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crazyunsexycool · 1 year ago

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My little love

Chapter 20

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Word count: 9.4K (how did this happen?”

Warnings: angst, a little bit of fluff, physical attack toward a child, mentions of cuts and bruises (nothing graphic), reader’s mom, cursing, protective Bucky, Steve being Steve

A/N: I am both so excited and slightly sorry for this! Don’t hate me but we see the reader’s family for the first time and learn why she isn’t close to any of them except for Ed!

Series Masterlist

Ch. 19

The first few days back home were a big adjustment. There were no more early mornings to take Henry to a lab. No afternoon strolls to play with goats or explore a place you’ve never been too. Everyone was happy though. The old family routine was back in place with the exception of watching over Lottie more than necessary in case of a vision. Henry did start having a few more nightmares as he remembered some of the things hydra had him do but Bucky was there every single night to help him.

The most exciting part about being back home is being able to plan Charlotte’s fourth birthday party. You and Bucky had decided to keep it small, just the team. Through the week and a half leading up to it you had to remind Tony multiple times that there would be no huge parties. He would pout but agree nonetheless. Still you suspected that he was up to something.

The theme you decided on you found while late night scrolling through Pinterest. When you showed Bucky the idea he agreed immediately while he laughed. The party would be four-nado themed. It was more as a joke for the adults than anything else. Since Charlotte was a force to be reckoned with. No one in her path was safe, she could melt hearts with a smile and wrap anyone around her little finger with her sweet personality.

Now Lottie wasn’t really sure what was going on; she was just happy to help decorate. With the team done for the day with mission debriefs and paperwork everyone gathered at one of the shared living spaces. The birthday girl wore a shirt that said four-nado, a cute skirt and pigtails. While you had shirts for you, Bucky and Henry that said storm chaser. The only person you were waiting on was Steve. After he finally got back to you saying he was just a few minutes away the small party had started. Just like he said he was in the living room a few minutes later.

“Steebie!” Charlotte ran and jumped into his arms as if she hadn’t seen him in years.

“Here’s my best girl.”

“What the hell took you so long?” You asked.

“Well-“ he scratched the back of his neck as he blushed. “I have a bit of a surprise.”

“What did you do?”

“Who? is the better question.” Clint said with a smirk from his place on the couch.

“Steve?”

“I’d like you to meet someone.”

You narrowed your eyes at him as he turned and waved someone in. She was tall and slender. Long strawberry blonde hair and fair skin.

“Everyone, this is Julie. Julie this is well… everyone. This is Charlotte, my best girl, and it’s her birthday. These are her parents and my closest friends Bucky and Y/N.”

“Best girl?” She sounded annoyed or maybe bothered by the term. “Sometimes I forget you’re so old.” She turns to you now. “It’s uh- nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Really? We haven’t heard a word about you.” Steve gives Bucky a light hearted glare.

The whole team was surprised. Never in all of the years since knowing Steve had you even heard him talk about a date. Now he was here bringing some random woman to your daughter’s birthday party. You and Bucky looked at each other with the same displeasure on your faces. Unfortunately for Steve and everyone else in the room Lottie was the first to state her dislike of this new person.

“Don’t wike it. Bad Steebie.” Lottie said as she began to cry and reach out for anyone who would take her. That was an immediate red flag. Lottie likes everyone and is open to meeting new people. So her trying to get away from someone she had never met before made you feel uneasy. “Don’t wike it.” She said again as she pointed at Julie.

Bucky moved away from a very confused Steve and his date. Lottie continued to cry until Bucky just left the room.

“Is that why it’s a tornado theme? She seems like a handful. I’d just have a nanny if it were me.” Julie tried to joke but it fell flat.

Steve looked at you like a lost puppy unsure of what to do. Should he leave with Julie or stay and wait until Charlotte calmed down?

“Let me go make sure she’s ok. Don’t go anywhere. Come on Henry.”

Steve motioned for Julie to sit while you left to find Bucky. He introduced the rest of the team. The others, Nat and Clint especially, kept their eyes on the stranger.

“So how did you two meet?” Tony broke the silence. He was already running a background check on her.

“He was leaving the art shop just as I was leaving the bookshop in town. We ran into each other. Then Steve invited me for coffee.”

“Really? You must be really special to get the attention of our very dear Captain.”

“Tony.” Steve throws a warning glance his way.

“Oh come on old man I’m just teasing.”

“How long have you been seeing each other?” Sam asked, equally as surprised that his friend hadn’t mentioned anything.

“About a month already.”

The silence was deafening and Steve felt like an idiot for bringing Julie to the party. It wasn’t helping that everyone kept looking from him to Julie and back. Worst of all Charlotte was upset on her birthday.

****

You and Bucky walk back out with Charlotte holding both of your hands and Henry at Bucky’s side.

“Alright, she’s calmed down enough. Why don’t we sit so that we can have dinner.”

Everyone moved from the living room to the dining room. Nat and Clint sat side by side, whispering amongst themselves and bringing Wanda into it when she sat next to Clint. Everyone else took their usual spots with Lottie being right in the middle with you on one side, Henry on the other and Bucky next to Henry. Unfortunately that means that Steve and his date were right across from the four of you. At first the only thing that could be heard was the plates being passed along the table and the cutlery against the plates. It wasn’t until Henry made Charlotte giggle that the tension in the room eased up a bit. You gave Steve a small smile but he just looked upset.

The dinner goes better than expected, with Lottie only glaring in Julie’s direction once in a while. Wanda was kind enough to bring the cake out and everyone sang happy birthday to Lottie which made her giggle. She blew out the candles perfectly. Bucky sat with her days in advance to make sure she did it right. After cake and pictures everyone went back to the living room. The mood was lighter and the party games you prepared were being played.

Gifts were being given to Charlotte. Putting aside the issue with Steve’s date it was obvious the birthday girl was having the time of her life. She was currently pulling a baby doll out of a box.

“So pwetty.” She says as she examines it carefully. Then Lottie runs to Sam and gives him a hug. “Tank you, Sammie.” Lottie says with a bright smile.

“You are welcome, sweet Angel.”

You hear a small scoff coming from Julie and you turn to look at her. She averts her eyes when she notices you looking at her and tries to mask her irritation but it wasn’t working. You wanted her gone but you also felt bad for Steve. Turning back to Charlotte you watched her open another gift with Bucky’s help. Then she ran to Bruce to hug and thank him.

“I’ll be right back, I forgot her gift.” Steve says and quickly walks out of the living room.

“Mama, look.” Lottie holds up another gift and smiles.

You grab your camera and start snapping pictures. Henry sits with Nat as he watches his sister play. He’s laughing at something she’s said. Everyone is starting to relax and joke even more so no one notices Julie slip away and leave in the same direction Steve had.

After all the gifts were opened and Lottie had thanked everyone individually. The team begins to joke around and use Charlotte’s new toys. Tony goes off on a rant pointing out design flaws and that he could make better toys. You and Bucky take a moment to pick up the wrapping paper and go throw it out. No one noticed Charlotte walking away in search of Steve.

****

“Steebie?” Charlotte called out as she wandered through the empty hallway. There was no fear in Lottie as she went further into the apartment section of the compound. She had been back and forth multiple times and knew her way around. “Steebie.” She called out again this time a bit louder. Lottie was a girl on a mission to find her favorite person.

Lottie’s hand glided over the glass walls as she went further down the hallway. The only place on her mind was Steve’s apartment, which was up one floor. Lottie ran when she saw the elevators and pushed the button, happily waiting for the doors to open. When they do she’s face to face with the one person she’d be happy to never see again, Julie.

“Oh for fucks sake.” She looks down at Charlotte and rolls her eyes.

“Don’t wike.”

“Too bad.”

Julie walks out of the elevator forcing Lottie to back up. She tilts her head back all the way to be able to look up at the stranger.

She starts to look around panicking. “Mama.” She calls out as the vision she had in Wakanda starts to turn into a reality. Lottie is very much aware of what’s going to happen next.

“Mama,” Julie mocks Lottie as she calls for you. She could see the fear in Lottie’s eyes and she just smiled. “You are such a spoiled little brat.”

“Dada. Steebie.”

“I’ll make sure Steve stays far away from you.” Julie crouches so that she is eye level with Lottie and grabs her face, her nails digging into Lottie’s cheeks. “Steve doesn’t even love you.”

“Am Steebie’s best girl.” Charlotte says after pulling away. She pushes Julie and with her strength she manages to not only make her lose balance but to be thrown across the small space and against the wall. Lottie makes a run for the hallway she just walked through but Julie gets in her way.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson on respecting people.”

*****

“Where’s Charlotte?” You asked the moment you walked back into the living room. “And where’s Julie?”

You didn’t even wait for a response as you moved to go look for Lottie. Bucky right behind you and the others went to search in different areas.

“Friday, where is Charlotte?”

“She is by the elevators Sergeant Barnes.”

You run down the hallway and as you turn the corner you’re horrified by the scene unfolding in front of you.

“Come here you fucking brat.” Julie says as she moves towards Charlotte and grabs her arm harshly. Lottie screams in pain and grabs at the hand grabbing her.

“Let her go before I end you.”

Julie spins around at the sound of your voice. She did it so quickly and with such force that she pulled Charlotte with her and straight into one of the glass walls. The impact causes it to shatter and you see red.

Bucky asks Friday to get everyone here while he runs towards Charlotte to get her out of the broken glass. The cries of your daughter only spur you on as you pin Julie against the wall.

“Are you fucking stupid?”

“She’s a brat, she pushed me into the wall with her freaky strength.”

“She’s a child and you’re fucking dumb for even thinking about putting your hands on her.” You say as you pull back and connect your first with her face.

One punch is all you managed to get before you’re pulled away. It doesn’t stop you from trying to grab her again and teach her a lesson for even looking at your sweet Angel wrong.

“Y/N, you have to calm down, Charlotte needs you.” Steve says as he pulls you further back.

“Get this bitch out of here.”

“I’m going to sue you and I’m going to take everything from you.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. I’ve already found all of your dirty little secrets and my lawyers can bury you in paperwork for the rest of your life.” Tony spits back.

“Get her out of here now!”

Nat moves to grab Julie’s arm and pulls her toward the elevator. Julie tries to get away from Nat and grab at you.

“You stupid bitch.”

Nat yanks her back and pulls her into the elevator.

“No, you Bitch.” Charlotte screams back in your defense between tears before the elevator door closes.

Everything was out of control. Charlotte’s birthday was ruined, she had been hurt, you were beyond angry and everyone was unsure of what to do next.

“Come here sweet Angel, let mama fix you up. Come on Henry.” You said as you took her from Bucky and left.

Steve’s heart was beating wildly out of his chest. He wanted to follow you just to make sure Lottie was ok. As soon as he took his first step Bucky stopped him and shook his head.

“I just want to make sure she’s ok.”

“She went through glass Steve of course she’s not ok. Just wait until I call you. Maybe make sure that crazy bitch is actually gone.” Bucky says before leaving.

Everyone starts to slowly and quietly leave while Steve just stands there unsure of what to do. His phone rings, breaking him out of the unfocused haze he was in.

“What do you want?” His tone was cold and full of anger.

“Your friend broke my nose. Aren’t you going to do anything about it?” Julie whined over the phone.

“I did do something. I got her off of you before she did more damage. You’re welcome.”

“She can’t go around hitting people. And your other friend threatened to make me disappear just because of what happened with the kid.”

“You hurt her daughter, what do you think she was going to do? Let you do it? Lose my number.” Steve snaps at her, deciding to ignore the comment about Nat.

“You’re breaking up with me because of a brat? Are you serious?”

“I’m breaking up with you because you showed me your true colors today. And she isn’t a brat, she’s a sweet kid.” He hangs up the phone and crushes it in his hands as it begins to ring again.

The elevator doors open and Nat walks back out as if nothing had happened. She pats his shoulder as she walks by him.

“I’ll go make sure Lottie’s ok and I’ll let you know. Why don’t you go up to your apartment?”

“Nat…” Steve’s eyes watered, he was overwhelmed with the whole situation. Never in his life did he think something like this could happen. Especially to Charlotte and because of him. Nat pulls him into a hug and he’s grateful but he wishes it was you or Bucky. He wanted to know neither of you were angry with him.

“Go, I promise to find you as soon as I know.”

Steve nods and turns towards the elevators. Shoulders slumped and head hanging low.

“It’s ok my sweet Angel, you’re safe. I just need to clean you up.” You murmured as you comforted a still crying Charlotte.

Your blood was boiling as you looked down at the cuts and bruises all over her face and arms. It was probably going to be a long night since she didn’t like the medbay but it was necessary.

“Henry, could you help me with your sister?”

He had watched everything happen since he followed you and Bucky. Currently he was shifting in and out of a translucent form. That only happened when he was overwhelmed emotionally.

“Are you going to hurt her because of what happened?”

“Of course not honey, she didn’t do anything wrong. I’m going to clean these because if I don’t then she can get sick and we don’t want that. But I need you to sit with her because she isn’t going to like it.”

With a pout of his own Henry gets up on the hospital bed. Following your instructions to sit back and hold his sister in his lap.

“Now Charlotte I have to clean all of these ok? It’s going to hurt a little but mama isn’t doing it on purpose. I don’t want to hurt you, ok?”

“Ok.” She says through stuttered breath.

Just as you put on a glove Bucky walks in. In his posture alone you can see he’s furious. It doesn’t help that he’s pacing back and forth and for a moment you remember his days as the winter soldier.

“Bucky,” you try to get his attention. “James.” His eyes snap to yours. “I need you to calm down or get out.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Extremely. But you’re scaring the kids and I can’t have that in here right at this moment.”

Bucky immediately softens his expression as he looks towards his babies. He walks over and sits at the other side of the bed.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Just be here with us.” You say as you begin to numb the areas that have small shards of glass.

Then your attention went to cleaning up the other cuts. They were small enough that they’d be gone in a few hours. Henry asks a thousand questions about what you’re doing which helps him stay distracted. After some crying, promises of more cake and a sleepover you got Lottie all patched up. Henry holds her hand as they walk out of the room followed by you and then Bucky.

“There’s the birthday girl.” Sam said.

The rest of the team cheered as Lottie and Henry got closer to the waiting room. Lottie looks around the room and pouts but walks toward Nat.

“Uppies?” She asks quietly and Nat picks her up happily.

“That was intense.” Bruce speaks up.

“Yeah, she’s gone right?”

“She’s gone.”

“She was insane. I mean how do you willingly hurt a kid like that?” Sam chimes in.

“Is bitch.” Lottie added and the talking ceased. Immediately the team starts to snicker and Lottie smiles.

“Don’t laugh. Lottie you can’t say that word, it’s a bad word.”

“Mama say it.” She points out as she looks at her father.

“Yeah but mama is a grown up and she shouldn’t have said it either.” Bucky tells his daughter.

“Sammie say it. And Buce say it. And to-“

“Ok kid that's enough. Maybe we can teach you that you don’t snitch on your uncles.” Tony cuts her off.

“Ok, this birthday has gotten out of hand. Let’s just call it a night and be thankful that that evil woman is out of our lives.”

“Bitch is bye bye?”

“Charlotte Elise Barnes.”

“What dada?” She smiles up at him and he can’t help but smile back.

“Don’t say that word anymore.”

“Kay. Can habe sleepover?”

“Yes we can, my sweet Angel. Say goodnight to everyone.” You take her from Nat before muttering. “I can’t believe her birthday was ruined.”

“Isn’t it a great thing that I planned a birthday bash for her on Saturday then?”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Saturday, birthday bash for our sweet Angel here. She deserves it. It’s going to be a pool party. I have everything handled and I even got the kiddo a new bathing suit.” Tony smiled once he finished talking.

“You know what, it’s fine with me. She deserves a do over.”

“Great because I already received the rsvps so it would have been very awkward.”

“Who is coming to this?”

“The Bartons, the Wilsons, and any agent that has kids.”

“Ok. We are leaving now.” You say and walk away to head up to your apartment.

After some quick showers and changing into fresh and warm pajamas the four of you had piled onto your bed. While trying to make up for the disastrous birthday party you let Lottie pick a movie to watch. Beauty and the Beast specifically, what a surprise. She fell asleep first, then Henry and surprisingly Bucky. You however could not even close your eyes as you stared at the ceiling.

There was one thing you had to do before you could even consider sleeping. With your attention on keeping Charlotte safe and then cleaning up her wounds you hadn’t stopped to think about Steve. Knowing how much he loved the kids, the guilt must be gnawing at him. You look over at the three sleeping forms, Henry laying on top of his father and Lottie tucked into his side, you get out of bed quietly and head to the only place Steve could possibly be.

****

You’ve heard it countless times, the sound of a punching bag ripping was unmistakable now. It was a sound that was burned into your brain from every time you’d found Steve in a gym. Late night sessions only meant one thing, he was sliding deep into a dark corner of his mind with feelings he didn’t know to express. You waited patiently at one of the benches as he hooked up another bag. His movements stopped before he began his assault on the bag again. Steve reluctantly takes the empty space beside you, the silence and the tension is awkward between you. You look over his features and know he’s already punishing himself more than necessary.

“So that was fucking wild.” You murmured. “Would you have visited me in prison if I killed her?”

“No.”

You look up at him surprised.

“I’d be planning your escape.”

You smile but he looks defeated. Still you wait patiently. After years of friendship you learned that Steve will talk about his emotions when he’s ready. There was no need to push.

“How is she? Is she ok? Was there any serious injury?”

“She’s fine, asleep. Most of the cuts are already gone.” You assured Steve and patted his back.

“How did Julie even get her in that hallway?”

“Yeah about that. You aren’t going to like the answer.”

Steve finally looks at you. His expression was a mixture of guilt and sadness.

“What is it?”

“Charlotte was at the elevators because she was looking for you. I saw the surveillance footage. Julie walked out of the elevator and cornered her. Told her some very untrue things and then Bucky and I showed up.” You sigh as you remember the footage. “Lottie was scared and she called out for us and then she called out for you.”

“I am so sorry.” He said, slumping forward and leaning his forearms on his thighs. “I was so stupid thinking she would be good for me. She was so sweet when we first met.”

“Steve, you didn’t do anything wrong, except maybe not tell me you were dating someone. Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to take attention away from everything going on with the kids while you were in Wakanda. I thought by bringing her to the party she could see what my life was like and she could see who matters the most to me.”

“Steve, I’ll always have time for you. I couldn’t even go to bed because I knew you were upset. Now I know something else is bothering you, what is it?”

“I feel like I’m falling behind.” He admits and in moments like this you’re very grateful that your friendship has progressed enough that neither of you had to dance around your feelings. “Remember that conversation we had when we worked at Shield? About dating and wanting a family?”

It took you a moment but you remembered.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“I wasn’t ready then, I thought I was ready now. But I was wrong, so fucking wrong. I let my want of starting a family cloud my judgment. She isn’t a great person to begin with and now knowing I can’t even protect a child from getting hurt because of me… Lottie probably hates me and the worst was she tried to warn me.”

“Well, do you know what the best part about having kids is?”

Steve just shakes his head.

“They tend to forgive easily, especially those they love. And if there’s one thing everyone knows is that that little girl loves you so much.” You say as you look from him to the door.

He turns his head just in time to watch Charlotte walk in. She wore her princess pajamas and was holding on to her pink teddy bear. Still sleepy and hair a mess she slowly got closer to the pair of you until she stood in front of you with a silent demand to be picked up. You turned her to face Steve. He was even more of a mess now that he could see the bruises and the few cuts that were still in place.

“What are you doing up and wandering around by yourself?”

“Wanted mama.”

You hum as you play with Lottie’s hair. Her focus though was on Steve, she looked almost sad as she stared at him.

“Are you ok sweetheart?” He asked after a moment. Lottie sighed at the question.

“Am steebie’s best girl?”

The question was asked shyly and with much more apprehension than a four year old should possess. The same question was enough to bring a super soldier that has seen enough war to last various lifetimes to his knees.

“Of course you’re my best girl. You always will be. No matter what anyone else says.” Steve takes Charlotte from you and brings her into a gentle hug. When he pulls back, Steve looks down at her. “I’m so sorry Charlotte.”

“Steebie is good. Lobe Steebie. No wike…”

“Don’t like what, sweet Angel?”

Charlotte looks at Steve and back at you and sighs before she whispers. “Bitch.”

Steve’s eyes go wide and you cover your mouth to hide the smile.

“Charlotte, your father said not to say that word.”

She looked around the empty gym and back at you before she shrugged. “Dada seeping.”

Steve laughs for the first time since he showed up for the party.

“Don’t laugh, she’ll think it’s ok to say it.”

“I’m sorry.” Steve shook his head before placing a kiss on Lottie’s forehead. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

Lottie yawns and blinks slowly up at Steve with a sleepy and sweet smile.

“I think we should get to bed.”

“Yeah.”

“Steve

“Yeah?” He says as he gives Charlotte back to you.

You deserve all of the happiness in the world. You’ll find your person when the time is right and then you’ll have everything you ever wanted.”

“If I could get just a fraction of what you and Bucky have, I’d be happy.”

“You’ll have a love that rivals ours.” You smile at him. “Now come on, you need your rest too. By the way, did you know Tony was throwing a birthday bash on Saturday for Lottie?”

He gives you a sheepish smile as you get into the elevator. You just shake your head.

“You should be happy that you’re my best friend.”

“Trust me I am. I never want to be on the other side of your protective mama bear side.”

“Good. Now I’m gonna get her to bed. Goodnight Steve and do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t blame yourself for any of this, I know she doesn’t.”

“I’ll try. Goodnight.”

****

You walk back into the bedroom to find Henry and Bucky just as you left them, or so you thought. The moment you lay down with Charlotte tucked into your side Bucky turns his head toward you.

“How is he?”

“Better now, I hope. You know how he is. He blamed himself for what happened.” You whispered.

“I’m guessing seeing Lottie also helped him.”

“Yup, I’m surprised you didn’t freak out when she wasn’t in bed.”

“I asked Friday, she told me Lottie was heading your way. Was she ok seeing Steve?”

“Yeah, you know she’d kick us to the curve if it meant spending time with him.”

He chuckles at that before finding your hand and intertwining his fingers with yours.

“You were amazing today. With everything, not just the incident. I love you.”

“I love you more.”

Saturday rolled around faster than you would have liked. But the day was bright and hot, perfect for a pool party. Or in this case a water park because you should have known better than to assume a pool party for Tony was just using the pool. He had rented out as many inflatable water slides, bounce houses, ball pits, smaller pools and anything else water related he could. Game booths were set up to one side, a DJ was already playing songs. There were water guns and water balloon stations everywhere as well as towels for everyone. Tony had even gone as far as having extra swimsuits available for those who needed them. There were all kinds of food trucks and to top it all off a smaller version of the petting zoo he’d brought last time. The most important part of it though was the goat pen. All of the goats had on a version of the team's suits. It was ridiculous but you knew Lottie would love it.

The team stood to the side watching the birthday bash come to life as the guest walked from the parking lot to the entrance of the party.

You redid Henry’s messy little man bun to make sure he didn’t have to worry about getting his long hair in his face. Bucky was holding onto Charlotte who wore the bathing suit Tony got for her. A one piece bathing suit that looked like Belle’s yellow dress. Her hair was up in pigtails and she wore a sash that said birthday girl on it. She even had yellow water shoes to complete the look.

“Are you ready to have fun at your birthday party?” Tony asked Lottie.

“Is mine?” Lottie asked, wonderstruck at everything that was laid out before her.

“Of course it’s for you.”

“So nice. Tank you Tony.” She reached out for him to take her and her arms wrapped around his neck. “Lobe Tony.”

“Well I love you right back kiddo. Now how about we go have fun.”

“Habe fun.” Lottie claps in excitement and she’s whisked away by Tony, the rest of the team following close behind. Even Henry left you and Bucky behind as he ran alongside Steve.

Bucky takes your hand and you both take your time walking towards the festivities. As soon as you do though a water balloon hits Bucky straight in the chest followed by Henry’s giggles.

“Go get ‘em babe.” You say and let go of his hand. Bucky walks away slowly, it should be more intimidating but Henry just laughs before disappearing.

“Oh it’s so on.”

You look around to find Tony still had Lottie with him so you turn and find Wanda and Nat sitting back and tanning. They waved you over so you take the seat beside Wanda and the three of you just start catching up on everything you’ve missed the last three weeks.

****

You’re currently finishing up some ice cream with Bucky and the kids, sitting at one of the picnic tables in the shade when a security guard finds you. He’s polite and apologetic when he stops by the table.

“Ma’am I’m sorry to bother you but you’re needed at the entrance.” He smiles at you.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, your father is here and he asked if you could meet him there first.”

“Oh, thank you. Make sure you get some ice cream before you head back, it’s hot out.”

“I’m on duty ma’am but thank you.”

“If someone says something you send them my way.” You smile at him before turning to Bucky. “I’ll be right back.”

You head out towards the makeshift parking lot excited to see your dad after almost two months. This was all that was missing for the day to be perfect and you knew Lottie would be excited to see her grandpa. The smile you had on your face vanishes as you lay your eyes on your father. Standing beside him is your mother and your three siblings. You notice by his body language alone that your dad is pissed as he argues with you mother.

“Dad, is everything ok?” You ask once you stop in front of them. They all turn to face you.

“Hey Kitten.” He walks closer and pulls you into a hug. “I’m so sorry about this. I had no idea they were coming.”

“It’s ok.”

“Y/N, you can’t say hello to the rest of your family.”

“Hello mother. Hello everyone else.”

Beside your mother there was your older brother with his wife and daughter who was just a year older than Charlotte and your younger siblings. They were fraternal twins, one boy and one girl.

“What are you all doing here?”

Your mother scoffs. “You’ve never even invited us to your home and that is how you’re going to greet us?”

“Well no one other than dad has ever cared about me so why should I invite you here?”

“You are so dramatic Y/N. Our lives don’t revolve around you.”

“Loraine, don’t start.” Your father warned.

“Look, it’s my daughter’s birthday and if this is how you’re going to behave then you can leave right now because I won’t let you ruin this for her.”

“We just got the invitation, if you want us to go we will.” Luke, your older brother offered. You looked at him and then at his daughter who seemed excited to be there.

“Gwandpa!”

Lottie’s excited squeal came from the entrance to the festivities. As you turned you saw a yellow dot running full force towards you. Just behind her was Bucky and Henry. Your dad takes one knee and opens his arms to embrace Lottie. He’s almost knocked back with the force she slams into him and she giggles.

“There’s my princess. Happy birthday Charlotte.” Your dad pulled back to take a good look at her. “You’ve grown up so much and look at your hair.” He pulled lightly at one of the pigtails causing Lottie to giggle.

“Am big gwandpa. Am dis many.”

She holds up four little fingers to show him how old she is.

“That is a big girl, do big girls like presents.”

“Lobe pwesents.” She giggles again just as Bucky stopped beside you.

“Help an old man up Buck.”

“Sure thing Ed.” Bucky gives him a hand and pulls him up. Your dad excuses himself quickly to go back to his car.

“This is Bucky my boyfriend, Bucky this is my family. This is my mother Lorraine, my older brother Luke, his wife Molly and their daughter Olivia. And these are the twins Josh and Sofia.” You announce before looking down at the kids. “And these are our kids Henry and Charlotte.”

Your dad gets back just as you’re done with the introductions. There’s a bit of an awkward silence before your mother breaks it.

“They look nothing like you.”

You take a deep breath before answering. “If you plan on doing anything to ruin this party I will personally kick you out and smile while doing it. I don’t even know why you’re here but for the sake of my children I’m not going to cause a scene.”

You feel a little pat on your thigh and you look down at Charlotte.

“Yes sweet Angel?”

“Mama can pay wit new fwiend?” She asks as she points at your niece Olivia.

“You have to ask her parents first.”

Lottie turns around and looks up at your brother.

“Can pay wit new fwiend?”

“What do you say Olivia? Do you want to go play with Charlotte and Henry?” Your brother asks his very shy daughter. She only nods as she looks up at her dad. In turn he looks at you and you smile at him. “Ok you kids can go play.”

Lottie holds out her hand and Olivia takes it. Then she holds out her hand for Henry and they’re off running back to all the fun.

“I'll keep an eye on them.” Molly offers. “It’s good to see you again Y/N.” She says with a smile as she walks past you.

“Good to see you too.”

“I’ll go with her. I know how Lottie can be.” Your dad winks at you.

After they’ve gone you’re left with your mother and siblings. Bucky standing next to you with his hand on the small of your back.

“So, are we going to have any issues?”

“Nope.” The twins say in unison.

“No, I’d like Olivia to get to know her aunt, uncle and cousins.”

You smiled at your brother’s words and his subtle acceptance of Bucky even though your relationship barely existed. Everyone looks at your mother and even though she has sunglasses you know she’s rolling her eyes.

“Fine.”

“Good. Come on, I'll show you guys around.” You said it more to your siblings but your mother trailed behind.

Luke was quick to find Molly and your dad close to where the kids were playing. As soon as you’re in their sights Lottie comes up with Olivia by her side. It seems like they took to each other like ducks to water and you could at least be grateful for that. Olivia looks up at you, she looks very much like your brother when he was younger. She seems hesitant to say something but you crouch down at her level.

“Are you having fun?”

She nods.

“Did you want something? Maybe some juice or ice cream?”

She shakes her head and you smile softly at her. Olivia leans in and you mirror her.

“Do you know black widow?” She whispers with her hands cupping her mouth.

“I do, would you like to meet her?”

Olivia’s eyes go wide before she nods. You turn toward your brother silently asking for permission.

“I’ll go with you.” He says as he gets up from the table.

You look at Bucky who just nods in your direction.

“Come on Lottie, let’s find Nat.”

Lottie takes Olivia’s hand while you walk side by side with your brother. You find Nat not too far from where you were. Some agent was trying to chat her up. She looked bored at most so when she saw you she was quick to end the conversation.

“There you are, I was wondering where you went. And who’s this?” She eyed your brother and then your niece.

“This is my brother Luke and my niece, Olivia, she really wanted to meet you.”

“Hello.” Nat said as she crouched down to be at the girl’s eye level.

“Nat, habe new fwiend. Is olibia.”

“It’s nice to meet you Olivia, my name is Nat. Are you having fun?”

Olivia nods her head as she slightly hides behind Lottie. You shoot Nat a grateful smile as she continues to make conversation with the girls.

“She seems like a great kid.” Luke tells you.

“She is, she’s the extrovert out of the two of them. I think Henry will get there eventually.”

“You seem happy.”

“Extremely happy.”

“I probably don’t have the right to ask or anything but… does he treat you right? I mean I know about his past and I’m not judging him or anything but I just want to know that you’re ok.”

Luke had always tried his best to keep you safe when he could but he was also a child. Eventually he did as he was told, mostly staying away from you. If he didn’t he’d get in trouble too.

“He does, Bucky is a wonderful man and father. He’d do anything for us.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you found someone, you deserve to be happy.”

“Thank you. I’d like to maybe set up a day so the girls can play. Maybe a weekend so that you can stay over or even have the kids do a sleepover.”

“Yeah, we can manage that.”

You smile up at your brother before turning back to the girls and offering to play some games with them.

****

Steve runs up to you with a smile on his face. It was nice to see him back to his old self. His eyes drift from you to Luke.

“Hey magnet,” he gave you a cheeky smile. “Where’d you go?”

“I was meeting my family at the parking lot. Steve this is my older brother Luke, Luke this is Steve.”

“Wow, it is such an honor to meet you.” Your brother sticks his hand out excitedly. But you could see Steve’s expression change slightly.

“I thought I’d never get to meet the rest of Y/N’s family.”

“Steebie look, habe new fwiend.” Lottie comes up to the three of you. “Is olibia.”

“This is my niece.”

“Hello darling, are you having fun?” Steve asks as he crouches down. Lottie immediately getting closer to Steve could wrap his arms around her. She rests her back into his chest. Olivia nods shyly at him before she gives him a smile. “Well that’s good. Lottie, have you seen your brother?”

“Bubba wit gwandpa.” She points towards the picnic tables.

“Eddie’s here?”

“Yup.” You say. “I’ll walk back with you so I can introduce you to everyone else.”

Once you’re at the table again you introduce Steve to the rest of your family, your sister in law and younger siblings gawk at shirtless Steve. Always a gentleman Steve shakes hands but you can see his jaw clench when he reaches your mother. He’d seen you cry enough times over this family to know she was the main cause of it.

“Henry, did you want to do that water balloon fight now? We can sneak up on Sam and Clint.”

“Yeah!” Henry shot up out of his seat.

“I’ll bring him back in a bit.”

“Hey doll, wanna go play with the goats?” Bucky had turned to Lottie.

“Can pay wit olibia an goats?”

Your mother scoffs. “Should you really be allowing Olivia around her for so long? I mean we don’t know the child. She could be a bad influence.”

You could hear the metal plates of Bucky’s arm adjusting as he clenched his fist. Immediately you put your hand on his forearm and squeeze. A silent request to let you handle it.

“They’ve been playing just fine.

“Really mom?”

“Why would you say that?”

Your dad, Luke and Molly speak up. Lottie doesn’t understand what’s going on so she just looks up at your brother with hopeful eyes

“I’ll go with ya Buck.” Your dad offers. “Come on girls, let's go see the goats.” The girls happily start walking away from the table still holding hands.

Bucky silently gets up from the table and walks away stepping in line with your father.

“What is wrong with you?”

“What? I know we’re all thinking about it.” Your mother shrugs her shoulders.

“Ma,” Henry reappeared across from you on the table, startling everyone else. His smile was brilliant and his eyes were bright and you can’t help but smile back at him. “I got uncle Clint in the face with a water balloon, twice.”

“You should see how many more times you can get him before he gets you.”

“Ok.” He says happily before running and then literally disappearing into the crowd.

“He turns invisible?” Josh asks.

“Yup.”

“That’s Awesome.”

“What about his sister?” This time it’s Sofia asked.

“She can see the future.”

“Oh great two more freaks.” Your mother mutters but it was loud enough for you to hear.

It was enough to make your blood boil. To your surprise your siblings and Molly came to the kids' defense. But you stood up and grabbed your mother by her arm and pulled her in the direction of the building. This conversation was a long time coming and you weren’t going to do it in public.

You made it to the closest conference room available, shutting the door behind your mother and your siblings. It took you a moment to compose yourself because of years of mistreatment and full on neglect on your mother’s part.

“Don’t you ever talk about them like that ever again.”

“Why are you always overreacting?”

“I am not overreacting, you are just cruel. You always have been, you’ve always treated me differently than them.” You motioned toward your brothers and sister. “I had no choice but to accept it but I won’t allow you to disrespect my family.”

“Your family?” Your mother scoffs. “One freak raising two more. That man is just playing house with you. Do you think he really wouldn’t be out there looking for someone better? I mean I know he’s a murderer and everything but still, he could do so much better than you.”

“Mom!” Luke yelled. “That’s enough.”

“What Luke? Don’t tell me you aren’t thinking the same thing. He’s playing house with a freak just so that she can raise his two kids. It’s pathetic even for you.”

“That’s enough! I didn’t ask for any of this.

What did I ever do to you?”

“You were born!” She yells. “From the first moment you started showing signs you were weird, absolutely everything revolved around you. It was exhausting. We had to change everything about our lives to accommodate you and somehow you still managed to hurt us.”

“I didn’t ask to be born with my abilities but you chose to treat me the way you did. I’m sick of your attitude and the way you made sure none of my siblings ever wanted to be around me. You treated me like the black sheep of the family for something I had no control over. And on top of that you were always so abusive.”

“Abusive?” Eddie asked behind you. You whipped around to find your dad accompanied by Bucky and Molly. You assumed the latter had gone to find them. “What abuse?”

“It’s nothing dad.”

“Bullshit.” Luke spoke up and the twins nodded in agreement. “If you don’t say anything I will.”

“There is nothing to say, she’s being dramatic like always.”

“She’s not, dad.” Sofia spoke up. “It only happened whenever you were gone.”

“Mom was horrible to Y/N. She would tell us that Y/N was going to kill us because she couldn’t control herself. Mom would keep her locked up in the basement for hours.” Josh looked in your direction. “We’re sorry for everything, we know better now.”

Bucky moved towards you, he pulled you in and wiped away the tears you had started shedding. This was too much, the heartbreak on your father’s face was making the room feel too small.

“Why did no one else say anything? Why didn’t you?” Your father looked from your siblings to you.

“I was a scared kid.”

“Kitten…” you could see the guilt in his eyes before he turned to your mother. “Everyone get out.”

“Dad

“I said out.” His tone is not leaving space to argue.

The moment the door is closed you can hear him yelling at your mother. Bucky pulled you away from the shouting and into his chest. You sobbed into his chest as he comforted you.

“Don’t.” He whispered before you heard your brother behind you.

“She’s my sister.”

“Yeah? Then where were you when she needed you? Once you grew up you were free to make your own choices and you chose to keep quiet. You left her alone and made her think she wasn’t loved.”

“I’m gonna go find the kids.” You pulled away from Bucky and gave him a sad smile.

“Y/N, can we talk, please?”

“I don’t really want to talk right now.” You say over your shoulder.

Before you take a step the door to the conference room opens and your mother looks furious. It was the same look that she would use to terrorize you. It was full of anger, disgust and hate, but those were her true feelings towards you. She walked toward you with purpose. You froze on the spot, breath caught in your lungs as the same fear crept up on you. At that moment you weren’t highly trained in hand to hand combat or an avenger. You hadn’t been through multiple near death experiences. No, in that moment you were a little girl

Bucky was one step ahead and as your mother lifted her hand to slap you, just as she had done some many times before, he stopped her. The look on her face mirrored the horror in yours as she looked at the black and gold pattern of Bucky’s arm.

“Let go of me, you murderer.” She raged.

Bucky turned her so that she would face him and took a step toward her. With every step he took she would move back one until she hit a wall. His left hand rested against the wall near her head, his eyes were dark and face held a murderous expression.

“You don’t get to hurt her anymore.” Bucky said through gritted teeth. Although he was channeling the winter soldier more than anything.

“You touch me, I'll make sure you go to jail.”

“And you think I wouldn’t smile in my mug shot? You leave right now and you never come back. And she isn’t a freak or weird, she’s a great woman,an amazing friend and an incredible mother. You don’t deserve to be breathing the same air as her. Get out.” Bucky said before stepping back. Everyone in the hallway hadn’t dared to move as they watched him.

“Luke, Sofia, Josh let’s go.”

You shut down at that point. It’s what always happens. They did as they were told, they didn’t think about how much it hurt you that they never really stood up for you or protected you. Your mother started walking toward the door confidently thinking your siblings were following her. She turned around and glared at them.

“I said let’s go.”

“No mom.” Sofia shook her head. “We want to stay.”

“Josh. Let’s go.”

Josh shakes his head and steps closer to Sofia.

“Luke?”

“Mom, we're done doing what you tell us.”

“Do you see what you’ve done? You’ve broken this family.” Your mom tells you.

“Lorraine you’ve done enough. Leave.”

“Fine but I don’t want any of you to look for me once you realize the mistake you’ve made by choosing this freak and her so-called family.”

She glared at you one last time and walked out. You can see a security guard just outside escorting away from the building and the party. Once the door closed you felt like you could breathe again. You looked at your siblings and then at your dad who took a step closer to you but you held your hand up.

“I need a minute.” You whispered and then walked away.

****

You gave yourself thirty minutes. Just half an hour to cry before pulling yourself together to celebrate your sweet angel’s birthday the right way. You washed your face and headed outside.

The afternoon went by a whole lot better. The team was aware that something had happened but they didn’t pry and you were thankful for that. Your family tried to talk about it but you shut them down immediately, the day wasn’t about you. You decided to focus on Charlotte and Henry and do anything and everything you could to see those beaming smiles on their faces.

As the sun was setting Tony gathered everyone around the dance floor and brought the team and your family to the front. He presented Lottie with another cake and everyone that was there sang happy birthday. She giggled just like she did the first time.

Once the sun finally set and most of the guests were gone you asked your family to stay. Bucky was kind enough to set them up in the apartment he once occupied. While he did that you made sure the kids showered and then you did as well. Charlotte had asked if she could have a sleepover with Olivia and neither you or your brother could say no.

As you finish tucking the girls in you can hear whispered voices coming from Henry’s room. You get closer to the door to hear Henry and your dad talking.

*****

“So you’re mama’s dad?” Henry asks.

“Yup, and that makes me your grandpa.”

“What do grandpas do?”

“Oh well we can do all sorts of things. We have fun together, give you candy and extra dessert even if your parents say no. Especially if your parents say no. We can go fishing together. As a matter of fact I’m gonna take you and your dad on a fishing trip real soon.” Eddie explains.

“Would you love me? Even if I’m a freak?”

“Why would you think you’re a freak?”

“I heard that lady say it. She told mom she was a freak and that she was raising two more freaks. I know mama was sad about it but she didn’t want to show it. Who was that lady?”

“Did you disappear and follow them in?” Henry nodded and Eddie sighed. He looked at Henry before pulling him out of bed and sitting him in his lap.

“That was your mom’s mom.”

“But she’s so mean. Mama isn’t mean, mama is good. She always takes care of us and gives us hugs and kisses when we’re sad. Why can’t her mama do that?”

“I wish I knew Henry. Your mama is so good and she has so much love to give. I think that’s why she’s such a good mama. And she deserves to have people that love her just as much. But to answer your other question, yes, I do love you and I don’t think you’re a freak. You and your sister are special like your mom and while there will be people that won’t accept you, you’ll always have your family that will love and support you.”

Henry just nods while looking up at his grandfather.

“Now do you want me to read you a book before lights out?”

“Yes please.”

“Alright kiddo get into bed while I get a book.”

****

You turn away just as Bucky walks back into the hallway. He quietly follows you into your bedroom and watches you walk around finishing your nighttime routine. Bucky settles down in bed and the moment you join him he pulls you into his lap. He lets you cry for as long as you want while he holds on tightly.

“I’ve got you, sugar. Just let it out.”

“Today was a lot. I didn’t expect to see them here. I almost ruined everything.”

“Oh baby no you didn’t.” Bucky put a hand under your chin so that he could make you look at him. “You handled that very well, even when she was insulting our kids. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that as a kid.”

“Is it sad that it wasn’t even as bad as what I got?”

“Just a little, but you don’t have to worry about her anymore. You have me and the kids, the team. And your family is here.”

“They stayed.” You whispered.

“They chose you this time. And that should count for something.”

“It does but I don’t know where to go from here.”

“It’s not your job to fix it, it’s theirs. But we’ll figure it out tomorrow.” Bucky moved you two around until you were both lying back all cuddled up.

“Thank you for being there for me today.”

“You don’t have to thank me, protecting you and the kids is my job. I’ll go up against anyone that tries to hurt you. It doesn’t matter if it’s your mom or hydra, I won’t stop until you’re safe.”

You knew he was right. Still you voiced your thanks again. The next day would bring on new emotions and old wounds would be open but hopefully you would be going in the right direction. A chance to finally have a relationship with your own siblings and give the kids more people to love them.

Ch 21

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#my little love series #Bucky Barnes x reader #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #girl dad!bucky barnes x reader #boy dad!bucky Barnes x reader #charlotte barnes #henry barnes

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mysteriousdragon2 · 4 months ago

Text

Howdy everyone. Been a while since I posted anything, hasn’t it? Well, now I finally have the time to sit down, and talk about my feelings and what’s been happening. So, again this is venting, if you don’t want to hear it, you may disregard this post. But if you want to read, everything is in the “keep reading” tab. Thank you.

First of all, I’d like to say that it’s been difficult drawing digitally. My art device keeps acting up, and I’m fed up with it. So for the moment, you will most likely see me draw traditionally. A shame too because my traditional doodles don’t get as much love as my digital pieces, but it is what it is. So if I owe anyone any art pieces, chances are they’ll be done traditionally.

Second of all, which is relevant to the first point, it’s been getting hot where I live. 30+ degrees all week, making it hard to draw. I just apologize for taking so long in terms of art in general.

Third of all, my “parents” keep shaming me for who I am. Whether it’s as an artist, or for my body. But they adore to mentally bring me down, sometimes accusing me of having a mental illness or depression.

This household of mine is indeed a curse, you’re damn right Hol Horse. It’s simply infuriating that nobody understands my feelings around the house, everytime I express a single thing about myself, it goes to rot and put themselves first. And they say they worry for me for being away from home…please, it’s for my own good. My mental state has been declining a lot since then. The heat fries my brain, and my household is making me feel insignificant about myself. It’s bad enough that my self-esteem isn’t the greatest due to my past.

Fourth point, I’ll be honest. Making friends with a lot of people at this point feels pointless because 70-80% of the friends I make abandon me without saying a word, or neglect. Not a pleasant feeling. Hurts me a lot. There’s been many friends I’ve made that did just that, and even if I try to reach out to them every now and then, no luck. So I’ve kinda…stopped trying. People can be busy, or have more going on in life than expected and that’s understandable. But if you don’t say anything, I’ll never know a single thing.

What does it mean? It means that things have been very slow on my behalf. Too much stress on my mind, and I hardly have any time for myself anymore. It’s saddening, but I’ll still keep drawing, even if it’s severally slow. Just wanted to inform to those who’re reading this post that I’m still around, just exhausted from life.

I’d like to mention a couple people in this post: @spamtonjuice420 , @stardust-vi , and @fellow-traveller

Why, you ask? Simple. You guys have been amazing people in my life in many ways. Very talented artists, very kind individuals, and chill to talk to. We all know Hol Horse, so that’s a massive plus…I love how I’ve converted some people into liking Hol Horse too hah. But I just wished I could speak to some of you more often. But I can’t control what happens in one’s life, and I’ll simply have to be patient until I get an answer. But…even to all of my followers, it means a lot to me that you guys stick around too for my content. Even if it’s not that great. Thank you so much.

I’ll try to post commissions too. Even if they’re traditional, the prices will probably have to be juggled, but I’ll do something. Chances are, they will be rather cheap for a while. Just something to think about.

Thank you guys for sticking around, and have a good one. I’ll be trying my best to post something soon.

(Sources are from the Anime, OVA, and CDDH volume 1, chapter 1 pages 10-11)

#hol horse #ova hol horse #jjba #ova jjba #jjba part 3 #stardust crusaders #spin off #crazy diamond’s demonic heartbreak #jojos bizarre adventure #venting #commission talk

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a-mel-tomelts · 1 year ago

Note

This is about the post you made wanting shuake content. I really wanted to come in with “they were two bros, chillin in a hot tub. 2 feet apart cause they ARE gay.” But then uh. My brain went:

Shuake is canon because Goro has 0 plot important reasons to be interested in akira personally.

The easiest option would be to wait in mementos. Or to even find calling card targets and observe them doing boss fights and follow them out for the first three. But by the fourth he knows makoto well enough that by Kaneshiro’s palace; he would recognise her and them.

So why get to know someone like he did? Why trauma dump in Leblanc? Why trauma dump in the bathhouse? Why bring him to his most special place (jazz bar)? Why house husband browse by asking if he cooks. And many people would argue this could be platonic: which I agree it could be just opening up to a friend. Could be finding solice in the ONE person who understood him.

But then WHY such flirtatious language!! Honey I’m home scene? The “you’re special/different” the “haha I was going to say something weird. Bye” (or something akin to that) At the end of one of their phone calls.

And if akira didn’t return these feelings why did holding onto the memory of goro by keeping his glove make goro cling to life? Why did morgana say that thing in the engine room?

Fellas is it homoromantic to be brought back from the clutches of death based on the feelings my homie holds for me?

Fuck it I’m going off anon for this. I’m not normal about the two of them.

They (goro) might be a bit toxic but call me Brittney cause I’m slipping under. I mean they were hand picked by a God to fist fight and see who wins. I think after all of the trauma that put them through they should be allowed to hold hands in the rubble of that Gods stadium.

Anyway.

God I’m so sorry for what I’ve cursed your inbox with

How does it feel to be so right and be brave about it?

#SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PPL IN THE BACK #YOU ARE SO CORRECT #biased +1 to you for Loki pfp #loki pfps are never wrong #feel free to send more asks like this #I'll prepare coffee and pancakes #shuake #akeshu #akeshuake #shuakeshu

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yougavemeyourheartyouknow · 1 year ago

Text

Love me or hate me, both are in my favor (Miguel O’Hara x Fem! Reader [HS Academic rivals AU])

Hiiiiii! Sorry for the long wait, I wrote most of this chapter while rewatching to all the boys I’ve loved before because reader is sooooo Laura Jean coded. Not proofread, enjoy!

(E/C)- Eye color, (L/N)- Last name.

Mentions of suicide, mentions of poison, mentions of stabbing, (Romeo and Juliet spoilers???), Cursing.

Word count: 1.6k

Series Masterlist Series playlist

Chapter 4: I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you,

—

Monday, your first day back to classes since your little incident, and although you wanted to be excited for it, it was hard. Sure, the ability to leave your small cramped dorm room was nice, being able to feel the crisp November air breeze through you once more rather than the shitty AC system in your dorm was a nice change of pace from the past few days, but your injury made the whole thing annoying.

Having to awkwardly place your crutches next to your desk and praying to God they didn’t fall in the middle of class (they did about a fourth of the time), pretending like you didn’t feel the stares of your other classmates when you go from one class to another, or acting like you don’t see them turn to their friends and whisper about you. It also gave almost every guy within a 20 foot radius a “knight in shining armor syndrome”, so if it looked like you were even so much as struggling to grab a pencil from your bag, you’d have to deal with a bunch of senior boys racing each other in order to be the first to help you. Lucky you have most of your classes with MJ, being your actual knight in shining armor, shooing them away from you like they were a pack of stay dogs, but when she wasn’t around you they stuck to you like flies in honey. You and MJ weren’t the only ones annoyed by theses guys.

Currently, you’re sitting in your Advanced placement literature class. Your teacher droning on about your next and last assignment before your class would move onto the next unit which was the Victorian era of literature, usually you would be excited about starting a new class unit but your usual energy had been thoroughly drained out of you due to all the extra attention you weren’t used to. Sure you were one of the “well-known” and “prettier” girls on campus but you never had the amount of attention that you'd been receiving throughout the day on you before.

“As for your final assignment, I will be having you all pair with someone at random and you will all have to perform a scene from one of the two plays we read in class, also from random.” Your teacher finishes with a smile, not even faltering in the slightest when the collective groans erupted throughout the classroom. Ms.Covey was really playing into the stereotypical English/Drama teacher troop with this assignment. She let out a small chuckle before continuing, “You’re all so dramatic, don’t worry I won’t grade on acting skills, more so on your efforts that you put into the performance. You don’t have to be an amazing actor, but I do want you all to try.” She finishes as she bends gown to grab two small pastel coffee mugs, and places them onto her desk. Calling your classmates by random to go pick a paper from the pink mug (the ones with the scenes), before picking out from the green one (the one with names).

After the third or fourth name that wasn’t yours was called you began to zone out, your eyes looking up and the ceiling as you began to count the little holes on the tiles as you propped your elbow on top of your closed hardcover notebook, your cheek resting on your opened palm, subconsciously chewing on your bottom lip, tasting your strawberry lip gloss when you wipe away the residue from your teeth with your tongue. You let out a quiet sigh as you lost count after passing 40, you were about to start over when your ears perked up after hearing an oh-so familiar name was called up.

“Mr.O’Hara, come up and pick your scene please.” Although the way the words were phrased, the command came out more as a question. Curiously, your (E/C) eyes made there was to look over to the left, watching as the male begrudgingly got up from his seat, the chair making a small scraping noise as he cursed quietly under his breath in spanish. He could feel your eyes on him, despite the rest of the classroom watching him as well, he always knew when you were watching him, maybe it was because he’s grown almost a sixth sense that was dedicated to just you, he’s convinced himself that he could always find your eyes in a crowd, the idea almost drives him mad. Why does God have to curse him with your presence?

His large tan hand went into the pink mug and pulled out a price of paper that was a bit thicker feeling then the rest, most likely being one with a bit of a longer description, before handing it over to Ms.Covey, his bored stoic eyes purposely avoiding yours. Although this would usually be normal for you both, it felt a bit odd, since after your last interaction with one another. Your teacher let out a surprised hum when she opened the small strip of paper.

“This is an interesting one… Your scene is going to be Act 5, Scene 3 from Romeo and Juliet.” She mumbled the first part to herself before saying the latter half louder, so he as well as the rest of the class could hear. You couldn’t help the smile that began to creep on your face, you didn’t even need to open your copy of the book to know exactly which scene that was. That scene was the one where Romeo visits Juliet with the impression she’s dead and is so distraught and filled with grief, that he takes his own life by drinking poison, before she wakes up and follows his lead and takes hers by stabbing herself with a dragger. The scene was heart wrenching, and beautiful and tragic and Miguel is totally gonna butcher it. The thought of Miguel having to act out that scene was absolutely hilarious! You can’t wait till class ends, you’re gonna tease the ever living sh- “Miss (L/N)! You will be his partner.”

Your smile instantly dropped, Shit. No, no, no, nooooo. Your hand instantly shot up, you didn’t even have to glance over to Miguel to know his face held the same look of slight panic when he turned to face your teacher.

“Ms. Covey-“ You and Miguel both began in unison, you not even waiting for her to at least call your name, but she quickly shuts down any type of protest you or he could spit out. Her hand coming out in front of her in a stop motion as her expression shifts to one of mild annoyance.

“Ah- Don’t start. I don’t want to hear it!” Her brows scrunch closer together as she sends you both a pointed glare before continuing, “No switching, don’t even ask. Besides, this will be a good excuse for the both of you to bond, maybe you’ll learn to at least get along enough to not bicker at the time.” You lowered your hand back down onto your desk, an exasperated sigh leaving your lips.

This is gonna be a long assignment.

—

Your chewed on the inside of your check as you put your book down and reach for your phone again, only to see that another 15 minutes have passed. You let out a groan and shut your book with a small slam, startling yourself a bit as you began to put away your supplies back into your book bag, before slinging it over your shoulders and grabbing your crutches to make your way back to your dorm.

“What a fucking asshole… I don’t wanna do this assignment with him either, but the least he could do was text me while I was still in my dorm… he knows it’s hard for me to walk still…” You ranted to yourself quietly as you carefully made your way down the ramp of your favorite school library. You and Miguel had (begrudgingly) agreed to meet up at 5:30pm at the library to go over the assignment, read over the lines and whatnot. That was the plan at least, but after an hour and a half of waiting without so much as an update text you had decided to throw in the towel. You couldn’t wait for the next time you see him so you could rip him a new one. Now you had to walk limp? from the library back to your dorm by yourself, that was all the way across campus. Not only that but the fall weather was not being forgiving as the temperature began to steadily decline, your fleece lined tights underneath your school uniform and your bomber jacket doing very little to keep you warm, the bleak darkness of nightfall already covering Nueva York thanks to daylight savings.

You were only halfway back when you had to stop for a break, hazardly dropping your stuff on the other side of the bench you were resting on. Miguel totally owes you one. You closed your eyes, letting out a small huff as you placed your gloved hands coming over and rub your face, disregarding your tears of frustration and blaming them as your body’s reaction to the skin-numbing coldness.

“Need a lift?” Asked a voice asked from… above you? You pulled your hands down and cranked your neck up to look directly above you, your lips twitching upwards slightly. “Well- a swing.” He added, making you let out a small giggle, already going to gather your stuff.

“Nice to see you again, Spider-Man.”

—

Taglist: @famouscattale @oharasfilipinawife @mxltifxnd0m @loser-alert @homewreckingwreck @dumb-gemini12 @cowboylikeevie @thedevax @codenameredkrystalmatrix

#miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o hara fanfic #miguel o'hara #spiderman 2099 x reader #astv miguel #astv spiderman 2099 #miguel o’hara au #miguel spiderverse #love me or hate me fanfic #academic rivals au #spiderman 2099 fanfic #spiderman 2099 #atsv miguel #miguel x reader

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elsewhereuniversity · 1 year ago

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Hi! How close is the current crazed sewing kit to completion? I’m a textile major- wait sorry, introductions- call me Rivet (not like the frog, like the metal thingy that holds things together) she/her. Anyways. I’m a textile major and I want to create the worlds most fucked up non-euclidian quilt. Its my capstone project. If the kit’s already claimed or not ready for usage/consumption/harvest, that’s alright, i have some favors and a variety of the currency the goblin market uses, but i’ve really got my eye on the weaving tablets and myriad pins of this iteration. I promise i’ll use it all though! Or, at least, i’ll keep the odds and ends tucked away for future projects. I’m willing to trade a ship in a bottle that sails on an ocean affected by tomorrow’s weather, a cursed bonefolder that actually, yknow, folds bones instead of paper, and a bolt of fabric i spun and wove myself. Nothing overtly magical about it, but it is a nice shade of red.

The fourth crazed sewing kit is ready and it is yours.

A swatch of bloodstained blue velvet

Swatches of stiff fabric that shift chameleon-like to match any other

A walnut shell containing yards of fabric woven from starshine

A bloodstained pincushion in the approximate form of a person, filled with human hair and fingernail clippings, among other things

A seam ripper that only cuts the threads you intend it to

A pair of iron shears, decorated with gilt filigree, which only cut things that have been measured twice

A needle of steel, which is efficient but bites

A needle used to stitch a wound, which now only pierces flesh

A needle of silver, used as a sword by a very small hand. Any thread spun through the eye is unbreakable while it's being sewn.

Thread of human hair, cut and regrown

Thread of human hair, golden

Thread of horsehair, one strand jet black and one snow-white

Thread of gold and of silver, the first of which sooths and the second of which energizes

Thread of variable length, glowing as though white hot

Fabric-pencils which trace possibilities, leaning theatrical

A mannequin which wants nothing more than to swap places with you, and will do so at the first opportunity

A spool of oakwood plated with gold, which ensures you will have just enough thread to finish any project you use it with.

A drop spindle of oakwood which turns hay to gold

Two buttons of silver which shine in the dark, from a coat made of night-sky

A squatcho from a beret, seemingly made of lead inside the fabric casing.

Pliers plated with sterling silver, to remove recalcitrant needles

#charms #the crazed sewing kit iv

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kjmcotton · 1 year ago

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omg i need another exo enemies to lovers from you! i enjoyed that one

Metanoia | Bbh

Byun Baekhyun x fem!reader

Flatmates!AU

Enemies to lovers!AU

Plot:moving to Seoul was stressful,but it got worse when you found out that your flatmate was Byun Baekhyun,your best friend’s ex

Warnings:mentions of a troubled past and troubled relationship,fights,swearing

Masterlist

Author’s notes:thank you for requesting a story!! Can’t wait to write more! This story is pretty long and full of drama,so get your popcorns!♡

Tumblr works with reposts:if you enjoyed my story please repost and leave a feedback! Help me growing!♡

Metanoia (μετάνοια):the journey of changing someone's mind,heart,self or way of living

“Open this damn door,come on Y/n! Open the door!” Baekhyun had been knocking and complaining for the past ten minutes but you had no intention of leaving the bathroom to open the front door:it was his fault if he had forgotten the key again.

“I’m coming” you repeated for the fourth time,while massaging your hair with a revitalising mask.

One month,it had been already one month since you moved from your hometown to Seoul after receiving the first well paid job offer of your recent graduate student life;and it had been one month since you had made the most terrible discovery you could have ever done:Byun Baekhyun would’ve become your flatmate.

You had visited the flat twice before moving in and,even tho both times it was empty,you were well aware of the fact that you would’ve shared the house;however you would’ve never considered the possibility that your flatmate could’ve been that idiot of your best friend’s ex.

When you had brought in the first box and saw him sitting on the couch,you shivered.

With all the people out there in Seoul how much unlucky could you be to end up with the one you wanted to forget forever?

Baekhyun had never hurt you personally,but made your best friend’s life hard.

When he was younger,and still leaving in Bucheon,he used to be known as the troublemaker of the town. He was constantly involved in fights,little crimes and dramas.

Many girls had dated him and all of them used to say that he was quite a fuckboy;however you were sure he had never cheated on your best friend Lin,but it wasn’t enough to make things works.

You used to see her often picking him up after a fight or,worse,talking to her father,one of the policemen of the town,asking to be patient and give him a soft penalty.

She used to spend nights crying or arguing with him;until one day,out of nowhere,he broke up with her and disappeared,saying that he would’ve moved to Seoul…and he surely did.

“Open the door,Y/n I’m about to call the cops!” Baekhyun complained again,so,once you were ready,you wrapped yourself in a towel and let him come in

“Oh,I’m so sorry…sometimes I forget they’re your besties” you teased him

“That joke doesn’t work anymore. I’m no more a stupid teenager. I’ve got a good job and I’ve put my shit together. Remember that the rent of this pretty flat is half payed by me”

“The fact that you’re a jerk still remains” you spat out

“You’re talking like you’re better than me” he rolled his eyes.

That was one of the many brief conversations you used to have with Baekhyun. The two of you never really talked,only exchanged put-downs and argued even on the smallest things. It was no one’s fault,but your complicated past.

Lin had always forbidden you from saying anything to him,even tho you were dying at the idea to do so,but since her relationship wasn’t really your business you kept your mouth shut for a while,until you had found out that he was leaving.

After receiving a call by your friend in the middle of the night,with her screaming and crying,cursing Baekhyun,you snapped:you called Jongin,the only one you were sure knew everything as he was close to that idiot,and forced him to tell you what he had in his mind.

Once you had found out the train he was about to catch,you drove to the train station and told Baekhyun everything you had always wanted.

The two of you ended up yelling insults at each in the middle of the night,you even risked to get involved in a fight with him after slapping his face;however the boy had to run off because the train arrived. You were sure it was the day in which Baekhyun begun to reciprocate your hate.

And now you were there,trying to tolerate each other as the flat you were living in was so beautiful,and hard to find at a good price in a city like Seoul,that no one wanted to leave.

Once your hair had dried,you went to the kitchen to cook yourself an omelette for dinner. You weren’t good at cooking,you could make just a few dishes,but you’d rather eat the same things instead of asking for help to Baekhyun,who,on the other hand,was a quite good chef.

You looked outside the window while waiting for your dinner to be ready:grey clouds were approaching,meaning that a huge thunderstorm was about to arrive.

Once the omelette was ready you sat at the table,noticing Baekhyun leaving from the door

“Where the fuck are you going with this weather?”you said,realising how handsome he looked in that white shirt that was matching his platinum hair

“Clubbing with friends,it’s Friday. I’m not antisocial like you” he scoffed,disappearing without bringing his umbrella.

You laughed:someone would’ve looked like a drenched mouse in a few hours.

The next morning you woke up ad 8 am. You took a shower and then went to the kitchen,where you found a sick Baekhyun warming some milk up. He looked at you and coughed,without even saying good morning.

“That’s on not bringing an umbrella with you” you mumbled,opening a cupboard to get some biscuits

“You saw me leaving,you could’ve said something”

You laughed “What am I? Your babysitter? You’re an adult,it’s none of my fault if you always forget the important things”

Baekhyun sneezed,making you step back

“Take some meds” you said

“Keen you are! I would’ve never thought about it!” he scoffed. You looked at him easily,noticing that his eyes were watery.

“Have you checked your temperature?” you asked,resting your hand on his forehead:it was pretty hot.

Baekhyun stared at you for a while. His cheeks were flushed,his face was pale and his shoulders were curved;he didn’t even look like the usual cocky Baekhyun,he seemed a lost kid.

Seeing him in those conditions made you feel sorry,so your attitude automatically softened.

“Answer me,have you checked your temperature?” you asked again,with a sweet voice this time.

Baekhyun shook his head

“Then you should go” you said,looking at him dragging his body to his bedroom.

As you had imagined, the boy had a fever;however you didn’t expect it to get worse by the same evening,so,without even realising it,you found yourself sitting on the bed next to a sleepy Baekhyun whose cheeks had turned as red as an apple.

You sighed,putting some ice on the top of his head:damn it,how could it happen that in less than 24h you went from scolding that idiot to look after him? Life was funny sometimes,or maybe more than sometimes considering how things had changed in the span of a month.

You were lost in your thoughts when you heard Baekhyun grunt. You looked at him,noticing that his sleep had suddenly become fitful. The poor boy was shaking and moving,mumbling words that you could barely hear. You understood only one phrase,something that left you speechless:

“I’m sorry Lin…”

At those words you got paralysed,your hands tightly holding the sheets of the bed

How could it be possible? How could it be possible that after all this time he still had her in his mind? And why? He was the one leaving her,so why after so many years her name was still being pronounced by his lips?

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m…Lin…I’m sorry…” he kept repeating those words,louder and louder,panting,with more and more pain in every word until,you swore,a tear fell along his cheek.

“Baekhyun…” you tried to call him,but the boy didn’t wake up;otherwise he was getting more and more agitated. Then,with a startle,he sat.

“Baekhyun!” you exclaimed,collecting some strength to move.

The boy didn’t even look at you,he simply hid his head in between his hands and started sobbing. He wasn’t lucid,you knew it,but you were still confused.

“It was just a dream…-you reassured him,massaging his back. His pyjama was soaking because how much he was sweating,but you didn’t care,all you wanted was helping him calming down-it’s gone Baekhyun. The past is in the past”

At those words your flatmate rose his head,looking at you with teary eyes;you slid closer,wrapping your arms around his body as he rested his head on your shoulder.

You moved aside the wet strands of hair falling on his forehead to check his temperature:even tho you had given him a bunch of meds he was still burning. You were really concerned now.

“You need to lay down-you whispered,caressing his cheek-I’ll get you a towel and a new shirt”

You wanted to stand up but the boy didn’t seem willing to move aside

“Baekhyun,have you heard me? I-“ you stopped talking as you realised he was still sobbing. Your heart shattered. Was it because of Lin? You couldn’t understand,but you had no strength to push him away,so you just adjusted yourself against the headboard and gently stroke his back.

“It’s okay. It’s just a fever” you kissed his head,resting your chin on it.

The boy’s hug tightened as he buried his face in the cloth of your shirt. His breath was heavy and his body kept shaking. It took him a while before calming down,but after half an hour he was peacefully sleeping in between your arms.

You looked at him,so many questions were going on your mind,but,most of all,you were asking yourself how to behave after that. Even tho Baekhyun had seemed completely over his past,he clearly wasn’t,he was still hurt,which made you feel bad…how much had he been suffering because of all the hate you had been showering him with? All those rude words,the put downs and stuff like that…how much did it hurt him? A lot,you were sure.

You sighed

“I’m so so sorry-you whispered-I’ll be better,just like you. I promise”

That night you called the doctor who changed some meds,allowing Baekhyun to get back on track in a few days.

In that span of time you would cook for him and bring anything he needed to his bed

“Why are you so nice all of a sudden? What’s the scam?”

“No scam,I’m acting like a decent flatmate. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll go back to insult you once you’re fine”

That was a lie,obviously,even after the fever was completely gone you never stopped being kind.

Now that you knew the wounds of his soul hadn’t healed yet, you didn’t want to pile on. However,Baekhyun wasn’t dumb,that was why he immediately noticed you had changed your behaviour and asked for explanations as soon as he had the chance.

It was a Sunday night,none of you had any errand that day,that was why the two of you ended up drinking a beer on the couch.

“I think we need to talk” Baekhyun said,looking at you

“About what?” you pretended to not know what the point was,so you carelessly put the beer on the table in front of you,avoiding eye contact to not show your real feelings

“Look at me” the boy called you out

“Why are you acting this odd?-you faked a laugh-anyway,I gotta go to the bathroom…” you tried to stand up,but your flatmate grabbed you by the wrist and dragged you back on the couch.

Baekhyun put his beer on the ground and slid his body closer to yours:your faces were a few inches away and you swore your heart suddenly lost a beat. He looked so pretty under the dim light of the living room,you had never realised how handsome he was and how polite could he be when he wanted;in fact,since you softened your attitude,he did the same.

“We haven’t argued since I got sick,and you’re always so sweet. What is it?”

“Nothing…”

“You’re lying”

“I’m not” you tried to get up,but Baekhyun stopped you again

“Tell me. I need answers. Everything got so strange all of a sudden. I-I…I can’t even say that I hate it” his hand left your wrist to end up on you tight. It gave you shivers.

“It’s just that…-you bit your lips,you didn’t know what to say-….I’ve realised that maybe we both should leave our past behind. We’re adults now”

“Why? Why all of a sudden?” he asked,his breath warming your skin

“There’s no a precise reason…”

“Don’t lie!”

“Fine…-you huffed-I know that you haven’t gotten over Lin and what happened”

At those words you saw his face frown and his body stiffen

“I’m sorry,pretend I didn’t say anything” you tried to get up, but Baekhyun held you by the thighs

“No,it’s okay. How do you know it?”

“You had a nightmare while being sick and said something about it in your sleep”

“The fact is…-the boy paused-no…I’m not over it. There’s no reason to lie. I’m not over anything I did in the past. It doesn’t matter how much I grew up and worked hard,my past still haunts me;but maybe I deserve to suffer for all the pain I caused to the people around me…Lin in particular”

You gulped:those words had pierced you like knives. How could he say something like that? No one deserves to suffer for their mistakes.

You shook your head,hugging Baekhyun

“Without those mistakes you wouldn’t be here today. You learned from them and became a better person,there’s no reason for you to still be suffering”

The boy looked at you,his hand moved up to your cheek as he caressed it with his thumb. You got lost in his beautiful deep eyes,but never wanted to find your way out. What was happening? Why were you feeling strange things in your stomach? What was it? Butterflies? You didn’t know,all you knew was that you wanted that instant to never end.

Baekhyun licked his lips,then he leaned in,kissing you softly. You closed your eyes,intertwining your fingers in between his soft hair and,without even realising it,you found your back pushed against the couch,with a shirtless Baekhyun towering you.

He looked so beautiful,and his skin against yours felt so right. He left wet kisses all over your neck,then he went back to kiss your lips until he was out of breath. His hand slipped under your shirt,there was nothing sexual in that gesture,he was simply seeking for more contact. Your fingers were tracing lines along his back as you pressed your waist against his.

Baekhyun’s eyes chained with yours:he seemed enchanted while his index caressed your face,then he smiled.

“No one has ever said anything this beautiful to me” he whispered,looking at you with smiling eyes. You could tell those words had comforted his soul.

“Why are you talking like this. What did they say?” You asked,moving a few strands of hair away from his face.

Baekhyun lowered his eyes,holding his head up with a hand. You moved aside,giving him a little more space so both of you could lay down together comfortably.

“They said many things-a sorrow smile appeared on the boy’s lips-especially in Bucheon”

“I’m listening” you said

Baekhyun took a deep breath and started opening up

“Well,re-start a fucked up life it’s not that easy. It doesn’t matter how much you try,or how much you work hard,there will always be someone that will always label you as the crazy asshole .That’s what happened to me. I tried to change multiple times while staying in Bucheon:I stopped hanging out with wrong people,I learned how to control myself and I looked for decent jobs;however,no one ever wanted to put up with me. They would either reject me or hire me to later fire me because of the smallest error. People would look at me with mistrust in their eyes. That’s why one day I decided to move to Seoul. No one knows the old me here,I’ve started a second life”

“Jongin didn’t tell me that…”

“I knew someone would’ve come for me,so I asked him to shut his mouth. I just didn’t expect to see you,I expected to see Lin. You left me speechless”

“She was kinda busy crying that night-you pointed out-that’s why I was completely mad. Furthermore I had never tolerated your behaviour,but I couldn’t say anything since it wasn’t my business. You gave me a chance to finally talk to you so I just took it”

Baekhyun smiled

“I’ve never stopped thinking about you since that day”

“What??” you felt your cheek heating up

“I swear. As I said it was unexpected,I didn’t know that you would come,nor that you would snap like that. Since then,anytime I’m about to do something I ask myself if it would make you that angry”

“Oh come on…-you laughed-this is embarrassing”

“It’s not. You would never be embarrassing, you’re just…-Baekhyun bit his bottom lip-you’re just amazing. That’s what I’ve always thought about you. Since then,all through these past months,and now even more. Besides Lin,no one has ever cared so much about me like you did when I was sick. Thank you- the boy pressed a kiss on your forehead-I think I fell in love again”

Your heart fluttered as you buried your face in the crook of his neck

“If you believed that I was amazing all this time,then why you pretended you couldn’t stand me? Was it because of the way I acted?”

“Let’s say that I didn’t really know how to approach you in a different way”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong” you murmured

“It’s okay-he caressed your shoulder-we can start everything again”

You nodded

“Yes,we can. And-you stood up,grabbing your phone-I think you have an unfinished business”

Baekhyun looked at you,his eyes were unsure

“Call Lin,apologise,and put your soul at peace once forever” you smiled,sitting next to the boy.

He grabbed your smartphone,looking for Lin’s number while bouncing his leg up and down. He was extremely anxious,so you sat next to him and held his hand,resting your chin on his shoulder.

“You can do it” you kissed his cheeks

Baekhyun sighed,then he called Lin.

He didn’t know that in a few minutes all his demons would’ve disappeared.

#byun baekhyun #byun baekhyun x reader #baekhyun #baekhyun x reader #baekhyun x you #baekhyun x y/n #exo x reader #exo imagines #exo x y/n #exo x you #kpop #kpop imagines #baekhyun imagine #baekhyun fanfic #enemies to lovers #flatmates

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thatstrangegiiirrlll · 2 years ago

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I love that I’ve found someone who takes request for nijiro. Could you pretty please do a long time best friend nijiro falling in love and confessing to reader. Just some cute shy boy niji for the soul 🙏

Finally finished this! I’m so sorry if I made you wait long. I hope that it ends up being worth the wait, my love.

Nijiro Murakami x Reader

Summary: You invite Nijiro to your housewarming party when he asks you to step outside with him to talk.

“Nijiro,” you say, looking him up and down in the doorway. You sling an arm over his shoulders and pull him in for a heartfelt hug. “I’ve missed you.”

He brings his arms around you, exhaling himself into the hug. “I’ve missed you, too.”

You release from the embrace and shut the door, locking it. You turn to him smiling. “Um, grab a drink, have some food—do whatever you want. My home is your home. You know that.”

He nods frigidly, scanning the living room in front of him. You currenly have about a dozen people over; just a chill housewarming party. Buying your first home at such a young age is a big deal.

Nijiro walks over into the kitchen and grabs a beer, striking up a conversation with people already in there. Hm. That’s new. Nijiro, to your knowledge, doesn’t drink. And you know that man better than he knows himself. You watch him for a second in amazement. You’re overjoyed to see him like this after almost a year. Everything feels complete to you now.

His eyes glance over to your focused stare and your eyes widen a bit before smiling. He caught you being a little creep.

He shifts in his stance, leaning against the counter. You nod to yourself, leaving him to finish his conversation.

“Y/n, your house is gorgeous,” one of your college mates compliments. “If you need a landscaper in the near future, hit me up, okay?”

You ruffle their hair playfully. “Of course. Who else would I ask?”

While trying to steal another look at Nijiro, you realize how much of a negligent host you are.

“Fuck,” you curse, palming your forehead. You make your way through the clutter of bodies in your living room and enter the kitchen.

“Niji,” you call, grabbing his wrist lightly. “Let me formally introduce you to everyone.”

He looks from the people he was talking to and back to you. He whispers timidly, “You don’t have to do that.”

You dismiss him altogether and clear your throat powerfully. “Attention, please.”

The room goes quiet and everybody turns to you. Some of them make jokes or silly noises.

“This is my best friend since fourth grade. My heart, my soul, Nijiro Murakami,” you announce, kissing his cheek.

The room fills with applause and a few hoots here and there. You squeeze Nijiro’s hand and smile

He blushes and snickers, peering down at his feet like they’re the most interesting thing ever. “Thank you, everyone. Nice meeting you all.”

“Aw. He’s shy,” one of them says. “We don’t bite, Nijiro. It’s Y/n you gotta watch out for, shit.”

They laugh and you glare at them “Yeah, y’all would know, huh?”

Nijiro looks at you as you reply; a look of adoration. Still chuckling, you turn to face him. Your hand is still intertwined with his.

His palm gets a little damp and he pulls away, scratching the back of his neck. “Can I talk to you outside, y/n?”

Your smile drops, slightly worried. “Sure, Niji.”

You shut the door behind the two of you, stepping out onto the front porch. You must admit though, the anxiety dancing around in your stomach is making you queasy.

“What's going on, Niji?” you ask, your frantic mind already assuming the worst.

He fiddles around with his fingers, tugging on the sleeves of his sweater. You recognize this gesture all too well. He's nervous as fuck right now.

“Just promise me you won't freak out, okay?” he half asks half warns. Your stomach and chest tighten apprehensively. Is this why he was drinking? Is he this petrified about telling you whatever it is he's about to tell you?

“Niji. Stop it. You're scaring me,” you answer, shoving his shoulder. “Just say it. You know how much I hate it when people beat around the bush.”

He sighs and begins to rub his elbow, finding it hard to keep still.

“You know how you asked me a few weeks ago if I was seeing anyone yet?” he begins, recalling a previous conversation.

You nod once. “Yeah?”

“Well, I lied about my reason,” he resumes, locking eyes with you. “It's not because I haven't found a good person yet. I have. I'm just worried they won't like me back.”

You chuckle making a sad face. “Oh, babe. What's not to like? You're a sweetheart. A true gentleman, Niji.”

You inch closer to him and rub his arm soothingly. “Shoot your shot, love. I'm sure they're gonna be so happy that you did.”

He looks at you in a way you've never seen before. The look gives you a sensation he's never given you before. You take a step back. Shit, shit, shit. I’m so fucking dumb, you shout in your mind.

“Nijiro,” you say in a tone so hushed, it's barely audible.

He stares at you apologetically, the soft sun highlighting the side of his face. The glow from the sun paired with the heat of the moment is making your limbs weak.

“I'm sorry,” he apologizes, fumbling around with his fingers even more. “I can't help it. I don't see myself with anyone else, y/n. I love-”

“Wait,” you cut him off, holding onto the wooden handrail on your porch. “Hold on a minute. Ten minutes ago you were just my childhood best friend. So, my bad for needing a second.”

He looks away, eyes guilty and full of hurt. “I should have stayed quiet.”

You shut your eyes tight, relishing in the short but refreshing breeze that tickles your skin. The sound of the trees in the wind brings you back to the present.

“Niji,” you say, trying to gather yourself. “I'm not mad at you, okay? I just-”

His face is beet red from embarrassment as he looks anywhere but at you.

“I'm confused, taken aback, happy, and flattered right now,” you confess shaking your head as you speak. “Because... I feel the same way about you, Niji.”

His sad eyes widen at your words. “Y/n...”

You nod, standing just inches from his face now. “I've been scared of my feelings toward you for a while now. Especially since I haven't seen you in so long. I've been scared of all of it: you liking me back, you not liking me back...terrified of you not liking me at all anymore. All of it.”

His eyes get watery as he smiles. “You're beautiful, so damn beautiful.” his hand presses against your cheek, shaky and unsteady. He kisses you softly and you melt into the action. The kiss is the best one you've ever had. Not because of the technique or the depth of the kiss, etc. But because there's a mutual transaction of deep love and connection already established between you two.

You share an emotional hug and talk a bit more. The sun is starting to set.

“Hey,” you say, tapping under Nijiros chin. “How about I kick these idiots out and me and you just chill and eat the rest of that junk food in there?”

He smirks and nods in excitement. “That honestly sounds like heaven right about now.”

🥁 I'm baaaaaccckkk. - Ash <3

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jewishrizahawkeye · 6 months ago

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hello! welcome back to my FMA Characters as Taylor Swift albums!!! please note this was written before ttpd dropped. previous albums are here:

debut, fearless (taylor’s version), speak now (taylor’s version), RED (taylor’s version), 1989 (taylor’s version), 𝔯𝔢𝔭𝔲𝔱𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫, 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇, 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆

now, let’s discuss the 13 20 21 22 sleepless nights from taylor’s past:

Midnights

Roy Mustang

- this isn’t a surprise is you follow me considering how often i’ve gone crazy over how roy coded antihero is

- the concept of the album is 13 midnights from taylor’s past that she’s revisiting. though the album feels more like a conversation between taylor’s relationship to fame and her personal life AND from very recent events of finding out when certain songs were written (jack antonoff you petty as bitch i love you) the album has a deeper meaning. while still about 13 nights from taylor’s past it also feels like it’s her trying to find a way to save her current relationship and she’s doing that by looking back at old relationships and how’s those failed/ended or started to understand what is going wrong now.

- it also feels like a threat at times to yogurt boy (ex boyfriend i won’t name) that she can leave though it’s clear she doesn’t want to leave. she wants to make this work because of all he did to help at her lowest of lows and helped show her a different aspect of life she could have. but her partner isn’t giving anything. and she is slowly dying.

- …

- alright now that i’m done with my rant, that very well be edited later because we’re getting new taylore by the fucking day and it’s changing perspectives on EVERYTHING, we can move on

- this album has been criticized for not having as deep of lyrics as her previous two albums (cause people are fucking idiots and can’t read anything past a pop beat ((STARES AT AYHTDWS))) but the album is still full of great lines and songs that show us different sides of taylor.

- i do however think that based off how the album is presented and shown it feels very roy coded. with the album showing different sides of taylor and her past regrets and knowing just how different her life could be if she did just one thing differently (john mayer i am in your fucking walls). this resonates a lot with roy’s character and what we know about his life

- most notably the song anti-hero is roy coded as hell. a monster of your own making and the deep fear of driving the person you love away because of your own hands… that’s roy baby!

- but that theme carry’s over into several other songs such as midnight rain or you’re on your own kid. and while those songs are different stories and from a female perspective, there is still a voice of loneliness in them and your past decisions haunting you and being unable to escape it. that you had wanted of this one thing for so long but now that you got it you fully see the damage it has done not only to you but others and now have to live with the decision. this comes through for taylor as her wanting to be famous and her disliking of celebrity life as she doesn’t see herself as human anymore, while for roy he views himself as a monster for his previous actions and is doing everything he can to try and right his wrongs

- both have a similar view of themselves but also feel like this is their own fault. they both made their bed now they must lie in it.

- so i wander through these nights/i prefer hiding in plain sight/this fourth drink in my hand/these DESPERATE PRAYERS OF A CURSED MAN!/spilling out to you for free…/but darling darling please you wouldn’t take me word for it if you knew who was talking…/if you knew where i was walking…/to a house, not a home, all alone cause nobody’s there…/where i pace in my pen and my friends found people who care…/no one sees you lose when you’re playing solitaire

- (of course user dearreader assigns sad little meow meow as dear reader)

- everything i touch becomes sick with sadness…

- all of me changed like midnight rain/he wanted it comfortable i wanted that pain

- i have this thing where i get older but just never wiser

- sometimes i feel like everyone’s a sexy baby and i’m a monster on the hill/to big to hang out slowly lurching toward your favorite city/pierced through the heart but never killed/did you hear my cover narcissism i disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?

- do you see the difference? i love how riza walked several steps behind roy while still protected him. riza doesn't put roy in the basement. she’s not afraid of his shine. she lets him bejeweled.

- there are love songs on here that i’ve already talked about being royai coded in their own posts and or me feral posting about royai (labyrinth, sotb, sweet nothing, lavender haze, etc.) and like… yeah that’s there.

- also, while i don’t view the song in this way, it has been pointed out to me how you’re losing me is very Roy vs. Envy coded and i have to acknowledge that here but not in my own heart cause if i do that then ill lose my mind over the song even more than i already do.

- but, that’s my ted talk. thank you all for coming and reading these posts! and remember:

#kelly babels #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist (taylor’s version)#roy mustang #royai #taylor swift #midnights #midnights 3am edition #midnights late night edition #midnights till dawn edition #midnights 4 am cup of coffee edition #kelly listens to music

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senashenta · 2 months ago

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Horror High: Chapter Nine

Title: Horror High

Pairing: Destiel

Rating: Explicit (in other chapters)

Warnings: Sex, Violence

Summary: John Winchester plants his eldest son at Caspar High in Jacksonville because weird things have been happening there: people disappearing. People reappearing only dead and drained of all their bodily fluids. Cocoons. It’s up to Dean to figure out what’s stalking Caspar’s halls and deal with it accordingly; but then he meets the New Kid—newer than him, even, the New-New Kid—Castiel Novak, and all his plans get severely derailed. Now Dean has to juggle the supernatural case—a really hungry jorogumo—and also the fact that he’s very quickly falling in love, something that is absolutely forbidden by his dad.

Meanwhile Castiel, shoved into the third new school in a year because his adoptive father—Chuck Shurley’s—job has them moving around a lot, struggles to fit in at Caspar High, not only because he’s the New Kid but because he’s the weird New Kid. Dean seems like a saving grace, a harbor in a storm, someone who doesn’t judge him—that is until Cas finds out about Dean’s night job. Cas’s life just got a whole lot stranger—but that doesn’t stop him from falling for Dean, regardless.

Notes: Second-last chapter, only one more to go after this! Also available ON AO3! :D

HORROR HIGH TUMBLR MASTER POST HERE.

HORROR HIGH Chapter Nine By Senashenta

Four days into his convalescence, and Cas was already going stir-crazy.

Dean continued to visit him every day to keep him company for a while and help him with his bandages, but he could only stay for so long before he had to get back to the motel to keep an eye on Sam (or Cas’s father kicked him out so Cas could continue resting up from ‘the flu.’) They took to showering together each day, but somehow managed to keep their hands off each other after the first time (mostly.)

Cas had spent most of the first couple of days after being injured just sleeping through the pain, of course, but after that he started carefully puttering around his room, toying around on his laptop—looking up news reports about what had been found outside Caspar High the morning after the Hunt; apparently it was all being written off as a prank or vandals—and reading books. All things that didn’t pull at his wounds too much.

On the fourth day, he was sitting in bed, trying to read his copy of Good Omens and unable to concentrate at all when he finally dropped the worn paperback into the rumpled covers and flopped back. He winced faintly when the gashes on his ribs protested the movement and stared up at the stars on his ceiling for a moment.

He was bored.

A quick glance at the clock on the bedside table told Cas that Dean was late getting there: it was almost five and he was usually there by four at the latest. And it had been four days. Surely he could go outside now, at least for a little while. (His “I’ve got the flu” excuse could only last so long before his father got suspicious, anyway.)

So finally, he dropped his book on his desk and proceeded to get dressed, with only a minimal amount of wincing and cursing under his breath. His ribs really were on the mend, but there were some movements (particularly bending at the waist) that pulled them and made them protest. It made getting his shoes on when he got down to the front door an interesting feat to say the least. He was sitting on the little bench by the door, struggling to get his second shoe on when his father’s voice piped up: “Did I just hear you call your shoe an ‘assbutt’?”

Cas didn’t look up but shrugged with one shoulder. “I ran out of more creative insults.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see Dean.” He finally got his foot in his shoe and made a quiet triumphant noise as he quickly tied it.

“And you’re feeling better?”

Uh. Cas straightened, then stood, forcing himself not to wince, and gave his father a nod. “Yes.”

Chuck stepped forward and reached to rest a hand against Cas’s forehead, obviously checking for a fever, but when he didn’t feel one, he dropped his arm again and smiled. “Okay. Go on, then. Tell Dean I said hi.”

“I will!”

Cas scooted out the door before his father could change his mind, heading in the direction of downtown. It normally took just under an hour to walk between his house and the motel, but he kept having to stop and take rests or catch his breath, so this time it took longer. Still, his phone told him it was only just before six-thirty when he arrived on Dean and Sam’s doorstep, which he figured wasn’t all that bad, considering.

He knocked on the motel room door, listening for movement inside, and could hear Dean’s voice, raised, sounding aggravated—and it was Sam who finally unlatched the door and yanked it open with a surprised look on his face. “Cas!” And then he lowered his voice with a glance over his shoulder, “what are you doing here?”

“I was going crazy, cooped up in my room.” Cas lifted a hand to hold at his ribs almost absently, “and Dean was late, so I figured…” He trailed off when Dean’s voice raised another pitch before dropping back to normal again, “what’s going on?”

Sam looked over his shoulder again, then sighed and stepped aside for Cas to come in. Over by the kitchenette, Dean was pacing back and forth, his old flip phone up to his ear and a frustrated look on his face—he kept trying to say things, only to clearly be interrupted by the person on the other end of the line. Eventually he was down to simply “yes, sir” and “no, sir” over and over again. Cas very quickly figured out he was talking to his dad. When Dean looked over and saw him, surprise flitted across his face—and then he got pulled back into the obvious dressing down he was receiving from his father.

“Dad figured out he finished his Hunt a few days ago,” Sam explained, voice low, “he wanted to know why Dean didn’t call him right away.”

Cas winced at that. “Oh.”

“They’ve been going at it for almost two hours now,” Sam continued, “Dean doesn’t want to tell Dad about you, but I think he’s doing to have to. It’s… not good.”

Guilt crawled up Cas’s spine and he looked over, watching Dean argue quietly for a moment. “This is my fault.”

“It’s not.” Sam insisted. “All you did was get close to Dean. That’s not a crime.” The younger teen was currently shoving clothes into a duffle bag—

“—BECAUSE I MET SOMEONE HERE, DAD! I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!” Dean abruptly blurted from across the room, his voice nearly a shout. He had one hand planted on the kitchenette counter, green eyes glaring at the countertop harshly. “Yes, I mean a relationship, what else would I mean by ‘boyfriend’?! I—”

Cas and Sam both cringed when the voice on the other end of the phone got so loud that they could hear it demanding an explanation. Sam went back to shoving clothes in the duffle bag, shoulders hunched a little.

“—because he’s—sick—right now, Dad, and I don’t want to leave him while he’s—” Dean made a frustrated noise and glanced toward Cas from the corner of his eye. After a moment of yelling from the other end of the phone he kicked the counter in front of him and muttered, “yes, sir… I know, but—”

“Come on,” Cas was watching Dean worriedly, but Sam tugged at his arm, hefting the duffle bag of clothes up over his shoulder. “Knowing how Dean feels about you, and knowing Dad, they could be at it all night. There’s no point in standing around listening to it. I’m going to go do laundry and you’re coming with me.”

Though he was reluctant to leave, Cas understood the logic. There was also the fact that he was sure there were things Dean couldn’t say with him around. So, he gave a weak little wave in Dean’s direction and just followed Sam out the door.

The laundry room was just down the row of motel rooms, situated next to the office. It held two coin-operated washing machines and two dryers, as well as a vending machine with little boxes of laundry soap and dryer sheets, and a second vending machine with drinks and snacks. There were also a couple of cheap plastic chairs and a table to match, probably meant for folding your laundry on.

Sam dug in his pocket for some change to buy laundry soap, then emptied the bag of clothes, along with the soap, into one of the washers. A few more coins got it started, and the two of them sat down to wait. It was clear Sam had done this very thing many times before.

“I usually bring a book with me, or my laptop.” Sam explained, breaking the silence after a short while, obviously trying to ease the tension that Cas was feeling at the moment. “But having someone to talk with is good, too.” He paused, then asked, “Dean keeps telling me you’re doing okay, but he won’t let me come with him to visit you. How are you doing, really?”

Cas shifted in his seat, unwilling to admit out loud that the reason Dean didn’t want Sam to come along was that they kept climbing into the shower together. It would be more than a little awkward. Now he just shrugged and brought one hand up to rest against his own side absently. “I really am doing okay, Sam. I walked all the way here and I only had to stop and catch my breath a couple of times.”

“But your injuries?”

“They’re healing. They’re much better than they were before. I…” Trailing off for a breath, Cas smiled and offered, “I haven’t been able to thank you properly, but Dean says you’re the one who patched me up. So, thank you, Sam.”

“I couldn’t just let you bleed out.” Sam shrugged.

“And I appreciate that.” Cas chuckled softly. “Really, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Cas.”

The rest of the time the laundry was washing and drying was spent with the two of them chatting about various things; classes at school, what it was like for Sam to take classes while on the road with Dean and his Dad, the times that the brothers were unceremoniously dumped off with someone called ‘Pastor Jim’, some of the times Sam had made friends along the way (he had two friends at Bedwin Junior High that he was going to miss, Andy and Ava), Sam’s views on some of his father’s views—but also books, movies and television shows. Cas was a little lost when it came to movies and TV, but he did know his books, and Sam had an impressive library in his head considering he was thirteen. The younger boy’s memory was impeccable.

When the clothes were out of the dryer and the two of them were folding them, still warm, on the sketchy table, Cas fell silent while he worked but Sam decided to address the elephant in the room:

“I see the way you look at each other,” Sam told him almost idly, then continued; “it’s okay if you’re in love with him, you know.” He didn’t even glance up from the shirt he was folding. “I’m pretty sure he loves you, too.”

Cas didn’t jump or jolt at the words, but he did blink several times and give Sam a surprised look. Sam didn’t flinch, just kept folding laundry. Cas looked away, eyes turning downward, and was silent for a long couple of minutes before he licked his lips and managed weakly, “I don’t think he can love me, Sam. With his life, with the way things are for him.”

Sam scoffed at that. “Just because he’s a Hunter doesn’t mean he can’t love. And the way he looks at you…” Trailing off a little, the younger boy laughed softly; “he looks at you like people look at Rembrandts or the Sistine Chapel. Like you’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. I’ve never seen my brother this way before, the way he is with you.” Finally, Sam spared a glance over to give Cas a little smile, “I think he might even give up Hunting for you, if you asked him to.”

“I could never ask him to do that.” Cas shook his head, “being a Hunter is everything to him.”

“Not everything.” Sam corrected knowingly. “And he’s already gone against Dad for you. That’s something I never thought I’d see.” He finished folding a hoodie and his hands paused halfway to grabbing the next item of clothing. He turned a frown on Cas. “The jorogumo thing.” He said firmly, “I’m sure Dean already told you, but you were stupid, Cas. You should never have gone there, never have gotten involved. You got hurt.”

Cas brought one hand up to his ribs again, pressing there with the faintest of winces, and his eyes flickered downward. “I know.”

“What I know he didn’t tell you is how absolutely frantic he was when he brought you back here. He was panicking and Dean never panics. If you’d died, it would have destroyed him.” Sam smacked a hand into Cas’s arm lightly for emphasis before going back to folding laundry, his energy full of frustration now. “Honestly, you two are driving me nuts. You spend practically every waking minute together. And some of the sleeping ones, too. You moon over each other constantly. You almost get yourself killed and he absolutely loses his shit because of it. You’re practically living in each other’s pockets, but you’re both dancing around the issue like freaking ballerinas. I wish one of you would just say it already and get it over with.”

“It’s not that simple, Sam.” Cas offered softly. “I know you know that. You’re a Hunter, too.”

“Not by choice.” The younger teen informed him flatly before frowning over at him, “and it’s not fair! When two people find each other like you guys have—people who were clearly meant to be together—they should be able to be together with no reservations.”

“You’re an idealist.” Cas accused with a little smile. “Don’t ever let the world take that from you.” And then; “Sam, listen, I… you’re right. About how I feel about Dean. I don’t know for sure how he really feels about me, but I…” Trailing off, he shook his head. “You know. And I plan to show him as much as I can before you two have to leave, even if I can’t tell him. Okay?”

Sam grumbled under his breath but nodded anyway. “Okay.”

“You care about him a lot, don’t you? His happiness.”

“Well, yeah. He’s my brother.”

Cas’s smile grew. “You’re a good kid, Sam.”

Sam gave him a little half-grin from the corner of his eye, and they continued to fold laundry until everything was done and re-packed in the duffle bag. Then they made their way back to the motel room. When they walked in, Dean was seated on the edge of his bed, his elbows propped against his knees and his head in his hands. The cell phone was discarded on the mattress beside him.

Sam just went about putting the clothes away, but Cas sighed softly and headed over to stand in front of Dean. Dean didn’t look up, but his arms lifted to snake around Cas’s waist, and he lifted his head just enough to press his forehead into Cas’s solar plexus, just under his ribs. Cas just brought one hand up to stroke through Dean’s hair gently.

“You okay?”

Dean mumbled something under his breath and tightened his arms around Cas just the slightest bit. “M’fine.”

“You’re not.” Cas continued petting through his hair, just warmth and affection. “I’m sorry about your Dad.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Dean shook his head slightly, bangs mussing against Cas’s shirt. “I’m in so much trouble.”

“You shouldn’t have told him about me.”

“I couldn’t help it. He was hounding me, and I just…”

“I understand.” Cas smiled down at him. “I’m glad you think so much of me, Dean.”

“I… yeah.” Dean’s arms tightened around him even more, making Cas wince just faintly. “I really do.”

“You guys are disgusting.” Sam protested from the other side of the room, “get a room already.” And then; “another room.”

That finally got Dean to lift his head, though he didn’t release Cas entirely, and he leaned over to glare at his brother. “Dude, we’re not even doing anything.”

Sam was just finishing putting the last of the clothes into the drawers of the small dresser that came with the motel room. He closed the last drawer and then crossed over to shove the empty duffle bag under his bed. “You’re always doing the sappy, lovey-dovey crap, though. I could live without it. In fact, you should go to Cas’s place. Like, immediately.”

Dean made a face and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Actually, that’s not a terrible idea.” Then he looked up at Cas and added, “it’s getting late, we should get you home. How did you get here, anyway?”

Cas blinked down at him. “I walked.”

“In your condition? Cas.” Dean frowned.

“I’m okay, Dean. I made it. I’m still alive.” Cas offered a reassuring smile and toyed with Dean’s hair a little more, almost absently. Dean leaned into the touch. “Do you want to walk me home?”

That made Dean smile, just a bit. “Yeah, I could do that. Maybe stay for a little while if it’s okay with Chuck.”

“Mm, I’d like that.”

Sam made an exaggerated gagging noise.

Dean glared at him around Cas again. “You are such a little bitch sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m not a lovesick jerk.”

-- --

Cas’s first day back to school was a Friday. He’d tried to tell his father it was pointless to send him back on the last day of the week, but Chuck had informed him that if he was well enough to leave the house and visit his boyfriend, he was well enough to go to class. Cas could kind of see his point, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with it.

Dean, of course, had stopped going to class pretty much the instant the jorogumo thing was over and done with, so was obviously not there to meet him in the morning when he arrived on the steps of Caspar High. Cas hadn’t realized just how disappointing that was going to be until the exact moment that he automatically looked for the older boy and he wasn’t there. In the end he had to quash the discomfort in his stomach and just head on inside to his locker. Alone.

He wasn’t alone for long, though. He was standing in the drama hall, digging out his books for first class, when hurried footsteps approached him from the right and suddenly someone next thing to tackled him. “CAS!”

Cas nearly bit his tongue in an effort not to yelp out a curse, stumbling sideways while his wounds throbbed painfully. At least the tackle had been on the opposite side from his injuries. After a moment of catching his breath, he brought one hand up to pat against a familiar head of red hair. Platonic affection. “Hi, Charlie.”

Coming behind Charlie, at a much more sedate pace, were Jody and Garth, and Cas gave them a little wave, which they each returned in kind. Cas hadn’t been expecting much of a welcome back after being away for the week, and this was actually kind of… nice. If abrupt and somewhat painful.

Charlie squeezed him hard once more, making him wince, before releasing him and stepping back. She tilted her head slightly. “We missed you in calculus. Where were you?”

Cas rubbed at his ribs without even meaning to. “Sorry. I was sick. I had the flu.”

“Yeah, I heard that’s going around right now.” Jody commented, “I guess it’s that time of year.”

“Exactly.” Cas agreed. He felt bad, lying to his friends like this, but it was necessary. It wasn’t like he could tell them the truth about Dean and his family and the spider monster that had been living in the school’s basement. “But I’m fine, now.”

“Not contagious?” Garth joked with a grin.

Cas blinked. “Not to my knowledge.”

“Cough on him and we’ll find out!” Charlie suggested, obviously joking.

A little smile spread across Cas’s face as it occurred to him that, just maybe, the rest of his final year of high school wouldn’t approximate torture after all, even if Dean wasn’t there. He did have friends—and he was absolutely sure they would stand up for him if they needed to. (Especially Charlie.)

“Where’s Dean?” Jody again, sounding curious, “you two are practically attached at the hip these days, I’m surprised he’s not here with you.”

“Oh,” Cas wilted visibly, and everyone’s expression immediately shuttered into something obviously sympathetic, “uh.”

Charlie reached to squeeze his arm gently. “Breakups are hard. Especially when you’re really close to the person.”

Jody and Garth nodded in agreement—but Cas quickly shook his head. “No, it’s not like that, it’s—” Breaking off, Cas let his gaze fall to the floor, eyes shifting back-and-forth as he considered his words before; “his family moves around a lot, and his Dad’s job is taking them somewhere else now, so he’s… I mean. He’s in town for a couple more days, but he’s gone from school to pack up and everything. And then he’s taking off.”

“Oh,” Was the general consensus from the other three.

“Are you okay?” Garth asked after a moment.

Cas shrugged slightly and went back to digging his geography books out of his locker. “I’m… I mean. I’m not great. But there’s texting, and video calls, and video chat on the computer, and the phone and…” Trailing off, he shoved his books in his backpack and then admitted softly; “and I’m not actually okay.”

“Oh, Cas,” When Charlie hugged him this time it was gently and with more than a bit of sympathy. “I’m so sorry, I know you two are close.”

Cas accepted the hug with a sigh—even hugged back just a little. “It hurts.” He told them quietly. “I mean… it feels like we should be together forever, and instead…”

Jody made a soft agreeing noise. “Relationships can be like that sometimes.”

But Garth was the one who actually said it; “you’re in love with him, huh?”

Charlie looked up at him, curious to see his reaction even though she already knew what it would be, but still didn’t stop hugging him. Cas’s eyes skittered away and down, and he shrugged again before admitting softly, “yes, pretty much.” He was still avoiding saying the actual words out loud, though. “And I don’t know for sure, but I think… I think he feels the same way. About me.”

There was a round of murmurs amongst the three of them. Charlie gave him another gentle squeeze before finally letting him go again and giving him a reassuring smile. “I knew you two were meant to be. If that’s the case,” She told him firmly, “then do the whole phone calls and video chat thing, for as long as you can.”

“I always thought you two made a good couple. Maybe a little odd, but good.” Jody commented with a smile, “I’m sure you’ll make it work.”

“People make the long-distance thing work all the time.” Garth added encouragingly.

“That’s…” Cas offered a little, half-hearted smile in return, “that’s what I’m hoping. Because honestly, I can’t picture my life without him at this point. Even eating lunch today is going to be weird without him. I can’t just eat in our spot by myself, right?”

“Naaaaaah,” Charlie waved a hand dismissively, “Cas, my man, you are definitely eating with us at the Weird Kids table in the caf from now on. You are a Weird Kid, now.”

“I think I was already a Weird Kid.”

“Yeah, but now it’s official.” Charlie grinned, while Jody and Garth chuckled to themselves. When the warning bell for first class went off, they all glanced up, then back at Cas. “You gonna be okay?” Charlie asked, more seriously.

Cas smiled again, a bit more real this time. “I’ll be fine, Charlie, thank you.”

“Just checking.” She brought one hand up to squeeze his arm, “we’ll get you through this.” And then, “gotta go. Come to the cafeteria at lunch today, we’ll find you!”

“Okay.”

“See you later, Cas.”

“See you.”

They all hurried off to their respective classes while Cas slumped his way to geography.

-- --

At lunch time Cas made his way to the (dreaded) cafeteria, where Charlie waved him over to a table in the corner where she, Jody, Garth were already seated, along with a girl named Jo and a younger boy named Kevin. Jo was nice and kind of reminded him of Dean in a lot of ways. She wore a lot of denim and leather and after he watched her interact with the others for a little while he understood why she fit in with them so well. Kevin was a little harder to pin down because he was quiet and didn’t talk as much as the others, but what he did say was witty and sarcastic, if awkward at times, and everyone else seemed overly fond of him. Like he was the little brother of the group.

When Cas pulled his lunch out, he discovered two sandwiches—he had packed one for Dean strictly out of habit—and wilted a little, but the others quickly changed the subject and brought him back up again, even Jo and Kevin, who had apparently already been apprised of the situation.

So, lunch hour wasn’t so bad. No one bothered them in their little corner and, Cas thought, if it was like that every day then he could probably get used to it. He would always miss Dean and their little sanctuary under the gym bleachers, though, that much he was sure of. Still, this was a passable substitute. He could get used to it. Probably.

After school, once he had packed all of his homework into his backpack, Cas didn’t even bother going home, just walked straight to the Seafoam Motel, where Dean was waiting for him. He opened the door after the cursory check through the peep hole, locks all unlatching in quick succession until Cas could smile at his boyfriend face-to-face. Dean dragged him inside by the front of his shirt and pulled him into a long, drawn-out kiss that made happiness bubble up inside him.

When he looked around after they parted, he was surprised not to see Sam. “Where’s Sam?”

“School. He always goes until the very last minute.” Dean took his backpack and deposited it beside the door, then tugged him over to sit down next to him on one of the beds. “Bedwin gets out an hour later than Caspar does. Starts an hour later, too. Unfair, really. He always got to sleep in.” A shrug, then, “how was your first day back?”

“I did okay.” Cas reached for one of Dean’s hands, toying with the older boy’s fingers gently. “I ate lunch in the cafeteria with Charlie and the others, and they introduced me to a couple more people that I also don’t have any classes with. Jo and Kevin. I think you’d really like Jo, actually. She reminds me of you.”

“Is she roguishly handsome, too?”

“Stop.” Cas bumped sideways into him with a smile. “No, she’s just tough and strong and opinionated. She’s nice, though. So is Kevin. So, I guess I have a couple more friends to ride out the year with, which is good, even if I don’t have any classes with them. I think they’ll all get me through.”

“That’s good. I know I said just each lunch with Charlie and the others, but I was a little worried.”

“You always worry about me.”

“I do.” Dean confirmed, then, “speaking of which, how’re your ribs?”

“Well Charlie full-body tackled me this morning in greeting, and that was unpleasant,” Cas grimaced slightly, “she didn’t know, obviously. But other than that, they’re okay. They still hurt, but it’s more of a bruise hurt than a huge gouges hurt now, so it’s tolerable. And the actual bruises are almost gone, just a couple are left, the ones that were the worst.”

Dean made a little pleased noise at this news, though Cas was sure he would rather have made his own assessment. “That’s great to hear. I was worried you’d be in pain all day today.”

But Cas shook his head, “no. I only had to take some aspirin once. I was fine.”

“Good.”

They were quiet for a bit, then, just sitting next to each other while Cas toyed with Dean’s fingers absently. They were both going to miss little moments like this when Dean was halfway across the country. They were soaking them in while they could.

“I just keep thinking about all the kids who go to school there and have no idea.” Dean sighed finally, “Caspar High? More like Horror High, right?”

Cas just smiled, though, and leaned sideways against his boyfriend, wincing just the slightest bit at the movement. “It isn’t Horror High to me. I met you there. It could never be Horror High, even with a jorogumo in the basement.”

Dean chuckled and turned his head to kiss against Cas’s temple. “Subjective High, then? But I think that’s pretty much all high schools. Also, it doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

“Mm.” An agreeing noise. Cas turned a little to tuck himself closer into Dean’s side. Finally, he asked, “you’ll be leaving soon, won’t you?”

“I—” Dean had to pause and swallow hard. He wrapped an arm around Cas, careful of his ribs, as if that simple act would keep them from being separated. “Yeah, I—as soon as my Dad gets here from Utah.”

“Two, three days, then?”

“He’s just finishing out his case first, but yeah…”

Cas offered a sad smile and pulled him into a kiss. “So, we’ll just have to make the next couple days count, that’s all.”

“What do you suggest?” The question was asked against his lips, into the kiss.

“I think…” Cas leaned his forehead against Dean’s and met his gaze, blue clashing with green. “I want you to stay over again, even if my Father is around. I don’t care what he thinks, I just want to be with you as much as possible until I can’t be anymore.”

Dean smiled, just a sad little quirk of his lips. “Maybe we should go on a date. A real date. Before we can’t.”

Surprise. “I’ve never been on a date before.”

Dean chuckled, “neither have I, really. What do normal teenagers do when they go on dates?”

“I think the stereotype is dinner and a movie.” Cas hummed, “but we kind of did that already when you stayed over at my place.”

“Does pizza and Netflix really count, though?”

“I have no idea,” Cas admitted. He was kind of out of his depth with this sort of thing. “What if we go to a diner? I know you probably get lots of diner food on the road, but there’s one that I keep hearing about, I think it’s called Maggie’s. Apparently, they have really good cheeseburgers? I could look them up and check out their reviews.”

Dean grinned, “you had me at cheeseburger.” He squeezed his hand in Cas’s gently. “Maybe after we can just go for a walk, like normal people. Pretend the world isn’t as screwed up as it actually is.”

“That sounds nice.” Cas agreed. “And after, you can come home with me for the night. Okay?”

“Your Dad is going to kill me.”

“No, he won’t. I think as long as I’m happy he’ll be fine. As long as we’re not too loud.”

“Were we loud?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? But there was no one else home to tell us to keep it down, so.”

“Not for nothing, but it could be awkward screwing around with your Dad in the house.”

“Well, we don’t have to have sex,” Cas clarified, then, “I mean, I would like… to have that with you, as many times as I can before you go. But just being with you is enough for me, too.”

Dean chuckled, “’as many times as you can’, huh?”

“Mm,” Cas agreed, playing with Dean’s fingers where they were tangled up with his own once more; “you’re like a drug, Dean. I can’t seem to get enough. It’s been like that since day one, since we met, I…” Trailing off a little, Cas squeezed Dean’s hand again and continued; “I consider myself incredibly lucky, that you decided to befriend me, and then more. But I’ve been addicted to you since the very first moment, and it’s only gotten worse with time. The more time we spend together, the more I get to know you, the more we do together, how close we’ve gotten—physically and emotionally. It all leaves me craving more. I’m going to go through withdrawals when you’re gone.”

“We’ll still talk,” Dean reminded him, “video chat and all that stuff you drilled into me.”

Cas smiled. “I know, but it’s not the same, is it? As being able to touch you. Kiss you.”

A soft sigh and Dean joked, “Dad is going to get really pissed off with all the weekends I take off to meet up with you in some seedy motel.”

A laugh from Cas. “Specifically seedy motels?”

“Is there any other kind?”

“You just specifically look for the seedy ones, that’s all—ah.” Cas cut himself off with a wince, letting go of Dean’s hand and bringing his own hand up to rub at one ear harshly. “That hurts…”

Dean looked at him in surprise. “What…?”

He continued rubbing at his ear, even though he knew it wouldn’t help matters, as he responded, “ever since the jorogumo, when I hit my head, I keep getting this… it’s like a ringing in my ears. Or a high-pitched whine. Sometimes both ears, sometimes just one. But sometimes it’s loud and it hurts.” Not that he wanted to give Dean anything else to worry about, but… “I’m sure it’ll stop eventually, I just have to deal with it for a while until it does.”

Dean was just opening his mouth to say something, starting to look worried, when the sudden onslaught of sound stopped—and Cas worked his jaw a couple of times, dropping his hand back down again. “See? It goes away fast.”

“I feel like you should see a doctor about that.”

“Yes, but how would I explain it to my Father?”

“Just… tell him about the ringing in your ears. You don’t have to tell him about the jorogumo.”

A fair point. “I guess.”

Dean squeezed his arm around Cas and reached to take hold of his hand again. “Promise me you’ll get it looked at?”

Cas had to smile, just a little, at Dean looking out for him again. “I promise.”

They both fell into silence then, just sitting together for a few minutes before Dean asked, “did you have homework? You should probably get working on it if you do.”

“Mm-mm.” A soft negative noise and Cas shook his head, “I mean, I do. Have homework. But I’ll do it tonight after I get home.”

“I just don’t want you to stay up too late, that’s all.” Dean toyed with Cas’s fingers gently as he spoke, “you should still be resting.”

“You worry too much.” Cas accused fondly.

But Dean just came back with a kiss and: “I worry just enough, thank you very much.”

#supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #destiel #destiel fanfiction #spn #shut up sena #sena writes #horror high by senashenta

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saccharineomens · 8 months ago

Note

Thistle and Kabru!

Thistle - what message of the series resonated with you the most?

Hmmm. Well, the part of the series that I already ascribed to and was just delighted to see in a story was the stuff about the ecosystem — specifically in the Kraken chapter where Senshi said he was arrogant to assume he could solely be a caretaker of the ecosystem, because he was already PART of the ecosystem. When Laios mentioned how now that the (overly dominant) Kraken was killed, the rest of the fourth floor’s ecosystem could re-balance itself? Chef’s kiss. It even brings up some sinister realizations about how humans are, ultimately, apex predators — even moreso than the most terrifying monster out there. There are times when humans will be defeated by other monsters, but ultimately, it is only a matter of resources, collaboration, and time for humans to wipe out an ecosystem.

But how can I neglect to mention one of my favorite sequences (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ANIME-ONLIES) — the part where Laios was already starting down his path of understanding that he can’t force his perfect world on other people. It started with the Golden Kingdom, and how they told him immortality became a curse. It led to his confrontation with Thistle, where Thistle tied him up and force-fed him — why would he complain, his needs were being taken care of! Then when he fought his way to Marcille in the tower — arguing with her that she wouldn’t truly want a world where everyone felt the same way as her. I felt like that point was where Marcille and Laios truly connected, and Marcille realized that she loved him and her friends exactly as imperfect as they were, and no longer wanted to destroy the world for her idea of perfection. It was a really touching moment.

Kabru - which character do you find most interesting, and why?

Laios! I love him, but I also didn’t fully understand him at times. There were a lot of things about him I found relatable. Struggling to make friends, feeling like the interests you were excited about made other people uncomfortable, so you hide who you are deep deep down out of fear of losing your friends. I didn’t relate to his desire to become something else, but I did relate to his desire to escape, to not have to deal with the complexities of being human. I’ve often looked at my cat and wished I could be a cat like him: pampered, unconditionally loved, no student debts or taxes or career, with all his needs taken care of. But it’s not a true, permanent desire I feel, like the kind Laios feels; for me, it’s just an escapist fantasy.

I wish I was friends with him, so I could show him how cool humans are. He thinks they’re bland, but I think he’d really benefit from some anthropology. Get Namari in here to wax poetic about his height XD

Send me a character from Dungeon Meshi!

#Dungeon meshi #axbox #Anon

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lovedrunkheadcanons · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter Contents

(Arranged Marriage Fic) Read on AO3

Rated M

My Dearest Duch,

I come with the most splendid news. After some thinking, I have decided to spend holiday in Tokyo next week and will be paying you a visit. How marvellous! I know it’s been a while, so why don’t we catch up over a nice cup of tea. I’ll write later in lieu of my arrival. Keep the kettle on for me.

Till then, Butch (C.T.) XoXoX

Hannah’s eyes hungrily re-read the letter for the fourth consecutive time at breakfast. The parchment was dated three days ago, but she wondered whether there was a mistake. It had been almost two years since they last spoke with each other. Why on God’s green earth would Cressida want to see her? Here, in Japan of all places? Hannah was flummoxed. Her whole life she had been tossed around Europe like a crumpled brown paper parcel, constantly hopping from one dilapidated convent to the next, hidden away from the world, and not once had her cousin come to visit her, much less pick up a pen and write a letter, but there it was. In her hand. ‘Duch’ and ‘Butch.’ Blimey, those were names she hadn’t heard in ages.

“Are you feeling alright, ma’am?” Makoto said, genuine concern in her tone. “Is the food not to your liking?”

Hannah looked up at the housekeeper setting down a fresh pot of coffee and hurriedly folded up the letter, slipping it back inside its Graveur linen envelope, the two Thames sirens waxed in the center.

“Oh, no, not at all, Makoto-san,” Hannah said, a little startled. She gave the housekeeper a small smile. “The food is quite good. Delicious even. No need to make a fuss.”

“A fuss?” Satoru yawned, at last emerging from the hallway. “Better not be a fuss.”

Hannah watched the Six Eyes wielder stride into the parlor and kneel down at the low table, rubbing his tired eyelids. It was officially late June. Unlike most mornings when he came in wearing a plain tee and sweatpants, Satoru had chosen instead to wear a loose fitting, dark ebony yukata, a matching obi tied around his waist. The weather bring hot, there was no nagajuban. The front showed off his bare neck and collarbone rather handsomely.

Then she saw his eyes land on the envelope.

“What’s that?”

Hannah grew tense.

“N-Nothing,” she lied, her eyes deflecting off his collarbone, and hid the opened parchment under the table on her lap (as though he couldn’t see). “Lady Inumaki has invited me over for lunch again. That’s all.”

Satoru let out a soft grunt, and began piling his bowl with rice and strips of raw tuna, dropping the topic. Makoto poured coffee into his mug. He took a bite of food and glanced timidly at his wife sitting across.

“So…How’d you sleep last night?”

Hannah met his gaze and quickly shied away.

“Fine,” she answered. “You?”

Satoru also looked down, shrugging.

“Fine.”

They were both liars. Truth was neither of them had gotten any sleep. Following the kiss, the train ride home had been excruciatingly awkward and their conversation brief. All they managed to get in wordwise was a quick “Goodnight” before dashing inside their respective rooms. The awkwardness had yet to settle, turning almost frigid. Like a giant wall of ice had been forcibly wedged between them, impossible to break. They were no better than strangers.

Their odd behavior made Makoto uneasy as she prepared breakfast, but the housekeeper hadn’t the slightest inclination what was going on. Her young master and mistress had been getting along so well lately. What could’ve caused such a disturbance?

Taking a couple bites of rice, Satoru fiddled with his plate and coughed into his fist.

“I’ve been assigned another mission.”

Hannah looked up. “Oh? Where to?”

“Okinawa. There’s been another curse sighting.” He said this with the least amount of enthusiasm. “My flight leaves this afternoon. I could be gone awhile, so you and Makoto will be in charge of things till I get back.”

Hannah bowed her head, looking at the table. “I see.”

“You sure you’ll be alright?”

She shrugged. “It’s no different from all the other times. Makoto and I will manage fine on our own.”

Satoru gave a nod. “I’ll have my cell. If you need me for any reason —”

“Don’t hesitate to call,” Hannah finished, having heard this speech a thousand times, but she struggled to hide her disappointment. “But do hurry back, please.”

Satoru couldn’t help but chuckle. “Aw, why so glum, Princess? I thought you’d be happy having the place to yourself again.”

Rather than laugh along with his joke, Hannah shook her head and went back to eating her meal.

“It isn’t the same without you here.”

There were a million and one ways to interpret that single sentence, but they weren’t going to discuss it then, choosing instead to finish their breakfast in relative, albeit less awkward, silence.

The kiss was not brought up.

With Satoru gone, Cressida arrived at the Gojo estate not two days later.

“Duch!” she cried gaily, rushing to take off her shoes after Hannah’s polite request (those heels would ruin the tatami). Elegant in an eau-de-nil Chanel suit and bowler hat, Cressida set down her bulky looking briefcase and purse, her many charm bracelets jangling like bells, and kissed her young cousin on both cheeks. “My, I guess what they say isn’t true. You really can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

The sorcerer's wife tried not to wince at the backhanded compliment and wished Satoru was there with her. While the rift between them had not abated, his presence would’ve been a great comfort because Cressida hadn’t changed one bit it seemed; posh, beautiful, and conceited as ever. Her ‘sow’s ear’ comment was in reference to the kimono. Hannah had chosen a tsumugi instead of a yukata. While the jacquarded silk wouldn’t keep her cool from the summer heat, it would, with any luck, leave an indelible impression on Cressida, who wasn’t shy about her love of expensive clothing. The kimono itself was light blue and covered head to toe in paisley motifs, while a black fukuro obi, filigreed with gold medallions and phoenixes, secured her waistline. The combination was pleasing, but more formal than necessary, yet somehow Hannah knew her cousin wouldn’t know enough about Japanese customs to call her out on it. As the cherry on top, Makoto suggested she wear a pair of dainty Georgian style earrings, plated in gold.

“Cressida,” Hannah greeted apprehensively, finding it strange she no longer had to curtsy when addressing her cousin. “I hope your flight wasn’t long.”

Lady Cressida shriveled her nose. “My flight was dreadful, thank you for asking. I tried convincing Papa I take another boat, but naturally he said no. Seems he has forgotten a Thames’ place is in the water, not the air.” Smoothing her skirt, she walked over to the Jakuchū painting of the Gojo family tree, looking interested, but was unable to read the gold kanji scrawled along the branches. She then turned around to look back at Hannah and clapped her hands together. “Anywho, show me around this charming little house of yours, Duch. I want the full royal tour.”

Hannah led Cressida through the many washi-paneled rooms and rush-covered hallways, giving more or less the same history lesson Makoto had given her when she first entered the ‘little’ samurai house. She showed her the kamidana room housing the bronzed Buddhist altar, the English dining room, the reception hall decorated with the tokonoma alcove and three katana swords whose hilts were carved of jade. However Cressida, like a military sergeant blessed with a watchmaker’s eye for detail, took her time inspecting Hannah’s closet, checking to see it ticked all the essential boxes. She went through each rack and drawer one by one, making selections, taking careful notes, before finishing her inspection with a curt, “Yes, I suppose these will do.”

The wardrobe having passed the test, the two women put their shoes back on and enjoyed a short promenade around the gardens, and as they walked, Cressida shared with Hannah her recent travels. She had sailed many oceans, yachting at Monaco then South Africa then finally Thailand, spending her year on a never-ending holiday, with exception to her recent flight to Japan. “I’m staying at the Seiyo Ginza,” she dolefully carried on. “Have you heard of it? I found their wine selections most superb.” Hannah said no, doubting the hotel Cressida was residing at was cheap. If it wasn’t £1,500 a night and over five stars, then her cousin wanted no part in it.

Makoto had tea and a light meal waiting for them in the reception hall. Kneeling at a low table, Hannah could better appreciate Cressida’s new haircut. Her once long raven locks had been shorn into a chic bob, the edges curling around her face, making her look like a 1920s flapper. The Chanel suit only enhanced the effect. “Oh, can’t tell you how relieved I was to chop it all off,” she delighted, looking through the end of a compact mirror as she reapplied her favorite red lipstick. Cressida had no qualms being fawned over and adored. “Always hated having long hair.” She smashed her lips together and placed the rouge back in her purse. “That bloody harp.”

Hannah visibly perked up. “You brought it with you?

Cressida closed the lid of her mirror in dramatic fashion and rolled her bewitching blue eyes. “Of course I brought it with me. I'm its keeper now, aren’t I?” She traded in her compact mirror for an enameled cigarette case. “By the way, do you mind if I have a light? I know the Japanese aren’t antagonistic towards smoking.”

With some reluctance, Hannah gave Cressida the go ahead to light her cigarette. The tobacco leaves were infused with cloves, emitting an incense-like aroma, snapping and crackling from the flame. Apparently they were a popular brand from Indonesia, but Hannah slid open a second partition wall in case the fragrance lingered. Makoto would have a fit.

“And Atticus?” she said upon sitting back down. “Have you heard from him at all?”

Cressida sighed insouciantly and took a generous drag. “Last I spoke with my brother, he was in Egypt. You remember that archeological dig they uncovered back in March, the one believing to be Queen Nefertiti’s lost tomb? Made international news?” She pointed her cigarette at Hannah. “That was Atticus. As you can imagine, Papa was quite pleased, but he’s never satisfied for long after a heist. Sent him to South America to begin scavenging the Pacific for shipwrecks. I assume that’s where he is now, but who knows. We don’t talk much these days.”

The Thames heiress reached for a lone plate and flicked her ashes on it, and Hannah saw one of the many charms on her bracelets, the initials V.A. dangling from a gold chain next to a lock and key. Sympathy welled within her. She said the next sentence aloud without thinking.

“I’m sorry about Vera.”

Cressida's body ceased all functionality, her complexion turning pale like a dead person’s.

The room became quiet, save for the ticking of the clock. Perhaps she’d been over analyzing, but Hannah swore she saw her cousin’s bottom lip quiver for a second, then stiffen in a hard line. Cressida knew how to keep her emotions in check, but those pained blue eyes staring back at her were the eyes of someone who had experienced an unbearable loss. Hannah regretted her words.

“Gosh, I’m such an idiot. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No!” Cressida snapped out of her stupor and took her cousin’s hand. “Please, I want to talk about her…I…I don’t do it enough honestly.”

The story was a sad one. Lady Vera Avery was one of the sorcerers who died at the Louvre last October alongside Ivan Lebowitz. She was Lord Belgaven’s only daughter and Cressida’s best friend since childhood, however Hannah discovered the true nature of their relationship by accident, on the night of Cressida’s coming-out ball.

Wasserton, with its Roman colonnades and grand marble staircases, had been a product of the late 18th century sometime before the Napoleonic Era. Alexander Thames II had been the genius behind its construction, and being a brilliant architect, had incorporated a bevy of secret passageways and tunnels that connected possibly every room and cranny, including the servant’s bedroom Hannah resided during her visits. She had found the hidden door under the rug at six years old. Fast forward eight years later when Hannah was again staying at Wasserton - by then her third visit - she had used the same hidden door to sneak around the mansion and watch the opulent ball happening downstairs. Like Cinderella trapped in the cellar, she had not been allowed to attend.

High above where no one could see her, Hannah watched the opulent party from the air vents. She hummed dreamily to the music as lords and ladies waltzed and fox-trotted effortlessly around the ballroom, diamonds sparkling, flasks of champagne bubbling, laughter and merriment being had. There was an endless flow of conversation milling about which greatly excited Hannah. She paid rapturous attention to the young gentleman asking the young debutantes to dance and tried imagining a world where Elizabeth Thames had not lost her virtue to an unnamed man. Then perhaps a dashing young suitor would be asking her for a dance. Sadly, it was not to be.

At the stroke of midnight, Hannah made the lonely return to her room by candlelight but soon encountered a bump in the road. Apparently, she was not the only one scurrying around the walls like a mouse that night. Someone else was utilizing the tunnels too.

And it wasn’t merely to snoop.

Hannah would’ve avoided them if she could, but the two debs were blocking her way. Caught in a rush of passion, they had already stripped themselves of their gowns, white chiffon piled on the floor, tiaras slipping off, lips locked in a searing kiss, under the pretense they were alone. They were not.

Vera spotted Hannah first and froze like a deer in the headlights, parting quickly from her lover.

“What is it, love? What’s the matter?” Cressida turned around to see her cousin standing there, staring wide-eyed and .

The cat was officially out of the bag.

Like members of an exclusionary club, the British haut monde bestowed nicknames to each other, a simple way of indicating who was in and who was out. Few questioned why Cressida went by the name “Butch,” naively assuming it had something to do with her expertise sporting a hunter’s rifle, or her passion for equestrianism, or the cavalier way she held her cigarette, acting more tomboy than ‘posh girl.’ Lady Cressida Thames? A lesbian? Why, don’t be ridiculous. She didn’t fit the stereotype. Her raven black hair was far too long and lusciously curled. Her clothes, ultra feminine with nothing less than Parisian couture and three-inch heels, face dolled in a full head of makeup to accentuate her tempting blue eyes, which she used to flirt with the men almost as much as she did the women. Stunningly beautiful. This in mind, no one suspected Cressida’s sexuality to be anything other than straight. The nickname “Butch” was nothing more than a bit of harmless fun, an inside joke, a gaff.

Ah, but looks can be deceiving.

While she may have had every reason, Hannah did not rat out Cressida to her uncle, and in doing so had formed a secret alliance. That was also around the time Cressida began calling her “Duch.” She meant it as a term of endearment, and Hannah understood that now, but there was a time when she took it as an insult. An illegitimate, Hannah would never become a duchess or inherit a title. So when it was revealed that she was to marry the Gojo heir and not Cressida, Hannah thought her uncle had gone barking mad. Cressida Thames was his only daughter and pressed with every advantage; looks, money, prestige, and more importantly, magic. She had all the ingredients required of a sorcerer’s wife. It was expectant upon her to marry well, and perhaps that was what Lord Thames had up his sleeve. Sorcerer families needed heirs to keep the bloodlines going. For his daughter, that meant female lovers were out of the question, making the circumstances surrounding Vera’s death almost too suspect to ignore.

“My father did it. I know he did,” Cressida said bitterly, jaw clenched. “He knew Vera wouldn’t survive the mission and persuaded the Association to send her anyway.” Her hands balled into fists. “Someone betrayed us.”

“Not me,” Hannah blurted without meaning. “It wasn’t me, I promise.”

Cressida offered her cousin a strained smile. “No, Duch. I know it wasn’t you, but you see,” she swallowed the lump in her throat and took a staggered breath, “Vera was my everything, and now that she’s dead I feel lost. My one great happiness is gone.”

Hannah solemnly bowed her head. Much could be said about sin and damnation, about marriage belonging solely to one man and one woman, the New Testament and the Old. Hannah knew all the theological arguments, she knew Matthew 19 and Mark 10, but she also knew God was love. And if God was love, then was it right to suggest that those who abided in love, also abided in God? Did Cressida’s unwavering love for Vera amount to anything? Hannah often pondered these questions, but kept them buried in her heart. Now was not the time for philosophizing.

“I’m sorry, Cressida.” she said, but knowing what else to say. “I truly am.”

Cressida unfurled a handkerchief and wiped an escaped tear from her eye.

“Yes, well, crying about it won’t do us any good. Let’s change subject before my mascara runs.” She sniffed and rummaged her purse for another cigarette. “Talk to me about this elusive husband of yours. Is he descent?”

Hannah withheld little. She told Cressida almost everything. The night he saved her from the curse on her way back to her dorm; Their morning jogs and training sessions; Watching movies together; The tumultuous night at the theater; The baseball game, the indirect kiss, then the skyline of Tokyo, followed by the actual kiss; Her lack of self-confidence, which was directly linked to her virginity. And in the midst of her rambling, Hannah for the first time contemplated how many partners Satoru has had.

“I hate to break your heart, Duch, but men like him don’t come wearing chastity belts. I wager he’s plucked the bloom off every rose in the garden.”

Hannah's heart plummeted at that. “You really think so?”

“Think so?” Cressida said with a laugh. “I know so.”

But how? Hannah found herself wondering. Was that really a fair judgment, to accuse someone of being a roaming Lothario without ever having met him? Satoru was secretive, yes, but as far as Hannah knew, he’d mentioned nothing of past lovers. And while he happened to be a shameless flirt, the gestures never quite reached the levels Cressida was implying, either that, or her husband had taken great care not to sweet-talk the ladies whenever she was around. Even still, the assumption felt off. Everytime Satoru went away on a mission, he always returned the day he had promised, not at a designated time of course, but usually before sunset. When he wasn’t away, he spent most of his days relaxing at home and training with Hannah. And more recently, they had begun the long, overdue process of renovating the estate; shoji panels needed replacing every few years, and since they now were in the rainy month of June, they had begun checking the 200 year old house for leaks and mildew. In the past week alone, they had invited a flood of carpenters, gardeners, inspectors, and financiers into their home, and Hannah was tasked with more work than before, seeing to that the property was kept ship-shape. There were people to see, correspondence to answer, checkbooks to balance. Satoru couldn’t have time for lovers. They were far too busy. But still there was that unsettling voice in the back of her head, relentlessly badgering her: “You won’t measure up. He’ll find someone better."

Hannah looked up at her cousin for guidance.

“What do I do?”

Cressida rested her cigarette on a plate and propped her chin. “Hmm, you said he kissed you, didn’t he?” Hannah nodded. “Yes, but how did he kiss you?”

“W-What? What does that have to — ”

“Did he force himself on you, Duch? Threaten you? Touch you inappropriately? Men can be dogs when it comes to that sort of thing.”

Hannah vehemently denied this. “No, no, he didn’t force himself on me at all. In fact he…” she paused. “He apologized afterwards.”

Cressida raised both brows, looking astonished. “Really? That’s rather odd. You sure it wasn’t your imagination playing tricks on you?"

Hannah shook her head. “No, I remember now. He said, ‘sorry’ before teleporting us back down.” He had said it so softly in fact she almost didn’t hear him, but Satoru had said it: “Gomen.”

“Heavens, then it must be serious.”

“What’s serious?”

The Thames heiress picked up her cigarette again, choosing not to answer and inhaled another puff of tobacco-clove.

“You know, I slept with a man once,” she confessed, veering slightly off topic. “Just to try it. See what all the talk was about.”

Hannah was in the middle of taking a sip of tea, and being unprepared for the comment, nearly had it go down the wrong pipe. “And…was it nice?” she coughed, clearing her throat.

Cressida gestured with a lazy, sinuous shrug.

“No, not really. He was a bit too soft for my tastes. Almost like riding a miniature pony.” She made a wry shape with her mouth. “Only I couldn’t decide whether he rode me, or I rode him.” Then breaking into a great bellyful of laughter, she threw back her head and gave Hannah a knowing wink, but poor Hannah couldn’t find it in herself to laugh along.

“I wish I knew what I was doing?” she huffed, frustrated by her inexperience. “I know nothing about men.”

Cressida let out a snort. “Men aren’t complicated, Hannah. And they certainly don’t apologize after kissing someone unless their intentions are forthcoming, so I wouldn’t reach for the lifejacket just yet. Be honest with him and he’ll be honest with you.” The Thames heiress finished her second cigarette and stood up. “Anywho, I didn’t come all this way to gossip. I’ve brought you something.” She walked over to Hannah, carrying the bulky briefcase she came in with. It looked heavy. “Consider it my late wedding present.”

Hannah gave her cousin a skeptical look as she set the leather case down beside her and returned to her seat. Lying it flat on the ground, Hannah unjoined the clasps, popped open the lid, and gasped.

Inside were two tiaras: A kokoshnik faceted with emerald cabochons and rows of diamonds, mimicking the appearance of fish scales. Hannah recognized it immediately. This was the tiara adorning her mother in many of the portraits at Wasserton, including her favorite that hung in the East library, pairing nicely with the emerald necklace that now sat in a glass case in her closet. However, the other tiara she did not recognize. Its garland structure bore semblance to curling ocean waves crashing into the sea. Tiny briolette diamonds hung off the edges like sparkling water drops. She could hardly speak, they were so enchanting.

This was no simple wedding gift.

“Cressida, how on earth did you get these?”

The heiress looked mighty pleased with herself.

“Why I smuggled them, of course. Had to make sure Papa wouldn’t notice anything gone awry. Lord knows he has enough jewels. I dare say, my accomplice was rather thorough this time. He even managed to forge the signatures.” She whipped out the selling documents from her purse and placed them squarely on the table. Signed on two black lines was Hannah’s fake signature alongside Lord Thames’. “I believe these now legally belong to you.”

Utterly mystified, Hannah carefully pried the emerald diadem from its velvet moorings, admiring the lapidarist’s fine handiwork, shifting it side to side to watch the fire dance inside the precious stones. The weight felt both heavier and lighter than expected. She didn’t know much about jewels, but she knew these gems were of the highest quality.

“I can’t wear them in public, you know?” she admitted woefully, twirling the diamonds. “It isn’t appropriate for people outside the Imperial Family to wear tiaras.”

“So?” The heiress shrugged. “I never said you had to wear them. The point is that they’re yours.”

“Why though?” Hannah insisted. “You’ve never shown charity to me like this before? Why bother now?”

“Because.” Cressida’s face became frighteningly stern. There was a storm in her ocean blue eyes that could not be quelled. “I never got to thank you properly for safeguarding Vera’s virtue back then, and while we may not have treated you as such, you were a Thames before you were anyone else. I don’t care what the law states.” She tapped the selling documents with her long manicured fingers. “This is as much your birthright as it is mine. And besides.” Her voice lowered. “They took my one great happiness from me. They don’t get to take anything, from anyone, ever again. Mark my words.”

Having nothing more to say, Hannah looked down her lap and continued admiring her mother’s tiara. Cressida may have been vain and stuck up and unfairly judgemental, but her loyalty held no bounds. She could be trusted.

“And Hannah?” the heiress added. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“Hmm?” Hannah looked up from the tiaras.

Cressida leaned over the table, dropping to the softest whisper. “You haven't told them the truth, have you? About…us?

Hannah knew what Cressida meant and grew solemn. “No,” she mouthed. “I’ve said nothing.”

“Good.” The heiress nodded approvingly. “You know the rules: Audi, vide, tace.”

The sorcerer’s wife tried hiding her dismay, “Yes, Cressida,” and looked down at the tiara in her lap. It felt heavier than it did a second ago as the Latin emptied her mouth. “Audi, vide, tace.”

Chapter Contents

#Gojo Takes a Wife #satoru x oc #jjk fanfic #Jujutsu Kaisen #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #satoru gojo #satoru x wife #Satoru x fem oc #Satoru Gojo x female oc #romance #arranged marriage

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stiffyck · 2 years ago

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hello hello! I have noticed that I always seem to ramble at you when it’s like midnight here so depending on your timezone i’m talking to you from tomorrow!

anyway I really quite like the idea that the games were some sort of forced punishment type thing from the watchers (i’m not very well versed in the whole watcher thing but from what i’ve seen you can just make it up as you go along so. i’m just gonna do that) because grian deviated from Them, and to make it worse he had to seem like he was just orchestrating them for himself and not because he had to

I think though that grian would find some way to tell people without being Seen that he wasn’t in control of what was going to happen to them, and let people know that everything in the Games won’t reflect on how they are outside of them (“even I don’t know what They’re going to do, but I do know that all They want is a spectacle.”)

it hits scar the hardest the second time around, because that was the first time he was on his own without the constant reassurance that “it’s just a game, nothing we say is real, only to make Them think we’re not truly playing, it won’t be long, just a few more weeks and we can go home” from grian. in a way, he was relieved when he turned red; the bloodlust quietened down the rest of his mind as it took over

it was the third game when they started to notice patterns. or, perhaps more accurately, curses.

grian, whilst assuring scar a million times that it was just to test a theory in private, decided to see what would happen if bigb appeared to be the person he loved most that series. sure enough, bigb’s soulbound fell to grian’s stalactite and thus killed him

(grian isn’t sure if They Knew about the experiment after grian died to the warden, killing scar in the process. it could have been a coincidence)

jimmy died first again, tango died another meaningless death. joel was consumed by the red rage tenfold the usual amount, killing pearl within seconds.

grian is wary about the fourth time. he doesn’t quite know when it is, march he thinks? but if They made them soulbound this time, what else would They do?

(I realise this isn’t really to do with scar, sorry lol, ignore me if you want I am just rambling)

OOOOOHHHH THIS IS INTERESTING

#asks #stiff talk

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mortemoppetere · 1 year ago

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TIMING: last night (06/12) LOCATION: a mean old lady's house PARTIES: @itzbridiebitch & @mortemoppetere SUMMARY: emilio and bridie track down the owner of the cursed necklace. it doesn't go how they might have hoped. CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

Once Teddy suggested the presence of a curse, it became painfully obvious. Of course a curse would explain the voices in his head. Emilio had been so prepared to accept his own mind failing him that he’d allowed himself to forget the way there were often other things at play… especially in a town like Wicked’s Rest.

After that, it had just been a matter of tracking down the cause. Something harder than it normally would have been, thanks to the voices in his head. He retraced his steps with a clenched jaw, trying to go back through old cases. And it was hard. It felt impossible, at moments. Did the jilted ex-husband who’d lost everything in the divorce thanks to Axis Investigations know a good spellcaster? Was the mourning mother whose son Emilio had only been able to find in pieces taking her grief out on the most convenient target she could find? Everyone was a suspect, and Emilio’s addled mind could hardly separate one from the other.

Until the news story came across his proverbial desk. Local Pawn Shop Owner Dies. He recognized the man only vaguely, but vaguely was enough. He’d made a note that the guy was squirrelly when he’d asked him about the necklace, but he’d assumed it had just been due to the shady nature of most of the items in his shop. Looking back now, he recognized it a little easier. The way his eyes darted around without settling on anything, the way his voice was an octave louder than it should have been. Of course the stupid necklace was cursed. Of course.

So, he’d reached out to the club owner. If the shop owner was cursed, odds were that the club owner was, too. And what he’d found was hardly surprising. She was experiencing the same shit he was, and she wanted answers just as badly.

But apparently, she wasn’t willing to trust him to find them on his own.

He glanced over at her in the seat next to him, the car ‘borrowed’ from a street corner in Worm Row. “You sure you can handle this? I’ll do the talking. You just have to stand there.” Really, she could wait in the car… but he knew what she’d say if he brought that up, and he was too tired to argue. Sleep was even harder to come by now than it usually was, and that was saying something.

—

There were six voices in her brain other than her own now. Bridie’d lost track of who was saying what after the fourth voice had joined the fray. It was a jabbering, maddening mess, and she hadn’t been able to hear herself think in so long.

Of course it had been that stupid fucking gaudy necklace.

A curse made sense. It certainly felt ‘curse-y’. It felt like a living hell, actually. Her nerves were shot, and shadows rimmed her usually bright eyes from a lack of sleep.

A voice outside her head cut through the cacophony in her brain and she looked over at Emilio. As if she was going to let him square this away alone. She had scoffed at the suggestion. She’d had far too much go wrong since his little sob story about his momma’s long lost necklace. She should have smelled that bullshit a mile away. Of course, now the necklace’s curse had made both their lives waking nightmares, so he’d probably been punished enough.

“I’m not a delicate little daisy who can’t listen to a normal conversation. I’ve had a mass murderer calling me lamb chop for I don’t even know how long now, and no one else can hear it. I think I can handle a conversation about getting a stupid curse broken.” Bridie grumbled. “Sorry, I’m not usually this… this.” She gestured vaguely. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

_____

She didn’t look like she was faring any better than he was, which didn’t make this a very promising trip. How long could the two of them keep this up? Emilio wished he had more of a timeline on the pawn shop owner, wished he’d asked the man exactly what day the necklace had first come to him. But why would he have? He’d been wholly focused on finding the damn thing then. If he’d known it was cursed, he never would have taken the case at all.

Bridie still would be, though. So maybe she was lucky he’d taken the case, even if he wasn’t.

“Never said you were,” he said gruffly, the response a little belated. It took a moment for him to register what she said, took a moment for him to realize that it was her speaking and not the voices in his head. You’re slipping fast, Cortez. Won’t be long now. He hoped the woman who’d hired him had some answers. If they went in and found her just as cursed as they were… Well. That’d be a bad sign. “Don’t have to apologize. Think I’ve got a good idea why you’re like this.” He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before steeling himself and opening the car door. “Let’s go, then.”

Trusting that Bridie would follow, he made his way up the long walkway and towards the impressive house stretched out in front of them. The woman had money; that had never been in question. But money wouldn’t break a curse. Emilio just hoped she’d have some idea what would.

—-

“I know you didn’t,” she sighed, rubbing at her eyes. One of the voices decided to start screaming. The blood curdling sound rattled it’s way around the faun’s head, and she couldn’t keep the soft distressed whimper the whined out of her at bay. “Let’s hope you do, because this is a circle of hell I never wanted to be in.”

It was a big house. Bridie probably would have thought about it more if the voice wasn’t still shrieking and jabbering. It was almost as though the voices were acting out their own little lives up there in their brain. Perhaps they were tormenting one another just as much as they were tormenting her.

They walked up to the front door, and it took all the faun’s will power to ensure her glamour stayed firmly in place. She tucked a rogue cotton-candy curl behind her ear as she reached out and pressed the doorbell once, twice, three times for good measure. She glanced over at her companion and shrugged. “Her hearing an annoying doorbell is nothing comparatively.”

_____

“Tell me about it.” The words were muttered under his breath, probably too quiet for her to hear over the shit going on in her head. Emilio probably wouldn’t have heard it himself if not for the fact that it was him who said it.

Bridie rung the doorbell and said… something. Emilio couldn’t quite register her words, but he nodded anyway. He figured they’d know as soon as the woman answered the door whether she was suffering the same curse they were or not. Emilio knew he looked haggard, and Bridie didn’t look much better. She’d been cursed longer than he had, but maybe she was better at hiding it. Or… maybe it affected hunters differently than other humans. (Was Bridie human? All Emilio could determine for certain was that she wasn’t undead.)

The door swung open and Emilio’s client stood in the entry, looking… fine. Normal, cheery, unbothered. Unsurprised. She took in the pair of houseguests with a quirk of her brow, a hint of amusement sparking in her eyes. “Ah,” she greeted, “the detective. I did wonder if you might come sniffing back around here.”

“You knew.” It wasn’t a question; it came out flat and unamused, with the barest hint of anger behind it, because how could he be anything but? This woman let him get cursed, and she did it knowingly. He was allowed to be pissed.

“Well, I didn’t know about her.” The woman glanced to Bridie. “Is she the thief? Did you break into my home?” There was an almost teasing lilt to her tone, infuriatingly pleased as if Emilio and Bridie weren’t half insane on her doorstep.

—

The homeowner (or at least Bridie assumed she was the owner) opened the door practically smirking. The faun didn’t get angry frequently. Most of the time she was too busy having a good time to bother getting angry. And if someone did something to wrong her or irk her, it was usually all too easy to make them spiral into euphoria, giving in to her desire, usually to their detriment.

She didn’t quite hear what the woman said to Emilio, as the voices picked that time to launch into a monologue on the best ways to dispose of a body. But she did manage to gauge the look on Emilio’s face, the tone of his voice. Good. Bridie wasn’t the only one who was pissed.

The voices shut up long enough so Bridie could hear herself slandered as a thief. “Excuse you?” she said, pushing past the woman so she now stood on the opposite side of the threshold. “This is the first time I’ve stepped foot in your house. So I think you should be nice, and show us further inside so we can have a nice chat.” Her voice was far too sweet, and was in stark contrast to the rage that started to simmer in her eyes. “By the way, I don’t believe I heard it. Can I have your name?”

________

Bridie was offended, and Emilio couldn’t quite blame her. He liked her, he decided, far more than he had on that first meeting. Back then, she’d been an inconvenience. A person standing in his way, feet planted firmly between him and his payday. But now? She was on his side. And she wasn’t a bad person to have onside.

He followed her in as she shoved her way into the house, shuffling a little as the voices in his mind distracted him. The woman looked a little irritated at the invasion, but that infuriating smirk didn’t fall from her lips. Emilio thought he might like to remove it for her, but he couldn’t quite muster the energy to say so.

Bridie was speaking again, and Emilio tuned in to a familiar phrase. Can I have your name? Rhett had warned him about that, a thousand times. Another way fae stole from people, he’d said, another dirty trick. So Bridie was fae. It didn’t bother him the way he knew Rhett would think it should have, and as much as he might like to chalk that up to the curse, he knew it wasn’t accurate. He’d made plenty of friends who weren’t human, plenty of friends his brother wouldn’t approve of. What was one more?

The woman’s smile tightened. “Ooh, you’re one of those, are you? Never seen it on one of you before. You can’t have my name. I don’t think I have much of anything for you.” Savvy, then. Enough to know what not to do with a fae. A shame; if Bridie had gotten her name, they could have used that. Leverage, a bargaining chip, whatever you wanted to call it, it would have been nice to have. Instead, they were stuck with…

“Tell us how to undo it.” He blurted it out without meaning to, the words jumbled as they left his mouth. The woman turned back to him, smile softening again.

“Oh, you poor things. You both look terrible. I’d offer you some tea, but I don’t want to waste it. It’s not like it’ll make much of a difference, will it?” She laughed the empty, airy laugh that wealthy people so often used.

—

The tiny flame of hope in her chest guttered out at that sentence. One of those. “Those what, you’ll have to be more specific. One of those people that is in your house now? Yes I am.” Bridie said testily. “And you are the sort of person who gets off on not helping other people, apparently. I’m betting you won the guess who’s going to the retirement home contest with your family.” At least now her exhaustion had a target.

She glanced at Emilio as his demand tumbled out. Bridie pointed at him as if to say ‘what he said,’ before rubbing at her eyes. She could almost smell the woman’s delight as the woman started talking again. Bridie couldn’t quite hear the words- not as the cacophony in her head swelled again like the world’s worst orchestra- but the all to pleased tone was accompanied with a faint scent that Bridie often latched onto as the promise of a good meal. Delight. Unfortunately, this woman’s smelled like a powdery lily fragrance that the faun associated with boring old women with horrible taste. Funny how people always reflected a bit of themselves in their emotions.

She realized the woman had said something, and based on the stupid smug look on her face, it wasn’t good. “Can you like. Cut the shit? For five fucking minutes, you depressing old hag?” The faun grumbled under her breath. She looked at Emilio, at a loss.

____

Even without a curse putting him on edge, Emilio had little patience for people like this. He’d never been much good at conversation and, as a result, he didn’t like beating around the bush. Whether Bridie felt similarly or the curse simply had her sharing in the sentiment today, he wasn’t sure. In any case, though, he was glad for it. He nodded as she spoke, glaring at the woman sullenly and trying to push the voices in his head aside long enough to maintain a presence in the conversation.

The woman sighed, shaking her head at the rudeness from her guests. “The necklace I sent you to retrieve was cursed, yes,” she said, addressing Emilio. Glancing back to Bridie, she added, “And I suppose you had some contact with it as well. It spreads through extended physical contact.”

“You’re not cursed,” Emilio pointed out in a low mumble. The woman smiled.

“You really are a detective, aren’t you?” She cooed, and he glared at her until she continued. “Yes, a keen observation. I’m not cursed. It was placed on the necklace by an ancestor some centuries ago. She used her blood in the ritual. Anyone of the same bloodline is immune to the effects. Call it an anti-theft system. An effective one, mind you. I suppose if the two of you are this bad off, the thief’s already gotten what was coming to them. Good riddance.”

“Stop,” Emilio ground out. “Just — Just stop talking. Tell us how to fix it.” She must have a failsafe, right? Some way of keeping people from succumbing to it? But as he smile tightened, he realized he knew what she was going to say well before she said it.

“I’m afraid I can’t fix it. Not without damaging the heirloom and, well, I did just go through an awful lot of trouble getting it back, didn’t I? It’d be a waste to let you damage it now.”

—

Bridie dead panned at the woman’s comment about her contact with the necklace. “No shit, Sherlock.” Based on Emilio’s reaction, he was probably just about as fed up with the woman’s bullshit as she was.

A blood curse? Alarm bells clanged through the faun’s mind. Mortals and their goddamn need to play with magic. She knew enough to know that stumbling into a blood curse was bad. She was grateful when the woman was cut off by her cursed compatriot. The woman’s voice was just as painful to listen to as the myriad of voices fighting over each other in her brain. She wanted to yell at all of them to shut up shut up shut up, but then she’d have to listen to herself too. If she got out of this, she wouldn’t think a single thing and would simply relish in the silence.

I can’t fix it.

“No you won’t fix it. You can fix it because you know how. You won’t fix it because you’re a terrible person with shitty taste in gaudy things that hurt people.” She snapped over the roar of voices in her head, every muscle in her body dreaming of nothing more than doing a happy little jig on the woman to trample her. Bridie looked at Emilio, silently pleading with the man to let her strangle the old bat.

______

Looking to Bridie, the woman considered her for a moment before shrugging. “I suppose you’re at least partially right. I could fix it. But I’m not going to.” Her smile was wry and unamused and cruel, and Emilio wanted so badly to wipe it off her face any way he could. But where there was one curse, there could be more. Killing her might start more problems than it solved.

(And there was another reason, too. The way his own voice had joined in with the awful, awful people speaking in his head, the way it sounded like it belonged with them. He was just as bad as the rest of them, he knew. He wanted to be better.)

“You’re not very good houseguests, are you? Rude, quiet. I think it’d be better if you were off now.” Still smiling that terrible, fake smile, she waved a hand towards the door. “Go on, then. I’d say you’ve still got a few days left in you. Well…” Her eyes slid over to Emilio, whose jaw was tightly clenched. “Maybe a little less. I’d suggest making the most of them.”

Emilio swallowed, the lump in his throat making it seem a Herculean task. Reaching out, he gripped Bridie’s upper arm perhaps a little too tightly. Half a warning for her, half a lifeline for him. “There is nothing for us here.” He spoke slowly, trying to fit his tongue around the words. His accent was heavier than it usually was, all the effort he usually put into lessening it shifted just to make sure he’d be heard. This was getting them nowhere. They needed to leave so they could come up with a new plan. If this woman wouldn’t help them, they’d find another way. They had to.

—

Bridie wanted to cry. Wanted to scream. Wanted to make this woman dance until she exhausted herself, and then make her keep dancing as Bridie slowly slipped away from sanity as the curse demanded. Or until death claimed her. Whichever came first.

A low keening noise was the only indication that she gave. She wouldn’t sob. Not in front of that miserable old bitch. And crying would be a waste of whatever time she had left. The faun flinched at the feeling of a hand on her arm. Had phantom hands come to join the phantom voices? But she saw a hand on her arm. Saw where the hand connected to a wrist, that connected to an arm, that connected to Emilio. And she let him tow her away.

It was over.

It was all over.

But it couldn’t be over. It couldn’t- she was only twenty-eight! So young, with so much more to do, to celebrate, to taste, to experience, why- why should she have to slip into madness and then oblivion now-

Her thoughts joined the screaming masses inside her head. Some laughed. Some screamed. Some sang. Some whispered. She wasn’t sure which was hers. Her glamour wavered as her thoughts got lost and her focus slipped.

But then she remembered the hand on her arm, and covered it with her own. She reinforced her glamour and gritted her teeth. “All of you, just shut the fuck up.” She hissed to the voices, who seemed surprised to be addressed at last, and gave momentary pause. She looked to Emilio once they were far away, her hand still holding tightly to the one on her arm. “Let’s get in the car. We need to talk.”

_______

There was a moment, a fraction of a second where her form seemed to shimmer. From a relatively normal looking woman to something else — curling horns, strange legs, fur. It was gone so quickly that Emilio could almost believe it had been a part of the curse… but he remembered her words inside. Can I have your name? Turning his head to the side, he pretended he hadn’t seen it just as he’d pretended not to see Teddy’s face shift when their glasses slipped down their face in their boathouse months ago, just like he pretended not to notice the way Perro loved Ren the way he only ever loved people who weren’t entirely human. He was getting good at pretending. He’d never been able to tell if that was a good thing or a bad one.

Nodding as Bridie spoke, he pulled her towards the car, half leading her and half leaning on her. He opened the passenger's side door to let her in, then moved over to the driver’s side to climb in himself. For a moment, he just sat there. He made no move to start the car, but his hands gripped the wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white with the force of it. Closing his eyes, he sighed.

“It’s the necklace,” he said, though that was obvious. “I mean, it’s — We have to get the necklace. Break it. That’s the only thing I can think of.” If it were something simpler, the woman probably wouldn’t have been so adamantly against it. No matter how cruel she might be, she wouldn’t deny them relief if relief cost her nothing to give. Emilio had to believe that much. Opening his eyes, he turned back to Bridie. “We’re gonna need to steal it.”

—

Bridie nodded in agreement. “Steal it, burn her house to the ground in an attempt to melt it- I don’t give a fuck, it needs to go. Now. Blood curses are so bad.” Her hands opened and closed into fists as her gaze drifted back up toward the house where the one thing that could cure them both was hidden.

“But she’s going to know that we’re coming.” She was talking quickly, as if she had to get her thoughts out before the voices interrupted her again. “I mean, look at you. Big bad detective man. Why the fuck would you take it. Just giving up doesn’t look like it’s in your vocabulary. And I think she may have caught on that I wanted nothing more than to stomp her smug face in.”

The voices started cackling and jabbering again. “I said shut the fuck up-” She hissed again. Bridie was answered with grumbles, but another momentary reprieve. “How the fuck are we going to do this. What is the play. Because my answer is usually to try and seduce her, but there is no way in fucking hell I’m kissing that lady.”

____

He couldn’t find it in him to disagree with her sentiment; burning the woman’s house down was a tempting proposal. But… “We need to be sure it’s broken all the way. So we need to get our hands on it. Probably break it with the both of us there.”

Bridie had a point, of course. They’d tried asking nicely, and that was going to be a point against them. She’d suspect that they would come back for the necklace. Maybe she even wanted them to. She’d certainly seemed to enjoy their misery well enough that Emilio wouldn’t have been surprised if she wanted another taste. “Yes, I think she might know you don’t like her,” he replied dryly.

She snapped at someone not present, someone in her head, and Emilio understood the urge. He’d tried the same thing a few times, but he found it brought him little relief. Maybe it worked better for her. The curse had to work differently for a fae than it did for a human, even if the human was a hunter. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to push past the voices in his own head well enough to think. Luckily, the answer was obvious enough. “I know someone. Nora. She’s my…” He struggled to find the word, giving up with a shrug. “She works for me. She knows how to break into places. Talks about doing it a lot. She’ll help if I ask her to.”

—

“So what?” She asked, grimacing slightly as one solitary voice started wailing, pleading for its life as though it were replaying its final moments in her head. Those were the voices she hated listening to the most. Bridie shook her head again, trying to shake the voice out her ear like water. “We steal it and then like… hit it with a hammer?”

The faun snorted. “If she’s still not sure if I like her, I’d love to get my point further across.” It was a grumble, but she managed a hint of a smile. Somehow having the answer to what was wrong with her and knowing the solution brought a little bit of clarity. She wasn’t going crazy- or at least not of her own accord. This was magic, plain and simple. Just not any kind of magic she was practiced in. But magic could be undone for the most part, and that fact was something to hold on to.

Nora. That was a nice name. One of the voices in her head picked it up and started chattering the name over and over and over- nevermind. It was not so nice after hearing it seventy times in a minute. “Where is Nora, and how much time will she need to prepare? What do you even need for breaking and entering?”

____

“Something like that. We can worry about how we’re breaking it after we have it.” One thing at a time was the only way Emilio was going to be able to get through this. Even on a good day, he wasn’t the best at planning. His ideas always tended to be spur of the moment things that didn’t much focus on the long term effects. Hunters, after all, had little reason to worry about the long term; most of them didn’t live to see thirty. He was already an unwilling exception to that rule.

Though maybe not for much longer. Not for the first time, he thought of the pawn shop owner. How long had he lasted? The newspaper article on his death had been published only a few days after Emilio saw him. Had he been towards the beginning of the curse when Emilio went to his shop, or already nearing the end? He heard Bridie talking, something about a point, but it was hard to focus. And Bridie talked a lot. Better to make sure he heard the important things and let the smaller ones slide, wasn’t it?

Like this. Questions about the plan. Belatedly, he realized he’d said Nora’s name. He probably shouldn’t have. She didn’t seem to like people knowing it. But it was a little late to take it back now, and so, so hard to control what came out of his mouth. “She’s at her place,” he mumbled, leaving out the fact that ‘her place’ was a crypt. “Don’t think she needs much time. Don’t think she needs much stuff, either. She’ll know how to do it. Just need to make sure she knows what the necklace looks like.” He rubbed at his eyes, finally starting the car and putting it into drive. “I’m going to drop you off at your club and then get with Nora. I’ll let you know when we’re doing it. We can meet at my place before.” He paused a moment, his grip on the steering wheel the only thing keeping his hands from shaking. “It’ll be soon.” It had to be. Otherwise, there’d be nothing left to save.

_____

Her mind was getting crowded again. Jabbering and cackling and talking all began clashing over one another in her mind, and she buried her face in her hands with a groan. Bridie leaned forward to rest against the dashboard. Screaming back at the voices in her head worked a bit, but she was so damn tired she didn’t know how long she could do it for. And if she had to steal a jewel, she needed as much energy as she could.

She heard bits and pieces of the plan. Mostly she heard ‘your club,’ and ‘I’ll let you know’, and ‘meet at my place’. She figured that was enough to piece together what was happening. The faun watched the man grip the steering wheel. She didn’t say anything, but Bridie understood.

Bridie rarely ever sounded serious. She was too busy having a good time for that. But she placed a hand on the dashboard near the steering wheel. She didn’t touch him, since she knew they were both too ok edge for that. “Then let’s get ourselves out of this mess.” She said slowly. “And when we do, I owe you a drink for giving you a hard time over a stupid ugly necklace.”

#itzbridiebitch #bridie: cursed and furious #wickedswriting #s1 writing #season 1

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