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ladyhallen · 4 years ago

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Never Count the Cost

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It was hopeless.

The Death Eaters numbers weren’t going down. And maybe they were, but not visibly, not enough. Kill one Death Eater, and five more would take their place.

Hermione had given people new, more destructive spells and Ron’s strategies were getting more and more geared towards mass destruction. But it wasn’t good enough.

It shot down morale and everyone was getting desperate.

Harry was getting desperate.

She’d asked Kreacher, which was the start of a series of bad decisions.

Kreacher knew the Black Library better than anyone, and gave Harry a book bound in questionable leather.

Harry took one look at the book, and felt her skin crawl. She decided not to ask the house-elf questions.

“Thank you, Kreacher,” she said.

She read the book when it was supposed to be her turn to be sleeping, and lost her appetite at the horrifying and terrible rituals that the book had. She was pale and unhappy reading the rituals.

Still she found one. One ritual among hundreds that suited her purpose. A ritual to “Summone a Moste Powerful and Chaotic Monstere.”

Harry read it dozens of times, memorized the words and knew the sacrifice.

Desperation and bad decisions led her to the forest with a stone floor. She had left a note with Dean, hopefully, it would stall her friends.

Her hands remained determinedly steady even as she carved the damned sigils on the floor with an enchanted knife. Her hand slipped at one point and bloodied the runes on the floor. She paid it no mind, bandaging her hand and continuing again. She didn’t dare use magic until the ritual was complete and she broke the circle. She endured her throbbing hand and at one point forgot about it, she was so focused on getting it right.

She took a deep breath and started the chant, just as Hermione and Ron sprinted into the clearing.

But Harriet had already started, the words coming out of her mouth frosty and hot in turns, some words tumbling out as heavy as a boulder, others coming out quickly and speedily like an eel.

Ron stopped Hermione, more aware than her about the dangers of interrupting a ritual.

“…in sumptus vitae meae,” she finished with a shout, slamming her hands on the sigils firmly, smearing it with blood. At one point, she had started to bleed from her injured hands.

“Harry, no!” Hermione screamed, held back by Ron’s hands on her shoulders. Of course, her friend could understand the Latin.

Smoke started rising from the blood and sigils, and from that smoke, something with tall with horns emerged.

Harry would be panicking, except she had gone so far from panic that she’d circled around to glassy calm. She’d be hyperventilating later.

If there was a later.

“At the cost of your life, huh,” a lovely, deep voice said inside the circle. “That’s a very interesting payment.”

The smoke cleared, and standing inside the circle was a man. Or as close to a man as a demon could get. His horns were long and curled back, the points curling at the tips and shining a dull red. His eyes shone yellow and his teeth were very sharp. His feet were cloven hooves and covered in shaggy fur, with a tail that flicked as he stood.

And his face. Harry instinctively shied away from looking at his too perfect, too beautiful face.

“Whatever is your trouble, lovely summoner?” the demon asked.

“Me and my people are at war,” she said, as boldly as she could manage. “And I am willing to pay anything for you to help us win.”

The demons beautiful face started to smile, a slash of a terrible smile on an otherwise inhumanly beautiful face.

“Break the circle, dear one. And I will seal the contract with you. You’ve already given me such lovely blood,” he whispered, a hypnotic ring in his voice.

Harry found herself moving despite Hermione and Ron’s shouts in her ears. She broke the circle with the knife still in her hand and the demon stepped out.

As he did, there was a ripple in the world like an invisible curtain, and the goats feet, horns and tail vanished. In his place was a man.

Still beautiful, but no longer inhumanly so. Enough of a change that she could look at his face without feeling that otherworldly aura.

“I am a chaos demon,” he declared. “And we seal these things with a kiss.”

The glassy calm broke, and Harry managed to squeak out, “What?” before the demons lips were on hers and she was consumed by the best kiss she’d ever had, all heat and passion.

After a minute, he pulled away and smiled at her dazed face.

“Stay here, my bride,” he said.

Harry crumpled to the forest floor and her best friends rushed to her, holding her hands and touching her shoulders. Hermione looked seconds away from crying. Ron looked like he wanted to wrap her up in bubble wrap.

“He just called me bride,” Harry managed weakly. “What just happened?”

Ron gave a tired huff into her neck, hugging her almost desperately.

Hermione gave an exhausted sigh.

“Harry,” she began slowly. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think a chaos demon just propositioned you.”

When Harry whined pathetically, Ron started to give little huffs of hysterical laughter.

The three of them staggered into Hogwarts, holding onto each other for support as well as comfort.

For Harry, she needed the help. The ritual took almost all of her magic. If she were a weaker witch, she would be dead.

“Ms. Potter,” Professor McGonagall said grimly. “Something has changed the battlefield.”

They looked into Hermione’s Seeing Mirrors, and Harry tried not to cringe at the sight of the stylishly dressed demon just. Walking and causing immense destruction with just a gesture.

It was one thing to know you’d summoned a monster, and another thing to see said monster in action.

“Oops,” she managed. “I guess he was more effective than I thought.”

That caught everyone’s attention.

“You did this? At what cost, Harry?” Neville asked.

Harry gave a wan smile, and he inhaled in understanding. Before he could open his mouth, the chaos demon came strolling back, hands in its pockets and a very cheery smile on its mouth.

“My bride,” he said. “I have killed all the leaders and destroyed their souls and happiness. I will, of course, wait for a week to see if they reform. After that, we will marry.”

“Ex-cuse me what?” Seamus said loudly. The noise of a couple hundred students causing chaos was defeaning.

The demon picked her up like she weighed like nothing and carried her off.

Harry thought the demon would eat her soul. Or even just eat her, she hadn’t thought demons were picky about corporeality.

Nowhere does cuddling factor into it. Or hand feeding her grapes while making encouraging noises. Somehow, her fear just…went away when he was holding fruit to her mouth.

“You are too skinny,” he said, looking at her critically. “You must eat more.”

Uhm, no? They were at war…had been at war. Rationing was a thing. Still a thing while they solve the food issue because the first thing the Death Eaters had targeted were the Hogwarts Farms.

“If I eat more,” she explained to the demon currently holding her in his lap. “Then the children will eat less.”

He pouted. “And these….children…are important to you?” At her nod, he added, “then I will get you more food.”

He vanished for an hour, and returned with an entire freaking passel of pigs. Harry felt her mouth drop open.

“You will eat more?” he asked, like he hadn’t just solved their food problems for the next few weeks. If the keep some female alive and one or two boars, they can even keep some pigs for livestock and feed the entire school for years.

“Sure,” she said weakly. “I’ll eat.”

He looked so immeasurably smug that she wanted to hit him.

Outside the repaired grassy knoll beside the Great Lake, Harry enjoyed the rare sunshine and the lovely view of the lake.

Well. She tried to.

“Harry,” Hermione whispered. “Can I see the ritual you used?”

Harry had no qualms about that. Just. There was a chaos demon sleeping on her legs and she couldn’t move, or make much noise.

“Ask Kreacher,” she whispered back. “I don’t think I’m moving anytime soon.”

The chaos demon, who still hadn’t given his name – that was bothering her, hugged her thighs tighter, his face on her stomach. Harry oofed, leaning back to be more comfortable.

“Get me a book?” she asked her friend. “I’m stuck.”

Hermione looked bemused and handed over The Hobbit.

Harry, who actually hadn’t read the book yet, found herself combing her fingers through the demon’s hair as she read. Eventually, the heat of the sun and the cool wind combined with the firm weight on her stomach made her fall asleep, the book falling on her face.

Unseen to her, the demon’s tail flicked with pleasure.

A week filled with trials and burials later, she finally broke.

“What’s your name?” she asked. Hermione, opposite her in the sofa, crossed her arms frantically. Well, too bad for her, but Harry was tired of these unsaid things.

“It’s Reborn,” he rumbled. “And you are Harriet.”

Something about the way he said her name made her shiver.

“Yeah,” she said. “Why didn’t you eat my soul?”

He slow blinked at her. “That was not what you offered. You offered me your life. Not your death, or your soul, or even your blood and bone. Just your life. Obviously, in order for me to partake of your life, you have to be alive.”

“You are…feeding off me?” she asked.

“No,” he huffed. “I am experiencing it with you.”

Ron choked. “Isn’t that just marriage?” he coughed. His face was red. Harry’s own face was steadily going red.

The de – Reborn nodded. “I know! It surprised everyone too. It was so forward.”

Harry covered her beet red face and groaned.

Reborn had to leave on some business. According to him, paperwork originated in hell and it was needlessly complicated. If he delayed further to log his contract with her, he’d have to fill out an extra fifty forms.

He kissed her very thorougly, rendering her stupid for a minute, before leaving.

Hermione then pounced, explaining what went wrong. Thank Merlin for Hermione, the lack of explanation reason was driving her crazy.

“You read it wrong,” she said. “And a good thing you did. Though how on earth you read ‘animae’ as ‘vitae’, I wonder. It saved your life.”

Harry blinked at the horrific ritual book and sighed. “I was reading it sleep deprived and at one point, I think I was starting to hallucinate?”

“You and your luck, Harry,” Hermione said. “And did I scold you yet for summoning a chaos demon?”

Harry felt her everything tense up. “…No,” she cringed.

She prepared for a lecture mostly done in yelling. She was braced for it.

Except Hermione hugged her tightly instead. “Thank you,” her dearest friend whispered.

Harry felt unintentionally teary. “For you and Ron? I would do it again,” she said into the bushy mane.

They both took a moment to compose themselves.

“So,” Hermione said in that tone that by long association, made Harry feel dread. Hermione only ever used that voice when she was being a little shit. “The chaos demon didn’t proposition you. You propositioned him first.”

“Oh my god,” Harry groaned. “You’re never gonna let this go, are you?”

She gave Harry such a look of mischief. “Never. I thought you were going to die, Harriet Potter. I’m going to say this to your wedding, and to all your birthdays.”

Thank Merlin that she was still alive to have birthdays.

She complained to Hermione just for the spirit of it, but was just as glad.

#fanfiction #hp #harry potter #reborn #khr #hpxkhr #genderbend #crossover #female harry potter #hermione granger #ronald weasley #hpxreborn #demon reborn #demonic summonings

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wildtige429 · 5 years ago

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Surprise

Taken after Star returns to Earth and meets the new Diaz, Mariposa and Star and Tom breaking up.

What you are about to read will make you laugh and squeal.

----

That was fun, Toshi thought.

Returning to Echo Creek, his second home that he grew up in for four years with his mom, was like a reunion of loved ones.

His father is at the house trying to house train his raptors after he, his dad, Marco and Star rescued them from the auction in Crimetopia, a dimension where criminals ruled, at a moment before he joined them. He would probably wonder if any of the neighbors would report seeing a pack of living, breathing raptors in the backyard.

Dad can handle that, he reassured himself.

What surprises the trio was when Marco's parents introduced the new member of their family. Marco's baby sibling, which was revealed to be a girl instead of a boy, named Mariposa.

He had to admit, it is a pretty name considering that it means 'butterfly' in Spanish, just like her sister figure, Star. Toshi and his mom has taken a liking to the little Diaz, making his mom tell embarassing stories of him when he was a little lizard to his friends and the family.

To make it worst, she brought the family photo album and showed them his childhood photos. Through the rest of the time, he had his face planted on the table and groaned like a zombie.

"Well, that's mothers, Shirogane," his father once told him, laughing. Then karma hit him when Mint began to show everyone HIS photos of the time he was a teenager. The moment she begins to tell his story, surprising everyone that Toffee was a rebellious kid when he was Toshi's age, he joined Toshi's zombie groaning.

"Like father, like son," Mint chuckled at their embarassment.

In the meantime, he recalled from Star that she and Tom have finally broke up and decided to stay friends. He felt awful for the both of them, reassuring both Tom and Star that it takes time to heal and his new friend thanked him for his advise. He even tells him that if he were to meet a girl who would catch his eye, he just have to wait and see if his heart would beat for her.

"Isn't that a lizard thing?" He once asked Toshi.

"Lizards will have the urge of mating if they see a girl they like," he answered, "But we have to keep ourselves together or we'll make big fools out of ourselves."

"Unlike your parents?"

"Mom and Dad never said they had the mating urge when they first met each other in their teens."

After bidding farewell to the demon, Toshi prayed that he will find someone special. As he lends a shoulder for Star to cry on.

----

It was night time and the teens were returning home after having tacos at the taco stand. Toshi suggested himself bringing them over to his favorite Japanese joint called Nippon Daisuki, wanting them to try real authentic Japanese food like how he introduced his father to the place right when he asked on going on a little father-son bonding adventure to Crimetopia.

"Guys, I have an announcement to make," he called out.

"Go on," they urged.

"Guess what date is today," he grinned, putting his hands behind the back of his head.

"Its 14th of April so....," Marco answered before Star gasped in delight, "It's your birthday!!"

"Yep, I'm now 17 you guys," he grinned.

"But you look like you're 15," her comment made them laugh, remembering the first time they met and became the closest of friends that day.

"We need to celebrate, dude!" Marco suggested, "Well, we already had tacos so that's out of the celebration list."

"Maybe I can introduce you to my joint where I can clear my mind," Toshi suggested, putting a hand on the doorknob to his house, "I hope you don't mind wasabi."

"What's wasabi?" Star asked as they enter.

"A root of the gnarliest stuff in Japan," he explained, "So gnarly, it'll clear your nose of any boogers!"

This made the Mewman girl 'ooh' in awe. The living room is littered with The Seven Deadly Sins, the name the Mewman soldiers picked during the war for the raptors' names and personalities, roosting around and curious about some things. His dad didn't plan on turning them into house raptors, but he does know that he would let them out of the house for them to roam.

"Toshi?" Marco spoke out as they head upstairs to his room.

"Hmm?"

"How do you feel about being a big brother?"

He froze to a stop, mid-step, "Beg your pardon?"

"Toshi, I've always thought I'm going to be the only child in the family," his friend confessed, "But when I found out I'm going to be a brother, I was at first stumped. But when Mariposa came, I....decided that will be my responsibility as her brother."

The friends didn't know that the young lizard was pondering at that thought about having a sibling. Sure, he and Marco are the same on being the only children in the family. But when he heard the news of his mom being pregnant, he was stunned out of belief.

The very thought of becoming a big brother is....unexpectedly great if you're younger. Becoming a big brother at the age of 14 is unexpecteded and shocking at first..but exciting when he learns to love his younger sibling.

"If I ever become a big brother, I would jump out of the window," he answered.

They paused at his answer. And burst into laughter while they continue to climb up the staircase until they reached the top.

"Seriously guys, I will jump out of the window if that ever happens," he said in a deadpanned serious tone after they stop laughing.

"You're serious?" Star gaped, wide-eyed.

"I'm dead serious."

They perked out of their seriousness when they noticed Toshi's mom sitting on his bed, looking pretty nervous with a sheepish smile on her face. They thought she must have trouble with the raptors pooping in the backyard or eating the neighbors' pets when they approached her but she spoke out, "Hey kids, how is....everything?"

"Uh, Mom...?" Toshi spoke as he, Marco and Star got in front of her, "Is...everything okay? Did Dad's raptors cause trouble?"

She shook her head, much to his relief.

"Hey, Mint, guess what?" Star tried to sound cheery, "Toshi's turning 17 today."

"Even though he looks like he's 15," Marco added with a wary chuckle.

Mint nodded in gratefulness and rose up to her level, "Well...to make it easier for you three to hear, I have an annoucement to make."

They looked at each other. What kind of annoucement is she going to make that makes this moment suspenseful?

She cleared her throat, beginning to pace around the bedroom while twiddling her fingers, "I heard you three talking to each other about siblings. And did I hear it right that Toshi wants to jump out of the window?"

The trio blurted out, all them declining and laughing nervously that its just euphanism or just a figure of speech. She sighed in relief and halts her pacing,stopping before them, her sheepish smile widening into a joyful yet sheepish grin.

"Happy Birthday, Toshi," she congratulated, "You're going to be a big brother."

The news was something that caught them of guard. They were so quiet from the shock, you can hear a pin drop.

And the moments of silence was broken when Marco crashed through the nearby window, shattering glass in the process. They heard him grunt in pain followed by another from the ground floor.

"I'm okay!" Marco called out, "Toffee broke my fall!!"

"Owwwwwwwwwwww!!" Was Toffee's moan of pain.

The blonde girl giggled hysterically for a short while from the news, "You're not pulling our legs right? You're not...! Right!?"

"You're PREGNANT!? How did this happen!? How long have you not told me this!? Were you pregnant the whole time after we came back from Mewni!? Does Dad know about this!?" Toshi babbled, the surprise to much for him.

She sheepishly nodded. Just as he and Star laughed heartily before they fell on their backs with loud thuds. They have fainted from the news.

"Huh? I was expecting something similar to Toffee's reaction," she hummed at their fainted bodies.

"You think!?" Toffee called out, his voice strained from the pain after Marco landed on him, "Now help me get this boy of me!"

She sighed, rubbing her belly that bears Toshi's new sibling. She shouts out that she's coming, still rubbing her belly, and headed downstairs.

---

Hey guys!! I always think about Toshi being a big brother just like Marco after I watched Gone Baby Gone.

What gender shall his new sibling be? A boy or a girl? Who knows after it's born.

Right, @lynea-kureji and @julayla ?

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maladaptive-ninja-returns · 6 years ago

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It’s The Avengers (8)

Loki x Reader Avengers The Office AU (Slowwwwww Burn)

Episode 8: Pepperoni Part 1

Warnings: a tiny bit of violence

Word Count: my condition is a bit worse than I imagined but I made it through the day in a well enough daze to complete it so yayy! I’ll have to pay the doctor a visit tomorrow. *sighs* I don’t wike it.

MASTERLIST

E01, E02, E03, E04, E05, E06, E07, E08, E09

Tony: What do you mean am I excited? It's my wedding day. The day of my wedding with the best, most amazing woman on earth, nay, this entire universe. *sarcastic mutters* Am I excited *announces* I am not excited, I'm delighted, I'm hysterical, I am *breathes* nervous. *camera zooms in* I'm terrified. *tilts head towards the door and shouts* Pepper are you sure you want to do this?! I mean, marry me? I love you so much and I just want to make sure you do not think this is a horrible decision. *Pepper's voice comes from the lounge, saying 'Tony, relax. Did you take your meds?'* Yes! *Replies, 'Okay. Now, breathe. I love you, honey.'* *straightens to look back at the camera* *content sigh* That's my future wife. *beams*

Pepper: He saves the entire *censored* planet without as much as a thought for his personal safety let alone his health and now he thinks he doesn't deserve happiness? *smiles and shrugs* I won't say anything today. I'll just marry the *censored* out of him to show him what he deserves. *chuckles* And *straightens in her chair* I swear to God if anyone tried to crash my wedding I am going to rip their *censored* throat out and crush their skull with my bare hands. Tony: It's the hormones. Dr Cho mentioned it yesterday when Pepper won't stop positively cursing the news of the doctor's marriage last night. *giggles* She looks so cute when she swears. *Pepper's angry voice comes from the lounge 'Tony! Get your *censored* ass in the suit already!'* *camera zooms out to reveal him in his blue tee and black workout shorts* See? So cute! *blushing furiously* Pepper was getting ready in your room which you had happily loaned to her for the day. Natasha had just finished putting her hair in a flawless side bun and was readying the items for her makeup when you walked in. "Pepper, the package is here. Natasha here is Tony's ring. Pietro is bringing Dum-e to the lawn, slowly but surely they'll reach there. I have no idea why Wanda wanted him to do the task. That guy is nearly in tears right now. And-" "And you are still not ready," Pepper announced, making the camera give a once-over to you in your track pants, a tank top, your tied-up hair a complete mess and your face worn-off. "Y/N, sweety, you look like you haven't slept in ages. Please just go take a shower and get ready." "But there's still-" "No," Pepper declared with her eyes while Natasha signalled you from behind her to stop arguing and do as she says. Natasha: Wow! This girl must really love organizing things because she's been going up and down since five in the morning. *takes a sip of her mimosa* I trust her. Like I said before, she's the only adult here. *shrugs* What do you mean what about Clint? You want the wedding to take place today without anyone getting drunk up to their eyeballs, right? Clint: What? That's a really good idea. Booze is the best magic potion. You remember you had a blast but you don't remember the details but you DO remember that it was a blast. *shrugs and opens his arms as if stating the obvious* food tastes good, music sounds wonderful and people cry over their ex. *smiles* perfect wedding. You took in Natasha's signals and sighed. "Okay. Fine. I-uhh... let me see what I can wear and I'll be out of here," you muttered as you started walking towards your closet. "But you already have something to wear," Natasha stated casually, pointing her gaze towards something behind you. You turned to see a dress cover lying on the couch next to your window. "This isn't mine." You turn around to look at Pepper and Nat exchanging a smirk. "It is. Now go shower. Quick." Pepper gave her final word while Nat eyed you to pick it up and go already. You took it by the hanger, not sure what was inside, and walked out in a confused daze, colliding with Loki at the door. "I'm sorry," he spoke like a natural reflex, something you, clearly, found odd. The camera caught you two lock eyes for a moment. Loki watched you, measuring the weary look in your eyes. He was about to speak when you turned your gaze away to someone behind him. "Hey, Scott!" The camera turned towards a frustrated Scott coming out of his room trying to work a knot with his tie. "Can I use your room to get ready?" Scott looked up, finally giving up, his hands turning up in the air before falling on his side in utter defeat. "Sorry, Y/N," he exclaimed with a groan, making you step towards him and take the ends of his tie in your hands. "It's a complete mess, my room. Peter shifted Zuko in there and, well, I am clearly not as good a mom like you." You huffed at him, patiently working with the soft blue fabric in your hand. "That's because you're a grandma, Scott," you coo into the air, making the Ant-man feel a smile come up over his lips, "you are supposed to spoil your grandkids." "Aw. Thanks, Y/N. I really needed that." "You can use my room," Loki's voice came from behind you, making Scott raise a brow at the camera before pressing an involuntary smile trying to escape his lips. You tightened the knot, a little too much, making Scott squirm within the hold for a second before you let go, straightening his collar and smoothening out the creases. "It's fine. I'll ask Wanda," you state without even looking at the God. "Oh for God's sake, Y/N. Just go to his room," Pepper shouts from inside, done with all of you already. "He's a God for *censored* sake. I'm sure he's got more manners and organisation skills than the men on earth. Loki and Scott look at Pepper in surprise, letting her words sink in before looking at each other and nodding in agreement. Scott: The more I get to know Pepper the more I admire her for her tenacity. *pause* And definitely for not turning the things between Loki and Y/N into an angsty soap opera. *whispers to himself with his eyes closed* God, I can already hear wedding bells. *opens eyes and freezes for a moment* Wait, no that was Peter falling inside the Christmas decorations vortex in the storage room next to us. * gets up from the chair, nearly toppling over some invisible strings* Better help him out. Loki turned the door handle to his room, opening and making way for you to enter his space. This was the first time the camera was noticing that his room was right next to yours, mimicking the setting of your room like a mirror, the bed, surprisingly, covered in yellow cotton sheets right next to the wall separating the two of you. The room was painted in a subtle grey, allowing the soft yellow lights to bounce off them with calming hues, easing you into the oddly comforting setting. "Huh," you muttered to yourself, "aesthetic." Loki stood at the doorway looking at you take his personal space in, never taking his eyes off you even as he smacked Scott in the chest when the Ant-Man tried to sneak past him to get a good look himself. "Say something, man," Scott whispered to the God as he rubbed his throbbing chest. "Say what?" Loki whispered back, unsure. "About yesterday," Scott responded, stressing his words under his breath. Loki's wrinkled brows eased themselves as he remembered last night's events. Scott signalled him to go on before hiding himself from your view. "Y/N, I-" "I'm good," you interrupted him, faking a smile, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to take a shower and get ready." Loki: I must say I wasn't this hurt when Thor had found out about the Destroyer. You come into my room and you shoo me away like a fowl peasant. *squints at the camera* Reasonable considering she needed privacy but still *camera pans in* I'm hurt. Meanwhile outside in the lawn Pietro sat dejectedly on the steps leading to the grass, his head between his hands as he looked at dummy finally reaching the stony path created as the aisle leading to the arch you and Loki had created last night. Wanda, dressed in white embellished with orange stones, her hair tied into a neat bun at the back, welcomed the guests with Rhodey, who was looking the perfect best man in his three-piece suit. It wasn't long before a loud rumbling was heard and Wanda worked her fingers to form a plasmic protection bubble around the setting before Thor or his thunder destroyed it. "Top of the morning my friends," the cheery God of thunder had a jump in his step as he walked towards the duo, "It is finally the day of Stark and Pepper's nuptials!" "Please, do not destroy the lawn, man," Rhodey growled, "Tony might be a billionaire but there are things like last minute redecorations that even he or his bots cannot do." A sparkling flare originated mid-air behind Wanda, right next to Bucky- who was trying to figure out whether the Long Island Iced Tea that Sam just handed him was really tea, without drinking it- making the super soldier take the stirrer out form the glass and hold it as a stabbing tool for whatever was about to enter through the hold inside the flare getting wider by the minute. "What? You forgot Tony'd invited sorcerers to the wedding as well?" Two figures stepped out of the sparkling circle portal dressed in dapper suits, giving a once-over to their bows and cufflinks as they proceeding to greet the Avengers. "Wong. Doctor Strange," Rhodey greeted them with a firm handshake. Scott came out of the halls and scanned the area before his eyes stopped at the sorcerers' figures, making him walk towards them with a smug grin on his face. "I hope you brought your A game to the party Doc," Scott commented, making Steven turn towards him with a blank expression, "because I dare you to outdo this!" A full set of pennies sat in between his fingers out of thin air, which he continued to throw in the air while making a set of all Jokers and Kings in a deck appear in each hand like a preset fan that allowed the descending pennies to rest on each card individually. Those pennies were once again thrown into the air to make the fan of cards in his hands disappear, allowing his fingers to smoothly swipe the air of falling pennies before opening his palms to show nothing. "Woah!" Bucky and Sam exclaimed in unison, their eyes and mouth open wide. Sam: That is some Cardcaptor shit right there! Next, I'm going to make him hypnotise Bucky. *malicious chuckle* Inside the Banquet Hall Tony is dressed and already killing the reporters- who sit in the far corner in the lawn away from the guests- trying to live tweet his hazy appearance from the glass walls while shouting out his name, hungry for a good glimpse. "How do I look?" He asks a little disoriented Peter, who turns towards his mentor and feels a tiny smile form over his lips. "Wig snatched!" He exclaims under his breath. "Excuse me?" "I-I mean you look perfect, Mr Stark. Flawless. Never better." Peter nods his head to add weight to his words as he eyes the camera and mouths 'oh my God'. "Tony," Rhodey called out as he entered the hall, "you are looking perfect. It's finally happening. I'm so happy for you man." His smile reached his eyes as he hugged Tony, making the groom reciprocate. "Your guests are pouring in. The Guardians and Captain Denver are here as well. Come on man, let's go greet them and get ready for the ceremony." Peter: *teary-eyed* I'm *voice cracks* I'm so happy for both of them. *sniffs* Oh look *points at someone not in the camera's view* Aunt May is here too. *May comes into view and hugs Peter before waving at the camera* May: Hi! I'm May. Peter told me about you. You guys are doing a pretty impressive job! That's what I've heard. *turns to Peter, who is trying to discreetly wipe away his tears* Aww, honey. It's okay. *kisses his head* Peter: *blushing* Aunt May, stop. May: *tilting her head towards Peter to whisper* So who's is this Y/N and Loki I keep hearing about? Back at the Lounge You come out of Loki's room, dressed in a glittering royal blue maxi dress, the crystals on it catching the soft lights from the living room as you entered the space while wearing your earrings, your hair neatly tied in a bun at the back. The camera took in every feature of yours before pointing you towards a box kept beside a bean bag near you. "Is that for me?" You went towards the box after confirmation and took out a pair of silver pumps that went perfectly with your dress, letting a gasp leave your lungs. "Oh, Pepper," you muttered before smiling and sitting down to put them on. "Hey, have you seen Loki?" you asked the camera guy, the only person present there apart from you. "Something's wrong with his shower. That thing won't shut down no matter what I try." Your fingers worked with the thick fabric of the pumps, trying to get your feet inside as you went on. "I just closed the drainage to his tub for now. Don't want the water to get wasted." "Okay," you declared, getting up and balancing yourself a bit before getting in sync with the heels you were wearing. "Come on, let's find him and get this over with." Both of you moved inside the elevator and went a floor up to get off. "He's usually at the library," you muttered to yourself before walking in that direction. At the same time, Loki entered the lounge with a camera following him. He held a box in his hand as he walked towards the rooms, turning towards the camera and ordering him to 'stay' as he went towards his door. He knocked twice and waited, never noticing the muffled voices of Peter and May- entering through the elevator door- going quite on the site of the camera guy. They took cautious steps before standing by the wall next to the camera. "Is that-" "Yes, Aunt May, that's Loki." "Oooh Mama!" she cooed, not taking his eyes off of the God while Peter stood there, his brows furrowed at his aunt. May: *audible gasp* Look at those cheekbones! So sharp he could cut my *her eyes land on Peter, who stands by the doorway of the recording room, eyeing her aunt suspiciously* gift wraps. *clears throat* *turns red* "Y/N," Loki called out as he clicked the door but did not open it, "are you decent?" There was no reply from the other side of the door, making him carefully step into his space. The camera followed Peter and May, who now planted themselves near Loki's door, to hear the conversation. A trickle of shower water running down came from behind the bathroom door, outside which Loki now stood, shifting his weight a bit before standing straight and delivering a gentle knock at the door in front of him. "Y/N, it's me, Loki. I know you don't want to talk to me right now but I beg you to hear me out." There was no reply from the other side of the door, just the similar monotonous sounds of the water. He cleared his throat. "I'll take that as a yes, then?" No answer. "I...am sorry. I apologise for doing what I did. I had no right to go through something so personal and lay it down in front of you in the form of a such a disrespectful skit. I-" his voice lowered, making him step closer to the door while the audience outside stepped closer to the wall- "I thought you were trying to toy with me; with my feelings. Your sweet talks and small gifts- I thought they were all a ruse to...to...break me. It is my fault. I haven't had many friends to know what human affection looks like. Peter told me that it was your way of putting forward a hand of friendship and I believe him. He is probably the only one I would believe right now-" May turned towards her nephew and lightly patted him on the back, smiling proudly-"I should have known better than to throw such a news at you considering my own experience with a situation so similar. I thought...I thought I was trying to throw you off your deception. I apologise once again. Ahem, I... have brought something for you to establish peace between us. If you are ready to forgive me, you can keep the gift with you. If not..." He never finished the sentence, waiting for you to say something from the other side of the door before leaving the neatly wrapped box on the bed and walking towards the corridor, making May and Peter freak out a bit as they started walking as silently as they could towards the living room. Same time, the Lawn "You look like you bathed but forgot to take a nap." Tony turned towards Clint, who stood there as if stating the obvious. "How do you know that?" Tony looked at Barton with suspicious eyes before Nat, who was glittering in a red lace dress, diverted his attention. "How's the cake, Nat? Is it here yet?" "It arrived yesterday, Tony." "What about the food? Are the caterers putting out enough for the guests?" "Yes, Tony. Everyone's enjoying the hors-d'oeuvres. Even Nebula and Groot." "Is everything fine with the security detail? I feel like we should check the security detail." "Tony," Steve's calming voice came from behind him before he put a hand over his shoulder, "breathe. Come on, breathe." Tony followed the captain's request, taking in a lungful before pushing it all out throw his mouth. "Everything is fine. If something goes wrong, I'm sure all of us could take care of it without you or Pepper even knowing about it." Steve smiled, patting his friend's shoulder. "Thanks, Rogers," Tony acknowledged, giving him a pat as well, "I still think you should check out the security de-." All words were lost as his eyes caught Pepper's figure- embraced so elegantly in white lace adorned by golden jewels and her hand holding a bouquet of red and sunkissed golden flowers- standing at the entrance of the hall, beaming as she fixed one loose strand of her golden hair and waved at her future husband, who, for obvious reasons, had again forgotten to breathe. All this time, upstairs You walked out of the library, sighing. "I really thought he would be here, avoiding everyone else. Maybe I'm not that observant as I give myself credit for-" you continued speaking to the camera as you walked slowly, allowing the boy to match your strut,"-let's try the-" You stopped midway, forcing the camera to follow the direction your eyes were looking in, catching a figure go inside Tony's study, a few feet away from you. "Is that Jim? The security guy?" you questioned in whispers as you and the camera took a step forward and saw the lights flood the room- and his face- before he turned on the blinders. Your face wore a look of irritation. "That son of a bitch." "Stay here," you ordered the camera guy, "I'll go see why this one keeps digging his nose where he doesn't belong." The camera stood by the corner, watching you walk confidently towards the study, zooming in to get a clearer view of you standing at the door with your arms crossed and speaking something to Jim quite callously. The camera caught a shadow behind the blinders walk towards you and stop at a little distance from where you stood. "I'm calling Clint," was all that was heard before you turned to walk back and were knocked head first into the wall next to you, making the camera lower itself down to hide from the attacker's prying eyes as he dragged your limp body inside the study. The camera waited for the door to close before sprinting back towards the elevator, the heavy breaths of the boy behind the recording device echoing through and through. He stopped short in front of the elevator, bringing forward his palm to be scanned at the screen next to it. "Welcome, Mr Javier Rodriguez," Friday's voice came alive in front of him, "How can I help you?" The boy's shivering palms clicked the assistance tab and scrolled through the options before finding 'emergency-Human life in danger'. "Going somewhere, buddy?" An icy voice made the camera turn away from the screen and towards Jim's figure that stood just inches away from the camera with a military grade knife in his hand. He took a step towards the camera, smiling at the screen and the person holding it, making the boy recede into the corner behind him before everything went black.

(Please don’t hate me. If it makes you feel any better, I’m already suffering.)

E01, E02, E03, E04, E05, E06, E07, E08, E09

TAGLIST

Permanent

@greenarrowhead @magiclolipopqueen @choke-me-sweet-pea @classy-swiftt @smexylemony @hazzastyles2471 @lokis-lady-death @lokixme @l0kisbitch @bambamwolf87 @tarithenurse @hiddlestonstansworld @itheoneofmanyfandomsi @nalokoniloki @fuckidontknow @qualitynerdwasteland @cryinglots @unipanda1006 @literalangels

The Office AU

@wishrains @ultraslytherwin @loki-the-fox @awkward-dr-strang3rman @royaldork @arianna-17-11 @uranusismyfavoriteplanette @marvelrose @gotta-get-back-to-johnlock @moonlightprime @keepingupwiththelaufeysons @writingpromptsstuff @auroraborialis15 @tonyspepper (thought you’d like to see this) @meganlikesfandoms @marvel-cinematic-universe0123 @avenging-blackwidow

(If you have something specific you’d like to see in this AU please send me an ask, I’d love your inputs and your feedback. Especially your feedback. If you’d like to be tagged, send an ask as well. xx)

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lattemorningwritings · 6 years ago

Text

third meeting

She hadn’t eaten anything since seven-thirty a.m. And now that it was two o’clock, Giverny could think of nothing else but biting into soft, chewy bread and greasy meat and egg that would slip like a silk robe over her tongue. It was almost as if she was hallucinating a bacon and egg sandwich floating in front of her - maybe it had eyes and a cute smile and voice that was beckoning her to reach for it. Nothing mattered but putting food into her stomach. She thought that if she didn’t eat at this very moment, her stomach would eat itself.

“Next, please!”

The line moved up. Why hadn’t she listened to her mother this morning when she suggested bringing a small lunch in the case her meeting with her professor stretched on unexpectedly? Why had she been so confident that it would all go according to plan? She never imagined that a seven-thirty meeting that was supposed to just be a catch-up over her progress in preparing for her Spring semester in Athens, Greece would go on until her ten-thirty class. And she never imagined that after having left class at eleven-forty-five, her study group would call up an urgent meeting to try to collectively finish their fifteen-page essay (why is it always fifteen?), a meeting that she could have declined, but was too good of a student, apparently to do so. She could have brought a snack, could have said no. Why was it three hours? Why didn’t I bring some Chex Mix? Aren’t my hands shaking, oh why couldn’t I just have grabbed somethi-

“I can help whoever’s next!”

That’s me, that’s me. Giverny knew that if she really wanted to she could have her brain kick itself for the rest of the day, but every negative thought died right then as she paced up to the cashier. “Hi,” she panted, “could I have a bacon and egg sandwich?”

“Let me check if we still have some.”

What?

Her wobbling eyes slid along with the cashier as he looked somewhere behind the counter. With her breath caught in her chest, she waited. He stood back up to face her. “Unfortunately, we’ve just given out our last one for the day.”

She blinked once. A heavy, slow, unbelieving blink. The employee hopped on his toes in the strange silence. “M’am, is there anything else you would like? I can check if we ha-”

“Who bought the last one?” she spoke.

“Pardon?”

“The last sandwich. Do you know who bought it?” As bizarre as she sounded, there was a terrible feeling deep inside of her as the words rolled off her dry tongue. With flustered cheeks, the employee excused himself to find out. At the same moment he came back, she already knew.

“A young man bought the bacon and egg along with two coffees.”

A young man…

The cashier did not like the silence. “His name was Auden, I’ve been told.”

“Auden?” she heard herself murmur. He nodded. “Right. Thank you. Sorry about that.” Backing away for the next customer, Giverny stood at the side with blank eyes staring at a stranger’s shoes. How was she so sure that the young man named Auden was the same prick she had encountered twice now? What was that portentous gut feeling she had felt when the cashier brought back to her his answer? She didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Well, it didn’t matter - she was too hungry to do either.

Giverny forced herself up the stairs. A zombie dragging one leg onto each step, she went up and up until meeting the second floor where a soft drone of voices floated through the air. She had no idea why she was up here. Where she should be is back down in the café ordering something else. I must be malfunctioning, she thought. Her body tilted toward the right, toward the sound of a cheery, sweet laugh that could only be produced from a flirting heart. And when she looked, her head cleared.

It was him. The prick who had snatched her book and teased her was sitting at a small table for two some yards away with… a girl - a girl with blonde hair as light as his, both laughing at something he had said. Giverny, standing there stunned, could only see the side of his face, but couldn’t deny that flash of recognition when she had spotted him. There he was, as gross and real as ever. And there it was.

Leaning forward and squinting her eyes, she could see it. My fucking sandwich. Her head was shaking back and forth before she knew it. A flabbergasted smile was stuck to her lips and her mind unable to process what was happening before her. Was this heaven giving her a chance at revenge or was she being made fun of? There suddenly appeared ten possibilities of what she could do, of how she could turn his entire day upside down. Or, she could just walk away. That was the eleventh possibility.

“I’m already hysterical as it is,” she said. So, she ducked behind the bookshelves to think of a scheming plan.

Her striding took her past the familiar arrangement of half-empty tables and bean bags tucked at the corners of random bookshelves. Quickly closing the distance between herself and the happy couple, she started hearing clearer the girl’s bouncing laugh. A devious grin stole onto her face.

Through the spaces of the bookshelves, she suddenly spotted their table. Giverny stopped. At her height she could see them perfectly - the two sweet kids chatting and drinking their coffees over a bacon and egg sandwich that was sitting there half-eaten. He’ll drink enough of that coffee, she contemplated, to have to use the bathroom soon enough. I’ll just have to wait until then.

Fifteen minutes were spent lying on her back, wandering on her phone when she heard the hushed squeak of a chair being pushed back. His voice she could hear as if from far away.

“I’ll be right back.”

Giverny immediately stood up. Brushed herself off and took a deep breath. She waited until he disappeared behind a bookshelf before turning herself around the corner. The table was only four steps away. The girl looked up from her phone as Giverny closed the remaining space.

Feigning ignorance, she tilted her head. “Who are you?” The girl’s eyebrows furrowed. “I was about to ask you the same question,” she said.

Giverny couldn’t help a knowing grin. “I’m Auden’s girlfriend.”

There was an echoing of voices far down the corridor on both sides as she watched the girl’s face twist in confusion. “I’m sorry, what-”

“That idiot who’s clearly two-timing us. I’m his girlfriend,” she reiterated, her voice dressed in an amusement she was trying hard to hide. The words seemed to push her back in her seat. “Oh my god,” she spoke as she began gathering her things, “I am so, so sorry. I had no idea.”

“You and me both,” Giverny sighed. The girl glanced at her as she pulled her bag over her shoulder and stood up. When they locked eyes, Giverny almost spilled out her secret. “Don’t worry, I’m disappearing like the light of day. I’m so sorry…”

She gave a real, reassuring smile. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” The girl managed a shy, tight-lipped smile in return before turning away to dash for the staircase. Giverny watched her, feeling a little bad. But as soon as she turned back to the table, all thought vanished.

My fucking sandwich.

When Auden returned, she was taking her fourth bite. His eyes shot open.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!”

He was fuming and she could tell. More than that, he was bewildered because how on earth-

“-Are you here? How in the devil’s name are you here right now?” he barked. Giverny could not restrain from taking her last bite of the sandwich. Her unresponsiveness strangled him. She took a napkin to wipe her lips before finally answering him. “Aren’t you going to ask about your date?”

He stared in shock. She stared back. The voices and noises of the café from the first floor faded in and out around them. Through the glass ceiling, the thick sunlight was pouring. “Why are you doing this to me?” he finally said. Giverny’s teeth clenched. Then, her face turned calm, almost cold.

“You keep stealing my things.”

#library #writing #writers on tumblr #short story #fiction

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jq37 · 6 years ago

Text

A Slight Miscalculation

Summary: In which Georg Accidentally Ruins Christmas and Does Damage Control (OR The One Where Amalia Does NOT Take the Reveal Well).

Don’t be fooled by the fact that I’m posting this right in time for the holiday season and think I’m on top of things in any way. I actually just got lapped by the entire rotation of the planet because this was supposed to be done like a year ago. So, really, the joke is on all of us.

I also posted this on Ao3 if you want proper formatting all the way through. Tumblr is just...you know.

In the end, it takes Georg three words to ruin Christmas. Or, if you take the long view, it takes him thousands of words followed by three words at the exact wrong time to the exact wrong person. Which is especially unfortunate because they were meant to be at the exact right time to the exact right person.

But the specifics don’t matter. All that matters is that Amalia is standing with her back to him in the middle of Maraczek’s, shoulders shaking. And for one, stupid, naive moment, he actually thinks it’s with excitement. He thinks she’s going to turn around, eyes shining and melt into him and kiss him and cue the violins.

That fantasy is quickly set aside when she turns slowly, meets his gaze, and reverses his declaration at him. “You’re Dear Friend?”

And that’s when Georg realizes two things: He has made a huge miscalculation and he has never actually seen Amalia truly angry before now.

Sure, he’s seen her upset. Really upset. Really really upset. But only ever over relatively small things like his teasing and...well mainly just that. It was always superficial anger, with shallow roots. If she’d really hated him as much as she’d seemed to, a small favor like bringing her ice cream and a few kind words wouldn’t have been enough to earn him a clean slate.

But now? Back at the Cafe Imperial, she’d wished the fires of hell onto him. Now, it feels like she’s about to personally fulfill that threat.

“I...ah--” He hasn’t prepared for this. He scrambles for a response before settling on answering her clearly rhetorical question. “Yes. I am.”

Amalia closes her eyes and presses her lips together in a tight...smile? Smirk? She taps her fingers against her lips and Georg thinks she’s gathering her thoughts. Tap, tap, tap. He braces for her response, but is caught completely off guard when she snatches her hat off of her head and chucks it at him.

“How dare you?”

Georg doesn’t bother to dodge the hat. “Amalia, I--”

“How long have you known?” she demands.

“Not the whole time. I--”

“How long, Georg?”

“Since the day at the Cafe,” he answers quickly. “I saw you through the window with the book and the rose and I put it together.”

His candor has the opposite of the intended effect on her. She crosses her arms and--yeah, it’s definitely a smirk. “Oh, I see. You saw me sitting there and you thought, ‘You know what would be hilarious?’”

His hands go up instinctually, as if he can physically shield himself from the accusations. “Amalia, no! I--”

“You thought, ‘I’ll get her defenses good and down.’”

“I didn’t--”

“‘I’ll pretend to be friendly with her.’”

“That wasn’t--”

“‘And right when she thinks we’re friends--’”

“We are friends!” he finally gets out. His first full sentence in what feels like ages and he can’t stop saying words because he feels like he won’t get another chance to speak if he does. “Of course we’re friends. Amalia, please, I just…” He can feel himself getting hysterical and he stops himself.

Amalia seizes the beat of silence.

“Do friends lie to each other?”

“Lie to you?” Sure he didn’t tell her about the letters but lie? “When did I--” His mind calls up the memories that answer his own question.

“He certainly seemed well fed,” he hears himself say. “That's not so unusual in a man his age.”

Mentally, he curses himself. “Why did I say that?”

“Why would you say that,” she almost echos, “except to tease me?”

“I--I was just--”

Amalia clicks her tongue at him. “Oh come on Georg. Or is it Dear Friend? I know you’re more eloquent than that.”

“A joke!” he finally gets out. “It was just supposed to be funny.”

“For who?” she explodes. “For the woman you just saw crying her eyes out? You have a sick sense of humor, you know that Mr. Nowack?” He winces at the deliberate use of his surname. “And to think. Tonight at dinner, I was going to…” She stops.

Georg waits a beat before asking, “Going to what?”

“I guess now you’ll never know will you?” She strides past him, going for the door but, with his long gait, he catches up quickly and reaches the door just a second after her.

“Amalia, wait!” He goes for the handle as she does and his hand lands atop hers. When she turns and glares at him, he jerks his hand away.

“You know,” she says, “after you came to see me, I thought to myself, ‘Say. Mr. Nowack sure has some similar opinions on classic literature to Dear Friend. Could he possibly be Dear Friend?’ And then I thought, ‘Amalia, you’re not being fair. Why would he not tell you after that pitiful display? No one’s that cruel.’” She laughs, but there’s no humor in the sound. “I stand corrected. Goodbye Georg,” she says with such an air of finality that it stops any attempts at an explanation or an apology dead in his throat.

And with that, she’s gone.

Georg locks up and then walks away. Not home. Just away from the shop and the backdrop of his big disaster and, he hopes, the voice in his head yelling, “YOU IDIOT,” at full volume but that doesn’t go away. He wonders if it ever will.

He’s been walking for a few minutes when he hears a cheery voice say, “Georg! You decided to join us after all.”

He looks up, startled, and sees Mr. Maraczek and Arpad. When he looks around and sees where he is, he realizes that he’s walked halfway to Webers without meaning to.

“I suppose I have,” Georg answers.

“Excellent,” says Mr. Maraczek. “The more the merrier. Though, and correct me if I’m mistaken, I thought you had plans with Ms. Balash.”

“I did,” Georg says, hating how pathetic he sounds.

“I see,” says Mr. Maraczek, knowingly. “Well, we’d better get inside. This sounds like a conversation that calls for wine. And lots of it.”

They order wine. Lots of it. And Georg describes the situation with Amalia. Belatedly, he realizes that Amalia might not want her coworkers to know any of the details of her love life, but at that point the deed has been done and he doesn’t think it’s possible for her to hate him more than she already does. As he finishes his third glass of wine, he feels like a terrible influence on Arpad, but he doesn’t stop Mr. Maraczek from pouring him another glass.

“Wow,” says Arpad. “She sounds really mad.”

Georg is tipsy enough that he finds that funny. “Arpad, mad would be an improvement.” Then he sighs. “She is never going to talk to me again.”

Mr. Maraczek slaps him on the back. “Don’t say that. We’re intelligent men. I’m sure between the three of us we can come up with a plan to help you out of your predicament.”

And, a glass and a half of wine later (Mr. Maraczek cuts him off after that), they have.

~.~

For the first time in her life, Amalia is glad when Christmas is over.

She usually loves to wrap herself in a cocoon of love and peace and goodwill towards men but, the way she’s feeling, it’s hard to not take every proclamation of Merry this and Happy that as a personal slight.

Of course, the relief is brief. Christmas ending means she has to go back to work which means she has to go back to seeing Georg--Mr. Nowack. She can’t think about him without either boiling over with rage or bursting into tears. Although, she has to admit that, now that the initial shock has worn off, she’s tending more towards tears.

Because, at the end of the day, she’s only really mad about one thing and sad about twelve. And by the time she has to go back to work, even the anger’s turned back towards herself. She berates herself as she trudges to her first day back to after the holidays. How could she be so stupid? So trusting? So naive? How could she invite a scorpion onto her back and then be surprised when she got stung? And now that he’s back in Mr. Maraczek’s good graces, he has more power than ever at work. Anything she might do or say would be--

Amalia stops short when she realizes that she’s reached her destination more quickly than she’d expected to. She shakes her head to clear it and does her best to make her face placid but not stony. Not calm enough for anyone to realize that it’s a careful, calculated mask.

When she looks up, mask in place, she notices what she didn’t before: the store is empty. The lights are out. The snow hasn’t been cleared. She tugs on the door handle to test it. Locked.

And then she notices something else. A pink envelope wedged in the door, about a foot above her eye level, as if someone significantly taller had put it there. Her mind supplies an explanation instantly but she refuses to believe it until she gets into her tiptoes to retrieve the letter and sees “Ms. Balash” written on the front in very familiar handwriting.

She immediately rips it into four neat pieces, throws the pieces onto the floor, and grinds them under her heel. But, as soon as her flash of anger dissipates, her curiosity overtakes her and, after glancing around to make sure no one is watching her, she crouches down, gathers up the letter pieces, and does her best to bring them together so that they’re readable.

Ms. Balash,

I know that’s not how I usually address your letters but I’m not sure if you see me as a non-combatant right now, let alone a friend.

That this letter is longer than the two words it takes to say, “I’m sorry” is terribly self indulgent of me so, if you want to stop reading and crumple up this letter after this next line, you’ll be well within your rights. I’m sorry.

I told you that I lied to you as a joke but, I’ve thought about it and I don’t think that’s why I did it. I think--no I’m sure. The reason I lied to you is that I wanted to see how you’d react to Dear Friend not being what you expected. I thought that if you could handle him being old and bald and fat then maybe you could come around to him being me.

It still wasn’t right. I never should have done it, especially since I could see how emotionally vulnerable you were. But I hope you believe me when I say I wasn’t being intentionally cruel.

Now, as you can see, the shop is closed today. I convinced Mr. Maraczek to keep it closed one more day to give us all an extra day to recover from the holidays. Don’t worry about missing a day of work. I’ve made sure you’ll still get paid for today, out of my salary. It’s the least I can do.

Your day is free so I hope you enjoy it. Catch up on your sleep. Take a walk. Burn me in effigy. Whatever makes you happy. And, on the off chance you despise me even slightly less than the last time we spoke, I left something for you at the library. It was supposed to be your Christmas present but I ruined that. Still, you should have it, if you want it. The fact that I was terrible shouldn’t deprive you of a present.

Again, I am so sorry.

Very Sincerely,

Georg Nowack

She reads it through three times like she thinks the words are going to change on the page.

If it wasn’t clear that Georg was Dear Friend before, it is now. This letter is a perfect blend of the letters she’s been reading for months and the kinder, gentler (devious, traitorous) version of Georg she’s been getting since after the night at the cafe. She’s almost mad at herself for not trusting her instincts and fully putting it together herself. She wants to be mad at Georg too but, based on the amount of self-flagellation in the letter, he’s doing a better job at that than her.

At the thought, she pauses and frowns. Why is she taking the letter at face value? He’s been lying to her for weeks. Why would this suddenly be the truth?

And yet, she can’t help feeling genuineness from each word on the crumpled, torn up page. As much as she had wanted to cast Georg as a Machiavellian mastermind in the days following his confession, once she’d calmed down she had to admit that there was no way he could have orchestrated the entire series of events solely to humiliate her. Which meant that the letters he’d sent before he found out at least must have been genuine. And this one feels just as real.

Which does nothing to help her sort out her feelings.

A cold blast of air makes her pull her coat closer around her and she remembers that she’s standing outside in the middle of winter which is less than ideal. She has to get inside.

“The library is inside,” a part of her brain helpfully suggests. And, for some reason, she can’t think of a single counter argument to that statement even though there are a dozen places she could stop between where she is and the library, including her own house.

It doesn’t help that she’s curious, in spite of herself.

So she walks down the street, across the bridge, and past the Metropole Cinema until she finds herself standing in front of the impressive facade of the public library. She usually finds the building elegant but, for some reason, it feels a touch imposing as she enters.

Once she’s inside, she realizes that Georg’s note didn’t actually say where in the library he’d left the gift. She’s about to check it again to see if she missed something when someone calls her name from the reception desk.

When she looks up, she sees John--a librarian--flagging her down at the check out desk. John only started working at the library a few months ago--about the same time she started at Maraczek’s--but she’s visited the library and chatted with him often enough that they’re on a first name basis.

“Hello John,” she says, momentarily forgetting her task. “How was the holiday?”

“Great. You?”

“Ah...it was fine.” She knows her skills at lying leave something to be desired so she moves on quickly. “John, did someone happen to leave a package--” Before she can finish, he pulls a wrapped box from under the desk and presents it to her.

“For me,” she finishes belatedly, taking the box. “Thank you.”

Someone comes over to check out a book so Amalia moves off to the side to open the package. It’s wrapped in the same way they’ve learned to wrap boxes for work. Same paper too. Amalia can almost picture Georg in the back room, cutting the paper, tying the ribbon, hiding the box until Christmas Eve…

She shakes her head and rips through the wrapping.

She’d been half-expecting a book, even though the weight of the package wasn’t right. But that’s not it. When she tears away the wrapping paper, she can see that she’s holding a stationary set. The outside of the wooden box is engraved with a stylized A, for Amalia she guesses. Inside the box are sheets of pink paper, envelopes, a fountain pen, an inkwell (and, for some reason, a book of matches?), all designed to not just be functional, but beautiful. It’s nicer than anything she could ever justify buying for herself, but the exact thing she would look at wistfully in a shop window.

Amalia thumbs through the paper in the set, looking for an accompanying letter or note, but she doesn’t find one. She finds herself oddly disappointed. Not that she particularly wants to hear anything from Georg right now--despite the beautiful gift--but she’d been expecting it. That was it. She’d just been expecting it.

She gathers up the wrapping paper and goes to tell John goodbye. Or, at least, that’s her intention. When she opens her mouth, the words that fall out are, “Did the person who left this leave a note or a letter or--”

Again, before she can finish her thought, John’s hand reaches under the desk and comes up with an item. This time, it is a book.

“Or something.” Amalia takes a good look at John. He looks full to bursting with excitement. In fact, he’s almost vibrating. She narrows her eyes. “John, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he says, nudging the book towards her. He’s almost as bad of a liar as she is.

“Then why are you shaking?”

“It’s January? The library is drafty?”

“Hmm,” she says unconvinced, but she takes the book from him. It’s a copy of Treasure Island and, sticking out, is another letter. She wonders why John would choose to store the letter in that particular book as she slides the envelope out and opens it.

Dear Ms. Balash,

John was under strict instructions to only give you this letter if you specifically asked for it but I know he can get ahead of himself so, if that’s the case, feel free to burn this.

(She remembers the out of place matches and smiles, slightly.)

In any case, this is the present I meant to give you on Christmas Day. I thought about getting you a book--maybe a first edition of one of your favorites--but I know how attached I get to my old, well-worn copies so I decided to go in a different direction.

I hope you enjoy this set, no matter who you choose to correspond with in the future.

And, for the record, I would have put one of those ridiculous “candy boxes” on my mantle if you’d given it to me. Really.

Speaking of candy, I left something for you at the candy shop near the park if you want to pick it up. It should be done by the time you get there, if you choose to. If not, I want to offer you a very belated Merry Christmas and another sincere apology.

Very Sincerely,

Georg Nowack

By the time she gets to the end, she realizes that the choice of book to hold the letter in wasn’t random. It was part of the message. A letter that sent her to a location which yielded another letter with another location. It’s a kind of treasure hunt and he’s letting her know upfront.

It seems...planned. Well, obviously it’s planned. These things don’t just materialize from thin air. But it’s more than that. There’s a certain preciseness to the actions. To not having John present her with the letter before she asked for it. To not just leaving the gift at her door when he knows where she lives.

He's giving her space, she realizes. Giving her complete control over how much or how little she has to interact with him, even indirectly. It's careful. It's measured. It's…thoughtful. Her mind almost trips over the word. Thoughtful. Sure it's thoughtful, but to what end? "Well?" John asks, bringing her out of her thoughts. "Huh?" "Well, what are you going to do?" She looks at the note again before tucking it into her coat pocket and turning to leave. "Goodbye John." She ignores his cajoling pleas for information as she heads out the door and towards the candy shop. When she talks to the woman at the counter, she produces a box of chocolates. "Custom made," she says, conspiratorially. Amalia opens the box and sees that the chocolates inside are indeed customized with her initials on each one: AB.

Before she even tastes one of the chocolates, she asks for the letter she’s almost certain came with the package. The woman hands it over and Amalia reads it as she pops one of the chocolate pieces into her mouth.

Dear Ms. Balash,

I know you like sweets and even you have to admit that it’s a little cold for ice cream right now so this is the next best thing.

This should be enough chocolate to last even you the time it will take to get to the next location. If you recall, I owe you a significant amount of wine.

Truly,

Georg Nowack

There are two places he could have bought her wine in town, but only one of them is near her apartment and she bets that that’s the place he would have picked. It will give her a chance to drop the bottle off at home before she goes on to the next location.

The next location.

She feels a shiver of excitement. Or maybe it’s the cold. Either way, she’s honest enough with herself that she can admit that she’s at least curious to see how far this goes.

The answer to that question turns out to be, pretty far. For the next two hours, she’s sent from one side of the city to the other, finding letters, some left with people, some wedged someplace conspicuous and marked with her name or her initials: AB. Usually attached to some kind of small gift or trinket. Nothing as fancy as the stationary set. Nothing that can be mistaken for a bribe.

At first, they all start the same: Dear Ms. Balash. But then, the one at the cinema starts: Dear Amalia. The next couple are like that. And then she gets to the flower shop.

By now, it’s late afternoon. When she walks in, still holding the pink envelope from the last location, the man behind the counter sees it, smiles, and immediately hands her a single rose, attached to an envelope. She takes it and thanks the man, but she’s thrown. So far, she’s had to ask for almost every letter. Why would this one be different?

But then, she opens it and she knows. It’s the shortest one yet. Only four lines.

Dear Friend,

Dinner at 8?

Yours,

Georg

In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. A do-over, with her in the driver’s seat this time. It’s the most natural endpoint for this game they’re playing.

She twirls the rose between her fingers, careful not to prick herself on the thorns. Dinner at 8. Dinner at 8.

~.~

Georg waits. He waits all day in fact. Once everything is set up there's nothing to do but wait, first at home and then at the cafe. He gets there a full hour before the time Amalia is supposed to meet him. Or not meet him. One or the other. He honestly has no idea how his plan is going. He thought about following behind her and asking his co-conspirators for updates, but it would defeat the entire purpose of giving Amalia space. And, besides, he made Amalia wait for him until closing without any idea of what was going on. This is the very least he can suffer by way of penance. He happens to run into the head waiter when he walks in--literally run into him, making the waiter spill an armful of menus and Georg drop his copy of Anna Karenina. Georg makes an attempt at hiding his face with his hat when he remembers the last conversation with the fussy waiter, but when the man picks up the book and sees the wilted rose tucked into it, recognition sparks in his eyes, and that's before he even looks at Georg's face. When he does, he shakes his head and pulls the rose front the book. "We can do better than this," he says, before replacing his rose with a fresh one from a display. "There. And no running off this time. Or yelling." He leaves Georg slightly confused about the depth his knowledge about his love life and very grateful that he hasn't been put on some kind of no service list. He gets seated, orders wine, and resists pouring himself more than a single glass. Even when Amalia doesn't show up at 8. Or 8:15. Or 8:30. Georg is about to resign himself to closing out the night with the staff when finally, finally she shows up, practically at the stroke of 9. She’s wearing his rose in her hair and Georg thinks that he would gladly deal with the inflated winter rose prices all season if it meant she would always wear them like that.

As she approaches the table, he awkwardly gets up to pull her chair out. In his haste, he bangs the table with his knees and makes the silverware clatter. He quickly pulls out her chair before he causes more chaos and summons the head waiter.

For her part, Amalia ignores his clumsiness and takes the seat. He hurries over to the other side of the table and sits. Carefully.

They sit in silence for a few moments. Georg thinks up and discards about a dozen openers before Amalia speaks.

“I got here on time you know.” He doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he doesn’t.

“Stroke of 8,” she continues. “And I watched you. Through the window. On and off for an hour.”

“To punish me,” he says, hanging his head. “I deserved it.”

“No. Well, yes. But no it wasn’t to punish you. I wanted you to know how it felt. Sitting. Waiting. Not knowing whether I would show or not. I was going to make you wait longer but...I didn’t have the heart.” She pours herself a glass of wine, takes a sip and then says, “I won’t lie to you. Today was fun. I had a lot of fun. But I have to know. What exactly was your goal here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, was this an apology and nothing else or do you have ulterior motives? Because I feel a little like a frog in a pot of boiling water right now.” That makes two frog metaphors in one day, she notes and, before she can ascribe any meaning to that, Georg quickly cuts in.

“It’s nothing like that. We just--”

“We?”

He pulls a face before saying, “Mr. Maraczek and Arpad helped me to come up with this plan. The idea was to give you space. You could go as far as you wanted to, or not at all. I wanted to invite you to dinner right away but Mr. Maraczek suggested some kind of buffer and Arpad suggested chocolates. Considering what happened last time I invited you to dinner, I thought they had a point so…” He holds out his hands in a “ta-da” gesture. “This is what I came up with.”

He looks so awkward, Amalia thinks. He doesn’t know if he should drop his hands or not so they just hang there, uselessly, as he half smiles, half grimaces. It’s so pathetic it’s almost adorable. She feels the strong urge to put him out of his misery.

She reaches across the table and hits him.

“Ow!” he says, more out of surprise than anything else. The swat was pointed, but weak. “What was that for?”

“If you were going to play games with me before you told me, why weren’t they like this, huh? Something nice that didn’t leave me second guessing our entire relationship. Relationships, plural. And now that I know you were going to-- ” She abruptly stops.

Georg waits for a second before pushing. “I was going to?”

She seems to weigh her options for a few moments before saying. “I know you were going to propose.”

“Yes,” he says, too surprised to dance around it. “Did Ladislav--?”

She shakes her head. “I didn’t know for sure until just now, but I figured it out earlier. Everything you arranged for today was marked with my full initials. AB. Amalia Balash. But the stationary set you bought earlier only had an A, for Amalia. If I changed my last name, the monogram would be wrong." He stares at her for a few seconds, eyes going soft. “What?”

“We’re here. We’re talking. You’re smart and gorgeous and not yelling at me. This is how our date could have gone if I hadn’t ruined it.”

Amalia snorts, gracelessly. “No, it wouldn’t have. If you hadn’t ruined it, I would have. I wasn’t exactly your biggest fan at the time, if you remember.”

“And now?”

She raises her glass to her lips and takes a sip. A long sip. A very long--

“You’re enjoying this aren’t you.”

“A little,” she admits, with a small smile. “See? Teasing, fine. Keeping crucial information away from me for two weeks while I have an existential crisis? Bad. You might want to write that down for future reference.”

Future reference?

“Does that mean...are we...did you...is this a clean slate?”

“No.” Georg’s spirits sink until she adds, “That would be starting from scratch. I don’t want to start from scratch. I like you Georg. More than like you. In fact, I was seriously considering picking you over Dear Friend at dinner. You know, because of the lying. And then you told me and it sent me in a tailspin but it wouldn’t have if I didn’t like you. A lot. I mean, you’ve read my letters.”

“And you’ve read mine. So, what do we do now?”

Silence.

And then, violin music.

From the other side of the room, the head waiter catches Georg’s eye and winks.

“Well,” says Amalia. “I say we finish this bottle of wine. Then we order another one and drink that. And then we go from there. How does that sound?” She reaches a hand across the table and, for just a second, he sees a trace of uncertainty flash across her face. He can’t tell if it’s uncertainty in herself, in him, a combination.

It doesn’t matter. He takes her hand without pause, hesitation, or thought.

“Music to my ears.”

#she loves me #amalia balash #georg nowack #here's my yearly addition to the tag #s/o to amaliabalash who has been reading this in short bursts for like a whole ass year now #sorry my writing schedule follows no rhyme or reason #anyway #I constantly say that Georg got INSANELY lucky that amalia took everything so well #she could have been FURIOUS #he pushed it pretty freaking close #the fact that he got off w/ zero grovelling is honestly kind of miraculous #also head waiter wingman #that kinda just happened #it wasn't part of my outline in my head but as soon as I started writing that scene #shrug #it felt right

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ridleytheknight · 7 years ago

Text

I Forgot Who I Once Was

The ceiling was black with glowing shades of purple as he peeled open his eyes. The room was dim and somehow that made everything feel that much clearer. More sensitive. The feeling of soft sheets beneath his body, the stiff contrast of the clothing covering his body. The smell of clean metal invading his nose, foreign and strong. The taste of stale air on his tongue. And the sound of whirling, like a simulator in flight, with banging pipes and the murmur of voices echoed with footsteps in his half-conscious mind.

Where was he? A ship he guessed. That’s what it felt like anyway. Or, what he felt like a ship would feel like. He didn’t remember ever being on a ship before. But his mind supplied the comparison either way, the swaying of motion even when he stayed still on the bed.

How did he get here? He couldn’t remember. Now that he’d thought about it, he really couldn’t remember much besides basic things, what they were called. And strangely enough languages. He knew what the languages were called, but he didn’t remember how he knew them or where he learned them. Only that he knew them fluently. Except. He knew one way better than he knew the rest. Spanish. Was that his native language? The one he learned from his mother?

Who was his mother? No face conjured in his mind. Not a name or a scent or anything at all. And now that he was thinking about it. He didn’t even remember his own name. He brought a hand up to his face. Warm tan skin, smooth. Brown hair and he knew that he had blue eyes. A flash of him looking in the mirror popped into his head. He sighed in relief. He could recognize his reflection and basic things. That was, nice. Knowing his name would also be nice. Maybe, he could ask someone? There had to be someone else on this ship if it was flying, right?

The boy swung his legs over the edge of his bed, taking a moment to adjust as a wave of dizziness went through his skull. A tight black body suit was stuck to his body like a second skin. A wave of familiarity went of him, but he couldn’t place it. He felt like he’d wore this before… but there was something missing from it. He didn’t know what.

The dizziness subsided and he got up onto his feet, his legs were shaking a bit and he almost collapsed, but he was able to grab the bed and kept himself up. Working himself up into taking shaky steps, until his legs stabilized enough to walk without a limp. He wasn’t going to be running marathons anytime soon. Or at all. But. Hey. Walking was fine.

What the fuck happened to him?

Stumbling, he finally made it to the door, palms pressing flat against the cold flat metal of the door and he was stumped again. He wasn’t completely sure, but, he was ninety percent sure most doors had knobs. Or a push pull mechanic. This, didn’t seem to have either as the tan boy pressed on the door. It didn’t budge. Confusion settled in.

Was he in some odd version of jail?

Space jail?

The thought sounded weird, but he didn’t even know himself. How could he know if he didn’t do something to justify imprisonment? But, he had a feeling he wasn’t the worst person. He didn’t think him being in prison sounded right. He balled a fist and knocked on the door. His voice spilling from his lips.

“Hello?” It sounded a lot more timid that what his brain supplied his voice sounding like. But then again. He could understand why. Strange place. Strange clothes. Without a name. Without a family. He didn’t know what to expect. What to do. He was lost and slowly becoming more afraid. He jerked back in surprise as the door slid open seconds after his call. Eyes falling on a strange person standing in front of his door. Her eyes were wide and her lips curled into a smile at the sight of him. It startled him and made him slightly curious of the strange woman with the long oddly colored ponytail.

“You’re awake! That’s great news! You’re name’s Lance right? My name’s Ezor!” The woman stuck out her hand. Presumably for him to shake. Lance? It sounded right, but, not exactly. It sounded more like a nickname than a really name. But, was it his name? This woman apparently knew his name, but had introduced herself as well. The confusion from before tripled.

“Uh, I don’t know? I, um, it’s good to meet you.” The woman gave him a strange look, still looking cheery and friendly, with a touch of her own confusion.

“Your name is Lance, right? That was the name on the jacket we found you in.” The boy hesitated.

“I don’t know… it sounds right. But. I don’t know. I’m sorry.” The woman shook her head, placing her hands on Lance’s shoulders. Making him relax at the friendly and affectionate physical contact as she smiled reassuringly at him.

“That’s alright, do you mind if I call you Lance?” He shook his head and she nodded with a smile, hands sliding down his arms to grab his hands and gently guide him to sit on the bed. “That’s good then! Lance it shall be. Do you know where you are Lance? What’s the last thing you remember?” Lance frowned. Looking down in thought.

“Uh, no. I know I’m on a ship. But, I don’t know whose ship. The last thing I remember is waking up here. I don’t remember anything else besides basics I guess. Like. I know what things are called, or what they do. But I don’t remember how I know. It’s like I know everything, except myself. Does that make sense?” The woman smiled reassuringly at him, worriedly looking him over after she did, reaching up to check the back of his head, before she straightened back up.

“I hoped it wouldn’t be the case, but I can understand why. Lance, we found you injured on a planet’s surface, a planet that was not your own. It was a planet that hadn’t be inhabited in years. My team found you with a nasty head injury and barely conscious. We guess that you were one of the rebel soldiers who got left behind in a supply run after being injured. Right now, you’re on a Galran ship. Does anything of that sound familiar?” Lance bit his lip.

“The head thing. I remember my head hurting. But everything else is blank. I’m sorry, if that’s not much help. Thank you for saving me.” The woman smiled at Lance patiently, still holding onto his hands as she stood up. Prodding him softly to do that same. Which he did, stumbling a bit until he found his balance again.

“You’re not at fault. C’mon. Let’s go see the others. They’ll want to know your awake and your just in time for lunch.”

---

The weeks passed quickly after that, Lance becoming accustomed and even situated into the team once they figured out he didn’t know if he had a home to go to. Who he even was. So, they offered him a home with them. And he was so happy. They were super pleased with him too, sure his hand to hand combat sucked. But when they gave him a rifle he hit every target. He was their little sniper. Their sharpshooter.

It sounded familiar.

Soon enough every Galra knew of the new addition to Lotor’s top generals, the sweet boy with blue eyes. And everyone also knew that the first person to touch him would have all four original generals and the prince out for their head on a platter. The boy was loved by every single one of them and most of the Galran citizens too. Moral improved with each little snippet and sighting of the new general. Seeing him interact with the other generals, softening their edges and making them seem more, personal. Galran. And even for the new boy, the general who wasn’t even one shred of Galran, they loved him too. Seeing him playing with Galran children, smiling at everyone. Being friendly. It was almost like he was meant to be there. Like he always had been.

Only the team of generals got reminders that Lance hadn’t always been theirs. And those reminders would always make them wish they had found him sooner than they had. Nightmares. Sometimes every so often one of the generals or the prince could hear him scream in the night, quickly going to him to see him hysterically crying. Begging for someone not to hurt him. Saying he didn’t want to die. Sometimes it was him crying for his dad to stop. Sometimes he’d be hysterically sobbing, begging someone to help him. Calling out names to save him. Begging them not to leave him. To hear him. And the next morning when he’d wake up after passing out in one of their arms, he’d have no memory of what he’d been dreaming about. Only that he was afraid and in pain. Like his mind was forcing the memories out of his head. Repressing them.

That was probably what shifted Lance from just another kid they were taking care of, to their Lance, the one they needed to protect. One of them, with issues and demons of his own, while he could still fight. Stay strong. Wear armor proudly and not have it change him. He was quickly becoming the connection between the team and the world outside. He grounded them, and reminded them there was more out there than just people with perfect lives. There were people who had survived the horrible things they hoped their empire to stop. If their goal had ever been a second priority, it wasn’t now. They wanted a peaceful world and empire. One that way any kid like them had been or like Lance still was, could feel safe.

Luckily, Lance was improving on protecting himself and fighting with flying colors. His hand to hand combat was amazing, he couldn’t beat any of them yet, but he was inching closer to that. He could take down some of the other Galra soldiers despite his size and weight. It filled them with pride. However, his shooting was the source of most of their bragging. Lance had always been an amazing shot, but now he was perfect. There had only been very few instances where he had missed. Not even strain or injury usually deterred him. They still worried however, and that’s why when Lotor gave them the stones. The generals all wore them on their wrists, while they put Lances on a choker like necklace for further protection. It had the royal inscription around the small glowing stone. Meaning everyone would now not to mess with him is Lance were to ever go on a solo mission. The stones however were the real blessing. It shared emotions and information on the others well beings. It soothed all of them feeling how each other’s presence was still good and well. The only one who couldn’t feel the others was Lance, his quintessence manipulation was weak at best, most of his running through his veins unused. But they could still feel him and that was what really mattered.

No one told him because they knew he would get upset he couldn’t feel them. They also didn’t want him to know so he wouldn’t rush after them if they got hurt. If they were in a bad place the last thing they wanted was to endanger someone else. And Lance was so compassionate they knew nothing would stop him from coming to them. So, it was better for him to just believe it was for identification purposes. He seemed to really like the necklace either way, practically glowing with the few compliments from other soldiers and civilians. Chest puffed out in pride.

They were so grateful for that in this battle now.

It had started out so easy, going through the old abandoned base. Lance was sitting up in some of the old internal recon towers with a sniper rifle as their just in case cover, it also was for the fact he could trigger some of the sensors being a non Galra. So, they’d escorted him to the towers entrance and let him walk around to try and find the best vantage point. Which they knew when he found it as he laughed and exclaimed his victory through the coms. Letting them proceed forward all over through the base under his watchful scope.

That’s when things went down.

“Uh huh! That’s right! I really thought it was- hey. Did we call for back up?” Acxa furrowed her brows and looked to Zethrid, who replied to him.

“No, we haven’t, why?”

“Well, there’s basically a giant ship that’s hovering above the atmosphere and now there are a bunch of… I think they’re ships? They look like massive metal cats. Zethrid. I’m… they look familiar. Why am I afraid?” Ezor’s breath caught in her throat.

“Shit. Voltron! Acxa, get what we came for. Narti, find out their status. Do they know we’re here? What are they looking for? Zethrid, go with Acxa for some muscle power and I’ll go with Narti. Lance. Keep an eye on them, tell us if they separate or do anything okay?” Lance gave a sound of agreement. “Put on your mask too. God knows what will happen. Last thing we need is a gas pipe breaking during the fight and having you get poisoned. Stay safe okay?” Ezor waited until she heard the sound of the face mask going over Lance’s mouth and nose before he relaxed. That was another thing that Lance was given. It was like Narti’s mask, only it was more muzzle like in the fact in covered Lances jaw, mouth, and nose. It was meant to silence and regulate Lance’s breathing in the different atmospheres. It also had the nice added bonus of protecting at least some of Lance’s head, which wasn’t covered by their armor.

Lance heart was beating in his ears, whenever he looked at the Voltron paladins he felt an ache in his chest and the smothering feeling of fear. But he shook it off. This was for his family, his friends, the empire. He couldn’t be afraid. Even though every time he looked at them his heart would pound painfully. And there was a tickle at the back of his head. As if he knew something, but it was escaping him. Lance bit his lip under the mask and contemplated it, until he watched them talk for a moment and split up. Three groups. One with the red and black paladins. One group with the green and blue ones. And the yellow one went back to his lion. Probably taking on a position like Lance’s own as recon and sniping. Lance turned on his coms.

“They’re splitting up. The green and blue ones are going to the west wing, you might be seeing them soon Acxa and Zethrid. Stay alert and be careful. The yellow paladin is taking off the surface. So, they shouldn’t be a worry. However, the red and black paladins ducked around the corner. I can’t see them anymore. Any updates on you girls?” Acxa’s voice crackled into his head piece first.

“Keep the green and blue one’s in your sights for as long as you can. Through the windows if you have too. We’re almost done with the download and deletion. Shit. Which entrance are they at Lance?”

“The southern one.”

“Zethrid, block the door, buy us the time it will take to break the door down or go around the building. Keep them outside for as long as possible. Ezor? You got anything?”

“We know their looking for information. But we didn’t know where any of them are going. The distance is too far for Narti to get good insight. Stay sharp all of you. Let’s get what we need done, done and get out of here. I’ve got a bad feeling with Voltron being here when its only us. Is our ship well hidden?” Narti gave a short reply.

“Yes.”

“Then we should be fine. They don’t seem to know we’re here. Go on as planned.” Banging sounded from Acxa’s line and her voice flitted through. Whisper soft.

“Don’t worry, the door’s blocked. We should be fine. Lance?” Lance squinted.

“They’re just trying to test the doors. Like when you think its either locked or stuck and you’re trying to see if you can get it open? They’re giving up though I think… wait… no… ACXA ZETHRID DUCK!!!” The door blew open with the device in the green one’s hand. Lance had though the weird fiddling with the door had been getting excessive. Lance’s heart was thudding loudly in his ears as he readied his gun. He couldn’t shoot out them without making them duck into the building for shelter. Or… he could shoot away from them and make them think the other paladins needed back up. Lance smirked. Pulling the trigger, the window on a farther building burst and blew up in a bright flash. Gaining both the paladin’s attention as they readied their own individual bayards. Stalking away from the freshly caved in door and wandering towards the flash of light. He heard a sigh of relief.

“Thanks Lance. The download’s almost done. Are you guys ready?” Lance was going to reply, until he heard the familiar sound of footsteps down the hallway. His chest ached immediately and his palms began to sweat. He whispered hushedly into the com mic in his mask.

“Ezor… you wouldn’t happen to be in my building, would you?” Ezor’s voice entered the coms.

“No? Why?” Lance’s heart raced faster and he immediately broke down his sniper rifle, taking out his pistol and looking around the room. Back to the window he was once perched in.

“Ezor. I think I found the other two paladins. They’re down the hallway.”

“Shit! Lance hide! Do not engage! The black paladin is the Champion! Get out of there as soon as you can. Go to the entrance of the recon buildings and hide. I’m on my way to get you. Acxa. Finish up there. Narti. Go get the ship ready.” The door to the room next to Lance’s slammed open and he heard voices. Talking loudly and in rythmn. Lance’s voice caught in his throat. He knew those voices. He knew them.

He also knew when he was afraid.

Lance swung the sniper over to strap onto his back and he held his pistol tightly in his hands. Eyeing the window. If he could hop out of it and shuffle to one of the balconies he could get into a different room and go down the stairs, it was better odds than running for it. Lance let out a puff of air through his mask and grabbed the window, slowly pulling the window pane up and out of his way. He’d already swung a leg over when he heard the clicking of a readying weapon.

“Stop right there.” Lance’s head shot up to see the Black paladin, arm shining a dangerous purple, bayard in his other hand. Lance’s breath caught in his throat as his mind shoved thoughts into his mind. He didn’t want to die. Feelings of betrayal and abandonment. Lance was stuck and confusion at the rampaging emotions.

“Lance?” The voice came out timidly from the black paladin. Shocked. But it was enough to get Lance to go into action. Spurring him to yank his other leg out the window and quickly edge his way into the other window. Holding tightly onto the wall and shuffling his way to the other window quickly and ignoring the shouts and reaching hand coming out from the window.

“Ezor. Ezor. He knew my name. He knew my name.” The coms crackled but remained silent. Dead. Lance cursed. They probably were cut off, Acxa must have accidently deleted the normal functions too in her haste. Lance cursed softly, knowing no sounds would escape his mask unless he pressed the release button. Lance made a noise of relief as a balcony came in sight and he scrambled onto it. Pulling himself onto it and sneaking in the balcony door.

It was terrifying. The building was ringing with shouts of his name and loud foreboding footsteps. Lance made the split decision to fuck stealth and just run. They already knew he was here. What he needed to do now was out run them and get the hell out of here. Hide in the entrance until one of the other came and got him through the sensors that shielded the way to their ship.

Even though Lance regretted that plan as soon as he began sprinting as the door next to him slammed open and he was almost grabbed by red clad arms. Lance thanked god for all the races he’d always insistented on playing with Ezor. He would have been winded a long time ago by now if he hadn’t, though adrenaline was humming through his veins as he dashed down the stairs, loud footsteps and calling voices chasing after him as he burst through the doors of the building. Still running as he wildly looked around for a place to hide, until a strange blue whip like thing wrapped around his ankle and tugged. Forcing him to the ground as he dug his hands in, trying to struggle away as his pistol jolted away from his hands at the sudden force. Lance cursed. His sniper rifle was useless at such a close distance and he couldn’t reach it on his back as he was dragged and eventually circled. Three paladins, the red, black, and blue ones staring down at him in various states of shock as Lance shoved his fear aside and glared at them. No fear, no fear. Okay a little.

Lance struggled as they grabbed the edge of his mask. Trying to reassure him, as if the mask were really a muzzle and they were trying to free him. Lance jerked his head away, hitting the release button on his shoulder and yelling.

“Ezor!!! Let go of me! Acxa! Narti!” The efforts to pry off the mask paused as the paladins instead tried to hush and reassure them until they stopped dead.

“Let him go, or the paladin will die.” Lance’s head shot up and he was ashamed to admit he was starting to cry. Half in relief and half in fear as the Black paladin pulled him closer. Pressing him against the paladin’s side. Lance trembled a bit. God, he was such a little kid. Being so afraid. Until he looked at the generals in front of him. Seeing the fear in their eyes as he was sandwiched between the paladins. They were just as afraid. It made him feel a little better he guessed. Even though the unknown emotions flicked in his head at the sight of Acxa holding the green paladin hostage. Ezor spoke this time.

“Let him go. And we’ll let the green paladin go.” The black paladin spoke back.

“You took Lance from us last time. You’re not taking him again.” The green paladin gasped as Acxa’s grip tightened.

“Shiro, I’ll be fine! Take Lance and go!” The name shot through Lance. Shiro? The immediate feeling was familiarity, then it was sick feeling. Disappointment. Inadequacy. And a deep feeling of sadness. It shocked Lance and he immediately didn’t want the feeling, he just wanted to go home for a while. Take on this feeling and the paladins another day. When he was a little more. Ready.

The arm holding him loosened a little in hesitation. Obvious reluctance and indecisiveness. Which Lance took complete advantage of. Ripping away from the paladin’s grasp and running straight for his friends on the other side. Zethrid grabbing him and lifting him up, which he allowed easily. Wrapping his arms around one of her shoulders and letting her support him. Lance leaned his head against her, watching the looks of betrayal that painted the paladin’s faces. He didn’t know why they were looking at him like that. Ezor shoved the green paladin towards the paladins.

“Lance is not yours. He is ours. We healed him. Loved him. He is one of us now. He may be your species, but he is our family. If you threaten my family again, I will kill each and every one of you. Slowly and painfully.” The voice Ezor used sent a shudder down Lance’s spine, she sounded deadly. Though Lance felt he should probably have expected that. She, like all the generals, had a side to them that was darker. Lance knew they would never hurt him, so he remained relaxed and pliant. Staying still as Acxa clicked his mask, shielding his ears as Narti did that weird mind thing she did. The high pitched noise. Lance watched indifferently as the paladins seemed to struggle to cover their ears and Lance was whisked away. Zethrid holding tightly onto him as they hurriedly boarded their ship before the paladins could catch up. Lance paused as he was let down, looking to his friends.

“I’m sorry.” Ezor and they all stopped dead.

“What for Lance?”

“I shouldn’t have gotten caught. I let you guys down. And then I froze. I got scared and I froze like a child. I’m sorry.” Immediately he was swept up in a bone crushing hug. Acxa was in his ear.

“Never. Put yourself down like that. We were scared too. The paladins are very dangerous, they’ve taken down many of the Galran soldiers and you were surprised. That could have gone much worse than what happened. You held your own very well. We failed to help you, it won’t happen again. You’re safe with us. You’ll always, be safe with us. Don’t forget that. If you ever are taken, Zarkon forbid. We will come for you. We promise you that.” Lance relaxed into their hold. Closing his eyes with a smile.

Yeah. He was safe.

#langst #dark lance #galra generals #lotor #voltron #amnesia

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yoongiandchiminie · 8 years ago

Text

P R E S S U R E { 3 }

;series;

masterlist

{Part 1} {Part 2} {Part 4}

Pairing: Reader X Yoongi

Word Count: 6,818

Genre: Romance, Smut, Fluff

Warnings: Cursing, Smut

Summary: After dating for almost 3 years, the armys and Yoongi’s label have found out about your relationship. Now you have to deal with it in your extraordinarily normal life.

The night ended like any other, with them laughing until they couldn’t breathe and then us all heading back to the hotel to be greeted by the lovely ARMY. They weren’t here earlier in the day, but now there were about 30 of them. Before we got out of the car, I asked the guys if they would stop for them. Normally, they weren’t really allowed to, but I knew right now they weren’t too tired and nobody was around to stop them.

They of course said yes and I hopped out of the van first. “Hello, armys! Do you know english?” I greeted with a cheery attitude, they nodded to my answer. “The boys have a few minutes to come say hi before heading up to bed. Are you all going to the concert tomorrow?” They all nodded. I was impressed by how quiet they were being and by how professional I was. This could be my second job. This was it, I would finally mooch off of Yoongi. “Awesome! Alright, let’s make a line and I guess I’ll send you guys to them and you can have a bit of time with each of them individually? Is that good?” I could hear the boys snickering from the van and so could the girls. They excitedly nodded and whipped out their phones for videos and pictures.

I walked over to the black van and opened the door for them. The girls stayed quiet as they stepped out and made little excited noises. Yoongi walked out last and gave me a kiss on the nose, congratulating me on how well I did. I felt a little bit of him making fun of me as well. I hope someone took a cute picture of that, I’d definitely retweet that.

They stayed out with the armies for about an hour and everyone was just happy. It was extraordinary watching the boys with their favorite people when it came down to it. They stanned their stans. And on top of that, they all looked amazing. Actually, so did I. So, these pictures might take away from the fact that I had converse on.

This time when the girls came to talk to me, I didn’t break down or try to hide. I had the most conversation I could with girls that spoke broken english. I tried my hardest to understand them, but in the end my laziness about the language reigned true. There were some points where it got so bad that one of the guys walked over and tried to help me, but they ended up just hysterical laughing.

When it came time to end the impromptu session, half of them were crying. Probably out of happiness and the fact that this night was over. They blew kisses goodbye and Jin pretended to get mad that they stole his thing. Before we went inside the hotel, the girls yelled out “One group picture!” to the guys in korean.

“Alright, alright!” Namjoon announced, “But this is it! You ladies need your beauty sleep for tomorrow and so do we!” They all swooned.

I went to step out of the picture for them to take it, but Yoongi gripped my arm tight.

“Stay.” he mouthed and I tried to pull away again. I could feel a mark appearing on my arm and I knew he didn’t mean to hurt me. He was trying to ease the anxiety that my mind was creating about this.

“Stay!” the girls echoed and I did just that.

“Best worldwide handsome faces on!” Jin yelled and we did just that. Posing with them was surreal. These boys all had these model poses and looks and faces and attitudes. Then here I was. A normal, awkward girl who got lucky. Yoongi slung his arm tight around my waist and pulled me in close.

The flashes were overwhelming and so was actually getting inside. The armies kept begging for them to stay and they had such a hard time saying no, but they knew it was time or they’d be fucked tomorrow. Since it was the end of the tour, the day tomorrow was packed and they had to be out of the hotel early on for interviews before the show. Which also meant I had some time alone tomorrow.

The eight of us squeezed into one elevator and I swear that Jungkook almost fell asleep right on top of me. There was a point where he was so ready just to curl up that he almost toppled me over if Namjoon didn’t pull me out of the way of him. Everyone started hysterically laughing as we watched him not even take notice of the cold ground he was half asleep on until the elevator dinged on the floor.

Namjoon bent down and threw the maknae over his shoulder, taking him down to their room. I wasn’t too tired, but that didn’t stop me from hanging all over Yoongi. I loved seeing him in the state he was in now. He was so full of himself and just so in the air with his ego.

“You know how sexy you are right now?” I whispered into his ear even though the other guys were already letting themselves into their own rooms and out of range of hearing.

“Oh darling, I always know.” he growled back and slammed open the door, pulling me inside. I couldn’t help but to laugh as he locked the door and tossed me onto the bed. It wasn’t until he was above me a few seconds later that he spoke again. “And do you know how sexy you look underneath me?”

I looked up at him and into his eyes for a moment, before looking to his lips. He bit his bottom lip and then leaned down to connect ours. It wasn’t even a full minute before he had his tongue in my mouth and the kiss began to get deeper and rougher. It was always the nice intimate moments like these that really got to me. His hands snaked under me to undo the zipper on my dress and he bit onto my bottom lip, causing me to moan, then he pulled away.

He lifted himself up and pulled the dress down my body, carefully laying it on a chair next to the bed. Both of us couldn’t help except to let out a laugh. “I can’t believe you’re wearing converse.” he complained, almost breaking the moment, “I really hate converse, they’re so hard to take off of you.”

I sat up and reached out to him and took off his jacket. He pushed my hands off of him and instead decided to tease me by slowly stripping himself like it was a scene right out of a movie. He stuck his tongue out at me as he saw that I was getting bothered by his show and a little wet. Well, not a little. A lot. Fuck, he was so hot.

He laid back over me and placed a soft kiss onto me and began trailing them down my body. He stopped at my breasts and took off my bra, filling them with small kisses. Then he went down my stomach and stopped at my bikini line. “No- no. No foreplay-” he tugged off my panties and placed a kiss atop of my heart. “I need you, Yoongi- I can’t-”

He brought his hand up to me and began to play with my clit with his thumb. “What’d you say? I couldn’t quite hear you.” I began to moan and knew I was putty under him at all times. “Who are you talking to?” Bitch.

“Daddy, I need you to fuck me. I need you inside of me right now-” he smirked and pulled his cock out of his boxers, letting them fall around his ankles.

He spread my legs open and aligned himself with me. Without any notice, he thrusted inside of me and I gasped at the sudden pressure. “I can never get over how fucking tight you are, sweetheart. Such a tight little cunt.” Yoongi groaned out, thrusting harder and harder, quickly increasing his pace. I always loved his dirty talk and couldn’t help except to do anything but moan out his name. I loved hearing his grunts and moans and anything I tried to say back to him had my mouth baffled for words.

“F-Fuck!” was all I could yell and Yoongi prided himself on getting me to this state all of the time. I was a mess underneath him and he loved it that way. He loved being able to get me under his discretion and I could tell he was going easy on me tonight. Usually his talk was a lot dirtier, but he was definitely holding back. I raked my fingers down his back and his smirk was iridescent on his handsome face. “Please- I’m so close-”

“Fuck, I love when you beg.” his voice was raspy like his morning tones, but this was different. He needed this.

“Please make me cum, daddy. I need you so badly…” my voiced trailed off and then was quickly filled with moans once again. He was holding onto my hips so tight that I could even the bruising that would appear tomorrow.

He was moaning my name under his breath and with a few more hard, deep thrusts I came hard, clenching around him. He reached out for my body and held me tight as he released inside of me. The room was full of breathing while we came down and he stayed inside me for a few moments until we caught our breaths. He pulled out of me and stood up, grabbing two towels from under the sink and tossing them towards the bed.

We didn’t say anything because thank yous and compliments about sex weren’t too much of a thing we did. We had a mutual understanding when it came to this and sometimes we were better without words. Well, he was. I knew he liked the aftermath of intimate moments to be quiet for a little bit to make up for how loud we could be at times. He’d made up excuses at first saying it was because he needed to preserve his voice for performances, recordings, interviews, and any other thing, I had figured it out. He loved the serenity and the understanding of not needing to communicate with words. He loved the intimacy of it.

It took a little bit for me to get myself to sit up and Yoongi had already gone into the bathroom to start the shower. “Hey!” I called out and he poked his sweaty head out, cocking an eyebrow in questioning. I shoved myself up, gripping onto the sides of furniture to get myself to the room. “Nothings happening in there, I want it to be a quick shower so I don’t fall asleep inside.”

He rushed over to me and slumped his arm around my waist, making the move to the bathroom quicker. “Yeah, yeah. Just ask me for help there next time instead of me waiting, okay? Doofus.” he flicked my nose and I stopped my movement. He stopped with me and looked down at me. I just studied his face for a moment, before giving him a soft, delicate kiss. “Corny.” he scoffed and he led me into the shower to clean up.

Yoongi had woken me up earlier by accident when he was woken up by his loud alarm. I was awake before him, actually. He slept through the first five minutes of it and I simply tried to fall back asleep even though I knew I couldn’t. It got to a point where I rolled over onto him and began to hit his chest for him to get up. He rolled over and now he was on top of him, soundly asleep. “Get up!” I yelled, pushing his weight off of me. Nothing. Then I grabbed a pillow and tried to suffocate him. That’s what got him up. “How do you even wake up ever?”

He was sat straight up like a pin with an angry pout on. I kicked him off of the bed and heard him hit the floor with a thud. I knew he wasn’t going to go back to sleep, so I attempted to do such. I was wide awake the entirety of him getting ready for his day of press and such leading up to the biggest show of their tour. This annoying man was blasting his own mixtape and i swear it was loud enough for the entire hotel to hear.

“Get up, buns.” he cooed in my ear, full well knowing I didn’t have to be awake for hours. I swatted at his face and heard him laughing to himself. He placed kisses on my exposed cheek and I almost inhaled his cologne.

“Who are you trying to smell good for?” I groaned, rolling away from him.

Yoongi sat on the edge of the bed and reached out for my arm to pull me back over. “You, darling, always. Anyways, I’m off. Be up and dressed by 3 please. It’s 4 now.” I whimpered as he spoke the time and couldn’t believe he was keeping me up right now. “Look extra extraordinary and you know that wasn’t an insult, alright? I wanna show you off while you feel confident and you’re ready to show yourself off. I’m not kidding, asshole.”

“Get out.~” I sang in a monotone voice, pushing him away. “I’ll be there promptly in a garbage bag.” I just heard him groan and place kiss on my forehead. I kept my eyes closed and leaned up, puckering my lips and I definitely looked like an asshole now. Yoongi laughed under his breath and met my lips with his own. Once I pulled away and curled back up, I felt his weight leave the bed.

Within seconds I heard the door squeak open and a low, “I love you.” muttered in my direction. I fell back asleep with a bright smile, hoping I would have good dreams.

Hours later, I was woken up by a harsh banging on the door. I kicked off the blanket from my body and jogged over to the door, hoping nothing bad was about to happen. Except, it did. My friends were standing right on the other side of the door. All four of them.

There was Alicia, standing at her tall height with her fading blue hair and a creepy smile on. She immediately tackled me to the ground even though I had just seen her about three days ago. “Are you surprised!?” she yelled, “I’m wide awake because I slept the whole plane ride over and I have too much energy. I should go back to sleep.”

“Get off of me.” I rolled over and was helped up by Anthony. He was a little bit taller than Alicia, but you could barely tell because for some reason she was always wearing heels. He stood around 5’10” while she was 5’9”. As Alicia crawled up and stood next to him, I couldn’t help except to laugh. He was very tan and continued to look darker as her pale white ghost like skin tone counteracted his. “Did Jimin fly you all out?”

“Yeah,” I heard a smaller voice as they all walked into the room. Ahh, Julianna. My favorite shy little bass player. She was the shortest at 5’2” and had long raven hair she tied off into a braid. “He told Alicia about it the other day and she told us with literally an hour to spare. Our rooms are down the hall, but we figured we’d get ready for tonight's show with you.”

“Except I for some reason have to carry everyone's crap.” From behind everyone else I heard my friend Luke complain. He was the tallest of all of us at 6’2”. His piercing blue eyes shot right through me from a distance as we caught them. Despite being in the same band, we always were prone to awkward interactions. Before Yoongi, he was the last guy I was with. We’d been best friends since we were little and it had only happened because I had loved to take one ear bud and listen to music with him. His ipod always had the freshest tunes.

“So did you bring clothes from home?” I reached over and took the two dresses from Luke’s hands and gave him a small smile. “No, you- You went shopping without me?” the annoyance in my voice was clear.

“Well, we guessed that Yoongburt had bought you a dress and that if you went with us you’d try to return it and buy something cheaper.” Anthony laughed at his own nickname for my boyfriend. He got along with Yoongi, but pissing him off even when he wasn’t there was Ant’s favorite past time.

“Yeah, you’re right.” We all laughed together.

Being with my closest friends all together and alone was something that I had come to pass over as something important. Anthony, Julianna, and Luke were always away at school and Alicia was always distracted by her own laziness. Growing up with a tight knit group of friends really takes it’s toll as you grow older and realize you really need to take the effort to make plans and be all together. Especially when you try to make music together.

We’d created our band when we were in middle school. We’d gone through a variety of names throughout the years before deciding that we just shouldn’t have one until we really needed to. All it did was create arguments between us all, as stupid as it sounds. Anthony took the drums while Luke and Alicia played guitar, leaving Julianna and her tiny frame to somehow be the best bassist I knew. It became more of a past time as all of them settled on future careers and took their lives into their own hands.

Then there was me. A bossy girl with an insane voice. All I did was work and go to school. I could really only attend school because of my state's financial aid program and it was a blessing, even though with that I had to take the maximum amount of classes to be accepted. That was the real reason I was so negative about my boyfriend spending way too much money on me and all I could do was refuse his checks of trying to help my mother and I with bills. She gladly accepted, but I always felt guilty. I always swore I would pay him back one day when I decided to get my ass out of the gutter and go to a better school than my local community college. Yoongi would just laugh and hold me. Those kind of conversations usually ended with both of us as emotional wrecks.

So at this point all I had was my mom, my overloving boyfriend, and my dumb bandmates. That was fine with me though, music was my favorite thing in the world other than them. I’d always figured that’s what really brought Yoongi and I closer than a lot of other things. We both had this insane fire when it came to writing music and enjoying it. Our favorite thing when it came to music had to be listening to an album in full. I’d gone on and on about how I loved listening to albums in the correct track order, because that’s the way it was intended to be listened to. Of course every album has individual songs, but an album is a piece of music. The songs told a story and were intended to be listened to in that order for a reason. We had bonded over that. The first time we had that conversation was when he told me he had feelings for me. Even if it was just a facetime.

“What did he buy you?” Alicia sang, running over to the zipped up dress that hung in the closet. Her mouth was agape as she brought the zipper down, staring at the vibrant color you had marveled at for the past few weeks. “I like how you have this fancy cocktail dress and I literally got something from what looked like the Korean version of Hot Topic.”

“Even if we were in America you would have bought your dress from Hot Topic, you egg.” Julianna laughed, pulling out her beautiful floral dress. She always had a flair for fashion and she literally only wore dresses when she was out in public. I hadn’t seen her legs covered up in years when we were outside if I was going to be honest. “Oh, Y/N, I have the perfect earrings to match that if you want. They’re just black studs, but I think it’ll look super cute with that dress.” she got close to me and whispered into my ear. “Can I take it home and wear it after this, I swear I’ll give it back.” I just responded with a nod and a stupid look on my face. “Now, boys. Get out for a little bit, we have two hours to get ready and you guys can nap for half of that.”

“No complaints.” Anthony and Luke spoke in unison, throwing their hands up in defeat. They sprinted out and then I made my way to my suitcase to find a bra that would work under this sequinned dress.

“Did you see the price tag on that?” I complained as Alicia placed the dress next to me.

“Oh shut up, princess.” Alicia teased, knowing Yoongi’s nickname for me when I complained. At this point, it was everyone's for me anytime I Had an issue with something stupid. “Let him spoil you and treat you the way you want. Don’t worry, karma will strike again.”

“I hate you.”

I missed being with my girls together. This reminded me of the last time we had all gotten ready for some big event together. It was our senior prom and that was almost two years ago now. We sat for hours, barely speaking and just blasting music and singing obnoxiously to communicate. Instead of doing my own makeup this time, Julianna offered to and Alicia decided she would do my hair (Which she quickly gave up on and I decided to curl it and have two braids going towards the back.) Julianna did my makeup way better than I probably could have. There was a goldish tone with my eyes complimented by winged eyeliner that looked better than my best. “I can’t believe how you have such a steady hand.” I complimented.

“Oh, it’s years of suffering through art classes that got me here, truly.” she joked. She loved art and it was something she was amazing at. She was even going for a degree in it, even though she said it gave her more anxiety than it relieved.

“I’m glad Alicia’s gone full blown emo for a big show in my boyfriend's career.” I looked her up and down, She was dressed in all black, like always. It was only to be broken by her blue hair and blue eyes. It was funny to look at her next to Julianna, who was wearing a pastel pink and white dress with combat boots in tier.

I guess they had already figured out that this event was big. I only had a little warning from Hoseok last night, but there was going to be mounds of press at the show tonight and interviews galore. He’d only told me as a warning, but he told me I would survive it somehow with a wink. I guess them sending my friends here was the wink. Classic.

“Open up!” I heard Anthony yell from outside the door. With one shoe on, I hobbled over and opened it, to reveal him and Luke all dressed up. “We heard this was kinda fancy, so here we are. All spiffed up. And if anyone asks, we belong there, okay? We’re just a band invited, not mooching off of Y/N’s boyfriend.”

“Yeah.” Luke chuckled, he was the quieter one of the reckless duo. “We’re Slow Burn tonight.”

“I don’t quite know about that name.” Alicia complained.

“Well, I like it.” I agreed with the dirty blonde and he stuck his tongue out at her.

Suddenly an annoying chirp played over and over. “Oh, it’s Jimin.” Alicia looked a little annoyed and then began to yell. “He’s asking if I’m awake! He’s literally spamming me to make sure I’m awake and leaving now! Why does nobody have any faith in my ability to get to places on time?!”

“And to wake up,” Julianna chimed in.

“And paying people back.” Anthony added.

“And you better not continue. This roasting session is over.” Then Alicia stormed over to the door. “Let’s go, Slow Burns. Burners? Burners.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag. This night was already eventful. I felt my phone vibrate in the bag, but I figured I'd just check it in the car. It couldn't be anything more than Yoongi making sure I left on time when I was the one who was good at time. I figured there would be a black van waiting at the entrance to the hotel and once we reached the lobby, I saw I was right. One of their drivers was inside waiting for us and waved us over to follow him outside.

I’d been to their big events before, but this was something different. Before stopping we drove around the building and the line was immense. It was breathtaking seeing the dedication their fans had for them and I could only guess the people at the front of line had been their for days for general admission. There was press talking to the girls and interviewing them, I could only guess from the microphones and cameras. The vibe around the arena was ecstatic and I was more than excited to see the show tonight. It wasn’t until he drove around the second time and stopped at the entrance when I got nervous.

“Uh-” Julianna whipped out her American to Korean book and asked the driver why we were stopped at the front instead of the back.

“Back is blocked.” his English was slow and I felt bad for making him speak it. “Manager told me front.”

I smiled at him and waved, showing that it was okay. My friends looked a little bit nervous, but it was my turn to take charge. All I’d been doing lately is backing down, but my mom friend trademark had to come out in this sort of situation. “Alright, guys.” I slid open the van door, “Let’s go.”

The armies erupted into screams as soon as we stepped out. I could tell they were half expecting BTS or someone famous, but someone vip was enough to get them riled up and stoked. “Hey!” I yelled in my loudest voice and waved to all of them, not stopping my movement towards the door. They had security there and I guessed that they’d been shown pictures of all of us to let us in. “Stay close.” I spoke loudly to my friends and suddenly they were huddled behind me. I felt like a mother goose.

Upon entrance, a woman who spoke fluent English met us and gave us each badges so we could get in and out if there was any kind of problem later in the night. She explained that the guys were about to go into soundcheck and requested that we go watch, just for good luck. I didn’t recognize her and didn’t think she was high management because she had no problem sucking up to me about how good my friends and I looked. How polished and professional we acted and so on.

“Yo, we’re blowing up on twitter!” Anthony showed us all his screen, “They’re calling us Y/N’s gang though… I don’t like that. I’m tweeting out that our name is Slow Burn.”

“I can’t believe the fact that you won’t admit I’m in charge is the reason we have a name now.” I scoffed, pulling at his curly brown hair. He faked ow’d and just smiled me off of him. Which sounds super weird, but it got pretty creepy.

We were in the Seoul Olympic Stadium and I’d only seen pictures but the inside was absolutely breathtaking. It held almost 70,000 people and this show was sold out. They sold out the biggest venue in South Korea and I couldn’t be any prouder of them. Right now we were at the bottom and the lights we all on, but I could only imagine how this place would look with all of the army bombs later and wow. Just wow.

“Hey! Took you all long enough!” I heard Jimin’s voice loud and clear across the arena, echoing all throughout the almost empty room.

“Jiminie!” Alicia called out and I had never seen her move faster than that moment. Everyone broke into a fit of laughter as she sprinted over to the stage, over the barricade, and was pulled up into her other best friends arms. I was glad that she got a best friend out of my relationship that was out of our group. “Did you get shorter?” The room erupted into laughter.

“Come on the stage!” Namjoon called out, “Wow, it’s great to see all of you together. Thank you for this.”

Between the four of us left walking, we exchanged confused looks at the thank you. It didn’t make too much sense to us, but we simply brushed it off. It was just Namjoon being his amazing, grateful, leader self. He was so good at everything he did for how stressful it was to lead a group of extremely talented buffoons. A real gift for a genuine guy.

As we approached the stage I quickly realized there was no way I was getting up on that stage in a dress without steps. “Hey!” I called out in general when I was at the edge. Yoongi responded by throwing his water bottle at me. “I’m not thirsty, dickhead. Help me up?” he wiped his mouth and started to jog over, but before he could even extend a hand I felt myself being lifted onto the stage.

It was none other than Luke helping me up and I saw the annoyance on Yoongi’s face. It spoke one sentence. “Why is he here?” It was quickly shaken off when he stopped and looked me over. “Woah.” he spoke out loud and licked his lips. “Am I a good secret shopper or what?” Everyone shrugged off his ego and he came over and put an arm around my waist. “Thanks guys for the reassurance.”

Everyone broke into hugs with the rest of the guys and I couldn’t help but to laugh at how good of friends they had become. The first time my friends met BTS it was horrific. The room was full of an awkward silence until Tae told a terrible joke and everyone began to shit on him. Then Alicia compensated by telling an even worse one and everyone bonded over being mean to people who tell bad puns. So, Alicia and Tae.

Then every rare occasion we would all get to be together was a blast. Yeah, there were 12 of us but nobody ever felt left out or awkward again. We all just clicked. Everyone was similar for the most part despite the dramatic obvious differences between us. Every time BTS had a show in a relative location we would all be there and be backstage cheering them on through the night. We went to movies a lot and played a lot of board games. A lot of card against humanity too, that was our favorite. It was nice.

The soundcheck began and I heard Jungkook’s smooth vocals for Begin start to go and everyone else screaming along the words. Yoongi walked me away from the group and sat on the edge of a stage. “Did you check your phone?” he asked me with a sweat drop down the side of his face. The look he was giving off was super weird and send out a confusing message. He looked guilty which was normally my emotion.

“Nah, what’s up?”

“Uh, our opening act bailed.” The sound of guilt was in his voice too. I cocked an eyebrow towards him and pushed myself up onto the stage. His next words were a blur and spoken all too quick. “And I offered you guys as an opening act and Rap Mon was all about it and that’s why he said thank you so I hope you guys actually know some music and don’t embarrass yourselve-”

“No!” I screamed, causing the microphone to go dead. “What the fuck? That’s such a bad idea!”

“We’re desperate Y/N, come on!”

“Trust me, honey, you shouldn't be this desperate. We know 5 songs.” I could feel every pair of eyes in the room on this argument. He was joking, right?

“Wait a minute.” Everyone jogged over behind Namjoon who sounded worried. “You didn't ask them, Suga?”

“To open for you guys?!” Anthony’s voice lit up, “That sounds super sick!”

“We know five songs!” I argued, walking away from Yoongi towards Jungkook and Julianna. “We also haven’t played a single song since like Christmas! You expect me to sing in front of a crowd that mostly hate me? Are you kidding me? Fine, whatever.”

I could feel my body shutting down. It wasn’t visible from the outside, but as I stormed off of the stage, I felt it. I knew there was no point in continuing to argue because they would get their way in the end. I had this terrible habit of giving in due to- you guessed it, guilt. I would do this and I knew I could do this. I knew that my band could do this. Not to sound cocky, but when we were in it- we were in it. The talent the four of them had was insane for people who didn’t use music as a day job.

I didn’t exactly know where I was while I was walking around, I just knew I wasn’t alone. There was most definitely no place to be alone in this building today, but I didn’t want to be in the soundcheck anymore. They didn’t need me to soundcheck a mic. In the back of my head, I wished that my mic wouldn’t even work and it could just be the musical stylings of some American friends as the opening group. That would never happen, as much as I wished for it luck wasn’t on my side here.

My breathing was fine and I was fine even though my anxiety levels were spiking. It wasn’t until I felt a hand on my shoulder and my body being crushed by someone a lot taller than me that it set in that I was really doing this as a favor. Luke was suffocating me and I didn’t even tell him to stop in hopes that he would actually suffocate me in this moment. “All good, bug? You’re a superstar in the making, we’re gonna rock this shit tonight. And if we fail? We were a good opening comedy act.”

Luke and I never really got to be alone anymore. I felt like I was betraying my relationship most of the time when I was alone with him because jealous just seethed off of Yoongi when Luke was in my presence. Not this time though. This time he was here to make sure I was here and probably to make sure I didn't cry at all so my makeup would stay nice. “Oh, don’t pity me.” I teased him, backing away and bumping my shoulder into his arm.

“They’re grabbing the instruments for us now. As I was walking out I saw this nice ass Gibson so I thought I’d grab you before I burst into tears, ya’ know?” He cleared my thoughts as we walked back to the soundcheck in a silence surrounded by a busy motion. I was fine. I would be fine as long as I had my friends with me. It’s lame as all hell, but I guess friendship makes the goddamn world go round.

The instruments that they had for them were crazy expensive and gorgeous. They played like a dream compared to the cheaper knock off versions we had back in New York. Other than the wrenching feeling of embarrassment that was soon to come to, my only problem here was that I couldn’t dance. Normally in practices, I’d sit or just do some goofy dance to the songs, but not here. I couldn’t do that here. I also couldn’t break it down the way a BTS member could. Or anyone with any kind of composure or balance with their body. I was ready to crash and burn. The weakest link had arrived.

After practicing the five songs, I turned towards the monsters making me do this. “Do I have to- talk to them? The crowd? Can we just play our songs and at the end be like “Yo get pumped for BTS kiddos!” Then catapult myself into reality and out of hell?”

“I’m actually in awe that you just said that out loud.” Jin sighed. Everyone else was so caught up in laughter about my greatest fear coming to life, but I guess the other mom friend was stepping up as the supreme mom here.

“This is such a cool opportunity, guys.” Anthony interrupted my dumb diva moment. Even though I’d been trapped in my own nerves and tried to move past it, I had easily ignored how cool this would be if I felt like I deserved it. Yes, we were good despite our lack of experience, but we all knew we only had this chance because of well- chance. If they weren’t all flown out here for my sake and friendship's sake caused by my relationship this could have never happened. It was absolutely crazy.

“So are we done here? Nothing else?” I ignored the laughter going on around me. The five of us walked towards the stairs to meet the boys that had just watched us practice for the first time in months.

“Well, nothing else except for the actual show.” Hoseok joked. “Sadly, we have a bunch of interviews to get done so we can’t watch the rest of Y/N’s sad downward spiral.”

“Is there a place we can hide- I mean you know, chill.” Alicia corrected herself. I couldn’t lie, I was thinking the same thing. Every reporter in this building wanted the inside scoop on BTS and we would be perfect candidates for that. The guys tried to walk off without a word, shrugging her off . “Hey! We don’t have to talk to anyone, right? I’ll vomit. I can fucking play the guitar like a motherfucker but if you put a microphone in my face I swear to god I’ll throw up everywhere and then drown in i-”

“Holy shit, you need to stop.” Anthony clamped his hand over her dramatic mouth. Ahh, I wasn’t the only drama queen in the building. “Y/N can talk.” he snorted. “Anyone that would possibly speak to the 5 of us would want the insight of the darling Y/N and not us.”

“Shut up.” I slammed my open palm into his upper arm and he just chuckled. It was true, sadly. I wouldn’t let him have this though. “Who do we have to talk to?”

“Here, Ji-Hye will show you guys to a dressing room and any interviews can take place in there for you guys.” Leader Namjoon at it again. He pointed at a small woman who waved in our direction, the same one from earlier. “We’ll have her with you guys as a translator okay? You go on in about an hour and a half. They’re letting people in soon so I suggest you scramble out of here. Good luck, my American pains in the ass. Good luck.”

Before they rushed out of the room, Yoongi made sure to give me a lingering kiss and a hug that could reassure me time and time again. “You’re gonna be amazing. I’m gonna be right over in the sound booth, so just look at me if you need it. Be confident, darling. Embrace your talent. I love you so much.” Is what he left me with. I replied with an ‘I love you too’ and felt a bit better. Even though as soon as I remembered what I’d be doing in a bit my high was back buried below the ground.

Tonight was going to be a fucking shit show.

Authors Note: Thanks for reading Part 3 of Pressure everybody! The reaction I’m getting to this is insane and I’ll never stop saying thank you to everyone who checks this out! I’d love to know what you guys thought and that my ask box and messages are always open! Also, requests are open too, so hit me up! Thank you again.

part 4 →

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onelonecritter · 5 years ago

Text

FOP: Fairy Fallout Pt.2

Previous (X)

Act II

The next scene began with a shot outside of the Dimmsdale Elementary School and the sound of a school bell ringing before transitioning to the playground where the students were eating lunch, and cheerfully enjoying recess. While the atmosphere maintains a more carefree vibe, Timmy is shown sitting at one of the picnic tables in the courtyard, sulking while his main group of friends: A.J., Chester, Elmer, and Sanjay are chatting amongst each other. There are visible lines under Timmy’s eyes, and he not only appears incredibly tired, but forlorn from the night before. This sudden change in behavior was quickly picked up by his nearby friends, Chester and A.J., who ended their conversation before A.J. tried to get Timmy’s attention. It took a few tries before Timmy snapped out of his trance, but as he looked around to see the worried expressions on his friends’ faces, Timmy merely hung his head again and sighed heavily before mumbling that nothing was wrong.

The shot then focused on Timmy’s friends as they exchanged glances with each other, all of them blinking in confusion as they sat quietly without a word before it back to Timmy, who continued to stare hopelessly down at the table with his head cradled in his hands. Off-screen, A.J. spoke up, pointing out how Timmy hasn’t cracked a smile since they saw him on the bus that morning. Then, Chester chimed in to reassure Timmy that they were there for him, and he was safe to talk about whatever was troubling him, only to no avail. Soon, the background noise became quieter, and Timmy’s inner voice began to go on about how he could possibly even begin to tell his friends what had happened. They couldn’t know the secret of him having fairy godparents even before Chloe came into the picture, and he knew for certain that there was no use in telling them how he got his fairies taken away.

As he considered ways to try and explain the situation to his friends, and possibly find comfort from his grief, Timmy suddenly took notice of a strange aching in his chest. He visibly recognized the feeling, and his exhausted expression became one of absolute anguish. A close up on Timmy’s eyes showed tears beginning to gloss over them before the shot zoomed out to show Timmy breaking out into another crying fit right at the table, startling his friends. For the first couple of seconds, all of the kids sitting at the table, and even the ones standing nearby, awkwardly distance themselves from Timmy as he hysterically sobs. Everyone’s shoulders tensed up, their clenched teeth were visible as they frowned nervously, and they all looked clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

After a couple seconds of Timmy weeping, the scene panned over to a pair of double doors opening to reveal Chloe exiting the cafeteria with a green lunch box in one hand while a pink messenger bag was slung over her shoulder. Upon skipping down the steps to enter the courtyard, Chloe perks up when her name is suddenly called out by A.J. from off-screen. Shifting over to where Timmy and his friends were sitting, Timmy’s friends looked absolutely relieved to see Chloe, and were practically scrambling away from the picnic table to flock around her. Without hesitation, Chloe gave all of them a smile and gladly welcomed their company, but paused to switch her focus over to Timmy, who now had his head resting on the table where a pool of tears were forming. As she continued to stare at Timmy, Chester asked if Chloe had any idea on what had Timmy so upset, and explained that none of them could get a clear answer out of him.

Upon hearing this, Chloe frowned, looking genuinely concerned about Timmy’s behavior. Although, she couldn’t help but feel empathetic at the thought of how alienating it must feel being unable to open up about his heartache, not even to his close group of friends who have known him for so long. While Timmy’s friends watched Chloe make her way over to the picnic table, she softly greeted Timmy with a smile when he lifted his head up to look at her. After blinking away his tears, Timmy’s eyes instantly locked onto the distinct green lunch box, and the pink messenger bag before he perked up for a moment. There was no mistaking it, Cosmo and Wanda were right there.

For merely a moment, Timmy’s face went from sullen to joyful as he opened his mouth to call out for his two former fairy godparents. It was as if that single burst of happiness made every hour of sorrow disappear, and he could forget the trials and tribulations in his daily life from just seeing his closest companions. But just as soon as Timmy’s vision of being reunited with Cosmo and Wanda had appeared, the illusion was shattered into fragments only to reveal Chloe, standing by the picnic table where Timmy was still sitting alone. All of the warmth that had been surging through Timmy instantly grew cold, and his gleeful expression soured as he stared back at Chloe. He not only looked like he had his heart crushed again, but he also seemed agitated by Chloe’s mere presence.

He hasn’t had such a bad attitude towards his neighbor since she first moved in, and occasionally still got annoyed with her overwhelmingly cheery attitude even after that, but what he felt at that moment was different. Timmy’s hands balled into fists, visibly shaking even when he tried to keep his temper in check. Rather than feel threatened, Chloe stood her ground despite her grin faltering and her heart sinking. Bitterly, Timmy asked Chloe what she wanted, shifting his gaze away from her.

Even with Timmy’s unwelcoming front, Chloe refused to let it deter her from at least trying to comfort Timmy. Rather than getting defensive, Chloe sincerely offered to sit with him, and let him spend a bit of time with Cosmo and Wanda. This invitation was enough to regain Timmy’s attention, and even made his expression soften slightly. Seeing this change brought a hopeful smile to Chloe’s face, and she perked up when it seemed like Timmy was about to accept her offer. His mouth opened and he glanced at the green lunch box and pink bag, but then he suddenly fell silent.

Timmy’s mouth shut once again, and he frowned as his conscience piped up to weigh his options while the shot shifted from Cosmo and Wanda, then back to Timmy as he stared off into the distance with a more troubled expression on his face. He really did want to stay in touch with them, yet deep down inside, he knew that he couldn’t. While breaking the rules was something he had a terrible habit of, Timmy couldn’t help but become visibly frightened. He wanted to hold onto the close bond he had with Cosmo and Wanda. He needed the comfort they brought into his life, but even then, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to let go of them if he had the chance to have them around.

As he remained in silence, a sudden flash of light engulfed the entire scene. The sounds of children playing and laughing in the school playgrounds were gone, along with the rest of the courtyard as Timmy thought back to all of the awful moments where he thought he had lost Cosmo and Wanda for good. All of those times where he had felt as though a massive part of his heart was torn away while he watched the fairy couple desperately try to avoid either getting sucked into the vortex within the “Da Rules” book, or being forcibly dragged into a fairy cab came rushing back to him. Even worse was the time Timmy was forced to set them free from the clutches of Mr. Crocker by breaking one of the biggest rules in the book, and confessed that he was their godchild in front of his captive parents before bidding them a final goodbye. Timmy still remembered how much it hurt him when he heard Cosmo and Wanda cry out that they loved him as the fairy couple were taken by the vortex within the giant book, but in the end, they were returned to him.

Unfortunately for Timmy, there didn’t seem like there would be another chance for him this time. They had Chloe now, and knowing that she could be a better godchild than he ever could aspire to be, shattered any hopes of redemption he had left. The flashback of Timmy embracing Cosmo and Wanda when they were reunited faded before it transitioned to a shot of Timmy’s eyes as they became flooded with tears again, and he started shaking. Chloe could be heard calling his name from off-screen as the shot remained focused on Timmy’s face, capturing his look of despair as he tried with all his might to hold back from crying on the spot again.

“Just leave me alone!” Timmy abruptly snapped, completely shocking Chloe and sending her falling backwards off the bench while the other children stared in astonishment at them.

While Timmy stood up from his seat, and his shadow loomed over Chloe as she stared up at him in bewilderment. Cosmo and Wanda’s faces materialized onto their object disguises as they looked on in horror at their former godchild. Both of the fairies desperately fought back their tears as Timmy, for just a split second, made eye contact with them from where he stood above Chloe. The anger that pushed Timmy to the point of snapping at his neighbor lingered, yet the initial rush had run its course. Just when Timmy realized he made a scene, Timmy’s friends rushed into the picture to defend Chloe and try to restrain Timmy. A.J. wasted no time in scolding Timmy for acting so hostile to Chloe, questioning why he was acting so weird while Chester helped get Chloe back up on her feet before she dusted herself off.

Once she got past the shock, Chloe moved to try and get back over to Timmy so they could try to talk things out. Meanwhile, Timmy struggled to get his friends Sanjay, and Elmer to let go of him until he managed to literally throw them off. This ended up sending the couple of kids tumbling right into Chester and A.J., resulting in the group landing in a heap on the concrete with an audible thud that made Chloe flinch away. Without anything holding him back, Timmy leapt off the bench of the picnic table, and fled from the scene without looking back while Chloe tried to call out for him. It would have been easy for Chloe to catch up to Timmy, but the crowd that formed around them when Timmy made a fuss kept getting in her way, and she eventually lost sight of him as the scene ended with one last shot of Timmy running back into the school.

#[FOP: Fairy Fallout]#fairly oddparents #chloe karmichael #timmy turner #cosmo and wanda #creepypasta

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