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walkerwords · 4 years ago

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“The Savior Sessions” Part 31 of 33 - Negan x GN!Reader

IMAGE CREDIT: AMC

SERIES MASTERLIST

Summary: Negan seals a deal, Daryl asks questions, Carol provides the answers and forgiveness is asked of the reader.

Word Count: 6506

Warning: Swearing, Violence, Blood

Song I Wrote To: “A Little Forgiveness” by The Rescues

Note: Quick little thing: As I am not continuing this past “Certain Doom” a lot of the Eugene/Princess stuff isn’t really a thing in this series. Also, with Michonne not on some quest to find her hubby, it is a bit different. With only two parts left, I want to start wrapping up a few things. The next part is going to be very much focused on conversation and then the big showdown in the finale! ALL OFFICIAL DIALOG IS PROPERTY OF AMC AND SKYBOUND

-----------

J.D. Salinger once said, “And I can't be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.”

Salinger had the right idea, you thought as you lay in the middle of your floor, staring at the ceiling.

You and the rest of the group had arrived back in Alexandria early in the afternoon and you had immediately shut yourself away in your house.

There was more work to be done. There were bodies to be buried and you knew you should have been helping with the preparations, but all you could do was lay there and stare at the damn marble.

When you had returned to the group after confronting Negan, nobody spoke to you and you refused to speak to them. Not even Lydia could get you to talk, and while you knew you were being cold, you didn’t know what to tell them.

There was a part of you that felt such rage for the man that had faced you in that old shed. Nothing about the way he looked told you that he was your Negan. There were too many shades of his old self and it was terrifying, but not because you were scared of him, but because you were scared for him.

Negan had worked so hard to not be the man that had stepped out of that RV nearly a decade ago only to end up back behind enemy lines. When Daryl had told you that Negan was with her, you didn’t want to believe it, you couldn’t, but there was that small voice in the back of your head that was telling you that perhaps you had known for a while.

You had searched for weeks and never even found a trace of him. Thinking about that night when the leaders of Alexandria were debating on what to do with him, you never blamed him for needing an out. Now, you just only wondered why he thought Alpha was his only choice.

“What am I missing?” you asked to the empty room as you rolled the marble between your fingers. You began to think back to everything that had happened since that night and one moment stuck out.

The day that you and Enid had been hunting Walkers together.

You were almost positive that someone had been watching you. It was the day Beta had attacked you in Alexandria. You had thought that it was a Whisperer scout, but what if it had been Negan? Now it was only a matter of why he was doing it. Negan wasn’t one to take orders, but if Alpha had asked him to watch you, would he have?

You didn’t know what the nature of their relationship was. Hell, you didn’t even know if she even tolerated him. However, considering he was still breathing in her presence, you figured it was one that held at least mutual respect.

Then there was the baseball bat.

You had no idea where he had even found another one. Just by looking at his new weapon you knew it wasn’t the original. Lucille 2.0 was a different bat, but to you, it still meant the same thing. You had accepted that she would always have a hold on him, but seeing him hold the thing that he connected his wife to hurt more than you had ever imagined.

“There’s a reason,” you whispered. “You were right, there is a reason. He wouldn’t have given you the damn marble if there wasn’t.” Pausing, you sat up and frowned. “And now I’m talking to myself...again.”

Groaning, you squeezed your eyes shut as you tried to stop your thoughts from racing. It was as if there was an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Except they were both Negan and one wore a Whisperer mask and the other didn’t. You wanted to reach out and talk to your family about it, but you had no idea where to begin.

For all you knew, Negan had just given you the marble as a diversion. He could just be playing with you. However, as you began to think back on the conversation you had had with him, something felt off and it was only after a few seconds that you realized what it was. He had never directly answered any of your questions. This also could have been a diversion, but you knew him better than that.

“He was trying not to lie to me,” you realized. Jumping to your feet, you ran from your room. “Lydia!” you called, searching for her, but there wasn’t an answer. “Lydia!” you tried again but were still met with silence. Opening your front door, you scanned for her.

“(Y/N)?” Rosita asked as she noticed you.

“You seen Lydia?” you asked.

“Daryl didn’t tell you?” Rosita said.

“Tell me what?” you asked.

“Lydia’s gone,” Rosita said. “She went looking for Negan after Daryl told her that he was with her mother.”

“She went alone?” you asked, suddenly very worried.

“She’s been out there alone before, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that I think Negan is planning something,” you said. “Something big.” Rosita furrowed her brow and then gestured into her house.

“Tell me everything.”

————-

Negan could feel his heart racing as he walked with Alpha through the trees.

That morning, he had been nervous, but determined. The day before, he had begun to think that there would be another way to do what Carol had tasked him with. Negan thought that perhaps he could kill Beta as well or even both of them at once.

He thought about doing a lot of things. Until you had ambushed him and he heard how hurt you had sounded. Now, he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to kill her and he had to do it now.

His final plan was in motion and it helped to know that Alpha was feeling rather victorious after the battle at Hilltop. Her guard was done and after he had helped block the survivors from leaving Hilltop, she trusted him. There was a part of him that was dreading what he was about to do.

No matter who it was, killing someone always had consequences. Alpha was the biggest gun he had gone up against. Rick had been difficult, but that man had had a soul. Negan wasn’t even sure if Alpha knew how to be human, let alone a decent one.

Then there was the moment he had had with her earlier in the day when she had asked about her daughter.

There was a moment when she had seen almost genuinely concerned about Lydia and whether or not she was alive after the fight. Negan had no idea what happened to Lydia. However, considering you hadn’t told him that she was dead and you didn’t seem to be acting as if you had lost a child, Negan figured she was okay.

When Alpha had begun asking questions about her, it was then that Negan finally realized how he would take out the Queen of the Whisperers and he was going to hate to do it.

Walking alongside a silent Alpha, Negan thought back to an hour before when he had gone in search of his final piece.

Earlier in the day…

Negan moved through the trees after finally losing his tails. He knew that Beta was having people watch him, but he didn’t care. Beta was dealing with his own problems as well. Negan had learned that the giant man had killed Gamma during the battle after she had stopped him from killing the one with the sword.

Negan had left camp after hearing that Beta had once again tried to kill you. He needed some air and he needed to find Lydia. Negan didn’t want to move too close to Alexandria, but he had to be close enough to intercept the young woman.

He also knew that Daryl would have figured out that he had been the one to set up the roadblocks and so he had to be smart. He didn’t doubt that Daryl would shoot him if he got the chance no matter how he felt about you.

Which is why he needed to get to Lydia. Negan stayed in the shadows of the road that led to the community. He had learned enough about Lydia’s former family to know how to get her attention. He also knew that she wouldn’t stay behind the walls long and that she would get restless.

And so, he waited.

Negan was getting restless as he waited, but at the time, he didn’t have any other options. He was ready to give up and go back to the pack when the gates slid open and Lydia slipped through the fence. Her staff was in her hand as she took a deep breath and then turned to say something to someone behind the gate. Negan figured it was either Scott or Eugene.

Lydia began to wander away from Alexandria and that’s when Negan began to track her.

He would never forget the way her expression changed from hope to betrayal as she saw him walking towards her only to see the mask in his hands.

It was only an hour later when Negan approached the Alpha.

“Alpha,�� he said, “that thing you’ve been looking for…” Alpha turned to him with curious eyes. “I found it.”

A smile crept across the woman’s face and for a moment, she looked genuinely happy at the prospect of finding her daughter.

“Lydia.”

---------

“It is beautiful,” Alpha said as she stared at a Walker stumbling through the trees. Negan watched it with disdain. “Pure.”

“All I see is a bag of bones and some gnarly-ass teeth,” Negan scoffed.

“You will see. Maybe soon. And I will meet you there,” Alpha promised, looking up at him with eyes full of unrequited compassion. Negan turned away as he adjusted the strap on his back that held his bat.

“You know, I ain't exactly ready to meet my Maker, if that's what you're saying,” Negan said. “Hell, I’ve survived this long and I don’t plan on making any appointments with the man downstairs.”

“You proved yourself again by finding her,” Alpha went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “And like the young lion cub who must leave his pride, it is time to roam the Earth. Build a new pride.”

“Do you want me out there, preaching your gospel?” Negan asked. “Cause I’m gonna be honest with you, people stopped listening to me a long time ago.”

“I want you to become a lion,” she said. Negan paused, trying to understand what she was saying. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“You know,” he began, “I may not be hip on the whole Greek alphabet, but Beta is no Alpha. And if we're going stick with the whole lion thing... then isn't it the young lioness who takes her mother's place?” Alpha looked up at him and he could see the shift in her attitude at the mention of her daughter and that was when he finally understood. Lydia was not her strength, she was her weakness and Alpha could not bear to be weak.

“Walk,” she ordered.

As they moved together, Negan began to think about Lucille of all things. After you had brought her up the day before, he couldn’t keep her out of his mind.

“A long time ago before meat-lovers like him started showing up,” Negan said, gesturing to the Walker not far from them, “I, uh... I lost somebody that was close to me. Pancreatic cancer. If the disease wasn't eating her up from the inside, then the chemo was kicking the ever-loving shit out of her. And yet... I don't know. Maybe, uh... Maybe the cancer just put things in perspective. She was, uh... She was never more beautiful.” Negan paused, letting the memory of her wash over him. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about his wife in this way for a long time. It was as if he was finally ready to let her go.

“Be grateful,” Alpha said. “Death... set her free.”

“The thing is,” Negan said as he kicked out at an old root, “when she was gone, I didn't feel much of anything anymore. You know? I didn't feel scared, I didn't feel happy. I didn't feel anything. I was just... here. And that is my strength. However, someone else has taught me that that strength isn’t the only thing that has kept me alive. They taught me that we need people.”

“I thought you didn’t have people,” Alpha said.

“Everyone’s got people,” Negan argued. “Even if you hate each other, they’re still there. Still waiting. See, you are pretending. You think that it makes you strong to say that emotions aren't real, that we are animals. That is bullshit. And you know it.”

“Is it?” she asked as they approached an old cabin between two tall trees. Alpha started at it as if it held all the answers in the world.

“You’re claimin’ that you have to kill your own daughter,” he said. “Right? That’s what you’re plannin’ to do here? She’s your own flesh and blood.”

“It is her destiny,” Alpha argued. “That disease... took your wife... because that was what nature intended. She could not take you with her. But you live every day wishing she could.” Negan shook his head.

“No, not anymore,” he said, his jaw rigid. “I may have felt that at one point, but I’ve seen what a real future looks like and I ain’t about to throw that away.”

“Lydia was made for this. To be free. With me,” she said.

“You still love her,” Negan said.

“I have to do it because I love her. She will always be my baby,” Alpha said as she approached the door to the cabin, laying her hand against the door.

“You don’t know anything about her,” Negan said as he drew his blade from his belt. “She is kind, strong, resilient, and she is loved by people.” Alpha pushed open the door and beheld an empty room, stopping her in her tracks. “People that I love as well,” Negan said as Alpha turned to him in confusion, but he didn’t hesitate.

With a quick strike of his arm, Negan slashed Alpha’s throat with his knife. Alpha stared at him with wide eyes as blood sprayed and cascaded down her neck. As she lurched forward, Negan caught her, taking her down to the ground. Her eyes were boring into his, but he could feel no remorse towards the dying woman.

“I really thought that there was a chance for you,” he said, but then he was shaking his head. “But then you tried to kill the kid that is like a daughter to me. I love Lydia, and I will protect her with everything I have left. You took people from me, won the battles, but now you don’t get to win the war.” Leaning down, he put his lips next to her ear. “Thank you, for making me realize that I don’t have to be a monster.”

Negan leaned back as Alpha finally went still and the blood slowly trickled from her neck and mouth. Picking up his knife, Negan aimed it at her throat and finally finished what he had started.

----------

In the silence at the border, Negan dropped a burlap sack on the ground as Alpha’s head rolled out and landed at a pair of worn boots.

“Took you long enough,” Carol said as she met his eyes. “What took you so damn long?”

“What took me so long? Doing your dirty work?” Negan scoffed. “Oh, I don't know, Carol, I guess I wanted to get out of there with my head still attached. Shit like that takes time and I’ve been in a bit of a mood lately if you couldn’t tell.”

“I told you to do it fast,” she said.

“It's done. All right? I held up my end. Now I am asking you to hold up yours. Just walk me through those gates so I can open up a new chapter in the Book of Negan and get the love of my life back. In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re pretty fucking pissed at me.” All Negan wanted was for Carol to do as she said, make the people of Alexandria look at him, not as the man who ruined them, but the one who saved them. However, it seemed like Carol had other plans.

“I'm not going back. Not yet,” she said. Negan who was glaring at her clenched his fists.

“I go back there without you, there is a noose around my neck the second I step foot in there,” he argued.

“Then wait,” Carol said as she picked up Alpha’s head and approached the pike she had set up in preparation.

“Wait? How long are we talking about?” Negan asked as Carol placed Alpha’s head on the pike and took a step back, admiring Negan’s work.

“You're free now, Negan. Do whatever the hell you want,” she said. “Wait, don't wait, it's up to you. You did good on what I asked of you.”

“I did this for (Y/N),” he said, “not you.”

“They want Beta’s head, not Alpha’s,” Carol said. “Go home to them, Negan, I need to be alone.”

“Carol!” Negan yelled, but she just turned away from him.

“Shit like this takes time,” she said as she continued on her, leaving Alpha behind and stepping into the next chapter of her own story.

“Fuck.”

----------

Negan was pissed at everyone.

He was pissed at Alpha, he was pissed at Carol, and he was even more pissed at himself. “I’m a fucking idiot,” he said as he kept moving towards the place he had actually kept Lydia. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do and he wouldn’t be surprised if she hated him or slapped him as you had. He just hoped that she would listen to him and even forgive him for what he had to do.

What Carol had asked him to do.

Yet, it seemed that that deal was useless at the current moment. Carol hadn’t kept her end of the bargain and now Negan was the one running around with his head cut off. Alpha’s mask burned a hole in his pocket and all he wanted to do was scream.

Instead, he approached the old hunters’ cabin and braced himself for a teenager’s wrath.

“Hey, kiddo,” Negan said as he moved up onto the porch. “Sorry about‒” Negan froze as he opened the door to find an empty chair. “Shit,” he swore when all of a sudden, he was thrown into a wall and a crossbow was pointed at his face.

“Where's Alpha!” Daryl yelled as he levelled his weapon at Negan. Carefully, Negan raised his hands, his bat pressing into his spine.

“Look, whatever Lydia told you..,” he tried, but Daryl wasn’t listening.

“Where is she!”

“She is dead. She is dead. I killed her,” Negan said, trying not to think about the bolt that could enter his brain at any moment.

“You’re lying,” Daryl said.

“I am not lying. I have somethin' in my pocket,” Negan said. “It's not a weapon. I am slowly gonna reach for it.” Daryl waited as Negan pulled Alpha’s mask from his jacket and held it out. Daryl grabbed it with disgust.

“Her mask ain't her head,” Daryl growled.

“Oh, I know. I am getting to that,” Negan said.

“Well, then, get to it,” Daryl said. Negan gestured down to the weapon and Daryl jerked it away from his face, but didn’t put it completely down. Negan went on.

“The whole reason I threw in with them, was so I could get close enough to Alpha to slit her throat. Now, you talk about ‘silencing the Whisperers’, I silenced the Alpha,” Negan said and then leaned towards Daryl. “Why the hell else you think that your girlfriend let me outta that cell?”

“That don’t mean shit,” Daryl said. “Ya didn’t do this out of the kindness of yer heart.”

“Nah,” Negan said. “I did it for (Y/N). I never stopped loving them.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Daryl said.

“I never planned to leave them. I would rather die than hurt them,” Negan tried again.

“Good,” Daryl scoffed.

“Dammit, Daryl!” Negan said. “Can’t you see what’s goin’ on? You’re so goddamn blinded by your hatred for me that you don’t get what I just did! Alpha is dead and now her psycho personal trainer is gonna be comin’ for me!”

“Show me,” Daryl said. “Show me her body.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Negan said. “Come on.”

-------

Negan was getting real tired of the universe screwing with him.

“Are you fucking serious?” Negan said as he stared up at the empty pike.

“So, where is it?” Daryl asked, aiming his bow at Negan’s back.

“It was right here. I swear to God, it was on that spike,” Negan said, looking back at Daryl. “Jesus,” he swore as he realized the weapon was trained on him again. “Look, we sit here, we can wait for Carol. Or I can take you to find the body.” Daryl raised the bow higher. “Oh, come on, man. We're talking about Lydia here. Why would I stash her out in banjo country unless the whole point was to keep her safe? Unless the whole freakin' point was just to use her as bait so I could get Alpha alone? That’s a pretty far stretch, don’t you think?”

“You sure took your sweet-ass time, though, didn't you?” Daryl asked and Negan threw his hands up in exasperation.

“What is with you guys thinking I didn't do it fast enough? You didn't kill her. I did. It took a minute. I had to get her to trust me. Because I wasn't on some half-cocked suicide mission. I wasn’t exactly wishing to get my head cracked open by Beta or my brains eaten by Alpha’s ‘guardians’. I had a plan!”

“What do you want me to do, huh?” Daryl asked.

“Take me to (Y/N),” Negan pleaded. “I think that they may have figured it by now.”

“Figured out what?” Daryl sneered.

“That I’m not bullshitting you,” Negan argued. “And we gotta do it now before her pack comes lookin’.”

“For you?”

“No, for all of us.”

---------

“I don’t know…” Rosita said as you stood in front of her. “Seems… crazy, even for him.”

“He is crazy!” you said, trying to get her to understand. You had finally finished explaining your theory you had about Negan and the Whisperers. There were a lot of holes in that theory, but overall there was one central idea. “Negan’s playing double agent.”

“And you got all of that...from a marble?” Rosita asked, still not buying it.

“It makes more sense if you know more about the marble, but I don’t have the time to get into all of it.”

“What do you think about all of this?” Rosita asked, turning to Michonne who had come in mid-explanation.

“I agree with, (Y/N),” Michonne said. “Negan is crazy.”

“Not the point, Michonne,” you argued.

“Just listen,” she said. “If this was some sort of crazy plan of his, why didn’t he tell us?”

“Who would have believed him?” you asked.

“You?”

“I’m not enough,” you said. “I don’t know what the plan was or if he just wanted to take control of the Whisperers, maybe turn the tide, but I don’t think he is with them because he believes in all their bullshit. Negan is a lot of things, but that? No way.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Michonne asked.

“I can’t be,” you said.

“But what if you are?” Michonne pressed and you could see the growing concern in her eyes.

“Then, everything over the past year has been for nothing and I never knew him at all,” you said, dreading that outcome. If Negan wasn’t on your side and he had actually willingly gone to Alpha… You didn’t think you would be able to handle it. When Rosita went to add her two cents, the door to her house opened and Lydia rushed in.” Where the hell have you been?” you asked.

“With Negan,” Lydia said. “Sort of.” You, Rosita, and Michonne all shared a look.

“Explain,” Michonne said.

“No time,” Lydia said. “He’s here. Negan is here.”

“What?” you asked, unable to comprehend what she was saying.

“Daryl just walked in with him. He’s heading this way.”

“Daryl’s with him?” Michonne asked, but you didn’t hear Lydia’s response as you turned and walked from the house. The sun was starting to set over the trees as your eyes scanned for his tall form. When you finally saw him walking down the road, speaking to Daryl, you picked up your pace, aiming right for him.

Daryl saw you first and took a step towards you. “(Y/N), wait,” he said, but you didn’t listen as you walked right up to Negan, pulled back your fist, and let it snap forward, catching him in the jaw. Surprised, Negan dropped from the sudden hit.

“Shit!” Negan swore from the ground. “What the hell!” he asked, staring up at you.

“You know what that was for!” you said, pointing at him.

“I have a lot to explain,” Negan said, getting to his feet.

“Yeah, no shit,” you said and then you turned to Daryl. “You, too.”

“Call a council meeting, (Y/N)” Daryl ordered. “This is far from over.”

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

Laura’s empty council seat felt as if a black hole had appeared in the room.

Nobody sat in it as Gabriel called the meeting to order. Everyone was glaring at Negan who stood at the side, his arms and ankles crossed. You were across from him, staring him down and trying not to unleash the fury you were feeling. You still believed that he had been playing the other side, but seeing him again after your last encounter only reminded you of the rage you had felt then.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Gabriel said.

“Maybe with a bullet to his brain,” Aaron offered, staring at Negan who in turn, just narrowed his eyes at him.

“Considering Alpha wanted your head on a stick, Aaron, you should be a bit more grateful,” Negan shot back.

“Enough,” Michonne said. “Daryl, you better start talking before anyone else starts throwing punches.” You rolled your eyes at that but remained quiet.

“Negan claims that Carol let him out,” Daryl began. That made enough sense to you, but then again, you were still pissed that you weren’t let in on the secret. “Alpha killed her son and Carol wanted revenge.”

“So she went to Negan?” Siddiq asked as he held Coco in his arms. Rosita was nearby as well. Even though it was a council meeting, every major player in Alexandria and Hilltop was in attendance. Enid was there too as she stood near Alden.

“I’m assuming she figured not many would go looking for him,” Daryl said.

“Assumed?” Michonne asked. “So you haven’t spoken to her?” Daryl shook his head and then looked at Negan.

“Carol went off on her own after I delivered Alpha’s head to her,” Negan said and then caught the look on Lydia’s face. He didn’t want her there and you didn’t either. Her mother had just been killed and no matter who she was, hearing that was not easy. Lydia seemed to be in shock as she sat on one of the benches in the back, not speaking. Jesus’ coat was around her shoulders to keep her warm, but it didn’t seem to be making much of a difference.

“So we’re going on his testimony alone?” Alden asked.

“This isn’t a fucking murder trial, Alden,” Negan said. “Then again, you were always a true crime fan.”

“I told you that one time,” Alden argued.

“Guess it stuck,” Negan said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“That’s enough,” Gabriel said. “What I’m gathering from Negan’s sudden reappearance, is that Alpha is dead, he killed her, and that was why he left Alexandria the second time.”

“See, it’s not that hard to get,” Negan said.

“Except for the fact that you helped burn down Hilltop,” Enid added.

“I had no idea she was going to do that,” Negan defended. “I tried to convince her to offer some sort of deal to the lot of you. She got it all twisted around and wanted to make you all a part of her horde. You’re just lucky so many of you refuse to die and actually stood up and fought.”

“What were we supposed to do? Lay down like dogs? Kneel at her feet?” Aaron pressed.

“I did,” Negan said. “And I guess it worked.”

“But then what? You had a change of heart?” Rosita asked.

“No,” Negan said. “I was always going to take her out, but I was going to take Beta out first if possible.” You looked up at him at that statement and he was looking right at you with steel resolve in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you?” Gabriel asked.

“She forced my hand. Told me that she was going to kill her kid. I couldn’t let that happen,” he said.

“And suddenly he’s a Saint,” Aaron scoffed.

“I wasn’t going to let her murder a kid, Aaron,” Negan shot back.

“And what about my kid, Negan? We tried to evacuate them before the battle, but you put up your goddamn roadblocks to stop us from leaving!”

“I didn’t know the kids were with you! I thought they were back in Alexandria. How the hell was I supposed to know anything? Carol sent me out there and I never heard from her. I was running around with a single goal but no idea where the hell I was going. You think you know the Whisperers, Aaron? You don’t. You haven’t even seen the worst of what they do or who they are, but I have! Now I’ve done a lot of horrible shit in my life, but what she did, I would never.”

“You can’t tell me that you didn’t like it,” Aaron pressed. Daryl then fell into his seat, trying not to get a migraine from the conversation.

“Liked it?” Negan asked. “Did I like not being locked up in a cell most of the day as I received death glares from every damn person in this place? Yeah, I fucking liked that. I liked that I was out in the world and doing something rather than sitting here waiting for this damn kangaroo council to decide whether or not to finally off me. The fact that any of you are surprised that I did this is astonishing. I thought you were smarter than this.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” you put in.

“You know me better than anyone, (Y/N),” he said. “Tell me, do you think I’m lying?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” you said.

“Don’t bullshit me,” he said, but just as you were about to fire back. The back door to the meeting hall opened and Carol stepped in. She was a bit banged up but she was alive. Nobody spoke as she walked down the aisle. She stopped and looked over at Lydia who slowly looked at her with heavy eyes. Ignoring the teenager, Carol faced the room.

“It’s all true,” Carol said. “I let Negan out to kill Alpha.”

“And you didn’t want to share with the class?” Siddiq said.

“It only worked if you all thought he was against us,” Carol said and then she looked at you. “I’m sorry.” Turning away, you stormed from the meeting hall, not wanting to hear anymore. Negan moved to follow you, but Daryl moved into his path. Negan shoved Daryl back, not caring how pissed the man was at him. He needed to speak to you and he needed to do it before there was no going back.

“(Y/N)!” Negan called as you walked away from him. He ran to catch up with you, grabbing you by the arm. You tore away from him, facing him head-on.

“Don’t,” you warned. He stared down at you, searching your eyes and then, he frowned.

“You didn’t find it,” he whispered.

“I did,” you said and his eyes lit up again.

“Then why are you punching me and screaming?” he asked.

“You lied!” you yelled at him. “You never lie to me and you just...you left when you promised you never would again.”

“I know, Baby,” he said, using a rare pet name. “I know, but this was the only way.”

“Why?” you asked, trying to understand.

“Alpha she is... was complicated,” Negan said.

“She murdered children!” you said.

“Which is why I did what I did!” He said, reaching for you. When you didn’t pull back, he gripped your arms and looked into your eyes. “See me, (Y/N), please see me and see that I am not lying to you now.” As you tried to keep your emotions in check, you failed, letting the tears flow down your face. Reaching up, you placed your hands on either side of his face and looked into his hazel eyes.

It took you a few moments, but finally, you saw it. That spark, that fire that you had fallen in love with. The same fire that everyone else saw before you did. “I see you,” you whispered and Negan sighed, leaning his forehead against yours. “I don’t know how to get through this,” you admitted.

“I know,” he said. “But I am willing to do anything to win that trust back and even your love back if I have to.” Leaning back, you shook your head.

“I never stopped loving you,” you said. “That was never the problem. I am always going to love you, but there is more to a relationship, a partnership, than just love. I mean, you were with her for so long…”

“She meant nothing to me,” he swore.

“Did you…” you hesitated, not wanting to say the words out loud but you had to. “Did you do anything with her?”

“Fuck no,” he said. “I know that she wanted to, but I couldn’t do that to you. Not with her or anyone. You are the only one for me.”

“How do I believe you?” you asked, clutching at his face.

“Believe this,” he said before pulling you to him and kissing you with everything he had left in him. Your mind wanted to resist, but your heart won the battle quickly. You tugged him further into you as you kissed him back, hard. This wasn’t one of your usual kisses, it was firm, desperate, and you were throwing your whole body into it, needing to feel him solid in your arms.

You were crying as you kissed him and you could feel him shaking. HIs hand came up to your neck and then your jaw, keeping you in place as he apologized with love and passion. When you finally pulled away, you breathed in his scent, letting his labored breathing wash over you. “You are my whole universe, (Y/N),” he whispered.

“Constantly reaching towards each other?” you quoted, leaning your weight against him.

“I knew you would figure it out,” he said, rubbing your back. “Leaving you was the hardest thing I have ever done.” Negan brushed the tears from your face as you pulled his lips back to yours in a quick kiss.

“If you ever do this again,” you said against his lips. “I will kill you.”

“And it would be an honor,” he said as he leaned back and looked down at you.

“A part of me knew, I think,” you said. “I spent so long looking for you everywhere except across the border. I think I just didn’t want to think about you with her.”

“But you finally understood?”

“When I got the marble,” you said. “I got the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle.”

“Forgive me, (Y/N),” he pleased.

“I don’t know…” you said, running your hands down his arms. He then stepped back out of your hold and in one fluid movement, knelt down on his knees. “What are you doing?”

“You once kneeled at my feet, begging for me not to hurt you and your family,” he began. “Back then, I was lost, horrible, and not capable of remorse. It took me a long time to see that what I had become was not right. You changed that, (Y/N). So, now, I’m doin’ the same. I’m on my knees, begging for you not to hurt me. I’m begging for your forgiveness.”

“Negan…”

“Please, just listen,” he asked and you nodded. “When you told me about Lee that night in your house during the storm, you told me that you never regretted what you did but that it was still unnecessary. Do you remember that?”

“Yes,” you whispered. You remembered everything from that night. It was the same night that you realized you were falling in love with him.

“I told you that you had to do it because you were protecting the people that you loved. I meant that and I still do. We are all darkened by this world, but the thing that keeps us going is doing the right thing for the people we love and dammit I love you. I didn’t think that after Lucille I was going to love again, let alone someone as kind and as strong-willed as you. You made me want to live again and you made me want to fight for this place and everyone in it. I know that a simple apology ain’t gonna cut it, but until this war is over, it’s all I got. I am so sorry, (Y/N), and I am willing to spend every day making it up to you no matter what you think of me now.”

“It’s going to take me a long time to forgive you for the lies,” you whispered as you then kneeled down in front of him, taking his hands in yours. “But,” you said.

“But?”

“I can try,” you said. “I can try to be the person you described because I love you too much to give up on you. You don’t need to kneel for me, Negan. We don’t have to kneel for anyone anymore.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “This war ain’t over, Teach,” he said and you laughed quickly at the nickname.

“I still have a target out there,” you said.

“Beta, I know,” he said.

“I am going to kill him,” you promised, “but I am going to need you by my side to do it.” Negan reached forward and kissed you softly. Pulling back, that fire was burning brighter in his eyes.

“Where do we start?”

Note: I know some of yall wanted so massive angst, but I really wanted to look at the deeper connection between these too. These two have been through too much to not see how the other thinks. The Tower is next and we will finally see Lydia’s reaction.

TAGS: @lucillethings @cameronsails @stark-dreams @amaroho @thanossexual @yes-sir-hotchner @boom-bunny @delusionalteenagewhispers @scootankle @ritajammer21 @writteriguess @tea-atfive @jennydehavilland @waspyyy @yespleasejayhalstead @hoemadegrace @writingdeadangel @huffledor-able541 @pulplorrd @felicisimor

#the walking dead #twd #imagines #negan imagines #negan x reader #negan x you #negan x y/n #negan x gn reader #savior sessions #walker words #ApolloLoki97 #whisperer war #alpha #beta #season 10 twd

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crimsonrae · 3 years ago

Text

Disintegration

Chapter Two

Summary: He witnessed the worst night of her life, he just never expected for her to become the love of his life.

KlausxCami

Warnings: Mentions of Domestic Abuse.

Rating: Mature

Chapter Two

2009

Amber liquid sat almost tauntingly within its iced tumbler as Camille stared aimlessly at the wall. Low chattering echoed dimly in her ears, but she registered little of the subdued crowd. She felt angry... no, she felt numb. Like a spindly serpent lying in wait for its prey, her anger lurked beneath the surface – its coil hardly tolerable.

Her fingers clenched around her glass, silently reveling in the wet dew that had coalesced on its exterior. It anchored her to the present even as she drifted in her scattered thoughts. Small bursts of Saturday played in her head, stuck like a broken reel. It was both a blur and all too clear. She could still feel the slick feel of Scott's blood on her hands, even as quips of conversation broke her reverie. Hours spent in the county jail had been nothing compared to the cold words from her mother and the stony silence that had followed her back to her dorm.

It had all become too much. She needed to get out.

It had occurred to her there was a certain amount of irony that she had taken refuge inside a bar. Not the one that she had beaten Scott to a pulp in – she was firmly banned from that establishment, but one across town. Away from campus and anyone who knew her. Camille tried not to pay too much mind to the fact that she was employing less than stellar coping mechanisms over the mess she had made of her life, but really, she was already on a roll of bad decisions. Why stop now?

Still...it was amazing how quickly everything had spiraled out of control.

One minute she had been a junior, set to finish her bachelor's degree with honors in the next year – now, with a court date set for next week and a meeting with the Dean's office tomorrow, it looked as if expulsion was on the horizon. And somehow that was at the bottom of her priority list. Felony assault and battery charges hovered over her head like an impending noose, not to mention, two parents infuriated with their daughter and the shame she had brought her family. She hardly cared that Scott was breathing from a tube in a hospital, she did care that Marnie hadn't called her.

Had she lost a friend as well as her academic career? She hadn't foreseen that... though, in truth, she hadn't put much thought into her actions. She had simply reacted and that – that wasn't like her.

"Penny for your thoughts, love."

Camille nearly jolted at the honey grizzled voice that chimed next to her table. She glanced up into a pair of oddly familiar cerulean eyes that shined curiously at her. It took her a moment to place him, and it was only as his lips curled into a self-satisfied smirk that she remembered.

He had been there.

Entertained by the entire debacle.

Now, that's what I call a show.

Her hidden ire rumbled in the face of her spectator. How she had hated his delight. It annoyed her that he had found her now when she wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

Pursing her lips distastefully, she arched a brow, "They're not for sale."

Her irritation was not lost on Klaus, if anything her dismissal amused him, "Come now, that's not true. Anything is for sale; it all depends on the price."'

"Well unless you have a time machine, I don't think you'll be able to afford my thoughts." Camille muttered wearily as she sipped from her glass. She pointedly turned her gaze away, making it silently clear she was done with him.

Yet, Klaus had never been one to let a challenge go untested. He found himself slipping into the chair across from her, much to Camille's exasperation, "Now why would you want a time machine? Please tell me, it's not to go back and stop yourself from beating that pillock from the other night half to death. Such passion should never be undone or regretted."

Camille arched a brow, nonplused by his words, "Not everyone views such acts of violence with the same enjoyment as you did... I don't believe that I invited you to sit. I'm not particularly in the mood for company."

"Yes, you've been quite rude." Klaus intoned almost cheerfully as he signaled for a waiter – now he was making it silently clear that he had no intention to leave, "That's alright, I don't mind a bit of surliness. I've been known to be a rather temperamental creature myself... but let's be honest here, love, while I may have enjoyed your spirited attack, you enjoyed committing it more."

She hated the truth that rang in his words. Stifling a sigh, Cami tossed back the rest of her drink and dropped a few bills on the table. She came here to get away, not to be harassed.

She wasn't granted the chance to stand as his fingers entrapped her wrist, "Let me go."

"Stay." Klaus implored, loosening his grip, but not removing his touch, "I won't speak of your little... incident if you do not wish it. I have several hours to kill, and you are by the far the most interesting person I've run into today. Please, keep me company."

Despite her desire to depart, her curiosity glimmered faintly at his words, "Is that why you seemingly tracked me down? Boredom?"

"Hardly tracked you down, love." Klaus said after placing an order for two more drinks with the waiter. "You're in the pub of my hotel. Merely, came downstairs and saw you."

Camille blinked before she sat back and viewed the bar through new eyes. There was an entranceway toward the back that she now realized led into a lobby. Marble floors and polished banisters gleamed through the glass door. It fairly screamed expensive. It also explained the quietness of a bar... the stillness that had drawn her inside.

Klaus watched her perusal with muted amusement, "You have no idea where you are. Not that you're in a bad neighborhood, mind you, but it is foolish to not have your bearings about you."

Camille silently stifled her unease as again his words rang true. A sense of danger lurked with his presence that she was only beginning to acknowledge, but something kept her survival instincts from fully sounding off.

"I wasn't really..." She trailed off as she realized her words would only reinforce his point about being foolish.

He knew it too.

His head tilted to the side and his eyes softened with an understanding that she swore he shouldn't have. It was similar to the way he had looked at her as she had been carted off by the police... Cami didn't understand why it had seemed to soothe and irritate her then, and she still didn't understand it now.

"Running away, were you?" Klaus intoned sagely, "I know a fair bit about that, but you don't strike me as the type to run from a situation. What demons plague you, aside from the obvious?"

Cami snorted and wondered if this counted as talking about her incident, but found herself replying, "Demons is a bit harsh... and why would I tell you, Nosey Stranger, anything about my demons?"

Klaus grinned and was stalled from answering as their drinks arrived, "Well conversation is easier when at least one party opens up, no? And you can call me Klaus. Niklaus Mikaelson."

"Cami." She returned softly, "Why don't we focus on you, instead? What brings you to my little corner of the word, Klaus?"

"I am not nearly that interesting."

"I somehow doubt that."

"Doubt all you like, but I could say the same of you."

"Could you?" Cami said almost teasingly as a smirk tugged at her lips.

Klaus huffed a low laugh as he conceded, "Well, I could if you told me about yourself."

They were flirting, Cami noted distantly as they exchanged not-quite-shy smiles again. Her head spun – how had this happened? She had been thoroughly annoyed with this man not even ten seconds ago. And while some of that sentiment still lurked, she now could only think about how handsome he looked when he smiled... actually smiled, not smirked.

One thing was for certain, she wasn't feeling quite so numb anymore... and she wasn't sure that was necessarily a good thing. Despite how handsome the man before her was or how charming he was turning out to be, she had the distinct impression that she was a match strike away from playing with fire.

"How about a question for a question?" She proposed almost absently and nearly cursed as soon as the words left her tongue.

Klaus considered her offer with shrewd eyes, "Any question?"

A reluctant sigh left Cami, "Let me guess, you have a question about Saturday night?"

"A few." Klaus acknowledged with a sly quirk to his lips, "But mainly one pressing one."

She shook her head and dragged the untouched drink he had bought her to her side. If they were going to play this game she would need the alcohol, "Fine. Ask."

"What did he do?" Klaus asked quietly as she hesitated, her glance almost suspicious – he explained, "In two minutes of conversation, I've ascertained that you are not a rash person. A bit foolhardy perhaps, but you've been moderately cautious since I've engaged your interest. You also don't strike me as the type to attack someone without reason. So, what was your reason? What did he do?"

There was a long silence as Camille gauged what she wanted to impart. Several glib answers rested on her tongue, non-answers that would dismiss his question and move their conversation on, but the truth burned in her throat. It would be nice to tell someone who didn't know her, who didn't know Scott or Marnie, who wasn't there to judge her actions as just or fair what her motivation had been...

"I have a roommate. We've roomed together the last three years – and she's great. Sweet, shy. I couldn't have picked a better roommate... or friend." Camille started quietly. She ignored the lick of angry flames that sparked in her belly, "She met him a few months ago and they hit it off immediately. I liked him. He was funny and he brought her out of her shell."

A wave of nausea swarmed her simmering fury and she paused as she remembered the carefree way Scott would greet her. The little presents that he would bring for Marnie. Those gifts seemed so more insidious now that she realized those parcels showed up after every incident.

Klaus waited patiently, somehow knowing not to speak as she sought the proper words. Her jade eyes had deepened to a sparking emerald, imbued with dark emotion.

"Then one day she came back to our room. Her shirt was covered in blood, a plaster taped over her nose, and two black eyes. He had hit her. Only once she said. It was an accident she said, but he broke her nose." Camille swallowed and resisted the urge to ball her fist, "She refused to go to the RA or the Dean or any other official and just waved me off. It wouldn't happen again, and I knew that was bullshit. I knew..."

The shiver of rage in her tone struck a chord within Klaus as he watched her. Any hint of his earlier joviality and curiosity had vanished in the face of her anguish. His own anger growled in answer to hers – he had never been one to shy away from violence, but brutish nonsensical abuse had always been and always would be a sore point for him.

"How many times?" The question slipped out before he could stop it.

If Camille had been paying closer attention, she would have noticed the almost eerie calm that had leveled his voice. Instead, she shook her head, "Too many."

Another sip from her glass, "He sent her to the hospital Friday night. Two broken ribs and a concussion. I had been with her all night, and I just couldn't go back to our dorm, so I wandered. I wandered and before I knew it, I was inside the campus bar and there he was... Scamming on a freshman. Both of them laughing at some stupid funny joke he had said, as if it were just another Saturday. As if he hadn't just pulverized his girlfriend and left her to rot in a hospital as if he hadn't been getting away with much of the same for months. I was so incredibly angry and all I wanted was to make him stop."

Warm skin brushed across hers and she glanced down to see he had cradled her hand. She was trembling. It was so faint, but the box that she had been stowing all her wildly out of control emotion into had been pried open with his question.

His fingers curled into her palm like an anchor into the seabed and she smiled bitterly, "Still think you received a good show?"

It took Klaus a second to remember his words from that night, but he didn't scowl.

No.

His smile was tinged with undue pride and awe, "I think you just made it even better. I had initially thought you to be some hellcat. Sent into a jealous rage at capturing your boyfriend cheating. The truth is far more satisfying. You're a protector. If anything, I stand by my earlier sentiment. Do not regret your actions, Camille."

She blinked at hearing her full name cross his lips, most assumed her name was Cameron when she introduced herself as Cami, "My name, how...?"

Klaus smirked, "Camille O'Connell, you are under arrest."

His voice was flat with an American intonation, but what part of America she was unsure as his little gimmick threw her from her despair into a baffled disquiet.

Slowly she cringed, "Okay, one – don't ever do that accent again. Just... no. Two – no one calls me, Camille, unless I'm in trouble. It's a grandma's name."

Klaus bit back a laugh as he pressed with his fake accent again, "What? You mean this voice? I think it's uh, rather convincing."

Camille shivered; it was almost like nails on a chalkboard when he spoke like that, but the tension her little story had engendered dissipated, and she felt a coil within her loosen.

She couldn't stop her snicker as she begged, "Stop, please. It's just not right. It doesn't fit you at all. Smarmy Brit is much more your style."

"Smarmy Brit?" Klause threw back almost indignantly, "You wound me, Camille."

"Somehow I think that's hard to do." She countered sagely, but she couldn't keep a grin from her mien. She appreciated his levity.

Klaus arched a brow, "You'd be surprised. Sometimes it doesn't take much at all to wound me."

"Oh?"

"A beautiful woman maligning my character five minutes after meeting me. Stings a bit, love." He answered indulgently, but there was a mischievous glint in his gaze that belied his words.

Cami giggled quietly, "You don't think you're smarmy?"

"I prefer the word charming." The faux innocent look he flashed her had them both grinning, "And I believe it is your turn to ask a question."

There were several that had erupted in her thoughts as they had spoken, but it was hard to choose just one. Part of Cami was grateful that he had lobbed such a hardball as a first question because it gave her clearance to do the same.

"What are you running away from? You said you had some experience with it earlier." Cami finally asked, figuring it would also answer the question of what he was doing here. Two answers for the price of one.

Like with Cami, Klaus sat in a long silence as he thought over his answer. Now he was the one who wished he had placed restrictions on these questions, but unlike Camille, he had no compunctions about lying. After all, they were still strangers, and he was still debating whether to continue their acquaintanceship after they parted ways. He had half a mind to seduce her, drink her, and dump her... but the more time he spent with her the less he wanted to dump her – at least right away. Camille was proving to be very intriguing indeed.

"Family. I'm running from family." Klaus announced, surprising even himself with the truth, "More specifically my father... though my brother is currently a close second."

Camille frowned, not liking the shine of pain in his eyes before he shifted to something more blank, more superficial. Perhaps her question wasn't the gem she had originally thought it to be.

At her muted concern, Klaus smiled bitterly, "My father has no love for me. Even less after it was discovered I was a product of my mother's infidelity. He's been bent on making my life a misery for as long as I can remember. The more distance I can put between him and myself the better."

"And your brother?" Cami pressed almost reluctantly, at once curious and hesitant about requesting such personal information.

"Has a great love for me actually and I, him. But I've... upset him and he needs some time to calm down." It was the most tactful way that Klaus could think to say Elijah was furious with him for daggering their siblings and supposedly dumping their bodies into the ocean. While the first part was true, the second was not... and he was not prepared for his older brother to discover that fact just yet.

An odd mildly entertained expression crossed Camille's face as she puzzled over his words. More questions surged to the forefront, but with great control, she managed to restrain herself... at least for the moment.

Klaus seemed to sense her desire as he cocked his head to the side and grinned, or she was simply terrible at hiding her thoughts, "You want more details."

Almost embarrassingly, she sipped from her glass as she fought a sheepish smile, "I really do."

"And you called me nosey? Sorry, love, you're just going to have to wait." He taunted lightly as she scowled at him.

He was saved from her retort as her phone chose that moment to sound off. Her previous merriment dulled in the face of the device's alarm and fell further as she glanced at the screen. Klaus watched as she reluctantly clicked the phone silent after responding with a text and turned remorseful eyes to him. This would be their parting it seemed.

"Such a dour glance. My last question then, who's beckoning you?" Klaus asked gently, an unexpected jolt of jealousy scoured his veins at her answer.

"My boyfriend." She quirked her lips self-consciously. She had no obligation to inform him of her relationship status and their conversation while personal, had always meant to stay a conversation... at least on her end. Yet, she felt a strange sense of guilt – she felt like she had led him on, "I should be going. It was nice to meet you, Klaus... and thank you for the drink."

Klaus tightened his grip over her hand, both had forgotten he had still been holding it, but now it worked in his favor. He wasn't ready for their conversation to end, "Stay, Camille. By the look on your face, it's what you would rather be doing."

Timidly, she squeezed his hand back, but her rueful smile told him that he was fighting a losing battle. He was tempted to compel her... but somehow that felt like the wrong move for this particular moment.

"He's worried about me. Everyone's worried about me. Or angry. This was a nice reprieve. One I really needed, but I have to go before that worry goes to def-con four." She said almost deprecatingly and moved to stand.

Cami was surprised when he stood with her until she felt him slip her phone from her other hand. A word of protest played on her lips at the theft, but she stayed her tongue as she watched him deftly enter his phone number. It was slightly embarrassing that he had caught her passcode pattern so easily. He must have the eyes of a hawk. He hit the call button and his phone vibrated in his pocket for a moment before going silent again.

Klaus returned her phone with a genial smile, "There. Should you need another reprieve, simply call. I'll be in town for a while and more than happy to indulge you."

"That was bold." She murmured, "Giving your number to a girl who just told you, she has a boyfriend."

He shrugged indifferently, "Fortune favors the bold, does it not?"

Cami snorted and shook her head, "Goodbye, Klaus."

"Goodbye, Camille." Klaus murmured, brushing his lips to her cheek.

The act startled her and brought a lovely blush to her smooth skin. He had no intention of this being their last encounter. Camille O'Connell would see him again. His cerulean eyes danced deviously as he watched her turn to go.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, and he was surprised to see a puckish light in her sylvan gaze, "Definitely smarmy."

Klaus choked on an unexpected laugh before he found himself calling through the pub, "Charming, love."

______________________

Hours later, Klaus remained at the little corner table in the pub. He had steadily nursed several drinks as he kept an eye out for a potential dinner – finding himself feeling pickier than usual about his fare. He was tempted to send Camille a text. She had been reluctant enough to leave that enticing her to return shouldn't have been much of a battle. He regretted not pressing his advantage earlier. They could have spent the afternoon in his bed, sated in every possible way.

Sighing in boredom, he ran an idle finger around the rim of his tumbler generating a low hum. His thoughtless gesture brought a few curious and annoyed looks from the nearby patrons, but no one had the gall to say anything. Something dark and angry lingered in Klaus's stiff presence that discouraged social interaction of any kind.

"Well, you look positively morose."

And yet not all were so cowardly.

Klaus smirked at the amused lilt that sounded behind him. He arched a brow as he awarded the young woman behind him a small smile, "Greta... you've arrived sooner than I expected. Fruitful day, love?"

"Yes and no." Greta answered loftily as she came to stand next to the table, "The witch we're looking for is proving rather difficult to scrounge up, though her boyfriend has been the source of a lot of gossip but..."

"But?" Klaus intoned softly, a dangerous edge tinging his voice. His mood for games had dissipated with the sun.

"He's in the hospital. Unconscious, someone caved his head in apparently. He would need some of your blood to be revived enough to get any information from him." She smirked, knowing how much Klaus loved to do such things, "That is if you're feeling generous."

Niklaus frowned; it would be too convenient... "What's the boyfriend's name?"

"Scott Nebroski." Greta answered simply with a raised brow.

The name had no meaning to Klaus. Camille hadn't mentioned any names when she had recounted her motives to him – and he didn't recall a name being spoken when the paramedics had arrived at the campus pub. Though to be fair, he had lost interest in the whole affair once Camille had been taken to the squad car.

Her fiery emeralds would forever be etched into his memory. There had been a moment where he had thought that she'd break from the officer's grasp and swing at him before something fragile... vulnerable had crossed her gaze and he had to fight the urge to go to her.

It had been an odd night.

"When was he attacked?"

Greta shrugged, "A couple of nights ago, I think. Some chick took a beer bottle to him. A lover's quarrel is the rumor. In which case, it should make him more willing to cooperate with us. He'd probably be looking for a little revenge."

A slow grin spread across Klaus's face – what were the odds?

"It wasn't our little witch who tore into him, love." Klaus murmured, "How long would we need to wait before you could conduct the ceremony?"

"The estival solstice isn't for almost eight weeks, that's when the spell will be at its strongest. We have some time." Greta replied softly as she watched the wheels spin in her master's head. She hadn't expected him to take the news of this current delay so well... but the calm, almost pleased smile playing at his lips spoke to plans with which she had no knowledge of, "The boyfriend?"

"He can enjoy his stay in the hospital for a while." Klaus said after a long moment. He refused to heal the cretin that had rightfully earned his beating at Camille's hands. He would not deny her victory, "Tomorrow I want you and Maddox to find out everything you can about Camille O'Connell. She's Marnie Taylor's roommate and friend... she'll lead us to our little witch."

Gently, Klaus reached out for Greta's hand, bringing her delicate fingers to his mouth as he pressed a kiss to her smooth flesh. He was feeling a tad grateful for the news she had delivered him, and she smelled sweet, like honeysuckle and ivy. His fangs edged at the inner muscle of his cheek, reinforcing his hunger... but he wouldn't bite her here.

Klaus stood and placed a few bills on the table, "Keep me company tonight."

It sounded like a request, but Greta heard the implied order to his tone. She could say no, and Klaus wouldn't bat an eye. She was under no illusion that she was more than a tool in his arsenal. Problem was, she had never been able to say no to him. Not to his power, not to his hunger, and not to his bed. She fully enjoyed being possessed by him. It was the shame that she could not possess him.

She peered slyly at him, "Merely company?"

An indulgent hum purred from Klaus's throat before he pressed his lips teasingly to the corner of her mouth, "You could never be merely anything, love... but I desire this luscious mouth of yours to be otherwise occupied."

Greta's smile turned sinful, "As you wish."

He breathed a kiss to her neck before turning to escort her upstairs. His soul ached for a taste of the hunt... something that Greta could not provide him – she was all too willing to fall into his clutches. She was decadence, chocolate, and champagne. Simply divine.

For tonight she would sate his baser urges, but tomorrow...

Tomorrow he would go after that which was not yet his. Fiery emeralds glinted in his mind's eye. Tomorrow, he would go after whiskey and smoke. Hidden passion.

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#disintegration #klaus mikaelson #Camille O'Connell #klaus x camille #the orginals fanfiction #the originals #fanifc #fanfiction #klamille

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subwalls · 3 years ago

Text

okay, so. opinions now.

1. hbomb’s hitw glitch.

IF this is the auto-jump glitch: they were told not to do it, and the practice server leaderboard was wiped for it, and that should have been a clear message to cease and desist. should’ve known better, that kind of thing. however, it’s clear to me that h was a passive player in this case and didn’t mean to phase through walls (except by the normal spacebar spam) with a specific glitch, so i don’t blame him for taking advantage of it and winning. like, i don’t expect him to throw himself off the edge the moment that he thinks something’s weird.

i also don’t expect the event to replay the whole game for h’s glitch; they don’t know it would’ve fixed it (since it remained through all 3 rounds). it’s like wilbur’s glitch! it’s scuffed, but it’s not like it requires a reset or anything.

so. it is not h’s fault, and i did not expect mcc to restart hitw. not anyone’s fault, honestly. just an oops!

2. ace race shenanigans.

look. i don’t really hate the map that much.

yeah it was confusing, yeah the arrows were unfortunately pointed together in a circle, yeah most of the participants ended up walking around in circles for a minute and some people recovered faster than others. but that was everyone, and it was funny, honestly, and i was cool with it. and like, after the first round, you should know the route and stick with it. (this is a gnf callout: sir, you did the course once, why did you fuck up the second lap that bad?? /lh)

HOWEVER.

one person was not only not confused by the course, but he knew the meat of it beforehand.

scott smajor, my beloved. he had an unfair advantage, and it does soil his win.

no, listen to me: i love scott, he’s great! and i’m not that upset about it, but i feel like it’s valid to view him with some criticism. he did have an unfair advantage, he did have knowledge that no other participant did (and then proceeded to share it with his team, which redoubles the advantage in his favor), and clearly there was not enough of an update before and after his testing/input to the point where he could literally guide his team through not only ace race but also warn them about tgttosawaf. he talks about skeletons long before anyone could see them, for example.

look. it sucks, it’s dumb, but it’s not malicious. scott didn’t “““rig”““ the event in his favor or anything, he (and noxcrew) just didn’t think about it. he was just doing his best, with advantages he shouldn’t have had.

they should’ve thought about it! but they didn’t. oops! block game not perfect. that how it be.

... so what? well, my issue with this is that... this is actually fixable.

rerun the game. everyone knows better now, and scott’s advantage has been neutralized (for the most part). that would’ve fixed it!

so why didn’t they?

3. conclusion

mcc HATES restarting games.

i knew they weren’t gonna do it. yeah, the chat was screaming for a rerun, but here’s the thing: that’s happened before. glitches and unexpected advantages are going to be given a blind eye, and this is just going to happen.

mcc only ever restarts a game when it is literally impossible for a good chunk of participants to play the game. when dream gets slapped with an iron door? nope! when wilbur gets the rocket spleef glitch? nope!! when ace race always has the silly little trident glitch? nope!!!! all of the other previous events when people have glitched through hitw? nope!!!!!!

but when everyone blew themselves up in battle box and thus half of the participants literally could not play the game?

THEN, and only then, did they restart it.

their level of tolerance is very, very high. i think it should be lower. i think that when an error occurs to a majority of the participants and restarting the game would definitely fix it, then yeah, they should switch it. it shouldn’t require half the participants to be literally incapacitated for them to restart.

but that’s a personal opinion tbh lmao

anyway. mcc my beloved is still the best and most favorite event beloved by both viewers and participants. scott smajor did an oops, but it’s not that awful. it’s just tiny yike, not a big WOW THIS SUCKS, you know?

also, aqua was a wonderful team that had a good chance of winning from the start, but all of the unfortunate accidents that swung everything additionally in their favor made it... kind of meh that they won under those circumstances. but it was still fine overall, and i’m excited for the next one!

#mcc #general thoughts

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chris-evans-indian-fanfic · 4 years ago

Text

Love

One-Shot

Description: Asexual!Bucky thinks he is broken beyond repair, until you show him that he has been complete all this while.

Warnings: Angst, bad language, mention of sex toys, romance and fluff

@jtargaryen18 organised a writing challenge for reaching 4k followers and of course I have to participate multiple times! 😍 I am sorry this entry is a little late 🙈

My Main Masterlist

A/N: This is the first time I am writing an asexual character. Whatever I have written is based upon my knowledge that I have gathered by reading various articles and posts on asexuality. The reason I am writing this is because I want to have an equal amount of straight and LGBTQ+ stories in my masterlist, so that there's something for everyone to enjoy. Hence, if you are an asexual person or know someone who is, and you realise that anything in my story is incorrectly represented, then please let me know. I will immediately correct it, issue an apology and accept my mistake publicly.

I don’t consent to have any of my work published or featured on any third party app, website or translated. If you are seeing this fanfiction anywhere but Tumblr and AO3, it has been reposted without my permission. In that case, please do share the link and let me know.

…

"I cannot fucking believe this!" Karen shouted, "What are you like gay or something?"

Bucky winced at her venomous words. "You need to leave," he said in a quiet, respectful tone.

"Like hell I am going to leave. I want answers!" she placed her hands on her hips and stomped her foot. "What is it? Am I not sexy enough for you? Are you not attracted by this?!" she gestured towards the skimpy lingerie currently hugging her body.

Bucky met her eyes as he responded, "I do not want to have sex with you."

She huffed, clearly not convinced, "Why not? We have been going out for what, 3 months now? And you still don't want to have sex with me? What is the issue here? Is it-" she paused suddenly, her eyes traveling down his torso to his crotch, "You can't get it up can you?" she sneered.

Bucky shook his head, too exhausted to deal with her, "Karen, it's nothing like that. I just do not want to get physical with you. That's all."

"Oh! Ooooohh!" she bent backwards a bit, "So it was fine to hug me, cuddle with me and hold my hands. But when it comes to sex, you suddenly become a pious celibate saint! What the fuck Bucky?"

Bucky sighed, and handed Karen back her coat, "We are done. Please leave."

She laughed dryly, "Oh abso-fucking-lutely we are done. You know what I think?" she asked while wearing the coat, "I think that you are too old grandpa and that your tiny ass tortured gay dick cannot salute on its own. Because no man in his right mind would deny this," she again pointed to herself. "Super-soldier my ass," she muttered as she left.

The door to his apartment closed with a loud bang, leaving an echo in its wake. Bucky stood still, rooted to his spot. If it were not for the silent tears rolling down his cheeks, anybody could have mistaken him for a statue.

Slowly, he sat on the floor, his gentle sobs rocking his body as he hugged his knees.

Decades of torture by the hands of Hydra had left him crippled, physically, mentally and emotionally. When he had been saved by Steve, he had started to piece his life back together, bit by bit. Things such as books, movies, music became tiny jigsaw pieces that slowly filled the void in his life.

After the final galactic battle with Thanos, Bucky had been officially initiated to the Avengers team, or rather what was left of it. The team soon became an extended family, a family that Bucky was still getting used to. It was especially irksome when Sam and Scott decided to set him up on a date with Karen from Research & Development (R&D), despite his protests.

It wasn't that Bucky didn't desire a relationship. He wanted to be close to someone, experience romance, feel their heartbeat in a close embrace and place light kisses on their forehead.

But he didn't want to have sex.

At first, he thought he might not have met the right woman. So he searched for porn online, which did little to sway his feelings. He put the issue on a backburner, the safety of the people and the urgency of his missions steering the wheel of his life for a while.

But when Sam and Scott proudly announced their grand plans for Bucky's date, he remembered his "issue" again. He looked at Karen closely whenever they went on dates together. She looked perfect. Beautiful hair, soft glowing skin, curves in all the right places, all packed in a graceful, slender body.

Bucky liked being close to her, but he was still not getting aroused. Hence, he stopped her advancements everytime she tried to get physical. Karen tolerated it for a while, before her patience wore out tonight.

As the sun rose in the sky, Bucky was still seated on the floor, his cheeks now stained with tears that had stopped sometime in the night, though a sniff escaped from him every few minutes. He looked at the sunlight pouring in from the window, broken by the window-panes, landing at his feet in two rays with a comforting warmth. It was in that moment that Bucky realised, Hydra had truly broken him.

🏳️‍🌈

"We have various types of dildos available. There's The Classic, Textured, Long and Thin, Short and Thick, Vibrators, Transparent Plexiglass Dildos, Strap-Ons, G-Spot Dildos, Double-Ended, Squirting Dildos and ones that also come with a suction grip. Are you looking for yourself or are you looking for something to enjoy with your partner?" the helpful saleswoman asked you.

You stroked your chin in thought, "It's only for me. I already have a vibrator that I bought about a year back. The G-Spot ones have never really worked for me. I am looking to try something new. What is the suction grip one?"

The attendant handed you the dildo and showed you the suction grip at the end of it, "You can use this to place and stick it on any flat surface you want, whether it's the floor or the wall or the side of your desk. It guarantees a completely hands-free pleasurable experience."

You stuck it on the wall besides the showcase to test the theory. It worked. "Neat! I will take this one," you smiled as the attendant went to fetch a fresh piece.

You paid for your new sex toy and walked back to the Avengers compound with your small white shopping bag in tow.

When you reached your desk, you heard Karen bitching as usual about something to Jessica. At first, you blocked them out like you did almost everyday, but then a name in their conversation caught your attention.

"He's the Winter Soldier alright. He's completely frozen down there," Karen whispered loudly with disgust.

"Even that red sexy lingerie didn't do anything for him?" Jessica gasped dramatically.

"No!"

"That's crazy! That hot-red piece will convert even the most gayest of the guys! And it didn't do anything for him? Wow," Jessica responded.

Karen added, "You know something? I have always thought he was extremely weird. Like, dude, I know you were tortured by Hydra or whatever, but get over it man! It's been years since he was free. He should enjoy life and stop being such a wimp. I am 100% sure he is impotent."

"You know I was digging into him the other night," Jessica said in a hushed whisper, "and I saw a message board online which suggested that his penis has been completely cut by Hydra. This person knows all such secrets about these alleged superheros. You should follow him."

"What is his username?"

"Proud-Flat-Earther-MotherFuckers. Wait, I will send you the link," Jessica offered.

Having heard enough of their nonsense, you made your way towards the HR department. Maybe both Karen and Jessica had forgotten, but talking about the personal lives of Avengers was strictly against the rules and was considered as reason enough to fire employees.

You filed a complaint with the HR and within a few hours, both the women were fired on the spot. You savored the moment with relish, as their faces turned aghast at the realisation that their actions had consequences. You went up to them, watching the pair clean their desks, with unabashed glee.

"You know something Karen?" you asked her, "Just because a man refuses to have sex, it didn't mean that he's a wimp, or gay or an impotent. But if you do choose to think of him that way, then it surely makes you a sexiest and a homophobic person."

Karen looked at you furiously, "You bitch! I lost my job because you went and blabbed in front of the HR!"

You chuckled at her outburst, "Oh my dearest Karen. Yes I did go and rat you out to the HR. But that's not what got the two of you fired."

"Then what did?" Jessica asked as she joined the conversation.

You folded your hands for effect, "Your hateful comments and toxic views cost you your jobs. People like you think that just by using the latest iPhone or following the latest trends, you are a modern, 21st century person. But in reality, it is your open mindset which makes you a member of the modern society. If you would open your mind just as much as you open your legs, trust me, the two of you will be much better off."

You turned to leave, but stopped yourself, "Just a suggestion. Stop using words like gay and impotent as insults. It will help you retain your next job for a longer time." You winked at their speechless faces, and happily returned to your desk.

Your job in R&D was taxing and so, you always found yourself working late. Today was no exception either. As you left your office at around 8pm, you saw Bucky heading towards the elevator which led to his apartment. You always had a soft spot for the brunette super-soldier. For starters, you couldn't even begin to comprehend the tortures he must have endured in his past. And the fact that he was trying to piece his life back together again? It was truly commendable.

He always kept to himself, his eyes downcast and his body language unsure. And after what you had heard today, you felt even more sorry for the guy. Turning towards the cafeteria, you picked up a box of vanilla-strawberry French macarons for him, thanking the heavens above for the free food available at the Avengers compound. You held the white bag with macarons in your left hand, being mindful of not confusing it with the similar white bag in your right which contained your new sex toy.

A few moments later, you found yourself in front of his apartment. You had visited him twice before to adjust his vibranium arm or to sort out a few tweaks, but never before had you visited him so late in the evening.

You knocked, feeling a little hesitant as you did so. He was surprised to find you standing on the opposite of the door, however, he still greeted you courteously nonetheless.

Before you could state your reason for the visit, he said sincerely, "I heard what you did today. Thank you. I really appreciated it."

Now it was your turn to be surprised, "Oh. Ummm. It's okay really Mr Barnes. It was nothing. You don't need to-"

"No. It wasn't just nothing. You could have turned a deaf ear and ignored them. Yet you chose to stand-up for me. Thank you," a small smile laced his face and you melted on the spot.

You had a crush on Bucky. A BIG one. Could anyone blame you? This guy was a hot, sexy mess of an ice-cream sundae that left you hungry for more even on the coldest nights of the year.

You realised you were staring into his steel-blue eyes like a creep, and immediately cleared your throat. "What-what they did was wrong. Karen had no right to demean you for your desires or lack of them. I-," you sighed, "I am sorry for what she said. It was disrespectful and hurtful. So I brought you something that I hope will cheer you up."

You awkwardly raised your right hand, "I got you some vanilla-strawberry macarons from the cafeteria."

Bucky did cheer up a bit at the mention of his favourite food. He eagerly took the bag with a huge smile, "Thank you," he said once again as you shook your head. "Thank you for everything you do to keep us safe Mr Barnes. I must be on my way now. Goodnight," and with that you left, grinning like an idiot.

🏳️‍🌈

You took a bath, ate your dinner and slipped into comfortable pyjamas. Excited to try your new sex toy tonight, you unpacked the bag expecting to see the nondescript box of the dildo. Instead, 5 delicious macarons stared back at you with innocence.

You stumbled backwards in shock, the impact of your action settling like a dull, heavy weight in your stomach. "Oh no no no no," you whispered, horrified.

You immediately rushed to your window and pulled aside the curtain to look at Bucky's building, as if expecting to see him staring daggers at you. One of the privileges of working with the Avengers? You got to stay in a nice apartment within the compound itself. Your residential complex was a little further away from the main building, covered easily by 15 minutes of walking.

Feeling hyper, you frantically searched for a coat and almost ran out of your house. You rushed back in to keep the box in the bag and again, dashed towards the elevator.

Hoping that Bucky would have yet to open the box, you sent a silent prayer to all the gods and goddesses in the skies above, even Thor. Meh, you never know when an ex-Avenger could be of help.

You sprinted towards the other building, a multitude of thoughts clouding your mind- What if he was offended by it? Would he file a complaint against me? It would be sorta ironic if I was fired for this! Shit he would think my apology was false and I am probably mocking him.

You reached his apartment, a panting, huffing mess of a person. You knocked frantically, his door shaking with force at your desperation. However, you jumped as Bucky whispered your name from behind you, "Are you okay? What's going on?" he asked with concern as you turned around to face him.

"Did-did you op-open the bo-ox?" you questioned him while panting like a dog.

He furrowed his brows in response, "No I was planning to open it in a few minutes. Please tell me what's going on. Why do you look so scared?"

You bent over double, your stomach cramping thanks to your impromptu running, "Thi-this is your bag," you held up the package, "That ba-bag is mine."

"Okay," Bucky said slowly, still unsure of your behaviour, "Should I open the door to retrieve your bag?"

You nodded as he stepped aside, "Why are you not wearing any shoes?"

You looked down at your feet at his query, small blades of grass had stuck to your naked feet along with dirt. "I was in a hur-hurry to get to you," you managed to say between your breaths.

Bucky just nodded in response. It was then that you noticed the pack of paper tissues in his hand. He opened the door and stepped inside, beckoning you to follow him. He pointed to the white bag kept on the table while he looked at it with worry. "Will it explode?" he solicited.

"Uhh no," you replied awkwardly.

"Is it dangerous?" curiosity etched on Bucky's face as you swapped the bags.

"No, it's nothing like that," you looked down at your feet, feeling the heat rush to your cheeks with embarrassment.

He narrowed his eyes, "Then what is it?"

"I can't tell you," you quietly admitted, "but here are your macarons. I am really sorry for this. Didn't mean to disturb you from whatever you had planned," you pointed to the box of tissues still in his hand.

Bucky noticed the underlying question in your statement, "I was about to watch a movie. So needed these to clear the mess."

Your eyes went wide at his sincerity. While you had a crush on him, you definitely did not want to know about Bucky's late night masturbation adventures. Shaking your head, you raised your hands and started walking backwards, "I am sorry I disturbed your nightly… activities. I get out of your hair."

"Actually, would you like to join me for the movie?" Bucky asked hopefully, "We have the macarons and you seem like you need to calm your nerves."

You were surprised for the third time that day. Did Bucky just ask you to masturbate with him? Or have sex while eating the macarons? Or did he want to eat them after you guys have had sex? A flurry of questions swirled in your mind as you stared at him with a slightly open mouth.

Bucky interpreted your gaze and stumbled to clarify himself, "As friends! Would you like to watch a movie with me as a friend?"

You slowly nodded your affirmation, "Yeah okay. Which movie are we watching?"

"The Notebook," he revealed with a smile, "It's an extremely emotional movie. Ummm what's the term? Tear-jerker? Uhh yeah, it's a real tear-jerker of a movie."

"Oh so that's why…" you pointed at the tissues. "Yeah," he confirmed, "I tend to cry a lot while watching that movie. And… ummm… I am the kind of person who cries ugly. You know, all tears and snot. So yeah… I need the whole box."

"That's… that's actually sweet," you smiled, "Trust me you are not alone. I start crying as soon as the titles appear on the screen."

He got excited at your confession, "Yes! Exactly! It's because you know what's going to come and you are just mentally preparing yourself."

You chuckled with him in affirmation as he led you further into his apartment.

You freshened up a bit in his washroom, making sure to clean your feet and the residue on your face from the sweat.

Bucky was standing besides your bag when you entered the living room, "Now that we are friends," he intoned, "will you please tell me what's inside of this?"

You sighed, "Mr Barnes-."

"Bucky," he corrected you and you smiled.

"Will you promise me you will not take any offense or be insulted by it? I really did not mean to swap the bags."

"I trust you," Bucky said with assurance.

"It's…it is a sex toy," you mumbled quietly. Any normal human wouldn't have heard you, but Bucky's enhanced hearing caught your words flawlessly.

He took a moment to process your words, and finally, to your amazement, burst out laughing.

You sheepishly smiled at his reaction as your heart felt a little lighter. "That is embarrassing," he agreed with a wide grin.

The two of you settled on the couch as Bucky's chuckles lessened. He kept the box of macarons between you two, but hesitated to begin the movie.

You sensed his curiosity, and clarified, "I haven't been in a relationship in a very long time. It's been… 2 years I guess… since my last breakup." You took a deep breath, "And my job doesn't exactly leave a lot of time on my hands for dating or one-night-stands."

Bucky seemed to consider your words for what felt like a long time. Finally, he asked quietly, "What does it feel like? To… to want another person… sexually?"

You blinked your eyes, thinking you must have misheard him. But then, his gaze met yours, and you knew his question was sincere.

"It feels like…," you raked your mind in search for the appropriate words, "...like your entire body is on fire, and you need the touch of the other person to quench your thirst. Like, just for a few moments, you want to shut your mind, and let your body think for you."

Bucky nodded slowly as you finished, "But what if you feel that in your heart? And not for your body?"

You squint your eyes at his question, "What do you mean Bucky?"

He placed his head in his hands, "I just… I don't feel like that with anyone. I mean, I don't want to have sex. Trust me I have tried everything. Literally everything. Still I don't feel aroused… I am broken, aren't I? Because this is abnormal, right? No matter how hard I try I will never be normal."

Your heart shattered at his words. You had heard about his horrid nightmares, but to think that he was struggling to accept himself, thinking that he was broken, even when he had so much love to give, was depressing. You could not just stand by and watch.

Gently, you placed a hand on his shoulder, "Bucky, look at me." When he didn't comply, you urged him, "Bucky, you are not broken. It is completely normal to not have any sexual desires."

"No it's not," he scoffed.

"Yes it is," you coerced him, "Do you know what is asexuality? It is the complete absence of sexual desires. Many people-"

He interrupted you, "There is no such thing. You are making this up."

"I am not," you replied indignantly, "Research indicates that more than 1% of the American population is asexual. Also, experts believe that more people might be asexuals because they think that they "haven't found the right person yet"," you ended with air quotes.

With no reaction from him, you sighed and got up, "Do yourself a favour. Use the internet and learn about asexuality. It will help put your mind at ease." You left after giving that piece of advice.

Bucky stayed in the same position for a few moments after your departure. He nibbled on a macaron as he considered the movie playing in front of him. Unable to focus, he promptly shut it all and carried the box to his bed. The macarons disappeared into his mouth as he tossed and turned, feeling restless.

There was no way asexuality was a thing. If it was, then how come there were no movies, tv shows or even advertisements on asexuality? That's because it wasn't normal, right? Maybe you had just lied to him to make him feel better? Maybe you took pity on him?

He looked at his phone on the table near the tv set, your final words repeating in his head in a loop. The combination of tiredness and laziness encouraged him to take your advice in the morning.

🏳️‍🌈

You didn't see Bucky for 3 days after your fateful encounter with him. The fact that you still had your job at the Avengers Tower meant that he hadn't filed a complaint yet with the HR. And for that you were grateful. Friday came and you found yourself working late, again. It was around 10pm and you were still in your lab, almost done with the work. That's when you heard the small swoosh of the lab doors opening and closing.

You looked up from your table, and found Bucky staring intently at you with his blue eyes. He cleared his throat and tentatively took a step towards you. "You were right," he said slowly, "I researched online, read a few articles and spoke with the in-house therapist. I am an," he took a deep breath, "an asexual."

You closed your laptop and smiled at his confession, "How are you feeling now?"

"Honestly? A little bit better. I feel somewhat free," he admitted while gripping the white bag in his hand a little bit tighter.

"That's great! I am so proud of the progress you have made," you beamed at him, but sensed his hesitance as you neared him.

"What's wrong?" you gently inquired.

"You are… not… I mean… by any chance… asexual?" he winced at his own question.

You chuckled lightly, "No I am not."

"Ahh, then it's okay," he murmured and turned as if to leave.

You stopped him by placing a hand on his firm bicep, "What's going on?"

He shifted on his feet, visibly uncomfortable and anxious, "I was just… no nevermind it's stupid."

"Bucky," you said his name in a stern voice.

He sighed again, "I thought… I mean I owe you a movie because… of that night… and so… you know… would you like to watch it? The movie? But why would you? You deserve better… you are not an asexual. You are normal. Why would you want to go on a date with me?" he finally ended his mumbling.

You looked at him with squinted eyes, trying to decipher what he had muttered. "Did you just say you would like to go on a date with me? But it was stupid because you are an asexual and I am normal?" you blinked as he nodded.

"Who told you that you are not normal?" you asked him, a little irritated, "Bucky look at me." This time he complied, "You. Are. Normal. As normal as me, as the other Avengers or as anybody else in the world. Do not, for even one goddamn second, think that there's something wrong with you because there isn't. Are you listening to me? Am I clear?" you wagged your forefinger at him.

Amused at your outburst, he nodded with a sheepish grin. Clearing his throat, he asked you again, "Would you like to watch a movie with me tomorrow? As a date?"

You placed your hands on your waist, "Yes."

His grin widened as he asked you the next question, "Still mad at me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Maybe these cupcakes will help," he shyly held up the white bag in front of you, "I made sure they were cupcakes," he added with a smirk.

You graciously accepted the bag, "Cupcakes will always help."

"Great! It's a date then. Tomorrow… at 4pm? My apartment?" Bucky suggested.

You agreed, and he left with a goodbye. As soon as he was out of sight, you opened the box, expecting to see the usual cupcakes inside. Instead, you found that the sweet treats were decorated with cute messages such as "U R Cute" , "Be Mine?" , "So Sweet" and so on. Feeling mushy at his adorable gesture, you bit into the sweet treat as you headed back to your apartment.

The next day, you made sure to wear a purple dress, complete with black, grey and white accessories - the colours of the asexual flag. Bucky beamed at you as he welcomed you into his apartment. He had made a snack mix from popcorn, crispy pretzels, chips and nachos, the perfect accompaniment to any movie according to him, and you couldn't agree more.

The pair of you watched The Notebook in silence, except for a few sobs and sniffs here and there and the straight up bawling during the emotional parts of the movie.

After a while, the film ended but your date continued. The two of you talked about everything, right from the meaningful discussions about the government policies to random questions like "which mythical creature would you be and why?"

Soon, it was time for you to head back to your apartment. Bucky offered to walk you and you happily agreed. But before you left, he asked you nervously, "Would you like to have a second date?"

"I would love to," you beamed, "Which movie should we watch the next time?"

He ran his hand in his somewhat disheveled hair, "Uhh… I actually made a date jar. Wait, I will get it."

He brought over a glass jar, filled with tiny bits of folded paper, "I thought we could have dates that start from each English alphabet. We can pick and choose at random from the jar."

Tears pricked the corner of your eyes again at his thoughtful and romantic gesture. You gingerly picked one note from the jar, excited for the adventure that awaited the two of you.

🏳️‍🌈

It took more than 2 years for the pair of you to finish every date in the date jar, except for one. Whether it was jet-skiing in the ocean, taking classes for flamenco dance, him teaching you self-defense or going on a wildlife safari together, you and Bucky finally got through it all. Only the letter "P" was now left.

In these 2 years, any distance between the two of you had practically vanished. Bucky was comfortable in removing his bionic arm in front of you. Moreover, he had started sharing everything with you. Right from his darkest and disturbing nightmares to a pretty butterfly that he may have seen during his missions, Bucky made it a point to ensure that you were a part of his life, and you had absolutely no complaints.

The two of you had also discussed about your sexual desires, and Bucky had been comfortable with you using your sex toys as and when you wished.

Bucky was the perfect boyfriend anybody could ask for. He was considerate, thoughtful, a hardcore feminist and gave the best foot-rubs in the world. And so you were nervous. Nervous because the two of you had never actually sat down to talk about the nature of your relationship. And as the day of the last date loomed nearer, your anxiety increased. At first, you thought of making a second date jar, but he had quickly dismissed the idea, stating that he would be caught up with multiple things after the last date ended.

As you sat in the car that Bucky had sent for you, your apprehension grew. Bucky always picked you up, however this time, he had asked you to come alone in the car. Maybe he wanted to break up with you?

By the time you reached the park it was pitch black. You were sure Bucky had paid the guards to keep the gates of the park open just for you.

As soon as you entered, you saw the pathway lined with 25 lamp posts, leading you towards a breathtaking archway decorated with fairy lights and your favourite flowers.

On every lamp post, a photograph of the two of you - which were taken on your dates - was stuck along with a note. The notes described how he fell in love with you over and over again on every single date. Your progress was slow, as read each of his meticulously written words with tears in your eyes. You collected all of his notes and the photographs, and finally headed towards the lit archway.

When you entered it, the instrumental notes of the song "All of Me" by John Legend reached your ears.

You walked ahead and reached a bend. Upon crossing it, you were showered with rose petals as the live music grew louder. And at the end of the archway, your boyfriend, James Buchanan Barnes, was standing in a tuxedo, looking as sinfully good as the forbidden fruit. The entire area around him was lit with soft fairy lights that cascaded gracefully between tall lamp posts. Even on the ground, small wooden lamps illuminated the grass across the area. A live band was playing the music and your Bucky was standing with the most gorgeous bouquet of red roses that you had ever seen.

Your vision turned blurry as you started crying, and looking at your tears, he started sobbing as well. "No no no I can't cry now," he managed to say between his sobs while giving you his handkerchief, "I have to do this."

He got down on one knee and took your hand in his. You both laughed as you started crying harder. He took a deep breath and said your name, "These 2 years have been the most magical years of my life. You have accepted me as who I am, what I am, and never once tried to change me or make fun of me for it. I never thought I would be treated with the amount of respect that-" he started crying, unable to finish his sentence.

You sat beside him and handed him your kerchief. "Yes," you said with a tear-stained smile.

"Let me ask you first!" he exclaimed between his sobs.

You laughed and wiped your snot as he cleared his throat, "I love you so much. You are the only one I want to-" he started crying again.

"Yes!" you answered his unsaid question.

"I haven't asked you yet!" he exclaimed again as the two of you giggled between your sobs.

"Okay c'mon Bucky you can do this," he muttered to himself as you beamed at him. "Okay," he looked into your eyes and whispered your name, "Will you do me the honour of marrying me and becoming my wife?"

You choked up at finally hearing the words. Rendered speechless, you could only nod as fresh tears escaped your eyes.

"You have to say yes!" he almost shouted with excitement.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!!" you matched his enthusiasm as he slipped a ring onto your finger. His large arms then engulfed you in a bear hug, wrapping you in a safe and secure space for eternity to come.

Permanent tag: @donutloverxo @notyourtypicalrose @just-one-ordinary-fangirl

Bucky taglist: @loustan90

Taglist open! Just comment, send an ask or message!

#asexual #Bucky Barnes #bucky barnes angst #bucky barnes au #james bucky barnes #asexual!bucky barnes #asexual!Bucky #bucky x reader #Bucky barnes x Reader #winter soldier #lgbtqa #JTargaryen18s4K

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness

Welcome back my Scottaholics! We’re moving right along fun and fancy free just a few days later from Book 2 to 3. Which fits: As I mentioned in my review of book 1 I first encountered Scott, Ramona and Wallace in a free comic book story, and VERY intrigued, bought volumes 2 and 3 from the same comic shop after reading it in line.. or maybe I went there again later and bought them. My brain is a foggy sinkhole. Point is I was hooked from then on out, and bought the next three volumes as I came out, and through the internet because by then i’d leanred to use Amazon. Ironic given Ramona’s work for them is not only iconic to the series but plot important in volumes 1 and 2. As is Scott’s package toss in the movie. But the story of my long wait for volume 4 can wait for February. Point is it was these two and Free Scott PIlgrim are the ones I poured over again and agian, obessing over as a teen and the ones that stick in my brain the most. But even with that last time the exaustive process of covering it exposed a LOT of volume 2′s weakness: While it has a lot of iconic scenes, including Scott accidently convincing a man to skateboard himself to death, the Ramona and Knives fight, the envy call, the flashback, and is still very enjoyable..it also feels the most like a collection of loose events out of the books. Good stuff and character and tone wise better than last time.. but not quite as narratively strong. The series was GETTING there, the art was solidfiying into it’s final form, the characters were in the right place, SCott was more likeable.. but it hadn’t quite hit it’s stride yet. Three guesses when it did and the first two didn’t count. Infinite Sadness is one of my favorite volumes, along with 4 and 6. And while part of that is nostaliga and a personal connection.. the bulk of it is just this volume being even BETTER on the re-read. I picked up subtle bits that I didn’t notice before that only enritched the experince, the pacing is sublime, the character work is top notch and compelling, the art work is finally crystlalized into what the series is known for, and would only get even better as it goes, and the fights are some of the series best. This is one hell of a story and I warmly invite you to join me as I break it down after the break.

Previously on Scott Pilgrim: Scott defeated Lucas Lee, the second Evil Ex, met Luke Wilson, and prepared to go to his ex girlfriend’s concert despite this being a terrible idea to discuss a gig. It was there he and Ramona found out Envy’s base player Todd, the douchenozzle who she cheated on Scott with, is also the douchenozzle Ramona cheated on Lucas with.

So we open.. exactly from that moment, with Scott and Ramona starring wide eyed while the band plays in an utterly dazzling sequence that’s been brought up a notch in the color remaster. Also one of a handful of moments that was barely touched from page to screen, with only slight adaptations to make it better on screen, and the addition of Metric’s now iconic “Black Sheep”. And when reading the scene.. I couldn’t resisit turning black sheep on as it matched it perfectly.. so yeah have the Clash at the Demonhead performance from the film

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So while that worms it’s way into your head, let’s talk about the character designs for Clash Of the Demonhead, since volume 2 is the last time in the color editions O’Malley really talks about character origins and stuff. I could’ve missed something of course, we’ll see as we go won’t we. I just saved it for here as the Volume 2 review was running a bit long as is and while their shown on covers and on the back cover of the black and white edition, they don’t show up in person and in their full glory till the last panel, hence saving it for here where Envy and Todd are the main antagonists and Lynette is... plot relevant.

Envy was based on the front woman for the band Metric, Emily Haines, designed much like hanes to be a tough, confrotnational, sexy woman, his words not mine, who’d gone through a lot of change in a few years since according to him, and i’m willing to take his word for it since I don’t know the band outside of the one song he picked for the movie, a lot of the bands songs are about that. And honeslty it makes me want to check them out more, as does how awesome black sheep is I can’t belivie I took this long, and is supremely intresting as I hadn’t realized there was a good reason there wasn’t just an original song written for clash at the demonhead. I mean if you base your character on the frontwoman for a band why NOT use one of their songs.

Speaking of band, Plumtree’s drummer, Lynette Gillis, was the inspiration for Lynette Gycott, though the final version of her is more cold and robotic and less like Gillis than initially envisioned.

Finally Todd..was based on Scott, and while he evolved out from that a bit especially in powers.. the concept basically stuck as Todd is a stronger, dumber, more agressive and douchey version of Scott whose mistreatment of women is far more deliberate than Scott’s untetional douchebaggery.

So after some interview segments for some sort of documentary on the band with the crowd, we cut to our heroes after the show, all standing around and being nervous. Stephen’s first words are “Decent show eh, told you they were good”.

Admitely re-reading this one and answering a reader question, unrealted but it got me to thinking, made me realize Stephen wasn’t AS much of a dick as I thought: I didn’t think about the fact Scott and Envy’s blow up cost him their old band which was close to singing, and that Scott both as revealed in volume 3 and in bits here, was kind of a dick towards the end, intitating the breakup while drunk and belligernt and saying a facepunchingly dickish comment we’ll get to. So he wasn’t BLAMELESS and it’s understandable Stephen dosen’t hate her as much. She was friends with his horrible albatross of a girlfriend and didn’t break his heart.

However.. he’s still an asshole and deserve jeff blim’s theatrical fuck you up there. He still ignores Scott’s pain, or the fact that most of the breakup WAS Envy’s fault as we’ll see. We’ll get into it in full obviously but for the cliffs notes so I can yell at a fictional grumpy closted canadian man: She slowly drifted away from him, treated him like he had no say in a band he helped found or took his feelings into account in the record deal, and cheated on him with Todd and possibly another guy. And as seen here she used her fame to bribe her ex and friends into showing up just so, as we see, she can torture him and his new girlfriend a bit. Envy is not a good person and Stephen is ignoring that and his friends VERY obvious emtoinal turmoil. Especially dickish since by this point Scott has clearly swallowed his pride and agreed to a show with someone who really DEEPLY hurt him for Stephen and Kim’s sake.. and he’s not even remotely greatful for it clearly. The only reason he’s not the biggest asshole left in the building is because Todd, Envy and Julie, queen of bitches, is in there.

So after a save point gag that goes nowhere, Envy shows up to take the group back stage... awkward, uncomfortable and very intentional silence insues to makes Scott even more sweaty and nervous and Ramona visably and understandably annoyed. Knives tries to talk to her hero but gets ignored because Envy’s a bitch.. and so’s Julie who not only joins in the shunning of a fucking teenager who clearly loves this band, but also is clearly trying to conversationally surgically attach her lips to Envy’s ass. Her toadying is obnxoious as you’d expect and as transparent as you’d expect, trying to drudge up old nostalgia while Envy’s clearly barely intrested, and the only thing that makes it more tolerable than normal Julie is Envy clearly barely tolerates this and likely is only going with it because she could be a useful minon in the future.

Thankfully this is broken up. Unthakfully it’s by knives shouting her most iconic line:

Given Envy is shown to not be the best person.. her response is to have her cyborg goon belt knives in the face

Which leads to an even better line seconds later

Envy then to just .. complete the circle of being a bitch has NEil take knives out then mocks her when Julie explains why knives and neil were even here. And it’s VERY telling that even Julie, who was must minutes from humping envy’s leg and begging to go with her when she leaves, is visably put off by Envy’s attitude. So while Ramona is understandably fucking done with this, as even she has some shred of sympathy for the teenager who tried to stab her a day ago, Scott has to take a minute to have a flashback. We see two brief bits of Scott with Envy, at the start of their college band Kid Chamelon where they were all happy.. and shortly after the breakup where Scott is miserable, in the middle of the street, sadly saying their name while saying “I’m so alone”.. explaning that desert bit from volume 1.. and making it ten times more painful. Nicely done Brian.

So with Knives gone we get our usual character age intros and descriptoins, my favioritte being Stephen “wants a damn buritto dammit” which I can relate to and thankfully got it monday. He also does show a bit more of his noble self as, things have escalated to the point even he can see Envy has some sort of evil scheme planned and he walked right into it so he asks what her ulterior motive is. Julie pipes up with “She dosen’t NEED ulterior motives she was written up with in spin!”

So Envy grills Ramona a bit clearly trying to make her squirm..though at least when Julie TRIES to jump in she shoots her down, like some asshole pulling a yappy dog on it’s leash hard. Eventually Scott flips out and .. well I don’t want to overpanel this review but this is just.. quotes cannot do this justice.

The result.. is the reveal Todd is psychic due to being a vegan and he throwing scott through a wall with telkenisis, kyle!

It’s explained he has these powers because he’s a vegan and even was top of his class at the vegan academy. Citation... needed. Not because of his power but because Todd may be one of the stupidest beings that’s ever lived. And I once had a friend whose other friend told me, since they’d be going to diffrent high schools and he was trying to pass off his mummies curse of keeping him from destroying himself with his own stupidity, tried to run into a wall to loose weight. No I don’t get how this would’ve worked but having known the guy I guarnatee he was arrogant and dumb enough at the time to try it. Nowadays I assume he’s much better... I assume. You.. you’d have to be to have survived another decade.

Todd is also THAT kind of smug dickhead. Thankfully I haven’t met one in real life or online, as the two vegetarians I have known, one of my best friends micheal and my uncle drew, the former of whom now also eats fish and the latter of whom gave it up once he moved to places he could get meat that was raced humanely easier, but who I still respect for having that amount of self control. But Todd is a clear parody of the type of vegan and vegetarian who think their better than everyone.. by thinking he’s even BETTER than regular vegans because not every vegan can take the strain of psychic powers, with Kim naturally sniping at him.. then flipping him off when he says “don’t get snippy babe” and is very lucky he has psychic powers as otherwise he’d suddenly be wondering where his dick is and why kim’s holding a broken bottle.

Brian also pokes fun at the old 90 percent of your brain trope. You know the old one that claims you only use 10 percent..

But it’s only because your only ACTIVELY using it and the rest is simply other functions. But hey we got Deathstroke out of that claim so good enough. Todd claims it’s because the other 90 percent is curds and whey. This might be the greatest use of this outdated trope in human history. No.. no.. it is. It exactly is.

Envy brags that’s why he can’t beat him having clearly traded disappearing up her own ass for disappearing up todd’s, Julie was also crammed up there, it was getting crowded. Envy claims to have been with todd since age 11.. which.. is more.. delusion than anything and she brushes off Ramona rightfully pointing out that’d mean he cheated on her with Ramona as Rammy trying to distract her and trying to smack talk SCott more who has another flashback.

SOME YEARS AGO.. I DUNNO 5? 5 YEARS AGO?

We see Scott’s first meeting with Envy, who was rooming with Julie. Julie, it might shock you.. has not changed at all in 5 or so years. She’s seen bitching at her roomate Natalie V. Adams, the future Envy, for not wanting to get drunk and high and for hanging out in her room with all her anime posters and stuff. As you can tell, she’s a vastly diffrent person at this point, a nerdy interverted otaku and as you can probably guess now the flashbacks have started at the top, we’ll be seeing how she became the sexpot rockstar she is now and how that drove a wedge betwene her and Scott. Julie SHOCKINGLY does not take this well and as Stephen to kil lher if she ever becomes friends with her. I mean I would but If I could travel into fictional works I certainly woudln’t be wasting my time murdering Julie. I’d be asking kim out and trying to get into some cool video game ablities myself. I ain’t got time for that bitch.

Next cut Julie is ... even worse as she’s calling Scott some “jerky jerky ladykiller”, pointing out he’s hooked up with recurring background characters Sandra and Monique. Now GRANTED, Scott could’ve hurt them and Julie could be right for once.. we’ve seen he has a history of being an insenstive douche by pure accident. But.. from the sounds of it given his encounters with Sandra and Monique were both in seperate ladies rooms, as in casual hookups I assume are common in universities. As long as he used a condom and dind’t lie about being in it longterm, who the hell does it hurt. Same if he and Natlie ended up being that. He’s not a “ladykiller” if he got busy on a washroom sink. He just had casual sex in an awful location and given Scott is both horny and stupid freqently, I could buy he either inittated it clumsily and sandra and or monqiue went for it, or one of them thought he was cute and wanted a quick one with him and it just never went anywhere either due to lack of intrest or Scott being kind of a moron. I don’t buy he INTENTIONALLY hurt anyone, he MIGHT of hurt Sandra she seems kind of ditzy and might’ve not realized it wans’t serious.. but it just entirely sounds like a casual, consesual one time hookup with two seperate women. And as long as he wore a condom and repsected their needs what the fuck is it Julie’s buisness. BEcause their here freinds? I mean they told her but they weren’t expecting her to play dick sheirff with scott probably. And Natlie is not her buisness: their not really friends.. she’s just trying to ruin Scott’s day. I honestly get the sense she only hates Scott because she can’t get rid of him, Stephen won’t dump him as a friend and he fucked her friends once. Which makes me hate her MORE. Natlie/Envy however also calls bullshit and thinks Scott’s much too awkward to be a ladykiller. Accurate. I mean he’s good with women and gets dates easily, he’s just not inteitonally leaving them high and dry. He’s just not great with empathy.

Scott snaps back to the present and gets pissed.. and we get the real reason for the outburst as he shouts “You you ass! She USED to be NICE!”. It’s very clear that Scott blames Todd for Envy’s change into an cold and cruel person. But .. that’s not on him entirely. I do think Envy’s cattier, more cruel “play with prey like a cat with a mouse” personality at this point is due to Todd feeding into her worse impulses.... but the flashbacks make clear even before she saw him again she was slowly changing as a person for better, gaining a drive and passion for music.. and for worse, shutting scott out cheating on him and generally not carring about anything but her career, especially Scott. As much as he wants to belivie it she didn’t MAGICALLY change into a bitch overnight and beating todd won’t fix that. She became what she is as a choice. Todd just made what she became worse.

After the predictable result of Scott getting flung into the air and falling back down, he has another flashback and we see the next phase of their relationship: Scott, Envy and Stephen playing in a band for Stacey and Wallace (!), whose hair is certainly a... choice. And the two falling in love and julie grilling scott on if he and nat are a couple because why stop making me wish for a bus to hit you NOW Jules?

So we then get ANOTHER iconic line and another scene that was perfectly translated into the film

Comic gold no matter the medium.. Brandon Routh just nailed it and I watched the scene again before writing this just out of curoisty. Flawless stuff. Check it out

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I will say however that while Movie!Envy’s response of just quickly covering is pretty funny.. I prefer the comic’s envy’s utterly baffled and pissed off “What are you talking about Todd?”. Even she can’t fathom what the fuck just happened. But since it’s late and Todd’s brain is pretty fried, Envy calls for everyone to get some sleep and they’ll regroup tommorow at 1pm at Honest Ed’s. Honest Ed’s WAS a famous discount Store in Canada that sadly closed in 2016, making what ‘s about to happen to it here sad in hindsight. It was known for big sales, big spectacle and i’ts larger than life owner who sadly passed a few years after this volume. But god bless him for giving this series one of it’s best settings. More on that when we get there for now FLASHBACK

Back in College, we see Nat’s change into envy as she sells all her stuff for some bitching new boots and cd’s and during sex with Scott asks him to start calling her Envy. Their still somewhat happy, as the next flashback has Scott remembering their 8 month anniversary and her playfully mocking him as the girl.. before we get a much starker one of him telling her he loved her and her not responding.. and looking at him.. more.. bored than anything.

Back in the present our heroes try to wait out the rain under a bank thing, can relate to the times i’ve visted the city and came out to rain, and when that fails Kim says she’s off and will see them at practice and tells Stephen to blow her when he asks her if she’s going to Honest Ed’s, then seems genuinly confused if he pissed her off before heading home. Swing and a miss stevie, swing and a miss.

Scott is hungry and sorta drags Ramona, whose not in the mood for anything, over to Pizza Pete’s a nearbye eatery. It’s there they happen to run into Other Scott... Other Scott is another guy named Scott. He dosen’t do much in the books. But the name Other Scott is objectively funny and he is objectively nice so he’s fine in my book and I applaud the movie for using him as Wallace’s love intrest. Though I wouldn’t be REMOTELY suprised if they were fucking in the books too. And of course with him is Wallace himself, who really is just.. entering this volume in the most Wallace way possible.

A little drunk, eating some cheap but good food, with a million dollar style and in just the exact right place at the exact right time. If that’s not Wallace Wells, I don’t know what is. Wallace and Other Scott were clubbin, not a huge suprise given Wallace has his own deep and complicated social life we never see and Wallace is naturally a little bit absolutley livid when he finds out Scott went to see Envy’s show anyway despite you know, putting him in a misery coma. Who do you think has to clean you and feed you when your like that Scott? Elves? Well I mean .. Wallace MIGHT be an elf.. but he stilld soen’t want to do either of those things. He breifly gets sidetracked by the fact that Scott is wearing his shirt.. maybe. I mean he wore it the other day but given their living situation it’s honestly hard to tell. Ramona reminds him of his priorites

That’s part of the fun of rereading these again so soon after rereading them in december: I’m noticing tons of little moments like this I didn’t really before. The two explain things, including Ramona pointing out Scott’s extra stupid around Envy. I mean it’s a bit mean to point out given this is clearly a lot for him.

Wallace brushes it off and promises to help him train like a true pal before being prompted to talk about this new boy he picked up Mobile.. who we wont’ see in person for a while but Wallace is clearly head over heels for and begs Scott to let him have the apartment.. or more accuratley Ramona, whose clearly not in the best of moods with Scott, to take him. His sales pitch is immaculate

So she agrees and a friendship is forged based on mutual hatred and being someone’s dipping sauce bitch. I’ve forged longer lasting friendships on far less. Also Wallace forgot his keys but wisely banked on his Gladstone Gander esque luck to help him out.. seriously i’m convinced he has a lower yield version of that. Or God wants to bang him but can’t because his penis is so powerful it CAN SPLIT A MOUNTAIN IN TWAINNNNN. You make the call.

So they sleep it off, and Scott heads home early next morning.. and forgot he gave wallace his keys. Thankfully wallace finds him, and even got him donuts for when he came back, what a guy, makes you cry and I did. He also shows off a new trick about using your chi to dust rain off you. Turns out Mobile is psyhich which.. dosen’t come into play but for vallad reasons: Scott assumes Mobile can just.. give him psyhic powers and training but a) he and Wallace JUST met and while they’ll remain together for the rest of the series, it’s a big ask to have him help train his best friend to fight a man as dumb and chisled as a mountain, and B) “It dosen’t work that way” meaning scott’s probably not psi adept and even if he can be taught, there’s not NEARLY enough time for him to get good enough at shielding himself from Telkenisis in time given Todd’s already fighting him today and has two other oppprotunites afterwords to beat his ass to death. There’s just not enough time. So scott collapses with a donut in his mouth.. are .. are we sure this isn’t just a more attractive more sucessful canadian alternate me?

We flashback to when Wallace met Envy and since i’ts post-becoming envy, it dosen’t go well and he hates her immidetly, and expects Scott to break up with her asap.. which while bitchy.. actually woudl’ve been a good move in the long run. And “Bitchily phrased but a good move in the long run” has apparently always been Wallace’s go-to move.

In the present Wallace helps Scott , who thinks everything sucks, realize it does not, with the help of fresh bacon and perspective, helping him avoid thinking Envy is “back” when she’s just vistiing and somewhat forces him to admit it’s not happening again nor should it. And implicity your both with other people, you’ve moved on, stay moved on. ANOTHER Flashback, this time with Envy asking Scott how he and Wallace met after dinner with Scott’s parents. It’s the story we’ve been hinting at since.. uh last volume.

And indeed it is somewhat gay! Behold! The origin of a friendship to piece the heavens or .. something like that. I’m tired.

It’s a quick breezy story that honestly both explains a lot and is what you’d expect; Wallace taking an intrest, Wallace presumibly realising Scott is straight off screen but deciding fuck it I like this guy let’s be pals instead, and jjust sorta showing up at his house. But since it’s Wallace and he and Scott both love gaming.. it just stuck. And it’s easy to see why. Scott’s a bit of an introvert and Wallace is a ton of an extrovert. Wallce is nice, naturally charming and endlessly cool, and as you can see it took him probably just an afternoon to go from freaking scott out for showing up randomly, to Scott talking the guy up and clearly being the bosom buddies they are now. The two just ballance each other out well. Wallace need’s scott’s weirdness and general heart, and Scott needs Wallace to keep him from running into the brick walls of life via his own stupidity and conflict avoidance. It’s what they do, they make it a two player game.

So later that day, and some off screen training later, presumibly to the song Two Player Game despite the fact it didn’t exist yet, our heroes (Scott, Ramona and Wallace), Villians (Envy and Todd) and other not so much evil as just cretionus assholes (Stephen and Julie) arrive. It’s also clear that Envy just made up the challenge as she went and I fucking love it, just saying they’ll run to the back, try and kill each other and no psychic powers, with Scott’s own handicap being “He isn’t a surivivor” which earns a rightful you unebleiviable bitch from wallace and a just ast rightful “fair enough” from Scott.

Stephen wonders what the deal is and Julie’s answer is... I don’t.. I can’t unpack this.

Meanwhile Wallace says “I hate her so much” Which I THINK was meant for Envy, but as a teen I interpited as being for Julie. Then again it being BOTH is entirely possible given no one can stand Julie for more than five mintues other than Stephen. And that’s because he’s still in the closet and hasn’t come out as bi or gay and thus sees her as a safe option or he really sucks with his taste in partners. Or a little from collumn a , a little from collumn b. So yeah Scott wants a Strategy and Wallace has.. nothing other than “Well he can’t use his powers so.. use that. I guess.. I dunno. I’m hungover” though Ramona warns he can’t go long without using them without freaking out. So gooood? I’m starting to think Kim is the most useful member in his crew for this fight.. and she’s the one who decided to nope out of it because she didn’t want to watch his ex pick him apart mentally and her muscly new boyfriend pick him apart with MIND BULLETS. Wallace isn’t really helping this go round, though he’s still a treasure, Ramona is trying but dosen’t have much, and Stephen thought bringing Julie was in any way shape or form a good idea. Which really sums up their entire relationship so it’s not surprising, it just makes me question why the two are friends at all.

No really, out of Scott’s three close friends.. this friendship feels the most like two guys who just used to hang out but have no real reason too other than convience. Wallace would go to bat for scott.. with an actual bat.. to Envy’s skull. He just dosen’t want to go to jail.. again. Kim pines for him, pun intended, and also does care, she just dosen’t show it because scott’s kinda a moron parade and an insenstivity brunch rolled into one. So she sticks around even though it hurts to. Stephen.. lost his big shot in part due to Scott (Though Envy’s pushness and lack of consideration for his feelings didn’t help), his shrew of a girlfriend hates him and he’s not that good at bass... and I just got it. While Tornoto’s a big city , he’s probably not sure if Kim would be doing this without Scott. He’s.. entirely still his friend because he needs a bass player and kim’s a damn fine drummer whose hard to replace. I just got it.. it makes him a self serving douchecanoe for only being someone's friend because he needs a bass player even though he doesn’t like him, but I at least GET IT now.

So the rush into Honest Ed’s begins and.. my god this whole sequence is sublimely redelcous. It feels like what would ACTUALLY happen if two guys fought for the reasons scott and todd are fighting: just two idiots dinking around in a discount store. Scott dosen’t even last a few seconds before shouting in response to Todd’s taunts “We are all dead”, tripping while looking for eyeware and well..

Meanwhile Todd starts to break down while shouting FATHEERRRRRRR like all good psychics. As for how long this beautiful nonsense has been going on....

Oh and if you thought it hadn’t gotten redicously hilarious enough... wait till you see what’s next.

No words.. should’ve.. sent a poet.. got a tubby asshole who reviews comics, disney shows and disney comics instead....

So we then get a montage in todd’s head with his SHOCKINGLY OLD dad telling him he dosen’t have the willpower to be a vegan.. Lynette telling him she’s his for the taking and Envy will never know as she opens her shirt, and

Gideon.. showing he not only consults the league but confriming what the audience and scott realized: He’s behind these assholes.. but it also shows how much. He’s actively coaching them.. and granted we KNEW the exes were in contact with one another given Lucas was having an understandable sigh about Matthew.. but this shows Gideon isn’t just some player and this isn’t some automated service. He brought them all together. The how ends up being hilarious, and we’ll get to that but while it was obvious he was the final boss this is a nice and terrifying bit of clarification. As for what happened next.. well Todd freaks out with his powers from not using them

Really sad in hindsight.. but still really funny despite the horrifying concidence. So yeah our hero declares victory but dind’t really when and things just kinda end. This segment went basically nowhere and acomplished nothing. .but was still really fun, with great lines and is one of the most memorable and awesome scenes in the series. It also shows the series growth between volumes: Last volume had a lot of cool moments.. but no real plot structure, just a bunch of things that needed to happen to get here. With Volume 3.. things are VERY tightly plotted, and even a fun but kinda pointless diversion like this... still fits in perfectly, giving us a second Scott and Todd fight to build him up, showing off just HOW powerful Todd is, and fleshing out the tofu headed douche a bit. As we’ve seen this volume still has it’s little slice of life moments the series does well. their just well put into a very compelling and fast paced plot, one we’re fully invested in as we see Scott’s torment and Ramona’s mounting anger at envy’s bullshit. It helps that Envy and Todd are the second best big bads of a volume behind gideon himslef in the fimale, with Roxy close at their heels if you were curious. Envy just oozes ego and superiority and is fun to watch every time, while we see moments once in a while that show she’s still human underneath even if she acts like a goddes.. and is admitely one of my types but that’s enough of that. She provides a nice contrast to ramona, also being standofish and mysterious but wheras ramona is clearly mysterious out of shame for a past she’s not proud of Envy is out of a past.. she has no reason to flee from and was never that bad.The only part Envy kept was Todd which was an objectively bad decision.

Todd meanwhile like all the exes as I re-realized.. is a mirror to scott. Each one has a piece of his worse traits amplified and expanded. So far Patel has been scott’s dorkyness, expanded from

To being a giant showy hipster douche desperate to seem cool and important. Lucas is scott’s afabliity and laziness taken to just outright avoiding a fight.. not nearly as bad as the others given he still has one of Scott’s best qualities with no drawbacks. But Todd.. is probably the ex that mirrors scott the second most. Besides both being base players with shaggy hair, both are delightfully stupid, both have a lot of charisma besides that and both are extremley good in a fight. But noticably.. Todd zigs a lot where Scott zags and the simlarites sort of stop. While both are objectively attractive, Todd is more conventinually chisled while Scott is more adorable, expertly reflected in the movie by having former Superman Brandon Routh opposite former George Micheal, Micheal Cera. Todd’s ablities are mental while Scott’s are entirely in martial arts and later swordplay. Todd has a rough relationship with his dad who never supported him and constnatly doubted him while Scott’s parents fully support him and love him uncdoitoinaly and despite his protests and annoyance with them.. it’s clear he still cares about them and loves them. And most damingly.. Scott treats people like garbage sometimes.. but it’s because he’s oblivoius. He’s a finaical burden on Wallace, cheated on Knives, gave Kim no closure, blew up Stephen’s chances at the big time, and in general can be kind of a dick.. but NONE of that is intetnional. It dosen’t make it okay, the books make that clear.. but it’s why we can still root for him: It’s something that can be fixed. Scott hurts people a lot but he lacks gneuinely malicious intent. He leaves a lot of pain in his wake.. but it’s because he’s socially inept, and again and I say this as someone with atusitim myself, defintely on the spectrum , so he dosen’t GET he’s hurting people unless they tell him. Something that will probably not shock you but I relate to and has happened to me in the past, hence while i’ll clal him a douche or stupid, because he’s both, I do sympathize with the guy as the whilrwilnd of descrution is just him being so intent on being seen as a good person and moving past things he can’t see the wreckage in ihs wake, and the series is about him growing past that mindset.

Todd.. is just an entitled dick who KNOWS he’s probably going to hurt people but does the things anyway because he thinks as a rock star he can do whatever he wants. As a Vegan he’s superior so he’s allwoed to do WHATEVER he wants. He’s so obessed with making his dad not see him as a failure he’s developed an Ego that can only be visualized properly using well.. Ego

That’s what his ego has become. He’s so up his own ass his head is coming out of his mouth somehow. He’s so in love with himself he’s probably googled “How to make a sexy clone of yourself”. He’s scott’s oblivoiusness and selfishness, but with genuine intent. He’s scott if he KNEW what he was doing was wrong.. and said fuck it anyway i’m a rockstar baby. Todd, is EASILY what scott could’ve been at envy’s side had they not broken up.. successful.. but an utter bastard who only cares about themselves. Anyways we cut to practice that night were Stephen is spiraling and Kim declines going to the show.. not for the obvious reasons of wanting to avoid another round of “watch Envy tourture scott before Todd beats his skull in with his psychic powers”, but because she has a date. Lucky bastard. The guys are naturally as tactful as you’d expect about this and suggest she’s doing a collage or puzzles before she shuts htem down and they awkardly recover and I laugh my ass off.

So Scott and Ramona head out, trading some talk and what have you and having some Sushi, not going there often because they can’t afford it.. but it’s cool Scott swipied Wallace’s card. When pressed on his douchebaggery Scott assures her.

We’ll get more into this next time, but needless to say Scott’s mooching is finally becoming a plot point next time. Speaking of next time on the way to the show Ramona realizes “Wait why the hell are we doing this” and convinces Scott not to go as they can relax, have a night off, cuddle and stuff, and then Scott can fight Todd tommorow at the big show. Why DO they need to sit in with two assholes who are only inviting them to fuck with their heads some more. Well okay one asshole while Todd is okay with all this he probably just mubled some “sure whatevers” while trying to solve a rubix cube while Envy outlined her plans to him before rearanging the stickers so he could win.. I Mean with his mind so it’s sitll a little impressive but still.

So they TRY making out, complete with being in their undies.. but it just dosen’t work as both of them keep picturing Envy’s face and that’s not good for either of them.

AND it was at this point fucking tumblr.. ate an hour’s worth of work I just did. Probably not something you need to know or care about but something that pisses me off greatly as I was approaching the end of the review and now have to either retype or entirely rethink what I JUST spent a while working hard on.

And this time I mean it. The only reason i’m not giving up and shelving this review for a bit.. is ithat i’m a stubborn bastard who refuses to give up that easily and who needed to vent about this to somewhere.

So Ramona finally comes clean about Todd.. and in a nice moment admits to cheating on Lucas with him “It wasn’t very nice but I wasn’t a nice person”. It’s a small thing, something I didn’t notice before.. but it’s actually a big step given how guarded Ramona is to admit to doing something this bad. Last volume, just a few days ago time wise, she lied entirely about this and probably has no idea Scott knows already. But she’s being honest, telling him the truth so he’ll be prepared for what’s coming and know the full story. The full story is they were both little shits who raised hell together till Todd disappeared for a while. He shows up as you’d expect, dickishily interupting class before explaning Dairy Scientests kidnapped and experimented on him. He also says this

So he proves his love. in the most badass and horrifying way possible: BY MAKING ONE OF THE TWO BIG NOTICABLE CRATERS ON THE GODDAMN MOON.

One of the series best jokes. Ramona also takes a hard pass to learning about envy and asks about Kim... not for any reason.. just thinks sh’es nice. It’s not like she wants to make out with her face.. a lot. Just.. girl things. SHUT UP. She’s also unsatisfied with Scott’s piss take version of his relationship with her. Closing out the chapter, Knives.. has somehow climbed a huge pile of billboardsi n the middle of tornoto.. which would be awesome.. if it weren’t such a beautifully sad image.

Whelp my heart just exploded with pain at this poor girl whose lost the love of her live, which is a goood thing mind you but dosen’t mean it dosen’t hurt less, her faviorte band and her highlights all in the span of a month. Moving on as we approach the final act, we get a brief scene as Todd orders some Gelato, which is itallian icec ream, very not vegan and Envy does not relaize this. Todd however rants about being a rock star, being so above people and as for the rules

We also get this lovely bit

And then they make out and i’ts treated as a big shocker despite.. us.. finding that out several dozen pages ago. We know already.

Back at Scott and Wallace’s place, Ramona shows up with cool new blue hairdoo, which I agree with Wallace is awesome and admits she changes her hair up every couple of weeks.. someething that in the color version we do see better. We also get a gag that no longer makes sense as he asks if that’s her natural haircolor and she says yay and the caption admits this was funnier in black and white. Eh one or two jokes for some really pretty colors is a fair enough trade.

Scott however once again bitches about his hair, despite Ramona pointing out to him and Wallace that.. there’s like dozens of haircut places within walking distance. I remain unsuprised thier that oblivous. But to shut her boyfriend up she agrees to cut his hair and while they do asks what Envy’s actual name is.. scott’s response .. is pretty heartbreaking “Natalie. She stopped liking it. Then she stopped liking me. So Scott shows up with his NEW HAIR CUT.. aka his old one just trimmed up a bit, but the one you see in modern merch and the game. A bit shaggy but not as long. Scott reassures Stephen whose spiraling with panic that it won’t be the same as last time and they’ll have fun. Kim, understandably and having not been told anything, wonders what “last time was”. After everyone chimes in Kid chamelon i’ts time for another FLASHBACK.. as you were probably expecting by now.. but this time I added some proper effects to spice it up.

So we find out more of whta drove a wedge between the two: Envy slowly but surely took a tryanical death grip on the band, adding some guy named Joel on the drums, possibly the same guy from Crash and the Boys, and bumping Scott to bass, without asking him or Stephen about this and just sorta.. demanding it. While her intetnions are understandable, she just wants the band’s best sound.. her actions are still head tiltingly obnoxious, and clearly show she had not studied rock history yet as usually taking absolute control of the band and ignoring your band mates is the easiet way to destroy a band. Sometimes it’s just envy, pun unintneded but welcome, but yeah.. it’s no wonder they didn’t last. Scott is also shown to be more and more uncomfortable with the band going from a fun thing he did with his friend and girlfriend.. to something that could make him famous.. something he’s very transparently not ready for and dosen’t want. And it makes sense: he was just a dumb college kid in love.. he didn’t start the band for fame or glory.. he just wanted to have fun. Same with his current band. And while in the PRESENT his lack of ambition can be obnoxious and will be a problem in the next volume, here.. he’s still in college and sudeenly got thrust into a career he dosen’t want with a person who no longer loves or respects him. It’s understandable that he’s a nervous , miserable wreck.

So in the present, Stephen is throwing up and asking for julie and Scott.. is a dick and ignores him. Were it anyone else and any other relationship currrently int he books I would actually give a shit. So he wonders around a bit, running into some teens who are intrested in him, word travels fast apparently, Julie, who for once displays a human emotion of concern for Stephen or the closest she can, and thankfully Wallace, Stacey and Micheal,who now has a spooky skeleton ring from the future and badly needs his own spinoff. Stacey TRIES to pump her brother up.. but it’s clear he’s in no good mental place for that and trudges off while Wallace, man of the year, worries about him. One GOOD THING about the astronomical setback that happened is in the orignal draft of this.. I forgot to talk about Stacey. Despite promising to. So here it goes: After this Stacey.. just sorta vanishes from the series. She’s still around and while not super promient gets a decent amount of screentime in the finale, she makes cameos before then. But from this book on she’s no longer a main character like she was in the first two books. There she had several scenes, lots of focus, and her own mini arc in the first one about Wallace stealing her boyfriends. There’s. an actual reason for this as O’Malley regretted naming her after his sister and thus basically stopped writing her unless he had to, sticking her in once in a while to assure fans he hadn’t forgotten her but removing her from the main plot. That being said while his reason is weak.. I dn’t think it’s the ONLY reason she slid into the background. The main cast already had 6 characters, and on top of that this volume heavily focuses on Envy, the next adds Lisa Miller to the mix, and every volume frmo this one on has increased focus on the ex of the week, building them up more as characters and giving them way more screen time. Stacey.. really didn’t have a unique niche or roll in the sotry the other 5 non-scott leads didn’t: Knives filled out the position as the baby of Scott’s friend group, Ramona and Wallace served as better voices of reason, Kim and Wallace had better chemistry with Ramona and thus worked better as her friends, and Stpehn. did nothing she did but still at least had a part to play as band leader and the only one of Sex Bomb-Omb with ambition. Stacey is not a bd character and DID deserve to still be way more prominent.. but her move to the back let Kim take her place and rightfully so. And not just because of the crush on kim thing, Kim’s just more compelling and tha’ts an objective fact. Still would’ve been nice to learn more about Stacey though.

Scott then frees his girlfriend from a conversatoin with Sandra and Monique, as Julie bitchily told both about Gideon which Envy told her about, because as your every couple of paragraphs reminder, Julie is a piece of shit. Scott then orders them some alchols, breaking his usual teetotling and runs into kim, hollie and joseph. with Hollie here to see the band and .. Joseph here to see todd. At least h’es honest.. for this volume. Anyways, our happy couple soon split off for a bit and while we bounce back and forth.. i’m just going to cover what hapepned with each seperately as SOMEHOW tumblr once again ate a good hour’s worth of work, this review is already a day late, and I have both abother one and a dental apointment today. So in short

Ramona and Kim: Kim fills Ramona in on her past.. via tone down, seemingly contridctary, and as we’ll find out later the true version of what happened: She was with Simon, he was a dick, Scott showed up he was also a dick, things happened. I guess. Ramona is disapointed, though Kim does provide some crucial info on her moving to tronto.. and reuniting with scott.

It honestly.. explains a LOT of why Scott is the way he is what happened with Envy. He saw Envy change entirley as a person.. and thus feels changing as a person , and smoking, is a sign of something bad.. when really it just means.. your changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst but we area LWAYS changing and it took me a lont time to realize that. The two are distracted from this though by Todd sloppily making out with Lynette in front of everyone.

We’re also reintroduced to Crash and the Boys, now redubbed the boys and crash, and seemingly playing music without intsturments. The thorughly lovely and rediculous explinaton for this and their new gloves and goggles, i’ll save for in a bit.

Scott and Envy, Scott and Knives: Scott goes out to get some air.. only to find Envy, who despite menally tourturing him for a few days insits they talk like regular people.. Scott wisely counters with “Nat when did we ever talk like real people” and while saying he won’t get to call her that again, it still chips down her walls for a second and shows that a bit of who she used to be, loath as she is to admit it, is still there.

Scott then spots knives... and has a moment of truth. And a hell of a series of reaction panels

It’s a VERY good scene.. that i’ve written about TWICE now but regardless, it shows Scott.. genuinely changing. Ignoring his past actions, running away from them and trying to pretend he never fucked up once... that’s been his go to. It’s his main flaw and hte one that takes the entire series to deal with as we’ll get into. And it’s here.. he faces it for the first time. He’s scared of knives at first.. but realizes.. he genuinely hurt her, and she’s where she is, cold, alone, and huddled in an ally lost and confused, because of him. Sure Envy hurt her.. but so did he.. and what’s worse. he did it just like Envy hurt him. Not thinking of her as a persona nd throwing her away when he didn’t need her. And so after books of build up.. he finally takes some responisblity and talks to her. It’s WHY the books work: Sure scott’s a dick, and remains a bit of one throughout, but.. he means well, isn’t inteitonally a standoffish prick, and slowly grows PAST this, and tries to be better, for Ramona.. and just because it’s the right thing to do.

So Knives reflects on the past few weeks, admitting that it’s been unbearably painful.. but she can’t and won’t go back to who she used to be. She’s lost her innocnce and all that, been dumped by the “love of her life”, been punched in the face by her faviorite drummer and treated like dogshit by her faviorite artist. Todd did nothing for once but gets no credit because of who we’re dealing with here. Point is.. it was a lot and while sh’es not HAPPY.. she’s greatful for it. Scott however.. steps up, saying what Envy did was wrong, she deserved better.. and finally, after how terribly he broke up wit hher.. apologizes for how he hurt her. And while Knives takes this as hope they’l get back together, Scott continues to be very mature, especially for his usual behavior, telling her no, it won’t happen, to give neil a try as whle she is dating him because he looks like Scott he’s not all bad, and that wallce was right: she was too good for him. And while Knives isn’t ready to accept it.. Scott did the right thing. Good for you man.

So while he, and later kim and stephen seperatly, get ready, Ramona.. runs into Envy. Whose oddly nice for ahlf a second.. before bringing up Gideon and giving Ramona a barrage of insults, clearly trying ONCE AGAIN, to knock her down and wreck her. Thing is while Scott clearlya nd understandably has baggage with Envy is easy prey for her manipulative elephant dung, Ramona. isn’t. All Envy’s done is piss her off more and more with each act of high school level mean girl bullshit... and sh’es done with it.

FIGHT’S ON. This Volume.. is honestly where Ramona really comes into bloom, pun intended, as the duetragonist of the books. While the book IS about Scott getting his life together and their relationship and he’s still her hero.. the books are also about RAMONA growing as a person, her own flaws and past, and the climax of all of them.. is just as much about her as it is scott. And this book has her own flaws come into play: Just like Scott she runs from the past, from who she was, and only faces it when needed, which will become more apparent as we go. But at the same time, we get to see far more of her personality as a result as her mysterious facade continues to drop. She’s prone to getting upset, but also clever and witty and knows her limits, knowing that going to that second performance would’ve just done no good and knowing herself very well, something Scott has genuine trouble with. She’s strong, sarcastic and knows who she is and what she wants and this volume finally brings that into focus. Not only that but her fight with Envy, is just as warranted, climatic and awesome as Scott’s fight coming up, as no one has stood up to envy due to her fame.. but Ramona.. dosen’t care. Someone’s gotta stop her, and Ramona’s taking up the job. And the awesome looking hammer.

That being said taking up a giant hammer against a beloved celebrity dosen’t win you any point, so Ramona finds herself discouraged, even if Envy can very clearly handle herself. Thankfully she gets some encouragment from exactly who you’d expect.

And Wallce.. turns out to be pretty useful. At least in this one fight. His shouting not only gives Ramona her fight back.. but keeps distracting envy, leaving her wide open. The tide turns though when Wallace has to pee, and Envy uses the distraction to knock the hamme rout of Raona’s hand and prepare to flatten her. But once again.. someone save sher in the knick of time.. and this time it’s the LAST person you’d expect, as Knives gives the hammer a flying kick.. and then crashes into a wall, and when Ramona, understandably not getting this since she tried to turn her into swiss cheese earlier this week, asks why, Knives admit’s she just wants Scott to be happy. Knives has grown too, and while she’s still obessed with Scott and waiting for themt o break up.. she’s no longer going to try and wedge her way in. If Ramona is what Scott wants, tha’ts what he gets.

All three are distracted by well.. this...

State of your outfits mates. Though that line is iconic. But serously the outfits are hilaroiusly and reaslitically mismatched. Kim’s home made and overdone gothica lolita outfit that dosen’t match her AT ALL, goth yes , poofy goth no. Stephen’s johnny cash outfit he clearly had lying around and Scott’s Dad Suit.

That being said.. still the best looking one of the three. But Envy takes advantage to regrab the hammer and try and murder the two of them.. but Scott sees this.. and well... you get it by now, one more time. Bake me away toys!

So we get the final weeks or days or whatever of the relationship. In a nice parallel to Scott playing Ramona a song he does the same for Envy.. who both questions what this is for then is confused why he’d do something so sweet. Next scene is her getting a call while their cuddling in bed from some guy she idntiefies as Jason and.. barely disguises is clearly cheating on Scott with. and could possibly be todd I dunno. After that we get to Kid Chamelon preparing to sign a deal and Envy.. trying to press Scott into sginging it, ignoring his obvious discomfort, and then casually threanting to replace him. While Scott does give us a face punchingly dickish comment about “How he started this band to meet chicks and maybe he met the wrong chick”... he’s still somehow in the right as while he’s being a manic dickhead... Envy has ceased seeing him as a person or even something she cares about and tells him to get a hair cut and leave.

We then get the breakup itself as Scott goes up to envy.. and she tells him to get out of her life. ack in the present, Scott’s grown enough to realize he has to stop her and does so.. by touching hte back of her knee which.. uhhhh.

So yeah.. he beat her with an orgasm, and that looks oddly hot. And i’m moving on before that last part of the sentence sinks in. Envy, once she recovers, orders Todd to do a murder on them, but Todd’s not there and Ramona, naturally, brags about him having cheated on her. Envy.. denis.. this.

I .. don’t have time to unpack that. This review is late, I have two other reviews to get to today. Time for ANOTHER flashback.

This time it’s Envy teling a story bok verion of her and Toddd’s relationship. It’s a real poetic and well done sequence. In a nuthsell: Envy and Todd were best friends and deeply in love as kids until todd moved away i’m guessing sometime in middle school. Deeply depressed, Envy sailed through life as sort of a ghost, TRYING to find another connection like that, but failing. Todd returned after she graduated though, and gave her a symbol of his love.. a hole on the moon. Yes another one. And they both promised to never waiver as he went off to the vegan academy. Clearly Envy did with Scott... but it paints her ambition in another light. One where she wanted to be big and bold enough for him.. but slowly carved out her old self to do so.

And as is obvious it was pointlness: not only did Envy love someone else.. but Todd never cared as much as she did. As Ramona points out, and relcutnantly because even she feels a little bad about this one, he did the moon trick with her.. and this time Envy CAN’T deny it.. becaue the evidence is right there.

And of course Todd.. makes his case even WORSE by picking that moment to come out of the bathroom, sipping up his pants, with panties on his head, and with Lynette following right after him. Envy.. tries to murder Lynette, her go to, but LYnette teleports out. Because she can do that. Though Envy does hit her cyborg arm so she looes that and the panties and Ramona offers to mount it at her place if Kim takes the panties, but kim admits she wasn’t scrapbooking, she said she was and was just making the dress. Horay, as ramona puts it “Col se can still be friends. Right.. FRIENDS.

Envy TRIES to cave Todd’s skull in, get some therapy woman, but Todd naturally tk’s it away but despite being the king of all assholes DOES care enough not to fight her. Envy... plays nice then knees him in the nuts like he fucking deserves. Todd then returns to being the once and future douchebag by TK’ing her into the crowd and bragging about it.

Scott dosen’t take this well, even after everything and the final fight begins. They have a bass fight.. but like the game i’ts redicuously one sided since Todd both is a skilled bassist compared to Scott.. and is still using his psychic powers lest you forget he’s a bastard man.

The Boys and Crash however show up to even the odds.. and their trainig is the reason they can play music without insturments as they can now manipulate pur sound. Fucking beautiful. But even they aren’t enough and Todd swats them aside.

While poorly is a bit harsh.. the vegan police show up, which is awesome, though the movie got thomas jane for one of them and had that high five so they win. But yeah.. while this is hilarous.. and the scene with them is great.. it’s also the weakest part of an otherwise near perfect book. It just feels a bit anti clmatic that after all this build up.. Todd is just.. beaten with a sloppy depower. The boys and crash would’ve still been a cop out, but it would’ve been a freaking cool cop out. The thing that saves it is afterwords Scott still gets an epic finish: after they devganize him for the gelato earlier, scott headbutts him epicly and wins. He gets money and.

A 1-up, which understandibly terrfies him but will come in hand in a few volumes. Trust me. Scot checks on everyone. Ramona’s fine, Envy is not and breifly blames scott before he points out Todd was a no good cheating dickwad, and Kim is obviously fine as nothing happend, but him asking is a nice bit of charcter growth. Kim asks about kinves but she’s okay and neil is helping her. But theshow must go on and since the headliners are dead (don’t worry he’ll respawn), in parts unknown and in emotoinal apocalypse, someone’s gotta play.

So our heroes have the show of their lives, and crowd reaction is mostly positive with Jospeh noticing htier levels were horrible, a hint for next time, and the crew interviewing everyone.. including a mysterous gentleman having a beer, who has no commenta nd walks away.

Gideon.. was here the whole time,but he’s not ready for Scott JUST yet. Still a really damn cool tease for the final boss.

So we close the next day, Scott and Envy sorta make up, with both apologizing for their behavor and while Scott gets no closure, envy promises to return.. and makes good on it. But.. that’s for the finale. For now Scott’s girlfriend and best buddy give him a moment to baste in his pathos, before heading off. And in a nice bit of metaphor, the clouds part, and our three amigos walk off into the sunset and a bright future. Three down 4 to go. Next time: Lesbian Artist Ninjas! Side Stories! Scott Gets A Job! The Band gets a producer! Kim gets a decent apartment and a boyfriend! Lisa returns! See you in feburary.

Until then if you liked this review, spread it around andi f ther’es a comic you want me to cover, my comissions are open. Until the next rainbow, it was a pleasure.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim and the infinite sadness #ramona flowers #wallace wells #kim pine #stephen stiles #neil nordgraf #envy adams #todd ingram #lynette gycott #julie powers #other scott #monique #sandra #college #comics #Brian Lee O'malley #oni press

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reidingandwriting · 5 years ago

Text

10 Things I Hate About You (And 1 Thing I Love)

Word Count: ~2000 words

Ship: Peter Parker x Stark!Daughter, Avengers x Reader (platonic/family)

Warnings: Mild language, but that’s it!

A/N: This was so much fun to write honestly, we love fluffy chaos. It was originally going in a COMPLETELY different direction, but I decided to be nice and give you guys the fluffy version instead 😉 I attached the “10 things” list at the end in case you wanted it :)

You took a breath as you stood at the altar, hands interlocked with your fiancé Peter’s, and you began to speak.

“I hate your jokes, they’re so stupid.” Everyone in the room laughed, including Peter. “You’re the only person who could make such lame jokes funny. I especially hate that goofy laugh of yours that follows, that’s what makes the jokes tolerable. I hate that smile of yours, how it lights up the room. Seriously, it’s so bright, I need an Advil for my headache.” Peter let out a tearful laugh and your thumb brushed over his knuckles.

“I hate how hardworking you are. You built yourself up from nothing, you worked hard in everything you did. You overachiever, I look like a slacker. I hate how my family loves you and how they didn’t scare you off. Trust me, my dad tried.” Your dad called out a ‘hell yeah I did!’ which sent the small venue into laughter again. “My family’s all very guarded, but you smashed through those walls and you became like another member of the family. I hate how even my dog loves you, and he hates everyone. You can ask Dad, the day we took him off the street, he tried to bite him. He never liked anyone that I dated, until I met you.” Peter gave you a smile, which you gladly returned. Tears threatened to spill from your eyes, but you blinked them back.

“I hate how you always know how to make me laugh, you know I hate how my laugh sounds. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much until I met you. I hate how you always want to help everyone, even when struggling yourself. You could be out in the freezing cold, and you would give the shirt off your back to whoever needed it. You’re going to get sick or hurt doing that one day, you self sacrificing dork.”

“I hate how much you care about your friends. I won’t admit it again, but we truly are lucky to have you. Every endless day we spend with you is the best day. Except for our Harry Styles concert, nothing tops that. I hate how you’d lay down your life for your friends- you’d even do it for people who weren’t your friends. That’s just the person you are.” A few stray tears slid down your cheeks now.

“Even with all this complete and utter hatred I have for you,” your tone was playful and Peter was struggling not to cry at this point. You had told him your wedding vows would be a bit unconventional, he expected nothing less from you. You were Y/N Stark after all, being unconventional was a trademark Stark trait. “there’s one thing I love about you that cancels out all of that.”

“You made me feel like I belonged whenever so many people made me feel like I didn’t. From the second I started at Midtown, everyone treated me differently. Students and teachers were either terrified of me and what my dad could do, or they sucked up to me to get in my dad’s good graces. You treated me like I was just Y/N. Not Y/N Stark, daughter of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. I was a regular teen with you, and I can’t thank you enough for that, Peter.” You wiped your eyes, smiling at the man you were about to marry. Your almost husband. “You introduced me to the best friends I could ever have, and you became the best boyfriend I could ever have. Boyfriend turned into fiancé, and now fiancé is about to turn into husband. These losers in the audience may be part of my family, but I can’t wait to start my own family with you. I love you, Peter Benjamin Parker.”

“I love you, Y/N Y/M/N Stark.” Peter smiled, a tear slipping down his cheek. “Now, if we’re doing the things I hate about you, let’s start with that god awful snoring.” The rest of the ceremony went on beautifully. Your dad wouldn’t admit it, but he totally cried whenever you and Peter said your “I do’s” and kissed. Meanwhile, Pepper wouldn’t let your dad forget it that he cried. Once the ceremony was finished, you moved the reception outside. Laura and Clint’s kids played with Scott’s daughter Cassie and your sister Morgan, while the adults continued the reception. The wedding was intimate, with your family of Avengers and Peter’s Aunt May and some friends of yours made up the guest list.

“I can’t believe Y/N’s married.” Natasha stood next to Tony, watching as you and Peter made your rounds with all the guests.

“Me neither.” Clint hummed in agreement, standing beside Natasha. “I remember the day I taught her to flip off the paparazzi.” Tony laughed at the memory, Pepper sending a playful glare to the archer. Tony still had the magazine in his office, the picture of you showing the camera your middle finger on the cover. You were only nine or ten at the time, you were all grown up now. You still liked to give the paparazzi your signature pose.

“How about the time she programmed FRIDAY to play that horrible Rebecca Black song every time we tried to use FRIDAY?” It was Steve’s turn to speak, and he groaned as he got the song stuck in his head again.

“Or that time she got FRIDAY to play that Black Widow song every time I entered the room?” Natasha’s face morphed into one of annoyance, but there was no real irritation behind it.

“What about the time Lady Y/N came to Asgard and made friends with Loki?” Thor remembered on your fourteenth birthday how you visited Asgard. It took endless tears and begging for your parents to agree. They finally agreed after you made a ten minute presentation, and Thor had promised to keep you safe. You loved Asgard and the people you met loved you- even Loki was fond of the young Stark. During your weekend in Asgard, you had spent equal time with the brothers. Thor gave you tours of Asgard and the castle, while Loki showed you some important spots from his childhood. You hated having to leave, but you came back every time you could. You even convinced Loki to spend more time on Earth (Midgard as he preferred to call it).

“I can’t forget about the time Tony brought in Y/N to the medbay when her hand was broken, he was hysterical. And you remember how she broke it?” Bruce looked at Tony, who rolled his eyes with a faint smirk.

“By punching that Flash kid in the face and breaking his nose.” Pepper shook her head at the memory, looking at the now grown up kids she loves. “They’ve always had each other’s backs. Now they’ve got each other forever. And they’ve got all of us.” Tony smiled as his older daughter walked over, Peter talking to his aunt. You gave everyone a hug, thanking them for coming.

“Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time for our dance, Dad.” Your dad nodded, pressing a kiss to his own wife’s cheek before walking to you.

“Let’s dance.” You lead your dad to the dance floor, your arm linked with his. You wrapped your arms around his neck, and Tony’s wrapped around your waist as you began to dance.

“I can’t believe my little girl is married now.” Tony spoke softly as you two danced, your dress sparkling under the lights as you moved. “Seems like just yesterday I held you in my arms for the first time.”

“It doesn’t feel real yet.” You hummed in agreement, looking up at your dad. “It still feels like I should be at home, having tea parties with Morgan, and giving you heart attacks with Peter.” Tony rolled his eyes, remembering how mere months ago, Tony was making a cup of coffee. You and Peter came to the lake house for Christmas, and you two were spending time with Morgan in your room.

Tony smiled as he heard the sound of laughter through the halls, until he heard a loud crash and Peter yell “shit!” which Morgan replied “that’s Mom’s word!” Tony ran to the sound, stopping at the sight. Morgan, holding your phone, stood beside Peter, who was doubled over laughing. Then he saw you, sprawled across the floor, roller skates on your feet. Pieces of shattered ceramic, dirt, flowers were surrounding you, which Tony recognized as the vase of flowers Morgan set up last week. You raised your head, looking at Morgan.

“Did you get that on video?!” You fist pumped the air as Morgan nodded, carefully getting back up. You froze when you saw your dad and looked at your fiancé and sister. “Retreat, retreat!!” You skated past your dad, Morgan and Peter following you as they laughed.

“Y/N, Morgan, and Peter! Get your asses back here and clean this up!”

“You see all these gray hairs? You caused them.” You laughed, giving your dad an award winning smile.

“We add excitement to your life.” Tony laughed, twirling you.

“And I can’t be happier that I have you two hooligans in my life.” You smiled as the song paused and everyone looked around. A familiar song started playing over the speakers, and your dad grinned. The slow song had been replaced by Mr. Brightside, one of yours and your dad’s favorite songs. The rest of the guests came to the dance floor, dancing and singing (yelling) the lyrics. The rest of the night was filled with singing, dancing, and laughter.

You stood beside Peter at the end of the night, swaying slightly as you held your sleeping sister. She was older now, but she never missed a chance for you to hold her. Your eyes traveled the room, taking in the sights around you. The rest of the kids were off by themselves, eating leftover wedding cake and drinking soda out of the champagne flutes. Ned and MJ had taken over the music, playing everything from throwbacks to today’s music, jumping around (as they’d call it, dancing) and laughing. The team of heroes were all broken out into their own groups, everyone getting along fine.

“I can’t believe this is our life.” You spoke after a minute of silence. “I remember when it was just me, my dad, and Happy. I never would’ve thought my family would grow from that group of three to all of us now.” Your eyes landed on your dad, who was laughing with the original Avengers team.

“If you would have told me in the start of high school that I was going to become an Avenger, fall in love with Tony Stark’s daughter, and join the family of the Earth’s mightiest heroes, I would think I was in a dream. And now it’s my reality. I’ve always wanted a big, happy family like this. And you gave it to me.” Peter smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead. Your eyes closed, savoring the moment.

“Our family’s about to expand by one more, too.” You whispered and Peter’s jaw dropped as it clicked.

“We’re having a baby?” You nodded with a smile, laughing as Peter hugged you tight, being careful not to disturb Morgan.

“We’re having a baby. Don’t tell my dad you know, he wanted to be the first to know.” You rested your head on his shoulder and Peter’s arm made its way around your waist.

“Our child really is going to have the best family to grow up in.” As you looked at your husband, you smiled to yourself.

‘Yeah.’ You thought. ‘They really will.’

1. Your stupid jokes

2. Your laugh

3. Your smile

4. How hardworking you are

5. How much my family loves you

6. Even my dog loves you, and he doesn’t like anyone

7. How you always know how to make me laugh

8. How you always want to help everyone

9. How much you care about your friends

10. And how you’d lay down your life for them

11. And how you made me feel normal

Taglist: @daughter-of-stark @agent-barnes40 @spideygirl2003 @ditttiii 💖 Taglist is OPEN, please let me know if you’d like to be added. Requests are also OPEN, feel free to make requests :)

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florenceandthemachine · 5 years ago

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i am in major need of some soft and happy stackson so talk to me about when they first get together and they can’t keep their hands off each other, both in a gross way like making out in front of all their friends and not giving a fuck but also being lovey dovey as shit all the time and surprising the hell out of the whole town because it is not what they were expecting at all.

BB I hope you are ready for a Full Canon Rewrite because honestly, they would probably get together after something super, terrifyingly emotional. Like after Jackson’s monster-master-driven apparently death, it would be Stiles who had leaped forward, and clutched Jackson’s body like his own life depended on it—and then, to everyone else’s shock, Jackson wrapped his arms around him just as tightly, his face now fully wolfed out, not a kanima scale in sight.

It would be... unexpected. But if anyone could defy the odds, it was Stiles.

And Jackson, of course. But only when Stiles was involved.

They weren’t disgusting, though. Not at first anyway. Nothing compared to what Stiles had to put up with in the past, between Jackson and Lydia and Scott and Allison.

It would start with the little touches—the tenderness between the two of them would be undeniable. Stiles would be the type to be walking in the halls next to Jackson, texting with one hand, and the other would instinctively latch on to Jackson—his hand, or his arm, his backpack strap, and ultimately his belt loop, tethering himself to Jackson in a way that made Jackson flush. Jackson would never bring it up, of course, too worried that if he were to say anything, it would stop.

But it would never stop.

They would sit front and center in any of the classes that they had. Coach only tried to separate them once during Econ, and they had both done so disastrously bad on their next test that he immediately gave up. After all, they certainly weren't a disturbance in class, it was just kind of.... hard, sometimes, to watch two idiot teenagers in love sitting in the front of the class.

Stiles would be the one who instigates almost all of their contact, but he would only be comfortable doing it because he knows Jackson not so secretly loves it. He would be the one to link their legs at the ankles when they were studying in the library, if they were at a table too far apart for them to hold hands. He would be the one to loop an arm around Jackson’s shoulders during their pre-game locker room rituals, and he would be the one who almost pulls Jackson into his lap during pack meetings.

(He worried, for all of twelve minutes, that Jackson was just tolerating his touch—he had tried to stop it only once, and after nearly an hour of Jackson being far grumpier than usual while simultaneously staring at Stiles hands, Stiles had idly gripped Jackson’s shoulder, given just the smallest squeeze, and watched the tension bleed out of his face almost instantly. So, obviously, the touching was a win win.)

The only hard part would be getting Jackson to understand that touch was okay between the two of them, in public. Private Jackson was plenty affectionate, but in public, while he responded well to Stiles touch, getting him to instigate anything was nigh impossible.

Stiles, as usual, dealt with it in a sneaky and underhanded way that appealed to Jackson and his wolf and would probably make Scott frown at him, so he considered it a win.

In the end, all he had to do was sigh and kiss Jackson’s knuckles while they were walking in to school, smiling sheepishly when Jackson looked over to him with an impossibly dopey smile.

“Sorry. I just, uh, I like this. Like it when you touch me, you know? Makes me feel like I’m yours.”

His heartbeat was steady—he was telling the truth, of course—but just as he expected, Jackson’s eyes blew wide, and suddenly he had his arms full of happy werewolf, dipping him into a deep kiss on the school steps like they were in some kind of Disney movie.

If he had known what kind of monster he had released, Stiles would have done that so much sooner; because Jackson, he was basically insatiable once he realized he was allowed to initiate physical contact. And Stiles loved it.

Holding hands in the hallway wasn’t enough anymore. Jackson would have his arms round Stiles waist, walking perfectly in step, close enough that Jackson could point out the rare odd calculation as Stiles poured over his notes, and Stiles could laugh at some snarky observation that Danny texted him.

Sitting together at lunch wasn’t enough anymore. Jackson would sidle up behind him, arms around Stiles and chin on his shoulder, huffing impatiently when Stiles was too absorbed in something to notice him right away—and that said something, that Stiles was so comfortable with Jackson in his space that he didn’t always notice it, it said something that Jackson both loved and was terrified of.

Hell, even going through doorways wasn’t enough anymore. Jackson would open the door for him and then guide Stiles through, let his hand rest on the small of Stiles back in a way that was the perfect balance between sweet and possessive.

Stiles would, completely unconsciously, lean into any touch that Jackson gave him.

But no, they weren’t disgusting. At least, not at first. And not in the broad public eye. Publicly, they were fucking tame, or so he told himself, ignoring the way his breath hitched when Jackson bit down on his collarbone, smothering his own groan in Jackson’s mouth when he finally came in their hiding spot beneath the bleachers, whipping an undershirt out of Jackson’s gym bag to clean himself up before sixth period started.

(Jackson acted like he hated it, but Stiles wouldn’t even entertain the notion that Jackson didn’t love having Stiles’ scent so close to him all day.)

They had actually waited a long time, teenager-wise, before they started fucking. Jackson was afraid of being Stiles first, to be frank, and Stiles was willing to deprive himself of the bounty of Jackson’s body for as long as it took to convince Jackson that he wasn’t just in it for sex.

(They had come painfully close to it, one Tuesday night when Jackson was staying at his place—literal months after they started dating. Stiles was on top of Jackson and Jackson was being so responsive to his touch, so good, and Stiles could barely hear anything over his own heart hammering because finally, the time felt right, this was right, they were both ready and—

and then Scott had come bursting through his unlatched window.

“Stiles, are you okay? I was patrolling and your heartbeat sounded super fucked up and I wanted to be sure that OH MY GOD MY EYES JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK YOU TWO OH GOD I AM SO SORRY I DIDN’T MEAN TO OH MY GOD.”

Jackson, the asshole, had almost laughed himself into a coma, but Stiles was so red you could fry an egg on his face, his self confidence gone in a flash. Jackson made it up to him with lots of cuddling and reassurance and Thai food while they watched a movie. stiles had said “I love you” for the first time that night, and even though he reassured Jackson that he didn’t have to say it back right away, Jackson just beamed at him and parroted it back almost instantly.

[The first time they did have sex, neither of them lasted longer than a minute, and suddenly Jackson was the embarrassed one, and it was perfect.])

Once they had started, though, it brought a whole new level of insatiable to their touches. Stiles no longer just held Jackson’s arm while they walked, he let his fingers trace every vein and contour of muscle beneath his shirt, in a way that was so blatantly pornographic—and somehow completely innocent—that even the most sexually comfortable bystander felt the need to avert their eyes.

When they studied, it wasn’t enough to have Jackson’s hand on his thigh—Jackson would let his fingers ghost over Stiles shorts, or pants, or whatever, his fingers getting closer and closer to Stiles groin with every trace, pretending like he didn’t love how Stiles would lean closer to him, until he was basically in Jackson’s lap in the library.

They had kissed in the locker room before, sure—but now it was to the point where Scott announced himself, loudly, when entering, if there was even the slightest suspicion that the two of them were alone in there (and even then, he had walked in twice to find the two of them very, very scantily clad, blushing bright red and avoiding eye contact with Scott and one another).

Sties, in his defense, had started to fight fire with fire, meaning that each time Scott complained about them at the lunch table (and okay, maybe that one time where Jackson had licked some ranch dressing off of Stiles palm was a bit much), Stiles immediately redirected with some embarrassing thing he had in his Scott folder—which proved to be entirely unnecessary, because less than a week into Scott and Allison bringing Isaac into their little romance, Stiles had more ammo on Scott than he ever wanted to have on anybody else, ever.

Their relationship was fairly public, and that was easy to see, but... there was so much more that came with that. There was a certain level of trust between them, the kind that Stiles would never have imagined before—but once Jackson had those walls down, it was like they were down for good. Stiles was there for every moment of it—he could still remember the first night he had to wake Jackson up from a nightmare, being extra mindful of the claws, the first time he had walked in on a fight between Jackson and his parents, had witnessed first hand what he could only call a temper tantrum where Jackson had nearly shredded his own mattress.

(Whenever Jackson had an outburst like that, Stiles always took note of the things he took his aggression out on. It was always his own things, never Stiles, and never anything that Stiles held near. It was... fascinating, and so sad, all at once.)

Jackson, in turn, could tell when Stiles was on the brink of a panic attack by the sound of his heart alone, and had actually (literally, unfortunately) ripped a door from its hinges to get to Stiles before he had completely spiraled out of control. Jackson was better than Scott, even, at getting his breathing to even out, his heart to slow. And for once, Stiles actually had the chance to talk about what was bothering him, what had pushed him over the edge in the first place.

Full moons were some of the best worst nights that they had together, because Jackson basically went “full beast mode” as Stiles called it. Basically, anyone or anything came near Stiles, and Jackson could not be held accountable for his actions. Stiles loved it almost as much as the day after, when Jackson was soft and a little embarrassed and Stiles got to pamper him with kisses, and soft touches, and so much love.

So, alright, maybe they were that disgusting couple, but they were in love, and Stiles didn’t care who saw it. They were together through literally the worst parts of their lives, and now they got to be together for the best, so who cared?

Stiles had his arms around Jackson when Jackson decided to come out to his parents. Jackson was there for Stiles when Stiles told his dad about all the supernatural stuff. They got through some of the incredibly harder points of their own lives with one another—and all the physicality along the way—and Stiles wouldn’t have it any other way.

After all, as much as he loved Jackson taking his hand as they got ready to walk the stage and receive their diplomas, as much as he loved Jackson giving him a kiss when they all tossed caps, as much as he loved Jackson kissing his wrist when he got down on one knee in that ugly ass graduation robe in front of God and everybody (and he cried, oh God did Stiles cry), he loved the man behind it even more.

#stackson #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #jackson whittemore #fluff #idiots in love #touch starved #they in love you can't stop them #sorry bout it #flospeaks

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oh-obrien · 5 years ago

Text

Inscrutable {5}

Inscrutable: Impossible to Understand or Interpret

Relationships: Stiles Stilinski x Original Female Character

Word Count: 6,186 6,485

Warnings: None

Author’s Note: I am back!!! Sorry for the delay I just had a really rough go for a couple weeks. Now, an angsty chapter that may wrap up well before shit starts to go down. Message me or send me an ask to be tagged!!

THIS PART OF INSCRUTABLE HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH MORE CONTENT AND HAS ALSO BEEN EDITED MORE THROUGHLY!

“Beacon Hills is honestly pretty chill right now, man.” Scott shrugged and ran a hand through his messy hair, looking over at Malia for her to confirm his statement. However, Stiles also knew his dad had told Scott to keep everything that had been going on in Beacon Hills on the down low from Stiles, not wanting him more distracted from school than he would be normally. Malia’s hesitant nod only aided in confirming Stiles’ suspicions. “Seriously!” Scott added when he saw Stiles’ gaze narrow. “Me and Derek got it, we’re like, a power couple?” His voice went up a little bit at the end, making it sound like a question. “Yeah, I think that’s the right term!” He just shrugged afterwards, not really caring if his terminology had been correct or not.

Malia rolled her eyes at Scott, “seriously, Stiles,” she started. “We have everything under control here, you and Lydia should just be concerned about college right now.” Stiles took a deep breath and shook his head, about to tell the pair he could see through their lies when his phone started ringing.

He quickly jerked his head over to where his phone sat on his bed and squinted, making sure he read the caller ID right. “Who’s that, bro?” Scott asked after seeing his best friend’s confused look.

“Uhh, Finley,” he said, picking up his phone and answering the call. “Hey, everything okay?” Stiles asked, his tone filled with genuine concern. Stiles knew that Finley had been going to see her dad earlier that morning, and he also knew from what she had said the night before that their relationship was slightly strained at the moment to say the least.

“No. Stiles, I- I need to talk to you.” Her voice cracked towards the end and Stiles’ eyes widened as he looked up to see Scott and Malia watching and listening in confusion. Thank God they couldn’t use their were-hearing to listen in on the phone call, if they could Scott would have even more questions than he already would.

Stiles took in a sharp breath, “okay,” he tried to sound as soothing as possible, now would not be the best time for his anxiety to take over. Well take over noticeably, he already felt himself starting to panic slightly. “Right now, you’re safe though?” He tried to run through questions he knew his dad would as if he received a similar phone call. Stiles heard a small ‘mmhum’ from Finley and let out a sigh of relief. “Do you need me to come get you from somewhere, I can’t drive since I don’t have a car here, but I can come get you.”

“No,” she sniffled. Why would she be crying? “I just think I need to talk to you; can you meet me at my dorm in like an hour and a half?” An hour and a half seemed awfully long when she clearly sounded upset. However, if that’s how long she needed he would agree.

Stiles looked at the clock on his desk and noticed it had already passed noon. The pair had slept in until nearly ten, but he didn’t realize it had already hit noon. By the time he got to her dorm it would be nearly two in the afternoon. “I can do that,” he said, “do you need me to bring anything,”

“No, thank you,” she said quietly. “I’ll see you soon?”

Stiles couldn’t help but smile a little bit, despite how upset she sounded. He watched Scott raise his eyebrow and smirk and Stiles rolled his eyes at his best friend before responding. “I’ll see you soon,” he went to pull the phone away from his face before adding, “call sooner if you need anything.” After hearing an ‘okay’ he said goodbye before hanging up.

Stiles saw Scott and Malia still watching him. “So?” Scott dragged out the word.

“She asked if I could swing by her dorm in an hour and a half,” Stiles looked down at his phone, confused. “She sounded like she was- crying?” He watched Malia’s face morph into confusion while Scott pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, clearly thinking. Which could be dangerous. At least there wasn’t any smoke coming out of his ears this time. Stiles swore it used to happen in school on occasion.

Stiles sank back into his bed even more than he had been before letting out a long sigh, pulling at the ends of his messy hair. “Uhh,” Scott started, “did anything like happen last night that could trigger a reaction like that?” He asked, clearly trying to help Stiles think over possibilities as to why Finley would be crying and want to see him.

“N- no,” Stiles stuttered out trying to think, “she seemed - well she got upset talking about like couples and how she’s never had a boyfriend or even a fling,” he spoke. “I don’t - I really don’t think talking about this would help my anxiety at all right now so, if we can just not focus on that I’d be happy,” Stiles started fidgeting with his fingers.

“Yeah, totally man,” Scott smiled. “So, Chris and my Mom last weekend-”

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

Finley walked into her room and dropped her backpack on her floor, not caring about the new files her father had given her at the office earlier that morning. If they wrinkled in her bag, then so be it. She hadn’t even bothered to ask what they had in them after they had been handed to her. She shoved them into her bag before going off on a ramble about Stiles and how she hated how right everything felt with him. That had been before she got dragged to lunch with her uncle and wound up leaving the restaurant like some type of lunatic though.

Pulling off her wet long sleeve shirt she dropped it in the middle of the floor with a loud, wet plop and sat down on her desk chair to pull off her jeans that stuck to her legs. She knew that her suitemates would still be out to lunch with a few of the guys on the men’s lacrosse team, so she didn’t care about pushing the bathroom door open in only her bra and underwear, both also soaked through.

She pulled her bra and underwear off before looking herself over in the mirror. She still felt chilled to the bone from her walk back to campus in the rain, especially since it had been an unusually cold day. She looked exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in weeks. She let out a long breath of air and poked at the bags under her eyes. She had gotten the best sleep she had in months the night before, but she couldn’t help but feel absolutely exhausted. Talking about her family tended to do that to her though. It would forever be a topic that mentally drained her, no matter who she talked to about it with.

Finley made sure to lock the bathroom door that led into her suitemates’ room, just in case, before starting the shower, turning the handle to as hot as she knew she could tolerate without burning her skin. It would heal over almost immediately, but blistering her skin never tended to feel great. Stepping into the shower and letting the water run over her body, Finley felt her shoulders drop and her clenched jaw loosen, heaps of tension running out of her body and down the drain with the water.

Resting her back against the tile wall of the shower, Finley closed her eyes and tried not to cry, tried to continue to let the water wash away her problems, even if it only lasted a few minutes. She wished that the water could wash away the memories she had of the past year and a half of her life, she wished she could replace them with something new, something better. However, she had accepted the past year months earlier, understanding that she couldn’t change things that had already happened. She also learned that dwelling on the memories would just make the recovery longer, harder; that wasn’t something she wanted to do to herself.

Finally opening her eyes again, Finley went through her shower routine slowly, trying to let water relax her tense body even more. After finishing rinsing any trace of suds out of her hair and off her body, Finley turned the water off before stepping out of the shower and wrapping a fluffy towel around herself, thanking her past self for doing laundry yesterday afternoon. She picked up her soaked bra and underwear before wandering back into her room. Closing her blinds, and setting her soaked undergarments in her hamper, Finley then dropped her towel from around her body and used it to dry off her hair, shivering while the cold air wrapped around her again.

“Hoodie, hoodie, hoodie,” she mumbled to herself while sifting through the things she had hung up in her closet. Finally pulling out one of her old lacrosse hoodies from high school, she threw it on her bed while grabbing clean underwear and a sports bra out of her drawers. After pulling her undergarments and a clean pair of shorts on she plugged in her diffuser and fairy lights before throwing her backpack with the files her dad had given her on her bed. She shrugged on her hoodie and climbed into her bed, taking a moment to compose herself fully.

Finley pulled one of her throw blankets over her lap before dragging her backpack closer and pulled her phone out of its front pocket and noticed calls from her father and uncle. After sending them both a text assuring them that she had gotten back to her dorm fine, she unzipped the largest pocket of her bag, dragging a heft stack of files out and setting them next to herself. She dropped her backpack on her floor with a quiet thud and pushed her glasses further up her nose, reaching over to her desk to grab her bag of highlighters and different colored pens. She needed to talk to Stiles, but until he got to her room, the files would have to serve as an adequate distraction.

She grabbed the first folder and noticed that a few staples had made indents that showed through the cover, turning it to the side she read the label on the tab. ‘J. Whittemore’, had been scrawled across the tab in a red sharpie, the handwriting definitely her father’s. She pulled it open and looked at the profile stapled to the inside, chewing on the inside of her cheek while she did so. She noticed something circled in red and her eyes were instantly drawn to it, the rest of the individual’s profile quickly being forgotten. The words ‘Attended Beacon Hills High School’ were those circled in red, the neat Times New Roman font almost mocking her while she read them over and over again.

Pulling the next file over to herself Finley Again read the identification tab, ‘L. Dunbar’. She again opened the folder and saw the same three words circled. Setting her highlighter down she laid all the files out on top of each other, the identification tabs lining up neatly.

L. Martin.

I. Lahey.

K. Yukimura.

M. Tate.

M. Hewit.

C. Bryant.

E. Steiner.

T. Raeken.

D. Hale. She paused on that file, her teeth pulling a layer of skin off her bottom lip while she chewed on it. Hale wasn’t exactly a common last name, and Finley would have called herself stupid if she wasn’t the least bit suspicious of what exactly lived inside the files. Deciding to look back at the file after she confirmed her suspicions, Finley read the next identification tab.

S. McCall. Most definitely Scott McCall, she knew that without even opening the file.

M. Stilinski. Stiles hadn’t mentioned his father’s first name in any of their meetings, and she had remembered him stating it had just been him and his dad since he had been ten. So, it had to be a file on his father, but why would her dad need one?

Pulling the file out for ‘D. Hale’, before she even opened it, she knew it would be Derek Hale’s. Finley’s Pack had quite the alliance with the Hale’s, both in New York and California before the fire happened, she knew Derek himself quite well as they weren’t all that far apart in age. After the fire in Beacon Hills though, the Mannulv Pack had lost touch with the Hale family who remained in California, although their alliance with the New York Hale’s remained strong.

Finley finally flipped the file open, and the identification photo stared back at her, it definitely was a picture of Derek, a much older Derek than she remembered, but still Derek. He no longer had the baby face that Finley remembered from when they had been younger, his features sharper and stubble covering his face. He had most definitely turned into the ‘handsome young man’, that Finley’s mother said he would years ago. She flipped through his entire file, noticing that much of it would be rather unnoteworthy, just normal facts about his life, his family, the fire. Nothing stuck out to Finley other than a warrant for ‘mass murder’ that had been dismissed.

With the Hale’s having once been the most powerful family in the were-community, and with the Mannulv family also having the same status, Finley had brushed shoulders with all of the Hale children when she had been younger. Cian had once looked up to Derek and always tried to talk to the older boy at weddings and other events that caused the two Packs to mingle, however, after the fire, Derek hadn’t been seen at any inter-pack events.

She opted to push Derek’s file aside and pull forward the one labeled ‘S. McCall’, Scott McCall’s file. Scott’s file was clearly the thickest in the pile, and Finley knew most of it would be information she didn’t need or want. She noted that the only thing that stood out had been the bolded line on his identification page stating that he had the current position of Alpha of the McCall pack, having presented as a True Alpha a few years earlier. Finley smirked and stacked Scott’s file on top of Derek’s. Two True Alpha’s meeting would be quite a rarity, but with Finley’s ability to control her territorial instincts and Scott’s rather limited knowledge on werewolf traditions, the pair would have no problem getting along. The other files that Finley’s father had given her had noted at the top of each first page that the individual was a member of the McCall Pack, but they presented to be a rather unusual mix of supernatural creatures.

After stacking all the remaining files together and setting them aside; Finley found her fingers wrapping around the final file, the file labeled ‘M. Stilinski’. She pulled her bottom lip before opening the folder, a picture of Stiles stapled to the cover and the bolded words, ‘Mieczyslaw “Stiles” Stilinski’, staring back at her. She quickly snapped the file closed before she picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts. She pressed on her brother’s contact and hit the call button, her anxiety growing with every second that passed. She hadn’t gotten herself so worked up over something so quickly since her grandmother had told her she needed to move out of the main pack house for the ‘good of the family’.

She started to gnaw on her bottom lip even harder while she waited for an answer and groaned out loud when she got his voicemail greeting. “Fucking football,” she locked her phone and threw it on her bed. “Why did he have to be good at football!”

She needed something else to distract her, she needed something else to think about. Adding Stile’s file to the top of the pile she pushed herself off her bed and picked up her backpack. With shaky hands she shoved all of the files into the bag before walking over to her closet. Finley found herself pushing her clothes out of the way so she could get to the back corner. She pressed the bag as far into the corner as it could go, as if it would make the files disappear, and pushed everything back in front of it. She still had to tell Stiles everything, she owed him it. She just had to accept that he already knew more than she thought he did.

Finally, thinking of a distraction, Finley shuffled across her carpet and found herself in front of her wall of pictures. The same one that Stiles had been looking at the day before, admiring even. The thought of someone admiring the pictures of her and her family from the past year made her queasy, if only they all knew what had been going on. She swallowed thickly before looking at some of the pictures. Prom, nationals for her travel lacrosse team, all of her brother’s official college visits, she had plenty of good memories hung up on her wall. She would never deny that the wall had been filled with majority good memories. However, she also tried to hang up things that would make it seem as if she had a normal family life. It all felt fake, like she had put a huge lie up on display for anyone who entered her room to see.

She had so many pictures of her family hung up, so many pictures she had to force herself to smile in, had to force herself to appear happy and healthy for. Pictures of her family in the pack house for birthday’s. Movie nights she had with her cousins before she moved into the guest cabin. She saw a picture of her entire family at the lake on their property for her and Cian’s birthday the previous year. After tearing her eyes away from the wall, Finley actually had to keep herself from getting nauseous at the memory. The twins’ last birthday at home had been a couple of months after they found out Finley had presented as a True Alpha and her grandmother hadn’t wanted to invite her to the party at all that day. She had only planned on throwing a party for Cian and had wanted to let Maxwell handle Finley, the animosity between Finley and her grandmother still too strong. The wounds were still too fresh.

Finley pulled her bottom lip between her teeth again and shuffled over to her desk, opening the top drawer she saw the pack of pushpins she had purchased to hang the photos up sitting right on top. Taking the plastic container between her hands she set it on the heating unit in front of her window, flipping the safety latch and opening it. Without thinking her hands started moving on her wall, pulling colored pushpins out of the corners of various pictures, letting the photos fall to the floor and putting the pushpins back in the right section of the container according to their colors.

Finley had just pulled the last pushpin out of a picture from her sweet sixteen when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly turned on her heel, ignoring the tears she felt quickly gathering in the corners of her eyes, and set her foot flat on to the ground. “Motherfucker!” She felt a push-pin stick into the ball of her foot. Pulling it out she threw it in the garbage can before pausing near her door.

Stiles’ heartbeat sounded fast, too fast to write off as elevated just from him walking over to her dorm from his. He smelled like pure anxiety and nerves, she noticed it seeping under the door causing her face to scrunch up in disgust; anxiety had always been Finley’s least favorite of the emotions to be able to pick up on. It smelled tangy and sour, sometimes people’s anxiety would be so strong she swore she could taste it; like rotten lemons mixed with curdled milk. Putting her hand on the cool metal handle of her door she closed her eyes and felt the lock pop as it opened. There would be no going back now. “Hey, sorry to like,” she looked down at her feet while she opened the door, “do this,” why did she want to cry?

“No!” Stiles cleared his throat, waving his hands in front of himself. “I mean,” he sighed, “don’t be sorry, okay? I wasn’t sure if you were okay when you called and I just wanted to make sure you were,” he stepped into Finley’s dorm when she backed away from the door to let him in. He immediately noticed pictures scattered carelessly across her floor, some face up and some face down. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to where they were scatted in the room, and he noticed her wall of photos seemed to be mostly empty compared to yesterday. Did her make her uncomfortable looking at them? Oh god, he hoped not. She didn’t seem to mind then, but what if that had just been her being polite? Stiles took in a deep breath and turned back to Finley who still stood with her door open.

Sighing, Finley closed her door and Stiles watched her pick up a soaked gray hoodie from on her empty desk and she hung it on the hook on the back of her door, a few drops of water falling off the sleeve cuffs. A pair of wet sneakers had been kicked into the corner of her room and a towel hung off the post of her bed. “I just- I got into it with my dad and uncle earlier,” she mumbled, bending down to pick up some of the photos on her carpet. Stiles tried to gauge her mood but couldn’t quite put his thumb on her emotions. Angry. Upset. Hurt. He wasn’t quite sure.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Stiles kneeled to pick up some of the photos Finley hadn’t yet collected, it seemed like a better solution than standing in her room awkwardly waiting for her to speak. He heard her let out a shaky sigh as she stood up, putting the photos in her hand on her bed. Stiles followed her actions and put the photos he had on top of her pile. Finley climbed into her bed and patted the mattress next to her.

Stiles toed off his shoes and left them on the edge of her carpet, momentarily wiggling his sock covered toes into the soft material of her carpet. He shuffled across the carpet and pushed himself up on to Finley’s bed, a dull ache from his first week of lacrosse still pulling at his muscles. He made sure that he left a comfortable distance between them, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, although she had seemed perfectly comfortable with him the night before. “I don’t exactly want to,” he watched her pull her bottom lip between her teeth, “but I feel like we need to. Sooner rather than later,” she added the last part after a small pause.

“Finley, if you’re not com-”

“I’m never going to be comfortable talking about who, or I guess what I am. I’m never going to be comfortable talking about my family,” she saw Stiles open his mouth but cut him off, “but sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone to set things right in life, Stiles.” She crossed her legs and turned to face him, her lip pulled between her bottom lip and a tight crease formed in her forehead while she started flipping through the photos that sat between them.

Stiles watched her shaky fingers flip through the photos, pausing on some for a few seconds before flipping to the next.

Eventually she settled on one, it pictured a large group of people, and she turned it face down between them. “So,” she looked up at him through the lenses of her glasses, her eyes red from crying and small bags starting to form under them. “I don’t really want to scare you away or anything, but uhh my family is kind of umm,” she trailed off, “unique.”

“Unless your family is running some super-secret and super fucked up cult I don’t think you can scare me away,” he laughed to try and lighten the mood. “You don’t know a lot about Beacon Hills,” he added to the end.

He watched Finley’s eyes widen before she let out a long sigh, “actually,” she said the word so quietly Stiles almost didn’t hear it. Did her family really run a super-secret, fucked up cult? “Y’know how my dad works for the CIA?” Stiles nodded slowly, wondering where Finley could possibly be taking the conversation. “Well, as you’ll find out one day. A lot of ��conspiracy theories’ are true, and a lot of the time, the CIA is working on these things that people will tout as not possible, but you knew that already.”

“Okay,” Stiles dragged the word out, unsure where the conversation would head next. Hopefully it didn’t hang a left down Psycho Lane. “Like aliens being real or the concept that the world is really run by a singular governmental unit?” He offered two of the theories he knew were tossed around the internet quite often. Once he noticed a small smile pulled at the corner of Finley’s lips, he knew he had slightly diffused the tension in the room for a moment.

“Well,” she swallowed. “I can tell you I know who Scott McCall is, and I know Derek Hale uhh personally-” she trailed off for a few seconds. “And I know all about Scott’s Pack, your Pack” she flipped over the photo, Stiles’ heart beating even faster. “And I know that this is my Pack,” Stiles scanned the picture over, “well some of my Pack, that’s my immediate family.” There were probably about twenty people gathered around a lake, all squished very close together and smiling brightly. All except for Finley. She had a wide smile in the picture, but it wasn’t genuine. She didn’t have the usual dimples she would get when she actually smiled, and it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Finley pulled a few more pictures out of the pile and laid them out “I know that my dad and his four brothers are weres, that my grandma gave my grandpa the bite right before they got married.” She pointed to a picture of six individuals in front of the same lake, parents and four young boys all squished close together in it. They all looked strikingly similar, even for siblings.

“Who’s who?” Stiles found himself asking, leaning closer to Finley so he could see the picture better. He heard Finley take in a deep breath before she pulled another picture out of the pile. It pictured her in a short red cupcake dress that seemed to be covered in crystals, four men gathered around her and a wide smile on all of their faces.

“Obviously,” she pointed to the man to her left, “that’s my dad. That’s my uncle Cayden,” she pointed to the man on her right, “next to my dad is Jordan and then next to Cayden is Todd.” She let out a quiet sigh before tucking the picture back into the pile. Stiles just nodded slowly, processing all the information.

A comfortable silence fell between the two while Finley flipped through pictures again, picking out another before she started talking. “I can tell you that most of my cousins are also weres and so are their kids,” she handed him a picture of her and Cian laying on the floor under a pile of younger kids. He saw adults laughing in the background and assumed those were the younger kids’ parents. There were so many kids in the photo, he had counted a baker’s dozen, that he wasn’t quite sure how anyone could handle them, but then again werewolf packs tended to share the child rearing duties. Stiles had done extensive research when Scott had first been turned, so he knew much more than he would usually admit.

“And the pups are absolutely adorable when they chase you around full shift, like little puppies just learning to walk,” she flashed Stiles a picture of two wolf pups, her younger cousins, and even when they puppy pile you on the floor they’re kind of cute.” He saw a fond smile grace her face, obviously attached to the younger kids in her family. “I took care of them pretty often, I mean when my grandma still trusted me,” her smile faded.

She grabbed a picture of her and Cian together, laying out in the middle of a large field, the almost full moon bright in the sky above them. “I can also tell you that Cian and I also happen to be weres ourselves, even though my mom never took the bite from my grandma, our Alpha.”

Finley looked up to Stiles when she finished speaking, her hands shaking much less and her anxiety decreasing with each breath she took. She noticed that Stiles’ heart still beat unusually fast, but he didn’t smell like anxiety anymore. His scent had returned to the one she had found comfort in the day before, he smelled warm and welcoming, she wanted to roll in that scent and never forget it. “So,” Stiles trialed off, picking up the photo of her family and looking it over. “You’re like all born wolves?” He asked.

Finley laughed lightly when he didn’t freak out, knowing she definitely wanted to keep him around now. “For the most part,” she let out a long sigh, “a couple of my aunts took the bite from my grandma and others didn’t.” She started flipping through pictures again. “But that’s my pack. That’s more of what a typical pack would look like, if you compare it to Scott’s obviously.” She watched Stiles set down the photo and he turned to face her. “And I totally understand if you want to like, not talk other than for the project just that had been eating away at me for a few weeks. Especially with Scott coming to visit soon, I didn’t want you to find out then because once we met it would be a dead giveaway. I just needed to tell you, it felt wrong not to, especially when you already know about our little world.”

Finley watched Stiles sink further back into her mattress while he shook his head, “I’ll stay,” he offered a smile, “as long as you get me that magic heating pad again?” Finley laughed and nodded, pushing herself off the bed and grabbing the heating pad from where she had left it on her floor that morning. She plugged it into her extension cord and handed it to Stiles before climbing back into her bed.

“Y’know, if you want me to like, take away the pain I’m able to do that right?” She offered. She saw Stiles’ eyes widen and he adjusted the heating pad on his back. His heartbeat had slowed down some, but it wasn’t quite at a normal resting rate yet, she assumed his discomfort contributed slightly. Finley assumed that his heart beating slightly father though would probably be normal, considering he had just found out he never really would be escaping the supernatural that he lived with in Beacon Hills.

He closed his eyes and knotted his fingers together on his stomach, a sated smile on his face. “So, all of you are able to do that?” Finely crawled closer and let out a quiet hum in acknowledgement.

“Some are better at it than others though,” she set her left hand over his that were clasped together, she felt her wolf dying to get even closer to Stiles in the back of her mind but pushed it away. “I learned really fast,” she watched Stiles’ pain climb up her arm and watched it fade under the rolled-up sleeve of her hoodie. “Took my brother a lot longer to learn that it took me.” Once she saw Stiles relax fully into her mattress and noticed his heart rate seemed normal again, she moved her hand off his despite her wolf trying to push her to be even closer to him still.

Stiles opened one of his eyes to look at her, watching her crawl off her bed with her photos in hand. A comfortable silence fell between the pair and Stiles watched Finley slide a drawer on her one desk open. He noticed that Finley would look at each photo before she would place it inside the drawer, pausing longer on some than others. “So,” he opened both his eyes now and watched her closely, “why’d you take them all down?” He watched her pause for a second, bending the corner of the photo currently on top.

“Complicated family dynamics,” she dumped the rest of the photos into the drawer without looking at any and closed it. “I uhh-” Finley sighed. “I don’t get along too well with some people in my family,” she shrugged and crawled into her bed again, lifting the blanket so she could slide her legs under it.

Stiles sat up and lifted his side of her comforter, sliding underneath himself before settling the heating pad on his lower back again. He wasn’t in pain anymore, but the heat brought him a strange sense of comfort. “Like cousins or?”

“Damn, digging deep already,” Finley let out a quiet laugh that Stiles barely heard while she grabbed an extra pillow to lean against. “Well, you know how pack dynamics work somewhat, I’m sure,” she looked over to Stiles and he just nodded.

“Alphas and Betas and all that,” he added, hoping to ease Finley’s nerves slightly. “Scott’s an Alpha, Liam’s his Beta.”

“Scott’s a True Alpha,” Finley quickly corrected him. “Pretty rare if you want the facts about it,” she pulled at the loose strings of her comforter that covered her lap. Stiles could tell she wanted to tell him something but couldn’t find the words to say whatever it was, but he wouldn’t push her into territory she would be uncomfortable in. “Most packs don’t work that way, a true Alpha turning a Beta and so on, most are pretty structured. Throw in a True Alpha and forget it,” she snapped her fingers, “pack order and unity gone.”

Stiles sat up and decided to lean against the wall next to Finley, their legs close enough to touch if either decided to move even a fraction of an inch. Stiles felt oddly drawn to Finley, the night before had been the best he slept since moving into American. With Finley so close to him again he felt strangely safe, comfortable, and relaxed. “So, most packs work like the Hale’s did?” He asked, watching Finley’s reactions. He noticed her stiffen slightly before nodding.

“My Pack is a lot older than the Hale Pack, but similar enough,” she replied. “My grandma, my dad’s mom, is the Alpha right now, her dad before her was the Alpha but he didn’t have any sons, so his daughter took over when he was ready to transfer his power.” She shifted closer to Stiles and felt her leg bump into his, she waited for him to move away, but he didn’t. She let the warmth from his body calm her wolf slightly and let out a long sigh. “So, by tradition my grandma’s oldest son would take the pack after she passed,” Finley trailed off.

Stiles turned his head so he could see her better, “but?” he asked curiously, knowing there would be a but based on Finley’s body language and tone.

“But that position isn’t up for grabs really anymore,” she quickly pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees. “When a pack that already has an Alpha also has a True Alpha in it, that True Alpha will take the Alpha’s position when they pass or decide to pass on their powers,” Stiles watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath in, a few tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

Without really thinking, Stiles wrapped his arm around Finley’s shoulders, pulling her into his side. Her head fell on to his shoulder and he hear her stifle a laugh, “we don’t have to keep talking about this y’know?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m fine,” she reached up to grab his hand that hunger over her shoulder. Stiles watched as she started to absentmindedly play with his fingers before she started speaking again, “so when I presented as a True Alpha before I turned seventeen,” she trailed off for a moment. “It kind of caused some complications in the family, but everyone got over it but my grandma.”

Stiles just nodded along, still watching Finley play with his fingers while she thought, the silence between the two a comfortable one. “Really?” he asked after the silence had been stretched out longer, “she knows who’s next in line, she can help you learn,” he added.

Finley let out a mix between a snort and a laugh and turned so she could see him better. “Wow, someone else here thinks logically,” she rested her head on his shoulder, resuming playing with his fingers. “I’ve tried to explain that to her y’know? She didn’t get it though.”

“It’s the most logical explanation!” Stiles stated matter-of-factly, “how could she not understand that?” He shook his head. “I thought that Alpha’s were supposed to be smart, but Scott is obviously another exception to that rule.”

Finley just laughed quietly as Stiles talked, “I really need to keep you around now,” she mumbled.

“Oh, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere,” Stiles placed a kiss to the top of Finley’s head, the action feeling natural. “It may not have been what I expected, but I’ve adjusted before and I can adjust again,” he rested his chin on the top of Finley’s head, a comfortable slice falling around them again.

Finley felt herself let out a happy rumble, deep from within her chest, something that hadn’t happened in over a year. She knew Stiles would be staying now and it had settled her wolf, something no one had been able to do since the day she presented as a True Alpha. They would most definitely need to have the ‘mates talk’ sooner rather than later, but for now Finley finally felt content and happy. She deserved to bask in the feeling for a little while, she really deserved it.Tagging those who have expressed interest: @stixnstripesworld @kellysashcroft

#stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski imagine #stiles stilinski fanfiction #dylan o'brien #dylan obrien #dylan o'brien imagine #dylan obrien imagine #anna writes #inscrutable fic #stiles stilinski x oc #teen wolf #teen wolf fanfiction #teen wolf imagine #WEREWOLF OFC #werewolf character #HUMAN STILES

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tw-anchor · 5 years ago

Text

02. Meddling Boys

Anchor

Stiles Stilinski x Original Character (Reader)

Episode: 1x02; Second Chance at First Line

Word Count: 5,381

Warning(s): Mature language, dead body, cannon violence

Author’s Note: Stiles and Scott stirred the pot and Olivia’s not happy! Tell me what y’all think of this. Reblog and like!

Masterlist in Profile Description

“Did Scott apologize yet?” Olivia asked Allison, briefly glancing at the taller girl as she opened her locker.

Allison sighed loudly. “No, not yet,” she leaned against the locker next to Olivia’s. “But he messaged me last period. I guess he wants to talk.”

Olivia hummed. “Maybe you should,” she shrugged when Allison gave her a questioning look. “He looked sick when he left the party. He probably didn’t want to leave you.”

Of course, Olivia knew exactly why Scott left the party so early but she couldn’t exactly tell Allison the truth. She was an Argent and just because she was nice didn’t mean she didn’t hunt supernatural creatures as a side hobby. If it got out that Scott was a werewolf, he’d most likely be dead the next day.

“I guess,” Allison said quietly, looking at her phone when it buzzed. “My dad’s here. Can I call you later? To tell you about Scott?”

“Yeah, of course,” Olivia nodded with a small smile. “See you tomorrow.”

Allison beamed at her and left with a wave, leaving Olivia by herself.

She didn’t want to get too close to Allison but she turned out to be a really sweet girl so far. Olivia was making sure that she was guarded when getting to know her, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends. Plus, Lydia liked Allison, too, and it’d be weird if she didn’t hang around them without an explanation.

Olivia focused back on her locker, pulling out her chemistry textbook so she could do the homework that Mr. Harris had assigned her class.

“I know what you’re up to!”

Olivia jumped, startled, and turned to Stiles, eyes wide. Stiles stood with his hands on his hips, already dressed in his lacrosse pads and practice jersey, his whiskey eyes narrowed at her.

“You scared me,” she scolded him. “What am I up to again?”

All day, Stiles and Scott had glared at her during the classes they shared. She had an idea of why there were angry—Derek had told her that he didn’t deny biting Scott when he was confronted by the new beta, which was an idiot move—but if they would just let her clear up Derek’s shady actions, everything would be fine.

“You and your cousin,” Stiles hissed, faltering a little when Olivia’s pursed her lips at him. She was just too damn beautiful. “He bit Scott and now he wants Scott to follow him around and do all kinds of stuff.”

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows and closed her locker so she could face Stiles head-on. “Okay, Derek didn’t bite Scott.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Stiles huffed.

“He didn’t,” Olivia pressed, growing irritated. “And I’m not planning anything. I just wanted to help, Derek went rogue.”

“Rogue?”

“Yeah,” Olivia nodded. “He was supposed to help Scott, not antagonize him,” she shrugged, hoisting her bag on her shoulder. “but Scott made it through all right, right? I mean, Derek helped him get away from the hunters.”

Stiles scoffed. “Yeah, he sure was helpful.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “I think you hate Derek for no reason. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“He killed that girl, Olivia!” Stiles protested, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Of course, she’d protect her family, he thought.

Olivia stiffened, her lips pressed in a firm line. Stiles was startled to see her blue eyes start to water.

Stiles sighed, mad at himself for making her cry. “Liv—"

“Derek didn’t kill anyone,” she said lowly, interrupting Stiles.

“Look, I know you want to protect him, but—”

“You don’t know anything, Stiles!” she exclaimed, cutting him off again. “You think you do, but you don’t!”

“Fine!”

Olivia angrily turned away from the infuriating boy and stomped down the hallway, disappointed in herself for getting so angry. She wasn’t the stoic, calm Olivia that she usually was and it was bugging her.

Still, she couldn’t help herself when Stiles mentioned Laura. He didn’t know anything. Derek would never in a million years kill his big sister. The only reason that he and Scott thought that was because they didn’t think to ask questions. They just assumed.

And that angered her because she and Derek were the ones offering to help Scott out. Sure, Derek went a little off the rails, but Scott nor Allison were hurt.

Her phone buzzed angrily in her pocket; she looked at it, not surprised to see that Derek was calling her.

She sighed and answered the call, “Hello?”

“Get out to the lacrosse field,” Derek said quickly. “We need to watch Scott.”

“Hello to you, too,” Olivia grumbled. “I don’t know why I have to watch Scott. You’re there, there’s no need for me to be.”

“I need you here because I’m a twenty-three-year-old man on a high school campus,” Derek hissed. “I look creepy.”

Despite her bad mood, Olivia giggled. “You always look creepy, Der. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Hurry.”

Olivia quickly sent a text to Lydia, telling her that she was getting a ride with Derek, and shoved her phone into her pocket. She made her way over to the practice lacrosse field, not surprised to see that practice had already started.

Jackson was picking up a long stick and getting into position when she reached where Derek was standing next to the bleachers.

“Anything so far?” she asked her cousin, looking out over the players. Her eyes caught the back of Stiles’ jersey and she huffed, cursing the fact that she actually thought he looked attractive in his uniform.

“Nope,” Derek answered, his leather-covered arms crossed over his chest. “Scott’s a little dazed but I don’t know why.”

As if proving Derek right, Scott ran from the line of players, trying to score a goal, and was immediately tackled by Jackson. Olivia watched carefully as Coach went over to talk some sense into Scott, hoping that his temper wouldn’t get out of control.

Scott stalked back to the line as Coach declared that he was having another turn.

“This isn’t gonna be good.”

“No shit.”

Scott sprinted toward Jackson and Olivia winced in sympathy as Scott rammed into him, roughly tackling him to the ground. Jackson let out a loud yelp and rolled around in pain, clutching his shoulder. Scott landed a few feet away, his hands gripping his helmet.

“Should we do something?” Olivia asked anxiously as Stiles ran up to Scott.

“Probably.”

Olivia’s eyes met Stiles’ as he ushered Scott away from the field and she couldn’t help but gulp as she saw the panicked look on his face.

“Are you going to help them?” Olivia looked at Derek.

“You go, they trust you more than they trust me.”

“But—”

What could she do against a newly-turned werewolf?

“They’re heading to the locker room,” Derek informed her, using his enhanced hearing. “Get the fire extinguisher. It should distract him.”

“Derek—”

“Just go, Ollie,” he urged her. “You can do it.”

Olivia nodded reluctantly and ran toward the boys’ locker room. As she entered the door just off the room, she could hear low growling and panicked yelps. The latter, she assumed, was Stiles.

She peeked into the locker room and was met with the sight of Stiles running away from a fully-transitioned Scott. The spastic boy bumped into numerous lockers as he tried to get away from his best friend, who was on top of the lockers and glaring down at him with golden eyes.

“Stiles!” Olivia called, getting his attention as she grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall.

Stiles jerked his head in her direction. “Olivia, what are you doing?!”

Olivia gestured for him to come her way and, in lieu of other options, he cooperated. Just as he passed her, she sprayed the fire extinguisher, aiming it at Scott, who had followed him over.

While Scott flailed around in the icy foam, Olivia grabbed Stiles’ elbow and dragged him into the hallway.

Stiles slumped against the wall and looked up at Olivia, breathing heavily.

“Why did you—what—how—?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to leave you to die,” Olivia said simply, shrugging lightly. Stiles smiled, flattered, but it fell when she narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m still mad at you.”

Stiles huffed and got to his feet. “I’m still mad at you.”

“Good.”

“Fine.”

“You should probably check on Scott,” Olivia pointed out, annoyed. She shoved the fire extinguisher into his arms. “Take care of that, would you?”

She promptly turned away, her high-heeled ankle boots making a slight clicking sound as she left the school. Heading out to the practice field to see about Jackson, she pulled out her phone and called Lydia to tell her what happened.

Olivia sat next to Lydia in the waiting room of the hospital, both of them waiting for Jackson to be released so they could take him home. His parents, the busy lawyers they were, couldn’t be bothered to check him out of the hospital, so it was down to Lydia and Olivia to make sure he got home safely.

In all honesty, Olivia felt sorry for Jackson. He worked hard to be the best at lacrosse—he was the youngest captain in their school’s history because he was a damn good player—and then all of a sudden, Scott shows up, using his enhanced senses and stamina to get onto first line. And, yeah, Jackson can be a dick sometimes, but now his shoulder was fucked up because of Scott.

Which brought on a whole new set of insecurities for Jackson.

Believe it or not, Olivia and Jackson were good friends. He was probably her closest friend other than Lydia and she was one of the only people who could tolerate him besides Lydia and his best friend, Danny. Oliva could understand Jackson—he was adopted, so he felt like he was abandoned by his biological parents and betrayed by his adoptive parents, and he felt like he had to be the best at everything. She could relate. She wasn’t adopted but she did live with her aunt and cousin who was talented at everything she tried. Olivia constantly felt like she had to be on top of things to even compete with Lydia.

Lydia sighed anxiously from beside her, her legs bouncing up and down in an unusual show of nerves.

“I can’t believe his shoulder is separated,” she huffed. She looked at Olivia with wide eyes. “Do you think he’ll be able to play?”

“I don’t know,” Olivia frowned. “Maybe with a cortisone shot…Let’s just hope that he’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” Lydia agreed, the usual bitchy demeanor that she put on for the people at school long gone. At this point, she was just worried about Jackson and how he was going to react to his injury.

Olivia smiled slightly and grabbed Lydia’s hand, knowing that this was hard for her. At first, Lydia and Jackson started going out for the popularity but now she could tell that there were real feelings between them.

Lydia squeezed her hand and sent her a grateful smile.

The moment was ruined when Olivia’s phone rang. Rolling her eyes, she pulled the phone out of her purse and glared at the caller ID that told her Stiles was calling her.

“What?” she huffed into the phone.

“Uh, hey, this is Stiles,” Stiles squeaked nervously. “Um, Stiles Stilinski. You know—”

“Yes, I know who you are, Stiles,” Olivia rolled her eyes, though she did find his rambling kind of cute. Kind of. “What did you need? I thought you didn’t trust me?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” Stiles tried to explain. “I mean, I want to trust you. I just don’t trust Derek—”

“Stiles.”

“Right, okay,” Stiles sighed. “I was calling to see how Jackson’s doing.”

Olivia exhaled heavily, ignoring Lydia’s questioning look. “Not good, honestly. His shoulder is separated.”

“Oh. Is he gonna be able to play?”

“We don’t know right now,” Olivia admitted.

She looked at Lydia when she felt her prodding her arm and sat up straight when she saw Jackson being rolled into the waiting room by a nurse. She nodded at Lydia, silently telling her that she’d grab her purse.

“Look, I have to go, Stiles, Jackson’s out of the hospital,” she told Stiles.

“All right, thanks for the info. See ya.”

“Bye.”

Olivia grabbed Lydia’s purse and swung it over her shoulder with her own bag before walking over to Jackson.

“Hey, bud,” she patted his head, seeing that he looked pretty high from the painkillers that the doctors gave him. “How are you doing?”

Jackson just huffed, obviously angry.

“Don’t antagonize him,” Lydia scolded her, helping Jackson stand up from the wheelchair. “Let’s get you home.”

“So, Scott apologized and…?”

Lydia and Allison looked up at Olivia’s question, the three of them sprawled on Olivia’s king-sized bed, doing their homework. They all had beauty masks plastered on their faces in preparation for their sleepover and when they finished their homework, they had plans to do manicures.

“And I was going to give him another shot,” Allison said, frowning. “But he was acting weird after lunch.”

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows. “Really?”

What was wrong with Scott now?

“Yeah,” Allison nodded. “He was asking all these questions about your cousin driving me home from the party. It was really intense.”

“Hmm.”

“He was probably jealous,” Lydia said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I was introducing you to some of the players on the team. That’s what he gets for not playing in the game tomorrow.”

Olivia frowned and circled the answer to the last question on her history homework, shutting her textbook. She knew Derek had given Scott pretty strict orders to not play the game tomorrow but Lydia had also given him a stern scolding. When Lydia told her that she threatened to introduce Allison to other players on the team, Olivia figured that Scott was going to do anything to play in the game.

“Maybe,” Allison shrugged. “He was just acting weird.”

“Well, I think Scott’s always been weird,” Olivia excused Scott. The least she could do was try to help his relationship with Allison. Even though it was like a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing, she knew Scott and Allison really liked each other.

“Absolutely,” Lydia agreed, giggling. “His friend, Miles, or something, came up to me while I was at the hospital with Jackson. He kept rambling about something but I was on the phone with Macy’s customer service, so I didn’t catch anything he said.”

Olivia and Allison chuckled, both of them knowing from experience how weird Stiles could be.

A knock on Olivia’s door caught them off guard, causing their giggles to die. Natalie, Lydia’s mom and Olivia’s aunt, popped her head into the room.

“Girls, Lisa’s here to take me to book club,” she told Olivia and Lydia with a smile. “If you’re going to drink the wine in the fridge, I don’t want you going anywhere, you understand?”

“Okay, Aunt Nat,” Olivia agreed with a smile, though she wasn’t intending on drinking. “Have fun.”

“Bye, Mom,” Lydia added with a wave.

“Love you, girls.”

As Natalie shut the door, Allison turned to her friends, shocked. “Your mom lets you drink?”

“As long as we’re safe, she doesn’t mind,” Lydia answered nonchalantly. “I’m sure she did worse when she was a teenager.”

Olivia snickered, having heard many of her aunt’s wild stories from high school.

“Wow.”

“Well, I’m done with homework,” Lydia declared, shutting her notebook. “Who’s ready for manicures?”

Olivia and Allison exchanged grins.

Stiles and Scott watched quietly as Derek Hale stormed out of his fire-ruined house and into his Camaro, pulling away shortly after. They waited another five minutes in case he returned before pulling up to the house.

They were on a mission to uncover the other half of the dead body. Scott, who had visited Derek earlier in the day, had caught the scent of human blood buried in the front yard of the old Hale house and immediately called Stiles. Together, they went to the hospital so Scott could match the scent to the other half of the body located in the morgue. Unfortunately, they matched.

Stiles just felt bad for Olivia. She was so adamant that Derek hadn’t killed anyone, yet the evidence was right in his front yard.

Stiles killed the engine of his jeep and he and Scott climbed out, grabbing the shovels from the back. As they walked over to where Scott said the body was buried, Scott stopped in his tracks.

“Wait, something’s different,” he declared, inhaling deeply through his nose.

“Different how?”

“I don’t know,” Scott shook his head with a sigh. “Let’s just get this over with.”

The two of them buried their shovels into the grave and started digging. Luckily, the dirt was still loose from being buried, so it was easier to dig than they expected. They spent a half-hour scooping up dirt and throwing it behind them, trying to find the body.

Stiles tried not to think about the dead girl that was buried where he was digging. He couldn’t imagine a family member being murdered, cut in half, and then buried in the yard of a deranged werewolf. Sure, his mom died, but at least he knew what happened to her. This girl’s family probably had no idea.

Scott exhaled loudly and wiped his sweaty brow. “This is taking way too long.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Just keep going.”

“What if he comes back?”

“Then we get the hell out of here,” Stiles answered simply, continuing to dig away at the grave.

“What if he catches us?”

“I have a plan for that.”

Scott raised his eyebrows at Stiles, waiting to hear his plan. “Which is?”

“You run one way, I run the other,” Stiles replied. “Whoever he catches first, too bad.”

Scott huffed. “I hate that plan.”

Stiles shook his head and went to bury his shovel in more dirt, only to stop when his shovel came in contact with something firm. “Stop, stop, stop,” he ordered Scott, throwing his shovel out of the grave.

They both bent down, using their hands to brush away the rest of the dirt covering the body. They found the body wrapped in a large tarp and tied with several knots of rope that they quickly got to work trying to untie.

“Hurry,” Scott urged, scrambling to untie the rope.

“I’m trying!” Stiles snapped. “Did he have to tie the thing in, like, a thousand knots?”

Eventually, they untied the last knot and pulled away the tarp. They screamed when they saw the body, jumping out of the grave entirely.

There, where there was supposed to be the half body of a girl, was a dead wolf.

“What the fuck is that?” Stiles shrieked, pointing at the black wolf.

“It’s a wolf,” Scott said obviously, peering at it curiously.

Stiles scoffed. “Yeah, I can see that,” he rolled his eyes. “I thought you said you smelled blood. As in human blood.”

Scott shrugged and defended himself, “I told you something was different.”

Stiles shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“We gotta get out of here,” Scott changed the subject as he looked around, worried that Derek was going to come out of the darkness and murder them too.

“Yeah,” Stiles agreed. “Okay, help me cover this up…” he trailed off as he caught sight of a purple flower a couple of inches away from the grave.

“What’s wrong?” Scott asked, noticing his distracted gaze.

“You see that flower?” he pointed to the flower; Scott looked at it.

“What about it?”

“I think it’s wolfsbane,” Stiles said, shifting onto his knees so he could crawl over to it.

“What’s that?”

“Uh, haven’t you ever seen The Wolf Man?” Stiles asked his best friend. Scott shook his head, looking confused. “Lon Chaney Junior? Claude Rains? The original, classic werewolf movie?”

“No!” Scott exclaimed, exasperated.

Stiles sighed and shook his head. He couldn’t believe how unprepared Scott was when it came to his lycanthropy. “You are so unprepared for this.”

He crawled toward the flower and pulled it out of the ground, surprised to see that it was attached to a length of rope. He pulled at the rope, letting it lead him around the grave several times. As the rope ran out, Scott called his name.

He looked down and jumped, startled to see that the wolf had turned into a girl. “Holy shit!”

Stiles walked purposely toward the cruiser that one of his dad’s deputies’ put Derek in. He waved at Scott, who waited by his jeep, and looked around, hoping that all the police officers were busy, before he opened the passenger side door and slipped into the car.

Derek was seated in the backseat, already glaring at him through the metal grate that separated them.

“Okay, just so you know, I’m not afraid of you,” Stiles lied, trying to seem tough. He faltered as Derek’s glare hardened even more. “Okay, maybe I am,” he admitted shaking his head. “Doesn’t matter. I just wanna know something. The girl you killed? She was a werewolf but she was a different kind, wasn’t she?”

Derek stared straight at Stiles, making him squirm.

“I mean, she could turn herself into an actual wolf and I know Scott can’t do that,” he continued. “Is that why you killed her?”

“Why are you so worried about me when it’s your friend who’s the problem?” Derek asked lowly, glancing through the window at Scott. He turned back to Stiles. “When he shifts on the field, what do you think they’re gonna do, just keep cheering him on?”

Stiles gulped, realizing that what Derek was saying actually made sense.

“I can’t stop him from playing but you and Olivia can,” Derek said firmly, leaning forward. “And trust me, you want to.”

Before Stiles could even reply or admit that maybe Derek was right, the door opened and he was pulled from the vehicle. His dad dragged him a few feet away from the car and gave him a disappointed look.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Noah demanded as Stiles rotated his arm where he grabbed him.

“I’m just trying to help,” Stiles declared.

“Okay, well, how about you help me understand exactly how you came across this.”

Stiles sighed loudly. “We were looking for Scott’s inhaler.”

“Which he dropped when?”

Stiles shrugged. “The other night.”

“The other night when you were out there looking for the first half of the body,” Noah stated dryly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yes.”

“The night that you told me you were alone and Scott was at home.”

“Yes,” Stiles winced, realizing that he was caught in a lie. “No. Oh crap.”

“So, you lied to me.”

“That depends on how you define lying,” Stiles pointed at his dad.

Noah pursed his lips. “Well, I define it as not telling the truth. How do you define it?”

“Uh, reclining your body in a horizontal position?” Stiles stated, waving his hands horizontally to emphasize his point.

Noah rolled his eyes. “Get the hell out of here, would you?”

Stiles nodded. “Absolutely.”

As Stiles walked away from his dad and toward his jeep, he saw Olivia and her aunt talking to a deputy. He gulped when she looked his way, practically shrinking under the heat of her glare.

He didn’t like being the subject of Olivia’s ire, but he consoled himself. At least she now knew the truth about her cousin being a murderous werewolf.

Olivia was going to kill Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall.

Not only had they gotten Derek arrested, which was a problem all by itself, but they dug up Laura’s body. They dug up her dead cousin from her resting place and now the police had it in their custody.

So, now Olivia had to explain to Natalie about how Laura was murdered and that Derek was back in town and she had to see about hiring a lawyer that wasn’t her uncle—he didn’t particularly like the Hale family—to defend him. She knew that the least he’d be charged with was obstruction of justice and maybe defiling a crime scene but that was way better than going to jail for murder—which he didn’t do.

Natalie didn’t explicitly know about werewolves but she knew that the Hale family was a lot weirder than the other families that lived in Beacon Hills. She knew and liked Derek, though, so she was happy to help Olivia contact a lawyer on Derek’s behalf. Olivia had spent all afternoon, trying to convince Jackson’s dad to take his case before Lydia pulled her away for the lacrosse game.

The game was the last thing on her mind and she definitely didn’t want to see Stiles and Scott but she knew Derek would want her to be there in case something happened.

So, she bundled up for the game, walking toward the field with Lydia, both of them carrying the large, glittery signs they made for Jackson.

Lydia practically shoved the sign she was carrying at Olivia when she saw Scott. Olivia rolled her eyes and followed her cousin as she marched over to the new werewolf to give him a piece of her mind.

“Olivia, hey,” Stiles walked over to her.

“Don’t talk to me,” she said flatly, looking around for an excuse to walk away.

She didn’t hate Stiles but she did have a reason to be mad at him. If he had just listened to her, maybe Derek wouldn’t be in jail right now.

“Look, I’m sorry that Derek killed that girl, Livvy, but shouldn’t be mad at me.”

“One, don’t call me that,” Olivia stepped toward Stiles, her head tilted so she could look him in the eye. “Two, Derek didn’t kill her, okay? I told you that.”

Stiles put his hands up defensively. “How can you believe that? He buried her in his front yard.”

Olivia shook her head. She didn’t know why she was even bothering to try to get him to come to his senses. He obviously wasn’t going to listen to what she was saying.

“Whatever, Stiles,” she stepped away from him, relieved to see that Lydia was done speaking to Scott.

Lydia grabbed her arm as she approached her. “Let’s sit with Allison and her dad,” she pointed up the bleachers where the two Argents sat.

“Um, okay,” Olivia nodded hesitantly.

Now she had to sit with an Argent hunter? Her day was going so smoothly.

“Lydia, Olivia,” Allison beamed at them as they climbed up the bleachers to the row where she and her father were seated. “This is my dad, Chris.”

Chris smiled politely at them and even though she was pure human, Olivia couldn’t help but shiver in fright. “Nice to meet you, girls.”

“You too,” Lydia shook his hand while Olivia nodded politely. Lydia turned to Olivia, trying to decide which one of them should sit next to Allison. “You should sit in the middle since you’re the shortest. Allison and I can hold up the sign above you.”

“Sure,” Olivia agreed, quickly sitting next to Allison as Lydia settled on her other side. “Excited for your first lacrosse game?” she asked Allison.

Allison grinned. “Definitely.”

The whistle was blown and the players of both teams ran onto the field. Jackson faced off with the other team’s forward, both of them crouching for the beginning play. The referee blew his whistle and the game began, Jackson scooping up the ball before the other player had a chance.

The ball was thrown between the players like a hot potato, each one of them avoiding Scott’s open net until he finally managed to get it. Unfortunately, he was tackled by Jackson, who ran down the field and scored a goal.

Olivia cheered along with the crowd as the scoreboard changed, Beacon High taking an early lead. On either side of her, Lydia and Allison held up their sign, Olivia cheering Jackson’s name to show her support.

The game went on, each team scoring and Scott not getting passed to at all. When the competitor was leading and Coach called for a time out, Chris leaned toward his daughter, Olivia, and Lydia. “Which one is Scott again?”

“Number eleven,” Lydia answered tersely. “Otherwise known as the only one who hasn’t caught a single ball this entire game.”

Olivia rolled her eyes at her cousin as Allison mumbled, “I hope he’s okay.”

“I hope we’re okay,” Lydia disagreed, not happy with the team’s losing score. “We need to win this,” she stood up, struggling to raise her sign. “Allison, Olivia, a little help here?”

Olivia and Allison exchanged annoyed looks and stood up, helping raise the sign that praised Jackson.

The crowd cheered as the ball was set up again. When the ref blew his whistle, the ball was scooped up and thrown high into the air. Olivia and the rest of the crowd watched in shock as Scott ran toward the ball, leaping high into the air to catch it. He ran toward the field, dodging players left and right as he got closer to the goal. He whipped the ball past their goalie and the crowd roared in excitement as he scored.

Olivia and Allison jumped to their feet—Olivia getting over her grudge in her excitement—and cheered loudly for Scott, wrapping their arms around each other’s shoulders.

Olivia looked down at Lydia, who was still seated, pouting. “Oh, come on, Lyds! Cheer!”

Lydia rolled her eyes and got to her feet, reluctantly clapping.

“Pass to McCall!” Olivia heard Coach yell to his players. “Pass to McCall!”

Stiles trailed after Coach, screaming his encouragement for his best friend.

The game started up again, this time with the opposite team getting the ball. Scott ran up to the receiving player and, to everyone’s amazement, the player passed the ball to Scott. Scott ran down the field again, whipping that ball at the goalie and actually ripping the guy’s net.

Everyone jumped to their feet again as the scoreboard buzzed, adding another point to Beacon High. Unfortunately, the opposing team argued the play but Coach resisted, taking the referee’s whistle and blowing it, declaring it as a goal.

Once again, the ball was passed to Scott. He sprinted down the field, coming up against five different players. Olivia tensed up when she saw how jumpy he seemed and realized that he was on the verge of changing.

“Come on, Scott,” she whispered, hoping that he could hear her over the roar of the crowd. “Control it. Control it.”

Scott hesitated, the opposing team’s players closing in on him.

“You can do it, Scott,” Allison said from beside her. “You can do it.”

Scott abruptly shot the ball into the net, scoring the winning goal of the game.

The final whistle blew and the crowd went wild, rushing onto the field in excitement. As Allison ran off the bleachers, Olivia carefully watched Scott, who was running off the field.

She awkwardly said her goodbyes to Chris and walked down the bleachers, pausing when her phone buzzed.

Shockingly, it was Derek.

Derek: Out of jail. Talk later.

Olivia sighed in relief and looked around, coming face-to-face with Stiles without realizing it.

He gave her an apologetic look. “My dad told me about your cousin…”

Olivia pursed her lips. “Yeah. Now you know why I was sure he didn’t kill her.”

“I’m sorry, Olivia,” Stiles said softly. “Really, I am.”

Olivia sighed, pushing her hands into her coat pockets. “Thank you for apologizing,” she said sincerely. She awkwardly looked around, seeing that Allison had disappeared from the field, probably searching for Scott. “You might want to find Scott. It looked like he was having a rough time out there.”

Stiles nodded. “Okay, yeah…um, see you later.”

“Bye, Stiles.”

As Stiles ran off to look for Scott, Olivia found Lydia. On the way to their car, Olivia was just glad that Derek was out of jail. Maybe now they could finally rest—after Derek found the alpha who turned Scott.

(Gif is not mine)

#teen wolf rewrite #stiles stilinski x oc #stiles stilinksi x reader #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski fanfiction #teen wolf fanfiction #stiles stilinski x original character

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wizardofahz · 5 years ago

Text

Finding Okay

A/N: This Criminal Minds / Higher Ground crossover was prompted by anonymous.

Content warnings: child trafficking mention

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“If you’re going to be angry at anyone, it should be me,” JJ says. She waits for Jack to look at her before she approaches. When he makes no signs of objection, she sits beside him.

Jack scoffs. “I’m angry at everyone. Haven’t you heard? Anger management problems. That’s why Dad is sending me away.”

"But I’m the one that suggested Mount Horizon to your dad.”

Jack’s surprise is quickly overtaken by a scowl.

“You’re going to hate it at first,” JJ tells him before he can yell at her. “They like talking about feelings a lot. It’s going to sound stupid. They’re going to tell you they can understand. Everyone there is more than a little messed up, but everyone’s messed up differently, you know? So really, who’s going to understand? But one day, you’ll realize you don’t hate it, or at least, you don’t hate everyone. It’ll sneak up on you. You’ll find that one person, maybe two, that seem tolerable, and then it won’t be so bad.”

Jack is as skeptical and dismissive as she expects him to be. “What do you know about it?”

JJ looks into the distance. “More than I’d like to admit.”

...

Jack gets assigned to the Cliffhangers.

The leader of the Cliffhangers is herself a former Cliffhanger. Her name is Kat Cabot. She has a very calm energy and encourages him to be open about his feelings. JJ is right. Jack hates it.

The headmaster of Mount Horizon is also a former Cliffhanger: Scott Barringer. After playing football professionally, he now uses his connections to fundraise for scholarships and to keep Mount Horizon afloat. He helps Kat out with the Cliffhangers sometimes. Maybe it’s the nostalgia.

Jack’s fellow Cliffhangers are a diverse group. Their personalities range from quiet to bombastic, all of them facades hiding anxieties, depression, pain, and trauma. Jack brings anger to the table.

They speak of another former Cliffhanger. A legend. Shelby Merrick.

Word is that Shelby was the hardest nut to crack. She was a loner. She was angry. She was a fortress with solid walls ten feet thick. No one could get in.

Until someone did.

And if they could get to Shelby Merrick, they could get to you.

...

"You’re not supposed to be out here.”

Jack looks up from where he’s seated at the base of a bear statue to see Tuan, a fellow Cliffhanger, and the night sky behind him. “Well then, neither are you.”

“Touche.” Tuan raises a bottle in his direction. “Want some? Great for forgetting.”

Tuan is known as the school "pharmacist.” He doesn’t need more than some cleaning supplies or some local mushrooms to whip up someone’s drug of choice. Tuan is loud, popular, but he mostly leaves Jack alone. Jack respects him for that.

“I don’t want to forget,” Jack says, surly, hoping Tuan will take the hint and go away.

But he doesn’t. Instead Tuan tilts his head and focuses on Jack even more intently. “Interesting. What’s that like?”

“What?”

“Oh, come on. You must know my dirty little secret. Open secret, more like. I was rescued from a child trafficking ring before getting sent here, so I have never had anything worth remembering. Forgetting is what I’m all about.” Tuan raises the bottle in Jack’s direction again before taking a swig.

“I’m sorry,” Jack says. “That sucks.” He may be angry at the world, but he isn’t devoid of compassion.

“Sorry is a useless word,” Tuan responds. “If you were to tell me your story, and I responded with, ‘I’m sorry’, what would that do for you?”

“Good point.” Jack hasn’t told many people the reason behind his anger, but he can imagine getting that answer and how hollow it would sound.

“So are you going to tell me?” Tuan asks. “Let’s make it a challenge, see if I can come up with anything better than ‘I’m sorry.’”

Part of Jack wants Tuan to piss off, but the rest of him is curious. What is the response he’d like to hear, the one that would make him actually feel better?

Jack nods, and Tuan sits beside him. Jack’s grateful for that. It’ll be easier to talk without having to look him in the eye.

“My mom was murdered when I was four,” he begins.

Tuan whistles. “Damn.”

“My dad is an FBI agent, the unit chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Basically it means he hunts the worst serial killers in the country. One of them decided to get back at him, and he came after our family. I was too young to realize what was happening. I thought we were playing hide-and-seek. I hid while my mom was being murdered.”

Tuan doesn’t respond as if sensing there’s more. It makes things easier for Jack. He’s on a roll.

“I’m angry because I can barely remember my mom. My dad and my aunt talk about her sometimes, but it’s not the same. I don’t want to forget what little I have left of her because that’s the only little bit of her that feels real. I’m angry because kids are stupid,” he says even though he and Tuan are also kids. “Did you ever go to a regular school?”

Tuan shakes his head.

“Trauma is enlightening. It teaches you what pain really is, what really matters in this world. Kids are stupid,” Jack says again. “They used to make fun of me for not having a mom and then cry about their hamster dying. They’d make fun of me because none of them could understand my anger and then cry because their crush doesn’t like them back. They laugh at pain because they have no idea what it really is and then act superior because of it.”

“They sound like idiots,” Tuan finally responds. “That would piss me off too.”

“Yeah.”

They sit in silence for a while.

Jack’s heart feels a little lighter. Tuan’s response did make him feel better. True commiseration. It’s been a while since he’s had that.

JJ is right. Maybe some people here aren’t so bad.

...

By the time Parents Week approaches, Jack has settled in. He gets along with everyone now even if he still only feels really comfortable with Tuan. He’s more comfortable in his own skin, and that makes all the difference.

Tuan doesn’t have anyone coming for him, so he sits with Jack as they wait for his dad to arrive. They sit on a bench outside. Somewhere to their right Scott is talking to someone else’s parents.

Finally, a familiar black SUV pulls in. To Jack’s surprise JJ is sitting in the passenger seat.

“Okay, I know your mom’s dead,” Tuan says, "so who’s that?”

“That’s JJ,” Jack replies. “She works with my dad.”

Jack greets his dad with a hug and then turns to JJ. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

Scott's shocked voice cuts in before JJ can respond. “Shelby?”

Jack’s jaw drops. “You’re Shelby?”

Hotch frowns. “Who’s Shelby?”

JJ doesn’t move, and yet somehow she visibly retreats inside herself.

...

Scott’s office is uncomfortably silent.

Scott, Hotch, and Jack are settled into chairs around the office, but JJ stands by the door, looking ready to bolt at any second.

“So you’ve been in DC all this time?” Scott asks, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” JJ replies.

“I played there for a while.”

“I know. I went to one of your games.”

“I guess that explains why they’re your favorite,” Hotch says. “I never could figure out why someone from Pennsylvania would be a Redskins fan.”

Scott raises his eyebrows but doesn’t say anything.

The awkward silence falls again.

Jack can tell his father is curious who Shelby is, but he doesn’t ask, probably to respect JJ’s privacy. He’s always been good about that.

“I need some air,” JJ says before slipping out the door.

...

JJ doesn’t return until nightfall. Jack finds her by the bear statue, staring at it and lost to the world.

“You were right about this place,” Jack says as gently as he can.

JJ jumps slightly, but when she turns, she is the epitome of composure. “You doing okay, then?”

“Surprisingly yeah,” Jack replies.

JJ nods absentmindedly. “Good. I needed to be sure. That’s why I came.” When she begins talking again, it’s almost more to herself than to Jack. “You settled in faster than I did.”

If there’s any truth to the Shelby rumors, that’s not surprising.

“Sorry about the Shelby thing,” Jack says. “You’ve become kind of a legend around here.”

JJ scoffs. “Only a place like this could take Shelby Merrick and turn her into a legend.” She shakes her head. “The rumor mill must be crazy.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Jack says quickly.

“You sound like your father,” JJ murmurs.

There’s such an air of sadness around JJ that Jack can’t help asking, “What about you, JJ? Are you okay?”

Jack knows JJ well enough to know that “I’m fine” is her customary answer, so he’s shocked when she says, “No.”

She smiles at his surprise. “I think you deserve that much of the truth, but I won’t burden you with the rest."

“Okay,” Jack says simply. He wouldn’t consider it a burden, but he’d meant it earlier when he said he didn’t expect her to tell him anything. She also deserves that much.

“I’m glad you’re doing okay,” JJ says.

“Me too,” Jack says. “Thanks for telling Dad to send me here.”

#criminal minds #jack hotchner #jennifer jareau #aaron hotchner #higher ground #shelby merrick #scott barringer #cm xover drabbles #prompts #anonymous

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heyyyharry · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 10: Darlings

(from the Flatmate Trilogy: Two Hearts, One Home)

…in which Harry is excited but Y/N is worried.

Word count: 4.4k

Chapter 9: Three’s A Crowd - Harry learns a big lesson, and Y/N cannot tolerate his assistant.

Wattpad link

A/N: Please enjoy and spam my inbox. - Allie.

Y/N was pregnant.

The doctor had confirmed it. A pregnancy test stick had confirmed it. The morning sickness had confirmed it. So it was official. She was now positively pregnant.

Before all of this, she had been devastated and almost depressed thinking she and Harry might not have children of their own. Now that the universe had given them one, she fell into a state where she was constantly afraid and anxious. She'd blame it on the hormones and the way her body was changing. The baby was probably not even...a baby yet, and she had already come up with a bunch of different scenarios where she turned out to be an awful parent. It was not until now that she realized how strong her sister had been for bringing up baby Eleanor on her own. Y/N was lucky to have a loving husband, her family, and supportive friends by her side.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!"

Harry burst right through the door. He had just got back from work, still in his suit, and his face was white. But what he found was just Y/N and Layla sitting on the bed, blinking at him.

"Who just screamed?!"

"Layla did," said Y/N with a beam. "I just told her the news."

"I cannot believe I'm about to be a godmother!" Layla punched the air and then drop her smile to give Harry a questioning look. "Wait...why are you holding a frying pan?"

Y/N was in hysterics when her husband lowered his frying pan and rolled his eyes. "I didn't have time to choose my weapon when I heard you scream. I thought my babies were hurt."

"Ew?!"

"Not you, Layla. I meant Y/N and our actual baby."

Layla ignored him and turned back to Y/N. "He's gonna be using plural nouns from now on, isn't he?"

"He's been doing that since the doctor visit." Y/N gave her best friend a shrug and automatically lifted her face for Harry to kiss. Layla sighed in contentment as she watched them.

"I'm so excited for you guys and also for me! When I was little, I always wanted to be Cinderella and now, I, Layla Scott, is about to be the fairy godmother."

"Who says anything about—" All it took was one fierce glare from Layla for Harry to change his opinion in a heartbreak. "Yes! You're gonna be the best godmother! No doubt!"

"I'm sorry baby Styles," Layla leaned down and whispered to Y/N's nonexistent baby bump. "Your daddy's a fake."

"Well, your aunt Layla's a bully."

"Godmother! Ugh!"

Smirking as Layla jokingly flipped him off, Harry dropped his head to give Y/N a few more pecks, one hand under her chin, the other on her belly. "I'm gonna take a shower now. You ladies have fun without me."

"Don't worry," Layla gave him a lopsided grin. "We always have fun without you."

"Dick."

"Pussy."

"Real mature guys. I can totally see myself trusting you two with this child." Y/N snorted as Harry walked out with his 'weapon' after giving Layla a mocking face.

"Love you, darlings," he said. "And that plural noun doesn't include Layla!"

"Thank you, asshole!" Layla shouted at the closed door, making Y/N laugh even harder.

"He's very excited," Y/N said now that her husband was gone. Though smiling, the girl was subconsciously fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. And even such a little action couldn't get past Layla's eyes.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you upset?"

"What? I'm not!" Y/N scrunched up her face. "I'm perfectly fine."

"You don't look fine though. You blink a lot when you lie."

"I do not!"

"Here she goes again." Layla scoffed. "I don't get it though. You're finally pregnant. Harry's falling more in love with you, I didn't think it was possible, but I was just proven wrong." She stuck out her bottom lip and lifted her shoulders. "So maybe instead of looking constipated the second he turns away, you should be happy."

"I'm not unhappy, I'm just..." Y/N paused to search for the right word and then went with, "worried." Taking a deep breath, she continued, "what if I'm a terrible mother? What if Harry's the favorite parent and I'm the one my kid lies to and keeps secrets from? What if we're both terrible and our kid hates us?!"

"The kid's not even in there yet and you're already freaking out about him or her going through puberty?" Layla breathed as her eyes rolled upward. "Look, I don't hit pregnant women. But I'll slap the shit out of you if you say that again, ya hear me? This isn't you talking. This is the pregnancy hormones. Your anxiety isn't real, okay?" Quickly, she grabbed Y/N's shoulders and signaled the girl to copy her as she inhaled deeply and let go of that breath.

"Feel better?" she grinned. Y/N nodded once, looking less uneasy now. "Good. Just know that we're all here for you. You're gonna be fine."

As it turned out, Layla was right.

Soon the weekend arrived, and the young couple had grown used to the new rhythm of their life. Y/N had been paying more attention to her diet and taking vitamins regularly, so she didn't feel as terrible as she had for the first few days. This morning, Harry had a meeting with a client, so he wasn't there when she woke up. He'd left her breakfast on the kitchen table with a note saying he loved her and would miss her terribly until he came home. After everything that'd happened to them, he was making more effort to make sure she knew how much she meant to him. It began to feel like those college days again, and she wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

"Nope, I won't do it!"

"I'll pay you."

"You haven't even paid me for catsitting Tiger!"

Y/N brought Treasure toward Nam's desk and couldn't help but overhear his little argument with Stephanie. While the blonde was rambling on, Nam seemed pretty annoyed. That wasn't at all surprising, because Stephanie's only talent besides being a bitch, was being an annoying bitch. Y/N supposed it was mean to think about her neighbor like that. But that woman deserved to be called a bitch after all the things she'd said and done.

"Y/N!" Stephanie grabbed Y/N by the arm the second she saw her. "Tell him to babysit my niece for me!"

"Oh, now you're gonna drag Y/N into this?" Nam laughed wryly as he took the white cat from Y/N's arms. "Even if you promised me a fortune, the answer would still be no. I already know I wouldn't get a single penny from you. At least Treasure's parents pay me well."

Treasure meowed softly as he stroked her head. "Do you agree, my little furry baby? Tiger's parents are stingy white people, aren't they?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Well, cats, children, they're all the same."

"Well, thank God, you're not a mother." That was meant to be an insult, but Nam had unintentionally given Stephanie a new idea.

Her eyes lit up as she turned to Y/N. "Since you're about to be a parent, would you like some practice?"

"Oh, no! Leave Y/N alone!"

Stephanie completely ignored Nam as she went on before Y/N could say anything. "Don't worry, my niece's a good kid. Her parents go away on business trips all the time so she's very independent. All you need to do is to keep an eye on her until her mum picks her up."

"How old is she?"

"Y/N, you're not actually considering this!" Nam cried out.

Y/N gave him a shrug as she pursed her lips. "Tomorrow's Sunday, so why not? And I'm also good with kids."

"That's the spirit!" Stephanie smacked her on the arm, causing the poor girl to flinch. "She's five. The sweetest five-year-old you'll ever meet! Her name is Darling."

Y/N saw Nam hug Treasure and turn away as he muttered something, probably cursing Stephanie. But this time, it wasn't Stephanie's fault. Y/N simply thought this was a great opportunity for her and Harry to practice being parents. It was never too soon to get prepared for such a big change in their life.

Besides, with a name like Darling, the girl must be an angel. Now Y/N couldn't wait to talk to her husband about their new plan for Sunday.

"Babe, I still think you're really overthinking this."

"I'm not," Y/N shouted from the living room as she checked her watch. "Would you just hurry up?! We're gonna be late."

"Relax! They literally live just across the hall!" he said and finally stumbled out of their bedroom.

She stared at him, lifting an eyebrow in amusement. "Why are you carrying your laptop?"

"I gotta check my emails." He chuckled and pressed his lips to her temple. "Come on, babe. Let's go fake-parenting."

Laughing, she reached out to hold his hand.

They had never been in Mason and Stephanie's flat and had never intended to set foot in there, unless it was the only safe place in a zombie apocalypse. So when they entered 'the devil's home' for the very first time, their jaws nearly dropped to the floor.

The place was much cleaner and tidier than they'd imagined. Harry had often joked about his cousin's flat looking like a porn movie set, with sex toys hanging on the walls and adult magazines lying all over the place. At least that was how he imagined porn movie sets would look like. However, the flat was actually decent. Y/N amused herself with the thought that, those who had never met Mason and Stephanie would think they were a basic white couple named Kevin and Barbara, who baked cookies and went to church every Sunday. Lesson learned: never judge a book by its cover.

As Y/N went into the kitchen to check what Stephanie had left for them in the fridge, Harry made himself comfortable on the couch (after having made sure there wasn't a cum stain on it) and opened his laptop. They waited for about fifteen minutes when the doorbell rang, and Y/N rushed to it with a big smile on her face. She opened the door and was greeted by a tall woman slightly older than her.

"Hi! You must be Mary!"

"And you must be Y/N, the babysitter!" The lady returned a smile as she fixed her bucket hat that covered most of her bobbed blonde hair. Then, she turned back to call her daughter who was still idling in front of the lift. "Darling, come here, baby!"

The five-year-old pouted as she crossed her arms and waddled toward her mother and Y/N. She was as adorable as the image Y/N had created in her mind, with big bright eyes and brown straight hair that fell right past her tiny shoulders. The ladybug backpack she was wearing was too big for her body that it made her look even smaller. She could be the baby girl Y/N had always wanted. But then again, she shouldn't be. The girl might look like an angel, her attitude, however, said the opposite. Her little round face contorted as she shot Y/N a spiteful glare. Why?! They had only just met!

"Hello, Darling." Y/N crouched down with both hands on her knees despite the unwelcoming reaction. "My name's Y/N. And that—" she pointed at Harry who raised his hand and gave the child a wave "—is my husband, Harry. We're your babysitters for today!"

Darling looked at Y/N, and then Harry, and then back to Mary. She repeated that one more time before telling her mother, "please pick me up on time, mummy. Don't leave me too long with these strangers."

The mother gave a startled Y/N an apologetic grin before turning back to the child. "Of course," she said. "But you gotta promise to be nice and listen to Y/N and Harry, okay?"

Darling looked annoyed as she crossed her arms, still, she replied with a nod, said goodbye to her mum and followed Y/N into the living room.

"Okay." Y/N breathed as she shut the door. "Why don't we just start by getting to know each other?"

Darling shrugged off her backpack and spoke with a straight face, "I want to color."

"Oh, okay." As Y/N plastered a smile on her face, Harry was biting his knuckles so he wouldn't crack up. "I'll get us some paper and we'll color together—"

"I said I, not we."

"Wow..." Y/N heard her husband say, but she was too stunned to react. The kid hadn't broken that intense eye contact with her that made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

She swallowed hard, nodding her head. "S-sure. Why don't you wait on that couch with Harry?"

Darling didn't reply and dragged her backpack toward the couch to sit on the other end, as far away from Harry as she could. Now that his wife had left, Harry thought he should start a conversation to get to know this child. But before he could come up with anything to say, Darling was the one who broke the silence.

"Why do you wear so many rings? Are you married to many women?"

"No!" The man laughed, his eyebrows pulled together. He didn't know why he was nervous talking to this five-year-old when he'd never found it hard to speak to a girl before (Y/N had been a special case). He stuttered for a moment before adding to his answer, "this is my wedding band, see?" He showed her his ring finger, smiling proudly. "This is the only ring that matters."

He thought she would react in a different way, a more childlike and positive one. However, what he got was a hardened expression that seemed like she was silently judging him.

"Are you lying because you think I'm a child so I don't know what cheating is?"

He arched an eyebrow in doubt. "Do you know what cheating is?"

"Yeah, aunt Steph taught me that word," she said casually. "Cheating is when a husband or a wife sleeps with another person that's not their wife or husband."

"Jesus Christ!" His eyes widened as he straightened his back. "She taught you that?!"

"Yeah." Darling nodded once. "But I think she's wrong, because what if you want to have a sleepover with your friends? You have no choice but to sleep with them, right?"

"Right." He chuckled nervously.

Y/N soon returned with some paper, and Harry didn't think he'd ever felt so relieved. Talking to that girl was like being interrogated by the police. He'd never been interrogated by the police before, but in his imagination, this could probably be worse. He took advantage of Darling being distracted by her paper and crayons to drag Y/N to the kitchen, telling her to keep her voice down.

"Harry, we are not having sex while there's a kid in the other room!"

Her reaction made him chuckle as he held her arms. "Who says anything about sex?"

"I'm not sucking your dick either."

"I may be horny for you all the time, but I know my limits. I'm only here to tell you that the child scares me."

"Don't you think it's a little too late for that?" she asked, pointing to her belly.

"No, I mean Darling!"

"You mean what?"

He exhaled and rolled his eyes, but still found the little misunderstanding hilarious. "I was talking about Darling, the little girl."

"Just call her 'the little girl' from now on to avoid confusion."

"Got it." He snorted and proceeded to tell her about their previous conversation in the living room, adding, "I haven't seen her smile, isn't that strange?"

Y/N gave him a shrug. "Maybe she's a mini Wednesday Addams."

"Maybe she's a mini Layla."

"Okay, that's funny."

Harry tried to look as serious as he sounded but his own joke amused him. Smirking, he went on, "I bet she's out there drawing a picture of the two of us with our heads cut off."

"Harry, you're overreacting. She's only a baby," Y/N said and kissed him on the cheek.

Other than being an emo five-year-old, Darling was actually a good kid. She had been quiet the entire time while working on her drawings. She was using a lot of red, which reminded Y/N of what Harry had said earlier, and now she was afraid to see what those 'works of art' were about.

Soon it was lunch and Darling stopped coloring as she told Y/N she was hungry. Y/N wanted to be a good soon-to-be-mother, so she asked her husband to play with Darling while she made some sandwiches for the three of them.

"No, wait, I'll do it!"

Before Y/N could protest, Harry had already dashed into the kitchen. She knew he couldn't cook to save his life but didn't want to fight him on this, so she sat back on the couch and let him be their chef. It would take forever until they had something to eat if at all. So while waiting, Y/N used Harry's laptop to go on YouTube. Just when she thought she could finally relax and watch some funny cat compilations, Darling's loud squeal made her head turn shot up.

"What happened, dear?" Y/N put down the laptop and came to see what was wrong.

The little girl stuck out her bottom lip, her eyes welled up as she held the red crayon now broken in half in her little palm. Y/N squatted on the floor with her elbows on her knees as she gave Darling a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, you can still color with that."

"It's broken."

"Yeah but..." Y/N took the two halves, each in one hand. "Now you have two red crayons."

"Half a crayon doesn't make a new crayon."

"Who told you that?" Y/N asked, her eyebrows rose.

Darling pursed her tiny heart-shaped lips as she thought for a moment. She was probably trying to decide if she should tell Y/N what she'd never told anyone. Eventually, she confessed, "aunt Steph told mummy that mummy and daddy's marriage was a broken crayon. You can still color with it, but it'll make the picture ugly and messy."

Y/N was frozen by those words. A little girl should not have heard something like that about her parents, ever. Feeling a big lump in her throat, she tried to search for the right thing to say to Darling. It was only then that she looked around at the paintings scattered on the carpet. They weren't what she and Harry had assumed. They were just awful, messy, childish drawings of what any child would view as a happy family. Darling had used a lot of red to draw the hearts. There were so many hearts surrounding her, her mother and her dad. She'd even used that red color to cross out the face of another woman standing in the background, who, Y/N believed, was her father's mistress. That explained why she'd thought Harry was cheating. Her dad had done it, maybe all the men would too.

"Here." Y/N picked up one half of the red crayon as she sat down, crossing her legs. To Darling's confusion, she took a new sheet of paper and began to draw.

She'd been told by her niece Eleanor and Jamie, the boy she used to babysit during college, that she was good at drawing. That was what she loved about children. You didn't have to give it your best shot and they would still think you were extraordinary, simply because you were an adult. And she was right. Darling's mouth had formed an 'o' shape as her eyes followed every single movement of the crayon sliding across the paper. She was in awe to see Y/N quickly sketch a house with a nice garden, the fences, some trees, even a swimming pool. Y/N finished her 'masterpiece' with a family of two, a little cat, and an arrow pointing to the woman's belly as she wrote down the word 'BABY'.

"So this..." She sighed happily now that her work was done. "This is my family," she said, pointing to the picture. "This is Harry, this is me, and you can't see the baby because the baby's in my belly."

"Does your house look like this?" Darling asked, her eyes went round. It was the first time Y/N had seen her act like an actual five-year-old. And there was something so endearing about that. This was when Y/N's maternal instinct kicked in, she felt her heart flutter in a way that she'd only experienced when she was with Harry.

"Nah, we live right across the hall," she told Darling. "But this is our dream house."

"Why don't you buy it? It has a pool and everything!"

"We'll buy it someday. Right now, we want to stay here to be close to work and to our friends."

Darling clasped both hands in front of her chest. "Can I come visit when you finally buy this house?"

"Sure, love." Y/N nodded and handed her one half of the crayon. "Wanna draw yourself in?"

"Can I?!" she exclaimed with excitement, smiling from ear to ear. That was the first smile to be seen on her, and Y/N felt so proud knowing she was the reason for it.

"Sure, babe. You can put yourself next to me and the baby."

Harry finally returned with three (slightly burnt, but still edible) grilled cheese sandwiches. After having struggled in the kitchen for half an hour, he was now considering signing himself up for a cooking class so he wouldn't depend too much on his pregnant wife. But maybe he'd save this talk for later, because his mind went blank the moment he saw his wife...laughing with mini Layla.

"H-hey guys," he spoke, catching the girls' attention. "What...what are you guys doing?"

"Darling drew a picture of us. Wanna see?"

"Is my head still attached to my body?"

"Harry!"

"Alright, alright. Coming."

He put the plate down on the table and sat down with the girls on the floor. His reaction was the same one as Y/N had before when he saw what Darling had been drawing the entire time. It was far different from the horrendous scenario he'd painted in his head.

Excited, the girl stood up and raised her artwork to show it to her two audiences. "So this is you, this is Y/N, this is the baby. I made it a girl because I want a little sister."

Harry chuckled but Y/N shushed him so Darling could finish her presentation, "and this is me, the babysitter."

"She volunteered to be our babysitter," Y/N told her husband before he could ask.

"Told ya she's a mini Layla," said Harry as he waggled his eyebrows, making Y/N giggle and pushed him away.

For the rest of the afternoon, things had gotten much better for Harry and Y/N. They played a few games (that was how Harry discovered he gave great piggyback rides) and did some more coloring. Since Harry had accidentally ruined one picture by coloring outside the lines, the girls threatened to take away his crayons, but eventually agreed to let him color the insignificant details like the trees and the flowers in the background. Honestly, that was the most therapeutic activity he'd done in a long time. He didn't even bother to check his emails and chat with his clients and employees. All he cared about was this happy moment with his wife and their play-pretend family of three.

In nine months, this all would be real.

"I told you it'd be worth it," Y/N said contently as she followed Harry into their flat.

Darling had just left with her mum, who had been so surprised when her daughter appeared with a massive grin and showed her the picture she'd drawn with half a crayon. Y/N hoped Mary had understood and would try to do better for her little daughter. That was what that child deserved.

"I love to see you so happy," said Harry as he hugged her from behind, kissing the spot right below her ear as she held his face. "Told you you'd be a great mum. You've been acting like my mum since the first day we met."

She rolled her eyes, a corner of her mouth turned up. "I just realized that the personality of the child depended a lot on her parents' relationship."

"That's right." He nodded, holding her stomach with both hands. "Our baby's gonna be an angel, because we're in love. I love you, you love me, we're a happy family."

"I can't have a deep and serious talk with you if you keep quoting lyrics from Barney & Friends, H."

"You're so lame. Our baby would've loved that." He scrunched up his nose and tilted his head to kiss the corner of her mouth. Then, he brightened. "Hey, I think the name Darling is very cute and unique. Let's name our baby something similar, like Honey. Baby Honey sounds so cute!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, lips pressed together as she tried to contain her laughter.

"No? Okay, I'll come up with something else. But I will not give our baby some basic names like Kevin or Barbara."

She froze. "Wait, how d'you..."

"Did I say something wrong?" He gave her a confused smile as he didn't get why she seemed so shocked.

Y/N slowly shook her head and kissed the dimple on his cheek. "I almost forgot that we were like the same person sometimes. Is it weird that I want to marry you again?"

"Not at all. I would do it all over again with you." He beamed, holding her tighter. "Don't worry, love. I promise that I will be the most responsible father and role model—

"Harold!" Mason's voice on the other side of the door interrupted Harry at once. "Harold, I have your laptop!"

"Shit, my laptop!"

"Let's see what kind of porn you have in here!"

"Fuck you, Mason! Give it back right now!"

Y/N hadn't said a word but Harry had already chased his cousin down the hallway. With a gentle smile, she stared at the open door and said to their baby, as if it'd already been there, "we'll give your daddy another try tomorrow."

#flatmate!harry #husband!harry #ceo!harry #harry styles fluff #harry styles writing #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles series #harry styles imagines #harry styles fanfics #harry styles fanfictions

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lamiasluck · 5 years ago

Text

All I Want for Christmas Is... (Pt. 2)

Summary: It's wintertime and coming close to the holidays. Yancy and everyone else in the prison have lots of plans for celebrations! Though Yancy finds himself all alone every time visitation day rolls on by. Illinois on the other hand... is just as lonely. Harsh winters meant there were little adventures to be had. More often then not he had to stay at home with nothing to do.

Maybe it's finally time for the two to reconnect again.

Characters: Illinois and Yancy

Words: 2286

Chapter 1

Read on AO3!

Illinois woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing. In bright text was the name “Jailbird” and a selfie he managed to sneak while adventuring with him. He eagerly answered the phone, every bit of sleep leaving him.

“Hello? Yancy?” His voice was still gravely from waking up. Though with how poor the speaker was on Yancy’s flip phone, he couldn’t tell.

“Oh, hey~ freebird…” Yancy sounded awkward. The first thing Illinois thought was that he was being held at gunpoint.

“Are you alright?”

“What? Yeah, never better.” He scratched the back of his head, still lying in bed. “Look, I gotta make this quick. Sorry for calling youse so early.”

“It’s fine,” Illinois rubbed his eyes with a sigh, “So can I visit you?”

“No.”

“I told you, jailbird.”

“Shut it!” Yancy snapped. “Theys didn’t believe me…”

While disappointed, Illinois huffed out a chuckle. “Didn’t you say I kidnapped you? The only way they’ll let me back there is in handcuffs.”

“Right… I did say youse kidnapped me, didn’t I?” That lie saved him time in solitary when he got back. Great to know he can never come out scott free.

“Like I said, if you want to see me again you’ll have to come to me. It’s never too late to get out of there,” he tried to convince the other.

“I didn’t say youse can’t come. Youse just gotta not get caught.”

Illinois actually pulled the phone away from his ear for a second, taking in what was said. When he finally did return to the phone, he only had one thing to say. “Yancy, I don’t want to get arrested again.”

“Youse won’t! I promise ya, it’ll be fine.”

A long drawn out sigh came from the adventurer. Well, was he really an adventurer if he stayed at home all day? He thought about what he was about to do. Travel to his former prison in the middle of winter, just so he could visit a man he was… friends with? Yeah, that still sounded weird considering Yancy decked him the first time they met. So he was potentially going to get arrested again to spend Christmas with a criminal?

Fuck it, sure.

“Tell me what I have to do, jailbird. You better make this worth it.”

Yancy smiled victoriously. “Now we’re talkin’, freebird.”

Another cold breeze made Illinois shiver in place. He could see his breath appear in white clouds within the frigid night. Even with the layers he wore, it was barely tolerable. The area he was in was secluded, a small section unseen by the prison’s security cameras. A tall gate topped with barbed wire still stopped him from entering the prison, but that wasn’t his objective. The sound of snow crunching beneath feet got his attention. Yancy shuffled towards the gate, shivering like a leaf.

“H-Hey, I-Illinois!” he chattered through clenched teeth. Despite the freezing weather, he attire didn’t change. He still wore his prison uniform, which barely offered any warmth in the winter.

The sight made Illinois nearly scream in his scolding. “Christ, Yancy you’re going to freeze to death!”

“T-They’s d-don’t g-give u-us c-coats…”

“Oh my god, you idiot!” He aggressively took off his coat and shoved it between the gate’s bars. “Take this.”

Yancy didn’t hesitate to put on the coat, furiously rubbing his arms for warmth. “Won’t youse get…” He looked at what Illinois was wearing, “Cold.”

Underneath the coat, Illinois was wearing his usual button up… and the leather jacket. Yancy couldn’t help but stare at his ensemble. His face wasn’t as cold anymore suddenly.

“I wore layers, don’t worry.” Illinois noticed Yancy’s fixated stare. “You like what you see?” He winked.

Yancy blinked and shook his head. “N-No, youse shut your trap!” he huffed, though he gave Illinois one more up and down look. “Youse don’t look bad in it, I guess…”

“Told you I look good in everything.”

“Shut up.” He rolled his eyes hard as he began to warm up.

More puffs of clouds appeared as Illinois laughed. Admittedly, he was colder, but it beats being out there in a t-shirt. “Well, you got me here. So what now?”

“Uh… Is it bad I didn’t think I’d get this far?”

Some guy risked his freedom to visit him for the holidays, and Yancy was risking days in solitary for that same reason. All this work, and there still was an iron gate in between them. God, why couldn’t he have met Illinois by conventional means? What was he doing?

“I didn’t think I’d be here too.”

By the looks of it, Illinois had the same thought process. It’s been months since they’re seen each other in person, and their last encounter was an adventure. Could they live up to that moment? Did they need to?

“Let’s start here: Merry Christmas, Yancy.”

“Merry Christmas to youse too.”

“So… how are you?”

They were frigid, and not because of the cold this time. Oddly hesitant considering all the trouble they went through. Casual conversation could be good for the average Joe, but not for them. Maybe it was the idea of the guards finding them that was putting them on edge.

“Won’t the guards find you?” Illinois asked. He looked around at the field behind Yancy. The prison was quiet, so there was nothing but snow accompanying them.

“Nah, the pushover’s patrollin’ today. I could get away wit’ murder and be fine.” Hopefully, at least.

“I hope that’s not what’s gonna happen tonight.”

“Well youse never…” He reached between the bars and grabbed Illinois. “Know!”

“H-Hey!” Illinois braced himself as he held onto the bars. Yancy grabbed his wrist, holding him in a firm grip with a mischievous smile. “Hands off the merchandise,” he laughed. A similar smile dawned on his face too. “Though, if you want to touch all you have to do is ask~”

Yancy scrunched up his nose, letting go. “Don’t make me actually kill youse.” Luckily he could blame his blush on the cold. Already they felt their unease melting away. All it took was a poor attempt at flirting.

“You started it,” Illinois snickered. After they chuckled, it was silent, but not for long. He remembered something and reached in his bag. “Oh, I brought you a gift.”

“A gift? Youse didn’t have to do that, freebird. I didn’t get anythin’ for youse…” he said, voice airy with disbelief. He scratched the back of his head.

“That’s alright. You making this happen is more than enough.” Illinois revealed a beautiful conch shell from his bag, handing it to Yancy with delicate hands.

“Illinois…” The shell was free from flaws, shined perfectly and had an exquisite pattern of beiges and browns, speckled in a way. Yancy stared at it in awe. “This is beautiful!”

“That’s not all, jailbird. Just like me, it’s more than a pretty face.” He let Yancy shove his shoulder, he deserved it for that one. Still, Yancy let him guide his hands until the shell was next to his ear. “Here, listen closely.”

Shells like this often let people listen to the ocean. This one, however, was a completely different story. Not only did Yancy hear the crash of the waves against the shoreside --oddly clear and loud-- but also the entire beach. Seagulls chirped and dived into the water for food, dolphins and fish splashed jumped from the water, the leaves from palms trees swayed in the wind. He could picture it all. It left him with the faint smell of sea salt and the want for a tropical drink. The second he pulled away, he was back in the snowy prison yard, with Illinois staring at him with a knowing smile.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah, no kiddin’.” Yancy looked at the shell once more, rubbing his thumb along its smooth curves. “Where’d youse get this?”

“Well, it was in an ancient underwater temple. I went there a little after you left. There were tons of these things decorating the place, so I figured I could take one as a souvenir.” Illinois loved to talk about his adventures. Yancy noticed whenever he started to have a far away look, as if he were reliving the moment. Or when he talked with a small smile on his lips as he described his gruelling tasks. “It was a tough journey that one. Razor sharp shells shot from the walls and gave me a nasty scar here.” He drew a line from his shoulder to his stomach. While Yancy grimaced at the thought, Illinois continued to smile. “You wanna see it?”

Yancy sputtered as Illinois began to unbutton his shirt. “Wh-What the fuck?! No, stop that!” He slapped his hands away and tried to unbutton his shirt. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

“Alright, alright, your loss,” he chuckled and shrugged. “I gave the crystal shell to a museum, but I hope you like this. It’s not a conventional gift, though.”

“You’re not a conventional man,” he rebutted. “This is fine, more than fine actually. I really like this.”

“I know you ‘don’t wanna be free’ and whatnot, but clearly you have some drive for adventure. So when you want a taste of the outside, but don’t want to leave, you can listen to this.” Illinois leaned in as close as the bars would allow him, whispering his next words. “From one adventurer to another: it sucks to stay in one place all the time. I know I hate it.”

“Well, I don't mind being all being all caged up. It’s what I’m used to. Not like I have anywhere to go to besides this.” That’s what he always said to people, but for some resaon the words felt heavy on his tongue. Why did he choke out the words now?

Illinois furrowed his brows. “You’ll always have a place with me.”

“Don’t make me consider parole, you asshole.” He gripped the bars in front of him until it hurt, avoiding Illinois’ gaze. There was no bite to his words, more so fearful contemplation.

“I think you deserve better, Yancy. Doesn’t have to be with me, but you should have a different life.” Illinois rested his hand on Yancy’s shoulder, rubbing gently in reassurance.

He tensed under the touch. “Illinois, I’m not a good person. Youse should know that.”

“And you think I have no blood on my hands?”

It was silent between the two of them. Illinois let go of his shoulder in favour for holding the hand gripping the bars. Both their hands were cold, but Yancy still found it comforting. He let Illinois continue his actions while he held the shell in his other hand with an iron grip. A touch of freedom in his hands, the potential for freedom holding his other. This measly gate prevented him from fully being on the same level as Illinois, but he was so close. Did he even want that?

Illinois gave a long sigh. “I don’t know who you were in the past, but from what I’ve seen, you’re shaping up to be a real good man.”

Yancy looked back at Illinois expecting to see his playful smile, but he was dead serious. His eyes were full of hope and care. Eventually Yancy noticed there were tears building up in his eyes. It wasn’t the sting of the cold breeze making him tear up. His lip quivered and he found his voice was straining. “S-Shut up…” He couldn’t help the quiet sob that escaped his lips. Looking down again, he struggled to wipe away his tears on the coat’s sleeves. Again, he was expecting a certain reaction out of Illinois. A negative one. So when he heard Illinois’ soft reassurances rather than a snarky laugh, he felt more afraid of what’s to come. “I fuckin’ hate you… stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“I… I don’t know,” he huffed. “I dunno what’s going on.”

“Just because something’s different, doesn’t mean it’s bad.” Illinois squeezed Yancy’s hand as he gasped at his claim. “I won’t say anything else, but I do care about you.” Those words felt weird on his tongue. He doesn’t remember the last time he cared about someone like Yancy. “I’m sorry for ruining your holiday.”

Yancy huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. His world was starting to crack, but he didn’t want to address it. Not yet, at least. “No, youse didn’t ruin anythin’. I really appreciate youse talkin’ to me like this, whatever this is. You’re different.” He wiped away the rest of his tears, doing his best to smile. “I don’t know whether I should punch ya or hug ya.”

“Not like you can do either with this gate in the way.”

“A damn shame.”

They talked for a little longer, about their lives and adventures outside and in prison. It was getting close to morning time by the end of it. The sun peeked out from the horizon and put Yancy on edge.

“I should go now,” he shifted from side to side. “I can hide your gift or pull a couple strings probably. Don’t youse worry.”

“Alright just keep it safe, you hear? Though, I won’t mind going back there and getting you another one.”

Yancy nodded. Another thing was on his mind so he blurted it out before he could regret it. “Can I call youse again? Casually?”

“Of course you can! I’ll be more than happy, I didn't know you wanted to. Just don’t get caught doing it.”

“I’ll be fine, I wanna talk to youse again.”

It took a lot for Illinois not to make a snarky comment and ruin the moment again, but he kept quiet, he bit his tongue. It felt odd having to part ways again. They both lingered around much longer than they should. Especially in Yancy’s case.

“I hope we can adventure again, jailbird. You gotta stretch your wings sometime.”

“Maybe we can soon.” Yancy shrugged off Illinois’ coat and gave it back. He patted Illinois’ shoulder and backed away from the gate. “I’ll see youse around.”

“Likewise, stay safe.”

Then that was that. Illinois went back to his car and Yancy went back to the prison. Illinois felt oddly alone again, even though he always was. Something happened back there, but he wasn't sure how to describe it. So he shrugged his shoulders and kept driving. This was an adventure, that's for sure, though he has never had the treasure be someone else's company.

#yancy #ahwm yancy #Illinois #ahwm illinois #ahwm #markiplier #markiplier egos #fanfic

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triggeringthehealing · 6 years ago

Text

revelation

Derek/Stiles | ~2k | G | AO3

Summary: I never hated you. Derek said it like it wasn’t a big deal, like he didn’t blow Stiles’s mind. Of course, right after that bombshell, the pack showed up and the movie night started.

A/N: Written for the @fullmoonficlet challenge - prompt #310: tension

Tense.

It's the only way to describe the atmosphere in the room right now. They're in the loft, where they always seem to be these days, but it's not the same space as it used to be back in Stiles's high school days. It's more polished, livable, looks less like a battlefield than it used to back then.

The loft is not anyone's living space anymore though. It's like a clubhouse, a place where the pack and all its extended members come to hang out. Which is precisely why they're all here now, with a movie playing on the massive TV screen that everyone pitched in for some time ago.

And the air feels thick and suffocating, at least to Stiles.

He's not the same restless teenager that he was back when, but right now he is having flashbacks to those days. His mind is spinning and running around and dragging him from one corner to another. He's tapping his fingers on his thigh to let out some of that energy and to relieve the tension. But the thing is that he's about ready to either jump out of his skin or to say something. Because holy crap is he ever trying to process the conversation from just before everyone else got here.

---

"I didn't hate you. I still don't hate you."

Derek is looking at Stiles with the most sincere expression in his face, with a softness and fondness that is unfamiliar. At least to Stiles, who vividly remembers the permanently closed off face and the "stay away" vibes that Derek used to radiate when they first met. This is nothing like that.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Stiles asks because he doesn't understand. Sure, he and Derek struck up a friendship at some point, but Stiles has always been convinced that it was only because he was attached to Scott's hip. He hasn't talked to Derek in several years -- not since Derek got into a car after the war with hunters and drove off into the sunset.

"I wasn't very fond of you when you got me arrested, or for some time after, but I never hated you," Derek says. "If anything, I thought we were friends now."

"Dude."

"Or at least close acquaintances," Derek adds, looking a little disappointed. "That's what I was assuming. But if even that is too much, then that's fine. I'll deal."

"What do you mean that you'll deal? I didn't even think friendship was on the table, let alone anything else," Stiles tells him, feeling a little hysterical. "Is there anything else on the table?"

Of course the pack showed up before Derek managed to respond. So now Stiles is sitting on the couch and staring at the screen without watching the movie and his mind is reeling. The air continues to feel thick and he starts wondering if it would be super rude to leave right now.

There's also the fact that he's absolutely sure that no one else in the room feels the tension that he does, that they're all oblivious to the way he wants to jump out of his skin -- something he hasn't felt in years. They're all happily watching the movie and are completely clueless. Except Derek.

Derek looks like his claws are about to pop -- Stiles sees it when he dares to glance in that direction every once in a while -- and there is a distinct flash of color in his eyes that isn't supposed to be there. Again, Stiles notices when he looks at Derek and finds him staring back, like he's trying to read his mind.

I want to know what you meant, Stiles thinks.

Of course, he can't say it out loud, not with everyone else scattered around the seats and floor around them, several people between the corner of the couch that Stiles claimed and the recliner that's always Derek's place during movie nights. But he's craving solitude in a way that he usually doesn't, a one-on-one conversation about what could be and about all the things he'd want and didn't think he'd ever have.

Because Derek's words from earlier reignited Stiles's hopes, lit a fire under the attraction to Derek that was the gateway to exploring his sexuality and eventually settling firmly on bisexual. The words were an echo of those that he used to dream of hearing, the ones he hoped for years ago and for a long time after. It's only recently that he made himself accept that they would never happen.

And yet...

Stiles glances over again and bites his lip when Derek's eyes are already turned to him, when he finds that neither of them are following the movie. He squirms on the couch when Derek doesn't look away, when his eyes flash with the red that he's gained back since the war ended.

"Oh my god, would you sit still," Jackson -- who's sitting next to him -- groans in Stiles's direction. "Didn't you grow out of that?"

"Sorry," Stiles mutters, genuinely apologetic not because his movements are distracting Jackson but because he got called out on being like this.

"Go walk it off or something," Jackson suggests.

Stiles has a quick retort on the tip of his tongue but then he realizes that Jackson's idea is good. That maybe walking away is the answer right now, even if it's only to head out to the balcony and try to work through all the thoughts that are whirling in his head. He throws one more glance at Derek as he gets up and circles around the couch, then he heads out to the side door, taking a deep breath the moment the cool air hits his face.

He shuts the sounds of the movie out by closing the door and replaces them with the muted noises of the town below. They're far enough up that he can't hear anything clearly and that alone -- the fact that everything sounds like he imagines a blurred artwork would -- is helping already. His mind is still spinning, sure, but 's easier to sift through the newly acquired information this way.

I never hated you.

Stiles spent too long being wrong about what people thought about him, how they felt about him. Hell, he misjudged his father's feelings, not that it was surprising for a kid dealing with grief and with his dad's way of coping at the same time. He was wrong about more, but he'd been absolutely sure that at the very least right at the start of the werewolf chaos, Derek did genuinely despise Stiles. Not so much later on, of course, when they struck up what could be seen as an alliance, if not friendship.

But this sounded like something else. These were words that were used to say that the person felt the complete opposite instead of the assumed. So did Derek actually like him? And if so, in what way? And why had he never said anything?

"Communication issues," Stiles mutters. "We could all probably write books on those."

There's a creak behind him, the noise of the movie for a beat, then silence again, but Stiles knows he's not alone anymore.

"I think there are enough books that will tell us how dumb we've been," Derek says quietly from behind Stiles's back. "It's not like we'd write anything that hasn't been written yet."

"True. But clearly just reading wouldn't help," Stiles mumbles, still looking at the town instead of turning around. "Also, listening in is not fair."

"I wasn't trying to," Derek says. "I wanted to make sure you're not trying to scale the wall to get away."

"If I wanted to leave I'd have used the front door."

"Except scaling the wall would nicely redirect questions from everyone else," Derek points out.

Finally, Stiles turns around and feels the corner of his mouth tugging. "You're starting to think like me," he tells Derek. "I don't know if I should be proud or worried."

Derek gives him a pointed look and then shrugs his shoulders.

"So, you're here for a reason. Is it because of what I said?"

"No."

"Lie."

"Again with the unfair things," Stiles grumbles. "Why do I have to be friends with walking lie detectors? It's very inconvenient."

"I didn't listen to your heart. I just know your lying face," Derek tells him.

"I don't have a lying face," Stiles protests.

"Wanna check with your father and Scott about that one?"

It's a challenge and Stiles could if he wanted to. He'd lied to both of them more than he liked to admit and neither knew all the smaller lies that Stiles told through the years. There were fewer since college, but the ones during his high school years were plentiful and varied.

It's also a distraction from the topic they were on and Stiles is half tempted to continue in the new direction. But there's also temptation to resolve the tension he feels.

"Okay, yes, it's about what you said. What the hell, Derek?"

He didn't plan on sounding angry, but he's frustrated from trying to figure it out on his own and he wishes that they'd had this conversation years ago.

"I never thought you liked me," Derek says, leaning against the wall by the door, out of sight of anyone who's bother looking through the huge windows.. "Back at the start, I dismissed you as a kid who didn't know what he was getting himself into. Then I was pissed because of Laura."

Stiles winces because that's one thing he still feels like apologizing for, though he already did several times.

"But you turned out to know pretty well what you were getting yourself into, eventually," Derek continues, ignoring Stiles's reaction. "I really did not hate you at any point after the Gerard thing."

"Original or 2.0?"

"Original."

"Oh wow. I thought you still couldn't stand me then," Stiles says. "Even the summer when we were looking for Boyd and Erica."

"I know. I didn't think you were my biggest fan and that you just tolerated me because I could help Scott," Derek tells him. "But still, didn't hate you. The opposite, actually."

"You liked me?" Stiles asks and winces again, this time at the way his voice hitches in a way that makes him sound almost hysterical.

Derek nods. "You were still a kid though, but after the Nogitsune--" he says but leaves the thought hanging in the air, unfinished.

"We all grew up pretty fast then," Stiles says. "None of us was the same by senior year."

They both go silent for a little while then, until Stiles's curiosity wins over.

"So why didn't you say anything?"

Derek looks at him and smiles faintly, looking wistful.

"I left, after Mexico."

"I'm aware. You came back."

"And you were with Lydia."

"Ah."

Stiles understand a little. Everyone, Derek included, knew about his feelings for Lydia. About how long he'd been in love with her. How much of a dream come true their relationship was. But that was the past -- they lasted a few months after the big crisis, then realized how much better they were as friends.

"That was years ago," Stiles says. "You've been back here for years, Derek."

"And you didn't show a hint of interest in me at any point," Derek says.

"Okay, lie detector status revoked, you have no idea how to read my face apparently," Stiles tells him. "I spent all those years thinking I'm doomed to an unrequited crush."

"You... what?"

Derek's face is amazing to look at. He goes through several expressions -- shock, confusion, amazement, anger -- before he settles on something that looks like a mix of hope and bafflement.

"Dude, you are why I figured out I'm bi. You're more of an unattainable dream than Lydia ever was."

God, I sound sappy, Stiles thinks, but he lets it go. The words are out, there's no going back. If his guess about where this conversation is going is right, he will never have to.

"So we could have...."

"Done this years ago?" Stiles asks, then he shakes his head. "Yeah, apparently so."

"We're idiots."

"Can't say I disagree," Stiles tells Derek, then he pushes himself away from the railing he was leaning on. "Now, to avoid any further confusion and miscommunication," he says as he steps forward to close the distance between them, "I'm going to kiss you. If you don't want me to, speak now, or--"

Derek chuckles as he reaches forward, grabs Stiles's hand with his own and pulls him in until they're only an inch apart. Then he wraps his free arm around Stiles's waist and tightens his fingers around Stiles's for a beat.

There's no mistaking the expression in his face now, Stiles can read the hope in Derek's eyes clearly. So he closes the last inch of a gap and tilts his head just enough so he can brush his lips over Derek's.

Just like that, the tension he felt all evening dissolves into air and Stiles feels his body and mind relax into the kiss as Derek returns it with enthusiasm.

#sterek fic #sterek #eternalsterek

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