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triptuckers · 3 years ago

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Nightmares - Kaz Brekker

Request: yes! “My favorite writer is accepting requests again? Love that for me (and everyone else who gets to read your writing) So I had this idea if that’s okay where like the reader and Kaz are dating but they’re still sleeping in separate rooms because Kaz isn’t quite there yet in overcoming his trauma to share a bed. And then one night he hears screams coming out off your room so he goes to you as fast as possible but turns out it was just because you had a nightmare and then how Kaz would deal with that in terms of comforting? Hopefully this is something that you’re okay with writing but no problems if not because I’ll still look forward to your other stories 💗” Pairing: kaz brekker x reader Summary: you wake up from a nightmare and kaz comforts you Warnings: angst, some language Word count: 1.4K A/N: sljflskjklfj someone’s favorite writer?? ME??? anon you have no idea how incredibly happy this made me !!! have a kiss on the forehead mwah

There was a small room attached to Kaz’ office, which he always used as storage. He called it a storage room, but it was more of a dump of papers, really. When things between you got serious, you started to spend more and more time in his office.

You’d often fall asleep on his couch, and wake up with back pain due to the uncomfortable positions you fell asleep in.

That’s when Kaz decided to clean out the storage room. Once all of the papers were taken out and sorted into neat piles, there was just enough room in it for a small bed.

When Kaz first showed it to you, he was a bit nervous. He thought you wouldn’t like it. But you beamed with happiness and told him you loved it. You’ve been sleeping in the small room ever since that day.

Often Kaz is still busy, running around the crow club doing god knows what, and you’re the first one to arrive back at his office. When you do, you always leave him a note on his desk, letting him know you’ve gone to bed already. Kaz then slowly opens the door to your room, whispers you goodnight, and heads to his own room. It was a nice routine you’d fallen into. A bit of calm in the chaos of Ketterdam.

Tonight isn’t any different.

You’re almost asleep, when you hear the door slowly opening.

In the dark, you can just make out Kaz’ shape in the doorway.

‘Goodnight.’ he whispers.

You smile. ‘Goodnight.’ you whisper back.

He closes the door again, and only seconds later, you fall asleep.

Kaz walks to his bathroom to take off his gloves and wash his face. It’s already dark outside, and normally he’d still sit at his desk to work. But he figured he could skip one night, and actually get some sleep.

Besides, if he didn’t, and you would find out the next morning, you’d make him take a nap anyway.

He changes into a pair of more comfortable clothes and lays down in his bed, pulling the covers up to his neck. Immediately, he feels his body getting heavier.

Maybe he should listen to you more often, and get enough sleep every night. It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

Just as fast as he fell asleep, Kaz also wakes up.

He looks over at his bedside table, and notices it’s in the middle of the night. Kaz rolls over, ready to fall back asleep, when he hears a sound.

A piercing scream, sounding like someone is in pain.

But that’s not what makes him jump up, it’s the fact that it’s your voice that terrifies him.

In a second, he’s up, grabbing his cane in case he needs to hit someone, and he throws open the door of his room.

His office is empty, and you’re nowhere to be seen. But then he hears you screaming again. It’s coming from your small bedroom.

Instantly, he walks over to the door and roughly opens it. His cane is raised, in case there’s an attacker who made their way into the room.

But you’re the only one who’s there.

Your eyes are shut, a pained expression on your face. Somewhere during the night, you’d thrown your blanket off, and you’re clinging onto your pillow. You mumble incoherent words.

Kaz reaches out with his cane to nudge your leg, given that he’s not wearing his gloves. You stir slightly, but don’t wake up. He nudges you again, a little harder. This time, you do wake up.

You launch into a sitting position and Kaz instinctively takes a step back, creating some distance between you. For a few seconds, you look around with widened, frightened eyes, but once your eyes land on Kaz, you relax a bit.

‘Saints.’ you murmur as you press your hands against your face.

Kaz studies your face as you wipe cold sweat from your forehead.

‘Did I wake you?’ you softly ask him, avoiding his eyes.

His heart breaks at the sight of you, looking so vulnerable and shaken. The way your hair sticks to your neck and shoulders in a sticky, sweaty mess. There’s tears in the corners of your eyes.

‘Yes, but it’s alright.’ he says.

‘Sorry.’ you say. ‘It was just a nightmare. You can go back to sleep.’

But he doesn’t want to go back to sleep. Not now you’re so shaken, clearly in need of some comfort.

‘Are you okay?’ says Kaz.

‘I'm fine.’ you say.

‘Okay, so look me in the eyes when you say that.’ says Kaz. ‘So I know you’re not lying.’

You lift your gaze and look at him.

‘I'm fine.’ you say again, but Kaz shakes his head.

‘No, you’re not.’ he says. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’

‘It’s a nightmare, Kaz. I'm not a child, I can handle it on my own.’ you say.

‘You screamed, Y/N.’ he says.

Your eyes widen at his words. ‘Fuck, really?’ you say. He nods. ‘That means they’re getting worse.’ you mumble, more to yourself than telling Kaz.

‘Come on.’ says Kaz, gesturing to his office behind his back. ‘Let’s get you out of this tiny room first.’

You hesitate, but follow him anyway.

‘Talk to me.’ says Kaz, as he sits down on the edge of his desk. He looks at you, waiting for you to talk.

‘They’re about you.’ you say softly.

Kaz’ features soften as he gestures for you to go on.

‘They’re about losing you. All of them.’ you mumble. ‘You’re hurt and I can never get to you in time. When I wake up, it usually helps when I get up and go see you in your room. It helps because I can see with my own eyes you’re alright, and it was just a dream.’

Kaz is silent as he looks at you. You wrap your arms around your body, feeling a bit uncomfortable. You’re an open book to Kaz, but admitting you have nightmares about losing him felt a bit too personal. Even for your taste.

‘I'm here now.’ says Kaz, looking at you. ‘I'm alright.’

You nod. ‘I know.’ you say. ‘I'll go back to sleep. And sorry again for waking you.’

You move walk back to your small room, but Kaz speaks up.

‘Y/N?’ he says, making you stop and turn around to face him. ‘Do you want to stay in my room for the rest of the night?’

‘No, that’s alright, you could barely fit in my small room.’ you say with a smile. ‘But I appreciate it.’

Kaz frowns slightly. ‘No, I mean, I'd stay in my room as well.’ he says.

‘Kaz, there’s a reason why we sleep in separate rooms.’ you tell him. ‘You know why. And this works for both of us.’

‘I know.’ says Kaz. ‘But you’re clearly still upset, you’re still visibly shaking. We could keep our distance, it’ll be alright.’

Still, you’re not convinced. ‘Are you sure?’ you say. ‘I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with for my sake. This is a huge step for you.’

‘I'm willing to try for you.’ says Kaz.

‘Alright.’ you say. ‘But you need to communicate with me, okay? If I'm doing something you’re not comfortable with, tell me. And if you want me to go back to my own room, that’s perfectly fine, you can just tell me.’

Kaz nods and walks to his room. You follow him, and are grateful his bed is much larger than yours. He sets his cane aside and lays down on the left side of the bed. You cross the room to the other side of the bed, and lay down.

It’s a bit awkward at first. There’s so much space between you, you almost fall off the bed on your side.

But then Kaz reaches out and hooks his pinky around yours.

It’s kind of like his way of hugging. You knew it would take years for him to be comfortable with touches like hugs, if he’d ever be comfortable with it in the first place.

Right now, you’re grateful for the feeling of his skin on yours, even if it’s the bare minimum, it’s comforting.

You close your eyes, focusing on the feeling of your intertwined fingers. Even if the nightmares got to you again, you knew Kaz would be alright. He’d be right there next to you.

You take a deep breath, mumble a ‘Thank you’ to Kaz, and fall back asleep.

A/N: If you want to request something, make sure to read my house rules Here’s the list of characters I write for. Everything that I have written can be found on my masterlist. Please don’t repost my work, as I spend much time and effort on it!! Thank you for reading! Much love, Marit

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votederpycausemufins · 4 years ago

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Welp, made another thing for @petrichormeraki ‘s Hermit!tommy au. be warned that this is only a part 1 cause i haven’t finished the whole thing and i need to get my computer looked at so i won’t be able to finish it yet but here’s some of it at least

Disclaimers here are that I only know the general idea of Xisuma’s base and that there’s a honey farm somewhere, but I took liberties with how it is for the story. Also, headcanon that I made specifically just because I want it to happen, canon deaths that don’t end up with a ghost make the person lose a piece of their soul until it can’t support them fully anymore. Then that piece ends up somewhere else. Maybe that’s why the compasses work. But more I just want something like what happens in this fic. For the hurt/comfort.

When Tommy first joined the Hermits accidentally, he hated being around Xisuma. Not only was he the admin of the server, the one who held the most power, but for whatever reason, this guy decided to look like a bee. It was worse when Tommy learned he almost changed up to look like a Strider, but then just went back to a bee. At the very least it wasn’t easy to run into the guy.

It was more the problem of his base. The coolest places and the ones Tommy most liked to visit were the ones in the jungle, especially since the old base he was living in was built there. With no elytra, at least not one he used for more than gliding, Tommy got lost when in the more natural parts of the biomes. And when that happened, he tended to accidentally find Xisuma’s base.

So much of it was bee themed that Tommy disliked it. It reminded him too much of what he left behind, but couldn’t get back. Having the compass was as much as Tommy was willing to have to remind him.

But one day Tommy got killed when he wasn’t being careful. He wasn’t too worried about it, especially after a message in his new communicator had a message from a hermit who picked up his stuff and put it in a chest. They didn’t really have the inventory space to bring it to him and we’re busy enough they couldn’t stay, but it was fine. A chest was the standard.

But right now, the problem was getting to the chest. Not only was it somewhere in the jungle, but it was also most of his gear. Tommy didn’t really have many good backups, never wanting something that someone could take, even though he knows the hermits would never do that. Probably. He’s still wary just to be safe. The most he has in storage is some gold armor for when he goes into the nether.

Tommy donned a mixture of gold and worn iron armor and a mostly used sword to get his stuff. He’s sure he knows the way to his gear until he doesn’t. With the monsters tougher than at his old home, Tommy is worried about dying again as the sun starts to set. He rushed through the jungle a bit faster until he ran into it. Xisuma’s base. Tommy was going to pass it by when monsters started to spawn, with him getting really unlucky and one zombie spawning with full enchanted armor.

Not wanting to die, Tommy scrambled his way into Xisuma’s base. He sighed once he was in a safe place, though upset that he would have to spend the night in such a place.

With nothing much better to do other than sitting, which Tommy hated doing, he started to walk around and explore Xisuma’s base. Close up, it was actually okay. The bee theme designs weren’t as prominent, and all the towers and buildings had farms inside them which were fun to watch. The one problem was the honey farm. This one definitely had a lot to do with bees. Tommy was going to just run by it when a bee popped out.

Tommy actually paused at that. Then smiled. Bees only game out during the day, which meant he could leave. He smiled and ran out of there and went outside to see… it was still night?

Now confused, Tommy went back to the bee farm. He was beginning to think maybe he just imagined it, but then he saw the bee still there. He watched as it kept bopping its head against the glass, ignoring the flower with it and not going back in its hive.

Puzzled, Tommy just watched the bee until he heard the noise of someone using a firework. The sound caught Tommy’s attention, and he looked away. When he turned back, the bee was gone. After looking there for a few seconds, Tommy shrugged and started to walk away. But even then, he still kept looking back, so much that he didn’t notice Xisuma until he ran into the man.

Tommy froze up when he saw the admin standing in front of him, but instead of anything Dream might have done or said, Xisuma spoke in a kind voice. “Oh, sorry Tommy, I didn’t see you there. Were you looking for me?”

Tommy didn’t speak for a little bit until he heard the pop of a bee leaving its hive. “Uh, I just got lost and holed up here, cus I died and was trying to get to my stuff and that one guy isn’t around to sleep. Also one of your bees is fuckin’ weird.”

Xisuma scolded the boy for cussing, then offered to help Tommy get to his stuff. He mostly ignored the bee comment until there was the noise of something softly hitting glass again. Xisuma walked over to the farm and Tommy followed.

“See! Isn’t it supposed to not do that?” Tommy asked, to confused by the mob to be scared of Xisuma or want to leave the bee area.

Xisuma nodded slightly, watching the bee’s odd behavior. “Maybe it somehow got linked to another hive or nest and is trying to get there.”

“So what, you’re gonna let it out?” Tommy asked, bristling a little at the idea.

Xisuma nodded again. “It’s probably the only way we could be sure. I can always breed up another if it leaves.”

The admin took out a silk touch pick and broke the glass. The bee flew out and the glass was replaced so the other bees that had not left the hive just yet wouldn't also escape. Instead of the bee trying to fly out of the base, it flew towards Tommy and hovered around him.

Tommy went rigid as the bee flew towards him. He was sure it would keep going, but instead it stuck around him. “What the fuck do you want then?” He asked the mob even though it couldn’t respond. “I don’t have any of those prissy flowers so bug off.”

But the bee didn’t listen. It seemed quite pleased to stick with him. Tommy nearly drew his sword to kill it, but he wasn’t sure he could bring himself to actually his the thing with what it represented to him. Plus Xisuma might get mad and it could break his farm. “Can you just help me get my stuff, maybe it’ll leave once we’re outside.”

Not knowing what else he could say, Xisuma agreed to that. He could tell that something about bees was a sore subject for Tommy. The way he stiffened up around them and also around him. It was part of why he was so surprised to see the boy.

After a bit of walking, Tommy reached the chest of his gear and equipped and stored everything in his inventory. The bee happily bopped up against him and once again Tommy thought about killing it. But instead he just started wandering home, the bee following right behind.

The following day, Xisuma showed up to check on Tommy. While he wasn’t please to see the admin, Tommy at least accepted the gift of a bee hive, especially after his apparent new pet bee would not stop bopping its head against him. Hopefully the hive would give it somewhere to live and it would stop.

Tommy thanked Xisuma for the gift before shoving him out the door, glad for the lack of resistance the admin gave. Then, turning back to the rest of the hobbit hole he moved into, Tommy plopped down the hive right in the middle of the room. “There. Go in there and stop bothering me.”

But the bee didn’t listen, it just kept bopping it’s little fuzzy head against Tommy. Angry now, Tommy grabbed the bee, held it eye level, and looked right into its eyes. “You’re going to stop annoying me and go in that hive, got it?! I’m sick of you flying around me!”

He then let the now trembling mob go and it flew into the new hive. Tommy almost felt regretful about yelling at it. Almost. Grumbling, he went over to his bed to rest now that there wasn’t much to keep him up. Tommy set down his gear nearby, and placed his closed compass on the bed.

With all this bee stuff, Tommy couldn’t help but look at the object. After hesitating for a few moments, he grabbed the item and opened the lid. Inside, the needle danced wildly, not sure how to point with its location in another dimension. Tommy gave a sad sigh and was about to close it again when the needle stopped spinning. It clearly pointed in one direction for a few seconds. Tommy’s eyes widened and he started to turn towards where the needle was trying to guide him, but then it went back to dancing about.

Tommy looked at it confused, before realizing it still might change again. Tubbo may have found a way here. He ran in the direction the needle had been pointing and tripped over the new hive he had placed, cursing as he hit the floor. He looked back up at it to hit it once or something, but the compass has steadied itself again, the needle pointing the other direction, right towards the hive.

#hermitcraft #hermit!tommy au #hermitblr #mcyt #tommyinnit #tubbo #minecraft bees #xisuma #dream smp

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lilacandladybugs · 4 years ago

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Winnie the Pooh Rendition: Tommy and Tubbo Harness the Power of the Prime Path and then Get Lunch

When the Dream SMP was still a young SMP, before L’Manburg had become Manburg, or there were nation states or wars or politics, back when the SMP seemed a lot more like Minecraft than a Political Soap Opera, Dream decided that it would be a good idea to create a very important path. This path would make it so that very successful people could get important places very quickly. Tommy had asked him if the path made it any easier to get places, and Dream had said yes, so it must be true. Dream was never wrong about anything ever except when it was inconvenient for him to be right.

So one crisp autumn morning, as he walked down Dream’s original path, TommyInnit found himself in the mood to cause Problems. The problem would be finding a way of unleashing the power of paths.

“Hallo, Tommy!” said Tubbo.

“Hallo, Tubbo,” Tommy said, “walk with me.”

Tubbo considered saying that he had important spy affairs he was up to, which would have been a lie, but he decided that he was more interested in doing nothing with Tommy than doing nothing alone, so he followed along.

“Look where we are right now, Tubbo,” Tommy gestured to the path, riddled with creeper holes and mismatched wood, “this server has changed but you know where we’ve been from day one?”

“Where?”

“This Path.”

Tubbo looked around at the path and raised his eyebrows a little which Tommy decided meant that he was convinced, so he continued, “Dream told me he made this path so that it would be easier for people to get important places quickly.”

“Ah,” said Tubbo, “I see.” He did not, in fact, see.

“Not having a path in Pogtopia, Tubbo, is the only reason that we have been unable to instantly retake L’Manburg. We’ve been missing it, we’ve been missing out on our Success and our Primes. You see, Dream is simply a man of very little brain—”

“I don’t think he is,” Tubbo interjected.

“—so he has yet to figure this out,” Tommy continued unfazed, “but I think we haven’t quite harnessed the true potential of this path.” Tommy continued to walk down the wooden slabs as he said this, knowing they were taking him somewhere Important and Successful.

“Since the path only goes successful places, we’ve gotta make a path in Pogtopia for going faster toward overthrowing Manburg and also getting more Primes.”

“I don’t think that’s what Dream meant, but I don’t think I know much really.”

“No, I suppose so either. You weren’t there. He said the path always goes somewhere Important and Successful, which is exactly what our path in Pogtopia will do.”

Tubbo nodded thoughtfully and considered the path around them.

“Tubbo, we need to go and get us some oak wood because what I think we need to do is we need to get the Prime Path and make it connect to a path in Pogtopia. What do you think? Is that a Responsible thing to do?”

“No, definitely not.”

“Good. Then that will be our Problem for the day.”

“Well what type of wood are we going to use, or are we going to leave it all spotty like this?” Tubbo guestered to the patchwork of wood varieties that the Dream SMP path contained. “I really like the purple nether planks, I think that they’re much more Successful looking than the oak planks Dream SMP has.”

“No, no, I think that oak planks would be much better. Remember, we gotta channel Dream’s Successful and Important path so we should make it as close to his as possible.”

Tubbo didn't think so; and they were just going to argue about it, when Tubbo remembered that if they used nether plans, he would likely have to go get them from his own base, but if they used oak, then Tommy would have to give up some of his own oak planks, so he said, “All right, oak then,” just as Tommy remembered it too, and was going to say, “All right, nether planks.”

“Oak,” said Tubbo to himself in a thoughtful way, as if it were now settled. “I will clear out the path to Pogtopia while you go back to your base and mine some trees for the path.”

Tommy sighed heavily at this proclamation but said, “All right then, oak,” and went back toward the railroad to his Vacation Home.

Upon arriving at his vacation home he took a moment to pay respects to Henry’s gravestone and went inside. He opened his chest, which had a total of five oak planks. This was Unsurprising. TommyInnit was Never Wrong and could always do Everything for himself at all times, except when it was inconvenient. It was really usually better for Tubbo to do things for him anyway, whether they were important or not, as Tubbo had none of the Important Responsibilities that Tommy had.

He looked at the durability on his axe and wasn’t quite sure that it would be able to make it through chopping down multiple trees, much less enough to get multiple stacks of wood. Using it to do something such as make a Prime Path would be a worthy purpose, but an even more worthy purpose would be stealing all the necessary supplies from Eret’s castle instead.

Eret’s castle was large and intimidating and colorful, which was nearly enough to persuade Tommy to not rob Eret. The colorful window panes gave Tommy an idea for another Problem, but future Problems, however exciting, must remain in the future. He required Eret’s assistance, hopefully without Eret ever knowing that his assistance had been given.

As he approached the ladder to the castle’s storage room, ignoring any signs on his way, he heard a sound and looked up to see Eret’s head, with his glowing netherite helmet, peering down at him.

“Well hello Tommy,” Eret said, “Is there something I can help you with?”

Tommy decided that robbery was no longer a practical course of action without Eret’s cooperation. He would likely die, which was not very high on his priority list.

“I’ve come to rob you Bitch!” Tommy smiled and nodded to himself. That seemed like a good way of starting the conversation.

Fortunately for Tommy, Eret just laughed, “What do you need? Is it for the revolution?”

“It is for Top Secret Pogtopia Business now hand over all your oak wood.”

“Well you see Tommy,” Eret said opening his chest, “Customarily people only relinquish their belongings when other people respectfully request it of them.”

“What does custard and relish mean? Eret I do not like long words they Bother me.”

Eret closed his chest with two arms full of oak, “It means you didn’t ask me very nicely.” “Ah, I see. I’m robbing you Bitch , please,” Tommy amended.

Eret threw a few stacks of oak planks down at him, “Alright that sounds good. Let me know how the rebellion plans go.” Eret saluted at him, which tommy ignored, and hurried off to bring the wood back to Tubbo.

With wood in hand Tommy and Tubbo succeeded in connecting the main highway on Dream SMP back to their secret ravine Pogtopia. Now that they had finished, they agreed it would be the best course of action to walk up and down the Prime Path that lead toward Success for thirty minutes in order to test it out.

They paced up and down from Pogtopia to Dream SMP and back again talking about how you can Sub to a Twitch Channel of your Choice for Free Once a Month and occasionally sticking their heads up above ground to see if JSchlatt had magically un-become a dictator yet or if Wilbur had showed up to see them.

After a while of pacing Tubbo stopped Tommy, “I have gotten some Primes Tommy but I think Schlatt may still be president.”

“Oh,” said Tommy, “Maybe Dream wasn’t telling the truth after all.”

He sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think. Then set his hand down on the wooden path ...and then he scratched his nose twice, and stood up.

“Yes,” said TommyInnit.

“I see now,” said TommyInnit.

“I have been Foolish and Deluded,” said he, “and I have no Brain at All.”

“No, you’re all right,” said Tubbo.

“Really?” said Tommy. He stood up suddenly.

“Anyhow,” he said, “it is nearly Luncheon Time.”

So they went back to Pogtopia for it.

#tommyinnit #tubbo #eret #dream smp #Me and my Winnie the Pooh au I've got going #fanfiction #eslyea #this is an awful time to be posting but i Do Not Care i will simply reblog later

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procrastinatorimagines · 4 years ago

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I Want Us Part 8

Fandom: Chicago PD / SVU

Series: I Want Us

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 // Part 9 // Part 10 (Final)

Pairing/s: Sonny Carisi x Intelligence!Reader

Warning/s: tw rape, murder, assault

Word Count: 1,269

Summary: The Intelligence Unit’s last case with Manhattan SVU had them flying out to New York to track down an abducted boy, and had Dectective Y/L/N and Detective Carisi growing close in the process. Now, a string of rape-murders in Chicago has SVU boarding the next flight out, believing the suspect to be the same man responsible for a set of identical crimes 10 years prior. As the case unfolds, Y/N and Carisi are brought back together, reigniting the spark between them.

Tags: @the-baby-bookworm // @inlovewith3 //

The call came while you were still driving to the address you’d been given on Tate, now your prime suspect - Billy’s alibi for the first murder checked out easily, he was at a track meet with over a dozen witnesses, and there wasn’t exactly any point in checking his alibi for the New York murders, he’d been 7.

Almost as soon as that call ended, you got a text on your phone. “You mind?” You nodded to your phone, giving Carisi permission to check it as you drove.

“It’s Jay, he says neither families have seen Billy or Tate before,” he relayed, “but that doesn’t mean Tate isn’t our guy, it’d make sense with what we’ve heard so far.”

“Still,” you sighed, turning Tate’s road, his apartment building just up a head, “we’re going to need something more to go on if we’re even going to get into his place, let alone arrest and charge him.”

Carisi couldn’t agree more as you both climbed out the car, making your way towards the building with your badges on hand. They’d get you through the main doors no problem, but getting further...

“Do you have a warrant?” What had you expected, honestly? Standing before the landlord in the main lobby you were greeting with the question you’d seen coming a mile away.

“Is he here?” Carisi asked anyway, hoping you’d at least find out something useful, even if this turned out to mostly be wasted trip.

“Nah, he hasn’t been back here since yesterday, I’ve got some mail waiting that I need him to take off of my hands,” the landlord explained, sounding bored and impatient with the conversation already. He’d given you something, at least; Tate hadn’t gone home after he’d given his statement to you, he must have somewhere else to lay low - but where?

“You ever seen either of these women before?” Carisi tried, holding up photos of the two Chicago victims on his phone. The landlord shrugged and shook his head.

“Okay, thanks for your time,” you told him, pulling your card out of your pocket, “but if he does come back, at least give us a call?” He grunted in what you couldn’t tell was agreement or not, but he took the card and walked away, which presumably meant you could both see yourselves out.

You grumbled in frustration as soon as you were outside, knowing you’d been this close to your killer and let him slip away, and now you didn’t know where he was. “We’ll post some unis outside in an unmarked car,” Carisi told you, already making the call as you wandered once again back to your car, fresh out of leads to follow.

“Let’s call Benson, see where Tate lived the time of the New York murders, maybe it’ll be enough for a judge to issue a warrant,” you said, casting a glance back at the apartment building.

“Food?” Carisi suggested once you got to the car. It had been a while, you realised, all this running around you’d been doing hadn’t really left any time for breaks - food was definitely not a bad idea.

“I could eat,” you replied with a smile, dialing Benson’s number as you got back behind the wheel.

“Tell me you have more than we do,” she answered by way of greeting, sounding as frustrated by this case as you.

You explained the situation as concisely as possible. “Do you think you could find out his old address?”

“Yeah, should only take a moment, stay on the line?” You hummed in agreement and put it on speaker as you heard her place her phone down and begin to type on her keyboard.

“New York,” Benson confirmed after a moment, “want to try for a warrant?”

“That’s circumstantial at best, I can’t see a judge signing off on that,” Carisi noted, not being happy about saying it though. He was right, but neither of you liked it.

You clicked your tongue, hesitating before saying: “I could ask Voight to maybe-”

“No,” Benson cut in quickly, “we do this by the book, if this is our guy, which I think it is, I don’t want to do anything to jeopardise putting him away for good, understood?”

“Loud and clear Captain,” you promised genuinely.

“Good, Kat and I will look into Tate’s history in New York, maybe we’ll find something we missed now that we know who we’re looking for, we’ll keep you posted,” she informed you both.

“Thanks Cap, we’ll be in touch,” Carisi signed off and you leaned your head back on the seat’s headrest, eyes closed. You only opened them again when you felt Carisi’s hand on your leg.

“Come on, let’s go eat, re-energise and re-focus,” he said, somehow always managing to make you feel instantly better. You nodded and turned on the ignition, knowing exactly where you could grab a quick bite nearby.

You were half way through your sandwich, feeling a bit more self-conscious than usually about how you were eating in the presence of a guy you liked - not that he’d care - when you got yet another phonecall.

“Hey Kev,” you said, pressing answer with your little finger and hurriedly swallowing what was in your mouth.

“Hey, Voight asked us to go back through the CCTV from Lily Hamilton’s murder, we’d been looking for the bentley the first time around, but this time we were looking for Tate’s car, just incase.”

“And?” You asked, alert, putting your sandwich down and brushing your hands together as you shared a hopeful look with Carisi.

“We got it,” Kev answered. Was this is? The breakthrough you needed? "Now, the main street cams don’t catch enough, but Vanessa found a private security system set up nearby the cite where her body was discovered. I’ll send you the screen grabs, you tell me how guilty you think this looks.”

Two pings on your phone came a second later, images of a man emerging from Tate’s car carrying a very large bag - definitely large enough for a body. “We got him,” you said triumphantly.

“It gets better,” another voice joined the call from the other end, Hailey’s. “We did some digging into that date the second vic’s sister mentioned and get this, both girls had dates, I’m sending you both the dating profiles and messages we found now-”

Carisi got them up on his phone, showing you briefly and nodding.

“-and it’s pretty damning. They look like different guys at first, but the script is the same, prince charming, true love, you get the picture when you read the messages, anyway, it looks like both girls went to meet up with their mysterious date the nights they went missing.”

“Can we track the IP, see where the messages came from?” You asked, already turning on the ignition yet again, ready to catch this guy once and for all.

“They came from the same location,” she confirmed.

“Tate’s apartment?” Carisi asked hopefully.

“No, a storage facility basically between both the current crime scenes,” she explained, “it’s not under Tate’s name but we called the owner, the man who rents the facitily matches the description, right down to the scar.”

Another ping on your phones had Carisi showing you the address of the storage facility. “I assume that’s enough for warrants now?” You asked.

“You’ll have everything you need by the time you arrive,” you heard Voight confirm from somewhere else in the room, “I want you and Carisi at the storage facility, Burgess, Dawson and Ruzek will meet you there with Benson and Tamin, the rest of us will head to the apartment.”

“Let’s finish this,” Carisi told you after Voight hung up. You certainly didn’t need to be told twice.

#sonny carisi #svu #law and order svu #chicago pd #one chicago #sonny carisi x reader #sonny carisi imagine #svu imagine #law and order svu imagine #chicago pd imagine #one chicago imagine #sonny carisi imagines #svu imagines #law and order svu imagines #chicago pd imagines #i want us

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btswishes · 4 years ago

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Love me for who I am now

Bucky x Reader ( Chapter 2 )

Previous / Next

Summary: You apply for the Stark internship and end up getting it, so now you have 5 months to make a good impression to continue working with the Avengers.

A/N: Continuing my little experiment here with chapter2, a bit more filler for the story. Sorry for any mistakes made, hope you enjoy it even a tiny bit.

Word count: 2,903

Warmings: fights, harsh language, not part of the original MCU

Y/N- Your name

Y/L/N- Your Last Name

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

The suitcase made a slight thumping sound, when you laid it down on the floor next to your desk. Wasting no time books found their new home on the empty shelves, notebooks fell asleep in the dark drawers. Pens, pencils, markers and all your stationary soon followed suit and found their own little space to rest.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.” the silence in the room finally got overthrown by the voice of its new owner, asking for some help in the matters unfolding

Yes Miss Y/N

“Would you put a timer for 5min from now please?” still focused onto your stuff, finding them a visible but safe from damage storage. Nothing could destroy as well as time and dust did.

Timer set for 5 minutes from now.

“Thank you.” The only thing left to do now was to get the clothes in the closet and move the tech to the lab. Hopefully Dr. Banner wouldn’t mind waiting a bit more, not like he seemed to but who knows, Hulk lived inside him after all. You didn’t want to take a chance and play with his limits. The closet was hidden inside the wall, stealthy I must say. Toothpaste and toothbrush, essentials and cosmetics. All was done, now.

Ding Ding Ding.

Timer is going off Miss. Shall I turn it off or restart it?

“Thank you F.R.I.D.A.Y. You can turn it off. “

Your laptop and small bag were safely nestled under your arm, making your way outside the room. For a moment you thought you got lost, but the orange tint of the sun’s rays soon pulled your attention in the right direction. Around the corner your nose caught the smell of caramel. Your head hesitantly protruded behind the pillar, as you called out to the man holding 2 cups in his hands firmly.

“Oh.” He jumped a bit, reaching out offering one of the mugs “ I hope you like it, we don’t have much selection when it comes to tea here. Coffee addicts you know.” he laughed out

“It is ok. Thank you very much.” Your leg levered and you swung onto the bar chair like it was nothing, taking a sip from the hot drink. You felt it warm you up slowly as it went down, melting away a bit of your anxiety. Once again your sight was captivated by the view. No one knows how much time passed since you got lost in the sunset, but it was nice. You could barely hear the bustling city from the 134th floor. It was only you, the sun and the room. Quiet almost like a safe serene space.

“Beautiful isn’t it.” Bruce shook you out of your little mind palace

“Mm? Ah, yes. Very much so. “ you puffed out some air with your smile, eyes forming little crescent moons “I feel like a cat, my attention keeps drifting to the glass unintentionally.”

“I understand you. I keep doing that myself and I have lived in the compound for quite some time now. “ the conversation was lighthearted, easily drifting over the main reason for your arrival “One would think I would be used to it by now.”

“Mr Stark made this place so calm. Big yet homey.” Your head scanned the area, words intriguing the doctor “ In a way it contrasts the inner state of most of the Avengers.” realized what just came out of your lips, your body stiffened. Oh man, way to ruin it - you thought to yourself “I am so sorry.” The mug clanked under the table, sending a vibration to his palm, as you bowed “I spoke out of place.”

“I think you might be on to something.” Your neck pulled your head up, a few strands of hair falling down next to your soft cheek. Bruce was still looking at the setting sun with a soft smile, his jaw exposing the beard to the light, coloring it a deep fiery yellow hue. There was something nostalgic in his dark eyes. “Most of us here have some sort of troubled past- lets sugar coat it a bit. This whole building, on the levels we use., is like a constant Zen state. It calms us down unintentionally. How do I say this...” He turned towards his coffee, laughing out almost silently.

“Maybe it offers you the peace you couldn’t have on the inside, masking the pain from past trauma. A way to indirectly cope with all that had happened, offering a haven to heal the past.” Bruce was listening to you, taking in your way of thinking and how right you were about something that had always been in front of his eyes ,but he had never noticed it before. Such a young girl, so much pain in her manner. He couldn’t bring himself to ask you about the weight inside your voice. It felt too close for him to do so. He had just met you after all, it is not like he could just straight up ask you about all your deepest and darkest secrets, that you might be hiding underneath your mature façade.

“Well, enough about our depressing past.” He pushed off the table “Lets get you situated in your new place.”Dr. Banner began walking in the direction of the lab, turning towards you from time to time. He was make sure you were close by and not lost somewhere in this maze of halls, corridors and who knows what else Tony could have hidden in these walls, for some unsuspecting person to stumble upon.

“I am sadly not familiar with your work like Tony is. He told me about you literally a few hours before you arrived, so you would have to excuse me for that.” You nodded with a smile, accepting the apology he didn’t even need to speak of

“The lab is pretty big.” He unlocked the door and turned the lights on. It was exactly as he said and nothing like you had expected. The color pattern was the same tints, maybe a bit of blue mixed in as well, a dash of red. The tables and tech inside were state-of-the-art, high-quality and very well kept. Some weren’t even yet released or known to the public. Talking year 3054 up in here.

“This will be your desk, right next to me.”Bruce plopped onto his chair and waved at you “Hi, Hi.”

He gestured for you to get yourself as comfortable as possible, which you almost couldn’t wait to do. Your fingers gently ran over the material getting familiar with it. Just with one look you already knew where everything was going to go, like it knew it’s own home. You had a tech bay, where you could check how systems worked, if they didn’t and building anything. It was amazing, just an arm’s length distance was possibility and creation itself. Excitement boiled inside you, eyes wide. Reaching inside the bag, you pulled out your work computer, your project tablet and made sure they were all connected to the internet and matched the Stark system interface. As soon as you saw the company logo you were all set up.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.” the silence danced hand in hand with your voice

Yes Miss. Would you like a run down on the desk functions?

“Yes please.” In a matter of minutes you realized that this wasn’t just some random fancy desk ,but a whole machine of its own. Interactive hologram functions, building station and program 3D design. It had it all. Bruce was shocked how easy you worked with F.R.I.D.A.Y. , naturally taking a lead and informing yourself at 100% capacity about what you will be working with. For a second Tony flashed before his eyes.

“What made you apply here?” he cut your investigation “I don’t mean to be rude but I saw some of your pre-university work.”

“No problem. I was mostly out of the country for a very long time, maybe most of my life. When I came back the Avengers were something I loved watching on the news.” The praise went over Bruce’s head unnoticed “ There was something nostalgic when I looked at you guys. Mr. Stark’s tech, the way everyone fought with ease, I don’t know how to explain it. I craved that in my life, almost like a forgotten world I was striving to immerse myself back into. “ a gentle crook of the neck and a smile eased Bruce from the question

“Well you made it here, so congratulations.” loud joyous clapping followed his words” I think I am talking for all of us, we will love having you around. So-” His face became serious, glasses finding the bridge of his nose onto his face, eyes sharp “Would you like to start with your job here miss intern?” he winked playfully waiting to see your reaction. Like a mirror ,you pulled your hair away from your face, rolled up your sleeves and flashed back the same look of determination. “Introduce me to your train of thought and your projects.”

“I work mainly with the structure and characteristics of vibranium. At first, I was focused on making prosthetics that pack a punch the same way the Iron Man suits worked and Sergeant Barnes’s arm- of course on a smaller scale. But then my mind started drifting towards the process before amputation, which was for a certain percent of people the healing factor. Maybe inside strength as well. ”

“As in incorporating it into medical technology?” this sounded too simple of an idea coming for someone Tony chose, yet Bruce kept listening. He was judging the book by its cover way too soon.

“Not exactly. Vibranium has a metal crystal structure that possesses ‘memory’ the same way other metals remember being indented even after getting fixed or straightened eventually. My theory has a few parts before I reach the main plan. Going on an atomic level, even deeper to its base structure, I change the connections between the atoms. They have the same functions as in keeping the shape, but missing that molding memory.”

“You are saying you can mold the bonds, selecting freely what function to remove?” Bruce pushed back off his chair, letting the idea enter his ear and stay there, feeding the interest on his face.

“I am not saying I can.” he was listening more and more with each passing minute “I am saying I did it. I am in the final stages of my project.” Your hands pulled out a flat disk of vibranium “F.R.I.D.A.Y. would you do a double scan before and after I bend this?”

Affirmatively Miss. Scan done. Shall I offer a hologram?

“Please do.” Right between your two bodies you could now see the basics of the metal “ See how the bonds are thicker? I noticed, metal bonds just have to keep the shape of the crystal structure. Not only did I make vibranium stronger than it originally was, but now if I bend-it.” Your voice strained in pair with your muscles, as you folded and unfolded the sheet. The second scan showed no memory intake not even deformed the shapes “I call this metal healing.”

“That...that is amazing, not even a crease to be noticed! But where are you going with this?” Bruce rubbed his face, still shook from what you just showed him

“It might sound stupid, but this isn’t even my main idea. You see, if we look at matter as one and the same, things start to add up. Everything on a molecular level has no difference. Bonds, and atom-placement dictate what the object will be, look like and how it works- properties if you wish. I looked at vibranium and human flesh as different parts of one thing, which lead me to believe enhancing people could be done without super soldier serums.”

“That is… truly amazing, but won’t the testing period be a sadistic thing. We are not HYDRA thankfully.” As great as this was Bruce had a point here “Human experiments are not a politic the Avengers will ever lean upon. As fellow humans nonetheless.”

“I am not planning to make another Winter Soldier. I already have control over vibranium on levels outside and inside hyperspace.” You pulled out a bottle of metallic looking dust. The top unscrewed easy and you spilled the contents like heavy silvery snow all over the floor. “If I take quarks from the human body and use them to make 1 proton from the atomic nucleus, I can theoretically program it to answer to the human body using the unbroken rule of our system.”

Bruce blinked a few times understanding exactly where you were reaching “All work in favor of the body.” He said out loud, glasses sliding off his skin

“Exactly. If they get programmed correctly the metal will work for the body, under the command of the main system- the nerves and brain. Post that success I would be able to inject them with a liquid medium directly into the bloodstream. As they make their way to all parts of the body, they will get acquainted with the cells. I want to change them so they will be susceptible to hormones as well. Basically I want to make a metal compound that reacts like organic matter. It would be able, upon will, to pile around bones, create fibers, strengthening muscles ecc. Some could even carry other substances with them, or isolate toxic ones. Now their size and ability for diapedesis is still questionable. So far I can move them at a certain extend.” You swung your hand and the dust lifted off the floor cleanly in one swoop

“That is amazing!” Bruce pitched his voice after seeing the floating cloud “Are you using some kind of device ?”

“No, this dust was modeled after me, I am the only guinea pig so no one was harmed in the making. I have to say though, it was quite painful till I got it right.” You laughed out uneasy, scratching your arm

“ I could only imagine, taking your own tissue for this. What else could it do?”

“Well. I know that Mr. Stark isn’t into weapons anymore, so I pitched him the enhancing technique only. The dust’s only function right now sadly is shaping.” Your fingers danced as the vibranium cloud formed Captain America’s shield, before turning into a sword. “As long as I have enough information of structure, function and the way the object works I can make it.” Your footsteps were confidant and strong.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. the window if you please.”

Certainly Miss

The clicking sound of the metal around the glass flung the object open. Your hand reached outside and pointed towards the sky. “My uncle had a deep interest in weapons so naturally I learned as well by listening to him.” The dust wrapped around your hand and formed a Heckler Koch pistols. With the pull of the trigger you shot into the air, making Bruce jump from the sound.

“I am sorry about that, I should have warned you.” You giggled stepping in

“That is a completely functional firearm. His breath normalized as his body took him right up to you, running his hands over the gun “ This is, something I can’t even imagine.” Eyes scanning every inch of it looking like a perfect mold “How does it look so solid? Smooth, no trace of it even being made from any smaller particle. ”

“Oh that, intra-atomic pressure. Kind of like gravity times 100 or more. If I pitched this to Mr.Stark I think the selling point would have been…”your fingers gently pulled the weapon out of Dr.Banner’s hand as the vibranium flew from the outside to the magazine “ It doesn’t run out of ammo since I call it back at anytime AND once in the body I can infest it.”

“It could travel through the blood stream and form clumps in certain organs!” he gasped

“I could have gone a bit more sadistic with this one, but I will stop talking now.” You laughed out sending your project back to its jar, securely tightened up.

“How far is your limit? I mean is there a distance at which you can’t sense the partials, any mental fatigue or physical? You are amazing! This is something out of this world truly, no wonder Tony accepted your application. I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything closely resembling…wow.” He kept praising you each time his mouth opened

“Banner.” Light and confident footsteps accompanied the familiar playboy voice inside the lab

Welcome back Sir

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. medical bay on standby please.”

As you wish Sir

“I would appreciate it if you stepped back from my new intern and helped out a bit. We have injured coming in stat.” Tony waved his hand and Bruce pulled away from you, cleaning the couch on his side “You too miss intern. No slacking off just because it’s your first day. Treat it as orientation.”

“Yes Mr. Stark.” Panic rose up inside you again as you tried to follow what Dr. Banner was doing. Injured? Were the rest of the Avengers on a mission this whole time? It didn’t matter, you were mobilized as well and for a second it felt kind of cool, like you were also an agent fighting crime. The grunts and groans pulled you back to Earth as Captain America’s large frame stepped inside.

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some-dr-writings · 4 years ago

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Affection starved Kokichi x Reader One-shot: Dancing at a Distance

Being with Kokichi Oma was a rather strange experience. You always had company yet after that moment, you feel lonely. You were happy but when looking back on your time together, it was sad. It was an almost surreal experience. Though he was a liar you had no doubt he cared about you and yet…

“Hey, Oma… care to dance with me?” You never knew you could get so many answers from that one simple question, but no matter how he phrased it, no matter how he ‘danced’ around the question, the sentiment was the same. No. You didn’t want to be pushy, but any explanation would have been appreciated, even a fake one, or ‘I just don’t want to’, but he never gave you anything to work with, it seemed he more so didn’t answer at all. And so, you were left alone as he watched you from a short distance, just as he did all other times.

On one particularly nippy autumn night you found yourself unable to sleep. Perhaps it was your increasing worries about your relationship, perhaps it was the fact you had excess energy from sitting around all day hardly moving around, whatever the reason, you were still just laying in bed staring up at the ceiling… Maybe it was the fact that the world seemed to be dead silent. No rustling of the wind, not even the smallest moan or creek from the seemingly hollow dorm building. Just silent. The kind of silence that would allow one to hear their own gentle calm heartbeat.

…

After getting dressed in some loose clothing other than your pajamas, you took your boombox, small box of cassette tapes and left your room.

As the Super High School Dancer not many would assume you’d like the old bulky music equipment so much, but you did. You liked hearing the buttons and pieces inside make those satisfying click noises as you set up everything. Before Kokichi came crashing into your life, your main hobby was transferring new music onto cassette tapes. There was just something about… for lack of a better word, booming, sound of the old boombox. It was like the difference between listening to a recording of an orchestra and hearing one performed live before you. You can feel the music instead of just hearing it. Sure, you could use a modern boombox, but it wouldn’t have the exact same sound or feel, it’d be a little off.

You trotted your way out to the field as to blast the music without disturbing anyone’s sleep. You hummed feeling the slightly damp grass beneath your feet. Gently placing the boombox and box of cassettes down you quickly began set up. Now, what to play you wondered. Maybe something for quickstep since the fast-paced dance tired you out faster than most other forms. After placing the cassette in you quickly backed up from the boombox, ready to dance. You felt that joyous anticipation bubble up inside as the intro played… A-and played again? Maybe the intro was longer than you remembered… Okay, no, there was something wrong. Confused, you took out the tape. There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with it, and you weren’t entirely sure if this was a problem you could have with tapes. Perhaps something was wrong with the boombox? You decided to test this theory and placed another tape in… The intro was the same but a completely different song was played with the same instruments as the intended song. “You have got to be kidding me.” That smile you tried repressing kept growing wider and wider as you placed in more tapes, finding each one had some silly quirk.

“Nishishi. Y/N, you came!” Suddenly you were tackled from behind, being hugged so tightly. You tried sighing in annoyance, but it came out more as a soft chuckle. “Where’s my tapes?” “Hmm? What tapes?” “… Look we can play some other time, but right now I need my music to dance to so I can tire myself enough to get to sleep.” “W-what? Sleep? Y/N how could you!?” He began crying those crocodile tears as he nuzzled his cheek against your own. “You show up to our super-secret meeting only to abandon me! How can you be so mean!?” You rolled your eyes at his theatrics. “… Okay, I’ll bite. What’s this secret meeting about?” You raised a hand up, gently running your fingers up his neck and through his hair. After a moment he flinched and quickly backed away. Turning around you saw he had a small pack on him. He must have been on his way to set up some prank before hearing his tapes being played. “Planning our crime spree tonight!” “No.” “Whaaat? Y/N, I know you’re new to D.I.C.E. so I’ll let you off easy this time, but I’m the Boss, you have to at least listen to me.” “I’m not a part of your gang, I’m your partner.” “Yeah! My partner in crime, love crimes!” He looked absolutely giddy with sparkling eyes as he leaned in closer and closer, the tips of your noses touching. “… How would one even go about committing a ‘love crime’?” “Oh, Y/N, being so cheeky, like you don’t know.” His eyes narrowed on you as he wore that sharp smirk. “You stole my heart; I stole yours. Now, I want to work with you. Let’s go on a date, right now!” “Dude. It’s one in the morning or something.” “Yes, and…” “… Fine, hopefully this’ll tire me out enough to get to sleep.” Happily cheering Kokichi took the boombox and box of fake cassette tapes before bolting, leaving you to chase after him.

You quickly found yourself running out of the school and into town. Kokichi dashed down street after street after alleyway, then around a corner, down a street you had already passed. It was as if he were just running around on a whim without a destination in mind, which was entirely likely. You picked up your pace quickly leaving Kokichi behind. “Hey, no fair! You’re only faster than me because you’re not carrying all this heavy stuff!” Slowing down your pace, you turned around. “Are you sure it’ not my years of dancing?” You smirked, sprinting straight for him. You scooped him and all the stuff in your arms in a bridal carry style. Your movements were swift and effortless, completely fluid, no hesitation. You even picked up your pace. “Poor lil’ Oma, so tiny, I’m surprised you could even lift my boombox!” “Hey! Not everyone has giant beautiful muscles like you!” “They’re not giant, I’m just toned!” “Y/N that’s such an obvious lie! I’ve seen you lift people over your head with ease! You’re even… carrying me right now…” “Oma?” He didn’t hide how his voice trailed off. Did he only realize that now, or was it another lie? “You alright?” “Hmm? What’s got you wondering that? Of course I’m not! You’re holding me so closely, it’s embarrassing!” “Oh! Sorry!” Your pace immediately slowed down and just as your grip loosened, Kokichi threw his arms around your neck. “But that’s a lie! Geez, Y/N, you should know I can never get enough of you!” “… Sure. Uh, anyway! Are we just going to run around all night or are we actually going to go somewhere?” “Hmm… Alright! First go down the street we just passed! And while we’re at it, we need some racing music!” He pried a chuckle out of you at how clumsily he placed the cassette in and how he got increasingly ‘upset’ that he wasn’t finding a good enough racing song, which was only exacerbated by the ridiculous music that played.

“Stop, stop, STOP! We’re here!” Hopping out of your arms he sifted through his bag, taking out his signature mask and placing it on. “A costume shop?” “Duh! We need something to cover your face! You still haven’t made your D.I.C.E. mask yet, so we’re going to get a temporary one.” “… We’re actually committing crimes!?” He simply laughed his signature laugh as he picked at the lock. When the door opened an alarm went off. You were frozen in place as Kokichi dashed inside. Moments later the alarm stopped blaring. He then popped his head out the open door, taking off his mask. “Okay, it’s safe now! C’mon we only have ten minuets!” He then dashed back in. You were hesitant when taking those first few steps, you’ve never done anything like this before! When Kokichi spoke of ‘love crimes’ you weren’t thinking you were actually going to break into a building and steal something! Kokichi ran back out and took your hands into his own. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of walking into a building.” Then he held his mask up to you. “I’ve done this countless times, you’ll be safe with me, and that’s not a lie.” After you placed on the mask, he led you inside.

“Huh, this feels exactly like when I get into position before judges. Horrifying, and exhilarating!” “Nishishi.” Even in the dark Kokichi effortlessly lead you between the aisles. The place was rather eerie. Costumes and pieces hanging from the ceiling, random oblong shapes jutting out of the walls, the twisted shadows that seemingly scurried about. Your vision was also lightly obscured due to the mask. That coupled with you being slightly on edge from this entire situation, you were a little spooked. You squeezed his hand, lightly stroking the back of his fingers with your thumb. It was more of a mindless gesture, but an appreciative one. You only noticed you were doing so when you suddenly felt the grip on your hand loosen.

Suddenly Kokichi sprinted ahead, letting you go. “Here it is! The back storage room! They keep all the good stuff here!” He quickly picked at the lock before swinging the door open. As he entered, he searched through his bag, taking out a flashlight and with a short sharp click sound the light flipped on, seemingly blinding. You involuntarily held a hand before your eyes, squinting and looking between your fingers. Suddenly your view was darkened. “Who thought these tacky sunglasses would come in handy!” “Ah, thank you Ou-” Now that you weren’t blinded you saw how Kokichi managed to gather the most ridiculous pieces of costumes in mere moments. Clown shoes, fairy wings, giant sunglasses, boxing gloves, all of the bead necklaces, monster finger puppets on all of his fingers and some in his hair, a bowler’s cap, fox mask, checkered vest, striped shorts, feathered boa, frayed scarf, and whatever else was under all that. Being surprised by being greeted to that sight so suddenly a laugh erupted from you. That beautiful, sweet laugh that utterly melted Kokichi’s heart and caused that unconcealable, beaming smile to radiate off him. “Huh!? What’s so funny, Y/N? ~” He hopped just a little closer to you as he spoke in that knowing sing-song tone. “N-No, stop it!” You clamped your hand over your mouth, desperate to repress that laughter. Kokichi smirked. You knew better than to hide your laughter from him. “Y/N, tell me! Hey, hey, tell me, What’s so funny? Huh, huh, what is it?” With each syllable he made some sharp movement, whether it was drawing closer to you or flinging out his hands, smacking whatever was next to him causing it to fall on his head. “D-damn it Kokichi!” You laughed even harder as you kneeled on the ground, holding your stomach which hurt from laughing so hard. Meanwhile Kokichi froze for a moment, a scarlet hue spread across his cheeks and tips of his ears. His heart absolutely pounded against his ribs. You called him by his first name. After taking in your beautiful laughter he quickly removed the clothing, tossing it aside as if he were in a panic.

Once you calmed a little, Kokichi called out to you. “Y-yeah?” You hobbled towards him, taking the sunglasses off, your eyes having adjusted to the light. “There’s a whole lot of masks here!” He picked out a few holding them before his face. Very cartoonish looking shiny plastic masks. An anime girl, a bee, crocodile, a clown- “Oh, I didn’t know people made masks of your face Oma!” “Well, I’m just that handsome. Not everyone can be a face model.” He then made what you assumed to be an exaggerated ‘sexy’ face to which you rested your face in your hand. “You’re so ridiculous.” “You say that like it’s a bad thing, but I can hear your smile!” “I am smiling, and I hate it!” Your smile only grew at this silly light banter.

You drew closer looking at the open boxes. You picked up a Venice carnival mask. The face appeared to be a cracked porcelain with intricate gold, black and dark purple design. There were blank spaced under the left eye and over the right where scores of music were. At the top was what appeared to be a jester’s cap, even with tiny bells on the ends. “Ah! Perfect!” Kokichi daintily took the mask from you and placed it on. Even how he did something as mundane as picking up an object had so much personality. Perhaps as a dancer that was one of the things that drew you to him. “Alright, let’s go! We still have love crimes to commit!” “This wasn’t it!?” “Duh! Y/N, keep up. We were just getting a mask to hide your identity! This was only preparation.” He then dashed off towards the counter. You dashed after him, finding he was leaving money on the counter. “You’re paying?” “Well, yeah! I’m not a thief you know!” He said as he took a box of impulse buy mints. “Really now.” “Petty theft Y/N, petty theft.”

Once you were outside Kokichi repicked the locks, locking the doors. “Now, our date night can begin! Huh? Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing? No taking off your mask when committing crimes! We don’t want anyone recognizing you!” “Uh… I’m giving you your mask back? I assumed you’d want it back, and I’d wear the store one. Wasn’t the whole point of coming here to get me a mask?” “… No, keep my mask on.” “Oh, uh, okay?” You sidled up beside him, gently taking his hand. “So, where are we headed to commit this ‘love crime’?” Kokichi flinched his hand away, instead occupying himself with the boombox. “Before that we need a sneaking around theme song!” “o-okay…” You awkwardly stood beside him as he fumbled with the cassette tape. “There, now-” He crashed into you carrying everything. “Carry me!” He nuzzled into you as you effortlessly lifted him up. “Now, off to adventure!”

As you raced around he played silly song after silly irritating song. You sighed as he scat or made up nonsensical lyrics for your soundtrack. He’d sing at the top of his lungs, making you fear he was going to wake someone. Quickly though he told you to stop. “This is it!” “… What even is this place? Off neon lights… I don’t even see a sign.” “Oh~ Nishishi. This is fun.” He joyfully skipped over to the door, picking at the lock. “You wait right here and be prepared for an emergency escape!” He then slipped through the door laughing his signature laugh.

It was awfully cool for an autumn night; it wasn’t even near winter yet. The wind picked up, rustling the leaves and throwing them up into the air. You sat on the sidewalk, looking out at those bright colorful twinkling lights. It was strangely dark and isolated here. The exact opposite of the lively town which lay not far. What even was this you wondered. You guessed you’d find out soon enough, but… would waiting too long be bad. Were either of you truly happy with this? Was this healthy even. You held no doubt that Kokichi cared for you but thinking back on what lead you here… like this place you felt somewhat isolated. Were you doing something wrong? You wanted to just ask Kokichi, but what if it was like dancing and not even lying, he’d simply say nothing as if the question were never asked. If, like times when he seemed to distance himself from you, he’d give you affection or make you laugh, get you to temporarily forget about it. You liked Kokichi, you truly did, but… maybe this wasn’t healthy for either of you. Maybe it’d be better to be friends instead. There wasn’t that much difference between being friends and being in a romantic relationship, it just the latter has more expectations… what if that was it. Maybe you were expecting too much of this.

“Hey! Y/n!”

“Huh? Uh- what?” “There you are!” He was smiling, crouching before you hugging his knees. “I called for you for a while, but you were off in la-la land!” “Oh, sorry. Just got lost in thought…” You then smirked. “But only because you took so long.” “Excuse me, but that was record time for disarming a building!” “Still took forever.” “You’re so silly.” Taking your hands, he jumped up pulling you to your feet. “Now, let’s go!”

He eagerly dragged you into the dark building. There was but a single door open where light beamed out, swaying and dancing about on the floor and wall beyond it. There were also two pairs of shoes before the door. “Come on, c’mon, put them on quickly now!” … The shoes had wheels on the bottom? Looking into the room you found it was massive. The floor was smooth and shiny with nothing atop it, the walls blank, and the ceiling was covered in lights. Against the walls was some carpeted flooring where Kokichi placed your things. He rolled along watching as you hurried to place the skates on. “I had no idea there were roller-skating rinks around here!” “Yeah, but I think this is the only one, but it’s so drab! So, we’re gonna liven things up!” He excitedly searched through the bag taking out a funky looking toy gun, colorful plastic cups and many cans of spray paint. You hobbled over to the rink, slipping forward and back, swinging your arms and body out in any direction to keep any semblance of balance. When Kokichi neared you threw yourself at him, to which you both fell. “S-sorry!” You rolled over quickly sitting up. “Ooh, I didn’t know my Y/N was so clumsy! Or were you just wanting an excuse to hug me?” “I’ve never been roller skating before.” “… You… you’re not lying… But you’re the Super High School Level Dancer! Shouldn’t you know roller disco?” “Yeah, High School Level, not Ultimate, or end-all-be-all… There are a few things I still have not mastered. Like how Tojo can’t cut konjac, or how Chabashira doesn’t know a thing about Aikido! We may be great, but not perfect, and roller-skating… happens to be where I’m lacking.” “Oh… That’s going to be a problem then. Oh well! This will just be more fun!” With verve he pulled you to your feet and placed a can of spray paint in your hand. “Let’s go paint!”

You slipped and tumbled as you painted, making sloppy, dripping designs. Kokichi linked his arm with your own, catching you before you fell and simply helped you keep your balance in general. You most often just made random lines or squiggles and Kokichi incorporated them into his own childish looking work. He turned the lines into the sides of dice and the squiggles into lop sided hearts or other things, whatever he felt like. You found yourself giggling from imagining how ridiculous you must have looked attempting to keep balance and nervousness from breaking into another building, this time vandalizing it. But you trusted Kokichi and followed his lead, letting yourself just enjoy the absurdity of it all.

Once finished the pair of you took a step back, admiring your work. “Masterpieces, all of it!” “I don’t know about that, but it was fun.” “Now, we need to fix these lights!” He glided away, picking up the packets of colored plastic cups then returned. “Toss me up to the ceiling Y/N!” “Excuse me!?” “I need you to toss me! I’ve seen you do it before! Besides, how else am I supposed to place these on the lights?” You looked up seeing the ceiling lights were the kind where the light was just stuck in a drilled hole in the ceiling. You supposed it was possible to cram the open end of the cup there. “… If you touch the ceiling or ground even once I won’t toss you anymore.” “Yay!” He hugged you, giving you the opportunity to quickly pick him up and toss him. “What was that? It’s wasn’t even close.” “Well excuse me for not wanting to hurt you.” “I know you can do this. I’ll be fine.” “… alright.” After you made sure you were standing on the toe stop, you tossed him much higher than before. You held your breath seeing him fly up then come tumbling down. Catching him in your arms you clutched him tightly as if fearing he was going to fly up on his own. “See, I’m fine. I know I can trust you.” “… Thanks.” “Now, onto the next!” And so, you tossed up Kokichi to each and every single light.

When you caught him that last time you hugged him tightly, thankful you did not slip up once. You certainly felt the pain of your dancing partner not catching you and though quick, it’s scary and can instantly shatter much trust that had been built up. However, you felt Kokichi squirm under your grip so you reluctantly let go. He then hugged you before skating away, picking up the strange gun. “Y/N, want to do the honors?” “… I don’t even know what the gun does!” “Okay, okay, just help me keep from falling over.” “Alright?” Before you could even approach him, he crashed into you. He then looked up at the ceiling and took aim. With a pop curtain string lights shot out, attaching itself to the ceiling. It was no wonder he asked you to keep him steady, the force from that thing shooting was much too powerful for one person to handle. Kokichi made sure to cover the entire ceiling with the thing. When he was finally satisfied, he raced off to the wall to plug the end into an outlet. Then the lights flipped on.

It was brilliant. It was like an otherworldly stage. The curtain string lights slightly swayed as Kokichi flew past, making it appear almost waterfall like. The colors clashed against one another and were slightly obscured by the string lights making it look to be a haze. The floor reflected the ceiling making the lights look endless. It was fun chaos. And what made it even better was the quickstep song Kokichi had playing on full blast from your boombox. “Wait. No that’s actually one of my songs. Not one you altered.” “Aw~ You liked my music. Well if you insist, I can play the Delfino Plaza theme intro loop for us.” “NO! No! I am so glad for this! I was just surprised for a moment!” Kokichi laughed seeing your flustered reaction.

“… Oma. You’re ridiculous and amazing. This is fun, and scary. Thank you for this.” Kokichi froze hearing the shear warmth that oozed from your voice. He was only snapped out of his trance feeling you so gently take his hand and intertwine your fingers together. He flinched away, immediately regretting it. “I’m not comfortable with that. I don’t like touch that much. I hope you understand.” He then hid his hand behind his head. “… But that’s a lie.” He quickly wrapped his hands around one of yours, pulling himself close. “Sorry for scaring you!” “… Is it, though.” You pulled your hand away. “Do you not like being touched?” “Hmm? Wait, what’s that?” He tried skating away but tripped over his own feet. When he hit the ground a buzzing sound went off. “Aw. My hand buzzer prank was revealed, oh well.” “… You really don’t want to talk about this, do you. That was a pathetic ‘prank’ to get me distracted.” You kneeled down beside him to be closer to his level. “You always do this, try to pull the wool over my eyes, distract me from… something. It seems you push me away, but you then approach me so freely. Is this a control thing? Do I make you uncomfortable? Is that why you’re only okay when you approach me? If you distrust me that much at least lie instead of ignoring it. I don’t care if it’s a painful truth or a happy lie, just… communicate with me, say something, anything. Please.” You couldn’t let this go. If you wanted this to work you had to communicate somehow, and you didn’t know what else to do at this point… and… You hated this. You hated being used to this feeling. It was just like dancing. Fun and amazing, and so, so exciting, but lonely. When dancing you need to be at similar levels for it to truly work, but because of your title, because of how quickly you learned others became intimidated by your skill believing they couldn’t keep up with you, leaving you on your own. You thought this would be different. No disproportion of skill level so you could be on an even playing field, so you could actually have a partner to work and be with. But even with Kokichi, it was like you were being dragged around. You wondered if you only felt like this because you were expecting too much. You thought things could be like when you were younger, you could actually have a partner, someone who you could rely on just as much as they relied on you. Someone you could trust to catch you, be someone they could trust in return… But it’s not. This just feels like whenever you invited another dancer to dance. Left to be by yourself.

“Do whatever you want with me.” “Huh?” He sat up and looked you directly in the eyes, or at least you assumed so, it was near impossible to tell with the mask on. You also thought so because of how you felt this gaze. It was similar to what you felt on stage, knowing all eyes were on you, but this was different. It was… intense. “I… w-what do you mean?” He dragged himself over only mere millimeters apart from you. “… You overwhelm me. I’m not used to this. Getting affection so earnestly. Everyone hates or distrust me because of my antics. The only people who cared about me before you was D.I.C.E., my family. But… we don’t show affection in the typical way. We mess with one another, making lighthearted jokes at our own expense to make others laugh, booby-trap places we know they frequent often and that trap having a treat or gift for them. But you… You just say it. You just hug me, touch me, hold my hand. I want it. I want you. I want you to keep wanting me. But then I feel like my heart’s going to explode and I get so nervous and my mind goes into a panic. It’s embarrassing that I feel ashamed of not being able to handle even your simple touches. So, I back away, but I still crave you and want you to know I care about you too. I’m not uncomfortable it’s just… so much to take in all at once my mind and heart can’t keep up!” As he spoke, he slowly draped his arms over your shoulders and leaned into you, closing the gap. He nuzzled into you. Even with that mask on, you could feel a shiver run down your spine as his warm breath brushed across your ear. “… Do whatever you want to me. Please.” This… You never heard him speak in such a serious tone before. He almost sounded like a completely different person. You wondered if he could feel how your heart raced, the heat radiating from your face, how you just wanted to melt into that embrace. Little did you know Kokichi was thinking the exact same thing in that moment and every other time you touched him. Still holding on to you, he backed up so you could see his masked face.

“But that’s a lie!” There was that playful tone you recognized. “I’m a supreme leader. I’m showered in love and affection all the time! Every single day I’ll have you know! How do you think I got so good at giving hugs?!” As if proving his point, he tackled you into a hug, throwing all his weight into it, knocking the two of you over. “… If all that was a lie, then what about the first thing.” “It’s the truth. Do whatever you want to me, and I won’t mind a Single. Little. Bit.” “Whatever I want huh… Then…” You slowly sat up. “Care to skate dance with me?” “What? Did you lie to me about not knowing how to skate?” “No. I don’t care if I don’t even know the basics. I just want to dance with you. Share my passion with you.” You shakily got up. “Want to dance with me, Oma?” He was still for a moment before taking your hand. As you helped him to his feet you noticed the song suddenly changed. It was one you didn’t recognize but had the same instruments as the intended song. Of course, he used a silly tape, why would you think he brought your original ones with him. It was Latin Jazz you believed.

Taking both his hands, you held them in a tight grip, fearful of falling over. You both laughed out loud, spinning around, clinging to one another attempting to keep any balance. You tried doing some dance moves, from ballet, to ballroom, to jazz, most of which ended in you and Kokichi almost toppling over and laughing to no end in the process. You soon noticed how Kokichi’s grip was almost unbearably tight, and how his hands trembled. “Nervous?” “I… I’m feeling lightheaded.” He then flopped into you. You immediately wrapped your arms around him, keeping him steady. “Ah~ much better. Thank you, Y/N.” He knew dancing was going to kill him. He could hardly handle you holding his hand and now he was trying something so intimate, dancing. Entrusting your entire being into your partner. Being so close with so much skin contact. It wasn’t like he didn’t like it. In fact was a desperately wanting this, but he believed he hadn’t become a complete wreak from these overwhelming feelings because his intense blush was hidden behind a mask and he couldn’t see how tenderly you were probably looking at him right now. Or how you were smiling, or… And even merely thinking of you was blurring his mind, being consumed by the desire to just stay like this longer.

Suddenly you stopped. “Oma. I think someone-” The moment he heard voices Kokichi dragged you to your things, chucking the skates away and quickly collected the boombox and tapes. “Y/N, run now!” You scooped him and your things before dashing away past the people at the entrance. The pair of you giggled like naughty school children as you zipped down street after street trying to lose any cops that were potentially called on you. After Kokichi was convinced you had escaped he burst into obnoxiously loud laughter, taking off his and your masks. He so cheekily smiling seeing the dawn of a new day. “You’re beautiful Oma.” Then you pulled him closer, kissing him on the cheek. His laughter choked, a loud squeak like noise replacing it. You chuckled seeing his tight-lipped wobbling smile as his already rosy tinted cheeks flushed to be absolutely red. “Oh? I thought you were great at accepting affection. Or are cheek kisses your weakness?” You were leaning in for a kiss when he placed and hand on your face and buried his own face into his other hand. “Y-you’re so mean. Don’t tease me like that!” “Aw~ but how am I supposed to resist when you blush so cutely like that!” You absolutely adored seeing that blush spread, and smile grow.

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years ago

Text

Humans are Space Orcs, “The Shadow.”

Hope you all like this one today. It is a bit spooky, but not to bad I think, so hopefully it will be ok for everyone. But I leave it to you to decide what cou can handle.

He was lying in bed asleep when the call came through on his implants. The little buzzing in the side of his neck roused him from sleep and he grumpily looked at the clock rubbing his eyes. It was 4 in the morning. He supposed there were worse times to wake up, though the fact he hadn’t gotten to sleep until 12 the night before made it a bit more questionable.

Sunny had left around the time he went to bed having tried to keep him company in his paranoia, worried that he would suddenly turn around and see the long dead face of Captain Everett, the captain of a civilian transport turned to cannibalism for some unknown reason, and someone he had been forced to kill with his own hand.

Someone he had been seeing in places he shouldn’t be seeing him.

He sighed and rubbed his temples, sitting up and looking around.

He would be the first to admit, that if the viewing window hadn’t allowed in the proper amount of ambient light, he would have sprung for a night-light. Even so, he did his best to keep his face away from the floor length mirror as he turned to look down at his implant.

URGENT Admiral to deck 8

He strapped on his leg, pulled on some pants and a shirt and boots before hurrying out of the room.

Waffles stood from her dog bed trotting over to nose his hand with her cold damp snout. He patted her on the head and ordered her to stay as he walked towards the door.

He nearly ran headfirst into Simon who was waiting outside, and honestly nearly screamed, but settled for a strangled yelp somewhere in between, nearly pitching onto the floor.

“Mother-of-hell-Lieutenant.”

“Sorry for startling you, sir.”

“Do you ever sleep.”

“Yes sir.”

“That was a rhetorical question.” He groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, “What are you even doing up?”

“I was alerted to a situation before you. They weren’t sure if it was important enough to mention, but I deemed it important enough.”

“And this situation is…. What exactly.” She stared at him with her wide eyes, which she had the strange and unsettling habit of not blinking too often, “The crew is reporting things gone missing, especially down in engineering.”

“Gone missing! What do you mean gone missing?”

She looked at him with her head tilted, “I don’t understand the question sir?”

His shoulders slumped lightly, “I want to know what has gone missing, why they think it is even missing, and who could have taken or misplaced it if it is.”

“WHy didn’t you just say so, sir.”

He sighed internally. Simon was a very efficient and organized person, but she had trouble with metaphors, turns of phrase, sarcas, rhetorical questions, and getting along with people in general.

“Just little things here and there sir, but enough that the crew is noticing. Almost everyone has misplaced something.”

“Right, I see.”

He turned to walk down the hall with her listening to the list that she had compiled of all the things that were missing. Most of it seemed sort of innocuous, mostly tools, or spare parts that no one had bothered to lock up, but he knew from looking at the ship’s equipment manifests that most of those things (while relatively minor for one of the most expensive intergalactic warships ever built) they weren’t without value.

“Anyone suspected so far?”

Simon shook her head, “No sir. Everyone was asleep when the items were stolen and the records of their implants have them in those locations all night. So no one on the day shift was lying. We have been going around asking people on the night shift and should know something sooner rather than later.”

He nodded his head and was about to take a step down onto deck four when the distant rumbling of the engines ground to a screeching halt. The red emergency lights in the hallway pulsed once and then brightened.

A clattering noise echoed through the hall, and with the sudden shutdown of the engine, the ship jolted slightly causing both him and the lieutenant to go stumbling forward.

Simon almost hit her knees, and he was barely able to catch himself on the wall to his right,

“What the Hell!” The buzzing on his implants began almost as soon as the jolt happened, and he opened the com as he broke into a jog towards engineering.

“What was that!” He demanded over the line.

“Engines say they are offline, sir. Nonfunctional.”

“Say again.”

“We are dead in the water, sir.”

He felt his skin go very very cold. A chill breeze semed to rush over his body as that revelation came in over the line.

Dead in the water

Dead in the water like that civilian transport.

The once familiar glowing corridors of his ship now took on a sinister cast. The glowing red light that highlighted the mental around them shimmered hellish. The corridor before them was dark, shadowy, more like a cave and less like a ship.

Beside him, Simon reached into her uniform pocket and pulled out a pen.

With a sharp click, the small pen light was engaged and the hellish red cast was chased away by a sharp beam of white light.

Thankful for the sudden illumination, he followed her down the halls and into engineering.

He found Narobi there grilling her engineers on just exactly what was going on.

One of them was shaking his head, “I, I’m sorry Ma’am, but I don’t know. I was here when it went off.”

“Nothing shuts off an engine that fast unless one of the direct support systems was tampered with. The engine would have to turn off quickly, so I need you guys out looking for every release valve, ever failsafe, and every energy dampener you can find.” She turned to look at one of her other underlings, “And you get down to storage and find us a new part. I made sure than when I started working on this ship that we had enough spare parts for a small Omen if we had to. Now GO!”

The two men scampered off into the darkness, like rats scurrying away from approaching footsteps.

They were left alone in a pool of white light, and Narobi turned to face him.

“Anything I can do to help?” He wondered

She sighed, “I’m not sure, sir. We have been experiencing… strange things all night-”

“Yeah, having your stuff go missing.”

She waved a hand at him, “Yes there is that, but that’s not what I was talking about.”

His chest tightened slightly, and he shifted nervously on his feet. The darkness around him seemed to be pressing in.

“WHat do you mean?”

She shook her head, and the look on her face was not exactly encouraging, “THe crew is reporting…. Strange movement. More than one of them would have sworn they had heard or seen something, generally a dark shadow at the end of the hall, or a flicker out of the corner of their eyes.

No no no, this could not be happening.

His ship was new!

It couldn’t be haunted!

No one had even died here yet…. Then again there were those dead Kree. DId they have something to do with it? He shook himself in annoyance. Why the hell would he jump to a supernatural explanation? He was flying a spaceship, for crying out loud. More than likely it was some kind of alien, which wasn’t much more formorting, but it at least meant they could deal with the problem.

“Still doesn’t change the fact that I want to help. I know I’m not an engineer but, this is my ship, and I made a business of knowing her backwards and forward before she was given to me.”

Nairobi looked him up and down, her full lips pressed tightly together, “Well, I suppose we could use all the help we can get. Take a light, and, if you can, check the maintenance channels up the back of decks ten through three. It is kind of tight in there and you are going to have to climb up a few ladders.

He nodded, “I can do that. Call me if your men find anything.” he turned to look at simon, “Head up to the bridge and take the chair. Keep me updated on what is going on.”

Simon stared at him, “Take the chair sir, you mean like….”

“Yes, Go upstairs, sit in the captain’s chair and be the captain while I figure out what is going on.”

“But sir, that is highly-”

“Unorthodox, yes I know, but this is how I do things, so go on.”

Simon wasn’t the kind to unusually show much emotion, but the little spark in her eyes and the sudden spring to her step suggested that he might have managed to make her day, despite the fact that they were dead in the water, and unable to move.

In the dark.

Alone.

He wished for a moment that he had brought waffles along with him, but he knew that she wouldn’t be able to follow where he was going. He wondered, not for the first time, why he had even volunteered for this sort of thing. He was the Admiral, and by rights that meant that his most important job was to delegate duties to other people.

Of course even thinking that made him very aware of how much he disagreed with that sort of leadership, and so he sighed, taking a light from Narobi as he moved into the darkness.

WIth the rumbling of the engines suspended, the ship was left eerily quiet. It was like someone had come and stuffed his ears full of cotton or mud. He would say it was equivalent to what happens when a thick layer of snow falls in the mountains, and great white snowflakes fall from the sky.

It seems as if all sound is drained from the world but the crunching of ones own footsteps through the powder.

But now, it was the sound of his own boots clattering over the metal deck. The beam of his light cut through the darkness sweeping over the metal, up and down the walls trying to find anything amiss.

He was alone in the darkness.

At one point he chose to switch off his light and turn on his infrared in his prosthetic eye.

The world lit up around him in grey. There was no color, but he could see further than he could with the flashlight, and the darkness didn’t seem so penetrating. .

f course his left eye was almost completely blind in the blackness of the ship, but that was a small price to pay for the security he felt that the other eye gave him.

He moved up a set of rickety stairs scanning from left to right before forcing himself into a small vertical shaft, crawling his way up. On occasion he would pass through a pool of red illumination from the security lights, but with the filters on his eye, the dim red glow did not interfere with his long distance vision.

He was walking down one of the maintenance hallways checking and rechecking the piping and wiring that ran along the sides when a sudden soft brushing reached him from behind.

He spun quickly on the spot, his hands held up his heart racing.

For one moment, his infrared eye thought he saw something flash out of sight down the T intersection behind him, but it was so fast that it could have been nothing, His heart was hamming so hard, he could hear the rush of blood through his ears.

He took a deep breath.

He was not an overly religious man and generally didn’t have an opinion about prayer one way or the other, but in that moment he was about ready to have a religious revelation, though weather ‘please dear god don’t let it eat me’ is considered a prayer or not is up to semantics.

He stood there for a long while in the dark just watching the hallway behind him, though eventually the logical side of his brain determined that his recent paranoia was just making him see things, and he turned nervously on his heel to continue his search.

And so he crawled through the bowls of the ship scampering through the walls and past air vents, feeling like he was seeing something he wasn’t meant to see despite this ship belonging to him.

He made his way into another tal vertical shaft and began clambering up the rungs. Darkness pooled above and below him. He tried to focus on his hands and feet, the rungs small and slippery with his own sweat.

HE was almost to the top of the shaft, his head and shoulders peeking up over the lip of metal.

And onto a pair of feet.

His head snapped violently upwards at the colorless grey face of Captain Everett.

He screamed in shock, jerking back. His foot slipped on the rung, his hands came free, and his stomach dropped as he plunged downward into the shaft.

His flailing arms and feet clattered and slammed against the metal as he fell. Adrenaline shot through him forcing his human brain to capture the scene at more frames per second. The world around him seemed to slow, and he was able to snatch a hand out at one of the rings. With one hand he managed to hook his fingers around one of the rungs, his shoulder jerking violently sending a shock of pain up and into his hand.

He lost his grip and began to fall again, but it had slowed him enough that he was able to force his feet out in one direction catching himself with his back pinned to one side of the shaft, and his feet pinned to the other held up only by the pressure of his feet and back.

He would have cried out in pain for his shoulder but clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle his breathing.

HE lifted his head looking up at the top of the shaft, but saw nothing. He was shaking so violently, that he was sure his foot would dislodge any second. WIth his numb left hand, he reached out and grabbed the rungs of the ladder. His right arm hurt so bad, but luckily it wasn’t dislocated.

He sat at the center of the ladder, his head resting on his hands shaking for a good few minutes before he was able to force himself to crawl up the shaft. His eyes were fixed above him, but when he reached the top this time, he was alone.

He had to lean against the wall for a second to compose himself, the scare of seeing the strange apparition and his near death fall making him sick and light headed, but he forced himself to continue on, jumping at every small noise, glancing over his shoulder every other second.

He came to a T intersection, and was about to take a left when a dark shape appeared at the end of the hall.

He froze.

The shape vanished.

He had seen enough horror movies to know how this ended, and he turned quickly to the right, glancing back over his shoulder, though he saw nothing. At the next intersection, he saw the same shape again and went the other way.

It was following him, he could tell,

He wasn’t about to let this thing eat him without others knowing, so he radio up to the bridge, “Simon, do you read.” His voice was shaking and he didn’t care.

“I’m here Admiral, is something rong.”

“I think something is down here, can you do a scan of maintenance shafts deck five.”

Her voice was rather wary as she did so, “Yes sir, scanning now.”

He continued quietly forward.

“Got it.”

“Anything.”

There was a pause, “No, the only signature we are picking up is yours, sir.”

“Did you try a thermal scan?”

“Yes sir, and there was nothing.”

A cold chill ran up his spine, he felt sick, and the shaking -- that had begun to die down -- started up again.

“Thanks Simon.”

“Yes sir…. Do you want me to send someone.”

“No…. No I think I’ll manage.” She must think that he was totally insane, better not let anyone else know about that little problem. His arm and body still throbbed from his fall.

He turned another corner and was just walking down the hall when he felt a set of freezing cold hands grip him from behind.

He froze as a waft of cold breath washed over his ear.

He was frozen on the spot in sheer terror.

He could feel it lean in.

“Up.” THe voice whispered in his ear.

And then the hands withdrew.

He turned sharply around fists raised, but there was nothing there. He stood there very confused before slowly, and with great fear lifting his eyes upwards, expecting to see a black eyed apparition staring down at him razor sharp teeth bared.

But instead of that he saw a gaping hole on the wiring.

One of the coolant diffusers was missing.

He frowned and leaned upwards to get a better look.

Of course , this couldn't have been the cause of the ship shut off. If it took a single coolant diffuser to shut off the entire engine, than it would be a poor design indeed. There were hundreds of these all over the ship designed to keep the warp core and fusion core cool, and for this reason the ship had backup after backup in place for if one failed. As far as he knew there were at least 500 in operation.

Though if enough of them had gone missing…. The engines might shut off to avoid a potentially dangerous warp.

It wouldn't kill them but it would get hot.

He turned down his implant, “Narobi, I think i found something.”

She responded quickly, “What is it.”

“Coolant diffuser is missing up on deck, but I don’t see how that could cause this.”

“It wouldn’t…. unless .”

“Unless what?”

“Unless it wasn’t that at all, and it was the engineering monitoring system that was tampering with.”

He was slightly confused for a moment, “What do you mean.”

“I mean i should have been alerted when that piece of equipment was removed, but I wasn’t which means our monitoring systems are offline. Or parts of it . I didn’t notice before because the engine diagnostics was still working.”

“What do you want me to do about this?”

“Mark it on the map and then head back here. I will send someone up to replace it. We have plenty of spares.” He nodded and then -- remembering she couldn't see him, agreed.

He turned and began to head back down to engineering.

That was when he sensed it again, something standing behind him. He froze his heart hammering.

“I…. I odn’t know what you want, but I…. I…” He stammered for a bit before taking a deep breath, ‘Thank you…. For telling me about the diffuser.”

IT was, suddenly, very surprising. The cold chill turned into a warm sensation blossoming up through his chest.

The fear faded away slightly and his heart began to slow.

He could still feel IT behind him, but…. It didn’t seem so bad all of a sudden.

He wasn’t sure if the word had come through in his head or if he had heard it outloud. For a moment he wondered if it was conn but dismissed that quickly. Conn felt completely different.

He turned, and instead of heading down towards engineering he slowly chased a shadow.

One that seemed to flicker in and out of existence in the distance, to the point where it would have been easy to convince himself he was seeing things.

He was led through maintenance towards the nose of the ship, through the halls and floors of the maintenance tunnels.

He was almost to the nose of the ship, when a distant clattering noise came to him.

He moved forward a little, peering quietly around the corner to where the noise was coming from.

And when he did his eyes widened.

In the dim light of his infrared eye, he watched the Kree dislodge a dampener coupling from the wall.

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quicksilversquared · 4 years ago

Text

Traps and Sneaks: Chapter 1 (of 2)

As the Guardian, it's Marinette's job to protect the Miracle Box and all of the Miraculous inside of it from evil. Obviously just sticking it away somewhere hidden isn't going to cut it, so Marinette makes a box to hide it in. A booby-trapped box. A very dangerous booby-trapped box.

And if a certain someone gets their thieving little fingers caught in it, so be it.

Having the Miracle Box just sitting around in her room was stressful.

Sure, Master Fu had left her the gramophone that he had hidden the box in when he was the Guardian, but it just didn't fit with her room. It stuck out like a sore thumb, very obviously not belonging to her. Add in the fact that Chat Noir and Hawkmoth had both seen it and knew that it was associated with the Miraculous, and only a crazy person would keep using it to hide the Miracle Box.

Despite the amount of pressure she had pushing on her from all sides, Marinette was not a crazy person. Yet, at least.

"So I know that I can't use the gramophone, but that doesn't solve the problem of what I can use," Marinette told Tikki, absentmindedly doodling on a piece of paper as she tried to brainstorm. Both gramophone and Miracle Box were hidden in her storage bench at the moment, but they couldn't stay there. "It needs to be hidden, and it needs to not stick out at all. Which, well..."

Master Fu's things don't qualify went unsaid.

"Well, you should make sure that it's locked away," Tikki told her. "And that it won't be possible for you to accidentally leave it unlocked. And then make sure that no one can accidentally stumble on it. And keep in mind that you babysit pretty often, so..."

Marinette shook her head. In her first night as Guardian, she hadn't been able to sleep at all (something that Tikki still didn't know, because she hadn't wanted to worry her kwami) and had spent the time brainstorming some initial changes that she would have to make so that she could handle her new duties without getting overwhelmed. One of the first things to come up was the fact that both Alya's sisters and Nino's brother didn't know the definition of privacy or not prying, and she was going to have all sorts of herbs and other ingredients for potions in her room. There really wasn't any way to stop babysitting Manon without questions, but Manon also wasn't over that often and it was usually during the day, when she could go to the park. "I told Nino and Alya that I can't babysit their siblings anymore, I'm just too busy. Manon will still be over sometimes, but I can make sure that we stay downstairs."

"Still, keep in mind that you have friends over pretty often," Tikki added. "So the point remains."

Marinette nodded, glancing back towards her storage bench. It did have a lock on it (which was a new addition, honestly), but it wasn't the kind that would re-lock automatically if she was in a hurry. Her friends wouldn't dig in it- or they didn't normally, at least- so theywouldn't notice if it was locked, but because of the whole not-auto-relocking thing, she would probably spend a not insignificant amount of time during fights worrying if she had remembered to re-lock it afterwards, and that would be a distraction. Especially if an akuma showed up near the bakery or worse, entered her room.

That bench had been thrown around more than once during akuma fights. If she forgot to re-lock it one day and that happened and the gramophone tumbled out, that was her secret identity spoiled. And that could not happen.

Maybe she could have a locked box for the Miracle Box inside of the locked storage bench, and then just move the emptied gramophone to storage? Then if she forgot to re-lock one of the two locks, it wouldn't matter so much. That meant that she would have to build a custom box for the Miracle Box to go in, but it wasn't as though she hadn't done that before, with her diary box-

Marinette froze. That was it! She could build a booby trap into the storage bench, to make sure that the Miracle Box would be kept safe. Or maybe it would be smarter (and easier) to build the trap into the smaller custom box that she was going to put together to hold the Miracle Box, which would then go inside of the bench. There would be less chance of someone (probably Manon) getting caught and hurt by a booby trap if it was behind not one but two sets of locks, and then she could build it into the box itself instead of adding it on later. Add on the fact that she would have to create some way to disarm the booby trap (preferably before she opened the box), plus the fact that it would be better to not have any visible alterations to her storage bench, and that made the custom box idea even more favorable.

Almost automatically, Marinette flipped her doodle-filled paper over and started sketching. The box she was going to make would have to be large enough to hold the Miracle Box, but fit closely enough that the Miracle Box wouldn't rattle around. Too tight, and she would have trouble putting it in and getting it out. She could use thick foam to line the inside, with grooves so that her fingers wouldn't have any trouble getting around the box to pull it out. It would be square, because- well, that was a fairly standard, non-descript shape. And maybe there would be a double lock on the box, too- the first one would open to a top compartment, which would just have some papers in it, maybe. The papers would hide the false bottom- well, as much as they could when the false bottom made up most of the box- and also throw off anyone who shook the box in hopes of getting a clue of what was inside. Then the lock inside would lead to the actual Miracle Box.

Now, for the outside of the box...what should it look like? She could go for the same sort of look as her diary box, young and fun and done to the best of her ability. Marinette could also try to go for something similar to the gramophone, with decorations and hidden buttons, but- well, that seemed like a lot of work, eating up a lot of time that she already didn't have to spare, and it would stand out. If someone found out that she was Ladybug, then if they stumbled across a box like that it would catch their attention at once.

And really, the same thing would apply if she went for a style like her diary box. It would be large enough and nice enough to draw someone's attention, and if there was something off about it- if it was oddly heavy or something- then that would be pretty suspicious.

Which left the option of making a box that looked sloppy, like something she might have made as a child or as a trial run when learning how to make boxes, but that was actually very solid. It would make sense to have it tucked away if it was an earlier project that hadn't turned out well, and if it looked flimsy- well, it wouldn't be something that most people would expect to be holding magical jewelry. Marinette actually had a couple boxes that she had decorated as a kid still sitting around, and- well, maybe they weren't the nicest things to look at, but they did a good enough job of holding beads and thread and whatever other art supplies Marinette needed organized.

And of course, they were also a good reminder to actually put things away once she was done with them, because Marinette wasn't exactly interested in having her earlier projects sitting out. So having the box that she was planning tucked away hopefully wouldn't raise any flags if anyone ever stumbled on it.

Smiling, Marinette considered the drawing she had just made. It was just an initial sketch, of course, and she would probably end up making some changes to it before it actually got made, but she was liking the idea more and more. Maybe making it would take up a good chunk of her already-limited free time for a bit, but that was just the price of being Guardian.

At least she had some practice making trap boxes. Sure, this one would be a step up, but it was hardly going to be going to be completely unfamiliar territory.

The box project had somehow rocketed from being a modified diary box to something much more in only a couple short days.

Marinette had pulled out a whole bunch of the kwamis to bounce the idea off of them and see if they could see any flaws in her plan, and they had very quickly brought up the point that Hawkmoth had a sword and might just try to cut his way through the booby-trapped box, bypassing the locks and whatever trap she came up with altogether. It wasn't like she was just dealing with Chloe and Sabrina again. Hawkmoth was a bigger bad, and had more tools at his disposal.

Even if he didn't have a sword, he would probably be able to get through. Marinette had seen her yo-yo's string cut through solid metal before, and Chat Noir had been able to smash a lot of things with his baton that- well, that would normally take a machine to crush like that. She had been pretty let down at that- what, did she just have to rely on doing a good job of hiding the box?- until the kwamis pointed out that Master Fu's gramophone box had been reinforced, using metal that had been enchanted by the Guardians. At first, Marinette had groaned, since she hadn't gotten that sort of training, but then she remembered one very important detail, one that somehow she had overlooked for too long.

With Feast defeated and the contents of its stomach returned to their previous places in the exact state that they had been in when the sentimonster consumed them, the Temple of the Guardians was back. The Order was back. Maybe she didn't have Master Fu as a mentor and a resource anymore, but she was hardly alone. And maybe they spoke different languages, but surely magic could help them somehow.

And that was how Marinette found herself locked in her room (to keep nosy parents and surprise friend visitors alike out) while she transformed in front of a white sheet that she had hung from her wall, hiding any identifying details. She had reached out to the temple beforehand, messaging them on her yo-yo several times before she finally got through to someone and managed to set up a video-chat time. Now, she was just nervously waiting for the Guardian that had agreed to chat with her to call.

Hopefully they would be willing to help. Hopefully they wouldn't think that she was too young and immature to hold the title of Guardian. Hopefully they wouldn't say that she had to give up her role and someone else- someone trained- would take her place.

The kwamis didn't think that it was likely. Master Fu had approved of her, she was doing a great job, and the Guardians were hardly about to relocate to Paris to take over the fight, particularly considering that there was a pretty significant language barrier.

And then her yo-yo rang. Ladybug scrambled for a second, swiping her accept call button as quickly as she could. The screen display crackled for a moment, then settled to reveal a man who- well, who was clearly transformed with a Miraculous, but his outfit was styled after a monk's robes, at least from what she could see. It wasn't the kind of outfit that would be good for fighting in, but she supposed that if they were simply studying the Miraculous and their powers, it didn't really matter if there were dangling things that could snag or be grabbed.

"Hi!" Ladybug said right away, flashing what she hoped was a confident smile. "Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me! It's very much appreciated."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and the Guardian tilted his head, considering his- well, the screen on whatever weapon he got with his transformation. Then he started talking- or, rather, his lips started moving, but there was no sound.

For a long moment, Ladybug nearly panicked- was there something wrong with the connection?- and then the audio started coming through, slightly stilted and mechanical as the kwami magic translated his words, albeit with a small lag.

"Yes, hello! It is nice to hear from you, Ladybug. I am the Guardian Master Norbu. We have heard that there is some sort of Miraculous disturbance in Paris and that you are now a Junior Guardian. We would like to offer our assistance in any way we can. Can you give us a summary of what is going on there?"

"Of course!" Ladybug said at once, her mind already whirring as she tried to figure out how to best tell Master Norbu about what was going on. "So, Hawkmoth- a Butterfly user- started attacking Paris over a year ago. We usually get an akuma once every two or three days, though there have been some times when we get several attacks in a row. We've also had one time when Hawkmoth somehow gave himself a power-up and send out hundreds of akumas at the same time. He didn't attack for a week after that, so I assume that that took a lot out of him. We've also had a Peacock user attacking. She didn't come out until his big attack, and then only came out occasionally. Master Fu thought that the Miraculous might be corrupted..." She trailed off as the Guardian held up a hand, clearly wanting to say something.

"So there are two supervillains now... how many superheroes?"

"There's two of us on full-time," Ladybug said after a pause, making sure that Master Norbu was done talking before starting to speak again. "Chat Noir and I. We have temporary superheroes that we sometimes pull in when we need a boost. Or we used to, but Hawkmoth managed to find out the identities of almost all of them with an akuma. I'm working on finding new teammates, but it's not easy."

"Yes, I can imagine that it would be difficult to quickly assess who would and would not be reliable enough to trust with a Miraculous," Master Norbu agreed. "Here, we have years to pick out kids suitable for training, and then we can decide between those kids who is worthy of holding a Miraculous and joining our ranks. It is still hard to find people, and we have dozens of us and plenty of time to look around for candidates that meet our standards."

Ladybug tried not to cringe at that and ask what their standards were. Her "standards" really just consisted of people that she knew, who she knew would return their Miraculous when asked and who she could trust to fight alongside her. And even those standards hadn't always been met- Chloe wasn't someone she trusted at all, even before she went all dark-side, but she had just needed another teammate who knew how to use their Miraculous already.

"Anyway, I interrupted," Master Norbu apologized. "Do continue."

Quickly, Ladybug summarized the rest of their situation- the frequency of the sentimonster attacks on top of the akuma attacks, the reemergence of Feast and its defeat, and Master Fu's downfall. That brought them to where they were now, with her the Paris Guardian despite her fairly basic training.

"To tell you the truth, it sounds like Wang Fu managed to pass on the majority of what he had learned before the temples fell," Master Norbu told her once she was finished. "There are somethings, like translations, that take years to learn how to do with any sort of reliable accuracy and speed. And then of course repetition and practice will help things stick better than rushed lessons."

"Right." Marinette worried her lip, then decided to dive into the reason she called. She didn't know how long she would be left uninterrupted, so it would be best for her to dive right into the problem that she needed help with. "So the reason I reached out to you is because I'm currently trying to ensure the safety of the Miracle Box. It's being stored in my room, hidden in a storage bench. I wanted to make a box that could hold it, but- well, let me show you the picture I drew. I'd want the box to be locked and have two compartments, a top bit that'll just have papers or something, and then bottom that opens to where the Miracle Box would be. And then the top would have a spring, like this box." She set aside the drawing and held up her diary box. "If I reach in and pick up the diary, like so-"

The box snapped shut over her wrist. Ladybug waved it at the Guardian, then pulled out her key to get the box off.

"I can see where you are going with that," Master Norbu said, smiling. "It looks like quite the design. My concerns with it would be if it would hold up to a Miraculous weapon, and whether someone who got trapped in it would simply be able to wrench their hand out when it snapped shut. It might be an inconvenience, but unless the trap is going to do some damage..."

"The kwamis thought that the Order might be able to make some sort of enchanted metal to go in the box to keep Hawkmoth from simply slicing it open," Ladybug told him. "It's the reason I reached out, actually. That's not something that I would know how to make, but it sounds like it would be a pretty good solution."

"We can do that. You would need to either cut and shape the pieces yourself or give us exact measurements, but it is a straightforward enough process to put on the enchantment, if you know what you're doing. And we certainly do." Master Norbu smiled at her. "It's a good plan. Do you have any further ideas about perhaps upgrading the trap hidden in the box's upper portion?"

Ladybug leaned forward, leaning her chin against her palm and her elbow against her knee, thinking it over. At first, she wasn't coming up with anything, but then her mind drifted to the sort of things she had wished on Hawkmoth in her darkest, most frustrated moments, times when she was tired and angry and tired of dealing with Hawkmoth's nonsense.

And that provided a whole slew of ideas.

"I'm thinking maybe something like a bear trap," Ladybug said slowly, taking her chin off of her hand and reaching for a notebook. "One of those ones with the teeth. Except..." She tugged her phone over to her lap, googling bear traps. "They're not supposed to break legs, just hold them. So it might be a tougher hold than my trap box, but not damaging."

"Eh, some sharpening and a few enchantments will take care of that," Master Norbu decided, nodding his head sharply. "I have a few things in mind, actually. Though you would have to come up with some sort of release mechanism to make sure that you do not get caught in the trap."

Ladybug nodded. She had a few ideas already, modifications of her diary snap box's mechanism. She could try some of those and puzzle out something that would be safe for her using just wood before transferring it into metal form. "I can do that. I came up with the mechanism for my diary box, so I know how the basic version of the spring works and how I can maybe modify it. I'll start working on some prototypes right away."

"And we will get to work on the metal for you to use," Master Norbu assured her. He glanced back and off to the side. "And I think that is my cue to go, unless there is something else that you wanted to discuss right away?"

"That's all for now," Marinette assured him. "Thank you so much!"

"It is nothing. We are happy to help. Take care, Ladybug."

"Goodbye!"

With that, the call ended. Ladybug let out a long breath- oh, wow, she had still been jittery through that entire call- and closed her yoyo, releasing her transformation. As the last sparkles faded, she turned around and started taking down the sheet she had hung as backdrop before she could forget.

Tikki zipped around her eagerly. "So? How did it go? Did they agree to help? Did they have any suggestions?"

"It went well," Marinette told her, smiling as she pulled the last corner loose and the sheet fluttered down into her arms. "And yes to both of your questions. Master Norbu agreed to make the enchanted metal right away. And he did suggest that I modify the booby trap, actually- now, it's gonna have knives."

Tikki could only blink, taken aback. "Good god."

It was all too easy to swing by a hardware store across the city after a weekend akuma attack ended there. Marinette picked her way through the store, familiar enough with the layout that it didn't take long at all for her to figure out what she needed for both her box and for her prototype spring trap.

There were a lot of gears and wires and screws that were going to be involved, and she was going to have to look at her lock mechanisms to see how she could ensure that it would all tie together and never fail on her. But she had gotten a lot of things to play with so that she could hopefully have something to report the next time that she checked in with Master Norbu.

And then it was time to start the trial-and-error process of making the snap mechanism.

It was difficult.

There were moving parts everywhere, it seemed, and connections that had to be just so. Pieces for the different components kept getting tangled up, wires and gears snarling and coming to a stop before they could do what they were meant to.

"Maybe you should break the trap down to its separate parts," Tikki suggested. "There's the lock, the connection between the lock and the spring, and then the spring for the trap."

"And the extra thing that I wanted to put in, to lock the bear trap in place when it closes, and how that would tie into the lock release," Marinette added. "Which will have to be cast in the enchanted metal. Everything that will be exposed from the top will be. But as long as I have the pieces, in theory we'd be able to cast them? I'd assume so, at least. I don't really have any experience with metalworking." She tipped her head to the side, considering the mess of gears in front of her. "Breaking it down into those steps makes sense, though. Then I can figure out exactly where things are going wrong."

"Exactly!"

Marinette considered the pieces sprawled out in front of her. After a moment, she pushed the majority of the mess to the side, pulling her faux-trap (made of wood, because that was easy enough to throw together) in front of her. That was the main part and the most important, so everything here had to be solid and perfect. If it wasn't, then any of her intended safety measures elsewhere would be useless. Like this, it was easier to see her pieces and how they fit together. All of a sudden, the path forward became obvious and Marinette flung herself into her work again, test-fitting gears and putting them in place. An improved spring mechanism came together in a flash, closely followed by the piece that would lock the trap shut, making it completely resistant to being pried open. Then there had to be a connection between that and the actual lock so that it could be disarmed when she unlocked the box properly, even if the unlocking happened after the trap shut.

It was a pity that she wouldn't be able to show anyone else her work, really. All of the moving parts- the majority of which had to be positioned so that they could be hidden- were an absolute beast to wrestle with and would definitely be worth some extra credit if she could show Madam Mendeleev. But that wasn't the point of the trap, and she had to make sure that she didn't do anything to make anyone suspicious about what she was up to.

Even if she could really use the extra credit in Math since an akuma attack had meant that she hadn't been able to study for the latest test properly.

"Don't forget to take breaks," Tikki cautioned as Marinette added a small piece that- when the box was unlocked and the trap was disarmed- would flip from showing the red side to the green side, just in case. She knew how much of a rush she tended to be in when she had to come get more Miraculous during akuma attacks, so the additional warning- or reassurance, whichever- about whether things were disarmed or not would be much appreciated, even with all of the other failsafes in place. "And don't forget your homework! I know you want to have a prototype ready ASAP, but you can't neglect your civilian responsibilities."

"No worries there, I'm all caught up," Marinette assured her. "I worked ahead on my homework while I was waiting for the Guardians to get back to me, and then I've been getting little stuff like readings done between classes." It was normally time that she would spend chatting with Alya and her other friends and classmates, but between the fact that she needed to not be letting herself get overwhelmed thanks to schoolwork piling up because of akuma attacks and the fact that Lila seemed to spend the time between classes holding court, it wasn't exactly a tough choice. She reached over, tapping the small calendar that sat on her desk. It was a new addition, but a useful one. "And I can see when I have things due, so they won't sneak up on me like they did before. I've learned!"

Tikki perked up. "Oh, right! I knew that. You're doing a good job, Marinette!"

"I try." Marinette flashed a smile at her kwami, then turned back to her work. "Now, to attach all of this to the lock..."

The making of the actual box came next, after Marinette was satisfied with her mock-up of the trap and how well it worked. A few small details had needed to be ironed out before she declared that step complete- it was absolutely critical that nothing could get jolted out of place if the box got knocked around, both so that the trap wouldn't stay armed by accident and so that the entire lock wouldn't jam up at some critical moment and refuse to disarm and open- and so Marinette's demo rig had undergone several rounds of rigorous shaking, knocking around, testing, and fixing.

But now it was absolutely rock solid and she could get to the next part. Making the box would be easy enough- a friend of her dad's owned plenty of woodworking tools, and he was willing to let her use them under his supervision, or, if the tool was deemed too dangerous for her skill level, he would listen to what she wanted and then do the work for her. All she had to do was have all of her plans ready, and then she could reach out and probably have that part done and over with in an afternoon. It would be easy-peasy. She had the time.

Or at least she would if she could persuade the Guardians that really, now was not the time for them to try to do long-distance learning to continue her training. Apparently they had held a meeting after her call to Master Norbu and were concerned about a Guardian in an active battle zone having had such limited training. Obviously it wouldn't be practical for her to move and join them, but they could send assignments. And they had sent assignments, with the clear expectation that she would complete them as soon as possible. And the number of assignments kept increasing, faster than Marinette could ever hope to finish them. There were readings and spells and potions and ingredients to learn the properties of and details about side powers that different Miraculous had, ones that became more available as users got more advanced but only in certain conditions...

It was all interesting information, and useful, but it was a lot, and it seemed like the Order was expecting her to read through and study everything right away. So Ladybug had to bring it up when Master Norbu called to check in with her.

"Okay, I can see where this information might come in handy and obviously it's a good idea to have a solid base to work off of and more information means more tools for me to use, but I don't have time to add extra lessons on top of everything else and still do the box, and I think that's a priority," Ladybug told the older Guardian. She had only managed to finish one of the 'assignments' that had been sent, and just looking at the others piling up was exhausting. Exhausting and stressful and anxiety-inducing. She didn't want to appear ungrateful, or as though she didn't appreciate the Order's efforts to get her better trained, or like she wasn't taking her role seriously, but hadn't she already given up enough of her free time and her life to the Miraculous? Was she going to be expected to devote her every waking hour- at least those not spent in school- to the Miraculous, too? "And if I try to get all of it done, I'm going to end up all stressed out, and that's not safe with the Butterfly on the loose."

Master Norbu considered that, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Yes, I can understand that. Trying to learn while stressed is less than ideal for retaining information, too. Would there be a time where you could do the lessons without overstretching yourself? Some are quite important. For example..." He glanced off to the side, picking up a stack of paper and flipping through it before landing on a particular page. "The potions are quite important, I would say. Particularly the one I picked out for you to practice. It is a healing potion, and would come in handy if you or Chat Noir got injured outside of the suit. Or if something went wrong with the trap and it ended up mangling your hand. It is a difficult potion, but I know you have made other ones before and that one would be particularly useful."

"Oh, I hadn't even seen that assignment yet." It felt terrible to admit, but the assignments had been piling up so much that it had been stressing her out more and more to even look at them. "I agree, though. That would be one to prioritize for sure."

"I can mark ones to prioritize," Master Norbu told her. "Ones that would be of immediate use and properly relevant to you. In our excitement over having a new Guardian to train, I believe that several of us temporarily forgot that you are in the middle of a battle zone and might not have the time for all of the regular training."

"That would be great." Ladybug let out a long breath, not sure if she was feeling more stressed or less. One or two lessons she could probably manage as long as the Order didn't expect them to be done right away, but if things were marked priority then maybe they would expect that she get them done quickly. "As for the others... I do have holidays from school. Summer holiday in particular would be the best for getting Miraculous lessons done. They're not coming up super soon, but I won't have to deal with other homework then."

"That will have to do," Master Norbu decided. "We do not want to add stress to your plate. No, I know that we want her to learn everything!" he called to someone off-screen. "But we cannot ignore Ladybug's other responsibilities, which are many in number, or her mental health. We will focus on the practical and the helpful, and those can be done when you have the time to spare. The Miracle Box's safety should come first, you are correct, as should your stability. Let us know if you have all of the ingredients you need for the potion. If not, we can arrange to get them to you when we have the metal ready for your box. Speaking of which- I am assuming that we are still waiting on exact measurements?"

Ladybug nodded. "Yeah. The guy who's helping me with the tools for the box might have more suggestions and that could affect some of the measurements. Probably not, since the measurements inside have to stay the same to hold the Zodiac Box, but just in case."

"Remember to account for the thickness of the metal inside," Master Norbu reminded her. "I would hate for you to get the box near completion and then have to redo all of it because of an oversight like that."

"Of course." She had been sure to ask them for the thickness of the metal for that exact purpose, and given herself a little extra wriggle room just in case. It wasn't much- and it would easily be accounted for by a little bit of extra foam- but it would make sure that her entire project wasn't destroyed by metal that wasn't quite the right thickness or a cut that was a few millimeters off.

"Good." Master Norbu looked pleased. "I'm glad that you're taking everything into consideration. Will you have the wood pieces finished soon? We have all of the metal enchanted and ready to cut and mold as soon as we get the word."

"Definitely," Ladybug assured him. "I was going to reach out to the guy I know who has power tools today. I just had to do this call first, and then I can see when he'll be available to help me with picking out the wood and using the tools."

Master Norbu's eyebrows rose. "Well! I do not want to keep you, then. I hope to hear from you soon, Ladybug."

"Of course!"

The wood pieces were cut, and all of the enchanted metal had been Portaled from Tibet to Paris. The metal sheets were just like Ladybug had requested, the gears cast perfectly- and even with a few extras, should one or two tumble off of Marinette's desk and get lost- and the bear trap parts all made and sharpened beyond belief.

Marinette shook out her hand with a wince as she glanced towards the finished knifelike blades of the trap. Her finger had just brushed against one of the sharpened teeth earlier as she was laying out the pieces, and it had cut her- not badly, but enough to hurt. Thankfully she had pre-made the healing potion and had been able to vanish the cut away to nothing but a memory in no time, but it was obvious that she was going to have to be very, very careful.

Thankfully, the Order had also made a leather guard to go over the teeth, just to make it a little safer to handle while she assembled everything. Otherwise, Marinette really wouldn't know how she was going to handle it well enough to make sure that everything was securely attached into place. Even with the guard on, she was going to have to be careful.

The inner box went together first, and then the metal layer on the outside. The shoddy-looking outer layer was put on top of that, hiding the metal altogether. That change in the design had been suggested by her father's friend, actually, and had been both so that the metal would be hidden and secret and to make it easier for her to put the box together.

It took a little bit to get the cuts for the keyholes all lined up, and then those- both the regular lock, and the 'mistake' lock for the trap- were inserted before the last screws were bolted into place on the box, holding the outer layer together firmly. Then, very carefully, Marinette started fitting the gears and connections together for the spring and the trap.

Thankfully she had told her parents that she had a Very Serious Project that she had to work on (for school, she had claimed) and that they were not to interrupt her, and if any of her friends came over unexpectedly to hang out, she wasn't available and they couldn't come up. The only thing that could possibly interrupt her now was an akuma.

"Does it feel good to have this be the final product?" Tikki asked as Marinette slotted another gear into place. "Knowing that once this is done, you're going to get to use it and not have to worry about it anymore?"

"I worry that I'll mess something up on this and that would be bad, but that's why I went to the dump and got all of that scrap wood." Marinette nodded over to the partially-hidden pile of wood- mostly old table and chair legs that she had collected. There was a lot of it, but that- and the fact that it would have been hard to explain to literally anyone- was the reason why she had used the Horse to go to the dump in the first place to get the scrap wood. "But yeah, it's going to be nice to see everything come together and not have that project hanging over my head."

Tikki smiled, then tilted her head to the side, considering the box. "I thought it would look- well, messier. I thought you said that you wanted it to look like a beginner's project."

"Yeah, but too messy, and it'll be pretty obvious that I was doing it on purpose. You'll see." Marinette checked her prototype again to make sure that she was doing everything right, then picked up the next piece. "It's a balancing act. That, and I didn't want to have to deal with splinters, which would have been the most obvious sign of a beginner project."

"Ooh, yeah, that wouldn't be any fun!"

"And it would have looked pretty odd, if my parents saw it," Marinette added. She frowned at the piece in her hand, then swapped it out for a different one, just a little smaller. "They know that Dad's friend does all of the cutting and helps with the sanding. Even if this was one of my earliest projects, they would know something was up if the pieces weren't cut right. Besides, splinters are fairly easy to fix- a regular square of sandpaper could probably help a lot, and even if I was younger and just doing the project for fun, I would do that much at least."

All of the gears and other pieces were together by lunch, when Marinette took a short break to actually eat something. As soon as she was done and her dishes were cleaned up, she returned upstairs to finish up the structure of the box itself and put the last bits of the trap together.

And then it was time to make the box look like a beginner's project.

"See, I have this putty that will go over the screws and hide them," Marinette told Tikki as she worked, carefully hiding each screw under a smoothed layer of putty. She would have to sand it down later, but that wasn't a big deal at all. "And then I have these really terrible nails that I'm going to be putting in. They probably won't all go in completely straight, and it'll look like they're the only thing holding the box together. Add in the fact that the outer layer of wood is really thin and cheap-looking 'cause it's plywood, and it'll look like I don't know what I'm doing."

"And the reason why the trap lock is crooked is because it's supposed to look like a mistake, right?"

"Exactly." It had hurt her inside just a little to deliberately put the lock in crooked- upside down and crooked, no less- but she wanted it to look like she had done a practice run with the lock on a bit of scrap plywood and then had to use the piece in her box. That way, she didn't have to worry about hiding the lock to disarm the bear trap somehow. Marinette finished the screw she was on, then flipped the box over in her hands, looking for any screws that she missed. "We're getting close, Tikki."

Tikki cheered, zipping around in a circle. "Great! And then the Miracle Box will be safe, and we don't have to worry about Hawkmoth enslaving any more kwamis!"

"Exactly." Marinette finished hiding the last exposed screw and sat back, examining her work. "Now that just has to dry before I can sand it and put any varnish on. While we wait- Tikki, can you pass me the nails?"

The box was done, and it was glorious.

Maybe it didn't look that way from the outside, with the uneven nails and obvious plywood visible under the splodgy, uneven varnish. But the bear trap inside was absolutely perfect- Marinette had spent a lot of time testing it, poking the box with her scrap wood both when the trap was set and when it was disarmed to make sure that everything was working right- and unless someone knew what they were looking for, they weren't very likely to notice the signs that the box wasn't quite what it appeared to be. The lock to the box itself re-locked automatically when it was closed, and the lock for the trap had to be re-locked before the key would come out, which ensured that she would remember to re-set it before she took off again.

The Order was duly impressed when she showed the box off over video call. Master Norbu had been joined by several other Guardians and they had watched as Ladybug showed off the box and the damage that it caused when she didn't disarm the trap before opening it.

"That is quite well engineered," Master Lhami told Ladybug as she finished demonstrating and explaining how disarming the trap ensured that it wouldn't go off, even if the box got knocked around a bit. "I know Master Norbu mentioned that you are interested in clothing design, but clearly engineering would not be much of a stretch, either."

Ladybug ducked her head, hoping that she wasn't turning red. "Thank you. It- it was a challenging project, but I'm happy with the result."

"As you should be. I do not think that many people would have been able to come up with something like that, particularly if they had as many other things demanding their attention as you have had." Master Norbu smiled at her. "I cannot remember if I passed on the message, but our metalworkers were quite pleased with how exact and detailed your instructions for the pieces were. They appreciated not having to go back and forth to hammer out details."

Ladybug smiled wider. "I'm glad to hear that. They did a very good job. All of the pieces were perfect."

"It is a pity that the genius in the trap had to be hidden behind cheap wood and a poor-looking exterior, but I can understand the decision behind it," another one of the Guardians- not one that Ladybug was familiar with- chimed in. "Most people would not bother going after the locks on a box that looks like a beginner's project, and that is the important thing."

There were murmurs of agreement at that and nods all around.

"I know that a box like that would likely be the last place I would look if I were in a villain's shoes," Master Norbu added in. "Though I would still hide it well, which I know that you've already discussed doing." He smiled at her. "As far as first impressions go, Miss Ladybug, I think it's fair to say that you have exceeded our expectations."

"Thank you," Ladybug managed. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. "I couldn't have done it without your help."

The call finished with a few more exchanges of pleasantries and a few suggestions of what she might find most helpful to look at next in her assignments. Ladybug ended the call with a smile and a wave, then hung up and released her transformation. Tikki flitted free, zipping eagerly around Marinette.

"Did they like it?"

"They loved it," Marinette assured her kwami. "They really liked my demonstration with the last of the chair legs, too. I think it really helped assure them that the Miraculous are safe and that I'm taking my role as Guardian seriously."

Tikki sniffed. "If anyone thought that you weren't taking it seriously, I would question their judgement! You've been very focused." She zipped around to perch on Marinette's desk, still beaming. "And now you're all done with that project! What are you doing next? Maybe you can take a small break from Guardian stuff and sew that dress you were talking about! I know you have the fabric, I can find the design-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Marinette laughed. "I'm not quite done yet." She picked up the box from its spot on her desk, heading over to her storage bench and opening it. Pushing aside the pile of presents inside, she tucked the box at the very bottom and covered it back up before closing the bench. That got locked, too. "The box is done and hidden, but I still have to clean up. There's a reason why I didn't put the Horse miraculous away earlier. If mom and dad see all of the splintered table and chair legs, they're going to have questions."

"Ooh, and questions aren't a good thing!" Tikki agreed, zipping forward to help. She started gathering up splinters, tossing them into the trash. "I'll help clean up. Then we can have a fun break before diving into the Guardian stuff again!"

Marinette smiled. "Now that sounds like a plan."

#Miraculous Ladybug #my writing #marinette dupain cheng #traps and sneaks

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electrickoushi · 4 years ago

Text

cook me up some love

a/n: my first work in my valentine’s series! i literally wrote this at 6am because i woke up and couldn’t sleep, so if something doesn’t make sense.... please ignore haha. thank you for reading :)

pairing: miya osamu x suna rintarou tags: fluff, like 4 suggestive lines, the word kink twice at the end wc: 1.7k

Rintarou can’t remember when or why he agreed to working as the cashier at Onigiri Miya on Valentine’s Day, yet here he is, ringing couples up who are actually getting the chance to enjoy their special day. Naturally, his sour mood doesn’t go unnoticed by Osamu though, who had planned a special surprise for his boyfriend all along.

The restaurant smelled like spices and ingredients and whatever the hell else Osamu put into his cooking.

Rintarou clicked the button on the register with his index finger to open and close the drawer with a ding each time. His face rested on his hand, squishing his cheek and molding his expression into one of pure boredom.

“Excuse me.”

Rintarou looked up to find a couple waiting to pay for their meal. He wordlessly took the receipt, entered the total, took their money or swiped their card, gave them their change if they had any, stabbed the receipt onto the pointy thing, gave them another receipt, wished them a Happy Valentine’s Day, and returned to playing with the register.

This happened countless times until Rintarou felt the angry eyes of his boyfriend on his back. He gulped. Everyone knew you didn’t mess with Osamu when it came to his cooking and restaurant.

“Rin, please stop that. I've had multiple customers complain about you.”

At least he’s still using a nickname, which means I can’t be in too much trouble.

“Sorry.” He clicked it again, the register drawer flying open.

“Rintarou!” Osamu growled.

Oh, he was in for it now.

Osamu was already sweaty and stressed from being the head chef of the kitchen. His boyfriend’s antics that were driving away customers was just the cherry on top to an already difficult evening.

“You, watch the register,” Osamu snapped. “I need to have a talk with Suna here.”

Oh God, last name basis. That’s bad.

He dragged the faux cashier into the storage room where they wouldn’t be bothered and Osamu could properly yell at him without disrupting the customers.

At least, that’s what Rintarou thought.

Instead, when Osamu shut the door, he turned around and hugged Rintarou.

“I’m sorry for making you work tonight. I know you’d rather be at home, watching a movie or something.”

Rintarou was surprised but wrapped his arms around Osamu’s shoulders. “I just want to be with you. I hate seeing all these couples enjoying their Valentine’s Day while you’re stuck in the kitchen. I hardly ever get to see you.”

Osamu kissed his boyfriend’s cheek, taking in a whiff of his cologne. He ran a hand through Rintarou’s brown hair and felt him soften at the touch. “I know, but I have a surprise for later tonight. Didn’t you wonder why I decided to close early on such a profitable night?”

“Nine is considered early?”

“For a day like this, yes. So just work a few more hours for me and then we close, and I’ll have your surprise all ready. Can you do that?”

Rintarou found himself nodding along, enjoying the way Osamu’s hand felt running along his scalp and his hot breath tickling his ear. Osamu’s other hand was rubbing small circles on his waist.

“You know,” Rintarou started, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand to lead it higher. “I think it’s pretty soundproof in here, as in no one would hear us if we just-”

“Shit, I forgot I have something on the stove. Okay, see you later!” Osamu kissed him once more, this time on the lips, and shut the door behind him.

Rintarou gaped, realizing he just got played for the fool he was. Like a child, he was placated by the promise of a surprise. And to think, he believed he got the less evil twin.

Rintarou stepped out of the storage and resumed his position as cashier. The dinging stopped now that his mind was focused on something else. Namely, being fucked in the storage room of a restaurant owned by his boyfriend.

“Sir, can we pay now?”

God, he really needed to stop spacing out.

“Yeah, sorry.” He rang them up and told them to have a good night.

Every so often, Osamu would come out of his kitchen and check on Rintarou. It was under the guise of affection but he knew that Osamu was just making sure he wasn’t aggravating any more customers.

It was 8:45 when Osamu had flipped the sign and told the hostess to stop letting people in. Hopefully that would mean people would leave relatively soon, but some stayed until they were explicitly told to get out by an employee. That was Rintarou’s favorite part of the job.

The fifteen minutes passed by so slowly that Rintarou started to think the clocks were broken. He missed Osamu.

Yikes, when did I start sounding like such a simp?

Only one couple was left, and they had been sitting there for a good hour. Rintarou would know because when he got bored with playing with the register, he would people watch. This couple in particular seemed to be in a brand new relationship, the stage where you asked surface level questions and gave surface level answers.

By 9:05, Osamu walked past Rintarou at the counter and towards the couple.

“Hello, we are closed now, and I see that you two have finished. I hope you enjoyed your meal. If you could just pay and leave please, I would greatly appreciate that.”

“We wanted to order dessert,” the woman said, looking at the desert menus posted on each table.

“The kitchens are closed.”

The man interjected, “You’re the head chef, right? The Miya that runs this place. Can’t you just whip something up? It shouldn’t take that long.”

“Like I said, sir, the kitchens are closed.”

Rintarou watched the exchange. He knew his boyfriend could handle it since he’s dealt with so many rude customers over the months. That didn’t mean Rintarou liked seeing his boyfriend get stepped on though. Being nice and polite was very much an Osamu thing, but Rintarou never believed in such diplomacy.

He got up and walked towards the table. “Get out.”

Osamu and the couple looked at Rintarou.

“How rude. Are you going to let your employee talk to me like that? He should be fired,” the man said, glaring at Rintarou.

The brunette wasn’t fazed. He just glared back, using the same stone-cold expression he used to intimidate his opponents on the court.

“He’s right. Get out of my restaurant and don’t ever come back again,” Osamu sneered, fed up with their behavior. They had no right to treat Rintarou like that, or himself, for that matter.

The couple shuffled out of their booth and walked away, the woman’s heels clicking on the ground. Osamu rolled his eyes and took their dishes.

“Sorry they didn’t pay,” Rintarou said. If he hadn’t butted in, Osamu might have gotten somewhere with them, but patience was never his strong suit.

“It’s fine. I’m glad you got them to leave.”

Rintarou followed Osamu as he walked back into the kitchen and dumped their dishes into a giant sink. He rolled up his sleeves before spraying the food off them and slotting them into their giant industrial dishwasher. Rintarou felt like he should help, but he just watched, enamored with the simple action of his boyfriend doing dishes.

A few minutes later, the hostess came up to Osamu and said something in his ear. Rintarou didn’t even realize she was still here. He couldn’t hear what they said over the running water, but it must have been something important since Osamu nodded and dried his hands. He shut the water off and smiled at Rintarou.

“Close your eyes.”

“I do not want to run into a hot stove and die.”

Osamu slapped two hands over Rintarou’s eyes. “Walk forward. It’s literally a straight line from here.”

Rintarou did as he was told. He was led to a table by his boyfriend who was grumbling about how he walked at the pace of a grandpa.

Osamu removed his hands, and Suna blinked rapidly to adjust to the lighting. He looked up to find Osamu with his apron on and a pad of paper in hand. The table was set for two, even though neither of them needed a menu.

“Hello, welcome to Onigiri Miya. My name is Osamu, and I’ll be your server today. Can I get you started with a drink?”

Rintarou cracked a smile. “Osamu…”

“Since you won the boyfriend lottery, everything’s on the house today and will be cooked by yours truly.”

Well he wasn’t going to say no to that.

Osamu bent down, briefly shedding his character. “You want your regular?” he asked, tucking the pen and paper away.

Rintarou nodded and Osamu stood back up. “That’ll be right up, sir.”

The nice hostess brought him a glass of water while Osamu worked his magic in the kitchen. Rintarou sipped on his water before getting up and changing the music on the speakers since he had boyfriend privileges.

The cheery pop music shut off and was replaced with his and Osamu’s shared playlist. Arctic Monkeys floated throughout the restaurant.

Sitting back down, Rintarou waved goodbye to the hostess. She waved back and wished him a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Only a few seconds later, Osamu came out with two plates of steaming food. He set the plates down before sitting down himself.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Rin,” Osamu smiled before shoving a ginormous bite of rice into his mouth.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Samu.”

They ate and talked happily, remarking on various customers and incidents that happened during the day. Drinks spilled on tables, people dined and dashed, minor fires that almost burned the entire place down started in the kitchen, the usual really.

After they ate more than enough leftover heart-shaped cookies, Osamu cleared their plates and dumped them in the sink, deeming them a problem for tomorrow.

He did some owner stuff that Rintarou never bothered to understand before shutting the lights off in the kitchen.

“How’s the storage room looking?” Rintarou asked, side eyeing his boyfriend.

“We can just go home, you know. Or is it a kink thing?”

Rintarou admitted unabashedly, “It’s definitely a kink thing. Put your apron back on. I’ve dreamt of this moment for a good four hours now.”

Osamu shoved the keys back into his pocket and dropped his bag on the closest chair. He dug his dirty apron out, letting his boyfriend drape it over his neck.

“Suna Rintarou, you sure are something else.”

#elliewrites #fluff #ffaf #haikyuu #osamu x suna #osasuna #hq oneshot

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smarchit · 4 years ago

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Poetry for an Heiress, Chapter 3

Word Count: 5.1k

Summary: When a duchess and her children are abandoned far from home, they must rely on the kindness of one stranger to guide them home.

Warnings: None (for this chapter)

"Mr. Ezra," Henry called ahead as you walked back to the little house. He jogged a little to keep up with the older man's stride. "Why do you only have one arm?"

Your jaw dropped. It was, you supposed, only a matter of time before one of the children asked it. The fact that it was Henry surprised you slightly, as you honestly thought Marie would ask first. "Henry Avery!" you cried in surprise. "Shame on you, I taught you better than to ask things like that."

Ezra laughed and shook his head. "It's quite alright, Princess, don't worry about it. It's actually quite an interesting story. You see, I lost it to a six-fingered man. Villainous man, you see--"

"I know that story!" Henry cried. "You're making it up!"

"Oh, you wound me," Ezra laughed. "Fine. I was battling my arch-nemesis when he cut it off and dramatically revealed that he was my real father!"

"Come on!" Aiden shouted from beside you. "We know that one too!"

"Your highness, you have very well-read children," he said, turning to face you. "It makes it extraordinarily difficult to pull the proverbial wool over their eyes. Fine then, if you must know, I lost it to pirates. One, an innocent, mind you, was protecting her hide. I admit that my injury was more than justified."

You gave Henry a look and frowned at him. He really should know better. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ezra," you said, "My children know they shouldn't ask personal things like that."

"Oh, that's quite alright," Ezra said as he opened up the front door to the house. "Inquiring minds want to know. And children tend to ask the best questions, after all."

"Tell Mr. Ezra thank you for today," you said, putting your hands behind your back. "And go upstairs and wash up. I will be up shortly." You motioned for the children to go upstairs before you turned back to Ezra. "I am so grateful for what you did today. I don't think I can ever thank you enough. You very well may have saved our lives."

Ezra tutted and waved his hand away. "I am just thankful I was there when I was. Some day, you will have to tell me how you came upon our little haven. That can be my thanks." With that, he turned and walked up the stairs, your knapsack in hand.

Once the children had finally settled down into the small guest bedroom, you slowly, silently, crept out and shut the door behind you. All you needed was for Marie to ask for her third glass of water or for one more story. You were exhausted from the day's events. There was only so much excitement you could take for one day.

You spotted Ezra across the hall in his own room, gathering up a few items to take downstairs with him. He looked up at you and smiled as he finished collecting his things.

On the short walk back to the house from the barn, before Henry had asked his rather inappropriate question, Ezra had insisted you take his bedroom since it was larger. You stated that you wanted to stay with the children in case they got frightened in the night. Ezra had pointed out that the spare room and the main bedroom were directly across the tiny, cramped upstairs hallway from one another. If the children became frightened, they would be able to just run across the hall and get you.

You had felt terrible about commandeering Ezra's bed when he first suggested it after you had put the children to bed. He should have his own bed to sleep in since he had so generously opened his home to you.

"Princess, think nothing of it," he said as he cleared off a few books from the bedside table. "I would not be able to sleep in here knowing you were uncomfortable elsewhere."

He had managed to locate an old hammock he had back from his harvesting days in a storage bin somewhere in the crawlspace. All it needed was a good knot tied off from a rafter and it was good to go. Ezra explained that he kept the tiny wood burning stove going all night anyway, so any worry you may have had about it being too cold was washed away.

After you gave yourself a quick scrub down in the basin in the bedroom, you did your best to wash out the mud from your nightgown. Hopefully the worst of them would come out with a better wash soon. You hung the damp nightgown and robe from a hook by the window and climbed into the bed.

As you were drifting off, you couldn't help but notice how nice Ezra's blankets smelled. His bedding, you imagined, smelled exactly like how he did. Earthy, with just the softest tang of sweat, combined with a pleasant herbal mix. You hadn't smelled something so wonderful since your husband passed. If anything, this smell was far better.

You rolled over, pressed your nose against the pillow, and slipped off into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, you were awoken by delighted chatter coming through the open window. Sunlight streamed in and warmed your cheeks as you slowly opened your eyes.

It took a second to remember where you were. The events of the previous day flooded back and you sighed. It hadn't been a dream. You were stuck on this planet, Muir, as Ezra had called it.

In the daylight, you took the time to glance around Ezra's bedroom. Bundles of drying flowers and herbs hung from the ceiling, no doubt adding to the scent of his blankets. The walls were barely decorated, except for one tiny round mirror that hung near the door.

You swung your legs out of bed and fetched your nightgown from the hook. Blessedly, it was dry and no longer smelled like dirt from the trek through the woods.

Peaking into the children's room, you were surprised to find the bed was already made, with Marie's stuffed dog settled neatly against the pillows.

You followed the voices down the narrow stairs and out the front door to the yard. It seemed as though the children were quite busy with "helping" Ezra around the farm. You had to wonder just how much work was actually getting done.

"Mama!" Marie screeched when she spotted you. She took off running full sprint and launched herself into your arms. "Mama, mama! Mr. Ezra showed us the animals! He said we could help him take care of them!"

"Oh, did he?" you asked, tucking a curl behind her ear. "And are you listening to Mr. Ezra and doing what he asks you?"

She nodded excitedly. "Yes, mama. He said I can gather eggs from the chickens."

Ezra wandered over, a small basket in his hand and a smile on his face. "The key, little bird, is to not leave your hard work behind. We need these eggs to eat. They won't do us any good sitting in the basket next to the pen."

"Oh," she said sheepishly. "Sorry, Mr. Ezra."

"That's quite alright," he replied. "I heard no complaints from the girls, so you must've done a stellar job of gathering their eggs. You did a much better job than your brothers."

"Should I ask what they've gotten themselves into?" you asked, setting Marie down. She skipped off towards the barn, the little egg basket abandoned yet again.

"Oh, nothing bad," Ezra assured. "I tried teaching them to milk the goats. That went over about as well as you would expect it to, I suppose. The one boy seemed a faster learner than the other."

You chuckled and took the basket from him. "Henry was always a fast learner. He likes to do things hands-on, whereas Aiden tries to solve his problems with words."

Ezra smiled at the way you talked about your children. "Aiden and I are quite similar, I should say."

"Not always a bad thing," you replied. "He might make an excellent ruler some day."

"I've gotten myself into a few situations where I wished I would have sat back and assessed the situation first rather than running my mouth." He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Many things might even have turned out differently if I thought about what I should say before I even said it."

You nodded and gave him a knowing smile. You knew what he was talking about, having wished yourself that you had kept your mouth shut several times while in court with your mother and grandmother. Not wanting to discuss your personal history with him just yet, you looked off to the field where you saw the boys gathering vegetables with one another.

"I'm sure the goat is unhappy," you hummed. "Violated, even."

"She chased them around the yard for twenty minutes or so afterwards before I put the boys out to work in the field," he chuckled, shaking his head. "I will teach those boys how to properly milk a goat."

"Would you like me to help with anything?" you asked, realizing that you hadn’t even offered your own hand around the farm. You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. "I would love to assist in any way I can around here."

Ezra thought for a minute and looked around. "The only thing that comes to mind is the flower garden could use some tender loving care. I am loath to say that I have been neglecting it, sadly. There is, regrettably, only so much I am able to do one-handed."

You turned around to where Ezra had gestured with a nod and frowned at the tiny, overgrown plot.

"I have seen less frightful cemeteries," you said dryly. You turned back to Ezra with a smile. "I am happy to help."

He nodded once as he bent to pick up the egg basket. "Princess, I am thrilled beyond reason that you are so eager to aid a poor scoundrel like myself."

"I wouldn't consider you a scoundrel, Mr. Ezra," you said, clasping your hands in front of you.

Ezra chuckled and blushed slightly. "Now, "Mr. Ezra" almost makes me sound like a dapper gentleman," he said, straightening his back, "And while I appreciate the title from the children, I fear it does not fit me."

"You don't like it?" you asked with a frown. You didn’t mean to offend him in any way, given it was just the proper way of addressing any man, but you’ve never met someone who minded the title.

"Just Ezra is fine for you to call me, miss," he said softly. "Calling me "Mr." makes me sound so formal."

"Ezra," you hummed with a smile. "You know, I believe you're right. That suits you much better."

Ezra ducked his head a bit and mumbled your name before he hurried off towards his house.

You walked towards the shed to collect a basket for any weeds that you would pull up in the garden. It wasn't as grand as the gardens at home, but at least you could tend to this one personally. You had a tiny personal garden on your balcony, and you were always able to keep it full and beautiful in the warmer months. A green thumb, your mother had once said. You always wished you could tend to the larger gardens instead of just overseeing their care.

For the short time you would be here, however, you were determined to make this tiny garden healthy and beautiful. It was the least you could do.

Ezra had treated you all so kindly yesterday, and his intentions seemed to be true. You idly wondered why you immediately felt like you could trust him. His presence filled you with a sense of safety and security that you had not felt in so long.

You spread your robe down on the ground in front of the garden and got to work, yanking up weeds and grasses to the root. It was the only time when you were in the palace that you weren't expected to adhere to the strict dress code or rules set by your grandmother. No gowns or headdresses, or gloves. No constricting clothing. Just the dirt on your hands and under your nails that grandmother would then chide you about later.

You didn't even notice until Ezra tapped you on the shoulder that the sun had risen high in the sky.

"Lunchtime," he said brightly. "Come and enjoy the fruits of this morning's labor. Get out of the sun for a while - your shoulders are fit to burn if you stay out here much longer in the midday sun, Princess. And you really should eat something too. The last thing we need is for you to pass out from hunger."

As if on cue, your stomach rumbled loudly, protesting the fact that you hadn't eaten breakfast. It was easy to lose yourself in a garden.

"Already?" you asked, wiping sweat from your brow.

"Now you sound like your flock, Princess," he chuckled, extending his hand to help you up. Your hand gently grabbed onto his, a small noise of strain coming from your mouth. Your muscles ached from being in the same position for so long. "Come, see the feast they've made for us. I think you will be quite impressed with them."

He offered you his arm to take as you dusted off your skirts, and you hooked yours through his as you walked back towards the house.

"Hello, mama!" Henry said when you entered. It looked like he'd tried to clean up a little, though there was still dirt on his brow.

"Hello, my darlings," you cooed, bringing them all in for a hug. You looked at the wooden kitchen table with pride at what you saw. The children (aided heavily by Ezra, no doubt) had indeed prepared a feast for lunch. Vegetables covered nearly of the table, with small plates of cheese placed precariously throughout. "My goodness, you've all been very busy!"

"Mr. Ezra helped us!" Aiden said, giving you a squeeze with his arms. "He said we had to make a meal fit for a duchess!"

Ezra blushed as he moved around you towards his seat. It was always the little ones who blabbered a bit too much, not that you would find anything in that statement, hopefully. "Or a princess."

You smiled and kissed the tops of each of the children's heads. "Well, eat up! I'm so proud of all of you!"

The children beamed and scrambled to sit down at the mismatched kitchen chairs. As they began to eat, you were very surprised when there were no complaints about eating their vegetables. Back home, it was always a mini-battle at the dinner table to get the most finicky Marie to so much as touch a green with her fork.

"Mr. Ezra said he might like to take us fishing!" Aiden said between bites.

"Yeah!" Henry piped up. "He said there's a little cave we can explore along the way!"

Ezra looked over at you expectantly. "If that's alright with you. I could take the boys -- and Marie, if you would like a day of respite."

"Perhaps," you considered, "If you are all extraordinarily well behaved."

You couldn't help but laugh as all three children immediately straightened their posture and began to take more delicate bites of their food.

"We've never been fishing," Aiden chirped. He swallowed his bite of food and looked towards Ezra. "Is it hard?"

"No," he replied. "It's fairly simple. If I am able to do it short-handed, I would like to think it is a fairly easy task. Didn't your daddy ever take you boys out fishing? Or hunting?"

"We don't have a daddy, sir," Aiden said softly. Realizing what he'd just said, he looked to you with worry in his eyes.

Henry hung his head and put down his food. He glanced over at you like he expected you to yell.

"Oh, well-- I am terribly sorry," Ezra said sincerely. He was looking more at you than he was at the twins. "I had no way of knowing. I-I truly do apologize."

"It's alright," you said around the lump in your throat. Over the short years since his passing, you’ve learned to hide your grief well, never letting tears slip in front of the child. Nevermind a man you had just met. "You didn't know."

"Can we still go with Mr. Ezra?" Henry asked softly. His eyes were large and watery behind his glasses. Despite the fact that he and his brother were only a few years old when their father was killed, he still claimed to remember him.

"Yes," you said softly. "Of course you can go."

"Now, it'll take me some time to gather the proper materials for fishing," Ezra explained. "A week or two, maybe. You've best listen to your mama and be on your best behavior and I'll take you. Alright?"

The children cheered and you caught Ezra's eye across the table. He offered you a small, apologetic smile. You gave him a nod and a smile, hoping he understood that it was okay - that you were okay.

A few days after you'd arrived, Ezra discovered you were a much better cook than he was. He was a bit sheepish approaching you about it at first. He didn't want to ask too much of you and didn't know if that would be stepping out of line. But after the third night of the same soup Ezra had made, you were more than eager to take over the cooking.

You thought that it would all go much faster if you did it rather than Ezra attempting to chop vegetables by himself.

You found after the first night that you didn't mind sleeping in Ezra's bed at all. You actually looked forward to it throughout the day. It made you feel safe when you curled up in the sheets. More than once, he offered to wash the bedding but you politely declined each time, stating you didn't want him to do any more work than he had to.

One morning, you realized the few changes of clothes you had brought from the pod were in need of a good, thorough wash, especially after a few days of running around and playing on the tiny farm.

You walked around the spare room and collected the children's dirty clothes from the floor of the spare room and tossed them into a basket. It wouldn't take long for you to wash them.

After you gathered up the children's bedding and clothes and your own clothing, you stepped out into the yard. It was a bright, beautiful day, not even a wispy cloud in sight. The children were running around before they began their chores for the day. They had taken to farm life quite well, you thought.

Ezra was lounging on a chair outside the house, doing his best to snap beans one handed as he kept an eye on your children. He acknowledged you with a nod as he tossed the beans into the bowl at his feet.

"Good morning, Princess," he said with a small smile. He looked at you with those warm eyes and you wanted to melt into the yard. "Sleep well?"

"Oh yes, quite well, thank you," you replied. "I'm going to do a bit of laundry. The children are out of clean clothes. As am I, I'm afraid."

"Now that's a pity," Ezra teased, dropping his hand to dangle between his spread legs. He coughed to hide his blush. "Would you like to borrow something of mine? I mean, just so you can clean all of your things."

You considered his offer for a moment before you nodded. If his clothes smelled anything like his bed, it was an opportunity you would be a fool to turn down.

Fifteen minutes later, you were walking down to a washbasin, the basket resting squarely on your hip. Ezra had handed you a deep green thermal shirt that came clear down to your thighs and an old pair of compression pants for you to do your wash in. The smell of his shirt, as you slipped it over your head, was intoxicating.

As you busied yourself with the laundry, you heard Ezra inform the children that they had five more minutes before they had to start their chores.

He sounded like their father, you thought with a smile. You quickly shook that thought from your head and went back to scrubbing a grass stain from Aiden's shirt. I just met him. I cannot have such thoughts about a man I just met. Especially someone like him.

However, you couldn't justify why, exactly, he had to be off limits. Truth be told, the only reason you could come up with was that he was, essentially, still a stranger.

You sighed and abandoned the shirt for now. Perhaps you needed a stronger soap to try and get the stain out. It was possible that Ezra would have a suggestion for how to remove the stubborn stain. You would readily admit you didn't quite know how to properly do laundry. It had always been done for you.

As you walked back towards the house, you checked in on the children as they began their chores.

"Boys, are you behaving?" you asked as you poked your head into the barn. Over the last few days, you had heard of their progress from Ezra, who looked so proud when he talked about them both. It warmed your heart.

"Yes, mama," Henry replied, nodding at the goat he was carefully milking. "Miss Jane is quite pleasant this morning. No complaints so far."

"And Miss Emma and I are starting to get along," Aiden said with a gap-tooth smile. He lifted a hand to pat the sweet brown goat a few times before he went back to milking her as well.

You chuckled at their mannerisms. It really didn't take long for them to adapt to their environment and the people in it. Too often you had wondered about how much of their personalities were absorbed from you or their grandmother. They were just children.

"I'm finishing up the wash," you said to them. "I need to find a stronger soap because someone slid around in the grass too much."

Aiden looked back up at you and gave you a little pout. "I tried to be careful, mama. I did."

"I know, darling," you hummed. "It's quite alright. Be careful, I will be nearby if you need me, and Mr. Ezra is as well."

"Yes, mama," they mumbled in unison as they went back to their work.

You smiled as you walked across the yard to find Marie. The chickens had been undisturbed, and you hadn't seen Marie run past with the basket.

"Up there, little bird," you heard Ezra encourage. "Woah, watch your balance now. If you fell while trying to get a glimpse, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

When you rounded the corner, you saw Ezra with Marie on his shoulders, his one hand firmly holding her as she craned her little neck to look at something.

Marie gasped, and for a brief second, you were worried she'd fallen. "I see them!" she said, amazement evident in her voice.

You melted when you saw Ezra's smile as he held her above his head. He looked up, arching his neck so he could try to see her better.

"How many are there, little birdie?" he asked.

You could see Marie counting on her chubby fingers before she looked down at him. "Four!"

"Splendid!" he laughed, bouncing her slightly on his shoulders. He let her look at the nest for a few more seconds before he bent down so she could climb off.

"Off you get, birdie," he said as you finally walked over to them. "Come on."

"Hi, mama!" Marie gasped when she saw you. "Mama, Mr. Ezra showed me the little birds up there!" She pointed up to the little nest above her head in the tree. From here, you could barely see it.

"Oh?" you asked, bending to pick her up. You gave her cheek a kiss and smiled broadly as you tried to look up and see it.

"Mhm! There's this many!" she explained, holding up four fingers to show you.

"That's wonderful, darling!" you said, tucking an errant curl behind her ear. "Were you gentle with them?"

She nodded quickly. "I was just looking!"

"Good girl," you said as you set her down. You handed her the little basket she used for collecting her eggs. "Go fetch us some eggs, my love."

She nodded and started to run towards the chicken coop when she skidded to a halt and came running back.

Ezra raised a brow and looked down at her.

Marie curtsied and looked at you and then him. "Thank you, Mr. Ezra, for showing me the birdie eggs."

"Of course, little bird," he said, offering a bow in return. "If you want to look at them again, come ask me first. If mama is in there, she might chase you away and you could get hurt."

"Yes, Mr. Ezra," she said. Marie picked up her basket and sprinted towards the chickens.

You and Ezra chuckled and watched her go. Marie loved it here. In the back of your mind, you wondered how hard it would be to take her and the boys back to the palace when the time came. It would quite possibly crush them.

"Penny for your thoughts, Princess?" Ezra asked quietly. He leaned against the tree and studied your face carefully. "I would love to know what is going on in your head."

"Nothing," you said softly. "I mean -- do you have anything to get grass stains out of the boys' clothes?"

Ezra nodded slightly. "Of course. I'll take the shirt and bring it back to you." He walked away back to the house, one hand in his pocket.

You returned to the laundry and hung up what had already been cleaned while you waited for Ezra to bring Aiden's shirt back. As you clipped the clothes to the line, it almost felt as if you had been here your whole life, rather than just a few days. The little farm was the most at peace you had felt in years. There was a serenity that encompassed you here, quite like that of a favorite story.

You were startled from your thoughts by Ezra handing you the shirt, still sopping wet, but stain-free.

"I do apologize for the mess," he chuckled. "It is not that easy to simply wring out a wet cloth for me anymore."

"This is perfect, Ezra," you replied, taking the shirt from him. As you reached to take it from him, your fingers brushed against his and you nearly dropped it in the dirt. The briefest touch seemed to course through your veins, burning you from within.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "My hands can be quite rough sometimes. Believe it or not, Princess, I did, at one point, have hands as soft as your own. I am, however self-made, and with it, comes a certain boorishness most people find to be crass."

You gently touched his hand again and smiled at the way your heart seemed to skip a beat. "I quite enjoy a quick wit and, I don't mind your - how did you put it? Boorish behavior."

Ezra chuckled and turned your hand over in his own. "A scoundrel, your highness. That's all I am."

You opened your mouth to reply, but a peal of laughter erupted from the barn. The boys must have gotten into something because Marie came tearing around the corner with tears in her eyes.

"No!" she shouted as she ran past you both. "It's icky! Get it away!"

Aiden came sprinting across the yard with something in his hands. He had a wicked glint in his eyes. "Come see, Marie! It won't bite you!"

"No!"

Ezra glanced at you and shrugged as he stepped out into Aiden's path. The boy came to a screeching halt and almost fell over in surprise at how quickly Ezra moved. "Hang on there, let me see what you have," he said, holding out his hand. He took it into his hand and chuckled. "Oh, come now, it's just a little grub. Marvelous little creatures, certainly. Not so good for our garden, and especially not good for tormenting your poor sister with."

You smiled and looked down at your daughter who had buried her face in your thigh. "See, my darling?" you soothed. "It's not so bad!"

"It's ugly!" Marie wailed. She balled her fists up in your shirt and shook her head. "Yucky!"

"Your brother is just doing what brothers do, little birdie," Ezra said, handing the grub back to Aiden. He came over and knelt down beside her. "That bug will feed those baby birdies when they hatch - they love that kind of stuff!"

Marie lifted her head and wiped her eyes. "It's still yucky."

Ezra chuckled and tugged on her dress sleeve. "Maybe so, but it will make those babies happy."

You looked over at Aiden, who was rocking uncomfortably back and forth on his feet. He still had one hand cupped to hold the little grub. "Aiden Drake," you said, "Do you want to say something to your sister?"

"Sorry," he mumbled quietly before he took off running back towards the barn.

You sighed and looked down at Marie and Ezra. "Are you all better now?" you asked her.

She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Yes, mama. Thank you, Mr. Ezra."

"You are quite welcome," he said with a smile. "Go on, why don't you finish collecting those eggs for us?"

At his suggestion, Marie lit up with a grin and skipped off back to the pen.

Ezra groaned as he stood up. "I dare say I'm getting too old to get on the ground like that," he chuckled. "They are good kids. Remarkable little things, aren't they? You should be proud of them - all three of them."

You looked away and smiled, tucking your hair behind your ear. "I am very proud of them."

"And you make an excellent mother to them," Ezra said sincerely. "They are truly blessed to have you."

You smiled and nodded at his compliment. Ever since Marie was born, you had tried so hard to be both parents to them. As they got older, it was getting increasingly difficult to do so. You were always afraid you were doing something wrong and it was a relief to hear someone say you were doing a good job. You just wished that you could give them a proper father some day.

Ezra wandered off towards the house, whistling a tune as he went along. He turned briefly and gave you that crooked smile and jerked his head for you to join him.

********

TAGLIST: If you want to be added, please let me know!

@the-feckless-wonder @lestrange2703 @huliabitch @miscellaneous-mando @gallowsjoker

#prospect #ezra x reader #ezra x you #no use of y/n #pedro pascal #my writing #poetry for an heiress

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yurtletheturtlehenderson · 4 years ago

Text

S.T. REWRITE - S2:E9; Chapter Nine, The Gate - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

The survivors turn up the heat on the monstrous force that's holding Will hostage, and Y/n's powers are put to the ultimate test in the process. Eleven makes plans to finish what she started.

A/n: **PEAK** Mama Steve here. Don't forget to get him something nice next Mothers day, okay?

||3rd Person POV||

"It's not like it was before," Hopper recounts to the rallied group in the kitchen. "It's grown."

He leans against the counter, everyone is packed inside the kitchen with him. The majority circle the table but everyone is listening intently regardless as Hopper continues.

"A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demodogs." Dustin quickly corrects.

Lucas and Y/n meet eyes and shake their heads in matching disbelief. Somewhat dramatically, Y/n rolls her eyes and drops her forehead on top of Lucas's shoulder in exhaustion. She shakes her head and he chuckles weakly and noiselessly down at her before they return their attention to an equally aggravated Hopper.

"I'm sorry," he says flatly. "what?"

"I said, uh, Demodogs. Like Demogorgan and dogs. Like, you put them together, its sounds pretty badass--"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper demands, cutting him off.

"It's not. I'm sorry," Dustin mumbled.

El speaks up, looking directly at Hopper knowing he might resist her statement.

"I can do it."

Hopper and Mike share a brief and subtle look before Hopper shakes his head at her protectively.

"You're not hearing me."

Never blinking, her eyebrows raised in a challenging manner right back at the man.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it."

"Even if El can," Mike cuts in, looking around the room. "there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

"I thought that was the whole point," Max asks.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..."

"Will's apart of that army." Lucas finishes.

Mike nods gravely. "Closing the gate will kill him."

A heavy silence befalls the room, and soon all are wearing the same grave and fearful expression as Mike. All apart from Joyce Byers, who's eyes sit wide and her heart racing.

She had an idea.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Everyone follows her closely into Jonathan's bedroom where Will slept. She looks at his sleeping form. He was completely on top of the blankets, as he had been sleeping the past few nights. The final pieces click into place when her eyes trail to the open window. The curtain dances in the air as a steady stream of chilly autumn air was being pumped into the room.

"He likes it cold." She mutters.

Hopper looks on in confusion between Joyce and Will. "What?"

"That's what Will kept saying to me," Joyce mutters. "He likes it cold."

She marches across the room and shuts the window without hesitation. She turns to the others, agitated.

"We keep giving it what it wants."

Nancy nods in thought.

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..."

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan confirms.

"So if he likes it cold..."

"We need to burn it out of him." Joyce nods.

Several hearts spiked at the conclusion, but none more so than a certain individual lingering at the edge of the group. Her mind had been racing at inordinate speeds as they developed their theory. Her mouth ran bone dry, and her throat felt like sandpaper. But much like El just minutes ago, she knew that despite the risks, she had to what she had to do.

She steps forward into view, catching everyone's eye, looking to Will sadly. The state he was in was enough to assure her of her decision, to put to rest any lingering unease. She eyes Hopper and Joyce, and with a definitive nod, Y/n speaks.

"I think I can help with that."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

The house was now completely abuzz with activity as everyone prepares. Will's sleeping form - now wrapped in the Byers' warmest and thickest blanket - was now being carried outside by an urgent Hopper.

"Take Denfield, then you'll see a large oak tree." He orders to Jonathan quickly.

After a brief, but hefty catchup on Y/n's developed abilities - a conversation that rose many questions, and was news to some - the final details of their plan began to fall into place.

"Sweetie, what are you saying?" Joyce had asked.

Her, Jonathan and Nancy were the last to receive the shocking news of her origins. Hopper only asked one question, and it did not surprise Y/n as to why seeing as he had discovered and previously possessed the Missing Experiment files.

"You're the one they were looking for all those years, aren't you?"

Y/n nodded and pulled out the files from her jacket again. She handed them to him and he examined the folder in surprise. It quickly evaporated before he returned his gaze - and the files - to the girl, nodding.

"I always wondered, but I thought it was too big of a coincidence." He mumbled.

Y/n shrugged weakly, with a hint of a deflated smile. "Guess not."

Now the matter at hand was getting Will somewhere he wouldn't be able to recognize.

Hence their trip to Hopper's cabin.

It was decided fairly quickly they would need to split up. Groups were formed even quicker. Y/n would go with the Byers to Hopper's cabin, where hopefully they would be able to smoke the Mind Flayer out of Will. This group was inappropriately but rather aptly named by Dustin as the MacNeil Team after his favorite horror film, the Exorcist. But not without some hurried scolding from his sister.

Dustin, that is literally the least important thing right now!

Hopper would be escorting El to the gate so she could close it once and for all. Another group coined by Dustin, as the Gatekeepers. Dude! And the rest would remain stationed at the Byers home, on-call should either group need assistance. And much to everyone's great agitation, Dustin declared them the Brady Bunch.

"You're gonna swing a right. That road is gonna dead-end," he continues. "And it's about a five-minute walk from there."

Hopper lowers Will into the now open car, Jonathan gripping the edge of the door tightly as he runs through the checklist in his brain.

"Okay. Denfield to oak tree. Swing a right." He repeats, nodding. "That's it. But it's channel ten, right?"

Jonathan swings the door closed, and Hopper nods, placing his hand on the kid's shoulder.

"It's channel ten. Listen," he pants, still out of breath from the sudden rush of things. "You let me know when that thing is out of him."

Jonathan manages a nod, and Hopper stalks off. He shifts around to face the car, and peered inside he sees his brother. He looked so fragile, but it was also threatening knowing what was inside him. A great sigh escapes Jonathan and he pulls his hand down his face in a nervous manner. Before tearing his gaze away to help the others prepare, he makes a silent promise to his sleeping brother.

'We won't give up, Will. I promise.'

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Two shaky beams of light skitter across the pile of discarded things in the Byers backyard. They grow larger and larger until Nancy and Steve stand at the edge and begin fishing through the storage, flashlights in hand. Crickets and the sound of the wind snaking through the trees nearby fill the silence created by the two. Finally, Steve speaks without meeting her eye.

"You should go with him,"

Nancy looks up at Steve questionably. "What?"

"With Jonathan," Steve replies.

He's now kneeling beside the heap, his eyes are hollow as he holds the bundle of Christmas lights from the previous year. His mind is flooded with chilling memories.

"No, I'm," Nancy scoffs lightly. "I'm not just gonna leave Mike."

Steve dropped the heavy bundle of lights, rises to his feet, and nears Nancy. His eyes spotting a useful contraption among the clutter.

"No one's leaving anyone." He assures simply.

Seeing it too, she pulls a large summer fan by the handle and holds it up, allowing Steve to dig for the heater buried beneath it. He pulls it from the heap and smiles sadly, though a hint of pride in his voice as he thinks of his brief time with the kids.

"I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but..." he laughs weakly, his smile still lingering. "turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter."

He hands her the heater and she takes it reluctantly, her gaze finds his bittersweet stare. The guilt she had previously shelved in the past few days returns and all she can find herself saying is his name.

"Steve..."

His tone matches his eyes, and he shakes his head softly. "It's okay, Nance."

"It's okay." He reassures her.

She wracks her brain for the words, but by the time she manages a syllable, he's already walking away. Nancy watches sadly, his words bouncing around her mind as she watches him disappear into the house, leaving her with nothing but the heater and her thoughts.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Just be careful, alright?" Mike pleas. "I can't lose you again."

El shakes her head definitively and gazes up into Mike's wide and glassy eyes. The ones that had always made her heart flutter.

"You won't lose me."

The last of the preparations had been made, and everyone had begun to split up, not without plenty of heartfelt goodbyes, Mike and El among the last.

Mike's cheeks are already pink from crying, and she watches sadly as a single glossy tear streaks down his face. She can hear the sadness in his voice, and her grip on his hands tighten in a reassuring and gentle squeeze.

"Do you promise?" He croaks.

El swallows the lump in her throat and puts on a sad smile.

"Promise."

Their eyes lingered on one another and as they both so longed for during their time apart. Slowly, they drew closer, their eyes flickering to one another's lips.

And all too quickly the moment ended at the sound of Hopper's perfectly timed voice.

"El," took a puff from his cigarette, his eyes glazing over Mike's in a warning. "Come on, let's go. It's time."

With a deep and shaky breath, she turns back to look at Mike. They share a sorrowful and understanding nod filled with a thousand promises.

They would see each other again.

Tentatively she backs away, not wanting to part from Mike any more than he did and that's when she spots Y/n on the front porch. She was locked in a bone-crushing hug with Dustin, who didn't seem to want to let her go. His eyes were squeezed shut and his hat was pushed up higher against his head as he tucked himself further into the hug, and she saw his lips moving as he spoke something to her. No doubt words of encouragement and pleas to come back safe.

El smiled sadly.

"El, what is it?" Mike followed her eyes over his shoulder, and his face hardened a bit.

El tore her eyes away from the tearful siblings - feeling quite tearful herself - and back at Mike. Her thumb stroked the back of his palm lightly, bringing his attention back to her.

"Mike..."

His lips were still pressed into a firm line, but he eases immediately when he saw El. "Yeah?"

"Try to understand,"

"Understand what?"

"She was keeping you safe."

Mike searched her eyes, not quite knowing how to react.

"Because I made her promise."

Mike bit his lip in thought, his emotions battling one another. El saw this and squeezed his palms once more before locking her gaze with his to assure her word.

"'Mike needs to know'"

"Huh?"

"That's what she told me. When she saw me. She wanted you to know."

Mike looked taken aback, and timidly he looked over his shoulder once more at his friend. She pulled away from Dustin, a sad and sniveling smile on her face before she sensed eyes on her. She turned her head to find Mike looking at her, and for a moment she didn't know how to react. She just waited to gauge his reaction before offering him a weak smile. He looked back at El before the moment could dwell any longer.

"El," It was Hopper, he was now climbing into the truck. "Come on."

She returns her gaze to Mike one final time and nods before departing. Mike feels the presence of his friends collecting behind him in front of the porch. They all watch with a worried stare as their friends and loved ones pile inside their respective vehicles. Nancy climbs into the front seat with Jonathan, El does the same with Hopper. Y/n, meanwhile, joins Joyce in the backseat of Jonathan's car to be with Will. With sinking hearts, they watch as they disappear down the driveway and into the night. Unable to do anything but hope they will see one another again.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

El's head rests against the seat as she watches the trees fly by her window. Neither her nor Hopper have spoken a word since they left the house, but Hopper quickly changes things.

"So, what? We just not gonna talk about it?"

Without leaving the seat, her head lazily rolls across her shoulders to face Hopper. "About what?"

Hopper shrugs halfheartedly. "Oh, I don't know, just curious why all the sudden you look like some kind of MTV punk."

El looks back at the scenery, not answering and Hopper continues.

"I'm not mad, kid, I just wanna know where you've been... That's all."

Hopper spares a few moments away from the road to look at her, gauging for a reaction then she finally speaks.

"To see Mama."

His head snapped back to the road in shock, his heart plummeting and guilt swept over him. It's quiet for another moment as he processes this, and he speaks again his voice is gentle and listening.

"Okay...?"

Silence.

"How'd you get there?"

"A truck." She answers.

His heart leaps into his throat, and he does a double-take. He tries to suppress his onslaught of emotions, knowing he can't let his worry for her fester into anger again. As best as he can, he tries to remain calm.

"A truck?"

She looks at him. "A big truck."

Jesus, this wouldn't be easy.

"A big truck? Whose truck was it?"

Her answer did not calm him in the slightest.

"A man's."

"A man's?"

"A nice man."

His mouth hangs open in a small gasp as he tries to process the information, his head, all the while whipping back and forth between her and the road.

"Okay. So let me just get this straight in my head, so a nice man in a big truck drove you to see your Mama, and then what? Your Aunt Becky gave you those clothes and that make-up?"

El ponders this for a moment, her mind returning to her interaction with Y/n just days ago. And without tearing her eyes away from the road, she wonders aloud.

"Nobody likes trucks. Why?"

Hopper finds himself bewildered at her comment.

"Wh-? Why does everyone hate trucks? Whatya mean, kid?"

"Y/n. She didn't want to ride with the nice man." She finally looks at Hopper. "She said he might hurt us,"

He eyes her cautiously. He had no previous reason to believe anything had happened to her, and he firmly believed she could have kicked his ass had anything happened. But he had to ask! He still cared about her, and that kind of shit left a lot of baggage.

"Well... he didn't, did he?" He asked gently.

Almost offended, but quite confused as to why no one trusted her or the nice man who helped her, she frowned. She was growing quite agitated, didn't anyone understand the term 'nice man'?

"No." She answered shortly.

"Good," he mumbled, glad that part of the conversation was over. He cleared his throat. "Well, Y/n was still right El, that's very dangerous."

"Why?"

He sighed, taking one hand off the wheel to rake down his face anxiously. It drops into his lap, and he thinks for a moment and glances at her, shaking his head.

"That's a discussion for another time," Another car passes them during their silence, the headlights jumping from Hopper's face to El's and he sighs. "So Y/n came with you to see your Mama?"

No answer. She just stared out of the window.

"'Kay, well those files of hers were at home, so I can only assume you found them and gave them to her? Maybe that's when you two left with the," he sighs deeply. "the 'nice man'?"

Again, no answer.

"Again, kid, I'm... I'm not mad," he tries not to choke on his words. Without his eyes leaving the road, he shrugs, the lump in his throat growing. "I just worry about you... 's all."

He sighs again, and for a few minutes, the car is filled with silence again. The only sounds filling the car is the hum of the engine and the occasional rush as cars zoom by in the other lane. He is surprised when she is the next to speak.

"I..." And then he feels her wide brown eyes on him, her voice is raspy showing she is trying not to cry. "I shouldn't have left."

"Mmm-mmm," he mumbles. "No..."

She feels her gut sink and twist at what she assumes is his agreement with her. He sounds disappointed. And it hurts her. But what she doesn't realize yet is he feels the same. And even though she speaks the words he had been looking for just days ago, they strike daggers into his heart now and all he knows now is regret.

What shocks her is when he continues, he shakes his head in great disappointment, but it is not in her.

"no, this isn't on you kid. I should have been there."

Her lips part slightly in shock, her throat grows sore as she fights back tears but already one is already threatening to spill.

"I should have never lied to you about your Mama... Or about when you could leave."

Her hollow gaze is now fixed on the road as she processes his words as he speaks them.

"There's a lot of things I shouldn't have done."

Her eyes fall to her lap, her heart is pounding faster as the minutes march on, but still, she listens, entranced. His voice is genuine and hoarse.

"Sometimes I feel like..." he stops to fight the tears threatening to spill, years of suppressed heartbreak rushing back to the surface at once. "Like I'm just some kind of black hole, or something."

Her eyes are as foggy as is, but she manages to look at him and speak clearly enough. "Black hole?"

A silent tear breaks through the dam and cascades down her cheek as he answers, unaware.

"Yeah, it's a, you know it's this thing in outer space... it sucks everything towards it and destroys it. Sarah had a picture book about outer space, she loved it." He sniffled.

"Who's Sarah?"

"Sarah?"

He does another double-take, surprised at himself for not sharing that fact of his life sooner with her. Especially since she had reminded him of her all too well and in the nicest ways. He's suddenly aware of the blue band around his wrist again, something of Sarah's he never, ever took off.

A small smile of pride twists his lips, but it's been touched by sadness.

"Sarah's my girl. She's my little girl."

El saw the sadness in his eyes, and as she spoke the words aloud she feared she knew his answer.

"Where is she?"

"Well, that's kind of the thing, kid. She, uh," he says sadly, taking a brief moment to glance up at the stars. The things she loved most. "She left us."

"Gone?" El choked on the word.

"Yeah," he nods. "the black hole... It got her. And somehow... I've just been scared, ya know?"

Another tear escapes her eye, and she feels her head being pulled towards Hopper at what he says next.

"I've just been scared that it would take you too."

He begins to choke up again, and she sees that his eyes are welling with tears.

"And I think that's why I get..." his voice goes away for a moment, and he shakes his head trying to will it back through his tears. "so mad. I'm so sorry. For everything. I can be so... so..."

"Stupid?"

They both crack a smile, and their chuckles break through the air and warm their hearts, melting away the last of the remaining tension and hard feelings. Hopper shakes his head, and on his face sits a wide grin he finds hard to shake.

"Yeah," he laughs. "Stupid. Just really stupid."

Her eyes fall from his smile to the hand that still sits in his lap, and she reaches over to intertwine it with her own small hand. She smiles weakly.

"I've been stupid, too."

"I guess we broke our rule," he chimes, making her smile. "I don't hate it by the way."

His hand gives hers a quick and gentle squeeze before taking it away to gesture to her outfit.

"This whole," he fights a smile. "look."

She looks down at her new outfit and the small sense of pride from before returns. Hopper's hand returns to the wheel, and he smirks at the road, trying not to sound too much like a cheesy dad.

"It's kinda... cool."

The warmth in El's chest spreads, and she finds a grin creeping up on her face at the new word she had taken a liking too.

She nods.

"Bitchin."

The grin on Hopper's face stretched wider, a feat he did not previously think to be possible. He nods, trying hard not chuckle, not wanting her to confuse his happiness as amusement.

"Okay, sure," His grin stretched nearly to his ears. "Bitchin."

No sooner did he speak the word - his eyebrows shooting up in an amused manner now with every intention of being a cheesy and embarrassing dad - did El burst into a quiet fit of laughter. She looked away, wiping the tear away from her cheek but utterly unable to rid herself of her beaming smirk.

El couldn't recall a time she had felt this happy, this hopeful - this at home - in a long time. And neither could Hopper. Even with the frightening and strenuous task before them, they couldn't quite shake the smile off their faces even if they wanted to. And for the first time since he had taken her in all those months ago, they finally felt at home with one another.

Both of them were the missing family they had been looking for.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Alright," Dustin pants, swiping at his nose. "He-It should fit."

Steve stands across the kitchen with a deadpan look on his face and a dead Demodog wrapped in a blanket in his arms. Dustin had just finished dumping the contents of the freezer onto the floor, shelf and all, so they could store the corpse temporarily.

"This really necessary?" Steve asks.

"Yes, it is. Okay, this is a groundbreaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog!"

Steve's eyes widen briefly, mumbling a 'yeesh' under his breath as he steps towards the fridge.

"Alright, alright," He sends a scornful look at Dustin as the boy steps aside. "But you're explaining this to Mrs. Byers, alright?"

In one swift motion, he swings the dead weight up onto the ledge, but it struggles to fit. It's limp petal-like jowls scrape against the rim of the freezer and when its pulled back, several thick layers of slime remain stitched between it and the fridge. Steve grimaces as he tries to maneuver the Demodog in with little luck, and with disgust still obvious in his voice, he calls out to Dustin over his shoulder.

"Help me out, would ya?!"

After a great deal of shoving, and a whole lot of arguing the boys had managed to close the fridge door with the creature inside. They both sigh, staring at the fridge once again wondering how things had turned out this way. Steve brings up one hand and places it on top of Dustin's head, and ruffles his hat into curls before stalking off.

In the living room, Max knelt before the pile of broken glass where the window had shattered. Using a dustpan and brush she had managed to find lying around, she set to work cleaning up the glass, less no one gets hurt, hoping it would keep her mind somewhat occupied. Lucas had soon joined her with a broom he had remembered being in the kitchen and wasted no time in helping. The silence was much more tolerable in each other's company. Though Mike was no help to their nerves, his footsteps echoed around their skulls non-stop as he paced.

"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas breaks.

Mike turned to his friend, his face hard as stone with worry.

"You weren't in there, okay Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."

Dustin's voice carries across the house from the kitchen. "Demodogs!"

Mike rolls his eyes, what little patience he had wearing wafer-thin.

"The Chief will take care of her!" Lucas assures.

Max rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath. "Yeah, like she needs protection."

"Listen," Steve said joining the conversation, Dustin lingering by his side as he dries his hands with a rag. "If the coach calls a play, bottom line, you gotta execute it, alright?"

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game," Mike retorts. "And second, we're not even in the game, we're on the bench."

"Ri-uh-we-" Steve stammers. "So my point is,"

The kids all stare at him expectantly, but he just stares off into space as he tries to find the words that never come. Finally, he nods.

"Right, yeah. We're on the bench, so, uh, nothing we can do." He stated, throwing his used dishrag over his shoulder.

"That's not entirely true," Dustin says hopefully, grabbing everyone's attention. "I think these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. And when they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

Lucas spoke up excitedly, latching onto Dustin's thinking.

"So if we get their attention,"

"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max adds.

"And clear a path to the gate!" Mike concluded.

Steve folds his arms, growing more anxious as they grow excited.

"Yeah and we all die!"

"Well, that's one point of view," Dustin argued.

Mike's eyes grew wide as the gears in his brain began to turn, and hurriedly he stalked off passed a bickering Steve and Dustin.

"No, dude, that's not a point of view, that's a fact," he corrected in what was almost a concerned tone.

"I got it!" Mike called, drawing the others after him into the kitchen.

They find him kneeling in front of the fridge, he points feverishly to the large open spot on the map.

"This is where the Chief dug his hole, this is our way into the tunnel!"

Suddenly he jumps back up to his feet and scurries over to where the hall meets the living room.

"Here, right here!" The others catch up and pool around his sides as he points to the large blue spot beneath his feet. "This is like a hub. See where all the tunnels feed into here?"

He drops to his knees, his eyes widen as the plan begins to solidify as he speaks and he gestures around the map excitedly. "Maybe if we set this on fire--"

"Uh, yeah, that's a NO," Steve scolds, completely appalled. And ignored.

"The Mind Flayer would call away his army!" Dustin chimes.

"They'd all come to stop us!"

"Hey!" Steve tries, growing far more worried.

No was listening. Not to him. They all kept feeding into one another's ideas.

"We circle back to the exit-"

"-guys?" Steve chuckles nervously.

"-by the time they realize we're gone..."

"-hEY?"

"El will be at the gate!"

"HEY! HEY!" Steve shouts, even clapping his hands to get their attention.

Finally, though, it works. They all turn around to find him glaring at them with his hands rested on his hips, the dishrag still hung over his shoulder. His eyes are wild with panic and he wags his finger at the map and at them, shaking his head.

"This is not happening."

"But-"

"No, no, no, no!" He rebukes. "No 'buts'! Listen, I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe and that's exactly what I plan on doing,"

Max rolls her head back in annoyance and Lucas sighs as he scolds them.

"We're staying here, on the bench, and we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"

"This isn't a stupid sports game!" Mike whines.

Steve rips the rag off his shoulder and jabs it in Mike's direction, seething. "I said does everybody understand that?"

Nobody answers.

"I need a yes," he demands.

Still, nobody answers. Mike merely glares at the floor, Max stares boredly at the ceiling, Lucas looks at Steve weirdly, and Dustin just gives him the same deadpan and unimpressed stare he gave earlier.

He's about to say something, his fuse dangerously short when suddenly the obnoxious sound of an engine revving in distance pulls everyone's attention to the living room window. Everyone seems confused at first, except for Max whose face immediately drains of all color.

She races to the window, having heard that sound far too many times in her life for it to be a coincidence. She jumps on the couch and has to crouch a bit to look outside the of the window, but it's unmistakable.

She feels the cushions shift beneath her and a presence beside her, it was Lucas who was the next and only other person to catch on as to what it might be. They watch in horror as a bright pair of headlights approach the house at an alarming rate, and Max knows she has no more time to gape.

"It's my brother," she chokes out. "H-He can't know I'm here, he'll kill me!"

Her wide and fearful blue eyes meet Lucas's, and he recognizes at once she worries just as much for him. Sure enough, she speaks confirming his suspicions.

"He'll kill us."

Steve's head shoots up at her words, his heart thumping. He knew exactly who her brother was, the guy who seemed a little too obsessed with "taking his title" at school. Something about him was off-putting to Steve. But what scared him was the fear in the kids' eyes and her words of course. He had no trouble believing her, and he knew with absolute certainty these kids were in danger.

His eyes flew to the door, knowing what he had to do.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · CONTINUE FIGHTING FOR BLACK LIVES. BLACK LIVES MATTER. BLACK LIVES ARE PRECIOUS. BLACK LIVES ARE BEAUTIFUL.

"We've got to make noises in greater amounts! So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!" - Dr. Suess

Helpful links:

NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY! PROSECUTE POLICE WHO MURDER UNARMED INDIVIDUALS! [petition]

"THEREFORE, PETITION IS MADE BEFORE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES TO NOT ONLY ACT ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, BUT TO FULFILL THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE OFFICE - FOR WHICH HE OR SHE HAS "SWORN AN OATH" TO FULFILL UPON OCCUPANCY!"

[Link]

Pardon Black Woman Imprisoned for Voting

"Crystal hadn’t originally planned to vote in the 2016 presidential elections, but after her mother reminded her how important it was, she decided to do so to set a good example for her children. For that, she is now facing 5 years or more in prison."

[Link]

Black Lives Matter masterlist of links

"I've provided several links to sites you can donate to & sign petitions in regards to BLM + each link provides info on the topic PLEASE VISIT THESE SITES AND DONATE WHAT YOU CAN"

[Link]

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aetm-malereaderimagines · 5 years ago

Note

Hey! How about a male reader scenario where the reader has an intense crush on Sawamura Daichi and finally confesses to him ( after a LOT of struggling) only to find out Daichi was also about to confess to him on the same day. Also i love your effort to make male reader scenarios. It really makes it easy for queer males to also have the same experience as straight female fans. Keep it up!!

Firstof all, thank you for your request! Second of all, duh XD I’m a gayguy myself so ofc I write gay fanfiction! Mymain reason to start this blog was actually my frustration caused bybeing unable to find decent HQ!! reader inserts where the reader islegitimately gender-neutral. Yes, even gender-neutral. There are some nicemale reader inserts out there but they’re few and far between.So I usually end up looking for gender-neutral insterts, headcanons, and scenarios but… Some of them areblatantly meant for female readers. Some of them claim to be gender-neutral but you can clearly see they’re actually not or just employ male and female gender stereotypes I’m definitely not comfortable with. And some ofthem are female reader inserts that are tagged as x male reader… SoI decided to say “fuck it” and create some content myself that myfellow queer readers can actually enjoy! LGBT people are alreadydenied the same experience regarding love and sexuality that straight people get so if I can somehow contribute to making this world ofours a little less fucked up for my fellow queer folks, that’s all I could ever wish for!

Okay, but enough of myinconsistent rambling and let’s get into the actual scenario!Although I probably have a crush on every and each HQ!! character(well, maybe except some of the older guys lol), Daichi is actuallyone of those I’d probably consider the best boyfriend material soI’m really glad you requested a scenario for him! Justfyi, I made the readerKarasuno’s 2ndyear manager so that Ihave something to start from, hopefully you don’t mind. Ireally hope you’ll like it! enjoy!

Also let me apologize that it took me so long to write this but for some reason, I’ve been feeling utterly uninspired lately :/ It took the first episode of S4 and a volleyball match I watched yesterday for me to finally get some inspiration to finish this scenario XD

Pairing: Sawamura Daichi x Male Reader

Word count: 1659

告り告られ — A Double Confession

“Oh come on, just confess tohim!”

“You know I can’t!”

“You can and you will!”Yachi’s eyes bored into you and you turned your gaze away, feelingas though those two goldenorbs were penetrating your very soul. “Why do you have to make itharder than it actually is? You like him, you confess, you gettogether. Simple!”

“Like hell it would go thatsmoothly,” you scoffed. “I don’t even know if he’s gay.”

“Oh come on, have you not seenhow close he is with Sugawara-san?”

“But that’s precisely theproblem!” You looked Yachi in the eye confrontingly. “If he’snot gay, I don’t even have a chance, and even if he is, I stilldon’t have a chance since he’s probably already inlove with Suga-san.”

“…you will confess to himeventually anyways,” Yachi cut the conversation, pouting.

You looked away. You knew she wasright. You were going to confess to him eventually. It’s just… Itwas so fucking hard to work up the courage. You’dhad a crush on Daichi since your first year, since a while afteryou’djoined the volleyball club.

Atfirst, it was all fun and games. Youjoined the club simply because you liked volleyball but getting towatch pretty boys get all worked up and sweaty while playing was anice bonus for you. Once you realized you liked Daichi, it got evenmore fun… for a while. Howmany people could say they get to see their crash shirtless on adaily basis?

But the longer you watched, thecloser you got to him, the more painful it got. Daichicould look scary at first, especially during practice sessions whenhe had to rein in first and second years, but asalways, appearances couldbe deceptive. Youmanaged to befriend him, also getting closer with Suga and Asahi inthe process, but soon yourealized that being just friends was hardly enough for you. Youstill couldn’t forget that one time when Daichi said you were “likea younger brother to him” and how much it hurt.

“All right!”

What snapped you out of yourcontemplation was Daichi’s voice. Whileyou were bickering with Yachi standing on the side of the court, theboys were actually training. Shimizu was in charge of taking notestoday so you and Yachi didn’t have much to do at the moment.

You turnedyour eyes in the direction Daichi’svoice had come from. Andthere he was, looking asgood as always, with that damn smile of his he always had on his faceafter a good receive, just a few feet away from you.

So close yet so far.

It was the day. It was the dayyou were going to confess to Daichi.

It had been a month since yourargument with Yachi. Over the last 30 daysand even more late-night phone calls with Yachi, you decided toconfess your feelings to Daichi. Even if he didn’t like you back,you wanted him to know what you feel. The days were growing longerand Spring High wasgetting closer and closer. Regardless of whether you won or lost, thethird-years were going to quit the club once the tournament was over.And once that happened,you were bound to grow more distant with Daichi, let alone having achance to confess to him. If you were going to do it, you had to doit now.

The morning sun was shininggently upon you as you walked through the schoolyard withyour heart pounding in your chest andyou still had like half a day to go before the actual confession. Youreally hoped your teachers wouldn’t quiz you today. You’dprobably fail it miserably since you couldn’t focus on anythingelse but the dreadful perspective of what was going to happen thisevening.

Yourplan was simple. You were going to take alittle longer cleaningup after practice so that you end up staying alone in the storageroom. Then, Yachi was going to “notice” that you’re missing andask Daichi to go and look for you because she had “somethingimportant to talk to you about.” If everything went smoothly, youwere going to end up alone with Daichi in the storage room. That wasgoing to be your chance.

When you were going overthe plan in your head walking down the hallway, your phone rang. Youpulled your phone out of your bag to find out you had a new text fromYachi.

“I’m sorry m(_ _)m”

You tilted your head. That wasall she wrote.

“What do you mean?” youtexted back as you entered your classroom.

You spent the first periodstressing over Yachi’s message. Whatever she was sorry about, itwas bound to be nothing good.

Turnedout Yachiwas sick.

Accordingto Yachi herself, he had suddenly felt really unwell last night whichhadturned out to beonly the beginning of a long, feverish night. Whenher mom had taken her to the doctor this morning, she’d beendiagnosed with a bad case of influenza. Shewould probably be staying at home for at least a week.

Yourplan was ruined, which of course made you very upset… but somewheredeep in your heart, you also felt kind of relieved that the momentyou were going to confess to Daichi was put off by at least a week,and you hated yourself for it.

Youlet out a deep sigh as you leaned against a mop you held in yourhands. Youended up being the last one left in the gym anyways, no matter yourplan. You’dlied to Shimizu and the guys about needing to clean up the storageroom—you needed some time foryourself.

“Needsome help?”

Youturned your face up to find the source of the voice only to be facesby Daichi leaning against the door frame, looking at you.

You gulped.

You didn’t even need your planto be left alone with Daichi.

If this wasn’t the heavenstelling you it was high time you’d confessed then what was.

“Yeah,actually, I’m really glad you’re here,” you said, lookingstraight at Daichi. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Yougulped. “I like you.”

Youfinally said it.

Daichi stood in front of yousilently, as though processing what you had just said, and you justwaited. You weren’t going anywhere until you got an answer,especially given that Daichi was standing in the doorway, blockingyour way. You had quite a spectacle to watch anyways.

Thefirst few seconds, Daichi’s face just… froze, as he stared at youunblinkingly. Then came a slight blush which gradually turned moreand more red eventually taking on the color of an especially ripebeet. Hecovered hismouth with both of his hands, as though he was in an utter shock.Which he probably was. It took him like half a minute to calm down.Once his blush subsided a little bit, he lowered his hands andfinally let himself blink.

“I… I like you, too,” hesaid quietly, turning his eyes away from you.

“No, I don’t mean it likethat.” You smiled sadly. “I mean it, like, in a romantic way.”

“That’s what I mean, too.”

This time it was you that foundyourself shook to the bone.

“What…wait, what?!”

“I actually came here toconfess to you,” Daichi explained, his blush growing brighteragain. “Shimizu told me you’d said you’d stay in the gym alittle longer and everyone else has already left so I thought it wasmy chance…”

You stared at each otherwordlessly for a few seconds. You were the one to start laughing.

“Whatthe hell is this?! Whathave I even been worried about this past year?!”

“Iknow, right?” Daichi giggled as well. “Wait,you’ve had a crush on me fora yearalready?!”

“Over a year, I’d say,” youresponded. “You?”

“You beat me on that one.”Daichi’s smile was really the most beautiful thing you’d everseen. “I’d say since the previous Spring High? You remember howyou cheered me up after we lost? That’s when I realized.”

“Isee.” You couldn’t stop grinning. “So I guess we’reboyfriends now?”

“I guess so.” Daichi grabbedyour hand and pulled you toward the door. “Let’s go hometogether.

“That’s so amazing!!!!!!I’m so happy for you two!!!!!!!!! And I’m so so sorry I couldn’thelp you today T_T”

You smiled at your phone. Yachiwas really the sweetest.

“If you hadn’t supportedme this whole time, I wouldn’t have confessed to him in the firstplace!”

“Sorry you had to wait.”

You put your phone back into yourpocket as you turned your eyes to Daichi. He had to grab hiss stufffrom the club room and you’d been waiting for him downstairs.

“No problem,” you responded,readjusting the strap of your bag on your shoulder. “Shall we gothen?”

“Let’s.”

You walked down the streetleading up to the school. You were talking and laughing, enjoyingeach other’s presence. It was late and there was nobody around.Daichi grabbed your hand and you squeezed it back.

“Hey,” Daichi started, hisvoice sounding a little anxious. “Don’t you wanna come over? Myparents are at home but I’m sure my mom will be happy to have youover for dinner. We could watch some movies or something.”

“Sure thing,” you respondedwith a smile. “I’d love that.”

Daichi smiled at you again andyou couldn’t hold yourself back any longer. You leaned in placing agentle kiss on his lips.

A clap of distant thunder rumbled throughthe skies. You couldn’t know that yet but it was just the beginningof a thunderstorm that was going to force you to stay the night atDaichi’s house.

Not that you minded.

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magpiemorality · 5 years ago

Text

Bring It On, Moceit/Moremus, 5/5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 AO3

We’re here; the final part. The happy ending, hopefully…

Huge thanks to @littlestr for the original prompts! And thank you all for following along with this fun weekend jaunt, I have come to adore these boys and they’ve outgrown the little prompt oneshot they were supposed to exist in, constantly yelling at me for more attention until now we’re here. There’s even art HERE by @sometimeswritingsometimesdying go look at it!!!!

Without further ado; please enjoy.

Warnings: dismissal of polyamory (character doesn’t believe it’s real/feasible), swearing

Patton Sanders was the prettiest boy in the whole college...

***

Patton Sanders was the prettiest boy in the whole college. He wasn’t being vain or anything; there had once been an online poll on the college gossip blog and he’d won hands down. It was just fact at this point.

He was also currently (in his own internal poll) the saddest. Everything had been going so great (shut up Remy it had) and then it had taken a turn towards the endgame and then-

Well, what had happened with Remus? Patton still wasn’t sure, and Remus was ignoring his texts so he had no clues to go on apart from the fact that one minute the boy was giving him some very upmarket salmon filets and pulling off a classing hair-behind-the-ear move that would have possibly even led to a kiss- and then nothing. Remus had suddenly… changed his mind? He’d freaked out for some reason anyway, and had just run off.

Since then nothing, nada, total radio silence (yeah so it had only been two days so what Remy shh) and Patton was falling into despair. There had to have been a vital signal he’d missed somewhere that would have turned the whole thing around.

Maybe the fish was a clue?

He and Remy had spent a full evening poring over the fish. Was it a secret message? Symbolic in some way? Was there something written on it? Patton had drawn the line at trying to open it up and check the inside because he still very much wanted to save it to cook for Remus some day, so it had been rehomed in the freezer after a careful perusal of storage methods on Google.

And there was a whole other problem now too- Dex was avoiding him. Over text, on campus, in the cafe; everywhere Patton could think of to try and run into his second paramour turned out to be a bust, and the only way (again, two days was ages Remy don’t be a bitch) he could have avoided even accidentally bumping into Dex for that long was if the other boy was actively staying away.

Those texts went unanswered too.

(Remy was starting to lose patience.)

“But I just don’t-”

“Oh my god gurl please don’t finish that sentence!” Patton’s very best friend and emotional support gay snapped, slamming his Starbucks cup down on the table (situated outside the cafe, so they could be seen by as many people as possible, of course). “I literally can not with you.”

Patton’s nose wrinkled. “My tutor Logan says we shouldn’t say literally when it’s not grammatically accurate.”

“Your tutor Logan can literally suck my dick. No seriously; he’s hot, get me his number and I will consider literally forgiving you.”

“But-”

“Baby, sugarplum, Patty-cake- for the love of all things caffeine; just take a chill pill okay? Boys will come and go in your life and if they’re worth anything at all then they’ll be back. Besides, they’re probably just duking it out over you somewhere. Maybe shirtless. Maybe there’s baby oil…” Remy trailed off with unfocused eyes, sipping his drink absently and Patton sighed, because even that nice (very nice, saved for later) image not enough to dispel his melancholy.

He checked his phone again for the millionth time that day. Spring break was coming up and the cheer squad Whatsapp was going wild with anticipation, but Patton wasn’t in the mood. He’d foolishly hoped that one of his handsome men was going to sweep him off his feet and away to somewhere spectacular for the holiday, but that hope had tanked dramatically in light of recent developments. Normally that would’ve just made him shift his hopes towards prom, but it wasn’t enough of a big deal as it had always been in high school, and it was really more of a friends’ night out situation. Not the sort of time to be expecting big dramatic declarations of love, you know or whatever.

No, the universe seemed to be spelling out ‘Patton Sanders is going to die alone’ pretty hard, even if Remy wasn’t in agreement.

“Who are you texting, anyway?” Patton asked, picking at his nail polish with a pout. “Let me at least live vicariously through you until I waste away, a tragic damsel whose beauty was lost to time…"

Remy looked up, talking around the straw in his mouth. “Jesus you’ve got it bad. And it’s none of your business, P, I’ll tell you when you aren’t moping.” The way Patton visibly and genuinely sagged seemed to revive Remy’s best friend sympathy instincts, because he quickly finished his drink, took Patton by the hands and pulled him up. “Come on cupcake, it’s the weekend and we’re going shopping. Because no matter what happens with your boys- it’s nearly Spring Break and we are gonna look hot to trot!”

And who was Patton to disagree with such flawless logic?

***

Maybe there was something to be said for the mystical powers of retail therapy, because when Patton flopped down on his bed that evening there was a text notification from a blocked number on his phone that made his heart beat wildly.

It contained an invitation, to meet the following weekend at a destination that would be sent in a future text, and it was signed ‘from your not-so-secret admirer’.

The week went by horribly slowly. Even practice seemed to drag, and yet…

Suddenly Dex was meeting him every day with his tea again, no word of explanation but a soft smirk always hovering around his lips, lighting up his usually serious face.

Suddenly Remus was watching and winking at him from across the gym- not approaching this time round but offering little shy waves and offering help when he could, putting away the gym equipment or offering a protein bar on the way out just as Patton’s stomach started to rumble.

Something was up, and Patton’s head was in a spin, but it was oddly perfect.

Even Remy couldn’t believe the change.

“You’re totally one hundred percent sure they’re not on drugs?” Patton shot him a look. “Okay just double checking. Joined a cult? Kidnapped by aliens and replaced by pod people? Serial killers planning on luring you in an-”

“God, Remy, no!” He hit his friend with his pillow, laughing at the offended noises Remy made before he joined Patton in giggling on the bed. “No I think they just… sorted something out. It’s weird though, right? Like there’s something weird happening? Not bad weird, but…”

Remy mirrored his shrug. “You’ll have to wait and see what happens with your ‘not so secret admirer’,” he said, singing the name. “Do you have any clue which one of them it is?”

“Well no. But surely it’s Dex? I mean, he’s Dexter, he can sort out a blocked number. It’s… Remus is a total carebear but he’s not exactly James Bond, you know? It’s got to be Dex. But he’d just out and say it, I know he would, so I don’t- I can’t be sure. Remus is the dramatic one…” Round and round in circles they went but never came any closer to solving the puzzle.

Friday came and went and at long last it was time to head out for the grand reveal. Remy had helped him get dressed (cute but weather appropriate and with good running shoes, just in case) and they were waiting in the living room for the address to come through.

His phone buzzed.

Once they’d stopped shrieking in excitement they googled and found the address was of the same cafe he’d spent so much time in with Dexter over Winter break, which- it was probably not a good thing that his heart had sunk over ruling out the possibility this was Remus all along, right? It had simultaneously skipped a beat at the confirmation that it was Dex, so… You win some, you lose some he supposed.

Crunch time.

He hurried along the streets- glad for the tiny size of their college town and for the lack of rain on the crisp February morning- and slipped into the cafe. Only to see not Dexter O’Reilly sat inside waiting for him, but-

“Remus?!”

***

Let it be known that Remus Duke was not the prettiest boy in the whole college, far from it. Nor was he the most intelligent, nor the richest nor the most popular. However what Remus Duke had in spades was earnest charm. It was lethal in a one on one situation, and he made sparing use of it so as not to abuse his power.

Let it also be known that Dexter O’Reilly was far from immune to said charm, especially when it was turned on him from a few feet across a brightly coloured, messy, but shockingly cosy room in a frat house on Greek Row. If Dexter was the Slytherin here then Remus was almost certainly the Hufflepuff who would drive said Slytherin to world domination.

In this case, of course, world domination was replaced by Patton Sanders, and the prospect of getting to date him. The concept was the same though, and the intense level of detail required to get the plan exactly right was too.

In fact, Dex had stayed way later that night than either of them had expected, as they’d plotted and planned and discussed various ways of making their dreams reality. What Remus lacked in book smarts, he made up for with an innate talent for asking exactly the right questions to fix any inefficiencies or problems before they ever arose, and you bet Dex had made a mental note of that for future reference.

What neither of them had really considered, was the exact reaction Patton would have when he walked in the cafe door on Saturday morning to find not just Remus, but-

***

“And Dex!” Patton’s eyes were big and round as they switched back and forth and back and forth between the two young men. He clutched his phone in his hand like a lifeline, wondering if this was going to turn out to be the worst day of his life so far, rather than the tentative best he’d pencilled it in as…

“Hey,” Remus smiled hopefully at him, standing up and awkwardly trying to gesture Patton to his seat like a magician’s glamorous assistant or something. Patton took pity on him and did in fact sit, still mostly set to ????? and !!!!!! and only just managing to process what was happening.

Opposite him, Dexter crossed one long leg over the other, and Remus perched on the edge of the third chair like he was physically restraining himself from getting up to go be closer to Patton. Which wasn’t entirely untrue, as it happened.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Patton asked weakly, looking to Dex for guidance, but it was Remus who replied.

“Well,” he started, twisting his hands around nervously. “We ended up having a bit of a chat, last week. I um, I- oh fuck what was I supposed to say?!” Dexter snorted softly and Remus pouted at him. “You’re no help, we said we’d do this together!”

You could’ve knocked Patton over with a feather. His mouth actually fell open at the display of camraderie. Suddenly the serial killer theory had merit.

“Patton. Through a convoluted set of circumstances we ended up discussing our possible futures… with you. It’s fairly clear you’re struggling to choose between the two of us, right?” He waited until Patton nodded slowly. “So we thought… why choose?”

“My brother Roman told me about this class he took last semester see, about like, changing identities or something. People, basically, and he heard about all these different things they never taught us in school! And one of them was-”

“Wait,” Patton interjected, holding a hand out because he was ninety percent sure he knew where this was going, but- “That’s real? Having… sharing partners is real? It actually works?”

“Hey how’d you know what I was going to s-”

“Yes, darling, yes to all of that. If the people involved are honest and open and willing to work on it,” Dexter interrupted, smiling at Patton. Remus was also looking at him, nearly bouncing in his seat with excitement, overflowing with energy like always. Gosh Patton loved his energy, his enthusiasm for life, his potential, ahem, stamina…

He turned back to Dex, only to be filled with warmth at the look he was getting, because he loved the way Dex gave him special smiles he gave no one else. He loved his soft, clever words, and his gentleness.

Oh.

“Oh.” There was quiet for a moment before the two hopefuls shared a concerned glance.

“Patton?” Dexter prompted. “Is that… a good ‘oh’ or a bad one? We uh, we know it’s kinda not what you were expecting, probably?”

“And you can take your time to think about it!”

“Thank you Remus, yes. You can take your time, darling. But we would like to try this with you. However you like. And if we want to change things down the road… we can talk about that too.”

Patton was the prettiest boy in the whole college. Seemed like today he was the luckiest, too. “Yes!” He shouted, leaping out of his seat to grab them both in a hug, dragging them together forcefully. “Oh gosh, goodness, yes, that sounds perfect!” He gave them each a kiss on the nearest cheek and sat back down, cheeks red but smile bright, holding his hands out for them to take one each.

“This is going to be so cool!” Remus crowed, and Dex chuckled softly at his exuberance, squeezing Patton’s fingers, his eyes betraying his own quiet excitement.

Yeah, Patton thought. It really was.

Bonus 1 | Bonus 2 | Bonus 3 | Bonus 4

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maggyme13 · 5 years ago

Text

Sugar (7/?)

AN: I am back and am apologizing for one week of not posting. But work at the moment is a b*** . thats why there is a bit more to read today. see it as a small apology.

Wordcount: around 2100

Warnings: not really

Masterlist

Sugar- Masterlist

Sugar 6

„Good morning Ms (y/LN), I hoped you slept well after last night. Boss is waiting in his office. I am glad that you chose to take him on on his offer. He felt devastated about what he allowed to happen and about his misjudgment.”, the secretary smiled.

How does he know that?

“Thank you- can I go in or..?”

“Of course, he is waiting for you.”

Hearing an ´Enter´ following your knock, you stepped inside the large office.

“Good Morning (y/N). I hope you you slept well.”, the businessman greeted you, placing the papers he was working on to the side.

“More or less. I could not sleep for a few hours.”, you admitted.

“I feared so much. Please take a seat and we can talk a bit more.”

The cushions were so soft that you sunk into them once taking the offered seat and you thought about how this couch was a lot more comfortable than you mattresses growing up.

Wow. I could sleep on this thing for days.

“You said you wanted my word to be able to change your mind at any moment. I can give you that and more: I formulated a contract for the arrangement between the two of us. We both will sign it. It contains any important information. Here, read it and then tell me what you think. Everything can be changed.”

He was sincere in his tone and you immediately felt more relaxed.

Accepting the paper, you read everything carefuly.

There were different paragraphs for different themes: a paraphrasing of what he had told you the evening prior, his duties as your ´sugar-daddy´, your duties as his ´sugar-baby; the last one was one big and bold statement “All sexual or bodily favors must be offered by (Y/n) (Y/LN). Loki Laufeyson has no right to, in any form, ask for them or hinting at them.”

At last there was a section that stated you would be allowed to end this relationship any second without getting held responsible for it in any way or form. You also would be able to keep anything you had received during that time.

“I want to do something to earn that money. I can´t sit around all day.”, you stated.

“I figured you would say that. You could work a part-time job in one of my businesses , or somewhere else as long as it does not interfere with our deal.”

“I mean, I can take care of the household. Go grocery-shopping, and so on. Like cooking and baking.”, you hummed.

“We will find something. For now, you should go and stock your rooms with anything you need and want : Clothing, shoes, shampoos ,.. anything. New furniture, if you don´t want to sleep in that bed, or if it does not suit your style.”, he suggested.

“O-Okay. Though the rooms are fine. But can I get some of my personal stuff out of my storage-unit? It is paid for almost three months in advance, still-”, you asked.

“You don´t need to ask. Tell Barnes where the unit is and he can help you. Now that I think of it; I never asked why you were homeless. If you don´t mind me asking.”

“My boyfriend, who I was supposed to move in with, dumped me the evening before the move. It was already leased again, so I had nowhere to go and stayed with two homeless men I know for a few years. They convinced me to go with Bucky and Sam.”, you explained with a sigh and noticed a vain on the man´s forehead twitch.

“Why?”

“Why he left me? Found him making out with a girl in an club and he claimed he forgot to tell me and that I was about to move in with him.”

“I meant living with the homeless.”

“I used my last money to pay for the unit. Please, can we change the subject? It is kind of embarrassing-”

“We may. Apologies-”

“Well, on another node: Anything you want to have for dinner? I can get groceries on the way then.”, you mused.

“Surprise me. But I might be late. Mr Quill wants to have a meeting with me later.”, he did not sound amused at all.

“I am sorry I caused problems.”you apologized again, though you knew it wasn´t your fault for real.

“He should be sorry. Not you. And he will if he crosses my line again.”, the CEO growled, forming a fist with his hand at once.

I will leave then.”, you nodded your farewell and stood to leave.

“Until later (y/n), and have a nice day.”

______

Bucky had driven you to your storage unit and helped getting your most personal item back to you rnew home. It wasn´t much and fit in the back of the car; though you made sure to get your comfortable underwear and sleep stuff (mostly old shirts and boxer-shorts).

“So, Sam and I were wondering if you would be up for a movue night the other day. Pietro, Wanda and Nat will be there as well.”, the dark haired man asked you with a smile from behind the wheel.

“Uhm, sure? But why? I mean you don´t need to do that, only because I am ´living´ with your boss now. But I appreciate the offer.”, you answered, wondering why they invited you.

You would consider Bucky and Sam as accomplices though, but still.

“That has nothing to do with that. To be honest, you are the first one we like. Thus far, they all were bitches and just after the money. You on the other hand, don´t give a shit about it. It is refreshing.”, he explained, “What are you going to do know with your larger income and time on mass?”

“ I want to work. I don´t want to get money gifted to me for nothing. That was not how I was raised.”, you sighted, “For now, I will take care of the household and cook. Maybe later I will get another job. For during the day, I mean.”

“Remind me to show you the community floor Boss has made for us. It has a gym, wellness area, library and other stuff you might like.”

“Common area?”

“Yes. Didn´t we mention that most of us ´trusted´ employees are living on the five floors beneath you? My bad, sorry.”

“I don´t know. I wasn´t really in a mindset to lisdten to everything.”, you admitted.

“Understandable. We are back. Let me help you get your stuff upstairs and into your room. Then I have orders to get you anything you might need. Clothes, Shampoos, female Hygieneproducts. You name it, we get it. And no arguments: orders are orders.” , Bucky stated with a grin.

“Fine.”, you rolled your eyes, “One thing I need is more kitchen supplies. There is only the bare minimum in that kitchen. And curtains for the bathroom- those huge and open windows creep me out.”

“No secret exhibition fetish? Yeah I know what you mean, but we won´t be able to get you curtains I fear. That has to go through the interior designer. Though, you do know that there is a way to make the glass opaque?”

“Wait, what? How?”

“I don´t know how exactly it works, but there is a switch next to the door in every apartment bathroom.”

“I soooo need to find that switch.”, you groaned.

“i can show you.”, he laughed, nudging you with his shoulder, “Though you could have just asked, you know?”

“Well, yeah. To late for that know though. Theme change, can we go to my old workplace? A much as I hate it, but they still have the best hot chocolate in town-”, you sighted, “-and I need some of my paperwork from them back.”

“Sure thing. We will get those things, and some of those awesome cookies they sell.”

A light laugh escaped your lips, “I made those. And I am the only one who knows the exact recipe.”

His eyes grew big. “You´re kidding!”

“Nope, the ones they sold before were disgusting. And I love to bake, so I made them after my mom´s recipe. I can make you some if you like.”

“YES Please!”, he cleared his throat, “ I mean, if you have time and so on. No need to-”

“I will find a moment. It´s the last I can do after you and Sam took me in.”

“No worries. Now lets me get your things up and then back shopping.”

Parking the car in front of the building, he stepped out and walked to the back. You were following him at once and grabbed some of your stuff.

His astonished look stopped you at once.

“What?”

“Nothing. I am just not used that a- that I get help with carrying stuff upstairs.”

“You mean Mr Laufeyson´s Sugarbabies? I am not like them.”, you frowned.

“Yes, and I know. Just-”, he stammered casting his eyes on the floor in embarrassment.

“Unusula. I get it.”, you honestly smiled, “Though I am one now.”

Something in your voice at the last part of your exclamation made him send you a sad smile.

“Come on. Let´s get you settled in a bit more.”

“Alright”, you nodded, “and then some hot chocolate.”

“What do you want?”, your former employer sneered once you entered the coffee-shop. Her eyes glaring daggers into you.

“Hello to you, too. I am here to get my last cheque, my papers and recipe-book that is still here. As well as a triple-hot-chocolate with two marshmallows, please.”, you smiled your best customer-service-smile.

“And a large coffee for me.”, Bucky piped up from right behind you.

“Sure. I assume ´To Go´?”

“Yes, pleased.”, you smiled even brighter.

“Give me a moment.”, your ex-boss grumbled before leaving into the back to hopefully get what was yours.

“Asshole much?”, your friend whispered from behind and you nodded.

One of your old coworkers began to make your order in the meantime.

“Thank you, Chris. How is school doing?”, you started to make small-talk, this time with a real smile.

“It´s alright. My year is about to go on a trip, but without me.”, the young barista answered.

“Why?”

“Don´t have the money, and my Stepdad is an asshole an does not want to pay for it.”, he grumbled and you sighted.

You knew about his situation at home, and would often cover for him, so he could do homework during his break.

“How much is the trip?”

“550 Bucks.”, he sighted again, that was almost a month of work for him, without giving his parents his share of rent that was 150 and the money he saved for college.

“What about the tips?”

“Alright I guess. Though since you aren´t baking the cookies anymore they dropped quite a bit. But if I am lucky I can get enough to go on weekend-trip with my friends next month.”, he smiled thinking about that.

“You can still keep the tips, right? No sharing them with the others or the boss since I left?”, you questioned, an idea had crossed your mind.

“Everything is the same, why?”, he answered a bit baffled about your question.

“No particular reason. Bucky. This order is on me.”, you grinned.

“Alright.”, he shrugged, tough you assumed he knew what you were planning.

“Hand me the card reader, would you? Prizes are still the same?”, you offered your open palm to the boy, who nodded and finished your order.

Accepting the reader, you typed in 10$ for the order and 600$ under tip, “ Here you go. Have fun on that trip. And before you ask, I got a really well paying new job.”

“Thank you so much!”, the Highschooler breathed with teary eyes.

“See it as a graduation gift. But don´t tell anyone, ok?”

“Promised””, the boy quickly nodded, zipping his lips with a motion of his hands, though he quickly stopped when his boss returned with your things.

“Here!”, your ex-boss sneered almost slamming your things on the counter, “If you could leave now please.”

“We may. Hve a nice day!”, and with that, the two of you left.

“That was nice what you did there.”, Bucky hummed back behind the wheel.

“He deserves a few days of fun. His Stepdad is an asshole. A HUGE one.”

“So, where do we start shopping?”

Part 8

AN2.0 How will this turn our for the reader? And will her family make an appreance again in later chapters?

REBLOGS and comments are appreciated:)

Thank you very much.

~MaggY

Taglists:

Permanent:

@jadepc@pacifyhxlsey @thankyoukarenclifford

@thankyouforanonymity @punkrockhufflefluff

@scarletraine @buckycaptspideypool @markusstraya @graveyard-groupie @markusstrayya @randomgirlkensy @the-soulofdevil

@marshyrebelcloud

MCU:

@yknott81 @banner-and-bucky-are-life @forext20 @dyanlzbb @so-finster-die-nacht @emmii4 @bitchwhytho @ladyofmyst @jilldsumner @momc95 @appreciating-fanfics

Sugar:

@bits-and-bobs-and-kawaii-stuffs @mimmie666 @fullranchwolfoperator

@cluelessnitwhit @youknowitsclouds @his-paradox @purplerainharry

@spootgaai2000 @iamsuperjenna @nikkipea @alexakeyloveloki @timelordy-fangirl2 @girrafeeeeeee

I couldnt tag a few of you… sorry.

Want to get tagged as well? Comment, Reblog or send an ask to let me know.

#sugardaddy!loki #sugardaddy!loki x reader #sugardaddy au #Loki x reader #Loki #Loki Laufeyson #Reader insert #MCU #marvel fanfiction #Loki fiction #Bucky Barnes

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