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suituuup · 4 years ago

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pandemic shenanigans

Chloe discovers TikTok and decides to do a bunch of pranks on her girlfriend

rated: T

word count: 3k

ao3 link

It’s the pandemic’s fault.

Chloe was bored af one day at the start of quarantine, and decided to download TikTok, the app Gen Z has been raving about. Little did she know five minutes on the app could turn into four hours without her being aware and brought procrastination to another level.

She quickly becomes addicted to cute animal videos (duh) and couple pranks. So addicted that the temptation of trying a few on her girlfriend is too great.

i. Did you forget what today was

“Morning,” Beca mumbles, rubbing her eye with the heel of her palm as she shuffles towards the coffee pot. While Chloe’s an early bird, Beca rarely makes it out of bed before ten on the weekends, and Chloe is usually already showered and dressed by the time she does.

She and Beca live in that same studio which they used to share with Amy, until their Australian friend inherited some serious money and moved out.

It’s been really nice to have an actual bed instead of that crappy pull-out couch.

“Good morning,” Chloe chirps, craning her neck to accept the kiss Beca brushes to her lips. Beca slides in the chair across hers, pouring some milk in the bowl Chloe’s set out for her, followed by cereals.

(yes, she’s that weirdo who puts the milk first.)

“What?” Beca pauses with her first spoonful halfway to her mouth, finally noticing Chloe staring at her.

“Did you forget what today was?” She asks with a raised eyebrow, cradling her mug in her hands.

Beca blinks, and Chloe can nearly see the fuck popping up in her brain as panic flashes in her eyes. “Uh, Saturday?”

Chloe purses her lips, both to appear annoyed and to keep her bubbling laughter in. “Beca.”

Beca’s nose scrunches up. “I know, I know, gimme a sec. This is not our anniversary, or your birthday, you’re not working today so there’s nothing important regarding your job,” she lists off, her eyes lighting up a beat later. “Oh! Is it this weekend Aubrey’s coming up?”

“No,” Chloe sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe you forgot.”

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Beca rushes out, standing up and crossing the distance between them to sit across Chloe’s lap. She kisses her softly, looping her arms around her neck. “I’m sorry. What’s going on today? I promise I’ll make time for it. And I’ll give you a massage tonight to make up for being a bad girlfriend. And we can eat whatever you like.” Smirking mischievously, she adds in a lower tone, “And, I’ll let you do whatever you wanna do to me later.”

Chloe grins, unable to hold it any longer. “Nothing’s going on, babe. I was just messing with you.”

Beca’s jaw falls open as she pulls back, glaring. “Not cool, dude!”

Chloe simply giggles, nuzzling her neck and pressing an apologetic kiss to Beca’s skin. “You’re cute when you’re panicking.”

A huffs puffs free and Beca pouts. “Whatever.”

Chloe tightens her hold around Beca’s waist so she can’t get away. “Can I still do whatever I want to you tonight?”

The whimper that rises from Beca’s throat shoots a chill down her spine. Beca’s cheeks redden and she squirms a little in Chloe’s lap. “Yeah--yes.”

Safe to say Chloe won’t be uploading that video on TikTok. She also won’t tell Beca this was a Tiktok prank, because this turned out to be a lot of fun and she’s got more up her sleeve.

ii. climb on their lap while they’re busy doing something else

Friday nights are Chloe’s favorite. As none of them work during the weekends, it means they get two whole days of quality time with each other. Tonight though, her highly professional girlfriend needs to take care of a few work things to make sure she can spend a stress free weekend, but it’s been hours, and Chloe is kind of craving some attention.

Beca’s working on her laptop while sitting on the couch, and after changing into her PJ’s, Chloe unceremoniously curls up sideways on her lap, looping her arms around her shoulders and resting her forehead against the side of Beca’s neck.

“Oh,” Beca breathes out, setting her computer aside before her arms loosely wrap around Chloe’s body. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Chloe murmurs back, brushing a kiss to Beca’s neck and releasing a soft sigh of contentment.

Beca’s hand runs up and down her thigh as she pushes a kiss to Chloe’s hair. “You alright?”

Chloe hums, forgetting all about her phone propped against one of the shelves capturing the moment to make a TikTok, instead basking in the instant comfort being in Beca’s arms provides.

Beca peppers her face with soft, featherlight kisses that make Chloe warm from the inside out. She really is a slut for Beca’s affection. “M’sorry I had to work tonight.”

Chloe smiles. “It’s okay.” She pecks Beca’s lips and brushes her nose against hers. “I’m heading to bed. Don’t work too late, babe.”

Beca nods, winking softly. “Right behind you.”

True to her word, Beca slides under the covers less than five minutes later and tugs Chloe’s body against her own. Chloe releases another happy sigh, which is cut-off by a yelp when Beca runs her freezing toes along Chloe’s bare calf.

“Becs!” She cries, moving away and slapping her arm. “Your feet are freaking icicles!”

Beca snickers like a teenager, seemingly very proud of her act.

“Put some socks on.”

Beca’s nose scrunches up adorably. “Ew. No way.”

“Then stay on your side,” Chloe grumbles, tugging the covers higher around her as she rolls away from Beca, settling on her opposite side.

“Sorry,” Beca whispers into the dark, shuffling closer. “I won’t do it again.”

She feels her resolve break as Beca’s lips trace a trail from her exposed shoulder blade to the side of her neck. She hates her traitorous body for not having any willpower when it comes to Beca’s ministrations. “You better not, or I’ll kick you,” she half-jokes.

“Kinky,” Beca breathes along with a soft laugh, pressing one final kiss to Chloe’s cheek as she drapes her arm around her middle. “I love you.”

Chloe laces their fingers and squeezes. “I love you too, weirdo.”

iii. walking out naked while they’re in a zoom meeting

“Well what doesn’t he like about it?” Beca’s voice carries from the living-room as Chloe stands in their bedroom, a towel wrapped around her naked frame.

That video of her and Beca cuddling on the couch blew up, hitting 3 millions views and about 400k likes. The few homophobic comments that popped up were quickly drowned out by thousands of people gushing over their relationship or crying about wanting the same kind of relationship.

Beca was of course aware Chloe would post that video on the internet and weirdly wasn’t opposed to it.

“Again?” She hears her girlfriend sigh and steps out, losing the towel as she rounds the corner. “I mean, yeah, sure. I’ll see what I--”

Beca’s words die on her tongue the second her eyes flicker up from her computer screen. Her jaw drops and her mouth gapes wordlessly for a few seconds.

Chloe is briefly concerned she might have broken her girlfriend.

“Beca?” Her boss’ voice carries through the speakers, snapping Beca back to her meeting.

“Yes, yeah-- um-- sorry, I…” She stammers as her cheeks burn, and clears her throat. Her eyes quickly glance back to Chloe, who is fighting against a string of giggles. “I’ll-- I’ll work on something else, no problem.”

“Alright, keep me posted.”

Beca nods. “See ya.” She shuts her computer so fast Chloe’s concerned she might have damaged it. “You’re evil,” she mutters, shaking her head.

“Are you complaining?” Chloe husks, strutting over in her birthday suit and tossing her phone on the couch.

Beca visibly swallows, bracing on Chloe’s waist as she settles down her lap. “Never. But next time try not to give me a heart attack?”

“Deal,” Chloe murmurs, bending down to capture Beca’s lips in a searing kiss.

iv. Ask them what they would do if they were at a party and a hot girl came up to them

“Hey Bec?”

“Mm?”

It’s a rainy rainy afternoon, the ones Chloe loves as they don’t have anywhere to be, and she gets to chill on the couch with her favorite person while listening to the rain pelting against the window.

Chloe’s head is on Beca’s lap as she lies on the couch, reading a book while Beca messes around on her phone. Beca has absentmindedly been scratching her scalp, and Chloe was about to fall asleep when she got a prank idea. She discreetly propped up her phone against her mug on the coffee table a minute ago, pressing record.

“What would you do if you were at a party and a hot girl came up to you?”

Beca lowers her phone, peering at Chloe over it. “What do you mean?”

Bending her knees, Chloe shifts to sit up and faces Beca. “What would you do if a hot girl flirted with you?”

“You know I don’t know when people flirt with me, right?”

Yes, Chloe does know. She lost count of how many times she’s flirted with Beca over their four years of friendship pre-getting together without Beca having a freaking clue.

“Okay, but still,” Chloe clears her throat and straightens a bit from her slouched position, tucking her legs underneath her. “Let’s say you’re at a party, and I’m a random girl, not your girlfriend, alright?”

Beca rolls her eyes but nods anyway, setting her phone down and angling her body towards Chloe a bit more.

Chloe props her elbow on the back of the couch and cradles the side of her head in her palm as she smiles softly, getting into character. She reaches out to run the tip of her pointer finger along Beca’s forearm while keeping her gaze locked on hers, her teeth racking over her bottom lip in an over-the-top flirty move. “Hi.”

“Hey you,” Beca murmurs with a small smirk, leaning closer a little. Chloe swats the back of her head. “Ow! What was that for??”

“It’s not me,” she reminds Beca as the brunette rubs the spot with a glare.

“Sorry, it’s just hard to remember that with those eyes of yours,” Beca laughs. “I can’t focus, they’re pulling me in.”

“Aw,” Chloe beams. She leans in to peck Beca’s lips, raising an eyebrow when Beca pushes her away.

“Dude, I’ve got a girlfriend.”

Chloe rolls her eyes, shoving her as Beca laughs. “Touché.”

v. ask them if they still get butterflies

“Bec?”

“Mmm.”

Spring morphed into summer. A hot, sticky and humid summer. The pandemic is still very much a thing, and Chloe can’t even tell you what day of the week it is anymore. To make things worse, their AC is down, which is why they find themselves on the rooftop of their apartment building that evening, laying on a couple blankets as they stare up at the night sky. Chloe misses the hundreds of stars she would gaze at when she was a kid in Oregon, but she sort of finds the steady sound of cars passing by in the street below them soothing.

Or you know, maybe it’s the joint she smoked twenty minutes ago with her girlfriend that is finally hitting her.

“Do you still get butterflies?”

Beca’s head rolls to the side so she can look at her. “Still?” She asks, smirking softly. “They never left.”

Chloe giggles, shoving her lightly. Beca is known to grow sappy and affectionate when she’s high, and Chloe absolutely loves it. “Dork.”

“Felt them just this morning when you were singing in the kitchen while making breakfast and almost pinched myself because I still have to wrap my head around the fact that I get to marry you.”

Chloe does a double-take as she registers Beca’s words. “What?” Her voice is barely there, hidden under the layers of emotions seizing her throat.

“Well… yeah,” Beca shrugs, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re like, it for me, you know?”

Moments where Beca splits herself open like that are rare, and they never fail to make Chloe’s heart soar.

“Are you going to say something Beale or keep staring at me like a weirdo?” Beca eventually quips, chuckling softly.

Chloe shakes her head a little, then leans forward to push a lingering kiss against Beca’s lips. “I love you, future wife.”

She feels Beca sigh contentedly as she curls up against her side, her arm wounding around Chloe’s back. “I love you, too.”

vi. sigh loudly in front of them

“What’s wrong?”

It’s day two hundred something of quarantine. Chloe is bored out of her mind.

“Nothing,” she whispers, keeping her tone unconvincing on purpose. She’s lying on the couch while Beca sits at the end working on her computer, a Friends rerun playing low on the TV.

Beca shuts her computer and sets it on the coffee table before crawling up Chloe’s body and settling on top of her. She presses a light kiss to the side of Chloe’s neck. “You sure?”

“Mhm,” Chloe hums, looping her arms around her girlfriend’s waist.

“I can stop working,” Beca suggests softly, placing another kiss to her chin, then to the tip of her nose. “Wanna go grab some Chick-fil-A? Then we can watch one of those cheesy rom coms that you like.”

“M’okay,” Chloe agrees quietly. “Can we just cuddle for a bit?”

“Yeah,” Beca breathes. “Course we can.” She settles her head on Chloe’s chest, lifting it a second later. “Wait, is this a TikTok thing?” Upon Chloe nodding, she groans. “My reputation is taking a blow with each one of those, you know that right?”

A giggle bursts past Chloe’s lips. “I’m sorry, your what?”

That earns her a glare. “Bite me, Beale.”

vii. wipe their kiss away

“I hate this fucking pandemic,” Beca grumbles as she makes it inside, kicking the door shut with a little more force than necessary. “I hate those Karens who don’t wear masks,” she continues as she hoists her two grocery bags on the kitchen counter. “Scratch that, I just hate people in general.” Beca eventually takes off her mask, heaving out a sigh as she drops it onto the counter. “Finally.”

Chloe smiles in amusement, walking over to start putting the groceries away. “Thanks for going out, babe.”

“No problem.” She pecks Chloe’s lips on her way to store the yogurt in the fridge, doing a double-take when Chloe wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Did you just… wipe my kiss away?”

“What? No I didn’t,” Chloe replies innocently.

Beca stares at her, cocking an eyebrow. “Was it not up to your standards or something?”

“I mean…” Chloe shrugs nonchalantly. “It was just a peck.”

“Mmm.” She resumes her task, closing the door to the fridge behind her before making her way over to where Chloe is standing, setting her hands on her hips from behind and coaxing her to turn around.

“What are you--” the rest of her sentence is cut off by a moan as Beca’s lips capture her own. Chloe’s knees wobble from the heat of the kiss, its intensity sending shockwaves throughout her body, all the way down to her toes. She’s left in a daze by the time Beca pulls away, blinking twice in slow succession as she rolls her swollen lips together. “Holy shit.”

Beca puffs out her chest a little, smirking. “That’s better.”

Groceries forgotten, Chloe slides her hand into hers and drags her to the bedroom.

viii. call them your spouse during a phone conversation

“I’m home,” Chloe calls out as she steps inside their studio apartment. She pauses in the doorway, taking in her surroundings.

Their small kitchen table is beautifully set, two candles lit on each side and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers sitting in the center. Soft acoustic music is playing through Beca’s portable speaker. “Hey, you.”

“What’s all this?” Chloe asks, smiling brightly as she slings her purse off her shoulder, setting it down.

Beca approaches, a sheepish smile spreading across her features. “Well… because of this freaking pandemic, we haven’t been out in months, so I thought we could just do a home-date. I ordered from your favorite sushi place, should be here any minute.”

“Aww.” Shrugging off her jacket, Chloe steps up to place a soft kiss to Beca’s lips. “You’re sweet. And very sexy,” she adds with an eyebrow waggle, taking in Beca’s fancy jumpsuit and hairdo. “I’m gonna go change real quick.”

Chloe hurries to the bedroom and opens her closet to pick something; she can’t remember the last time she wore a dress, her main outfit having consisted of a hoodie and sweatpants for the better part of the year. Plucking her navy blue, knee length dress out, she changes into it and takes ten minutes to arrange her hair and put on light make-up.

Beca is on the phone as she steps back out into the kitchen, grinning when Chloe appears. “Yep, got it. Listen, I gotta go, my wife and I are about to eat dinner.”

Chloe freezes mid-step, her heart stuttering as she registers the term Beca used.

“Sorry about that,” Beca says once she’s hung up, casting Chloe a smile as she sets her phone down.

“You just called me your wife,” Chloe murmurs, her eyes shrinking suspiciously a beat later. A gasp follows when it hits her. “Wait, are you TikTok pranking me??” Her gaze quickly sweeps the room. “Where’s the camera, Mitchell?”

Beca simply grins, shaking her head as she reaches for something in her pocket. “Not a prank, babe.”

Shocked eyes lifting from the square velvet box nestled in Beca’s palm, Chloe watches as Beca steps closer and lowers herself on one knee. Her heart trips dangerously and she stops breathing altogether. “Bec, you better not be lying.”

The way she seems nervous all of the sudden tells Chloe this is definitely not a prank. “Chloe--”

“Yes,” Chloe croaks out, tears pooling in her eyes as her head bobs up and down in a frantic nod.

Beca’s chuckle comes out strained as she blinks back the moisture in her own eyes. “Dude, let me ask the question at least.”

“Sorry.” Chloe clamps her lips together and squeezes Beca’s hand to wordlessly let her know she may keep going.

“Chloe,” Beca repeats, her voice wavering slightly. “This year has been weird as fuck, and the most challenging one yet, but despite everything, I had a near constant smile on my face because of you. You’re my best friend, and the most beautiful person I know, inside and out.” She sucks in a deep breath through her nose, letting go of Chloe’s hand to open the box. Chloe gasps softly at the sight of a simple, yet elegant oval cut diamond set on a rose gold band. “Will you make me the happiest person on earth by accepting to become my wife?”

“Yes.” She tugs on Beca’s hand, capturing her lips in a searing kiss as soon as she straightens. “I love you so much.”

Beca grins against her mouth, backing away just enough to seek out Chloe’s eyes. “I love you, too.”

As she stands there basking in this new, overwhelming wave of feelings, Chloe decides that 2020 wasn’t that bad, after all.

#bechloe #bechloe fic #chloe beale #beca mitchell

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otonymous · 4 years ago

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A Bolt From The Blue (MLQC Shaw - NSFW) - Part IV (End): Courage, My Love

Description: The final chapter. The Big Bang 😉 Warnings: NSFW/18+: Explicit/graphic language & mature themes — reader discretion is advised. Potential trigger warnings: physically aggressive behaviour, ex-boyfriends, angst, size kink, profanity, vaginal fingering and intercourse Word Count: 4237 words (~21 mins of thrills, real talk, fluff and smut) Author’s Notes: To all the lovelies who have been patiently following this story: you’ve made it! 🥳 Welcome to the final chapter in this Shaw saga, where we aim to go out with a massive bang (pun intended 😆). Once again, thank you all for every like, reblog, and comment I’ve received on this story. You are all amazing, and I appreciate your support! 💕

As always, tagging the lovely @op-peccatori — I hope you enjoyed this story! I certainly had lots of fun writing this! Please note the potential trigger warnings listed above, dear readers, and happy reading!

Jump to Chapter(s): One | Two | Three

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

The quiet is back.

But there is no peace, no relief in the monotony that follows after the man known as Shaw burst into your life like a bolt from the blue, stirring up long forgotten feelings like dead leaves animated by a carefree wind — here one minute, gone the next.

And with each passing day, hope erodes.

Little by little, your heart learns not to race as the clock above the magazine rack approaches 1:30.

It becomes harder to remember the sound purple sneakers made walking through the store.

You stop hoping, wishing, to see a head of lavender hair; that the next person to approach the register would place a cup of Pepsi mixed with Coke on the counter, amber-eyed gaze speaking volumes without uttering a single word.

Days become weeks, and then eventually…

…you stop counting them altogether.

* * *

“You’re looking good. I see you’re doing well for yourself.”

He reaches for the jade pendant hanging around your neck, eyes flashing with amusement when you hit his hand away with an audible smack.

“What the hell do you want? Haven’t you already done enough?” You say through grit teeth, steps quickening as you head for the better lit part of the street, trying to outpace the man and silently cursing the fact that returning to the convenience store was no longer an option at this point.

“C’mon baby, don’t be like that. It took a lot of effort to track you down and I waited a very long time for you to get off work. It’s cold, dark and lonely out here. Is that any way to treat your boyfriend? Or friend, at least?”

“ ‘Ex-boyfriend,’ asshole, and you’re no friend of mine, especially not after the way you took my life’s savings and ran.”

“Baby, it wasn’t like that—”

“Oh yeah?! Did you try telling that to the loan sharks too before they came and trashed my place? I had to move, Leto, because it wasn’t safe for me anymore, not with the way they kept harassing me and the neighbours asking about your whereabouts. They even came to my office. I lost my fucking job. So don’t come around here and tell me that I’m doing well for myself.”

Breaking into a sprint, your mind races as you try to think of a way to lose your ex, anger and anxiety prickling every nerve in equal measure. He had ruined your life, singlehandedly taken away everything you had. And though you had known him once, desperation has a way of making monsters out of men.

And right now, for all you knew, he was desperate and dangerous.

“Please, I just want to talk. I don’t need much this time, just a little bit to get me through this rough patch. I’ll pay you back, I swear, just…just STOP FOR A MOMENT!—”

You shriek to feel Leto wrap his hand about your wrist, but before he could tighten his grip, another arm is thrown around your shoulder, pulling you back until you’re pressed up against a hard, muscular chest, staring at a close up of Snoopy riding a skateboard.

“You got business with my girl?”

That voice. Dangerous and cocksure, yet comforting like nothing else as the muffled words reverberate through the tiny bones of your ear, a prelude to the soothing ba-bump of his heart, rhythm steady and concrete as the ground upon which you stood.

Shaw.

He’s really here.

“Hehe. Your girl?” The derision in Leto’s voice makes you sick to your stomach; you can’t help but hold your breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop as he looks Shaw up and down, zeroing in on his old t-shirt. “Tsk, tsk. So, not only do you enjoy wearing second hand clothing, you also have the habit of picking up sloppy seconds?”

BOOM!

Deafening thunder rolls moments after a bolt of lightning rends the night sky in two, throwing a jagged spotlight on the fury written on Shaw’s face when he moves just as fast to grab a fistful of Leto’s collar. The muscles of his forearm bulge as he holds up the entirety of Leto’s bodyweight in one hand, the sky opening in a sudden downpour as your ex struggles in midair, rain dripping almost comically from dangling feet.

And when Shaw brings Leto’s terrified face up close, the ferocity in those amber eyes sends a chill up your spine.

“This is the last time you’ll ever talk to her, see her, even think about her. Or else I’ll find you and take my sweet time making you wish you were never born, do you understand me?”

Head bobbing in vigorous nods, drops of water fly off the tips of Leto’s rain-slicked hair. Seemingly satisfied, Shaw tosses him onto the ground at your feet, voice low yet audible as it cuts through the din of the storm when he says, “Beg for her forgiveness.”

The fear in his expression almost palpable, Leto looks between you and Shaw — cowardice etched onto features you had once found so pleasing a lifetime ago. He prostrates himself onto the wet pavement, voice cracking in between sobs as he yells over the sound of the rain:

“P-please…please forgive me! I’m a piece of shit! I’m nothing, I’m garbage! I…I deserve to go to Hell for what I did to you! I-I’m so sorry! Please forgive me!”

Leto reaches out a shaky hand towards your soaked shoes before he remembers Shaw’s warning, but it is too late. Black combat boots hit the concrete hard within an inch of Leto’s face as Shaw stoops, yanking back a fistful of hair and pulling until your ex is looking up at you like a pitiful supplicant begging for mercy.

“Satisfied?” Shaw looks to you as if he were asking about something as mundane as the weather. You nod, suddenly too tired to even speak. You wanted to wash your hands of Leto, wanted nothing to do with all that had happened since you finished your shift at the convenience store. All you could do was watch as Leto scrambled away on all fours the moment Shaw loosened his hold, running until he was nothing more than a speck of darkness merging with the night.

The rain is cold, wetness driving against your body to leech even the final bits of warmth from bone. Your clothes are drenched, heavy as they cling uncomfortably to skin. But you are too drained to care, lacking the energy to even notice when the dim light of the streetlamp above is blotted out — Shaw holding his leather jacket over your head in the place of an umbrella.

All you are aware of before your vision goes dark is the anxiety in his voice when he calls your name over and over again, how weightless it felt to be carried in the cradle of his arms.

How much you missed the scent you thought you had learned to forget.

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

“Finally awake, Sleeping Beauty?”

You opened your eyes to gaze into irises of warm amber, the situation similar to one you experienced before except for the fact that this time, you were the one lying in bed, staring at a man who sat on its edge, brows knit with concern beneath soft lavender strands.

“If you slept for any longer, I would’ve had to knock on your neighbour’s door.” Shaw chuckles but the sound is hollow, mirthlessness obvious like the blanched knuckles of his tightly clenched fists.

“What…how did we…” You begin, voice raspy as it dies, a sudden sharp pain in your throat making you wince.

And immediately, Shaw is on his feet, rummaging through cupboards in your kitchen until he finds a glass. You watch him run the tap, fill it to the brim. Feel the strength of his arm around your back as he holds you up, touch lingering even as you down the water in gulps to chase the discomfort away.

“You passed out not long after your douchebag of an ex ran off with his tail between his legs. I found your keys in your purse, so I let myself into your apartment — hope you don’t mind. Although, to be fair, I was also carrying you at the time, so it’s not really breaking and entering.”

Head feeling like it would explode as the events of the evening come rushing back, you turn towards him…slowly…slowly, afraid Shaw might disappear before your eyes should any movement prove too sudden.

Thank him. Now. Before he goes away again.

He is close, so close that you can count those long, beautiful lashes; almost feel the minuscule shifts in the air between you every time he blinks — those pupils encroaching onto gold as they expand and pulling you into their depths as they do.

“Why are you doing this?”

He doesn’t flinch at your question, and you can’t bring yourself to be shocked by the discrepancy between what you meant to say and the words actually spilling from your lips. And as the grey memory of days spent counting the hours of his absence settles like lead in the pit of your stomach, the only thing you knew was that your heart couldn’t survive latching onto this sliver of hope only to have it ripped away again.

All you wanted…was the truth.

“Because I can’t stand to see you sad anymore.”

There is no smirk to stretch across that handsome face, only pain that hurts your heart to see it. Resignation heavy in his voice, Shaw takes a deep breath before he continues.

“Turns out I’m weak when it comes to you. Selfish. I know I’m no good for you; there’s no future with me. I can’t give you anything, can’t even promise you tomorrow, but…I just can’t stop thinking about you. Wondering how you are. Whether you’re eating well, sleeping well. If you’re safe…happy.

“Tonight wasn’t supposed to happen. I just wanted to make sure you got home okay, that some asshole wasn’t going to hassle you at work. But then your ex showed up and when he tried to get fresh with you, well…I couldn’t let that slide.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but…I’m sorry, if I ever made you sad, if I scared you. I’m sorry for everything.”

His gaze drops to the rip in his jeans, the drip, drip of the leaky faucet the only sound in the ensuing silence of his confession. That is, until you say,

“I’m sorry too…that you’re such an idiot.”

His head whips up, brows furrowed and mouth slack as if caught in a rare moment of speechlessness. The shock makes him seem years younger, lending him an air of innocence that you couldn’t help but smile at.

“In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m a grown woman, capable of making my own decisions. I’m not so naïve that I don’t know what I would be getting into by being with you. You say you can’t promise me tomorrow, but tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. All we can ask for — hope for — is the here and now.

“Love takes courage, as does life. But a life without love…it’s not much of a life, is it? So I’m willing to be brave if that’s what it’ll take for us to be together.”

As quickly as they came, the words are gone, leaving you cotton-mouthed and faint as your heart pounds to send the blood rushing to your ears. That could’ve been the only explanation as to why Shaw’s “I knew there was a reason why I loved you” sounded so muffled you had to ask him to repeat himself.

“Too bad, I only say things once.”

And there it is again: the spark in his eyes, smirk on those lips �� igniting the fire you only allowed yourself to feel in dreams of his body on yours, skin to skin like kindling to flame.

“Are you that single-minded about everything?” You ask, the smile on your face mirroring his as it approaches closer…

“Only when it comes to not letting go of the one I care about.”

…closer…

“Tell me one thing.” Your voice is barely above a whisper.

…and closer still.

Lips now a hair’s breadth apart, the gentle rhythm of his exhalation blows soft upon your cupid’s bow; a shy request. Your vision is filled with him, wonderfully awash with colour — lavender, amber, the soft pink of his mouth — and you wished you were the very clothes upon his body; saturated in his intensity, dyed in his hues.

His eyes fixate on your tongue when you wet your lips before asking, “That night, when you were hurt so badly you passed out in my store…why did you still insist on coming in?”

Shaw’s breath catches, hitching in his throat. You know because you can feel it, the way the warmth stops short on your skin. And when he speaks, the eyes that hold yours tell you this is no lie.

“Because if it was going to be the last night of my life, I didn’t want to go without seeing your face one more time.”

Love is a funny thing. Formless, senseless, yet the strongest thing that could bind two strangers. You hadn’t known Shaw for long, could count the days you spent together on one hand. And still, entirely without reason, he bled into each and every hour, crept into the darkest corners of your mind to fill your weary heart with a desperation that made it very clear that love was far from done with you.

That right or wrong, the only place you wanted to be was here — held in the arms that wrapped around your body: hot, tight, safe…

…Shaw.

His lips are softer than you ever imagined when he brings his face to yours, plush silk gliding corner to corner to cover your mouth in reverent kisses — one for each night he came into your store, watched over you from afar.

Your stalwart protector.

You tasted it now, the remnants of cinnamon on his tongue from the gum he was so fond of chewing, intensified by the memory of all the times you wondered about its flavour: pink bubbles popping in his mouth as he coolly dealt with the robber, the night you emptied his pockets as your neighbour stitched him up on your bed.

Shaw tasted sweet. Far sweeter than you ever imagined.

And when his tongue slides against yours — slow and sure as it explores your mouth with increasing fervour before drawing back just as you clenched around emptiness, yearning for more, the beast within you refuses to abide.

You like the shock that passes over his face when you move, sudden and forceful, to push him onto the mattress beneath you; the artless way Shaw sinks teeth into his bottom lip in response. You like how he watches as you straddle his hips — gaze earnest and body honest, hardening as you grind undulating circles upon his groin.

But, perhaps most of all, you liked the spark of something wild in those amber eyes, an unpredictability warning that if you weren’t careful, you’d be the one to find yourself pinned to the bed.

Because wasn’t that ultimately the push-and-pull that characterized so much between you and him? Maddening at times, but always, always binding you to Shaw like some red string of fate.

So you nod when he whispers “May I?”, unable to suppress a moan to finally feel his hands on you: tracing along your jaw, cradling your face…resting the pad of his finger on your lip before pushing past to stroke your tongue.

Every sound he makes pleases; the soft hiss preceding the bob of his Adam’s apple to feel your lips pucker around his finger to suck, pink tongue enticing as it swirls along the length of that digit, drawing it deeper into the hot wetness of your mouth.

You never saw yourself as seductive before, but Shaw made you feel sexy. Perhaps the impulse stemmed from some primitive desire, an instinctive call to please the man you felt so profoundly for that shame was the farthest thing from your mind when you pulled his hand from your lips to guide it to your breast, only partially aware of how wet you were becoming from his gaze alone — half-lidded and heavy with lust.

The heat of his touch permeates your blouse, white and transparent still in patches from the rain. You watch his hands as they play: cupping your breasts in a gentle squeeze, thumbs and forefingers catching your nipples to pinch and roll until they stood stiff against the drape of your clothing, the flush of your flesh bold through fabric.

“You’re so beautiful that there are times I think you can’t possibly be real.”

His voice is low, husky. You let it wash over you, almost frightened by how stupidly happy you become, willing the magic to linger even as his words dissipate amongst the sounds of the night: neon buzzing and the faraway screams of sirens in the distance.

A world apart.

Your hands find the broad expanse of his chest, tracing along muscle before circling the nipples that stood erect against his damp t-shirt. Each twitch is endearing, every erratic breath he draws to feel your touch making you fall harder. And when he tries to focus on unbuttoning your blouse while fighting the impulse to tear it clean off your body, the stirring between your legs grows in intensity until he finally pulls the silken panels aside, a quiet gasp escaping his lips to see his necklace nestled between your breasts.

“It really does belong on you.”

The admiration in his tone is laced with a hint of possessiveness that makes you throb. Shaw pushes himself to sitting, gathering you onto his lap in one smooth motion as he buries his face in your chest, inhaling deep. You gasp to feel gentle teeth sink into the flesh of your breasts, Shaw following the chain of precious metal with his lips until it leads to the pendant. And when his tongue slips out to draw the piece of jade into his mouth, he brings your nipple along with it.

“Oh!…”

The sensation is unlike any you’ve known before, the soft wetness of his pliant tongue a searing contrast with the cool, smooth stone rubbing against the sensitive tip of your breast in equal measure. You feel his smile on your skin when you fist your hands into lavender hair, spine curving as your legs begin to tremble.

And he had yet to touch you below the waist.

“Your body responds so well to me. I knew you were a good girl.” He looks up at you, teasing shamelessly even as he continues to lavish attention on your breasts.

“Just your girl, if you’ll have me,” you say without second thought, long past the point of caring to keep your cards close to your chest.

Something breaks in that expression, the final walls crumbling like dust when Shaw blinks once…twice, revealing eyes that shine with emotion when he replies, “For the rest of my life, if you’ll have me.”

* * *

“Hmm!—”

Your moan is muffled, swallowed by Shaw’s greedy lips like he does with every sound of ecstasy that leaks like you do around his cock, buried impossibly deep in your body as it rocks back and forth, back and forth on his muscular thighs…

…doing your best to adjust to his ample size.

He had barely suppressed a chuckle when you first slipped your hand into his jeans, a subtle mix of pride and amusement on his face to see your eyes widen when you couldn’t quite wrap palm and fingers around the entirety of his girth.

And foreplay had only just begun.

“Still doing okay?” Shaw asks, touch tender as he brushes loose strands of hair from your eyes, lips smoothing along the apple of your cheek to feel its pink heat. “We can go as slow as you want, there’s no rush. If it’s too much, we can stop—”

“No! No…I’m okay. More than okay, I’m great. Please…please don’t stop…don’t stop…”

Struggling to string words together, your breath comes in disjointed pants as Shaw begin to thrust up — the look on his face effortlessly sensual when he bites his lip to feel you spasm around him, tight wetness yielding in increments to accommodate his body as it broke new ground.

For you had never taken a man of that size, the litheness of Shaw’s muscular body belying the impressive package he’d been hiding in those jeans. Your jaw ached just to look upon the length of that thick cock, mouth watering as a fresh wave of arousal made you press your thighs tighter together. The movement didn’t go unnoticed. Shaw had drawn you to him then — deft fingers dipping low to trace the outline of your swollen folds through moist panties, lavender head bending to kiss its lacy trim.

He took his time preparing you, licking his fingers before he eased them into your pussy — first one, then two…curling deep until the slippery sounds of arousal told him the time was ripe to introduce the third, leaving you blooming for him even as he whispered, “Think you’re ready for me to make you my girl for real?”

It borders on overwhelming, this sensation of fullness — between your legs, within your heart. And as skin stretched to capacity to accommodate the sweet friction of his slide, you wished there was a way for the euphoria of this connection to last forever:

To the one you could never forget, no matter how hard you tried.

To this man you loved like no other.

“Shaw.”

His name is faint on your breath when he falls back onto the bed, taking you with him. And as you found yourself straddling his hips once more, the altered angles of your bodies gave him the leverage to make you gasp when he begins to thrust in earnest. The eroticism of his face, lost in lust, drives all thoughts from your mind as you drop a hand to your clit, fingers drawing tight circles before his hungry eyes.

The violence of your climax takes you by surprise, having no time to consider neighbours and thin walls as the lewdest sounds escape your lips at high volume. Intense convulsions wracking your body in waves, you clench in time around your lover. The sensation proves too much to bear, drawing out Shaw’s own release as he pulls out to spill onto the folds of your pussy — swollen and pink and trembling still beneath the coat of his pearlescent seed.

* * *

“I love you.”

Morning light trickles across your walls like the slow crawl of spidery legs. Shaw’s words hang in the air between you, a final, sacred moment shared between lovers before the rest of the world wakes.

You loved the hoarseness in his voice; a testament to the hours of noisy lovemaking you had shared in lieu of sleep.

You loved the weight of his hand, stroking softly at the crown of your head.

You loved the rhythm of his heart, echoing just below your ear to confirm his existence.

“I love you too.”

You look up into those amber eyes, trying to discern whether those four little words were sufficient in conveying that fact that you adored every fibre of the man before you.

The smile that graces his face in return is tender, honest…more brilliant than the day breaking in the East.

Your hands find his body, bare beneath the sheets. And as a curious finger traces along the ridge of the scar that runs in a broad stroke across his sculpted abdomen, your gaze falls on his t-shirt, draped over the back of a chair.

“You should probably throw that Snoopy shirt away, especially after what happened last night.”

Shaw follows your line of sight, chest rising and falling in a deep sigh. “Shitty as its previous owner was, I could never bring myself to hate something that reminds me of you. Aside from saving my ass, this was the first gift you ever gave me. And I never throw away gifts from my girl.”

His girl.

The mystery of life is that filled with unknowns though it is, we continue to live, brave in the face of the uncertainty that comes with every passing day. You had no idea what fate had in store for you or Shaw, had no way of knowing if your relationship existed on borrowed time.

The only thing you were certain of was that your feelings for each other were real, that try as you might, neither of you were very good at forgetting the other. That in this moment, here and now, the only thing that mattered was this love that hit you…

…like a bolt from the blue.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this Shaw saga! 💖

Check out more of my work here! 📚 (Please do not repost/copy/alter my work. Reblogs, on the other hand, are perfectly fine and much appreciated! 💖👍🏼)

Jump to Chapter(s): One | Two | Three

#mlqc #mr love queen's choice #love and producer #mr love dream date #evol x love #mlqc shaw #mlqc ling xiao #mlqc smut #mlqc shaw smut #mlqc fanfic #mlqc fic #fanfiction #my writing #elex

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asterian · 4 years ago

Text

Lazy mornings (Captain Rex x reader) (Rebels)

Prompt: 3. "I am so madly in love with you"

Words: 878

A/n: hello there, thank you for reading my trash. This was supposed to have another prompt, but I couldn't find the way to use it , sorry. I hope you like it.

The feeling of warm lips against the curve of your shoulder and the tickling sensation of his beard on your skin woke you from your slumber. You sighed, curling closer against the sheets, as a warm hand wrapped around your waist pulling you closer to him.

"Morning" you heard Rex's raspy and still sleepy voice.

"Morning” you mumbled drowsily back as your eyes slowly fluttered open, a smile forming on your lips.

Outside, in the always busy hallways you could hear rushed steps, distant engines of ships and even somewhere in the base you could hear Chopper already getting in some kind of trouble. The chaotic yet familiar morning of Yavin IV, but it was even better because you had Rex with you.

Turning around you found him waiting for you with a smirk, his beautiful hazel eyes darting down at you, the warm light of the dawn making them look even warmer than usual.

"How did you sleep?" he asked sweetly.

"Better than in a long time." you said, stretching your limbs like a loth-cat, earning a chuckle from the Captain.

"Your hair's a mess" he beamed running a hand through your locks as you laid on top of him.

"And whose fault is that, hmm?" you said in a teasing tone, moving to place a lazy kiss on his lips.

Getting up early had never been a problem for the clone wars veteran, it was a habit. However, now that you were with him, the mornings had become something sacred to him. Just waking up next to you was enough to make the captain forget his old habit and want to stay in bed with you all day.

The clone captain watched you as you rested your head on his bare chest, your fingers carefully tracing the scar that adorned his chest with that curious look in your eyes he loved. Rex couldn't help but recall the first time you met, back when he joined Phoenix squadron, you had the same look in your eyes, always filled with curiosity.

Looking at you with adoration, he simply couldn't love you more.

After a few minutes you felt his hazel gaze lying over you which made you smile at him.

“What are you thinking about, Captain?” you softly asked, gaining Rex’s attention.

“That you’re beautiful.” he murmured. " that I'm so madly in love with you, (y/n)"

You smiled at his words, feeling that your heart was going to explode with all the love you felt for him.

You shifted once more, capturing his lips on yours on a kiss, so sweet and so passionate, that made both of you close your eyes instantly.

"I love you more , Rex" you mumbled against his mouth before he kissed you again.

Was he really awake? Cause you felt like a dream.

One of Rex's hands came to cup your cheek while the other traveled it's way down your back, pulling you closer and closer to him, deepening the kiss, turning it into something more heated.

The beeping sound of your comlink on the nightstand next to the bed distracted you from your beloved clone.

Letting out a growl, you reached out to grab the little gadget and took a long breath before answering.

"Spectre seven, where are you?" you heard the voice of Hera through the comlink. "You were supposed to be here at least one hour ago"

Blast, you had forgotten about the mission.

"I'm sorry, Hera… I'm on my way" you said before turning the comlink off. Sighing, you turned your gaze back to Rex, trying to find the right words to tell this mission was going to be a long one, you didn’t exactly know for how long you’d be out. But most importantly, you didn’t know how to say goodbye, not to him. He seemed to read your mind.

"So…when do you leave?" asked the Captain beneath you, disappointed and a bit sad.

"In a few hours" you sighed "I should be getting ready."

You said and tried to get out of the bed but a strong arm wrapped around your waist and pulled you back to the mattress with a quick motion, making you yell in surprise.

"Rex-" you started but were cut off by another kiss, he hummed in your lips, not really wanting to let you go "I'm going to be late. " you said between kisses.

“Don’t go,” he said. His voice was a low rumble, almost a growl. He tightened his arm possessively around you and pressed a new tender kiss.

"I have to.” you mumbled.

You pressed a hand on the clone's chest, pushing yourself up, breaking the kiss. "Rex, I really have to go."

He sighed defeated.

"Alright, but can you stay a bit more?" he begged. "Please"

You nodded chuckling before resting your head on his chest once again, hearing the calming and familiar heartbeat of the man you loved, enjoying every single moment by his side before you had to go.

The rebellion could wait a little, the only thing that mattered was you had him and both couldn´t be happier. Silently you wished the mission wouldn’t take so long, so you could have more lazy mornings like this.

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optimistic-dinosaur-nacho · 5 years ago

Text

Imprisoned - Series

Chapter I

Story Rating: 14+

Warnings: Violence, Murder, Mentions of Murder, Language

Summary: Y/N is Andy and Laurie Barber’s 14-year-old daughter who is a high-grade student in Archer Middle School. Her best friend, Alice Miller had been gone for a while. They search for the lost student and find out that Alice Miller’s body has the prints of Andy and Laurie Barber’s daughter, Y/N.

Author’s Note: Not sure if I should make this a series, this is basically a daughter and dad situation. I DO NOT know what happens in DEFENDING JACOB. So don’t think I know it if I get these episodes correct. (Which I won’t)

Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII

Spoiler free but will soon be spoiler alerts!

The song that reminds me about the readers character is Fitzpleasure by Alt-J Idk why

~~~

Going over the papers once again. This stress is getting to his head. Shoving the papers off to the side, he sighs. Needing to move on to some other case than that. His phone buzzes on the desk and he sees his wife’s name pop up. Taking the energy to take his phone, he looks at her message.

You busy?

He types in his phone with ‘a little bit’. He was curious was she needed so he replied with a ‘why?’.

Your daughter needs a ride.

The man looks at the time on his desk. It was 10 minutes after their last bell. He texts her back and picks up the papers, organizing them a little bit before grabbing his bag.

He walks out of his office and heads out, “Mr. Barber, you’re heading out?” The woman asks. The man turns around, “I gotta pick up my daughter. I’ll sure be back. If someone calls in for me, tell them to call me back.”

The woman nods, “All right. See ya, Mr. Barber.”

The man nods with a grin and pushes out the doors. He gets into his car and pulls out of the parking lot. He pulls out his phone and sees his daughter’s text.

I’m at the park :)

He drops his phone into the cup holder and drives towards the school. The students continuing to leave the building as he keeps driving up the street towards the park. The park he would take her sometimes as a little kid. There was a forest near that park and she would go back there and find some cool sticks she would bring home and play as if she was a knight in their backyard.

He sees the park come into view and two girls on the swings. He pulls up to the sidewalk and rolls his window down.

The two girls laughed as they swung back and forth. He smiled at them and a few seconds later, one of the girls brought their attention to him. “Oh, he’s here!” The girl says, she hops off the swing and grabs her bag.

Her friend follows her as they rushed up to the car. “Hey, dad!” The girl says, the man smiles at her. “Hey, champ.”

The girl grips on her backpack, “Is it okay if we take Alice to her mom’s house?” The girl asked. The dark-haired girl peaks over the other, “I’m sorry, Mr. Barber. It’s just my dad isn’t getting off work for another 3 hours and my mom is stuck at the store.” The man nods.

“Sure, I’m happy to drive you home. Hop in girls,” He says.

The girl smiles, “Thanks, dad.” The girl lets Alice hop in first and scoots over to the other side as the h/c girl sits next to her. “How was school?” The man asked.

“It was good. How was work?” His daughter asked.

He placed his hand on top of the wheel, glancing in the rear mirror to see them buckle their seat belts. “It was good. Your mother texted me to get you, so I might have to return back to work.”

“That’s okay. Mom was asking me to help her with some things around the house. We can finish the show tomorrow,” She says.

“That’s right, we’re both off. Spring break, right?” He asked.

“Yep,” She says. He grins and drives away from the park. He hears the two chatter in the back, laughing and pointing at their phones of funny or cute things on their devices. He tilts his head to the side to relief the pain in his neck. “How was practice, Y/N?” He asked.

“Hm? Oh, it was raining a little bit so the field was a bit too wet to play,” He looks back at his daughter Y/N who was rolling the soccer ball in her lap as she glanced at Alice’s phone. The two continued to laugh and chatter as he gotten closer to Alice’s neighborhood.

He pulls up to the light blue house and stops right behind her mother’s second car that was a dark van. “All right, Alice. It was nice seeing you again,” He says.

“Thank you, Mr. Barber.”

“Bye, Alice,” Y/N says, Alice grabs her bag and waves. “Bye!” She closes the door and she heads into her home, unlocking it herself and heads in. Y/N throws her backpack into the front and slides between the two front seats and sits in the passengers side.

“You got to stop doing that, Y/N.”

“What?” She smiles. He grins at her, “You’re too old now.”

“Says the old man, himself,” Y/N says, he shakes his head and pulls out of Alice’s neighborhood. “Did you get your test today?” He asked. Y/N shook her head, “No. Mrs. Lim wasn’t there today. Apparently, she left for her trip to Tokyo.”

“Tokyo? What’s over there?”

“Her family. Her mother’s birthday was coming up in a few days,” Y/N says, he hums, “And how do you know that?” He asked. Y/N looks at him, “Because me and Mrs. Lim always hang out during lunch! She likes me and Alice in the class.”

He nods, “All right, all right. What about that one kid? What’s his name again?”

“Henry?”

“Yeah, how’s his mom doing at the department? I haven’t seen her since the last pot luck,” He says, Y/N nods her head this time. “She’s good. His dad has to pick him up more because his mom is always taking late night shifts from 3 to 12.”

“Really? Nine hours of work?” He asked, Y/N nods, “It’s police work, you know?” His daughter was a student in Archer Middle. Top student and she has a big dream ahead of her. She wanted to be like her dad. A district attorney. He let her follow that and even filled her in with some of his cases he had been working on.

They were getting closer to the end of the school year and were glad to get it done. Y/N was their only child and couldn’t ask for a better daughter. She was kind, energetic and a good sense of humor.

He reached their house and stopped in front of the driveway, spotting his wife’s car. “You got yourself from here?” He asked, Y/N digs into her bag, “Yep!”

She pulls out her keys, “Thanks, dad.” She leans over and kisses his cheek. He smiled at her, “You behave yourself till I get back,” He says. She steps out and leans in to look at him.

“I will. Love you!” She closes the door and walks around to go up their lawn. “Love you too!” He shouts back, he sees the front door open to his wife and she kisses Y/N’s head before heading down over to him.

His wife smiles at him and leans into his window, kissing him. “What’s going on?” She asked.

“I still got stuff to do, I’ll try and make it for dinner.”

“Andy...” She says, he grins, “I’ll be here in time for dinner, I promise,” He says. Laurie gives him a nod and pulls away, “You should not work too hard, your daughter is insisting on finishing that show.” He slightly laughs, Y/N was into her crime drama shows.

“I’ll try not to.” She gives him a soft smile and walks back into the house. He rolls his window back up and drives off. His hand on top of the wheel, he drives back to his office.

Y/N drops her bag next to her desk and plops onto her bed with her phone in hand. Without knowing, something jumps on the bed and licks her face. “Aye! Milo!” Y/N says. She tries to push her Pointer hound who wagged his tail furiously.

Milo was from Andy’s friends a while back, the dog was a well-trained hunter and he needed a home.

Andy got the dog for Y/N and they became best buddies. Y/N watched as Milo sprawls out on her bed and begs for a belly rub. Y/N smiles and rubs his belly. “Y/N, sweetheart! Can you help me with the dishes?” Her mother calls.

“Coming! Come on, bubs,” She jumps up with her dog and they rush into the kitchen.

It was past 9 at night and Andy had returned. Opening his garage door, he parks his black small car into it. Closing the door afterwards, he walks into his home. The sound of the television going off and sound of the Live PD show played.

Andy walks into the kitchen to see his wife by the sink. Dropping his keys on the counter, that got his wife’s attention. “Hey,” He kisses her and turns to the table to see a plate that hadn’t been washed yet. It might’ve been Y/N’s.

He sighs, knowing he had missed dinner. Laurie scrubs the dishes as he looks at her, “I’m sorry, I tried to get as much done.”

“She’s more upset than I am,” Laurie said, Andy looks over to the living room and walks in the dark room only lit by the huge screen TV.

He walks around the couch to see Y/N and Milo spooning. Her eyes were closed as Andy kneels in front of her view of the TV. He gently pushes a strand behind her ear and that made her open her eyes up.

“Hey...” He says, softly, Y/N doesn’t say anything and closes her eyes again. He pierced his lips, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I tried to.” She doesn’t reply and he reaches over to pet Milo.

Sighing, he stands up and walks back into the kitchen. Laurie looks over her shoulder, “You hungry?” She asked. He shakes his head, “I’m okay. Thank you.” She grabs the plate off the table and brings it to the sink.

Scrubbing off the food, Andy walks away and tugs his jacket off his shoulders, throwing it in his bedroom on the chair. Pulling his tie off, he unbuttons his shirt and heads over to the drawer. He tossed his shirt and tie in the basket and grabbed a t-shirt. He slips that on and sits on the edge of his bed to take his dress shoes off.

Laurie came in and leaned on the door frame. “She still loves you.”

Andy slips out of his pants and throws them in the basket as well, “I know. But I just feel like a prick either way,” He says.

Laurie tilts her head, “Why do you think that?”

“A father should be there for their kid. She has games and everyone but me doesn’t go. I never went to one single game.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad parent, An,” She says, crossing her arms. He slips on sweats. “It makes me feel like one. The only thing we do is watch her favorite show and that’s it. I take her friend home and I don’t go out with you guys.”

“You don’t have to worry about us. We know you love us, but don’t let it get to you and make you feel like you can’t do much for us. We already know you are doing so much of it. We love you either way.” He sighs, dropping his head. Laurie comes over to the edge of the bed, pulling his head to her stomach.

Her hands caressing his head as he wraps his arms around her hips. Something they did when Laurie had a huge bump.

“Y/N loves you. She won’t ever hate you.”

“Ready?” Y/N asked, she holds the ball up to Milo, “Fetch!” She throws the ball out in the backyard and Milo runs after it. She watched as Milo jumps up and down at the ball’s movements before catching it into his mouth and returning it.

“Good boy!” She kneels down and takes the ball. “Wanna go again?” She shakes the ball in her hand, Milo barks. “Go get it!” She throws it and he runs off. Not knowing her father had walked out and watched her with a small grin.

Y/N knelt down for Milo but the hound runs past her and towards Andy. Begging Andy to throw it, he takes the ball. One swift throw, Milo runs for the ball across the backyard and Andy walks up to Y/N.

“Did you want to watch ‘Cage of the Past’?” He asked, the show was her favorite crime drama show on Netflix and they were on the third season out of eight. She gets the ball from Milo.

“Actually I was gonna ask if I can go to a party.”

“When? With who?” Andy asked. Y/N slightly shrugged, “Henry and Alice were gonna be there. It was at a girl’s house, named Emily. It’s her birthday,” Y/N said. Andy knew having his daughter out a lot, it worried him. He would have to make sure she had a ride home.

“Who’s gonna take you home?” He asked. “Alice’s dad was gonna take me home. I told them they can bring me back around nine.” Andy thought about this hard enough. Ride was given. Phone? Clothing? Right, what she said. Time.

“You promise to be back by 9?” He asked, Y/N nods. He sighs, “Okay. I trust you. You stay at that house.”

Y/N nods once again, “I’ll text you when we’re heading back over.” He nods at her and she throws the ball out to the yard one last time.

“You’re letting her go out to a party?” Laurie asked, she turns to lean on the counter, facing Andy. “It’s just a birthday party. Alice and Y/N were gonna come back after it ends.”

“Will she be back around 9?”

“I told her about coming home and she understands.” Laurie nods, “Okay, so we just keep an eye on our phones.” Andy nods in agreement. Y/N steps down into the kitchen from upstairs and she heads for the door. “Y/N, where’s your phone?” Laurie calls.

Y/N lifts up her phone, “It’s fully charged! I’ll text you guys, okay?” She says, Laurie smiles. “Okay, have fun.”

“Thanks mom. Love you both!” The two watched her leave that front door and stepped into Alice’s car with her father. Laurie watched the vehicle disappear and she sighs. “I hope they’re not having alcohol there.”

Andy smiles, “I’m sure she’ll be responsible.” Laurie looks at him and grins.

Let’s hope she is.

~~~

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skittles1229 · 4 years ago

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Old Expectations Die Hard (Dashie x Reader Fanfic)

Chapter One: Weird Circumstances

You know your life is complicated when the friend you always complain to says "you never have a dull moment do you?" I sigh as the weight of the world seems to make it impossible to breath. You see recently things have been rough. I lost my job and my fiance all in the same day, that itself was an unbelievable story. I was so upset and strung out on thoughts of what to do that once i got home early from work i didn't notice the extra car in the driveway. i stepped into my home and my own floors felt as if they'd given way when i saw the guy i thought i'd be spending my life with in bed, with my sister... my sister and i hadn't been on good terms for a while and for a good reason! The drugs she took either made her unreliable and selfish or crazy and murderous. He, of course, pulled the its not what you think, id never hurt you, it was a mistake, and honestly i could write a book out of the excuses i heard in the time of two minutes but maybe another time. Needless to say i left. I never thought about going back and to be honest my sister looked more hurt then i was. I took a job in California a few weeks ago and moved in with my friend (BFF Name). They always seemed to know what to say and honestly i truly believe They knew me better then i know myself.

California gave me the biggest culture shock I've ever had. I came from Mississippi, the bible belt and the most rural part of the world. California was sooooo different then what i was use to. The weather is awesome. There's lots of jobs for technical people, at least until you're 45 and then you're considered ancient and you can't possibly know anything when some 23-year old out of Stanford tells you that they know it all. (a little bit of sarcasm there) It's a great place to start a new company, money is available as is talent. The risk of starting a company is lower since you can always find a new job The politics are insane, if you aren't towing the progressive party line you should just STFU. If you even once say that Trump has done something positive, or that Obama did something negative prepare for the wrath. Read the stuff behind the recently filed lawsuit against google for a taste of what it's like. Seriously, don't say a word. The state if structurally bankrupt, although the finances look good because so much stuff is off of the balance sheet. The public pension liability dwarfs the "good" part of the budget, and some day it is coming home to roost. Watch out when it does. The cost of living is absurd, really absurd. I'm not talking just a place to live but gas, electricity, haircuts, milk, pizza, you name it. The traffic is absurd too. (can you tell i like the word absurd) The public transit, although usually on time, is a mess. People are pigs, they throw trash everywhere, the cars are overcrowded almost all the time.

I've got to say, from how much it sounds like i hate California, i actually don't. Mainly because its so far away from my original family, leaving really helped me start to grow up and feel like maybe i was getting a hold of my life again. Only problem has been getting to my new job on time. I work as a barista and a waitress at a brunch place a good minute away from the apartment. The money is good, otherwise i wouldn't waste my time with the commute everyday. i keep being late to work because i still haven't adjusted to how terrible traffic is and so my boss was "nice" enough to switch me to the later shifts. The hours are long and boring because my shift starts in the middle of rush hour to the slowest hours at the end of the day meaning you have to find things to keep yourself busy with. the only good thing is, we can wear pretty much anything we want as long as its black. all i wear is dark colors so i didn't have to spend any extra money on a uniform and i didn't have to wear the same thing everyday. Today i decided i wear a v-neck shirt that with an emperor waist (body forming) with black skinny jeans and my regular converse. i decided against driving to work and decided it would be far smarter to catch a bus to the nearest destination. My (hair color) hair was done is a fishtail messy braid, i always liked this style because it made me look like i had a head full of hair when in reality i thought i was going bald.

My personality was a little odd, you see some days i felt like the beautiful nerd who has no confidence and wants to hide away in a hole. other days i feel like a model from Victoria secrets, of course those are the days i get the most tips. today was honestly a mutual day, where id rather be at home in my bed asleep, or listening to music. The bus finally stopped a block away from my job and i sighed obviously not wanting to go into work. surprisingly there wasn't nearly as many cars as there usually is around this time but i wasn't complaining. i walk in to see that most of the downstairs was empty but whoever was upstairs definitely had a loud mouth. i walk to the back in order to clock in and i bump into melany ( the girl im shifting with). "wow you actually got here on time! Maybe the boss's mood will cheer up." i huffed a little. "yea, i dont know why i thought id need a car in California, say whats with the low level of customers? its NEVER this slow." she looked at me in disdain, "some guys reserved the entire upstairs and we had to make this huge table out of all our tables up there, glad im not gonna be the one fixing it later." i rolled my eyes, i hated when a huge family came in and they just had to move everything around because little johnny wants the sit next to suzzie and suzzie HAS to sit by her parents bc she likes to throw her food on the floor, all fake names but a real situation ive been in before. "well have they at least been fed so that i only have to clean up after them?" she shook her head while hanging up her apron. "nope, they've only ordered their drinks and they are getting those onto trays now." so today was gonna be like every other day. "guess i better go help them take those upstairs then, have a good rest of your day." i walk away and slip on my apron, grabbed one of the trays of drinks while another waiter grabbed the rest of the drinks. Once i got upstairs, that's when i met him...

Chapter Two: Last Will and Testament

He was sitting on the far end of the long table of people laughing and joking. everyone seemed to be loud and all had their own inside jokes. This guy, he stuck out. i changed my attention to the task at hand, finishing this shift. i hated when people moved all the tables and seating around. all the waiters and waitresses have to go back behind them and look at the layout of the floor to put them all back exactly as they were before. it was a struggle and because of this nobody actually wanted that job so usually the manager gives it to her least favorite workers and i happened to be one. "who all had coke?" nobody answered me so one of the men bellowed out the same line and somehow was able to get a show of hands. i walked around handing out drinks, catching the lingering smell of strong liquor. i could tell by the end of tonight they would all be wasted and loud. please, just don't make more of a mess then you have to, i thought to myself. i had one drink left on my tray, "sweet tea?" the guy i saw before at the end of the table waved his hand and i dreaded going over there, i always seem to make a fool of myself when it matters.

i make my way slowly down the table with the tray under my arm and the tea in my hand. i lean over to sit his drink on the table.."here's your t-" *CRASH* while joking with one of his friends his elbow crashes into my hand sending the tea flying all over me and the cup crashing to the floor, thank god i wore black. he turned around and looked more horrified then i did. "i'm sorry! i'm so sorry!" his voice was deeper then i imagined it'd be. "no, it my fault i'm sorry ill get you a new one." i turned away to hide my embarrassment and walked away really just trying to get away from the situation. i could tell from the silence behind me that all eyes were on me. i ran to the back where the lockers were for the service. i went to the bathroom and stripped the sticky clothes off throwing them aside. i sat on the toilet trying to catch my breath, my social anxiety had struck me hard. a feeling of worthlessness and dread fell over me like a blanket. after the past few months i've had just one day without something terrible happening would mean the world to me. i heard a knock on the door, it was melany, she walked in with a towel from the kitchen. "hey, i heard what happen upstairs are you ok?" i covered my breast trying keep myself as unexposed as possible. "oh yea im fine, im just cold, and sticky, and... covered in tea." melany and i made eye contact and both laughed just to lift the dread in the air. "let me guess, all the guys are getting a kick out of watching me fumble again huh?" i said a little less concerned and more annoyed. she rolled her eyes "they are boys, they get a kick out of picking their own nose. we both slid to the floor beside each other, she hands me the damp towel. i get most of the sticky off as possible, throwing my hair up to make it look less clumped together by the sugar. "i have an extra black t shirt in my locker but i don't know how it will fit you. your breast are at least a size larger then mine." i shrugged my shoulders, "who cares ill make do. thanks for your help melany." she smiled her weird anime girl smile and ran to get the shirt from her locker.

ill have to admit, she was right about the size thing. it was far to small around the chest area but the rest fit fine. after the incident my boss stuck me down stairs wiping tables and sweeping the floor, i dont mind though because i get to experience the day coming to an end with a beautiful sunset over California. i secretly kept the the window to watch as the sun fell from the sky. the sky seemed to burn and darken while the clouds began to glow with the last bit of sunlight left. the sky filled up with burning Burgundy and faded orange and yellows, the tallest buildings seemed to reach for the skyline as if it were a sunflower moving to the last drip of sunlight. moving here had been hard, and this had become one of the things i looked forwards to. living in the apartment with my friend was nice, buts its not the same as coming home to someone you use to lay with every night. sleeping alone seemed so much colder and emptier then i remembered from childhood. my mother would be so disappointed in the way i turned out, in the places id gone and the decision to spend my life with someone who was most obviously the wrong one. she would have told me to slow down and to take my time, that growing up wasn't everything. she would have said love isn't something you just wake up and have, its something you make. i wasn't anywhere close to where i thought id be by now, and i could see that. it tears at my heart everyday, not being able to see her or any of my family. sometimes it felt as if they'd all died in the fire that night.

i suddenly heard a boom of voices making their way down the stairs, i hadn't realized how close to closing time it had become. all of them walk out stumbling and laughing at their own jokes, seems they all got a good bit of drinking in, all except one. The guy i ran into on accident seemed as sober as ever, designated driver i think, he was much taller now. he seemed muscular but in such a fitting way for his body. his teeth sparkle because their so white, his smile complimented him best. his high cheekbones made his chocolate brown eyes his best feature. His skin was glowing with a sweet honey hue and before i could notice that i was staring he turned his head. his eyes met mind before i could think twice and that's when i felt the heat rise to my cheeks. weather it be from embarrassment or silly school girl shyness i didn't know . i turned my face away but it was too late, i turned my face a little just to catch a glimpse of him before he made his way out of the door and that's when i noticed his cheeks had gone from a burnt caramel to a rosy color. i felt my body shiver at the thought that maybe, just maybe he found me as attractive as i found him. i shook the thought from head realizing they had began locking the place down. as i helped close up shop and wash dishes i couldn't help but to let my mine wander to all different kinds of thoughts, funny thing was they always fell back to him and his rosy cheeks. i couldn't help but smile as i felt my heart race at the thought of him, even though id made a fool of myself today i was glad i hadn't ruined my chances. Even if he'd never get with me or i wouldn't ever see him again, i'd still take it as a compliment that he even looked my way.

before long we were all outside laughing and talking about today. The manager locked the doors and said his goodbyes. i turn to walk towards the bus station when i see a man standing aside awkwardly between the restaurant and the parking lot. suddenly my eyes adjusted and once they did, the joyousness butterflies came back and the blush suddenly reappeared on my cheeks..

There are lots more chapter after this if you are interested you can find them here

https://my.w.tt/sosFRmianbb

#dashiegames #dashiexp #dashie x reader #fanfictions #fanfic #self insert #romance

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monaisme · 4 years ago

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Day 19: sleep deprivation

To do:

1. Call Queen Ramonda re: tech sharing program @515am

2. re: Everett Ross (is he there?)

3. Call Dickhead Ross re: SHIELD coverage @ Raft @ 7am

4. **Tony- wound check/ Nano eval!!**

5. Call U.N. re: Status of Accords @ 9am

6. re: securing Thor’s (?) ship

7. re: Asgardians status

8. re: Nebula status

9. Call Parker landlord re: lease/furniture storage

10. Book tech for press conference #3 BEFORE 10am

11. Check on Barton situation ???

12. Board meeting @ 11am

13. Call R&D re: $$/Parker Foundation?

14. Call WHO re: vaccination program status @ 1245pm

15. re: *food supply interruptions

16. Call President re: *food supply interruptions @230pm

17. re: Nebula status

18. Call Housekeeping re: Nebula quarters

Pepper pressed her fingers to her eyes before trying to focus AGAIN on her list. The dimmed lights of the med bay and the sounds of the monitors attached to her husband made it almost impossible.

She thought back to four days ago—had it really been only four days.

When Tony had come down that ramp, it was like Afghanistan all over again—until she saw the desperation and grief on his face. And then he’d collapsed and everything was a flurry of activity.

She’d found out later from Nebula that the nanoparticles had served their purpose back on Titan. The wound had been sealed, but the infection had already taken root and was festering within him. With the malnourishment and dehydration on top of that, it was no wonder Tony was doing so poorly. The IVs chock full of antibiotics, nutrients, sedatives, and all of the medications to prevent his blood pressure from rising and his kidneys and liver from failing hung from hooks at the head of the bed. The nasogastric tube would be a fixture for a bit, she knew. Tony would hate it when he woke up, but she’d put him straight and they’d keep going. The monitors, though, she took comfort in. She could see that his heart was beating; that air was flowing through is lungs—that he was alive and fighting.

She shook those thoughts away, because it was four days later and there were things to do. She was supposed to be on the other side of the compound, preparing for a phone call with the U.N. (See item #4) but Tony’s doctor would be here shortly to do a wound check (See item #3) and evaluate a few other nanoparticle related things that Tony would drool over, but, well... Pepper wasn’t worried about nanotech, she was worried about Tony. If things went well today, they would hopefully reduce some of the medications he was on so they could start waking him up. That decision, of course, depended mostly on the inflammation around the original site and some blood work results from last night.

Pepper prayed they’d agree to starting to wake him up today. She missed her fiancé so, so much. She took a moment to put her list back into her briefcase and settle back into the chair by his bedside. She took his thin hand in her own. “What do ya’ say, Tony? Is today going to be the day I get to see those Bambi-eyes of yours?”

Of course, he didn’t answer.

“Pepper?”

She jumped, throwing her hands to her chest, in an effort to calm her racing heart. “Oh!”

Dr. Cho was apologetic as she came further into the room. “I am so sorry, Pepper. I thought you heard me when I came in!”

Pepper waved the apology off with a laugh, “No! I’m sorry! I must have been daydreaming,” She said as she continued to wait for her heart to settle... it seemed though, that it didn’t want to.

Dr. Cho smiled at her sympathetically. “No one could blame you, Pepper. You look dead on your feet.” Then, as though only seeing her for the first time, Dr. Cho asked her, “How are you doing? I mean really, how are you doing?”

She laughed again, trying to sound okay, “I’m doing fine, thank you. I’m just trying to salvage what’s left of the world while Sleeping Beauty here keeps us all waiting.”

“Ouch. No Prince Charming for our Mr. Stark, I see?” Dr. Cho teased back as she began her assessment on the man.

Pepper shook her head. “Oh, no,” she stood up from her seat, “Leave it to the amazing Ms. Pepper Potts to save the world—one board meeting at time, thank you very much!” And she gave a mock final bow and stepped away from the bed.

Pepper looked up from her brief performance and saw how close she was to some of Tony’s equipment. Embarrassed, she stepped further away from the bed. “I’m sorry. I’m taking up the room you need.”

Dr. Cho shook her head. “You’re fine, Pepper. If I need room, I’ll ask.”

Pepper was sure she was about to ask another question when a knock on the door interrupted her.

The doctor smiled at the new addition to the room. “Dr. Rainert, I’m so glad you could come. Dr. Rainert,” she nodded to the man then gestured to Pepper. “I’d like to introduce you to Ms. Pepper Potts, Mr. Stark’s fiancée.”

Dr. Rainert gave a polite bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he announced and then got right down to business. “I am assuming you know why I’m here?”

Pepper nodded. “Of course, while Dr. Cho will be doing the actual wound check, you’ll be evaluating the affect of the nanoparticles on healing, scarring, and such, correct?”

He nodded to confirm. “I know it’s a stressful time for you, Ms. Potts, but Mr. Stark and I had been quite excited to see how this worked in a field setting and,” he seemed to be struggling to contain his enthusiasm even as his research partner lay unconscious in the bed beside him. “Well, this information will be most helpful going forward.”

It all felt a little ghoulish to her, but she wasn’t going to say it. She was there to support her fiancé and make sure he was getting better. Then she’d...

A buzz filled the room. It took Pepper a second the figure out that it was her cell phone. Blushing at the obvious faux-pas, she blurted a hurried apology, grabbed her phone and dashed out into the hall.

“Pepper Potts speaking,” she answered, fumbling with the phone before pressing it firmly to her ear.

“Pepper? It’s James.”

She cringed. ‘James’ meant that Rhodey was currently surrounded by mucky-mucks, which was strange because that call didn’t need to be made until, she glance at her watch, “Rhodey! It’s 9:30!”

“I know!” he exclaimed. “I was worried something was wrong with Tony when you didn’t call in. Is everything alright?”

Pepper lost herself for a second. She never lost track of time! Never!

“Pepper?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” She came back to herself and panicked. “Please extend apologies for my lateness to the others. I’ll grab my briefcase from the other room and head to my office, okay? I shouldn’t be more than five minutes. Promise!”

Rhodey sounded understanding, so she allowed herself to take a quick breath after letting him go and then rushed back into Tony’s room. She just needed to collect her briefcase, head back to work, and get the day back on track.

She came up short, however, when she caught a glimpse of Tony’s wound— exposed to her for the first time.

It definitely wasn’t what she’d been expecting and it took that realization for the room to spin, tilt, and then disappear from around her.

She was out before she hit the floor.

* * * * * *

Pepper woke with a start, and a headache.

“Pepper?”

Confused, she scanned the room, only barely relaxing when Rhodey stepped up to her bedside.

“Hey, Pepper, are you with me now?”

She nodded, but still didn’t understand, “What...?” her voice cracked so she cleared it and tried again. “What happened?”

He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, “You, Ms. Potts, fainted.”

Pepper glared at him, “I did not...” She coughed from the dryness of her throat.

“Hang on, Pep. Let me just...” Rhodey stood to get her a glass of water from the stand beside her bed and then handed it to her. “Be careful,” he added as he watched her hands shake.

She took the glass and took a dainty sip. It was as she pulled the glass away that she saw the IV in her forearm. She straightened up and threw her arm out to show him, ignoring the sway as she made the movement. “No. I don’t need this.” Of course, she didn’t! She was fine. “You can take this out, right?”

“I could, but I won’t, Pep. Don’t be ridiculous,” he spoke calmly. “You passed out, and I’m here to make sure you stay right there and take care of yourself.” He gave the bed a poke, then sat back in his chair crossing his arms and making like he had the final word.

Pepper stared at him for a second, trying to determine just how far Rhodey would take his apparently self-appointed role. She looked down at her wrist and scowled. “Rhodey, where’s my watch?”

He smiled sweetly, “I have it in my pocket, along with your wedding band, if you must know. I’m keeping it safe and sound until you’re ready to leave.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can take them back now. I’m too busy for all of this so I’m just going to—“ She sat up fully and swung her legs over the edge of the bed opposite to Rhodey while looking at the clock on the wall.

Dammit! She’d already missed several phone calls with the United Nations and Tony would be upset if anything happened to the Parkers’ things while they were— (See items #5-9)

She made a plan on the fly. “If I leave now, I can call into my board meeting and send out a couple of emails to cover the calls that I missed out on...”

Rhodey came around to the other side of the bed and stood directly in front of her. “Pepper,” he put a hand on her knee, pretending he could stop her from standing up and walking out the door. “You have nothing to do for the foreseeable future.” He took a really good look at his good friend. “Really, Pep? You’ve gotta stop for a sec. When’s the last time you got a really good night’s sleep?”

She pointed an accusatory finger in his face. “Don’t Rhodey! You, of all people, know what it’s like to have to clean up after Tony—and I know this isn’t his fault, I know!” Her chin quivered. “There’s just so much to do and—“

He cut her off, “And there are people who are here to help you.”

A tear trickled down her cheek. “You know I’m not wired that way,” A few more escaped.

“Trust me. I know—and I’m pretty sure that’s why none of us understand how you ended up with that lughead in the next room.”

She smiled as she wiped away the tears, thinking of how lucky she was that he loved her, if she was being completely honest. And then she remembered. “Tony! Oh, no! I have to—I should be there and I’m here...“ Pepper weakly pushed Rhodey’s hand away so she could slide off the bed.

“Pepper, don’t.”

Both Pepper and Rhodey froze as Dr. Cho came into the room.

She had been on her way to update Pepper about her and Tony from the looks of all the two clipboards in her hand, but tossed them aside and rushed forward when she saw that Pepper was getting upset. “Hey, hey, Pepper. It’s okay. Everyone is okay.” She stepped in front of Pepper, effectively bumping Rhodey to the sidelines. “Pepper? Do you hear me? Tony’s fine, I promise.”

Pepper’s breathing had definitely picked up so she nodded that ‘yes’ she’d heard and Tony was fine but still... “I need to be there, Dr. Cho! I was supposed to know what—what was going on and I’m such a—“

“No.” Dr. Cho took charge of the conversation. “I’ve just left Tony and he is absolutely on the mend. Dr. Rainert thinks that healing rates are perhaps even accelerated by the nanoparticles, but that just means the wound is healing faster.” She looked Pepper in the eye. “Are you hearing what I’m saying?”

Pepper nodded.

“Good. Now,” Dr. Cho, ever the consummate professional, gently manoeuvred Pepper back into the bed as she spoke. “You, Ms. Potts are exactly where you are supposed to be.” She grabbed a fresh blanket from the end of the bed, and with a precision borne of years of practice, covered Pepper up. “You need to be taking care of yourself, too.”

Pepper pulled her arms out from under the blanket and petulantly crossed her arms in front of her.

Rhodey gave a low whistle from the wall he’d stationed himself at. “You’re not gonna make this easy on anyone, are you, Pep?”

Pepper simply glared in answer.

“Well,” Dr. Cho clapped her hands together to bring their attention to her. “I’m actually going to need to talk to Ms. Potts about some test results now so, Rhodey, if I could get you to step out into the hallway for a few minutes, I’d be most appreciative.”

The defiance changed to fear in a flash. “No! He stays! Please?” She looked at her dear friend and held out a hand for him to take. “You’ll stay, right?”

He stepped closer, grabbing ahold of her hand in both of his. “All you have to do is ask, Pep.”

She smiled in relief and took a deep breath. “Okay.” Pepper looked at Dr. Cho. “What’s going on?”

Dr. Cho took a second to retrieve the clipboards from where they’d been discarded on the floor and then pulled up a rolling stool to the side of the bed. “Well, I think it goes without saying that after seeing you this morning, I suspected that this would be a simple case of exhaustion and sleep deprivation.” She put Tony’s clipboard aside and flipped some pages on Pepper’s chart. “But with aliens and spaceships suddenly landing in our backyard and in light of recent events,” she paused to give weight to those events, “Well, I figured more blood work would be the better bet.” She was oddly nervous and smiling strangely as she spoke up, “And I don’t normally give this type of news but, you, Pepper Potts, are pregnant.”

It was a good thing she was already lying down.

Her mouth opened as though she were about to say something, but nothing came out. And she was going to say something, really! But then all she could think was ‘Morgan’—not her strange uncle, but their Morgan.

The silence stretched. Neither Rhodey nor Dr. Cho seemed willing to interrupt Pepper’s processing.

Eventually, Pepper did find words. “I have so much to do,” she breathed out.

“You have absolutely nothing to do for the next two weeks,” Dr. Cho contradicted her gently.

“Two weeks? But...”

“But nothing,” Dr. Cho continued. “I may not be an OB, but your blood pressure is high—really high. I have blood work that indicates some deficiencies that need to be addressed as soon as possible. To start, your iron and B12 levels are hovering dangerously close to low, which tells me that you’ve been powering through even before all of this insanity with coffee. Which brings me to,” she gestured to the IV bag. “You were dehydrated, too, so you know. It wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but I’m guessing it’s been a particularly busy few days?”

She whispered, “Yes.”

Dr. Cho took hold of the hand closest to her. “You’re going to need to learn how to rest, Pepper.”

She shook her head ‘no’ as she worked herself up, “I can’t! Tony and---“

“And nothing. You’re good friend, Colonel Rhodes here is going to help me roll this bed next door to Tony’s room. Okay? And then we’re going to monitor your blood pressure for a bit—most likely till tomorrow.” She got up, quickly set up the blood pressure monitor beside Pepper’s bed, and wrapped the cuff around her arm. “ There. We’ll get started with that now. That way, you can keep an eye on Tony while we keep an eye on both of you. Fair?”

Pepper looked from Dr. Cho to Rhodey, “Rhodey, you know I can’t,” she pleaded with him. “I can’t just walk away from everything. You know how much there is to do!”

Dr. Cho pressed a button, and the blood pressure cuff inflated. It was moments later that an alarm starting blaring through the room. She silenced it after a few, point making moments. Dr. Cho said nothing, just gave her a knowing look.

Rhodey, however, was looking unimpressed. “You know you’re not walking away! C’mon, Pepper. You’re a smart woman who has surrounded herself with smart people! You’re gonna have to learn how to delegate, and right quick, lady, ‘cause that’s my niece or nephew in there—and I already know you’d do anything for them... and that include keeping YOU healthy.”

Weakness washed over Pepper in that moment and she sunk back into the bed as she suddenly began to cry.

Dr. Cho quietly excused herself from the room.

“Hey, now. None of that, Pep.” Rhodey wiped some tears from her cheek. “Yeah, things are rough right now, but you’ve still got Tony! And you’ve got me when he’s being an idiot...”

She managed a huff of a laugh.

“Just rest your eyes for a bit, ‘kay?”

“But—“

“No buts, Pepper. First, Tony will kick my ass if I don’t take care of you the way he would if he were up and around.” He pulled the blanket up to her chin. “And second, you cannot convince me that there is not some ‘Pepper-certified’ list to end all lists floating around in that briefcase of yours for me to work off of.”

She moved to get up, but a gentle press to her shoulder had her resting back on the pillows.

“Trust me, Pepper. I’ve got this. It’s in your briefcase, right?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be embarrassed or not.

Rhodey looked her in the eye. “Pepper?”

She looked up at him with trusting eyes. “Just... please?” She was suddenly so damned tired.

“Go to sleep, Pepper,” Rhodey whispered. “When you wake up, you’ll be with Tony next door and I’ll have some books and magazines ready for you to devour, so you don’t get bored, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I promise you, Pepper, it’s going to be okay in the end.”

And as she fell into slumber, she hoped and prayed for all their sakes, that he was right.

* * * * * *

It was very early the next morning when Tony finally opened his eyes. Pepper was sitting up in the bed next to him, reading a magazine by the bar of light behind her, completely engrossed and missing out on the man awake beside her.

He sounded weak, but in true Tony fashion, the first whispered words out of his mouth were, “I know. I’d miss me, too, but you could have slept in your own bed.”

She smiled big, and slid out of her bed to be next to him. “Tony!” she whispered excitedly, “I’m so glad your awake.” She leaned over to give him a kiss and then looked up to check the door to the room.

He looked over too, wondering what he was missing, and almost asked when Pepper distracted him. “How are you feeling?” She still spoke quietly. “Do we need to call a doctor?”

He smiled lovingly at her and raised a hand to cup her cheek. “I’m fine. Tired.” His eyes were already starting to fall again. “Pep,” his smile turned sad. “I lost Peter.”

“I know, Tony.” She caressed his cheek.

She wasn’t even sure that he knew he’d started crying as the exhaustion pulled at him. “I don’t know how I’m...” he trailed off and sobbed. “I just don’t know if I’ll ever be happy again.”

Pepper’s heart shattered for the man she was going to marry—and then came back together for the child she now carried. “Tony, you’ll be happy again. I promise.”

He clumsily wiped at his wet cheeks, “You can’t know that,” he grumbled and tried to turn away from her.

She clasped his hand in hers and smiled. “I do know, Tony, because you gave me something that will give us both so much joy...”

He was obviously getting confused by her vaguery, so she simply leaned over and whispered into his ear. “I’m pregnant.”

He pulled back so he could look at her fully. She guessed that he didn’t quite believe her, especially after that day at the park. He must have seen something though, because he asked, “Really?”

She just nodded. “And we’re going to figure out how to be happy, both for the baby and for us... and part of figuring that out is getting our Peter back, right? We can’t be whole until little one has a big brother and a crazy Italian aunt, okay?”

He nodded emphatically, “Okay.”

A matronly looking nurse chose that moment to enter the room. “Ms. Potts, you’re not supposed to be out of bed, so let’s get you tucked back in before Dr. Cho decides to extend the BP study.”

She seemed friendly enough so Pepper worked the distraction angle, “But look!” She pointed to Tony. “He’s awake!”

The nurse was onto her and made sure that Pepper knew it. She address Tony first, “Good morning, Mr. Stark, I’m Jody, your wife’s nurse. Is there anything that you need before I help your wife?”

He seemed to still be stuck so he just shook his head ‘no.’

“Alright,” she smiled at him. “I’m going to get your nurse to you right away.” She reached up beside his head and pressed the call button, and then she turned to Pepper, “What is this? The fourth or fifth time since my shift started?” She pointed to the bed. “

She just shrugged and made her way back to her bed. “Are we talking ones that you know about?”

Jody just smiled. “Stay put so you can get out of that bed and visit with your husband properly, okay?”

An idea came to her mind, so Pepper nodded in agreement and waited for Jody and the whirlwind of medical staff to take care of Tony and go.

When the room finally emptied and Tony was ready to drop from exhaustion, she slid out of her bed for hopefully the last time. Tony chuckled as he watched her drag a blood pressure machine from her side of the room to his bed.

“You paid for really big med bay beds, babe. I’ve decided to come and visit,” she announced. He looked like he was going to try to shuffle over but she stopped him cold. “Don’t move. I’ll fit—for now.” And she situated herself beside Tony with ease. “There!”

If he’d been tired before, by the time Pepper had joined him in bed, he’d practically melted in contentedness. “We’ll talk about this when I’m ‘wake, right?” He asked.

“Of course, Tony.”

“And we’ll be happy ‘gain?

She smiled to herself and rested a hand on her belly. “Forever.”

@febuwhump

#febuwhump #febuwhump 2021 #fanfiction #sleep deprivation

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myheartmightexplode · 5 years ago

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Tarsus iv

Summary

Big, black holographic letters before a plain white wall. A name seared into his memory like a fresh burn scar that itched, stung and roared when touched, followed by the most bullshitty question he had ever heard, in neat, 20 % transparent letters:

TARSUS IV - Were Kodos' actions defendable?

Anyone who has ever been in a class, has usually met that one guy.

'That one guy' is the guy who, without fail, doesn't arrive a second before he has to. And after a week or so of finding the barely-in-time arrival annoying, you just get used to it, and stop paying it attention altogether.

Therefore, no student really cared when one infamous James T. Kirk deftly slid into the auditorium to the beep of an attendance card and the hiss of the doors sealing shut behind him. This was also why his best friend, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, didn't have to follow his eye roll up with any kind of comment; as Interspecies Ethics 241 approached its end, any snide comments he could come up with had all been said once or twice before.

Neither he, nor Spock - a vulcan exchange student that decided to stay behind on Earth after his semester was up, and also the only of Jim's bedroom encounters with aliens that stayed tangled in the sheets - started when blonde hair and a cheerful grin climbed not as much as leaned over the two back rows of the auditorium and shoved them apart, to press an out-of-breath kiss to green-tinged lips.

"C'mon, Bones, move over."

Bones let out a snort. "If you wanna sit with the cool kids, you gotta be on time." Jim opened his mouth to complain, but was cut off with a sharp, "it's full, Jim! Go sit in the back."

Respect and discipline was two values which Starfleet Academy held highly, so when the guest lecturer started speaking, Jim merely gave his friend an ugly look and struggled himself into the back row, splitting up a couple of friends.

He hadn't unpacked his bag or sunk into his not-nearly-cushioned-enough-but-apparently-ergonomic seat before the lecturer announced the theme of his lecture, and in the same breath, captured Jim's attention like no teacher could ever hope to do.

TARSUS IV - Were Kodos' actions defendable?

He stood, and gestured for the girl next to him to stand. When she didn't react, merely cast a look at him that asked him how stupid he was or what he was on, he grit his teeth and shoved past her, probably painfully crashing into knees and stepping on toes and backpacks on the way, but with a numbing anger, he couldn't bring himself to care.

Affronted, their teacher rose from her seat next to the controls to the holo, hissing an accusing "Cadet!" as the door next to her opened with the internal override.

Not turning away from the lecturer, who busily continued as if nothing had happened, Bones scoffed at the vague shape in the corner of his eye of a fellow student flipping the bird on their way out. Some people just had to make a scene.

When the class ended, Bones turned to see that Jim had run ahead of them, which, though uncharacteristic of him, wasn't surprising. Bones knew better than to expect Jim to act a certain way; the guy always ended up doing the exact opposite. Whether it was because he liked to fuck with people's heads, or it was just in his nature to be unpredictable, Bones had yet to find out.

Spock didn't talk a lot unless prompted to do so by Jim, so the walk to the absolutely packed cantina was a silent one. Traveling through Monday morning hallways was a game of pinball with not-quite-awake latecomers and last minute crammers reading up on whatever subject their test would be on, which meant that securing a table was a privilege of the students quick to exit class. Neither Spock nor Bones rushed needlessly, so the discovery that Jim had secured a table for the three of them was a welcome one.

How Jim had already acquired lunch as well, though, was a bit of a mystery. That Bones got an avoidance rather than an answer when he asked as much was even more of one.

"Sorry. Just had to run ahead," he answered, attempting to fit half a sandwich in his mouth and not chewing thoroughly before gulping the chunk down in a manner similar to a bird of prey in a hurry. "I skipped breakfast this morning, so I was— I'm—" Jim cut himself off with an odd expression in favor of shoving more food into his oral cavity.

Bones stared expectantly. "Starving, Jim. You can say it if you try hard enough," he teased. Spock, as per usual, misunderstood him, and saw his chance to demonstrate his knowledge to his inferior human companions.

"Indeed, it is not a word considered 'taboo' amongst humans, especially since a famine has not occurred since late 21st century, due to advanced—"

"The fuck it hasn't. Just because Vulcan and Earth has a limitless food supply, it doesn't mean that the rest of the universe is as lucky."

Spock didn't appear offended, but something about his face made it clear that he didn't appreciate much being interrupted and belittled in the same sentence. Leonard assumed that his own face was just as expressive.

"'The hell, Jim? We're talking about Earth, not the rest of the universe. What crawled up your ass and died?" He would probably be amused that Jim had managed to eat half his lunch with an impressive three bites, but was a bit too busy feeling secondhand offense from Spock when all Jim saw fit to answer with was a scoff. "Don't get all touchy over Tarsus IV. 'S only a week long subject."

Spock suppressed an instinctual wince as James' metal chair scraped over the stone floor, creating a noise that cut painfully into his ears.

"I forgot my PADD in the classroom," he stated, abandoning his lunch as he collected his jacket and bag, throwing over his shoulder as he went: "See you in Nonverbal Communication."

Spock had, and suspected McCoy had as well, seen his beloved store away his PADD in his bag as they were approaching his acquired table, and therefore immediately revealed the statement to be invalid. What reason Jim would have to make the untruthful statement, however, Spock didn't know. He decided to voice as much. "I am struggling to understand the human tendency of 'lying white.'"

"White lies, Spock. It's 'white lies.'" Bones was torn between wanting to laugh at the vulcan, and buy him an educational book on FSE expressions, but thoughts of Jim distracted him. He sighed. "Yeah, me neither."

The day after, Jim was wholly absent from class. Spock would easily admit that he did not understand this sudden behavior of James'. While his 'boyfriend' might certainly not be the most logical of humans, he could always be trusted to do his very best in every situation, and always 'come out on top.' While often absentminded, always listening. While perpetually late, never did he skip class. Unless he was not feeling well?

Jim had taken up the habit of always calling Spock sometime between 23:48 and 00.07 every evening, which meant they had half an hour for talking before Spock begun his meditation. Their nightly conversations were illogical, as they rarely had anything of importance to discuss that could not be discussed at another more favorable time, but most nights, they provided Spock with a sense of calm, which aided him in his meditation later, and he felt himself growing fond of them in a way that surely was not vulcan.

There had been no such call the previous night, and as Jim always was the one to start the conversations, Spock had taken this as a need for privacy, and refrained from calling Jim himself.

Now that the classroom doors sealed shut, preventing latecomers from disturbing the rest of the class, Spock was left unsettled. McCoy, beside him in the same seats as the previous day, looked around the room, restlessly.

Seeming not to find what he was searching for, he settled down with notes from the previous lesson in front of him. "Probably slept in," he mumbled, as the lecturer started speaking.

Unsure of how to put words to his 'gut feelings,' Spock kept quiet.

Tarsus IV was an uncomfortable topic, and also one of the reasons that Bones wasn't all that fond of the big, black, star spangled silence up there. After all, Earth was a very safe place to live, with everything you needed at least somewhere nearby, and a lot of safety nets if something should go wrong. Serving on a star ship, or at a base somewhere on a barren planet several lightyears away from civilization, you had no safety nets. Limited supplies and death in all directions.

And still, the only place he truly belonged.

Even if Tarsus IV reminded him just where he was going and how bad an idea it really was, he kept a straight face and his fingers steady when they broke up in groups for discussions, listened to witness descriptions and took notes during the lengthy lecture on theories and controversies on and around the still touchy subject. The lecturer treated the whole topic tastefully, theorizing rather then concluding, which was a rare find, as most people seeking to comment on the incident either were theorists who painted it as a cruel massacre and wholeheartedly believed Starfleet to be behind the whole thing and Kodos still alive, or professors who had found proof that everything had gone to plan, and no innocent life had been stolen.

Bones did find the guest lecturer interesting, but not half as much as Spock, it seemed. He had attempted to mock the vulcan for it, but black eyes had turned to him sharply, and merely stated that "the conflict between logic and ethics is extremely fascinating, and Dr. Durmeg seems to have conducted thorough research, with valuable findings that may be the most relevant information pertaining to the discussion of Tarsus IV ethics." Sometimes Bones wondered why he bothered.

The walk towards the lunch hall was less obstructed on a late tuesday, and for once, Spock elected to talk during the whole walk. Bones didn't know if the vulcan brain allowed vulcans to process more information at one time than the human brain did, or if it was just Spock, but the young man had come up with some 'extremely fascinating' theories that had Bones wondering if he shouldn't be right up there beside the lecturer.

He wasn't done talking when he reached the table that Jim - mysteriously - had captured a second day in a row. Gracefully sliding down into the chair opposite his boyfriend, Spock busied himself with his brought, vegetarian, lunch.

"It is most unfortunate that you missed this class," he said as he released the smell of a vulcan salad from its container. It seemed to smell pleasing to him, but Bones felt mildly nauseated by the odor. Unaware of his friend's discomfort, Spock elaborated: "The Dr. Durmeg expressed interesting and valuable viewpoints on the Tarsus IV crisis."

Jim's vague hum seemed to confirm the statement, and discourage rather than encourage an elaboration, but the tone was either lost on or ignored by Spock.

"Indeed, he made some quite convincing arguments that Kodos' action were entirely justifiable—"

"Nothing about Kodos is justifiable."

Spock seemed to consider the statement for a second, tilting his head. "Had you attended class—"

"We're through."

"I beg your pardon?"

Jim stood, locking his PADD and putting it away. "We're over, Spock."

And in the next second, Jim was gone.

Spock tried, futilely, to grab onto a sensible thought that would explain these actions. He turned to McCoy.

"I am not entirely sure that I understand the full meaning of this particular human—"

"He…" Bones narrowed his eyes at the hallway where Jim had disappeared. "He just broke up with you."

He hadn’t slept for days, hunger gnawing at his insides as if his body could eat itself inside out and survive that way, dull teeth scraping at his nerve endings as he felt as if he had a black hole inside of him that was pulling at him, rendering him immobile and whimpering.

Tara had fallen to her death, slipped somewhere she should’ve been safe but wasn’t because she was sluggish and blinded by the gnawing, and Yvonne had fallen asleep, but not woken up the next morning or the one after, and now they were down to ten, ten almost- and just-barely teenagers, nine who should’ve been safe in their beds maybe even with their parents by their sides if they were lucky and hadn’t decided to throw away the fact that they were so blessed as to be chosen for the sake of saving one single blind passenger, save him for nothing because now they were all going to die, all alone and hopeless, now that the darkness came and stole him away, as he passed out because he was too hungry and too cold and too hurting to fall asleep but his body couldn’t take anymore and—

Jim didn’t awake with screams and moans anymore, mainly because the nightmares didn’t plague him any longer, but also because they weren’t as much nightmares as bad memories, and if there was one thing Jim didn’t do, it was linger on the past. However, the experiences left him shaking, cold and with a wave of nausea washing over him as he stretched out under the sheets, just to feel the soft cotton all around him, just to forget the sensation of wet, dirty, sandy clothes clinging to his body.

The room was completely dark, but the window let in a slight shimmer of blue light that caressed his desk, the spines of the books in the book shelf, the night stand and the empty right side of the bed. With a shaking breath, he reached for his cell phone, ignoring the glaring numbers of the display in favor of thumbing through his programmed contacts, not trusting his voice to carry the voice commands correctly.

It wasn’t until his thumb rested over the name so dear to him, that he realized what he had actually done not too many hours previous.

Releasing the device with a sigh, he curled back up under the cold sheets, staring at the insides of his eyelids. Spock wouldn’t be mad, Spock would probably understand and brush it away as emotional human behavior, and act as if nothing had happened, but the sudden realization that he had broken up with Spock left him inexplicably shaken, to the core, and feeling alone and very small and like he didn’t belong.

If he didn’t cry himself to sleep, it wasn’t because the black hole in his chest didn’t hurt.

"I don’t think I’ve seen you worried before."

The observation wasn't anything but that: An observation. Interestingly enough, seeing as almost every reference McCoy made to his behavior came in the form of an insulting attempt to, presumably, elicit an emotional response.

In the same fashion, Spock voiced his observations on Jim's behavior, and the questions it had raised within him.

" I don't delude myself as to think I have gotten him pinned down, but as I've for a while studied Jim's behavioral nature, this sudden 'breaking up' seems to me unmotivated and uncharacteristically not thought through. Additionally, I have come to the conclusion that this could be related to the current lecture subject and our discussions of it, which leaves me 'puzzled.'"

Leonard cringed visibly from the strange, if not audibly painful mixture of informal and formal federation standard english. "Keep working on your colloquial english, Spock. Anyway, would've thought vulcans didn't worry."

Spock opened his mouth, to answer one remark or the other, Bones assumed, but was interrupted by the lecturer's arrival. He thought he might've caught a glimmer of disappointment in those expressionless eyes as Spock sat down next to him, swiftly entering vulcan notes into his PADD ("quite logically, seeing as the experience would not only ensure easier and more correct recalling of the lesson, while simultaneously provide exercise in FSE to GV translation.")

The belated beep of the attendance card distracted him, though, and he turned in his seat to face his romantic partner - his boyfriend - who again had arrived barely on time, his appearance speaking of an insufficient amount of sleep. Beautiful blue eyes sought his, and Jim sent him a tight smile.

When Spock returned his smile (or what he hoped came across as one) with a slight nod and warm eyes, Jim could finally breathe out, and try a happier expression. He sunk into an end seat in the back, and drew out his PADD.

He didn't particularly want to be there, but then again, he didn't particularly want to be single any longer than he had to, (although he was pretty sure Spock had no idea what "we're through" meant anyways.) So he tuned out everything else, and started drafting up an explanation that wouldn't set off Spock's internal lie-detector, or leave anything for his vulcan curiosity to latch onto.

An hour passed by without making itself known as Jim debated family problems, insomnia, existential crisis, hell, even male PMS, and he had a good thousand words worth of half-assed stories when he became aware of the silence. Not break-silence with co-student chattering, not lecture-silence with the lecturer mumbling to himself during stops in his presentation, not note-taking silence with tap-tap-tapping on PADDs. Just silence.

Worrying that he might have been asked a question he wouldn't have the faintest idea of an answer to, he drew a breath, and looked up.

Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't the gazes of a hundred and fifty six students, one guest lecturer and one teacher simultaneously directed at him.

He sent a look at Spock and Bones, fully intending to have them explain what was going on via eye contact, but the sad, pitying? look on Bones' face, and Spock's suddenly calculating eyes made him wary.

Turning his eyes to the front of the auditorium, his mouth went dry, and the black hole returned.

Spock returned his eyes to the hologram that had put a stop to the lesson.

Younger, thinner, paler, more haunted, hair dirtied by dust or dirt and with barely discernible tear tracks burrowing their way down a blank face, stood his boyfriend by a rescue shuttle, the Platon, the first shuttle to touch down on Tarsus IV after the Kodos incident.

The hologram was highly pixelated and taken from a low angle, and this, along with the folds of clothing that obscured the motive, suggested that a compact device had been used in secrecy, to obtain the picture. Had anyone seen it be taken, the photographer would likely be reprimanded, and the picture deleted. It should have been deleted, even if it was not discovered while it was being shot. Wouldn't there be witness protection? Wouldn't someone be hired to ensure that any picture of such nature was deleted from—

Opening classroom doors spurred him from his somewhat hysterical inner debate, and before he really was aware of his actions, he had packed up and went out the door, chasing Jim's hastily retreating back.

Leonard, on the other hand, was rooted by the sudden revelation, and didn't retrieve control of his limbs until the doors swished shut behind Spock.

Swearing under his breath, he, too, rose from his seat. Every step he made towards the door and every number on the override code felt incredibly awkward and loud in the silent room, but awkwardness wasn't really what was on his mind at the moment.

Sinking down into a corner of the fire evacuation staircase, Jim didn't really feel much. There was the insane, pressing pain in his chest and burning in his eyes, and maybe he twisted his ankle on the way here, but it felt as if his mind was just a floating mass, incapable of holding a thought, resulting in a buzz, like a wrongly configured communicator. He became aware of an arm snaking around his shoulders, uncharacteristic of Spock, and a warm hand massaging his shoulder, very characteristic of Bones, and maybe it relieved the pain a bit, or maybe it didn't.

He let out a puff of laughter. "I drafted like…" He did a headcount. "Fourteen different lies to tell you."

Spock needed no further explanation. He cocked his head "I think the appropriate expression is: 'Truth will out.'"

Jim neither corrected or laughed at the erroneous use of the saying, and instead snorted out a quick "maybe."

Leonard ground his teeth, rubbing his best friend's shoulder in what he hoped was a soothing manner, while he tried to sort out his thoughts before his mouth could spew something that went unchecked by his brain. 'I'm sorry' were the most pressing words, but they were lame, and Jim would probably appreciate them as much as he appreciated a fucking hologram that confirmed him as one of the nine Tarsus IV survivors being stretched out over the holoscreen in front of a whole class of starfleet cadets.

It wasn't very surprising that Jim was the first one to speak, because there wasn't a whole lot to say. The words surprised all of them though. Including Jim himself.

"I wasn't supposed to be on Tarsus IV," he confessed, grabbing a random thought out of his head and pulling it out of his mouth. And when he started talking, everything else came detached, easily:

"I snuck onto a ship to get over there. I was just so sick of Frank and Winona and Iowa that I figured I'd go somewhere they couldn't get to me. Somewhere they couldn't just… Go act all worried in front of the police and get them to haul my ass back into the house when I wanted to be alone."

He blinked repeatedly to clear his vision again, and dared a glance up at the two best people in the world. They radiated endless patience and comfort, and something that the black hole didn't take, blossomed in his chest.

"Uh… I was in eight or ninth grade, and there was this summer camp, or school, I guess, over at Tarsus IV. An advanced academical course for kids and language courses for parents and guardians, and everyone would live in really cramped houses. I was bored out of my mind with regular school, so I really wanted to go, but Winona wouldn't take me, and hell would freeze over before I took Frank, and I obviously couldn't go alone, so I snuck aboard the ship."

The three of them were all sitting down now, and even if he leaned a little heavily into the arm that was still slung awkwardly around his shoulders (he appreciated the gesture too much to shake it off, even if it felt strange,) it felt like they were just hanging out, talking about whatever crossed their mind. Even now that there was only really one thing on their minds.

"I hid in the room of my classmates on the ship over, and hacked into their databases while they were still unprotected to put my name into the class. I still had to hide in Thomas' closet when we got to Tarsus, though, because I couldn't figure out a way to assign myself some sort of housing, but you know. It just became a kid's game. Hiding from the parents, unless I wanted to be sent back home. Class was challenging, but that's what I went there for, so I had a really great time.

"I guess you know what happened next." He shrugged. "Food went bad, communication lines went down and Kodos decided it was time to play god. Fuck, he had like, a screen to relay public announcements on, and at first, we thought it was really funny in a very pretentious way, but…"

Jim didn't realize he was crying until a salty tear ran down into his mouth, and when the taste hit his tongue, his throat started tightening up. "Just, seeing a huge face of some guy who you really, really trusted before, because he was the fucking governor of the colony, saying that you and you and you have to kindly go die…

"This guy in my class, Kevin Riley, his parents were on the dead list. What kind of monster kills the parents of a kid, and expects the kid to go on fine?

"…When they rounded up the people who were going to die because their 'existence represented a threat to the well-being of society,' it was kind of obvious that he favored kids over adults. I have no idea what he was trying to do. Build his own society, I guess. I think he just wanted to see what he could make us do.

"Anyway, they made all the people on the dead-list gather together, and people were holding onto each other and kids were trying to get through the energy field when they managed to separate all of them. And then, in one second, they were all there, and in the next, everybody had just disappeared. Not a trace there'd been anyone there. I guess we were all in shock, because no one started screaming or anything, and I was just thinking that I was really lucky that I wasn't on the living-list, because it meant I'd sure as hell not be put on the death-list."

Jim chucked darkly. "God, I'd just thought the thought, and the moment after, the peace keeping forces, peace keeping, yeah right, they point their phaser rifles at us, and Kodos isn't looking nice anymore, and he just says that 'there are some blind passenger on Tarsus IV,' and my blood just froze. I was sure they knew who I was and where I was, and I had no idea what to do. He started saying something about how even one more person alive would mean 'slow death to the more valued members of society,' and we kids just panicked. I don't know how many of us there were, but someone pulled me along, and half my class started running for anywhere else. I can't even remember where we hid, I just remember trying so hard not to get caught.

"We had to hide away for one and a half weeks. They fed the 'valued members of society' in a closed area, and no one got to bring any food out, so we tried to find food elsewhere, but it just wasn't ever enough, and god, I thought a day without food was bad, but that was just hell. Freddie from our class gave up after a while and ran to Kodos' soldiers to get some food, but I don't know what Kodos told them, that they had to obey him or something unless he'd kill them, maybe, but they just took him somewhere, and he never came back.

"We hid around the housing area for another half week and I thought we were going to die that one day, but suddenly, someone got the communication back up working, and they signaled starfleet to come and rescue us, and I guess Kodos heard about that, because the soldiers just started firing away at everybody, so we just, we ran away as far as possible from any building we could see, so we hid in some unfinished buildings, and Tara fell off the top of the building and died, and Yvonne and Mark just stopped waking up after a couple of days of hiding."

Suddenly, his words came like a rush, as if he couldn't get them away from him, out of him, fast enough. They tasted like poison on his tongue.

"They found us, two soldiers, or three I guess, and they fired at random into the building, so we found some crates to hide in and under and behind, but Linn wasn't fast enough and she disappeared, and Thomas was just barely, by a hair fast enough to only get half his face blown away when we ducked. We hid away for three hours just holding our breath and not making noises, and then we had to take off our t-shirts to press them against Thomas' face so he wouldn't bleed to death. I have no idea why we didn't just let him bleed out, because it was just naïve and stupid to think that anyone would come to our rescue after all that time, but they did, they did, and…"

He doubled over with a choked sob, and both Spock and Bones were there to catch him, embrace him, rub at him and warm up his shaking, inexplicably cold body.

"I don't know why I'm crying," he whispered, voice hoarse. "I'm over this. I left it behind. It's so, so long ago."

"Bullshit," mumbled Bones right back. "You'd have to be made outta titanium to just leave behind something like this."

"Sharing worries and 'venting emotions' seem to be an effective way of dealing with such problems, Jim. There is no shame in attempting to relieve your pain."

He shook his head. "Four people died because of me. Possibly five."

Warm lips pressed to his temple. "And I grieve with thee, Jim, but--"

The warmth in his chest was back, and the black hole felt as if it had lost it's strength. Even as he untangled himself from the unbelievably emotional display, he felt comforted. He smiled, mainly to himself. "No one's ever told me that before."

"'Bout time we did, then." Bones stood, and offered a hand, which Jim took.

"Let's get to lunch," he said, patting his friends' backs decisively. "Let's count the stares I get when we get to the cafeteria."

Bones thought Spock looked vaguely amused, and saved the visual for future reference. However: "Your face is all red and puffed, by the way."

Jim started rubbing furiously at his face, which probably wouldn't help at all. "Shut up, Bones. Your face is red and puffy. What happened to 'you did a great job, Jim?'"

"I'm a doctor, not a psychologist. I've dashed out enough comfort today," he snorted. "Time to get you to act more like Jim always-arriving-late Kirk and less like a wuss."

"Hey, I don't always arrive late."

"Yeah, you really do, actually. You're gonna be late for your own funeral, someday."

"You're like the worst friend ever. Spock, tell Bones that he's the worst friend ever."

"As I have not yet befriended every person 'ever,' as you say, I cannot ascertain that he is the worst friend ever."

"Spock, you're the worst boyfriend ever."

Spock merely raised an eyebrow at the accusation, tuning out the inevitable jab at Jim's 'taste in men' that Bones was very likely to make. Instead, it seemed impossible to tear his eyes away from the wide grin that spoke warmly of the human trait of getting through anything anyone 'threw their way.'

#star trek #spock #kirk #sprik #tarsus iv #fic

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peachessashaven · 6 years ago

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Who Do You Love - Joe Mazzello x Reader

Synopsis: Joe's been distant lately with you, you're confused on why. Let's hope he can own up soon on why.

Words: 3.7k

Warning: like one swear word, reader be confused af

A/N: yall my best friend wrote this masterpiece its better than ive ever written but she cant be fucked putting it on her blog 😂 i love her a lot so show this some love too!!

Everything or nothing, that’s how it’s always been with Joe, and he’s always given me his everything. That’s why I found his behavior strange lately. I wouldn’t call it distant, but something had changed, like how he had been acting around me. He’s been dismissive, not wanting to spend as much time with me, but this behaviour wasn’t unusual, or unnatural for what’s changed in his life. He’s been on set for the past few months with his mates - coming home at unreasonable hours of the morning, 3am, 4am or even 6 in the morning. “Hey Babe, did you want to go out for dinner tonight? Maybe to a nice fancy restaurant, just the two of us?” I had asked, happily. Looking towards Joe for your answer, after throwing my pillow on the freshly made up bed. Joe and I lived together, it’s been this way for just over a year now. Everything had been going great when we both moved in together, it was like nothing had changed. He still took us out on dates, spontaneous gifts here and there, nothing too out there. But, maybe about a week ago, that went dull. “Sorry, Hon. I can’t.” He said dryly, coming out from the bathroom with a towel around hung atop of his damp hair, which would be a rather attractive sight to you if it weren’t for the disappointing news. A frown made its way upon my face as I had nodded sadly. “Oh, alright.” Shaking my head, I looked up towards where Joe was and smiled at him, running my hand through my hair, pushing it back. “That’s alright. I know that you’re busy with work and everything,” I explained as I turned off the Radio that sat on our nightstand, right next to a photo of Joe and I, the day we spent our one year anniversary at the beach. “I just thought it would be nice for you to have some time away for a while, you know?” My voice progressively got more and more shaky. I spun around after taking a good look at the photo. Joe looked at me with sorrowful eyes, and took a step closer towards me. Shaking my head, I smiled more, even if I felt like my heart had fallen down to my feet. “I just thought that some time out away from everything, your practice and rehearsal,” Without my knowledge, a tear rolled down towards my chin. Sniffling and wiping away the tear, I shook my head once more, forgetting what I was going to say. “It really is okay, I just miss you.” Looking up into his eyes. “I really...I just really fucking miss you, Joe.” Heading towards the bathroom door behind him, I softly spoke before shutting the door. “I have to get ready for work.” My eyes landed on his face just before I closed the door. Dread. That’s all I saw. His eyes filled with pure sadness and dread. Another tear had strolled its way down my cheek. This feeling... I never want to feel it again. That was 6 days ago. I have spoken to Joe since then, of course, but it’s been small conversations, like how was your day and what do you want for dinner, as well as I Love You’s. To say I had been moping around the house since then would be an understatement. Of course I had been sad, but Joe hadn’t even apologised, or asked me if I’ve been okay since then. The same look of sadness hadn’t left his eyes, so I haven’t even thought the fact that he might want to leave me. He wouldn’t...would he? Hearing my phone’s ringtone blast from the lounge-room, I left the kitchen to see who it was calling me. “Hey Gwilym, what’s up?” Trying your best to sound like you’ve been doing alright. “Hey, love!” His welsh accent coming through easily. “I was just calling to see if you’d like to come on set and watch us rehearse? I know Joe might’ve contacted you about it already, but since you’re not here, I thought I’d ask if you wanted to come!” He sounds peachy and genuinely happy. I hope that Joe is too. “We all love your company around here, and it would be such a delight to have you.” Smiling, I nodded, trying to ignore the fact that my heart still sat at my feet. Joe hadn’t said anything to me about coming in today, he hadn’t asked me if I wanted to come in and watch them rehearse, catch up with my friends. “Yeah, sure! I’ll see you guys soon, just text me the address of where you guys are rehearsing today.” As I was about to say goodbye, his voice piped up once more. “How have you been lately, angel? I haven’t heard from you much. And I would ask Joe, but you’re the person I’m asking about, so I’d pick it as common sense to call you and ask.” Him asking how I’ve been is one thing, but to know he was genuinely concerned about me that he hadn’t gone to Joe to ask about my wellbeing is another. Gwilym was probably one of the guys I was closest to, minus Joe. After Joe had introduced me to the guys, Gwilym never failed on checking up on me, resulting on me getting closer and closer to him. “Yeah, I’m fine, Gwil.” Sounding a little bit deflated, I knew he would’ve picked up on it, so I tried to cover up. “Just a bit tired lately, you know? Work and all.” A dry laugh came out from my mouth. “You don’t have to worry about me.” He stayed silent for a moment. I knew that he figured out that I wasn’t telling the truth. Nonetheless, he replied. “Alright, but I will always worry. You’re my friend, of course.” He spoke, gentle and slow, as to let me know he was genuine and true. That sent a pang straight to my heart. I felt my eyes well with tears. Wow, I’m emotional. “Thank you, Gwil, but I’ll be okay.” Pausing for just a moment, i resumed talking. “Well, alright. I’m going to go and get ready then. I’ll see you soon, yeah?” He responds with a small yes, and then a goodbye. After we had hung up, I rolled my head backwards, taking in a long breath, and then breathing out, feeling like some of the weight had gone. If only it were that easy. Not bothering to hop into the shower, having had one late last night, I just walked into the room and got myself ready. Throwing on a T-Shirt, sweater and some well fitted jeans, I tugged on my boots and left the house. After I lock the car, I walk through the car park. When I see Ben and Gwilym laughing and bickering, I let out a small laugh at their silliness, wondering if they do the same with Joe. My smile falters as my thoughts bring Joe into play, I shake my head - I don’t need to be thinking of him right now, I’ve got my friends to see. “Hey Y/N!” Gwil yells from where they’re standing. I smile widely as I lift my arm up to wave at them, walking towards where they stood. “Hey guys!” I giggle with excitement as I see they’re trying to fight for the first hug. I hug Gwil first, Ben shrugs and decides to join in, pulling us all together, closer. I let out another laugh as they both let go of me. “How have you guys been?” I ask, pulling a strand of hair behind my ear, listening intently. “Yeah! We’ve been great!” Ben says, enthusiastically. It was nice to be with them, they were so calm, fun and laid back, all things that Joe hasn’t been lately, and it makes me sad. I want Joe to be as happy as them, especially when they’re at home. “Oh god, you guys really do look like young Rog and Bri,” I play with a strand of Gwil’s fake bouncy hair. “Holy shit, it feels so real too!” “C’mon, hun, come on in!” Gwilym extends his hand in front of him, in the gesture of ‘come along’. I smile and begin to walk in, Ben on my right and Gwil on my left. Heading off into the set of the recording studio, Ben and Gwil disappearing somewhere into the crowd of makeup artists, I assumed, I looked around the room, observing it. It looked like the inside of a shack, but behind the glass was where they, Queen, would’ve recorded their songs. Or, actually, a replica of where they would have recorded their songs. “When did you get here?” Hearing a familiar voice behind me, my heart began to race. Turning around to see Joe, my heart raced faster. He had his wig, makeup and outfit on, all prepared for his scenes. He really looks like the younger version of John Deacon! Behind his eyes were some sort of happiness, but I could tell that when he saw me, he was nervous. Nervous about what, I wouldn’t know, my best guess is getting his lines right. Smiling at him, I walked towards him to give him a small hug, saying a gentle hello. Pulling back from him, I smiled at him. He gave me a small smile back, and leaned forward to kiss my cheek. Feeling my cheeks become slightly hot, I looked down towards the ground, bashfully. Taking a small step backwards, away from him, I took a glance around the room again. “Is this where they would record their songs?” Referring to Queen, I looked back at Joe shortly after glancing around the room once more. He nodded his head lightheartedly. “Well, it's a recreation of what would have been their recording studio.” He smiles as he looks around. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” As he’s looking around, I take the time to observe the man that I adore. His eyes were looking right into mine, his beautiful, hazel eyes. His adorable puppy-dog eyes. They haven't changed since I had met him. His defined jaw wasn’t sporting his usual beard, he was shaven clean for the movie. Honestly, I love him when he does or doesn’t have his facial hair. I mean, he is gorgeous no matter what. His beard makes it all the more fun to kiss him, having the fun, ticklish feeling left to linger. As I start to look around, I feel a pair of eyes on me. Looking back at Joe, his eyes met mine once more. As the blood rushes to my cheeks, causing a tint of pink to spread across my cheeks, leaving them rosy, I can’t tell what he’s feeling anymore. Whether he is feeling too much, or nothing at all. “Can you wait here for just a second?” He asks, reaching out to hold my hand. My heart started to beat faster as I nodded my head, reaching my arm out for his hand to grab mine. He rubbed his thumb on the top of my hand, and then let go. I didn’t want him to let go of my hand, his hands felt so soft and warm, I felt safe just holding them. When his hand slipped out of mine, I felt like whimpering. I felt like I was losing something, but he gave me a reassuring smile, and then left the room. As the door closed, I felt cold. I moved myself backwards to sit on the couch in the back of the room. Ten minutes had passed and Joe still hadn’t come back, so I decided I would get up and walk around the room, observe more closely. As I had stood up to take a closer look at things, Gwilym had walked in. I wouldn’t say he looked panicked, but definitely flushed. “Gwil, is everything okay?” I ask with a small chuckle coming from my mouth. He doesn’t say a word. He just grabs my wrist, wearing a smile from ear to ear, and then leads us out of the room. “Gwil, where are we going? I’m supposed to wait for Joe-” All that is going through my body right now is the feeling of utter confusion. When Gwil looks over his shoulder with a small smirk, I am even more confused. He shuffles us past small groups of people, other parts of the set, I couldn’t even tell where we were going anymore. When he opened a door and pushed us through, we found ourselves at a fountain. A beautiful fountain. My eyes widened, looking around the beautiful place. “This place… It’s gorgeous!” Spinning to get a 360 view of the room, I turned around to look at Gwilym, but it turns out that in the midst of walking in here and now, he walked out. Standing on the small set, surrounded by four walls, I found myself in awe with everything. The floor was artificial grass, yet soft and felt so real, dusted with small pink, yellow, and purple flowers. All of my favourite colours. There was a small tree in corner, setting shading upon the fountain that was spurting water. The water that rests in the fountain was adorned with lily pads that had flowers carefully placed on the top of them. I couldn’t help but admire everything that I was surrounded in. I felt like a princess in a fantasy world, this doesn’t seem real. “Hi, Sweetie.” Hearing Joe’s soft voice behind me, I saw that he looked completely different than when I had last saw him. He wasn’t John Deacon anymore, he was Joseph Mazzello, the man I had fallen madly in love with the day I had met him. “Joe.” I said, but it came out more as a question than anything. I knew it was him, but I didn’t know why he wasn’t in his wig anymore. “What’s going on? I thought rehearsal didn’t finish until late?” Cocking my head to the side, I took a closer look at him. Was he wearing a tuxedo? He walked towards me with me smile on his face, a tinge of pink dusting his cheekbones. “Y/N, I have debated on when I wanted to do this,” He began, making my heart race faster and faster. Having that smile on his face washed away all my worries of him ending this relationship. “But seeing you stand there in front of me, your cheeks pink, eyes filled with nothing but love, I knew my decision had been made right then and there.” His smile had only gotten wider, and I felt that I could hear his heart beating out of his chest. “But before I do go on, there is one thing I want to get out of the way first.” He’s all I can see. Nothing else in this room is in my view. The faux grass, the tree, the fountain or the lily pads, nothing. Just Joe. Just Joe in his navy blue suit, bowtie and well shined shoes. “I know that recently, I haven’t been myself. I didn’t notice, but when I told the boys, they helped me see things really clearly. And I am so sorry if I had made you feel unloved, or scared that you would lose me. I am so sorry.” He sniffled gently, keeping the water that was welling his eyes at bay. Dabbing his clothed wrist onto his eyes, ridding himself of the water, he continued on with his speech. “You are my everything. You’re honestly all I see. I don’t want to be anywhere without you, or without the memory of you. I want to go everywhere and be there with you, or if you can’t be there, remember us going there together. I don’t want to be without you.” The water reappeared at the brim of his eyes, just as they appeared in mine too. My heart continued to beat loudly. He took one more step closer, one stray tear strolling down his cheek. I instinctively lifted my arm, pressing my thumb against his cheek to wipe away the tear. He chucked and grabbed my arm, sliding it down to slip his hand into mine, moving his other arm forward to grab my other hand, holding them both.

“You are the person I cherish the most. I love our time together.” He smiled, sniffling once more, swinging our arms side to side. “Do you remember our first year anniversary?” He chuckles. Remembering back to the day, I laughed with him. That day at the beach, I had been frightened by the birds down there, running away from them, all while trying to desperately keep my hat on in the rough wind. Joe stood a fair bit away, laughing at the scene while trying to shoo the birds away. Nodding my head, he continued with what he was saying. “That day, I won’t ever forget it. Not just because you were afraid of the birds,” He laughed gently, but then tightened his grip in my hands. “But because that day, the sun hit you in a way I have never seen. You looked like an angel. A real life angel, send down here to bless not just me, but every person that you come in contact with in every way possible.” His voice was soft, fragile, like he was trying not to break glass. “I would say you have never looked more beautiful, but you get more and more beautiful every day. I can never get enough of you, I really can’t. You take my breath away with every passing moment.” As he finished his sentence, I looked at him with so much love in my eyes. I squeezed his hands harder just as he was slipping them out from my grasp. He took a small step back, and then got down on one knee. “Joe?” I asked, my heart beating a million miles an hour, my heart just about to come out of my chest. My hands had flung up to my mouth instinctively, not knowing what else to do with them. “Baby, I honestly cannot see my future without you in it, and I don’t want to hold this off any longer.” He takes a small black velvet box out of his back pocket and holds it in his hand. “You mean so much to me, and I would feel like the luckiest guy on the face of this earth if you would be my wife, Y/N.” He opens the box to reveal a simple, yet elegant silver ring. Nodding my head vigorously, he shot up, wrapping his arms around me. “I love you so much, Joe. Of course, of course I’ll marry you.” Saying, trying to sound like I’m not about to cry, I hug him tightly in my arms. Hearing repeated bang’s go off behind Joe, I look to see that Gwil, Ben, Rami and Lucy had all been standing there with party poppers in their hands. “Congratulations you guys!” Lucy loudly says, over all of the boys popping their poppers after she did hers. Lucy raced forward to throw her arms around the both of us, the boys following suit. Congratulations and I’m so happy for you guys were thrown around, but in all honesty, my eyes were only set on Joe, who had never looked happier. He was smiling from ear to ear and his eyes were glistening, like there were stars in his eyes. Moving my hand from Joe’s back, where I was hugging him, I placed my hand on his cheek. He turned his head to look at me, his eyes filling with fondness and love. As we got closer, our lips pressing against one another, cheers had filled the room once again. Not having a single care in the world, my hand had slipped from his cheek to the back of his neck, my fingers running through his hair in the process. His hand had found its place on my back, pushing me closer to him. Hearing mumbling and then a door closing, I had only assumed that the group had made their way outside, giving us our privacy. Our lips didn’t pull away for another minute after that. When we needed air, only then we decided to pull away, our foreheads pressed together. “I love you so much, Y/N.” His eyes, his shining, emerald green eyes had opened to look directly into mine, his hand from my back finding its way to rest on my cheek, his thumb rubbing away any tears that had strayed from my eyes. “I love you so much too, Joe. Enough that I would marry your goofy ass.” Chuckling silently, I leaned forward to peck his lips once more, pulling away, resting my arms on his shoulders to keep steady. His lips twitched into a smirk, his hands landing on my hips. “Oh, sweetie, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Making the both of us laugh, he pressed his lips against mine with more passion than before, our bodies in much closer proximity than before. My hands finding their way in his hair once more. One of his hands had found their way up my shirt, gripping my torso, like he was embedding my body in his mind. My whole body was pressed right up against his. I started to breathe more heavily than before, my body starting to increase in temperature. Joe had moved his hands from my body, trailing one hand up to cup my cheek. He began to pull away, but I didn’t want him to go, so I pushed myself forward. Feeling him smile against my lips and feeling him laugh, he stopped me from pushing my lips against his, and pulled away. Pouting as he looked me in the eyes, he just rubbed his thumb against my cheek. A smirk spread itself across his face just as he had leaned in to whisper to me. “Don’t worry baby.” His breath fanned against my neck, making goosebumps travel down my whole body. “You can get more when we get home. So much more.” Although I’m very impatient to get home, if this is what the future looks like, I can’t wait.

#joe mazzello #joe mazzello imagine #joe mazzello x reader #joseph mazzello #joseph francis mazzello iii #joe mazzello fluff #ben hardy #gwilym lee #rami malek #lucy boynton #lucy the babe herself boynton #borhap cast #bohemian rhapsody #joe mazzello one shot #bohemian rhapsody cast #joe mazello x reader #joe mazello #joe mazello imagine

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tipsyylove · 6 years ago

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[1:44 pm] jisung and you have been friends for a while. it's been a couple of years since he left for korea to join nct. you guys still remain in contact, but it's very little recently. you had wondered why. you tried to ask jisung why he was barely contacting you, but he would avoid the question, and change the topic. you knew he was busy, and that mark had graduated dream, but it still hurt. it's been a couple if days since you had talked, and you were starting to think he forgot about you. you put down your phone for the first time in while, and decided to take a nap.

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you had woken up to 20+ texts from jisung. they had all been apologies, but the most recent one was

"meet me at the airport in an hour."

that text was sent 45 minutes ago. you rushed upstairs to get a little bit of makeup on, and put something on that wasn't shorts and a tank top. you decided on some jeans and a t-shirt. you rapidly put on your shoes and ran out of the door. you practically ran to your car, hoping to make it on time. you have five minutes for a ten minute drive.

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you had barely made it, and when you drove up to the airport, you had thought,

"how does jisung even remember where i live?"

"what if he's not at this airport?"

"where am i supposed to find him?"

sure, you could text him these things, in which you decided to do.

where are you? (seen 3 minutes ago)

food court, it was a long flight. (sent 1 minute ago)

omw. (seen now)

you had gotten out of your car, and fixed your hair a little bit, making yourself look more presentable. you looked over at the food court, and saw jisung. he was standing there, looking as beautiful as ever. he had grown so much, and he was about 5"10 now. he looked huge.

he was just staring at his phone, scrolling through instagram, probably. you had gotten a lot closer at this point. you were trying to get his attention, but then he looked up at you. he didn't say anything, he didn't move, all he did was open his mouth up in a gasp. you waved at him, and he quickly dropped his luggage and gave you the tightest hug you have ever received.

"ive missed you so much, (y/n). im sorry for not being in contact with you. i had to clear my schedule to come and see you."

you didn't know how to respond, you had just sat in silence.

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you guys had a short conversation about, god knows what, and you were now walking back to your car. you had kept your head down, because of the amount that you were blushing. jisung was just looking around, admiring the old scenery. you had made it back to your car, so you put his stuff in the back. you had gotten in the car, and drove back to your house. your parents were on a trip for work, so you had the house to yourself. you put his stuff up in your room, being that you had no guest room in your house.

"you hungry?" you asked.

"i could eat." he responded.

"mac and cheese?"

"sure."

you made some mac and cheese, and gave some to jisung. you guys quickly ate it while watching one of your favorite shows from when you were kids. you cleaned up, and kept watching the tv show.

"do you still have your xbox?" he asked

"yeah, why?"

"can we play "our game" again?"

"100%"

you had played your favorite game again, being as competitive as you remember. you guys hadn't even realized how late it was, and you guys went upstairs.

"is it okay if i sleep in here? i can sleep on the floor." jisung asked.

"nonsense, you can sleep on my bed if you want."

"ill only do it if you're comfortable with it."

"it's whatever."

"okay."

he laid in your bed next to you. he had kept his distance for a while, until he drifted to sleep. he rolled onto the other side and unknowingly cuddled you. you of course obliged, and grabbed his hand. you drifted to sleep shortly after

#nct reactions #park jisung #jisung scenario #nct fluff #jisung fluff #for teo

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astronomyparkers · 7 years ago

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Silence {IV}

Warnings: Language

Pairing: Vigilante!Tom Holland x reader

Word count: 3.8k

A/N: Alright, guys, here is pt. 4! Thank you all so so so much for the positive feedback on the other parts of Silence. I’m so glad you’re loving the story as much as I love writing it. My next step is to work on the Silence playlist, so if you have any song recs, songs that you think fit the theme of the story, or the plot, or remind you of the characters, send them in to me! Feedback is also appreciated, so if you like the story, let me know! And, as always: I DO NOT HAVE A TAG LIST!!!!! THE REASON WHY IS IN MY FAQ!!!!! ANY/ALL MESSAGES SENT REGARDING THIS WILL BE DELETED!!!!

{masterlist}

Your high heels clicked against the laminate flooring of the Museum of Modern art as you walked through the exhibits. The sound echoed around you, mixing with the chatter of the people all staring at the works of art around you. You tried to do a museum walkthrough at least once a week, to see how the public was reacting to different pieces and exhibits. Not only did it give you an idea of what to search for to add to the museum’s collection next, but it also gave you peace of mind. When you looked at the art, you were able to clear your head, and let go of the stress in your life.

And you’d had a lot of stress the past week. After Tom took you to his headquarters outside of the city, you’d been going back every couple of days. Which Tom didn’t seem too thrilled about.

It was clear he was uncomfortable with you knowing so much about him. Every time Jacob or Harrison would tell you something he deemed non-essential, he would shoot them a look and give a slight shake of his head. He still had yet to explain why his family’s name was on the list of criminals, and you had yet to work up the nerve to ask. You had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with William’s death, which kept you from asking. Any time Tom’s twin was mentioned, he shut down. And, truthfully, you couldn’t blame him. Having a twin brother be murdered at the age of sixteen was worthy of being a touchy subject. After the first few times you asked about William, you just decided to stop asking altogether.

But, true to Tom’s word, he did look out for you. Whenever you left the museum late at night (which was more often than it should have probably been), the Silence was there, and watching to make sure you got home safe. There were even a few times you heard something on your fire escape in the middle of the night, and when you opened your window to search for the source of the noise, you’d see Tom in his mask. After giving a small nod to you, he’d disappear back into the shadows.

You wish he’d stay around on those nights. You had so many questions, so many theories, and not nearly enough time to entertain them. Even with all the time you were spending at his headquarters, you still felt like you needed to know more.

Before you could think more on the subject, your phone rang, pulling you out of your thoughts. You smiled apologetically to the other museum goers as you pulled the phone from your pocket, and began walking back to your office, checking the caller ID as you did so.

Harrison’s name was flashing, and you answered it just as you opened your office door.

“Hey, Harrison.” You greeted him, closing the door behind you and sitting down at your desk. “How are you?”

“Fine, love, and yourself?” You heard his voice through the speaker, along with a few barks in the background.

“I’m…good. Where are you?” You asked curiously.

“Oh, just walking Monty. Listen—”

“Monty?”

“My dog.” Harrison answered. “Listen, would you be able to stop by after work? I wanted to go over some past records with you, and show you a bit more on the Duke family—”

“I…I don’t know, Harrison.” You sighed and rubbed your temple. “I want to, I do, but I have so much work, and—”

“I know we’re asking a lot of you.” You heard Harrison sigh. “I know we’re imposing. But you’ve been such a help, and…this is important, you know? To Jacob and I…to Tom…we all really need your help.”

“Tom doesn’t act like it.” You scoffed. “He hasn’t even taken off his mask around me yet.”

“He’s just—”

“Nervous, I know. But it means he doesn’t trust me, Harrison.”

“He does trust you!” Harrison said. “Just…please come over? Please?”

You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose. “Fine. I’ll be there after work. And I’ll bring all my Duke files.”

“Wonderful.” You could hear Harrison’s smile in his voice. “We’ll see you then, love.”

You hung up your phone and placed it on your desk, running a hand through your hair before nodding to yourself.

“Pull it together.” You said, straightening your shoulders. “You have work to do.”

You worked and worked all day, straight through lunch and on into the afternoon. You didn’t stop until the clock hit five. When you glanced up and saw the time on the clock, you shut your laptop, tucked your Duke files under your arm, and began to make your way to the subway.

Before you could leave the museum, however, Angie caught your arm, stopping you.

“Do my eyes deceive me, or is Y/N Y/L/N leaving her office while the sun is still high in the sky?” She asked in a teasing voice.

“Don’t be mean.” You rolled your eyes and shifted the files under your arm. “I have plans tonight.”

“Do those plans include seeing a certain Holland brother?” Angie questioned, mischief glinting in her eyes.

Your breath caught in your throat. “What—why would you say that?”

“I saw Tom flirting with you at the gala. And your intern told my intern that he called to ask about a private tour.”

You let out a sigh of relief; for a moment, you’d been worried Angie knew about Tom’s secret identity. “No, these plans don’t include him. Besides, that’s just business stuff. He’s taking over his father’s donations, and—”

“And you’ll be spending much more time with him because of it.” Angie shrugged. “Seems to me like there’s potential for—”

“Potential for donations to the museum? That’s the point.” You shook your head. “Look, Angie, I have to go. But tell the interns to stop gossiping!”

“But how will I find out the dirt about you and cute Englishmen if I do?”

“You ask me. But there’s no dirt!”

“Sure.”

You rolled your eyes. “Goodbye, Angie.”

Once you left the museum, you took your usual transit route home, but didn’t stay home for long. You quickly ran to your room and exchanged your formal work clothes for jeans, a t shirt, a hoodie, and some sneakers before leaving again, this time heading for your car.

You drove out of the city to Tom’s house, windows down as you sped along the country back roads. It was rare you drove in the city, and even rarer to be going as fast as you were; traffic jams usually prohibited you from going faster than a crawl. You tried to enjoy the drive by rolling down the windows and singing along to the radio. Soon, you were pulling up to the road that led to the great stone house.

As you parked your car, you heard barking over your music, and you turned your car off and looked up to see a dog running towards you. Stepping out of your car, you bent down to rub the brown and white dog in between its ears.

“Hello, you cutie!” You exclaimed with a smile. “You must be Monty, right?”

The dog barked happily, eagerly licking at your hands.

“Where’s your owner, huh?” You asked curiously. “What’s he up to?”

“He’s currently struggling to keep up with his dog’s pace.”

You looked up and saw Harrison jogging towards you, an easy smile playing on his lips as he pushed his glasses up further on his nose.

“Hey, Harrison.”

“Hi.” Harrison bent down as Monty ran back over to him, jumping up Harrison’s legs and trying to get to the stick in his hand. “Thanks for coming over.”

“No problem.” You smiled. “Cute dog.”

“Don’t tell him that; it’ll go straight to his head.” Harrison joked before throwing the stick. Monty barked and chased after it enthusiastically. “He likes to show off for the ladies.”

You watched as Monty found the stick and brought it back, looking at you before dropping the stick at Harrison’s feet.

“I can tell.” You pulled out the Duke files. “I brought what you asked for. Ready to go over them?”

“I’ll just be a few more minutes out here, but you should go right in.” Harrison threw the stick again. “Jacob is…somewhere. And last I checked, Tom was training.”

“Without his trainer?” You raised an eyebrow at Harrison.

He laughed. “He has to learn to do it on his own at some point.”

You smiled in response as Monty bounded back over. You rubbed his head one last time before speaking.

“I’ll go inside, then. See you in a few.”

Harrison waved goodbye before throwing the stick again.

You made your way into the manor, debating where to go. You were much more familiar with it now, and knew where all the rooms were, but you weren’t sure who you should try to find. Harrison said Jacob was somewhere, and that Tom was supposedly training…you decided to go with the direction that seemed more concrete.

Turning to the right, you made your way to the in-home gym. As you approached the door, you could hear rap music playing loudly, the beat of the bass thumping through the wood paneling as you pushed the door open.

Tom’s back was turned towards you, covered in sweat as he bounced swiftly from foot to foot. His muscles flexed every time he hit the punching bag dangling before him, and you could hear him grunting with each strike. His gym shorts hung low on his exposed hips, the waistband of his boxers showing enough that you could read the Calvin Klein branding. Tom’s head bopped to the beat of the music between punches, and he didn’t realize you were watching him until you spoke up.

“Nice music choice.” You called loudly. “Eminem?”

Tom jumped, half turning around before he realized it was you. When he saw your figure standing in the doorway, he swore loudly.

“Fuck—you shouldn’t sneak up on people.” He cursed, quickly turning back around before you could even take in his side profile.

“Sorry.” You said, watching as Tom rushed to turn off his phone speaker. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me.” Tom said, his back still towards you as he walked to a cabinet at the back of the room. You watched as he opened it, pulling something out before turning around. When he looked at you, he had his mask back on his face, only his brown eyes showing.

“Seriously?” You raised an eyebrow. “We’re back at this? I already know who you are, Tom. You don’t need to keep wearing that stupid mask.”

He shrugged, grabbing a towel and slipping it around his neck with his taped up hands. “It just makes me feel more comfortable, okay?”

“Fine.” You sighed. “Whatever you say.”

Tom ran his towel down his sweat covered neck and stomach, eyeing you up suspiciously as he did so. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were coming over today.”

You peeled your gaze away from his movements. “I—Harrison called and asked me to come over. Something about Duke…?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Tom nodded, running the towel over his damp curls. “Yeah, uh, the Dukes made another donation to Corewell, but to a new version this time. We wanted to track the process, see if it lined up with any of their past donations.”

“Sounds exciting.”

Tom glanced at you before grabbing his tank top and pulling it over your head.

“Look, if you don’t want to be here, then I can just take the files and—”

“Did I say I didn’t want to be here?” You asked.

“You didn’t have to.” Tom shrugged. “It’s obvious.”

You wished he would take off the mask; he was so hard to read with it on. “If you’re using my files and my work, then I’m staying.”

“Don’t feel like you have to—”

“Why do you want to get rid of me so damn bad?” You asked curiously. “You’re the one who brought me here in the first place—”

“Because you wouldn’t stop asking questions!”

“—and now every second I’m here, you’re on edge. You’re always at the museum, or my apartment—”

“Hey.” Tom glared at you. “That’s to keep you safe from—”

“—from Corewell, who apparently want me dead. Yeah.” You crossed your arms. “I’m just saying…it’s obvious we have to be around each other. And I’m fine with that. But will you stop making it seem like it’s such a burden for you? It doesn’t exactly make me feel good.”

“Look, curator.” Tom’s eyes seemed to soften as he began to unwrap the tape on his hands. “It’s honestly nothing against you. You’re—” He paused and looked down at his hands again as he spoke. “If we had met under different circumstances, without all this bloody shit going on…It’s nothing against you. Honest. I’m just…”

“You’re just…?” You prompted, walking closer to Tom with your arms crossed. “You’re just…what?”

“I’m in a really weird place.” Tom half chuckled, tossing his used tape on the ground before beginning to unravel the other hand.

“So are Jacob and Harrison, yet they don’t seem to have a problem with me.”

“Yeah, well,” Tom laughed again, but it was darker this time. “They don’t have to hide their identity to stay alive, do they?”

You took another cautious step forward. “Do you think I’m going to kill you?”

“Not you.” Tom shook his head. “I doubt you could hurt a fly. But others would, in a heartbeat. You know that. Others have tried.”

You shook your head. “Tom, I get this whole…persona. Really, I do. But do you want to know what I think?”

“Not particularly, but I have a sneaking suspicion you’ll tell me anyways.”

“I think you’re just trying to protect yourself. After William—”

Tom’s eyes hardened again, and he looked back down at his hands.

“After William,” You continued. “I know it must be hard to…trust people. Let people in. But this stupid mask…”

You reached up and placed your hand on the side of Tom’s head, your palm half resting on the mask as your fingers reached into his hair, resting on the side of it.

Tom’s breathing picked up. “Don’t. Please.”

You bit your lip as his eyes searched yours. “This is just a security blanket. A safety net. And when you use it to hide from all the bad in the world, you hide from all the good, too. And I think, deep down…you know that.”

Tom’s gaze stayed locked on yours, his breathing shallow as you stayed close enough to feel his chest moving up and down. You knew you should take a step back, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do so.

You heard the front door open, and Harrison’s voice called out yours and Tom’s names. You glanced back at the entrance to the gym, and then back at the vigilante before you. Tom’s eyes hadn’t moved at all.

Before you could lose your nerve, you pressed a quick, chaste kiss to his lips (or, at least, where you thought his lips would be) over the mask. Then you pulled back, stepping away from Tom and letting go of his face.

“I should…go talk to Harrison.” You swallowed hard, feeling heat rise to your cheeks. “But think about what I said, okay?”

Before Tom could speak again, you hurried out of the room.

For days after, you thought about the conversation you had with Tom. Sleep evaded you, and you were up night after night replaying the whole thing. It didn’t help that every time you heard a noise outside your apartment window, you wondered if it was the Silence, keeping watch over you like usual. However, much to your disappointment (and you didn’t focus on how you felt disappointed—that was a whole can of worms you did not have time for), you never caught a glimpse of his masked face. You did, however, catch a glimpse of his unmasked face a few days later.

You were working in your office, reading up on a piece by Picasso when there was a knock at your door.

“Come in.” You called, barely glancing up from your computer.

An intern stood in your doorway, a hesitant look on her face.

“Sorry to bother you, Ms. Y/L/N,” She began. “But Tom Holland is here to see you.”

Your head snapped up from your computer. “What?”

“Tom…Holland?” The intern nervously restated. “The son of—”

“No, I know, Felicity, thanks.” You smiled weakly at her. “Just…send him in, okay?”

Felicity disappeared, and within a moment, Tom took her place. He was wearing a grey suit and white button up shirt, with an easygoing smile on his face and two coffees in his hands.

“Hello, Ms. Y/L/N.” Tom greeted you as he walked over to your desk. “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought you a coffee. Cream and sugar okay?”

You nodded, accepting the cup he handed you. “I…yeah. And you don’t have to call me by my last name, you know.”

Tom smiled at you again. “Of course. Is it alright if I sit?”

You motioned to the chair. “Please do.”

Tom sat down in the chair in front of your desk, and you stared at him, wondering what would be the reason for his visit. He seemed so different when he was in your office, especially compared to how cautious he’d been around you at the manor. For a moment, you wondered why he was so willing to smile at you, when he’d been so reluctant to take off his mask before. But, then again, the version of himself he was at the manor was a version he had to hide from everyone. This Tom sitting before you was the version that everyone was supposed to see. The version that didn’t have to hide.

“So…” You took a sip of the drink he had handed you and gathered your thoughts. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I wanted to discuss the donations Holland Enterprises has made to the MoMA.” Tom sipped his coffee as he sat back in the chair. “And the donations we plan to make in the future.”

“I was wondering when you’d bring that up, actually.” You admitted, setting your coffee cup down on your desk. “When you told me about Corewell—”

Tom’s face changed immediately. “What?”

“Last week. When I first went over to the manor.” You prompted. “With you and Harrison and—”

“No, I know.” Tom said hurriedly, glancing over his shoulder at your shut office door. “I just…this is a risky place to discuss all of that, darling.”

“I…I’m sorry.” You shook your head. “I don’t mean to spring it on you, but…I saw your name. Your family’s name. On the list of donors.”

“You did?” Tom’s voice was sharp before he exhaled heavily. “I didn’t—that wasn’t—you weren’t supposed to see that.”

“Well, I did.” You fiddled with a ring on your hand, your gaze dropping to the T ring on Tom’s own finger. “And I didn’t want to push you to talk about it, especially since you always seem so…hesitant to tell me anything that has to do with your family, or William, or the Silence—”

“I know.” Tom cut you off hastily. “I know, I…I’m quite closed off. I apologize.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” You assured him. “After our last talk…I don’t know. I was hoping we could be…closer.”

Tom raised an eyebrow at you. “Closer?”

“More open.” You followed up quickly. “About everything. That’s why you took over the donations for your father’s company, right? To track Corewell?”

Tom nodded as he ran a hand through his hair. “Yes. I did. I thought it would be…best.”

“It was a good idea.” You nodded earnestly, pulling open a desk drawer and handing Tom a file. “I’ve been looking into Corewell more, before they went underground—”

“Before William’s murder.” Tom murmured, flipping open the file and thumbing through the documents.

“Yes.” You took the file back after giving him a moment to look through. “So far, everything I’ve found has been pretty standard, but—”

“But you’re a good researcher.” Tom smiled at you with something you almost swore was fondness. “Wonderful, even. If anyone can find it, it’s you.”

You felt heat course through your cheeks, and you looked back down at your files. “I…thank you. That—that means a lot.”

“I’m glad.” Tom reached forward and took your hand in yours, using his other hand to clasp yours as well. “I’m so thankful we met, Y/N. I think our relationship will prove to be very…rewarding, don’t you?”

Your gaze rested on Tom’s pink lips, and you subconsciously licked your own. “I, um, yeah. I-I think so, too.”

Tom glanced at the watch on his wrist. “I have to run back to my office, and—and Harrison is waiting for me. But I hate to leave so soon…”

You stood up, Tom following suit and allowing you to walk him to your office door.

“It’s alright. I know things are busy, between being New York’s vigilante and running a company.” You said, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.

Tom laughed lightly. “Oh, darling, you have no idea.”

“But I want to continue this conversation. Can we meet tonight? Maybe at my place?”

“Of course, Ms. Y/L/N.” Tom took your hand in his and kissed it lightly. “I look forward to seeing you again.”

“Me too.” You gave a small grin. “It’s so nice to see you smile, Tom.”

“You make me want to do it.” Tom kissed your hand one last time. “Have a wonderful day. Enjoy your coffee.”

“I will. I’ll see you later.”

You watched as Tom disappeared down the hallway before closing your door.

That day, you hurried to make sure that you were out of your office at five o’clock on the dot. You were on the train by 5:15, and you were back at your apartment within a half hour after that. Changing into comfier clothes, you spread your files out on your living room table and took a seat on your couch, waiting for Tom to stop by.

Except he never came. Six o’clock became seven, which, before you knew it, became midnight. By the time your clock rolled over to the new day, you gave up waiting for Tom to knock on your door. Instead, you walked to the window as rain began to fall, glancing outside for any sign of the Silence before shutting the blinds tightly.

And although the only discernible sound was the rain hitting your window pane, you almost swore you could feel your hopes hitting the ground.

{part V}

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hungry-weirdartist · 7 years ago

Text

300 Fox Way- The Raven Cycle

.300 Fox Way is a bed and breakfast.

Gansey and friends visits when he drops over at Henrietta for summer.

Blue is intrigued.

300 Fox Way was always full of people.

There was always someone everywhere.

Blue was just a front desk person.

Maura was someone who made sure everything was working right.

Persephone was the one who cleaned up rooms.

Calla set up every item that is needed for guests.

Orla and Jimi were the ones who settled the kitchen.

And there she was.

The desk clerk.

As Blue stared at the screen of her computer disinterestedly,the bell over the door rang,signifying a new guest.

“Hello,welcome to 300 Fox Way:bed and breakfast.How may I help you?”

The ingrained saying tumbled out of Blue’s mouth as she stared up at the new guest-wait no,guests.

There was the one at the front.He was wearing some sunglasses and a slightly large white button down with some champagne colored pants.His suitcase looked like leather and his shoes made Blue stifle a laugh.He was wearing dark brown Top Siders.This ma-boy looked so much older just based on his outfit.

The one on his left slightly scared Blue.He had a completely shaved head and was wearing a black jacket over a black tank.Uninspired,Blue thought originally until she caught a glimpse of a tattoo peaking out of the tank.He had an expensive black luggage.Blue’s impression of him was just the sign that stated DON’T PROVOKE.PRONE TO VIOLENCE.

The one beside him looked much tamer.He had dusty brown hair and blue eyes.He wore a Coca-Cola t-shirt and was holding the scary one’s hand.It seemed to calm the scary one down.Blue thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

The one on Top Siders’ right was a boy.He looked older than the rest,but not by that much.He looked smudgy and wore clothes that made him smaller than he was.He had an expression of his face that always seemed like a half-smile,as if he had seen something happy in front of him,but was being reminded that that could never be him.

Immediately,Blue was intrigued.

Mr Top Siders sidled up to Blue’s desk.Blue felt a shield build up around her.She never wanted to date guests,because the women at 300 Fox Way had so many horror stories of them dating guests,infamously Butternut,Blue’s father.He had stayed behind a bit when Maura became pregnant,but had to leave because of work.

“How many rooms do you have?” Top Siders asked.Blue replied four and he booked two.Before Blue could ask,he said “We’re staying the whole summer.”

Blue sputtered.

The whole summer? No one had stayed that long,except for that guy who stayed for two months after he got divorced.”I’m Gansey,the two holding hands back there is Adam and Ronan and the smudgy one is Noah.”

“Okay,Gansey,” she said,testing the name in her mouth.”Here’s your keys,payment is seventy dollars every two days and don’t go in the basement.”

“What’s in the basement?” he asked.

“Us.Now go.” She moved her hand,gesturing them away.

Most of the boys left,but Gansey hanged behind.

“I never caught your name.”

Blue groaned as quietly as she could.

“Blue.Blue Sargent.Now go.”

He smiled a very obnoxious smile.

“See you around,Blue Sargent.”

That afternoon,as Blue looked at her summer reading list with her yoghurt beside her and as Maura and Calla did taxes,Gansey came to her desk and being too damn polite,did not ring the bell and waited for Blue.”What?”

“My friends wanted to eat,so are there any good food places in Henrietta?” Blue groaned.As the sound entered Maura and Calla’s ears,they shot her an evil glare.When she started working,they made sure that she did not display rudeness or an unwillingness to help people.Knowing she would be in a lecture later if she did not,she stood up and said “I’ll bring you to Nino’s.”

Gansey smiled.Blue wanted to punch him.

She grabbed the keys from the hook in the kitchen. “I’m using the car.” Maura did a gesture Blue did a lot,shooing her away.She stepped out of the door,realizing four boys were walking behind her just when she was about to close the door.

“Ready?” She glanced back,trying to seem cool,but the scary one did not seem fazed.But Gansey just looked excited.Her heart softened but then she remembered herself.

They went into the car,drove to Nino’s and had an amazing snack/dinner. She learnt Adam wanted to be someone who wanted to be more.Ronan wanted to take care of his family,where his mother was quite sick,his older brother was the worst (All the curse words he used were removed.) and his little brother was the nicest human.

Gansey went against all she thought.

He used this summer to drag his friends on a joy ride (Blue snorted. Typical,she thought.) to find interesting places with amazing myths.Apparently,Henrietta had a lot of myths about Welsh kings.She was enraptured by Gansey until Ronan stated that he was allergic to wasps.

“Thanks,Ronan.” he grumbled.

Then came Blue.She talked about her family.How the ladies at 300 Fox Way was here family.How she liked making clothes,but she was applying to study abroad to study animals.She felt slightly smaller compared to the others but Gansey said what she wanted to be was quite cool.

“Thanks.” She replied.

“Get a room.” Ronan called.

“That’s what I did for you guys! You guys are so noisy whe-”

“Ahhhh,” Blue plugged her ears. “I don’t want to hear this.”

And thus,after one more pizza,they slowly became friends.

Blue brought them around Henrietta.Well,understatement,Ronan replaced her after a week as her driving was “As slow as a snail grandma,Sargent.” His leg hurt a bit after he said that.

They saw all the weird road attractions and the nice flowers and Jesse Dittley’s farm.They saw all the malls and the thrift stores and the library.It was great.

But summer was rapidly running out.

As the months run out,Blue would stay awake from thinking about what would happen to her Raven boys.What would happen to Adam who was finally getting a break from all the terribleness,Ronan who was getting time with Adam and getting away from terrible people and Gansey.

Gansey and his myths and vocabulary and his experience and his everything.

Blue wanted to be part of his everything.

As she would lie awake,she would climb downstairs and see Gansey talking to Orla.Blue would talk to him over a cup of one of the women’s (most likely Persephone) tea to help her sleep.They would walk outside to the backyard and Blue would show Gansey stars and ask him if he could tell her the story behind them.

The sun would peak out after what seemed like a few minutes to them and they would walk inside.Gansey would pick a flower from the porch and give it to Blue.It always made her blush.

When she went back to bed,she would sleep,reliving the night.

Then they would wake up,ready to hang with Noah,Adam and Ronan.

As the last week approached,Blue went out of bed after Maura tucked her in and as she rushed downstairs,she grabbed her keys and picked up Gansey from the dining table.

Gansey drove and the ride was silent.He stopped in an empty field.He opened the door for Blue and they leaned on the car as they watched the stars move.

“Blue.” The name was just a statement.It was not a call or a whisper.Blue looked at Gansey.She could not have possibly compare to any other girl that Gansey could pick up.Before she could even say a word,Gansey cupped her cheek and put his lips to hers.

When they broke apart,they wore smiles.The first word that Blue said after it was “Finally.” Gansey broke out in a laugh.They drove home talking about the most random things and getting food.

As they started to pack up,Blue exchanged numbers with everyone.

Blue and Gansey promised to keep in touch as a long-distance relationship.Noah and Adam whooped,Ronan clapped and Maura,Calla and Persephone were just flabbergasted.Blue made Adam promise to invite her to their wedding.Ronan said he could not make promises,Adam whispered covertly that he would.

When they left,Blue felt sad.

She could not wait at all to see them again.

-END-

(a/n: heyo your girl trying out a new format! hope you liked it!sorry i posted it late ive been really busy over the past few days.so,yeah.have a nice day! -eurus)

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gladerwolfstarkimagines · 7 years ago

Photo

Imagine being patricks little sister and the loser club being scared of you. Beverly tries to befriend you but richie isnt happy.

——

Being the little sister of a protective bully was always going to be difficult. Half the kids hated you the other half of kids sucked up to you. Your brother was Patrick Hocksteader, part of henrys crew of dickheads. Ever since he walked you to school on your first day people treated you as his sister not as your own person. People you’d know since you were 5 were now too scared to talk to you let alone be friends with you. The only kids who wanted to be your friend were the kids as bad as Henry who assumed you were as bad as your brother. At first you didnt mind being friends these kids, having crap friends was better than none? But as the year went your dislike for them grew, especially when you saw what they did to the other kids. It took you a whole year to realise it was better to eat lunch alone than with kids who got a kick out of teasing 10 year olds.

Your old “friends” took you leaving as an insult but as you were Patrick’s sister never dared approached you on the subject. The only teased from afar and never up close. All the other kids didnt know what to do. They saw you ditching the group of assholes as a good thing but were still scared of you brother. Seeing it as too much hassle to talk to you all the kids just pretended you didnt exist. You could go days without speaking at school. You’d learn and eat in silence, never speaking to anyone after learning long ago there’s no point in trying to make friends. Patrick ignore this and all his friends banished the rumours you were a loner, leaving you as a pointless person in school.

On your first day back at school after the summer you had science with a new class and a new seatig plan. The teacher sat you next to beverly. Youd know beverly partially, as in you heard a lot about her, mainly from henry, but knew it wasnt true. Your first science assignment in your new seat was to do a project with your partner, which unfortunately for you required talking.

“Hi” she smiled “im Beverly”. “I know…i mean yeah I’ve seen you…I’m y/n”. Beverly grinned at your babbling. You weren’t used to people being nice to you and found it intimidating. You worked hard on the project in class but when the week was up you still hadn’t finished it. You offered to take it home and finish it but beverly said that wasn’t fair and suggested you meet up to finish it. You didn’t want beverly around at yours, henry would be there and well it would t be pretty. Beverly sensed this and asked why didn’t you meet up at the park tomorrow at 12. You agreed and beverly grinned when you said you’d come. “Ill see you there” she smiled patting your arm before she hurried away.

You were ten minutes late to the park and you were very nervous. You weren’t completely sure beverly was going to show. You’d convinced yourself she was just teasing you, she wasn’t really being nice to you, nobody was unless they wanted something from you. You arrived at your agreed spot and looked around. You felt a sinking feeling in your stomach as you couldn’t see her. Embarrassment rushed through you as you felt colour rise into your cheeks. “Y/n”. You turned around and to your surprise beverly marsh stood before you. “Your here” beverly smiled. It took you a while to talk and when you did all you could do was stutter. “Beverly….hi…hi im yeah, sorry im late”. Beverly grinned telling you it didn’t matter.

You were both laid on the floor staring up at the sky. Youd finished the project hours ago but it was such a nice day you both decided to stay for a while. Beverly was so nice to you that you decided she must be a nice person. You were still very cautious of her but came t the conclusion that you liked her. Beverly laughed “i love that book but did you hear about the movie?”. Your turned as you heard people call to beverly, your heart sinking as you saw it was bill and the loser club. They ditched their bikes and stopped when they saw you sat next to her. Bill recovered the fastest “hey bev weve been looking all over for you”. “Ow me and y/n had a science project and then decided to hang out for a bit”. “Ow cool” bill nodded sitting next to beverly. Stan smiled at you sitting down next to bill but thats where the pleasantries ended. The others all sat behind bill and stan, not even near you, richie and eddie sitting the furthest away. The other four seemed to not even want to breathe in your presence and treated the situation as if beverly had befriended a grenade. Stan and bill felt bad and chatted with beverly about random things but made sure to include you. You noticed the looks richie was shooting bill and stan so decided to leave. “Thanks for today beverly but i think im gonna go now”. “Aw really?” Beverly asked “are you sure you cant stay?”. “Ow i don’t wanna intrude” you shrugged. “Your not” stan smiled “were just hanging out”. Richie and eddie threw each other looks and you glanced to them making them go red. “No i really should go”. “Well it was nice meeting you” bill smiled and stan nodded “bye”. The others echoed a bye and you walked away when beverly caught you up. “Hey y/n” she said “it was real fun hanging out with you today”. You smiled “i enjoyed it too”. She grinned “so were going to the lake tomorrow and i wanted to know if you wanted to come with”. “I don’t think your friends would like that very much” you laughed awkwardly. “Ow no stan and bill are cool with it and the others don’t mind really there just boys”. “Its fine really im busy tomorrow” you told her “maybe another time”. “Aw okay but heres my number” she said writing it on your wrist “call me if you want to hang out or anything”.

A few days and you managed to use your compulsive over thinking to convince yourself that beverly was only being nice to you because of your brother and that she didnt really like you. And so you never called her not until your mom brought up the fact you hadn’t been out of the house on weekends for 2 months. Your dad had got 4 free tickets for a fun fair from work and your mom thought it would be a great idea for you to take some friends. You said you would just to please her but had no intention of going. You decided to give them to beverly so rang her. You were so nervous you actually jumped when she picked up the phone. “Hello beverly…its y/n” you said meekly. “Y/n” beverly said happily “ive been wondering if you’d call how are you?”. “Im good erm listen i have some free rickets to a funfair and i wondered if you wanted them”. “Dont you want them?” Beverly asked. “Well…erm i haven’t been in years and just thought you’d like the tickets and could go have fun”. Beverly paused for a moment and then agreed “the funfair would be fun which is why i think you should come”. “But i only have 4 tickets”. “Hey thats cool me and you could go and then bill and Stan said for ages they’ve wanted to go too, wed have so much fun”. You hesitated and beverly could sense your nerves. “Listen i know richie and eddie were dicks the other week but i promise stan and bill arent like that i promise wed have fun”. “Okay” you said kicking yourself. “Really?” Beverly asked “awesome”. You laughed “so when do you wanna go?”.

You and beverly walked to bills house on your way to the funfair. Him and stan were waiting outside and they both greeted you like your brother wasn’t a prick which you appreciated. Stan smiled at you “hey y/n thanks so much for the tickets”. “Yeah its real cool how your dad them for free”. Bill agreed “Ow its nothing” you shrugged and beverly steered you all in the direction of the funfair. Stan and bill were as nice to you as beverly and you found they were nice to talk to. You were soon confident enough to chat to them and you found you had lots in common with them. You were starting to actually look forward to the fun fair until you spotted richie and the others up ahead.

“There you you shitheads are my grandmother walks faster than you”. “Richie?” Stan asked “what the hell are you doing here?”. “Heard you were going to the funfair and me eddie ben and mike thought that sounds like a great idea”. “Ow cool” bill said but beverly and stan looked angry. As you lined up for tickets stan said something to richie who replied “i can do what i want alright”. You used your free tickets and got the four of you in and stood awkwardly by beverly. “so what do you want to do?” She asked “did we say ghost train first?”. “Yeah” stan laughed reluctantly “come on lets get it over with”. “So death drop first yeah?” Richie asked separating bill and Stan from you. “come on bill you’ve got to try it with us, i thought you could come with me and ben”. “And stan you could do with me and mike” eddie finished. Bill stuttered trying to make everyone happy but stan shook his head “nah thats okay you all go together were gonna go this way”. Richie laughed “is someone a chicken”. “No someones pissed because you werent invited but classic Richie you had to show up”. Bill grabbed stan “okay we’ll see you around bye guys”. Richie gave up and let you go glaring until you were out of sight. “Sorry hes such a dick” stan said and you shook your head “hey its okay dont worry about it”. “Yeah lets just forget about them and have fun okay?” Beverly asked and you smiled.

An hour later and you actually having fun. Richie and Eddie kept appearing trying to get Stan and bill to join them but the boys kept refusing. Even after you’d told all three of them they could if they wanted to. Stan was the first to respond and told you he didn’t want you to leave which made you embarrassed. You decided you liked Stan almost as much as beverly and felt comfortable with all of them. You were walking across the grass when all 3 of them stopped and looked behind you. You followed their gaze and saw it landed on Henry. Henry smirked as he saw them and then saw you. You saw him look to your brother and Patrick said something to him. Henry shook his head and Patrick stood up looking angry. Henry went to walk towards you but Patrick grabbed his arm. You could see they were arguing when eventually henry slunk off away from you. Patrick looked up at you and then followed his friend. “Wow” Stan said “your brother made Henry back off”. “Yeah well my brother isn’t always a complete dick”. Beverly smiled “i can see that, it was nice of him”. You looked down awkwardly and bill cut in. “Hey y/n wa…wa…want to go on the bumper ca…ars”. You nodded at him gratefully and walked towards them.

All night patrick managed to control henry and keep him from going near you and the others but the same couldnt be said for richie and the rest. You heard yells come around the back of a rollercoaster and Stan frowned. “That sounds like ben”. A string of curses followed by a grunt told you richie was there too. You ran around to the back and saw your brother and his friends beating richie eddie mike and ben up. Patrick had richie against a wall amd had his knife to his cheek. Patrick had eddie in a headlock and the others two laughed as he went through eddies bag. Ben was on the floor with one of the guys foot his chest and mike was trying to help eddie. Patrick shoved mike on the floor and henry howled with laughter. “You're an asshole you know that?” Richie spat. Henry laughed “you know eye surgery can help you see better, why don’t why try that?” He asked looking at his knife. “Henry stop” you yelled running forward. You yanked his arm away and stepped between him and Richie. “Back off y/n” he said “just walk away”. “No you need to leave these guys alone now!”. “Y/n” Patrick said “just go away okay, these people aren’t your friends”. “So its fine for you to beat them up? No they don’t deserve that its not fair”. “Okay y/n if you don’t move ill beat you up too” henry snarled. “You’re not touching my sister” Patrick yelled. “I will if she doesn’t move”. “If you even try to touch her” Patrick said yanking henry away from you. Henry turned around and looked at him “what?”. “I said you just try to touch her”. “Look i know shes family but shes being a bitch”. “If she says we cant touch them then we cant, were not hurting my sister, got it?”. Henry squared up to Patrick and time seemed to slow down as they stared at one another. Eventually henry sighed “lets get out of here, its lame”. Henry barged Patrick and walked away. Patrick followed him and so did the others. You let out your breath and turned around to Richie. You held out a hand to help him up “you okay?”. “Why did you do that?” He asked after you’d yanked him up. “Because i wanted to” you shrugged. “But you didn’t have to. Nobody asked you to”. “Richie for god sake cant you just be grateful!” Stan spat. “No I’ve been nothing but rude to her all night, i didn’t include you i tried to ruin your night so why would you help me?”. “I might be my brothers sister but that doesn’t mean i like what he does” you frowned. “But still like you could’ve easily have just walked away and let them beat me up after how i acted, i deserved it”. “People always act weird because of my brother” you shrugged “so no offence but if you think how you acted tonight is anything special your wrong”. Richie looked down embarrassed “Well thanks for helping me not get my ass kicked”. “Its okay” you shrugged. “And I’m sorry for being such a dick to you”. You laughed “like i said its nothing major”. “Still though its not right” Richie said awkwardly. “No its not” beverly said “You shouldn’t have to take that”. “Well i know its not great but like what can i do?” You asked “i cant change how people feel about me”. The others didn’t really know how to reply to that and looked down. “No i know you cant, trust me i do” beverly nodded “but you don’t have to go through it alone” she smiled “not anymore”. “What?” You asked. “Yeah” Richie nodded “were not scared of you anymore, i wont act like i did again i promise, you can hang around with us…i mean if you want”. “You don’t have to do this” you frowned. “No y/n” Stan said “we mean it, we like you”. You smiled. Bill nodded “yeah we do” he smiled. You grinned and beverly laughed putting an arm around you “so its decided”. “Welcome to the losers club” Richie announced.

#the loser club #it #it 2017 #pennywise #beverly marsh #richie tozier #stanley uris #bill denbrough #eddie #mike hanlon #patrick hockstetter #henry bowers #loser club #the loser club imagine #it imagine

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tinfoil-jones · 7 years ago

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Motorcity: Join Me, Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Motorcity or the listed characters Title: Join Me Rating: T+ Summary: AU, Chuck and Mike never met in Deluxe; Chuck is leader of the Burners and Mike is still Kane’s Commander. Despite being enemies, Chuck and Mike find themselves having feelings for each other, but are both too stubborn to leave their sides of Detroit. Pairings: MikexChuck, DutchxTennie, FoxyxClaire(implied) Warnings: Don’t read if you don’t like or are triggered by violence or dystopian societies Author’s Note: For the sake of the AU to work Chuck is OOC and some events have been slightly changed.

~~~

18: Fear and Loathing in Vega.

“Chuck, you’ve gotta lay off the alcohol.”

“I’ll lay off when I’m dead.”

Dutch and Tennie watched from the safety of other side of the room as Jacob tried (unsuccessfully) to stop Chuck from drinking himself to the point of blackout for the fifth day in a row. Dutch had gotten his girlfriend caught up on the news she’d missed out on, having not visited in over a month.

“Wowwww…. Just wow, he’s been like this for almost a week?” Tennie inquired, watching the usually zany leader of the Burners behave so depressingly.

“Yup.” Dutch confirmed with a sad sigh.

“Him and Mike…?” Tennie whispered as so Chuck wouldn’t hear her.

“Yeah… I kinda suspected it to be honest… But, I didn’t think it would turn out like this. Them break up and turning Chuck into a wreck. I mean, I know no one feels good after getting dumped, but I didn’t expect this from Chuck.” Dutch admitted.

“Is he still… Functioning?” Tennie asked “As the leader, I mean.”

“Well he’s kind of taken the metaphorical, and literal, back seat on this. He hasn’t even touched Blonde Thunder since what happened, now for patrols he sits in the back seat of Nine Lives because he’s too inebriated or hungover to legally drive. Not to mention the other day when we had to rescue Texas from Kane, he didn’t even come because he didn’t want to be anywhere near Mike.” The African American man explained, exasperated. Now, to say he hadn’t experienced breakup would be a lie, but he never quite turned into the mess that Chuck currently was. On the same side of a slightly different coin though, unlike the blond burner, Dutch was actually developed emotionally. Chuck had the emotional development of a brick. A brick that flirted with people and used flirtatious antics to mask his actual insecurity and social detachment.

“That’s troubling.”

“It is.” Dutch agreed, crossing his arms. “The only promising thing is that he’s still capable of decrypting under the influence, he’s getting through the chunk of data we collected the other day.”

Tennie looked around and noticed something different “Say, where’s Julie?” She asked, double life or not Julie was usually present during the day.

Dutch shrugged with his hands in his pockets “I think she said something about a meeting with her boss.”

~~~

For a long time she had seen the mutual attraction between her father’s right hand man, and her own leader. And she’s noted the obvious signs of them hiding something, and she’d long ago come to the conclusion that they must have been secretly having an affair of some sort.

Boy, oh boy did she sincerely hope that she’d been wrong. While she loved both of them to pieces, there was no logical way of such of relationship working out. They were both stubborn, and by extension very resolute to their respective allegiances, which were at conflict with each other. Chuck believed in Motorcity, and Mike believed in Deluxe. Mike was a high ranking military officer as well, he couldn’t do the same double-life thing she was doing, not without being recognized. The only reason that she could get away with it like she could was because there was only a small pocket of people that even /knew/ that she was the daughter of Abraham Kane. Even Mike didn’t know.

She hadn’t seen Mike following the wake of him and Chuck splitting, but according to Jenzen he’d been burying himself into work to the point of neglecting eating and sleeping; she didn’t need to guess that he wasn’t doing well. Mike buried himself into his work normally, but in the past few months had actually seemed to relax a bit (and now the reason why was apparent.) Now that his source of unwinding and freedom from his commander persona -Motorcity, and Chuck by extension- was gone, Mike coped by overdoing the very thing he sought refuge from.

Those two she knew for a fact were by no means stupid, really they were in her top tier of most intelligent men that she knew. However, the most ludicrous thing, the thing that made her want to pull out her own hair, was that they thought they could just pull a forbidden romance like that and be fine.

Her thoughts, but not her sprint down the hall, were interrupted by the familiar dopey voice of Tooley “Hiya Julie!” He greeted as she quickly passed him in the hallway, in a fast pace to get to her destination “Aren’t you supposed to be at the-”

“Can’t stop!” She cut him off as she rushed off into the briefing room, catching her breath and looking to the ground as the metal door shut behind her “I’m so sorry I’m-” she paused when a rather impatient-looking red hologram of her father popped up, rather than the man himself.

“Late.” He finished for her in a slightly scolding tone, his hologram turned and phased ahead in the briefing room, to in front of the window.

She put on a mildly amused expression as she strode forward to the hologram “If I’d known we could have done it over comm screens I wouldn’t have been late.”

“What we’re doing here is important.” Her dad said, his hologram back still turned to here.

“I know, I know.” She sat down at the lone chair in front of the window.

He slowly turned around “If I can’t trust you to take these sessions seriously, how can I trust you to run this company when I’m gone?” He scolded, a rhetorical question really. He had his arms elbows bent for emphasis.

“Run it?” She echoed “Only like three people know I’m your daughter. I’m sure the employee’s would just love taking orders from some random intern.” Julie told him sarcastically, but seriously. Her dark gaze swept to the ground.

“If more people knew you’d become a target!” Kane repeated the mantra she’d be raised on, the one rule she was always to follow above all else. Something she couldn’t even tell the Burners, less she be accused of conflict of interest just like Chuck had. “I keep your secret safe to keep you safe,” his tone became more gentle, the tone he had reserved just for her “everything I do if for you.” But there was something else in his tone, not just the tone of a father speaking to his daughter. Something that sounded almost… Distraught.

“Dad, what’s going on?” She asked.

He looked away from her as he crossed his arms again “I had to leave the office for a few days, for, business.” His pause was questionable to her.

“Days?” She pressed.

“And it would help me to know, that if something should happen to me-”

“/Nothing/ is going to happen to you.” She interjected. She disagreed with her dad politically, especially when it came to his views on Motorcity, but he was still her dad, and she loved him, and would never wish harm on him no matter who from.

“But if it does!” He looked right at her sternly, then sighed to soften his tone again “It’d be comfort, to know that I’m leaving Deluxe in good hands.”

Julie stood up and looked up at him with a concerned gaze “Dad…” She trailed off, wishing he was actually there instead of just a holographic projection, so she could put a hand on his arm for comfort, as she did so often growing up. He sighed again, and his hologram phased out as he ‘hung up’ on her. “…Talk to me…” She sat back down and swiveled on the chair, and seemingly as soon as she did a comm screen call from Claire opened up.

Claire looked to be freaking out over something “Hey Jules! Foxy just called! Have you seen what just happened in Motorcity?! Some new guy just took on a whole fleet of your dad’s robots, and an ultra gollum; by himself!”

Surprised, and curious of the claim, Julie pulled up a restricted files access screen

~~~

Chuck groggily woke up to find himself lying on a stretched out cot, with a blanket over him, a wet hand towel on his forehead, and most importantly an IV line of 1000 ml of normal saline connected to his arm. Not to mention the less than pleased face of Jacob, who was sitting in a chair right next to the cot, watching over him.

“W-What’s going on?” The blond asked as he struggled to sit up, he wasn’t badly hung over like he usually would be, but he was still sore and his head had a dull ache to it. The increase of volume provided by the IV served to stave off the worse of a hangover. He weakly looked around and saw his blue jacket on lying on the nearby workbench, so his arm could be open for the IV tubing.

“We need to talk,” Jacob said, in a tone Chuck immediately recognized as the ‘lecture’ tone “all of this drinking and moping, it’s not doing you any good. I get your heart is broken, but wallowing in your own sorrow isn’t going to help anyone.”

Chuck chewed on his lip. He knew he was making an ass of himself, by drowning his sorrows in cheap moonshine from the Mama’s Boys gang rather than leads the Burners properly like he should had “I-I… It’s just…” He looked to his hands, which he folded onto his lap “It isn’t just the break up with Mike, okay? It’s… I felt like I let everyone down.”

“How so?”

“By literally sleeping with the enemy.” He almost huffed “I mean, I’ve got to be a real disappointment to the you guys - I’m supposed to be the strong leader here, supposed to protect my team, but I can’t even stand up to the charms of a cinnamon roll in cowboy boots.” He gripped the blanket. He was sad that he had to split with Mike. He really was, but something that upset him even more was when he saw the… the sheer disappointment in his teams face when he told them about his trysts with the Kane Co commander. “Am I even fit to lead if I get torn by a conflict of interest that extreme?”

“Regardless of what happened, you’re still the leader, and they still need you.” Jacob chastised, more gently than earlier “And even if you’ve disappointed them, you’re not going to prove yourself still capable if you’re drinking yourself near death and not using your vehicle.”

“I… I get it.” Chuck sighed, turning his eyes to the almost empty IV bag of normal saline, with a skinny frame like his he was naturally very vascular and could empty out an IV in little time. When the bag emptied out and all there was was a rapidly draining tube, he turned the knob to stop the flow of fluid.

“There’s a new face around these parts,” Jacob told him suddenly, piquing Chuck’s interest but just barely.

“Oh?” Chuck inquired as he picked up a 500 ml bag of lactated ringers and used it to replace the normal saline.

“A masked man in a car, defeated a fleet of Kane bots and metal gollums. ” Jacob explained, then brought up a comm screen that showcased a massive amount of collateral damage around Motorcity, mostly consisting of busted up bots.

Chuck quirked a brow “What could have done this much damage?”

“Dutch gave me some footage, take a look.” Jacob switched out the comm screen to a video of a masked figure in the car setting off electronic based attacks in a red steel car.

“You’re telling me one guy did all of that?” The skeptism leaked clearly into Chuck’s tone. “Who was the driver?”

“That’s where it get’s strange.” The door of the sick bay opened and Julie strode in, Chuck wondered how long she’d been waiting outside of the door “According to Kane Co, he’s a spy from an organization called Vega.”

Chuck thought of all the company patents and trade deals he’d witnessed while a programmer “I never heard of it.” He told the red-head.

Julie pulled up a comm screen from her wrist mount, a table of a map “Vega is an organization based in, get this; Cleveland.” She explained, alarmn bells went of in Chuck’s head.

“Cleveland?” He echoed, if memory served correctly it used to be a major city in the late state of Ohio. “I heard everything outside of Detroit was a wasteland…” Of course, there was always the possibility that was just propaganda from Kane. Remembering the file he still had to decrypt, Chuck brought up his own wrist-mounted comm screen and got back to work on that with his good hand, while still listening to the female Burners report.

“The real question is, what’s Vega doing in Deluxe?” Julie seemed to trail off, her head dipped down a little and a worried look flickered in her eyes, but only for a moment “Kane was acting kinda… different, this morning. He wasn’t mad it was almost like he was, he was worried about something.”

Chuck hummed at her elaboration on her own question, still trying to unzip the encrypted file “So, you can read his moods now?” He was slightly suspicious, but he quickly waved it off. Julie was a loyal Burner and friend.

“Uh, no, no, what?” She defended nervously then brought up another video of the masked man “Hey, look at this weapon, it was specifically designed to stop Kanebots.” The video showed him pulling some kind of cylinder out of the dashboard of his vehicle “What does that tell you?”

“That this guy came here looking for a fight.” Chuck deduced, still listening but not directly looking at her as he almost finished decrypting the file and also keeping a side-eye on the emptying IV bag. The lactated ringer’s making his mouth taste slightly sweet similar to how normal saline made his mouth taste salty. The file finally decrypted, and as soon as he started reading it his blood chilled and his eyes dialated.

Jacob crossed his arms “That kind of tech wouldn’t be easy to build… Or cheap. A man like Kane’s got a long list of enemies.” The irony of Jacob being one of those men was not lost on Chuck or Julie “Vega could have some sort of score to settle.”

Chuck cut off their conversation “Uh, guys, you remember that encrypted file we grabbed yesterday? Well I decrypted it, and you’ll want to see this.” He inquired in a slight panic as he showed them the decrypted file. It was a threatening red color, and while it looked like a simple cube, in reality it was far more menacing, which was further highlighted by all of the caution, hazard, and beware pop up warning surrounding it.

“Genesis Pod…?” Julie read off the bottom of the file, biting her lip slightly at the sight of a file she had not seen “Any idea what it does?”

“Yeah…” Chuck replied, indignant “It destroys Motorcity.”

“It… doesn’t look so bad…” Julie offered weakly, although she was just as aware of the possible consequences as her leader was.

“Oh it’s bad, it’s shieded by pure polydenzium, it’s the worse thing Kane’s thrown at us yet! This things going to be operational before we know it.” He stopped the flow of the now empty bag and half-empty IV tubing and almost angrily ripped the IV line out of his arm. He quickly sat up and put a 2x2 gauze pad over the bleeding intravenous hole in his arm and wrapped coban around it to keep it in place. Groggily, the blonde almost stumbled off the cot to put his jacket on.

As he got up Jacob assisted him and tried to chastise him for rushing like he was, but Chuck didn’t care about his health at a time where there was such a huge threat like that looming over them. The sick bay door opened again and Dutch, Texas, R.O.T.H and even Tennie came inside, and Julie quickly briefed them over everything that they had discussed. And another discussion started around them.

“If our weapon’s can’t scratch it…” Julie started.

“Maybe Vega’s can.” Dutch finished. “You saw what this guy did to these bots, that kind of weapon would do a lot more than what we got.” He turned to Chuck, who was downing a large bottle of water, a refreshing change from the coffee he usually drank pot after another. “Chuck, we should find this guy before Kane does.”

Chuck finished the water bottle and wiped his sleeve across his mouth “Not to be crass guys, but fuck no.” A shocked moment of silence swept across his team.

“Chuck are you still drunk?” Dutch argued “Nothing we have could even dent something like that!”

“Look I don’t mean to insult anyone’s intelligence here, but we don’t know this guy. And every time we think we can ask some unknown but powerful person to help us in the war against Kane, they turn against us. I mean, just look at what happened with Red, or with the Terra’s.” Chuck argued, more harsh than he meant to be, “We all have enough pattern pattern recognition to not make that mistake a third time. If this guy really is after just Kane, than more power to the resistance. We’ll find a different way to disarm the Genesis Pod, but we will not go after this Vega guy.” Chuck ordered, grabbing a bottle of aspirin and swallowing down two of them dry.

Chuck was a lot of things, and lot of those things weren’t necessarily good. But he was a programmer, and as such was a decent mathematician; pattern recognition was a basic skill of such a thing. Given their track record of what happens when they seek out unknown potential allies, the best thing to do was not to investigate Vega.

“Chuck…” Dutch began.

“Don’t, we’ll find another way. We always do, are you trying to imply that if this Vega didn’t appear we’d just sit here with our thumbs up our orifices?”

“You better drop that pretentious tone if you’re going to give us orders like that against popular opinion.” Dutch warned him, surprising the other Burners and Tennie.

Chuck paused, then sighed again “… I’m sorry, it’s just, we can’t blindly put our faith into an unknown entity again. I’m not risking our safety like that again, just… if we put our heads together we’ll find a way to destroy the pod just… Just trust me okay? I don’t have a good feeling about that guy. We can build our own weapon.”

There was some silence, and Dutch kept his arms crossed before he sighed in defeat “Alright man, we won’t seek out Vega.”

To keep up the comradery, Texas added “What’s the big deal about Vega anyways? I could totally take TWO fleets of grunt bots with one hand tied behind my shoe!”

As expected, Dutch rolled his eyes and gave his shorter teammate a look “You mean, your back?”

“Uh okay, my back tied behind my shoe. It doesn’t matter, Texas can handle it!” He struck a few action poses with his own sound effects as expected, the display made Texas groan aloud and Chuck smirk a bit.

Ah yes, he could never turn his back on them. Not ever again…

~~~

“I’m going to the Depths.” Chuck told Julie as he got his gear ready.

“Why…?” She asked, the Depths was part of the Duke’s territory, and Chuck… currently wasn’t a fan of the Duke. Not like he ever was, but ever since the stunt the Duke pulled outing him and Mike, only to be bluffing, Chuck really had some beef with him.

“I need to get parts for a weapon against the Genesis Pod, the best hardware is in the Duke’s territory but there’s a lot in the Depths we haven’t even touched upon yet.” This was true, the Depths covered a huge part of Motorcity, and had seldom been combed through or looted by anyone. Chuck checked over his vehicle slammed his fist against the hood in frustration (which didn’t harm the vehicle because it was very durable, and Chuck wasn’t very strong to begin with) “Damnit I told Dutch to fix my radiator this morning.”

“You didn’t ask him, you drank a bottle of moonshine, said you’d stop drinking when you died and then blacked out.” Julie corrected him.

“…I leave a note then.” Chuck grumbled and stuck a sticky note on his hood saying the radiator was out of order. “I’ll just take the extra then.” He said, referring to the green car that no one owned and was only used when one of their own vehicles was out of order for any reason. Chuck probably could replace his own radiator, but he preferred software over hardware and always deferred the more hands on stuff to Dutch. “Do you remember where the keys for it are?”

“Top drawer in the red tool box.” She told him, and he went over to it “How about I take you through the Depths? You’ve been my backseat driver for a the past couple of days anyways.” Truthfully, she didn’t want Chuck to go alone anyways, she doubted he was as stable as he said he was.

“Dutch and Texas are coming with me, but Julie-” He stopped himself so he could turn to face her “I’m going to need you to stay behind on this one.”

“What, why?” She demanded.

“I need you to find out everything you can about this Genesis Pod,” he began, but she cut him off.

“I can do it when we get back.” She countered, and he looked away briefly before back down at her.

“Julie I need you to not fight me on this one, you saw the kind of firepower Kane’s sending, if something happens to us-”

Julie cut him off again “Why does everyone keep saying that?” Chuck, not knowing the context of her statement, briefly wondered who else said that to her, but left it alone.

“Look, if something goes wrong I need to know there’s still someone who will fight for Motorcity.”

“Chuck, nothing is going to happen!”

“Will you do it?” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and Julie was both angered and softened by the familiarity of the situation. The redheaded teen sighed in defeat.

“Fine.”

The blond Burner mustered up a small smile “Thanks, Julie.”

~~~

“Chuck, the man, the myth, the… fashion disaster! Yow!” The Duke proclaimed with an arm wrapped around Chuck after stopping the Burners in their tracks in the Depths. It took every ounce of Chuck’s self-control to stop himself from turning on his fear inhibitor to a full ten and strangling the man where he posed.

He shoved the Duke’s arm off of him “Can I help you with something Duke?” He asked, his voice dripped with venom and noncompliance.

“It’s time for you to,” The Duke briefly twirled his staff “back off.”

“We’re just driving.” Chuck shot back.

Somehow Duke had appeared lying on the hood of the green car, twirling his baton up into the air. “Just driving yes, and I’m just, handsome.” Chuck had to disagree with him at that point “You’re going after our mysterious party-crasher and I’m afraid I can’t allow that.” The blonde assumed he meant Vega.

“The new guy? I don’t give a Cplusplus about that guy, we’re after equipment Duke. Kane’s about to-”

Duke appeared to not be listening to him and cut him off, also getting into his face again “The man is in MY territory, that makes him, and all of his toys, mine.”

“Are you also after the key’s to his chastity belt?” Chuck muttered to himself sarcastically, elaborating on the Duke’s statement in a crass fashion.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

The Duke’s security stepped out his limo, most likely to impose, but Chuck looked back to Dutch and Texas who likewise stepped out of their own cars in a threatening manner, while Chuck simultaneously pressed a button on the green cars keyfob to summon a torrent out of the hood.

“Don’t make this a situation, Duke.” Chuck warned him, and glared down at him. The Duke glared back in return, before Chuck noticed something behind the older man.

“Get back-!” The Duke shouted but to no avail as Chuck tackled him.

“Watch out!” Chuck shouted as they both tumbled to the floor, a laser beam from a Kanebot blasting at the spot where the Duke had been standing, and hitting his red sunglasses that became displaced from the tussle. Chuck hated the Duke, but he didn’t want him vaporized… Not yet, at least. “Burners, move it!” Chuck shouted as he rolled back onto his feet and ran to the green car.

Similarly, Duke ran off to his security force, who weren’t nearly as composed now that they were facing danger “Oh, you cowards! Get up! Get up and run!” As he ran to his own vehicle, he grabbed the back of the collar of one of his cowering men and dragged him with him as he ran, saving him from being blasted, which to Chuck showed just a glimmer of humanity in the Duke.

The green car, Whiptail, and Stronghorn started falling back rapidly “Texas, split them up!” Chuck ordered, and immediately following Texas fired at some of the fleet and drove off in a different direction at a fork in the road. Dutch was firing at the bots, and was getting bumped into by a nervously and likely unskilled driver of the Dukes, who soon after spun out of control.

Chuck felt his heart pounding all the way up to his ears, trying to best to dodge all of the blasts from the Kane bots, he maneuvered himself using the thrusters to get from one column to another, but he kept cursing himself because the green car just didn’t have the same maneuverability as blonde thunder had, even if it did have a more diverse weapon system and higher speed.

At one point her overestimated the range of the green car because of his unfamiliarity with it, and ended up not reaching a column completely.

“Motherfucker-” He cursed aloud as he fell down even further into the Depths.

~~~

“Urgh my aching…” Chuck groaned as he came to - he opened his eyes only to find it to be just as dark with his eyes opened as it was closed. He flipped a few switches to turn a few of the car lights back on. He looked around and could only see cables and rusted beams, recollecting his thoughts about what happened before he was out, he realized he was the bottom of the Depths.

He tried to turn his communication system, but unfortunately he was way out of range from any of the other Burners. He turned on his navigation system, but once again lady luck appeared to have metaphorically kicked him in the balls because there was no existing map for the Depths this deep down.

Smacking himself in the forehead, he did the only thing he could think of, something to do for the time being at least; he turned on his distress signal. Since the distress signal was electromagnetic based, and not completely electronic like his communication system, it had a much wider maximum range and efficiency range, and could be picked up by anyone with a radio or car, and even if it didn’t reach anybody, it at least gave him a quick comfort while he thought of something else to do to get out of his castaway situation.

Fifteen minutes later, and still no concrete plan, headlights appeared. For a moment he was elated to be saved, but his heart dropped when he saw it was a lone limo, and the Duke, who had produced another pair of red shades, and for some reason was still wearing them even in the depths of the Depths.

“Oh for fucks sake why couldn’t I have just died.” Chuck muttered to himself as he stepped out of his vehicle.

“That’s a mighty fine lady you’ve got there,” The Duke said with a wide, mischievous grin, admiring the green car Chuck was using. Chuck didn’t answer, and just silently questioned the Duke’s ulterior motives. “Need a hand?”

“You want to help me?” Chuck inquired, then glanced back at the single limo. No one else was there, besides his personal robot assistant, Cyborg Dan.

“You want to help me all of sudden, what’s the catch?” Chuck asked, but before he could allow the Duke to answer he reared up to his full height and got into the Duke’s face “Especially after that bluff you pulled, threatening to out me like that. I have half a mind to blast you where you stand.” Chuck had to admit, the older man was ballsy, to come down here and face him after what had happened, especially since this situation had a lack of witnesses besides the robot.

“Water under the bridge, my boy.” The Duke laughed and Chuck continued to glare “As much you annoy me with your lack of finesse, and lack of taste in men-” He grabbed Chuck’s arm lightly when he saw him reaching for his saber, an unspoken warning and plea at the same time “But I like you, just a little; you’re like the rebellious son I never had.”

“Dude you’re only like ten years older than me.”

“Nevertheless, we both need something; you need to get out of here, and I need someone to come with me while I confront our mysterious guest. Now, shall we get a move on?”

“We?” Chuck said skeptically, and the Duke put an arm around him again. And the younger blond really wished the Duke had more of a sense of personal space.

“Between you and I, my men leave something to be desired when it comes to… security.” With that the Burner’s leader had to agree, remembering how the Duke’s security had only cowered in the face of Kanebots, but this statement also made him to another conclusion as well.

The blond burner couldn’t stop a smirk from appearing “Duke, are you scared?” With that the Duke finally pulled away, a did a twirl.

“My boy, I’m not scared; I’m, an entertainer! Yow!” He then moonwalked backwards.

“That doesn’t really have anything to do with our current situation.” Chuck mumbled, ironically not entertained by the flamboyant man’s antics.

“In the end we both want something.”

“I told you before I’m not interested in the new guy. Besides, how would you know where he is?” The younger of the two men inquired, and Cyborg Dan started to walk up to them.

“No one get’s in or out of my territory without me knowing. No one.” He got into his face again, then turned to his robot “Cyborg Dan, if you would be so kind.”

“With pleasure.” Cyborg Dan said in its robot voice, then showcased a brief video of Vega’s fleeing vehicle up some kind of slope.

“We’ll find him faster if we work together.”

“Duke, for the last time, I don’t care about this guy. I just want to get out of the depths.” He exclaimed, exasperated. Why was the Duke being so pushy on the Vega issue? It was suspicious as hell for one thing, and uncharacteristic for another.

The Duke was now sitting on the ground criss-cross for some reason “Well you need to get out of here, and I need someone to help me find him. I the end we both want something, and we’ll find him faster if we work together. Don’t want someone else finding him first now do we. Then no one get’s his toys.”

The driver almost wanted to smack Duke upside the head, and also wanted to repeat that he didn’t care about Vega or his possible equipment, but pattern recognition told him that it would probably again go in one ear and tumble right out of the other “And what happens when we find him?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. What do you say? We don’t have to fight all the time.” Under normal circumstances, Chuck would leave. But doing so he would risk getting stuck in the Depths for maybe even days, and time was an especially important resource right now with the threat of the Genesis Pod.

“…Make sure you can keep up.” The blonde grumbled.

“Splendid!” The man and his robot got back into his limo, and turned on the tail lights for Chuck to follow. Chuck got back into the green car and nearly tailgated him out of the Depths.

~~~

The moment he was in range of the other Burners communications systems, he called Dutch. The pop-up head of the mechanic showed up, appearing frantic “What happened to you!”

“Took a nasty fall,” Chuck responded, keeping his eyes on the tail lights of the Duke’s limo “I got lost in the Depths and I was out of range, and didn’t have any maps that deep. I sent out a distress signal and the Duke ended up finding me. I… Had to make a deal, he apparently wants my assistance in finding Vega.”

“So we’re trusting the Duke now?” Texas chimed in as his pop-up head appeared as well.

“No way, which is why I’m keeping him close. This is too important. Besides, this gives me easier access to the junkyard.” Chuck replied.

“I don’t know man…”

“I don’t either.” Chuck admitted “I’m suspecting this is a trap, but I really need parts. If I don’t call back in like an hour, assume the worst.”

“Chuck!” Dutch almost yelled, aggravated at his leader nonchalance at the prospect of being double-crossed..

“I know it sounds bad but this is the only way. You guys hang back in case this /is/ a trap, I’ll check in when we get to point B. If something happens to me, I have files left on my computer on a plan for the Genesis Pod.”

“You have no idea what’s up there.” Dutch pointed out.

“Exactly, I’m not leading my whole team into a possible trap. I’ll call you if the coast is clear.” Chuck replied, his heart once again pounding and blood roaring in his ears.

He could hear something in the background of Dutch’s call, the all too familiar sound of a face palm. “Is that all you have to say?” The Whiptail driver retorted.

“Uh, hmm… Oh yeah. Also, if I don’t come back, please clear my browser history.”

~~~

The Duke lead him to a ridge, which only made him more suspicious. An isolated ridge with just the two of them bearing witness, yeah that wasn’t suspicious at all. As they climbed up the foothill of junk, Chuck spied the mysterious Vega’s car “Found the car,” He told Duke, and already started to back away “okay I helped you find the guy, now, I’m leaving, I’m taking some supplies on my way out.”

“Oh but there’s no sign of him is there?” The Duke inquired, grabbing his wrist and leaping. The surprising strength of the Duke made them both tumble down the ridge of junk into the crater where the car was.

“Duke what the hell!” Chuck shouted as they hit the ground no-so-softly. The Duke didn’t answer, just got back onto his feet.

Then, he could hear a faint zapping, a familiar and common sound around motorcity, but something about this particular buzzing made his blood turn to sludge. He jumped onto his feet and turned to the sound, instinctively he turned his fear inhibitor all the way up to the ten setting.

“Well, well, well, hello Chuck.” Red said, surrounded by Kanebots and his fists alight with menacingly bright red electrical currents “Hope you didn’t miss me.”

“Not really, I hate when my past flames get clingy.” Chuck shouted back and drew up his saber, shoving the Duke away on the off-chance he wasn’t double crossing him “Get down!” He sprinted towards Red, and the Kanebots started shooting at him, and he hit the lazers with his saber to break up and absorb the energy through his weapon. When he hit and scattered a few of the bots, Red jumped at him attempting to hit, and Chuck just barely managed to dodge as the faceless man broke apart the car under them with the electrically enhanced fists.

Throwing his fist back far and powering up to what Chuck assumed to be it’s limit, Red threw a hard punch at him and Chuck used his saber to protect him. The electrical blunt force caused his weapon to not only fly out of his hand, but also caused it to reduce down to it’s baton form, and roll to the Duke’s feet. The Duke himself looked dismayed.

The blond burner was jumping around trying to avoid getting shot at “Duke, toss it here!” He shouted to the other Motorcitizen, holding his hand out ‘Please for the love of god surprise me in a good way here…’ he thought frantically. He saw the Duke pick the baton up agonizingly slow “Duke, toss it to me!” He repeated, and he thanked the data processor in the sky that Red apparently had the aiming skills of a stormtrooper and only managed to hit junk in his immediate vicinity, but not Chuck himself.

His heart sank when the Duke pocketed Chuck’s baton, and Kanebots flew from behind him towards Chuck, and the Burner was forced to run. The bots fire not only lasers, but missiles as well, and he war forced to hop, skip and jump around all of the junk.

He found a momentary safe haven under a metal sheet overhang, and looked over at Vega’s car, which was without its driver. With the green car parked at the cliff rather than at the ridge, the only option was the strangers car, sprinting he flung himself into the driver’s seat, and flipped the way-too-conveniently labeled weapons switches, and the cylinder poked itself out of the car. “Here we go…” He nervously said, and tried to push it down.

It didn’t budge, and he realized this was indeed an elaborate ruse. Before he could evacuate the vehicle though, Red jumped from a high vantage point and slammed his charged fists down right on the ground, causing a tremor that pushed up and flipped the car, Chuck was flung out of it and hit the ground, rolling quite a bit.

From the disturbed dust and weapons smoke ominously misting around him, he could see ‘Vega’ approaching him.

Narrowing his eyes as he weakly lay on his side, knowing this was all a setup, he looked up the the figure in a hood with glowing red eyes, the same figure that began to lowly chuckle, almost maniacally. A very familiar maniacal laughter bubbled up from the man’s chest.

Chuck flipped him off.

~~~

As Red punched him once again, Chuck’s back was slammed against the wall, and he coughed, trying to compose himself as his mouth filled with blood and his swollen eye tingled sharply. The faceless man chuckled at the suffering of his longtime foe “This is too much fun.” He said sadistically.

In spite of his current situation, Chuck grinned back up with him “I gotta agree with you there, I thought the chains were kinky enough, but hey I like it rough too.” Angrily, Red tightened his fists and slammed his face with yet another punch. Chuck’s vision went black and when he hit the wall this time he slid down to the floor, sapped of his strength. Panting, he looked back up at Red, refusing to give up his mind game “Yeah… Just like that.”

The door opened and Kane walked up, Chuck’s grin dropped when he saw a sullen Mike trailing not far behind his boss. “What’s the matter, lab rat? Not enjoying the view?” Kane mocked, Chuck looked up at him to avoid having to look at his ex-lover behind him.

“If you want me to validate that with a feeble violent response, you’ve got another thing coming.” Chuck almost hissed, staying where he was.

“You never give up do you?” Kane continued to mock, possibly references Chuck current lack of panic and overall confidence that things would be fine in the end “If only had just been a bit more… obedient, I might have given you a life sentence. But since you’re so nonconforming, I have no choice but to have you terminated.” He started walking away, and the announcement made Mike noticeably uncomfortable.

“Terminated? Really? You already fired me Kane, if you mean kill me at least say executed. We aren’t in a kids show.” Chuck corrected the overlords phrasing, mostly to attempt to antagonize him. It didn’t seem to work. “Even if you get rid of me, you won’t win,” the Burners leader spat, getting back onto his feet “Motorcity won’t stop fighting. With, or without me.” Chuck’s heroic speech didn’t seem to move Kane other than to amuse him.

“Oh but my dear boy, they already have.” The red-headed man told him, and on cue video screens appeared showing surveillance footage of Motorcity being overrun by Kane’s forces, and Chuck couldn’t keep a disheartened look off of his face at the display being presented to him “Look at them, fleeing like rats at the first sign of trouble. Does that look like civic pride to you. The people don’t care about Motorcity. No matter how much you like to pretend they do.” Overwhelmed, Chuck started sliding back to the ground, his mind racing at the thought of the safety of his team, and of his city “Now just sit back, and watch your city crumble.” Dramatically Kane and Red started walking out of the room, leaving Chuck alone.

Alone with Mike at least.

When the doors closed, Chuck looked up to the passive waste of a military commander that he used to be (and admittedly still was) in love with.

He flipped him off too.

~~~

Authors notes: Well Chuck handled that just a bit differently than Mike didn’t he… Well, the more things change the more they stay the same, I guess. - Fear and loathing in Vega is a reference to ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ Or ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream’ a book by by Hunter Thompson. Which was also adapted into a movie in 1998. -Lactated ringers is an electrolyte solution for IV use. -Cplusplus is a programming language -When the Duke says Chuck is like the rebellious son he never had, this is actually a reference to an AU called crazy=genius by @asktheburnersleaderandprogrammer, where Chuck is then adopted son of the Duke, and Mike is the adopted son of Rayon. -Chuck did not want to go after Vega like Mike did in the series because he’s less impulsive in his decisions, and in the series original he was against Mike’s decision of going after Vega with the Duke. The only way Duke was going to get Chuck to that ridge was basically to strike a deal, and Chuck tried to get away without approaching Vega anyways. And again after what happened with Red and the Terra’s, Chuck wasn’t going to place blind faith into a seemingly powerful stranger.

#i just really wanted to end this off with chuck flipping somebody off #fourth wall break #mike #mike chilton #chuck #muck #muckles #motorcity #join me #au #join me au #motorcity au

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loversandantiheroes · 7 years ago

Text

Like Blood Running Warm - Part 1

Author’s Note: Happy Spooktober. A couple weeks ago I mentioned how this song made me want to write a Vamp!Clara AU. This is the result of that. Part 1 of probably 2 or 3 if they remain this sort of length. Big thanks to @longjackets, @nikkidee, @kingandcrook, and @infiniteregress17 for the beta help.

Summary: A snowstorm strands a group of bus passengers at a near-derelict station overnight near the Colorado border. One of them just can't seem to get warm.

Rating: T (currently, AO3 link is pre-tagged for the later stuff)

Warnings: Angst by the bucket, Terminal Illness, Simm!Master being...Simm!Master and thus a walking dumpster fire, Implied Past Drug Use, Implied Harassment.

Word Count: 5799

AO3 Link: here

Did you call for the night porter? You smell the blood running warm I stay close to this frozen border, so close I can hit it with a stone Now something crawls right up my spine That I always got to follow Turn out the lights Don't see me drawn and hollow Just blood running warm

- Mark Lanegan, "When Your Number Isn't Up"

- 11:07pm

John Smith, the night porter, sat in the break room of the bus terminal. He should, by all rights, be keeping post behind the counter in the booth, even at this late of an hour, and he knew that. Pointless, though, wasn’t it? An old portable telly spouted crackling spurts of weather reports at him. Worst snow in a decade, record lows, blah blah. He could’ve guessed that himself looking at the drifts forming outside the sliding doors, which he would have to keep shovelled out unless he wanted to end up buried in here. Buried alive with shitty instant coffee, a vending machine that half-worked, and a telly he couldn’t even get a decent signal on. His employers, stingy bastards that they were, were too cheap to provide anything new or at least decent on the premises. In the lounge, where most stations would have the new plasma or LED or god-knows-what-the-fuck-ever craning down from the ceiling or mounted on the walls, there were instead tiny coin-op televisions. Bloody ancient things with built-in radio dials bolted to the arms of the benches and chairs, popping and crackling to life at the generous price of 30 minutes for a quarter.

John had no bloody idea why the hell the relics were still installed. Honestly, he didn’t know such things even existed until he took this post, but the real shocker was that somehow they still worked. By all rights, they shouldn’t be able to pick up a signal anymore, save for the radio dial, not after the big push from analog to digital broadcasting. Converter box wired up to some kind of main switch maybe, that was the best he could figure. Mystery of the fucking universe, or might as well be; tech was not his area. But it made him feel something. Kinship maybe, he thought, cradling the battered porcelain mug of coffee and trying to work some warmth into the joints of his fingers. Old and busted, but still working. Last legs, maybe, but some life still crackling inside.

He’d moved to the States for the sake of his health, that was the joke of it. Christ on a bike, that was the fucking joke. The belching exhaust of a passing lorry in Glasgow last spring had left him doubled over and hacking against a lamp post. Not that a cough was that unusual, he’d been a smoker from the age of fourteen. He was used to the hack-and-rattle first thing in the morning, or when the seasons changed from Damp and Warm to Damp and Cold (Scotland only had the two seasons, really). But this time had been different. Not quite worse, but deeper, like the first signal of the flu.

He’d gone home to his flat that day, made tea, and emptied his tobacco tin into the garbage. Good fucking riddance. Something welled up in him then. A change of scenery would be good. He was nearly fifty-six years old, and he’d never even left the country. Wanderlust, he’d called it at the time. Not entirely untrue, but a little too grand. All he’d wanted in that second was to run away. It wasn’t as if he had any real ties to Glasgow anymore. No friends to speak of, all those were gone. Family either dead or distant. He spun his wedding ring unconsciously. No children. That was almost a relief, considering.

Once he decided to go, he’d sold everything but his clothes and his guitar. Sentiment was only the half of that. He’d never admit it, but he’d simply found the idea of travelling halfway across the world with nothing but the guitar too foolishly romantic to give up. Then on the emptied floor of his flat he’d laid out a massive map of the continental US, closed his eyes, and flipped a coin at it.

He’d spent six good months in Colorado, taking odd jobs and occasionally even sitting in on open mic nights at a local bar, plucking out something of The Velvet Underground or Bowie, and chalking up the slow but steady weight loss as stress and an aversion to American food. Then the cough had come back.

Small cell lung cancer. The fast moving shit. The sort that dug its nails in and decided it lived in you now. Gentrification of the lungs. Radiation or chemo might have bought him some time, but that was the best it could offer. But the pricetag on a few more months was entirely too steep. One look in the clinic window at the thinning husks hooked up to IV drips with pallid eyes and piebald pates, and he’d been out like a shot. On his way to work that night he’d bought a pack of cigarettes. If he was gonna die, he’d at least do it with a full head of hair.

John leaned over the break room table, rubbing at his temples. Too busy feeling sorry for himself to think fucking properly, he inhaled just a bit too sharply. The heating in the bus station was rubbish, the glass windows and sliding doors too thin to keep the cold out, and the electric heater he’d dragged in himself, in a feeble attempt to keep his toes from freezing during the long winter, barely managed to take the chill out of the break room.

Cold air needled into his lungs, and he choked, sputtering and coughing so hard it made his bones ache. Hot coffee sloshed over his hands, and he swore, or at least tried. He needed air to curse, and his lungs weren’t having any of that nonsense. He pounded on the table, sloshing more coffee and overturning a plastic tumbler full of spoons. As the fit subsided, John fumbled in his pockets for his handkerchief and spat, folding it away and trying to pretend he hadn’t seen it come away from this lips bloody.

John sat with his head between his knees until he could breathe evenly again, the sound of the telly all but drowned out by the rush of blood in his ears. At last, he stood, sopped up the mess of coffee, and stumbled out to check the departures and arrivals. Departures from Shotton had been cancelled even before John had limped to work in his jeep. The last two drivers had waved him off as he pulled in, climbing into their own cars to get the hell out of Dodge and back home before the snow settled in with any real intent. Now the roads were closing, and that meant he might be stuck here alone, hacking his lungs up over bad coffee and worse telly until the snow plows went out.

“Fuck,” he muttered. The arrivals list, which had been a string of delays when he’d come in, was now almost completely cancelled. All but one. 11:20 from Cheyenne. Delayed, but still inbound. Wonderful. Snowed in overnight with a busload of pissy tourists on their way to Denver. Wouldn’t that just be a time. “Of-fucking-course. You couldn’t even give me one miserable night off, could you?” he growled at the ceiling.

He kept swearing as he pulled his winter gear on. He’d read once that swearing helped with pain relief; maybe the blue streak would keep him warm. He struggled this balaclava over his head, wondering if it wasn’t time for a haircut. He was a little too proud to still have a full head of hair, grey or no, and had let it go a little wild after the move. Insulation, he told himself. Too fucking cold to trim the hair back, be liable to freeze to death before the cancer gets a chance to finish the fucking job.

Laughing, John wound his scarf around his head.

- 11:34pm

John had most of the entry cleared and shook down with rock salt and sand, when he saw headlights. The bus lurched up through the drive, crunching and shuddering its way up through the snow to the sheltered entrance.

John leaned on his shovel and flapped a thickly-gloved hand as the bus ground to a stop in front of him. The door hissed open, blowing a gorgeously welcome gust of heated air at him. The driver was a new guy, a round-faced man with close cropped hair and a frankly terrible goatee. “Fuck me ragged,” the driver called down, grinning, “I’m gonna get held up by the Michelin Man.”

John made a gun out of his right hand and popped his thumb. Ka-chow. “You’ll want to get inside,” he shouted through too many layers of damp wool.

The driver frowned, motioning at his ear. “Can’t hear you, pal.”

He waved again, palm in, fingers curling. Come the fuck in.

- 11:40pm

There weren’t many passengers, thank God. John counted heads as they shambled in, jamming his gloves into his pockets and fiddling with his scarf which had gone stiff with frost. Seventeen or eighteen, including the driver, who’d pulled off to try and park the bus proper while he still stood a chance to get it moving. An old couple cooed and laughed over the coin-op televisions. A young black woman in a pea-colored coat almost as heavily padded as his own gave him a nervous smile as he struggled out of his balaclava. She asked hopefully about coffee with a London accent that made him do a double take.

“Or tea or hot chocolate?” she went on in the sort of bright tone only the incredibly anxious and incredibly exhausted can achieve. “Anything hot, honestly, I’m not fussy.”

John grunted, both in effort and assent. He’d worked up a fair sweat out there, and the wool was stuck fastidiously to his head. He bent, trying to pull it up from the back, and heard a second voice with an unmistakable Blackpool twinge.

“Easy, mate, you’ll pull your whole head off by mistake.”

Cold fingers brushed at the nape of his neck, curling into the wool, helping him pull. And then he was free, spitting lint and rifling a hand through the haphazard sprawl of his hair.

London giggled behind her hand. Beside her now was a second, significantly smaller woman who was holding his snow-crusted balaclava out to him. For a second, all he saw were her eyes, wide and brown and faintly crinkled at the corners as she smiled up at him. She was lovely, far too lovely, and he was far too old, and oh Jesus Christ he was staring.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, trying to flatten the beast his hair had become. “Uhm, the coffee machine’s on the fritz,” he said, gesturing at the line of vending machines and utterly missing the excited upshoot both women’s eyebrows did when they heard his accent. With a touch of annoyance, he noticed the out of order sign had dropped once again and was slowly soaking into a puddle of slush. “I’ve got a kettle in the break room, but the coffee’s instant. But there’s quite a lot of it, at least, so.” He shrugged, grinning awkwardly and trying not to look at the short one with the big eyes.

“That’d be amazing, I’m frozen,” London said, bouncing on her toes.

“Right, well, have a seat, I’ll go and get that on.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Blackpool said.

London scoffed, rolling her eyes. “No accounting for taste,” she muttered.

Blackpool stuck out her tongue.

John glanced at her sidelong as he opened the door to the break room. She noted his hesitation and gave him a quizzical look. “You on your own tonight?”

John frowned. “Yeah, why?”

“Then I will definitely give you a hand. You look fit to keel over.”

The frown deepened into a scowl.

She laughed. “Oh, go on, your eyebrows look like they could shoot laser beams when you scrunch up like that.”

He pushed through the door after her, shrugging his parka off and pretending that he wasn’t trying to hide a smile, unsure why he should be hiding it other than that recurring little prickle that said she’s too pretty and you’re too old and have you forgotten you’re dying?

“I like the accent. Where in Scotland?” she asked, already filling the kettle as he stripped off his overalls.

“Glasgow.” He spared her a glance over his shoulder, cocking an eyebrow. “You’re from Blackpool?”

“Ooh, jackpot, well done.”

“Not the sort of accent I expected to hear coming in with the snow in the arse-end of America. I had friends there. The other girl, London, is she with you?”

“No, not really. Met her at the station, actually, we’ve just been headed the same way. Fell in together a bit. It was just nice, y’know. Familiar sort of accent. America’s so bloody big, makes you feel a little less alone.” Her gaze shifted outward and for a moment she was gone, the over the hills and far away sort of gone, hands still trying to seat the kettle without the help of her eyes. On the third try, she finally managed to set the it down on the base properly and click it on.

“Oh. I know that look,” he muttered, sitting down to try and struggle his overalls past his boots. “Someone��s homesick.”

“Something like that.”

He opened his mouth, but the well-meaning platitude he’d meant to give was lost in a deep, lung-rattling cough. He bent double, hugging his knees, eyes squeezed shut, and told himself over and over again it will pass, it will pass, it will pass. Spots burst and swam behind his eyelids as his body protested the idea. The muscles in his body froze up, lungs refusing any command except get out get out get out. All at once the darkness seemed to deepen, wrapping around him, swallowing him up. There was a bizarre sensation of detachment. Like he was falling into himself, as if his body was some hollow thing he was floating around inside like a sensory deprivation tank.

An arm curled around his shoulders, holding his body up, a cold hand rubbing circles on his back. Blackpool’s voice came floating through the black from miles off like sweet woodsmoke.

“Hey, c’mon breathe, breathe, you’re alright.”

At last, his muscles unlocked, and he sucked in a great whooping gulp of air and coughed again, half-retching as Blackpool shoved a crumpled wad of tissues into his hands. John sat shaking as his breathing leveled, swimming back up into the peaked fluorescent light. The coughing was old, but the blackout, that was new. New and decidedly not good. Blackpool’s hand still rubbed at his back. She was still there. He swiped at his mouth with the back of his hand, and as he blinked the tears out of his eyes he saw a smear of red across his knuckles. Fuck.

Blackpool looked down at the blood on his hand, eyes wide with concern and something else he couldn’t quite place. Something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Her pupils were dangerously wide, irises a thin sliver of copper that seemed to pulse and flash. A fresh shudder rippled up his spine. Lack of oxygen, he told himself. Surely.

“You need a doctor,” she whispered, searching her coat pockets and finally producing a phone in a chipped blue case.

He grasped her hand, shaking his head. “I don’t.”

“The hell you don’t,” she hissed. “You’re ill.”

“I know,” he said, and that stopped her. He sighed. “Just, please, trust me. An ambulance couldn’t make it through this mess anyway. No point. I’ll be fine in a minute, I just need to catch my breath.”

She stared him down, mouth set and grim. For a long, horrible moment he felt close to talking. To actually saying it. He hadn’t actually told anyone about the diagnosis. There was nobody to tell, and somehow that was the worst of it. He was going to die here alone in a shithole of a town thousands of miles from home, and nobody would know. Loneliness hit him in a crushing wave. He saw himself reflected in the dark of her eyes, drawn and pale and hopelessly lost.

And then she sighed, and his shoulders dropped, and the moment passed.

“What’s your name, Glasgow?” she asked finally.

“John. But mostly people call me the Doctor.” She gave him a funny look and he shrugged. “Old nickname. Long story.”

“No doctor for the Doctor, though?”

He shook his head, resolute.

“Well, then fuck that,” she said flatly. “Glasgow it is.”

He rasped a laugh that set him dangerously close to coughing again. “Suppose I’m supposed to just call you Blackpool, then?”

“It’s only fair.” She smiled tentatively. “But it’s Clara, for the record.”

- 12:03am

Blackpool - Clara - handed out hot water in little styrofoam cups. John followed behind with sachets of coffee and tea bags and tiny packets of sugar. London, who Blackpool said was named Bill, squealed happily when he produced a pyramid-shaped teabag out of his pocket.

“Oh that is gorgeous, you’re a lifesaver, mate.”

Blackpool had moved onto the driver, whose name tag was emblazoned with “MASTERS” in off-kilter lettering. His cheshire grin slipped sideways into a leer as she handed him the cup, his fingers lingering on hers a little too long.

“Cheers, love,” he said with an overblown wink and an equally overblown mockery of an English accent.

Blackpool’s face went stony, and she jerked back, moving on quickly to the elderly couple. The grin on Masters’ face spread even broader.

Bill fidgeted, her own smile fading fast. Her eyes flitted around like nervous hummingbirds, lighting on Blackpool, him, the ceiling, the floor. Anywhere but the driver. John clenched his jaw, hands making a decision for him before his brain stood a chance to intervene, accidentally fumbling the handful of coffee and sugar and knocking the cup of still-steaming water out of Masters’ hands and into his lap. The room was entirely too cold (and his kettle frankly a bit too crap) for the piddly amount of liquid to be hot enough to actually hurt him, but the man yowled like it was boiling.

“Ach, so sorry mate,” John crowed, playing up the Glasgow in his voice to the most ridiculous degree he could that still stopped short of Rab C. Nesbitt territory. “The cauld goes fae my joints, sorry, like, I’ll get ye some towels an’ a fresh cuppa, dinnae worry about it.”

He trotted back to the office, more than a little delighted at the sour look on the driver’s face. How’d that saying go? Like a rottweiler licking piss off a dandelion. That was the one. Beautiful.

- 12:15am

John ran out an extension cable and a power strip for the ones needing a charge for their phones, which unsurprisingly was all of them. Reception was shit, and the storm was only half of it. No wifi, either. He made apologies, gesturing at the desperately out of date equipment. “Give them another ten years, and they might actually catch onto the indoor plumbing fad.”

Blackpool gave him a wink and a thumbs up over the top of her phone. London rolled her eyes and lamented the absence of Netflix, rather loudly at that. Blackpool shook her head and set to poking half-heartedly at Candy Crush.

London wandered over, leaning back against the desk where John sat. She had apparently memorized the names of the other passengers and ticked them off to John as she sipped at her tea. She pointed out the elderly couple. “Melvin and Tilly. Their granddaughter just had her first baby, they’re going down to visit. Spiky hair over there is named Dan or Dave or maybe Doug, he talks a bit too fast for me to really catch it. The cougar with the long blonde hair is Susan; loves badminton, very straight though, shame. Oh, that over there, that’s Dee. Or D, like the letter, not sure which.”

“And of course, you’ve met Clara,” she gestured at Blackpool, who was still flicking through her phone. “Late twenties, maybe early thirties at a push. Used to be an English teacher back home, I think she said. Didn’t like talking about home though. Breakup or something, I dunno. There’s a sore spot there, I didn’t want to poke. I did learn, however, that she likes Jane Austen, souffles, and apparently, older men.” London tilted her head at him pointedly, amused by the way John’s gaunt cheeks colored as he stared fastidiously at his shoelaces. She tutted. “Oh you poor bugger. Five minutes in and you’ve already got it bad. Don’t worry, mate, same here.”

“I really d-”

“Oh like hell. You absolutely have, of course you have. I’m not stupid. And I mean it’s not like I can blame you. Look at ‘er.” She lifted her hands again at the other woman as if her existence was the only proof needed. In fairness, it probably was.

John nodded solemnly. “Alright. So what next, fisticuffs? Rifles at dawn? You can get in an early dig at my honor if you want, I’ll let you go first.”

She laughed. “Naw mate, she is way out of my league. Out of your league too, now that I think about it.” London put a playful elbow in his ribs. “She still likes you though. I can tell. Haven’t seen her smile at a single bloke until she saw you.”

He cleared his throat. “And uh, what about the driver? Masters. What’s the deal there?”

London’s smile evaporated. “He’s a prick,” she said flatly.

- 12:40am

“Alright, the suspense is killing me,” Blackpool said at last. She’d taken to pacing around the lounge with her phone in her hands and had veered out of her path to the front desk suddenly.

“I’m sorry?” he said, blinking.

“You said people called you the Doctor. Why?”

John waved a dismissive hand. “It’s really not that interesting, honestly.”

“C’mon.”

“Why do you want to know?”

She rolled her eyes, laughing. “Because I am dying of boredom. And because, quite frankly, I like listening to you talk.” John fumbled his pen. Blackpool didn’t seem to notice. She tilted her head. “How’s your cough, by the way? I suppose I shouldn’t bother you. Talking might actually be a bad idea….oh god, I am rambling aren’t I?”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he said dryly.

“Right. Well. I’ll just, uhm.” She motioned away.

“I had something of a reputation when I was younger,” he said suddenly, not really wanting to tell but wanting her to leave even less. “Drugs. College,” he shrugged. “Nothing terribly shocking, but also not very legal. Used to get folk turning up at all hours on my doorstep, worn out or strung out or heartbroken. I’d find the right remedy in my bag of tricks to calm them down, get them talking.”

“A stoner psychologist?”

“Basically.” He leaned back and spread his hands. “The Doctor is in.”

- 1:17am

Boredom took over rather quickly. D-or-Dee, a youth with a partially shaved head and a pocket full of quarters went around feeding coins into the slots of the tiny mounted TVs, looking for one that still worked. For awhile, several of them crowded around to catch the weather reports - snow, lots of; we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming - but it quickly became apparent that the only thing on this late was going to be infomercials and horrible sitcom reruns. The tiny knot of people dispersed, and the youth settled for twiddling the radio dials, trying to find a signal in the squelch and static.

“How do you manage alone here at night?” Blackpool said, leaning over the front desk and swirling the last dregs of her instant coffee as he scratched at a newspaper with a pen. “This place is practically prehistoric. I keep waiting for a dinosaur to jump out of the ladies’ and come charging out to eat us.”

“Alas, it’s never been quite that interesting. But I manage, mostly.” John wiggled his pen at the desktop, heavily populated with familiar nightshift detritus: thin paperbacks (Vonnegut and Iain M. Banks stuff mostly), crosswords, at least three newspapers, and an mp3 player half-hidden under a pack of L&M cigarettes. A stack of monitors to his right showed crackly footage from security cameras in the station; two from the lounge, one in the hall by the lavs, and two outside at the front and back entrances. He gave them a cursory glance and saw nothing amiss. Then looked again, brows knitting together. That wasn’t entirely true. Something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He checked the doors again and did a head count, lost count, tried again, distracted by the way Masters was leaning over three chairs to talk to London, who was resolutely ignoring him. John felt the first twinge of a headache at his temples. What the hell was he missing?

And then Blackpool’s arm darted in front of him and grabbed the mp3 player and the cigarettes in one quick swoop that left him blinking.

“Oi, Quick Draw McGraw, give over!”

Blackpool shook the cigarette pack and gave him a disapproving glare. “Seriously?”

He scowled. She seemed to bring that out in him. “I’m old enough, miss, honest. I’ve got ID, I can prove it, even.”

“These can’t be doing your lungs any favors.”

“When did you turn into my mother?”

“Well, if you’re going to be like that I guess I’ll just have to take your toys away,” she said coolly, slipping them into her pocket.

John scoffed. “You really want to be stuck in here with a crotchety old bugger going off nicotine? Trust me, it won’t be pretty.”

“You ought to take better care of yourself, y’know.” The playfulness hadn’t gone, not entirely, but there was a genuine edge of concern.

John felt heat creep up his face and grumbled, fiddling with his hair. That inexplicable urge to tell her hit him again. Christ, he was pathetic. Was this all it took? A pretty face and a kind word, and he was ready to fall on his knees and confess. It was a sin anyway, wasn’t it? Suicide by inaction. Jesus. Get ahold of yourself for fuck’s sake.

Blackpool held up the mp3 player. “Got anything good in here?”

“Depends on your definition of good.”

Music warbled faintly from the earbuds as she shuffled through his playlist. “Bowie. Lots of Bowie. Miles Davis. Screaming Trees. And...Peter Andre?” She gave him a look that was just a hair’s breadth away from mocking.

“It got stuck in my head, ok? It was either download it or put a plastic spork in my ear.”

She laughed, properly laughed, round face all crinkled up, rocking on her elbows. Any indignance he might’ve felt fled immediately. He watched her laugh and felt a little of the malaise drain from his limbs.

Blackpool shook her head at him, eyes sparkling. “Well, that’s good to see.”

“What?”

“You. Smilin’.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. He hadn’t even realized.

She patted his hand. A fleeting touch, but enough to make his heart catch almost painfully. “It looks good on you,” she said.

“Oh, flattering an old man,” he said. “If you’re here for my many many riches, as clearly evidenced by my glamorous, high-paying position, I’m afraid I have bad news.”

“Shut up,” she smacked his shoulder lightly.

“I just thought you should be aware!” he carried on, blustering his way through the blush that wanted to creep up his cheeks again.

A sudden burst of static made the both of them jump. D-or-Dee cheered happily, having finally found a radio signal that wasn’t just weather reports or bad country music. Violin strings cut through the crackle and pop in a lilting swell. A guitar crawled in in response, sweet and slow as molasses. John recognized it, an old Fleetwood Mac tune from the Peter Green days.

Melvin, the old guy, was on his feet suddenly, tugging at his wife’s arm. Tilly cackled, called him a sentimental old goat. And then she went to him, smiling sweetly, hands clasped together, one arm on his shoulder. They revolved slowly, beaming at one another.

A few others joined them, Dave/Dan/Doug, the youngish fellow with spiky hair, offered his hand to Susan, a woman about John’s age who laughed musically and joked about breaking her hip, but went anyway. D-or-Dee snatched up London even as Masters was moving closer and twirled her away while the driver was left sneering. A cold little prickle crawled up the back of John’s neck as he locked eyes with the driver. He was going to be trouble. Before sun up, John was certain, he would be trouble.

Blackpool’s hand was on his again, her eyes locked mistily on the elderly couple. “Dance with me?” she asked suddenly.

He sputtered, half-laughing, an immediate refusal on his lips, but then she turned her head and he saw the tears in her eyes. He knew that look. It wasn’t wistfulness but hurt, like an old wound had suddenly reopened. John felt his heart perched on the edge of something he didn’t want to name, teetering, ready to fall. He could let it, knowing at once he’d give anything to take away whatever pain had filled her, and chastised himself for the foolishness.

As if he could. The plows would go out in the morning and she would be on another bus and that would be it. And anyway, he was old enough to be her father and not likely to see the last snows of the season melt. Nothing lasted, not ever. The kid turned the music up, and John felt it working in his chest. A little miracle, a little spark crackling away inside. Old and battered and still playing something sweet and strong enough to make him feel. Maybe that wasn’t all the music. Maybe.

Nothing lasted, but maybe it didn’t have to last to be worth it.

John squeezed her hand once and made for the door. The security monitors dragged his attention for a split second, but he kept moving. Whatever it was, it could wait another five minutes. Blackpool held her arms out as he rounded the desk. He hesitated, swallowing hard. People were watching. London looked at once hopelessly amused and somehow proud. She grinned at him and popped a double thumbs-up, giggling. The driver looked significantly less pleased. The man’s face had gone rat-like and sour, staring at them both with such utter contempt John could almost feel it on his skin, slippery and unpleasant like motor oil.

But Blackpool’s eyes were turned up to him, wide and dark and too full. You wave and you wave with your wide lovely eyes ran through his head with a kind of sick-sweet flush. He went to her. London pumped her fist discretely in triumph.

“You’re cold,” he said as she curled around his shoulder.

“I’m alright.” She took his left hand with her right. Should’ve felt odd. Probably. It didn’t. She led and he followed, trying to pretend he was more than a gangly wreck of limbs and mad silver hair.

She settled against him, fingers worrying over the ring on his hand. “I hope I’m not,” she paused, pressed her face to his jacket, tried to start again. “I dunno, overstepping or something. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to put the mack on a married man.”

His eyebrows flew up. “You’re putting the mack on me now, are you?”

“Shut up,” she said, but there was a chuckle in it.

“I’m not married anymore. It’s sentiment, I suppose. Maybe just habit by now. Just never taken it off.”

She looked up at him, searching his face as if looking for the answer to something she didn’t quite want to ask. She seemed to find it. He could guess; a ghost of that same hurt he’d seen in her face. “I’m sorry,” she said.

John’s mouth went painfully dry. “You too, eh?” he asked.

She nodded. “We weren’t married,” she said, so quiet he could just barely hear her over the music. “But he was going to propose.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Her breath hitched, and she swayed a little in his arms, head down low on his shoulder. John turned them slowly, putting his back to the room, giving her what little privacy he could. He stared out the window. The snow was coming down harder, big fat snowballs of the stuff forming new drifts in the track he had cleared. The sky outside was a dull, muddied pink, the snow drifts colored orange in the streetlights. Blackpool wept discreetly, not making a sound, but he felt tears soak through his hoodie to his t-shirt, and wondered that even those felt cold. He pressed his hand into the small of her back, thumb rubbing absently against her spine, and he tucked the top of her head under his chin. She smelled faintly of lilac soap and deep, bitter chocolate.

“Thank you,” she said as the song ended.

“What for?”

“For being kind.” She looked up at him again, and he watched the last of her tears spill down her cheeks. “That’s rarer than it ought to be.”

A commercial for Thompson’s Water Seal replaced Peter Green, and the other pairs drifted apart. John barely noticed. Her eyes skimmed down over his face, pausing long enough at his lips to make his heart beat faster. She couldn’t possibly...

A cracking from outside made his head snap up, and John watched as a heavy branch bowed over the power lines, cracking and popping. He swore, dropping his hand to his belt where his maglite hung, just as the branch gave way and fell.

In the split second before the darkness descended, John finally registered what had been wrong with the cctv feed. As light as it was outside, even at this hour, the inside of the station was brighter, and he saw himself reflected in the plate glass of the sliding doors. Six feet of wiry thin Scot. Face a little too long, a little too drawn now, but eyes as bright and cold as the night outside. His hands hovered in midair, clasping nothingness.

Of the woman in his arms, there was no sign. Blackpool had no reflection.

#whouffaldi #twelve x clara #doctor who fanfiction #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #vamp!clara #bc I haven't actually gotten to do a romance/horror au ever #let me live

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