#they want freedom but they also want to stay together where they think it’s safest

[fluffydice]

This might be a niche crossover but I keep thinking about kubosai in the Octarian Army from Splatoon,,, or for something more people might get, kubosai in the Horde.

Essentially I just need child soldier kubosai I think, which is normal to want I feel

[dzthenerd490]

Tales: Married to Faith

It was 2015, Iris and Meri were just enjoying a date together while traveling to New Marias. New Marias was only one of the Nexus Points under the Foundation's control, but it was popular for being the safest and best to live in. Here Species of Interest and anomalous humanoids could wander, walk, phase through, and fly freely without discrimination or worry of being hunted. As such it was a perfect place for Foundation staff to go and live a normal life every so often. It was also the best example of what a perfect life would look like if the veil over the anomalous world was ever broken. 

Iris and Meri were just walking through the streets and enjoying their life together, though that was not all. Meri was here to help establish a new church. In fact, they just came across Dr. Wells and his wife Charlie who were also here to help with the church. Both Charlie and Iris left their lovers to work on the church as both were atheists and couldn't really help anyways. Instead, they both decided to sit on a bench close to the construction of the church. 

"I'm surprised they didn't fight over which faith will get more attention."

"Those two are on such odd but good terms, I heard Meri didn't even get into one argument with Mathew, not even when he became Matilda."

"No, she doesn't actually like being around Matilda, she's just too nice to say no to hanging out with a friend. She's so lovely but too nice for her own good, but it makes me glad to be her wife so that I can stand beside her when she needs it."

"Hahaha, god you two were practically meant for each other, I remember when you guys were little you always wanted to hold her hand, every chance you got." Iris blushed and Charlie laughed again at this, the two both of them remained silent as they sat there. However, Iris then remembered her childhood within the Foundation and how much she wished she had the power to escape. She only got through it with the help of Meri, Daniel, and her friends. She then looked at Charlie with concern but quickly realized she was probably thinking too much and stopped herself from talking. She took a deep breath in, then out, and thought calmly about what she wanted to say. 

"Charlie?"

"Hm? Yeah Iris?"

"Why did you decide to stay with the Foundation? With your power you could have escaped any time you wanted."

"Hm... yeah I could have but if we're being honest, they would have hunted me down and used what is left of my family as hostages. Besides, where else could I go? Be worshiped by the freaks at the Serpent's hand? Hunted to the point of insanity by those GOC pricks? Enslaved by Marshal, Carter and Dark Ltd? Probably brainwashed and recruited by the Black Queen's Insurgency? Like it or not, even I can't deny the Foundation is humanity's best hope for survival. And yeah, I know I got captured the same day I destroyed those government pricks that killed my dad, but they weren't anything like them. After throwing some fireballs they surrendered and asked for compromises. 

I only accepted for the sake of my family and the barn, and they were surprisingly nice. I mean there were always those assholes that thought they were better, but I showed them who was boss in the end. They agreed to letting me have some freedom in exchange for working with them in the future. I figured I was just going to burn everything down as soon as I got there but I was genuinely shocked when they sent me on my first mission. It was to take down an army of evil Sarkites and boy where they a fucking threat but nothing I couldn't handle. 

They have never once sent me to take down a building or kill civilians. I swear I would kill them if that was ever the case. Don't get me wrong I still hate those faceless O5 fucks, I've only heard have of the evil shit they do but that alone makes me hate them. Still the Foundation isn't all bad once you get used to it and it can actually be pretty rewarding regarding the perks and awesome people you get to meet. That's the main thing I like about staying, if I didn't join in the first place, I wouldn't have met you or the others. It was honestly so refreshing to know there were other kids out there that had powers like me. It was also refreshing to know I was both the oldest and the strongest." Charlie then winked at Iris to which she busted out laughing.

"Hahaha! Don't let Alexi and Claudia hear you saying that."

"Ah, Alexi's a sweetheart, he doesn't mind admitting I'm stronger, and Claudia can complain all she wants, it doesn't deny I'm right... Haaa... it's also thanks to the Foundation that I met Mathew. He does preach his faith a lot but he's still so sweet and caring about all. Don't tell him I ever said this but he's an absolute angle and a true light in my life. Haha, at times he may be an idiot but he's my idiot and I'm his, forever and always."

"Wow... and you say me and Meri were made for each other." Charlie then noticed Iris staring at her with admiration and sparkling eyes, Charlie blushed and looked the other way out of embarrassment. 

"Haha, so what about you? I mean I know it's not easy to say no but why do YOU stay in the Foundation? What keeps you here?"

"Besides the fact that it's impossible to leave? I... Well at first it was the desire to take what I could from the Foundation and use it against them but now... it's because I have hope."

"Hope?"

"Yes, Hope that life can always get better, hope that nothing is impossible, just difficult, and hope that those we love can give us just as much strength and we give them... Hope is what drives me every day."

"Huh... And here I thought you were one of those people who believed naivety and hope meant the same thing."

"Nah, I used to, but after a certain train ride I learned the two couldn't be any more different. Besides, I can't deny that my life is pretty good right now. So yeah, guess having hope is working."

"Hm, well I'm glad it's working out... So now that they're distracted do you wanna talk about something a little spicier?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean it's just us here, and both our religious lovers are not here to get mad at us for having sinful talk so... What's Meri like in bed?" Iris blushed and looked at Charlie with shock, she then looked around and sighed in relief when there was no one close enough to hear them. 

"Charlie! Are you serious right now?!"

"Oh, come on! This is always something married girls like us do when our significant others aren't around."

"That's not a thing! And even if it was, I have no reason to oblige!"

"Fine then if you won't start then I will." Iris groaned and covered her ears as Charlie giggled and continued. 

"Ahhh... Mathew is an angel both out and in bed, he's so gentle but also full of energy. He really knows how to make a lady feel special any time of the day." Iris blushed as she didn't want to be hearing about another couple's sex life. Though she did stop tensing up when she noticed how lovingly Charlie was about it, it almost didn't make it sound as nasty as it could have been. 

"And then after we're done, he hugs me so gently and lovingly and I just fall into the warmth and comfort of his embrace. The best part is he also wraps his wings around me, and they are so soft! It's like after making love to each other I get rewarded by being wrapped in a cocoon of love. Seriously I'm not religious but he's quite literally a man made in the perfect image of heaven." Now Iris was pouting in jealousy but also annoyance, she knew Charlie was baiting her into bragging about Meri. The worst part about it, is that it was definitely working. 

"Well, Meri is quite innocent but up for trying new things, and she makes the cutest reactions sometimes." Charlie then leaned closer to Iris with her fists cutely under her chin to show she was extremely curious and ready to listen. Iris sighed while blushing in embarrassment, she knew Meri would hate it if she told anyone, but she couldn't help but want to talk about it, so she continued. 

"Like for example she's actually really sensitive when you pet her legs. Most people call me crazy for thinking her legs are cute, but they are! And they're so soft too, it makes her turn so red and get so cutely defensive when I brush my hand across them."

"Oh? What about her horns? Does grabbing them turn her on?"

"Oh, no way! Her horns are strong but are quite sensitive and I don't mean in the aroused kind of way. It hurts her a lot when someone grabs them in any way. So, I always make sure to never touch them and she always sleeps with her chin down and head up."

"Ah sorry... so wait, does that mean she's always on top?" Iris blushed and glared at Charlie with disappointment while Charlie started giggling deviously with pride. 

"Yes, actually. Once she's in the mood she starts taking control though she's very gentle yet also so powerful too. it's like this weird combo of gentle and rough that makes it all the more... exciting."

"Woah... you're such a slut." Iris turned red, glared at Charlie in anger, and punched her as hard as she could in the shoulder. Charlie grabbed her shoulder in pain but managed to laugh it off while Iris crossed her arms in anger. 

"Hahaha! Okay! Okay, I'm sorry! Besides, it's not like I can judge, especially when I have lots of fun with Matilda." Iris then froze up and slowly turned her gaze back to Charlie in shock.

"... Matilda? As in Mathew's satanic form? You have sex with her too?"

"Yup, turns out I'm bisexual." Iris continued to look shocked at Charlie while she smiled and raised her chin with pride. 

"Haha, it all started with a couples therapy session thing, it's kinda personal so I won't go into details, but the main point is that we wanted to get closer by exposing our flaws to one another. One of Mathew's flaws was that he felt uncomfortable yet free when he was in his satanic form. So, we worked together to help him be more comfortable in that form. After a few days one thing led to another and now every so often we sleep together. And oh boy! Is she aggressive in bed! And it's also hot, pun intended, that she can control fire like I can. Though the main take away is that now Mathew doesn't feel so trapped our out of control of his powers now, so the sex is good but it's more of an added bonus you know." Charlie blushed and smiled at that; it was nice to know that the married lives of her friends were doing good with a little couples therapy to help. 

"But oh man does Matilda have such a hot body. You've and Meri have probably noticed back when you were teens but woah is she so gorgeous and sexy. Honestly it's like I won the lottery of love knowing I got one of the most handsome, gentle, funny and caring men who can also turn into the sexiest and hottest women on the earth." Iris then got annoyed again.

"Hottest women on earth? Meri is the physical incarnation of Gaia! She's literally gifted with the most beautiful face in the world made by the goddess herself."

"Sure, sure but Mathew is cute and gentle in his own way."

"No one is cuter or gentler than Meri!"

"Mathew is the combination of all the best aspects of both men and women!"

"Meri does this adorable thing where-" Before Iris could finish Meri suddenly hits Iris on the head while Dr. Wells slaps Charlie on the back of her head. The two girls then turned around and looked up in fear as their significant other. Meri was radiating a dark aura while glaring at Iris arms crossed and disappointed. Dr. Wells on the other hand was smiling despite his face clearly twitching with anger and radiating an aura of burning rage. 

"My, my, Charlie, I'm glad you're having such fun talking about things I specifically and politely asked you not to talk about."

"Now, now. Don't be so harsh on them Mathew, after all we knew what we were getting into marrying such ruffians."

"Fair, fair, but I think it's time for the conversation to end." Mathew then grabbed Charlie's ear just hard enough to drag her away. Iris watched in horror at the sight, Charlie clearly wasn't in actual pain as Mathew was still being sure to be gentle, but it clearly hurt emotionally that her husband was very disappointed in her. Iris then fearfully turned to her disappointed wife who still had her arms crossed in disappointment. 

"... *sigh* let's go home, Iris." Meri then walked away to which Iris silently but quickly followed her wife to the SFH-2 ″Raven" they came to New Marais in. Iris was really annoyed with herself for embarrassing her wife by bragging like that, so she just stayed behind Meri the entire time they were walking. 

"... Though I have to ask."

"Hm?"

"You... Do you really like my legs? You don't think they're gross at all?" Meri turned to Iris while blushing in embarrassment. Once Iris noticed this, she blushed at how cute Meri looked; she then smiled warmly, walked up to her and gently put her hands on her cheek. 

"I've already told you, haven't I? There's nothing hideous about your legs."

"I always just thought you could bear it because you loved me. You know love is blind and all."

"Meri, you really thought all this time I was secretly disgusted with your legs?" Meri then looked down in shame and nodded.

"But you're always so up front with everything that bothered you, why hide something little like that?"

"I guess, I just thought it was so little it wasn't a big deal. Compared to the stuff you have to deal with."

"... Oh Meri, nothing that bothers you is so small that I wouldn't make time to help you deal with it. I do have my own problems but I'm not dealing with any of them alone, so please don't deal with yours alone even if they seem small in the long run."

"Hm, thank you Iris... I really do love you." Iris and Meri then kissed, and it was perfectly timed too as the sun was just setting on the horizon. When they stopped Iris looked into Meri’s eyes full of love and wonder.

“... Will you marry me?”

“Huh? Iris, we’re already married.”

“I know… I think I just fell in love with you all over again.” Meri giggled in that adorable way that Iris loved. Meri then lovingly hugged Iris’s arm and the couple continued their walk to the “Raven”. 

***

"Aw! I'm sorry Mathew! I just love talking about how great and amazing my husband is so I got carried away!" Mathew was wearing a look of disappointment as his wife was following him.

"... *sigh* You really did enjoy talking about Matilda as well."

"Oh, uh well..."

"And she is the hottest girl in the world if I heard you correctly."

"Well you are!" Mathew then stopped and turned around looking at Charlie in confusion.

"What?" 

"Wha- what? I just mean that I like you in both forms and sure Matilda has her perks but at the end of the day it's still you. And that's what I love most about it, whether it be a different form or a different show of love, it's still you at the end of the day."

"You... still see it as me?"

"Well. yeah? I know your personalities change more dramatically when you touch certain items but when you're Matilda you have the same memories, the same basic likes, the same adorably laugh too. Frankly theirs are not that much different between you, Ah! But um obviously that doesn't reflect actual Satanism and Christianity... I think." Mathew looked at his wife confused but then chuckled which allowed her to calm down and smile again. 

"Hahaha, the truth is, I'm not actually sure I like the Christian faith that much."

"Wha?"

"It's just what I feel in my blood is the right thing to do, but when I touch that pentagram talisman it's a new and exciting experience. It just so happens like with Christianity I feel freer than if I were to touch another religious item. So, I enjoy being Matilda almost as much as I like being Mathew. I just find it hard sometimes to decide which one I like more." Charlie smiled warmly and hugged her husband from behind while kissing his cheek.

"Well one thing is certain, whether you make a choice or just keep flipping between the two. I will always love you, forever and always. Because in my eyes, you will always be the one I love." Mathew blushed as he lovingly touched his wife's arms with one hand and placed one hand on her cheek with the other. 

"Well, I just MIGHT feel like becoming Matilda again, for tonight! But I also might not want to be her for another month or so." Charlie felt a little hurt by that as she felt an arrow stab through the desire part of her heart. However, she quickly swallowed her pettiness up and faced her husband with a reassuring smile. 

"Your anomalous body, your anomalous choice." Mathew smiled and leaned forward so he and Charlie could kiss, they both kissed for a short while. Afterwards, they both flew off into the skies together, seemingly dancing in the skies and taking their time before going back to Site-AM.

.

SCP: HMF Tales Hub

[astaroth1357]

My Protective Demon and Me: How to Live with Your Overly-Protective Hellspawn!

Intro:

So you've bagged yourself a demon, huh? Well, there are many great benefits to dating the otherworldly creatures of Hell, including increased power, longevity, and security! We can assure you that your demon boyfriend wants nothing more than to keep you safe, dear human, but this can be a new experience for the uninitiated. Never fear, because we have put together this guide to help you navigate the relationship you've just signed your soul into! My Protective Demon and Me is an instructional tool for your new demonic partnership, designed to introduce you to the protective tendencies of Seven Rulers of Hell. Listen to our advice, and you won't be left wondering why your boyfriend insists on carrying you down the stairs or loses his mind when you're injured by paper!

(Warnings: Possessive Behaviors, Implied PTSD, Yandere-ish)

Lucifer 

Now, there's no kind way to say this, but Lucifer will think of you as small, weak, and helpless on most days. We promise it's not quite as insulting as it sounds because to him, that just makes you cuter.

Because he thinks you're so pathetic, he will want to provide for you in all sorts of ways. This includes security.

Lucifer's approach to keeping you safe is a little indirect, and it may sound a tad… invasive, but that's only because he's not able to be with you in person as often as he'd like.

He uses familiars spread across the Devildom to keep an eye on you during the day. Don't fret; these familiars aren't there to tell him about your every waking breath. Just monitor you and report back to him if something's amiss.

If there's an alert, he will drop everything to be sure that you're alright. The second he knows something's wrong, he'll be right with you within a minute, Diavolo be damned. 

He may try to play it off as he just happened to be in the area if others are around, but in truth, he'd use magic to recall himself to your side. 

Speaking of magic… Again, since he can't be with you as much as he wants, you may begin to notice your body getting stronger to a certain degree over your time with him. Is he secretly using magical means to strengthen your bones or make your skin harder to tear? He will never say, so best not ask.

Potential threats against you are dealt with discreetly, mostly under the guise of safeguarding the exchange program for Diavolo. No offenders will ever make it to the castle dungeon, though, as Lucifer tends to finish them off on sight... We recommend that you make yourself scarce during these times. Torture is such a nasty thing to witness...

Lucifer would like to believe that, in being with him, you're the safest that you could possibly be, but he always worries about what danger you're in while he's busy with work. A part of him blames his lack of vigilance over Lilith for her downfall, and he has strained to recover a sense of security over his loved ones ever since... Though he may come across as overbearing, just know he only watches you that closely because he couldn't bear to lose you.

Mammon

If you've won over Mammon's heart, then he's going to guard you as fiercely as a dragon does its treasure. But be warned because this can lead to confrontation...

Mammon will see himself as your bodyguard of sorts, so he'll try to be around you at all hours of the day. He'll start by making excuses like he needs study help, but after a while, he'll just hope you come to accept him as a constant fixture in your life and don't question his hovering.

He will stick very close to you in public, particularly when among other demons. He's the second strongest of his brothers, so this alone should deter most threats but don't be surprised if you see him scan the room you're in from time to time.

Take care not to hurt yourself around Mammon because he has yet to fully process how fragile the human body is. He may panic upon seeing you hurt (and he's not the most helpful when he's panicking…).

Should you get hurt when Mammon is near, you may see his protective instincts spike considerably. He will offer to carry heavy packages, refuse to let you handle sharp objects, and hold out a hand to steer you around tight corners.

Do not threat, this added level of attention is only temporary. Remind Mammon that accidents are a part of human life, and you can get yourself through them as the species normally does. 

If someone actually tries to hurt you, we advise you to stay calm and focus on getting harmed as little as possible. Unfortunately, there will be no good way to talk Mammon out of fighting in your defense. It's best to focus on minimizing the damage to yourself and staying alive until help can be brought to you.

Mammon does this not to look down on you, but because he loves you so deeply, he's devastated any time he sees you hurt. Be patient with him, and he will learn to draw back his fear to a more appropriate level. Always know, though, that he worries about you constantly, so try not to give his demonic heart too many palpitations - yes?

 Leviathan 

Levi is in some ways more chill than his brothers, and in others far more extreme depending on the location you find yourselves in.

If you are in his room (which you will be a lot), then he will be very relaxed. As far as he's concerned, you are in his domain and thus perfectly safe. There's no need to worry about you getting hurt or stumbling upon any rivals.

If you are together in the outside world, however, he will be very on edge. You are the most important individual in his life, so any possibility of you leaving him by death or by choice is not acceptable.

He will try his damnedest to steer you away from large crowds or packed spaces because he will be terrified of losing you in the chaos. Being in any public place where he can't see you will drive his anxiety through the roof. His imagination is quite active, and his mind is always against him.

If you are with his brothers, then he will be particularly tense. He acknowledges both their capacity to drag you into dangerous shenanigans AND steal away your affections, neither of which are options he'd like to pursue.

He will rarely let you be alone with his brothers without express permission, and even then, he has likely shot a threat to them about minding your safety (and your relationship) beforehand. As he is third strongest, only Mammon and Lucifer would ignore his "requests" but only to a point. It's a terrible mess whenever he summons Lotan in the House…

If someone else hurts you retribution will be swift (and bordering on lethal) because he's far more worried about getting back to making sure you're alright. He won't have his Henry dying on his watch, after all.

If you happen to hurt yourself, expect him to stow you away in his room for even longer than usual. Your accidental demise is a recurring fear of his, so he will need a great deal of reassurance that you are still with him and not quite at death's door just yet (yes, even if you get a papercut).

Leviathan is so protective of you because he feels like he has the most to lose if you died/left. He interacts with so few people that having even one show him patience is a game-changer. He would have the hardest time moving on should your presence ever leave him, so protecting you is the best thing he can do to protect himself from that pain in the future.

Satan

Satan's protective nature is less overt than the others, but in many ways, it's more… intense.

He's more familiar than the others with the fragility of human bodies thanks to many years of casual study. Thus, he has bulked up his knowledge of your species in earnest to help keep you safe.

What we mean to say is, fear not, you're now dating a doctor. He may not have an M.D. to his name, but he's pretty damn close.

He will want to know about any slight inconvenience you may be experiencing, from a slight headache all the way to broken bones. He prefers to diagnose your problem quickly then use any combination of magic or medicine to heal your ailments. You will rarely struggle with ongoing discomfort again!

That being said, he can be quite pushy. There will be no, "I'll just sleep it off" with him. If it can be fixed, he will fix it. Your patience be damned.

If you somehow manage to hurt yourself… He will be disappointed, but he will not deny you assistance. He will lecture you if he sees you doing potentially reckless activities, though, because it's his (self-imposed) job to patch you up afterward.

It should really go without saying that most demons know better than to hurt someone he loves. He may not be the strongest of his brothers, but he is among the least merciful, and that does make a difference.

If, for whatever reason, one actually does manage to harm you, then you have an important choice to make. Do you allow him to act on his anger or be the one to show mercy when he will not? If you'd like to be charitable, please consult our helpful material, How to Calm Your Demon Boyfriend: Tame Demons, Save Lives.

At his core, Satan worries about his demonic side because he knows how easily his Wrath can take over. So he does his best to circumvent these destructive tendencies with nurturing ones. He may come off like a worrywart, but helping you is just as much an assurance to him as it is a service to you. He's not destined to hurt you. He can heal you instead.

Asmodeus 

Asmo is a free-spirited individual who would like to afford you the same freedom that he enjoys… but he knows very well how fragile the human body is. He's had many human lovers over the years, so he's very familiar with your limitations.

However, he's also aware of how capable you can be despite your perceived weaknesses (he's been friends with Solomon for years, after all).

Unfortunately, this won't stop him from worrying about your safety entirely. It's nothing personal, we assure you. He simply wants to be sure the love of his life can be with him for as long as possible.

Asmo shows his protectiveness most when confronted. He's far more worried about some demonic lowlife taking advantage of you than he is you falling off a step ladder. He understands that accidents will happen and that most are ultimately harmless, but other people? They can do you far more harm.

Due to his disposition and rank, most demons won't take his claim to you seriously. This is to their folly. Though he may not be physically strong as his elder brothers or even Beel, what he lacks in raw power he makes up for in deception.

Like Mammon and Levi, Asmo will want to be close to you out in public, but he will come across as far more relaxed than those two. This is partly due to his more developed confidence and because it makes it easier for him to charm potential threats into leaving you alone. Things are taken care of quickly after that.

Should you get injured well… Asmo will not be much help for anything aside from getting you to someone who actually can. He'd likely panic worse than Mammon, so do your best to remain calm and assure him that you will be fine after a little assistance.

His treatment of you post-injury won't differ much from how it usually is, because again, he knows that when there's a human involved - it's bound to happen.

Asmo's fear of others, both tragically and ironically, stems from his sin itself. Though he always tries to champion his partners' consent, he knows more than anyone that others can let their Lust drive them mad... His worst nightmare is letting you fall victim to one of those monsters because, frankly, he wouldn't know what to do with himself if that ever were to happen.

Beelzebub 

Beel is protection incarnate. This is something he's been doing long before you met and will likely continue to do until the end of his days. Protecting those he loves is in his nature.

That being said, this means is you are dating the equivalent of a demon-shaped Doberman Pinscher, loving and loyal to you and an absolute nightmare to your enemies.

Though he doesn't feel quite the same need to hang off you as Mammon might, Beel's protection can be likened to something like a hired-bodyguard. Close, but not too close, and always vigilant almost to a territorial degree.

If someone Beel doesn't like approaches you, he may growl at them. We would recommend you heed his warning. Beel is generally a good judge of character, and if something strikes him as off, then there may be cause for concern.

Fortunately for you, Beel does not jump to conclusions nor confrontation very often. Though he may act intimidating, he won't make any moves unless given an "Okay" from you beforehand.

This, however, does NOT apply if someone actually hurts you in any way. Though he may seem sweet and wholesome, please remember, he is a demon and the demon of Gluttony at that. Someone will be eaten for their transgressions, but he would rather you not watch if possible.

Truthfully, what will scare Beel far more than possible attackers are injuries in and of themselves. He has what basic first aid is afforded to anyone who plays sports but is nowhere near qualified to save you from something life-threatening... Should you become injured or sick, it would devastate him that he can no longer take care of you. He may even be at risk of a small breakdown as a result.

The events of Celestial War have perhaps taken their heaviest toll on Beel. Whether it's true or not, he carries a lot of the blame for what happened on his shoulders... The idea of going through something like that again, but now with you, scares him more than anything. Please remember, under that kind exterior lies dormant wounds that will likely remain unhealed long after you're gone...

Belphegor 

Belphegor is a strange case because, in some respects, he is one of the most possessive of the brothers... But he's also the least overtly protective.

Part of it is, yes, his inherent laziness. Following you around all day would be quite a hassle. He also can't expect you to stay in bed with him 24/7 (not that he lets that stop him from trying). Even setting up complex background machinations to keep an eye on you would be too much work...

But that doesn't mean that he leaves you alone entirely. If there is one thing that Belphegor tries to shield you from, it's his brothers. For possessive reasons, yes, but also as a form of protection.

Belphie is acutely aware of how often his brothers' shenanigans can lead to disaster. As such, he'll try to drag you out of their problems as much as possible.

It's not lost on him that the events that lead to your first demise were all due your penchant for meddling in his brothers' affairs. So in his eyes, a fairly simple and effective way to keep you out of trouble would be to keep you from them as much as possible.

As far as injuries go… "He dislikes seeing you hurt" is the least complicated way of putting things. Seeing you with major injuries obviously triggers some uncomfortable and unwanted memories for him, as it would for you. However, his emotions quickly get muddled up in it...

The sudden combination of fear, panic, shame, and anger can strike him at once and leave him in a frozen or vulnerable state... Painful for sure, but also not helpful in that situation. Minor injuries, thankfully, do not cause this reaction.

If you're injured and Belphegor appears to be going through trauma, we recommend calling for assistance from someone nearby or a different brother if possible (Satan would be a good option). Once you're stable, Belphegor will be relaxed somewhat but may need some cuddling.

Even with his lazy attitude, Belphegor does care for you and will try to keep you safe in his own way.  He may hide the intensity of his emotions behind a veil of apathy, but they run so strong that they can be paralyzing. Never doubt that he does love you, and try your best to be there for him when things become difficult...

More from the How-To series in Masterlist 1.0; More recent HCs in Masterlist 2.0

[marvelettesassemble]

Safe House (Bill x F Reader)

Summary: When his family has to go in hiding Bill asks you – his coworker and spy for the Order - if they could stay at your safe house.

Warnings: Reader has problems with sleeping and feels lonely, small swear words, mentions of sex

Words: ~3.9k

A/N: I wanted to write a Bill story for a while, because there isn’t enough stuff about him. But this took me 3 weeks I think and I struggled. But its finished now and hopefully the next one will be better  

You looked up from the little box in front of you after you had inspected the bruise-healing paste for a long time.

“Long time no see,” the tall guy in front of you said with a smirk on his face that you had almost forgotten existed.

“Weasley, what are you doing here? Last time I heard you were still in Egypt,” you sounded surprised.

“It was time to calm down a little bit and to stay closer to my family. I think I need a break from curse breaking and I’m currently on desk duty here in London.”

“So, you’re getting old. Maybe this paste would have helped you,” you tapped your finger on the box that you still had in your hand before you put it back in the stand. “We have to meet up for coffee sometime to see which one of us has the better stories to tell. See you around, Weasley.” You nodded at him before you left the shop owned by the twins of the person you just spoke to.

Back in the shop Bill Weasley picked up the exact box you had just put down and went to the register to pay for it. He was greeted by his brother George who told him he didn’t have to pay for it, he still had some paste in his office that he could have. “No, I want this one. It’s a gift, but if you’ll give it to me for free, I won't say no.” He winked at his younger brother and left the shop and disapparated. When he was at the burrow he opened the box and pulled out the paper you had put in there.

Your last stay had been in Spain and he was glad that he had recruited you for the Order as you were the perfect spy. Nobody suspected anything when you travelled in particular places or asked specific questions with you being a curse breaker just like him, but it could be described as kind of a freelancer. You didn’t stay at one place, which makes it even more perfect. He sighed and had to stop reading your neat handwriting as he was missing his old job.  

While he stayed in Egypt and was busy getting from one tomb to another you had stayed at your family home in England. You started your research from home and when you had enough information or needed to gather information you travelled for a few weeks, maybe a month but not more than two and you always had your home back in Great Britain where you would come back to.

Him meeting you in public and making it seem like you haven’t seen each other for a while had been your idea. Owls had a tendency to get lost in these times and this was the safest way they had so far. His heart felt a bit heavy as he thought back to the times when he had to shield his eyes from the sun and he though his body couldn’t produce anymore sweat, but the excitement flowing through his veins when he thought of the unknown which laid in front of him. He missed those times when he could forget everything around him and just had to concentrate on the mission in front of him.

Long gone were these times, but when he looked at the watch in the corner and saw the faces of his siblings, he knew he had made the right decision. What was a little bit of freedom and excitement when he now had the chance to make sure his siblings were okay? No, he had definitely made the right decision!

He went back to reading your letter and noticed on the bottom of the parchment a code. You would meet him tonight and the letters told him where exactly.

“Hey carrot head,” you smiled brightly at him when he walked towards you. “I brought you something, I hope this will help your mom stuffing your mouth,” you nodded towards the big basket which stood next to your feet and was filled with carrots.

“Not my favourite,” he mumbled and sat down next to you. As it was getting dark he couldn’t really see you.

“What would please you more? Beans? Potatoes?”

“I loved mashed potatoes,” Bill admitted and he though he saw you nodding.

“Noted. Next time I’ll bring potatoes.”

“Why are you bringing vegetables?” He asked confused until you told you him you had a big garden. Your grandpa had taken a liking to growing vegetables and you had taken over and never really let go. Your sleeping schedule was a mess and so you enjoyed tending to your plants when sleep wouldn’t come. It was way too much for you, but you liked the work and you know the Weasleys were a big family.  

“How come I don’t know where you live?” he wondered suddenly.

“Because it is a secret,” you whispered and then you started giggling. “And now to the important stuff, we don’t have all night.”

You noticed Bill playing with his earring. It was a reminder of his first job in Egypt and he refused to get rid of it despite everything his mother said. You had noticed that he started doing that when he was nervous. “What’s on your mind?” you finally asked when you almost got bored of watching him – almost.

“I might have to ask a favour of you,” he started but stopped.  

“Okay, just ask. I do have the option of refusing, right?” you laughed but Bill didn’t join you. He was just so nervous. A few months had passed since you had brought him the carrots.  

“There is a slight chance that the order is being compromised and if the headquarter falls... the burrow isn’t safe everyone knows where we live... I guess what I’m trying to ask is if you’d let my family into your home. I know it has been a safe house for decades, but I don’t really know how to make it and I fear I don’t have the time to learn it.”

You were quiet for a while. “Okay, but I’ll only let your family in, no one else. Bill, you have to promise me, no one else!” You put pressure on the last words, but you noticed that the man in front of you was relieved. He stopped playing with his earring and instead he hugged you. He caught you by surprise but then your arms sneaked around his torso.

“Thank you,” he mumbled and you felt how relieved he was.  

The Order had taken many setbacks but the latest one was the death of Albus Dumbledore. You didn’t really know what or when it happened, you were on your own mission. So, when you came back to the Burrow and the first person you saw was Bill with scars on his face you were shocked, but it also made you realise that you didn’t have time anymore.  

“Is it okay, if I touch your face?” you asked hesitantly. He nodded slowly and you took the seat next to him. Both of you stared in each other's eyes and you carefully put your hands on each cheek. You felt the rough skin beneath your fingertips, then closed your eyes and told Bill to do the same. You then thought about your home, the house and the fields, the massive garden and the small greenhouse, the little lake next to it and pushed that image towards Bill. You opened your eyes again.

“When it’s time you have to take your family and come there. It doesn’t matter when, you can apparate there now. Anytime, okay? I know I said only your family, but now that I know everyone my invitation also includes Harry and Hermione. You can gather them and come even now, but please don’t wait until it's too late,” you begged.

You had met the rest of the Weasleys at the Headquarter and you were surprised how nice and welcoming they were. The whole family risked so much for doing the right thing and protecting Harry, there was no way that you wouldn’t welcome them into your home.

“Now that that is out of the way you have to tell me how that happened,” your fingertips fluttered over the uneven part of his face.

Was there someone knocking? No one knew where your house was unless... You jumped up from the chair and placed the book hastily on the table. You were wide awake now and grabbed your wand and opened the door. The people in front of you didn’t look much better than you considering it was night time and they stood in their pyjamas in front of you.

“Come in,” you said and opened the door to let them all in. Bill entered first, followed by Molly who thanked you and Arthur who hugged you and didn’t stop thanking you either, then Harry, Ron, Hermoine and Ginny and then the twins. “Do you want tea?”

You agreed to have tea before everyone would head to bed and while you prepared the drink Bill filled you in. The ministry had fallen and they got a note from Kingsley so they fled and came right to your door. Your house wasn’t small by any chance but with that many people they had to share some rooms.

The next day three people were missing. Harry, Ron and Hermione had disappeared during the night and only left a little note to tell you all not to worry. This didn’t really ease anyone minds, but no one was really surprised. Everyone had a different way to deal with the stress. Yours was your garden that you tended to when you weren’t discussing your next moves.  

You were currently in the green house tending to the tomatoes when the red head with the long hair joined you. “I have to leave soon. We need some supplies and I have to get some information. But I can’t leave when I’m the only secret keeper, so I’m still doing research how to get another secret keeper.” you informed him when he grabbed himself some gloves and pulled them on. They were too little for his big hands but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you sure you want to go? We don’t know how safe it is,” he admitted and pulled some we weed from the soil.

“I’m a big girl, I can look after myself,” you said with more confidence than you actually had. “Will you help me with my research?” You spent an hour together in the green house, sharing stories from your curse breaking days before you made your way inside to start your research. Arthur joined you and you spent the day between books before Molly called you for dinner.

Despite everything that was going on it was an enjoyable dinner. Molly had made a soup from the vegetables from your garden and the twins did most of the talking. You continued the research after your meal and you noticed how your eyes started to get heavy when Arthur announced he found something.  

Bill and you walked over to him and after a short discussion you were sure that he had found what you were searching.  “So, you’re going to tell me that Bill would have been the next secret keeper as I’ve already showed him how to get here and we spent the whole day searching for nothing?” you asked not really believing what you had just learned. It was that easy?

“Well, I guess that I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe you should write me a note what you need so I can get that,” you said still buffed. You said goodnight soon and left the two Weasleys in the room to make your way to the bed.

“Did she just made me the second secret keeper without knowing it?” Bill said when it was just him and his father.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think she is mad. She wanted to do it and she’s just exhausted, poor girl isn’t really sleeping. I hope she gets enough rest so she’s fit tomorrow.”

Bill was fumbling with his earing again and mumbled that he wished he could accompany you.

“Because you want to get out of the house or because you want to make sure she’s safe?” his father asked and pretended to still look in the book so his son wouldn’t feel to pressured.

“Both,” admitted his eldest son.

“Maybe you should just tell her?” Arthur closed the book and put it on top of the other ones they had used.

“Dad, we’re at war. We live in her house because they’re searching for us. I don’t think that this is the right time.”

“Then what is the right time?” Arthur put his hand on Bill's shoulder and squeezed it lightly before he let go and made his way to the bedroom he shared with his wife.

The next day you left after everyone had told you what they needed. You were gone longer than you anticipated and when you reappeared you had to take a deep breath. Bills long hair was flowing around his head and you watched him putting it behind his ears before he picked up the axe again to chop some wood. The noise of the axe hitting the wood carried over to you and you watched him for a while. You thought that you could get used to coming home and seeing him first thing. Suddenly he turned around and when he saw you standing there he let go of the axe and walked over to you.

“Is everything alright?” he asked when you were in earshot.

“Yes, can you help carrying these inside?” you pointed to the bags at your feet. He picked them up so there was only one left for you. “You coming?” he asked when he took a few steps towards the house and noticed you hadn’t followed him. You nodded and walked quickly so you could walk by his side.

The warm air engulfed you when you entered your home. You walked into the kitchen and put the bag on the big table next the ones Bill had already placed there. It didn’t take long for the other to noticed that you came home. You didn’t just bring groceries and clothes but also information you needed. There was a lot to talk about so you found yourself in the living room when it was already dark outside. The once loud conversation turned quiet when Arthur und Molly retired first. You got tired and while you still heard the conversation in the room you started to fall asleep. You were rolled up like a cat, your feet touching Bill's thighs and your head uncomfortably on the arm rest, but you were finally asleep.

“Did you know that a good shag helps with sleeping problems?” Fred asked not really directed at anyone, but Bill sent him a death glare none the less.  

“Would you shut up?” Bill made sure his brother didn’t wake you and you were still out like a light next to him.

“What? It’s not like I offered myself. Although I did say a good shag,” Fred put his hand on his chin as if he was still contemplating before he had to dodge the pillow his older brother was throwing at him.

George caught the pillow and placed it behind his back. “What my brother is trying to say: Will you finally make a move? Maybe it will give you both a little bit of peace."

When Bill looked at you and noticed the awkward state you fell asleep in he decided to wake you up. You excused yourself for falling asleep but the other Weasleys just told you to go to bed and get some rest. When you made your way outside the room you grabbed the armchair to stabilized yourself without noticing that it was George's arm instead. Three worried glances followed you out of the room.

“Seriously, we have to make sure that she finally sleeps, especially when she’s the only one who can leave. Last time I went to grab some water and saw her cooking apples at 3am because she couldn’t sleep,” Fred said. George rubbed his arm and told them he had also met her in the kitchen when he couldn’t sleep anymore.

Bill surprised you that night in the kitchen and you almost threw the spoon in your hand as you hadn’t heard him approaching you. Surprisingly he stayed calm but you were freaking out. You started apologizing over and over again. You were tired and you were preserving vegetables.

Instead of scolding you he just asked how long you’ve been awake and you admitted that you couldn’t sleep after you went to your bedroom. “You need to get to bed,” he said and turned off the stove, put his hands on your shoulder and stirred you in the direction of your bedroom. You were beat and didn’t protest until you laid in bed, Bill sitting next to you and when he started talking about cauldron thickness you soon fell into a deep sleep.

Without you knowing it the Weasleys started to stick closer to you. When you usually were alone tending the garden suddenly Fred and George helped picking up the apples. Arthur gathered the fallen leaves while you picked up the fallen branches and pilled everything for the animals. You and Molly prepared the dinner together and every time you left Bill welcomed you home as he waited in the garden. You couldn’t deny that you heart beat faster every time you saw him standing in front of your house.

Another thing you noticed is that every evening you all sat together in the great living room and the others noticed that you always fell asleep when someone sat with you in the evening. You often played board games and it was then you noticed that you had felt lonely all this time. You loved the noises around you, the feeling that there was somebody else by your side. This was what had been missing all this time. The big house was just too much for one person. Without realising you had grabbed the hand next to you and Bill squeezed your hand shortly before his thumb swiped over your hand. “Is everything alright, sweetheart?” he asked.

“Yes, everything is alright.” You loved the feeling of your hand in his warm one and you didn’t let go of his hand even when you fell asleep sometime later that night. But still when you laid in your own bed you couldn’t find sleep again.  Suddenly an idea struck you and before you could tell yourself how dumb this idea was you jumped out of bed and walked through the hallway to another door and knocked. When you heard a response, you opened the door and quickly walked so you wouldn’t wake another person. Bill had sat up in your old childhood bed. It was strange seeing him in the bed that been yours when you were a kid and a teenager.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” he asked and your heart leapt at the pet name he used.

“It’s dumb, but... ugh, I wanted to ask you, if... ifIcouldsleepwithyoutonight,” you mumbled the last part so fast Bill wasn’t sure if he had understood you correctly.

“You want to sleep with me?” you could hear the smirk and that he didn’t sound as sleepy as before. But he knew you better than you thought because he told you to come over and he lifted the duvet for you. “Come here,” he said and walked quickly over the cold floor into the warm bed. A soft sigh left your mouth when you were surrounded by warmth.

Both of you laid on your back on each side on the bed and you let your hand find his before you fell into a deep sleep. You slept the best you’ve had for a long time, but same couldn’t be said about Bill. He couldn’t find sleep again with you laying next to him, your hand touching his. He wanted to pull you into his arms. Maybe he could sleep with his face pressed into your hair? But he didn’t want to wake you or make you feel uncomfortable so he stuck to this position with his thoughts going wild.

Bill pretended to be asleep when you woke up the next morning and gave you a few minutes before he left his room. But when you stepped into the hallway and closed the door quietly behind yourself George was greeting you with a shit eating grin on his face. “Morning,” he said without adding anything else. “Oh, shove it,” you said and walked past him towards your room. You didn’t see the point in telling him nothing had happened between you and his brother.

When Bill entered the kitchen his twin brothers were already there and of course George had told Fred what he had witnessed this morning. “So, did the shag help? Or were you too busy to even think about sleep,” Fred wiggled his eyebrows.

“Nothing happened,” Bill said and grabbed a cup.

“Too bad, so I think I have to offer my services then.”

“What services?” you asked when you entered the room.    

“Fred wants to expand our services for the shop,” George cut in.

“Tell me more,” you said after you filled a cup and sat down next to the trio. It didn’t take long for them to come up with something so they didn’t have to tell you what they really talked about.

Days passed, then weeks and it was an unspoken rule that you end up in Bills room after a failed attempt of going to sleep. You soon noticed that you couldn’t fall asleep because you didn’t want to be alone. And then it took a few days until you noticed you didn’t want to be without Bill. He made you laugh more and more. Like when you saw him pulling on a lumberjack jacket and asked him what he was doing. He had replied that he you needed more fire wood and you watched him through the kitchen window. You had seen how he picked up the axe without a problem and as if he had known that you were watching him, he slapped his butt with his free hand which caused you to laugh out loud and you had to hide behind the wall so he wouldn’t see that you had been watching him.

You also noticed that every night before you would leave the next day hugged you a little more and pulled you closer to himself. And when you came back, he still waited in the garden and grabbed your hand to guide you back to the house. Everyone noticed this but nobody commented on it. They noticed in the tentativeness when you grabbed his hand after hanging up your coat that the two of you hadn’t talked about what was happening between you.

And suddenly there wasn’t time to talk about it anymore. Suddenly the war was right in front of you with maybe the biggest battle and you had to get out of your hiding place. But in the way that Bill grabbed your hand with such determination and when you pulled you to himself and pressed his lips desperately against yours before you had to leave made you realise that you were in this together.  

[imaginepirates]

Old Lovers

In which you’re a pirate captain, and you and Jack are old lovers who bump into each other unexpectedly. 

@emdrabbles @tesserphantom @paljonkaikenlaista @viper-official  

~2900 words

~~~~~~~

          The sun reflected brilliantly over the water, making the waves sparkle. The midday heat made you sweat, and you were stripped down to your billowing shirt and trousers, trying to keep some of the heat at bay. Your crew felt the affects, too, and you were of a mind to let everyone jump into the cool ocean water.

          The thought was dashed when a lookout jogged up to you, reporting a ship on the horizon. Sure enough, you could spot the tiny dot of a ship against the backdrop of blue. You frowned. Nobody was in the mood for a fight, and you hoped the ship was one you knew. At this distance, you couldn’t say.

          You weighed your options. Your ship could outrun most, being one of the fastest ships in the Americas, but you knew there were some still that could put you to the test. Redirecting course immediately might be the safest course of action. Still, you were curious as to who was out there. It might well be one of your acquaintances, though it could just as easily be a naval vessel. You weren’t keen on being caught by the British, nor the Spanish.

          You decided to wait a little longer, just until you could make out the colors it was flying, before taking any further action. It was possible that it might be a relatively easy catch, if it was a vessel carrying goods.

          “It’s flying British colors, Captain,” hollered a lookout. “An East Indiaman, by the looks of her.”

          You frowned. East Indiamen weren’t always the easiest to overtake. They were typically well-armed, and could fight off pirate attacks without a naval escort.

          “Strange, though,” the lookout continued. “Seems to me that all her sails are black. And her hull.”

          You smiled. Jack. It had to be. Who else captained an East Indiaman with black sails and a black hull? Nobody, that’s who. It was a little ridiculous that he still ran up the Union Jack to try and confuse other ships. The Black Pearl was too infamous not to notice.

          “Steady on,” you said. “That’s an old friend.”

          Some of the crew smiled at you, knowing full well just how ‘friendly’ the two of you were. Many of them had friends among the crew; you could tell that spirits were rising at the thought of a reunion. You, too, were feeling happy. You hadn’t seen Jack in too long. Months had gone by without word of him, and you’d found yourself missing his company. You had lots to catch up on, be that with words or….other things.

          It was a good hour before your ships pulled up alongside each other. Jack had clearly recognized your galleon’s blue stripes across the gun ports, and the blue sails to match. It was nice to have a distinctive ship, just like Jack’s. It helped when striking fear into enemies, but also when meeting with friends. Not to mention, you could always pass it off as being a French vessel. The British surely wouldn’t put it past the French to paint their ships blue.

          You came up alongside the Black Pearl, plywood already being shoved between decks as makeshift passages between ships. Men called to each other and waved. The reunion would be a merry one indeed, especially if there was enough alcohol to go around.

          Just as you’d expected, Jack stood at the helm, smiling down at you. You smiled back, waving him over. He obliged, stepping down from the helm to walk easily across one of the thin boards. His balance was perfect from years working at sea, having spent time in the ratlines and on the masts.

          “Y/N, love, it’s good to see you.” He kissed the back of your hand, winking.

          “It’s good to see you too, Jack.” And it was. You laced your fingers through his, walking him up to the helm of your ship. “I was just thinking that my ship could do with some provisions. We can take on water at a little island not far from here. That and fruit. Prevents disease, you know.”

          “I know, love.” He almost sighed the words. What a romantic idiot. And he claims he doesn’t have feelings.

          “Well? Do you need anything or not?”

          “The Pearl could always do with water, and I’m not one to say no to fruit. Besides,” he grinned, “it gives us an excuse to spend more time together, doesn’t it?”

          You rolled your eyes. “We don’t need excuses. We’re captains, Jack. We can do what we want.”

          “Ah, yes. The freedom to do what you want because you want it. What a wonderful notion. I can’t believe there are people who don’t believe in it.”

          You pulled into the inlet of a small island. There were hundreds like it within the Caribbean; most of the area was made up of tiny, uninhabited spits of land. You’d sailed the area long enough to know some of the ones with fresh water on them. It was important information for a pirate. There were few places you could take on water other than Tortuga, and the state of their water could be sketchy. You’d had barrels with slime on the inside before, and shuddered to think of drinking it.

          “Well, those people aren’t having nearly as much fun as we are, are they?”

          “Decidedly not.”

          The island was well-shaded by trees, and a little lake provided you with water. The crews of both ships were put to work filling barrels and returning them to the ship. It wasn’t easy; full barrels were terribly heavy. Still, it was all the work they had to do for the rest of the day. It had been decided that both ships would stay in the inlet a few hours to allow for some free time among the crews.

          And the captains. Not that anyone paid attention to that. Both crews were long past the days of looking wide eyed at the two of you when you brushed hands or exchanged quick kisses. These things didn’t go unnoticed, of course, and some of the newer members of the crews were still surprised, but most ignored your antics.

          With the water stored and loaded, the crews disappeared to do as they wished. Most played cards in shaded areas and drank, or told stories and drank, or sang shanties and drank. There was, on the whole, a lot of drinking, as there was bound to be when sailors got together.

          It reminded you a little of the taverns in Shipwreck Cove. There, some of the most famous pirates of the age got together. The stories they could tell were unmatched, and they held all the records at drinking contests. You loved the Cove. The gatherings there were merry, and it was nice to socialize with others after having only your crew for months on end.

          You and Jack found a quiet little cove away from the crews. It was still damned hot, and you intended to take advantage of it.

          “What about a swim, love?” asked Jack. Apparently, he’d had the same idea.

          “Absolutely.”

          You doffed most of your clothes, only keeping on what was completely necessary. It wasn’t like you hadn’t seen each other before. Besides, it was no use wearing waterlogged clothes.

          You and Jack slipped into the pool, grateful for the coolness of the water. There were so many questions for you to ask. Where had Jack been? What had he been doing? What ridiculous thing was he trying to find now? Jack was always in a host of magical trouble, and it excited and amused you to hear what he was up to. No good is the answer. You smiled to yourself. Somehow, trouble found Jack wherever he went.

          For a while, you just swam with each other. The cool water felt wonderful on your skin, and you enjoyed the escape from the heat. Just being together was enough at the moment; even just having Jack near made you happy.

          “What magical adventures have you been up to?” you asked.

          “Magical? That’s not my kind of thing, love.”

          “I know you, Jack. You’re always after some magical item or another. What is it this time?”

          Jack pouted a little. “The Holy Grail.”

          You couldn’t help a little laugh. “The Holy Grail? I knew you believed in some of that stuff, but a Christian myth? Doesn’t seem like you.”

          “It’s in Spain, in a little church. The Basilica of San Isidoro. I hear it’s a lovely place.”

          “I’m sure it is, Jack, but I’d be surprised if you weren’t smote down by god himself the moment you tried to set foot in the door.”

          Jack grinned. “I might just have to send someone in for me. Who better than your saintly self?”

          You burst out laughing. “‘Saintly’? I hardly think so. I’d face the same wrath of god as you, I’m sure.”

          “Ah, well. I’ll find someone.” He swam up to you, pulling you into the shallows for a kiss. It was a much longer, more passionate kiss than he dared when in front of your respective crews, and you enjoyed every second of it, coming away a bit flustered.

          “Never one to miss an opportunity, are you?”

          “No, love.” Jack smiled wickedly, pulling you close. He gave you another kiss, softer this time, and moved on to your cheeks, nose, forehead, and eyelids. You sighed in contentment.

          He’s softer than anyone else knows, you thought. It was true: Jack could be quite the passionate lover, but he was also gentle. He liked to curl up beside you in bed, just to hold you, and to bury his face in your hair. You appreciated both sides to him.

          Now, his lips had trailed down your neck, nuzzling the spot between your neck and shoulder. You ran your hands through his hair, enjoying every moment. He was getting more and more adventurous, looking up at you with a smug expression, lips trailing ever lower on your chest, making you blush.

          “Is here really the best place?”

          “Jack?”

          “Yes?”

          “The crews are preoccupied. At least here we don’t have them listening at our door.” He didn’t wait for an answer, going right back to kissing you, pulling up your shirt to kiss your stomach and down your thighs.

          Looks like we won’t be getting back to the ship any time soon.

          You returned to your ships a while later, much more disheveled than when you’d set out. Nobody paid it any mind. You pretended to blame it on the fact that you’d gone for a swim, but you knew not everyone was fooled.

          The evening light fell across the ship, bathing everything in gold. You held Jack’s hand, still glowing a little from your earlier escapade. Your ships pulled out of the inlet, sails unfurling to catch the wind. You sailed out around the curve of the island and into the wide ocean.

          A ship appeared on the horizon. You and Jack both pulled out longlasses, looking out at the silhouette. It was a galleon, judging by its size and the number of masts. A Dutch flag fluttered in the wind. A merchant vessel, no doubt. Thankfully, it had no escort, and you figured it wasn’t part of the Dutch East India Company. Still, the Dutch had all sorts of goods, and you knew that between the two of you, you and Jack could take the prize. Galleons could be nasty business, of course, but two on one was good odds.

          “Split the prizes?” You offered.

          “Fair enough.”

          Jack returned to his ship, and together, you sailed in the direction of the galleon. She’d seen you, as she steered about, trying to turn and flee. Unfortunately for her, there was no way for her to outrun you. She was sailing against the wind, and doomed to be caught. You ran up your pirate flag. A nice little thing, a skull facing sideways with a gold earring. A nice piece of work, and complimentary to Jack’s. His was similar, but it showed his hair trinkets, and had a red sparrow flying on one side.

          Less than a half-hour later, you were within range to begin an attack. You and Jack had each taken a side of the galleon to fire on. With it sandwiched between you, it stood no chance. Still, it wasn’t letting up; no flag of surrender appeared. The captain knows that we want his cargo, and that we’ll have to board.

          Still, a little fight wouldn’t dissuade you. You were pirates, after all. Fighting was part of the job. Your crew scurried to their positions, manning the cannons and running powder. You prepared for a broadside volley. If you could get off the first shot, things might not be so bad. It was all a matter of whose crew was faster.

          It was yours. A volley of your cannonballs slammed into the side of the galleon. The shot was returned a minute later as the galleon let off shots of their own, but the Dutch ship had clearly taken some damage. The plume of smoke between you only grew as the shots were returned. Cannonballs slammed into your deck, splintering the wood. Pieces of bannister and railing flew apart, while a large hole made itself clear in the side of your ship. Thankfully, it was well above the waterline, and you breathed a sigh of relief.

          The Dutch ship rocked to one side as the Pearl let off a volley, and again to the other side as you hit them. There were holes dotting the hull of the galleon, some dangerously close to the water. No doubt the merchants would have some bailing to do. They were taking bad damage, and many of their gunports had been shot to splinters.

          You and Jack closed in, pulling right up alongside the galleon, throwing over lines to connect the ships. Now, you could board with ease. The moment both crews landed on the galleon, the Dutch lost their fighting spirit. You took the ship quickly; merchants never made good fighters. A few shots went off, and swords crashed together, but the fight was over almost before it began.

          The Dutch huddled in a group on the deck, their captain among them, as men from your ship and the Pearl loaded cargo into their respective ships. You’d decide on the exact amounts of loot that you’d split later. For now, you wanted to get everything you could and leave. The galleon had suffered heavy damage in the broadside fight, and some of the shots had hit her below the waterline. You’d rather not be on the ship when it sank.

          You left your men to their work, slipping over to the Pearl. Jack was directing where to put cargo as you walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” You asked.

          He turned. “Yes, love. Nothing more than cuts and scrapes. Are you?”

          “I’m fine. I was worried that you might have been hurt in the broadside fight.”

          “And I for you. All it takes is one unlucky moment.” Jack shuddered, clearly remembering past fights. You’d seen your fair share of gore, too, and you knew just how deadly a cannonball could be. “What would you say to a good nap?”

          You laughed. “Yes, a nap would be welcome. We’ll have to talk about splitting up the cargo, too.”

          “Aye, and that. I’ve found some lovely silks that would look ravishing on you.”

          “Don’t flatter me, Jack.”

          “There’s not a word of lie, love. Though you tend to look ravishing in everything. Or nothing.” Jack smirked.

          You hit his arm. “Behave.” But you were smiling too. It was hard not to, around him.

          You were in his cabin an hour later, settled into his bed. Your head rested on Jack’s chest, and his fingers ran gently through your hair. Your legs were tangled together, and one of your hands was tucked in one of his, and you could hear the steady beat of his heart through his thin linen shirt.

          “I’ve missed this, Jack,” you admitted. “Us.” It had been a long time since you’d last been together, and as much as you loved every moment, you knew it wouldn’t last. Jack would, at some point, leave. You hated the thought. You’d gone so long without each other, you wanted to stay together as long as you could.

          “I missed this too, love.” You could tell that he meant it. He was so rarely soft with anyone; it was reserved for the people he loved.

          “Let’s stay together longer. We can travel as a pair, and we could take more prizes that way. Our own miniature armada.”

          “Sounds nice. My crew would probably like me better if we took more prizes.”

          “I’m sure they would,” you teased. You knew his focus wasn’t always on the loot, that it was sometimes directed more towards the mystical.

          “And would you follow me on my strange adventures? Off into the unknown?”

          “I’ve always thought your adventures sounded exciting.”

          You settled into a happy silence, laying in each others’ arms. You let him play with your hair, fingers massaging your scalp.

          “Will you come to Spain with me?” he murmured.

          “They do have lots of gold. And good food. A mediteranean adventure sound nice, Jack.”

          He made a little contented noise, and you drifted off, dreaming of the glittering waters and rich vineyards of Spain. And the gold. Always the gold. And Jack.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Lena Retrospective: The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! or Why Does Lena’s Darkest Hour Have a WACKKKYY Bigfoot Subplot?

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my look back the LIfe and Times of Lena Sabrewing. And we’re almost at the end of season 1. Woo-Ooo!. While i’ll have more season 1 episodes to cover for it’s sister arc, this is the last episode in this arc before the finale.. and i’m happy to repeat that next week will be DUCK WEEK as a result, finsihing up this arc and the Della arcs, as well as dipping into season 2 a bit for Lena’s return to celebrate the finale of this wonderful show. Full disclosure: I didn’t PLAN for it this way, I assumed the show would be ending in April, but sometimes serendipity just works out for you. So pitter pat er, let’s get at er.

 When we last left off Webby went on a wild duck chase for her grandma in England and 87!Webby befriended that version of Magica’s niece and told off a grown woman masquerading as a child because her husband likes being called “Daddy”. When we last left the plot proper though, we learned Lena just wanted to be free, and was willing to do whatever it took, and Magica was getting more abusive and more impatient. And if you thought the end to Jaw$! was pretty sad and dark.... strap in and steel yourself as we take a look at one of the darkest episodes in the series.

The opening sets the stage perfectly as we’re in Scrooge’s Room in the middle of the night, when Lena comes in.. with a knife. 

Naturally she dosen’t have baked goods, but instead is trying to cut the knife from around his neck while Magica won’t shut up while she works and keeps distracting her and BLAMING her for getting distracted. As for the knife it’s glowing and mystic because naturally, Scrooge doesn’t trust just ANY string but a magically woven one to hold his dime. Unlucky for her her girlfriend walks in at the exact moment she’s standing over her idol holding a mystical knife. I don’t think hallmark makes a card for “Sorry I was lying to you for months for my abusive aunt to earn my freedom and then looked like I was about to slit your uncle’s throat. I love you though. “ Yet. 

Scrooge starts to stir so Webby pulls Lena out of there and back to her room... and flashes a lamp on her to interrogate her. Lena is able to bounce back, asking “what were you doing there”. Which NORMALLY wouldn’t last more than two minutes.. but since Webby was there to get Drool samples, maybe she wants to clone him I mean she does know a guy I think the why is something we’d rather not know about, Webby herself was a bit suspcious and Lena uses her starkerish ways to say she’d also gotten into being a Scrooge fangirl. This also allows her to ask about the dime.. but since Scrooge never takes it off, that means they have no access and both Lena and Magica are stuck watching Webby’s long presentation on Scrooge’s life story. I mean personally i’d love to see this in it’s full probably 8 hour glory but I’m not trying to earn my freedom or stuck as a shadow monster. 

It was then when watching the episode this morning.. I was reminded it had a subplot. And the instant I saw Dewey folding Louie’s shirts... I started to piece together it was the bigfoot one. 

As you can tell i’m not a fan of this subplot. It has a good core idea, riffing on “kid takes home sasquatch films” like Cry Wilderness, Big and Harry and of course the one that started it all, Harry and the Hendersons. 

It’s just bogged down by one really obnoxious trait that trips it up and is in the wrong episode entirely. We’ll get to that first scene and the plot as a whole in a moment we just need the setup in the a-story first: Scrooge privately conferring with Beakly, which Magica snoops on. While Lena didn’t get far at all in cutting the rope of his dime, she still left a knick and the fact someone got into his house, let alone his bedroom and got THAT far, means SOMETHING bad is afoot. So while he looks for it he’s putting the dime in the Other Bin for safekeeping. We’ll find out what that is in moment. For now 

Let’s Get This Stupid Sasquatch Plot Over With

We open with Louie having conned Dewey into folding his stuff for the “world laundry folding record”. I mean.. it’s greasy but I gotta respect game here. And it’s not actively harming anyone. Though we do find out from an irate Huey he’s done far worse, if in a hilarious way with Louie’s Kids, his obviously fake charity he uses to get money out of Donald. And so far into it, as Huey hid something he had in the closet and offered to Fix Louie’s stretched out hoodie, the reason he was mad at Dewey, I didn’t get why I hated it before. I wondered why I was so annoyed. Same when Huey while carrying Louie’s hoodies hears his uncle looking for something in the mansion. 

Turns out he’s got a bigfoot hiding in their closet, that he found injured int he woods and brought back and all that good kid finding a mythical creature stuff. Dewey of course loves him on first sight and both want to keep him. But unlike most of these sorts of things where the creature’s damage to the room and what not is played off or the sibling doesn’t know, Louie does see it and isn’t happy about it and only agrees to hide the furry bastard because his brothers blackmail him with his schemes, and refuse to feel sorry for him as the creatures antics continue, including drinking Louie’s special pep and eating his snacks. 

And this is where one of the plots two major issues crops up: The way Dewey and Huey act. Both just ignore any damage wooly foot does, any discomfort to Louie and any obvious downsides of this. Now Dewey being clinginly attached to a majestic creature he found and wanting to keep it? Fits perfectly, and him being mean to louie fits because louie tricked him. Huey however.. is horribly out of character, as while I could see him being charmed at first and not wanting his uncle to hunt his new friend.. he’s not an impractical boy. He’d of tried to get his new friend to the woods first thing because it’s where he’s safest from scrooge and his foot has healed. He’s also a Woodchuck and I can’t imagine the JWG says it’s okay to keep a wild animal person as a pet basically. None of it fits him and makes him into a moron for an episode solely for the plot to work. This still could’ve worked but just have Huey and Louie BOTH get suspicious, Huey later, and find out Tenderfoot is actually Gavin, whose sapient, has a phone and simply is taking advantage of them. it would’ve gone the same way: if they told Dewey , Gavin would kill them, as he threatened to do if louie told his brothers. The Gavin part though is brilliant and a really nice twist I didn’t see coming when I first saw this.  

And it would’ve made the already great climax more interesting as Huey would’ve been forced to use the methods of Louie’s he’d derided to beat a far worse scammer. Instead it’s just Louie but he doesn’t take Gavin’s threats lying down.. and comes up with a clever way to use his scam against him. He shaves Gavin, hides the razor then claims to his brother that not being in the woods means he’s dying or some such thing. So our two idiots and our hero drag them out and while they run into scrooge, Louie still saves the idiots life by manipulating him with a schmaltzy speech and they let him go despite his best attempts to stay, with Louie getting a nice “I win in there”. Overall a bit of a mess with some good ideas, but Huey suddenly taking dum dum juice really drags it down.

So in any other episode this would’ve been fine whatever just mildly obnoxious. What makes it really,  unintentionally obnoxious.. is it’s in the middle of a tense, dark, horror story that dives into the depths of Lena’s soul and ends on a really horrifying note. Case in point Louie shaves a bigfoot and gets his victory over his nemesis.. after an utterly spellbindingly horrific nightmare by Lena, easily the most terrifying moment in the entire show. Followed up with a shaved bigfoot. 

Now I could buy Disney simply forced them to do this to keep things light... except Frank’s been pretty upfront about the production process, how Disney has treated him, what they’ve said no on. So if it had been something they were forced to do, he would’ve said it. No this is just not reading the room and not thinking things through and an otherwise stellar episode suffers for it.They could’ve waited till season 2 for it, they didn’t, and this was the result. It dosen’t ruin the rest of the episode it’s too good for it, but damn if it dosen’t create mood whiplash so severe I need a neckbrace. 

The Good Part

So back at the plot anyone actually cares about, we found out what the “other bin” is when Lena asks Webby: While the Money bin is for well, money and precious keepsakes, the other bin is the stuff too dangerous to keep out in the world. And this is the guy who kept a mystical gold eating dragon, a pirate ghost, and a medusa gauntlet in his garage, and we’ll learn after this ep also keeps a giant golden aztec golem in there. NONE of that was deemed dangerous enough to put in the other bin. So Webby is understandably hesitant.. and it gets a bit unsettling when Lena manipulates her into it. While she has in the past.. she usually just nudged Webby into something she’d do anyway at worst, or showed her an r-rated movie or something harmless. While she did use her as an in she clearly cares.. so it shows how horrifically desperate she’s got she’s willing to pressure her into going into Scrooge’s most dangerous and secure location, pointing out this may be her only chance to see the Dime. 

So she reluctantly agrees, and the two head into the garage. Turns out Scrooge keeps all his junk here for more reason than just shoving it wherever it’d go, as the entrance to the other bin is hidden here. The statue that gave Manny his head is actually a clue towards the painting hiding the second bin, which itself requires one of those things used to hold up ropes and such like you’d see at a movie theater... god I miss movie theaters.. I mean watching stuff in the comfort of home is very nice, but it was nice getting out, making a day of it. I mean their around, but I really don’t want to go till one till more vaccinations have happened and it’s a lot safer to go. Wait what were we talking about? Oh right gay ducks going into a horrifying nightmare vault. But yeah the theater thingy is the key, it unlocks the entrance and our heroines head inside. 

In contrast to the modern, buisnessy welcoming bin, the other bin is basically one giant vault/prison, with everything in it securely locked inside identical doored rooms. It’s genius as it is simple: Only 6 people have likely ever had access to this place: Scrooge, Beakly, Gyro, Duckworth and MAYBE the twins. Even Della and Donald being allowed down here is an unknown. The non-scrooge people are only because someone besides him needs to maintain it, keep any creatures fed, that sort of thing and he’d only trust his butler and his housekeeper, who are also both extraordinarily badass, to do so. Gyro is because someone needed to design the cells. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Quackfaster was a 7th since season 3 casts her as Scrooge’s magic expert and he’d likely need specific runes for specific cells. He’d want as few people down here as possible, and even fewer knowing. I’m sure Bradford knew, and i’m also certain it’s the one thing he never quibbled about the expense as while he hates what Scrooge stands for and tried to curb his “chaos” as much as possible.. this is doing exactly what Bradford likes: locking it away where it can’t hurt anybody. Plus quibbling about it might make Scrooge want to show it off to him and that’s.. that's’ a whole lotta nope in a 2 pound bag. 

So for once Webby is very hesitant and very cautious, though naturally Magica points out a door.. and Lena stupidly follows her advice as she knows her “aunt” is impulsive and has no regards for her safety. What did she think was going to happen? They instead find a unicorn.. or rather it’s angry murderous cousin the Sword Horse, which naturally tries goring them. I’d go with Spear Horse, but semantics. Point is Webby is soon tackled by the thing and Magica just wants to let her die. As seen before the tension between Magica and Lena has hit a breaking point: Magica is fed up with Lena’s clear feelings for webby and caring more about her than the mission.. while Lena is fed up with Magica not listening to her, respecting her as sentient being and dismissing her out of hand instead of listening to her often very valid criticism. So Lena naturally ignores her and throws her the knife, which Webby uses to get the Sword Horse back in it’s pen. And then wonders why her girlfriend has  glowing painstakingly crafted magic knife. Whoops. Webby also wants to leave but Lena convinces her to keep going. but it’s also very clear that Webby’s getting more and more reluctant and i’ts very hard to watch. You can’t blame Lena for wanting to be free of Magica: she dosen’t see her as a person, and dosen’t value her life. But it’s still hard to watc her have to manipulate the only person that loves her and do so so.. effectively. It’s easy to imagine Lena’s done this dozens of times to other people.. but not to someone she actually CARES about. 

Webby DOES figure out how the rooms work though: each one is labeled by the year Scrooge caught it. So she assumes one room she fine is the dime.. and Lena of course runs in and slams the door shut... they’ve found it. So we then get to the most terrifying moment of the series. With victory in her grasp magica roars for Lena to claim the dime, filling the room and Lena with shadow with Lena seemingly disolving.. until Magica is restored or at least partially, still a shadow. Magica has just one thing for her.. and Lena’s reactoin is terrified.. and says oh so much in just one expression it’s VERY clear Lena fears she’s about to die... if she’s lucky. Magica’s been so verbally abusive, tearing her down constantly, manipulating her constantly.. why WOULD Lena expect anything good? Why would she expect anything other than pain or death? So a hug is a surprise.. as is Webby who assumes she’s being attacked... and is clearly heartbroken that’s not the case and runs for Scrooge when Magica admits the truth... only for Magica to seemingly kill her, turning her into a doll resembling the original Webby

Yeah at this point it’s obvious something’s up.. but before we can get to the natural reveal at the end of this horror show, Lena demands Magica change her back... only for a fight to naturally ensue with Magica rubbing the way Lena’s treated Webby in her face: How she manipualted her, lied to her and used her. Even if it was for more noble reasons.. she never told her any of this or tried to and is now directly responsible for her death. She’s a monster.. and then Lena’s amulet activates.. and seemingly finishes the job. 

Then Lena wakes up. This was simply one of SCrooge’s artifact, one Webby mentioned earlier off hand and Webby rescues her. It was all a nightmare.. easy to see given Webby was seemingly killed or turned into a doll at points.. but besides making Lena realize how while not as bad as her aunt, she ahsn’t been great.. it also gives us a painful look into her head and how she sees both Magica and Webby. With Magica.. it’s again VERY clear Magica verbally abuses her, depersons her and is in general a horrifiingly relastic depection of a domestic abuser. But it’s also telling Magica hugs her... while Lena didn’t expect it, this is all her subconcious mixed with a magical cursed artifact, it’s clear that deep down one of the things she wants most.. is for Magica to LOVE HER. 

That is just... it hurts so much.  She just wants a Mom.. and even then her subconcious can’t give her THAT because it knows the truth. Granted the nightmare thing might of had something to do with it, but still, the fact is deep down she knows Magica dosen’t care about her but she WANTS her to. As with Webby, she fears Magica is right, that all her gaslighting has had an effect and Webby would run away the second she found out. When as we’ll learn.. that’s not true at all. She’s deeply hurt... but she still belivies in her. But Lena can’t even see that. She’s been beaten down so much by someone constnatly telling her no one will ever love her she belivies it herself and all her mind and the dreamcatcher can do is pummel her over and over again with what she feels about herself, what she’s KNOWN about how she treats webby even if she had no way out otherwise, how wrong it’s felt. Just holy shit it’s a lot to take in. 

But all this trauma has made Lena realize she truly does love Webby and this isn’t worth it.. she’ll find some other way out or figure out something, for now their leaving. She’s not dying for this.. not for her. They happen to run into Scrooge who, due to the WACKY BIGFOOT SUBPLOT THAT HAPPENED RIGHT AFTER THE ABOVE SCENE, no I will not let that go even going back to Frank’s twitter asks he outright said it was their darkest plot paired with one of their most insane, he knew what he was doing. Turns out cleverly he kept the Dime in vault one. As he puts it “They never think to check the first one”. Smart. He also keeps his worry room down here. Just a note I wanted to mention. 

He does chide them, and Lena takes the full fall.. but suprisingly he dosen’t ban her from his home or anything, he just asks they be honest and would’ve gladly showed the dime off to them both if they’d just asked. Once Scrooge and Webby walk off far enough Magica berates her again..but Lena is done. She’s realized from her own horrifying nightmares that NO amount of freedom is worth what Magica will get out of this, that her own soul isn’t worth the death of the one person she cares about: Webby will fight her and she might not make it. She loves her more than she fears Magica. And even if it means loosing Webby.. she knows who can stop him. Unfortunately.. this is not a happy ending as Magica simply takes full control. And now has Scrooge’s full trust. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is one half a masterpiece. The parts with Lena are to this day, as we approach the very last episode, some of the show’s finest writing and Lena’s nightmare is easily the darkest scene in the series, and only not the most gutwrenching.. because we’re getting to that next week. It finishes the first leg of her character arc, with her selfishness all gone, and the only thing she wants is Webby’s hapiness. Granted that leads to a whole nother character arc over her season 2 episodes, but we’ll get there. Point is she’s realized her manipulations are wrong and not worth the cost, and that she’ll never get anything good out of Magica. Freedom.. will take just a bit longer. It’s eerie to watch, uncomfortable as Lena sinks to her lowest point before climbing out of it, and with a very tense atmosphere the whole time, the bin having a smothering uncomfortableness as we know there’s tons of horrible things here.. but we don’t know what. 

So on it’s own it’d be one of the series best episodes, and the plot itself is still one fo the series best.. but it’s weighed down by one of the series worst plots. Still tame compared to a lto of other series worst moments but being paired with something so dark and excellent really shows how fucking stupid this plot was and made it that much more grating. It just clashes badly. Thankfully the crew did learn from this fiasco to the point we got one of the series best episodes “Escape from the Impossibin!”. That one seemingly has two light enough plots, Scrooge, Louie and Della escaping from the bin and Webby stalking the boys, but in a comedic ic still messed up fashion.. but both take a sharp left at just the right time as to not clash: the full implications of what Webby’s doing and her physical fight with Bentina happen around the same time Scrooge breaks down and confesses he’s scared he can’t win this time. The episode gets really dark in the second half but it eases into it and slowly makes it’s way to it, building to it with some laughts to disarm it. But stuff like robo scrooge or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the oh thank god i’ts broken. That stuff isn’t SO wacky or out of place that it detracts from the other plot. They compliment each other. Here it’s just two plots that don’t work together at all joined together for some reason.  So yeah overall a very mixed bag of an episode and if you do want to watch or rewatch it.. just skip the bigfoot subplot> it’s not worth it. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: It’s all come down to this. Magica finally ges what she wants. The Shadow War is Night.. but before I can tell you that story we have a bit of ground to cover so..

Next on this Blog: The family minus Beakly ends up in Greece. Dewey is forced to deal with his fears about his mom, Scrooge is forced to deal with his old rival Zeus, and Donald is forced to deal with an unwanted admirerer. Spanikopita!

If you liked this review, follow for more, feel free to contribute to my patreon, and feel free to commission a review of your own. Until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure. 

[hermits-that-craft]

Staying With The Traitor - Chapter One

A Reluctant Agreement

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26695042/chapters/65115157

“Gentlemen I believe I could provide you sanctuary.” Eret says quietly, appearing around the corner. Wilbur moves in front of where he thinks Tommy could be, though he can’t see the teen.

“Eret how fucking dare you!” Tommy yells, his voice falling from besides Wilbur.

“I have value still.” Wilbur spits towards Eret, who flinches away from the ex-president of L’manburg.

“You’ve been betrayed, I can help you.” Eret says, offering his hand to Wilbur.

“Eret the fucking nerve of you.”

“We know we’ve been betrayed.” Wilbur glares at him. “For a second time.”

“Whoever you’re mailing won’t come for a few weeks, even if they leave the second they get the letter.” Eret points out, and Wilbur nearly crushes the letter in his fist. “I can offer you sanctuary in a place that Schlatt won’t look for you, so you don’t have to run constantly.”

“We can run, Eret.” Tommy says, the potion slowly wearing off. He pulls out another invisibility potion, his form flickering as it comes into view.

“You shouldn’t have to run, Tommy.” Eret says sympathetically. “You’re just a kid. This shouldn’t have happened to you.”

“I’m not just a kid!”

“You’re only sixteen, you shouldn’t have been thrown out of your own country, political opposition or not.” Eret looks to Wilbur. “You know where to find me, just…

Consider it.”

---

Dear Technoblade, Do you remember how you said that it was a bad idea for me to hold an election? So soon after becoming president? You were right. Of course you were right. Schlatt became president. He kicked me out - which is fair, I ran against him, I should have expected that. But he also kicked Tommy out. Tommy! A child. Tubbo’s working for him, Tommy says that he doesn’t want to but I’m not so sure. Tubbo doesn’t appear to be harmed, though. We can’t get close enough to tell. We’re on the run. We’re going to be on the run for a while, we need your help. We need to take back L’manburg. Please Techno, please come to help. Thanks, Wilbur Soot (Though this is mainly Tommy’s idea. I don’t want to get betrayed again get you mixed up in all of this)

---

Tommy shivers in the little dirt house they had made, dug down and buried six feet under a tree. Wilbur sighs, wrapping a blanket around Tommy’s shoulders, not saying anything as they listen to rain and footsteps above them. Quackity shouts directly above them, and Tommy flinches, a bloodied bandage over his arm. Wilbur lifts a finger over his mouth, reminding Tommy to be as quiet as he can as Wilbur attempts to bandage his leg. They can’t make out anything, and soon the footsteps leave, but Wilbur doesn’t relax, even as he watches Tommy drift off into sleep.

It’s too quiet.

Not like L’manburg, or Manburg, with the sounds of potions brewing and people whispering off into the night, or owls flying and bats screeching. There was alway noise to keep him company on long nights.

Now, the only sound is Tommy's breathing, slow and steady. A beat to keep the time. Wilbur tucks Tommy into the bed, promising to himself that tomorrow night, he’ll ask to sleep in it. Just like he promised to himself last night, and the night before. 

“I’ll be back soon, I’m just going to get some food for us to have tomorrow.” Wilbur promises the sleeping teen, creating a small hole for him to climb out of. They’ll need to find a new base soon.

The cold night air nips at Wilbur, and he is quickly drenched by the rain. Wilbur shivers, imagining the warmth of L’manburg on a night like this. Tubbo, Tommy, Fundy, Jack, Nikki and himself all around a fire, laughing, telling stories. Eret, maybe, if Nikki brought him with a small comment about a big, cold and empty castle. A few comments about betrayal and a trade of wine later and the room would be singing again, the two teens trying to get wine from Fundy or Jack while Eret tells Nikki and himself about how his kingdom is going. Wilbur doesn’t blame Eret for the betrayal, even if the wound is still so fresh that it stings. Who wouldn’t betray the side that appeared to be losing for a kingdom to rule over? Eret did seem to enjoy being the king, and he was fairer on his people then Dream was.

Wilbur frowns, catching himself thinking about Eret in the past tense. He can’t remember when that started. Eret should still be king, and he should still be a fair and just ruler.

Wilbur pulls himself out of his memories and buries his yearning for the past under a need for food. Tommy will need food in the morning, and so will he. Neither man can afford to starve out here, so far away from civilisation.

Not far enough, it would appear.

“This is Dream SMP land, Schlatt.” Eret’s voice cuts through the forest, and Wilbur freezes, pulling the brown coat he found around him as he ducks behind a tree. “I sincerely hope that you aren’t breaking our treaties.”

“I’m simply looking for two outlaws.” Schlatt’s voice sends cold terror down Wilbur’s spine, and he looks to the tree that Tommy is sleeping peacefully under. Tommy could die tonight, if Schlatt finds him. Or worse.

“From my understanding, you exiled them. They are no longer in your land, in Manburg, so you are breaking the treaty that was signed for your protection.”

“Oh please,” Schlatt laughs. “Do you mean to tell me that the treaty signed by outlaws is still in effect? In any case, those two are also in Dream SMP land. They’re breaking the treaty as well, unless you let them in.”

“They have citizenship of Dream SMP, because unlike some democratically elected leaders, I don’t allow children to be country-less.”

“But they are homeless.” Schlatt laughs, and Wilbur freezes, mulling over the new information. They’re under Dream SMP rule again. “Why are you out here, Eret? I thought that you would want to stay inside your big empty castle.”

“I heard your men shouting for a hunt, I was concerned for my citizens and came out here.”

“So you know where they live?” Schlatt’s voice is light, the question darker than his voice portrays it.

“Why does that matter to you.” Eret’s voice goes dark, as though he knows the danger that the question poses, the fear it sparks in Wilbur. 

“I'm looking for them. I want to talk.” Wilbur holds his bow tighter, not prepared for a fight but ready if he needs to be.

“With netherite weapons.” Eret’s voice is incredulous. “I don’t believe that it will remain peaceful.”

“What's your point?”

“Go home, Schlatt. You have a country to rule, leave my citizens to me.” Eret growls, and Wilbur hears a twig snap as one of them moves.

More twigs snap, and Wilbur can hear Schlatt grumble under his breath as he walks away. Before he can move, before he can even release the breath he didn’t know he was holding, Eret sighs.

“I’m sorry I can’t do more for you two.” Eret mumbles, and Wilbur can hear the sorrow in his voice. “I’m trying my hardest. I really am. I’m making sure everyone is doing okay, I’ve hidden Nikki from Schlatt and his lackeys and they’re none the wiser. If only I could convince Tubbo to join Nikki, then at least I could say that he’s okay.”

“Thank you, Eret.” Wilbur whispers, and Eret takes in a sharp breath.

“Wil? Are you alright? Are you hurt? Where’s Tommy, is he okay?”

Wilbur steps out from behind the tree, and he sees Eret for the first time in what feels like years. The king has bags around his eyes, his crown discarded for a netherite helmet and armour glistens in the rain. Hair pokes out from under the helmet, and behind Eret’s sunglasses his eyes glow so bright that Wilbur can see them before he sees the bags that appear so prominent. His cape isn’t on, his regal attire clearly exchanged for more practical wear. As though he thought a fight would break out. A sword rests in its sheath, and Wilbur can see the glow from the enchantments on it. Eret, despite the bags under his eyes and the concern written into his features, looks regal, put together.

Wilbur knows that he must look like shit next to him. Covered in dirt and mud and blood from not being able to stop for a moment to clean himself, bags under his eyes from days of sleeping on dirt or stone floors, and messy hair hidden under a saturated beanie. Wilbur’s probably the most clean that he’s been since the election, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t look like a drowned rat.

“Tommy’s alright.” Wilbur finally answers, his voice barely above a whisper. “I mean, he’s hurt, they haven’t stopped hunting us, but he isn’t dead. Asleep, right now.”

“You left him by himself?” Eret doesn’t sound like he’s judging Wilbur, just asking him a polite question, but Wilbur can’t help the rage that leaps into his throat.

“Someone has to feed him. We need food after all. It’s safest to hunt at-”

“I know, I’m not judging. Just wondering if the person who you wrote that letter to arrived.”

---

Dear Wilbur Soot, I’ll come as soon as I can. I need to do some things with Dad Phil first, but I should arrive in about a month. Maybe two months, if I can convince Phil to come with me. Don’t die, Techno

---

“My offer still stands, you know.” Eret says, walking towards Wilbur. “If you’d like to, I can set you both up a room tonight and you can come in the morning.”

“How would I tell Tommy?” Wilbur sighs into his hands, sitting on the leaf covered grass. “I promised him freedom from tyranny, and now a dictator is hunting him and our only refuge is the country that we started a revolution against.”

“I think he’d be more happy to be safe,” Eret suggests, and Wilbur glares at him. “I mean, he’s just a kid. He needs the safety.”

“Could we go to your castle now?” Wilbur asks, his voice small. Guilt eats at his insides as he looks to the ground. Selling Tommy and his freedom for safety. Selling their freedom to a traitor. Sure, a friend when Nikki invited him in, a person they took pity on in a lonely castle, but someone who would sell them out to the highest bidder, just like last time.

“Of course, do you want me to wait here?” Eret asks, and a smile forms on his lips. Wilbur glares at the grass, weighing his options.

“No.” He says, standing slowly. “Unless you don’t want to crawl through a one by one block dirt hole.”

“I don’t care.” Eret shrugs. “As long as I can make sure you’re both safe.”

Bastard. Wilbur spits in his mind, but he keeps his mouth shut as he walks towards the small hole. How is he supposed to tell Tommy, especially with Eret in the room with them? How can he let the boy down?

Wilbur kicks a stone, sighing to himself. It’s for the best. It’ll keep Tommy safe.

---

Dear Tommy Innit, Sup, I know Wilbur doesn’t want to go through another betrayal, alright? He isn’t that good at hiding what he writes on letters. Look, I know you both. I care about you both, so I’m going to ask you a favour. Make sure Wilbur is alright until Phil and I get there, okay? Thanks, Techno.

---

“Thank god you’re alright!” Tommy says, slowly standing up. He limps to Wilbur, checking the man over for injuries. “I thought that you were hurt, you shouldn’t have left someone could have found you, or followed you back or-”

“Tommy we’re going now.” Wilbur says as Eret steps into the room. “We-”

“What? Why?”

“We can’t stay here.” Wilbur swallows his pride, sorrowful eyes meet Tommy’s tired ones. “We have to stay with Eret until Techno and Phil come, alright?”

Taglist:

@octosghost @firefly464 @surohsopsisofclouds @chromations @magpies-and-glitter @wwwwwelcomegays @asmoljay @ribineran @hawheckin @violet--majesty 

[stickynotestoletters]

Yandere Headcannons BNHA

This is just a bunch of headcanons I have about the boys in BNHA and what they’d be like as yanderes. Only the really fluffy or good things about them listed here. This is not a good depiction of a real yandere and make sure to be careful to identify yandere traits in real people around you. It’s a very dangerous world and stay safe!

Uh no v serious warnings; Manipulation mentions, kidnapping mentions, and just this is a lot of heavily influenced trans reader headcanons because I’m having a lot of gender struggles rn and that’s where my headspace is atm and this is also after and or during when you’ve/re been/being kidnapped and conditioned,  a little NSFW because if I don't specify then they are aged up (around 20-25 is where I imagine the timeline that they actually captured you and have a hero carrier going for them already),

Bakugou Katsuki

This man loves you and you know it. 

If you meet him in middle school and don’t like his original persona he’s gonna adjust it around you to slowly lure you in

He wants to be yours no matter what he sacrifices and if giving up his pride is what it takes so be it

He only shows his affection through physical gifts and touch because words of affirmation are not really his specialty.

He loves the idea of you being submissive towards him even if you’re not a girl.

Loves holding your hips when you’re doing something, especially if you’re good at cooking and make him stuff once you’ve become more docile and have stopped fighting him on leaving

So if you are trans or otherwise in the LGBTQ+ community for gender stuff he will do the most to make you comfortable. Binder? You didn’t even have to tell him your measurements cause bby he already knows 

It’s who you are and he accepts that but it’s also a pride thing. 

It’s also a way he tries to gain your trust in the early stages of your kidnapping. 

He sees this as a way to prove he’s the only one out there who would take care of you and accept you so well, this also gives him more reason to tell you you belong there because of what happens to “your community”

If you think he doesn’t know before you come out to him then you’re wrong. He knows everything about you and nothing will get in the way from making you his.

He’ll only get you T-shots and other stuff like that if you promise to not talk to anyone else at the doctor’s about your relationship. 

But the best part about all this is how absolutely submissive you’ll be under his care while you recover after surgery

Izuku Midoryia 

There are a lot of things I see that headcanon Deku has a whole book on you but I feel like this boy has an entire series of books

He has taken notes on you since he met you and has a color coded system of books that detail on your beginning years too once he gets them out of your friends or family or even just you

If you met him before he had his quirk he would probably kidnap you once he got his quirk

He spent a lot of time writing how he would kidnap you if he had certain quirks

Anyways, he loves to lay his head on your stomach

He also likes it when you’re just writing or drawing and he can watch, writing things down is a very personal part of his life so when someone as special as you does it he gets all sappy and heart warmed

If you ever get the chance to look into one of his books about you and you complement him on it he will not be able to handle it

If you’re trans he will immediately start using your pronouns in the correct form

He wants to give you as much respect as you deserve so he just uses them naturally it’s just the way of things

He’s very nervous about getting you a binder, it’s just scary for him

He also goes back into his notebooks and changes your name and pronouns

He looks intensively into research about binders, T-shots, and surgery

He lets you get a binder after you say I love you the first time

Lets you get T-shots after your first year anniversary of being conditioned to be in love with him

Todoroki Shoto

So this boy is not very interested in talking to you when you first meet

It’s just he’s so scared that he’s going to mess you up and drag you into his own mess so he waits until he’s better or gets better to contact you

He loves to stare at you

Just while you’re doing nothing or asleep, especially when you’re talking though

He loves touching your hands and giving you things

He doesn’t really talk to you though and as much as he loves to watch you talk to people he just likes how quiet you are around him

He likes to make you food, even though he doesn’t know how to cook he’ll start learning for you

He’s def the big spoon no matter how tall you are around him just def the big spoon

If you are trans he’s just gonna nod it off then cuddle with you afterwards

He’s just super calm about everything

Top of the line binders and T-shots and check-ups by a special doctor that’s sworn to secrecy

Actually tracks down someone with a quirk that can modify your body permanently without surgery

But if he comes up fruitless in the en-devour (lmao) he will let you get surgery and will love how dependent and you get on him after 

You’re just so sleepy and quiet but you’re submissive and cute

Will cry if you call him babe when you ask for something and will beg you to do it more and will get you 2x whatever you’re asking for

Has to remind himself often of your pronouns in his head but never slips up when speaking to you

Kaminari Denki

Okay this man loves to touch you. Like no warning just loves to put his hands on you

Hips and thigh guy I don’t make the rules

For some reason he likes to grab and stroke up and down your bottom half of your rib cage.

Puts his legs around yours when you’re sleeping

Likes to scrub your back and take care of you in a bath, not even in a sexual way (besides bath sex and fondling turn him off because of his quirk)

grabs the little part of your hips and thigh where they connect to your but and just squishes it

Gets so flustered when you wear yellow

But loves to see you in a pastel yellow even if you don’t think you look good he’ll always say how amazing he thinks you look

Tons and tons of compliments

absolutely loves holding your hand 

Says I love you within the first couple minutes of kidnapping you

Power Bottom no matter your gender

If trans he will def go and get you a binder

Will make sure you don’t tell anyone about your relationship if you go get T-shots and stuff by holding your hand and giving you a little shock every time you get too close to saying something

Gets you tons of sex toys that help with dysphoria during sexy times (like thanks but ur a perv kami)

He doesn’t want to risk you if you get surgery so he will wait a couple years before he allows you to

Kirishima Eijiro

He actually saw you at the entrance exam for UA and he just immediately had hearts in his eyes

This boy is clingy af, if you even look away for 2 seconds he’ll start whining

Wants you to be the most comfortable person in the world

He likes the idea of you being the picture perfect little darling, cooking and cleaning and waiting for him to get home he wants you to depend on you

He needs you to depend on him! What is he good for otherwise? 

Touch starved tbh

He likes to cuddle you when you first get kidnapped, like if you don’t let him touch you he’ll start crying

If you keep rejecting him he’ll get delusional instead and will just hug you anyways

If you’re trans and you want to ask him for stuff to make you feel comfortable like a binder he’s gonna use this to his advantage

You wanna shop for a binder? Two how cuddle session and he’ll consider taking your measurements

It’s gonna be hard for him to think of the safest way to get you testosterone or other hormone injections and stuff

He’s just concerned

Will lowkey try to convince you to drop the idea but if he’s not already delusional enough to ignore your feelings and you start crying then he’s just gonna comfort you

It’s gonna take a year or two to convince him but if you become more submissive and obedient for him he might be persuaded

In the end he’ll get you surgery and other things like that but he’s gonna need to speak to 30 different professionals about this just to be 200% sure it’s the right move.

Iida Tenya

Tenya isn't the most aggressive when it comes to things but he’s very stern and patient so he’ll have a little more freedom with disciplining you

He likes to hug you from behind

He starts to slowly stop raising his hands and yelling cause he knows it disturbs you and makes you flinch, plus you listen better when he whispers

When you cuddle he puts his legs between yours cause he wants you hold you whole

He covers his engines when y’all sleep together so you don’t scratch yourself on them

Lets you paint and draw and write but only under super vision and he analysis your work after to see how you feel

Compliments you a ton

Stern in the bedroom, very daddy/dom nothing else will do

Likes to compliment you

Loves it when you smile at him

Wants you to be comfortable out of any other option

If you’re trans then he’ll be pretty much the same as Shoto

Top of the line products and binders

Will be the first out of both of you to suggest surgery

Wants to look for a doctor with many experiences before he even asks you tho

You gotta admit that he is very sweet throughout the whole process and very supportive

He will also give you a personal doctor, but he will also have to sit in on sessions and the like to make sure you’re not concocting a plan to escape or anything

Thank you for reading this! Have a lovely day and if you have any suggestions just ask! However I can’t guarantee I’ll do everything. Maybe I’ll do a part two?

[thetravelerwrites]

Sheng (Part 2) Lemon

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Female Human/Male Yeren Additional Tags: Exophilia, Yeren, Chinese Yeti, Bigfoot, Sasquatch Content Warnings: Slavery, Indentured Servitude, Gladiator Words: 5545

The conclusion to the story commissioned by @floral-and-fine​! After three years, the reader returns to repay Sheng's generosity. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

Sheng’s friend Rantha was a large, black minotaur, you discovered. He and Sheng had been raised together at the arena. Rantha had had the makings of a top-winning gladiator when he was young, but he left after he killed a man during a bout, deciding that fighting wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life.

He now made a living as a hunter and was married with two sons, living in a quaint cabin in the forest, which is where he took you when you left the city. You had given Edgar the extra papers you’d found before you made your escape, not certain what they were, but hoping Edgar could do something with them and help other people unjustly imprisoned find freedom, or at least justice.

Mercy, Rantha’s wife, was a cheerful and accommodating woman. She had a shriveled left arm, an affliction she’d had since childhood, but she managed to do things one-handed with little to no trouble at all. When you told her about how your own family had sold you into slavery to pay off their debts, she had told you about being left here in the forest to starve by her mother.

However, it was only because of that that she was able to meet and marry Rantha in the first place. She knew she was lucky, though; if Rantha hadn’t been here and she’d been left at an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere with no help, she wasn’t sure if she’d still be alive. As much as you empathized with her, it did make you feel better knowing that her own sad tale had a happy ending. You hoped you and Nhemi had a happy ending waiting for the two of you, as well.

Nhemi, who’d grown up a slave, wasn’t used to not having any work to do and was a little confused by the change. Honestly, you were feeling out of sorts, too. Rantha and his family gave you food and shelter with no expectation of reimbursement. Being a guest after being a servant for so long felt unnatural to the both of you.

That evening, Rantha slept in his boys room and gave you, Nhemi, and Mercy the large bed.

“I’m sorry for inconveniencing you,” You whispered to Mercy as the three of you began to prepare for sleep.

“It’s no trouble at all, love,” She replied. “Rantha has been helping folks escape hard lives in the city since before the two of us ever met. He was able to walk away from the arena freely, but a lot of the friends he left behind weren’t as lucky. I think he’s always felt guilty about that.”

“I get that,” You said. “I wasn’t close with many of the other slaves besides the children I helped raise, like Nhemi, but I still feel bad that I’m here and they’re there.”

“I can’t tell you how to feel, of course, but considering you were working off someone else’s debts and that you were being held illegally, you’ve more than earned your freedom in my opinion. You don’t have to feel bad that you’ve finally received what you deserved in the first place. Trust me, that was a lesson I had to learn myself.”

You smiled. The three of you climbed into bed with Nhemi in the middle. She’d only ever slept on a thin cot before, so the plush bed was something she was unfamiliar with. She adapted quickly enough, and was dead asleep in a matter of minutes.

Despite the exhaustion due to the three day flight from the city to Rantha’s hidden cabin, you lay there unable to doze off. You stared up at the ceiling, the uncertainty of yours and Nhemi’s future made sleep slow in coming. Where would you go? You were now a fugitive on the run. If you or Nhemi were caught, it was the gallows. Rantha said there were options, places you could go where the people would protect you, but that seemed dubious to you. You knew better than anyone that everyone had their price.

Rantha had told you that Sheng had provided you with a care package of money and papers recommending you for work wherever you chose to go. You weren’t even sure where you should go. Where would be safe? Honestly, the safest thing would be to leave the country altogether.

You could go to the port in Shoreton and beg for a place on a ship. You didn’t know anything about working on a boat, but you were a fast learner. Every ship needed someone to mop decks and cook. You’d need to buy some trousers.

What about Nhemi? Would she be able to work on the ship? You knew there was an orphanage two towns over. Should you leave her there? You didn’t like the idea of leaving her with strangers, but it may be what was best for her.

With the future uncertain, you fell into an uneasy sleep, visited by tense dreams that were gone when you woke.

Three Years and Five Months Later

You stepped off the gangplank in Shoreton, adjusting your hat and looking out over the port town with a smile on your face. Shoreton was built on the ruins of an ancient elvish city, long decayed. What it’s original name was is lost to time, but now it was a town full of life and livelihood with fisherman and sailors and working girls. It felt more like home than any home you’d ever known, despite you spending a collective few months there.

You had managed to get a job on a merchant ship. Their merchandise was of questionable origin, but they hired you and Nhemi as deckhands, mopping the deck and scraping barnacles off the bow. Much like in the arena, you had worked your way up into owning your own small transport ship with a handful of crew, including Nhemi, who could climb the rigging like a spider.

Despite being a woman, your reputation for getting cargo where it needed to go regardless of seas or circumstance had garnered you a lot of business. In three years, you were now a captain of a small fleet of ships and a loyal crew. Your habit of humming as you navigated had earned you the name “Sea Sparrow” by your crew, a nickname that had caught on with the other sailors.

Next to you was your first mate, Neeta. Neeta was a siren who’d fallen in love with a crew member of yours. She was also the secret to the success of your business. The crewman she loved had died during a pirate raid, and the two of you had hunted them down and slaughtered them in his honor. Afterward, she swore allegiance to you, becoming a trusted friend and helping keep the seas and weather calm and favorable on your journeys. Staying on the boat allowed her to remember her departed lover and stay close to her home, the sea.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” She asked.

“Yes,” You replied. “This was always the plan. I told you that from the beginning.”

“I know. Far be it for me to question your decision,” She said sardonically. “It’s not as if I’ve ever left my whole world behind for someone I loved, after all.”

“That’s only part of it,” You replied evenly. “I have unfinished business in Dunmountain. Clearing my name is important to me and so is repaying Sheng, but there are people out there who need to pay for wronging me, and people who are still being wronged. Someone has to do something about it.”

“Does it have to be you who does it?”

“If I don’t, then who will?”

Neeta gave a conceding nod. “That’s fair. Do you think you’ll come back to the ships when you finish your work? I can certainly run things in your absence, but the seas will be sadder without you on them.”

You smiled. “That’s kind. I’m not sure. Sheng talked about a small cabin in a small town, and I want him to have what he wants.”

“What do you want?”

“I’ll get what I want, regardless,” You said, smirking. “I always do eventually. The key is convincing people your patient, when really you’re just stubborn.”

Neeta chuckled and crossed her arms, looking out over the port town.

Nhemi stepped up next to you on your other side and took a deep breath, looking up and grinning toothily at you. She wasn’t much taller than she had been three years ago, but she stood straighter and with more confidence. She had earned quite a bit of respect herself, having become an invaluable member of your crew.

“Ah, there you are,” You said, crouching down so that you were eye-to-eye with her. “Now, you remember what I said, you hear? Listen to Neeta, keep close to the rigging, and take care of yourself. When you come of age, one of these boats will be yours. You’ve earned it. And who knows? One day you might be my competition.”

“That’s right, I will!” She said brightly.

You twitched her nose and kissed her cheek. “You be good, alright? You’ll see me again before long.”

“I better,” She said, hugging you around the neck. You returned it and stood, giving Neeta a firm handshake, and headed out into the town to hire a carriage.

It was a nerve-wracking six days to reach the city. Not much had changed, especially the arena. The sight of it when you rode past it made your heart lurch. Was Sheng still there? Did he think of you? Had he been hurt again since you’d been gone? Had he gotten into trouble for helping you?

You’d thought of sending him a message, but Rantha said it was dangerous. The only thing you’d been allowed to do was send a missive to Edgar with the words “All is well” and hope he passed it along for you.

You found an inn uptown and set your belongings in it. You’d sent a letter to a magistrate in the city asking to meet, and the date was set for tomorrow. The waiting was agonizing. You wanted this to be over. You wanted the slavemaster and your family in jail. You wanted to see Sheng. But, you reminded yourself, you had decided not to meet Sheng until all this business was done. Sheng was the final piece.

The next morning, you went to the magistrate’s office with the papers you had kept on your person for the last three and a half years. You were so sick with nerves that you hadn’t been able to eat your breakfast, but you kept a stern and stoic face. You imagined you were quite the sight for the land-locked city, wearing a sword on your belt and a fine overcoat. Not to mention the well-tailored trousers. Tasteful women didn’t wear trousers. Not in this city.

“The magistrate will see you now, madam,” The attendant said to you. You nodded to him grimly, and he stepped aside warily to let you pass.

“Judge Andrews, good day,” You said as you entered.

He looked up from his papers. “Ah, good day, madam. You’re my appointment, I assume.”

“Yes,” You replied, and he gestured for you to sit. “You received my last letter, I trust?”

“I did,” He said, laying down his quill and sitting back in his chair. “And those are some serious allegations you’ve leveled against the slavemaster, serious enough to be taken to a higher court than mine, should they be true. I assume you have proof of your claims?”

“I do,” You said, handing him the envelope with the papers. “I also believe you should be in possession of a sheaf of similar documents from an anonymous source, correct?”

“That is correct,” He replied, looking at you curiously. “Though, without a formal complaint, no action could be taken. Are you making such a complaint on behalf of those referenced in the documents?”

“I am,” You said. “Should you need time to peruse the documents, I will wait. I’ve waited this long.”

“You aren’t doing yourself any favors by coming without a legal representative, by the way. Are you sure you don’t want a lawyer?”

You shook your head. “I trust myself and my own competency, not the competency of someone who wants my coin. Especially when lives are at stake.”

He scrutinized your letter with a furrowed brow. “This is indeed the slavemaster’s seal.”

“And you’ll note that the dates and balances are after my original imprisonment.”

“That’s so,” He replied. “It would be very difficult to forge a letter like this. The slavemaster’s seal in particular is quite intricate and nigh impossible to duplicate. I would need a professional sealmaker to inspect it against the slavemaster’s, but this is strong evidence.”

“That’s good news,” You said. “So, how much time will we need to conduct an investigation.”

“No reason not to do it now,” He said, standing from his desk. “We can collect the sealmaster from on our way.”

“Wha--” You rose from your seat as well. “On our way to where?”

“The arena,” He replied. “If what you say is true, he’s had plenty of time to destroy valuable evidence. If we want to catch him red handed before he gets rid of anything that could incriminate him, including his own slaves, we should act fast.

Though he was an older gentleman, he was a spry fellow and quick on his feet. He flagged down a carriage and let you get in first. The two of you spoke on various things, mostly about your imprisonment. He kept the conversation light, but he often attempted to steer the questions toward your escape. It had been illegal, but since the statute was up he couldn’t touch you. He could, however, prosecute the people who assisted your escape. You appreciated his desire to uphold the law, and playful banter though it may have been, you refused to implicate anyone and carefully hedged the subject. After a while, he gave you a knowing look and ceased his attempts to glean information from you.

He made a brief stop at the sealmaster’s shop, grabbing the sealmaster and explaining the situation. He and the magistrate appeared to be associates, and though the visit was abrupt, he did acquiesce to accompanying the two of you to the arena to confirm the validity of the seal.

The arena loomed over you as you approached, it’s shadow an oppressive presence. One last time, You told yourself silently. Just this one time, and it’ll be over, either way.

This was the first time you’d ever walked in the front gate as opposed to the slave’s entrance. Your natural instinct was to lower your gaze, but you reminded yourself that you weren’t a slave anymore and you kept your eyes straight ahead.

“Pardon,” Judge Andrews said, catching an attendant’s attention. “Could you please notify the slavemaster that Judge Andrews has arrived and would like a meeting with him.”

“Of course, your Honor,” The attendant said. “Can I show you to a lounge where you may wait?”

“Please do, young man,” Andrews replied. “Bring wine.”

“Yes, your Honor.” The attendant turned and led you to the upper ring to one of the nicer private sitting areas.

“Young man,” Andrews said to him before he left. “Do tell the guard to be on alert but say nothing to anyone else. Bring two of your strongest to guard this room.”

“Yes, your Honor,” The attendant said, clearly disturbed but excusing himself to follow the judge’s orders.

Wine was brought, and the three of you sat discussing various things while guards arrived and flanked the doors of the sitting area. You recognized one of them, but you looked a bit different than you had when you were last here, so you weren’t sure if he knew it was you.

The attendant returned and said, “The slavemaster is available, if you’ll follow me.”

“No,” The magistrate said. “No, the slavemaster will come to us. And tell him to bring his seal. We have very important paperwork to go over. Tell him that.”

“Uh… yes… your Honor,” The attendant said uncertainly.

“Oh, wait, before you go,” You said, catching him as he turned. “Is… Does Sheng still fight for the arena?”

“Yes, madam,” The attendant said. “He has a fight today, in fact.”

“I see,” You said, keeping your voice level. “I will sponsor today’s event, then. Can that be arranged, or does he have another sponsor today?”

“He does not, madam,” He replied. “I will inform him that he has a sponsor and arrange for a meeting once he has become presentable.”

“Thank you,” You said, and tossed the boy a coin. He accepted it with a bow and left.

Judge Andrews raised an eyebrow at you. “It costs a pretty penny to sponsor a prize fighter, even for one round.”

You sipped your wine delicately. “I have a debt to repay.”

“Hmm,” He said, and drank his own wine.

The slavemaster took a full hour to drag himself to the meeting, and when he arrived, he did not look pleased.

“It’s good to see you, Judge Andrews,” He said, not at all looking as if he meant it. “To what do I owe this unprompted, unannounced visit? I was told something about documents to go over? Was this not something that could have been done from the comfort of my office?”

“Did you bring your seal, Master Owens?” Judge Andrews asked, ignoring the slavemaster’s questions.

The slavemaster sighed and produced it from his robes.

“Cornelius,” Judge Andrews said, gesturing at the sealmaster, who took the seal and fixed a jeweler’s loupe to his eye.

“What’s this about, James?” The slavemaster asked, crossing his arms.

“Pitting is identical,” The sealmaster said, examining the seal in reference to the document. “Grooves are the same. Moreover, I was the one who made this seal for the slavemaster. I can say with confidence that this document was not forged.”

You smiled slowly. Got you, you smug bastard.

“Forged? What are you talking about?” The slavemaster said.

“Read for yourself,” Judge Andrews said, handing the paper to the slavemaster. He snatched it from the judge’s hand and scanned it. His face then paled. “I also have these,” The judge said, retrieving the papers you had left with Edgar from his coat pocket. “These also have your seal on it, and I’ll eat my chair if they don’t match. What have you to say, Master Owens?”

“They’re forged!” The slavemaster protested. “They must be! I’ve never seen them before, I swear it!”

“Ah, but you see that’s why I’ve brought Cornelius, here. He was the one who made your seal, as he stated. He, himself, has judged them to be genuine documents.”

“Nonsense! I want a second examiner!” The slavemaster insisted. “I demand a proper investigation be done!”

“You can demand all you like from your jail cell,” Judge Andrews said. “Guards, arrest the slavemaster.”

The guards stationed outside the door entered and took the slavemaster by the arms, dragging him backward. You stood up and watched as he was forced, kicking and spitting, from the room.

“Did you want to say anything to him?” Judge Andrews asked.

You shook your head. “No. That’s done. Nothing needs to be said.”

He nodded in understanding. “Very well. I have much paperwork to do, so I shall be going. Please come by soon to sign some papers, will you?”

“Of course.” You held out your hand. “Thank you for your help, your Honor.”

He took your hand and shook it. “It was my privilege, dear lady. Do take care.”

“I will.”

He and the sealmaster left, and you sat down, sipping at the wine and waiting for the attendant to retrieve you for the fighting match.

You were led to one of the private sponsor’s boxes in the upper ring. This was all so surreal. You’d been in every inch of this arena, but never as a guest. You almost felt like you should get up and sweep the floor.

There was a roaring cheer that made you sit up in your seat and look down eagerly. There, striding out into the ring, was Sheng. His fur was shiny and glowing. He held up his hands and drank in the praise from the crowd. Seeing him made your hairs stand on end, but you also smiled. At least one thing hadn’t changed.

He stopped in the center and waved to the children, like he always did. He then bowed to the crowd. Finally, he turned to the box where you sat, and though he couldn’t see you from this distance, he bowed more deeply than he had to anyone else.

His bout was incredible, and you watched it on the edge of your seat, breathless. He was so graceful and athletic, even for his size. Your memories of him were nothing compared to him in real life, and you couldn’t wait to see him face to face again. You just hoped he would still see you as a friend, after all this time. Three years was plenty of time to change a person’s feelings. Not enough to change yours, but that was beside the point.

As expected, he won, and he was showered with applause and flowers from the crowd. You wished you had one you could throw to him, even if he didn’t know it was from you. He bowed again to you before he left the ring, scooping up several of the flowers that had floated to the ground and holding them up in salute to the audience.

“Madam?” You heard from behind you. It was a second attendant, a woman that you didn’t recognize. “A room has been prepared for you with refreshments while you wait for Sheng to get ready. If you’d follow me, please?”

“Of course, thank you,” You said, rising from your seat. “Are you a slave?”

“Oh.” She seemed surprised by the question. “Yes, madam, I am.”

“Whose debts brought you here?”

Her face soured. “My husband’s.”

“And where is he?”

“Drank himself to death. I inherited his debts.”

“Hmm,” You said. You took a few coins from your pocket and passed them to her. “To freedom. From one slave to another.”

“Thank you, madam!” She said. “Thank you very much!”

“You don’t have to call me madam,” You said, smiling. She returned the smile. “What’s your name, love?”

“Anya,” She replied.

“Well, Anya,” You said, linking your arm with hers. “Why don’t you relax and have a drink with me until Sheng is ready?”

“Oh, I couldn’t,” You said. “The slavemaster would sell me in a heartbeat.”

“Today is your lucky day, Anya,” You laughed. “Come on.”

She sat with you until another attendant informed you that Sheng was ready to meet with and to collect your sponsorship fee, at which time Anya excused herself. You took a deep, shaky breath and waited.

Sheng entered the room, looking glorious, and smiled at you. You knew him well enough to know when he was trying to hide when he was tired.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady,” He said, his deep voice reverberating throughout the chamber. “If I might ask why you decided to sponsor me today? Have you seen me fighting before?”

“Oh, many times,” You said, smiling and trying to keep your heart from jumping out of your chest. “Though, it was usually from the very cheap seats. This is the first time I’ve been back to the arena in several years.”

“Welcome back,” He said. “How was the view from the sponsor’s box?”

You chuckled. “If I’m honest, I preferred the old view.”

“And why is that?”

You sucked in a breath. “Sheng,” You said softly. “Don’t you know who I am?”

He blinked, and his smile slipped. “I’m sorry, my lady, but should I? Have we met?”

You sighed. “Well, I guess it’s not surprising you don’t recognize me. Cut my hair, and it’s a bit sun-bleached, too. I wear pants now. I didn’t do that when you knew me. I got a tan and lost some weight. That can happen when you’re on a boat for over three years.”

“A boat?” He said, confused.

“Yes,” You said. “I begged my way onto a ship after I… left. Worked my way up, and now I’m very successful. It’s why I sponsored you. I had a debt to repay.”

“A debt to me? Why?” He asked.

“Sheng, do you really not know who I am?”

He held out his hands in exasperation. “I’m sorry, my lady.”

“Then let me remind you,” You said. You reached for your bag and pulled out a brush. “Come and sit.”

He eyed you warily, but he complied. He was still wearing his breastplate, but he’d taken off his bracers and neckguard. You reached up and carefully ran your fingers through the fur of his neck and began to brush in long, broad strokes. After a few seconds, he stood up abruptly and swung around, his eyes and mouth wide open.

“It’s you!” He said in a quiet voice. “You came back!”

Your eyes filled with tears as you laughed. “Of course I came back, you lump!” You jumped up into his arms and wrapped your legs around his waist. He gripped you to him tightly.

“Oh, I thought I’d never see you again, little one!” He said into your hair. “What have you been up to all this time? Is that a sword on your belt?”

You snorted a laugh. “Yes,” You replied. “It’s helpful for fighting off pirates.”

“Pirates?” He asked, pulling back to look at your face. “What work has you dealing with pirates?”

“I’ll tell you all about it,” You said, crying. “Whatever you want. I’ll tell you anything.”

He kissed you. It wasn’t the same as the one he’d given you when the two of you had parted over three years ago, which was soft and feather-light and spoke of a long farewell. This was rough, hungry, and needy. Heat flared between your legs and you moaned against his lips.

He put you down on your feet and took your hand.

“Come on,” He said. “Let’s go somewhere more private, where we won’t be disturbed. You remember the way to my quarters?”

You smiled. “Some things one never forgets.”

He grinned back at you and the two of you sprinted to his rooms. Once there, the two of you began shedding clothes like they were on fire. Your breathing was ragged and his hands were shaking as he reached to touch your body.

“I’ve dreamed of this for three years,” He breathed. “Longer. I’ve wanted you since the first day I saw you from the arena, peeking into the ring. That was lust back then but even still I cared for you. I didn’t realize I loved you until it was too late.”

“It’s not too late, Sheng,” You said, carding your fingers down the fur of his chest. “I’m right here. I’m here because I chose to be. I chose you.”

He picked you up bridal style and tossed you lightly onto his wide bed. You bounced up and down with a giggle.

“You did lose some weight, but there’s still plenty of jiggle in those parts of yours,” He said, laughing as he climbed over you, pressing you down into the bed with his body.

You snickered and slapped his shoulder. “You’re such an idiot.”

“You like it,” He said as he kissed you. His kisses moved to your ear, then your neck, and to your breasts. He squeezed and kneaded them while he sucked on your skin. You sighed and pulled up your knees as he settled his body between them. Your back arched as he moved lower, kissing and sucking your belly and lifting your legs up and open.

The first press of his tongue against your slit was like lightning in your body, and the muscles of your stomach clenched. The sheets were balled in your fists as he sucked at your core, teasing the lips with one of his fingers.

“Oh, fuck,” You wheezed.

“Where did you hear such language, missy?” He asked.

“I’m a sailor now, remember?” You said breathlessly.

“I thought that ‘cursing like a sailor’ thing was an old wives’ tale,” He said.

“It mostly is,” You said, looking down at him lying between your legs. “Can we discuss it later?”

He grinned wickedly at you and went back to his task with renewed vigor. You moaned and bit your lip as he eased a finger inside you, crooked and rubbing the sweet spot. You felt yourself coming to a climax, but just as you were on the cusp of falling over that cliff, he stopped, much to your dismay.

“Now, now,” He said, pulling himself up your body, kissing your skin as he went. “We don’t want to burn ourselves out before the main event.”

“I can go for hours,” You replied.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” He chuckled, kissing your lips. You rolled him until you were straddling his waist. He was rock hard underneath you, and you slicked him in the wetness from your slit, rubbing yourself against him. He gripped your hips and groaned, his eyes closing.

“Is this as good as your dreams?” You asked, bracing yourself on his chest.

He touched your cheek and made a fist in your hair, pulling your head back. You laughed.

“Better,” He said. “Infinitely better.”

You pushed up on your knees while he reached between the two of you and held his cock in place so that you could slide slowly down upon it. There was a little bit of pain due to his size, but you gave yourself a minute to adjust, and began to rock gingerly. You bent down to kiss his chest and fondle his nipples and he bucked a little underneath you.

“You’re going to make me pop too soon,” He huffed.

“That’s alright,” You said, sitting up and bouncing faster. “You got me pretty close, it won’t take much to make me cum now.”

He grunted and his fingers dug into your flesh as he drove up into you from below to meet your hips as you came down on him. The two of you were beyond words at this point, moving in sync with each other. Your thigh twitched as you came suddenly, gushing down his shaft as he released inside you with a drawn out groan of pleasure.

You collapsed onto his chest with a deep sigh of satisfaction. He wrapped his arms around you and held on tight. Eventually he rolled so that you were tucked into his side and he breathed deeply, as if asleep.

“Are you still awake?” You asked.

“Aye,” He said quietly. “Though my vision went fuzzy for a moment.”

“You can’t die yet,” You said, kissing his chest. “You still need the cabin in a quiet town. The little tadpoles. I’m going to make your dreams come true. It’s why I came back for you.”

“What about your dreams?” He asked, opening his eyes to look at you.

“You’re half of them, and I’ve got that now. The other half I’ll have to work on, if you’ll support me.”

He hugged you in tight. “Anything you want.”

By the time you were pregnant with Sheng’s first child, you’d taken a position at Judge Andrews’ firm and started working your way up, like you always did. Even though women were not allowed to actively participate in politics, the two of you began petitioning for fairer treatment for slaves as well as making it illegal to sell family members into slavery to pay for their own debts

There was plenty of pushback from people who liked the system the way it was and didn’t want things to change, but you were just as stubborn as they were. You went through all of the cases of the current slaves at the arena and made sure the ones who were being held illegally were freed with reparations. You also ensured that the responsible parties were arrested and tried for their crimes. You had to do all of this through Judge Andrews, which meant you didn’t get any of the credit, but that didn’t matter as long as justice was served.

You made sure Sheng got his cabin and his garden outside of the city. Commuting to the city for work was a bit of a pain, but you were happy to do it if it meant Sheng was happy. He loved being a househusband and a stay-at-home father, and as much as he wished you’d slow down when you were pregnant, he knew by now that he couldn’t stop you. If you had a mission on your mind, you wouldn’t stop until it was complete. He knew that. It’s one of the things he loved about you, even if it frustrated him at times.

You still had a long way to go, but some things were going to take time.

You were patient. You could wait.

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My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

[ajokeformur-ray]

Dracika headcanons ~ 🖤🦇

Y E S, I’m back on my bullshit (like I ever stopped😂) and this is me feeling my way with Dracula and seeing what he and I have together; as well as sharing some moments we’ve already had with each other in the time we’ve known each other.

Full disclosure: I am well aware that he would snap my neck and drink me like a capri sun in reality without a second thought. I know that we are 100% incompatible but I really don’t care. Believing that Drac would be, at least, fond of me makes me go 🥺😭🥺😭💖✨💖✨🥰💖✨ so that’s all that matters skskskskks. I’m so sorry if anyone’s sick of this, I really do understand, but I like to have all my self-shipping stuff on the same blog, which is why I’m posting it here and not on my side blog (on which requests for him are open👀).

Word count: 2, 421.

OMG MY UWUS ARE DROPPED I’M SOFT I’M CRY I’M LOVE 🥺😭🥺😭💜💜💜 LOOK AT HIMMMMM ~ 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I legitimately can’t stop staring I’m captivated someone help but also leave me here... I’m suffering but I’m enjoying it... 🥺

As yet, Dracula and I haven’t spent too much time together. We’re still very much wondering what’s going on and why it’s going on and how everything is going to work. All we’re really aware of at this stage is that, for some reason, we’re drawn to each other. We’ve mostly just been... watching each other and getting to know one another through observation and gut instinct rather than... sitting down and talking. I think this is how it will be for the most part with us, though. We’re an odd dynamic but the both of us are quickly growing to like it.

He and I don’t spend much... time together, at least not yet as I’ve already said, but we spend a lot of time in the same room. I’ll do my thing and he will do his thing and occasionally one of us will glance over at the other. Quizzical looks are exchanged and Drac may ask if I’m all right, but other than that, we don’t talk, either. We’ve been silent company to one another for much of this time. I think that may be the main part of our dynamic - comfortable silence. I don’t really know what to say to a five hundred year old vampire because I don’t want to make my stupidity as a person with a lack of life experience obvious and Drac prefers to not talk at all when he’s busy doing something. He very clearly expresses his irritation at this through his body language and I’m not so good at handling when people are annoyed at me so I’d just rather not speak unless I have to.

When I go to bed, I always ask Drac to join me. He could come into my bed without an invitation, but as he puts it, “consent is unnecessary but delicious” so he waits for me to ask him. It never takes me long and tbh I’m not fully comfortable going to bed, especially with my night time phobias, without him there in the room with me anyway. As soon as I’m lying down and comfortable, Drac’s standing at the foot of my bed. He’ll crawl up my mattress (my bed’s against the wall so when I’m already in bed he has no other way of coming in unless he wants to climb over me and that’s too graceless for him) and I’ll pull the covers back for him. He slides in so quickly that my very squeaky mattress (it’s in desperate need of being replacing but I can’t afford it) doesn’t make any kind of noise. “Oh, bedtime for the human, is it?" My only answer is to turn and nestle my face into his chest. He wraps his arms around me and sleep finds me quickly. If I try to look around the room, he’ll hold my head where it is with a hand and he won’t let me look. He reasons the more I look, the more scared I’ll become, so he’d rather prevent me from looking at all. He’s the most dangerous creature in any room, anyway.

During the day, Drac sleeps so, of course, I’m left alone. He lays down with me when I go to bed and he leaves when I’m finally asleep (700 position changes and a deal with Satan later😂), but when I get up, he’s beside me and now I’m the one leaving when he’s finally asleep. I sleep when I’m tired and I don’t have much of a sleeping schedule so it’s not unusual for me to be up until four or sometimes five in the morning, and a bonus to this is that I get to spend more time with him. The nights are just for us; when the world slips away, he and I find each other.

When I’m away from Drac and I’m missing him or just needing his energy around me, I wear this jumper. It’s a small inside joke between us.

Drac’s reaction to my jumper was:

He appreciates the way it’s spelt (and so do I) and he’s been eager to get me out of it.👀

Drac is 6′4 and I’m 5′7 so the height difference is... amusing. At least to him. He calls me his “little bat” when I’m going to sleep or when I’m being cuddly (a luxury he doesn’t allow often; it’s usually saved for when I’m in some kind of distress), and when he’s feeling romantic or apologetic, he calls me “luna bella”.

He and I go on nightly walks down the beach together. I love to walk along the three metre high wall so I can properly feel the wind in my hair and some semblance of freedom, and if I lose my balance, he’ll just chuckle and tell me to be careful. Not in as many words but he’ll make a quip about the fragility of mortals and it sends the message through. If I do fall, he’ll catch me before I do. All of me is safe with Count Dracula. He likes to say he won’t catch me but I pretended to slip properly once just to see what he would do and he reacted very quickly so I think it’s safe to say he’s full of shit.😂

I got very attached to him, very quickly once I got over my fear. Even when I’m with him, I miss him, and Drac can always pick up on it. He finds it hilarious and doesn’t understand why I miss him despite our closeness a lot of the time, but there’s no way to explain it. Even so, I know he misses me too, because he’s with me more often than we’re away from each other. Drac has an odd love language but I’m slowly coming to learn him.

The night I realised I wasn’t scared anymore and I wanted him with me, I called him to me. All I had to do was say his name, and he was there. He was obviously in the area and he must have heard me from close by. I was in bed, ready to sleep, and he waited for me to speak. His eyebrows were raised and there was a slight smirk on his face.

“Can you...can you stay with me? I’m not scared of you anymore but I also... don’t really know what to do.”

“You don’t know what to do, so you called me? Are you really not afraid of me?” His smirk kept widening, as did that look in his eye.

I hesitated but I still said, “not anymore.” and I pulled the duvet back on the side which would become his. “Join me?”

“This is a surprise. I did not see this coming.” He could smell my weariness but we didn’t speak much after that point. He laid down beside me and I slowly, carefully moved to cuddle him. And by that I mean I smushed myself into his side and he let me, but he didn’t reciprocate.😅😂

Drac tried to move away just at the point I was on the edge of sleep and I clung to him; I wouldn’t let him leave me. I had to show I trusted him, the way he wanted me to, and I guess falling asleep beside him was the best way to do so.

I kept moving around and it irritated him so eventually he tugged me to lay on top of him... he wrapped his arms around me and held me to him. His cold embrace is the safest cage I’ve ever been in. I woke and he wasn’t there but I could feel his energy around me. He won’t ever leave.

I don’t think he could ever love me, not in the way I love him, but I know he’s very fond of me and that’s enough. The fact that he is with me as often as he is, is proof enough that he, at least, has a soft spot for me.

I show him every day that I love him because I don’t really know how to say it to him. He’s five hundred years old so the usual methods of confession seem a bit... pointless. He needs more than words. I do this in subtle ways... for example, having my hair slung over my shoulder and I’ll lay down on it so my neck is bared. I fall asleep on him. I ask him to be with me while I sleep. He has free-for-all consent to drink from me but as yet, he hasn’t. I suspect it’s because he dislikes coffee...🤔😂

Usually, I lay atop Drac when we cuddle, but there’s been a few times he lays on me. Sometimes I’ll wake in the night and he’s looming over me. My lamp looks like a golden halo around the top of his head, and in my sleepy state I loop my arms around his neck and tug him down. He could so easily break out of my hold but he doesn’t. He lets me tug him down and I snuggle into him and press kisses all over his neck, leaving mock bites. He appreciates the irony.

Dracula calls “darling” or “my love”. He never uses my name; it’s always a term of endearment. I’m not sure why. If he’s telling me to do something, then it’s “dear”; comfort is “darling”, and the other names are as I’ve said.

I only call him “Drac”... “Dracula” if he’s annoying me. “My love” is a general term of endearment; we share a like for that one. Sometimes... and mostly at night (our real time together), I call him “my Drac”. It makes him smile... I don’t get much of a reaction, just a twitch of his lips, but I adore it.

When I’m upset, Drac doesn’t hold me. He doesn’t shush me or try to comfort me. He just... stays. With every passing moment, he takes a step closer until he’s standing right beside me and then he allows me to take whatever comfort I need. He’s not entirely sure how to comfort me, we’re still learning each other, but he follows my lead. As long as he’s in the room, as long as he’s close by, I can usually pull myself together on my own; I’m used to doing that so it saves him the effort. If I talk, he listens. If I don’t talk, he speaks. Whatever I need, he’ll do. He can read me well. I’m still learning him; there’s multiple options to everything he does and says and I love that about him.

With me being afraid of the dark and Drac being afraid of the light, I’d say we’re perfect for each other.😂

And speaking of...

Both of us know and live with fear far more than we should. We have our reasons (which are illogical), and the fear we see in one another is partly why we’re so drawn to each other. I recognise the fear in him (it’s the opposite of my own fear) and he recognises mine. We understand each other on this level and we do what we can to keep each other safe. 

I definitely have a Protecc™ streak for Drac; my blackout curtains are perfect for keeping him safe, and though Drac hates my night light, which makes it daylight in my room, he never wants a repeat of that one night last week so he accepts it. He knows I’m scared sometimes even with the light, so he holds me tight and he won’t let me go. 

Both of us are exposed to our fears every day and both of us face them anyway. We’re brave on our own but together it feels like we only increase that strength.

He’s so cute🥺.

He picks up on how the modern world works through consuming the blood of others’ (which I wilfully turn a blind eye to lmao I’m not about to tell him who he can and can’t eat; my morality has always been grey), but I help him with it too. Sometimes I can’t explain stuff to him so I’ll just show him what I’m talking about. He’s a quick learner. We watch Netflix every night together and sometimes he’ll take Poe or Wilde off my bookshelf and read me to sleep. I love his voice so much.

I love him. He’s safety from my fear in the dark. When I go to bed at night, I always consider sleeping in the dark but he sits on my bed and watches me. “That’s it, turn the light off. You’ll only turn it back on again. That’s what you do, that’s what you always do. What’s the point, darling? Just come lay down a while.”

Dracula is safety and comfort. He’s a smile and laughter because he’s very sassy. There’s something... about him which makes me mentally sleepy. I don’t know how to explain it but he just... makes me want to relax. I do relax when I’m with him and I think that’s why I spend time with him as often as I do, and why I’ve re-watched his series about eleven times in two weeks (to date).

He used to scare me (and he’s been warned that if he ever jumps out at me like he’s known to do to others, he will bring that back temporarily. He’s also been warned not to raise his voice at me, for the same reasons) but now he just makes me feel safe and relaxed and comfortable.

One day, Drac will step into the light and I will step into the dark. And in the space between us where the shadow lies, our hands will join, our fingers will interlock... and we’ll walk forth into what’s next together.

He came into my life at a time when my fear was and is at an all time high, and I think he’s here with me to help me to learn to deal with it. Maybe along the way, I can do the same for him. No one deserves to live in fear and isolation for 500 years, no matter what their dietary requirements are.

I love all of Dracula. I can say that with complete confidence now; I cried out of love for him earlier today and when I sleep tonight, I’ll tell him. Whether he loves me, I have no idea, but I think... I may be someone who’s gotten closer to him than anyone else has for a very long time.

[lints41]

post-botw headcanons

i am just rambling under the cut. there is so much.

FIRST OFF: i feel like link will be more lighthearted, now? meanwhile zelda is incredibly serious. i feel this way because link has lowkey been alive for like... months? generally? it depends? more or less? and that whole time has been just. relearning/remembering his best friend and wanting her to be safe and doing everything in hopes of getting to her and hearing her and all that, the WHOLE TIME, and NOW... she’s safe!! and alive!! and physically with him!! and they just defeated a giant disgusting screaming glob of hate and LIVED! and now it’s over! finally holy fuck!! meanwhile zelda is seeing all of the destruction of her kingdom at once again. um so i feel like at least for a while he’d be like... Let me show you around! Let me show you my friends! Check out all of these Koroks! Meet Sidon! Come see Terry Town!! It’s all beautiful!! and she’s like “omg yes yes... ok ok real quick...” and he’d be like Look guys isn’t she beautiful!! and she’s like “OKOK *GRABS HIS HANDS* ALRIGHHT” anyway yeah

i want zelda to live with link in hateno village. okay?? OKAY??? where else is she going to go. and listen she would LOVE that freedom, at least i imagine she should. she wears link’s old hylian clothes as pajamas and sleeps in his bed while he sleeps on the floor (his decision) until he convinces bolson to make him a bed. and bolson’s like YOU FOUND THE ONE??? OF COURSE I WILL SUPPORT TRUE LOVE and link’s like N- Um nono Uh- and bolson’s like I KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT LET’S GO KARSON 

zelda cannot sleep. she always wakes up in the middle of the night and either goes downstairs and covers the dining table with books and wakes link up with her light/her talking to herself. and link’s like Hewwo? and she’s like “im sorry go back to sleep!!” Or she leaves at night because she wants to go for a walk and clear her head. and at first link was like. worried and looking for her and then just waited outside all night for her to come home. she’s like “don’t wait for me. i am a grown woman i can be out on my own, its the safest its ever been” and hes like. MMMMMMm and then respects her and stays home n just worries about her when he tries to sleep

zelda cut her OWN hair. chopped it off. link sees it the next day or something and she doesn’t bring it up she’s just like “you ready to start the day??” and he’s like ... :-) Yes.

OK. BIG ONE. LINK TRAINS HER. FOR SURE. OK?? she’s like “link my powers are growing weaker and i’ve never been able to rely on them, PLS train me.” and he’s like You sure?? and she’s ilke “Yes.” and he’s like OK!! and then they start training together every morning. she sets up the schedule like “ok we’re gonna get up at 6am and run and then do sword practice for this long and bow practice for this long and blah blah blah” and he’s like Oh god. Okay. she’s very bad at first. she’s like “it can’t be that hard, i suppose we’ll have to spend a month or so on each weapon before i can be confident....” and then the swords are heavy and the bows are tight and she’s like DAMN IT and gets very frustrated. throws the bow on the ground and goes inside and link gives her space n stays outside. but she slowly gets better and training is a Huge bonding thing for them and it’s great. and she gets more confident because having that Physical Power that she can rely on is SO much better to her than her other power. so she’s happier and stronger and healthier and more playful and relaxed and it’s great (this is an advertisement for working out)

ok that’s the main stuff. now i will go into more specific, silly stuff. 

they eat dinner together when they can. they eat at the dinner table and link LOVES seeing her on the other side and glowing while she eats and he’s like :-) <3 and also, since he uses his hands, it doesn’t matter HOW MUCH food is shoved in his mouth, he can always speak and he gets hyped up and silly with her so he’s like SIGNSIGNSIGNSIGN and she’s like HAHAHASLOW DOWN (good happy times.)

the children LOOOOVE ZELDA. she’s a PRINCESS!! she sits and tells them stories and they follow her around and the girls want to be with her all the time. she’s nervous around kids though and is unsure of the attention, especially at first, so she’s like UHH HAHA YESYES... UM GO PLAY WITH LINK... OK... but eventually she’s like... i have the power to give these kids the childhood i never had .... and then starts doing her best to give them attention and show them love LINK is GREAT with the kids. all the kids love link too for different reasons he runs around and plays tag with them and watches them cook and cheers them on and gives them piggy back rides. i have an image of him with a blue flame (if you’ve never gone through town with a blue torch in hand then please do) and theres a kid on his shoulder and one clinging to his leg and two jumping at his feet. very cute. and he loves them, he loves making them laugh and teaching them sign and hearing their stories and all that. i think it’s classic for links to be good with kids.

i want them to be able to travel from shrine to shrine while holding hands or something. and he does it with her without thinking... grabs her hand and pulls out the sheikah slate like Why Walk? and she’s like “huh? HUH???” and they show up at another shrine and she’s like WHAT??? WHAT. WHAT and then researches it forever

also i imagine him being bad at spelling (of course) and i also headcanon that he doesn’t speak So. i imagine that like... ok. for example:

zelda: “did you see anything? before you.. died?” link: I can’t remember... zelda: “oh i’m sorry i don’t know that sign...” link: ! R-E-M-B-E-R zelda: ............R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R....? link: No, like... *imitates remembering* Remember. R-E-M-B-E-R. zelda: .........”link i think you mean reMEMber?” link: ? .......................Oh god OK i think that’s all i’ve got right now. lol. if you read this then thank you

[aberstudiostorm]

The Encounter - making of

Read about the adventures and thoughts behind the scenes here!

Maja (director) -  This week I took the role of director. With the story about catfishing, we were trying to make this look as believable as possible giving the terms of not being physically together. Given the fact that both Tom and Sol are big Star Wars fans, we decided to tell a story with a pinch of parody that films that you prefer might depend on future friendship. Together with the cinematographer, we created a vision of shots and how to execute them most effectively. We focused heavily on visual facial expressions and showing mixed emotions of actors. With this week's theme being mise-en-scène I tried to emphasize the personalities and preferences of characters by quick shots of the decorations in their rooms. The flow of the film was created by using continuous Star Wars scenes playing in the background in both rooms.

Here are some stills from the finished film that display the characters’ personalities and likes, showing that they’re not at all different.

Sabine (writer) - As much as I'm not the biggest fan of writing scripts, this was a fun one. It is about a harmless way of catfishing – trying to look cooler than you are and losing a chance at a friendship because of that. After a feedback session with our professors, we had to raise the stakes for the characters. We decided an embarrassing picture being sent to the wrong person would do the trick. It was definitely hard to condense all the ideas and possibilities into a 2-minute film, so it turned out to be a bit longer. I also had some problems figuring out the natural flow of the dialogue and for the characters' messages to make sense in the film's context, but Tom tweaked the dialogue in editing, and I think it works great now. We built the story together on a video call while sharing ideas and I decided it would be a fun script to write. I used a free screenwriting program called Trelby to write the script. It automatically sets the correct font and format, has a name database, in case you can't come up with a character name and makes scene/location/character reports, that can be handy for longer scripts. I definitely recommend it for writing scripts.

Here’s a bit of the script I wrote on Trelby. We changed gaming to Star Wars as the background sound. The original dialogue can also be seen here.

Hollie (cinematographer) – This week I took on the role of the cinematographer, I found it quite difficult as it was a mise-en-scène task and I didn’t know the layout of the rooms that the filming was taking place in, to get around this I ended up creating a normal shot list with added detail of what I wanted each shot to have in it and why. I quite enjoyed having the freedom to create the aesthetic and tone of the film and I think the footage that was taken was exactly what I wanted. With the shot list, I went down the coverage route and so decided for each scene a master shot needed to be taken, this worked well as it gave Tom more options when it came to the edit. I took inspiration from films and programmes that use the coverage method as it is the safest method to use during production. An example of this is Game of Thrones (2011). Below is an example of my shot list. I really liked the way the match shots taken by each person came together well and the similar shots that were taken made the edit more fluent. Overall, I was really happy with the visuals of this film and the way they came together.

Tom (editor) - This week was my turn to do the editing. I was nervous because of the insane job Sabine had done the week before. The idea was an encounter with two people over text message. Both pretending to not like nerdy things in order to fit in. The biggest challenge for me was the text messages that had to pop up. Each one must dissolve in, and I had to match it with the film footage to make it look like it was being sent while the message showed up on screen. I wish we had more time for the film. We had several lovely shots to use but I had to cut them out to try and get down to 2 minutes. I still did not achieve this with our film being 2:52. My Bad! I tried guys! At the end we wanted an ‘OMG’ moment where Sol lets slip that he is a nerd and I managed to do this by sliding in an image of Sol in a Tusken Raider mask. The edit was constructed nicely because of the script and the shot list that was provided! Thank you guys!! And we went through the film and changed some things and ended with the 3rd edited version!  

Solomon (producer) - I took on the role of producing within this week’s film, organising the team to know what to do and when. I created a schedule and helped each one of them stick to it by giving them specific dates and timings for when certain things needed to be done for and helping them to do those things whilst staying within the risk assessment.  

Within the film, I instructed the actors to get all their shooting done in the mornings (working with the cinematographer and director), in order to keep a continuity in lighting and surroundings. Concerning the scheduling for the edit, the first draft had to be done at the latest by Wednesday, so that alterations and a final cut can be created.  

Regarding the organization of the script, we made some alterations during filming, changing the ending a more of an extremity, and enabling the audience to understand further the true similarity of the two characters, yet their insecure stubbornness also.

[fortheloveoffanfic]

At Twelve

John Wick x Reader (A/n- Felt like I’ve been neglecting our favorite assassin, so here’s this! And happy New Year! Here’s to hoping the 2020 brings everyone health, prosperity and great opportunities)

New York and the holiday season always seemed to have an unspoken connection. Between the parades, several tree-lighting events, the snow and the all round atmosphere, it was the perfect place to spend Christmas. Similarly, it was also a great place to spend New Year’s Eve; some would dare to take boats out for parties, clubs and restaurants came to life with savvy events and of course, there was the most anticipated one of all; the dropping of the ball in Times Square. Needless to say, if one wanted to spend the last month of the year having a wintery good time, New York was the place to be.

Coincidently, New York also happened to be home to two people who often wanted nothing to do with all the holiday cheer. None other than John Wick and Y/n. While it may have been John’s hardened demeanor that had long ago made it him disinterested in the holidays, for Y/n it was something a little closer to home; she had spent much of her short adult life alone, bitter with a family that had turned her into something that she wasn’t sure she wanted to be and thus, seeing everyone else excited about spending the season with their own families always struck a nerve.

“Where’s your bourbon?” John asked, from the kitchen, breaking Y/n out of her thoughts.

“Liquor cabinet, top shelf, bring the tequila while you’re at it,” she yelled back from her spot of the large white sofa, her hands gently stroking the head of John’s dog. It was so rare for them to both to have time off, far less to have it simultaneously, which was why spending the night together seemed fitting. That in addition to the fact that they were both otherwise alone, Y/n had not spoken to her parents; two of the most lethal criminals in the world since she was sixteen, nor did she ever have time date around and John hadn’t found someone since his wife had passed years before. So, when John asked Y/n if she’d be willing to ditch the Continental’s New Years Eve party for the third year in a row to hang out, just two close friends getting drunk and probably watching old movies together, pretending that it was just a regular night, Y/n readily obliged. 

Y/n’s desolate abode sat near a lake in a quite, posh community just outside the city. The view from her backyard was spectacular, and normally, when it was her turn to host their dinners for two, they’d keep each other company out there, but considering the chill of the season, that night they were confined to her elegantly dressed living room. “We should do something,” John declared, resigning to the spot next to Y/n, slouching down into the cushions as he handed over a glass along with the tequila. Y/n would never admit it out loud, preferring that most of her feelings were kept under warps, but she liked seeing John like that. Relaxed, and at ease, when he wasn’t dressed in an intimidating suit but worn jeans and a casual sweater, when he’d offer her a rare, subtle smile and let his guard down. They were two things he only did around her and the same could easily be said about Y/n.

“How much of that did you drink in the kitchen?” Y/n cocked an eyebrow, pouring herself a drink, barely wincing when she did a shot without chaser or lime. 

“None,” John reared back, scoffing and when Y/n gave him a knowing stare, he corrected, “One, finding the tequila took a while,” he explained and Y/n rolled her eyes. “Come on, I’m serious.”

“About?” She feigned confusion. 

“Doing something, tonight. For the past three years, all we do is sit inside, watch T.V and get drunk,” John sipped his drink coolly, observing Y/n’s disinterest in the whole idea of leaving the comfort of her home. “We should change things up this year,” John continued.

“Why would we do that?” Y/n shook her head, “We can do the same things they do out there,” she gestured to the window in making her point, “In here; drink, listen to music and whatever else.” 

“It might be nice,” John defended. Growing up an orphan at the Ruska Roma had never really offered much on holidays conventionally spent with family, no cozy dinners shared around a family table or vacations taken with loved ones, nothing. John had heard snippets of Y/n’s childhood though, growing up in a family of criminals might not have been ideal, but he had heard one or two stories about how she used to be close to her father and the things her mother had taught her before they had sent her to the Ruska Roma at the tender age of fifteen. “Didn’t you celebrate with your family?”

Y/n sighed loudly, leaning her head on the back of the couch. John was right, before everything changed, when she was a kid, they did celebrate. It was the one month of the year where they’d be a normal family; her mother taught her things in the kitchen and on New Years Eve, they’d travel to their vacation home in Aspen, spending the week together before getting back to business. Even if it was long gone, and the memories usually only served to be more bitter than sweet, looking at John, knowing that he had been deprived of so much was paining. His one shot at the life he craved had been buried six feet under and now he, as he’d often remind her, Y/n and Dog was all he had left. Finishing of her third or fourth drink, Y/n stood abruptly, stalking off without a word, “ Where are you going?” 

“To get ready. There’s gonna be traffic everywhere, and people are usually disgusting, but there’s a nice restaurant near the edge of Manhattan. Its hard to get a reservation,” Y/n sighed heavily, pretending that the act of doing something nice for John wasn’t something she wanted, “But I know the owner so I’ll give him a call and see what I can do.”

In return, just before she left the room, Y/n was privy to one of his rare smiles as a silent thanks, and walking up the stairs, she had to pretend that it didn’t do much to warm her icy heart.

About two hours later, John and Y/n had finally broken from the thick traffic, parking on the curb. Arm in arm, looking more like a couple than close friends, they walked to rest of the way to the restaurant. Over her simple back mini dress, which had been paired with a velvety pair of heeled boots, Y/n used a stylish leather jacket with a woolen inside to break the chill while John had only been given the opportunity to throw his own thick leather jacket over his sweater, though Y/n still thought he looked better than most of the men she had ever met.

“The place is just up here,” Y/n pointed to the end of the block as they weaved through the mass of pedestrians.

“What did you friend say?” John inquired for the sake of making more conversation. The times he spent with Y/n was usually the only time he actually wanted to trade brooding for talking.

Y/n shook her head as they neared a set of glass double doors, “He’s not my friend. I said that I know him. He owes me a favor, or a few, unless he wants to go to jail.” John pushed the door open, letting her in first and then they joined the line to the hostess.

“Blackmail?” He probed, intrigued, it was dirty play for something as frivolous as a reservation, but John didn’t think that Y/n was above it.

“I prefer bartering,” she emphasized with a proud smirk, “His freedom for whatever the hell I want.”

John chuckled quietly, shaking his head, she really was something. As they moved up in the line, neither of them noticed that their hands had remained joined at the elbows, but the closeness was comforting, they always felt safest together. When they finally reached the hostess, a young girl dressed in black, Y/n gave her name and the woman scanned her tablet, her eyes lighting up when she found their last minute reservation, “Miss Y/l/n, right this way,” quickly, another young girl stepped into her place as the hostess started leading them through the restaurant, “I think you and your husband will love what they managed to string together.”

Y/n chortled in disbelief, ignoring the disappointment that settled in her chest as she debunked her assumption, “Oh he’s not my husband. We’re just friends.”

“Yupp,” John sighed awkwardly, combating his own despondence with their plutonic status, “Just friends.”

Anyone form a mile away could see what buzzed between the two, the stares that were a little to long to not mean something and the touches that sometimes crossed the line of intimacy. They way John looked at her when her face was turned away or the way Y/n would cling to his arm when they were in a crowd as her way of making sure they stayed together. 

“Oh,” the hostess faltered, “Sorry I just assumed that.....” she shook her head trailing off, leading them up a set of stairs hidden in a room tucked away at the corner of the establishment, just behind a plain wooden door. The staircase ran up a wide corridor and led to another door, that one cool grey metal, which subsequently led to the rooftop. Half of it had been enclosed to facilitate an indoor longue while the other half was left open, presumably a fun spot during warmer months. “Here is it,” she led them through a set of French doors that had fogged up a result of the internal heat and coldness outside.

The lights of the small lounge had been turned down to the lowest setting with twinkling fairy lights hanging over curtained windows adding to the mood. Save for the one central to the red carpeted room, all the other tables were free of settings and patrons. The small bar at the furthest corner of the room looked open but there was no one manning it and the same went for the mini buffet, equipped with options for a main course along with several others for appetizers and deserts, “We’re packed tonight,” the woman explained shortly, “I mean, you’re lucky you managed to swing this place. But we don’t have enough to staff up here, so it’s gonna have to be self-service.”

“That’s fine,” John and Y/n agreed. Arguably, it was better that having waiters buzzing in and out; just John and Y/n alone in each others company. When she left, Y/n turned to John, “I know you said you wanted to do something, and I know this isn’t exactly a concert in Times Square, but-”

“It’s perfect,” John smiled, a little wider than he usually did and Y/n felt her insides warm up a bit. 

“Are you sure, cause I’m not sure it counts as ‘going out’ if its just the two of us,” slowly the strolled to the bar, collecting a chilled bottle of wine. With a resounding pop, John had the bottle open and poured them a couple glasses.

“You know,” he began as they surveyed the food, Y/n trying one of the bite-sized appetizers, “Since we’re getting technical, I said that we should ‘do something’ not ‘go out’. This is doing something,” he shook his head absently, “And I know you didn’t have to, or want to, so thank you.”

“It’s whatever,” Y/n waved John off as they prepared their plates, going over to a candle lit table. 

It wasn’t ‘whatever’, but John chose not to argue with her, opting to join Y/n at their table, sitting across from her. Over quiet conversation, they ate their dinner, not counting the minutes as it grew closer to midnight.

After dinner, John and Y/n had lingered inside, drinking and talking, enjoying the fact that they had the place to themselves, though, when he checked his watch and noticed that there was just twenty minutes left in the year, he suggested that they go outside. Bundling up once again, they made their way to the outdoor area, going to stand at fenced edge off of the roof. For a while, they stood there, looking down at the busy streets below, sometimes glancing at the festivities going on no too far off, in comfortable silence. But eventually Y/n spoke up, not turning to John, “You were right, you know. Before I left home, we’d do all kinds of things during the holidays. On New Year’s Eve, we’d go to Aspen; I’d help my mom cook dinner and afterwards we’d watch the fireworks show put on by the resort nearby. It was fun,” she smiled softly.

John swallowed tightly; it was so rare for Y/n to open up about her family, so much so that when she did, he’d always feel like he’d been privy to a part of her that no one else was. Though even when she spoke of them, it was usually hard to tell how the whole thing made her feel, except for that night, John thought, she looked wistful, as if the memory were too far gone, “That sounds like a nice tradition. Do you miss it?”

It took a minute before she could offer any sort of reply, but when she did, Y/n shook her head, staring out into the excitable distance, the near darkness shrouding her confusion, “I’m not sure, I haven’t thought about it in a long time,” she sighed, and found that, by some miracle, she actually wanted to open up about it. Figures it’d be to John, he was the only person who she trusted with her memories, with her life, “But I do know that I’ve spent a long time running away from making new ones, from anything like this really,” she took his hand, her leather glove resting coolly over John’s ungloved hand.

John looked at their hands together, thinking that it would be easy to hold onto her forever. When he glanced up at her, John found that Y/n eyes were trained on him, “And what about now?” He probed tentatively.

“Now?” She smiled, so faintly that it was hard to notice, “Now, I don’t have lot, but I’m glad I have you. Maybe we can make new traditions.”

“I’m glad I have you too,” John locked eyes with Y/n, squeezing the tips of her fingers. Not too far off in the distances, and even the floor below, a loud countdown began.

Five.

“You know, I never thought I’d meet someone like you.”

Four.

“Someone like me?”

Three.

“Yeah,” Y/n’s smile was shy and John’s lips were just a breath away. She was ready to do something she’d only thought of for so long.

Two

“I don’t understand,” John smiled softly.

Y/n smiled too, leaning in a little, “Then let me show you.”

One.

As the clock struck twelve, people cheered loudly and fireworks went off, lighting up the sky, making the city seem even more alive than it did before. And right as it all happened, Y/n pressed her lips to John’s, her free hand cupping his neck as his moved to the small of her back, deepening their kiss. Neither of them register how long it went on for, but when they broke for air, their foreheads were pressed together and Y/n explained, “I never thought I’d meet someone I wanted to kiss at twelve.”

At her confession, John smiled, going in for another kiss, holding her close and what flowed between them told them both at twelve, everything had changed. 

[btswrckd]

Hunting a Hybrid III

Black Panther!Hybrid Jungkook x Fem!Reader

Summary: Four years after it’s made illegal to acquire hybrids as pets, you’re approached by the daughter of your former employer to hunt down one that was gifted to her

Warnings: Violence, past abuse, eventual smut, poorly written light smut at the end, thigh riding

A/N: This chapter isn’t a lot of dialogue, it’s more of what reader and those surrounding her feel. There’s mention of past abuse but nothing too heavy, it’s just a warning in case you guys are uncomfortable with it. Hope you like!

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

The three of you shuffled into Taehyung’s apartment with Jungkook trailing in last, checking his surroundings once more to see if anything had been disturbed since departing earlier. Taehyung’s deep laugh caught his attention and he made his way into the living room to join you. 

“If anything had changed, Y/N would have noticed the second she walked in,” Taehyung pointed out as he plopped onto the couch, leaning his crutches against the side. “Trust me, Jungkook, if you didn’t know she was actually human, one would think she’s a hybrid too. Acute observation skills have kind of been drilled in to Y/N since before I met her.”

“You’re gonna stay here for now,” You said to Jungkook after giving your best friend a well deserved slap on the back of the head, “it’s the safest place until I can figure out what to do with the information I gathered from Dr. Kim’s office.”

“What are the rules?” Jungkook asked, keeping his place on the other side of the room as if he thought he wasn’t allowed onto the carpet lining the floor.

“Rules?” Teahyung questioned with a tilt of his head before it clicked that Jungkook was so used to being told what he couldn’t do that he didn’t expect any sort of freedom. “There aren’t any---.” 

“There’s one,” You gestured him closer, eyeing the way he took cautious steps towards you. “You stay inside. Don’t go anywhere unless one of us is with you.”

“Well,” Taehyung interrupted and gestured to his bandaged leg, “more like, you can’t go anywhere without Y/N for now. I’m hobbled and with Suho’s guys still looking for you, I won’t be much help. Not that you’ll need it but now that they know you’re a full shifter, they’ll have upgraded their gear and game plan.”

“Neither Ye-Jin or her father knows this place exists so they can’t just pop in whenever they want,” You stood on the tips of your toes to hang a leather band around his neck, letting it dangle loosely against his chest.

“A collar?” He reeled back, his lips curling up into a hiss and his eyes flashing emerald.

“A tracking device,” You corrected and stopped his hands from ripping the object apart, “if Taehyung or myself have any reason to believe anything is wrong then we can find you with this. Jungkook,” You cupped his face to keep his focus on your eyes, “trust me with this, okay?”

Taehyung watched Jungkook study your face, glancing between the two of you and almost smiling at how hard you were trying to convince the panther to trust you. His eyebrows shot up in surprise when Jungkook pulled you close, burying his nose in the crook of your neck and your body actually relaxing in to it. Jungkook was obviously scenting you and Taehyung couldn’t help but wonder how close you and he had actually grown in the last 12 hours. 

“You know, at this point,” Your arms dangled at your sides and felt the small brush of Jungkook’s lips against your skin, “I’ll need at least 4 showers to get your scent off me.”

“And?” He asked, almost pleading, his fingers twisting the material of your jacket and you actually grunted at how constricting his hold was. “Is that honestly a bad thing? Every other hybrid will be able to smell a predator on you and they’ll leave you alone.”

“Yeah, well,” You twisted out of his hold and pushed him to arm’s length, “I think I can handle it, Jungkook.”

“He’s not going to be happy to see you, you know?” Taehyung warned, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth in amusement. 

Rolling your eyes, you shouldered past Jungkook to make your way towards the door, swearing you could feel the brush of his fingers against yours in an attempt to make you stay. His touch lighting up your nerves and goosebumps erupting along your skin made you jump away in shock, quickly yanking your hand from his with a hiss and you frowned when he physically flinched away from you, as if he expected to be slapped for doing such a thing. “Jungkook, wait, I didn’t---.”

Jungkook turned away from you and stalked down the hall to the empty bedroom you’d pointed out earlier that morning, slamming the door shut in the process and ignoring your pleas for him to let you explain.

“Smooth.”

“Shut the fuck up.” You snapped at Taehyung’s sarcasm and followed Jungkook down the hall, raising your hand to knock on his door but hesitating, your knuckles hovering just inches from the wood. Sighing heavily, you dropped your forehead to the door and rested your palm against it, as if it were to help you think. “Jungkook, I didn’t mean to react that way. I just...all of that walking around on the carpet and...you shocked me, that’s all, I was just surprised.”

You heard Taehyung’s deep chuckle echo down the hallway, clearly amused at your bumbling apology to a hybrid you hadn’t even known for a full day yet.

“I...” You could make out the shuffling of his clothes; he was walking to the door, that much you knew, but just like you, he stopped just shy of the doorknob. You knew he was listening to more than just your words, he was picking up on your heart rate, your breathing, and even the way you swallowed down the saliva building up on your tongue. He was assessing your every action no matter how small it may be and you let out a slow breath to calm yourself. “I have to go. Tae’s fridge is full of food so eat something, okay? I’ll be back late.”

Taehyung was still sat on the couch with crossed arms when you came back into view, a questioning look on his face at your clear frustration. He couldn’t help being amused by the way you handled, or mishandled, the situation. In the past, it was easy for you to brush off a hybrid’s feelings towards you, but with Jungkook, it was like you didn’t know how to conduct yourself. Gone was the confident and headstrong Y/N he knew and in her place was a frazzled girl that practically tripped over her own feet. 

You shot a glare at the smirk on his face, pulling your hair free from the elastic band holding it together and pulling your jacket off your shoulders to replace it with your leather one, the material seeming to have either stretched out more as it hung loosely around your frame, or you had lost even more weight by forgetting to eat in the midst of all the chaos. He’d bet his life on the second option, taking the time to eye you from head to toe and noticing the way your cheeks hollowed slightly. Any stranger would think you were perfectly healthy but Taehyung knew better, having spent half his life with you, and it worried him.

Before he got the chance to call you out on your nonexistent eating habits, you were already pulling the front door closed behind you, bidding him goodbye and throwing out that you’d be back rather late. He bit the inside of his cheek and heard Jungkook twisting open the door, the hybrid poking his head out and coming to stand at the edge of the carpet lining once more. Taehyung patted the couch in invitation and smiled when Jungkook carefully shuffled to sit next to him, both falling into worry filled silence as Taehyung turned on the T.V. in hopes of distracting himself and Jungkook.

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

The bar you charmed your way in to was busy with people and you really wondered why the hell you even still lived in the city anymore. Your dislike of people should have sent you running from it long ago but Taehyung insisted on staying without giving you an honest to God good reason. You caved when he pouted and gave you his best “lost puppy” look, and then joking about how you were becoming soft with how you gave up so easily. His joke also got him a good slap to the head and he no longer thought you were finally coming around to being nice.

The Element was rather small, cosy, and one of the seediest places for hunters to gather and exchange information. A place where they felt comfortable being themselves; rowdy, loud, and handsy, every so often trying to put their greasy fingers on a waitress but the owner was quick to throw them out. You’d never really been inside, only ever observing from a good vantage point from across the street and catching two or three of these poor excuses of hunters drunkenly stumble their way down the street after being kicked out.

“What’s your poison?” The bartender asked when you took a seat on one of the empty stools, a smile on his face so bright that you wondered if he knew what kind of business he was in. 

“Water.” You gave him a soft smile in return as he nodded and was called away by another customer. A snort made its way past your nostrils, catching the reflection of one of Suho’s hunters in the mirror behind the glass bottles lined along the shelf. He was trying to sneak up on you and you had to laugh at how poorly he was doing, watching his nostrils flare in irritation at being caught. The clinking of a glass of water being placed in front of you didn’t distract you the way he’d hoped, his eyes narrowing at the bartender in a silent threat.

“Manners, Minseok,” You tsked and grinned at the small laugh you earned from the bartender before he walked away to leave you to your business. 

“You know I hate that name.” Minseok hissed, taking a seat next to you and nodding to his companion to flank your other side to keep you from running off. “Our boss is looking for you, you know? He knows Sehun tipped you off, sneaky little son of a bitch that he is. Suho caught him just before he could skip town.”

“Killed the fucking cockroach,” Minseok’s friend barked with laughter, his hand coming down to slap the bar top, “Man, it was about time too. Sehun was such a sissy, had no balls whatsoever, and he proved it by ratting out Suho’s plans for you.”

Feeling a nudge to your shoulder, you played with the straw in your glass, “Minnie, your friend should really be careful with what he chooses to do next.”

“Don’t call me that!” 

“Why?” You faced him with a teasing smile, one you knew he hated ever since you first met him, having told Suho to toss the pipsqueak from his squad before he dragged everyone down with him. “Afraid I’ll embarrass you in front of the idiot next to me? Come on now, Minnie, I thought you’d gotten better at not throwing temper tantrums.”

“Fuck you!” Minseok shot out of his seat, swinging his hand around to slap you but he cried out when you caught his wrist instead and twisted it behind his back.

You were out of your seat with Minseok’s hand bent behind him and your forearm pressing into the back of his neck to push his face into the marble of the bar top. Hearing the scrape of the barstool being kicked away, you pushed off of Minseok to dodge the oncoming punch of his friend. When Minseok swiveled around to face you, he was sent flying back by your knuckles cracking against his jaw, blood splattering across the floor. 

“Damn it!” You fell to the ground as his friend tackled you to the floor, his knuckles being driven into the stitches in your torso, no doubt opening them again. Wrapping your legs around his waist, you squeezed his hips in an ironlike grip and pounded against his back with your elbow, your free arm winding around his neck in a headlock to keep him in place. One of you was bound to give in and you’d bleed to death before that person was you. Unfortunately, your body didn’t agree with you as one good punch had you releasing him and giving him the chance to reel back to land another punch to your cheek. His hand was heavy and solid, making the room spin and your ears ring from the assault, a groan coming from you. Your hands came up to shield your face when his fist reared back again but everything came to a sudden stop when a gun was fired into the air.

The owner stood just a few feet from you, his pistol aimed dead center of your attacker’s forehead, his eyes nearly black with rage, “Get off.”

His command sent Minseok’s friend scrambling to his feet with his hands up in surrender and a sneer on his face, “Hey man, she came at us first.”

“Does it look like I give a fuck?” The silver haired man tugged on the collar of Minseok’s shirt to pull him off the ground and shove him in his friend’s direction. “Xiumin, didn’t I already warn Suho what would happen if his hunters kept causing a fucking scene in my bar?”

Minseok panted as he wiped the blood from his lip, glancing down at you still sprawled out on the floor, “Yes.”

“Then why the hell are you still here?” The owner nodded to his bartender who had produced his own shotgun from behind the bar at some point during the fight. “Hoseok, show Xiumin and Kai out, would you?”

“Gladly,” Jung Hoseok’s smile could have easily fooled anyone into thinking he wasn’t packing and you had to laugh at how misled you were yourself. Walking past you to escort the two hunters out, he shot you a wink that had you grinning from ear to ear. 

Your breathing was heavy, chest rising and falling rapidly, blood spilling from the open wound in your side, and you could taste the metallic tang of blood from your gums. A shadow loomed over you and blocked what already little lighting there was in the room, but you could make out his figure anywhere.

“Hi, Yoongs,” You beamed up at him, catching the roll of his eyes before offering his hand to help you stand up.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Min Yoongi hissed back in his office, cupping your cheeks in his large hands to examine the damage to your face. His long fingers swiped across your cheekbone and you winced at the sting, the flesh sensitive and already bruising.

“Not even a ‘hi’ back?” You teased and stepped away from him, your arm wrapping around your midriff and fingers coming into contact with a wet patch of blood. “Kinda rude.”

“I greet old friends, not little brats who take off for years without even so much as a postcard.” He watched you scan the room and stop at a familiar picture hanging on his wall, his own eyes dropping to the floor to give you a moment of privacy to study it. 

“You knew I was hunting,” Reaching for the frame, you pulled it from the wall and turned it around to show Yoongi as if he hadn’t looked at it everyday. It was a photo of a very much younger you, maybe around 8 years old, and your grandfather standing side by side, a bright smile on your face. “Just doing what dear old grandfather taught me to do.”

“I heard rumors, I just didn’t want to believe them,” He took the picture from you and set it face down on the desk. It wasn’t exactly one of your happier memories, but it was the only photo he had of you from before your grandfather started training you. “You meant a great deal to our family. You didn’t even give us the chance to take care of you before disappearing.”

“You know I don’t like relying on people,” You shrugged as best as you could but it sent a sharp pain through your body.

“You were 15!” Yoongi hissed and had half a mind to clutch your shoulders to shake some sense into you but knew it would get him nowhere. Reaching out to lift the lapel of your jacket, he noted the large spot of blood seeping through your shirt. “We were your chance at having a normal life. No more hunting, no more running from police, but an actual life, Y/N. It broke my mother’s heart when you left, she really wanted to keep you safe, you know?”

“I have a favor to ask,” You ignored his attempt to tug at your heartstrings. The Min family had always been part of your life before your parents’ and grandfather’s deaths, and you knew very well how much you meant to them, but it wasn’t easy to give up everything you’d been taught. Yoongi had thought of you like a little sister and you knew it drove him insane not to be able to find you, and now you’ve shown up at his door asking for help. Damn him for wanting to do just that. “There’s something I want you to take a look at. Some documents I have, but I need to know if they’ll leave some kind of trace even after they’ve been changed.”

“Something always gets left behind, no matter how much altering is done to them. What are they?”

“Just something on someone I used to work for.”

“I really didn’t think you could get any more vague,” He deadpanned, hearing the click of his office door before Hoseok came in to view. “You already know Hoseok.”

“I’ve never seen a girl challenge two guys to a fight,” Hoseok stretched out his hand to shake yours, “and win. You really could have had Kai beat if---.”

“What are you doing?” Yoongi narrowed his eyes at his friend and business partner, shaking his own head, “Don’t encourage this. You,” He pointed to the blood staining your tank top, “you little brat, need to get that looked at before we go any further with this conversation.”

“Yoongs, come on.” You whined and brushed away a piece of hair that had fallen into your eyes. 

“Yoongs?” Hoseok snickered at the nickname, a hand coming up to cover his mouth from bursting out in a full laugh. “That’s cute.”

“Shut up,” Yoongi waved him away, all but pushing him out the door before turning back to you, his hand coming up to cup your cheek and his heart melting when you leaned into his touch. “Y/N.”

“I’m sorry, Yoongi,” You whispered with tears springing to your eyes, both from pain and nostalgia. You grew up with Yoongi, constantly treated like his little sister and being doted on by his mother whenever you would run to them after your parents fought. They were your safe haven but after your parents’ death, your grandfather had packed you up and moved you one town over, leaving the safety and comfort of the Min family home in the dust. You’d spent so many nights wrapped up in Yoongi’s blankets, watching movies, listening to music, and reading books before calling it a night and having to return home to the disaster that was your family.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” He offered, frowning when you stepped away from him. “How much trouble are you in?”

“Nothing I can’t handle on my own.” You assured with a shaky breath, the pain from your open stitches almost becoming too much to handle and your knees buckled. Pushing away Yoongi’s hands that tried to stop your fall, you moved for the door with the excuse of having to check on your injured friend, which wasn’t a total lie. You honestly just wanted to escape the emotions you didn’t even know could still be pulled from you, a gift only Min Yoongi was graced with when it came to breaking down your walls. Without a proper goodbye, you were speed walking to the exit of the bar, slipping past Hoseok who had been occupied with a group of hunters wondering what the fight had been about.

The street lights were much too bright for your liking, your eyes sensitive and vision blurry from your earlier assault. You winced at the loud clanging of a trash can lid being knocked to the ground by a stray cat, bringing your fingers to your temple and your feet having a hard time cooperating with your brain. You stumbled and focused on the faint sounds of footsteps following close behind, assuming it was Yoongi or Hoseok you faced the pair of men and grit your teeth.

“Oh, come on,” You whispered as Minseok and Kai approached you, their figures seeming taller in the shadows, more threatening than you remembered and it dawned on you that you most likely had a concussion. 

“You think we’re done with you?” Minseok sneered, pulling what you could only guess was a switchblade from his pocket and Kai cracking his knuckles, knowing full well that his fists would do more than enough damage.

“You stupid bitch,” Kai spit, not noticing your own hand feeling around your pockets for the knife you’d snuck onto your person before leaving Taehyung’s apartment. “I’m gonna kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” You smirked and beckoned them towards you, rushing forward at the same time they did.

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

Jungkook’s back straightened at the sound of the elevator dinging, the smell of blood so strong that it overpowered the tteokbokki Taehyung had helped him cook. He would have gagged at the metallic stench if he wasn’t so worried about where it was coming from. Fear hit him like a freight train when he heard the beating of your heart heavy against your ribcage, your hand slapping against the wall to keep yourself from falling. 

“Jungkook!” Taehyung scolded when the panther shot up from his seat to barrel towards the door, pulling it open roughly in his haste to get to you. He had to struggle for his crutches, quickly tucking them underneath his armpits and swinging himself over to find what spooked the hybrid so bad. He stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of Jungkook holding your bloodied and bruised figure, your head lolling from side to side in an effort to stay awake.

Jungkook cradled you against his chest, studying the bruises on your face, the gash on your forehead, and your busted lip. He knew he should have gone with you. He knew it shouldn’t have mattered what you said, he should have been there. Ignoring the foreign smell of another man on your clothes, he stepped past Taehyung into the apartment, blood running from your shoulder down the length of your arm and dripping onto the floor. 

“What the fuck happened?!” Taehyung was in a panic, trying to move around his apartment to find the first-aid kit but wasn’t have much luck with his crutches in the way. He was tempted to toss them aside and crawl around instead when he heard your low chuckle.

“You should see the other guys,” You took the time to joke, hoping to distract him from the mess you must have looked like.

“Guys?” He repeated in shock, his hands curling so tight that his nails bit into the palms of his hands, “As in plural? What the fuck, Y/N?! You’ve done some stupid shit, but nothing, nothing compares to this! Are you fucking kidding me?!”

“I was trying but you didn’t laugh,” You clung tight to Jungkook as he carried you to the bathroom and set you down gently in the tub, his silence making you nervous. Wincing at the cool ceramic contrasting against the burn of your cuts, you dropped your head back to rest on the edge of the tub. “Tae, I need---.”

“A hospital,” Taehyung huffed but you knew it was more out of concern than anger, “you need a hospital with actual sterile instruments and medication.”

“Out,” You demanded through grit teeth and peeled your jacket off to reveal multiple slashes from Minseok’s blade, “Both of you.” Your tank top came off next with much difficulty; whether Jungkook and Taehyung were there or not, you were going to peel off your pants afterwards to let the ceramic cool your heated and stinging skin. The lacerations from Minseok’s knife looked worse than they felt, but it was the bruising on your rib cage from Kai’s fists that burned the most. Taking deep and slow breaths, you reached forward to turn the knob on the bath faucet, allowing the cold water to surround you and wash away the blood so you could get a better look at your wounds. 

“Jesus christ,” Taehyung scrubbed his hand down his face, tears threatening to fall from his eyes; you were his best friend and sure he’s seen you in bad states before, but nothing like this. His tub filled with your blood, your body as stiff as a board, and your face so pale that one would think you were dead. It made him sick to his stomach to have to see you in so much pain, trying to play it off as if you hadn’t painted his apartment floor with how much blood you lost.

“Tae,” Your voice was ragged, harsh breaths leaving your heaving chest, “Get a needle and thread.”

“How about I get you to a hospital?” He offered but it was no use when you had vehemently denied being taken care of in a clinic whenever you were beaten up pretty badly. Something about the hospital spiked your anxiety to a level that Taehyung could barely bring you down from, leaving him to assume you had some type of trauma in your past but he never asked about it. “This isn’t a quick patch up job, Y/N, those wounds are deep.”

Jungkook would have butted in and agreed with Taehyung if not for the murderous look on your face, so he instead strode around the apartment to find the first aid kit, bringing it into the bathroom and letting you dig through it. He watched you pull out a needle and thread while Taehyung produced a bottle of rubbing alcohol from underneath his bathroom sink. Taking the materials from you when your hands shook from the pain, he helped Taehyung sterilize the equipment by holding them in his cupped hands so the older man could pour the alcohol all over it. He quickly bent over the tub but because of the amount of blood mixed with water, he couldn’t properly see any of your wounds.

“Shit!” Taehyung hissed and rushed to drain the water from the tub, taking his crutches to swing his way down the hall to find washcloth. “Just start on the stitches, Jungkook, the longer we wait, the more risk there is for infection.”

Jungkook looked to you for permission, pinching the skin on your shoulder blade when you nodded and piercing your skin with the needle. He winced at your grip tightening around the edge of the tub as he tried to work swiftly, tying the thread on one end of your gash before proceeding to stitch the rest of your tissue together. Having done this himself many, many times, he frowned when you clenched your jaw to keep from crying out in pain. With one suture out of the way, he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in; how his hands remained steady and his emotions in check was a mystery to him. Seeing you so hurt and beaten had his blood boiling, the instinct to hunt down and tear those men apart had been tamped down by the need to stay with and take care of you. 

Your hair stuck to your forehead in a sweaty and matted mess, your surroundings fading in and out as you fought to stay conscious. You were barely able to make out Jungkook mumbling about killing whoever did this, his voice becoming muffled and angrier with every laceration he stitched up. At some point, you recognized Taehyung’s figure towering over you, a washcloth in his hand to gently wipe away the pools of blood on your body. There was no more resisting the need to stay awake as your eyelids grew heavier and heavier with each passing minute, Taehyung’s and Jungkook’s voices fading out and your world going black, your head thumping against the edge of the tub and your grip loosening to let your hand fall limp against your stomach.

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

There was the familiar sound of skin hitting skin echoing through the house, louder and louder each time no matter how hard your hands were pressed to your ears. Cowering in the corner of your bedroom, hidden as best as you could be, you whimpered with every slap delivered to your mother’s face. One more solid hit had her body falling to the ground with a hard thud and you found yourself tucking your head between your knees in hopes of drowning out her screams. 

“I do everything in this goddamn house!” Your father’s voice carried clear through your heavy wooden door. “I work all fucking day, pay all the bills, and all I ask in return is that you keep the fucking house clean and dinner on the table! You can’t even do that, can you?! You’re useless!”

“Please, stop,” You whispered to yourself, rocking back and forth with tears streaming down your face. Hearing your father’s footsteps approach your room, your head snapped up in time to catch him throw the door open, the smell of cigarettes and alcohol making you gag.

“Leave her alone!” It was the first time your mother really defended herself for the night, risking another beating if it meant keeping you safe. “She’s just a baby, please! Donghoon, stop!”

He staggered into the room, knocking your array of stuffed animals from the top of your dresser on his way, his words slurred as he attempted to beckon you closer. “Come on, Y/N, I won’t hurt you.”

“You hurt mommy,” You whimpered and tried to scoot back further but you were already pressed to the wall.

“Mommy deserved it.” He tried to justify his actions and plopped on the floor in front of you, his hands coming up to show you his palms and assure that he wasn’t going to harm you. “She did a bad thing, remember? What’s the rule in this house, sweetie?”

You peered over his shoulder to find your mother leaning against your doorway to keep herself from collapsing, her face covered in blood, bruises, and tears. Your heart stopped at the sight, your stomach dropping, and your breath caught in your throat, a strangled sob leaving you. You jumped when your father slammed his heavy palm against your floor, a shriek leaving you.

“What’s the rule in this house?!” He demanded an answer, his voice booming so loud you were amazed the neighbor’s hadn’t called the cops yet. 

“Al-Always listen t-to daddy,” You hiccuped between your sobs, “and you w-won’t be punished.”

“Very good,” The way he switched from angry to calm in a manner of seconds scared you more than when he was just outright angry. His arms stretched out for a hug and you had no choice but to crawl to him, being scooped up in his embrace and gently placed back onto your bed. He brought your blankets over your small body, tucking you in tight and placing a gentle kiss to your forehead, a stark difference from the man who had just beaten your mother near death. 

“Come on now, let’s make sure she rests.” Your mother tried to coax him out of the room, but instead, sending him into a blinding rage at the sound of her voice.

He was on his feet and charging at her faster than you could blink, screaming that she couldn’t tell him what to do and how to treat his own daughter, slamming your door shut on his way out and pushing your mother to the wall so hard it left a dent. 

Her wailing filled the house once more and you pulled a pillow over your head, soaking your sheets in sweat and the endless amount of tears. Your muffled screaming matched your mothers as she took heavy blows and a few kicks to her stomach. 

“Stop, Donghoon, please! Stop!” 

You woke with a start, gulping down huge breaths of air, feeling like your throat was on fire as you tried to take in your surroundings. The empty room save for one dresser sitting in the corner, becoming familiar after you were able to refocus your blurry vision. Dropping your gaze to the gray sheets and oversized t-shirt covering your body, you pulled them back to reveal a pair of sweatpants that were also too big for you, swinging your legs over the side of the bed and letting out a large groan from the sharp pain hitting you like a brick wall. Your arm came up to wind around your torso as you stood up slowly, limping your way to the door and flinging it open to glide along the wall to an awaiting Taehyung in the kitchen.

“Hey,” Taehyung greeted you with a warm smile, crutches long gone and giving him the freedom  limp around the apartment. “You’re finally awake, huh? You hungry?”

“How long have I been asleep?” You asked, ignoring his question and sitting at his dining table, your stomach grumbling from the aroma of eggs cooking. 

“Couple days,” He plated a generous amount of food and set it down in front of you, knowing damn well you were hungry and just being stubborn. He smirked in victory when you dug your fork into the eggs, probably not even chewing it before you swallowed. “How do you feel?”

“Sore,” You reached for the glass of orange juice also set next to your plate and whimpered at a simple act even hurting, bringing your free hand up to rub at your bruised wrist. “Shit.”

“Oh, you’re awake.” A familiar voice made you jump and your mouth part in surprise when you were met with the smiling face of Kim Seokjin. He eyed your plate of food and nodded, “Good, you’re eating so you can start on your antibiotics.”

“Antibiotics?” You parroted as he pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket and handed them to you. “What are these for?”

“Precaution, mostly,” Seokjin clarified and sat next to you, thanking Taehyung when he was handed a plate of food as well, “I don’t know the state of the blade that pierced your skin, so they’re just to fight off any kind of infection that may have developed while you were sleeping. Take them once a day with food for two weeks. You’ll also need to rest a few more days before you go out and pretend to hunt for Jungkook.”

Your body tensed at the mention of the panther that was seemingly nowhere to be found. Had he left? Taken off before you could really help him? What if he’d been caught by Suho and his men and taken back to Hyungsik?

“He’s upstairs,” Taehyung informed you before you lost your mind with worry. “Dr. Kim rented out the top floor of the building to give him some privacy.”

“Privacy for what?” 

Taehyung pursed his lips in amusement while Seokjin cleared his throat and shoved a forkful of food into his mouth. “He’s in heat.”

“O-Oh,” You weren’t sure why you blushed, or why you suddenly looked to your hands in disappointment that he hadn’t been there to see you up and about after that whole episode the other night. “So he can’t---?”

“It’s best if you don’t interact with him right now,” Seokjin finally gulped down his food, “his heat cycle isn’t regulated so his actions can be a bit unpredictable. Once his cycle goes back to normal, he’ll be able to handle it a little easier around other people.”

“So you guys haven’t seen him in a couple of days?” You quirked a brow, twisting open the pill bottle to drop one into your hand and tossing it into your mouth, taking your orange juice and downing it along with your antibiotic. 

“Well,” Taehyung scratched the back of neck and let out a small chuckle, “we’ve seen him, yeah, but you can’t.”

Your eyebrows drew together in confusion and you were about to question why the hell not when the beeping of his keypad had your senses on high alert, quickly grabbing your fork in defense and Taehyung had to slap his hand over yours to keep you from killing the person walking in.

“Goddamn it,” You heard the grumble of one Min Yoongi as he came into view, examining his torn jacket, “stupid panther, stubborn son of a bi---oh, hey, you’re up.”

“Since when does the whole of the city know your passcode?” You asked Taehyung, irritated at the sudden intrusion.

“You scared the living shit out of me, Y/N,” He argued back with a pointed look, “I needed help taking care of you and Dr. Kim was kind enough to do it free of charge.”

“And him?” You nodded to Yoongi and he scoffed at your tone, shaking his head at your stubbornness. 

“You know, you could be just a little grateful,” Yoongi growled at you, shaking his jack from his shoulders to show you that it had almost been torn to shreds, “this is the way I get treated after that damn panther upstairs nearly mauled me?”

“What happened?” You tried to stand but moved too quick and gravity decided it was against you, almost falling to your knees if Seokjin hadn’t shot up from his seat to catch you. His arms gripping your sore body had another groan tumbling from your lips and he apologized for being too rough, but you thanked him anyway because your fall would have been much worse if not for him.

“Your hybrid tore up my jacket,” Yoongi explained after lurching forward to keep you steady as you sat back down, “I guess he heard you up and moving around and demanded to come see you. Guy’s got a real hard on for you.”

“Shut up!” Your cheeks burned bright pink at his teasing, “He’s just worried after what happened, is all.”

“Speaking of which,” Yoongi glanced around to Taehyung and Seokjin, almost hesitant but knew you hated that, “Xiumin and Kai were found dead that same night you guys fought.”

“I didn’t kill them,” You were sure of it. Yes, they were worse off than you were but you swore you left them breathing before stumbling your way back to Taehyung’s apartment.

“I don’t think anyone would blame you if you did.” Taehyung shrugged, still very clearly pissed about what happened. 

“It’s Suho.” You clarified for the three men when they didn’t seem to believe you. “He’s pretty desperate for that money Ye-Jin’s offering and with me in the way, he doesn’t think he has a shot at catching Jungkook. He’s sending his hunters after me and killing them when they fail to take me out.”

Yoongi snorted, sitting across from you and burying his face in his hands, his voice muffled against his palms, “You said it was nothing you couldn’t handle. Not even a full day later I’m getting a call from Dr. Kim that you’ve been badly injured. You’re such a stubborn little brat. I have half a mind to drag your ass away from all this and put you under lock and key.”

“How exactly do you know Dr. Kim?” You narrowed your eyes at Taehyung and he ducked his head sheepishly. You couldn’t and wouldn’t stay mad at him; if he hadn’t called Seokjin to come look at you, you would have felt a hell of a lot worse than you already did.

“Yoongi and I went to university together, we just took different career paths.” Seokjin side eyed Yoongi and smiled as if they were sharing a private joke. “Taehyung called me the minute you passed out the other night and Yoongi always talked about this girl he’d spent most of his life searching for. When Taehyung told me where you’d been coming from, I put two and two together and called Yoongi. I apologize if I’ve overstepped.”

“No, it’s okay.” You gave Seokjin a warm smile, running your fingers through your surprisingly clean hair. Last you checked, it had been tangled and covered in dirt and blood. “Yoongi was like my older brother when we were kids. Who washed my hair?”

Taehyung, Yoongi, and Seokjin all pointed up to the ceiling to indicate the hybrid upstairs. Taehyung shook his head with a small laugh, “I couldn’t do much with my leg still injured so Jungkook took care of you. He stayed by your side the whole time until his heat came and even then we pretty much had to drag him away from you.”

“Tae,” You brought your hands together to rest on the table top, your stare locked on your intertwined fingers, “I’m sorry about that night. I never meant for any of that to happen. I just needed Yoongi’s help.”

“I guess with Hoseok keeping an eye on Jungkook for the next few days, I can take a look at that file you wanted to show me.” Yoongi caved much faster than you thought he would, a frown settling on his lips at the way you curled your fingers into a fist when another deep breath brought on a jolt of pain. 

“Ah, you must mean the papers I gave her,” Seokjin shook his head slightly, now feeling guilty that you’d been beaten simply because he asked for your help, “they’re records I kept of Hyungsik and the hybrids in his possession.”

“You’re involved with Nam Hyungsik?!” Yoongi hissed and had to get out of his seat to pace the length of the kitchen, one hand on his hip and the other tugging at his hair in frustration. “Had you said that two nights ago, I would have never let you leave my bar alone!”

“Relax, Hyungsik is so afraid of me that he doesn’t even leave his house without making sure I’m not close by.”

“That’s not the point!” His rant was cut short by the ringing of his own phone and he dug it from his pocket to growl into it, “What? He what?”

You perked up at the sound of what you figured was Hoseok’s voice on the other end, clearly speaking of Jungkook with the way Yoongi’s jaw ticked.

“No, not right now.” The silver haired man huffed into his phone, “it’s too risky, Hoseok, he has to stay up there another few days. I don’t care if he’s going to rip your head off! I’m going to rip your head off if you let him down here!”

“I’m going to see Jungkook.” You announced without room for argument and Seokjin scrambled to keep you seated, but it was Yoongi’s voice that stopped you.

“Like hell you are. He’s in heat, Y/N, that means his first instinct is going to be to get to you no matter what or who he has to go through. I know you think you’ve got some kind of handle on him, but he’s still part panther, still part of a wild animal. You’re not going up there, not yet.”

“But I---.”

“I said no.” His tone dangerously low and maybe in the past it would have frightened you, but now it had your jaw setting in a way that Taehyung knew was not going to end well. 

“Years of being on my own and handling myself pretty fucking well, and you think you can just come in and big brother me?” You seethed at the older man who didn’t seem like he was going to be backing down any time soon. “Stop trying to act like my father.”

“I would never!” Yoongi snapped and you bowed your head in shame at accusing him of being anything like that monster. He was honestly hurt that you’d ever think such a thing and even more hurt that you’d tell him as much. Your childhood was spent curled up in his arms on the nights your father would be out drinking, trying hard to keep yourself from that home but never wanting to risk the chance of being hit. You’d voiced many times that you didn’t care if he hurt you, you’d much rather your father lay his hands on you than your mother. 

“Listen to me, little one,” Yoongi’s voice was soft as he approached you, kneeling down to see your face and push the hair from your eyes, “it’s not a good idea to see him right now. You’re hurt and Jungkook won’t pay any mind to that when there’s only one thing he’s really focused on. He needs a few more days and you need to rest up and get better. Hyungsik will come looking for you soon and if you want to handle him alone, like you said you can, then you need to be ready.”

Taehyung was nervous, his brows shooting up in surprise at the way Yoongi was so easily able to handle you. He was jealous that he could never calm you down like that, jealous that Yoongi shared a past with you that you weren’t willing to share with him and concerned with how you flinched at the sound of Yoongi’s raised voice. He watched you nod your head in understanding before you were up and stalking slowly down the hall to your room. 

“What was that?” Taehyung asked as soon as you were out of earshot. “What did you do to her?”

“Excuse me?” Yoongi narrowed his eyes at the younger man, “What the hell are you insinuating?”

“I’ve never once seen Y/N respond to anyone like that,” Taehyung’s voice was cold, hard in the same way he’d speak to any stranger. “So what the hell was that about?”

“Y/N’s past is a lot more complicated than you think, kid, and if she wanted you to know about it, she would have told you. I’m sure you have your own share of secrets so if you want to know more about Y/N, then I suggest you fess up too. I didn’t mean to scare her the way I did, it just happened and when she’s feeling better, I’ll apologize, but right now I don’t owe you a damn thing.”

“Alright enough, both of you.” Seokjin interjected before the argument escalated any further, “I don’t think fighting’s going to help the situation. Yoongi, it’s best if you go up and make sure Jungkook hasn’t tried to kill Hoseok.”

Yoongi said nothing, didn’t even spare his senior a glance as he turned on his heel and left, letting the door slam shut behind him. He muttered about Taehyung not knowing a damn thing as he pressed on the buttons of the elevator a little too rough. He knew he was acting like a child, knew that he’d overstepped with you and brought you back to the days you’d lived with your parents, but there was no other way to drill into your head that being around Jungkook wasn’t the best idea at the moment. Truthfully, he was concerned that Jungkook seemed to be quite attached to you after only spending a few days together, and you were equally reliant on him, something Yoongi was having a hard time wrapping his head around when you obviously never cared as much for a hybrid as you did Jungkook. 

Walking into the rented apartment that stored said hybrid, he found that everything was still intact, no claw marks anywhere and certainly no blood from Hoseok. “Hobi,” He called into the room as his friend popped out from a bedroom with Jungkook in tow. “Jungkook, you doing alright?”

“No,” The younger snorted, dropping onto the couch with a huff, his tail whipping back and forth and his ears twitching. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Yoongi promised and took a seat on the coffee table across from the panther while Hoseok was busy in the kitchen. “Kid, why are you so attached to Y/N?”

“Why am I what?” Jungkook’s nose scrunched up in distaste at the smell of Yoongi’s cologne, not that it smelled bad, just that it wasn’t the scent he was hoping to catch. 

“You’re so dependant on her and I don’t understand why. You know what she’s done and who she’s done it for, but you trust her completely.”

“She’s trying to save my life.” Jungkook tried to keep his temper in check, feeling as though Yoongi was trying to challenge him but he knew that wasn’t the case. Yoongi was simply fishing for a reason to trust him as much as you did.

“Which brings me to my second question,” Yoongi kept his voice soft so as not to set Jungkook’s instincts into overdrive and have a bloodbath on his hands, “why you? Y/N’s never once tried to save a hybrid. So why are you so important?”

“I don’t know,” Jungkook answered honestly and wrung his hands together as his body grew hot, “I just...always need her. I didn’t think it would be this way when I first confronted her, I thought maybe it was because my heat was coming soon and I just needed someone to…”

“I got it,” Yoongi held his hand up to ask Jungkook to move on from that part of his thoughts, “What changed?”

“She’s different. When Hyungsik would talk about her, I pictured some monster, cruel and cold to anything and everything in her path. But that night I followed her home,” Jungkook thought back to when he’d found your office and watched your humanity slip through the further you were from the Nam family, “I saw a side to her that I don’t think Hyungsik knows about. She was human.”

“Wow, you got more out of him in the past few minutes than I have all morning,” Hoseok interrupted to place a plate full of tteokbokki in front of Jungkook. “You know I could probably get something a little better for you to eat. Y/N would kill me if you starved to death.”

“No, this is fine,” Jungkook swore, his stomach growling as he devoured the rice and fish cake. He let out a content hum at the taste hitting his tongue and Hoseok smiled proudly because he was really only good at cooking one thing and it was tteokbokki.

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

“So,” Taehyung cleared his throat while he sat on the edge of the bed, “I don’t want to say I’m jealous of Yoongi, but that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“What?” You laughed at your best friend, the most important person in your life, and shook your head. “Tae, what is there to be jealous of?”

“The way he spoke to you in the kitchen,” He clarified with a small shrug of his shoulders, “you just seemed...compliant, I guess is the word.”

“Excuse you?” You narrowed your eyes in a glare.

“You just seemed, I don’t know,” He was scrambling for an explanation that didn’t make him sound like an ass, “like if Yoongi were the hunter, and you were his prey, right? And you...submitted...to him...in a way.”

“And you want me to do that for you?” You rose a brow, bewildered at the thought. You knew Taehyung had some strange kinks but you didn’t think dominance was one of them. Then again, you really weren’t as surprised as you thought you’d be; Taehyung exhibited dominant traits in his everyday routine, so it shouldn’t have been a shock to find out that he’d be the same way in the bedroom. 

“No!” Taehyung blushed a deep shade of red and knew you were getting a kick out of watching him become flustered. “I’m just saying he knows more about you than I do, that’s all. He was able to talk you down from doing something irrational and I’ve never been able to help you in that way.”

“Yoongi knows more about my past, Tae,” You reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, allowing yourself to show him how much you cared for him before he started to seriously doubt how thankful you were to have him in your life, “You know more about me now. The person I was when I was a little girl is not that same person I am today. And yeah, maybe having Yoongi around after so many years has triggered a lot of my past self, but you should never think anyone knows me more than you do. You may think you haven’t helped me, but the truth is that without you, I don’t think I’d be alive. I need you, Taehyung, more than you’ll ever need me so don’t let Yoongi get into your head.”

Taehyung wasn’t sure how to respond except to pull you into a gentle hug, his face buried in your hair. It wasn’t often that you were so open and forward with him apart from the nights he’d woken you from a nightmare and you had asked him to stay and sleep next to you. Only then would you allow yourself to be that broken little girl you’d grown from. He loved you more than he thought possible, the only person in the world he’d gladly give his life for and to hear the validation of his importance to you was everything. 

“Better now?” You teased as he pulled away, stopping to brush his lips against your forehead before pressing his own to it. Your hand came up to wrap your fingers around his wrist when he cupped your jaw, his thumb skimming along your bottom lip. Taehyung had always been an affectionate person, something you had to learn to get used to, and eventually found yourself sometimes longing for his touch. 

“Hey.” Seokjin didn’t bother knocking since he was under the impression that you’d been napping, but he really should have after watching Taehyung scramble away from you. “Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt something?”

“No,” You and Taehyung answered in unison while Seokjin cleared his throat to keep from laughing at how awkward the two of you seemed. 

“Um, so Yoongi called and he thinks maybe a phone call from you to Jungkook would help. I personally don't think it would, but you try arguing with him.”

“No, you’re right.” You shook your head, scooting your body down to lay flat on your back, pulling the blankets up to your chest. “He needs a few more days so that’s what we’ll give him. Hyungsik will come sniffing around soon and I don’t need Jungkook smelling him on me in the middle of his heat.”

“Okay,” Seokjin nodded and strode towards the bed with a medical bag in hand. “If I may, I’d like to check on your wounds, maybe redress them, depending on what they look like.”

You nodded your permission and shooed Taehyung out the door, blushing when he offhandedly stated that he’d seen you half naked before. “I will murder you, Kim Taehyung.”

“Love you too.” Taehyung waved goodbye before closing the door behind him. Outside, he dropped his head and allowed himself a minute of listening to your groans of pain. His hand tightened on the doorknob, wanting so badly to run in and comfort you, but your threat to kill him was as real as any threat you made to Hyungsik. He dropped his head back to lean against the door, a heavy sigh leaving him as your groans turned to whimpers and he hoped Hoseok and Yoongi were doing a damn good job of keeping Jungkook distracted.

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

“Something’s wrong.” Jungkook paced the living room, his eyes lighting up and his claws growing, frustration quickly surfacing as he heard your cries. 

“Nothing’s wrong, Jungkook,” Hoseok assured from his spot by the door, unwilling to let the younger man anywhere near it. “Dr. Kim is just cleaning her wounds. We don’t want her getting sick from an infection, do we?”

“Jungkook,” Yoongi interrupted the panther’s pacing, “Sit down and relax. Do you think she’d want you to barge in there and see her the way she is?”

“I don’t care,” Jungkook growled, his ears twitching with every sound you made, clear as day as if you were in the same room. He was so attuned to your every move and sound that his ears went flat against his head when you let out a particularly loud yelp. Moving for the door, he shoved Hoseok aside and sent him flying to the ground, grabbing the brass knob and hearing the click of a gun before a bullet pierced the doorframe, wooden shrapnel slicing at his cheek. Jungkook ducked away from the door and scrambled to the corner of the room, baring his canines at Yoongi and his pistol.

“Yoongi!” Hoseok hissed and stood from the ground, his hand gripping Yoongi’s outstretched one and slowly lowering both of their arms. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“He could have killed you, Hoseok!” Yoongi looked at his partner like he’d grown a second head, trying to understand why Hoseok was defending Jungkook when he could have been hurt.

“Stop it. Now.” Hoseok scolded him and turned to find Jungkook with his knees pressed to his chest and his head buried between his knees. “He’s still just a kid, you idiot. You’re forgetting that he’s spent most of his life in captivity and this is his first heat without suppressants. He needs time, Yoongi.”

Jungkook’s ears had stayed flat against his scalp, his tail coming around to wind around his ankles, the memories of previous owners stepping on it when they couldn’t hit his face. He could hear Hoseok reprimanding Yoongi for firing at him, but the sound of your footsteps rushing upstairs cut through their arguing and he found himself looking at the door expectantly when it swung open.

“What the hell happened?!” You were breathless, the strain of running up three flights of stairs because you didn’t have the patience to wait for the elevator finally catching up to you. You doubled over and fell to your knees when standing became too much, raising your hand to stop Hoseok and Yoongi from coming any closer. Arm shooting out to steady yourself, you peered over to Jungkook and frowned at his cowering figure. It was the first time you’d truly seen him afraid and you knew exactly who was to blame for it. You stood carefully and limped over to the hybrid, crouching down to sweep the hair from his face, using the cuff of your long sleeved shirt to dab at the sweat forming on his brow. 

“What happened, Jungkook?” You asked softly, seeing a boy rather than a panther, a boy who’d been locked up for his life as a pet or God knows what else. 

“I…” His rapid blinking was a sign of him trying to get his bearings, but you’d seen and done so yourself enough to know that he was having a hard time trying to piece together where he was exactly. All he knew was that he’d done something he shouldn’t have and was being punished for it, “I disobeyed. I’m sorry.”

Hoseok reached out to slap at Yoongi’s arm for being so cruel, his stupid attempt at keeping Jungkook from leaving obviously taking the young man back to his days as a hostage. He’d seen Yoongi pull his gun from the back of his jeans, but he wasn’t quick enough to stop Yoongi from actually pulling the trigger. Looking at his partner now, he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Yoongi immediately regret anything more than what he’d just done, especially since it caused you to disregard your own well being and come running up to check on them. 

“Y/N,” Yoongi tried to pull your attention but instead was met with the most vicious look you’d only ever reserved for your father. He froze in his place, swallowing harshly to parch his dry throat but it proved to be useless. His peripheral vision caught Hoseok throwing his hands up in surrender and take two giant steps away from him.

“You,” You sneered, facing him and standing toe to toe with the man you used to trust with your life. “What the hell did you do, Yoongi?”

“I was just trying to stop him from leaving, I-I,” Yoongi stuttered out his own version of events, “I didn’t know what else to do, Y/N, he practically dislocated Hoseok’s shoulder!”

“So you shot at him?” You glared up at him, clenching your jaw and taking note of the heavy footsteps of Taehyung and Seokjin finally making it up to the apartment. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Jungkook,” Taehyung was at the hybrid’s side in an instant, giving his shoulders a light shake to gather his attention, but Jungkook could only focus on the rapid beating of his heart, fear striking him in a way he hadn’t experienced since he was a child. “Hey, Jungkook, are you okay?”

“I have half a mind to kill you, you know?” You shoved at Yoongi’s chest hard enough to send him stumbling back. “No, fuck that, I am going to kill you.”

“Y/N, enough,” Taehyung’s tone was demanding, knowing full well that you didn’t give a damn how injured you were, you’d soon be breaking every bone in Yoongi’s body. “Let’s get Jungkook back to the apartment, alright? It’s obviously not doing any good to keep him apart from you.”

“What about his heat?” Hoseok made a good point; once Jungkook calmed down and reverted back to himself, you still had his heat to deal with. “Look, Y/N, I’m sorry. This was my fault for not doing a better job of keeping Jungkook calm. He heard hyung cleaning up your stitches and it set him off, he got scared that maybe you were in trouble. I should have handled it better.”

“You should have handled your friend better,” You turned away from Yoongi to approach Jungkook once more and help Taehyung get him to his feet. Shuffling to the door, you stopped to look at the Yoongi, Hoseok, and Seokjin over your shoulder, “If I see the three of you again, I’ll put a bullet in your heads.”

“Aish,” Seokjin sighed and ran a hand through his hair after you left, turning to Yoongi and reaching out to slap him over the head. “She needs treatment, stupid. How can I make sure she heals properly if she doesn’t want me near? You really screwed up this time, Yoongi.”

“What the hell was I supposed to do?” Yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose, already thinking of ways to apologize for his massive fuck up. “He could have shifted and killed the both of us.”

“Let’s go for now,” Hoseok suggested, shaking his head at his friend, “I have a feeling Y/N will make good on her promise to shoot us if she catches us still here.”

“I’m going to try and smooth things over,” Seokjin brought his hand up to massage at the back of his neck, “and if I can’t then I have someone who can hopefully come over and treat her wounds. If I do manage to calm things down, it’ll take awhile before she’ll want to see you again. You understand that, don’t you?”

Yoongi poked his tongue against the inside of his cheek but didn’t argue. He knew what he’d done wasn’t the best course of action. He also knew that if memory served him correctly, you weren’t going to be forgiving him any time soon. Seeing Jungkook push Hoseok like a ragdoll had him panicking, thinking Jungkook’s animal side would cause more harm if he managed to get to you. He would be kicking himself later for using the force of a deadly weapon on Jungkook and not only scaring him, but traumatizing the panther in the process. He should have known better, should have handled the situation with reason and logic instead of the instinct to protect you when you were very capable of doing so yourself.

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

“Jungkook,” Taehyung waved his hand back and forth in front of Jungkook’s face once he’d sat him down on the couch. He looked to you as you sat on the floor in front of them, shrugging his shoulders when he couldn’t get anything out of the hybrid. “What do we do now?”

You shook your head, not knowing what else to try and Taehyung scrubbed his hands down his face, standing to head to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. He didn’t think he could dislike Yoongi anymore than he already did, but here he was, wishing he’d never stopped you from murdering Min Yoongi. Jungkook had been mistreated his entire life and Yoongi knew that, so it pissed Taehyung off that Yoongi would pull such a stunt. Drawing and firing his gun on an already nervous hybrid was one of the stupidest things a person could do and yet, Min Yoongi hadn’t a second thought as he did just that. He knew Yoongi only thought of protecting you in that moment, but the second they all heard the gun go off, you were on your feet and darting up the stairs so fast that both he and Seokjin had a hard time keeping up.

You’d barely gotten your shirt over head when the sound of the gun rocked you to your core, scaring Seokjin as he jumped and looked to the ceiling, the same thought running through him. You didn’t bother listening to his pleas for you to slow down, adrenaline pumping through you with each heavy step you took, rounding each flight of stairs with determination to get to Jungkook as quick as you could. Breath coming out in puffs and body aching, you ignored the way your muscles screamed for you to stop moving and instead burst through the apartment door to find Yoongi’s pistol at his side, Hoseok scolding him, and Jungkook curled into a ball by the coffee table. Seeing nothing but red, your first instinct was to go after Yoongi, lash out at him and maybe even shove his ass through the window but Jungkook’s quivering shoulders kept you from doing any of that.

“I didn’t mean to disobey,” Jungkook kept muttering the entire time, expecting to be severely beaten for breaking the rules as had been done in his past. He flinched away from your hands when you reached up to cup his face and you drew back quickly, dropping your hands to your lap. He watched you pick at the cuticles of your nails, wanting to comfort him but torn because you didn’t want to upset him even more. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Jungkook,” You assured him with a soft voice, rising to your knees to look him in the eyes, trying once more to cup his face, your shoulders relaxing when he allowed you to touch him. Your thumbs caressed his cheeks while his eyes closed and he leaned in to touch his forehead to yours. Hands moving from his cheeks to his hair, you scratched at his scalp lightly, hearing a soft purr and you chuckled at the sound. He was still a cat, after all. “You’re okay now, understand? No one’s going to hurt you, I wouldn’t let them.”

Jungkook nodded his understanding, his eyes slitting open to find your concerned ones before he surged forward and closed the gap between the two of you. The soft press of your lips against his had his hands coming to gently rest on your hips, still very aware of your wounds as the smell of antibiotic ointment hit his nostrils. His knees came to rest on the ground in front of you, pulling your chest flush against his and teeth sinking into the soft flesh of your bottom lip, drawing a whimper from you as his tongue ran along your lip to soothe the sting. 

You gently nudged him to sit with his back to the couch, your legs falling on either side of his thigh and feeling the rough pads of his fingers skimming along the skin of your midriff, drawing patterns with his thumb and carefully avoiding the stitches. Your weight sat fully on Jungkook’s thigh, the lean muscle flexing in time with every rock of your hips, the dampening of your panties causing you to bury your face into the crook of his neck in embarrassment. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“No,” Jungkook insisted, squeezing your hips to encourage your movements, his hands sliding your clothed core against the material of his jeans. You gasped into his skin, your clit getting that little bit of attention you desperately needed and your hands fisting the cloth of the couch behind him. “Fuck, please don’t stop. You look so good, Y/N, coming undone like this.”

“Shit,” You whimpered, grinding down on him and feeling the raise of his knee to plant his foot firmly on the floor, effectively trapping you against his chest as he lifted the heel of his foot to press his thigh into you harder. “Jungkook,” you let out a choked moan against his neck, the heat of your breath giving him goosebumps. 

“I can only imagine,” He whispered against the shell of your ear, taking it between his teeth with a playful nip and feeling the wet patch on his pants grow wetter, “what you’d look like riding more than just my thigh.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” You cry out as he applied more pressure to your hips, his dirty whispers making you clench around nothing and you whined at the feeling of being empty. You gasp loudly when he drops his heel and you bounce against his leg, your orgasm coming unexpectedly and soaking his jeans. 

“Good girl,” He praised, hooking a finger under your chin to pull you into another kiss, his body growing hot at the smell of your arousal and really tempting him to continue. His fingers moved up to tangle in your hair while your own wound tight around his wrist and your other hand moving down the length of his broad chest.

“So,” Taehyung’s deep voice had you jumping away from the panther in attempt to look as if he hadn’t just caught you, “you look like you’re feeling better.”

“Taehyung, out!” You shrieked at your best friend, mortified that you’d let it go so far when just a few minutes ago Jungkook had been completely out of it. “How long have you been standing there, you perv?!”

[weeping-petals]

Some Time to Be

 Word Count - 2,063

 Garnet is busy but Spinel is lonely and bored. Takes place before the Falling Out

Deep within the Crystal Temple, dozens upon dozens of bubbles hovered among the winding tubes branching throughout and curving within the rock walls of the inner chamber. Below, lava sizzled in a cast within the floor, the molten matter illuminated everything and projected light against the bubbled gems. Patrolling this and that way, Garnet roved redirecting and guiding multicolored spheres.

 An expansion of human metropolitan stirred corrupted gems into a sudden migration, and such activity pushed the feral gems into more frequent confrontations with humans. While a lull came underway of gem-human encounters, it was best to undertake the task of organizing new occupants. Take stock of the growing numbers, certify that bubbles were not overcrowding and coming under risk of popping. That would be all that they needed now.

 The task of bubble wrangler was best left to Garnet, who made the accurate and nice predictions of where it was best to leave which bubbles. Though it didn’t really matter, the bubbles would go nowhere, and absolutely no event would incur to disturb the slumbering denizens within the Burning Room. As such, no other gem was permitted access, unless for a prespecified reason.

 A thin line oozed from the ceiling and dropped, forming a zigzagging shape on the ground. The flattened figure reformed into a three-dimensional silhouette, and crept up on Garnet, rising taller and gaining more distinction the closer it neared the stoic gem. Meanwhile, the aforementioned gem examined two bubbles set very close together.

 Sensing a presence, Garnet rotated. Nothing and no one was there. Quickly, she performed a tight rotation, scanning the area, scrutinizing nooks and crannies, and shadows adjoining her vicinity. Aside from her and the bubbled gems, nothing stood out. She spun back—

 “Surprise!” Spinel bounced onto her hands, boots clapping. “Admit it! You were surprised. C’mon, say it!”

 Garnet was unmoved. “No.” She stepped by Spinel and resumed the task, shapeshifting her arm to claim another sphere up high.

 “Objection. You can’t deny, I caught you fair and square.” Spinel righted herself. And, sprang up among the cords curving through the ceiling.

 “I don’t deny my feelings,” Garnet responded. “I merely conceal them very well. Nonetheless, you did not surprise me. It’s become an expectation.”

 “Had to think on your own, didja? ‘Who could possibly intrude while I’m very busy? Who would dare.’” Spinel hung from her legs, boots wrapped about the tube she descended from. “I still got it in me.” She used her knuckles to polish the surface of her gem, like the way she saw done in the movies.

 “I am very busy,” Garnet replied. “And I need concentration. I thought you and Rose were going to explore the east coast of the green continent.”

 Spinel lounged across a bent tube. “Shirked duties for Greg. Probably doing more of that … eugh, kissy thing.” She puckered her lips and did smooching sounds.

 “And taking the Gem Sleuth to the inverted whirlpools with Amethyst?”

 Spinel lay on her stomach, arms uncoiled. “Off with Vidalia and the Sour One.”

 “Pearl?” Garnet set a Rose Quartz bubble aloft, among other similarly shaped stones.

 “Still hasn’t reformed.” Spinel slipped off a large tube and landed beside the fire pit. Arms outstretched, she balanced and walked around the edge. “Also, couldn’t get the permanent marker off.”

 “Spinel….”

 “It’s her own fault for taking so long!”

 “It takes you time to reform, as well.” Garnet examined the contents of a bubble, not looking the way the other gem paced.

 “Yeh… but that’s a condition.” She gestured her hands. “She’s indecisive, ‘should I do this dress. Or a new ribbon? Does this lace make me look know-it-all enough?’” She snickered.

 “Have you asked a human what works best to remove permanent marker?”

 “I think it’s an improvement.”

 The Saphire in her was curious to how long it would take before Pearl noticed. That is, if everyone could keep a straight face.

 “Oh-oh! Almost forgot.” Spinel bounced over to Garnet. “I have the best joke. You wanna hear it?”

 “Not now.” Garnet didn’t try to hide the sigh in her voice. She worked to tenderly pry bubbles down from among the ceiling’s winding cords, and make sense of the different colors through the tinted surface. “Some other time.”

 “It’s not long. Promise.” Spinel bounced in place, swinging her fists. “I start with rock-rock, and you go ‘who’s there’. Ready? Rock-rock.”

 Garnet redirected her cool focus to Spinel, disregarding the task at hand for the barest spell. Spinel made a shooing motion with her hands.

 “C’mon, rock-rock! Now say who…?”

 “Who is there?”

 “Garnet!”

 This does not compute. “I’m Garnet.”

 Spinel facepalmed. “Yeh. But when you say ‘who’s there?’ and I say ‘Garnet,’ you have to say ‘Garnet who?’ That’s the way the joke works. Lemme start again.” She cleared her throat. “Rock-rock.”

 “Who is there?”

 “Garnet!”

 Still not getting it, she inquired anyway, “Garnet… who?”

 Spinel posed, arms outstretched in her show gal stance. “G’Arenet you glad to see me?”

 The Garnet is unmoved. “…No.”

 Spinel unraveled. “Lika ya said, good at hiding the feels. That was hilarious.”

 “So share it with Amethyst. I’m very busy, as you’ve made a point.” Garnet resumed sifting through the suspended bubbles, dispersing the clusters and preparing to relocate the accumulated spheres brought low. For a while it was tranquil, and Spinel was placid in watching her work.

 Until the spindly gem sprang up among the pipes and snared one of the bubbles. She perched, holding the lilac sphere between her palms and turned it, concentration palpable.

 “Spinel,” Garnet warned, in her no-nonsense tone. “I have those organized already.”

 “You think they dream?”

 “I don’t think she or any of them are aware of anything. It’s stasis. For them, time stands still.” She continued sifting through the bubbles, disregarding Spinel’s interest.

 “But maybe they dream,” Spinel insisted. “About Home. About their friends. About… not ever coming here. Maybe they dream, life has resumed where they wanted it. They’re someplace they want to be, and nothing is broken. They’re not broken.”

 “The gems are whole and undamaged,” she reminded. “Perhaps someday, they will be recovered. And they will have that true life, wherever it may take them. If that means serving Home World, or, the freedom to go and be who they wish to be.” Garnet extended a hand, and set a gem among a collection of similar stones. “You’ve been sent off before.”

 “Yeah. But never bubbled this long. Some have been here.” She rolled backwards, flopping to recline on the curve of the pipe. The sphere she kept above, while she continued to turn it over. “Ages. Sometimes, I wonder how long they’ll have to stay.”

 “Not all the gems corrupted must be contained. You know this. There are gems that exist out there, that need no care or attention. But for those that become hostile and roam, endanger the humans or other passive gems, this is the safest solution. We don’t want others to pay for our failings.”

 “Yeh,” Spinel mumbled. “Keep everyone separate and protected. Heh. S’nice not being able to tell friend from enemy. Frenemy.” The term amused her into giggles.

 “As the way it should be,” Garnet supplied. “We didn’t want the war. We simply wanted to exist as we are, and to be left alone. We did everything we could.” She let a bubble alit among a collection of similar stones. A family, all together.

 “Do you ever dream?” Spinel left the bubble suspended and bounded among the bent piping across the ceiling.

 “Gems don’t sleep.” Came the matter-o-fact response.

 “When you’re unfused.” Spinel hung by her arms, legs crossed in front of her middle. “Do you dream, when Ruby and Saphire separate?”

 Garnet did halt her work and inclined her head enough to peer at the Spinel, eyes fixed with curiosity, but likewise concerned. “When Ruby and Saphire do separate,” though nonexistent in these days, “I cease to be.” She plucked a bubble from above and relocated it to the far side of the room. Spinel followed, loping through the winding architect above. “I know of nothing in that time, during that time. It can be defined as a form of stasis, I suppose, though I am neither here nor anywhere. I am not the one or the other, and I can’t describe it as being divided.’

 “But,” Garnet went on. She accepted a bubble, which Spinel handed down. “When they reunite, I have the collected experiences that Ruby and Saphire undertook, and share in that knowledge. It’s not the same as sharing in the events, I guess, it is like learning a story from someone you trust. I was not there to take from the proceedings, yet I am aware that these events took place.”

 “Oh,” was all Spinel said. Garnet directed a finger, and Spinel scaled up a few feet to collect bubbles – two or three at a time – and delivered them down. It was evident by Spinel’s eyes – not so much the silence that followed – that she gave this direction a great deal of thought. Such topics made Spinel contemplative, if not wary, and Garnet could always measure the cagey strategist that gave guidance during the war.

 After some work, Garnet broke the meditative hush, “The offer is still open. But, don’t feel forced to try something you’re not ready for.” Spinel tugged a bubble close to her chest and crouched, staring down on her. “I understand your sentiments, and respect your reluctance. But I am always open to sharing insight with you. Never forget that.”

 “No. Uh… thank you. I remember.” She descended and handed off the bubble, much to Garnet’s relief. For a moment, the fusion thought she might accidentally pop it.

 “Sometimes, I miss them,” Spinel admitted. She plopped to the floor, and assisted in collecting a few of the spheres hovering low. “But when they splint, I find myself missing Garnet too. When you exist, they cease to be. It’s hard to be without someone you appreciate, y’know? Pfft, I know they’re not really gone, but you are not them. And they, them, she and she, are not you. If that makes sense.” She rocked back on her heels, balanced perfectly.

 Garnet nodded. She led the way, to the exact point where she wanted these bubbles. Spinel handed a few to her, and she placed them securely among the coiled cords above, safe and shielded. “This paradox of not existing. This fixation has bothered you, since the song.”

 “Am I that transparent?”

 “Not at all.” Garnet moved to the other side of the wall. “I trust each of you to come forward at your own pace, when you’re ready to talk. Your privacy is important to me, as it is to you. That said, I would appreciate if you knocked first.”

 Spinel let her arms hang and rolled her eyes. “But then you’d be expecting. And the whole surprise would get ruined.”

 Garnet set a hand on Spinel’s head and ruffled her pigtails. “I would still act surprised. More so, than when you invade this room. Try it some time.”

 “Kay.” Spinel sauntered aside, arms coiling over into springs. “I guess I’ll… catch ya later. I might head up North, or somethin’. If anyone asks….”

 “When I’m done here,” Garnet began, halting the gem. “I was going to check on the Winding Glacial Plains. Would you mind accompanying me?”

 “Would I?” Spinel gushed. “No. Yes. I’ll go with. Er, no gem monsters? Right?”

 “Pure scouting,” Garnet assured. She already resumed adjusting spheres, diffusing a few rowdy clusters. “A bit dull, but the auroras are stunning.”

 “Then it’s a date,” Spinel hummed, through a crooked grin. “Come by my place, where you’re up to it.” She bounded out of the chamber, leaving Garnet to conclude the finer details of her work.

 She was never alone, and lacked the understanding for that nature which the other gems held. In that sense, Garnet was unlike the others, though no less a Crystal Gem, or gem herself. The Ruby in her knew that, and was experienced as a fusion. To Garnet, Spinel seemed to long for something she couldn’t grasp, or something she couldn’t directly inquire about, or risk invading that tentative line of privacy. It was up to her friends to come forward in their own time, to initiate conversation.

[justadram]

A terrible song

[part two] [part one]

Summary: Jaime x Sansa on the eve of the battle for the dawn. An AU where Jaime arrives in Winterfell, previously having been married to Sansa instead of her being married to Tyrion.

...

Theon’s chin lifts to spy something over Sansa’s shoulder, straightening up as he squints into the darkness. The slight movement of his body puts a small distance between them, whereas they had been bent, heads close together, awaiting the end of all things. It’s the smallest of distances, but one she instantly resents. An almost overwhelming feeling hollows her out at the realization that she would pull him back in close if she could do so unobserved. Her hands fist in her lap, until her nails dig into the flesh.

Things might have turned out differently between them if there was more time. As it is, these few hours are all they have left.

Precious time someone has disturbed. She twists around to see who it is, and though the guttering torches provide the barest of light to cut through the claustrophobic murk, she can make him out: tall, broad with muscle, hair golden, but grey now at the temples, a grey that catches the low light just as well. The halo of the closest torch throws his face into relief as he cocks his head at the pair of them. He’s wearing a grimace, and she has no doubt that it is his glare that forces Theon to his feet. But she won’t stand for anyone making Theon feel unwanted, when he is.

She blindly extends her hand to stop Theon with a grip of his wrist. “Sit back down,” she says without looking away from the interloper.

Theon hesitates to follow her command; a vacillation that leaves him awkwardly bent at the waist somewhere between sitting down and standing to excuse himself.

“Pardon me. Do I interrupt a private moment, my lady?”

The lilt of Jaime’s voice narrows her eyes. “Yes, clearly.”

Her curtness is not enough to scare him away, however. She knew it wouldn’t be. He’s carelessly, stupidly stubborn, born of a lifetime of being too certain of his ability to fight his way out of whatever bad situation he’s stumbled into.

“Did you need something, ser?”

“I do in fact.”

She gives Theon’s wrist a tug, and he finally eases back into his place beside her. She bestows on him a soft smile: it’s as much for him as it is for Jaime Lannister’s benefit. The manipulation is petty, perhaps, but it serves him right for marching over here, spoiling her contentment.

Her smile broadens at Theon’s stiff shoulders and how his brows reach for his hairline, when she settles her hand on his knee.

Her attention swings back to the man throwing a shadow over them both. “Yes, what is it?”

His mouth purses, as his chest rises slowly on a purposeful inhale. “I require reassurance.”

“On what count?”

“Your safety.”

“That presents something of a difficulty, as none of us will be safe. Have we not already decided as much, ser?”

His boots scuff the stone floor, as he moves to stand feet astride next to her, his good hand on his hip. “Humor me with a little prudence. You’ll be safest in the crypts. You agree, don’t you, Greyjoy?”

His own desperate stab at manipulation.

Theon doesn’t venture to speak, but the sidelong look he gives her feels like a minor betrayal. He’s not allowed to side with her former husband. Sansa pulls back her hand.

Next he’ll have Jon up here, trying to order her about.

“I will stay where the people of the North can see me and take heart in my presence.”

“What comfort do you think they’ll gain from watching your pretty chest skewered atop the battlement?”

“I wear a breastplate.”

“Sansa,” Theon says, low enough that it could be a plea and not an order.

Either way, the two men are of one mind. She rolls her eyes.

Dying doesn’t sound pleasant, but then, she only wants to do the right thing. She wants to do what her lady mother would have done at a time like this. Or her father.

“Think of the women,” Theon continues. “They’ll be in the crypt, and they will need you.”

“Not all of the women will be hiding,” she argues, pulling her hands in closer to her middle.

Not Brienne. Or her sister. Not fierce little Lyanna Mormont. Or Daenerys atop her giant dragon.

“Oh very good, you and Brienne of Tarth then will protect the gate.” Jaime nods. “Can you lift a sword?”

“I have a knife if it comes to that.”

“Pray it won’t.”

Theon repeats his raspy plea, just her name and a shake of his head, and she replaces her hand on his knee to gently shush him.

Jaime’s gaze follows her movement, his jaw tensing. “See reason or I’ll haul you down there myself. Throw you right over my shoulder like a sack of grain. You wouldn’t like that.”

He sounds eager enough at the prospect that she suspects he’d do it.

“How gallant.”

Theon's lips part, as if to warn Jaime away from such an action, which only makes Jaime’s head tilt down in unconcealed mirth.

“Come now, don’t force Greyjoy here to come to your aid. We’re not supposed to be fighting among ourselves.”

“That won’t be necessary,” she says tightly.

“Good, you’ll swear it? My brother will benefit from your pleasant companionship as much as the women, you know.”

She looks from the stones beneath his feet up into his smirking face. It doesn’t reach his eyes: all this teasing is forced and fake. His eyes are painfully sharp with seriousness, the whites shot through with red.

Other people’s pain still finds its way into Sansa’s breast, urging her to acts of kindness. A concession to his wishes might be the wisest move. It also might be a kindness.

“I swear it.”

“Once the dead are upon us, you ought to lead a prayer. For all of us.”

That he’s playing a part even now, while the world hangs in the balance, is a pathetic kind of comedy, she has no desire to watch play out. She can be herself here alone with Theon. Who has Jaime to be himself with here? There’s only ever been one answer, and he left his twin. For her. Or his honor.

“You think the gods will listen?” she asks, straightening her skirts as she stands.

“No. Almost assuredly not.”

“Then my pious efforts will be as useless as you claim your martial ones will be.”

“I don’t like to think of my former wife showing me up, you understand.”

Theon schools his gaze to the floor, when she reaches up to brush at Jaime’s shoulder, as if to remove some perceived impurity. There probably will be no chance to tidy him into a semblance of his former self, despite her girlish notions to the contrary.

His figure is not so shabby in spite of it.

She pauses to commit him to memory. Like this. Not as he was when first she saw him in Winterfell at the king’s pleasure, not on their wedding day, when she could hardly make her feet move down the aisle of the sept and he looked nearly as miserable. Just like this, standing before her of his own volition.

“Fight bravely, ser.”

His smile falters, as his brows draw together. It’s too serious a look with the downturn of his mouth matching the sad severity of his green eyes. It harbingers things she can’t bear to hear. If he means to speak on things she hasn’t the strength to shoulder, she’ll be forced to take Theon by the hand and abandon the sanctuary of their quiet corner.

“Don’t die here. Do you understand?”

Yes, she understands. He’s advising flight if there is still some chance of it, should the battle go as badly as most of them fear. She doesn’t wager it will be possible. Every horse has a rider intended for battle.

“I shall do my best.”

“For the future of House Stark of course.”

As focused as she has been on preserving the North’s independence, she has given precious little thought to the future and Bran’s inability to produce an heir. That responsibility will necessarily fall to either her or Arya. Jon is a Stark, but his queen is not. Nor does Sansa have much hope for Daenerys’ security of the North’s freedom, which makes any child of theirs a threat. There’s Alys Karstark, but the Karstarks are a cadet line separated from her house too many generations ago for Sansa to feel satisfied with that solution. Never mind that Alys also might die tonight.

No, if they survive, Sansa will need to consider marriage again. Her stomach swoops. An odd thing to realize, while standing before the best of her former husbands, the one who seems so determined for her to live.

“Yes, you being so fond of my house.”

“Always. Or at least of its lady.”

A pretty lie. Jaime is capable of those—pretty lies from a handsome face. Sometimes he believes them too.

She presses her hand to his cheek. Once she would have had to stand on her toes to do so, but she’s not the little girl he once wed against his wishes. Her thumb arches over his cheek.

“They might not be listening, but I’ll pray for you nonetheless, ser.”

If he must die, let him die wrapped in whatever lies that might warm him. Some truths are too unkind.