter as the gates groaned open, and she began to fear she might faint if her corset wasn’t loosened.

However, after a moment she felt an invisible shield of air forming around her nose and mouth, allowing her to take in her own oxygen.

“You’re having a panic attack,” Azriel whispered from her side. “I know it’s difficult, but take deep breaths and try to relax.”

Nesta might have snapped back at him where she not under such duress, but instead she simply did as he instructed, taking in great lungfuls of the cool, cedar-tinted air and blowing it out of her mouth as the gates yawned open and they started up the aisle under the watchful eyes of several hundred guests. At first Nesta tried to focus her attention on Adan, but she quickly found it only had the panic rising in her chest. After struggling once again to regain control, she let her eyes settle on Cassian instead.

It was like a dagger to the heart seeing him there, standing up and to the left of where he should have been, at the middle of the dais waiting for her. However, it was a pain Nesta welcomed, because it at least served as a reminder that this was real and not some fever dream born of loneliness and despair.

Cassian’s expression remained impassive as she made her way to the dais, but when his lips moved almost imperceptibly she knew what he was saying.

Te cакам. I love you.

She didn’t dare acknowledge the sentiment with even a nod, reaching instead to smooth the cardinal silk of her gown. His eyes glittered at the gesture, and though it wasn’t enough to fill Nesta’s aching heart, for now she let it be enough.

She was close enough to the dais now that she let her gaze drift to Adan. He looked as beautiful as she’d even seen him, the livery collar of syphons draped across his broad chest glittering the same color as his dark eyes. She studied him—his posture and the pair of ornamental curved blades hanging at either hip—and wondered for the hundredth time if she could trust him. Perhaps he was innocent in all this, and she could trust him to break the engagement without scandal or conflict once proof of his cousin’s treachery was unveiled. Or perhaps he’d orchestrated the whole affair, and they would end up with a civil war before the decade was out. Nesta hated herself for her selfishness, but what she feared more than war was marrying Adan, whether he was guilty or not.

Her knees nearly buckled under the weight of Adan’s gaze as he watched her make her way up the aisle towards him, the silk of her gown hissing like a serpent as it dragged on the stone floor. He was smiling, his gaze still soft with reverence , but she could see the eagerness as well—the desire to possess that ran deep in the Illyrian male blood.

She would be his.

Perhaps not forever, if things went according to plan, but at least while they were bound by this betrothal, some part of her—of her freedom—would belong to Adan. The thought was enough to make her mouth water with impending bile as she made her way closer.

She could feel Rhysand eying her as she stepped onto the dais, Azriel melting from her side and taking his rightful place at the High Lord’s left. Unable to help herself, she glanced up at Rhysand .He was as resplendent as ever, having donned his crown of ravens’ wings whose glinting gems matched the sparkling in his mesmerizing blue eyes. There was a knowing in his gaze as he studied her, expression neutral but gaze keen.

I am different because I know what you’d be sacrificing,, he’d said to her in Illyria. I know what it is to cede your power, to bed and obey someone who you don’t love.

Is that what this was, a concession? It was hard to let herself believe so, especially if arrangement turned out to be temporary. Still, some part of her couldn’t deny what she stood to lose.

You’re mine, Adan had told her in the nightmare she’d once had about him. Unless proof of his complicity could be unearthed, he’d been right: she would be his, and it wouldn’t just be for a few months.

It would be for eternity.

Nesta’s pulse had begun to buzz in her ears again as she accepted Adan’s hand, so loud now that she couldn’t hear Rhysand’s words as he addressed the assembly and offered his blessing to the union.

She could do this, Nesta reminded herself as Rhysand wrapped the customary silk around her and Adan’s wrists.

For Feyre, and Elain, and the baby. For peace in the realm and a respite from war and death.

It was the same refrain she’d played for herself the previous day, though it had begun to wear thin as her courage waned at the silk being tightened to signify the bond of the kilhamine.

So she added a final name, one she hadn’t dared to include before, even as it had haunted her every thought.

For Cassian.

For the life they may yet share. Despite the pain the truth had brought, Nesta felt hope—long dormant—swelling in her chest. Cassian was hers and she is, and she would find the truth and set them both free.

Her gaze slid to Lazar over Adan’s shoulder, his smile overripe with self-satisfaction.

Forcing all her remaining steel into her expression, Nesta met his eyes.

You will not win, she vowed to herself. You may be winning now, but I will see you laid low before the end.

She felt an echo of what felt like agreement resonate through her with surprising warmth, and she knew it must have been the bond. She was not alone, she reminded herself as she focused on Adan again. No matter the road she had to travel going forward, no matter how narrow or how steep, Nesta was not alone.

And neither was she powerless.

She was the heir of the dreaded Cauldron and the mate of one of the most powerful Illyrians ever born, and she’d come at last to see justice done. And not Adan, nor Lazar, nor the Mother herself would be able to stop her.

She was Nesta Archeron, acolyte of Death, and she was about to be unleashed.

Next Time on Like a Lonely House…

Lieutenant Na’ahmah stiffened.

“You wish me  to betray my prince’s confidence, is that it?”

Rhys shifted in his seat, gaze steady.

“I wish to know where there is cancer in Illyria so that I may cut it out before it spreads. I am not accusing your prince of anything, merely asking the question.”

“You speak of Illyrians as if you are not one of us.”

Rhys shrugged.

“I am only half-Illyrian, and I have faced my fair share of prejudice for that fact. You will forgive me if I lack your ardent patriotism, admirable though it may be.”

A muscle feathered in the lieutenant’s jaw, but she otherwise remained silent.

“Have you something to add, Na’ahmah?’

She shifted on her feet, wings rustling.

“May I speak freely, My Lord?”

Rhys’s eyebrows rose.

“Of course. Always.”

Na’ahmah nodded, glancing down at her polished boots as if to compose herself before looking Rhys straight in the eyes.

“Also long as you consider Illyria to be brutal and backwards, it will be. And every time you treat us like savages, you support those who seek to uphold the old ways and silence those who would see things change. Adan is a bright light after centuries of darkness, and he would sooner destroy himself than see Illyria harmed.”

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

If you’d like to be tagged, please comment below. As always, I look forward to hearing what you think! Love you all, and stay safe 💗 

POST SCRIPT: I don’t often include links to the clothing or character references I use because I think it undercuts my story-telling ability if I simply post links to the things I describe. HOWEVER, the reference for the headdress Nesta wears is SO divine you simply have to see it, so click the link to see this gorgeous kinaree headdress with macaw feathers  from a vendor called SerpentFeathers. You will not be disappointed.

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[elizaisthetruehero]

Stranger with my Sister's Face Chapter 1

Someone at the DOD has a cruel sense of humor. That’s the only explanation Jo can think of for why her brother Tony is standing in front of her, being introduced as the new DOD liaison for Eureka and GD. Tony takes in his new assignment in stride as well as he can, though he has some trouble reconciling the person in front of him with his little sister. She just seems to have a little too much practice keeping secrets from him, starting with the boyfriend.

AO3 Link

Sunlight came streaming in through the windows and was glinting off of the data pad Zane was pushing in front of Jo. "Come on, one more problem, and then we'll take a quick break. You've got orbital and flight mechanics down, and you know the ship inside and out. I know you can do this. Let's just make sure everyone else knows it too."

Jo leaned back in her chair, where she was sitting at Zane's kitchen table, with more data pads and textbooks spread out in front of them. "And what were you thinking of for a break?"

"Well," Zane placed his hand on her arm, gently caressing up towards her shoulder, "you should probably have a snack, feed that brain. I've got the stuff for smoothies if that sounds good. Then", he leaned in and pressed a kiss to where her jaw met her ear, "I should probably make sure you get nice and relaxed. Studying while all tense can't be good for memory retention, I'm sure there's a study on it." He continued to press his lips along her jawline, marking a trail to her chin and back to her ear.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, someone in educational psychology has probably done studies on the length of the cramming session" another kiss was pressed to her jaw, "the proper environment" his nose nuzzled at the side of her face, "and what mental state the student should be in." He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and drew back, smirking. "I think a snack and a few minutes away from the books will be just what the doctor ordered."

Jo raised her brow and tried not to smile at his familiar antics. "I think you want an excuse to get me out of my clothes."

"Now Miss Lupo, who said anything about taking off your clothes? Besides, that dress looks so nice on you. It'd be a shame to take it off." Zane said while looking up and down her body, grinning appreciatively, his eyes lingering.

"I had church before I came to see you."

"I'm not complaining JoJo, just complimenting."

Jo's PDA buzzed, and she pulled it out to check it. They've got to be kidding me. "Shit, I gotta run."

"What happened?"

"The new liaison from the DOD came early. They sent someone active duty military, and I have to give their briefing and finish their clearance."

"How long is that going to take?"

She stood from the table and started looking through the papers for her wallet and keys. Where the hell did I put those? "Probably about an hour or so, I'll make Larry settle them into housing and everything else, I just have to handle the security aspect. It would have gone faster if they'd given me their information beforehand like I asked, but the DOD keeps to their own schedule. If it takes much longer than that I'll grab dinner from Café Diem for us on my way back. Does Thai sound good if I have to do that?"

"You don't want to make them sweat while you finish this last problem?"

She smiled at Zane's pouting face softly. "I'll finish up with this guy as quickly as I can and then I'm all yours to torture with orbital mechanics and rocket ship engineering for the rest of the weekend." Jo kissed him slowly, bringing a hand around the back of his neck. Zane pulled her to him, both arms slipping around her waist, a tongue licking into her mouth. She smiled against him then pulled away. "I'll text you when I get out of GD."

"Fine, go, do your job. Make sure that the DOD didn't send a complete moron our way."

"Or a Consortium spy."

Zane furrowed his brow in confusion. "Shouldn't they have already checked that?"

"Yeah, but my background checks are more thorough. Even if the DOD objects to them. Apparently, it's rude to request those records for a sitting Senator. But some lowly grunt is fair game." Jo grabbed her keys from the dish on the table beside Zane's front door and tried not to think of how she'd automatically tossed them there when she'd gotten there a few hours ago, how easily she'd slipped back into the habits built from two years together.

She drove off to GD, parked, grabbed the extra blazer she kept hanging in the backseat of her car, putting it on to look a little more professional and pulling her hair into a ponytail, now grateful that she hadn't changed after church. Her heels clicked on the floor as she made her way to the conference room off to the side of the rotunda.

Jo saw Daisy Lowell, one of her overnight and weekend security guards standing outside the conference room and nodded in greeting. "New liaison get in okay?"

"Uh, yeah, he just got here. His files are all here, and I ran the checks you like when he showed up, as soon as I got the name. No security concerns, no red flags." Jo heard a slight shuffle, looked down and saw Daisy's left leg shuffling, a tell that something was off with her.

"Is there something else you'd like to tell me?" Jo kept her tone light, but her eyes on the shifting leg.

Daisy kept her gaze forward but avoiding Jo's face. "One thing you should know Ma'am. When I saw his record, I noticed that it was someone who, well, uh, would be familiar to you."

Jo turned her eyes upwards to Daisy's face. "Someone I served with in the Rangers?"

"He was a Ranger." Her voice was tight, clearly taking care not to betray anything.

"Lowell..."

"Look, I didn't say you were the Chief of Security, and he didn't say anything, so I think he'll be just as surprised as you. Just go in there, do the briefing, and maybe schedule in time to catch up." Daisy handed her the file, moved out of the way of the door, and Jo pushed it open.

She first saw Senator Wen sitting at the head of the table, and the back of the new liaison. Crew cut, tan skin, the muscles obvious through the army dress uniform, but not particularly broad, though from what she could tell while sitting, fairly tall, at least six feet. She began cycling through the men she'd served with, trying to place him without the face or voice. Maybe Matteo Garcia, or Joey Pesci. Hell, if Adam Johnson had been serving somewhere sunny before coming here, he might be tan enough to fit the bill.

Senator Wen noticed her enter the room. "Ah, Ms. Lupo, glad you could join us." The new liaison's head swiveled around, and he almost toppled out of his chair getting up. Jo realized that all of her guesses were wrong, that while this man had been a Ranger, he hadn't served with her.

"Hi, Tony." She did her best to act blasé, though she was sure he would be able to recognize the surprise on her face.

Tony just blinked at her, looking just as he had when they'd been caught trying to sneak out to go to a concert years ago, "I, uh, Jo? What are you doing here?"

"You have a security briefing. I'm the Chief of Security here. Do the math, you're going to have to do a lot of it here."

"I thought you said you were working private security for some tiny tech company."

Jo drew her shoulders back and tried not to sound too smug. "You are familiar with the concept of top-secret and need to know, right? Cover stories? I do hope so, or else I'm going to have a hard time approving your clearance."

"Ah-hem." Jo and Tony turned to Senator Wen who had a slight upturn to her lips, almost a smile. "Evidently you two don’t need me to introduce you to each other."

Jo smiled, "No, that won't be necessary. That was taken care of a long time ago."

"You were irritating and loud from the moment we met," Tony smirked.

Jo chose not to respond verbally and simply backhanded him in the gut. "Senator, with all due respect, how long have you known my brother was coming to Eureka?"

Senator Wen did smile now. "Oh, a few days now. I thought it would be a nice surprise for the two of you." She walked around the table. "I'll let you get to work now. He already got an overview briefing in DC, he just needs the details of what's going on right now and security procedures."

"I'll take care of it." Jo and Tony each shook the Senator's hand before she left.

"Pleasure meeting you Major Lupo. Oh, and it goes without saying, but he will not have any say in the selection of Astraeus candidates. Washington was very clear about that." The senator left, and Jo tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach, the one that said that her brother's placement in Eureka had something to do with her.

"Well?"

Jo turned back to her brother. "Right, let's get this started. So, what were you told? I just want to make sure we don't miss anything."

Tony looked at her incredulously. "No no no, back up, let's take a minute. When one goes months without seeing one's siblings, it's customary to express some form of affection. Acknowledgment that we're not complete strangers. That sort of thing." He held his arms out and cocked his head.

She rolled her eyes and hugged him. "It's good to see you too Tony."

He chuckled. "Why did that sound like it hurt a little?" He squeezed her tighter, and Jo pushed her face into his neck smiling, taking in the familiar smell of the god-awful musky cologne he'd always worn. She hadn't smelled it since before 1947.

"Don't be a jackass."

"There's only so much I can do about that." They separated from the hug and sat down at the table. "We should probably get started."

Jo opened his file on the table and checked which briefing and checks he had gotten in DC and what Daisy had already taken care of. "Okay, so you know the basics. Eureka was founded as a place for the greatest scientific minds in the US to gather, collaborate and redefine the cutting edge. We get funded by the DOD, and they get military projects and inventions. You're the military liaison, so you're going to be focused on the projects with military applications and finding military applications for others, mostly weapons projects, but also infrastructure, energy alternatives, medical advancement, etc.

You'll have meetings with department and lab heads, but you should schedule those. These scientists are very busy, and their experiments often have delicate timetables. They can't drop everything to chat with you. I do not want one of their pet projects blowing up because you forgot how to work a phone. Is that clear?" Jo fixed her brother with a look that made it clear she was not making a suggestion.

"Yeah, crystal."

"I also see you were told about the Astraeus mission."

"Yeah, they mentioned the 20 Billion dollar space project. I'm still confused as to how it travels, but apparently, it's been tested and works, and last I checked, understanding how these things work wasn't my job."

"Yeah, it's a 6 month mission to one of Jupiter's moons, Titan. I'm sure the DOD will find some use for the research done on it. And no, no one expects you to understand the details of the science and the experiments done here, though you will probably pick some things up. The people here like to talk about their work, and you're going to be pressed for company that doesn't already have multiple PhDs."

"Okay," Tony looked over the paperwork he still had to sign and then asked, "What did Wen mean when she said I obviously wouldn't have any say over the candidates. I figured the DOD would want a little more say over who goes on this thing."

"You'd get accusations of bias." Jo drew her attention to the papers in front of her, looking for the different disaster procedure outlines for him to sign. If Larry lost them again, she'd kill him for real.

"Why would I get accused of bias? I don't know any of the geniuses trying to get off the planet."

"Tony," she drew her shoulders back and sat straighter, the way that she'd been drilled to in Basic training, the same way her brother had been drilled too, "I'm one of the candidates for the Astraeus mission."

He blinked. "That's very funny Josefina."

"I'm not kidding."

"Seriously." He paused, staring at her in shock. "You want to go into a never tested spaceship, that has a barely tested, still experimental engine that travels through creating wormholes, and hang out on another planet for six months doing what exactly?"

"First of all, I just told you, Titan is a moon, not a planet. Second, the researchers are going to be doing their experiments around Titan and out of the atmosphere at various points and will need an experienced pilot to handle the mission shuttle. Third, in case you forgot, I went to West Point for Mechanical Engineering, and since coming to Eureka, have gotten a more thorough practical education. I know what I'm doing, I know how the ship works, and am damn good at wrangling those geniuses when something goes wrong, which it inevitably will. And for the love of God, it's the opportunity to go to space! This is what everyone dreams about! I'm not turning that down."

Tony shook his head. "This is Uncle Ralph's fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"If he hadn't gotten you those books on space when you were a kid, this wouldn't be happening."

Jo couldn't believe what he was saying. "Oh come on."

"Nicky always told us the space phase would come back to bite us in the ass. We didn't believe him, but what do you know, crazy shit happens."

"I know what I'm doing. This is what I want, and I'm good at it." Jo tried not to be annoyed at Tony, but he was making it difficult. "Look, can we have this conversation later? We have a lot to get through."

"Fine." She knew that she wasn't going to be able to avoid this conversation for very long, and Tony would probably try to talk her out of the Astraeus mission at least a few more times. Stubbornness was a shared Lupo trait after all. "After we finish the government's business, is there somewhere around here to get take out? My briefing in DC mentioned an apartment, but to be honest, after the flight, I don't feel like cooking. And it would be nice to catch up."

"Yeah, I can grab us something from Café Diem while Larry gets you settled." Jo's gut twisted. She wasn't going to be in and out of this like she thought. She took out her PDA and messaged Zane and turned the non-emergency ringer off. Briefing going to be taking longer than I said. Won't be available until after dinner, later tonight. Sorry.

"Everything okay?" he nodded toward her PDA.

"Yeah, I just had plans. Going over stuff for the written science background test for Astraeus with a friend. I was just letting him know I had to cancel."

"Uh-huh. And uh, did these plans have anything to do with why you're wearing a dress?"

That got him a glare. "I had church this morning and I didn't bother changing afterward. Do you want to finish this after midnight, or do you want food at some point?"

Tony looked like he wanted to argue, then thought better of it, "I would like food at some point."

"Then shut up."

Paperwork was completed, Larry showed up, and Jo handed off Tony to him, noting the wide eyes as Larry processed who the DOD had sent. She quickly ordered some pizzas and salad (ignoring Vince's eyebrow-waggling, since he probably thought she was bringing them somewhere else) and brought them back to the one bedroom apartment that the DOD had arranged for Tony while Larry was leaving with the completed paperwork. He unpacked his bags, which had been brought when he arrived. Jo and Tony spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up, Jo retelling some of the stories she had already told him over the years with the details filled in, now that he had clearance.

She excused herself around 8, saying she had work in the morning, and still needed to take care of things, and drove over to Zane's apartment. Jo knocked on the door and forced herself to keep calm while waiting. It's not the end of the world. It's just Tony and Zane living in the same town. Working in the same building.

Oh God. The end of the world would probably be less explosive.

Zane opened the door and waved her in. "How long did it take to sign in some DOD bureaucrat?"

"Signing him in didn't take very long. Catching up is what took up most of the afternoon." She wrung her hands together and turned to face him, her skirt swishing against her knees. Zane closed the door behind him and leaned against it.

"They send someone you served with?"

"I wish," Jo scoffed, then ducked her head. "Someone at the DOD has a sense of humor, and decided to give my brother Tony the job".

Zane stiffened, then cracked a strained smile. "Big Brother sent big brother?"

"God, I'm going to be hearing that one for weeks aren't I?"

"Oh yeah." Zane came closer, and wrapped an arm around Jo's back, pulling her to him. "So what does he know?"

"Tony has access to all labs but will need prior authorization from myself or Fargo before entering Section 5. He does not get to harass the scientists, and we're trying to make sure he doesn't disturb the work done."

"Jo…"

"He knows about the Astraeus, and that I'm a candidate, and let me tell you, he is not happy about that, thinks I'm an adrenaline seeking idiot for going to space, and he doesn't want to have to tell"

"What does he know about us?"

Jo paused. "What, that his little sister is screwing the town felon? Funnily enough, that question didn't come up."

Zane ducked his head down to meet her eyes. "He's going to hear about it. Your brother is going to be here until at least the launch, if not longer, and people in this town talk. Zoe heard about us while she was on the other side of the country. How long do you think we have until someone mentions me to him?"

"Carter didn't find out for over a month."

"Yeah, and once it got out, it spread. Everyone knows, and everyone's a gossip. He's going to find out we're sleeping together some way or another."

"Look, I just need you to behave yourself around him, okay? Tone down the flirting, don't blatantly discuss the fact that we're sleeping together in front of him and try not to stare at my ass. Or my chest."

"Why should I?"

Jo stilled when she heard him, not understanding what he was saying. "What?"

"What motivation do I have for behaving? You're insistent that we're just friends, so why should either of us care what your brother thinks of me?" Zane ran his hand up and down her spine softly, trying to get her to relax. "I don't know what the Zane Donovan you knew was like, but I have a reputation for spitting in the face of authority. If I start sucking up to some DOD schmuck for no reason, well, someone's going to think I'm up to something."

"Or maybe they just think you're turning over a new leaf. You know, becoming an actual grownup."

Zane leaned back from Jo, and pulled one arm away from her, propping it up on the counter. "Maybe, but maybe he wouldn't."

Jo raised an eyebrow "You realize it sounds like you're asking me to introduce you to my brother at my boyfriend, right?"

He shrugged, "If that's what you want to call it, fine by me. If you want to tell him we're just having meaningless sex, which, need I remind you, has been your call, that's your choice. If you want to look your big brother in the eye and use the phrase Friends with Benefits, go for it, I will back you up. But you and I both know that's not the only thing that's going on here.

We have dinner together most days. I spend most of my free time with you. You spend most of your nights in my bed. Honestly, you really should start keeping clothes here at this point, there's going to be a Eureka disaster at some point. Do you want to show up in yesterdays' clothes or better yet, mine?"

"Zane,"

"I have no intention of going out or being with anyone else right now, and I don't think you do either. What's the harm in telling your brother what he's going to hear anyway? At least this way I'll see it coming when he tries to shoot me."

She stepped back and wrapped her arms around her chest, looking away from Zane, not knowing how to explain the relationship between herself and her brothers. "The last time I would have introduced a guy to my family in this timeline, would have been my junior prom date. They were so overbearing and overprotective and just awful that I told them the next time I introduced them to someone I was dating would be when I was handing out wedding invitations."

"In this timeline?"

"I'm assuming so anyway. Based on conversations I've had with them, they never met anyone I dated."

"What about the other timeline?"

Jo turned her gaze toward the floor, away from his bright blue eyes. "In the other timeline, we had been dating for two years before you met my dad and my brother Nicky. You- He, never met Rico or Tony." She felt him staring at her.

"Tony's the one who the DOD sent, right?" She nodded. "Two years, popped the question, I never met two of your brothers?"

"You'd talked to them on the phone, skyped a couple times, but not in person. You were supposed to come with me to meet Rico and his family when he was home on leave, but you were stuck in the Arctic on a project."

"So I still got my ass frozen off in that timeline too? Good to know some things stayed the same."

"Yeah." Jo tried to look anywhere that wasn't Zane. I almost lost him both times then.

Zane crossed his arms over his chest, and Jo tried not to notice his shirt pulling at his biceps. "So, what are we telling your brother?"

Jo slipped off her blazer and draped it over the couch. "Well, if he asks, I guess we're telling him you're my boyfriend. But only if he asks."

Zane smiled, and unbuckled his belt, slipping it off before shoving down his jeans. "Of course. I'm not looking to get a bullet in my head if I don’t have to."

[corancoranthemagicalman]

Hannibal - Ep1 - Reaction

Okay, so this is starting because of @quartermastercandlestickmaker​ and @todorokisrose​ [yes, y’all both gettin’ tagged in the annoouncement and this one. I need to be clear on who is causing my suffering.]

I’m here in this hole now. This dark pit.

This is not a live-blogging of my watch, but I am writing this live. So, writing live posting later. If that makes sense. I’ll have one post per episode and after I’ll compile them all into a master list.

Spoilers ahead.

What a grand opening my dudes. Thrilling music. He’s got that “he fucked up” face going on. WAIT NO HE’S SHERLOCKING THE SHIT. OH COOL. NO WONDER I SAW SOOME FANART OF THEM BEING BFFS. Oh, I like this. Weird effects flex but I dig it.Ooooooooooo I was not expecting that voice. IS THIS WHERE THE “THIS IS MY DESIGN” SHIT CAME FROM WHAT THE FUCK Have I known this more than I thought.

Also low-key bitch *looks* like a psychopath no wonder what is gonna happen happens. Oh rip Mrs. Marlow ;;~;; that was a hard change bro.

I don’t wanna think about ---

BITCH THIS *IS* WHERE THE THIS IS MY DESIGN SHIT CAME FROM OH M Y G O D

Also Laurence Fishbourne god bless I love him.

It’s difficult for me to be social too, fam. LAURANCE WHY DID YOU FIX HIS GLASSES THAT WAS SO WE IR D???? Also bro same I love you, Will Graham, you funky little sociopath.

“Every girl is a candy bar” mhm okay thanks for that. Will and this sociable thing is really fucking me bro minus the serial killer obsession/profession/vibe.

Laurence Fishbourne is an amazing actor but I’m also digging the dude playing Will (srry names are my weakness so his name is Will.)

Oooooo booi. I recognize Katz from fanart she’s a popular one right. But we’re going upstairs.

I’m so worried about opening the door

Oh

Oh

Oh no

He knew

This bitch been knew

Holy shit

I like the whole thing with eye contact. I’ve seen the gif where it’s mentioned but I like how it’s subtle and not overly emphasized so far. Oh we’re flashing back again. Poor Elise. It’s a super interesting story technique using him as the killer. Also damn bitch “you unstable” you’re such a nosy bitch how were you interrupted when you were asked not to enter

Now everyone is here

Antlers promote healing mhm okay

I wanna hug him but I also don’t want to make him uncomfortable with contact. IS HE STOPPING FOR A DOG OH ,Y HO GOD. I’D DIE FOR THIS MAN. I’D DIE FOR THIS MAN. HE STOPPED FOR A DOG. HEWENT BACK FOR THE DOG OMGH THIS MAN THIS MAN IS,,,,, he adopted a fucking stray dog. This man is lovely. I love this man. This -- HE DOES IT TO MULTIPLE DOOGS OH MY GOD I WANNA MARRY HIM ANDHAVE WINSTON AND EVERYBODY AND OMOG HE’S SUCH A LOVELY STRANGE CREATURE.

Where are we now. In a dream state? OH SHIT WE ARE THAT’S A BODY AND A HEARTBEAT IN MY EAR WHAT THE FUCK ahhhh fun nightmares I love it. Oh shit the towels. Bro. There are quite a few visuals happening.

“USE THE LADIES ROOM” dafsjhg

Stop yelling at him ;;~;;

Woah  this is a lot to unpack in this scene you can see Will like slipping omg. It’ss almost unsettling him not having eye contact but like I know the reason for it and therefore it’s just impressive acting and not like unsettling of the actor to do that if that makes sense? I really am impressed by that level of commitment to not have a “look at the camera” to keep showing how he won’t look at other people.

Ooo this is one of the lady psych talkers which is like on the Graham side while the blonde one is for Hannibal, right even tho Hannibal is a brain doc. ALANA that’s her name and that might be how you spell it. She doesn’t want him out there but Laurence needs  her to be his back  up. (Oh, his name is Jack.) JACK DONT MAKE PROMISES WILL CAN AND WILL GET CLOSE.

WHAT THE FUCK  IS THIS SHOW WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE SHADWS AND THE ANTLERS PIERCING HER OH MY GOD WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS SHOW I THOUGHT THE VISUALS I HAD SEEN IN FAN ART WAS JUST LIKE FANON  IMPOSED OMOG “SOMETHING WRONG WITH  THE MEAT” O G M OOG HE’S EATING THEM FUCK

Is this

Is this my bitch

MY BITCH MADS OH MY GOD.

I love him. He’s so unconventionally handsome. He looks like he’d kill and eat me but I’d thank him for it, yanno? Oops.

No nonsense MM handing this crying man some tissues I love it. “I hate being this neurotic” omg the mood also Hannibal’s glance to the tissue is fucking amazing??? V Subtle Acting /cries in beauty

Franklyn, the lion isn’t in the room boy (just discovered I might wanna put subtitles on but they’re not working so rip)

Frankie boy got so scared by that comment thanks, Dr. Lector.

Mhm no secretary that’s,,, suspicious,,,, “sad to see her go” mhm okay sure Jan

Oh this bitch does draw oh my god john hopkins internship and all. Laurence is impressed and Mads is “mhm are you gonna try something” sdajkfgh A LAYMAN DAMN aww he’s like “oomg you’re so amazing dr. mr. sir”

OH THEY’RE IN THE SAME ROOM HERE WE GO BBY

FUCKKK IT BEGINS

SORRY HE’S GIVING THE WHOLE DOWNLOW

“Associations come quickly-” “so do forts”

QEFJWahgrsdfdkq WHAT THE FUCK

THIS IS LITERAL THE FIRST DAMN CONVERSATION HE HAS WITH HIM. I KNEW THE CONVERSATION ABOUT EYE CONTACT WAS ONE OF THEIR FIRST, BUT THIS IS THE LITERAL FIRST WITH THE ADDED BONUS OF HE ACTUALLY MAKES E Y E C O N T A C T OOMGGG??!?!?!?!

Oh ;;~;; “YOU WONT LIKE ME WHEN I’M PSYCHOANAYLYZED” im this is very flirtatious als jack you’re like br  o

So he’s the King of Empathy. He’s,,, helping Will see his own face,,, mhm,,,,, what does that say about you, Dr. Lector?

He’s mocking where he was apologetic is this maybe noT

FJAGUDIS

SHIT THOSE ARE LUNGS

OH

“HE HAS A DAUGHTER SAME AGE” O H B O  Y THAT’S UH DADDY HAS SOME ISSUES WITH BABY LEAVING HOME

Also this is a copy cat dklafjsghjfd OH DAMN THAT SNAP BACK ABOUT DR. LECTOR FFUCKK MAN.

Also,, I  can see why this show,, caused issues,,, a man should not look handsome while eating fucking lungs.

More visions I cannot even

What does this

What the hell is this

Dr. Lector showing up at his house o h .

IS HE FEEDING HIM FUCKING LUNGS BITCH OH MY GD ON A FIRST DATE???

“God forbid we become friendly”

“I don’t find you that interesting”

This smells,,, like a ship,,, mhm,,,,

Breath will damn breath slow and use the words omg

Mhm ookay “we’re just alike” in the first bit…

Uncle Jack sees him as a fine china tea cup. That’s hilarious.

“How do you see me?” says Will.

“The mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by,” replies Hannibal WHILE WILL IS KEEPING EYE CONTACT.

OH MY GOD. MHM. KAY. IM OKAY. THIS IS OKAY.

So is there a reason -- “plain but pretty” hannibal gives a look -- is there a reason no official officer is accompanying them like????? They’re both not??? FBI????

Damn hannibal spilling shit everywhere.

HE’S USING A TISSUE TO PICK UP THE PHONE

TO CALL HIS DAUGHTER

MHMMMM?????????

Wait no he’s calling someone else

Who is this

OH HE’S CALLING GARRETT. OH. wait is he helping other cannibals get away. What the fuck. You can’t do that, Hannibal. Is there a fuckking cannibal union yall get together and trrade recipes.

OH NO GARRETT MURDERED HIS WIFE AND KID DIDNT HE OH NO

OH PLEASE NO

Wait we’re back to reality

This back and forth is trippy

Oh

H  N

OH  NO

FUCK YU HANNIBAL AND YOUR STUPID FUCKING CANNIBAL CLAN THIS PR WOMAN :(((((((((

I do love how this built up to Hannibal being the cannibal but it was Hobbs. NFIEGSIBFD

HOBBS NO

FUCK HIM UP WILL

(also I guess Will technically is FBI that probably helps lmao)

Oh no

O h n o

Dont whisper at him to see bitch

Oh no

Will

Will it’s

Oh no

>:((((((((((((((((((( hannibal Imma fuck you up

Will honey let someone clean your glasses. Does she survive? I hope the girl survives. The Traitor Cannibal Bitch is going with them. Mhm.

Alana tryin’ to protect him. (Does she like him? I got bad news, babe, he’s gonna fall in love with a man-eater.)

shE SURVIVED??? AND HANNIBAL IS THERE WITH HER???? OMOG??? DOES HE FEEL BAD YET YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU READ THE CANNIBAL WRONG AND HE NEARLY MURDERED HIS FAMILY wait is this chick who everyone calls their daughter oomg??? Is this her????

WHAT WAS THIS SHOW OMG WHAT WAS THIS SHOW

[whimsandvanillalattes]

"You?" (Part 2)

Pairing: Kwon Jiyong (G Dragon) x Reader

Genre: Soulmate AU, Romance, a dash of fluff

Soulmate AU Prompt: Soulmates have identical counters that count the number of times they have passed their soulmate.

Part: 2/?

Part 1 | Part 3

Alternatively titled: Y/N and GD think too much.

A/N: Thank you everyone who read the first part and everyone who liked/left comments/reblogged. It means the world to me. Also, I’m so so sorry for not updating sooner. As an apology, accept this really long part! Another thing I want to add is that I’m more used to writing OC stories rather than reader centered ones. I really tried to make Y/N gender neutral but for some reason I couldn’t make that work. I’m really sorry about that too. Please bear with a Fem!Y/N here. For my next story, I’ll definitely make a gender neutral Y/N.

-

You swore under your breath as you veered around an elderly couple. You had overslept and if you didn’t reach the train station in another minute, you were going to be late for class. You lived at the university dorms so you had never really been late before. But you and one of your best friends had had a sleepover at your other best friend’s house and last night had been spent binge watching Lee Jong Suk’s dramas (in honor of his enlistment, and because you just loved him). Unlike you, they didn’t have morning classes so now they were sleeping soundly at home while you were just hoping you reached class before your professor.

Luck was not in your favor though, because you encountered one of the largest crowds you had ever seen (and you had seen a lot, considering how much of your free time you spent going to music shows and fan meets) at a little distance from the station. You saw some people taking pictures and, while you were offended on behalf of their center-of-attention whose privacy was being invaded, a part of you was tempted to stop and see which idol or actor was causing this commotion—you were sure it was either of the two because that was the only logical explanation. But your professor’s angry face appeared before your eyes, and you seriously wanted to not fail, so you pushed through the crowd and got to the station.

About ten minutes into your journey, your phone began to vibrate. Intensely. You pulled it out of your pocket and saw a ton of notifications. Most were from twitter, accompanied by a single one from a tabloid. You clicked on that, figuring it would make more sense than the frenzy of tweets. The headline read:

BIGBANG’S G-DRAGON spotted enjoying his military leave with his sister.

The article went on to say that he had “attracted a lot of attention.” So GD was on a leave? And so-called fans and paparazzi—or should you say Dispatch—wouldn’t even let him relax on his break. Now, you wouldn’t call yourself a VIP, but you had been listening to K-pop since you learnt the language and regarded BIGBANG as one of K-pop’s legendary groups. You could sing along to most of their songs and many of their solos (maybe you should call yourself a VIP). Which made you not exactly happy about how GD was being treated.

The tabloid article also had pictures. Dispatch is fast, you thought. He was wearing a black mask and a cap, so his face was barely visible. It was surprising how anyone had managed to recognize him. But then again, you had recognized him in the photos immediately so it wouldn’t have been hard for longtime VIPs to do the same. Taking a closer look at the photos, you noticed something strange. His surroundings looked familiar. Two years of living in Seoul had made you quite well-acquainted with the city and with a start, you recognized his location. The crowd you had just encountered had been caused by him.

The fangirl inside you freaked out. You had walked right past THE G-Dragon. A part of you cursed yourself for wanted to be a good student and not stopping, while another part tried to convince you to get off the train at the next station and run back. The more rational part of you, however, curbed all these stupid ideas. Enough people had swarmed him already without you joining them. Besides, you had a class to get to.

Scrolling through the comments, you were in the midst of adding one of your own to rebuke Dispatch for invading his privacy and making him uncomfortable when something on your wrist caught your eye and you almost dropped the phone. Setting it down on your lap, you turned your wrist over.

And gasped.

The 0 you were accustomed to seeing on the inside of your right wrist was not there. In its place was a cursive 1.

-

You ended up skipping the first class, not because you didn’t reach the university on time, but because you spent about half an hour in the toilet bawling your eyes out. You had finally passed the boy you had wanted to meet your entire life. Only, you had simply passed him, without even realizing it. What were the odds of meeting the guy you passed only once in your two years in Seoul, especially when you had passed each other at or around a busy train station? You weren’t one to be pessimistic usually, but it was frustrating how you moved to an entirely different country for your soulmate, but you hadn’t even been able to find out what said soulmate looked like.

Your bad (awful) day didn’t end after that. Sleep deprivation combined with narrowly missing your soulmate lead to a terrible mood and a terrible headache, you learnt, and you were not able to concentrate in any of your classes. So, several consecutive classes later, you had a clear plan in your head. You were going to crash onto your bed in the dorm and catch up on at least a bit of the sleep you had forsaken for Lee Jong Suk. You would worry about your soulmate when you were thinking straight.

Naturally, you forgot to set your alarm.

For the second time that day, you overslept. This time you were running late for work. Unlike class, you had been late for work several times and knew that your manager would absolutely kill you if you were late again. So, you got dressed in a frenzy, almost left all the lights switched on, and, for the second time that day, you ran for your life.

You reached the coffee shop you worked at ten minutes after your shift started and thankfully your manager thought a warning glare was enough punishment. You hurried to the employees’ room at the back of the shop and changed into your uniform. A quick peek in the mirror informed you that you looked like a mess. Your dark circles had somehow intensified and your hair resembled a bird’s nest, courtesy of the fact that you hadn’t bothered to brush it. It was frustrating how this was what you looked like the day your soulmate showed up (though you were sure he hadn’t noticed you either). You pulled it back into a ponytail in a measly attempt to tame it. While it was not the most effective, at least now you looked less like a homeless sleep deprived person and would gladly face your soulmate if he showed up at the coffee shop. Which was next to impossible, because he had never come here in the two years you had been working here.

The smell of coffee began to put your mind at ease once you settled down at the counter. As you prepared two teenage girls’ orders—a strawberry shake and an iced americano (totally contrasting drinks, you mentally noted)—you fell into a sort of routine, unlike the events of the morning. That put you in a comparatively comfortable state of mind and your thoughts finally began to align themselves. Usually, you kept a novel or a textbook with you during your shift but having very conveniently forgotten to bring anything with you afforded you the opportunity to think of your soulmate—who hadn’t really left your mind all day anyway. Maybe he took the morning train from that station everyday and you hadn’t ever crossed him before because that was not your usual route? You often stayed at your friend’s house, so you had taken trains from that station many times though. Had the timing always been wrong? Or had your soulmate recently moved to Seoul? Was he from another city? Busan? Daejeon? Pyongyang, North Korea?

A loud grumbling sound broke your train of thoughts. With a start, you realized it had ensued from your stomach. The only thing you had consumed the entire day was a cup of coffee and some cookies you had found in your bag. You were starving. A particular red velvet cupcake, with cream cheese frosting, had caught your eye and was enticing you to have it. The only customer in the shop was seated at a table by the window, typing away at his laptop. He had been like that for about an hour, his now cold coffee abandoned on the table. You could afford a snack break, then. There was at least one perk of working at a place that had food. You retrieved cupcake and quickly punched yourself a receipt which included the 20% employees’ discount, adding the due amount to the cash register. You settled down on a stool and indulged in a bite of the heavenly cupcake (that you enjoyed more than you normally would because of the lack of food in your system).

The bell above the door rang, and you tried to swallow it down so that you could greet the new customer. You glanced towards the door and nearly choked on said cupcake. Walking towards the counter, wearing a black hoodie and the same cap he was wearing in the picture you had seen earlier but having somehow lost the mask, was Kwon Jiyong. Aka GD. Aka G-Dragon.

What? How? What is he doing here? Is it really him? But-

Incoherent half-thoughts ran through your mind, but the gist was wondering why he was here of all places. Was it because this particular coffee shop was not in a mainstream area? Or had he suddenly craved coffee and had been tempted by the fact that there was only one other customer?

You were able to regain some of your composure and uh, not choke by the time he got to you. Your manager’s hawk eyes were on you and you could not afford to appear unprofessional, no matter how much you wanted to squeal and ask this man for an autograph. He probably noticed that you knew who he was though because a wide smile appeared on his face and you nearly melted in a puddle (Be professional, Y/N! you scolded yourself internally.) Either that, or he had found your almost-choking antic amusing. Possibly both.

“Good evening, sir!” At least your voice hadn’t betrayed you.

“Hello,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Your Korean pronunciation is pretty good.”

“Oh, thank you.” A blush threatened to appear on your face. “I’ve been living in Seoul for a while.” And I’ve been learning Korean for more than a decade, you decided to not add.

He ordered an iced Americano and you began to prepare it for him. Unlike with most customers, you felt extra nervous, mainly because you could feel his eyes following you. You were just hoping not to mess up.

“You know,” he began, “I thought you would ask me for an autograph. I know you recognized me.”

Whoops, busted!

You smiled. “I want to, but my manager would kill me if I do, so I can’t.” Conversing with him had seemed like a hurdle two seconds ago but now that he had initiated conversation, it was just…natural. As if talking to Kwon Jiyong was the most normal thing in the world and something you had been doing your entire life.

He chuckled. “You’re that scared of him?”

“I can’t afford to lose this job,” you said, shrugging as you handed him his drink. You had never seen him in person before, and you were a pretty big fan of his, but after your initial shock, you couldn’t help but wonder at how comfortable you felt talking to him. It was strange because you were the kind of person who could never be completely relaxed talking to an ordinary person for the first time, much less talking to an idol.

“I guess I can give it to you the next time I come here, then.”

Now that was something that made you almost freak out. “You’re going to come here again?” you asked. It was hard to mask the excitement on your face, and he seemed to find that very amusing. At least, that was what you inferred from the wide gummy smile that adorned his face, and you couldn’t help thinking of how cute it looked.

He took a sip from his drink. “Well, the coffee’s good,” he grinned, “So yeah, I am.” His phone buzzed and he glanced at the screen.

“I need to go now.” He stepped back from the counter. “See you next time.”

“Bye!” you called out. He waved at you over his shoulder as he opened the door and for some reason you were waving back, not caring that your manager was rolling his eyes at you.

*

“Oh, sit down already!” your roommate and one of your best friends, Soo-jin, whined. You rolled your eyes as you plopped down on your bed next to Min-ji, your other best friend.

“Okay, now spill,” Min-ji ordered. You had briefly told them what happened the entire day and they had deemed it too important to discuss in the morning, so the three of you were now gathered at your dorm room. Min-ji was the friend whose house you had had a sleepover at the previous night. She had decided to stay at your and Soo-jin’s room that night so you could talk peacefully.

“What do I start with, GD or soulmate?”

“GD!” they cried in unison. Both of them had been BIGBANG fans since they were kids. You told them how you had seen a crowd in the morning which had turned out to be because of him, and then how he had showed up at your workplace. When you finished, they just stared at you for a second.

“Woah,” Min-ji breathed out finally. “You’re so damn lucky.”

“But he is so sweet!” Soo-jin exclaimed. The fangirling was starting now. “He even asked if you wanted an autograph.”

“I know right. And telling her that he’d come again!” Min-ji was almost squealing now. She looked at you. “How did you even survive it?”

“I almost didn’t. I’m just glad I didn’t totally freak out and left a, you know, terrible impression.” You shrugged. Now that you thought of it, it was odd that he had talked to you at all. Hadn’t he been ambushed by enough fans already for one day? He knew you knew who he was, so why talk to you any more than necessary? In any case, the three of you discussed (err, fangirled over) him a little longer before Min-ji remembered you had another important matter to discuss.

“What about your soulmate, though?” she asked. “When did you pass him?” Both of your friends had already found their soulmates. Min-ji’s happened to be her neighbor so they had known each other almost their entire lives. Soo-jin’s soulmate was one of your seniors and they had met a little after she started university.

“My counter changed to one in the morning.” You leaned back into a pillow. “I noticed when I was on the train. We probably crossed on the station, or when I was rushing to it.” You sighed. If only you had been paying more attention to your surroundings, you would have met yours too.

“Hey, what if your soulmate’s one of those Dispatch photographers?” Soo-jin exclaimed. You snorted.

“Dispatch? Seriously?” You rolled your eyes at her. You could always count on your friends to find all sorts of weird ways to cheer you up.

“That’s totally possible, though,” Min-ji added, playing along. “Didn’t you say he’s older than you?”

“You’ll have to start stalking Dispatch’s professional stalkers!”

“That might actually end up being a good thing.” You laughed. “I’d know all the latest gossip.”

Min-ji nudged you with her foot. “Show us your counter.” You thrust your wrist towards them. They promptly gasped, as you had expected them to. Your friends tended to be quite dramatic too.

“I know,” you began, “it is surprising. I was so shock—”

“Y/N,” Min-ji interrupted, “when did you last check your counter.”

“When I was leaving for work, I think. Why?”

“Well, it’s not Dispatch, for sure,” Soo-jin whistled.

“What?”

“Look at it again.”

You did, and you gasped too. Your wrist didn’t say 1 anymore. Now it read 2.

-

To say that Jiyong was confused would be an understatement. He was far beyond confusion. He was conflicted in the worst possible way. His entire day had been…chaotic. It hadn’t entirely been bad—he had experienced intense excitement and adoration at one point—but it had not been an ideal way to spend his break. Even trying to make sense of everything that had happened made his head throb.

When he had managed to disengage himself from the swarm of paparazzi at the station, he noticed that the counter that had read 0 for the past 20 years suddenly read 1. He had always imagined he would be overjoyed at this occasion. Strangely, he hadn’t been anywhere near overjoyed. He had become too used to living as if he had no soulmate. The discovery that not only did he have one, but that his soulmate was very close was a change he hadn’t seen coming, and it was not entirely welcome. And, he had to admit, he was also frustrated because he had only passed his soulmate, rather than actually meeting.

He had decided he needed coffee to clear his head and had taken great pains to find a place where he could get it without attracting public notice (again). At least, he had thought that was his consideration. But, in hindsight, it could have been the soulmate pull. They did say it worked in strange ways. How else could he, out of all the coffee shops in Seoul, have ended up at the one his soulmate worked at? Crossing her once in a day could be a coincidence but meeting her again in the span of some hours could most certainly not be one. In any case, he had winded up at her workplace. There, he had encountered a cute, albeit quite young, foreign part-timer who knew him, he had realized immediately. After the rough morning, he should have bolted but something had compelled him to stay. And he had discovered that the part-timer was fun to talk to.

He hadn’t realized she was his soulmate until he got back to his car and his manager pointed out that his counter had changed again. That was when things had begun to click in his head and the reason talking to her was fun started to become clear. He had been tempted to run back inside and tell her this new turn of events. But that had been accompanied with thoughts of rejection that held him back, and he had felt suffocated beneath a variety of emotions. Instead, he had told his manager to drive on.

That was why he was currently lying on his living room couch, a steaming bowl of ramen he suddenly did not want to eat abandoned on the mahogany table in front of him and all the lights expect the one in the hallway switched off. The atmosphere was gloomy, but he liked it better that way; it was a perfect representation of his inner turmoil. Her eyes, wide with excitement and surprise as they had been when he had mentioned coming again, seemed to be permanently etched in his brain. Now that he had uncovered her identity, the pull felt even stronger. His entire being was craving her. And she had moved to Seoul, so that would mean she was looking for her soulmate too. Had she put two and two together yet and realized she was actually looking for him?

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake off the doubts. He had gotten his counter when he was ten, so that would mean she had to be twenty. He had always known about the age gap, so it didn’t really bother him. It wasn’t like she was a minor or anything. But was she okay with it? All her knowledge about her soulmate came from whatever he had first said after she was born. He didn’t even remember what he had said. He just hoped it wasn’t something stupid. In any case, the most she could have inferred from that would be that he was a Korean man a few years older than her. There was a big difference in being a few years older and around ten years older. And did she even want him as her soulmate? His life hadn’t really been a pure, sinless, scandal-free one. She probably knew about that.

And most importantly, he didn’t like the pull. His mind was sort of sick of the effect the bond was having on him. It wasn’t her fault, but it made him want to avoid her at all costs.

What was he to do now? Go to her the next day? Or pretend his counter still said 0? Coming to a conclusion was not easy. He told himself to wait until his enlistment was over and then approach her. If she wanted to find him, she wouldn’t leave before she did. But even when eventually he drifted into a light, troubled slumber, he had not managed to convince himself.

[swanderful1]

Duplicity: Ch 12/?

Summary:  Secrets shroud the homes of the idyllic Willow Lane. Its newest resident, Emma Swan is no exception. In a place where perception is everything, the facade begins to crack. And Emma finds herself staring down the deep, dark secrets that the neighborhood was built on and that nothing is as it seems. Not even the blue eyed gardener.

Notes: If anyone's still out there, here is chapter 12!!! Thanks so much for all of the support and understanding. Writing a second story while also going through some pretty massive changes in my life has been so hard. And it often knocks out my creative energy all together. But I was able to write this (over several months unfortunately) and hope to continue to do so.

Shout out as always to my angels: my beta @resident_of_storybrooke, @shady-swan-jones for the artwork and @onceuponaprincessworld who always checks in and supports my long and excessive writing process.

Read the whole GD thing on AO3 and FFnet. 

Killian could hardly believe his eyes as he stared at the name on the paper. He closed them tightly and reopened again. Bent the paper into the light from the window. Put it down and walked away only to refocus seconds later but the print stayed the same. The amount stayed the same. And from those two very convenient elements he could assume only one thing.

Cora Mills was his mother’s step-sister. Which made her his step-aunt. Which was so insane to him he sat down on the corner of the bed to process it. The paper still in his hand as he stared straight ahead at the mess on the desk.

Had Liam known? Of course he had to have known, the marriage license and the check left conveniently close to one another. Killian ran his hand through his hair, clutching tightly to his scalp as if that would keep him from experiencing the throbbing headache that had appeared out of nowhere.

When his father died, years ago, the shotgun to the back of his head, a part of Killian was gone with him. And then shortly after, his mother being locked away for being the one responsible for his father’s death, another part of Killian left. Liam’s passing was yet another piece of him that disappeared. He had resigned himself to believe there was no family ties for him left in this town. Now to come to the realization that of all people, he could possibly be related to the very woman he suspected was tied to the Gold family.

“Bloody hell,” he mumbled to no one but himself. There was no one else to mumble to. The only people who could potentially relate to his in any capacity were gone. One dead. One in prison.

Then he thought of Emma.

Certainly he could tell her, couldn’t he? Though he had sufficiently muddied up that situation as well. She had all but stormed out of the room the night before. So quick he could barely get his thoughts together to tell her why he didn’t want to have her in that room.

How he wanted her so badly but couldn’t fathom doing it in the same spot he had lost himself. It was complicated, and while he wanted to explain that to her he also didn’t want to overwhelm her. After all, they hadn’t known each other all that long and he knew Emma didn’t open her heart to just anyone. If that was where she thought of him.

Killian looked at his phone. There were no new messages, no missed calls. Of course Emma had his number but he knew better than to expect to hear from her. It was only right for him to reach out.

On the third ring she answered. Her smooth voice echoing in his ear. There was a hint of disappointment in her tone.

“What?” was all she said.

“Emma,” Killian didn’t know where to begin. There was so much. Especially as a huge puzzle piece sat in his hands. But to him the most pressing issue felt like he wanted that note of disappointment in her voice gone. Because right now he was the reason for it. “Can we meet somewhere?”

“Why?”

“There are some things I need to talk to you about and I don’t… I don’t necessarily feel comfortable doing it over the phone.”

“I don’t know.”

“Emma, love, I-” He didn’t want to say too much, to mince words or screw things up even worse. But he also wasn’t comfortable with being complacent.

“Neal’s home right now.” She cut him off. “It’ll be harder for me to sneak out.”

“I understand.” He was almost ready for her to hang up. “But it’s essential that we talk in person. There are things I need to explain. I can wait all day. I can wait until tomorrow. But not much longer than that.”

For a few seconds she was silent, and he worried he was too harsh.

“Can you meet at Irwin Park, just after sunset?”

“Of course,” he could hardly mask his relief. It would be several hours before sunset, and he had a lot of digging to do before he saw Emma and would attempt to figure out how all of this connected.

Just before sunset Killian pulled his truck into the parking lot next to Irwin Park. The last of the families were leaving. Tired children carted away in strollers from the playground. A couple walking toward their car with a small dog on a leash. There was a time in Killian’s life when he and Milah would have been that couple. An unassuming looking pair sharing a quiet evening walking around a pond.

After losing his family, Milah was his family. She was everything to him for so long. But then eventually she was gone too.

Killian lost Milah far before she actually died though. In the final months of their relationship she was unrecognizable. Scatterbrained. Paranoid. A ghost of who she once was. In the back of his mind he knew it was the drugs. He knew the cocaine had a lot to do with it. But he also knew there was something else. There were other forces at work that dragged her away from him. With the folder of information he had gathered in his hand, he felt closer than ever to figuring out exactly how all of this was connected. Or if it was connected at all.

Fifteen minutes later, all of the cars had cleared out. The sky was almost entirely dark. The place was desolate, creepy even as the wind caught a swing and blew it in the breeze. Emma’s headlights whipped around the bend to nearly blind Killian as her Range Rover faced his truck.

“Bloody hell,” he threw his arm up to block out the high beams. As capable as Emma seemed to be at most things, driving was not one of them. “Are you trying to blind me?”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, locking her car and walking toward him. Her long hair tied off in a braid. A loose black sweater wrapped around her. Legs shapely in a pair of jeans. He never knew what to expect from her. The stepford wife in elegant party dresses or this version. The stripped down, laid back youthful Emma.

“I was worried you wouldn’t show.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” She stood before him, a few inches away. Her determined green eyes serious even in the dark of the night he could tell. “Some things are more important than… uh…”

“Last night, I want to apologize for,” Killian wanted to reach out and touch her. The way her soft complexion caught the light of the setting sun as she sat in the passenger seat. He could smell her sweet perfume, he was intoxicated by that alone. “I don’t want you to think that I don’t, that I didn’t want you.”

“We don’t have to get into it.” Her body language shifted, and she was stone faced. Serious, almost sad. “There is too much at stake right now, with everything that’s going on.”

He thought she was done, but her pause was because her eyes had begun to brim with tears. It looked like she was biting her tongue, like if she opened her mouth the dam would burst.

“Emma…” he pulled her to him just as the first tear fell. His arms wrapped around her, and she leaned completely into him. Her hands grasping at the fabric of his shirt. Her cheek on his chest as he felt the breath move her spine. In the time Killian had known her, he had never seen her crack. With the immeasurable amount of stress she was under daily she held it all together. Until this very moment. “Darling, breathe.”

“It’s too much.”

“Aye, of course it is.” His hand drew soothing circles along her back, which seemed to calm her just a bit. “I’ve got you.”

She pushed herself up so she was face to face with him but not out of his arms.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he tried. Wiping the tear from her cheek with the back of his finger. Her eyes gently closed, the long dark lashes fluttered to expel the remainder of her tears. The green orbs were vibrant after she had stopped crying, and Killian felt like he could look into them for hours. This was certainly not what he had in mind when he had called her here.

“Not really.” Slowly she released her grip on his shirt, and allowed some distance between them. But their legs still touched and she was still on the center seat instead of the passenger. It was hard for him not to notice that. “I want to talk about my feelings about as much as I want a root canal.”

There was a quiet that settled over them. A lightness for just a moment as Emma calmed and Killian smiled. For a few seconds, while they were the only two in the park, it felt like they were the only two in the world.

“It’s Neal,” she finally said, looking away from him out the windshield to the pink sky. “He was around today. Which was odd, obviously.”

Killian’s good hand still ran along the sleeve of her sweater, massaging a trail up and down that seemed to calm her as she spoke.

“He brought up getting married again, for real.” Emma started to laugh, but it wasn’t the bright one he had come to recognize. It was darker. “I had almost forgotten about all of that. That his plans include locking me in.”

He brushed a lock of hair off of her face with his prosthetic. The pale blonde color tangling in its digits. They were getting closer to Neal wanting to marry her to legitimize him, and even if Emma wanted to she couldn’t leave. Unless she wanted to look over her shoulder for August her whole life.

“Everyday I get closer to this...” she gestured to the ring on her finger. The ostentatious diamond that symbolized her fake marriage. “Closer to this being real.”

Killian had allowed her to speak without interruption, to get all of her feelings out on the table. She trusted him. And he, her. But this time when she paused, she only looked at him. As if she needed him to say something, someone to tell her everything would be okay.

“I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Even if his reasons for doing so weren’t entirely pure. There was a large part of him that wanted her to be free, to not have to worry about getting sucked into a loveless marriage or arrested as an accessory to crimes she did not commit. There was also a small, selfish part of him that wanted her all to himself. “I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I would never.” He was going to add ‘you can trust me’ but he realized that she already seemed to. Completely. As she had been so vulnerable with him just now. “Emma I’m just as invested in this as you are.”

“I know,” she smiled. “That’s why it works.”

He smiled back at her, content to relish in that for a while. But he had come here for a reason, and given how upset Emma had just been time was, absolutely, of the essence. As if it hadn’t been before.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Killian finally said when silence had settled over them. “This morning I, uh, I went to Liam’s room for the first time. Since his passing. And I found something.”

This time she allowed him to speak, her eyes wide with concern as he pulled out the folder he had brought along with him.

“It’s a check, from when Liam first started the business years ago. His first check to be precise. And I assumed he had saved it as something of a memento.”

Killian handed Emma the paper. And watched as her eyes ran over it.

“Why in the world was Cora giving your brother $10,000?”

“It’s not just that,” he shifted. Getting ready to open up about another part of him. “The last name on there. Her maiden name, it’s the same as my mother’s.”

“What?!”

“Delaney.” He shifted. Emma knew of his mother, she knew quite a bit about him actually. But he rarely elaborated on that situation. For fear of reopening that wound. “My mother had a step-sister. So my conclusion is that they’re somehow related.”

“Your mom’s never mentioned her?”

“No, my family is a bit… well my mum was estranged from her family. And then when everything happened with my father, that was like the nail in the coffin.”

“Killian…” It was she who reached out for him. Her hand that found his leg. It was such a simple gesture but so comforting to him. It wasn’t often someone knew the whole story.

“I don’t know my grandparents on her side, and certainly not her siblings… obviously not her step siblings.”

“So what does this mean do you think?”

“I don’t know, love, I wish I did.” He laid his hand over hers, almost expecting her to shift away but she didn’t. Instead she leaned closer, her head on his chest, her ear to where his beating heart was. “It’s something I’ll need to address with my mum though.”

“I don’t know much about how families work, but it seems like that’s something she should have told you. Or mentioned.”

“Aye, so it makes me wonder. What all is being covered up, you know?”

“And the $10,000?”

“It doesn’t make sense that Liam would have been given that so early on. Certainly not as a first customer. Unless there was something else tied to that money.”

“Like a secret.”

“Like a deep secret.”

“So what do we do?” she asked, doe eyes and all staring up at him. He indulged again in the luxury of being able to run his fingers through her hair, and examine her bare face. She was stripped down like this, natural. And completely beautiful. “We need to find a weak point. Someone who can give some insight but without realizing they’re doing it.”

“But who?”

“There’s got to be someone Cora doesn’t get along with. Someone who resents her enough to spill on what that lady is up to all day.”

“If there is they’re probably too scared to talk.”

“Someone like her daughter….”

“Regina? Have you met her? She’s like Cora-lite.”

“No. The other one. The one she doesn’t like as much…. Zelena.”

They sat for a while. Until the sun was completely set and the sky was pitch black. The stars were out tonight, and the air was warm. Together Killian and Emma devised a plan. One that would allow access to the pressure point. To Zelena. She was the natural choice. But eventually Emma had to go, she had been missing from her home long enough. And being that Neal was actually home she had to be somewhat around.

“How did you end up sneaking out of the house, if you don’t mind me asking?” Killian wondered aloud.

A wry smile came across Emma’s face, “I dumped all of the milk he uses for his cereal down the drain and said I needed to run out for more.”

“A classic.” He smiled back at her, sometimes the lighter things snuck in between them. And he couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy those moments.

“And about last night…” he started, treading carefully.

“What about last night?” she was serious again. And a wave of guilt crashed over Killian.

“Surely you can’t think I didn’t want to…”

“That was how it seemed to me. We can keep this friendly.”

“Emma,” His hand that was wrapped around her moved to pull her jaw toward him. “Of course I wanted to. I want you.”

Through the dark she stared at him, her eyes searching his face for dishonesty, for a hint of an excuse to counter his declaration.

“But when I have you it won’t be there.” He bent so his lips grazed the shell of her ear. “When I have you it will be somewhere new, fresh. Where you’ll see it and only think of me.”

Her silence was all he needed to hear, the quickening of her breath. She knew it was crazy to think he didn’t want her. She could feel the heat radiating between them now as they sat so close. As his hand ran up the side of her arm to cup her cheek.

Closing the gap between them his lips met hers, passionate. Assertive. It was the kind of kiss that left no room for the imagination. Whatever he was feeling for her, all of the desire he felt he poured into it.

“Now tell me, Emma, do you truly want to keep this ‘friendly’?”

Unblinking, she gulped. “No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

Emma sat stunned for a few seconds before righting herself and preparing to leave the truck.

“I’ll um, I’ll see you Saturday then,” she said, a flush of pink on her cheeks.

“I look forward to it, love.”

And with that she was gone. Leaving in her path the scent of her sweet aroma. Killian let out a deep breath, it had taken every ounce of restraint to not drive to the nearest hotel and whisk her away into the night. But he knew that he couldn’t do that. Not when she had Neal waiting at home for her.

So for tonight he would have to let her go.

Emma Swan had always thought of herself as perceptive.

She could easily tell if someone was lying.

She noticed nervous ticks people had.

She picked up on habitual behavior quite easily.

Most importantly, though, she could tell if someone was watching her.

And at the moment, the pair of eyes watching her belonged to none other than the man she had been actively avoiding for almost a week. Killian Jones. The baby blues raking over her, Emma’s back to where he was in the backyard. The residual embarrassment of him effectively rejecting her sexual advances was still a fresh wound. Only to be followed up by the most tender and confusing time together in his truck. All of it was racing through her head as he stood within her line of vision. None of this was anything she wanted to address at 9 am on a Saturday morning.

Feeling Killian’s eyes on her but too stubborn to look at him, Emma continued to set the table on her patio. Focusing not on her gardener but instead on the long, glass surface now set for a proper brunch. Filled with breakfast pastries, fruit bowls, quishes, crystal orange juice pitchers, the perfectly placed gardenia arrangements. The meticulousness of it all distracting her from the obvious fact that at some point she would need to talk to Killian. She had done a smooth job of avoiding him throughout the past week. Not answering his calls, being out of the house when she knew he would be working in the yard. She needed to focus, couldn’t cave to the insane yoyo they were playing every time they saw each other.

Today though there was no way around it, she would need to be home while he was there. Because for the first time in a while, Emma was expecting company.

Emma straightened the gold cutlery that framed the place settings, her left hand wearing her diamond engagement ring for appearances. The band of her wired watch ready to pick up any ancillary conversations her brunch would bring.

From across the yard she and Killian made eye contact. Unmistakable lingering eye contact. Her hand unconsciously drifting to the ring on her finger. As if covering it from his view would make it go away.

“Emma! Where are my golf spikes!” Neal yelled from inside more than he asked.

Suddenly she felt exposed, wrapping the silk robe around her tightly she stole away inside. As she walked to the garage, where she had hidden Neal’s shoes to fuck with him, she tried to calm herself down. It was all going to be okay but she needed to focus.

Emma sat in her massive closet and distracted herself from the pink hue of her cheeks by applying more foundation. She topped off with a hint of mascara and a spritz of Chanel No 5.

As much as she liked that Killian’s presence brought the natural pink color back into her cheeks, she knew having the ladies over for brunch required her full attention. Which would be hard enough to do with him lingering in the yard.

After putting on a yellow linen sundress, perfectly pressed and fitted, she tied her hair back into a tight bun. Her hair being as curly as it was, ran wild with the humidity. It was just easier to restrict it with a hairband. Finished readying herself, she took one last look at Neal’s side of the closet. Each shirt perfectly dry-cleaned, pressed and hung in a row. It was tempting to not just rip them all down. Let them collect on the ground in a pile of wrinkles.

Emma Swan never thought of herself as one of the ladies who lunch, or in this case brunch. In fact for most of her life she had navigated without forming any meaningful connections at all. But today she was and she looked the part. Her nails were painted a dainty cream color. Her pale yellow dress swung in a skirt that fanned just above her waist, moving elegantly as she escorted each guest to the perfectly placed table. Ensuring everyone had the exact drink they wanted.

Mary Margaret was the first to arrive, bringing with her a steaming basket of blueberry muffins. It was when she came back out onto the porch with Mary Margaret in toe, that she realized something was different about the table.

“Wow, Emma those roses are beautiful,” were the first words out of Mary Margaret’s mouth when they stepped onto the porch. Emma whipped her head around to see what her friend was talking about when she saw the table.

The red roses stood out against the washed out whites and golds of the tablescape. Emma had hardly noticed how void of personality it looked until the pop of red had been added in lieu of the white. A quick glance into the yard confirmed Killian had been the one to add the red roses to the flower arrangements. He gave her a subtle wink. She imagined Killian’s calloused, dirt covered hands arranging each rose with the utmost of care. An involuntary smile crossed her face before she caught herself.

“Emma these pastries are lovely,” Zelena said taking a bite of one of the light, fluffy croissants. The words strung together were nice but the more the meal went on the more Emma realized Zelena was the type of person who could always make something sound like an insult. As she bit into one of Mary Margaret’s muffins and neglected to comment.

“Thank you, they’re from Granny’s.” Emma was bummed Ruby couldn’t be here, but in fairness it was Saturday at brunch time and she needed to be at work at the restaurant. At least Mary Margaret was there.

“You know it’s so hard to find decent bakeries these days. Everything’s so commercialized around here anymore.”

Emma couldn’t say she disagreed. Remembering back to the first day she arrived in Storybrooke, and all she could see were suburban developments and chain restaurants.

“That’s what happens when a town grows, Zelena,” Regina chimed in from the end of the table. She had shown up 25 minutes late, while on the phone, and had barely spoken a word since she had arrived. At the head of the table, wearing a dark sensible blazer, it looked more like Regina was attending a conference not a brunch.

“I happen to think it can grow without turning into a giant strip mall… but again maybe that’s why I’m not in charge.”

Emma leaned back in her chair and sipped the cold mimosa in her glass. Most of the morning had been this way. The two sisters taking any shot they could at each other without actually laying a hand on one another.

“Does anyone need another drink? I need another one.” Emma drained her mostly full mimosa and stood up from the table. Any time the air got too tense she made a dash for the kitchen. Hosting had one advantage, she could pretend to be polite while also avoiding the situation completely.

“I’ll help,” Mary Margaret said abruptly, standing from the table to follow Emma. The look on her friend’s face said ‘you’re not leaving me out here alone with them’.

“They’ve been going at it the whole time,” Mary Margaret sighed, setting the champagne flute down on the marble counter. Emma’s kitchen, despite the brunch, was impeccably clean. She preferred to keep up with messes as she went. They were easier to manage that way.

“I never had a sister but even in my wildest dreams I never imagined they would be this terrible.”

“I don’t think their relationship is typical…” Mary Margaret crossed her arms. Emma rarely heard her friend say anything negative about anyone. “As long as I’ve known them they’ve been ridiculously competitive.”

“Competitive I can understand but they seem like downright enemies.”

“What do you expect with a mother like they have?”

“Cora can’t possibly be that bad…” Emma felt bad pushing for more on Cora from Mary Margaret, as much as she knew that was the purpose of this brunch she cared about Mary Margaret. She didn’t want to treat her like a pawn.

“She has been pitting them against each other for years. No one really understands why, she clearly favors Regina.”

That much Emma could sense. Easily.

Emma pulled the chilled bottle of champagne from the fridge, carefully tipping the liquid into the empty flutes. Through the kitchen window she could see Killian, in the yard, shoveling pebbles into place in a small path between flower beds.

The yard had really come to life as of late, and soon it would be finished. There was green grass, carefully cut. A white gazebo amongst ivy. Colorful flowers planted in organized lines. Yet Killian had made it all look elegant, natural. Not contrived and pretentious like some of her neighbors. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the end of his shirt and Emma caught a peak of his abs.

“Shit…” It wasn’t until Emma felt the bubbly cold liquid on her hand that she realized she had lost focus and was spilling champagne all over the floor.

Just get through the rest of this brunch. Then you can fantasize about him all you want, she told herself.

The rest of the brunch was more of the same. After downing three mimosas in quick succession Emma slowed herself so she could focus on the task at hand. Intel. Unfortunately for her not much came of it. The passive aggressive digs being thrown across the table by each sister weren’t much more telling. Other then Zelena hated what the town had become under her sister’s reign as mayor and Regina hated everything about her sister. Why the chose to live right next door to one another was beyond her. If someone hated their family so much, why not just keep a distance? Why live in the same town, in the same neighborhood?

Nearly three hours later, the morning had winded down. Transitioning to the afternoon as the sun rose higher in the sky. Emma could see the sweat glistening on Killian’s forehead, but he left his shirt on. Perhaps it was because Emma had company. Or perhaps it was because he wasn’t into teasing her anymore at all. That he was trying to convey a clear message.

What they had the night he rejected her stopped then. The end.

Emma knew enough about suburbia and appearances and the Mills family in general to know that people said the most when they thought no one was listening. Which was why Emma took the opportunity of Zelena and Regina’s exit to hide in the shadows and listen to their conversation.

Her back to the closed pocket doors that separated the foyer from the office, Emma pressed her ear to understand what the two sisters could possibly say to one another when no one was listening.

“You think no one knows where you go late at night? You think it’s some big secret?” That was clearly Zelena, the biting tone contradicting her soft whisper.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about and you had better watch what you say.” Regina spoke more calmly, like a smooth hushed tone. As if conflict was relaxing to her. “Some of us have real reputations. And careers.”

“Oh please, we all know what mom did for you. Don’t pretend like you earned this.”

That was the last thing Emma heard before the slam of her front door. Her heart beating fast she stood there, frozen in place. Not sure if she had just heard nothing important or everything she had been hoping to hear.

What had Cora done for her daughter? Why hadn’t she done it for the other? And most importantly how did that all tie back to the Gold’s?

After pulling herself together, Emma made her way to the deck. While she had kept her kitchen organized and tidy, the table was another story. What had once been a pristine table was now in total disarray. Linen napkins were stained with red lipstick, crumbs littered the glass surface. Dirty glasses and gold leaf plates were cluttered with the remains of pastries and eggs.

In a way she liked it. The chaos of it all. How an unassuming stranger would guess there had been an enjoyable morning spent on the porch. It looked lived in, not so stale.

Then there were the red roses.

“Listen… I can’t talk right now, I have to get this all cleaned up,” Emma waved him off. Maybe if he stayed physically far enough away from her, whatever spell she was under in his presence would wear off.

“I don’t want to talk,” he said, not stopping his measured steps toward her. Emma looked into his eyes, hers never leaving his as he stalked toward her. A shiver went down her spine as she felt the cloth of his t-shirt brush the fabric of her dress. That was how close they were.

Emma had almost forgotten how much taller he was than her, craning her neck up toward him he came across domineering. Arrogant. A confidence she hadn’t seen in him yet. At least not in the context of their situation.

“What do you want then?” She tried to hold her own confidence, but as a smirk crossed his face and reached his haunting eyes she felt her resolve crumble around her.

“You know what I want.” His hands found their way to her waist, the feel of his grip on her eliciting a warm feeling in the base of her belly. “Or at least I thought you did.”

“You rejected me, Killian. I understood loud and clear…” Emma pushed on his chest with her hand and stepped away. Walking toward the railing of the porch and staring out into the yard.

When silence fell over the two of them, Emma thought he would go. Assumed he would head back to his truck and drive off. But then she heard the rumble of a deep laugh. One that came from the back of his throat and made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Emma, darling.” His boots hit the porch floor at the pace of her beating heart. He was right behind her. Not touching but just close enough. Emma closed her eyes. She took in the scent of his cologne. She took in the feel of his energy. How it connected with her own. “I never said I didn’t want you.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Does it feel like I don’t want you?” he asked, dragging his fingers up her bare arms. Her back pressed to his front. His very alert front. “My apologies if I haven’t been clear enough.”

Instinctively Emma’s head shifted back against his chest. She leaned into his touch as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The prickly feeling along her skin as his hands teased her. Slowly one untied the bun from her hair, the blonde curls falling loose around her shoulders.

“I didn’t want to have you in that bed, with all of the… history that’s there.” He pulled her hair off of her neck and began to trail kisses along the bend to her shoulder. “It wasn’t the right place.”

“Oh, and here is?” As much as she was turned on by him, attracted to him, drawn to him, how was her house any different?

“Has anyone ever had you on this table?” he broke his kisses along her neck, the scruff of his beard tickling her very sensitive skin.

“No,” she managed to choke out.

“In this dress?” Another kiss, this time with teeth.

“No.” Barely the word, mostly just breath.

“Is there anyone else here?”

“No.”

“You drive me mad, Emma.” He spun her around, so she was facing him. Her body pressed between the railing of the porch and his body. The hard planes of it pressed against her. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you for weeks.”

Emma’s hand had made its way to the back of his neck, toying with the hair at the base of it. He knew he had her. She could see it in the flicker in his deep blue eyes. The same way he could see it in hers.

“Certainly you must know that?”

For a moment he wasn’t arrogant, wasn’t acting solely on bravado. His face was earnest, a flicker of honesty. He was testing her. He wanted to know she understood that him not welcoming her advances on Saturday night had nothing to do with her. But the circumstance.

“I know,” she breathed before connecting her lips with his. The electricity from their mouths together. It was intoxicating, the feel of him. Like they had been doing it for years. Or lifetimes.

“Good,” he muttered back between swipes of his tongue. Diving deeper into her mouth as she craned her neck to grant him entrance. His rough hands were all over her in a gripping way, demanding. Killian reached under her dress and grabbed the tops of her thighs, wrapping them around him and lifting her into the air.

Emma never liked feeling fragile, never enjoyed feeling like a doll. But there was something in the way Killian’s strong arms lifted her with no effort that set her blood on fire. That sent waves through her entire body.

Killian sat her down on the edge of the table, shoving glassware, napkins, plates off to the side to make room for her. Some of it fell to the ground and shattered, others just clamored together. Either way Emma didn’t care. The whole house could crumble right now and she would be halfway to an orgasm before she realized.

“I hope those weren’t expensive,” he muttered between biting and sucking on her neck.

“Of course they were.” Emma leaned her head back, hoping he would continue with his mouth somewhere else. “Extremely.”

“Bill me,” he growled, shoving even more of the mess onto the deck. Shards of glass scattered everywhere around them as he laid her back down onto the table.

For a moment he slowed, running a finger down her jaw. Her neck. Her chest. Her hips. All the way down beneath the hem of her skirt.

“Emma… have you been without underwear all morning?”

A pause. Emma stared up at him, his blue eyes dark and hooded with desire at the feel of her bare beneath her skirt.

“That’s terribly naughty of you, love.” In one smooth movement he had knelt to the ground and pulled Emma right to the edge of the table. Her center level with his face, so close she could feel his breath. “You also neglected to offer me any food earlier…. All the while you were walking around bare…”

“Killian…. Please…” she moaned as she felt inhaled her scent, moving even closer to her.

He inhaled again, deeper this time and said, “Might I have a taste?”

“Yes.”

His tongue traced its way along her clit, once. That was all before the bastard pulled away.

“You can have another,” she whispered, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

Killian flattened his tongue against her clit and tasted Emma again. Leaving her body aching for his touch. His grip around her hips only pulled her closer toward him. She tried not to make much noise but cried out at the assault of his mouth on her center.

He ate her like a man starved. Using his tongue, his lips, his teeth. And then his finger, as it drifted over her dripping center and then slid inside. Bending it so it would hit her most sensitive spot. Emma couldn’t help but grind against it, the feel of a second finger entering her. If it felt this good she could only imagine how good all of him would feel.

Emma’s eyes opened and looked down to see the dark head of hair as Killian worked. Pushed her closer to her peak. Something came over her as she climbed to that point, she wanted him to watch.

“Killian....” she managed to gasp. And he didn’t miss a beat as his eyes met hers. His almost black hair disheveled. He looked like the devil. Or a temptation so dirty it could only be described as demonic. “Watch me.”

Emma came, in a soft and muffled groan she came. Her whole body shuddering against the hard surface of the table.

When she resumed her conscious mind she looked up at him. At Killian, as he stood above her. His angular features catching the light. His white shirt pulling at his muscles.

“That was…” he started, but this time Emma was the one who didn’t want to talk. She used all of her energy to sit up and yank him down on top of her. Their lips meeting. His hands stroking her breasts over the fabric of her dress. Her hands wandered to his pants. The stretched material of his very hard member.

Emma’s shaking fingers undid his belt, then his zipper. Pulling down his briefs to expose his very impressive length. Her jaw didn’t drop but it felt like it did.

“Darling, are you alright?” His hand was gentle on her cheek, drawing her gaze up to his face. Nothing but heat behind his blue eyes as he stared down at her. “I can be gentle.”

Emma was quiet for a moment. Knowing her body had not been this responsive to anyone before. And selfishly wanting more.

“Do not..” she started, “be gentle, until I say so.”

In one movement he aligned himself and rammed into her. Emma’s arms wrapped around him, as he held for a moment to let her adjust to his size.

“Emma?”

“Until I say so.”

Killian leaned forward, pinning her to the table as he began to pump into her. He certainly listened to her instruction, and that was all he needed. As his hips worked into her and her legs tightened around his waist.

Emma felt herself growing closer, each movement Killian made every nerve ending in her body come alive. She had never felt anything this good before. She looked up at him, biting her lip and taking everything he gave.

Killian bent down, not missing a beat, and resting his forearms on either side of her. Their eyes were locked as he slowed his pace.

“You feel incredible…” he said as he grinded into her. Though his pace had slowed, his power had not. He was deliberate, and precise as his hips moved to meet hers. She felt every inch of him. His hand reached down to massage her.

His head leaned down and he caught the delicate skin on her neck between his teeth. Emma’s back arched off of the table.

She let out another groan, a bit louder than she had been before. Killian smirked and caught her lips with his. Every movement of his mouth synced with the movement of their hips. Emma didn’t know how much longer she could hold back.

“Killian… I can’t…”

“Just let go,” he whispered against her lips before diving in for more. It was a good thing too, because as she reached her peak she wanted to scream out. To let everyone with ears know how euphoric this felt. Killian followed her over and as they both calmed he pressed gentle kisses along her skin.

Emma felt like she was floating. Like her skin wasn’t even touching the table. This would complicate everything, even more so than it already was. But she couldn’t even force herself to make this bad. Not with the way she felt.

Not even so much the feeling, but just knowing, knowing with absolute certainty she had never had this kind of connection with anyone.

“Emma? What are you…?”

Emma’s head rolled over to see that standing in her doorway, looking at her in a very compromising position with the gardener was Regina Mills.

[lifeseverchanging]

MMX #6 (SPOILERS)

Mr. and Mrs. X Issue #6 - The bottle issue we have all been waiting for! I managed to sleep through past the midnight hour this time around but not without waking up at 5:30 a.m. and realizing I should use the small amount of valuable time before the workday began to read this issue! I had wanted to wait until I bought the floppy from my LCS so I can read it from the pages of the book to try to avoid my usual knee-jerk reaction from my groggy sleep deprived reads during the wee hours of the morning. But, yeah right. Like that happened! What? Like I suddenly grew self control? out of NOWHERE? No sir, not I.

Before we begin I want to explain that I am ridiculously emotionally invested in our heroes story. Since I was a child and long since before I could really comprehend what romantic love actually is I had fallen in love with the idea of the kind of love that exists between Gambit and the untouchable Rogue. After the many years of heartache and heartbreak we are witnessing the best times Romy has ever seen as a couple. Their story is being written by a person who truly loves the pair and what that does is makes the expectations incredibly high from the diehard fans. We are the ones who held out hope and turned to fanfic when Romy was barely a memory in the Marvel universe. The hopefuls who kept the torch lit throughout the darkest and most desolate of times and we are a thirsty bunch who won’t let even a drop go to waste.

So away we go! The book opens up at GAMBIT AND ROGUE’S APARTMENT in Manhattan. Bobby arrives to the party on time and is the first guest to Rogue’s dismay.

We can clearly see trouble is lurking ahead from the loft windows. 

CAT SPOTTING: I spy with my little eye a Fiagaro and an Oliver and Figaro again!

Rogue takes advantage of Bobby’s on time arrival and terrifies him into helping cut the cheese and refrain from making fart jokes. Our hostess is clearly flustered and behind on schedule when the doorbell rings again... (Loving Gambit’s third party dialogue)

CAT SPOTTING: Remy picks up Figaro and bravely holds him again his shirt (if you have cats you know what I mean) RING SPOTTING: Gambit’s ring, ahh!

Remy’s father, Jean Luc, makes his appearance however Tante does not.  Jean Luc drops some foreshadowing of things to come with this comment about Tante demanding a visit from Gambit and Rogue in New Orleans. 

Naturally Rogue is utterly sweet to JL (if you have ever read a fanfic by the name of “Treading Water” you will understand why this embrace between Rogue and JL caused me to shudder) and Remy gets all of the blame about the spontaneous wedding not allowing any of his family to be there. 

CAT SPOTTING: Figaro Jean states he can’t stay but needed to warn Remy of the pending attack.

aaaand in comes the party crasher.

Love this little moment between husband and wife... “Wild Horses couldn't stop me” - Rogue

@cajuncajole spotted that something was missing. See: RING SPOTTING below

RING SPOTTING: 

And the uninvited guests quickly goes back out.

Rooftop fighting ensues where the unknown t’ieves point out that their King doesn’t even recognize his soldiers. This is certainly going to lead us into the Guild issues Kelly has planned after the Mojoverse arc.

Rogue is a complete bad ass who joins the fight up on the roof with no regard to not having her powers but she quickly finds herself in a bind of which Remy helps get her out of.  RING SPOTTING: Rogue!

It’s important to note that this scene draws out how well they know one another and why Gambit and Rogue have always made a great team and just how much trust they have in each other. 

Love that the card he throws is none other than the QUEEN OF HEARTS (The card he gives to Rogue)

RING SPOTTING: Rogue!

Quite the flashback to X-Treme X-Men days!

Though it doesn’t stop Rogue from becoming infuriated and ready to nip this fight in the bud because they have guests arriving and a party to host!

Rogue is going to have to pull out the big guns and take a much needed break from that collar. 

This is now probably my new favorite phrase: HOO BOY! Remy leaps off of the building in his bad-assery ragin’ cajun kind of way.

The comical moment where Laura and Bobby are a witness to his jump while Rogue knocks all of the thieves out with her new powerset. I can already hear the Gambit-only fans being peeved over this but simmer down, they need to get back to their party and this is the quickest way!

Then we have the amazing loft view/party scene.

CAT SPOTTING: Lucifer at the top of the loft, Oliver and Figaro down below watching the party goers. 

One of my favorite moments of the party scene was certainly when Bishop retells the pie story and Rogue corrects him on the type of pie it was (she baked Boysenberry!). I also loved when Remy threatens to push Kitty out the window while standing directly behind her as Lorna, Jean and Angel were discussing how impressive Remy’s amazing rooftop jump was.

Sidenote: TIL Bobby is cheap.  I truly wish we had focused more on the party in this issue but alas we move along to the party winding down (Remy threatening Bobby not to freeze anything - I wonder what exactly?) when suddenly Belle pops in as an invited guest. I can’t say unexpected because because we all saw the preview and knew it was coming but Remy certainly did not see it coming. She’s there to warn him that the Guilds are after his crown after he married the “Princess o' all tings good an’ honorable”. Remy defends his new bride against his ex wife however Belle won’t be deterred and has the balls to let him know exactly how she feels. I noticed Remy didn’t close the door in spite of her presence. 

I wasn’t a fan of the scene where Remy looks like a little kid who just got scolded but this last shot was lovely... and it transcends into the next scene where we find an upside down Rogue in the fetal position taking a much needed break from that collar. 

Speaking of unexpected... Magneto pays Rogue a visit. Though it makes no sense why Rogue summoned him at all it is incredibly unclear as to when she contacted him. 

This panel got a lot of people talking... some were mad (raises hand), some didn’t mind or care at all (mainly due to the fact that there was no real sense that these two have romantic feelings for one another) and others are claiming this is proving Rogue still loves Mags and trusts him more than Remy. (Bullsh*t)

Listen, aside from the obvious parallel Kelly was going for with the “Exes” the main problem with this scene is that she makes it seem as if Rogue doesn’t trust Remy. It makes her look as if she will confide in a person like Magneto over her husband, her best friend and partner in life. After mulling over this GD scene for about 48 hours I finally did some real soul searching to make sense of this panel. Kelly knows that continuity should not be ignored so I think she felt compelled to make an attempt to shut that R and Fapneto ship door as best as she could. 

Did this moment belong in this particular issue? I think not... I feel as if this panel was removed and more party panels were shown people would have loved the hell out of this issue. I think Kelly really didn’t want to leave the ex situation one-sided and she felt as if she needed to prove that the only thing left between the two of them is friendship. 

Like it or not, Rogue is the kind of person who wants to stay friends with people that matter/mattered to her. DO most of us feel the need to stay friends with our exes? NOPE. Do some? SURE. The point is that we as humans are complex creatures who do stupid things from time to time. People are pissed because Rogue is naive enough to call on her ex around a time she ought to be embracing her new marriage/husband instead of confiding in her old friend (and boy do I mean “old”). Rogue is the kind of idiot who would feel the need to apologize to the man she shot down that she didn’t tell him about her wedding in person but there is also probably some need for her to confirm that he has drifted back to the darkside because as a friend she would care about that too.

The upside? There was no hint of romantic love between the two of them. Magneto for once isn’t bad mouthing Gambit and is in fact saying good things about him. Rogue SAYS IT ON PANEL that she does not want to scare off Gambit with her warped powers. She even gushes to Mags about Remy’s approach of their relationship... smells like nothing but friendship to me. There was no hint of jealous ex talk in anyway but some folks will never be convinced. Anyway, with Mags out of the way I can only hope he won’t make any further appearances in this book because he’s the reason I quit reading comics in the first place and I don’t want him anywhere near our newlyweds. Ever again.

Rogue’s comment above about not being sure how many more surprises she can take is what makes the moment when Mags shows up seem like she hadn’t called on him right then and there. (~B’s 2 cents) Then of course she runs (literally) into Beast who provides her with another surprise. A pleasant one. (lol, love Gambit’s playing cards in the closet... I sure hope he buys in bulk from Amazon).  RING SPOTTING: Rogue (yeah I just  love seeing the rings)

Beast comes through for Rogue and makes her a new and improved power inhibitor tennis bracelet. You know she was totally kidding about the design but good ol’ Beast doesn’t know any better. Whatever, it works and is a much needed upgrade from that collar that made Rogue look like a poor puppy. The concerned expression on Beast’s face as he embraces her does make me worry a bit. Or maybe it’s just sympathy that Rogue has to be confined to a power inhibitor at all.

The look on their faces. Yeah, hosting is a shit ton of work especially when exes show up. How exhausting! 

I loved the moment between Remy and Rogue here that they both acknowledge that they need to talk (Hoo Boy, don’t they!?) but that it can wait... you know, for science reasons. 

Unfortunately they spot a gift they had missed...  (speaking of spotting - CAT SPOTTING: Lucifer!)

... and they’re immediately warped into Mojoverse. I thought it was funny that Kelly took a stab at herself with the last page. Ahhhh, those uniforms...  In my perfect version of this book we would not have addressed the Magneto thing so soon (but I am glad it’s out of the way) so we could have had a little more party and an indication that the newlyweds get a moment to test out that new bracelet *wink* before jumping right into the next crazy arc with Mojo.  All in all the bottle issue of MMX was a fun one that had a lot of fun callbacks to the past (some not so fun) and the change of art was a breath of fresh air! (even if Rogue wasn’t the most flattering - at least Belle looked gorgeous). THINGS I LOVED:  Cats and Rings! Gambit and Rogue’s fancy loft Seeing the X-Men party  Silly humor Rogue got her new power inhibitor bracelet THINGS I DIDN’T LOVE: Magneto

I think Kelly has a game plan that is not entirely visible at the moment but I’m ready to dive into whatever it is she has in store for all of us next. 

MMX #7 is out the first week of January!

[wolfhednn]

— character chart pt. 2

the second installment – !

PERSONALITY

GOOD PERSONALITY TRAITS active, aspiring, capable, clear-headed, confident, considerate, courageous, daring, decisive, disciplined, efficient, fair, forthright, genuine, hardworking, independent, methodical, observant, organized, passionate, practical, rational, realistic, reliable, resourceful, self-reliant, thorough

BAD PERSONALITY TRAITS abrasive, aloof, argumentative, assertive, cold, critical, cynical, demanding, disruptive, dogmatic, hostile, impatient, intolerant, irritable, narrow-minded, possessive, presumptuous, pugnacious, regimental, resentful, ritualistic, sanctimonious, selfish, tactless, uncooperative

MOOD CHARACTER IS MOST OFTEN IN neutral isn’t a mood, is it. i guess if you were to hand-pick felix at any point during an average day, his most likely mindset would be task-focused. it might come as a surprise, since he’s so quick to seem prickly in conversation, but felix isn’t just in a default bad mood all the time, or even most of the time. he’s just neutral, taking in the day, going about his routine, checking things off his to-do list. he is wholly focused on the task in front of him, and then when that’s done, moves onto what’s next.

SENSE OF HUMOR dislikes: levity. felix has a sense of humor...? for real though, he doesn’t, really. he says that he doesn’t joke, and it’s pretty true. he tends to take things at face value, or, if recognizes that it’s a joke, will probably just groan. he means pretty much everything he says literally too, as well. the closest he ever gets to ‘joking’ is something like his b support with annette, and even that was intended to be more of a small affectionate rib combined with genuine interest.

GREATEST JOY IN LIFE fighting. felix is a warrior at heart; there’s nothing that gives him the kind of satisfaction that battle does, whether a real life or death situation or even just a good, challenging spar. fighting and learning from worthy opponents is extremely fulfilling, and there’s the incredible rush of adrenaline and the way he has to put together all he knows, and think creatively, in each new situation in order to overcome it. everything is a learning experience, a chance to improve and grow stronger. the fact that he can use it to protect those that matter most to him is the cherry on top.

GREATEST FEAR losing those he cares about. the psychological and emotional impact of losing glenn can’t be overstated. it’s why he’s so damn prickly about other people getting hurt, especially on his behalf, on the battlefield, and acting reckless, not looking out for themselves, etc. he can’t stand the thought of losing people again. he wants to live; he wants everyone he loves to live; he doesn’t get why people are so okay with throwing their lives away for some ‘greater cause’ when, in his opinion, all the cause they need is right around them.

WHY does he need a reason to be afraid of losing his loved ones hahaha

WHAT SINGLE EVENT WOULD THROW THEIR LIFE INTO COMPLETE TURMOIL hard to say. felix is incredibly resilient, and he’d probably always find a way to grit his teeth and make it through to the other side of anything. though of course whether he comes out the other side completely the same is a different story. i don’t really think there’s any Single Event that would utterly wreck him. he’s good at compartmentalizing and not dwelling on things in the past; even something extremely painful and damaging doesn’t last forever if he doesn’t let it, and he’s too tenacious and places too much importance on putting one foot in front of the other to let himself get lost in regret. that being said though, some of his non-BL endings definitely show us that that exact same single-minded tenacity can also be his undoing.

IS MOST AT EASE WHEN spending time with his friends, though don’t tell him i said that you’ll never find my body.

MOST ILL AT EASE WHEN someone he cares about is hurt. we all saw his sylvain A+ support. the poor boy was like 2 seconds away from coming apart at the seams. in a bunch of his other supports too we see that he’s prickly when someone else is hurt or injured, even if it’s not dire. he still doesn’t like it.

ENRAGED WHEN he sees people ignoring the situations and people around them in favor of something they can’t do anything about or for selfish reasons. i think at its root this is where his hatred for the traditional ideals of chivalry, honor, and loyalty come from, because this is how it tends to manifest in his culture. an essay for another time.

DEPRESSED OR SAD WHEN he feels he’s let down the people who are counting on him. it doesn’t happen often, especially since 60% of the time his sadness manifests as anger or frustration. but oh god his monastery line about dimitri in GD after gronder field.

PRIORITIES becoming as strong as he possibly can, always testing the limits of his achievement and pushing the boundaries of his skill. he wants to be the best warrior he can be, not so he can defeat people for the sake of it or brag about it, but so he’ll always be able to protect those who need him.

LIFE PHILOSOPHY he sums it up pretty well in his byleth and flayn supports: “Grow strong so you may live, and live to grow stronger”; “Those who are weak lose everything, and they die. Those who are strong win, and live on”.

IF GRANTED ONE WISH, IT WOULD BE felix will never, never, never not even at knife point on his death bed admit that his gut reaction is ‘that glenn never died’. if asked for one wish, he would very, very quietly in the privacy of where no one could hear him wish to never lose the people he cares about most. and then publicly would probably say... thinking about wishes being magically granted is stupid; if you want something to happen, do it yourself.

WHY because so much went wrong after he died, because he died. he lost so... so much. and took on so much that he never wanted, that it was unfair for him, to take on. because the fraldarius estate was never the same. because he was never the same. because he still misses him and sometimes it’s as fresh as the day it happened. so he never has to experience that again.

[rorypcarson]

it’s hope??? again??? yes u read that right here’s my son rory love us this blog is so new so nothing will be in the tags i hate everything lmao anyway like this or message me to plot ily bye

triggers: car crash, drunk driving, stroke, abortion, death, depression ( mention )

╰☆╮ DACRE MONTGOMERY ─ RORY PEARSON identifies as CISMALE and uses HE/HIM pronouns. they’re a YOUTUBER/MUSICIAN, and they’re only TWENTY-TWO ! they’re said to be +CANDID, but also -DESPONDENT. i guess that’s why they’re known as THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRE in the tabloids. ( kendall schmidt, logan henderson )

did i use two btr bois as his vc??? u bet ur ass i did & i have no regrets ok anyway on to my son 

background: 

rory pearson was born and raised in fairhope, alabama.  his parents were teenagers when they had him and lived with his grandma scarlett.  his mom jean marie was ousted by her parents when she told them she was pregnant and his dad’s mom took her in with open arms.  

of course his grandma wasn’t going to let them live in the same room in her house without being married, especially with her grandbaby on the way.  so after talking with them, and his parents agreeing, they went to the courthouse and got married three months before rory came into the world.  

rory was born on april 20th, 1996 and he was without a name for six days.  his parents couldn’t decide so they named him rory wyatt vincent pearson.  he was always told that since his parents couldn’t decide on naming him after jean marie’s grandfather or greyson’s father, they picked a third name and gave him both of their names for middle names.  

when rory was two and a half years old ( not really half, it was june ?? ) his parents graduated high school and went out for a party.  unfortunately their designated driver wasn’t so sober and the group of four recent graduates crashed into another car.  

his father was in the passenger’s seat and died on impact, his mother was pronounced dead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  

scarlett legally adopted rory after that and raised him.  she always told him stories of his parents, but avoided telling him anything about what happened to them for as long as she could.  

he was ten years old when he saw the memorial and recognized his parents from their yearbook photos and came home asking about it.  

honestly this is jumping ahead a bit but rory didn’t learn to drive until he was twenty years old.  and even now, esp now, since he lives in nyc he doesn’t drive often. 

okay when he was seventeen years old he met bethany in an airport.  he was on his way to a college interview on a connecting flight that got cancelled due to weather conditions.  they were both sitting in the same terminal so they got to talking and !!! hit it off

bro legit asked her out 5 seconds after their flights were announced to be back on

“hi yeah we just met but we’ve got two hours before your flight leaves so wanna go grab some food with me???” 

and the rest was legit history

he can remember every moment of their conversation and first date like it was yesterday. oh my god he was SO IN LOVE 

the human embodiment of the hearteyes emoji

and so the pair stayed in touch and went on a couple more dates and the boy was so gd smitten that grandma scarlett took his phone during one of their phone calls and was like “darlin if you don’t fly down here to meet me i’m going to think my grandbaby is just talking to a complete stranger on here.” 

and then bethany flew down and met scarlett and she was so excited because !!!! her grandson had a girlfriend !!!! 

grandma scarlett was the biggest supporter of anything rory did in life oh my GOD 

at his graduation it was just grandma scarlett in the crowd for him but boy did it sound like the whole crowd was cheering for him when his name was called 

anyway flash forward to he’s in college and he’s moved away to be closer to bethany.  which should not have affected his life but when he was looking at colleges fr fr after acceptances the boy chose one closer to his girl

we love a softie ok 

anyway on bethany’s 19th birthday he took her to an airport and was surprising her with a trip to disney that he’s been saving up for for MONTHS !!!! 

and at the airport he was like all jittery and nervous bc in his pocket he had an engagement ring but he did his bEST to hide it all from beth bc surprises 

not that he planned the whole thing ( he did ) but it just so happened they were in the same restaurant waiting for their flight as their first date way back when

and in the middle of dessert, the waiters singing happy birthday this boy attempts to be sly and gets down on one knee.  but didnt realize there would be someone coming up behind him to keep up the singing and he ..... kinda caused a mini avalanche of people

and he apologized and is like still on one knee and now he’s looking at bethany with a BRIGHT RED face and he had had this whole speech worked out in his mind ok but all that comes out is, “i love you, please marry me?” in like an awkward stutter because he just TOOK OUT AN ENTIRE WAITSTAFF 

somehow bethany said yes ??? and they’re engaged ??? 

oh and someone got the whole thing on camera and like that happened 

the video skyrocketed to the most viewed video entitled “i witnessed an awkward proposal???? and she still said yes?????” 

which is also lowkey how he started his youtube channel ?? 

“hi yes it’s me the guy who proposed to an olympic athlete while taking out a whole waitstaff?? i dont know why she said yes either but i love her??”

and for a long time it was mainly vlogs of him and beth and him and his friends 

okay so fast forward and rory’s graduated college with a degree in history education bc he wants to be a teacher and he’s got to fly back to alabama and miss his graduation because he got a phone call and grandma scarlett had a stroke

so the boy is freaking out but it’s fine !!! grandma goes home and he winds up staying down and now he’s trying to figure out how to be with beth, find a job in ny, but also take care of his grandma 

for a while he toys with the idea of moving grandma up to new york and helping her find a place.  so he goes back to new york to talk to beth about it and he’s freaking out and he gets home and she tells him she’s pregnant

of course he never expected to be like 20 and having a baby but ??? whatever.  now he’s freaking out because his grandma is not doing good and he’s worried about her and now he’s got to figure out what to do with a BABY ???

and bethany then tells him she wants to get an abortion and rory’s already stressed and so he flips bc of emotions and they get into a huge fight and it just winds up with him leaving and heading back to alabama and bethany in their apartment  

so rory goes home to alabama and he keeps getting notifications on social media about bethany so he just shuts his phone off and i’m talking like he goes days without touching his cell phone.  he takes a hiatus from youtube because he’s freaking out and 

two months after he’s home he seemed like scarlett was doing better so he took her to a party in town to see some of her friends and at the party scarlett had another stroke.  

she died six days later, never waking up from the medically induced coma they put her in.  

flash forward a couple more weeks after he’s working with lawyers for his grandma’s estate and rest assured scarlett pearson had nothing but her house, her garden, and her beat up corvette that her deceased husband wyatt bought her for their anniversary one year

so its a shocker to find out that scarlett pearson was worth 43.7 billion dollars 

and now that money all goes to rory because he’s her only living heir ???

so rory gets this BOATLOAD of money and the local newspaper picks it up which brings it to the national news and somehow it made international news

“local alabama boy from youtuber to billionaire overnight” 

so he kept his grandma’s house in alabama because ..... he can’t seem to let that go and why should he ?? its a good house and holds a lot of memories

but he does in fact buy a brownstone in manhattan its HUGE and he doesn’t have enough things to fill the whole space up but ??? he’s working on it slowly. 

he created a makeshift recording studio in one of the upstairs rooms and has been working on music, which is new to him ?? he was always a bit artistic but never sure enough to like try it out

oh and he’s returned to youtube, he’s got a decent following i guess 

i mean lbr he’s hot ???? and sings ??? so ??? ya know 

personality: 

okay so this is long already so im gonna keep this short n sweet

rory is a sweet boy, never really an athletic type always more focused on his studies than sports.  

spent a lot of time with his grandma and he’s very easily attached to people he’s close to.  not exactly clingy, but it’s really hard for him to let people go i guess ??? 

used to love shows like survivor and big brother and amazing race. always toyed with the idea of applying to be on amazing race but he never had anyone who would go with him, or could for that long.  

he’s a real kind hearted guy and clumsy as fuck

a bit awkward when you first meet him but ??? you warm up quickly and so does he

clumsy af as noted earlier 

kind of depressed ??? idk he’s not seeing anyone for it but post losing beth, his grandma, and like the possibility of a family in the future he’s kinda ..... morbid 

puts on a happy front for youtube

oh and he does a podcast talking about stuff with his friends idk what exactly but ?? its prob music and movies lbr

connections: 

best friend(s)--self explanatory; people who he gets along with and they’re like his ride or dies.  

nerd friends--give him someone to geek out with please he’s SUCH A NERD !!!! or someone who likes learning random things he’s got u 

musical friends--people who he met through starting to delve into music 

youtube community--give me people who !!! met through youtube and often do colabs together.  probably ppl who were shooketh when he came back and was like “bro i have 40 billion dollars????”

wealthy friend(s)--give me someone who will teach this boy how to be wealthy ??? like cause he knows nothing about that he struggled a lot growing up and with college and several part time jobs he doesnt know how to like party or anything 

idk anything else 

[lacklusterswirl]

The Choices You Make (Ch. 3)

Hey all, so this is Chapter 3, and we start the action :). Deadlines are picking up irl, so updates might be slower, but I’ll try to get them out as quickly as I can.

As always, you can comment your choices on AO3 or to directly on this site. Hope you enjoy :)

(Chapter under the cut)

.

Frost hopped off the vehicle and took a breath of musty air. Just the same as she remembered.

“Control? This is Tina “Frost” Lin Tsang. Team Charlie has arrived and are setting up. It’s currently 08:33:05, and the skies are clear, but I see some clouds coming that may suggest rain early afternoon. Am I missing something?”

“Copy that. And Ciel has his reasons for asking for that info, you know?”

“Oh, I know. I just disagree with his controlling tendencies. He used to be much worse.”

“Ok, well, there are multiple entrances here, I’d recommend you block off the direct entrance to Slater and Laurier. The path closest to Confed. Park is long, so you can set some traps and cams.”

“Sauer is on her way. There’s a motion sensor and bulletproof cam being set up down that path. I’ll drop off a few mats there too in case.”

“Sounds good. I need to check in with Alpha and Bravo. Let me know when your set up is done so I can look in.”

“10-4”

First thing to do was to put on Rook’s plates. Then, to reinforce the garage doors so they couldn’t get flanked from inside the building.

“I totally could.” Jameson was talking up a storm with Clash. “Here, I have a few different coins. You randomly toss one, and I’ll tell you which one you threw.”

Clash shook her head, though Rook was more than happy to take the pile of coins and sort them out.

“Working hard?” Frost asked the three.

While Clash and Jameson knew she was just giving them a hard time, Rook froze before handing the coins back and preparing himself with a few grenades and moving his bags to their designated storage area, an abandoned convenience store that still had its shelves in place though the products were long gone. Rook was still a little unsure about being in there by himself, but that just made the situation better. Frost smirked and saw Sauer walking back towards them out of the corner of her eye.

“Cameras and motion detectors are in place.”

“Jameson SHOULD be nearly done setting up the signal detectors.” Frost turned to glare at the man who just smiled back in return. “Once those are up, I’ll get in touch with Control. For now, can you do a last check of the area?”

“What, you want a coffee?”

“That’d be great, thanks for offering!” Frost cheerfully responded. “I’ll pay you back. I always do.”

“Still playing rookie tricks with me I see.”

“Thanks, Sauer.”

“Frost!” Jameson was back from wherever he was off to earlier. “Signal detectors are up, and control has tapped into the feed now. They can basically listen to any conversation in the area, but—”

“Great, I’ll let them know.”

“But—”

Frost frowned at his persistence and motioned for a moment of silence.

“Control?”

“Copy. I see we have access to… hm?” There was another voice in the back. “Near them?”

“Frost, I swear I heard something near us!” Jameson finally exploded.

Control confirmed it. “We’ve got an unidentifiable sound coming in from Slater.”

“What?” Frost’s brain was racing to come up with a response.

“It’s… best we can say is that it’s a scraping noise.”

“A body dragging itself somewhere,” Jameson pitched in. “In your welcome mat…”

Huh. He was always known for his acute hearing abilities. It was why his favourite trick was to have someone throw different coins on the ground, and tell them which, and exactly how many of each coin got tossed. But to identify that as… as a body dragging itself?

“Control, get in contact with Sauer. She should be near Slater. Have her flank that alley from the main street. Jameson and I will approach from our side.”

“Copy.”

They both got out their suppressed pistols and carefully walked towards where Jameson claimed to have heard the sound. Once they got closer, Frost could hear the skrting noise that occurred in short bursts.

“Denim on concrete?” Jameson offered. “Only one person though.”

A slight groan and hissing came next, and Frost gave the signal to come out from behind their cover. Sauer, listening in, flanked like asked and they walked up to the single body now lying frozen on the ground.

“State your name and purpose!” Frost barked. “You’re surrounded. Any sudden movements, and we shoot.”

There was pure steel in her veins as the man on the ground managed to get himself on his elbows and look up at them.

“My name is Ryan Crowden. I’m an undercover cop. My leg… it got caught on this bear trap… I need help, please…”

Frost motioned for Sauer to cuff him and for Jameson to quickly put something together to move the man to their hold.

“Control, did Ciel say anything about the cop?”

“Yes. He said there was an undercover cop from one of the gangs, but… that information wasn’t given to him. I can pressure them to give up the name now, but… that’ll take some time.”

“Copy, get on that,” she said. Sauer and Jameson were already hoisting him up and walking back to their hold. Frost followed them back and watched with approval as Clash tied up the intruder before freeing their leg.

“Shit, that hurt,” the man was whining. “You can’t do this to me! I’m one of—”

“Riddle me this,” Frost snarled, getting everyone’s attention. She quickly signaled for Sauer and Jameson to seal off two of the major entryways. Control could easily have eyes and ears on the third. “How does a man escape a terrorist organization, crawl through the streets of a city during rush hour unnoticed, and somehow learn about a secret op in a back alley?”

“I-I…” They were trembling so hard that Frost couldn’t make out the next words.

Frost drew her handgun again and pushed the barrel against his forehead. “I asked for an answer.”

“I was on my way out of the gang. My extract just started when I got jumped.”

“Impossible,” Frost cut-in. “I would’ve heard about it had it happened anywhere near Ottawa.”

“Well…” he paused. “Look, you can’t say this to anyone else but…”

“But?” Rook adjusted his equipment, showing off the SMG against his chest.

Ryan took a look at the angry op and swallowed hard. “The extract was unofficial… off the books… I… I was at a friend’s house. They left the gang the moment they started talks with the White Masks, and offered me a safehouse.”

“Where’s the safehouse?”

“It’s on Gladstone. Near Centretown West—”

“If you were really that far, what made you think you should come here?” Frost interjected straight away. She pushed a little harder with her gun. “Where were you?”

“I was on my way there! I had a backpack and was at a bus stop when these guys pulled up and recognized me. Then they saw the bag and kinda… figured out my plan. I swear I’m not one of them.”

“What was in the bag?” Clash asked.

“Just fifty bucks and change of clothes. It was supposed to be temporary while I waited on my unit to clean stuff up.” Frost nodded at Clash to look through the bag.

“And why didn’t they kill you?”

“Because they didn’t realize I was a cop. They just thought I was deserting. That was it.”

“Convenient, huh?” Rook looked at Frost, who was still thinking hard about the story.

“Bag’s clear. Just what he said,” Clash murmured, taking out a nice pair of pants and a shirt Frost only wished she could buy. Leave it to criminals to get more money than actual law enforcement.

“What are they planning then?”

He looked around nervously, causing her to motion for Rook to take higher ground and scan for threats. “If my old crew goes back to the terrorists and tell them about me… they’re going to come for me, and try to assassinate me before I say anything about their plans. But they know something weird is going to be happening at one of their meeting points also near Centretown.”

Frost backed off. Buck… the only known cell in that area was the one he was going after… She motioned for Clash to watch him as she pulled away to talk with Control.

“You got all that?” she asked. “Should we…”

“Buck’s team is just about to go in. I’ll warn them about it, but… Do you trust him?”

“I… I—”

A gunshot went off and Clash was on comms, relaying information.

“Sniper on the roof. Rook is already on his way looking for them, I’ve managed to close all windows and I have my shield up and we’re waiting in our hold.”

“I’m going to go join Rook, everyone, hold your positions.”

Frost sprinted up the stairs to hear a few grunts before a shadowy figure ran up the stars while a frustrated Rook came tumbling down.

“I’m following the target.” She saw Rook get up and follow once he got his bearings.

Up and up they went until they reached the roof again. “Hands up and on your head. Don’t move, or I’ll shoot.”

White Masks were known to be fanatical, willing to even sacrifice their life for… well… no one really knew. It really shouldn’t have been such a surprise, but Frost still flinched as Rook’s bullets whizzed by and landed right between the sniper’s eyes as the terrorist turned with a pistol withdrawn.

“Tango down,” Rook announced.

Frost nodded her thanks.

As she and Rook searched the body, only finding a couple coins, a few random bullets, and a clear liquid that was already dripping from somewhere in the bag, though no container to hold it.

“Is this sugar water?” Rook’s lip curled in disgust as he pulled his hand out of the man’s pocket. “It’s smells kinda sweet, no? But not sticky…”

“Try not to breathe it in,” Frost told him. “Could be anything.”

As she pushed her hand into his jean pockets, she found a loose piece of paper. “‘Caesar salad’… what is this, Control?”

“Send a picture”

Caesar Salad.

YMJ XJWZR NX NS YMJ GZQQJY.

TSJ YT IJQNAJW, TSJ YT PNQQ.

BJ BNQQ RFPJ RYAN UFD.

XMJ BNQQ RFPJYMJ INXYWFHYNTS.

XMJ BNQQ YFPJ TZY YMJ TYMJW.

QNKJ KTW HFZXJ.

TWIJWX GD OZQNZX.

Rook waved a few wet pieces of paper in front of Frost. “I have something else here. Probably the key to solve the code, but whatever liquid was in his pocket has completely ruined and destroyed the page.”

“The bullets probably ripped the wet paper apart,” Frost murmured, seeing bits of the alphabet on the pieces of paper.

“Check-in, team Charlie.” Control suddenly requested. “We’re getting weird signals from someone’s phone.”

“This is Jameson. Laurier clear.”

“Sauer. Slater clear. Also, does this mean you’re gonna assign us to body duty?”

“Let me guess,” Frost said, drily. “Ciel’s orders?”

“You remember him after all.” Control even dared chuckle at her expense. “He requested we do this since the teams are too small.”

“Rook, and I’m uh… checking in.”

“Frost. Checking in. I’m fine.”

A silence while they all waited for the fifth.

“Clash?”

No answer. Frost sprinted down the stairs and into their hold with her gun raised. Rook went a different direction, and she had no choice but to call the other two in. “Sauer, Jameson, leave flank watch to Control. We have an unknown situation here.”

“Buck’s starting soon,” Control reminded Frost. Right. Control wouldn’t only be watching over them. Buck would need that warning, and…

“Doesn’t matter. I’m priority,” she hissed through gritted teeth. Her heart sank, but her choices were limited.

“Understood.”

Rook went to the side closest to the street while she moved to the back and came face-to-face with Ryan, who was now holding Clash’s gun… There was no mistaking the little bunny charm she liked to hang on that gun.

“Whoa,” he gave a nervous chuckle. “I was just gonna come find you.” He dipped the barrel so it was pointed at the ground.

“The boarded-up section to Slater from the store has been broken down, Frost,” Sauer’s report came. She was behind the man, side arm drawn. “Rook is reinforcing it now, but it’s too late. Whoever came in is already back out.”

“Whoever came in threw a towel on my head. I only heard some struggling, but it ended when you guys did the check in. That guy must have run off then.” Ryan explained.

Frost took in the surroundings to try and collect her thoughts on what to do next. There were a lot of glass shards on the ground, which was new. They would make stealth a lot harder if it came to it here. “Where’s Clash?”

“With me,” Rook answered. “Jameson is coming to join you now, but Clash is breathing. Knocked out, but ok. And… Frost, that same liquid from the rooftop is around her face, but it’s drying too quickly to be sure. It was a White Mask that did this to her for sure though. The mask is still here.”

There was something she was missing. “Put down the gun and we can talk.”

“Ok… as long as you lower yours too.”

She did as asked and watched him as he pushed the gun away with his foot. “How did you get out of your bonds?”

“Glass shards. I started sawing from the moment they broke down the window.”

Control spoke up, “Frost, Avoledo is set to go in one minute.”

She played with the inside of her cheek while she thought about her options. “You can go help them for the start, but Before you go though… Got any updates on our stranger?”

Options: “He’s for real. I think he’s safe.” Or “I don’t trust him.”

[kandadiff]

Missing (8) - Jack’s Trick

-

Three trucks with trained men holding weapons headed toward Flatwick. I was squeezed next to Jin and Seungri. Everyone was silent on the way there, just waiting out their leaders instructions. Building C was a seemingly abandoned building probably once used to hold old shipping containers that came in from ships on the nearby dock. No light was on but there was a red hankerchief tied to the door, it was a signal there were bodies inside. I sucked in a breath as we parked and GD got out.

Jin and I were the last to get out, told to stay close to Woojin and Chan in case of anything, Everyone had there guns out and there guard up. GD was the first in the building and whistled when everything was all clear, when I stepped in I noticed there were red marks on the floor leading the way. I cocked an eyebrow and stayed closer to chan, knowing that if anything I could probably take the gun from him.

The smell of mold got worse as we went in deeper into the dirty building and by the time we went down the stairs we heard voices. I couldn't contain the smile that spread across my face and I couldn’t wait to see the look on Jacks. GD kicked open the old door and quickly walked into the room we all followed. “What the fuck is this?” He said as I walked in and my smile faded

“No, no no” I whispered to myself, there was no one in the room, no jack, none of his trained killers- only us.. In the no windowed room, a TV sat playing a video were people were at a party laughing and drinking. “Hyung” Seungri said to his boss “Isn't that your engagement party?” GD’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the screen, it was. He recognized the red suit he had on complimenting the red dress that hugged your body so well. He saw his friends and colleagues drinking and laughing and her turned to me furiously.  

“What the fuck is this? some kind of sick fucking joke to you?”

“I don’t know!” I shouted back to him backing up as he stomped over to me shoving his gun into Jungkook’s hands and bringing out his knife. I turned to try and run by he was quick and fastened a hand quickly around my throat shoving me back toward the wall. TOP rushed to his friend as he squeezed tighter on my throat, just enough to scare me but not to cut out my breath however the blade pressed just under my chin.

“HOW DARE YOU BRING MY MEN OUT HERE TO PLAY SOME FUCKING PRANK ON ME!”

“I didn’t!” I shout back at him, Namjoon rushed over to us as well trying to calm down his boss. “I truly didn’t-“ Everyone was trying to convince him of my innocence but I was just focused on the hand around my neck and he was focused on my face.

“Fucking liar!”

“Hey!” I froze hearing the distictive voice of jack and someone called for GD’s attention. He turned back and I saw Jacks smirking face on the screen. “If you hurt my little kitten to badly I wont tell you where my bunny is.”

“Who the hell is that?!” Gd shouted angrily pulling me forward and but I was frozen in my place.

“Let her go” Jack said looking directly at me and Gd’s gripped his knife hard and turned to me again.

“WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?!”

“Jack Candie” I choked out shaking and GD threw me into Namjoon. 

“The one and only.” Jack smiled. “And you’re Jiyong Kwon right? The man who got engaged to my Bunny? You didn’t ask her fathers permission, that’s not polite.”

“You aren’t her father.” GD said there was still edge in his voice but he put his knife down and took his gun back. “Where is she? You hiding her somewhere in here? Working with her?” He pointed his gun at me then started to order his men to search the building but Jack’s chuckle stopped him.

“I miss my kitten but she is stubborn and feisty and she hasn’t been working with me, at least not yet.”

“I wont” I shot back and he glanced at me then back at GD.

“Don’t bother to send your men around the building. It’s empty, I figured it would take some time for her to crack the code, it was a complicated one, but it gave me enough time to set this up.”

“Where is she?” GD snapped impatiently. “I want to see Arianna, I want proof that shes okay?”

He laughed and I saw a few of the members get physically uncomfortable by his laugh. “You want proof? No, I can’t give you what I don’t have.”

“YOU FUCK! I SWEAR IF YOU HURT HER IN ANY WAY I WILL MAKE YOUR DEATH LONG AND PAINFUL-“

Jack put up his hand to silence the boy “I don’t have proof.” I breath caught in my throat and I buried myself deeper into Namjoon. Carefully placing my hand on the small metal pipe leaning against the wall. “If you want proof your going to have to ask Kitten.” He smile grew as he looked at me and I gripped the pole harder, I felt a few eyes go from me to Jack, GD’s was particularly burning with rage. “That why shes my favorite pet, she knew this whole time where the bunny was and brought all of you here to try and kill me but you didn’t anticipate that my men saw your little quarrel in the van after the club did you kitty-cat. I knew you’d never go after me yourself, youd have to have some poor fools that could help you.” He looked around the room “No offense.”

Gd raced over to me but this time I was prepared, I pushed namjoon hard to the ground and lifted the pipe. Hitting GD hard in the stomach making him double over and Taeyang who came at me when he saw the pipe in my hand. Jungkook swung at me but I grabbed his hand and slammed him into the wall spotting my exit just a few feet away. I wasn’t foolish I knew I could never fight all of them. I was running on two days of no sleep and I was easily outnumbered. I barreled threw both Jimin and Jin and nearly reached the door when a hand tangled itself in my hair and I was thrown onto the ground. An angry TOP grabbed both my wrists in one of his hands throwing the pipe and his foot on my chest applying pressure, I could barely breathe but I heard Jack cheering. GD stood up and leaned closer to my face, he raised his fist to hit me and I closed my eyes in waiting for the painful blow .

“NO.” It was Jack’s voice that rang out loud and powerful over the room GD glanced back at him before laughing.

“and why the fuck not? She betrayed us. That is punishable by death in this gang.”

“If you want my bunny given to you, you won’t kill my kitten.”

“You said you don’t know where she is-“

“No I didn’t I said I don’t have proof but I don’t need it to know where she is. I know where all my pets are.”

“She’s not your pet, none of them are.” Jungkook shot back at him but Jack ignored his outburst.

“You have my kitten and you have my wolf. I like to think I am flexible if anything and I am willing to make a trade, two for the price of one. You give me my pets and I let you have the bunny and ill even give you a few hundred for them. But they cannot be dead or missing any fucking limbs or I’ll kill Arianna in front of you… understand?”

GD looked at his best friend for a moment before standing up and nodding. “It’s a deal.”

“Wait” RM said quickly “(in Korean)_ You heard the stories from Kay, Katya and Adi about how evil this man is and your just going to sell them back to her. They don’t deserve that-“

“(in Korean)_She betrayed us” He said looking down at me “(in Korean)_And Katya can learn her place as well. Taehyung will find another girl.” Namjoon shook his head in disgust.

“It’s a deal?” Jack asked and GD nodded “Splendid. I’ll get the money ready.”

“Wait how do we know where to meet you?” Taeyang asked and Jack chuckled.

“You’re smart boys, Youll find a way.” He looked at me and I just wanted to melt into the ground and cry at the same time. “I missed you kitten, you’ll be home soon okay? So no crying.” He shrugged and the screen faded to black and I was left alone with GD’s glare burning into me.

-