#such as asking it to direct all it's energy in a thin beam forward or something

[bean-face]

sketches of a couple of my oc's

knight maid elf and goblin mage

@firefilledhikey figured you'd wanna see these girls

sorry the trans homunculus isn't around i don't have a drawing of that one yet

[jim-fetter-illustrations]

God can speak to all of us now....

Have you ever heard the voice of God in your head?

We now know this is possible even if God didn't really speak to you.

And it's not necessarily mental illness,..... it might just be technology.

Every once in awhile I hear about something so bizzare i just have to check it out and investigate how this story came to be.

To my surprise as unexpected and difficult it was to believe the story turns out to be true after all.

Ya see, The US Government Is Making Parametric Speaker Lasers That Create Voices out of Thin Air.

The Pentagon”s non-lethal weapons lab has come up with a direct energy weapon that can produce an effect like a haunted ghost in your head or the biblical burning bush.

Parametric speakers are a reality it seems, also known as "sound lasers," and they use the principle of ultrasound to project sound in a highly directional manner. They work by emitting a high-frequency ultrasonic wave in the 65 kilohertz range, which is beyond the human range of hearing, but is modulated with an audible signal that the human brain can hear,.... that's right there is no sound anyone can hear in the air, the sound is only heard within the Brain like voices in your head only you can hear.

I had always wondered how president Bush could have heard Gods voice in his head telling him to go to war with the middle east after 9/11, and now that possibility doesn't seem so far fetched if the weapons and oil industry had Parametric Speaker Lasers telling Bush to do just that, and Bush thinking it was God telling him,........ think about it,..... and how many situations could you manipulate if you had the power of putting Gods voice in peoples heads, and no one else could here it?????

The ultrasonic sound laser is highly directional, meaning it can be pointed or targeted in a specific direction. When this wave interacts with the air, it causes the air itself to demodulate the signal and, as a result, creates audible sound waves perceived only in the path of the beam.

And when someone is in the path of this beam, they hear the sound as if it's coming from inside their head, and no one around them hears anything.

Is that you God, what do you want me to do for ya?

In essence, parametric speakers sound lasers manipulate the properties of sound waves and the air's non-linearity to create a localized and focused auditory experience interacting with the listener's brain. The sensation of the sound originating within one's head is a result of the unusual way the sound waves are generated and directed.

Sooooo, if the government can do this with a few thousand dollars of electronics, don't tell me they aren't capable of activating mentally broken people to carry out heinous acts thinking God told them to do it, because of the voice in their head.

This is a whole new technology that is being tested in the battlefield in various places, so why not here in America to get people to do what government wants them to do thinking it's God telling them to obey, and Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God (caesar representing government).

Still don't believe this unbelievable story?

The Louvre in art gallery in Paris, France has recently installed this technology, and as you pass by the Mona Lisa the woman in the picture calls out to you 'in your head' and starts telling you her story—who she is, how she came to be painted, and how she's lived her cramped life inside this simple wooden frame for almost 500 years, and only you hear her story in your head, the person standing two feet away from you hears nothing, which is creepy if you ask me. And just to note, ever since the Louvre has been using this technology their gift shop sales has skyrocketed,... a subliminal advertisers dream come true......

This new technology is coming, because it's soooo powerful for all kinds of applications like sales, so Look forward to shopping malls, retail stores and all sorts of shopping experiences whispering to your inner sense of being to "BUY THIS" as if you thought your own self suggest it to you in your head, and again creepy to say the least, but it's coming to a store near you I'm betting..... if it isn't already there.

The phrase "The Devil made me do it" just might be a legal defence in the near future..........

............ is it just ME, or does the world seem to be getting more and more fucked up because we are using technology for all the wrong reasons, and not to help humanity but rather to make humanity obey those in power?????

Like

Comment

Share

[barbenheimer-core]

AUDERE EST FACERE !

하나. chanel : part three — 1.2k words

"Where to?"

Startled, Ahyeong looked up to meet Driver Kwon's waiting gaze, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind, "Uhh...same as yesterday."

He nodded in affirmative, pulling the car out of the gates and driving off to their destination, leaving Aheyeong to her thoughts.

Mad. She was going mad. Fatigue was playing with her mind. It had to be.

When Gilyeong had revealed the origins of the book that he'd been reading, Ahyeong had snatched it out of his hands, much to his protests, and all but sprinted out of the house, abandoning her breakfast, and dived into the sleek car waiting outside for her.

She'd asked Driver Kwon to go to the same place as yesterday to confirm it, whether her mind was playing tricks on her or if it really was real.

Surely, it had been nothing but pure coincidence that her brother had said the words she'd uttered herself in a dream, right?

The car started to slow down in speed as it exited the main highway and entered a quaint neighbourhood.

The slowly approaching view of Prince Comics proved her otherwise.

The vehicle, reaching its destination, stopped a little ways away from the entrance of the bookstore.

Driver Kwon looked into the rear-view mirror, only to lay his eyes upon the Song heir staring at the unlit sign of Prince Comics with eyes wide in disbelief, hair askew from when she had shoved herself in the car in a questionable daze.

He frowned. Was she okay? Maybe she wasn't so happy to have moved again so soon.

"Miss," he called out, snapping her out of her trance, "we've arrived."

Yeah, she was aware that they had arrived. She just still couldn't wrap her head around where they had arrived.

Wangja stared blankly into space, vaguely mustering up enough energy to mutter a "welcome" when he heard someone come in. He was definitely not a morning person. Maybe he should've hit the nearest store to get some snacks.

When the person who came in didn't move from the entrance, he raised his eyes, only to meet the jittery figure of Song Ahyeong standing awkwardly in front of his desk with the book he'd given to her clutched tightly between her hands and eyes darting at million different directions at once.

"You're back!" He exclaimed, energy miraculously restored, and rushed forward to engulf her in a massive hug, making her stiffen immediately.

"Didn't think you'd visit so soon, I was dreading the wait," he grinned, pulling away to lead her further into the shop and towards the couches.

She sat down on the sofa by the wall, spine straight as a rod and lips pursed in a thin line, looking around the shelves and hanging lights like she was here for the first time in her life.

Well, she was back in town after so long, he couldn't blame her. She probably hadn't looked around much the other night and only stopped by to greet him.

Her stomach growled.

The girl flushed in embarrassment, and tried to stutter out an apology, "Oh, I-I'm sorry for such unseemly behaviour. I didn't bother with breakfast and-"

"Say no more, I've got it covered," the store owner raised his hand to stop her, rising from his seat and making his way out, "I've been craving ramyeon all morning, this is the perfect excuse to go get it. Just chill in the lounge while I'm at it. I'll be back soon!"

His voice faded as he exited the store, leaving the Song girl alone.

Ahyeong observed her surroundings.

Yellow beams of sunlight came through various cracks in the exterior that had been worn with age, illuminating suspended particles of dust in the air and casting their glow upon numerous bookshelves.

With its mismatched colours and rustic furniture, the whole store gave off the vibe of a vintage bookstore straight out of an 80's movie, bringing a small smile on her face despite her state of crisis.

She'd always been a sucker for old things.

Turning her head, she noticed the writings on the wall behind her, various scribbles decorating it in a plethora of colours dulled with age and sloppy handwritings.

However, two lines written next to each other right by the top of the couch caught her eye.

"Song Ahyeong and Im Jugyeong's spot. Sit without permission, and get a hairy butt," she mumbled out loud, immediately getting up from the sofa she was sitting on.

Ahyeong's expression twisted in bewilderment.

She was supposed to know the main character too now!?

Just as the thought crossed her mind, the sound of a book rattling behind her caught her attention.

She turned around, trying to find the source of the noise.

There, in a shelf tucked into a dark corner, where no light nor eyes would find it if they weren't looking, rested a book with a soft peach cover and gold accents.

Curious, she walked towards it, abandoning the now crinkled book in her hands on the small table in front of her.

She stood in front of the shelf, noticing how the book shook left and right on its spot, but didn't move as if it was glued in space.

She took it out of its place, inquisitive gaze finding the title written on the cover.

True Beauty.

Ahyeong hesitated in opening the book. She wasn't sure if she would like what she would see, but the inexplicable thirst for finding out what was happening to her overcame her reluctance.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

She turned the first page, immediately being greeted by a vibrant character introduction page.

Her eyes raked through the familiar faces. She knew these characters, she'd seen about them, read about them. She knew their insecurities, their fears, their trauma, their happiness.

She perused their brief descriptions.

The main lead, Im Jugyeong; The Heroine. Neglected and desperate for validation, as insecure as they come.

The severe case of second lead syndrome (in Ahyeong's own words), Han Seojun; The Rebel. With a heart of gold, grief-stricken by his friend's death and a hidden passion for what once was.

Then finally, the male lead, Lee Suho; The Prince. The epitome of perfection in everyone's eyes, harbouring a dark past and hidden secrets.

Suho had it pretty bad, she thought. No one to talk to after Seyeon's death, going as far as blaming himself for it, living alone in loneliness. Someone needed to hand this guy a warm cup of hot chocolate or something.

She was about to turn the page, but paused as she spotted another character drawn beside the main trio, standing beside Jugyeong.

For a moment she thought it was Sujin, but reeled it back in when she further scrutinized the new persona.

Black hair in loose waves.

Eyes equally as dark with small flecks of colour.

Ahyeong tensed in uneasiness as she noticed the similarity of the outfit that the character wore and her own, dread slowly pooling in her gut and making it clench in alarm.

Her shaky eyes read over the character description.

The second female lead, Song Ahyeong; The Bully-

Her pupils dilated.

The fucking what-

masterlist

© 2021 Alfia Sheikh, All Rights Reserved

[bonjour-rainycity]

Imagine: Being friends with Alice and asking Carlisle for help on your chemistry homework

Characters: Cullen family, female reader

Rating: G

Word count: 2120

Warnings: None

Request by anon: Wait, omg I’m so happy I found a blog that’s updated recently and I’m definitely gonna ✨stalk✨ your blog and read all your writing after hw but if you’re still doing requests, I thought of something that I would just love to see written. And this could be short or something, y’know? It can be whatever you want it to be, but what if the reader is somewhat friends with the Cullens? Reader (maybe like 20 years old?) is invited to their house one weekend after bumping into Alice and becoming friends and from passing conversation, reader knows that Carlisle is a doctor so she asks him if he could help her with her organic chemistry hw cause she’s studying to be a med student? 

A/n Wow I’m so sorry this took me so long! It’s such a cute request and I loved writing it! Thanks for sending it in and for being patient with me :)

Shoot.

Mentally, I groan, stopping my progress towards my car.

I still have chem homework.

I fiddle with the keys in my hand, contemplating. You could go home…lay in bed…maybe with a pint of ice cream…and pass out in a stress and sugar-induced coma.

Oh, how tempting.

But then I remind myself of why I’m putting myself through the hell that is a STEM degree, and turn on my heel, heading back to campus. I know I won’t get any work done if I go home, so the library it is! Thank goodness it’s open twenty-four hours, because it’s creeping up to eleven and I don’t have the heart to return to one of the academic buildings.

Seeing as it’s Friday night, the library isn’t crowded. Still, I push past all the tables on the first floor and head up to my favorite spot on the second. Settling in at my favorite partially secluded table, I pull out my organic chemistry textbook, pop in my earbuds, and get to work.

{***}

A small, pale hand skims over the table near my book, and I look up with a start.

Alice Cullen stands by my desk, clutching a set of books that look too heavy for her thin arms, but she seems to be managing fine. She and I met during the first week of classes, and have been tentative friends ever since. We don’t see much of each other, given our varying degree programs, but she always greets me with a friendly smile and an offer to join her to study. I pull out my headphones, and give her a tired smile. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Good!” She smiles excitedly, somehow keeping her energy levels at—I check the time on my phone—1:12 am! “Have you been here for long?”

I shrug, feeling the weight of the late hour on my shoulders. “Since around eleven. I was going home but then I forgot I have o-chem homework. I don’t think it should be taking me this long, but I’m struggling. Thankfully only half of it is due in the morning. The rest isn’t due until after the weekend.”

Alice peers over to look at my book and the problems I work through in my notebook. “Oh, those do look hard. But you know, my dad is a doctor, and he probably knows this stuff like the back of his hand. He’d be more than happy to help you.”

I blanch. An invitation to the Cullen’s house? And free help on o-chem homework?

But then I remember my manners. “Oh, thank you, but I couldn’t—”

“Please,” she squeaks, balancing her books in one arm and using the other to retrieve her phone. “We’d be happy to have you over! I’ll let my family know. Does tomorrow around lunchtime work?”

“Uh,” I swallow, not sure I’m believing my ears. “That works great, thank you! I can bring the food?”

She shakes her head, waving off the offer. “Don’t worry about it—Mom loves to cook and will be excited to really use the kitchen. Oh! And there’s this new series my sisters and I have been dying to watch. It’s called Broadchurch. Have you heard of it? Maybe we can start it and see if it’s any good!”

I nod dumbly, too tired and relieved for the help to refuse again. “That sounds fun! Thank you.”

“Of course,” she smiles, shrugging like it’s nothing. “What are friends for?”

My smile softens. She considers us friends. “Do you want to walk out together? It’s pretty late.”

She beams and waits while I collect my stuff.

{***}

I pull up to the front of the massive house.

Alice is waiting for me on the porch. She waves excitedly, and I notice her fiancé standing near the door, looking uncomfortable. I stifle a chuckle. It’s well-known that Jasper, introvert in every sense of the word, fell hard for Alice who is the embodiment of an extravert. I wave, grabbing my backpack and stepping out of the car.

“Welcome,” Alice practically shouts. Jasper gives me a polite nod.

I smile at the two of them, calling out my hello’s and climbing the stairs to the porch. The second Jasper opens the door, I’m greeted by the warm smile of Esme Cullen.

“Hello, Y/n, welcome to our home! We are so happy to have you here.” She extends a warm smile, one I can’t help but return immediately.

Alice leads us straight to the living room, where two of her adoptive siblings, Emmett and Rosalie, lounge. Rosalie sketches something I can��t see, and Emmett yells loudly at the TV, losing at a video game.

“Beat it, Emmett,” Alice chirps, dancing over and taking the controller from his hands. “We’re going to watch Broadchurch.”

Putting his frustration at the game aside, Emmett grins, standing and ruffling Alice’s hair. “Alright, I was getting my ass kicked anyway. Hey, Y/n, good to see you again.”

I return his greeting, familiar with Emmett from an intro to theatre class we had together last semester. The image of his interpretation of Juliet for our final project comes to mind, and I have to stifle a laugh. Emmett goes to leave the room, pulling Jasper with him.

“Send Bella down, would you,” Alice calls after them, already settling on the couch. “Rose, you know Y/n, right?”

Rosalie looks up from her sketching. She smiles briefly at me, then returns to her task. I sit awkwardly next to Alice, waiting for Bella so we can start the show.

“There aren’t many women in STEM.”

My head shoots up, wide eyes turning in Rosalie’s direction. She doesn’t look up from her work, but I know she’s addressing me—Alice is studying fashion merchandising and design.

“Y-yeah,” I stammer. Alice’s older sister is just so intimidating. Well-spoken, obviously intelligent, tall, prettier than anyone I’ve ever met, and top of her law class. She’s not exactly warm either, like her mother or sister—even now, there’s a cold bite to her tone. But the edges of her lips quirk up, and I can tell she’s being nice.

“Don’t let the guys push you around. What you’re doing is important, and you’re probably smarter than them. What do you want to do with your degree?”

The answer, always on my heart and mind, is automatic. “I want to be a doctor. So, med school is next.”

She nods once. “Good.”

And apparently that’s the end of our conversation.

I try to hide my smile by rummaging around in my backpack for my water bottle. It’s nice to feel supported.

Bella comes gliding down the stairs and twists into the living room, folding herself easily onto the love seat. She greets me, and then tosses me the throw over the back of her couch. Alice nods as if forgetting something, then reaches into a basket hidden between our couch and Rosalie’s chair and produces three more blankets, throwing two to her sisters and keeping one for herself. She shoots me a grin as each of us, even the serious Rosalie, snuggles up.

Alice stands, turning off the lights and then wraps back in her blanket and scoots near me on the couch. “I hope this is good!” With a grin, she opens Netflix and plays the first episode.

{***}

Broadchurch does not disappoint. Before I know it, we’re halfway through the second episode, eyes glued to the screen. Bella, who was definitely reading a book under her blanket at the start, has put it to the side, leaning forward and watching the show intently.

The front door creaks, then clicks closed, and Alice smiles, pressing pause on the remote. “Dad’s home.”

Before long, the famed local doctor comes in to say hi to the girls and to greet me. He’s just as welcoming as his wife!

“Alice told me you are having trouble with some organic chemistry homework?”

I nod, hoping it’s not too much to ask for his help. “I got a good start on some of the problems last night, but I keep messing up. I’m not really sure where I’m going wrong—there’s no answer key so I can’t work backwards through the problems.”

He nods, casually resting his hands in the pocket of his slacks. “I remember o-chem homework quite well.” He grins conspiratorially. “It is the bane of many a med student’s existence. Why don’t you girls finish up your episode and then join Esme and me in the kitchen for lunch? I can take a look at your homework if you like.”

Relief washes over me. “That would be great, thank you so much.”

He smiles warmly. “Of course. Now, if you all will excuse me….” With a twinkle in his eye, he leaves us to rejoin his wife.

This family is so nice! I wonder why they get so much flack at school?

Alice resumes the episode, and soon my musings are washed away as I try to piece together the mystery of the murder before the detectives can.

{***}

Esme is a wonderful cook. Carlisle sings her praises but doesn’t fix a plate for himself, saying he ate plenty as she was cooking. We all sit down at the table, though I’m the only one who eats in earnest — Bella claims to be filled up on snacks, Rose says she’s on a diet, and Alice takes a small helping for herself, every now and then poking the chicken in mild disgust. I don’t see what the problem is, the food is fantastic!

Carlisle sits down next to me, and I slide my textbook and notebook in his direction. He smiles, looking almost nostalgic. “I remember these. The good news is, as a doctor, you won’t be doing much of this in day-to-day life, if at all. But it is important for some courses you will take in medical school, so it’s best to master the concepts now. See, on number nineteen, you start the problem correctly, but get lost once you have to balance the equation to continue. Instead of waiting until the middle to balance, I would do that first, that way, you have a solid base before moving on to solve the rest of the problem.”

I nod, peering over at the paper intently. I hadn’t tried that strategy before.

Carlisle takes out a pen, and begins scratching out an equation. Then, he grins, shaking his head, and crosses it out, starting again in much neater handwriting. “Forgive my penmanship. Though, if you decide to continue and become a practicing doctor, your handwriting will soon be indecipherable, too.”

From across the table, Rosalie snorts, and I can’t help but laugh along. It seems almost a rite of passage for a doctor to have horrendous handwriting.

In clearer script, Carlisle continues working out the problem, then slides the paper over for me to see. He explains what he did at each step, and I nod along, trying to commit as much of it to memory as possible. He works out another problem in the same way, then asks me to try on my own. I smile tentatively as I go, hesitant to accept that I actually know how to do the problem now.

But I do.

It takes concentration to work through the steps, but I can, which is a far cry from where I was last night. Carlisle waves off my thanks, saying I just needed to try a different approach, but I had it within me all along. I bring up another section I had issues with—structures of the elements—and Carlisle teaches me a better strategy for memorizing a few and then figuring out the rest. By the time Esme and Bella have put the food away, my homework is done—in a fourth of the time it would have taken me struggling through it on my own.

“Seriously, Dr. Cullen, thank you so much.”

He smiles pleasantly, handing me back my textbook. “Of course. If you need help again, just come on over. I know the girls love having the company, and my wife and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet you as well.”

Esme appears behind her husband, laying her hands affectionately on his shoulders. “Absolutely, Y/n. Please come over any time.”

I pack up my homework and thank them once again for lunch and for the help. Alice darts to my side, grinning. “Ready to finish the episode?”

I feel so much lighter now that my homework is done, and I don’t feel guilty at all for spending time with my new friends. In fact, I may even indulge in that ice cream when I get home.

“Absolutely.”

A/n Thanks for reading! If you have a moment, here’s the link to my masterlist :)

[cl-01-kestis]

An Unlikely Pair - Wrecker x Pregnant!Reader

Summary: As Anakin’s older sister, you were rejected by the Jedi even though you wield the force. But you put your talents towards something else as a Senator and visit Anakin on Anaxes.

Warnings: fluff, lots of pregnancy hormones and baby bonding, open ending

“How’s my sister in law doing?” You asked your brother as you walked beside him towards the ship he would be flying on in a few minutes. Rex walked beside you as the three of you chatted amongst yourselves quietly.

“She’s asking about you, you should probably call her when I leave” Your brother replied with a smile, his hand pressing on your shoulder as he came to a halt.

“She’ll be asking to go baby shopping with me again, you know how excited she is” You looked down at your barely visible belly and back up at Anakin who smiled, pressing his palm against your uterus and unable to control the grin taking over his face.

“Of course she’s excited, a little niece or nephew on the way? I’d almost say she’s more excited than me” Anakin chuckled, rubbing your tummy once more before turning around and looking ahead. Rex stuck with you as your brother walked forward to Hunter, who you had met right before Anakin left for Skako Minor. You heard of the Bad Batch, Rex had filled you in and you couldn’t help but admire them.

You kept a hand on your tummy which held your 6 month old baby, rubbing it softly as you chatted with Rex for a while, talking about the mission he was going on and making small talk about your due date considering everyone knew about your baby at this point. The only issue - there was no father. You were experiencing what your mother went through all those years ago with Anakin and it was very strange to you, the Senate had put you into questioning and done multiple physical tests on you to see if there was a father, but it turns out there was none at all and you were in fact still a virgin. You still accepted the fact you were pregnant though and now you’ve made a full commitment to be a mother when the time comes. The baby was put there for a reason, not just randomly in your opinion.

“Morning sickness has never been so bad, every morning at 3am I’m up and spewing my guts out” You groaned, Rex bearing the burden of all your complains and whining, but to your surprise he wasn’t yet bored or annoyed.

“Perks of being pregnant general, the little guys strong! I guarantee it’s a boy” Rex nudged you playfully with his shoulder.

“Maybe, Ani and I put our bets on a little girl” You smirked, nudging him back which caused him to let out a loud laugh, drawing the attention of Anakin and Hunter who were speaking with the rest of Hunters team, the Bad Batch.

“You two fine over there?” Your brother yelled over, his brow raised and arms crossed as he turned to look at the both of you.

“Just discussing whether the baby is a boy or girl” You chuckled, walking up to Anakin with a beaming smile on your face as Rex followed. Your palm lay flat on where your uterus would be and you put your other hand on your hip.

“Girl, for sure” Your brother said without hesitation, looking to Rex who raised his hands up in defence all whilst fighting the smile off his face.

“You’re expecting, Senator?” You turned to look at Hunter who had a surprised expression on his face, watching you with wide eyes and trailing his gaze to your slightly swollen stomach.

“Yes, 3 months to go” You chirped positively, removing your hand to reveal your stomach which showed a lot through your thin material dress. Hunter smiled and walked up to you, offering his palm. You knew of his abilities, hyper sensitive to many things so you let him feel your stomach to see if he sensed anything to do with your baby.

Hunter closed his eyes as his palm flattened on your tummy, and smiled when he felt the small life form.

“A beautiful healthy baby, congratulations to you Senator, and you Master Skywalker, they’ll be lucky to have an uncle like you” Hunter took his hand off your stomach and patted your shoulder, offering you a smile which you gladly returned. Once he turned away you looked to Anakin with a big bright smile.

“You hear that? My babies beautiful and healthy!” You poked Anakin’s shoulder, earning a chuckle from him as he bent down and kissed your stomach.

“Speaking of babies, go and get some rest, you’ll be exhausted from this morning” Anakin’s tone shifted to concern and you met his offer with the nod of your head, surprising yourself with a yawn as you patted your tummy and nodded.

“Sounds like a plan, don’t get killed Skyguy” You kissed your brothers head by waving him to lean down, tangling your fingers through his hair and stroking it softly before letting go and nuzzling your head with his; something the two of you had done since he was born.

“Love You Ani” You murmured, leaning back and starting to make your way towards the barracks where your bed was awaiting you.

But on your way there, you started feeling dizzy. Your hand was on your tummy as usual, protecting it, but your sight started going fuzzy and your body felt heavy. You needed sleep but you physically couldn’t get there. Just as you were about to collapse onto your knees, a pair of strong hands caught you just in time and picked you up into a chair lift.

Multiple voices yelled out to you, including your brothers and Rex’s. Your eyes fluttered open and the first thing you saw was Wrecker, the strongest man in the Bad Batch. You felt safe in his arms, looking up at him with a smile which he returned, only shy and awkward. His eyes were glued to your baby bump and he looked so scared when Anakin walked up to see it you were alright.

“Wrecker- thank you, thank you a lot” Anakin said with such distress, eyes wide and disturbed as his hand raised up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. Hunter rushed to Wreckers side and placed a hand on his shoulder, relieved that his comrade was able to save you in time from falling and possibly causing damage to your baby.

“Take her to the barracks, look after her for now Wreck” Hunter instructed, nodding to Anakin who directed Wrecker to the bunker you were sleeping in. It didn’t take long for the big brute to find his way to your barrack, cradling you so delicately considering you were so much smaller than him. He was nervous as he opened up the barrack, relieved to find there was no other clones or Jedi inside as he looked around to find your bed. The one in the corner caught his gaze when he noticed a pile of fancy Senator clothes beside it.

Wrecker tip toed over to the bed and placed you down on it so delicately, your eyes fighting to stay open as you yawned and reached out to grab his arm when he was about to lean back. Wrecker froze at the sudden contact of your hand touching him but he felt so at ease when he noticed the expression on your face.

“It’s alright Senator, you’re safe” His gravelly voice reassured you, taking your hand and cupping it right in his own. His size difference was incredible compared to you, your hand was fully spread in the palm of his and he found it incredibly... cute?

“Is the baby safe?” You asked in a tired tone, letting him hold your hand for a while as you closed your eyes briefly before looking down at your tummy.

“The baby’s fine, ma’am, you had us all a little scared back there though” Wrecker smiled, shedding a little light on the situation. His smile made you forget about the hassle of your fall, he radiated positive and playful energy and you felt so intrigued by it.

“Thank you, and please, call me (Y/N)” You chuckled, your hand still grasping his wrist as he sat on the bed beside you. Wrecker felt himself grow comfortable at your presence, but he looked at your belly and noted to himself that there must be a father involved, disappointing him slighlty as he continued to let you hold onto him.

“You here on your own? I wouldn’t consider this as a place for a pregnant woman” Wrecker looked around the barracks, feeling uneasy as you shrugged and replied with a soft hum.

“I’ve been in many wars, far before I was a Senator, so l know these places like they’re my home” You smiled, sitting up and crossing your legs since it was more comfortable for your baby bump. Wrecker’s arms were ready to catch you if you fell, worry all over his face as he tried to stay calm and collected. You found it cute.

“You were a soldier?” Wrecker asked with a curious tone, placing his hands back down on his lap as he watched you protectively in case anything happened. After crossing your legs, you nodded.

“Once, but I resigned and took interest in doing politics” You were so open with him, he can’t remember the last time he sat down like this and had a conversation with someone that wasn’t his brothers. A woman as well, a very beautiful one at that.

“Do you miss it?” He asked, raising a brow.

“Sometimes, I miss the thrill of it all” You sighed, your fingers tapping a soft rhythm on your tummy as you looked up to meet Wrecker’s gaze, directing your attention towards his cybernetic eye which was pure white and had a slightly noticeable light grey iris on it. You looked at the large scar covering up half of his face, curious as to know how he got it but you kept your mouth shut.

“What position were you?” Wrecker looked more comfortable speaking about your past career in the army considering it was something he was engineered for, the topic of war was something he was able to discuss instead of other matters such as politics and pregnancy.

“I was an officer, much like Captain Rex, but I was promoted to Commander right before I fell pregnant, the timing is impeccable” You laughed dryly, eyes still looking at Wrecker as he chuckled at your comment and shrugged.

“You can’t control it, I’m guessing the dad knows?” Wrecker asked with a positive upbeat tone but you said nothing in reply, causing him to replace his smile with a confused frown.

“You wouldn’t believe me, but there is no dad- biologically impossible, yes I know, but the Senate ran multiple tests on me and found it out to be true” You sighed, crossing your arms over your chest and looking up at the bunker bed ontop of you. Wrecker stared at you with wide, surprised eyes and blinked a few times before coming back to reality.

“That’s pretty impressive, it’s a miracle child then” He smiled once again, calming your nerves and making the corners of your lips twitch up.

“You could say that, pregnancy is the burden of my existence though” You sat up when you felt your back get uncomfortable, keeping one arm on your spine whereas the other was on your knee. You were sitting opposite from the colosal clone who wore the softest expression, his helmet sitting next to him as he supervised you in case you fell back.

“You thinking of any names?” Wrecker perked up as the question slipped past his lips, leaning his elbows on his knees which brought him a little closer to you as you started rubbing your stomach.

“For a girl I want to name her Shmi-Eisley after my late mother and the place I grew up,” You felt your heart ache at the memories of you and your mother when you were barely a little girl, long before Anakin was born. You and your mother were very close and unlike Anakin, you had a father, but he vanished months before you were born so you never knew who he was. But now her burden of pregnancy has passed down onto you and you have no idea why, it felt like a prophecy being repeated.

“I don’t really have any names for boys yet but I’m thinking about it” You scratched the back of your neck.

“You want it to be a girl?” Wrecker tilted his head. You replied with a curt nod.

“I hope so, but a boy would be just as good” You smiled at the thought of holding your own baby, heart swelling with happiness as you stroked the area above your uterus, using the force to feel their heartbeat. Wrecker watched with an intrigued stare as you closed your eyes and furrowed your brows slightly, your face unreadable as you smiled and let out a small chuckle.

“You want to feel it? The baby’s kicking quite a lot” You offered, holding back a grin as a kick startled you in perfect timing. Wrecker looked concerned, as if he didn’t trust himself with the task and reluctantly took his glove off and brought his hand forward to touch your stomach. You arched your back slightly to stick your tummy out some more, your hand resting on the top so he had room to press his large hand against it.

“It’s alright, here,” You gently took Wrecker’s hand halfway, pulling it towards you and resting his palm flat on the side of your baby bump so he could feel it. Wrecker looked at your stomach intensely, eyes focused and a small frown plastered to his face until he finally felt it, a small kick against his hand.

Leaning back with wide eyes, wrecker let out a loud laugh and stared at your stomach in amazement, bewildered he had even felt such a thing. The baby kicked more and you found yourself leaning back and taking deep breaths, slight pains jabbing your body as you tried to sooth them. Wrecker shifted off his bunker and onto his knees so he was closer to you than before, his hand reaching out once more to press against your tummy.

You watched with wide eyes and gasped when the baby stopped kicking, as it if sensed Wrecker’s presence and was immediately comforted by it. Your heart swooned at the sight of Wrecker grinning to himself as your baby settled just by his touch, rubbing his thumb delicately over the material of your dress.

Shyly, you placed your hand ontop of his and his eyes looked up to meet yours, a blush covering his handsome face as the small strokes of his thumb paused. His heart hammered inside his chest, his breathing was short and he felt like he was about to combust. The most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on was letting him bond with her baby, only for her to bond with him. It was an experience he never thought would occur but he wasn’t complaining, this felt so relaxing to him but at the same time it put him on edge.

He was engineered to fight, not feel.

“The little one okay?” He asked, his tone quiet and a complete contrast compared to how he usually sounded. He sounded as though the baby heard his every word and he tried not to disturb it.

“Yeah,” You smiled. “They like you”.

Wrecker looked up at you, his eyes looking into yours for much longer than the both of you realised. Your heart fluttered and you found yourself reaching over to rest your hand on Wreckers cheek. Using your force abilities, you pressed to fingers against his temple to see what he was thinking. He looked confused but he put the pieces together; you and Skywalker were siblings, of course you had the force as well.

He relaxed once again and let out a soft, pleasant sigh, allowing you to go into his mind and shuffle around his thoughts. He made an unreadable expression, clearly feeling you in his head and trying not to laugh, maybe it was ticklish for him? The thought made you smile.

There wasn’t many thoughts in his head, he was relaxing so much his worries started to fade and the only thoughts you could read were the ones he felt about you. You felt your face flush, hearing his thoughts about how beautiful you were and how much he wanted to know more about you. You heard him worrying about how you would react to him feeling that way, angry? Your smile faded and you took your fingers from his temple, returning to cup his cheek as his expression became worried.

“I want to know you better as well, Wrecker” You giggled, earning a sigh of relief from the big brute who smiled uncontrollably and placed a hand on your waist. You looked at his face, your fingers delicately trailing around his scars and sharp jaw. Wrecker was more handsome than first glance, he had beautiful eyes, even if one of them wasn’t real. You loved the way he looked at you, although it caused your baby to kick your stomach as if it was telling you off. You ignored it, you just wanted to enjoy this moment with Wrecker, you didn’t know the next time you’d get to see him so you took every minute with caution.

-

“You get along suspiciously well with Wrecker” Your brother stood beside you with his arms folded, his hip touching yours as you watched the Bad Batch from a respectable distance whilst they negotiated their next mission.

You chuckled at his comment, leaving no reply and crossing your arms above your belly as you continued spectating Wrecker get along with his brothers. You understood each of them had a special gift, they were all incredible soldiers but something about Wrecker made him stand out compared to the rest. Whether was his size, his volume, his attitude, or his abilities, to you it was everything about him.

“He’s good with Shmi” You stated. Anakin immediately knew what you meant, Shmi was the name the both of you called your baby. Your little brother smiled, looking towards Wrecker who was talking with Rex and Cody.

“If she likes him, you should keep him around” Anakin suggested with a smirk, nudging your shoulder with his and making you chuckle softly before shrugging your shoulders.

“Maybe, depends whether or not he’s going to stick around” Your tone shifted quickly into a sad, disappointed one. Your brother wrapped an arm around your shoulder, rubbing it reassuringly whilst kissing your temple.

“Wrecker’s a clone, he’s a soldier, you do realise if you were to keep him around it would be difficult?” Anakin raised a brow, keeping you close to him as you rest your head on his shoulder.

“That’s a good point, but then again I’ve never felt this way towards someone,” You sighed.

“Is this how you feel towards Padme?” You looked up at your brother for closure, arms still folded and head cranked up a bit just so you could see his face. He was too tall, that was the only thing you didn’t like about him.

“Depends on what you’re feeling? Describe it to me” He turned to face you, a supportive smile on his face as you let out another sigh and rubbed your upper arms.

“It’s a weird feeling, I get all fuzzy and warm, my heart feels uncomfortable” You murmured, careful not to speak too loud in case any clones heard, which is the last thing you want. Your brother stared at you with wide yet amused eyes, patting your shoulder before letting you go and folding his arms once more.

“Sounds like you’ve got feelings for Wrecker, maybe even fallen in love” Anakin shrugged, sticking his bottom lip out and trying to fight back a smile as you gulped down your throat dryly.

“Then what do I do?” You asked.

“You’ll just have to wait and see” Your brother responded.

[kiki-shortsnout]

Are you still accepting prompt? Maybe 48 offering the other a coat for strangfrost? >///<

The impact sent jolts of pain shuddering into his shins, his foot falling forward to stop his momentum, unwilling to give his brother the satisfaction of seeing him fall on his face. Loki spun in a circle, tossing his head to try and clear the hair from his face, the pelting rain insistent on sticking it to his skin.

‘Brother, you’ve gone too far this time,’ Loki growled, ripping his boot free of the squelching mud holding it captive. One of these days he would be successful in his endeavor to win a bet against Thor, but luck was not smiling on him today. His punishment was to spend an allocated amount of time in a place of the victors choosing, and despite Loki spinning the most beautiful of lies to convince Thor he detested the magnificent forests of the Vanir, his brother had seen through them.

He was stuck on the repugnant planet of Midgard, filled with its beings of monotony, unrefined creatures who held the same stature in Loki’s mind of the cattle they ate on Asgard. Needed, but imbecilic.

Shivering, he wrapped his arms around himself, looking around for a shelter of some sort. Freeing his foot, he plodded forwards, swearing profusely at the low-lying branches swatting him across his face, spiky foliage catching on his cape and clothes, cutting into the skin of his hand and leaving paper-thin lines of fire.

What a wretched planet. He’d never understood why others held it in such regard, why they were fascinated by these absurd Midgardians.

Despite his muttered curses directed at Thor and the incessant howling of the wind chilling him to the bone, Loki stopped as he thought he heard a sound, straining his ears as he tried to hear it again.

Nothing.

‘It’s a trick of the wind,’ Loki muttered, wrapping his cape tight around himself as he glared up at the stormy sky. As he lifted his foot free again, he heard the same noise, the unmistakable sound of sorrow. Changing course, he only needed to take a few more steps before he saw what it was making the sounds.

It was a child.

Huddled against the cold, his soaking wet hair was plastered to his skull, frail, bare arms wrapped around his knees.

It is of no consequence to me, Loki thought, turning to leave.

A feeling held him still, a wrenching beneath his breastbone. There was a familiarity in the posture, a recognition as he stared through the deluge at him. It was as though he was looking at a reflection of himself, huddled against the wall in his chambers, lonely and sobbing.

The child flinched as he drew close, and Loki lifted his hands, showing he was unarmed and honorable.

‘Are you injured?’ Loki asked, taking a few cautious steps closer to the tree the boy sat beneath, noticing it offered some shelter from the rainstorm.

The small boy shook his head, sniffling and rubbing his nose against his sleeve, smearing mucus.

Delightful.

‘Are you lost? Do you need help?’ Loki tried instead, standing beside the boy, clasping his hands behind his back.

He didn’t receive an answer, the child burrowing his head closer to his knees. Leaning against the tree, the rough fibers of the bark biting against his palms, Loki looked up at the raindrops catching on the vibrant green leaves above, before looking at the ruffling of the grass at his feet.

‘Well, I suppose there are worse places to spend a lost bet. My brother and I, we are forever playing pranks on each other, and I have yet to win. Do you have any siblings?’

Silence.

‘It drives our parents mad, especially our father, although, I excel at making father angry,’ Loki encouraged, watching the child subtly for any outward reaction.

‘I hate him,’ the boy whispered finally.

‘Ah, he speaks,’ Loki teased, unclasping his cape from his neck and draping it over the boy, offering some protection. ‘What is your name young one?’

‘Stephen.’

He peeked up then, his eyes striking Loki straight in the gut, making him crouch down to see better. They were magnificent, appearing to be aquamarine from a first glance, but looking now they appeared to be the pale blue of ice, a ring of green fire around the pupil.

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Loki, God of Mischief,’ he told Stephen, offering his hand. It was taken by the tiny hand, his touch chilled, the edges of his lips blue. ‘Do you need help getting back home?’

‘No, I know how to get home, I just…I don’t want to be near him,’ Stephen spat, tugging Loki’s cape closer, shivering.

‘Are you in danger? Who is it you speak of?’ Loki asked, stretching his hands forward. When no resistance was met, he ran them up and down Stephen’s arms, creating warmth through the friction between their skin.

‘My dad, we had a fight,’ Stephen said.

‘Ah, fathers are complicated creatures,’ Loki said in understanding.

‘You don’t like yours either?’ Stephen asked, looking up with him with a child’s naivety, no hint of scorn or distrust as Loki was so used to seeing.

‘More like he does not like me,’ he answered.

‘I want to become a doctor, so that means I have to work hard at school. I placed first in my class during the last test we had, but he… got mad when I showed him, told me to forget it, that I’m going to be taking over the farm. He said I was arrogant, that I acted like I was too good for my family.’ Stephen turned his head and Loki saw the hint of red on his cheek, recognized the sting of a father’s slap.

Loki didn’t know how much longer he had on this planet, how he could reassure Stephen in such a short space of time, but he also knew he couldn’t allow the child to continue thinking those thoughts.

‘Becoming a healer is a worthy goal. Just because your father has envisioned a particular path for you does not mean you have to follow it. It will not be easy, and you will need to grasp hold of your courage, especially in your darkest days, but you can do it.’

‘How do you know? I’m not an adult yet,’ Stephen challenged, making Loki bite down a smile.

‘Ah, but I am, and I’m a great judge of character. You can do this, believe in yourself, because at times, nobody else will.’

Loki looked over his shoulder at the familiar energy of the Bifrost crackling.

‘I need to leave now I’m afraid.’ He considered suppressing Stephen’s memory of their meeting, but didn’t have the heart to as he saw the wonderment in this young mortal’s eyes at the rainbow-colored beam waiting. Stephen reached up to take the cape off, and Loki stopped him, his hand engulfing Stephen’s as he clasped it.

‘Take care, Stephen. I hope our paths cross again someday,’ Loki told him, knowing he would probably never see this young mortal again, but he still felt a connection, an understanding between one disappointing son to another.

***

Loki found a secluded part of the building to hide in, not wanting to draw attention to himself, especially after his last run in with the sorcerer had left him falling in some unknown dimension for thirty minutes.

He hadn’t known places like this existed on Midgard. Thor had returned after their father had left them, wanting advice from the sorcerer regarding the sister they never knew they had.

Loki found an unobtrusive corner, away from the artifacts exuding an interesting magical signature, away from the mortal in the blue robes who wouldn’t stop staring at him.

I love you, my sons.

After everything, everything Loki had done, invading Midgard, banishing Odin to New York, the part he had to play in his mother’s death, after all of that, Odin had told him the words he’d always been desperate to hear.

Anger, sadness, rage, grief, love, they writhed and twisted within him, misshapen intertwined emotions that he couldn’t make sense of, leaving him numb and empty.

Warmth settled on his shoulders, and he looked up, a ruby sentient cloak now waving at him as it kept him warm. Glancing up, he saw legs in his vision, and suddenly the face of the Midgardian second rate sorcerer was in his eye line.

‘What are you doing?’ Loki spat, trying to peel the cloak from his shoulders.

‘A long time ago, a God of Mischief offered a young boy his cape and some words of encouragement. They might have only been offhand, but they helped that child through a lot of his life, so today, he’s returning the favor.’

It couldn’t be.

Loki had been too angry to notice the mortal’s appearance before, but eyes didn’t lie, they never did, and as he gazed into Stephen’s eyes, he knew them to be the same of the small boy he’d met decades ago.

‘You’re…Stephen? Did you become a healer?’ Loki questioned, sitting straighter. Those eyes were still as beautiful as they had been in his youth, and now he took the time to appreciate the body he’d grown into, the slim muscles, the beautiful, chiseled face.

The Midgardian was gorgeous.

His appreciation wasn’t as subtle as he’d hoped. Stephen broke eye contact with a self-conscious cough, the barest hint of color on his cheeks.

‘I did, much to my father’s disappointment,’ Stephen told him, a wry twist to his lips.

‘How did you…’ he trailed off, gesturing to Stephen and then the building they were in, the magic thrumming around them.

‘An accident, the conclusion of my hubris,’ Stephen answered, offering his hands for Loki’s gaze, the grooves of painful jagged scars making him reach out to touch. Again, just like it had been all those years ago, an understanding was formed between them with very few words being said.

‘You left me falling for thirty minutes,’ Loki said, suddenly at a loss for words, taking Stephen’s hand in his.

‘I remembered a God of Mischief liked pranks, but it seems he mistook my playful tease as malicious intent,’ Stephen said with a crooked smile, stealing the breath from Loki’s lungs.

‘After this is over, after we stop our sister, I would like to get to know you better,’ Loki asked, already hearing Thor calling him to action.

‘I look forward to it,’ Stephen told him with a wink, his hand lingering in Loki’s. Before he could take it away, Loki brought it to his mouth, kissing his knuckles, enamored by the blush on Stephen’s cheekbones.

‘Until we meet again then, Stephen.’

[neokollection]

Their S/O Has Small Breasts & Is Insecure (M)

WayV

A/N: Ten’s was in the original NCT 127 post, here! I changed his a bit! ALSO WinWin’s is still there, if you want to read a diff one for him lol Situation is basically you’re dating them. ‘Semi-Mature’ situations because... B O O B S

ㅡ

Kun:

He loved listening to your heartbeat, the steady rhythm enrapturing his attention. He found himself subconsciously grinning as he shifted closer, his soft cheek pressing further against your blouse.

“Kun,” you whined slightly, wanting to shift away in the sheets, but also enjoying the sensation of the closeness.

If your ears could tinge pink, they’d be glowing. You felt quite embarrassed about your chest, having a small size you worried he would also take more notice to it being so close. 

“What are you thinking?” 

Your heartrate had increased, pounding against your chest, intriguing Kun.

“Nothing-” you replied, attempting to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Kun pulled away, his face nuzzling against your own, his hand sneaking under the hem of your blouse. The cold sensation caused you to shudder, his palm cupping your breast as he felt your heartrate.

“Your heart is racing,” he informed, his eyes sparkling.

“What’re you doing?!” you whined, shifting under his hold, his bare skin upon your own making your escape attempt weak.

Knowing your insecurities, he knew exactly why you became anguished each time he came into contact with your chest.

“You’re so cute,” he whispered, trailing gentle kisses to your ear as he switched his attention from your heart to your chest, giving a gentle grope, the soft surface of his palm rubbing your perked nipple causing you to let out a breathy sigh.

Ten:

“Let me see!”

“No!”

“What’re you being shy for now?!” Ten bickered, fighting to pull your fists from your chest, your bikini top accentuating your rather small assets.

With a sigh, he sat back, straddling your hips with a challenging gaze. With sudden vigor he leant forward, face falling to the crook of your neck as his hands tickled your sides, the pool chair scraping upon the concrete momentarily. Giggling, you tried to swat him away, but he caught your hands, pinning them aside your head in triumph.

“Wait!”

His head snapped from the crook of your neck to your pleading gaze.

“Don’t look...”

“Why?” baffled, by how flirtatious you were being before, your teasing winks and playful smiles in the pool now traded for reddening cheeks and shy glances. His brows knit together in confusion as to why you were now shy, his lips pulling into a smile of amusement.

“Just don’t-” you whined... “They’re small and...”

“Mine are too,” Ten jested, trying to make you giggle again.

However, seeing as you didn’t giggle as he expected, he let his fingers intertwine with your own romantically to give a reassuring squeeze.

“If you don’t want me to I won’t,” he promised before releasing your hands.

WinWin:

(WW has another scenario under my 127 reaction, it’s more of being in a new relationship type situation, this one is more of a you’ve been dating for a while)

“They’re quite small aren’t they-” you were talking to yourself rather than your preoccupied cutie, Sicheng.

His gaze flickered up from his phone, to your mirror image, lips pursing as you turned side to side to inspect the new top you’d gotten earlier that day.

“Maybe I should get a boob-job...”

You heard a disgruntled sound from the man in the corner, giving a shake of his head with his thick brows knit together.

“I didn’t think you were actually listening,” you teased slightly, giving yourself a once over in the mirror.

He stretched a long leg, the toe of his sock wiggling against your ankle, bidding your attention. He wore a pout, something he often did when he wanted something. He placed his phone to the side as he shifted against the wall he was leaning on.

“Aren’t you uncomfortable on the floor?” you asked with a small smile as you stepped closer.

He made ‘grabby’ hands as you, reaching up to open and close his fists several times.

“What?” you cooed at his cute antics.

Once you were within reach, he grabbed your wrist, pulling you down to him. You bent at the waist, face level with his own. Unsatisfied, he pulled you in further until with an ‘oof’ you were collapsing into his lap, though he seemed unfazed by the small tumble. He wrapped himself around you, caging you in with his long legs and arms, peppering pecks wherever he could reach between your giggles.

Lucas:

You were hardly paying attention to the movie playing on your laptop, snuggled with Lucas in bed, your cheek pressing against his strong shoulder as you occasionally snuck glances at his profile.

“Oh-” Lucas made a sound, smiling at the screen for a moment as the female lead came out of the shower in just a towel, her breasts quite impressive to your own.

Immediately, he looked at you, his smile fading. It was as though he’d purposely done something to get himself in trouble, looking to you immediately for a response or reaction like a disobedient puppy, expecting you to cover his eyes or scold him. You opened, but shut your mouth, not having the energy to shame nor scold him. Worried he’d made you upset, his long fingers tapped the space bar, pausing the movie, shifting your laptop from his lap to the side of the large bed. You’d gotten comfortable in your spot, emitting a small groan. He rolled over, wrapping himself around you, smothering your face with his massive chest, his scent overwhelming.

“Loo- cus...” you mumbled, muffled by him as your hands fisted his shirt.

He hummed in response, the deep sound reverberating through your whole being.

“What’re you doing?” you drawled out, although not expecting an actual answer.

“I don’t want to watch the movie anymore,” he informed, followed by a deep inhale of your scent. 

idk how to explain this, I think he’d either be super direct like ‘yours are great too!!’ or super indirect about it and just showing his love-

XiaoJun:

XiaoJun had his own insecurities, especially about his size- Compared to giants like Lucas he felt thin and skinny, determined to stick to his workout regimen- That being said, he was also aware of your insecurities, but this was the first time the two of you were being so open to each other about them. The clock beside the couch reach 3:04 AM, the gummy worm dangling from your fingers making him chuckle as you threw it at him.

“I don’t know,” you began, your pout deepening, “I just feel insecure about it- I know you shouldn’t compare yourself to others and all, but I can’t help it-”

“I understand,” he spoke up, toying with the bottle cap at his cross-legged feet.

“Sometimes I,” you paused, “I feel like a child rather than a woman...”

“No-” he retorted, his brows scrunching together with a face of sadness.

He didn’t want you to feel any less than you were. He thought for a moment, if you would let him he’d like to make you feel like a woman.

“I’ve never thought that way about you,” he replied, scooting closer, “You’re so beautiful- Seriously!”

Hendery:

“You think they’re small?”

“I mean,,,” you quirked a brow, “They are-”

Hendery made a disgruntled face, any other time you would have giggled, his wide eyes boring into your own-

“They’re perfect,” he retorted.

His sudden compliment made you break away from his gaze, attempting to hide your grin as he reached for the lingerie on the hanger, ignoring the stares of those passing.

“Try it on,” he urged, his expression serious.

“It won’t look good,” you argued in a hushed tone, taking the hanger from him in attempt to hang the item back on the rack.

He pulled the hanger out of reach, his frown deepening.

“I’ll be the judge of that-”

“Hendy-” you sighed (srry that’s the nickname I call him, I think it’s cute, okay-)

“Please,” he pouted, switching tactics, his bottom lip puffed out.

Giving in, you took the item from him.

“You’re gonna look so hot,” he exclaimed with a loud giggle, beaming.

YangYang:

“No-” you whined, wallowing in your bed, phone to your ear.

“But I’m outside your apartment...”

“But I’m comfy in bed,” you drawled.

“But I miss you,” he retorted.

“It’s too much work,” you lied, scrambling out of bed, “I’m my pajamas-”

“So?”

“I don’t have a bra on or-”

“Well, you don’t need one anyway, right?”

Ouch. Sometimes he said things that he really shouldn’t- Even more painfully so, although it was a joke, he’d remain quite oblivious to how it hurt others until someone was giving him the silent treatment or crying.

You’d been in the process of pulling on a pair of socks- Even though he’d showed up unannounced, it wasn’t completely abnormal for him to do so- And although you teased him, claiming you were already comfy in bed, in a minute you would race down to him. The line was quite for a few moments.

“Shit- I’m sorry,” he began, his tone lowering, “I was just kidding, but I shouldn’t-”

“It’s fine,” you assured, you knew how he was, and technically he wasn’t wrong.

“No,” he fought back, “It’s not fine... I don’t know why I said that-”

The line was silent again for a few moments, neither of you knowing what to say next.

“Are you at the front? I’m um, coming down now-”

He’d give you so much love and would not even hold your chest size against you This is just a fake scenario so like don’t think badly of him!

[theimprobabledreamersworld]

A Time of Magic

Merlin AU

I got really excited about writing this after getting so many great ideas from people! So I spent most of today on it :) I will make it clear now; some parts will follow how it went in canon, some parts will be similar to how it went in the show and other things I will be deviating from completely <3

Taglist: I’ll do my 'general writing taglist for now' but if you would like to be tagged (or not tagged if you have been) then please let me know via dm, asks or comments/tags! 😊💜

@psychedelicships @jwillowwolf @lost-in-thought-20 @red-imeanblue @writerwithtoomanyships

Summary:  “No one can know their destiny, no matter how grand that destiny might be. No one can truly comprehend how they wind up in the vast, complex tapestry of life. He cannot glimpse into the future of his great story. He will have to allow it to unwind for itself. Our young warlock must live to follow his destiny, and learn how to survive in a harsh world. His name… Virgil.”

Tags for this chapter: OC death, (not graphic in any way) description of execution, brief mention of a weapon, alternative universe (Merlin and human AU) 

Word count: 2,818

Read on Ao3!

Chapter 1: Into the Realm of Camelot.

“No one can know their destiny, no matter how grand that destiny might be. No one can truly comprehend how they wind up in the vast, complex tapestry of life. He cannot glimpse into the future of his great story. He will have to allow it to unwind for itself. Our young warlock must live to follow his destiny, and learn how to survive in a harsh world. His name… Virgil.”

The young man scrambled up the sandy hill and laughed when the grass brushed under his legs. He looked behind him at the vast expanse he had left behind. The blue and grey hues of the Brighsonee Mountain that would usually loom above him every day now seemed significantly smaller, for the first time in his life, he could actually see the dusting of snow that covered the sharp peaks.

This was the beginning of a new start.

He looked into the distance and saw the last wooden house of village he had called home for the last twenty years. The feeling of sadness threatened to overwhelm him, but he couldn’t go back now even if he wanted to. Home was no longer safe, and he couldn’t put his mother through any more heartache. If he hadn’t been so reckless, he wouldn’t have been forced to leave his mother behind to fix his mistakes. He felt his eyes fill with tears at the thought, but he shook his head and violently wiped away the one tear that made its way down his face. There was no point looking back, he had to move forward.

“You must go to Camelot and find Logan. He will help you and protect you.” He listened to his mother’s words that echoed in his mind. He could feel the daunting pressure of the rising sun push him forward, with one final look at his past. He adjusted the bag on his back full of his meagre possessions and walked down the other side of the hill.

As he continued to walk for another two hours, he found himself in a wild forest. The path would come and go continuously, and he found himself fighting through trees while getting his dark brown jacket tangled in branches. He finally found the path again and stopped to remove a sharp stone that had somehow got in his shoe before freezing in awe at the sight in front of him. As he looked through another set of trees, he could see the walls of Camelot. It was clear to Virgil now why Camelot had been deemed the most powerful kingdom in the entire realm. He picked up the shoe that he dropped in surprise and put it back on his foot before moving swiftly along the path with a new-found burst of energy.

Virgil was so eager, but also anxious, to reach the town that he almost collided with a knight on his horse. The knight nodded politely as Virgil moved out of the way, his bright red cloak with the golden insignia of the dragon billowing behind him. At least Virgil could be reassured that he was definitely go the correct way. The sun began to beam brighter as the trees lessened. He could hear the hustle and bustle of the town somewhere in front of him, so he ran towards the noise. Virgil stopped just before the cobbled path of the town and took in the new surroundings, he was intimidated by how busy everything was. He knew it would be more chaotic than his miniscule village, but this was something else entirely. The main part to dominate his attention completely was the castle that towered over the town, just like the Brighsonee Mountain at his village.

A multitude of lean, square towers dominate the skyline of the castle and were connected by extremely tall, thin walls made of dark brown stone. Virgil was unable to count sheer volume of flags that fluttered in the breeze all around the castle. Small windows decorated are scattered generously across the walls in an asymmetric pattern, some decorated in stained glass, some left as they were to let the light in. He could also see symmetric crenelations for archers and artillery, that was a reassurance that Camelot was protected. Statues of kings were lined up outside of the castle gates, serving as reminders of the past. This castle had stood the test of time and despite knowing some very rough wars and battles, the castle still stood. It looked like it will do so for many years to come.

As he was accidentally pushed to the side by a townsman carrying goods on his back, he knew it was time to take the first step into his new home. He brushed off his torn purple shirt, then adjusted his classic red neckerchief before taking a deep breath and walking into the town. He smiled as he saw small children giggling and chasing each other through the crowded street. He watched as men and women wandered around the market stalls, Virgil couldn’t help but be fascinated by the food and jewellery stalls he passed. His stomach rumbled and it reminded him that he really needed to eat the food his mother packed for him, but that could wait. Right now, he really needed to find Logan. He caught a glimpse of the familiar red cape of a passing knight and followed him in the right direction of the castle entrance.

There were plenty of people walking in and out of the castle at a rapid pace, smiling as they went about their business and Virgil smiled back politely. As he walked over the drawbridge and caught a glimpse of the water in the moat, he had to admit to himself that he was pleasantly surprised. Part of him was expecting for the castle to be closed off and daunting considering how it looks from a distance, but the fact that it was so welcoming made him feel much more assured that he would be okay here after all.

He saw a significantly large group of people standing in the middle of the castle grounds and he excitedly raced over to see what had everybody so excited. They were standing around a square that had been cordoned off by rope, everybody was desperately trying to make sure they could see the spectacle. Virgil could just about make out a small stage with a block in the middle surrounded by a variety of weapons. There were guards to keep everyone from moving any closer and he saw one more man wearing a black mask over his face standing in the middle of the stage. Virgil was confused, why was there so much protection for a magic show? Before he could think about it any further, he jumped as two guards with bugles began to play a mournful fanfare. A man wearing a golden crown with a burgundy cloak stepped out onto the balcony high up in the castle, Virgil made a note that this must be a member of the royal family, most likely the King. It would explain the gold jewellery around his neck anyway. The serious expression on his face made Virgil tense up. He nodded and another set of guards played large drums at a slow marching pace while a townsman was dragged out into the courtyard wearing heavy chains. ‘This is going to be one intense show.’ Virgil thought.

As the man finally reached the stage with an incredibly morbid expression on his face, the crowd began to mutter excitedly before turning towards the balcony. Virgil followed suit as a loud, authoritative voice boomed out across the courtyard.

“Let this be a lesson to all who reside in Camelot. This man, Peter Robert Sclator has been judged as guilty.” There was a substantial pause, and Virgil took the opportunity to glance at the man before furrowing his brow.

‘Guilty?’ He looked around and saw people bowing their heads and nodding slowly, it started to dawn on him. Maybe this wasn’t a magic show after all. His heart began to fill with dread as the voice began to fill the courtyard once more.

“He is guilty of conspiracy. Conspiracy of using enchantments… and magic.” Virgil’s eyes widened with fear at the sheer distain in the King’s voice as he practically spat out the word magic. The way he gritted his teeth made every word much more sinister. Gasps filled the silence after his words reverberated around the walls. The man was desperately trying to make eye contact with people he must have known in the crowd, but everyone avoided his gaze. Virgil felt his heart beat rapidly, he wished he wasn’t so curious. He shouldn’t be standing here watching this, but if he left now, would he look guilty? If someone could be punished for conspiracy… what would happen to someone like him? He gulped as he trembled waiting for the next declaration to be made.

“In accordance with the laws of Camelot, I, Uther Pendragon, have decreed that these types of practices are banned… on penalty of death. I ensure that I am a fair and just ruler. For the crime of sorcery. This is the only sentence that will be passed.” The crowd were ushered into silence and Virgil had to grip tightly onto the handles of his bag so he didn’t gasp or draw attention to himself. Now the man bowed his head, completely resigned to his fate. Virgil didn’t understand, why didn’t he call out? Swear that he was only using his magic for good? He looked around as subtly as he could, and couldn’t believe that no one was standing up for this man, he must have friends… a family. He glanced up and saw one of the castle windows open slowly, someone looked out to the courtyard. Virgil couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming sadness on the young man’s face, almost pitying the situation as much as Virgil did.

As the man was dragged to the stage and pushed down to the block. It finally dawned on Virgil that this was real. This was how life was going to be in Camelot, and the thought petrified him. The drumbeat began to speed up and Uther slowly raised his hand into the air. He couldn’t watch so he focused on the ground, and winced when he heard the axe swoosh into the air before the inevitable groan of everyone who decided to watch the man’s fate. Virgil forced himself to look up and he saw the man in the window; the disgust, pity and rage on his face was palpable and his eyes looked like daggers aimed squarely at Uther’s head. Everyone slowly began to gather their things and walk away from the display, but Uther stopped the people in their tracks. Virgil was desperate to run, but again, the fear of looking guilty plagued his mind. Despite how disgusted he felt, he knew that he was compelled to stay.

“When I first arrived in Camelot. The kingdom was consumed with chaos. It was only thanks to the bravery of the people, that we were able to rise up and be free from the evil of magic. So I wish to declare a festival. Tomorrow marks twenty years since we captured the Great Dragon. Let us celebrate this joyous occasion.”

Virgil’s head began to spin as he saw the smug look on Uther’s face as he raised his arms above his head in pride. How could he look so proud after what he had just done? Magic was a source of good. There had been bad events though, there was no doubting that. If it was harnessed by a corrupted person, that was the only way magic could be evil… He didn’t understand why Uther refused to accept that. Virgil finally realised just how careful he was going to have to be, even though he didn’t even know how to control his abilities. He looked up and saw the window slam shut making the glass crack from side to side. He couldn’t say that he blamed that guy for his reaction. Virgil just hoped that he was okay.

He finally took a step and broke away from the shock of the last hour. He made his way to the far end of the courtyard searching for The Court Physician’s quarters. He needed to calm down, and he hoped that Logan would be able to reassure him like his mother promised. Virgil was still shaking but he swallowed his pride and asked one of the patrolling guards for directions. Despite hearing words coming out of the guard’s mouth, it didn’t process in his mind at all. So he nodded and walked in a direction, hoping it was the correct way.

After about five minutes, and two laps of the bottom of the castle. It was clear that he was lost because he hadn’t seen anything that looked like a space for the Court Physician. He sat in one of the gaps of the castle walls and let everything sink in. He must have ended up being there for a lot longer than anticipated because an older man with grey speckles in his hair looked at him with sympathy and knelt down to his level.

“Boy? Is everything alright? Are you lost?” The caring voice was enough to snap Virgil out of his overthinking mind. He looked into the deep blue eyes and immediately felt a sense of calm wash over him. He looked down and saw the large book on herbs that the man was holding close to his chest. Could this be…

“Logan?” Virgil asked hopefully, he was desperate for this day to end. The man’s eyes glimmered with agreement and he nodded in a calculated way. Virgil sighed deeply in relief, finally, this day might come to an end and he could start from scratch tomorrow.

“That is me, yes... Who are you?” The hint of uncertainty shone through in his voice and Virgil remembered the letter his mother wrote for him to give to Logan. He frantically opened his bag and searched desperately for the letter, he knew it was somewhere near the front, because his mother knew that he would lose it otherwise. He felt paper brush against his fingertips, and he pulled it out to hand to Logan. He was met with an apologetic smile, and he couldn’t tell what he had done wrong.

“I’m so sorry my boy, I’ve misplaced my glasses.” Virgil looked up and saw they were actually sitting delicately on Logan’s head, but he didn’t want to embarrass the man who would hopefully become like a guardian to him. So he smiled softly and began to introduce himself.

“I’m Virgil...?” The silence between them became almost uncomfortable until Logan beamed brightly as he seemed to recognise the name.

“Hunith’s son!” Virgil smiled back just as brightly. “You’re not supposed to be coming until Wednesday!” Virgil’s smile faltered as he worked out again how to say this in a delicate manner.

“Er, today… is Wednesday.” Logan went to say something but he stopped himself. He raised his eyes to the ceiling and calculated something on his fingers before sighing in realisation. He stood up and held a hand out to Virgil while pulling him out of his seat in the wall. They started walking together towards a set of stairs which led to Logan’s quarters. He had only just realised that it was quite late in the day now as the corridors were illuminated with burning torches. Logan stopped Virgil from coming in, and he could see him scrambling around lighting candles. When the rooms were sufficiently lit, he welcomed him in with open arms.

“Head to the bedroom at the back and put your things in there. I’ll get us some dinner while you get settled in.” He left swiftly and Virgil staggered to bedroom. He looked around and as he put his bag down on the floor, he already felt at home. He opened the window and saw just how high up they were in the castle. The flickering lights of the houses and the still open market stalls made him smile, it looked eerily beautiful. He closed the window and sat on the bed waiting for Logan to return, but his exhaustion got the better of him and he immediately fell asleep.

When Logan came back and didn’t hear any response to his calls of Virgil’s name, he was slightly concerned. He briskly walked to the bedroom and smiled softly when he saw Virgil fast asleep, so he left a piece of pie and a glass of water delicately on the table next to Virgil’s bed and blew out the candle before heading back into the main room.

The night was quiet except for a deep, intimidating voice calling out into the darkness.

“Virgil.”

[fanfic-collection]

Loki x Reader: Apocalypse - Ch 9

I'm running out of chapters that I've written, uhoh. Looks like I have hunker down and really write again.

-

You looked at Loki, then back to Tony, then did a double take and winced, “Surprise?”

“Honestly, this would happen to me.” Tony shook his head. “Really. I was having a relatively normal day in the face of an apocalypse, and now my cousin shows up with one of the Asgardians. Great. We haven’t seen Thor in ages, and just, boom. Out pops Loki. That is absolutely what I needed.” Tony started nodding as he spoke. “So what are you doing here Rock of Ages? Are you behind this weather? Global conquest, being a little shit, just ruining humanity’s day, killing for fun,” Tony held out his hand towards you, “What is that thing on his neck, did you capture him? Why are his eyes covered? Good job if so.”

“Well if you took a minute to stop talking, he could answer you.” You replied coolly.

“Is that thing on his neck the reason you wanted the cutter? Because nope, no thank you, whatever it is, it’s staying on. It looks like it’s,”

Loki stepped forward and pulled off the gauze. It wasn’t a normal step, it was a threat.

Tony looked at him and his Ironman gloves came on, hands at the ready, “Back off, I will shoot.”

“Has it occurred to you,” Loki sneered, “that things have not changed between myself and humanity since we last saw each other?”

Tony blinked taking in Loki’s eyes, “Uh, what’s up with,” he waved his hand in front of his own eyes.

“I wouldn’t know.” Loki replied, his voice colder than the outside, “I can’t see.”

“That’s part of why I asked you to come.” You piped up timidly.

Tony looked between the two of you, confusion scrambling his features.

“Please can I have the cutter?” You asked, reaching your hand out towards Tony, “look at him, those spikes are digging into his skin, he’s bleeding constantly.”

“Maybe he deserves it.”

Loki rolled his red eyes. “Oh yes, my loving father, torturing me continuously, I’m sure you would agree given your history with your oh so wonderful father.”

Tony clenched his jaw, “What do you know about my father?”

“I know a great many things about all of the Avengers. You will recall my time on Midgard when…” Loki paused and picked at his hand, “I was not quite myself.”

Tony laughed sarcastically, “Yea, we remember.”

You interjected, “And we also remember how you heroically died trying to kill Thanos.”

Loki looked up from the vague direction of his palm where he had bowed his head slightly, his blank eyes searching for your voice.

“And all the other Avengers are no saints by their own standards either, they’ve had their crimes they’ve committed in order to do good, or to come back from it and turn their lives around. Surely everyone deserves a second chance, no?” You elbowed Tony.

“He’s had his second chance.” Tony grumbled.

“When he died stopping dark elves from invading earth?” You offered.

“Ok, hello, since when are you so knowledgeable in all things Loki?”

“I talked to him, you should try it some time. When he was recovering, asked him about his life. You know, when you ask people about what they’ve been through, really listen, sometimes they share things. You could stand to learn a thing or two about people around you.” You narrowed your eyes at Tony.

Loki stood there unmoving.

“Fine! Fine! Throw in with him, betray humanity, I’ll have nothing to do with it. Take the damned cutter, but we’re hunting you down as soon as I leave. This is the last we speak.”

Loki sighed, “You really are an imbecile, Stark. Is your pride so great?”

“What?” Tony rounded on Loki, pointing a finger at him, though it had no effect.

“The monsters you humans need fear are frost giants. Those are what are hunting you in droves, and if I would stand to guess, I imagine they brought some of their beasts along as well.” Loki replied, crossing his arms.

Tony looked at you then back to Loki.

“That’s the information we were going to give you in exchange for the cutter.” You said, holding your hand out palm up.

Tony slowly set the cutter in your palm. “Expand.”

“Your cousin and I were attacked in a produce store by three of them. I am… not at my best at current, and they got the jump on me. They are also enhanced by some means, their weapons are different than normal Jotun weapons.”

“Which means?” Tony asked.

“That even if I were at my full power, healing my vision wouldn’t be a possibility. They’ve used ancient magicks, magick that goes back into the depths of time. It is very difficult to learn such techniques.”

You furrowed your brow, “Why didn’t you learn it?”

“Surely Doctor Strange would know it then?” Tony asked.

Loki sighed, “I’m very young, it takes centuries to learn and master, one has to commit fully to it. I have been working on other magical practices, so such things fell to the side.”

“You got a physics degree instead of a mathematics?” You offered.

“Essentially.” Loki turned in Tony’s direction. “That half rate sorcerer would not even know of such magick. What he knows is from books, and mostly books on Midgard. No, you need to travel the cosmos to learn this, even if he still had the time stone he would need to know where to travel, where to look, who to ask, what to seek.”

“Oh.” Tony leaned over towards you and muttered, “he’s still arrogant as hell, you really let him sleep with you?”

“Fuck, Tony, we shared a bed, and he can hear you.” You cried out, shoving Tony away. Though you were too busy to notice the pink on Loki’s face.

“Ok so fine, fine. What’s the creepy collar thing for then?” Tony asked.

“I’d rather not say until it’s off,” Loki paused, “If it can be taken off.”

“Fine, god of lies. Have at it, cousin.”

You stepped forward and gripped the collar carefully, looking at Loki’s face intently. Unbidden, Loki’s hand reached up to grip your arm. You could feel his warm breath on your face as you looked up at him. Your eyes lingered on his thin, pale lips, his square chin and sharp nose and cheekbones. Trying not to bite your lip, you whispered, “Do you trust me?”

You could see Loki swallow before he replied, “Yes.”

Pressing the cutter on, you held it to the metal. A thin beam of energy passed between the two prongs at the end of the red tube. The cold metal hissed and screamed as the energy beam pressed against it, your hand vibrating dangerously. Loki reached up and gripped your hand, steadying it.

“Easy, love. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.” Loki murmured, the disappointment evident in his voice.

You pressed against the metal harder. The tool screeched and shook violently, threatening to slide up and down the metal columns of the collar but you held fast with Loki’s help. Your heart pounded in your chest, you knew it was going to give, you just knew it, and you knew if you pressed in on the metal too hard, it would give and your hand would fly through and strike Loki in the throat.

Pulling your hand back, you tried to keep it in place, just enough that the beam would eat through the metal but not move forward. The beam was so bright, you wanted to look away, but you couldn’t, you had to be sure you did this right.

One final ear-wrenching screech and your hand shot forward. Lightning fast, you snapped the tool off, succeeding in only grazing Loki’s throat and leaving a mark resembling a small hickey.

You let out a soft gasp of relief.

Loki pulled his hand away from yours, feeling the broken metal. He had cried out softly at the burn but compared to other pain he had felt, it may as well have been a curling iron. The tool cooled fast for safety reasons. Loki touched the cut part that slid down, one side no longer digging into his throat. With a mixture of giddy relief, he laughed.

Tony leaned around and saw the cut metal, “Well not bad me.” He squinted at the mark on Loki’s neck.

You narrowed your eyes and held up the cutter.

Tony opened his mouth to say something.

You cut him off with an angry look and mouthed, “Don’t.” Then you turned back to Loki, “How are you feeling?”

“I believe as long as it’s on me it’s going to keep working.” Loki sighed, “assuming taking it off even works.”

“Well, hey, even if it doesn’t help, at least you’ll be able to move.”

“Yes, thank you.”

And so the process continued, this time with the one by his chest. You wanted to delay the one under his chin as long as possible since it was so close to skin. Even as fast as you moved, that one would burn the bottom of his throat in a long strip before you could turn it off.

“Can you put like any nanites or something to protect him, Tony?” You asked as you struggled with the lower bar. “The last one is going to be nasty if not.”

“You know? I probably could.” Tony said thoughtfully. “But you owe me.”

“I assume you want to know what this contraption does.” Loki replied dryly.

“Bingo.”

“It makes me mortal.”

“Wait what?” Tony blanched, “Woah now, cousin, wait a minute, I don’t think cutting that off is the right idea.”

The lower bar snapped, the cutter shot forward and just in time you managed to only lightly singe Loki’s armor.

“We had a deal, Tony.” You growled.

“Nonbinding contract, oral agreements aren’t technically legally binding.” Tony replied.

Loki narrowed his eyes, looking slightly to the right of Tony. “Even without my sight and powers I am plenty lethal.”

“Yes well, I like my odds way more if you can’t go around using magic and surviving explosions and like fifty foot drops.”

“Tony! We had a deal!” You slapped Tony’s chest.

Tony looked at you stunned. “Did you just hit me?”

“Loki has been nothing but kind to me throughout the entirety of me knowing him.”

“Minus the murder of eighty-six people in a SHIELD bunker and two-hundred fifty or so people in New York plus billions in property damage.”

“As I recall, the SHIELD bunker was your director’s doing, he was the one playing with the tesseract, attempted to bury me in a last ditch attempt to stop me from escaping, failed and blamed it on me. And while I did hurt some people in New York, I do apologize for that, I wasn’t quite myself but that is neither here nor there. How is your Hulk, did the civilians he traumatized appreciate him? And the chitauri which you by now know wasn’t me. In fact, if the Hulk hadn’t shown up, you might have been better off, given the sheer amount of damage he added to the wreckage.”

Tony opened and closed his mouth pointing a finger at Loki.

“I assure you, whatever gesture you’re making at me is wasted.”

“Fine, you can use my nanites.” Tony grumbled. “You fell hard for this guy, huh?”

“That is none of your business and neither here nor there.” You huffed. As you turned back to Loki, a lingering ghost of a smile stayed on his face.

Then the nanites were on his throat and you began to cut.

[littlefreya]

Bad Reputation

Synopsis: Henry and his girl can’t get enough from one another. They keep finding themselves in rather sticky and lusty situations while other actors are present around them. 🤭

Pairing: Henry Cavill x OFC

Word count: 2.3K

Warnings: Smut, thigh riding, exhibition kink, public display of affection, dirty language, slight fingering, daddy kink.

A/N: This is by request made for thigh riding! I see this as a slight sequel to  Putting up a Show and Good Girl just because in my mind they are the same couple. Many thanks again to the marvellous @agniavateira​ for doing the beta! Masterlist is here.

Let me know if you want to be added/removed! Thank you for reading as always :)

PR fucking nightmare - that’s what our managers call us. 

They thought it would go away after our first year of dating. But the sad truth is, Henry just loves to touch, and I’m a hot-blooded woman who loves to fuck shit up. Three years in being married and the line is so goddamn blurry by now; I am never quite certain which one of us initiates it, nor do I even care. 

I see my bear sitting sprawled across the red leather sofas, legs spread open as he can never keep them shut. I know I’m terribly biased but that black tuxedo suit sure as hell looks great on his strong figure, especially with the crooked bowtie and the beard he’s been growing for his new movie role. 

And as if the bad boy vibes and big dick energy he sends everywhere wasn’t enough, the half-empty Grey Goose bottle on the round golden table next to him and the slight sweat that covers his forehead is a red flag that we are definitely getting into trouble tonight. 

Bring it on. 

Armie is sitting right next to him, telling him about some scheme by the gesture he is making with his hands. But I can tell Henry has other things on his mind. I can feel his eyes looking at me even when I am standing far away. Our gazes meet, he offers me a mischievous smile, showing off the large dimples of his cheeks. This is what I call a wet, slippery invention. 

I blush and look away. I mean, I have Rebecca Ferguson holding my forearms. That woman makes me want to invite her into our bedroom, but Henry doesn’t like sharing, not even with women. It doesn’t matter how much I’d pout and beg, he likes me all to himself, and he loves it when others can see that I am his. 

It’s always his hand between my thighs, riding up higher, thumb tickling at my clit teasingly. We sat through an entire acceptance speech with him working me hard. If anyone looks closely at that video on Youtube, you can see the exact moment when he hits the spot.

Sorry, Leo, I wasn’t smiling because you won. 

This is us being subtle. Hotels and parties, however, are a different story. We already had a manager quit on us because we made sure the entire floor hears what we are doing through the night. 

Rebecca kisses me on the cheek, the gorgeous Swedish redhead is already tipsy, and I’ve had my second glass of wine. She’s in a red satin dress, her impressive breasts showing through her cleavage. I also spot a few freckles on her chest. It makes me pout and look at Henry, who shakes his head in refusal. 

“Where is your hubby anyway?” she asks playfully, and I point in the direction of where he is sitting. Armie is just getting up, leaving Henry alone. He pours himself some more vodka, fills the glass with ice and then takes a sip with a lustful gaze. That’s probably my cue to keep him company and take that glass away.  

That video when he told everyone to get naked will forever be online. He also has a tendency to start making impressions of others when he is flustered, and I can’t contain my laughter when that happens.

“He’s too drunk to get up.” I sigh, shaking my head while he makes playful, sad faces at me. I shrug and take my phone out my purse, seeing two text messages from him.

Henry: “Where are you, babygirl?” Henry: “I want to squeeze that ass.” 

I text him back “Armie’s? Go for it. Can we have Rebecca, pleaaaaase?” 

He reads my reply, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in complete refusal. 

“Not. sharing. you. Do you want me to spank you in front of all these people?” 

Rebecca is oddly enough very touchy-feely, her hand sliding down my forearms while she speaks about how wonderful Henry is, and how fun it was to work with him on MI6.

“He’s not like all the other ones, he is an actual friend,” she explains to me, her beautiful green eyes lighting up. 

“I know, that’s how he got me, pretended to be my friend for years.” I chuckle, remembering the times we were still just friends. If you look at videos of us from interviews and photos from events from the time we worked together, you’d think we’ve been dating already. He always touched me subtly, his eyes staring at me intently when I speak. And of course, no one cracks him up the way I do.

But Henry waited 5 years for both of us to be single at the same time to “kidnap” me during a walk with our dogs at the forest, where I’d literally be unable to run away. He did that so he can tell me he’s been in love and growing in love with me ever since we met.

I smile at the sweet memory. I held my tears when that word left his lips.

“I’ll come to say hello later, I’m starving,” she says and rubs her belly gently. I nod and lean forward to kiss her, deliberately kissing her soft, red-painted lips for Henry to see. Us girls, we really don’t mind.

As I turn to face him, he is already frowning. He’s not amused by my vexing behaviour. I give him my best angelic posture, batting my lashes and holding my hands together while my head is tilted to the side. In that pale blue and silver dress, I might look like some saint right now, but my darling knows I’ve come from south to heaven.

I make my way to him, walking slowly, a smile both in my eyes and between my cheeks. I can feel the fire burning in my chest, the sight of him is dashing, those thick thighs ever so inviting. He spreads his legs even wider, the bulge in his groin made only for me. He has his pinky finger pressed between his teeth while checking me out.

My body heeds his calling, I’m tingling wet. 

I stand in front of him, my cheeks warm as if this is a first hook up of some sort. Henry rises his beautiful blues to stare straight into my eyes. The beaming lights in the hall make his sweaty skin glow in neon pink and gold, his eyes flashing bright as the different colours dance across his face.

“How many of those have you had?” I ask, gesturing at the glass, noticing the half-empty bottle. I hope not too much, I expect to be rammed tonight when we return to the hotel. 

He shrugs, putting the glass away without bothering to finish it. He is British, and boy, he can drink a lot. He is not as half as flustered as a different guy would be, but yes, he is certainly quite drunk. Enough to give me that look of his-one eyebrow rising up-while his eyes drink in my dress, cleavage, ass, and that slit that runs from my legs to my thighs.

My friends asked me if Henry is an ass or tits man, to which my answer was “he is ‘all of me’ man.” 

“Gotta love women's liberation.” He speaks in a deep, low voice, gesturing at my provocative dress. 

“Come to daddy.” He demands, holding out his hand for me to come and sit on his thigh. To which I am more than happy to comply.

I spread my legs, moving to straddle his muscular thigh. There is a burning sensation at my core as my pelvis meets his taut muscle. My body always reacts to his touch. Henry’s hands immediately take my face, thumbs stroking at my cheeks.

“Why do you tease me, beautiful?” he murmurs, his fierce gaze tracing my face, always taken by me, memorizing every freckle and flaw as if it’s the first time we ever sit so close. God, he makes me feel so beautiful even in my ugliest of ugly days.

I lean forward to get even closer, my ass riding up his leg and my hands reach out to tug at his white buttoned shirt. “Oh, Henry-Bear, it’s. So. much. fun.”

Someone sits right next to us on the big red sofa, saying a friendly hello. We answer at the same time, without breaking eye contact. We never bother looking who is the actor, producer, or whatever who moved to bug us. Too lost in our own little mist of admiration. Henry’s fingers descend from my face to my neck, fingers skirting down my neck sensually. 

“You know what I love about these ceremonies and parties?” he asks as he leans closer to whisper in my ear and then places a wet, lingering kiss on my shoulder. His chin pushes the straps of my dress away, letting it fall on my forearm as if by accident. I let it glide, shivering as the coarse hair of his beard marks my flesh.

“I get to show you off while you’re wearing these outrageous dresses and everyone knows I am taking you home to fuck you until sunrise.”

I chuckle lustfully, my tongue pressed between my teeth. “Last time we didn’t even make it home remember?” I hum gently, feeling his rough touch on my breasts. The tip of his thumbs circles my nipples, teasing them to harden through the thin fabric of my dress. I wouldn’t give a fuck if Henry had me topless right now and sink his fangs in my tits for everyone to see. But he is far too selfish, I was made for his eyes and his eyes only.

He settles for a “chaste” show, laying a kiss beneath my chin and then pressing his face at my cleavage, inhaling the scent of my body lotion before nibbling at my breast through my dress. His breath smells like vodka-sweet and spicy at once.

“I remember, Cumberbatch saw the whole thing,” he answers, his hands holding my ribs, slightly guiding me to move my body on top of his thigh in ghostlike movements. I am searing hot, my mound feels as if it’s seconds from catching fire. I am certain he can feel it, his blue eyes now hazy and dreamlike as they watch the pink tint that runs through my neck to my cheeks. 

“Fuck me, daddy, I am so horny!”

My whisper comes out as half a cry, weak and desperate. My body is a void, it suffers without his touch, it aches when we’re disjointed. I hope we’ll never stop feeling this way toward one another. 

“Ride me, babygirl.” he urges me, raising his thigh up higher, so I’ll slide down closer. The friction makes me lose sight for a moment. My vision blurs as I throb wet and hot onto him. Good thing his trousers are black, otherwise, everyone would be able to detect the wetness I am leaving on his pants. 

I can’t reject his decree, my body needs him. 

“You like it when they watch, don’t you?” he asks me with a slightly slurred voice. His hands glide down to squeeze my ass, assisting me in dancing on the rock-hard muscle of his leg. I am grinding slow and rough, shifting my weight forward, my right hand reaching his other thigh, clawing at him with growing pleasure.

Everyone is looking at us, I am sure, some embarrassed and perhaps even appalled. How puritan of you Hollywood. These people formed their own religion and hidden sex clubs. But I am convinced many enjoy this facade and discreetly salute us, some probably holding out their cameras.  

I roll my hips up and clench my inner thighs, whimpering as my body begins to tremble.  

It doesn’t matter who is staring while I ride him so passionately, seeking my pleasure with urgency while Henry’s hands support me, saddling my hips and pulling me toward him. We don’t see anyone else. We’re locked into one another, the way we always did, just like when Henry had a girlfriend, when we were “just friends” when I dated that asshole. We’d walk into a room, and it was just me and him, hearts and chest bursting with love.

Every moment we couldn’t have one another was stolen from us, we now fight to own it back.  

“I’d sit you on my face in front of everyone, but I think Gretchen would kill us.” Henry half whispers against my throat and then licks up my neck as I lift my chin to the ceiling with gaping lips. He has his hand between my legs, drawing at my centre and sneaking between the slit of my dress to finish the job. 

“Fuck!” he teases my clit, his middle finger travelling at my seams. My entire existence shudders. The bass of the music blasts through my chest, my eardrums throb, and my eyes see all the colours of the neon at once as my cunt implodes with orgasmic bliss. Henry steals my gasp into his mouth, his hand pressing my cheeks, crushing my mouth with hunger. 

Who could ever hate us for our expression of true love?

I gasp feverishly, holding onto him as if I’m about to fall. Henry’s lips are on my temple and then my cheek. Pressing against me and not moving away. He envelops me in his big arms, a clear statement to all our viewers that I am his and he is mine.  We both move our heads to see who's been sitting next to us this entire time.

Alec Baldwin and Jake Gyllenhaal. They pretend not to stare, at least Alec does. Jake gives us a wide, knowing smile. Everyone else has also been staring as I hear the whispers and gasps. 

“Really? They did that again!?”

We bump our foreheads together and snicker with delight. Like we ever gave a fuck about being caught. It’s not the first time, won’t be the last. We just can’t get our hands off of each other. 

“Better call Gretchen now.” I tell Henry, hanging my arm around his thick neck. 

“Before or after I fuck you in one of the back rooms here?”

[kentuckywrites]

T3CHN0 DLC: CATALYST

CATALYST (noun). A person or thing that precipitates an event.

Featuring Ruadha and Ophelia from @skell-pilot-sora .

"Race you for it THREETWOONEGO!" 

Ruadha’s twin Gemels were out in seconds, the grappling daggers deploying and sinking into the ground far off. He got a flying headstart, smiling all the way. Should he have asked for directions back to the city before initiating a race? Nah, he’d find his way. He always did, and even if he didn’t, the adventure was what truly mattered in the end! Even the victory that came with winning a race didn’t matter as much to them, not in that moment.

What mattered was that Fudge was alive. Fudge Carson, their best friend, their buddy through thick and thin, was alive and well and breathing. 

Ruadha remembered the pain. He remembered hearing the news about Carson Tech, a terrorist sneaking in and igniting a bomb that destroyed the entire building, caved it inwards like a house of cards. He remembered his Mamaj coming home, pale as a ghost, bandages covering up her more serious wounds and her arm in a cast. He remembered his mind on a constant loop, his energy faded and dull, upon hearing the news, seeing Fudge’s grave a few days later. 

Seeing Fudge alive was…it was a miracle. A blessing, a wish Ruadha had sent to the stars, but never once did he think it would come true. 

And that was why his smile was brighter than it had ever been, that was why Ruadha embraced the skies with more vigor than ever before. Their method of travel meant that there were constant points where they’d end up launching themselves higher, higher into the sky, and in those moments they could see Fudge blasting underneath them, feet plastered onto the back of his rocket hammer. He gained a decent lead, knowing the way back far better than Ruadha did, but it didn’t matter. He could see Fudge’s determined smirk, hear his laughter on the wind. Alive, alive and happy and as it should be. Ruadha felt a small ache in his heart; he’d missed this, he’d missed this so much. He never wanted this to end. 

The city walls appeared on the horizon, and Fudge looked upwards, keeping track of where Ruadha was. He said something about competing against a rocket hammer, his voice dull against the thrill of the moment, but he failed to notice how close he was to the gate. He smacked headfirst into the support beam, his rocket hammer flying further into the city. Ruadha promptly burst out laughing at the image. But in his laughing fit, he didn’t pay attention to his angle of descent. He ended up gliding through the air, nearly crash-landing, but he managed to get his shield angled upwards so he could avoid smacking into Fudge’s back. 

…Of course, that’s what he thought he did.

Was it the wind that angled him down again? No, there was something deeper, a new feeling that had crept up inside Ruadha’s heart to replace the nostalgia. His head pounded as he made contact with the beam, the shield sticking itself deep within the wall as he toppled backwards, skidding across the steel flooring. Groaning, Ruadha picked themselves up, their smile wavering as they observed the damage. Worst case scenario, they’d have to pay to repair the wall -

No. No, no no no no. No. NO. 

The shield was embedded in the wall. Fudge’s decapitated head was perched on top of it like a hunting prize while the rest of his lifeless body bled out on the floor, broken, irreparable. 

Ruadha stood up on shaky legs, unable to pull his gaze away from the scene. He couldn’t move past this spot, frozen, incapable of processing what he’d done. This couldn’t be real, this didn’t feel real. No, he wouldn’t accept this. 

When he finally found the will to move, Ruadha stepped forward, forward, bending down to grab his gemels. Why did he care about them? Fudge was dead. Dead again. By his hands, his stupid idiot hands, he was so dumb it hurt -

Why was he pointing a gemel at Fudge’s head? Wait, hold on, no, he shouldn’t have a finger on the trigger. He was dead, he was dead, what the fuck was he doing -

BANG.

The first shot rang out louder than Ruadha could process. It hit Fudge’s head square between the eyes. Black blood dripped from the wound. Ruadha tried to force their hand down, tried to remove their finger from the trigger, but it remained in its spot despite their mental resistance. Lightning shot up his spine, something embedded there that he hadn’t felt before, and when the lightning reached his mind he screamed, loud and clear and pained. The gemel fired again.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG -

“Ruadha.”

Finally, free will returned to him, and Ruadha looked over his shoulder. That voice…it was Mamaj. Ophelia. Her tone was colder than the blood beneath his skin, ice cold and stoic. It wasn’t like anything he’d heard before. 

“Mamaj?...” He whispered, afraid of the answer, afraid of what he would say next.

But she didn’t. She said nothing, nothing at all. She shook her head, turned her back to him, walking back into Primordia, into - no, no, that wasn’t Primordia. Primordia was not a spiral into darkness, a tunnel into a void unknown. It swallowed Ophelia whole before he could scream for her to come back, come back and help him, and eventually the void touched his feet and removed every waking scene from his vision. Everything disappeared with the shadow…

Save for Fudge’s body, sprawled out on the ground, and Fudge’s head, still perched on the shield above. 

Ruadha fell to their knees. They cried and screamed and begged the world to return life to them, they couldn’t stand it here, this void of loneliness with only their mistake to haunt them, they couldn’t fucking breathe -

~

Ruadha woke with a start, nearly falling out of his chair. The force pushed it back from the desk he’d been sleeping on top of, and it spun until it hit a wall. He panted, trying to regain his surroundings, convince himself that it was all a dream. Yes, he knew where he was. This was Fudge’s lab, the messy abode of creation. The freckled Outfitter wasn’t far, sitting in front of the monitors in the center of the room, eyes wide and watching. 

“...You good, Ru?” Fudge asked carefully, putting the screwdriver in his hand down. His face was smeared with motor oil - right, yes, they were trying to recalibrate the engine for Fudge’s new Skell. Ruadha nodded, though he knew every part of him betrayed this answer. Fudge continued to stare, expression blank for a moment. He opened his mouth to say more, but Ruadha spoke first.

“Bad dream. Very bad dream. This isn’t still a dream, is it? You’re here? You’re alive? You’re not dead and I’m not still dreaming?”

It came out in a rush, a rush that was characteristic of him at this point. He gripped the sides of the rolling chair, waiting for Fudge’s response. Finally, Fudge chuckled, grinning with a gentle warmth that most people weren’t lucky enough to see.

“Not a dream. I’m here. I’m alive. I’m not dead and you’re not still dreaming.”

“Good. Awesome. Perfect. Excellent.” Ruadha repeated synonyms, all for himself, all for consolation. He slid further down into his chair, breathing a sigh of relief. His eyes closed for a second, long enough that when he opened them again, Fudge had gotten up, was approaching him. He offered out a hand for Ruadha to take, and when he did, when he pulled himself up, their hands stayed like that for a second. The warmth was appreciated, and Ruadha ended up mirroring Fudge’s smile. When their hands finally separated, Fudge beckoned with his head over to the monitors, to the piece of engine he was working on, still on the table in front of them.

“Talk to me about it while we build. The distraction might help.” Fudge offered, “Unless you still need a minute, I mean.”

“Nope, we have so many minutes, I don’t wanna spend them sitting down,” Ruadha chirped, his energy slowly crawling back to him, “We build today. We build every day. It’s better like this.”

The last sentence was a slip, a confession from the heart. Fudge paused before responding. 

“It is. It really is.”

[victoria-daydreams]

Of Vices and Virtues

Chapter Nineteen: The Embargo Line

AN: Sorry about the brief disappearance I needed to prep for a job interview and I got the job! The unemployment drought is over! Anyways, we are nearly to the end of this story, can you believe it?

Word Count: 2.1k

Trigger Warnings: none

Taglist: @azayamari​

Chapter Twenty: The Cuban Missile Crisis 

I woke up with an acute pain in my head and the bitter of taste blood in my mouth. Letting out a shaky breath, I slowly opened my eyes and everything around me seemed to be inverted. I then realized that I was seated upside down, unbuckling myself I fell to the floor, using my hands to brace myself. I pushed myself up and looked around just as I heard a groan at the back of the jet. Flipping my head to look back I saw both Charles and Erik getting up, once Charles' eyes met mine he quickly made his way over to me.

He held his hands out to me, "Are you okay?" Charles asked softly, scanning for any injuries as I pulled myself up.

"Peachy," I answered, with a strained smile.

"Are you sure you can fight?" Charles pressed, worry clearly written on his face.

"Yes, I'm perfectly sure Charles," I replied, pushing my now messy ponytail out of my face. "Now go help the others out," I ordered lightly, pulling my hair back into a neater ponytail.

Charles nodded and flashed a small smile before he moved forward to help Hank and Moira.

Erik walked past me and lightly patted me on the back, "Nice job, Blythe," he smiled to me as he helped Alex up.

"Thanks," I groaned, massaging my neck and the back of my head.

"I read the teleporters mind," Charles prompted, as we all moved around to look out the windows at the wrecked submarine, across the beach from us with Angel, Azazel, and the other man, Riptide, standing in front. "Shaw's drawing all of the power out of his sub. He's turning himself into some kind of nuclear bomb," Charles informed, lips drawn into a thin line.

"We've got no time, the Geiger counter's going out of control!" Moira shouted, staring at the sensors and trying to make sense of them.

"All right Moira, this is what we're going to do," Charles began. "Get on the radio and send both fleet's out immediately," he ordered, and Moira went straight to work.

"I'm going in," Erik announced.

"Beast, Havok, Blythe, back him up," Charles continued and got nods back from all of us. "Erik, I can guide you through once you're in. But I need you to shut down whatever it is that's blocking me. Then we just hope to god it's not too late for me to stop him," Charles finished, looking at all of us.

"Got it," Erik nodded and turned towards the massive opening in the back where the jet had ripped apart.

The boys and I all shared a look with each other before we exited the submarine. Erik, Alex, Hank, and I all stepped out the jet, our feet finally touching the sandy beach of Cuba. Stepping out into the open, we lined up with Azazel, Riptide, and Angel as they stood in front of their submarine. The submarine was only a few hundreds yards away from our crashed jet.

We all stared down at each other. Angel fluttered her wings and flew into the air, Azazel unsheathed his two swords, and Riptide created two miniature tornadoes that hovered above his hand. Without even a slight hesitation, Alex fired an bright, red energy beam at Riptide, making him fly backwards. He smacked the submarine with a resounding thud and Azazel soon disappeared afterwards.

The battle had begun.

I let out a yelp of surprise as Azazel appeared behind me instantly swinging his sword at my neck. Luckily, I managed to jump backwards, only earning a small scratch on my neck from his sword. As Azazel lifted his other sword up into the air, Beast attacked him, stopping him from taking another swing at me. However, Azazel had another plan and quickly grabbed a hold of Alex with his red tail Hank had grabbed onto the teleporter's shoulder and all three of them were gone.

I watched as Erik ran towards the sub as I stood up. I heard the tell-tale sign of insect wings and turned just in time as Angel attacked me. Ducking and rolling I threw out my hand causing Angel to fly back. She righted herself and floated above me, just as Riptide ran out towards me.

I took a quick look around to see if I could find Angel, but she was nowhere to be seen. Well, at least I only had one person to worry about now. But, I had to move fast before he could make another one of his tornadoes and blow me away. I narrowed my eyes allowing my violet aura to flare up around my hands in a show of power, waiting for him to get a little closer.

Once he was closer, I threw sphere of violet quickly threw it at his feet, I didn't want to kill him, but unfortunately this is a war and casualties are apart of it.

The blast sent him in the air and onto his back, I charged straight at him as soon as he landed, focusing my aura into my hand I jumped up and went to land a blow on his face, but he moved out of the way, rolling next to me. He got up and grabbed a hold of my leg, easily picking me up and throwing me to the side. I was able to land on my feet and straighten myself as he made his was closer to me.

Riptide swung punches left and right and I easily dodged them, sending him a few of my own. I had to rely on my hand to hand training that Erik taught me to get me through this as it was too dangerous to try and use my powers as I too could get hurt if I tried to use another telekinetic blast. Though I would never admit it to Erik because I don't want to inflate his already large ego, but I'm very grateful for my training with him for if I hadn't had any, I would have easily been done for.

Riptide went to hit my side and I slid down under him, pushing him from behind so that he'd fall on his stomach. I took this time to send a disk of energy and throw it at a Palm tree in front of us, causing it to fall down towards us. I quickly moved out of the way so that the tree would only hit Riptide, and it completed its purpose of successfully knocking Riptide out.

I looked up at the sound of Sean's shrieking and saw him falling down towards me with none other than Alex hanging onto his arm. Although I was very happy to see that they were mostly unharmed, I was more worried that they were about to land right on me at the moment to be glad to see them. Sean seemed to have one of his wings burned so he had to resort to a crash landing. I held out my hand using my hands to slow their fall, but they were coming too hot and just as I predicted, they landed right on top me.

I let out a groan as Alex's weight was pushed onto me, not gently what-so-ever at that. Sean had landed a little bit away from us, thankfully not on me as well, as Alex had.

Alex got off from on top of me, "Thanks for the help,"

"I try," I joked, as he moved to help me up.

I looked up to see Angel coming straight for us. I quickly maneuvered us and shot bolt towards her before she can reach us, sending her off course. Angel spat acid at me and it ended up hitting my leg, causing me to cry out in pain. Alex whipped around towards Angel and fired a beam in her direction, finishing what I had started, slicing off one of her bottom wings. Flipping around out of control Angel crashed to the ground with a shout, but she was still breathing.

"We work pretty well together don't we," I smirked up at him, ignoring my pained leg with the help of the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

I could hear Sean laughing from the side with relief after seeing Angel land on the ground with a thud after Alex shot her down. Alex helped put out the small flames on my leg while Sean tore away his ruined wing right.

My eye went to Alex's chest and I noticed that his plate was gone, "What happened to your chest plate?" I asked, amazed that he had been able to fire at Angel even without it.

"Angel got a hold of it," he answered gruffly, sounding very displeased as helped me to my feet.

I couldn't help but smile and laugh until a sudden, a sharp, searing pain entered my head. I collapsed to my knees, kneeling in the sand, clutching my hands to my head tightly. My screams grew louder as the pain grew stronger. It felt like something was being pushed through my skull. My screams grew louder and louder as I felt a small object float through my entire skull, it felt like my brain was being ripped right through. It had lasted for only for moment.

But it easily felt like an eternity.

"Claudia? Claudia!" someone was shaking me. "Are you alright? What's going on? What's happening?"

I blinked multiple time as my vision was blurred from the invisible pain before I was finally able to focus on Alex and Sean. The horror was over, but I still clutched my head as I still felt the lingering pain of whatever just tore through my skull. I was at a lost of words, I had no idea what had just happened.

"I don't-I-" I stammered, looking around of what could cause that amount of excruciating pain. "H-Help me up," I breathed out, and Alex and Sean quickly obliged, putting each of their arms around my waist to lift me off the ground.

My mind was clearing up, but the residual mind splitting pain was faintly pulsating in my head. As I recollected my thoughts I mentally did a headcount of everyone on the beach through their emotions. Something wasn't adding up, everyone on the team seemed a little worse for wear, but otherwise fine. Hell, even in Shaw's team were battered themselves...wait a minute.

What about Shaw himself?

"Holy shit...it's Shaw," I gasped, when it hit me not realizing that Raven and Hank were now with Sean, Alex, and I. "He's-" I started, but couldn't the finish the sentence.

The loud sound of metal creaking pierced through the air, looking over to the submarine my eyes widened to the size of saucers at the sight before me. Shaw's corpse was floating in the air, with Erik himself emerging right behind him now wearing Shaw's helmet.

"Today our fighting stops!" Erik shouted, as he levitated Shaw even higher. All of us, including Shaw's team, started walking towards him slowly. As we got closer I could see a line of blood on Shaw's forehead right as Erik let go and he fell to the ground with a sickening crush in front of us making me wince. Slowly, he descended to the ground, looking around at us. "Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there," he pointed to where the ships of the USSR and the US were. "I feel their gun moving in the water; their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets, Humans!" He spat out the last word in disgust, as both Charles and Moira appeared, walking up to join him by the water.

"United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants!" Erik looked over towards Charles and I, he was walking alongside him out to the shore. "Go ahead Charles, Claudia tell me I'm wrong,"

Charles narrowed his eyes at Erik, but reluctantly raised two fingers up to his temple. While I also looked to the water, probing out to sense what emotions were running through the heads of the men on the ships and sadly I felt it. I felt the ships running together and if I concentrated more I could feel the guns turning towards us.

"He's not," I whispered and felt all, Alex's, Sean's, Hank's, and Raven's eyes look to me and then to Charles.

Charles, who slowly lowered his fingers, looked to Moira and nodded. Quickly she took off to the jet, to call off the attack or something. We waited, staring out at the ships when I felt a shift in the air and automatically let out an audible gasp as missiles from every ship fired heading straight for the beach.

We would all be dead.

Chapter Twenty-One: Whose Side Are You On?

[writer-and-artist27]

Passing Days Ch 16 Preview 2

To get away from thinking about eroge roots, here's another preview of the current WIP chapter of Passing Days! To prove I'm okay and NOT DEAD.

Thinking of @partialdignity and @lunarimpact while putting this up. This is for you two. Also, @chiefladylightyay, @withanina, @siegfaerie, @hasquetzdoneanythingwrong and @panyum, if you want to stop by too.

A lot has happened since the last preview, anyways.

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

“Saber’s hesitating,” Achilles whispered.

Robin didn’t turn his head away from the fight, merely loosening the clasp on his cloak to take it off his shoulders. Vy, as much as she was doing great in putting on a brave face, was still shivering in her Mystic Code, so something had to be done. Even if Robin wasn’t liking the fight as much as either of his fellow Grailed Servants did. “You can tell too?” he said instead.

“She’s not charging forward like she usually does,” Achilles continued in the same quiet voice, absently nodding his head towards Robin in acknowledgement once he placed the No Face May King over Vy’s head. “She’s not using as much mana either, and that’s saying something when I usually charge in headfirst.”

“It’s not like you and I both can’t understand why,” Robin quipped dryly. Neither of them missed how Vy stilled once Robin wrapped an arm around her back past No Face May King. The shocked look sent in Robin’s direction through the mantle’s hood was hard to ignore too, and Robin did his best to smile at her.

A little Princess to Saber and Rider, and his own little sparrow. Vy meant a lot to all three of them. So when this battle was inevitably running on her energy, that made things a lot more complicated. It didn’t help when Vy could feel all the emotions running around the simulator room, one way or another. That was how she was, Master or not.

How ironic the fate of the world was to be found on the shoulders of a kind yet sensitive soul.

You doing okay, Vy? Robin thought through their connection.

…T-Trying, Vy eventually said, having ducked her head to rest her nose against the protective bundle of No Face May King. Robin could already tell she was doing her best to not show weakness. What about you and Achi?

No need to ask us, Princess, Achilles interrupted with a tiny huff, crossing his arms enough for Robin to feel the disapproval radiating off of him. We’re not the ones getting the prana drained out of us.

Rider, Robin said warningly.

Er… Vy paused, clearly caught off guard by her deflection not working. I asked you two beforehand?

Doesn’t help, Rider growled. This isn’t a good idea, Princess.

Without thinking, Robin commented, This coming from the guy whose chariot takes too much prana to power up anyway?

Shut it, Archer.

Robin raised one pointer finger in Achilles’ direction while ignoring the urge to pick up a smoke. You didn’t deny it.

Wanna throw down—

With barely a hint of frustration, Vy proceeded to headbutt both of them in the shoulder, wincing the entire time, and the conversation stopped there. No. Just no. Referee the knights, not fight amongst yourselves, guys. No squabbling.

…Princess, Achilles started, a hint of fond exasperation leaking into his mental voice and thus breaking the tough front that he was toting around earlier, was the headbutt necessary?

Yes!

No, Robin disagreed immediately.

I also second that no, Achilles added dryly.

Muuu, I don’t regret it! Vy pouted, ignoring the few messy strands of brown hair starting to fall out of her ponytail and down onto her forehead. Besides, the prana use isn’t as bad as it was during the Incineration!

That’s… not exactly better, Princess, Achilles said after a moment, albeit in a weaker voice, as a gloved hand reached over to pat the top of Vy’s head, smoothing the matted patches of hair away from her face. Robin made sure to step back a little to give Achilles the space to do so, still keeping his own arm around Vy’s waist the entire time. But you’re still set on doing this?

Robin felt himself open his mouth, but closed it once Vy was glancing up at him through the No Face May King. She was shooting him a smile — her usual smile that should’ve promised good things — before looking in Achilles’ direction. Always have been since Mordred came to the Wandering Sea.

…You’ll probably be unable to farm for the rest of the day, Robin said softly. Maybe lose your voice too, little sparrow. Prana drain was very much like anemia after all, with the fatigue and loss of facial pallor. It didn’t make it any less concerning when it happened to Vy on a near daily basis now thanks to the Lostbelts. For it to happen in Novum Chaldea, and with Vy’s nonchalance…

It’s okay. Vy turned her head to smile up at him again, almost as if she wasn’t aware of the icy pit of dread starting to form in Robin’s stomach. You two were already telling me I needed to rest sometime. And the knights in front of us need to work out their drama before we fight the next Crypter. I say it works out.

That doesn’t mean… Robin trailed off, chancing a moment to glance at his fellow Servant and Achilles looked just as perplexed as him. Vy…

Vy rocked back and forth on her boots for a second, her smile faltering in that very moment before resurging as she raised her head to meet Robin’s gaze once more, pink dusting her cheeks. I’ll be fine, Big Robin, she said, her mental voice tickling the back of his mind as she beamed up at him. Don’t worry about me. With a turn of her head, Robin could then hear her mental voice open up a bit to add, Same thing to you, Achi.

This is normal to me now, was left unsaid, but Robin knew both he and Rider heard it through their shared connection with Vy and his heart ached. Mommy and Daddy went through worse.

Robin forced himself to take a breath and carefully hid the shakiness of it by pulling Vy in by the waist, pressing his cheek to the top of her head through the No Face May King once she was effectively and protectively nestled into his left side. Achilles had long since pulled his hand away at that point, leaving Vy to freeze up again before inevitably squirming underneath Robin’s touch, an innocent, ironically child-like, confusion reverberating through their bond.

“Robin?” she whispered underneath all the metallic clangs of battle going on in front of them.

“I reserve the right to step in if you’re pushing yourself,” Robin muttered vehemently, raising his other hand to brush away some stray strands of hair from Vy’s neck. “I don’t care about poisoning the new guy.”

He hurt you. You matter more to me.

Vy’s smile faded for a thin line as she slowly raised one hand to grasp the one Robin was using to brush her hair away. “…Thankie,” was all she said, intertwining their fingers. “But I’ll be okay, Big Robin.”

Robin didn’t have to see Achilles’ expression to know he was sharing the same horror at the one thought brushing the both of them through their mental connection.

Still dunno if I deserve the protection, but thankie for staying with me anyway.

[honouraryweasley12]

A Magical Melody

This was written for the amazing @adenei for the HPRomione Discord Secret Santa 2020. If you’re not following her, you are missing out on some excellent Romione content.

Also on FF.n

Summary: Ron gets an education on Muggle music as he and Hermione visit her home and share some tender moments after the war.

Ron's loud footsteps echoed in the kitchen as he barrelled down the stairs of The Burrow, breaking the quiet peace.

"Morning, Mum."

Molly was busy at the stove, preparing breakfast for the Weasley clan. She greeted her youngest son as he strode toward the table.

He slid into the chair next to Hermione and pressed a kiss to the side of her head, both of them blushing under Molly's gaze. She was watching them wistfully, before turning back to a pan of fried eggs.

"Morning, love."

Hermione grinned at him, slowly getting used to the terms of endearment he seemed so fond of using. "Good morning."

He dropped his head onto her shoulder and snuggled close before letting out a wide yawn.

"How did you sleep?"

"Good, until I woke up and you weren't—"

She kicked him under the table, shutting him up. The fact that she'd been sneaking into his room at night to fall asleep in his arms was not something she wanted Mrs. Weasley to hear about.

"Sorry," he murmured in her ear, causing a pleasurable shiver to run through her body. She loved that they could be so close now, after denying themselves for so long.

His volume increased significantly. "How did you sleep in Ginny's room?"

She tutted under her breath, but played along with his charade nonetheless. "I was fine; no nightmares."

"Good. Why are you up so early? I thought I finally convinced you that sleeping in was good for you."

She paused for a moment, running her fingers up and down the teacup in front of her.

"What is it?"

"I've been thinking..."

"That's not a surprise."

Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately and continued on.

"Ever since your Dad and Bill finished checking my parents' home for curses and traps last week, it's been on my mind. What state is the house in? Should I do something about it or wait?"

"You usually don't wait for anything... except maybe me," he quipped.

"I know, I hate just sitting here, knowing there is something to be done," she fretted, completely ignoring the rest of his comment. "I even rang the energy company from the village, when I went with Ginny and your mum the other day, and everything should be reconnected by now."

Ron scrunched his eyes in deep thought. "Electricity, right?"

Hermione nodded. "What if... what if we go to my house today? See how things are? We're still waiting for the paperwork to go to Australia, and it would be nice for them to have a home to come back to." Her voice dropped to a strained whisper. "If we find them."

Ron ran his large hand gently up and down her back, the warmth through her thin shirt soothing her as he leaned forward. "We'll find them, I promise. I think visiting your house, now that it's safe, is a brilliant idea. I've always wanted to see where you grew up."

She turned her head in surprise, throwing him slightly off balance. "Really?"

He sat up and nodded, before looking down and picking at the wooden tabletop to avoid eye contact. "It was always one of those things I wondered about, but if I told you, I was scared you'd realize how much time I spent I thinking about you."

Her face softened at such a sweet, honest admission. It wasn't the first time he'd surprised her with the depth of his feelings in the short time they'd been dating. Before she could reply, Mrs. Weasley let out a sniffle and dabbed her eyes with her apron, before hustling over and placing two plates in front of them, stopping to ruffle Ron's hair.

"Geroff, Mum!" His complaint was half-hearted, causing Hermione to giggle.

"I'm just so happy for the two of you! Now, tuck in."

Ron rolled his eyes, but reached for Hermione's hand under the table, their fingers linking together. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

~*~

A quiet pop, barely noticeable in the late Spring afternoon, signalled the arrival of the couple in a posh suburb. Arriving in a small tree-lined area, they emerged onto the sidewalk, hand-in-hand.

Ron shook his head, slightly disoriented from the Side-Along. They thought it was the safest way to go, since he wasn't familiar with the area where Hermione lived. His eyes widened as he took in the houses they were walking past. "Wow, these places are really fancy."

"Dentists tend to do quite well financially, so my parents bought our home in a nice location, both to live in and as a sensible investment. Their goal was to sell it when they were older and retire to the coast."

Ron nodded, still looking around in awe.

"Look, there it is!"

He directed his attention to the neat, two-storey brick home. It wasn't the largest on the block, but certainly not the smallest. It seemed quite grand and spacious for a family of three.

As they reached the front door, Hermione paused and let out a shaky breath. Ron placed his hands on her shoulders, coaxing her to face him.

"You did the right thing."

She took a moment and nodded, her body still trembling. "It just feels surreal to be back here, now that everything is over."

"From what Bill said, it seems like the Death Eaters realized it was abandoned and didn't cause much damage. I think he and Dad set most of it right already."

She nodded, and pulled out a key from her pocket.

He watched her carefully as she unlocked the door and turned the knob. She peered into the dark, a beam of sunlight highlighting the dust in the air. Overcome by sudden emotion, Hermione's eyes welled up, remembering the times she had spent there with her family. Her missing family.

A second later, her nose was pressed into the softly worn cotton of Ron's shirt as he comforted her.

"You are amazing." The deep timbre of his voice was muffled by her hair. "What you did to protect them took so much, and it'll be over with soon. We're going to find them and bring them home."

She gripped him harder, tears soaking into the cloth. She hadn't realized how much her actions had cost her. How big of a weight it had been on her soul.

"I couldn't do this without you," she said into his shirt.

"I'm here for you, no matter what happens."

She wiped her eyes, before pulling him down for a quick kiss. "Thank you."

Letting out a deep, far calmer breath, Hermione turned to the doorway.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

She stepped in and flipped the familiar switch on the wall. The light in the entrance hummed to life as she surveyed her home for the first time in a year.

"Wicked!"

Ron's enthusiasm seemed to shake her out of her thoughts as she shuffled aside and let him in, locking the door behind him.

He looked around in wonder, taking it all in. She in turn was watching him, a small smile playing across her lips. He spied her expression and grinned back. "So this is it, huh? The famous Granger residence."

"I don't know how famous it is, but it's home."

Ron was fascinated. "Everything is so neat and tidy, and the walls are so straight, unlike The Burrow. It does seem much more welcoming than Harry's Aunt and Uncle's. I think that's the only other Muggle home I've ever been to."

She too glanced around. She hadn't realized how much she missed the place she grew up.

"The rest of our things aren't even out yet. I shrunk the valuables and concealed them in the attic."

The lights started flickering, causing Hermione to jump. It was then she noticed her boyfriend, flicking the switch on and off rapidly.

"Ron, what are you doing?"

"Lights on, lights off. This is fun! You should try it."

She grabbed his hand, stilling it. "You can play later. We have work to do first."

Ron groaned, his head flopping back in protest. "We don't have to clean the Muggle way, do we? I still have nightmares about Grimmauld Place."

She playfully poked him in the side, causing him to flinch. "No, we'll use magic this time. We can get the cleaning done quickly, then we can start rearranging the furniture and putting things back in the cupboards."

He kissed the top of her head, before making a sweeping gesture. "Lead the way."

The two set about cleaning the empty house, the thin layer of dust coating the surfaces quickly removed. Hermione opened the curtains and windows, letting in the fresh breeze. With the aid of magic, it only took them a short amount of time to get the main areas of the first floor looking like new.

Hermione was just finishing the kitchen cabinets as Ron stopped to examine some of the appliances.

"I really should have taken Muggle Studies," he remarked as he took a closer look at the electric kettle. "Some of this stuff is interesting. I can see why Dad is so obsessed."

"Your Dad's interest in Muggle gadgets is quite unique amongst magical people, isn't it?"

"It's completely barmy."

"No more than obsessing over books or Quidditch."

He shrugged. "I guess everyone has their interests."

Hermione suddenly gasped and raced to the stairs leading to the second floor. "Wait here."

Her footsteps thumped around above him for a few minutes, until she finally reappeared and descended the stairs, her face flushed.

"What have you got there?" Ron asked as she reached him. In her hand were a number of tiny brown cubes.

"You'll see, come with me." She grabbed his hand, their fingers locking automatically, and practically pulled him to a small room at the back of the house. "This is Dad's den."

The empty built-ins were the perfect place for floor-to-ceiling books. "Your own personal library. No wonder you're so excited."

She chuckled and shook her head, before gently placing the small cubes on the floor.

"Stand back."

With a quick wave of her wand, the cubes expanded into a large pile of assorted boxes. "It's my Dad's collection. Instead of gadgets, music is his passion."

She gleefully opened the first box to find it full of cardboard sleeves. She extracted one and pulled out the thin black disc from inside to show Ron.

"These are records. They aren't as popular anymore, but a lot of purists love them. The music is imprinted in these grooves here."

"Ooh!" She said, shoving the record back into its sleeve and handing it to Ron. "Let me show you these."

Hermione moved a few boxes and found the one she was looking for. The inside revealed piles of small plastic rectangles.

"What am I looking at?"

"These are called cassettes, or tapes," she explained as she opened the case and removed the cassette, pointing out the spools inside. "The tape within contains the music. And last but not least—"

"There's more?"

"Yes!" She opened a third box and pulled out a jewel case. "These are called compact discs, or CDs."

Ron's head was spinning now as she passed him the silver disc. He held the CD in his hands, watching as it caught the light and revealed a rainbow of colours across its surface. "So why does music come in all of these different containers?"

"You'll find that Muggles are creative and adaptable to new technologies. We're constantly inventing and refining how we do things. Innovation moves much faster here than in the Wizarding world."

Ron nodded, gesturing to the records and cassettes. "So all of these have been made in the last few years?"

"Records were more popular in the 1960s and 70s, cassettes in the 80s, and CDs in the 90s. When I was here for Christmas the year before last, my dad had a new computer. He was showing me that digital music can now be downloaded as MP3 files. He thinks it's the future of music."

All Ron could do was shake his head in disbelief. "I don't understand half of what you just said, but I'll take your word for it."

He watched in fascination as she opened more boxes and stacked a number of large rectangular devices on the shelves, then untangled a spool of wires.

Ron was peering at the electronics. "I think my Dad has some of this stuff in his shed!"

"These actually play the music." She pointed out the different devices to him. "This is a turntable, it plays the records, and this is a stereo with both a cassette player and a CD player."

She directed him to lift up the large speakers and place them in the corners of the room.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm connecting the speakers so that we can hear the music. Think of these as boxes with a Sonorous charm on them."

He watched as she deftly ran the wiring and plugged everything in.

Her eyes were alight with excitement to share this with him. "What shall we listen to first?"

Ron shrugged. "Whatever doesn't sound like the rubbish Mum listens to."

"No, of course not. Muggle music has much more variety. There are so many genres: pop, rock, classical, country, hip hop. Luckily, my Dad has very diverse tastes."

"You're taking the mickey! There's no music called hip hop! Is it made by rabbits?"

She snorted. "It's completely true. I think it's more popular in America."

She started flipping through the records, trying to find something that might appeal to Ron. "Oh, this should work! The Weird Sisters were inspired by this type of music, so it should be familiar."

Ron shrugged. "I never really paid that much attention to them before."

"Surely you've heard Ginny playing their music. They played the entire Yule Ball!"

He suddenly looked pained, his mouth a thin line as he quietly responded. "Like I said, I haven't paid much attention."

Noting his tenseness, she turned back to the audio equipment. "Well, let's see what you think about this."

She fiddled with the knobs on the turntable, before pulling out the record. With a light scratch of the needle arm, the familiar static sound of a record playing filled the room.

Hermione suddenly stomped her feet and clapped in time with the loud music.

Ron clutched at his chest, broken out of his stupor. "Bloody hell!"

She grabbed his hand, her excitement contagious as he reluctantly joined in the pattern. A man's excited voice sang and Ron couldn't help bobbing his head. Hermione was smiling widely watching him.

As the music swelled, she cried out the familiar lyrics. "We will, we will rock you!"

Ron's deep voice hesitantly joined hers as their combined singing echoed off the walls. Once the song came to an end, Ron couldn't help but express his admiration, his mood lifted.

"That was brilliant!"

"See, I told you Muggles had good music. That was a rock band called Queen. I believe that song is quite popular at sporting events."

Ron's eyes lit up. "Imagine a whole Quidditch stadium doing that!"

"That would certainly be a sight. What next?"

As the two continued unboxing and organizing the rather large collection of music, Hermione took the opportunity to play a variety of different songs, just to introduce Ron to some of the genres she enjoyed.

"Dad always had music playing, and I must admit, I did miss it at Hogwarts. The few times I was here, he always had something new to listen to."

Ron was digging through a box, looking at the various CD covers when he let out a gasp.

"What is this?"

She spotted the familiar case in his hands, her face blanching in horror. "No, no, no!"

She launched herself at him, but Ron was quicker, holding the case higher than she could reach. She tried to jump up, but was unable to knock it out of his hands.

"Give that back!" She pouted over his laughter.

"I will, once I've examined it."

Hermione crossed her arms, and shot him a look that would make most people quaver.

Ron read the cover, which had been decorated with a number of hand-written hearts. "Take That?"

"They happen to be a very popular group."

Ron wrinkled his nose as he looked at the five blokes on the cover, all dressed in white. "So which poncy git did you fancy back then?"

She smirked at him, her chin jutting out. "The one I still fancy is Gary Barlow."

"Pfft! Come off it."

"Alright, fine. I did find someone better to fancy soon after that."

"Wait, who?"

She shook her head, before swatting him with the rag in her hand. "You!"

"Bloody right."

She thought she heard him mutter the word "wankers" under his breath as he tossed the case back into the box and continued his explorations.

They took their time, putting everything back by hand to enjoy the afternoon together. Hermione was an encyclopedia of musical knowledge, having learned from her father.

She would sing bits and pieces of songs as they worked, her tone slightly off-key, but it made Ron smile.

As they finished up and vanished all the empty boxes, Hermione turned to him. "What did you like best?"

He thought for a moment, scanning the now full shelves. "Definitely the rock music. I liked that Queen group, and that other one. Lead Zuplin?"

"Led Zeppelin."

"Yeah, them. The pop music was alright, so was the hip hop. I liked the... what did you call it again? Catchy beats? I didn't like the country music much."

She smiled proudly. "Look at you, you're a real expert now!"

"My Dad will be so excited."

"I wanted to play one more song, but I'm not sure if you'll like it."

"Go on then."

Hermione pulled a well-worn record from the shelf and placed it on the turntable. A strong feminine voice filled the room over a slow, romantic melody.

"At last... My love has come along."

She closed her eyes at the familiar sound, picturing the times she'd spent in the room.

"I love this song. It's one of Mum's favourites. We would sit in here on Sunday afternoons, reading, while Dad would organize his collection and play whatever latest albums he purchased."

A loud, obvious clearing of Ron's throat broke her out of her memories. Her eyes opened to find her boyfriend with his hand out, his ears blazing red.

"Didn't get the chance to do this properly last time," he mumbled before he looked up, his eyes meeting hers. "May I have a dance with the prettiest girl here?"

She nodded enthusiastically, her hand clasping his before he pulled her close. She sighed as she nestled against his chest, the two of them swaying together.

She was burrowed in his arms, his warmth enveloping her. The strains of melody echoed around as the two of them danced in a sweet embrace.

"I found a thrill to press my cheek to... A thrill that I have never known."

She never thought she would one day dance with Ron Weasley in her father's den. It was like a dream come true.

Hermione sang into his shirt, her words muffled. "Oh, yeah, yeah, and you smile, you smile... Oh, and then the spell was cast."

She looked up and their eyes met again, drawn together like magnets.

"I always loved that line."

"This music does have a kind of magic to it."

"Mmm, it does."

The two of them slowly spun, holding onto each other as if they would fly away, their eyes still locked. After a moment, Hermione laid her head on his chest and spoke up again.

"Would you really have called me pretty at your brother's wedding?"

He rumbled with laughter. "I'd been working up to it that entire month. Just didn't want to lose my chance with him there, so I panicked and didn't say what I had really wanted to say."

"You never had to worry about him."

"I know that now, but back then, I didn't think I was enough. And for the record, you were the prettiest girl there."

"You can be very sweet. And for the record, I didn't want to dance with anyone other than you, Ron. You have always been more than enough."

"You know, that was one of my favourite memories, dancing with you at Bill's wedding. I thought about it a lot this past year."

She squeezed him tightly, trying to convey how much his words meant to her. She too had replayed those moments over and over in her head, trying to remember what it was like to be so close to him. Nothing beat the real thing.

"Do you know how badly I wanted to kiss you that day?"

She stayed firmly pressed to him as they continued their slow dance. "I was really hoping you would."

"I would've done it, if not for the interruption."

She looked up to find him staring down at her, an unmistakable look of love on his face.

"Nothing's stopping you now."

He grinned broadly and leaned forward, his breath mingling with hers for a second before their lips met.

Though the music had faded out, the two held each other on their impromptu dance floor, lost in one another.

At last.

[aimeelouart]

WHAT. oh my god diff anon but i loved the snippet with ur protag but also HOW CLD U THROW HER TO HOJO.. UR VERY OWN CHILD /j anyway very excited to see u talk abt ur setting and lora more i like the her

>:3c Shall we have a part two of this self-indulgent SSC crossover, then?

Lora wasn’t missing for long, but she was missing long enough. They found her in the labs, floating curled-up in an empty holding tank⁠. The glass and metal was all melted to slag around her, but she didn’t seem aware. Her whole body was glowing like liquid steel, eyes open wide and mouth slack as bluish-white light poured from the inside of her throat. The bodies of unlucky lab technicians littered the ground around the tank.

Science had finally tried to meddle in something truly beyond their grasp.

They found Hojo, too, burned to near unrecognizability and leaning up against a control panel. He was muttering deliriously to himself, breath rasping like sandpaper down his damaged throat. “Magnif...icent...like...the power...she’s…”

Sephiroth stared at him coldly. He couldn’t put Masamune through the wretch’s body without consequences⁠...but he could leave him to die. So he stepped over the body of his father and moved to the computer by the control panel, pulling up the information he needed. 

The radiation pouring from the little outworlder child was frankly staggering. If it wasn’t for the protective shields around this section of the room, Hojo would have been long dead. More’s the pity, though the shields were also protecting the Firsts at the moment.

“What do we do?” Genesis asked as he looked at Lora’s glowing form. “What did he even do to get her in that state?”

“Is there anything we can do without getting burned to a crisp?” Angeal said, looking between the temperature readout and the molten state of the holding tank.

“At a distance, maybe” Sephiroth replied, leaning away from the screen and tilting his head a little. “Let us start with the obvious.” He flicked on the intercom. “Ameliora Octavia Perdel,” he said, enunciating each name clearly. “Do you remember my voice? It’s Sephiroth. Genesis, Angeal, and I are all here. You are safe now, but we can’t reach you until you calm down.”

The radiation levels dipped slightly.

Genesis bumped Sephiroth away with his shoulder. “Princess,” he crooned. “Princess, what mess did you get into, hmm? That all looks quite exhausting. Why don’t we tone it down a bit more?”

This time, she blinked and uncurled a little, legs dipping toward the floor.

Angeal went next. Maybe hearing all their voices individually was the key factor. “Just listen to my voice, Lora. Can you see where you are? I know it must be scary, but we can’t come get you until you calm down.”

The radiation levels fell rapidly, matched by the way her skin’s unnatural luminance dimmed. Her mouth was moving, eyes blinking rapidly. Steam hissed off her cheeks as she started to cry. Delicately, her feet touched the melted floor of the cage. The second the radiation levels had fallen enough to be safe (safe for a SOLDIER) they left the shielded vestibule behind and ran into the room. 

The air was stiflingly hot, like an oven, and had an odd metallic tang to it. The hairs on their arms stood on end. Sephiroth darted forward as the last of the glow faded from Lora’s skin and quickly pulled her out of the molten tank. Her clothing was gone (taken or destroyed?) , and he wasn’t sure if her unprotected skin would burn against the metal. His boots left thin layers of melted rubber as he stepped quickly in and out.

Wordless, Genesis stripped off his coat and together they wrapped her in it. She still felt unnaturally hot, like a soldier pulled from the desert with heatstroke. Her eyes were wide and blank, irises glowing even when the rest of her didn’t. Odd green sparks danced within her pupils. Her lips were still moving as she murmured fretfully, but the language she spoke was incomprehensible to them.

Angeal glanced at the burned corpses. “Shhh, close your eyes for a minute, Lora.” When she didn’t respond, he frowned and held his hand over her eyes⁠, walking beside Sephiroth. He didn't cover them all the way⁠—didn’t block the light⁠—but he made sure she wouldn’t see the bodies.

And as they passed out of the room, Hojo’s rasping voice stuttered, stalled, and at last fell silent.

—

Cloud had fallen asleep almost as soon as the Firsts had gotten their hands on him again. He wasn’t too upset, actually—he’d accomplished all his goals this time around. But he was a bit miffed when he woke up with a little girl’s sleeping face just a few feet from his.

He sat up quickly, scooting backward a little. She didn’t wake, and after a few seconds he recognized her as the odd child who’d helped him escape. What the hell was she doing here in—he glanced around—Sephiroth’s bed? 

Gaia, was she here because he’d accepted her ‘help?’ He’d assumed they would just get her back to her parents.

The door opened and Angeal poked his head in, one finger raised to his lips. He gestured to the girl, then motioned Cloud toward him. When they were out in the hallway, Cloud harshly whispered, “why’s she here?” with a suspicious glare.

Angeal rolled his eyes a little and herded him away from the door, not responding until they were in the kitchen. “Her name is Lora, and she’s here for much the same reason you are. No one else could safely keep her.”

“Okay, first off I don’t need to be kept,” he said, glaring as he took a chair. “You just think I do. Second off, why?”

Genesis sauntered in and answered for Angeal. “Because she has strange and frankly inconceivable abilities, Cloud. Beyond that, we are not keeping her forever, merely waiting for her parents to find her.”

“Theoretically,” Angeal muttered, tending to the food on the stove. It smelled like stir-fry.

Sephiroth arrived to join the conversation as well. “Given what we have seen, do you really find it so unlikely that her Grandfather would be capable of similar feats? I am inclined to doubt nothing, at this point.”

Cloud was baffled. Feats? Abilities? He’d given the kid a chunk of his hair in exchange for her providing a distraction—she’d claimed something about ‘needing it for the spell.’ Had she...meant something real by that?

Genesis noticed his baffled expression. “Lora doesn’t need materia to do magic,” he explained succinctly. “There are some other things too, but that’s the gist of it.”

Cloud paled. Alright, maybe it really was better if they kept her here. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if Hojo got his hands on her.

Sephiroth was staring at him intently. “Hojo is dead.”

Every thought went right out the window. “What?”

“Hojo is dead. He’s never going to hurt anyone else again.”

How? His lips moved, but he made no sound. The damned Professor had been at the top of his list of things to take care of, what could possibly have taken him out before Cloud could even try?

Angeal lowered his voice enough that no one but a SOLDIER had any hope of making out his words. “Lora killed him, and we are not going to tell her that, understand?” For the first time, a very serious, protective look was aimed at Cloud for someone else’s sake. “She’s not like you, Cloud. She was protected from the whole world until she came to Midgar.”

“...right,” he said numbly. “I’d never hurt a kid.”

All three of them gave him Looks at that, but he was spared the commentary by a distressed, high-pitched whine from the direction of the bedroom. Genesis vanished from the kitchen in the space of a breath. When he came back, it was with the girl bundled up in a blanket, sniffling into his shoulder.

“It’s alright, darling,” Genesis was...crooning. Cloud was vaguely glad that particular tone (in that particular intensity) had never been aimed at him. He might have bitten the man’s fingers off. It seemed to be working on the actual seven-year-old though. “Shh...you’re fine. You’re safe. Don’t you want to come out and meet Cloud properly?”

Still sniffling, she raised her head and turned to Cloud. She looked groggy and miserable, eyes red-rimmed and teary, but when she saw him her face lit up.

“D’you do it?” She asked in a sleep-roughened voice, smiling. “Your task?”

“Uh,” he blinked. “Yeah. I did. Thanks for the help.”

She beamed, forgetting her tears entirely. “Welcome. It’s important to always follow your Virtue.”

He had a feeling he was missing a lot of the context of that statement, but he thought he’d gotten the gist. “Yeah.”

When they ate dinner she sat in Angeal's lap, still bundled up in the blanket. Half way through her plate⁠—her proportions were hilariously tiny compared to the four enhanced SOLDIERs⁠—she made a face and pushed it away.

“What’s wrong, Lora?” Genesis asked.

“Hurts,” she said, rubbing at the center of her chest. “Can’t eat any more.” She looked like she was on the verge of tears again.

“Okay, that’s alright. Do you want to go sit on the couch and watch something until we’re all done eating?”

“Yes please,” she said, sliding to the floor and taking Genesis’s hand.

Cloud frowned thoughtfully at his plate as he listened to her settle down on the couch as Genesis turned the tv to some inane children’s cartoon. When the redhead returned, Cloud quirked an eyebrow at him. “Is she okay?” he asked, too low for her to overhear.

His expression sobered. He shook his head. “What she did to...survive the lab...it damaged her in a manner we simply have no way of understanding. She thinks it won’t be permanent, and I suspect she may be right, but for now the pain comes and goes. It would hurt her enormously to use magic as well, though she has yet to slip up in that regard.”

“Poor kid,” Cloud murmured.

That earned him a bit of an eye-roll from Genesis before the man continued. “Healing energy does seem to help her, however. If she’s in pain and we’re unavailable, can I count on you to cast a Cure on her?”

Cloud frowned at him and crossed his arms over his chest. “Listen, I know I fight you guys a lot, but do you really think I’d hurt a kid? Or ignore one in pain?” It made him very uncomfortable that they seemed to think he would.

The Firsts exchanged a glance between themselves. “Cloud, you are absolutely unpredictable to us,” Angeal said eventually. “But you’re right, and I’m sorry we insulted you like that.”

Cloud sighed and went back to his food. “It’s whatever.”

Ugh. He’d been a kid for too long if he was starting to use phrases like that.

⁠—

They watched a movie after dinner, some mindless family film with a plot that was about as substantial as cotton candy. Cloud didn’t much care, but when Angeal said it would make Lora happy he sighed and relented. He absolutely refused to share the couch, though, claiming one of the armchairs before anyone else could ‘accidentally’ maneuver him into arms reach.

To be honest, he spent most of the movie’s run time watching Lora anyway. She was just so...weird. For one thing, she did everything in her power to make sure she was being held at all times. If one of the adults had to move, or got tired, she shamelessly transferred herself to someone else’s lap.

Sephiroth ended up with her for most of the night, looking about as content as Cloud had ever seen him as he let her snuggle close to his chest. They only had to pause the movie once as she whined and curled around her chest. All three of the Firsts had mastered Cures on them, and it wasn’t difficult to see why they needed them.

“Are most kids like that?” he ended up asking Angeal once the movie had ended. Lora was fast asleep, knuckles curled into her mouth, as Sephiroth got up off the couch and carried her to bed.

“Like what?” the dark-haired man asked, cocking a brow.

“...touchy?” Because he couldn’t remember Marlene ever being quite so demanding, and Denzel certainly wasn’t.

In the kitchen, Genesis stifled a laugh. Angeal looked amused as well. “Ah, no,” he said. “I wondered too, but after asking around a bit it turns out you and Lora are just on polar opposite ends of the spectrum.” He grinned a little. “You…avoid touch and distrust everyone; she demands touch and trusts implicitly.”

Cloud frowned. He could get away with being extreme because he wasn’t actually what he appeared, but the way Angeal described the kid’s tendencies sounded downright dangerous. “That’s not safe.”

Angeal sobered abruptly. “She’s starting to learn that too.”

Cloud winced. Yeah. Hojo would have that effect, wouldn’t he. Poor kiddo.

⁠— 

Today was the first day since Cloud had gotten back that all three of the Firsts would be busy, which meant that he and their cross-dimensional princess house guest would be dropped off to be babysat (ugh) by the entire Turk department.

Yes, the entire department. That one was his own fault.

He wasn’t all that upset, actually. He had some snooping to do for his next task, and Veld was a very strange and accommodating person to Cloud’s...eccentric behavior. He swore the man was using him as a training program, but had yet to find definitive proof.

Lora, on the other hand…

Cloud walked straight into Tseng’s office and flopped down on the couch, pulling out his handheld gaming system. Sephiroth had to be well out of range before he could begin his kind-of-sort-of extended espionage battle with the Turks. Lora lingered half-behind the silver-haired man, clutching his hand with both of hers as she looked around nervously.

“Come on,” Sephiroth coaxed, looking down at her. “Don’t you want to go play with Cloud?”

“No,” she mumbled, pressing against his leg. She eyed Tseng, who was watching the proceedings with an expression of (to Cloud’s eyes) carefully curated warmth.

“Yes,” he countered. “Besides, you like Tseng. You’re going to have plenty of fun with him and the other Turks, and I promise they’ll keep you safe.”

She looked up at him and adopted puppy eyes that would have put Zack’s to shame, huge and pleading. “Can’t I just come with you? Please?”

Sephiroth visibly wavered, and Cloud had to press his lips together hard to keep from laughing outright. What was it about big, tough soldier-types being the weakest to little girls’ puppy eyes? He’d been an absolute sucker for Marlene’s before Barret had finally let him in on the secret to resisting (physically looking away, apparently).

But Sephiroth, to his credit, gathered his resolve and told her, “no, you can’t come with me on mission. It’s not safe.”

Her pleading stare turned to a pout. “But I have a lot of magic! I could help!”

“I’m sure you could,” he said, which was probably actually true though Cloud had yet to see a firsthand demonstration, “but your parents and grandfather would be very upset if they found out, wouldn’t they?”

She narrowed her eyes a little. “Papa’s taken me on campaign before.”

He arched his eyebrows. “On the front lines?”

Lora’s scowl was answer enough. Sephiroth released her hand and plucked her up off the floor, carrying her over to the couch. Very, very reluctantly, she released her grip from around his neck and let him put her down beside Cloud.

“You’ll be fine,” he promised, patting her head briefly. “Tell Tseng or Veld when your chest starts hurting, alright?”

She nodded sullenly, curling up into a ball on the couch, and he left. She huffed sulkily when he was out of sight. Eventually, she leaned over to watch Cloud play his game and he obligingly tilted the screen so she could see easier. He kept half an eye on her and half an eye on the clock.

Maybe thirty minutes after Sephiroth left, around the time Cloud was certain he had also left the Tower, Lora crossed her arms over her chest and hunched her shoulders up around her ears. He was familiar with that tell by now⁠—her chest was starting to hurt. But instead of asking Tseng for a Cure, she shot him a single nervous look and didn’t say anything.

Aw, kid, he thought.

Lucky Tseng wasn’t an idiot. “Lora,” he called with a deliberate gentleness.

She looked up, lips pressed into a wary line. “...yeah?”

“Does your chest hurt?”

“...no.” She curled up into a ball, mumbling the denial into her knees. “Doesn’t hurt.”

It was a bald-faced lie. Tseng looked, for a second, genuinely sad, then his expression shifted as he considered how to respond. Cloud paused his game, curious how this would play out. Would he call her on the lie? Trick her into being honest?

“Alright,” he said eventually, “tell me when it does.”

“‘Kay.”

Cloud scowled at him. Lora would have to say something eventually, once the pain grew too much, but that also meant letting her hurt until she caved. He would have accepted that tactic against himself, but Lora was little. She didn’t deserve that.

When Tseng quirked a brow at his glare, Cloud rolled his eyes and heaved an inaudible sigh. Why was it he had to do everything around here?

He switched the game off and set it aside, pulling his legs up so that his position mirrored Lora’s, then lowered his voice to a level that Tseng would still be able to hear, but Lora would think was too quiet. “Hey,” he said. “I know your chest hurts.”

“Doesn’t,” she said, raising her face just enough so that her eyes peeked over her knees.

“What are you scared of?” he asked. “Sephiroth said you could trust Tseng, right? And you trust Sephiroth. They wouldn’t hurt you. It’s safe to tell them.”

She narrowed her golden eyes a touch, spine straightening, and Cloud suddenly remembered youth and naivete were not the same as stupidity. “You don’t trust them,” she accused. “You don’t trust anyone.”

He bit back a groan. “I...don’t,” he agreed. “But you should.”

Lora looked outright irritated now, one hand rubbing absent-minded circles over her sternum. “Why? Why, if they wouldn’t hurt us?”

“You and I are...different,” he said slowly. Gaia, he very much regretted getting into this conversation, but it was too late now. "They wouldn't hurt me, but they don't understand what I am, and that means that even if they mean well...I can’t trust them to do what’s best for me.”

The look she gave him was highly skeptical, so he sighed and added, “I would definitely trust them to cast a Cure on me, okay? So you should too. Everyone is sad when you’re hurting.”

“What if I’d rather hurt?” she snapped. “This hurts less than⁠—” she cut off, blinking rapidly against sudden tears, and yeah, he knew that feeling. Poor kiddo. At least he’d been almost an adult when Hojo had gotten him into the lab.

“No one wants to hurt, Princess,” he said, patting her knee. “C’mon, it’s not that big a deal. I’d be right here the whole time.”

“You want to hurt,” she said, but it looked like he was finally starting to wear her down. “You hurt all the time and you never tell anyone.”

Cloud blinked at her in surprise. “What?”

Lora looked uncommonly serious in that moment. “You hurt all the time. I can tell. I can’t look at the Strings without hurting⁠—” she was still rubbing at her chest “—but my pa...passive? My passive sight still works and you’re like…” She brushed her fingers against just over his heart. “...jagged. Jagged black and purple thread, fraying all over.” Her voice dropped to barely a breath of sound. “It hurts to look at.”

Cloud jerked away, startled and alarmed, and brought his hands close to his chest. “I⁠—”

She sniffled, the pain finally getting to her. “If you get to hurt, I get to hurt,” she insisted stubbornly. He suspected it had more to do with sticking to her guns by this point than any actual desire to endure pain.

“I...Lora, you don’t...have to hurt. They can help you. That’s...that’s why you should ask.”

“But you do?” she fired back, swiping at her eyes. “You have to hurt? They can help you too!”

“No,” he whispered, briefly shutting his eyes against her innocent, righteous indignation. How had the argument shifted around on him, especially given that he was a twenty-three-year-old gown-ass man and she was seven? “No, Lora. They can’t help me.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Too much dangerous information to be discussing while in Tseng’s office. He was stupid to have let it get this far. “Would you let me cast a Cure on you?”

She looked at Tseng, who was going his level best to fade into the paperwork and pretend he wasn’t even there. Then she looked back and narrowed her eyes at him. He recognized that look as the ‘I’m going to dig in my heels until you give in’ look that Marlene was so fond of. “No,” she said. “Not unless you stop hurting too.”

This time he did groan aloud. “I⁠—Princess, that’s not…” She folded her arms across her chest, knees shifting to sit criss-cross on the couch cushions. He tossed his hands up. “Fine, I’ll let Tseng cast a Cure on me too, okay? Would that make you happy?”

She offered him a watery, triumphant smile and immediately flopped over to curl up in a ball. “Yeah.”

He got up, jaw clenched, and stalked over to Tseng’s desk. The man looked up, expression betraying nothing. “What is it, Cloud?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard every single word.

“Lora will let me cast on her if you cast on me first,” he ground out, irritated. “Not that it’ll do anything since I am fine.”

“Of course,” Tseng agreed, that lying motherfucker. He pulled a Cure out of his desk, then checked to make sure Lora was watching before casting...a full Curaga. Overkill. Cloud snatched the materia up and went back to the couch, irritation cooling as he saw the way the kid was shaking and trying in vain to blink back tears.

“Here,” he said, laying a hand on her head of wild red curls and casting a Curaga of his own. “Better?”

She rolled onto her back and smiled at him. “Yes. Thank you.” Then she frowned. “But...you’re still…?”

“I told you, kiddo,” he said with a shake of his head. “They can’t help me like they can help you.”

⁠—

Cloud got up shortly after that exchange and said “I’m going to the bathroom,” which everyone except Lora knew by now was the opening salvo of their espionage battle. He handed his gaming system to the Princess so that she’d be entertained and left, several Turks following after him.

Here we go, he thought, a little smirk curving his lips up.

Except, less than thirty minutes later, when he was squirming through the vents, he heard Reno yelling, which was...not usually part of their game. Puzzled, he stopped and listened.

“Hey! Cloud! Listen, I know you’re having fun, but little Princess is freaking out and you need to get to Tseng’s office ASAP! She’s⁠—listen, she thinks we did something to you and we’re all worried she might try to use her magic and hurt herself. Please.”

Cloud groaned and let his head thunk down onto the metal beneath him. He should have anticipated this. With a sigh, he squirmed around and quickly reversed course, popping out of a vent near but not right in front of where Reno had been shouting.

“Alright, I’m going” he called, loud enough for the redhead to hear, and ran for Tseng’s office.

He burst in to find Lora perched on the back of the couch, staring down Tseng, who was sitting on the floor trying to placate her. She gasped when she caught sight of him and promptly lost her balance, falling onto the cushions with an oof!

“You’re okay!” she said, scrambling up and launching herself at him.

“I’m fine,” he said, staggering a little as she cannonballed into his torso. “What, were you worried about me?”

“Yes!” she said, upset. “Where were you? I thought they’d...that they’d…”

Cloud sighed, unable to hold on to his irritation in the face of a little girl on the verge of tears. Damn his daddy instincts. He picked her up and carried her back to the couch, well aware of how ridiculous that must have looked. He had to deal with this now, for her sake and everyone else’s. Hopefully the conversation wouldn't veer into dangerously exposed territory this time.

“You were scared I’d been taken away, right? Lora, I’m...very hard to take. By anyone. I got away from Seph and Ange and Gen the first time you met me, remember?”

She looked uncertain, keeping hold of one of his wrists. “I...know,” she said. “Where were you?”

“I was⁠—” inspiration struck. He knew exactly how to fix this, or at least begin to fix it. “Well, I was breaking the rules.”

Lora’s eyes widened. For a second, he saw exactly what he was hoping for: curiosity and longing. A split second later it was eaten away by anxiety, but now that he knew it was there, he could draw it out again. “You shouldn’t break the rules,” she said. “What if they’d taken you?”

“I’m hard to take,” he repeated patiently. “And you know what? If you broke the rules, Lora, it would be okay, because you’re hard to take too.”

She blinked at him, uncomprehending. “But...no, he...it was easy to take me,” she whispered, trying to blink back tears.

“Only because you didn’t know you couldn’t trust him,” Cloud said. “Look, you trust Gen and Seph and Ange, right?” She nodded. “Okay, why?”

“Because...they got me out,” she said slowly, tense and miserable as she re-lived that memory.

“They saved you, which is proof that they don’t want you hurt and proof that you can trust them,” he summarized. She nodded again. “But they told you that you can trust Tseng, right? Why don’t you trust him too?”

Lora stared at him helplessly. He knew this was a lot to ask of a seven-year-old (a real one) but she was smart. She would get it if he helped her along a little bit.

“Is it because you don’t have any proof that they’re like our Firsts?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, throwing a glance at Tseng, who was holding absolutely still and carefully not looking at them.

“Do you want to trust them? Because Seph said so?” He suspected she did, at least. He suspected she wanted to go back to trusting everyone, but didn’t know how.

“...yeah.”

“Okay. You want to trust them, but you don’t have any proof, so you feel scared because they might try to take you. Lora, what if I told you that they couldn’t take you even if they tried?”

She blinked at him, head tilting in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“If you had known that the Frog-Faced Bastard⁠—” she cracked a little smile at that “—was going to take you, would you have gone with him?”

She recoiled. “No!”

“What would you have done?”

“I would have⁠— I would have frozen him solid and ran away!”

“That’s right. You would have defended yourself. So if Tseng tried to take you, would you defend yourself?”

The light of realization dawned in her eyes. “It...it would hurt,” she said, rubbing her chest with her free hand.

“But you would do it?” he prodded. “And you have a lot of magic, Princess. Magic that they don’t understand. Even if it hurt you could get away, couldn’t you? And then Seph and Gen and Ange would come kick Tseng’s butt, right?”

He smiled as he watched the anxiety drain out of her eyes, a kind of relieved joy taking its place. “Yeah,” she said, smiling back at him. “Yeah!”

“So you don’t have to trust the Turks yet,” he said. “You can just act like you do until they prove that you can trust them, because even if they tried to hurt you they couldn’t.”

⁠—

Angeal was the first back and thus the one to pick up Cloud and Lora from the Turks. He was directed to Veld’s office, which was something of a surprise, and was told that Cloud was currently out ‘playing’ with some of the others, which was not a surprise. Tseng had been keeping them all more or less abreast of the kids’ activities, including two very interesting and concerning conversations.

Despite hearing about the progress Cloud had made in teaching Lora about trust and self-defense, Angeal still found his eyebrows arching when he entered Veld’s office and found the little princess dozing in the Turk’s lap. That wasn’t just progress⁠—that was nearly a full recovery back to the fearless child they first met.

“Hewley,” Veld said without looking up from his work. He was writing with one hand, the other arm wrapped around Lora.

“Veld,” he said back, smiling. “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble?”

The Turk didn’t smile, but something in the corners of his eyes gave him away. He was pleased. Very pleased. “Oh, I’m afraid she was,” he said. “Very troublesome. She and Cloud raised quite a ruckus before he tricked her into coming here and pinning me down.”

Angeal laughed. “Did he? That does sound like Cloud.” He grinned, knowing that they⁠ (and the whole of the Turks, probably⁠) were both pleased by the knowledge that Lora had been a handful. Cloud was just...Cloud, and he would always do what he wanted.

He rounded the desk and Veld passed Lora off to him. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t wake⁠—the girl slept like a rock, even after the lab when her hours asleep far surpassed her hours awake. “How many times did she need a Cure.”

“Twice,” said Veld, looking at his PHS. “Cloud cast one this morning, I cast the other near lunch.” Which meant she would probably wake up hurting again before dinner. Angeal nodded, shifting her on his hip. “Cloud’s back with Tseng,” Veld added before he could ask, checking his PHS.

“Of course. Well, thank you.”

“My pleasure. Really.”

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Insurrection.”

Hope ou guys like this one and how it turned out. I am super excited to write the aftermath of all of this tomorrow, so stick around for that obviously :)

Have a great day. 

“Adam, Damnit Adam, wake up!” The man lay on the floor of the shuttle head tilted back mouth open, fast asleep. Krill didn’t mind him sleeping, but there was one problem.

The life support.

This shuttle was clearly only meant for short detours in space, probably to one of those passing space stations or satellites. Krill would have flown the ship himself, but it turned out that his armspan wasn’t wide enough to break both beams of light at the same time. Either way he could only move the ship forward, away from any help, or in useless circles.

Overhead, a low rumbling was the siren for the ship.

“Commander, please wake up.”

The man didn’t move, his chest and stomach moving up and down slowly in his sleep, an unnatural sleep.

Krill turned to look around the shuttle, trying to find anything he could use to wake the man, but no luck, he could find nothing. The ship was a wasteland of useful tools, and he was suffering.

He had just moved to the front of the ship, and was trying to reach the two beams of light, without any luck, when there was a bright flash of light before him in the darkness. With a yelp, he staggered back and tripped onto the floor holding his arms out to block the horrifically burning light before him. When the light did not abate, he rolled onto his side and hid his face against the floor.

He wasn’t sure what was happening.

Had someone found them? Was there an explosion of some sort?

What was going on.

Finally the light subsided and he was able to lift his arms, still reeling from the blast of luminance that had poured down on him.

Looking out the window.

He froze in awe, surprise, and shock.

The Space dragon stared back at him, its massive head arching up into infinity, its great solar-sale wings spread around it.

Behind him, Commander Vir moaned, and krill turned to look as the man pushed himself to his hands and knees and then lifted his head. 

***

“Deus”

Commander Vir sat on the floor of the shuttle in astonishment.

“I….. its… you.”

The dragon dipped it’s head just slightly curling through the air like a massive ribbon spun through the air.

“What are you doing here.” HE asked taking to his feet and walking over to the viewing window.”

The dragon did not answer, but spun in a tight circle.

“Well…. I. I don't know how you got here, but look, we are running out of air and desperately need to get back home. I would owe you forever if you helped us.”

Adam couldn’t hear anything of course, and even the inside of his head was quiet, but, somehow, he got the sense that the creature was laughing. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but he definitely hoped that it was laughing with him and not at him.

“You will need to hold on.” 

IT was the last thing the dragon said before racing out with the end of it’s tail, wrapping tightly around the ship, and then spinning in a tight circle.

Krill and Adam ended up plastered together against the far wall with the sudden acceleration.

And then came a bright flash of light, and they were gone.

***

They had been found out.

Of course, Sunny had expected as much. She didn’t imagine that a bunch of brightly colored butterfly burg, imprisoned for 400 years would go unnoticed by the rest of the hive, but there it was.

They knew that something was going on, and had begun pulling back towards the throne room to protect the queen. Luckily for her and her people, the shock troopers had managed to surround most of the large pockets of Burg fighters and were holding them off OF course, that did not stop everyone from making it back, and Sunny and the others were forced to dewal with an increased flux of burg as they retreated back down the tunnels.

She tried her best not to kill too many of them, but there was really no other choice when they got in her way.

On any other day she would have been happy to run them all through with great prejudice, but she was keenly aware of the burg king lurking at the back of their group, and didn’t want to ruin diplomatic relations before they even started.

Hijan was somewhere on the other side of the throne room, with the egg, waiting for her cue.

Sunny and the others were almost there, and ready for whatever was to come.

Behind her, Cannon Ramirez and Thomas covered the burg king, Thomas having all the luck of his brother and being covered in a thick layer of blue icor from the Burg he had helped to Kill. 

THe man wasn’t as good as the marines, but he had enthusiasm.

She still couldn’t stand how much he looked like Adam, and his death brought bitter emotions rising into her throat.

She choked them back down spinning her spear behind her back as she crouched on the floor, one knee planted and waiting.

They were there for a good half hour before she gave the signal, and the group of them began to move forward.

The doors to the throne room were well protected, but, sending Ramirez around to one side as a second distraction, she watched as they were drawn away by his yelling voice and the gunfire. He would be fine seeing that the king had given them inside information on the layout of the palace, not that she would call this place much of a palace (more like a cesspool) but to each their own.

But together, the remaining group of them hurried forward towards the open door, cracking it open with only a slight rumble, and sneaking into the shadows behind a tall line of stalagmites rising from the floor in front of them.

Cannon and Thomas stacked up behind her as she pressed herself against the wall.

Looking around the room, sunny made a face of absolute disgust.

She could see, by way of delicate beams of light trickling form vents high above, and in that way she could see the throne room, covered in slimy moss, gelatinous ooze of a creamy white substance.

Some of it, held what she could only assume to be eggs, though that confused her considering the burg king told her the egg room was down the hall in the other direction.

“What has she done.” The king whispered in disgust.

Sunny was glad to hear it because she wasn’t entirely sure what she would have to think of him if this was the normal state of things.

It wasn’t just the slime and the thin beams of wan yellow light, but the floor was covered in refuse, mostly molted skin in great slippery sheats, and discarded food. From the edges of the room, the floor roze up into a sort of high hillock where the queen sat now.

Adam came unbidden to her mind again as she thought about what he might say of the sight.

Either: Jabba the Hutt called, he wants his body back, or something along those lines.

“Jeez.” Thomas whispered form her left, “Jabba the HUtt called, and he wants his girlfriend back.”

Sunny glowered down at him, and he went silent. Only Adam was allowed to make horrible star wars references.

Granted she had no doubt that Thomas had been forced into watching them with his little brother, but still it was Adam’s thing, no one else cared enough for it to count.

“What is happening.” THe queen demanded, and Sunny cringed again at the gelatinous way her voice spilled from her open mouth.

She only hoped the king was right when he said that the queen wasn’t supposed to look like that because if he was lying than they had the ugliest empress on the face of the universe. And just below her, there stood ranks of the royal guard. The biggest baddest, ugliest burg to go right along with her, with their massive mandibles and thick trunk-like legs.

“In position.” She whispered over her line 

And Hijan came back with a slow on and off of her mic, so she wouldn’t have to speak.

Sunny motioned the others off, and together they spread out in a wide circle keeping to the shadow and slowly surrounding the room.

That was Sunny’s cue.

With a deep breath, she stepped out into the light of the cave, hoping that everyone else was in position.

As soon as she appeared there was a sharp hiss as the burg drew up. The queen gurgled, “What are you doing here!” She demanded 

Sunny watched all the eyes turn to her, and planned on keeping them there as long as she could, “I am here to offer you terms of surrender. Either you step down peacefully as queen of the burg, or we remove you.” She lifted her spear, “The hard way.”

The queen gurgled some more, “You will not threaten me! Not when you are alone, and my guards still stand.”

There was a sharp hiss as the burg drew forward their weapons held ready.

“I am warning you now.” Sunny said, “One last time. You cannot win this fight. Better to live than to die in your own juices.”

That only made the queen more angry and she screeched, “Kill her!”

Sunny dove to the side just as sever projectiles of light energy shot through the spot where she had been.

The burg guards charged her, but not all of them made it more than a few steps before they were taken from behind.

Cannon appeared from the darkness spearing one through the back and caving in the skull of another with a brutal backhand to the face.

Hijan’s soldiers did the same, appearing out of the darkness and taking the distracted burg by storm.

Sunny continued rolling until she was behind a rock, and then unpredictably came out from above slamming into two of the guards with her spear. They hit the ground and she dispatched one before rolling away.

Someone screamed from the other side of the room, and she turned to watch as Thomas charged down from the top of the cave and straight towards the Burg, he shot one in the face before slipping on the slime and ending up on his back. A burg tried crawling over him, its weapon raised, but then thomas spat straight into its open mouth.

The reaction was immediate and grotesque as it fell to the ground clutching at its face.

Thomas stood, and with a huge grin, he ran around the room chasing after burg, and if he wasn’t shooting at them, he had turned himself into a spitting cobra.

Hijan appeared from behind a rock, the new egg cradled in one of her lower arms like a football.

Sunny ran a burg through with her spear.

Atop her pedestal the queen was screaming for her guards.

They tried to get close, but the burg were fighting ferociously, and more of them seemed to be appearing by the second, spilling from holes in the ground and up onto the surface.

Sunny yelled orders from where she stood.

They weren’t getting any closer.

Hijan was overrun for a moment but managed to break out, holding the egg up and away from grasping hands.

“Over here!” Someone shouted, and Hijan turned her head to find Ramirez not too far away, his hands raised.

She lobbed the egg underhand without a second thought, and Ramirez dived forward to catch it hitting the stone hard and then rolling behind a rock with the egg tucked to his chest.

The burg chased after him, but Hijan took out a few of their number.

Sunny hissed in pain as a blade cut her along the upper right arm, spinning her spear back and thrusting it forward into the chest of her attacker.

They were being pushed back towards the doors as more and more of them filtered up from the ground. Thomas stood on a rock and was spitting down onto the crowd indiscriminately as he had no need to aim.

Sunny snarled in frustration, still they were losing.

And then there came a plaintive cry of pain. It wasn’t very loud, but it made the room turn and look up to where the queen sat covered in blue as her own lifeblood trickled down her front, and over her stood the burg King, his magnificent kaleidoscope wings glittering like stained glass in a single shaft of sun. In one hand he held a sharpened blade, and as they watched he drew it even more forcibly across the queen’s throat.

Or at least the part below her face.

She flailed for a moment and then wriggled and then flopped wetly to the ground at his feet.

The room was silent.

And then an uproar.

“QUICK, THE EGG.” He bellowed. Ramirez had rolled out from behind a rock and raised his hand trying to figure out where to place it, a sea of burg between him and the burg king.

***

The orbital ring of the Burg home planet was awash with chaos. Debris was littered everywhere and it was taking all the maneuvering skill of the pilots not to destroy their ships on a ton of stell rocketing around the planet at thousands of miles an hour.

The burg fleet and the combined GA fleet were locked in combat. The GA fleet bigger and more powerful, the burg smaller but more nimble.

One of the Celzex light cruisers had been separated from the main body of the GA fleet and was being harried from all sides by diveboming burg ships. Their weapons were to slow to manuver and fire at the burg. And each beam took minutes to charge.

Outside their shields were being slowly worn down, the once glowing blue energy a patchwork of holes and tears frayed and fuzzy at the edges where the energy was attempting to seal them back up.

But it was no use.

The ship rocked as an incoming burg attack hit them broadside.

“Left deck compromised.”

The Celzex leader cursed.

They weren’t gong to win this one, and he knew it. Their weapons were, ironically, too powerful to be used on such small opponents.

The ship rocked again and another deck decompressed, leaving more and more of the Celzex to die a painful death.

It was almost over now.

And then all blackness was lit by a bright beam of white light. The rocking in theis ship stopped suddenly as everyone within visible radius was blinded.

When the fleet looked up, and the light abated, they stopped in awe as the massive space dragon uncurled itself from it’s tight ring.

WIth one sharp flick, its tial lashed out sending a projectile roring onto the battlefield.

The Celzex stopped in awe as the alien ship roared from the darkness and (using powerful unknown energy weapons) Sliced straight through one of the burg cruisers. IT made a tight turn flying with the skill and dexterity of a complete madman as it made quick work of the remaining burg which surrounded the Celzex ship.

The great dragon flicked it’s tial once again.

There was a flash of light, and one of the burg ships went spinning off into blackness, shedding metal and material in all directions.

The alien ship cut around dodging through the debris, and though it was smaller than any ship there, it made quick work of what was left.

Behind it, the great beast spread its wings wide as the shuttle hurtled towards the surface of the planet.

***

The Egg left Ramirez's hand spinning up into the air in a great slow arc. But at the last moment his foot slipped on a slime pile and the tips of his fingers brushed over the surface, minutely changing the course of the ball to go spinning high and away from its intended target.

Sunny watched in despair and shock, but then, the roaring of an engine, and a burst of light, maverick came plowing through one of the holes in the ceiling with her jetpack, grabbing the egg from the air and spinning in a tight circle to deposit it in the hands of the burg ing who was slowly being advanced on by the burg royal guard

As soon as the egg came in contact with his hands, he raised it high over his head, and with a sharp crack, broke the outer shell.

Two halves of the egg fall to the ground, and he was left holding a small wriggling maggot with large dark eyes.

“Behold, your new queen!” The room grew very still and ver silent for a moment. For a second, Sunny thought that they had failed and the burg were going to pick up where they had left off, but suddenly a burg in the first row lowered to her knees bowing her head, and slowly, with her demonstration, came the others, dropping to the ground and bowing their heads.

“And as caretaker of our new queen, it is my duty to stand in for her until she is old enough to speak for herself, and with that I order you to call off the attack.”

There was a pause among the ranks before one of them lifted her head, “We cannot.”

“And why is that.” “We are the queens guard and loyal to her in all forms, but the others are loyal to the ideals she place upon them.”

“Then you will help us in our fight. If you cannot convince them then they must be destroyed.”

They bowed again and took to their feet.

Their leader began to give orders, and Sunny was surprised to find herself in the center of a tide of burg as they spill their way out through the cavern.

Those who did not surrender were destroyed as the Burg kin had promised.

Those who did not wish to fight the army spilling out around them fled outward from the caves and onto the open battlefield of grass and stone.

Sunny came with them her spear flashing in the light overhead as she cut through those who would not yield.

Their numbers were dwindling.

Shock troopers spilled in from all directions to help.

Sunny ran her spear through the chest of one of the burg and turned searching for another target.

A radio went off to her side.

“Shock 1, come in! Do you copy!”

The human shock trooper lifted his hand and keyed the radio, “Yeah go ahead.”

“We have an alien ship inbound to your position. Sir there is a dragon and a-”

“Slow down what is this about a dragon.”

Just then a dark spot appeared up above in the sky with little trails of exhaust streaming out beom behind it.

The last burg were falling on the field before them.

Sunny finished off one last body, letting it fall to the ground at her feet.

There was one more shape now, a black dot on the horizon retreating into the distance.

Sunny drew back hr spear.

And that is when the shape plunged from the sky and slammed right into the retreating burg.

ITs body vanished and a spray of blue engulfed the front of the alien ship, which now covered the moldering body underneath.

The battleground went silent.

There was a sharp hiss and a billow of smoke as the door popped open.

A silhouette stepped down onto the dirt.

“Is it just me, or do I have perfect timing.”

Sunny’s spear clattered from her hands onto the stone. The smoke billowed away, and a figure came stumbling from the smoke coughing and waving a hand.

“Damnit, i think I might have pushed her a little too hard.” Said Commander Adam Vir

“I’m gonna fucking kill him.” 

***

The stone was nice and warm beneath his feet, great mountains of stone and grass rising up on either side of him. He took  breath of deep fresh air as Krill stumbled out behind him looking as sick as a Vrul could look.

A soft breeze tugged at his bare chest and arms.

Before him, an entier army stood in shock and awe.

He scanned over the crowd falling on familiar faces as he went. He was surprised at some of them. Hijan and the Sentinel, Ramirez, Maverick, Cannon. 

His eyes passed down the line meeting finally with familiar orbs of gold. They stood there for a second, staring at each other from across the smoking field of corpses, and then a shout. HE turned his head just in time to be plowed into by another figure, dirty and covered in blue sludge.

“ADAM!” “Thomas!” he could hardly believe his eyes, as his older brother squeezed him tight and picked him up off the ground in his enthusiasm, arms pinned to his side.

The two of them spun in a circle as Thomas laughed and pitched into the grass.

“You’re alive! I can’t believe it! You’re alive!”

IT was his cue that broke the silence, and an uproar followed them as other feet pounded across the open plane. He was hauled to his feet by Ramirez and crushed in a hug so tight it may well have broken his spine.

Maverick punched him in the arm so hard it should have left a bruise, and Hijan and the other Drev chanted and raised their spears for him.

But his eyes still searched for another figure, one he found lurking at the back of the crowd

She stood there spear in hand held held high.

Silent.

He managed to slip out of someone’s arms and  duck over to where she was, slipping out of the crowd unnoticed while they tried to figure out where he was.

HE stopped before her suddenly not sure of what to say.

She looked at him.

And he stared back.

“It’s good to see you.” he finally said lamely.

She was quiet for a moment, her golden eyes boring into his face. She raised hr spear, and for a moment he thought she was going to run him through, but the blade stopped inches from his neck, “If you ever do that to me again, I WILL kill you.”

He raised his hands going cross eyed as he stared down at the spearhead, “Sunny, if it means saving your life, I would do it again.” The speartip winked in the light between them.

And then he smiled, pushed it aside and moved forward quickly.

She seemed surprised as he quickly and discreetly stretched up on his toes and pulled her closer.

Their foreheads touched for a second before he drew back hand still on her shoulder, “Though, this does mean I at least owe you dinner.”

She snorted, “Oh you owe me a lot more than that.”

“Maybe I do.”