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britcision · 2 years ago

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Gonna try and sneakily post after dnd let’s see how fast I can yeet this up 👀 new chapter!!

(I was kinda considering pushing out the porn parody to push me over one million words on AO3, but I have to be in the mood to write good smut, whereas I’m damn near always in the mood for crack, so here we are

The porn parody has been started though, and the first chapter is edging its way to completion. I will be starting an entirely new taglist for the porn parody though, so do say in the comments here if you would like to be tagged in the first chapter of that!)

I got to use a little of my actual real life work knowledge for once in my life, instead of my unending stash of random knowledge 👀 it’s a bold new world and I bet you ANYTHING Bruce never documents his code

Eleven million backup plans for if marshmallows take over the world, but someone else sits to debug the batcomputer? Zip. Nothing. Fuck them if they can’t read Bruce they aren’t authorised to touch it

As may be rather obvious… We’re right up in the bats again this chapter, and Bruce is going to make some Inadvisable Decisions 😈

I’m sure this will have absolutely no consequences whatsoever! This chapter also came in a little short, since there’s not quiiiiite enough space left to squeeze in our next scene, Danny Attempts To Make Jason Kill Him In A Motorcycle Accident

This means we should not brick ANYONES’ tumblr! (Like that’ll happen, my poor mobile using fellows)

Note: there is a reason why I’m choosing when to use our various vigi’s human names while they’re masked, I didn’t miss one on the “edit” that is formatting this mess for Tumblr 😁

First Chapter and AO3 link:

Previous Chapter:

——————

One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night

About twenty minutes after dropping Danny off at his dorm, Jason was suited up and ready to go.

Well, he’d stayed outside until he’d seen Danny shut the door behind him first. Jason had some fucking manners, though if pressed he couldn’t name who’d taught him them.

It was a habit older than the streets, watching to be sure his friends got to safety.

Danny’s dorm was about fifteen minutes from one of Jason’s better safe houses, as it happened. Jason had never been to a dorm, but from Danny’s stories?

A step below Teen Titans’ bunks, and those had sucked. Less privacy, smaller rooms, and more people? Who weren’t even part of the same team?

Maybe next semester Jason could offer to let Danny move in. He didn’t need need the safe house.

Red Hood could always buy the building. There were other apartments and while they weren’t luxurious, they beat half his other spots. The neighbourhood wasn’t bad either.

It’d be nice to pay Danny back a bit. Not have him closer. Just. Repay some of the debt by giving him a place to stay, rent free.

And maybe, just a little bit, the part of Jason that enjoyed the romanticism of his period novels kinda liked the idea. An estate for the king on your lands was a big deal back then.

A slightly more modern part of him thought being a landlord for his ruler would also be pretty funny. He figured Danny would enjoy that side too.

And it wasn’t like the guy could complain, since he’d literally given Jason back himself. Yeah, Jason was gonna pull that one out if Danny tried any familiar “oh I can’t accept this” on him.

Fixing his core was pretty damn god level on the favours spectrum. Jason could do whatever the hell he liked and Danny would just have to deal with it.

It cheered him up a little more, kept him in a good mood on the ride back to his safe house. It was more time where he couldn’t help Cass, but seriously?

Danny could change in a matter of seconds and be at her side not much slower. Walls, cars, goons, Jason had this feeling that none of it would slow Danny down.

And yeah, knowing that helped, but there was still a piece of him that only unknotted as he slid his helmet on and headed to the window.

“Hey, Black Bat. Busy?” He asked as the comms switched from earpiece to helmet display.

Of course he wore both. People kept trying to steal his damn helmet. That was also what the internal explosives were for.

The others all piped up when they heard him, Harper and Steph calling cheerful greetings around an ongoing conversation.

“Shit, Hood’s in, this mean I can go back to bed?” Bluebird teased. Spoiler cut her off immediately.

“Hell no, it can’t be a school night, Robin’s here! Great timing though Hood, we’re planning Red Robin’s eulogy and you have some experience there,” Spoiler chirped brightly, and Jason hesitated.

Sucked in a breath. He wasn’t gonna judge anyone else’s coping mechanisms until they got past “heads in a bag” levels.

Best to ignore it, since she wasn’t actually trying to set him off.

What the hell had Tim done since they’d left the manor?

Shaking his head, Jason settled into Red Hood and hopped onto the fire escape, scaling easily to the roof.

“Black Bat?” He repeated instead of answering, and half smiled when Spoiler groaned dramatically.

Black Bat answered in the considerate group pause.

“Not busy. Why?” She sounded amused, not even particularly tired, and Jason relaxed enough to slip all the way in.

“Thinking of going a little out of my way tonight. Wondered if you’d mind a tagalong?” Red Hood asked, hoping he sounded casual.

It wasn’t like he’d been planning to patrol the Alley anyway; his guys had already been told to handle it. He’d have to run around tomorrow night to keep the creepers scared, but he could have a couple off.

The tiny pause before her answer didn’t quite feel like judgement, but Jason muted before blowing out the sigh as she did. It wasn’t like the others needed to know he’d been stressing.

“Sure. Meet at library?” She’d had his tracker up. Hood nodded, turning and running for the edge of the roof.

“Sounds good.” And they’d probably wound Spoiler up enough, she’d start plotting vengeance for being ignored soon. “So what the hell did Little Red do?”

“Brought Too Fine to the Bat Cave,” Spoiler told him with relish, not noticeably put out by the delay.

Not necessarily a good sign, since she was also this enthusiastic while actively plotting against him.

Wait.

Too Fine was Tucker’s hacker name.

“But he doesn’t know about us,” Red Hood said with a frown, catching an outcropping and swinging on.

“Oh, now you tell me,” Tim groused while the others snickered, “what a shame you didn’t think to when it’d have actually been helpful!”

News to Hood that he was on, probably still in the cave.

“He knows now,” Nightwing chimed in brightly, probably also travelling from the slight strain in his voice.

Hood paused for a moment, letting that sink in before attempting the next jump.

“Is he on comm?” He asked warily, because if Tim brought Tucker to the bat cave, it was entirely possible that they were all outed.

And that Tucker might tell Danny he was Red Hood.

Shit, he still had to text Harley. Resolving to do it once he hit the library, he set back to running, throwing himself across another street.

Black Bat would probably take a little longer to get there.

“He’ll be back, he’s in the bathroom,” Tim explained with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “It’s not all bad, he’s given me the full story on what happened in Amity Park. Witness account and all.”

“From a witness you let down to the bat cave~” Spoiler sang sweetly across the air.

Red Hood could hear Oracle rolling her eyes as she cut in.

“Tone it down, Batgirl. Bluebird, if you’re still thinking of heading in, could you swing past one last site on your way?” She said firmly, then lightening her tone for their current guest.

“Batgirl who? I’m Spoiler,” Spoiler grumbled, but didn’t push beyond that. None of them did when Oracle invoked the name she’d had before any of them masked up.

Bluebird snickered at her before answering the question, a hint of exertion suggesting she was on the move too.

“I’m not actually in a rush to go home, O, I got all dressed up so I might as well enjoy one last hurrah.”

Right, because she’d be going back to school probably when Danny did.

Harper had always been a damn good hero in Jason’s books, but she valued her retirement and none of them really wanted to ruin it. Unless, apparently, seven bats just had to stalk Jason’s new friends.

Hood would have apologized, but frankly if she’d said no, some of the others couldn’t have come to the gala to be a pain in his ass.

And then he couldn’t have had so much fun fucking with them.

Fine. One cool fruit basket for the Row household, and some rainbow cupcakes for Cullen. He needed practice on frosting roses anyway.

Although that also reminded him.

“Hey Bluebird, have the others filled you in on Phantom?” He asked, cutting off some more background chatter from Spoiler and Tim.

Nightwing and the girls had had hours by now.

“What, your new boyfriend?” Bluebird asked sweetly, and Hood rolled his eyes.

Probably hit the important shit then.

“Sent you a picture?” He asked instead, decidedly not entertaining that question.

Nightwing and Spoiler snickered. Hood flipped off their general directions, settling himself comfortably on the roof of the library to wait for Black Bat.

There was a short pause, the others now wondering what he was getting at. Good.

“In and out of suit,” Bluebird agreed, curiosity tinging with mild suspicion. Being out of retirement clearly wasn’t good for her.

Hood nodded, pulling out his phone and shooting Harley a quick text. It might be moot now, asking her not to mention Red Hood shit in front of Danny, but he might as well.

He still had to ask if Waylon knew. Might as well ask. And see if Tucker knew when he got back.

“I know you’re outta the game, but keep the light show to a minimum if you see him around, okay?” He asked, scanning quickly over the list Danny’d cleared for public discussion.

He didn’t know if Tucker would have mentioned it, but he might as well. Cause of death was good, but Jason personally would veto “and the effects it may have now”.

Because fuck Bruce and his need for everyone to show him their weaknesses.

Bluebird definitely sounded curious now, and possibly like she was punching someone.

“Oh? He not big on the electricity?” She wondered aloud, and Hood grimaced.

Because if they were both at Gotham U in engineering… there was actually a chance Harper and Danny would run into each other.

Danny was older, but Harper skipped a couple years and he had no idea what year Danny was in. Fuck, they might be in the same classes. He couldn’t believe he’d never thought of that.

“Not exactly. You mighta seen him around actually, he’s an engineer too. But he’s not a fan of the electricity flying around,” he explained, Nightwing making background noises that told Hood he hadn’t put the pieces together either.

Good. At least he wasn’t alone.

Bluebird made an interested hum, and probably a finishing blow considering the satisfaction when she spoke next.

“I thought he looked familiar. But then, he’s total Wayne-bait. Yeah, I can keep the good stuff under wraps if I see him around. Gonna guess he’s had some bad shocks in the line of work?”

Hood hesitated and in exactly the same instant Black Bat landed on the roof. Sam had given them all the warning about talking about a ghost’s death, so he could leave it at that.

But…

The way Danny had looked when he explained about Vlad. Yeah, he’d rather they took this seriously. He didn’t want any of his family to hurt Danny, even by accident.

“It’s how he died. He won’t spontaneously combust or anything, but it’s a bad memory.”

Silence reigned while the others absorbed that particular detail, Black Bat crossing to crouch on the roof beside him. Hood leaned over enough to bump their shoulders together.

He could almost feel concern radiating off her, which was an extra weird experience after literally feeling all of Danny’s emotions half the day.

Guess that was where Cass’s liminality was going. It made sense, kind of; despite her occasional trouble speaking, she was pretty much the clearest communicator in the family.

Having another back up way to make herself heard would only fit.

On a whim, he tried projecting comfort back to her. Black Bat didn’t seem to notice, though whether that meant more on her part or his was the question.

She leaned in and bumped him back, her expression unreadable between the full face mask and the shadows.

“Heard and understood, Hood,” Bluebird agreed after a minute, her tone unusually solemn. Hopefully Dickie would take it to heart too.

The odds of Danny running into Nightwing weren’t great if he stuck to Blüdhaven, but Dick was a nosy bastard and there was always one “emergency” or another.

Better than the odds of running into Bluebird, although Harper would almost definitely look him up at school.

Maybe Jason should warn him.

“Maybe you could build him a faraday suit,” Spoiler mused, and Red Hood snickered.

“Handy, but then we couldn’t contact him,” he reminded her and she groaned loudly.

“Hey, if we’re both techies he’ll probably have his own idea. I’ll look him up out of costume, it’s my turn to say hi,” Bluebird decided, and Hood shot Danny a quick text.

Just a heads up.

A picture of Harper, captioned “beware of sibling. May be looking you up in class”. Black Bat giggled beside him, head cocked to watch the screen.

Harper wasn’t technically one of the Waynes, but if Waylon counted she definitely had to, and it wasn’t like Bruce picked his family. Asshole.

A few minutes later he got a message back from Danny.

‘DannyP: !!!!! I know her! 😳😳🤯 She does the cool nanobots! Half our year is betting if she’s a rogue or a vigi 👀 inside info??’

Which was fair, since just knowing Jason wouldn’t be much of a hint either way.

“He knows you,” Black Bat reported to the others, Bluebird immediately bitching that she’d been ratted out.

Red Hood mostly ignored her, texting Danny back.

‘JTodd: Neither anymore. She was a vigi, but she’s retired and getting her degree. No idea if she’ll come back after.’

“Odds you’ll change sides and go rogue, Bluebird?” He asked into a pause, and very much enjoyed the momentary stumped silence. “Apparently there’s a hefty bet.”

Momentary, because everyone had an opinion on that and had to share it. Everyone except Bluebird herself, who seemed to be thinking it over.

“What’re the odds for rogue?” She asked thoughtfully, immediately defending herself as the group booed. “What! I have student loans!”

“You are my villain arc, Red Hood,” Spoiler declared as solemnly as she could through laughter.

“I’m my own villain arc thank you so much, go find your own,” he refuted with a half grin.

“Ask Phantom,” Black Bat advised Bluebird in the meantime, which was probably fair. They weren’t good at staying on topic.

She then gave Hood another gentle nudge, probably for the same reason. Flicked off her comm for a moment.

“Wanted to talk?” She asked, and yeah, they probably should get back to it.

He gave a shrug, hauling himself up and holding a hand back down to her. Definitely not feeling guilty.

They’d tell her before anything became relevant. It just.

Well.

They were a family of fucking detectives, who could never leave well enough alone, and Jason really didn’t want them questioning his humanity.

Just once, he’d like to know something about himself before anyone else did. To have time to understand and come to terms with what he was before Twenty Questions.

Cass was very good at not asking questions though. And Black Bat turned off her comm first. Tim was distracted, probably with Tucker coming back because he’d been quiet.

No better opportunity was likely to come up.

And really, she deserved the same courtesy. Knowing about herself before the others did.

Maybe she’d have some ideas on how to tell them.

Making up his mind, Hood tapped his comms and hauled Black Bat up with his other hand.

“Hey O, gonna be offline for a minute. Text if you need me or BB, we gotta be radio silent.” There were enough possible reasons for that, he didn’t bother giving one.

Just so long as they knew.

Usually he’d just turn the comm off and swear at her if she turned him back on if he wanted peace and quiet, but… well, it was nice to hear the background chatter.

Nicer when the big Bat himself wasn’t in the field to tell them to focus.

“I always need you, baby!” Nightwing called just before he clicked off, and Red Hood rolled his eyes under the helmet.

Dramatic bitch.

He looked back to Black Bat, wondering where would be the best place for this talk. She was watching him patiently, not moving.

It had been her patrol.

“Is there anywhere on your route we can talk privately?” He asked softly, a little surprised at himself. He’d been the one who wanted to wait.

But that just made it his call who he decided to tell what, and when. And Cass… he trusted Cass.

Besides, it wasn’t like he was liminal. It’d give them something to think until he was ready.

Black Bat regarded him for a moment longer, then nodded and made her way to the edge of the roof.

“Follow.”

The night was wearing on, but Bruce was darkly satisfied that they were finally making progress.

Constantine’s pacing (replacing his smoking; Bruce may not have bothered arguing in the cave, but even Constantine knew better than to light a cigarette in space) had finally slowed.

Something terrible had happened in Amity Park, but even the magician was grudgingly admitting it was probably over. Left permanent scars, but getting no worse.

Unless it was on a cosmic level and would be a slow seeping problem for millennia, but Alfred had Opinions about Bruce concerning himself with issues on that time scale.

There was only so much they could do in the moment.

Another survey of the city was required, and in person since even the League’s best couldn’t take clear pictures of Amity Park.

A fact which didn’t seem to have stopped the Amity Parkers from photographing and sharing pictures of each other, according to his children. Constantine hadn’t actually argued when Bruce compared it to background radiation, so it must be close enough.

He also hadn’t done more than grimace when Bruce asked if he wanted to undertake the survey personally. That was as good as an enthusiastic agreement.

First, though? First they needed to call a meeting of the Justice League, primarily the heroes located in North America.

They had been horribly uninformed of what was going on right under their noses, and if Constantine was right… Amity Park’s problems had begun to spread.

To Gotham.

To his children.

Constantine’s grumbling that it was the miasma of death that hung over the city drawing them in had not inspired confidence, and Bruce resolved to have Zatanna over at her soonest convenience to explain.

Helping Constantine put together a report on Amity Park itself had more than convinced Bruce not to ask Constantine, even if he could have done it today. The man was…

Well. Bruce wasn’t looking forward to having to run him through the JL’s classification system again. Maybe one of his children would want to go and handle the technical side.

All he had to do was finish preparing the presentation, call the League, and he could rest. It would likely take a day or two to put a full meeting together, but he could at least fill Clark and Diana in tonight.

He could sleep in between. Just for a little while.

Right after he showed Constantine how to configure the alerts from Amity Park to direct to the Justice League Dark, not the spam folder. They hadn’t sent one in years, but he was determined not to miss any changes.

That should have been the easiest part of this whole mess. It was just a simple form, with a basic test button to ensure it worked.

Nothing too complicated even for a man who’d decided “no reply needed” meant the same thing as “too dangerous for anyone but JL Dark”.

Fine. It was fine.

Bruce loved making training videos to highlight the most basic functions of a system and ensure that people actually understood what the various controls meant. Wonderful.

It meant that they could work in parallel for a while, Bruce on the presentation for the League, Constantine to fix his mistake. In a blissful silence, even.

It couldn’t last.

“It’s not working, Bats,” the magician declared, pushing back and away from his computer. Probably to pace again.

Bruce closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, and made his way across to frown at the monitor.

“Did you save your changes?” He growled, doing his best not to let the irritation show. It was getting harder every time.

Constantine rolled his eyes, definitely not helping, and pointed at the screen.

“See for yerself. Look, JLD Top Priority, like ya said. And then ya hit the top button to save, and the red button to test it, and nothing happens.”

He waited impatiently while Bruce clicked through the buttons, seeing it for himself.

Constantine wasn’t wrong. That was unexpected.

Brows furrowing under his cowl, Bruce checked the deleted requests. Three test messages from “Amity Park”.

“Hn.”

“Someone’s fucked ya system,” Constantine commented dryly, sounding unduly pleased that it wasn’t his fault.

Something other than his haphazard filing had apparently been causing some of their problems. Bruce… just didn’t have the time tonight.

He nodded over to his screen instead, pulling up his wrist computer to send a private message to Tim in the cave. How long could a tour take?

Tim could find what was going wrong long before he’d have the time.

“I’ve compiled most of the presentation on creatures of the Realms. Is there anything important I should add?” He asked gruffly and Constantine sighed dramatically and flounced over.

Bruce firmly ignored Steph’s voice in his ear.

Not because he didn’t agree, whatever a “woobie” was.

He just needed Constantine’s once over to confirm he had all the pertinent information, and then he could call Clark and Diana.

Head home.

Get to bed.

“Looks fine. I should check yer damn revenant some time soon too though.”

Bruce froze, finger just above the send button on that tech request to Tim.

His fucking what.

Black Bat led them easily across the city, along what was probably her normal patrol route. Taking her cue from Red Hood, she didn’t rush, but soon indicated that they turn off into a small alley between two warehouses.

Hell, not even a proper alley. A gap where the buildings hadn’t quite smushed together.

Red Hood recognized the area from Nightwing’s bitching; there’d been a bust here last week, and something had cloaked the whole block from surveillance.

These days, he was almost tempted to check what Danny knew about it. Ghosts fucked with technology in ways none of the bats would find.

Black Bat stopped them half way down the gap, feet braced against one wall and her back to the other, leaving her ��sitting” about twenty feet off the ground.

Hood matched her a little further down, grumbling a little at the crush. Almost a foot taller, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable position for him, but he’d held worse.

They were stable, and damn near impossible to observe. This was as good as they’d get.

“So,” he began, and immediately realized he had no fucking clue what to say.

Black Bat’s flat, expressionless mask was not helpful.

Hood wished he could pull his helmet off, just to run his hands through his hair. But they were on patrol.

Black Bat just waited, silent and patient while he wrestled with himself. Finally he decided to just spit it out.

“Danny died, and came back,” he said in a rush, glancing over to her.

Black Bat nodded.

“Like you.”

“Like us,” Hood corrected, groaned, and switched off the voice modulator. Actually, fuck it, he had his domino on.

He pulled the helmet off, balancing it in his lap. He could shove it back on if it came time to go.

Black Bat was beside him now, almost close enough to touch. Close enough to lean in and bump their shoulders together.

“One main difference,” she noted thoughtfully, then tapped her chest, “no skin change.”

Which, yeah, Jason had been hoping to emphasize before any of the family got too far down the right track.

“Right,” he agreed, leaning back to stare blankly into the smog of Gotham above them.

Fuck. How do you even say it? How do you tell someone they’re not fully human anymore?

Someone like Cass, who’d been raised to believe she’d never been human, by force. Just a weapon.

Her hand was in his now, and he couldn’t be sure if he’d reached out or she had. He stared down at their laced fingers instead.

“You know how people get when they spend too long around the pit water,” he began slowly, trying a different path.

Cass had been raised around the League of Assassins. She knew.

And took the change of topic fully in stride, nodding and giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Erratic,” she mused softly, her face tilted to the wall across, “unpredictable, especially if they went in.”

No one was going to say Ra’s Al Ghul was an unstable mess of a man, but no one had to. Still, how controlled he was was impressive, especially after you saw what mere exposure to the fumes did to other people.

Red Hood nodded, sighing softly.

“Danny’s parents kept it in the fridge. He was… exposed long before he died,” he explained quietly.

If he was talking about himself, he’d say “contaminated”. Hell, it was the word Danny used when explaining it to the bats.

Jason just couldn’t use it about Danny. It just wasn’t right.

Black Bat stilled, almost enough to be mistaken for a statue instead of a living being. Was that her liminality too? Or just her training?

Red Hood couldn’t stand it either way, giving her hand a gentle tug.

“He told me… being around it too long can change a person, even if they never get dunked,” he said slowly, trailing off again.

“We got dunked,” Black Bat said quietly, her hand curling more tightly around his. There was no hint of emotion in her voice, and Jason hated it.

Pulled her closer, doing all he could to project comfort-sorry-concerned-love you. Wishing he’d asked Danny to teach him to do that first.

Neither of them had really considered he’d need it, since Danny was so good at reading him. But he needed her to know she wasn’t alone.

Her shoulders hunched suddenly, body tensed to spring until her head snapped round to focus on him.

He could… he could feel surprise from her. Maybe it was working.

He gave a graceless half shrug, grinding his shoulders against filthy bricks.

Tried to project yeah it’s weird for me too, but wasn’t sure how well it came across. Anything beyond pure feelings was a little tricky for him to push, though he could usually work out what Danny was saying.

“We got dunked,” he agreed quietly, resolving instead to wrap her in love-protect-safe-safe-safe, “and sometimes… that changes you even without a flashy transformation.”

It was an awful explanation and he knew it, could practically feel her eyes darting all over his face, his posture, reading things he probably wasn’t aware he was showing.

Then she relaxed all at once, settling in and leaning part of her weight on him as well as the wall. He braced automatically to take it. He wouldn’t let her fall.

“He called it being “liminal”,” he explained softly, working an arm around her shoulders above the wall to coax more of her weight onto him. “I don’t know what it means for you yet, BB. But nothing bad. He was sure it wouldn’t be bad.”

Black Bat made a soft humming sound, obediently shuffling so he could wrap his arm around her. Looking down at their still twined hands.

“Can feel you,” she said softly, hand rising to tap gently against the red bat on his chest. “Big brother.”

It startled a bark of laughter out of him, because… well, yeah. A good way to sum up everything he’d wanted to tell her without words.

Felt a quick rush of satisfaction from Black Bat, and tried to answer it with relief-agree-protect.

“Yeah, that’s the fuckin’ weirdest part,” he agreed dryly, almost felt the rush of her giggle more than he heard it. “Apparently some liminals get this… aura around them. Sharing what they feel. I didn’t know if you would…”

What? If she’d notice? If she’d be able to feel the same things?

Black Bat nodded, head tipping up to meet his gaze once again.

“Robin? Batman?” She asked, and Jason hesitated.

He couldn’t talk to either of them about it. Not yet. Bruce would fucking push, he always did, and wouldn’t stop until he tore the secrets out of him. Damian would just run to Bruce.

But it was a valid question. And they did sort of deserve to know just as much.

For now he took refuge in what he knew, shrugging it off.

“Danny thinks they’re liminal, but… not as far along as we are.”

Not as close to death. Not as close to not being human, although technically they were both legally non-sentient, so that was fun.

“D’you really think either of them have the emotional bandwidth to share?” He tried to joke, covering the moment.

Black Bat just stared at him until he fell silent. Then nodded.

“Should tell them. No rush,” she added almost before Jason could tense, leaning back in and resting her head on his shoulder, “have been for a while, yes?”

Jason paused a moment longer, shook his head, and snickered.

“Cannot believe I ever doubted you’d be able to do the whole “emotional telepathy” thing,” he grumbled good naturedly, and Black Bat glowed with gentle amused.

“Better than you,” she told him archly, sounding for a moment like Steph when she was teasing Tim. Jason gave her a squeeze.

“Don’t I know it. But yeah, it’s not a new thing, and won’t mean anything to anyone unless one of us dies again.” Which he wasn’t going to think about.

Shit, someone said Robin was out tonight.

Nope. Not thinking about it. Robin had been patrolling for years, and as much as he whined about his solo patrol route, he never deviated.

Not after Oracle had highlighted his route on his wrist computer for him and proved she could see every footstep. She wouldn’t necessarily tell Bruce, but she’d always know.

Black Bat nodded, resting against him for a moment longer before sitting up again.

“You want to wait.” It wasn’t a question, but he felt compelled to answer.

Picked up his helmet, turning it over slowly in his hands. But of course she’d understand. She always did.

“I want to know what this means to me before I have B poking and prying into every part of my life,” he said quietly, staring into the eye slits of the helmet.

Black Bat ruffled his hair.

“Can wait,” she agreed gently, switching her position to have a hand and foot on either wall. Ready to move on. “No rush.”

Red Hood pulled his helmet back on and matched her, the pair climbing quickly out of the crack between the warehouses. It almost wasn’t worth saying, but…

“You can tell the others if they ask. I just…”

“Don’t want questions,” Black Bat agreed lightly, flipping up onto the roof. “Can ask Danny when the time comes.”

“Yeah,” Red Hood agreed, crouching beside her. “Mind if I stick with you on patrol tonight?”

He sort of hoped she’d think it was unrelated, but another moment of stillness passed across her as she regarded him.

“Until we die again,” she repeated his own words, and Hood was pretty happy she couldn’t see his face anymore as he grimaced.

Not that it mattered, another shot of amused shooting between them, followed by a much softer appreciated.

At least she wasn’t judging him for being a mother hen.

“Understand.”

Tim and Tucker had made quick work of the interview, and Tim was pretty much running out of questions when the batcomputer pinged with an incoming message.

Tucker gave it a longing look and Tim chuckled softly, wheeling himself over.

“Hang on. Might be one of the others out on patrol,” he explained, right clicking to pull up the monitor that tracked the bats’ various dominos out and about.

Tucker stared up at it politely, diverting his attention from what Tim was doing on the other screen, no matter how curious he was. Showing trust and all that.

It was actually really cool too; he’d not really seen a map of Gotham, and having one superimposed with little glowing lights of the various heroes on patrol was really cool.

It wasn’t really zoomed in enough to tell if Bluebird was actually in a fight, but the little blue dot seemed to be the only one standing still, so Tucker assumed she was.

How cool would that be? Watching just normal human vigilantes fight and take down bad guys?

Although off the top of his head, he could already think of a couple of things to add to the monitoring program. They might already be there, he hadn’t clicked around, but like.

Vitals were all well and good, down in the corner next to each hero’s name and the colour of their dot, but just the heartbeats? That wouldn’t tell you enough.

Tucker preferred brainwaves, because then you could tell if they’d been hit with something or overshadowed.

Although maybe it was because he’d spent his time keeping track of a guy who pretty regularly did not have a heartbeat. And it also gave him more data points for some of his cooler side projects.

Understanding the different brainwave patterns an individual made in different situations was a key part of neural mapping, and adding it to the bat’s routine would get him a ton of data.

And then they could really play Mariokart.

He’d have to ask Tim if they tracked any of that later. Not all the bats wore helmets or cowls that would support the electrodes, apparently. Although if Danny could get his hands on a domino…

Tucker was snapped back to the here and now as Tim pushed back from the batcomputer, a wry grin on his lips.

“Actually, I think this might be something you could help with, Tucker. If you don’t mind a little work on your night off?” He teased, back to Tucker’s complaints about a night of fun and tech.

Like getting to play on the batcomputer did not absolutely count as fun and tech.

Tucker beamed, excitement welling up in him and cracking his knuckles. It’d be pretty cool to assist a human vigilante too. And on a tech problem!

Gotham was fucking great. If Tim really meant it about getting him an internship, Tucker might have to see about switching schools.

MIT was great, but it wasn’t Wayne Enterprises, personal meetings, or personal tech demonstrations with Tim Drake Wayne!

“Sure! What’s going on?” He asked, shuffling over to look at the other screens now that he had permission. Making sure it was obvious he hadn’t been looking.

Resisting temptation had been hard. He deserved credit.

Tim nodded to the screen, and that? That was a message from Batman. Bruce Wayne. Batman.

Tucker scanned the message, eyes widening even as Tim spoke.

“Wanna help debug the Watchtower?” Tim asked, and Tucker clutched at the back of his chair as his heart leapt, swooning just a little.

The Watchtower. The actual Watchtower. In space. Oh he was shoving that in Danny’s face for not telling him he was friends with the Bats!

There was only one real question left.

“Will Oracle be here?” He asked eagerly, looking around the rest of the screen.

A soft chuckle played from a speaker in the bottom corner, and Tucker jumped half a mile as a masked voice spoke.

“You boys have fun with this one, I’ll keep an eye on the city. If you finish early you could walk me through that server of yours?”

Oracle.

The Oracle.

They were real, they talked to him, they wanted to talk about his locked down servers! Tim lunged to catch him as Tucker collapsed, knees giving out under the swell of emotion.

All of his dreams were coming true, all at once.

He’d never been happier.

Danny was having a pretty quiet night in. That didn’t used to be unusual while he was in Gotham; having time to himself was still pretty much a novelty, and he wasn’t exactly a party boy.

Of course, it was a night in with some of his parents’ inventions and recently one or two of his own, so the actual “quiet” part was negotiable.

Quiet enough not to piss off his dorm mates, but luckily most of them were engineers too. They may not always know what he was doing, but they were usually interested.

Tonight, he was alone, most of the floor still being home for the holiday. That had been one of the things he’d looked forward to most about staying behind, but…

Well, after his noisy and action packed few days… he was lonely.

He wished he’d asked Jason to stay. Just because he’d said he was going to bed didn’t mean he had to do anything of the sort.

It was just that Jason had been… tense. He’d not even gotten off the bike when they arrived, just pulling over and chatting for a minute before heading out.

Like he wasn’t fully comfortable going into Danny’s place, which was kinda fair. Unlike Jason’s apartments, Danny’s dorm was a communal space.

Even if most of his dorm mates weren’t home, there was still a chance one of them might turn up. And then Danny would have someone else bugging him about his “boyfriend”.

Nope.

Besides, he’d see Jason again at 11am (he had this horrible feeling Jason might be a morning person), so it wasn’t even all that long. He should probably just go to bed.

He should check his class schedule, actually. Work out what days he’d have free, work out when he and Jason could skip to the Zone for fight club.

Wait.

Would Jason be free.

What the hell did Jason do for a living? He’d have to ask at some point, Danny mused, logging in and taking a screenshot of his class schedule for the new year.

For now, it was probably best just to send Jason the picture so he’d know when Danny was free, and then Jason could work out a good time for them to go and it wouldn’t be Danny’s problem.

Excellent. Sheer genius.

Humming happily to himself, Danny pulled up Jason’s number and sent the picture of his schedule, with the caption:

‘Let me know when ur free for field trips 👊🏻💥👻’

Eyes closing for a moment, Danny let his awareness drift out across the city. It wasn’t something he’d done a lot; Gotham wasn’t his haunt and he didn’t want to step on any toes.

Usually he’d just expand his conscious aura if he was looking for someone, but knowing how much Jason didn’t like it… well, his passive aura covered most of the state, so reaching through the same city couldn’t be all that hard.

Right?

Frostbite could find anyone, anywhere in the Far Frozen with little more than a thought. And was convinced Danny would be able to do that with the entire Zone, some day.

Danny was a little less convinced. Past the background awareness that he was no longer in Amity Park that had taken months to fade, he’d never really paid attention to his passive aura.

It’d be too tempting to feel out the rogues, or at least react to the sudden surges of aggression and danger. But he hadn’t had anyone to protect before, and he knew Jason would feel better knowing Danny could.

That was kinda why Danny hadn’t mentioned how theoretical this particular ability was, although he had no doubt he’d recognize Cass’s energy if she came close to death.

Which meant he should totally recognize it while she was alive, well, and had more energy, right?

He had no idea where she was, which parts of Gotham fell on her patrol route, but that kinda helped. It meant he couldn’t trick himself by focusing on a particular area.

Surprising precisely no one though, he found Jason first. The other halfa almost glowed when Danny was focusing on his energy, a bubbling little ball of yellow and red.

He… was maybe with Cass? Danny’s brows furrowed, nose scrunching as he tried to focus without changing his aura.

He was definitely with one of the liminals. And that quiet little light, almost blue, felt sort of like Cass. When he forced himself not to be distracted by Jason’s brighter glow.

Eyes snapping open, Danny’s concentration broke and he frowned up at the ceiling.

Well, that explained why Jason was in a hurry to get going. He was no expert in Gotham herself yet and had no idea where the two of them were, but if he tried again he could probably work it out.

Did Jason still have a suit? Or did he call Cass in, find something he could do as a civilian to have her help?

Shrugging to himself, Danny dismissed the question and hauled himself up. Might as well get to bed; they’d be back together in the morning and he could always ask.

Tim was scrolling through the code for the alert messaging system itself while Tucker went through the sections that pertained to Amity Park specifically on his PDA when the other boy made a sudden, startled squeak.

Tim considered pretending he hadn’t heard, but there was a chance he’d found the answer. So he glanced over.

“Any luck?” He asked, noting Tucker’s sudden strained expression. Maybe the guy needed the bathroom actually. They’d been down here a while.

Tucker laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So… uh… what exactly does the bug we’re looking for do?” He asked in a small voice, looking more embarrassed than Tim had ever seen.

Which… was not a proportionate response for that noise. And a question that they both probably should have thought of sooner.

He’d meant to mention it, since they’d have to explain it to the Amity Parkers at some point.

“So… remember how the Justice League never responded to an alert from Amity Park?” Tim asked not a little sheepishly himself.

Tucker nodded, not actually looking any less embarrassed himself either. That was definitely a great sign.

Tim sucked in a deep breath and forged ahead.

“So, it turns out there’s a bug in the Watchtower’s systems, where anything coming in from Amity Park gets marked as spam and funnelled straight into trash. We fixed the marking as spam thing, which I guess was user error, but it’s still-”

“All going to trash,” Tucker finished with a sigh, grimacing and shaking his head, “aaaaand I think I know why. But the timeline doesn’t make sense?”

That… that wasn’t even on the same continent as what Tim’d expected he’d say.

“The timeline?” He asked, brows furrowing, sliding over to peek at Tucker’s screen.

Tucker shook his head again, angling it so that Tim could see… a section of code that shuddered faintly in and out, almost disappearing entirely every few seconds.

That.

That was not a thing that should be happening.

Tim would have loved for it to be a simple screen glitch, but it was only that one small section of code. The lines above and below were fine, and Tucker could move the flickering chunk up and down.

“Yeah, this is your problem,” the Black man sighed, wiggling the section demonstratively, clearly aware of Tim’s shattered hopes.

Heartless man. Genius man.

“You’ve had ghosts in your back end. Probably wouldn’t even show up on an uncontaminated device. Which, by the way…” he trailed off, and Tim shook his head immediately.

“Not tonight. No changes to the batcomputer without Bruce’s say so,” Tim said firmly, since he’d already fucked up once. Might as well limit the damage.

Tucker shrugged and nodded back to the section of code.

“Okay. But this… this was definitely Technus. And that makes no sense? He’s a spirit of technology, we’ve fought him a bunch of times, but if he got into the Watchtower’s code he wouldn’t just… hide,” he tried to explain, adjusting his beret fussily.

It totally wasn’t adorable.

Tim did his best to keep up though, nodding along and thinking back over everything they’d been told about ghosts so far.

“You think we’d have noticed?” He asked, and Tucker snorted.

“He likes making giant robot bodies out of toasters, you’d definitely have noticed him on your space station,” he agreed dryly, then sighed.

Frowned down at the tablet again.

“I mean, Danny could make him do it and behave himself now, but if these changes were active during the whole Pariah Dark thing… I dunno, Technus should have been a way bigger problem. He’s not subtle.”

Tim frowned, thinking about what Tucker had said and then pausing.

“Danny could make him behave now?” He asked and Tucker pulled another face. Like he hadn’t meant to say that.

“Well, yeah, Danny’s miles out of Technus’ league now,” he tried to brush it off with a laugh, “the guy knows he’ll lose any fight so he’s really not a problem anymore. We have hackathons,” he added and Tim really wanted to know more about that.

There was just. Something off about Tucker’s answer. Not the content itself, just the way Tucker clearly wasn’t saying something.

That was a problem for future Tim though. Present Tim had a job to do.

“So can you fix what he did?” He asked the important question, and Tucker made another face.

“Dude… whoever or whatever made Technus do this, will probably notice if we fuck with it,” he said warily, and Tim shrugged.

“Whoever or whatever made Technus do it couldn’t do it themselves. How would they know?” He shot back, and Tucker chewed his lip.

Shook his head.

“Lemme text Danny. He’s the ghost expert, he’ll know how much we should worry about this,” he explained quickly, pulling out his phone and shooting off a short message.

Tim gave him his very best deadpan expression.

“How much we should worry about technology ghosts getting into space and fucking with Justice League HQ. I have the feeling the answer is “a lot”?” He offered sweetly, and Tucker snickered.

“Yeah, well, we’ll see. Might actually be alright, if this is all he touched. And, since you won’t let me juice the big computer, we’d have to scan the whole thing through my PDA. Every line of code,” he added, like Tim wasn’t already dreading it.

Tim sucked in a slow breath, weighing his options.

Touching the batcomputer? Ultimate no-no. But Tim’s personal laptop… it had access to the Watchtower’s systems, and was under Tim’s personal control.

And would let Tim go through the sensitive data himself, which the core code of the Watchtower was full of. The question was, did he trust Tucker not to install anything dangerous?

That question had been answered the second he asked Tucker to help him debug though. Clearly the guy could already put what he wanted, where he wanted, and with their current tech?

None of the bats would ever know. At least if Tim’s computer got the update, he’d have a chance at spotting ecto-infused code.

There were other computers they could use of course, old or unnetworked computers that Bruce would probably insist they start with.

Which wouldn’t be able to access the Watchtower’s servers, and couldn’t hold the whole thing to be able to run a useful check.

The answer really was kinda obvious.

Tim looked to Tucker, who’d been texting away while he thought things through.

“We can’t do the batcomputer, but is there anything you could do for my laptop tonight, or do we have to wait on Danny still?” He asked, deeply regretting that they’d gone to video games instead of the tech upgrade.

At the time he’d been planning on having a burner laptop done though, so it probably wouldn’t have been as useful.

Tucker shrugged cheerfully and slid his phone into his pocket, cracking his knuckles.

“Well, I can’t give you the full infusion to let you open Amity’s encrypted data, but I can write you a little something that should expose Technus’s code even without it,” he offered, and Tim brightened up.

“How long?” He asked eagerly, wondering if Tucker would let him watch. It’d be fair if he didn’t, Tuck had been cool about not looking when Tim played on the batcomputer, but…

Tucker smirked, flicking open a new screen on his PDA.

“How long will it take you to get the laptop down here?” He asked smugly.

Tim booked shit to the elevator.

Private Chat: DannyP & TooFine

2:15am

‘TooFine: Danny when tf did u have Technus hack the JL’

‘DannyP: ……. 👀 u cannot prove i did that 🚫🚫’

‘TooFine: I’m helping Tim debug the Watchtower’

‘TooFine: double fuck u for not telling me about Batman btw’

‘TooFine: someone sent all the Amity alerts to trash’

‘TooFine: if we keep talking about this I might accidentally send something to the group chat 🤨’

‘DannyP: FUCK FINE DONT TELL SAM 🏳️🏳️🏳️’

‘DannyP: after the pd thing’

‘DannyP: cw called’

‘DannyP: they hadnt been reading the messages anyway i just’

‘DannyP: shitty people track the jl y’know? and i didnt want em knowing about us’

‘DannyP: let em all think its a joke and then no one else comes an tries to use our portal to harness the realms and blow up superman or whatever’

‘TooFine: dude u fucking told me to tell them what actually happened??’

‘TooFine: pretty sure anyone tracking the jl will work that out now’

‘DannyP is typing’

‘DannyP: ok so maybe i didnt think that through 😔😔😔’

‘TooFine: no shit. I’m fixing the code in case any new alerts come through but it’s not like they’ll bother to call’

‘DannyP: not like they need to, frighty’s got em covered 🗡️🗡️🎃’

‘TooFine: yeah yeah. I’ll set it to ping u too’

‘DannyP: ur the best tuck 🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♂️’

‘TooFine: better than u deserve’

Across the city, Red Hood and Black Bat had stopped for smoothies. Patrol was quiet, and word on the street was that Bluebird was mostly to blame.

Nobody wanted to know why she was back and taking no prisoners, so even the docks were almost deserted.

Then again, with Riddler and Waylon snapped back off the streets, Penguin lying low in fear of Harley, and Batwoman making Two Face’s life a personal hell?

Yeah, no wonder the smaller players were lying low.

Hood had pulled his phone out to check in on the Alley in case they’d be more useful there when he noticed a message from Tucker’s private chat app.

It was from Danny.

Danny had sent him his class schedule. Told Jason to let Danny know when he was free. Like class was the only thing that’d stop Danny from wanting to see him.

Jason was so lost in staring at his phone, utterly swamped in the implications, that he didn’t even notice Black Bat finish her smoothie and swap out her empty cup for his.

Danny wanted to see him again.

He’d have to work out a proper schedule of his own.

Bruce was having a Bad Day. An extended bad day, one that was fast approaching 48 hours long.

As if everything with Amity Park wasn’t already bad enough, both in the past and the present, now Constantine believed there was something wrong with Jason.

That his son wasn’t fully human anymore.

Now, Bruce’s best friends weren’t even a quarter human between them, and no matter what everyone seemed to think he was perfectly happy with meta humans.

So long as they kept themselves safe.

Preferably where they wouldn’t be mind controlled, kidnapped, or held hostage every few days. Frankly being a meta was probably stressful enough even in a normal city.

But he’d keep Gotham’s metas as safe as he could, just like Duke.

But Jason… Jason had been born human. Had lived as a human, died as a human, and Constantine seemed so sure he’d come back as something else.

“Revenant” the man had called him. An animated corpse that haunted the living, powered by rage.

Bruce might even have believed it two years ago, when Jason first returned. Jason had been so angry, intent on destroying Tim when the other was just a child.

When Jason was little more than a child.

But… that wasn’t all he was. He was himself, truly Jason Todd in ways Bruce hadn’t wanted to believe. He’d fought his rage and won every day.

Most days.

And being around Amity Park, being around Daniel James Fenton, might be enough to push him back over. To drag Jason closer back to death.

Halfas could act as psychopomps, bringing lost souls safely to the other side.

Jason had only just become himself again. They had only just begun healing the rift between them.

Bruce couldn’t lose him again.

They had to keep him away from Amity Park. It was as simple as that really; something in Jason’s resurrection had gone wrong and they all knew it.

Even Jason himself wouldn’t argue with that. Something about his death clung to him, poisoned him with that violent green rage.

His children’s reports told him that Danny was claiming to help with the pit rage because he had also been exposed. But what if he was just helping the pit?

Even if he didn’t mean to, exposing Jason to that much power that closely tied to death couldn’t be good. Constantine hadn’t exactly said as much, but Bruce could read between the lines.

Death magic was contagious between those who’d been infected. Who’d died and come back.

That wasn’t fun to know. Not with how many of his children, his friends had all died before.

Even he himself had. He’d have to investigate Amity Park personally. Take the risk himself, to keep it from the others.

Tim and Duke could help, but they were both so busy with their own lives. He would have to wait and see.

His meeting with Clark and Diana hadn’t gone well either. They’d both been gratifyingly concerned with what he’d learned and had recognized the threat.

Clark had promised to keep an ear out for Jason, to listen in on his heartbeat and make sure he was okay. Bruce would have been grateful, if Clark hadn’t also told him that Jason’s heart was noticeably slow.

Easy to pick out, even if they hadn’t spent much time together.

Just how close was his boy to dying again?

Diana had advised caution. Wanted to speak to Danny herself, see the hero who had shouldered the burden of this small town. See if he had turned under the pressure.

Pressure that should never have been his. Pressure they should all have shared, protecting the child and the town together.

It would be his fault if Danny had broken. Had given in to whatever in the Infinite Realms had stolen a whole town away.

Bruce knew that with a leaden certainty, felt the weight of it settle in his chest. The same way he knew he was responsible for most of his rogues.

He could see the wisdom in letting Diana talk to the man first. She was wiser than most of the League, and a good judge of character. Even without her lasso, it was hard to lie to her.

But if what Constantine said was true, he didn’t want to tip their hand. Zatanna and Shazam had both agreed to attend tomorrow and give their own opinions.

They could afford to wait one night. Perhaps two, if Danny couldn’t be found tomorrow.

Just about the only thing Bruce wasn’t worried about was Danny running. If he had ill intentions, he wasn’t the sort to give in and disappear so easily.

He’d threatened Bruce to stay out of things between him and Jason. And certainly wasn’t afraid of a fight.

Bruce was also quite sure that he and Diana could take the boy if it came to it, even with the abilities Constantine ascribed to the realms. He would find a way.

But not tonight, he reminded himself firmly as he strode into the zeta tube. Tonight he would go home, update his children, and get some sleep.

Maybe waiting a day or two to speak to Danny directly would help. This concussion had passed frustrating and was beginning to affect his decision making.

Shaking his head to clear it, Bruce hit the button to send him home. Soon he could rest. At least for a little while.

A gentle buzzer went off in the cave and Tim yelped like he’d been stung, clutching at Tucker’s arm in an entirely unmanly way.

“SHIT he’s back hide the candy canes!”

Tucker stared at him wide eyed, but to his credit the other man didn’t hesitate to sweep the pile of different flavoured canes off the desk and into the front of his shirt.

“Where?!” He asked, and Tim hesitated for half an instant.

The zeta tube was down by the cars. Bruce would be up in less than a minute. Spinning Tucker by the shoulders, he shoved him towards the infirmary.

“Get in there! Don’t come out til I say!” He hissed, already hearing the zeta tube’s door whoosh open.

Tucker obediently scurried away, and thank fuck he was quick on the uptake enough to drop his voice below a whisper.

“What?! Tim, what?! Am I not supposed to fucking be here?!” He hissed, and Tim pulled the infirmary door almost shut before darting back to the table.

He’d cleared it with Bruce, had texted about giving their guests a tour, but since it turned out that Tucker hadn’t already been in the know… well, he wanted to prime Bruce with the good news first.

The tube only pinged once though, so Constantine hadn’t come back with him. That was probably good. Bruce would be less cranky.

Tim wasn’t exactly back in his seat by the time Bruce reached the batcomputer, but he was close enough to watch him note the second chair.

Tim didn’t let him ask.

“I have a first hand witness account of what happened in Amity Park.” That was the important thing, right? That they had answers.

Bruce stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed and the whiteouts narrowing with them. Tim stared him down, refusing to look away.

He’d fucked up just like, a tiny bit. But he’d gotten results. Better results than anyone else. So was it really a fuck up?

He watched Bruce’s eyes widen as he realized, and was a little surprised when the man’s shoulders slumped. He dropped gracelessly into the swivel chair, elbows propped on the table and his head cradled in his hands.

Tim was growing a little alarmed now, hurrying forward to Bruce’s side. Was he injured? Had something happened?

His hand was just reaching out to touch when Bruce sighed and sat back up.

“Tim. Who did you bring to tour the cave?” He asked in a tired, heavy voice, and Tim’s brows furrowed.

What? He’d said, hadn’t he?

“Tucker Foley?” He said cautiously, wondering if he should call Alfred. Maybe switch out Bruce and Tucker and get the big guy into the infirmary.

Bruce was very still. Tim forged ahead, hoping to get to the good news.

“He was a vigilante back in Amity Park, part of the support team. I have his statement going back to the beginning of the ghost attacks, and he’s already answered most of our questions.”

Leaning past Bruce, he hit a couple of keys and brought up the sound file of Tucker’s interview.

Bruce was still a little slow as he turned to look, but it seemed to hearten him. Which was when Tim realized.

“Wait. Who did you think I was bringing?” He asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

Bruce shot him a sidelong frown, pulling off his cowl.

“Not a stranger,” he growled, though his heart clearly wasn’t in it. He just sounded tired.

Tim carefully patted him on the shoulder, still thoroughly confused.

“What? But I said…” he paused, pulling out his phone and staring at the texts.

Nope. No he didn’t.

Oops.

Groaning, Tim let his head drop.

“Ah fuck, and I thought we were doing so well!” He sighed heavily and Bruce made a grunt that might have been a laugh. “Alfred’s going to be unbearable.”

That shut Bruce right up, as it should, and then Bruce sighed again. They were moving past it then. Probably for the best, since Alfred would lecture them both on the importance of communication later.

At least it wasn’t only Tim’s fault. The only person who wasn’t a stranger or a bat had been Harley, and he wasn’t actually sure if Harley had cave privileges.

Well. She did now. Since that was what Bruce must have thought he was asking.

Then Bruce straightened, eyes determined and steely.

“I have new information from Constantine. The risks of the Infinite Realms.” It definitely heartened him to talk about, skipping straight to the debrief part of the day.

Maybe they could just skip right over the Tim-fucked-up-and-brought-a-stranger-to-the-cave.

“I need you all to keep away from the Amity Parkers until I know more.”

Ah.

No then. Nope, not skipping over it, because Tucker was actively still fucking in the cave. It was for the best that they’d hidden him then.

Tim shook his head firmly, hoping that if he seemed certain that would help.

“That’s not gonna work, Bruce. I couldn’t have fixed our Watchtower problem without Tucker, and we can’t look at any of the Amity Park data without an Amity Park device.” It was the theory they’d been running with, but they’d had it confirmed now.

Never mind that Tucker had already downloaded most of what was publicly available for them. Bruce would always want a primary source anyway.

Tim pretended it didn’t affect him when Bruce’s head jerked, eyes narrowed as he scowled at Tim.

“You let him into the code for the Watchtower?!” He exclaimed in a hiss. Which was interesting, since Tim had kinda figured the bat cave thing would be more personal.

Then again, the Watchtower could compromise more than that.

“Bruce, read the report on Tucker. We literally couldn’t stop him if he wanted to hack in, because his tech runs on levels that slide right past ours. Tech he’s already sharing,” he added sharply, reaching behind him without looking to hook his laptop forwards.

Bruce, mouth already open to argue, quieted at once. Yeah, new toys always helped. Tim nodded to the batcomputer.

“The update’s ready to go live, but I waited because you need to see this. Open the third window,” he nodded over, pulling up the corresponding section of code on the laptop.

Bruce’s expression pinched but he did as requested, clearly not willing to put another step between himself and the answer. A quick glance up to confirm, and Tim nodded to himself.

Fuck, he needed a laser pointer.

“So it all looks good up there, right?” He pushed and Bruce frowned, but nodded, eyes scanning quickly across the screen.

“Is this your update?” He asked but Tim was already shaking his head, pushing his own laptop towards the man.

Bruce’s eyes widened at the glitching sections of code. Tim nodded, satisfied he’d gotten Tim’s point.

“Tucker Foley wrote me a program so that I could access this ghost code. In half an hour. From scratch,” he added for emphasis, and yeah, he could already hear the lecture about “compromised tech”.

He tried to shut that one off too, pointing up at the screens.

“That? That’s apparently the work of a ghost. One called Technus, who likes to possess technology, and now Tucker and I are going through every line of the Watchtower’s code looking for changes.”

Bruce’s lips thinned to a tense line and he gave a short, harsh nod. He very obviously didn’t like it, but the presence of a bigger threat did wonders for calming him down.

Tim patted his laptop.

“We’re waiting on you to upgrade the batcomputer, but we’re gonna need to check every program on that too. Everything, Bruce. These ghosts could have been rewriting everything. And we’d never know if I hadn’t asked Tuck to help me with the Watchtower.”

Honestly, Tim was just hoping none of their rogues had made any ghostly connections. The implications made his head spin, but he stubbornly kept himself on track.

They needed Tucker’s help. Never mind that the ghosts themselves were reportedly allergic to subtlety and would always go big over going home; that was a tendency, not a guarantee.

Hell, if Tim had a say, he’d get Tucker’s upgrades for the ghost code, improved firewalls, and Danny’s ectoplasm into all his own gear by tomorrow.

He wasn’t going to, Bruce’s paranoia being what it was, but he was already uploading Tucker’s program to his suit’s wrist computer. It wasn’t like there’d be any hidden malware.

Tim had watched over his shoulder as Tucker wrote it, direct on the PDA. And watching him work had been… it was just…

He so rarely got to talk to anyone that was actually on his level. Rarer still that they weren’t a direct member of the family.

And Tucker, for all he currently had a tech advantage? He’d invented that advantage himself. All on his own, he was incredible. Maybe even better with some aspects of software than Tim himself.

The things they could do together… even the internship was pretty much a formality at this point. Just get Tuck through college and see if he’d accept a job at WE.

Hell, if he wanted to found his own company Tim would invest. That kind of brilliance deserved everything it needed to grow.

He had to wrench himself back to the present moment, the “introduce new genius to Batman” step still looming large, but honestly? Tim wasn’t worried. Bruce would see the potential.

Here and now Bruce’s gaze had gone distant, and Tim could easily have kept going, but he stayed quiet. Let the man absorb new information, stop and think.

And if he still wanted to make dumbass decisions, well, Tim could argue with him literally all night. They’d all picked up Bruce’s stubbornness too.

It was hard to focus on the screen through the throbbing of his head, the lights too bright even at their lowest setting. He’d checked.

Luckily, it was an issue he’d been dealing with for years, and Bruce pushed it aside with the resigned acceptance of long practice.

He’d pay for it later. That night of sleep was probably going to be a day of sleep at this rate, but he’d get at least six hours. More if Alfred caught him.

For now… Tim felt very strongly about this. Had good reason to, if he was even half right about the scope of the problem, or Tucker’s uses as a solution.

After hearing from one member of the Justice League Dark, Bruce was desperately hoping Tim was right. They sorely needed an ally, one they could trust to guide them through these dangerous waters.

Of course, Fenton and Foley were close. That may skew his judgement, but it could be accounted for. Wasn’t worth more than an ally whose skillset Bruce understood, and could trust.

Tucker Foley was a tech expert, which put him above any occult master in Bruce’s book. Magic had no rules, not that could be relied on, and Bruce wouldn’t touch it if he didn’t have to.

And Tucker’s tech would work with his own.

There’d be a review period of course. He’d have to meet Tucker himself, speak to him a little, get a sense of the man. See how far his opinions would be based in fact, not feeling.

Tim’s vouch was a good first step. As little as Bruce liked that Tim had brought an outsider down to the lab. And then let him use Tim’s computer.

And honestly, it certainly wasn’t Tim’s fault that Bruce hadn’t asked. He’d been lax, not checked properly, and it was that damned concussion slowing him down.

He needed sleep. His thinking was dangerously clouded. But one thing was always true: he trusted Tim’s judgement. Probably more than he trusted his own at the moment.

They could review the situation in the morning, come up with some suitable punishment and protocol to introduce new vigilantes to the cave (which they’d never needed, because other heroes usually came through the League and were already vetted).

A thought struck and Bruce almost smiled. It would be a fitting solution on three separate sides. Maybe the punishment would be easy after all.

“Alright. I’ll need to speak to Foley first. And you will be writing out fresh protocols to address when a new hero but not a league member can be introduced to the cave,” he added, and Tim groaned loudly.

Bruce ignored him. That was just the start of his troubles.

“You will also be responsible for running John Constantine through the full reporting system, and updating the training materials so this doesn’t happen again.” It was a weight off his shoulders, really.

And a fitting punishment, because Tim would definitely think twice before pulling this stunt again. The man himself threw both his hands into the air.

“What?! Bruce! You said you fixed it!” He whined, and Bruce resisted the urge to smile.

“And I fixed Amity Park. But I highly doubt this was his only error, so the two of you will have to review every case he’s reported on before you go back on patrol.”

It was probably several hundred since they’d had the new system alone. Tim groaned like Bruce was sucking the soul from his body.

Bruce levelled him with a stern look.

“I take the secrecy of the cave seriously, Red Robin. This will not happen again.”

“Because I’m gonna die of old age sitting at a desk with Constantine,” Tim grumbled, folding his arms and scowling.

It wasn’t even something he could write a program to fudge for him; every case would need Constantine’s personal input to be sure it was filed correctly.

Bruce was quite pleased with this solution. But he made sure to hide the smile from Tim, who wouldn’t appreciate it right now.

“Tucker Foley may end up working out for us all, but that’s no guarantee a future mistake won’t be fatal. And Tim…” even if it was a formality at this point, he had to ask. “Do you trust him?”

The answer was obvious, this was Tim’s personal laptop, this was the Bat Cave, and as expected Tim nodded immediately, the sulk from his punishment vanishing.

“He’s a good guy. He’s even made a clean set of Amity Park data you can look through until Danny fixes the batcomputer.”

Ah. And there was the problem. With a solution wrapped around it though, so Bruce focused on the cleaned set of data.

If Tucker was anything like Tim, it’d be extensive enough to keep him busy until the Justice League came to a decision.

Until he could speak to Danny. Speak to Jason.

He was so tired.

Bruce nodded, leaning back in his seat.

“Alright. Tucker Foley is exempted, but I need you and the others to stay away from the rest, and particularly Danny Fenton until the League has made a decision.”

It was just a little heart breaking watching Tim’s face fall from hope and happiness straight back into worry.

“But Bruce… he’s helping Jason with the pit, he might need to see him,” he argued, arms folding again.

Bruce shook his head. That was exactly what he was afraid of.

“I know… and I know how Jason feels about following orders. I’ll tell him myself, tonight.” Luckily he was still in the batsuit, if not the cowl.

Raising his wrist to his face, Bruce activated his secondary comm on the group channel. He’d turned both off when his children headed out, fully aware Oracle would override it if they needed him.

He didn’t need to be distracted by the noises of a normal night.

“Everyone, return to the cave before heading in please. There have been developments I need to update you on.” Nothing to worry them, but hopefully interesting enough that Jason would still drop in.

No talk of protocols or anything. No, that was Tim’s future.

Tim, who was looking at him oddly.

“Who told you Jason went out tonight?” He asked, and Bruce frowned. Looked up at the batcomputer, and realized that the tracker screen wasn’t open.

That could be a problem.

“Didn’t he?” He asked, really not looking forward to asking Dick to ask Jason to drop by tonight. If Jason was actually home, actually sleeping…

But Tim shook his head, that odd expression still on his face.

“He never said he would, but he called in after taking Danny home. He’s out with Black Bat,” Tim added, and Bruce frowned.

Why even bring it up if Jason was out? What did it matter?

Tim, clearly seeing and understanding his confusion, groaned and tugged at his hair.

“Bruce. Please, just… listen to me. Danny isn’t the threat here. He’s been nothing but helpful. He’s the one who picked up the ball when the League dropped it, who dealt with all the ghosts we can’t. He saved that town-”

“We don’t know that, Tim,” Bruce cut him off, shaking his head sharply. “We can’t take that risk.”

He could see Tim getting frustrated, temper flaring, and in an odd way, it made him feel better. Calm. In control.

“Bruce, you stubborn… so what? We just tell Jason to keep away from the only person who makes him feel better?” Tim asked sarcastically, and Bruce could see exactly how he’d missed the point.

This was what he’d have to watch for with Tucker Foley. But the technical advantages would be worth it.

“We don’t know that he’s making the pits better,” Bruce said darkly, and fuck it felt good to even voice the thought aloud.

Made it feel real, less like paranoia.

Tim gaped at him, but didn’t argue.

Bruce raised a hand, counting the points off on his fingers.

One.

“None of us heard anything about him a week ago. Not even a few days. Fenton has been here over a year and only just ran into Jason?” It wasn’t possible.

It didn’t make sense. Gotham was a large city, sure, but for two people apparently so closely linked? No.

A second finger rose.

“Danny himself claims that he is helping with the pits.”

“Jason agrees,” Tim cut in, clearly looking to break his train of thought. Bruce silenced him with a stern glare.

“Danny claims he is helping with the pits. Jason claims to have noticed the same thing, but we already know the pits affect his mind. He may not understand what’s being done to him.”

That? That made perfect sense. The pits had driven Jason into those uncontrollable rages, made him do things he’d never have wanted to.

Who was to say they couldn’t have a more subtle influence? More dangerous? More like Ra’s himself.

Even Tim couldn’t argue with that, and Bruce nodded his satisfaction at the boy’s silence, raising a third finger. This… he wasn’t looking forward to this one.

But its weight had been sitting in his chest since the possibility came up, and he didn’t want to hide anything from his boys. They deserved to know the risks.

No matter how much he’d rather protect them from it.

“The little f… Constantine believes there is a chance that even being close to Danny may have dangerous side effects for Jason, purely accidentally.”

Tim’s eyebrow rose at the aborted description, and Bruce was glad he’d clamped down on it. Couldn’t quite meet the boy’s eye as he continued to explain.

“Danny’s connection to… his death,” the words were hard to even speak, another child lost, “is what gives him his power. It’s strong, and may have radiating effects Danny doesn’t even know about.”

Because that was kind of the worst part. There was a chance that Danny truly meant everything he’d said in earnest. That he was Jason’s friend, wanted to protect him.

Wanted to help Jason come back to himself and be free of the pit rage. That they did truly care for each other, and wanted to make each other better.

And none of those good intentions would matter if Danny’s mere presence risked Jason’s soul.

He could see Tim realizing it too, eyes widening and the aggression slumping from his shoulders. But he’d decided to be honest.

Clear, open communication. They could try.

“The way Jason came back… we still don’t know how it happened, or why. But anything half living and half dead can have side effects on the world around them, especially for those who have already died.”

Danny might be here to take Jason away. Back to the dead.

He’d meant to say the words, to lay it bare, but in the end he choked on them. Couldn’t even face the thought.

Tomorrow. After he slept. If they still needed convincing, he’d try again tomorrow. Which did neatly bring them to point number four.

Steeling himself, Bruce shifted his gaze back to Tim, raising his pinky finger.

“And if you are right, if Danny really is helping… it’ll only be for a few days. I meet with the League tomorrow. Zatanna and Shazam will both be there to give their opinions.”

Suddenly Bruce just felt tired. Tired of arguing, trying to make people see things his way. All he wanted was a couple of days. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

Tim raised an eyebrow again, shifting slowly to lean against the other chair.

“Then why will it be a few days? Why not tomorrow?” He asked cautiously and Bruce chuckled.

Of course Tim knew him well enough to know there would be something else.

“I’d like to talk to him myself first. Perhaps have them meet him directly. Just to be sure what his intentions are in the city.”

“And with Jason,” Tim put in flatly. Bruce just nodded. The boy was right.

“With the city and with Jason,” he agreed, looking back up at the large screens of the batcomputer.

Pulled up the location tracker for his bats and birds, watching their little trails of light run across the city. He wouldn’t let any of those lights wink out.

Tim sighed and shook his head, coming to lean against the back of Bruce’s chair instead. Not quite tall enough to rest his chin on the top of Bruce’s head, and not likely to grow much more at nineteen.

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” he said bluntly, eyes tracking the Red Hood dot in particular. “You’ll only push Jason further away by trying to control who he sees.”

Bruce shook his head, leaning back just a little more into the presence of his son.

“I don’t care if Jason hates me for the rest of his life, so long as it’s a long and healthy one,” he said softly, and Tim snorted.

Pushed away from the chair, and for a moment the distance ached.

“Yeah, well. When it blows up in your face, I told you so. Did you wanna see Tucker tonight or tomorrow?” He asked, and Bruce’s head snapped suddenly around, scanning the cave.

“He’s still here?”

Shaking his head, Tim made his way across the cave to the infirmary, pulling out his phone where Bruce couldn’t see it. He shot off a quick text, not looking down.

‘J. Don’t come back to cave. B has mega bitch face just let him cool down’

Across the city, the message flashed in the corner of Red Hood’s helmet visor. Groaning to himself, Hood kicked a goon’s gun into Gotham bay and waved to Black Bat.

“You good? I gotta send a text.” He called, deeply offending the eight goons still standing, armed with knives and fucking pipes, and tussling with Black Bat.

Which only got worse when she shot him a quick thumbs up, sat on a particularly tall goon’s shoulders before throwing herself back so far the guy toppled, twisting them in the air so she still somehow wound up on top.

Hood nodded, pulling out his phone one handed.

“Hey! You can’t just text! We’re not done!” A goon protested, rushing in at Red Hood.

Who pulled his gun and shot him in both kneecaps, sending him sprawling to the slick planks of the dock.

This was why he always took out their shooters first. Batman could preach hand to hand all he liked, it was way safer when the bad guys had holes in their hands and no guns.

“Anyone else?” Hood asked rhetorically, pointing the last gun on the dock at the remaining goons in turn. In unison, all six focused their attention solely on Black Bat.

Not because they thought they’d win, but well. She didn’t have a fucking gun.

“Yeah, thought so,” Hood grumbled, sending a quick message back to Tim.

Paused to take a picture when Black Bat actually got three heads at once into a leg lock, because that had to be a record.

‘Is it to do with your big fuck up?’ Cuz honestly, what else could B be pissed about?

The answer came back though, fast and weird.

‘As hard as I also find it to believe this, no. Magician’s got him all twisted around about Phantom. Wants to forbid us all from seeing him.’

The phone creaked in Jason’s grip as he read the last words, a low rumbling growl spilling from low in his chest.

The remaining standing goons whipped around and exchanged startled looks.

That. That definitely wasn’t fucking good. No way.

Black Bat took another to floor as they paused, and the last three fled. Didn’t quite make it to the door.

Jason didn’t notice until her hand landed gently on his shoulder, concern radiating off her. His head whipped round, and he was suddenly glad the full helmet covered his face.

Couldn’t see the way he fucking snarled at her.

Black Bat didn’t move, her head cocked to one side as she regarded him.

“Eyes. Glowing,” she told him carefully, reaching up to touch the side of his helmet.

Jason jerked back in shock, but he could already feel the green rushing away. Receding until his vision purely his own again.

He hadn’t even noticed the green haze.

Black Bat inspected him again, then nodded, going on tiptoes to pat him on top of the head.

“What’s wrong?”

Red Hood sucked in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to recenter. He’d never felt the rage come on that fast, from nothing to all consuming before he even felt it.

Even thinking of the messages made angry green tides again.

We will not be kept from the King!

And it was talking to him again. Lovely. Why couldn’t that part have been his imagination?

Shaking his head, he focused on Black Bat’s question instead.

“Just B bein’ an asshole again. I’m gonna pass on the cave tonight, tell him I went to bed.” It was about as much as he thought he could talk about it without screaming.

Almost forgot that Black Bat could read him too, her aura still soothing and open to him as she nodded. Rested a hand gently on his shoulder.

“Go now. Rest,” she told him firmly, turning back to the downed and groaning goons.

Red Hood hesitated, looking around the dock. It was getting early, nearly time to turn in anyway, and they were done here. Just a routine drug shipment.

The last lot too dense to be cowed by the mood on the streets, or counting on the hour to mean the bats went to bed. Cuz that went so well for them.

He nodded and moved to help her, flipping the biggest goon over and zip tying his wrists to his elbows, and then his ankles.

“After I help you wrap your presents,” he agreed, heard Black Bat let out a soft huff of laughter.

One of the still conscious goons shot him a glare.

“Y’could at least pretend to take us seriously,” she grumbled, then yelped as one of her fellow goons kicked her in the shins.

Clear message: do not push the crazy bat.

Red Hood snorted.

“I’ll take you seriously when you’ve fuckin’ earned it,” he told her, going for the next biggest body.

Black Bat could take every one of them out of the fight, but bagging and tagging a dead weight was much less fun for her. He could handle that part before turning in.

He had a big day tomorrow.

Private Chat: DannyP & TooFine

4:30am

‘TooFine: dude Tim just shoved me in a closet I don’t think Batman knows I’m here?????’

‘TooFine: dude’

‘TooFine: dude wake tf up I might need emergency evac 🚨🚨’

4:35am

‘TooFine: that fucking Constantine guy’s put a bug in Batman’s ass’

‘TooFine: told u we shoulda hunted him down 😤’

‘TooFine: and after all I did to help!! Ungrateful bat!!’

4:46am

‘TooFine: okay Batman fucking hates u specifically ur screwed 😳’

‘TooFine: I’m good tho 😇’

‘TooFine: I think he likes me now 😏’

‘TooFine: he wants all my sweet tech upgrades’

‘TooFine: they’re gonna let me play on the batcomputer!!! 😳😳😳’

5am

‘TooFine: u are missing vital updates bitch’

‘TooFine: he’s gonna fucking ground Jason from hanging out with u’

‘TooFine: AH SHIT HE KNOWS IM HERE ABORT ABORT ABORT’

8am

‘TooFine: u may have been right going to bed early man this shit sucks’

‘TooFine: didn’t even get to see what happened’

‘TooFine: they sent me to bed like a naughty child! 😤’

‘TooFine: I’m changing all his ring tones to Funky Town’

10:59am

‘DannyP: okay miette’

11:02am

‘HalfBitch: OKAY IM SORRY TUCKER AT LEAST TAKE THE MAGIC MIKE THEME OFF’

——————————

Next Chapter:

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @perfectwastelandcreation @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @mothman-the-mothman87 @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10 @thedepressedrobin @skulld3mort-1fan @rootsmudge @ravenshadow17 @cankoking @phantom-dc @mentalcarebear @magic-pincushion @redamancyardor @lyra689 @itsparadoxlacuna @alcorbearson @asphyxia778

#dp x dc #danny fenton dead and loving it #dead on main ship #jason x danny #danny x jason #one fine day in the middle of the night #still no smooches here tho #just bat angst and softness #chapter 13 #unlucky 13 cuz i forget the number exists

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noonaishere · 8 months ago

Text

Online/Offline [C.S] - forty-nine | can someone please come to the counter?

As Minsoo walked over, the guy pushed the door open and you ducked under the counter.

“Welcome to AtoZ café, can I get you something?” Minsoo greeted him cheerily.

“Hi,” he sounded displeased to see her. “Can I get an iced Americano?”

You were trapped between Minsoo’s legs and the wall, in the corner. The only good thing about being trapped in the corner was that he couldn’t see you. You didn’t want to try to go around Minsoo and accidentally trip her, and you weren’t sure how far away from the counter you could get before he’d see you. You stayed put.

“Sure thing. Regular?”

He must have nodded because you didn’t hear anything.

She rang him up and he paid, and she walked over to the espresso machine so she could make his drink.

You crouch-walked along the counter and made it to the break in the counter and wanted to scramble for the door to the kitchen. You psyched yourself up, even though you couldn’t see where the creepy guy was.

“Tsst!”

The noise came from behind you and you turned to see Minsoo looking at you with wide eyes, telling you ‘no.’ You peeked through the door of the pastry case - which hadn’t closed right earlier and was still open just a crack - and could see the creepy guy facing in your direction. He absolutely would have seen you if you made a run for it just then. You turned to Minsoo and nodded a thanks. She nodded a short nod back before turning to where the guy stood at the counter.

“You said you didn’t want a shot of syrup, right?”

She dropped her hand so it was hidden from his view by her body and motioned at you to run while she had him looking at her.

“No, it’s an Americano.”

Crouching, you ran, as quietly as you could.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” She laughed. “I’m still pretty new.”

Wooyoung gasped as you scrambled into the kitchen.

“Oh my god!” He whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Except that my knees are a little dirty from hitting the floor,” you stood up and dusted them off, “I’m fine.”

“Is he still out there?”

“Yeah, Minsoo’s making his drink.”

Wooyoung went to the edge of the door to peek out and you followed him, though you kept firmly behind the wall.

“She’s almost done,” Wooyoung whispered.

“There you go, would you like anything else?” Minsoo’s voice.

“No, that will be all.”

“Alright, have a nice day.”

A few seconds went by and you didn’t hear the bell on the door.

“Shit,” Wooyoung whispered harshly.

You closed your eyes and wished you were anywhere else. An erupting volcano, perhaps.

“Please tell me he left.”

Wooyoung pulled away from the door and looked at you. “He sat down.”

You closed your eyes and sighed. “Son of a bitch.”

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#San #Choi San #Ateez #Ateez smau #Ateez fic #Ateez au #cafe au #streamer au #fake dating #reader fic #ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ/ᴏғғʟɪɴᴇ

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darklydeliciousdesires · 30 days ago

Text

Burn Bright White - Chapter Eight.

Huge thanks as always to my audience of two, Diana and Lindsey, for your comments and reblogs :)

Previous Chapters - One Two Three Four Five Six Seven

Tag list - In the comments. DM to be added/removed

Words - 3,143

Warnings - 18+ content, minors DNI! Also, while I have tried to remain as true to how Niklas is in reality as I can, I have to have a little creative freedom of my own with him in this. If you don’t like it, simply scroll on by. Bitching isn’t tolerated here. At all. Remember, it’s fiction, not a documentary ;) It’s also worth mentioning that while Taissa has qualities of being quite charming at times, she is not, by any means, a good person.

“Shit, you look rough.”

Taissa raised her middle finger before curling her fist and sending it into the centre of her brother’s chest softly. “Love you, too, Miika.”

He snort laughed at her sarcasm, letting her into his apartment, noticing she was walking a little strangely. Bow-legged would be an accurate description of her gait. Entering the lounge, she greeted Carla, his girlfriend with a kiss, sitting down at her side.

“Do you have any of that cream mom always used to give us when we hurt ourselves? The stuff that makes you heal faster?”

“Arnica?” Miika asked, pausing in the doorway, watching his sister nod. “I do, hang on.” A quick trip to the bathroom and raid of the cupboard located the small jar, Miika entering the lounge and throwing it to her.

“Thanks.” Catching the jar, she unscrewed it, kicking off her shoes and putting her feet on the coffee table before her, Carla’s mouth dropping open.

“Oh my god!” Those loud, American tones filled the room, her gasp sounding thereafter as she took in the damage. “What the hell did you... are those bite marks?”

“Yes, and they fucking hurt like a motherfucker, too.” Her toes were bruised dark purple, a few scattered puncture wounds from teeth, her insides fluttering at the memory of being held down by her neck and fucked so hard, she’d almost cried, all while having her toes sucked and bitten. “Here, be a darling and do my back for me. I know I have some damage there but I can’t reach.”

The jar was handed over, Taissa pulling up the white top she wore, Carla’s jaw almost hitting her knees. “Tai, for the love of god, girl! What did he do to you? And who is he, this, this... wreaker of carnage?”

“Brutalised me,” she grinned. “All night long.”

“Nope, no. I do not wish to hear these details,” Miika cringed from the other sofa, looking perturbed.

“Then you can walk your ass into the other room, can’t you?” Carla offered, pointing to the door with a grin. “So c’mon, girly. Gimme the deets! Is he hot? What’s the dick like?”

“Yes, and big.”

“La, la, la, la, la,” Miika chimed, sticking his fingers in his ears, the women laughing at his anguish. “Baby, you know that crazy guy we dropped to a few months ago, answered the door covered in blood? Him.”

His girlfriend’s face was completely accepting of such, nodding rapidly. “I can see how he’s your sister’s type.”

“So what,” Miika began, lighting a joint from one of the many red candles littering the table. “Are you dating Kvarforth now then, hmm?”

“Dating is a little strong.” Thanking Carla for her help, she lowered her top again, taking one of the bottles of raspberry and pear cider she was offered with thanks, Carla cracking one open for herself, too. “But I am having a lot of sex with him regularly.”

“And with that, I need to know nothing more,” he replied, his mouth thinning. “I think you’re crazy, though. He’s trouble. Worse than you.”

“He’s not,” she spoke, waving her hand dismissively. “He’s fine as long as he’s medicated, and it’s just casual. You know I don’t do commitment.”

Indeed, she and Niklas had been seeing one another a few times a week by that point, a little over two months on from first meeting. It absolutely wasn’t dating, though. Although, that wasn’t to say that all they did was have the kind of sex that would make the more vanilla person blush.

Staying at her brother’s place for only a short time, she handed over a refreshed supply of various mind-bending powders and pills, heading home to get changed. She was picking up Niklas for an evening out, having to talk him into it a little. After all, his aversion to people meant he wasn’t massively social, and if he was, it wasn’t for long periods of time.

She knew she had to show an interest beyond simply fucking him, though, slot herself into place at his side more, become his perfect woman. That meant spending time away from the bedroom, amping up the charade that she was becoming smitten, too. Her toxic game with him aside, she did actually find herself feeling a little genuine excitement at seeing him. He was her kind of person, after all.

“I’m here, hurry up.” Ending the call, she waited outside his apartment, checking her appearance again, shifting a little. Her dress was very tight, strapless and clingy, a little difficult to walk in since it reached her ankles. It showed off her slender curves nicely, though.

“How fucking dare you,” Niklas spoke after climbing into her car, eyes roving over her.

“How dare I what, my gorgeous animal?” she cooed, puckering her lips at him. He granted her a kiss before replying.

“Wear a dress that tight with no fucking bra on. I can see your nipples. You are a terrible seductress to my male hormones. No underwear, no respect.”

“True, I’m not wearing a thong either.” She began to giggle at the pained look on his face, grumbling a few words in Swedish she just about understood. “You can take it out on me later.”

He grinned wickedly, clipping his seatbelt in. “I intend to.”

She drove through the city until they reached the outskirts, an old industrial estate coming into view, Taissa swinging her car in. Two large men guarded the wire gate, one holding an i-Pad in his grasp.

“Taissa Aho and guest.”

He nodded. “Good to see you again, Miss. Aho.”

Having absolutely no idea over the destination of their outing, Niklas remained perplexed. “What the fuck are we doing here?”

Manoeuvring her car into a space between another BMW and a Mercedes, she cut the engine. “You’ll see.” Reaching into the rear passenger footwell, she grabbed her shoes, slipped her feet in and got out. At seeing the way she tottered; Niklas couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

“You’re walking like a penguin with a butt plug up its ass.”

Her eyebrow raised. “How many penguins have you anally violated to know that?” More laughter followed. He liked that very much about her. She was a fairly stoic individual, but fuck, she was funny. “I have no choice but to shuffle. These shoes are very high and the dress is tight.”

Seven inch heeled, patent, spike-adorned Louboutin's. “They’re certainly something,” he spoke approvingly, holding out his hand. “Here, so you don’t fall.”

Taissa was the furthest thing from a hand holder, but in this case, she needed it. Her outfit choice was solely to titillate; unincumbered forward motion hadn’t been factored in. Walking to the large, steel panelled building, a door was held open for them, Taissa leading them in and over to a staircase.

The descent wasn’t nearly as difficult as she imagined, the sound of music thumping becoming louder, arriving in a small room with two men waiting, a woman behind a counter that contained a wall of small boxes.

“Phones and weapons, please,” she spoke, Taissa taking her iPhone and knuckle dusters from her bag and handing them over, receiving a small ticket, Niklas doing the same. He hadn’t anything lethal about his person, though. For once. She then moved to the men, holding her arms wide, having a metal detector scanned over her before he nodded, checking Niklas too.

The door was opened for them, a large crowd gathered within a makeshift seating area, surrounding a caged off octagon.

“All this for an underground MMA fight?” he asked a little incredulously, wondering why there’d been such tight security as well as the surrender of phones.

“It isn’t just an MMA fight, Niklas,” she spoke, steering him towards the bar. “Well, the preceding fights are, but the main card isn’t.”

He wound his hand impatiently for more details. “Blah, blah fucking blah. Get to the point.”

“Have you ever been to a death match?” He’d seen somebody being beaten to death, but no, not an organised one. “Well, now you can say that you have. You just cannot give any details, obviously.”

His dark lord below, this woman. She was so different from any other he’d ever met, so far from mundane and basic. Taking him to an illegal, underground death match on a date? It was a first, even for someone who’d lived the kind of morally corrupt life that he had.

Ordering him a beer and a Jim Beam over ice for herself, they then moved down to the side of the ring, Taissa showing one of the guys guarding the line a slip of paper. He nodded before escorting them to the front row.

Taking their seats, Taissa was out of hers again in a second, shuffling as quickly as she could as a huge man with muscles the size of bowling balls approached, his arms wide, Taissa throwing hers around his neck with a happy squeak as he lifted her from the ground. Niklas felt a slither of jealousy rise sharply, a red mist creeping over him until he noticed. Zakk Wylde with a bald head, over two metres tall, covered in Neo-Nazi tattoos.

“Papa, this is Niklas. Niklas, my father, Leevi.”

The giant of a man offered his hand as he stood up, his grip bone crunching. “Niklas! I am a big fan of your music. Good to meet you!”

He nodded. “Thank you. Taissa has spoken of you to me. You fit the description.”

Leevi smiled from beneath his bushy beard, turning to put his arm around his daughter, pointing at Niklas. “So, you finally find yourself a real man, eh, my little piranha fish?” She nodded, winking at the object of her desire, Leevi leaning to him. “See, here is where a normal father would threaten you with death if you hurt her, but trust me, my girl can do that all by herself.”

“Exactly. She makes Harley Quinn fucking look like Barbie,” Niklas spoke candidly, Leevi bellowing a laugh.

“I like him, I like him, he’s a real motherfucker!” he spoke, his eyes flitting across the space. “If you will excuse me, some associates of mine just arrived. We will catch up later.”

He slapped Niklas on the back heartily and kissed his daughter on the head before moving to the group of people who’d just entered, the pair taking their seats once more.

“Did you know he’d be here?” he asked, sipping his beer.

She shook her head, lighting a cigarette and offering one to him he accepted. “No idea, but I should have. He’s the one who introduced me to this world, brought me on my eighteenth birthday. He used to fight in them too when he was younger. Obviously, he’s never been defeated.”

He could certainly believe a man the size of Leevi would have no trouble at all with beating an opponent to his death.

Sitting there talking between themselves, Niklas couldn’t help but notice it, the way every single set of male eyes surrounding them – and the crowd was mostly men – all viewed Taissa appreciatively, and him with contemptuous envy. That in itself was a pleasing ego boost, even more so when she wrapped her arms around his neck and began to kiss him shamelessly.

It was a little more affectionate than he was used to from her, but he wasn’t complaining. There he was, the focus of the most desired and beautiful woman in the building.

“Fuck, you’re so sexy,” she purred, licking his cheek, her hand sliding inside his t shirt to stroke his chest, her other curled at the base of his neck, gently clawing at him with her nails. “You’re getting me wet just looking at you, you gorgeous motherfucker.”

“Be careful of puddles when you stand up, then,” he spoke, nodding downwards. “You don’t need any further complications in those shoes.”

She laughed, basking as he tightened his arm around her, kissing the side of her neck repeatedly. “No, I just need your mouth between my legs, my gorgeous animal.”

He rumbled a chuckle, turning her head to face him, tickling her lips with his tongue. Predictably, she bit it, sucking on it a little. “You’ll get that. Later. Or maybe I will make you wait even longer, until you’re begging me.”

“I don’t beg.”

He frowned, resting his forehead to hers, staring intently with wide eyes that anyone else would have found intimidating. Not her. “You will for me, little beast.”

Unravelling from each other, they turned their attention towards the ring, the first fight about to start. Once again, she was out of her seat briefly, going over to a group of men in the far corner, pulling a wad of notes from her bag. Ahh, she was placing a bet. He could only wonder what the odds on death would be.

“How much did you bet?” he asked upon her return.

“Ten G’s on Aalto to win. He’s an old prison friend of my father’s.” She then leaned nearer, so only he could hear. “He’s been deliberately throwing his fights for months so he goes into this, his first death match, as the underdog. Truth is, the guy is a sure thing.”

Niklas could only take her word for it, but come the main card, he saw exactly why Olavi Aalto was considered such by Taissa. What followed was about one of the rawest displays of brutality he’d ever seen, both men literally fighting each other to the death, Taissa screaming at his side in Olavi’s favour, thriving on it.

Nope. He truly hadn’t ever met somebody like her before. Most women had the ‘oh, I can fix him’ mentality. Her? She’d probably only make him worse.

With a sickening blow, the neck of Olavi’s opponent was snapped, his body hitting the canvas with a thud, the referee confirming after checking his pulse. With one life exited, Taissa’s became further richer to the tune of fifteen thousand euro’s, collecting her win jubilantly and heading straight to the bar.

“Come on, kid. How much?”

Turning to her father, she put a soda in his hand, passing a beer to Niklas. “Fifteen.”

He whistled. “That’s ten more than me, money bags.” He didn’t earn anywhere near what his children did, Leevi having to keep well under the radar thanks to his highly documented criminal past. He’d forever be a police target thanks to his endeavours, but now two years out of prison after a six-year stretch, he intended to stay free.

His kids were twenty-eight and thirty, and he’d already missed out on big chunks of their lives through incarceration. With them reaching the years where grandchildren might become a fixture – perhaps for Miika more so than Taissa – being locked up for any more of his life definitely wasn’t on his agenda. At fifty-six, it was time he calmed down a smidgen.

He was a very interesting man regardless, though, so Niklas discovered, sharing stories with one another of what some would deem to be their misspent youth and beyond. Hearing Leevi talk, he saw clearly how much Taissa was her father’s daughter.

Later on that night, after they’d enjoyed a very vigorous round of heated sex, they found themselves in conversation, the subject of family discussed. Her father specifically. Leevi no longer drank alcohol at all, but when he had...

“I remember we always used to hide when he came home drunk, but my mother, for all of her gentleness, she never did. It was almost like she knew she couldn’t avoid it, so she endured him beating the shit out of her in a drunken rage. In a sick way, I think she thrived on it a little, too. She liked the drama. I’ve always adored my father, but that was where I drew a motherfucking line, him pulverising her.

“One night, it happened again, but so much worse. We knew we couldn’t call the police, my brother and I, dad always instilled that ‘fuck the police’ mentality into us. I couldn’t let him keep beating my mother, though, so I ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, jumped on his back and stabbed him in the top of his chest just beneath his right clavicle.”

“And his reaction to such?”

“He laughed,” she confirmed, watching Niklas do the same. “He went and got patched up by some backstreet doctor and came back, apologised to my mother and then came up to my bedroom. He sat on the bed and I was fucking terrified he was going to strangle me or something, he was so eerily calm.

“And I remember, I will never forget what he said. ‘I cannot be angry with you, Tai. You are the creature I created.’ They divorced not long after that, Miika and I stayed with her for a while but in the end, we went to live with him. She was gentle, as I said, but fucking neurotic a lot of the time.

“Without the drama of being married to our father, she created it with us, being overbearing. So yeah, we went back to dad, between his prison stints. Being with her was harder, because she was always pick, pick, picking at us. Whatever we did was wrong. That gentleness, it eroded eventually.”

“My mother, she was similar,” he began, grabbing the ashtray and placing it between them, taking out two cigarettes and passing one to her. “Not so much neurotic, but she could be sadistic without realising it. Nothing I did was ever good enough for her, and it became worse the older I got. Our relationship was great when I was little, but as an adult, it was complex.”

Pointing to the tattoo on his bicep, she ran her finger along the name Suzanne. “Is this her? She is passed now?” He nodded. “Same. Tulisa died when I was eighteen.”

“Tulisa, that is Greek, isn’t it?” he questioned. “Same as your name.”

Lighting her cigarette, she shifted up a little. “It is. She was half Greek, and I am named after her mother. Taissa means goddess.”

“Apt,” he asserted, looking her up and down a few times. “More underworld goddess than celestial, though.” He reached to stroke her cheek with his thumb. “I like your darkness, though. I think it mingles well with mine. We have an understanding of one another few else do.”

It might have been the truth, but of course, he wielded it as a manipulation tactic, getting himself inside her head a little. He couldn’t discount, though, that looking at her there in his bed, it prickled at him, whether he truly wanted to.

Trying to become a better person. Perhaps he might stand a chance if he didn’t continue repeating the kind of behaviour that made him anything but.

#niklas kvarforth #niklas kvarforth fanfiction #shining band #shining #black metal #m #metal guys

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maaradag · 1 year ago

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massive, rambly spoilers for the new WILTY christmas episode underneath

First thoughts after finishing: oboy, both Lee and David going THROUGH it. Bet Rob was feeling all good safe in his host chair.

The guests were Victoria Coren Mitchell (whee!), Naga Munchetty, Alex Brooker and Melvyn Hayes. I'll admit I had to look everybody's names up except VCM.

Alex Brooker's lie has been available as a clip on the BBC website for a couple of days now, so nothing new there. Delighted by the fact that Victoria's (unbroken?) streak of guessing correctly on this show continues

So for me the show proper started with Victoria's card, which oh my god, holy shit, this was worth the wait.

David looks like he wants to sink into the floor, but for me, as Lee says: "If it helps in any way, I'm absolutely loving it."

I mean this is golden. Victoria starts trying to explain David's underwear philosophy, before turning to David and checking if she's not you know, revealing too much information on national television. David who has already spent the last few minutes looking like this is his worst nightmare, reassures her that no worries, "this is dreadful". All the while Lee is clapping his hands delightedly.

(BONUS Sweet moment!. Naga patting David on the shoulder, in an attempt at reassurement, cringing too hard to be very reassuring)

I don't know who Melvyn Hayes is (I'm not British, so my bad I guess) but his small comments here and there really brought it up a notch. Could have been annoying but it was really funny.

Other nice quotes from this round:

Victoria (to David, having revealed much about his underwear habits): I'm so sorry. (Then she laughs a bit more)

David: thE biBLe AnD fifTy SHadEs oF grAy

Melvin Hayes: I'm excited! (everybody cracks up)

This was FINALLY the resolution of Lee's quest to find out what David wears underneath his clothes.

(If only I still wrote fanfiction, and if only I could ever manage to write RPF this would segment would surely inspire me. Just putting that out into the universe before going back to hiding beneath the covers)

Have some pictures of David going through it:

BONUS: Lee being a smug bastard

The Melvin Hayes story did very little for me, as previously mentioned, no clue who he was before this, and the people he mentions are people I've heard about before but also know very little. Glad everyone seems so delighted by it though.

To contrast the previous picture have a happy picture of David and Victoria being pleased by Melvin Hayes story

THIS IS MY (Feat. a Celebrity Guest whoohooo)

Yet another person I don't know who is, but Patti seemed famous and Lee was all over her which turned out to be quite funny.

Victoria's sounded familiar by any rate, like I heard it before. Delightful story anyhow, her delivery of "better still, you can be in it." killed me.

Naga with the slow reveal of it being Lee that they hadn't recognized. Wonderful! Lovely! No notes. It's great that the story wasn't true because then the digs at Lee, and the Jimmy whatshiface of it all just became the marks of a good liar

(looked it up, the guy's Jimmy Nail. An English singer-songwriter apperenly, according to google).

David used his versatile tool to make decent stomach growls. Colour me impresssed.

Last round is a classic Lee round, in which he gets an herculean task and we watch him try to reel it in. (Alex B turns out to be quite the generous laughter which is great.)

Tag yourself I'm Alex, losing it.

#wilty #would i lie to you #don't think I'm gonna tag the people let them be free #this was a long ass post #maybe i should reconsider getting a dreamwidth account #blasting out words like i'm Barry from hidey hide's whooper #(that will make sense if you see the ep)#possibly #mine

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hangmanbradshaw · 1 year ago

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20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @urmomsonfire and I figured I should keep going with the writing questions today!!! (thanks kale, love u)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 17

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 796,198 (do we think I can crack a million in close to a year we'll see)

3. What fandoms do you write for? I'm still living in Top Gun summer so I'll just be vibing here for a while

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

i want to brainwash you into loving me forever (nfl fake dating au)

baby, i'm howlin' for you (wolves & foxes au)

i can't stop you putting roots in my dreamland (rival princes au)

loose lips sink ships all the damn time (pirates au)

Love (Suite Love) (my travlor inspired AU lmao)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to!! I'm really behind right now because I get really sucked into writing (and life, been very busy with my social calendar at the moment) but eventually I'll go through and catch up. Writing like this is for community, ya know? Engagement? Making friends, being crazy together, it's the vibe. (Plus every time a comment notification dings, an idea angel gets its wings lmao it's my fave part- talking to people)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Unhappy ending? Don't know her. I guess you can make my wish come true just cuz it ends with them deciding to kidnap the president and cyclone being like oh my god

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? it's 2am and i'm cursing your name is pretty stupid sweet but also wanna be your left hand man/iwtby left off prettyyyyyyy sweet

8. Do you get hate on fics? Everyone's always been sooooo sweet.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? *glances at my work from the corner of my eye* yes. just yes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? My mummy fic has actual mummy characters. But I've written a lot of like inspired ones? Some loose, some closer. One based off the Mummy, one that's a mummy/national treasure crossover LMAO, one off Jurassic Park, one off Twister, one off Beauty & the Beast kinda, one off princess & the frog, one kinda princess diaries 2/how to lose a guy BUT I actually have an insane idea I came up with recently that would be a uhhhhhhh crossover I guess........I'm giggling as I think about it

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so? I hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? some people have asked! So maybe soon.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? nope! but I love to riff with other writers. i'm way too particular about my own work to co-write probably tbh

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Hangster currently! prev: buddie, destiel, sharpay/gabriella from hsm (leave me alone lmao).

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? if I post I am going to make myself finish but I have some I've never posted that I doubt I'll finish (one's a rivals fake dating destination wedding)

16. What are your writing strengths? I'd say melancholic fluffy humor and banter, others have told me world building and being lowkey emotional

17. What are your writing weaknesses? being concise and angst actually- I struggle with that sometimes

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Amazing when people can do it, but I tend to avoid writing it since I'm not fluent.

19. First fandom you wrote for? High School Musical and then I took a massive break and started with Top Gun again.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I love all my babies for different reasons but IWTBY & That Little Farm are currently my true loves

Tagging anyone who wants to do this, also @paulmezcal as a welcome to tumblr (no pressure you def don't have to do it haha)

#tag games #writing stuff #i love talking about writing and stories omg

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ludwigplayingthetrombone · 2 years ago

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OFMD Fix-it Part 2

Ayyy here’s part 2! Thank you so much for the incredible response to part 1! I read the tags and comments often y’all are too nice ;v; Enjoy all 69 pages! tw for blood and injury

Part one

kofi

Wee john: Fuck yeah! Roach: We took over Blackbeard’s ship!! Frenchie: Oh no! You dastardly pirates are too scary for me! I surrender!!

Stede: All good everyone! Crew: IS IT?? Stede: [gasp] Did you guys take back the ship?? Ed: You’re shitting me Stede: Excellent job, everyone!

Ed: Hey! Stede: Oh, sorry! I look forward to hearing about it! Ed: Please don’t crack your face again Buttons: Were yee crying? Both: WHAT?! No! Ed: I physically cant cry Stede: Why so you keep asking that? Crew: Captain! Stede: WAIT I’m not discouraging this energy, but please be careful of-

Ivan: What do you want us to do with Izzy, captain? Frenchie: OH FUCK THE KNIFE! Swede: PULL IT OUT! Roach and jim: NO!! [schluck] Pete: FUCK PUT IT BACK IN!! Roach and jim: NO!! Ed: Why disturb him? Sleeping so peacefully. I’ll deal with him later [schluck]

Pete: Where’s lucius? Stede: Yes, we’re missing lucius. Ed! Is the boy below deck? Pete: Did something happen? Frenchie: Oh yeah almost forgot! [knocking on the deck] Stede: What’s this, frenchie? Ed: Lucius is dea-

Lucius: OH THANK GOD! I was going mad in that wa-

Pete: Where have you been? Stede: Lucius! Good to see you, my boy! wee john: Cap’n... Lucius: I was hiding in a secret wall I’d found. Frenchie thought I was a ghost for about a week. Luckily the ship was a barnacled mess Frenchie: Still not convinced if I’m bein’ honest. Couldnt believe you’d survived, Stede: Survived? Pete: Why would you be a ghost, babe? Lucius: Because Blackbeard threw me overboard

Ed: A momentary laspe of judgement Olu: Oh shit

Stede: [knocks] Ed? [door unlocks]

Ed: Ship’s yours again. I can be gone- Stede: you’re leaving? Ed: I nearly killed lucius. Aren’t you upset? Stede: Absolutely livid, but you didnt succeed, thankfully! The atmosphere is tense, things are a little unclear, but they’re open to speaking. I’ve forgiven them for planning to kill me! Blows over quite fast, I’m sure- Ed: I’m a terrible person, stede. You don’t even-

Ed: Crew needed me. Wanted to help me. And I chose Blackbeard. All ‘cuz Izzy opened his FUCKING mouth ‘n backed me into a corner! Lucius would see right through it. I didn’t know what else to d- [flinch] Stede: It’s ok

Stede: Blackbeard is how you’ve been surviving. I understand that now. The only reason you were put in that position was because of my poor decisions. I promise I’ll be here no matter what to help us all get through this. Ed: Pull up the chair, I want my knife back Stede: Oh good finally...

Ed: So a big cat, a carriage accident, and a dropped piano? All at once? Fuckin’ hell, mate, you let ‘em have it. Though, I’d go as far to say the cat was too much. Stede: Whaaat? How could you say that about Ned? He did great. Ed: Just BITTER I wasnt there to see it

Stede: I’m sorry you had to do this again. I know you’re still angry...Ed: Wasn’t about being angry... not at first at least. Just felt.... sad. Really fucking sad, Stede. Didn’t know what to do without you here. None of us did. Felt... Like I just wanted to lay down and die Stede: I...I didnt think my absence would be felt this deeply

Ed: Oh shut- You’re not serious Stede: No, I’m serious. Mary and the kids were much happier when we were planning my departure fuckery. I genuinely can’t think of a time where someone missed my presence

Ed: Well fuck everyone else. Was the crew pissed when you said why you left? Stede: Very much so Ed: Then they missed you, cheers [mumble] I sure as fuck missed you Stede: You did? Sorry, Impulse. Ed: Lean up a bit Stede: I hop I can earn your trust back one day

Ed: Well, knowing about that Chauncey fuck makes me less pissed at you. Least you didn’t ditch me ‘cuz you didn’t want me around anymore. Stede: Oh no, I’ve liked you since the day we met. Ed: You did look hot bleedin’ out on the deck of that spanish ship. Stede: I’m choosing not to unpack that at this moment. Ed: All done up you go! [loud closed-mouthed scream] [ed repressing laughter] You good? Guts still in? Stede: [strained]I think so Ed: Lean on me til it passes

Thanks, did you sew me up the first time? Ed: Nah, that was fang Stede: That fang, beautiful work Ed: Go lay down. I gotta clean up your blood Stede: Again, sorry

Ed: If you apologize one more time for being stabbed, I’ll stab you again Stede: But it led to so much character development last ti- I’ll leave you to it then

Stede: Ah, is this my-? What’s it doing under th-

Stede: Forget I- Ed: No, that’s- I mean, it is yours... It doesnt even smell like y- JUST PUT IT ON

S: May I ask you-? E: shoot S: Why did you let me board the ship? E: I was tired of izzy nagging to blast you with the cannons. Kept talkin’ in my ear about you ‘n it just made me angrier and angrier. Got me so amped up to just fucking kill you the moment I saw you again. Thought I'd just be furious, but I felt... giddy? /hated/ that my chest was pounding, that just made me angrier

E: Then you show up with your tits out looking handsome as shit. S: hmmm [olu: One last thing, captain Stede: What is it, olu- RIP] E: I thought of it too. Leaving. Thought I’d get ahead before I disappointed you. Wasn’t itching for adventure, I knew I was in too deep with you S: I always thought I was disappointing /you/. I’m not the most exciting person E: Me?

E: Stede, you’re the boldest bugger i’ve ever met. Ever since i’ve known about you, you’ve made the most batshit ballsy moves. You took those English hostage, you swindled iz to get them back. you told blackbeard to go suck eggs in hell You stood up to the weird twins, to the English navy, to those richies at that party, to izzy, to jack, to ME. You’re the coolest, kindest person I know, Stede. I’m nuts about you. S: … guess I've never seen myself from that perspective E: If anyone else told me that story, i’d have them tied to the anchor for such a bullshit lie, but it’s you, so i believe it. Its as ridiculous as you are.

E: do you think I’ve ever gotten this upset over some quick drunk fuck parting ways? Only you.

S: Why only me, though?

E: You’re the only person that makes me feel… safe? Like I don’t have to be blackbeard 24/7. Most of my old mates were just dickheads who showed up when they wanted something the buggered off

Dont’ gotta worry about you stabbin’ me in my sleep cause i pissed you off. You don’t laugh when I talk about a fine fabric or a pretty looking teacup. I’ve told you things I thought I’d take to my grave because anyone else would throw it back in my face... But not you. I like your fire hazard, secret passage ship, your crew, when you talk about clothes ‘n book ‘n flowers. You don’t act like anyone else but you... And I envy that

Ed: Because it’s you

Stede: No one’s ever thought that about me... I’m sorry. Hah, I feel a bit dizzy. Ed: Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Lay down if you need [stede crying] Stede?

Stede: You’re the first person who doesnt think I’m a burden. My father, Mary, peers- My whole life- That I was selfish for being born [crying] Ed: Again, Stede, Feck ‘em

Stede: Meeting you was the best day of my life. I was so relieved when you- on the beach- Yuo looked so happy, and I destroyed that Ed: shhh

ed: It’ll be ok

Ed: Look at me. You came back

Ed: And that made Ed happ- IZ: EDWARD, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! [IZZY YELLING]

Ed:[calm] I’m sorry, Will you excuse me for one moment? Stede: Feel free! Ed: Thank-you [Izzy still yelling] [door slam] rapid steps]

[clattering above] [Izzy screaming] [crew cheering] foot falls approaching]

Ed: Now, where were we? Stede: ....Actually I do wanna know Ed: Let’s say, Bit too tied up to bother us again

[stede huffs a laugh] Ed: You look exhausted, you should rest. Pincushion gets the mattress Stede: oh no, I couldn’t. where are you sleeping? Ed: Perfectly comfortable desk right here. [pained moan] Stede: Right... Ed: Night, Stede

ed: I’ll steal a couch soon. ‘M too old to sleep on desks now Stede: I have no qualms [ed sighs]

Ed: Hey, stede Stede: Mm Ed: Can we.... Can we just forget about the beach and start over?

Stede: I don’t think I can this time, Ed. Ed: Slightly concerned you can forget me almost killing you but not a kiss Stede: I’ve decided to be done with running away from my problems and pretending they never happened. But beyond that, My whole world shifted with that kiss. I can’t ever forget that. The memory alone kept me rowing to get to you again

Stede: We’ve hurt eachother, but I’m more than willing to put in the work to mend it... Which is something I never did with mary. Ed: I wont stab you in the earhole by the way. Got mine out of he way. Stede: Only fair! We’re even now. Ed: But mine was funny [swat] [giggle]

Ed: Last thing, then you can sleep off the stab wound Stede: Oh good... Ed: If Blackbeard was gone for good, would you stay? Lotta folks want the novelty y’ know. ‘S been gnashing at the back of my skull. Stede: I met Ed first not Blackbeard

Stede: ‘M staying forever now. Best friends at first sight. From my point of view at least

Ed:...Olivia... How ya doin’, Iz? Iz: Are you fucking joking? Just tell me what’s going on

Ed: Stede won. Crew took the ship back. I’m staying. Oh and lucius is alive, as you saw. Kid said the ship was so mucked up, he was able to hang on to sneak onto the ship. Thought you handled that way back when? Iz: that fookin- Ed: So i’m giving you a choice.

Iz: Just cut my foot off at this point anything but this. Ed: why can’t you ever just relax, izzy? It doesnt have to go this way, yet you stomp your feet Every. Single. Time. How many years have we known eachother; do you even like my company? Iz: How could you even say that to me? I’ve given my life to you time and time again. And You’re going to let some tart waltz back in and uproot everything we built. Ed: Built what? We’re fucking pirates, mate!

Powertrip’s over. This is it. It was a good ride. Fang: Lucius! You’re missing this shit!! Ed: You may love waiting to end up like... another leather clad, middle aged sad sack dying alone in a puddle of his own piss, but you’re not dragging me there with you. So make a choice Iz: You’d really let me walk? Ed: Truthfully, i’d prefer you play nice and enjoy yourself for once. but I’ll give you three options.

Ed: Old way is gone. Either one, accept that and keep it pushin’. Two, I would just let you fuck off, but you’ve proven to be a liability out of my sight, so i’ll have fang cut your talk box, so you never speak stede’s name ever again THEN you can fuck off. And three, more of a clause to one,

Ed: If you go rogue, I’ll make you beg for hell. Threaten anyone on this ship again, You’ll never feel the warmth of the sun ever again

Ed: I’ll let you down if you behave

Iz: [despair sigh] just leave me up here a while longer. ‘S quiet for once. Ed: well alright, take some time to process. let fang know when you gotta piss Lucius: Bad morning? Iz: Yeah, keep staring, twat Lucius: That sounded threatening, right fang? Fang: He’s not above pissin’ on you, kid

Ed: [muffled] breakfast? [smack] Didn’t remember blackbeard snuck into your bed? Stede: No, I remember. Had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating again. Also, once again, you’ve processed this very quickly

Ed: Were yee seein’ phantoms? Stede: No more guilt phantoms thank goodness. Was getting sick of those buggers. Ed: Love a good phantom. You seem less tightly wound. Glad you’re phantom free

Stede: Took awhile to realize, but This is where I belong. Ed: No fucking shit

Ed: Speaking of, Y’ know, I’ve thought on it, and I’ve decided I’m tired of being angry and sad and lonely. Fucking sick of it. Already stabbed you, no sense in wasting time acting mad when I know what I want S: And what is that? E: Wanna be liked and kissed and happy.

Stede: Perfectly reasonable things to- Ed: I also want to be co-captains with the gentleman pirate. [choke] I’m lying in your bed with you, stede. Who do you think’ll be kissing me? The swede? Stede: I didn’t want to PRESUME. Is this a new job role for co-captains? Ed: Is now! ‘S why I promoted you. But you’re still on thin fucking ice. Stede: Poor jim. Promoted in less than a day. Ed: Don’t actually tell jim. They’re super pissed at me Stede: oH Ed: Now, onto couch theft, I’m thinkin’-

Stede: You’ve got some- Ed: I get it? Stede: Not quite, just- Oh- fuck it

Ed: Dastardly man. Diabolical. Definitely not gentlemenly

Ed: Fuckin’ missed you!

End

#gentlebeard #blackbonnet #our flag means death #ofmd #my art

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averagewriter-inthedark · 3 years ago

Text

Arachnids Gotta Stick Together 🕷 P.2 | No Way Home Imagine

Contains spoilers for Spider-Man No Way Home

Read Part 1 | Marvel Masterlist

Pairings: Tom!Peter Parker x Black Widow!reader (Platonic/sibling), slight Andrew!Peter Parker (flirtatious), Tobey!Peter Parker (platonic/), MJ Watson (platonic/sibling) Ned Leeds (platonic/sibling), Natasha Romanoff (sister), slight Doctor Strange (flirtatious)

Content warnings: 18+; mentions of child abandonment, child trafficking & violence against women (Red Room, Dreykov, Madame B.). implications of forced sterilization. talks of blood, violence and death. Near death experience. angst but happy ending (sorry if you cry) Implications to sex for like a split second | Female reader (she/her pronouns). | This is pretty long, read with caution.

Premise: Fighting multiversal villains was not something former Black Widow turned Avenger, Y/n L/n, signed up for. But when you’re looking after fellow arachnid superhero Spider-Man, anything is possible. Now the battle is on to cure these guys to prevent more harm from being done in New York City. Pasts are discussed, and a possibly future is put to the ultimate test.

Note: I tagged at the end everyone who commented on part 1 for part 2. I hope you all enjoy this.

———————

The Statue of Liberty was about to witness quite the chaos that would unfold on this cold, dark, evening. Four suited people stood on the scaffold of the renovations to the statue, three donning similar styled suits while one was equipped in every weapon one could think of.

Y/n was slowly pacing around the level while the three Spider-Mans set up the cures in various locations. Her Peter had just got off the phone with the Daily Bugle, Y/n wanting nothing more to punch the man breaking the story, and now it was the waiting game for the four of them.

‘God,’ she thought to herself, ‘I just can’t ever get one night off.’

“You okay?” A voice called out, her eyes landing on the taller Peter now out of his lab coat. He was staring at the older Peter, who was leaning against the railing with a distressed expression. Y/n leaned against one of the poles, arms crossed, watching the interaction unfold.

“Oh, my back. It’s stiff from all the swinging I guess.” “Oh yeah—no I got a middle back pain too.” “Really?” “Yeah! Yo-You want me to crack it?” “Yeah…That would be great.”

Y/n had to hold back a laugh at the sight of Peter (3) lifting Peter (2) in his arms and shaking him until a nice *crack* sounded from his back. “Wow,” Peter (2) says when he’s set back down. “That’s good.”

“Yeah?” Peter (3) smiles, pleased when the man gives him another nod. Y/n chuckles, turning away slightly to look to the city while Peter (3) probs himself on one of the lower railings. “God, this is so cool. I always wanted brothers.” There was a slight pause before he looks at the older man with a hint of excitement. “So you can like make your own web fluid in your body.”

Immediately Peter (2) is dismissing his words. “I’d rather not talk about this.”

“No, I don’t mean to…”

“Are you teasing me?”

“No, no, no,” Peter (1) steps in from above the statue. “No, no, no. He’s not teasing you. It’s just that..we can’t do that so naturally we’re curious as to how your webbing situation works. That’s all.” Y/n again has to hold back from laughing at what she was witnessing.

“If it’s personal, I don’t want pry. I just think it’s cool.” “I wish I could tell you, but it’s like I don’t do it. Like I don’t—-like, I don’t do breathing—like breathing just happens.” “Woah….”

“Like does it just come out of your wrists….” Peter (1) trails off, making Y/n automatically know what he was trying to imply. ‘Peter…’ she warns but he doesn’t hear it. “Or…does it come out of anywhere else?”

“Only—only the wrists,” Peter (2) looks rather disturbed by what the question was implying.

“You’ve never had a web block?” Peter (3) cuts in. “Cause I run out of webs all the time. I mean—,” he holds his hands up to emphasis his words. “I had to make my own in a lab. And it’s a hassle.”

“That sounds like a hassle, yeah,” The mans tone is rather smug, happy to not have to do what the others have to. “But-but I did, actually. You said that and I was like ‘oh!’ I had a web block.”

“Wooah,” Peter (3) hums with curiosity. “Why? What caused it?” The question has Peter (2) waving his hands in the air.

“Uh existential crisis stuff.”

Peter (3) snorts, letting out an understanding sigh. “Don’t get me started on that.” He turns to Y/n, who had been quiet while watching the interaction with amusement. “What about you Black Widow? Can you make webs? I mean—I mean you are named after a spider.”

Y/n raises her brow, a small smirk forming on her face. “I’m afraid not, Spider-boy,” he frowns at the nickname. “I wasn’t bitten like you guys, and I don’t make web fluid—in my body or in a lab. We leave that to trouble up there,” she nods her head to where Peter (1) was seated, the boy yelling out an offended ‘Hey!’

“So how did you get the name Black Widow?” Peter (2) asks. “I know he mentioned earlier something about trained assassins.” He then raises his hands and cautiously says “I understand though if you don’t want to talk about it.”

Y/n thinks for a moment, before sighing. ‘It’s not like they’ll be staying once this is over,’ she thinks. Y/n glances to her hands, fumbling with her gloved fingers. “You boys want to hear a little story of a girl who was a dreamer?” She waited for their replies, the two saying yes and she takes a deep breath before exhaling.

“The best way to describe Black Widows are girls who were stripped of their free will, and made to become their worst nightmare. Because what we were made to do would stick with us when we tried to sleep at night.” Y/n pauses letting the information sink in for the three. Peter (1) had some idea of Y/ns past, but she always kept things from him to not make him look at her different.

Now he was going to find out everything he was ever wondered about.

They noticed how her accent seemed to thicken with each word. Voice low as though she were narrating a book. “My mother had me young and out of wedlock. She couldn’t take care of me—post Soviet life in Russia was hard as you can imagine. My mother wanted me to have a life she knew she couldn’t provide me so when I was around eight months old, she gave me to what she thought was an adoption agency. They had compensated her for it, but warned her she would never come in contact with me again and to not go looking in the future. What my mother didn’t know was she had actually given me over to an operative of the K.G.B.

“They operated a program called the Black Widow ops and would send girls to the Red Room academy. These girls,” she paused, taking a moment before finally speaking. “These girls were orphaned or abandoned. Some were picked based on genetic potential as infants and often there were girls taken by force from their families.”

Y/n didn’t look at the men, she could only assume what their expressions were. And by their quietness and lack of interruption they didn’t know what to say—to overcome by the information they were hearing.

“It was in the Red Room that I underwent psychological conditioning—brainwashing, I was cuffed to the bed at night to prevent from escaping. We had to do gymnastics, ballet—on top of learning how to use ever weapon you could think of. While little girls were supposed to be learning how to ride bikes and go to school, we were learning how to become killers.” Y/n closed her eyes, her mind doing back to the dark days of her torture. She could still hear the screams of the people she was forced to kill in training, and then painful final assessment that led to the graduation ceremony.

“To give you an example of how brutal the Red Room was, only one in twenty girls would survive the training to become that generations Widow. Most of these girls who didn’t make it died because of failed experiments scientists were doing, the leaders in charge killed them for breaking the rules, or they died because the handlers made us fight each other until the weaker one of the two was killed by their opponent. And if you’re assuming what I think you are,” she finally looked at them, keeping her face blank, “then the answer is yes, because I’m standing in front of you, aren’t I?”

She didn’t wait for their answer. “I became a Widow once I passed the final tests—physical and mental, where I then underwent the graduation ceremony. And no, it’s not like how you would think a graduation ceremony would be—-I don’t recall one getting their reproductive organs removed when they finish school.” Silence filled the scaffold. The air was thicker and more tense. No one really know how to react.

But they were the ones who wanted to know.

Peter (3) was the first to say anything. “That’s awful. I-I—I just—.” The words wouldn’t come out. He couldn’t believe all he was hearing. It was sickening to him to know there were people so cruel that could take young girls against their will and force them to become assassins. Stripping them of their morals and mind—it was disgusting.

Peter (2) was in agreement. The reality of what Y/n and those girls had endured making his heart break in two. How could someone do such a thing? It was a concept he couldn’t get his mind wrapped around. “No one knew this was happening?” It made him angry to think there were girls and young women out there being trafficked in plain sight.

“There were people,” Y/n shrugged. “But they didn’t say anything. Dreykov—the leader at the time, was a powerful man who had connections and resources. People were easily bribed. And you have to remember, they didn’t see anything wrong with it. To them, we would bring them more power and could infiltrate any nation they wanted.”

“How did you get out?” Peter (3) wonders. He noticed her face fall, frown forming and glancing at the ground like a pained memory had just resurfaced.

“Uh,” she hesitates, taking another breath. “My sister, Natalia—well she changed it to Natasha—she was a widow a few generations before me. We were assigned as children with two other agents to go undercover in Ohio back in the nineties. We had another little ‘sister’ Yelena—she went on to become a Widow after me. Our assigned ‘mother’ Melina and assigned ‘father’ Alexi were close with Dreykov, so he assigned us all to infiltrate the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. After the mission Natasha went on to become the best Widow the Red Room ever produced, then I came along two years later and Yelena was long after.

“Natasha defected to America with the help of S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Clint Barton. Together with the agency they formed a plan to take down Dreykov and disband the Red Room. Natasha found me in Budapest and got me out before bombing the building Dreykov was in. We all thought he was dead. When they brought me to America I had to go through all types of evaluations and restrictions because of my record with the Red Room. Finally after almost two years they felt I was trusting of joining their ranks.

“I became an Agent for them with Natasha and we then joined the Avengers after that—until shit happened in twenty-sixteen. Nat was on the run from the government and found out along the way that Dreykov was alive and operating the Red Room once again. Yelena was the one who told her after she tracked her down. They called me and I was to them on the next flight out—determined to stop the man again. It was like everything we did in Budapest was for nothing. He had gotten right back to work and had destroyed the lives of thousands of young girls in just ten years.”

“But you took him down!” Peter (1) exclaims, wanting to lighten the mood and make it known that asshole couldn’t hurt anymore people. “You and Agent Romanoff! It’s because of you two that no girl will ever go through that.” Y/n smiles at his words, pushing off the pole to get a better look at him.

“You damn right we did, little spider,” her voice is full of pride. “And I’ll do it again if I have to. And we didn’t do it alone,” Y/n trails off, looking at the other Peters to see they were glancing at her in awe. “We had some help, and it’s because of them the Red Room is finally gone. Once and for all.”

Peter (3) grins, “That’s amazing—you’re amazing! I know I already said that but like—like honestly, I wanna be you when I grow up.”

Y/n raises her brow, head tilting a bit. “Are you calling me old.” He realizes his mistake and immediately starts stuttering.

“No! No, no, no!—dah-ah that’s not what I’m saying. I’m sorry,” his face was turning red. “I don’t think you’re old—I.” Her laugh cuts him off, ears going pink and hot with embarrassment.

“Oh, Spidey, I’m just messing with you. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I know I’m probably older than you, but seeing you get so flustered was very entertaining.”

“Oh,” the young man was pouting, rubbing the back of his neck.

“But he is right,” Peter (1) called from above, capturing her attention. “You are amazing, Y/n. And those Widows you and Natasha freed have you to thank for giving them another path in life. You saved them.”

Her face softens, looking at the boy with gratitude. “Thank you, little spider. And hey, we would’ve never met if Nat wasn’t my saving grace. Although sometimes you make me regret ever taking you under my wing with all the trouble you get into.” Her tone was teasing, eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Hey!” He yells again. “You’re the one who said us arachnids gotta stick together. It’s only fate we would be friends.”

“I know, little spider. I know.

Time seemed to pass quicker than the four could expect. Chaos unfolded and they were head to head with three of the five villains—although Peter had said one had been cured earlier so there was only Osborn left to appear. Y/n had lost Peter (1) shortly after they prevented the Lizard dude from hurting Ned and Mj. Now Y/n was bleeding from her forehead and leg after the creature managed to swipe her with his claws.

“Y/n, are you okay?” Mj asked, placing a hand on her shoulder when they finally caught up to her. Peter had caught the cure Mj threw at him and was waiting for Connors to reform to his human self.

The Widow winced, hand cupping her temple and pulling back to see her black glove was wet. “Shit,” she mumbled, but shook the pain off. “Yeah-yeah I’m fine. I’ve been through worse. It’s not too serious.” She then looks over the two teens. “What about you guys—you both fine?”

“Yeah,” Ned nods, “We’re good.” Mj holds the box in her hand, seeing how the Peters were dealing with Max and Connors was still transforming.

“We gotta hide this thing!”

“Oh right!” Ned turns to the side, Y/n finally noticing the familiar ring on his hand and is stunned when he circles his arm to form a familiar glowing portal. It opens, causing the teens to cheer but it is short met when the one and only Doctor Stephen Strange stumbles out.

And he was pissed.

“Where is her?” His voice was menacing, put up with having been stung up for over a day. Strange then sees the box and wields it back to him—along with the sling ring, causing the two to gasp.

“Wait—wait!” “Before you do anything—Mr. Strange-sir! P-Peter’s plan is working!”

The sorcerer is stopped in his tracks. “What plan?”

“He’s curing them!” Ned steps to the side allowing Strange to see the scene unfold. Peter (1) was standing before a cloud of blueish green smoke, the fog evaporating to reveal the transforming form of lizard skin to human on Dr. Connors.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Strange mutters, impressed by what he was seeing. His attention then turns to Ned, the boy slightly stepping back by his gaze. “Did you just open a portal?”

“Yes-yes sir I did,” The boy was scared for his reaction, and was surprised to hear the man let out an impressed ‘humph’ before moving past him. Ned and Mj share a knowing look, while Strange finally takes notice to the Avenger standing to the side with blood on her face.

“Y/n?” Stranges’ voice is full of surprise, but then his shoulders deflate. “I should’ve known he’d call you.”

The woman scoffs. “He didn’t. I had to track him down after seeing the shit unfold on Tv.” she let her eyes travel along his figure, smirk making its way on her features. “Nice to see you finally found your way back, Stephen.”

This makes the man consort into slight annoyance and offense. “Wait you knew what he did and didn’t bother to find me? Or make this kid,” he gestures to Ned, “Open a portal to do it?” Another scoff leaves her mouth.

“You’re not exactly my favorite person right now, Stephen. After all, you never called me after what I thought was a nice night we shared.”

Neither see the shocked looks from the teens behind them, neither do the teens see the blush rising on Strange’s cheek which was so unlike him. “I’ve been a little busy, Y/n.” His words make her roll her eyes and reply, “yeah? Well so have I.” She goes to turn away from him, but stops and gives him one last look—tone going rather low. “Make it up to me and maybe I’ll let it slide. But you won’t get another chance after that, magic man.”

“Duly noted,” he says under his breath when she passes by him to go to the teens, who were still frozen by what they had witnessed. Strange leaves them, opening a portal to the top of the scaffold where the other Peters had just successfully cured Max.

Silence filled the three, until Mj leaned over and said, “So you and Strange, huh?” Y/n sighed, eyes closing briefly before looking at her saying, “it was once or twice. Nothing really serious.”

They watch the scene between Strange and Peter from a few feet away, having moved closer when it looked like Strange was about to complete the ritual. It all turns sideways when a menacing ‘Can the Spider-Man come out to play?’ Fills the area and Norman is racing towards Strange on his glider.

The box is pushed from his hands, Norman fleeing away but is prevented when Doctor Octavius clings to the glider with a mechanical tentacle. It gives Strange time to take the box back, and Y/n raises her arm to shoot a Widow’s bite disk. It flies in the air but Norman moves before it could hit him—-the glider spinning around and cutting the tentacle allowing him to flee. She shoots another, but it again misses. “Shit,” she hisses when gets away.

Time seemed to still when all eyes went to Strange. Unbeknownst to him and everyone watching from afar, the spider-senses were going off in all three Spider-Man’s. Their senses was answered by the bright green glow of a pumpkin bomb hidden within relic.

“STRANGE NO!!!”

The world around goes into flames, people flying by the force of the impact. Y/n stumbles, hands going to Ned and Mj to stabilize them when the copper shield being held by Lady Liberty dismantles. It falls through the scaffold, and the trio are the first to face the destruction.

Mj loses her balance, causing Y/n to grunt and catch her but the ground was shaking. It would cave any moment and Y/n had to think fast. Remembering she had one last grappling hook in her wrist, she unlatches it and secures the device onto Mj. The ground shakes again, pushing them backwards causing the girl fall, but Y/n launches the hook—mounting it to the pole across the platform.

What she didn’t anticipate was for herself to lose footing and fall with the girl. Mj screamed, reaching her hand out for the woman but is unable to catch her. Time seemed to slow even more. “Y/n!!!!!”

Debris falls from the sky with her. She hadn’t felt this type of fear in so Iong. Not even when fighting with Thanos was she scared they would lose. Going back in time? Not a problem. Fighting an army of robots? Piece of cake. But falling to her death without anything to secure her.

That instilled fear in the Black Widow.

She wondered if this feeling was what Natasha had when she fell from the tower in Volmir. Watching Clint from above while the ground waited for her. Alone while the world stilled around her.

Having heard Mj’s scream and witnessing the woman fall, Peter (1) launches through the railing. *Beat* *Beat* what was that thumping sound he was hearing? It was constant. Slow.

*beat* *beat*

Y/n could hear it too.

*beat* *beat*

Oh…it was the sound of their hearts. Pounding from their chests.

One from watching the last of their family fall to their death. The other from seeing their family fall with them.

Peter (1) extends his hand, inches from brining Y/n to safety when pain hits his side and she’s gone from his sight. Y/n gasps, fear heightening watching Peter (1) get pulled away by the goblin. No longer did she care about what happened to her—she accepted what was about to happen.

All that mattered to her was Peter.

She didn’t even hear the scream Peter (3) had let out and flinging himself over the platform. It wasn’t until she heard debris being smacked away and arms around her waist she finally turned to see Peter (3) had curled his body around her so they would turn upright. A web shot from his wrist to the top of the scaffold, and they descended until his feet hit the ground.

The world that had stopped suddenly hit play. Pants left her mouth, eyes closing to catch her breath—not opening until a soft voice said, “a-are you okay?”

She’s met with the tear-stricken face of Peter 3. His lip was quivering, eyes full of both fear and relief as he looked at her. His reaction to catching her surprised Y/n and she nodded to him—gratitude filling her. “Yes, I’m okay,” she then brings her hand up to guide his eyes back to her when he looks away—seeing the tear fall from his cheek. “Hey, are you okay, Spidey?”

The tone she had was comforting, and despite the emotion filling his veins, Peter manages to nod. He sets her down gently, and is surprised when her arms go around his neck to pull him into a hug. “I know enough about body language and emotion to know something must’ve happened in order for you to have that reaction. I’m sorry for your loss, I have some understanding of it.”

Oh how she truly did.

Peter (3) hugs her back, his head going to the crook of her neck and relishing in her warmth. He didn’t know who or what she lost, but knowing she understood gave him comfort. She waits until he pulls away, raising on her toes—cause even in her boots he was taller than her by several inches—and kisses his cheek, not caring about the tears in the way. “Thank you,” she softly tells him, making sure to show how appreciative she was for him saving her.

“Y-you’re welcome.” His voice cracked making her squeeze his hand.

“Forgive yourself for what ever is hurting you, Peter. Keeping it within will only suffocate you—you deserve better than that.” The hand she was holding squeezed back, Peter giving her a look of thanks.

It was something the man needed to hear. And he made a silent promise to himself to do so—not let the guilt eat him up any longer.

She leaves him when Peter (2) catches up, the three moving towards the shield where Peter (1) had just crashed with Osborn. “Y/n!?!” Peter screams, standing to his feet. Relief comes to him when he sees her approaching Mj and Ned.

“I’m okay, милый! (Darling).” She calls back. Y/n turns her attention back to the teens. “Are you both okay?” They both nod to her and she sighs in relief, not seeing any injuries on them.

Commotion soon fills their ears, turning to see Peter (1) was putting everything in him in a final fight with Norman Osborn. Y/n felt herself moving when Peter suddenly lifted the glider in the air, aiming it at the fallen man. Peter 2 had the same idea, jumping in front to stop Peter (1) from making the fatal blow.

Y/n broke through the debris, standing on top of a pile with a firm gaze on the boy. “Peter stop!!” That seemed to make him stiffen, a pained grunt leaving his lips. She couldn’t see his face as his back was top her, but by his shaking body she knew he was dealing with conflict. A feeling she had dealt with all her life. “Peter,” she said again but more gently. “Don’t.”

Seconds ticked before the glider fell his hands with a loud, *clank*. Everyone was relieved, but it was short lived when a blade meets Peter 2s back. He falls backward, Norman standing with a knife in his grasp—looking menacing as he stares down at the young Peter.

“She was there because of you,” the Goblin taunts. “I may have struck the blow, but you…you are the one that killed her.”

Before Y/n could tell Peter the mans words were untrue, the cure containing the anti-serum flew past her into Peter (1)s outstretched arm. The needle embeds into Normans skin, releasing green liquid into his veins. He stumbles back with the syringe is pulled away, and immediately there’s a noticeable change in him.

It’s as if the Goblin hadn’t even been there.

While the Peters tend to the fallen Spider-Man, the sound of glass shattering pulls Y/ns attention to the sky. Her eyes meet with purple cracks, filled with bright white orbs taking the shape of humans. “Oh shit,” she mumbles, moving away from the shield to get a better look.

She finds Strange floating in the air, arms glowing orange as he attempts to stop the cracks from breaking. Peter swings by her, going to speak to the man. From her place on the ground, she could hear the details of the conversation, but eventually it ends with Peter swinging back to the shield.

“Uhh I-I think this is it—I think you’re about to go home.” Y/n moved a little closer so she was standing on the pile of rubble near the ledge. “Umm, look-I. Uh, thank you. I just wanna—I. I want you—.” The boy was having trouble saying the words, making the two men look at him fondly. “I want to tell you that. I-I really don’t know how to say this—.”

“Peter,” he’s stopped by the soft voice of Peter 3, making him look up to see they were smiling at him.

“You know,” Peter 2 tells him. “It’s what we do.”

The words spoke a thousand words. Peter (1) filled with gratitude, smiling at those who brought so much impact to him in so little time. “Yeah, It’s what we do.” A small moment passes before he shakes knowing he doesn’t have much time left. “Um-right I-I gotta find Ned and Mj. I-ah,” he had stepped back to leave, but hurls forward to bring the men into a hug—which they welcome with open arms.

Overlooking from above, Y/n watches the display with soft eyes. When she watches them break away, Peter gives them one last look saying, “I guess-I guess I’ll see you.” The boy turns, stopping when he sees her and Y/n tilts her head when she sees his face fall—almost like he was in pain by seeing her.

She carefully looks to the two men behind him, calling out “Hey, Spiders!” They raise their heads and she gives a knowing nod. “You boys did good. Might even call yourselves an Avenger now that you’ve got a taste of the chaos this world seems to always have.”

They both feel the grins on their face, thanking her and bidding goodbye when she gives one last wave. Peter (1) then approaches, his voice rushed and wavered. “Can I-I talk to you real quick?” Y/n frowns by the sudden rush in his manner. He leads her to a corner by the statue, away from everyone else although they still had view of Strange, who was now casting ruins in the sky—-the cracks slowly disappearing.

“Hey,” she says to him when they finally stop. “What’s gotten into you? What’s wrong?”

If one said they could feel their heart literally break in two Peter would say he believed them. Because that was the only thing filling him when he stared at the woman in front of him.

The women who took him under her wing when he was a young eager sixteen year old wanting to be an Avenger like his hero Iron Man. Who held him as he cried and nursed his injuries after almost dying when Adrian Toomes tried to kill him. The Black Widow, who’s heart was made of steel yet could bring out the glow and warmth whenever he was in need of help—whether it be fighting bad guys or giving advice. She was the one who risked everything to go back in time and make sure the snap was reversed—all so he could come home.

Y/n L/n was his sister. The only family he really had left and he was about to say goodbye.

“Strange can fix it,” he finally finds his voice. “Fix what I messed up. Everyone from those universes won’t come here and it will all be okay.”

Y/n couldn’t understand how that was making him upset. “Okay,” she trails off warily, “That’s great. No more chaos,” she wanted to laugh, but his reaction was starting to scare her. “Why is that making you look upset?”

He couldn’t really think of the words to say just yet, so he let his heart do the speaking. “I don’t think I ever thanked you. You-you know for everything.” The memories of the years played in his mind like a movie. “You’ve always been there for me-you’ve always helped me when I needed you most. Even when I made mistakes and you should’ve been mad at me—you always knew how to fix it, and made me feel like I didn’t disappoint you. So thank you, Y/n. Thank you for being the best—and for always believing in me. I wouldn’t be the Avenger cut out for this world if it wasn’t for you.”

Now she was starting to fear what he was trying to tell her. The intuition in her was going off like alarms in her head. Her voice went low, “Why are you sounding like this is goodbye, Peter?”

“I-I-I,” he holds back a sob, gulping it down. “It’s gonna be okay, Y/n. Strange can fix it…..but you’re gonna—you’re gonna,” he didn’t want to say the words and make it true. But there was no other way. “B-but you’re going to forget me. You won’t have any memory of me.”

The words have Y/n stepping back, brow raised like she wan’t believing what she was hearing. “What?” Her tone was low, but slowly rose at her next question. “Wh-what the hell do you mean I’m going to have no memory of you, Peter? Do you hear what you’re saying.”

“Y/n—.”

“No be quiet! The adult is talking.” She yells, holding her finger up and Peter wanted to cry at the use of Tonys old saying when would scold him. “You just lost your aunt—the last of your family. And now you’re telling me that I—who loves and cares for you and needs to be there for you to get through this, is going to have no memory of you. After everything? No, I won’t accept that, Peter.”

He could see her getting angry and stepped forward, but she had stepped back not wanting him to get close until he explained more in-depth what he meant. “Everyone was coming because they knew Peter Parker, Y/n. To stop them from coming the only way is to make them forget I am Peter Parker. And that includes everyone here too.”

“No,” she shakes her head, not liking any of it.

“Y/n please,” he pleases to her. “It will break reality if Strange doesn’t do that spell—It’s my fault this is happening in the first place!”

This only angers her more, and she brings her hands to his shoulder—albeit gently so they were eye level. “That doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your happiness to fix it Peter. You shouldn’t have to make that risk—It’s not fair to you. Okay! You’re too young and—-.”

“It has to be, Y/n” Strange cuts in, having heard the conversation from above. She spins around, face livid and staring at him like she wants to send him a good taste of Widows Bite.

“Don’t start lecturing me about the greater good, Strange.”

He continues to make the ruins, setting up so it was ready. “One reality cannot be spared in order to prevent the others from collapsing. We can’t risk breaking the multiverse—it will end in chaos.” The man was not happy either by what he had to do, but if he didn’t then they would be doomed. The fate of multiple universes was in his hands.

“There has to be something you can do Strange—what about Wong!? Why can’t you get everyone together and do something without making him lose everyone?”

“There is no time!” He finally shouts, nearly finishing the last of the ritual. Strange could see her holding back tears, and although the man has come to care for the Black Widow, the decision was made.

“I don’t care!” She screams back, “I’m not loosing him too! Dammit Strange he needs me—he needs us!”

“I’m almost done, Peter. You need to get out of here soon.” Strange gives up arguing with the woman, aware Peter still had his friends to say goodbye too.

“No!” She dejects in anger. “You cast that spell and I will never forgive you for this! You hear me! I—”

“Y/n,” the pain in Peter’s voice stops her from screaming the last of her sentence. Spinning around, she watches him step forward posture straight despite looking like he wanted nothing more than to break down and cry. He gently smiles, not covering the pain hidden behind it. “When you and T-tony,” he starts, eyes filling with tears. “When you and Tony went back in time to get the stones, you knew what the risks and possible costs were, right?”

She wasn’t following along with him, face tilting, “Wh-what?” She let out an unhumorous laugh, “Yes, yes of course we did.”

He takes another breath, “You went back knowing what it could cost you if something went wrong. And it did, you lost Nat—a-and Tony.” A tear falls, “B-but you knew—you knew that something like that could happen when you agreed to get the stones. You did it because you wanted to save us—save me.” He takes another step while his voice cracks, watching how she seemed to catch on.

Her head was shaking like she didn’t want to hear what he was about to say—her bottom lip quivering.

“It was worth it. You saved us because we were worth it—saved me, because I was worth it.” Peter pauses, another flow of tears falling from his cheeks.

By now Y/n was holding in her emotion with everything she had, but it was slowly falling apart. Peter’s words were hitting her, and she knew where he was going with it—but it was just to painful to accept.

The silence spoke volume, but Peter eventually breaks it with the final blow—causing the Black Widow made of marble to finally crumble. “So let me save you all. Because they are worth it—You, you are worth it, Y/n.”

One Week Later

The snow was sticking, winter finally arriving in the streets of New York. The city was full of life, no one giving him a second glance as Peter Parker made his way down the avenue not too far from where Avengers tower once stood.

The address was in his pocket, praying it was still the right one though it was giving to him just a few weeks prior in case he ever needed a place to hide out or stop by and visit when she was in town. He only prayed she would be there today.

Crossing the road, Peter approaches the row of townhouse styled apartments. There was a gate separating the sidewalk from the front lawns, so Peter lifted the metal handle and made his way through the yard until he was up the steps of the front porch.

He went to knock, but was stopped by a robotic voice next to his ear. “Please state your name.” He looked around, seeing no one behind him and realized it was from the intercom beside the mailbox. There was a small blinking light above it, and what assumed to be a small microphone.

Peter cleared his voice. “Uhh, Peter Parker.” There was a moment of silence before the voice spoke again.

“Hello, Peter Parker. Please indicate your reason for coming to this estate.” He felt himself panic a little, but then remembered why he was doing it in the first place and felt his confidence return.

“I-I’m here to see Miss. L/n—Y/n L/n. Is she here today? I-I may have gotten the wrong address.” Another pause. “One moment please.”

There was a buzz and the door opened revealing the entrance to the home. There was a circular staircase in the middle leading to the higher levels, and Peter walks in adjusting the backpack containing his Stark tech and suit on his shoulder. There was no one in his peripheral vision, but soon the silent hallway is filled with the clacking of what he assumed was familiar heeled boots.

The nerves in Peter rose, clutching onto his backpack when a shadow caught his eye in a doorway. The shadow was then replaced by the appearance of the one and only Y/n L/n. She was wearing a simple sweater and jeans, but her favorite boots were on her feet. It was a sight Peter didn’t see too much, because normally she was always geared up when he saw her.

Her stare was blank, filling him with even more nerves. “Peter Parker you said your name was?” The tone gave him chills. No trace of warmth like he was usually met from the woman he came to see as a sister. It broke his heart, witnessing how Strange’s spell did work, and she like everyone else forgot about him.

He stuttered, realizing he hadn’t said anything and she had raised her brow at him suspiciously. “Y-yes. Yes ma’am, I am. I’m Peter,” he trails off, feeling his heart clinch when she gave no reaction. “Peter Parker.”

��I don’t recall ever giving this address to a Peter Parker,” she moves closer, arms crossed and peering at him like she was trying to map him out. “Let alone knowing one,” This woman was a spy he remembered. And trust was earned not given out—so it’s no surprise she would be alarmed a random teenager knew her address. “How did you know about this place, kid? And know I’d be here?”

“Umm,” he tries to find the words, but failing and looking around to avoid her narrowed gaze. “I’m sorry—I’m sorry, It’s just that—um.” He looks back at her, face turning red. “You might not believe me when I tell you this, but you gave me this address. About a month ago actually, you did.”

He’s not surprised when she just looks at him confused, her stance stiffening. “I gave you this address?” She repeats, like she didn’t believe him. “I think I’d know, kid, if I gave you my address. I know you probably have read about me given schools now teach about my colleagues and I, but I would advise you not to go looking for the Avengers. Most of us are private people—like myself, so the fact you have it makes me wonder how you got it, because I know I didn’t for a fact it wasn’t me.”

Peter sighs, knowing convincing a former Black Widow was easier said than done. It was gonna take something else for her to possibly remember him.

“Miss L/n—ma’am,” he stops when he makes eye contact with Y/n. Whatever he was about to say got lost in his throat, unable to say the truth he was desperately wanted to give her. All he could see was is idol, the person he would always hope to make proud.

Even if she saw him as a stranger.

A small but sad smile forms on his face, his shoulders deflating. “You know what—I-I. I’m sorry for bothering you, Ms L/n,” he holds back the tear wanting to escape from his eye. “I shouldn’t have—I’m sorry.” He goes to wipe the tear when it falls, noticing how her eyes seemed to soften and body relaxed from its defensive stance.

“I’ll leave you alone,” he adjusts his bag, voice wavering with emotion. “It’s just that—um, I wanted to say,” it was now or never. “I wanted to say that us arachnids gotta stick together. You know?” With that he moves to leave, bidding her goodbye once and for all.

It was like her brain had been rewired and was putting back the gears that had stopped turning. Peter could see her face turn, mix emotions sweeping though her as it went from confusion to startled. Like she was trying to figure out why his words struck her.

“W-wait. Wait.” Y/n stops him from turning and leaving, face puzzled. “Where did you hear that?” Her head was spinning, unbeknownst to the boy, as though her brain was trying to tell her something. There were gaps in her memory, slowly filling leaving her with a tsunami of emotions.

Peter fills hope rise in him, his heart pounding like he was waiting for it to either rip from his chest or break into pieces. “It’s something you told me once in awhile. That us arachnids gotta stick together.”

Y/n lets out a choked gasp, hand shaking while the gaps continued to fill. “But, but that would mean—,” she shakes her head, as if she couldn’t believe what was happening. “If you know that then—you—.” *beat* *beat*

“—You’d have to be….”

*beat* *beat*

Peter closed his eyes. Feeling the pounding of his heart.

*beat* beat*

Her pained filled gasp reached his ears. “Oh my God.”

*beat* *beat*

“Peter?”

And when arms were suddenly pulling him in—making his head go to her shoulder in a hug worth a thousand words, Peter Parker finally felt some peace.

——————-

Tagging those who commented on part 1: @that-one-book-girl , @silverwindptv , @amber-lilly , @iamburdened

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bucksfucks · 4 years ago

Text

messing with a gemini | chris evans

gif credit.

SUMMARY || chris is a gemini, so you should expect nothing less than snide remarks, witty charm, and mind-blowing sex.

PAIRING || chris evans x reader

WORD COUNT || 1,902 words

WARNINGS || banter, teasing, cocky!chris, definite praise kink, light choking kink, chris goes down on the reader, fingering, oral, drinking, unprotected sex, both smutty, soft, and teasing — 18+ ONLY//MINORS DNI

NOTES || mmmmgmmgmgmgmgmg yeah

The sound of the door shutting can only mean one thing.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” you greet him, not turning around to face him.

“Sweetheart if you don’t learn to shut that pretty little mouth of yours, I’ll do it for you.”

Another snide remark, another sly smirk, and another roll of your eyes as Chris slides past you with a cup of tea in his hands.

“You couldn’t make me if you tried.” You spat back, narrowing your eyes at him as you watched him quirk an eyebrow; intrigued at your comment.

“Is that a challenge? Because you know I never back down from you.” He replies cooly, folding his arms over his chest before taking a sip of his hot drink.

“Ah yes, how could I forget,” you feign enthusiasm, “you’re a Gemini.” You deadpan and now it’s his turn to roll his eyes.

He kicks his foot off the wall behind him, “you didn’t answer my question, sweetheart.” He winks, brushing past your shoulder as you scoff.

He’s gonna out of your sight before you have the chance to say anything else, letting out an exasperated sigh as you will yourself to calm down.

“Hey!” Someone shouts through the trailer door, “can you run down to makeup for backup?” You don’t get to answer.

“Thanks!”

Before whoever it was slammed the door shut and you let out another frustrated groan.

You knew what you signed up for, you weren’t head of makeup. You weren’t even assistant head. No, you were one of the nobodies.

Someone they hire to run from one end of set to the other only to get yelled at for not having enough brushes or the right shade of a palette.

It was almost poetic.

“Hey, I’m here, what did you guys need?” You ask as you put on a fake smile and enter the makeup trailer.

The trailer where Chris is sat getting his hair done.

Your blood boiled, wasn’t he supposed to be a charmer? A sweetheart? Maybe he was just really getting into character?

“Can you sweep the floor and make sure there’s no more hair?”

You had to physically fight the urge to drop your face, “sure!”

You grabbed the broom, feeling embarrassed as you quietly sunk into the background as you felt Chris’ eyes on you.

A few medial, mind numbing tasks later and it was closing in on 2am. Your notification-less phone screen lit up the empty trailer you were left to clean up.

Not that you really minded.

You find solace in the only time of the day where things seem to slow down. You also didn’t hate being alone where you could listen to music and clean hairbrushes.

“So this is what you do after we cut.” The sound of Chris’ laugh startles you as you let out a soft yelp.

He has a soft smile on his face, almost unrecognizable without his beard.

“I thought I was alone,” you reply meekly, turning the volume lower on your phone as Chris shook his head.

“Oh, I know,” he laughs, “I don’t think anyone would be belting out Queen like that if they didn’t think they were alone.”

Once again, you feel embarrassed in front of him, shaking your head.

“Whatever,” you try to brush it off. “Did you need something?” You ask as he shakes his head.

“I was just checkin’ in on you.” He replies and you’re a little taken aback.

“Oh, well thanks, but I’m okay. Just finishing up cleaning.” You said with a tight lipped smile and a nod of your head.

Chris stands there for a second, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looks over his shoulder before clearing his throat.

“Well uh, some of the cast and crew are havin’ some drinks and pizza later, if you wanted to tag along.”

The invite makes your stomach drop into your lower belly as you open your mouth.

You have to take a moment to formulate the words.

“It’s getting pretty late, I think I’m just gonna head back to my hotel room. Parties aren’t really my thing.” You joke, lightening the mood as Chris cracks a smile.

“Sure thing, sweetheart. The invites always there,” he says before turning on his heels and leaving you to yourself.

Chris Evans was an enigma that you didn’t think you’d ever crack.

The soft knock at your door caused your neck to snap in its direction, uncrossing your legs as you slid off the too big hotel bed and looked through the peep hole.

It was hard to make out the figure, but it looked like...no, it couldn’t be.

“Chris?” His name slipped through your lips as you opened the door.

He beamed a smile as he held up a case of beer and box of pizza.

“Turns out, parties aren’t my thing either.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle as you moved aside to let him in.

“And you decided that coming to my room at,” you had to check the time, “3:16 in the morning was the logical thing to do?”

He set everything down on the coffee table before hopping onto your bed, “yup.”

You had to roll your eyes as you laughed, closing and locking the door as you stepped in front of him.

“C’mon kid,” oh, why did that do something to you?

“You work hard every day of the week, you deserve one night to not care about anything.” His words were gentle as he stood up to grab a beer.

“Want one?” He asked, holding a beer up as you replayed his words.

“Sure,” he was right, you do deserve a break.

You both took a seat on the small, uncomfortable couch in the room as you took a sip. Well, it was beer.

“So,” you broke the silence, “the Chris Evans doesn’t like parties?” You quirked an amused eyebrow as he laughed.

“Maybe I wanted to escape to see you, is that so bad?” He said, licking his bottom lip; not breaking eye contact.

You shook your head, “such a fucking Gemini,” you mumble as Chris smirks.

“What did I say about that smart mouth of yours?” He eggs you on, leaning forward and giving your knee a squeeze.

“I don’t remember.” You bite back, feeling your heart kicking in your chest as you feel his breath fanning over your face.

“Maybe I should teach you a lesson or two then, hmm?” He purrs, running his free hand up your neck and resting it there.

“I dare you,” you mumble, transfixed on the feeling of his warm hands on you.

The dominos fall and Chris’ lips are meshed with yours, the faint taste of beer on them as you wrap your fingers in the collar of his shirt.

“You know I never back down from a challenge,” he murmurs against your lips before taking you by the hand and leading you to the bed.

He pushes you onto it, the sheets around you as the weight of Chris’ body pushed you further into it.

“Ah ah,” he tsks when you let out a soft moan, “I thought I told you to keep quiet for me.”

You swallow thickly, throat dry and lips parted as you gasp when you can feel the weight of him between your hips.

“Can you do that for me, sweetheart? Can you be a good girl?” He purrs, absolutely knowing what it does to you as you writhe under him.

“Good,” he hums. “Now let’s see how good you are when I’m between your legs makin’ then shake.”

His wink doesn’t go unnoticed by you as your clothes are shed, his coming off until he’s left in nothing but his boxers.

There’s little left to the imagination, the outline of his cock clear as he wraps his hands around your ankles and tugs you down to the end of the bed.

You yelp, sliding off the pillows as he sinks to his knees, hungry eyes just waiting to taste you.

“Look at you,” he cooes, “drippin’ at the thought of me between your thighs?” He mocks, cocking his head to side as he keeps your legs open.

Chaste kisses are pressed to your inner thighs, gently as you try to stop the plea’s that are begging to slip past your mouth.

“You’re bein’ so patient for me too, good girl.” He praises, he breath over your core is hot as you grab for his hair.

The feeling of his tongue makes you moan and squeeze your legs around his head.

“Mmm,” he hums, “that good already?”

If he wasn’t buried between your legs you might’ve, just might’ve had the courage to roll your eyes.

His fingers tease your entrance as his mouth works over your clit.

There’s no holding back now.

You don’t care how loud you’re being, giving into the sensation as he works you to the edge, your legs shaking.

“You wanna come, don’t you, pretty girl?” Yes, God, yes.

“Well that’s too bad,” he taunts making you let out a whine.

“Not until I’m buried deep ‘side of you,” he grunts, quickly stripping off the rest of his clothes until he’s crawling back over you with a condom in his hand.

You’re still dizzy, slightly angry from your denied orgasm, but wanting nothing more than to feel him stretching you out.

“You think you’re ready for my cock,” he smirks teasingly as you feel him at your entrance.

You whine, bringing his lips to your but he stops you at the last second.

“Uh uh baby, I wanna hear you beg for it.” He taunts, nose brushing yours.

“Fuck,” you whimper, “please, just fuck me.” You beg, eyes meeting his.

That’s all he needs before he’s slowly sinking into you, watching your face contort in immeasurable pleasure.

“Feel so fuckin’ good,” he grunts, “so tight and warm.”

Your fingers dig into his speckled back, finding your ground as you dig into the soft skin as he thrusts into you.

Suddenly, the only think you can think about is how good this feels.

“My pretty girl,” he whispers, bending your one leg at the knee to get a deeper angle.

“Takin’ my cock so goddamn well,” he grunts, “gonna make me come.”

His words send a shiver down your spine as your walls flutter around him. He drops on one of his elbows, getting impossibly close to you.

“You’re gonna come too, aren’t you, sweetheart?” He teases, lips on yours swallowing every moan before you feel a hand around your throat.

“Look at me when you come, baby,” he purrs, applying just the slightest amount of pressure to the column of your throat.

“Wanna see you come for me,” he smirks, his thrusts getting harsher before you feel yourself giving into your orgasm.

Your body shakes as your mouth falls open, his name a breathy moan before you feel his hips stuttering.

He sounds exhausted after he spills inside of you, tumbling on top of you as you’re left in sweaty silence as you’re left with nothing to do but run your fingers through his dampened hair.

“Gemini or not, you’re what made me weak in the knees, sweetheart.” Chris whispers, eyes on yours as you feel a flutter in your heart.

“There’s somethin’ about you that I won’t ever grow tired of, that I’m sure about.”

#chris evans smut #chris evans x reader smut #chris evans x reader #chris evans headcanons #chris evans headcanon #chris evans oneshot #chris evans one shot #chris evans fanfics #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fic #bucksfucks writes — [♡] ;

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illegal-spiegel · 3 years ago

Text

Spike Spiegel x Medic!reader

Genre: fluff, crack? Warnings: mention of getting shot, wounds, blood, surgery, etc.

you two meet bc Spike may or may not have accidentally shot you

listen, it’s not his fault, okay!!!

you just came out of nowhere and got in the line of his bullet...

anyway, he carried you all the way to the Bebop after you passed out to have Jet heal you back to health just for you to wake up when you arrive and start demanding for all these materials

and look, Spike has seen a lot of badass things in his day (mainly from himself)

but never has he seen anyone perform surgery on themselves to get a bullet out of their leg

yeah, he kinda fell in love on the spot (but shh, no one can know okay so you didn’t hear it from me)

after you’re all done patching yourself up, Spike and Jet are kinda just gaping at you like a couple of fish

“What? Haven’t you ever seen a bullet wound before?” you snap, unaware of why they are so shocked

didn’t that hurt???

apparently, it wasn’t the first time you had ever been shot and it likely wouldn’t be the last (especially with Spike around)

Jet immediately recruits you onto the Bebop after that, to Spike’s dismay and joy

you decline at first, explaining that you just got out of med school and you want an actual job

Jet explains what they do though and you like to hear that they help people just like you do, but in a different way

it’s admirable that they’re putting their lives on the line every day to save people

(”That’s not why we do it. We do it f-” “For the money. Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, softie.” “I am not a softie.” “Whatever you say, Spike.”)

after getting all your things from home, you three, plus the very cute dog that you didn’t know they had, take off to do some bounty hunting

Spike does his bounty hunting like normal, causing chaos and havoc just like he did when he ended up shooting you by accident

he, luckily, doesn’t shoot anyone else besides bad guys though

he does, however, come back quite often with his own bullet wounds, limps, scraps, bruises, and the list goes on

each and every time though, you just patch him up with a shake of your head and a small smile

the first time it happened though, you couldn’t help but to raise your brow up at him and let out a light chuckle

"Damn. You really oughta take care of yourself better,” you tease him

he just grumbles and rolls his eyes at you as he lays down on the medic table

“Just shut up and get to work, would ya? I’m bleeding out here.”

“Well, that’s not a very nice way of asking for someone’s help.”

“Why you-”

“You know, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ can get you a long way,” you continue to tease, taking your sweet time in getting your med gear ready

“For the love of-” he starts before cutting himself off with a hiss when he moves wrong and his wounds start stinging more “Okay, okay! I’m sorry! Jeez, can you just—ugh, can you please just patch me up already?”

you sigh at his terrible way of asking nicely but wheel your chair over to him and start getting to work anyway

“You’re really bad at that,” you comment after working on one of his wounds

he simply grunts in return and keeps his eyes closed

“How about you take me out after you’re all healed up?”

this causes him to open his eyes

“Like...like with a gun or on a date?”

“Spike, oh my god. I meant on a date, you dumbass!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know what you meant!”

“I think it was fairly obvious!”

you two go back and forth until you’re done cleaning him up, but in the end, he yells at you that he’ll take you somewhere so nice it’ll ‘knock your socks off!’ so you ‘better be ready to be wowed!’

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

MASTERLIST

More with Spike Spiegel

Join my discord: https://discord.gg/qnDxJ6rr67

Tag List: @sunflowersenshi, @strawberyydreamz, @nojamsss03, & @katsuhera ✦ if you would like to be added or removed, comment or send an ask. Also, remember to tell me if you ever change your username so I can continue to tag you :)

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

#spike spiegel x reader #spike spiegel #cowboy bebop #cowboy bebop x reader #cowboy bebop spike #spike #cowboy bebop spike spiegel #cowboy bebop fluff #spike spiegel fluff #spike spiegel x reader fluff #cowboy bebop x reader fluff

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outerbankies · 4 years ago

Note

LITTLE BLURB YES PLS!

only since you said please!

(disclaimer: this takes place during part 5 but in this version they went to topper’s, not griffin’s after midsummers. don't put too much stock into any of this—esp john b's appearance at the end—it's not important for the plot at the end of part 5, promise. just a scene i liked before i kinda changed the direction of the end of the part and had to delete stuff + rework some logistics.)

new light blurb: afterglow — rafe cameron

warnings: drinking, swearing, mentions of sex (minors dni)

“Times’it?” Rafe asks from his spot on your chest, his morning voice cracking from misuse and sending vibrations through your entire torso. “Hm?” You mumble, blindly running a hand through his hair. Your sleep-addled mind could still make out that your boyfriend smelled like chlorine.

“Time?” he reiterates.

You hum noncommittally, cracking just one eye open to search for your phone in the sheets. You can’t resist scratching a hand across his abs as you do, giggling when the muscles jump at your touch. You finally find your phone under your hip, only to discover a black screen when you try to power it on. “It’s dead.” “What would you do without me?” he chides, rolling over out of your hold to check his phone on the night stand, stopping his army crawl up the bed to give you a peck as he goes. He pulls his phone off of his charger. “Damn.” “What time is it?” You plaster yourself to his back, burrowing your face into the back of his warm neck and placing a kiss there. “Nearly noon, party girl,” he coos, plugging your phone in for you when you hand it to him and turning back over. You fall onto his chest, humming when he runs a hand through your hair. “We have to meet my sister and her boyfriend in an hour.” “Tell them to pick us up,” you whine. “And bring us coffee.” “Top said he had coffee delivered earlier. It’s in the kitchen,” he says, scrolling through the missed notifications on his phone. You hold your hand out for it, opening his Snapchat camera to check your appearance once he gives it to you. You gasp. “Oh god, I slept with my makeup on,” you groan, seeing your mascara had gathered in smears and bits under your eyes. You send a snapchat to Topper, typing out ‘please tell me you have makeup wipes.’ Rafe snatches his phone back out of your hand, saving the photo to his camera roll before he sends it for you, laughing maniacally as you whine. “I look like a panda.” “Mm,” he murmurs, setting his phone back down on the nightstand and snuggling down into the covers, arms circling in a vice grip around your waist. He assesses you one more time before letting his eyes shut again, pressing a long kiss to your forehead then resting his cheek against it. “Or maybe a raccoon. A cute one though.” “Nice save.” “I try,” he murmurs, cracking his eyes back open, looking down at you again, leaving it up to you to make that last move. You do, thumb on his chin angling him down at a good angle for you to kiss him. Rafe makes a pleased noise into your mouth, already shifting to lay on top of you, the arm that’s not holding his weight over you sliding under your back, fingers skimming underneath the back of your shirt—his shirt. There’s a knock on your door, a worse for wear looking Topper Thornton appearing in the doorway. “Hey, watch it bro,” Rafe admonishes, shifting off of you and making sure the duvet is covering you. “She’s not dressed.” “Chill, Rafe.” “Sorry, Y/n/n,” Topper says, but you just wave him off. He staggers into the room with a packet of makeup wipes, handing them off to you then promptly flopping down at the foot of the bed after you pat it, not unlike how you summon Wilbur. “I’d say I died and came back to life, but I think I just died.” “Me too, bud,” you sigh, started to scrape as much makeup as you can off your face. “Top, these are bougie.” “Did Blythe leave them here?” Rafe teases. Topper wouldn’t stop talking about this girl from his school that came to visit him a few weeks ago, and Rafe kept ribbing him for it every chance he could. “They’re my mom’s,” Topper mumbles, face down in the bed. “Fuck you.” “Down bad. Where’s Kelce?” “Last I knew, passed out in the tub down the hall.” Rafe laughs, pulling you closer to him, still making sure the covers are up to your waist. He pulls your shirt closer together where the buttons were undone. “Topper, close your eyes. I’m getting out of bed.” “I don’t think I could open them if I wanted to.” “She told you to close them,” Rafe says, kicking him from under the covers. “Ugh, you two make me sick,” he mutters, still moving to cover his eyes with his hand. “There.” “Thanks bestie,” you say, hopping out of bed to throw away your used makeup wipe. You hear a crash from down the hall as you settle back into bed. “Is that Kelce?” Rafe asks. “Kelce is dead,” a voice says from the doorway. Kelce is wearing sunglasses, his pink suit jacket from

Midsummers still on, but not much else underneath. “I am a new person. One that is never drinking again.” “Wait,” Topper says, resting up on his forearms suddenly, looking down at the covers under him, then to Rafe, shirtless, and you, wearing his dress shirt. Your dress, probably still damp from the night before, hangs over the shower rod in the en suite. “Please don’t tell me you guys had sex in my guest bed.” You blush, immediately denying it. “No, of course—” “Might wanna tip your maids extra,” Rafe cuts you off, laughing when you hide under the covers. He stops when you kick him in the shin. Topper fake wretches, making Kelce actually wretch before he runs down the hall. —

You’re whining about the bruise Rafe left on your hip, which your yellow bikini bottom strap so conveniently dug into, when John B steers the Druthers up to Topper’s dock. Rafe hops on first, helping you after him, tugging your t-shirt—which was actually his undershirt from last night—down further for you, even though it’s already brushing the tops of your thighs. He can’t resist the urge to press on the bruise with his thumb, grinning when you suck in air through your teeth. “You’ll be fine. Don’t act like you didn’t like it.” You push him away from your ear, trying to suppress a shiver. You can’t even remember if it was from his hand or his mouth. “Sarah!” you greet, leaving Rafe to follow behind you. It isn’t long before he’s smacking John B’s hands away from the steer, taking his rightful spot. He looks silly wearing one of Topper’s shirts, stretched a bit too tightly around his bigger build, the hemline falling a bit too high on his stomach. You’d offered to wear it instead so he could have his own shirt back; he didn’t take kindly to it, huffing and forcing Topper’s shirt over his shoulders. You even think you heard a seem rip. “Hey, Y/n,” Sarah says, hugging you and offering you a White Claw. You politely decline and she giggles. “Rough night?” You just shake your head, settling into Rafe’s side where he’s driving the boat. John B keeps trying to touch things and Rafe smacks his hands away, every single time. “Be nice, Rafe.” “Ooh,” John B says in delight, and Rafe just shakes his head. “Am I making you look bad in front of your girl, Cameron?” You open your mouth to say something, comment on how their relationship had evolved since high school. But Rafe’s admittance of his insecurities last night was still fresh in your mind, and you didn’t want to stir anything back up. You just lean further into his side, squeezing him around the waist. “Watch it, Routledge,” he says, smacking John B in the back of his head. “I’m still your girlfriend’s big brother.”

—

tags: @moniamaybank @downbytheouterbanks @littlementalpolaroids @fangirlvoice @chicagoblackhawkslover96 @amourtentiaa @loveylangdon @oopsiedoopsie23

#rafe #rafe cameron #rafe cameron imagine #outer banks #outer banks imagine #outer banks fanfiction #rafe cameron fanfiction #rafe cameron fanfic #outer banks netflix #she writes #rafe x you #rafe x y/n #rafe x reader #this is fun #i cut so much shit like mainly straight fluff so maybe i'll post them as blurbs more

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lilysdaydreams · 4 years ago

Text

Praise Bingus (No fucking way)

→ I do not claim to know corpse- therefore please don't think that this is what he would actually act like, or that any details about his life are actually true. this is fiction.

→ Pairing: Corpse Husband X Fem!Reader

→ Genre: Angst and fluff. (FLUFF IS COMING I SWEAR)

→ Words: 3.9k

→ In a world where everyone is born with a mark on their wrist, two souls come together over the power of bingus.

→ (this isnt crack lol)

→ Warnings: Lots of swearing, um self-depreciation? rejection (kinda) and negative thoughts overall. Sorry im new to warnings.

→ Authors Note: this is the first time im doing like angst so please tell me if I did well? Um also, I’ve already started on the part 2 so keep your eyes out for that. If you wanna be tagged for part two please comment and lemme know. Also check out my other fics if you want!

→ Buy me a coffee

Part two →

~~~

Soulmates were a phenomenon. They'd been there for ages, drawn into the Egyptian tomb paintings, seen in the cave paintings from millions of years ago, talked about in stories passed down from generation to generation. They could be matching drawings, first words, names; all black before the soulmates met and turning gold the moment they talked to each other. There wasn't a scientist in the world who could explain the phenomenon.

You'd received your mark at birth just like everyone else, a sentence running around your wrist,

"No fucking way."

Your parents weren't that happy when you asked at the age of 4 what "fucking" meant but it wasn't that bad. You were happy that you had something unique, something other than the "Hi," or "Excuse me," that was on every other arm.

When you were 13, a little girl on the train pointed to your wrist and asked her mom what it meant. Ever since then, you'd taken to wearing bracelets over it. This had turned out to be a good idea because a few years later you started making Youtube videos. At the age of 16, you started a Youtube channel where you focused on a variety of things; makeup, fashion, games, art, skits and a whole lot more.

At the age of 20, you had a steady following of a little more than a million subscribers, and you had moved to LA to be closer to all your Youtube friends. You hadn't just grown on Youtube, you'd also started a lot of side projects. You were known for the art that you did on the side, along with the makeup palette you'd come out with a year ago. Soon you were planning to release a merch collection, one that you had been working on for a whole year now.

You hadn't met your soulmate at this point but honestly, you didn't really mind. Balancing Youtube and study (along with all your other side projects) was hard. There was no need to add the struggle of love into it... Or that's what you told yourself anyways.

There were days though, days where you wished you had someone to hug, someone to cuddle in bed with, someone to go on long walks with. You didn't let yourself wallow on it that long though. Crying about it was gonna do absolutely nothing.

It started on a rainy day. The story of you and him. You were editing your soon to be uploaded video, an e-girl outfits lookbook, which had been requested by your followers. Your personal style was all over the place and your previous soft girl and cottage care look books had done well, so you decided to continue the series.

You eyes blurred as you looked at the same point of the video, and you sighed, removing your glasses and rubbing your eyes. Your editor was sick and had let you know that they wouldn't be able to edit it by the deadline so here you were, editing it yourself. You stretched in your chair letting out a yawn. You were contemplating on whether to make coffee or not when your phone pinged.

"Nooooo" you whined when you noticed it was on the coffee table that was just a little out of your reach. Stretching your foot out, you tried to grab it between your toes and then sighed when the phone fell.

"I have zero luck, I swear" you muttered to yourself, bending to pick up the phone.

The text was from Rae, asking you to join a game of Among Us. You and Rae had been friends for a bit now, which all started when she came across your art and decided to order something from you. You had chatted and clicked immediately, immediately becoming fast friends. Ever since the lockdown started, she often asked you to join in on Among us games and your friendship had really grown over these past few months.

You sent a quick "sure!" and then went to your table, waiting for the PC to turn on. Quickly tweeting out that you were streaming, you opened up Youtube and turned on the stream, saying a quick hello and letting them know what you'd be doing.

"Rae just invited me guys, I don't really know who's there," you mumbled, replying to a comment asking you who you were playing with.

You squinted your eyes, joining the voice chat and then opening your phone camera to quickly check that you didn't look horrible. Sure you didn't really care about how you looked but it was always good to check that you didn't have anything stuck between your teeth before you turned on the camera.

There was already a conversation going on, between who you thought was Corpse and Sykkuno, judging by their voices.

"Yeah I could totally do that. Get a cat and name it Bingus. I wonder if th-"

You gasped when you heard what they were talking about and unmuted yourself immediately yelling "PRAISE LORD BINGUS" and effectively shocking everyone in the chat.

A moment of silence and then Rae yelled: "OH MY FUCKING GOD Y/N, YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME."

You giggled as everyone groaned and whined, saying hi as they realised who it was. You had played with Sykkuno and the others a few times before but you'd never met Corpse before. You'd heard his voice though, as he was trending on twitter constantly over the past few weeks. Once they all quietened down, you realised Corpse hadn't said anything. Since you knew everyone else in the lobby, you introduced yourself, wondering if you'd scared him a bit too hard.

"Hey Corpse, I'm Y/N from Y/C/N, its so nice to finally meet you," you said gritting your teeth at you awkward introduction. For a second there was no response and then three words were said that made your jaw drop to the floor.

"No fucking way"

He had whispered it, obviously still in shock, and your eyes widened in surprise as a tingle spread all over your body. So this was what everyone meant by "you'll just know," when you asked them about how you would recognize your soulmate.

"Holy shit" you thought frozen in your seat.

Never had you been more glad that you hadn't turned the camera on yet.

"Uhhhh-" you started, but stopped now knowing what to say.

What the fuck were you supposed to do now.

"Wha- Whats wrong?" Rae asked after a moment passed.

Corpse cleared his throat and started "Its um, shes my -" and you cut him off, heart beating in your chest.

"Nothing. Its nothing." you said talking over him. "Who else are we waiting for Rae?" you asked joining the lobby quickly and choosing red as your colour.

"Uh one more person," she said slowly, still a bit confused.

"Oh awesome!" you said fake enthusiasm prevalent in your voice. "So Sykkuno," you started, wanting to keep the conversation going. "How's Bimbus doing?"

Sykkuno launched into a story of Bimbus and you blew out a sigh of relief, mind still numb over the revelation.

Corpse was your soulmate.

The guy who had literally went viral the past few weeks was your soulmate.

You'd finally found him.

You heard Rae cut Sykkuno off, telling everyone she was starting the game and muttered a "Thank god" when the words "CREWMATE" appeared on your screen. You would not have been able to play imposter at the moment, your mind pretty much stuck on the fact that Corpse was your fucking soulmate.

Heading down to admin, you realised you hadn't said anything yet to the stream so you quickly turned on your cam, saying a quick sorry to the viewers.

"Sorry guys, I forgot to put the camera on," you smiled focusing on card swipe.

"I hope everyone's been okay, I know this was quite sudden, but Rae invited me and I was like why not you know," you said rambling as you moved to comms and did the task there.

Lights were called and you moved to electrical, arriving there just as Leslie fixed them. You moved into the back of electrical doing the three tasks you had there when Sykkuno suddenly came in and went straight to standing on top of the vent.

You giggled already knowing his trick.

"Okay guys," you mumbled watching Sykkuno wiggle on the vent. "do we trust Sykkuno or not?"

"You know what," you said making a split second decision. "Its the first game, we might as well."

Joining him on the vent, you stilled for a second and then breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't automatically kill you.

"See, what did I tell you guys huh?" you question smiling straight at the camera. "I knew Sykkuno could be trusted."

You decided to follow Sykkuno going into reactor with him and starting 'Simon says' and just as you were on the last part, a body was found making you let a whine out.

"Guysss," you whined to the camera as Rae started talking about how she had found Daves body in admin.

"Um, I havent been in admin since the start of the game," you said, "also I can clear Sykkuno, for the last part of the round, he's been with me since lights went out."

Sykkuno confirmed it, "Yup that's right, also I can hard clear Y/N cuz guess what? She stood on the vent with me and none of us died."

Everyone chuckled as he said "Thats good enough for me."

"Uh, I was in navigation mostly." said Lily.

"Poki, can I just ask what you were doing?" said Sean, an undercurrent of mirth present.

"Me?" asked Poki speaking for the first time. "What was I doing?"

"You weren't doing any tasks, you were literally just walking from one side of medbay to the other when I peeked in."

Poki started laughing, trying to get her words out at the same time.

"Okay so-" a giggle. "okay okay- I was just, I was trying to um do the beep test," she said finally breaking down and making everyone else laugh as well.

"What the fuck?" you said, laughing at the image in your mind.

"My chat told me to do it last game so I decided to do it now, I was literally just playing around," she said finally, adding "I swear I'm not imposter" at the end.

"Hmmm," you hummed, bringing a hand up to stroke your chin. "Are you sure it was last game Poki... hm...."

Giggling at Poki indignant "YES it was last game", you quickly skipped voting like everyone else as the timer went into the last ten seconds.

Humming a tune under your breath, you went back to reactor, taking a minute to carefully do Simon says and then moved to the other task counting out one two three as you pressed on the numbers. Humming, you moved out of reactor, only to come face to face with Corpse. You paused for a second, and then moved ahead, refusing to show anything on camera. For some reason he followed you as you went to storage, looking at you while you did the trash.

"Why is he just staring?" you mumbled, biting your lip. God, you really didn't wanna think of him right now. You started walking to shields, him still walking with you when lights were called and not a second later a body was reported.

Suddenly there was screaming your ears as Toast and Rae both started accusing each other.

"Wait- Wait WAIT" yelled Poki trying to get them to stop. "What happened?"

"I'll explain" declared Rae, not letting toast get a word in. "We were in navigation okay, me, Toast and Leslie. Lights went out, and suddenly a report buttons there. It's either Toast or someone came in just as lights went out and killed but that doesn't seem likely because I didn't see anyone anywhere near us at all. Anyways I'm fucking telling the truth guys, its Toast, he's the one who did it."

"Toast, do you have anything to say for yourself?" asked Corpse, his voice making your insides shiver.

"Holy shit, this is my soulmate", you thought for the fiftieth time.

"Uh yeah," replied toast. "I didn't do it."

Everyone laughed as he continued.

"Like seriously, I wouldn't do anything like this because it'd be a stupid move from my own part, and I think Raes smart enough to not do this as well. I think someone else came in just as lights went down and killed immediately, which to be honest, was pretty smart of them."

"Okay so I can clear Corpse," you cut in noticing the timer was close. "he was with me in weapons when it happened, he wouldn't have had time to go all the way up, or even vent there because we were literally walking in."

"Yup that's right," confirmed corpse.

"I'm in cafeteria" said Poki.

"Yeah, I saw her on my way to weapons," said Sykkuno, "and I'm in weapons right now,"

"I'm in lower engine" said Sean, and Lily said she was in reactor.

"I think it's Toast," you mumbled and then rose your voice to talk over everyone. "Look okay fine, maybe he said it was a stupid move and he wouldn't do it but maybe he did it for that exact reason. He thought he could get away with it because no one would expect him to do something like that."

As the timer started going down by 10, you voted for Toast and it turned out 3 had skipped the vote while five had voted for him.

damn.

"Guys you actually voted for him?" you said in a high voice, re-enacting one of Sykkunos most said lines.

You heard a "oh for gods sake" from Rae before everyone went silent and you giggled as you moved back down to weapons to do your tasks.

You finished all your tasks and decided to go to security to check where everyone is. Humming as you moved through the electrical hallway, you narrowed your eyes as Corpse came out of electrical and went towards storage. Quickly ducking in you didn't see a body so you headed back out, going into cams and gasping as you saw the body. Reporting immediately you were shocked to see the four kills that had happened. Now only you, Corpse, Sean and Rae were left.

"Oh my god," you mumbled confused. Either there were still two imposters, and Toast wasn't the imposter or the imposter literally killed and did nothing else. Now either that could mean that its definitely Rae if Toast wasn't the imposter, or that it was Corpse as the only imposter left. That was a bit weird though becuase he could have totally killed you at the start of the game. You didn't suspect Sean at all.

"What the fuck?" mumbled Corpse, and Rae made her animal noises expressing her shock.

"Okay," you said taking charge and relaying the kill and your theory to everyone. "So either it was Toast and there's only one other imposter, who is Corpse. Or Toast wasn't an imposter and there's two of them left. I-" you took a deep breath in at the end, very confused. " I don't know anymore,"

"I think its Corpse as well,"

Corpse who hadn't said anything up till this moment suddenly started stammering out "hey-hey uh let-lets not gang up on me okay. It's not-"

"No, wait, its because Y/N said you came out of electrical right, and I saw you in upper engine literally a bit ago and you went down. I went towards cafeteria so I don't know exactly where you went but its totally possible that you killed."

You voted form him after that, convinced it was Corpse, and the other followed quickly.

"Guys what the fuck, at least give me a chance to explain my self" he whined when his body was thrown off the ship seconds later. You cheered when the "VICTORY" sign was displayed across the screen, bringing up your chat and laughing at Toast as he pretended to be angry at me.

"That was a great round, good work Y/N"

"Thankyou" you mumbled staring at your chat. You were confused when you saw the absolute influx of messages on there, and you were barely able to read them because they were going so fast. You scrolled up, and read through the few of the messages;

"You've made corpse sad."

"Corpse has literally been so quite since you came in, can you leave."

"Omg stop with the hate messages, its not her fault if corpse isn't talking to you"

"are you his ex or something? What was that reaction at the start?"

"what did you do? Corpse literally hasn't said a word since you came in."

"Um..."

Corpse POV

Corpses heart stopped for a minute, his breath catching. The words on his wrist glowed gold, and he stared at the little red character standing there.

This person was the reason that he had "PRAISE BINGUS" stretched across his wrist.

They were the only reason that he had searched "Bingus" on google for all of his life. The only reason Corpse knew about the meme before anyone else was because he was constantly monitoring the word online. Ever since March, he had been waiting with bated breath, anxious that he could meet his soulmate at any moment. and here you were.

For some reason, he had never expected that he would meet you in among us, or while he was on stream. He always thought it'd be someone outside. It was a bit stupid in hindsight as all he did nowadays was play among us.

He heard you introduce yourself to him but the only thing that came out of his mouth was “No fucking way”.

Immediately after he wanted to slap himself.

“Idiot” he thought to himself. “At least try to make a good impression.”

When Rae asked what was wrong, heat sprung to his cheeks as he started revealing that they were soulmates, but Y/N cut him off, saying that it was nothing.

Corpse’s heart sank a little then.

'Maybe she’s just a private person,' he reasoned with himself.

'I shouldn’t have tried to say it on stream either. God, I’m a fucking idiot, if I said it, literally everyone would know and not only would I have hated the attention, she probabaly would have as well.'

Convincing himself that she was right, he reassured himself that it wasn’t because of him. She wasn’t revealing it because she probably didn't want all the attention.

For some reason though, his heart sank even more when Y/N didnt talk to him, instead talking to sykkuno about his dog. Like sure he could understand not wanting to reveal they were soulmates but shouldn’t she at least wanna talk to him? At this point he wouldn’t even mind if she talked about his voice like everyone else.

He groaned when the word "Imposter" came across his screen, his and Toasts character standing together. He was not in the right mindset right now to be able to be a good imposter. Breathing in deeply he continued in the game, with the first round passing by quick. The second round, he saw Y/N and stood with her for a bit wondering if he should kill her. Her red character moved to weapons and he sighed moving the mouse over the kill button. Just as he was thinking of clicking a body was found. Corpse swore as Toast flew off the ship. Deciding he needed to speed it up he killed four people in the round, hissing when the meeting was called. The moment Y/N accused him, he knew it was over. He didn't even bother defending himself much, just hoping the game would end soon.

When they were in the lobby, he quickly told everyone that he was going to leave because his internet was acting up. Turning off the stream after saying a quick thank you to everyone, he leaned back in his seat breathing through his nose.

What the fuck was his life.

Even his soulmate didnt want him. Honestly, he should have expected this. Abandoned at 12 with no one around him, why did his expect his soulmate to even give a fuck about him. Tears pricked his eyes and he blinked trying to get rid of them. He breathed in deeply, grabbing the water on the table and taking a big gulp. He had never hated himself more than he did right now. Why couldnt he have an easier life.

“Why cant I just fucking be NORMAL” he yelled throwing the empty bottle of water at the wall.

Throwing himself into bed, he scrunched up his eyes, hoping that sleep would come today, not noticing as his phone lit up with a single message.

Your POV

You stayed for another game and then ducked out apologizing and making an excuse up.

"Sorry it was such a short stream, everyone," you said pouting at the camera. "It was fun though so hopefully I get to do it again." Waving goodbye, you turned off the camera and leaned your head back staring at the ceiling.

What the actual fuck.

Grabbing your phone, you stared at it for a bit. Everything that you had pushed to the back of your mind in the game, was suddenly in the forefront.

The only thing you knew about Corpse was that he had a really deep voice, he narrated horror movies, and he maybe did music?

'Rae mentioned that once right?' you thought to yourself.

You unlocked the phone and then locked it again, too scared to actually do anything.

Unlocked.

Locked.

Unlocked.

Locked.

"Oh get a grip," you muttered to yourself, opening the phone and sending a text to Rae.

‘Hey Rae, do you have corpses number? Do you mind sending it to me, I need to tell him something.’

A reply came in a minute,

‘umm, why. he's pretty private so idk i don't rlly wanna give his number if he doesn't want someone to have it’

You sighed, and decided you might as well tell her. You knew Rae wouldn't betray your trust.

‘He's my soulmate’

Immediately a ‘AHDJHAKJKAGDAK’ came as a reply and you giggled at the string of emojis after it.

‘Don't tell anyone,’ you sent quickly, trying to calm her down.

‘Okay okay, its XXX - XXX - XXXX, ASHAGDH IM DYING OMG. GO TALK TO HIM.’

Biting your lip you added Corpse into your contacts hesitating before putting a small black heart next to his name.

"Already simping," you mumbled under your breath, hands hovering over the keyboard as you struggled to think of what to write.

You finally decided on 'Hey, its Y/N, can I call?' thinking that something short would be the best way to go. Hand hovering over the send button, you sucked in a breath and pressed it, waiting with bated breath.

A minute passed.

And then five.

And then, without you even you realising, it'd been half an hour of you just looking at your phone.

An hour later, you were slumped on your desk, eyes closed and snoring lightly, the phone still open, the message you sent lighting up the screen.

tbc.

#corpse husband #corpse x reader #corpse #corpse husband x reader #corpse x y/n #corpse husband fanfic #corpse fic #sykkuno #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband headcannons #corpse husband one shot #lilydaydreamsfics

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