#somehow i keep summoning him in my times of weakness. what the fuck is going on

[wolfowls]

...

[monstersholygrail]

very classic but summoning a demon to fuck you and he gets a little obsessed 🙏

Imagine Himbo Demon was one day just casually going about his business, torturing a mortal with the agonizing act of small talk when suddenly a flash of white explodes across his vision. The next thing he knows he’s standing in a magical circle of your own design and he can’t get out.

You ask if he’s an incubus and that’s when he notices the book in your hand, ‘How to Summon Incubi With Your Friends: The Party Guide.’ He also looks you over and notices how painstakingly pretty you are and thinks… he could be an incubus.

That night he has what he claims as the best sex of his eternal life, no doubt about it. The way your body moved as you rode him within an inch of his life made him swear he was being taken back to heaven. The way you tasted sweeter than the finest nectar till it burned permanently into his senses. Every last bit of you was addicting.

When the summoning spell’s time was coming to a close, the demon actually felt an ache at the idea of leaving you and your sweet, sweet holes. He tried to reach for you once more but with a flash of white he was back in hell. His heart and his cock aching for you.

The minute he can he’s scouring hell’s library for the book he saw in your grasp. He reads it like a man possessed, ironically, looking for the spell you must’ve used.

As he’s reading the book, an Incubus just so happens to look over at him. Sensing eyes on him he looks up and their gazes meet. The Incubus reads the cover of the book he has and his eyes widen. He begins slowly inching away from Himbo Demon before turning and quickly rushing off.

Himbo Demon tilts his head, curious as to why the Incubus gave such a reaction. But after a moment of brief confusion, he goes back to reading the book. His eyes brightening as he finds the spell.

That night he clumsily performs the spell. His mind foggy with lust. His cock red, angry, and dripping with precum as he thinks about drowning in your holes, lapping up your essence like it’s the only food he’ll ever need and then fucking you until you’re raw and swollen, only to soothe any pain with his tongue.

Himbo demon growls, reaching down and lazily stroking his cock with one hand and performing the spell with the other. Somehow by a true miracle, it works. He appears back in the same fading circle he appeared in last time. His eyes ignite with feral need and his gaze flickers around the low-lit room before a door opens and you come waltzing in wearing nothing but a towel.

“Miss me, baby?” He snarls in excitement, knowing now he has a way to keep coming back to you.

You yelp, jerking back against the wall in surprise. Not expecting the demon to be here again but you’re not exactly upset about it either. Himbo Demon smiles wickedly, but in truth he’s just so happy to see you! He moves at the speed of lightning and he’s on you in an instant. His tall lithe body caging you in against the wall. You exhale shakily, your body tingling with need and your belly churning with arousal as you glance down at his fat cock bobbing and dribbling with his own arousal.

The scent of you floods Himbo Demon’s senses and he growls, fangs flashing in the moonlight that peaks in from the window. Feeling beyond thrilled that the spell worked. That he can go to you whenever he feels like it now. So long as you keep the summoning circle up, that is. But he’s too focused on your new easy access to even try and realize that.

“Don’t worry, sweet human. I’ve found my way back to you and your glorious body. From now on we shall never be parted and I can properly fuck your weak mortal shell ragged as much as I desire. And there is much… much desire,” Himbo Demon rasps heatedly, looking down at you with a fire in his eyes.

Before you can even think to respond, the demon is shredding your towel into two, revealing your body to him in all its glory. He barely takes the time to appreciate the view and suddenly he’s pressing into, rubbing his length along the height of your belly.

And you know this is the start of a wild adventure. One you’re sure is bound to last more than another night.

[aerialflight]

fic rec list

I am into such random fandoms at the moment and I NEED to spread the word on how fantastic these fics are so people would get into those fandoms too. Join me in my rabbit holes!

-

[Dimension 20: Fantasy High]

serendipities of the mundane kind by fangirl_squee

Ships: Figueroth Faeth/Ayda Aguefort, Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Kristen Applebees/Tracker O'Shaughnessey

The Bad Kid's lives wind through the world a little differently, but some friendships are just meant to be.

(ships aside, this is a fic about friendship! and it's absolutely beautiful!! i loved how all the relationships formed and how all of them meet under different yet plausible circumstances. they meet in pairs and then in groups, all of them introduced to each other slowly yet organically. i'm so in love with each character's journey and how meant-to-be the bad kids are. absolutely recommend this!)

thwick thwack by graeskies

Ship: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster

Eyes narrowed, slitted pupils so thin they could pick a lock. Wide, fin-like ears pressed flat back against his head—'airship ears', Adaine had said once, and it made Riz laugh so hard he had forgotten what he had been reacting to in the first place. Tail thrashing back and forth, making a rhythmic thwick thwack against his legs, or his briefcase, or both. Extra-sharp teeth bared wide, hissing with a confidence he didn't have in freshman year. Riz's threat displays were hypnotizing. Fabian almost forgot the punchline of his own joke.

(riz acting on his instincts and fabian Vibing with it so hard is a trope i never knew i wanted until this fic fnieowfnpewa.)

not by design (again, again) by jackpack

Ship: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster

To his knowledge, the world is right when Riz gets home, right as he falls into bed and curls up with a grin on his face, right as he closes his eyes and passes sometime in the wee hours of the morning, content that tomorrow was going to be even better. And, then, he wakes up to an alarm set for school. -- It's freshman year, and Riz has a found family to find. Again.

(time travel time travel time travel!!! the bad kids all struggling to find each other and solve the mystery! ugh, these kids have my whole heart and i loved every minute of this.)

Light My Fire by Anonymous (locked, need account to read)

Ship: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster

The sheet is too short to reach Riz. Fabian fully unfurls it, stretches both his arms as far as he can, thinks about fully letting go and grabbing The Ball midair, trying to tuck and roll and maybe take some of the damage for him. Despite his efforts, he's just a few feet shy of Riz, limp and unconscious and hurtling downwards, just like he was at the Row and the Ruction. Fabian, once again, is too slow and weak and incompetent to help him. Fabian screws his eye shut, half because he can't stand to watch Riz's body hit the ground and half because he feels like if he just believes hard enough, he can somehow save him. - I thought too hard about the time Fabian summoned a fire elemental that saved Riz's life and also kissed him and then nobody ever mentioned it again. This is the result.

(i caught FEELINGS when reading about this moment in the sophomore campaign, embellished and seen through the eyes of a desperate fabian. there's something about fabian being sincere and brave that always hits me in the chest like a hammer.)

meet me in the woods by macaronidoodles

A thought comes to him, and he pulls out the little rock he’d artificed out of his pocket. It’s probably stupid, he thinks, looking at it, so small in his hands. But there’s no one around to make fun of him, and if even one of his friends could hear… It’s Gorgug, he whispers. Keep going. * (in the forest of the nightmare king, gorgug gives everyone a chance to catch their breath)

(i will never be over that fucking line and all that it does. the hope, the love, the determination to keep moving forward, knowing that you are not alone. fnewifoewpa GOD.)

An Abjurative Wizard's Guide to Entrapment and Matchmaking, by Aelwyn Abernant by AgentStannerShipper

Ship: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster

“I cannot be in love with Riz Gukgak,” Fabian says. “I cannot be in love with The Ball. Under no circumstances can that be a thing that is happening.” Across the room, sitting in Riz’s chair, her feet up on Riz’s desk, ninety percent of her attention on one of Riz’s case files open in her lap, Aelwyn does the incredibly helpful thing of saying, “Uh-huh.”

(this is THE fic that got me into the ship. fabian's feelings of admiration and love for riz shines through and i'm so in love with how in love fabian is. seeing it from his point of view made me realize just how good of a person and character riz gukgak is. love this fic so much!)

Ring a Bell by Tangerine_Blast

“You are drunk,” Adaine accused. “I’m not-” Aelwyn protested but stopped herself mid word and pinched the bridge of her nose, “I don’t mean to alarm you, little sister, but I think you may be suffering from some severe memory loss.” Adaine was about to snap back at her but froze as the words sunk in. Memory loss. Yes. That would certainly explain why she was in a different outfit then she remembered. “What did you do?” *** The Bad Kids wake up on the first day of their freshman year. Or… no, it’s almost two years later and everything is so vastly different. Where are they? Who are all these people claiming to be their family and friends?

(*SCREAMS* god, it hit me so hard how all the bad kids grew up so much from freshman year?? they're such different people in sophomore year compared to the beginning. every single character, including the side characters, are going Through It and i wanted to hug all of them so. bad. nfewiofpewa absolutely a must read, i love every single character here so so much!!)

-

[Naruto]

Into the Wide Blue Yonder by OneEyedRaven

Ship: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Sasuke

“Take off your mask,” the clan head demanded. He might as well have ordered Kakashi to strip naked – to reveal his face to all these strangers felt as vulnerable as baring his neck to a sword. “You will not be allowed to hide your face here, Sharingan-thief.” - Kakashi gets misplaced in time and taken in by the Uchiha clan during the warring era, thanks to the mysterious one-armed man, Sasuke.

(i've never been into this ship but my god they make it work here in the most delightful slowburn i've read in a long while. i am rooting for them so hard, they're trying to change the world and make it better and i am so here for it! yes! disestablish the corrupt power structures of konoha from the very beginning! hell yeah!!!)(also kakashi's growth and characterization makes me want to cry he's doing so well considering all the bullshit he's lived through fnewfew)

fluffy clouds and a tinge of wonder by TheOneKrafter

In a world obsessed with killing and dying, Seiko is mostly concerned with chasing off her boredom. The Academy wasn’t exactly intellectually stimulating, but dying in the second shinobi war sounded like a long walk off a short pier. Everyone is always so stressed about avoiding attention, or min-maxing skills in situations like this. Seiko is of the opinion that those people need to chill the hell out. Maybe play a little shogi. Death comes for them all anyways. Better to enjoy this all while it lasts. (genius self insert stumbles into disrupting a timeline with the intentionality of an elephant trampling a very fancy tea shop.) (updates weekly-ish.)

(*cackles* i love how built the world and relationships are in this fic. the SI is not overpowered, actually intelligent but not omnipresent, and has actual social skills instead of being an oblivious airhead. i appreciate the time and care that's taken to build the friendships the SI has and am eager to see how the plot turns out in the future!)

How to Redeem Your Past Mistakes, Commit Mild Treason, and Accidentally Build a Family by themidnightguardian

If Kakashi hadn’t seen Naruto living in squalor and Sasuke’s personal trauma shrine and whatever civilian fuckery was happening at Sakura’s house, he’d have at least tried to fail them even if logic told him the Elder Council would never let it fly. Screw the Hokage for that. * * * * * * * * * * When the Sandaime showed him Naruto’s apartment, he didn’t think that was going to be the tip of the iceberg that was the shitshow of his soon-to-be team. But as it turned out, Naruto wasn't the only one with a less-than-optimal home life. And as it turned out, Kakashi was apparently the only person in Konoha who cared.

(*hugs all of team 7* they are family and it's the council's mistake in thinking this wouldn't happen. kakashi is Doing His Best and doing Well and i want to pat him on the head in appreciation for his efforts.)

-

[Diamond no Ace]

Lay Sunflowers at My Grave by Kinryuuki

Ship: Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun

"If you could go back, and do it over. What would you do?"

(literally the best time travel fic since trajectory of laughter, i am OBSESSED.)

Aromantic Way to Propose by blue_flowers_bouquets (cianderia)

Ship: Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun

Miyuki Kazuya doesn't get romance, and he's painfully aware of it. Sawamura Eijun is a hopeless romantic to boot, but he insists that they should date. Their relationship goes as smooth as you could expect.

(so sweet and fluffy! exploring how an aromantic and romantic person can work, yet the characters stay in character! i really like how this was managed and written, absolutely give it a read!)

-

[Bridgerton]

a thousand cuts by wall_e_nelson

Ship: Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma

Every single day, Anthony tries very hard not to walk directly into the ocean. A collection of non-linear one-shots, headcanons, AUs, and missing scenes for Anthony Bridgerton. (this story was written in the year between s1 and s2. the character is based in the little we knew of s1 show!Anthony, pulling the rest of him and the world needed from the books.)

(it feels insane to me now that this was the first fic i read in this fandom. this isn't even my fucking fandom, i never even watched the show or read the books but god, god, this made me cry more than 10 fucking times. i can't remember the last time my heart ached so badly for a character, and anthony bridgerton is a phenomenal character indeed.)

Unspooled Thread by happilyinsane13, itakethewords (Itakethewords)

Ship: Benedict Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington

Benedict's life changed the moment Lady Danbury commanded, “Follow that Featherington.” The year is 1813 and Benedict's sister Daphne has just made her debut. He thought he knew how this season would go. Little did he suspect he would stumble on the youngest Featherington daughter's biggest secret. -- A complete, Benelope canon re-write, starting from S1, Ep1 all the way through season 3.

(this fic has RUINED me, i can't unsee the potential this ship holds. they're artists who bond over art! they admire and protect and care about one another! it's the slowest of slow burns that immediately catches fire before running around in panic! it's a proper friends to lovers fic done incredibly well!)(i started reading this author's other benedict/penelope fics and GOD IT'S SO GOOD FNEWIFOEW.)(i'm ruined! this rare pair has ruined me!!)(i have no regrets.)

-

[Jujutsu Kaisen]

The Phantom Guardian by MissingN000

Ships: Getou Suguru/Gojo Satoru, Kugisaki Nobara/Zenin Maki, Fushiguro Megumi/Itadori Yuuji, Inumaki Toge/Okkotsu Yuuta

There's something about this girl, like looking in a funhouse mirror a third of his size. “Oi, kid,” Toji says. “It’s you, isn’t it?” The girl glares daggers at him from behind a pair of red-rimmed glasses too big for her tiny face. She’s looking at him like he’s totally crazy, which isn’t entirely untrue. “Huh? Who the heck are you?” In lieu of answering, he asks, “What’s your name?” The girl scowls. “Maki.” “Maki,” he repeats, and it’s like a missing piece of his soul falls back into place. The record of his life before he fought the Six-Eyes brat is a long, impossibly white scroll of nothing -- but written on it in faint letters is the name of a child, a child with a delicate name that brushed the heavens, spun a prayer into letters; a name that began with an M, and it ended in i, too. “Maki,” he says again. “I think you’re my daughter.” -------- Toji makes a mistake. It changes everything.

(*running around throwing glitter like a sparkling system* and you get found a found family! and you get a found family! and you-)(but seriously, this is the one and only fic i'll read from this fandom, i legit don't care about anything else except these fuckers in this fucking fic. they are all disasters and i love that every single character here is traumatized and still somehow ruining themselves while thriving?? it's amazing.)

-

[Star Wars]

You and I (drink the poison from the same vine) by northpeach, wolfsrainrules

When one wakes up from death into a universe many of us have dreamed of, truthfully Kiyo can say it was both easier and harder then she thought it would be. Yes, she's gonna get a lightsaber. Yes, she's gonna bite someone to get a bes'bev. No, she's not forgetting where she's come from but she cannot grieve for a lifetime. Not when this life has so much potential. Has so much to offer. Not when she knows exactly how well Mandalorian and Jedi cultures fit together. Absolutely not, especially since she knows Jaster Mereel has a 700 page love letter written to his people to publish. She's going to get her hands on it and read it if it's the last thing she does.

(*breathes* i need this to update so bad. i usually hate SI fics in star wars, but this fic is amazing?? again, i NEED TO KNOW where this is going, my impatience is clawing my brain.)

(They Were) Made For Us by Echuta (setoboo)

Ship: Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Kaminoan tilts his head with a small smile. As if he’s trying to be indulgent for the Jedi’s sake. “Well yes, you and your fellow Jedi, Master Kenobi. They were made for the Jedi - and since the Jedi serve the Republic. It was implied they would do so too.” ‘They were made for the Jedi.’ Obi-Wan thinks in a daze. Clinging to that one sentence and grappling with all the implications buried within it as the Force around him pulses with tension. ‘For...for us? For me?’ What can that possibly mean? ---------------- Or; the Clones are really, and truly, perfectly made for the Jedi. The real issue is that it seems the Jedi are just as perfectly made for the Clones. This throws a major wrench in the works for the Darkside when the Jedi aren't very willing to let their men die. Not even on the senate's orders.

(i keep rereading this, i'm so obsessed with this kind of trope where people can read others' souls and just know who they are. this is the Shit for me, i was doomed from the start fnewifoewaef)

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[Top Gun] (the most unexpected fandom to get into, watched it 2 months ago and it's completely taken over my life HELP ME-)

Where Are You Going by adiduck (book_people)

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

They’ve both heard all the philosophical bullshit, of course. Poems about your soul forever seeking its other half, impassioned treatises they were supposed to read in high school English about how you know where your own limbs are, quotes from long-dead guys about physical distance but hearts taking up the same space--that kind of bullshit. Maverick never put much stock in that kind of thing--he’d hated school. It probably shouldn’t have been surprising that Ice also really did not care about the science or philosophy--they were supposed to be perfect for each other, after all. (Or: There’s a handshake in the O Club the first night of Top Gun, and the very bearing of “magnetic North” shifts permanently under Ice and Mav’s feet)

(soulmate fic!! it's done so well and the relationship negotiations and trying to make it work is so up my alley. it's not an instant love soulmate fic, which i appreciate a lot, and i just love this author's characterization of of ice and maverick. definitely recommend this author's other works too, i just love the way they write in general, in whatever fandom they are in XD)

A Higher Fidelity by sintra

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

“C’mon.” Tori nudges him with an elbow. “C’mon. He’s cute. You can admit that one thing but you can’t admit this?” Gritting his teeth, Ice thinks very carefully about his next words. “He’s…” he trails off. “Some would say that…Mitchell is not. Unpleasant. To look at.” (Alternatively: the one where Ice and Mav learn to park bad, eat good, and love even better.)

(i want to kiss the author, ice's characterization here made me laugh so many times, omfg. absolute treasure of a fic! the narration and ice's thoughts were so fucking funny and maverick is just perfectly maverick in this haha! absolutely recommend for a good laugh with some extra sweetness.)

Precipice by V_Evergreen

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

Dating, it turns out, does not get easier with age. Alternately: [“Ice,” Maverick said slowly, “do you have a crush on me?” Ice flushed. “Shut up.” Maverick grinned. “How embarrassing.”]

(middle aged people going on first dates!! it's so sweet and snappy, i love how well-worn yet new this fic feels when it comes to their relationship. it feels both fresh yet comfortable and i felt warm reading this. <3)

Flowers for Sale by Owner by aelibia

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

Most people would do anything to stop the flowers from coming. Maverick is not most people.

(THE FUNNIEST FREAKING HANAHAKI FIC I'VE EVER READ HOLY SHIT! PLEASE READ, I CRIED FROM LAUGHING SO HARD FNEIWOFEWA)(never in a MILLION YEARS did i think about this aspect of the hanahaki curse, INCREDIBLE.)

I Need You to Live by PurpleArrowzandLeather

When Bradley finishes playing his dad's song at the Hard Deck, he sees a familiar figure collapse on the beach. Thinking the worst, he does everything in his power to make sure he doesn't lose him.

(i am so weak for fics that involve bradley and maverick re-conciliating. really great what if scenario done right and i definitely recommend this author's other top gun fics, they do gen fics for top gun really well!)

lost fight, grip tight on a heavy rope by writteninwaves

Bradley Bradshaw does not do regrets. Until he does. But in his fifteen years of self-imposed exile, there comes a time when even his stubborn will breaks. When Bradley overhears devastating news about his dad, he realizes just how much he lost and wonders if anything was worth it in the first place. Part 1 of revival

(mav is presumed dead and bradley comes back home because of it. the exploration of grief and how much maverick mattered to so many people is *chefs kiss* done fantastic here. there's a part 2 to this series when mav shows up and let me tell you, it's so good and i absolutely recommend that as well haha!)

What's In A Name? by maverickazansky

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

Maverick had never put any thought into Bradley not knowing the difference in surnames between the people in his family, nor his own. Nor had his put any thought into the fact that Bradley was a child. He probably should have.

(it's so cute!! it's so so so cute!!! i both laughed and cooed at little bradley, this is so ridiculously fluffy hahaha!)

With the Stars in the Darkness, and Love in the Light by flyingfightingfishy for LadyLanera

Ship: Tom Iceman Kazansky/Pete Maverick Mitchell

Ice cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I was calling about Wood and Wolf's wedding." "Oh yeah! I was sort of wondering about that. When I talked to Wolf a couple weeks ago he said the invitations would be out soon but I haven't gotten one.” Ice cleared his throat again, not quite sure how to address the situation. "Yes. Well. That's because it's with mine. Which is why I called.” Mav made a noise of mild confusion from the other end of the phone. ”They sent them together?" "Ah, no,” Ice said, taking a deep breath. “They invited us. Together. As a couple. Same invitation." OR Ice and Mav get invited to Hollywood and Wolfman's wedding together. They're not a couple. They decide not to correct the assumption.

(i wanted to smash these two idiots together, ice's anxiety was so palpable and real and i wanted to shake the man the entire time omg.)

-

[Crossovers]

Jokers to the Right by adiduck (book_people) for Serie11

Fandoms: The Saint (1997), Mission Impossible

Ship: Ethan Hunt/Simon Templar

It was supposed to be an easy one. (Or: Ethan Hunt is trying to save the world. Simon Templar is trying to rob an asshole blind. They work it out.) Part 1 of if you ever leave, i'm coming with you

(my goddamn gateway drug into this crack ship that i'm now absolutely OBSESSED with. truly and sincerely, this ship has overrun my life and i can't stop listening to lupin the third ost because it gives off spy vibes SO HARD.)(this ship is just, so much fun?? the banter, the fact they're both hyper competent people in the same field of work, whether that means working against or with each other. simon is fascinating and ethan is so inherently good and they circle around each other flirting SO MUCH LIKE NFEWNIFWE.)(the rest of the series is so good too and i absolutely recommend reading Serie11 too, they both herald this ship and god, GOD, i need more of this ship with their dynamics, it's AMAZING!! Please please give it a go and read!)

believe in you by Serie11

Fandoms: The Saint (1997), Mission Impossible

Ship: Ethan Hunt/Simon Templar

“I’ve sort of been wondering why you kept asking me out,” Julia confesses. “When it was pretty obvious that you weren’t going to make a move.” “Obvious,” Ethan echoes. He doesn’t like to think that he’s obvious about anything that he isn’t doing incredibly on purpose. He doesn’t like to think that even after all these years of only showing what he wants to show, there are still things that people can see about him that he would prefer them not to know. “This is date five, Ethan,” Julia says, lifting her eyebrows. “And you haven’t tried to kiss me once.” - Ethan's trying to escape from his past – but that's not exactly easy when he doesn't really want to run.

(a rewrite of mission impossible 3 with saintspy (this ship's name) in it. everything fits! the movie somehow has even MORE stakes and i got so hooked into the relationship drama between our mains and julia is so great here?? this fic is angsty and is in the break up era of their relationship, it's so juicy!! uggh, i love how this author writes, they really dig into ethan's psyche and i'm utterly enamored by it! even if you're not into saintspy, this fic's exploration of ethan still makes it compelling, so i definitely recommend you to check it out!)

run in the shadows by Serie11 for adiduck (book_people)

Fandoms: The Saint (1997), Mission Impossible, Top Gun

Ship: Ethan Hunt/Simon Templar

The changing soulmark on his wrist is a secret that Ethan has kept for as long as he can remember - one that he never thought he would have to explain to anybody, until a man with Peter Mitchell written on his skin appears to upend his entire life.

(*screams* soulmate fic! soulmate fic! this fic is separate from the two fics above, but man, it dives so hard into Ethan and his backstory on, "what if ethan hunt and pete mitchell are the same person". it's handled so well and the exploration on identity and what it means for both ethan and simon is so great!! a must read that will definitely win you over to this ship, i will die on this hill!)

Give and Take by GreenGlassMountain

Fandoms: The Saint (1997), Mission Impossible

Ship: Ethan Hunt/Simon Templar

When Max hires Ethan to steal the NOC list, she gives him free reign over his team members, with one exception. For such a massive heist, he must recruit the best thief in the business: a man known only as The Saint.

(i recommended this before and i need to recommend this again! seriously, it's a delightful first meeting fic between ethan and simon and the author did it so right! the dynamics, the cautious back and forth, and the fact this fic is set in the first mission impossible movie is all kinds of intriguing!! i'm so happy that this small ship is growing bit by bit and i'm so excited to see what comes next with this fic XD)

[heroes-among-us-all]

Maybe shigaraki having a crush on a league member and he gets her to sit in his lap while he plays video games?

Cute. You were way too goddamn cute. As much as Shigaraki hated to admit it, he'd turned into a lovestruck fool from the moment he laid eyes on you.

When Dabi had first suggested inviting another member into the League, he'd had his doubts. Shigaraki had since grown comfortable with the allies he'd accrued. He didn't want to expand his circle too much. He had a hard enough time trusting people as it was.

Needless to say, when you turned up to the hideout with that adorable smile of yours, he found it difficult to refuse. Obviously, he didn't trust you right from the start - you had to earn his trust, the way everyone else had. But slowly and surely, you made it clear that you were faithful to the League and proved time and time again that your ambitions and desires aligned with his.

Now that it had gotten to this point, Shigaraki could safely say that he had a massive crush on you.

And quite frankly, he hated it. It was an unfamiliar feeling, the likes of which made his stomach clench up uncomfortably. He was used to being in a perpetually shitty mood, but this was different somehow. Even though his chest got all tight when he stared at you for too long, the sensation wasn't wholly unpleasant.

As a result of being in constant turmoil and struggling to make sense of his own warped feelings, he ended up lashing out at you unintentionally.

"Get out of my way," he would snap on one occasion.

"Why do you keep staring at me? If you've got something to say, just say it," he might also sneer.

Put simply, he found it difficult to interact with you, because you brought out weakness in him. You made him feel shaky and uncertain. Timid and withdrawn.

But in spite of all that, you weren't deterred. You were always constantly smiling during every one of your interactions. If his words hurt you, then you certainly didn't let it show. You kept on treating him with kindness and consideration, which was quite frankly more than he deserved.

Shigaraki wanted to act on his feelings, but given that he had no experience in this department, he didn't know how.

So, he decided to stick with what he was comfortable with and use it to break the ice.

"Come in here," Shigaraki demanded. He was your boss, so technically speaking, you had to listen to most of what he said.

You were completely unfazed to have been summoned to his room. As always, you were smiling. Fucking hell, how was it possible for someone to be that cute?

"I'm here," you beamed. "What's up?"

Shigaraki pointed to the spot beside him. "Sit down. Stay here while I play my game."

"Oh. Is that all?"

"Yes," he frowned. "Is there a problem?"

"Not at all!" you chirped, happily bounding over to his side. Just as he'd insisted, you plopped down right beside him, getting awfully close. Shigaraki couldn't deny the fact that his heart was going crazy right now.

He gripped his controller a bit tighter. "Okay. Just stay there. Watch me beat this level."

His red eyes flickered towards the screen of his TV instead of staring at you. It was better this way. It was better for him to have something to focus on while the two of you interacted, otherwise he would risk making a fool out of himself.

Unfortunately, even his endless video game prowess couldn't quite compensate for how distracting you were. You were sitting so close that your shoulders kept brushing up against his, and apart from the low volume of the TV, the room was almost deathly quiet, allowing him to hear every soft exhale you let out.

Even worse, he started feeling stupidly self-conscious for some reason. He suddenly worried that you might not think he was good enough at the game and judge him for it. These self-deprecating thoughts ate away at him, and he could feel himself playing worse and worse as the minutes dragged on.

Shigaraki swallowed, fingers trembling against the controller. "I can't focus," he admitted. "I don't usually play this bad."

"What are you talking about?" you laughed. "You're a million times better than I could ever hope to be. It would have taken me more than a week to clear that last boss fight."

There it was again. You were comforting him, the way you always did. Normally, he hated feeling like he was being offered superficial pity. After all, people pretending to give a shit was the whole reason this hero society was a sham. But from you, strangely enough, it always felt genuine. He never had to doubt your intentions or read into things too much.

You actually cared about him. That thought alone was enough to overwhelm him with emotion.

Feeling emboldened by your encouraging words, Shigaraki mustered up the nerve to utter his next sentence.

"I think I'd play better if you were sitting on my lap," he mumbled.

Shit. Why'd I go and say that? She'll definitely think I'm creeping on her now.

But it seemed that you just kept on surprising him. That smile of yours that he'd since come to love didn't falter in the slightest. If anything, it just grew even wider.

"Sure thing," you grinned, and without wasting a beat, seated yourself right in his lap.

Now Shigaraki was panicking for a different reason altogether. He hadn't really thought things through this far. You were actually sitting on his lap. He could feel the curve of your ass pressing flush against his lower half, and already, his face was a mess of crimson hues.

You turned towards him. He noticed that your grin had become a bit more coy. "What's wrong?" you teased. "Isn't this what you asked for? Come on. I want to see you play some more."

"Shut up," Shigaraki grimaced, having to bite back the strangled gasp that threatened to leave his lips. He decided to rise to your challenge and keep on playing, not that it even mattered anymore. He'd already won big-time by getting to be this close to you.

Unsurprisingly, his gaming performance deteriorated even further from that point onwards. You knew exactly what you were doing to him, letting out giggles and wiggling your butt under the pretense of 'trying to get more comfortable'. Shigaraki was trying his damn best to keep his excitement from showing, but he imagined he was probably failing terribly.

"Hey, Tomura," you said suddenly. You placed a hand on top of his and slowly moved the controller out of the way. Your eyes sparkled with mischief. "Is playing video games really all you wanted to do? Before you answer, you should know that I can feel how hard you are."

Shigaraki's blush deepened. Right. You were many things, but an idiot wasn't one of them. Not that he'd really been subtle in the first place.

"I guess not," he admitted, awkwardly avoiding your gaze. "So, then... what else would we do?"

"We could make out," you grinned. Your face moved closer to his, and he had to remind himself not to get too excited and accidentally grab hold of you with all five of his fingers.

"I've never done anything like that before," he said, feeling a touch ashamed by the admission.

But he should have known better. He should have known you wouldn't care, not when you'd treated him more warmly than anyone else in his life.

"It's okay," you hummed, shifting your position on his lip so that you were now fully facing him. You let your arms dangle over his shoulders. "I'll teach you," was the last thing you said, pressing your lips against his.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 13 - Street

@jegulus-microfic February 13 Word count 811

Previous part First part

The green flames died behind Voldemort, leaving behind the weak flickering fire in the grate. 

Without asking, Voldemort grabbed Regulus’s chin in his cold, harsh hand and drove into his head. It was like being stabbed in the brain. Legimency could be painless. It was up to the caster whether or not it hurt, and Voldemort always ensured it hurt. Regulus winced and tried as hard as possible to keep his composure as the memories from the last few weeks crashed behind his eyes. 

Voldemort lingered on his torture, slowing the tirade to watch each cut and forceful curse. 

Regulus fell to his knees. Somehow, he wasn’t sure how he managed it, but he kept the memories of James and his brother locked away where Voldemort couldn’t find them. 

After a final particularly painful spike into his memories, showing Remus helping him to escape, Voldemort relinquished his hold on Regulus and stood as though nothing had happened. 

“Ah, so the young wolf wants to join us, does he? I shall send Fenrir to collect him as soon as possible.”

The flames glowed green again, and multiple people invaded Regulus’s home. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan, Lucius, and, to his horror, Barty and Evan crowded around him. 

“Ah, back where you belong, cousin?” Bellatrix cooed in her harsh, rasping voice. He tried not to flinch as she ruffled his hair. 

“Bloody hell, Reg. What did they do to your face?” Evan looked over his bruised and swollen face with horror. Remus had done an excellent job. 

“Don’t know what you’re on about Rosier. I’ve never seen him look so good.” Barty cackled as he shot out a finger and poked one of the dark bruises on Regulus’s face.

Regulus pulled his wand from its holster on his arm and shot hot red sparks at Barty’s feet, causing him to jump up and down indigently across the Persian rug to avoid being burnt. 

“Hey! What the fuck Reg?! That was uncalled for!” 

“Don’t touch me then,” Regulus said in a bored voice as he twirled his wand back up his sleeve.

“Enough!” Voldemort hissed. The room fell into total silence, all attention on the pale wizard who commanded the room. 

“It is happening today, Regulus, now,” An excited murmur passed between the death eaters in the room. 

“What’s happening?” He asked. He could only think of one thing that required this many of the inner circle to be in his drawing room. 

“We attack the Ministry in one hour.” Bellatrix interrupted excitedly, clapping her hands and grinning maniacally.

“Bella,” Voldemort said quietly, Bellatrix immediately composed herself. 

“Make yourself presentable, Regulus, and we shall make our way to the Ministry.” Regulus looked down at the ruined, tattered robes he’d put back on this morning and nodded, leaving the group as he went to change. 

He carefully locked his bedroom door, and cast a silencing charm on the room. He pulled out the tiny mirror that had been Sirius’s and called into it.

“James? James, you there?” He didn’t get an immediate answer, so he removed his ragged robes. 

“Regulus?” James’s voice came back. Regulus picked up the mirror. 

“I don’t have much time.” He whispered to James’s reflection. “We’re going to the Ministry now. He said within the hour.” He summoned fresh clothes and began pulling them on as he spoke. 

“Thank you, love. I’ll alert the order. And Reg—” James paused until Regulus had finished dressing. “Be careful, yeah. Don’t die.” Regulus smiled into the mirror. 

“I’ll do my best.” Then James’s image was gone, and his own battered reflection showed in the mirror. 

He put the mirror in a secret pocket in his clean robes, and after taking a steadying breath and forcing his face into a neutral expression, he headed back downstairs. 

“You took your time,” Lucius was waiting for him. 

“Hardly,” He scoffed. Lucius raised his wand, and Regulus held his breath. Lucius muttered a charm, a light blue glow pulsed out of his wand, and Regulus’s face didn’t feel sore anymore. He checked the hallway mirror, and his face had returned to its usual flawless porcelain. “Thanks,” He said as his fingers reached up to check the skin for himself. 

“You’re welcome,” Lucius said with a sickening smile spreading across his face. “Come now, we mustn’t keep the Dark Lord waiting, should we?” He waved his hand forward, inviting Regulus to enter the drawing room. 

“Ah, good,” Voldemort exclaimed when he opened the door. “The rest of our forces are already gathered. Let us join them.” Regulus followed the small party out of the front door and onto the street outside. He turned to look back at number 12 as it concealed itself, disappearing from view as he walked further away. 

Voldemort himself grabbed ahold of Regulus’s arm. His claw-like hands dug into Regulus’s flesh as they apparated to the Ministry.    

Next part

[bellysoupset]

I think the original ask for this was from @sleepysickies, but my inbox may have eaten it. I'm sorry! Either way: jealous Bella who's sick + Lucas.

-----

Her head was throbbing.

It had been throbbing since the previous day, when she had been out with Wendy looking for house decor and she had thought it was simply from eating so much salt and not drinking enough water, but by now Bella was seriously starting to consider something else was at play.

Not only her head was aching like a nightmare, her stomach was super upset. She had forced herself to eat something for lunch, since she had skipped breakfast, but it had been a mistake. The few bites of her salad were swirling away, sending up the tiniest burps that tasted like bloody grass and to make matters worse today she was in student duty, which meant that instead of working from the nice A/C office, she was running around campus helping students with their issues.

This had been how she had met Lucas and the fact only made her all the more bitter.

At least it was the last call she had for the night, then she could clock out and go the fuck home.

It was decently late, she always got the late shifts that no one wanted, around 9 PM and the call was from the library. A group of girls were reunited around the computer, as if they could somehow summon it into working.

"Hi, Samantha Andrews?" Bella called, tugging on her red polo. It felt like it was suffocating her, "you called because there was an issue with your machine?"

"Yes," Sam was the shorter of the three girls, "I don't know what happened, I was trying to save my design and the whole thing bluescreened... Did I loose everything? It's due tomorrow-" it was always due tomorrow, Bella hadn't ever met a student who did things in time.

"Let me check," she sat down before the machine, starting to do the obvious things but that most people didn't bother to do before calling IT: cleaning cache, defragmenting, cleaning disks, running a virus check-

"No, I'm serious," one of Sam's friends said, giggling, "he walked up to me."

"Bullshit Melissa, he dates."

"So what?" Sam scoffed, backing Melissa up, "these football guys cheat on their girlfriends all the time, I don't think dating would stop him from making a pass on Mel."

"Guys, no," Mel whined, "I heard he's single now."

Bella tried not to listen, she really did. However while the malware scan ran, there were only two things to do: stare at nothing and overhear. Or she could focus on the horrible burning in her stomach, gurgling like hell. She could taste her lunch.

"Again, bullshit," the third friend replied, "we'd all know if the captain of the football team was single."

Oh no. Bella almost groaned out loud, she couldn't believe they had to be talking about Lucas of all fucking people to be talking about. With seven-fucking-thousand students and yet they had to be talking about the one guy she didn't want to hear gossip about.

"I think you are just jealous that he didn't want to take you home, Kelsey," Melissa scoffed and Bella's stomach churned at the mere mental image of it. She glanced over her shoulder. They all looked younger than her, they were first years for sure... Maybe second years.

Melissa was a ginger.

Bella pressed her lips tightly together, feeling sweat break over her forehead. She tried not to picture Lucas actually making a move on Melissa, but it was impossible, he was vivid in her mental image. The lopsided smile that used to make her knees weak, the sparkly green eyes... Her belly whined, being covered up by Kelsey gasping, offended.

"I am not! I'm just saying it sounds a little outlandish-"

"So what did he say exactly?" Sam asked, all interested. Bella burped, keeping her mouth shut and felt as little chunks went up her throat, then back down.

"We played some drinking game with his buddies and then he asked me if I wanted to leave with him," Melissa sounded so proud of herself, "his eyes are literally so pretty up close."

"Why didn't you?" Kelsey frowned, pouting and offended by the accusations.

"Some other football guy interrupted us," Melissa shrugged, "the one who looks like a disney prince."

"None of them," Kelsey chuckled, voice dripping venom.

"The one with the blonde hair?" Sam asked, frowning.

"No, the other one."

"None of them-"

"Uhm," Bella got up on shaky legs. She really was starting to feel faint, not just out of the pure anger at Lucas making passes in that barely legal walmart version of herself, but the queasiness had evolved into full on nausea, "there's a virus in your computer, we're - I'm going to warn the office to solve it remotely..." she squeezed the chair under her hand, "and to try and retrieve your work. They'll text you your protocol number-" her stomach clenched again and she gulped down, "is your phone up... Updated?"

"I think so?" Sam nodded nervously, "do I have to stick around...?"

"I'm afraid so," Bella agreed, trying to sound professional, "if that's all, then I'll go let them know."

"Yeah, that's all, thanks!" Sam smiled sweetly, before promptly sitting down on the chair Bella had left vacant and launching herself back into the gossiping.

Bella all but stumbled out to the front desk of the library. She used the staff phone to call IT and let them know, pressing her forehead to the cold wall.

Do you wanna go home with me?

What a fucking line, she scoffed, rattling off Sam's issue and quickly hanging up. She just really needed to go home... Or maybe get to the bathroom before she made a mess of herself.

Bella managed to turn the hallway and then another one, feeling drunk and disconnected from her body, until she slammed against a slab of concrete and nearly fell back on her ass, wasn't it for the slab reaching out and grabbing her arms.

"Hey!" Lucas' yelped, then sounded all breathy as he said, "Bell?!"

"Fuck," she groaned, "not you."

"Oh wow, you're the one who tried to run me over," he pouted, but didn't sound actually offended, "are you alright...?"

"What do you care?" Bella braced her hands against her knees, they were clammy, "you're ridiculous, you know? Moving on with a girl who just barely got her tits? Fan-fucking-tastic."

"I'm sorry...?" Luke frowned, all confused, "Bells, whatever are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you trying to fuck my cheap Walmart dupe," she gulped against the burning in her belly, swallowing it all down. Even nausea had to wait, because he couldn't just go and grab the first pale version of herself he could find. What a massive asshole.

"You're not making any sense... And no offense, but you look terrible, are you okay?"

"How-" she slammed a hand against his chest, "how dare you?"

Lucas planted a hand over hers in his chest, keeping it there. She could just feel his heart and Bella groaned, attempting to pull back, "how dare I do what?"

"Flirt with Daphne from Scooby Doo!" Bella glared at him, "really? Is that all it takes, a head of ginger hair?"

He let out an amused smile, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Bells..." then the little concerned wrinkle appeared back between his eyebrows, "is this about Spencer's sister?"

"Even her name- Mel" Bella groaned, "you make me sick."

"Oh it totally is," he let out a snort, "so what did you hear? Nothing good, I'm gonna guess-" once more she attempted to pull her hand back, since he was running his thumb teasingly over her knuckles, but Lucas kept it firmly into place over his chest, "I bet they're saying I made out with her?"

Her lunch moved up and Bella groaned, hanging her head, suddenly too nauseous to argue, "Luke, stop-"

"No, wait, it's probably even worse," he sounded a little sadistic, "to get you this pissed off- I fucked her and she's moving in with me."

"Luke, I..." she felt her eyes burn, mouth filling up with saliva. Bella attempted to swallow it down, failed miserably as it immediately filled up her mouth all over again, tasting even worse-

"You know it's all garbage, Bella, there's been no one since you," he squeezed her hand in his and she opened her mouth to retort, but there was a rush in her ears and suddenly she vomited all over the space between them, coving the tip of his sneakers with bright green.

"Told you to stop," she groaned and then her knees gave in. Luckily Lucas was already moving and he caught her easily, supporting her standing up.

"Bella, jesus- Baby, open your eyes, look at me- Bella, look at me!"

"Uhm-" her stomach gurgled and her head ached as she attempted to open her eyes, "Luke-"

"Okay, fuck this-" he quickly swooped her up, picking her up bridal style, "What the hell is going on?!"

Bella could've cried. She had missed him more than anything. This Lucas, not the stupid idiot who kept sending gifts to her dorm, this guy. The concerned sweetheart, who dropped everything for her, who made her feel number one even when she was feeling all types of crappy.

"Bells, please, talk to me?" he sounded very urgent.

"I wanna lie down," she groaned, squeezing his shirt in her fist and he nodded, pulling her up in his arms in order to fix her arms around neck and so he could press a kiss to her brow.

"I'm taking you home, don't worry-" he sighed, "you're definitely running a fever."

She closed her eyes, letting the momentary comfort wash over her, trying not to focus in the horrible sloshing in her belly. Going up and down with each of Lucas' footsteps as he carried her down the parking lot.

"I need to- My car is here..." she groaned and Lucas hummed something, his thumb brushing her back up and down.

"I'll get it later, Bella..."

She heard, faintly, the beep of his car unlocking and then Lucas was putting her sitting down in the passenger seat of his truck, his face coming into view once again. Bella groaned, dizzily resting back against the leather seat, as he strapped her in.

"Your hair is longer," she mumbled, blinking against the sudden exhaustion. Lucas let out a surprised chuckle, fixing the seatbelt so it wouldn't press against her belly too much.

"Yeah... So what is this? Are you in pain? Should I take you to the hospital or home-"

"I think it's just the flu," Bella sighed, breathing out, "I'm really queasy..."

"Tell me if I need to pull over, okay?" Lucas cupped her face, without thinking, planting a kiss to her forehead, "You'll be in bed soon."

Her eyes burned with a renewed desire to cry, so Bella just squeezed them shut and pressed her forehead to the cold window as he shut the door gently.

He didn't say anything else, despite the fact Bell could almost hear his frantic thoughts. Instead Lucas' hand came to rest at her knee, rubbing little circles against her skin with his thumb, as he split his attention between the road and her.

"I'm sorry about your shoes-"

"Whatever you heard about Mel is a lie."

They spoke at the same time and Bella opened a smile, curling up more in the seat as she felt her belly gurgle uneasily. She forced her eyes open, "what did happen with Mel?"

"Nothing," Lucas squeezed her thigh again, "she was drunk at a party I was at. She's Spencer's little sister, so I offered to drive her home. Aidan said he'd do it, so I dropped it, that was all."

She huffed, muffling a small sickening burp against her hand and Bella paused, swallowing against the urge to retch, now for a whole new reason, "uhm... So you didn't invite her home with you?"

"Please," he scoffed, then squeezed her leg again, "how are you feeling?"

"Humiliated," Bella closed her eyes, then leaned in and planted her head to his shoulder, "this doesn't mean anything."

"Okay," Lucas huffed, "you're really warm, baby."

"Yeah, I know..." she breathed out, slumping against him and pressing her nose to his jacket. It almost hurt how much she missed him.

Bell wasn't sure if she had drifted off or if Lucas was speeding, probably both, because they arrived at her dorm pretty quickly despite the fact it wasn't that close to campus.

She slowly peeled off from him, a blotch of red in the middle of her cheek from where it had been pressed against his arm. The movement was enough to wake up her stomach and Bella groaned as a wash of nausea rushed through her.

She undid the seatbelt, planting her hands to the dashboard and glaring at her feet, swallowing the bitter spit filling up her mouth. The passenger door opened.

"Bells?"

"Gonna be sick," she groaned, breathing deeply through her nose, "it really... It really fucking hurts, Luke..."

"C'mere," he turned her legs around, so instead of facing the inside of the car, she was sitting facing the outside. Bella shuddered as she felt him pull all of her hair up, a cold hand resting on her overheated nape.

She let out a moan, pressing a hand over her stomach, the uniform still clinging to her skin and suffocating, "it's not coming up."

"Let's get you inside then..."

It was awkward, to say the least. They weren't dating, they weren't even on speaking terms... Luke hadn't been to her dorm in so long that he no longer had a key. And yet here they were, Bella feeling too awful to pretend she didn't desperately crave the comfort he provided, Luke's arm wrapped around her shoulder as he held her up, unbothered by the sickly little burps she kept muffling against his chest.

"Keys?"

"My bag..." Bella shuddered, bracing against the door, "please hurry up..."

"Just a second, baby," he fiddled with her fussy lock for a second, before pushing it open just as Bella gagged against her hand. She didn't even wait for Luke to move out of her way, instead she snuck under his arm and rushed to the bathroom, dropping her bag in her hurry.

She didn't make it to the toilet, but to the sink and Bella immediately coughed up another gush of bright green puke. Her belly squeezed, whole body on fire and head swimming with the awful sensation.

Lucas pulled up her hair, gently peeling some curls that had stuck to the side of her sweaty forehead, "what the hell did you eat?" he said humorously, "crayons?"

Bella groaned, hunched over the sink and whined as the little chuckle he won made her belly ache even more, "please don't make me laugh, Luke."

"Sorry, sorry," he caught her eyes in the vanity mirror, smiling at her, "are you done?"

"For now," Bella nodded, turning on the water to wash the sink and her mouth, washing her mouth too. She walked back to the bedroom, while Lucas filled up a glass of water for her. The sticky sweaty sensation was the worse, so Bella quickly kicked out her shoes and unbuttoned her work polo, removing it.

"Bells?" Lucas stopped in the doorway of her bathroom, holding the glass, "uh- Do I have to turn around...?"

She was too tired to pretend to be bashful, when Lucas knew every inch of her body, "no. Get me my pjs, please?"

"Okay," he handed her the glass, "try to keep just a little down, Bell... Dots or stripes?"

"Anything," she rolled her eyes as he went through her mess of a first drawer, that housed all of the small stuff, pajamas, socks, lingerie, scrunchies, scarfs...

She kicked off her social pants, bunching it up and throwing them on the ground. Her stomach gurgled in relief as the waistband no longer squeezed it and she muffled a burp on her fist. There was a dent in her belly from where the pants had been squeezing her.

"Ugh, gross..."

"You're not gross," Lucas rolled his eyes, kneeling before her and patting her right leg, "up."

He helped her in the shorts and tank top, then grabbed the pants she had previously ditched, folding them dutifully. Bella tried not to think of how much she missed the many many fights they had had over her being messy.

She undid her bra from under the top and threw it at his head, but even distracted Lucas caught it mid air, throwing her a smug smile.

"As if you could outrun me."

"Don't, fucking, quote twilight to me," Bella kicked his thigh and he grinned back.

"What? Your favorite movie of ALL TIII-BELLA-" He giggled as she kicked his leg with even more force, before groaning as it promptly caused her stomach to slosh and jump.

"Ugh, bad idea..."

Luke frowned, putting the clothes away on top of her dresser and then stood next to her bed, "do you want me to get you the bin...?"

"Please," she nodded, even if she didn't feel like she was going to puke right at the moment, Bella knew it was going to come back sooner rather than later.

Lucas moved around and she closed her eyes, sinking in her mattress and trying to ignore the icky feeling of all the bubbles in her belly, rolling around.

"Here," he whispered, planting the basket right next to her bed, "I... Are you going to be alright?"

She nodded, opening her eyes in time to see the kicked puppy look he had on. Bella was not that strong, she thought, moving on the bed and grabbing his wrist.

"Could you... Could you stay? Just until my roommate gets here...?"

This was a bad idea, a horrible one, Bella thought as Lucas nodded eagerly, removing his shoes and then crawling into the bed with her. Horrible, terrible idea, she rolled onto her side and pressed her back to his chest, pulling his arm to wrap around her waist.

"Get some rest," Lucas whispered, planting a kiss on her naked shoulder, his hand sneaking right under her tank top to rest over her upset stomach.

A really bad idea.

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

So I'm writing Tim Stoker / Yellow (Malevolent) fic instead of going grocery shopping now, apparently

Tim's been conscious and inhabited for all of half an hour.

Unfortunately, when he opened the book, it definitely summoned something more than his newest roomie.

(Oh, and this thing is definitely called Corruption.)

----------------------

Bag in, zipper up, house keys in hand.

Tim wonders if whatever this mess is will kill him.

He wonders if he should care more than he does.

He sighs. Rubs his face.

Tim.

“Fine, fine. You better not… walk me into a wall, or something.”

The tone changes. We’re not alone.

Tim goes still. “What?” he whispers.

Is there a back door?

Tim is already moving, and he curses softly as he bangs into another side table he’d pulled out of place earlier while packing.

Quiet. 

“You be quiet,” Tim mutters, but tries to move more carefully.

Is John scared? Tim doesn’t know.

But he does know where the back door is.

His hand’s on the handle when he hears the growl.

A deep sound, freezing him in place, riling every instinct his lizard-brain has ever produced, and Tim suddenly feels about six inches tall and very afraid.

Tim!

More sounds. Something crunching.

There is something in the house.

Tim! Move!

That was a roar, and it was inside his head, not behind him.

Tim turns the knob and slips out, closing it behind him. Then he crouches on the back stair, clinging to the handle like a life-raft.

Your breathing is too loud. You’re going to give away our position.

“Fuck,” whispers Tim. “I’ve never run for my life before, okay?”

The slightest pause. The voice is even less patient. You’re doing fine. Now turn the fuck around and let me see where we are.

Inside the house, something crashes.

“Oh, gods,” Tim murmurs, crouching lower. His legs have gone weak.

Damn. That fence is too high. We’ll have to slip around the front.

“Sure, no problem, I’ll just slip around the front while totally blind. This’ll work great,” Tim mumbles.

Keep it together. We need to move before that thing realizes where you went.

Tim tries to picture the layout back here. 

He thinks about the windows, shades all up, curtains removed. 

He crawls.

Good. Turn right - a little less. Good.

So at least he wasn’t going to ram into the house head-first.

The grass is half-dead, stubbly, and there is sharp gravel. He hisses through his teeth, sure his hands are bleeding.

Hurry.

“I am!” he whispers back.

Okay, stop. Lean forward just a little and let me - oh!

Tim doesn’t breathe. 

There are six creatures going into the house. They’re big. Dark gray skin without fur or hair. Bipedal, and their front claws look prehensile. 

Tim makes one low, choked sound. “What the hell are they?”

I don’t know. Tightly: Next time I tell you to move, you need to do it faster. We were almost caught.

Tim sighs. Yeah, they were going to have to talk about this bossiness, or whatever it was, but this wasn’t the time. “Sure. Whereto?”

Something in his tone must give his irritation away, because John goes smooth again. If you reach the sidewalk and go left, we can get away from them all. I suggest walking, not running. Whatever is in that house will chase us if you act like prey.

Tim reaches the sidewalk.

Reflects, as he chooses to stand, to make himself more visible in order to be less obvious, that he’s never felt so brave in all his life.

There’s another crash in the house behind him.

Somehow, he walks, and doesn’t run, and remembers (barely) to breathe.

Easy. Adjust to your left. Very good, Tim. You’re doing fine.

“Don’t think I am,” says Tim, but he keeps walking, taking the long way back to his box-filled apartment.

#

John has been quiet apart from directions. Fortunately, he understood the address Tim gave him, and navigated them back to his new rental (which doesn’t feel like home) without an issue.

Tim doesn’t know it well at all, yet.

The first thing we’re going to - stop!

A second too late, and Tim trips on a box. “Ow.”

When I tell you to stop, you need to fucking stop.

There’s that impatience again.

No time like the present, he figures. “Look,” says Tim. “I’m probably in shock, or whatever, but we need to lay some ground rules. You may be a magical scary whatsit, but you’re in my head, and I’m the one with the body. I’m not… whatever it is you’re obviously used to bossing around. We’re sharing this situation, and I’d like a little more respect.”

Would you.

That was completely flat. Unreadable. 

“It’s not a lot to ask.”

No, I suppose not, says John, still unreadable, still flat. Perhaps I should lay some ground rules, too.

John is absolutely building toward a tirade or threat or something. It’s like a trembling under the floor, warning of an approaching train.

Whatever.

Tim makes his way to the bathroom, hands out, finding boxes with his toes. “Yeah, well, go on, then,” he says. “Get it all off your chest.”

Tim, do you like being alive?

Oh, so they had gone from 0 to 60 in two seconds flat. Cool, cool.

Out of habit, he turns on the bathroom light.

That grieves him because, of course, it’s pointless, and he leans in the door frame, feeling haggard. “Sure. Alive is just peachy.”

There’s the tiniest pause.

So do I, says John, and he’s back to smooth. The flatness is gone, rage diverted, leaving a mental breeze in its wake because it had been so huge and heated. However, we will not be able to stay alive if you are going to be obstinate simply for the sake of being obstinate. Anything I tell you to do is for our mutual good, Tim. You’re going to have to trust me.

And Tim can absolutely feel that wasn’t where John had been going to go.

Why?

Maybe it was because John got a look at his face in the bathroom mirror. Tim feels pretty pathetic right now. Probably looks like a wet dog.

He sighs. “I’m not trying to be stubborn. I don’t know what’s happening. I’m afraid. This is… Look, three hours ago, I would have sworn in a court of law that magic wasn’t real, and there were no souls, or anything else. And here we are! All of a sudden, everything I know is wrong, and now I have to be afraid for my parents and my brother because there’s souls, and what the fuck does that even mean, and monsters are trashing the house I grew up in. I’m not doing great. If I’m honest.”

His face feels tacky from tears, and he feels his way to the sink to wash it.

Of course, Tim. I understand. Sin and melted chocolate, all in his tone.

“I don’t like being manipulated, either,” Tim says, softly.

Who does?

Well, that was a good response. Tim can grant him that. “What time is it?” He shows John his phone.

Two thirty in the morning.

“Right. Am I safe to sleep? Can I do that?”

You should be. Nothing followed us here, though if you open that book again, I’m sure we’ll draw something.

“I am not even touching it. What book? You’re talking nonsense.” He turns on the shower.

Then he considers turning off the light.

Awkward.

In fact, there were going to be a lot of awkward moments in a shared body with eyes he couldn’t control.

But in the dark, he’d have to try to find things entirely by touch, and that just seems like a lot of work right now.

Tim groans.

Do whatever you have to, Tim. It’s not as though I’m unfamiliar with what bodies do. Even human ones.

“Yeah, well, you’re not the one putting on a peep show for a ghost,” says Tim. “Fuck it. Whatever.” He strips and gets in.

It feels very good to wash off. He was sweatier than he’d realized; whatever happened when he opened that book really put him through it.

“So you’re definitely not human,” he says, rinsing his hair.

No.

“What are you, then?”

Nothing you’d recognize.

“Deflecting again, eh?” says Tim, who might just be overtired, but he’s beginning to feel like maybe he handled all of this… okay, given the circumstances. “Unless you’re actually Satan, I don’t care that much. I just want to know.”

Why?

It sounds like genuine curiosity. “So I can picture you in my head.”

John snorts.

“What? I’ll be doing it anyway. We’re visual creatures, we humans.” He can’t find the towel.

To your left. There.

“Thanks. So? What are you?”

For now, let’s just say a being.

“That’s ominous. Also vague as hell.” Towel hung, Tim marches out of the bathroom, nude and uncaring. “Kitchen?”

The lights are off, Tim.

“Ah. Right.” He feels along the wall until he finds them. “Hope you like peanut butter. I haven’t gone shopping yet.”

I won’t taste anything you eat. All I share is your eyes.

“That kind of sucks, doesn’t it? Though I guess it means if a monster chomps down on me, you won’t feel that, either.”

I won’t. But I will die if you do.

“I don’t even remember if this place has curtains, or if I pulled the blinds, or anything,” says Tim with great cheer. “Hello, world.”

You’re suddenly in quite a good mood.

“Probably the adrenaline. Or, just, you know, the whole surviving certain death thing. That was always Danny’s deal - adrenaline junky. I never saw the appeal.”

Yes. Danny… Do you know how he got involved with - how did you put it - cultists?

“Nope. He always did normal crazy things, I thought. Mountain climbing. Skydiving. Sailing stupid distances.”

He sounds quite brave.

“He wasn’t, though?” Tim feels along the counter and finds the bag of bread. 

How so?

“You’ve got to feel fear to be brave,” says Tim. “He didn’t really feel it. Did all those crazy things to just feel something, you know?”

So you’re quite different.

“Can’t tell if that’s an insult,” Tim says, mouth full of sandwich. “Refuse to take it as one.”

I’m glad to see you’re eating. Who knows what kind of day we have ahead? You’ll need to keep up your strength.

“I, for your information, want nothing more than to get good and drunk and pass out, but I won’t because I’d sleep late. I mean, I’m just going to show up at the Institute when they open. Website said eight a.m., and it’s like… an hour from here by bus. Um. I don’t know where the bed is.”

Not going to brush your teeth? John sounds amused.

Tim smacks his lips. “Yeah. Should. Where?”

He is directed.

“Do beings brush their teeth, too?” he says, fumbling for toothpaste.

No. We have spells for such things.

“Fucking convenient,” he says, and commits an act of oral hygiene.

Any concern he has that he won’t be able to sleep is gone the moment his face hits the pillow. Falling asleep is like literal falling, taken by gravity, and he is out.

[freereignwritingprompts]

Ares was looking at Sophocles with his burning eyes of ember. "You're an interesting one I must admit that." He slowly started walking around the younger man. "You did not keel over like most of the battle hardened ones that pray for my blessings, and I do not sense even a drop of bloodlust in you. You're not a warrior?"

Sophocles simply shook his head, his dark eyes following the mountain of a god. "I am not. There are no rules for who can and cannot pray for you though, is there?" The last one was said a little slower, like he was not even sure himself about the rules.

Ares stopped his pacing a few feet in front. "No there is not." He confirmed. "We all bleed the same no matter who we are. So tell me, mortal. Why the need for a summons of the god of war?"

Sophocles straightened his back but did not look up from the ground for the gods eyes were said to be a death sentence. "I need a favor from you. Someone has challenged me in a duel, for he has said I offended his offer to marry one of his daughters."

Ares "Fair offer, so why not?" He mused. "It's not like you had to keep at it for the rest of your life without a divorce, or you can get a second or third wife if the first wasn't pretty enough."

Sophocles wanted to move but was forced to stand still. "It's not that, the girls are pretty and mother would be pleased but..."

Ares "spit it out boy. I don't have all day." The god started to tap his foot in irritation.

Sophocles "the marriage seems too forced and girls aren't my choice in love!" He finally shouted, his already dark complexion darkening even more but he didn't have time to be ashamed for the confession he just did because soon Ares was on him and grabbing him by his chin, hard.

"So you tell me," he whispered harshly now his burning eyes burning straight through Sophocles soul, making him sweat and shiver at the same time in fear. "You dragged me all the way here, into this pig shit smelling corner of a farm, to ask me to be your errand boy? Because you can't make yourself touch women with your pathetic dick, even if it would get you a good life?"

"Yes." He answered without hesitation or avoiding the gods searching gaze.

Ares looked at him for a moment longer but eventually pushed the mortal away from him. "For fucks sake!" He cursed before rounding up on him once again. A light flashing on his side and now he was holding his trusted spear. "You're a brave man Sophocles. But I must decline."

He was about to speak but Ares held his hand to silence him. "I do not like you. I do not like being asked to do such a petty little things... But." He stood real close to Sophocles. "You don't seem to fear the gods as of now. You don't seem to truly even fear the fate you have been offered with a nice string on top. But somehow you fear that you're just going to end up as a pretty little breeding horse and remembered only as a beauty blessed by the gods."

Sophocles "What I am was not my choice. I was not born to be just a trophy to keep in a cage."

Ares looked at him from head to toes. "I cannot kill the man, if that was your question. Gods aren't allowed to just do the business of men whenever. I cannot kill without a reason and I won't kill without it benefitting me." He looked at the sunset that was already kissing the sea. "So what do you offer me, mortal? I will tell you what I can do for you if the offer pleases me."

Sophocles was silent for a long moment. Watching the crashing waves and the pink sky above. "I can write a poem for you." He finally said.

Ares turned his head and laughed. "A poem? What the fuck I would benefit from a poem?"

"For Aphrodite." Sophocles said, smiling from seeing Ares tensing his shoulders. "You love her. You've always loved her but you pretend you don't."

Ares "shut up."

Sophocles "But like you've said it yourself, you're the god of war and showing fear is for the weak."

Ares "I said shut up."

Sophocles ignored the order and took a step forward. "And Aphrodite is being pursued by everyone but you're just her little fuck buddy."

Ares "I said shut the fuck up!!" He finally roared, pointing the end of his spear straight at Sophocles throat.

"It's not just my looks that people admire me." He swallowed drawing a drop of blood where the spear touched his skin. "For a small fee I've made many to confess to their loved one. Words if written from the heart, make an impact worthy of even the cupids arrow."

There was a long, silent standoff between the two. But in the end Ares lowered his spear. "What is it you wish me to do, Sophocles?"

"I want to borrow your aura, just for an hour at tops."

Ares squinted his brow. "To scare the old man away? Why not just kill the man and be done with it? I could give you a moment of heartlessness or take your feelings away."

Sophocles shook his head. "I am a poet not a killer. I do not want that weight on my heart."

"You do understand that you cannot always run from the fight, yes? Someday the fight will come to your door and it will not leave before you open it."

Sophocles nodded in understanding. "Yes it might yet come to me, but that day is not tomorrow."

"Okay. I can honor your choice to choose to fight another day. But I must ask that when that day comes you have to sacrifice something in my name." He held his free hand that wasn't holding the spear towards him and they clasped hands. There was a sudden tremor in the land below their feet and a tingling feeling in Sophocles palm.

Ares "I will come to see the fight before dawn breaks. The others won't see me but you will. I will brush past you before it happens and I will give you what you asked for 30 seconds, no more no less. The longer it would last the more my powers would flow to you and your human body would not handle that. You must end what you want before my aura will come back to me. Because then you will collapse in the end and the old man will take it as a weakness and kill you on the spot."

"I understand. Thank you" Sophocles bowed deeply.

Ares scoffed, turning away, into a cloud of smoke but before he disappeared he shouted over his shoulder. "I will collect what was promised in a fortnight. Break a leg." And he was gone with the wind.

Oc Sophocles and Ares from @take-my-soul-if

[pancakefancake]

I have been summoned. 

First off, cannot express the unbridled joy that came from finding out that you TAGGED ME in an update. I have cracked the code to the universe.

Secondly, “We both know you have no idea where you are going.” 😂

I will literally swoon a little every time you put the word “his” in italics. 

THE 👏🏼 YEARNING 👏🏼

God, I was NOT prepared for a soft ginger snap. The silent comfort. The reassurance. The DEVOTION. The WARDROBE. I can’t. We all have thots about Eris and his spoiling, right? The darkened eyes. The low voice. The goddamn image of Eris whispering the word “undeserving” has me weak. THE ITALICS. “You should be worshipped” MA’AM. 

MA’AM

I am NoT oKaY. 

That entire paragraph - MA’AM. I need water.

I’m swooning. “No man had ever spoken to her the way Eris just did. And she somehow knew that no one else ever would, either.” 

MA’AM. screaming.

THE WARDROBE. That red velvet dress is the fucking VIBE. 

Still living for besties with loosh 4ever. He is turning out the me the lowkey MVP here. He already ships it.

“If you think my brother could have found the courage to face Beron without you, then you truly do not understand your importance here.” MA’AM. Swoon. Giggle. UGH. so many feelings. The concern for Eris is just YES. Baby deserves it. 

The balcony. The courtyard. The VISUALS *chef’s kiss* The HOUNDS. The tension you build here is so fucking delicious and then BAM the heart melting imagery of wagging tails. So 👏🏼 GOOD 👏🏼 Lucien being pouty over the affection of Eris’ dogs is TOP TIER.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me that Eris whistling would be *shivers* but here we are.

“Leave us” UGH. Just. How do you do it . How do you write him so perfectly? How do you have me feeling some type of way from TWO WORDS.

Eris and dogs. Eris and dogs. Eris and dogs.

“Though it would ease my guilt from leaving you alone for such long periods of time.” The concern. The YEARNING. THE SOFT ERIS.

“Take pity on Lucien and dismiss his duties as my personal jester.” I LOVE THEM. And you know. YOU KNOW Eris lives for seeing his little brother and mate get along - the SOFTNESS.

“He was so handsome.” Right, though? The description of Eris, the respect and admiration, the yearning. 

“Whatever smiles you see are your dong.” MA’AM. I am not well. I am swooning. I love him, okay? thank you for giving us this.

This poor baby does not deserve rejection. Ugh soft Eris makes my heart hurt a little. 

“Before you say some nonsense about not wanting to be a bother.” the WIT. This is what I mean when I say you write him so PERFECTLY. You give him such range but keep it within his characterization and include such a natural cadence of expression that just breathes life into the characters. I literally cannot wait until this slow burn desired misery moves into witty banter and teasing exchanges as they get comfortable with each other. I know you are going to ruin my life with it. 

Though I have no doubt there is more angst awaiting us. And I have no doubt that I will fucking thank you for it.

Ugh just SO incredible. I love this story and I love you and I love that you continue to share it with us and I love that you continue to enjoy my feral adoration. 

The serotonin you tagging me in this gave me will sustain me for DAYS. You’re the best. Have a marvelous week, darling!

chapter xvii - gust & flame

Eris Vanserra x Reader

Eris Vanserra has been a prisoner in his own home since the day he was born. He has done what he had to in order to survive and protect the few he loves. And he is playing the long game. Waiting, waiting, and waiting for the right time to make his move, to usurp his wicked father and become High Lord of Autumn Court. But things become even more complicated when a human girl drops into his life. Perhaps Eris can wait no longer to take his throne.

Word Count: 3,500+

masterlist

It only took two turns for Y/N to guess that she had already made a mistake and was surely going to get lost in this ginormous house. 

But it seemed to take even less time before she heard her name being called and Eris’ quick steps behind her. 

Y/N stopped walking, but refused to turn around. 

“We both know you have no idea where you are going,” Eris commented darkly from behind her. 

She sighed and turned to look at him. 

He took that as her silent invitation to let him show her back to her bedchambers. Well…his bedchambers.  But she could sleep in his bed for as long as she so pleased – even if he wasn’t in it along with her. 

The walk was 20 minutes of silence. And Eris knew better than to try and force her to break it when she was in such a delicate state. Little did he know, his silent presence was starting to comfort her.

“I meant what I said,” Eris finally spoke when they stood outside the door to their bedchambers. 

“About what?” She asked for clarity in a soft voice. 

“You are not a prisoner here.”

She just stared into his eyes, looking for any hint of lie. But found none. 

“This home is your own. Go where you please. Use what you wish. If there’s anything you desire, you need only ask.” Then he nodded towards the door. “There are clothes in the wardrobe for you. I had the seamstresses working all day and they were quite confident they got your sizing correct.”

Y/N blinked. “You…Y-You had them make custom dresses for me, all in one day?” 

Eris could not seem to understand why she was confused – and so taken aback. 

“Of course,” he answered, as if it were obvious. “You arrived with almost no belongings.” Only his cloak and the weapons he had gifted her. 

Then she opened the door in a rush and marched to the wardrobe, leaving the door ajar to silently invite him in. 

Y/N opened it to see the most beautiful dresses she’d ever seen. Yes, Rhysand had gifted her clothes while in Night Court. But these dresses…they felt more... her. And there wasn’t just dresses: there was an equal amount of pants and tops, as well. 

“Eris,” she whispered. “This is too much. I…I do not deserve such beautiful clothing.” 

To her surprise, Eris’ eyes darkened and he stepped closer to her. 

Then his stare went up and down her body – not objectifying her, though as if he was trying to find something he couldn’t seem, but she did. 

His amber eyes stared and she wanted to look away, but couldn’t. 

Eris voice was low as he slowly said, “I would like to know who in this life made you ever believe that you are undeserving of clothing.”

Y/N opened and closed her mouth a couple times.

When he put it so simply, it did make her rethink. 

“But it’s not just clothing,” she argued. “It’s far too lovely.”

“So you don’t believe you deserve lovely clothing?”

Y/N glared at him now, seeing the game he was playing. 

Eris took another step closer to her. And it made Y/N’s heart beat a little faster. She wondered if his fae senses could hear it. 

His eyes flickered from her y/e/c eyes to her lips before he said, “If there is one thing I shall achieve during your stay here, it’s to untrain that mind of yours and stop you from ever thinking you are undeserving of the very best.” His head tilted closer to her. “You should be gifted anything you have ever wanted. You…” He paused. “You should be worshipped, Y/N.”

He lifted his head back, giving her space to linger on what he just said. 

Y/N was grateful for it, because she was convinced her knees would give out at any second.

If her heart was speeding up before, now it was threatening to beat out of her chest. Her breathing was heavy, and she was struggling to control it. 

No man had ever spoken to her the way Eris just did. And she somehow knew that no one else ever would, either.

Eris took a step backward. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

He bowed his head and left, closing the door gently behind him. 

Y/N stood frozen in place for minutes before she could find it in herself to move.

–🍁–🍁–🍁–

The next morning, Lucien was once again guarding her door.

Y/N suspected that Eris assigned at least one of his guards while she slept, before his brother reached his post. 

This time, Lucien was standing and reading a book. 

“Do I really require a babysitter?” Y/N moaned. 

Though, if she were being honest, she’d recognize that she had no idea what she would do with herself in this place alone. 

Lucien smiled in that cocky way of his. Then he took in Y/N’s dress carefully.  “I see you are making use of your new wardrobe…”

She said nothing and only awkwardly shifted her weight as her face got warm. 

“I don’t think I need another tour,” Y/N announced quietly, hoping not to sound rude. 

“Good. Because I did not plan on giving one.”

“He must be busy…” Y/N thought aloud as she started following her escort. 

Lucien frowned. “It is not easy transitioning to High Lord, especially after this Court has been ruled by Beron for so long.” 

“Will the people accept him?” 

“It would be best if they did…” he hummed. 

Y/N paused and looked at Lucien with fear. “He wouldn’t…Eris would never…he wouldn’t hurt anyone for the disrespect if they did not…w-would he?” 

Lucien seemed amused by both her concern and uncertainty. “Doubtful. Eris wishes do abolish Beron’s evil, not renew it. But there are still those who will question his power and if he is fit to rule at all.” 

“But the Cauldron chose him!” Y/N argued. "The powers of Autumn Court are with him.” 

Lucien shrugged. “Sometimes the courtiers need more than that.” 

“Where are we going?” She suddenly asked. 

“To the kitchens,” Eris answered. “My brother nearly throttled me when he found out I had taken you on a three-hour tour without feeding you beforehand.”

“Will you stay…now that Eris is High Lord?” 

Her waiting gaze was nervous, as if she was scared the question was rude and she was stepping out of line by asking it. 

Lucien sighed. “My brother has assured me that one of his first acts as the new High Lord was to rescind my exile. I am welcome once again in Autumn Court.” 

“But do you wish to actually return?” 

It was obvious these were all questions that had been racing through Lucien’s mind. But it was also obvious that he did not have steadfast answers. 

“It is nice having you here…” Y/N admitted quietly, giving him time to consider his answer. But also offering him an out to change the subject, and not answer at all. 

Lucien gave her a shy smirk. “The feeling is mutual.” Then he frowned. “But you intend to return to the Mortal Lands as soon as Eris deems it safe.” 

Y/N stopped walking and frowned. “You must think me no better than Elain.”

“Well, Elain does not even acknowledge my existence. At least you actually converse with my brother.” 

It took Y/N a moment to realize he was teasing her. She looked up to see him smiling mischievously down at her. 

Y/N’s brow furrowed. “Perhaps you fae will never understand it…”

“Understand what?” 

“The power of choice was taken away from us. We mortals live a short life. A bad decision – or the lack of choice – could greatly change our lifetime. Our lifespan…it’s just a blink of your immortality.” 

Lucien understood what Y/N was trying to tell him. And he wondered if this was why Elain pushed him away again and again. He was thrust onto her at her most vulnerable, ruining the life she had imagined for herself. 

“So…you are upset that the Cauldron chose for you?” 

“Feyre explained that mating bonds do not always imply love…”

Lucien wanted to correct her, to tell her that was not the case for his brother. But he knew it was not his place. Perhaps it was not yet love Eris had for Y/N. But Lucien could see it was quickly nearing. Without the threat of Beron, Eris was free to choose his mate – choose to love and protect her. If only Y/N realized that it was not a situation of the Cauldron forcing them together out of spite. 

“This is true,” Lucien couldn’t help but agree. “Throughout history, some mates have despised each other. But you have spent time around Feyre and Rhysand, Nesta and Cassian. Surely you understand the power the bond can mean for others.” 

Y/N didn’t respond, just remained lost in her own head. 

––

Lucien had snuck them into the kitchens that were bustling with energy and cooks. There was a little nook in the corner, out of everyone’s way. It was just big enough so two could eat together discreetly. 

As soon as they were seated, a cook came over with a shy, but warm smile. She appeared to be lesser fae, with almost red skin and bright, golden hair. Her eyes were entirely black though – no irises or pupils to be found. 

She bowed her head to both of them, the gesture taking Y/N aback. In both hands were two plates full of breakfast. She gently placed them down. 

“I will be back with coffee and tea,” she told them almost apologetically. 

“Thank you,” Y/N managed to say before the cook scurried out of sight. 

Y/N looked to Lucien with a questioning gaze.

“There are many who wish to meet the legendary witch who rid the court of Beron Vanserra.” 

Y/N scoffed. “I hardly even helped. I was more in the way than anything. The winds tell me it was you, Eris, and your mother who truly ended him.” 

Lucien’s face turned serious as he said, “If you think my brother could have found the courage to face Beron without you, then you truly do not understand your importance here.”

The cook returned, holding two giant mugs in each hand with impressive finesse. In one set was coffee and in their other appeared to be earl grey tea. 

Lucien gave a nod and looked into her eyes as he said, “Thank you, Marwyna.” 

Even with her red skin, she seemed to be blushing at such attention. 

“Yes, thank you. It looks delicious,” Y/N also urged. 

The two of them ate without conversation. If it weren’t for the bustling of the kitchens they sat in, there would’ve been complete silence between the two. 

Lucien could tell something had been struck in Y/N’s mind and she had no retreated there, thinking and thinking and thinking. 

It wasn’t until both of their plates were nearly clean when she finally spoke. 

“I make him weak,” Y/N breathed. “I am just a mortal. I could so easily be used against him. It would be better if I….if I just d-d-disappeared.” 

Lucien watched Y/N, reading her face to see that she truly believed the words she spoke.

But it would not be him that could make her realize how wrong she was. He would need to have a long conversation with Eris. Only his brother could make Y/N understand how important she was – to him, to Autumn Court. 

So, all Lucien stead was, “There is nothing weak about you, Y/N.” 

She blinked in surprise at his declaration. 

“Now if we are finished eating and feeling sorry for ourselves, I think a nice walk around the gardens would do us well.” 

A whisper of a smirk showed on Y/N’s lips as she nodded. 

—🍁—🍁—🍁—

“That is all for today,” Eris announced to his table of advisors as he stood. 

He could sense everyone’s mental exhaustion. But mostly he could feel is own.

There was…much to be repaired in Autumn Court. Beron ruled with fear and without any mercy, and it would take a lot to undo such philosophies. 

His mother sat to his right and gave him a sympathetic look as the fae bowed their heads and slowly took their leave from the great hall. 

However, Leonora stayed behind. 

Eris had already grown exhausted with his High Lord duties. Though he had prepared for centuries to have such power, nothing could’ve prepared him for the toll it took on his mind and body. 

Leonora waited for them to be left alone before she spoke. 

Then she subtly nodded her head to the other end of the hall that led to a balcony that oversaw the courtyard below. 

Eris held out his arm for his mother before moving. 

She squeezed his arm to comfort him. “You cannot change this Court overnight, Eris.” 

“We are moving too slowly,” he argued. 

Leonora smiled. “I know you have patience, for you waited centuries to for this opportunity. But you must still practice that same patience to mold Autumn Court for the good of its denizens.” 

As they walked onto the balcony, Eris was hit with the fresh, brisk air of autumn. The sun was nearing the horizon as it set for the day.

It was common for mist and fog to linger in this court.

And today’s dusk was no different, leaving a haunting feeling to the courtyard below. 

When Eris looked over the edge of the railing, he froze. 

Below were his acclaimed smoke hounds. 

Everyone in the Forest House feared them. They did not take kindly to anyone that wasn't their master. Because they were feared for good reason: trained to hunt and kill – if ordered. They only tolerated their handlers by command of Eris, since he could not solely take care of them himself – especially now that he was High Lord. Even his mother was careful around them. They’d never attack her, but they were by no means fond of the Lady of Autumn either.

But below him, the pack was surrounding Y/N, who sat on the ground as they all wagged their tails, fighting each other to lick her. 

Two pups from the most recent litter were cuddled on Y/N's lap, as she giggled from all the affection the adult hounds gave her.  

Then Eris spotted Lucien a few yards away from Y/N, with a look of exasperation. Most of his childhood Lucien spent trying to win over his brother’s smoke hounds. They only grew to tolerate him, never showing him acceptance or affection. 

Any time Lucien so much as shifted his weight, the hounds would interpret it as him trying to get closer to Y/N, and they would all let out a warning growl.

It made Lucien roll his eyes. And Eris swore he heard his youngest brother mutter, “Stupid, overprotective mutts. Of course you would like her…” 

“Seems like your hounds have brought your mate some joy,” Leonora hummed as she also looked down at the sight with a knowing smile. 

Eris couldn’t deny how much it warmed his heart. 

Perhaps they remembered Y/N from that dreadful day he found her in the forest. Or perhaps they could also sense that Y/N was their master’s mate. 

—

“There is so many of them!” Y/N giggled as the hounds kissed her face, tickling her. 

“They will not even let me pet them and look at you!” Lucien called out bitterly. 

Then a whistle pierced the air. 

The pack of one dozen dogs immediately retreated, forming a straight line, like little soldiers. 

Y/N sat straight and twisted to see that they were now facing Eris, who had stepped into the courtyard and stood straight with his hands clasped behind my back. 

She also jumped to her feet. For some reason, she felt like she had been caught doing something mischievous. But she still had the two puppies in each hand. Clearly, they were too young to know the same commands as the others. 

Eris walked further into the courtyard. “I see you have met my smoke hounds.”

Y/N quickly, but gently, put the two puppies on the ground. But as soon as she let them go, they looked up at her and started whining. 

Eris looked at the two handlers, who had been standing watch, and then at his brother.

“Leave us,” he commanded politely, but firmly. 

Lucien glared at his eldest brother. But still followed his command, giving Y/N a polite nod before also leaving the courtyard. 

Then it was just Y/N, Eris, and his hounds. 

Y/N, still thinking like she was caught doing something wrong, immediately stuttered out, “L-Lucien and I were just going for a walk when we came upon your handlers and the dogs. They approached me! I didn’t mean to disrupt them.”

Eris finally smirked at her. “You seem to be under the impression that I plan on scolding you.”

Y/N blinked. “Well…I…yes.” 

Eris wondered what he had to do to make his mate realize she could never do anything to upset him so pettily. 

He looked at his hounds and said, “Effrenate.” 

The hounds relaxed and all went to greet their master with wagging tails. 

“Animals seem to have a certain draw to you…” Eris noted as he kneeled to greet his dogs with pets and affection. 

“Most witches have a connection to that of nature,” Y/N mumbled, almost as if she were embarrassed by this certain trait. 

“So you have bewitched my hounds?” Eris asked with playfulness in his eyes. 

“Of course not,” she quickly answered with a huff, as she picked up the two puppies again and walked toward their master. 

“Do you have names for them all?” Y/N asked. 

“Of course.” His gaze went up to the two in her hand. “That is Aspen and Brutus.” 

Both puppies tails wagged even harder at their names being called out. Y/N smiled down at them when she noticed it. 

Then he went around and listed off the rest of the names.

“Now that I know they are all so fond of you,” Eris began. “Perhaps I should leave a few of them to guard you during your stay.” 

“I wouldn’t mind the company. But is my safety really at such risk here?” 

“I should hope not,” Eris answered lowly. “Though it would ease my guilt from leaving you alone for such long periods of time.” 

“You are a High Lord. You have more important matters than entertaining me. Though I hope you start to take pity on Lucien and dismiss his duties as my personal jester.” 

Eris smiled at her subtle jab toward his brother. 

His smiles were rare before. But now there was brightness there that Y/N doubted existed before Beron’s demise. 

He was so handsome. Not that it hadn’t been the first thing Y/N noticed when she had met Eris officially in the Night Court. But Y/N would not be surprised if the power of being a High Lord somehow enhanced his looks.  

Eris’ amber eyes almost glow with a warmth that only ever seemed to be directed toward her. And his cloak-like jacket fit his body perfectly, showing off his posture and strong presence. He would immediately be noticed in any room he walked into.

“You should never hide your smile,” Y/N blurted out before she could stop herself.

Her eyes widened in embarrassment when she realized what she had just said aloud.

“Excuse me,” she quickly added. “I should not say such things so carelessly.” 

But Eris ignored her apology. “Whatever smiles you see are your doing.” 

Y/N's face warmed at his implication. 

But then something dark suddenly clouded her face. “I should return to my rooms.”

Eris stood up from his dogs. “Will you not join me for dinner?” 

Y/N carefully placed the two puppies in Eris’ grasp and only looked at them as she answered, “I would like to eat dinner alone in my rooms, if that is alright.” 

“O-Of course,” was all Eris could manage to say back. 

What would he do instead? Force her to have dinner with him? Is that not what Tamlin did when Feyre was imprisoned in Spring Court? Or at least, that is what Eris had heard. 

Had he said something to upset her? 

“Your training,” Eris called out before Y/N could fully escape the courtyard. 

She turned to him, brow wrinkled with clear confusion. 

“Do you wish to continue your training?” Eris clarified. 

Even though it was just the two of them, Y/N still looked around the courtyard as if she would find another person Eris could possibly be talking to. 

“I would,” she finally answered slowly. 

“I will assign my Weapons Master to train with you tomorrow. He shall meet you here.” 

Y/N opened her mouth to protest. 

“Before you say some nonsense about not wanting to be a bother,” Eris continued before she could speak. “It would bring me great peace to know you are keeping up with your training.”

She just watched him for a moment. 

Eventually she nodded, and said, “Tomorrow then.”

––––––

*for those curious, the breed I used to reference Eris' smoke hounds is a Dogo Argentino. (I know most people imagine a grey hound, but they look like rats to me and I like this breed more. And they seem more badass anyways.)

Please write me a book report, comment, send me a message. They make me happy and keep me writing. Be like @pancakefancake.

[peachesandmilktea]

i love your squid game aus so much!! have u ever thought about cop! reader looking for their brother and vip!dabi and that scene from the kdrama where the vip summons the cop bc he found the cop pretty? but how about a little twist and this time dabi knows who the reader is and what they're here for😃 I'll leave what he does to them to you.

Squid Game AU - VIP Guest!Dabi x Infiltrated!Reader

Squid Game AU Masterlist.

TW: Noncon Smut, Degradation, Dabi is an asshole abducting Reader and making her his little sex slave, *This is Filthy*.

"What's under your mask, sweetheart? Care to show me?"

His fingers brush against your wrist whenever he takes a glass from your hand, and the fleeting contact doesn't seem like an accident, not when he smirks, sharp, white teeth glinting in the faint light of the VIP Guest room, whenever it happens.

"It's not allowed," you reply, filling your tone with as much ice as you can get away with. Every word falls from your lips dry and sharp, but it doesn't seem to deter him, and the cruel smile that pulls at his lips only gets wider as they reach his ears.

He laughs, and the glass cradled between his lean fingers slightly tilts when he stops paying attention to it. A few drops of champagne fall on the couch, run down his wrist, find shelter in the sleeve of his overpriced shirt.

"Is it privacy you want? Should have said it earlier, angel. We can go to my room and you can show me everything there."

Somehow, the syllables seem heavier than normal as they fall from his lips, as if he meant something else, a secret hidden beneath the mocking tone, yet another mystery from this shadow of a man whose mere identity is concealed behind a golden wolf mask.

And maybe the secret has something to do with the way his fingers run along your thighs under the fabric of your skirt, bold and inescapable, or maybe it has something to do with the little glance he throws at your jacket pocket where you keep a small knife, eyes knowing and filled with amusement. Either way, it's not as if you have a choice.

You follow him to his room.

And the second he turns his back to you to take off his own mask, you lunge at him with all your strength, knife safely tucked in the palm of your hand. You know men like him, rich and powerful monsters, the ones living above all laws and morality, the ones as unreachables as wraiths, no matter how much you'd like to have them face true justice.

Which is why you can't leave him a single chance to flee or attack you, and yet he still catches your wrist in firm, strong fingers, keeping you captive in his grasp even as you let go of the blade and it falls to the floor, drowning into the luxurious carpet with a weak sound.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t see right through you?”

He’s mocking, mean, triumphant on the way he looks at you, like a predator would gaze at a prey stuck in the merciless prison of its claws. No matter how much you try to kick or bite at him, he doesn’t let go, keeping any chance at escape out of reach from your hands.

“You tried to trick me, huh, sweetheart? Gotta punish you for that, tame you like the wild beast you are.”

A knife of his own slips from the inside of his sleeve and you freeze, but he simply uses it to cut the thin ribbon holding your mask over your face, letting it fall to the floor, discarded. His fingers brush against the now uncovered skin of your cheeks, hottening under his touch.

“Pretty thing, aren’t you? I’m in luck today, it seems. Or did you plan this all along? Wanted me to fuck you like the little spying mouse that you are?”

The words are disgusting as they fall from his lips, and yet he’s gentle as he cradles your wrist in his palm, soft as he lets his digits follow the shape of your jaw, embrace the slight plumpness of your lips.

“Should I fuck that bold stupidity out of you, make you my own little cocksleeve instead?”

“Go to hell,” you spit, hissing each syllable between gritted teeth. “I’ll report you all and send you to rot in jail for the rest of your miserable life.”

He barks a laugh, the sound echoing in the luxurious room, making you want to cover for your ears with your hands for the heavy threat lingering in the tone of his voice.

“You’re cute, angel,” he praises, condescending, right before placing a soft, sweet kiss on the skin of your throat. Lower, he adds, amused as an adult seeing a child make up imaginary games:

“It’s adorable, how you still think you’re getting out of here.”

In a swift gesture, he throws you on the bed, trapping your wrists in built-in handcuffs hanging from the headboard. You don’t want to think about the reasons why he’d need those other than the one you’re about to experience, and the mere thought makes you fight harder, kick and struggle in the inescapable metallic hold.

He catches your ankle mere inches before it strikes his crotch. A cold, low laugh slips from his lips, making icy shivers run down your spine.

“You never know how to stop fighting, do you? Gonna have to teach you how to submit like a good little whore.”

He tears your dress apart, reducing it to tatters that fall by your side on the luxurious bed. A second later, the blade of his knife cuts through the fabric of your bra, of your panties, right before he lets it fall on the nightstand, now discarded too.

Burning tears run down your cheeks as his fingers touch, carress, explore the now uncovered parts of your body, from the soft fat of your belly to the sensitive skin of your thighs.

“Fuck you,” you murmur, and he smiles, relishing in your despair, your humiliation.

“Do you know what we do to nosy detectives here, Princess?”

He lets the question hang in the air for a second, heavy and dreadful.

“You should thank me, really. I simply think you won’t look as good lying dead in a coffin as you’ll do as my cute little cumdump.”

He eyes you with a smirk as you lay there, defenseless beneath him, completely at his mercy, all for him to touch, to abuse, to fuck.

“P-please, don’t,” you beg for the first time as he plays with one of your nipples, nonchalant in the way he pinches it with cruel fingers, tearing a faint yelp from your lips.

“I don’t think you call the shots here anymore, sweetheart. Not like you ever did, but, oh well, you sure looked like you had fun pretending you had any chance against me.”

You freeze when he touches your clit, weakly struggling until he catches one of your thighs in a strong hand to keep you from squirming.

“But it’s all over now, angel. I’m going to introduce you to your new life as my slave, and you’re going to thank me for it, alright?”

Never. You want to say it but the two short, simple syllables get stuck in your throat when he unbuckles his belt, revealing the monster of a cock that had been dormant under the fabric of his underwear. A line of shiny silver piercings litter the underside as it towers above your tied up form, hard and menacing, the promise of yet another kind of torture that awaits you at his hands.

He smiles, revealing shining white, sharp teeth when his tip brushes against your entrance.

“Later, you’ll call me Master but for now, feel free to scream my name, sweetheart. It's Dabi.”

And you do scream it, voice pleading as the word falls from your lips when he tears into you, settling deep, deep, too deep into your walls, his huge cock filling you whole in a swift, merciless stroke.

Tears pool in your eyes, roll down your cheeks, leaving a salty taste on your tongue before falling on the silky sheets of the bed, on the soft skin of your throat. They wet his fingers when he curls them around your neck, hold not yet tightening but threatening all the same.

“Thank me for keeping you, show me your gratitude,” he orders, each word reaching your ears at the same rhythm the strong strokes of his hips tear through your insides. “Worship my cock with your tight little cunt, accept me as your Master and maybe I’ll be generous enough to let you come.”

And you almost want to do it, want to beg him, plead him, obey his every word if only he’d agree to make all of this stop, but you bite your lip and let the mere thought die on your lips as he rams his cock again, and again, and again into your walls.

“Still so stubborn, detective?” He asks, panting for breath, pleasured smile plastered on his mismatched lips. “Why? This is your true purpose, the only reason you were put on this earth.”

He leans towards you to finish his sentence, whispering filth into your ear:

“To milk my cock dry and take everything I give you like a good little cumdump.”

You let out a yelp of pure distress, of raw despair and that’s what makes him topple over the edge, fill your insides with his cum, coating your walls white until little pearly drops fall between your thighs on the silky black sheets of the bed when he pulls out.

He leaves you there, lying on the bed, wrists still cuffed to the headboard, tears drying on your too-hot cheeks, while he simply grabs his mask again, tying the golden wolf’s face over his own traits.

"I'm going back to watch the game. Stay here like a good little whore, and I'll come back to fuck you again once it's over."

The perspective makes you want to scream, to struggle, to kick and fight but the skin of your wrist is bleeding already, and your voice is raw, faint after letting so many unheard pleas fall from your lips.

There isn't anything left to say, and so, you say nothing.

Right before leaving, he reaches towards you with gentle fingers that softly stroke your cheek, a gesture that would feel like it's filled with love if you didn't know better.

"Then, I'll teach you what it means to be mine."

A smile, a sweet kiss placed on your clammy forehead, and he's gone.

Leaving you to get used to your new life as his captive.

-----

Join the taglist?

So, I had initially planned a whole storyline with Hawks being Reader's brother and him having become a VIP after winning the game a few years before, and ofc Dabi knowing that she was Keigo's sister and taking her also for that very reason, but it felt like a bit much dnsjkdn If I get a good prompt using that idea or if I think of something good I might use it someday though!!

Please tell me your thoughts ❤

[moiraineswife]

Autistic Allegories in Renarin’s Arc - Meta

s’up y’all, your favourite local rambler is back at it again. Diving straight in to this one. The motivation for this post is something that might be controversial, and I’m going to try and  explain it as clearly as I can and make my intentions clear, but I get this is the internet and things get misinterpreted to fuck. 

So, since Renarin was confirmed to be a queer character, I’ve seen a lot of posts and takes on pretty much every platform I frequent that equates all of Renarin’s traits/struggles in canon as being foreshadowing/parallels to his queer identity and experience. 

I get this. I’m also queer. I understand the instinct to take, say, Renarin’s corrupted spren bond and his desire to keep his nature as a Radiant hidden/his lack of understanding initially and assume it to be queer foreshadowing/parallel. I big get that. And that’s not a bad interpretation. 

The problem is, this is the ONLY interpretation people put forth. They ignore things explicitly said/connections made in canon to Renarin being autistic and say ‘this is it. this is what this means. it’s about him being gay’. When, actually, a good chunk of it is about his experience as an autistic man in an allistic society. Which I think is what Brandon wants to explore/has set up in the text. 

So I decided to look at this in more depth from an autistic perspective - some of the moments that most clearly parallel Renarin’s autistic experience and explain how and why this is a thing, and hopefully just highlight this aspect of his character and explain things to folks. 

Renarin’s Blade Screaming 

Jumping right into it then: Renarin’s bond with Glys is very clearly paralleled with his autism. The text outlines this connection multiple times throughout the series, and explores it in interesting ways. 

First up, Renarin first revealing himself as a Truthwatcher makes this pretty clear: 

“And the Shardblade,” Dalinar said, stepping over and taking his son by the shoulder. “You hear screams. That’s what happened to you in the arena. You couldn’t fight because of those shouts in your head from summoning the Blade. Why? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I thought it was me,” Renarin whispered. “My mind. But Glys, he says . . .” Renarin blinked. “Truthwatcher.” (WoR)

“Adolin,” he said softly. “I … um … I have to give you back the Shardblade you won for me.”

“Why?” Adolin said.

“It hurts to hold,” Renarin said. “It always has, to be honest. I thought it was just me, being strange. But it’s all of us.”

“Radiants, you mean.”

He nodded. (Oathbringer)

Renarin didn’t explain to his father or the others what was happening to him because he thought it was part of his autistic experience. 

Being autistic you get used to experiencing a lot of in-brain things and not realising that other people don’t experience them, too. I have hypersensitivity to sound. I can hear things other people don’t, because their brains naturally filter them out - like electronics whining. 

The experience of having a Shardblade scream inside your head is actually a pretty great parallel for sensory overload. It’s something intense, something frightening, and overwhelming, and even painful. But Renarin just endures it without comment because that’s what we’re conditioned to do. 

“A group of shellheads tried to seize one of the bridges, Brightlord,” the bridgeman said softly. “Brightlord Renarin insisted on going to help. Sir, we tried hard to dissuade him. Then, when he got near and summoned his Blade, he just kind of . . . stood there. We got him away, sir, but he’s been sitting on that rock ever since.”

[...]

“I just stood there,” Renarin said. “I wasn’t frozen because of my . . . ailment. I’m just a coward.”

When Adolin hears about Renarin freezing up he assumes that he had a fit. Renarin corrects him on this, once he’s verbal again, but says that he was just a coward. 

He froze up once he summoned his Blade. Because it would have started screaming in his head and this was overwhelming. When other Radiants have experienced this on-screen the screaming has been so intense they immediately dropped or dismissed the Blade, unable to hold it. 

From this, I infer that Renarin believes everyone experiences this when they fight with a Shardblade. He doesn’t realise that it’s strange for him because he’s a Radiant. He thinks everyone experiences it, but they push through and overcome it. He can’t, and instead of thinking something strange is going on, he assumes that it’s a weakness of his and that he’s a coward. 

This is a fairly common autistic experience. Why can’t you just get over this? Why is that overwhelming you? Just ignore the sound. Just ignore the lights. Stop being so weak/oversensitive. 

That’s what Renarin thinks is happening. That’s why he doesn’t examine his experiences more closely, and realise he’s a Radiant. He thinks it’s part of him being autistic, and that he’s just being overly sensitive, until Glys is able to communicate with him and explain he’s a Truthwatcher.

The Rhyshadium Don’t Fit

“They don’t fit, you know.”

“Don’t fit?”

“Ryshadium have stone hooves,” Renarin said, “stronger than ordinary horses’. Never need to be shod.”

“And that makes them not fit? I’d say that makes them fit better.…” Adolin eyed Renarin. “You mean ordinary horses, don’t you?”

Renarin blushed, then nodded. (Oathbringer)

This, for me, is one of the most direct and obvious parallel between Renarin’s experience as an autistic man, and his experience as a Radiant. 

Firstly, he comments on the Rhyshadium ‘not fitting’ with ordinary horses. They’re different. They have different hooves, which means they never need to be shod, like regular horses. In this case, being shod is something all horses do. It’s something natural for them, and the Rhyshadium not having it makes them stand out. This is similar to Renarin’s experience in society and in life. 

The Rhyshadium are sometimes called ‘the third shard’ - they’re tied to the Radiants and to Stormlight. Renarin aligning himself with them, and his not fittng with them not fitting, mirrors his being Radiant stopping him from fitting in as he wants to.

A big part of his arc is his desire to fit in somewhere. His integration with Bridge Four is a huge boost to his confidence. He asks to join them to try and find somewhere to belong. The bridgemen are outcasts. They’re people who don’t fit in society, either, for various different reasons. Renarin fits with them, therefore, because he doesn’t fit elsewhere. 

When he starts becoming a Radiant, and a different type of Radiant to the others, he starts to worry again. He worries that, yet again, he’s different for reasons he cannot control, and he’s worried the bridgemen will abandon or reject him as has happened frequently in noble society. 

“So why are you embarrassed?”

“I’m … not?”

Adolin gave him a flat stare.

Renarin dismissed the Blade. “I simply … Adolin, I was starting to fit in. With Bridge Four, with being a Shardbearer. Now, I’m in the darkness again. Father expects me to be a Radiant, so I can help him unite the world. But how am I supposed to learn?”

Adolin scratched his chin with his good hand. “Huh. I assumed that it just kind of came to you. It hasn’t?”

“Some has. But it … frightens me, Adolin.” He held up his hand, and it started to glow, wisps of Stormlight trailing off it, like smoke from a fire. “What if I hurt someone, or ruin things?”

The conversation continues, and further solidifies the connection between the Rhyshadium not fitting with other horses, and Renarin not fitting in with other people. 

He had become a Shardbearer, and was starting to fight and do what an Alethi man is expected to do in society. Go to war with Shards, with glory, etc etc etc. That didn’t quite work out. 

For Renarin, whenever he gets closer to assimilating with the standard society and expectations, something happens to stop him. Initially it’s his epilepsy. He has fits, and his chronic illness makes him generally weaker and more frail, meaning that he can’t fight. 

Once he’s given Shards to help mitigate those factors, he can’t use the Shards because his Radiant bond makes them scream inside his head. Again stopping him from fighting and becoming a soldier. 

He then goes on to tell Adolin that he doesn’t really know how to Radiant. And Adolin says that he thought it would just come to him/he would instinctively know, but he doesn’t. 

This is, again, a very classic autism thing. We struggle with doing things that allistic people find instinctive, and don’t need to be actively taught - such as reading and projecting the correct body language.

Adolin, who takes very naturally to all this stuff, just assumes that Renarin’s Radianting would just come to him, and Renarin has to explain that actually no, it hasn’t. This literally cannot get any clearer in forging an obvious link between his autism and his Radiant abilities. 

Renarin’s ‘Corrupted’ Bond: 

“What’s wrong with me?” Renarin asked. “Why do I see these things? I thought I was doing something right, with Glys, but somehow it’s all wrong.…” (Oathbringer)

[...]

“Does it strike you as cruel of fate, Father? My blood sickness gets healed, so I can finally be a soldier like I always wanted. But that same healing has given me another kind of fit. More dangerous than the other by far.” (Rhythm of War)

[...]

Lopen called out, asking Renarin to “look into the future and find out if I beat Huio at cards tomorrow.” It seemed a little crass to Dalinar, bringing up his son’s strange disorder, but Renarin took it with a chuckle.

[...]

It would be so much easier if he were like other Radiants. (RoW)

[...]

“And a blackness interfering, marring the beauty of the window. Like a sickness infecting both of you, at the edges.”

“Curious,” Dalinar said, looking where Renarin had pointed, though he’d see only empty air. “I wonder if we’ll ever know what that represents.”

“Oh, that one’s easy, Father,” Renarin said. “That’s me.”

“Renarin, I don’t think you should see yourself as—”

“You needn’t try to protect my ego, Father. When Glys and I bonded, we became … something new. We see the future. At first I was confused at my place—but I’ve come to understand. What I see interferes with Odium’s ability. Because I can see possibilities of the future, my knowledge changes what I will do. Therefore, his ability to see my future is obscured. Anyone close to me is difficult for him to read.”

“I find that comforting,” Dalinar said, putting his arm around Renarin’s shoulders. “Whatever you are, son, it’s a blessing. You might be a different kind of Radiant, but you’re Radiant all the same. You shouldn’t feel you need to hide this or your spren.”

Renarin ducked his head, embarrassed. His father knew not to touch him too quickly, too unexpectedly, so it wasn’t the arm around his shoulders. It was just that … well, Dalinar was so accustomed to being able to do whatever he wanted. He had written a storming book.

Renarin held no illusions that he would be similarly accepted. He and his father might be of similar rank, from the same family, but Renarin had never been able to navigate society like Dalinar did. True, his father at times “navigated” society like a chull marching through a crowd, but people got out of the way all the same.

Not for Renarin. The people of both Alethkar and Azir had thousands of years training them to fear and condemn anyone who claimed to be able to see the future. They weren’t going to put that aside easily, and particularly not for Renarin. (RoW)

Sorry for the quote barrage, but there was really  no other way to do this, and I think it makes a nice little arc in how Renarin sees himself and his bond to Glys and, by extension, his autism. 

In the temple, with Jasnah, he considers it to be something wrong. He’d thought he was finally fitting in, being like everyone else, doing something “right” but it turns out his bond is of Odium, and while he thought he fit with the others, he doesn’t. Again.

 The RoW segments are what’s most interesting to me, because what we see here, I think, is Dalinar experiencing Renarin’s ‘disorder’ as he calls it and processing it/coming to terms with it in a way a lot of parents approach their kids’ autism. But this is a bit more approachable/less painful to look at because he’s considering him being a weird glowing power ranger, and not an autistic kid. Easier to examine more honestly. 

So first of all Renarin, again, calls a direct link between his bond and his autism. The ‘healing’ that came with his bond gave him another kind of otherness. Another way he can’t be a soldier - which, for Renarin, in Alethi society, means him being like everyone else. I was going to go into this more here but this thing is already long as fuck, but in a nutshell being a soldier is Renarin’s dream because that’s him being “normal” and being like everyone else, which fate always conspires to stop him from being. 

In Alethi society the peak of masculinity and of fitting in to the social order, which revolves around war and glory and battle courage blah blah blah - is being a soldier and fighting. Which Renarin has never been able to do. Which his father has always wanted him to do - wihich Renarin knows. 

A lot of allistic people, especially allistic parents, think their autistic kids won’t pick up on their blatant ‘oh my god I wish my kid was normal’ vibes. They do. BELIEVE ME they do. This is a good little nod to that. Dalinar has never outright looked at Renarin and said ‘I want you to be a soldier to be worthy of my love and respect’ but it’s what Renarin grew up knowing and seeing from him. 

The evolution of that through exploring Dalinar’s attitude to Renarin being bonded with an Odium-aligned spren is...Utterly fascinating, to say the least.

Here, for example, Dalinar sees it as a “strange disorder”. When Renarin calls a spade a spade and just goes ‘yeah no that weird thing right there that makes you comfortable? That’s me, buddy, get used to it’. Which is just. Absolutely effervescent. There’s a big instinct allistic people have to dance around autistic people. So many innuendos. So many fluffy phrase that I hate. “On the spectrum.” “On the autism spectrum”. “Differently abled” “Sees the world differently.” Just call me autistic and let me move on with life I do not have time to deal with your internalised issues. 

He kind of comes around on it and gives him the whole “you might be a different Radiant but you’re still a Radiant to me, son”. Replace the word Radiant here with person and you’ll have a conversation I’ve experienced so many times. “Just because you’re a weird person doesn’t mean you’re not still a person!” Why thank you for pointing that out. I hadn’t noticed....Thank you for validating my humanity to my face?? As though I needed you to do that?

Contrast this with Renarin’s cheerful acceptance (ABSOLUTELY STUNNING DEVELOPMENT, HELL YES) - ‘yeah no that weird thing right there is me’. I cheered, dear reader, I CHEERED. It’s a little thing but it’s also a very very big thing. 

So is Lopen making light of things - in a way that laughs with Renarin and not at him - wanting him to predict the outcome of his card game. Renarin laughs at this, and is obviously comfortable with the jokes and the camaraderie. Dalinar winces at this and thinks that it shouldn’t be made fun of this way, that it’s crass or wrong, Renarin has a disorder, it makes him weird and delicate, people shouldn’t joke around him with that, it’s not right. But Renarin is comfortable with it, and the Bridgemen are comfortable with him, which Dalinar obviously isn’t - though I get that he’s trying to go there. 

Then, again, we draw a very direct parallel between Renarin’s Radiant experience othering him socially and autism othering a person socially. Absolutely exquisitely done mister sando, very nice indeed. 

Renarin notes that there are ways to go through society. It’s nice to be like Dalinar and have the clout to buck the expectations, and not do what you’re supposed to, and still get away with it. Isn’t that nice? Bitch wrote and published a book and he’s still seen as masculine and worthy of respect and being yielded too. 

Remember that Renarin can read and write as well - he learned so he could interpret his visions. But he hasn’t shared that with people. Because he knows that it won’t be accepted the way Dalinar was. 

Sanderson sets up this idea rather nicely in Oathbringer, actually, with the scribes meeting. 

Renarin glanced at his father. Dalinar responded with a raised fist.

He came so Renarin wouldn’t feel awkward, Shallan realized. It can’t be improper or feminine for the prince to be here if the storming Blackthorn decides to attend.

 This part has always made my heart happy. Because it’s not just about Dalinar validating Renarin’s societally ‘feminine’ tendencies - which he gets subtly bullied/mocked for during that meeting by one of the other women in attendance. It’s about all of his differences, it’s about Dalinar validating his autistic experience as well, and helping to fit him in to a society that continually rejects and ousts him. 

This idea evolves through RoW, however, with Renarin understanding that Dalinar can do things that he won’t be allowed to get away with. Dalinar isn’t so much breaking down barriers with Oathbringer as he is stomping through them because he has enough social privilege to do so, for the most part, unscathed. 

Renarin keeps his reading a secret because, even after what Dalinar has done, it’s not going to change things for most men, and certainly not him. 

Renarin has learned, throughout his life, that him being different is not going to break down any barriers. People are not going to change their world, or their worldview, for him and his differences. He knows that he has to adapt, and he knows that he won’t be afforded the same luxuries as others. 

He’s more comfortable with this now. He’s learning to be himself, and learning that the world won’t fit itself to him, he just has to do what he’s going to do anyway, and find the places where he fits, rather than trying to change the ones where he doesn’t. It’s actually a really beautiful little arc, and I’m strongly tempted to look at it in more depth at some point. Renarin and Dalinar’s dynamic is actually incredibly deep, layerd, and complex, and it’s something I’ve been meaning to look at for a while. HOWEVER. NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT. 

TL;DR: Renarin’s Radiant experience is a direct allegory and parallel to his autistic experience. This is explored and made blatant by canon repeatedly, throughout the series, and Renarin’s experience as a Radiant is clearly a vessel by which Sanderson intends to explore his autism. Stop erasing and ignoring this when you talk about Renarin and analyse his arc. His autism is as intrinsic to this as it is to identity. It’s part of him. Stop erasing it.

I’m not saying you can’t find parallels or comfort in Renarin’s arc as a queer person. I’m just saying you cannot look at it in isolation. As though the text is ONLY making a parallel between his queer identity and his bond. Because it’s very fucking blatantly not. His autism is obviously and canonically tied to his Radiant bond and this is something that MUST be noted whenever you talk about this aspect of Renarin’s character.

Note: if anyone has any questions or comments on this, I am happy to engage and to clarify what I meant/add further detail and supporting evidence for various different aspects. There’s only so much I can cover in one post! For my sanity as well as yours...But there’s absolutely more, and I’m happy to look at that as well.

[justicefanged]

"Maybe that's the fuckin' point!" Linus shouts back to Valter, watching as the sketchy guy rushed in to attack after the holy fire that Valter had flung at the woman. Fire against fire didn't sound like the best way to go about it to him, but he was no magic user, so what did he know? It sure looked like it caused some damage, but he didn't have too much time to sit back and observe as their foe came straight for him.

Ha! See! Totally the plan!

"That's right, bring your pretty face right to my axe!" Linus grinned, the scorching lance of the woman clashing with his own weapon in a blaze mixed combat. She's unable to pierce through his armor, but he misses his mark -- slowed down and unused to the weight of such armor. She darts out of reach, flicking a hand to summon up a swirl of flames around him. He can feel the intense heat of it, but there's no pain -- so he does the sane and sensible thing, and simply charges through the fire magic to give her a solid bash with his axe.

Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10HP hits Linus 7/10HP with Scorch of Skin-Melting Liquefaction [Roll: 14 - 8 = 6; -0HP, Linus 7/10HP] Linus 7/10HP misses Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10HP with Helswath [Roll: 2; -0HP, Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10] Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10 hits Linus 7/10HP with Scorch of Skin-Melting Liquefaction [Roll: 17 - 8 = 9; -0HP, Linus 7/10HP] Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10HP hits Linus 7/10HP with Inferno of Everlasting Seclusion [Roll: 17 - 8 = 9; -0HP, Linus 7/10HP] Linus 7/10HP hits Supreme Infernal Mistress 3/10 with Helswath [Roll: 11; -2.5HP, Supreme Infernal Mistress 0.5/10HP] Supreme Infernal Mistress 0.5/10HP hits Linus 7/10HP with Inferno of Everlasting Seclusion [Roll: 16 - 8 = 8; -0HP, Linus 7/10HP] Linus has been inflicted with Burning! (this really is just a wall of Fuck You text)

It's not until after he's gotten the rush of hitting her back, forcing her to retreat and call upon aid, that Linus realizes that he didn't just walk through fire unscathed.

He's sort of on fire. Flames that stick to his clothes, lick scorching tongues of heat against his skin -- and he can't put them out!

"Aha, what the fUCK--!" Linus blurts out, trying to smother the flames out but doing little more than spreading the damage around. He winces against the burns, attention brought away from his current predicament at the somehow growing sensation of heat -- roiling pillars of magma bursting forth at their enemy's call.

Well, how the hell were they supposed to fight magma?!

An enraged, frustrated thought that he couldn't even voice as the two pillars of liquid fire released a wide-reaching wave of fire at them. It crashed over the group like a super-heated tidal wave, the only one untouched being Quiet Guy; a shining outline of protection keeping the fire from touching him.

Magma Pillar A 15/15HP uses Fiery Blast! [Rolls: 3, 3, 2, 4, 3; -1 to each] -2HP, Linus 5/10HP Magma Pillar B 15/15HP uses Fiery Blast! [Rolls: 3, 3, 3, 1, 3; -1 to each] -2HP, Linus 3/10HP

It's a heat so intense it feels like its in every nerve, burning your lungs from the inside out. Stealing your breath and replacing your blood with liquid fire.

It hurts.

Pain is something Linus is usually able to shrug off fairly easily. He's been trained to deal with it, ignore it and let his rage and adrenaline take over to mask it until healing is available. But this was different. This wasn't quite like any fire he'd ever felt before, but he couldn't let show that weakness. Not here, not now -- not ever. He knew he wasn't going to last long with these wounds, but there was still some bite left in him and he was going to do what he came here to do.

There's a brief moment of relief, a cooling flash of light that eases over him. But it doesn't heal or ease his pain. The flames still burn hot against him.

Linus eyes the kid for a moment, hefting his axe up despite the discomfort of blistering palms. "Ha! Ya think this'll stop me? I can take it! I can take it!" he shouts, defiant.

He may not know what comforting words or reassurance to say in this moment, but he did know crazy.

"You heard the lady! It's do or die, motherfucker, so ya better not show up my blaze of glory, ya got that?!" Linus barked out to Valter, giving the man a rude gesture in lieu of any sort of friendly encouragement.

Linus 3/10HP uses Rally Speed on Valter 7/10HP! Booming Voice activates! +9spd! Alert Stance+ activates! Linus is damaged by Burning! -2HP, Linus 1/10HP

my world's on fire, how 'bout yours? // team 14 silver round

[atlasscrumpit]

Avengers x Reader

(A story I wrote a while back my first story I wrote with my alters)

Shadow POV

You don't become a multiversal villain from a happy fucking childhood.

As you get older you realise the villains in comic books usually had it fucking right, and the heroes were blinded by 'goodness' and all that crappy bullshit. Heroes will say they've been through a lot, that they've been through trauma. Please, don't make me laugh. You think just because Steve Rogers was frozen for a couple of years he's seen trauma? You're pathetic if you sympathise him.

Villain is such a nasty word school yard taunts really. I'm just a person who see's things clearer than others, someone who's been to all corners of most universes. Yeah, you see some shit being as old as I am.

I was alone in my penthouse in the middle of New York City, I can travel the multiverse I can go wherever I want. But I like being here where the Avengers are, it's always fun to mess with them in some way or another.

I sat down in my favourite green leather chair and sighed. I had a glass of whiskey in my hand as I swirled it gently.

I groaned trying to ignore the voices in my head.

"Big surprise, the villain is mentally ill." I growled looking down at the glass in my hand.

"We aren't all villains in this one body, some of us are some of us aren't. Yeah this body is basically just a hotel, I lost count of how many different souls there are in this body. Good thing is, we can change how we look, depending on who's in control we can change to how we see ourselves. Which sucks sometimes because two of us are children, easier to hurt if we get captured. Only reason we are all here is because of one girl, Molly. She's the owner of this body, when she was five she went through something, something that changed her forever. Somehow she had the power to reach to all different sides of all different realities and take souls. Drawing them into her one body so she could escape to the safety of her own mind. I'm one of them she stole, I used to be an all powerful vampire that ruled an entire world. Now I'm a soul trap in a body with countless other souls, but I can't help the nag in my mind to protect Molly. I mean that's why we're all here isn't it?" I say as I chuckle to myself.

"No dear, I'm not talking to myself. I'm talking to you, the person reading this. What? I'm an inter-dimensional all powerful being, you think I can't break the forth wall?" I say with a smirk still looking down at my drink.

"But I guess you've had enough of me haven't you? Maybe I should let you meet the one you've been waiting for. I'm sure you've heard of her." I said standing up and closing my eyes.

"Say hi to Nova for me." I whispered before relaxing my body feeling her slowly take over my body.

Nova's POV

I gasped and opened my eyes seeing I was in my body again, long brown curly hair with purple streaks and a small body, I looked weak but I wasn't at all. I looked around the penthouse and groaned.

"Shadow you better not have hurt anyone." I growled looking around for any type of blood or weaponry.

"Calm down, I just pissed off the Avengers a little." Shadow said in my head making me roll my eyes.

"You need to stop pissing them off. What happens when they catch us? What if they use a power dampener on us and they draw out Molly. She hasn't been in control since...well you know." I muttered grabbing Shadow's whiskey and pouring it down the sink.

"You're so tense, just chill out." Shadow growled before disappearing into our mind.

Out of all of us I'm one of the eldest, before Molly summoned us all here I was an immortal warrior. I had lived a very long time and now I'm here, with all these different souls in one body. Sometimes I miss my old life but I understand I have a mission here. I protect most of us, well being a well trained immortal warrior with magic, I tend to be the best protector.

There's so many of us, it gets exhausting keeping track. So, I just try my best to remind everyone I'm the one that leads.

But I suppose Leo is the one that takes care of everyone, he takes care of me when I need. I'm immortal of course I have trauma that I have to deal with, Leo helps me with that. He was a royal guard before all of this, he protected a princess in another reality. I suppose that's why he loves protecting us so much.

I could go on forever about all of our stories, but I guess they can tell you that in time.

I didn't really know what to do with myself, maybe I could take a bath. I wandered into the bathroom and found the luxurious large white tub.

"Oh man, I definitely deserve a relaxing bath." I whispered to myself finding some bath salts, I remembered I had stocked this bathroom up with bath bombs and bath salts. I'm old fashioned, I still love taking baths rather than showering.

I eventually filled up the tub and looked into the warm pink water slowly stripping off my clothes. This was one of the universes I liked going to, a nice penthouse in the middle of New York and I always had the chance to see the Avengers. Yeah I know, the immortal warrior is a superhero nerd.

I settled into the bath and sighed feeling the warm water on my skin.

"Nova, I sense something." Gal whispered in my mind, I sensed something as well.

"I know, I just got in the bath." I whined out, I decided to just stay in the bed as I heard a knock at the door.

"Argh. Just come in!" I shouted out unlocking the front door. Trust me if by any chance it was a murderer I could take them. The bathroom door opened and I looked up to see Captain America and The Winter Soldier.

"Well, that wasn't expected." I muttered as they awkwardly looked away.

"We're sorry, we were looking for someone. We thought this might be their apartment." Bucky said as I chuckled and slowly stepped out of the bath and grabbing my towel.

"It's just me in this place." I muttered wrapping the towel around myself. I knew they were here for Shadow, she had somehow drawn them to you.

"We're looking for a villain by the name Shadow." Steve said as you chuckled a little.

"Well, I'm Nova. It's nice to meet you I suppose." I muttered looking up at them blushing a little. They may have been two of my favourite Avengers.

"I'm Steve and this is Bucky. We're sorry we bothered you." Steve said as I froze all of a sudden.

"O-Oh god." I whispered noticing I couldn't move my body.

"G-Go." I whispered as they looked at me in confusion. I could tell someone was taking over, I just didn't know who.

"Are you alright?" Bucky asked as I fell to my knees.

"I'm sorry." I whispered as I looked up at them, suddenly my eyes turned to black and I was pushed back inside our mind.

Our eyes turns black and our body went to a shadowy figure as they screamed.

Oh no, it was The Other.

"What the hell?" Bucky whispered as they stepped back a little.

The Other screamed and screamed at them.

We didn't know where they had come from, just that they were stuck within our mind. Bound by chains with an animalistic personality, we all just knew they were tortured and traumatised.

"We need to calm them down." I whispered within our mind as The Other launched at Bucky, he quickly dodged and threw them to the floor.

"Fuck. I have to take control, I'm sorry." I whispered as The Other screamed and fell to the ground, I had to forcefully take control.

They screamed in pain as the body returned to how I looked.

I gasped and looked up at the two men noticing I was naked.

"I think it would be best if you came with us." Steve said as I quickly summoned clothes around my body.

"Please, I mean no harm. I'm sorry about that." I whispered looking up at them.

"We won't hurt you, we just think it would be best if we knew who you were. And that you're definitely not Shadow." Bucky said as I thought for a moment. We couldn't go to another reality yet, we didn't have enough power.

"C-Can you promise me something?" I whispered slowly standing up.

"What is it?" Steve asked, they would probably say no but I needed to know.

"If I go with you, you have to promise you won't put anything on me that will take away my powers. I-If you do...it could go terribly. Please promise me you won't do that and I'll go with you." I whispered looking up at them as they looked down on me.

"You could be dangerous." Bucky spoke up as I nodded.

"You can put something on me that dampens our power, but you can't get rid of it completely. It would be dangerous for us with no power." I tried to explain as they nodded.

"Alright, we can work around that." Steve said as I nodded.

"Can you promise us you're not going to hurt any of us?" Steve asked as I smiled a little and nodded.

"I promise Steve, I'll come peacefully. A-And then explain all of this." I whispered looking up at them both.

"We'll take you back to the tower." Steve said as I nodded and followed the out of my apartment.

"Are you tied to Shadow?" Bucky asked as I headed into the elevator.

"I-In some ways." I whispered awkwardly. How the hell was I going to explain any of this?

"I-I can tell you more when we're somewhere safe." I muttered as the two men nodded.

"We understand, we can talk about all of this when we get to the tower." Steve said as I nodded and closed my eyes. Praying I could stay in control.

I could feel Molly crying and screaming, pretty much all the time but it still hurt to hear. I felt so weak and vulnerable, not to mention alone.

You followed the men down the streets of New York until you reached the Avengers tower.

I was a little intimidated. Usually Shadow handled any interaction with the Avengers.

I followed them into the elevator and crossed my arms over my body.

"Will I be punished for being...different?" I whispered not looking at the two men behind me.

"No you won't be. Unless you're a killer, but even then we don't do torture." Bucky said as you smiled a little.

"I haven't killed anyone...in this universe at least." I whispered the last part making sure they wouldn't hear me.

I could feel I was starting to lose control, I could feel my body shaking. The elevator doors opened into the main room of the tower.

"I-I feel like I'm going to lose control." I whispered feeling tears in my eyes.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked as you saw other people gathering around.

"Like what happened before. B-But I don't know who will come out this time." I whispered to them looking around the room.

"Oh no." I whispered as my eyes rolled back in my head and everything went black.

--

Shadow's pov

Well, would you look at that. I'm in the Avengers tower. Thanks Nova.

"Well, well the Avengers. It's great to see you all." I said smirking at them all. Steve grabbed me from behind and kept my hands behind my back.

"I knew someing wasn't right, were you just pretending to be Nova so we would help you?" Bucky growled making me chuckle lightly.

"No, Nova is real. We all are real, there's many different souls in this one body. I'm the one that has been terrorising you all, Nova and the others have done nothing. So, if you want to be angry, be angry with me. Not them." I said trying to play nice, it felt disgusting.

"We're putting you in a cell, Tony get those power dampeners." Steve said dragging me back into the elevator. I could easily get out of this but some part of me wanted to see where this went.

Steve, Bucky and Tony dragged me down to the cells. Just before they put the cuff around me I groaned. I knew Nova would handle this better than I could.

--

Nova's pov

I gasped and looked around to see Steve and Bucky in front of me, they clipped a cuff around my wrist as I rolled my eyes.

"Of course Shadow made me deal with this." I muttered quietly before they shoved me into the cell.

"Can't believe I fell for that." Bucky muttered as I looked at him.

"You didn't fall for anything, I'm not Shadow. We're two separate beings that happen to share a body. What Shadow did has nothing to do with the rest of us." I muttered looking down at them. I could see they didn't believe me.

"You can explain it in an interrogation tomorrow Shadow." Steve said as I glared at him. I hated being called that.

"I'm not Shadow!" I screamed at them as they looked at me in shock.

"We aren't the same person, don't you dare say that again." I growled at them, they just ignored me and walked away as I slid down the wall and hugged my knees to my chest.

This was weird, I felt trapped. Usually if I felt trapped one of the others would take over, but because of the power cuffs I couldn't.

"Leo?" I whispered out.

"I'm here." I heard Leo whisper in my head as I smiled softly. Leo had always taken care of us all, especially me.

"I feel so trapped, not just because of the cell. But these cuffs stopping us from changing." I whispered aimlessly playing with my hands.

"I know dear, but it's going to be okay. I know how strong you are and I know you can handle this just as good as any of us, if not better. These men seem like they could understand all of this if you explained it." Leo replied making me smile.

"Thank you Leo, I guess this cell isn't so bad. I've seen worse."

--

I woke up the next morning in the uncomfortable small bed in the cell. I felt so weak and vulnerable. I sat up in the bed and sighed softly before I heard footsteps. I looked up to see Bucky and Steve as I slowly stood up. Steve came in and handed me a bottle of water as I quickly drank it all down and wiped my mouth.

"Thank you." I muttered before handing the bottle back to him.

"Come with us, we need to talk." Steve said as I nodded and followed them out of the cell, they led me down a hallway and into a small room. I knew how this went, I sat at one end of the table and waited for the other two to sit down.

Steve sat in front of me and Bucky behind him.

"I'll try to do my best to answer your questions, but I don't know much. Shadow did all of this not me." I said looking into Steve's eyes, I knew they weren't buying it.

"What's your motive?" Bucky asked as I looked up at him and sighed.

"I don't know she never told me, none of us know why Shadow does all of this." I replied making Steve smile.

"Alright, I'll play. If you're not Shadow then let us talk to her." Steve said making me sigh.

"The power cuffs stop us from changing, so unless you take it off you're dealing with me." I growled at the two men as Bucky chuckled.

"You really think we're believing all of this? You obviously have power, so you kept shape shifting so we couldn't find you." Bucky said as I groaned and rested my head on the table.

"I'm going to kill Shadow for doing this." I muttered a little before I heard Molly screaming making me wince in pain.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked as I held my head in my hands.

"It's Molly." I muttered trying to breath through the pain. Molly had a scream that could get us all to feel her pain.

"Who's Molly?" Bucky asked as I looked up at him.

"She's the original, the one that owns our body. She was a human, somehow she had the power to summon all of our souls here to protect her." I tried to explained as Steve looked at me in curiosity.

"So, you have multiple personalities?" Steve asked as I chuckled a little.

"It's an over simplification but more or less yeah. Just with power and we all had lives before Molly summoned us." I muttered as they nodded.

"How did a human girl summon all of you here?" Bucky asked making me sigh.

"We've all been trying to work that out too. Something happened to Molly when she was five, something that broke her and made her powerful enough to summon us all here. To protect her." I explained as the two men looked at me in thought.

"Honestly that's a lot of information to take in. But even if you aren't Shadow she needs to be punished for what she did, and that means you all get punished." Steve said making me sigh.

"I'll leave this reality, you won't ever have to deal with us again. We can jump realities, just let us go and I'll promise we won't return." I tried to bargain with them as they both looked at me.

"We can't let you do that Nova." Steve said as I glared at him I grabbed the cuff and used all my power to break it off my wrist.

"I warned you." I growled before everything turned black.

--

War's pov

I gasped and opened my eyes as Nova's body faded away, my black short hair flowed out as I looked at the two men in front of me.

"You guys are fucked." I said smirking as they stood up ready to fight them.

"And who the hell are you?" Bucky asked as I smiled.

"They call me War." I growled as flames engulfed my body.

"They call me when someone needs to burn." I growled as I glared at them.

"I don't think so." Steve growled pressing a button on the wall of the room as I screamed in pain and fell to my knee's.

--

Nova's pov

What's going on? I knew something was happening, I was watching everything from inside our mind.

"No..." I whispered as War was pushed back into our mind.

"What the fuck is happening!?" War screamed as looked to see our body was changing.

"They got rid of our power, Molly is coming out." I whispered in disbelief, she hasn't been out in so long, since the incident.

"This can't happen."

Molly eventually came out and looked around in fear, her body changing into it's original form, a terrified five year old girl.

"What the hell?" Bucky whispered in disbelief. Suddenly Molly let out one of her screams, in made the two men drop to their knees.

"She's calling The Monster." I whispered watching the scene play out before me. Suddenly a large shadowy figure began to form in the room as the two men looked up. A hideous monster began to form as Molly continued to scream. The Monster was something Molly controlled, none of us knew if it was a being or just something she created, but in last resort moments he would come out and protect her. Killing anyone in the way. The Monster was about to fully form before Bucky reached up and pressed the button again. We regained our power and I took control of our body once more, returning to my usual looks. I couldn't help but start to cry, Molly's emotions were effecting us all.

"You promised!" I screamed as they regained their posture.

"We're sorry, we didn't believe you. But we should've." Bucky said slowly approaching me.

"Stay away! You promised you wouldn't do that! You have no idea what you just did! Molly hasn't been in control in hundreds of years, our one job is to make sure she doesn't ever have to come out. And you just ruined that! She's going to be so upset and terrified, because of you two!" I screamed at them, I could see the guilt in their eyes.

"I'm leaving." I growled before storming through the door, but Bucky grabbed me.

"Don't make me kill you." I hissed lowly at him making him sigh.

"We want to help you Nova, this place could be safe for you. We can better handle all of this, you could have a safe place to live and heal, where you're all allowed to come out whenever you want. We're sorry for what we did, and we're sorry we didn't believe you. Either you stay here and let us help you or we shove you in a cell and never let you out." Bucky said as I tried to not cry.

"I'm scared." I whispered as Bucky looked at me sadly.

"I know doll, I can imagine you've all been running for a long time. It's time to stop running, we can figure something out. Let you live out your 'punishment' here in the tower, we can help you all have a safe place to live." Bucky said looking into my eyes, no one had ever offered us somewhere safe to live, no one had ever seen anything but fear and disgust in us.

"Why would you do this for us?" I whispered making Bucky smile softly.

"Because we understand you a little better now, we know you just need somewhere safe to be. Deep down don't all of you just want to be cared for a loved by someone?" Bucky whispered making tears fall down my cheeks.

I couldn't find the right words, Bucky smiled and gently wrapped his arms around me as I froze. It had been so long since I had felt any kind of affection.

"Let us help you Nova." He whispered as I slowly wrapped my arms around him in return and cried onto his chest.

"I'll go talk to the team." Steve said as Bucky nodded and watched him leave still holding onto me tightly.

"I haven't felt any kind of physical touch for so long. I'm a monster, why do you want to help me?" I whispered as I felt his hand go through my hair, I wanted to melt in his arms, his touch was so gentle and kind.

"Because I understand what it's like to have no one, to keep running away from everything. Yes you all did bad things in the past but I now understand everything more. I understand why you're running and I understand you just need a safe place to be yourself." He whispered as I nodded and slowly pulled away wiping my tears from my face.

"H-How will the team react? I'm not exactly an angel a-and all of the others, I don't know how they will react." I muttered beginning to panic.

"Doll, take a deep breath. Everything will be okay." Bucky said making me nod and smile softly.

--

Tony had set up a spare room for me, we had talked it all over and we decided I would talk to everyone else inside our mind and let them know that this was a safe place.

They were pretty understanding considering, I thought they would riot. But I think Bucky was right, we all just wanted to be cared for and loved. There was something about Bucky that drew me to him, I felt like when I was with him I could breath easily.

I decided I would let Kara meet them all today, she had been over excited about the news. I stood in front of the team and took a deep breath as my body changed into a black haired eight year old girl.

I decided to stay at the front of our mind so I could watch how she would react to everyone.

She gasped and smiled brightly.

"The Avengers!" She shouted with glee making them smile.

"You must be Kara." Steve said as she smiled and nodded, she ran up and hugged Bucky tightly making him smile.

"And you're Prince Bucky." She said giggling, it made me laugh a little, she looked so happy and at ease.

"Well, if I'm a Prince that would make you a Princess." He replied as she smiled up at him, she went around the room and gave each of the team a hug making them smile. She came back to Bucky and hugged him again as he smiled.

"You're welcome to come out anytime Kara." Steve said making her smile.

"Thank you Mr. Steve." She said making Steve chuckle a little.

"Hey, why don't we play hide and seek?" Tony suggested as Kara gasped and cheered.

"Yes please!"

--

I had watched the team play hide and seek with Kara for a good two hours before she got tired.

"Do you want to go rest and Nova can come out sweetie?" Bucky asked as he held onto his hand and nodded.

"Yes please, bye bye Bucky." She whispered before closing her eyes and letting me take over again.

I opened my eyes to see Bucky in front of me smiling, the rest of the team was around as I smiled.

"Thank you all so much." I muttered before hugging Bucky.

"She was lovely, we don't mind one bit." Steve said as the rest smiled.

"We can't wait to meet everyone else." Bucky said as I pulled away and smiled up at him.

"I'm sure they're all very eager to meet you all."

[quickspinner]

Oops - Part 2

Part 1 | Part 2 | AO3

(See part 1 for summary and warnings)

Marinette was having a hard time keeping her mind on girls’ night. Rose and Juleka had just signed a new lease to move in together in the coming month, and it should have been exciting, but somehow she just couldn’t get into the discussions about decor and whose couch they should keep and how many dishes they really needed.

Marinette had other things on her mind. 

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she glanced at the others quickly before turning it over. 

Sorry, babe, I’ve got a gig that day. Wish I could.

Marinette bit her lip, trying not to be upset. She started to type a reply, when another set of messages came in. 

You could come if you want We could go home together after Just go easy on the drinks this time ;)

Marinette giggled, but sent back You sure? I won’t be in the way?

I’d want you there even if you were. You’re small, we can stick you in an instrument case if we need to

Marinette laughed aloud at that. 

Should I dress up? she typed.

Anything you wear looks good on my floor. Do what makes you happy 

Marinette pressed her legs together, bouncing her knees, and then sent, before she could rethink it, Doing you makes me happy.

There was a long pause before his next message, and then it was just an address and a time, followed by Can’t wait to see you Friday . And Saturday morning. Don’t make lunch plans. 

Marinette gave a little squeal, hiding her face in her hands. 

All of the girls were looking at her with varying expressions. Juleka and Alix looked amused, Rose excited, and Mylène just looked happy for her. 

Alya was looking at her with a slow spreading grin. “Well weeeeell,” she drawled, leaning on the counter between them. “Let me guess. Setting up your next booty call with your new boytoy?”

There was enough truth in that to make Marinette blush deeply. Alya cackled. 

“Details, girl,” she said, slapping the counter. “You’ve been doing this guy for weeks now, what’s the story? He must be good to still put that dopey look on your face after all this time.”

“What—n-no!” Marinette spluttered, looking at the rest of the girls. Juleka was rolling her eyes while Rose and Mylène covered giggles. Alix had that same amused expression as she shook her head slightly. “I’m not gonna talk about that,” Marinette insisted. “It’s none of your business!” 

“Come on, Mari, spill,” Alya said, leaning forward again. “It can’t be that embarrassing. Does he fuck you up against a wall with all your clothes on and call you a naughty girl?” 

Marinette choked, and Alya laughed. 

“Oh, Marinette, you’re such an innocent,” she chortled, sitting back with a smirk like she had gained some kind of victory. 

Marinette’s face burned with both shame and...anger. How dare Alya dismiss her just like that? Like they were still silly teenagers and Marinette couldn’t even talk to a guy, let alone take him home and—suddenly she realized she was tired of Alya’s patronizing, and on top of that, she felt insulted on Luka’s behalf. Taking a breath, Marinette straightened her shoulders and put on the best air of nonchalance she could manage despite her red face. “He probably would, if I asked him to,” she said airily. “But he really likes to take his time for that part.” Summoning up every ounce of the boldness Luka inspired in her, she blurted, “If he wants to make me come fast and hard, he uses his hands.” 

The entire room went silent as they all stared at her. Pretending like she didn’t feel like she was going to throw up from nerves and embarrassment any second, Marinette added dreamily, “He has amazing hands.” 

Alya raised her eyebrows, clearly amused and at least half disbelieving. “Not his tongue?” 

“He’s a great kisser,” Marinette smiled, deliberately misunderstanding. Alya grinned wolfishly. 

“No, girl, I mean when he e—“

“Oh, he’s great with his mouth on me too,” Marinette interrupted, eyes widening innocently. “It’s just, when he uses his hands, he can still use his voice. Mm, he has such a sexy voice.” The shudder that went through her was entirely real. “It makes me so…” she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it, and took a sip of her wine instead.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I can’t believe that you like this guy dirty-talking you,” Alya accused, narrowing her eyes as she set her cup down with a slam. “Little miss sweetness and light. You can’t even handle it when we talk about fucking.”

Marinette shrugged as if she was completely indifferent to what Alya believed. “You don’t say it like he does,” she commented, and took another sip of her drink, staring off into the distance as if she’d completely forgotten Alya was there. She was stretching the truth a bit, she knew. It wasn’t dirty talk, not really, not the way Alya was thinking. Luka didn’t have to be filthy to work her up; he could recite phone listings in that hot, growling voice, and it would be enough to put her over the edge, so when he told her she was beautiful, that he loved the way she smelled or tasted or felt or sounded, or asked what she wanted, or suggested something he wanted her to do for him, or panted out how close he was…

She shivered again. 

Alya didn’t need to know that though. Marinette flicked her eyes around the others, a little nervous about their reactions. Mylène was smiling, Juleka was smirking, and Rose had her hands clasped together and was practically vibrating with excitement. Alix was snickering behind her hand.

“Aw, did Marinette just shatter all your illusions, Alya?” Alix laughed. “You just can’t handle that your oh-so-innocent bestie has a hot side piece.”

Marinette frowned. “Can you have a side piece if you don’t have a...a main piece?”

Alix patted her shoulder. “You can be your own main piece.” 

“Marinette,” Alya said, putting her drink down, suddenly serious. “This isn’t like you. Just who is this guy, anyway? Does he even have a day job?” 

“Yes,” Marinette frowned. “He’s a teacher.” It wasn’t a lie; Luka did teach private music lessons in addition to his performance work, but with Alya giving her that judgemental look, Marinette didn’t intend to give her any details. 

“Ooh, hot for teacher, nice.” Alix reached over and, though feeling a little foolish, Marinette met her high five, but Alya looked unconvinced.

“Well, just be careful,” Alya cautioned her. “You’re still on the rebound—” Am I? Marinette found herself wondering. It didn’t feel like it, actually, when she thought about it. “—and I know you’re feeling pretty vulnerable right now and I don’t want this guy taking advantage of you. If you wanna have fun with him, whatever, but be careful what you tell him and don’t loan him any money.” She sighed. “And especially, don’t fall in love with him. He’s a good time, and that’s it, and he’ll only break your heart if you start wanting more.” 

Marinette just stared at her, mouth hanging open slightly, as Alya turned away. There was a tense moment and then Rose piped up, “All right, are we ready for the movie? Let’s get started!” The girls all murmured agreement and began moving toward the living room.

Marinette put her drink down, 

“Hey,” Alix said, leaning over her shoulder. “Alya’s just trying to look out for you. She didn’t mean it how it sounded, you know that. If you say this guy is cool, I believe you, but it never hurts to watch out for yourself, right?”

“Y-yeah,” Marinette managed a weak smile. “I get it. Sure.” 

***

Marinette was having a shit day. One of her underlings had screwed up at work, which meant, to the bosses, that Marinette screwed up, and then she had to smile and take in the teeth from her bosses while soothing her horrified intern and trying to deal with the problems he’d caused. She’d complained about it to Alya when she got home, and stupidly, she’d mentioned that knowing she had a date with Luka tonight was the only thing that got her through the day. That earned her another well-intentioned condescending talking-to about being careful and not getting invested in something that was clearly only temporary. “I know you, Marinette,” Alya insisted. “He’ll say something sweet just trying to get you naked and you’ll get infatuated and start planning your whole future while the whole time he’s got one foot out the door.” Nino, who’d showed up to pick up Alya in the middle of it, had grudgingly sided with Alya over the whole thing. 

“It’s not really like you, Nette,” Nino said with an uncomfortable shrug. “I mean, I don’t want to be all judgy and weird. I just…well, you’ve...” He’d trailed off and hustled Alya out the door when he saw tears in Marinette’s eyes, leaving her at least with the dignity of breaking down in private. 

She flopped over the arm of the couch and sobbed until her phone beeped a reminder at her. Luka , she thought, touching her swollen face. She couldn’t go out like this. Honestly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to anymore. She just wanted to crawl into bed and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

But she had this date, and…

Alya’s words flooded back and fresh tears fell down her face. Maybe Luka wouldn’t care if she canceled. Maybe…maybe she shouldn’t be feeling so sick about that thought. Maybe Alya was right and she was on the road to another heartbreak. Luka had never said anything, after that first day, about wanting anything more. They weren’t always having sex when they were together, they did other things, but they did always end up in bed eventually. But that didn’t mean anything! Right? Maybe—Marinette sighed. Maybe she didn’t need anything else to spiral about tonight, thanks so much, Alya. Why wasn’t she allowed to just have fun without Alya telling her what was best for her? She enjoyed spending time with Luka, and yeah, he made it clear he enjoyed all the... intimate things they did, but that didn’t mean— 

Focus , she reminded herself, wiping her eyes again. She still had a date tonight that she was in no condition to go to, and if she didn’t call soon Luka would already be on his way to meet her. 

She took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself and called him.

“Hey, beautiful, what’s up?” Luka asked, his smooth voice light and cheerful.

“Hi,” Marinette squeaked, and then gulped down a sob. Shit, she should have texted, she sounded awful.

Luka’s tone shifted immediately. “What’s wrong?” he asked. 

“N-nothing major, I just...I had a really bad day and...I don’t think I’m up for our date tonight. I’m so sorry, I know it’s really last minute, I hope you haven’t left yet, I just—” She caught a tear on her hand and wiped it away, trying not to sniffle into the phone.

“Of course it’s okay,” Luka said, his voice low and soft. “Don’t force yourself, it’s fine. Do you want to talk about it?” 

“No,” Marinette choked, her throat tightening again. 

“Okay. Well, how about if I grab some takeout and bring you dinner? I can pick up something for your roommate too if you like.”

“Oh, you don’t—you don’t have to do that. Alya’s out with her boyfriend, I’m not sure she’s even coming back tonight. I mean, you don’t have to pick up anything at all, I can just scrounge something, I'll be fine, I think we have some...some ramen or something I can make…I’m not very hungry right now anyway.” Ugh, she was a babbling idiot, why hadn’t she just texted him.

“Late lunch?”

“No…” Marinette frowned, trying to think. “I don’t think I ate lunch.”

“Thought so,” Luka chuckled. 

“B-but—I—“

“I don’t have to stay if you’d rather be alone,” Luka told her, his voice so full of sympathy that she wanted to cry all over again. “But at least let me bring you something to eat. It’s not like I had other plans. What’s your favorite food to cry into?” His tone turned teasing. “I can at least bring you some real ramen instead of the instant stuff, if that’s really what you want.” 

Marinette bit her lip, picturing for a moment the congee she used to get at the shop by her old office. She loved it, because it reminded her of her mother’s, but she hadn’t had in in ages because they didn’t deliver to this part of town, and—

“Anything you want,” Luka told her softly. “Come on, what are you thinking about?” 

“It’s out of your way,” Marinette said, shifting on her couch. “I...give me just a second, I’ll think of something, um…” 

“Marinette,” Luka said, a touch of amusement in his voice. “Just tell me what you want. I’m all over this town for gigs all the time, a few extra subway stops won’t kill me.” 

She told him, and gave him directions. 

“Okay. I’ll go pick it up and be there as soon as I can. You take a nice long bath or a shower, or at least wash your face, okay? Get comfortable for a night in.”

Marinette smiled a little at his prescription, and whispered, “Okay.” She sat there a few minutes longer after they hung up, trying to gather enough caring to get up and do as he suggested. Finally she made it up off the couch, and drifted into the bathroom.

She cried more in the shower, but she did feel better after standing in the hot water, which at least relieved some of the stiffness and stinging of her face and eyes, and helped her breathe easier. She sat on her bed wrapped in her towel for a long moment, feeling limp and languid, but if she was sitting here naked when Luka showed up, he’d probably think she wanted some other kind of comforting, and she just wasn’t sure she felt like it tonight. She dug out one of her more modest nightgowns, made of thin, soft fabric that fell to her calves, with wide straps and a shallow scoop neck that covered most of her chest. It was still pretty, because Marinette liked pretty things, but it wasn’t seductive or anything like that. 

Not that she was in any condition to seduce anybody, she thought, as she pressed her fingers below her aching eyes. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to let Luka come over. Would it hurt his feelings if she made him leave the food at the door?

Marinette had almost decided to do just that when she heard him knock. She paused with her hand on the doorknob, and then sighed. Well, if her puffy, blotchy face and stuffed up nose grossed him out and he didn’t want to see her anymore, then at least that would be one less thing for Alya to bitch at her about, she thought as she opened the door.

Luka’s expression shifted from concern to sympathy as soon as she came into view. “Aw, come here,” he said, reaching for her as he stepped inside. Marinette let him wrap his arm around her and leaned into him as he squeezed her. He kept her under his arm as he walked to the table, where he put the bag of food down and then turned to embrace her fully, folding her in a tight hug, as he swayed slightly and rubbed her back. It felt amazing, actually, and Marinette pressed her face into his chest, inhaling his scent and enjoying the firm feel of him, warm and solid. 

“You want to eat at the table or somewhere else?” he asked. 

“Couch?” she mumbled into his chest, and he steered her over to it. 

“Sit down then, and I’ll get it all ready.”

He brought her the bowl a few minutes later, sitting down next to her as he made sure she had a grip on it before he let go. “Do you want me to go?” he asked, tucking a damp lock of hair back from her face. “Or would you rather have some company? I won’t be offended, if you’d rather be alone.” 

Marinette looked up at him and opened her mouth, and then changed her mind, looking down with a blush. “Actually some company sounds nice,” she mumbled. 

Luka smiled, and leaned forward to kiss her temple gently. “Let me grab my food then.”

When he returned with his plate, he sat next to Marinette and put his arm around her shoulders. Marinette cuddled against his side, tucking her feet under herself. She admired the ease with which Luka balanced his plate on his knee as he ate, but then from some of the stories he’d told her she supposed he was probably used to eating in weird places

The congee felt good on her raw throat, and she ate almost the whole bowl before she sighed and set it on the coffee table to snuggle more firmly against Luka’s side. He’d already finished, and he put both arms around her. She told him a little bit about her day, leaving out the details of the argument with Alya, and Luka made sympathetic noises and kissed her forehead. 

Alya’s wrong about him , Marinette thought, tucking her face against his neck. He’d never treat anyone the way she thinks, even if it was only physical. He’s too sweet. And I don’t...I don’t think that’s what this is. I think...maybe he really meant what he said at the cafe. Maybe he still does. She took a shaky breath, and Luka’s face turned a little closer to hers, so she knew he was listening.

Marinette chickened out. “Could we...maybe get in bed and watch a movie?” 

“Sure, I’d love that.” Luka smiled. “What’s your favorite thing to watch when you feel crappy?”

Marinette blushed. “You’ll laugh.”

Luka grinned. “So what if I do? If you like it, that’s all that matters. Be selfish tonight, Marinette.” 

Luka followed her to her bedroom, and his eyebrows shot up when she produced a dusty old DVD with a picture of a bus on it. “Speed?” he said, sitting on the bed, and then bit his lip. He held up a finger, turned away from Marinette, and buried his face in her pillow as he laughed. Marinette grabbed her other pillow and whacked him with it. 

“I told you you’d laugh,” she pouted as Luka pushed himself up and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “I love Keanu Reeves.” 

“Give it here, and get comfy,” he told her, getting up. Marinette gave him the movie, and he put it in as she tossed the blanket back to the bottom of the bed and got under the sheet. Then she had an internal panic attack as Luka kicked off his shoes and socks and shimmied off his jeans. Oh, maybe she should have—but he’d never have been comfortable if she made him stay dressed, and it didn’t mean they were going to…Stupid, they could have stayed on the couch, why did she invite him to bed?

Barely thinking, Marinette caught the hem of his shirt just before he went to pull it off. “Can you...leave it on?” she asked, and blushed when he looked at her quizzically. “I really like cuddling with you but I...I just—”

“Just?” Luka asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Never mind, it’s stupid,” Marinette sighed, letting go, and feeling like an idiot. “You should be comfortable.

“So should you,” Luka said, sitting back down on the bed. “I can wear a shirt if you want, it’s no big deal.” He reached over and smoothed back her hair—now mostly dry, thankfully. “Is something wrong? You know you can tell me if I ever make you uncomfortable.” 

Oh, she was the worst. He was so kind to her and she was the worst , and how could she admit anything like this to him? Marinette hung her head, and told a truth that wasn’t the truth. “I just...don’t like it when our skin sticks together,” she confessed, and then put her hands over her face. “I’m so sorry. Forget I said anything. I’m being stupid.”

“I’m not forgetting anything,” Luka laughed, sliding under the sheet beside her. “Why are you acting like you did something wrong?” 

“It’s...not very romantic,” Marinette sighed, wrinkling her nose. 

Luka rolled his eyes. “I’d rather you be comfortable than preserve some imaginary aesthetic that no one but us would even be aware of. I don’t mind wearing my shirt or keeping the sheet pulled up if it makes you more comfortable.” He slid down a bit, and stretched his arm out towards her.  Marinette snuggled up next to him again, and sighed contentedly as she rested her cheek against his chest, glad that he wore a soft, slightly worn t-shirt instead of a crisp dress shirt. 

“Comfy now?” he asked, his hand sliding up to massage the back of her neck. 

“Mm,” she agreed, and leaned into his touch with a hum. Eventually they slithered down to lay flat in the bed, Luka curling against her back with his head on her pillow, murmuring sly comments about the movie every now and then that made Marinette giggle, and occasionally reach back to elbow him when she thought he was getting too far out of line. No one, she told him, dissed Keanu in her bed. 

“Yes ma’am,” he agreed, laughing into her hair before he kissed the top of her head. Marinette smiled. 

It was nice, having him snuggled up against her, his teasing voice in her ear, and Marinette’s mood was lifting with each passing moment. She found herself focusing on his broad hand resting on his stomach, his breath tickling the back of her neck, and the warmth of him behind her, the brush of his chest against her back when he breathed. Heat began to pool low in her belly, and her breathing quickened. She pressed back a little, just enough that her back was resting against her chest now, and Luka nuzzled her neck, placing a little kiss below her ear before settling again. Marinette sighed, annoyed with herself. Here she had been worried about giving him the wrong idea, but now that she was comfortable and relaxed, she was starting to change her mind. 

Marinette sniffed experimentally, and found she was breathing much better. She shifted slightly, biting her lip, and then rolled over to face Luka. He blinked at her a little sleepily, and then he smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t revoke my bed privileges. I’m really comfortable right now,” he murmured. “You look like you’re feeling better.” . 

“I am,” she said, and wiggled a little closer, her body already warming at the thought of his touch. She leaned up and kissed him, and any hesitation she’d still been feeling vanished at the soft feel of his mouth against hers. It seemed to wake Luka up too, because his hand went to her face and he returned her kiss with equal enthusiasm. Marinette caught hold of his shirt, and tugged him closer when he would have leaned back. “Can I be selfish, Luka?” she breathed, and felt him shudder as she kissed him again. “Even after all you’ve done for me? Can I ask for more?”

“Always,” he rumbled, rolling up onto his elbow to follow her as she kept tugging on his collar, wiggling to get beneath him. She gasped as he pressed against her, and arched her body up into his, suddenly feeling desperate. Had he been turned on this whole time and said nothing? Alya is so wrong about him. 

“Comfortable , huh?” she teased, and Luka grinned sheepishly.

“I was,” he defended, “Mostly. I can ignore it when I have to, and you didn’t seem like you were up for much.” He kissed her softly.  

“I wasn’t,” she admitted, and then rolled her hips up into him. Luka groaned, his forehead dropping to her shoulder as he grabbed at her hip, and her own eyes closed in pleasure. “I am now,” she sighed. “Please, Luka.” She shivered as she felt the fabric of her nightgown bunch under his big hands, the hem sliding up her calves and over her knees. 

Alya was wrong about him, Marinette was sure, looking up into his eyes as he bent down to kiss her gently, but thoroughly. He only broke the kiss when he finally found the hem of the nightgown. “Can I take my shirt off now?” he asked teasingly as he dragged the nightgown up over her head. Marinette made a muffled sound. “What?” he laughed, but his laugh cut off when she pressed her hips up into him again. 

“I said, yes please,” she told him smugly as he reached back for his collar.  

Marinette settled her arms around his neck and pulled him down into her, eager now for the press of his skin against hers. Luka’s hands carded into her hair, tipping her face to the perfect angle as his mouth descended on hers again. She spared one fleeting thought fr Alya’s warnings before she gave herself up to the moment.

Alya is wrong about Luka...but she might be right about me. Maybe I am falling in love with him. 

***

The movie menu screen had been playing for a while when Luka finally picked up the remote and turned the tv off. “I’m going to grab a drink,” Luka said, kissing Marinette’s jaw. “You want something?” 

“Yes, please,” Marinette sighed. “I don’t think I can move yet.” 

Luka chuckled and kissed her again. “Be right back.” 

Grinning to himself, Luka stopped to pull his boxers and jeans on and made his way to the refrigerator, leaning down to find the water bottles he knew were tucked into the back for him. He’d gotten picky about water on the road, so Marinette, thoughtful as always, kept a few bottles of his favorite brand for him. He grabbed one and cracked it open, taking a long gulp, and then bent to reach in and grab the filter pitcher to make a glass for Marinette. 

“Excuse me?”

Luka jumped and straightened, and turned around to find a woman standing in the apartment doorway, lit from the hall behind. She had one hand on her hip and the other on the doorknob, where a set of keys was still hanging. 

“Hey,” he said, shutting the refrigerator door. “You must be Alya. I’m Luka. I’m Marinette’s—ah—” He’d almost said boyfriend, but he wasn’t, technically, and he suddenly realized he had no idea what word to use. “Friend,” he finally finished lamely, acutely aware of how the word hung between them as he stood there half-naked and disheveled. He lifted the water bottle to his lips again, still parched. “Sorry, we didn’t realize you were coming home tonight.” 

He turned to get a glass from the cabinet, and felt Alya’s eyes on him as he poured the water for Marinette and put the pitcher back. He glanced up and, as he suspected, the look she was giving him was not one of appreciation. Luka had seen that look before and knew that she was seeing the dye and the piercings and the tattoos and not much else. He waited for her to say something, but when she didn’t seem inclined to, he shrugged. “Well, it’s nice to meet you,” he said quickly, and then made his way past her and back to Marinette’s room. “I’ll let Marinette know you’re home.” 

He shut Marinette’s bedroom door behind him, blowing out a breath, and then looked at the bed. 

He forgot about Alya for a moment when his eyes fell on Marinette, looking relaxed and blissfully happy, one lovely shoulder and her feet peeking out of the sheet she had tucked around herself. He could still see the marks of her earlier breakdown on her face, but she looked at peace now. 

If he hadn’t already been sure he loved her, he didn’t think anything on earth would have saved him from falling in that moment. 

Luka brought the water over and set it on her nightstand, then leaned over her to set his on the other one. Marinette smiled dreamily up at him, and he bent down and kissed her gently. She smiled against his lips.

“Your mouth is cold,” she told him, and giggled. 

“Yours is hot,” he teased, kissing her again, a little deeper. Then he sighed. “Your, um...your roommate is home,” he told her, half-regretting it as Marinette stiffened instantly. “I kind of ran into her in the kitchen.”

Marinette bit her lip, looking up at him as a blush lit her face. “Oops,” she murmured, and then giggled in a way that said maybe she wasn’t all that sorry. Laughing, Luka all but tackled her, pressing her back into the pillows as he kissed her messily, moving his lips to her neck and collarbone when she tried to squirm away from him. 

“What was that for?” Marinette giggled, pushing lightly at his chest until he propped himself up on his arms. 

“You are criminally hot,” he told her, smirking when the red tinting her cheeks darkened. “Especially when you blush.” Always when she blushed, but especially now, looking so ravished and yet so sweetly pretty, shy and shameless at the same time. 

He leaned down and kissed her again, more gently, and she hummed against him, kissing him twice more when he would have pulled away. 

When she finally let him sit back, he asked, “Do you want me to leave?” 

“No,” she said with determination, slipping her hand around the back of his neck and pulling him back down into another kiss. “Come get back in bed with me.” 

Not at all unwilling, Luka shimmied out of his pants and crawled over her, slipping under the sheet and tucking it around his front before laying an arm down in invitation. Marinette shifted over to him, and Luka shivered when she moved the sheet away from between them. Instead of settling her head down on his shoulder, she kissed his chest, and his neck, and pressed herself up against him. “I don’t think you’re as done as you led me to believe,” she whispered with a teasing smile. 

“Well not anymore.” Luka grinned up at her, shifting onto his back in answer to the press of his hands on her shoulders. “Feel like scandalizing your roommate?”

“Believe me, it’s her turn,” Marinette huffed, climbing on top of him, and looking up at her pretty face with smiling lips bruised from his kisses, haloed by mussed black hair he couldn’t wait to tangle his hands in again, Luka promptly forgot anyone else even existed. 

Later, he was nearly asleep, curled around Marinette with the sheet tucked between them, when she whispered, “Luka?”

“Hmm?” he blinked his eyes open, though he couldn’t see much. He felt her tense, though, and moved a hand to her arm, rubbing his thumb along her skin. 

“I think I’m falling for you,” she finally said, the sentence half a sigh as the air rushed out of her. 

Luka froze for an instant, completely awake now, and he felt Marinette flinch and tense. Quickly he pressed his lips to the back of her neck, and slid his arm around her waist. “Let me know when you’re sure,” he murmured against her skin. “I’m waiting at the bottom to catch you.” 

He felt her sigh and relax, and then she rolled, scooting up close against him and pillowing her head on his shoulder. Luka held her, rubbing her back softly, and turned his head to bury his face in the pillow to keep himself from screaming. 

On his way out in the morning, Luka gave Alya a broad grin and a two-fingered salute.

***

“Girls, we have a problem,” Alya announced, plopping into a chair and slamming her to-go cup down on the table.

“Good morning to you too, Alya,” Alix muttered, face propped on her fist. “What the hell is it that you needed to talk to us about this early?”

“I met Marinette’s boytoy last night.”

Blank stares from around the table. Alya sighed. “The one night stand? The guy she’s been fucking every night she had free for the last month and more?” 

Alix raised her eyebrows. “Still not seeing the point. So Marinette’s getting laid. A lot. Good for her. Wasn’t it your idea for her to get back out there in the first place?” 

Alya slapped the table. “That’s just it! She’s not out there! She’s hung up on this dude and my point is that this isn’t like Marinette. You know she can’t just do random hookups. This has been going on for a month straight and you know she’s going to catch feelings, if she hasn’t already. And that guy, he—he’s not Marinette’s type . He’s got tattoos and piercings and dyed hair and his clothes are practically rags!” 

“Sounds hot,” Alix observed, and Alya rolled her eyes. 

“It’s not Marinette , and he’s definitely not the type who’s looking to settle down with one girl. He’s going to fuck her until she starts wanting more and then he’s going to break her heart. If we’re lucky. If we’re not, he’ll string her along with a bunch of promises, probably cheating on her the whole time, and then really break her heart. This isn’t the kind of relationship Marinette wants!” She waved her hands around for emphasis. “Marinette wants a house and a picket fence and a—a hamster. She needs husband material .” 

“It does seem like Marinette wouldn’t be satisfied with a purely physical relationship,” Mylène said hesitantly. “But are you sure this man is no good? What if he does like Marinette?” 

“They could totally fall in love! Opposites attract, you know!” Rose added, hooking her arm through Juleka’s with a giggle. “Maybe all Marinette needs is somebody a little bit different to take her mind off...you know. Him .” 

“Rose, there’s different and then there’s different, ” Alya sighed. “Some different is okay, but picking up punk guys in nightclubs is a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“Mkay,” Alix sighed. “Even supposing we agreed with you, and I’m not saying we do, what would we even do about it?” 

“What we need is a distraction,” Alya said, tapping a finger on the table as her brow furrowed in thought. “Someone who can get her mind off of her fuckbuddy and back to thinking about kids and hamsters.” 

For a moment the girls sat in silence. 

“Well,” Juleka said slowly, as heads turned toward her. “There’s my brother, I suppose. He just got back into town a couple months ago.”

“Oh, that’s true!” Rose exclaimed, laying a finger alongside her cheek as she thought. “Ooh, that could work, Juleka. I mean, if Marinette and this guy are in love, then she’ll just be making a new friend, right? And if Alya’s right, then there’s no harm in just introducing Marinette to someone else.”

Juleka shrugged. “Hard to say with him though, whether he’ll be into Marinette. He’ll either get bored or fall hard. He likes creative types—“

“That’s definitely Marinette,” Alix said dully.

“People who are honest—transparent, even.”

Alix snorted. “Also Marinette.”

Juleka was looking even more thoughtful. “People who don’t back down, who think outside the box...yeah, we could try it.” She shrugged. “Don’t know what Marinette’ll think of him, though.”

“He is very handsome,” Rose pointed out. “Not much like— you know , but that might work in our favor after everything. He looks a little bit like Keanu Reeves, and you know Marinette loves him.” 

Juleka snorted. “He wishes he looked like Keanu Reeves.”

“They have the same vibe,” Rose defended. 

Juleka just shook her head. “Well, if Marinette’s into ink and piercings and the whole bad boy look right now, it shouldn’t be a problem, anyway. Dumbass looks like the rough type but he’s a total teddy bear. Best of both worlds, I guess.” 

“Okay, I’ve heard enough,” Alya declared, clapping her hands. “Plan A. Juleka and Rose are throwing a housewarming party.”

“We are?” chorused Rose and Juleka.

“We’ll invite Marinette, Juleka’s brother will be there, we get them together, and they hit it off, and she kicks her loser booty call to the curb. Problem solved.” Alya nodded firmly. 

Alix dropped her head onto her arms. “What’s plan B?” she mumbled. “Seems like this whole plan could fall apart if they end up not liking each other.”

Alya waved a hand dismissively. “We’ll figure that out after we see how this one goes. I’ll have thought of something before the party.”  

***

“This is a pleasant surprise,” Marinette said, tucking the phone between her shoulder and ear as she folded her laundry. “I didn’t expect to hear from you today. I thought you had plans tonight.” 

“I do,” Luka replied. “I just have a few minutes and I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh?” Marinette frowned. “What?”

“Well, I had a very interesting conversation with my sister today,” Luka told her, and she could hear amusement in his voice. “She invited me to a party later this week. Said there’s a friend of hers she’d like me to meet. Thought we might hit it off .”

“O-oh,” Marinette managed, dropping the shirt she held. “Really?” Insecurity flooded up and threatened to drown her. Aside from that one late night conversation, they hadn’t really revisited their relationship status. She hadn’t had the courage to bring it up again. If Luka wanted to meet someone else, he was still technically free to do so, but...but she’d thought...

“Yeah, maybe you know her,” Luka laughed. “She’s in your field, after all. Some hot-shot, up and coming designer named Marinette Dupain-Cheng .” 

“Oh. Oh. ” Marinette’s eyes widened, and then she frowned. “Wait, do I know your sister?”

“Well, that’s what I called to find out.” Luka snorted softly. “Know a Juleka Couffaine by any chance?” 

“Juleka?” Marinette shrieked. “You’re related to—how did I not know that? Why didn’t she ever say anything? Why didn’t you?” She racked her brains, thinking back. 

“Mm, generally we’ve been busy not saying other things. Gotta say Jules hasn’t exactly been on my mind when we’re together.” His low chuckle made Marinette blush. 

“Right.” Marinette blushed. “And I suppose I never mentioned your name to her, and Alya just calls you—” She stopped, embarrassed.

“What?” Luka asked, humor in his voice.

“My, um...boytoy.” Luka laughed uproariously, and Marinette began to giggle again. “Or sometimes things that aren’t quite so nice. She thinks you’re not good for me. Because...because of how we met, and all. Um.” She took a breath, hesitating, but then remembered that awful feeling just moments ago when it seemed like the floor had dropped out from under her, and decided it was time to put everything on the table. “She thinks you’re just in it for the sex, and I’m going to get invested and end up getting hurt.” 

“Oh, I see.” Luka drawled. “As if I haven’t been head over heels for you since the moment I saw you.” Marinette blushed, and bit her lip, but Luka went on before she could say anything. “I get it. Sounds to me like your roommate’s trying to set you up with someone who’ll take care of you. Get you away from that sex-crazed loser that’s seduced her poor little innocent bestie.” 

Marinette buried her face, phone and all, into the throw pillow next to her and giggled until her sides hurt and she was gasping.

“Are you done?” Luka asked, still sounding amused, when the giggling finally subsided. “Or do I need to send someone over there to administer oxygen?” 

“I’m fine,” Marinette snickered. “Listen, Luka, my friends are having a party next week and I’ve got this weird feeling they’re trying to set me up. Will you come be my date to Juleka’s party? Maybe—“ She steeled herself and took the plunge. “Maybe if I introduce them to my boyfriend , they’ll back off.

There was a moment of silence. Marinette forgot to breathe.

“I’m going to need you to say that again when we’re in the same room,” Luka said, voice deliciously deep and husky, “So I can kiss you properly. Can you come over?”

Air rushed out of her. “Aren’t you busy tonight?” she asked, and smiled at the sound of his laugh. 

“Not anymore.” 

“Are you sure?” she teased. “I thought you had plans.” 

“Consider them cancelled,” Luka told her, “Get your gorgeous ass over here.” 

She did, and after she had said it again, after the kissing and the other soft words, after the more-than-kissing, they cuddled close, happy, sated, and basking in their newly upgraded relationship. Marinette felt Luka stir and prop himself on his elbow.

“You know,” he said, his breath washing across her cheek. “I’m thinking about this party the girls are planning.”

“Do you still want to go?” Marinette asked, reaching up 

“Absolutely,” he said, and then his voice dropped, making her shiver slightly as he nuzzled her ear. “But why don’t we make things a little interesting.”  He whispered his plan in Marinette’s ear, and she began to giggle. 

***

Juleka sighed as she looked at their new apartment, cleaned and decorated without a scrap of cardboard left in the place, and gazed with exasperated fondness on all the little finger sandwiches and appetizers Rose had spent all day making. Luka had better appreciate this, she thought, as she pasted on a smile and started letting in the guests that began to arrive in ones and twos. Well, at least Rose was happy. Any excuse to bust out the glitter and craft paper and try out all these super cute recipes she found on Pinterest.

Juleka was genuinely happy to see Luka, though, when he finally knocked on the door. Her schedule had been packed lately, which was great from a career standpoint, but she hadn’t seen as much of him as she wanted to since he’d come back from his travels. She felt a little guilty that it had taken Alya’s plotting to get her to make room on her schedule to see him. 

Well, hopefully she was about to make up for it.

“Hey, Jules,” he said, kissing her cheek and then Rose’s. “Congratulations on the new place.” 

“Thanks,” Juleka half-smiled, all the admission she was willing to make that she was glad to see him. She was pleased to note that he’d listened to her admonishments and dressed up. He looked nice, in a black dress shirt open at the collar and jeans that were mostly intact. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing the tattoos on his arms, and the dye in his hair was bright and fresh. Good. Maybe he had half a shot with Marinette, if he didn’t open up his big mouth and screw it up. 

“We’re so glad you could make it, Luka!” Rose squealed, throwing her arms around his neck. Then she drew back with a dismayed expression. “Oh, but she’s not here yet.”

Luka shrugged. “That’s okay, I’m in no hurry. I meant to tell you, I’ve...actually been seeing someone, to be honest.” He had the grace to look sheepish, and winced at the way Juleka’s eyes widened.

“What?” she asked sharply, and then smacked his arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Luka shrugged, and Juleka’s heart sank at the stupid grin that spread over his face. “We weren’t really official until just a few days ago. After we talked about this. I don’t think I’ve put my guitar down since then except to pee, so…I kinda forgot.” 

“Gross,” Juleka muttered out of habit. 

“Oh,” cooed Rose, clasping her hands together, before grabbing Juleka’s arm and shaking her lightly. “Ohhh, he looks so happy!”

“I am happy,” Luka grinned. “Really, really happy. She’s amazing, I’ve never met anyone like her. It’s maybe too soon to say it, but...this could be it, you know?”

Juleka felt a little sick. She hadn’t realized she was so invested in setting up Luka and Marinette, but the crushing disappointment she now felt said she was. She liked Marinette a lot, and she loved Luka more than almost anyone else in the world, and the more she considered the idea of them together, the more she thought it could work. Even though she had told herself (and Rose) not to get her hopes up, she absolutely had. 

But Luka was practically glowing, so Juleka swallowed the sick feeling and told him she was happy for him. And she was, really. She had to be happy about anything that made him smile like that. As much as she would have liked to have Marinette for a sister, she wanted Luka’s happiness over all. 

She wasn’t looking forward to dealing with Alya, though. Focus. Luka was looking at her with a little hopeful half-smile on his face and Rose would kill her if she crushed his enthusiasm.

“Well, when you’re sure we won’t scare her off, bring her to dinner.” Juleka punched his arm lightly. “I have to meet the lunatic who would date you.” 

“Sure, sounds good. So, is there a tour?” Luka asked with a grin, and Rose bounced on her toes before grabbing onto his arm and tugging him further into the apartment. She gave Juleka one commiserating glance behind his back before she began introducing him to the small gathering of friends in their modest living room. 

Juleka sighed and stationed herself back by the door to head off Alya when she came in and warn her. 

The next person to show up, though, was Marinette, which was a bit surprising. She was supposed to be coming with Alya, and she wasn’t nearly as late as she usually was. Juleka felt like pouting as she looked over Marinette. She was dressed up too, in a chocolate brown dress that hugged her figure nicely to the waist, covered with a sheer lace overlay that ran up over her neck and shoulders. The skirt hung to her knees in sheer layers edged in scallops of pink lace that were piled thick enough to cover everything important, but thin enough to tease. Her hair was loose and flowing around her shoulders, and she was smiling so cheerfully, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement. She’d have been the perfect bait if the trap hadn’t already been sprung. Dammit, Luka , Juleka thought grumpily. You’re missing out, dumbass . 

“I brought cookies!” Marinette said breathlessly, holding up a cellophane-wrapped platter. “You can keep the plate, I got it for you.” 

Juleka mumbled her thanks, smiling at the combination of cookies shaped like roses and black bats on a platter that matched their new dishes. “Thanks, Marinette. That’s really thoughtful.”

“Of course,” Marinette grinned, bobbing on her toes a little. “I’m so excited for you guys!”

She looked so genuinely excited that Juleka had to smile. “Most everybody is here already,” Juleka told her, waving her on into the apartment. “Rose is in the back showing some people around, but she’ll be back up in a minute. Wine?” 

“Please,” Marinette said gratefully, and Juleka poured her a glass. “You did a great job of blending your styles, it looks so pretty in here, but, you know. Juleka pretty and not just Rose pretty. I really like what you did with the curtains—” 

Juleka let her ramble on, glancing at the clock now and again. Alya and Alix were due any minute and she had to head Alya off before she did anything...pushy. Luka didn’t like pushy. Marinette drifted into the living room to chat with some other friends—and damn, the front of that dress might be all sweetness and light but the back was really sexy. “Damn it, Luka,” Juleka muttered with a frustrated sigh. “This girl better be fucking incredible.”  

Luka was just following Rose back from the spare bedroom the girls were turning into a combination craft/music room, when he caught sight of Marinette chatting with a few other people in the living room.

Rose saw her almost at the same time, and gave a little squeal. “Marinette, you made it!” 

Marinette came to hug her, and Luka waited while they exchanged pleasantries, trying to keep his cool so he didn’t give anything away. Finally Rose remembered he was there and turned to him, tugging Marinette forward a little. 

“Oh, Marinette, this is Juleka’s brother Luka!” Rose chirped. “Luka, this is Marinette, the friend we were telling you about.” 

For a moment, they just looked at each other. Just long enough to give Rose pause. Then...

“Hi,” Luka said, grinning down at her. 

“Hi,” Marinette murmured, smiling up at him. 

 “You look good enough to eat,” he told her, settling a hand on her hip and tugging her closer. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rose’s eyes widen and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

“Is that a promise?” Marinette winked, and the tremble in her voice said she was about to laugh too. 

He bent down and she pushed up and they met in a passionate kiss. Her arms went around his neck (she remembered just in time not to dump her wine down his back) and his hands found her back—which was mostly bare, he realized as he felt warm skin under his hands. The noise he made wasn’t very dignified but it would only add to the show; he slid his hands down her back and onto her ass. Just to really sell it, naturally. No doubt she was kneading his chest and shoulders for the same reason. 

Damn, she even tasted like chocolate, the little minx. He’d be willing to bet she did that on purpose.

Beside them, Rose practically had to stuff both fists in her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She looked around and grabbed Mylène’s arm, shaking her as Rose hopped up and down. 

“Rose, what is—oooohhh,” Mylène’s eyes went round as Rose spun her around to face the kissing couple. Rose leaned down and began to hiss excitedly into her ear. “Wait, slow down— what? ” Mylène slapped her own hands over her mouth and looked at Rose. 

“ I know!!” Rose whisper-squealed, reaching up to tug at her short hair with both hands. Both of them looked towards the door, where they could see Juleka letting in Alya and Alix.

“Marinette gave us the slip,” Alya said, rolling her eyes. “Something about needing to pick up a card or some nonsense. She’s looking good, though, which is a good thing for us, right? She’s got this cute little brown dress with pink and she looks like a chocolate strawberry macaroon.” 

“Wait till you see the back,” Alix grinned. “Just these two lace panels that meet between her shoulderblades and the rest is bare. Seriously hot. I’m totally begging her to make...” She trailed off as she looked at Juleka’s face. Juleka sighed.   

“Listen, Alya, I need to tell you—” Juleka began, but Alya interrupted her, her face scrunching up as she looked at something over Juleka’s shoulder.  

“Oh you’re kidding me, I can’t believe she brought him. What is she thinking?” Alya demanded, grabbing Juleka’s arm. “How could you let him in?” Juleka raised her eyebrows, but before she could say anything, Alix had leaned around them to see what Alya was looking at.

“What now?” Alix grumbled. 

“Marinette brought her boytoy,” Alya spat, frustrated. “I can’t believe her.” Juleka nearly laughed at the irony until connections started snapping together in her head. With a feeling of dawning horror, she paused and turned slowly to look behind her, just in time to see her brother sticking his tongue down her friend’s throat. I’ll kill him , she thought. “No wonder she didn’t give me any pushback when I suggested she dress up a little,” Alya muttered, but Juleka barely heard her. 

“Nice,” Alix said, still leaning around Juleka to see, eyebrows raising in appreciation. Then she frowned. “Hold on, isn’t that—” 

At the same time, Juleka blurted “Wait,” and Alix broke off as both she and Alya turned to look at Juleka, who had gone pale. “ That ’ s the guy Marinette went home with? The guy she’s been banging every chance she got since—”  A look of horror crossed her face. “That’s who she’s been telling us—oh, gross. ” She put a hand over her mouth, sure she was about to vomit. “Oh my God, I don’t know what I did to deserve this but I deeply regret whatever it was.” 

“Never mind all that, we have to find a way to get him out of here before your brother shows up,” Alya hissed. 

Juleka groaned and put her face in her hands. 

Alix began to laugh. “I do feel sorry for you,” she told Juleka. “I really do. I definitely wouldn’t want to know any of that about my brother.” She paused, and made a face, turning slightly green. “Oh God, did not need that mental image, and mine’s not even real.” 

“I’m gonna hurl,” Juleka mumbled. “I can’t believe I have to live with this knowledge.”

Across the room, Marinette broke their kiss long enough to ask, breathlessly, “Think they got the point?” Luka glanced up and began to laugh into her hair as she nibbled his collarbone. 

“Juleka’s face is priceless right now.” He dropped his head and licked her neck, before moving his face up to whisper in her ear. “If we don’t get out of here right now I’m going to bust a gut and ruin everything.” 

“Then by all means, let’s go,” she giggled. “Tell me the next time they look over.” 

Luka glanced up. “Now.” 

Marinette slipped her hand between his legs and squeezed, making him jump with a “whoa.” 

“Sorry. Too much?” Marinette whispered. 

“Not if we’re leaving right now,” he grinned back, and let Marinette take his hand, giving him her best bedroom eyes as she backed towards the door, tugging him along. He didn’t even have to feign the dopey look on his face as he stared back at her. As they passed the knot of her friends, all staring saucer-eyed at them, she waved at them.

“Thanks for inviting me, Juleka! Sorry I have to bow out early, but um...I have something to take care of,” Marinette giggled, handing her wine glass to Alix as she kept towing Luka towards the door. He smirked at Juleka and winked.

“I’ll text you about dinner,” he called over his shoulder, laughing, and then grabbed Marinette’s ass just before they stepped out of the door.

“Holy fuck,” Alix muttered, still gaping at the door. “Was that really Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” She began to laugh. “I am so fucking proud.” 

“This isn’t funny!” Alya hissed. “This is a disaster!” 

“Oh, it’s hilarious,” Alix gasped, barely able to breathe, and Rose and Mylène nodded, both giggling. Rose squealed, bouncing on her toes. 

“This is amazing, I can’t believe it, it’s like fate or something—”

“I’m not sure that’s how fate works.” Mylène was trying to hold in her laughter for Alya’s sake. “But they certainly seem happy together.” 

Juleka, still looking a little green, put her hand on Alya’s shoulder before Alya could retort. “Look, it’s fine. You don’t have to worry about her. Luka’s the only person on the planet who’s a bigger sap than Marinette. If he’s into her, he’s all in.” Remembering the way Luka had been glowing when he’d talked about his new girl—when he talked about Marinette —she managed a tiny smile despite her nausea. If Luka got his way maybe she’d have Marinette for a sister-in-law after all. 

It was wiped away a second later as Alix guffawed, “Oh, she loves him being all in,” and Juleka groaned. 

“I need alcohol now ,” she grumbled. “I am going to give him so much shit in the wedding speech to make up for this.”

***

Outside, Luka and Marinette got to the elevators, and then collapsed against the wall in a brief fit of giggles.

“That was brilliant,” Marinette laughed, squeezing Luka’s arm. “I’m so embarrassed but it was so worth it, did you see Alya’s face?” 

“Juleka’s gonna kill me,” Luka chortled. “I can’t wait. Come here.” He pulled her close and kissed her, softer and more carefully than he had inside, and Marinette hummed with pleasure. Not that she hadn’t been enjoying their sloppy makeout, but this was more Luka’s style, and since she loved Luka, she—Marinette paused, and pulled back to look at him, biting her lip as he blinked and smiled softly at whatever he saw in her face. Marinette took a breath.

“I love you,” she said, keeping her eyes on his, though her pulse hammered in her veins. She hadn’t thought his eyes could get any softer, but he looked at her as if she was the greatest treasure in the world as he cupped her cheek and laid a soft kiss on her lips.  

“I love you too,” he said roughly, and gathered her up in his arms, squeezing her tight, lifting her off her feet as he squeezed her hard. 

Marinette giggled into his shoulder. “Poor Alya,” she muttered. “So wrong and so right at the same time.” She pulled back and kissed him again. “Take me home, before someone catches us making out in the hallway.” 

“Too late, dudes.” 

They both looked up, and Marinette’s mouth fell open as she saw Nino stepping out of the elevator with a pained expression. “Does the phrase get a room mean anything to you guys?” 

“Oh,” Marinette ducked her head sheepishly. “Sorry, Nino. By the way, this is Luka. He’s...Juleka’s brother?” 

Nino blinked, and then groaned. “Oh, shit.” 

Marinette giggled. “We’re um...we’re leaving now. Uh...Alya might be a teensie bit—” She held up her pinched fingers. “...stressed?” 

Nino rolled his eyes, but reached back to catch the elevator door for them before it closed. “Guess I’m on damage control,” he sighed, but with a grin. “Come on, get out of here.”  Needing no further encouragement, Marinette pulled Luka into the elevator. “Bring him to dinner or something next time,” Nino called as he let the door close. “We can’t keep meeting like this.” 

In the elevator, Luka and Marinette looked at each other. “Oops,” she whispered, and they both broke down laughing. Luka hugged her close, and Marinette sighed. “You know,” she mused. “As far as mistakes go…” She smiled up at him. “You’re the best one I ever made.” 

[klbwriting]

Unexpected Allies - Chapter 1

Fandom: Six of Crows/Shadow and Bone

Pairing: eventually will be Kaz/female!Reader but for now nothing

Warnings: I mean, Kaz Brekker is involved, someone is getting maimed

Summary:  The Darkling won the Ravka civil war, defeating the Sun Summoner and taking command of Ravka. Then he went looking for ways to make his Grisha more powerful. Kaz Brekker knew this but took the job at the Ice Court anyway, getting himself and Jesper Fahey thrown into a Ravkan prison for his efforts. After getting broken out by the Darkling's second in command the trio has to find their way to the Permafrost and the resistance gathering there. And then Kaz has to figure out a way to get his crew out of this whole mess. But how can he get himself out of the mess of feelings he has for the Grisha with all the powers?

Note: Hello!  I am alive!  I have found motivation for something else!  As much as I loved the Shadow and Bone show I have found more love in the Six of Crows books so this fic is an AU based on both.  In this the Darkling won out over Alina and then Six of Crows happened like it does, except the Darkling showed up to ruin things as he does. Also going to address the Inej sized elephant in the room, in this Kaz’s feelings were less strong towards her because I ship the fuck out of Kaz and Inej but I also ship the shit out of Kaz and myself too and I needed some self-insert.  I hope you like it, I missed writing and I’m glad to find some inspiration again.  

Kaz Brekker was known even in prison as the guy who didn't need a reason. He wanted his infamy to spread even behind bars, the better to keep those looking for a pigeon to harass away. On his first day in this hellscape he had stolen a fork from the dining hall and used it when his cellmate attempted to take the makeshift cane that he had been provided from his hand. Now he no longer had a cellmate and his old cellmate no longer had his eyes, and word spread quick of the young man willing to kill to be left alone. That had given him the time and space to start to plan his escape.

First, get Jesper as his cellmate. That was accomplished with ease. Anyone else they put in with him would be blind or deaf or crippled within 24 hours so it came down the guards asking him straight out who he wouldn't maim. He said Jesper Fahey and they allowed it if only to have a night's peace. Jesper didn't look like he was faring well. In a cell at Hellgate Jesper would have been alright but here in a West Ravkan prison near Os Alta where his Zemeni features made him stand out he had become a target. When he entered Kaz's cell rage filled the young crime lord. Jesper was thinner than ever, dark circles under his eyes and hands fidgeting constantly, almost like he needed a drug but Kaz knew it was just because he couldn't focus his energy.

"Jesper," Kaz whispered after the guard had left and his sharpshooter sat on the cot. "What do you need?" Jesper looked at him slowly and gave half a smile.

"Just my friend, s'all ok now," he said. Kaz felt the side of his mouth twitch up just a little. "But I could also use a way out of this damned place." Kaz nodded, gripping the wooden walking stick a little tighter. He wanted to put a comforting hand on Jesper's shoulder but he could not, Jordie's body, cold and wet and dead flooded his mind, and he couldn't bring himself to reach out. He hated that this place seemed to be tearing his friend apart slowly. It was even taking a toll on him. Everyday was the same, waked up with the sun, eat a breakfast of stodgy porridge and soggy bread, washed down with possibly the grimiest coffee ever made. The prisoners were then sent outside to work on either the large farm for the prison and surrounding towns or they were forced to be target practice for the Grisha guards. Normally only the worst of the worst were reserved for practice, or those that pissed off the guards. Kaz had avoided this so far but he knew Jesper had run his mouth one day, getting snarky with the yard guard and he had almost been drowned by a Tidemaker the next morning. Lunches were non-existant most days. They were shuffled from work to 'free time' which meant sitting in the hot afternoon sun either playing cards, or, if they were lucky, sitting under one of the shady trees that scattered the yard. Evening was the only decent time at this hellhole, it was dinner, and then back to the cells. Kaz enjoyed this time, he was normally alone to plan, and now that Jesper was here they could plan together. He had the beginning, how to get out of the cell, but the rest he was still working on.

"I have been planning this since we got in here, you were the first part of my plan," Kaz said, watching as another set of guards walked by. He checked the small window above their heads. "She's coming any minute now." Jesper looked at him confused for a moment before the cell door opened and a guard told Kaz to get up. Kaz nodded and stood, Jesper rising as well.

"This one should come too, he was at the Ice Court with me on that night," Kaz said to the guard. The guard looked between them and shrugged, motioning for another guard, a Grisha Corpolaki judging from the kefta he wore. They led Kaz and Jesper out of the cells and into one of the small interrogation rooms. Kaz was familiar with the room at this point, having been there several times in the past few months speaking with the Grisha Infernei who was seated at one of the two chairs in the room. She looked up as they entered and he noticed that she seemed relieved, something she hadn't shown before.

"Are there anymore of your comrades from the Ice Court in this prison?" she asked, motioning for another chair to be brought in. Jesper sat down hard while Kaz stood still, leaning on the walking stick and once again studying the Infernei. She wore a red kefta with black stitching, something different from the others and he was still not sure why. He supposed it was because she was high in the ranks. After the Darkling defeated Alina Starkov and her followers he had gone back to using his true name, Aleksander Morosova, and became king of Ravka. He used the power that he had sucked from the Sun Summoner to control the Fold now, moving and reshaping it to whatever he needed and on the night of Kaz's jurda parem heist he apparently needed the jurda parem also. Kaz and Jesper had been taken but the others had escaped.

"No, no more of us, just we two were involved," he said. The Grisha looked between them, assessing them. Kaz took another moment to look over her while she studied Jesper. He always liked to measure who he was up against, and he didn't mind studying her. She was curvy, seeming to like waffles more than Nina did, with hair a deep auburn and eyes the color of dark chocolate. The first time he saw them they reminded him of Inej's eyes except her's were more hopeful than he had ever seen Inej. This Grisha fully believed that something good could still happen in the world. Kaz was almost jealous of this, but of course, this Grisha had seen her side win the Ravka civil war. His eyes now met hers and he saw that while he was studying her she had been doing the same to him. He could tell she knew he was lying but he didn't care. He had spent the last 4 months keeping his answers vague, giving just enough information so that she would feed him information back about the current situation at the Little Palace, now the true royal home since the Grand Palace lay in ruin. King Aleksander left it as a reminder to those who would attempt to assassinate him, bodies still left scattered around the rubble, Alina Starkov's kefta in tatters on the front steps. Kaz hadn't seen it but from the way this Grisha described it, he believed it was terrifying.

"Mr. Brekker, we both know the heist you were attempting could never be accomplished with just two people," she said, a knowing smile on her face. This seeming infatuation the Grisha had with him was a plus for Kaz. He often wondered if he could possibly seduce his way out of the situation but his mind couldn't fathom the interactions involved, so he would wait. Perhaps this woman had a inclination towards criminals, she might be seduced by anyone, Jesper could do it easily, Kaz just had to get the ball rolling so to speak.

"I don't know, I think Jesper and I can accomplish anything we put out mind to," he answered, bringing himself to nudge his partner in crime with his elbow. The Grisha nodded and opened her notebook as she did at every meeting and began to write.

Y/N had noticed the look on Kaz Brekker's face when he elbowed Jesper Fahey. She could see his hesitation, she noticed the look in his storm gray eyes. He was bracing himself for impact as if the touch would somehow hurt him. Jesper's face was surprised at the touch, and he physically turned towards Kaz with shock. She opened her notebook and pretended to jot down something important as she did every day, but she mentally notated this interaction. She had been listening to others in the prison and despite his limp Kaz never let anyone see him as weak, however, this aversion to touch was never mentioned. He hid it well out in the general population but she could see something about touch bothered him immensely, that information could be useful later. Kaz Brekker was a tough nut to crack she had to admit, but eventually she would get to where she needed to be with him, hopefully sooner rather than later. Aleksander was having a tough time buying her excuses and she had to become even more convincing for him, continuing to keep his trust after the betrayal of the Sun Summoner was an arduous task. She hoped soon she could drop her facade and begin her true purpose, breaking Kaz Brekker and his cohorts out of this prison and find the gathering resistance in the Permafrost.

"Alright Mr. Brekker, we left off yesterday with you explaining to me how you came to know about jurda parem and what the Fjerdans were doing with Bo Yul-Bayor and his son Kuwei?" she said. It had taken months for Kaz to even start explaining anything to her. She had hoped that agreeing to allow his friend to be his cellmate would open him up. Luckily the gamble had worked at their last interrogation. His answers had still been too vague to really make an impact but it was a start. She hated to make him desperate but she needed the information, something to feed to Aleksander and send him on a chase for more jurda parem. Kuwei Yol-Bo had escaped from the Ice Court and that knowledge was keeping Bo from cooperating with the Second Army. He had recreated exactly one vial of jurda parem and refused to create another until his son was returned safely to him. Kaz Brekker and Jesper Fahey had been the last people to see Kuwei alive and she needed something to tell Aleksander before he decided to come here and do the interrogations himself.

"Yes, I believe I told you that a rumor had gone around Ketterdam and that I just happened to hear it," he said, making sure he was as convincing as he could be. Once again Y/N pretended to write something down, pretending to believe his lie. He was a very good liar, she could see that in the way his eyes held truth, his body language said honest, even his pulse was calm, however, the blood in his veins moved just a milisecond faster during his falsehoods. It had taken nearly a month to figure out the tell in his body but she had done it and now she used this against him.

"Must have been quite a rumor to make you put your friends in the line of fire of Fjerdans and of King Aleksander," she said, keeping her voice light, leaning a little closer to him. She couldn't lie, she was enraptured by the young man from the Barrel of Ketterdam, but she wasn't foolish enough to believe that he would ever see her as anything other than another Ravkan Grisha blindly serving her king, but she could pretend that she hoped to lure him in, get him feeling confident about her.

"Jesper will tell you, he was eager to join me to find this new drug, imagine the kruge we could make from such a thing," Kaz said, standing suddenly and poking Jesper towards Y/N with his cane. He moved towards the wall, leaning against it. Y/N watched him for a few moments before turning her attention to Jesper. He wanted to push someone else at her? Why? She could tell he liked the attention she gave him, maybe not in a way most men did, but he liked it all the same. Jesper barked a laugh.

"Eager? You came back and acted like we were going to be rolling in kruge, become kings of Kerch," Jesper said. He was also a practiced liar, following the lead of his boss as it were. Y/N smiled at Jesper then, making sure her brown eyes looked intrigued and enraptured. She noticed the Zemeni man leaned back in his chair then, clearly not interested in the attentions of a Grisha like herself. "But ya, I mean, I wanted the kruge and I was having a good run that night at the tables, felt lady luck was on my side." She saw him fidgeting near his waist, where his guns should be. She had those stored in her private quarters, along with a certain crow headed cane, waiting for the right moment. She had been watching Kaz and Jesper since they arrived, having her spies give her information on them. They were the only link she had to Kuwei and Inej Ghafa and she needed to know all she could before she continued her plan.

She tried to pry more out of the two for several minutes before one of her people, a young Squallor entered.

"The hour is late Korovsa, the king is finished waiting," she whispered. Y/N’s jaw tightened. Her eyes flashed to Kaz and she saw him take notice of the slight change in her features. Her fears were starting to come to pass. She needed to end this charade now.

"Guard, please escort Mr. Fahey back to his new cell. Mr. Brekker and I have more to discuss," she ordered. The guard grabbed Jesper's arm, hauling him from the seat. Y/N wanted to say something, tell them to lay off the guy, but knew she couldn't appear as if she cared. Once he was gone she made a motion for Kaz to sit. He still stood. "Sit, now," she insisted, hoping he heard the urgency in her voice. He eyed for another moment before he moved to sit. She leaned closer, all of her coy attitude gone.

"What's happened?" Kaz asked casually, working the top of the walking stick with his hands, the only sign of his concern. Y/N let out a breath.

"My time is up, tomorrow night expect there to be a riot, stay in your cell with Jesper, don't leave until you hear 2 bells, then leave the cell and go to your left, the door will be ajar due to the last guard through it mistakenly knocking over mop. Once you are in the corridor go right and follow it to the deserted morgue. I will join you and lead you and Jesper out, do not leave without me," she said.

"Why should I believe any of this? That you're just going to help up walk out of there?" Kaz asked, trying to read her, seeing if she was lying. She groaned annoyed. Why was it that her only hope was as distrustful as her current king?

"Because I want to see the king's body burn before he destroys all of us," she whispered, voice dripping with venom. Kaz looked a little surprised at her viciousness and he nodded. She sat back, knowing that by now the guard had returned.

"Well Mr. Brekker, you've once again been no help, tomorrow the king will be coming to personally interrogate you, I hope you are looking forward to it," she said. "Guard take him back to his cell." The guard nodded and yanked him out of the chair. "Careful, the king won't like it if he can't inflict the pain himself," she warned, more to Kaz than the guard. She hoped Kaz believed her enough, that she had shown her hand to him enough that he would do as she asked. If he didn't they were all screwed.

[featherfur]

Meng Yao should have been around when Jiang Cheng was running around with his head cut off trying to make disciples out of rogues and convince everyone to get started on the war. I just think he’d see this, probably manic, idiot who needs help and is 100% willing to be bossed around and who really doesn’t care about Meng Yao station in life because he’s just fucking desperate and wants to die but can’t because Yanli and just go “actually I’m interested”. Because Jiang Cheng would riot if he knew Meng Yao wanted to go back to his dad, and well Jiang Cheng is very pathetic when he thinks he’s being left behind (“You’re leaving me for the Jin just like Shijie? Tears and loud words for you! Tears and loud words dor a thousand years!”)

And Meng Yao would have a spot in Lotus Pier where he is VERY clearly wanted, he probably doesn’t become sworn brothers with anyone (or LXC and NMJ realize that no one needs to give the Jin any more influence and become sworn brothers with Jiang Cheng) unless it’s Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (unfortunately WWX will still probably be killed or hunted at the very least but atleast Qin Su is alive? Maybe having MY around will help calm JC into the fact that LWJ wants to bang his brother and help him so JC can convince WWX to let LWJ atleast play for him, then maybe WWX can accidentally let slip about him already destroying one half and LWJ can help destroy the other half… Dunno if the Wen Remnants survive either sorry, honestly I don’t know if anyone can stop JGS in the long run)

So there’s two ways this goes: (under read more I have Thoughts)

Meng Yao DOES go to the Jin Sect still because JC gets wanting your Dad’s Approval even when he’s a dick AND he protects Yanli who immediately adopted him when JC showed up to the war with him. Without being stuck between a Rock and a Hard place (sorry NMJ not everyone is a annoyingly stubborn with their morals as you and MY is being hurt :( leave him alone :(( ) MY is able to continue being pressured without breaking and even though JGS keeps trying to get him to manipulate JC, MY won’t and won’t manipulate NMJ either and every time he goes to Lotus Pier to ‘look into’ the Jiang Sect he actually just spends the week being plied with children and listening to Jiang Cheng explain the fashion industry Again and talk about silks vs cashmeres vs wool so he just gets a vacay and is more prepared to stand up against his dad.

Also JC and Yanli catch on pretty quick to Madam Jin abusing MY because they were there after Madam Yu would hurt WWX and they know the signs of trying to hide the pain and Yanli suddenly starts Show Up whenever Madam Jin tries anything because that is her Didi now and she will protect him and if anyone ELSE tries to mess with him she will rip them apart like when Jin Zixun tries to bother WWX.

JGS does eventually manage to frame something on WWX but MY intervenes immediately by telling JC the truth and without the ‘did my kinda insane PTSD ridden brother so this?” Panic thoughts JC gets his people and is waiting for the force of Jin and smaller sects, with his two sworn brothers on either side. Because yeah NMJ absolutely hates the Wen but can he really ignore LXC and JC? Plus NHS on the side? He’s only there to protect WWX, anyone else can get fucked and even then he’s only protecting WWX because JC asked him too because NMJ thinks WWX sucks for choosing the wens because he’s very much of the one track ‘the wens suck’ mind. MY pretends he has no idea what’s going on but he does summon Jin Zixuan on ‘accident’ who shows up, annoyed he had to leave his kid, and is like “are we really going to accuse Nie Mingjue, known Wen hater, of protecting Wei Wuxian and lying about his innocence? Because his sword is the same size as my body and I’d rather Not”

(okay he’s more polite and subtle but that’s the gist) somehow Jin Guangshan dies, I’m voting Yanli poisoned him because I think Meng Yao is 100% willing at this point to simply take the abuse because Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen aren’t essentially telling him to murder his father and that he’s stupid for not holding harder to his morals (sorry NMJ,,, you just,, I love you but MY is hurting and he’s not as stabby as you) NMJ is still very much crankily telling him his dad sucks whenever they meet but Jiang Cheng gets all sparkly whenever MY is around because MY will say he’s Doing Good, so there’s only so much room before JC start just biting anyone who even looks at MY wrong. (NMJ says he’s proud of JC once and JC just starts crying and NMJ UnderstandsTM why MY won’t leave him alone)

But Yanli has to be the one to kill him because MY wouldn’t because he’s a filial son and probably hasn’t lost his hope he will be Loved, Jin Zixuan wouldn’t because he’s like the only one in the entire show not down with murder, Madam Jin is not about to give up the power and money that comes from being the wife of Jin Guangshan even if JZX would take care of her because Yanli clearly is willing to rip everyone apart who fucks with her family and unlike Jiang Cheng is willing to change the status quo, and if JGS dies on a hunt they’ll blame WWX so Yanli just poisons him slowly and he dies from ‘illness’. JZX takes power, Meng Yao is told he’s amazing twelve times a day because JZX can do busy work and argue against anyone but he cannot have a small talk conversation to save his life. Life continues peacefully, Jiang Cheng keeps kidnapping JZX’s advisor because he misses him. Meng Yao knows how to control literally every single great sect but he’s busy chasing down his nephews and helping Jiang Cheng avoid marriage offers to do anything.

Once Jin Guangshan died, LXC and MY both swooped in to have the Wen Remnants moved somewhere else to ‘civilize’ them (using LXC’s own words here) and WWX is very much caught between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji arguing over who he’s going home with and he’s honestly never felt more Loved TM. WWX spends six months to break the rest of the tiger rally under the grumpy/watchful eye of NMJ who still isn’t happy anyone from the Wen’s is still alive but he’s weak to puppy eyes and also when he’s being strong armed by his sworn brothers, MY, and NHS (though he still keeps an eye on the actual cultivators, he’s pretty much forgotten the rest of the Wen Remnants exist he just cares about the ones who know how to use a sword). Wangxian happens, idk how I’m voting for a wild Jingyi another orphan decides that he wants to meet the Purple Angry Man and body slams into WWX’s legs trying to get to the Purple man and LWJ catches him and it’s a full on romantic moment of staring into each other’s eyes while Jiang Cheng makes disgusted noises and Meng Yao pats his hand and just tells him to accept it.

Or Meng Yao stays in Lotus Pier because Jiang Cheng has problems and Meng Yao loves a messy loudmouth aggressive bitch with a secret heart of gold. Also Jiang Cheng is the exact kind of Demi-aroace dummy to not realize Meng Yao has a crush on LXC and keeps sending him over to Cloud Recesses to help with trade or something and MY gets to hang out with his crush constantly.

MY is Jiang Cheng’s personal advisor since WWX is currently refusing to process his trauma and staying in a very traumatic place. MY does try to help but WWX doesn’t trust him and probably only half trusts him around JC, BUT MY is very good with kids and helps work with JC on how to slip WWX supplies while negotiating directly with Nie and Lan without Jin glaring over him this time, and Jin Zixuan is more than happy to help when he can because again he’s just like the only one with modern morals and wants Lotus Pier to be strong since if all the sects fall then well the fucking demons/ghosts they hunt will eat them. So WWX is slowly atleast not ready to kill him, Meng Yao finds out WWX already destroyed half the Tiger Tally and tries to get him to let NMJ and LXC help him destroy it further (because that ties the three sects closer and so WWX won’t just stab someone if someone isn’t happy about the Wen’s existing)

Yanli poisons Jin Guangshan again because I think that’s the best way for him to go, Meng Yao does grieve but also that lasts for three minutes before Jiang Cheng shows up with some children he found in Yunmeng and Meng Yao needs to explain to him again that just because the kid latches on doesn’t mean you can take them home. But with JGS out of the way it’s a lot easier to strong arm NMJ into letting the Lan take the remnants (JC and NMJ still aren’t happy about it but NMJ can’t fight the three other sects and JC is getting his brother back and he’ll take the Wen living if that means WWX is too) and WWX returns to Lotus Pier. The truth of the golden core comes out probably via WWX having a flashback or panic attack or something (or that one theory of Yanli knowing,,,) words happen, WWX storms off to find LWJ.

Meng Yao wonders why he likes messy cry babies but still helps out Jiang Cheng because they’re technically brother in laws and also because he really does care about him. Wangxian happens and now Jiang Cheng is really pissed but WWX also said he wasn’t going to just up and leave so they’re on a rotating system but honestly everyone’s just waiting for them to move permanently to Lotus Pier because Lan Wangji has this giant hole in his heart for kids who love Wei Wuxian and Lotus Pier is filled with kids who are Jiang and therefore are insane ans love WWX.

Personally I think this one is the least likely but it sounds very nice right?