#this was supposed to happen a lot earlier but you know life happens man

[hexavexen]

INTERMISSION: ASH AND THUNDER - BEGIN.

Thoros is now open - temporarily - for limited questions.

[kurogane2512]

I can treat you better

A little concept I wanted to try for a while, I see this done with male characters a lot and I wanted to experiment on my waifus.

Game: Genshin Impact

Characters: CEO!Ningguang, Teacher!Lisa, Milf!La Signora (referred as Rosalyne) x fem!reader

Type: Fluff hcs and drabble, Modern AU

Contains: Broken marriages, infidelity (not with reader), comforting, teacher-student relationship (Lisa), age-gap (Lisa and Signora)

Marriage is supposed to be the ultimate union between lovers, a symbol of togetherness and eternal love. However, not every marriage ends as well as it began. Love shouldn't fade away but sometimes it does, or perhaps it never existed in the first place and was just a matter of convenience.....

CEO!Ningguang who owns the most successful business in the country that she started by her own efforts. A meticulous and hard-working woman who has lines of suitors but everyone knows she's already given her heart to her husband, a simple man she met in college and fell in love with. He promised to support her in her business venture and always stuck right by her side the more she built her empire.

Ningguang is highly successful in life, she has money and a loving partner- what more could one ask for? You are her secretary, her right-hand woman, who has assissted her since the beginning. The first and only secretary she has had because you are perfect for the job. You have had a crush on her for the longest time, but you knew how happy she is with her husband so you simply continue supporting her from the sidelines.

However, her marriage started becoming rocky recently. Ningguang spent too much time at work, doing overtime almost every day for the last 6 months and rarely spending time with her partner. Ningguang never stopped climbing the success ladder, she wanted more and she was determined to work for it. Her husband, on the other hand, became a stay-at-home husband because.... why does he need to work when his wife is the richest woman in the world?

Ningguang became more stressed as days passed, she was making deals with all these demanding companies all the while trying to keep her marriage at bay. Many times, you heard her arguing with him on the phone, his voice would be so loud that you could clearly make out the curses and accusations he threw at her. It frustrated you. How dare he say all that to her? How dare he think of her this way?

Ningguang was working hard for her future with him, she was not greedy for money. She wanted to give him and her eventual children the best life she could, all of this hard work was for him. Yet, he seemed to have never realized that. The more days Ningguang spent cooped in her office, the more apart she became with him. Until the day you heard her crying for the first time in your life....

"Ms Ningguang, the documents you want—" you stepped inside Ningguang's office but stopped mid-sentence as you heard her sniffle. She was seated on her table, holding her head in frustration and looking at something on her phone.

"Ms Ningguang, are you okay? What happened?" You were genuinely worried, the woman you loved was crying and you wanted to do something. Ningguang quickly wiped away her tears and switched off her phone screen before standing up and looking at you firmly, "Ah, Y/n, thank you. I had been looking for these for a while."

She avoided your question. You knew something was seriously wrong now. You wanted to ask more but decided to not pester her and continued with the work you had brought in, she came into her 'work mode' almost immediately. She always impressed you so much. The two of you finished the work for the day then you invited her to a diner for a simple meal, hoping to lighten her mood. You had a hearty meal together and drank a few glasses of alcohol to unwind, she became a bit tipsy and leaned on the bar table while you prepared to leave the place and escort her home.

"Earlier.... my apologies for avoiding your question." Ningguang suddenly spoke causing you to stop your actions and listen to her.

"N-No, ma'am, it's okay. You are not obliged to tell me everything...."

She sighed then took out her phone and scrolled to a particular photo then showed you the screen, your eyes immediately widening in shock.

"Is this.... your husband? And that woman...." Yes, it was a photo of her husband with another woman, and they looked very intimate like a couple. It could be brushed off as friends but the position was.... too intimate for friends, the woman was all over him and he was very much into her as well. Now, you realized why Ningguang was potentially crying at that time. You stayed silent and looked at Ningguang with sympathy while she simply let out a bitter chuckle.

"What do you think? They are just friends? That's what I want to believe as well but I have never seen her around him before, we know each other's friend groups well enough. Either she's a new addition during the time I have been away or...."

She trailed off and you noticed tears forming in her eyes. You felt infuriated. She did not deserve this at all.

"....I suggest you should talk to him and clear up things, having doubts and misinterpretating can lead to unnecessary conflicts between you two. You should take some time off from work, I'll handle everything for you, ma'am."

Ningguang pinched her temple and pondered for a moment before nodding, "I know, you are right. But hypothetically speaking, if this is what I think this is then.... what should I do? I....I don't know how to face him."

"You shouldn't think of that possibility, ma'am. He loves you, doesn't he? You should trust that and talk to him openly. I....don't think he would do this to you; you are amazing and so beautiful, it could just be a misunderstanding."

You wanted to comfort her and give her some hope but deep down, you weren't so sure yourself. The picture was too obvious to be misunderstood, but you didn't want to see Ningguang upset. She finally smiled a little and nodded then you helped her stand up and escorted her to her car. She was more drunk now and leaned on your shoulder, wrapping her arms around your body and snuggling into your neck.

"....It's my fault, isn't it? It's all because of how neglectful I have been, I have barely spent any time with him. Everyone says I'm married to my work now, he waits for me every day and I come home late then leave early morning without talking to him at all. This was bound to happen, it's all my fault..."

She was rambling, blaming herself for everything. You hated seeing her this way, you knew how much she loved him. "But...But I have been holding back so much as well. I also have needs! We haven't touched each other in so long....and he goes and finds someone else."

CEO!Ningguang who later talks to her husband and finds out it was a misunderstanding, the woman really was a new friend he made. The smile on her face returned and she became more relaxed, there was no greater joy for you than to see her being happy again. She thanked you for your advice and started having a better work-life balance.

You supported Ningguang even more and sent her home early so she could spend time with him; although, you never stopped doubting him because that photo was way too suspicious and you felt he was lying just to take advantage of her and her money. You became a comfort person for Ningguang, a shoulder to cry on whenever she needed it. She shared with you her personal things and regularly asked for suggestions for her love life.

You thought all things were going well until one day when you came across another photo of him with that same woman from before. Once again, Ningguang was sobbing in her office that night while holding you close and rambling. She revealed that she had planned to talk about having children with him soon and also booked a vacation to spend time together but now she could no longer go about it.

You couldn't see her this way. You comforted her and slowly told her that she should reconsider her marriage. He was cheating on her and using her money. You didn't know if his love was ever real, but you were bound to believe it wasn't. It infuriated you to see such an amazing woman like Ningguang go through this, you wanted to be there for her and help her as much as possible.

She eventually divorced and cut all connections with him and his family, even buying a separate house for herself and sending him far away. You could see her true self returning, she felt liberal and free after all this time. And she wasn't blind to ignore all the help you gave her; spending late nights in her stead to complete her work so she could enjoy.... why were you so supportive of her? She started seeing you differently and wondered if there was more to you.

"You are an idiot, Y/n." Ningguang overheard you talking with a colleague one day during your coffee break and she hid around the corner and listened in.

"Who in their right mind helps patch up the marriage of the woman she loves?! If it was me, I would have used that to come between them and taken her!" your colleague spoke with a chuckle, Ningguang's eyes widening at the statement. You loved her? You did all that.... all the while being in love with her? The time you spent advising her and helping her be with her husband.... you loved her all that time?

"Don't be ridiculous! She.... she loved him and I just wanted to see her happy, even if not with me. Besides, I'm not in her league at all. I'm fine with how things are and now that she's no longer bound to him, she can be herself and do what makes her happy."

Ningguang's heart skipped a beat, you did so much for her just to see her happy.... even her ex-husband never did that. It was always her being the giver in the relationship and she barely received anything in return from him, now she realized the true meaning of love. She realized how blind she had been, there was someone doing everything for her just the way she had been doing for him.

CEO!Ningguang who starts falling for you, seeing you as more than just a secretary or friend. She tries to be around you more, makes you accompany her to more places than before. She invites you to her house under the guise of working, just to spend more time with you because your presence is so comforting to her. She is still recovering from her broken marriage, but with you she feels loved.

She plans to confess in the near future if you don't, and till then tries to understand you better as a person. She realizes how much she has always liked you but was too blinded to see it. But what she didn't see coming was when you handed in your resignation notice one faithful day....

"Resignation? Why all of a sudden? Is the salary not up to your requirements? Is there too much work pressure? I don't see how there isn't any room for negotiation if you find something unsatisfactory here, Y/n." Ningguang was perplexed, almost on the verge of breaking down. Why were you doing this? Were you really going to bury your feelings and leave?

"No ma'am, none of that. Everything is good here; the salary and work environment, I like everything and I don't mind the work pressure either because it's very rewarding."

"Then why? I believe I deserve to hear a proper reason for this. You are one of my oldest and best employees, have you been offered a better deal somewhere else?"

Ningguang attempted to negotiate with you to make you stay; aside from how used to she was to you and your working style, she truly didn't want you to leave.

"....Are you really going to leave just like this? Without even telling me your true feelings?!" Ningguang's voice raised as she paced around the table and stood in front of you, looking at you firmly. You were confused as to what she meant, but she soon answered your doubts.

"This is how your love is, Y/n?! You'll run away without speaking a word?! You also want to leave me?!"

Your eyes widened, how did she know? And why was she being this way? You were about to say something but Ningguang grabbed your collar and pulled you into a passionate kiss, her lips kissed yours feverishly as if she wanted to own you and keep you here forever.

"Don't you dare leave me.... Is that clear?" Ningguang whispered against your lips as she pulled away from the kiss, leaving you breathless and astonished. You had no idea when she found out about your feelings but now that the cat was out of the bag, you didn't want to hold back either.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I....I love you very much, Ms Ningguang. I want to be with you and I promise to treat you well, I want to keep you happy forever."

Teacher!Lisa who is the sweetest and most beloved teacher at your university. Currently in your first year, she teaches you chemistry and let's just say the entire university has a crush on her to some extent, teachers and students alike. A kind, hardworking and sincere woman who has been teaching for 6-7 years now and has never had a complaint against her. But to everyone's vain, she's happily married for 5 years to a man arranged by her parents.

Lisa loves teaching and interacting with her students, she's always ready to put in the extra effort for struggling students and very patiently deals with problematic cases. She's usually soft spoken and pleasant to be around, but anger her and she can be quite strict and terrifying as well even if it's extremely rare to see her that way. As her student, you don't miss any of her classes due to how much you love to attend them.

Lisa eventually became your class tutor and you showed utmost enthusiasm to be the class representative in order to help her, but truthfully you just wanted to be with her more. Your classmates called you a teacher's pet but you didn't care, you genuinely wanted to help Ms Lisa and care for her just like she cares for you. You eventually grow close with her as you spend time outside of classes, doing some work or the other and chatting along.

Lisa rarely talked about her family which wasn't surprising as you were just a student, but you discovered that even with her colleagues she rarely ever shared anything and seemed to dislike the topic altogether. Everyone assumed her marriage was good considering how sweet and lovable she was, she'd make a perfect wife. But little does everyone know her dark reality....

"Ah, Y/n. Do you mind opening the window? It's gotten really warm these days...." Ms Lisa sighed and fanned her face as sweat trickled down her forehead, the two of you were sitting in the staff room during afternoon. She had called you to do some work and you agreed as it was your free lecture; coincidentally, the staff room was also empty right now as other teachers had gone for classes.

You nodded to her and stood up to slide open the nearby window and let the cool breeze flow in. You then turned around to walk back to your place when you saw Ms Lisa remove her coat and pull up her sleeves which caused you to glace at a peculiar cut on her wrist.

"Ma'am, did you get hurt?" you came closer and asked in a concerned tone. She realized where you were pointing and quickly slid her sleeve back down to hide the scar before letting out a forced smile.

"Oh, it's nothing. I accidentally brushed my hair straightener there."

"....I see, please take care of yourself."

You weren't easily convinced that's all it was but you were unable to know more. You worried about her, you hoped everything was fine.

Teacher!Lisa who actually has a toxic good-for-nothing husband living off her hard-earned money. A regular drunkard who lost his job after their marriage, she was forced to marry him because he used to be well off but in reality, he was doing illegal work that eventually got him caught and put on house arrest. She is the sole breadwinner of their household and struggles every day to make ends meet.

Lisa never let anyone know the truth about her marriage, not even her parents. She knew they wanted the best for her when they made her marry him and he did appear to be nice back then. She regularly argues with him and looks after him when she comes home, all the while managing work from the university and her basic duties.

Lisa's husband recently became violent and started hitting her during their arguments. She was coming to her breaking point but she couldn't leave him; after all, she fell in love with him after their marriage. He was handsome and gentlemanly in the beginning; despite being an arranged marriage, they got along and liked each other. She hated seeing him in this state and promised to keep supporting him even when nobody else does.

But everyone has a breaking point, and Lisa was nearing hers too. She hated having to tolerate such treatment every day, she wanted to be a good teacher and be with her students who bring her joy without having to worry about going back to a dreadful home. Then one day, her husband crossed even more borders. Now she had to live with him cheating on her as well? How could she walk into her house just to find another woman in bed with her good-for-nothing husband?

Lisa had no words and packed up her essentials then left, she did not need any explanations or excuses. How could he do that? What did she not do for him? And how is she lacking in appearance or sex drive that he'd go for some random woman? She gave him everything and he never recognized it, she had enough. She found herself at a bus stop, eyes filled with tears and no idea of what to do. That's when a miracle happened.

"Ms Lisa?! What are you doing here at this hour?!" your voice called out to her from behind, and she turned around to see you walk up to her with an excited look.

"I'm just...." she trailed off and your eyes fell on the bag she was carrying, tear stains on her face.

"What happened? Are you okay?" you asked softly and stepped closer, gently caressing her arm.

"...What about you, Y/n? Why are you out so late?" she averted your question.

"O-Oh, I'm just returning from my part-time work. My flat is nearby, would you like to come?"

"Do you live with anyone else?"

"No, it's an independent flat. I.... didn't really want a roommate."

Lisa ponders for a while and eventually agrees to come with you. A humble abode perfect for a single person, she found a strange sense of calmness and comfort in your apartment. You offered her some beverage and you found out she hadn't eaten anything since afternoon, feeling appalled and immediately went to cook for her. She trusted you, she wanted to be away from her life for now.

"Uh, sorry, I don't have too many ingredients right now. I was going to go shopping this weekend, I hope you don't mind pasta...."

Lisa looked at the plate you put in front of her, a small smile appearing on her face. "Pasta is my favorite dish, actually. But it's been a long time since I had it, thank you."

You smiled back, you knew something was up. The cheerful Ms Lisa was strangely quiet, seemingly holding back a lot of her emotions. Eventually, she finally opened up to you and told you everything about her husband- from the abuse to cheating. You were terrified hearing the horrors she faced, yet presented herself to be happy at the university, nobody could guess she faced all of that every day.

You offered her to stay at your place for as long as she wants, and that she should report him to police and talk to her parents. A divorce was the obvious couse of action, but you were in no place to advice that to her. You only hoped to comfort her and provide her a home until this passed. That night, you laid in bed together and Ms Lisa held you as she cried out, eventually falling asleep in your arms. If only she knew how much you loved her, right from the first day you saw her....

Teacher!Lisa who talks to her parents the next day and tells them everything. They feel devastated hearing what their daughter went through, and they assist her in a successful divorce where she gets maintenance claims and a secret property he had. It was a messy court case given the illegal work of the husband, but she triumphed and obtained her justice.

The case went on for a few months and Ms Lisa lived with you all this time. She helped you in your studies and enabled you to become the topper in her class, though she never used any unfair means to help you. It was sometimes hard to hide the fact that you were living together, but you both made it work. Ms Lisa wasn't open for a new relationship yet, It was true she really loved him and it was hard to move on despite all the terrible things he did.

Ms Lisa and you grow closer than ever during the time she lives with you. You act like a happily married couple more than she ever did with her ex-husband. She said she'll do all household chores to pay you for allowing her to live there, though you really didn't mind either way. You cook together, watch movies, laugh and share past memories, study, have shopping dates and what not.

Lisa did not know it yet but she was deeply in love with you, she had forgotten how it felt to be treated with love and given importance. She wondered about your love life now, if you have someone you like or wish to date. You tell her you want to focus on studies and career, but there is indeed someone you like. She becomes curious, even slightly jealous realizing the gap between you and her.

One night, you were out until late drinking with some friends. You returned home in a drunk state and Lisa was ready to tend to you. While she was surprised you had this side to herself, she was more pleased to know more about you and wanted to care for you. She was already an expert in tending to drunkards, and you were unironically so adorable acting as one.

"Ms Lisaaaa~ You are so beautiful, you know thatttt?~" you slurred as she carried you to the bed, chuckling along the way.

"You teach... so welllll.... and you are so sweettttt~"

"Yes yes, I know. You have said that even as sober~" she whispered, laying you down then going to fetch some water for you. You curled up in your pillow and when she came back, you looked so cute to her.

"I love you... Ms Lisa... I love you so much...." you slurred in a drunken state, catching her by surprise.

She smiles and gives you the water then you immediately pass out while hugging her, your head laying on her soft bosom. Lisa caresses your head and kisses your forehead in return, "Say that when you are sober, I'll give you an answer you'll like~"

It was last day of your second year, you still had 2 more years to spend at the university. You wanted to wait till graduation but couldn't anymore, you wanted to confess. And it seems, Ms Lisa was having similar thoughts. Only you both knew how much you held back when you lived under the same roof. You find her in am empty classroom waiting for you.

"I love you, Ms Lisa. I have loved you since last year, and I want to date you. But um... I understand if you don't want to, so please don't feel forced to give me—"

Your words were blocked as Lisa pulled you close and connected her lips with you in a passionate and loving kiss. Her arms wrapped around your neck as she pushed you to the wall and continued kissing, her tongue already slipping in and dancing with yours.

"Took you long enough to say that, Y/n~"

"You... knew? Since when?"

"Hehe, that's my secret~" she winked at you then jumped in for another kiss, completely devouring you this time. She knew you would treat her well, she felt at home with you and she was confident she would love you forever now.

Milf!Rosalyne, a 31-year-old who is your new neighbor. She recently moved to the apartment in front with her husband and 4-year-old son. You were 16 when the family moved in, you welcomed them along with your mother and acted as good neighbors. Rosalyne was a pleasant housewife while her husband worked in the military hence often leaving her and their son home alone.

Rosalyne used to take home tuitions and manage the entire household by herself, you eventually ended up visiting her to help around and just give her company. She was lovely and overall amazing to talk to, you discovered she did the same course you were planning to do and took some advice from her.

You often had dinner at her place on the days her husband was home. You would play with her son and secretly observe how lovey-dovey they were, it was clear they deeply loved each other and nothing could come in between. You used to watch them giggle in the kitchen, cuddle on the sofa and share small kisses throughout the day.

Rosalyne often commented how you were like a helpful big sister for her son as you helped him in studies and played together, which meant she likely saw you as a child which wasn't surprising. She found you mature for your age and admitted liking your company and it was a bonus that her son did too. She was a great mother, extremely loving and supportive.

However, you moved away to another city at 18 for studies for 4 years. Now you have returned as you found a job in your hometown and decided to live in your parent's apartment as they moved out. You harbored a crush on Rosalyne back when you regularly met her, you couldn't help but feel jealous of her husband.

You reminisced your memories of your home as you climbed the steps to your apartment. 4 years passsed yet much didn't change about the place, and you were having a sense of deja-vu. The first thing you noticed was your neighbor's door, hoping the nameplate was still the name you remembered and, it indeed was. You felt happy as well as nervous meeting her again; how was she now? would she have changed in all this time?

Once you settled your things in your apartment, you decided to finally visit the woman you have had a crush on for years. You thought being away for 4 years would make you let go of these feelings, but you never stopped thinking about her. You didn't know what she thought of you, but it was more than likely she would only see you as a friend at most.

You rang her doorbell and waited in anticipation until the door finally opened, and your breath was taken away. She looked as beautiful as the day you first saw her, it felt like you fell in love with her all over again. She scanned your figure from head-to-toe until her eyes widened as she realized who was standing in front.

"Y/n?! Oh my god, it's been so long!" Rosalyne chimed and lunged forward to hug you affectionately, hearing her call your name sent butterflies in your stomach and the hug made your heart skip a beat. You were glad to see she remembered you so fondly.

"It's been long indeed. How have you been, aunty?"

"Awh, stop that. Just call me by my name, I don't want to feel old~" Rosalyne giggled and lightly punched your shoulder before holding your wrist and pulling you inside her house. Her house mostly looked the same, but there was something strangely missing that you couldn't pinpoint. She made you sit on the sofa while she brought some water and snacks for you.

"How is Ray?" that was her son's name.

"Oh, he's been fine. He's at school right now, I'm sure he'd be delighted to see you again!~"

You chatted away as you caught up with each other, you told her you are back to living her as you found a job and she seemed really happy to have you around again.

"How's uncle been? Will he be coming back anytime soon?" you asked in a casual manner, but the answer was unexpected.

"Rostam.... passed away 3 years ago. He died on a field mission."

You didn't know what to say. You observed her looking down with a sad look and touch her wedding ring, likely reminiscing about him. You apologized for speaking that but she assured it was fine, your parents never mentioned that he died 3 years ago otherwise you wouldn't have asked. You felt deeply saddened for her and wondered how she was handling things on her own all this time.

You went back to your place with a happier remark, you offered to help her whenever she required and promised to be there for her. You later on met her son in the evening and had dinner at her place, it felt just like old times for you and you were glad she was still here and you could meet her.

Milf!Rosalyne who works multiple jobs a week to make ends meet. The military provides for the housing out of respect for her husband's service, but she has to look after everything else on her own. She takes tuitions on the weekend and works as a receptionist in a hotel during the week, also doing some additional online work whenever she can.

She had wished to find a job related to her degree but all those jobs require long working hours away from home and she couldn't do that, her son was her first priority. She was fortunate to have a pretty face and a model-like figure even at her age, but it was also a curse sometimes in this field of work.

You ended up meeting her at her place of work one day, you had come there for a meeting. You were shocked to discover she had to work this kind of job now, you really wished to help her. You tried asking your boss if there was an opening but they were not hiring, and Rosalyne also denied due to the unsuitable work hours but she appreciated your thought.

Rosalyne also faced problems in dating life now. To no surprise, not many people were willing to get together with a 37 year old single mother. Some expressed disgust without even bothering to know what happened to her husband, while some were unwilling to take on the responsibilty of a child so soon. She had not moved on from her husband but she was trying for her son's sake, to give him a father. But none of the people she met made it easy for her.

It was a Saturday evening and you were planning to stay home to rest. You had been working a lot ever since you moved here and hadn't got much time for yourself, you even weren't able to meet Rosalyne as much as you had hoped to. An unexpected ring of your doorbell called you to the front door and you find none other than Rosalyne standing with a soft smile on her face.

"Are you free by any chance today, Y/n?"

"Oh, sure I am. Do you need some help?"

"Well.... want to hangout together at my place? We can order some food and just watch some movie or show if you'd like."

Your eyes widened in surprise at her invitation, you were ready to accept right away but didn't want to appear too eager.

"Ah, that would be great. But what about Ray?"

"I sent him to my mother's place for the weekend. He had been wanting to visit for some time."

You suddenly became nervous realizing you'd be alone with her at her house. You accepted and made your way to her apartment, you offered to bring some food out of respect but she assured you it was fine and that you can order whatever you like. You ordered some pizza and snacks, while Rosalyne also bought out the wine she had and offered you a glass.

Now, here you were sitting on her couch with wine in hand and watching some random movie you both agreed upon. You had not talked much all this time, you mainly exchanged some work stories and vented frustrations. Rosalyne shared some things about her son that happened to him at school, she always appeared so happy to talk about him. She really was a great mother.

Some time passed and more wine later, she was clearly tipsy. She leaned on your shoulder and was in a soppy state now as she started venting about how hard things have been for her in finding a new partner, and the constant harrassment she faces at work yet nobody is ready for a serious relationship as soon as they hear about her son.

"Tell me, Y/n.... what am I lacking? There's all these men who flirt with me all day but the moment I set up dates and reveal the truth, they all leave.... How is it so wrong for a 37 year old single mother to find someone new?!"

She was babbling in a drunken state while holding you. There was absolutely nothing lacking in her, she was perfect in your eyes and you wouldn't even think twice about dating her, heck even marrying her. You wanted to be there for her not just as a friend but more. But you had no idea if she ever saw you that way, or if she even liked women in the first place and how her son would react to that.

"I never wanted this, Y/n.... what did I do wrong? Ray doesn't deserve this, I want to give him a complete family.... I want to have a complete family.... But Rostam... he betrayed me...."

You were caught by surprise, "Betray you? What do you mean, Rosalyne?"

"He.... he cheated on me, I found out he cheated on me years ago after Ray was born. He hid it all this time.... I discovered this at his funeral.... I don't know what to think, I can't even remember him the same way anymore.... How could he?! What did I do to deserve this....?"

She was crying while holding you now. You felt anger rise in you hearing this secret, it was quite unbelievable to you he did that when you recall how lovey-dovey they used to be and Rostam seemed like a good man. Your desire to support and love her increased even more now, you couldn't bear seeing her in this state. So much happened to her while you were away, you wished you were here.

"No! Nothing is wrong with you and you are not lacking anything! You are beautiful and strong! You are an amazing mother, Ray loves you very much! You have been so resilient all this time, I actually admire you so much for doing everything on your own. I.... Please know I'll help you! In any way! Please don't put yourself down this way, Rosa!"

You chanted before hugging her tightly, trying to convery how serious you were and really wanted her to be well. You pulled away to look at her and saw her face reddened up as she gazed at you with a needy look before placing her hands on your shoulders and leaning close.

"Any way? Then.... date me, Y/n." You were shocked beyond belief but the next thing she did was worse. She leaned in and softly kissed you, it was a gentle kiss at first then you felt her push you down and straddle you then kiss deeper. You knew this was wrong, she was clearly drunk and swept away by her emotions. But the feeling of her lips on yours made you entranced, you have wanted to kiss her for so long.

"Yes... you will be good. Ray likes you too... I can explain to him.... Be with me, Y/n, please?"

She pulled you closer by your collar and went in for another kiss, you didn't expect to make out with her this way. You felt she was being desperate by choosing you this way, you could tell she likely didn't love you and wanted you just for her son's sake as you are the only one who gave her attention and expressed willingness. Rosalyne passed out before you could answer her, and you almost felt relieved.

Rosalyne apologized to you the next day for all her actions, she genuinely felt guilty for all the things she said and did. It gave you enough indication that she really didn't like you romantically and that you stood no chance. You forgave her rather easily, you really couldn't complain experiencing that. She saw you as a good friend and you'd try to maintain that.

However, your feelings started overwhelming you and you tried to make some distance from her for some time to be able to move on and remain a friend. You ended up ghosting her texts and calls, and also rejecting all her invites to spend time together by making up some excuse for work.

Rosalyne felt you were avoiding due to that day, and she hated that so much. You were the only one she had, she didn't realize when she started liking you romantically. She knew it was wrong of her to use you but she didn't mean to, she wanted to make amends and do things right. She couldn't bear being away from you.

"Y/n, may I borrow some rice?" Rosalyne came to your house one day asking for some rice like a good neighbor.

"O-Oh sure, come in." you subsconsciously let her inside and asked her to come to the kitchen. She watched you take out the rice then silently walked up to you and hugged you from behind, catching you off guard.

"R-Rosalyne?"

"I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry for that day, Y/n. I know I did something very wrong, but please don't punish me this way..... You have become so distant, so closed off, you avoid me so much. You can hate me all you want, but please don't leave me.... not you too, please...."

Her arms tightened around you and you could tell she was weeping. You hated seeing her in this state, you never wanted to make her cry.

"....I can never hate you, Rosalyne. And I'm not ignoring you because of that. It's just.... I like you. No, I love you. I love you very much, I have loved you for years. I loved you 6 years ago too.... I want to be there for you and help you, I really do. But... I need some time to move on and forget these feelings so that I can be a true friend for you...."

Rosalyne let go of the hug and enabled you to turn around to face her. Her eyes were filled with tears, a tear rolled down her cheek and you gently smiled then wiped it away and cupped her face.

"I don't expect you to love me, it's okay. But just.... give me some time. I'm not strong enough to move on from you if you keep doing these things...."

Rosalyne's heart skipped a beat and before she knew it, her body moved on it's own to push you towards the counter as her lips relentlessly seeked yours. Her arms wrapped around your neck and she passionately kissed you, this time she was completely sober and knew what she was doing. You kissed for god knows how long, you were a panting mess by the time she stopped.

".....I love you too, Y/n. I want to be together because I love you and not for Ray's sake. I want to spend the rest of my life with you...."

[willixmsonswife]

black swan/kyra cooney-cross

*kyra cooney-cross x fem!french!journalist!reader

*it's just an aftermatch interview with one of the new signings, what could possibly happen?

*word count : 2k

*a/n : this is part one of the black swan series, i'm still thinking about how many parts i'm going to do but yeah, this is more of an introduction and when they first meet so the next part is going to be the "actual beginning". let me know what you think :)

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you never really fit into your family. not that that was something you wanted to, god forbid, but it still hurts to think that you could've had a different childhood if you had learned to act differently. but who was supposed to show you how to "act different and more girly" like your father always said? you've never been someone who talks a lot, goes out every weekend but you've always been good at voicing your opinion, especially if it was to put someone (your father) back in their place. the moments were you and your dad agreed on something were rare and gave your mum some hope that maybe, just maybe your relationship wasn't completely ruined. but it was and she knew that, she just had a hard time accepting it. you had too, when you were younger. you had idolized your father like almost every other child idolized theirs but you soon realized that your father was not like your best friend's. it had started when you were about nine and your dad got a job in london which meant that you had to move there. it was easy for your parents but for you? you threatened your parents that you would never talk to them again if they were serious about the whole situation. they were, or at least your father was and your mum followed his lead, she always did. so they forced you to come with them, even though you insisted that you could continue to live in your small city in the south of france, you just had to move in with your best friend claire. your parents laughed at your multiple tries to convince them to stay so in the middle of the following summer you had to say goodbye to your sweet french life, your classmates and claire. many tears were shed but claire's mum promised that she would ask your mum for your address and your best friend pinky-swore that she would write you. as soon as your family stepped out of your old house, you stopped talking. not a single word left your mouth during the entire journey to the new and foreign country that was intended to become your home. your father called you immature quite a few times, which you thought was hilariously contradictory to say for a man who started to scream at you every time you didn't do exactly as he said. once you entered your new "home", you instantly knew that it was never going to become a home for you, it was just a house that you lived in.

since the day you moved in, fifteen years had now passed. you had studied journalism at a university in london and found your place in the world of journalism. you had decided to focus on sport journalism, women's football to be exact. the growth you were able to witness since you started watching the arsenal women at age 11 fascinated you more than anything, which made your decision pretty easy. for a few years you've now pathed your way in the industry and it was better than you could've ever imagined. the interviews, the thorough researches before, the matches you attended, it made everything worth it and you even caught yourself sometimes thanking your parents silently for moving here despite your protests.

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it was the day of the london derby, everywhere you look on the streets you only saw red and blue and kick-off couldn't come soon enough. you had made your way to the emirates stadium earlier today, now preparing your planned interviews. you would be interviewing the captain kim little before the match and another teammate after the match, but it was still unknown who would be willing to talk to the press afterwards. everything depended on how the match would go. you were called to the side of the pitch where you got mic'd up and excitedly awaited the arsenal captain. kim didn't let you wait for long and the interview started.

"hello to everyone who's watching, my name is y/n y/l/n and i am here with arsenal's captain kim little! first of all, hello to you kim how are you doing?"

"i'm doing good, mainly focusing on the game at this moment."

"this london derby will probably decide if arsenal will still have a chance in the wsl title race, how is the team feeling about that?"

"of course we're all excited for the match, everyone is in top form and will definitely be giving 100%. the team knows that this is a crucial game but i'm also very optimistic that we can secure our deserved place in the title race."

the interview continues, the first fans start to enter the stadium and you finished asking all of your questions.

"well that was it kim, thank you for your time and good luck out there!"

"thank you for having me!"

the camera sways over to film the arriving fans and the mics get cut. it wasn't your first time interviewing the arsenal captain so she stays around for a few minutes afterwards to catch up before she has to go back to the locker rooms.

"it's always nice filming with you kim."

"right back at you y/n. i have to get back to the girls now but enjoy the match and maybe we'll see you after!"

"i will thank you!"

kim turns to leave but you stop her for one last question.

"oh kim, i forgot to ask. it'd be nice if someone from the team could answer a few quesions after the game, so could you maybe ask around?"

"i'm sure one of the newbies is up for that. i already have someone in mind, i'm sure you two will get along. i'll send her your way later."

with that, she turns around and leaves. you slowly make your way up to the pressbox while you can't help but wonder if you really just saw a little smirk on kim's face or if you're starting to imagine things.

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the game went even better than you could've imagined, arsenal scoring their first goal in the 17th minute thanks to a corner kick from katie. the second one was quick to follow with steph assisting a beautiful header from kyra cooney-cross, one of the new signings. stina also got her goal shortly after half time and kyra made the victory clear with another amazing goal while leah got her second assist. after 98 minutes, the ref ended the match and the entire emirates stadium erupted into cheers. by the time arsenal finished their walk around the pitch, you already stood by the sidelines, mic'd up and just waiting for the arsenal player that kim promised to send your way. you didn't have to wait long because as you let your eyes waver around on the pitch, you saw kim talking to a younger teammate, number 32, aka kyra cooney-cross. interviewing the woman who was awarded player of the match and scored two goals in this important game would be the best thing kim could've possibly arranged. as soon as kyra nodded and started to make her way over to where you were standing, you felt yourself getting nervous. why were you getting nervous? you had done thousands of interviews with new signings, this was your almost daily routine.

"hiya, i'm kyra cooney-cross. i'm guessing your miss y/l/n?"

you snapped out of it as soon as you heard the soothing voice of the person who was standing right in front of you.

"i- yes, yes that's me. you can call me y/n though, nice to meet you." "alright, y/n it is then."

she looked at you and you could've sworn she had the prettiest smile you've ever seen. you felt your cheeks heat up a bit but tried to ignore it.

"i'm gonna guess kim send you over to answer some questions?" "yes, exactly." "okay, let's get started then."

you signaled your camera man to come over and took a deep breath, only focusing on the interview you were about to start.

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the interview went great, the conversation flowing like the camera capturing your every movement and reaction wasn't even there. maybe that's why you didn't care to control the blush creeping up your cheeks when kyra looked at you for just a moment too long. you forgot that every question you asked and every answer kyra gave you were being recorded live for the world to see, so when it came to an end you had to quickly pull yourself together to at least make the end seem somewhat professional.

"that was the last question, thank you for sacrificing your time kyra."

you gave her your sweetest smile which she swiftly reciprocated.

"thank you for having me y/n."

much to your dismay, you now had to turn your back towards kyra.

"thank you to everyone who's watching until now, i hope you have a great evening and will join us again next saturday when arsenal faces west ham at meadow park."

the camera man nodded meaning he had stopped filming and then walked away. you turned back to see kyra still standing there, looking at you with what you would interpret as pure admiration. you felt your blood rush into your cheeks, again, and mentally cursed yourself for blushing so easily.

"everything okay?"

"yeah, no, everything's fine, i just- how do you do that so easily? talk to the camera i mean."

you looked at her, almost shocked by the fact that she was impressed by someone like you.

"what do you mean?"

"when you talk, it's almost like you don't know that hundreds if not even thousands of people are listening to every word that's coming out of your mouth. it's crazy to watch that, you're really talented y/n."

oh god she was making this whole try not to blush thing really hard.

"when i talk to the camera, i know that people are listening. that's what calms me down, and that's why i do it. people tune in to watch these interviews because they want to listen to me, not because they have to. god, that probably sounds so selfish." you let out a small chuckle before speaking again. "i haven't really been listened to by anyone my whole life, so knowing that people now want to listen to me is just crazy to me. i try my best not to disappoint them."

"oh, i'm sorry to hear that." kyra looked down at her feet, not knowing how to continue the conversation after this.

"nothing to be sorry about, really. i'm better now." you offered her a small smile, which was immediately mirrored by her.

"sooo, don't you want to join the rest and celebrate your big win miss player of the match?"

"nah, they're probably not even missing me. i can stay a bit-" she was cut off by alessia jumping on her back. "kyra you're taking way too long! we're all waiting for you!"

she got down from krya's back and looked at you. "oh hi y/n! long time no see."

you got pulled into a bone crushing hug by the blonde and didn't even have time to answer her before she started to talk again. "i have the order to take you with me cooney-cross. we wanna celebrate your goals!"

as quickly as alessia appeared, she ran off again but this time with kyra. she turned around while running to wave at you and kyra looked at you sorrily before nearly tripping and deciding that looking forward while running would probably be for the best. you waved at them, feeling kind of disappointed because of your interrupted and therefore unfinished conversation with kyra but you decided that it wasn't worth the overthinking. she was just being nice, that's the type of person she is, you shouldn't read too much into it. right?

[bug-slappy]

What Serizawa lore and dialogue in the manga that got cut from the anime are you talking about specifically I'm curious /gen

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME A REASON TO GO HAM!!! any adaptation is gonna have its cutbacks due to time restraints, but i feel like so many of serizawas lines/important moments got totally butchered or cut completely just to be replaced with cute moments that never happen in the manga.

!! MP100 SPOILERS HEAD obvi !!

First case: In the manga, when serizawa finally stands up to toichiro, things pan out COMPLETELY differently!

I feel like this is a really important moment for serizawa. whatever false idea of friendship serizawa had left is ripped away from him. its unnerving to see how brutal and ruthless toichiro is, finally showing his true colours to serizawa after manipulating him for 3 years. I feel like its also a really important moment for reigen to bare witness to. serizawa and toichiros relationship serves as an exaggerated parallel to mob and reigens. A powerful and persuasive man using a naïve esper for their powers under the false promise of learning to control their powers, whether it helps them for better or for worse. big difference is that reigen does help mob in the style of important life lessons and guiding him towards being a good person. after the separation arc, reigen realizes how manipulative he's been to mob, he becomes a better person because of it. but i feel like after the TOICHIRO fight specifically is where we see a very clear difference in how reigen treats mob. he becomes a lot more patient and less controlling. it bums me out that this interaction was cut completely from the anime. I think it must have been for time because they also cut ekubos moments.

Serizawa not knowing what getting arrested is:

Calling the Yokai hunter out on his bluff:

they replaced this with the awesome fight scene but still an awesome line i wish they kept it was so bad ass lol:

But the most shocking thing that they cut from the finale was this scene, after mob goes to reigen and serizawa for advice on asking out tsubomi:

not only is it fruity,,... but more importantly its a super important moment!!! seeing reigen open up like this in front of another person is something we havent seen up until this point!! mob and reigen have impacted each other so much, and its a FANTASTIC segway into the final chapter! absolutely crazy to me that they would cut such a deep personal moment especially considering how much BONES loves reigen.. it gets "implied" through a quick silent moment between reigen and serizawa (all they show in the anime is serizawa looking surprised at him)

not only that, but its so interesting how easily reigen opens up around serizawa. he doesn't do that around anyone else (probably because serizawa is the only person near his age playing an active role in his life bro has no friends)

and its incredible how well serizawa can already read reigen after such a short time working at S&S. serizawa tends to be quiet and hang in the background, but in the manga it has a purpose; hes observing the world around him. when he does have something to say it has importance and is carefully thought out.

in the anime so much of that important dialogue is cut and replaced with his moe salaryman moments which sure its cute, but when you know what he was really supposed to be saying its such a major let down. I feel like the writers didnt know about serizawas huge fan following hes had since his premier, so they didn't really care about him. thats my best guess as to why so many good moments got cut

also this:

serizawa mentioned during his fight with mob that hes accidentally sent his mother flying before with his powers,,, exactly like mobs traumatic moment when he sent ritsu flying and injured him when they were kids... as i mentioned earlier, serizawa has always been a very clear parallel to mob (i can talk more about that in another post if someone asks). I was really hoping theyd go deeper into this moment in the anime but it GOT CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAAUGH!!!!

and this page right after.. MAN:

BROTHER.... to me, i feel like this is the moment that made serizawa certain reigen doesnt have powers. not only does he have a talent for reading people, but he has to know by now. if he thought reigen had powers to protect himself, he wouldn't be saving his ass all the time like he does.

he knows reigen wont be fine on his own. he knows that reigen has something hugely important to tell him, important enough that reigen is willing to die to run out there and tell him

WHICH BY THE WAY THE MOST DISRESPECTFUL BUTCHERING OF A SCENE OF ALL TIME:

from what ive researched it seems like a common occurrence in japanese culture to remove your shoes before attempting suicide. this is such an intense and impactful moment for reigen to be removing his shoes. looking around and seeing the situation hes in, but still throwing himself into harms way so he can protect mob like hes done so many times before, but in this scene hes making the concious decision to go in, knowing the risk involved. INSANE THAT IN THE ANIME they made removing his shoes some sort of way to get better grip to run. obviously, running barefoot in rubble and destruction is not going to give you better foot grip.. I think they did that to make the scene more lighthearted but it just feels like poor taste.

i feel like the style choices combined with the dialogue cuts in S3 seriously take away from the intense impact of the manga. ONE has such a talent for writing characters to be fleshed out human beings as well as interpersonal relationships. season 1 and 2 did such a good job of showing that even when there had to be scene cuts.

if you havent already, I think you should for sure read the manga. its even more life changing to me than the anime already is, and ONE has a beautiful art style and can convey strong emotions better than anything else ive ever seen. I have more good serizawa moments than this that were cut, and a lot of dialoue between mob and ??? was removed too, but i don't want to spoil every funny joke or character building moment.

this is why i think everyone should read the manga and the REIGEN spin off book :) thank you for reading through this!

ps: devastated when this got cut

[moonstruckme]

I would love something similar to the attending dr Remus story but maybe with ceo!sirius? All of his employees see him as a ruthless business man and are scared of him and maybe reader shows up to have lunch with him and she’s been crying or upset about something and Sirius just melts into a little puddle in front of everyone trying to comfort her 🥲🥲

Thanks for requesting!

ceo!Sirius x fem!reader ♡ 1.1k words

You swear, Sirius’ office has to be soundproofed. You hadn’t heard a thing on the way over, anticipating him to be quietly working at his desk, but when you go inside he’s standing behind it, all but shouting into the empty room. 

“I’m looking at the numbers right here.” Sirius has his hands braced on the varnished wood, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and he jabs one finger into the stack of papers in front of him as if for emphasis. “Do you have any idea—”

At the sound of the door opening and your quiet oh, he looks up. The severity melts from his expression, replaced by a familiar smile. “Hi, sunshine.” His voice seems to have melted too, the bark you’d heard when you’d come in replaced by something soft and crooning. “Lunchtime already?” 

“Sorry,” you say, hand inching back towards the door handle. “Len said I could come right in, I didn’t—”

“No, I told him to tell you that,” Sirius waves you forward, coming around his desk to kiss you hello. “I never want to keep you waiting, I…hey.” His brows furrow as he moves closer. “Hey, baby, is something wrong?” 

You blink. “No.” It comes out sounding like a question. 

Sirius palms your face. You lean into the touch instinctively, but then he thumbs at something on your cheek. “You’ve been crying,” he murmurs. 

Shit. You’d forgotten to clean yourself up. Have you been walking around with mascara tracks down your face all day? No wonder Len had looked at you the way he had. 

“Oh, that’s from earlier,” you say as breezily as you can. “I’m good now.”

But Sirius isn’t having it. He frowns, taking your face in both hands and inspecting you carefully. “What happened?” 

You try to shrug, but it feels futile and pathetic when he’s looking at you like that. “I got yelled at by some guy on the way to work.” 

“What?” he asks, dismayed. His hands slide down your shoulders to take your hands, guiding you to his seat. “Who yelled at you?” 

“It was—I don’t know, just some guy.” Tears press at the base of your throat, but you refuse to let them loose. It was a silly thing to begin with, and you’ve cried enough about it. “I was driving, coming up to a light, and I—okay, I know I was in the wrong, because I wasn’t paying enough attention, and I stopped right in front of a parking lot.” You cast your eyes down, chewing your lip. Sirius crouches by the chair so he can see your face. Clever maneuvering, but you suppose he didn’t get to where he is by poor planning. “I should have left a space for them to turn while the rest of us waited at the light, you know? But I just wasn’t thinking, and then I couldn’t back up, because there were people behind me, and this guy—” You swallow. Sirius rubs your knee, the crease between his brows deepening. “This guy got out of his car and came up to my window and was, like, screaming at me about what an idiot I was.” 

Sirius has got one hand on each of your knees by now, his perfectly pressed trousers wrinkling from his crouch. He looks up at you, indignation and upset warring in his eyes. “Oh, sweetheart, that’s awful. Fuck, I’d be crying too. Everyone messes up that stuff sometimes, who gave that prat the right to yell at you about it?” 

You shrug again, biting your lip to keep it from wobbling. Sirius can tell, and he coos, rising enough to needle his arms under yours. “C’mere, baby.” 

You accept the invitation eagerly, pressing your face into his collar and inhaling the faint musk of his cologne. He scrubs a firm hand back and forth between your shoulder blades. A few seconds of silence pass before the phone on his desk crackles to life. 

“Uh, sir?” 

You jolt away from him as if you’ve been caught, but Sirius doesn’t seem all that phased. 

“Yeah, that’ll be all for now,” he says insouciantly. “We’ll have to pick this back up later this afternoon.” 

“You’re on a call?” you accuse. 

“S’just a conference call, sweet thing. Ran a bit long.” 

A conference call?

“What time did you want to reconvene?” a different voice asks tentatively. You cover your face with your hands. They feel cool against the burning heat of your skin. 

Sirius rubs your shoulder lightly. “Say, four? And John, take a closer look at those numbers. You could save us all a lot of time by seeing sense.” 

“Yessir,” another voice—John, you assume—says. “And, erm, very sorry about your incident, miss. Sure the other bloke was just having an off day.” 

“Thanks,” you squeak, but Sirius says over you, “Mind your goddamn business, John,” and hits a button to hang up the phone. 

“Sirius,” you say miserably after making sure to check that the light on the phone is no longer on. “How could you not tell me you were on a call?” 

“Excuse me, I had other priorities at the moment,” he argues, taking your wrists and prying your hands from your face. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You’ve no reason to be embarrassed.” 

“I complained about my road rage incident on your conference call!”

“It was a call full of accountants, love. You’ve probably just reminded them they’re alive.” 

You give him a look. “I’m very cross with you.” 

Sirius smiles. “Rats, if only there were a way for me to make it up to you.” He stands, grabbing a paper bag you hadn’t noticed from beside his desk. “Would my favorite girl’s favorite sandwich from her favorite sandwich shop be a good place to start?” 

“That is a lot of favorites,” you allow, but the words don’t quite process until he pulls a wrapped sandwich out from the bag. You gasp, reaching for it. “Oh my god, how long did you have to wait in line for this?”

“I didn’t,” he says, somewhat sheepish. “Len waited over an hour, though.” 

“You owe him a raise,” you say sternly, but accept the peace offering, peeling off the wrapping. 

Sirius laughs when you bite into your sandwich and moan. “Damn, baby, you’ve never made sounds like that for me.” 

“It’s a different kind of love,” you say through a mouthful. 

“Enough to make your shit day a bit better?” 

You slow in your chewing to give him a soft look. “More than enough. Thanks, Siri.” 

“You’re welcome.” He gives you a saccharine smile, leaning forward for a kiss, but you dodge him. 

“Wait, m’chewing!”

“And?” He takes your face in both hands, holding you captive as he pecks you firmly on the lips. “There. Waited way too long for that.”

[adripakoffee]

Thinking about Curly too because you mfs give him too much leeway!!! FUCK CURLY MAN!!

So like, obviously, what happened to him was tragic but he could've prevented the events of the game so easily. Firstly, he's the one who got Jimmy on the ship. Jimmy's not supposed to be there, he literally isn't even a freighter pilot. It's heavily implied the reason Jimmy is on the ship is that Curly was helping him run from the law.

This exhibits Curly's biggest problem in the game. He's Jimmy's friend first and his boss second. He puts Jimmy ahead of everything, so despite his past history of what we can presume to be violence, he puts him on a small ship with other people who are now vulnerable to his abuse. And he knows, he's aware that there's a chance these people could be victimized by Jimmy and says and does nothing. This next part is my personal theory, but I think he knew Daisuke was coming with them before he invited Jimmy, he just didn't say anything.

Curly's second big sin is what he does to Anya. He finds out what Jimmy's been doing to her and he says he'll do something, anything. But he doesn't. I said it earlier, but I think Anya thought that Curly would have Jim arrested on landing, but even then, there's some short term things he could've done. Here's a list actually because oh my god, there's so much he could have done.

Set up a bed for Anya in medical. Y'know, a door with an actual lock.

Put Jimmy in a cryopod as a holding cell.

Fire Jimmy, which seemingly wouldn't do much until you remember you need the captain to do half the shit on the ship.

Lockdown Jimmy, essentially lock down anything Jimmy could use as a weapon. The only two weapons on the ship are guarded by codes, but anyone could figure them out in a couple days. this goes hand in hand with the last one.

Literally just fucking kill him.

And before someone says "Oh, if Curly did anything, Jimmy would've acted out, he would've turned violent anyway." There are four other crew members and one Jimmy. If Jimmy had turned violent so early on, I fully believe Daisuke could've just bodied him. It wouldn't be that hard to pacify him if, say, he was ganged up on by three men.

The problem at the end of the day is that Curly is Curly, Jimmy's best friend before he's Captain Curly of the Tulpar. He cares more about Jimmy than the well-being of the people he's supposed to care about. He doesn't take Jimmy seriously when he is outwardly awful and pretty much straight up tells Curly he's gonna crash the ship. Like Curly does nothing because he doesn't think of Jimmy as a bad person. He can't even comprehend it until he's in a position where he's completely at Jimmy's mercy.

Now there's a couple of interpretations on the metaphor of what Curly's disability means and I'm gonna yap about at least 2, idk I'm just ranting.

The first one is that Curly is now Anya, or rather in her position. He's got no agency over his own body, he literally can't move, and he's forced to trust Jimmy with his life. He's in constant pain, he wants to die, and he can't. Anya cannot stand giving Curly his medicine so she lets Jimmy do it. She's putting a vulnerable person at Jimmy's mercy, just like Curly did, except this time he's on the receiving end. And whenever it's just Curly and Jimmy alone in the med bay, Jim is just beating the shit out of this guy for no reason. Like there is no need to be doing all that, but Jimmy is a violent person, and Curly just ignored it for too long.

The second interpretation that I also really like it that Curly is Anya's baby. Jimmy has done something heinous and it's left Anya caring for someone she can't feasibly support. Her ability to keep Curly alive for so long is a testament to how resilient and determined she is, but at the end of the day she can't take it. It's not just the fact that she has to care for Curly that drives her to take her life, it was a lot of things, but the stress of dealing with Curly was definitely part of that.

This next part isn't Curly's fault, it's Pony Express' but if he survives long enough to be found, he no longer has a future. He can't be a pilot anymore, he'll more than likely be forced to take responsibility for the deaths of the crew, the rehab process will take years and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's cooked. This leans into the him becoming Anya thing, he's been put in a position where he can't work but is forced to deal with a heavy financial burden. The difference is, this is his own fault.

He could've prevented all of this if he hadn't ignored all the red flags. In the dead pixel scene he says the one pixel doesn't hinder his enjoyment of the whole image, he can ignore it. That's what he did. When he looks a the bigger picture or the grand scheme of things he can ignore a few dead pixels. The way he sees it, he's given Jimmy a whole year to pull himself out of a "struggle" so when he gets back to Earth things will be okay again. In his eyes, Jimmy's bound to have a few slip-ups and unfortunately, what he did to Anya was one of them. So that's just a pixel he can ignore.

LONG STORY SHORT, CURLY IS AN ENABLER AND LITERALLY THE ONLY WAY HE WAS GONNA LEARN WAS IF HE BECAME A VICTIM TOO!!!!

Apologies if any of this is worded weird, it's just brain vomit.

I also did an Anya rant

[imagopirateversion]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales; Why It Shouldn’t Exist

Or how I invested time and energy into an analysis of a relatively dead franchise instead of doing it for my actual media analysis university course.

An essay by: a bitter and obsessed PotC fan since they were 7, with a lot of free time.

Lads, this is going to be long. You have been warned.

The Beginning

At the very beginning of the movie, we see a young Henry Turner looking for his dad.

Now, we're not talking about characterization problems or how likely it is that a ten-year-old child would risk his life to look for a man he technically only saw once; we're talking about plot problems, actual logical fallacies. My questions are:

How? The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ship, impossible to be found unless She wants to be found. The only reason we see Her in Dead Man's Chest is because Davy Jones himself is looking for Jack to collect his debt, and in that occasion the Dutchman's captain wasn't even doing what he was supposed to do, so he was most definitely in the living world. Will otherwise, he's doing the job Calypso gave him, so he's constantly in between. Is the movie trying to convince me that a kid was able to do something no one in the history of piracy was ever able to do? And even if he did, why hasn't anyone explained me how? He simply looks at a map and throws himself on the bottom of the ocean. How did he know The Dutchman was there? How did he know it would've come to surface?

Where is his mom? We got to know Elizabeth in the first three movies; we know she's a smart woman and we can assume she's an attentive mother. She didn't notice her son preparing himself for a trip in the middle of the ocean to go look for his dad? Was she distracted? Was she outsmarted by a 10ish-year-old? Or is she just not contemplated in this scenario?

Why does Will look like that? Will is doing his job, so... why does he look like he's slowly corrupting? That kind of corruption is the punishment Calypso reserves to The Dutchman's crew when the captain fails her, which isn't the case. Did they forget about it? Was the idea of putting algae on Orlando Bloom's face just impossible to resist to?

Alright, this isn't actually from this movie but it's bothering me, so I have to write it; also, it would make this whole movie unnecessary, so it's somehow related to it. Why (and I can't stress this enough) can't Elizabeth be on the Dutchman? Why can't they do the job together? Is it because she's not a pirate? I'm pretty sure se actually is. Is it because she's a woman? Last time I checked she was the KING. She wants to stay with Will forever, Will wants to stay with her forever, they can literally live forever on the same ship. Why aren't they?

Whatever the Hell Happened to Jack Sparrow

Imagine creating a character that is so iconic whenever you ask a person who was a kid in the early 2000 to imagine a pirate, they imagine said character.

Now imagine fourteen years pass and you decide to ruin that character by making him the most hideous, annoying, idiotic person in the whole saga, and we're talking about a saga that has Philip the Missionary in it. Why? Jack Sparrow is THE anti-hero. Never on the right side, but never on the wrong one. You can tell he's doing something morally questionable, but you still find yourself rooting for him. He's stupid enough to make you laugh, but he's secretly clever enough to always get away with it. Now he's just... drunk. And that's not even an excuse for this horrendous new characterization, because he was always drunk. The guy FORGOT HE WAS ROBBING A BANK, the same guy just one movie earlier was able to escape from the King of England's palace and steal a lady's earring (by pretending to be a literal slut) in the process. He just switched from the iconic drunk bi bestie everyone loves to my cringe uncle that drinks too much at Christmas parties and makes everyone uncomfortable. Please, if the risk is ruining an entire generation's beloved character, either don't make the movie or find a better explanation than "Bad luck dogs you day and night".

The Pearl in The Bottle

So... what you're telling me is that Jack Sparrow, the guy who was able to defeat Hector Barbossa, Davy Jones and Blackbeard thanks to his slyness, and who loves his Black Pearl more than anything else in the world, had said ship in a bottle in his pockets for FIVE YEARS... and he never thought about breaking the bottle to free Her. That's what you're telling me. This is the pivotal point upon which the entire Jack's plot hinges. I... I don't even know what to say. Was this supposed to be funny?

What an Incredibly Lucky Coincidence

A guy needs a treasure to save his father. To find it, he needs the help of a notorious and legendary pirate. He looks for him everywhere, sailing on dozens of ships just so he has the remote chance to stumble across the pirate. The last ship he's been on has sinked, he's the only survivor. He's been found in the middle of the ocean and someone brought him to the nearest city. Which city? I mean, the one that has both the pirate he was looking for and a lady who's the only person in the whole planet who's able to find the treasure he was looking for! And, oh my... he finds the both of them! In that same city! Without even LOOKING FOR THEM! A hell of a coincidence, if you ask me. Also known as lazy writing.

What's Wrong With the Guards?

Now, I know Pirates of the Caribbean isn't exactly known for its accurate historical reconstructions, but why are the guards in this movie acting like they're some sort of hellhounds ready to kill anyone in sight? Even pirates and traitors as Jack and Henry were supposed to stand trial before being sentenced to death. It would've probably been an unjust and barbaric trial, but there should've been one. We literally saw it, in the previous movie. Why's Jack been sentenced to death for simply existing here? He gave pirate vibes and they decided that was enough?

Paul McCartney

This is not an actual point of the analysis, I just wanted to remind people that Paul McCartney is in this movie and that's the only valid reason to watch it.

Salazar

I am confused. Once again, I have questions.

El Matador Del Mar was so good at his job he had almost defeated piracy. "The last ones joined together to try and defeat me". The last what? Pirates? There were no pirates left? This happened when Jack was young, so a lot of time before the first movie, right? Where were, I don't know... Blackbeard? Davy Jones? Barbossa? All the other Pirate Lords? I might be wrong, but I guess Salazar didn't kill them, did he? Why weren't they there during that "last battle" in which "the last ones joined together"?

The Devil's Triangle. I just don't understand what's the logic behind it. So, this is a cursed place. Whoever enters there, can't get out. One would think it means that if you get there, you die; and Salazar does die, but he somehow also becomes a ghost whose only purpose is to find Jack Sparrow and have his revenge. So, do people become ghosts when they get in The Devil's Triangle? We have to assume people have gotten stuck in there before; otherwise, there wouldn't be legends around the place. So why isn't it like full of spirits ready to haunt people? Why are Salazar and his crew the only ones?

Poseidon or Calypso?

What's the Trident of Poseidon? Does Poseidon exist? Isn't Calypso the Goddess of the sea? Breaking the Trident, you break all the curses of the sea, so the Trident must be more powerful than Calypso, which leads to a question. Where is she? She IS the sea, right? So she must have known someone was about to find the Trident and brake all curses, including her one. She just decided it was okay? It really feels like someone decided to suddenly change the world's mythology without giving explanations.

The Compass

This is possibly the most blatant plot hole in the whole saga. Probably the most blatant plot hole I've ever witnessed, and man, I watched all the Harry Potter movies. In Dead Man's Chest, Jack meets Tia Dalma in her "shop" and he tells her he's looking for the Davy Jones' key. She asks him "The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?", making another pivotal point of Dead Men Tell No Tales factually senseless.

That man couldn't have given his compass to Jack, because that wasn't his compass.

So either Salazar is lying while telling his tale or they forgot about that line in the second movie. Anyway, let's pretend that line doesn't exist; even if that captain gave Jack his compass in that exact moment, why would it be the key to free Salazar, exactly? How is the compass in any way related to The Devil's Triangle or to Salazar? In the movie, they try to explain it with a sentence: “if you betray it, your greatest fear comes true”. So, is Salazar Jack's greatest fear? I really doesn't seem right, Jack almost didn't remember Salazar when Henry mentioned him. To Jack, he's only a guy he outsmarted decades earlier. Also, Jack technically already gave the compass away, twice: to Elizabeth in Dead Man's Chest, to make her find the chest, and to Beckett in At World's End, when they're negotiating.

That's... That's Just Body Shaming, Mate

Let's talk about her. So, the woman's ugly. It can happen that a woman is ugly. Was it necessary to build an entire scene around some blatant body shaming? This scene wants to mimic the similar scene in Dead Man's Chest: Jack's on an island, running from the main villain, and he's forced to do things he doesn't want to do until someone saves him, then it was Will, now it's Hector.

Except in Dead Man's Chest it was LITERAL CANNIBALISM he was facing, and yet he looked LESS TERRIFIED and DISGUSTED. What's exactly the message here? Lads, is marrying an ugly woman worse than cannibalism? I don't know... that was just bad.

Justice for Hector Barbossa

If you know me (you probably don't, but if you do) then you know about my obsession with Hector Barbossa. I truly believe he's the best written character in the saga, and he's in my top five of the characters I love the most in all media. I watched The Curse of the Black Pearl when I was seven and I am autistic, so I had all the time to develop a literal relationship with these characters in my head. As much as Geoffrey Rush's interpretation was impeccable, as always, it really hurt to watch Hector in this movie. He just doesn't sound like him. First of all, why isn't he on the Queen Anne's Revenge? Why's he letting someone else sail around on his ships? He would've never. Why's he just sitting on a throne and shooting musicians instead of, I don't know... being a pirate? Being a pirate is the only thing that matters to him. He says it at the end of On Stranger Tides, and he even says it in this movie, to the witch. "I'm a pirate. Always will be".

So, why isn't he pirating? What happened to him? And what about the pact with the witch? He made her curse all his enemies; that's honestly the most out-of-character thing he could've done.

Seriously, watch this movie, and then The Curse of the Black Pearl and tell me he sounds like he's the same character. Then there’s his death... was it necessary? And I don't mean if it was necessary to the plot (it wasn't), but the way he died, did it make sense? He takes the sword and sacrifices himself to kill Salazar, but WHY? Salazar was back a mortal. They could've brought him to surface and then shoot him. What was the point of his death, Disney? I will never forgive you.

I would've preferred if they never showed him again. He's alive and living his best life in Tortuga, if you ask me.

How does Carina Smyth exist?

Let's do the maths. Carina Smyth has approximately the same age as Henry Turner, who was born around nine moths after the end of At World's End. At the end of that movie, Barbossa once again stole the Black Pearl (he's iconic we stan a legend), so we have to assume it is during that time (between the At World's End and On Stranger Tides) that he conceives Carina. He stays with this woman during the whole pregnancy, bacause he says he was there when she died. So nine months, at least, right? Except; Jack makes it clear that he and Barbossa met Carina's mom, Margaret, together.

When, exactly, did this happen? It can't be between On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales, because Hector himself says only five years passed between the two, and Carina doesn't look like a five-year-old;

it can't be between At World's End and On Stranger Tides, because we know Jack and Barbossa weren't together, and Hector was too busy losing a leg and planning his revenge by working for the King of England; it can't be during At World's End, because Barbossa was too busy rescuing Jack and then slaying (literally and metaphorically) Beckett's men to save piracy; it can't be during Dead Man's Chest, because he was dead; it can't be during The Curse of the Black Pearl, nor during the ten years before it, because he was... he was a skeleton, I hardly believe he could reproduce, despite what’s written in some fanficions; it can't be before, of course, because Carina would be too old. The only chance, but it's a stretch, is that Hector and Jack met this Margaret Smyth years and years before, and that at a certain point (while he was still busy slaying, losing a leg or planning his revenge), for some reason he decided to come back to her and accidentally had a daughter. That would mean that Jack remembered Margaret Smyth's name DECADES after he met her.

The Post-Credit Scene: What?

WHY'S DAVY JONES BACK? The Trident technically broke all the curses of the sea. He is THE cursed man of the sea. AND HE'S DEAD. The only answer I was able to give me, is that the moment the Trident broke the curses, the curse that said if you stab his heart he dies was also broken, so he technically didn't die, but it makes even less sense, because if the curses just aren't real anymore, then a man shouldn't be able to... carve out his heart and put it in a chest, right? (Which by the way, makes Will Turner being alive senseless as well). Even if so, Davy should've come back as a human.

My conclusion is that this movie should not exist, and we, as a community, should pretend it was never made. Hector is alive. Bye.

Imago

[suhkusa]

It’s dark outside when you wake up from your nap. You feel uncomfortable and weird in your day time clothes, so you slide out of your bed and quickly change. The time spent on your bed is short when you finally check your phone. 

Your eyes widen when you read Osamu’s texts. You quickly type out a response on the lines of “sure,” before you’re sliding on your slippers and heading outside. As you close your door, you can hear the neighbor’s door swing open. 

You can see his figure in the darkness, and you know he can see you as well. The two of you meet on the sidewalk that connects the walkways of your guys’ house.

“Hey, Y/N,” he sounds a bit tense, but it’s the same old Osamu if you had to guess.

“Hey,” you follow him in taking a seat on the curb. A good amount of distance between the two of you, but just enough where you could still make out his facial features in the dead of the night.

“How have you been?” Osamu starts the conversation. He’s staring off into the distance.

“I’ve been good, just finished up finals. You?” 

“Same here, I suppose. And your friends?” 

Your head tilts in thought, “They’re good as well,”

There’s a moment of silence before a question that has been poking at your mind finally works its way out. 

“How come you’re back home? Isn’t there practice for the new season?” 

You can see his eyebrows raise from your peripheral vision. Did you say something wrong?

“Oh, well,” his legs bend so he can hold his knees a bit closer, “I quit the team a while ago,” 

Your eyes finally widen, “Oh shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“Nono, it’s all good. A lot of people are shocked when I tell them, too,”

“How did Atsumu react?”

The man beside you laughs a bit to himself, “As bad as you’d expect. It was around the time that… you know, happened so he had a lot of emotions pent up already,”

“I see,” is all you’re able to manage. 

You know. None of you ever seem to know what to call that situation. A few moments pass by as the two of you bask in quietness. 

“Do you hate me?” his question catches you extremely off guard. 

“What? No- I could never, ‘Samu,” your eyes are full of worry when you finally look his way. “I’m sorry if I ever made it seem like that. I care so much for you, even ‘Tsumu. I know I used to scold and fight with you a lot, but it’s because I really cared. You were my bestest friend at one point and it hurt to see you sabotaging your heart like that,”

“I-” Osamu runs a hand through his hair, “I’m sorry, too. For everything. I was childish and I didn’t know how to deal with my feelings for you. Atsumu came up with the idea. The truce, I mean. I just went with it, because on the off chance that you chose him, it meant he wouldn’t be able to have you,” but it happened anyways, you know he wants to say.

“I guess since it’s already out in the open, I can just say it. But I’ve liked you. I still like you. I’m sorry it’s stupid-”

You swiftly cut him off before he can continue, “It’s not stupid, like, at all. I liked you in our third year. I.. I was going to tell you but then you suddenly became distant, so the timing felt bad,”

Osamu sighs before tucking his face into his hands. “Fuck,” you hear him mutter under his breath.

“Is it really too late?” 

If you were caught off guard earlier, you didn’t know what to call this gut-wrenching feeling now. You already know the answer, but you’re scared. You feel like you’ve already screwed up so much, that any little thing you do next will just end in pieces.

“It’s not,”

You see him peek up at you from where he was looking down, urging you to continue. 

“I just… Just give me time, alright?”

All he does is nod in response.

And for once in your life, it feels the universe is finally reassuring you that it’ll be okay. 

BOTH AIN’T SH!T ( OSAMU VER.) — TIME

PREV | MASTERLIST | NEXT

NOTES.

osamu was falling asleep when y/n texted back but he jumped up when he heard the notif

his phone’s volume button is broken from throwing it after he texted

atsumu cried when he was fighting with osamu because too much was happening at the time (part of him felt guilty too)

© all writings belongs to suhkusa 2024. do not repost or change.

[kpop---scenarios]

Take Me Home

Pairing: Song Mingi x Reader

Warning: Jealousy, Smutty smut. [18+ ONLY. MINORS DO NOT INTERACT]

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: I forgot I had some of this written...so here you go lol

“Y/N…Y/N.” You hear, your body being shaken. You open one eye, seeing a man you didn't want to see. Your husband's bodyguard and the only person he truly trusted.

“What?” You groan, looking over at the clock. Shit. 6pm, your afternoon power nap had gone on a lot longer than you expected it too.

“Your presence has been requested tonight.” San says, holding up a dress for you.

“By who?” You ask, sitting up, rubbing your eyes.

“Your husband.” He says.

“My husband? My husband, who I haven't seen in the last few weeks since we've been married, that husband?” You ask.

San nods his head, while you stretch out your still sleepy body. “Where?”

“Club K.” He tells you.

“Is there anything specific happening tonight?” You ask, crawling out of your bed, the one you were supposed to share with your husband but you'd been sleeping in it alone.

“There's a deal. He needs you to get ready and meet him there.” San says, laying the dress down on the bed before exiting the room.

You hadn't even heard two words from Mingi since he'd been gone but yet he was able to just demand you show up somewhere? That's really fair. You would go, because you were a good wife, but you weren't going to be happy about it. It had been instilled in you when you grew up that what your husband asks of you, you do so without hesitation, and that's what you would do.

You'd fallen for Mingi over the short time your parents had you meet and get to know each other before you got married. And you knew he felt the same too, but unfortunately for you, he let his work take over his life, but part of you had expected to be a little more involved with him after the wedding. Maybe that would come, in time. You hoped but you weren't expecting much.

Over the next few hours, you took your time doing your makeup and your hair, until San began aggressively knocking on your bedroom door, trying to rush you.

“I'll be out in a minute. Just getting dressed.” you yell as you slip on the long black halter dress San had brought in for you earlier. It fits you perfectly, hugging the curves of your body just right, the long slit showing off your legs. You smile to yourself, slipping on your heels, feeling extra sexy tonight. You grab your bag, pulling open the door where San waited for you.

“Let's go.” You tell him, making your way to the staircase. San follows closely behind you, he was the best of the best and the only one your husband trusted to keep an eye on you when he was away.

“Just go in the front. Yunho is working at the door. He knows you're coming. I'm gonna park the car and I'll meet you inside.” San says, pulling up to the club. You get out of the car, adjusting your dress before you wave to Yunho, who opens the rope for you to pass and make your way inside, leaving the line of groaning people behind you. As you walk inside, you don't see your husband anywhere, so instead of trying to find him, you make your way to the bar, getting a few shots before you begin your hunt.

“Hey.” You hear from behind you. You turn to look, hoping to see someone you knew but it wasn't. “You're gorgeous.” The man smiles.

“I know. Thanks.” You say, turning around, walking past him to continue the hunt for your husband, but when you spot him, he's not alone. He's surrounded by a few men that you know, some that you don't and a beautiful woman, with her hand resting on his bicep.

If that's how he wanted to play things, you were more than capable of doing the same.

You headed back to the bar, ordering a few more shots, taking them as you glared at Mingi and the woman. This isn't something that was done, especially in public. You could feel your buzz set in almost immediately after the fifth shot. You keep your eyes on them as you make your way to the dance floor, feeling every beat of the song that was playing, rubbing your hands all over your body as you sway your hips. You watch as one of Mingi's men points you out, just as someone slides a pair of hands around your waist, holding you closely. You watch as Mingi’s smile fades from his face, anger quickly replacing it. He pulls his moves away from the group, yanking his arm from the woman, who stumbles slightly but the sudden movement. You turn around, seeing the man from earlier dancing behind you. “Get off me.” You scoff, pushing him away.

“I just wanted to dance.” The man laughs, trying to go back to the same position.

“So did I, alone.” You say, rolling your eyes. Before the man can answer, Mingi slips past you, grabbing the man by his collar.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Why the fuck are you touching my fucking wife?” Mingi spits, tossing the man to the floor. Minhi gets on top of the man, smashing him in the face with his fist, over and over again.

“Fuck, Mingi!” You yell. He stops, turning to look at you, anger still spread across his face. You roll your eyes, storming off the dance floor, heading towards the bathroom. You open the door to the ladies room, highly loudly as you lean against the sink. You look at yourself in the mirror, adjusting your makeup before you move back to grab the door. Before you can, the door is pushed in, Mingi steps into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

“Where do you get off letting other men touch you?” He asks, cocking his head to the side as he begins to roll up his sleeves.

“Me?” You scoff. “Where do you get off letting other women touch you?” You ask.

“That wasn't…” he begins. You put your hand up, moving past him, to leave the bathroom but he grabs you, pinning you against the door.

“You don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you.” He whispers in your ear, his hot breath sending shivers down your spine. He pulls himself back slightly, staring you in the eyes. Your eyes dart from his down to his plump lips before back up. Mingi pins you against the door as his lips crash to yours. He pushes his body against yours as he slides his tongue into your mouth, the kiss becoming needy and passionate. Mingi's hands roam your body. You move your hand to his chest, feeling his hard muscles beneath his shirt, before moving your hand down over his stomach, feeling the rigidness of his abs. You move your hand lower, grazing your palm over the bulge in his crotch, making him moan into your mouth.

Mingi pulls himself away from you. "Open." He demands. You open your mouth, watching him as he places two fingers in your mouth. You close your mouth around his fingers, sucking them hard. He pulls his fingers from your mouth, turns you around,lifts your skirt up and moves your panties to the side. He takes his two fingers pushing them inside of you, making you moan.

He pulls his fingers from your mouth, turning you around to lift up your dress, and moving your panties to the side. He takes his two wet fingers between your pussy lips, pushing them deep inside of you, making you cry out.

"Shit." You cry.

He pumps his fingers in and out of you a few times before pulling them out, unbuttoning his pants, letting his cock spring free before lubing his cock with your juices. Mingi moves you to the counter, harshly bending you over. He lines his cock up with your opening, ramming himself into you.

You clench your teeth together as your pussy stretches out to fit his large cock. "Fuck." He grits, his hands holding onto your hips and he starts harshly thrusting in and out of you at a rapid pace. You can feel your pussy juices seeping from inside you every time he pulls himself out just enough, before slamming back into you. Mingi moves his hand from your hips wrapping his arm around your neck, pulling you into his chest.

“So fucking tight.” He groans, squeezing his arm around your neck tightly as he pushes his cock into you, even harder. His thrusts are fast and hard, your eyes roll back into your head with each thrust.

"Oh.. my.. god." You stutter, his arm squeezing tighter. His other hand reaches down between your legs, using two fingers to rub your clit quickly. "Shit. Fuck I'm going to cum." You cry out. His fingers rubbed quicker, moving his other hand up to your mouth, shoving his fingers into your mouth as he continued to rub your clit with his other hand. You suck on his fingers harder, your orgasm hitting seconds later, your body shaking as you work through your high, Mingi still pounding your pussy.

Mingi takes his hand from your mouth and away from your clit, bending you back over the sink, his fingertips digging into your hips as he works on his own orgasm.

“Cum in my pussy… please baby.” You pant.

Mingi grunts as his own orgasm hits, his legs shake as he shoots his load inside you. "Fuck." He groans, his cock throbbing, his thrusts slowing down as he milks himself, filling you up.

Mingi breathes as he pulls his cock out of you, tucking himself back into his pants before grabbing some tissue to clean you up.

“Thank you.” You murmur, your legs still shaking. Mingi laughs, helping you adjust your dress before throwing you over his shoulder.

“Let's get you home and in bed. You're not gonna be able to walk after round two.” He smirks.

“You think you're getting a second round?” You giggle. Mingi slaps your ass as he walks out of the bathroom with you.

“I'm getting a second, third and fourth round.” He murmurs. “San, cancel the meeting. I've got plans with my wife.” He shouts, walking out of the club with you draped over his shoulder.

“That's right baby, take me home.”

[poppadom0912]

FBI

Characters: Kelly Severide x Reader, half of firehouse 51

Warnings: Brief mentions of a crime idk.

Summary: This wasn't exactly what they were thinking when an fbi agent strolled into their firehouse.

A/N: I had such a nice plan for this little beauty but then I messed up and then I remembered I had homework due tomorrow that I haven't done so please enjoy this ugly piece of writing. Kinda don't want to publish this but I need to feed you lot before I get swamped in holiday homework.

"Hey, I'm looking for a Kelly Severide."

You said, asking the first person you found. It was your first time in the firehouse and this definitely wasn't how you planned it to be but you could make this work.

"Lieutenant Kelly Severide?" The woman rose her brow, her voice coming across as soft as she looked. You couldn't deny she was pretty and taking into account her blonde hair and the word paramedic on her uniform caused your brows to rise ever so slightly.

"Oh! You must be Sylvie Brett." You smiled, holding out your hand for the paramedic to shake which she did with much confusion and slight fear. "Agent Y/N Y/L/N."

"You work for the fbi." She stated, fidgeting with her fingers once your hands were released. It was clear she was shocked and you could understand why; your gun in its holster, your shiny golden badge and the bold yellow letters printed on the back of your government issued jacket.

"Yes I do." You replied with a tight lipped smile, annoyed that your job was the first impression everyone at the firehouse would be getting from you; these men and women were family to Kelly and greeting them for the first time ever in your uniform wasn't what you wanted.

Before Sylvie could fully shake off her shock, someone butted into the conversation, having spotted and recognising you.

"Y/N, you're back." Matt smiled, his arms wide inviting your for a hug which you immediately accepted. The captain was the one person in Kelly's life that knew of your existence since there was no hiding you from his roomate, especially since your stay became more permanent.

The hug was what caught everyone's attention. Sylvie talking to someone was normal but Matt hugging a stranger wasn't, hence all the heads turning and when all their eyes widened, you weren't surprised.

"Feds." Two men whispered in sync upon laying eyes on you, the others stood out of their seats and came around to you in the middle of the common room.

"What do the feds want with us now?" One man asked, crossing his arms with an attitude that you could smell from a mile away. Maybe it was his accent or it could've been his snarky tone which got him a quick reprimand from the captain but you knew his name.

"Christopher Herrmann, right?" You pointed at him, your smile brightening when he did a double take at the name you guessed correct.

"It's probably creepy that I know all your names and I really wished that we could've met under better circumstances but I will explain everything." You said, sheepishly smiling at the very confused group of firefighters.

"Y/N! What are you doing here?" Kelly noticed you from afar, it was hard not to recognise the three yellow letter the second he turned the corner.

Within seconds, Kelly enveloped you into his arms and despite the reputation that you wanted to maintain, you folded and accepted the hug, wrapping your arms around his waist, contently inhaling the comforting scent that always followed your boyfriend.

"Okay I'm sorry but who are you?"

"Agent Y/N Y/L/N." You replied automatically, not even thinking about leaving out the agent. Biting the inside of your lip, you internally cursed at yourself.

"She's my girlfriend." Kelly smirked, his arm happily resting across your shoulders where he could keep you close to him. "Whose actually supposed to be in Texas right about now, what happened?"

"Everything's fine. We apprehended our guy earlier than expected and there might've been a gunfight and there's a small possibility I was in the middle but a graze is nothing." You said with ease since it was your job and you loved everything it entailed but to your crowd, you seemed like a lunatic and a hero combined in one.

"You're kidding." Kelly looked down at you in concern, his heart rate picking up at the mere thought of you getting hurt, even if you brushed it off as a papercut.

Before you could explain further that a graze inflicted zero pain, a man you could name purely based off the aura that surrounded him entered the common room.

"Agent, what can we do for you?" The tallest man came forward and asked, his hands shaking yours before they were on his hips. From his stance and the way his voice was so gentle but commandeering made it easy for you to deduce his position in the firehouse; it also helped that Kelly continuously boasted about the men and women of 51.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your day chief." You firstly apologised, sheepishly smiling at the firefighters who were shocked at Kelly's arm still wrapped around your waist. "I need nothing but a few minutes with lieutenant Severide and I'll be out your hair."

"Don't be silly." Kelly shook his head, looking down at you with a slight frown. "Why don't you stay for lunch, you can't just appear out of nowhere and not eat with us."

"I have so much paperwork I left behind. My boss will have my throat if they're not done." You tried fighting Kelly but he looked at you with such big eyes that you wanted to drown yourself in and a slight pout was making itself known and before you knew it, you were caving in.

"Alright, just a few bites and then I have to go."

It was safe to say, some feds were okay.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

I've given it some thought--

Now, if you've read any of my posts and you've read 430, you know there are a lot of ways it falls short of what I wanted. On the other hand, I can respect an open ending, one where we are allowed and encouraged to dream. All things considered, I'm not satisfied or disappointed, but a secret third thing... bear with me.

For a lot of storylines, I can fill in the blanks how I want.

I'm heartbroken over Himiko's fate, but there's no denying that the lack of camera footage leaves open the possibility of her simply disappearing. Perhaps she is waiting in hiding for the world to change, just like Lady Nagant.

Dr. Yoshida is described as someone who can cure the incurable. That may be referring to Katsuki, but the doctor himself said it's a complete mystery how he survived, all Katsuki's own doing. Maybe he cured someone else in those 8 years... someone like Touya?

Honestly I got nothing on Tenko but who knows. Who knows! Something something OFA connection. Izuku having vestige visions. Idk.

As for the manner in which society is changing, I'm drawn to Shouji's speech: "I'm dedicating the honor to those who joined the uprising eight years ago. All I've done is stand atop the resolve that they demonstrated to the world, nothing more." That at least tells me his earlier judgment of the other heteromorphs "setting them back" was a narrow point of view Shouji was supposed to grow out of, rather than a way of Horikoshi trying to criticize revolutionaries. In general, just because a character says something doesn't mean we're supposed to take it as gospel. That's lit crit 101, people.

Then there's Izuku. Once again I am feeling this pretty close to home. I keep coming back to the fact that the class is 24/25 now and I'm 25, man. On top of that, anyone else who was 14/15 ten years ago when the manga started gets to feel like we've all grown up together. I wanted catharsis for Izuku's trauma so badly. I wanted words. But I can't deny that the way Izuku is shown attempting to make the best of things and be content with a humbler life resonates with me, as painful as it is, as much as I know deep down he's kidding himself. It doesn't surprise me that he kept his walls up all this time and continued to shun his "selfishness."

I almost feel like there's an all-encompassing narrative theme being expressed here, in the fact that Izuku was trying to push past his pain and focus on the next generation, but surprise, his story's not over yet. I think the implied message there is that more can be done in the here and now, and maybe other stories that seem to be over, aren't.

With these things in mind, I can take the ending in stride, even if this is all the more we get from Horikoshi. However. There's one thing that is jolting me out of my peace every time I start to get comfortable here. It's actually related to the storyline that got the most closure.

I've seen a lot of fellow bkdk enjoyers calling their conclusion the best part of the ending, and I agree with that. They got a truly full circle moment, and a way of communicating to the reader that they're together, they have their forever, in a way that is personal to them. It's not "canon" in the way a kiss or a confession is, but I've said it before--this makes sense for them. And Horikoshi also did something legitimately interesting and groundbreaking by not making Ochako confess, not showing her future being tied to the main character as a love interest.

No, the thing that's bugging me is a seemingly small detail: why does Izuku and Katsuki holding hands at the end, of all things, have to be implied? Lots of things about 430 make sense in the context of the interview Horikoshi recently gave where he expressed being content with what he has drawn, and what he has left to the imagination. But not this. You can't convince me he didn't want to draw this. It's a motherfucking story about hands. This is the one thing I was 110% certain would happen. It's been teased for forever. Katsuki clearly wanted it so bad. So many other characters got to hold Izuku's hand in-frame. What the hell. Why.

Idk. I will be thinking about it for the foreseeable future.

[qwimblenorrisstan]

Lesson Learnt Pt. 2 | John Price x Reader

Summary: After the initial incident that caused your meeting, Johnny sets you and Price up on a date at a little diner nearby.

Word Count: ~ 2.5k

Warnings: can’t say much w/o spoilers but random men, ghost being moody, Johnny being overly friendly, working in customer service…

A/N: idk what happened something possessed me when I made this, it was supposed to be fluff but then it exploded. hope you enjoy<3

Requests are open!

Previous | Masterlist

Weeks had passed after the initial incident, and your life had quickly changed.

You’d broken up with your toxic boyfriend, now wondering how you hadn’t seen it earlier, and why you hadn’t listened to all your friend's advice and thoughts on him. You’d moved out, blocked him on everything, and found a new apartment closer to your simple job as a barista. It was enough to keep the bills paid, for now. At least until you finally got out of college with your doctorate in nursing science.

Having been in college for nearly eight years now, and not living in the dorm (there were far too many incidents on campus for you to trust any sort of campus police, not to mention the generally shady system of coverups) made it a little bit harder.

Student loans were threatening to suffocate you, but for now, you would focus on one day to the next. All of this, the annoying days that drug on, or the hard times, would all be memories before you knew it, and it would be worth it. Or at least you hoped.

Today wasn’t one of those super slow-moving days where customers were ordering hyper-specific drinks or getting the suspiciously old lemon cakes, only to complain about how stale they were, as if you could do anything about it. No, today was relatively normal, customers minding their own business after ordering, coworkers having idle chatter.

“M’ taking my lunch break.”

You said to your close coworker, Laney. Her honey-brown eyes shifted over to you, and she nodded with a little smile.

“Don’t take too long, might miss some cute boys.”

She teased, knowing full well all of your opinions on relationships right now. You wanted to wait until you had a stable income and were out of school. She’d heard it only about a million times. You huffed a soft laugh, deft fingers untying the knot in your apron as you set it up on a hook, walking out to your car.

Lunch break was about 30 minutes, which was more than enough for you to drive to the nearest cheap restaurant and pick something up. Clicking your key button and heading towards where you heard the beep of your car, you opened the door, sliding into the worn leather. It wasn’t a new car, not by a long shot, but it was your old faithful, and it had served you well for nearly ten years in a row.

You started the car, muscle memory kicking in as you drove to that place right down the road from your work. It was past the chicken shop, a place you would refrain from visiting for a while after seeing some undercover cops staking out there one night.

You turned and pulled into the parking lot, glancing around before opening your door, only for the cold air to nip at your bare arms, when you decided to slip on the warm leathery jacket, with the fur on the inside. The one that the man, John, maybe, had given you. You’d lost the piece of paper with their numbers on it to the washing machine, but oh well. He didn’t look like the type to live around here, anyway, so it wasn’t like you were going to see him again.

Walking into the restaurant, you strode to the front, placing a quick little order and paying with your card, before choosing a small circular table in the corner to wait for your food. This place was usually quick. You idly scanned the guests. Two large men sitting together, chatting. An older woman and what was probably her husband seated with a younger man and woman. Maybe some sort of family double date? A nervous-looking teenager sitting alone, knee bouncing. An old, thin man seated at the far end, mumbling incoherently to himself.

Not unusual.

You pulled your phone out, idly scrolling through social media before your name was called, and you got up to go collect your food.

~

“You sure?”

“M’ tellin’ ya, it’s exactly what Gaz said she looked like.”

Simon glanced out at the girl his sergeant seemed so certain about. He wouldn’t lie, you did match the description pretty decently. Just as he opened his mouth to point anything out that fought against Johnny’s claim (just to spite him, obviously, not because he liked watching Soap get all frustrated and start rambling on for an hour on end), he noticed it.

“She’s wearin’ cap’s jacket.”

Johnny’s brows rose as he snuck another glance at you. You grabbed your tray of food, walking back to the small little corner where your bag was on the seat. You were wearing their captain’s jacket. The brown leather, the slight fuzz in the sides and insides, the buttoned pockets….he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed it earlier.

“Hell’s bells, been wonderin’ where that thing went.”

Simon only gave a little grunt in reply, eyes narrowed on you before he glanced back at his food. He didn’t want to seem a creep. He already knew he was intimidating enough to the normal civilian, and one of his “I-want-to-eat-your-firstborn-child” glares (named by Johnny and Kyle) probably wasn’t helping.

“Sounds like Price’s found ‘imself a pretty birdie.”

Johnny lit up at those words, a devilish grin lighting his features, one that Simon usually only saw before he demolished buildings or people with explosives. He was already dreading it before it came out of his mouth.

“We shoul’ set ‘em up on a date.”

“No.”

“Don’ tell me it wouldn’ be a good idea. Might keep him from giving us so many sprints at training, yeah? Ya know he’s been overworkin’ us lately…”

The slight pause Simon took was all Soap needed to continue spewing his disarming, convincing words that usually always worked on his Lieutenant. His lips further curled into a grin as he went on.

“He’s been so tense lately, jus’ let us do this for ‘im, help him relax some…”

“Fine. Get on wit’ it.”

Simon finally relented, suddenly finding his food very interesting to look at as Johnny got up, striding over to you with a confidence one could only expect from the Scotsman.

He glanced up, trying to subtly watch as his sergeant approached you. You were on a call with someone, the phone held up to your ear by your shoulder while you ate your fries, the main entree of your order already gone. When Johnny walked up, you immediately sized him up.

Paranoid. Simon didn’t blame you, living on this end of town. The only reason he and the guys stayed here was for the cheap flats they could get when on leave for a few months. Price had a little house more up South, but never visited it much, letting it gather some dust.

You took the phone from your ear, muttering something to whoever was on the other end, and hanging up. You raised a brow at Johnny, who in turn gestured to your jacket and struck up a conversation. Johnny was trying to look unthreatening, he could tell. Sitting down so he wasn’t standing over you. A small, easygoing smile. Trying to make you laugh, and succeeding a bit.

Five minutes in, and you were seeming more comfortable with him. He wrote something down on a napkin from your table with a pen in his pocket, handing it to you, giving a teasing wink which you snorted at, and walking back over to his and Simon’s table with a huge smile.

“Wha’ did you just do?”

Simon asked, suspiciously eying Soap.

“I set our cap’ up with a date.”

He beamed, and Simon only sighed, knowing that Price wouldn’t take it too well to be sent on a date with a girl he’d only just met a few weeks ago. A girl that hadn’t texted him since. But maybe, just maybe, it would go decently.

~

That had been one of the strangest encounters in your life.

A Scottish man introduces himself as a friend of Price’s, saying something about working together at their jobs and telling you he recognized the jacket you were wearing. So much for not ever seeing John Price again, considering his friend had just set the two of you up, and given you the man’s number too. All the while the gruff-looking man had sat at Johnny’s table, watching the interaction.

It had made you more than a little nervous, but nothing had gone bad. The Scotsman had been friendly, and even funny, but not pushing too far.

And now you had a date on Friday night.

When you got back to work, off of lunch break, Laney helped you into your apron, tying the knot for you like she always did.

“You’re late, what took so long?”

She knew you weren’t usually ever late. Always on time, punctual, even. You managed your time properly.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

She grinned at that, nudging you with an elbow as you started taking orders.

“C’mon, spill it.”

And you did.

You began with the incident a few weeks ago, which she’d mostly already heard about, then told her all about the Scotsman and his friend, and finally the date on Friday. Right when you were about to finish the story, you felt your phone buzz, and you took it out to check it despite usually keeping it on Do Not Disturb. A text from an unknown number, but you knew who it was.

“Sorry for my muppets bothering you, they don’t know how to keep their mouths shut.”

You snorted in undignified laughter, replying while an older customer complained, mumbling something about ‘this generation and their phones’.

“I’m assuming you’re talking about Johnny?”

“Yes, the one that barely talks in coherent English.”

“Aw, he was funny. I liked him.”

“Don’t go liking him too much. We apparently have a date on Friday.”

“I’ll see you there, then?”

“See you there.”

You finally silenced your phone, slipping it back into your pocket as you went back to work with a noticeable pep in your step and a warm, fuzzy smile you offered to customers.

Laney certainly noticed.

When your shift was over, ending quickly, she talked to you while walking out to the parking lot through the back exit.

“I can help you get ready for the date, if you want?”

She offered. You’d be stupid to deny, with the impeccable makeup and fashion sense that she had.

“Sure, I can swing by at 3. That’ll give you plenty of time.”

“You have any shifts the rest of the week?”

“Barely. Just little half-times I squeezed in between lecturers. Last year’s always the busiest.”

“See you Friday, then.”

You beamed at her, sliding into your car as she walked to your own.

“See you Friday.”

~

Some of the days passed in a blur, some dragged on slower than ever before.

Eventually, though, Friday rolled around, and you were sitting in your friend’s chair as she did your hair, your makeup light, but good. You were wearing a simple outfit, some clean jeans, and a cute brown sweater over your white shirt.

It was 4:30, and you had only thirty minutes to haul your ass out to the nice diner the both of you were meeting at for dinner.

“It’s fine, I need to go. Seriously.”

Laney gave you a look, but reluctantly started putting all her things away. You hugged her, mumbling thanks in her ear, before grabbing your purse that had all of your things in it and walking to the exit of her quaint home.

You drive to the diner, finding the parking lot to have the familiar old car you’d seen Price driving in the first place. You parked got out of the car, and walked into the diner, only for the server up front to inform you that you’d already been paid for, and she led you to a table where Price was seated.

He’d tried to dress nicely, you could tell. Beard combed and hair done, dressed in jeans and a comfortable-looking dress shirt. He gave you a small smile as you slid into the booth, and there was already a tray of crinkle-cut fries in the center.

“Hope you didn’ mind that I ordered, big fella like me needs a lotta food.”

He said with a chuckle, and you grinned.

“I don’t mind, trust me, my older brother devours food like no other.”

He smiled, a little bob of his head before his brow raised in mild curiosity.

“You got a brother?”

A nod.

“Yeah, name’s Gary. He’s quiet, but we love ‘im for it.”

“Me and the boys are just about brothers, wish they’d be quiet for once.”

You snorted at that, taking a sip of your water before the waitress came by and you ordered your meal. Price’s was the first to come out, he’d ordered a full English breakfast that the diner somehow served, despite it being around dinner time. Yours came out next, and you both idly chattered about your life, family, jobs (he was apparently military and off on leave right now, not that you minded), and whatnot.

When he was about more than halfway through his food, his phone began buzzing, and his face went serious as he held a small finger up to you with a slightly apologetic expression, taking the phone call.

He listened, and you simply continued eating your food, not minding. Everyone had to take important calls every now and then, sometimes it just wasn’t avoidable.

He gave a few gruff yes’ and no’s, before sighing as he replied for one last time into the phone.

“I’ll be right there.”

When he clicked off the call, shoving his phone into his pocket, he gave an apologetic look.

“It’s an emergency, can’t stay. ‘M sorry.”

You nodded in understanding.

“Is everything alright?”

You asked, and he nodded, face set in what looked like a grim determination. He called a waitress over, paying the bill before you both got up. He gave you a light pat on the shoulder as you both walked out, right before you went to your car.

“We could do this again, if you’d like. With no interruptions.”

“I’d like that.”

He breathed an audible sigh of relief at that.

“I’ll text you when I can.”

Before he began walking to his car, getting in. You walked to yours, opened up the driver’s side door, and slid in before you saw his jacket sitting on the passenger seat. Cursing to yourself, you grabbed it, having it in mind to go take it to him before he left.

Before you could move, though, a hand clasped over your mouth.

A cold prick of pain in the back of your neck. Liquid.

“Don’t scream.”

A voice warned as if you could make any noise at all with a hand over your mouth.

An overwhelming sense of heaviness overtook you, and your vision began swimming, before turning black as your eyes fluttered closed.

“What’re we getting ‘er for?”

“Bargaining chip.”

Tags:

@yearninglustfully

@ashy-kit

@theoslove

@mayoforthewin

[its-time-to-write]

OOOO what about reader falling asleep on jamie’s shoulder after a late away game (maybe they come along to games on the bus) and realizing how much he loves them

Thanks for requesting! This one is a lot shorter, but I hope it’s what you’re looking for <3

silent sleepers

Rebecca lets you come to games on the team bus. Well, you say she lets you, it’s really the team’s choice. She’s just the one who signs off on it. You go for Jamie, who gives you the window seat and holds your hand the whole way there and back, joking with the lads. You don’t talk a whole lot, but you don’t really mind. Sometimes Colin or Isaac will turn around from the seat in front of you and you’ll spend an hour chatting and laughing about whatever, but for the most part you just look out the window and think.

Life is busy, so you don’t often get time to sit without having to talk. It’s nice to be here on this smelly bus, holding Jamie’s hand because you’re both relaxed. 

A voice breaks through your reverie. “Good morning, Mrs. Tartt.”

You look away from the window to see a grinning Dani turned around in his seat in front of you.

You smile. “I’m not his wife, Dani.”

“Not yet anyway, eh?” Still grinning, he pokes Jamie who gives him a cut it out motion where you can’t see. 

You don’t notice and laugh, blushing a little. You’ve only kind of talked about the future with Jamie, and you don’t really think he’s the type to settle down like that. It’s ok, you’ll take him however you can get him. You settle into your seat, ready for an hour of comparing hair products with Dani.

—

The game went well, and you’re all piled into the bus. Everyone is excited, but so, so tired. The chatter has turned to a dull murmur as you hug Jamie’s arm, watching the lights go by out the window. He’s warm and you can feel him breathe, and pretty soon you’re passed out, asleep on his shoulder.

Jamie, on the other hand, is sitting very, very still. He doesn’t want to wake you, especially because you don’t usually sleep very well. He presses a light kiss on the top of your head and you twitch, so he pulls away. He looks at you, with your eyes closed and mouth parted, muscles relaxed after being constantly tensed. Hair slightly tousled. He could sit here like this forever. 

He thinks about Dani’s teasing words earlier. Mrs. Tartt. He turns the words over in his head. Mr. and Mrs. Tartt. The Tartts. He likes how that sounds. 

God, he sounds like a fucking middle school boy, writing your name over and over in the notebook in his mind, hearts in the margins.

In all honesty, you were one of the best things that happened to him. He’s not sure how he pulled you in the same way you’re not sure how you pulled him, but he supposes it’s good that you think you’re mutually out of each other’s league. It’s a little bit sweet. 

You had some initial awkwardness about him being a famous footballer, but you worked through it. Hell, you two worked through everything. You refused to back down from a disagreement, with the mantra it’s not you against me, it’s you and me against the problem. 

You were also funny. He swore you two were the funniest people on earth once you got going. He felt like you two could do everything together. He wanted to do everything together. A thought flashes through his brain. Our kids will be fuckin’ adorable. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that his brain said will instead of could.

You let out a little sigh, bringing him back to reality.

Dani peeps over and winks at Jamie. 

“Ey, muchacho, good game today, no?”

“Yeah, yeah, good, yeah,” Jamie whispers. “Hey, Dani.”

Dani cocks his head to say what?

“Mate. You gotta play it cool, man.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Dani asks innocently. “I always play my coolest. I think it was pretty evident in the goal I scored today.”

Jamie rolls his eyes. “You know that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about on way over here when you made that fucking Mrs. Tartt joke.”

Dani places a hand over his heart. “You mean to tell me you do not want her to be Mrs. Tartt and I have made things uncomfortable for you? Oh no, I feel awful.”

Jamie would sock him in the arm if you didn’t have a death grip on him in your sleep. He levels Dani with a stare. “You know exactly what I’m talking about muchacho. You know how hard she is to surprise and if you ruin it, I’m sending Isaac after your hair.”

Dani gasps. “You wouldn’t.”

“Fuckin’ try me,” Jamie grins. 

Dani grins back and turns back around in his seat. Jamie looks down at you one last time and uses his other hand to reach into his left pocket. The little black box he carries everywhere is safe inside. He breathes out a sigh and rests his head on top of yours. 

Mrs. Tartt. Yeah, it’s going to happen.

[writingroom21]

Sweet Escape

Pairing: Rafe x single mom reader

Summary: Moving to Kildare with your best friend and daughter was the perfect move. The little island is perfect, the people are nice, and you are finally at peace. Then Rafe comes in with his perfect smile and charm, sweeping you off your feet. The only issue is if you are ready to let someone else in.

Warnings: None

Wc: 5.1K

series masterlist

Chapter 2: Oh Baby

“What are you all mopy about?” Jo asks with a mouthful of her breakfast. “You got flirted with last night, you should be happy.”

You hum at her as you help Violet with the mess she’s making. All morning you’ve been in your head thinking about Rafe. Since you found out you were pregnant and the dad left you, the only thing on your mind was just Vi. So when a handsome, full of himself, sweet talker of a man made you want more of him it was a shock. 

It’s not like you haven’t had the attention of guys before or after having a kid, but none of it seemed important to you. So why are you so bothered about last night? Jo’s right you should be happy but all you feel is stressed. “I don’t know. I think I just need to focus on me and Vi right now.” Jo drops her fork and looks up at you. “Haven’t you been doing that the moment you found out about her? Can’t put your life on pause because you have a kid. Yeah it’s great that you want to focus on her, she should always be first, but think about yourself too.”

You are thinking about yourself. Last night you had alcohol in your system so you didn’t think properly. Drunk you was into him only because of the fact you were drunk and nothing else. He was rude when you had met him earlier and the sober you didn’t like him. So there’s no need to really dwell on it.

“He was just flirting, he probably just wanted me to give him that flower order. It didn’t mean anything.” You can feel Jo’s eyes staring you down, you look her in the eyes. “Plus I’m not looking for anything. I like things the way they are.” Violet shoves a piece of her pancake in her mouth. “Ywah.” She comments as if she knows what you are talking about.

Jo really doesn’t say anything else, only telling you that you shouldn’t shut something down before it even happens. After breakfast you got Vi and yourself ready. When the two of you were ready, you headed off to the shop. You had made sure to bring the toddler with you as a buffer. Jo and June could tell what you were doing, the duo whispering about how ridiculous you are being. Last night June waited up for the two of you and got the whole run down.

She basically told you the same thing her grand-daughter did. Rafe is super rich and has a history of violence with others and cops. It was shocking because he looks so well put together, guess looks really can be deceiving. June saw the look of disappointment on your face when she finished talking. “People can change so who am I to judge? The boy seemed to have changed after his dad died.”

You shake the words out your head, willing yourself to just forget about last night. Everything is fine because no man in their twenties wants to be with someone who has a kid. You’ve found out that every time you tell a guy you had a kid, they run away just like her dad. It’s something you’ve come to terms with and it doesn’t bother you.

Violet runs right into the shop once you open up the doors. You keep the close sign on so no one tries to come in like yesterday, he can just knock. For a little bit, you chase her around, avoiding the flowers so they don’t fall. For someone who didn’t get a lot of sleep last night she has a lot of energy this morning. June said that she had woken up once and took her a little to go back to bed. But after you checked in on her, she kept getting up and wouldn’t go back to sleep.

By the time Rafe is supposed to get there, the little girl is slugging around the store rubbing her eyes. You looked at the clock and saw that it’s almost twelve, he should be here soon. Looking at your daughter you can see her tiny yawns as she tries to keep playing with you. Vi usually has a nap around 1 but since she can barely keep her eyes open you take her to the office so she can nap on the couch. As soon as her body hits the cushions she’s out, her light snores making you smile.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen her sleep or put her to sleep, her snores are your favorite sound. You still remember the nights where you would just sit there and listen to them because they let you know she was fine. She looks so peaceful sleeping, your baby that needs to be protected at all costs. Closing the door to the office you made up your mind, no boys, even the really cute ones.

Right on queue, there’s a knock on the front door. You walk over and open it to let him in. “Hey. I didn’t know how you like your coffee but I just put some milk and sugar in it.” Sure enough when you look at the hand extended towards you there is a cup in it. “Hi. Thank you, that’s really sweet. You didn’t need to get me anything.” You lead him further into the store, to the back open room.

Most of it is empty since this is where you set up all of the flowers to display. “Think of it as my apology for running off on you last night.” Rafe watches as you fidget with some of the petals of a flower, avoiding the topic of the previous night. “I wanted to stay but I had to help my friend out with something.” His eyes track your movements, noting how tense you look in this moment. “It’s okay really. I figured you had somewhere to be.”

Rafe is getting ready to say something to you and changes his mind. He must have read things wrong last night, he thought you were into him. Setting his own coffee down he walks closer to you, leaning on the bench where you are looking at some flowers. “I’m being straightforward here aren’t I? Sorry I just thought you were also into it last night.”

Your eyes scan his body, gliding up his chest and his face to see his eyes. “I was. It’s just.” There’s no need to finish your sentence, he moves away from you to put some distance. “Don’t have to explain, You woke up and realized it was a mistake, no worries.” The way he says it makes you feel guilty, an undertone of something you can’t place. He won’t look at you know, the rejection feeling raw to him. Sure he’s been rejected before but he really thought there was something more.

It’s crazy to think that a person he just met can make him feel this way. His whole life he’s been rejected, every chance of happiness ripped away. For heaven's sake even his own mom left him with someone who hated him. Even at the young of eight his parents knew he would be a failure. That’s the reason why his mom up and left all of them, he’s heard Ward yell it at him plenty of times. Then right when he feels like he got Ward's approval he ran off with Sarah and died just to get away from him.

So yeah, being upset about some random girl rejecting him is crazy. He wishes he could go back to when he was giving you a hard time about the flowers, maybe if he was nicer you would have given him a shot. Everyone on the island has written him off already and just a few days of moving here so have you. “What flowers do you have? Rose said I need to get Lily’s and maybe another flower. So what would go well with that?”

Rose? 

He was flirting with you when he was already seeing someone? This is exactly why you need to focus on yourself. The slight hurt feelings you are feeling right now shouldn’t even exist but here they were. “Pansy’s are always a good choice and even roses, It’s up to you honestly.” It was a little awkward showing him the ropes of what he needs to do. It was like the two of you didn’t know how to act around the other once flirting was off the table. Another crazy concept because you just met.

For an hour, you two work on the center pieces. The first few Rafe made weren’t the best, he couldn’t seem to get the right number of flowers in each. They were over crowded but after your help they looked good. “You need to add more greenery to break up the flowers. Also try not to add too many, it takes away their beauty.” Rafe just nodded along taking notes.

After a while he got the hang of it and you didn’t need to help him. If he wasn’t super rich you might have offered him a job that you couldn’t pay him for. It was good he got the hang of it because that meant you could focus on making more. You were so focused you didn’t hear the bang in the office door.

“What was that?” Rafe asked, looking around as he holds scissors and a flower stem. You look up to question him and hear the bang this time. “Momma.” Rafe gives you a puzzling look and you get up to let Violet out of the room. “Sorry it’s my daughter.” His look just gets deeper. “You have a daughter?”

You ignore him and keep walking. When you open the door Vi’s arms automatically wrap around your legs. “Did you have a good nap baby?” Your hand brushes the back of her head, taming the rouge pieces. “Mhm.” She rubs her head on your thigh. It was something she picked up over the years. You would nuzzle into her when you would wake her up, you guess after some time she decided she wanted to do it too. 

She grips your hand as you walk her to the backroom. Rafe’s been watching the door like a hawk after you left. What do you mean daughter? Does this mean you have a boyfriend? Fuck of course you have a boyfriend, that’s why you were backing out of last night. What a poor sucker, can’t even keep his girlfriend happy enough so she doesn’t flirt or cheat. Rafe bets he would be able to keep you happy, show you what that little boyfriend of yours can’t.

He watches as you walk in, your head is bowed to look at the little girl next to you. Rafe’s blue  eyes jot down to see a smaller pair of blue eyes looking right back at him. It takes him a moment to actually realize you weren’t kidding, you have a daughter. The whole time he processes he can’t take his eyes off the little girl. Which seems to also be the case with her.

Violet has only ever really been around the same people her whole life, but she does well with strangers. She just doesn’t know what to make of the giant of a man standing in front of her. He cracks a weary smile at the toddler as she cowers behind your legs, somewhat scared of him. But like a hero you crouch down and soothe her. “It’s okay. This is my friend Rafe, can you say hi?” Your nose nuzzles her cheek making her giggle.

“Hi.” It’s small, her voice still growing along with her. WIthout a second thought Rafe bends down, sticking a hand out to the girl. “Hi. What’s your name?” She looks at you, seeking permission to answer his question. When she sees you nod her eyes go back to him. “Wioleth.” Your laugh catches his attention, he likes how it sounds. He liked it last night and hearing it directed at your daughter with love makes it better. 

“Her name is Violet. She still has trouble with v and sometimes with the t.” The smile on your face lights up your face, crinkles forming in the corner of your eyes. “Like the flower?” Seeing your smile directed at him makes his own shine on his face. “Like the flower. She’s my little petal.” She sticks to you like glue when you get back to work, sparing a few glances at Rafe to see if he was still there.

You were in the middle of snipping some stems when you heard Violets laugh. Turning to the sound you see her next to Rafe, who is currently tickling her with the lily in his hand. Stunned from the sight, you stand there and watch. Even while he’s sitting down he towers over her, her neck must hurt from looking up. Another laugh erupts in the room but the culprit this time is his fingers tickling her side.

You know he’s whispering to her, his mouth is moving but barely any sound is coming out. It’s like the two of them forgot you were there, too engrossed in the other to care. What surprised you the most was when she threw her arms uo so he could pick her up. He did it in an instant like it was second nature to him. The second his eyes met you after setting Vi on his la you unfreeze. “She seems to like you.” 

“Glad one of you does. She seems pretty cool.” He gives you a teasing smile, the tension in your shoulders drops. You don’t get why he’s upset, he has a girlfriend. But seeing how he was with Vi right now wished there wasn’t another girl named Rose and you didn’t make stupid rules for yourself.

The rest of the time went smoothly, in the middle the missing flowers were delivered so he got to choose some extras. Then he set up the tuck time and left, leaving you and Vi with a quick goodbye. After the truck got the flowers you tidied up the place, getting it ready for tomorrow’s opening. By the time you got home the two of you were beat, barely talking during dinner.

“How was it with you know who?” You snicker at Jo’s words. “Why are you saying it like he’s Voldemort?” She shrugs at you and takes another bite of food. “I don’t know, maybe he is. You were acting like he was this morning.” Here we go again, she already texted you while he was there. Is he still as hot in the daytime? Are you two flirting? Don’t do anything in front of my precious baby, she’s innocent. The text went on for a little while longer. It’s like she feeds off you ignoring her messages because she knows you’re annoyed.

“I just want to focus on me and my daughter, not on some random guy I just met. Plus Rafe has a girlfriend.” Vi’s head shoots up when she hears his name. “Ra?” Jo looks at her in bewilderment. “Looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. What’s this girlfriend's name? Clearly she needs to keep him in line.” You fidget with your food, knowing that Jo clocked the jealousy in your voice. “Rose.”

June who has stayed quiet all dinner chokes on her iced tea, spilling it everywhere. Violet laughs thinking it’s a fun game and tries to imitate her with no success. “Sweetheart, did he say girlfriend or just Rose.” You give her a questioning look. “Just Rose.” In all of your years of knowing June you’ve never seen her laugh like that. She was practically off her chair and on the floor crying with laughter. “Wow I never thought I’d see the day when Jo was smarter than you.”

“Hey!”

“Sweetie, Rose is his step-mother. She stuck around after the dads death to help him take care of his little sister.” Little sister? He takes care of his little sister with Rose, who is his step-mom and not his girlfriend. “Oh.” Jo and June just give eachother a look and shake their heads.

For the rest of the night you just think about how he actually doesn’t have a girlfriend. The only thing stopping whatever it was between you two is well you. The whole point was to protect Vi but she seems to love him. Throughout her bath and bedtime routine she kept asking for him. Letting out a small “Ra?” or “Whew Ra?” not really getting to saying his full name. He seems to be good with her, but that doesn’t mean anything. You go to bed thinking about what the hell you are going to do.

The next morning goes the same as the other. You get up, start breakfast, get Vi up, eat breakfast, get ready, and go to the shop. Everything was running smoothly, the shop was open and all the flowers looked perfect. You were even able to plant some seed in the greenhouse that’s connected in the back.

Customers have been coming in all morning, buying bouquets and individual flowers. Everyone has been so nice, even talking to Violet as they shopped around. She was having a blast chatting with them and running around the store. Around twelve you decided it was time to get lunch and grab Vi. As you're locking the door she keeps tugging at your hand. “One second Vi. I just need to lock up okay.”

THe impatient toddler keeps pulling at her hand. “Momma wook.” She’s pointing down the street but the key is giving you trouble. You’re struggling with the lock when her hand slips from yours, she’s running down the street screaming. “Ra! Ra!” Sprinting after her you see what she was pointing to. 

Rafe

She rams into his legs falling in the process just before you could stop her. Rafe is distracted by the sudden feeling of being hit in the leg. He looks down to see Violet on the floor and you running up to the two of them. “I’m so sorry.” You exclaim to him as you pick her up and check that she’s okay. The people behind him are waiting for him to unblock the doorway. He places a hand on your arm to move you both away from the way. “Ra!” She squeals at the man in front of you two.

“Looks like someone’s a dinosaur today.” He chuckles at the girl. “Hi Violet. Hi.” He says your name, the heat from his hand leaving as he retracts it. You greet him back, stepping a bit closer to him. “She’s actually trying to say your name. She kept asking for you after you left.” A smile forms on his lips, he feels proud that he made an impression on the young girl.

“She asked about me?” There’s something in him that can’t help but poke a bit. “I bet dad found that strange.” Satisfaction fills him when your face changes at the mention of dad. It was subtle but he could see it, see how it made you uncomfortable. “He’s not in the picture. Just us.” His face drops, he felt smug thinking he called you out for not telling him the truth. 

Looking at the two of you he can’t see how anyone could do that. You seemed so nice and funny, Vi was just a baby. How could someone do that? “Shit sorry I didn’t know.” His face scrunches when he realizes he just swore in front of a kid. “Shith.” Vi repeats, bouncing in your arms.

Rafe gives you a guilty look. “I’m sorry. Didn’t think before talking.” You giggle and shake your head. “It’s okay. Jo and I swear a lot around her. But I swear she gives Vi too many ideas.” The breath he was holding when you mention Jo is released when you paired she was a girl. He really thought for a second that maybe he didn’t have a chance. Maybe he still doesn’t but it doesn’t hurt to try.

“Dang I need to get back. I didn’t get to lock the door, she was so excited to see you that she couldn’t wait for me to figure out the lock.” It’s nice to know that the girl in your arms wanted to see him. After he left he seriously thought he wouldn’t see you again. He doesn’t know when he got to be so sentimental but he wants to know you and have you like him. The same goes for Violet.

“The door was giving you trouble?” He walks along with you as you make your way back. “Yeah it was giving me a tough time to lock it. It wasn’t perfect before but now it seems impossible.” You demonstrate it for him, twisting the key only for nothing to happen. His hand wraps around yours, twisting toughly and successfully locking it. “I can fix it for you.”

“You don’t have to do that. It’s just jammed.” Vi squirms her way down from your arms to make her way to him. “Ra come.” She waves her hand at him. He kneels down and pulls the sunglasses up to look her in the eyes. “I’m here.” The interaction is strange to see. She has always been social but this is different. She actually really likes him. 

He interacts with her like they have always known each other. As if they didn’t just meet yesterday. It’s confusing seeing it all play out. “I think she wants you to come to lunch with us. We were just about to leave.”  The sun is kind of overtaking you as he looks up. “Is it Violet or mama that wants me to come?” He stands up and takes a hold of Vi’s hand. “I can do lunch. Then we can go get you a new lock and I’ll set it up.” You two just stare at each other for a second, not wanting to break first. “Okay, know any good places?”

“Come on, I can take you to the country club. They have a great chicken club.” As id on instinct he shifts Vi to the other side of him, blocking the two of you from the main road. A simple gesture that means a lot. “I don’t have a membership to one of those. Plus I don't even know how to get there.” The crosslight sign changes to stop as soon as you make it to the crossing. You’re fishing for your keys when Rafe’s hand stops you. “It’s okay I have a membership, they’ll let you in. I was going to drive anyway so you don’t have to worry about it.”

You look at him and then at Violet. “So you just always carry a carseat around?” There’s a blush that forms on his cheeks from the teasing. He looks down at the young girl and realizes he completely forgot about the fact she was so young. “Right, my bad. Umm we can go a little further down, there’s a restaurant there. The hardware shop is close to there.” 

Vi seems content with just sticking by Rafe. When you got into the restaurant she sat directly beside him, sitting as close as possible. “Sorry I can take her.” He just picks up a crayon they gave her and started to color along with her. “It’s fine, I don't mind.” She forced him to color with her the whole time. She even had him help her with cutting her food. 

It was so surreal seeing this all play out. He was so natural with her and their connection was effortless. It made you think back to the night in the bar. The conversation was so easy and nothing felt forced. Seems like you and Vi have that in common, both falling for his charm. “How old is she?

He’s rustling around with some locks finding the perfect one for you. You shake your head as he shows a different one. “Two, her birthday is in October.” Her ears perk up at your voice. “Birdday?” Rafe laughs and shows you a different lock. “That one.” Vi giggles as he tickles her neck when he passes by. She starts to chase after him and he runs off, turning up and down the isles. You chase after them making sure she isn’t getting hurt or god forbid stolen. 

People are giving the three of you weird looks, jumping out of the way so as to not get trampled by a 6”2’ giant. You had to keep apologizing to people as you passed by them. Finally he gave up and let her catch him. Violet was laughing hysterically, throwing her arms up so he would pick her up. 

He gives you a surprised expression, not knowing what he should do. You were just as confused as he was, you don’t know if you should let them get that close. Who knows who he really is and if he would just disappear the next day. Rafe picks her up when she starts to whine, holding her as he pays for the lock and some other tools.

“You didn’t have to pay. I could have done that.” The three of you are walking back now. He’s still holding Vi who now rested her head on his shoulder, rubbing her eyes. Pulling out your phone you can see it's a little past one. She most likely is waiting for her nap time. By the time you are trying to open up the door she’s out cold in his arms.

When it’s open you turn around to grab her from him. “I can lay her down, so she doesn’t wake up.” It makes sense so you show him your office and he lays her down on the couch. “I’m going to go start the lock.” He walks away and fiddles with the lock. It’s as if when Vi isn’t around there’s nothing for him to say. It was the same yesterday after you tried to say it couldn’t continue he was closed off.

Crap did he want it to continue?

You walk to the front door and see that he got the old lock out. “Hey.” Looking over his shoulder he can see you standing there. “Hi.” He goes back to put the new lock in. “What I was trying to say yesterday is that I need to focus on Vi and I. You’re new to our lives and I can’t take any risks. It’s not just me I have to look after.” The tension in his shoulders can be seen from even where you’re standing. “I get it. At first I thought it was because you regretted it. But I get it now, she’s more important.”

You stand there as he finishes up. When he’s done he packs everything up. “If it was just you, would you still feel the same?” That’s a great question, would you feel the same? Simple answer is no you wouldn’t. “No I wouldn’t.” His eyes meet yours in a hopeful way. “But it’s not just me.” It’s illogical to feel upset about this, realistically he knows why you can’t. “Well the lock is all set up. I should head out.”

“Rafe please.” He just packs everything up and goes to leave. “Rafe.” He looks over his shoulder. “Bye.” The way he says your name is like a dream. It was airy as if it hurt to even say. It did hurt, he felt regretted. You don’t even fully know him and you already shut him out. You may be new but even you knew to stay away from him.  He spends the rest of the day thinking about you.

Yeah sure he isn’t the best. He’s just getting over his addiction and trying to keep his temper down. But at least he’s trying, he wants to be better yet all anyone can see is how damaged he is. It has never been an issue letting it go and ignoring people, he’s done it his whole life. This time he’s finding it harder to ignore the pressure in his chest.

Without really thinking her\ gets into his truck and is driving back to the shop. He doesn’t even know if you are still there but he has to try. As he’s pulling up he can see you and Violet exit the shop. He’s getting out of the car when you turn around and see him. “Rafe?”

“Okay I’m just going to say this and get it off of my chest. I meant it when I said I didn’t want to leave the other night. I was a dick about the flowers that day and I regret it.” He cringes when he remembers there’s a kid right next to you, she doesn’t copy the word so he’s in the clear. “I thought that yesterday we would pick up where we left off. Probably a stupid idea but I’ve never been known for being that smart. There’s just something about you and I can’t stop thinking about you. I get it you have Violet and you need to think about her. Just, just give me a chance. All I’m asking for is for you to get to know me.”

He’s waiting for your response when Vi walks closer to him and grabs his hand. “Okay. Under one condition.” “Anything.” He says fastly. “ We take this at my speed. I can’t have her getting attached to someone and have her get crushed if you decide this is too much.” He wants to be upset that you could think that. You hardly know him so he can’t, at least you are giving him a chance.

“We’ll take it as slow as you want. How about we go out this weekend? You can bring Violet along too, I don’t mind.” She jumps at hearing her name. “Out!” She shouts “See, even she’s excited.” You smile up at him. Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea, he seems nice and caring. “This weekend sounds great. I could probably get Jo to watch her”

He walks you over to your car, standing back as you get Vi into her carseat. “I never really thanked you for helping me with the flowers. Really saved me from having to deal with my annoying step-mom.” You laugh at him, cloning the door and making your way to the driver's side. “It’s no problem. I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me this weekend.” He smiles down at you. “I’ll make it special then.”

Before getting into your car you give him a kiss on the cheek, leaving him there to watch as your car drives away. The smile he has can’t leave his face, too happy that once again he got what he wanted. This time he promises to himself he won’t fuck it up.

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[inbabylontheywept]

"The reaper had a scythe. I have a combine harvester."

Arlach tapped his fingers nervously. He’d have gladly given up his life for the liberation of his people. A combine harvester (even a deluxe AI driven model) was a pittance compared to that. Still, he didn’t really understand what he was hearing.

“I uh… heard you’re hooking up my strawberry picker to an air defense cannon?”

The human technician assembling the gun held up a hand, finishing up some last tweaking of the wire harness. He touched two wires together carefully and swore when a shower of sparks shot out of the contact.

Set back, but not defeated, the man paused his task to answer the farmer’s question.

“See, you’re looking at this wrong. It’s an AI harvester, and it works great for strawberries, but machines don’t really see ‘strawberries’. They rate strawberry-ness. There’s a lot of ways to manage that, but it looks for a generally pointed shape, some seeds, and that nice red color. So your run of the mill strawberry generally receives an almost perfect strawberry-ness score, but something like this-”

His hands dug through all the pockets of his work suit before they finally found their target. He fished out what had been a standard ferroslug before it was painted bright red and smattered with a handful of black dots. He took a moment to admire it himself before tossing it to the farmer and continuing.

“Well, it’s not a strawberry, but it scores as one. Well enough that the machine gets positive feedback from its alignment unit every time it puts one of these babies where it's supposed to go.”

Arlach stared at him blankly.

“So what, you’re convincing it to fill a cargo container up with painted bullets?”

The technician grinned.

“There's no a limit to how fast it's allowed to fill that container up. At no point did the alignment protocol even consider that it'd be capable of throwing a 'strawberry' at mach nine. And the cargohold is important, but the rocket its attached to is more so. You know what looks a lot like a surface to orbit rocket?"

Arlach’s brain clicked.

“The hypersonic missiles they've been throwing at us.”

The grin widened. Arlach himself felt slightly awed to have found the connection.

“Will it work?”

The human nodded.

“It’s damn near the only thing that can. To shoot down something going that fast, that low, you either need a dummy missile that can brute force outrun it, or enough computing power to hack a station. The alliance is too chickenshit to send over their actual military AI's, but these myopic-type digibrains are supposed to be safe for civilian use because the idea of convincing your tractor that a bullet is a strawberry and a WMD is a cargo loader was a little too creative for the morons over at John Deere Galactic. And if that digibrain just so happens to function near the exoflop level, they're going to have a hard time sneaking anything larger than a bee through this airspace.”

The alien’s hands went over its crest as its mind reeled.

“They're not the only ones who would never think of this. It's brilliant. I never would've considered it.”

The tech shrugged good naturedly and went back to retrieve the two ends of wire that he’d dropped earlier.

“Eh, it's not coming from nowhere. There’s something of a human tradition about using farm equipment for war. I'm just lucky to be part of the next evolution in this. The reaper himself only used a scythe. Now I get to use a combine harvester.”

[morganski-19]

Chills Right to the Marrow Part 43

ao3 link| part 1 . . . part 40, part 41, part 42

Wayne knows it’s none of his business. It really isn’t. He has no right to ask, or to interfere with whatever’s going on. They were adults, it wasn’t his job anymore. It was their own decisions, if they messed up, that was on them. And yet, that urge to protect persists. To get ahead of the problem and stop it before it blows up.

All of this is fueled by the one moment Steve and Eddie have been in a room together that hasn’t devolved into a screaming match. Wayne’s not even sure he’s supposed to hear this conversation, but they’re having it right in front of him. Like he’s meant to be some kind of mediator.

“So, Nancy’s been around a lot,” Eddie starts, breaking apart pretzels into a bowl. “You two a thing again?”

Steve snorts. “Definitely not.”

“Really? I was sure after spring break you two would be back together.”

“Yeah, well, we broke up for a reason. Once everything calmed down, it was easier to see that.”

He says it so casually, like it’s a done deal. But Wayne can see the insistence in Eddie’s eyes. Like he’s hell bent on keeping the conversation going. Pushing Steve into this relationship, away from Eddie.

“I don’t know,” Eddie insists. “It really seemed like there was some unfinished business between you two.”

Steve places his glass harder on the table than was necessary. “Why are you insisting on getting involved in my love life?”

“Because you spend that whole week flirting with her and then do nothing about it.” Eddie’s trying to make it seem like he’s looking out for Steve. Doing what’s best for a friend. But there’s bitterness to his tone, one Wayne knows too well.

He’s deflecting. Trying to get ahead of the hurt by throwing the first punch. If he’s the one that pushes Steve and Nancy together, he can’t be as mad with Steve about it. The only person he can be mad at, is himself.

“Because we weren’t supposed to get back together.” Steve’s chair scratches on the floor when he pushes it back. “What happened was just a fluke. It’s really none of your business anyway.”

“If you say so,” Eddie says like he doesn’t believe it. Going back to breaking his pretzels instead of eating them.

Steve goes to work, Eddie back to his room, leaving Wayne alone. He finds something on the tv, just to pass the time. Waiting. Just with his thoughts. Old rumors from years ago finding their way back to his mind. Eddie coming back from school ranting about the King and the girls that just wouldn’t shut up about him. Or how they pouted when he was taken long enough that they realized their chances were slipping.

Wayne hears a lot of things. No one really notices the man just sitting in the corner, but he can hear everything. Tries to pay no mind, but some things stick more than they should.

Like Jonathan’s little comment about Steve and Nancy over spring break. The fact that they were together then, but weren’t anymore. Thinking Steve had something to do with it all.

He shouldn’t worry about it, because it was none of his business. Except it was.

“You know what you said earlier,” Wayne stops Steve before he can go running up to his room after he comes home. “About you and Nancy being none of our business. I disagree with that.”

Steve sighs, throwing his work vest on the couch. “Why is that?”

“Cause I’m not an idiot, and I see the way you act around my nephew. He might be an adult who can make his own decisions, but he’s already hurting too much, so I’d like to stop some if I could.”

Steve takes a moment to think about it. Crossing his arms and letting his head hang. “When things are too overwhelming, sometimes your mind wants to go back to something familiar to help deal with it. What happened over spring break between me and Nancy was just me falling back into old habits. I’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“What do you mean?”

“Fighting back.” Steve sits down. “I don’t want to, but it’s easy.”

Wayne nods. “It’s what he wants anyway. Why he’s been doing it.”

“I know. I can just get really mean, sometimes, when I yell. I’ve been trying not to say something I regret. And, I got this call from my mom a week ago, and that’s not helping.”

He stays silent, waiting for Steve to decide to continue. There’s a story of emotion on Steve’s face, one he doesn’t know. One that Steve’s kept to himself. Wayne knows that well. Issues better dealt with and hidden rather than shared. But Wayne’s here, they’re sort of in this together. With them living under the same roof and everything.

There’s this want to be here though. This feeling of someone who just needs to talk to someone. Wants to talk to someone, but not a friend. But when that person’s number gets dialed, it keeps ringing until it gets hung back up on the receiver. That person is not here, too busy to stay.

“My parents want to sell the house.” Steve drops. “I’ve been trying to convince them to wait a few months, since the housing market’s kind of shit right now and the money should matter to them. But it hasn’t been working. They’re putting it on the market in a few weeks.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“Saying it makes it real. And you’re so close to getting a new place, figured you be gone before the time ran out.”

He still should have said something. “What about you?”

“I don’t know. This is the only place I’ve ever known.”

“So the yelling, the fighting back,” Wayne connects.

Steve nods. Blinking away tears in his eyes. “If you scream loud enough, someone’s bound to hear it.”

Wayne doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t know if it’s right to say anything. All he can do is place a hand on Steve’s shoulder. Silent communication that he’s not alone. That he heard. Even if it’s not who Steve wanted.

“I’m sorry,” he says. The words not feeling enough.

“Yeah, me too.”

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