#this kind of crap makes me really realize that no matter how “stable” i think i am mentally i am still mesed up | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kikyan · 3 years ago

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You’re my favorite Human (Yandere Izaya x F! Reader x Yandere Shizuo)

Before ANY of yall say anything, I wrote this as a birthday special to an online friend I once had. If Izaya and literally anybody else sounds OOC, it’s because this was written back in 2018/2019 after I watched Durarara!! For a bit of background info, I first watched Durarara!! back in middle school when a friend admitted to liking the anime and well I decided to watch too. This show was too complex for my small ass mind so I dropped it. Then I met my online friend (we are no longer friends) who would always comment on Quotev where I was most active at the time. Well, I literally only picked up this anime again for said friend and the birthday request. I wrote this immediately right after the show so if it sucks ass, there is a reason for it. Anyway’s I promise to give them justice if I manage to write my spooky Slasher AU’s for them. Also if you somehow end up managing which ‘slasher’ Shizuo and Izaya fit I’ll write you a special one-shot within my guidelines for your birthday/Christmas depending on the time constraint. Here you go, for the curious peeps! This story branches off to two endings, Izaya ending w/ Smut and a Shizuo ending because I became a hardcore simp over that man and will literally do anything he tells me to. Regardless, I will edit the links and such for their appropriate endings! This story is also unedited so. . .have fun IG

ALSO THE READER IS A FEMALE BECAUSE THIS WAS A BIRTHDAY REQUEST THAT A CERTAIN SOMEONE DIDN’T LIKE SO YEAH FUCK THEM, BUT THEY WERE FEMALE AND WANTED THAT SO JUST REPLACE SHE/HER WITH THE PRONOUNS YOU FEEL MOST COMFORABLE WITH!!!!! I ALSO DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO WRITE BACK THEN SO YOU’RE A GENERIC MC WITH A STUTTER PROBABLY

God I sucked at writing fics so much back then. . .

"IZAYA!!"

The blonde man proceeded to pick up the red vending machine stationed outside a random building, preparing to lance it at the black-haired male he called Izaya.

"S-Shizuo!! It's not worth it!! Calm down!! Um- I know! I'll make some tea for you to calm down just please drop the vending machine!!"

"NO, I CAN'T! AFTER SEEING THIS PIECE OF SHIT I'M ALREADY FUMING WITH RAGE!"

"Shizuo!! Please!! Milk! Yep, milk will surely calm you down just please Shizuo!! You're attracting too much attention and you don't like violence right!!"

“Throw it Shizu-Chan. Or are you too weak to hold it anymore.”

"IZAYA!!!"

Shizuo turned away from the (h/c) individual as he began to grip a stop sign before removing it from the ground and began to run towards Izaya.

" Shizuo stop!! Geez, Izaya please refrain from edging him on! Shizuo don't give in! You're better, in fact, you want to be better!! You want to be stronger to have more control right!! Well. . . Don't give in!!"

At the sound of this Shizuo stopped before tossing the stop sign to the side and grabbing the (h/c) haired individual and dragging you off with him.

Looking back, the person Shizuo was dragging turned around to look back at Izaya before stopping in their tracks and bowing apologetically.

" I'm sorry Izaya for the commotion we caused, but I hope you understand that Shizuo is a bit difficult but I'm sure he can change! You too izaya, you seem to try to edge him on and that reflects poorly on you! So please Izaya, I hope you understand too!"

" Oi (Y/N), what are you apologizing for?"

Smiling softly at Izaya and giving him a shy wave (Y/N) turned to face Shizuo and continued to answer his question.

"Well, I mean I didn't stop him from edging you on!"

" I swear you really are the most optimistic, apologetic, and kindest person on this planet. You are one of a kind."

Laughing softly (Y/N) turned to Shizuo as they began to reply, " Thank you! It means a lot to me Shizuo!"

Walking alongside Shizuo, (Y/N) proceeded to make small talk unaware of the lingering dark eyes upon her figure.

"(Y/N), I swear I can't figure you out. No matter what you do or what happens you always apologize to everyone. Even that damn Izaya!"

"Well, Shizuo I like to be positive!! Besides, I'm sure second chances must be given!!"

" Hmph. Even those who commit the worst of crimes?"

"Well, I'm not the one entitled to forgive them for crimes committed against another, but I believe if someone truly wanted to, someone could change."

"Oh?"

" For example, you! I mean you've gotten several chances, haven't you? You have a stable job, although you can get quite violent, you have friends, and you are trying your hardest to change! So, I feel like anyone could change!!"

"Hmph. You forgot something. . ."

" I did?"

" Yeah, I also have the best person next to my side, you, (Y/N) (L/N)."

" I-I-I-I u-um S-sh!?"

" Heh, you get flustered all of a sudden and it suits your personality. I wonder how I got stuck with someone like you (Y/N). . ."

Bodies were lying around Shizuo in the school field as he huffed in rage and looked to the side to see a (h/c) haired female with (e/c) eyes looking wide at the scene that laid before them.

" Hmph, what are you scared?"

Shizuo asked as he looked at the female before looking a bit confused as he noticed the expression on the girl changed. She was smiling and shook her head before answering his question.

" Nope! I mean what you did isn't good but I'm sure you have a reason! Besides, I feel like deep down you regret it. I mean, although you are pretty violent, you probably don't want to be right?"

"I... .hmph. Stop being odd and spouting nonsense."

As the female turned to the bodies she bowed apologetically and began to speak.

"I'm sorry! I apologize for his behavior! He doesn't mean it! He regrets it! Besides, you guys should know that violence isn't acceptable so please apologize for your actions as well! Fighting isn't acceptable!!"

"HUH? WHAT THE HELL? WHO THE HELL YOU APOLOGIZING TO?"

" W-w-well I am apologizing to them and you!! I mean you didn't mean too!! Besides, fighting is wrong! Both parties were at fault so I must apologize for it!"

" WHY THE HELL DO YOU WANT TO APOLOGIZE? YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"W-w-well!! They are knocked out and can't speak, plus you won't apologize, you want to but you can't bring yourself to!!"

" OKAY BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

"I-I’M SORRY!! I DIDN'T MEAN TO BOTHER YOU BUT I THOUGHT THAT WELL I-?!"

"NOW WHY ARE YOU APOLOGIZING?!"

"I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO-!?"

"STOP APOLOGIZING!"

"I'M SORRY! AHHH I KEEP DOING IT!"

"YEAH. NOW STOP!"

"I'M SORRY I'LL TRY! WAIT-"

"OH JUST SHUT UP!"

"I'M SOR-!?"

"STOP APOLOGIZING! GOD DAMN IT!"

"I CAN'T IT'S A HABIT!"

"Geez, troublesome woman."

" Ahhh!! What time is it?!"

"Why the hell are you asking me?"

"Crap I think I missed my train! Now I have to walk home! Wait, that's fine! I missed gym class to help the teachers so this will count for my exercise! Of course, I shouldn't feel down!"

" You're unusually optimistic. I'd be pissed as all hell if that happened."

"Well I think everything happens for a reason and besides, you need to see the bright side of everything! Anyway, I need to go! I have to walk for about maybe 2 hours till I arrive home and I do have homework to complete! I'm sorry for being a bother but I hope to see you tomorrow at school!"

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"Let me, let me walk you home alright."

"B-b-but!?"

"LISTEN IT'S MY FAULT YOU MISSED THE TRAIN SO LET ME WALK YOU HOME DAMN IT!"

"Ahh okay okay! I'm sorry for bothering you but thank you!!"

"Yeah, yeah just stop apologizing and don't start again."

"Alright! By the way, what's your name?"

" Shizuo Heiwajima. Yours?"

" (Y/N) (L/N)!"

As they began to walk side by side (Y/N) began to laugh as she asked Shizuo questions upon question leading to Shizuo answering them and laughing as he realized, maybe having someone not fear him, was a good feeling.

"Hey, Shizuo?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

" Wanna go for Russian sushi?"

Looking down at the girl Shizuo gave his usual smirk before responding happily.

" Sure, why not?"

"Hey, Shizuo?"

" Yeah?"

Turning around he met with the female who became his best friend and possibly his crush. Smiling softly he turned to give her all of his attention despite the number of bodies surrounding him in the field of his high school.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to um, well. . ."

"SHIZUO! I have someone I would like to introduce you too!~"

" Huh?"

Shizuo replied in his usual tone as to be turned to meet the faces of the young boy with glasses, brown hair and grey eyes whom he quickly recognized as his friend Shinra Kishitani but the other boy, had dark hair and matching eyes he did not.

"What do you want Shinra?"

"Oh? Am I interrupting you and your girlfriend~"

"Girlfriend?! I-I-I’m j-just a friend!?"

Shizuo looked to the side but quickly locked eyes with the boy. Shinra looking at Shizuo quickly turned to introduce the other boy.

"His name is Izaya Orihara! He is in the same year and class as us!"

Upon looking at Izaya, Shizuo quickly launched an attack towards him before Izaya leaped out and grabbed his knife before slicing Shizuo across the abdomen. Shizuo looked down noticing the wound before looking back at Izaya.

"S-s-shizuo?! Are you okay? Oh, I'm so sorry this happened!!"

"(Y/N) it's fine and stop apologizing! You didn't do anything wrong! Besides, it was him, Izaya. . ."

"Oh? Come on Shizu-chan I haven't even done anything. . ."

"I'm sorry!! I apologize that Shizuo charged at you and hurt you! He tends to do that a lot, but I apologize on your behalf! Shizuo, I apologize that Izaya cut you! I'm sorry I couldn't stop him from cutting you and possibly distracted you. So please, violence is not the answer! Izaya and Shizuo I apologize and I hope you may make up and be best friends!!"

"Eh?"

"(Y/N) YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! STOP APOLOGIZING FOR OUR MISTAKES!"

"I'm sorry! Ah, wait u-u-um well I know you both didn't mean it!!"

"Here we go again. . . (Y/N) STOP APOLOGIZING, ON TOP OF THAT TO THAT GUY!"

Shizuo was pointing at Izaya with a hint of disgust written across his face as Izaya looked dumbfounded for a split moment before asking, "Wait? You serious?"

"Huh?"

"Did you just apologize for something you didn't do?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bother you!"

"I-, well it seems this took an interesting turn of events. Well, goodbye Shizu-chan, (Y/N) right?"

"Y-yeah. . ."

Shizuo stood in front holding his arm protectively (Y/N) as Izaya twirled the pocket knife in his arms in a strange direction before smiling and whispering a small, “Interesting. . .”

As Izaya turned to leave, Shizuo muttered a small “ That bastard makes me so damn mad” before turning to (Y/N) realizing she had something to say before you were both rudely interrupted by Shinra.

“ Hey (Y/N) what did you want? You had something to say before that damn bastard arrived.”

“ O-Oh I-I did. . . um, Shizuo I wanted to ask if you wanted to miss the last train again and... .walk me home, and get Russian sushi with me. . .”

“ Is that your way of asking me out on a date?”

Teasing (Y/N) slightly she turned red upon hearing that before nodding her head softly. With a sigh, Shizuo smiled and dragged the smaller female by her arm before muttering a “ finally you asked” causing the female to turn even redder at the comment. (Y/N) ran a little ahead and turned back to smile at Shizuo before whispering “ I love you Shizuo. . .”

Walking to the shared home that Shizuo and (Y/N) have, (Y/N) grabbed a small jug of milk before handing it to Shizuo scolding him for getting violent, but congratulating him on holding back and not letting Izaya get to him.

“ I don’t know what I would do without you (Y/N), I mean it . . .”

“ I’m just lucky this happened when we were walking together and not when you were working. Izaya can be a bit extreme but I’m sure he means well!!”

“Heh, you always look on the bright side, don’t you?”

“ Exactly!! Looking on the bright side is exactly what brought us together!! I mean after you dropped me off at my house we got to be great friends, that's also when you confided in me your secrets and feelings. Then you began to realize that I didn’t fear you and truly cared for you. Then we went on a date, and became a couple! Dating for a good 5, 6 years?”

“ Yep, luckily we still love each other.”

“ I won’t ever stop loving you Shizuo, because you accepted me for who I am. Now it’s time to let me accept you for who you are. . . I mean I already did but you can’t get it through that thick skull of yours can you?”

“ What do you mean, I understand.”

“ Yet, every time you encounter Izaya and I’m not around you come home quite sad and always ask me if I would ever leave you. Shizuo, I would never leave you.”

“ Well yeah but. . .”

“ But?”

“ You’re right. I should head to work. See you later (Y/N). Take care and don’t do anything strange.”

“ I wouldn’t do anything you wouldn’t do.”

“ That worries me.”

“ I’m just going to talk to Celty or just hang around the park! See you later Shizuo!”

“ Hmph. Later and don’t forget that I love you.”

“ I should be saying that but of course! Love you too and later!”

Shizuo smiled at the girl before heading off to visit Tom his friend and employer. They had another client that refused to pay up and Shizuo was going to “pay” him a visit to ensure he did. (Y/N) locked the door before going on her phone and texting Celty.

‘ You busy Cel?’

‘ No, not really. Why do you ask?’

`` I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out and chat.’

‘ Sure. I’ll pick you up and we can head off to the park. That fine?’

``you read my mind Cel. Alright, I’ll get ready.’

(Y/N) changed into a new set of clothing before waiting on the couch for Celty to pick her up and head to the park. Celty and (Y/N) got along well as well, (Y/N) always saw the bright side. When she and celty were close enough, originally being introduced by Shinra, Celty confided in her about not having a head and (Y/N) offered some light on the subject.

“ Well, head or no head I think you’re perfect just the way you are. For example, you can still do pretty much everything right? Aside from taste but still Celty! I think that is what makes you unique I mean, if you think about it, only those people who truly love and care for you will accept you no matter what. Take a look at Shizuo, he believed everyone feared him, but I didn’t. I love him! Just like I love you Celty! I accept you for who you are and you will always be celty with or without your head! So cheer up, I don’t like seeing my friends sad!”

With that, a new friendship was born leading (Y/N) to be best friends with the fearsome headless rider.

< - - - - - - - - - - - - >

KANRA HAS JOINED THE CHAT

Kanra: Hey guys! I have a question about a specific person.

Setton: A person? Who?

TarouTanaka: Agreed. It’s quite rare to see you not having information on anyone.

Kanra: Precisely, which is why I must know. Do any of you know a (Y/N) (l/n)?

Setton: (Y/N)? Not personally but I’ve heard rumors. . .

Setton: There’s not much I know about her, but I’ve heard rumors of her being in the Dollars.

Setton: Besides that, I’ve also heard she’s Shizuo Heiwajima’s girlfriend and possibly future wife.

TarouTanaka: Shizuo Heiwajima? As in THE Shizuo Heiwajima? Do you know the violent one?

Kanra: That’s so scary!! Who would put up with him?

Kanra: *Gasps* you don’t think. . .

TarouTanaka: Think what?

Kanra: You don’t think she’s using him do you? I mean, having a strong boyfriend has its perks right?

Setton: She’s not that type of person.

Setton: From what I’ve heard, at least.

Kanra: Oh? You seem to get a bit defensive. Are you sure you don’t know her?

Kanra: I mean, think about it. What is so special about Shizuo that would lead someone like her to love him?

Kanra: Honestly, I think she could be using him after all I’m sure there are more people that someone like her could pick from.

Setton: Well everything is just based on rumors, but I doubt she’s a bad type of person.

Setton: Love has always been a confusing matter. All that matters is that they like each other for who they are.

Setton: It’s not our place to make assumptions.

Kanra: Love is indeed confusing.

TarouTanaka: I agree with Setton, I am sure they love each other for who they are. Is everything alright Kanra?

Kanra: Yes, but it still stumps me on how little information we have of his girlfriend. Not only that but we have little information on the relationship as well. Has anyone seen her? Know what she looks like?

Setton: I’ve only heard a vague description of her: (e/c) and (h/c). I could pass her on the street and not even know.

Setton: But I’m sure she’s just a private person. We should respect that and try not to dig into her life.

Kanra: Oh fair maiden will I ever see you?

TarouTanaka: You sure you aren’t trying to steal his girlfriend?

Kanra: ^ 0 ^ Never!

Setton: This has been an interesting discussion and all, but I’m needed elsewhere.

Setton: Later.

< - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

SETTON HAS LEFT THE CHAT

Kanra: Well I better head out too, later Tarou!

TarouTanaka: Later!

< - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

KANRA HAS LEFT THE CHAT.

TAROUTANAKA HAS LEFT THE CHAT.

THERE IS NO ONE IN THE CHAT.

A figure began to ponder and look outside with a pair of binoculars as a female with (e/c) and (h/c) walked by.

‘ Oh? I think I should properly introduce myself to the fair maiden’

The young girl walked out of her house ready to speak with the dullahan. Upon seeing the headless rider the young girl waved her hand signaling the rider.

“ Celty! Over here!”

The rider began to make its way to the female before hugging and typing away on its phone.

“Oh good, I was worried I arrived too early.”

“ Nah! Even if you did, you would have more time to look around and notice life at it’s finest!”

“Oh Y/N, still as cheerful as ever, huh?”

“ Oh, you know it! Now let's head to the park! I want to see Ikebukuro at its prime time at night!”

“Of course, but as we’re walking let me ask: How’s it going between you and Shizuo?”

“ Well. . . I-I-I I think it’s going great! He isn’t getting as rowdy and violent so I think he is changing a little bit! He ended getting me a gift, a necklace to be exact for our 5th anniversary! It says his name! He also has one, one with my name!”

“I’m glad to hear you guys are going great. I’m sure that nothing could ever break your relationship, right?”

“ Exactly! He and I have never had a serious argument! Maybe a little scolding but it’s fine like this! I always end up congratulating him in the end! He is the sweetest! Every time he comes home he asks me if I love him which makes me sad because I hope he knows I do! However. . . he always ends up spoiling me in love! The real question. . . is how is it with Shinra?”

“Oh. . . Well, you know how he is. We’re as close as we can ever be, especially now that I’m more accustomed to the whole headless thing. That doesn’t mean I’m not looking, though.”

“ You will find it Celty! I know for a fact you will find it! I’ll help you when I have time! Hey look it’s the park let’s find a bench!”

[park bench scene]

“You know, Y/N, I heard that you and Shizuo were considering getting married. Is it true?”

“ Well, I-!?”

“ Well, Celty! I didn’t know you were here? (Y/N) too! What a surprise too! Do you mind if I sit with you guys?”

“ Well, not really! Feel free to sit Izaya!”

“ Interesting, now continue what were we talking about?”

“ Well, Celty asked about my marriage to Shizuo!”

“ So it’s true. . .”

“ Yeah! Celty we are! Sometime next week we were going to look for dresses!”

“That’s wonderful Y/N! If you need anything, I’m always available to help.”

“ Of course!”

“ Same here. . . a wedding between Shizu-chan and (Y/N) seems interesting. . .”

“ So (Y/N), why are you with Shizu-chan? What’s the catch?”

“ Pardon Izaya?”

“ I mean, why would someone like YOU be with someone like HIM? What are the perks of having Shizu-chan as your boyfriend?”

“ Perks?!”

“I know that you and Shizuo have an on-going rivalry, but should you be asking Y/N questions like that?”

“ I was just curious Celty! Besides, do you have the answer?”

“ Well, there are no perks.”

“ Huh?”

“ I love Shizuo, not for his strength or perks. I love him because he was kind to me. He accepts my optimistic side, even though it can be quite annoying and I accept his violent tendencies! He is doing so much to change and I will support him from now on! When we met, he kinda beat the entire team on the field and I apologized for the both of him! He got confused and I apologized for my behavior and we kinda got into a mini battle of him asking me to stop apologizing and well my apologizing even more! Nonetheless, I missed the train, but it gave me a chance to talk to him and as you can tell he walked me home! Since then, a steady relationship! So it’s not about the benefits, it’s what we feel for each other that motivates us!”

“ Interesting. . . “

“ I agree Y/N, it’s about love, not benefits. Might want to save a speech that profounds for your wedding though.

“ You’re right! Oh, I’m sorry Izaya for ruining the surprise!”

‘ Interesting. . . she isn’t like every other human, she doesn’t seem to lie, hide things, and seems to be honest. She seems to be optimistic. Hmph, interesting that she isn’t like all the other humans I love, she’s different and I can’t wait to see her face, her entire being change as I pull the strings from behind! (Y/N), you are quite interesting, you are like my special, no my favorite human and I need to see your reactions to everything... .’

“ (Y/N)?”

“ Ah, Shizuo! O-over here!”

“ Celty’s here too and-?!”

Shizuo stared at the black-haired male with such anger raging within them as he let out a growl before examining the area.

“ IZAYA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

“ It’s a park? Am I not allowed to visit one?”

“ IT’S WHO YOU’RE WITH THAT MATTERS! (Y/N) DID HE TOUCH YOU OR HURT YOU IN ANY WAY?”

“ N-no! Shizuo we were only just talking! Besides, Celty was here with us! It was all friendly talk!”

“ Celty, take (Y/N) and go to Shinra’s place. I’ll meet you there once I finish killing this bastard!”

Typing away Celty nodded showing her phone with the message being, ‘Of course. Be careful before doing anything crazy, but please hear Y/N out first. Learn a bit about the situation before jumping into anything dangerous.”

“ Oh my Shizu-chan!~ So you are dating her. Isn’t that interesting. . . I say though it’s shocking, to say the least, that someone like (Y/N) would fall in love with you. Someone as fragile, beautiful, delicate, and forgiving like (Y/N) with a violent man as yourself, well I’d be damned!”

“ I’m sorry! Izaya, I apologize for Shizuo’s behavior as he ended up attacking you without hearing my part, which I still have yet to say! However, I apologize on your part as well Izaya as you didn’t mean anything by chatting with us, but you asked some not so nice things. On the bright side, you know the truth and know that Shizuo isn’t a bad person!”

“ (Y/N) . . .?”

“ Shizuo! Celty and I were chatting when Izaya approached us, we were just talking! He didn’t hurt me, besides Celty would have put him in his place before I would have! Please believe me, Celty tell him the truth as well!”

“Of course, there was nothing suspicious going on. Just a regular conversation full of small talk. Nothing shady or malicious between us and Izaya.”

“ Tch. Fine, but still take her to Shinra. I don’t want this bastard to find out where we live. I still want to kill him. . .”

“ S-Shizuo! It’s fine, we don’t need to go see Shinra!”

“ Aww, Shizu-chan you’re scaring her!~ Besides, what if (Y/N) doesn’t want to leave? You’re her boyfriend but you aren’t her owner. Besides, why do you get to keep her all to yourself, as you know I love humans, I can’t get enough of them! But she, she is quite interesting, as all humans I love her as well but aren’t you pushing it Shizuo chan?”

“ Keep that damn mouth of yours shut!”

“ I wonder, how long will it take you to screw up your relationship with her like you always do. Have you even proposed to her yet? Being the violent person you are you probably used someone's body as a foot stand before asking her to be your wife!”

“ NO! That’s wrong! He proposed at Russia Sushi! We went out to eat as it was also our first date! See, even Simon took the picture and hung it in the dining area! You can see Shizuo’s fist but that was because he was embarrassed Simon took a picture and well he snapped, see how red he is? I’m the one crying in the background while holding the ring! It’s even my lock and home screen!”

“ YOU DON’T NEED TO GO THAT FAR! WAIT-HE HAS IT HANGED? I NEED TO KILL THIS MAN FIRST THAN YOU DAMN IZAYA!”

“ NO NOT SIMON! WAIT SHIZUO!”

Running after Shizuo, (Y/N) turned around one last time before bowing apologetically and smiling at Izaya before running after her fiance. Celty typing away on her phone showing it to Izaya.

“Be careful about what you say around Y/N. I know what you’re trying to do and I advise you against it. It won’t end well for either of you.”

“ Whatever do you mean Celty?”

“I’ve seen the way you look at Y/N; the way you observe her with that calculated glee in your eye. Even if you do separate her from Shizuo, she wouldn’t be happy with someone considered a homewrecker. She’s too optimistic for her good, she’ll easily forgive you, but she would never be able to forgive herself for hurting Shizuo. If you truly value her like you say you do, don’t try to meddle in her personal affairs.”

“ I want to see every possible reaction from her, so this is quite tempting. Besides, Celty why do you care much about her? I love humans and I’m not willing to share, (Y/N) is no exception.”

“Y/N is the best person I know. She’s kind no matter what and brings hope and joy to all of those that she comes across. She deserves to live the best life she can, one filled with no despair or tragedy. You need to learn to respect that and move on.”

Celty, displaying her anger towards Izaya, revved her motorcycle upwards causing several people to look in worry and walk away to avoid getting hit. Izaya stood unamused with his smug grin as he watched Celty chase after the couple to take them to Shinra.

“ Celty, it’s a shame. All humans will experience despair no matter what, even our darling (Y/N). It’s just how long will it take for her to fall into despair that’s the real game and who the one pulling the strings will be.”

Izaya began to walk away only to stop at Russia sushi and was quite intrigued by the photo that was taken. As he began to examine the image he saw (Y/N) smiling with tears rolling down her eyes as she turned to the camera holding the ring Shizuo had given her. On top of that, he saw Shizuo, quite red ready to punch Simon for taking the picture.

“ Well well, seems she was telling the truth. I guess he didn’t screw it up.”

“ Izaya, I heard about what happened.”

As Izaya turned he was met with Simon the dark-skinned Russian who began to speak in his native tongue signaling that this was a private conversation.

“ Simon, how’s it been?”

“ Don’t ruin it.”

“ Ruin what Simon?”

“ Shizuo and (Y/N) found happiness here so don’t ruin it.”

“ Oh? What makes you say that?”

“ (Y/N) is special, the unpredictable happens around her but that doesn’t mean you should ruin what they have for the sake of your entertainment.”

“ Special huh?”

“ You like her don’t you? Leave her with Shizuo, she is not meant for you.”

“ You see Simon, you’re right she is special but she isn’t Shizuo’s. I believe her to be one of the few people who aren’t on this playing field. She, like all humans, belongs to me. I won’t let Shizu-chan, Celty, or even that damn Saika blade have her.”

“ Izaya, I know you don’t like losing to Shizuo but that does not mean you have to ruin this relationship. For once, let it go.”

“ It’s Shizuo who needs to let her go.”

With that Izaya left the place before walking away thinking about the girl. Since he met her years ago he realized how forgiving and optimistic she truly was. It shocked him, every human he met would be the same and oh so predictable. Shizu-chan and Simon would be the unpredictable ones spicing up his entertainment but (Y/N)? She was the most unpredictable one of them all. She took both sides of an argument and attempted to find a solution and she would keep Shizuo in check something that no one could do. On top of that, (Y/N) forgave anyone and you could never guess what she would say next, but her actions were always surprising. As he entered his workplace he was met with Namie Yagiri who looked at him in disbelief.

“ It’s late where have you been?”

“ Ah, Namie I was out with Celty and (Y/N) (L/N).”

“ (Y/N) (L/N)?”

“ Shizuo Heiwajima’s girlfriend, well fiance but not for long.”

“ What do you mean, not for long?”

“ Well you see, I intend to steal her away.”

“ You never seem to bother with people’s love lives anyways. Why now?”

“ (Y/N) (L/N) is a fascinating human! Here on this board, Shizu-Chan is the king and (Y/N (L/N) would be his queen, but the queen is one of the few people with free-range movement, in other words, the most powerful piece, nonetheless all are useful but the queen is the one who defends her king. If the queen is removed you’re pretty much set to fail and the king is left weak and ready to be dethroned. So, Shizu-chan is only strong with his queen, but this fascinating human being should be next to me, her God!”

“ So you want to use her-!?”

“ No! You’re not getting the picture! I am going to take the queen and leave her next to her god’s side! ME! With Shizu-chan weak I’ll simply kill him and fully take (Y/N) (L/N) as mine!”

“ I thought Shizuo provided you with the most entertainment. . .”

“ (Y/N) makes up for both of them, I don’t need Shizuo when I have his queen. . .”

“ Shizuo! Wait!”

Shizuo was walking faster while dragging (Y/N) behind him as they proceeded to go to their house after staying at Shinra’s.

“ What for?”

“ I’m sorry for embarrassing you in front of Izaya. . .”

“ I’m fine, as long as it was you I didn’t mind.”

“ You sure?”

“ Of course, now let’s go home. I’m tired.”

‘“O-Okay!”

As they entered the home in which they both own Shizuo immediately grabbed (Y/N) as he held her close before asking her yet again, “ Do you love me?”

“ Of course silly! I wouldn’t marry someone I don’t love! I love you to the moon and back Shizuo and I wouldn’t change that for the world! No one and nothing would ever split us apart Shizuo! You accepted me for who I am, now it’s time you realize that I accept you for you!”

Cuddling closer with the (h/c) hair colored female he blurted out something that made her turn red upon hearing it.

“ I want a baby.”

“ A WHAT?!”

“ A baby. I hope to be able to be a father once we wed.”

“ W-w-w-w-what g-g-g-gave you that idea?!”

“ We are both at a young age, once we marry I feel like we should have a child. I won’t rush or force you but I think we would be great parents.”

“I...OKAY! Of course! After we marry, we can have as many children as we can!”

“ W-Wait you serious?!”

“ Of course Shizuo, because I love you to bits! Just like I will love this child, I'll make sure you both know how special you are to me!”

“ I do wonder how I found someone like you (Y/N). . . I love you!”

“ I love you too Shizuo!”

As they both fell asleep in a lovers embrace Shizuo was reminded of how much (Y/N) loves him and was also reminded that she will never leave him. Izaya was wrong, (Y/N) loves him for himself and as Shizuo sighed in relief as he cuddled closer to the female, not being feared, but being loved was a great feeling, the best in the world.

“ Now. . . what should I make for dinner? I should make Shizuo’s favorite meal, but that means that I need to go shopping. Oh well.”

(Y/N) pulled out her phone before sending Shizuo a quick text saying how she would be stepping out and would be home soon. After getting an, ‘alright. Be safe.’ text she immediately set out to the store. As (Y/N) was searching through the ingredients she came across a hand reaching for the same one, the last one.

“ Oh, I’m sorry! You can take it!”

“ No, no that fine! By all means, take it.”

“ Izaya... .?’

“ Ah! (Y/N)! Isn’t that wonderful? I wanted to speak to you!”

“ Same! Just let me finish shopping and I’ll go with you!”

“ Here! I’ll help, by the way! Feel free to take it, I don’t need that ingredient as much as you do.”

“ Thanks! Are you sure you don’t want it though, I’m making a meal for Shizuo but I can always go to other stores! If you want it you should take it! On the bright side, I can get my daily walk in by going to other stores and I might be able to browse through other items I may need!”

“ Oh? A meal for Shizu-chan? Then, by all means, take it. I wouldn’t want to make him upset.”

“ Thank you Izaya! You really care for him!”

“ Well, I wouldn’t say that. . . “

“ Well, we should get going! I think I got everything I needed!”

Walking to the park in silence was a little awkward until (Y/N) lit up at the sight of ice cream.

“ Hey Izaya, look it’s an ice cream truck! Do you want some? My treat!”

“ Actually, it will be mine! Which one do you want (Y/N)?”

“ (F/F) please!”

“ Of course!”

Upon getting the ice cream ( Y/N) desired and Izaya getting one for himself they decided to sit on a bench and she continued speaking with Izaya.

“ Izaya, I have a question.”

“What is it (Y/N)?”

“ Well, why do you like edging Shizuo on? You know he is trying his hardest to change, wait, is it to push him? To see how much he needs to improve left?”

“ You really are optimistic aren’t you? Not exactly, you see Shizuo tends to act differently from the rest. . . he truly is unpredictable so I just want to see every possible reaction from him. Just like you?”

“ Me? I hardly think I'm unpredictable, I feel like you could read me easily.”

“ You can’t and that’s the best part. I truly love all humans (Y/N), they are just so interesting! In the end, they all act the same yet it’s so exciting!”

“ Interesting. You like the unpredictable more though right! I do too! It’s like a book, if you can predict the way it ends then it isn’t all the fun. However, if the book ends with a plot twist and catches you by surprise then it is fun! Every new day, every new day is something different for me! I feel like, when you look at a new angle you end up seeing things you’ve never seen. This could easily impact what you think or what you do! That’s what I try to do to make my day more interesting!”

Izaya looking at her with insanity swirling his eyes grabbed her hands causing her ice cream to fall before laughing.

“ You understand me! You see what I see! You truly do deserve to be next to your god's side! Tell me (Y/N), you’re very forgiving, aren’t you! Every god needs to judge and punish the sinners, BUT THEY ALSO NEED TO FORGIVE! THAT MY GODDESS IS WHERE YOU COME IN! WITH YOU BY MY SIDE, WE COULD TRULY RULE OVER THESE HUMANS! JUST AS I LOVE HUMANS, THEY SHOULD LOVE ME TOO! THAT INCLUDES YOU (Y/N), DO YOU LOVE ME?”

“ I-?!”

“ That’s enough!”

Turning to Celty who began to write furiously fast on her phone shoved it in front of Izaya as he skimmed the words that were written.

‘Shizuo is on his way, leave if you don’t want your ass kicked. I told you to leave (Y/N) alone! For once, listen to me!’

Celty grabbed (Y/N) and led her to the motorcycle before writing on it explaining that Shizuo was around the area and was planning on picking (Y/N) up from the store. Celty mentioned that she too was around the area and that she was asked by Shizuo to help him look for her as well. Nodding, (Y/N) turned around to meet Izaya smirking, despite all she smiled at him and bowed before apologizing.

“ I’m sorry Izaya! I hope to talk to you soon and I apologize our time was cut short. I’m happy that you told me a little about yourself Izaya as I told you I like to see both perspectives before saying or doing anything. On the bright side, although our time was cut short I realized that you trust me a little and bothered to open up a bit! So I'm glad!”

Indeed Izaya found his Goddess, she forgave all and will forgive all. Smiling a bit he turned and wished her good-bye before plotting a plan to take her from Shizuo forever and make sure his goddess was with him all the time. Besides, even if he committed a crime, his goddess, (Y/N) (L/N) would forgive him.

(Y/N) was riding with Celty until they found Shizuo in which he expressed his concern for the female. He examined the ingredients and smiled realizing what she was planning on doing before ruffling her hair.

“ I still have a little bit of work left but I'll make it home in time for dinner.”

“ Of course! I’ll get started on dinner right away!”

“ Alright. See you then, oh (Y/N).”

“ Yeah?”

“ I love you.”

“ I love you too!”

Getting out of the shower, (Y/N) proceeded to dry her hair with a small towel wearing (F/C) shorts and an extremely overgrown shirt, more importantly, it was Shizuo’s bartender shirt that he allowed her to wear. It fit more like a dress but no one was complaining.

“ I better get started on dinner, Shizuo is going to arrive any minute!”

Proceeding to get the ingredients (Y/N) was washing the vegetables when she heard a click signaling the door was open.

“ Shizuo I’m not done with the meal-... Shizuo... .?”

Examining the living room she noticed that the door was opened but no one was in the room with her, that was until she heard a familiar voice from her right ear.

“ Good evening, My goddess. . .”

“Iza-!?”

With that Izaya knocked out (Y/N) cradling her in his arms before making his way to him home with the young girl, his Goddess.

“ Wake up sleeping beauty~”

Izaya was poking her cheek repeatedly hoping for the young girl to awaken sometime soon and luckily she did.

“ Izaya, w-where a-am I?”

“ Why you’re in our home my goddess~”

“O-our? Goddess? Izaya what’s going on?”

“ You will be living with me from now on~ You see I explained it to you, I love humans my dear (Y/N), you are no exception. However, unlike all the other humans you have an interesting personality and you are quite unpredictable making each new day exciting and something to look forward to! Someone like you should be by my side ruling alongside next to me! Just as I adore humans, they should adore us, as they should!”

“ I-Izaya I’m sorry but it’s late and I need to get to Shizuo before it gets too late-!?”

“ You aren’t getting it! You aren’t going back to Shizuo! You belong to me! Besides, Shizuo is weak right now! I could easily get rid of him!”

“ He isn’t! Shizuo is quite strong! I know for a fact that he can overcome anything! Now, please let me go before I-!?”

“ You aren’t seeing the big picture (Y/N) and it saddens me. You see the queen is the strongest piece in chess. Shizu-chan is the king and you by right, are his queen. If we take the queen away, the king is set up to fail. Haven’t you realized, everyday Shizu-chan asks you if you love him and to never leave him? Coincidence I know? I always make him doubt of this reality because without you Shizu-chan would be a violent monster! Think about it, you’re the only thing that can hold him back but you aren’t by his side! Shizu-chan does not want to be feared but he thinks it’s a fantasy, someone like you being in his life that he just needs to confirm if you love him too!”

(Y/N) gasped when she came to notice her fiance's true feelings. Feeling down, (Y/N) looked to the side to examine the board Izaya kept close to see if she could find a pattern or attempt to figure Izaya out to create a plan.

“ In fact! I think he is worried sick trying to find you, but he won’t! Even if he does, he doesn’t have the right to take my Goddess away!”

In the meantime, Shizuo was frantically searching for where (Y/N) could be. When he arrived home he came to see the door open and no sign of (Y/N) causing his anxiety to spike up at the thought of losing you forever. Having enough he texted Celty and even the dollars home page alerting all members to keep an eye out on a female with (H/C) and (E/C) as she could be in danger.

“ Celty! Have you found her yet?”

“ No.... but I think I know where she is. I hope she isn’t though. . . “

“ Spit it out! WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!”

Shizuo was running out of breath as he looked at Celty with desperation as he saw her type away with incredible speed, but the answer both shook him and angered him to the point of no return.

“ I think she is with Izaya. If so, we must hurry!”

“ Of course! Leave this to me. . . I think it’s time that bastard met with his fate.”

Shizuo walked away with anger as he began to prepare his fist to execute the man who stole his fiance.

IZAYA ENDING w/SMUT

SHIZUO ENDING

78 notes · View notes

guiltydumpling · 4 years ago

Text

The Guard: Chapter 5

[KUVIRA X READER ROYAL AU]

Summary: “I called you all here to announce that we have a guest arriving sometime later today. Princess Y/N of the Kingdom of Elysian” The people in the throne room looked at one another confusingly. “Their palace was under sieged and the king had to send the princess away to keep her safe from any assassination attempts. Their kingdom has done a lot for us and has proven to be great allies for generations. She’s come a long way and has been traveling for a week, I expect nothing less than for all of you to treat her as you do a member of the royal family and to attend to everything and anything, she might ask for… This poor child has already been through too much.” There was silence in the throne room for a while, as they let the information sink in. “Dismissed.”

A/N: Hi beautiful beings <3 Holy crap i’m back and I know it took me like a thousand years to update and I really have no excuse for that but I’ve been receiving messages and question about whether or not I will continue this story and guess what... YES I WILL! there’s only about 2 chapters left after this and an epilogue so watch out for that and thank you so much for the support! This is my first ever fic so I never expected to get this much love from the readers! anyway... Enjoy ;)

Word Count: 4.7k

~ ~ ~

He’s dead… your father is dead. They told you he was poisoned by the wine that was served during the peace negotiation meeting, that the poison didn’t take effect until he was brought into his chambers for the night and his mouth started to foam, blood coming out of his nose and ears, before he collapsed on the floor and that his body wasn’t discovered until the next morning when his servants would usually get him ready for the day. You were saddened by your father’s death but mostly angered.

You were sat on the training grounds on the bench where you first opened up to Kuvira about your kingdom’s situation. You felt your eyes burn from all the tears you have shed for not only your father but your home. You stared at the stars that lit up the dark sky and all you could think about in this moment was your sister. How different things would be if she were still here you thought.

A few moments later and you did not move from your position when you hear someone walking towards you. You didn’t have to turn around to see who it was because you already knew who would be stupid enough or brave enough or both, to follow you when you clearly wanted to be alone.

“I’m sorry about your father” Kuvira spoke a few feet from where you were sitting.

“Why are you sorry? You weren’t the one that killed him” you said coldly. All manners and sensitivity abandoned.

She didn’t speak for a while and you turned your head to finally meet her eyes. They were sad and full of worry for you and somehow you felt a pang of guilt, she just wanted to be there for you. “Sit with me?” you ask her in a softer tone, and she does. You grab her hand to intertwine your fingers with her and you place it on your lap turning your attention back to the stars as you both sat there quietly.

Kuvira loved to banter and tease, it was basically her form of endearment not only towards you but to everyone around her that she cared about. Despite that, she knows exactly when you just needed silence and her presence alone. This was one of those times and you were so thankful for that.

“I guess I’m a queen now” you say as a matter of fact and she hums in response.

“I would be lying if I said that I never wanted to be queen. I’ve thought about it once or twice when I was a stupid child, but I would always push the thought back when I would come to the realization of what exactly being queen would cost me.” And you were right. It cost you everything. Your sister, your father, your home, your happiness, your freedom, everything.

“Have I ever told you about my sister?” you asked her, not tearing your eyes away from the sky.

“No. But I know you two were close” She says

“We were.” You gently smiled at the memory of you and your sister running around court, hiding from your guards because all you wanted to do was play in the garden all day. You two were inseparable.

“My father would often joke about how we were practically joint at the hip.” You continue and you see Kuvira smile gently from your peripheral.

“We were both opposites in everything. From our duties, to our skills, even to our aspirations. You see, my sister loved being a firebender. You should have seen her when she first discovered her gift, she nearly burned down the garden.” You say with a slight laugh.

“Our father had her trained by the best masters in our kingdom and she became a master herself. She was stubborn as well, that’s what made her a great fighter. She was outspoken and rowdy and very much like my father when he was in his youth. Or at least that’s what our servants would tell me. I on the other hand took from my mother, I was quiet and timid, I devoured book after book, practiced the discipline of art and music, and I wanted pretty much nothing but to be able to see the world and its beauty and culture. That was my destiny. To share my gift of knowledge to the people around me, and hopefully contribute to it. However, my sister, was destined to stay in Elysian and be responsible for our family’s line and heritage. But she had other plans in mind. She wanted to become a soldier, she wanted to fight, and that meant having to renounce the family name and her title in order to do so, and you can only imagine how furious father was when she told him. They got into a huge fight after that conversation and they barely talked afterwards. That’s when their relationship started to wither. She would often escape at night to go to town and observe civilians living their life according to their will, she told me it was fascinating, and she was jealous of them all, then she met this man. He was just a farmer’s son and he didn’t know the real identity of my sister, so he pursued her, and they fell in love. But one of the roaming soldiers caught them half undressed in one of the stables behind the man’s home and they dragged the man away for violating her highness.” You paused for a while, remember the poor man’s face, he was so terrified and clueless at the time. Dragged in chains, when all he was doing was spending the night with the woman he loved and thought he knew.

“They sentenced him to be exiled and had his family’s land stripped from them as payment for dishonoring royal blood with peasant hands. I heard his father was killed in an alley by angry citizens because of the deeds of his own son, and that his mother died from a disease that could not be treated because they no longer had the means to pay for medication, leaving his little sister to sell herself to desperate low-life men just to be able to fill her stomach. My sister had every right to be furious. She was put under supervision the entire day and had the guards stationed in her chambers doubled at night. Chantou ordered the exile sentence of the man and told my father that he should find my sister a husband soon so that this kind of thing does not happen again. And that’s what my father did. He wrote a proposal to one of our allies and they agreed that marrying their offspring would make a better knot than any treaty would.” You shake your head in disapproval of the memories and let out a sigh of pity for your sister.

“Months passed and her marriage was nearing. She barely left her room so I only saw her once a week at best, and whenever she would have conversations with my father it would end in a screaming match or at least one of them storming out of the room. My father believed that what he was doing was for the best, or at least that’s what he told himself when Chantou was basically gaslighting my father into forcing my sister into submission… The night before her wedding, she didn’t leave her room the entire day. It was late at night when I heard a crash in her room since I was only across the hall from her. When I tried to check on her myself, she was being held down by two of the guards and she was thrashing around, blood on her feet and knuckles while her handmaiden tried to calm her down. She was having a meltdown basically. When she saw me enter the room, she settled down quite bit and just started crying hysterically while her handmaiden looked at me with pleading eyes not knowing what to do anymore. The room was a mess, there were shards of glass on the floor and flipped furniture but all I could think about was how I barely recognized her. She was much thinner, her eyes were circled dark, and her hair was all over her face. I felt so bad for her.” You say feeling your chest tighten.

“I told the guards to let her go and that I would take care of her which immediately got her to finally settle down and I had her handmaiden and guards leave us alone so I could personally attend to her. Which I did. None of us spoke as I cleaned her up and put her in bed before I attempted to clean up the mess, she made in her room. I didn’t want to leave her just in case she woke up and had an episode again, so I decided to sleep on the couch of her room. A few moments later I was woken up by a cold breeze and when I opened my eyes, I saw the balcony window wide open and I immediately searched for my sister on her bed, but she wasn’t there anymore.” You feel the tears start to brim in your eyes, but you held it down not wanting to cry anymore.

“I immediately got up and went straight to the balcony and that was when I saw her… just standing still on the railings, wind blowing her nightgown and unkempt hair. I didn’t know what to do and I… I was frozen in place. But I called her, and she looked back at me with tears in her emotionless eyes as she told me she loved me. I told her I loved her back and that I would always be there for her… I was begging her to come down from the railing, but she just stared at me…then she asked me if I really loved her, which of course I said yes to, and then she smiled, for the first time since the day of her lover’s exile she smiled… the only reply she gave me was “good. Then take care of everything for me okay?” those were her last words and she just… jumped. And I don’t remember much but I think I was screaming? Or maybe I was trying to, but nothing seemed to come out. But I passed out on the balcony and woke up in my room with my father sitting on the foot of my bed only to tell me that my sister committed suicide.” You finish, and you swallow the lump in your throat as you held Kuvira’s hand tighter.

“Is that why your sister’s death took such a big toll on your father? Perhaps he felt like it was his fault?” She asked carefully and you nod your head to confirm.

As much as Kuvira felt bad for your sister she couldn’t help but feel her blood boil. How could your sister do that to you? Leave all the mess she created to you? Even the audacity to take her life in front of you while you were begging her not to. Why did everything have to fall on your shoulders?

And now your father is gone, your home is in a civil war, and you were blaming yourself for everything when none of this was ever in your control. You had such big dreams, and you had such a big heart. Why is that all being wasted on a mistake you didn’t make?

Call Kuvira biased, but you absolutely did not deserve any of this.

After a while you chuckled lightly at the stars before you, causing Kuvira to raise an eyebrow at you. “What’s so funny?” she asks, and you simply shrug

“When my sister died, I was so angry… I wanted to lash out on everyone and everything but my father… He was silent. I would often catch him sitting on my sister’s balcony at night staring at the sky and when I asked him why, he told me that he used to do that too when my mother passed away. He said that our ancestors used to say that when somebody we love crosses the afterlife, they become our guardians… and the stars we see are actually their eyes looking down on us from the heavens.” You explain

“That’s beautiful” She comments

“It’s bullshit” you state abruptly. “I always thought it was stupid, something old people would say to comfort the young when they would lose someone” you paused, eyes still searching the stars. “But why is it that all I’m trying to do right now is look for their eyes?” you wonder out loud. Desperation perhaps? You wanted a sign, anything, that will indicate what to do next. If the stars were really your loved ones watching over you, then why has nothing in your life worked out for you?

You felt alone. Then you turn to the person beside you. The person who was still holding your trembling hands and sat beside you in your darkest moment and will continue to do so as long you allow her to. You weren’t alone. You had her. She was the only one you had.

You turn to her, taking your free hand, you bring it to her face and slowly caress her cheek. She looks at you with a slight confusion at the sudden affection but places hand above yours anyway.

“Promise me something.” You whisper to her “Promise me that your different. That you’ll stay… Promise me you won’t leave me?” you whisper in a desperate tone, tears threatening to fall from your eyes and Kuvir smiles gently at you. “I love you. Spirits know how much I do… I promise I’ll never leave you.” Kuvira whispered back, lump forming in her throat.

She promised you that she will never leave you and she knew in her heart and her soul that she never could even if she tried. But everything’s different now. You had duties; you were queen. No amount of love in this stupid world could ever provide you a legitimate heir with her. It was you who had to leave her.

She pulled you into a hug and you pressed your cheeks against her chest, letting your tears flow freely once more. “I love you so much” you sniffled.

~ ~ ~

You were now seated on the edge of your bed with Kuvira sprawled on the sheets beside you.

“I think the Avatar may be paying us a visit tomorrow” She stated

“Yeah?” You asked unconsciously eyes glued to your lap. You feel Kuvira shift from her initial position to crawl over to your side on the bed before snaking her arms round your waist, resting her chin on your shoulder. “hey…” she whispered gently, and you hummed in response, still not moving a muscle.

“You need to rest” she said her tone laced with concern for you.

You did need rest. Your eyes were sore from crying and you simply don’t have enough energy to even hug Kuvira back. You were so tired.

You nodded you head and turn your face towards her and kissed her cheek as you smile gently at the woman. “Scoot over” you say, and she does exactly that.

You laid under the covers in the dark, your legs tangled with Kuvira’s arms wrapped around you as you rest your head on her chest feeling her calming breath.

“What are you thinking about?” you asked after a few moments of silence.

“Honestly? Your guard.” She said with a slight chuckle

“What about him?” you asked in curiosity

“He must be wondering why I still have not left your room” she responded, and you gave a light laugh

“Don’t worry… He’s a great secret keeper” you assured her, and she simply nodded, trusting your judgement.

“Stay with me ‘til I wake up?” you asked her, and she lets out a sigh causing you to look up and meet her emerald eyes. “Please?” you pleaded, and she looks at you sadly, already giving you the answer to your question. “It’s fine.” You simply say turning away from her once more and you feel her hand gently caress you.

“You know I would if I could… please don’t be upset.” She explained and you simply shook your head

“No, I’m not upset… I understand you have your duties, it’s just… sad.” You explain

“Damn… love sucks.” Kuvira mutters and you couldn’t help but give light chuckle nodding your head in agreement.

“Yeah… it does.” You responded.

After a few moments you started to feel your eyes go droopy and you felt Kuvira’s breathing slow down as well. “Stay beside me in the meeting tomorrow, okay?” you muttered half asleep earning a hum of acknowledgment from Kuvira as you both gave in to the comfort of sleep.

~ ~ ~

You woke up the next morning from the sunlight peeking through your curtains and you slowly open your eyes. Instinctively, the first thing your body does is stretch your arm across your bed to Kuvira’s side only to feel a pang of disappointment when she was no longer there. You knew she wouldn’t be. But you couldn’t help but hope.

As per usual, Zhu Li helped you get ready for the day, dressing you in all black as a sign of grief and the next thing you know you were seated in the war room across the Avatar. Your guard and Empress Suyin were in the room as well, with Kuvira seated beside you.

“We received a message from Elysian, it’s addressed to you, your majesty.” Your guard starts, retrieving an envelope and handing it over to you.

The room was quiet while they patiently waited for you to finish the letter. It was from Chantou. And he was asking your hand in marriage. Why were you not surprised?

Chantou was not a nice man. He was greedy and always wanted what he could not have, but even though, he was smart about everything. All his moves calculated from the very beginning or you wouldn’t have been in this mess otherwise.

You knew exactly why he was asking your hand in marriage. Your marriage would make him legitimate because as of now, to the eyes of your people, he was a usurper, which was exactly what he was. But with you as rightful heir, Elysians will accept him. Your people loved the royal family and for a traitor like Chantou who did not have any claim to the throne, it was no question if the Elysian people might kill him themselves. He needed you. And as much is made your stomach churn, you needed him too. At least for now, as you try to claim your birth right. You needed the nobles on your side again, and right now, they were loyal to him.

You look up from the letter to meet 4 pair of eyes on you, eagerly waiting for you to tell them what was on it.

“Chantou’s asking my hand in marriage” you finally say, and their reaction were exactly what you expected. Confusion, anger, disgust, and for the woman beside you, fear.

“Like hell you would!” The avatar exclaimed but you simply kept quiet.

“He must be crazier than I thought if he thinks you are ever going to agree to that!” Kuvira commented but still, you remained silent. “Right?” she pressed, her eyes trying to meet yours, but you refuse. Instead, your eyes meet Suyin’s. She knew exactly what you were thinking, and she knew exactly why he was asking your hand in marriage. In her time as an empress, she has probably seen all kinds of tactics people use just to gain the power they didn’t deserve. This was one of them.

“Your majesty.” Kuvira speaks once more, this time in a lower more demanding tone and you finally meet her eyes.

“I’ve decided to accept it.” You finally say and together with the avatar and your guard, Kuvira give you a look of disbelief.

You decided to explain yourself and your decision to them. Talking to them about why he asked your hand in marriage and why you were willing to accept such terms. The Avatar, being her usual brash self, told you to just take Elysian back by force. But you rebutted by arguing that you did not have enough men or resources to do such thing. Meanwhile, Kuvira was kept silent. Her jaws were clenched and was breathing heavily but you tried your best not pay much attention to it as you stood by your decision.

After a few moments of discussion Suyin finally speaks up. “Maybe we should give this a little more thought and process… Of course, I’m not suggesting that you have not your majesty” She said, careful to not offend you. “But perhaps its best if we let ourselves clear our heads and we can come back maybe later in the day to discuss your final decision. If you still wish to accept his proposal… then I personally will support, you.” She finishes and you give her a gentle smile.

You doubt you were going to change your mind but for everyone’s sake, you agreed and had dispersed.

~ ~ ~

You were near the training grounds shooting arrows to a target with your guard a few feet behind you. Shooting arrows used to be an activity that got your mind off of things, but now it just achingly reminds you of your father. A few shots later you heard steps coming towards you. You didn’t bother looking when you knew exactly who those footsteps belong to.

The footsteps came to a halt and you saw Kuvira’s figure in your peripheral. You already knew her purpose for finding you and you just honestly did not have the energy or the heart right now to tell her that you were going to push through your decision. Choosing to ignore her, you continue shooting arrows.

“Leave us.” Kuvira states, tone filled with authority. No wonder why the other guards around here are terrified of her. You thought.

The look at your guard to give a nod for approval and he distances himself from the two of you, far enough for conversation privacy but close enough that he can still keep his eyes on you.

“What do you want Kuvira?” you ask in the most neutral tone you could muster as you shot another arrow.

“Don’t act like you don’t know why I’m here Y/N” she answers, tone still laced with authority.

You took a deep breath before shooting another arrow. Bullseye. You put the bow down and turned to finally look at her. She was fuming. You couldn’t quite put your finger on the exact emotion she was expressing just yet, but you knew it was anything good.

You took a deep breath before answering her, “I’ve made up my mind. I’m going through with my decision. If you don’t like that, then leave.” You say, trying your hardest to not show any emotion. You couldn’t.

“How could you say that? To me, of all people! Do you honestly believe that marrying that son of a bitch is the only way out of this?!” She raises her voice taking a few steps towards you and you almost stepped back, but you held your ground.

“No! It’s not the only way! I can just easily declare a civil war right now and hold on to my pride and title as I let nameless soldiers die on the field while I sit in my chambers drinking tea waiting for a victory, I didn’t take part in! Or I can stop it. Right here. Right now. Without anybody else getting hurt!” You challenged her. It was true. You thought about the options you could take and it all just ended up either more people dying or simply losing. This wasn’t the only way to win back your kingdom, but it was the best way to do it.

“Then don’t.” Kuvira states and you raise a brow in confusion. “That’s what I just said… I don’t underst--what? Haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying since the meeting?!” you groan in frustration. Kuvira takes a step towards you not turning her eyes away from your evidently confused features.

“Don’t declare a civil war. Let us do it.” She explains and you feel your breath hitch. You shake your head and take a step back trying to process what she’s saying. “This is madness Kuvira… even for you…”

Having Zaofu declare war on behalf of your family was a huge risk to their empire. You can’t say the thought never crossed your mind when you arrived in Zaofu and you saw the thousands upon thousands of elite soldiers, bender and non-benders alike, not to mention the resources they have remaining stagnant. You knew that you had nothing to lose and that’s what makes declaring a war yourself moot, you had nothing to bargain with but your claim to the throne. How selfish do you have to be just to claim back your kingdom? Your home?

“You’ve seen Zaofu yourself your majesty, we have more strength and power than the wealthiest kingdoms combined. Declaring war on your behalf won’t even cost us half of our excess” She explains, basically confirming your theory. “And what of the empress? What will she have to say about this rash decision you are proposing to me?” you ask as a matter of fact. Your heart was racing, and your palms were getting clammy from this conversation. Why? You’ve yet to figure that out yourself.

“Su just lost one of her most loyal and strongest allies and her best friend. She’s not about to let the remaining daughter of the two people she cared about the most, to sell herself to a usurper when she gave her word that she will protect you at any cost.” Kuvira states and she takes your hand into hers eager to see your face to give her a hint of what you’re thinking right now. Your hands were trembling, and you were feeling guilt eat your heart and soul. Is this the cost for salvation? Selfish drive and wishful thinking? What would your father do? What would your mother say? What would your sister tell you?

You lightly shake your head, still not fully accepting this decision “no… I don- ugh! Spirits, I don’t know what to do!” you let out in frustration. And Kuvira put her index below your chin to gently tilt your head up to meet her gaze. “You are the smartest woman I know. You always know what to do…” She whispers and you feel tears forming when you let out a sigh.

You knew what to do. You just didn’t want to admit it. Your first plan had a lot of flaws in it to start with. Chantou could just easily poison you like he did with your father and declare you died of illness to your people after he gains their favor. You would’ve never ceased the throne back, not to mention you had to have eyes at the back of your head 24/7 knowing that nobody was loyal to you in the palace anymore.

Kuvira’s proposal was exactly what you needed. A display of external power and allies. A reminder to Chantou that his claim to Elysia threatened our close powerful allies, and that they would not sit idly by as they watch their sister kingdom perish. It was the right thing to do.

It’s the right thing to do.

Kuvira cups your face into her hands, and you are forced to look at her once more. “Su loves you. Your people love you. I love you. And I know that your father would never want you to go through your original plan because he died to save you and Elysia. Please… Let Zaofu fight for you… Let me fight for you”

You feel the tears forming in your eyes cascade down your face and you give her a gentle smile. The first time you did anything for yourself was when you confessed your love to Kuvira. And now… you’re letting yourself be selfish once more.

“Okay.” You finally answer.

#kuvira #kuvira x reader #kuvira/reader #kuvira fanfic #tlok #the legend of korra #royal au #F/F romance #W|W #fic

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mr-and-mr-diaz · 4 years ago

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I Don’t Understand Buck Begins.

PSA this is a bit of rant. Not a hate-rant or anything like that, but I do express frustration and if you’re not here for that right now, please skip this. It is complicated and ended upa bit long. But if you’re up for it, I’d LOVE to know your thoughts.

I actually want to talk about this with people. I’m not here to drop a statement like a microphone and walk away. The first time I watched Buck Begins, I loved it. I still do. But as I think back on it and rewatch, there are some major issues I’m spotting:

1. Buck in his whole life has been endangering himself in order to get the attention (dare I say LOVE) of those around him. I feel like the Firefam’s (very OOC) responses to him recklessly endangering himself again only enforced these destructive habits?

2. Firefam’s OOC reaction: In literally every other episode, when Buck recklessly endangers himself the firefam immediately put the brakes on, tell Buck to treasure himself, not to be reckless, to think things through, to realize that the victim got out because of sheer good luck (as well as hair-brained thinking on Buck’s part, but some of Buck’s decision making also really endangered him, more on that later.) The fact that Bobby let Buck work that fire at all in the state of mind he was in is odd. The fact that Hen told him he was for whatever reason correct in choosing to split from the party and go on his own in his current state of mind was beyond odd. Looking back, it doesn’t feel like real moments, but rather contrivances dressed in nice words like “I don’t this often but you’re right” (NO HE’S F**KING NOT!!) so that we wouldn’t question them immediately. Was Buck correct that the other team needed anotehr man? Yeah. Was he right that it should be him? NOPE. Anyone could see that, we could see that, the Firefam could see that. but they let him go anyway. This is OOC, they’re smarter than that, and they’ve known Buck for long enough to know when he’s triggered and more likely to make poor decisions. During it, when Buck disobeys orders and Bobby is calmly just like “Yeah he does that sometimes.” I’m sorry, did someone put Xanax in Bobby’s coffee? Why on earth would he be so calm?? In a normal situation he would never be calm about that--add to it the fact that he KNEW Buck wasn’t at his most stable at the moment? He should have been shouting into his radio and hauling ass, not shrgging and smiling with pride like “Yup! It’s cool with me” like what?? Then afterward, nothing but kind words and praise. Good job risking your life like an idiot, good job risking the other guy because you were so determined to get him out asap you didn’t stop to think. That’s what you do, Buck.

Like did they really just say that!?

The only nuance that I thought was right here, the only thing that was given emphasis that felt RIGHT, was not that Buck stays behind, not that he makes reckless decisions sometimes, not that he jumped into a fire while unstable, THE ONLY THING that should have been emphasized here, that the episode should have been based on? Is that BUCK DOESN’T GIVE UP. There’s a quality in him that we’ve seen before. one that Buck doesn’t seem to realize about himself. Athena’s moment was the only moment that looking back gives me any kind of cathartsis, because it is the only healthy reaction from the firefam that I saw (aside from them all running in after him--still love that moment.) they should’ve been gentle baout it, but nonetheless should’ve told Buck to treasure himself more, not be like “And here’s our most rekless memeber, pat on the back, kid, we love that you throw yourself into danger without thinking, in fact that’s what we love most about you!” Thinking back, I could SCREAM that that’s the message they left Buck with.

3. The victim: Let’s face it, the only reason the victim didn’t die is because the writers didn’t want him to. They made sure the tank landed somewhere non-fatal so that Buck could still get a win, even though many of his decisions thus far had been hare-brained and ill-advised, driven by a mad need to prove himself, and to never leave people behind, even if stopping and waiting and thinking might be more advisable at some points. In fact, when the victim first falls, and buck wakes up and he looks at him and I thought the victim was dead, first of all I was really sad for the victim, but I also felt like that was the right way to go. Buck’s decision making wasn’t sound, he wasn’t thinking straight, he went in anyway, by all rights the only reason the victim stayed alive after everything he went through was because the writers wanted him to stay alive which they followed with a big and in my opinion inappropriate Pat on the back Moment. The victim dying would’ve been tragic, but it would’ve driven home a lesson for buck, that hurting himself, endangering himself isn’t the answer, won’t always save the day. It would’ve taught Buck (harshly yes, but) that he needs to get his head on straight in this job. And if he had lost teh victim and the firefam had been there for him anyway, it would’ve been a whole different scenario.

In the episode, while it was super sweet and had some incredible moments, Buck learns nothing, his relationship with the Firefam doesn’t actually change at all, and his relationship with his family doesn’t appear to have actually progressed. He’s still prioritizing them over himself (bringing the parents into therapy since well, they’re trying which is apparently enough now), he’s now been encouraged to continue the reckless streak of self-sacrificing decision making that he’s been on in the past in order to gain teh love and recognition of the poeple around him.

I wish the writers had placed focus, not on Buck being accepting, not on Buck being restless, but on Buck not giving up. We saw bits of that yeah, but it wasn’t as highlighted as Buck ebing reckless and feeling overall like he’s not enough. I wish the episode had been centered there, and they had created an entirely different scenario start-to-finish that (like in Eddie begins, where there were no contrivances, the only reckless thing he does--cutting the line--is something that there isn’t a quetsion in a single brain he WOULD do and should do) where Buck is level-headed, where he’s in some kind of scenario where only he could uniquely succeed in because he never gives up. This episode had bits of it here and there, but ultimately what was running teh day was buck vulnerabilities, not his strengths. Insead of pointing out where Buck shines (like the other Begins episodes), they really only further highlighted what his weaknesses are and then proceeded to have the people around him encourage those weaknesses. Like, what?!

I also think this was the moment to solidify the firefam as his family. Instead, we see Buck retreating back toward a very unhealthy family situation and the firefam remains where they always are. What they did for buck in this episode was something incredible, but it’s also something they would do for any member of the firefam. What I wanted was for the firefam to show up for Buck in a way that he uniquely needs. How, I don’t know--perhaps taking a jab at his loneliness, surprising him with a dinner party at the loft, whatever. Something that told Buck “we see your pain, we see how tough your parents are, how you and Maddie need family who will show up and treasure you no matter what (WHICH BTW INCLUDES YELING AT YOU WHEN YOU’VE BEEN AN IDIOT AND TELLING YOU TO PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CRAP DON’T ENDANGER YOURSELF LIKE THAT AGAIN, PLEASE VALUE YOURSELF), that’s what Buck needed. An episode that would help him learn to treasure himself, believe in himself more, love the fact that he never gives up about himself, learn that dangerous stunts and running into things without thinking because he bleives that’s what gets him love is incorrect and unecessary. We didn’t get any of that. The episode was also trying to kill two birds with one stone, which brings me to my last point:

4. Framing Buck Begins around the sibling’s relationship, while GORGEOUS (seriously LOVED these moments they did and the casting was amazing, and both JLH and OS played their younger selves to perfection) I wish had been placed in a completely different episode. They didn’t belong here in an episode of Buck learning about himself. And because of the amount of airtime they took up, we ended up with an episode where Buck doesn’t really learn about himself in the end. Everything remains largely external instead of internal.

All in all, I feel like we need another Buck Begins episode to right the wrongs of this one. Nothing has been solved or fixed. Buck’s relationships remain pretty much the same going in as they do leaving. He has found no peace, no resolution (except in confirmation that Maddie loves him, which is nice, but largely external) he is still fuled by the belief that reckless behavior is what wins him teh love and attention of those around him.

This frustrates me to no end. If you feel like Buck Begins did scratch every itch for you, I’d love to talk and see your perspective as well, because I hate this itchy feeling of dissatisfaction and I dearly hope I’ve missed something here.

Anyway sorry this got so long. Didn’t realize I had QUITE so many thoughts until I started writing and then shit happened. If you made it to the end, thank youa nd I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree.

#buck begins #911 spoilers #i know this topic is SO 2 weeks ago but I had to exorcise this demon #evan buckley #firefam #9-1-1 #henrietta wilson #eddie diaz #chimney han #howie han #bobby nash #maddie buckley

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mikauzoran · 4 years ago

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Lukadrien: Zebras Can’t Change Their Stripes: Chapter Five

Read it on AO3: Zebras Can’t Change Their Stripes: Chapter Five

“Adrien, you really don’t have to cook for me like this,” Luka insisted through gritted teeth yet again as he carried another garbage bag full of rubbish out of his room that night after rehearsal.

“I am literally just making minestrone,” Adrien scoffed. “All I’m doing is opening cans and containers and boxes and dumping their contents into a pot together to simmer until the results are edible.”

“Yeah, but still…” Luka grumbled. “I didn’t bring you here to wait on me like this. I can clean my own toilet and do my own laundry and make my own meals. I never meant for you to—”

“—Hush,” Adrien cut him off, waving away Luka’s protests. “I’m not waiting on you. I’m mothering.”

Luka paused mid-step. “…‘Mothering’?” he repeated.

“Yep,” Adrien affirmed. “Your situation inspires empathy and compassion within me, so I’m adopting you.”

Luka choked on a laugh. “You’re what now?”

“Adopting you,” Adrien repeated with a straight face as he stirred the inchoate soup. “People have been saying it to me since I was thirteen, and, now that I’m an adult, it’s my turn to adopt people.”

Luka set down the trash bag and crossed his arms over his chest, humming thoughtfully as he studied Adrien. “…I don’t know how I feel about this.”

“Because you had it in your head that you were adopting me when you brought me home with you?” Adrien challenged with a foot on either side of the line between joking and being serious.

“…Maybe,” Luka hedged.

Adrien gave his head a toss. “Well, I just want you to know that I can pull my own weight around here. I appreciate your help, but I’m not a charity case. I can cook and clean and take care of you too. I’m not defenseless and in need of protection,” he informed tersely, trying to play it off lightly, as though he were kidding and only pretending to be sensitive about it.

Luka saw past the act to the truth, though.

He’d been bruising Adrien’s pride by trying to deny him opportunities that Adrien saw as a way to earn his keep and maintain his dignity.

“I’ve changed, you know. Living by my wits these past few years has toughened me up,” Adrien pretended to joke.

Luka came over to the stove and rested a hand on Adrien’s upper arm. “You’re right. You have grown up since I last saw you. You’re a very capable adult, and I’m seriously impressed, Adrien.”

The hard lines of Adrien’s face began to soften as his hackles lowered at Luka’s validating words. “Oh…yeah?”

Luka nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. You’re perfectly capable of doing the work, and I do appreciate the help. You’ve seriously been a godsend, Adrien. I just don’t want you to feel obligated to do all this.”

Adrien shook his head, hurriedly insisting, “I don’t. I want to help. I want to be useful and do my fair share. I don’t want to sit around and have everyone do everything for me anymore. I’m a competent human being, and I don’t need to be babied.”

“You’re right,” Luka affirmed, giving Adrien’s arm a squeeze before letting go. “I think we’re on the same page now. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I didn’t think you could manage things. I’m just not used to having someone take care of me. I think I’ve mentioned before about how when I was ten, the guy Maman had been with my whole life left, and she kind of went to pieces. I had to take care of her and Juleka, and, since then, I’ve never really let myself be taken care of.”

“That’s valid,” Adrien assured, processing Luka’s exasperation and pushback in a new light. “I guess we’re both just going to have to be patient while we get used to this new give-and-take dynamic, huh?”

“Yeah,” Luka agreed. “But, hey. If I ever do something that makes you feel like I’m looking down on you or treating you like a kid, call me out on it because that is never my intention. I have nothing but respect for you. I’m just used to having to take care of everyone else, so…”

Slowly, Adrien started to nod. “You respect me?”

Luka scoffed. “Adrien, I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for you.”

An impish smile slunk onto Adrien’s lips. “Even that day we first met and I gracefully face-planted onto the Liberty’s deck?”

Luka cracked a grin. “Okay. I was actually thinking, ‘Is my disaster bi showing?’ and ‘What are the odds of meeting two adorable klutzes on the same day?’, but as soon as you started to nerd-out over the keyboard, I had nothing but respect for you.”

Adrien broke into giggles. “Oh, I’m sure.” He looked down into the minestrone pot with a light blush and a shy smile. “Thank you.”

“Mmhm.” Luka patted Adrien’s arm and turned to head back to his room for another load of trash.

He only made it a few steps before he stopped and turned back around. “You know, you really haven’t changed at all.”

Adrien’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“You’ve grown and matured, sure,” Luka hastened to explain. “You’re a little different than I remember, but you haven’t truly changed. I know you were talking last night about feeling like a version of yourself that you hadn’t been in a while, but…I don’t think you ever stopped being you. The important things about you that made you you are all still there. I don’t think you’ve truly lost any part of yourself, Adrien.”

Adrien’s mouth rounded into an “o” of realization.

“I think it’s just a matter of you had to shove things down and not react how you instinctively wanted to react because you had to focus on staying alive,” Luka suggested, remembering the times in his own life when he had been in survival mode. “Maybe now that things have calmed down and are more stable, you’ll find that the parts of yourself that you think you’ve lost will come back of their own accord because it’s finally safe for them to.”

Adrien’s eyes misted over with hopeful tears, and a tentative smile bloomed on his lips. “That would be really nice.”

Luka opened his mouth to say something else, but, just then, there was an irate banging on the apartment door accompanied by a tirade of abuse.

“Luka, you piece of crap, open this door right now! You’ve been ignoring my texts all day! You can’t hide from me forever! I swear I will camp out here and annoy your neighbors until they call the police!”

Adrien looked to Luka in a panic, but Luka just groaned and shook his head.

“That’s Nino. He’s been blowing up my phone trying to find out how I know you’re alive and well pretty much since I texted him last night. What do you want me to do?” Luka looked to Adrien, letting him make the call.

Adrien took a deep breath. “…Let him in.”

Luka arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

Adrien nodded. “I’m feeling more optimistic and grounded today. I think going through a successful reunion with you helped.”

“Good. I’m glad,” Luka sighed as he made his way to the door where Nino was still banging and hollering.

He yanked the door open and gave Nino a put out, disappointed look. “What are we? Ten? This isn’t necessary.”

“It sure as hell seems necessary to me,” Nino growled, “because someone isn’t answering his phone.”

Luka stepped back and motioned Nino inside.

“So?” Nino demanded as he stormed into the apartment. “How did you—?”

The question died on his lips when he caught sight of Adrien in the kitchen.

Adrien summoned up the ghost of a smile and gave Nino a nervous little wave. “Hi, Nino.”

“Holy…” Nino swallowed an initial curse but then spit out a whole string of them as he rushed across the apartment to Adrien’s side, pulling him into a bone-breaking hug.

Luka watched as Nino and Adrien embraced, both of them trembling and sniffling, no words needed.

Luka tried to squish down his own jealousy at the thought that Luka and Adrien’s reunion hadn’t been like that. He reminded himself of what Adrien had said about having already reunited with Luka making it feel easier to see Nino again.

Still, it was a painful reminder that, as close as Luka and Adrien had been, Nino was Adrien’s best friend.

Nino was the first to pull back and speak. “Mec, don’t you dare disappear on me ever again. You hear me? You gave me grey hair. Look. Look at this.”

Nino jabbed pointedly at his head where a handful of grey strands were barely noticeable.

“Nino, I’m so sorry,” Adrien started in, but Nino cut him off.

“—No apologies,” he tutted. “I’m not mad at you. Your universe blew up. I get it. Just never do that again, and we’ll forget it ever happened, okay?”

He tipped his head to the side and waited for Adrien to respond.

Adrien nodded, his tentative smile growing and gaining confidence. “I’d like that.”

“Just one question,” Nino announced, resting a hand on Adrien’s upper arm while the other cupped his cheek. “…Are you okay?”

Adrien’s smile wavered. “…Not yet…but I’m working on it. The past four years were…” He bit his lip, searching for the right word before deciding on “…bad. I mean, there was some good stuff mixed in, but sometimes it was really, really bad, Nino, and I don’t want to talk about it right now. None of the truly awful things that could have happened to me happened, but it was still really bad, and I kind of want to forget about it and get my life moving in a better direction.”

Nino nodded, taking in what Adrien was saying. He inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. “Okay. All right. Never happened. I think I can live with that. I’m just glad that you’re home, Adrien.”

“Me too,” Adrien agreed, stepping in to give Nino another hug. “I’m really glad to see you.”

“Yeah. You too,” Nino sighed, giving Adrien’s hair a nuzzle.

They stayed like that for a long moment before gradually pulling apart.

“…So…what have you got going on here?” Nino inquired.

“I’m making dinner,” Adrien replied before remembering Luka’s existence and turning to look to him. “May I invite Nino to dinner?”

“Of course you can,” Luka assured. “This is your home too, Adrien. You don’t have to ask me for permission if you want to have friends over. I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a heads up just so that I can be expecting people, but you don’t have to get my approval.”

“How about if I want to move in with you guys?” Nino pressed. “Because I don’t think I can stand to let this guy out of my sight for the foreseeable future.”

Adrien’s eyes grew large with excitement. “May Nino and I have a sleepover?”

Luka’s kneejerk reaction was to tell Adrien no, he could not have people spending the night because Adrien was a snuggler, and Nino was going to end up snuggling with Adrien in Adrien’s bed all night, and Luka was going to be jealous.

But that was a stupid, self-serving reason to deny Adrien time with his estranged best friend, and Luka had no right to object anyway.

“Adrien, this is your apartment as much as it is mine. You can have friends spend the night,” Luka reiterated. “…I’m going to get back to cleaning, but you guys have fun catching up. Let me know when the minestrone is done, please.”

“Sure thing,” Adrien replied with a shining grin. “Thanks, Luka.”

“Sweet!” Nino crowed, pulling out his phone. “I’m gonna let Alya know I won’t be home tonight.”

Adrien gasped. “Did you get married?!”

Nino winced. “Not yet. Not for lack of trying. I am this close to wearing her down. She has commitment issues and doesn’t want to get tied down. She’s all about her career, and, I mean, I respect that immensely, but it was a struggle to even get her to move in with me. I’m worried we’re going to be thirty and still not married and without kids.”

Adrien grimaced on his friend’s behalf as he turned back to the stove to check on the soup and give it a stir. “At least you know you’ve found the person you want to spend your life with, though.”

“True,” Nino allowed.

After that, Luka couldn’t quite make out what they were saying from back in his bedroom.

He thought he caught Adrien remarking, “This just needs to simmer until the veggies are soft”, and then Nino and Adrien moved to the couch to snuggle while they chatted.

“So…what’s up with you and Luka?” Nino eventually asked, and Luka began to fold his laundry more quietly so as to better eavesdrop.

“I mean, I know you two were close, but…I thought we were closer? Why did you come to him?” There was a hint of hurt in Nino’s voice.

Adrien was quick to reassure him, though. “Nino, you’re my best friend. You were the first person I was planning on reconnecting with. I didn’t go to Luka. Fate just put us in each other’s path, and things worked out. He has an extra bedroom and enough discretionary income to take care of me without being a bother to him until I get back up on my feet. There’s nothing to be jealous of, Nino. I would never throw you over, not even for a hot guy.”

Luka nearly choked and immediately felt bad for violating Adrien’s privacy.

…Still. It was good to have some idea of where he stood with Adrien.

He immediately slapped himself because Adrien was vulnerable at the moment, and Luka himself was not emotionally healthy enough to be entertaining the idea of a relationship, especially not with someone like Adrien whom Luka would have to be one hundred percent serious about before daring to approach and risk ruining their friendship.

“Good,” Nino snorted back in the main room. “Make sure things between you and Luka stay completely romantic. Tell him to get the hell out of my friendzone. I have a total monopoly on all things platonic with you.”

Adrien burst out laughing, shaking his head and giving Nino a playful shove. “I’m glad you still value my friendship so highly even after I ghosted you for four years.”

Nino clicked his tongue. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just saw you last week.”

Adrien rested his head on Nino’s shoulder. “Thanks, Nino.”

Nino wedged his arm between Adrien and the couch, circling his arm around Adrien’s shoulders. “Don’t mention it. We’re cool, Mec.”

“…I’m not in any kind of shape to pursue a romantic relationship right now,” Adrien confessed sadly, a note of longing in his voice, “and Luka is actually going through a breakup at the moment. If you could refrain from making any kind of jokes or insinuations, I’d really appreciate it. I kind of just need stability right now. A roof over my head, regular meals, steady job, friends…”

“Say no more,” Nino assured, placing a kiss on the top of Adrien’s head. “I’ve got you…but let me know when it’s okay to tease you about this because teenage Adrien would have died if you’d told him he’d one day be Luka’s little househusband.”

Adrien elbowed Nino in the stomach. “Don’t make me kick you out. Apparently, this is my apartment. I’m also not required to share any of my minestrone with you, and it’s going to be really good, so you’ll be missing out.”

“Since when do you cook, Mec?” Nino hummed curiously.

Both Luka and Nino took second helpings of the minestrone and positively raved about it.

“I told you I was a good cook,” Adrien snickered around his glass of water. “I should have made a cake or something for dessert.” He turned to Nino. “I can make delicious cakes in a rice cooker.” He looked next to Luka. “Should I get started on some dessert?”

“You can if you want.” Luka shrugged. “I actually need to run out for a bit. I shouldn’t be gone more than an hour, if you think you’ll be okay by yourself?”

“Hello? I’m here too?” Nino snorted.

“Yeah, and you’re a handful. I know Adrien’s very competent, but I’m concerned about leaving him to babysit all by himself,” Luka sniped.

“Looow blow,” Nino booed.

“We’ll be fine,” Adrien assured. “I’ll show Nino how to make rice cooker cake, and then we’ll probably snuggle and talk or watch Netflix or something.”

Luka winced. “On your phone? We need to get you a laptop.”

Adrien’s brow scrunched up, and his lips pursed. “I really don’t want you spending money on me on expensive nonessentials.”

Nino bumped Adrien’s arm with his own. “He’s a rich kid now. Let him buy you stuff.”

“We’ll get you a laptop tomorrow,” Luka decided and then pointed at Nino. “Be good while I’m gone.”

Nino rolled his eyes. “I’m always good.”

Luka turned to Adrien with an affectionate smile, reaching out to tussle his hair.

“Text me if you’re going to be longer than expected, okay?” Adrien request, returning Luka’s smile.

“Will do,” Luka assured, putting on a brave face as he headed out.

As he drove over to Tom and Sabine’s to confront Marinette and ask for Plagg back, he reminded himself again and again that he was doing this for Adrien.

He summoned up the memory of Adrien’s smile, and what he was about to do felt a little bit easier.

#Lukadrien #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Adrien Agreste #Luka Couffaine #Nino Lahiffe #Fluff #Honest Conversation #Cooking #Reunion #Adrino #Platonic Adrino #Friendship #Slow Burn #Healing #Mikau's Writings #Zebras Can't Change Their Stripes

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mentalisttraceur-incomplete · 3 years ago

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Unless I'm feeling righteously angry, I really have trouble deliberately taking any action that might hurt people in any way.

I used to have a lot of ethical arrogance and stubbornness, so it was easy to circumvent this because I could be so sure of myself and that the other person was Wrong - so Wrong that being hurtful to them was a totally acceptable and probably necessary cost.

I could also easily get into this perspective: "your hurt is self-inflicted by your crap thinking - think good and you'll stop having any negative reaction to this, you fucking stupid/evil person".

I think I definitely learned to be angry and snarly and condemning in part to make it possible for me to override my empathy when asserting my boundaries or pushing back against wrong behavior. It was too hard otherwise and I needed that righteous anger to make myself do it.

But then for almost a decade now I've been increasingly aware and considerate of the full extent of how this causes me to hurt people, perhaps more than necessary.

So I've been on a long journey of trying to dial back the condemning and the judgment and the intolerance of wrongness. I've been trying really get good at quickly perceiving any and all rightness amongst or within the wrongness. I've been trying to do more compassionate, kind, patient, understanding, and constructive responses to wrongness.

But this leaves me really having to face the original and deeper problem, my natural predisposition towards acute and powerful discomfort with any hurt experienced by any mind.

So that's one way that getting into selfish and un-empathetic cognition was useful. It allowed me to cultivate a mental state, and ability to switch in and out of that state, where the hurt of other minds simply didn't matter. But this is not my natural state, and not very easy to get into or to maintain unless I'm unhappy and unfulfilled in specific ways. It's one tool in the toolkit but not yet a very reliable one.

It's also a state that tries to justify itself indefinitely - after all, if I am selfish and no-empathy, what is my incentive for being not selfish or empathetic? Well, as my selfish layer matured, I did eventually start to spot reasons to at least be mostly empirically indistinguishable from someone who genuinely cares and has empathy, and empathy ended up revealing itself to be a sometimes-useful motivational tool. I remember catching glimpses of this. Soon after that I think I found myself reverting back to primarily thinking from my empathetic and often unselfish layers, but I think this was mostly because I had improved things in my life enough to feel fulfilled and happy enough, not because of any robust conclusion that this was the best balance or partnership of the selfish and selfless, or the empathetic and un-empathetic.

The other open question here is cowardice. How much, exactly, is my concern about hurting people due to deep early prediction trees from that towards bad consequences? Hard to say, but since I seem to have been born a coward, and had to really effortfully grow every scrap of bravery I now have, I think it's a big enough factor to keep in mind.

Anyway, so that's a challenge. A really big challenge. I need to be able to face hurting people, especially in the many little emotional ways that come up in daily life, like saying no to things that would make people happy or rejecting people or ending an interaction earlier than the other person wants, or persisting with a disagreement when I think something is right enough, without emotionally buckling. And I think I still buckle a lot more than people realize. The ideal is a smooth, stable, general unphased ability to swim through all that discomfort. What I have now is a lot more uneven - very fluctuating, very stuttering - a somewhat inconsistent toggling between rigidity and very tolerant permissiveness rather than a consistently firmness which bends only deliberately and never due to discomfort with tension.

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simplybakugou · 4 years ago

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Bound to You

↝ In a society where matching scars signify two souls bound together, you stumble upon your fated soul mate who happened to be one of the biggest pro heroes.

BINGO SPACE: Soul Marks

⋆ PAIRING: prohero!mina x fem!reader ⋆ WARNINGS/TAGS: the slightest of angst, mostly fluff :) ⋆ WORD COUNT: 2884

A/N: here’s another bingo piece for the bingo event happening with @bnhabookclub. thank you to @fandomtrashsammy for requesting mina for this prompt! this was my first time writing for mina and basically any female character from bnha! I’m really enjoying trying to write for different characters and i think i can say mina is definitely one of my favorite characters to write for omg. credits to @eraserhead-transparents for the mina cap!

FULL BINGO MASTERLIST

✐posted 07.22.2020✐

If there was one thing you couldn’t stand, it was relationships. Now it wasn’t like you hated other couples and how happy they seemed, but rather you hated how their happy, loving relationships would be shoved down the throats’ of single people.

In this world, soul markings were crucial in identifying one’s significant other. They appeared when your fated soulmate would undergo an injury, leaving a permanent scar on their body and their significant other’s body. Although the other person could not feel the same agonizing pain, the matching scars were still evident.

Nonetheless, you absolutely hated the markings. It was almost like you had no control on who you would end up with, who the person you would spend the rest of your life with. You hated having to grow up and hear your classmates squeal excitedly when finding scars from small cuts and scrapes that their soulmates endured on their bodies. You even hated when your own friends would pester you about the scars that littered your own body at a rate that was mildly concerning. Every morning you’d find another scar littered on your skin, the same appalled expression on your face as you tried to envision what your soulmate could be doing to go through such injuries.

Were they a stunt double? An acrobat? Or maybe they were a criminal on the run as they harmed more and more people as the days went on… or maybe you were thinking about it too much.

However a year had passed and it had been a while since you woke up to various blemishes on your body. Who knew what happened to your soul mate, maybe they were in prison or they were caught up in business that ultimately led to their death… but either way you didn’t care.

Since then you decided to not seek out your mate like your friends and peers did, dating whoever you desired and not caring enough to check if they were your fated other half. But like everybody else, all of your exes were paranoid when they realized your scars didn’t match. Your ex-boyfriend even broke up with you once realizing you weren’t his soulmate.

But to hell with them. You refused to live by the rules of this weird society you were brought into.

You clocked in at the front desk, briefly greeting the receptionists who gave you a warm smile in return. You proceeded through the hospital, until you reached the break room, grabbing a mask and other equipment needed for your round of checkups.

“Y/N!” You heard a faint voice call from down the hall.

Itsuki, your close friend and coworker, caught up with you, walking by your side with a bright smile. “Guess what? I think I found my soulmate in 143.”

You rolled your eyes. “Itsuki, how many times have you said that this week? This is a hospital, of course you’re going to find people with similar cuts and bruises.”

She pouted, sticking her tongue out at you playfully. “You’re no fun. It’s not fair that you get all the cool, distinct scars while I get like two and they look like everyone else’s!”

You look down at your most recent marking, the last one that had shown on your skin since the appearance of the blemishes ceased a year ago. It was dark in color, indicating how severe and painful it must’ve been. Fortunately you never endured the pain yourself but you could feel yourself wince at the mere thought of undergoing such pain.

“It doesn’t matter if mine are distinct or not. These marks are pointless, they don’t mean anything.”

“I still can’t get why you’re a nonbeliever. Don’t you ever wonder who your match is?” Itsuki let out a small squeal, overjoyed by the thought. “It’s all about the mysteriousness, Y/N.”

“It sounds like crap if you ask me,” you muttered.

Itsuki caught what you mumbled under your breath, elbowing you in your side. “I’m telling you, once you meet your mate you’re going to be so in love with them and I’ll just laugh in your face!”

“Dream on, Itsu. We’ll see about that,” you said, smirking at her as she walked into her next patient’s room.

Meanwhile you made your way to your first patient of the day. In fact, she was the first patient you saw every day at work. The woman was in a coma for nearly a whole year. Your superior had informed you that she was the famous hero, Ashido Mina, but you knew that already. It was impossible for anyone to not know Ashido.

Back in the day she and the rest of her peers at U.A. were constantly in the limelight from being attacked by the League of Villains and for being one of the top pros.

At least until her accident.

You weren’t familiar with the specifics of the accident but you knew she had encountered a villain, one that harmed her so harshly that she had been put into a coma. And now it was uncertain when she would wake up.

You were responsible for monitoring and recording her recovery process every morning, making sure she was in stable condition.

You entered Ashido’s room, sliding the door closed behind you. You checked the monitors, jotting down her breathing rate, heart rate and the like just like you did every other day. Only this day it was different. You noticed her stability had wavered slightly, her breathing and heart rate seeming off.

Your boss had told you, as you were a fairly new nurse in this certain hospital with your fairly average healing quirk, that irregularities would occur but it was still concerning to say the least.

Just as you were finishing up writing down any inconsistencies, you felt a shiver down your spine as you could hear mumbling from behind you. You turned your head slightly, watching as Ashido muttered something, her lips parting slowly as her lashes fluttered partly open.

You immediately paged a doctor to come in, slamming the door back open to grab anyone’s attention. As you made your way back to Ashido’s bedside, her eyes were open a bit more and her lips curled upwards into a small, half-efforted smile. Her eyes slowly glanced down at the markings on your arms. “That’s funny… they look like… mine.”

And like that she slipped back out of consciousness as the doctor rushed in.

***

A few days had passed since Ashido managed to regain consciousness. As rumors traveled fast in a small, local hospital like this one, Ashido was now completely awake and was on her way to recovery. Oftentimes patients who came out of comas would have to go through years of therapy depending on how long they were out for. Luckily with the use of quirks, the various doctors and nurses working were able to utilize their unique quirks for any kind of injury, Ashido’s included. This included your own quirk and although it was a simple healing quirk, it was one that could speed up the recovery of any wound.

Nevertheless, the staff would have to keep things confidential with Ashido’s recovery process as the media would circle around outside the building with their nosy figures in an attempt of learning at least something about Ashido’s status. The only people permitted to see her were family at the moment.

In this span of time you were preoccupied with other patients, your list of usual people to deal with had been switched out with one of your coworkers. Normally this would not have been a problem but Ashido’s last few words before passing out still echoed throughout your mind. What could she have meant by your scars looking like hers? From what you could remember, her arms were bandaged up and there was no way for you to confirm this yourself. Maybe it was all a coincidence… yeah, it had to be!

But as much as you tried to tell yourself this, you still found yourself peeking into her room every now and then, psyching yourself out whenever you were almost caught by Ashido herself or by another doctor or nurse in her room.

Finally your boss changed your schedule back to how it was previously, and you were nervous as you headed inside, sliding the door closed. Ashido whipped her head up as she was sitting upright on her bed, flipping aimlessly through a magazine that was laid out on her table. “Oh! You’re the pretty nurse from before!”

“Uh, yeah I guess,” you said in a hush tone, thrown off by her sudden compliment. Your eyes gravitated to her arms as you were supposed to change her bandages that particular day. It was the moment of truth.

Ashido looked down at her own limbs, putting two and two together. “So you’re changing these today?”

You nodded, placing your clipboard with her file attached to it on the table and sitting beside her bed. “That’s right. Before Doctor Tanaka comes in, I have to change them.”

You pulled out a roll of gauze and bandage you were supposed to be using. Ashido extended her arms out, watching you carefully as you slowly removed the first set of bandages on her left arm. You sucked in your breath at the sight of her bare arm.

Due to the obvious difference in melanin, as Ashido’s skin was literally pink, her scars appeared differently in color compared to your own skin but even then there was no doubt about it; you two had matching soul marks.

You cleared your throat, examining the state of the blemishes as you proceeded to unravel the bandages from her other arm. “It seems that your skin has healed well, most likely from the year that you were in a coma which gave your skin enough time to heal on its own.”

You stood to your feet, tossing the used bandages in the trash and shoving the gauze and new roll of bandages in your pockets. “Let me go get Doctor Tanaka and hear his input on this--”

“Wait!” Ashido exclaimed, grabbing onto your wrist. She winced slightly, not used to applying force to her fingers just yet. “You can’t leave now. All my life I’ve been trying to find my soul mate, dating and meeting different guys and never finding who it was. And now I meet you, a woman, here… you can’t just ignore that we’re mates.”

You turned your head, gently shaking her grip on you. “I’m sorry, m’am, I need to administer my other patients. The doctor will be here soon.”

And like that Ashido could only watch as you quickly exited her room.

***

Even more time passed since your encounter with Ashido. The doctors and other authoritative personnel had Ashido undergo physical therapy before she was finally dismissed from the hospital, her being physically functional to walk around almost as good as she was before the accident. She suffered severe burns and trauma from the accident, ones that had healed over the time in her comatose.

In the past months that had passed, you had initially vowed to forget what you had learned about your relationship with Ashido. You avoided her room at all costs, managing to convince Itsuki to cover for you on the mornings you had to administer Ashido, although Itsuki did attempt to get you to tell her what was going on in which you kept your mouth shut.

With the passing time and hearing that Ashido was dismissed from the hospital, you felt an invisible weight lift right off your shoulders… at least in the beginning.

You found out that Ashido, who ignored the crowd of reporters circling around the building as they wanted to hear about Ashido’s plans for the future for a scoop in their papers, visited the hospital every morning, wanting to catch a glimpse of your figure. After a few days she decided to ask the receptionists directly, somehow convincing them to give them your number for “medicinal purposes.”

You were then flooded with texts from an unknown number, immediately deleting them when realizing who they were actually from. But that didn’t stop Ashido. She would text you from different numbers, berating you with messages and calls, all of which you ignored.

When she realized you were just going to block her number, she visited the hospital for any minor inconvenience, whether it be a strain that she “felt” in her muscles or a mere paper cut. Even then she refused to be seen by any other nurse or doctor except for you.

Finally you couldn’t take it anymore and you gave in, asking her to meet you in the breakroom of the floor you were covering. And there you were, waiting patiently inside the room for her, tapping your fingers against your arms as you were beyond frustrated.

The door finally slid open and Ashido waltzed right in, a smile on her face. She approached you, in which you walked past her and shut the door, closing the blinds on the small window on the door. You then turned back around, facing her with an irritated expression. “Why are you constantly annoying me? What do you want?”

Ashido let out a laugh, taking a step towards you in which you took one step back. You felt you back hit the wall as she stood hovering above you with her figure. “It’s pretty simple actually. I want you.”

You felt yourself become flustered by her words and the proximity of her body with yours. You felt drawn in by her piercing golden eyes, like you were being sucked right into them. Her flattering and smooth words were only making things difficult, making you wonder why you were avoiding her in the first place.

“I don’t get it. We’re obviously soulmates, I mean no one has these kinds of marks so why are you avoiding me?” Ashido questioned.

You tore your eyes from her gaze, looking down at the floor below you. “I just… don’t believe all this crap, alright? I’m not going to trust some scars on our bodies to be the thing that defines who my significant other will be.”

Mina chuckled at your response, placing her hands on your shoulders. “That’s why you’ll never know till you try, silly! We finally found each other and I don’t know about you but the minute I found out you were my mate, you were the only thing I could think of. And if you’re willing to, I want to see if this really is fate, if these scars are just silly marks or if we’re really meant to be.”

You looked back and forth from her left and right eye, internally battling out your struggles. You had always told yourself you had no interest in finding out who your mate was and yet you would be lying to yourself if you said Ashido wasn’t on your mind. She was a pro hero, one that saved countless lives and even sacrificed herself during a major accident to save others, one that resulted in her being in a coma. And yet you were a simple nurse, trying to save lives in your own way. She was optimistic about this all and you were as pessimistic as anyone could be. You were both so different yet similar.

“Hello? Anyone in there?” Ashido teased lightly.

You blinked, shaking your head from the conflicting thoughts running through your mind. You let out a sigh, looking down at the floor again. “Fine… we can give this a try.”

Ashido grinned widely, wrapping her arms around your shoulders and pulling you into her embrace. You sucked an air in, feeling flustered once more as her body pressed against yours. Your heart was pounding out of your chest and you knew she could feel its rhythm against her skin. Your face was burning up as she pulled away, bringing a hand to your cheek.

“It’s kinda funny… my whole life I’ve been looking through the wrong people for my soul mate and yet she was right beside me, taking care of me without me knowing it,” Mina mumbled, her thumb caressing your cheek.

You felt frozen in place, drawn in by her inviting aura and captivated by her presence. She had a way with words, but the way her touch felt against your skin, the way that she made you feel hot and bothered in the way no man had ever been able to boggled your mind.

“The minute I saw you I wanted to do this…” Mina uttered, dropping her hand to your mid-back and pushed you to her.

You gasped as her lips met your own, her hand still gently holding your cheek. Her lips were warm yet soft and you moved yours against hers in a slow and steady rhythm.

You wanted to curse yourself out for avoiding her in the way that you did. But in that moment, none of that mattered anymore. You had finally found your soul mate, one that finally matched your scars and one that wasn’t going to run from you in fear of fate breaking your relationship up.

You were willing to give her a chance… as she was fatefully bound to you.

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elopez7228 · 4 years ago

Text

Scenic Route 34/47

Read on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/18268208/chapters/43229774

Start over : https://elopez7228.tumblr.com/post/620919089893933056/scenic-route-0147

***

Rey sat in the grass, contemplating the decision she had to make. The car was ready. BB8 was chasing crickets around. Right now, almost no one knew her location on the remote campground. But she couldn’t stay there forever. She was furious at Ben...but somehow she couldn’t forget about the night they had spent together. Just thinking about it sent shivers down her spine.

No, she had to act rationally.

It was a mistake to let Leia and Ben take advantage of her. She had been too rash, too trusting for her own good. She didn’t doubt Syed’s intentions; she had also seen Skylar’s brutality with her own eyes. And something told her they wouldn’t be fooled by bear spray twice. She wished she had been even firmer with Ben that it was his responsibility to reign in the lunatics on his team...

But the doubts crept in. What if he couldn’t do it? Or, what if he didn’t actually want to? Worse yet, what if he never really loved her at all? It was hard to wrap her head around his actions. His kisses were ardent, by all accounts he was even more earnest than he had been that night in Jackson Hole.

Sleeping with him hadn’t felt like a trophy fuck or a one night stand, she had felt like an empress. He’d been so focused on her pleasure, on unraveling her with a gentleness that almost seemed out of character. Still as driven as ever, but sweeter, somehow. No one had made love to her like that in ages.

Was that all in order to get his hands on the microchip? Beneath all her righteous anger she’d hoped that it had been a misunderstanding. Maybe then it would’ve been less painful.

Maybe it was time to embrace the obvious: Cupid had it out for her. Just like with Finn, when things were finally looking up, everything came crashing down.

What now?

She thumbed through her contacts mindlessly. She ought to check in on Poe, but she hardly felt like it. Calling Jessica seemed even worse.

It rang just then, startling her.

Ben Solo.

Was he about to tell her that Syed had been put in the naughty corner? Probably not.

“Yes, Ben?” She sighed.

“Please don’t hang up.”

She wasn’t going to, but it was nice of him to insist. She relented.

“What is it this time?”

“Syed and Skylar are looking for the Falcon. You can’t hope to get away in that car.”

“I see you haven’t been successful in convincing them to leave me alone. Also, this is escalating rather quickly, isn’t it?”

“Look, I’m sorry I put you in this situation, I—“

“Yeah, I suppose you should be,” Rey tried to cut him off, but Ben was determined.

“Whatever I did before, I regret it, and I’m trying to protect you now. So let me finish. You need to change cars.”

She snorted derisively. “Do you think I have that kind of money? Besides, your mother trusted me with the Falcon, am I really just suppose to let it rot somewhere?”

“No, no, don’t worry. I’m sending Kelsi Ren your way. Switch with her, and try to gain a few hours on Syed and Skylar.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You won’t make it past ten miles. Syed’s out for blood.”

“Is that a threat?”

Ben hesitated to respond. Rey could hear his uneven breathing on the other side.

“Rey, I know I fucked up,” he said hoarsely. “You don’t have to forgive me, but you have to trust me.”

“Trust is a big ask. As for forgiveness, we’ll see. I guess I don’t have a choice about the car...”

“I’m not trying to force you, but it’s your best option. I mean it.”

Rey rolled her eyes. Really, what alternative did she have? She sighed again.

“When will Kelsi be here?”

“Ten minutes, she’s on the way. When she gets there, switch the registration papers too. Don’t talk to her, don’t answer any questions.”

“It’s not like I’ll invite her to tea,” she grumbled as she hung up.

Ben wasn’t kidding: a large Lincoln Nautilus pulled up next to the Millenium Falcon in a matter of minutes. To Rey’s chagrin, it wasn’t quite large enough to fit her mattress, so they were back to sleeping in the car. At least this one had air conditioning. That would be a welcome change.

She supposed she should call Leia about the Falcon soon. She had promised to deliver both the car and the dog, but perhaps Leia would be receptive to the “looming killers” argument. Desperate times called for desperate measures...

Kelsi emerged from the car. Rey had seen her on stage before, but she was different out of costume, in broad daylight. She looked good in her ripped jeans and hiking boots, though she appeared younger now. Short platinum blonde hair framed her face, which was well-hidden beneath a combination of dark sunglasses and a tattered shawl that wrapped around her shoulders.

“Are you Rey?” She asked casually as she approached.

“Yeah. Here’s my car,” she replied, gesturing to the aging Oldmobile Cruiser.

The blonde grimaced, muttering something about a shitty last minute plan under her breath.

“Here’s the keys and the papers. The tank is loaded. Where’re you headed?”

Ben’s voice echoed in Rey’s head: don’t answer any questions. She realized it was time to play the clueless tourist again, since everyone seemed to think she excelled at the role.

"I don’t know,” she said, giving Kelsi her blankest smile. “I’ll just hit the road I guess. Go wherever life takes me.”

“Whatever,” Kelsi grumbled, mostly to herself. In an almost mechanical gesture, she handed Rey the keys and the registration document.

Now it was time to move the contents of the Falcon. Rey cleared out the glovebox, suddenly noticing that the toy car was gone. She panicked when she realized that Luke’s address was still there. Had Ben found it the other night? If that was the case, he now knew her location and her destination. And that meant he knew his uncle’s address. But he never once said anything. Another day, another game of hide and seek.

“Ugh, this piece of crap reeks of dog!” Kelsi complained. Behind her, Rey snorted. Good luck with that, princess.

Finally, Rey moved BB8’s toys and food bowl to the back seat of the Lincoln before getting behind the wheel. The engine revved up smoothly, and she instantly knew this was a major upgrade compared to the Falcon. It also came with a leather interior, GPS, and Bluetooth. Score! The rest of this trip was going to be so much fun.

She put her sunglasses on and adjusted her seat. Time to hit the road again!

For a little while she basked in the feeling of relief, forgetting that she was currently a crazy old woman’s pawn with no other plans in life, on the run from a pair of assassins and leagues away from her dying ex-husband.

She drove carefully out of Bozeman on Highway 89. She connected her phone to the Bluetooth system, finally deciding to give Poe a call. The conversation was brief as Finn was stable and nothing had changed. Rey neglected to mention her own circumstances because she didn’t want her friends in England to worry more than they already did.

Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t as scared as before. Was this her new normal—travelling alone, confronting bears, flirting with rockstars, and outrunning gangs? Despite the risks, she had never felt more alive.

She slowed the car as she approached what looked like a police barricade. Rey was about to pull the window down when the officer standing there motioned for her to keep going.

But by now her good humor had suddenly disappeared. Ben had said that she wouldn’t make it ten miles in the Falcon. Was this barricade the proof? Did FORCE really have the means to intercept her like that? The idea was so terrifying that she pushed it away.

She was headed even further west, in the direction of Idaho. It was 8 AM now. If she drove for another twelve hours, she could spend the night in Reno, Nevada. From there, San Francisco would only be four hours away. Rey would find Luke Skywalker, give him his dog and the microchip, and live the rest of her average life in peace.

Eventually, she would have to call Leia Skywalker, but right now she needed some dial-in advice from her Fairy Godmother.

“Rey, good morning! How was the concert?”

Concert? Maz’s question was brimming with so much enthusiasm that it took Rey’s brain scrambled to catch up. Ah yes, that concert. Before...before everything. The old woman listened patiently as Rey explained the events of that night, and the unexpected consequences.

“Rey. Rey! Listen to me, I don’t quite get the story behind this micro-SD thing, but it sounds important. So as far as I understand, group A hid this thing on you without your knowledge, and group B, the gang, is looking for it. And you’re angry at group A but you forgive them, while also being in love with the leader of group B, who you’re in a spat with right now. Is that it?”

“I am not in love with—“ her voice broke off mid-sentence.

Who was she kidding? She couldn’t even lie to herself anymore.

Maz was silent, allowing Rey to internalize her revelation.

“What about him?” She asked Rey gently, “Is he not in love either?”

“I don’t know, Maz. He’s been chasing me for a week with his smoldering looks and his but-I’m-a-sentimental-beast love songs. And last night he was—“

Rey sighed.

“Last night he was so genuine. Or so I thought. I believed his affections, and I believed his words too. But this morning he was sending me mixed signals. On one hand he was rummaging through my stuff while I slept, but on the other he just gave me a new car.”

“Rey, I’ve met Syed. She didn’t seem like a very nice woman. I’m willing to believe that she will hurt you, especially now that she has a bone to pick. So why is Kylo Ren risking himself to protect you, after he put you in danger?”

“Ben Solo. It’s Ben Solo who’s trying to protect me, not Kylo Ren.”

“What’s the difference?”

As Rey mulled the question over in her head, it dawned on her that she had always seen a clear distinction between Kylo Ren and Ben Solo. Why?

“Kylo Ren is just a persona. He’s a spy who operates the gears and collects the debts for FORCE. Ben Solo has a more complicated backstory involving his parents, and he doesn’t stand a chance against real villains like Syed Ren. He was the one who kissed me last night.”

“And the man who was looking for the microchip as you slept, who was he?”

“Definitely not the same guy who offered me a car so that I could escape.”

“It looks to me like this boy has a lot of soul-searching to do. I don’t know if you can help with his problems. Take the car for now and get as far away from them as you can! Go find yourself some shelter and let the boy figure out his own life. He’ll come back to you if he really means to.”

Rey contemplated this in silence. It was simple enough to worry about herself for now and let Ben come back when he was ready. It seemed reasonable, doable.

When their conversation came to an end, Rey stopped at Three Forks to get breakfast and buy a few more supplies for the journey. Ideally, she would make as few stops as possible to really stay ahead. Feeling a renewed sense of determination, she was ready to face the world again.

This part of the Rockies was different than the area east of the Teton, which she had passed on arrival. In Wyoming she had driven past dry mountain prairies that were almost desert-like. The other side of the mountain chain was much hillier, reminiscent of the Alpine countryside. She spotted grassy knolls, valleys, and snowy mountain peaks set against the flowery plains.

She followed the valley south, feeling lighter and lighter with each passing kilometer. There was no one behind her. No menacing SUV, no Syed in sight. Could it be that all her worries were immaterial?

Well, there was one person she still had to worry about contacting: Leia Skywalker.

#reylo #fanfiction #Modern AU #Scenic Route

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beyond-the-mirror · 5 years ago

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Drunk uncle Dante explains: Christmas

So recently I watched a very funny video called Drunk uncle explains Christmas and I couldn’t help but think of uncle Dante trying (and failing miserably) to explain Christmas to a very curious little Nero.

In this context, Dante is visiting his parents’ house for the holidays (Eva and Sparda are still alive in this AU) as well as Vergil and his son Nero.

This was written purely for laughs and giggles, so don’t take it too seriously. By the way, this is the video I'm parodying with this short fic if you want to check it out, although I changed a few things to adapt it better for the purpose of this story. It’s in spanish though, but you can turn the subtitles on. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

..........

It was the night before Christmas. A chilly air ran through the ever so active city of Red Grave, which currently had its streets covered in a soft and pristine layer of snow reflecting all the colorful lights that decorated every corner of the city.

People gathered together in their homes to share a most anticipated reunion with their beloved families, mouth-watering food served on their dinning tables to celebrate the holidays, as well as the numerous wrapped presents hidden underneath the Christmas trees ready to be opened.

And of course, the Sparda household was no exception to these festivities.

Tiny hands wandered around a beautifully decorated tree, its fingers feeling around the decorations that sparked curiosity and wonder in the eyes of little Nero. Tucked between the trees branches, a porcelain star caught Nero’s attention, his little fingers reaching out at the trinket. His attempt was interrupted however, when a very loud snore broke the silence that had covered the living room.

Nero turned around searching for the origin of the sound, finding out that it was his uncle Dante who had fallen asleep on the couch nearby.

“Uncle Dante? Uncle Dante, don’t fall asleep yet!”

As small hands nudged the man’s shoulder, Dante slowly woke from his drunken slumber, having already downed a couple of wine bottles (and probably a whiskey one too), though due to his demonic heritage, he only felt a bit tipsy.

“Ummm, c’mon kid... let your uncle sleep for a little longeeer.”

“But uncle Dante, it’s only seven o’ clock. Dinner will be ready any minute now, and we haven’t even opened the presents!”

“Ughh... fine, you’re lucky you’re adorable as hell.”

Dante stretched and yawned while little Nero sat on the carpet, next to the toy train set his grandpa Sparda had set for him early.

“By the way uncle Dante, can you tell me the story of Christmas? Pleeeaaase? You always have the best stories!”

Dante sat silently until he finally relented thanks to the huge puppy eyes his nephew was giving him. “Alright then. But only because I’m the coolest uncle ever right?”

“Yes! The best one too!” Nero giggled enthusiastically, which always warmed his heart to no extent.

“Ok, fetch me that book over there.”

Nero handed the requested book to his uncle, which he proceeded to open and read out loud, starting with the story.

“Alright. Long, long time ago... in the ancient Egypt-”

Nero giggled once again “Silly uncle Dante! Papa says the story took place in Jerusalem.”

“Ok, ok then. So, Mary was doing housework, ironing some clothes because their housekeeper was fired-”

“Like they did to you uncle?”

Dante sighed “No- I wanted to stay at your grandparent’s house for a few days longer, that’s it!”

“You were kicked out of your office because you owed five months worth of rent, you irresponsible imbecile!” Vergil shouted from the studio where he was currently reading.

“Oh shut up Vergil! At least I know what a condom is!” Dante rudely shouted back at his twin before proceeding with the story. “Then, an angel arrived and his name was Gabe. Gabe told Mary not to be afraid because she will have a baby, who will be named Jesus and who will be the son of God. And Mary was cool with that.”

“Wait uncle Dante, how are children born?”

“Well that’s another fun story for another time, but in Mary’s case it was thanks to the Holy Spirit. Not so ‘holy’ tho, considering he messed with Joseph’s wife.” He snorted while a confused Nero tilted his head to the side. “Okay then, Joseph doubted Mary’s virginity, so he demanded a divorce.”

“What does virginity mean?”

“It’s like a hundred dollars bill. If you keep it, it serves no purpose, but if you use it, it’s gone forever. So make sure to spend it well and at the right time!”

“Ohhh I see.” Poor naive Nero, completely oblivious to what his uncle was talking really talking about. “Also, there were divorces at that time?”

“Yep, they were called ‘stonings’“

Little Nero nodded in complete awe at what he perceived, was his uncle’s great knowledge.

“But of course Mary demanded a divorce first, and exclaimed that she was keeping all the money, the car, as well as-”

“Stop mixing stories you buffoon! That happened to you with Lady!” Vergil’s angry voice once again interrupted the story.

“Stop bringing up my personal matters in front of the kid Verge!”

“Scum!”

“You son of a-!”

“Uncle Dante!” Nero’s innocent voice calmed Dante’s nerves, allowing him to take a deep breath and relax.

“Sorry ‘bout that, now where were we? Oh! Well it was the Holy Spirit, and Joseph wanted to take Mary to Las Vegas for their honeymoon... buuut they didn’t have any money, so they settled for Bethlehem instead.”

“There were honeymoons at the time?”

“Of course! You needed lots of money tho... but one day youuu Lady, wait ‘till I hit the jackpot and then you will see!”

“Get over your problems already!” Another exasperated interruption from his twin, Dante surely wasn’t getting any rest.

“Well then. The couple arrived at a cheap hotel room when suddenly, Mary went into labor. And that’s how sweet baby Jesus was born, our Lord and Savior I suppose.”

“Whoaaa...” Dante couldn’t help but feel proud that he managed to keep his nephew entertained with his fun, albeit inaccurate, stories. “Uncle Dante, was Jesus a good person?”

“Good? He was great actually! He could turn water into wine and stuff!”

“Can I drink wine too?”

“Of course! The bible says so after all.” Dante was about to hand his nephew the unfinished bottle of wine he had kept next to the couch when suddenly-

“IF YOU GIVE WINE TO MY SON I SWEAR ON OUR DEMONIC LINEAGE THAT I WILL MUTILATE YOU BEYOND RECOGNITION!”

“Damn it!” As soon as Vergil’s voice entered his ears, he quickly retracted his hand, taking the bottle of wine and putting it as far away as possible from innocent little Nero who jumped at the immense power and fury in his father’s tone.

“Let’s continue with our story. Thus Mary uploaded Jesus’ baby pics to Twitter and the Fairly OddParents star-faved the pics-”

“Nooo uncle Dante! That’s not how the story goes!” Nero laughed wholeheartedly “Papa told me once. The star was up in the sky and they weren’t the Fairly OddParents, they were the Three Wise Men.”

“Okay okay, three men, got it.”

“Three WISE men. And they were kings!”

“Whatever you say kid.”

“And one was black!”

“A bit racist if you ask me.” Dante rolled his eyes and bit back a laugh before continuing. “So, the star told the three wise kings to follow them for God’s sake, literally, and they arrived at the stable where Jesus had been born with gifts for him. One gifted him gold, the other gifted him myrrh-”

“Wait uncle Dante, what is myrrh?”

“Let’s say... it’s a kind of herb.”

“Like the one papa once found under your bed and stabbed you with his blue floating swords for?”

“It was for medicinal purposes I swear!” Dante nervously responded, flustered by his nephew’s sudden question. “Ahem... and the other dude gifted him incense.”

“Why incense, uncle Dante?”

“They were in a stable! You ever been to one? They smell like crap!”

“What about the massacre of children in Bethlehem? Papa also mentione that.”

“Of course! Hitler was a monster, worse than any demon I ever encountered!”

“Noooo silly uncle Dante! It was King Herod! Hitler was austrian and from a different era.”

“Whoa whoa whoa kid, who’s holding the damn book again?”

“The book is upside down uncle Dante. And that’s not even the Bible, that’s papa’s favorite book.”

Once he gave a closer inspection, Dante realized he had been holding the book upside down indeed. Moreover, once he closed it to look at the cover, he noticed that it had been Vergil’s beloved anthology of William Blake all this time.

Sighing and setting the book aside, Dante turned to his lovely nephew “Look little Nero. The important thing about Christmas is that we are all here gathered as a family. It’s not about the gifts or the turkey, it’s about love, like the one of the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It doesn’t matter where we come from. Joseph raised Jesus with lots of love, and that’s why he became such a good dude and sooo famous.”

Nero smiled warmly at the words, and Dante couldn’t help but ruffle his cute nephew’s soft white locks of hair, making him giggle.

“That means...” Dante continued “that even if you are not a planned child, like you Nero, we still love you all the same.”

“Huh? Not planned?” Nero tilted his head in confusion. “Does that mean... I’m adopted?” Tears were beginning to form at the corner of his baby blue eyes. However, Dante couldn’t even explain the misunderstanding when a loud bang resonated through the entire house.

“DAAANTEEEEE!!!” Vergil had barged out of the studio and into the living room, furious to the point that he had Devil Triggered and with a halo of summoned swords around him.

Needless to say, poor Dante had to run for his life from his rampaging brother, a chase that was soon put to an end after Grandma Eva stepped out and reprimanded both siblings with a rolling pin and a look so stern and powerful that made them both cower in fear and respect. Meanwhile, Grandpa Sparda decided to stay and calm down little Nero, showing him his new train set until the boy was giggling blissfully once again.

Just another normal day at the Sparda household after all.

#devil may cry #dmc dante #dmc nero #dmc vergil #drunk uncle dante #christmas #fanfiction #crackfic #christmas story #lmao what am i even doing

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sibillascribbles08 · 5 years ago

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Oh wowie more of this series huh?? Its shit hits the fan time so prepare for pain

Toby touched ground not long after entering the portal, or he assumed he did. He opened it into a rift, not a true location. Odd spaces that existed between universes. The physical state of them was never sure, which made them risky to be in.

He couldn’t stay here long.

This one wasn’t all that dark, the space around him almost looked like glass, reflecting bits of purple and blue as he turned his head. But what was the haze? He studied the smoke. It didn’t seem to move. His gaze trailed down to his feet where more of it seemed to settle.

Then he saw an eye. One yellow eye open and look at him.

Then another. Then ten. Then twenty.

Toby stumbled back as their numbers multiplied across the ground. Then bits of gold appeared, shifting from simple triangles into fangs.

The mouth they formed moved. “So you followed me after all.”

Fear shot up Toby’s spine. “Max?”

The laughter was all around him as the smoke swirled, spinning around one location. Toby watched it go from gas, to liquid, to solid. His friend took shape first before the colors returned to his skin and his hair.

“What, you look surprised.” Max’s teeth were still gold when he grinned. “You can’t turn yourself into whatever you want?”

Toby didn’t want to follow up on that, because it would force him to ask a question he wasn’t sure he wanted an answer to. “Max, can we talk about this?”

“We already did that.” The gold in Max’s eyes was glowing. “Then you went and stuffed me in this place. Where even is this?”

“A rift. And you’re not leaving. Not until we settle this.” He swallowed back his nerves. “But I would like to settle it without fighting.”

“What do you want me to do, say I’m sorry?” Max’s tone mocked him. “Sorry for driving a spike through that nindroid’s chest? Are you willing to forgive me just like that?” His grin kept getting wider, crawling past his cheek bones. “I guess that explains why you naively let a bunch of machines live among you.”

Toby took a deep breath. The image of the state Cryptor’s shoulder was in was still fresh in his mind.

“No.” Toby mumbled. “I don’t have to forgive you for hurting Cryptor. I guess first I should forgive you for aiming at me first.”

Max’s smile dropped.

“That hit wasn’t meant for him, was it?” Toby took a step toward him. “Because he shoved me out of the way.”

Max still wasn’t saying anything. Toby stopped in front of him.

“But I want to know why.” Toby’s voice cracked. “Why did you aim an attack like that at me? Would killing me a second time really be that easy for you?”

Max’s pupils shrunk. “Shut up. What about you, huh? What are you going to do if I refuse to stop?”

Toby forced his breathing to steady. “Max, if you threaten my home and the people I love, I’m going to have no choice but to fight back.” He clenched his fist. “But please don’t make it come to that.”

Max studied him for what felt like forever. His expression was neutral. The flecks of gold in his eyes kept moving.

“Max, please. We can sort this out. We can just go our separate ways if that’s better.”

His friend snorted. “Sorry, Toby, but I think your universe was too kind to you.” Once again those eyes started to appear, over Max’s nose, his jaw, his neck. “Being that soft is only going to kill you in the end.”

Toby opened his mouth to protest but had to stumble back when a gold spike shot out of the ground. Then another on his right. On his left. He had to start teleporting in order to dodge them with how fast they were springing up.

Max laughed, the sound echoing through the empty space. His body was distorting again. As if it was a liquid and a gas at the same time. Bits of gold and starlight appeared, only to be joined by more of those eyes and teeth.

“As I said earlier, Toby.” Max shouted. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.” The temperature shifted, from cold to hot. Toby paused and watched as fire crawled up his friend’s arm.

Max’s smile somehow widened further. “Ready to find out?”

The burst of fire that followed was bright, hot. Toby ducked to the side only for something cold to cut across his shoulder. Ice shards? Coming in from his left was a wave of what looked like sea water. Toby’s arm shot out, splitting it in two. Even then it rushed around his ankles, seemingly having nowhere to drain in this space.

Then the water froze over, effectively trapping his feet in place.

“Going to have to move faster than that, Toby.” Max taunted. His still solid hand tossed a few objects in the air before he hurled them in Toby’s direction.

Toby teleported out of the ice, but it didn’t matter. Whatever those were exploded into a burst of light and sound. Toby couldn’t decide if he should cover his eyes from the blinding glow or cover his ears from the ungodly shriek. He swore his head was going to burst.

Something wrapped around his neck and pulled him back. Toby slammed against the ice before he teleported again, though he wasn’t sure where. His ears were ringing. His vision was still blurry. He managed to focus long enough to see all the vines.

“Max.” Toby forced himself back to his feet. “Why do you have all these elements?”

The vines caught fire. The light once again made Toby cringe. He couldn’t be doing this right now. One slip up would be more than enough for Max to kill him.

Of course, his old friend seemed to only being toying with him right now.

“I didn’t tell you the full story, did I?” The flames burned hotter for a second before they vanished, leaving ashes to scatter over the ice. Max seemed to pull the leftover smoke to him. “About my fight with the overlord.”

“Is he the reason you’re acting like this?” Toby’s vision was finally coming back into focus.

“Possibly, just a bit, but make no mistake, I choked that bastard out on day one.” The grey smoke melded into the purple haze that was still emerging from him. “We got stuck together and I won. I won.”

The smoke and haze rushed out. Those spider limbs from earlier emerged, planting themselves into the ice.

“I won!” Max shouted. “I climbed that damned tower by myself. I took him on by myself. And even when I started falling apart I still pulled it together long enough to take him down with me. I won!”

That shout made Toby flinch. The ice around them shattered.

“I won.” He continued. “I defeated him. I shut everything down. Someone who does that should have been a hero, right?”

Toby blinked when he opened his eyes. He looked back his friend, who was barely recognizable at this point apart from one corner of his face.

“They just thought I was another monster.” Gold horns sprouted from his head, from his ears. “And they attacked me, so I fought back.”

Max knelt to the ground. As soon as his hands touched it, fire erupted again. It raced around the sides, forming a circle, like an arena.

“They spat fire at me, so I took it. They tried to drown me so I took that too. Whatever they threw at me I took it and I became stronger.”

Horror crept over Toby’s skin. “Max, you didn’t–”

“What would you have done?” His friend was shouting again. “What would you have done if they all came at you at once? Then again you’re already answering me by standing there with that dumb look on your face.” He snorted as he stood up straight. “I have no idea how you survived this long.”

The purple on his skin shifted into solid gold. Those golden spikes appeared again, jutting out of the ground, heading straight for Toby.

He shook his head, getting rid of the rest of the ringing before his hand snapped up. The spike that headed for him stopped dead, the metal twisting and distorting as it was forced back. Slowly he curled his fingers inward, the metal groaning as it was forced back toward the ground.

“Stop mistaking my hesitation for weakness.” Toby spat. “Sorry my first reaction to a possible threat isn’t to try and destroy it.”

Max’s eyes glowed when he glared. “You think talking to them would have made it stop? And why do I have to forgive them for that? Or all those nindroids for what they did to us? For building a bunch of children that were doomed to die?”

That made Toby pause, though he didn’t lessen his grip. “What are you talking about?”

Max scoffed. "Come on, you know what I'm talking about. All those clones, all of us, never stable enough to last. The only reason you and I did is because of all this crap." He pointed at his arm as it turned to gold, although the metal cracked, dark matter seeping through it.

Toby's heart stopped. "Max... that's not the reason I stayed alive. That's not... in my universe a bunch of those kids are still alive."

His friend stared, his murderous glare shifting into shock. "What? You're lying."

"No, I'm not. After The Overlord died we built a home for them all. There were still some incidents but... over all the rest of them survived. They're still alive."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. If you'd stop this fight I could show you. It was the stress, Max. That's why none of us lasted for so long, because of all the garbage we were put through. You put us in a stable environment then we can thrive just like anyone else."

"You're lying!" Max's voice cracked when he screamed, the volume of it shaking the air. The spikes tried once again to push forward, but Toby held fast. “You're lying. You have to be lying. I didn't have another choice. They would have died anyway."

Realization struck Toby hard. His chest ached. He had to swallow before he could breath again.

"I had to tear it apart, all of it. The Overlord, his followers, that entire factory, they would have died anyway. They would have..."

"Max..."

"Tell me you're lying." The volume of his voice dwindled. It seemed like he would have been crying, but his tears were nothing but dark matter blended with gold dust. "It was the only way I could save them, wasn't it? It was the only way to keep them from going through that."

Toby wanted to cry himself, but he refused. He hated this. How did it come to this? He didn’t want to fight his best friend. Max wasn’t evil he was just lost. He was in pain.

“I’m sorry.” Was all Toby could say. “You thought you were doing the right thing.” The strain from the spikes vanished, and Toby dropped his grip.

“I killed them.”

Toby didn’t reply.

“I killed all of them. Just like I killed you. Just like I killed Brooke. Just like I killed Flare. I didn’t have a choice. It would have been more painful to leave you there.”

“Max.” Toby dared to take a few steps forward. “It’s over. It’s done. Even if you did something terrible you can do something better. I know you could.”

“You can’t just erase the past, Toby.”

“I’m not asking you to erase it.” He argued and kept moving. “I’m asking you to move on. I’m asking you to do better. I don’t want to fight you.” Now his voice was cracking, tears threatening the corners of his eyes. “Please. Just stop. Let’s talk. Let’s fix this. I know my friend is still in there.” He crouched down, trying to look him in the eye. “And I know he doesn’t want to fight me either.”

He hesitated but reached out, gripping Max’s shifting shoulder. It felt like static. “I just want to help you.”

His friend was shaking, still crying, but the tears slowly came to a stop. He lifted his hand, gently holding Toby’s wrist.

“You’re right.” Max said. “I don’t want to fight you.”

Toby didn’t see anything happen. Pain shot through him, starting in his chest. He glanced down to see the gold spike that jutted from Max’s open palm and ran clean through his ribs.

“So I’ll just finish this as quickly as possible.”

#scribbly fics #clone universe #I should go through and make a series tag for these so I can link that but for now hhh #Max arc

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need-a-fugue · 5 years ago

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In the Beginning - Chapter 10

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OFC

Summary: He knew how to hide, how to either fit in seamlessly with his surroundings or lean back into the shadows to escape detection. He knew how to get around without money or supplies. He knew how to get any supplies he may need. He knew how to evade and how to disappear. What he didn’t know – from the moment he pulled Captain America’s body from the Potomac – was what the hell he was going to do now.

Warning(s): some angst, some emotional and mental turmoil…

A/N: This is the first story in a series I’ve been working on for awhile (Supernova), an AU wherein Bucky Barnes gets the girl, and a chance at a new life.

-----

He’s gotten more comfortable being in the common area, hanging out for more than the few minutes it takes to swing through and hunt down a snack. But it’s still a place that feels strangely…unwelcoming to him. Either the room is empty, which means that Bucky remains on edge the entire time, just waiting for the strange voice in the walls to call out to him and ask if he needs any assistance. Or there are… people around.

Some people, of course, are easier to handle than others. Natasha, for example… he doesn’t trust her one iota, but he understands her completely, and that makes for an oddly comfortable sort of silent interaction. Clint’s fine too…never silent, but the man has also never pressured Bucky for anything. He simply chatters away – and more often than not, his stories are pretty entertaining – and he never seems to take offense at Bucky’s lack of participation in conversations.

And then there’s Tony, master of the I don’t know you, I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you side-eye glare. Yeah, it’s safe to say that if Tony’s in the common area, Bucky’s turning on his heel and marching back out. Bruce mostly keeps to himself, which Bucky respects. And Sam, who doesn’t even live at the tower, yet somehow seems to always be here… well Sam is Sam.

And Steve. After nearly six months at the tower, Bucky and Steve have fallen back into a close relationship, but it’s different from what their friendship had been before. They’re different people now, sure, no longer idealistic kids just trying to make the world a better place. But it’s more than that. Bucky had been remembering a lot about his life before – both as Bucky Barnes and as the Winter Soldier – but there are still so many things that are so very fuzzy for him.

But Steve, he remembers everything. There’s an odd sort of pressure that spending time with Steve always brings. And while it’s usually bearable at home when they’re alone – probably in part because Bucky had followed his therapist’s advice and told Steve how he felt – when he’s in a group setting with his dear old friend, he somehow feels like he never quite measures up. Maybe it’s because Steve loves telling old stories, vying with Barton tale for tale, and even though Bucky is often in the stories, he very rarely remembers them. Or maybe it’s just because he can see how comfortable Steve is here, with all of his new, (mostly) mentally stable friends.

The point is, being in the common room for more than 5 minutes at a time is one of the things Bucky dreads most in this world. But the possibility of a chance encounter with the increasingly busy and oddly elusive Dr. Tessa Sullivan, would’ve been enough to get to him brave almost any hostile locale.

Since their night together – that first night, which she still refuses to call a date – they’d managed to be alone together a whopping total of two times. Each time required careful planning, not only to avoid raising suspicion, but also because Tessa’s schedule rarely left time for anything… fun.

At the first opening in her calendar, she told her assistant that she needed some time to go over the Avengers’ confidential medical files, which meant she was not to be interrupted. At all. By anyone. No matter what. Then she sent Claire off on an errand and had the voice in the walls beckon Bucky to her office. Once he got there they locked the door and fucked like horny, greedy teenagers on the surprisingly comfortable futon in the corner. I sleep here a lot, she’d told him when he sprawled out on the unfolded sofa, refusing to move.

Two days later, he stood for 40 minutes around the corner, just outside of her office until her assistant finally left. Then he swept in without knocking, locked the door behind him, and… well… fucked her like a horny, greedy teenager on the futon in the corner.

He’s planning on running the same op this afternoon.

But first…breakfast. He knows that Tessa often grabs something to eat on her way into the lab, so when he enters the common room, presumably in search of fruit, he’s not at all surprised to find her there. What does surprise him is the hard, swift slap to the ass that she lays on him the moment he moves through the door.

“Jesus,” he comments, turning to face her. “You greet everyone who comes in here like that?”

Her face is split by a wide, shit-eating grin, and seeing that lights a fire in his chest. “Yep,” she says winking at him.

He assumes, given her actions that no one else is in the room, but he takes a moment to scan the area just the same before following her over to the kitchenette. She reaches up to open the cabinet that Tony keeps stocked with cereal and Pop-Tarts, and when she does so, her shirt rides up, revealing a strip of pale skin above her jeans. He leans in quickly and cups his metal hand over her exposed side, chuckling when she lets out a little shriek and flinches at the cold touch. But she doesn’t actually pull away. Instead, she leans into his palm as she shrinks back down, Pop-Tarts in hand.

“That’s not breakfast,” he whispers into the skin at the back of her neck. She tilts her head to let his lips get closer and he moves his hands to cradle her hips.

“Sure it is,” she tells him, voice calm and level, even though he can feel her body tighten in his grip, feel her breath hitch when begins kissing her neck. “Says so on the box.” He pulls away and grabs the box from her. “Hey!”

“This,” he says, holding up the Pop-Tarts as she spins around to face him, “is garbage.”

Her hands fall to her hips and she stares him down. “You probably think all 21st century food is garbage.”

“Only the stuff with…” he flips the box around and reads off some of the ingredients. “High fructose corn syrup, cracker meal, and… niacinamide?” His once amused smile quickly turns into a confused and concerned grimace, and it’s so reminiscent of a bewildered toddler that she can’t help but bark out a laugh.

He drops the box on the counter behind him, giving a disgusted shake of the head as he does so.

“Let me take you to breakfast,” he says, leaning into her as the laughter settles.

“To breakfast? Is that some kind of pick-up line? Like you want to take me to breakfast tomorrow? Wink, wink.”

“No,” he says, taking her hand in his flesh-and-bone one. “Unless you want to go tomorrow?”

“And before then?”

His eyes tick to either side, making sure they’re still alone, before his leans forwarded and softly kisses her. “Uuuungh,” she moans out, pulling away. An exaggerated frown takes over face as she says, “I can’t. I have to get to the lab, and I’m sure I’ll be there all day.”

“Then let me take you to dinner tonight.”

“What’s your obsession with feeding me?” she asks with coy, crooked smile.

“I need to take you out. On a proper date.”

“You’re such a gentleman,” she mocks.

“Hey, I like… fooling around with you. I really like it. But I’d feel a lot better about things if you’d let me take you out. Officially.”

The smile disappears from her face as she takes in his words. “Okay,” she says finally. “I’ll let you take me out.”

“Thank you.” He kisses her again and she leans in and presses her warm body up against him, forcing him back a step. He hears the crinkle of metallic paper as she continues to kiss him, her left hand in his hair, her right… mysteriously absent.

A wide grin splits his face as she slowly pulls away, and he brings his hand down and wraps his metal fingers around her wrist. “Seriously?” he laughs, lifting her hand up and with it, the pack of Pop-Tarts.

“Dinner’s a long way off,” she smirks at him. Then, her face falling, “Crap. I can’t tonight. I have to run some time-sensitive experiments.” She runs her fingertips down his arm. “Maybe tomorrow?”

He takes hold of her hand once she starts tracing the outlines of the plates at his wrist. He’s still not too fond her touching the metal arm, at least not like that, not in a soft, seductive way. “You’re gonna make me wait?” he asks in a low, deep tone.

She smiles and lets out a slight, almost childlike giggle. “Yep.”

They both turn to the entranceway, heads swiveling in unison, as soft murmurs emanate from the hall. The moment he hears Sam’s loud, vivacious laugh, he drops Tessa’s hand and almost growls.

“So serious,” she mocks, tearing open her package and taking a giant bite of raw strawberry Pop-Tart before turning to leave. “I’ll see you later.” She nods a hello to the group as they enter, leaning over to give Sam his always requested high five, and saunters off to work, leaving a grumpy looking Bucky all by his lonesome.

“What was that?” Sam asks with a coy smile.

Bucky doesn’t even realize he’s talking to him until Steve comes up and shoves him with his shoulder. He looks up to see the man staring at him with an amused smirk. “What?”

“You were just following her with your eyes, all the way out.”

“I was not.”

Clint chuckles, moving over next to Sam and throwing a glance behind him as though Tessa’s still there. “You were definitely checking Doc out,” he says.

“He really was,” Sam laughs.

“He really was,” Clint repeats, folding his arms over his chest and looking straight at Bucky.

Natasha steps in, popping open a bottle of water and leaning onto the counter next to them. “So what? She’s got a nice ass. Let him look.”

Sam shrugs. “She’s got more than just a nice ass.” He turns to Clint, but keeps Bucky in his periphery as he says, “But, oh the things I’d do for that fine ass…” Clint smirks and holds back a laugh. “I’d take her and bend her over –”

“Sam…” Steve begins to chide.

But before he can so much as finish the syllable, Bucky leaps forward and grabs Sam by the collar, growling in his ear one simple word… “No.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sam issues out, holding his hands up in surrender. “At ease, soldier.”

Steve’s already got Bucky by the shoulder, slowly peeling him off his friend. Clint steps up, unable to keep the laughter at bay. “Relax, man. He’s just messing with you.”

“Yeah,” a completely unfazed Natasha confirms. “Besides, if he so much as tried to bend Tess over anything, she’d kill him.”

“I like to think she’d take pity on me and just kick my ass a little.” Nat raises a doubting brow at him in response.

“It’s okay,” Steve says in Bucky’s ear, patting him roughly on the chest as they both take a few steps back from the others. “This is just their way of… being friendly. You know? Poking fun.”

Bucky turns to him and rolls his eyes. Yes, Steve, he thinks. I know how friends work. But even so…he turns to Sam and shoves a pointed finger in his chest. “Don’t talk about her like that again.”

“Damn, man,” he replies, actually winking at the irate former assassin. “You got it bad.”

Clint comes up to Bucky and claps him on the shoulder. “You know, if you want to ask her out, I can give you some tips.” He turns to face Steve. “No offense, Cap, but I know that talking to girls isn’t exactly your area of expertise.”

“He talks to me all the time,” Natasha quips.

Steve gets a sour look on his face. “I can talk to women. I do talk to women.”

“That’s what I just said. Actually, he talks to Tessa all the time too.” She slides over to Bucky’s left and leans in, whispers almost conspiratorially, “I think he’s been working on asking her out for about two years now.”

Bucky’s pretty sure that’s not true, but he feels his eyes widen just the same, only now realizing that there’s a very real possibility that he’s stepping on toes here.

“That’s not…” Steve rambles. “I’m not… interested… in Tessa. We’re friends. She’s one of my best friends.”

“Good,” Clint beams, as he steals Nat’s water. “Then you won’t mind us setting her up with Barnes.”

Now it’s Sam’s turn to go wide-eyed. “Wait, we’re setting them up? I thought we were just making fun of him.”

“What’s the matter, Sammy? You jealous?” Barton mocks. Sam gives him a little shove, causing him to spill water down his chin. He scoffs as he swipes at his face. “You had your chance anyway.”

“What does that mean?” Bucky asks, words leaving his mouth before he’s able to realize that it’s probably not the best idea to engage in this conversation.

“Sam asked Tessa out once and she said no,” Steve says plainly. But his eyes are alight with stifled laughter as he glances over at Sam.

“She didn’t say ‘no’,” he defends. “She said that she valued my friendship too much to risk losing it.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely a not interested,” Natasha says with a grin.

“Don’t take it personally, Sam.” Clint starts. “You’re just not her type.” He gives Bucky an assessing look, eyes moving up and down his frame. “But this one…”

“How the hell would you know what her type is?”

“Doc and I go way back,” he replies with a quick swig. He chucks the now empty water bottle in the bin and turns back to the group. “I met her ex in Minsk. Sort of.”

“You did?” Natasha leans forward, genuinely interested. “You never told me that. How did I not know that?”

“I’ve never even heard her talk about an ex,” Steve mutters almost to himself.

“Yeah, well… it didn’t end well.” He shuffles his feet into the wood floor, head down like he’s suddenly sorry he said anything and trying to think of a way back out. “Doesn’t matter,” he settles on, before pointing back at Bucky. “Point is… this is her type. Trust me.”

Bucky shakes his head and lets out a long sigh. “Okay, enough.”

“I’m just trying to help,” Barton laughs, holding his hands up apologetically as Bucky breezes past him on his way out of the common area. He turns back to the others and raises his eyebrows, voice taking on a serious tone. “Do not tell her I mentioned the ex.”

Nat throws him an incredulous glance. “Oh I’m telling her about every bit of this conversation.” She too turns to leave, tossing over her shoulder as she goes, “And I’m pretty sure we don’t need to play matchmaker to get those two together.”

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfic #avengers fanfiction #marvel fanfic #bucky x oc #bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes x original #bucky x original female character #bucky barnes x original female character #supernova

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emperorsfoot · 5 years ago

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In which the Princess Alliance realizes maybe they probably should have sent out a memo about Horde Prime.

...

“What in the ever loving high holy heck does Adora think she’s doing now!?” Lonnie demanded of the open sky.

She, Kyle, and Rogelio were inspecting construction of the new supply storage bunkers when the sky suddenly and inexplicably cracked open with a light so bright it cut though the perpetual smog layer that blanketed the Fright Zone. Lonnie glared at it, the shape slightly distorted by the haze. But it looked like a cut across the sky. A cut like with a magic sword. So, of course, it had to be Adora and her new friends. After all, what else could it be?

“We do have a way of communicating with Brightmoon, right?” She asked of her companions. “That wasn’t destroyed when Catra and Hordak decided it was a fun idea to blow-up central command, right?”

Both human and reptilian only shrugged. They honestly had no idea. After the portal fiasco when all of the Horde’s upper leadership disappeared, the trio’s focus had been on damage control and reestablishing some kind of infrastructure. Lonnie –whom took over the vacant position as Leader of the Horde- was more concerned with maintaining supply lines that brought grain and rice into the Fright Zone, the things their ration bars were made from. Their food. The stuff they needed to survive. None of them really gave much thought to the equipment that would allow them to put in a call to their enemies.

“I, uh, I can check.” Kyle volunteered.

He rushed off to do exactly what he said he could do.

Rogelio growled something that Lonnie didn’t quite understand. But when the reptilian dashed off after Kyle, she assumed he said that he was going to make sure Kyle didn’t hurt himself in the –still destroyed- Sanctum.

Though neither man could see the action, Lonnie nodded. Kyle was well-meaning and always eager to help. But he was also clumsy and not very mindful. Rogelio would keep him from carelessly injuring himself. Which was good. One less injury meant fewer medical supplies that had to be used. And now that she found herself in command, Lonnie was all about cutting down on needless supply usage and waste.

She turned her attention back to the bunkers she was inspecting.

“Well, show me the new vacuum seals that are supposed to keep vermin out of the food stores.” She commanded the soldier that had been showing her and the other two around the newly constructed bunkers. “We can’t just drop everything we’re doing every time there’s a big light in the sky, or a rainbow knocks over a tank, or a Princess seduces your boss’ boss, or the central command blows up.” She reminded them. “We all still have jobs to do!”

Making their way through the Fright Zone, back to the central command building, Kyle was still getting used to people stopping and saluting him.

Just a few months ago, he, Rogelio, and Lonnie were all still just ‘cadets’. But, dang!, did a lot happen in those few months! Catra set off a portal in Hordak’s Sanctum, then disappeared along with Lord Hordak himself, there was a short disagreement between the remaining Force Captains and Lonnie about who should fill the newly vacated leadership position, and –somehow- Lonnie ended up on top. The Commander of the Horde. And as her best friends and teammates since forever, Kyle and Rogelio became her lieutenants.

Where Kyle used to have to be the one to stand to the side and salute if another soldier was walking in the opposite direction than him, now it was the other soldiers that would move out of his way. Flattening themselves against a wall, standing at attention, offering a well-practiced salute. Sometimes even going so far as to say ‘Morning, Lieutenant.’

This had been going on for months now and Kyle still wasn’t used to it. He didn’t know if he’d ever really get used to it. He spent so much of his life so far as metaphorical dirt. He was used to being walked on. He didn’t know if he could ever be the one doing the walking.

Rogelio took his hand and Kyle’s heart jumped for an entirely different reason.

But all the reptilian was doing was bringing to the other man’s attention that they passed the entrance to Hordak’s Sanctum. Kyle was so caught up in reflecting on his new elevation in the Horde, he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going and passed their destination.

“Right. Sorry.” He demurred. He had to remind himself that he might be a Lieutenant working directly under the new leader of the Horde now, but he was still just the same old Kyle. Absentminded and probably useless. Lonnie only made him a Lieutenant because they were friends.

Inside the Sanctum was mostly bare.

After the initial explosion, the lab and surrounding chambers had been searched for bodies. But the actual clean-up of the Sanctum hadn’t happened until much later. Cleaning up Hordak’s mess wasn’t really a priority. But Lonnie was also practical and not in the habit of leaving usable resources to collect dust just to spite the guy they used to belong to. The Sanctum was cleared out and cleaned up. Anything that wasn’t bolted down got taken out, sorted and repurposed. Scrap metal was melted down, tech that still worked and served a function was repaired and placed back into circulation, tech that was beyond repair and unusable was taken apart and its pieces cannibalized for other machines. The floor was swept and the area was closed off.

Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio were the only three in the Fright Zone who knew the new passcodes to get in.

Anything that wasn’t bolted down was cleared out, but there were still a lot of things bolted down. Chief among them, the main monitor display and corresponding computer terminal. If anything had a feature that could get a call through to Brightmoon, it would be this computer array.

Kyle switched it on.

There was a loud humming sound as it booted up, and an uncomfortable scraping sound that implied the inner workers of the computer might not be in as good condition as the exterior would imply.

Kyle chanced a glance at Rogelio to see if the other man might somehow blame him if the device failed.

But reptilian only shrugged his shoulders. Who knew how well any of the crap in Hordak’s Sanctum ever worked in the first place? The guy never really let anyone else in here except his pet Princess, and look how that turned out.

Once the computer was finally booted up and the homescreen appeared –with a few lines going through it to indicate the screen was damaged- Kyle found the communications application easily enough. There was a short delay as the computer dialed Brightmoon. The tech the Rebellion used was not from the same origin as Horde tech and the two were not perfectly compatible. It took a moment for the devices to connect to one another.

The image of Bow appeared on the screen. The device they connected with must have been his Tracker Pad which scanned for incoming signals anyone. He was talking to someone off screen, his head turned so that Kyle and Rogelio only saw him in profile.

“…hang on, my Tracker Pad is picking something up.” He was saying. Then turned to actually look at the screen, and saw that it was just Kyle and Rogelio from the Horde. “Oh! It’s you guys. Now’s not really a good time. Can we put off any new declarations of war for a while?”

Rogelio growled something that nobody understood but Kyle got the distinct impression that the reptilian was commenting on the other man’s assumption that this was a war declaration.

“No-no, it’s nothing like that!” Kyle assured him. “Lonnie just wanted us to call and see what it was Adora was doing this time. Ya see, this bright light just appeared in the sky, and it looks kinda like a cut, like with a magic sword. And Adora’s the only one we know of with a magic sword so… you see where I’m going with this?”

Why did Kyle feel so awkward? Was it because had hadn’t been in a command position long and didn’t know how to talk to people and command respect? Or was it because he was unfit for a command position at all? At least when he was a grunt cadet, he knew his place and where he stood –with enemies as well as allies. Now, as a Lieutenant with responsibilities, he felt so out of place he wasn’t sure he even had a place anymore. He certainly had no idea how he was supposed to talk to the Rebellion’s Tech Master.

“Don’t worry about that.” Bow tried to assure them, sounding much more like he was trying to assure himself. “We’ve got it handled.”

His tone implied that they did not have it –whatever ‘it’ was- handled.

Bow ended the call.

Kyle and Rogelio looked at each other. Just as confused now as they were when the cut of light first appeared in the sky. Bow hadn’t actually given them an explanation as to what it was or what was really going on. That was all Lonnie wanted to know.

“Should we call them back and ask to speak to Adora this time?” He asked.

Rogelio only shrugged. He was also a little unsure as to what to do in his new leadership role.

…

Everyone in Brightmoon was in one stage or another of freaking out.

They all knew this was coming. They all knew Horde Prime was coming.

Entrapta had warned them. Catra had taunted them. Heck! Even Light Hope kinda alluded to this coming, no in so many words, but more in that cryptic and open to interpretation way she did. The fact of the matter was, no one should have been surprised.

Except that no one really believed it would happen this fast. This soon. It took Hordak years –decades, actually- to build a working portal. What reason did they have to assume that Horde Prime could get one working, open, and stable in just a few short months?

It was lucky that Entrapta already finished the weapons she promised. But she had only just finished the ones for Brightmoon. Salineas, Plumeria, and the Queendom of Snows were still unprotected. No to mention all the other territories and Queendoms on the planet.

Micah had met people from Fallen Star Mountain, the territory ruled by the Star Sisters and invited them to join the Alliance. They said that with Hordak defeated there wasn’t a reason to anymore. They were unprotected and unprepared. Sweet Bee and Peekablue sent their reply in the same message, one piece of paper bearing both their seals –apparently, the two Queens were together at the time- it was written in Peekablue’s handwriting and simply said ‘the timing isn’t right yet’. Well, was the timing right now? Now that the other Horde from outer space had ripped open their sky and was poised to drop down on them at any moment!

Needless to say, things in Brightmoon were a little anxious.

Perfuma was the first to show up at the palace. Plumeria sharing a border with Brightmoon on the opposite side from the mountains of Dryl, her’s was the closest Queendom to Brightmoon. She appeared, flower crown askew, pink dress rumpled, without her teal green shrug over her shoulders. As if she’d left in a rush.

“Is it the Horde?” She demanded. “I mean, of course it’s the Horde. But, like, the other Horde. The bigger one. The one we’ve been trying to prepare for.” She took a deep breath, attempting to force herself to calm down. “I mean, we’ve been prepared for this, so everything will be okay. We have the She-Ra on our side. I’m sure everything will come to a harmonious conclusion. There’s no need to give into negative energy.”

She said this. But Perfuma was definitely giving off negative energy. The negative energy of fear, anxiety, and doubt. She was giving off negative energy in buckets.

Speaking of buckets, not long after Perfuma arrived, a giant wave crashed through the Brightmoon harbor, nearly capsizing Sea Hawk’s ship. He was already bailing buckets of the excess water off the deck when the wave receded, revealing Mermista. She was holding her trident, and look more impatient and annoyed than fearful and concerned.

“Ugh… the Geek Princess hasn’t even been by to build my weapons yet.” She groaned at no one in particular, brushing an errant lock of hair out of her face. “Can’t the evil space emperor wait, like, six more month before coming to try and kill us all. So stupid.” Then she noticed the Dragon’s Daughter Five listing in the bay. “Oh. Hey, Sea Hawk.”

Sea Hawk gave a non-committal grunt in reply. They hadn’t exactly spoken socially since their breakup was official. He honestly didn’t know how to talk to her anymore. Certainly, he couldn’t talk to her like he used to.

Frosta was the farthest away and the last to arrive.

Everyone was already in the War Room when the youngest member of the Princess Alliance arrived.

Micah was arguing with Shadow Weavers. Adora was shouting warnings over the table. Spinnerella was holding Nettossa’s hand to try and calm the other woman. Bow was fiddling with his Tracker Pad trying to see if the device could analyze the sky rift. Perfuma was trying to perform a calming chant. Memista was groaning at how chaotic this was. And Sea Hawk was ringing saltwater out of his socks. Glimmer had no control over her War Room, or the meeting.

Then Frosta barged in. Doors banging open with a sound loud enough to make everyone pause. Stopping their squabbles or shouts to look across the room at the child-Princess.

“Alright! So, what’s the plan for kicking these bat-faced jerks butts!?”

The room exploded back into noise and chaos again. Everyone talking at once. Giving opinions of things they were not informed enough to give opinions on.

Bow’s Tracker Pad beeped with an alert just as someone asked him a question. Thinking the device had found some information for him about the rift, he turned his attention to it. “…hang on, my Tracker Pad is picking something up.”

Those seated closes to him quieted down to also see what the Tracker Pad had found.

But all that appeared on the screen were the faces of two Horde soldiers. The Etherian Horde. A human, Kyle, and a reptilian, Rogelio. People they knew. Not the new Horde from outer space. There were not bat-faced monsters that looked like Hordak giving them a call.

“Oh! It’s you guys. Now’s not really a good time. Can we put off any new declarations of war for a while?” Bow asked, assuming that even under new leadership the Etherian Horde would want to continue the generations old feud.

Oh. Had no one read-in the new Horde leadership about what was coming? Did they honestly not know? Bow never even considered that! In a room full of chaos was not the time to debrief someone new. Especially not someone that Bow wasn’t sure which side they would choose. He didn’t want to be helping and clueing in a new enemy. While he did generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt and see the best in people, now was not the time to be the better man. Sometimes, the practical man had to be a bit rude.

“Don’t worry about that.” Bow tried to assure them, sounding much more like he was trying to assure himself. “We’ve got it handled.”

He ended the call.

“Who was that?” Asked Sea Hawk. He hung his still wet socks over the back of his seat and sat down next to Bow.

“That was… the Horde…” Bow answered truthfully. Then, when everyone looked horror stuck, he quickly rushed to explain. “I mean, our Horde. The Etherian Horde! The guys in the Fright Zone. Kyle, and Rogelio, I think are their names. Nobody ever told them what was going on, so they have no idea what’s coming. They saw the portal in the sky and freaked out.”

“Oh.” Said Glimmer.

There was a beat.

Then Perfuma suggested, “Should we… invite them to join us?” Even as she asked this, she did not seem very secure in the idea. “I mean, do you think they’d be willing to help? They live on Etheria too…”

“We have no reason to assume they won’t join Horde Prime the moment they learn of him.” Shadow Weaver informed the room. “Inviting them into the Alliance would be like inviting a wolf to your back.”

“I’m sure that was true when Hordak was in charge.” Micah argued. It was hard to tell if he was arguing for the Horde because he honestly and truly felt the Etherian Horde could be helpful, or just to take an opposing opinion from Shadow Weaver. “But Hordak has been removed from power and is under house arrest in Dryl. Command of the Etherian Horde is now in the hands of Etherians. As Princess Perfuma said, they live here too, why wouldn’t they want to defend the Home Ground?”

“Because they were raised by Hordak and Hordak does not teach altruism.” Shadow Weaver reminded everyone. Never mind the fact that Hordak didn’t raise any of the Fright Zone orphans, and that job was actually delegated to Shadow Weaver herself. A fact Adora could confirm for them all.

Adora might even have done so and called Shadow Weaver out on her misplacement of responsibility, had she not be lost in thought at that moment. Really considering the possibility of the Etherian Horde as allies. She grew up with them. She, better than anyone in the room, understood them. In a deeper and more intimate way than Shadow Weaver did.

“Lonnie’s in charge now.” She began, still considering and weighing outcomes as she spoke. “She’s very practical… If we can convince her that working with us is the better choice over siding with Horde Prime…”

She did not get to finish that thought, however, as Bow’s tracker pad beeped again with another message. This time, when he answered it, it wasn’t the nervous and unsure faces of Kyle and Rogelio. It was the exasperated and angry face of none other than Lonnie, Commander of the Horde, herself.

“Put. Adora. On. The. Line.” She commanded before any pleasantries could be exchanged.

Adora took the Tracker Pad from Bow. “Hey, Lonnie, we were just talking about-“

“What in the ever loving high holy heck are you doing this time!?” Lonnie cut the other woman off. “Haven’t you had enough of meddling with forces beyond mortal understanding and breaking the universe!? I am still trying to rebuild what Hordak and Catra ran into the ground and you’re cutting up the sky for fun! Now I have a panic to deal with on top of construction delays and lost supply shipments! I thought all you shimmering Princesses wanted was ‘peace’! Can’t I have a moment’s peace to work on my own territory!”

She paused for breath.

Adora looked back at the rest of the Princess Alliance to make sure they heard the Commander of the Etherian Horde’s rant. She wanted peace, and she wanted to repair the damage to the Fright Zone, the damage to ‘her Territory’. Lonnie might be ‘Commander of the Horde’, but she was thinking like a Princess.

“I’m sending Kyle over there to see what you’re all really up to!” Lonnie continued before anyone else could speak. “I’m sending Kyle because he is the least threatening person I know and hopefully that will keep you sparkleheads from shooting glitter at him on sight. Think of him as a sort of ‘emissary’. I don’t want to have to fight you guys again if I don’t have to! But, I swear, if you keep making things difficult for me, I will! So, let’s try and get along.”

She ended the call.

Adora passed the Tracker Pad back to Bow. “So… I guess that answers the question of which side she’ll be on if it comes to it.”

“How?” Frosta jumped up, standing on her seat to be better seen. “She said she didn’t wanna fight us because she’s still licking her wounds in the Fright Zone. We don’t know that the moment Prime shows up she won’t go running to him the moment she realizes he’s got bigger guns and more resources to share with her.”

“That’s assuming Horde Prime is the type to share.” Mermista countered. “There is another angle to this. Regardless of what Lonnie things of the bigger Horde, the bigger Horde might not think much of Lonnie and just sweep her away. They might get rid of her for us and then the question of what to do about the Etherian Horde becomes a non-issue.”

“That’s terrible!” Perfuma was horrified. “Sure, they’ve been our enemies for as long as I can remember. But they’re still people, and living things. All life is precious.”

“They’re still the ones who ruined Princess Prom!” Frosta shouted.

Everyone assumed she was trying to make a point about respecting truces, cease-fires, and safe spaces –all of which Princess Prom was supposed to be- and that if they couldn’t do that, what reason did they have to trust them in a truce now. But all it sounded like was that she was saying parties were just as important as leaving beings. For fear of derailing the conversation into an unnecessary ethical debate, everyone collectively agreed to ignore that comment.

“There’s no point debating this until the Horde’s emissary gets here.” Glimmer announced, taking control of the meeting. She was Queen, but most of the time she still felt like an inexperienced and frustrated rebel child.

“I know Kyle.” Adora added. “He won’t make trouble while he’s here.” A pause. “On purpose. He won’t make trouble on purpose.”

But ‘trouble’ did have a propensity to just happen around him. It wasn’t that Kyle was particularly clumsy, forgetful, or rude. No more than any other child soldier raised in the Horde. He just seemed… out of place no matter where he went. Almost like… almost like he wasn’t meant to be on Etheria. Of course, Etheria being trapped in an isolated shadow dimension, she couldn’t image where else he could belong. But then, she’d seen weirder things than just an out-of-place and accident-prone soldier.

The debate might have gone on longer, but a page entered the War Room, unannounced, and passed a letter to Glimmer. “Message from Fallen Star Mountain, my Queen.”

Taking the envelope, Glimmer ripped it open to read the contents. Then she sighed. “It’s from the Star Sisters. They also wanna know what the light in the sky is.”

No sooner had she read that, than another page came in with more messages from Elberon, Seaworthy, Erelandia… Heck! They even got a crumpled and dirty piece of paper from the Valley of the Lost in the Crimson Waste. Apparently, the whole planet saw the rift in the sky and wanted to know what the Princess Alliance was up to now…

Glimmer slumped in her seat, putting a hand to her head where she felt an on-coming stress headache. Who knew the worst part of Horde Prime’s attack would be the confusion before the storm?

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1000roughdrafts · 6 years ago

Text

When Reality Starts to Falter - Part 10

Pairings: Jensen X actress!Reader, Dean Winchester X hunter!Reader Ex!Jared X Reader

Warnings: a teeny bit of angst in the beginning, because of sad!reader and her confession, but the rest is just straight, pure fluff

Word Count: 2.3k

Masterlist Part Nine

Everything blurs together, and you’re not sure what happened after the call. You only know that you ended up in a crumpled mess on the cold tile of the kitchen with Jensen’s phone on the floor next to your hands. Luckily, the phone is unarmed and scrape free in the fall, but the same can’t be said for you and your heart as it thumps in a minute regret. Overall, you are satisfied with your decision to call her, but it doesn’t make the whole situation hurt any less.

When you hear the click of the front door opening, your feet find their way to a standing despite your desire to remain on the floor for eternity. Wiping the tears from your face, you cautiously walk into the living room and prepare to face the aftermath.

Tugging mindlessly at your sleeves, your hands are covered and quivering. When he sees you, Jensen lets out a long breath and holds his arms out to you as if he already knows what is going through your mind without asking.

You read the lines on his face like a book; one that tells the story of love, and sympathy. So many words jumping out at you and you read them as they come, or perhaps they buzz in your ears like whispers. Whatever the case may be, you find it to be calming and take gradual steps towards his open arms.

Standing in front of him, he wraps his arms around you to pull you tightly against him, “it’s gonna be okay,” he whispers. “Everything is going to be just fine.” You can feel that he’s unsure of the words he’s speaking, but it warms your heart that he pushes aside his doubts to show security and strength to you.

“I know,” you mumble into his chest. “I fixed it,” you choke, the tears pouring onto his shirt.

Gently pulling you away, he scans your expression for answers to the questions in his mind. “What - what do you mean you ‘fixed it’?” he asks softly.

You shrug faintly, “I - I called her,” you say, voice quivering along with the rest of you and finger shaking in a point at the kitchen - phone still on the floor. His confused eyes match your gaze. “I told her I lied about it.”

Hiccuping now, the tears come quicker than your words can and his pressed face isn’t helping the bouncing in your stomach. He quickly relaxes his face and softens his voice, “why would you -” he starts. Bringing his hands to your arms, he dips his head down to your height. “What do you mean?” he says before pulling back up and looking around the room. “Here,” he says, guiding you towards the couch and plopping you onto the cushions before sitting next to you.

You rest your knee up on the couch and face him, wiping your face with your sleeves. You take a deep breath and tell him everything; how you went in for a beer, but saw his phone and decided to call her.

“I was angry when I told him to tell her. I didn’t think he would actually do it,” you say, shaking your head. “I - breaking them up is not what I wanted. That felt worse than I imagined it would. I don’t want drama. I don’t want to hurt her, I don’t want her to feel what I felt when I found out about them,” you breathe. “It’s painful, Jens,” you say, eyes back up at him as he nods. “It’s one of the worst feelings in the world; to be cheated on. And no matter how angry I was at them when it happened, I - I don’t want to hurt other people. Even if they hurt me.”

Taking a deep breath, you close your eyes momentarily. He brings a hand to your arm and rubs lightly. “I’m over it now,” you say. “I just want all of this to be over. I don’t care about him, and I don’t care about her,” you shout, not realizing how loud you are talking until you stop for another breath. Lowering your voice, you bring a hand to his face and cup his cheek. “I just care about you,” you smile, tilting your head slightly.

His eyes light up, a smile forming on his face. His hand lovingly tightens around your arm in response, not knowing what words to say. “You have been so, so amazing to me. Everything that you’ve done for me - I don’t even know how to begin in thanking you. You make me feel alive, something I haven’t felt in a long time, Jens. And - and it’s not even about any of that, really. I - “ saying the word, you let your mouth hang open. Your eyes move between his, and you watch the pink feel his smiling cheeks as you wonder if it’s too soon to tell him how you feel.

“Jensen, I-” Crap, why is this so hard? You think, shaking your head. You grip onto his arms, holding him stable in front of you as if you’re preparing for him to flee. “You are so caring, and genuine. You are attractive, which is really just a plus,” you giggle. “You have been my savior, my hero, Jens, and I think that I might be-” you stop again.

His face brightens, eyebrows no longer pressed together in confusion. Bringing his fingers to your face, he gently runs his thumb over your lips as a smile grows on his own. He watches your expression change as your head tips back just slightly. Slowly, he moves his hand to the side of your face. You close your eyes, letting him gently massage behind your ear, his hand caressing the side of your face.

The couch creaks as he shuffles closer to you. Bringing his free hand to your face, he pulls you into him and kisses you softly. With eyes clenched tightly together, you grip onto the collar of his shirt. He pulls his lips from yours, but keeps his forehead pressed against you. “Me too,” he whispers softly.

Keeping your hand on his shirt, your eyes shoot open as he pulls away. “Really?” you say it with an enthusiasm that makes him chuckle a bit.

“Yes, really,” he smiles, kissing you once more. “I’ve been single for a long time, Y/N, and I wanted to keep it that way to focus on work, but you-” he laughs barely, the air coming out of his nose as he shakes his head once. “I wasn’t expecting to meet someone that could change my mind so quickly, but I’ve been drawn to you since your first day on set. You are so beautiful inside and out. You are smart, and witty, and just incredible. You are brave and strong, and - and what you’ve just told me,” he shakes his head once more, almost in disbelief.

You hold your breath as he speaks. “How you said you lied in order to get them back together despite everything they put you through. That’s not something I would have done, but... I commend that. I think it’s stupid to put yourself through that kind of pain, but I also think that it’s incredibly brave and - and it’s selfless.”

A tear of relief finds a path down your cheek, and Jensen jumps to wipe it away. Your mind wanders off into a conversation from earlier, before Jared barged in. You know now that you can trust Jensen, and you don’t know exactly why or what it is, but you’re ready to tell him your secret. If Jared had known all of these years and never made it public, why would Jensen?

What feels like a wire in your jaw tenses and loosens as you search for a good starting ground for the topic, all the while Jensen has his hands on your arms. Your eyes are focused on your hands lying in your lap, “thank you,” you say, bringing your eyes to his.

His lips fold down at the corners as he nods before pulling his hands away. He rotates around to stand, “dinner?” he asks, looking down at you.

Before your mind has a chance to catch up, you throw your hand onto his arm and tug, “wait,” you say as he falls into the couch. “Sorry,” you laugh. “I just - I wanted to ask you something.”

He nods again, this time with a warm smile, “anything.”

“Have you ever-” you fidget with the sleeves of your shirt, twirling the cotton around your thumbs, accidentally pulling one of the threads out. When your eyes meet back up with his they suck you in, create a distraction. You focus on the string, using it to remind yourself of earlier. “You said ‘that’s my girl’ earlier, and I - I would like to bring that up again, if we can.”

His smile fades, the pink filling his cheeks once again. He nervously and embarrassingly chuckles again, head to the side as an awkward smile replaces the comfortable one, “aw, it’s just - just something that happens sometimes, I suppose.”

“I actually - I want to talk about my experience with that kind of thing,” you say. His expression thaws, changing back into the sympathy from before now that the spot light is off of him. “I struggle with... things.”

Your mind is neither here nor there, you can’t seem to collect enough thoughts to from words and explain the things you are feeling. Where to start and where to end, you wonder. You continue to fidget with the shirt as he patiently waits for you to continue and it’s exactly the push that you need.

“Jens, I have what some would call a problem,” you say confidently, looking back up at him. He only nods as he listens, “do you remember my second day on set, when Bell and Sam fought against the Djinn and Crowley came to save everyone?”

He nods once more. You swallow your fears, pressing on. “Well, I - I didn’t pass out because of lack of food and water. I mean, that could have been a part of it, but I get really wrapped up in my characters. Maybe Jared already told you about this, I don’t know,” you say, rolling your eyes. You roll the sleeves up your arms and place your hands in his.

“When I’m on set, I somehow diverge from myself. That day was especially difficult, and I don’t know the science behind it, but I was no longer Y/N for that take, or any others for that matter. I become Bell. I was and am her and that day I was fighting for my life. It sounds really silly coming out of my mouth and hearing it out loud, but it’s true. I don’t know why it happens, but it does. The hands that I chopped off of the actress, I - I thought they were real for that moment. I was living it, Jens. It’s like reality is on one hand, and fiction is on the other, and i’m constantly holding my own hands,” you blurt out, looking down to realize your hands are folded together, Jensen’s covering the two.

“Y/N,” he soothes. “That’s a lot more common than you might think,” he says softly. “I think that every actor deals with some form of that. You witnessed it from me earlier, and I’d be lying if I said that I never had to take a break in between heart-wrenching scenes because of how they effected me. I experience it, I know Jared has at one point. It’s not commonly talked about because I think, like I imagine you are, most people are afraid of being judged for it. So we keep it to ourselves, we let it fester.” He pauses, looking to the side as he thinks.

“You know what?” he says, lowering his head to catch your eyes. “I know someone who deals with it on the same level that you do.”

Bringing your eyes up to his, you feel a wave of relief wash over you. While you are a bit angry that Jared has dealt with the thing he told you was an ‘issue’, the relief is too strong to care.

“I can call her in the morning and set up a meeting if you’d like. For now, it’s late. Let’s try to get some sleep so we can be on time in the morning,” he smiles. “What do you say?”

You nod as he stands, holding his hands out in front of him to help you to your feet. Hand in hand, you walk back to the one room you haven’t set foot inside yet. He flips the light on and turns to face you, bringing his hands to the sides of your face.

Somehow, each of his kisses are the same and different. Each one carries a different emotion, a different story. Each kiss is either a question or an answer, and this one is both. The question of whether you can trust him is proposed and answered in just a quick moment as he lips are pressed tightly against yours.

Never have you felt so connected to a person and so quickly. You were never able to have non-verbal communication in this form with Jared, let alone have a rational conversation with him where you were on the same page. That was one of the areas you struggled most with him; communication.

With Jensen, though, you feel like you’ve been together for years. It’s a dangerous yet secure feeling that can’t really be explained. It’s like visiting a new beach, unsure of the patterns of the tide but familiar with the heat of the sun and prickling of the sand. It’s like falling for someone everyday at the same time of feeling like you’ve known them for your entire life. It’s getting to know the person you know. It’s home.

And falling asleep in his arms is more than sleeping next to a person you care about. It’s being protected and cared for, knowing you feel the same way as the other person. No doubts, no insecurities, just comfort.

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#when reality starts to falter #jensen ackles #jensen x reader #jensen x you #jensen ackles x y/n #jensen ackles x reader #you x supernatural #you x jensen ackles #y/n x jensen #reader x jensen #supernatural #supernatural fandom #supernatural fan fic #supernatural series #spnfamily #spn #spn fanfic #spnfandom #spn family

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they-call-me-hades · 5 years ago

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{Cinderella AU} Night and Day

CHAPTER FIVE

Kit leaned against the back door of the kitchen and held the flower close to his chest with a wide grin as he looked down at the petals and gently ran his hand over them, it perhaps hadn’t been the most romantic day but….well Kit felt like he’d known Hades all his life.

It was only a moment later that Kit was seized by a gushing Honey and Crowley chuckling as he sauntered in

“Lover boy! How’d the date go?” Crowley asked with a suggestive eyebrow waggle, Kit laughed a bit and rolled his eyes

“Nothing happened, not really anyway.” He said gazing down at the flower in his hands Honey laughed and pulled him over to the table where she already had tea waiting, Kit suspected that one of them likely had their eyes glued to the window waiting for his return the entire time. Honey poured each of them a cup of tea

“Alright spill,” she said Kit raised a brow at her and began slowly tipping his cup towards the floor, Honey swatted at his arm and rolled her eyes while Crowley snorted with laughter

“Not like that you jerk! How did it go? Tell us about your day.” Honey encouraged him Kit knew that she didn’t get out very much and that this was likely her only form of entertainment for the night, so Kit decided to amuse her. He leaned back in his chair and recited all the events of the day. Picking flowers with felicity and telling them both fantastical tales of magic and daring escapes that had the two of them with rapt attention, the most delightful foods that Kit had ever tasted and talking with Hades, gosh it had been fantastic.

“It was a wonderful day, he’s just wonderful in general! Wonderful hair, wonderful smile, wonderful- “

He had been about to say name when he paused as the dawn of realization hit him and he went a ghostly shade of white, quickly noticed by Crowley

“What’s wrong?” Crowley asked him as Kit suddenly looked devastated and reality set in as he sank his head in his hands with a groan about how stupid he was. Honey was beginning to worry and frowned

“Kit what’s the matter? Is it something that deserves me hitting him because I will?” Honey said she even rolled up her sleeves for emphasis, but Kit shook his head and looked up at them

“I…. I’m an idiot. I never got his last name.” Kit said and like that his fairy tale was just that. A story to be told and cherished rather than getting to continue. Honey and Crowley both looked just as disappointed and Honey pulled him into a hug which Crowley timidly joined by patting Kit’s shoulder. Behind them a bell rang, and it was ever the horrid reminder that Kit wasn’t the princess of a fairy tale but a servant in an old home and like that it was back to their regularly scheduled program.

~*~

The next day Hades and Aziraphale were in the garden practicing their fencing, Felicity sat at the window of her room listening to Lady Adhira ramble on about how she had to properly learn tea ceremonies and such for any visiting dignitaries in the future, the way her father talked enthusiastically even if she couldn’t hear him she knew he was talking about Kit.

For the past day or so, Kit had been all her father had talked about and as young as she was Felicity knew that her father deserved a fairy tale ending and that this usually meant that Kit was his or at least should have had a chance to prove he was his.

But Felicity didn’t know how to do that, she suspected that Kit didn’t know that they were royals, there had been no bowing or special treatment the other day which she liked someone needed to treat them normally if they wanted to have a chance with her papa.

Adhira quickly realized the little princess wasn’t listening and let out an irritated sigh

“Perhaps we should invite some of your friends over to practice with?” Adhira suggested hoping it would interest the girl, Felicity perked up hearing that and hatching an instant plan

“Friends? So…I could invite anyone I want?” Felicity asked Adhira seemed to enjoy and potentially misinterpret Felicity’s enthusiasm thinking that she was actually interested in teatime.

“Oh o-of course princess!” Adhira said and instantly Felicity jumped up and hurried to her desk beginning to scribble out an invitation, only one which Adhira thought strange but she left the girl to do as she pleased, probably a mistake as the little princess began to scheme.

Meanwhile Outside her father and his brother sparred with rapiers clanging together and the metallic sounds filling the garden loudly as they swiped at each other “He was wonderful Aziraphale, he told the most wonderful stories and had Felicity wrapped around his finger.” Hades told him making a jab which the other one blocked quickly jumping away from him and giving a small eye roll, hades caught it and frowned moving out of his stance and lowering his practice blade

“What?” he asked but Aziraphale just smiled at him

“You remember when I got drunk at our birthday and I kissed that gardener?” Aziraphale asked him Hades nodded “And how much crap you gave me in the week after when I couldn’t shut up about how I wished I’d gotten his name and was able to continue seeing him after even if it would have caused some kind of scandal?”

Again hades nodded and Aziraphale grinned a bit and shook his head at him “You teased me relentlessly about not shutting up and I now know what you felt like because you’re so smitten with this guy that you’ve hardly met you haven’t shut up about him in the past twenty four hours.” Aziraphale told him he was completely caught off guard when a moment later a sword came thrusting towards his face and suddenly a foot behind his leg toppled him and Hades now had his practice sword pointed in Aziraphale’s face and he couldn’t stop himself from grinning

“Sore spot?” Aziraphale asked Hades chuckled

“No, my brother, you’re simply soft.” Hades said putting the blade down and pulling Aziraphale to his feet before he started to walk away Aziraphale could tell he may have over stepped but if someone else didn’t acknowledge how Hades was feeling, Aziraphale knew that hades himself would never acknowledge it either. His brother had become so closed off to the idea of dating or courtship or whatever you wanted to call it that Aziraphale knew that he’d never think about his feelings unless someone else brought them up first.

Aziraphale stayed in the garden after that sitting on the edge of one of the flower beds and running his fingers gently over the petals of a beautiful red rose and thinking back to his own night, what he could remember of it anyway. The beautiful gardener with his long red hair and his golden eyes, how Aziraphale had begged him to stay and work at the palace but it would cause to much of a scandal and how he needed to protect someone, Aziraphale vaguely remembered a passionate kiss and a promise to return some day. The problem was remembering a face to go with such lovely features and such a kind heart.

Aziraphale then noticed Felicity coming out from the kitchen doors like she did when wanting to avoid Adhira and frowned as he saw the little one approach the stables

“What are you doing?” Aziraphale asked but the little girl had a gleam of mischief in her eyes which never really meant anything good as she just waved and kept going for the stables

“I’m going to practice my riding,” She said Aziraphale frowned and began to follow her after the incident the other day he wouldn’t have expected any different. But with the look on her face that reminded him exactly of his late sister in law he knew it couldn’t be anything good that the little one had in mind.

Aziraphale followed her down the riding path, and then onto the path that lead outside the grounds…. followed by an old dirt road leading out of town that was until they came to a house deep in the woods not long after. It was a magnificent house, beautiful even or at least it probably had been. Age had worn the outside but the garden, the garden was spectacular! Roses redder than any he’d ever seen. Aziraphale knew instantly this had to be the house of Hades crush, oh that clever little girl. Aziraphale rode to catch up with her and when he got beside her she went a little pale but he smiled down at her and her little pony (the one she wasn’t supposed to take off grounds but did anyway) her mischievous smile vanished and was replaced with one of guilt and worry as she looked down at the ground and began stroking her pony lovingly, Aziraphale waited for her to speak first since there was obviously a lot on her mind and he trusted her to tell him the truth. When she looked back up to him fearful and with teary eyes, he knew that he was right.

“Am I in trouble?” Felicity asked him Aziraphale shook his head

“You know your father likes this man yes?” Aziraphale asked and Felicity nodded wiping her eyes on her sleeve until Aziraphale offered her a hanky and she took it dabbing at her eyes and he offered her a soft smile

“Good. Then what’s the plan?”

Felicity was startled and confused for a moment before she broke out in a grin and told him, the two then went to the house and Aziraphale rang the doorbell and waited.

There was a long pause and at first Aziraphale wondered if no one was home, he rang the bell again and still nothing. Just before Aziraphale could make the suggestion to come back another day there was the sound of shouting incomprehensibly and stomping footsteps coming to the door which made Aziraphale worry that perhaps that Hades might have exaggerated until the door answered and a large, well fit fellow with dark hair and a sour face answered and leaned across the entire doorframe not actually looking at them but rather his own reflection in a small hand mirror

“Yes, yes what do you want?” he asked exaggerated like this was such an inconvenience Aziraphale glanced down at Felicity who pouted a little she obviously didn’t like his attitude either

“you’re not kit.” She said simply this had Aziraphale having a wave of relief wash over him because honestly as pretty as this man seemed he had a dark aura that surrounded him that Aziraphale didn’t like. The stranger looked up only at Felicity and got a sour look on his face which Felicity mimicked back at him

“No I’m not,” He said with a scoff as if this was the biggest insult he’d ever heard Aziraphale took Felicity by the shoulders and pulled her back closer to him protectively and this is what finally got the man to look up at him and his expression change drastically as he realized exactly who he was dealing with.

Aziraphale gave a forced smile

“We’d like to have a word with Kit Marlowe if that’s at all possible sir.” Aziraphale requested it was then a second older man pushed his way into the doorway and Aziraphale recognized him from a few gatherings of the local lords, he had been lady Marlowe’s second husband before her passing if he remembered correctly

“Your highness! Please excuse my son he sort of woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” The man (Gabriel if he recalled?) greeted him with a bow pushing his son into the same position and while he was much more pleasant Aziraphale saw the pout on Felicity’s face deepen further

“You’re not kit either” she said this seemed to be like a momentary slap in the face to the violet eyed lord, but he recovered with a forced smile as he knelt down to her height

“No, my dear princess I’m afraid not, Kit is out at the moment running some errands for the household. Could I perhaps help you with something?” he asked Aziraphale noted how strained it seemed to speak even decently about Kit and didn’t like the vibes he was getting or the auras he was sensing and frowned

“Yes, the princess met him just the other day, he saved her when her horse was frightened and as a thank you, she wished to invite him to afternoon tea with me and my brother.” Aziraphale said he offered the invitation and Gabriel snatched it looking over the invitation so formal with a shiny seal but still the scratched cursive writing of a young child still learning what she was doing. Aziraphale didn’t like the look in his eyes and kept Felicity close to him something about this man wasn’t right and Aziraphale wasn’t sure that perhaps much better could come from this place, that was until he heard a familiar voice casually from the other side of the door that left his own heart skipping a beat.

The familiar ginger hair and dark glasses as the tall lean figure appeared and started up the stairs with a woman close behind him

“Honestly Honey, can you believe that idiot not getting a name?” he asked with a sigh Aziraphale felt like he had seen an angel for the second time as he recognized his birthday romance perhaps there was something good about this house.

Fortunately, in his paralyzed state Felicity saw him and took over also recognizing the man and having similar bad vibes about Gabriel.

Felicity snatched the invitation from the violet eyed man and ducked between them “HEY!” she called catching the attention of the two servants, Crowley recognized her and grinned like the cat that caught the canary “We were just talking about you and your dad,” Crowley said Felicity handed him the invitation “That’s for Kit, Uncle Zira and I are inviting you and him to tea tomorrow can you make it?” Felicity asked Crowley quirked a brow and looked up his own shock taking over as the familiar prince that had snogged him to death one night last year came to view, Crowley was stunned as Aziraphale gave a nervous smile and waved Crowley took a moment to remember he was being addressed and something clicked as he looked down at Felicity,

“You’re- “

“Princess you shouldn’t worry yourself with talking with common servants,” Drake said cutting in and stepping between them, he reached for the invitation which Crowley moved out of his reach and glared at him Felicity did as well

“Uncle Zira knows him and wants him to come with Kit to tea right uncle Zira?” Felicity asked as she looked. Aziraphale seemed to sober and his face burned a bright red as he gave a soft smile

“Yes, yes of course.” Aziraphale said his smile becoming as warm as the radiant sun that seemed to beam off of the prince “I think we have a lot of catching up to do if you’d like?” Aziraphale asked Crowley could only give a nervous smile and nod Felicity smiled and walked back to Aziraphale and took his hand before she looked back at Crowley

“You and Kit, tomorrow at two okays?” She asked before she took Aziraphale and began walking away.

The moment that door shut, Gabriel glared at Crowley

“How dare you accept an invitation in my home.” Gabriel growled Crowley snapped out of his love sick trance and glared at him putting the invitation in his breast pocket before Drake could make another snag for it. “I live here as well, the princess said it was for him and me why wouldn’t I accept it? Do you know how rude it is to decline an invitation from a princess?” Crowley asked him Drake grabbed him and slammed him into the wall his temper going from one to a one hundred in a second until Honey shoved between them and leveled him with a glare

“What’s going on?” Kit asked as he entered next with Vlad, Kit instantly felt the heat and hatred from his stepfather and step brother the second he made his way around the corner and Kit had to wonder what he did wrong

“Did you know your prince charming is an actual prince?” Crowley asked him to straighten his waist coat and never taking his eyes off of Drake Kit was surprised and raised a brow Gabriel offered him a smile that looked like it was painted on some doll, forced and fake. He put his arm around Kit and steered him back towards the other room and Kit resisted a shiver that was threatening to go down his spine

“Lets have a chat shall we my boy?”

#Cinderella au #DO NOT REBLOG #unless you are anna #long chapter

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theramblingonesie · 6 years ago

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Facing Our Making, Part 3: Makeup and Gender

Welcome to Part 3 of my makeup blog series! This week we’re going to poke at gender and makeup. But before I begin, let’s review parts 1 & 2, and check in about where we’re at:

1. Beauty standards are impossibly harsh and cause a lot of unnecessary pain.

2. Let womxn decide what they want to do with their own damn bodies and stay out of it. Unless they hire you for a consultation.

3. Wearing makeup is awesome

4. Not wearing makeup is awesome

5. Your gender presentation and basically any presentation of your body and behavior do not determine who you are and aren’t attracted to sexually. And no one is the (*^*^%^$#%$#&*&^&%% authority to determine that for you. If they try, remember that they’re judging and labeling you in relation to their own internal gender/sexuality struggles. More on this in today’s blog below.

6. How toxic masculinity ruins the day in relationship to makeup or not makeup needs to die, and YES womxn also support and host this behavior (internalized misogyny). Just because a person has a vagina or presents as femme does not mean they are exempt.

7. Womxn who wear makeup are not whores unless they are, in fact, professional whores. Professional whores keep the world turning, and bless em for it. The problem isn’t sex work. It’s violence against sex workers. Consider your complicity.

8. Womxn are reclaiming the hell out of the word “Slut”, so don’t get caught being a dumb idiot who uses the outdated, violent, misogynist definition. 1000 years vagina dentata upon your entire household.

9. If you want sexual attention because you enjoy sex, then FUCK YEAH GIT IT!!!

10. “Pretty girls are dumb” is a myth that our society desperately seeks to nurture and maintain. This is rooted in dominance, power, control, and whorephobia. Stop it.

11. “Ugly girls are smart” makes no damn sense. Okay, yes I can see the backwards logic, but also if you listen to flat-earthers long enough you could even be like, “ok, I see where you’re coming from with that”.

It is not lost on me that certain beauty trends and habits can trigger and enable body image problems, ranging in severity. After attending a panel discussion that featured a speaker from Media Girls Boston, I learned that girls as young as 9 are learning that they essentially need to brand themselves through social media so that they can merely exist. Saying this is a problem is an understatement.

I support makeup and rituals of adornment. I support a lot of things that, if used improperly with dangerous motivations, can result in severe consequences.

Understand that there’s a lot of nuance in subjects like this, and utilize your critical thinking brain when exploring such topics. Continue your personal research if you’re curious about any subcategory in this series that I have not addressed.

If issues of beauty standards and pressure are uncomfortable or triggering for you, or if you or a loved one believe they may be suffering from a body-image related disorder, please know you are not alone, and there are people out there who are ready and available to support you through this. Links and hotline numbers are available in the resource section at the end of this blog. -------------------------------------------------------------

“If we are all members of one body, then in that one body there is neither male nor female; or rather there is both: it is an androgynous or hermaphroditic body, containing both sexes [...] The division of the one man into two sexes is part of [our] fall.” --Norman O. Brown, in Love’s Body, 1966

Okay! Let’s talk about this super important element of the art and ritual of beauty:

Gender!

To Marie Kondo this: This subject does not bring me joy, and I do not want to write about it, but I feel that I have a responsibility to not play floor-is-lava about it. It does not even bring me the type of righteous rage that fuels me to furiously complete a post. It fills me with doubt, insecurity, self loathing, trust issues, and a desire to disappear.

I need to say this because I know I am not alone in my feelings and experience. But I will keep it very brief because I’d like to move on.

I have experienced a lifetime of pain from the bullshit pressure the heteropatriarchy puts on female bodies. I never anticipated the heartache I would experience as a result of being judged and denied by fellow queers.

I am too butch, too unfeminine to be accepted as the right kind of woman in heteropatriarchal society. I make men question their sexuality, and I am the one made to suffer for it. I am too feminine for queers to believe and accept me when I tell them I’m genderfluid (which I have been, quietly and privately, my entire life). I am not feminine enough to be femme.

Too much woman. Not enough woman. Not woman. Not human. Once again, my body and my soul are everyone else’s to judge, determine, and own. Not mine.

And no one wants to listen when we say the world hates women.

I highly suggest looking up the toxic concept of femme invisibility in queer communities. You can start by reading this great article by Bust:

https://www.bustle.com/articles/166081-what-does-femme-mean-the-difference-between-being-femme-being-feminine.

For the record, I still use she/her pronouns. I stand by my allegiance to the fullness and diversity of womxnhood in a deeply ferocious way. My reasoning for that is both very simple and very complicated. So I guess that just makes it very complicated. Ask me how.

Mood.

Anyway, makeup.

About a month ago, I had wrapped a film shoot with some friends who flew up from Mexico. It was an incredible weekend that filled me up with so much bliss. On the drive back to Boston, I was chatting with my beloved friends and fellow Scarlet Tongue artists, Creature and Cass, about how much I enjoy the company of Mexican men. A large part of that is because it is refreshing to be around men who so easily embrace and express feminine qualities of articulating their emotions, accessing their emotions, gentleness and nurturing. Creature presented the important argument that such qualities don’t need to be classified as feminine or masculine; they’re simply personality and behavioral traits that anybody can have.

Such a point is absolutely crucial in untangling the oppressive nature of the gender binary.

Exercise:

The following traits have been classically designated as “masculine” or “feminine” behavior, but I’ve jumbled them together in the list below. Which traits do you believe belong to whom?

Reserved Warm Sensitive Utilitarian Deferential Apprehensive Reactive Emotionally Stable Serious Lively Socially bold Shy Rule-conscious Expedient Private Perfectionism Anxiety Group-oriented Self-reliant Tolerates disorder Vigilance Extraversion Traditional Grounded Agreeableness Neuroticism Excitement-seeking Attraction to aesthetics

Answer:

Hahahahah, I’m not going to give you the answer. It doesn’t matter.

Yes, hormones do impact some behavior. And YES, how we’re socially conditioned impacts which traits are more dominant. But the point is, there is an imaginary line between the two categories. The saddest reality is that, even though any human is capable of any of these traits on the list, society has determined that consequence and punishment must befall anyone who strays from their category. An enforced gender binary is dangerous.

Enter makeup.

Makeup has served infinite purposes throughout the course of history. It’s an incredible vehicle for expression, as well as radical social and political rebellion. Makeup has shaped entire movements of art, social justice, philosophy, and construction/deconstruction of body politics.

Your lipstick is more than patriarchal pigment in a tube. It is a tool for revolution.

Most people assume that makeup is only for clowns and cisgender women, and anyone else who uses it is simply a deviant who has “stolen” it.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Nononononononono

This probably won’t come as a shock to most of you, but yes-- Christianity also temporarily ruined makeup. Once upon a time, it was quite normal for men to wear makeup. Then the Jesus toe-suckers made up a whole bunch of arbitrary rules about what we currently observe masculinity and femininity to be, and here we are in this stinky pile of crap rules.

I highly recommend reading this article to learn a tiny bit more of the history of men and makeup:

https://www.byrdie.com/history-makeup-gender

Who wears makeup and how people wear makeup has shifted so much throughout history, and the struggles we experience around this today have only been relevant for a hundred years or so. One of the most common forms of rebellion we hear of is when women reject traditional femininity. Whether “burning our bras”, shaving our heads, or growing out our armpit hair, this is not an uncommon experience for a lot of women. The scandal!! The pet has escaped her cage!! So many women I know have experienced an anti-femininity phase at least once in their lives. Sometimes this “phase” transitions into a permanent rejection of gender norms, but it really varies from person to person. Often it’s set off by an overwhelming awareness of how much women are defined by superficial characteristics, traditionally determined and enforced by men. So we attempt to take ourselves out of the system by wearing neutral and aggressive clothing, switching up which parts of our bodies are hairy and which aren’t, and avoiding anything “girlie”. Revisiting my conversation with Aepril, my high-glam friend who inspired this blog and was mentioned in Part 1, she made a good point about honoring such an experience: “I went through a miserable phase in my feminist youth where I thought I was being uber feminist by not shaving or wearing makeup or wearing heels, etc, because to do so was giving into the patriarchy. I was miserable of course. It took my drag queen friends to wake me up to that, as I realized that they were willing to give up family, social status...their safety and even their lives for the privilege of expressing themselves in a glamorous, feminine way. While I had that privilege because I was born in a female body. I might be criticised by both men and women, but I wouldn’t be beaten in the street for transgressing gender roles. I realized how much it meant to me through seeing how much it meant to them. Why should I give that up either? Why should anyone have to?” In Aepril’s situation, she found that her place of authenticity was through femininity. In a world that is so divided between the shoulds and should-nots of who we’re supposed to be, I find it important to squeeze ourselves through and experience all sides so we can settle on what’s true for us. Then it’s no longer conformity; it’s an outlet.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the use of makeup norms has been subverted to amplify voices that demand human rights and fair treatment. Its application has been largely linked to LGBTQ+ visibility and gay rights movements. The anti-Vietnam movement in the late 60s and 70s utilized makeup to display over-feminization and homosexuality as a way to avoid being drafted. The glam rock movement gave us icons like David Bowie, exposing and exploding restrictive gender norms through outrageous clothing and makeup, utilizing pop culture to spread ideas and acceptance of androgyny. “Female impersonation” has origins dating back to the 19th century in Europe, and the art of Drag Queens & Kings is alive and well today, celebrating, mocking, questioning, and expanding gender in clubs and theaters, in film, and right in our homes through TV favorites like Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

For our trans-sisters, the decision to wear makeup could have life or death consequences. As a transwoman friend of mine disclosed a few months back, when she’s walking down the street and hears a man call after her, her immediate thoughts turn to, “will I experience violence because I’m a woman? Or will I experience violence because he thinks I’m a faggot?” There is a lot of discussion in the trans community about the privilege of “passing”, and I believe these conversations have further supported the struggles womxn generally face-- does wearing makeup make you more or less of a woman? As writer Lux Alptraum points out, “the idea that external appearance is what makes someone a “real” woman is the very thing that many trans women have committed themselves to fighting. To the extent that makeup is an essential part of any trans woman’s gender identity or notion of her womanhood, it’s largely because that’s the message the rest of the world aggressively forces upon her.” Read the rest of this article at https://www.racked.com/2017/3/23/14937266/trans-women-makeup

Makeup is incredibly powerful. It can be used for protest, and it can be used for comfort. It’s daily wear, and it’s political. It’s an expression of freedom, and a bold face confronting restriction. It’s transformative, giving people the opportunity to live in the bodies and images that feel right and true for them. Makeup is art, an embracing of life and physicality, a way to show up, be counted, and be present. It’s an act of defiance, and an act of love.

I recently read that Facebook now has 56 gender identities one can choose from. Facebook blows, but wow that’s actually really awesome! Within that list, some of the more frequently used terms include:

Agender/Neutrois Androgyne/Androgynous Bigender Cis/Cisgender Female to Male/FTM Gender Fluid Gender Nonconforming/Variant Gender Questioning Genderqueer Intersex Male to Female/MTF Neither Non-binary Other Pangender Trans/Transgender Transsexual Two-spirit (Important: this is Native American. Don’t pull a Jason Mraz. Don’t appropriate)

Out of this list, the following folks are allowed to wear makeup:

All of them Everyone Anyone Everybody The General Public The Whole World Human Beings Aliens Animals but only if they’re actually humans in animal costumes

If you’re interested in following makeup artists on IG who are trans or gender non-conforming, here is a great starter list (partially sourced from wearyourvoicemag.com):

@ brownbeautystandards @ vlad_theunicorn @ jade_poncee @ makeupby_bran @ rosalynnemontoya @ miles_jai @ completedestruction

Again, there are infinite reasons why people of any gender do and don’t wear makeup, and I’m not going to be an authority on the matter. But I hope some of this information helps you on your journey to understand yourself better, and hold space of greater allyship and tolerance for others.

Below are some links and phone numbers if you feel you need greater support for the topics being discussed in this blog series. Being beautiful is cool, and so is being safe. You deserve to be here, and you matter.

Enjoy your week, and we’ll see you back here next week for Part 4: Performance Artists and Makeup!

National Eating Disorders 24 hr Hotline: 1-800-931-2237

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/body-image-0

TransLifeline Hotline: 877-565-8860

https://www.translifeline.org/

LGBT National Hotline: 1-888-843-4564

https://www.glbthotline.org/

National Suicide Prevention 24hr Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

http://sexworkersproject.org/resources/

#makeup #nomakeup #gender #intersectional feminism #revolution #queer #drag #androgony #expressyourself

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