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imagine-it-to-be-true · 3 years ago

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Fix You - Caius Volturi x FemOC Three Shot: Part 2

Hey guys! So, originally, this story was supposed to be a One-shot. But because of the overwhelming amount of requests I’ve received (thank you so much sweeties, by the way), I’ve decided to make it into a three parter. This is part 2, and the first part can be found on my blog. I’m not sure when I get around to writing part 3 as uni starts back up today, but I’ll try my best not to keep you in suspense for too long. This part is more centred around chaos than romance. Nothing belongs to me (including the GIF) Also, warnings: violence, blood, death.

Andromeda’s POV

The sensations were weird. First, I had been in a lot of pain around my stomach region. I could hardly breathe, let alone express my pain to the handsome-yet-creepy, blonde stranger taking care of me. Though I’m sure he knew. I mean, even I knew I was dying, and he was helpless to save me, so I didn’t bother speaking. I could see the concern in his eyes and hear his sweet whisperings as he stroked my cheeks and wiped away my tears. But these little comforts were not enough to stop the hurt. Then, when I saw him holding a huge syringe, it sent me into panic mode. I never liked needles, not to mention ones which were about to inject unfamiliar liquids into me. But he reassured me it would help, which calmed me down. Not like I could defend myself in that moment anyways. I guess it couldn’t hurt me more. It turned out he was right. After a few minutes, I noticed the pain slowly going away. Maybe it wasn’t the liquid, but the fast-approaching release of death, I wasn’t sure. My cries began to slow, and I could feel more pleasant sensations, such as the pale man stroking my hand with his thumb, gently massaging circles into it. Then, he asked,

“What is your name, omorfiá mou?”

Gasping for air, I attempted to speak,

“Andromeda,” came my whispered reply. With my half-opened eyes, I was able to see his perfect lips draw up in a smile. Focusing on his features, I didn’t even realize that my pain was entirely gone, and I was feeling rather loopy. I watched the man bend down closer to me, brushing my hair back and running his ice-cold knuckles down the side of my neck. Suddenly I felt a sense of vulnerability. I felt his cool breath hitting my ear as he whispered,

“Do not be afraid. You will live forever. You are mine now, and I will never let anything hurt you again.” I was confused and fear began to resurface. I had gotten away from one creep, only to be taken by another. This man scared me to my core. But before I could dwell on my thoughts, I saw him quickly lean down towards my neck, as if he was about to kiss me. That was not what happened.

Indeed, I momentarily felt his cool lips touch the sensitive skin of my neck. But then a sharp pain erupted. Whatever it was that he injected into me was definitely helping. I was aching again, though differently this time. It was a dull, electrifying, fiery sensation, which immediately spread from my neck to my brain, and all the way down to the tips of my toes. My body was on fire, but it was not as intense. If one were to be scratched over and over and over again, pain would increase. This was what I was going through. It was continuous and that was making it worse. An hour had passed, then two, then I lost count. I couldn’t see anything anymore, my vision clouded. Yet I could still hear him. He never seemed to leave. Others would come and go. Time would pass and I would feel needles in my arms. I assume he kept injecting me with whatever it was, which managed my pain; probably morphine. I learned his name was Caius from others who had come in and spoken to him. Caius. What an unusual name. But it fit him.

He had injected so much morphine into me that the dull burning sensation eventually stopped. That, or perhaps I adjusted to it. I could not tell how much time had passed, but by now, it had been a while, for sure. I had given up. If it were not for his constant voice, and feeling of his icy hands touching my own, I would have believed I passed on. But eventually, my vision slowly began to return. I hadn’t felt injections in hours, and no pain returned, which was strange.

The entire time I lay there, presumably dying, I thought of my life. Who would miss me? I had no parents. Both died in a car crash when I was 12. I was in the back seat and miraculously survived. Given no time to adjust to the tragedy, I was immediately placed in a foster home in New Haven, where I experienced endless amounts of bullying. But as with all foster children, my stay was temporary. For the next five years, I bounced from one home to the next. This made me reserved, quiet, and untrusting. I was socially awkward and had very few friends. My main comforts came from the company of animals. Truthfully, I got used to this solitary existence, finding that I expressed myself better through storytelling than the spoken word. In fact, my unfortunate childhood did not impact my standing at school. I was always a good student, and this landed me a fully paid scholarship to NYU where I completed a double degree in journalism and history. The lack of family and friends allowed me to dedicate all my time to my studies and work, which was conducting research for my professor. Then, after graduating, I decided to make a drastic change and start fresh with a move to Europe. For the last two years, I had spent my time travelling several countries and writing articles on historical artifacts, buildings, and churches. I sold my stories to networks as a freelance historical journalist, living alone and moving often from place to place. In fact, Volterra was my last stop in Europe before I planned to relocate to Egypt and focus on Pharaonic history there. Not many of Volterra’s tourists knew about the building I had been photographing, which was off the main street and down an alleyway. It was not glamorous, but historic, which drove me to it. That is where I was and what I was doing when I was suddenly grabbed and dragged into a dark alleyway.

My life had been flashing before my eyes over and over again. I wanted to live. To do better. To be better. I was sick of being alone. So, when my vision began returning, I was filled with motivation to live. Really live. Finally, I could focus my eyes. I stared up at what appeared to be a bed canopy. It was velvet, and dark red in color. To my right, I could sense the smell of burning candles. It was so prominent that it made my nose burn. My hands were balled into fists, grasping the cotton sheets and I could see that I ripped holes in them. How much pain was I in that I ripped a bedsheet with my bare hands? I then noticed something strange. I was not breathing. Since when was I not breathing? This frightened me immensely, and I bolted into an upright sitting position. As I did, the bed violently shook. The canopy swayed as if it would collapse at any second. Did I do this? I’m a weak little girl who couldn’t even fight off a drunk man in an alleyway, how was I doing all this? I heard a sound to my left and immediately snapped my head towards the source. It was a young woman – girl more like it – that I did not recognize. She had strange red eyes, much like my rescuer. But she frightened me more than him. There was a certain evil surrounding her, I could sense it. How, I did not know. All I knew was that she did not wish me well.

“Hello, Andromeda.” She spoke coolly.

I looked at her, suspicion and confusion painted over my face.

“H-how do you know my name?”

“Master Caius told me.”

‘Master?’ that sounded strange. Not something a girl would call a man. What was this, a sex trafficking operation? Before I could speak, she continued.

“He has been by your side. He will return any minute now. He went out hunting for you.” She spoke like an information-giving robot: just spewing facts, unmoving, her expression unchanging.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Hunting… that’s not necessary. I- I don’t eat meat.” Her expression finally changed. Her smirk transformed into a creepy smile, and she let out a laugh.

“Believe me, dear girl. It is not exactly meat he will be returning with.” She turned on her heels and stormed out of the room. Two guards opened the bedroom door for her and shut it as she left. So, they have my room guarded. I guess they aren’t going to let me leave.

I was not in a hurry; I needed to see Caius. Thank him. And ask him how he was able to fix me. Was I remembering correctly that he bit me?! What a strange thing to do. I looked down on my stomach, which was completely injury-free. Then, I reached my hand to the back of my neck, trying to feel any bitemarks there. Nothing. What the hell? I did not understand. I had a lot of questions and needed answers, the most pressing of which was why my throat was on fire. I would have asked the girl, but something in me yelled to keep my distance from her; that she was dangerous. Slowly, I stood up from the bed, noticing that the white dress I had on when I was shot was no longer on me. Instead, I wore a soft, white nightgown, with lace on the collar. It seemed like a typical garment from Tudor England, or something. It was unlike anything I had seen in any mall or shop. Come to think of it, the entire room had a historic, gothic feel to it. The décor resembled a royal palace.

My feet hit the marble floor and I began walking around the room, making my way to the bookshelf. There, a massive assortment of books awaited. However, they were not the typical books one would find in a normal home. These were all historic and ancient. I picked up a copy of the Iliad. Looking at the bindings, I could tell the book was old. More interestingly, it was still written in Homeric Greek – not a language many would be able to read. Whoever this belongs to was most definitely smart.

Suddenly, I felt the burning in my throat worsen. The sensation intensified to the point where I was nearly panicking. Ready to run for the doors and ask the guards for help, I heard footsteps approaching.

The door swung open, and the man… Caius walked in. No longer dying, I could properly admire his features. He looked perfect, truly. Not a single flaw on his face or skin. His nearly white, blonde hair carefully combed back behind his ears. He moved towards where I was sat in an armchair and knelt in front of me. Immediately, I was filled with a calmness. It was like I was home. I cannot describe it completely, but it was as if all problems were erased, and I was safe. This was the second time I managed to judge a person based on feelings, all within the last few minutes. First with the young woman from earlier, and now Caius. Before he could speak, the feeling was gone, and replaced once again with unease and danger, as I watched the young woman reappear, dragging a man by his wrist. Behind her, the guards entered the room and stood on either side of the man. I could feel that he was not dangerous, as the fear was practically radiating off him. The woman stepped behind him and gave him a push towards me.

“Dinner,” she stated coldly. I looked from her to the frightened man, to Caius. I could see annoyance on his face, as he turned to her and spoke.

“Must you, Jane? Do you not know of patience?”

“Forgive me, Master Caius. You were not one to show patience often, and I do learn from you.” She stated simply.

When Caius turned to me, I was grasping my throat, which was burning almost unbearably. “What is happening?!” I choked out.

“I know this will not make sense to you right now, and I will explain everything, I promise. But the only thing that will stop the ache is if you drink blood. You need to drink this man’s blood.” Caius whispered to me, out of earshot of the poor man.

I froze and looked at him with wide eyes, face in complete and utter shock.

“WHAT?! What did you just say?!” I exclaimed, not believing what I heard.

He sighed and leaned in once again, whispering. “In order to save your life from your injuries, I was forced to turn you into a vampire. You need blood, and you need it now. Trust me.” He tried again.

“I WILL NOT! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!” Hastily standing, I pushed him away. My intention was to give him a normal, hard push so that he gets the message. But nothing prepared me for what happened. When I pushed him, he went flying across the room and hitting a marble column, which shattered on impact. Immediately, the room was filled with noise and dust as the column went crashing down around him. I pushed myself into the corner of the room and watched in terror. That impact would have killed an elephant. Yet Caius, simply rose, brushing dust off his blazer and pants. The evil woman – Jane as he called her – appeared emotionless as she turned her attention from Caius to me.

“Fine. More for us then,” she said. What followed, was simply too much for me to handle.

First, I heard Caius yelling, “Jane, NO!” In one swift motion, she tore the frightened man’s throat with her teeth. Blood gushed out from the wound, spilling all over the white marble floor. I screamed in terror. But what was even more terrifying than the poor man’s death, was the smell of his blood. It was driving me crazy. It was like nothing I had ever experienced it. I craved it. Needed it. And was so close to taking it all for myself. But with any remaining strength I had left, I stopped myself. This was not me. I was a vegetarian because I cared for the well-being of animals. There was not a thing in the world which would force me to do anything to harm another living soul. So, I curled up in a ball in my corner and rocked back and forth, trying to focus my senses on anything other than the delicious smell of blood.

“I will deal with you later. Take him and leave, now!” I heard Caius’ voice. “You are not to come here again; you are not to see her! Now go!”

“Yes, Master Caius.” I heard her disgusting, venomous voice once again as she left. The doors closed and the room was filled with silence.

I momentarily thought Caius left too, but then I felt the sensation of safety return to me.

“How did I do that?” I ask with a shaking voice.

“You are a new vampire. For the first few weeks, you will be stronger than the rest of us. This will pass, and you will adjust.” He said gently.

I continued hugging my knees and rocking. Caius continued.

“This is not how a newborn should experience the first moments. But Andromeda…” he hesitated, “You need to feed. If you do not, it will only get worse. Your awareness will seize to function, and you will eventually kill more than you would have otherwise.”

With no response from me, Caius reached for my hands, placing his own over them. This woke a rage inside of me. I grasped his wrists and pushed him backwards. His back hit the wall, not as hard this time. I began speaking.

“You did this to me. You made me this… this… monster. This is on you. You should have let me die. Now, because of your selfish need for heroism, I will murder countless others.”

We both rose to our feet. He gently approached me again, saying my name, but I held my hand up to block him. “Get out. I don’t ever want to see you again. I hate you.”

With that, I pushed him towards the direction of the door. He paused,

“Andromeda-”

“GET OUT!” I picked up a glass vase and threw it in his direction, and he finally left. I sat down on the cold marble tiles, pressing my back against the wall, and screamed in agony.

#caius volturi #caius #twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #volturi #volturi imagine #oneshot requests #oneshots #vampire #love #romance #hurt comfort #jane volturi

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tooweirdforyou · 4 years ago

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Hiiiii hope ur doing well❤. I was wondering if i could get Shanks with a female who he leave at the village the same day he leave luffy. And after a few year s/o was done waiting and decided to leave and become a pirate captain of a very dangerous crew with a very high bounty has all three Haki types [ A bout a Billion]. And s/o meets Shanks at the Marineford but s/o is all cold hearted and bitter. She still loves him but would never forgive for leaving her.

Have a good day/night❤❤❤

Shanks With An Old S/O From Years Ago

A/N : Oi, I hope y’all aren’t expecting an angsty ending 😖 no way am I going to do that.

note : originally, I was going to make this two parters, or at least begin with reader and Shanks before he left, but then it’d take even longer and I still have tons of requests to do.. and this is pretty short.

I changed it a bit too—

warning : MARINEFORD SPOILER * also, this is pretty different from the actual scene, I wrote my own scene because I can’t remember nor did I want to search it up.. so it’s my own scene but still contains spoilers!

Summary : Once lovers, now strangers, Shanks meets his significant other once more in a unexpected time and feelings are returned from the past.

Why now?

The old sinking feeling of your heart dropping down to your stomach was enough to make your blood run cold.

The sight of one of the four powerful emperors made you frozen in the spot.

Eyes widened in shock with mixed feelings bubbling up inside you, lips parted but no words could even begin to form. Not with him around, no.

Thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice.

“I think we’ve shed enough blood. Why don’t we end this war?”

Saving the young and brave, pink-haired marine from a tragic death from Akainu, Emperor, Akagami no Shanks had his signature smile present, hand gripping his sword and successfully blocking Akainu’s fist.

“I-It’s Red-Haired Shanks!”

“What is another Emperor doing here?!”

“Emperor, Red Hair Shanks. This war has nothing to do with you. What is your reason for your arrival?” Akainu scowls, raising his fist that was currently boiling with magma.

Shanks takes a small look around to see the damage done from the war that has just occurred, and amidst his scan, his eyes fall onto you.

His eyes turn wide from shock, while yours quickly turned away from him, to avoid his lingering stare and attention from the others.

Before anyone could notice the sudden awkward silence in the air, you began to walk off, your crew following suit.

Clearing his throat, Shanks turns back away, recovering from the shock of seeing you at a place like this before speaking.

“I believe we have had enough of this war. Many lives have been lost. What do you say, Sengoku?” Shanks then pulls a smirk on his face as he pulls back his sword from Akainu and held it out suggestively.

“Unless, you truly would like to continue it?”

Behind Shanks was his entire crew, Beckman smoking, Lucky Rue eating meat, Yasopp with his gun rest on his shoulder, etc.

Sengoku closes his eyes and remained silent before turning away. “We shall call it an end.”

Shanks nods as he sheathes his sword. “Very well. At least allow his family to give him and his son a proper burial as well. It’s the least you could offer.”

Referring to Whitebeard and the fallen Ace, you pause in your tracks after hearing Shanks.

Sengoku ponders for a minute before sighing. “I’ll allow that. But nothing else. Now, leave. Before I find myself a reason to start attacking you now.” Sengoku commands.

With that, the marines began to gather the injured, with the command of Sengoku, whilst the Whitebeard Pirates started to retreat, a few lingering back to recover their fallen people and the now deceased.

“[Name]. What should we do? The war has ended, and Straw Hat Luffy has retreated and being saved by Worst Generation Pirate, Trafalgar Law.” Your first mate reports, walking up to your side.

You look around the navy headquarters, seeing the mass destruction that has been caused and the pained and tearful expressions of the Whitebeard Pirates.

Though relief filled you from the thought of Luffy being saved, the overbearing pain you felt from seeing someone was taking over.

“..We’re done here.. let’s get—“

“[Name].”

That voice.

The familiar voice was nearly enough to make you stop, to think back on the many memories you had with him, to actually wait and see what the man wanted to say.

But you didn’t. You didn’t stop. You kept walking.

“[Name], wait. Can we please talk, for even just a minute?”

Reaching for your wrist, you instinctively tried pulling back but the Emperor’s grip was tight. But almost immediately, he let go and pulled his hands back to his sides.

You look at him, staring at his eyes that were filled with hurt and even the smallest hint of regret.

The sound of a blade un-sheathing from its scabbard interrupted your thoughts and you put a hand out, successfully stopping your first mate from harming the Red-Haired.

“Don’t. You’ll only cause unnecessary trouble.” You tell them, making them exhale and reluctantly turn away.

“What should we do, Cap?”

Exchanging glances with Benn and Yasopp, you receive a nod from the two of them and Benn faces the Red-Haired Pirates.

“Let’s head back to the ship.”

You turn to your own crew and directed your head in the direction of your own vessel. “We shall as well.”

Just as the others began walking, you stop, feeling Shank’s eyes lingering on you, waiting for your answer.

“.... Let’s talk then... we’ll talk on my ship and I’ll take you back to yours afterwards.”

Though you couldn’t see it, you could see the grateful smile that was forming on Shank’s lips as he nods at you. “Thank you.”

... Tension was eating away at the silence.

The two of you sat alone in the office. Your office. You stood behind your desk, next to your chair while Shanks stood in center of the room.

However, fortunately Shanks cut the silence by speaking.

“You’ve grown.”

“I have..”

Nodding once absentmindedly threw Shanks off for a second before he recovered.

“.. you’ve made quite a name for yourself. I’m surprised you became involved with this war though.” Shanks starts and you sigh, turning away.

“Someone had to watch over Luffy. Otherwise he would have gotten himself killed. God knows he needs someone to look after him after the person he idolized so much left him.”

You didn’t mean to start off so blunt and rude right off the bat, but it seemed to slip out.

However, Shanks wasn’t fazed but his expression merely softened and saddened at your words.

“Look..I didn’t have a choice, I-“

“Don’t give me that, you know damn well you perfectly had a choice.”

Shanks stammered for a second before letting out a heavy sigh. “[Name]. You have to understand..”

His gentle tone.

The way his body was striding over to you.

The way he slowly raised a hand to bring to your face.

And the way you just let him do as he pleased.

And you wish you didn’t feel it. But you did.

The same sparks.

You wanted to jump into his arms. Lean into his touch and let him hold you for all the years that went by.

But you couldn’t. You didn’t. You weren’t willing to make the same mistake twice.

You pulled away and pushing his hand aside, you walk around the desk and away from Shanks, arms at your side and practically hugging yourself.

Pain was evident in the two of you.

“Shanks, stop...”

Looking up at Shanks sorrowfully, you feel your chest ache and you knew Shanks did too. He felt the same sparks after all.

He knew he wasn’t the only one who was still having feelings.

“[Name]..” Shanks spoke in a hushed tone, carefully making his way around the desk to go back to you. This time, you didn’t stop him.

“Hey, look at me.. please.”

And you did.

“Believe me when I say this, I have never stopped loving you. You are the only one that has been on my mind all these years. I watched your bounties rise.. I checked in on the news on your growing fame and powerful crew by your side.. there has never been a time where I stopped thinking about you.”

Cupping your cheeks gently, caressing your skin with his thumbs, he leaned closer and closer until your noses touched together.

“I still love you, [Name]..”

He whispers out, staring into the abyss of your [ e/c ] just seconds before closing in on the space between you both.

Pressing his lips to yours, you felt the aching in your heart start to swell and fill it’s emptiness with the tiniest bit of warmth Shanks offered.

And you couldn’t help but kiss him back. Wrapping your arms around him, you let yourself just lean into his hold and all the pain you felt disappeared in seconds. You couldn’t even tell how much you longed to feel his lips against yours once more.

Eventually, you did pull away and look down, but felt Shanks press his forehead against yours and moved his hands down to intertwined them with your hands.

“You felt it too, right?..”

You couldn’t tell if you what you were feeling but regardless, you knew what he meant.

Nodding slowly, you breathe out softly and close your eyes.

“Still.. I can’t do this.. I’m afraid it’ll break again.”

“I promise I’ll fix it enough so it’s unbreakable. This time, I’ll make sure to stick around, and never leave your side again.... what do you say?”

Whether you were going to end up regretting it or not, you just couldn’t let this opportunity slip. Especially knowing Shanks was being genuine on his part.

“Fine.. Don’t ever leave me again.”

Feeling a uncontainable grin spreading across his face, he holds your hand tight and pulls them to his lips to kiss gently before smiling softly at you.

“I’m truly one lucky bastard, if I get another chance from you.”

A/N : hope you liked it and it was okay!! Thanks for requesting!

definitely rushed, I’m losing some motivation, and stressing from school ;-; soo, yeah. I’ll try to keeps these long but I’ll mainly be doing headcannons now ( sadly ) and they might be short.

Thank you for continuing to being supportive of me and I wish you all a great day / night! :)) 🤍

#tooweirdforyou #one piece #one piece x reader #op x reader #x reader #op #akagami no shanks #red haired shanks #shanks #one piece shanks #shanks x reader #red haired pirates

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boxboysandotherwhump · 4 years ago

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Jake guard dog AU

Soooooo after that Jake guard dog au was mentioned on Ash‘s blog months ago it lived rent free in my head and I just had to write a small fanfic about this.

This will be two parter :3 have fun with part one :3

Thank you so much @ashintheairlikesnow for letting me write your wonderful characters :3 <3

„I I I I‘m fine mom. Aunt Nat is is is, is really nice. Every- everyone here is“

Tristan Higgs listened to his mother sigh on the other end of the speaker, fingers tapping a relentless rhythm against the cheap throw away phone pressed close to his ear. The second one in over a month. The second time he heard his mothers voice in 33 days.

„Are you, you you you and dad, dad okay?“

I miss you. Please hurry and get me back.

„Yeah. We are, baby. I talked with him yesterday and he and your uncle are working hard to fix the garden. Everything‘s going to be alright Tris.“

Garden?! You don‘t need to call his stupid job, stupid garden anymore.

Tristan squashed his anger down as best he could, unwilling to waste the few precious seconds he could listen to his mothers voice with his anger, and nodded. Once. Twice. A third time, until he realized that Ronnie couldn‘t see him.

„Okay.“

„Tris,baby I should- we need to hang up now.“

There were tears in his mothers voice. So badly concealed even he could pick them up.

And he hated it.

She had never been anything less than a fierce thunderstorm waiting to come down on whoever was threatening their family but now-

Right now she sounded as lost as Tristan felt and it was all his stupid dads fault. Stupid Paul Higgs with his stupid job. Why couldn‘t he just be a stupid salesman like all the other stupid dads in this stupid stupid stupid world?!

A dull pain sparked up his fingers under the force of his tapping against the wall. If one could still call it that. It was more of rhythmic fingertip punches, in sync with his rocking. The bed he was sitting on creaked under the force of his anger.

„Baby? I love you Tris.“

Words were getting difficult to force past his lips but he had to tell her. Needed her to know before the line went dead for another two weeks.

„Love... you too.“

The call terminated with an impossibly quiet ‚click‘ and an ear-piercingly shrill beep.

He threw the phone against the wall before he could hit the tiny red speaker button.

______________________________________________________________

Tris tiptoed down the stairs hours later. Eyes still red rimmed and cheeks puffy.

„Should I go and get him, Nat? He will miss dinner.“

„Give him some time Antoni. He‘ll come when he‘s ready.“ As if she had sensed him, did Nat turn to the kitchen entrance. Warm brown eyes crinkling with her smile. „Tristan, you‘re right on time. Antoni made piroshki.“

A nervous smile danced around his lips as he felt Antoni‘s eyes settle on him and his fingers tapped gently over his empty stomach.

The food smelled delicious.

„I I I I I- Sorry for for for blocking your, your room all day.“

„You did?“ Antoni turned and fished a plate from a cupboard. Started to load it full of the cheese filled dumplings Tristan had learned to love since a friend of his father had dropped him off at Nat‘s doorstep on that rainy summer night. „I was so caught up in cooking, I did not notice.“

Tris ducked his head and sat down with a sheepish grin.

______________________________________________________________

It was in the dead of night when the doorbell rang. Startling Tris from his fitful nightmare ridden sleep.

There had been blood on their living room wall. Blood and cold skin. She had been so, so terribly cold.

Antoni‘s bed creaked on the other side of their room and Tris could see the shadowy outline of him slowly sitting up.

The night stole parts of his voice away, leaving only a quiet cracking whisper. „What what what is, is going on?“

„A new rescue, I think.“

Both of them listened in quiet anticipation. Tris strained his ears.

Muffled voices came from downstairs. Nat argued with a man but Tris couldn‘t, for the life of him, hear about what.

„You will wait hear.“ Antoni muttered softly and swung his legs over the mattress. Landing soundlessly on bare feet. „I will go and see what is going on.“

The door opened without a sound under Antoni‘s careful hands and he disappeared into the hall.

Tris stared at the thin stripe of faint light illuminating the floorboards. His green round eyes followed it to the door, slightly ajar. The voices were still to faint to make out any words.

He slipped out of his bed. Heart stuck in his throat. Hammering wildly. Like a bird eager to break free.

The door gave the faintest of creaks as Tris sneaked after Antoni.

Guilt for disobeying the man who had taken such gentle care of him since he arrived here and his insatiable curiosity fought in his stomach, twisting it into nauseating knots, but his feet already moved. Making the decision for his mind.

Antoni crouched close to the banister, peering down into the hall, not noticing Tris until he was nearly next to him. He whipped around quiet as he could, fixing Tris with a stern look and gesturing for him to go back to their room.

Tristan hunched his shoulders up to his ears, finger twist and tapp tapp tapping against his leg, but he didn‘t move.

The visitors pleading broke the tension between them. Antoni nodded for Tris to come over, a finger pressed to his lips.

Be silent.

Tris nodded, creeping closer with a barley bitten back smile.

„Nat, none of the other shelters wants to take him. I beg you-“

„Listen I-“ The sigh that followed betrayed Natalie Yoder‘s age. Years of hard work and endless tired nights lingered in her exhale. „Trust me I would love nothing more than to help him, but I can‘t take a half feral guard dog in. Not right now.“

„Yoder please. I know you‘re concerned, hell everybody is, but he‘s really in no condition to give anyone trouble. Not with one leg broken and the other ankle sprained. Please just for a couple days. Until I found him another shelter to stay.“

Tris strained his neck and caught a glimpse of Nat, pinching her nose. Her braid was stuck under a washed out, hastily thrown on flannel.

„He can‘t walk?“

„Not without help or breaking down after three steps, no.“

„What happened?“

„From what I gathered? His owner got tired of him and threw him out a driving car. I found him half delirious down a road side slope. Nearly two days ago. He‘s patched up as best I could but he needs rest, and someone to take care of him. Nat you know I don‘t have the time too-“

„Okay, okay. To hell with it all. Help me get him inside.“

„Has anyone ever told you that you‘re a literal angle Natalie Yoder.“

She followed the stranger with a pained snort. Disappearing into the night.

Just as Antoni gestured for them to go back to their room, did the front door open again.

A blond, giant of a man was half dragged half carried inside. Muscular arms slung over Nat and the stranger‘s shoulders as they helped him get inside, both huffing and grunting under the effort.

Only he remained utterly silent through it all. Even as his bandaged feed took step after ginger step towards the living room.

Tris could see his shoulders tremble, ever so faintly.

When the man suddenly lifted his pale sweaty face.

Chris froze as blue haunted eyes bored into his.

#whump #pet whump #Chris the strawberry blonde romantic #whump writing #guard dog #fanfiction #jake guard dog au #boxboys #box boy #box boy universe #I wrote this literally until 2 in the morning and did bareley any editing #enjoy :P #boxboy whump #antoni indulging in teenage chenanigans

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drabbleoclock · 3 years ago

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Subtlety (Toya Todoroki AU P1)

Ok so this is an AU where Endeavor convinces Toya to give up his dream of becoming a hero so Dabi is never created. Also this is gonna be a two parter because I was inspired by this tik tok but I have not gotten to the part that actually inspired it yet, but this is getting kinda long so i'm just gonna make it a second part.

Anyway, I don't think there are any TWs in here, there are implied spicy times but nothing explicit. It's honestly just cute fluffy Toya.

Ok so I just went back and edited this and Idk why it keeps changing he to I in certain spots?? When I go to edit it and fix it, it is correct so I guess we just gotta live with it.

There were a few times Nozomi thought Toya might really like her. Of course she would never admit that she knew. She recalled his teasing when they had first started seeing each other, his taunts of "Don't fall in love with me now doll." ringing in her head as she caught the way he would look at her when she left after their first few nights together, a look of hidden disappointment.

The first time Nozomi questioned how he felt was when she first met his sister.

She had fallen against his chest, panting lightly, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the light burn marks on his arms. He chuckled, letting his head fall back against the pillows.

"You're way to good at that." He said, notably not taking his hands off of her hips.

"Well practice makes perfect right." She smirked back at him, lifting herself off of the bed and grabbing her clothes off of the floor.

"Hmm, I suppose so. When should we... practice again?" He asked, bending over her to grab his shirt from the floor, brushing his fingers over her hips. She smiled brightly making his heartbeat quicken. He willed it to slow, brushing it off as a result of their previous activity.

"Hmm, my roommate is going out of town next week, maybe you could pay me a visit?" Nozomi suggested pulling her shirt over her head and fixing her hair in the small mirror he had by his door.

"Can't wait, I'll walk you out." Toya smiled, holding the door open for the girl he thought was such a bad ass to walk through.

He had met Nozomi at a concert he had gone to see with some friends that ended up ditching him for some chicks that were smoking outside.

He had seen her across the room, her piercings glinting in the stage lights. She had tattoos up and down her arms that seemed to dance on their own as the girl moved. This confused and intrigued Toya greatly, he had never seen anything like it. He later found out this was an effect of her quirk, letting her tattoos move around her body freely. He gravitated toward the girl all night, not being able to stop himself from looking at her, imagining what she would be like with him. Eventually, after some crafty flirting, he found out.

Then found out a few more times.

"What a gentleman tonight." Nozomi teased placing a hand gently above her heart, pulling Toya out of his memory and walking through the door into the dark hallway.

"I do my best." Toya quipped back, resting his hand on her lower back as they walked to his front door. It was supposed to be a clear shot there, but Fuyumi had other plans.

She had seen the girl with her older brother a few times, more than he had brought any other girl around, and wanted to see what made this girl special to her brother, so she hid in the kitchen until she heard Toya try to sneak her out of the house.

Pretending she had just finished making her almost empty cup of tea, she walked out, feigning surprise as she "accidentally" bumped into the couple.

"Oh hello, you must be Nozomi, Toya has told me about you." Fuyumi said brightly, bowing slightly at the woman in front of her.

Toya groaned in annoyance as he tried to push his fling toward the door.

"Really?" She questioned, holding her ground intrigued by the statement. "All good things I hope."

"Oh yes, he talks about how 'surprisingly cool' you are." Fuyumi told her, quoting the words Toya had shared the other night when asked about the girl.

"You make it sound like I talk about her all the time. I don't." He cut in, pushing the girl harder now, trying to hide his pink cheeks in the dark of the hallway. "And I don't appreciate this ambush Yumi."

"Come on T, I wanna find out just how surprisingly cool I am." Nozomi teased, giving in and let herself be pushed to the door, waving at Fuyumi and laughing at his annoyed face as she went, the door closing quickly behind her with just a quick "see ya" from Toya who refused to let her see his flushed face.

That was the first time she suspected Toya might be catching feelings. Though admittedly a little pissed at the word surprisingly before the word cool in his description of her, she overlooked it not really caring too much what he thought of her. Not yet anyway.

The next time she suspected was a surprise to both of them. Nozomi's roommate had kicked her out of their shared apartment with only her backpack of personal belongings. She would have been fine with this had it not been for the group of thugs hanging around the building. They had taken her bag, wallet, phone, everything she had on her. Everything she had. Plus, to pour salt on the wound, had roughed her up a little when she tried to fight for her belongings.

She had put up a good fight but she was simply outnumbered and the heroes had long forgotten about her little corner of the city, deeming it beyond saving.

Not knowing where else to go, with no family or friends nearby, she went to the Todoroki household. She knocked on the front door, trying her best to get rid of any evidence of tears from her face. Shivering from the cold autumn night, she stood there waiting for anybody to answer the door.

Not much to her surprise, the girl she had met a few weeks ago stood before her. The woman, Fuyumi she remembered, was in a dressing gown, her white hair falling around her shoulders, the streaks of red popping in the moonlight.

Fuyumi was surprised to see the girl, especially in the state she was in. Her hair was a tangled mess, despite her attempts to comb out the knots as she walked, scraps and bruises littering her arms, and a few scraps on her face, a small trail of blood coming from where the small bit of metal went through her eyebrow. Nozomi loved every one of her piercings, but she did have to admit they were a bit of a disadvantage in a fight.

"Oh dear, are you alright? Come in, I'll go get Toya." She said, leading the girl to the living room, guiding her to sit on one of the pillows on the floor. "I'll get the first aid kit as well." Fuyumi muttered already headed down the hall to Toya's bedroom.

Toya had thought Fuyumi was messing with him, telling him his girlfriend was hurt in the living room. He laughed when she had said it, telling her he did not have a girlfriend, that he wasn't the type, but his sister just sighed and put on her best mom voice, demanding that he go into the living room.

So he did, strolling into the living room with his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants, not quite sure what to expect.

It certainly wasn't what he found. While she was definitely not his girlfriend, she was the closest thing he has ever had to one.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asked nonchalantly, taking his hand out of his pocket to motion to her face, an anger forming in his chest that contradicted the calmness of his voice.

"A lot." Nozomi answered, trying to swallow the sobs that threatened the back of her throat. "Let's run through my night. First, Kita kicked me out and I don't she her letting me back in. Then, some assholes tried to take my bag. When I fought back for it they took my phone and smashed it up, leaving me with absolutely nothing to my name, and nowhere to go. And now I'm here, unexpectedly dropping all of this shit on you, someone who has no reason to deal with all of my shit," Nozomi hickuped, letting the tears and the sobs she had been holding in all night out. "I'm so sorry, I just didn't know where else to go." She finished putting her head in her hands, trying not to let him see her in such a fragile state.

Toya didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell her it was fine, that she could stay as long as she needed to, but he knew that if his father found out she was here it... Wouldn't be good. He wanted to hug her, tell her that he would help her figure it out, but his body just stood there unmoving.

Thankfully Fuyumi was back, carrying the first aid kit that was usually stashed in the bathroom. She stopped by Toya, pushing the first aid kit into his hands and giving him a small push toward the crying woman.

"She's your friend so you can clean her up. I'm going back to bed." She said, already walking down the hallway to her room before there could be any protests.

"Right, lets get you cleaned up then." He said, kneeling beside the woman he had seen just a few nights ago. He remembered her smile then, how it made the corners of his own mouth twitch up. It was completely contagious, he wanted to see it now, he imagined how beautiful it would look in the moonlight.

He mentally cursed himself for the thought. Maybe Fuyumi was right, maybe he did like this girl, but now was far from the time to dwell on that.

"I hope you at least got a few good licks in." He joked ,desperate to make her stop crying. He moved her hands from her face and wiped the tears that were falling before bringing a soft, wet cloth to her brow, washing away the blood that had dried there.

"I think I at least broke one nose." Nozomi replied, a playful smile dancing on the corner of her lips. Her face was still sad but there it was, as beautiful as he knew it would be. Toya's cheeks warmed as he tried to focus on cleaning Nozomi's wounds.

"You can stay here, at least for a few days. Endeavor is out of town so it shouldn't be too much of a problem." Was his reply, returning to reality and turning his face into an uncaring mask, the one he always hid behind when faced with new feelings.

"Thank you." Was the only reply he got, Nozomi trying to read why he had suddenly dropped his own beautiful smile as she wrapped herself in a hug, trying to warm herself up.

Nozomi thought she might know why. She knew she was breaking down his walls, knew that he was trying to put them back up around himself, she just didn't know why, not for sure anyway. She figured, in the way he called his father Endeavor, in the way his voice grew darker and more stern when talking about him. It was the way she referenced her own family.

She didn't really want to think about it, and knew he certainly didn't want to talk about it so she just left it alone. It wasn't really her place to poke into his personal life anyway. She was just a booty call after all, well that's what her mind told her anyway. Deep down she knew, knew that something was growing, a bond that would soon be stronger than anything the two of them had ever had.

"Here." Toya said stripping his sweatshirt off (an Endeavor hoodie with crude sharpie marks) and pushing it into her arms. "You're shivering."

"Thank you. For everything." She whispered, bringing the sweatshirt over her head.

"Don't mention it. Now, I'm going to bed. You're welcome to join me of course." He said, getting up and walking back towards his room, Nozomi hot on his heels.

That night they shared a bed together, for the first time just sleeping. Her arms wrapped tightly around him as her head rested on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her shoulders, his other hand resting under his head.

He hardly slept that night. He kept getting distracted by her, the way her mouth fell open slightly, the way she moved when she breathed, everything about her was intoxicating to him, and honestly it terrified him.

#toya todoroki #soft toya #original character #fuyumi todoroki #mha au #bnha au #mha fic #Toya deserves better #get my mans some help #toya fluff #fluff #soft

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doing-all-write · 5 years ago

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don’t be a baby

Pairing: Billy x Reader

Summary: Reader is a nurse who’s brother falls into the Sky Walker crowd. After he gets injured, Billy takes it upon himself to look after Reader’s brother and calm Reader’s nerves as they get ready for their next job. But when the job goes awry and Reader can’t keep Billy safe, how does she cope?

Word Count: 11K

Warnings: Smut (only 18+ interact please!), swearing, blood and softness bc we love two idiots pining over each other but refusing to acknowledge their feelings for each other!!

A/N: I wrote this in a caffeine fueled burst of inspiration after talking to @mrhoemazzello about how much of a baby Billy would be when he gets injured and you have to patch him up and it made me so soft and shoutout to @itsabenthing for helping me flesh out this idea and for always being such a great cheerleader 💖but this bad boy is DEFINITELY going to be a two parter so keep an eye out part two coming soon!

Also the first part of this story takes place before the events of 6Underground and the job they’re planning and go on is the one in the movie just to give everyone some context.

💖💖As always likes, comments and reblogs are always appreciated 💖💖

There was a thump at the window.

She ignored it. It was close to midnight and the idea that someone could be knocking on her (three stories high) window at this time seemed ludicrous. She groaned, shifting in the chair she had curled up in hours ago, reaching out for the sweet release of unconsciousness to claim her before her anxiety kept her up.

She knew Billy was most likely gone. She didn't want to admit it to herself but the relentless loop in her head was a broken record of he's gone he's gone he's gone he's gone.

There was still a part of her that hoped Billy had gotten away unscathed. She had seen him in action, she knew what he was capable of and she sent out a wish that Billy would come running into her apartment like the day he came running into the hospital.

~~~

She had been working in the Emergency Room, taking over a fellow nurses night rotations in exchange for a few extra days off, when a man had limped in, blue eyes frantic, blonde hair damp and smashed to his forehead, carrying what looked like a dummy in a hoodie, both of them covered in dried blood.

She raced around the desk to them, looping the arm of the prone man around her shoulders as she helped steer them to the nearest room. The blonde kept babbling on about how the man between them had hurt himself while they wrestled the man into a bed. Once the unconscious man was laying down, she pulled back the hood obscuring his face and felt her soul leave her body.

Her brother's face was the one staring back at her.

Now is not the time. Pull it together. You know what to do. Her Nurse Brain kicked in and she shoved the blonde to the side as she hastily started taking care of her brother. Once he had been stabilized and diagnosed with nothing more than a nasty bump on the head, a broken ankle and a badly bloodied nose, she had shoved the shadow who had been following her around into the hallway, crowding him into the supply closet and demanding answers.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Oh, careful there, love. You keep talking dirty to me like that and I'll fall in love with you."

"Why the fuck were you with my brother?"

"Taking him out on a date because he spoke to me with the same dirty mouth you both share apparently."

He was obstinate, shifting between smart ass answers and flirting as she tried to get any scrap of information from him. She finally hit her limit and spat out, "He's my fucking brother and if you don't tell me what happened, I'll assume it was you and have you thrown in jail. I don't give a fuck about you," She had jabbed a finger into his chest and he winced, "but I do give a fuck about my family."

Her Nurse Brain activated again when she saw him wince. Eyes zipping over him, assessing, she took in his bloodied face and hands. "Unzip your hoodie."

"Interesting. I'd always heard that angry sex was the best. Can't believe I'm gonna find out if that's true in this supply closet."

Rolling her eyes, she'd batted his hands away as he tried to prevent her from unzipping his hoodie. Fixing him with her if you don't let me do my fucking job I'll kill you and make it look like an accident stare, he had held his hands up in surrender.

Metallic ticks were the only noise as she pulled the zipper down, revealing the red tank top underneath.

"Wait, was this originally white?"

A huff of breath was the only answer she received before she pulled him back into the room with her brother, patching him up while she kept up a running commentary of grumbling about how he had endangered not only her own brother but also himself.

"I mean, what kind of stupid, reckless, idiot would do something like that! Jesus, you see one too many Marvel movies and think, 'hmm, that looks easy. I can do that too!' I mean honestly."

Her monologue was interrupted by the feel of a rough palm grasping her forearm. It seemed like trying to get the next words out were more painful than sustaining the injuries he had already taken that night, "I was protecting him. He works with our crew well and I told him not to come with us but he insisted. Said he needed these jobs so he could help his little sister pay off her student loans."

That had shut her up.

~~~

He didn't remember falling asleep but he stirred as he felt his arm being moved.

"It's okay, it's just me."

"I'm sorry, I don't know a 'me'. I only know the hard ass nurse who I had incredible sexual chemistry with." He heard her huff out a breath, could almost hear her eyes rolling as well. Her fingers were gentle as she made sure the IV drip in his arm was still firmly in place. She saw his lips quirk and rolled her eyes, again, "Go back to sleep. I like you more when you're unconscious."

"Great bedside manner you have there, sweetheart. You got a name?"

There was silence, then, "It's (Y/N)."

He sighed, "Well, (Y/N), it's nice to meet you. I'm Billy, and that guy in the opposite bed? That's Mark. Though I'm assuming you two already know each other since you're related and all."

"If you weren't in a hospital bed, I'd smack you."

"There's that bedside manner that keeps the patients coming back."

~~~

Billy didn't remember when he drifted off again but when he came to, the light on the other side of his eyelids was the dull yellow of the beginning rays of sunlight welcoming another morning. Eyelids fluttering open, Billy had seen her, curled up in a hospital chair right by Mark's bed, hand cupping her brother's as their chests rose and fell in tandem. Feeling like he was encroaching on a private moment, he closed his eyes again, praying that the tear he felt running down his cheek would dry before either of them would wake up.

~~~

"Hey. (Y/N). Wake up. C'mon. I've got him from here, go home and shower. Grab some food."

Her eyelids flickered open and a groan came flying out of her mouth as she slowly started rolling her neck around. As she did so, she couldn't help her eyes from straying to the bed across the room. But it was empty.

~~~

Her brother had been discharged the next day and she'd been keeping a close eye on him since. A few days later, she kicked open the door of his apartment, yelling out a greeting as she tried to balance the two large tote bags of food, games and movies she had brought over to help keep him entertained and fed as he healed up.

"I know you're a purist when it comes to Star Trek but I brought over the reboots because one, Chris Pine is very easy on the eyes and two, Star Trek is Star Trek I mean, as long as someone says 'live long and prosper' you're good, right?"

Her voice trailed off as she padded into his living room only to be met with four pairs of eyes staring back at her. Everyone, including her brother, was wearing black athletic clothes making them look a bit like a goth gymnastics team, she felt like a toddler amongst them in her over-sized sweater and leggings.

Her eyes sought out her brother's in hopes he would explain. Mark's eyes pleaded with her to be understanding and it wasn't until she heard someone clear their throat that she realized she recognized the blue eyes staring back at her,

"I'll, uh, I'll just come help you unpack those bags. Okay, love?" The steel cutting along the edge of his words gave her no time to argue as she felt Billy's large hand pressing into her lower back as he shoved her into the kitchen.

Tripping over her feet, she flung the Star Trek DVD back onto the counter as she rounded on Billy.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" the words were pulverized through her clenched teeth. Her hands curled into fists to prevent them from shaking. She was terrified that these people were back in her brother's life, and only a few days after he had left the hospital because of their recklessness.

"It's so lovely to see you too! I missed you and your warm bedside manner so much darling." He snarled back as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Now is not the time. Last time you showed up in my life you almost got my brother killed. You better explain yourself now or I'm grabbing the broom and beating everyone in that room out the door and then breaking the broom over your head personally."

Blue eyes widened till she could see the whites all the way around them, "How are you allowed to take care of people? You should be locked up by the pigs not me." He swiveled around, grabbing a beer from the fridge and popping the top off by putting the lid of the bottle against the rim of the counter and hitting it with the heel of his hand.

Peering out of the corner of his eye he saw her eyes widen, a flush building in her cheeks. She hated how that simple action had sent a flash of warmth through her.

Smirking, he turned back to her, bringing the bottle to his lips, taking a long sip as she shook herself from thinking about what other things Billy could do with his hands.

So maybe she had noticed how handsome he was after he had fallen asleep in the hospital. She was only human.

"While I'm so glad you're enjoying my brothers hospitality, maybe you could dignify me with an answer?" She knew the sarcasm dripping from every word was poisonous but she couldn't help herself. Just because she had seen dried tear tracks on Billy's face when she had woken up to check on him in the cool dawn morning and, alright, maybe she had checked the medical records in the hospital for information on him ("It's like Facebook stalking!" her voice rising as she quickly tried to close his records after her co-worker called her out on it.) and maybe her heart had twisted in on itself when she woke up the next morning and he was gone and maybe she had spent a few thousand hours thinking about him and wondering if she would ever see him again didn't mean she wanted him in her life.

Right?

Sighing, Billy leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms as the bottle dangled between two long fingers, "We're planning another job and we asked your brother to do surveillance. All he'll be doing is sitting on that couch," he closed one eye, pointing towards the sofa Mark was currently residing at, "watching security cameras and making sure none of us get caught and warning us of any potential baddies around the corner. It's easy, it's harmless and you could even be sitting next to him babysitting if you're really that concerned about my safety."

Rolling her eyes, she stepped forward to start unpacking the bags, needing something to do with her hands and eyes. Looking right at Billy was like staring at the sun. She feared looking at him for too long would result in permanent damage from his eyes boring into hers, or that the fluttering in her stomach would get stronger the more she talked to him.

She'd be lying if she said she hadn't seen the group Billy ran with around the city. Walking along, earbuds in, minding her own business, she'd hear a thud, look up and instead of squirrels scampering along the telephone wires, it would be people. Executing flips, yelling, jeering, she'd watch in awe while Nurse Brain would be calculating what kind of injuries they'd sustain and how bad said injuries would be if they fell, but they never did.

They looked more comfortable walking in the sky than on the ground. They were flying. Confident. So sure that there would be something there to catch them. She had started calling them "Sky Walkers."

Every time she saw them from then on, she always had an ache in her heart for the rest of the day. She craved the security and confidence they had. She'd looked down at her feet encased in Nike's, cursing them for staying ground to the tiled floor of the hospital.

"All I know is, last time my brother got mixed up with you guys, he showed up at my hospital, bloody and unconscious." Her shoulders hunched forward as anger drained from her body thinking about how frightened she had been. "Can you blame me for being scared?"

This last sentence was almost missed by Billy. But seeing her look so defeated, Billy's heartstrings tugged. Mark talked about his sister a lot. It was clear they took care of each other. He had always wondered what it would have been like to have that consistency.

Placing Tupperware on the kitchen table, the silence stretched out as Billy sized her up. Finally, her eyes rose, meeting his underneath the harsh fluorescent light. The eyes staring into hers were calculating but not cold. They weren't the eyes of a doctor, sizing up a patient and only seeing a maze of veins, arteries and organs that with the right snip or stitch could be fixed. His was a gaze that peeled back the layers of skin and bone, seeing right into the most vulnerable parts of yourself.

"You've noticed that your loans are almost entirely paid off. Haven't you." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Billy had been the one to walk Mark through the steps to help pay off her loans without it being suspicious. He had heard her on the other end of the line when she called to tell Mark how much her loans had gone down. The voice on the other end high-pitched, tinny, but the love between them so palpable he had to leave the room.

Her eyes darted down as she busied herself carrying Tupperware over to the fridge, her hair a curtain over her profile as she leaned down to place it in the fridge. "He loves you, you know. A lot. That's the only reason he took the gig." He took a sip of beer, watching her frame, way too still to not be listening, peering into the fridge but not seeing anything. "He's friends with Jean, the mastermind, out there and when he complained about how unfair it was of you to have so many loans, Jean offered him a cut of the benefits if he helped us with the job."

She didn't feel the coolness of the fridge air wafting over her, she felt nothing but enormous guilt. She was the reason he had been injured. That he was mixed up in this crowd. She was the reason he was putting himself in harms way and if he died? It would be all her fault.

Billy, chuckled to himself as she was gripped in the throes of an existential crisis, "Jean's a good guy but I think he mainly knew having a nurse in our good graces would be immeasurably helpful."

His eyes widened as she turned to face him, flecks of mascara caught in the tears moving down her face but she didn't seem to notice them streaking down. It seemed like she barely noticed him, "You have to keep an eye on him. Please. If anything happens to him-because of me-I-I don't..." her voice trailed off.

Billy crouched down, cupping her shoulders as he pressed his forehead into hers, "Hey. Hey, love. Love? Look at me, focus on my voice, okay?" He pulled back so he could look into both of her eyes. With enormous effort she pulled herself back to this moment, in her brothers kitchen, crouched on the floor with a Sky Walker. "I'll keep an eye on him. He's one of us now. We look after our own, got it? We always do." She nodded, searching his eyes for any sign of lying but there was none. Just warm, blue skies, promising her that from then on out, everything would be fine.

After their rendezvous in the kitchen, Billy had gone back to the living room to plan while she had splashed cold water on her face and pulled herself together. By the time she slunk out of the kitchen, arms wrapped around herself, everyone was leaving and Billy had his arm around a brunette girl who reeked of sexual experience and danger.

She was pretty sure she reeked of "Christmas Cookie" hand sanitizer and sexual frustration.

Billy caught her eye as he strolled out of the room, winking at her as he walked past.

Her heart caught in her throat at the action but remembered how his girlfriend was someone who flew through the air with enormous ease and she was someone who was locked on the ground.

Patching her brother up came easy to her. She wished it had been the first time she had fixed him up but that would be a lie. She went over to his apartment a few times a week. Sometimes the other Sky Walker's would be there, sometimes not. Most of the time if they were over, they spent their time planning the next big heist. Maps and blueprints covered every available surface and surveillance footage became a comforting background noise as she would prep dinner or check Mark's ankle and help him do physical therapy.

Sometimes it would just be Jean hanging out, playing video games with Mark. The first dinner he joined them for, she found she could barely look at him. The resentment towards him still a solid rock in her stomach.

A few meals later, Jean gently tugged her into the living room after she had gotten Mark set up in bed, "Alright. I know why you won't look at me. Let me have it."

He had sat on the couch for over an hour, hands folded in his lap, nodding as she ripped him a new one, getting out all of her fear and anger. Once she had run out of steam and was standing in front of him, he had taken her hands in his, making the same promise Billy had. That Mark was one of their own now. He would do everything he could to take care of him. The eyes peering back up at her were full of nothing but sincerity.

Glancing down, she sniffled, peering at their hands intertwined, "You have questionable tattoos." Jean barked out a laugh, "You think mine are bad? You should see some of Billy's."

From then on, she looked forward to having the Sky Walker's around. Whenever she entered Mark's apartment in the weeks leading up to the mission, her heart would speed up in anticipation.

Sometimes it would come crashing to the ground when she saw no sign of Billy. Other times, she was positive individuals could see her heart beating through her shirt when her eyes caught his from across the room.

The only downer was, if Billy was there, that usually meant his girlfriend, Cassandra, was there as well.

She had tried, a valiant effort in her opinion, to make nice with her. Most of the time, they were the only girls around. Working to find common ground with Cassandra was proving to be a difficult task, mainly because Cassandra would fix her with a blank stare until she slunk back into the kitchen to restock Mark's fridge.

The last straw for her had been when she had walked into Mark's apartment, yelling hello only to look up and see Cassandra fixing her with a blank stare and sharpening a knife

She quickly found that anyone who carried their own knife sharpening kit was someone she didn't particularly trust. It made her nervous then, that Billy did so much.

But she didn't want to interfere. She didn't want to think about all the lethal ways Cassandra could injure her with that blade if she found out she had meddled in her relationship.

When Billy was there, she could hardly stop the grin that threatened to split her face as she busied herself in the kitchen making food for everyone, jumping every time someone came into the kitchen, waiting for Billy to come in under the guise of getting a beverage but always stopping to chat with her.

Those stolen minutes in the kitchen with Billy were quickly becoming her favorite times.

She hadn't meant to develop a crush on Billy, but, how could she not? Other than the physical reasons, (she had once seen him take his shirt off to try on a new one and she almost dropped a whole bowl of soup into Mark's lap) he was genuine. Ever since he had looked into her eyes and promised to take care of her brother, he had kept that promise.

When plans would change, he'd come into the kitchen and update her. He'd tell her all the different contingency plans they had. And while she knew her brother wasn't going on this mission, she still felt a sense of peace wash over her as he walked her through the plan.

There was one night she asked him, "How did you even get into the Sky Walker stuff?" Coughing on the sip of beer he'd just downed, he made a choking noise, "The what stuff?"

Blushing, she realized she had let slip the private name she had called them ever since she first saw them leaping through the sky, "Umm, Sky Walkers? It's dumb, I know, but I saw you guys months ago leaping over buildings and wires and to me, from the ground, it was like you were walking on the sky, like you had mastered the force and the elements and I've called you that ever since..." her voice trailed off as Billy sat down next to her.

Laying his arms on the table, a smirk played across his lips, "Well, now that I know you're a huge Star Wars nerd, you're even cuter." his eyes dancing with mirth.

Her heart sank at that. She knew Billy didn't feel the same way about her (why would he when he had Cassandra slinking around out there waiting out for him to join her in the sky) but her heart still leaped at the knowledge that he thought she was cute.

His eyes fixed on an unseen spot as he mulled the name over, "I gotta say, I like the name Sky Walkers. Might bring that up to the whole team. Give you full credit and trademark rights of course." He winked and she giggled as she pulled her mug of tea closer.

"Why don't you join us in the living room? You're always welcome. And I have insider intel that when Jean's over, you two hang out like you're best friends. So why don't you want to hang out with me?" He made an exaggerated pouty face at her as she struggled to not lean over and bite his exposed bottom lip.

"Because you annoy me" she said primly as she lifted her mug to her mouth, then before she could stop herself, "and I don't think your girlfriend likes me very much."

The tea was scalding but she forced herself to take a long sip so she wouldn't have to look at Billy's face.

Billy sat there, studying her, she seemed so out of place with the dark clothes that were rotating in and out of Mark's place. They'd all be caught up in planning, then she'd come bursting into the apartment and it was like she was bringing sunshine in with her.

She painted her nails with pink sparkles, she watched romantic comedies, she told him about the little kids she played with in the hospital on her rounds, she laughed easily, she engaged with the other members of the crew, pulling them into her warmth, her goodness. She had patched all of them up at one time or another. The more she got to know the whole crew, the more she relaxed and the more she relaxed, the more Billy found sunshine spilling through her cracks and coaxing him towards her warmth.

But then, Cassandra would lazily lift an eyebrow at him, nod her head and he'd leave with her. He'd known Cassandra since he joined the Sky Walkers. They'd just recently started...well...he wouldn't call it "dating" so much as he and Cassandra would do a job together and then have mind blowing sex after when adrenaline made them both want to explode out of their skins.

He was starting to realize though that he and Cassandra didn't...talk. Not like how Billy talked to (Y/N).

He laid out his hands on the table, looking at his fingers. They were calloused, rough, covered in tattoos. Her hands were soft despite having to wash them a million times a day. ("I use lotion every day, multiple times a day, how do you not own lotion Billy?" He had walked into Mark's apartment the next day only to be met with a bottle of Bath and Body Works hand lotion being thrown at him by Mark. His heart had squeezed in his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.) and her nails were adorned with pink sparkles. His own nails were busted and, he was pretty sure, had dried blood under them.

He had no business thinking the butterflies that erupted in his stomach every time she smiled at him meant anything more than she was cute and he liked cute women. Never mind that if she said Cassandra didn't like her he was on the verge of saying he'd dump her.

"Yeah, well. Cassandra doesn't like too many people. I wouldn't worry about it too much." He slapped his hands on the table pushing himself up. Lifting her eyes from her mug she watched him retreat back into the living room, the muscles of his back moving and shifting as he made his way back to the Sky Walkers, slipping easily onto the arm of the chair Cassandra was lazing in.

She really hated how good they looked next to each other.

She finished her tea, listening to them finalizing plans and making arrangements for the job, which would happen the day after next.

She had been hoping she'd have a shift scheduled at the hospital but no such luck.

Sighing, she stood up to rinse her mug out. In less than 48 hours she would be back here, sitting with Mark, trying to keep herself occupied and to not care too much that Billy was out there and she couldn't do anything to keep him safe.

~~~

The job went awry so quickly.

She didn't know what to make of it. One minute she had been sitting on Mark's sofa, curled up with a book as Mark sat at his desk, surrounded by monitors. Listening to him call out commands, chuckle softly at jokes, the sharp tap of keys as he disconnected security cameras or diverted them away from where the Sky Walkers were prowling.

For a while, she had been standing behind him, watching all of this happen as the group slipped through the halls of a lavish hotel. Tapping Mark's shoulder, in an over exaggerated whisper, she told him to tell the team that she said good luck and that if any of them got injured she "wouldn't patch them up because then they wouldn't learn anything."

Mark rolled his eyes and obliged, reaching a hand down to squeeze (Y/N)'s in a reassuring gesture.

Through Mark's headset, she heard the team giving their thanks, promising her that this job would do away with the rest of her loans and they'd be back to her before she knew it. Billy had looked dead set into the nearest security camera and winked as he promised he'd come back in one piece.

A gasp flew form her parted lips as her brother cleared his throat, reminding Billy to get his ass moving and to stop flirting with his sister.

Then, shit hit the fan.

It started with her hearing Billy's roughly accented voice piercing through Mark's headphones, yelling about the jewels being fakes.

Mark talked him through it, as Jean yelled back at Billy which is when Mark started yelling.

That's when she had heard gunshots.

Everything was a blur after that. She ran to the monitors and thought she was looking at a video game. There were so many men with guns running towards where the Sky Walkers were she assumed it was an army of some sort. She saw the flash of guns discharging and people she knew, people she had come to love, fall to the ground where she hoped like hell they would get back up again.

Part of her wanted to call her hospital, pull some strings and help as many of them as she could but Mark had pulled her into his chest, telling her it was no use.

In the confusion and mayhem she thought she had seen Billy, necklace clamped firmly between his teeth, jumping through a window but she couldn't be sure.

So, she and Mark had to sit and wait. Till Jean came back.

Just Jean.

He explained what had happened as he and Mark sat at the kitchen table, nursing a bottle of whiskey. She had stayed for one drink but the grief didn't feel like one she could share in.

She finally left, as she walked away, each step thudded to the ground while the only refrain that carried her home was billybillybillybillybillybillybilly. It wasn't until she found herself standing outside of her front door that she realized her body had carried her home while her thoughts had been in the sky.

Her body felt heavier, though she knew that a part of her heart had died in Mark's apartment that night and she wasn't sure if it would ever be whole again.

Her body was on autopilot as she stepped into the shower but each drop of water hitting her back felt like a knife.

She knew Cassandra and the rest of the team were there to help him. No matter how she felt about Cassandra personally, she knew she was part of the team. They were there for back up but so many people were in the fray.

So many people gone.

The water had gone cold by the time she stepped out of the shower. Not that she could feel it anyway.

Braiding her hair, she settled down on the chair by her window. It overlooked the fire escape she would lounge on with a glass of wine on nice summer nights.

Tonight it was empty, utilitarian. Only reminding her of how many Billy had fallen through as he tried to get away.

She leaned her head against the window, feeling the glass pushing back against her skull. Easing the dull ache that throbbed within as she closed her eyes.

~~~

That's where she had been when she heard the first thump.

Sleep had been within her grasp when she heard the second thump.

Groggily reaching into her sweatpants pocket, she pulled her phone out and saw it was 3:14 am.

There were no texts or calls from Mark.

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, wondering if it was her neighbors making that noise.

The third thump rattled her window causing her to jolt out of her chair.

Slowly, she reached her hand forward, nudging the blinds back, letting her eyes adjust to the nighttime as the lights from street lamps below worked to permeate the darkness that covered the world. That's when she saw the dark lump of something on her fire escape.

Squinting her eyes, her first thought was, why would someone throw their garbage bag onto my fire escape?

Flicking on the lamp she had by the window, it cast an uneven glow over the lump revealing dark clothes and athletics shoes spattered with blood.

The figure raised its head and time slowed down in those moments. The wan light drifting up from below barely illuminated the eyes staring back at her but she'd know the color anywhere. Those blue eyes, the color of her sky, was the only way she knew it was Billy.

The rest of him resembled a man who had scrabbled his way back from hell. His face was covered in scraps and tears. His visage and hands covered with dried blood. There was a wound on his neck that was slowly leaking blood but had started to congeal into a nasty mess.

His hair was matted to his head. His right eye was ringed in the blues and blacks of the beginnings of a nasty black eye. Sweat shined on his face as he blearily took in her face. He did his best to fight the smile breaking over his lips but he was so grateful to see her he barely noticed when his lips cracked even more.

As she opened the window she heard someone panting "thank god thank god thank god" and it took her a minute to realize that the prayer was falling from her lips. She bundled Billy into her apartment, setting him down on the chair by the window, still warm from her body.

She locked the window, drawing her curtains closed and rushed over to the front door, double checking it had been locked as well. For extra security she pushed one of her kitchen chairs underneath the door knob.

Hearing a snort she turned, "You watch too many bad gangster movies as a kid?"

Fighting against the lump in her throat, her voice came out thick as she tried to match his snark, "Yeah, well. You'll thank me later when the bad guys are stopped by my Ikea chair."

He heaved out a sigh that she supposed was as close as he could get to a laugh in his state. Sinking deeper into the chair, hissing as he finally allowed his body to relax. Nurse Brain kicked in as she took stock of his body, where he was holding tension, where he was avoiding putting pressure, assessing how old the cuts were. After a quick run down, she raced to her freezer.

Filling her arms with every bag of frozen veggies she had, she quickly wrapped them in paper towels, briskly walking back over to Billy's form. She watched the rise and fall of his chest, listened to the rattle of every intake, so grateful for each shuttery breath.

The grateful feeling was quickly overcome by anger. This asshole.

This was the second time he had shown up to throw himself at her mercy in a horrific state. She almost wished he were dead. She felt her knees shake, betraying how grateful she was that he was alive and in her apartment.

Instead of telling him all that though, she slapped a bag of frozen peas on his eye.

Yelping, his body curled inward as his hand reached up to catch the bag, pressing the peas back into place, "What the fuck? These are bloody freezing. I barely make it out alive and you're trying to kill me with frost bite from," he pulled the bag back squinting at it, "frozen peas?"

"Oh I'm so sorry that the frozen veggies I slapped on your busted face so you don't swell up like a fucking balloon aren't to your liking. My sincerest apologizes your majesty." She hissed out as she slapped another bag on his side as he let out a grunt.

He pressed a hand to the bag against his side as she mumbled, her fingers dancing over his form as she poked and prodded, trying to feel what the damage was, what she could do for him here and if he needed to get to a hospital.

"Couldn't make this experience a little more pleasant could ya?" He didn't mean to be a dick but in his defense, he had had a hell of a day. The job didn't go at all like they planned, he'd lost friends, Cassandra turned out to be a backstabbing thief, he didn't get the necklace, he'd fallen from the top of a building and then, to really just make the day fucking wild, when he'd come too, some weirdo had offered him the strangest proposition he'd ever heard after pretending he was going to kill Billy.

So, yeah. He was a little grumpy.

"You're lucky I even let your sorry ass into my apartment. How do you even know where I live anyway?"

"I've been having you followed by my top men."

"You asked Mark didn't you."

"Fuck."

Her lips quirked up for a second as she finished rotating his foot around checking for any swelling or broken bones. Standing up she declared, "You don't have anything seriously wrong or broken on you which is a fucking miracle. Just some bad scraps that I can take care of here." She made her way to the hall closet where she kept a first aid kit and other medical accessories. Ever since Mark sliced his hand open one Thanksgiving which had been dubbed the "Bloodiest Thanksgiving Since The Pilgrims Landed" she figured she'd better be stocked.

Billy sank lower into the chair. Leaning his head back he let out a sigh, hearing (Y/N) mumbling to herself, rattling around, he could almost pretend that he had come over under normal circumstances.

Hearing the soft thud of her footfalls, he cracked an eye open as she pulled a stool closer to his face. Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she started pouring something on a cotton ball, "If you thought the frozen peas were bad you're really gonna hate this."

"What could be worse than-" his sentence was cut off by a strangled cry as she pressed the cotton ball onto the scrap by his eye. Slamming his fists on the arms of the chair, he felt his body seize up as he fought to keep control, "Fucking hell (Y/N). Seriously, they should revoke your nurses license."

"You keep disrespecting me like that and I'm just going to dump this whole bottle on you." She snapped at him. Billy pried his eyes open as he took deep breaths. He turned his head to face her, opening his mouth to fire off another comment when he glanced down at her hands and stopped.

She was getting more of the disinfectant on the floor and her legs than she was getting on the cotton ball held in her hand. Her voice managed to be strong and sure but her hands told a different story. One of anxiety, one of worry, one of relief.

"Were you worried about me baby?" His voice was so soft that for a second she wondered if someone else had entered her apartment. Locking eyes with him, she thought about how just hours before, she had been certain she would never see his face again.

Never joke with him again, talk to him, share a quiet moment with him, never learn everything about him, never sit with him at their own kitchen table one day.

She wanted that. She wanted hours and days and months and years of kitchen table talks with Billy. Feeling the relief at having him back with her, she didn't even think about her next actions.

She leaned forward and kissed him...only to pull back immediately, "Oh my god I'm such an idiot. Your lip is so busted, I'm so sorry I shouldn't have done that, that was so dumb and what if I had hurt you even more? That would have been terrible-"

Billy's hand reached up, cupping the back of her head and pulling her into him. Her lips were soft and he bet a hundred bucks that she used chapstick every day. He knew his lips were chapped, cracked and probably coated in dried blood but he didn't care. Feeling her pressed against him helped take away the fear he had been trying to tamp down ever since the maniac in the garage had pretended to kill him.

Finally pulling back he let out a shaky laugh, "Were you really that worried I wouldn't come back to you, love?"

"No, I was worried that you wouldn't help me pay off my loans. Fuck your safety, I needed money." She was trying to get them back to their usual banter but the big gulps of air she was taking betrayed how she was really feeling.

"You were worried about me. You wanted me to be safe and come back to you in one piece. Don't deny it." The smugness of his voice made her smile as she pressed a kiss to his cheek and whispered in his ear, "You ever tell anyone I said this and I'll deny it but, yes."

She pulled away, placing the cotton balls and bottle on the floor, giving herself some time to collect herself as Billy reached his hands toward her, grabbing her own and rubbing his thumbs over the backs of her hands, sending sparks up her arms right into her heart.

Her heart ached for both of them. They both had lost so much today but they were lucky enough to be able to come back to each other. Billy heaved a sigh and looked up at her, "You were right."

"I usually am but what specifically was I right about in this instance?"

"You're a giant pain in my ass. About Cassandra. She wasn't trustworthy. Left me hanging off the edge of a building, stole the necklace and left the rest of the team behind," he brushed a piece of her hair out of the way, letting his fingers linger on her cheek, "should have listened to you."

Blushing, she leaned her cheek into Billy's palm, "Hmm, I could get used to hearing you tell me that." Billy chuckled as she straightened up and fixed him with a glare, "You just have to keep promising me you're going to come back to me in one piece."

Billy's eyes darkened, shifting in the chair as he remembered the deal the man in the room had proposed to him. Being able to go completely off the grid. Everything wiped clean. He would be a ghost.

But being in (Y/N)'s apartment, holding her hands in his, having her smile, kiss and hold him...he wondered if he had made the right decision.

"I'll do my best, darling." He muttered, purposefully not saying promise because he knew, some day soon, he would break that promise and he didn't know if he'd be able to live with himself knowing he had broken her trust.

Placing a soft kiss on his lips, she stroked the side of his face with her thumb. Sniffing she shook her head slightly, "Alright. Quit distracting me, I need to finish patching you up."

He chuckled, "Would it kill you to be nice to me? I mean, we just had an incredibly tender moment and I did have a pretty rough day..." his voice trailed off as he widened his eyes in an attempt to gain sympathy. She scoffed as she grabbed the cotton balls and disinfectant again.

"I suppose falling from the top of a building would kind of ruin your day. Now hold still. And don't be a baby." She dabbed the soaked cotton ball on the scrap on his neck, intertwining her fingers with his as he hissed out a breath. Squeezing his fingers, she murmured apologizes and encouragement, "I'm sorry my love, it's okay. Breathe. You're doing great."

After slapping some band-aids on the worst of the cuts ("What, no Spiderman Band-Aids?") she helped him to the shower, leaving him to wash off the day as she went to her room to find some sweats for him. Luckily, she had nicked plenty of Mark's sweatpants over the years so she laid those and a shirt out for Billy to find when he came into the room from his shower.

Hearing the door open, she looked up only to be met by a shirtless Billy, hair slicked back, chest damp, towel riding low on his hips. She didn't mean for the sharp intake of breath to be so audible but it was worth it when it earned her a smirk from Billy as he crossed over to her.

"Even beat up all to hell, still not a terrible sight, huh?"

Swallowing thickly she just nodded her head in agreement. Not trusting herself to speak she quickly turned and grabbed the clothes she laid out, shoved them into his arms and left, the sound of Billy chuckling following her out into the living room.

Settling onto her couch she fiddled with the end of her braid, contemplating why she had seen anguish flash through Billy's eyes when she made him promise to come back to her in one piece. She had definitely noticed the lack of the word "promise" when Billy answered her request.

The timeline of what happened since he fell didn't make much sense either. If Billy had fallen from the building, then where had he been for so long? There was no way somebody would have ignored a body laying unconscious in the street, especially with cops swarming the building.

"Baby? Hey. I can sleep on the couch. I don't mind."

Jolting out of her thoughts, she blinked as she came back to the present moment, Billy standing over her, "No! You shouldn't be sleeping on a couch. You can sleep in my bed."

"I've been waiting for an invitation to your bed for a long time baby." She flushed as she pushed herself off the couch. Grabbing Billy's hand, they walked back to her bedroom. Settling themselves under the covers she was gripped by a sudden wave of anxiety, should she try to cuddle with him? Would he want space now? Did she want to give him space? He was the one sharing her bed.

The anxiety melted away when she heard a voice in her ear, "Come here, love. I won't bite. Unless you're into that." She giggled she turned her body to face his, nuzzling her face into his chest, breathing in the smell of him as he wrapped his arms around her, pressing a kiss onto the top of her head.

Stroking her back, they drifted off to sleep. Their breathe synching up as they finally felt safe from the world as they created their own little one in each others arms.

The light streaming into her apartment caused her to stir. Stretching her body out she almost forgot that she had shared a bed with Billy last night. When she remembered, she was gripped with panic when she realized he was no longer there. Leaping from the bed, she raced into her living room, making sure that the door hadn't been busted down and Billy had been taken while she'd been sleeping. She knew it was illogical or she'd have to be the most sound sleeper on the planet but she still exhaled a breath when she saw her door was still locked and the chair underneath it still in place.

"Gotta say, I did sleep better knowing that we were protected by your highly sophisticated security system." She turned at the sound of his deep voice, he was standing at her stove, cooking eggs as he smiled at her, "Did you really think I'd leave you like I did the first time we met?"

Shaking her head she went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, exhaling as he wrapped one arm around her shoulders, using his other arm to keep stirring the eggs. "Don't scare me like that. I thought you got taken and I'm not Liam Neeson. I have no skills to use to find you." His chest rumbled with laughter, "Well, Liam Neeson isn't as pretty as you but you're crafty. I'd trust you to find me."

Placing a kiss onto his chest, she giggled, "Do you want coffee?" he nodded, "Also, how are you feeling today?"

"Sore. Like I fell from the top of a building and landed on concrete."

"Huh. Interesting. Did you do anything out of the ordinary yesterday?" Faux innocence lacing her voice as she measured out coffee grounds.

"Yeah. I fell from the top of a building and landed on concrete." Was Billy's deadpan response which had her cracking up which made Billy laugh at how hard she was laughing.

They finally pulled themselves together and stared at each other, him smiling, her hiccuping as she wiped at her eyes, "We're some pretty sick fucks for laughing at something like that, huh?"

He shrugged, "Probably. But it feels good to laugh. Especially with you."

After breakfast had been cleared away, Billy had stretched out on the couch, more bags of frozen peas on his various injuries. She came out of the kitchen, taking a moment to enjoy the peace before she broached the inevitable, "So, we should probably see Mark and Jean at some point. They're going to want to know you're okay."

Billy grunted in agreement, tipping his head back to look at her, "Yeah. That's not a bad idea. They're going to be pissed I came to you first before them though."

"I don't think so. I think they're just going to be relieved that you're alive. Plus, I am a nurse. It'd make sense to come to me and not those two chuckle fucks." She padded over to the couch, standing over him. "If you had gone to them first they would have just brought you to me anyway."

"That's true." He gazed up at her before grabbing her hands and tugging her down. Resisting, she giggled, "I don't want to fall on top of you and hurt you more, but I'll lie down next to you if you want."

He nodded eagerly, shifting his body over on the couch to make room for her, she curled up against him. Their legs intertwining as she splayed a hand over his chest, the rise and fall of his chest a balm to her anxiety and helping root her to him.

Inhaling deeply, then instantly regretting it at how it caused his ribcage to feel like it might crack, Billy felt more content here than he ever had in his entire life. He wanted to capture this feeling, bottle it, find a way to make it permanent. Make it stick so he wouldn't have to do what he knew was coming.

Sighing, (Y/N) snuggled closer, and his heart broke at how cruel he was being, how selfish. But he couldn't help it. He had asked for 24 hours and by god if he wouldn't make the most of them.

"Hey." he murmured into her hair, she made a noise in the back of her throat that made his heart skip a beat. He brought two fingers to her chin, tilting her head back so she'd be forced to look at him. A slow grin traveled across her lips as he drank in her face, memorizing every part of it so he'd never forget. He had done it so many times in Mark's apartment in shitty lighting that in good lighting, it was like seeing your favorite painting in person instead of through a computer screen.

Leaning down, he brought his lips to hers. Cupping his cheek with her hand, she kissed him back, relishing in how good it felt to be able to do this instead of just imagining it. Pulling back she smiled, resting her forehead against his.

"What is it, baby?"

"It just...you have no idea how long I've wanted this. And to finally be able to do it...I don't know. It feels really good to have you here, with me. Like this." Widening her eyes she pulled back, "Not like, you being injured but like being with you in this, way." Her voice trailing off when she became bashful at how vulnerable she had just been.

The wave of love, adoration and warmth he felt for her crested over him, causing his eyes to fall closed to keep the tears at bay. He didn't deserve this, he didn't deserve her. But, fuck, he would make the most of this time with her and make sure she knew how much he loved her.

Tilting his head back down, he locked their lips together. She moved her lips against his, memorizing their curves, their slopes, how they fit together. Her hand cupped his cheek, being mindful of his black eye and the various scraps covering the planes of it.

Feeling her hands caress his face with care, Billy became overcome. He was upset, guilt-ridden and worried he had made the wrong decision. Fighting to keep himself in the moment, he deepened the kiss, gripping her waist with an intensity that startled her. She jolted forward, causing Billy to groan when her heat made contact with the bulge that was growing larger by the second.

"Damn baby, we've only been kissing for a minute, quit trying to get into my pants already."

"You wish I was trying to get into your pants." her lips brushed against his with every other word and she could feel him smiling. He nipped at her bottom lip, causing her to gasp which allowed him ample time to connect their lips, exploring her mouth with his tongue. Their hands drifting up and down their sides, exploring as they got more comfortable with each others forms.

Dancing her fingers down his arms, she felt the muscles clenching and unclenching as his hand found her hip and squeezed causing her to moan involuntarily. Smirking, he ran his hand up and over the rise of her hip, trailing his fingers down into the dip of her waist. She snuggled closer to Billy, breathing in coffee, disinfectant and the unmistakable scent that was Billy.

Draping his arm over her waist, he pulled her even closer to him. Feeling his hardening length in his sweatpants she tested the waters by circling her hips against him. Causing a moan to erupt from his mouth and throw his head back in ecstasy.

"Baby, what's the professional nurses opinion of having sex when someone's injured? Asking for myself because if I don't have sex with you tonight I just may toss myself off another building."

Giggling, she ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead so she could look in his eyes, "In a nurses opinion? Probably not. But in (Y/N)'s personal opinion? Who gives a shit I've wanted to fuck you since the first day I saw you."

Locking his eyes onto hers, her breath hitched in her throat at the intensity of his gaze. His normally sky blue eyes were the color before a storm and his hand was locked onto her hip with a strength that she couldn't wait to explore later.

"Then get up here, baby, and fuck me how you've always wanted to."

Swinging her leg over, she found herself straddling Billy, placing her hands on his chest, she felt the large planes of his chest expanding as he took a shaky breath in, his eyes glassy. Flicking her hair back she leaned forward to kiss him deeply, "What baby?"

Shaking his head he cleared his throat, "Nothing. Just, dammit baby. You look like a goddess."

Blushing she bent down to nip at his throat, causing him to buck his hips up, causing his hard length to rub against her clothed cunt causing them both to dissolve into moans. Pushing herself up, she started rocking her hips teasingly along his cock.

Whining in the back of his throat he begged, "Please, love, I don't care, just fuck me. Please."

Shocked at the control she had over this man, she ripped the t shirt she had been wearing over her head, exposing her tits and black underwear she had been wearing. Billy keened and grasped her tits, causing her to push her chest forward, the feel of his calloused palms teasing her nipples caused her eyes to roll into the back of her head.

Billy reached his hands down, shimmying his sweatpants and underwear down far enough so his cock sprang up between them, her mouth watering at how thick it was. Stroking her center through her panties with two fingers he cocked an eyebrow at her, "I can't exactly fuck you through these so they'll have to go. I don't care how sexy they are."

Laughing, she stood up on the couch, resting one hand on the wall as she shimmied the panties down her legs, kneeling back over Billy's exposed length when Billy stopped her, "Wait, hold on a second baby." He teased one finger, then another into her dripping core, pumping in and out slowly as she rocked her hips forward trying to get more of him into her.

Billy slowly dragged them out, popping his fingers into his mouth and holding eye contact with (Y/N) as he sucked his fingers clean, relishing the sweet taste of her, "Okay, baby. I think you're wet enough."

"Damn right I am." She murmured as she sank down onto his hard cock, taking his full length, resting her hands on Billy's strong chest pushing her tits together in the most delicious way Billy had ever seen. His hands found purchase on her hips as she started rocking back and forth, working his length. Feeling his cock stretching her walls in the most amazing way, she tilted her pelvis in that way she knew would have his cock nudging her g-spot, getting her closer to where she wanted to be, which was total ecstasy with Billy.

Billy's eyes screwed closed as she found her rhythm and worked his cock, trying to reach her orgasm. His whole body felt like an exposed fuse, bursting with energy and if she touched him in the right way he would combust.

"Billy, please, rub my clit..." she panted as she rocked her hips faster, Billy could feel her walls clenching as she went faster and he reached down, rubbing the sensitive nub with his calloused fingers, causing her eyes to roll into the back of her head as she chased her high, "Is that what you want baby? Yeah? You wanna come all over this cock?" Billy mumbled as she stared up at the angel fucking herself over on his cock. He almost came seeing how blissed out she was but then he rubbed a little harder on her clit and it pushed her right over the edge. She came with a strangled cry of "Billy!" and her walls clamped down as she fell forward into his chest.

"There's a girl, such a good girl. My best girl. My only girl. Oh my love, taking me so well..." Billy mumbled as he stroked her hair, "Now, let me take over." She nodded as Billy grasped her hips and started slamming his hips against hers, causing her to moan out, feeling her pussy tighten again as he brought a hand down to her ass, the sound of the sharp slap reverberating through her apartment.

Distantly, in the back of her mind, she wondered if this was good for him in his current injured state but being so close to a second orgasm left her with one thought but to cum around his cock again.

Finding a rhythm, their hips met as she pressed her lips to his, catching his moans and hoping to mute her own as they fucked each other into oblivion. All too soon, she felt the familiar catch in her stomach as her second orgasm came around, "Billy..I..I'm so close."

"I know darling, me too. Can you wait? Can you cum with me? Please baby." She nodded as Billy fucked her harder, she rocked her hips faster and then suddenly, Billy let loose a string of expletives and she chanted billy billy billy oh god over and over again like a prayer as she felt him fill her pussy with his warm cum.

After a few minutes, she pulled away from his sweaty chest, pushing her hair behind her ears as she grinned down at him. Grinning back up at her, he tickled her waist, "Normally I can last longer but that sex has been building up for several months."

Throwing her head back she let out a laugh, "Don't worry. I don't plan on stopping having sex with you anytime soon. We have all the time in the world to build up a tolerance to each other."

A dark look washed over Billy's face as he contemplated how little time they had but instead of answering, he pulled her down into another kiss, "Let's just focus on today, love."

~~~

They spent the rest of the day entwined on the couch, mixing it up between lazy make out sessions, sex and her standing up to get the door when the delivery person rang the door to drop off food and beer.

She had asked if Billy wanted her to text Mark and Jean but he just told her he would deal with it soon. So she didn't push it. She knew she was being selfish but she wanted to keep living in this world that consisted of her, Billy and the pizza they ordered alive for as long as she could.

Unfortunately, it ended all too soon as all good things are wont to do. Soon enough, Billy was pulling on his shoes, as it grew dark out, she had been getting comfortable when he knelt down next to the bed. "Listen, love. I need to drop off something to Mark and Jean. Don't wait up for me." He leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead as she lifted her head up to meet him halfway.

"It's late babe, are you sure they'll still be up?" He fixed her with an incredulous look, "It's Mark and Jean. Of course they're still awake." She shrugged as she considered who they were talking about and conceded defeat. "Just come back to me in one piece okay? If you want," she hastily added as she realized he may want to go back to his own home "It's an open invitation. I'm sure you want to go home."

He smiled at her with melancholy in his eyes as he pressed a kiss to one cheek, "With you?" then a second kiss to her other cheek "I'm always home" Biting her lip to contain the smile threatening to break her face in two, Billy decided he had never seen a more beautiful woman and wanted to alway think of her like this.

~~~

She woke the next morning to 25 missed calls from Mark and 33 from Jean. Blearily, she called Mark. Once he picked up and started rambling, she hung up and stared straight up at the ceiling.

It wasn't until Mark came to get her after not hearing from her for hours did she register how damp her cheeks had become. She was numb. Time didn't mean anything, nothing meant anything anymore.

Billy was dead.

He had broken his promise.

~~~

Standing at the edge of a gaping hole in the world, she contemplated throwing herself into it along with the empty casket they'd be burying. She barely registered the low rumbles of a priest talking but not really hearing anything. Billy had gone to Mark and Jean, told them he needed to run a quick errand and gone back to the hotel they had just robbed from. He had been running along the roof, where it overlooked the rocky ledge of the ocean. He had jumped, thinking there was a platform there but there hadn't been. There was Billy, the air and the jagged rocks along the coast the only thing to greet him.

The coast guard searched for hours but had found no body. Just the black rubber bracelet he always wore around his wrist.

Twirling the bracelet between her fingers now, she decided that since the casket was empty, there was no point.

She had been numb since she got the news. Not moving from her couch unless Mark or Jean came to propel her into the shower, make her eat some food. but she really didn't see a point in doing anything anymore.

He had promised.

And now he was gone. So what did it matter what she did? People left, they broke promises, and words and promises didn't mean anything to anyone she guessed. She may as well do anything she wanted.

Lifting her head she saw Mark, Jean and two women who had introduced themselves as Billy's mother and sister. Mark had introduced her as Billy's girlfriend and they murmured how much Billy talked about her but it was all too little too late.

She didn't want to know anyone else other than Billy but that had been ripped from her. Standing at the edge of his grave she felt Mark and Jean grasping her shoulders, telling her they were going to give her some space. So it was just the three of them and as his sister looked at her, she smiled a thin smile, "You're just as pretty as he said you were."

She fell to her knees. It was all too much, She couldn't support herself without Billy. What did it matter? All her skills, all her knowledge about keeping people safe when she couldn't even save the person that mattered most.

~~~

"Oof, there are three certified hotties just weeping over your grave dude. How doe that feel?"

Billy's stomach clenched as he saw (Y/N) fall to her knees at his grave, watching his mother and sister race around to help her. It wasn't until One clapped a hand on his shoulder did he register that he had involuntarily moved forward to help her.

"Nuh-uh bro. Not anymore. Don't even think about doing a Christmas Carol Ghosts of Christmas Past bullshit. I spent way too much money for you to blow this whole operation."

Billy nodded mutely. Keeping an eye on the women around his grave he swallowed around the lump that had been stuck in his throat since he had left (Y/N)'s apartment.

What One had suggested to him had been too good to pass up. And when One had promised, in writing, that (Y/N) would always be kept safe and comfortable, it was a no brainer. And he knew, in his heart of hearts, that she deserved someone better, more stable than him. Not some Sky Walker who always had his head in the clouds.

Who one day may not come back to her.

Taking a deep breath he turned his back on the trio that were surrounding his grave. Sending up a prayer, he hoped she would be safe and would get over him soon. Because he knew he would never get over her for the rest of his short, harrowing life.

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anon911andbuddie · 5 years ago

Note

Crossover prompt: Mermaid AU: Like after the lawsuit, merman Buck is shunned from his family for maybe disobeying Bobby or something along those lines. Slowly dying of loneliness, Buck swims and wanders the edge of the territory when he sees someone in distress, having been stung by something.Buck helps the merman, named TK. They instantly bond and are super protective of each other. Carlos and Owen come looking for TK and they immediately love Buck too. Will Buck join the Lonestar family?

Part 2 Part 3

Kay…so I literally just did a crossover with lone star…if no one minds? -Claimed by Red💋

So, this is definitely going to be a two parter, so if you have an idea of where this could go after you finish reading it, let me know Anon!

Warnings: cursing, cruel/abusive/violent acts, depressive attitudes

Everyone’s abilities: Enchantment, telepathy, speed swimming, agelessness, superhuman strength

Buck: Weather manipulation, Sonic Scream, Freeze water

Eddie: Claws/Fangs, Siren Song, Boil water

Chris: Claws/fangs, mild weather manipulation, water transformation, Siren song

Bobby: Control of ambient moisture (pull water out of the air), water transformation,

Chim and Hen: Human

Athena: claws/fangs, water molding, siren song

Maddie: Weather manipulation, Siren Song, boil water

TK: fangs, Siren Song, Sonic Scream, mold water to will

Carlos: claws, slight weather manipulation, boil water, sonic scream

Marjan: Siren song, boil water

Mateo, Paul, Michelle: human

Judd: claws, sonic scream, freeze water

Owen: fangs, siren song, sonic scream, water transformation

“Where did the water go?”

Buck had never been scared of the water. He enjoyed it. He had been raised in it. Then he’d met Bobby and his clan of merfolk and learned that he could have a life outside of the ocean. So Buck did what he always did, went head first.

Buck didn’t spend a lot of time in the water anymore. It was harder to find secluded spots where people wouldn’t see his tail the second he got wet. But the team made sure to take a week off every couple of months to relax at the beach. About three days of that week, the merfolk would spend their time purely in the water while the humans of the group kept the condo together.

Seeing the water rushing towards him, Buck was scared…not just because there was a solid wall of water rushing towards him but because he had his best friend’s kid with him. He had precious cargo and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop the water from crashing into them.

People ran and screamed and Buck was making Chris promise not to let go of him. Chris was holding tightly to him and Buck turned to face the wave that was beginning to demolish the pier. He focused on freezing the wave to give everyone time to get off the pier.

The weather was beginning to react to his emotions as the clouds rolled in. Everything ached, he’d never actually tried to control a wave this big. “Bucky, I don’t think I can make it transform,” Chris whispered, his voice strained.

“It’s okay Buddie, don’t worry about it. I just need you to keep holding onto me tightly okay? I’m trying my best to slow it down.” The strain of trying to keep a wall of moving water behind only a couple of feet of frozen water was starting to have physical effects on him. He could feel blood drip from his nose. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it long, so he ran.

He found a vendor as he heard the ice behind him cracking. He put himself over Chris and hoped for the best…he knew it would take a lot to kill him, but Chris was still a pup, it was easier to hurt him than a full grown merman. “Okay Chris…Just keep swimming and if we get separated, keep communicating with me,” Buck stated as the ice cracked more eerily.

The second the water hit him, he lost Chris. No matter how prepared he was for it, the shock of tons of water slamming into him was enough for his hands to be ripped from the boy. “CHRIS!”

“CHRIS,” Buck bolted upright, breathing heavily. Thunder rattled the windows of his loft as he tried to calm down. At this point, he wasn’t sure if he caused the storm or the weather had already forecast a storm.

Standing up on shaky legs, he grabbed his phone from his charger and began to quickly change clothes. There was no point in him trying to go to sleep again. It was six in the morning, his shift started at nine…he could go to the station and get started on the chores for the day and make it easier for the team when they come in.

Things were finally starting to get better with the team. They talked with him, joked with him, and made him sort of feel like family again. After the lawsuit, he was worried that he’d never get that again…that he’d messed everything up. For a while, he’d stopped going to the Beach weak. First, it was way too soon after the tsunami where he had tried his best and had still lost Eddie’s son and let Chris down. Second, he knew he wasn’t wanted with the lawsuit debacle.

After this shift, they were all supposed to go to the beach to unwind. While Buck was still wary of the ocean, Chris had specifically asked him if he’d be coming and Buck couldn’t deny him anything. He’d be riding with Eddie after shift, so Buck grabbed his duffle and left the apartment. A run would do good to clear his head, even if he had to do it through the rain.

Being a merperson, you learned how to avoid getting wet in the human world. Rain boots, two layers of pants, two layers of shirts and a rain jacket to boot. Three pairs of gloves, a rain hat and an umbrella. Until Buck calmed down, he wouldn’t be able to stop the storm, if he had caused it. If it was natural, he’d need to be extra calm and in control to stop the rain, but he doubted that he’d be able to calm down enough to even stop the thunder.

_____________

“Damn it Buckley, do you ever listen,” Bobby growled as they exited the truck. It was the last call of the day and it had been one grueling call.

“Bobby there-”

“I told you to stop. I told you to leave it be and you ignored me. You almost outed our secret to every onlooker!”

“And what was I supposed to do, Captain? Let the kid drown?”

“We have two human-”

“Two humans who were on the other side of the property dealing with a coding patient!” Buck was breathing heavy. He’d never argued with Bobby like this before. He’d never thought that he’d have to see the look of pure anger in Bobby’s eyes after they’d all made up. He thought that Bobby trusted him after everything that had gone on.

Buck stalked off, ignoring Bobby’s yells for him to turn around…that they weren’t done talking yet. It reminded him of the way his father yelled at him the day he told him that he was leaving the clan to join Bobby’s.

Grabbing his bag, Buck jogged out of the station, seeing Eddie leaning against his truck. He’d gotten off right before their last call to get Chris ready for the beach week. He knew that once they got there, Bobby would either be putting the call behind him, or he would be asked to leave.

Eddie glanced up as Buck approached. There was a light smile on his face that fell at Buck’s stormy expression and the streak of lightning that flashed across the sky. “Hey Buck, everything alright?”

Buck clenched his jaw as he approached Eddie. “Just a rough call.” He worked his jaw and relaxed his shoulder. “We ready to go? Superman excited?”

Eddie decided to let it drop, taking Buck’s bag from him. “All ready and Chris has been talking about Beach Week all week and how he’ll finally have some ‘Bucky’ time.”

The thought of Chris being so excited made him both happy and sad at the same time. Happy because he loved when the little man was so excited. No one can be truly down when Chris was so excited. He was sad because he was afraid of disappointing Chris. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stay the week after the call they’d had.

______________

The fun lasted until Athena and Bobby arrived. Hen, Karen, Denny, Maddie and Chim had arrived shortly after Buck, Eddie and Chris had. Buck, Eddie, and Chris were busy messing around with their abilities. Buck would freeze a patch of water, Eddie would boil the water around it and Christopher would practice his transformations to see if he could control the melting ice into gel or glass.

Hen, Karen, and Denny had joined them by the water’s edge and were watching in fascination as Buck would make sculptures in the water with his ice for Chris to try and protect from his father’s abilities.

For a little while, Buck forgot about the call. Chim and Hen didn’t mention it and he thought everything would be fine. It wasn’t until he heard the other car pull up and Athena’s voice that the events of the day came back to him. “Bobby, think about it. He thought he was doing the right thing to save that kid. Don’t do this and push him away.”

“He risked outing us and you’re taking his side?”

Hen looked apologetically at him as she stood. Buck slowly followed her, turning to watch as Bobby marched towards him. Before he knew what was happening, a burst of water was throwing him back into the waves lapping at the beach. The second the water had touched him, the pale purple and blue scales appeared as his legs became a tail. “Bobby, what the hell,” Eddie shouted.

That didn’t deter Bobby, he went to control the water in the air again but Buck stuck his hand up, freezing it before it could reach him. As Bobby continued to approach him, Buck screamed. He was never one to like his sonic ability. It stunned other merfolks and could kill regular humans. He only used it when he was in danger in the water…but he’d just used it on Bobby, the leader of the clan, the pseudo father he looked up to.

The other merfolks were looking at him in shock. He hadn’t exactly declared the sonic scream as one of his abilities. It was for a good reason at the beginning. While he had trusted Bobby, he knew that some leaders could use the sonic scream as a weapon and he didn’t want the chance of that happening. His father had been one to abuse the gift Buck had, so he wasn’t so keen on letting anyone know about it.

Hen approached Buck hesitantly, but Bobby snapped out of his stupor and grabbed her arm. “Evan Buckley,” he knew that tone of voice. He knew what was happening and his eyes begged Bobby not to continue. “Your continued defiance against myself and the clan has caused you to become a danger to the clan.”

“Bobby,” Maddie shouted, but he paid her no mind.

“I want you out of my territory by morning. If you are found by any of the clan on our territory your punishment will come out of the book, do you understand?”

Before Buck could respond, Christopher was jumping into his arms. “No Bucky, please don’t go. Please,” he cried.

Buck gave Chris a tight hug. He’d miss seeing the golden green tail of the boy as they chased each other in the water. He’d miss his laughter and his company. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “Bobby’s right. I almost exposed the clan. I’m a danger to your safety, so I have to go. But…but I’ll always love you, okay?”

Chris sniffled and a bolt of lightning hit directly in front of Bobby. “I love you too, but it’s not fair! You didn’t expose us, Bobby can’t make you leave!” Another bolt of lightning and he knew that Chris would need to calm down before he actually hurt anyone.

“Superman, hey, Chris. Deep breaths.” Thunder rumbled around them as more lightning lit up the sky and the wind picked up. “You’re going to hurt someone if you don’t calm down Christopher. I need you to calm down. It’s okay. I’ll be gone for a little while, everyone will realize they miss me too much and I’ll be back in no time. I-I promise,” and God did he hate himself for lying to Chris.

If the look Eddie was giving him was anything to go by, Eddie hated that he was lying to Chris as well. “Really,” Chris asked quietly. The wind was dying down.

“Really.” Buck took a deep breath as the clouds started to disappear. “You remember the tricks I taught you to keep yourself in control?” Chris nodded and Buck felt himself nod. “I’m going to need you to do those multiple times a day so that no accidents happen while I’m gone, okay?”

“Okay, I promise Buck.”

“I need you to keep an eye on Maddie and your dad for me, okay? You know how they can get and I don’t want them getting too out of control, the hot heads that they are,” he winked.

Christopher laughed and that was all Buck needed. “I’ll look after them for you, promise. And I’ll make sure that Athena keeps Bobby in line,” Chris tacked on.

“Look at you, already knowing what I’m gonna say.” He licked his lips. “Okay, I gotta go…give Mads a hug for me.”

Once Chris was off of him, Buck turned his back to the group and let the water take him before they could see how affected he was.

1 Week Later

Buck was lonely. He missed his clan, his sister, Eddie, and Chris. He missed sunlight and not having to look over his shoulder to make sure there were no predators or other clans sneaking up on him. He’d been out of Bobby’s territory for two days and was currently in open waters. He knew there was another territory coming up and was debating on whether or not to cross into the territory.

As he drew closer to the territory, the decision was made for him. There was a merperson trapped in a fishing net and multiple apex predators circling him and the other fish in the net. He was struggling to get out of the net, and Buck wasn’t going to let him be hurt by neither the predators on the ship or below it.

Buck formed a block of ice around the net and screamed. The ice cracked around the net before falling away as the predators scattered. Buck let the scream die and made his way to the net. Buck pulled at the net, breaking it apart enough for the fish and the merman to get through.

They floated for a minute just looking at each other. The merman approached Buck and wrapped his arms around him, “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Buck smiled, “you would have figured it out. Looks like you might have done some damage to your wrists in there, I could look at them for you.”

“I know a place we can go where we won’t look like juicy snacks to the sharks. I’m TK, by the way.”

“Buck.”

Buck followed the man as he made his way to a cave not far from the boat. “I have a collection of things that I don’t like sharing with the clan. I think they’ll think of it as stupid or something…so don’t judge.”

“Everyone has a hobby, TK. I’m not going to judge you.” It struck Buck how much he missed his clan. TK reminded him a little of Eddie with the way he moved in the water. It didn’t help that the navy scales of his tale matched Eddie’s. The one difference was that there were flecs of aqua blue in the scales as well.

They worked in silence, Buck trying not to hurt the man more. “So what happened out there? Usually us mermen can tear ourselves out of fishing nets…not that we usually get trapped in them.”

A laugh resonated in his head. “Funny story, I have the worst luck ever. My wonderful ex,” Buck noted the sarcasm but said nothing, “basically kidnapped me to try and get me back. I told him off and knocked him over the head but I didn’t know where I was at first so I just went a random direction. Apparently I swam directly into the path of the jellyfish that were migrating.” Buck took note of the reddish spots that were on TK’s body and nodded. That makes sense. “Once I finally got free from them, I wasn’t paying much attention because I was trying to find somewhere safe to stay for a while so I figuratively licked my wounds. Found myself in a net and was slightly distressed…and you know the pheromones we put out when we’re injured and distressed…it drew the sharks and everything became a huge mess.”

“I’m sorry all that happened, Man. If you see your ex, let me know and I’ll beat him to shit for causing one of the worst days of your life today.”

“That’s sweet, thanks for that. What about you? What were you doing all the way out there?”

Buck sighed as he finished fixing up TK. He rested against the wall of the cave and took the time to look around at everything TK had collected. “I, uh…things happened and here I am.”

“That’s not very descriptive…are you okay? Someone out to hurt you or something?”

Buck turned his back to TK, looking out at the marine life swimming outside the cave. He bit his lip as he turned back to TK, “you feel like swimming to the surface so that only you can hear what I’m about to say? I haven’t gotten really good at directing my telepathy at one person.”

TK nodded and the two swam to the surface and bobbed along the waves. “Okay, Man, what’s up,” TK asked, clearing his throat a couple of times. It must have been a while since he had used his vocal chords.

“Where do I even start? Everything tied into it,” Buck laughed but it sounded more like he was in pain than happy.

“Start from the beginning.”

With one last look at TK’s face, he found himself describing the past year and a half. He started out with the ladder truck accident telling him how he had worked so hard to get himself back into working condition. He explained that his clan leader had kept him from his job for the longest time even though he was cleared for work. He told TK that he filed a lawsuit and how everyone had reacted to him after he’d won and how he’d turned down millions of dollars just to be with his family, that it was never about the money but getting back to his family. He shouted about the shit he put up with after returning and how it had finally started to get better and how he’d gone and fucked that up to. He cried as he explained the last call before the Beach Week and how he had a choice of saving a kid from drowning or watching him die while the humans of the team were too far away to help and how he had defended his call to Bobby but how Bobby had just seen him as even more of a fuck up. He explained what led up to him being attacked by Bobby and forced to leave the man he loved and his little boy and how he was just so fucking tired of fighting and living since he was a disappointment to every person he met.

If TK noticed the way the waves got rougher and the sky darkened, he didn’t mention it. He had this look on his face as Buck finished that Buck couldn’t decipher. “Yeah, that’s not gonna cut it. Bobby’s the asshole and fuck up here, Buck. It seems like he’s still dealing with his own problems and that’s not your fault. You did everything right-the lawsuit is debatable but in the end, that didn’t really hurt anyone. He should have never forced you to leave. You weren’t a danger to the clan, he was making an excuse to use you as a scapegoat for his own problems. The fact that he made you leave your mate and guppy-”

“He’s not my mate…Chris isn’t my guppy, but I thought they were going to be. I thought that finally we were moving on to being an actual family and I just…I fucked it up.”

TK grabbed his arm tightly, making Buck look at him. “You. Did. Nothing. Wrong. Do you hear me? Nothing. Bobby’s in the wrong. Bobby broke up the family you were building.” And somewhere between what TK was telling him and the point of contact, Buck felt the dying stop.

Buck knew he was a social merman. Some people could make it in isolation, but that was never an option for Buck. His life depended on the bonds he made with others and all of his had been shattered when Bobby kicked him out of the clan. Buck quickly took his arm back from TK, “why did you do that? I don’t deserve being bonded with!”

Before TK could respond, two faces popped out of the ocean a few feet away from the pair. “TK, son, you okay?”

As if sensing Buck was going to bold, TK shot his hand out and gripped Buck’s arm again. “You don’t deserve to die because an asshole cut off all of your bonds. You deserve so much more and if I have to go talk some sense into that clan leader of yours, I will. Understand? You saved me today, you aren’t a fuck up. A fuck up wouldn’t have been able to save me.”

The wind picked up as if sensing Buck’s anxiety, but he nodded anyway as the two mermen approached them carefully. TK turned to the two with a smile on his face. “All good because of Buck. He really helped me out today. I think that he needs a place to stay for a little while, right Buck?”

Buck nodded shyly and TK released his arm to hug the tanned merman. “Nice to meet you, Buck. I’m Owen, TK’s father. This is Carlos, his boyfriend. We’d love to have you stay with us for however long you needed.” The older man placed a hand on his shoulder and Buck immediately felt the bond.

“Seriously, you guys don’t have to-”

“You saved the most important person in my life. It’s the least we could do,” Carlos stated, making yet another bond. “And for the record, I’ll be joining TK in talking to you clan leader. I can already tell you did nothing wrong and the guy’s being an asshole.”

“You don’t even know what happened,” Buck stated defensively.

“The fact that you just defended the person who threw you out of your clan shows us the kind of person you are Buck,” Owen stated. “Now, do you think you could put the storm clouds away? My clan’s waiting on the beach and would prefer not to grow tails.”

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right

https://ift.tt/3fCncB7

As we wait an announcement pertaining to the existence of NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 3, we at least know that Warner Bros. is set to adapt the games into a DC animated movie.

Ever since its release in 2013, the Injustice franchise has not only become a staple of NetherRealm’s roster, but the comic spinoffs have made it a beloved part of the DC multiverse. The plot revolves around a reality where the Joker was able to mess with Superman so badly that the Man of Steel gradually became a mass-murdering dictator, with the support of several members of the Justice League. Left without any other option, Batman brought in counterparts of the Justice League from the “mainstream” universe to help him fight a civil war against his former friend. It was a story that merged the Justice Lords two-parter from the Justice League cartoon with Marvel’s original Squadron Supreme comic series.

A popular prequel series was released, mostly written by Tom Taylor, that explained the five years in-between Superman killing the Joker in cold blood and Batman’s last stand. Sometime later, the game’s story was adapted into the comic Injustice: Ground Zero. And the Injustice universe has only continued to grow since then.

As snazzy as NetherRealm’s story modes are, they are going to have to make some changes to the narrative for the animated movie. It’s not like every character is going to stumble into exactly four best-two-out-of-three fights in a row before someone else is the focus. Knowing that there will be alterations, some characters are really going to need some tender love and care.

Superman (Both of Them)

Injustice: Gods Among Us didn’t invent the idea of an evil Superman, but things are a bit over-saturated these days. Face it, “Dark Superman” has been done to death, what with Brightburn, The Boys, Invincible, and everything Zack Snyder intended with his Justice League movies.

It’s important that the animated movie really get into the WHY of what turned Superman evil instead of the Joker just getting a tragic win over him. The Injustice comic nudged him over and over again with multiple betrayals and manipulations before he finally snapped and angrily broke every bone in Green Arrow’s body. Hit all that, or at least enough of it.

More importantly, Injustice is a story of two different Supermen. The mainstream Superman has to ring true. He has to be the beacon of hope and positivity that pop culture has been missing for the past decade.

Ultimately, as long as they don’t do that minigame where Superman blows up cars and the people in them with his eye-lasers, we’re cool.

Batman

In this DC take of Marvel’s Civil War, Batman is by default the better person when compared to Superman. He has a line he won’t cross and that means no murder and no tyranny. That said, he still needs to be portrayed as a flawed hero. He may be competent, but he still behaves like a total douche at times and deserves to take one to the chin every now and then.

Being a paranoid futurist who buries himself in contingency plans means alienating allies, friends, and even family members. There’s a great moment in the Injustice comic where he reveals that he infected Cyborg with a virus within a week of meeting (you know, just in case), which Killer Croc says is outright sinister. It’s this kind of behavior that led to Superman’s fall to darkness, because even if Bruce wasn’t behind any of the horrors, he still chose coldness and paranoia over being there for a friend who was going through some serious shit.

Harley Quinn

A hype trailer for Harley painted her as a major protagonist in the first game but the game’s story mode just didn’t measure up. The comics did a better job and the Ground Zero volume was specifically about telling the game’s story from Harley’s perspective. I’m not saying that she should be joined by her team of BFF henchmen from Ground Zero, but she should definitely be a prominent hero.

Similar to the Mark Waid comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible (also about an evil take on Superman), Harley’s turn to heroism is the universe’s response to Superman’s actions. She’s done some horrible things and may never make up for her actions under the Joker’s thumb, but she’ll keep fighting to stop Superman’s atrocities.

Wonder Woman

While Batman did a bad job trying to pull Superman from the darkness, Wonder Woman succeeded in pushing him in. It’s noted here and there, but this Wonder Woman was also altered by tragedy. In this timeline, Steve Trevor turned out to be a Nazi traitor. His betrayal left Diana feeling much less optimistic and hopeful than her mainstream self.

Wonder Woman’s villainy isn’t as pronounced as Superman’s, but she’s definitely the friendly face who eggs him on and wants him to stand over all mankind. As Superman uses her to fill the void left from Lois Lane’s death, the power couple become very good at bringing out the worst in each other.

Damian Wayne

The Injustice game did Damian a little dirty, revealing deep into the story that the Nightwing fighting on Superman’s side was not Dick Grayson, but Damian. According to Batman, Damian murdered Dick. The comics dove deeper into that and made it more of a freak accident brought on by Damian being an impulsive and angry child. Still, Bruce and his son were unable to make amends due to their shared lack of warmth.

Later stories, and even Injustice 2, added more depth to Damian. It always made sense that he’d join Superman’s Regime, but there was a soul in there who would eventually see that this wasn’t the right path. In the comic Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, which was treated as a sequel to Injustice 2’s dark ending, Damian took up the mantle of Batman to oppose Superman and even grew a long-missing sense of humor in the process.

Lex Luthor

The great tragedy of the DC multiverse is that Superman and Lex Luthor just can’t get along. They will always be at odds no matter what Earth they come from. The Injustice universe was the one exception, as Luthor was portrayed as fairly warm and altruistic. Much like Batman, he has contingency plans up the wazoo, but they don’t come off as creepy.

Seeing him there as Superman’s longtime friend who sadly has to stab him in the back brings back that multiversal truth about the duo. Just because this is a world where Superman kills and things get very bleak doesn’t mean it’s the worst world and that it isn’t worth saving. The mainstream Cyborg is reluctant to come to terms with this heroic Luthor, but he ultimately accepts the miracle that this universe created a Luthor worth befriending and even looking up to.

Hal Jordan

Maybe it’s just me, but I was never a fan of how Geoff Johns retconned Hal’s past and gave him deniability for everything he did as Parallax. I liked that a boring hero dude like Hal snapped, did some bad stuff, and then had to accept his failures in an attempt to be better. With Injustice, they gave us that exact Hal.

Games

Injustice Beat Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the Punch

By Matthew Byrd

Comics

Injustice: Year Zero Brings the Justice Society to DC Alternate Universe

By Jim Dandy

Overflowing with willpower and being an otherwise competent space cop, Hal is still something of a dunce at times, and he’s susceptible to manipulation in the right situation. He’s already following Superman’s lead, but having Sinestro pop in to indoctrinate him into the Sinestro Corps makes him actually interesting. Let Hal be the worst version of himself here so he can double back on it in the sequel and beg Guy Gardner’s ghost for forgiveness.

Shazam

Injustice may be the B-side to Mortal Kombat, but the game itself is fairly tame on the violence. Joker’s death isn’t actually shown on screen, Luthor’s end is fairly clean, and Grodd taking a trident to the torso is relatively tame.

But what we absolutely, positively have to see in the animated movie is Shazam’s death scene to really give an idea of how far gone Superman is. It’s bloodless from our point of view, but it’s grisly as hell and made worse when you remember that Shazam is a literal child under all the mystical power.

Batgirl

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl was one of the first DLC characters added to Injustice, but it’s unfortunate that she’s not in the main story mode — something the animated movie could fix by giving her a more prominent role in the fight against the Regime. Her ending gives her a kickass backstory where she returns to the cowl after her father dies at Superman’s hands. The comics go deeper into this, even making it so that Superman doesn’t directly kill Commissioner Gordon.

In this continuity, she was already wheelchair-bound as Oracle. She had to go under a very dangerous procedure under Luthor’s care in order to walk again. This is one of the storylines that could make for a captivating arc in the movie.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred isn’t in either Injustice game. He’s already dead by the start of the first game. But I don’t care. Alfred needs to be in the animated movie because he is the heart and soul of the Injustice comics. While others bow to Superman, follow him, or even try to reason with him, Alfred Pennyworth doesn’t play those games. He will straight-up verbally clown Superman for his actions without flinching. He is not afraid of the Kryptonian, no matter how red his glowing eyes get.

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This comes to a head in the comics when Alfred takes a pill that gives him Kryptonian strength and he kicks the absolute shit out of Superman for ruining his family. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I simply need to see Alfred stomp a mudhole in Superman so hard that his own shoe explodes from the impact.

The post 10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

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imaginedisish · 6 years ago

Text

Atlas: Touch (Five Hargreeves x Reader) (The Umbrella Academy)

A/N: HEEEYYY GUYS!!! So this is based off of a request I got today, and something I personally wanted to write. (The whole Five comforting the reader thing) The title + kinda sad nature of it all is based on Atlas: Touch by Sleeping At Last. I feel like this may be kind of a mess, but it’s honestly because today was just such a bad day. SOOOO ANYWAY, THIS IS GONNA BE A TWO PARTER!!!! YAYAYAY!!! Also, it’s a little shorter than what I normally write because of that...Soooo just be aware of that...now ENJOY!

Summary: Five comforts the reader after having a vision she really wished hadn’t seen...(Reader can see the future)

Warnings: References to murder, killing, blood, language, implied panic attack, a really terrible childhood, angst, cliffhanger (that will be resolved in part 2) FLUFF!

Word Count: 2,381

The wind is harsh and brisk, passing straight through your body as it eradicates any sense of warmth you once felt. A chill rolls down your spine, and a feeling of uneasiness fills your gut. The area around you was barren of life, save a large, vibrantly colored sycamore tree far off in the distance. Its presence made no sense, since there was no other sort of growth in the area.

It was almost dream like. You look up at the lightless night sky. Not a single star was shining. The moon was nowhere to be seen. It was dark, ominous, and strangely malevolent in sensation.

“Where the hell am I?” You ask yourself.

Then, you see a familiar shape lying under the tree.

“Five?” You call out as you begin to make your way over to him.

No answer.

“Five?” Your voice echoes back to you.

No answer again. You squint, trying to get a better look at Five. He wasn’t in his Academy uniform. He was wearing a Bowie shirt, with a flannel over it, and dark blue jeans. You walk a bit closer, and you start to see more.

In the center of his chest, you notice something dark, something staining through his shirt. In the center appears to be some sort of a hole.

Then, it hits you.

The dark stain was blood, and the hole must have been where a bullet entered Five’s chest.

Five had been shot, and you weren’t there to stop it. You were too late.

“NO!” You cry out.

You break out into a sprint, rushing over to him as fast as you possibly could. “Five!” You scream as you come closer to the great big tree. Suddenly, crows burst into flight from the branches of the tree, their shrilling squawks shaking you up a bit.

Finally, you approach Five. You kneel down by his side. Tears well up in your eyes. “F-Five?” You croak, swallowing harshly. You grab his shoulders. “F-Five, p-please. Stay with me, please!”

No answer.

You extend your index and middle finger underneath the right end of Five’s jawline, searching for a pulse. “P-please, p-please s-stay with m-me,” You stutter. You refuse to move your fingers, even though you feel absolutely nothing.

You shut your eyes tightly, and tears begin to stream down your cheeks at free will. You collapse in Five’s lap, sobbing heavily. You chant incoherently, “Wake up, wake up, wake up.” But he doesn’t. He can’t

He’s gone.

The crows that had left seconds ago return again, circling around the tree, cackling their cacophonous cries, telling the gods above that they had correctly predicted yet another death.

Then, there’s nothing by darkness. “Five!” You scream as you open your eyes, pushing yourself up in your bed. Light fills the room, but you can’t fight the overwhelming darkness you feel deep down inside.

Rain patters loudly against the window next to you as a tear slides down your cheek. You take a deep breath, but it feels like the air that once filled your room was sucked out by some sort of vacuum. The walls feel as though they are closing in. Your heart beats rapidly in your chest.

What the hell just happened? You ask yourself.

Your visions had been growing worse lately, but that specific one had taken you by surprise. Your visions never showed how something would truly happen, but they would give you some sort of intimation as to what would come to pass. Five and the rest of the Hargreeves swore to help you learn to use and control your abilities the minute they met you. They promised that with their help, you could dive deeper, and figure out more about your premonitions.

It was hard, of course, when you couldn’t stand to experience whatever it was you saw. All your life, you couldn’t stand your power. Most of your visions came on without warning, and depicted terrible, horrendous things. Worst of all, you were unable to control who’s future you saw.

Yes, being able to see the future could be a blessing at times. But, more often than not, you felt as though it was a burden. You had grown up in foster care, which had only added to your stress as a child. Not only did you deal with a power you couldn’t control, but you had no one to depend on. Your outbursts due to your premonitions caused you to move around quite a bit. Every foster parent you had deemed you “impossible,” which ruined your chances at becoming adopted. Kids bullied you from group home to group home, and you struggled to stay stable. One fateful day, when you finally felt as though you had enough, you ran away.

You planned to move to New York, and pursue music, the one thing that helped you throughout your life.

You stopped for some coffee at Griddy’s on your way out of town, and that was when you met Five. The minute he sat down next to you, you had a premonition: Five would temporarily lose his powers, causing him to be captured and tortured by The Commission.

It was often obvious to those around you when you had your premonitions, since you essentially travel to a dream world in some distant stream of you consciousness. Five immediately knew that something was wrong.

“I’m sorry, but are you alright?” He asked. You decided to take a chance on Five, and explain to him what it was you saw. There was something about him that told you he was just like you; he was a dysfuctional outcast, who simply wanted to be loved.

By the end of your conversation with Five, about what you had foreseen, as well as your powers, Five decided it would be best for you to come back to the Academy with him.

You had nowhere to go, no one to take you in. Somehow, running off with some seventeen year old boy who could move through time became your best bet.

Over the course of the last few months, you and that very same seventeen year old boy had created an unbreakable bond. Your childhood made you feel unlovable, and Five made you feel the exact opposite. Five cared about you. He was usually sarcastic and nonchalant with people. But with you, he was kind, and sweet. He made you feel like things were going to be okay, or possibly even better than okay.

Maybe things could be…good, just for once, You thought to yourself.

Most importantly, Five was the first person to ever say those eight words to you:

“I hate most people, but I love you.”

You hadn’t expected him to feel anything for you. Your whole life you felt worthless, and unwanted. But Five wanted you. He saw how incredibly special and important you were.

“I love you too,” You said back.

It was abundantly clear that you couldn’t lose Five. Not now. Not after everything you had told him, not after all of the late nights that you two had stayed up talking. You had built a relationship with him, and it was the first relationship that had ever truly mattered to you.

Suddenly, a knock at the door brings you back to reality. You look in the mirror across the room, revealing your puffy, tear filled eyes and red, soaked cheeks. You swallow harshly, frantically reaching over to the tissue box on your nightstand.

“(Y/N)?” Five calls, knocking again. “Are you okay?” You can’t speak. Everything hurts far too much. You look over to the door, and watch as the knob twists, and the door creaks open.

Five’s crystal blue eyes meet yours. He studies your face, instantly recognizes how disheveled and destroyed you look. You break down again, simply at the sight of him. You sob heavily. “I-I d-don’t kn-know what t-to d-do F-…” You choke on your words. Five rushes over to you, wrapping his arms tightly around your shivering body.

“What happened?” Five questions softly. “Did someone hurt you?” His tone immediately changes at the thought that someone did this to you. “I swear to God I’ll fucking kill whoever did this.”

“N-no o-one h-hurt m-me,” You stutter. “I-I c-can’t t-take th-this a-anymore Five, I can’t d-do this sh-shit anymore,” You say in between sobs. “I can’t fucking do this.”

Five furrows his brows, and presses a soft kiss to the side of your head. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” He whispers. “Shuuuush, it’s okay, I’m right here.” Five’s voice is soft and low. He holds you tighter, rocking you lightly back and forth. “I’ve got you now.”

You press your face into Five’s chest, sobbing heavily. You couldn’t breathe. “I-It’s n-not o-okay,” You struggled to say. Five pulls you in even tighter. “I-I saw something, F-Five. F-fuck, I-I c-can’t lose you.”

Five’s fingers gently come through your hair. “You aren’t going to lose me,” Five coos. But his words cut like a knife. Truth was, you knew you were going to. Everything felt so overwhelming. It felt like a family of elephants had sat on your chest, and your respiratory system could no longer function because of it. The walls of your room continue to close in on you and Five.

You pull apart from Five for a second, trying to catch your breath. “E-everything is too much. I c-can’t h-hande my p-powers anymore,” You cry out. “I can’t j-just be happy, for once? Things can’t just stay good, for once in my life?” You’re screaming now. “Of course all of this was too good to be true. I don’t deserve any of this! I’m nothing, and no one. I’m worthless shit!” More tears stream down your cheeks.

Pain and confusion spread across Five’s face. He inches closer to you, wrapping his arms around you yet again. You bury your face in his neck. “You are enough, (Y/N). You are more than enough. Everything anyone has ever lead you to believe about who you are, and what you’re worth, is absolute bullshit,” Five coos, his hands rubbing gently against your back. “I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Y-you d-don’t know that. I’m going to lose you, Five,” You sob.

“Tell me what happened,” Five whispers. “Where did all of this come from?” He asks.

You swallow harshly, preparing yourself to explain to Five what you had seen. “I-I h-had a premonition,” You pause, attempting to collect your thoughts. “Y-you, w-well y-you…” You trail off, pulling away from Five. You study his face, his piercing blue eyes, his chocolate brown hair. A single tear falls from your eye and rolls down your jawline “Y-you d-died. Y-you’re g-going t-to…” You can’t go on. Five pulls you in again.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Five says, his fingers combing through your hair again. “You aren’t going to lose me. It was just a vision. For all we know, it’ll remain a vision. It might not turn into anything more.”

You sniffle. “I know what I saw. Five, s-someone i-is g-going to sh-shoot y-you.”

Five stops playing with you hair, and he has no response. Silence looms over the room. Unfortunately, your visions were more ‘accurate’ if they showed a specific cause of death, and the bullet wound in Five’s chest was a clear and specific cause of death.

“Wh-what a-are we going t-to do?” You ask, pulling away from Five. For once in his life, Five is at a loss for words. He always had some sort of response for everything. He always had some sort of answer. Sometimes, it came off as cocky, or smug, but regardless, he always knew what to do. He always had a plan.

This time, however, was different. This could very well be the end of everything.

Five swallows harshly, his ocean eyes searching yours as if it was the last time he would ever be able to see you. “I-I d-don’t know,” Five says, standing up. He begins to pace back and forth. “Do you know who k-killed me?” Five asks.

“N-no, but you were under a sycamore tree. I don’t know what was so important about that, but that was…well, that was where I f-found y-you,” You explain.

Five shakes his head. “Maybe it’s The Handler, or The Commission,” Five begins to pace faster, his steps becoming more rushed and frantic. “Are you sure it was a bullet wound? Maybe Vanya somehow escaped again? Maybe it was her?”

You simply shake your head, unable to give Five a real answer. It’s impossible for you to form coherent thoughts or sentences at a time like this. Whoever killed Five could be anyone, or anything. Maybe Vanya did escape, and maybe she found a gun. Maybe The Handler caught Five messing with time again, or found something new to blame him for. Nevertheless, everything was happening so quickly. All hell was breaking loose.

“Is there anything else you noticed about what you saw, anything that could help us?” Five questions. He stops pacing, and sits back down on the bed next to you.

“Wh-when I f-found y-you, i-it was night,” You explain, sniffling a bit. You remember what he was wearing when you found him. “You had on a Bowie shirt, and a flannel, and jeans.”

Five scratches the back of his neck anxiously. “That’s what I was going to wear today. I had the day planned for us. I was hoping you’d want to go see a showing of The Man Who Fell to Earth at that old theater downtown…” Five trials off.

Tears continue to stream down your cheeks. “Th-then t-today i-is…” You don’t have the strength to finish your sentence.

“Not if we don’t go out. Maybe we can cheat death,” Five’s eyes light up with hope.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

To Be Continued…

tags: @drawingsupernova

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the-blind-assassin-12 · 5 years ago

Text

Too Good To Be True - Intro

A/N: This is a continuation of the Christmas mini-series Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like... and I am having a blast with it, so I hope you enjoy it too. This portion serves as a bridge between that 3-parter and the main story, which will take place a few months after the holidays. But first, there’s a conversation that needs to be had.

Word Count: 2,050

Warnings: British snark and devilish plotting.

“Where were you?” The words came out of the dark kitchen in that well practiced tone of hers, the one she used when she thought that a person deserved to feel guilty for whatever new tragedy she’d become the victim of. A thin tendril of steam swirled before her face, rising from the tea that she clutched in her hands, like an elixir that could undo all of her mistakes and rewrite them the way that she’d altered them in her own memory. In the cool blue light of predawn, he didn’t need to see the tears on her face to know that they were there, or the balled up tissues on the table streaked with yesterday’s mascara. Brava, mum, another top performance.

“Out,” Leo answered, letting the back door swing shut behind him. Julia jumped as though she didn’t know how hinges worked or that when you let go of a door, it slams.

“Out.” She echoed in that damn tone, as thin as the wisps of steam and vanishing in the air just the same. “Out, on Christmas.”

Leo sighed as he pulled a carton of juice from the refrigerator, unscrewing the cap and leaning against the open door. The harsh white light cut into the kitchen causing Julia to squint, only playing into the hurt expression on her face. “Yeah,” he huffed, bringing the juice carton to his lips. “Had someone to see.”

She scoffed as he took a drink, the sound somewhere between a dismissive snort and an incredulous but mirthless laugh. “Someone to see? On Christmas?” Yes you old bat. “Who’ve you gone to see then, hmm? Not your father, surely?”

His blood boiled at the idea. “‘Course not. Got nothin’ to say to him.”

“Not your brother, not Della.” She had one of the tissues in her hand, dabbing under her eyes with it as she rattled off names.

“Della’s run off to join Emily’s family, hasn’t she? And who can blame her?” He closed the refrigerator, plunging them back into the early morning semi-darkness, that hour or so between days when it could be the 25th or the 26th depending on which side of sleep you stood on. “Emily’s family are all normal. All people you’d want to be around. And Patrick?” Now it was his turn for a scoff. “He’s the one I should look up to, is he? He’s the shining example I should model myself after?” Fucking wanker would like that wouldn’t he? “Face it, mum, the family? It’s a lie.”

“And me?” She leaned around her chair, reaching out into the empty space between them to emphasize her loneliness. “Your mother? You left me alone for Christmas and-”

“Yes, alright? Yeah. I left you. That’s what you want me to say, isn’t it? I left my mum on Christmas.” He tilted his head back, eyes raised to the ceiling in exasperation. “And what’s that got to do with it at all anyway, huh? When did you start to care if I was around on holidays?” Dropping his chin, he stepped closer to the table and gripped the back of one of the wooden chairs. “When you lost everyone else, right?”

He watched her flounder between protests, eyebrows twitching and lips quivering as “What?” And “Leo, how could you think..?” And “That’s not true!” poured from them.

“Mum, mum, c’mon stop,” Leo held up both hands, still leaning his lower half against the chair. “Leave it, will you? I’m tired.” He let out a burst of air and let his shoulders fall. “I’m so… Aren’t you tired of it? Of all the fucking pretending? Just… just leave it, alright? I don’t want to have this fight again.”

“Fight? It’s not a fight, Leo. It’s not a fight when a mother asks her son where he’s gone and spent Christmas!” She stood then, throwing her tissue prop at the table. “It’s not a fight for a mother to know where her son-“

“Twenty seven! I’m twenty fucking seven! You missed out on your give a shit years, alright?”

She capped her act off by pulling a face of injured shock, sucking in a gasp as her hand went to her chest. “How dare you?” She hissed, recoiling back down into her chair. “How dare you say that I didn’t care about you, Leo. You were my…” She fell off into tears, a fat one splashing onto the tabletop.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Your what, then? Go on, finish that thought.” Here we go folks, the big finale.

“You were my perfect little boy. My…”

“Your perfect little lie, you mean.” He nodded, eyes wide. “Yeah. I know. I know what you think. You think that...that, that everything you did for me was right and perfect and good. You think I didn’t realize that Patrick and Della ignored me? You think they couldn’t tell that you treated me differently?” He leaned down to make eye contact. “You think you were protecting me, mum, by keeping everything about this family a secret from me, but really? Really? You were protecting yourself. You were protecting this idea of yourself that you were this perfect mother. Selfless. Giving. Close.” He stood back to his full height and she followed him with her red rimmed eyes. “But you just didn’t want to admit that everything, all of it, was crashing down round your feet.” He actually didn’t want to be doing this, didn’t want that look on her face, all etched with pain and confusion, and he wondered how far his words could possibly penetrate this late in the game. But at least I’ve said it. I haven’t held it in pretending it’s not true.

The sky outside was brightening, the sun rising enough so that they could see one another more clearly, the room and its contents and all the things that had been said in the dark now coming to light. Leo felt some tension release from his back as he sighed, Julia letting go of the rest of her held breath, reclaiming the rumpled tissue with a sniff. “Well.” She cleared her throat and focused on his face. “That still doesn’t answer my question. So where were you? Who were you with? Callie?” She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

You had to, couldn’t resist, could you? Leo swallowed the venom, letting her take the low road alone this time. I’ll stick to middle ground.

“No, couldn’t have been, could you have? She’s not speaking to you anymore, is she?”

Go on, turn the screw then, it’s the last one you’ve got. “She didn’t want to follow her mother’s mistake,” he shrugged. “Didn’t want to fall in with one of us vile Day men.” He saw the flash in her eyes and knew that she’d felt the jab. “If you must know, mum, and I’m sure you’ve done the math now, but if you absolutely must hear it from me, I went to see Benjamin.” Cue gasp.

“What? Why...Benjamin?” She shook her head, her hands falling to her lap, the fingers of her right hand tracing the base of her left ring finger. All the acting, all the drama, all the rehearsed reactions couldn’t prepare her for the genuine shock of hearing her ex-husband’s name. “Why would you go to see him?”

The way she curled her lip around the last word made it clear that she’d already started to re-write that memory, too. “Because it occurred to me recently, mum, that good old Benjamin is the only person that I actually know. Once you two came clean ‘bout yourselves, he never lied about anything. He was only ever himself, and he didn’t want anything from you, mum, I don’t give a shit what Dad or Patrick said. You chased him off, always accusing him of… of what? Taking what you gave him? But look. Look, you were wrong, because he didn’t even take anything from you when he left, did he? He could have. You know it and so does he. He could have taken half of everything you never had to work for, but he didn’t, did he?” Julia’s eyes had grown round and glassy as she scratched at a knot in the grain of the table. “Did he?”

“No,” she barely whispered the word.

“No.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So I figured I’d spend Christmas with the one person who hasn’t lied to me in all of this, and you know what? It was the best decision I could have made because for once, for one time, I got to be a part of a happy Christmas, with a normal family, who didn’t all have to walk on bloody eggshells round each other.” He extended his wrists out, the undersides clapped together. “Go on, arrest me. I enjoyed Christmas.”

“A family?” She ignored everything he said about getting the chance to enjoy Christmas, and went straight to the part that she could use to pity herself with. Of course. “He’s got...a family?”

“Oi don’t go off the deep end, there’s no babies involved or anything. But he’s got himself someone new, and they’re happy, and her family? They love him.” He gestured with one hand to express just how well Benjamin had gotten on with your family.

“What’s...what’s she like, then? Is she-”

“God, no. I’m not doing this, okay? She’s nice. She’s nice and smart and she’s funny and that’s all you’re getting from me.” I’m not gossiping with you over tea like old girlfriends. “Listen,” he knocked his knuckles against the back of the chair. “I’m going back to school. I’ve already decided, and I’m going back for a degree. Business. I’m gonna work for a few months, save up, but Della’s agreed to sublet her old apartment to me now that she’s moved in with Emily and I figured,” he shrugged. “I’m better off finding work in London than out here in the...well, all the way out here. So I’ve just come back to pack up. I’ll be out of your hair in a few days, mum, and then you can go on properly with your grudges.” He let go of the chair. “Honestly, I think it will be better for us, some space. Maybe next Christmas will be different.” Julia nodded, chewing at her bottom lip. “Now, I really am tired. I’m gonna go get some sleep before I get packing.” He waited for an acknowledgement that didn’t come, so he turned on his heel and headed out towards the hallway. “You know,” he turned back in the doorway, gripping the frame and leaning into the kitchen. “I didn’t want this to be...look. I’m sorry this is how it is, mum, I really am. But this is what we’ve got, and I’ve got to find a way to make it work for me.” You can understand that, can’t you?

“I know,” she said, still staring at the table, voice still wispy and injured. Alright well, I tried. He released the doorframe and vanished, heading up the stairs to the room he’d grown up in.

. . . . .

But it wasn’t the table that Julia was focused so intently on anymore. It was a phone- Leo’s phone. Hesitantly, she reached for it, swiping away the lock screen. Leo had never bothered to set a lock, because he never left his phone unattended. The fact that he had now would have illustrated to Julia how unhappy it really did make him to have to make these decisions, cut these ties, but that would require her to overlook her own ends and means. What she focused on instead as she tapped at the screen, was retrieving the last address that he’d looked up- yours.

Soon, she had your address, your name, your profession and a list of your accomplishments, all thanks to the internet and a quick Google search. She even had your picture. Making sure that she returned Leo’s phone to the exact spot where he’d left it, she gathered the wad of used tissues and her unfinished tea. Dumping the tissues in the bin and the tea down the drain, she headed out to the greenhouse to trim her ferns and turn everything she’d just learned over in her mind.

@something-tofightfor @its-my-little-dumpster-fire @suchatinyinfinity @thesumofmychoices @gollyderek @malionnes @becs-bunker @warriorqueenofnarnia @elanor-of-imladris @traeumerinwitzhelden @songtoyou @michellemybelles-world @obscurilicious @breanime

please let me know if you would like to be added or removed!

#too good to be true #TGTBT #Benjamin Greene #Gold Digger Benjamin #GD #benjamin greene x reader #benjamin greene x you #julia day #LEO MY FAVORITE #gold digger fanfic

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memory-bees · 5 years ago

Text

Hanahaki

Parts: I II Warnings: Gore, Death, Vomiting, Suicide Mention, Body Horror, Hanahaki Disease Pairings: Original Characters Throughout Babey A/N: This is a two parter, the second part will be posted later today along with the ao3 link. Also, the hanahaki disease isn’t explained that well, so fair warning, also the start of me posting original writing on Tumblr!!

---

‘ Hanahaki Disease: A disease which is the effect of the patient’s romantic feelings being unrequited. This causes a flower to grow in the patient's lungs, which will grow until it renders breathing impossible. The disease can be cured with the roots being removed, but the operation renders the patient incapable of having romantic feelings. It can also be cured if the patient's feelings are returned.

Symptoms: Coughing/vomiting up blood and flower petals, difficulty breathing. ’

He swallowed and looked up at the doctor. He felt something rise in his throat and he quickly grabbed the trash bin to cough up whatever it was in his throat. He pulled away and grimaced when he saw the yellow, blood-covered. petals. He looked up at the doctor, and she shrugged helplessly.

“You’d still be able to feel platonic love and familial love, just not romantic feelings,” She reminded him, “nobody's really survived without the operation.”

He was quiet for a few minutes before saying, “You say that like people have before.”

She smiled sadly and nodded, she tucked some of her red hair behind her ear. She scratched her cheek as she spoke, “Well, yes, but there’s only about three hundred out of the millions who are affected every year.”

He nodded and swallowed, he could still taste the almost plastic of the flower petals.

There was an uneasy quietness that had settled in the room. A woman was crying down the hall, a man screaming in agony. Maybe they had just lost a child, or maybe they were siblings and they had just lost a parent.

The thought of lost love made more petals rise in his throat and he quickly spat them into the trash. He grimaced at the smell of stale blood that had settled there. He stared down at the petals and hesitantly grabbed one from the puddle of new and old blood. He stared at it and looked up at the doctor, she smiled slightly and grabbed it from him.

She wiped away the blood from the yellow petal, she glanced back up at the taller man, who was clearly weak from the illness.

“It’s a sunflower petal, you have a good chance that the person you love has feelings for you too.” The doctor said, trying to give her patient some hope.

He smiled at her and nodded, “I’ll think about the operation, and, uh, just a quick question, will I still be able to work?”

The doctor nodded, adjusting her shirt. “Yes, at least until the flower makes it too hard to breathe. What do you do for work?”

“I’m the manager at the local grocery store, I also bag items there too.” He explained, getting up from the table and walking to the door.

Before the doctor could say anything else, he walked out of the room and down the hall. He passed a few people before he had to cough again, he covered his mouth with his hand, sighing at the sight of the bloody flower petals sticking to his hand. Somebody passing him noticed and gasped.

The woman touched his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look, “I’m so sorry.”

He nodded and continued to walk on, grabbing a wet wipe and wiping off his hand. He couldn’t shake the look the woman had, or what she had said. It was almost as if she was saying sorry for a death, almost like he was already dead.

He went on to his car and quickly got in. He buckled his seat belt and started to drive. He was going to die, but he wasn’t going to die because of a car accident.

—

When he got home he was almost immediately surrounded by his friends. They pulled him to sit on the couch, staring at him intently.

“So?” His brother asked, tapping his foot rapidly. “What did the doctor say?”

He swallowed and looked down, he licked his lips. He couldn’t seem to get the taste of stale blood out of his mouth these days. What was he supposed to say? That he was fine? Tell them the truth?

He finally made his choice and took a deep breath, his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest as he made his confession.

“I was right. It’s Hanahaki Disease.”

The room went silent instantly, it was like a morgue. Or like a funeral room already full of mourners. He looked up and around at his friends. He didn’t want to die, not this young. His eyes finally landed on the one who had caused him his illness. They made eye contact for a second before he looked away.

“W-what’re you gonna do?”

He shrugged helplessly, patting his youngest brother on the shoulder.

“I’ll figure something out, don’t worry.”

They all watched as he stood up and left the room.

—

He sat in the living room and watched as the older man walked out. He looked around at his friends and they all looked down when they heard the horrible coughing come from his room.

He knew what he should do, but what if it wasn’t him causing it? He shook his head minutely and leaned his elbows on his knees. He was sat on the floor cross-legged. He didn’t know what to do, he felt horrible.

They all looked up when they heard rapid footsteps come out of the man’s room and into the bathroom. They all knew what was happening.

He swallowed and stood up, “I’ll go check on ‘im.”

And as he left the others dispersed out of the room. He sighed and slowly walked into the bathroom, frowning when he saw the other man was still vomiting. He walked over and kneeled down behind him, rubbing his back gently.

The touch almost instantly caused another wave of half-digested food, blood, and flower petals to spill out of his mouth. His frown deepened and he brushed his friend’s golden-brown hair away from his forehead.

“You’re gonna be okay.” He whispered, still rubbing his back.

The older man laughed softly and nodded, “I sure hope so.”

—

He didn’t want to die, but lord he sure felt like he was going to every time he breathed. The sickness was starting to take its hold on him, on certain parts of his arms you could see the stems start to poke out from underneath his skin. He felt tired all the time, out of breath. He could still hold down most food, that was good.

But he was vomiting and coughing up the petals and tiny flowers more often, that wasn’t good. But he had developed an odd sort of appreciation for sunflowers. He had looked for the meaning in an old gardening book the person who had caused this illness owned.

‘ Sunflowers are symbols of adoration, loyalty, and longevity. ’

He thought the longevity part of the meaning was funny, seeing as the flower was slowly killing him from the inside out. He had also become oddly at peace with the thought of death, the idea of it. The concept of just not living anymore.

He didn’t want it to happen though, obviously, nobody did. Who wanted to die? nobody. Unless you were suicidal, of course. But he wasn’t, he still wanted to live. He still wanted to be able to get married, to the person who was causing him his illness, of course.

He sighed and leaned against the wall, it hurt to breathe. He had gone in for an x-ray yesterday, the flower was occupying almost half of his lungs now. He’d need to stop the physical labor soon. Maybe even now, his boss would understand. He had said he’d still pay him the double wage while he was sick.

Everybody acted like they were walking on eggshells around him since he had been diagnosed too. That was the worst part of the whole thing, he didn’t want people to think he was dying.

He sat at the table, a piece of paper in front of him and a pencil. He grabbed the pencil and started to write.

‘ Dear Quill,

I love you, ’

Before he could continue writing he had to cough up some more petals, he swallowed when he saw how many more petals were mixed into the blood. Was that normal?

He shook the thought off and started to write again

‘ I love you, please don’t blame yourself for the illness. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. Please don’t hate me, and don’t let anyone tell you it’s your fault for me being sick. ’

More petals, that was barely a minute between coughs. That wasn’t normal, and he knew that. He also noticed how much harder it was to breathe, was the letter speeding the growth up? God, he hoped not. He just had to finish the letter, then he’d be okay with dying.

‘ I love you, please don’t blame yourself for the illness. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. Please don’t hate me, and don’t let anyone tell you it’s your fault for me being sick. I love you unconditionally, hence the flower currently suffocating me. ’

More petals. More blood.

‘ Just know that I love you. ’

He coughed up more petals, an entire flower coming with it He was dying. He was dying right now. He’d surely die if he kept writing this letter. And in all honesty, he couldn’t bring himself to care.

‘ I love you. I love you. I l ’

He pushed the paper away from him, grabbing the trash can and heaving more and more petals, blood, and small sunflowers into it. He felt the vines start to make their way out of his mouth and around his neck. He started to panic and grabbed and pulled at the vines, but he couldn’t pull them loose.

He started to feel hot, he couldn’t breathe. Plant vines were wrapping themselves around his neck and squeezing, so that made sense. He didn’t want to die, he felt tears start fall down his face, but he couldn’t tell if they were water or blood.

He fell forward onto the table, reaching for his phone, it would be helpful if he could manage to talk. He brushed the screen with his fingertips, the cold glass the last thing he felt. He tried to scream as he felt the vines start to invade his body. He was suffocating. He tugged weakly at the vines at his neck. He choked out a final word, that no one except the walls and the table and flower would be able to hear.

“Quill..."

—

He and the rest of their friends all screamed when they saw the body lying limply at the table. He rushed forward to the older man, his heart-stopping when he saw the pale skin, still open eye and sunflower hanging out of the man’s mouth.

He was too late. The other man was gone. He was frozen in place, helpless to do anything else but stare at the corpse. He wanted to run, he wanted to run as far away as his legs could take him. But his legs were seemingly glued to the tile floor. Everything else was a blur, all he could do was stare at the corpse.

The body was covered with vines and flowers and blood. The flowers were sprouting out from his skin and underneath his clothes. The vines were wrapped tightly around his neck, blood spilling over them in some places. The sunflower in his mouth was covered in blood and there seemed to be a bit of his lungs. The thought made his stomach churn. The blood in his veins had been replaced with vines.

On his arms, the vines had forced themselves from out of his muscles and skin, blood pouring down his arms. His face was tinted a faint purple, the green vines more prominent under his eyes and on his cheeks. One of his eyes had been replaced with one of the bright yellow flowers. The blood dried to his face, but still pouring off his nose and dripping onto the wood of the table.

It could’ve been beautiful. It could’ve been if it hadn’t been so bloody. If it hadn’t been so disgustingly grotesque. If it hadn’t been a million more things. It would’ve been beautiful if it hadn’t been him.

He noticed the letter, that it had his name on it. He pulled it out from underneath the vine wrapped arm. He started to read it but couldn’t get past the first five words without wanting to vomit, the taste of acid stinging his tongue.

He was in shock, staring at the body of the man in front of him. It wasn’t just any man though, was it. It was him. It was Alden, it was his Alden. The man he met in the third grade, the man he had slowly fallen in love with in Junior year of high school.

His throat felt like sandpaper and he coughed into his hand, his blood running cold when he saw the flower petals. They were Anemone petals. ‘ Anemone: Forsaken, forgotten love, affection. ’

#Original Work #Original Writing #Original Story #Hanahaki Disease #Writing #My Writing #Tw Gore #Tw Body Horror #Tw Vomiting #Tw Suicide Mention #tw hanahaki #Tw Death

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dashesofink · 5 years ago

Text

Of Flowers and Pain

Drabble: “One last request for Raymond and I’ll leave you alone for a bit! Can you do a fic and incorporate the Hanahaki disease? Kinda like an !au or smth like that. Your choice to make it happy or sad. Thanks on advance!”

Pairings: Raymond de Merville x Reader

Word Count: 2259

Warnings: mentions of blood

Main Taglist: @legolaslovely @c4ts4ndstuff @t00-many-th0ughts @fizzyxcustard

A/N: I think I might turn this into a two-parter request!! What do y’all think??

The pain that constantly bubbled in your throat and stomach was bad enough, but seeing the cause of your pain was almost too much to bare. People knew of the disease you had, as almost everyone in your village had experienced the damned thing by now. If not, they were destined to succumb to it eventually. It was difficult, coming up with ways to excuse yourself when he was constantly in your pub, hoping that you would make it out in time to vomit out the earthy build in your throat without him knowing. Each day the petals were a new color. Each day the thorns from their stems ravaged your throat. Each day the blood came out thicker. You knew if you didn’t tell him of your feelings you wouldn’t survive much longer. But the thought of him not loving you back was almost as painful as your disease, if not more. If he rejected you, rejected your feelings, surely you would die a slow and painful death. That was how the disease worked.

“You must tell him, y/n.” A gentle hand smoothed circles into your back. A hot, stabbing pain lining the muscles of your throat, tears trailing heavily down your cheeks as you watched the blood soaked flowers landed on the muddy ground with a splash. “My darling, please!” The hydrous blood splashed against your old boots when the last flower fell past your lips, your now red lips forming into a deep grimace.

“I cannot.” Your voice was hoarse, a loud cough bubbling in your throat and tearing at the fresh wounds as you doubled over again. No flowers came this time. “I fear he does not feel the same.” Your friend understood the dread that lingered in the pit of your stomach. You had expressed your fears of rejection to her many times, yet she still believed that there was a chance of the soldier returning your feelings for him. “I would rather continue with this pain then to die such as I migh.” She flinched when you shot her a stern glare, your hair falling into your face as you wiped the blood away from your lips. The red stained the sleeve of your tunic, yet you didn’t seem to care anymore.

“Y/n, please you must—“

“I don’t need to do anything like that.” You were stern in your ways. Death wasn’t something you feared. It was inevitable. But the choice you had to make was either death by flowers or death by rejection and then flowers. Neither sounded appealing, but you felt he wouldn’t feel the same. After all, you were just a lowly barmaid. Why would he love you? “What I need to do is get back to work.”

With one last pointed look you spun on your heel, the mud under your feet kicking up into the hem of your skirts before you stomped back to work. The air was thick and humid, and the mud under your feet continued to slosh and stick to your clothing as you hurried through the village and back to the pub. The closer you got the louder the pub grew, it’s current customers either already drunk or well on their way to being drunk. You hated working in the pub. But you didn’t have a choice. You weren’t born into royalty, nor did you family possess any large sums of money. It was either work as a barmaid or not work at all and not support your family. The later was something you tried to avoid at all costs.

“Aye, back from your little stroll, y/n?” The owner of the pub, Mathis, gave you a grim smile. He knew how the disease was affecting you, and he was gracious enough to let you leave whenever you felt the flowers burn your throat. You gave a small nod before snatching the old rag from his hands, and before you pushed your way behind the wooden counter he gave your shoulder a heavy pat. “He’s still here; back corner, to the left.” He warned low and close to your ear, his dark eyes trailing to said corner before he scurried off to deal with some rowdy customers.

Of course he’s still here. Luck would have it that the cause of your pain was still in the pub, a large tankard of ale in his strong hands as the men around him chattered about. You knew better than to look over to him. You already had to leave once today, who knew if you would have to leave twice in an hour to relieve your gut and throat of the burning flowers and blood. But you did. You kept your hands occupied by cleaning a few empty tankards as your eyes drifted to the corner in the left. Dark hair sat messy atop his head and fell against his forehead, his azure eyes scanning the crowd in the pub. Dirt was dusted across his skin, making the lines and scars that littered his hands and face seem darker than they should’ve been. Even tired and covered in dirt and grime he was handsome.

You watched as his fingers twitch and tighten around the wooden tankard. His thin lips were turned into a small scowl when one of his men bumped his shoulder, the ale in his cup sloshing around and over the rim of the cup. While usually he would’ve gotten up to punish the man who disturbed him, he remained seated, only bringing the now half-empty tankard to his lips to guzzle his beverage. He set the tankard on to the table with a slam, swiping his hand over his lips before he turned to the man next to him. It was then that you tore your gaze from him. You couldn’t bare to watch him any longer.

“Still pining after Raymond, I see!” Your blood turned to ice when a shrill voice suddenly sounded throughout the pub. The chatter amongst the drunkards and other customers dwindled and eyes turned when a familiar face sauntered into view. “I’m surprised, y/n,” Thick curls bounced around her round cheeks, her bright red lips turned into an evil smirk while she swayed her hips. Your eyes blew wide the closer she got to the bar, and if it wasn’t for the counter in front of you the tankard in your fingers would’ve fallen smack into the floor. The sound of your name seemed to echoed off of the wooden walls in the pub, and suddenly dozens of eyes were looking to you, watching as your face grew pale. “Thought you would’ve made it known by now.”

“Esmée, please.” Your lips began to tremble when she came to a stop in front of you, only the wooden counter separating you from her. She leaned in close, smacking her lips after chuckling at the terrified look in your eyes. She no longer had the disease. A painful surgery was the only thing— aside from your love admitting to loving you back— that could remove it, but that surgery was costly, and only her family seemed to have the money for it. You hated the way she flaunted it, showed off that she no longer had to suffer through flowers and blood. “You don’t need to do this.”

“Oh I know, sweetheart.” Esmée’s manicured fingers reaches forward to brush some hair behind your ear. She pulled away almost immediately after dragging her nails across your skin in a taunting manner. Your heart was racing when she turned away from you, your hands trembling with horror when you saw where she had locked her gaze; Raymond. Her hips swayed tauntingly as she neared him, pushing past the drunks the crowded the pub. Your eyes blew wide and suddenly you were moving forward, hands desperately reaching to grab her. However you suddenly found yourself being held back, the strong grip of a soldier holding you in place.

“No, let me go!” Your terror filled eyes locked with the battle-worn soldiers. He kept his grip firm. You continued to struggle even when you turned away from him, your eyes suddenly meeting a pair of piercing blue ones. You froze again. Raymond had been watching the entire scene, eyes filled with curiosity as he kept a tight grip on his tankard. You paled again, keeping your eyes locked with his for a moment longer before he looked to Esmée. You felt your knees knock together when she sat upon his lap, her arm thrown over his neck as she traced circles on to his chest. You suddenly felt sick. A familiar liquid bubbled in your gut, your eyes blowing wide again when a burning sensation grew in your throat. No. Not again!

Your not sure what came over you, but your foot slammed down on to the soldiers foot hard and fast. A single yell of pain echoed throughout the watching pub, eyes turning to you once again to see you drive your elbow into the nose of the soldier. The pain in your throat was growing. You snapped your lips shut to try and hold off the vomit for as long as possible, your hand slapping over your mouth like a barricade. Tears filled your eyes when you looked back to Raymond and Esmée, her lips just brushing over his ear as she paused to watch you. His eyes flashed with something unrecognizable for a moment, his lips pursed together as he watched you struggle. It wasn’t until your locked eyes with Esmée did you turn, seeing the horrid look of evil in her brown eyes.

Your footsteps reverberated through the pub as you slammed the door open, blood beginning to spill past your pale lips and coating your fingers and palm as you gagged. You ignored the calls for you. The biting pain in your throat was almost too much, the hand over your mouth just barely holding back the flowers as you rushed away from the pub and through the village. Another gag fell past your lips and tears flowed down your cheeks due to the pain that coursed through your throat and gut, your body jolting forward before your feet slipped on the slick mud. Ugly, red-stained flowers spilled out of your mouth. Your body was covered in mud the minute you fell to the ground, your hands clenching into fists as your worst nightmare came true. The village people watched as your succumbed to the disease. Your throat burned as the flowers continued to blossom in your body, coating themselves with sharp thorns and your blood before mixing with the mud on the ground.

It felt like an eternity before your throat was empty again. A large pile of flowers and vicious blood was in front of you, your eyes wide with fear and agony. It was getting worse. Laughter soon pushed through the buzzing in your ears. You recognized the laugh. Your hands shook as you tried to push yourself up, your legs shaking as your body tried to heal itself from the pain and the newer wounds in your throat. You kept your eyes low as you stood to your full height, looking at the disgusting brown and red stains that soaked through your tunic and skirts. The mud that coated your face, arms and hands made you feel even more gross now that blood was added into the mixture. The bloodied flowers were ugly and gross, melting into the mud. Must I always live like this?

“Aw, poor thing.” Esmée’s voice made you snap your bloodshot eyes in her direction. Her whole body was shaking with laughter, and the pain in your body only grew when you saw that most of the people from the pub were as well. “It was only a matter of time before you made a fool of yourself.” You looked down again. Your body ached all over. From the pain in your throat to the throbbing of your head, even down to the fear and pain that clenched your heart in its tight fists. You tried to tune out the laughter, you tried to ignore the staring eyes as you stood in public, skirts covered in blood and mud and your emotions piled on to the floor. But you could still hear her taunts. “... isn’t that right Raymond?”

You couldn’t bear it anymore. Sobs racked your already trembling figure. With what little strength you had left in you you spun on your heels, kicking up the ugly reminder of flowers and blood that he would never be his. A cry of agony bubbled in your torn up throat. Your eyes were blurry as you cast one last glance in Esmée’s direction, but to your surprise you met blue eyes instead brown. Though his face was stoic and unwavering, Raymond’s wide eyes swam with emotion, his lips parted in disbelief. You almost paused when he went to say something, hoping to hear what he had to say, but he snapped his mouth shut.

You blamed it on the sharp pain in your body and your blurry eyes, but even as you turned away you thought you saw him move to you, but surely it was only your imagination. He didn’t love you like you did him. You two weren’t meant to be together, you knew that. But still, even as you ran away from the crowd, away from him, you couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there was a chance of you finally having a cure from your disease.

#pilgrimage #raymond de merville #raymond de merville x reader #raymond de merville fic #raymond de merville imagine #raymond de mervile scenario #hanahaki #pilgrimage 2017 #pilgrimage fic #pilgrimage imagine #not my gif #requested #richard armitage #dashesofink

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