#sorry i went too off-track. hopefully i got at least close to the answer you wanted?

[countlessofvoids]

what's interesting about hiccup's character that you never see people talk about? as someone who likes him, i also get annoyed by how the fandom sees him and i prefer him in the first movie over everything else.

A lot of things honestly. I have a hard time naming them individualy lmao.

I feel like people tend to take parts of Hiccup's character they like, then mold him into something imitating Hiccup. I see a lot of interpretations where his sarcasm takes up 90% of his personality and/or his entire motivation is saving dragons and killing people as some kind of vigilante. Another thing popular in this fandom that annoys me is taking other characters' traits and giving those to Hiccup.

But what I believe mainly gets ignored, or rather purposefully removed, is him being a 'peacekeeper'. Now, I can't exactly blame anyone for doing this, because continuations after the second movie either ;

1) Completly forget it was a thing.

Or 2) The Narrative actively shames him for it, or turns it into something else. This goes for THW — where it's treated as a flaw of Hiccup's character, then reduced to him "being afraid of change" (And circles back to the whole "Humans bad, Dragons good" message of THW, I could go on about this topic for hours).

The source material itself is not interested in exploring it.

This also happens partialy because fans think peacekeeper means someone who has no understanding of how conflicts work and expects everyone to drop their weapons to go frolic in the fields together. Hiccup gets criticized for trying to find another way, when he has a reason to believe he can change people. I mean, he changed the entirety of Berk. Yes, pursuing Drago Bludvist so you can convince him to join your side when everyone who has more experience with the warlord tells you not to, is not the best decision. But Hiccup is young, he's bound to make mistakes. Besides, events wouldn't alter too much if he did otherwise.

Which is a bit disappointing. I think it could fit with the theme of him being different from everyone else; Looking for a peaceful solution when others want to destroy each other. Another reason why I find this concept intriguing is because I see Hiccup as someone who struggles a bit when it comes to sympathizing with humans, especially hunters. Not as in he intentionaly hates them — he just spent his life befriending animals & dragons instead of people, so now he's spiteful especially towards humans who hurt them. I like to think he still holds even a tiny bit of spite towards Berkians and his enemies-turned-allies (not with Stoick & Valka though, it's complicated with them).

As for why I personaly don't like him in most iterations after the first movie: He's just kinda boring. He goes from a sarcastic loner who ultimately wants to be accepted by others, to 'young movie male protagonist n.1235'. Huge part of that comes from what was done with his design. Second movie!Hiccup has started to grow on me lately. I couldn't care less about RTTE!Hiccup. THW!Hiccup was on the right path, but they chose the worst and most contradictory way of doing it. It could also be the fact he loses relatability for me.

[ashsimpsalot]

thank you for doing god's work and blessing us with wonderful monkey man fics 🫡

if youre taking requests, id like to make one with a blackwidow!reader, she's undercover at the hotel as well and was confused when someone made an attempt at rana singh then tracks kid down and even helps him train. they go through the fight together and after that they start a new life in the end 🫶

sorry if its too specific, feel free to make any changes however you like and tysm in advance if you decide to do this 🩷✨️

The lack of kid x reader content is killing me. I'm glad you liked my fics though, thank you for reading! THIS IS MY FIRST REQUEST EVER ERM

I've never written action before, hopefully I do this fic justice. Im sorry if it just seem like I'm yapping😭

Hands Up (Kid X Blackwidow!Reader)

Holy Fuck!

You've been undercover in India for almost 2 months and you didn't even know autos could drift like that!

You're hot on their trail, abusing the throttle to its limit.

Whoever this guy is, he's either extremely ballsy, or extremely stupid to go after Rana Singh like that.

The helmet didn't help with the shooting sounds at all, you couldn't take it anymore, drifting away and avoiding to be near but near enough that you could see where the guy was going. Your already ringing ears would go deaf if you trailed them any closer.

Shit he went into an alleyway.

Your eyes trailed around the road.

Bingo

Another alley that links to his spot.

Maybe it took you 5 minutes extra but once you got there, the auto was already flipped onto its side, empty. The policemen were chasing someone who's running on foot.

Running on the fucking roof!

Limping.

You twisted the throttle of the motorbike to chase after him but he ended up falling onto the road after an officer shot his leg

You hit the brakes. Tires screeching loud at how sudden the brake was. Stopping the bike right in front of him.

"get the fuck on! Hurry!"

He looked confused but decided to question it later and hopped on.

You zoomed away from the place, going into an alley an coming out the other, making sure no one sees where you guys were headed.

His grip on your waist loosens.

Oh no he's losing blood.

"man don't pass out on me yet!" you yelled, making sure he heard but his answer was mumbling and gibberish. Before he could limp off of the bike, you reached back and placed one hand on his back.

You sighed and accepted your fate, your arms going to hurt from the weird position but at least he won't fall off.

You zoomed right to the temple, dragging this tall building of a man in with you all by yourself.

You called on Alpha, she almost chuckle at how you struggle to bring the man in.

"I told you, child, if you need help, ask for it," she said like a mother nagging her child while helping you steady the man.

"I am asking for help, help this guy," you reply mumbling like a teenager after being scolded, she let's out a huff and guided the man onto the makeshift bed.

"wait outside, take care of your own wounds, hm? There's food in the kitchen, eat up," she said softly then closes the curtain.

A pang in your heart, she's like a mother to all these people here and to you too. You didn't expect to step foot on the motherland and gain an actual mother figure.

When you hear the man screaming in agony you knew exactly what she was doing as you yourself was on that makeshift bed a month ago.

You chuckled and went to the kitchen.

After indulging in a plate of naan and a cup of coffee, you sighed and lean against the chair, closing your eyes, floating in a food coma. finally taking the well needed rest you've been procrastinating.

That is until a soft pinch on your shoulder startle you.

"I told you to tend to your wounds first, child," Alpha scolded, dragging a chair in front of you with the small medical box in her hands.

25 years of training, nothing could get past you.... except for Alpha. For some reason she has a way to sneak up on you.

You gave a silly smile, letting her tend to your light wounds. "I was hungry," she hummed dismissively.

"the man is alright, he'll need a few hours before he regain consciousness. Who is he?" she asked, eyes still pinned onto the cut on your arm.

"he tried to go after Rana Singh, all by himself, in Queenie's hotel with a small gun. I think he could've succeeded but not sure what made him miss the shot," you said simply.

"why did you help him?"

"he's stupid but I saw how he fought, he's got potential,"

Alpha hums and packs the medical box. "and maybe because he has a pretty face," you joked while grinning at her. She chuckled and shook her head and stood up.

"your bed roll is still unused," she said, some guilt creeps up on you. You left, after staying with them for a month, to go after Queenie.

"thank you,"

You went to take a little nap.

When you open your eyes again, you heard chaotic voices of confusion. The guy had woken up.

"hey, clam down,"

"you? You're... The chef?" he's more confused than ever. You nodded. "look, you're still recovering, take it easy and sit down. I'll explain everything."

He seemed reluctant but sat down on the nearest branch anyway.

"who..are you?" he asked, eyes pinning on his fidgetung hands.

You started with your name and he nodded. Taking a few seconds, wondering where to start.

"I'm a blackwidow, well, was a Blackwidow, after the fall of the red room most widows just work with each other trying to free others who were injected with mind controlling serum."

Blackwidow? His mind flashed to pictures of the only famous widow, Natasha Romanoff, the fucking avenger? He looked confused but try to take in what you said.

"but I didn't do that. I came for revenge."

"revenge? On whom?" he looked up at you, you knew that look in his eyes, you see them in your own everyday, the thirst for revenge, sunk in a sea of violence.

"They ship kids, the red room, they take us in very very young." you started with a heavy voice, you've told this story multiple times but fuck, knowing you're so near to where it happened is just too much.

"and where do you get kids, untraced, unwanted, unregistered kids?" your eyes lifted to look at him, as if quizzing him. He shook his head as a sign that he never thought about that.

"human trafficking rings, prostitution rings and Queenie just happen to have the biggest rings in whole of fucking Asia,"

He furrowed his eyebrows. He's known a fair share of prostitute, most of them keep their kids, at least his mother kept him, but his mother did left to live somewhere else.

"Queenie has a reportation to uphold, she can't have legal cases against her, she can't have her girls die from multiple abortion, the kids will just be threads someone could pull and find out the truth so she cuts em. Take all the kids and ship them for the red room. She got a ton of money for that too,"

He looked horrified, he didn't even know that was a thing people fucking do.

"I want to put a stop to this, maybe there red room is gone but she's still doing something with those kids,"

He looked up at you and nodded, he understood.

"what about you? Going after Rana Singh by yourself like that, in his own slice of heaven,"

He sighed then stared off into the distance, he's eyeing the kids who were giggling and chasing each other in the middle of the temple.

A sense of innocence both of you lost a long time ago.

"he killed my mother," you sucked in a quick breath. Mother, you're both avenging your mothers then. Though he's avenging a woman he knew and you don't event know the name of yours.

"then we better get ready. I saw you, when you were fighting. You fight a lot?"

"at the ring. For money" you nodded, you know of the tiger temple, an excuse to gamble, honestly.

"I realise you let your left hand go idle for too long, we'll work on that," you simply said and stood up.

"though for now, you should rest, I'm going for a shower, Alpha will bag my ears off if she realise I took a nap before showering."

You offered him a smile, half joking.

The next few weeks are dedicated to teaching him, reminding him not to neglect his left hand. Another habit you see is that he sucks in and hold his breath in while throwing a punch, leaving his breathing a little erratic after a long fight.

"there you go, Kid!" you yelled with a smile after he basically torn the makeshift punching bag.

He walked towards you. "was that good?"

You nodded though a silly smile creeped on your lips. "yeah, had the whole temple screaming, I bet it was because your lack of clothing," you teased. Kid smiled, a genuine smile, and thanked you.

One night he went missing, two nights before diwali, a bag of money was hung on one of the branches with a note with his writing on it.

You went to find him and when you did he looked apologetic.

"I told you, we're doing this together," you said, hitting him with a slap on his stupid face. He turned back to look at you. "I'm sorry I... I had to fight in that ring alone."

His voice soft but fuck, his lips looks softer, maybe he saw that desire in your eyes because he had them in his own. He pulled your arms softly, leaning down to kiss you on your lips.

"we stick together, that's the plan," you breathed softly after he pulled away. Kid, being himself, didn't say anything and nodded.

He didn't think he could've kept that promise but he did.

The night of diwali, you dragged him out of the burning hotel, he had passed out after killing Baba Shakti.

He woke up to the same scene he did almost 2 months ago but this time with familiar faces and a heavier feel in his chest, relief. Relief that he's alive, that's new for him.

"you're awake," you said. He looked dreamy, that's also new.

"why are you looking at me like that?" you asked, worried if he had lost too much blood or hit his head too hard somewhere. Your hands carefully trace his face, head even body to inspect if Alpha had missed a wound somewhere.

He shook his head, toon your wandering hands in his and smiled.

Fuck, he's finally home.

With the woman he loves, a sanctuary that might need fixing but filled with pure love, a worried woman that plays a role his mother played years ago.

He had a reason to live.

"I love you," Kid whispered, he trued to think of the last time he's said that but no memory came up.

Your eyes soften and that day he fell deeper.

"I love you too"

A few years later he'd tell the kids that laid on his chest, with his hair and your eyes, a smile on his face, proudly tracing the memory of how the wild monkey finally find his peace with a spider.

The little girl laughed. "amma'a a spider!" she would repeat that again and again as if that's the funniest thing her appa ever said, her brother chasing after her, suddenly it's a game of tag.

"don't run!" Alpha would scold after the two almost bumping into her, scared that she'll accidentally spill the drink she's taken for herself.

Kid laughed.

His life is perfect.

It's perfect.

[alidravana]

Finally shifting back into some Call of Duty snippets! Was hoping to do a few of these as small gifts, this one is for @bokuakamazing's rare pair of Kate/Roze for Day 3: White Christmas. Enjoy!

~

Kate sighed loudly as the phone at her desk went off, again.  It had rang at least three times over the last hour, and she had no time to waste with idle chit-chat with whomever was on the other end, she had to get these last reports in.

Squinting at the text on her laptop, having dimmed the screen due to the start of a headache, she re-read her last paragraph, making sure she hadn’t let anything confidential slip.  While having done what felt like a million and one of these reports, Kate always triple-checked to make sure everything that needed to be redacted, was.  

The next sound that broke Kate’s concentration was the familiar buzz buzz of her cell phone, vibrating up against her thigh where she had it stashed.  This wasn’t her work phone though, this was her personal phone, and so, suppressing the groan she wanted to let out at another interruption, she swiftly pulled it from her pocket and clicked the answer button.  

“Laswell.”

“Hun, are you still working?”

Kate couldn’t help but smile as her partner’s voice came across the phone, even as she side-eyed the last report out of the corner of her eye.  “Yeah, I still have this last report to submit.  Doesn’t help that the newbies got stuck at the border, had to rearrange exfil, and you know how that -”

“-Kate, Kate, slow down for a moment,” Roze replied with a chuckle, shaking her head at her partner’s one-track mind.  “I take it you forgot what day it was?”

Frowning, Kate looked at the corner of her screen, of course she knew what day it was, it was December…shit.  It was Christmas.  And it was late on Christmas.  This time Kate did groan out loud.  “Oh crap, my mother-”

“-is doing just fine.  Had a lovely visit with her, dropped off your gifts, and managed to escape before your sister showed up.”

Kate closed her eyes, mentally thanking whomever was listening for the wonderful partner that Roze was, and that she managed to escape the mess that was her sister Kimberly.  “I’m so sorry I lost track of time, Roze.  Merry Christmas, love.”

“Merry Christmas to you too, hun.  So glad you could celebrate with a white Christmas this year.”

Huh? Kate thought to herself as she looked out the window.  What was Roze talking about?  It was a dreary, wet, England evening, fairly typical for this time of year.  Not a snowflake in sight, let alone enough snow to be considered a ‘white Christmas’.  “I’m afraid there’s no snow here, hopefully there’s some back home.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean snow,” Roze answered, but instead of her voice coming through the phone, she was standing at the door to Kate’s temporary office, wearing an almost glittery, white snowflake sweater.  

Kate didn’t realize she was moving until she almost collided into her partner, her arms wrapping around Roze at the last second, her head tucking into Roze’s chest.  “How did you…” Kate mumbled into the soft fabric, not even bothering to finish the sentence.

“Called in a few favours,” Roze said with a grin, tilting Kate’s chin up for a brief kiss.  “Helps when your girlfriend practically runs the CIA.”

Kate couldn’t help but snort at that comment.  If she ran the CIA, she wouldn’t be insisting on all these stupid AARs to be turned in within 24 hours of the mission.  But that thought was for another day.  Right now, she had to enjoy her white Christmas.

[exchangestudentmicha]

Asmodeus’ Heat Season AFAB Version

Hi I’m sorry for being dead as shit I’ve had class and writer’s block to absolute hell not to mention I’m forgetful as shit and forgot to write a lot hnnnn

Thanks for 800 followers! And to the person who requested and all those who will read this, enjoy!

Asmo x AFAB MC

Here’s the AMAB version!

Warnings: NSFW, teratophilia, heats

How many days has it been since that sickly sweet smell invaded your mind? Four? No, it must've been five days by now. Five days since Asmo went into heat and started to drive you crazy. Five days that you’ve been hearing him moan out your name from the attic after his brothers locked him up there.

“I gotta do something to get this off my mind,” you muttered as you got off of your bed and headed over to the kitchen to hopefully find something in the fridge that was more interesting than the demon calling out for you in the attic. And it seemed like another demon shared your idea when you walked in to see Lucifer grumpily making himself a cup of coffee. “Is he like this every year?” you asked as you opened the fridge. 

“Unfortunately, yes since he refuses to take his suppressants. Although usually he has a succubus to help him through his heat,” Lucifer said before you let out a sigh at the thought of Asmo’s heat being tougher than usual since he doesn’t have any help this year. It was quickly replaced with jealousy at the thought of anyone but you helping him through his heat. You knew that Asmo flirted with anyone and everyone, even if there was no sexual or romantic intentions behind it, and honestly you didn’t really mind it. But ever since you two started dating, the thought of him fucking someone else just made you boil with jealousy, even if you knew that it was stupid to be jealous of his past lovers. 

“If you’re going to stew in your jealous thoughts, at least close the fridge first,” Lucifer said, knocking you out of your thoughts before he went to walk back to his office. “Wait,” you said, stopping him in his tracks, “why can’t I go up there and help him if he’s having a rough time?” 

“One, he got himself into this situation himself by not taking his suppressants. Two, demons are naturally rough and tireless during their heats and would be more than too much for a human to handle,” he said. “I know it’s rough hearing him up there, but there’s nothing we can do but wait it out. You’re welcome to go over to Purgatory Hall if you wish to be away from the noise, but please tell me first if you are going to go.” 

You let out another soft sigh as Lucifer walked off, frustrated with the lack of options you had before a thought came to your mind. Wait, why would it be too much for me? I’m not a normal human after all. Hell, I’m descended from an Angel, have the pacts of all 7 avatars of sin, a powerful sorcerer that was trained by Solomon himself! And I’ve survived death! I’d be fine dealing with some stupid heat! You thought, a smirk coming to your face, Yeah. Besides, it’s not like this would be my first time defying Lucifer. Don’t worry Asmo, your partner is coming to your rescue! You thought before marching out of the kitchen and over to Lucifer’s room.

Now if I was an attic key, where would I be? You thought as you snooped through Lucifer’s room, finding several items confiscated from all of the brothers, but mostly from Mammon. You searched for a while, for what must have been at least twenty minutes before feeling something taped to the top of the bottom drawer in his desk. The attic key. You immediately ripped it out and dashed off to the attic, almost certain that Lucifer had some sort of alarm spell or something on it.

“Asmo?” you asked as you quietly knocked on the attic door, getting no answer in response. You let out a nervous sigh as you unlocked the door and opened it to be greeted by Asmo in his demon form, one of his higher forms to be exact. It was a shame he didn’t show off this form more, his reddish pink chitin was beautiful, and ran down most of his back, out to his long scorpion tail, and some even extended out to his hands and feet to form claws. Although, that wasn’t exactly what you were looking at right now. No, you were looking at the show he was giving at the moment, with one of his hands vigorously rubbing at his cock, and the other thrusting a dildo into his…

“Wait, since when did you have a vagina?” you said out loud, causing Asmo to freeze instantly and look over at you. 

“Ah! MC! You actually came!” he squealed in delight as he rolled over to face you, halfway rutting into the sheets as he did so. “Oh, this?” he purred out as he slowly pumped the dildo into him, “I can change my genitals into whatever I want them to be. Perks of being the avatar of lust,” he explained with a wink as he moved onto his back again, but still facing you so that you could have a better view of him. “So, are you going to just stand there and gawk at me or are you going to come join?” he asked as he resumed jacking off his cock. “Although, I do rather like you just watching me like that,” he moaned out as he thrusted his hips into the air.

You let out a huff before walking over and pinning his hands above his head, crawling onto the bed as you did, “Don’t worry, I didn’t come all the way up here just to watch.” You lightly ground on his dick. 

“Mmm… that’s nice to hear… But wait, I need to give you something before we start,” he said before you got off of him so that he could grab something from his bag in the room. A small bottle filled with a sparkling pink liquid was tossed in your hands. 

“What’s this?” you asked as you took the lid off of it, only to be bombarded by an overwhelmingly sweet smell that made your face burn just from smelling it. 

“It’s an aphrodisiac made from my venom. With the neurotoxin removed of course,” he said as he got back on the bed. “It’s the most powerful aphrodisiac in the entire Devildom, and it should help you keep up with my desires throughout my heat,” he explained. “Look, this is your last chance to go downstairs if you wish. A demon’s heat is a lot to take, even for us, so I understand if you don’t want to go through it-- hey!” he yelped as you chugged it with no hesitation.

Immediately your entire body burned and shuddered with desire as you let out a shaky breath, “L-Like I said… I didn’t come up here just to watch.” You walked over and crawled over onto the bed once again, straddling him as you did so. 

“Wait! Wait a minute! I’m not done helping you prepare yet!” Asmo giggled, “Trust me, I want you just as bad as you want me, but we don’t want you getting too hurt, now do we?” He said before muttering out a couple spells, 

“And what was that?” you asked, just hoping that he was done with the preparations. 

“Just a little protection spell so that I don’t break you, and a soundproofing spell so that we can be as loud as we want,” he said, before pulling you down into a heated kiss. 

You ground yourself onto his cock, trying to get any friction you could to relieve the heat that was pooling in your core. Asmo was desperately clawing at your shorts, tearing holes into them as he tried to get them off before finally just deciding to shred them along with your underwear so that he could access you, “Please… I need to be inside of you…” he whined before you sat up. 

You let out a sigh before lining your pussy up with his cock, “Are you ready?” you asked before he let out a chuckle.

“I’ve been ready for this the whole time,” he breathed out before you lowered yourself onto him, letting out a gasp as you did so. His cock was covered in ridges due to the chitin all over his body with his head just rubbing up against your g spot. 

“O-Oh… fuck…” you breathed out as you rocked your hips against his. You felt his hands grip onto your hips as he helped you ride him. 

“Ahh please… MC, go faster…” he begged as you rode him before you felt the dildo in him brush up against you. An evil grin spread across your face before you reached down and grabbed the dildo before roughly thrusting it into him, making him squeal in delight, “P-Please! Please do that again! Yes! Ahh! More!! Please keep going!” He screamed out as you continued to ride him while thrusting the dildo in and out of his pussy. His whines got louder and louder as you kept going before finally climaxing in you with a shriek and his claws scratching against your ass and thighs.

You didn’t even get a chance to try and reach your own climax before he suddenly slammed you onto your chest beneath him, “Ohhh you’ve done it now MC…” he purred into your ear as he ground into you, “I’m going to fuck you into this bed until you’re crying…” he said as he ran his hand up your shirt so that he could play with your breasts and pinch one of your nipples, making you whine, “How does that sound darling?” He nipped at your ear as your felt his tail creep around you waist and down to your pussy until the stinger just brushed against your clit, making you squeal and try to buck your hips before his tail stopped you from doing so. 

“Ah, Ah, Ah~” he tutted, “You don’t want to get stung now, do you?” He asked before lifting up your hips slightly with his tail so that he could enter you from behind. He let out a sigh as he bottomed out before starting to thrust at a pretty fast rate, already making your climax approach quickly with his stinger just barely grazing against your clit as his hands played with your tits.

You two went at it for hours, with you both climaxing several times in the process. Asmo was sitting up, holding you up against his chest with his tail around your waist and traveling up your chest and up to your wrists to hold them together as you writhed and whimpered from overstimulation as he continued to thrust into you. 

“P-Please! No more! It’s too much!” You cried out as he rubbed your clit. 

“Aww, come on, you still have one more in you, right darling? Come on, I know you do, just let it out for me,” he breathed out as you finally reached your climax once more and squirted all over his cock. Asmo rubbed his face into your neck, cooing to you about how well you took him as he released your hands from his tail. You slumped up against him, completely exhausted, with the aphrodisiac still working in your system, but now at more of a smolder than an unbearable heat in your core. He gently laid you down on the bed before pulling the blanket over the both of you, still praising you as he did. “You did so well darling… I’m impressed. I didn’t think you’d fare that well. We can rest for now, I’ve had my fill for the time being, but, be prepared for more when we wake up~“ he giggled as the two of you cuddled into a nap.

[thebiggestfan1]

Are you in town? - Matthew Tkachuk (part 1)

part two here

part three here

word count: 1860 words

TW: language, angst (?)

let me know if you want part two, I’m somehow still not sure

...

It was so hot that day. The movers were already gone, the place feeling empty without all the furniture. In a few hours, you'd be long gone, flying far away from Chesterfield.

Some small part of you felt sorry for selling your parents' house - the house you spent your whole childhood living in. But they moved out a few years ago and told you many times they didn't mind at all selling it.

Wiping the sweat off of your eyebrows you made your way through the blooming garden, trying to memorize every little detail. You remembered climbing this tree, you remembered the hole in the fence you made so the neighbour's dog could come play with you, you remembered the time capsule you and Matt buried here when you were fifteen.

Until now, you completely forgot about that. Even though you two didn't talk after he got drafted, it'd be a good idea to meet again since you might never see him again. You might be moving to Calgary but that city was so big it'd be a miracle to meet Matthew somewhere.

So you scrolled through your phone, praying he didn't change his number after all those years as you dialed it.

The phone rang twice before someone picked it up.

"Yes?"

Matthew's voice was so different since the last time you talked.

"Hey Matt, this is Y/N, I'm moving out today and I thought we could dig up the time capsule we buried at my place as kids before I leave. Are you in town?" It was off-season so you might get lucky.

"You are moving out already? But yeah, I can meet you in an hour if you have the time."

"Yes, I'll still be here, don't worry."

"Okay..." There was a moment of awkward silence, neither of you knew how to break it. Was it a bad idea? Of course you wouldn't be as good friends as you once were. But you didn't know it would be this... weird. He didn't say goodbye back when he left to Calgary and didn't answer to any of your calls or messages. What were you thinking? That he wanted to see you?

"So, where are you moving to?" Matt finally continued, making the conversation more bareable.

"Calgary, they offered me an amazing job there."

"Really? I've been there for a few years."

"I heard." Not from you, was what you didn't say. It seemed like he'd heard it nonetheless.

Silence. You hated how distant you've grown - once, a long time ago, you were best friends. You went together to kindergarden and since then you've been the best of best friends. But even after all you went through, you didn't know what to say.

"Nevermind, I have to get going. I'll be at your place at three, okay?"

"Okay. I'll meet you there."

As you hung up, sadness enveloped you. Maybe you shouldn't have called. Maybe it'd be better to never meet Matt again, to remember only the good old times.

But he might be already on his way and you wanted to say a proper goodbye before going far, far away.

You loved him once, you recalled. It broke your heart when he left without looking back.

It irritated you that you couldn't do the same as easily.

...

"Y/N?" a now familiar voice called, the sound of closing car doors echoing through the silent street.

Matt looked same as he did four years ago and still totally different. It was like staring at a stranger you could swear you've already seen before. The curly, those pretty grey-blue eyes and the crooked smile you remembered and thought about too often. He got taller and more mascular over the time he played hockey professionally.

"Hey," you said nervously, tucking your slightly trembling hands into the pockets of your shorts.

Again, that uncomfortable silence took place.

"How long is it?" Since you've last seen each other. Since he'd ignored your calls and messages. Since he'd left you crying as he left this town - as he left you.

"Five years," you said.

Regret flashed in those pretty eyes as he took you in. Did you look to him the same as you did the last time he saw you?

"I'm sorry I didn't call." That was it? After five fucking years of silence, this was his apology for everything. This was a mistake. You didn't think it through when you called him today. Just now you started remembering all the things he's done to you.

"That doesn't make it hurt less, does it?" You whipped around, going to the line of fruit trees where you left the two shovels you borrowed from the neighbour.

Matt's hand slightly gripped your elbow, stopping you in your tracks.

"I know that I made a bunch of wrong decisions before I left."

"I've been trying for 6 months to reach you before giving up completely. And you? You've been living the best version of your life anyone could ever imagine."

"That's not true and you know it." Matthew said and you wanted to leave right then, forget this stupid meeting.

"I do not." you hissed, trying to calm down your rising temper.

Matt sighed, not wanting to argue over this. So he made his way to the tree line, picked one shovel from the ground and started digging where he remembered the time capsule was.

You didn't help him dig it up. You were too lost in memories, clinging to the past as you thought of younger version of Matt.

The clang of metal on metal attracted your attention back to him. He grunted as he pulled up the metal box and laid it on the grass.

You ducked low next to him, dusting off the dirt of the box. It was an old, weirdly dented thing.  Your eyes laid on the lock and you nearly sighed in annoyance just when Matt grabbed at his necklace, the key dangling from it. When you two buried the capsule, each of you got a key made for it. You had yours somewhere in the boxes that had already been shipped to your new apartment and Matt's... he didn't forget. He kept it through the years, guarding it and not losing it as you expected.

You didn't say anything, just patiently waited for him to open the box.

There was a letter inside, along with a bunch of things you thought of as long forgotten. Your bracelets of friendship, the colors faded already; a puck with which you and Matthew played your first hockey game together when you were six; so many polaroid photos with your faces on them; USB with a playlist you two always danced to.

Your eyes watered - how were you supposed to say goodbye to all of this?

Silently, you looked over all of the photos - you and Matt in the rink with small hockey sticks and skates, you and Matt sticking out your tongues colored blue with slushies, you and Matt, you and Matt, you and Matt...

Then Matthew's hand found yours, your fingers automatically intertwining with his. You started crying, first silently but then the sobs shook with your whole body.

"Come here," he murmured, hugging you. His body was so soft and warm, as if begging you to lean into his touch.

"How- how could you leave this all behind?" you mumbled between the sobs.

"It's not leaving if you don't say goodbye." Matt said, his fingers playing with yours.

"Then you are a fucking coward, Matthew."

Silence. He didn't argue with you on that, so you must have been right.

You stopped crying after a while, checking your watch while wiping your nose.

Shit. It was so late already - you had to call an uber to get you to the airport in the next hour or you'd be super late.

"I'll have to go," you said quietly, but Matt interrupted you.

"You are right," he tucked on the edge of his shirt, clearly nervous. He was nervous. "I was a coward. I thought that if I didn't say goodbye to you as I left, it'd hurt less. I was wrong and I was a fucking coward for not picking up your calls or replying to your messages because it would make it so real - that I was leaving and probably never coming back. But I want to make it all right again, I want to be a part of your life - if you will let me."

You thought about his offer and still, you couldn't answer. You weren't sure about letting him into your heart just for him to storm out again without a goodbye, leaving you behind, broken.

"Can I at least take you to the airport?" To that, you nodded, picking up the time capsule, putting all the items back in. Then you gave back the lent shovels to your neighbour and with a last glance at your house, you got into Matt's car.

...

On the way to the airport Matt played the playlist from the USB that was in the time capsule and the nostalgy hit you hard.

You remembered the lyrics, the melody; you remembered everything.

The drive was too short and you started panicking as the engine stopped.

Matthew helped you with your suitcase and went inside with you. The two of you stopped at the first gate.

"Here," he said, giving you a piece of paper. "It's my adress. Hopefully, you won't live so far away, so we could meet there if you wanted to."

You tucked it in your pocket without a word.

"Also, take this. I wrote it in ninth grade so don't think much of it. But I want you to read it, Y/N."

It was the letter from the time capsule, with your name on the blank envelope.

"I will." you promised.

The silence that followed wasn't awkward this time.

"I'll let you know my decision about what you said earlier. I just... I need some time."

Matt noded, giving you the space you so desperately needed.

"So, until we meet again - goodbye, Y/N."

"Goodbye, Matt."

...

The plane took off and you finally had the time to read the letter he gave you.

You immediately recognised his scrambled handwriting and you smiled at how messy it was before you started reading.

Dear Y/N,

I'm writing this in case I leave. Dad has been telling me for some time already that if I'll get drafted, I'll have to leave. He also said that if I'll be smart, I will never look back at my past.

I don't want you to be my past. I want you to be my present and my future.

He said I'll meet a lot of girls but I know that none of them is going to be like you.

So, I promise you, I will never say goodbye to you.

I love you,

Matt

With trembling fingers, you pulled out your phone, the tears already staining the screen.

That's why he never said goodbye. Because of this stupid letter and his stupid promise.

The phone rang once before he picked it up.

"Y/N? What is it?"

A ragged breath escaped you and you laughed and cried at the same time.

"I don't want you to be my past. I want you to be my present and my future."

"Oh, that was cheesy, wasn't it-"

"No, you dumbass. That's my answer."

[sweetcathedral]

Note: First Toji story! Your "mom" that I had in mind for this one is basically a female Nanami, and your adoptive mom. Tried my best not to get burnt out from this one, so it might sound a bit rushed and repetitive, but I’ll be taking a two week break after I post Gojo’s sometime this week (hopefully tomorrow or the day after). Enjoy !

⚠️: 18+, raw, bulge, plot (?), voyeurism/exhibitionism (phone), eating out, fingering

It was obvious why Toji was around your mother lately, and why your mother still bothered keeping him around.

“Cut the sweet talking and just say you’re broke again,” you overheard your mother say. There wasn’t any anger or resentment in her voice, she didn’t need any sweet talking for her to lend Toji money again ‘cause she was also someone without any need for attachments. In fact, your mother hated attachments, so her pretend relationship with Toji was perfect. Not only did he fuck her any chance he got, but your mother even asked if he could take you into his place until you found a suitable apartment close to your university (of course he’d be getting paid double the amount for the hassle).

“I don’t have an extra room, so take mine for now. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“You sure? I don’t mind taking the couch instead,” now that you’re finally facing him, you take in the details of his gruff features, hardened by whatever work he does for a living.

“Something wrong?” he cocks his head to the side and rubs his hand at the back of his neck.

“No. Sorry, it’s just—it’s my first time properly seeing you,” you can feel the heat rise up in your body.

“Oh, I guess it is,” he walks up to you and looks down, realizing how big he is and that you’re no longer looking at him from afar. “You’ve changed from the last time I saw you though,” measuring you against him, using his hand to see where your height compares. He smelt of smoke and something metallic, a foreign scent your memory had nothing to contrast to. A dark red smear on his forearm catches your attention. You thoughtlessly brush your fingers on his arm, triggering him to grab your wrist. His eyes widened in a wilderness you’ve never seen before with a hint of panic.

“Um . . .” you didn’t know how to react.

“Sorry,” he clears his throat and collects his composure back, “I’m gonna go take a shower first. Make yourself comfortable.”

The grip around your wrist lightens, leaving a red imprint that’s a bit sore to the touch.

Fuck. Toji had been too caught up with the bounty hunts he took that he forgot you were temporarily moving in with him today. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. It was his calendar app that reminded him, in the middle of a fight with a curse user, that he quickly finished the job and rushed back home to see you already standing at his door. Patiently waiting for him to answer the first few knocks and hesitating to knock again, which he found cute. He didn’t even have time to clean his wounds up when he snuck in through his back window.

Once Toji strode into the bathroom and locked himself in, he took off his shirt, thankful for the black shade concealing the blood slowly oozing out of his wound on the side of his torso. “Tch, for fuck sakes,” he mumbled before cleaning off the excess blood and throwing his shirt in the garbage. He thought his forearm was wounded too, the pain concealed from the rush of adrenaline he still had from running back home, but it was just the blood from his torso.

Toji wasn’t sure how to react when he’d see you again, especially as a proper person, since he has never paid any attention to you back then, until now.

“Take in my daughter until she finds her own place. She’s currently shopping for ones near her university since the other one had a person who died in the building,” your mother told him over the phone, neither sounding like a question or a demand.

“Huh? You have a kid?”

“Are you blind now too?”

“Don’t give much attention to kids.”

“Well she’s an adult now, so how ‘bout it?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“Money, of course.”

“Heh, deal,” he answered, not giving much thought to the details as long as he’s getting paid for it.

“Now you’re making it sound like I’m selling my daughter off to the Devil.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her.”

“She’ll be coming over in two weeks time,” your mother sighed in relief before hanging up.

Toji pulls himself back to the present hearing the faint scuffling of your feet across the floor, probably carrying your boxes and luggage into the living room. I should help her out. He carefully lifts the towel off his wound to check if the bleeding started to slow down. He lost track of how long he’d been in the bathroom, so he went against the thought of stitching it up and just slapped on some gauze for now. It’d be suspicious if he holed himself in the bathroom for too long. As Toji inhaled his breath to pull himself together, he raised his head, losing his sense of his equilibrium.

“Shit,” he softly chuckles, seeing his blurry reflection in the mirror falling out of the frame and hitting the floor. His body goes limp as his mind slowly succumbs to the darkness, only the sound of your frantic voice through the door being the last to leave his senses.

When you finally busted the door open, Toji was shirtless and laying on the floor drifting in and out of consciousness. You flipped him over to see that he was trying to patch up his wound. “We need to get you to a hospital,” you started dialing 911, but his heavy arm stops you from doing so.

“. . . don’t . . .” he desperately said through ragged breaths before going limp again.

“Fine, but I need to at least get you to your room. I’m not strong enough to carry you,” you try to heave him up to his feet, lugging his arm over your shoulder, opposite from the side where his wound is.

Once you managed to get him in his room, you guided him to his bed before rushing through your boxes to find your medical stitch kit. Although it was hard trying to disinfect his wound before stitching him up and placing a clean gauze over it, you managed to help him dodge the hospital bills he wanted to avoid. Cheapskate, just use the money you get from my mom.

You let out a sigh, tired from the nervousness of moving into a new place shared by a man with a mysterious background, and the panic that ensued when Toji looked like he was knocking on Death’s door. Peering up at him from the side of his bed, you take in his other scars along his body; there’s a jagged one on his chest, a couple clean slits along his shoulder, and some small rigid circular ones scattered over his stomach. You lightly run your fingers over the soft pink flesh like tracing a roadmap of his past life, his scars standing out like checkpoints.

“Home. My father threw me into a . . . fighting pit,” the rough vibration of his voice startles you, breaking you from your trance.

“Sorry, I—!” you pull away, retracting your hand back. But instead Toji grabs it back, unfurling your fingers to place them back on his scar.

“Also home. A fight with my cousins . . .” he continues guiding your fingers throughout his body, dragging you from scar to scar and telling you the story of his past, like there was nothing to hide. “And finally,” he gently places your palm on his fresh wound, “. . . another bounty hunt . . .” There was a moment of hesitation in his voice, his eyes laid on your hand as he thumbs over your knuckles, twiddling with your fingers before firmly yanking you over him onto the bed.

His finger traces up the curve of your spine, the small of your back, feeling the bulge form under his joggers—nudging at the plump bulb of your cunt through the thin fabric of your satin shorts. Keeping yourself calm and collected, you push yourself up from his shoulders, his muscles tensing up from your touch.

“Toji, I don’t have money to pay you. The medical courses in university are expensive already.”

“Who said I was asking for money?” he traces down your neck with his eyes before bringing you towards him, rubbing a lock of your hair between his thumb and index finger as he kisses your neck.

“You’re hurt and acting delirious from the pain. I’ll look through my boxes to see if I still have painkillers,” you huffed, trying to fight through his strength and the aching need to continue to see through to the end. It felt wrong, but his desperate hands kept you from making the right decisions.

“Don’t leave, stay,” he whispered between kisses, now trailing down to your breasts, sucking at your nipples. The straps of your tank top and bralette slip from your shoulders as his fingers softly drag down your back, your garments now clinging to your waist. Your soft moans bounce off the walls of the room. Your fingers laced through his hair, continuing to tease your nipples and thoughtlessly riding your hips on his bulge, leaving a wet stain through your shorts and his joggers. A wave of shame clashes over your need to have more of him, but the movements of his hands, arm, tongue, body keeps you from turning back.

“I can’t take it anymore,” you moaned through huffs of breaths.

“Then, what are you waiting for? Do it. I’m right there,” he valiantly bucks his hips up, pressing his erection into your pliant cunt, holding your thighs down on either side of him.

Your fingers reach for his cock from under you, molding around the shape of him as you push his joggers further down his hips. There was already precum dripping down his cock, painfully pulsating at your soft touch. You hold the tip at your entrance, glossy and slippery from your eager juices, and slowly ease yourself onto his cock. Toji groans at your plump walls hugging him and pulling him deeper inside of you. Your body blooms into a lustful behaviour that even he was surprised in awe at the honesty, forming a bemused grin across his face.

When your hips started to tremble beyond control, Toji continued, propping himself up with his arms and careful not to bust the stitches you gave him. At this point his pain had melted into pleasure, gratefully thrusting into your cervix and feeling the satisfaction of the shape of his tip protruding from your lower abdomen. You wrap your arms around him, spreading your legs wider so as to not touch his wound.

“Ngh, I think I’m about to pass out,” you bit back a moan, struggling to keep from cramping.

“Heh, that’s cute,” he rammed himself harder into you, the sound of slapping intertwining with your moans & grunts. Your body twitches in intervals, keeping up with his rhythm, nearing your climax. Toji grasps onto you, clamping you down on him as his warm cum fills up your womb, unable to keep the excess from flowing out.

“Shit, sorry,” he reaches down to touch your vulva, the tips of his fingers feeling at his thick substance leaking out from you..

“Mm-mm, it’s fine. Infertile,” you said, trying to catch your breath.

“Did you cum yet?”

A giggle fell from your lips, “not yet—!” he flips you over before you could finish whatever you were about to say, switching places so that you’re laying on your back now. He wasn’t gonna take that for an answer cause he always finishes what he started.

“Allow me,” his head settled in between your legs, hands firmly placed at the back of your thighs. You sharply inhaled at the soft velvety feel of his tongue to your sensitive clit, and the strong feeling of his fingers pushing through your swollen walls. Your head falls back into a lustful daze, allowing him to do whatever he wants to do to you. Only the sound of your rapid breathing and cute moans fill the air of the room, as Toji satisfies himself with your lewd expressions and lolled out tongue.

“Did you make it safely to Toji’s place?” your mom asks through the phone.

“Yeah . . . everything, went well,” you bit your tongue, flailing your hands behind you to try and get Toji to slow down.

“Are you okay? You sound too out of breath in the morning.”

“Yeah—! I just, just came back for a—jog,” he thrusts harder into you, having fun watching you try to keep your composure. Ready to hear a moan slip out from your wet lips. “Anyways, I need to, to go, bye mom!” you hung up before she could say her goodbyes.

“Someone held up pretty well,” he chuckles at the nape of your neck before leaving his marks along it.

“Fuck you,” you pant, hating yourself for obliging in this situation, but loving the hard feeling of his cock splitting you apart. He hooks one of your legs up to the kitchen counter, your other fighting to stay on its tippy toes as you reach your morning climax—squirting on the kitchen floor.

“I’m not done with you yet,” he growls in your ear, flipping you over and stirring his cock back inside of you. “Get ready to go rounds with me.”

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into The Unknown, Part 1

... I have no self-control do not perceive me

Marinette stared at the pile of bright red, yellow, and green clothes on the ground. It was all she’d done in the five-ish minutes since she’d portaled onto the scene. Just… stared.

It wasn’t like there was much else to do, anyways. Red Robin was currently beating the absolute fuck out of the person that had the audacity to disintegrate his brother right in front of him. It wasn’t like she could even fix it because the witch had been out cold before she had been able to pull Red Robin off to get a hit in so she could use her lucky charm.

So, she stared.

It was weird. She could almost feel a person inside the clothes but… maybe that was the residue or the ashes or whatever gets left behind when you zap a person out of existence? She didn’t really want to check, to be honest. Gross.

Eventually, though, she hesitantly leaned down and brushed her hand over it, trying to find the energy and get rid of it because it was really uncomfortable --.

… oh hell no that pile of clothes did not just fucking giggle at her.

She narrowed her eyes and carefully lifted up the bottom of the shirt, only to yelp and fall back. She scrabbled on the gross Gotham alley ground until her back hit Red Robin’s arm and he was forced to pause or risk hitting a meta (which would not have been good for his health).

“What?” He hissed.

She swallowed thickly. “That’s a child.”

“... what?” Red asked, all the anger bleeding from his tone in his confusion.

“We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby,” she whispered… then, it sunk in more. “We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby.”

He straightened on top of the thing that was really more bloody pulp than person at this point. “What do you mean ‘we let Batman’s kid turn into a baby’?”

But she didn’t really get a chance to answer because the baby chose that exact moment to be sick of being suffocated under all the armor and pushed it off.

Red Robin gulped. Because, yep, that was Robin as a baby. Batman was going to kill them.

Except he wasn’t going to kill them. Because Batman doesn't kill. No, Batman would find something even worse and that would suck.

The baby -- Robin? Should she still call him that mentally? -- giggled at their pain. Like an asshole.

They were so fucked.

~

He’d let B’s favorite kid get turned into a baby. Was there a way to get unadopted? Because if there was it was totally going to happen. Or maybe his dad would just cut him off because he was 19 now and could just get kicked out.

No. Nope! Not going to happen. No. He could fix this.

“Okay. Okay okay okay. We need a plan,” he heard himself saying.

Ladybug scoffed. “We? I was barely even here, this is on you.”

“Leave me alone to deal with this and I swear to god I will tell B that you did it.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t. No way.”

“Yes way. So, help me think of something.”

The baby giggled and started crawling over and both of them averted their eyes because, unfortunately, the child did not get baby clothes to go with his random transformation. Baby Damian didn't seem to care as he reached them and started climbing on Ladybug since she was closest. At least it wasn’t him. He did not want to see his adoptive brother’s… ew.

Ladybug made a gagging sound and then quickly summoned a lucky charm. She kept her face turned away as much as her neck would physically allow as she fumbled her way through swaddling the child in a polka-dotted blanket.

And then her shoulders slumped a little. “Great. Great. This is… great,” she muttered, picking up the bundle o’ baby.

He let himself look down now that it was safe.

“Alright, we need to go to another dimension where time moves faster,” Ladybug said after a few seconds. “And then we wait for him to age… fifteen-ish years. Best way to not make Batman notice.”

“... what about us? We also age.”

“Huh…? Oh. Right. You’re human.” She pulled off the glasses she was wearing and blinked a few times before handing it over. “Congrats on your upgrade. The tiny horse god is named Kaalki. She likes cake.”

“The tiny --?” He let out the world’s manliest screech as his eyes landed on the floating bug horse hybrid thing holy shit no no no no no the sci fi movies didn’t prepare him for this shit.

Kaalki looked a little offended but then her eyes landed on the baby and she gasped. “Aw, baby humans are always so cute.”

“Great, Kaalki, you take it,” said Ladybug.

Kaalki did try, to her credit. It just so happened that the approximately one-year-old baby was a lot bigger than the… whatever she was. Tim was refusing to believe that this was a god. Too many implications. He already had something to have a breakdown over, he didn’t need another thing right now, thank you very much.

Tim rested his head in his hands but he had more things to worry about than the blood that he was accidentally streaking through his hair.

“Okay. Okay. We can go to another dimension and try and raise him. Maybe we can make it have a ratio of one month here for every year there so any differences could be blamed on that.”

“Ya!” Said baby Damian. He probably didn’t actually know what was going on but he sure seemed excited so that was cool.

Ladybug sighed and nodded. “Great. You get food and money and clothes and I’ll take this lady to the cops… and I guess I’ll watch the kid until you get back because your dad cannot know.”

They shook on it.

~

This may be the dumbest idea that she’d ever had, and that was saying something. She didn’t know if she could trust Red Robin on this one, they hardly ever worked together. What if he just left her alone with this kid and let her try and figure this out on her own?

No. He wouldn’t do that. He was the last person known to be with Robin. Robin going missing would be bad for him, too. And, besides, she was pretty sure that he was a duty-driven person based on what she’d heard, she just had to hope that he saw this as his duty, too.

She turned the baby in her arms to get more comfortable as she waited for him to (hopefully) come back.

Part of her wanted to try and find someone from this world to reverse this but she didn’t know any outside of her, Adrien, Alix, and (now) Red Robin. Not on a personal level. Not enough that she knew for sure that they wouldn’t blab to Batman about it.

So, no, this is what she was doing.

But she had things to do. So, she pulled out her yoyo-phone-hybrid-thingy and wedged it against her ear.

“Chaton,” she said the moment he picked up. “You’re alone, right?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Great. I, Ladybug, relinquish the Miracle Box and name Chat Noir the new guardian.”

“WHAT --?!” He didn’t get to finish as a box dropped on his lap and knocked the wind out of him.

“Just for, like, a year and a half. Sorry. Bye!”

“DON’T JUST ‘BYE’ ME WHAT THE --?!”

She hung up and closed the yoyo, hooking it back to her belt and ignoring it when it started buzzing again.

She looked down at Robin, who was squinting up at her. She returned the squint. Why was this baby so quiet? She didn’t get it. Surely, he should have been crying at this point.

“Do you still… remember things?” She asked, hoping against all hope that maybe he had retained his memories at the very least.

Robin smiled at her, but it was the blank-eyed baby smile that meant he wasn’t really understanding her. She bit down a curse.

Great. So, she’d not only gotten a baby but she’d gotten a fucking weird one. Great.

~

Tim left a note for his family saying that he, Damian, and Ladybug were bored and were going dimension hopping. His family would probably be suspicious but, hey, at least it wouldn’t be his problem for a good fifteen years on his end.

And, yeah, he knew this was probably one of his dumber plans but… it wasn’t the dumbest. And he was always one to commit when it came down to it. One time he had faked being shot and dealt with crutches for an entire year just to convince Vicki Vale that he wasn’t Red Robin. He had no fears that he couldn’t see this through.

Ladybug, though? A total mystery. She did nearly everything on a whim as far as he knew. She hopped from city to city fighting crime for absolutely no reason outside of boredom and made up all of her plans on the fly. No, he was a bit concerned about her ability to keep doing it.

So, he went as quickly as he possibly could. There was no rhyme or reason to what he was grabbing. He was just… putting stuff in there. There was money and three watches to help them move between dimensions, yes, but there was also a fanta orange and a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and exactly seven pairs of socks.

… yeah, he had the necessities. Probably.

He nearly got out the door before he realized he was still in his crime-fighting gear and he quickly shucked it all off and tossed it into the tub so the blood wouldn’t track any more than it already had. He did not need to avoid Batman’s wrath only to end up on the receiving end of Alfred’s.

He pulled on the first hoodie and jeans he could grab and looked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything of importance.

Okay. Now he was ready to go.

~

Marinette was awkwardly bouncing the baby when Red Robin finally showed up.

… not that she would have recognized him if she hadn’t felt Kaalki hovering in his pocket. In her eyes, he was just a random white guy wearing shades in the middle of the night.

She glanced up at him and gave him an awkward smile.

“Ready?”

He smiled back and held out two watches. Neither fit baby Robin so she prepared herself to choke out a literal baby holy fuck what even was her life.

“Which dimension should we go to?”

“Preferably one without miraculi,” Marinette said. “I don’t want to know what happens if there’s two of the same god in a dimension.”

He nodded slowly. “Probably best if Batman doesn’t exist, either, he’d probably notice my existence.”

“... so… no heroes at all?”

“Looks like we’re going cold turkey,” Red Robin said in a tone that was probably supposed to be joking but just came out flat.

She pushed herself to her feet and waited as he scrolled through the millions of dimensions.

Finally, he came upon one and she added the coordinates to her and Robin’s watches.

She readied Robin’s watch against his neck and tried to ignore the kid’s sudden squirminess.

“3… 2… 1…”

They were gone in a whirl of blue light.

~~~~~

Next

@nathleigh @peachmuses

[jschlattsbabydoll]

Ocean Away Part 2 (Chishiya Shuntaro x Reader)

A/N: Hi! How are you? 

Sorry for the delays for part 2. But here you are 😊

I’m sorry if the story felt rushed, but I would be editing the story once it has been finished for a more detailed version of the story.

Thank you so much for the support for part 1. The notes on this one is amazing currently at 119 notes…. Thank you so much! Hopefully part 2 won’t disappoint.

And I want to tag @eggbutnotyolk and @kaiorik​ , Thank you for commenting and the support! <3

I won’t take so much of the space here.

Please enjoy part 2! :)

 -----+------

“Far away, an ocean away. Where I won’t let you hurt me again.” – Loreen, Ocean Away.

------+-------

 “Don’t leave me.”

 “I won’t.”, You lied.

  Around 12 noon, you awoke from your bed. You around your room to see a note on the bedside cabinet,

“I will be meeting up with Kuina for just a bit.” – Chishiya. 

Then suddenly memories of last night came rushing back on your mind…

You’ll be leaving Chishiya.

Suddenly tears fell down your body, with the memories of last night, your talk with your uncles and after that with him… It was so fucked up on how much you doubt your plan right now. Is this how he can easily manipulate you into thinking things? 

Every night that you two have been together, his body is so warm that you love being with him, but the feelings he portrays, they lack emotions, it was so cold that she would give so much time and space. She would always wait for him to come to her instead.

The game that he plays is dangerous. He is willing to give up everything, even her.

*Flashback*

“Chishiya! Help me! I’m drowning!” you looked at the man you loved the most, he looked back with the coldest eyes that you have ever seen, then he took off.

You screamed loudly for his name, but he didn’t come back.

“Y/N!!!” you heard someone scream your name, hoping that it was Chishiya that he might just went and took some back up.

As you slowly went down, you felt someone pull you from the water, as you were place on land, you coughed hard and tears started to form from your eyes, it suddenly hurt to breathe in and out, but you needed to breathe.

You quickly look at the person who saved you. It was Arisu.

“Arisu…” You said as you slowly started to cry, you couldn’t even form any sentence right now with the outburst of feelings that you have inside, “I.. I thought… I… No…Chishiya… Why?” you tried to speak, as you looked into Arisu’s eyes for answers. You suddenly grabbed Arisu’s sleeves for support. You saw in his eyes that he was worried and pained with the panicked and crying form that you are in.

“Why?! Arisu… Arisu….? Chishiya… left me….”  You continue to break down, you let go of Arisu’s sleeve and you placed both hands on your face.

Arisu suddenly hugged you, “I’m sorry… This is all I could offer you.”

The sadness, dread, disappointment, and the pain are now mixing all in together. Now all you could think of is wishing that you died than suffering under Chishiya’s side.

 “why?” you said through tears with the only answer is pure silence.

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 “HATTER! HATTER! HATTER!” Everyone screamed and cheered their leader, who was leaving for a game with Aguni and you. Your uncle waved from the back seat and smiled at everybody for their immense support, 

While your Uncle Aguni drove the car, you sat on the passenger seat. While the car is slowly leaving the Beach’s premises. You through the crowd and saw him. 

He looked at you eye to eye, but you removed you eyes from his gaze. You didn’t want to leave him, but staying with him hurt a lot more. 

As your uncle Aguni drove off, you uncle Hatter looked at you, “don’t be sad, my child. I know that the beach has everything you need and can ever ask for this world. But, remember, if you need some space from the people within my walls, you can always go a different location.”

You nodded your head, “Thank you Uncle Hatter and Uncle Aguni.”

“Just a bit of wait. We’ll be out of this country and we can have our lives back.” Aguni said as he took a turn to the arena, a school building. 

“After this game, we will be driving you off to your hiding spot. It would be from the other side of Tokyo near Shibuya… We will keep track of you now and then. You will be joining games from the other side, just let us know what is going on, what games you played and what card you have received.” Hatter has explained, “And just to completely hide your identity from other players, you might need to change your hair color or maybe let you wear a mask.” 

“Anyways, the place that we have chosen is near a mall, but we would still be providing for you as promised once we visit you again.” Aguni added,

“Noted.” You answered, as you got out of the car. You opened the car door for you uncle and helped him out, “Uncle Hatter, having a hard time getting out of the car?”

“I’m almost at my 30’s dear. I’m getting old.” He joked, “Wish I could go back to the simpler days.”

You smiled, “30 is not old uncle. Besides, you are still so full of life.”

As your Uncle Aguni got out of the car, “By the way… I followed your plan.” He said while looking at Hatter, “As dangerous as it sounds, but I told Niragi about the plan.”

Niragi wasn’t a good person. You’ve had some issues with Niragi and his awful behavior. Your uncle Aguni has explained and made it very clear with Niragi that you cannot be touched by him in anyway. You two had a very civil talk once after a game where you saved him from being mauled by a tiger, because he lost bullets from his riffle.

He became honest with his feelings that he didn’t thought that someone would save him.

Later he opened up being bullied in class, being thrown by rocks and there is a point system in it. You would always remember his glasses were 50 points and his crotch area is 100 points. He didn’t have any friends at all and even if people would see him being beaten up, no one came to his aid.

 “I know that you don’t see me as your friend. But hiding from a sadistic silhouette won’t give you happiness. Yes, people are afraid of you, but that doesn’t ease the pain. I know, what they have done in the real world is wrong and un humane. But in the end of the day, you’re just human. We all have scars. And if you keep that inside, you’ll go insane… Actually, you are already. But, don’t go down further, Niragi. If you want someone to let out your outburst inside, I’m here.” 

“Why do you…. Why are you so nice?” he asked,

“I don’t know. But it’s all I can give right now. You deserve it, even if you think you don’t.”

 You kept his secrets, he’s still a douchebag with others after your encounter with him, but he became nice to you ever since. 

Chishiya didn’t like the closeness between you and Niragi. Sometimes, he would interrupt a conversation between you and Niragi.

“Y/n… “ Chishiya said, intervening the conversation you have with Niragi, “Let’s go.” Extending his hands to hold your hand, 

“Interrupting again? You make me angry, Chishiya. “, Niragi said with full annoyance, “Jealous, because your girlfriend is so fond of me?”

“hm….” Chishiya smirked, “I trust her that she won’t fall for someone who’s dumb witted as you.”

Things escalated very quickly, with Niragi pointing his riffle towards Chishiya’s head and Chishiya with his knife on Niragi’s neck,

“I’ll blow your head up, you fucker!” Niragi angrily said,

“Not if I slit your fucking throat.”

“STOP! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!” You screamed, “Stop acting so fucking childish!”

They came to their senses and placed down their weapons, Niragi huffed with annoyance, he would have killed Chishiya if you didn’t stop him.

“I’ll go with Chishiya.” You looked towards Niragi, “I’m sorry Niragi. But I’ll talk again with you, okay? “

“Okay.” Niragi said in defeat. You touched his cheeks as a form of goodbye and then you left with Chishiya.

“Niragi knows about the plan?” you asked, looking through your uncle Hatter’s eyes,

“Yes. He’s like a back up that we have. He seems so fond of you, If ever that we can’t go towards your location due to meetings or maybe emergencies, we can secretly asked Niragi’s help.”

“Oh, at least… I have someone to talk to…” you said within you mind,

You started to walk with uncle to face the game that you will be all joining.

Hopefully, no one dies during this game.

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~Time Skip~

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 You three finished the game and was granted 6 days of visa. You all drove off near Shibuya, and they have sent you to your new location. It was a hotel, it was two blocks away from a mall, which can give you supplies for your stay here. 

You Uncle Aguni has handed you a walkie talkie, and tested it with his, Hatter and one of the Walkie for Niragi.

“You sure, you’ll be okay without us, dear?” Hatter asked once more,

You smiled, “Yes… I will be. I can talk to you any time with these walkie talkies. And If ever I’ll just give you a beep.” Then you hugged your uncle Hatter and then your Uncle Aguni.

“I know that you’re just keeping quiet, but you’ll miss me too, Uncle Aguni.” You teased, he smirked,

“Don’t get too cocky…” He said, but then he patted you gently on the head, “I would miss you…Just be careful here kid.”

“I will.” You smiled, after a few minutes, they were gone… Leaving you all alone.

Tears started to fall from your eyes, “I’m sorry, Chishiya…”

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 Everyone cheered on as Hatter and Aguni arrived, they chanted their names.

They went to the balcony and then Hatter raised his hands to stop the noise from the crowd below him.

He removed his sunglasses and he acted devastated…with tears on his eyes, he opened his mouth to speak.

“Thank you… Thank you for being happy that Aguni and I have come safe and sound from the war that we have joined tonight…” he said then stopped, he was now hearing whispers asking on where you are.

“You might have noticed that when we left, we have brought our precious y/n… We have a terrible news to tell… A death of an executive has happened… the death of our sweet child, y/n…”

Everybody went silent shocked to hear that one of the best players have died.

“She sacrificed her life for us… But…” Hatter wiped his fake tears on his face, “We will not let her death go in vain… We promised that we would complete the cards and in the end; we will survive this country and get out of this soon on her behalf. We need you all to fulfill this promise for her not just for her but also for yourselves…”

Unknown to everybody, a person on the floor above the balcony has been watching the whole scene, Chishiya, who has heard the news, ran towards your room. Thinking that this might me a sick joke that Hatter has brought to everybody.

But he was greeted by an empty room.

He tried to search everywhere, but you were gone. 

He stopped looking for you and he went in front of your room door again.

He has mixed feeling about everything, he placed his hand to his chest. He felt a different kind of loneliness inside his chest.

“What would you do If I suddenly got lost or disappeared?” He remembers your question last night.

“This might be some sick joke…” he whispered to himself, “It’s impossible for you to die… not now.” As he was about to leave your door step, he saw Aguni walking towards him,

“Interesting.” He heard Aguni said while walking towards him, “what are you doing here?”

“I was just passing by.” Chishiya kept a straight face, “why did you let her die?”

Aguni smirked, “Caring now, Cheshire? It doesn’t suit you at all.”

“Hm.” Chishiya didn’t speak, but instead let Aguni walk by past him.

When Aguni was already 1 feet away from Chishiya, “Don’t fake it too much…  Isn’t this what you wanted? To see her dead? That’s why you left her in one of the games?”

Chishiya turned around to answer his question, but Aguni was gone.

 “Don’t leave me…”

 “Why?” Chishiya asked to nobody as he remembers you..

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[TBC]

[wanda-maxipad1989]

hiii i loved that fic you wrote for wanda and the reader! i think incorporating wanda's glowy powers would be cool, maybe if she was able to get her girl off while standing far away and really dominating her like that

Pairing: MCU Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch & Female Reader

Summary: Wanda gets a little sick of you not paying her the attention she deserves and decides now is the time to bust out her powers.

Warnings: 18+, smut, fingering, oral sex, use of sex toys, BDSM

A/N: Sorry I took FOREVER to write this I just had to keep re-writing it, this is the draft I hated the least so hopefully you enjoy it. Also "All Work and No Play" has over 100 notes which probably isn't a lot to most of you but I appreciate it so much since it's my first time writing in so long.

You absolutely had it coming tonight. Date night, fancy restaurant, Wanda arriving home from work with flowers before bringing you out. All of that and yet you were still sat at dinner quietly, absent-mindedly pushing your food around your plate, only half listening to the girl in front of you.

You should've known that Wanda was never going to stand for you being quiet like this on your first date night in weeks

The starters had come and gone, and you were just finishing up your main courses when you felt something light graze up your neck and around your ear. Startled, you jolted around to see where it came from, but seeing no one near you, you assumed it had been your hair and turned back around, still not paying enough attention to the girl in front of you to notice the shit-eating grin on her face.

If you were unsure of who was touching you, you were about to know exactly who it was.

The feather-like touch that had grazed you before had now moved to the back of your legs, slowly applying more pressure as they rose upwards until all of sudden, it didn't feel much like a feather anymore. No, it was definitely a hand.

Wanda sat back in her chair, crossing her arms as you looked up from your meal, putting two and two together about the source of the phantom touch. As the hands you were feeling slowly gripped your ass, before one of them sneaked around to the front, dragging nails on the inside of your thigh, you sat forward, now paying her the attention she wanted.

"I thought we said we'd wait and see about you using your powers, I still don't know if I want to", you said sternly, although you couldn't deny that it did feel good to have her touch you, it always did.

"Actually, you said we should wait, I don't remember agreeing", she smirked, knowing that you were enjoying it at least a little bit. Who did you think you were, lying to a telepath.

"Wanda, we're in public, even if I wanted to we can't", you retorted.

"If you wanted to? I don't even need to read your mind to see how turned on you are, sweetheart."

It was with that remark that you became conscious of how heaby your breathing had gotten as the ghostly hand on your thigh had switched from scratching your sensitive skin, to lightly grazing its fingertips along you. You were also starting to regret wearing such a low cut dress, because without even looking you could feel the heat in your chest and you knew it would be bright red, making your arousal clear. Even if you had chastised Wanda for acting like this in public, the idea of her taking you right there in front of everyone as they were none the wiser had definitely turned you on.

You stopped your thoughts in their tracks, knowing exactly who would be listening to them.

"Fine", you huffed, "you can use your powers on me all you want tonight, but can we please just hurry up and leave".

She smirked wide enough that even the Cheshire Cat would be envious, but you would never be so lucky as to just get what you want right off the bat.

"Oh, baby, you know I'd love to take you home right now."

You knew there was a "but" coming that was going to make your night pure torture.

"But"- there it was- "we ordered dessert at the start of the night because you just couldn't keep your eyes off that brownie you saw the girl at the next table with. Since you wanted it so badly we can't leave, kitten, it wouldn't be fair."

Damn you and your stupid brownie.

The subsequent hour of eating and waiting for the bill could've been a lot easier if it weren't for Wanda wanting to find out just how turned on she could get you from the opposite side the of table. Her seemingly normal conversations about art, music and politics were only made to make it seem to others like you were a normal couple, completely masking all the times you nearly choked as she would dip a single finger inside of you, without ever moving a muscle.

The small moans that did manage to escape were explained away to those beside you as your dessert being particularly good, making the brownie a very popular choice for the tables around you.

Despite your little "When Harry Met Sally" moments, you eventually got her out of the restaurant and home without any major incidents, but she was certainly testing you, edging and teasing you the whole way home while never taking her eyes off the road. She had playfully threatened to use her powers on your before and you were really starting to wish you had let it happen sooner, maybe ignoring her and being a brat was actually the way to go.

Whatever calm facade she had put on in the car was gone as soon as you crossed the threshold of your house, as she chased you up the stairs to your bedroom, catching you in the hallway just outside it and pushing you against the wall, her eyes glowing red in a way you had only ever seen when she was angry. She kissed you hard before quickly moving to work on your neck, biting down on the skin, making you hiss. Your reaction only seemed to spur her on further, as she started sucking on the sensitive flesh, claiming you with the marks she was leaving behind.

Had your eyes been open you probably would've noticed the red glow coming from her fingers, before feeling an unfamiliar buzzing sensation in your underwear, making you shriek from the surprise and the pleasure.

"What, you don't like it, princess?", she teases, grinning into your neck as she continues her assault on it, her hands holding you tightly in place, just how she wants you.

The moan you gave in response clearly wasn't a good enough response, as the hand that had been holding your jaw moved to your neck, squeezing tightly as she pulled back from you, eyes still glowing a bright crimson colour.

"Answer me, sweetheart", she said sternly, tilting her head and squinting at you in a way that made your stomach turn.

Wanda had always been the more dominant one in your relationship, but tonight was different, she was cocky and arrogant and you loved every second of it.

"I love it, baby, p-please don't stop", you begged.

"Is this what I have to do to get your attention, are you that much of a little slut? I take you out for dinner, get you flowers and dress up for you and yet it takes me fucking you under the table to get your attention? If that's what it takes then I'll fuck you until you can't walk,", she growled deeply into your ear and all of a sudden you knew you were really in for it tonight, "but I don't think you deserve to actually feel me, baby, so I'm going to have some real fun with you tonight"

Dragging you into your bedroom, she forced you down onto the bed, hovering over you and kissing you while the vibrations continued, getting stronger with each passing minute, making your moans dirtier and louder as she upped the pace. What you couldn't see was her hands summoning what she needed to punish you for the night.

Just as you could feel yourself getting close to your release, she felt it too, stopping the vibrations over your clit, before standing up, pulling you upwards with her to strip you down. She stared right at your naked form while she stripped herself in front of you.

Sick of her just gawking a you, you sat forward and began kissing her stomach and tracing your fingers along her sides and thighs, looking up at her for approval, only to be met with a smirk and her hand in your hair, before she grasped it tightly in her fist, making your gasp again.

"Don't try and be good for me now, baby girl, it's far too late for that", she snarled, getting right in your face, only to push you back onto the bed and rolling you so you were lying on your stomach, almost instinctively smacking your ass as soon as she saw it.

You felt her straddle you as she leaned down and lifted your face off the duvet, wrapping a ball gag around the front of your mouth and tying it tightly behind your head

Moving down your body, she tied your wrists together with hand cuffs, and then did the same to your ankles, looping the cuffs on your feet around those on your wrists to hold your legs and arms in the air behind you. She grabbed the intersection of the cuffs and lifted you by it surprisingly easily, turning you to face the chair in the corner of the bedroom.

You whined against your gag as you saw her walk away towards the chair, swaying her hips as she went, just rubbing it in further that you couldn't touch her, but she clearly felt even more confident than usual.

She lay across the chair so her legs draped over the arm rest, her eyes no longer glowing as she had composed herself again, knowing exactly what she had planned for you.

"Ready, sweetheart?", she said with a smirk, knowing full well you couldn't answer.

You immediately felt a finger dipping inside you and the buzzing you had felt earlier resuming, making you struggle fruitlessly against your restraints, before you felt a second finger enter you roughly. Her pace was relentless inside you, curling the phantom digits just enough to hit your sweet spot every time, making sure you groaned into your gag.

"Look at me, princess", she said softly, as if she wasn't ruining you from across the room. Her hand began to sneak down between her legs as she watched you struggle and heard the filthy sounds she was forcing out of you.

The sight of her only made the feeling more intense, as she stared deep into your eyes with a grin before you felt a third finger enter you. After all the edging you tried to keep quiet, hoping to hide how close you were to cumming as she upped the speed of the vibrations on your clit even further.

Just as you reached the edge, you felt all the sensations stop, making you groan loudly at the feeling of being empty.

"Oh, baby, you don't think I can feel what my fingers are doing? Don't you realise I can feel you getting tighter and wetter for me? You think I wouldn't notice you cumming all over my fingers just because I'm not physically doing it? Even if your thoughts weren't so loud I'd know exactly what you were doing, princess."

She continued touching herself as you felt something new trying to enter you. You knew the feeling as soon as it dipped inside of you, unsure whether you were actually feeling her strap on, or if she had just created it with her powers. You didn't have time to think about it before you felt its full length being forced inside of you, stretching you further even than her fingers had. The feeling on your clit too had been replaced, what was once a vibrating sensation was now the softness of Wanda's tongue, licking small circles on your nerves and sucking it gently between her lips.

You wanted to close your eyes and just feel everything she was giving you, but the sight before you was just too good too miss, Wanda's head now thrown back over the arm of the chair, panting aggressively as her eyes started to glow again.

She picked up the pace of her tongue and the strap on, making you drool onto the ball gag as you got close again, so desperately needing to let go for her. Knowing how much she was enjoying the show, you rocked your hips back onto the strap on as much as you could, and let every moan come out onto the gag, getting louder with every thrust.

"Come on, princess, c-come for me. Come for mommy", she demanded.

Her commands sent you over the edge, forcing your body to convulse in front of her as you shrieked louder into the gag than you thought possible, coating her strap with your cum as it forced itself deep and hard into you, while her tongue suckled desperately at your clit.

She continued long as you had come down, forcing you into another orgasm, despite your protests and trying to wiggle out of your restraints, while she kept touching herself, not allowing herself to cum until she was satisifed with her work.

As your body slumped down hard against the bed, legs and wrists still bound, you looked up through hooded eyes to see Wanda desperate to cum, sweat dripping down her soft skin and her red hair sticking to her forehead as she let out deep, throaty moans. You groaned to get her attention, wanting to badly to be the one that got her off.

"You wanna help mommy cum, baby?", she asked breathlessly.

You nodded enthusiastically, as she stood up and came towards the bed. Too happy with how helpless you were, she decided to leave you all tied up for her as she removed the gag on your mouth, before lifting one leg onto the bed so you could place your head between her legs easily.

Feeling how desperate and swollen her pussy was, you wrapped your lips around her clit quickly as you felt her hand go to your hair, holding your head close to her.

"That's it, sweetheart, such a good little mouth for mommy. Just a little more, baby, make mommy cum nice and hard for you."

You knew she was the one in control, but the desperation in her voice, hearing her nearly beg made you need to feel her cumming even more. You quickened the movements of your tongue, drawing circles on her clit in the way you knew would make her head spin, sucking it between your lips harshly, forcing a scream out of her mouth.

Her grip on your hair tightened as she spewed praises for you, cumming with one final scream, throbbing between your lips as she threw her head back, panting as she felt you kiss her clit softly as she came down, stroking the side of your face as she felt you tasting her cum.

"Good girl, you're my good girl. You made mommy so proud, sweetheart."

You smiled as you looked back up at her, wriggling against your cuffs so she would get the hint, which she did immeditately, leaning down over you to unlock them. She moved your exhausted body up the bed towards the pillows, pulling the lotion from the other side of the room while sitting on the bed beside you.

Wanda smiled down at you as you rolled onto your back, kissing your lips softly as she took your hands and started rubbing lotion into your wrists to soothe them, kissing your hands as she went. She admired the marks on your neck and collarbones as she massaged your wrists, watching you fall asleep quickly after the night's activities.

It was then that she silently hoped you never behaved again.

[study-coffee-chicago]

Seasons of Med: Season 1: Glad I Didn’t Make it that Far (A Halstead brothers + Halstead sister! imagine)

Trigger warning: Talk of eating disorders

As always, I do not own any quotes from Chicago Med 1x04 that show up here!

Your age: 14

Jay's age: 28

Will's age: 30

"We should go to a movie," your best friend Emma suggested when you were sitting on the playground of Central Chicago's elementary school one summer day.

You had been coming here since it was pretty close to your house to be able to read without worrying that your dad would show up drunk. He wasn't violent, he was just rude, asking why there was no food and when you explained it was because he wasn't going shopping, he'd scoff and tell you to get a job if you wanted to eat. It wasn't your fault; you'd tried to get a job, but no one would hire you because you were only fourteen. Most places required that you be at least sixteen and the occasional place would let you start at fifteen, but only with very limited hours. And, the places that let you start at fifteen were too far away for you to walk to. You'd have to take the El...and that would turn out badly if Will and Jay found out, even though your dad wouldn't care in the slightest.

"Em, I don't have any money. I'm literally rationing out my feminine products at this point."

"Hey, just tell me if you need any. Me or my mom can get you some. Oh, and some neighbors of mine run a little kettle corn company. They're looking for some extra help on the weekends and they'll pay you under the table. I can give you their number if you want."

"Really?" Emma smiled and nodded. "Yes, please! And, you're the best."

But, what you didn't tell her was that you hadn't eaten since yesterday since there was barely anything in your house and that your cramps were killing you and because of all this, you were feeling nauseous.

"Let's go to the movies. My treat."

"I can't let you pay for me."

"Yes, you can. Best friends help each other out. Now c'mon, let's go." You sighed and closed your eyes as you stood up. "You good?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just dizzy."

"You wanna go home?"

"No, no I'm fine. Just seasonal allergies from all the pollen," you lied.

"Okay, let's go."

You started to slow down as you got closer to the movie theater. "I'm so excited to see The Longest Ride!" Emma squealed. "Scott Eastwood is just mwah!"

"Yeah, but he's- he's a lot-- I gotta, I gotta sit down," you stuttered, starting to feel more lightheaded and seeing your vision become blurry at the edges.

"Okay, let's get to the front where you can sit on the curb."

You slowly started to make your way there, but it was too late. "Em- Emma," you slurred as you tried to reach for her as your legs gave out underneath you, and then everything went black.

"Y/N!" Emma yelled as she squatted down next to you and pulled out her phone.

Just then, everyone started running out of the theater shouting something about a shooting.

***

Will's pager went off as he was eating with Natalie and the rest of the team from a taco truck outside of Chicago Med. And, everyone else's pagers were going off, too, making it sound like alarm clocks that were all set for the same time. Then, Maggie ran outside.

"Shooting in a movie theater! Mass casualties! It's about to get crazy!" she yelled to the doctors and other nurses. "EMTs are four minutes out!"

Not even a second after she finished her sentence, an ambulance pulled up with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

"Check that!" Will yelled as he threw his food in the trash can. "They're here!"

Then, all of them sprinted into the hospital, their main focus now being saving as many lives as possible.

"Another maniac gone crazy in a theater," Will said as he put something over his scrubs to keep them from getting blood all over them. "Is this the world we live in?"

***

You slowly opened your eyes to be met with the white ceiling and an IV in your arm. You groaned. "Where am I?" you asked as you rolled over to see Emma sitting on a bench. "Are we in an ambulance?"

"You don't remember?" Emma asked.

"You passed out, sweetie," a female paramedic told you as she put a blood pressure cuff around your arm. "Luckily for you, we came pretty quick after hearing about the shooting."

"The shooting? There was a shooting?"

"In the movie theater," the paramedic answered you. "You were lucky you didn't go in."

"Guess so."

Your eyes widened as you realized they were probably taking you to Chicago Med. You couldn't let your brother know that the most likely reason for you passing out was that you hadn't eaten since yesterday. They'd freak out.

"Am I good to go when we get to the hospital? I feel fine." You were still nauseous, but that was better than being passed out.

"You passed out, we need to get you checked out at the hospital."

"But I feel fine," you protested.

"I understand that, sweetie. But you need to get checked out anyway to make sure that there wasn't something that made you pass out other than the heat."

"She's right, Y/N," Emma said. "You need to get checked out."

You huffed. "Fine." Maybe Will would be too busy to even notice you were there. And, you figured your dad wouldn't pick up his phone, so you could just sneak out undetected when the doctors and nurses weren't watching.

When you got in, you were met by Natalie. "Y/N?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

"It's nothing. I just passed out. I'm fine, really."

"Shoot," Emma said. "My mom's here to pick me up. Said she doesn't want me here because of all the press since I'm not hurt. I'm sorry."

You waved your hand. "It's fine. Hopefully, I'll be getting out here soon, too. See you later."

"Bye, Y/N."

"If you passed out, you're not fine, Y/N," Natalie said.

As you were wheeled past a trauma room, you saw your brother. Luckily for you, he was too focused on his patient that he didn't notice.

"Want me to get Will?" Natalie asked when she saw you glance in there.

"No! I mean, he looks really busy and I'm not dying. They should be the first priority."

"Okay, well I'll have Maggie call your dad because after all the standard tests, if I need to do more, I'm going to need your dad's permission since you're still a minor."

"Okay."

"Hey, Maggie," Natalie called, "Do me a favor and call Y/N's dad for me. I just might need permission to run some additional tests."

"You got it."

You got on the bed in the treatment room and allowed Natalie to listen to your heart and lungs. "Were you part of the crush?" she asked. "Did you get the wind knocked out of you? Is that why you passed out?"

"No, I got dizzy before we could get inside. I felt nauseous, too, but I think that was just from period cramps."

"The paramedics said you were dehydrated and that they had to administer an IV. Have you been eating and drinking properly? I know it's hot and that can cause you to pass out. Other than that factor, have you been eating and drinking normally?"

"Yes," you lied.

"Okay, I'm just going to need to get your height and weight and other vitals before we continue."

You nodded and followed her to where she took your height and weight. She wrote it down and you started to walk out, but she stopped you. "Uh, Y/N, come with me."

You followed her to the doctor's lounge where she handed you her sweatshirt. "Why are you giving me this?"

"You bled through your shorts. There's free pads and tampons in the bathroom if you don't have any on you."

You nodded. "Thank you."

"Meet me back here once you're finished."

"Okay."

When you got into the bathroom, you took all the pads and tampons you could fit in your shorts pockets after you had finished changing your dirty one.

Now, it was time for your great escape. No one would see you; they were all too busy treating other patients and worrying about the press.

You were almost out into the waiting room, but then a voice stopped you.

"Y/N?"

Shit. Jay.

You stopped in your tracks but then continued walking.

"Y/N, I know you heard me. Come back."

You sighed and turned around, hoping you wouldn't have to spill all the secrets about what's been happening at home.

***

"Poor guy," Erin said as she and Jay exited Sharon Goodwin's office. "He thought what he was going was right."

"I probably would've done the same thing if I were in his shoes," Jay agreed. "I mean, if I thought I saw a guy with an AR-15 in a movie theater and then thought the shots from the movie were coming from the gun, I sure as hell would've acted. Not that my service weapon can shoot bullets off as much as my sniper, but I'd try. Try and save civilians."

"Jay." Erin placed a hand on his arm. "You're not in Afghanistan anymore."

"I know. There's just some sick and twisted people in this world. Why would someone go into a theater with a leaf blower anyway? With all the mass shootings that have happened, that's probably the stupidest idea I've heard."

"I agree with you. But he's just a kid. He didn't ask to get shot. But, if I were in that teacher's shoes, I'd probably do the same thing and draw my gun."

Jay furrowed his eyebrows as he saw someone walking towards the exit of the ED and towards the waiting room. She had shorts and a t-shirt on with a burgundy sweatshirt tied around her waist. Jay wouldn't have given it a second thought, but he knew you had the same gray beat-up Converse because he had gotten them for you for a birthday present two years ago and you always wore the same polka dot scrunchie when you needed your hair to be in a bun and needed it to be tight.

"Is that?..." Erin trailed off.

"I think so," Jay answered, quickening his pace to catch up with you before you got out of the ED and he lost sight of you due to the number of people in the waiting room. "Y/N!" he yelled.

The girl he thought was you froze for a split second and then continued walking, this time at a faster pace. That was all the confirmation he needed. "Y/N, I know you heard me. Come back."

You sighed and turned around.

"I was going to tell you," you mumbled once you were in front of him.

He scoffed and crossed his arms across his chest. "Yeah? And when were you planning on calling Dad? You know you're a minor so a parent needs to be notified."

"Y/N!" Natalie yelled. "I thought you left, I was so close to getting security to look for you. We couldn't get a hold of your dad and were going to call Jay since he's your secondary emergency contact, but he's here now, so if both of you could follow me then that'd be great."

"You got it from here, Erin?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, text me if you need me to pick you up and bring you back to the district."

"Will do. Don't let Voight bust my balls because I skipped out."

"I'll tell him Y/N had a medical emergency. He'll understand."

"Thanks."

You, Natalie, and Jay walked back into the treatment room where Natalie had been previously treating you.

"First of all, let me just say it was not a medical emergency," you told your brother.

"Oh yeah? Then why are you here?" he asked.

"I was feeling nauseous."

"And you came to the ED just because of some nausea?" He raised an eyebrow. He so knew you were lying.

Meanwhile, Will was walking out of a trauma room after Rhodes brought a victim up to surgery.

"Hey. You hear?" Reese asked as she walked up to the doctor. "The kid at the theater, the one who got shot, he didn't have a gun, he had a leaf blower."

"What?" Will asked, stunned. He had worked on that kid and knew that it wasn't good.

"Yeah, turns out it was some kind of prank." She was about to turn around to leave, but then stopped. "Oh, and your sister's here. Treatment one."

"What? Why?"

"I think she passed out or something. Dr. Manning's in there with her right now."

"Thanks, Reese."

Will barged into your treatment room. "So, she comes into the ED and nobody has the common decency to even notify me?" he asked rhetorically.

"You were busy treating other patients, Will. I was going to get around to it eventually," Natalie said.

"Natalie, please just finish explaining what happened. Or just start from the beginning because Will's here now," Jay suggested, not wanting to have to break up an argument between the two doctors.

Now it was Will who was the one who crossed his arms over his chest.

"So, Will, what happened was that Y/N passed out. She was almost inside the movie theater, but she passed out, so she didn't go in."

"The movie theater where the shooting happened?" Jay asked. You nodded. "Jesus, kid, if you would've gotten inside, you would've given both me and Will heart attacks."

"Sorry. But, I'm glad I didn't get that far."

"Yeah, us too," Will agreed. "So, why'd she pass out?"

"Can I talk to you two for a minute? Outside?"

They nodded. "Be right back," Jay told you.

"So, what's going on?" Jay asked once the three were safely outside of the room and out of earshot from you.

"Have you noticed anything strange with her eating habits lately? Any skipping meals? Going to the bathroom right after meals? Not wanting to eat?" Natalie asked the two brothers.

"No, nothing," Jay answered. "Granted, we don't eat with her a lot because she lives with our dad and we both live on our own."

"Okay, because since her physical check-up a month and a half ago, Y/N's lost fifteen pounds."

"Fifteen?" Will asked, flabbergasted.

"I thought she looked smaller, but I just thought I was hallucinating from lack of sleep because of all the crazy cases we've had," Jay said.

"No, she's lost fifteen pounds since her last check-up," Dr. Manning reiterated.

"So, what are you saying?" Will asked. "Our sister's anorexic? Bulimic?"

"I'm not saying any of those yet. But, I talked to Dr. Charles while Y/N was in the bathroom and she said to try and have her eat something, like the greasiest thing you can find in the cafeteria, and see what she does. We'll even leave the room after to chat and I'll have Maggie keep an eye on the bathrooms to see if she goes in there. If she refuses to eat or freaks out over it, then we might be dealing with anorexia. If she goes into the bathroom after, we might be dealing with bulimia. Or, it could be a combination of the two or just possibly her trying to lose weight. Has she ever mentioned wanting to lose weight to either of you?"

"No, not all," Jay answered. "Even when we went out after her last day of school, which I think was about two weeks after she had that physical, she ate a ton and she didn't go to the bathroom right after."

"But you did go home right after," Will pointed out.

"Yeah."

"But, with some bulimics, if they know that the food has already been digested, they won't try to purge. And, it sounds like the food had time to digest."

"Alright, I'll go grab her a bacon cheeseburger."

"And a side of mac n cheese," Jay suggested. "She loves that stuff." Will started to walk out, but Jay stopped him once more. "Can you pick me up a bacon cheeseburger, too? I'm hungry."

Will rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but just so you know, you're paying me back."

"I know," Jay said and then went back inside the treatment room.

"Where's Will?" you asked.

"He's getting you some food. How does a bacon cheeseburger and mac n cheese sound?"

God, your mouth watered just at the thought of the bacon cheeseburger alone. The juicy patty, melty cheese, and crispy bacon, yum. And, you hadn't had a burger in who knows how long.

"That sounds amazing honestly," you answered.

"Okay, good because that's what Will's getting you." He paused. "Is everything okay with Dad? Everything good at home?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," you lied.

"Did someone tell you that you were fat at all?"

Shit, he knew I'd lost weight. "No," you answered. "I guess I'm not just mindlessly snacking when I'm doing homework anymore. It's not like I'm trying to lose weight."

No way were you going to tell him that there was rarely any food in the house, not here anyway.

"Okay, good," Jay answered. Then, he looked out of the room to see Will talking with Natalie. But, they were close enough that you could hear them, so you turned your attention to the two as well.

"Hey, Nat," Will said, carrying a bag with three cheeseburgers and a side of mac n cheese.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I'm thinking, I only live a mile from you. So, when you go into labor, call me. I'll drive you here."

"Thanks, but...you know it could be three in the morning, right?"

"Sleep's overrated anyway."

Then, Will made his way back into your treatment room. "I wanna take you to the hospital," Jay mocked. "Very smooth, Will, very smooth."

"Will's got a crush, Will's got a crush," you said in a sing-song voice.

"Would you two knuckleheads keep it down? And no, I do not have a crush, I was just trying to be helpful."

Jay scoffed. "Yeah right. You totally have a crush on her, man. Now, give us the food and we won't say anything."

***

"Everything seem normal?" Natalie asked Will as Jay was still sitting with you after the three of you had finished your food.

"Yeah, she ate a little faster than normal, but we waited an hour and she didn't even get up to go to the bathroom, so I don't think that's the issue. She told Jay she wasn't trying to lose weight. She said she just wasn't mindlessly eating anymore when she was doing homework. But, I don't think that could make her lose fifteen pounds. Do you?"

"No. But unfortunately, given her height and age, she still has a normal BMI, so we can't do anything."

"Yeah, I get it. Me and Jay will keep an eye on her. It was around this time when our dad just kind of checked out on parenting us."

"What do you mean?"

"He wouldn't cook or really help us with anything. But, it was okay because our Mom was still around, so she'd cook and help us with things. He just thought we were old enough to deal with stuff on our own."

"Things that a teenager without another parent still needs help with."

"Exactly."

Jay poked his head out of the room. "Everything good? Y/N's asking when she can leave."

Will rolled his eyes. "Wonder where she gets that from."

"Shut up."

"I'll grab you the discharge papers," Natalie said and then walked to a nurse's station.

Just then, Will's pager went off. "I gotta go." He fished into the pocket of his scrubs. "You can take my car home and then just come pick me up from work and we can drive back to the district to get your truck. That way you don't have to bug Erin."

"Thanks, man. Go save some lives."

Natalie came back and handed him the discharge papers.

"Thanks, Nat. Me and Will will be sure to keep an eye on her, maybe have her over for dinner once or twice a week to monitor her eating habits."

"That's a good idea. Good luck with all this. Will told me that this was around the time that your dad clocked out on you, so maybe pay him a visit when Y/N's not there and check? I don't know if that's something you'd want to do or not."

Jay nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

"No problem."

Jay signed the discharge papers and then walked back into the room. "Good news."

"We can leave?" you asked excitedly as you sat up.

"We can leave," he confirmed.

***

You got out of the car and stood on the stoop of your house, Jay right next to you. "Jay," you started, "I have to tell you something."

"Okay, what is it? You can tell me anything."

You opened your mouth to tell him that there was barely any food in the house and that your dad refused to buy you feminine hygiene products because, by his logic, if he had another son, he wouldn't need to buy them, so you should buy them yourself.

But then, the door opened, revealing your dad.

"I was just going to say thanks for staying with me at the hospital. I would've left if you didn't stop me."

"You're welcome."

"Care to tell me where you've been?" your dad asked.

You knew he was just putting on a show because Jay was there.

"I was at the park and then me and Emma were going to see a movie and then--" your phone buzzed, alerting you that you had a text message.

"I've got it from here, Y/N. Dad, can I come inside?"

Pat Halstead nodded and you walked inside followed by your brother. "I'm gonna go upstairs and change," you said.

As you walked past the kitchen, you noticed a bunch of grocery bags, all of them full. He must've gone grocery shopping. At least you didn't have to worry about food for the next few days. But, you didn't know if he just did that because he finally listened to his voice mails and heard that you were in the hospital and were worried that they were going to find out that he was an unfit parent or because he finally came to his senses and realized that he was still responsible for you because you were a minor, which meant he needed to have food in the house.

As you walked upstairs, you checked your phone. It was Emma's neighbor asking if you could start helping her with kettle corn this Saturday. You responded with a yes because now, if your dad went back to not buying groceries, at least you'd be able to buy some for yourself.

A/N: Sorry this one was so short! It's kind of just to foreshadow the next installment of this. And, in the next installment, I will probably combine Seasons of PD: Season 4 and Seasons of Med: Season 2 because the storylines kind of go together. Anyway, thank you for reading! Please reblog/like and comment and tell me what you think! As always, if you want to be added to the taglist, just tell me and I’ll be happy to add you!

taglist: @theambracer88 @virtualreader @kelelas-life @celyndavies @brookerz122493 @musicismyescape27 @anotherfan07 @thexplosivegirl @dreamingwithlens @xoxmariaxox @onechicago18 @iamasimpingh0e 

[tails89]

Are you still taking prompts? I was thinking about a 5+1 Buddie or a domestic. Thank you so much 🏵️

Thanks for the ask! I went with domestic for this one 😄

Send me a bingo prompt

You can also read this on AO3

~~~

“Hey kiddo.” Eddie holds the door open while Chris climbs up into the car. “How was school?”

“It was good.” Chris settles in his seat and waits for his dad to climb in behind the steering wheel. “We all got seeds in science. We planted them to see how they grow. I can’t wait to see what my plants are.”

He goes quiet, and when Eddie glances up at the rear-view mirror he can see Chris's reflection, staring out the window, deep in thought.

“Hey, dad?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Do you think we could have a garden at home?”

Eddie pulls a face remembering the plant Pepa had given him as a house warming gift when they first moved to LA. She’d called it low-maintenance, insisting that even Eddie couldn’t kill it but by the time he’d finished unpacking the plant had been black and crumbling.

“Dad?”

“I don’t have much of a green thumb,” he admits.

“Oh, yeah.” Chris frowns. “You kill everything.”

“Hey, not everything!”

Chris gives a little sigh and goes back to staring out his window.

“Oh.” He brightens, straightening in his seat. “Maybe Buck can help us.”

“You’ll have to ask him,” Eddie says. Knowing Buck, the answer will be a resounding yes. It seems he’ll take any excuse to come over and hang out with Chris, which works for Eddie because he’ll use any excuse to invite Buck over.

It’s almost embarrassing, to be crushing on someone this hard. Eddie’s an adult, not some lovesick teenager. He shouldn’t be getting butterflies at the thought of seeing Buck.

“Can we ring him when we get home?” Chris asks.

“Buck’s working kiddo, but I’ll send him a text and see if he’s free on the weekend.”

~

Buck is so completely in, because of course he is and Eddie falls just a little bit more in love with him.

Eddie is woken early on Saturday morning by the sounds of movement in the house and the loud beep of the coffee maker. He pads out to the kitchen to find Buck, pulling things from cupboards to make breakfast.

“I gave you a key for emergencies, Buck.”

“Your cooking is an emergency,” Buck calls back to him moving to the fridge and peering inside. “You have eggs, right?” His head disappears behind the door. “Found ‘em.”

Eddie leans against the doorframe and watches Buck move around the kitchen with ease. He doesn’t need to ask where everything is kept having spent enough time in there already.

He stands with his back to the doorway, cracking eggs into a bowl. Eddie wants to go to him, to wrap his arms around his waist and hook his chin over Buck’s shoulder.

He shakes off the mental image and steps into the room.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Buck turns to look at him, rolling his eyes and fixing Eddie with a fond smile.  “I’m making breakfast.”

Eddie has nothing to say to that. He’s certainly not going to try and argue when the alternative to Buck making breakfast is whatever cereal he can find in the cupboard.

He makes a vague ‘go ahead’ motion with his hand and sets about making coffee for them both, sliding one mug along the counter towards Buck before taking a seat at the table.

“Buck!” Chris appears in the doorway, one hand on the wall for balance. “What are you doing here?” He rushes up to Buck, wrapping his arms around the firefighter.

Eddie hides a snort behind his coffee mug at Buck’s over the top pout. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten.”

“Oh, the garden!” Chris’s face lights up in joy. “You’re still going to help right?”

“Of course I am,” Buck reassures him. “Our garden is going to be amazing. You just need to promise not to let your dad touch it.”

“Because it will die?”

Buck nods sagely. “Because it will die.”

“Hey.” Eddie reaches with his foot to poke Buck in the leg. “What is this? Roast Eddie day?”

“Are you going to deny it?” Buck asks, whipping back around to face Eddie. There’s an easy grin on his face and he’s laughing as he shoos Chris away from the stove top. It makes Eddie feel giddy with affection and he has to look away before he’s caught staring at Buck’s lips.

~

After breakfast Buck takes Chris outside. They stand side-by-side on the barren back lawn to check out what they’re working with.

Eddie watches shamelessly from the kitchen while he washes up. There’s something about the easy way Buck interacts with Chris that makes his heart pound in his chest. With the window open he can hear them both talking as they make their plans.

“What are you thinking, boss?” Buck has his phone out, tapping away as Chris makes suggestions.

“We should have a vegetable garden next to the house,” Chris says, pointing.

“Vegetable garden?” Buck teases. “Since when do you eat your vegetables?”

“I like some vegetables,” Chris argues.

“Yeah, like what?”

“Carrots—”

“That’s one.”

“And tomatoes.”

“Okay.” Buck taps his phone against his leg, brow knit in thought. “Oh, what about strawberries?”

Chris nods. “I like those.”

“It’s a start,” Buck tells him, writing it down. He glances up, meeting Eddie’s gaze through the window. “You want to come to the hardware store with us?”

“What for?” Eddie asks, opening the window fully.

“Well, do you own a shovel?” Buck asks. “And we’ll need a hose or watering can, soil--"

“There’s plenty of dirt out there,” Eddie says, waving his arm vaguely.

Buck laughs. “And that right there is why Chris is in charge of the garden,” he says. He ducks down to whisper something to Chris. Eddie doesn’t hear it but, judging from the smothered giggles, that’s probably for the best.

“Sure, I’ll come,” Eddie tells them, thinking at least if he goes with them, they can’t tease him behind his back.

~

They tease him to his face, loudly and with no remorse.

Eddie doesn’t mind. Their excitement is infectious and he can’t help getting swept up in it.

They leave the store with more tools than Eddie knows what to do with. He wouldn’t even know the names of half the things that end up in their cart, let alone what they’re used for. Still, Chris and Buck seem happy with their purchases and that’s enough for Eddie.

He leaves them to it once they get back to the house. It’s been made very clear that his help is not needed and Eddie has enough to do inside.

The life of a single parent means there are always chores to do around the house, but then Eddie will hear a laugh—Chris or Buck—and his attention will be pulled back out to the yard.

Eddie holds out for another hour before giving up the pretence of being busy inside. The day is warming up, so he stops by the kitchen to grab Chris's water bottle and fills another for Buck before heading out.

“How’s everything going out here?” He hands Chris his water and tosses the other bottle to Buck. “No ones chopped off any important body parts?”

“We’re making good progress, right Chris?” Buck takes a long drink. He caps the water bottle, dropping it in the grass. “Hopefully we’re done before it gets too hot.”

In one quick movement, Buck pulls his shirt up over his head, using it to wipe the sweat from his face before letting it drop to the ground.

Eddie should look away, should look anywhere other than at Buck. But with that one simple action Eddie has lost all capacity for rational thought.  

“Uh...” He manages to tear his gaze away, but doesn’t miss the knowing smirk that tugs on Buck’s lips. He files that observation away to overthink about later. “You’re not overworking Buck are you?” He asks Chris, latching onto his son for a distraction.

“No.” Chris digs holes in the fresh dark soil. “Buck dug up the grass but I helped spread out the dirt and he said I could decide where the plants go.”

“Oh, so Buck is overworking you then?”

Chris grins and continues digging.

“I guess I’ll leave you both to it then,” Eddie tells them, but he doesn’t head back inside. It’s a nice day, and even if they don’t want his help Eddie is content to sit on the sideline and watch while Chris carefully decides where to put each plant they bought.

~

They spend most of the day outside, pausing only to eat lunch.

When they’re done, Eddie sends Chris to have a bath and then offers Buck the use of the shower. While the water is running, Eddie looks through his closet for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that will fit Buck, leaving them outside the bathroom.

Once everyone is clean, Eddie orders pizza. It’s not quite dinner time, but he can see Chris probably isn’t going to last much longer.

He’s guesses correctly. Chris crashes out on the couch halfway through the movie he picked to watch while eating. There’s still a slice of pizza on his plate.

“I think you broke him,” Eddie teases. He pokes Chris gently on the arm but his kid doesn’t even stir. “You completely wore him out.”

“More like he wore me out.” Buck blinks sleepily across at Eddie. “This gardening business is hard work.”

“You can crash here if you want,” Eddie offers. “You can drive home in the morning when you’re not so tired.”

“Mm, thanks,” Buck mumbles around a yawn.

Standing, Eddie scoops Chris up into his arms. The boy is all limbs and he realises with a start that soon his kid is going to be too big for this.

“Give me a minute to put Chris to bed, and I’ll grab you a blanket from my room.”

Buck doesn’t say anything. His eyes are closed, his head tipped forward, chin propped on his hand.

Eddie quickly tucks Chris into bed then goes to his room, rifling around for the blanket Buck usually borrows when he stays the night.

Buck hasn’t moved from his spot when Eddie returns to the living room. He lingers in the doorway, his eyes drawn to Buck’s sleep rumpled hair then down to the sliver of skin revealed where his shirt is riding up.

“I can feel you staring.”

Eddie flinches in surprise.

“Sorry,” he mutters, moving over to the couch to hand Buck the blanket.

“’s okay.” A sleepy smile pulls at Buck’s lips. “You do it a lot.”

That stops Eddie in his tracks.

“You, uh, noticed that, did you?”

The smile pulls wider. “I always notice you Eddie.”

Eddie’s mouth goes dry. “You do?”

Buck opens his eyes, his gaze fixing on Eddie’s with an intensity that steals Eddies breath.

“Always.”

Eddie licks his lips, trying to draw some moisture back into his mouth. His heart pounds at the idea of what he’s about to say.

“You know, my bed is much more comfortable than the couch.” He offers Buck his hand to pull him to his feet. “Just sleep,” he adds quickly. “But maybe in the morning we could talk about... more...”

Buck nods slowly, more awake now. “I’d like that,” he says. “More. If that’s what you want?” He accepts Eddie’s hand, rising from the couch.

“I want everything with you.”

[rudystopit]

Let the Games Begin

[Gojo x F!reader]

summary: gojo is a lab assistant who flirts with everyone he meets. this particular day, he decided that you're the perfect person to tease that day.

warnings: nsfw, college au, public sex, unprotected sex, overstimulation, and fingering.

wc: 2k

everyday since the beginning of the spring semester, the lab assistant has not missed a day of flirting with the girls. the professor sees it but does nothing to stop him. he thinks because he got piercing blue eyes and snowy hair that he's hot shit and girls will fall all over him. well he's right... for the most part. girls fall for him and they love it when he gives them an ounce of attention. and well he is attractive. it's just he's also arrogant and cocky.

you walk into your lab ready to start whatever dumb thing your professor has planned. you sit a one of the long tables and read the instructions. you notice the white hair man saunter up to you.

"go away gojo," you mumble.

"i'm hurt. i thought you loved me, y/n" he dramatically holds his chest.

"id love to kick you in the face," you look up and he's inches away from your face. his hand holds your chin.

"you're eyes are so beautiful, y/n" you smack his hand away and look back at the paper. "is that a blush i see?" he sits across from you. "aww does y/n have a secret crush on me?" he laughs.

you sigh and walk over to get the materials. other students start walking in and gojo gets called away.

'thank god that idiot is gone,' you thought as you collect a beaker and some chemicals. you walk back to your table and start measuring out what you need. you pour the blue liquid into the cylinder and look at the little lines. you started to feel like someone was watching you.

you yank your skirt down. hopefully the feeling didn't come from someone accidentally seeing your panties. suddenly your phone vibrates the table. you glance at it.

you looked around and you saw the white hair asshole sitting two tables behind you. you glared at him and pulled your skirt down more. you went back to the experiment. you measure out the clear liquid. you wrote down how much of each.

you slowly pour the blue into the beaker. then the clear. you sat and watched the reaction. you wrote down what you saw then went to the sinks to wash and dispose of the liquids.

while at the sink, you feel a large body press up against you. his hands resting on the counter at your sides. he leans down to your ear and whispers, "wanna do our own experiment?" you finish cleaning the beaker and cylinders. you turn face him. he smiles and starts to lean down to you. you smack him square across the face.

"i was just playing. damn y/n," he pouts as you walk about to your table. you sit down and do the reading attached to the lab. you answer the stupid questions and write up the conclusion. you hand it in and see people leaving.

you always stay behind and clean up after labs to help out the professor. you start by picking up all the beakers and cleaning them. there about 15 students and some partner up so it wasn't a lot but they've gotta be really cleaned. you hum while washing the beakers.

"that was pretty rude of you, you know," he complains while sitting on a desk.

"i don't care," you answer. he jump down and walks to you. he leans against the other sink. you "accidentally" splash him with water to get him to move.

"damn you y/n," he says with a smile. "now i'm wet," you giggle to yourself. "oh you think it's funny?"

"yeah," you laugh. he fills a beaker with water and throws it at you. today was a shitty day to wear white... his face goes red and he turns away. "you dumbass," you turn off the water and go to your bag. you always kept a hoodie in there in case one of your classes gets too cold. you unbutton the shirt and fold it. you feel his eyes locked on your body. you didn't hear him walk up to you so when you felt large cold hands grad you side, you yelped. you quickly pull on your hoodie. "back off perv,"

"you're the one who strips right in front of me," he smiles.

"i thought your could handle yourself," you spit. you grab your bag and start out the door.

"help me clean up the mess you started!" he yells.

"no, piss off loser," you continue out the door. you hear his footsteps chasing you. you booked it. you hid in the stairwell to catch your breath. you sat down on the cold floor.

you hear the door open. shit. you get up and run up the stairs. you hear him sprint up the stair after you. you just challenged the star track player to a race. you were never going to win.

you open the top door. the old lab rooms. it was dark so at least you could hide. you sprinted down the hallway and went into one of the room. you slide under the professor desk. you scrunched into a ball and waited for your impending doom. you hear the stairway door slam down.

"y/n you know i'll find you!" he yells. you giggle to yourself. you would never admit it out loud but you were having so much fun.

you heard his footsteps in the other rooms and moving of desks and slamming of doors. it was getting pissed. you phone vibrated.

you turn your phone completely off so he couldn't hear the vibration. you hear him walk into the room you were in. he walks around and pushes a few desks then he closed the door. you moved from your spot and checked to see if he was still there. if he wasn't you were gonna make a break off it and run across campus.

you shuffled to see around the filing cabinet part of the desk. you felt a hand grab your foot. shit. he pulls you up from under the desk.

"gotcha!" he pins you down with your hands above your head. his knees on either side of your hips. "you tricky little bitch," he says through gritted teeth. you could help but laugh. his hand goes around your throat. you instantly stop.

"gojo," you try to say. "ok you won, get off."

"you really think we're done here, y/n?" he smiles. your heart is beating out of your chest. you try to push him off. "i've liked you since you started here. i always tried to act cool and try to get your attention but no you hate me. you actually hate," tear form in his eyes.

"i don't hate you, but i really don't like you right now," you say. he lets go of your neck and wrist. you sit up and slide away from him.

he sat there silently crying. you watched him. after a few minutes of thinking you push yourself closer to him. you wipe his eyes. he leans into your hand. his large hand lays flat against yours. he pulls it off his cheek and he kisses your palm then your wrist.

"i'm sorry," he whispers.

"for what? paying hide n seek?" you laugh. he gets a light chuckle. he leans in to kiss you. You melt into his sweet lips. you cup his cheek as he crawls on top of you. he looks down at you. his snowy hair covers with beautiful blue eyes.

his thumb swipes over your bottom lip. you instinctively open your mouth and he slides it in. you suck on his thumb while keeping an innocent look. his eyes flicker from your lips to your eyes.

"goddamn," he whispers. your hands move to his belt buckle. your fingers slowly undo the belt. he smiles down at you and pulls his thumb out of your mouth with a pop. he pulls his belt off and loops your hands threw them. "this is for the little stunt you pulled," he growls into your ear.

you unbuttons his shirt and shrugs it off. you eyes dart around his toned chested. he moves off of your lap and in between your thighs. his hands disappear under your skirt. you feel his fingers loop around your panties.

he drags them down your legs and shoved them into his pocket. he reaches up and opens your mouth. you stick out your tongue, a long string of spit drops onto you tongue.

"swallow," he watches. "open," you do so and he puts his middle and ring finger into your mouth. you swirl you tongue around them. "good girl," he whispers and pulls out his wet fingers.

his hand goes back up your skirt and you feel his fingers spread your folds apart. you bite your lip. his fingers drive into your warm hole. you squeeze your eyes shut. his free hand pushes your skirt up. he hold it up for you to hold. you take into your hand.

he watches his fingers get eaten up by your hungry pussy. his thumb rubs small circles in your sensitive clit. he bites his lip as you squirm under his touch. his eyes drifted away from your heat and up to your face. red and twisting in pleasure. his fingers speed up as he watches your mouth fall open in a silent scream.

"keep making those faces, baby," he coos as he curls his slender fingers graze the spongy walls of your pussy. the slick began pooling in his hand and, the noises his fingers made inside of you, made him harder each second.

you pressed your knees together to help the knot in your stomach not to snap. his large hand grabs your knee and pushes it open. "not on my watch," he chuckles as his fingers spread apart, to stretch you open. you moan out his name and you feel him tense you.

you repeated his name over and over and over again till the knot in your stomach snap. his fingers keep thrusting in you as you rode out your high. you grip onto his wrist to make him stop but he keeps going.

he pulls out his long fingers. you look at him through half lidded eyes as he sticks out his tongue and slides them into his mouth. he smiles and moans out. his eyes flutter close and he slides them out with a pop. "so good," he smiles. everything has to be a damn show with him.

you knee him in the side. his hand drags up you leg and squeeze your ass. he smirks as he grabs your hips and pulls you onto his lap. he looks up at you and kisses your chest. "so beautiful!" he coos. you glare down at him.

"do you ever shut up?" you look down at him. he's hands let go of your hips and they slip to his waistband. all you heard was unzipping and shuffling. his tip pressed against your sensitive pussy. you bite your lip. his hand grips your jaw.

"don't hold them in, darling, i want to hear how good i make you feel," he whispers.

his cock goes into your entrance and you eyes close shut as he pushes himself deeper. your head falls to his chest as you let out a breathy moan into his ear. his hands go to your hips and he rocks you back and forth. you let out cute little moans that make him go wild.

you start rolling your hips to let him lean back on one hand as your hands are tied and on his chest. your moans alone make his want to come. your pussy clenches around him in the best ways. he hits every part of you that send you over the edge. he lets out a small moan as you feel your second climax forming.

his hand travels up your back and grabs a fist of your hair. he pulls it back to look at your face while you come. "good girl, come on my dick," he watches as your face twists in pleasure and how your mouth falls open. your breath hitches with every trust from the man below you.

he moans out and comes in you. the lights of the room turn on. he stops what he's doing and his hand flies over your mouth.

"what is going on here!" someone yells at the door.

"extra credit!" gojo yells back.

"gross, get the fuck out of here," the man yells back, flicking off the lights.

gojo's head falls onto your shoulder. he starts laughing. "wanna take this back to my place?"

[auburnaudry]

Surprises make everything better! -Brock Boeser

A/N: This is my favorite writing so far so I hope you like it as much as I do. I actually enjoy writing now so if anyone has any request let me know and I will try my best! Or if you wanna talk about/have questions about any of my writing let me know I would love to chat about it.

Side note: I’m really sorry, I have zero idea how to give credit to the creator of a GIF so if anyone knows how to do that and can help me figure it out that would be much appreciated? Thank ya <3

Summary: Brock canceled your original plans for the summer and you are really upset about it! To make you feel better he sends a surprise to you apartment.

Word count: 1552 words

“Hey bubs” you answered the FaceTime call coming in from your boyfriend. You were sitting on your bed with your laptop open besides you, scrolling through tiktok on your phone before Brock had called.

“Hey, what are you up to?” From the looks of it, Brock was currently in his car driving somewhere.

“I’m suppose to be in class right now but I can’t focus so it’s kinda just playing as background noise at the moment. Whata bout you? Where are you going?” Since your school work is online this semester you find it increasingly difficult to pay attention to your classes and often find yourself FaceTimeing Brock during them.

“Baby your suppose to be paying attention.” He chuckled giving you a look “Anyway, I’m on my way home from practice but I really missed you and wanted to hear your voice” he wasn’t always open about his feelings while you were away at school so hearing him say that made your heart ache a little.

“Awe, I miss you more Brocky. Only a couple more weeks till we get to see each other.” Since the Canucks didn’t find themselves in a playoff spot this season, Brock was going to be done with hockey around the same time your finals were starting.

“Actually baby I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” His expression changed from happy to serious. “I actually think I’m gonna head straight to Minnesota when the season ends. It’s way too complicated to figure out what I’m going to do with the dogs and I’m also really sick of all the traveling” you were really caught off guard by his words because just last week he was so excited to come and see you.

The original plan was that Brock was going to fly out to NYC, after his season ended, to finally see you and keep you company during finals week. And after, he was going to help you pack up your apartment and drive with you back to your family’s home in Connecticut. Then you would spend a month hanging out with all your friends and family, before flying back to Minnesota for the rest of the summer to do the same with his loved ones.

“Oh” was all you could manage. You were kinda hurt that he didn’t want to put in the extra effort to come and see you, after not being able to see each other in person for almost 4 months.

“I’m sorry bubs, it’s just a lot, but after your finals you can fly straight out to Minnesota, it’ll only be one extra week” now he was starting to irritate you.

“But I wanted us to have time to spend with my family because we always see yo-.... you know what never mind it’s all good” you were trying your best not to sound bitter and to see his side of things but you just couldn’t. “I actually have to go this class is important and I should probably be paying attention, I’ll call you later.”

“Y/n please don’t go, we should talk about this.” Brock tried

“No it’s fine I’m not upset. I’ll talk to you later.” You tried to convince him.

“Alright, I love you please call me later.” He pleaded

“K bye.” And with that you hung up. It was actually the first time you hung up without saying you loved him back. You obviously still loved him but you were so upset with him, the words just couldn’t come out. Now you felt guilty about it, what if something happened and the last thing you said to him was ‘k bye’. Before you could get lost in your thoughts though, a text came through.

Brockstar 💫:

You didn’t say it back 😔

Y/n/n 🍑:

I love you

Brockstar 💫:

Do you mean it? 🤔

Y/n/n 🍑:

More than anything

Brockstar 💫:

Good cause same.

You were happy he noticed and wasn’t afraid to say something to you about it. It made you feel like your love was wanted and needed. But even with that, you were still very upset with him.

...

Y/n/n 🍑:

Have a safe flight buddy, I love you 💕

Brockstar 💫:

Call me buddy one more time...

Y/n/n 🍑:

Or what?... buddy

Brockstar 💫:

😐 you are impossible

Love you I’ll text you when I land... Good luck on your final today your gonna crush it I know you got big brains

Y/n/n 🍑:

Thanks buddy

Brockstar 💫:

Uggggg 🙄

Today Brock was flying back to Minnesota and you were starting you rigorous final schedule. Although you were still a little sad that he wasn’t coming to see you, you understood that he just wanted to get home after the season, so you were trying not to hold it against him too much.

You continued on with your day, continuing to prepare for your final that started at 1:00pm. You were definitely ready to get it over with. This one was the toughest of your finals and you were glad it was your first.

1:00pm came faster than expected and before you knew it your were starting your final. It was actually going a lot better than expected and you were on track to finish an hour early, not taking up the full 4 hours.

When you finally finished, you took a giant breathe of relief. You sat down on your couch and thought about what you wanted to eat for dinner that night, you had skipped lunch so you were starving.

You were soon pulled from your thoughts by a knocking on your apartment door. You went to look through the peep hole and saw a man walking away. You waited until he was most of the way down your hall to open the door and peek out. There was a beautiful edible arrangement sitting on the ground with a note attached.

You quickly picked it up and brought it into your apartment, closing the door behind you. You placed it on your kitchen island and took your phone out to take a picture before digging in. You grab the note first and read it out loud to yourself.

I’m sorry I’m the worst boyfriend on planet earth, so I hope this makes up for it or at least makes you feel a little better. I know it’s your favorite so if you don’t feel better, than I know I really messed up this time.

Hopefully still the love of your life,

Brock

Y/n/n 🍑:

You will obviously always be the love of my life no matter what you do.... thanks babe it actually did make me feel better

Brockstar 💫:

Shit it came already? I didn’t want it to get there till after your final! I’m sorry if you were interrupted😬

Y/n/n 🍑:

I finished my final an hour early! It came at the perfect time.

Brockstar 💫:

Ok good 😅

Y/n/n 🍑:

Thanks bubs I love you 💕

Brockstar 💫:

Love you too

You started to pick at the basket but had to stop yourself so you wouldn’t over eat before dinner. While trying to figure out what you were in the mood for you heard another knock at your door.

You rolled your eyes because this was the second time you were interrupted while trying to figure out what you were going to eat for dinner. Before you got to the door the person knocked again so you forewent looking out the peephole and just swung the door opened, slightly agitated but the impatience of whoever was at your door.

When the door fully opened you were met with Brock standing in front of you with all his luggage and holding your favorite flowers.

“Hi!” He smiled as the words left his mouth. You automatically started sobbing because you were so happy to see him. You put your arms around his neck locking him into a hug, accidentally smushing the flowers a little in the process.

“What are you doing here?” You cried into his neck.

“You didn’t actually think I would fuck up our entire summer plans did you?” He chuckled as he placed the flowers on top of his suit case so he could properly hug you back.

“Uggggg why would you do that to me? I was so sad.” You said still gripping him as hard as you could, afraid to let go.

“I’m sorry baby, I thought a surprise would be more fun.” You giggled into his neck.

“Yeah so much fun” you said sarcastically “I’m just glad you’re here.” You said pulling away to give him a kiss.

“Me too” after pecking his lips another time, you helped him bring his bags inside. You didn’t have plans for the night but you were starving so he suggested getting takeout and bringing it back to the apartment.

You agreed because you were drained from your exam and weren’t in the mood to dress up and go out. You also wanted to spend as much time in Brocks arms as humanly possible and being in the privacy of your apartment would allow for that.

You spent the rest of your night between the sheets making up for the 4 months you lost. You still couldn’t believe that he was actually with you in your apartment but you cherished every moment of it.

[thecandywrites]

Zorroku and Peaches Part 11

Sorry about the delay. But here's Part 11.

Zorroku and Peaches 

Part 11

“So? How did things with Cattle Baron Gronk go?” You asked Zorroku, Nar, Shuzug and Kakazi once you reappeared outside of your home as you all made your way to where the receiving tents were erected just inside the gate. You took Ori back who was keen on being held by you and growling at anyone other than Zorroku who tried walking too close to you. It cracked you and Zorroku up to see her so possessive.

Shuzug and Nar practically talked over each other, trying to tell you every little thing as Kakazi just laughed at how overeager they were to tell you everything. Nar was particularly proud to give you a copy of all the herds and their genetics that they had gotten as you gave it a thorough glance. You appreciated the fact that there were several lines of genetics that they had gotten which was what you wanted. You appreciated that it was in Shuzug’s handwriting, showing that he had recorded it all. Then you folded it and put it away as you continued to listen to Nar and Shuzug. 

“How’d it really go?” You muttered to Kakazi and Zorroku on the other side of you as Nar and Shuzug suddenly started arguing about exactly how much each cow was. 

“Silug and Winug thought paying for them was retarded, Yalak wanted to get the very best stock Gonk had and Grushnug and Murnug’s patience wore thin.” Kakazi answered. 

“And you?” You asked Zorroku. 

“I just tried to make sure Shuzug and Nar didn’t get gored by the bulls.” He answered. 

“So who negotiated?” You asked. 

“It was a joint effort.” Zorroku answered.

“By?” You prodded. 

“Shuzug insisted that we get at least a few from several lines so for future breeding purposes, the genetics would be varied which made the most sense, so we went with that.” Zorroku answered before you grinned and looked from him to Kakazi. 

“He negotiated didn’t he?” You asked him as you nodded to Zorroku. 

“Yup he and Shuzug did the majority of it. Silug and Winug didn’t even bother because they thought the prices for each cow was stupid. Yalak and Nar of course would have sold off the treasury trying to get a few of the really good ones and the twins just wanted to get a pen of cows and call it done.” Kakazi answered. 

“Well thank you very much for being patient and listening to the one person who already knew what I liked and wanted while not letting him indulge in any death wishes today.” You thanked Zorroku appreciatively. 

“Hey!” Shuzug complained. 

“If Zorroku hadn’t been there holding you back, how badly would you have gotten gored to death?” You asked. 

“I wouldn’t have gotten gored at all!” Shuzug contested as you raised a brow and fixed him with a look then looked from him to Nar. 

“Maybe just a little.” Nar admitted that got Shuzug to frown. 

“Thought so.” You nodded and grinned before you got to the reception tent. 

“Viszla Belladonna!” Everyone from Mountain Blizzard greeted you happily as you got to meet and get hugs from everyone as you handed Ori back to Zorroku so you could hug everyone fully as everyone got introduced to you and you got introduced to everyone else as you did your best to keep track of who was married or related to who. 

“How did you like your things so far?” Rhotan asked hopefully. 

“I loved them, every single little thing is beyond perfect. I’m so grateful to you for keeping track of it all for me all these years.” You thanked her graciously and gratefully.  

“It’s no trouble at all. I’m just so happy and relieved you get to enjoy it. Mama said that you were a bit overwhelmed so we have the second half still in the carts that can be unloaded whenever you’re ready.” She answered. 

“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I don’t mean to be ungrateful for any of it, it’s just a lot to take in all at once.” You apologized. 

“Oh, like I said, it's no trouble at all. You’ve lived a simple life with humble means. We knew once you finally got reunited with your inheritance that you would most likely feel overwhelmed by it all. But the fact that you want to go slow so you can give yourself a chance to get acclimated to every little thing so you can appreciate it all - is really wonderful actually. It makes it all worth it for me.” Rhotan reassured you sweetly. 

“Thank you so much for understanding. You have no idea how much that means to me.” You thanked her and hugged her again. 

“Of course Honey. And if you can give us about a week, we can get all of your tops altered to fit your new size. Which won’t be much trouble at all. In fact a lot of your much nicer outfits are still unstitched just so that they can be fitted to you before they were fully finished, and those are with your second half of the inheritance. Your other clothes in the first half, the general half- I tried to get a general size that should have been able to adjust to fit you how you’ve needed it to.” Rhotan specified. 

“And it’s been perfect, thank you so much.” You thanked her again before your uncle Dastaneh came over to squeeze a hug in and steal you away from his sister Rhotan. 

“Gosh you look like your mother, and you have a twin? It’ll be like there’s three of her here. May the gods help us all.” Dastaneh happily teased as he hugged you next.

“Oh just wait till you see all of us together, it’s going to be a sea of red and soon you won’t be able to tell any of us apart.” You laughed.  

“True, now’s the time to really notice what you’re wearing so we can tell you apart from everyone else.” He chuckled before you got to meet Cilanthe too who welcomed you with equal warmth that her husband did. 

“Wow you grew up from the last time I saw you.” Drashaneh noted. 

“I think you were only this tall.” Drashaneh said as he put his hand closer to the ground, gesturing that you must have been very little, barely a little kid.  

“It’s ok, you’ve had an entire clan to run and you’ve been needed at home. So of course it would be hard for you to come out all the way to White Rock to see me and everyone else. I promise I won’t hold it against you.” You reassured him. 

“So I’m still trying to piece together how you never managed to get away from White Rock up until now.” Cilanthe asked curiously. 

“Just busy with day to day life. White Rock was just always home for me until the gods needed me here for Ori’s sake.” You readily excused as you readily got Ori back from Zorroku. Since Ori was trying to lean out of Zorroku's hold so she could be held by you again. Then you put her back into your mother’s sling across your chest before she settled down again. But only before Kakazi tried to inch closer before Ori turned her head and growled and grunted and kicked at him again. Which got everyone to laugh. 

“She’s a jealous one isn’t she?” Drashaneh noted. 

“Yes she is. See, watch. She’s happy with her dad.” You noted as you stole into Zorroku’s side which got Ori to coo and babble happily before you left him and tried to do the same thing with Kakazi and Ori did it again. She did that growling grunt and her face scrunched up angrily as she tried to reach out and hit him or push him away and off of you and kick at him too. 

“Ok, now let’s try Shuzug.” You suggested before Ori simply frowned up at him, she didn’t grunt or growl but she instead did her best to ignore him altogether before she had the same reaction to Nar too. But with Kann and Yalak, she had the same reaction she did to Kakazi. But she was ok with other women. 

“She’s just really selective about who she likes and doesn’t like.” You shrugged, even though you were secretly pleased with Ori’s reactions to the other guys and happy to use her as an excuse to not be close to them.  

“Well maybe she just instinctively knows who her parents are.” Cilanthe grinned. 

“Probably.” You smiled before you went back over by Zorroku, both to keep Ori happy and to keep yourself happy too. Then you sat down in the chair next to Jaseeneh between her and Zorroku as you talked with others and caught up with everyone. Like it was a family reunion that you got to come to for the first time. Jaseeneh and Zorroku both helped you keep track of who was who and remember everyone’s name as the cubs and the wolf pups walked around, getting picked up and petted by everyone. Cilanthe marveled at the wolf pups the most since they reminded her of the dire wolves they used alongside the mammoths. But these wolf pups were for common wolves, not the massive dire wolves they knew so for her, it was like holding newborn pups. 

Then the eagles signaled that the family was close as you found your feet to go to the door of the tent to see if you could see them with Shuzug and Yotul before you caught sight of them. 

“Bulabulabula!” Yotul uncharacteristically called out in a loud call when she caught sight of Bula on horseback when she and the others crested the hill. 

“Yolo-Yolo!” Bula called back before she kicked her horse into a dead run to get there as fast as she could, crossing the distance in only a few minutes as Yotul left the tent to run out to meet her.

Bula had to have her horse sit down practically stop in time for her to practically jump off the horse as they tackled each other and hugged each other as tight as they could as they were all instantly crying yet laughing at being reunited. You walked out with Silug and his full brothers and sisters to meet Khagra and his family. Then Yotul introduced her sons and daughters to her sister as Khagra and his sons and daughters and daughters in law dismounted and met everyone while you happily greeted everyone in your family, happy to be reunited with them. 

“So who’s this?” Your family asked as they looked at Ori who seemed happy to see them and had no problems at all with your brothers or your father as even your younger sisters were happy to smile and coo to Ori who happily cooed and squealed in delight back.  

“This is my daughter. She was failing to thrive because she has food allergies. Her mother died in childbirth. And the woman who had been nursing her, her favorite foods were the ones Ori was allergic to. So she is actually three months old but she’s still only the size of a newborn. So, Crowthu’s mother knows some magic and was able to bless me so I could nurse her and care for her the way she needed to be cared for.” You explained. 

“Aww, that’s so sad for her, but sweet of you to do.” Your family praised. 

“What’s her name?” Your mother asked.

“Well that’s a long story that I’ll tell you guys later, but I call her Ori for short.” You carefully answered. 

“Ok, hi Ori, aren’t you a dollbaby!” Your mother cooed to Ori who happily cooed and jabbered back before she reached for your mother. Then you took Ori out of her sling and gave her to your mother to hold, which Ori was very happy to be in her name’s sake’s arms as your mother happily held her first grandbaby, even if she was adopted. 

“There you are Bella. Oh bless you child for being so brave and coming here and finding Yotul.” Bula thanked you as she gathered you up into her arms. 

“You’re welcome. When I saw her and seeing the family resemblance, it was hard to miss. Especially when her sons spoke Yowl when it’s mixed with their Pregu. Only Typhoon Breaker, as far as I know, speaks Yowl.” You explained. 

“Well the fact that you found her and returned her to me, I can’t thank you enough.” Bula thanked you. 

“We should make her a Bronsha.” Shuzug suggested to his parents, remembering Bullard’s previous promise to you.  

“Oh absolutely.” Khagra and Bula readily agreed. 

“Only if each member of my family can be Bronsha’s with me.” You proposed. 

“Of course! Of course! For bringing my family back to me. Of course.” Bula readily agreed. 

“But what about all the salt?” Burquen asked in a low murmur to her mother in law.  

“What about it? None of that has mattered for the last decade. Besides, that was settled years ago. They can keep the salt as their own inheritance for all I care.” Bula rebutted Burquen. 

“But it’s eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds of salt!” Burquen and her sister wives exclaimed through thier gritted teeth. 

“If all you care about is salt, then you can trade your own belongings for it. All of that salt was never a real prospect anyway. My family is returned to me this day. How can you only care about some goddamn salt for a day like this?” Bula rebuffed her. 

“Which son is this one married to?” Yotul asked Bula with a frown. 

“She was married to my eldest son Bullard. But he died a couple of years ago when we had a war against Iron Mammoth.” Bula answered.

“Well I know of quite a few young men in Mountain Blizzard who would happily give you all the salt you want in exchange for your hand in marriage.” Yotul offered to Burquen. 

“You guys are in alliance with Mountain Blizzard?” Bula asked in surprise. 

“My husband, Crowthu- the father of all my children, his sister is married to the Clan Chief of Mountain Blizzard so we’re sister clans.” Yotul explained. 

“Oh, did they really lose the salt vien?” Bula asked. 

“They found another one. That’s how Thunder Herd got the salt for me to begin with.” You piped up as Yotul nodded in agreement with that explanation as Silug and his brothers and sisters gave each other a meaningful look when their mother didn’t contradict you. 

“Oh good.” Bula smiled in relief. 

“Actually it’s such a fortuitous thing that you’ve made them all Bronshas, I take it that’s Black Wolf White Rock’s version of Bellan?” Yotul asked. 

“Yes.” Bula nodded in confirmation. 

“Well most of Mountain Blizzard came just to meet Bella too and now that you’ve made them all Bronshas, they can all return to Mountain Blizzard now.” Yotul insisted before Bula and Khagra seemed to pause and hesitate. 

“Especially since Jaseeneh is here. As is the Clan Chief, Drashaneh and his wife, Cilanthe and their family and all of my mother’s adopted siblings and their families, they’re really happy to be reunited too.” You added. 

“Oh, she’s here?” Bula asked as you could see the worry etched on her features before you stepped closer to Bula and Khagra. 

“Sharn the Magnificent was Clan Chief Crowthu's first and very beloved wife and Clan Chieftess before Yotul was. And Sharn’s own sons and daughters are there in that receiving tent waiting to meet you. As far as I know, they will only know you as Yotul’s family ok? Don’t worry, my mother and I will still protect you, should things get uncomfortable. Especially now that we’re truly and completely free right?” You murmured in Kitch for them as they blew out a breath of relief and nodded in agreement and understanding. 

“Because if you bring up the salt to them, they will slaughter us all where we stand.” Bula threatened her family, in particular to her daughters in law in Kitch who seemed to accept that and nod in agreement. 

“Regina, as far as I’m concerned, you and every single member of your family have been free to leave ever since Sharnarrah was lost. All your years of service have been more than worth any weight in salt.” Bula insisted to your mother. 

“I know, thank you.” Your mother graciously smiled. 

“Come meet the rest of Yotul’s family.” You invited everyone who came into the tent as Crowthu greeted with grace and kindness as your mother was happy to see all of her adopted siblings and their families and her mother. 

“Mama!” Your mother greeted Jaseeneh as she had handed Ori back to you to hold so she could embrace her mother completely as you couldn’t help but cry tears of happiness to see your mother and your grandmother reunited after 20 years of being apart. 

“Please, let me introduce Sharnarrah’s children, this is her oldest son Zorroushku, then this is Glashnarrah, this is Marnaustah, then the twins, Grushnagah and Murnagah.” You introduced as your mother’s tears came back anew as she eagerly accepted and hugged them tightly, realizing the significance of their names. 

“Gosh how you two have grown in twelve years.” Your mother praised the twins with a bittersweet smile. 

“You look really familiar.” Crowthu noted when he met your mother. 

“We only saw each other from a distance in Avlar. You were preparing for my sister Sharn’s funeral. You came in to see me holding your twin boys and you thought I was one of the nursery maids and I didn't have the heart to correct you. The funeral was beautiful and Sharnarrah was so lucky to have you as her mate.” Your mother supplied.

“Wait, you’re Sharnarrah’s sister? The one who was captured and held as a prisoner?” He asked. 

“What? No. Never. I was never taken captive. And I was never held as a prisoner. I married my husband who was Clan Chief Khagra’s Master of Spirits and I have been Khagra’s Master Harvester for the last 20 years. I’ve been directing where the clan plants what crops to rotate them so that the ground never becomes depleted. And I’ve earned more than my fair share of wages for such work. Besides, I have a natural green thumb, I’ve always loved playing in the dirt.” Your mother readily excused. 

“But Sharn said you were a field slave.” Crowthu contested. 

“Oh, no. I was never a field slave. She never did like Micha. She never liked anyone I ever courted. Because to her, no man was ever good enough for me. She was always my big sister, looking out for me. That was clearly and obviously a huge over exaggeration. I mean for her to have such a high and prestigious honor of being a Clan Chieftess was amazing. But I was perfectly happy with my life where I was and who I was with. I was free to go whenever I wanted to. I just never did. I was happy and content to live a simple life with my family, without ever having to worry about a clan and it’s politics getting in the way of my marriage and my relationships with my children, as I’m sure you could appreciate that.” Your mother reassured him calmly and serenely. 

“Oh, but I…I wanted to come and rescue you.” Crowthu admitted. 

“I was never in any kind of situation I wanted to be rescued from. I came as soon as Sharnarrah sent for me, I’m just sorry I couldn’t make it in time. But at the same time, once I found out what she was dealing with, there was not much anyone could do.” Your mother readily and genuinely excused. 

“Oh, so why didn’t you accept your inheritance sooner?” Crowthu asked. 

“Becuase I didn’t want anyone in my family to be targets from any other who was stronger than us physically or had a higher status within the clan to feel that they were entitled to our belongings. So to keep any fights from ever breaking out in the first place, it was easier to live without and keep peace within the clan. We had everything we needed. Anything more- just would have been more problems. Surely as Clan Chief, peace within the clan is of utmost importance, is it not?” Your mother returned calmly. 

“You are very wise. It must be where Belladonna has learned her wisdom from.” Crowthu praised. 

“I only have the wisdom of my mother in turn to thank for that. Come, let us be friends and let’s celebrate this joyous occasion.” She encouraged him before everyone made their peace with that and went to the feasting tent. Then your mother’s family showed them their new homes and everyone in your family withdrew to get bathed and changed for the feast. 

“Yeah, I’m definitely moving to Mountain Blizzard after this.” Lilly insisted as she got changed into the nicest dress she had ever put on. Loving the sheening and shining silks and satins.

“You’re more than welcome to. I”m happy where I am.” You grinned as you sat down on the dressing couch and played with Ori as she got dressed. 

“What about you? Do you still have to marry one of Crowthu’s sons?” She asked. 

“I don’t know if I have to. I know which one I would pick if I did.” You answered. 

“Ori’s father?” She guessed as you beamed a smile back. 

“Good for you. I get a good feeling that he already adores you and obviously Ori is very partial.” She noted. 

“She is, thankfully.” You sighed in relief. 

“Yes you are. I’m so happy you don’t like anyone else. Because that gives me an excuse to stay away from them, yes it does.” You cooed to Ori who giggled and cooed back happily. 

“She is so cute. I’m mean she’s tiny, but she’s so cute.” Lilly said as she tightened the strings for her laced corset top. 

“Finally, I get some decent clothes.” Lilly appraised herself in the mirror, rather loving all the luxury and eager to be more decked out than all of Bula’s daughters and daughters in law combined. 

“I’m happy you’re happy.” You offered. 

“And I’m happy you’re happy. You were always the soft mother type anyway. Is that silk? Is that baby really wearing a silk diaper?” Lilly noted. 

“Yup. Ori was born premature, so her skin is super sensitive.” You readily excused. 

“Oof, she’s going to be an expensive kid.” Lilly noted. 

“I would happily clothe her in nothing but silk head to toe if it means she’s comfortable and happy. I can wear just plain cotton and be happy.” You shrugged. 

“I doubt Zorroushku would let that happen.” Lilly teased. 

“Well, actually, speaking of suitors. I have too many, would you mind taking a few of them off my hands?” You asked her. 

“Gladly.” Lilly smiled before she put on some really cute dancing shoes as you got an idea. 

“Hey do you know your way back? I have to take care of something real quick.” You remembered. 

“Sure thing.” She nodded as you excused yourself from her home and found Mama Arob. 

“Hey, I have another favor to ask of you.” You murmured to her as you pulled her aside. 

“Anything.” She readily offered. 

“You know how you looked at my probable future and I rejected it?” You asked. 

“Yeah…” She nodded. 

“Can you do the same for Lilly? Because if she will have a similar future, can you say that because we are twins, that our spirits are intertwined and that when you read for me the first time, you read for both of us combined? Like two drawings written on very thin- see through paper, overlapping on top of each other? But now that we are separated, you can see us individually a little clearer and it’s really her with the future of Clan Chieftess? Because I will not try to take another’s birthright from them. But she may be much more ambitious.” You pleaded. 

“Of course. I understand, don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.” Arob readily agreed.

Then your ears couldn’t help but be drawn to the conversation that Khagra, Crowthu and Drashaneh were having about you as Zorroku, Kann and Grecko seemed to be sitting and listening closely as it sounded like Zorroku had already proposed something before all three Clan Chiefs seemed to agree on the matter.

Then Crowthu called you over as you seemed to weave through the others to come over as you looked to Zorroku queationingly. But the reassuring smile helped you feel a little more calm and at ease about it. Arob came up on one side of you while Yotul seemed to come and stand on the other side of you while Bula was on the other side of her with Cilanthe being on the other side of her mother. 

“Were you men really discussing this poor girl’s future as if she didn’t have a right to dictate it how she wanted?” Cilanthe asked her husband pointedly. 

“Not in the way you think.” Drashaneh clarified. 

“Zorroku has suggested because you have unified all three clans, and revealed all three clans to be sister clans. To reward you by releasing you from the previous alliance agreement. You are Marfu to Thunder Herd, Bronsha to White Rock and Vizsla to Mountain Blizzard and have a home in all three. That you are free to choose where you live and are not obligated to marry any of my sons or anyone else's unless it’s by your own free choice.” Crowthu specified. 

“Oh. Good. I thought that was a given?” Cilanthe questioned. 

“We just wanted to make it abundantly clear, so that there was no mistaking it.” Crowthu assured his sister. 

“Good.” Cilanthe smiled proudly. 

“May I make a suggestion?” You requested. 

“Of course.” All of them answered eagerly. 

“Since all three clans are officially sister clans, we should still continue with the plans for the celebratory feast in a few weeks. I’m sure if all three clans pooled resources and supplies, and we invite every clan that is in alliance with all three clans so that everyone’s alliances maybe shared together. It would bring peace to the area. And with peace, comes stability and if people know that through all three clans and all of their allies, they are free to travel from one territory to the other to do business. So that instead of relying on raiding for income, trade and commerce will not only be more assured but much less risky. Too many lives have been lost in raiding and war as it is. I do not wish to enter into any marriage only to be at risk of being just another widow soon after. And if more and more territories are connected through peace and alliance, our mutual enemies will at least think twice, knowing that if they wish to target any of us, they will be messing and engaging with everyone and that may be a risk too much even for them and what goods we have will be protected. And surely the might of the mammoths from Mountain Blizzard, coupled with the swiftness of the horses of Thunder Herd and the viciousness of the wolves of White Rock will be enough of a deterrent.” You professed, as you recalled what Arob had seen earlier for when Zorroku would grant you- your freedom from the alliance agreement. 

“And if need be, Arob can read the same future she saw for me, and read it for any other daughter or grand daughter of marriageable age. That way the widows that have already lost their husbands, can remarry if they so wish as well.” You proposed as all three Clan Chiefs smiled and looked to each other before all three of them eagerly agreed to such a grand plan. 

“It’ll be done as you say.” Drashaneh offered as Crowthu and Khagra eagerly nodded their agreement to such a plan. 

“We should use the clearing in the woods that is in the middle between the Thunder Herd Clan lands and White Rock and Mountain Blizzard. Technically it’s neutral land. But if all three of our clans claim it as our own, we can all use it together, especially during hunting and gathering trips.” Arob suggested. 

“Perfect.” All three Clan Chief’s readily agreed. 

“That’s my girl.” Yotul smiled happily as she wrapped her arm around you, as did Arob. And even Bula and Cilanthe smiled happily at the idea before the dinner feast was done and the cooking attendants had brought the roasted horses into the feasting tent just as your family reappeared , redressed in the splendor now befitting them.

Then everyone came and partook it as everyone sat and mingled together as you happily had Zorroku sit and eat with you as he made sure that not a single onion was within reaching distance for you as even he didn’t eat any. 

“I’m the one nursing her, you don’t need to stop eating them too.” You reminded Zorroku as you sat next to him at the feasting table. 

“If you can’t eat it, I won’t eat it either. It’s only fair.” Zorroku calmly insisted which made you grin wider. 

“But there are sweet onions here. Surely those will appeal to you.” You contested. 

“I will try them with you when Ori is no longer nursing.” Zorroku smiled smugly, still undeterred as all you could do was smile fondly at him back. 

“I love you too.” You murmured to him so softly, only he could hear you. He nearly choked on his piece of horse, because he had not expected for that to be your response. 

“But..I…you…” He stuttered and stammered once he recovered from nearly choking on his food as you pat his back through it, to make sure he didn’t actually choke to death. 

“Really? It’s pretty obvious the feelings are mutual and being returned. Case in point- you won’t eat onions because I can’t eat onions?” You questioned. 

“It’s not fair to you.” Zorroku defended. 

“And you give me the best tent in camp besides your own mothers? Which is only because it holds a very high sentimental value? And you fill it with just as much luxury in one night that my Mountain Blizzard family has accumulated in my entire lifetime?” You posed. 

“It’s what was available. Yet when you had little, you still shared what you had. Why shouldn’t such generosity be returned to you in turn?” Zorroku reasoned. 

“And you listen to the one person besides myself who knows me and my likes the best. And you negotiated for something that either half your brothers thought was worthless, and the other half would have been taken for a fool. All because I wanted it, you went out of the way to not only get what I wanted, and what will serve the clan best. But will also you listened to me and bought them instead of just stealing them. Which means in the future, we can continue to deal with Cattle Baron Gronk successfully and he will in turn want to do business with us. And you both had the patience for the negotiations and enough patience to keep peace both for the negotiations and for among your brothers. Which half of your brothers were content to put either the bare minimum effort into it. And the other half thought that what was important to me, was a waste of time, energy and expense, despite however you personally felt about it. Which says much more about you than you realize. As well as reflect on your brothers to show me exactly what kind of men they are. But more importantly, what kind of man you are too.” You noted appreciatively. 

“It made the most sense to listen to Shuzug who had the most experience besides yourself and your brothers. And Shuzug is your friend. I can’t have him going off and getting himself killed over something stupid and avoidable. I’m just happy that you’re happy and satisfied.” He explained. 

“And it also speaks very highly of your character that instead of grabbing for power and glory, you’re happy to be patient and wait until you’re given both when you’re ready and capable of wielding both responsibly.” You pointed out, not wanting him to downplay his own importance in his actions.

“My family needed me more than the clan did at the time.” He tried to defend as he grew more and more bashful with your praise. 

“Which shows that your priorities were right to be that way.” You smiled appreciatively. 

“Thank you.” He smiled bashfully. 

“You’re welcome. I also really appreciate the fact that when you were given that responsibility, you’re more concerned with making sure every warrior in your warband gets home safe and sound than you are about raiding actual goods. So that even if you and your warband don’t raid that much, at least all of you get to live to raid another day, which in turn, turns your warband into the most loyal and most highly prized among those with perspective, maturity and sense.” You grinned. 

“Thank you. There’s enough widows and fatherless children as it is. I don’t need to be adding to it.” Zorroku returned. 

“Which is very noble of you. I really appreciate it that you prize peace in your own house over a harem of wives and concubines for the chance to have many sons. And you prize children of both genders instead of just sons. You appreciate the fact that sons are a pride but daughters are a blessing.” 

“Because they are.” Zorroku readily agreed with a nod.  

“You are your mother’s son. And I mean that in the best way possible. You are content with little yet handle more with grace instead of lording your power over others and lead by example instead orders.” You praised as you grinned slightly more mischievously as Zorroku’s cheeks just got darker and darker as he got flustered yet pleased and was graciously taking your praise. 

“I try. I wish you could have met her.” Zorroku smiled bittersweetly at his mother’s memory. 

“I did. She left enough of herself behind in you and your siblings for me to do so. And she still wrote to me and left me many priceless gifts. The two most important ones are on my shoulder and beside me.” You smiled fondly as you kissed Ori’s head before you nodded to him. 

“You need to stop talking like this.” Zorroku warned in a soft murmur, that only you could have heard him. 

“Getting too flustered?” You guessed. 

“Among other things, yes.” Zorroku nodded. 

“Ok.” You nodded. 

“So I had ideas about the herds.” You noted as you wiped off your hands and got the paper out and discussed how you wanted to breed the next few few generations of the herds that you just got as Zorroku noted how you seemed to have a very good understanding about genetics in general and not wanting for any to be inbred, not even for future generations. 

Meanwhile Arob was talking in depth with Lilly and getting a feel for her and grinned when your previous idea seemed to be held true. She had the ambition and the hunger for both having fun but also out to get the most prestigious and wealthy match possible. 

“Here, let me read you child.” She offered as the two snuck away to her tent where Arob used her powers to peer into her future and could see that Lilly did indeed have the same future you did. But instead a mountain of food, it was a mountain of medicine with the riches and glory. And the idea that you had had earlier, Arob suggested it to Lilly who readily agreed to it. 

So when they returned Arob made a point to “quietly” inform Yotul, Crowthu, Cilanthe, Drushaneh. Khagra and Bula that when she had read for you- your spirit and your twin’s sister’s were so intertwined, that when she read for you, she really read for both you and her. And how because you had rejected the Clan Chieftess by unnatural birthright, that that destiny was actually that of your twin so that your rejection was natural because that was against your natural character while it was in character for your twin. And that it was really Lilly that had the grand prospects. But that your mind and heart had already been made up to not take anything away from anyone who had natural birth right. All with a pointed look down the table to see you and Zorroku going over herd lineages with Ori in Zorroku’s arms between you and him which made Crowthu happy to see as Lilly proudly struted down the line and once again took her place next to you which pulled your attention back to her. 

“So? What did you see?” You asked her curiously. 

“The same thing that apparently showed for you. A mountain of riches and glory with a mountain of medicine behind it and that I too have the future of being a Clan Chieftess if I want it.” She proudly preened. 

“Good for you. If that is something you want, take it with both hands.” You encouraged her. 

“Why would you ever not want such a thing for yourself?” She asked you. 

“Because I still remember what it used to cost Bullard. And that is not a price I am willing to pay. And I do not wish to put a price on the priceless.” You smiled as you subtly rocked and swayed with Ori as she was resting her head on your chest and still smiling at her dad before the desserts were brought out. 

“Everyone, I have an announcement to make.” Mama Arob began before everyone quieted down to look to her as she stood from her spot where she had been sitting. 

“Earlier, both Clan Chief’s agreed that Belladonna was free from the alliance agreement. However, when she first came here, I read for her. However, twins are always blessed to be closest to each other, both physically, mentally but especially spiritually. And when I read for Belladonna, I was actually reading her sister instead. And now that Lillyanna is here, I was able to distinguish one from the other more clearly." Arob began.

"Belladonna recognized her sister’s future as being her sister’s rather than hers. Which is why she respectfully declined it. So since Bullard’s widows, Burquen, Famire, and Crelle brought up that the Mountain Blizzard Clan had always offered Belladonna’s family's weight and the weight of her entire family’s weight in salt a hundred fold, meaning about eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds worth of salt. Which Bula and Khagra have already forgiven and conceded that such a price was too high for anyone to pay. Especially since Regina and her family have technically had their freedom for over a decade but chose to stay before now. And since Bula and Khagra have done so- so graciously, I have a choice for them to make.” Arob began before all eyes went to Bula and Khagra since all eyes had been on Burquen, Famire and Crelle before. But the three women had not been looked at very kindly. 

“Would you rather, have all that salt, or it’s equal in gold in riches?” 

“We are entitled to neither.. And such a figure was always ridiculous and only given in a time of desperate need and an overexaggeration. They have been Borgan for years, and are now Bronsha's such a figure should be their own inheritance, never a ransome.” Bula shook her head no with a pleasant smile for all the others while giving all those in her family a very pointed but meaningful look.

“Which is greatly appreciated, so it was decided that if that was your answer, you would have a share of both. I have been talking to Jaseeneh. If you will take instead, simply their full weight in salt ten over, of eight thousand, five hundred pounds. You can have a share of the future purse for the gamble that will be played for the unification celebration in a month’s time. Lilly has offered to let her hand go to whoever can give her the greatest bid for her hand in marriage in terms only she will accept. Each person will write down their terms and at the end of the feast, she will read out each offer. And whichever offer is most to her liking, she will accept. And for every offer, each person putting in a bid in writing, will also add a bid to her dowry in turn. And you will get her salt's value will be given back to the Mountain Blizzard Clan and to the Black Wolf White Rock Clan so that Bullard’s widows will be satisfied that what they had always banked on will in turn pay for them and the heirs they had born to Bullard and Myles. Since they are no longer here to help care for those that they have left behind. And any other woman who wishes to enter into the same arrangement is free to do so.” Arob invited. 

“I will too.” You found yourself volunteering. 

“The only reason The Great Thunder Herd Clan came to free me was because you saw my sister’s future as my own. But yet while my future and probabilities are very different from my sister’s, the Thunder Herd Clan has never let me feel I was a mistake or that because I was not what I first appeared to be, that I was a bad investment or at all unwelcome. I was just the first to uncover the connection between Black Wolf White Rock and Thunder Herd. But since The Great Thunder Herd still paid for my weight in 32 servants and their weight in salt. Which is a debt that was unnecessary. If Khagra and Bula will return the servants and swear to bring no harm to any other human within their clan, nor tolerate any harm to them in turn. Then they are free to keep the salt, but I too will offer the value of that salt from my own purse for my hand as well. But my own hand comes with the guarantee that the groom is in this tent with me now. So while it may appear to be a gamble to others, it can be a sure thing for my new home and family here." You explained.

"And especially since I have received unintended blessings, if Lilly were to go to the same people and either get the same blessings or something similar, it will add to her value and thus ensure that her desirability will be high and thus increase the value of her own purse. If need be, on the invitations, you can put that we are both Bronshas by White Rock, Marfu by Thunder Herd and Vizsla by Mountain Blizzard. That we have both been blessed. That we both have had grand and wonderful futures read for us. Even if mine was a mistake at first, it will add interest. And if we invite all those that blessed me and may bless Lilly in turn to the very feast, they too can read for others. And if we can hire them to only read the possibilities only. Just in case one may court our hearts completely before then, then it will appear perfectly fair for all who participate.” You encouraged as you reached under the table to grasp Zorroku’s hand reassuringly as Lilly beamed happily at the idea before you gave Zorroku a meaningful look which he returned when he squeezed your hand back. 

“And you can add that we’re both virgins too and will be virgins for the celebration. And of course if Bula and Borba can both certify that we’re virgins both now and before the celebration.” Lilly volunteered.

You immediately wanted to renege as Zorroku and yourself gave each other a meaningful look that subtly portrayed how disappointed you both were at the prospect of your earlier activities not being able to reach a finish anytime soon. 

“Perfect.” Arob readily agreed before the other Clan Chief’s and their Clan Chieftesses all readily agreed as well as it was agreed that the next day that there would be one big effort to write all clans formal invitations. 

“It’ll be worth the wait. A month isn’t gonna kill us.” Zorroku murmured to you. 

“How deft are your fingers? Or your tongue?” You questioned which brought a mischievous grin to his lips as it did to yours. 

“I guess we’ll see.” He grinned. 

“We will, hopefully later tonight.” You hoped which earned you a solemn nod from him and a reassuring smile. 

The rest of the feast was a flurry of excited ideas about how it was going to come together, what clans needed to be invited and how big the feast should be and what should be prepared for it as each clan gladly volunteered livestock and money to go back to Baron Gronk to get even more livestock just for this feast.

[justkending]

The Number One Rule. Chapter 18.

Summary: Y/N has always been seen as “Steve’s rambunctious sister.” However, she grew up, graduated, and moved to London to study abroad for 4 years and get her bachelor's degree. The girl that returns looks nothing like the teenager that left, but don’t worry the attitude is still there and stronger than ever. What’s to come of the two grown adults that used to push each other's buttons, but now have a lot more in common than they’ve ever realized.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Y/N Rogers (Steve’s little sister)

Word Count: 3100+

Chapter Eighteen:

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Steve chuckled, bringing his mug to his lips as his sister walked in with a sleep ridden face. She gave him the silent bird before moving to the coffee pot. “I see your morning self hasn’t changed.”

“What are you still doing here? I thought you would have left for work by now?” Y/N asked with a tired voice as she walked to the fridge for creamer. 

He had ended up staying the night and sleeping in his old room that had been transferred into the guest bed. Him and his sister had been up late talking and catching up. 

“Eh, I’m going in a few hours later since I’ve been doing overtime recently,” Steve shrugged, leaning back and watching her sit across from him. She was wearing a giant T-shirt and some old pajama pants that she tiredly tried to straighten from their disheveled state. “What’s your excuse for not being ready for work?”

“I don’t have to be there until 9 today,” she answered with her eyes closed. 

There was a comfortable silence as the two sipped on their coffee and Steve read the newspaper. Looking over he saw her practically falling back asleep in her seat. 

“I guess I need to talk to Bucky soon…” He spoke up. Her eyes opened at that and she turned to him. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean now that I know the case, and now that I know you’re both happy, I don’t have a right to be a jackass anymore I guess,” he shrugged with a smirk. 

“I’m glad you came to terms that you were a jackass,” she chuckled, punching his arm playfully. “We’ve been waiting a few years on that one.”

“Hey, I can call myself a jackass, but you watch yourself,” he warned in a light manner. 

“Sure thing… Jackass,” she mumbled with a smile. Before he could start an argument, she diverted the conversation. “So, should I warn him, or-?”

“I don’t care. We have different shifts today, so I’ll see him tonight probably and talk to him.”

“Ok, then I’ll let you do the talking. I would warn him yourself though. He’s been a nervous wreck around this topic with you. Anytime he thinks about how we’ve hurt you, he gets upset and really anxious,” she explained more seriously. 

“I mean, I don’t blame him. This was a shitty kind of situation to go through, but mom was right. Neither side of the problem was handled well,” Steve sighed. “I’ll text him before.”

“Good,” Y/N nodded. “Want me to come?”

“No, I think we need to talk ourselves,” Steve sighed. “If you know what I mean.”

“I get it,” she nodded standing and grabbing her mug. “Well, I’m going to get ready for work. Mind if I come over tonight though? You know, when the coast is clear? Maybe we can all have a movie night like back in the day! Becca and Sam are invited too,” she pointed to him. 

“Sounds like a plan. You’re paying for pizza though. Since you have an adult job now, it’s only fair,” Steve said with raised eyebrows. 

“Hey, I-”

“You owe me,” he cut her off. 

She glared at him for using the given past situation as a way to get free food. 

“That’s low, big bro,” she deadpanned. 

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same thing,” he scoffed with a smile, going back to the paper in front of him. 

“Touche,” she nodded with a pursed lip. “At least text me when I can head over, so I don’t interrupt you guys' bromance session.”

“Shut up,” he groaned as she left the room. 

________

Once Y/N got to work, a few hours into her shift, she got a call from Bucky.

“Hey, B,” she smiled through the phone as she went through the loads of papers in her hands. 

“Hey sweetheart,” Bucky replied just as sweetly. “Guess who texted me today?”

“Hmm, Barack Obama?” Y/N responded. “Wait, no! Michelle Obama.”

“Haha, very close, but no,” he chuckled. “You’re brother reached out.”

“Is that so?” Y/N faked surprise.

“I’m guessing you guys' conversation last night went well considering your chipper mood?” he questioned. “Or they went horribly wrong and you’re just a really good actress.”

“We all know I can’t act even if my life depended on it,” she laughed, changing the phone to her other ear as she wrote some notes on a paper. 

“It’s true. You’re a horrible liar,” Bucky confirmed.

“I’m not even going to argue it no matter how much I want to,” she shrugged. “But I would say things went well. I mean we may or may not have gotten into a wrestling match on the front lawn, and mom might as well have dragged us by the ears inside to have a civil conversation, but besides that…”

“Oh God, Y/N… What the hell happened?” 

She just knew he was pitching the bridge of his nose on the other end. 

“Nothing too crazy. It’s just sibling fighting,” she waved off. 

“At least tell me you gave him a chance. You didn’t beat his ass too much, hopefully. You know we’re trying to win him over, not push him further away, right?” Bucky had a smile in his voice, clearly just joking around. 

“You know? Kids’ gotten stronger since middle school,” she noted. 

“I would hope so. He fought in a war and chases bad guys for a living. Can’t have scrawny middle school Steve doing that kind of stuff. He’d get a nose bleed just looking at the wrong guy.”

The two laughed for a little reminiscing at little Steve before he bulked up in high school. But after some joking, Bucky brought the conversation back where he started. 

“But in all honesty, I shouldn’t be too worried about tonight?” he asked. The nerves in his voice were clear to Y/N. 

“No, Bumble Bee. We talked it out, screamed it out, and fought it out. And in doing so, we had a good conversation. Thank Sarah Rogers for keeping us on track and not letting us walk away until it was resolved,” she assured, putting his mind at rest. 

“Ok, good…” Bucky sighed on the other end. A moment of silence went by as if he was trying to process it. 

“Hey, I know you guys still need to talk, but I do want you to know that it’ll be all ok in the end. Don’t get too worked up about it,” Y/N said softly. “26 years of being best pals can’t be ruined by this little bump. You said it yourself.”

Bucky let out a breath and nodded. “You’re right. It… It’s just, I hate that he found out how he did, and…” he paused. “It just kinda sucked seeing him that upset.”

“I get it,” Y/N nodded on her end. “But hey,” she added. “We’ll all be ok. Truly.”

“I trust you, doll,” he grinned. There was some distant talking on the phone and Bucky humming. “Hey, I have to go. Boss needs me for something. Call you later?” 

“For sure. Have a good day, and let me know if you need anything!” 

“Right back at you. Love you, sweetheart,” he slipped out the last part unconsciously. 

There was a moment of silence as the two were stunned. Neither had said the “L” word yet… At least not to each other…

“Uh,” Bucky stuttered out. “I-I-...”

“Buck-,” Y/N started in just as much shock. 

Another round of someone shouting on the other line that wasn’t Bucky came through through the phone. 

“I have to go! Talk to you later,” Bucky shouted into the phone. 

Before she could say anything else, the line ended and she slowly pulled back the phone seeing her lock screen blank. No words came out after that. 

She just stared at the screen where a picture of her Bucky, Becca, and Steve all were embedded in a bear hug together. An old picture, but one that she always loved and cherished with a group of her favorite humans. 

She also loved it because even though it was before Bucky and her had become an item, they were squished against each other. Bucky was smiling wide and caught in a laugh as he looked down at her, catching her from stumbling to the ground, and she was laughing as she gripped his arm to find her balance. Steve and Becca laughing on the side at her clumsy self, and the fact someone was always having to help her stay on two feet. Bucky having always been one of those top people in her life. 

She smiled down at the memory and couldn’t help but feel those little flutters move from her stomach to her chest and eventually make her cheeks heat up. 

_________________

Now he had two things to freak out about. One being Steve and his talk tonight. Yes, he knew he didn’t really need to after Y/N’s reassurance that things would be fine, but still. It was a strange conversation to have with your best friend. 

“Sorry I fell in love with your sister and hid it from you. My best friend of over a quarter of a decade. Not to mention you found out from me coming out of her room half naked after you thought she was home alone...” 

Yeah, that was going to be weird no matter how ok they were now… 

Then you add in, he just casually told Y/N that he loved her before hanging up the phone. He didn’t mean to. It just felt so natural in the moment! 

He wanted to make the first time he said it special, not just by accident…

God, his heart was racing and now he had four hours left of his work day to let those things just stir around in his head. Great. Maybe that 3rd cup of coffee wasn’t that great of an idea.

_______________

“So, everything’s good with you guys?” Sam asked after Steve let him in on everything.

“Yeah. I mean Buck and I still need to talk it out, but… I don’t know. I can’t be mad if they’re both happy at the end of the day. Happiest I’ve seen either of them in a while, if I’m being honest,” Steve shrugged with a small smile. 

“See, I knew that’d be the case at the end of the day. I tried telling Bucky that,” Sam shook his head as he finished up the dishes. “And sorry man about not saying anything. I didn’t think it was my place to,” he apologized. 

“No, I get it. This was their own thing. You were just being a good friend to Bucky and letting him figure this out himself,” Steve waved. 

“He’ll be home in a little. You worried?” Sam asked, washing his hands off. 

“No, if anyone’s nervous it’ll be Bucky. Y/N and I had a really good talk last night. No matter how upset I was before, I now know where they were coming from,” Steve sighed. “Did I agree with it? No, but we all have different ways we would go about things.”

“True facts,” Sam smiled. “Well, I’ll hoard myself in my room for a while until the coast is clear. Let me know if you guys need anything, ok?” 

“Got it. Oh, and Y/N said she was going to come over after with pizza for a movie night, if you want to join,” Steve pointed out moving to the couch. 

“I’m here for it,” Sam nodded, going down the hall to his room. “Call me when all is resolved.”

Steve nodded and plopped down on the couch skimming through the channels as he waited for Bucky. About 15 minutes later, he heard the lock turn and quietly the brunette made his way in with caution. 

“Hey,” Steve said softly, turning from the end of the couch. 

“Hey,” Bucky said with a soft smile as he put his things by the door. 

These were the first words they had spoken in over 2 weeks. They hadn’t talked since the whole fight in the backyard.

“How was work?” Steve asked, making small talk. 

“Nothing too crazy today,” Bucky shrugged, walking to the back of the couch with his hands in his pockets. “Oh, Lillian asked about you again.” 

“From accounting?” Steve asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Only Lillian I know that’s obsessed with you,” Bucky laughed lightly. 

“God, I’m not ready for that…” Steve returned the chuckle. 

It got quiet after that. Not awkward, but not comfortable either. 

“So…” 

“Listen, Bucky,” Steve sitting back in his chair running a hand across his face. “I’m sorry, I punched you after-”

“Don’t be. I deserved it,” Bucky waved him off, coming around the couch slowly to sit on the opposite end. 

“Ok, yeah. You’re right,” Steve nodded with another small laugh. Again another pregnant pause. “I gotta know. Why didn’t you just tell me, Buck?”

He took in a deep breath before answering. “I’m sure Y/N told you, but we didn’t want things to have a bad falling out and it be awkward for everyone else-.”

“No, not that. Why didn’t you tell me that you weren’t going to do it from the start?” Steve interrupted.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“Y/N said that you guys went back and forth on not going through with this because you didn’t want to hurt me. I mean, maybe that’s not that big of a deal, but it changes things on my end some,” Steve explained. Bucky just sent him a blank stare. “What I mean is, when I first figured everything out, I was hurt because I thought you didn’t even consider me in your decisions. I know, it sounds selfish, but-”

“No, it doesn’t. You’re a part of the equation to some extent. Just like Becca is. But surprisingly Becca was excited and not freaked out about her best friend dating her big brother. It’s a little different being the big brother in the situation though,” he said softly. “It’s not selfish though Steve. If the roles were reversed and say you and Becca dated, I would hope you considered my feelings in the matter too.”

Steve was glad that he understood what he was getting at. He was worried it wouldn’t make sense or make him look like he thought the whole thing revolved around him. 

“Yeah…” Steve paused. “But you didn’t say anything about that when we did get in that fight. Why?”

“I don’t know… I guess I just wanted you to understand my feelings for her more than anything. I needed you to know that she wasn’t just some girl I was hoping to hook up with at some point.”

“I know you would never do that Buck. No matter how upset I was, I still don’t think that low of you,” Steve sighed. “And about that… I’m sorry I said you don’t deserve her… That was an extremely hard hit to the gut.”

“You were looking out for her,” Bucky said with pursed lips, but the pain from the past comment was clear. It didn’t feel good having your best friend who's been through thick and thin with you tell you weren’t worth something. 

“Yes, but that was a low blow and I said it out of hurt feelings. I was hurt, so I wanted you to be just as hurt. That wasn’t fair,” Steve concluded. “If there is anyone in this world that I trust to take care of Y/N just as much as me, it’s you Buck. I was just blinded by anger.”

“Understandably,” Bucky nodded, looking back at his friend a little less troubled. 

“Understandably,” Steve agreed. They stared at each other silently communicating. “I’m sorry.”

“If anyone is sorry, it’s me Steve,” Bucky shook his head running a hand down his thigh still slightly anxious. 

“How about we both agree that we didn’t handle this situation the best way,” Steve smiled. “I should have seen how happy you two were and not second guess how it happened. I shouldn’t have made it about me when you both clearly are what the other needs.”

“Steve-”

“Truly. You guys have been glowing the last two months with complete and utter happiness and I was so oblivious to pick up on it. I feel like a shitty brother and best friend.”

“You’re not a shitty brother or best friend. Not in the least,” Bucky said scooting to the edge of the couch. “You know that.”

“Y/N tell you we got in a fight on the lawn yesterday?” Steve asked with a small smirk. 

Bucky chuckled. “Yes. Said your mom about beat your asses out there too.”

“All because I was too stubborn to talk it out,” Steve shook his head while he threw it back on the back of the couch. 

“Eh, you said it yourself. We all didn’t handle this situation well,” Bucky chuckled. “She kicked your ass, didn’t she?” he said after a second. 

“Wouldn’t say that, but she must have worked out over seas because I couldn’t pin her like I used to. She was giving me a pretty decent fight,” Steve laughed loudly. 

“God, I would pay money to have someone get that on tape,” Bucky laughed with him. 

The two soaking up the now comfortable atmosphere. 

“So we’re ok, right?” Steve asked. “Leave all out petty, stubborn, and stupid mistakes in the past?”

“I’m fine with that if you are,” Bucky nodded. 

“Good. I’ve missed having my best friend around. I was getting tired of ignoring you,” Steve sighed, patting Bucky’s back. 

“You gave me good practice with your stubbornness for Y/N. Not that I haven’t been practicing with you both my whole life, but damn you guys are too bull-headed monsters.”

“We feed off each other's energy,” Steve shrugged with a smirk. 

“I know, it’s exhausting, yet entertaining all at the same time,” Bucky smiled as he moved his head side to side. 

A knock sounded at the door and they both turned toward the wooden panel. 

“Speaking of the devil,” Steve smiled standing up.

Bucky froze. 

Shit. One anxiety had been cured now, but he had almost forgotten about his second one...

(Tags for this series will be closing soon as it is getting pretty full, please send an ask if you want to be added:)

I’ll post on whatever chapter I decided to close it down here.

The Number One Rule (TNOR) Taglist:

@shadowolf993 @hello-i-am-daydreaming @jessyballet  @emmabarnes @kmuir1  @beautifulrare4leafclover @thefallenbibliophilequote @l0ve-0f-my-life  @shawnie--jo–jo  @asoftie4bucky @katiaw2 @sheeple @sznri @bxtchboy69 @taliarosej00 @bakugouswh0r3 @stopjustlovethemcu @babemendesxz @jenniereiji @taliarosej00 @loveyou5everr @natdrunk @im-a-light-child @stucky-my-ship @fairykimseok

My Lovelies forever:

@natura1phenomenon @lauravicente @kakakatey @traceyaudette @notyourtypicalrose  @laneygthememequeen @awesome-badass-cafeteria-sauce @sandlee44 @thorne93 @thefaithfulwriter @marvelfansworld @essie1876 @greyeyedsmile14 @capsiclehan  @xostephanie @averyrogers83 @awesomenursingstudent @gh0stgurl @cs-please @carls1022 @jjlevin @rainbowkisses31 @carls1022 @anise-d-castle6 @deannotmoose @their-bibliophile @kitkatd7 @willowbleedsonpaper @mariaenchanted @snffbeebee @couldabeenamermaid @rebekahdawkins @alyispunk

Bucky Barnes Tags:

@chloe-skywalker @charmedbysarge @jbarness

@bellamy-barnes

Marvel Tags:

@thejourneyneverendsx @death-unbecomes-you @heyiamthatbitch @lizzymacy555 @iheartsebastianstan @srrymydood @xa-dia @redhairedfeistynerd @morganclaire4 @connie326 @captain-asguard @mollygetssherlockcoffee @teenagedreams-bucky @shower-me-with-roses​

[sir-subpar]

Where have you been? (Part 2)

*Warning: Blood/Gore*

Five weeks. That's how long Boyfriend had been missing. Five weeks with still no sign of the blue-haired man, it was starting to drive Pico mad. The longer this went on, the harder it was for Pico to think positively. He was starting to struggle with sleep, sometimes going days without so much as a wink of rest. His fiery orange hair was messy from him constantly running his fingers through it. It was hard to relax when someone you care about was unaccounted for. Whitty and Hex were still helping out, which Pico appreciated, but it did little to ease his fears. The three of them met up and searched for Boyfriend as often as they could.

It was late in the afternoon, another day going by with no luck finding Boyfriend. The trio had resorted to putting up missing posters for Bf, splitting up to scatter them around town. It did little to help, especially when random vandals would tear them down or draw all over them. Every time Pico saw one of the posters being ruined it pissed Pico off to no end. He didn't think it was possible to want to strangle a graffiti artist as much as he did. By some miracle of willpower he refrained from doing so (that, and he didn't know who was doing it). Pico sighed angrily as he hung another poster, his thumb turning white as he pushed the tacks into a wooden pole. His gaze lingered on the poster. In the picture, Bf was smiling. He looked so happy.. Pico felt his chest tighten around his heart. It felt hard to breathe, but not impossible. He clutched the front of his vest, fidgeting with the teeth of the zipper. Pico could only imagine what Boyfriend was going through, and his imagination was not kind. As much as he tried to ignore the worst possibilities, he struggled to stay positive. 

What if Boyfriend was dead? 

He hated the idea. He didn't want to think about it. Surely he was alive. He had to be somewhere! Anywhere! He couldn't be dead! Pico tried to ground himself by thinking of other possibilities. Maybe Bf was just hiding from everyone because he didn't want Gf and her family to know where he was. Pico grit his teeth as more anger suddenly rose from his core. Girlfriend… he was honestly starting to resent her. Sure, most people don't want to see their ex after a breakup. Pico understood that, sure, whatever. But when someone goes missing, it's good to help find them. Especially when you're the last one to have seen them…

Pico was suddenly brought back to reality when he heard his phone buzzing in his pocket. Whitty was calling. The two exchanged phone numbers after they went to that diner weeks ago. Pico tapped the green icon to answer, and brought the phone to his ear. "Hey Whitty. What's up?" Pico asked, his anger faded a bit, now being distracted with the sound of Whitty's voice. "I just wanted to let you know that Hex can't help us for a few days. He's got some computer virus that's apparently been a bitch to remove." Whitty sounded agitated. Pico figured he was probably worried about his best friend. "Is he gonna be ok?" Pico asked, he was already missing one person, he didn't want to lose another. "Yeah, some tech guy's helping him out. He should be fine soon..." Whitty paused. "Hey, do you want to meet up? I'm out of posters to hang." Whitty's tone changed a bit, Pico couldn't quite figure out why, but he brushed it off. It didn't matter anyway. "Yeah, I'll pick you up. Where are you?"

…

Pico drove in silence as Whitty sat in the passenger seat. He felt a little bad for the bomb man as even with the seat pushed all the way back, he barely fit in the car. Pico's car just wasn't designed with people over 8ft tall in mind. Whitty had the chair leaned back so he wouldn't hit his head on the ceiling, his knees were bent just so he could fit in the car. Whitty's hands were in his pockets, despite the lack of space in the car, he seemed like he was relaxing a bit. 

"Hey Pico." Whitty broke the silence. Pico let out a hum, signaling he was listening. "I had this random idea for the next place we should check."  "Hmm?" Was Pico's only reply. He was tired, but he wasn't gonna quit for the day just yet. "You know that bridge close to the freeway? The one over the ditch?" Pico had to think for a moment before he caught on. "You think he might be hiding out in the ditch?" Pico asked, a little glimmer of hope making itself known. Whitty shrugged. "Maybe. I dunno. It's a common place to hide." Pico turned on his blinker, he had to drive to the opposite side of town to get there but at this rate it wasn't a big deal. If there was even a chance of Boyfriend being there, he had to take it. He had to make sure Bf was safe. 

…

After Pico parked the car, he and Whitty climbed down into the dry ditch. It was now night, the darkness making it hard to see anything. Except Whitty's eyes, that is. In the complete darkness, Pico noticed Whitty's orange eyes were glowing. He could partially see the tall man's body as the warm light from his eyes reflected off of him. Pico found it fascinating. It was oddly comforting, like a fireplace. Pico found himself getting lost in them.

 "... Pico?" Whitty's voice interrupted Pico's stupor. Turns out the inside of Whitty's mouth glowed too. "Huh? What?" Pico asked, a little lost thanks to his little daydream. "Are you alright? You seemed out of it." Whitty asked, shifting awkwardly as he stood. Pico felt uneasy, did Whitty see something in the dark that he hasn't noticed yet? Were they alone? Pico quickly shoved his hand in his pocket and whipped out his flashlight. As soon as he turned it on, and the light flooded the ditch, he realized no one else was near them (at least no one was close enough to see). So why was Whitty uncomfortable? Like someone was staring at him? 

Wait… 

Pico had almost physically face-palmed. He was staring at Whitty. He just stood there in silence and stared at this dude's face in the darkness. From Whitty's point of view, that probably came off as creepy. Now he felt a bit guilty for being so weird. Damn it, he had to say something to break this weird silence! But what? Should he apologize? Or just brush it off so they don't have to talk about it? 'Damn it Pico, say something! Anything!' He mentally chastised himself. Just when he was about to blurt out what probably would have been nonsense, Whitty piped up. "Did my eyes creep you out?" Whitty asked, sounding disheartened. Pico suddenly panicked, speaking before his brain could filter it. "What- No! No. Not at all. Your eyes are cool! Like a jack o lantern or something. They're neat! They like.." Pico cleared his throat to compose himself again. He had to give a rational response. "I think your eyes are fascinating. I didn't mean to offend you, I just got distracted. I'm sorry." Pico's face turned a light shade of pink out of embarrassment. He hoped his disjointed response would somehow make the situation less awkward. Whitty's eyes widened, and his cheeks glowed a bit as his expression shifted from surprised to bashful. He started rubbing the back of his head, a nervous habit, Pico assumed. "I… thanks. I've had people say my eyes remind them of Jack O lanterns before, but I think this is only the second time someone's used it as a compliment. Bf was the first." Whitty confessed, his tone sounding fond. Pico smiled a bit, of course B would say something like that. Pico snapped out of his trail of thought before he got more distracted with reminiscing. "Speaking of… we should get back to looking for him." Pico stated, bring their focus back to the task at hand. Whitty nodded. The two chose to walk throughout the ditch, hopefully they'd eventually find a sign of Boyfriend under these bridges. 

Each step they took echoed off of the cement around them. It was a little eerie. Pico was glad that he wasn't alone, Whitty seemed like he could hold his ground. It was comforting. After a few minutes, they came across a blanket laid out next to a few plastic water bottles. They couldn't necessarily say they belonged to Boyfriend, but it felt like they were on the right track at least. They continued their walk, hoping to find more signs of Bf. A few more mostly uneventful minutes went by, then they saw someone not too far ahead of them. Pico lowered his light a bit so it wasn't shining in their eyes, but he could still see them pretty clearly. They were leaning their back against the wall of the ditch with their arms crossed. They had what appeared to be a goat skull for a head with long horns er.. Horn. Pico noticed that one of their horns had clearly been broken off. Their face had multiple large cracks all over it. He wore a dark blue hoodie that matched his hat. His jeans were either a darker shade of blue or black, Pico couldn't quite tell. The skull-faced stranger had turned their head to look at Pico and Whitty, clearly having noticed Pico's flashlight. His black eye sockets with glowing yellow pupils staring them down. Pico admittedly got a shady vibe from him, but he was accustomed to shady people due to his type of work. He decided to approach the man, but not get too close, he just needed to know if he had seen Boyfriend. "Hey. Mind we ask you something?" Pico called, hoping the stranger would cooperate. "What do you want?" The horned stranger rudely snapped in a clear Russian accent, he was clearly agitated. Pico wasn't that fazed by the man's rudeness, again, he was used to that kind of behavior (not to mention he wasn't all that polite or well mannered himself). "We just have some questions. We're looking for a friend of ours, maybe you've seen him around." The man appeared to relax a bit after hearing that. His expression was less aggressive. "What does your friend look like?" He asked, his tone a bit less harsh than before. Pico pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through his gallery until he found a picture of him and Boyfriend. He turned the phone around to face the man. As soon as he saw the photo, his eye sockets widened, and he tilted his head back a bit in surprise. "Boyfriend?" The man questioned.

Now it was Whitty and Pico's turn to be surprised. "You know him?" Whitty asked, bewildered at the man's recognition of Bf. "Yes, we are… acquainted. I see him a lot lately." That, admittedly, made Pico angrier than it probably should have. This guy knew where Bf was while no one else did. B had trusted this guy instead of Pico? Or Whitty? Pico once again asked himself the question that plagued his mind for weeks. 'Why didn't he come to me?' Pico tightened his grip on his flashlight. He should be glad. They finally had a potential lead. Pico forced the irrationality down for what felt like the 100th time that day. "Do you know where he is?" 'Please. Tell me you know where he is.'  Pico begged internally. The man nodded his head in a 'sort of' fashion. "I know where he's been hiding lately. It's not too far from here." He looked around a bit, as if checking to see if they were alone. "You know that little theater on Chavez road? The closed one? He's been around there lately. You'll find him if you go there." Pico suddenly felt a small rush of relief. That sounded promising. "Thank you, Mr..?" "Tabi" "Thank you Tabi. We appreciate it. Oh! I'm Pico, by the way. This is Whitty." Whitty waved, and Tabi nodded in acknowledgment. Tabi bagan to walk away. "Take care of Boyfriend you too. He's fragile right now." He called before departing. "We will," Whitty replied, "Thank you." Pico mumbled one more time before he and Whitty rushed towards the car. 

…

For the first time in weeks, Pico felt hope. He felt almost giddy in a sense. Soon this nightmare could be over. Soon Bf could be safe. But there was still a chance that they wouldn't find Bf. There were a lot of emotions running rampant in his head. Nerves, excitement, doubt. He couldn't remember the last time he was this conflicted. Various 'what ifs' both positive and negative coming forth to give their piece of mind. Pico gripped the steering wheel of his car tightly, his knuckles turning white. 

Tabi's words echoed in his head. 'Take care of Boyfriend, he's fragile right now.'   

Was this all really because of Bf and Gf's breakup? It just felt extreme. Most people don't go missing for weeks after a breakup. Especially Boyfriend. This was out of character for him. He hated being alone. There was more to it. There had to be. Pico was sure of it. 

Pico pulled over as the old theatre came into view. The decorative walls were a bit worn, but still beautiful. He knew this old place fairly well, it made him a little sad when it was shut down. Pico and Whitty stepped out of the car. Whitty stretched his arms, glad he could stand at his full height again. The bomb man looked at the various posters on the theater's walls, each one advertised some sort of play or performance. "Huh." Was all Whitty said. "What's up?" Pico asked. "I don't know why, but I thought this was going to be a movie theater. I didn't realise it was one of those performing arts places." Whitty replied. Pico turned to Whitty. "You've never been here before?" Pico asked, genuinely surprised. Whitty only shook his head in response. "Aw man, that's a bummer. This place was nice. It was family-owned, a local theater, ya know? It went bankrupt, but when it was open it was cool… B loved it here." Pico's tone shifted as he reminisced. Going from casual to bittersweet. Whitty tilted his head curiously, waiting for Pico to continue. He didn't make eye contact with Whitty, instead focusing his gaze on the theater's doors. "Ya know… sometimes, after a show, the owners would let B and I use the stage. We'd sing there for as long as they let us. We did it almost every week." Pico couldn't help but feel nostalgic. He remembered those times so well. It was years ago, back when he and B were together. They were memories he cherished. "Sounds like it was fun." Whitty commented briefly. "It was." Pico's tone continued to be bittersweet. Deep down, he hoped that he and Boyfriend could have what they did back then. He always regretted letting B go, but never said anything. Once Boyfriend found someone else, he figured he'd never have a chance again. Pico's vision started to blur slightly. 'Goddammit Pico! Now's not the time!' He mentally chastised himself, he didn't want to cry. Not when Bf was still lost. Not in front of Whitty. He was able to bury this before, he could do it again. Pico did his best to refocus on the task at hand. He needed to stop doing this. 

Pico cleared his throat.

"A-Anyway, we should look for Boyfriend. He's probably around here somewhere." Whitty nodded. Pico was thankful that Whitty didn't pry into his emotions. He'd rather NOT talk about that at the moment, thank you very much. "Let's check inside." Whitty proposed, Pico gave a brief sound of agreement before pulling the front door's handle. Surprisingly it was unlocked. Was Tabi right? Was Boyfriend here? Did he unlock it? Pico made a mental note about the door and continued inside, Whitty following just behind him. Once again he needed his trusty flashlight. The theater was usually dark as is, but it was extra dark with it being the middle of the night. While in said darkness, Pico was briefly reminded of earlier that night when he stared at Whitty's eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time. Pico's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. This was definitely going to be one of those memories that kept him up at night whenever he thought about it. Then, Pico had another thought. "Hey Whitty." "Hm?" "How come you haven't been using a flashlight too? I mean, I don't mind sharing mine, I'm just curious." Pico hoped it wasn't a rude question. "Oh, well, uh.." Whitty began, Pico once again noticing how the inside of Whitty's mouth glowed like his eyes. "I don't really need a flashlight. I can see in the dark." Whitty's cheeks glowled orange a bit, now Pico was convinced that was how Whitty blushed. He found it kinda endearing, to be honest. "That's really cool. Wish I could do that." Pico said and chuckled a bit, feeling a bit lighter in spirit. Whitty also laughed coyly, feeling a bit flattered. "Let's check out the stage first." Whitty directed, already walking towards it. "Yeah, good idea." Pico agreed, following suit. The 'house' was dusty, and the seats clearly hadn't been used in a while. Well, most of them hadn't. Pico paused, getting a better look. He quickly noticed that a few of them had been folded out, the armrests were raised, and what looked like a shiney red blanket was draped across them. Someone had been using them as a makeshift bed, Pico realized. Someone was definitely here. "Psst, hey Whitty." Whitty turned around to face him, Pico waved his hand in a 'come here' gesture. Whitty nodded and approached him. 

The tall bomb headed man leaned over Pico, looking down the same row of seats he was. It didn't take him long to catch on. "We must be on the right track. Wait, is that a curtain?" Whitty reached over Pico to pick up and hold the 'blanket' which was, in fact, part of a stage curtain that had been cut. Pico felt his heart clench. B was using a curtain for a blanket, he must be cold. Pico looked at the chairs/bed. One of the seats had a pile of clothes/costumes haphazardly bunched together, probably being used as a pillow. This was just… sad. Bf didn't deserve to live like this. 

While Pico looked at the seats, Whitty took a second to inspect the curtain. It was red on one side, and white on the other side- wait, no, the other side had red too. In weird splotches and smear-like patterns. Whitty held it stretched out in front of him, the white and red patterned side facing him. The patterns looked inconsistent not just in size and shape, but in hue as well. Some of the red splotches looked darker almost..wet, while others looked faded, like stains. Whitty touched one of the darker red spots with his thumb, surprised when it was actually wet. Realization suddenly dawned on him, this wasn't a pattern. Now he was worried. "Hey Pico?" His scratchy voice quietly called, Pico turned around to look Whitty in the eyes. Whitty held the curtain in a way that only let Pico see the shiney full-red side and not the 'patterns'. "I'm not entirely human, so correct me if I'm wrong but… human blood is red, right?" Pico gave him a confused and worried look, then nodded hesitantly. "That's what I was afraid of." Whitty admitted, turning the curtain around so Pico could see. Pico's white eyes shot open wide, before giving Whitty a panicked look. Pico's heart dropped.

Just as Pico was about to say something, there was a loud *CRASH* from a distance. 

Pico and Whitty's attention snapped towards the stage, it looked like a shelf had fallen over from backstage. Frantic footsteps could be heard. Neither of them had to say anything, they both bolted towards all the noise. Running up the small stairs to the stage. They ran towards the backstage area. Their own footsteps echoing as their shoes hit the wooden floorboards. Whitty, with his longer strides, took the lead ahead of Pico. Once they arrived at the backstage room, they saw the metal Exit door slowly closing. Whitty slammed it back open, dashing through it, Pico not far behind him. Once outside, they had stumbled into a fenced in parking lot. Street lights illuminated the empty lot, now they could see the other person running away from them. They were short, around Pico's height. They had a black hoodie on, the hood was up so they couldn't see their head. Even so, Pico was sure that it was Boyfriend. It had to be. 

The hooded person ran into the parking lot's locked gate. Attempting to climb over it, but they weren't fast enough. Pico and Whitty were on their tail. They still tried, though. They were clearly struggling to get up the fence's bars, it looked like they kept slipping, like they couldn't grip the bars. Just as they were about to make another attempt to climb, Whitty caught up to them. The tall bomb man swiftly wrapped his hands around their torso, easily lifting them off the ground. Like holding a kitten. They helplessly swung their arms and legs, attempting to free themself from Whitty's grip. Amidst all their wild flailing, the hood came down, revealing a familiar face with blue hair. Boyfriend. They found him.

"N-no! Let me go! P-Put me down!" Boyfriend yelled, his voice filled with panic. His eyes were closed, and tears soaked his cheeks. Whitty knelt down to bring Boyfriend closer to the ground, still not letting go. "Hey! Hey… Boyfriend, it's just us. It's okay." Whitty did his best to keep his scratchy voice steady, hoping to calm down the terrified bluette. Despite not having the most soothing voice, it seemed to help a bit. Bf stopped flailing and yelling for the moment, his eyes snapped open. He seemed to have come to a sudden halt. His fearful eyes scanned the environment around him. Pico tried to approach him slowly, he didn't want to spook the poor guy more, but he too, was shaking. He had seen Boyfriend scared before, sure, but not like this. This was a new level of absolute terror. He looked so… fragile. Like if someone so much as flicked him, he'd fall to pieces. This was a far cry from the Boyfriend Pico knew. The dumb, reckless, confident man was no where to be found. What really struck Pico though, was the noticeable dampness of Boyfriend's hoodie sleeves. Pico figured he must have been injured, and he had to help. 

In the moment though, he was overwhelmed. He was happy that they found him. He was also worried about him. Part of him was angry. After all the weeks spent searching for Boyfriend, after spending those weeks bottling up all his frustrations, fears, grief, worry. He had reached his tipping point. He couldn't hold back anymore. The tears in his own eyes couldn't be stopped this time. Pico threw away his inhibitions, and just ran up to hug Boyfriend. Pico buried his face in the crook of Boyfriend's neck, and dug his fingers into his blue hair. He was there, they actually found him. And he'd be damned if he lost Bf again. His own face was wet with tears. "G-god Damn it you- you fucking idiot. Don't scare me like that again. F-fuck." Pico's voice shook, sobbing, his cries making it harder to speak. Whitty let go of Boyfriend's torso, instead wrapping his arms around both Pico and Boyfriend, trying not to cry himself (emphasis on tried). A few of his hot, orange tears fell onto the other two boys, but neither seemed to notice.

After a few moments, Whitty and Pico pulled back from the hug. Pico kept his hands on Boyfriend's shoulders, he didn't want to let go. His attention was once again brought to the dampness of Bf's hoodie, he knew it had to be blood. "B… let's go home." Apparently that was the wrong thing for Pico to say, as soon as he did, Boyfriend panicked again. "I-! N-no! I don't want to see her again please Pico-! Don't make me go back!" Pico rushed to ask what was wrong, startled by Bf's reaction. "B, who are you talking about?" Pico gently grabbed Boyfriend's hands, he wanted to be comforting, but that changed when he noticed Bf heavily flinched, and his hands were wet. Pico gently brought Bf's hands into the light. His hands were cracked and bleeding. Badly. The skin and flesh looked like it was just barely holding on to the bones. Some of the blood was dry and crusty, while some of it was fresh. Pico furrowed his brow. "B… what happened?" Bf began crying again. "Gf.. She.." Bf's voice trembled, his lip quivered. He started sobbing. Whitty's orange eyes widened, in a spur of the moment, Whitty gathered both the shorter males in his arms. Lifting them off the ground and standing at his full height. "Hey Pico, why don't we all head to your place?" Pico nodded, still holding Bf's hands. "You can stay with me, B. I promise I won't take you to Girlfriend. She won't even know we found you, okay?" Bf looked into Pico's white eyes, then Whitty's orange ones, before slowly nodding and letting out a barely audible "okay". 

Whitty carried them to Pico's car, he decided to sit in the back with Boyfriend so he wouldn't be alone while Pico drove the car (they moved the front passenger seat as far up as they could to make more legroom for him). Bf was huddled to Whitty's side, the tall, warm, bomb man made him feel safe. Whitty had one of his arms wrapped around Boyfriend, hoping to comfort him. The bluette was still crying, but not as much as before, he seemed to have calmed down slightly. No words were exchanged during the car trip to Pico's house. 

Once they arrived, Whitty gently carried Bf into Pico's house and carefully set him down on Pico's couch. Pico ran off to grab his first aid kit from his hallway closet, mentally preparing himself for how wrecked the rest of Bf's arms might look. He didn't want to end up freaking out and scaring Bf more. Pico moved to sit next to Boyfriend on the couch. "Okay B, show me what hurts." Boyfriend seemed hesitant, Whitty, who was sitting at Bf's other side, rubbed his back. The small gesture seemed to comfort Bf a little, and he removed the black hoodie he was wearing, hissing as the fabric pulled away from his wounds; he was only wearing a tank top under it, so the damage to his arms was revealed easily. Boyfriend's arms looked worse than his hands did somehow. Cracked and bleeding, in some places, it looked like the skin had stitches only to fall apart more and undo them. He could see the bone in Bf's elbow and shoulder. 

Pico felt sick. It was a mystery how Boyfriend wasn't just screaming in anguish. Pico took a quick glance at Whitty, who also looked appalled at the gorey sight before them. Pico looked into Boyfriend's teary eyes, then back at his arms. "We should take ya to the hospital." Pico said nervously, his gauze and hydrogen peroxide couldn't fix this. "I-I already tried that. They couldn't- *sniff* they couldn't stop it. I-It's magic." Bf confessed, Pico noticed Whitty's expression changed from shock to sympathetic. Whitty gestured to Bf's arms "Was this Girlfriend's magic?" Boyfriend nodded. Pico felt rage bubbling in his core. His attempt to keep calm and collected was thrown out the window. "Did she do this on purpose!? That's it! Imma beat her ass!" Pico whipped out his gun. Furious. "I'm gonna pump that bitch full of lead!" Pico was about to storm out his house when both Boyfriend and Whitty stopped him. "PICO DON'T!" Bf and Whitty said in unison. Whitty gripped Pico's arm (which was super easy seeing as his hand was big enough for his fingers to wrap all the way around Pico's forearm), and Boyfriend hugged him, burying his face in the crook of Pico's neck. "Why the fuck are you two stopping me!?" Pico shouted, still undeniably pissed. "Please don't go, Pico!" Bf cried. "Listen dude, as much as I'd love to see ya give that girl more holes than swiss cheese, if you even try it, her family will kill you. Plus, if ya went to her now, they'll know we found Bf, and who knows what they'd do to him then!"

Pico hated to admit it, but Whitty was right. He'd just make it worse by confronting Girlfriend. Her family was powerful, her parents would definitely come after all of them if he tried to do anything to her. His anger was screaming at him to go and blast her with his Uzi, but reason objected to it. Pico sighed, and put his gun on the table. "Alright. Yer right. I'm sorry." Bf hugged him tighter. "Thank you." He said quietly. "Well, if I can't shoot that bitch, let's at least try to solve… this." Pico gestured towards Bf's arms, which were bleeding all over him in the hug. Whitty rubbed the back of his head, unsure. "Well, demon magic did this in the first place, maybe another demon can undo it?" Whitty offered, Pico thought about it, it made sense. If hospitals couldn't treat a curse, might as well try magic. "I can't say you're wrong, the issue now is finding a demon who would be willing to help. The only other demon I know I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw her. Do you know anyone?" Whitty shook his head. The three stayed quiet. Pico wracked his brain for anyone who might be helpful. Maybe his dad knew someone who could help? Probably not. His brother definitely hung out with demons and whatnot, but most people his brother hung out with were bad news. Not to mention he hasn't spoken to his older bro in a long ass time. That was a no go. Who else could he ask? Pico glanced at Whitty, he appeared to be going over various options in his head too. They were silent until Boyfriend chirped in. "I might know someone. Maybe tomorrow we can find her?" Pico shrugged. "I guess that's just what we gotta do. For now though, you should go get cleaned up. You remember where the shower is?" Bf nodded, and started walking down the hallway. "I'll bring you some clean clothes you can borrow!" Pico called, Bf replying with a distant "Thank you" before disappearing around the corner. 

Pico made eye contact with Whitty. He might not have known this guy too well, having only met him a couple weeks ago, but the time they spent working together trying to find Boyfriend made Pico appreciate him. He wanted to know more about him. Whitty was so helpful, even managing to calm Pico down when he was two seconds away from snapping. He found the gentle giant fascinating and comforting. "Hey Whitty?" Whitty let out a curious "hmm?" 

"I just wanted to say thanks.. For everything. You've been really helpful and great and.. I really appreciate it." Pico's earnest tone made Whitty's cheeks glow slightly. "It's no problem. You don't have to thank me or anything. I just.. Wanted Bf to be safe too, ya know?" Pico nodded understandably. "I wish we coulda met under better circumstances. You seem like a great guy, I uh… I'd really like to keep hangin out with you. Maybe once we get this whole curse thing sorted out, we should do something together? Maybe all three of us should." Pico felt color flooding in his own cheeks now, feeling somewhat nervous. Whitty smiled. "I'd like that." Pico let out a small chuckle. "Cool. Cool. Sounds good." 

An awkward lull took the conversation, neither saying much. Whitty eventually stood up and stretched, feeling a bit sleepy. "Well, I should head out. I'm gettin tired. Want me to meet up with you guys here tomorrow?" Pico hesitantly nodded, he almost offered to just let Whitty stay the night, but if he had plans to go home, who was Pico to stop him? "Sounds good. Imma uh.. Get some clothes for B." Pico attempted to make the situation less awkward, he was never good at goodbyes. "Yeah, that'd be good. I'll see you tomorrow." Whitty and Pico parted ways after that. Now, Pico just had to help Boyfriend. Hopefully this woman he was talking about can reverse whatever demon spell was on him..

Pico let Bf borrow his spare pajamas, and threw Bf's clothes in the wash. He wasn't sure if the washing machine was gonna be able to get all the blood out. As he was going through it, he noticed that the inside of Bf's jeans were bloody too, the curse must've been affecting his legs as well. Pico kept the 1st aid kit out, that way he could bandage what was left of Boyfriend's limbs. While Pico tended to the bluette's wounds, he made small talk with Boyfriend, hoping it would put him at ease. It seemed to help. Eventually it became time to turn in for the night. Both boys were exhausted.

 "Hey Pico?"

 "Yeah B?" 

"Can I sleep in your bed with you? I don't wanna be alone."

"... Yeah. C'mere."

"Thanks Pico."

"No prob. G'night B."

"Good night Pico."