#sorry if i'm like wandering past the point and into something that wasn't the intention i just get excited okay lmao

[bisnes-socks]

This is super interesting!

I know my view of Takavoltti in general is slightly different than how many read it, as i don't really read it as him being made to do things against his will. That's perhaps an unpopular take (if anyone is interested in my analysis, it's in my pinned post) and different from what most fans seem to think, but that's perfectly fine, because I'm also super fascinated by other people's readings and think that multiple readings can be true.

And it's interesting you mention that Kärtsä is more familiar but still not Jere, and it got me thinking if i could imagine him using his real name in music at all. Personally i don't really see it happening, because Käärijä is basically a character, and therefore not exactly the same as Jere. So to me, the speaker on the song calling him Jere would be incredibly jarring, as that is not a name he uses in music at all basically. But interestingly, it would probably change my view of the song completely. If they called him Jere, i'd probably lean more towards the darker reading many seem to have, because it would sort of.. break the fourth wall, if you will, and make it feel like the songwriting doesn't come from the same place as the rest of his music.

But i also think that this highlights an interesting aspect of the Finnish language - sorry to derail here. I'm wandering away from your point, i know, but this all just got me thinking. Kärtsä is not an unusual thing to call him, and he calls himself that too. And Kärtsä, Kärtsäri, Kääryle, Kärppä, etc etc. are also pretty common and so maybe that's why the use of Kärtsä in this song hasn't stood out to many before. Because in everyday conversations of a light tone, it's not at all uncommon to hear people referring to him with almost any words that start with Kä and have an r in them.

And sometimes, it's actually to show disrespect. This was discussed briefly in the podcast hosted by Autiomaa therapist Köpi Kallio one time actually. Sometimes people call him random words to show they don't respect his artistry.

But most of the time, it's affectionate. And to me, other Finns can jump in if they disagree, Kärtsä and Kärtsäri are almost always affectionate. They're not words i've heard used to show disrespect, but affection and familiality, because they follow the same logic as nicknames in Finnish in general. So it's like we treat Käärijä as a real name, and make affectionate nicknames out of it. And within the context of music, where Käärijä is the character and the name that is used, to me Kärtsä sounds familial and friendly.

So like, interestingly enough, in my view of the song, Kärtsä feels like a super fitting name to use, as it is an affectionate and fun nickname for the character, and not the "real name" of the character (Käärijä) nor the real name of the artist (Jere).

i was listening to takavoltti the other day and i’m not sure if this has been said before, but i find the use of the nickname “kärtsä” very intriguing. it suggests a deeper emotional connection for the speaker than using “käärijä”, but it’s still far from “jere”.

i wonder if this is to showcase that while the speaker (who is asking all these things of k) feels like they’re somehow entitled to because they’re asking out of something that is, to them at least, love and admiration instead of plain “i want this guy to do stuff because he’s a circus monkey and due to his fame he owes me”.

​what i mean is that just because you ask someone to do something out of love and admiration doesn’t mean you’re better than someone who asks out of pure need to be entertained, because although your motivations are different, you’re equally failing to see the real person behind the stage persona.

the speaker doesn’t understand that calling him “kärtsä” is hardly better than “käärijä” because it’s just as far from “jere”.

[ryuzakemo128]

Made of Stone

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Female Reader x Steve Harrington

Content Warnings: Mental health issues mentioned. Car crash, car accident.

Words: 1853

Masterlist

Dividers Credit: @cafekitsune + @strangergraphics

Summary:

I'm carrying my heart, but it's made of stone.

I'm carrying my heart, but my heart is made of stone

You know you shouldn’t be here, yet here you were, at the backstage of a recital, and you were about to play in an orchestra. Your parents made an excuse of why they couldn’t be bothered to show up. You didn’t tell any of your friends about it either, why would you? It’s not like they cared for classical music as far as you were concerned. Eddie’s face said more than enough whenever it was mentioned.

It was never mentioned as to why you were practising, only that you had to do it for an hour after school, and you never told anyone either. Mostly because you didn’t want to bother them with it. Until the day he figured out why you were practising so much.

“You didn’t have an interest for it. So, I didn’t say anything.” You said one afternoon. “You don’t like classical music.��

It was like you said something hurtful, but you hadn’t tried to say anything of a sort. As you were looking through your sheet music for a piece to practice on your cello, Eddie seemed to gather his courage to say, “I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be insensitive.”

“Eh. At this point, I'm used to it.” You said as you were about to warm up a little though, he seemed to have the intention of letting it go. Especially considering your parents weren't going to be there either. Thus, you would be there alone and heading home in your light blue vintage truck that your grandfather left you in his will.

You started playing the cello when you were five, you weren’t game enough to find something you liked, so you kept a straight face and played along. Your parents, who were too busy with their work to notice, were happy to see you playing. They thought it was a good hobby for you. But as you grew older, you realised that you didn’t really enjoy it.

As you packed up that night after the recital, packing your cello away and stepping into your truck. Though the fact that it was so high off the ground made it a challenge to get into.

I'm carrying my heart, but it's made of stone.

I'm carrying my heart, but my heart is made of stone.

You swung yourself up into the driver’s seat, your cello case bumping against your leg. A sigh escaped your lips as you adjusted the rearview mirror. You were alone, the quiet of the night broken only by the soft hum of the engine.

As you drove, your mind wandered back to the recital. The music had been beautiful, the orchestra had played in perfect harmony. But it wasn't the music that had truly touched you. It was the feeling of being part of something bigger, of being connected to others through the shared love of music.

Suddenly a pair of headlights appeared in your back rearview mirror, you frowned, thinking it was too late for someone to be all the way out here and awfully suspicious. You pulled over, thinking they needed to get by you, yet they still didn’t seem to ease up or move past you. In fact, they rear ended your truck, on purpose perhaps?

The impact sent a jolt through your body, you slammed your foot on the accelerator to get out of there. The truck lurched a few meters, crashing into a tree, causing the truck to flip a few times before coming to rest on its side.

‘This is how I die.’ You thought, staring into the night sky. ‘In the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere and inside a vintage truck.’

You squeezed through the other side, 'Guess I should start walking.'

You were walking along the road and talking into the void with your walkie-talkie. "I don't know if anyone is listening. But I got into an accident." you said into your walkie-talkie. "I might be late coming home."

An answer came through the walkie-talkie, "Are you okay? Where are you?" It was Eddie's voice.

"Is that you, Eddie?" You asked. "I'm near the road I take to head home. But I don't know where exactly. I think it's near the forest."

"I'm on my way," Eddie's voice crackled through the speaker. "Stay put and keep talking to me."

"Not much to talk about. A stranger rear ended my truck, the recital went by smoothly." you continued to speak.

Eddie chuckled at your attempt to lighten the mood, his voice tinged with relief, "Yeah, I heard about your 'smooth' recital. You were the talk of the school, you know?"

"You mean my dead eyed stare I usually have?" You snorted. "It usually leaves people spooked, after all."

Eddie's chuckle grew into a full laugh, "Maybe, but it's more like your passion came to life tonight. It was beautiful to see."

"I don't recommend getting rear ended, this headache, right now, is the worst." You complained, gently rubbing your forehead with your free hand. A concussion by the sound of things. Eddie heard you throw up a few times before the line went quiet.

"Just keep talking to me," He urged, his own heart racing, "I'm getting closer. Can you see any landmarks?"

"Other than the numerous trees? Not really." You managed to joke, trying to ignore the pain in your ribs. "The sign which says, 'Welcome to Hawkins' isn't too far, though."

Eddie's van broke through the treeline, the headlights bouncing off the trees before finally landing on your crumpled truck. You squinted, shielding your eyes from the glare as he rushed over to you. Concern etched on his face, he helped you to your feet, brushing off the dirt and leaves that clung to your dress. "Thank God you're okay," he breathed, his eyes scanning over you, checking for injuries.

Your hug took him off guard, but he wrapped his arms around you tightly, the warmth of his embrace seeping into your bones. You were terrified, but he was here now, and that was all that mattered. He said, "You're shaking like a leaf. Let's get you checked out." He guided you to his van, the side door already open, and helped you inside. The familiar scent of his leather jacket and the faint smell of pine-scented air freshener filled the space, offering a comforting sense of normalcy amidst the chaos.

The van was cluttered with guitar cases, amp cords, and fast-food wrappers, but it was a welcome mess compared to the eerie quiet of the woods outside. Steve's face appeared at the window, his jaw tight with worry. He'd been following you from a safe distance, making sure you weren't being followed. When he saw the state of your truck, he sprinted over, and the relief in his eyes when he saw you moving was palpable. “What happened?” he asked, his voice gruff but gentle.

“A car rear ended me, I don't know where they came from. I saw their headlights in my rearview mirror, and they rear ended me. I stepped on my accelerator, crashed into a tree and the truck flipped a few times and ended up here,” You replied, your voice shaking.

Steve wrapped you in a blanket, as if trying to shield you from the cold reality of the situation. His eyes searched yours, looking for any signs of shock or injury that you might be hiding. "We need to get you to the hospital," he said firmly, his hand on your shoulder, grounding you. Though your grip on his hand remained tight. As if you were afraid, he'd disappear into a puff of smoke like the car that had hit you.

As soon as you got into the hospital, the world around you became a whirlwind of nurses and doctors. The bright lights and sterile smells made you feel more nauseous than the actual crash. Steve and Eddie didn't leave your side, each holding one of your hands tightly, offering silent support while they checked your vitals and asked a barrage of questions. You felt like a rag doll being passed around, but their grips were reassuring.

When the doctor finally announced that you had nothing but a mild concussion and some bruised ribs, a collective sigh of relief filled the room. They both looked at you with a mix of relief and concern, their eyes speaking volumes about how scared they had been. “You're going to be okay,” Steve said, his voice thick with emotion. “But you need to rest.”

“A nap doesn’t sound too bad right now.” You yawned like a cat stretching after a long nap. The adrenaline had drained from your body, leaving you feeling exhausted. Your parents were away on a business trip, meaning you had the entire house to yourself.

Eddie and Steve exchanged a knowing look, “We'll take you home,” Steve offered, his grip on your hand tightening slightly. You nodded, too tired to argue. The drive was quiet, the only sound being the gentle hum of the van's engine and the occasional crackle of the radio static. The darkness outside was a stark contrast to the bright lights of the hospital, and you found yourself dozing off, lulled by the steady rhythm of the road.

When you woke up, you were in your own bed, the familiar scent of home surrounding you. Steve was gently tucking in the surrounding blankets, his eyes filled with concern. “I'll grab you some water and some painkillers,” he said, placing a kiss on your forehead before disappearing into the hallway. Eddie sat in the chair beside your bed, his eyes never leaving yours. “You scared the hell out of us,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “I know you didn't do it on purpose, but maybe it's time to tell someone about your nighttime escapades?”

You snorted, “I’ll be sure to warn you when I’m heading home next time.”

You snorted, “I’ll be sure to warn you when I’m heading home next time.” You lived just outside of Hawkins, which meant you had to drive awhile to head to school and back home again.

Eddie cuddled with you, afraid that you were going to vanish if he didn't keep you in his line of sight. His thumb rubbed comforting circles on the back of your hand, trying to ease the tension that was visible in every line of your body. Once Steve walked back in with a glass of water and a couple of pills, he handed them to you, his eyes never leaving yours. You took them with a grateful nod, wincing slightly as you swallowed the medicine.

"Thank you," you whispered, your voice hoarse from the adrenaline of the night. "Both of you."

Steve handed you the water, his eyes searching yours for any lingering fear. "You're not going anywhere without telling us, okay?" His tone was firm, but the worry in his eyes told a different story.

You were fine with that. More than a little fine with that. The last thing you wanted to do was to move around too much. Especially now.

[naivesilver]

giving you full rein on the kid fic dialogue ask and suggesting maybe something from the toddler ask? you can pick a child and parent combo from anything you like ~

THIS WASN'T EVEN THE FINAL ASK BUT I AM SO LATE AAAAH sorry you know how much I love my babies thank you for encouraging me 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I'm gonna be super predictable now!

Kid/Parent Dialogue Prompts

4. "With the rate uncles/aunts/grandparents/friends are buying stuff for you, you will be the most spoiled kid ever"

"Do you ever get the feeling that they're going to grow up as the most spoiled kids ever?"

Emma glances at August with her eyebrows raised, quietly puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

Technically, they should be getting coffee like the grown adults, friends-who-rarely-get-to-catch-up that they are, but since there is a distinct lack of free, unaccompanied time in both of their lives now, what they're actually doing is drinking their coffee at the outside tables of Granny's while their sister and daughter respectively entertain each other. Of course, it was clear within minutes that the girls had no intention of doing so - Apple is currently burying her hands in the potted plants, alone, while Cedar is nowhere to be seen, having long since wandered into the bowels of the diner.

That doesn't seem to bother August much, however, because he continues, undeterred: "You have possibly the largest extended family in town- how much stuff have people bought for your sister, Raven or Sparrow, and how long has it been since you've heard anyone saying no to them? Because I am related to considerably fewer people, and our house is still full of kids' stuff, and I know Belle has the same problem with Rosa and Gideon."

He...has a point, actually. Emma has long since matured past the point of being jealous, but that doesn't mean she's blind - children are protected and splurged on for in Storybrooke, especially children she knows. Apple is likely the best dressed little girl in town, and the way Henry tells it, Raven and Sparrow own just about every toy that makes noise. Nobody in her family will grow up wanting for attention, that's for sure.

Still, there's a difference between agreeing with August and telling him that out loud. "Come on, I'm sure it's not that bad-"

It's at that moment, as if summoned by her comment, that Cedar shows up on Granny's front step, like a little bushy haired apparition. The girl trots over to them with what looks like a cup of pudding, spoon included, in one hand and a small sandal in the other - she offers it to August with a miniature frown, shifting her weight off her bare foot. "Daddy, I los' m' shoe."

"Wow, a sentence I've never heard before," August deadpans, though he still lifts his daughter onto his knee with practiced ease, only gesturing to her other possession once he's done wrestling said shoe back in its place. "Where did you get that, kiddo?"

Cedar grins at him, the wide, gap-toothed smile of toddlers all over the world - there are already smears of chocolate around her mouth, which means she must have gotten more than a taste of her treat by now. "Grampa."

"Of course you did." He pats her back as she hops off his lap, then turns back to Emma with a look and a gesture that scream What did I tell you? for all to see.

For her part, Emma simply rolls her eyes. "Alright, you've made your point. Look, if it bothers you so much, why don't you tell everyone to stop buying her stuff?"

"Did your mother listen when you tried to do that?"

"Point taken." She mulls it over for a bit, watching the little figure bound away, then says, distractedly: "Does letting them be the most spoiled kids ever include allowing them to run with a spoon in their mouth?"

August follows her gaze, then stands up with a muffled curse and chases after his daughter before she falls on her face. Emma barely stifles her laughter, grateful that at least she's not still losing the argument - for a moment there, both father and child looked entirely too smug for her liking, which tends to be the only expression where they share an uncanny resemblance.

She just hopes Cedar will lose that trait as she grows up. She doesn't think she could bear it, if she had two Augusts to contend with.

[knowlessman]

bungo no hogs macedonia (jk it's FINALLY bnha bc I googled "when does sasuke show up again" and it turns out he kinda doesn't, it's kinda like if the soul eater anime actually tried to make you care about the 100 witch souls thing but also was eleventy billion hundred years long and every arc went out of its way to remind you about it without actually progressing it) ep1-4 -- (literally looking at a splash screen bc I haven't hit go yet) I'm sure we learn why this boy has grenades for hands at some point

how unamerican or something

oh yeah this is basically if saitama wasn't OP and was Rock Lee instead right

I love that one of the bystanders here either has a quirk or just wandered in from Jojo part 6

they changed the rules so you could get into Sky High without powers? so the Cyclist from One-Punch could get in. (…googles character, skims wiki page …Mumen Rider is good character it turns out. Wish Netflix had more of - …wait a minute… okay, ngl if this loses my attention at some point there is a nonzero chance I drift over to one-punch man)

huh. didn't think we'd know that about All Might so early

…jeezus.

weirdest damn santa clause I ever seen. he doesn't even have a beard

…the fuck is any of this

"walk home, deku. I work alone." okay I do actually wanna know what he says tho, goddammit

anime stop spoiling the next episode after the credits challenge 2023 goddammit I don't wanna know this shit yet have you never heard of a binge watch

anyway next one -- with the mha spoilers that I do know… this should be one helluva convo for all might

wait whaaat, I thought this only came out later in the show :O not sure why I thought that, but this being in, like, literally the second episode is a surprise

…I guess "invisibility cloak" is just a really weird translation for something that should probably be "host" or "disguise," then?

'XD that half-assed analogy. "guys at the pool" -- hm. okay well that's HALF the spoiler that I think I know from this show -- also, well, he did make an effort to let him down easy while being honest, and it technically wasn't a "no." (also obv don't tell him to be a cop, that's for antagonists not protagonists)

some "invisibility cloak"

deku you owe that asshole a punch in the face, not this -- what ARRRR ya doin, tho (sorry my brain auto-associated to Pirates… 3, I think?)

yup. "toughness" and a balsa-wood ego

'XDDD dude. literally anyone could have seen you, shouting at the top of your lungs in a sleepy-ass neighborhood. also are you really not able to turn that off at-will? you have to wait until your body remembers it has organ damage and turns it off for you? -- I think I love this design of all might tbh. he looks like a fucking bionicle. and the hair and the outfit, it's all just perfect. and it gives context to why his face always has shadows all over it, in some way I dunno how to explain

next, I guess, fuck it, it's only half past two in the morning -- …and that's the other half of the spoiler I knew (is dabi also a spoiler? idk, probably), in the third episode

(watching OP) huh. for some reason I thought hand-face-man was from tokyo ghoul

american… good name for it, maybe? bootstrap bullshit that can only fly in shonen

think you're a rooster? you're training to be all might, kid, not goku

I thought Napoleon was, like, a bad guy? googles briefly huh. lot of things, that guy.

buhhh. fourth then. fuck but this show is good at cliffhangers.

Best Jeanist 'XD tf does that even mean

aye, I think I can see the thread from here, the intent of this "obstacle"

…good shit. I was starting to worry she, y'know, wasn't gonna get to do shit.

I wanna like mr stereotypical glasses guy, the pedant. do I get to like him? is he okay?

and here come the ten billion points for griffinpuff, aye?

oh fuck my life I forgot this was about high school 'XD I'mma go to bed

[inglourious-imagines]

Piece Of Cake (Fred Weasley)

Summary: Fred claims that asking a girl out to the Yulle ball is a piece of cake. Harry and Ron dare him to prove it.

Prompts: fluff list: 2 - "I don't care, just hold me." & angst list: "Try to see things in my point of view." & miscellaneous list: 4 - "My mum thinks I'm dating you." (changed a bit)

Warning: angst at the beginning, some swear words, fluff at the end

Author's Note: This is for @lunalovecroft 's 1K writing challenge! Probably it was meant to be the other way around, but that idea suddenly strucked me and I decided to give it a go. Happy reading ♡

HP Taglist: @alienoresimagines @95swifi

.

.

.

"You have a place in my heart no one else ever could have." - F.S. Fitzgerald

All the Yulle Ball decoration were making Y/N beyond sick, every ribbon reminding her that she still did not have a date to accompany her throughout the approaching evening. Molly Weasley was so kind to send her as a gift the most beautiful dress Y/N had ever seen in her life and now she was genuinely thinking about not going to the ball at all. 

When she threw herself at the bench in the Great Hall right next to her best friend Hermione who was sitting way too far from Ron, Harry and the twins were seated. Y/N knew about the brightest witch's secret crush on the young Weasley that was slowly but surely growing into something more than just a simple crush. She'd even swear that Ron felt exactly the same about Hermione but she had to promise not to get involved or play a cupid. 

"He didn't ask, did he." Y/N dared to speak up first, glancing from Hermione's sad expression on her face to absolutely oblivious Ronald just a few metres away from them who seemed to be stuffing as much food as possible into his mouth as fast as he could. 

Y/N's eyes wandered from one Weasley to another, much taller one, who's smile was so contagious that she found herself grinning like an idiot for no particular reason.

"What do you think, Y/N." Hermione sighed bringing her back from her daydreaming, "guess he's not the only one who didn't ask, right?" 

Y/N looked at her friend again, simply nodded as she wasn't able to react in any other way. As much as she tried not to, she felt a bit disappointed when the only person she wanted to go to the Yulle ball with, hasn't asked her.

"They've been bickering for the past 15 minutes whether asking a girl out is easy or not." Hermione stated, clearly upset with the whole situation.

"Are you serious, 'Mione? What are their points of view?" 

"Well, Harry and Ron are obviously struggling to even compliment a girl in the right way but Fred reckons there's nothing easier." 

The girls look at each other and burst out laughing in the next second. "Like he'd know how to ask." Y/N managed to get out of her through her laughter, "however, I must agree with Harry and Ron. They're the most oblivious idiots." 

"Tell me about it." Hermione giggled but a trace of hurt flew over her face and Y/N suddenly felt really sorry for her dear friend. 

"Hey Y/N!" Fred shouted out of the blue, his clear voice echoed through the Great Hall causing other students to perk up their heads in order to find out what possibly he has in mind now. 

Y/N threw a look full of question marks to Hermione before turning her head to the tall red-head. "Yes?"

The moment his typical mischievous grin appeared on his face Y/N knew that something either funny and unpleasant to her or something embarrassing is about to happen.

"Will you..." Fred kept on talking as loudly as possible while wildly gesturing with his arms - apparently pretending to dance, "go to the ball..." now he was just pointing at her and him, "with me?"

Y/N's whole face turned brightly red, her nervous eyes wandering from student to student with such awaiting and amused expressions on their faces. Her heartbeat fastened in the matter of seconds that it seemed like it might jump out of her chest. Y/N looked at Hermione for help with such desperation hidden behind her gaze but her friend just simply shrugged, absolutely shocked with the sudden question, just like Y/N was.

A few seconds passed and Y/N was still sitting at her spot totally speechless. She imagined many times how Fred would ask her to the ball but never in a million years did she think it'd be like this - shouting at her in front of the whole Great Hall with absolutely no sign of sincerity or romance; to her it seemed like some sort of a bet to prove his point.

Their eyes for a moment and Y/N realized that Fred was convinced that she's going to accept his offer, confidence was basically radiating off of him. She knew he's not bragging, Fred was one of the kindest people she'd ever met but sometimes, sometimes he just wasn't able to estimate the situation. 

Anger was slowly bottling up in her as she quickly stood up grabbing all her books. As much as it hurt her to say it, Y/N was still able to straighten up looking directly into his eyes. "Sorry, Weasley, not interested. But thanks for the offer, I feel flattered." The sarcasm in her voice was more than obvious. 

Y/N winked at Hermione, rightly feeling satisfied with her as she heard a few laughs from many students when she walked out of the Great Hall leaving absolutely speechless and embarrassed Fred Weasley. 

•••

Y/N rushed into her dormitory, not wanting to deal with anybody at the moment as the anger was slowly transforming into hurt. This wasn't what she imagined.

She threw herself at her bed; her books were casted off on the ground, papers flying all over the place.

"Y/N! Wait!" a muffled voice of the too familiar Weasley filled her ears and before she knew it, Fred was standing in the middle of her dormitory with flushed cheeks due to the long run, doors slammed shut behind him. 

"Let me explain." he almost begged taking a few steps towards her. She quickly got on her feet as she shook with her head couple of times. "Please, no. I don't care if your intentions were the noblest, but it happened and that's it."

"If you could just let me talk."

But Y/N didn't see the regret in Fred's eyes, or how his hands trembled a little bit, she was way too furious to notice all these things.

"Try to see things from my point of view, Weasley! You basically shouted at me in front of the whole school if I want to go to the ball with you! I understand that you just wanted to prove something to Ron and Harry but this is not a game for me."

Every single word that left her mouth went straight to Fred's heart. He never in a million years intended to hurt Y/N, he'd rather suffer himself than have something happen to her. But he was scared, Fred felt truly terrified of asking her out and when the boys confronted him about it, he panicked. He didn't have an idea why he reacted that way. The pounding heart, sweaty palms, the hotness in his cheeks - all this was new to Fred Weasley and he wasn't sure what do to with his stormy emotions.

"I'm real sorry, Y/N. I didn't want to offend you but that doesn't mean I don't stand behind what I said earlier." he tried to ease the tense in the small room, his lips even formed into a cute little innocet smile.

"I don't know, Weasley. I simply think-"

"Let me make it up to you! The ball's tomorrow, just say yes."

Then they were there - Fred's puppy eyes that no matter how serious the problem was, Y/N wasn't able to bring herself to say no. She knew he's very well aware of that fact, he somehow managed to melt her heart.

"Fine. I'll go to the Yulle ball with you, Weasley. Don't make me regret it."

"I can certainly promise you that, Y/L/N."

•••

Y/N was nervously pacing in her new white dress that she got from Mrs. Weasley while Hermione was watching her with an amused expression.

"You know, this isn't funny." she frowned but a part of her was telling her how unreasonably ridiculous she is.

"Actually it is," her best friend couldn't held back the laughter, "you'll be fine. I bet he's even more nervous than you are." 

"Hermione! His mum thinks I'm bloody dating him!" 

"That's just so perfect. Maybe you will be after tonight."

Their eyes met for a moment and then, as if their minds were connected, the girls started giggling like some 13-year-olds. Y/N finally relaxed a bit, just like Hermione did, as they both promised themselves to look after each other during the evening.

"So what do you think?" Y/N winked at her friend, "shall we?"

"Absolutely."

•••

The duo walked together down the stairs leading to the dance hall, side by side, both of them smiling widely. Y/N found Fred's tall figure right away as he was nervously pacing back and forth mumbling something under his breath while George watched him amused. Just like Hermione watched her a couple minutes ago. God, how similar they could be.

"Well done, brother dear. Fucking well done." George whispered into his twin's ear tapping his shoulder. Fred's gaze immediately landed on approaching Y/N making him stop in his tracks. George just smirked and left with his own date to give them some privacy.

Fred was closely watching her every step, how elegantly she carried herself through the room, the beautiful white dress flew around her making her look like an angel descending from the sky. 

"Blimey, I don't think I've ever seen something so beautiful like you." Fred breathed out, his eyes roaming all over her body.

"You don't look too bad as well, Weasley." Y/N blushed at his compliment as she sent him one nervous smile. The truth was, he looked way more better than just 'not bad' and she had to remind herself not to stare at him too much. He pulled her into his side, his scent and warmth immediately embracing her, and she found herself falling for this dangerously good looking red-head. 

"Everybody's turning their heads after you. I swear I even saw a smile on Snape's face." Fred pointed out, his voice filled with obvious jealousy as his grip on her waist tightened. 

"I don't care, just hold me, Fred." Y/N gave him a reassuring smile taking his hand in his, "just hold me."

"I never wanted anything more." 

[jonnnysuh]

Never Not - Park Jinyoung

Pairing: idol!Jinyoung x gender neutral reader

Summary: Your bad day is turned around when your childhood best friend, Jinyoung, returns to your hometown and takes you on a tour of your favourite memories together.

Genre: angst, fluff, friends to lovers

Warnings: suggested sexual experience

Word Count: 4.3k

Requested by: Anon

A/N: Hi guysssss. I took a small break from tumblr bc I got super busy with work. I haven’t written something like this in a while, but I actually loved how it turned out. I recommend listening to Never Not by Lauv to get into the mood <33

Effort was hard to make these days. Even the way you walked had an unmistakable slouch. Your exhaustive strides were just a shallow reminder that there used to be a hop in your step. Five more minutes and you were free from the shackles of work. Free to figure out what to make for dinner, and appease the gurgles of your stomach.The seconds on the point of sale system didn't seem to move fast enough as you folded the customer's final item and shoved it into a bag.

When you were a kid, no one told you how exhausting being an adult was, and thus it became something to look forward to. You were so caught up on getting that first kiss, sneaking out to go to parties, seeing people that your parents didn't approve of, that you didn't realize that life didn't slow down from there. It was like you blinked, and you were no longer 16. Instead, you were twenty-something perpetually feeling like life was just an endless pit of "what ifs" and building up the courage to make something of yourself. Another mindless "Have a good day." escaped your lips as you bid a customer bye for the nth time that day. You wondered how many of your years would waste away telling others to have a good day, when you yourself hadn't had one in a while.

You pressed your fingers against your temple to sooth a small growing headache. Working in retail for as long as you had, you knew that the s-curved line of people didn't stop for your discomfort. With a fake smile on your face, you welcomed the next few customers as your eyes wandered around the store looking for the person who was going to take over for the next hour. Fifteen minutes past the hour, your replacement finally came. Externally, you wanted to scream and ask them what took you so long? but you knew that would only make you as good as the worst customer. Graciously, you nodded at them, before walking away to the back room to fetch your things and head out.

...

You stood against the wall at the bus shelter shivering from the cool summer breeze that was disguising just how rapidly autumn was truly coming. Today probably wasn't the best day to forget your coat.  You rubbed your arms for warmth, taking micro footsteps in place.  The pain in your feet made you romanticize the comfort of the sturdy old bus seats as a place of rest. You felt your phone in your pocket vibrate, but you let it ring out. You were determined to get a seat on this bus. A deep sigh escaped you as you surveyed the density of the crowd on the platform- the ride home was definitely going to be longer than usual. When the bus arrived, you queued behind a long line of people. Your phone rang a second time, at this point the crowd was getting larger and you knew you weren't going to get a seat on this bus.

PRIVATE CALLER 

"Hello?" you pressed your phone to your ear. Sometimes your mother used phone booths to reach you, so you expected her voice to be on the other end of the line. "I'm offended I had to call you twice for you to pick up."  The voice was much deeper, and the delivery much more lighthearted than anything that would've came out of your mother.  The absence of a greeting was distinct and direct, but no matter, you knew exactly who this was.

You felt the tenseness of your shoulders drop with just the sound of this voice. "If I had definitely known it was you, I wouldn't have picked up, Mr. Private caller." you jest with the phone  pressed between your ear and the crook of your shoulder.

"You know, I was gonna suggest that I pick you up, but just for that comment, I change my mind."

You poke your tongue at your cheek, coyly. For all the changes that occurred in your life, for some reason you could depend on Jinyoung's quick wit and humour to hit the spot even after all this time.

"That's fine, I just finished work so I was thinking of just going home anyways."  You had no idea he was even back in South Korea. Last you heard, he was on tour somewhere in North America. More than that, you couldn't even remember when the last time you actually talked was. You were curious about what he was up to these days, but you you knew any hint of urgency in your voice would lead to incessant teasing on his part. The line progressed slightly, but you still didn't feel any closer to the entrance of the bus.

  "I'm about to get on a bus home." 

"Well, don't get on." 

"If I don't get on then you're gonna have to repay me for the fare I paid to even get here." You eyed the bus reaching its capacity, and stepped aside. You twisted your fingers in hope that he was being 100% serious, otherwise you were going to have to wait out for the 6:30pm bus.

"I can't believe the cost of your attention is only $2. Do better." the voice quipped. 

"Okay, Jinyoung I guess I'll just get on, then." you threatened, although you had no intention of boarding the departing bus.

"Fine, fine. I'll pay for your fare. Just wait for me."

...

The sky had darkened tenfold since you hung up from Jinyoung's impromptu call. The streetlights glowed gold against the lavender backdrop of the sky. You sat on the bus shelter bench, swinging your feet back and forth as you waited for him. If he took even a minute longer, you vowed to somehow become the president of the Park Jinyoung hate club. Of course, you wouldn't actually, but the idea became more appealing the longer you waited. 

You weren't one to go on spontaneous outings- at least not since your teenage years. Recently, you followed the strict routine of work, home, sleep, and to stray from it seemed pointless. But the fact that he even thought of you when he came back home to South Korea was still not something you could wrap your head around.

In the distance, a glow of headlights appeared, stopping perfectly adjacent to your bus stop. The window rolled down, and there appeared Jinyoung's face in all its glory. To say all the words in your vocabulary disappeared would be an understatement. A part of you doubted he would even follow through. Without missing a beat, he returned a look to you. "You just gonna stare at me, or are you gonna get in the car?"

...

Your backpack was sitting atop your lap, bouncing with the movement of the car. Jinyoung hung one hand over the steering wheel. The orange and purple of the sky twisting, and creating a brand new colour that only seemed to grace the skies at this hour. The music was unidentifiable, but the volume was low enough that you didn't even bother trying to figure it out.

"So what'd you do today?" he asked. 

"I worked, I told you that." you replied, matter-of-factly.

"And how was it?"

"I honestly can't tell the difference between this week and last week. Or even last month. Same old, same old. Annoying customers, stale lunch, forgot my jacket at home even though it's 15 fucking degrees outside." 

"Do you still work at that clothing store you started at when we were 20?"

  Your eyes shifted, following the ever-changing scenery of the highway. No idea where he was bringing you, and yet you were brought to comfort by Jinyoung's habits.  You knew he didn't have a drug deal, or a random party planned.  Jinyoung was always the type to be home before midnight. He was a self-proclaimed goody-two-shoes, but you weren't completely fooled. You knew he could bend the rules if it seemed to serve him.

  "That exact same one."

 "Anything else?"

  You looked at him, the shock settling in that he was really right next to you-- no longer just a figure on a billboard that you used to know. The changes of his physicality were subtle; his face was more defined, but his cheeks still carried the baby fat that had been there since childhood. The shadow of his facial hair loomed on his smooth skin. The mole on the top of his lip, not necessarily gone, but faded. He looked older, but the aura of his presence remained the same.

"And then I was dumb enough to get into a car with a stranger because he said he'd give me $2."

Jinyoung side eyed you, causing you to erupt in laughter. His glare was also unchanging. "Stranger? Your memory's fading already?" He shook his head disappointedly. "I thought you still had a few good years left."

  "Oh yeahhhhhh. Sorry Jinyoungie. Didn't recognize you with all the fame." you pinched and pulled on his ear- both things a relic of your grade school years. When you were kids, you never let him forget the age gap. Granted, it was only 3 days, but that gave you the freedom to refer to him however you pleased, while he was stuck with the honorifics.

As you let go, the curve of his ear flushed red. "OWW.” he cried, swatting your hand away. “You’re lucky I’m driving otherwise I would pull your hair.”

Being raised with Jinyoung meant that you were inseparable but kind of in the worst way. If Jinyoung got  a good mark on a test, his parents would immediately flaunt it to yours. If you wanted to sneak out, he was on your tail telling you to go back home. And if he knew you liked someone, then that person would know soon enough by the words of Jinyoung. All of that warranted ear pulling, and if you did something in retaliation he would pull your hair.

He was one of the few people in your life, who encapsulated a certain time of your life.  The time in your life when you were young, and the world felt so big and everything was possible.

  The car rocked back and forth as it shifted into the elevated ramp of a parking lot. Your eyes widened as you realized where you were.  He lingered in his seat before popping his seatbelt off and exiting the car. You followed him, swinging the passenger door open.

  "So you randomly called me because you wanted to hang out at the...convenience store?" you gestured to the old, orangey building. The bricks were chipped, and the fluorescent lights illuminated the outside through the big glass window.  You remember the days when you and Jinyoung would sit on the parking blocks and split a bag of chips until you were chased off the property by the owner. He pulled on the store door, pressing his back to it and letting you enter first. 

"Well, I wasn't going to come here until you started yanking my ears. That's when I knew you were hungry."

Without stopping, you weaved through the store until you reached aisle 3- the snack aisle had become a home to you and Jinyoung when you were growing up. In grade school, you were both fearful of what was beyond the boundaries of your home and school so you indulged in after school snacks at the convenience to talk about the latest happenings in your life. As you aged, it became the place of solace after exams, or the meetup location for last minute plans.

  He picked up a package of gummy worms, and shook them in your face. "Do you remember what happened the last time we ate theseeee?" Jinyoung smirked. For a moment, you were taken aback by how much he had grown. In your teens, you and Jinyoung met eye to eye. Now, you felt like you had to look up at him in order to be taken seriously.

  You crossed your arms, "Yeah, we ate them in the parking lot and you made me confess who I had a crush on." 

"Chan, right?" 

You nodded, with a sulk as you reminisced. "That wasn't fair."

 "Why? Do you still have a crush on him?" 

"I haven't thought about him in so long. You really think I'd have a lingering crush on a guy I haven't seen in years?"

Jinyoung shrugged, and shifted his feet. "You had a huge crush on him, though. You even stared at him like this." He rested his palm to his cheek, letting out a deep sigh while trying to maintain an enamoured expression. You snorted, hitting him on the chest. "You'd write his name all over your notebooks AND you bullied me into giving you one of my new ones." he added.

You let out a belly laugh. "And then I wrote his name all over that one too."

Jinyoung rolled his eyes. "They were premium quality notebooks. My aunt sent me them from the states!"

 "You had a kabillion of them. Besides, you pestered me for-like-ever to know who I liked, but you never even told me who you had a crush on." You grabbed the bag of gummy worms from his hand and placed it in your shopping basket. Your attention shifted, as you realized you should be in search of your favourite chocolates. You knew that you were far too old to be eating junk food for dinner, but there was something familiar about being hyped up on food that you knew would rot your insides. Your eyes landed on the top row of the wall, and before you could grab your favourite chocolates, Jinyoung stripped it from the wall and dropped it into the basket. He piled on a bag of sour cream and onion chips, and then you both ventured to the drink refrigerators.

  Both of you stared deeply at your drink options. On each level of the fridge, stood several different colourful drinks. If you knew Jinyoung, then you knew he would pick a Coke- it was something he swore by in your younger years. You hummed, mentally deciding between an iced tea or a vitamin water.  You weren't sure why it bothered you when Jinyoung picked up a Sprite, but you tried to hide your dismay. With an ice tea in hand, and a basket full of both of your favourite things, you made your way to the cashier.

  At the last moment, Jinyoung placed a bright yellow umbrella on the checkout counter. He looked down at you, surely, “You never know when it’s gonna rain.”

...

The following car ride to your next destination only lasted about 3 minutes before he parked on the side of the road and dragged you down the street, with the plastic bag full of your foods in hand. 

"I should've known you were going to bring me here." you said, strolling down the familiar gravel pathway towards your elementary school. All colour in the sky had disappeared now, finding it hard to see anything but the outline of each other and some features.

  Both of you settled on the grass field, onlooking the tall school building that was the foundation of your formal years. As soon as you opened the bag of chips, you found yourselves deep in conversation, talking about what life had been for him the last few years. You couldn't help but be in awe when he explained the rush he got when he got on stage, and how he got anxiety when he thought he wasn’t doing his best.  The candidacy of his thoughts drew you in and you were surprised that he trusted you with his secrets. 

All these years, you had always wondered what he was up to, if he was living a life far better than the one he left at home.  To everyone else, he was this huge pop star that had travelled the world 3 times over, but to you, he was your best friend who left home at 16. You had seen him through the bad hair phases, the adolescent temper tantrums, the voice cracks, and the questionable fashion choices both your parents had put you in.

  He leaned back on his arms as he gazed at the school. "Are you afraid of change?" You were silent for a moment as you thought. "On a scale of 1-10?" you rocked your head back and forth. "It's a 15."

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows. You held your legs to your chest, and looked at him. "Why?"

He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it and looked smugly in the other direction. "Heyyy." you poked him repeatedly. "You can't just ask me that and not tell me why."

He enclosed his hand around your finger, forcing your poking to come to a halt. It felt like he was studying your face. Never in your life had you ever felt like you were under the scope of Jinyoung's gaze. The darkness of the sky acted as a mask, hiding your blushing face.

"It was the last thing I asked you before I left." he admitted. "I asked you that when things were about to change big time for us… I always wondered if you resented me for leaving you behind."

  The last day before Jinyoung left to become a full-time trainee, you two snuck on to this very same field. Both of you ran across the grass, picking up dandelions; believing that if you gathered enough and blew on them, that they would fuel your wishes.

  “You thought I could resent you?” He nodded. “Well, for starters, I hate your guts.” You replied sarcastically, causing him to look at the ground with embarrassment and your face softened at the sight of it.

  “You know what I wished for on all of those dandelions, Jinyoung?”

 “Not to fail the math exam.” Even in a soft moment, he couldn’t help but be sly. “No!” You exclaimed. 

“Well, you should’ve. You got a 48.” He sensed your killer look on him. “So what’d you wish for?”

You played with your fingers. You thought you’d take this secret to the grave. “I wished that you’d be successful in whatever you chose to do.” His eyes enlarged, alarmed at your confession. “but maybe I should’ve wished for the math thing.”

  Jinyoung giggled, inching closer to you so your legs were pressed against each other. 

“What did you wish for?” You asked. He smiled with the side of his mouth, shaking his head. 

“I wished that I’d always find my way back home.” “Oh goddd.” You gagged. “you’re so corny.”

 “What about you, huh? You used your wish on me!” he bellowed, his voice echoing against the school playground. 

“Hey, I might just be the reason why you’re famous.” You fought back.

You flipped your phone over, 7:53, the brightness of it only barely illuminating the dark. You thought about what you would be doing at this moment if you weren’t here, if he hadn’t picked you up.  Mmm probably falling asleep to a tv show. Probably dreading tomorrow. Probably not as happy.

"But what did I say? You know… the first time you asked me that question?” You couldn’t even begin to imagine how 16-year-old you answered.

  "You said you were excited to see who we were going to become.” The words of your younger self were so hopeful, yet your current self felt hopeless. Your expression sank, and Jinyoung offered a small smile to revive it. He felt guilty having asked you the question in the first place.

You sat in silence for a bit, dwelling on the excitement for life that you once had. Where was it? And how could you get it back?

“I feel like I’ve let myself down. I don’t even know who I am now.”

Jinyoung blinked slowly, watching his childhood best friend crumble. He rested a hand on your shoulder.  "I just look at you, and in so many ways you're the same. I still know what makes you laugh, and the way you say things. I can still pick out your favourite snacks, and know you’re gonna pull my ears when I do something to piss you off.” he yanked on yours softly. "Everything about you feels just how I left you. I feel my youth when I'm with you. But at the same time I’m comforted by how much you’ve changed.”

“I don’t think I’ve changed much.”

“You don’t see it, do you?” You shook your head no. “Do you remember how scared you were to even leave the house when we were kids? Now you live on your own. You never took anything seriously back then, but you’re now one of the hardest working people I know…” his voice softened. “And you let yourself be vulnerable with me when it used to take hours to drag it out of you.” You laid on his shoulder, and he rested his head on top of yours, snuggling closer. “You fear change, yet you’re changing right before your own eyes. And maybe one day, I’ll come back here, and I won’t even be able to recognize who you’ve become.” You sniffled, the idea of Jinyoung not remembering you broke your heart. You held your chest. “But if that day does come, it’ll be okay. Because I know that the person that you’ve become will have it all figured out.  I’ll always be rooting for every single version of yourself even if it doesn’t include me.” You sobbed quietly, interlocking your fingers with his. He held your hand tightly, rubbing his thumb against the back of your hand. For once, there was an action not done out of habit or relic. It was an action evoked just for this moment, and it was a change that you didn’t mind.

…

Jinyoung held your hand, leading you down a narrow road a few minutes away. The sound of crickets, barking dogs, and distant vehicles could be heard as you stood in the middle of the road of your childhood neighbourhood.

  You hadn’t been here since you moved in 2016. You looked up at the large modern house that sat on what used to be two lots. Yours and Jinyoung’s childhood homes were purchased by a wealthy business man and demolished to build the business man’s dream home. You stared at the foreign house that sat on the place of your childhood dreams and frustrations.

  Jinyoung placed his hands on your shoulders and stopped you at the exact halfway point between what was once his house and your house. You rubbed your arms as a gust of wind rushed by. Without thinking, Jinyoung slipped off his hoodie and placed it on top of your shoulders.

“I remember racing you down this street.” You piped up, pointing down the end of the road. Jinyoung always won that race. No one was faster than him on this street.

“I remember finding that stray puppy and fighting over who got to keep it.” He responded.

“It should’ve been me.” You bickered. Jinyoung laughed, amused at how you were always one to hold a grudge.

“Do you remember that day when it started raining soooo hard and we had to walk shoulder to shoulder under my umbrella?”

You nodded. “Ya, that was the same day with the gummy worms, you dummy.”

“So do you remember what happened right here?” He pointed at the exact spot you were standing. You racked your head for a memory, but nothing stood out to you clearly. You shook your head no. “We always said bye to one another here...but…?” you trailed off.

He took a step forward, both of you standing directly under the streetlight now. You watched his face light up as he likely played the moment back in his head. “So that day, standing under my umbrella, we were about to go our separate ways. You turned into me.”

He took another step closer, popping open the bright yellow convenience store umbrella and holding it over your heads.

You could see it now. It was drizzling so hard, even your hair wasn’t protected from getting soaked.   You wrapped your hands around the handle, just like how you did back then. Chest to chest, huddled under the umbrella. Jinyoung locked eyes with you, your heart beat faster.

“And you looked at me, and I swear I was going to say everything I wanted to tell you right then and there.” Your mouth opened in shock. “This was the place where I almost told you I loved you.”

You studied the eyes of the boy you watched grow up. He looked scared, but sure. There was no doubt in your mind that Jinyoung meant what he said. He lowered the umbrella, not letting his gaze veer from you.

  Your life was just a build up of what if’s and trying to gain the courage to make something of yourself… but you didn’t want that anymore. With your heart beating out of control, you leaned into him, taking the risk and kissing his lips. He wrapped his arms around your waist, deepening the heat of the kiss.

A round of thunder boomed above you, and little by little, raindrops began to pour from the sky.

You and Jinyoung separated to look up at the sky. “I did say, you never know when it’s gonna rain.”

You both ran for the car, shoulder to shoulder, under the umbrella. From your heads to your toes, you were soaked in the rain, but neither of you cared. You silently thanked the world for every bad thing that happened to you today that led to this.

…

You blinked your eyes awake, surveying the damp clothes strewn across your living room floor, and the heat of the bare body laying next to you on the couch. You stared at your sleepy childhood best friend, a smile spreading across your lips. This was a change you were ready for. 

[ssa-steverogers]

𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨

pairing ╏ aaron hotchner x female!reader

word count ╏ 2.4k

summary ╏ a couple years have passed, and aaron and reader begin to question their status; inspired by two ghosts by harry styles

warnings ╏ none (?) please tell me if i missed anything x

note ╏ guys. i haven't written fanfics for like three years!1!!1!1! so i apologize in advance for any mistakes and grammar errors! i do hope you enjoy though! and also for the sake of the fic, jack and haley don't exist sorry guys lol and the ending is kind of bonk bonk but leave a like, comment, or reblog if you want! <3

I couldn’t pick up the phone. I sat back on the chair in the apartment we bought a couple years ago. But it tasted bittersweet just thinking about it; something I was supposed to cherish but couldn’t. The two plates of food on the table were now dull. What was once smoking and bled with heat was now encrusted in a dry film; unappetizing.

The phone continued to ring. Once. Twice. A pause. Once. Twice. Three times. But after the eleventh call, I figured he stopped. Aaron had forgotten his key that morning. It's almost humorous how he could tell the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath in his sleep but forgot the simplest things like our house key. And our fifth anniversary.

Earlier today, I had asked Aaron to go home early. But even after five years of marriage, eight of living together, and ten of dating, he couldn’t seem to care less of my whereabouts lately. Distracted, distant, and rigid.

“Hotch,” I swung into his dimly lit office earlier that day, “I'm going to be headed home early tonight. I-“

“Alright, see you at home,” Aaron continued writing his paperwork and took half a second to glance up at me. It’s unclear if he meant to cut me off or not but it didn’t matter because it would’ve hurt either way. Distant, I thought. A quick look at his office and nothing would’ve seemed different but I thought I saw more clutter than usual.

“Okay, well... I’ll see you tonight. Don’t be late!” I tried to look past it, for now. I blew a kiss his way and he looked up to smile at me briefly. The smile reached his eyes but I couldn't tell if it was genuine. His pen didn’t stop writing. Distracted, I thought. “Bye, I love you,” I breathed out and quickly shut the door, walking out to gather my stuff. I didn’t wait for his reply; unsure if he even had one. I wondered what he’d say. And if it’d hurt more than what his words didn’t say.

Looking at my watch on the way to my desk, it was half past four and it was clear to say that no one was done with paperwork yet.

“Where are you going?” Spencer questions, catching Emily’s attention. She looks up from her pile of work as well.

“Well, things to do and places to be,” I smiled at the two, putting my tablet into my bag. I grabbed my gun from my drawer and put it to my holster. Emily smiled knowingly. She knew it was me and Aaron’s fifth anniversary. Emily even helped pick out the perfect outfit for tonight’s homemade dinner. She also knew about Aaron’s behavior lately. We both thought of it and we discussed every scenario except the worst one yet. He wouldn’t do that to me, I would think to myself, not after what Haley did to him. It was the unspoken what if that I wasn't ready to swallow yet.

Emily and Spencer waved me goodbye and she wished me good luck, along with a smile that was poisoned in pity. I was almost entirely sure it wasn’t on purpose but I wasn’t sure of anything at that point. I walked out the door, into the elevator, and it felt so repetitive. The same elevator every day, the same building every day, living the same life every single day. I’d casually mention to Aaron how the repetition felt like a lot sometimes over paperwork in our office at home and he’d hum quietly. Maybe in agreement. We both loved our job. The same thing every time; but we were saving lives. Maybe it was the effect of his changed behavior. Maybe he felt it because he thought my behavior changed as well.

The same thing every time; coming home separately, even though we used to come back together. We were drifting and although it wasn’t the first time, we always resolved it. Things happen and we’d come out stronger and I had never had a doubt. Sometimes the job was hard and I was there for him, and he was there for me but it was different this time. He'd come home late and I'd be asleep by the time he got back. Then, I started to do paperwork at the local coffee shop and he’d be sitting in our office, waiting for me to get back.

No words would be exchanged once we were together for the night. Maybe a ‘hey’ or ‘how was your day?’ and then a simple ‘good.’ We’d both change our clothes and get into the bed. We were getting further and further away every night in bed. Too exhausted to think of words for this odd place we were in. Sometimes he'd hug me and take a deep breath and I'd release a breath I didn't know I was holding. Something was just not working this time. Trust your gut, Aaron used to say to me when I first joined the BAU. My gut told me that this couldn’t keep on going at the rate this seemed to be deteriorating.

All these moments led to right now. The phone rings beside me as Aaron waits outside in the drizzling rain at eight o’clock, without the key that he forgot this morning. I unlocked my phone to read the messages exchanged earlier tonight.

today 7:40

y/n: hey aaron are you still at the office?

love: Yes, is there something going on?

y/n: aaron

love: Yes?

y/n: oh you forgot, didn’t you?

love: Forgot?

y/n: aaron, it’s our anniversary?

read 7:46

I purse my lips and wonder if he still loves me. Of course, he does, my mind wanders, would he have been with you for ten years if he didn’t? I chuckle sadly. The food on the table now cold, the outfit Emily and I chose doesn’t seem so perfect anymore. The candles on the tables nearly half melted. The dining room looked eerie now, sitting by myself on a Thursday night with two uneaten plates of food with candles nearly burnt out.

That’s when I hear him knocking on the door gently.

“Y/N? Please let me in. I didn't forget, I just,” Aaron’s sigh is muffled by the door but I hear it clear as day when I get out of my seat and walk up to the door. I think he hears me walking to the front and continues. “I was distracted. Something isn’t right between us right now and we should talk about it. I’m sorry, Y/N, please let me in so we can talk.” I sigh in defeat and unlock the door, slowly. The door opens and his hair is flat from the rain, briefcase tucked under his arm with his phone in the other hand. But his posture isn’t as upright as it usually is – he probably knows he fucked up. I wonder if he’s been profiling me from my texts, or my current body language even though we promised we wouldn’t do that to each other.

He walks through the threshold of this house but his eyes don’t waver from mine as he sets his stuff down and puts his gun away in the drawer. A glimmer of his keys reflects the light in the drawer. It’s almost funny, how he remembers his gun but not his keys even though they were in the exact same place. It makes me wonder about the integrity of our situation and if he had left the keys on purpose.

I walk to the dining table with the food I made and turn away from Aaron. I’m not sure about what to say. I've obviously been avoiding this conversation for quite some time and even after all this procrastination; I still don’t even know what to say. I hear Aaron's footsteps from behind me and I wait to see if he has anything to say. After I'm sure that he doesn’t, I begin.

“Aaron,” I turn around to face him. I smile grimly, feeling tears prickle at the back of my eyes and it hurts to swallow, “What the hell happened to us?” Aaron stands there, arms crossed and a hand on his chin. Crossing arms suggests closing yourself off and is a gesture of defensiveness. “What happened to our Thursday night dates? Aaron- I don’t- I mean,” I struggle to complete a sentence when millions of thoughts are racing through my head, “I know you’re not happy. Sure, maybe everyone thinks that you don’t show a lot of emotion but I know you and you have a tell for specific things. When was the last time we really talked about how we felt about us? C’mon, Aaron, who are we bullshitting? We weren’t communicating and you know that it’s one of the most important parts of a healthy relationship.”

“Why are you using past tense?” Aaron asks and he’s doing the face he only gives to people he thinks are suspicious.

“What are you talking about? And why are you giving me that face?” I pause and Aaron tries to cut in but I get to it first. I make a face and pull my eyebrows together. “Are you profiling me right now?”

Aaron looks taken aback at my comment. “Are you?” Oh. When I don’t say anything he continues, “You’re using past tense when you mention our… marriage and relationship. If you have anything you want to say you should say it now. There really isn’t a better time,” His voice grows cold on me, the same way he does to unsubs we interrogate. I don’t think the ice in his tone is intentional but he probably can’t help it. He’s right though, should I confirm my suspicions? I don’t want to hear his answer to my question in fear that it might be the wrong one. But he is right, this conversation is long overdue.

“Are you cheating on me?” I breathe out at once. “Are you?” The tears are getting harder and harder to hold back and time seems to move slower by the second.

“Y/N, what? No, I'm not! Why would you think that? I could never do that to you. You know about Haley and how she cheated! And you think I'd do that to you?”

“You were just distant lately and-“

“Distant?” He pauses, I know he wouldn’t interrupt me if not necessary so I let him go on, “Y/N, so are you. I didn't think you were cheating. I thought you needed time and that I needed mine. I had thought about what you had said a couple weeks ago about how repetitive life felt.” I nodded at his words. “You’re not the only one who thinks that.” A pang of guilt radiates in my chest, because I think we both know how this was going to end.

“Okay,” I say.

“Okay?”

“Okay.” I walk a little closer to him and cradle his face in my hands. He rubs circles on my wrists, caressing me and I do the same to his face. Tears are spilling from my eyes, down my cheeks, “Aaron Hotchner, I love you more than anything in this whole entire fucking world. I know you love me and that I love you but you’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life and we both know what’s coming. It’s been unspoken for too long, I know that. But whatever happens, you have to know that I love you. We had our good days,” I look around to see picture frames on the walls of our relationship in earlier stages. Smiling, dancing, laughing. I remember each and every one of the pictures and thinking that this would be the man I would love for the rest of my days. “And we had bad days. There will never come a day that I forget all the wonderful things that we had. I’m using past tense now because I think-“

“I think you’re right,” Aaron quietly cuts me off. “We’re not the people we used to be. We’ve changed but we can’t grow like this. I love you too, more than words will ever be able to encompass but maybe we’re feeling stuck, not bored or repetitive.” I want to say something for the hell of being a couple for probably the last moments but I don’t want to stray far from the truth. Aaron’s eyebrows turn downwards a bit and his eyes are glimmering with tears. He envelopes my body in his and leaves a quiet kiss on my hairline.

I take a deep breath of air, trying to savor this moment for the rest of my life. My face is wet from tears and they won’t stop falling. I hiccup from the crying in his grasp so he plays with my hair fondly and almost inaudibly hums to me.

“Will we be okay? I mean,” A hiccup, or three. “I don’t want either of us to leave the BAU because of this but also will we be okay? In terms of feelings and… well, more feelings.”

“Of course,” Aaron begins. “I don’t love you any less but we both agree that things will be better this way. We just... go back to how it used to be before you asked me to a drink for the first time,” I can feel his small grin as he leans against my head. Being reminded of that day hurts now, but it has for a while anyway. I wonder if I hadn’t asked him to that drink one night after a local case, if we’d be where we are now. But I know everything here was nothing less than fate itself and that I probably shouldn’t dwell on what if’s.

And so after some moments of silence for something that would soon be gone, we stand underneath the dim lights of the dining room. Aaron holds me against his chest as we look at the candles on the table. They’re both burnt out. There’s no light there anymore. The candle has melted onto the chamberstick, leaving long trails of wax.

I hold him a little tighter and he does the same to me. I don’t know what the future holds but our two halves have drifted too far to come back together and that’s okay. I know things will be weird for a while but it’ll be okay.

“It’ll be okay,” I whisper under my breath. For the sake of us, we'd leave it here. Once upon a time, we were younger and more naive, better for each other then. But we're older now and we're stuck. Just two ghosts standing in the place of him and me.

[ethanharli]

Pairing(s): Kuroo Tetsurou x Top Male Reader.

Warning(s): Cursing, Angst/Fluff.

DNI; if you use she/her pronouns.

__________

A sigh ripped past my throat as I stared down at my feet with hazy eyes, feeling the rain hit my body without mercy while I sat on the curb, not wanting to go home to where my parents fought and argued for the millionth time, at least my twin sister is at her training camp so she doesn't have to endure this shit. Then there's the fact my phone broke during my mother and I's fight, so I couldn't call anyone to see if I could stay over, even though I'd rather not bother anyone anyways, they probably got better things to do than deal with my ass. Groaning at the thought I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes when I heard footsteps approach, "[Y/n]? What are you doing in the rain?" My eyes widened at the familiar voice, turning my gaze his way I saw my usual bed headed boyfriend standing besides me, holding his umbrella over the both of us.

His cat like eyes staring down at me with confusion and worry, something I could never get used too. "They're fighting again.." Was all I muttered out, running a hand through my drenched [H/c] hair in order to move it out of my face while Kuroo held out his hand. "Come on then you're coming home with me" I had no time to object when he was already pulling me off the ground, forcing me against him, which nearly made us topple over, but an unusual sly smirk was now present on his face as he looked up at me, but the smirk wasn't one of the usual ones that girls and guy's alike would swoon over. "Should we get going?" I could only nod, keeping my gaze on him while he laced our fingers together, practically dragging me along with him under his umbrella.

His coat had a few wet spots from loose rain drops, the red of it reminding me of his Nekoma volleyball jacket. His focus stayed in front of us, a lingering determination hidden under the beautiful hazel of his eyes that I could look into for hours, and the way he held himself with confidence is something I will always admire, wishing I could do so myself, and mean it at least. Feigned confidence is something I can do well, but Kuroo has been the only one to see past it, hell he even pointed it out when we first met. "Getting a good look?" He chuckled, tightening his grip on my hand a bit in a comforting way that slowly brought a heat to my cheeks, "Maybe.." I muttered out, quickly turning my gaze away from the shorter male when a small, genuine smile was brought to his lips.

As much as I tried I couldn't stop my thoughts from wandering to their usual dark place, staring down at Kuroo and I's joined hands with furrowed brows. How could he love someone as expressionless as me? I can barley smile, I can't speak my mind without being scared of what he might think or say afterwards, even if deep down I know he cares, and that he'd never do anything to hurt me. It truly makes me wonder, how someone as great as him, would want to be with someone as broken as me, it's simply a hard pill for me to swallow. The sudden tap on my shoulder brought my attention back, seeing that we had finally arrived at Kuroo's house, him holding the door open for me with that worried gaze of his.

"Sorry.." Walking inside I took off my shoes and slipped on the slippers I kept here, not really wanting to walk throughout his house since I'm still soaking wet. "C'mon you need to get in the shower, you're a baby when you're sick" He laughed, forcing me up the stairs towards the bathroom while my heart fluttered in my chest, wanting to hear more of his laughter until he finally shoved me in the bathroom, "I'll bring you clothes and a towel, then after we can cuddle on my bed." After that I started my relaxing, skin melting hot shower only taking about ten minutes since the idea of cuddling with my lover was all to tempting. So when I stepped out the bathroom, dressed in grey sweatpants and a T-shirt I looked around the room for the middle blocker, sighing in defeat when I couldn't find him and simply sat at the edge of his bed.

I laid the towel on my head, not caring for the little water droplets that hit my cheek, slowly sliding down to my neck as I looked at the floor.

"He deserves better than you! No one could even bother loving you! He's probably just a whore for your cock!"

My mothers words rang through my head as tears slowly gathered in my eyes, blurring my vision almost immediately. I always wondered why she'd bring Kuroo into our fights, telling me constantly that he'd be better off fucking a pretty girl then being a whore for a guy like me. I had never been so angry at her, I never cared for when she'd insult me but insulting Kuroo was out of the question, it was immediately after she shouted the word that I threw my phone behind me, shattering its screen and putting a hole in the wall. I hated fighting with her, knowing she's just pissed that dad wouldn't give her a good fuck anymore simply because he found his co-worker much more interesting.

Tears slowly flooded from my eyes as I let out a choked sob, resting my elbows on my knees as my head hung low, feeling my body tremble and my chest ache. My breath caught in my throat when slim fingers slid under my chin, pulling my head up so I could look into that gorgeous hazel I fell in love with many years ago. "It'll be okay [Y/n], I'm here" He whispered out, the soft tone was something I hadn't heard much of, but was calmed by nonetheless, my hand reached out, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him towards me, a pleading look in my eye begging for him to climb into my lap which surprised him greatly. Never once in our relationship have I initiated anything that involved physical contact, hell I couldn't even utter the words 'I love you' because every time I tried my mothers words would weigh me down.

However Kuroo still gladly slipped into my lap, moving his arms to rest on my shoulders while mine wrapped around his waist securely, burying my face into the crook of his neck, simply wanting the touch of my lover against me. The feeling of Kuroos fingers running through my hair slowly calms my painful sobs, turning them into quiet sniffles, taking a deep breath of his scent that I craved for everytime he was away. My hands stayed on the small of his back, pulling away from the hug just enough so I could rest my forehead against his, brushing our noses together softly as I stared into his eyes that looked torn from my own broken gaze. "Sometimes I think my mother is right, I truly believe I don't deserve you, you've always been there for me no matter what and what have I ever done in return? She makes me feel like I'm just dead weight to you, and honestly most the time I believe it."

Before he could interrupt I brought my hand to his cheek, brushing my thumb along his cheekbone in order to cut him off, "You always stuck to me though, even when so many people threw themselves at you, people that could've been so much better for you, you still chose me, an emotional broken wreak of a man." He stayed silent as I talked, biting his lower lip with a twinge of something hidden behind those pools of hazel, watching me intently when my gaze shifted towards his lips, moving my hand so that my thumb could pull his lower lip from his teeth.

"But god damn you manage to make me feel so fucking special" I whispered out, feeling his grip on my hair tighten by a fraction as I captured his lips with my own, loving how surprisingly soft they felt against my own, but the kiss ended as soon as it started, even though I couldn't bring myself to pull away to much. "I want to be with you for as long as you'll let me, cause fuck Tetsurou I love you to much to let you go" I mumbled against his lips, looking into his half lidded eye's that brightened with so much happiness they literally teared up, and being anxiety filled I thought I had made him upset for a moment, but that thought quickly left when he smashed his lips against mine with so much force that I fell against his bed.

He had the biggest smile I've ever seen as he pressed his palms against my chest, looking down at me with a loving look I happily returned, smiling back at the bed headed male, "You have no idea how long I've waited to hear that! God I love you, you idiot!" He laughed, leaning down to press a, this time, soft kiss against my lips.

"I love you too Testu."

[endlessdelirium]

Nothing to see here (or "We can't stop here. This is Bat Country!)

Hello from The Void! How did you get here? Well, I probably liked one of your posts, or I read something you posted that really resonated with me to the point that I broke my silence and actually responded (instead of just lurking like a creepy ghost). Or you're probably like a creepy ghost yourself and saw my username enough times or read one of my comments that made you wonder just who is this moron spouting off all this nonsense? Either way, you thought you'd check out my account and return the favor, or something, I really have no idea why you're here lol.

The thing is, I made this account years ago. I had a couple of irl friends who also had accounts, so I followed them plus a handful of other people from my interests back then. And it was great for awhile, until social media fatigue set in. This was nothing new. There'd be new social media sites that would be trendy for a time, and I'd be curious enough to try it for awhile, until I realize lol I'm not a very social person irl, why would I be better at it online? So I start losing interest until I eventually stop checking in. Even now, I am barely on any social media sites. I keep my Facebook account active because that's pretty much the only way people could get in touch with me if they don't have my number, and I'm on Reddit all the time but I barely post/comment there as well and just mostly lurk (like a creepy, creepy ghost wooohhh. Nah, but seriously, social anxiety is a real bitch!) Other than that, I practically have zero social media presence.

So I'm pretty much done with Tumblr... until Haikyuu dragged me back in. I can't really remember when I entered the fandom, I think I started watching sometime in late 2018 and I've been obsessing ever since. Reading the manga wasn't enough, I wanted more content. The Reddit sub was okay... for awhile. Eventually I wandered back into the wastelands of Twitter and Tumblr, all in my pursuit of extra Haikyuu juice. Yes, there's no point denying it, I'm pretty much an addict at this point. Stop judging me.

The thing is, I'm also incredibly lazy. I didn't see the point of creating new accounts when my old ones are still serviceable. For all intents and purposes, this account is pretty much dead. It's just, sometimes (okay, lots of times) I would scroll through Haikyuu tags and I would find something funny, insightful, pretty, interesting that I just have to like it (or is it hearting something? Sorry, I'm not really well versed in Tumblr lingo anymore) or leave a comment to show my appreciation. Which is all well and good, it's just lately a couple of people have been following my account, which isn't terrible per se, I just find it a bit weird since I haven't posted anything new in years. Really, the only thing I updated was my profile pic, since my account was supposed to be a personal one, and wasn't supposed to be dedicated to just a specific fandom so the pic I originally used was one of my irl head which is just... ick! I don't know what I was thinking. So I changed it because I didn't want to frighten anyone by manifesting my mug in their notifications, and really Hinata's head is infinitely better than my head so it can only be an improvement for my account.

Other than that, I pretty much left everything as is. I didn't have the heart to delete everything. In a way, it's kind of like a time capsule for me, still, I don't really recognize the me who made these posts anymore. I mean, I don't have amnesia or anything. I sorta remember them, but since they were made by a younger version of me, one with different interests and obsessions (I mean still share some of these things with this person, it's just a lot has changed as well, and I've since changed my opinion about some things) there's a sort of detachment as well. Which is why it feels like receiving a jolt of electricity everytime I get a new notification that someone has liked a picture or post. It's like "Huh?", I sort of remember the post, but also not really since it was litterally from years ago made by a younger and more naive me. "Okay, I guess?" is all I can say at the end.

So, what now? I still don't want delete my posts. Even though it kind of weirds me out now, I still like having it as a record. Like "Hey, this was ME! Wasn't I weird? I mean, I'm still weird, but in a slightly different way. Anyway, wasn't I a riot?" I also don't feel like making a new account. I still don't really consider myself active in these parts. I just like scrolling through my tags of interest (like a creepy stalker), liking awesome fan arts, and leaving a comment or two when I couldn't contain myself anymore and I just had to say something. I've also thought about re-blogging things sometimes, but I feel that would tip my account back into a semi-active state, and I don't feel like it just yet. Maybe in the future. For now I kinda like keeping my account as is, as a time capsule when I was still active here.

So, where does that leave you? I still don't really know why you're here, but you're welcome to have a look around. Just remember you're looking at an old account and it would help if you view it like a window to the past. I don't mind if you like anything, just know I only have vague memories of making any of those posts so I can't really discuss any of them now. If you're okay with all of that, then make yourself at home... or not, I'm not the boss of you lol.

Anyway, you're still here? And you read everything? Why? I mean, wow, what a trooper! I gotta reward you with something. You know what, here's a picture of Hinata. Did I draw it? Of course not, don't be silly! I like art, but unfortunately art doesn't like me so I can't draw to save my life. So this here's just regular manga panels of Hinata. But not just any Hinata, it's Third Year Hinata! Why? Why not? I see many itenerations of Hinata on Tumblr including Brazil Hinata, but for some reason I don't see Third Year Hinata get as much love on here. I don't really get it. He is so precious. So here he is!

Bonus: The Duality of Hinata

Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!

[sophroniaa]

Perfectly Lovable

(just quickly wanted to say a huge thank you for the love on "Admiring", it honestly means the world to me. 🖤 & aaaalso, this might turn into a two parter if you like it?? idk)

Word count: 1,3k

Trigger warnings: Mentions of alcohol, being hungover

You wake up the next day, hungover to say the least, trying to deny the real reason as to why you got so drunk in the first place.

It had struck later in the afternoon and you were sitting in the backyard with Rook, enjoying the afternoon sun before it would set and the degrees would start dropping for the night. You had all been having a lazy day. A few of the guys even just starting to come back to life after last night's party. It hadn't been too long since you'd gotten out of bed yourself, feeling too hungover to move. Your thoughts wandered back to the night before, trying to remember what had happened past midnight… you came to the conclusion that the night could be rounded up very easily, as you'd been way too drunk since most of the night came up as a thick fog. The throbbing headache only proving your mental point further.

"It's been a while since I drank that much…" You mumbled to Rook, which only gained a snort in return. "Tell me about it." He chuckled as an answer to your statement, also thinking back to the events of the night before. "Have to say you took me by surprise when you challenged me to a tequila race." He said after a few seconds of silence, the images from the night before playing clearly in his mind. 

The new information caused you to push your sunnies further down your nose to look at him, eyeing his facial expressions trying to see if he was fucking with you. You covered your face with your hands in slight embarrassment when you realized he wasn't. "No fucking wonder we feel like absolute shit today." You said shaking your head, no longer finding the aching body & foggy memories strange.

"Don't think I've ever seen you that drunk." He stated before taking another sip of his pedialyte. You leaned over and took the plastic bottle from him before taking a gulp of your own. A grimace quickly spreading across your face once the taste hit your tastebuds, holding out the bottle to read the flavor.

"Euw, you willingly drink the mixed fruit flavor?" You exclaimed, more than happy to give him the bottle back.

He burst out laughing at your reaction. "So you're able to down multiple shots of tequila with a straight face but pedialyte gets you?" He teased, smirking so big that his eyes squinted a little.

"Shut up asshat…" You mumbled before offering him a playful smile.

"You seen Kells today?" You asked instead, not sure if you dare hear anything else about your drunken state from the night before. You leaned your head back, letting the sunshine rest on your tired face.

Rook only shook his head in response. You could see from the corner of your eye that he sneaked a peek at you trying to read your feelings. "So…" He started to say before falling quiet, like he was debating whether or not to bring it up. "We gonna talk about why you got so fucked up last night?"

You leaned your head back again to enjoy the warmth of the sun whilst hiding away behind your dark sunglasses. "I'm good, Rookie." You said flatly, knowing exactly what he was trying to get at. "Not like I haven't seen him with other girls before."

Not like you hadn't seen him with other girls before wishing it was you in their place.

"I'm just saying… Even an idiot would connect the dots, he brings over his "new girl" & you, who normally don't drink much, gets absolutely trashed."

"That's not why!" You protested.

"Oh yeah, then why did you get so drunk?" He was quick to ask. "Enlighten me." His voice letting you know just how much he believed you, which would be about approximately zero procent. Deep inside, you knew you were crushing so incredibly hard on Colson. It was just easier pretending like you didn't. The palms of your hands would start to sweat just by the simple thought of actually telling him. You could only imagine standing right before him trying to explain the situation, to you that sounds like nothing but a bulletproof plan for a break down.

This caused you to sit in silence for a while, trying to come up with something smart to say… Reaching for anything, really. So far you'd been doing a horrible job at trying to convince him. To be fair, you were probably the one needing the convincing. However it fooled neither of you, no matter how hard you tried to deny stuff. When you came up shorthanded you sighed loudly, signaling that he'd won this time around as well.

Fuck models, switch condoms. You felt your heart thug a little, thinking about the constant variation of girls in his life. As of right now he was seeing a brunette model that you honestly couldn't remember the name of, not too long before that it had been a blonde.

You hated it.

How they would stride into his life chasing that bad boy fantasy, wanting a taste of the exciting celebrity world, being MGK's center of attention for a short while.

Something you hated even more was how they knew exactly what they got themselves into, only to become disappointed when he immediately didn't change his ways and grant their wishes by becoming a whole other person for them.

"You've got that look on your face again." Rook pointed out only to sigh dramatically when he realized you'd slipped deep in thought about Colson, again.

"Sorry, what?" You sat up, straightening out in your seat, coming back to reality after he had nudged your leg with his.

"I said, you've got that look on your face again." Rook repeated. You looked at him dumbfounded.

"You get a bothered look on ya face when you think of the constant switching of girls." Rook explained in a matter of factly tone. Trying to even out your furrowed forehead with his thumb to further prove his point. You were quick to shake your head.

"It's not that… " You said while hating how well he could read you, always knowing exactly what's on your mind. Part of you knew there really was no point in denying it, he could read you like a book at this point. In a desperate attempt at keeping your mouth shut you started to chew on the insides of your cheek, but unfortunately it didn't take long before you spoke again.

"I just hate how they exactly know what they're getting themselves into and yet still have the nerves to act disappointed, demanding this and that, ultimatums left and right… " You mumbled, picking at your nails. "Leaving him to blame it all on himself thinking he's a complicated man to love."

When in reality it was the complete opposite, perfectly lovable the way he is. He was in no way complicated if you saw him for who he was instead of trying to change him into what you thought best fit. Understanding how the things he had been through shaped him into his whole existence. He still had his struggles, but who doesn't? He put on a tough act a lot of the time, acting like nothing could get to him, sometimes even talking a big game, sure thing, but underneath all that was a mushy lil' Colson. A side to him he wouldn't show to just anyone, you had to connect with him. Vibe with him. Almost like he needed to make sure your intentions were good before he could let his walls down a little. He wasn't just an angry guy, shouting into the microphone at an impressive pace. There was so much more to him than the established MGK image.

Never had you met a more genuine or kind-hearted guy, so naturally your heart ached when you oh so clearly could see people taking advantage of that.

Bitches, news flash, this ain't build-a-man factory.

"Dude, just fucking tell him already!" Rook exclaimed, clearly becoming impatient with how you acted like you only saw him as a good friend. "You the type of girl he should be with. These toxic models ain't doing him no good."

"Someone to date him for who he really is, shows him patience and acceptance. Understands his issues and encourage him to get better." He saw the hint of uncertainty spreading across your face as he talked. "Stop that, I honestly think that equals you." He said, putting his palm on the left side of his chest. "You just need a little encouragement to get over your nerves." He teased.

You couldn't help but smile at Rook's encouraging words, loving how he always rooted for you no matter what. You reached your arms out to embrace him in a big hug, a way of showing your appreciation towards him. "Everyone needs a Rook in their life." You mumbled into his chest.

[fulcrum-agent]

008. Adroid [FFXIVwrite2021]

"So just...pick a big room?" she asks the punkish apparition, head canting a little.

The redhead nods, smirking a little. "You're a clever girl, Quil - I trust ya won't pick somewhere with so little space, the bulkheads get blown up."

There's the briefest moment of blue screening brain at the compliment, but it's gone in a microsecond.

"'Cept when it comes to that other thing you brought up," she chides, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. "That was stupid as fuck, and we're gonna be discussin' it when you're done kicking this Miqo'te about."

Quila can't help but wince, giving the Arcadia a sheepish expression.

All the apparition does to such is wave her hand a little dismissively. "I said later. Call your new potential toy - just be sure ta gimme a show~."

Then just like that, Quila's alone again. Sort of. Mostly. Sighing, she reaches up for the linkpearl that's paired to her tomestone. "Karuis...found us a place to train."

"Ah, and here I thought I was gonna resign to watching the rain bounce off the bulkhead. Where am I meeting you?"

Xe has busied xemselves with taking up a curled up position somewhere in one of the Outlaw's more out of the way pieces of real estate, some cross beams nearby to some of the larger guns. Xe hops down from their Miqo accessible locale as xe wait for the exact location, tail flicking idly behind xem.

"You grab a place ground side, I assume?

"Nah. Arcadia's letting us pick a room," she explains but doesn't. "I figure one of the cargo bays is gonna be best, yeah?"

She's already making her way through the massive ship. She's trying to find where the cargo bays actually are, given she's near the bridge out of habit.

"Long as we have permission, that's fine with me. And aye, cargo bay works fine."

Xe didn't really require an explanation, everything after talking house, living through the memories of others, a massive skeleton trying to kill xem, and whatever the fuck the past few moons have been...

Xe assumes the Arcadia is just as alive as anyone else, and she told Quila what room to use. As xe make their way over to the other airship, xe give some idle thoughts to where precisely in the cargo bay they were meeting before deciding that finding out could be the adventure. Xe gives a slight bow of respect as xe come aboard the Arcadia before xe start moving like a shade through the halls, the map the Viera had shown before of this great airship bouncing about between their ears; as xe try to find... oh, there she is. By providence, luck, or maybe just The Arcadia being well designed xe spot the Garlean and give a half-wave, tail flicking behind xem.

"Didn't get lost, did we? Would be a little concerned if you did."

"Pfft, she'd let me if only to watch in sadistic amusement," she chirps as she turns, startling a little physically due to their lack of footfalls. "But, there are multiple cargo bays here. This is just the first one I've found. This ship is MASSIVE, and I feel like it's some sort of game to her to not just...give me a map."

"I could certainly see that; watching people wander around aimlessly can be pretty hilarious." The Seeker blinks at the noise before rubbing the back of their head as xe put on a small smile. "Sorry, someone had the bright idea to put a bell on me when I was young, fucking menace ever since, apparently. But! I have a map.. kind of, at least I remember the floor plans or whatnot. Rika managed to snag, so I mostly know my way around.. but that doesn't stop me from being thankful that I haven't gotten lost.. yet."

Xe glances about the cargo bay for a moment before turning their gaze back to her and motioning to her, finding a nearby support beam to lean on.

"So, what's the plan for today? Am I starting with teaching you the basics of Thavnarian dance fighting, or are we sparring to see where you are in hand to hand generally and working from there?"

At this point, she's in a pair of shorts (black), stockings (dark purple), her almost-trademark boots (black & gold), and one of those tank tops that the Isghardians were handing out to crafters (wine red). While she doesn't have Talekeeper with her, at least, as far as can be seen, she's still wearing the Warmage magicite Locke'd given her as a pendant to the collar she seems to wear 24/7.

When he speaks of the bell, she ends up giggling a little, trying to picture xe with a collar bell...which was surprisingly easy.

"I'm thinking we try some hand-to-hand so you can figure outplacement," she notes with something of a wicked grin, suddenly ramping towards manic. "Just don't go easy on me."

Xe has swapped over to something more warm with their Bozjan coat now missing for The Twelve only know how long. So the Seeker has thrown on a currant purple anemos gambison, some modified jet black strife pants, and one of their constantly swapping pairs of combat boots, these ones an Alliance make in soot black. Xe still has the twin onyx and dark amber revolvers gifted to xem by Locke on their belt though, besides that, xe aren't carrying any type of polearms. The two accessories that stand out are a watch on their left wrist that has a faint hint of aetheric energy coming off of it and a dull grey gunmetal tin clipped on their right, just about the size of a soul stone.

Xe raises a brow at the snickering and just shake their head a little; that smile from before staying before it turns into a grin at she's request.

"I wasn't planning on it; it wouldn't be an accurate assessment if I did take it easy. So I'll give you one warning before we do go; if you're gonna try and flow again, I'll start using my stone. On your mark, Aquila."

As soon as those words leave the Seeker, their demeanour switches with all the effort of a light switch, mismatched gaze narrowing as xe drop into a defensive stance, the style more reminiscent of an Imperial martial discipline than anything else.

"I uh...kinda don't know how to make those moves otherwise, so game on?" she replies as she falls into...absolutely no stance. There's nothing. Her stance is absolutely neutral all around, and suddenly, all but the most necessary of movements evaporates as she begins to focus on xem. It's slow, but there's a pronounced shift in her entire being, down to an aetheric level. A change she doesn't seem to be aware of.

She's almost maddening to fight. Any and all movement happens with barely a microsecond of warning, yet all of them still flow as though she's dancing, not fighting. Even watching the triangle, her telegraphs are tiny as hell; she always falls back to neutral if there's time, otherwise flowing from one motion to the next as xe fight.

And just like that, she blinks into the Lifestream to close the distance, ejecting just in reach of xe - as she had on the deck, only this time with the intent of actually striking him right in the solar plexus.

Xe would have clarified that xe head meant the blinking manoeuvre, but when xe takes in that she lacks stance, any of those thoughts leave xir mind. The Seeker catches the shift instance, their ears pinning back and tail puffing up as xe prepare for that same focus xe encountered on the deck of The Outlaw.

The dance-like flow to the spar thus far and the speed on display put the Seeker right in their element, moving with all of the grace that being both a Miqo'te and professional performer granted them as xe keep in sync with the Garlean. The Seeker shifts between and around styles like breathing the longer the fight goes on, prodding and poking at her defences to find her responses and strengths to certain things. The Seeker seems to favour a style favoured by Doman resistance cells, sending out elbows and fist and knee strikes in rapid succession.

Like a viper, the Seeker waited for that shift in the air as she went into the Lifestream. Xe know that point for point, xe weren't going to be able to match the manoeuvre for sheer speed, so instead, xe rely on the anticipation of the strike's previous flow. With an utter lack of hesitation, the Seeker moves to send out a swift dragoon kick, less focused on power but more on sheer speed as it snaps the air around the two. xir's body twists for the kick and hopefully moves the blow to somewhere less disastrous should it land. Xe was not about to hold back here, she deserved the Seeker at their best, and xe weren't one to disappoint.

Given that xe is a clever catte, xe'll quickly pick up on certain hallmarks of what she's capable of combatively: one of her biggest strengths is the lack of movement telegraphing, as it makes finding any sort of opening complex, at first. While her eyes seem to be unfocused, she locked onto the triangle that's formed by the Miqo'te's collarbones and sternum, that distant gaze seeming to more stare into their soul than past xem.

Blinking back into a kick sends her strike wide, the palm of her hand skimming along the side of his leg as she adjusts to try and block the kick before sliding around the side of Karius' body. Should she slide past him, her next attack is towards the middle of his lower back - another snapping strike with a bit of aether behind it, her second hand following to make a small follow-up strike.

With a better sense of what xe were working with when it came to her, the Seeker decides to switch up tactics. Xe shifts energy from trying to read the Garlean's movements to instead focusing on following through on their own and keeping a sense of spatial awareness in the room. Xe decides to eat the strike to their lower back, the energy needed to counter that far too much of a gamble; the weaker follow-up was a different story, however.

Turning on a dime on their heel, xe move to face she, using the speed and momentum of the rapid turn to try and veer the strike off to their left with their palm. Now fully facing she and the distance relatively short, xe go on the offensive, taking a far more aggressive stance as xe unleash a combination of palm and knee strikes. Xe wasn't relying on all of them to hit but instead overwhelming the other fighter with a complete switch from their previously tight defence. Xir's aim at the moment seemed to get the two of them out to a far smaller section of the cargo bay or at least push them to fight closer to this area.

Surprisingly, she doesn't smile at landing the strike. In fact, her expression is little more than deadpan as xe launch the continuous series of strikes. At first, she manages to keep up on blocking or redirecting the hits, but the longer xe continues the tactic, the more she has to pivot or dodge than she does block. Finally, it's becoming clear xir is going to overwhelm her with the rapid strikes...

...and as the Miqo'te overwhelms her, she blinks into the Lifestream, crossing through xe before flashing back into existence at their back. She's already executing a roundhouse kick as she solidifies, aiming for her opponent's middle back.

The Seeker was not about to let up the advantage of xir's rapid combos as xe continues to press her further into the smaller section of the cargo hold, boots squeaking against the metal floor as their speed increases. xe were, however, incredibly aware that xe couldn't keep it up forever; either she would come right for their throat or-

The sensation of being teleported through gets xem to shiver, warning xem what may be coming alongside dreading that blink. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time for xem to dodge the strike, at least not in a way that wouldn't give her another big opening to exploit. So xe quickly turn on their heel and brace their arms up to catch the blow, which still sends the Seeker sliding back and does some solid damage. Xe hiss in pain as xe take a moment to centre xemselves before rushing into the Garlean's space. xir's method swaps now to something far faster, using their stone to gather as much momentum and speed as xe can while bleeding into these dancer-like strikes and spins. Thavnairian dance fighting, and xe gave her a crash course like an Imperial locomotive coming down the tracks.

Active learning at this speed is possible for the Warmage, though it was more of a slow build-up rather than a sudden gift of knowledge the way it can be when there's less going on. Falling back to focusing on dodging more than redirecting or blocking, xe would start to notice the more xe does a particular mood or technique, the more likely it is that she works it into her side of the fighting. With movements the Miqo'te's using heavily, she can almost perfectly mirror them; with the less frequent movements, she's a little unstable and erratic, her form nowhere near as tight and proper.

The continued attacks again start to press her, causing her to play defensive more than offensive.

Xe's next high kick ends with a different result: she doesn't attempt to block, redirect, or dodge such the way she has been. No, instead, she just...bends back at the waist, forming an almost perfect arch as her hands drop to the floor behind her. And then she pushes her feet off of the floor, intent of kicking her opponent with each foot as she shifts into a handstand before vaulting from such to her feet - facing xe, but several fulms away now.

As xe starts to notice she putting xir's techniques into her fighting styles and the like, that.. certainly gets a reaction from xem. But, then, something snaps from behind their crimson and amber eyes. The Seeker continues darting into she's space as much as xe can up until that next high kick, eyes going a bit wide as xe watch that arch and then the kick lands.

The hit lands nicely and sends xe sliding back, getting their tail to puff up and to show off their sharp canines, which are considerably sharper and pointed than even a vast majority of Keepers. Unfortunately, this fact doesn't stay in the spotlight for long as black aether sparks around xem as xe concentrates on their stone and go on an onslaught. Xe was going to put pressure on the fact she couldn't precisely copy their techniques perfectly or keep up with their speed to the same extent. If she continued using flow, then xe wasn't going to go easy, sending forth kick after dashing elbow to shin strike. One of the main strikes xe go into xe get right in her face and attempt a sweeping kick the Garlean before spinning into another kick to her midsection.

The initial onslaught causes her to start losing ground rapidly, causing her to dart backwards as she refocuses on trying to dodge as many of the strikes as possible. However, the moment the Seeker starts to focus on her face, she blinks backwards three separate times - putting as much distance as possible between them. Although she retreats, xe' leg sweep fully lands while the second is more of a light graze across her stomach.

She crashes to the floor as she exists the Lifestream the third time, rolling several times due to the force of the impact. Such is only stopped when the back of her upper body slams into the metal wall with a loud clanging thud. For a few heartbeats, she's propped up against the wall before her eyes fully roll back into her head as she falls sideways.

Xe was in the zone and was hard-pressed to get out of it, especially with the amount of blinking around the place that she was doing. Despite the serious expression on their face, xe were having so much fun with all of this. Xe goes to try and bring down another combination when xe hear that crash.

Xe pauses a few fulms away from the Garlean before their eyes go wide, and xe dart over to her side. Then, cursing under their breath as xe tries to force xemselves to not only calm down but try to figure out what might be wrong with their limited medical experience.

"Shit, shit... Aquila, are you alright?"

((Adapted from an RP session with Karuis.))

[granills]

Always there / Alex Turner

The coffee's already gone bad by now as you flicked the pages of the magazine, checking your horoscope and thinking about how on earth you could be "successful" based on just star constellations.

These days weren't new to you. Sometimes you felt bad when you were left all alone in the house. Your roommate had gone somewhere, Alex was on tour and the cloudy weather outside seemed to make you feel even sadder. Raindrops didn't want to stop hitting against your window, with every sound reminding you that you were alone. You usually loved rain, but not on this particular day when everything seemed to go against you.

You rolled up in your blanket on the couch and if earlier you could hold back your tears, now the tears burst forth, spilling down your face as if you were a little girl who'd lost her candy cane. But aren't adults the same kids? Just grown-up.

Minutes of sobbing past, broken apart by short pauses for breaths, you heard your phone was calling. The phone stopped calling right when you decided to go and pick it up already. Seeing the name on your phone made your heart melt and pound a little. You had missed 3 calls from Alex and 1 text message. Wiping the tears away you decided to phone him, but Alex always knew whether you'd cried or not and you didn't wanna let him know. While you were wondering when was the right time to call him, Alex had made it for you, the picture of him illuminating on your phone. You rushed to pick up the phone - it was a video call - and held your phone that way so he couldn't see half of your face.

"Y/n, I was worried. Is everythin' okay?" The familiar voice filled your ears, only making it worse for you 'cause you missed him.

"Yeah, everything is okay. I was cleaning the room, I hadn't heard the phone ringing." You let your hair fall over your face because you could tell it's become red from crying.

Alex smiled. "Always busy, my babeh."

"When are you coming back? Say hello for me to the boys." You forced a smile.

"Will do, darlin'. Dunno couple of days I thin'. Y/n, is everythin' realleh okay?" If he asks that one more time you might lose it and cry in front of him.

"Yeah, I told you." Why is it so goddamn hard to do the simple thing?

"Y/n, look at me." Shit.

You pretended you were busy with something and showed only half of your face to the camera. "Yeah. What?"

"Can yeh pick up the phone propelleh an' look at me?" He sounded serious. And you thought there was no point hiding that, not when you could barely hold your tears back.

Not saying anything, you held the phone opposite from you. You saw your face in a small window on the screen. He wasn't dumb, by your messy hair and red eyes anyone could understand.

"Wha' 'appened, mi luv? Were yeh cryin'? Tell me." He held the phone closer to his face like he could reach to you.

"It's nothing, Alex. Really. I was just alone here, all by myself. It happens sometimes, I feel empty and sad and so I sort of got a little..." You really tried to hold them back, you felt the muscles of your chin tremble like a small child. You thought you could hold yourself up, be stronger, but you just... collapsed. "I'm so sorry. I feel so stupid."

Alex was looking around, talking with some people. He had heard you and already decided to leave everything right then and there and get back to you. Nothing mattered to him, he knew he should be with you right now, his only wish was to get to you.

"Y/n," he went back to the phone, "Listen teh me. Go get sum sleep. Get sum sleep, I'll be the' in the morning."

"Wh- Alex?" You couldn't believe he'd just cancelled all his concerts because of you. "You can't.."

"I'll be there tomorrow, babeh, now go get sum sleep, eh?" He assured you and you couldn't say anything but nod.

The curtains added a strange glow to the morning light. The dawn sun peeked through a misty screen of clouds, painting the sky a mix of oranges with greys. You breathed in deeply. A new day has begun. Another cloudy day.

Not wanting to open your eyes, you turned your head to the side only to feel someone's touch on your face. You opened your eyes a little and saw Alex crouching down next to you, his hand stroking your hair.

"Alex?" You muttered under your nose.

"Good mornin', mi luv."

"Alex!" You jumped out of the bed, where you had fallen sleep, and found yourself in his arms, you sunk into the warmth of his body. It felt as if when you were in his arms all your pain went away, the depressing pain. Your eyes dripped with tears. "I missed you so much."

"I missed yeh too darlin'."

He pulled you closer to him, his embrace was warm, something that felt right, smelt right. The room somehow seemed warmer in his presence, his strong arms holding your fragile body.

"Is mi little bird still sad?" He asked.

"A little." You murmured with a tiny sigh.

"Move, le' me get under tha' blanket, too." He chuckled.

You moved to your side of the bed and once he laid next to you you snuggled up to him. You felt strong arms wrapped around your shoulders, his chest rising and falling against you.

"Yeh said it 'appens often? Yeh feel sad?" He stroked your hair.

You nodded. A single tear slid down from your eyes. You felt hypocritical for letting Alex drop everything and come to you only because of your uncontrollable sadness.

"I feel even worse now. You had to fly all the way here."

"I couldn't help it. You din' expect me to continue the concert knowing tha' my princess is 'ere all alone an' cries all day."

He let you pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears, before you collapsed again. Salty drops fell from your chin, drenching his black shirt.

"Alright. Yeh wanna cry, tha's okay. I'm jus gunna hold yeh while yer cryin'." He kissed your head. "Alright, but I'm gunna tell yeh a story."

You hugged him tighter, burying your face in his chest.

"Yeh see when princesses get sad, everything in the world starts to go wrong. When a single tear rolls down a princess's eye, the world just collapses. Flowers stop growing, trees, plants, everything. Even the weather gets worse when the princess is sad 'erself. See when she cries, the clouds start teh cry, too." Alex looked down at you to see if you had stopped crying and maybe had fallen asleep already, but what he saw made him smile and he barely kept himself from laughing. It was just too adorable.

You had stopped crying and were intently listening to every his word while your eyes wandered somewhere around his shirt.

"Bu' it only takes one smile of the princess to make everythin' bloom again," he continued, "She smiles and the sky turns slowly bright again letting the sun peek through the clouds."

"So," he brought his hand to your chin and lifted it up to see your face, "mi princess, will yeh give me tha' smile?"

You couldn't help but giggle. "What? You're telling me this just to cheer me up."

"Nope. It is a true story. Yeh jus' 'ave teh believe me." He answered and you laughed for the first time in days.

"Tha's mi good girlie. An' listen, from now on you gunna come with me on mi tours."

"I have a university to attend, Alex. If you haven't forgotten." You sighed softly.

"Well, I'm not talking 'bout term time, you have to study. I'm talking 'bout now, when you're on vacation."

"Wait, you're saying that I'm coming to Paris with you? Like now? So you didn't cancel your concerts!" You lifted on your elbows. There was that purity, that naivety that he liked in you so much.

"Well, no. I didn't. I was planning to come here and take you with me. What are you saying, mon coeur? You, me, Paris?"

You stared at him in awe. Your smile growed, you wanted to jump for joy. And you did, nearly making Alex fall off the bed. "I'm saying 'yes'." You whispered into his mouth. Not waiting for another second, he captured your lips with his in a long kiss.

"Wha' else can I do for mi princess?"

"I want you to sing me." You looked up at him.

"Sing you? Hmm.. which song?"

"I want you to sing that part in sweet dreams," you said dreamily.

"Tha' part? You're very precise 'bout yer requess', darlin'." He chuckled.

"Well, you know what I'm talking about. That exact part."

"I know wha' part you're talking 'bout. You're just lucky to 'ave a boyfriend who understands yeh immediately."

"Yeah, like 'tongue in a nostril'?" You said quoting the song.

"Well, tha's the thin' tha' only yeh and mi understand, tha's our song."

[plumforpersephone]

hello. (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) (❤ ω ❤)

i love this history between her and her dad. i love how you show a shadow of it, the outline of it. i love how each time we see them interact, we get more information to fill in. the way she had to leave him behind. the angst, the drama! 🥰

i wonder what the breaking point was like for her. was she adopted by him before or after he served khonshu? how did the weight of that affect his ability to parent? did he wander aimlessly after serving khonshu, looking for another god to devote himself to?

and in the second chapter, when she asks if he told his followers she hasn't been judged by the staff ... that, too, is something i think about. for how devoted he is to subjecting the world to what he thinks is a better life, he's never used that judgement on his own daughter. and he's the type of dad to visit his kid in the hospital. which, yes, the bar might be in hell for this guy, but still. to me, that speaks of love. and how he's willing to hold a ceasefire while he visits her, that too is love. 

and then, this: her killer died years ago. you need to move on like i had to. oh. oh, i love how these details come out. spoken in a few short words, but impactful enough to feel something from it, to color the past her & harrow share. her mom, i think? harrow's wife? and i think it's so cool how it could just as easily be someone else they loved.

as their conversation slowly winds down and peters out in the hospital, there's so much sadness in between each word. how he initially wants to deny that she was hurt from the beast he summoned, to i'm sorry for hurting you, to resting his head on her hands. funny how i crave angst, but am deeply hurt by it all the same. so much heaviness in this: i won't contact you anymore, but all i ask is to stay away from marc spector. this feels like a permanent goodbye. or maybe like they’ll never share a normal conversation again. 

i love how you wrote this: then i'll let you heal in peace.

it all sounded like a farewell, with a promise to see each other soon. the next time they see each other ... i mean, how do you physically fight someone you love? how do you physically fight someone you love, who is also trying to release a psycho crocodile lady to preemptively kill people before they have a chance to do something evil? they're all headed for something awful. something devastating.

to steven's credit, is it a little freaky, a little unsettling, to find out that your girlfriend's dad is the guy who summoned a jackal with its sole intention being to kick your ass? well, yeah. poor guy. but.

and in her defense, is it great to find out that one of your bf's personalities was planning to use you to blackmail your cultist dad? well. no. but. come on you guys, don't be mad. 😭

i like how you use melancholy to describe marc & layla's divorce. i think that word pairs so nicely with how they separated because they were no longer in love. it wasn't drawn out or contentious. it just was. and it's all just a bit sad.

i also love how she’s not made out to be some bad guy, some barrier between the reader x marc & co. there’s no jealousy, just a bit of longing to love and be loved in return. you give her the dignity of having her own history with marc, and all the ways she’s trying to make her own path in the world. 

and the fear of the reader's, being a stepping stone for marc/steven to get to the right person, the best person? oof. oof, indeed.

and how he quietly requested, can i perhaps have some time to myself? would it have hurt less, if he straight up told her to get lost? i think so. somehow that politely, hesitantly delivered line hurt more than it should have. like he wasn't even mean. he wasn’t much of anything. 

and for marc to say that steven wanted to give her blanket & the stuffed animal he gifted her back. for marc to say that, for steven to ask him to do so. and for marc to do what steven asked. many thoughts.

GOD. and the fucking scene where he lets himself into her apartment. he tried to fight the urge to check on her. GOD.

this must be what aloof looks like on steven. i feel like marc would straight up just ghost and peace his way out forever. but steven frantically holds all his cards to his chest and diverts the conversation from the one thing that actually matters. OWIE.

even before this began, i had marc in my ear about how you were too good to be true. the way the bulk of steven's distance is because of his relationship with marc. 😭 and ... how ... he ... fucking ... kisses ... her ... while ... wiping ... away ... the ... tears ... on ... her ... face ... um ... yeah. that fucking kills me. jesus. 💀🚬

and in the next scene, how you paint marc as desperate, significantly less dominant than how we've seen him before in this story. how you have him worship. how you have him begging. FUCK! 

this here is shaping up to be one of my favorite lines in this entire story: please, please let me put me in your mouth. i swear to god i love you so much. first, i love how he begs. i love how desperate and gone he is. like he's gonna die if she doesn't touch him more. yes, to all of that, completely, always. so true. but let's talk about that second line, i swear to god i love you so much.

i'm in a rabbit hole of inserts, you know? i am constantly getting my heart broken over all these declarations of love and what have you. of all the ways i have seen i love you written, i have never seen a declaration of love like that. i swear to god, i love you so much. truly, truly, this is my favorite declaration of love i've read in the longest time. 

i wish i could explain to you why & the extent of it. i think it colors marc's character so well, that his love is cloaked in desperation, how it’s not a calmly controlled thing. there is something too large and wild about it. a bit of gravel and dirt and grit to it. i swear to god i love you so much. there's something so needy about it. i just ... i swear to god i love this line so much, okay?

there's something truly grave about this: you were on your way to kairo to stop your father. like her, marc, and steven are communicating like they're a couple. and they're in love, and it's great. but they're going to egypt to more than likely fight her dad. and it sounds like something that's going to tear her soul out. something that is going to truly hurt her. her love for her dad versus her love for marc/steven/jake. her love for her dad versus his batshit crazy idea of a better world. the love harrow has for her versus his fight to unleash ammit. 

and you know, does marc get his ass shot up and does that nightmare mental hospital situation ensue? does steven die while they’re fighting off the people marc killed? does marc go back for him and nearly die in the process? do they separate from khonshu? does jake go behind their back and sneak around with khonshu? and of course, all of this contending on whether or not harrow stops being a stubborn bad guy. 💀

and where it ultimately leaves the reader and her father. i love how you end it with hope as something terrifying lingers out in the distance. how they’re walking into this terrible storm, not knowing how any of it ends. 

i just. i love this story, okay? i love how you wrote it. i love all the places you took it. i love how you ended it. i love how perfect you defined marc, steven, and even jake as separate from one another, and how you brought layla in. i love the detail, i love the poetry. i love the introspection and the chaos of the situation spiraling into something the reader x marc/steven can’t control. i love the mystery. i love how it grew from the reader thinking that marc hated her to all three of them loving each other openly. i love how jake is a sneaky little guy that no one really understands in your story, too, and how he’s just as much of an enigma.

thank you for sharing this. truly. this was among the first stories i stumbled across after the first three episodes of moon knight aired. funny enough, i thought i wasn’t going to like the show, but oscar isaac is like super hot. everyone in that show is hot, actually. and it is what it is, we are what we are. 

i just love this. i will continue to love this. i will continue to read this. i love reading what you have to say after i emotionally blubber my way through something that vaguely resembles a coherent response on a chapter. i love your vibes. i love your writing. i love everything you create. i love the aesthetic. 

this is something that has truly made me happy. my biggest hope, in all of my comments, is that i am able to return at least a fraction of the joy you’ve given me. 

i’m sorry for the late response on this one. :[ to be honest everything got away from me and my bird is pretty sick and we’re all still trying to figure what’s going wrong. 

but! we are going to be okay. we are not going to despair. and yes, that includes you. i hope wherever you’re at, you’re happy, you’re safe. if something is eating at you, i am sending you the strength to overcome it. we have all survived our worst days, you know? ❤

POKER: FIFTH HAND | FINALE

Steven Grant x Reader x Marc Spector

word count: 5.3K

genre: smut, angst, dark-ish themes, fluff, suggestive themes

warnings: smut, angst, mentions of stalking

summary: you, steven, and marc are forced to comfort all that you have kept from one another.

author’s note: I’m editing this one my lunch break. The dedication.

MINISERIES MASTERLIST

MINORS DNI 18+

You were much too guilt-ridden to present your truth to Marc above all, but you couldn’t possibly lie to him. It wasn’t like the secret was kept by your own volition, yet the guilt that came with it was entirely the same. 

Just as you were quietly mustering up the courage to voice what would likely have him turn him against you completely, the sound of your father’s wooden cane made a tapping sound against the bright white linoleum of the hospital and brought him to the door that was left slightly ajar. He frantically came through the door, ushering in most of everything you were afraid of.

Your mind froze at the sight of him. The brewing anticipation caused a lapse in your cognitive processing. Fear played a hand in you, not remembering anything that led up to the first words that your father said, but you came to when you heard him ask once more.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah,” you finally answered. Marc and Layla were nowhere to be found, but you could barely remember where he had gone. Layla was long gone before Harrow’s arrival but you didn’t remember if Marc left looking betrayed or not.

“Wh-What happened!” Harrow looked at the state of you. “You didn’t even call me. Y/N, I had to hear it from Ravi.” 

“That’s a gross violation of HIPAA.”

“Y/N,” you could tell he was growing impatient, but you were much more upset that he could ever me.

“No, you don’t get to be short with me,” you proclaimed. “Ask me how I got here, dad?”

“What do you mean?” he was almost afraid to ask. The mere site of Marc Spector existing the room just as he entered worried him. He was no longer worried about the business of the scarab, although he had it. Those on both sides were at their best behavior at the hospital and should anything escalate, Harrow and his followers were prepared.

“You summoned a beast out of nowhere and now I’m in the hospital.”

“No, no,” he was apprehensive about the dots he was already connecting.

“I was there,” your voice was a bit fractured. 

“You weren’t supposed to be there,” he spoke softly.

“Just my boyfriend, right?” you tried to keep your voice low but your anger was unavoidable.

Harrow had gone silent and his face was colder than the hospital room itself until he spoke once more. Then he took both of your hands to cradle. “I’m sorry.”

“Then stop,” you begged. “Please. You’ve done all that you could do.”

“But I haven’t. That’s just the problem.” You already knew where he was headed. “The world isn’t a safe enough place for you to live in.”

“Her killer died years ago. You need to move on like I had to.”

“And who’s to say someone else won’t or hasn’t already tried to rob a family for food and end up getting some killed?”

You didn’t like to think of it much, but the recollection of the distant memory was painful and quite upsetting. You were still working on healing, but he was no help.

“I’m sorry for hurting you.” He rested his head on your hands as he sat across from your bed. The room was silent for many moments until he spoke once more. “I won’t contact you anymore, but all I ask is to stay away from Marc Spector.” Harrow knew you wouldn’t, which meant he couldn’t bring the same fight that he intended to send Marc’s way. He’d have to play offense until he set Ammit free.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, I figured,” he sighed. “How are you feeling?”

“I should be leaving in a few days.” You were certain that they didn't tell him the entirety of your condition because he would have been in greater distress.

“Then I’ll let you heal in peace,” he said.

You were soon ready to stop him just before he left. “Will I have to be the one to stop you myself?” He was too far gone.

“Maybe, but I hope not.”

“Then see you soon,” you said as you watched him rise from the chair.  “Love you.”

“I love you much more.”

It all sounded like a farewell, with a promise to see each other soon.

“Harrow’s your father?” Steven asked as he came stepping in ten minutes after Harrow had left. He spent most of the time buried deep in his thoughts after he had watched Harrow walk to the elevator. He remembered the apologetic look that Harrow gave him before returning to where he had come from. If he were there for all of it, he would have had more time to freak out, but Marc had left him to front out of nowhere.

You could only nod as you tried to look elsewhere to avoid the aching expression on Steven’s face.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” he asked.

“I didn’t know he knew you. I promise.” You spoke with conviction, but it sounded dubious even to yourself.

“When did you find out?” Steven asked. You never thought you’d see the day when he sounded peeved toward you.

“Yesterday, Steven. I found out yesterday when I saw you and Layla there.”

“So, you knew he summoned the jackal?”

“Yes, but—.” You needed to keep your voice down.

By that point, Steven’s ability to so easily assume and overthink was working at many kilometers a minute. He was speaking much too quickly. “You helped him summon a jackal?”

“No! I was headed home, that’s all. And I didn’t know it was you.”

“Yes, Y/N. That makes me feel better. If it weren’t me, it wouldn’t have mattered as much, right?”

“Steven,” you tried to slow him down, but you couldn’t reach him from where you sat on the hospital bed. He was pacing the hospital room. “I didn’t know that Harrow was after you and I didn’t know that he summoned a jackal. I was headed home way before then. I am not like my father.”

“It makes sense why you came out of nowhere. I just thought that you followed me or something and I—” He was pacing and choking on his own words. “Y/N, how am I supposed to instantly believe that when you never even told me until Harrow cames walking into your room?” Steven hissed. “And Marc, why are you the one telling me to calm down?”

You didn’t know that Marc was speaking to him through the bathroom mirror that was visible from the open door.

Steven, take some deep breaths. Calm down

“Aren’t you a bit confused about this?”

Steven

The way he looked in the mirror was an expression that Steven understood. Marc knew something that he wasn’t say,

“You knew? You knew already, Marc. Didn’t you?”

This was news to you and Steven falling silent at the mirror was enough to confirm parts of the conversation that you couldn’t hear.

“Steven—”

“You both were keeping this from me?” he ran his hands through his hair and his brows knit together. “I’m always the last to know anything, aren’t I?”

“Steven, no,” you tried one more time.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Marc? You don’t think I deserved to know. Did Harrow tell you or did find out yourself after spending days stalking her?” The vein under his eye was growing and growing until it was no longer.

With those last words from him, he was already long gone. Marc was standing in the by your bed, scared to look at you for what would come after.

“Marc, you knew?” you asked.

He opened his mouth to speak. To possibly solved the vase he had broken so quickly once he received it. However, nothing came out as he didn’t know what to say and you were beyond upset.

“Marc, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-I thought that I,” he stopped. “Maybe I—” he was growing impatient with his own silence and at that moment chose to be as candid as he’d ever been in his entire life. “I thought I could maybe use you as leverage against your father.”

Fucking hell

“It’s not like that at all anymore. I promise you that, Y/N. I wouldn’t even be here if it was. I love you so much.”

You should have been happy to hear him finally admit it, but you weren’t.

“I’ve only ever wanted to love you,” you whispered in defeat.

“Y/N," he carefully called.

You didn’t know whether to tell him to leave you alone to sort your feelings. But you didn’t want to send Steven away, so you fell silent so quickly. It was so unsettling that Marc would have much preferred you to leap out of your bed to scream at him. However, you only let out a sigh to then bury yourself in the pillows and turn to the other side to not see him.

That’s how it went for the rest of the day. Marc waited for you to speak to him as he came and went while you waited for Steven to come back to you.

Neither Marc nor Steven were there to take you home once you had been discharged from the hospital. It was Layla that took you back and the entire process was silent from start to finish until you made it to your front door but had a long good look at the one across the hall. They weren’t even home, or that was what Layla told you.

You and Layla really got to know each other over the span of the last few days that they stopped visiting. You learned that Marc was stubborn when he and Layla used to be married. You learned that three years prior they filed for divorce because they fell out of love. It wasn’t disastrous, nor was it lengthy, but it had a melancholy undertone. Something that you read about in stories and feared for yourself, which was what you thought was happening once more. You would have been another stepping to Marc and Steven until they found the right person.

Continuing to work together was never hard for Marc nor Layla until you were brought into the picture. One thing you never learned from Layla was the aching feeling that she got when Marc would look at you that you had sunshine in your eyes. It was never the product of wanting to try things again with him, but rather her missing being in love and being loved. This pain would be something that she would spend some time learning to soothe in more proper ways.

“I’ve tried calling Steven every day.”

“Just give it some time,” she said as she watched you remain hypnotized by the door.

“I don’t think I can stomach the thought of him maybe hating me.”

And that’s how it was for days. You spent all of it wondering why you Steven didn’t believe you all that much. You became strangers so quickly as you would pass one another in the hall. You would look at him with longing while he tried to nervously look anywhere that wasn’t your direction. His phone was always a worthy distraction. He never looked angry. Not as angry as he was when he first discovered the news, but he was nervous all the time around you in the rare moments that you would end up on the same elevator or bus.

You weren’t entirely sure how many days had passed, but you knew you were desperate when you waited in the lobby a while longer after your shift to see Steven. He walked into the building only to pick up his pace when he saw you waiting by the elevator.

“Stev-steven?” you rose from where you sat to follow after him. As he scrambled to find his keys, he heard you speak but never looked your way. “Steven, I promise I didn’t know. And I, I,” You racked your brain for the right words to say. “I’m sorry about Marc too!”

“Y/N,” he said as he saw you attempt to enter the elevator with him. “Can I perhaps have some time to myself?” he quietly proposed.

With the way you looked toward what he had said, he could practically hear the moment the wind was knocked out of your lungs and your heart stopped beating.

“Steven,” was all you said before you watched the elevator door close in between him and you. You were left broken hearted in the lobby.

A knock at the door a week after Steven had left you broken-hearted caused you to leap out of your body when you saw who it was in the peephole but once you had opened the door Marc couldn’t ignore the look of disappointment that fell on your face when you noticed his attire.

You were getting ready to close the door on his face before he spoke up swiftly. The first word that came out of his mouth captured your attention. “Steven wanted me to give this back to you before we leave.” You tried to hand you Cleopatra and your blanket, but you wouldn’t accept.

“Leaving?”

“We won’t be in London for a few weeks, maybe months.”

That was the last card that finally toppled the tour and just after wordlessly accepting your items back. You spent the afternoon you had off from work drinking. Being shit-faced before evening news wasn’t how you expected things to play out for you, but you were nursing a bottle of wine as you cried under your blanket, clutching Cleo for dear life. Was it too irrational to be nursed by the sent of Steven all over Cleo?

You lingered for a few minutes on sending a message until you sent it by accident. This spurred a long string of messages apologizing. Then following messages apologizing about apologizing, since Steven didn’t like it when you were so sorry. That snow ball rolled until you sent him text after text with messages that you would have never sent in your right mind.

Asking him things such as “do you hate me??” and “I promise I’m not lying.” A multitude of messages just texting his name and many more asking him if he was home. The final one you ever sent was one saying, “sorry :(”

It didn’t take much for Steven to know you had been drinking and when he returned home at around 7 in the evening. He fought the urge to make sure you were okay. And he failed. In all that he returned, he never gave back the spare key, even when he wanted to.

So, he knocked at your door lightly, already fearful of making his presence known, but after you did not answer on the third knock, he let himself in. The image of you seated on your couch with cherry colored eyes and a tear-stained face was painful enough. Coupled with the music in your headphones playing loud enough for him to hear it across the room and the rooted guilt in his body was springing out of his control. You were so focused on whatever comfort film you were watching that you never noticed his utterance until he stopped you from taking and another swing at your large glass of wine.

He saw the way you gawked at him for only a few seconds before taking off your headphones and embraced him harder than you could ever see as reasonable.

Your usually sweet smell was suffocated by the smell of Sherry and salt water from your consistent crying. You hadn’t let go of him for so long until he had to pull you back himself to announce that he planned to only be there for a short while.

“Just stopped by to make sure you were fine. I’ve gotta go finish packing, so… yeah.” He already had you at a distance with his hands placed on your shoulders.

“Please,” you took his hand just as he turned around. “Don’t leave me here.”

“Y/N—”

“Where are you going? At least tell me,” you were gripping at his shirt as he was being overwhelmed by your second tide wave of tempting tears.

“I’m a bit busy,” he tried to smile to mask his poor attempt at lying and dodging your question. This only made it all worse as he knew you knew he was lying. 

That made you pull back and stand still before him. Your crying had come to a halt as you realized that Steven had never had the gumption to brazenly lie to you before. Things were changing, and you were scared.

“Do you hate me that much?” you fearfully wondered.

When he didn’t answer, that’s when you finally conceded. You planned to let him leave and was ready to lock the door behind him while pretending like you weren’t going to spend the entire remaining hours of the day crying even further.

“I don’t hate you,” he said when he finally spoke. “I could never hate you.”

“It sure feels like you do. You didn’t even believe me when I told you that I’m not a part of whatever my father did to summon that jackal.”

“I wanted to believe. Bugger, I want to believe you so bad but imagine how confused I was.” He shook his head as he spoke. “It’s always been so hard to find someone who actually likes me. Even before this began, I had Marc in my ear about how you were too good to be true. Something was off. And I tried to tell myself many times that it wasn’t true,” he explained. “Yeah, I panicked at first because I’m always kept in the dark about a lot of things and you don’t need to be one of them, I just hoped that you’d be the only thing in my life that Marc wouldn’t ruin. Even if you are telling me the truth—which I know you are, I know you, Y/N—at the time Marc’s plan for you meant and still means that I can’t seem to keep the idiot in check for you just for a few seconds.”

He had spoken all of his grievance all at once and you were only hoping to be there to listen. To soothe his trepidation, you found yourself defending the last person you wanted to speak to in a roundabout way to fix things.

“I don’t think he plans to do that anymore. Maybe it was a lapse in judgement. A bad call? Even before, I don’t think he wanted anyone to get hurt. Marc would never use me against anyone.” You were beginning to convince yourself. “And you aren’t responsible for him anyway.”

“I am when he’s constantly ruining every part of my life that makes me happy. How am I suppose date you when you can’t even stand to be around him? For good reason, no doubt, but—”

“I-I don’t hate Marc.” Your drunken confession was clumsy. “I don’t hate him at all, Steven. I love you both very much and I wish I could stay mad at him, but honestly I just want us all to say sorry to each other so you both won’t leave me here for months on a mission to god knows where leaving me to sit in my anxiety—”

Steven kissed you without warning enough to have the smell of your body mixed with his so quickly. It was an urge that had been gnawing at him see he saw your heart shatter by the elevator. He kissed with passionate intention while trying to wipe the stray tears on your face that made a home on your cheeks. You would have stayed like that if you could have. You would have kissed him until you passed out and you even were urging his hands to find a place under your shirt, but he wouldn’t let you.

He pulled from your lips much less eager, but the storm brewing in the pit of his stomach was something that he was choosing to ignore when he said. “I need you sober.”

Waking to a hangover was clearly the punishment you deserved after going through an entire bottle of wine in less time it took to eat an apple. Your wallet was going to suffer when you inevitably bought another. While you lifted your head from your pillow, you almost forgot all of what had happened and even assumed it was the next day until you noticed the alarm on your night stand reading 3 AM. Your first instinct was to grab a glass of water, yet turning off to head to the kitchen caused you to notice a resting, familiar figure next to you.

“What?” His accent was gone, and he was brought of sleep just as you were.

He was turning over at the sound of your stirring and in that instant you saw Marc lay on your bed. Before he could say anything or you could utter any words that could be misinterpreted, you kissed him fervently to cast out any shadows in his thoughts.

Marc had experienced you topple over him so easily as you married your lips with him until all he could see was you. You didn't leave any room to let him breathe as your lips moved with his so harshly that his mouth went pink. Before he could collect himself, as you both occupied the bed kissing one another, you stop kissing him even as he desperately kept his hands around your waist. This was all to migrate to his neck to paint rose shaped hickies. You mercilessly kissed the soft skin on his neck while you heard the groan in the back of his throat shake his entire body as he squirmed under the feeling of you abusing the flesh around his neck. 

You helped him peel off his shirt to continue and watched him shake in anticipation as you played with the hem of his sweatpants while you kissed and gnawed at his pecs as if he was already growing faintly red.

Marc’s head was spinning as he lay on his back on your bed while he felt you all over him. He didn’t have the sound mind to flip you over to devour you, as he was overwhelmed by how freely you were touching him. Just as he thought he could not be anymore weak, you slowly pulled at his pants to make room for your searching, but Marc was more eager than you anticipated. He had his pants on the floor moments before you could even begin to take off yours, along with your panties.

Marc was already kissing you once more as he had both of his hands at the side of your face. His and your eyes were closed which meant that Marc didn’t see but only felt the way your soft hands had found a place in his briefs and were ghosting over his penis like a faint whimper.

His breath hitched in the kiss, but that didn’t mean that you would stop and that didn’t mean that he even wanted you to. You toyed with his sensitive member as you let your delicate finger nails playfully craze the tender skin while his thighs quietly shook. You would have kept going if he didn’t reach his hands into his briefs to take yours and hastily place it on his penis that had become so stiff so quickly.

The feeling of his erect cock in your hands gave you a fever. A fever that made you impatient as you pulled out the hot, hard, pulsing member into the cool air of the room without so much as a warning. You ran your hand up and along the shaft as you felt the veins protruding on it as if they were groves on his flesh.

It all began slow as you tried to calm yourself while you wrapped your hand around his member and watched in fascination as the flush tip matched his dusted cheeks while cum creeped out of the small hole like the tears that were brimming the corners of his eyes. His brown eyes were squeezed shut as he threw his head back in pleasure, but you didn’t miss the stray droplets that ran down his face as he tried to catch his breath.

While you had only one hand wrapped around his sensitive dick, you eventually traded the hand you had toying with his nipple, the one that had him holding back his cries as if he was scared to hear what he sounded like, to entertain his balls as well.

All at once he went from squirming beneath your fire touch to moaning aloud the second your other hand began to fondle his balls while the other increased in speed around his shaft. You kissed him to capture his moans. You could tell he was on the precipice of composure when his breaths picked up and just like an exhale, he released a rope of cum that poured over onto your hands that refuse to detach themselves from his member. Your pace was now much quicker as the cum removed the friction that came with your skin gliding across his.

Even at the increase in Marc’s frustration must have grown unbearable when he pulled back from the kiss to cry, “Please, please, let me put me in your mouth. I swear to God I love you so much.”

His begs were pretty and more desperate than you could ever hope, so you lowered yourself carefully to his length while keeping your eyes on him. You watched him with a gaped mouth as your tongue poked and teasing his small hole until he threw his back again and whispered, “fuck.”

You opened your mouth and just when Marc saw you, his eagerness got the best of him and he shoved his dick laced in his cum into your mouth as he was trying to chase a high that he already became addicted to. You had to catch yourself at the sudden feeling, especially when his hot member felt like it almost bruised your wet uvula. However, when you finally did, you secured your lips around him tightly and bobbed your head back and forth at the same speed he craved just to see if you could catch how his face contorted when he orgasm. And you did.

He hissed when your tongue slid around him, but it was when your teeth grazed his member that he unloaded all of his cum into your mouth while crying your name into a nearby pillow to not wake up the neighbors.

You would have stopped right there and let yourself be entirely satisfied by the image of Marc panting with sweaty skin but once your were drunk on the image of him riding out his orgasm, you were distracted and didn’t see how he faded away and Steven had arrived hungry.

“Bloody hell,” Steven gasped as he looked at the state of things. He wasn’t at all surprised as he was watching it all unfold from the mirror as he kept resisting the urge to touch himself, but once Marc had surrounded the body, all Steven could think about was attacking your plump lips the moment he had the chance.

He had flipped you over so eagerly and kissed you so harshly that it was a stark contrast to the way Marc would worship the altar that was your kisses. In only a few seconds, he had grabbed you by your face to abuse your mouth and brought you out of the bed. He was running on so much energy that he wanted to consume your all throughout your home. You tried to keep up with his heated kiss, but he led you all the way through and when he was no longer satisfied. He turns you around to have your back against his heated chest. 

He captured your breast under your shirt as he bit your neck. The change in dynamic had you dizzy for certain, but it was when he took his other hands to play with your folds while his hands toyed with your nipples that you lost all sense of location. Your moist clit was being rubbed and teased by his fingers as he refused to stop making hickeys along your neck.

He was tipsy off of the control he had in the situation and couldn’t hear the whimpers you made and didn’t process the way your body writhed as frequently flicked your nipple while taking the left over cum on his dick to bury in your pussy one finger at a time.

He pushed in and out of you with one finger while trying to keep you up as your knees buckled and your mouth was wide open.

“Steven,” you moaned.

“Shhhh,” he responded. The walls weren’t known to be the most forgiving of sex.

One finger grazing your gummy folds was enough to have you sweating entirely, but when he put in two while refusing to stop toying with your hard nipples, you wanted to cry in frustration. The feeling of absolute pleasure persisted until your orgasm came in ripples.

Steven had you on a wall near the kitchen before you could even come down from your released. Your cum was coated all over his fingers and got so much pleasure in using it to jerk off at the site of you gasping for air. Just as he was feeling like he was on the brink of cumming for the third time, he stopped and buried his member into you so quickly that you cried out loud while latching onto him to bury your face in his neck.

He drilled into you repeatedly while brought your face from out his neck to kiss you. He didn’t want your moans to overpower the sound of how wet your sticky cunt was as it was being abused by his needy dick. Steven pound into you over and over again while experiencing euphoria at the sight of you bouncing on his dick while you were pressed against the wall.

You took your shirt off all the way, taking hit after hit of his member touching your cervix so your breasts bounced at the same rhythm of steven’s pounding.

Just when you thought that you had enough, he made circles over your clit while he repeatedly drilled into you and his mouth swallowed one of your breast while he feverishly sucked until you were so cock drunk that you had no idea where anything was. All you could sense was his dick protruding against your stomach as it hit your soft, clenched walls, while your clit was toyed and played with in the midst of his tongue sucking on your nipple.

Eventually the rope in your stomach snapped, and you came all over you. At some point while riding his orgasm out, you just listened to the sound of his wet dick being sucked by your pussy until he released so much into you that it came pouring out of your vagina. He never took his dick out, as he was practically trying to plug your hole to let his cum occupy every part of you.

“Marc, I can’t find my passport,” you frantically searched as you looked around your home while he was helping you pack your things.

“You won’t need that anyway,” he laughed. “Layla’s got it.”

“Is she here yet?” you asked while you slung your backpack over your shoulders.

“Yeah, she’s probably at the elevator by now.”

“Marc, don’t forget to remind Mrs. Darcy to feed New Gus while we’re gone. I texted you her number.”

“I called her,” you heard Steven say.

“Thanks, Steven.” You gave him a kiss on the cheek while you went to go open the knock at the door that meant Layla had arrived.

You were on your way to Kairo to stop your father. You weren’t sure how things were going to play out or if you would be able to stop him, but you could only hope for the best so that you could return home to finally get your chance to properly love them both.

a reblog for two back to back moon knight oneshots? :)

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[obrienpascal]

Our Deal

Author: dylanobriens-world

Summary: Mitch Rapp is assigned a partner by Stan Hurley. Her name is Nastasia Aleski. The two of them go through some highs and lows and eventually Mitch finds out some bad news about Nastasia and can no longer trust her. But things start to backfire that can lead them both dead.

Author's note: Hey! So I wrote this on AO3 so I will continue this story on there but I wanted to post the first chapter here:) hope you enjoy!!

AO3 link: is above^^

-----

I knew I had to wake up to go to the bar to meet my new partner my mentor Stan Hurley said I was going to have. He did not mention if it were man or a woman. Although, by the way he looked I can tell he knew who the person was just wanted me to find out myself. I lifted myself out of bed cracking my bones. The dark clouds made it seem it was four in the morning even though it was seventy o'clock at night. It was raining all day meaning I stood asleep till it was time to meet this John doe.

Whoever this person I was going to meet better like drinking at seven at night. It made me think if I should just follow my own path or let them lead the way. Yeah right, if anything they better follow my ass or their out of a job. I don't give a fuck what Kennedy or Hurley says to me. It wasn't hard for me to read people, I take one look at them and I know their intentions immediately. Are they hiding something? Did they hire someone to come with them to make sure I'm not going to kill them or such? It was a gift I had, Hurley helped with it at most but more of me.

Putting on a black shirt with my leather jacket, throwing on a pair of jeans I snatched from my floor and slipping on pair of Adidas shoes, I looked in the mirror realizing I need to shave. I could care less right now. My intentions were to go meet this new partner of mine. I grabbed my wallet and Marbelo cigarettes as well as my cell phone stuffing it in my pocket.

I undid the chains on my apartment front door. I trust no one which is why I put all these chains on my door. I walked out putting my key to lock my door then heading outside. The breeze flowed through my thick dark hair giving my the chills as I stepped into my car.

"Fucking weather," I hissed under my breath starting the engine. My gray Sedan took off to the bar Hurley said my "partner" would be located at. If they recognize me I'll be astonished they wouldn't make a run for it. I've killed many people. Most of them sleep with one eye open because they know I'm coming for them. It's smart, but doesn't stop me from killing them once I lay my eye on the prey.

My sedan came to stop parking in the bars lot. It was packed with vehicles and motorcycles. This better be one hell of a night. I sighed under my nose slipping my hands in my pockets walking into the bar. Immediately chatter fills my ears. Men rambling about the football game. Bar tenders walking around trying to sell drinks, and woman trying to seduce men and drag them to the bathrooms.

Not one of these people looked like a fit to be working with me. Let along able to hold a conversation with half of the drunkies here. I walked over to the bar and sat down on the stool. The man was on the other side taking an order while I sat at the corner with my back to the wall. It was what I always did anyone could sneak up on me. I always needed to be able to look over my shoulder. I fetched out a cigarette lighting it blowing out smoke to my left. Seconds later the man comes over to me.

"What will it be?" He asked cleaning a shot glass with a rag.

I put my cigarette between my index finger and my middle finger. "Just a beer." My tone louder than his over the loud music. They couldn't play better music? Couldn't even hear the game over the beats and the loud hollering from the crazed Giants fans. As my eyes were wandering about they stopped on a woman sitting alone in the corner her back to the wall.

Her long brown hair pushed to the right while she brought her cigarette to her red lips. Her breasts practically were screaming to get out of that tight red dress she was wearing revealing sexy toned legs. She uncrossed her legs when her eyes met mine. The mysterious woman tapped the end of her cigarette letting the ashes fall to the ground as she looked back at me with a flirtatious smirk.

I tried to look away but I couldn't. My eyes were glued to the beautiful woman just a couple of seats away from me. All of a sudden she stood from her chair walking over to me. As she sat down next to me she sat tall with good posture waving for the bar tender to head over. When he came over he tried hard not to stare at her tits. She didn't seem to mind though when he kept sneaking a peak.

Finally, he went to go make her drink then she rested her elbows in the counter bringing her hands together turning her head to me.

"Hurley said you never arrive early." She said to me with a honest tone looking at me with concentrated eyes. I did my best to hide my surprisement in my eyes. How did I not see she was my partner? It all ran so clear. This woman sat in a corner her back to the wall just as me. Along with that, she minded he'd own business letting all this ruckus smooth past us.

"Hurley can mind his fucking business." I snarl taking a sip from my beer. The nameless woman looks away letting out a giggle as the man comes back with her drink.

"Thank you, dear." She says taking it in her hands giving him a wink. The man blushes hard before walking off to another customer. I guess she had her ways to get out of paying for her drinks. Smart girl.

"Would you give me your name or it's a secret?" I ask waving my cigarette around as I spoke.

Her eyes batted as she turned to me sipping her liquor through a thin straw. As she let out a sigh of relief as she was satisfied with her drink of choice she moved her body more to me meaning she doesn't want anyone else to here what she's about to say.

"I am Nastasia Aleski" she smiled through her teeths holding out her small hand for me to shake. I took it in mine giving it a firm shake as I tried to study her face to find a any hint she was lying. I couldn't find any hint of her not telling me the truth or she was just good at hiding it. "I know who you are," she pauses leaning closely, "Mitch Rapp." She whispered that sending shivers down my spine. Nastasia moved away bringing her straw back to her lips.

"I bet you know I've killed people." I say in a low tone but loud enough for her to hear. Nastasia gives a small nod.

"So have I and every other insane person in this world. Your no different. Stan was very clear on who I was going to be dealing with. A sad man who lost his wife and hasn't been himself since." Why would he tell this woman all my deep personal shit if I haven't met her till today. The next time I see him he better hope I don't beat the living shit out of him. "But don't worry I too lost someone close to me. It's not a pleasant feeling."

"Who was it? A husband?" I guessed bringing my cigarette to my lips.

Nastasia shakes her head putting her drink down stirring it in circles with her straw. "My father just when I was a little girl. I was close to him more than my drug addict mother who left us when I was ten. Haven't seen her since and never want to see her again. I do miss my father dearly, sometimes I think he's in my dreams with me." She states looking in the different drink choices on the shelves in front of us. It was hard to read this girl she had years of practice to never let a stranger or anyone be able to read her.

"I'm sorry for your lost."

"I don't need your pity. Now, let's just get to business. Hurley told me to meet at Irene Kennedy's office with you by the morning. Kennedy also knows you won't make it there in time so she suggested I spend the night with you to make sure you get there in time because this meeting is very important." She stated shitfting in her seat to face me. Was she joking? We'd only just met also why isn't Irene telling me any of this? I knew the reason, it would have stopped me to meet up with the woman. It was hard enough to be read her now she has to be with me in my apartment.

"Mitch?" She called out grabbing my full attention.

"Right, sorry. All right, sure let's go now." I tell her stepping out of the stool. I held out my hand for her to get down on her high heels and she took it giving it a squeeze. Nastasia smiled hard releasing her hand out of my grasp waiting for me to lead the way. I walked out of the bar holding the door open for her and she thanked me walking tall outside. It was raining once again as it was darker than before when I just arrived here. The long brown haired woman started to shake at the cold temperature. Standing just outside the driver's seat I walked took off my jacket handing it to Nastasia.

"Thank you, Mitch." She greeted as I unlocked the car and she climbed in the passenger seat. Who knew my night would end in bringing home a woman who is my partner for however long Hurley keeps her in my life.

I drove away from the bar turning on my wipers wiping the rain drops away. She was still shivering so I moved my hand to turn the heat up. The rain was getting heavy by the minute which didn't help how cold my car was. The red light turned green and I drove up the road. Next I turned right and drove up to my parking space.

"This is me." I point to my apartment building. I took the keys out the ignition opening my door. "Well, I hope you can run in heels doll face." I smirk at her before leaping out of the car. I jogged to my front door looking for my key. Seconds later I heard heels clacking against the concrete then hopping up my stairs. I found my key opening the door rushing in as did Nastasia. She throws my jacket to the ground running her hand through her wet hair.

"Boy, was it raining hard. I have to get out of this dress." She says staring down at her wet body.

"The shower is down hall to the right. And I suppose your not going to wear that dress again so I'll just leave my clothes in the spare bedroom." I tell her taking my shoes off to leave them on the mat by my front door.

"Thank you, Mitch." She says once again leaving her heels on the mat then walking down the hall to the shower. I let out a exhausted sigh then walk to my bedroom tearing off my clothes. I didn't mind not showering till she was done. For now I put on a new pair of boxers and turn on the TV. Light flashed in my room from the lighting that just started. Right after the lighting it thundered loudly.

I was surprised she wasn't alarmed by that. Well, thunder storms are more for kids to be afraid of right? I lifted my head from my pillow and noticed it was now soaked. Oh well, I has to get out of bed anyways to give Nastasia clothing. I crawled out of bed to my draws. I opened the top one taking out a T-shirt then next to that draw I took out a pair of checkered red and blue pants.

Holding the clothes in my hand I walked down the hall opening the guest bedroom noticing she already settled in. Her phone was on the night stand along with her cigarettes and purse. Was it okay if I snooped a little? I mean she was in my home. I put the clothes on the bed as I walked over slowly to her cell phone. Finger prints can leave on anything. A phone you'll catch the finger print in a heart beat. My long finger was hovering over the home button until I heard a females voice from behind.

"What do you think your doing?" Nastasia questioned gripping the towel her angry eyes staring back at me. She walked over by me grabbing her phone. I stepped back pointing to the clothes.

"I told you I was bringing you clothes."

"You left out snooping through my phone." She snarled at me her nostrils flared up.

"It's hard to trust someone I just met who's in my home. So I wanted to check if your not someone Hurley did sign."

She let's out a long sigh closing her eyes, "Mitch. I know it's hard for you to trust someone but, I mean no harm. I'm just doing this business for Kennedy and Hurley that's all. You have absolutely nothing to worry about now please can I get dressed I'm exhausted." She explained unwrapping her towel slowly cuing me to leave. I raised my eyebrows then sprinted to the door. Without looking back I said.

"Enjoy your night," I closed the door behind me heading to the shower. I was exhausted as well and couldn't wait to finally get some rest for the hell I'm going to get tomorrow.

I turned on the water letting my boxers fall to the floor as I stepped into the shower. The warm water hit my back as it felt like a massage. I ran my fingers through my wet hair putting shampoo in it. I let the soap fall to the floor, next I washed my body then turned off the shower. I stepped out grabbing a towel drying my hair and face then wrapping it around my waist.

Maybe I should shave so Irene doesn't bother me about it tomorrow. I grab my shaver shaving my thick beard. I put it down rubbing my face as there no longer is a monster beard on my chin. I walk over to open the door walking to my bedroom. Should I check on Nastasia? Or just let her rest? I walked to her room as the door was cracked open. I peaked my eye in not being able to see much which made me open the door a little more noticing she was sleeping with the clothes I gave her snuggling one of the pillows. Good thing she was asleep for all I know she would've tried to leave. I did only meet her a couple of hours ago. Tomorrow better be one hell of a meeting. Otherwise, this woman is in my spare bedroom for no apparent reason.